InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I didn't float here downriver."

alschroeder (alschroeder) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-08 11:23:00

Entry tags:

in-joke: shameless plug, medium: webcomic

My Grave and I am in it...again and again...
Here's a grisly image from a "group" webcomic that I and some other webcomic authors are collaborating on (click on the image to go to the actual webcomic...and no, it's not "women in refrigerators"---the group's only male's alternative selves suffered the same fate)...but I have a question...

Since you're a literate group, I thought you might know...

I read a lot, and I know a lot of variations of alternative world tales. Yet I can't think of a single instance where someone looks at a graveyard mainly stocked with his or her doppelgangers, dead and buried.

I can think of instances where one person went after alternative selves of one person (Magog in the KINGDOM, or the movie the ONE)...

I can think of instances where people viewed their own graves (Ebeneezer Scrooge in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Thomas More in R.A. Lafferty's PAST MASTER)...

Yet I can't think of an instance where someone looked at a whole graveyard filled with his or her alternative selves, as happened to our group. I'm just curious---is this creepy image solely from our own warped imaginings, or has this occured before in some other story?

(Post a new comment)

	savok 2009-09-08 04:55 pm UTC (link)
	Not a book/comic but a TV show, it happened in Red Dwarf. I'm not going to spoil it but it was an incredible moment, especially for a comedy show. (Reply to this) (Thread)

alschroeder
2009-09-08 05:00 pm UTC (link)

I should have KNOWN that had been used before---ahhh, well, good to know. I'm pretty sure that didn't influence me (someone else came up with the idea of the main baddie killing duplicates of our group, but the graveyard(s) was my idea) because I've only seen a few episodes of Red Dwarf, and that wasn't in them (note to self: rent more Red Dwarf from Netflix). It's perfectly possible I came up with a reference to that episode in some review or forum somewhere that stuck in my subconcious, though...I didn't remember it consciously.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	hyperactivator 2009-09-08 05:38 pm UTC (link)
	I remember that episode. It was so good. Very epic. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	blakeyrat 2009-09-08 06:13 pm UTC (link)
	It was a mind-blowingly tear-jerk moment considering it was, you know, Red Dwarf. I won't ruin the moment, but I will mention that it's in the episode "Stoke Me A Clipper", in Series 7. It's self-contained enough that you should hopefully be able to follow it even if you're not a fan of the series. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	alschroeder 2009-09-08 06:14 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks, that tells me which one to rent! Sounds like a killer episode. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	blakeyrat 2009-09-08 06:17 pm UTC (link)
	Actually, I just thought of another tear-jerker moment in Red Dwarf, also featuring Rimmer: the end of the episode Holoship, in series 5. Especially ironic, considering it was a spoof of tear-jerker endings... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	icon_uk 2009-09-08 05:33 pm UTC (link)
	Ummm... garrotting ANYONE should surely be behind a cut, it's a rather NSFW image. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	alschroeder 2009-09-08 05:56 pm UTC (link)
	When you're right, you're right. I changed the image to be a different subsection of the larger image, one a little more safe for work. (Reply to this) (Parent)

crinosg
2009-09-08 07:40 pm UTC (link)

While an interesting turn of events, I have to point out its impossible for the crossoverlords heroes to be the very LAST parallel versions of themselves.

Assuming there are an infinite number of parallel realities, that means that even if, say, Mindmistress only exists in 1/10th of all parallel realities, that would still mean there are infinite mindmistresses since 1/10th of infinity is still infinity.

While I will concede that the smiling man has killed alot of these guys (and is thus very good at it), it would be impossible for him to kill ALL of them.

Still, pretty good scene.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

alschroeder
2009-09-08 07:48 pm UTC (link)

This is a reply I posted on Mindmistress' Livejournal:

Let's just say the theory that there are an INFINITE number of parallel realities is unproven (although obviously there are a great number) and notice this...in any other theory where infinities result, that's usually a sign that the theory is WRONG. (For instance, most theories of quantum gravity.)

It's certainly possible that the Smiling Man cleared only the immediate "neighborhood" of say, ten thousand realities, though. Maybe some realities are "nearer" than others, in some sense. Right now, we just don't know.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	crinosg 2009-09-08 07:58 pm UTC (link)
	Well, when I play around with parallel realities, I like to go with the "every time you flip a coin, you create two realities; one heads and one tails". But that's just me (I guess I like the idea because it gives a lot of freedom for parallel reality fun). (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

alschroeder
2009-09-08 08:03 pm UTC (link)

Understandable. But from a FICTION standpoint, if we didn't do this, then the calvalry could arrive, in a huge deus ex machina, with ten thousands duplicates of OUR group and more splitting off every second...

And so would a huge number of EVIL versions of our heroes, only fighting for Smiley. Evil doppelgangers been a hackneyed cliche for DECADES...

Eventually enough arrive where the sheer weight of their ever-increasing mass from ever-incresing numbers causes a black hole...

So...we're not going there. *Grin*

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

crinosg
2009-09-08 08:11 pm UTC (link)

I suppose that makes sense. With my method, the very fact the smiling man is in parallel worlds killing people would create realities where he never went there and killed them, thus rendering everything he did pointless.

Still, I hold out hope there are some more parallel versions of the main characters left (probably hanging out in my mutants and masterminds setting).

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	alschroeder 2009-09-08 08:14 pm UTC (link)
	I know for a fact there are more Lightbringers around, and I'm sure if you want to use any of the rest, feel free. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	blakeyrat 2009-09-08 08:14 pm UTC (link)
	Do like Jet Li's "The One", just arbitrarily declare there are exactly 123 parallel universes, no more, no less. :) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ashtoreth 2009-09-09 03:24 am UTC (link)
	He Who Is Not To Be Scanned did the same, I think, in Captain Marvel. One of Rick Jones alternaselves decided to kill off all his other selves. Don't think there was a graveyard scene, just mental corpses. (Reply to this) (Parent)

(Anonymous)
2009-09-08 10:00 pm UTC (link)

there are two problems I can see with your reasoning that there must be more heroes.
the first (as others mention) is that that you assume that there are infinite number of parallel realities.
the second is that you assume that the ratio of worlds with heroes to worlds without heroes is not infinitesimal, for an example if there are א0 worlds and the ratio is 1/א0 then the number of heroes will be the ratio between the two infinities.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	alschroeder 2009-09-09 12:35 pm UTC (link)
	Good points. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sd_mouser 2009-09-08 11:16 pm UTC (link)
	I've seen the reverse with Jenny Everywhere. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	philippos42 2009-09-10 08:01 am UTC (link)
	Oh, that's beautiful. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	alschroeder 2009-09-10 12:42 pm UTC (link)
	Actually, we've USED Jenny in our series, as seen here. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	alschroeder 2009-09-10 12:46 pm UTC (link)
	Uh, make that here, instead. (Reply to this) (Parent)