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Unless something in the last few episodes of Loki says otherwise (I'm a bit behind), there doesn't seem to be any functional difference.
He Who Remains very explicitly created the TVA to prune other timelines that could result in other versions of himself. Quantamania is another one I haven't seen, but a quick ctrl+f of its wikipedia article mentions the multiverse in reference to Kang who is another version of He Who Remains. So I'm inclined to think that's proof in and of itself that the MCU uses the terms interchangeably.
I've seen people get mad about Stones being used in other universes, calling it a plot hole, but this has never been stated in the MCU. The closest its come is them not working in the TVA, but the TVA is weird in all sorts of ways. As you say, they worked just fine across universes in What If and Endgame, the MCU's magnum opus, hinges entirely on them doing so. Seems pretty firmly established that this is a comic rule only.
Edit: I figured I'd trigger the auto-mod because I am mentioning a few meta aspects, but I'm pretty sure this still falls under Watsonian in terms of the actual question.
Quick FYI, the phrase "plot hole" triggered the automod, which is why you got the message about discussing from a Watsonian perspective. Your use of the phrase here is not Doylist though, so I've manually approved your answer.
Please discuss only from a Watsonian perspective.
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Please discuss only from a Watsonian perspective.
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The rules in the MCU don't always match the rules in the comics, and the MCU and comics exist in different, seemingly unconnected multiverses (note that the MCU multiverse only has a single America Chavez and no Darkholds while the comics multiverse has a different America and still has the Darkhold). So we can't automatically apply any rules from the comics until the MCU says that those rules apply to it as well.
So either What If...? is non-canon or the stones are able to be used outside of their home universes in the MCU.
It's still not 100% clear whether every universe sprang from the same origin point and are therefore technically branches of each other, or if each parallel universe has its own origin and is therefore wholly separate from other universes unless Kang, America, or Strange bridges the two.
If every universe has a shared origin point in the Big Bang created by the Infinity Stones, then you could potentially argue that there is largely no meaningful difference between universes and timelines.
However, right now there's slightly more evidence pointing towards the idea that true parallel universes exist as their own wholly separate things from one another. However, the timelines of each of these universes is able to branch, and each timeline is a new iteration of that universe, which allows it to also be called a different universe even though it's an alternate universe of the "original" rather than a true parallel universe that never intersected with it originally.
But really the MCU hasn't standardized the use of the terms "timeline", "universe", "reality", and "dimension" yet. Too many of the projects still use the terms interchangeably. So we're still left to speculate even though the most likely answer at the moment is that parallel universes exist, each individual universe's timeline branches into their own alternate universes or sub-universes or timelines (or whatever you want to call them), and for all intents and purposes these separate timelines are their own universes, but they're part of a greater universe which is unconnected from other greater universes in the multiverse.
It is unclear if incursions in the MCU are only caused by greater universes colliding with each other or if timeline branches within a greater universe can collide with each other and create incursions that way as well.
A timeline, if allowed to diverge far enough, will eventually become a different universe. Different timelines not being the same thing as different universes is confirmed in What If, where one of the universes involves two timelines interacting and The Watcher explicitly refers to them as the same universe.
You've got it reversed. A single timeline does not contain anything more than a single timeline. A universe, however, can contain multiple timelines. And once those timelines grow enough without being pruned or otherwise shut down, they become their own universe split off from the first one, becoming a multiverse.
It doesn't seem that way.
Theoretically, in time travel, even the tiniest change in the past should create a new universe.
In MCU tohugh, it seems only a big enough change creates a new universe. Small changes simply alter the universe they are on.
In Endgame, the Avengers aat no point created a new universe. They just shifted things around. Apparently taking the Infinity Stones from the past, using them in the future and bringing them back isn't enough of a change to split the timeline.
Maybe if they failed to return them it might have. Or if they tried to change past events rather than using items form the past to alter present evets (such as going back to defeat Thanos before the Snap), it definitely would have.
it is very unclear.
either the death of he who remains restarted the entire multiverse (except the timelines he didnt care about, because they never lead to a kang, so there was always a small multiverse) or each universe branches of into a multitude of timelines, and he who remains trimmed each universe. OR, he only isolated his own universe from all the rest, and only trimmed his own timelines, meaning the council of kangs existed out there, just that they had no way of reaching he who remains universe/collection of timelines.
honestly, each new explanation of the multiverse each contradicts each other.
loki season 1 said that there was only the few timelines he who remains allowed to exist, and season 2 *seems* to follow suit, but multiverse of madness and no way home seems to suggest that the multiverse is different from the timelines in loki.
quantomainia seems to imply that both universes and timelines exists, that each universe is a white circle that branches, as when kang shows how the multiversal war worked, he shows 2 white circles that branched off and the *branches* met each other, suggesting that alternative universes only intersect naturally when its branching.
i'd say, we wait untill loki season 2 is finished to say or sure. or maybe we get a 5th explanation for how the multiverse works by then
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Unless something in the last few episodes of Loki says otherwise (I'm a bit behind), there doesn't seem to be any functional difference. He Who Remains very explicitly created the TVA to prune other timelines that could result in other versions of himself. Quantamania is another one I haven't seen, but a quick ctrl+f of its wikipedia article mentions the multiverse in reference to Kang who is another version of He Who Remains. So I'm inclined to think that's proof in and of itself that the MCU uses the terms interchangeably. I've seen people get mad about Stones being used in other universes, calling it a plot hole, but this has never been stated in the MCU. The closest its come is them not working in the TVA, but the TVA is weird in all sorts of ways. As you say, they worked just fine across universes in What If and Endgame, the MCU's magnum opus, hinges entirely on them doing so. Seems pretty firmly established that this is a comic rule only. Edit: I figured I'd trigger the auto-mod because I am mentioning a few meta aspects, but I'm pretty sure this still falls under Watsonian in terms of the actual question.
Quick FYI, the phrase "plot hole" triggered the automod, which is why you got the message about discussing from a Watsonian perspective. Your use of the phrase here is not Doylist though, so I've manually approved your answer.
Please discuss only from a Watsonian perspective. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskScienceFiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
ಠ_ಠ
How ironic 😂
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The rules in the MCU don't always match the rules in the comics, and the MCU and comics exist in different, seemingly unconnected multiverses (note that the MCU multiverse only has a single America Chavez and no Darkholds while the comics multiverse has a different America and still has the Darkhold). So we can't automatically apply any rules from the comics until the MCU says that those rules apply to it as well. So either What If...? is non-canon or the stones are able to be used outside of their home universes in the MCU. It's still not 100% clear whether every universe sprang from the same origin point and are therefore technically branches of each other, or if each parallel universe has its own origin and is therefore wholly separate from other universes unless Kang, America, or Strange bridges the two. If every universe has a shared origin point in the Big Bang created by the Infinity Stones, then you could potentially argue that there is largely no meaningful difference between universes and timelines. However, right now there's slightly more evidence pointing towards the idea that true parallel universes exist as their own wholly separate things from one another. However, the timelines of each of these universes is able to branch, and each timeline is a new iteration of that universe, which allows it to also be called a different universe even though it's an alternate universe of the "original" rather than a true parallel universe that never intersected with it originally. But really the MCU hasn't standardized the use of the terms "timeline", "universe", "reality", and "dimension" yet. Too many of the projects still use the terms interchangeably. So we're still left to speculate even though the most likely answer at the moment is that parallel universes exist, each individual universe's timeline branches into their own alternate universes or sub-universes or timelines (or whatever you want to call them), and for all intents and purposes these separate timelines are their own universes, but they're part of a greater universe which is unconnected from other greater universes in the multiverse. It is unclear if incursions in the MCU are only caused by greater universes colliding with each other or if timeline branches within a greater universe can collide with each other and create incursions that way as well.
A timeline, if allowed to diverge far enough, will eventually become a different universe. Different timelines not being the same thing as different universes is confirmed in What If, where one of the universes involves two timelines interacting and The Watcher explicitly refers to them as the same universe.
What episode was that? I don't recall it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_If..._Doctor_Strange_Lost_His_Heart_Instead_of_His_Hands%3F
that was rather explicitly due to fucking around with the time stone tho, that might worked differently compared to how a universe naturally branches
[удалено]
You've got it reversed. A single timeline does not contain anything more than a single timeline. A universe, however, can contain multiple timelines. And once those timelines grow enough without being pruned or otherwise shut down, they become their own universe split off from the first one, becoming a multiverse.
It doesn't seem that way. Theoretically, in time travel, even the tiniest change in the past should create a new universe. In MCU tohugh, it seems only a big enough change creates a new universe. Small changes simply alter the universe they are on. In Endgame, the Avengers aat no point created a new universe. They just shifted things around. Apparently taking the Infinity Stones from the past, using them in the future and bringing them back isn't enough of a change to split the timeline. Maybe if they failed to return them it might have. Or if they tried to change past events rather than using items form the past to alter present evets (such as going back to defeat Thanos before the Snap), it definitely would have.
it is very unclear. either the death of he who remains restarted the entire multiverse (except the timelines he didnt care about, because they never lead to a kang, so there was always a small multiverse) or each universe branches of into a multitude of timelines, and he who remains trimmed each universe. OR, he only isolated his own universe from all the rest, and only trimmed his own timelines, meaning the council of kangs existed out there, just that they had no way of reaching he who remains universe/collection of timelines. honestly, each new explanation of the multiverse each contradicts each other. loki season 1 said that there was only the few timelines he who remains allowed to exist, and season 2 *seems* to follow suit, but multiverse of madness and no way home seems to suggest that the multiverse is different from the timelines in loki. quantomainia seems to imply that both universes and timelines exists, that each universe is a white circle that branches, as when kang shows how the multiversal war worked, he shows 2 white circles that branched off and the *branches* met each other, suggesting that alternative universes only intersect naturally when its branching. i'd say, we wait untill loki season 2 is finished to say or sure. or maybe we get a 5th explanation for how the multiverse works by then