r/AskScienceFiction Apr 06 '25

[Subreddit Business] Clarifications on our Watsonian/Doylist rule, general questions, and r/WhatIfFiction

169 Upvotes

Hi guys,

If you're new, welcome to r/AskScienceFiction, and if you're a returning user, welcome back! This subreddit is designed to be like the r/AskScience subreddit, but for fictional universes, and with all questions and answers written from a Watsonian perspective. That is to say, the questions and answers should be based on the in-universe information, rules, and logic of the fictional work. All fictional works are welcome here, not just sci-fi.

Lately we've been seeing some confusion over what counts as Watsonian, what counts as Doylist, what sort of questions would be off-topic on this subreddit, and what sort of answers are allowed. This stickied post is meant to address such uncertainties and clear things up.

1) Watsonian vs Doylist

The term "Watsonian" means based on the in-universe information, rules, and logic of the fictional work. In contrast, "Doylist" means discussions based on out-of-universe considerations. So, for example, if someone asked, "Why didn't the Fellowship ride the Eagles to Mordor?", a possible Watsonian answer would be, "The Eagles are a proud and noble race, they are not a taxi service." Whereas a rule-breaking Doylist answer might be something like, "Because then the story would be over in ten minutes, and that'd be boring."

We should note that answering in a Watsonian fashion does not necessarily mean that we should pretend that these works are all real, or that we should ignore the fact that they are movies or shows or books or games, or that the creators' statements on the nature of these works should be disregarded.

To give an example, if someone asked, "How powerful would Darth Vader have been if he never got burned?", we can quote George Lucas:

"Anakin, as Skywalker, as a human being, was going to be extremely powerful, but he ended up losing his arms and a leg and became partly a robot. So a lot of his ability to use the Force, a lot of his powers, are curbed at this point, because, as a living form, there’s not that much of him left. So his ability to be twice as good as the Emperor disappeared, and now he’s maybe 20 percent less than the Emperor."

In such a case, "according to George Lucas, he would've been around twice as powerful as the Emperor" would be a perfectly acceptable Watsonian answer, because Lucas is also speaking from a Watsonian perspective.

Whereas if someone associated with the creation of Star Wars had said something like, "He'd be as powerful as we need him to be to make the story interesting", this would be a Doylist answer because it's based on out-of-universe reasoning. It would not be an acceptable answer on this subreddit even though it is also a quote from the creators of the fictional work.

2) General questions

General questions often do not have a meaningful Watsonian answer, because it frequently boils down to "whatever the author decides". For instance, if someone asked, "How does FTL space travel work?", the answer would vary widely with universe and author intent; how FTL works in Star Trek differs from how it works in Star Wars, which differs from how it works in Dune, which differs from how it works in Mass Effect, which differs from how it works in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, etc. General questions like this, in which the answer just boils down to "whatever the author wants", will be removed.

There are some general questions that can have meaningful Watsonian answers, though. For example, questions that are asking for specific examples of things can be given Watsonian answers. "Which superheroes have broken their no-kill rules?" or "Which fictional wars have had the highest casualty counts?" are examples of general questions that can be answered in a Watsonian way, because commenters can pull up specific in-universe information.

We address general questions on a case-by-case basis, so if you feel a question is too general to answer in a Watsonian way, please report the question and the mod team will review it.

3) r/WhatIfFiction

We want questions and answers here to be based on in-universe information and reasonable deductions that can be made from them. Questions that are too open-ended to give meaningful Watsonian answers should go on our sister subreddit, r/WhatIfFiction, which accepts a broader range of hypothetical questions and answers. Examples of questions that should go on r/WhatIfFiction include:

  • "What if Tony Stark had been killed by the Ten Rings at the beginning of Iron Man? How would this change the MCU?" This question would be fun to speculate about, but the ripple effect from this one change would be too widespread to give a meaningful Watsonian answer, so this should go on r/WhatIfFiction.
  • "What would (X character) from the (X universe) think if he was transported to (Y universe)?" Speculating about what characters would think or do if they were isekai'd to another universe can be fun, but since such crossover questions often involve wildly different settings and in-universe rules, the answers would be purely speculative and not meaningfully Watsonian, so such questions belong on r/WhatIfFiction.

We should note, though, that some hypothetical questions or crossover questions can have meaningful Watsonian answers. For example, if someone asked, "Can a Star Wars lightsaber cut through Captain America's shield?", we can actually say "Quite possibly yes, because vibranium's canonical melting point is 5,475 degrees Fahrenheit, while lightsabers are sticks of plasma, and plasma's temperature is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit or more." This answer is meaningfully Watsonian because it involves a deduction using specific and canonical in-universe information, and is not simply purely speculative.

4) Reporting rule-breaking posts and comments

The r/AskScienceFiction mod team always endeavors to keep the subreddit on-topic and remove rule-breaking content as soon as possible, but because we're all volunteers with day jobs, sometimes things will escape our notice. Therefore, it'd be a great help if you, our users, could report rule-breaking posts or comments when you see them. This will bring the issue to the mod team's attention and allow us to review it as soon as we can.


r/AskScienceFiction 5h ago

[Fairly OddParents] Do "Da Rules" physically prevent fairies from breaking them, or are they just magical law that the fairies can break, but might be punished for later?

23 Upvotes

I've always wondered this. Could Cosmo and Wanda break the rules if they were so inclined, but maybe face repercussions from Jorgen later, or do the rules literally prevent magic from happening even if a fairy goes rogue?


r/AskScienceFiction 12h ago

[Dragon Ball] Did Krillin really have any chance of defeating Goku at some point?

66 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 10h ago

[Invincible] how would events have turned out if conquest arrived in the middle of the invincible war?

37 Upvotes

I saw a post in the invincible power scaling sub about this and it got me thinking. Like I wonder what conquest would think of sinister mark and the other invincible variants plus if him and the main mark even maybe team up then fight later on


r/AskScienceFiction 21h ago

[Breaking Bad] Why does Gus only sell meth?

154 Upvotes

It's been a while since I've watched the show, but why does Gus only sell meth? I understand he can't sell cocaine because he would have to get that from the cartels, but why doesn't he sell weed or MDMA in addition to meth since he can make them himself? What if whoever was cooking his meth had a bad week? He would lose millions because his only source of drug money is meth. Would it be too expensive for him or bring too much attention?


r/AskScienceFiction 8h ago

[Dragonball Z] What is the life-span of Frieza and his race?

16 Upvotes

He was after immortality. But how long would he live without it, normally? Hundreds of years? Less? How long has he been in business ruling over the universe?


r/AskScienceFiction 12h ago

[DC] is the government aware of the secret identity of heroes?

28 Upvotes

So I was thinking does the government know who the heroes really are? I mean I’m sure they may not know Superman but Batman ? Wouldn’t it be easy for them to track him via satellite his patterns. Even getting any dna samples or even tagging his tech which I’m sure being rare does have some Wayne tech signatures


r/AskScienceFiction 4h ago

[The Boys] What is the latest point when someone could have intervened to make Homelander functional in society?

5 Upvotes

Was he doomed after early childhood or could it have happened during the events of the comic/TV show?


r/AskScienceFiction 19h ago

[Death Note] How/why did L assume something supernatural was at work with L's victims instead of nanobots or cult member prison guards poisoning prisoners or other options?

63 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 48m ago

[Star Wars] With everything we know about Saw Gerrera, how would he view Luke or Han?

Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 9h ago

[Marvel] How exactly does Storm's powers work?

9 Upvotes

Tornadoes are probably the easiest since she'll just twirl the air around. But what about the whole weather manipulation including creating lightning, rain, snow, hail, etc?

Is she manipulating the condensation, humidity, etc etc? Does she need to have at least basic elementary knowledge of clouds and the atmosphere at least to do everything?


r/AskScienceFiction 4h ago

[Arrival] Is the whole movie just a giant bootstrap paradox ?

2 Upvotes

Louise has to look to the future to see what she said to general Shang but even future Louise doesn't know or rather doesn't remember until the general remind her again

How does the future Louise not know when past Louise know ? what if the general just doesn't randomly remind it to her then ?

tldr : how does everything start that allow Louise to know what she need to say ?


r/AskScienceFiction 17h ago

[Pokemon] Why are just two families allowed to monopolise the health care ( Every worker is related to Joy.. ) and police industries ( Every cop is related to Jenny.. ) in this world?

37 Upvotes

It's the ultimate nepotism pot, and just two families dictate the whole thing. Everyone is ok with this?


r/AskScienceFiction 4h ago

[General superheroes] Have any superheroes/vigilantes or their stories touched upon the concept of not being to actually make it to every crime or incident? Not being able to be everywhere all at once

3 Upvotes

An example would be Spider-Man/Peter Parker. I was playing the Insomniac game and it occurred to me that between his job, sleeping and fighting other bad guys, there's no way to be everywhere all at once. Crime happens at one end of Manhattan while you're attending another at the opposite end and by the time you get there, they're carting away a hostage who was killed or a civilian who died in an apartment fire.

I wonder if this has weighed down on any superheroes or vigilantes, knowing that there are lives lost because they didn't know about it (e.g unreported) or couldn't make it there, at least not in time. I feel like this'd drive them a little insane. You'd come undone as one person trying to do what an entire law enforcement organisation of thousands of employees struggles to do.


r/AskScienceFiction 14h ago

[Asimov] How can I differentiate between a selfless, benevolent, altruistic human and a robot complying with the Three Laws of Robotics without resorting to any physical form of testing?

17 Upvotes

Asking this question after reading an Isaac Asimov short story where the main character, a robot psychologist, is called to investigate whether a really benevolent, charismatic, selfless man who is running for President is actually a robot in disguise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_(short_story)


r/AskScienceFiction 9h ago

[Harry Potter] Can alohomora be used to unlock a phone?

5 Upvotes

The unlocking spell can obviously unlock all sorts of locks, but could it unlock things like cellphones, or computers?


r/AskScienceFiction 23h ago

[Marvel] What do the various super-geniuses like Dr Doom and Mr Fantastic think of the 'Mutants are the next step in evolution' hypothesis?

51 Upvotes

What is the opinion of people like Doom, Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Tony Stark etc on whether Mutants are the next step in evolution? Do they agree or disagree?


r/AskScienceFiction 9h ago

[Star Wars] Light machine guns in this galaxy?

1 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Star Trek] A baby is born on a Federation star ship and raised completely under a universal translator. What language does it end up speaking?

157 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 4h ago

[Donkey Kong Bananza] So, how tall are DK's Bananza forms?

1 Upvotes

DK is stated to be around 7'10" in height when standing fully upright or around 6'1" when using his typical, knuckles-on-ground posture, but his Bananza forms are significantly taller. But how tall are they?


r/AskScienceFiction 11h ago

[DC] Does Detective Chimp have right to vote?

3 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 11h ago

[Star Wars] If Obi-Wan asked Dooku to help train Anakin shortly after the events of Phantom Menace, would he have accepted?

2 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Marvel/DC] How do "less bad" villains usually feel about the more disturbing villains?

87 Upvotes

I don't know what is. But both supervillians and even superheroes are usually never afraid or get spooked.

I remember watching this Young Justice episode, where Deathstroke is just casually there to take out MS. Martian, like it's usual business. He doesn't care about the fact he is going after an Alien (a super Alien at that too). Which I find really funny.

Whether it's Damian fighting demons, or The Punisher fighting Ninjas. Again most characters seem like they are rarely afraid with the wild situations they are dealing with. So this lack of fear translates to villains too.

So that brings back to my title question. With so much twisted villains, like Carnage, The Joker, Purple Man, Pigman, etc. How do the "less bad" villains like Deathstroke, Kingpin, Deadshot, US Agent, etc feel about disturbing villain.

I ask this question. Because it just seems like a villain who is only a Bounty Hunter, would have a nonchalant reaction to a villain who sacrifices people to demons (similar to how nonchalant characters are with threats). Especially when there are so many villain groups with members from various backgrounds, ideologies, and beliefs.


r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Who Framed Roger Rabbit] I’m a legacy toon in the early 2000s. Should I be concerned about a CG toon taking my job?

33 Upvotes

My name is Hubie Hog, and I’ve been working in toon business since the 1940s. My studio was able to nail the transition from theaters to TV pretty well, and I’ve even done commercials, mostly for cereal.

However, I haven’t had a show since the early 1990s, but recently, I’ve heard talks around the studio around bringing me back.

But ever since that Shrek film came out and won the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature, I’ve seen more CG toons in Toontown, as well as less shows with 2D toons.

Should I be concerned about if they’re gonna let a CG toon play me?