History Main / AlternateUniverse

* The various incarnations of the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}} have done this quite a bit, with alternate timelines galore.
** "[[ComicBook/TransformersShatteredGlass Shattered Glass,]]" the 2008 [=Bot=]Con event featuring heroic Decepticons and evil Autobots. With [[BeardOfEvil goatees.]]

* PrimeTimeline - The original timeline, the one all these alternates are an alternate ''to''.

* ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'': Most of the NonSerialMovie, ''Anime/NarutoTheMovieRoadToNinja'', takes place in another world that Tobi sent Naruto and Sakura to.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' episode "Operation: P.O.O.L." Numbah Four travelled to an alternate world where the KND were the DNK (Destructively Nefarious Kids). His own evil counterpart was the leader (complete with goatee).
* "Life, the Negaverse, and Everything" in ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' -- a mirror universe set up to explain the origin of Negaduck (not to be confused with the self-proclaimed Negaduck whom Megavolt accidentally created in another episode by dividing Darkwing into good and evil clones) The portal to the Negaverse was lost at the end of this episode, in a traditional StatusQuoIsGod ending.

** In "The Farnsworth Parabox", Farnsworth creates a box leading to an alternate universe where every coin toss has the opposite outcome. There are also lots of other boxes, leading to other alternate universes, each linking to each other.
** In "I Dated A Robot", Fry goes to the edge of the universe and sees alternate versions of himself and his friends, all wearing cowboy hats.
** In "The Beast With A Billion Backs", a portal opens to an alternate universe, home to only one sentient being: Yivo, the infinitely huge, love-lorn ball of tentacles.
** In "The Late Phillip J. Fry", after Farnsworth, Bender, and Fry have reached the end of the universe, a second Big Bang creates a universe identical to the last, giving the trio a chance to go home. And giving Farnsworth a chance to shoot Hitler. And once they reach their time, Farnsworth accidentally slips on the controls, forcing them to go all the way back around again. This time around, Farnsworth misses Hitler and hits Eleanor Roosevelt instead.
** In "The Lesser of Two Evils", the sign which says "Tonight: MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT" a moment later turns into "Tomorrow: MISS PARALLEL UNIVERSE PAGEANT".
** In "That's Lobstertainment!", there is a Parallel Universal Studios side-by-side with the Universal Studios.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' featured a timeline where Cobra had succeeded in taking over the world.

** The photonovel story ''LightNovel/EvangelionANIMA'' was, according to WordOfGod, specifically created out of the desire to produce a ''Gundam''-style Alternate Universe story.

** ''Danganronpa IF'' takes place in a "What if?" version where Naegi finds a switch to escape the school before any of the students can attempt a murder.

** Each of the main ''Danganronpa'' entries has an extra mode (School Mode in ''Danganronpa'', Island Mode in ''Danganronpa 2'', Dangan Salmon Team in ''Danganronpa V3''), all of which could be considered alternate universes where the killing games never happened. ''Danganronpa V3'' also has an unlockable game titled Ultimate Talent Development Plan which could count as yet another alternate universe, where the rosters from all three novels attend Hope's Peak Academy during the same period and the Monokubs take over as the school's headmasters.

* Almost every story in ''Website/TheWanderersLibrary'' takes place in a different one.
* Website/{{YTMND}}:
** The website gets its name from Sean Connery's line "You're the man now, dog!" in the movie ''Film/FindingForrester''. One user created a YTMND of the full scene containing the line, which also included Connery saying "Punch the keys for God's sake!" This inspired the creation of an alternate universe where the site's creator chose ''that'' line to make his site around instead of "You're the man now, dog!". PTKFGS had slightly different versions of YTMND's fads, such as "omg, internet" instead of "lol, internet", "R U SHUR?" instead of "O RLY?", etc. These sites had a blue PTKFGS watermark in the upper right corner to contrast YTMND's orange watermark in the upper left. This eventually snowballed into the creation of a ''third'' universe, YESYES, named after Connery's exclamation of "Yes! Yes!" in the same scene from ''Finding Forrester''. YESYES sites had a green watermark in the bottom right corner. Multiple attempts were made to create a "fourth corner" universe, but nobody could agree on what to definitively call it since Connery didn't have any more lines in that scene. Proposed suggestions included "HEH" (Connery lets out a small chuckle during that scene), "Typing Noises" (another character can be heard typing on a typewriter during that scene), and "YHTMOAG" ("You have the manners of a goat", a Connery line from ''Film/{{Highlander}}''). Eventually one user created a YTMND establishing lore that the fourth corner was in fact a multiverse containing all proposed suggestions.
** There were other AU memes on the site beyond the traditional "corners", such as "[=GAYTMND=]" (CampGay and often set to "Shut Up (and Sleep With Me)"), "[[StylisticSuck CRAPTMND]]", "[[EarRape LOUDTMND]]", and "Violin" (which involved edits of other sites to have classical music and pictures of violins pasted into them, and being perpetuated as a ForcedMeme on the front page by a user's repeated donations).

* ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' posits a "sub-dimension" created through the impact of the meteorite into earth that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs continued to evolve in this sub-dimension in the city of "Dinohattan", a city mirroring New York City.

* Officially stated by a character in Manga/SaintSeiyaEpisodeGA: Shura and Aiolia are not in their usual timeline nor universe.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

* Zigzagged in ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' which has TheMultiverse and inter dimensional travel as a major plot point, but each dimension is an Alternate Universe version of a previous setting in the yugioh franchise (though there's no direct communication between these dimensions and the settings they serve as counterparts to). [[spoiler:After TheReveal it turns out this trope is either invoked or averted, depending on your point of view.]]

* ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' has an alternate universe where everyone has goatees, a ShoutOut to the ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "Mirror Mirror," in which the Spock counterpart wore a goatee. Anytime you see an alternate universe counterpart with a goatee, chances are it's a ShoutOut to "Mirror Mirror."

* In the fourth ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' novel, ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'', Kyon suddenly finds himself in a world without supernatural powers, with what SOS members remain leading normal, human lives.
** It is, however, quite important to the plot that it actually [[spoiler:was not an alternate universe, the one he has always been at had been rebuilt.]]

** One fan also seems to make an excellent example with an [[http://captainosaka.deviantart.com/art/DOUBLE-K-001-82688715 AU universe comic]] about ''TTGL'' worthy of the series.

* ''Anime/SpaceDandy'' plays with this trope a lot. Each episode of the series is arguably set in a different universe as many of them end with the characters dying, becoming zombies or even micro-organisms, only for them to be perfectly fine the next episode.[[spoiler:The series also ends with Dandy rejecting the Narrator's offer of Godhood, which causes the universe to reset itself to the very first episode...though things appear to be ''slightly'' different this time round.]]

* The 150th [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad Email]] had Strong Bad visiting many of the website's alternate universes.
* ''Machinima/SmashKing'' is a story based on an alternate universe in the world of Smash that's parallel to the Nintendo multiverse at large, and the trophies know they're replicas of their original selves from the multi-verse, yet create their own society and choose their own personalities of their own volition, living life on their own terms in this tier based society.

** It involves the [[PlayerCharacters PCs]] as agents travelling through alternate universes. Officially ''all'' GURPS settings are universes within the ''Infinite Worlds''. This includes assorted [[AlternateHistory Alternate Histories]] (''TabletopGame/GURPSTechnomancer'', ''TabletopGame/GURPSReignOfSteel''), several universes where AllMythsAreTrue (''GURPS [[Myth/KingArthur Camelot]]'', ''GURPS {{Atlantis}}''), multiple worlds with superheroes (''TabletopGame/GURPSSupers'', ''GURPS International Super Teams''), and even universes inexplicably modeled on the popular fiction of the baseline universe (''GURPS [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]'', ''[[TabletopGame/DiscworldRolePlayingGame GURPS Discworld]]'')!

Another type of Alternate Universe is that which doesn't take any of the characters, but instead takes concepts, or machines. Such Alternate Universes are uncommon, but exist. ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' is the perfect example, with no less than ''seven'' separate universes, all of them rehashing essentially the same plots and concepts — in particular, the conflict between those living in space and those living on Earth. With [[HumongousMecha giant robots.]]

** InSpiteOfANail — Tiny changes have made the world almost the same but the differences are critical (or wildly different, but the characters are still the same and still together.)

* The ''Manga/HetaliaBloodbath2010'' event: [[spoiler: the culprits turn out to be alternate versions of various countries from another world where everyone has cat ears and they walk around nude like it's no problem, and apparently contains ''123 different Frances.'' The survival of that world depends on finding a nation with a certain mark on their chest or butt before the end of Christmas, hence the stripping.]] ItMakesSenseInContext.

*** The BigBad of ''Steel Ball Run'' has a [[FightingSpirit Stand]] based around weaponizing a similar concept. He could escape death by pulling an identical version of himself from another universe to replace him, and could also force others to [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet come into contact with their doppelgangers, and thus be obliterated]]. The other universes are almost identical, with the sole prominent difference being [[spoiler: the lack of the Holy Corpse in all but the main universe]].

* A major plot twist in ''Manga/RaveMaster'' involved this trope: [[spoiler: ''the entire series'' exists within an Alternate Universe, which was created when the last survivor of the original reality manipulated time in order to create a parallel world where TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt didn't come to pass. The OmnicidalManiac that was destroying this parallel world was in fact a balancing force created as a result of the unnatural divergence in the timestream]].

** It is, however, quite important to the plot that it actually [[spoiler: was not an alternate universe, the one he has always been at had been rebuilt.]]

* ''Anime/SpaceDandy'' plays with this trope a lot. Each episode of the series is arguably set in a different universe as many of them end with the characters dying, becoming zombies or even micro-organisms, only for them to be perfectly fine the next episode.[[spoiler: The series also ends with Dandy rejecting the Narrator's offer of Godhood, which causes the universe to reset itself to the very first episode...though things appear to be ''slightly'' different this time round.]]

** The Roundworld Project: Created by Hex the magic AI as an emergency dumping-ground for a thaumic overload, an orange-sized spherical universe is kept on Rincewind's desk at Unseen University. Most of the UU faculty think this narrativium-deprived alternate reality is a silly waste of time; even so, the Archchancellor occasionally (meaning, whenever a new ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' book is published) tasks his wizards to offset interlopers' tampering with the pocket universe's history. Silly or not, it ''is'' University property. [[spoiler: "Roundworld" is, of course, our own universe.]]

* In ''Literature/SmokeAndShadows'', [[spoiler: Arra]] comes from what seems to be a parallel Earth given how easily she adapts to life in Vancouver. Her world was less technological, but magic use was mainstream.

* In ''Literature/{{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]]

** A subversion of this trope happens in the book Time Trap before any of the other examples. Vakama wakes up in an alternate timeline where he and the rest of the Toa Metru never became Toa and six others became toa in their place. At first it seems like he accidentally changed the past with the mask of time, but [[spoiler: it turns out the BigBad was using [[MasterOfIllusion illusions]] [[LotusEaterMachine to trick him.]] Vakama figures out the situation isn't real by mentioning an event that didn't happen to a friend who would know that it didn't happen, then continues to play along with the illusion for a while to look for clues.]]

* 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.

* In ''Webcomic/TwoOverZero'', an alternate version of the universe was discovered [[spoiler: by Terra]].

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', initiating [[spoiler: the Scratch]] creates one of these by [[ResetButton resetting the conditions of the game]], including the players and their universe. [[spoiler: As a result, the players of the initial session switch places with their ectobiological parents, and vice-versa.]] This has happened twice so far: once to Earth, and once to [[spoiler: Alternia]].

* ''Webcomic/MSPaintMasterpieces'' has a number of alternate timelines that are shown as side-stories. [[spoiler: As X explains in filler, there's only one ''actual'' timeline, and when you mess with time travel, you destroy the projected one, which is what Wily's up to between the first and second games.]]

* In the season four finale of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', the GreaterScopeVillain [[spoiler: [[TheDreaded the Lich]]]] finds and opens a portal to TheMultiverse. When Finn and Jake follow, we see them in a universe where the Mushroom War never happened. Thus, the Candy Kingdom doesn't exist, Jake can't talk, and Finn is not the last human. He also has a robot arm.
** We find out more about this in the season 5 premiere. [[spoiler: Finn wished the Lich out of existence, so he and Jake ended up in an alternate timeline where the Ice King performed a HeroicSacrifice to prevent the final bomb from falling in the Mushroom War, and the creation of the Lich, from ever happening.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': The episode "Let's Play Astronauts" had the main four go to an alternate universe [[ArtisticLicensePhysics through a black hole in space]]. There, Kaeloo's [[HulkingOut transformation]] works in reverse, [[TheWoobie Quack Quack]] and [[VillainProtagonist Mr. Cat]] (known as Meow Meow and Mr. Duck) had each other's personalities and traits, and [[TheDitz Stumpy]] was a genius who loved physics and hated comic books. [[spoiler: It turns out [[AllJustADream Stumpy dreamed this all up]].]]

* A large percentage of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' revolves around parallel universes and inter-dimensional travel. In one episode, it is revealed that many of the infinite other Ricks from alternate dimensions came together to form the Citadel of Ricks, a society made entirely up of Ricks with their Morty companions, complete with their own form of government. [[spoiler: The ability to travel between dimensions has also helped the duo on more than a few occasions. Most notable was the time where Rick irreversibly altered the DNA structure of everyone on Earth, making them Cronenberg creatures. They remedied the problem by finding an alternate dimension where both Rick and Morty die shortly after solving the problem, leaving the "invading" Rick and Morty to bury their own corpses and assume their own lives in a new dimension.]]

* Almost every story in ''Wiki/TheWanderersLibrary'' takes place in a different one.

* In the ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' 2003 anime [[spoiler:the opposite side of The Gate is shown to be our universe.]] The two worlds have vastly different continuities but all humans have an AlternateSelf on the other side of the gate.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''. The Foundation has many contained objects that apparently come from (or are doorways to) other universes, many of which are similar to the Foundation's universe.

* AlternateUniverseFic — Pretty much the same as above but for fanfics. Here at Wiki/TVTropes we use slightly different terminology, hence "universe" instead of "reality".

* In ''Dragon City'', Erin's friend Natasha reveals herself to an alternate universe counterpart despite Erin having blue scales and Natasha having brown.

* An episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' [[MirrorUniverse has one where Ash and his Kalos friends have counterparts that have completely polar personalities]]. In that universe, Ash has become a wimp who cries when things go bad, Alternate!Serena has become a {{Jerkass}} who often taunts Alternate!Ash, Alternate!Clemont has become a magician, and Alternate!Bonnie is more quiet and polite. Also, the real Team Rocket encounter their alternate counterparts, where they were actually seen as ''heroes'' of the Kalos region. Their Pokémon get affected too; Alternate!Hawlucha has become a wimp like Alternate!Ash, and Alternate!Pikachu has become cocky and is a regular nuisance to Team Rocket.
** A two-parter in ''Sun & Moon'' has Ash and Pikachu sent to an alternate universe version of Melemele where pollution and attacks by Guzzlord have devastated the now-abandoned island. They team up with the lone survivor to force the Guzzlord back to its home dimension before they are returned to their home universe.

* ''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 except for Plague Rat who is instead Plague Man (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.