/r/AskScienceFiction

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It's like Ask Science, but all questions and answers are written with answers gleaned from the universe itself. Use in-universe knowledge, rules, and common sense to answer the questions. Or as fanlore.org calls it Watsonian, not a Doylist point of view

It's like Ask Science, but all questions and answers are written with answers gleaned from the universe itself. Use in-universe knowledge, rules, and common sense to answer the questions. Or as fanlore.org calls it Watsonian, not a Doylist point of view (Further reading on Watsonian vs. Doylist perspective can be found here, here, and in the dictionary definitions of the two terms.)

Take the fictional rules of the universe to their logical conclusion, ad absurdum.

We also now have an offical sub-reddit Discord server: Check it out!


Rules

  • Official rules post
  • FAQ
  • New FAQ
  • Submit a FAQ entry
  • [Tag] your posts with the setting you wish to discuss.
  • Answer the questions from a Watsonian perspective only-- no Doylist answers.
  • We discourage but do not forbid roleplaying. However, if you choose to roleplay, please remember that you must answer as if you had all the information available to a member of the audience. You already know Bruce Wayne is Batman, you already know Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker, you already know Sauron is evil.
  • Any fiction is allowed not just science fiction. Avoid questions about real-world pseudoscience (i.e. chemtrails, homeopathy, etc.), however.
  • General questions are discouraged; without a firm set of in-universe rules, most of them boil down to "whatever the writer chooses" in terms of answers. r/whatiffiction, a sister subreddit, has rules more accommodating to these sort of questions.
  • No real life questions. AskScience and AskHistorians exist for that.
  • Any sort of competition questions belong in whowouldwin.
  • Sources are welcomed and encouraged.
  • Search for your question, it may have been asked and answered before. (This doesn't, of course, mean there isn't room for further discussion.)
  • Wheaton's Law (Don't be a jerk).
  • Upvote good content; downvote incorrect information. Report anything that discusses metadata or involves personal attacks.
  • Elaborate upon your answers. Low-effort posts (e.g. "Speed Force" with no further explanation when asked a question about the Flash) do not constitute satisfactory answers.

Spoiler Policies

  • The title of your post should not contain spoilers for six months from the date of release. If only the body of your post contains spoilers, you may instead make the title "[Canon] Spoilers: Canon" and not use the link flair. Replace "Canon" with the work or body of fiction in question.
  • Comment spoilers should be formatted on a separate line as >![Thing to be spoiled.]
  • Our Spoiler policy must be observed for six months following the date of release.
  • Spoilers from works older than six months may optionally be concealed using our flair system, however this is CSS-based and will work only in browsers.

This subreddit is for discussion of fiction using information about the universe and not meta information about the work.

For non-serious answers for real world science problems try:

And just for fun, don't forget to check out our friends at

/r/AskScienceFiction

864,154 Subscribers

5

[Scrooged/A Christmas Karen/Any movie that's a "modern retelling of A Christmas Carol] If "A Christmas Carol" exists as a story, and even a movie, why do the 'modern Scrooges' never recognize the story beats?

Frank Cross's TV network is doing "A Christmas Carol" when he gets visited by his own three spirits. Karen used to watch "A Christmas Carol" on TV as a kid. Yet neither of them recognize they're getting, for lack of a better word, Scrooged. Karen's 'Jacob Marley' even has a name that's only a few letters and a gender off from the original, her name is Jackie Morley.

8 Comments
2024/12/23
08:39 UTC

2

[Star Trek/Transformers] What are the reactions of races such as the Klingons, Romulans, Andorians, Borgs, and Vulcans on the Cybertronian civil war?

And how would they react seeing (and hearing) about cybertronians unintentionally dragging a non-warp/FTL capable race (Humans) in the war? And how would they react seeing them (Cybertronians) helping humans achieve Warp drive or Space Bridge?

And for the sake of it, I would say depend on what continuity we're talking about (Gen 1, Unicron, Bayverse, and etc... although, in this case AOE and TLK are non-canon)..

4 Comments
2024/12/23
08:31 UTC

7

[Superman] Is Kryptonite just space Uranium?

Have I been thinking about it wrongly? Is Kryptonite more of a radioactive rock like uranium in krypton? Instead of like the dirt or pebbles you find near a lake?

Because the way it was presented I thought of it like the literal rocks we find everywhere (except it’s Krypton’s rock”).

6 Comments
2024/12/23
06:35 UTC

3

[the boys] How close could Homelander be to a nuclear explosion and still survive?

I think if he was at the epicenter of the blast even he would die, though he likely wouldn't be completely vaporized like a normal human.

What's the limit?

1 Comment
2024/12/23
06:17 UTC

6

[Doctor Who, MCU] What effect would the Silence from Doctor Who have on something like the Vision or Ultron?

I know the Silence makes you forget them whenever you're not looking, but the Vision and Ultron aren't natural life, they're AI. They have digital memory banks. Would those get wiped too?

3 Comments
2024/12/23
05:30 UTC

0

[Invincible] How much time passes between the start of Issue #1 and the end of Issue #143?

So, I'm currently working on a fanfic rewrite of Invincible for a larger fan-fiction project and I have encountered an issue: That being, there does not seem to be any coherent chronology for the events of Invincible other than the implication that Issue #144 takes place some 500 years after issue #143.

In Invincible's canon, a timeline is not really important to the story but for my project it absolutely is and I'm wondering if anyone could provide a realistic estimate for how much time passes between the 1st and 143rd Issues of Invincible.

My version of Invincible starts in 2051 and I'm hoping that I can fit the events of Issues 1-143 into minimum period of 6 years to 2057 or a maximum period of 10 years to 2061. Any more time would be non-ideal.

Anyway, is there any information in the comics that could provide a time estimate for the aforementioned issues?

3 Comments
2024/12/23
03:09 UTC

382

[The Incredibles]So the opening of the movie takes place in 1947, and Edna Mode is a German mad scientist. She’s 100% a Nazi that got swept up by Operation Paperclip right?

81 Comments
2024/12/23
02:47 UTC

15

[Marvel] How viable would Loki's scepter be at influencing people without anyone knowing?

I was looking into Thunderbolts and saw the scepter and started thinking

Let's say somehow you were miraculously able to tap a politician with the scepter and force them to resign or put you in power and they schedule an appearance on TV to do so publicly.

Would people catch on that something is off or not notice for a while?

I am thinking that since they act differently and their eyes turn bright blue it would be pretty noticeable.

Could they just possibly say they got contacts lenses or maybe make them wear sunglasses?

Would it even be worth it using it on someone who has to be in the spotlight so much?

11 Comments
2024/12/23
01:49 UTC

34

[Christmas] Do toy companies work with Santa to manufacture toys, or does he make replicas of licensed products for free?

9 Comments
2024/12/23
01:41 UTC

6

[Tunic] Why is the Heir doing what he is doing? (spoilers)

So, Heir is locked up in some sort of prison.

And he is helping our protagonist and resurrecting him because he wants us to free him from the prison with the three keys.

But... after the prison is open he is still resurrecting us?

And then he kills us for some reason and sends us to the shadow realm?

And he could always just not do it, but for some reason he needs us to show him the manual so he does this?

I don't understand his agenda at all

4 Comments
2024/12/23
01:08 UTC

58

[General] Are there any instances where someone is proclaimed the Chosen One by something like a god or such... and the chooser later says, "I fucked up in picking THAT guy"?

So, going back over Kingdom Hearts, I realised something like this happens. Sora was never the Chosen One, Riku was... and the first thing he did when given the responsibilities was consciously choose to make the situation significantly worse.

But there has to be other instances of this, right? The Chosen One basically being the absolute worst choice when finally expected to step up and show their worth.

Edit: Doesn't need to be a god, expressly. Just the chooser of the Chosen One.

47 Comments
2024/12/23
01:00 UTC

5

[DC] Through an impassioned plea/discussion, could Superman get through to Lex Luthor & turn him into an ally?

I guess my question is really “how evil is Lex?” because I know the whole jealousy angle (& the old school baldness blame) but I swear some adaptions play into the “Lex does what he does for the greater good/just doesn’t like Superman” angle, & so if that is the case, then I feel Superman of all people could surely sit down & get him on side through a lengthy “come on man what’s the beef here” talk?

8 Comments
2024/12/23
00:51 UTC

0

[Warhammer 40K/The Incredibles] What feedback would Edna Mode give to the most prominent figures in the galaxy of Warhammer 40,000?

12 Comments
2024/12/23
00:46 UTC

8

[Terraria] How does the ecosystem survive with so few herbivores?

Everything in Terraria is carnivorous and incredibly aggressive. The surface is overrun with carnivorous slimes, buzzards attack you on sight, antlions aren't eating veggies with those mandibles, bats want to drain your blood etc. Even the water is filled with piranhas or hungry jellyfish. Predators are so ubiquitous that you can kill hundreds of them in a single day and the likelihood that you get mauled by one when you step outside the next day is entirely undiminished.

If you go underground it's even worse, despite being no herbivores of any kind, the caverns are even more filled with hostile carnivores, including entire caves full of predatory man-sized spiders.

It's a well known ecological principle that herbivores need to outnumber carnivores by quite a bit for carnivores to survive, so what are all these predators eating? They never seem to try to eat each other, and the occasional bunny/frog/turtle is not sustaining the legion of hungry predators that roam the world at all times of day, let alone an underground ecosystem even more carnivorous than the surface.

3 Comments
2024/12/22
21:56 UTC

0

[Spider-man]how does rhino move if the fused suit is supposed to be heavy and not improve his physical strength?

4 Comments
2024/12/22
20:34 UTC

129

[Game of Thrones] Is it true that the Wall as a structure is totally impossible without magic?

51 Comments
2024/12/22
19:58 UTC

16

[Game of Thrones] When Tywin Lannister send his army to help King's Landing against Stannis, was it because he already knew that the Red Wedding will happen?

16 Comments
2024/12/22
18:53 UTC

59

[Star Wars] If both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon died taking down Maul, would the order have told child Anakin to kick rocks?

20 Comments
2024/12/22
16:58 UTC

42

[Dragonball] Why does Shenron always sound pissed when he's awoken?

From what the dialog seems to imply, the guy experiences time between wishes as unconsciousness. Is there a reason why he doesn't like being awake? Does he have the same kind of mindset as a mr. Meseeks in Rick and Morty?

24 Comments
2024/12/22
16:27 UTC

10

[Men in Black] How representative are J and K of the average MIB agent's career?

Do most agents see action or are the majority of them desk jockeys and support staff?

10 Comments
2024/12/22
16:27 UTC

11

[Warhammer Fantasy] Are all gods warp gods?

So, in WHF there exists a whole lot more gods than there are in 40k. The chaos gods very clearly come from the warp, and the old ones are clearly magical space lizards, but what of all the other kinda of gods that are clearly real? The nehekaran gods of the underworld, the elven gods, gork and mork? What about Sigmar or Ulric? Hashuts and the Horned Rat are clearly chaos gods, but Are all of the others also warp gods shaped by human/elven belief in the warp, or are they created by the old ones for these races? Or do they exist outside of the warp? Seems like atleast Hashuts realm you can reach if you just drill far enough down and do some magical mumbo jumbo, but that might just open a portal to his realm. I know the dwarfs have their ancestor gods too, but those just seems like great dwarf heroes whose spirit and power linger on, and not real gods.

Also, I know Sigmar was a man when he lived, but by the end times he is clearly as much as a god as the rest of them. Did he take of residence in thw warp, or did his spirit just linger in the real world? Or did he basically ascend like a demon prince but on his own, without the help of the chaos gods?

9 Comments
2024/12/22
15:11 UTC

1

[DC/Sandman] So about Daniel Hall

Since Daniel Hall become both Dream‘s successor and kinda fused together, (he‘s kinda both the original Dream and a new) or Daniel became a part of him? . He once appeared in a Justice League story and acknowledged Wonder Woman and he are sorta related (though she was an alternate version of Lyta’s mother).Those that mean that Wonder Woman (and maybe her mother, her siblings and Ares) is now protected by the ancient rule that the Endless do not spill blood?

The rule not only applies to the siblings but also their children, grandchildren, nieces,nephews etc (Rose, Chad, Orpheus)

If yes those mean that every version of her is protected or just the version that is Lyta‘s mother?

5 Comments
2024/12/22
14:51 UTC

189

[A Christmas Carol] Why does Scrooge, in particular, get ghosts to help him turn his life around?

Does everyone get them? If the answer is no, then why not?

78 Comments
2024/12/22
12:38 UTC

48

[MCU] Is Thor a god?

The movies seem to flip flop between the Asgardians being gods and just being aliens. Thor 1 and 2 suggested he was just an alien with advanced tech/abilities, then Thor 3 and 4 goes back to the idea that they are gods after all, even introducing more "gods" into the world.

Which is it? Am I missing something?

52 Comments
2024/12/22
12:01 UTC

39

[Indiana Jones and the Great Circle] How do the Germans have a Battleship in 1937 if The Bismark wasn't complete until 1941 and at the time they were still bound to The Naval Treaty of London forbidding such ships?

30 Comments
2024/12/22
11:53 UTC

0

[Bleach] Was Jugo molested/raped and abused by his uncle?

The way Hwaslt hates jugo as his nickname as something his uncle calls him. All the bruises om his arm . His flat affect and subdued personality especially after he says his uncle died. The way the uncle talks to him callong him his "adorable jugo"

2 Comments
2024/12/22
10:55 UTC

0

[Bleach] when exactly did Ywhac and the Stern Ritter army move into the shadow world?

Like apparently jugram and Bazz B are 1000s of years old ???? If they grew up on earth before the first time Ywhac attacked the soil society. Are all the Stern Ritter a least a 1000 years old or more ? Or were many of them all born and grew up in the shadows under the soil society?

Were the Stern Ritter army still making families and raising kids in the shadow world ? No one knew about this large hidden population of ancient Quincy?

2 Comments
2024/12/22
10:52 UTC

0

[harry potter] who was stronger between voldemort and grindelwald?

17 Comments
2024/12/22
10:51 UTC

0

[harry potter] why do magicians need to say the spell in Harry Potter but not in fantastic beasts?

23 Comments
2024/12/22
10:49 UTC

4

[general] how does religious debate work in certain fictional universes?

Think about it.

In marvel or DC, are you sure you can't bring people back from the dead, are you sure you can't magically create stuff from nothing? Are you sure you can't put curses on people?

The boys kind of gets it right in that religion seems bigger in that universe. How can Jesus or even Thor not be real when we got homalnder flying around breaking the laws of Physics.

9 Comments
2024/12/22
07:23 UTC

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