The Big Picture: Worlds Within Worlds

[Piflik]

Wait...did I miss something here? Is the whole universe suddenly even stupider than before?

Seriously...I once dreamt I had a new computer with win7 on it. Does that mean Microsoft is also only fiction? Just because someone appeared in the imagination of somebody doesn't mean he doesn't exist.

Mind officially unblown.

 

[Ken_J]

We are all in Westphall's mind!!

 

[Draconalis]

Or! Since it all happened in some kid's mind... That kid adopted things he'd heard and seen into his own little world.

It's kinda like when my Transformers used to fight my Battletech mechs when I was younger. The confines of that cross over only happened in my mind, making use of two existing franchises.

Because we're dealing with a kid's imagination, all those things can still be things without being affected by some kid's day dreams.

 

[The Last Nomad]

Well, I'm not so sure about this theory I have as I've never seen st.Elsewhere, but just because the events of that show took place within the mind of an autistic kid, doesn't mean the characters only existed there. Maybe he just invented scenarios for people he knew. Bob did say he was the son of a doctor who was a character on the show?

Not that that means the shows aren't inter-connected, just that its not all a figment of that kids imagination.
I read a great cracked article about interconnecting universes once but this is even more mindblowing.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Some people have way too much time on their hands. When you ACTUALLY think about all this, it's pure bullshit.

 

[MattValtezzy95]

Ow Brain hurtey!!!

 

[Sovereignty]

Hmm, though this doesn't fit with the countless posts of people saying, "My mind was blown!"

My question is to the topic at hand.

Isn't the chief difference in what you're talking about the fact that Comics have separate continuities? The events of Final Crisis didn't spill into the Marvel-verse, and the whole Civil war thing didn't touch DC's Multi-verse...

So isn't this being blown a bit out of proportion? Comic continuity would be more akin to a something like FOX having a shared TV universe.

Not every TV show ever being in a shared universe. Though I guess it's all in fun or something like that @_@

 

[Guffe]

That was one of the fastest five minutes for a BigPicture episode... Time just flew by trying to hang along and not get too confused.

 

[Aldain]

Actually one character that has a crossover in this show. Doesn't mean the entire show is in that persons head. The person could just have seen / heard about this character and put it in his fantasy. The only thing that would change it is when the crossover is mentioned within the other show.

Example:

Person X has show A in his fantasy.
X sees show B on tv.
X puts character C in show A.
This doesn't imply that show B in is X's fantasy.

(Implication vs Equivalence in logic)

 

[The Great JT]

That to me you have done.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

There is a flaw in the entire theory though. What if Tommy was incorporating stuff into St. Elsewhere from people and places that really existed in his world, not just his imagined world.

Hmmmmmmm, that's a point too. What if all the shows that St. Elsewhere ever did crossovers with were also TV shows in Tommy's world and thus Tommy watched them and incorporated them into the world of St. Elsewhere. Suddenly Tommy's imaginary world shrinks back down to just being St. Elsewhere.

Haven't I just mentioned that?

Oh you're right. Sorry didn't notice your post before. But yeah, if you discount jokes, references, spoofs (like the Simpsons), and the like then the Westphall universe becomes substantially smaller. In any case, I don't think it deserves this much thought. I'm fairly certain the creators of these shows never intended them all to be so interconnected. Any references and such were probably just put there as shout outs to colleagues that they respected and admired. Either that or the creators/producers of the shows that had did the reference were probably fans of the show they were referencing themselves so they threw in the reference as a shout out to what inspired them.

 

[Draconalis]

You know what? I take it back, of course everything is interconnected. Because we have a limited range of writers and talent that all work with each other over the course of time.

I propose a new theory, I'll call it the "All TV is in actuality fake" theory.

 

[kickyourass]

Part of my brain is currently leaking out the back of my head, thank you Bob I really needed that. I mean Jesus, I knew some people had alot of time on their hands but this is ridiculous.

 

[Dr Jones]

There is only one logical conclusion, Westfall is God.

This raises even further questions! :O

 

[DioWallachia]

Isnt this something that i talked about before in another post? the world withing a world? EVERYTHING is the imagination of a SINGLE person/author? the only difference is that i wanted a hypothetical scenario on how would the fictional people would react to this information if they were real

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.380915-The-voices-of-the-discusion-that-we-never-heard-regarding-Artistic-Integrity?page=1

 

[Darkmantle]

I really hope this isn't being taken seriously. I'm pretty sure this "theory" was meant to be a parody, and honestly it fails to function under even basic cross examination...

please guys, just take it for the joke that it is.

I mean seriously, just because two people are played by the same actor, doesn't mean they are the same character. And that's just off the top of my head.

 

[BaseKing95]

That would also mean south park does not exist since Bart Simpson did a cameo on the show, along with Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show and Futurama

 

[SilverHammerMan]

I'd heard of this before (smugly waits for his nerd cred to go up) but I\d never realized how deep it went. That's actually pretty mind blowing.
I strongly support the notion of a Crisis on Infinite TV Shows.