Line #89 Main/Elseworld


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/SupermanRedSon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elseworld_superman.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:Truth, justice, and the UsefulNotes/WarsawPact.]]
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10
11	->''"This is an imaginary story. Aren't they all?"''
12	-->-- '''Creator/AlanMoore''', ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow''
13
14	A SisterTrope to WhatIf. While WhatIf explores another fork in the road taken by a character, an Elseworld takes a well-known character and plonks them into a potentially wildly different location and situation. This can add some freshness to a character which allows them to act a different way than normal canon might allow but may also become an excuse to write professional TransplantedCharacterFic of the JustForFun/RecycledInSPACE variety.
15
16	Daring writers trusted by loyal fans may do this kind of episode without any warning or explanation. Well regarded elseworld stories generally involve 1) either keeping the characters and their motivations recognizable despite the new setting and situations or 2) working within the confines of the new setting in order to get ''back'' to the original premise in a reasonable way.
17
18	Comes from the term used by [[Franchise/TheDCU DC Comics]] for these kinds of stories; they publish one-shots and MiniSeries like this. Compare to AlternateContinuity. If a show is all Elseworlds all the time, you've got a [[UniversalAdaptorCast Commedia dell'Arte Troupe]].
19
20	DC's Creator/{{Elseworlds}} are sometimes grouped into six categories. These categories can be applied outside of DC Comics, of course.
21	* [[HistoricalAU Historical]]: The characters are transplanted into a historical context. Example: ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: Hearts of Steel'' (19th-century robots).
22	* AlternateHistory: Some element of real-world history is different. Example: ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'' (where Superman's rocket landed in the Soviet Union instead of America).
23	* AlternateTimeline: Some elements of the work's fictional history are different. Example: ''Series/{{Friends}},'' "The One That Could Have Been" (where Monica is still fat, Ross is still married to Carol, Phoebe works on Wall Street, etc.).
24	* [[OutOfGenreExperience Genre Graft]]: The work changes genre. Example: ''Series/ThePrisoner1967,'' "Living in Harmony" (a Western).
25	* [[WholePlotReference Fiction Graft]]: The work is melded with a famous work of fiction. Example: ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}: [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds War of the Worlds]].''
26	* [[FlashForward Potential Future]]: The story is set in a potential future of the setting. This tends not to be this trope as we use it here (since it's not an ''alternate'' universe, just the future of the one we have). Often a BadFuture. Example: ''Series/{{Heroes}},'' "Five Years Gone".
27
28	In {{fanfiction}}, this is a type of AlternateUniverse (or AU), where the characters generally remain the same but the setting changes. {{High school AU}}s are very popular, probably because many of the writers are themselves in high school. (On This Very Wiki, we use a broader definition of AlternateUniverse, of which Elseworld is a subset.) See also AlternateRealityEpisode, which can overlap.
29
30	Not to be confused with the video game ''{{VideoGame/Elsword}}'', or the 2018 Series/{{Arrowverse}} crossover ''Series/{{Elseworlds\|2018}}'', which deliberately invokes this trope.
31	----
32	!!'''Examples:'''
33
34	[[foldercontrol]]
35
36	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
37	* ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' consists of multiple Elseworlds with various Creator/{{CLAMP}} characters, which the characters travel to ala ''{{Series/Sliders}}''.
38	* ''Anime/TheGirlWhoLeaptThroughSpace'''s ninth episode plucks up the entirety of its main cast and sets them in a modern day world that tells a baseball story instead of the colony warfare one that had been playing out up until then. QT powers are still present despite this.
39	* ''Anime/IdolmasterXenoglossia'' transposed the characters of ''VideoGame/TheIdolMaster'' into a SuperRobot anime, an anime which is ''itself'' a mecha-influenced Elseworlds of a game.
40	* ''Franchise/OnePiece'' uses Elseworld stories featuring the characters in historical Japan as {{Filler}} when the anime threatens to [[OvertookTheManga get too far ahead of the manga]].
41	** There are other Elseworld stories depicting the strawhats as mobsters, middle-aged women, and one where Chopper is a superhero, as well as a movie remake of the Drum Island arc with Robin and Franky already in the crew, along with the Thousand Sunny.
42	* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' spinoff manga ''Strange Tales of the Bakumatsu'' shifts the setting to the end of the shogunate, with LaResistance hiding their identities as UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi and opposing the Westernization brought on by [[TheEmpire Britannia]] - and it still retains the HumongousMecha.
43	* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' had the Parallel Works videos, which were Music Videos that mostly took place in alternate continuities, like one where the characters are in Medieval Europe, [[SeriousBusiness play Pachinko Games with Giant Robots]], a Samurai Epic, A SteamPunk Western MirrorUniverse, and a universe bearing suspicious resemblance to ''Anime/{{FLCL}}''. One of the few that wasn't was the eighth one, (for "All Right You Bastards, Get Fired Up!"), instead showing the [[StartOfDarkness rise and fall of Lordgenome.]]
44	* ''Anime/MyOtome'' to ''Anime/MyHime''. Instead of being selected at random to inherit magical weapons and BondCreatures to fight aliens while attending school as part of the {{masquerade}}, alternate versions of most of the ''[=My-HiME=]'' cast are either graduates or staff members of an [[OneGenderSchool all-female boarding school]] where young women train to become {{nanomachine\|s}}-powered {{superhero}}es.
45	* ''Manga/KoroSenseiQuest'' is a comedic Elseworld of ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'', set in a [[EasternRPG Japanese-style]] RPGMechanicsVerse fantasy setting.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Audio Play]]
49	* The AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho ''Doctor Who Unbound'' stories explore what would happen in alternate realities. The series
50	** ''Auld Morality'' explores what would happen if the Doctor had not left Gallifrey. It's follow-up story ''Storm of Angels'' went in the opposite direction; what if the Doctor left Gallifrey and began changing the course of history.
51	** ''Sympathy For The Devil'' explores what would happen if the Doctor never joined UNIT in the 1970's. We don't see the results directly, but it resulted in The Brigadier being disgraced and removed from his position due to multiple failures and pyrrhic victories. A follow-up story, ''Masters Of War'', examined how The Doctor and Davros' relationship would change if the Doctor met Davros after his subsequent death and ressurrection rather than at the creation of the Daleks.
52	*** This version of the Doctor continues to appear in the ''Bernice Summerfield'' audio series, but is treated more as an AlternateSelf to the "prime" Doctor and their adventures together don't ''really'' serve as Elseworld stories.
53	** ''Full Fathom Five'' is about what if the Doctor was more pragmatic and believed that TheEndJustifiesTheMeans.
54	** ''He Jests At Scars'' might as well be called "What if [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet the Valeyard]] had won?".
55	** ''Deadline'' at first appears to be an alternate universe where Doctor Who was a [[RealitySubtext fictional TV show]] that was cancelled after one season...
56	** ''Exile'' is about the Doctor choosing to take their own life at the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]] and regenerating into a female incarnation. Notably, her previous incarnation appears to be played by Nicholas Briggs and not Patrick Troughton. Furthermore, the female Doctor is being pursued by an actor played by David Tenant, [[HilariousInHindsight who himself would follow a female doctor in a different way ...]]
57	** The ''Doctor Of War'' subseries follows what would happen if [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks ''Genesis Of The Daleks'']] went differently and the Doctor ''did'' kill the Kaled mutants. From a more meta point of view, it can be considered a "What if Colin Baker got to play the DarkerAndEdgier Doctor he originally wanted?"
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Comic Books]]
61	* The Franchise/DCUniverse version is the {{Trope Namer\|s}}, and has a lot of them. Some of their ''Creator/{{Elseworlds}}'' would actually fall under WhatIf.
62	** The first Elseworlds story is ''ComicBook/GothamByGaslight'', in which Bruce Wayne is a young American plutocrat on a world tour in 1889, and ends up fighting (and is suspected of being) UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. Initially it wasn’t published as an Elseworlds story, but after the reception it received, DC made Elseworlds a thing.
63	** ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', a beautifully painted and surprisingly cerebral graphic novel set a few decades into the future after Superman retired and a new generation of superheroes has since arisen.
64	** ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', pictured above, is a miniseries about what ComicBook/{{Superman}} would have been like if he had landed in the Soviet Union (specifically Ukraine, which seems to be the closest the writers could find to a Soviet version of Kansas) instead of the United States; he ends up a KnightTemplar Big-Brother figure. President ComicBook/LexLuthor defends the United States from the Red Menace with Superman's RoguesGallery and ComicBook/{{Green Lantern}}s. ComicBook/{{Batman}} has a very sexy hat.
65	** ''ComicBook/SupermanAtEarthsEnd'' is a particularly [[SoBadItsGood infamous]] one-shot, that involves an aged Superman with a Santa Claus beard who fights cyborgs before going to Gotham AfterTheEnd and battling [[YouClonedHitler twin clones]] of Adolf Hitler. The cover shows him wielding a gigantic gun. [[spoiler: Which he uses against the aforementioned Hitler clones]]. Naturally, it's been subject to MemeticMutation thanks to the likes of [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]].
66	** ''ComicBook/IJoker'' is a one-shot about a dystopian future version of Gotham where people worship the current Batman (who is also called "The Bruce", but is NOT Bruce Wayne) as a god. It's told from the point of view of ComicBook/TheJoker. [[spoiler:Or rather, a person who believes himself to be the Joker. This world's Batman likes to take enemies of the state, mind-wipe them, and turn them into carbon-copies of past Batman villains with implanted memories; he then uses them in a yearly bloodsport where the entire city dresses up as Batmen/girls/women and attempts to kill one of the villains so as to get a chance to fight him for the right to become the new Batman. However, after an act of rebellion from his personal doctor/surgeon who converts the rebels into faux villains, this year's Joker gradually regains his memories and, after discovering the original Batcave, defeats the wannabe Bat-god and takes up the mantle of the Bat. He also rescues his girlfriend, who had had her vocal cords removed as punishment for being a rebel; she becomes his Robin.]]
67	** ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOneHundred'' imagines a world where Batman operated first in 1939 (the year he debuted in comics) and yet is still active 100 years later somehow, fighting corrupt government agencies.
68	** ''[[ComicBook/SupermanSpeedingBullets Speeding Bullets]]'' has Kal-El fall to Earth near Gotham City, to be discovered and raised as their own by the Wayne family. Or, "What if Superman was Batman?"
69	** A similar one is ''ComicBook/BatmanInDarkestKnight''. In this one, Bruce Wayne, not Hal Jordan, receives the ring from Abin Sur; in effect, this one is, "What if Batman was ComicBook/GreenLantern?"
70	** In the three-issue miniseries ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDoomThatCameToGotham'', Bruce Wayne and his proteges Dick, Jason, and Tim face off against {{eldritch abomination}}s straight out of Creator/HPLovecraft in a time between the World Wars.
71	** ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'' was a notorious one that involved all the people with inherent superpowers losing them.
72	** Another one is ''Toys/AmeComiGirls'', an {{Animesque}} world that features the company's female superheroes and villains (and sometimes {{Distaff Counterpart}}s in place of male ones).
73	** ''ComicBook/JLACreatedEqual'' sees all men on Earth apart from Superman and Lex Luthor being killed by a strange spatial phenomenon that infects all other men with a lethal virus (Superman being naturally immune and Luthor sealing himself away before he could be infected), and the subsequent efforts to rebuild the world.
74	** ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]: ComicBook/TheNail'' takes place in a world where Kal-El is found by an Amish couple instead of the Kents because of a flat tire, and as a result, doesn't become ComicBook/{{Superman}}. While there's still a Justice League, they face xenophobia [[spoiler: and ComicBook/JimmyOlsen is a super villain]].
75	** The ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'' trilogy is one of them, as the premise is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Batman becoming a vampire.
76	** ''ComicBook/SupermanTrueBrit'' is a semi-parodic take on the idea of Kal-El's rocket landing in Britain rather than America.
77	** In ''ComicBook/BatmanHolyTerror'', Oliver Cromwell's rebellion lasted much longer and spread out all over the world, creating the Commonwealth, a theocratic dictatorship where non-Christians are persecuted. Batman is a BadassPreacher who rebels after learning that the Commonwealth had his parents assassinated for serving in LaResistance.
78	** ''ComicBook/CatwomanGuardianOfGotham'' is set in an alternate universe where Selina Kyle, not Bruce Wayne, became a masked vigilante superhero after her wealthy parents were murdered in front of her.
79	** ''ComicBook/Flashpoint1999'', not to be confused with the event comic ''ComicBook/FlashpointDCComics'', is a tale about the Flash becoming quadriplegic after saving President Kennedy and using his super-fast mind to solve a mystery and confront Vandal Savage.
80	** ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' (the prequel to [[VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs the video game]]) takes place in an alternate universe where the Joker tricked Superman into killing Lois and their unborn child, along with nuking Metropolis, causing Superman to throw his ThouShaltNotKill code out the window and eventually declare a dictatorship over the entire Earth to (ideally) eliminate all further crime and bloodshed.
81	** ''ComicBook/DCComicsBombshells'' takes place in the [=1940s=] and features some of [=DC=]'s biggest superheroines (and a few of its female supervillains) during World War II. It spun off of a series of 40's-style pinup statues and comic cover variants.
82	** ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'' followed ''DC Comics Bombshells'' in being spun off a series of pin-up statues that depicted female DC heroes and villains as sexy bikers. It's set in an [[TheApunkalypse Apunkalyptic]] alternate universe in which the sole surviving city on Earth is ruled as a techno-dystopia by Lex Luthor, with [[spoiler:an irredeemably evil version of]] Bruce Wayne/Batman as his chief enforcer, while various mostly-female DC characters ride motorbikes around the DesertPunk-styled "Freescape" as the sole opposition to him.
83	** ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', an Elseworlds story, that shows what might happen if Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne weren't subjected to ComicBookTime, thus showing the casts of both series aging in real time, including the two having adventures in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The ''ComicBook/BatmanAndCaptainAmerica'' crossover that's the source of the image in EvenEvilHasStandards (where the Joker terminates a partnership with the Red Skull upon realizing that the Skull is legitimately a Nazi and not faking it) is also part of the same universe, with The Manhattan Project being called "The Gotham Project".
84	** ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'' takes place in a universe in which Bruce Wayne was never Batman, and the infant Kal-El did not survive long enough to become ComicBook/{{Superman}}. The orphaned Barbara Gordon becomes ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'', Gotham's near-dictatorial protector, and Kara Zor-El alias ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' teams with a Justice Society backed by Luthor.
85	** ''ComicBook/NightwingTheNewOrder'' takes place in a BadFuture where Dick Grayson leads a government task force to depower metahumans and put the ones their tech can't depower in stasis until they can after Bruce is accidentally killed by a meta with poor control. He starts questioning his betrayal of his former friends and allies when his son develops powers that would require him to be put in stasis.
86	** ''ComicBook/BatmanThrillkiller'' places the Batman mythos in the early 1960's.
87	** ''ComicBook/DCeased'' is a take on the ZombieApocalypse genre using a technological virus.
88	** ''ComicBook/TheGoldenAge'' imagines an alternate universe where the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica became persecuted by a group of second-stringers like Mister America, Johnny Thunder, and the original Robotman, who all joined the HUAC to gain power and influence. It's essentially an attempt to give the JSA the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' treatment.
89	** ''ComicBook/BatmanTheBlueTheGreyAndTheBat'' places Batman in a Civil War/old west setting as a government agent on a mission from President Lincoln. It references ''Franchise/TheLoneRanger'', especially with a Robin counterpart, Redbird, who is an expy for Tonto.
90	* Early on, Marvel Comics's distinctive "ComicBook/WhatIf" series were stand-alone WhatIf stories based on key events in the Marvel universe. They later ran more Elseworld-style stories; these are not usually specifically labeled as either (''Manga/MarvelMangaverse'', ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'', ''ComicBook/{{Marvel 1602}}'', ''X-Men Fairy Tales'', ''Marvel Apes'', etc.).
91	** In fact, it's implied (sometimes plain told) that every Marvel "What If" is one universe from the full Marvel multiverse. So, Marvel Zombies started as an alternate universe of Ultimate Marvel, then crossed with official 616-Earth. Ultimate X-Men have been spotted in Exiles, on a single panel showing scenes of the multiverse.
92	** In its late 80's/early 90's incarnation, the series started relying on {{Cruel Twist Ending}}s. While ''What If?'' by definition tended to end unhappily, the second series relied on IdiotBall and ultimately stopped explaining the divergences' origin. One issue had Mephisto corrupting young Danny Ketch into a brutal SerialKiller without explaining why he didn't do this in the main universe.
93	** Marvel also had ''ComicBook/FiveRonin'', which transplanted Wolverine, The Punisher, The Hulk, Psylocke and Deadpool into Tokugawa-era Japan.
94	** One generation of ''What If...?'' stories didn't really answer (or, for that matter, pose) a "what if" question, and were just, well, Elseworlds -- like "The Devil who Dared", which features Daredevil as a ninja in feudal Japan.
95	** The 2018 run of What If runs the gauntlet from stories that are WhatIf, Elseworlds or something in-between. "What If? Spider-Man" is very much a For Want Of A Nail story (to the point where it's the only one narrated by The Watcher- or rather, [[ComicBook/OriginalSin The Unseen]]), "What If? X-Men" [[TransplantedCharacterFic transplants]] the X-Men into a TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}-like setting, and "What If? Thor" poses a WhatIf question but is written as an original story rather than a divergence from the traditional timeline.
96	** Creator/ChuckDixon's ''A Man Called Frank'' was noteworthy for being an Punisher elseworld when that was considered more of a DC trope.
97	** ''ComicBook/{{Demon Days\|MarvelComics}}'' is an Elseworld where the Marvel universe is much, ''much'' closer to Japanese mythology, starring a version of ComicBook/{{Psylocke}} (called Sai) as a [[{{Ronin}} wandering swordswoman]] and her dog named [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} Logan]].
98	* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: Hearts Of Steel'' was an Elseworld where some of the Transformers wake up on Earth during the [[{{Steampunk}} Industrial Revolution]] rather than in 1984 as they did in ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'', and took corresponding vehicle modes such as trains, propeller aircraft and warships. Human characters in the comic included John Henry, Creator/MarkTwain, and Creator/JulesVerne. According to writer Chuck Dixon this was meant to be a possible part of regular continuity, but numerous discrepancies (most notably the fact that the Transformers are seen waging war on Earth during the ice age, in the forms of fantastical creatures) contradict this. Nevertheless, ContinuityPorn aficionado John Barber took the challenge to fit ''Hearts of Steel'' into regular continuity during the mini-series ''ComicBook/{{Revolutionaries}}'' by proposing that the steampunk Transformers [[spoiler:were actually a crew of beast Transformers who were shot down to ice age Earth by Shockwave and brainwashed by him into thinking they were the genuine Optimus Prime, Bumblebee et al. and fighting each other ForScience... until they were forced to go into stasis when Shockwave was temporarily put out of commission in "Spotlight: Shockwave," waking up ages later during the Industrial Revolution with the brainwashing still intact.]]
99	** ''Hearts of Steel'' was originally meant to be the first in a set of Elseworlds called ''The Transformers: Evolution''. However, the series was never continued as Hasbro wanted to limit the number of alternate continuities (this was circa ''Film/Transformers2007'').
100	* Back in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]], DC published "Impossible Tales" for ComicBook/WonderWoman, in which she teams up with her [[SpinoffBabies Spinoff Baby]] selves (the Wonder Girl featured here is her teenage self, not Donna Troy who was introduced later) and Queen Hippolyta.
101	** The Donna Troy Wonder Girl was an inadvertent result of these stories--a writer added the "Impossible Stories" Wonder Girl to the original ComicBook/TeenTitans without realizing that she was a young Wonder Woman and not a separate character, requiring that an origin for a new Wonder Girl be created. The ongoing CanonDiscontinuity that has plagued Donna Troy ever since is a result of that initial error, as nearly every change to Wonder Woman's backstory creates a new conflict with Donna's.
102	* Though not an official Elseworlds story, there's ''ComicBook/SpiderManAndBatmanDisorderedMinds''.
103	* Keith Giffen wrote one ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' spin-off story with Midnighter and Apollo as samurai.
104	* ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000 AD]]''
105	** They ran two "Alternity" specials in the 90s featuring reimagined characters such as "[[ComicBook/JudgeDredd Dredd]] [[Series/DixonOfDockGreen of Dock Green]]".
106	** ''[[ComicBook/StrontiumDog Durham Red]]: Scarlet Apocrypha'' took the eponymous character out of her far-future adventures and reimagined her as existing at various other places and times.
107	** ''Judge Dredd Megazine'' #460 has a gimmick of featuring Elseworld versions of ''ComicBook/{{Battle}}'' characters, with the Elseworld being the Dreddverse. So we get the BoxedCrook ''Rat Pack'' reinvented as mutant terrorists called the ''Rad Pack'', sent on a mission to the Cursed Earth under Judge Taggart; ''Strato Squad'' is a [[CompositeCharacter composite]] of ''Johnny Red'' and ''Lofty's One-Man Lufftwaffe'', with an AcePilot undercover in the Sov Block during the Apocalypse War; and ''Darkie's Mob'' fighting their way through Deadworld rather than Burma. (The same week's ''2000 AD'' also featured alternate versions of ''Battle'' strips, but mostly by just adding sci-fi or supernatural elements to what was already there.)
108	* ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine''
109	** The comic strip for Christmas 2010 was "The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop", a version of ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' (with elements of ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'') with Amelia and Rory as Lucy and Edmund/Polly and Digory, the Eleventh Doctor as Professor Kirke/Aslan, the Rani as the White Witch (although her SealedEvilInACan form is a Weeping Angel), Azal the Daemon as Mr Tumnus, and the Talking Animals represented by Judoon, Cheetah People, Nimons, Hath and Silurians. At the end, it turns out to be a tale Creator/CSLewis is spinning to the Inklings, the Doctor and Amy. The Doctor suggests it would work better with a wardrobe.
110	** During "The Glorious Dead", the Eighth Doctor goes jumping through the lives of some of his Elseworlds counterparts, so we get him as a Wild West cowboy, a cartoon cat, a Doctor Strange expy, a Charlie Brown expy, etc.
111	* ''ComicBook/TheBeano Book 2010'' had a strip called ''William the Cat'', starring a Victorian version of their superhero Billy the Cat. It turns out to be AllJustADream of the modern day Billy.
112	* The ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske comic did this with a few stories:
113	** "Het Geheim van de Gladiatoren" (''The Secret of the Gladiators'') is entirely set in Roman times, with Suske, Wiske and Lambik as Gauls.
114	** “Het Gouden Paard“ (''The Golden Horse'') is set in fifteenth century Spain and South America, with the same three protagonists as citzens of Spain who travel to South America aboard a conquistador ship.
115	* Creator/DynamiteComics:
116	** ''Legenderry'' is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover with SteamPunk Elseworld versions of ComicBook/RedSonja, ComicBook/TheGreenHornet, ComicBook/{{Vampirella}}, Franchise/{{Zorro}}, ComicStrip/FlashGordon, ComicStrip/ThePhantom, Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan, Silver Star, and Major Victory. This was followed by miniseries for the ''Legenderry'' versions of Hornet, Sonja and Vampirella.
117	** ''Altered States'' is advertised as Dynamite's version of Elseworlds.
118	*** A PlanetaryRomance with Vampirella as a human astronaut trapped on Planet Drakulon.
119	*** Red Sonja in the PresentDay.
120	*** ''ComicBook/TheShadow'' as SpaceOpera.
121	*** A WhatIf ''Literature/DocSavage'' where his BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood goes [[GoneHorriblyWrong Horribly Wrong]].
122	** ''Franchise/BattlestarGalactica 1880'' is another SteamPunk one.
123	* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': There are way too many examples to count where the Ducks are plucked out of Duckburg and put into wildly different settings. For example, a prominent Italian one by Marco Rota has Donald Duck as a down-on-his-luck Caledonian warlord trying to repel a Viking invasion.
124	* ''ComicBook/StarTrekIDW'': Multiple alternate universes spawn off of ''Film/StarTrek2009''. Several of these alternates, plus some more created for this very purpose, cross over in the 2017-18 six-part storyline "I.D.I.C."
125	* ''ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio'' has one as part of their one-shot series. ''Z Foundation'' takes place in the future with space travel, in a RaygunGothic setting. Spirou is a dissatisfied OfficeDrone. Seccotine is Spirou's sister and has joined the Rebellion against the government known as "the Administration". Fantasio is an Administration field agent who wants to recover his lost memory. Spip is a small shapeshifting creature capable of computer hacking.
126	* ''Léo Loden'' suddenly had one of these with "Massilia Aeterna", after the SeriesFauxnale in the previous album. It takes place in Massalia[[labelnote:*]]What Marseille used to be called in antiquity.[[/labelnote]] during the rule of [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire the Roman Empire]], with Léo and Marlène being a spy and a centurion instead of a private detective and a police inspector.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Fan Works]]
130	* A common theme in the ''Fanfic/HalloweenUnspectacular'' series is taking characters from various series and placing them in different time periods from their respective canons. There's usually a least a few in each edition.
131	* While technically ''Fanfic/HuntersOfJustice'' takes place in one, anyway, (the DC side being a PatchworkFic and Brainiac's invasion crashes the Vytal Festival before Cinder could enact her plans, thus [[spoiler:[[AbledInTheAdaptation Yang doesn't lose her right arm]], and [[SparedByTheAdaptation Pyrrha and Ozma's Professor Ozpin form are still alive]]]]), there are occasionally non-canon chapters, either ones inspired by ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'' or one with vignettes based on actual DC Elseworlds stories like ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' and ''ComicBook/DCeased''.
132	* ''Fanfic/TheNutdealerExpandedUniverse'': BreatherEpisode "Unrelated" takes place in an entirely different ([[AllJustADream and imaginary]]) universe from the rest of the fic, where Nathan and Tommy were close friends rather than bitter rivals.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
136	* WesternAnimation/DCUniverseAnimatedOriginalMovies:
137	** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueGodsAndMonsters'' features this as its premise, as Superman is General Zod's son, Batman is a vampiric Kirk Langstrom, and Wonder Woman is [[ComicBook/NewGods Orion's wife Bekka]]. Furthermore, Amanda Waller is the President of the USA and Dr. Sivana works for her, and several scientists like Ray Palmer and Victor Fries are normal scientists. The tie-in miniseries, ''Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles'' explores this further as Harley Quinn is an ax-crazy serial killer who's not above hurting children, [[spoiler: Brainiac is a genetically-engineered little kid who can't control his powers, and Giganta is a mecha.]]
138	** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanGothamByGaslight'' adapted [[ComicBook/GothamByGaslight the comic of the same name]], but with a twist: [[spoiler:Jack Packer is AdaptedOut, with [[TheCommissionerGordon James Gordon]] [[AdaptationalVillainy being Jack the Ripper, instead]].]]
139	** ''WesternAnimation/SupermanRedSon'' likewise adapts [[ComicBook/SupermanRedSon its namesake]] and changes some things, [[spoiler:including keeping Kryptonians HumanAliens instead of evolved humans from Earth's future.]]
140	** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanSoulOfTheDragon'' is explicitly referred to as this on the back of its DVD/Blu-Ray case. The film is set in the 1970s and [[spoiler:features altered versions of [[AdaptationalHeroism Cheshire]] [[DeathByAdaptation and]] [[AdaptationalVillainy Judomaster]], as well as Batman in a BolivianArmyEnding]].
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Literature]]
144
145	* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': In-universe, surprisingly. When Harrow's FalseMemories start to break down in ''Literature/HarrowTheNinth'', she tries to rebuild them in various new ways. These new scenarios all follow classic fanfic alternate universes--fittingly, considering the author got her start with ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' fanfiction.
146	** The first is a RoleSwapAU where Harrow was disowned by her parents for having no necromantic ability, some mysterious stranger (Gideon) was adopted instead, and Harrow took up the sword in order to be good at ''something''.
147	** The second is a Royalty AU where Harrow is attending a ball as a marriage prospect for a mysterious "Her Highness" (Gideon). Despite Harrow's earlier insistence that she had never read a romance novel, this one seems rather more detailed than she'd like to admit.
148	** The third is a Military AU where Harrow joined the Cohort to earn money for her failing House. This is the one with the most detail, as well as the most plausible... until it suddenly turns into a CoffeeShopAUFic with a hotshot new barista (Gideon) that all the officers are enamored with. [[spoiler:Abigail Pent]] puts a stop to this silliness right before the MeetCute.
149	* ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'': In ''A Hard Day's Knight'', the protagonists have to retrieve Excalibur from Sinister Albion, an AlternateHistory created when Merlin -- an AntiAntiChrist in ''Nightside'' proper -- accepted his role and full power as AntiChrist and corrupted the Knights of Camelot. It's a nightmarish realm where the Knights wear armour [[PoweredByAForsakenChild tempered by innocent souls]] and Merlin goes heavily on the EvilIsVisceral aesthetic.
150	* ''Literature/SherlockHolmesAndDoctorWasNot'': The premise of the collection is 'What if Sherlock Holmes had a different offsider than Doctor Watson?'.
151	[[/folder]]
152
153	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
154	* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' (and later, ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'') did episodes like this; [[FanCommunityNicknames Xenites]] refer to Elseworlds as "Uber" stories, especially ones featuring [[IdenticalGrandson descendants]] or just spiritual equivalents of characters in the future.
155	* An episode of ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' ("Living In Harmony") has Number Six up as a retired US Marshal in TheWildWest, where a crooked judge tried to force him to become sheriff (of course, it eventually turned out that it was brainwashing).
156	* The "Benny Russell" episodes of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' in which Ben Sisko was thrust into a world where he was a 1950s science fiction writer (and [[CuckooNest possibly going mad]]), with the other characters recast as his friends and associates (or, for the baddies, racist authority figures).
157	** The idea is played with that Benny's is the real world and that the Franchise/StarTrek universe was just [[NestedStoryReveal stories he wrote]].
158	* ''[[Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock From The Sun]]'' did a two-part episode in which the aliens entered an AlternateUniverse where they lived hugely successful lives in New York City.
159	* Played for laughs in ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "200", in which SG-1 are giving movie pitches, and each suggestion is accompanied by an ImagineSpot of the cast playing the various roles of the pitch.
160	** The "normal world" in Teal'c's [[CuckooNest hallucinations]] in "The Changeling" is also an example, and has even spawned a [[http://community.livejournal.com/firemanverse fanfiction community.]] So is the ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' episode "Vegas", but it's an actual AlternateUniverse.
161	** In the ''Series/StargateUniverse'' episode "Cloverdale", Scott hallucinated a world where the entire cast lived together in a small town, with Scott and Chloe about to get married. It kept the casts' personalities the same, along with many of the interpersonal relationships - for instance, Eli was Chloe's brother, while James was Scott's ex-girlfriend.
162	* In the fourth season finale of ''Series/{{Bones}}'', Brennan and Booth are ''married'', and all their friends and squints are either staff or patrons at their ''nightclub''. This episode was probably the most polarizing ever to be seen on ''Bones'', which is known for its consistency in tone, rivaled only by the last five minutes or so of "The Pain in The Heart". It was stuffed with clever in-jokes and references which would completely incomprehensible to even a casual fan, had a frankly awesome cameo by Music/MotleyCrue, and showed Brennan and Booth the way the vast majority of fans have [[{{UST}} wanted to see them from the beginning]]. But it was all a dream, and some fans were pissed because the sex between Booth and Brennan wasn't real. [[spoiler: Of course, later they not only had sex, but got married and had two children.]]
163	* An AllJustADream episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' in which Jimmy Olsen imagined himself as the lead in a FilmNoir. Interesting in that his subconcious apparently had a better idea of what was going on in the real world than he did; he later commented to Chloe how weird it was that a lot of his friends and associates (and the storyline of the episode) were accurately translated to the new setting, but then there was stuff like Clark secretly being a crimefighter, or Lana playing Lex and the good guys against each other.
164	* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Back to Reality", the crew wake up to find that they've spent the last four years of their lives in a Red Dwarf Total Immersion Video Game. [[spoiler:Of course, their life on Red Dwarf was real, and the experience of waking up was the shared hallucination.]]
165	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
166	** The show did one where Buffy is simply a schizophrenic young girl stuck in a [[CuckooNest mental institution]], and not a super-powered monster-fighter at all, with her parents desperate for some means to help her regain her sense of reality. Interestingly enough, the ending of that episode left some doubt as to which world was actually the real one, and Creator/JossWhedon himself has acknowledged that it's possible either could be.
167	** Probably the more famous Buffy Elseworld is "The Wish," where Cordelia makes a wish that "Buffy never came to Sunnydale." The result is an apocalyptic town where The Master rose with no one to stop him and has turned Xander and Willow into vampires.
168	* ''Series/TheLegendOfDickAndDom'' throws its Fantasy Land heroes into a terrifying and mysterious dimension in the episode "The Mists of Time"; nobody seems to do magic, but the unwary may fall foul of security guards or [[SoapWithinAShow soap opera addiction]]... yes, it's a "thrown into the real world" gag.
169	* On ''Series/LasVegas'', "Everything Old Is You Again" is an episode in which the same characters operate the same casino, but in 1962. Even the opening credits were time-shifted, with shots of the characters in period outfits and the actual credits in a funky 60s font.
170	* ''Series/BassieEnAdriaan'': this series frequently uses dream sequences to put the main characters in situations they can't encounter in the shows regular setting. They often start with Bassie wondering what it would be like if he and Adriaan would do a certain thing, and decides to have a daydream about it.
171	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' has used this trope several times, including the episodes "What Is And What Should Never Be" (the Winchesters never became monster hunters), "It's A Terrible Life" (Sam and Dean working in an office building), "The End" (as a potential BadFuture where Hell triumphed in the Apocalypse), "The French Mistake" (the Winchesters wind up in [[RealWorldEpisode an alternate universe where they're a bunch of actors]]) "My Heart Will Go On" (mostly the same as the regular world, only the Titanic disaster being averted by time travel ultimately affects the lives of several main characters). In nearly all of these episodes the Winchester brothers must find a way to return to their reality and are or become aware they are not in their own world.
172	* The Series/{{Arrowverse}} has played with the concept of Elseworlds on a few occasions:
173	** Early on in ''Series/TheFlash2014'', the second season would feature Earth-2, a quasi-futuristic world where Barry Allen never became the Flash, Earth was involved in some sort of conflict called "The War of The Americas", Robert Queen was the sole survivor of the wreck of the ''Queen's Gambit'' and became The Arrow rather than his son, the particle acceleration explosion led to the creation of a multitude of criminals (Zoom, Killer Frost, Deathstorm, etc.), and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Joe West was a nightclub singer instead of a cop]]. Later seasons throughout all the series revealed that Dinah Lance lost her father at 13 due to a drunk driver and became the criminal Black Siren, and Jennifer Pierce was a full-blown criminal who happily embraced working for the ASA and Agent Odell, resulting in her [[spoiler: killing her family]].
174	*** Later on, Earth-3 was introduced, revealing that [[spoiler: Jay Garrick]] hailed from that reality. Here, it utilized modern architecture with past elements (like Zeppelins and Tommy Guns), and The Trickster bore a stronger resemblance to ComicBook/TheJoker (as an ActorAllusion to Creator/MarkHamill). However, InSpiteOfANail is in play, as [[spoiler: the alternate counterparts to Henry Allen and Nora Allen, Jay and his wife Joan, still got married.]]
175	*** Later still came Earth-19, a world in which all inter-dimensional travel was heavily policed due to an otherworldly invasion. The primarily difference in this world is that H.R. Wells did found S.T.A.R. Labs, but lacked scientific acumen and was more of a creative thinker, eventually leading to his ousting. Besides that, Creator/ShaquilleONeal was a saint, Music/WeirdAlYankovic was a poet, ''Franchise/StarWars'' came out with Luke "Starkiller" as its main character, UsefulNotes/AlCapone was Vice-President, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln was on the $100 bill instead of the $5, Creator/AlfredHitchcock made a movie called ''Murder On The Titanic'', and ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' was released as ''Sweaty Man''.
176	** ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'' is partially set in a world where the [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Nazis]] won UsefulNotes/WorldWarII by developing the nuclear bomb first, leading many of its characters to meet [[AlternateSelf alternate versions]] of themselves, e.g. the main trio ([[Series/{{Arrow}} Green Arrow]], [[Series/TheFlash2014 The Flash]], Series/{{Supergirl\|2015}}) encountering their {{evil counterpart}}s.
177	** ''Series/{{Elseworlds\|2018}}'' deliberately invokes this trope (and name) with a reality-altering and universe-hopping plot. When Green Arrow and The Flash discover their world is changed in significant ways by [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths The Monitor]], they seek outside help from the likes of Supergirl, Superman, and [[Series/TheFlash1990 another Flash]], who all exist on different Earths from their own.
178	** ''Series/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths2019'' culminates in the exploration of the larger live-action DC Multiverse, which includes [[Film/Batman1989 Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's Batman films on Earth-89]], [[Series/Titans2018 a darker take on the Teen Titans on Earth-9]], the previously shown Earth-X, [[Series/Batman1966 the campy world of the original Batman tv series on Earth-66]], [[Series/{{Smallville}} the home of the dramatic Superman series of Earth-167]], [[Film/SupermanTheMovie the original Christopher Reeve Superman series on Earth-96]] (having gone the way of ComicBook/KingdomCome, complete with a role reprisal by Creator/BrandonRouth from ''Film/SupermanReturns''), and the [[Series/BirdsOfPrey original CW drama in a world without Batman on Earth-203]]. It also includes Earth-18 (where Jonah Hex guards a Lazarus Pit), Earth-16 (in which an older, more grizzled Oliver Queen battles a lone fight in the future), and Earth-99 (in which an older and beaten Bruce Wayne, mixing his ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' portrayals, physically portrayed by long-time voice actor Creator/KevinConroy, has become [[spoiler: a murderous psychopath who killed his rogues gallery and his world's Superman]]). While [[spoiler: it all gets destroyed by the Anti-Monitor, the seven paragons are able to restore everything by merging Earth-1, Earth-38, and the world of ''Series/BlackLightning'', transforming Earth-2 into the world of ''Series/Stargirl2020'' and Earth-19 into the world of ''Series/SwampThing'', and featuring the worlds of Earth-21 (''Series/DoomPatrol2019'') and Earth-12 (using footage from ''Film/GreenLantern2011'').]] It even features [[spoiler: a cameo from Creator/EzraMiller as the Barry Allen of the ''Series/DCExtendedUniverse''.]]
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
182	* Creator/WhiteWolf calls these "Shards"; for instance ''Bleeding Edge'' (''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' as {{Cyberpunk}}) or ''Gunstar Autocthonia'' (''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' as ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|1978}}'').
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder:Toys]]
186	* Many of the figures Creator/{{Hasbro}} made for the "Legends of ComicBook/{{Batman}}" toyline that wasn't based on ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' fell under this as they set the characters at various points in time and different ideas, like Batman as a cyborg, an actual knight, or a pirate.
187	[[/folder]]
188
189	[[folder:Video Games]]
190	* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' has the Justice League (from a universe inspired by the post-crisis/pre-New 52 era) ending up in an Elseworld where Superman has [[BewareTheSuperman gone]] [[FaceHeelTurn evil]] and taken over the world after ComicBook/TheJoker tricked him into killing Lois Lane and their unborn child.
191	* This is the premise of ''VideoGame/PennyArcadeAdventures'', with the first storyline, ''On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness'', taking place in a Lovecraftian 1920's version of the ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' universe.
192	* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series is an Elseworld for both the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' franchise and the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon. The sole [[SubvertedTrope exception]] is ''Franchise/ToyStory'' (and possibly ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''), as it's claimed that the events of the game are canon to the ''Toy Story'' series.
193	* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' has the DLC Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep. Ostensibly, it centers around [=NPC=]s from the main story playing a knock-off of Dungeons & Dragons, but aside from the OOC-talk and goofy gamist mixups, it passes as a fantasy counterpart to the Borderlands world. [[{{Metaphorgotten}} With guns.]]
194	* ''VideoGame/InfiniteCrisis'' pitted characters from multiple variations of the DC Comics universe against each other: there's the standard world, a magic world, a {{steampunk}} world, a [[AfterTheEnd nuclear holocaust]] world, a horror world, and a robot world.
195	* ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' is... related in ''some'' way to ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', but whether it's an alternate present, future (as a result of tampering with UT's timeline), or another universe altogether is still unclear. Creator/TobyFox himself has admitted that he doesn't know how to classify the relation between the two and describes it only as "a game you can play after you complete ''UNDERTALE'', if you want to".
196	* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has such an enormously-developed universe that it's not very surprising that it also has [[AlternateUniverse its own multiverse]], largely manifest in the form of alternate skin lines. Several of them have lore based on high-concept questions based on the canon universe, such as "What would happen if [[MadScientist Viktor's]] Glorious Evolution was successful?" (resulting in the [[RobotWar "Battlecast"]] universe), and "What if the armies of the Rune Wars continued into the present?" ([[OrderVersusChaos "Wardens and Marauders"]]). Then there are plenty of more adventurous concepts, like "What if [[CuteWitch Lux]] led a team of {{Magical Girl}}s?" ([[SailorSenshiSendUp "Star Guardian"]]) and "What if Runeterra became a cyberpunk dystopia?" ([[{{Cyberpunk}} "PROJECT"]]).
197	[[/folder]]
198
199	[[folder:Webcomics]]
200	* ''Webcomic/AkumasComics'': The "Twist of Fate" subcomic series is a homage to this that deals with WhatIf and alternate universe stories, starting with "what if Bowser kept the arranged marriage instead of letting Sonic and Wendy Koopa date?"
201	* In a way, all the arcs of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' are Elseworlds to the others. A bit different from most since there isn't one "main" universe (there's three).
202	* ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo''[='=]s various [[BonusMaterial omake]] chapters are all this, sometimes combined with parody/homages as in [[Literature/FullMetalPanic "Full Megatokyo Panic."]] The whole comic, in fact, seems to be several Elseworlds mashed together, with different worlds visible to different characters.
203	* A few have been visited during Sunday strips in ''Webcomic/LeifAndThorn'', including [[http://leifandthorn.com/comic/vampire-hunter-thorn-1/ Vampire Hunter Thorn]] and [[http://leifandthorn.com/comic/leif-thorn-in-space-1/ Leif & Thorn: IN SPACE!]]
204	[[/folder]]
205
206	[[folder:Western Animation]]
207	* Several ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' shorts transplant characters into different worlds or time periods, most notably, the Mindy & Buttons episodes. There are episodes where they are cave people, where they are space people, merpeople, and even an episode that places them in Paris, with all the dialogue in French.
208	* The "Without Warning Or Explanation" type happened in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'': The episode initially indicated somehow Ben went back in time to before he got the Omnitrix. He was then surprised to find that this time '''Gwen''' gets it, and he spends a good portion of the episode explaining to Gwen how the aliens work. The events of the first episode play out with these changes, and it wasn't an Elseworld episode until the very end when ''it didn't get resolved''.
209	** In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', this was revealed to have been an AlternateUniverse to the main timeline when resident time-traveler Paradox cited it as an example of "[[TheMultiverse Cross-Time]]". Ben's foreknowledge of the future remained unexplained, however.
210	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has the two "Anthology of Interest" episodes, each with one of the three main characters using the Professor's "What-if Machine" which basically, when asked a question, shows a video of an elseword based on that question.
211	** Bender's questions where what if he were made 50-ft tall, and what if he was turned human. [[spoiler:He ends up dead in both.]]
212	** Fry's were what if he was never cryogenically frozen, and what if life was like a video game.
213	** Leela's were what if she was more impulsive, and what if she found her real parents (the latter played with in that she ended up knocked out and dreamed the elseworld, which is a ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' parody).
214	** The first episode starts with Farnsworth talking about his new invention "the fing-longer", which is essentially a cross between a glove and a pool cue. He demonstrates it by using it to activate the What-If machine, which everyone is (justifiably) more interested in. It ends with the revelation that the whole episode has been the Professor using the What-If machine to see what things would be like ''if he'd invented the fing-longer''.
215	** Another elseworld episode is "Naturama," which reinterprets the cast as animals under the framing device of an Omicromnian nature documentary. Just to remind that the episode is an elseworld, the Omicromnians blow up the Earth at the end.
216	* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' would do this by introducing the Justice Lords, alternate versions of the League who became tyrannical dictators after Lex Luthor becomes President, murders the Flash, and nearly drives the world to nuclear war, leading to Superman killing Luthor and deciding to take over. In such a dystopia, everything looks clean and neat, but criminals have been lobotomized, there's no fair and free elections, civil liberties are virtually nonexistent, and you can [[DisproportionateRetribution get arrested for so much as complaining about a restaurant check being wrong]]. A bad case of VictoryIsBoring leads them to learn of the main ''DC Animated Universe'' reality so they can "fix" this world, but the League takes them out by [[spoiler: getting [[GodzillaThreshold Lex Luthor pardoned]] in exchange for his aid.]] The Lords' actions later play a major impact for ''Justice League Unlimited'', where Project Cadmus is founded in part due to their arrival, and [[spoiler: is actually the long-term goal of Brainiac, who manipulates events to try and lead to the outcome of the Lords' reality, which would destroy the Earth in the process.]]
217	* Various episodes of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' would arbitrarily plunk the eponymous duo down in different historical eras, including the twenties, thirties, fifties, sixties, seventies, Napoleonic, medieval and biblical ages, among others. As the show tended towards NegativeContinuity, no explanation was ever needed or given.
218	* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'':
219	** The "Darkwing Doubloon" episode makes all the characters into {{Pirate}}s. Except the Muddlefoots, they're the royal family of England.
220	** Darkwing and Negaduck as space alien cousins. Also a parody of sorts, with rockets bearing babies escaping the doomed planet in the nick of time. The creation of the cause was Negaduck's father's fault; the reason the cause went off was Darkwing father's fault. The whole thing is told by a suspiciously familiar-looking janitor to two kids who also look very familiar.
221	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' has a few, sometimes collectively referred to as "Time Shift" episodes.
222	** "The Monster of Phineas-N-Ferbenstein" is a send-up of Franchise/UniversalHorror movies and takes place in the Victorian Era.
223	** "Tri-Stone Area" features all of the characters in a prehistoric setting.
224	** "Doof Dynasty" is in ancient China.
225	** "Excaliferb!" places the characters in a medieval/fantasy setting.
226	** "Phineas and Ferb and the Temple of Juatchadoon" is an Franchise/IndianaJones spoof set in the early 20th century
227	** "Steampunx" is set in rural America in 1903.
228	** ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbStarWars'' takes place, well, [[Franchise/StarWars guess]].
229	** A handful of these are explained as in-universe [[ShowWithinAShow stories bring told between characters]], like Grandpa Reginald and Doofenshmirtz recalling stories about their ancestors in "The Monster of Phineas-N-Ferbenstein"; "Excaliferb!" is a HighFantasy book that Carl is reading to Major Monogram; and Lawrence tells the story of "Steampunx" to the kids after they find a coin from the 1904 World's Fair, though in the closing joke, it turns out this one was RealAfterAll.
230	** These are also often used to play with the characters in ways that the show's formula [[StatusQuoIsGod wouldn't normally allow]]: for example, Phineas and Ferb's counterparts can interact with the Agent P and Doofenshmirtz equivalents in "Doof Dynasty", "Excaliferb!", "Temple of Juatchadoon", and "Star Wars", or in "Doof Dynasty" and "Star Wars", Phineas is shown reciprocating Isabella's crush on him.
231	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' did it twice. First with a ''Film/JamesBond'' spoof entitled "Tearjerker", where Stan is still a CIA agent but is fighting to defeat Roger, rewritten as a vengeful film producer named Tearjerker, who is planning to murder millions with a film so depressing it makes people cry to death. The second time, "Hot Water", was a musical episode where Stan buys a hot tub that turns out to be alive and psychotic. The episode ended with [[spoiler: the hot tub murdering Francine and Stan.]] According to WordOfGod, "Hot Water" was written as a series finale because the producers hadn't received word about the show's renewal. When the renewal did indeed happen, they released the episode as a season premire (Albeit a non-canon one).
232	** There was also a ChristmasSpecial where almost everyone (including Stan, Francine, Roger, etc.) is left on Earth during the Rapture, except for a few people. The Anti-Christ takes over the planet, turns it into an apocalyptic wasteland, captures Francine, [[AnAssKickingChristmas and Stan teams up with Jesus to save her]]. At the end, Stan goes to his own personal Heaven: home with his wife and kids implying the events actually happened and the rest of the series takes place here, until the camera pans to show Klaus mounted on the wall.
233	** This episode got a prequel, where Hayley adopts a baby who turns out to be the Anti-Christ from the Christmas special, and Jeff dies while trying to help Stan and Roger kill it. (He actually doesn't, but it's never explained how he survived.)
234	** They've done a sequel episode to "Tearjerker" now, "For Black Eyes Only", where Stan and Tearjerker have to team up against a new villain played by Steve's principal (his name is simply "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Black Villain]]").
235	** There's also the episode "Blood Crieth Unto Heaven" which is staged as a play where the usual cast are all playing themselves or something acting out a "lost script" by some genius writer who was obsessed with the show. It's framed by a live-action Patrick Stewart watching from a theater box (despite the character he does the voice for appearing in the play itself).
236	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' did a few in the last season. There's one set in the wild west where they're the Steamy Puff Girls and one framed as a dream the Professor has where they were created without Chemical X and therefore don't have powers.
237	* The annual ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' Halloween specials, ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'', which usually involve movie parodies where the cast are sometimes put in the role of characters from the movie being spoofed, and lots of characters get [[AnyoneCanDie maimed and killed]].
238	* Later episodes of the ''WesternAnimation/CareBears1980s'' series were set in the Stone Age or in outer space, with appropriately-themed cast members in place of the usual.
239	[[/folder]]
240

Context Main / Elseworld