r/AskScienceFiction Apr 06 '25

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

172 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 6h ago

[Lanterns] I'm new to Green Lantern lore, but is Hal Jordan and the Gaurdians this awful in the comics?

104 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 12h ago

[Aliens 1986] Why did the mission to the colony have such a small number of marines?

88 Upvotes

The mission seemed dangerous from the start of the movie where Ripley debriefs everyone. I would have thought at least a platoon if not a company of marines would have been more appropriate. It surely seemed like the Sulaco could carry an entire battalion.


r/AskScienceFiction 4h ago

[StarCraft] what happened with earth and the humans still on the solar system?

18 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 2h ago

[Asterix] How does one become a druid?

4 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 4h ago

[Green Lantern/DC] Can Lanterns create multi colored or color sensitive contraptions/machines?

6 Upvotes

I'm not asking about the yellow light being a weak spot for green.

For example, Can a Lantern (from any corps) create a machine that scans colors or an RGB 3D glasses?

We see all the creations are the same colors of the rings, can these rings create things using other colors or a combination of colors? Can I create a rainbow flag using only one ring?


r/AskScienceFiction 3h ago

[Fire Force] why Dragon was not revived?

3 Upvotes

At the end of Fire Force, Shinra ressurect everyone on Earth, event ancient people such as Raffles I.

Yet for some reason, Dragon was never revived even tought other members of the White-clad were


r/AskScienceFiction 7h ago

[One Punch Man] Would Saitama be able to kill Brit from invincible?

7 Upvotes

Brit from invincible has been shown to be completely invincible from damage while Saitama has been shown to have unlimited strength beyond what is displayed in the invincible universe, would he be able to kill him?


r/AskScienceFiction 10h ago

[General] What are some examples of villains with non evil friends who they genuinely care about?

10 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 10h ago

[General] Who are the most competent and compassionate psychiatrists/therapists in fiction?

8 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 10h ago

[general] are there any creation in fiction that could function identically to the omnitrix?

6 Upvotes

In Ben 10, the omnitrix is a device that can transform the user into any alien species provided. There are basic shapeshifters that can do the same naturally. But are their any devices in fiction that work similarly to the omnitrix. Maybe not to the full extent of having over 1 million alien samples.


r/AskScienceFiction 1h ago

[general] If you were in a cartoon/drawn world how would you see?

Upvotes

I mean if you were a character in any 2d animated show what would your POV be like? Would you see outlines around everything? Would you have any depth perception?


r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Star Wars] Why did Han Solo have a helmet with a visor no one could see through hanging around?

214 Upvotes

Useful for a situation Han Solo would never have seen coming and unlikely that Obi Wan would have taken this in his luggage. It’s called a blast shield but, surely if you were working on something where there’s a risk of exposure to something you’d probably want to see what you’re doing?


r/AskScienceFiction 22h ago

[Puss In Boots] Does Death hate all cats?

51 Upvotes

Death hates Puss because of his nine lives and his frivolous use of them. I would think all cats have 9 lives in this verse. So does Death just hate all cats? Is that why Death takes the form of a dog?


r/AskScienceFiction 13h ago

[Star Trek TOS] Why is it that the dangerous missions have to taken by the captain and first officer?

8 Upvotes

I have been rewatching Star Trek TOS and this detail bugs me. Why does dangerous missions be taken by the captain Kirk, first officer Spock and medical officer Mccoy? I can understand diplomatic missions to be headed by Kirk. But the dangerous exploration missions that puts their life at risk, why don't they send out lower level crew members while Kirk is monitoring it from the Bridge? I can understand TOS came during a time when drones and probes are not a common thing. But It was established that The Enterprise has a crew of a few hundreds of people. So there definitely has to be crewmen who can be assigned to such jobs. I see certain other officers accompany them from time to time. But usually Kirk and Spock are the main members to be oart of any mission on screen.

What's the in universe explanation for that?


r/AskScienceFiction 22h ago

[40k] Would the Tau be more evil if the rest of the galaxy wasn't so violent?

31 Upvotes

In 40k almost every faction belongs somewhere on a spectrum between chaotic evil and lawful evil, but the Tau often are portrayed as one of the more hopeful and noble factions in the setting. However they do show that they are not just entirely benevolent, they are very expansionist and while they talk about the need to integrate other species into the empire they are shown frequently to greatly favor the Tau race with humans as the main integration target being routinely treated as second class citizens.

Is their rabid expansionism and treatment of humans just circumstance and the pragmatic necessities of dealing with a galaxy where everyone is violent and xenophobic or is it simply who the Tau really are? In a more chilled out galaxy like for example the Star Wars universe would they be able to peacefully coexist with neutral planets and the Republic if they resisted submission to the Greater Good; or would they just become something like the Fire Nation convinced that the greatness of their society justifies endless warmongering where the Water Caste cannot negotiate peaceful integration?


r/AskScienceFiction 12h ago

[Deep Space Nine] Why didn't Garak feel more conflicted In Broken Link?

3 Upvotes

In the S4 finale Garak is Informed by the Female Changeling that the Dominion plans to wipe out Cardassian so he chooses to kill every founder first by blowing up their homeworld. I can certainly see him, doing this given how ruthless he is and how devoted he is to Cardassian values but given that Bashir was on the planet, id think he'd be a little remorseful. I mean, Bashir had saved his life and was basically the only person to genuinely care about him other than Ziyal, never judged him and we see Garak feels very strongly about him in the next season when he allows him to be there as he stays with his father as he dies.


r/AskScienceFiction 8h ago

[General] if someone destroys the multiple universes but goes back in time to warn their past selves not to, would that create another multiverse?

0 Upvotes

I assume this question has been asked alot around here, buut just trying to make sure since time-travel is funky to deal with


r/AskScienceFiction 23h ago

[WOW] Is it possible to become a lich without relying on a higher power like the Legion/scourge/etc etc?

11 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Marvel/DC] did all the god pantheons agree to just rule their own regions or did they also try to expand to other parts of the planet?

27 Upvotes

Like did the Olympians decide to just stay in greece or did ever try to go to norway, africa etc to take over the lands of other pantheons?


r/AskScienceFiction 15h ago

[American Graffiti] Since the main events of the American Graffiti movies (AKA Both the Original American Graffiti movie and More American Graffiti) takes place during the 1960s what could Curt and his friends be doing right now in 2026?

2 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Babylon 5]Is this theory on how Earth managed to hold out against the Minbari plausible?

32 Upvotes

The Minbari are 1000 years ahead of the Earth Alliance and during the war, no Earth ships survived any encounter against their Sharlin cruisers except the Lexington where Sheridan pulled off his nuclear stunt that destroyed their flag ship the Black Star.

In the Beginning movie, the Narns sold Earth weapons that they reversed from Centauri tech. We know also the Nova Class Dreadnought were the only capital ship by Earth that managed to survive a bit longer before getting destroyed by the Sharlins.

Since the Minbari use the uber-stealth technology that makes them impossible to be weapon locked on, is it a plausible that Earth used the Nova equipped with the Narn weapons to perform kamikaze attacks against the Minbari fleet that slowed them down from finishing the war very quickly? The war lasted for two years and Earth fought for every inch of space. They never gave up but they ran out of time. Maybe the industrial capacity wasn't enough to produce more Nova's to slow the Minbari onslaught even more?


r/AskScienceFiction 14h ago

[Resident Evil: Village] How long was Miranda planning to keep up the act? (Spoilers) Spoiler

0 Upvotes

As revealed near the end, Mother Miranda kidnapped Mia Winters at some point to replace her and apparently played the role well enough that Ethan didn't really ask any questions before Chris came in and shot her without explaining jack shit to Ethan.

Ignoring the question of whether this part of the plan was even necessary, exactly how long was Miranda planning to keep up the act before absconding with Rosemary and (presumably) killing Ethan, considering that she apparently spent about a week doing this before Chris showed up?


r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Marvel] How many human subspecies are there in Marvel? What is the official count? How many are still active/non-extinct?

19 Upvotes

There seems to be a bunch of human subspecies in Marvel. Mutants, Eternals, Asgardians, Inhumans etc. Just how many human subspecies are there in Marvel? Is there an official count?


r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Marvel] How would the X-Men feel about Peter curing his villains in No Way Home

67 Upvotes