By Julia Crumpleman
Today’s question comes from Doris:
Dear Julia, what’s the
difference between an alternate timeline and an alternate dimension? I keep hearing it on the news, but they don’t
explain it very well, and nothing on the internet helps me. Are they different from parallel
universes? Thank you kindly.
Ah, that’s a tricky one, Doris. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t quite
understand it all myself. Dr. Amazing
has a web-series that tries to explain all about the multiverse and the
space-time continuum, but most of it flies over my head. (It also doesn’t help that Dr. Amazing seems
to only speak in eight-syllable words when discussing physics, but that’s
another thing entirely.)
But I do know enough that I think can help. Basically, alternate timelines exist within our universe while alternate
dimensions/parallel universes (which are the same thing more or less) are not our universe. An alternate timeline is when some event in
history went a different way which altered the course of our universe.
For instance, Hellena was just in the news recently, and
she’s an alternate timeline version of Titana.
In Hellena’s timeline, Napoleon had conquered all of Europe and drove
the Amazons into Hades. Then, she
sacrificed herself to save her people and became possessed by demons (hence the
horns, red skin, and impractical clothing).
One of Titana’s adventures brought her to this timeline, and somehow
Hellena followed her to our timeline.
Hellena can’t return to her world unless our timeline is changed to
resemble hers, which is another difference between the two.
Alternate dimensions can exist completely on their
own. They run by themselves, and without
a portal generator, we can’t change their universes. Think of one as being about space and the
other being about time. It can get
tricky sometimes, I know, since alternate dimensions can act almost exactly
like alternate timelines, but it’s really about self-sustainability. Apparently, there’s some variation between
alternate dimensions and parallel universes, but then we’re delving into the
deep, deep stuff. I recommend reading
some of Dr. Amazing’s books for further illumination.
Happy trails, Doris!
