History Main / AlternateUniverse

* In Episode 51 of ''Anime/PowerpuffGirlsZ'', the girls spend the entire episode [[TimeTravel traveling through time]] (using the [[HumongousMecha Dyna]][[TimeMachine mo Z]]) [[MacGuffin gathering 3 flashes of light]]. Before they can get to the 2nd light, Him sends them off-course by transporting them into the universe of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', where the PPG can be seen fighting the [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Giant Balloon Fish]] in Townsville. However, the girls don't stick around long enough to meet their original counterparts, as they immediately travel back to their own universe and continue time traveling.

* Creator/BrianLumley's ''Necroscope III: The Source''

* In ''Wildside'' by Steven Gould, a teenager has a portal to a parallel world in which humans never evolved on his farm. He and several friends try to use it to become rich by exploiting the knowledge of huge gold strikes on their earth that were never discovered on the human-free world (of course). They do attempt to not pollute or otherwise screw up that universe-- and then [[spoiler: the American government (the bad parts of it) discover the group's access to an alternate world, and things get dangerous. Eventually, it is revealed that the main character's mother came from a different world in which the Industrial Revolution ran amok and destroyed it, eventually using portals to come to our timeline and saving the uninhabited world as a potential ''"lifeboat"'' for our world]]

* ''The Probability Broach'' by L. Neil Smith -- a police officer in a dystopian United States is accidentally blown into an alternate universe where the North American continent is a libertarian society, and must help his alternate self defeat a plot to conquer this new world. Basically an AuthorTract (albeit an entertaining one) for libertarianism, it's [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn?page=0 available online as a graphic novel as well]].

%%* Apparently the setting of ''Film/{{Parallels}}'' leans heavily on this trope, with entire branches of {{The Multiverse}} to be shunted about in.

* ''Webcomic/SupernormalStep'' takes place on an AU Earth with magic and fantasy creatures. It is one of [[MultiVerse many dimensions]], and two of the main characters are actually from our normal, boring one.

* AlternateContinuity - The meta version, where a set of works is declared to take place in different universes (or, more specifically, different ''{{Canon}}s'').
* AlternateRealityEpisode - Asking and exploring a ''[[WhatIf What If X and Y happened differently?]]'' question.
* AlternateUniverseFic - Pretty much the same as above but for fanfics. Here at Wiki/TVTropes we use slightly different terminology, hence "universe" instead of "reality".

* ConstructedWorld - It's not Earth. Simple, right?

* ShortScreentimeForReality - The alternate universe is incredibly vast and exciting compared to our own limited, ordinary universe.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2935 SCP-2935 ("O, Death")]] is a cave underneath a cemetery, which leads to a duplicate of the Foundation's world where all life died at the exact same instant on April 20, 2016. Corpses lay where they fell, vehicles have crashed, trees are broken, and nothing is decomposing because all microbial life is dead as well. ''Even [[NighInvulnerability SCP-682]] is dead.'' What caused it? [[spoiler:The Foundation from this world sent someone to investigate their own 2935, and just like "our" world's Foundation, he too discovered a world where everything died at the exact same instant. Then he came back to his own world, and the instant he did, everything in his world died (except for him, though he [[DrivenToSuicide took care of that himself]] later). The investigators from "our" Foundation wisely decide not to return to their own world so that the same thing won't happen to it, and send a drone back with their findings and instructions to blow up the cave and seal it off.]]

** ''AlternateUniverse/TheMultiversity''

* ''Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' has introduced two so far.

** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-507 SCP-507]] is a man who randomly and involuntarily gets sent to various ones, which The Foundation keeps a [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/document-507-3b log of.]]

* AlternateContinuity - The meta version, where a set of works is declared to take place in a different timeline or universe

* The ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry''-franchise is filled of this, referred to as fragments/kakera. In [[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry Higurashi]] the GroundHogDayLoop is revealed not to be repeats of the same events but instead different universes with a certain person pushing the ResetButton after each arc searching for a fragment in the sea of fragments where [[spoiler: Rika won't be killed]]. In [[VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry Umineko]] we are introduced to witches who can travel in the sea of fragments looking for specific events that fit their needs or wants.

[[quoteright:347:[[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/even_a_woman_6.png]]]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' is almost the ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' of web comics. Among the worlds its characters have visited are:

* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'', as the name implies, features several alternate universes both shown in the game itself and in its background lore. This includes such universes as the Iron Legacy Timeline where local Superman {{Expy}} and all around Boy Scout Legacy goes totalitarian after his nemesis kills his daughter, The Inverse-verse where heroes are bad guys and villains are good guys, the Xtreme-verse where everything is XTREME(!), the Animal Verse where everyone is an animal (this one in particular originated as a joke after Christopher and Adam, the game's creators, accidentally referred to the character Sergeant Steel as Sargent Seal), and many, many others.

* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultivrse'', as the name implies, features several alternate universes both shown in the game itself and in its background lore. This includes such universes as the Iron Legacy Timeline where local Superman {{Expy}} and all around Boy Scout Legacy goes totalitarian after his nemesis kills his daughter, The Inverse-verse where heroes are bad guys and villains are good guys, the Xtreme-verse where everything is XTREME(!), the Animal Verse where everyone is an animal (this one in particular originated as a joke after Christopher and Adam, the game's creators, accidentally referred to the character Sergeant Steel as Sargent Seal), and many, many others.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/even_a_woman.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The criminal and the ape-thing, OK. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking But a]] ''[[RuleSixtyThree woman]]''?! That's just silly.]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}} Academy'' is a HighschoolAU of the main ''Sunrider'' universe. Sola’s route reveals that both universes are part of a larger multiverse, as [[spoiler:Academy!Sola is one of several “fragments” of the main universe Sola, created when the main Sola was transported thousands of years into her future; as such, Academy!Sola [[ParadoxPerson should not exist]] and the plot of her route involves preventing her from being [[RetGone erased from reality]]]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1'', Twilight Sparkle goes to one where the ponies are humans in high school, accessed via a MagicMirror. However one [[https://trixiebooru.org/1576576 visual gag]] raises the possibility that it's an [[AfterTheEnd alternate point in time]] rather than an alternate universe...

* ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' is an alternate universe to ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' and the other series in David Willis' Webcomic/WalkyVerse. It reboots the story by placing it back in college (most of the Walky cast graduated from college in 2001) removing the science fiction elements completely, and using a SlidingTimescale so the characters will never graduate. ''Shortpacked!'' continued to run until 2015, and Willis had since started reposting the Walkyverse [[here http://www.itswalky.com/]] with commentary.

* ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' is an alternate universe to ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' and the other series in Dave Willis' Webcomic/WalkyVerse. It reboots the story by placing it back in college (most of the Walky cast graduated from college in 2001) removing the science fiction elements completely, and using a SlidingTimescale so the characters will never graduate. Shortpacked is still running alongside it, though, ensuring the walkyverse will continue.

* FakeBetterAlternateTimeline - A character finds themselves in an alternate timeline that seems better than the real one, but is in some way worse.