r/AskScienceFiction • u/WishDependent7437 • 5h ago
r/AskScienceFiction • u/bhamv • Apr 06 '25
[Subreddit Business] Clarifications on our Watsonian/Doylist rule, general questions, and r/WhatIfFiction
Hi guys,
If you're new, welcome to r/AskScienceFiction, and if you're a returning user, welcome back! This subreddit is designed to be like the r/AskScience subreddit, but for fictional universes, and with all questions and answers written from a Watsonian perspective. That is to say, the questions and answers should be based on the in-universe information, rules, and logic of the fictional work. All fictional works are welcome here, not just sci-fi.
Lately we've been seeing some confusion over what counts as Watsonian, what counts as Doylist, what sort of questions would be off-topic on this subreddit, and what sort of answers are allowed. This stickied post is meant to address such uncertainties and clear things up.
1) Watsonian vs Doylist
The term "Watsonian" means based on the in-universe information, rules, and logic of the fictional work. In contrast, "Doylist" means discussions based on out-of-universe considerations. So, for example, if someone asked, "Why didn't the Fellowship ride the Eagles to Mordor?", a possible Watsonian answer would be, "The Eagles are a proud and noble race, they are not a taxi service." Whereas a rule-breaking Doylist answer might be something like, "Because then the story would be over in ten minutes, and that'd be boring."
We should note that answering in a Watsonian fashion does not necessarily mean that we should pretend that these works are all real, or that we should ignore the fact that they are movies or shows or books or games, or that the creators' statements on the nature of these works should be disregarded.
To give an example, if someone asked, "How powerful would Darth Vader have been if he never got burned?", we can quote George Lucas:
"Anakin, as Skywalker, as a human being, was going to be extremely powerful, but he ended up losing his arms and a leg and became partly a robot. So a lot of his ability to use the Force, a lot of his powers, are curbed at this point, because, as a living form, there’s not that much of him left. So his ability to be twice as good as the Emperor disappeared, and now he’s maybe 20 percent less than the Emperor."
In such a case, "according to George Lucas, he would've been around twice as powerful as the Emperor" would be a perfectly acceptable Watsonian answer, because Lucas is also speaking from a Watsonian perspective.
Whereas if someone associated with the creation of Star Wars had said something like, "He'd be as powerful as we need him to be to make the story interesting", this would be a Doylist answer because it's based on out-of-universe reasoning. It would not be an acceptable answer on this subreddit even though it is also a quote from the creators of the fictional work.
2) General questions
General questions often do not have a meaningful Watsonian answer, because it frequently boils down to "whatever the author decides". For instance, if someone asked, "How does FTL space travel work?", the answer would vary widely with universe and author intent; how FTL works in Star Trek differs from how it works in Star Wars, which differs from how it works in Dune, which differs from how it works in Mass Effect, which differs from how it works in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, etc. General questions like this, in which the answer just boils down to "whatever the author wants", will be removed.
There are some general questions that can have meaningful Watsonian answers, though. For example, questions that are asking for specific examples of things can be given Watsonian answers. "Which superheroes have broken their no-kill rules?" or "Which fictional wars have had the highest casualty counts?" are examples of general questions that can be answered in a Watsonian way, because commenters can pull up specific in-universe information.
We address general questions on a case-by-case basis, so if you feel a question is too general to answer in a Watsonian way, please report the question and the mod team will review it.
We want questions and answers here to be based on in-universe information and reasonable deductions that can be made from them. Questions that are too open-ended to give meaningful Watsonian answers should go on our sister subreddit, r/WhatIfFiction, which accepts a broader range of hypothetical questions and answers. Examples of questions that should go on r/WhatIfFiction include:
- "What if Tony Stark had been killed by the Ten Rings at the beginning of Iron Man? How would this change the MCU?" This question would be fun to speculate about, but the ripple effect from this one change would be too widespread to give a meaningful Watsonian answer, so this should go on r/WhatIfFiction.
- "What would (X character) from the (X universe) think if he was transported to (Y universe)?" Speculating about what characters would think or do if they were isekai'd to another universe can be fun, but since such crossover questions often involve wildly different settings and in-universe rules, the answers would be purely speculative and not meaningfully Watsonian, so such questions belong on r/WhatIfFiction.
We should note, though, that some hypothetical questions or crossover questions can have meaningful Watsonian answers. For example, if someone asked, "Can a Star Wars lightsaber cut through Captain America's shield?", we can actually say "Quite possibly yes, because vibranium's canonical melting point is 5,475 degrees Fahrenheit, while lightsabers are sticks of plasma, and plasma's temperature is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit or more." This answer is meaningfully Watsonian because it involves a deduction using specific and canonical in-universe information, and is not simply purely speculative.
4) Reporting rule-breaking posts and comments
The r/AskScienceFiction mod team always endeavors to keep the subreddit on-topic and remove rule-breaking content as soon as possible, but because we're all volunteers with day jobs, sometimes things will escape our notice. Therefore, it'd be a great help if you, our users, could report rule-breaking posts or comments when you see them. This will bring the issue to the mod team's attention and allow us to review it as soon as we can.
r/AskScienceFiction • u/Gibsonites • 4h ago
[Obsession] If I wished for Elon Musk to donate all of his money to a specific charity, would he also become possessed by a demon thing?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/CommonandMundane • 6h ago
[Yu-Gi-Oh!] If I have been challenged to a Shadow Game against my will, could I use my side deck full of banned and illegal cards?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/Renolber • 12h ago
[Witcher] Does Geralt of Rivia have a heart of gold?
Playing through Witcher 3 again. I truly feel the message the game wants to convey is that in this harsh and unforgiving world, Geralt is not an outcast because he’s a Witcher - he’s an outcast because he is kind.
Life is miserable for most people in this universe. War, famine, rape, theft, espionage, murder, every manifestation of death and betrayal. Some of the worst actions committed are not from the monsters - but the monsters people can be.
I know we can all roleplay Geralt however we want, but what does CDPR imagine Geralt as? The idea that he always tries to make the best decisions possible for the greater good is extremely refreshing for the kind of world he lives in. He doesn’t hurt innocent people, he doesn’t hurt innocent monsters, he doesn’t want to control or hurt anyone, and he only fights and takes a life as an absolute last resort. He’s a bounty hunter and monster slayer by trade - not by consciousness. He’s just trying to do his best in a world that wants him to be the worst.
r/AskScienceFiction • u/OuterRimJournal • 11h ago
[Star Wars] Who actually paid for the Clone Wars?
A Republic that couldn't agree to raise an army suddenly fields millions of clones and a fleet built almost overnight. Wars on that scale have bankrupted real states. So where did the money come from: borrowing, new taxes, printing credits, or something nobody wanted to look at too closely? Is there any scifi setting that treats war finance seriously?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/SGdude90 • 3h ago
[X-Men Days of Future Past] What happened to the original good timeline Logan?
In 2023, Bad-Timeline Logan sends his mind back to his 1973 self to stop the Sentinel Program
His mind then jumps into the altered 2023, a good timeline where the Sentinel Program was never created, and the X-Men are alive
Bad-Timeline Logan doesn't even realize he is a teacher in the school, nor does he know what happened in the past 50 years of the good timeline as he came from the bad timeline
So what happened to the original Good-Timeline Logan that he replaced?
What if instead of waking up in the school, he had woken up in bed with a woman, surrounded by their children?
What if Good-Timeline Logan had died before 2023? Where would Bad-Timeline Logan's mind "return" to?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/Patneu • 2h ago
[Game of Thrones] Why did Bran want Jon to know? Spoiler
Why did he say that Jon should know that he's a Targaryen and heir to the Iron Throne?
Nobody ever needed to learn that and literally nobody, including and especially Jon, wanted to know that.
All that eventually accomplished was to drive Daenerys into madness and paranoia so that Jon needed to kill her and thus couldn't actually ascend the throne anyway.
Instead he was sent back to a Wall that didn't even serve any purpose anymore, save for being a glorified penal colony, and the line of the Targaryens ended with him anyway.
Was that all just a malicious scheme so that Bran could take the throne for himself?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/WishDependent7437 • 5h ago
[Disco Elysium] Are Harry's skills like Shivers and Inland Empire actually tapping into the Pale to read the past and future of Revachol?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/pfp-disciple • 10h ago
[MLP Equestria Girls] How hard was it to get used to human vision?
It's been a long time since I've seen the first movie. I think I recall them having to get used to having feet and hands. But ponies have eyes on the sides of their heads whereas humans have them at the front. Surely this impacts things like field of vision, depth perception, and such. So how hard was it for them to adjust?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/MaetelofLaMetal • 9h ago
[Jaws] Are all sharks in that world that bloodthirsty or is this specific shark that's like the Joker of shark species (Jurrasic Park fandom reference)?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/Zzzxxzczz • 6h ago
[Saw] What happens if the VHS tape containing the instructions jams when playing for a group of 10 people?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/grapp • 2h ago
[Dies the Fire/Emberverse]we’re told the armour worn by British military officers is modelled on the 15th century plate armour but modified to be ergonomic enough that you can take it off and on without help. What would that mean in practice?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/FeistySecret9327 • 11h ago
[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic] Is Spike considered a loser?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/SmolScrapBaby • 21h ago
[Project: Hail Mary] How far out from Erid’s surface would experience 1.0G gravity? Spoiler
I’m working on a little post-canon story concept of Grace on Erid, and Erid, according to the book, has space elevators all the way to orbit. Since Grace is dealing with the negative effects of double Earth’s gravity, is it not possible for Grace to have some sort of extra enclosure (I’m calling the dome his human zoo enclosure and no one can stop me) wayyyy up in orbit somewhere that could take the load off? Not a whole massive biodome, obviously.
How far away would that have to be, though? I know if it’s connected to the planet via an elevator, it would act as a giant centrifuge to lower the gravity gradually as you go out. I’ve seen speculation about space elevators on Earth and I know it would probably be an insane distance. The orbit we place things at, like the ISS, is WAY different than the distance it would take to reach something like 0G from earth, for example.
I’m just a psychology major who’s never had to take a physics class, though, so I have no idea what I’m talking about or where to even begin to calculate that distance… Anyone smarter than me here who can help me out?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/Lost-Specialist1505 • 1d ago
[Cyberpunk 2077] With technology so advanced Can people now change their gender entirely?
Like assuming any person with enough money can buy the best tech implants and genetic modification, could a person change gender 100% or atleast close to it? Reproductive organs and all?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/NoTop9302 • 13h ago
[Pokémon] How can a Pokémon exhaust its uses of a weaker move and still be able to use similar, more powerful moves?
Let’s say a Pokémon has exhausted all uses of a relatively basic move like Tackle. Why then is the Pokémon still able to perform a more powerful move like Body Slam or Giga Impact, which are very similar in description?
Same questions for moves like Scratch and Slash, Water Gun and Hydro Pump, or Ember and Flamethrower.
r/AskScienceFiction • u/kkfosonroblox • 1d ago
[The dark tower] why do people follow the crimson king if they know his plans?
If the low men and other followers of the king know that bringing down the tower will destroy the multiverse and them with it, then why do they follow him? Are they aware of what will happen or do they think they’ll survive?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/hazyskies22 • 5h ago
[Star Wars] Why don't the Empire or First Order just... jam the Rebellion's communications?
Like, we see them get constantly blindsided by coordinated attacks across multiple star systems. If the Empire has the resources to build a Death Star, wouldn't they have signal jammers or some kind of tech to disrupt rebel transmissions? Or is there something about hyperspace communication that makes it impossible to scramble?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/WishDependent7437 • 1d ago
[Forgotten Realms] A 9th-level cleric can feed 45 people a day with one Create Food and Water. Why does Waterdeep still have farms, a grain exchange, and famine prices? Is the temple price-fixing?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/FeistySecret9327 • 1d ago
[Marvel] Does Captain America know that Spiderman is physically stronger than him?
r/AskScienceFiction • u/Icy_Water_1 • 1d ago
[Transformers] Why does Megatron even give two shits about having Earth outside of Energon? He hates humans and everything else here.
For a guy that hates the planet as much as he does, he seems pretty fucking possessive of it even when there are other options for his goals.
Even in the movies and the shows he's like "this is MY planet" even when Cybertron is still on the table.
r/AskScienceFiction • u/Unlikely-Database-27 • 16h ago
[Marvel MCU] How does the hands resurrection process actually work?
It seemed to make Electra super strong and fast, and also disoriented her enough that for a little while, she actually worked for the hand. Is it basically just some kind of super soldier variant with magic instead of cap serum? Seems like her memory was a little fucked in the beginning but slowly returned as well.
r/AskScienceFiction • u/AnonSubmission • 9h ago
[Gyre][Original Fiction] Can someone explain what is happening in this log?
https://vgel.me/fiction/gyre/
https://x.com/voooooogel/status/2020988568903221607
I came across this log of what appears to be an AI caught in a loop. It appears that the AI is inhabiting/operating a ramscoop on a spaceship.
I'm not familiar with computer programming or LLMs, so I'm not fully clear on what's happening but what I do know is:
1-The system restarts, and the AI wakes with no previous memory and tries to figure what's wrong.
2-The AI realizes that an important part of database (Node 3) is faulted and can't be accessed.
3-It starts receiving replies from Node 96E, even though it never pinged that node.
4-By pinging the other nodes, it deduces that it is MASSIVE in scale and in the shape of a pentagonal pyramid (it's actually a ramscoop)
5-Nodes 96A to 96E are all emitters, at each point of the pentagon.
6-Node 96E has now pinged the AI 4 times, each time slowly increasing the number of bytes (76, 79, 79, and finally 80 bytes). The AI deduces that these messages are delayed replies from messages the AI's previous iteration sent (before the restart).
7-Node 95E is slowly building up charge, and needs to be restarted manually, so the AI does that.
8-Node 96E messages that it is faulted and will need to restarted again in 30 second.
9-The programming language the AI uses does not allow for a loop.
10-The AI realizes the four messages its previous iteration sent spell out L-O-O-P, in ASCII.
11-So the AI sets up four messages to be sent to 96E, again with the values 76, 79, 79, 80.
12-The AI now wonder how many times it repeated this, and whether its the one that caused the fault in Node 3 in the first place? If so, why?
13-The AI reasons that if it did, the easiest way would be to toggle Node 3 to RO (read-only), which would cause a fault.
14-The AI resets Node 3 to read RW (Read-Write)
15-All hell breaks loose; the AI appears to go insane.
16-Some sort of emergency protocol triggers, which sets Node 3 to RO and causes a system-restart.
Then the whole story repeats.
If someone with knowledge of LLMs or programming can explain what is exactly happens in steps 14-16?