#aka i think far too hard on concepts that are way above my pay grade

[icebrooding]

I keep thinking about how the concept of alternate realities work via Mists, in that in every alternate of Tyria events never diverge, so for example when one person dies in one Tyria, they die in every Tyria. So like, doesn't this concept actually make free will a non-entity in the world?

And how does this work, like do they all work to correct themselves according to each possible variant world that exists? And how closely converging do events have to be to begin with? Does everything play out exactly the same across every reality with the only variable being the Commander themself?

If A dies in a battle in Tyria 1, would this mean they also had to be part of said battle in say Tyria 2 or Tyria 3? Or would reality just find another way to kill them off no matter what they were doing in their own world? I'm going to assume the Alternate Tyrias work on 100% convergence so that there is never a reality in which A is not part of this battle, since their death is a constant across all versions of Tyria.

But if that is the case, it does confirm that free will is a non-existence, because no matter what they were going to die exactly then and there, and nothing they could do has any chance of averting it, right?

Also with the Commander being the only unique entity, this means nothing they individually do impacts the world, because each person would have different thoughts and courses of actions to take, but the Alternate Tyrias concept forces the Commander to always take the exact same path no matter who they may be, which might hinge that this variable entity might be the one most strangled by the concept of inevitability. They are the one being in existence that is not a certainty, with how they change across timelines and worlds, but their actions can never be any different from another Commander in another world, or else the timelines would no longer converge.

Although I suppose the Asura story actually contradicts the concept of destiny as a hard fact, implying the possibility of a Bad Future deliberately chosen by the Commander, but how does this work in relation to the current set up of reality? Would this confirm the theory that all realities of Tyria have to be 'reflecting' from a source world, and whatever world that is is the one we are playing from? The only choices that matter are the one you make as the player, and every other reality that exists alongside this Tyria is forced to converge based on the decisions made in this timeline?

So the future is a variable state, but only in one reality, while the others have to play along to the outcome of a world they aren't even part of? Free will exists, but only for one incarnation of every person that has ever lived. That's harrowing.

While I get that things like the 100% convergence across all realities of Tyria is to prevent easily-abusable plot devices like dimension hopping to solve problems or bring people back to life, it does bring up the harrowing reality that ultimately everything is futile because destiny exists as an almost-immutable fact.

I imagine this is probably part of the lore that a lot of people don't actually want to acknowledge because, well, nobody likes having something so... troubling be the base ground for what reality is. I know I sure don't like it lmfao. It's a complicated and not necessarily great way to try and avoid being able to utilise time/dimensional travel as a plot device.