#multiple timeline theory

[aemiron-main]

it’s still funny to me that some people are So opposed to the idea of multiple timelines in ST/they think it’s So farfetched as if this isn’t literally the Timeline Weirdness Show where they talk about the idea of multiple timelines and time travel every 5 seconds. Like. Saying that you don’t believe that there’s another timeline in ST is like saying that you don’t believe that there’s hobbits in LOTR

[crimeronan]

Oh GOD fucking IMAGINE the true crime podcasts there'd be about worst princess AU timeline Luz..

SCREAM. YEAH GOD IVE ALSO BEEN THINKING. ABOUT THIS. (worst timeline background.)

like. this teenage girl shows up disheveled and in clear distress by a river campsite in a forest beside gravesfield or something & a kindly camper helps calm her down and call for help & then it turns out she actually has been MISSING from this EXACT TOWN for THIRTEEN YEARS.... people say she was kidnapped and held hostage but the kidnapper has yet to be identified or found.... the girl herself is in a Profoundly Horrific mental state and has been about as uncooperative with the cops as one can be without getting arrested for being uncooperative with the cops.... she's never spoken publicly about what happened and her mom declines all interviews and chases reporters away shouting at them to go to hell.... like. the initial story is wild enough and already predisposed to one of those overly dramatic docuseries (episode one.... mysterious girl at the river. oooo spooky. episodes two thru seven.... CORKBOARD 13 YEAR TIMELINE OF LUZ NOCEDA'S DISAPPEARANCE), and then you add in potential conspiracy theories like "she protected her kidnapper on purpose because they were holding other kids hostage and she's insane" "the mom was in on it for sure" "she's a paid actor"

like oh my god what a fucking nightmare. true crime tiktok n podcasters would be Obsessed. and since luz isn't lucky enough to be dead, plenty of """journalists""" would want to be the one who finally gets the story out of her.

LEAVE HER ALOOOONEEE

[henrysglock]

tee hee. tee heeeeeee.

So you mean. The Brenner-face guy?

Not this guy?

Because he's a different guy?

@heroesbyler another Who reference for us <3

[malefilus]

alright gloam eyed queen fans i'll toss a bone out there.

what if the gloam eyed queen is the alter half of Melina? Kind of like how St. Trina is the alter half of Miquella, or how Radagon and Marika are one and the same but also separate?

[batsplat]

i mean yes that's how it works

[wheelersblue]

I do not want to see a Single Person say that time won't be a major plot point in season five and there won't be any timeline fuckery

[bellamygate]

AN ANON JUST SAID WHAT IF TYME DIES IN ONE TIMELINE AND GREAT DIES IN THE OTHER AND ONLY ONE TIMELINE CAN CONTINUE OOOOOOOH OH OHHHY

[lesbianpegbar]

you know. thats interesting then that theyve got this whole "the time machine" movie ref in the ending theme and the imagery of a man clearly in love w/ his wife trying to get her back by going in time. im glad qian jin is clearly not who they mean what those parallels. so i guess if cheng xiao shi doesnt get on the boat...and creates another timeline...and then exits the photo maybe it creates a paradox that causes lu guang to die? its so hard to theorize for this show lmaooo the only time i've been right so far was with the twins but that seemed pretty obvious to me

yeah i. never know where link click is going ever. i’ve stopped trying at this point i’m just going on the journey they take me on and i’ll perhaps kick and scream and be insane on the way

[ectonurites]

I don't have fully formed thoughts on the matter but my brain has just been rotating these two images around next to each other for days. interpret that as you will

(Crisis on Infinite Earths #12, published December 1985/cover date March 1986)

(Stranger Things S4E9, takes place in March 1986)

[berryblu-soda]

Ninjago´s writers got absolutely nothing on my absolute monkey´s typewriter category 7 autism event of an OC story

[cosmik-homo]

Missy2 is. As Timelord as the master has been in a long long time. And he knows it and. If it was easy he might- might- go back in some constellation but, as ive said many times b4, he'd rather kill himself than admit to his people at home he was wrong, sooo.

And then 18 likes- needs- to think she's theee furthest thing from time lord but umm. She's coming round back to it, yeah. Turning and turning in the widening gyre. Or. She would be if she had the SPOONS to be the herald of thundering justice and tinker of the universe she's 'supposed' to be. Woman who would be going on some sort of Spree but she can't do more than like two things a day.

[aemiron-main]

Two Henry Timelines, Two Edward Timelines, and Two Blue UDs:

So, regarding what I talked about in this post:

I made a diagram! You might have to zoom in to see some of the words (especially on the little hawkins dots) but:

So, yeah! Many thoughts…. This could explain why it seems like there’s only two more concrete timelines (the weekly watcher/Henry timeline vs the indianapolis gazette timeline) but also so much evidence of more than two timelines (in this case, four) (all of henward’s changing jumpsuits, the whole four gate thing in S4, the fact that there’s two different blue UDs) …

[drawer-ghost]

Thinkimg about my Deltarune Papyruses(es) again,,,

[henrysglock]

Timeline? Split. Universe? Destroyed. Hotel? Trivago.

As Em just put in this brilliant post (now with a diagram!) it's entirely possible that each UD is a destroyed version of the alternate timeline:

I want to bring in a little more support, because it makes perfect sense. If you're new here, or if you'd like a refresher, here's the reading list:

Nuclear Winter in the UD/One's Nuclear Bomb

Mirror Swapping and Wall Cracks Post

Missing Rainbow Room Wall Cracks Post

Multiple Dimension X Ones Post

Vecna Puppetry Post

Multiple Upside Downs Post

As I laid out back in March, we likely have 6 separate versions of the HNL massacre.

One set of factors is the swapped mirror:

The other set of factors is the crack patterns in the Rainbow Room, or lack thereof:

(Gate, dematerialization, and no-event cracks respective to photo order)

Dematerialization is a separate process from the gate, and the two aren't ever shown on screen together outside the one dual outcome overlay.

No gate, just dematerialization:

No dematerialization, just gate:

2 mirror alignments * 3 outcomes = 6 total outcomes

As we're shown in 4.07, when we follow One through the gate, it takes us directly to Dimension X:

And dematerialization, as we're shown in Season 1, pulls us directly to the Upside Down:

So that makes: Upside Down, Dimension X, and Right Side Up...and one of each of those for Henry and Edward. Still totaling 6!

This tracks with what I laid out about the two different Dimension X Ones:

Two different Dimension X's, two different Ones.

It also tracks with the post I made about physics and gravity in the Upside Downs:

(Orientations of the Upside Downs, gravity overlay, and directionality mirroring overlay respective to photo order).

Two different places...two different guys? (but different this time)

And then, of course, my two favorite pictures of all time:

Mirrored POVs. Inverted poses. Different hair.

Two different guys.

Dimension X: 2 guys. Upside Downs: 2 guys. Right Side Up: 2 guys.

6 guys.

Number of Jumpsuit Patterns? Six. ("But James, there are only 5 there!" I know. Consult the bloodless jumpsuits from before. There are two of them. Thus, JA, JB1 and JB2, JC, JD, JE. Six suits)

Back in May, I asked the "What happened to the other two non-Dimension-X jumpsuit guys?" question.

The answer may very well be: The Two Upside-Downs, becoming the physical Monster Vecna, one of which we see getting Flambéd™ by Nancy et. al.

Make sense? 1 Monster Vecna, 1 Dimension-X One, and one Normal Guy One per timeline: 6 guys. 6 places. The math is mathing.

This all also tracks with what I said about Vecna as a puppet/symbiotic partner of sorts who connects to Dimension X via ethernet tentacles:

It also explains how the USSR has an active Shadow, despite the Side-Side gates being shut:

There may be two of them. The one in Russia may have awoken due to the up-down gates being opened in Hawkins.

Now, you're probably wondering why I linked the nuclear winter/nuclear bomb posts.

As I said in my post about the Rifts:

One dropped a whole-ass nuclear bomb on Hawkins when he opened the rifts and began merging the Upside Down with the Right Side Up. This resulted in a gradually spreading nuclear winter. Thus, if any other timelines/universes were to collide, we could expect much the same effect:

As Em said in his post, it's entirely possible to have a timeline split based on which timeline/universe survived the collision, thus generating a set of 4. Two Upside Downs, two Right Side Ups...and both Upside Downs are experiencing the associated unending nuclear winter.

Then, of course, the question becomes: Which One collided the universes, why, and how?

Of course this is all speculation and relies heavily on what we might see in The First Shadow...but I know most of you have seen me speculating on the full extent of Henry's powers. If Henry isn't the ST4 Vecna, then we really have no clue what the extent of his powers are.

For example: Vecna couldn't open gates until he copy-pasted that power from El and cobbled it together into his own form of gate opening. Henry might not be constrained by that same lack of ability.

In fact, based on what information we have been given about The First Shadow, it's entirely possible that he did open a gate of some kind.

How do I figure that?

There are monsters in The First Shadow, and it's touted as being the origin of the Upside Down, not to mention Matt hinting the Brenner already knew that Henry had access to other worlds even before The First Shadow had been teased (That Deadline article is from July of 2022).

We also have BTS pictures from the filmed show of the Creel house fully decked out in UD tentacles...even in places Stobin+Nancy never visit when they go to fight Vecna.

Namely, we have tentacles in the parlor to the right of the front door and the dining room respectively...ft. Raphael as baby Henry:

(Note the light fixtures! They tell us which room we're in)

So...it's entirely possible that Henry did it by accident or otherwise back in 1959, which would explain why both versions of Upside Down Hawkins are completely abandoned: They may have been in a state of multidimensional nuclear winter for the past 27 years.

[nieloxychen]

once ive gotten deep enough into the lore ill probably end up doing shit for boh that i havent done in a while (like stimboards and embroidery)

im currently focused on going through every book and then ill collect every flavour text and then ill put all of that together. i appreciate the wiki so much for giving me (so increadibly helpful) lists, but i want to discover the lore myself. mostly. ill have to check it for a dictionary or sth

[theidiotabides]

Been listening to this song a lot because it gives me such strong Jake/Cassie at the series endgame vibes. I mean, come on:

So tell me now: If this ain't love then how do we get out? Because I don't know. That's when she said, "I don't hate you, boy. I just want to save you while there's still something left to save." That's when I told her, "I love you, girl, But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have."