History Main / BestOfAllPossibleWorlds

-->-- '''James Branch Cabell''', ''The Silver Stallion'' (1926)

* This was the heart of the original MarvelComics ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' series. Only one or two stories ever came out happier than Earth-616's story. (Ironically one of the few that had a happy ending was a version of the original Clone Saga years before ComicBook/TheCloneSaga came to be rued in the minds and hearts of fans.)

In other words, the canon is treated like the BestOfAllPossibleWorlds for the characters, and an AlternateUniverse / {{Elseworld}} / WhatIf has two options: have a DownerEnding, or revert to match the original canon. HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct often runs on this.

* This is one of the answers to the argument of the Problem of Suffering, particularly suffering created by nature: Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences. No one actually supports this as a theological theory anymore due to two serious problems with it. One, as the page quote shows, was soundly mocked by Voltaire in Candide with the character of Pangloss: one could call the universe in which we live the best possible no matter ''how'' hellish it is, because we are naturally incapable of knowing what other universes could be like. The other is that, granting that this ''is'' the best possible world, since it apparently requires so much evil why should God have made it in the first place?

Look! It's an AlternateUniverse, [[JerkAssGenie in which all of these "problems" are fixed!]] Let us see what happens:

Oh noes! This other universe is [[CrapSackWorld a terrible place]]! Tropeman's enemies have discovered his secret identity by [[HollywoodHacking hacking]] [[ItsASmallNetAfterAll the internet]], and now they've [[StuffedIntoTheFridge horribly murdered his wife]]. Since the BigBad is in jail, the [[EvilPowerVacuum power-vacuum caused by his absence]] has resulted in [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil an even worse villain stepping up to the plate]], and now Cthulhu is running for president. Also, TheScrappy was somehow responsible for preventing World War III.

->Once one dismisses\\
the rest of all possible worlds,\\
one finds that this is\\
the best of all possible worlds.
-->--'''Dr. Pangloss''', ''{{Candide}}''

Ever wonder what would happen if something in your favorite series ''[[StatusQuoIsGod changed]]''? Do you wish TheScrappy had never been born, the BigBad would get his comeuppance, or that TheAdjectivalSuperhero and his [[TheLoisLane love interest]] [[SuperheroesStaySingle would just get married already]]?

** Anyanka invokes this, or possibly its inverse, in the climax, by saying she doesn't even know what the original universe was like; Giles responds "it has to be better than this." ''Smash.''

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'' we have the alternate universe created when Donna [[ForWantOfANail turns right]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]", which causes the Doctor to die at the Thames Barrier when he defeats the Racnoss, and several contemporary attacks on Earth to cause mass casualties, and/or wipes out several of the Doctor's allies (including Martha, who he never met here). Naturally, Donna set her timeline back on its proper course at the end of the episode.

** In Matt Fraction's ''TheDefenders'', the entire 616 universe is what it is because of the miraculous intervention of gods, who used strange "Concordance Engines" to ensure that the world would be populated with superheroes (and that futures with bad outcomes, like the What-If universes, never come to be).

* This was the heart of the original MarvelComics ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' series. Only one or two stories ever came out happier than Earth-616's story. (Ironically one of the few that had a happy ending was a version of the original Clone Saga years before TheCloneSaga came to be rued in the minds and hearts of fans.)

* This is one of the answers to the argument of the Problem of Suffering, particularly suffering created by nature: Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences. No one actually supports this as a theological theory due to two serious problems with it. One, as the page quote shows, was soundly mocked by Voltaire in Candide with the character of Pangloss: one could call the universe in which we live the best possible no matter ''how'' hellish it is, because we are naturally incapable of knowing what other universes could be like. The other is that, granting that this ''is'' the best possible world, since it apparently requires to much evil why should God have made it in the first place?

* This is one of the arguments against the Problem of Suffering, especially suffering created by nature. Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences. The argument was first made by Gottfried Leibniz, whom Voltaire famously mocked in Candide with the character of Pangloss, who provides the page quote, espousing this view no matter how bad things get (and they get ''really'' bad).

** [[spoiler: Played Straight in Rebuild 3.0. Its arguably worse than the original series, what with Shinji having caused 3rd Impact and killing most of humanity, making him the most hated person on Earth. Also Eva pilots are CursedWithAwesome or BlessedWithSuck as the Evas make them immortal so they have to keep piloting and fighting EldritchAbominations forever. And 4th Impact is on the way. In one movie Rebuild went from LighterAndSofter to DarkerAndEdgier]]

* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' AlternateUniverse where Willow and Xander were vampires and its RocksFallEveryoneDies at the end would qualify.
** Though given the point of the episode wasn't so much that the world they had was good as that Buffy had done a lot less harm than good over the course of the series, the bar is set low enough to be highly reasonable.

** A bit like the Buffy example above, this setting is about the hero not being around to save the day for the past couple seasons, and therefore ''hells yeah'' it was better when he was!
** Amusingly, FridgeLogic hits very early, in that, to keep Donna alive long enough for Rose to beam her over, the lethality of a whole bunch of neutered threats had to be toned way down to non-world-destroying levels. Britain was choked with refugees and PuttingOnTheReich and it was all getting quite dreadful, but the human race hadn't been extinguished as he's so fond of predicting it will do if he fails.
*** Well, a lot of those other people died averting, just less well, so there were repercussions. Sarah Jane was on the moon, for example, and Torchwood Three died in stopping the Sontarans' ATMOS plot. Leaving Wales vulnerable to all the stuff they originally saved it from...

** Anyanka invokes this, or possibly its inverse, in the climax, by saying he doesn't even know what the original universe was like; Giles responds "it has to be better than this." ''Smash.''

* This is one of the arguments against the Problem of Suffering, especially suffering created by nature. Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences. The argument was first made by Gottfried Liebniz, whom Voltaire famously mocked in Candide with the character of Pangloss, who provides the page quote, espousing this view no matter how bad things get (and they get ''really'' bad).

* This is one of the arguments against the Problem of Suffering, especially suffering created by nature. Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences. The argument was first made by Gottfried Liebniz, whom Voltaire famously mocked in Candide with the character of Pangloss, who provides the page quote, espousing this view no matter how bad things get.

* This is one of the arguments against the Problem of Suffering, especially suffering created by nature. Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences. The argument was first made by Gottfried Liebniz, whom Voltaire famously mocked in his book Main/Candide with the character of Pangloss, who provides the page quote, espousing this view no matter how bad things get.

* This is one of the arguments against the Problem of Suffering, especially suffering created by nature. Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences. The argument was first made by Gottfried Liebniz, whom Voltaire famously mocked in his book Literature/Candide with the character of Pangloss, who provides the page quote, espousing this view no matter how bad things get.

* This is one of the arguments against the Problem of Suffering, especially suffering created by nature. Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences.

* [=DV8=]'s Freestyle has this as her ''superpower''. She can stop time and see what will happen if she takes a certain course of action, choosing the best outcome from dozens of parallel universes and making it a reality. It puts a lot of strain on her; a task with a lot of variables, like bypassing a security door by punching in every possible combination, will cause her to age rapidly, though she will revert back to normal after a while.

** [[spoiler:Averted hard by Rebuild 3.0. Its arguably worse than the original series, what with Shinji having caused 3rd Impact and killing most of humanity, making him the most hated person on Earth. Also Eva pilots are CursedWithAwesome or BlessedWithSuck as the Evas make them immortal so they have to keep piloting and fighting EldritchAbominations forever. And 4th Impact is on the way. In one movie Rebuild went from LighterAndSofter to DarkerAndEdgier]]

** [[spoiler:Averted hard by the end of Rebuild 3.0. Its arguably worse thant the original series making it DarkerAndEdgier]]

!!Examples

* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Stewie Kills Lois" deals with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Stewie finally carries out his long running threat to kill his mother. [[spoiler: Over the course of the episode and the next he takes over the world, culminating in an action movie style showdown between him and his parents (Mom was NotQuiteDead), which results in his death. The we see it was [[AllJustADream all just a simulation]], and Stewie concludes he's not ready to kill Lois yet. Brian lampshades the cheapness of this ending.]]
* Inverted (so far) in ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion''. It is by no means a happy place, but (so far) no main characters have died, making it markedly happier than the original ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.
* Most of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'''s "Anthology of Interest" episodes are like this.
* This is one of the arguments against the Problem of Suffering, especially suffering created by nature. Designing creation any other way would lead to other, more destructive consequences.
* Deconstructed and back in the series ''Anime/{{Noein}}''. Haruka has the ability to jump dimensions, and spends an episode or two observing possible parallel or future time lines. One is 'perfect' in a StepfordSmiler kind of way, one is seriously [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]], and most are pretty average, but after all of it she comes to decide there really isn't a best world, and even if there was, it's really not where she belongs.

* Played with in ''{{Fringe}}'' after [[spoiler: Peter is erased from history]]. While many things have changed, the bad things and the good things changed are sprinkled evenly across both universes, and no ResetButton seems forthcoming.

See also: RubberBandHistory (the general tendency for alternate histories to end up more like the "real" history); ItsAWonderfulPlot (a specific history change that almost always makes things worse).

** Avert in the Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk. There's a scene where Cap and Tony are seen playing table tennis, one of the characters states they had an aweful dream in which Civil War took place. Both of them laugh and assure everyone that it would never happen.

** Avert in the Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk. There's a seen where Cap and Tony are seen playing table tennis, one of the characters states they had an aweful dream in which Civil War took place. Both of them laugh and assure everyone that it would never happen.

* This was the heart of the original MarvelComics ''WhatIf?'' series. Only one or two stories ever came out happier than Earth-616's story. (Ironically one of the few that had a happy ending was a version of the original Clone Saga years before TheCloneSaga came to be rued in the minds and hearts of fans.)