This is a bit of a weird article because I had a dream I wrote this very article and I decide to write it in real life. What spurred this article on was 2 things. I was having a discussion with some friends about comic books and how the terms "timelines" and "universe" are used interchangably while meaning two completely different things and "Mortal Kombat 1's" use of the terms "timeline" and "realms" and seeing as how the multiverse is quickly becoming more known in the cultural lexicon I decided to definatively breakdown each term and explain why they're not interchangable. Let's get to it.
Let's start with "TIMELINE". A Timeline is an event, a fracture in the time does not create a separate universe, it creates a separate Timeline. For example, in one timeline 9/11 happened in other timeline it did not. This does not create a new universe rather it creates a different outcome within the same universe. When The Flash traverses time he does not travel to a different universe he in fact erases his previous timeline and returns to a new timeline with altered events, he is still within his own universe.
A "UNIVERSE" is an entirely different universe (as the meaning of the word) and as such in this universe I'm an African American male in another Universe I'm a White Girl. You see where I'm going? What I'm saying is in a TIMELINE there is NO event that would cause me to become a white girl because a Timeline is the altering of an event. A Universe is a completely different animal all together because not only are you talking about altered events we're talking about a completely different solar system as well. Now within a separate Universe you may have the same character BUT that character maybe altered in a way that that character retains the essence of that character while being different. For example White Girl Ugo may enjoy and do a lot of the same things I do and may even have the same name (although feminized) fundementally we're different.
A separate Universe may ressemble ours and may even retain some of the same event, although altered in someway but unlike a Timeline, a separate universe does not erase our own, the two exist independantly from one another. In order for a Timeline to exist it has to branch off from another Timeline, but like I said it doesn't create a new universe it just undoes the previous Timeline, you're always in your own Universe.
A "DIMENSION" is a completely different beast altogether because with a Dimension you're talking about the realm outside of a Timeline and a Universe. "Dimensions" exists separate from both because they're on a different plain of existence.
Using "Mortal Kombat" as an example since that was part and parcel the catalyst for this article, 2011's "Mortal Kombat" created a new TIMELINE, thus undoing the previous "Mortal Kombat" games, Outworld is a separate UNIVERSE from Earth Realm, because Outworld is devoid of technology and other things that Earth Realm enjoys. While Earth Realm has cellphones, Outworld has magic. The realm where The Hour Glass resides is a DIMENSION, ergo it is not effected by Time or multiple Universes. Hopefully this explain it.
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