Sandbox / Alternate Wick Check

Alternate Universe has an unclear definition due to multiple versions of what an Alternate Universe or AU might mean, as discussed here. This check is to see how the trope is used across the site.

Wicks Checked: 95/95

• Canonical Multiverse: 32/95 or ~34%
• Figurative / Fanfic-style: 16/95, or ~17%
• Real Life AU: 7/95, or ~7%
• Speculative: 5/95, or ~5%
• In-Universe Speculation: 4/95, or ~4%
• Unclear: 16/95, or ~17%
• Other: 3/95, or ~3%
• ZCE: 12/95, or ~13%

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Canonical AU / Canonical Multiverse

1. BigBad.Super Sentai: 'Tokumei Sentai Gobusters Returns Vs Dobutsu Sentai Gobusters has the Great Demon Lord Azazel, a Diabolus ex Nihilo who is strong enough to effortlessly slaughter the Go-Busters, necessitating the assistance of a second team of Go-Busters from an Alternate Universe to defeat him. In said universe, the Big Bad of Doubutsu Sentai Go-Busters'' is Machine Empress Trange Star, leader of the Machine Empire Mechalius and doppelganger of the prime reality's Escape.
2. BioShockInfinite.Tropes A To H: Columbia is full of "tears" Elizabeth uses multiple times as doorways to different versions of reality. A convenient, spoiler-heavy chart can be found here. Removed the explanatory subbullets for brevity
3. ComicStrip.Star Fox: In this continuity, Fox McCloud Sr. is presumed dead because Andross designed a gravity bomb that generated a massive artificial Black Hole, which actually trapped him in some sort of alternate reality, which Fox used as a Warp Zone to reach Venom.
4. ContrivedCoincidence.Live Action TV: "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel": Even though John Lumic lives in an Alternate Universe and knows nothing of the existence of the show's main universe and its Cybermen, the version he creates looks almost identical to them.
5. Creator.Piers Anthony: Of Man and Manta, a trilogy of science fiction stories exploring the nature of sentience and human interaction with Starfish Aliens, Energy Beings and intelligent animals across several worlds and parallel universes.
6. Fanfic.Shen Vs Kai: In this story's setting, Kai tracks down Oogway and leaves the Spirit Realm at around the same time that Shen takes over Gongmen City, causing the canon course of events to go way Off the Rails. It's eventually revealed that this isn't just your standard Alternate Universe Fic, but rather there's a universe where events played out the same as they did in canon, and the universe this story's set in was created as a result of Shen after his canon death making a Deal with the Devil.
7. Fanfic.Yu Gi Oh Resurrection: The reality that Yugi travels to. Low context, but hey, at least it mentions a different reality.
8. FantasyGunControl.Literature: Subverted heavily in Everworld. 5 modern teenagers find themselves in an Alternate Universe full of ancient gods and medieval technology. There are several references throughout the books to situations where artillery or handguns would be very useful.At one point, they trade a modern chemistry textbook to the Coo-Hatch in exchange for attaching their metal that can cut through anything to one of the main characters swiss army knife. The Coo-Hatch use the technology to build a primitive cannon, which is used at the battle of Mount Olympus. And of course, later in the series, Senna uses her powers to bring in a small, heavily-armed group of followers from our universe, and they conquer several cities and kill a minor god, thus threatening all of Everworld.
9. Fanon.Pokemon: The RS arc ends with Ruby and Sapphire being transported to an Alternate Universe, where all future arcs take place. In their 'real' universe there's still an apocalypse going on and they're presumed dead.
10. How Unscientific!:
    • Lampshaded in Captain America #600, where Patriot of the Young Avengers meets Rikki Barnes, the dimension-hopping Alternate Universe granddaughter of Bucky Barnes. He notes how implausible her back story is, but then accepts it after remembering that one of his best friends is a teenage time traveler.
    • With the possible exception of London's level of stupidity, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody was completely realistic, but its sequel series The Suite Life on Deck introduced supernatural elements and at one point crossed over with Wizards of Waverly Place. Admittedly, there were two episodes in the original series that implied a ghost and a visit to an Alternate Universe were real in their credit scenes.
11. Literature.Destroyermen: Greater-Scope Villain: "Deadly Shores" teases (and "Straits of Hell" introduces) the League of Tripoli, a fascist empire that grew out of a French/German/Italian/Spanish fleet from yet another Alternate Universe. Their goal at the moment is to ensure that the conflict between the Alliance, the Grik, and the Dominion is mutually destructive enough to ensure no faction becomes powerful enough to challenge them.
12. Literature.He Walked Around The Horses: In this short story, Piper asserts that Bathurst slipped into an Alternate Universe after he walked around the horses, one with a significantly different recent history (relative to its 1809 setting) than ours. His "unrealistic beliefs about the state of affairs in Europe" lead the inhabitants of the other universe to conclude that he is either a spy or insane and he is imprisoned. Only three days after his arrival in the parallel universe, he is fatally shot whilst trying to escape from the prison.
13. Literature.The Last Hours: Parallel realms owned by the Princes of Hell play a key role in the series. Belial, the main antagonist, is known for stealing realms other demons own.
14. Literature.Trinton Chronicles: although rarely mentioned in the main story (yet has two sub-stories dedicated to it) there is an Alternate Universe version of Trinton where events went very different; so differently that this other world is mostly a dystopia with heavy pollution, seems Darkerand Edgier, and features other races of species that not normally evolved in the normal universe. On top of all that everyone here is mostly normal aside from a few super-hero/villein types who also sort of rule with an iron fist.
15. Literature.Clash Of Hexennacht: Clash of Hexennatch takes place in the OBSTACLE era, the fifth of Kawakami's six-stage universe. Although, the setting takes place in an Alternate Universe created by Shouko Kagami with the Book of Creation. The "real world" where Kagami and Shouko originate from is apparently the same world as Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere and The Ending Chronicle.
16. MindScrew.Anime And Manga: It gets hard to follow in the 4th novel Disappearance and its continuance in another novel, where time travelling is combined with alternate universes. It may take you 2 times to read just to understand how they actually managed to solve it.
17. Monster.Web Videos: ** Mechakara is a robot from an Alternate Universe where Linkara's Robot Buddy Pollo turned evil, killed him, and robots overthrew humanity. His plans revolved around sending Linkara into a mental breakdown; and, when that fails, he captures him and plans to kill him slowly, simply because his death went too fast the first time around. While that would normally make him just another killer robot, he stands out when, after getting the magic MacGuffin that he came for, he decides instead to destroy all organic life in the multiverse. During the Silent Hill Dead/Alive videos, Mechakara slowly mind rapes Linkara into thinking he's the (actually long dead) man who tortured his son to create Linkara's Magic Gun and almost convinces him to kill himself. In To Boldly Flee, Mechakara passes himself off as Linkara and infiltrates the USS Exit Strategy, intending to kill the entire crew with the help of the forcibly assimilated Todd and Nostalgia Chick. Mechakara would later assimilate the crew of the Caelestis space station and drained the life force of one astronaut in an attempt to recharge the ship. Only working with others when his goals coincide with theirs and perfectly willing to kill them otherwise, Mechakara is fueled only by his hatred for Linkara and all organic life forms.
18. Pantheon.Jokes And Pranks: Funny Valentine attempted to defeat Frank after an unfortunate incident by sending an Alternate Universe version of him to crash into Frank, destroying both.
19. PropRecycling.Live Action TV: Kamen Rider Decade has this built right in naturally. Decade can turn into past Riders, Diend can summon copies of them, and visiting Alternate Universe versions of past series allowed the re-use of Rider and Monster of the Week costumes and props. In a smaller example, Diend's card holder originally belonged to Kamen Rider Zeronos, the only change being a small disc with Diend's logo being put on the front.
20. Recap.Dark S 3 E 1 Deja Vu: Jonas discovers that the other Martha brought him to an alternate universe.
21. Recap.With This Ring:
    • There are three full episodes that occur primarily from the Renegade point of view, including a trip to Earth 50, where the Renegade obtains a yellow power ring, and adopts a daughter whom he rescued from Anti-Life exposure.
    • On April 1, the Paragon Paul meets Ambush Bug and experiences visions of alternate and future versions of himself, while the Renegade meets and recruits Misa Amane and Sunset Shimmer.
22. Roleplay.Doctor When: Instead of being "Parallel Worlds", they're more like "Intersected Worlds". This universe and the regular Whoniverse touch for a very brief period, leading to The Doctor winding up there. Page has since been cut
23. SelfDeprecation.Live Action TV: In "The French Mistake", Sam and Dean get sent into an Alternate Universe that's basically ours—as in, they take on the role of their actors, playing themselves. This included this memorable bit of conversation:

    Dean: Why would anybody want to watch our lives?
    Sam: Well, I mean, according to the interviewer, not many people do.

24. Series.Five Days To Midnight: Most of the series seems to be setting up a Stable Time Loop, as three of the four suspects didn't have motives to kill JT until after he found the briefcase. Nor did the actual killer. Carl in particular becomes a suspect because he fears that JT surviving will create some kind of Reality-Breaking Paradox. However, when Detective Sikorski is killed and JT is saved, an Alternate Universe is created and the evidence becomes a Ripple Effect Indicator, with the police file changing to reflect Bremmer and Sikorski's deaths, disproving Carl's fears. Wick is in a spoiler
25. ShipSinking.Live Action TV: ** The new series is a strange mixture of both ship teasing and sinking, resulting from the change of focus to the relationships between the characters while still being influenced by the No Hugging, No Kissing policy of the original series. After Rose spent two seasons as the Doctor's Implied Love Interest, she was trapped in an Alternate Universe with no hope of return. The end of season 4 has them briefly reunited, but then the Doctor fobs her off with a half-human clone of himself and leaves her again, in a spectacular example of confirming and sinking a ship simultaneously.
26. SonicTheHedgehog.Tropes Numbers To B: Antoine D'Coolette of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) series. In the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) series, he was a Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey who tend to let out a Girly Scream now and then and was pretty much The Load. This changed when issue 46 came out and he ended up dating Cyborg Bunnie Rabbot. By this point, he started growing braver and braver, becoming a competent swordsman, being tough enough to survive over a year in an Alternate Universe, slugging Evil Sonic unknowingly at one point and impressing his dying father enough that he gave his blessings for him and Bunnie to be married. Then he goes and nearly gets killed saving Prince Elias and his family.
27. TearJerker.Yu Gi Oh Duel Links: The Arc-V characters all have pre-duel dialogue with the characters from past series who made a reappearance (Aster and Alexis for GX, Jack and Crow for 5Ds, and Kite for ZEXAL). Unfortunately, the versions seen in Arc-V are Alternate Universe counterparts, meaning the original series versions of those characters don't recognize them in return, and as such have no unique dialogue with them.
28. Timeline.Kamen Rider Gaim: Gaim is briefly transported to the World within the Magic Stone, answering a call for help from that world's Haruto and Koyomi. There, he meets Wizard and Beast, among other Riders, as he defeats a horde of monsters. (Wizard ep. 52) He later returns to this Alternate Universe, where he joins with his 14 Heisei Rider predecessors in defeating the evil wizard, Amadum, naming himself a Kamen Rider after learning the definition from Wizard. He is then transported back to his world after fulfilling his purpose. (Wizard ep. 53)
29. VideoGame.Aetherius: The "Hellbound" mapset/compatibility-pack states that Flora was sent on another "trial", to an entirely different universe where the "Doom War" occured in a different yet similar manner, and has to clean up the mess that universe's Hell has caused, while being temporarily depowered at the start of the mapset by Xenos again for the sake of "giving her a challenge" (basically the mod's excuse for Flora not being even more overpowered than she can normally become during actual gameplay, and she is not usually excited to be temporarily depowered in these situations either, perferring to just keep her fuller powers all the time, as this is something Xenolatias puts her through to keep her "from getting too rusty" over time, in his words).
30. VideoGame.Squid Ink: The Citadel of Chronos in Chronos' storyline consists of Chronos as well as his alternate universe/timeline selves. Unfortunately, this also includes an Evil Chronos.
31. VideoGame.Valorant: This sort of explains why the Agents can have a fight against themselves, as revealed in "Duality". What we know about the difference between the main ("Alpha") and the alternate ("Omega") worlds are on how some groups of people behave and are perceived in each, plus a few other stuff:
    • The VALORANT Protocol of Alpha is a covert, shadowy organization, while the VALORANT Legion of Omega is an open, celebrated one.
    • Little is currently known about Omega's Kingdom Industries and whether they have any significant difference with Alpha's Kingdom. What we know, according to Fracture, is Omega's Kingdom tends to be secretive and cautious, while Alpha's tends to be inquisitive and enthusiastic.
    • There are also notable differences in some locations of both earths, for instance, Omega's Lisbon has suffered a catastrophic disaster that requires an underwater habituation facility, like Pearl.
32. WebOriginal.Keit Ai: The copypasta refers to a boy talking to the alternate universe counterpart of his crush.

Figurative Multiverse / Fanfic-style AU

1. Everythings Better With Penguins: There was a penguin trend in Buffy fandom. It mostly involved Alternate Universe stories where the characters had always been penguins. Who slayed leopard seals.
2. Fanfic.Call Me Connie: Call Me Connie is an Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic written by VenomousButterfly, set in an Alternate Universe of sorts where America had a twin female counterpart.
3. Fanfic.Common Sense: Formerly titled Rocket's Rising, Common Sense is an Alternate Universe fanfic by AeroJester203.
4. Fanfic.Darkness Burning: In an Alternate Universe where her parents did not die on their voyage, Elsa still lives shut away from the outside world. Unwilling to be close enough to others to produce a heir, her parents decide to arrange a marriage for her younger sister Anna. This sparks the events of the story. Fic is also called an Alternate Universe Fic.
5. Fanfic.Ducktales Magic AU: In this AU, everyone in the Duck-McDuck family has some sort of magic along with a few characters outside of the family in the DuckTales (2017) universe.
6. Fanfic.The Dark Side Of Innocence: It's stated in later chapters that Team Rocket has gone through Hoenn and Sinnoh yet Ash still travels with Misty, not May, Max, or Dawn. This was likely done because the fic took so long to finish but the writer didn't want to be permanently in the Original Series. It's also mentioned that the original Togepi evolved and was replaced with a new Togepi.
7. DerivativeWorks.Dracula: Anno Dracula (1992): A series of books which depict an Alternate Universe, where Dracula actually won during the events of the novel, and proceeds to spread his vampirism through most of Europe. Despite the title, Dracula isn't the main character (though he does make appearances), instead following a series of various characters and how the undead lifestyle affects London.
8. Fanfic.Greenfire: A universe where Spike was never hatched by Twilight, instead growing up alone in the Everfree Forest. Oh, his name is Greenfire, as well.
9. Gush.Fanfiction: Evangelion 303: It takes the Eva characters and shove them in an interesting Alternate Universe similar to the real world where the Evas are war planes. The world tries to be realistic without being unnecessarily cynical and dark, and the characters still have personal traumas and insecurities that they have to learn to grow out of.
10. Literature.A Tale Of: Darker and Edgier: A Tale of... is a Twice-Told Tale crossover series of interconnected novels set in an Alternate Universe take on the Disney Animated Canon. Most, if not all, the films take place in one universe. The original book was a dark but sympathetic twist on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from the POV of Grimhilde. The other books are also based around Disney villains, though the original characters receive more spotlight in the sequels. And good luck finding any mention of suicide not intended as a Heroic Sacrifice in the Disney Animated Canon...
11. Sandbox.Whole Plot Reference: I am [REDACTED] is a recreation of the love story of Superman and Lois Lane with Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka, in a post-canon Alternate Universe where Izuku went to America for hero school instead of UA so he could maintain a Secret Identity.
12. Script.The Twilight Of The Superheroes: The proposal makes it very clear that this future is a "What If" as opposed to a surefire Grand Finale of the DC Universe. Makes sense considering this story was directly inspired by the similarly Elseworldy The Dark Knight Returns, which (in Moore's eyes) served as a potential finale for the Batman mythos.
13. Series.JAG: Season 9's "What If?" is an Elseworld story inspired by a series of identical fortune cookies. Harm and Mac are married and about to divorce, Chegwidden's retired and married to his current girlfriend, Sturgis is working as manager for his girlfriend, Bud and Harriet aren't married, Coates is helping in a sting operation to catch thieves, and the head of JAG is Rear Admiral (formerly Cmdr.) Alison Krennick, unseen outside of flashbacks since the first season.
14. VideoGame.Holo Funk Pre Six Point Zero: HoloFunk, prior to 6.0, was a Fusion Fic Alternate Universe of hololive and Friday Night Funkin' that re-imagined both casts into a cohesive setting, while also incorporating elements from other series such as Yakuza.
15. Webcomic.Demon Candy Parallel: As explained in the title, Demon Candy is the original series, which revolves around Jon turning into some form of Incubus Messiah. DCP is a comedic side story with the same characters in an alternate situation. The original series has all but been forgotten.
16. WesternAnimation.Pop Pixie: With the Gender Flips, the Tree of Life playing a different role in the story, and the pixies having transformations (which they didn't have in the series), it's probably not set in the same world of Winx Club.

Work Set in an Alternate Reality of the Real World

1. ComicBook.Watchmen: The story is set in an Alternate Universe that mirrors the real world of the late 20th century, with just one key difference. In the real world, the runaway success of Action Comics #1 in the summer of 1938 led to superheroes becoming a major sensation in American pop culture; in this world, it inspired a wave of real people to take to the streets in colorful costumes to fight crime like their heroes in the comic books, leading to the formation of an organisation known as the Minutemen.
2. Laconic.Gintama: A series best known for parodying Japanese popular culture in general—at least when it is not an Alternate Universe retelling of the Meiji Restoration otherwise.
3. Literature.Gosick: Apart from the existence of the fictional country of Sauville, it seems that World War II starts in 1925 in this world.
4. UsefulNotes.Tomoe Gozen: Tomoe Gozen Saga naturally features the lady herself although in an Alternate Universe of Japan.
5. VideoGame.Syberia: The whole series is arguably built on this... The various places you visit on your quest to find Hans and Syberia have a dreamy, often surreal feel to them - as if they existed halfway between our real world and a slightly more fantastic version of it. They're all deliberately stylized and exaggerated versions of various generic European and Russian locales and regions.
6. Webcomic.Fallmind: Fallmind is a 3D Webcomic, hosted on ComicFury. It is set in some sort of Alternate Universe, which appears to be quite unlike ours. Recently, the inevitable destruction of this universe has been foretold. The comic is quite new.
7. Webcomic.Spinnerette: As noted in the Celebrity Paradox entry, Spinnerette takes place in a universe where both superheroes and the comics companies that chronicle their deeds are real. Furthermore, magic is also real — the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons was banned by the Carter Administration because it contained actual magic spells. It also takes place in the same universe as Krow's earlier work Krakow.

Speculative/Unconfirmed Examples

1. Headscratchers.Philosophy Tube: The idea of an alternate universe is used as an answer to the question on the page
2. Manga.Biomega: This seems to be the case with Biomega, it features a lot of similarities with all of other Tsutomu's works but the stories can't possibly take place in the same universes. Biomega and BLAME! both feature Artificial Humans who are quite similar to one another but the stories don't connect. Plus several brands appear in the different stories with Toha Heavy Industries appearing in all of them as a benevolent MegaCorp. They are the ones who created the good kind of Artificial Humans in all of the story lines. Then again BLAME! revealed that they posess the ability to travel whole buildings through space and time, so...
3. Music.GFRIEND: The story introduced the possibility of an Alternate Universe caused by The Butterfly Effect, but also implied lucid dreams and meeting each other in the dreams numerous times. The ambiguity messes with the audience and its interpretations.
4. SupplementalMaterial.Team Fortress 2: In KritzKast's interview with the team that created the Robotic Boogaloo update, the comic's creators clarified that the comic is non-canon, but can be viewed as a possible Alternate Universe.
5. YMMV.Arena Of Valor: Some speculate that Lauriel's default skin isn't actually her true form for some reason. Her true self is actually her six-winged Divine Grace skin, where she's no longer being restrained with any sorts of power limiter. It also helps that aside of extra quotes, the Divine Grace skin has a separate lore that tells about Lauriel's past where she exemplified the trope Magikarp Power (being a weak angel during her growing up phase only to become super powerful when she grew up and realized her true potential) and had her own 'angel orb' pet/buddy, which is nowhere to be seen in her default skin. Tencent hasn't given any statement about whether it's canon or it's just Alternate Universe thing.

In-Universe Discussion/Speculation

1. Fanfic.Cafe Liegeois: Anna believes that Elsa's visions are Elsa seeing herself in different universes.
2. Recap.Big City Greens S 1 E 14: Tilly takes the 3D glasses' slogan "See a whole new dimension" way too literally, and thinks she's seeing an Alternate Universe when she puts them on.
3. Series.Ugly Betty: The episode "Million Dollar Smile" (Season 4, Episode 17) has Betty hitting her head and imagining an alternative universe in which she never had braces, and was considered to be the pretty sister while Hilda was the homely one. See Dream Sequence.
4. VideoGame.Starcom Nexus: One of the theories the Starcom crew raise about where they've ended up is an alternate reality. It's wrong.

Unclear Usage

1. AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents.Anime And Manga: The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT Alternate Universe version of Precia Testarossa is an extremely Doting Parent who is not ashamed to shower both of her daughters with love, attention, and worry in front of their friends, much to her daughters' dismay. This makes the history of the Evil Matriarch Precia from the main continuity all the more tragic, as it gives us a glimpse of what could have been had the death of Alicia not broken her mind.
2. CallBack.Marvel Universe: All-New, All-Different Marvel: When Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Iron Spider (Mary Jane) fight the Regent, they note a strange sense of deja vu but feel that something important is missing. In Renew Your Vows, Alternate Universe versions of Peter and Mary Jane teamed up to defeat their version of the Regent with the help of their daughter, who doesn't exist in the mainstream continuity.
3. ComicBook.Marvel Boy: An odd example. Initially Morrison envisioned the book as taking place in an alternate version of the usual Marvel continuity, as evinced by things like Dum Dum Dugan being in charge of SHIELD, or the Kree having technology unlike their 616 versions. However, when the Ultimate universe was just getting off the ground, an editor made an offhand comment that one of their existing books was actually the "first" Ultimate series, and this was widely assumed to be Marvel Boy. Noh-Varr has since been folded into the mainline 616 continuity, with any discrepancies handwaved away. I know Marvel has a multiverse, but it's unclear exactly where this one stands
4. DracoInLeatherPants.Anime: Prince Schneizel el Britannia subjects two emotionally-unstable young girls (Nina and Nunnally) to More than Mind Control to use them in his agenda, is the major cause of Lelouch's expulsion from the Black Knights, and becomes a borderline Omnicidal Maniac with a God complex. His victims are bashed by the fandom (especially Nina, but she was The Scrappy for most of R2 anyway) and he gets off scot free. Take that as you will. He does get to be a good person in Nightmare of Nunnally, but that's an Alternate Universe.
5. Far East: Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit is set in a Culture Chop Suey Far East country based on a weird amalgamation of Goryeo Korea, Heian and Edo Japan, and a bit of various dynasties from China thrown in for a good measure. Though this is clearly the Alternate Universe and author being a professional culturologist and anthropologist she really shows her work here.
6. Franchise.City Hunter: Angel Heart (2001-2010) — An Alternate Universe spinoff of the above.
7. FreezeFrameBonus.Anime And Manga: Which doubles as a Early-Bird Cameo. G was the first Alternate Universe Gundam series, W was the second. There was a bit of overlap when both were in production at the same time, making this cameo possible.
8. MissingMom.Western Animation: While Finn eventually met his Disappeared Dad, his mother has still only been seen in an Alternate Universe. This is eventually subverted as of the Islands miniseries, where Finn finally meets his mother.
9. RealityWarper.The DCU: Captain Atom became this in a story arc entitled "Quantum Quest", in which he created his own universe over which he had total control. It didn't end well. Also, it is possible that it was All Just a Dream. On the other hand, it has been hinted at that he might be that powerful in the regular universe too, but just doesn't realize it or is in denial about it. Dr. Manhattan, an Expy of Captain Atom in Watchmen, has telekinesis down to the subatomic level, allowing him to rearrange matter at will. Technically, this is a little different from changing reality outright, but since he's the most ridiculously overpowered character in the saga, nearly everyone there considers him a Reality Warper. Captain Allen Adam, an Alternate Universe version of Captain Atom from Final Crisis and The Multiversity, is similarly powerful, but being uncomfortable with his powers, takes drugs to suppress them.
10. Recap.Need For Speed: Need for Speed: Shift (PSP, 2009): The PSP version developed by EA Bright Light, it includes a story mode recycled from the console versions of ProStreet and brought back some old characters along with new ones, in an Alternate Universe. The gameplay is more arcade-like compared to the console and PC versions.
11. ReedRichardsIsUseless.The DCU: Superman in general has often wrestled with the fact that he can't use his superpowers to simply force away wide-ranged problems plaguing humanity. Attempts to bring about world peace by disposing of nuclear weapons didn't fare too well in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace or the premiere of Justice League. His attempt to cure starvation in poverty-stricken countries is detailed in the graphic novel "Peace On Earth". This results in An Aesop being that these are things that will only be solved when all of humanity chooses to solve them. There are often short-lived Alternate Universe depictions of him going too far in forcing humanity to follow his ideals to solve these problems, thus becoming a Knight Templar.
12. SelfDemonstrating.Lex Luthor: Unholy Matrimony: In the Alternate Universe of Superman: Earth One, I am married to one Alexandra Luthor, causing people to refer to us as "Lex Squared".
13. Trivia.Coeur Al Aran: The Beast of Beacon, a drama focusing on a reformed Adam, with a side of reduced Jaune presence and increased Ruby exposure outside the aforementioned Alternate Universe stories.
14. Trivia.Stitch And The Samurai: Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: One critic who reviewed the manga but had never seen Lilo & Stitch before actually questioned in their review whether this manga is on the same timeline as the original film, even though anyone else can easily tell that it's most certainly not.
15. VideoGame.A3: The April Fools events are Alternate Universes that feature one of the supporting characters.
16. YMMV.Doom Eternal: When promoting Eternal before launch, director Hugo Martin stated the game was inspired by Evil Dead 2. At the end of The Ancient Gods - Part One, The Dark Lord's identity being an Alternate Universe Evil Counterpart of the Doom Slayer brings a whole different meaning when "Evil Ash" made its first appearance in Evil Dead 2.

Other

1. MisattributedSong.A To M: Ditto for "Rasputin", which has also been misattributed to fellow German disco act Dschinghis Khan. This is possibly because of YTMND where "Rasputin" is the Alternate Universe equivalent of the "Moskau" meme.
2. Touched by Vorlons: Mr. Nobody offers a unique inversion by showing that before being born, we all know "everything that will happen" in our lives, until we get touched on the upper lip by the Angels of Oblivion that make us forget all of that knowledge. The protagonists explains that the Angels didn't touch him, gifting him with an omniscience that allows him to see all the possible variables of his choices.
3. VideoGame.Date A Live Spirit Pledge: Downplayed, as you actually play as the main character of the game adaptation of the source light novel. While the Spirits are still depicted as the walking calamities they were in the light novel, the game have additional challenges that requires high-level and properly geared Spirits to comfortably clear. I have no idea what this is trying to say, but it seems to just be some sort of adaptation change than any kind of AU

ZCE/Stray Potholes

1. Anime.Weiss Survive: The Weiss Schwarz world of battles.
2. FairyTail.Tropes A To E: The focus of the Edolas arc.
3. Fanfic.Ranger: The "FMP" arc features Sunset's mind dragged into one.
4. Fanfic.Xendra: Here Xander, Scott, Cameron and Todd lose some bet to Larry and have to crossdress for Halloween.
5. Film.Young Einstein: Trope-name only
6. Quotes.Worthy Opponent: One quote is attributed to an "Alternate Universe" Nazi Captain
7. Roleplay.APH Tomorrow Never Dies: To Hetalia.
8. Roleplay.Mall Fight: Three, as of right now: Knife's Mall Fight, Ran's Mall Fight, and Reboot Mall Fight (which is an divergent of Ran's Mall Fight). There is also Mall Fight Generations which is a several universe.
9. Roleplay.Second City: And how.
10. Sinister Schnoz: Koume and Koutake also play this straight (except in Majora's Mask).
11. TabletopGame.Exalted: See also the Old World of Darkness, which inspired parts of the game, and which previous developers once mentioned they would very much like to crossover with (though it's unlikely now).
12. Webcomic.Ganny The Daddy: Ganondorf is a good guy, Zelda is his daughter, and Link is a girl. And that's just the beginning.