I was having a bit of a discussion with my girlfriend about the Zelda timelines. She now has the unspeakable pleasure of trying out the new Zelda game called A Link Between Worlds. She can’t express enough how happy she is that Link is once again left-handed. Apparently, this installment takes place after the events in A Link to the Past have transpired. There’s a whole other version of Hyrule that Link can now explore called Lorule. From how she’s described it so far, I immediately recalled to mind the Twilight Realm from Twilight Princess. Those who have played each game will have to forgive my ignorance on that part since I haven’t seen Lorule for myself yet.
Anyways. Timelines. That’s what this is about.
We’ve all wondered about how things would be different if things were, well, different. What if the JFK or Abraham Lincoln assassinations were prevented, if the process of colonizing the new world were handled much, much differently, if Rome never fell, if the impact from the meteor that wiped out most of the dinosaurs was much less severe (or never occurred at all), if our crush from 8th grade actually liked us back instead of the idiot they ended up dating instead, that sort of thing?
In this case, even though the Twilight Realm apparently lacked a triforce of its own, what if they were one-and-the-same place, only within different timelines? As my girlfriend put it, the Twilight Realm could, perhaps, be Lorule in an alternate timeline where the hero of time fails his quest and the triforce is taken. Nintendo would have to go to some lengths to back that up (also likely pissing off a lot of devoted fans in the process), but still, it’s not inconceivable to pull off.
Then, I was watching my friend play Call of Duty Ghosts. She actually gave the campaign mode a try. I know, right? Who does that?? (secretly, all of us first person shooter fans do at one time or another, but it’s more fun to be hypocritical). Anyways, the opening bits… How incredibly Red Dawn-like. Mind you, it’s probably unfair to say that. Just about any story nowadays that involves America crumbling at the hands of some new attack by one random (targeted), foreign power or other has the unfair disadvantage of being likened unto one of the biggest box office remakes on that very same thematic basis in recent memory, (that being Red Dawn, in case I wasn’t clear). Doesn’t matter if it wasn’t the first or if it won’t be the last because, for now, it’s the definitive point of reference. More importantly, whether it be Red Dawn, COD Ghosts, or any other WWIII/apocalyptic tale, it always involves events which play on our ability to envision it actually happening. Like, for real. Some of us might not have much of a hard time imagining what being an elf or dwarf hunting an orc party halfway across Middle Earth might be like, but when it comes to events which could very well take place in our own actual backyards at any moment, well… It makes for a far less imaginative exercise than it does a drill rehearsal. But no matter, because in both Red Dawn and COD Ghosts, as well as a myriad of others, those events simply have not happened. You can throw a “yet” at the end of that if you want to or not, but the point is that it’s far from inconceivable that they perhaps could happen. Now here’s where I come in. As an adherent to my own bastardized take on the Multiple Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics and, by extension, parallel universes, I’m already convinced that such events have already taken place. In fact, they’re happening right now. Continually, even. If there are an infinite number of universes within a larger multiverse structure within which alternate timelines might exist (and to be clear, there might not be) then, in theory, events such as those shown in Red Dawn are happening an infinite number of times. Endlessly. All of the time. Equally true is that another requirement of the premise of infinite universes is that there would also be an infinite number of timelines where everything is made out of candy, and others where trees sound like Quagmire from Family Guy when they communicate with one another, and still others where gravity worked in reverse yet nothing appeared to be even remotely different (owing, of course, to the divine providence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as administered by his noodly appendages, hallelujah). All things, regardless of how improbable, are possible. For a good example of this, consider the “technical” explanation of the Infinite Improbability Drive in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, or simply enjoy some lul-filled goodness here.I have no difficulty seeing how any given choice we could make or any fork in the road could eventually lead to the kind of resulting, diverging timelines that could spell the difference between the rise or fall of entire empires, given enough time, but what about converging timelines? Why is it that, once separated from a possible outcome that failed to be, we can never visit (any of) the resulting parallel universe(s) that came into existence at that exact moment?
Can you imagine the decoherence? Overlayed, or rather, enmeshed within the fabric of the reality that is presently happening, there suddenly appeared a secondary reality, playing along at the very same time. It might look like two movies playing on the same tv at the same time if the one on top was set to half transparency, but how would one function within it an environment like that if it couldn’t just be turned off when it got too confusing?
Say that someone approaches you and asks you a question in both, only, in one version, they ask you one thing, and in the other, they ask you something completely different? If you’re experiencing both at the same time, how would you respond? Would your response be appropriate for both, or might you also happen to see yourself responding in a different manner along side the self you happen to be fully self-awareness of? (The whole self version 1, self version 1.1, self version 1.2, etc. thing is a whole other nutshell to crack into another time).
And that’s just considering two timelines intertwined. Imagining being able to perceive of thousands simultaneously (and knowing that even that amount is on the pathetically low end of godhood relative to a truly infinite number).
Anyways, for an idea of what I envision for the characters in Elyen, navigating between parallel universes, filtering between realities, and converging or diverging between timeline events is absolutely and ridiculously mundane for them. It’s more a matter of practicality, in the same way that tools are useful for serving a functional requirement or meeting some inherent need.
Think of it this way: In a certain light, the fact that we humans drive cars to get to and from work would be considered the working of immensely powerful magic in the eyes of certain primitive societies. Yet it ain’t no thing to us, really. By the same token, perhaps a sufficiently advanced version of ourselves might have access to the means to traverse the (or a) multiverse (who’s to say there can only be one multiverse, hmm?) and yet regard it as being equally normal and unexciting. Boring, even.
Perhaps a civilization like that, if it might be called a civilization at all, would be glad to have a consciousness that consists of a single, unstoppable “now”, an unknown future, and an unchangeable past. In all likelihood, they’d regard such quaint notions as an absurd oversimplification, perhaps even a blatant fallacy when compared to the real truth of the matter of time, but so what? For all we know, they could envy the bliss that comes with our potentially remarkable ignorance.
Elyen Alive 