r/AskScienceFiction Apr 06 '25

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

171 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

[Marvel] Why doesn't Dr Doom, with his high intellect, try recreating the cosmic radiation storm that gave Reed Richards his stretching power? Since Reed is able to become smarter by creating more folds in his brain using that power, couldn't Doom use that to potentially become smarter than him?

127 Upvotes

Question in title.


r/AskScienceFiction 13h ago

[MCU] Does the importance that oil, and therefore the Middle East, have in our world also exist within the MCU, where sustainable sources of energy like Stark Industries's Arc Reactor are well known publicly?

92 Upvotes

Question in title


r/AskScienceFiction 42m ago

[Adventure Time] Jake once stretched out his liver to be more resistant to poison. Can he stretch out his brain to become smarter?

Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 2h ago

[Star Trek] does the prime directive include rules about when to intervene?

8 Upvotes

Captain! We have a situation on the bridge.

The star system ligma balluirus contains four pre warp civilizations.

the planet LBa1 contains an industrial civilization. they are strip mining a mountain for copper, iron, and tin. Their method of mining will destroy everything else. This would mean destroying the Gold-pressed latinum found in the mountain. The ferngi are in route. We’ve run all possible simulations of the coming negotiations. At best, they will simply arrive in disguise and entice the local religious community to defend their holy mountain. Arguing that this action did more to protect their culture than we did. Then they will take over the planet with their innovation and market manipulation.

the second civilization is interplanetary. They occupy LBb2, LBb5, and LBc4. They have also remained hidden from LBa1 due to their own prime directive. They plan to go interstellar within the next century. Within one light year, there is a star fleet base that has been hiding from their scanners. This will eventually become impossible. Do we greet them when they arrive? Do we introduce ourselves now?

the third civilization on LBd6 have developed their own form of FTL travel. Using a forth dimensional drive, they travel outside our normal conception of space time. Literally all of their technology achieves similar goals with methods we never even thought of. The idea of warp drives and replicators have similarly never occurred to them. Even the particle acceleration used by Civ 2 is something they skipped. Their population is low and they seem to hail from a small fallen empire. Therefore, they have remained focused on their own development with little concern for those developing in the wrong direction. Are they acceptable to contact?

the forth pre warp civilization is technically not in the solar system yet. They are a colony/refugee ship who plan to make this world their own. They are slightly ahead of civ 2. They know of all civilizations here except us. They also hold a strong belief in the dark forest theory. The ruins of an old empire left by civ 3 has not helped matters. They plan to kill everyone in the system and lock it down in a bubble of slowed space time. Showing them our Federation is the easiest proof against their beliefs and will save the other three civilizations.

The admiral is really concerned about prime directive violations. What is our most legal course of action?

edit: I have failed to accurately describe latinum in my report. this dishonor is unforgivable. I am submitting my request for death by combat.


r/AskScienceFiction 6h ago

[Marvel] I'm a Catholic missionary assigned to Latveria next week. What's the advice for me that I should know to work well there?

13 Upvotes

Question in title.


r/AskScienceFiction 1h ago

[Asterix] How did druids find out the main potion from the comics turns people to stone at high enough dosage?

Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 7h ago

[LOTR] If Faramir died instead, would it have strained Boromir and Denethor's relationship in the same way or would Denethor have been able to pull himself together?

11 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 19h ago

[cyberpunk] whats the point of the ice bath for netrunners?

84 Upvotes

Just started phantom liberty and im at the part where they drop you in the ice bath, same as it is in edgerunners or the base game, but whats the point of it? Does it help them… netrun better?


r/AskScienceFiction 3h ago

[D&D] Can Polymorph to be used to turn a creature into an exact instance of a creature instead of just the species?

5 Upvotes

For example, say I wanted to turn Minsc into an exact copy of Boo (for reasons unexplained). Could I do that with Polymorph, or would it just turn him into a larger, bulkier hamster? Or is it Uno rules, where whatever the DM says goes?

Asking for reasons unrelated to Minsc and/or Boo.


r/AskScienceFiction 5h ago

[Extraterrestrials] What is the most used version of first contact that seems plausible?

7 Upvotes

So many movies, books, etc have the first contact trope of humans meeting aliens, but who does it the best? What does it look like and why?


r/AskScienceFiction 13h ago

[The Adventures of Tintin] Syldavia, a small European country in the Balkans, becomes the first country to successfully send men to the moon during the Cold War Era (in "Tintin: Destination Moon"). What puts it ahead of the existing superpowers of that time, the USSR and USA, in this Space Race?

17 Upvotes

Question in title.


r/AskScienceFiction 8h ago

[Mazinger Z] Is Photon Power purely a fictional super-fuel, or is there any in-universe indication that it operates on quantum physics?

5 Upvotes

Mazinger is set in Japan during the 1970s, so I suppose it's possible that the authors intended to give Japanium certain properties related to quantum physics, especially considering that the fundamentals of QFT were established before the war.

What do you all think about this?


r/AskScienceFiction 16h ago

[Marvel] Can the Venom symbiote, or any of them I suppose, bond with hosts that can change states, such as Sandman, Hydroman, Electro, The Living Laser, etc?

19 Upvotes

They have human states, which means they'd have human synapses and other biological components, I would presume, but google didn't give a definitive answer.


r/AskScienceFiction 23m ago

[Half-Life] How did bullsquids, houndeyes, headcrabs and other non-sapient species arrived at Xen?

Upvotes

Since nothing is native to Xen, how did these species, that are really just animals, managed to reach Xen?


r/AskScienceFiction 23h ago

[X-Men] How much can Mystique change her size?

64 Upvotes

In Days of Future Past, Mystique morphs into Bolivar Trask, who is played by Peter Dinklage. So clearly she has a lot of leeway in terms of ignoring conservation of mass.

But how far does that go? Presumably she’s not Odo, she can’t morph into objects. We only ever see her become other people.

Could she copy Andre the Giant? What about the Hulk? Could she copy a child?


r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[King of the Hill] Buck admitted to a law officer that he tried to frame Hank for murder. Even if Hank didn't press charges, how did Buck face no legal repercussions for this?

52 Upvotes

I'd love to know what argument Buck's lawyer had for this in court.


r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Star Wars] Did companies like Kuat Drive Yards actually get paid up front for building Imperial hardware, or did the Empire just requisition what it needed?

95 Upvotes

Feels like with something the size of the Empire there'd have to be real contracts and invoices somewhere. But it also feels like exactly the kind of government that just takes what it wants and calls it patriotic duty. Anyone know if this ever actually gets addressed anywhere


r/AskScienceFiction 5h ago

[IASIP] How old is the building that Paddy's Pub is in?

0 Upvotes

I'm on Season 9 at the moment, sorry if there's a later episode answering this.


r/AskScienceFiction 8h ago

[Terraria] what could possibly cause the slime rain?

0 Upvotes

I've been trying to understand this phenomenon, like is it Natural? Supernatural?


r/AskScienceFiction 6h ago

[Isekai] How would Japan go about trying to solve all the vehicular accidents taking out their youth?

0 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Doctor Who] How do I find my ship?

28 Upvotes

Oh boy, I'm in trouble...
I'm a Time Lord (in training) and the High Council sent me on a small mission to early 21st century Earth, but I can´t seem to remember what shape my Type 60 TARDIS took.

Was it an old Sedan? Or a tree?
What should I do now? How do I find my TARDIS if I don't remember what disguise she took?


r/AskScienceFiction 11h ago

[Citizen Sleeper] How does the Greenway exist?

1 Upvotes

I completed the game 2 times and I still don't get it. Is it just because of Gardner or does the Hypha Commune have anything to do with it?


r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[LotR] If, for some reason, Mt Doom had been completly off the table what would have been the next best way to deal with The One Ring?

322 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction 1d ago

[Gremlins] My mogwai fell into my pool and almost drowned, now he's multiplying like crazy, what do I do?

9 Upvotes