History Main / TheEarthPrimeTheory

[[folder:Anime]]

[[folder:Web Originals]]
* Subverted in ''Website/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids''. There is a universe called "the Prime Universe" -- but it doesn't actually have any cosmic or causal significance. It's called that because it happened to be the first universe to be registered when [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness the Council of Frogs]] put together a numbering scheme for all universes in TheMultiverse.

* Subverted in ''Website/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids''. There is a universe called "the Prime Universe" — but it doesn't actually have any cosmic or causal significance. It's called that because it happened to be the first universe to be registered when [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness the Council of Frogs]] put together a numbering scheme for all universes in TheMultiverse.

->''"Somewhere in the multiverse, there is a world I call 'Earth Prime'. Every Earth is a variation of this one, the original--and once I destroy ''it'', all reality will follow."''

Related to ExpendableAlternateUniverse. Compare CosmicKeystone and NoOntologicalInertia. Of course, [[TimeyWimeyBall Time Travel Paradoxes]] and {{Logic Bomb}}s abound in this theory, so it definitely requires some WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. Theoretically, the very act of doing that would simply create ''another'' infinite number of possibilities. Therefore, destroying everything ''should'' be impossible ([[TheDeterminator of course, that won't stop the villain from trying]]).

* In ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' it is revealed that [[spoiler: there are alternative dimensions in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise; also, the Arc-V worlds called Standard, Fusion, Synchro and Xyz dimensions were once a single world - Original dimension - which split into these 4 ramifications but disappeared in the process.]]

** Pre-Crisis ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]] storyline ''ComicBook/JudgmentInInfinity'' establishes that the main universe Earth-One is the multiverse's keystone; and if it's destroyed, all alternate Earths will follow.
** As of ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', the multiverse hinges on "New Earth" - not just a specific universe, but a specific planet in that universe. This becomes a plot point shortly afterwards in the ''ComicBook/SinestroCorpsWar'', where Sinestro wants to conquer Earth for this very reason.

** In ''Multiversity''[=/=]''Comicbook/New52'' continuity the main Earth is sometimes called Prime Earth (as well as New Earth and Earth-0), Earth-Prime having been renamed as above. It's described in ''The Multiversity Guidebook'' as "the foundation stone of the multiversal structure", and ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'' dubs it the Metaverse because of its unique status.
** ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'': Dr. Manhattan observes in issue 10 that the main DC universe is set apart from the rest of the DC multiverse; when it's changed, the multiverse reacts, to the point of reconfiguring its very nature - infinite universes, a single universe, 52 universes, the Dark Multiverse, etc. Because of this, Manhattan dubs the DC universe the Metaverse. When the original Wally West escapes in ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'', Manhattan discovers the Metaverse is not a passive subject he can reshape as he sees fit - it's aware of how he changed it, and it's taking action against him.
** It's later posited that Franchise/{{Superman}} is the axis around which the entire Metaverse/Multiverse turns. ''Every'' universe has some variation of Superman, even if it's simply as a comic book character (so yes, that includes ''our'' universe). And even if some timeline or universe currently lacks a Superman or Superman analogue, eventually one will show up or appear, even if it's a DimensionalTraveler from an entirely different universe.
** Following ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'', [[spoiler:the main DCU's Earth is no longer the center of the Multiverse; there are now two centers, they're currently beyond the instruments of the main DCU, they're opposites, and one of them is called the Elseworld.]]

** However, according to the Maker (Reed Richards) in [[ComicBook/TheUltimates2015 The Ultimates 2]], 616 is unique because it is the "hub" the rest of the Multiverse revolves around. As a result the laws of reality are more flexible: science and magic are interchangeable, and higher levels of existence can be accessed more easily.
*** [[Comicbook/{{Gwenpool}} Gwenpool]] supposedly comes from the real world, or at least from a world where all the rest of Marvel continuity is the stuff of comic books. Notably, when she believes she's been sent home, she discovers that she really hasn't, and it's actually just a comic book version of her real home. She then returns to the main Marvel Universe.

* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''Webcomic/FiveYearsLater''; Eon takes the idea of the classic Ben 10 series being the prime universe like anyone would: by being insulted by the implication that his timeline is nothing more than an ExpendableAlternateUniverse.
* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': In ''Diplomacy Through Schooling'' (the third story of the Diplomacy-verse), Luna explains that their multiverse began from one of these, as the Creators and the Powers born from Them helped to shape a world -- the Prime, the first world in Existence, with Others coming from ripples of its movement and the decisions of those who lived there, dividing endlessly into other worlds within their own separate universes. Consequently, all the different series in this multiverse take place in universes spun off from the original.

* In the movie ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', when the Utrom Shredder realizes that there are literally hundreds of Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles across the multiverse, he decides to destroy them all by defeating the versions from Turtle Prime; that is, those from [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage the first issue of the original Mirage comic]]. This was used again in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' episode "Trans-Dimensional Turtles" with [[spoiler: the 87 Krang's plan to destroy reality to get rid of the Turtles]], and in the third ''ComicBook/BatmanTeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' comic miniseries, where Krang has captured the Mirage Turtles in a bid to conquer the multiverse of Ninja Turtles.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths'' has [[StrawNihilist Owlman]], who wants to [[EarthShatteringKaboom use]] [[SwordOfDamocles the QED]] on Earth Prime, thus wiping out all life. His reason for this is that he learned that any choice made by anyone creates a separate parallel universe for each possible outcome and decided that the only truly meaningful choice that anyone could possibly make is to destroy everything (it doesn't matter that another Owlman will choose ''not'' to destroy everything since he would also be destroyed). [[spoiler:When Batman foils his plan by sending him and the bomb to another universe where Earth is a frozen wasteland devoid of all life, Owlman has plenty of time to stop the countdown and save himself. Realizing that no matter what he chooses to do, another Owlman will make the opposite choice, he smiles, says, "It doesn't matter," and lets himself die]].

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids''. There is a universe called "the Prime Universe" — but it doesn't actually have any cosmic or causal significance. It's called that because it happened to be the first universe to be registered when the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Council of Frogs]] put together a numbering scheme for all universes in the Multiverse.
* Present in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1''. Vogon Jeltz, tasked with demolishing the Earth, is deemed unsuccessful by his superiors because he only demolished ''one'' Earth, whereas in fact there are millions of others still existing in alternate universes. At the end of ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', [[spoiler: he finally succeeds in eliminating every single one.]]
* In Creator/GuyGavrielKay's ''Literature/TheFionavarTapestry'', Fionavar is a fantasy version of this; one world that all other ones spring from and depend on.
* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'', this is what makes Amber so special - it's the primal reality which defines the cosmos.

* Creator/{{Stephen King}}'s ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' books establish there are two - one where most of the action takes place, in which the Tower manifests as an actual tower; and the other, Keystone Earth, is explicitly our world, in which Stephen King is writing the adventures of the characters in the other universe. Should the Tower in either of these worlds be destroyed, all reality will topple.

* After Season 2 of ''Series/TheFlash2014'' establishes the existence of TheMultiverse, the season finale has [[BigBad Zoom]] confirm that Earth-1 (the main setting of the Series/{{Arrowverse}}) is the center of it all, being the doorway to all the other Earths.

* ''Series/Loki2021'' [[PlayedWith plays with]] this idea. The movies and shows prior to ''Loki'' are a part of the "Sacred Timeline", with which all alternate timelines and universes spawn from. The "Sacred Timeline" is not a natural consequence of the multiverse, but instead enforced by the Time Variance Authority by pruning anyone and anything that does something that they weren't supposed to, whether it's be late for work or run away with the Tessaract as the protagonist did. The Time Keepers enforce the Sacred Timeline to prevent a Multiversal War from occurring. [[spoiler:After Sylvie, a variant of Loki, kills the head of the TVA, the agency is unable to stop the multiverse from branching out, rendering the concept of a "Sacred Timeline" moot.]]
* In ''Series/{{Sliders}}'', Earth Prime is ''our'' Earth, which the protagonists originate from. [[spoiler: At least until the Kromaggs conquered it.]] There is also Kromagg Prime, the Homeworld of the Kromaggs, from which they were exiled by that world's humans. [[spoiler:It's also Quinn's real home.]]

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the plane Dominaria is the Nexus of the Multiverse, situated at the center of the Multiverse. Events on Dominaria reverberate throughout the Multiverse; most notably during the Time Spiral arc where its imminent destruction would have destroyed the rest of the Multiverse with it, and even fixing it turned ''all'' [[DimensionalTraveller planeswalkers]] from PhysicalGods into merely gifted mages. Unusually for this trope, it's not Earth at all, but was a StandardFantasySetting until the plot turned it [[AfterTheEnd post apocalyptic]]. Nor was it always the Nexus; there are planes, such as Equilor, which are older than Dominaria, and the role of multiversal nexus seems to vary depending on the "orbit" of the planes. As of ''Strixhaven'', the current multiversal nexus is unknown.

* ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'' and [[VideoGame/AxiomVerge2 its sequel]] establish that [[TheMultiverse the Worldstream]] is an infinite tree of realities, with its root being a world called A'ansur. Traveling between worlds on the same "level" of the Worldstream is possible, as multiple characters in both games demonstrate, but going upstream to worlds closer to A'ansur is incredibly difficult for anyone who's not a [[RealityWarper PatternMind]]. [[spoiler:Amashilama's ultimate goal is to destroy A'ansur under the belief that it will free all other worlds in the Worldstream, when in reality [[ApocalypseHow it'd just destroy them]]]].

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Videogames]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the movie ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', when the Utrom Shredder realizes that there are literally hundreds of Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles across the multiverse, he decides to destroy them all by defeating the versions from Turtle Prime; that is, those from [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage the first issue of the original Mirage comic]]. This was used again in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' episode "Trans-Dimensional Turtles" with [[spoiler: the 87 Krang's plan to destroy reality to get rid of the Turtles]], and in the third ''ComicBook/BatmanTeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' comic miniseries, where Krang has captured the Mirage Turtles in a bid to conquer the multiverse of Ninja Turtles.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths'' has [[StrawNihilist Owlman]], who wants to [[EarthShatteringKaboom use]] [[SwordOfDamocles the QED]] on Earth Prime, thus wiping out all life. His reason for this is that he learned that any choice made by anyone creates a separate parallel universe for each possible outcome and decided that the only truly meaningful choice that anyone could possibly make is to destroy everything (it doesn't matter that another Owlman will choose ''not'' to destroy everything since he would also be destroyed). [[spoiler:When Batman foils his plan by sending him and the bomb to another universe where Earth is a frozen wasteland devoid of all life, Owlman has plenty of time to stop the countdown and save himself. Realizing that no matter what he chooses to do, another Owlman will make the opposite choice, he smiles, says, "It doesn't matter," and lets himself die]].
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* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has this with the Source and the 13 Shards; the Source is the primary version of the world and the one most of the game is set on, while the Shards are a set number 'reflections' of the Source that are connected to it through an inter-dimensional link; if the Source is destroyed, so is every Shard. All Shards, including the Source, were in turn created when the goddess Hydaelyn sundered the original world of Ethereiys into multiple parallel realities in order to defeat her dark counterpart Zodiark.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has this with the Source and the 13 Shards; the Source is the primary version of the world and the one most of the game is set on, while the Shards are a set number 'reflections' of the Source that are connected to it through an inter-dimensional link, created when the goddess Hydaelyn sundered the world in order to defeat her dark counterpart Zodiark; if the Source is destroyed, so is every Shard.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has this with the Source and the 13 Shards; the Source is the primary version of the world and the one most of the game is set on, while the Shards are a set number 'reflections' of the Source that are connected to it through an inter-dimensional link; if the Source is destroyed, so is every Shard.

It also restores stakes to a story, which are lost when one admits the existence of a multiverse. It's easy to ask what the point is of fighting to save your universe when you've established there's already an infinity of universes where you succeed, and infinity of universes where you fail. Explaining there is one "prime" universe on which everything else depends makes the heroes' actions meaningful again.

It also restores stakes to a story which are lost once you admit the existence of a multiverse. It's easy to ask what the point is of fighting to save one universe when you've established there's already infinity of universes where you succeed, and infinity of universes where you fail. Explaining there is one "prime" universe on which everything else depends makes the heroes' actions meaningful again.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths'' has [[StrawNihilist Owlman]], who wants to [[EarthShatteringKaboom use]] [[SwordOfDamocles the QED]] on Earth Prime, thus wiping out all life. His reason for this is that he learned that any choice made by anyone creates a separate parallel universe for each possible outcome and decided that the only truly meaningful choice that anyone could possibly make is to destroy everything (it doesn't matter that another Owlman will choose ''not'' to destroy everything since he would also be destroyed). [[spoiler:When Batman foils his plan by sending him and the bomb to another universe where Earth is a frozen wasteland devoid of all life, Owlman has plenty of time to stop the countdown and save himself. Realizing that no matter what he chooses to do, another Owlman will make the opposite choice, he snarks, "It doesn't matter," and lets himself die]].

Not to be confused with [[DimensionalTraveler dimensional travelers]] who simply call the universe they're from "Earth Prime" to avoid confusion.

Related to ExpendableAlternateUniverse. Compare CosmicKeystone and NoOntologicalInertia. Of course, [[TimeyWimeyBall Time Travel Paradoxes]] and {{Logic Bomb}}s abound in this theory, so it definitely requires some WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. Theoretically, the very act of doing that, would simply create ANOTHER infinite number of possibilities. Therefore, destroying everything ''should'' be impossible ([[TheDeterminator of course, that won't stop the villain from trying]]).

* In the movie ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', when the Utrom Shredder realizes that there are literally hundreds of Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles across the multiverse, he decides to destroy them all by defeating the versions from Turtle Prime; that is, those from [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage the first issue of the original Mirage comic]]. This was used again in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' episode "Trans-Dimensional Turtles" with [[spoiler: the 87 Krang's plan to destroy reality to get rid of the Turtles.]]

-->--'''Owlman''', ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths''

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Certain sourcebooks like ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' and ''Fizban's Treasury of Dragons'' mention of a primordial version of the Material Plane known as the First World, where many of the peoples and monsters of the D&D multiverse originated. After an [[ApocalypseHow unknown cataclysm all but annihilated the First World]], countless worlds came into existence with the progeny of the First World's inhabitants appearing in them. By this theory, worlds like [[TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}} Oerth]], [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Toril]], [[Literature/{{Dragonlance}} Krynn]], TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}, [[WebVideo/CriticalRole Exandria]], and many others are reflections—or in some cases, distortions—of the First World.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Certain sourcebooks like ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' and ''Fizban's Treasury of Dragons'' mention of a primordial version of the Material Plane known as the First World, where many of the peoples and monsters of the D&D multiverse originated. After an [[ApocalypseHow unknown cataclysm all but annihilated the First World]], countless worlds came into existence with the progeny of the First World's inhabitants appearing in them. By this theory, worlds like [[TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}} Oerth]], [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Toril]], [[Literature/{{Dragonlance}} Krynn]], TabletopGame/Eberron, [[WebVideo/CriticalRole Exandria]], and many others are reflections—or in some cases, distortions—of the First World.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Certain sourcebooks like ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' and ''Fizban's Treasury of Dragons'' mention of a primordial version of the Material Plane known as the First World, where many of the peoples and monsters of the D&D multiverse originated. After an [[ApocalypseHow unknown cataclysm all but annihilated the First World]], countless worlds came into existence with the progeny of the First World's inhabitants appearing in them. By this theory, worlds like [[TabletopGame/Greyhawk Oerth]], [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Toril]], [[Literature/Dragonlance Krynn]], TabletopGame/Eberron, [[WebVideo/CriticalRole Exandria]], and many others are reflections—or in some cases, distortions—of the First World.

* In ''Series/{{Sliders}}'', Earth Prime is ''our'' Earth, which the protagonists originate from. [[spoiler: At least until the Kromaggs conquered it.]]