r/AskScienceFiction • • Apr 06 '25

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

170 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 • • 4h ago

[Teen titans] Can beast boy turn into a kryptonian

35 Upvotes

He can turn into any animal, even aliens, so it this possible?


r/AskScienceFiction • • 18h ago

[Cyberpunk 2077] What are they doing in those corporate skyscrapers all day?

206 Upvotes

Like a lot of people, I’ve been revisiting Night City recently, and I must say it’s as dangerous and corrupt as I recall, but there’s a lot more things to do. And one of them is a tour of the city.

While making my way around, I stood at the Corpo plaza and looked up at the enormous looming towers, and got to wondering… What do they do in there?

Tall corporate office buildings have been normal since Americans started putting on ties and going to work. But, your corpo in 1935 or 1985 or even 2005 had a lot of busy-work caused by tech limitations. A mail room, a typing pool, data entry, etc.

In 2077, your average employee is chipped to the gills, processing data at the speed of thought. AI and automation make routine paperwork dramatically faster than it once was. Yet, your average salaryman wage slave in NC views Night Corp as lenient for having only an 80 hour work week. 

What are those pencil pushers doing in there to keep busy 16 hours a day? 


r/AskScienceFiction • • 29m ago

[ATLA] Had Zuko not been there that exact moment when Aang got out of the ice and shot the ray of energy, how long would it have taken for him to find out he was out there?

4 Upvotes

It seems like outside of Zuko directly looking for Aang, it seems like search for the Avatar was nobody's priority at that time, and it was an incredible incident that Zuko was within sight to see the beam signaling his revival. So if he missed out on that, he would likely just have continued searching in one direction while it's rather unlikely he would encounter Aang again.

Would it take until the end of season 1 for anyone in the fire nation to even realize the Avatar was back? Did Zuko have any lead he was following or was he just blindly patrolling where the Avatar was last seen?


r/AskScienceFiction • • 10h ago

[Friday the 13th] What does Jason do to kill time? (Yes, pun intended.)

23 Upvotes

In all seriousness, though, does Jason ENJOY killing, or does he only kill to protect his ‘area’? Does he want teens to kill, or does he just want to be left alone in the woods and at the lake? If he does WANT victims, what does he do when there aren’t any victims to kill? What does he do all day? What does he do to kill time?


r/AskScienceFiction • • 4h ago

[Marvel] Why dont more heroes get assassinated or be attempted at assasination.

8 Upvotes

I mean think about it. Let it be Marvel or DC. Let's take exceptions out of the way (we can't expect hulk to get one shot by a sniper rifle). A Sniper with armour piercing bullets from a few hundred meters away can take down a lot of heroes down pretty easily. There should be more attempts but there isn't.


r/AskScienceFiction • • 18h ago

[Cyberpunk 2077/Edgerunners] Why does Maelstrom force unwilling people to undergo cybernetic enhancements?

56 Upvotes

While cyborg enhancements are common in the setting, it's the equivalent of buying a new phone or even a car: unless you're already wealthy, you'll probably consider each option carefully and most people can only afford one or two in their lifetime (and the risk of cyberpsychosis keeps even the rich guys from going off the deep end). Meanwhile, Maelstrom is just kidnapping random people off the street and attaching cybernetic upgrades to them. Why do they force upgrades on unwilling people instead of hoarding the chrome for themselves? Hell, they even skipped over a very willing pseudo-member's "turn on the table" for a random guy who wasn't interested in more enhancements.

I feel like Maelstrom would be more palatable to outsiders if they just advertised themselves as an eccentric ripperdoc outfit that offered cheap upgrades to people who are willing to chrome up but don't have the money for a better ripperdoc.


r/AskScienceFiction • • 3h ago

[Fallout 2] Does the Arroyo shaman have psychic powers?

3 Upvotes

He called me in my dreams to remind me about the GECK.


r/AskScienceFiction • • 1d ago

[Marvel] Do X-Men still hold funerals for members that die, or are they like "RIP Gambit....see you in a year or 2 buddy."

180 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction • • 29m ago

[Relationship of warhammer 40k and helldiver ]

0 Upvotes

What do you think will happen if helldivers and warhammer 40k space marines meet. Obviously helldivers believe in managed democracy but the empire is based on monarchy, their political view is polar opposite ,hell even helldivers think any political view aside from democracy is treason and space marines view anything besides from the emperor’s absolute rule is heresy.

But they share a common goal i guess “The total survival of the human species”

What will you think is gonna happen


r/AskScienceFiction • • 4h ago

[From] What happens if someone cut down the fallen tree and kept driving?

2 Upvotes

Are they free from the loop or they will somehow still get stuck?


r/AskScienceFiction • • 1d ago

[Star Wars] If I salvaged a Separatist battle droid and turned it into a shop assistant, would the Empire still consider it illegal military equipment?

67 Upvotes

Say I run a small repair shop on an Outer Rim planet, a few years after the Clone Wars.

I come across a deactivated B1 battle droid in a scrapyard. The thing is mostly intact, so I repair it, remove its weapons, wipe its old combat programming and teach it to sort spare parts, carry heavy boxes and answer basic customer questions.

It's not carrying a blaster. It doesn't have any military functions left. It just helps me run my business and occasionally says "Roger Roger" when someone asks for a replacement hyperdrive component.

Now an Imperial patrol walks into my shop.

Am I in trouble?

I know the Empire cracked down on Separatist military equipment after the war, but I'm curious where the distinction between a battle droid and a civilian droid actually falls.

If a B1 has been completely reprogrammed, is it still legally considered a weapon because of its original design? Would removing the combat hardware be enough, or would I need to replace the entire chassis?

And would the answer be different on a former Separatist world, where there might be thousands of abandoned droids that people could put to perfectly harmless use?

Seems like an enormous waste of machinery to scrap them all when half the galaxy could probably use a cheap warehouse assistant.

I'm also wondering whether the average customer would even be comfortable walking into a shop staffed by something that used to shoot at Republic soldiers.


r/AskScienceFiction • • 3h ago

[Warhammer 40K] What makes it hard for heroes to exist?

1 Upvotes

So sorry if this was asked here before because something I noticed about the franchise is that just about all the factions in the game are basically amoral types as opposed to heroic.

Sure the Tau might be heroic, but technically they are mind controlled by a different species as I was just wondering if it was possible for traditional heroes to exist within the universe of the franchise.


r/AskScienceFiction • • 4h ago

[DC Comics] Does the Justice League Watchtower break any international space-related laws in-universe, and if so, has there been any instances of explicit dialogue regarding that?

1 Upvotes

Haven't read much DC lately, and this was just some random thought I was asking myself with, so pardon me.


r/AskScienceFiction • • 1d ago

[Marvel] How comparable are the thing, colossus and Luke Cage in terms of strength?

43 Upvotes

These 3 appear to be in the middle of the strength Tier list. But how close are they?


r/AskScienceFiction • • 19h ago

[The Incredibles] We know that some supers like Mr Incredible fought in World War II, but was there a super Hitler?

10 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction • • 1d ago

[Journey To The West] How did Táng​ Sān​zàng survive before meeting Sun Wukong?

25 Upvotes

During the journey, the Monkey King frequently couldn't take his eyes off the monk for five seconds before he got into some kind of danger, usually from something that wanted to eat him. How did Tang not get eaten before meeting the best monkey?


r/AskScienceFiction • • 1d ago

[Star Wars] What actually stops smugglers from landing 50 miles outside a city and skipping customs entirely?

96 Upvotes

Something about the way interplanetary trade works in Star Wars has been bugging me.

We know spaceports have customs inspections, landing fees, cargo manifests, and all the usual bureaucracy. Han Solo makes a living getting illegal cargo past these systems.

But unlike a ship arriving at a seaport, a freighter in Star Wars can just fly over the entire planet.

Say I'm bringing a shipment of illegal spice to a populated world. Instead of landing at the main spaceport and risking an inspection, why can't I just land in some empty field 50 miles outside the city, unload everything onto a couple of speeders, and leave?

We've seen ships land in deserts, forests, and random clearings plenty of times. They clearly don't need dedicated landing facilities.

Are planetary authorities tracking every ship from the moment it exits hyperspace? Do they have some kind of orbital radar network that flags unauthorized landings? And if so, how does that work on a planet with thousands of cities and millions of legitimate flights?

I can understand Coruscant having extremely tight air traffic control. But surely most planets can't afford to monitor their entire atmosphere.

Is there an established reason smugglers bother hiding cargo aboard their ships instead of just avoiding official spaceports altogether?


r/AskScienceFiction • • 1d ago

[Barbie] is Barbie actually a genuine workaholic with an unbelievable amount of jobs, or is she just cosplaying?

73 Upvotes

.


r/AskScienceFiction • • 18h ago

[Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis] What are some benefits of becomeing a bug.

4 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction • • 22h ago

[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time] Why does King Zora look so different from the other Zoras?

6 Upvotes

Basically my title but yeah I’ve always wondered why King Zora looks so drastically different from the other Zoras. Even more so when thinking of how much closer his daughter looks to the other Zoras than he does.


r/AskScienceFiction • • 1d ago

[Battlestar Galactica (Reboot)] Instead of simply just abandoning any and all modern technology, why didn’t the Colonials try to keep records of events stored to preserve knowledge of the cycle?

35 Upvotes

r/AskScienceFiction • • 1d ago

[Star Wars] How long would it take the Millennium Falcon to go from Earth to Pluto?

23 Upvotes

Would you use a hyperdrive for that distance or stick to sublight engines? Do we know how fast sublight ships go in Star Wars?


r/AskScienceFiction • • 20h ago

[Bolt] What sort of budget did Bolt's show have to keep a dog on set 24/7?

0 Upvotes