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(Part 2: Rewind)
(Part 3: Focus)
(Part 4: Conclusion/Misc.)
[2020-09-10: These notes really were primarily only for my own benefit. IsraelBlargh does the same analysis within an actual fanfic in much better and more concise words (albeit more words because, you know, actual story), so read that instead: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6164365/chapters/14124193]
( It's been 5 years but some people can still be affected by spoilers... )
One objection arises: if this stuff about alternate realities isn't supposed to be real in the game's internal logic, why even bother mentioning it? Against this argument by Chekhov's Gun, I humbly submit Caulfield's Axe.
That said, even if we proceed with reading the game as having a single unified reality that is altered directly, I'm not going to suggest we take any particular care not to talk about it sometimes as though it were otherwise. In particular, comparing how 2 major characters turned out 5 years after a major life-changing event being averted, versus 5 years after it had happened, gets much less clumsy and awkward if we can just use different words for each of them as though each variation were a different person.
(Part 3: Focus)
(Part 4: Conclusion/Misc.)
[2020-09-10: These notes really were primarily only for my own benefit. IsraelBlargh does the same analysis within an actual fanfic in much better and more concise words (albeit more words because, you know, actual story), so read that instead: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6164365/chapters/14124193]
( It's been 5 years but some people can still be affected by spoilers... )
One objection arises: if this stuff about alternate realities isn't supposed to be real in the game's internal logic, why even bother mentioning it? Against this argument by Chekhov's Gun, I humbly submit Caulfield's Axe.
That said, even if we proceed with reading the game as having a single unified reality that is altered directly, I'm not going to suggest we take any particular care not to talk about it sometimes as though it were otherwise. In particular, comparing how 2 major characters turned out 5 years after a major life-changing event being averted, versus 5 years after it had happened, gets much less clumsy and awkward if we can just use different words for each of them as though each variation were a different person.