#half the fun about Mianite is you can take two very similar people and have them watch the series and end up with entirely separate ideas o

[syndianites]

I've always wondered what the criteria for being an 'alt' in mianite was.

Like, assuming it was a thought-out thing and not just a fun gimmick of being in an alternate reality, how is it determined who your alt is?

There's a few ways you can look at it:

They are literally you in a different universe- like literally exactly who you are but put in a different situation

They are someone who fills the same *role* as you, being more a metaphorical alternate

They are who, essentially, took your place in the world. It was either you existed OR they existed, not both

They are just the mirror of yourself, so to speak. Someone very similar to you and having the same core features, but having different... aspects? Like, if you were loyal and brave, but generally rather shy, your alternate would /also/ be loyal and brave, but could be easy and outgoing.

The reason I tend to ponder this a lot with Mianite as a series is because it very much feels like it could go any way, /except/ the person being a literal you from a different universe.

And I know that may be an unpopular look at it, but if you compare our most popular alt- Mot, to Tom, aside from the name and being partially mob-fied, what do they have in common as people? Their backgrounds are very different (which is to be expected), their personalities are very different, their choices and decisions can often conflict with each other, and so on and so forth.

In my head, someone literally being a different 'you' would either entail them having the same exact name (both having been "Tom" or "Mot" at some point) or looking nigh identical (though the Tom/Mot example is a little harder considering their different mob afflictions).

I suppose what I'm trying to say, is that when I think of a "traditional" alternative self, I think of the exact same person who was just put in a different situation. Like if Tom, for example, had been put in a situation where his family had all died and he got infected, etc etc. But even when in different situations you find that people tend to look the same, or has similar personality traits, or even have a similar way of thinking. Of course, we don't get to see a lot of alt interactions because Mot, for the majority of the time we see him, is the only "known" alt (since we didn't know Steve was supposed to be a Wag alt).

So how would I, personally, define alts in the Mianite universe? Honestly, I'm not sure. For a while I went on the idea that it was someone who was in "your role" in this other universe. Mot and Tom are both champions of Dianite, Spark and Jordan are both important devotees to Ianite, etc etc, but can we use that to explain Jeriah and Alyssa, or even Wag and Steve?

I think I sit right between the "role" aspect of alts and the "mirror" aspect. They almost beg the same question, "what is this person's defining traits," but in different ways. Tom and Mot are both heavily loyal, Tom to his friends and even the previous Dianite, who he stuck with even when he was THE bad guy, and Mot to Alyssa and Dianite. Spark and Jordan are both very devoted and- crafty? I don't know what word I'd use, but Spark created a whole town, Jordan had the Jerry's tree, how Jordan was very invested in any study he came across and how Spark was very invested in spreading the word of Ianite, etc. From what snippets we get, Sonja and Alyssa are both playful at heart and kind, though we don't get to see too much about Alyssa. I'd make a stab at what Jeriah is like but we basically never see him. Wag and Steve are both rather straightforward and not afraid to cause damage to get what they want done- and also have the same taste in women (lol).

You could argue that this is because they fill the same "roles" as each other, but you could also argue that it's because the characters share the same "base traits." It's like the chicken and the egg argument- does the role require the traits, or do the traits lead to the role? If two people are alts of each other, who came first? Who is the "original," discounting the fact that we enter the world of Mianite through Tiem Reester and are biased into believing they are the originals.

The people who throw this most into question are the gods themselves. They literally fill the same roles, have the same names, have very similar characteristics, and are basically the poster-children to the "traditional" idea of alternate versions of yourself. But if you stripped away everything- the godhood, the names, the aspects of life they embody- what do they have in common? The gods present that "what-if" scenario that happens when you look into alternate realities far better than the "human" people we see. Are both Dianite's stubborn and confident? Are both Mianite's self-assured and believe themselves to always be in the right? Are both Ianite's dedicated to walking the line between aspects, trying to keep a grip on the happenings of their universe and the fluctuations of the Void?

Mianite, as a series, gives us /so many things/ to think about but never a solid resolution to these ideas because it was never meant to. It was a story made up on the fly, a bridge being built as we walked along it. And I think that's why it sticks in my mind so much compared to other series that broach similar ideas. There are so many open-ended questions that /we/ get to solve, to debate, to consider, that it just sticks with you because it is so, so hard to leave something "unfinished."

Anyway, rant over, please go back to your regularly scheduled activities