Alt!World vs Alt!Timeline

theriverscribe:

pixesemma:

theriverscribe:

HERE’S THE BIG QUESTION I’VE BEEN PONDERING:

Is there only one God and Amara for all
universes, or does is there a God and Amara in EACH universe?

There are three main schools of thought for concerning timelines (based on an amazing poster made by Harrison Densmore):
1. Fixed Timeline:  everything has already occurred and nothing can be changed (aka you can’t travel back and change it because your actions already took place in history)
2.  Dynamic Timeline:  you CAN go back and change stuff, but you risk creating a paradox (aka going back and killing your parents to prevent your birth can happen, but then you were never born.  Thus you never traveled back in time to kill them, thus you WERE born, thus PARADOX)
3.  Multiverse:  For every
choice/action, a new universe/timeline splinters off.
I’ll explain this one a bit more:
Say you decide to go on a
trip.  You could drive, fly, or take a train.  You choose “drive,”
budget accordingly for gas and food, plan your route, blah blah blah.  But
there would be two new universes–one where you flew, and one where you took
the train.  New events occur, subtly altering your path in life.  One
version of yourself may meet the love of your life on the train and live
happily ever after while the one who flew died in a crash.  

Now, let’s apply this to Supernatural–which school of thought did the writers use to create this world? 
Well, we have it originally set up as a Dynamic Timeline.  Anna goes back in time to try and prevent the Winchester brothers’ birth.  I’m assuming that if angels have the ability to time-travel, then they understand the fundamentals of how it all works.  Even Castiel is in agreement that her plan would be successful if she were allowed to go through with it…even if it was disastrous. 

Plus, we have The French Mistake–a universe where no angels or magic exists at all.  Sure, there could have been some catastrophic event that wiped them all out early in creation…but that wouldn’t explain why angels from “our” universe would be powerless.  It was a universe VOID of grace/magic, and nullified those who would normally have it. 

Which brings me to our current season, complete with a new universe full of angry powerful archangels.  Other versions of Michael and Lucifer (even if he’s dead there)
and the Apocalypse.  But if Lucifer became corrupted by carrying the Mark
that locked away Amara, then how many corrupt Lucifers exist?  And how did they each receive the Mark to become corrupt if there’s only ONE God and Amara?

If each corrupt Lucifer took a Mark to lock away an Amara, then there are multiple incarnations of God and His Sister.  And that opens up SOOOO many possibilities.  Including a world where Lucifer never took the Mark (it could have gone to another archangel, or maybe Chuck and Amara reconciled before it was needed), and never fell.  A world without Hell, or sin…

Feel free to add thoughts, or correct me if I got any SPN lore/history wrong!

Ah, yes. I’ve always wanted to write a story where Gabriel got the mark instead of Lucifer, but I can’t find the motivation. Considering that in canon, while he doesn’t hate humans exactly, he doesn’t mind Trickster-killing them either. It would be interesting to see that worsened by the mark.

(That actually came up in Through The Looking Glass by rsfahrudeen, which is part of a giant series. That universe’s Gabriel got switched with an au version that had the mark instead of Lucifer. Their universe didn’t have demons, because Hell was filled with raves and orgies instead of torture.)

Fanfic is one of the reasons I started pondering this! I’m planning an alt!universe-hopping story in my BTGOG series, and these mechanics have to be figured out first. But the s12 finale REALLY got me wondering about how it’s presented in canon, and what multiverse theory the writers are using (if any).