You keep complaining about how people don't understand what multiverse is, so why don't you explain it if you're so annoyed
I don’t like the tone you used and normally I would delete ask like this, but you actually offered me the opportunity so - sure! I’ll explain it. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t explain my interpretation of fiction-based multiverse before. So this time, to make sure everyone understands, I’m going to use our lovely angsty skeleton Sans as our assistant.
As you surely can see, this is him. Much Sans. I sure hope I don’t have to explain the third dimension - after all, it’s the dimension we live and that we can perceive. Which is why it’s so easy to understand - because we literally live it. So let’s move on straight to the fourth dimension.
To put it simply, 4D is your past, present and the future. And by “you” I naturally mean our lovely assistant Sans.
As you can see, there are no variables yet. That’s because we are still within the fourth dimension. A single timeline, if you want… with no alternative selves - just our old good Sans. This is what most people interpret as “timeline”.
If we want to see some variables, we have to move on to the fifth dimension, and this is where things start to be mildly complicated.
For now, let’s take adult Sans and look at some of his possible futures.
We have our previous old Sans, and old Sans who at some point hurt his skull, and an old Sans who at some point fell in love with tiny top hats. And as other arrows indicate, there’s more.
And of course, let’s not forget our baby Sans and his own possible futures.
Our baby Sans grew up into an adult Sans, as well as into an adult Sans whose brother was killed, as well as a Sans who was killed at some point in his life. (I decided to use a little more angsty possible futures because… you know, it’s Sans. Our angst fuel.)
I hope you can understand clearly because now I’m going to say this - instead of timeskip arrows that I used to simplify things a little, EVERY SINGLE ACTION you ever make spawns a number of these arrows. Which means, that if we would replace our timeskip arrows with something more detailed, our (still simplified) fifth dimension would look maybe something like this:
So, for example, if I were to highlight a timeline in which Sans started to be interested in top hats…
The red timeline is 4D zoom out into the fifth dimension. This is what most characters with precognition are able to see, I think! It’s not really about “changing the future”, it’s just that those characters have a privilege to see into what kind of possible future would their actions result into, and based on this knowledge they can change their decision to change directions, and thus “change the future”.
What more, we need to realize that EVERY SINGLE OBJECT has their own diagram like this. Be it this one guy from Argentina, this one baby wolf from Siberia, or this one comet from a neighbouring galaxy. EVERY. SINGLE. OBJECT. Even non-living ones.
You following me? Good, because we are moving into the sixth dimension. Once again, I’m going to use our lovely assistant Sans as an example. In sixth dimension, we are finally entering our alternative universes with our alternative selves.
As you can see, it’s still all very much Sans. But oh my, isn’t he quite different on each picture? Yes, because that’s what alternative universe is. It’s… alternative. Technically it’s still all “you”, except not “you you”. Don’t forget the fifth dimension still, since all of these Sanses have their own diagram like above.
And when we connect all those alternative universes, we get - you guessed it - a multiverse.
BUT WAIT!!! Doku, didn’t you mean to write “7D” in the top left corner? I mean, isn’t multiverse above the sixth dimension?
Well, the thing is - this is probably the most important part of this needlessly long explainaiton. This is where most people stop when it comes to the multiverse. But buddies, oh buddies! This is where you all FAIL!!! For you see, even the multiverse itself has its own alternative selves with its own alternatives.
It’s still all very much our lovely multiverse, just like all alternative selves of our lovely assistant Sans are all still very much our lovely Sans. So if I were to draw THE multiverse, in other words the seventh dimension, it’d be something like:
This. Compare it to the picture above, and you can blatantly see the difference. I’m sure you wonder what exactly are differences between alternative versions of the multiverse, and the answer is - or at least in my interpretation - it’s the fundamental level! Let’s pick a very common example: “the multiverse is a code”. If you say this, you’re merely describing one of countless alternative versions of the multiverse. You’re still just inside the 6D. How about an alternative version that is not based on code? Yes, it exists.
And with this, I believe I delivered the message. So this is where I’ll stop, because this is already ridiculously long and so not everyone will read it, meh. There is still 8D, with independent overlaping multiverses, and 9D and 10D. But that is not what I focus on. This was a long ride, and I would like to thank my lovely assistant Sans for helping me out!
P.S. “The multiverse” in this case represents any fictional story. In this particular case it’s “Undertale”. This all is just loosely based on the actual multiverse theory!