Talk:Rudeus Greyrat/@comment-173.183.97.16-20151107090600/@comment-69.92.66.203-20151215225936

There is only one timeline containing Rudi. This series talks a bit about time travel but it doesn't actually get into alternate co-existing parallel universes all that much. That said... The basement rat event is a point of divergence. Each time Hitogami talked to him could be considered a point of divergence.

"You should check the basement": A) Check the basement B) Don't check the basement. Choosing one answer rather than the other would change things. This is where one reality diverges from another and creates a parallel universe. As I said, this series doesn't go into much detail about that, so I will give a vague understanding of it.

We know the outcome of checking the basement. BAD End. However, even if this is true it isn't something that has happened. It's something that COULD happen. He could have ignored Hitogami and the rat could have eventually just up and left without eating any leftovers. He could have turned his basement into an icebox. There's any number of things he COULD have done. As things were playing out however, he had originally chosen to check the basement. Thus he chose the route to the bad end. The end result of the bad end route is him teleporting himself back to prevent the bad end from happening. This is slightly different from Orsted's loop. Orsted's loop is a continuous event whereas this is a one time thing. That is to say, where Orsted's loop is concerned it's a matter of time travel. Where Rudi's future self is concerned it is the end result of a single route (alternate reality/parallel universe) where time travel is only the consequence of one single route.

Confused about the difference? Me too. Time travel and alternate realities and such are intentionally dificult like that. I don't think it's possible to make a story involving stuff like time travel that someone won't nitpick.