How Star Wars Connects to the MCU

Star Wars takes place a "long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." This idea of "a long time ago" is taken from Akira Kurosawa's samurai films, such as Seven Samurai (one of the greatest samurai films of all time) where the Jedi are inspired by samurai and other ancient military orders. Of course the "galaxy far, far away" implies far, far away from Earth, in another galaxy entirely. This is where the strangeness occurs.

There is one question I have always had about Star Wars and this idea of a galaxy far, far away: why are the main characters so human? Setting aside the obvious technical reasons of film-making and staying in-universe, it is almost inconceivable that human beings would evolve in parallel in two different galaxies. The human form does have some advantages, mainly thumbs and a big brain. However, we are weaker, slower, almost blind, and deaf compared to other life forms on Earth. The idea of parallel evolution, while possible of course, is extremely unlikely. There is a possibility that the human form on Earth comes from this galaxy far, far away. They had faster-than-light (FTL) capability, so it is possible a colony ship from that galaxy using an FTL drive could have colonized this galaxy but there is one big problem. The distance between galaxies is unbelievably huge. The closest galaxy, Canis Major, is 25, 000 light-years away or 236,000,000,000,000,000 km (146,643,601,368,010,816 miles). Even traveling through hyperspace at maximum speed would require a generation ship to reach our galaxy from Canis Major assuming Star Wars takes place in this dwarf galaxy, which seems unlikely. The other major problem with the colony hypothesis is the apparent maturity of the Star Wars universe. Star Wars would have had to take place billions of years in the past in order for a colony ship to arrive on Earth in our past, so we would expect the Star Wars universe to be quite young. It isn't though. A young universe would have much fewer stars than the Star Wars universe has. The number of apparent stars and star systems in Star Wars seems on par with our universe and closer to our time than in the past. So we have a bit of a problem. Or do we? In Loki, we saw that the multiverse has existed time and again in a cyclic manner, presumably for all eternity (at least up until this point). Humans are peculiar to Earth and of course to parallel Earths. Think about the samurai orders and an expanding multiverse. The multiverse expands at a geometric rate, which each universe slightly different from the last. You could think of the multiverse in terms of distance. Travel from timeline to timeline, and you get "farther" away from the starting universe. The farther you travel, the universes become much different than the starting universe. Yet, there are going to be things that remain the same though, such as humans and the age of the universe. The Samarai Age ran from 1185 to 1868 Earth time. Traveling across the multiverse during this time, you would see various forms of the samurai, slightly different in each universe, but with some elements remaining the same. Since the multiverse is infinite, at some you will reach a timeline where the samurai are called Jedi and the universe, while the same age as our own, is already a space-faring society in the 1100s. That is certainly possible if in the Star Wars timeline humans evolved much earlier than in our own. It is quite possible that when you reach this timeline, you have found a "galaxy far, far away" in the multiverse and "a long time ago" in the Samurai Age. I think Star Wars is an alternate universe, quite a distance from our own, taking place during the Age of the Samurai.

Freewill and the Sacred Timeline (Loki Analysis)

 Free will is a subject I have examined for years and I have found that most people have no idea what free will actually is and how it works. The common idea is that free will is not possible in a deterministic universe. In fact, free will is always possible regardless of determinism or not. So, what is free will? Free will is the ability to freely choose from at least two alternatives without any coercion from an outside force on the agent in the making of the choice. As long as an agent isn't forced into a choice, even if that choice is predetermined by a higher power, the agent has expressed free will.

You can verify this hypothesis by looking at the result of the choice. If determinism forced a choice, that is the agent was in fact coerced into making a choice by the fact that determinism exists, then it would be evident in the result. The Time Lizards exist outside of time since they are the ones controlling the timeline (if they actually exist). They would know that Joe would go left at an intersection because they can see the whole timeline, and see the result of every choice. Joe reaches the intersection and goes left. Can we determine that he was coerced into doing so by looking at the result? The answer is no. We see the result, but not the mechanism of the choice that determined the result. That is the problem. Determinism says he will go left, but it doesn't give us any clue on how that choice was made. The Sacred Timeline is deterministic if it is a fixed timeline (and that really is the question that needs an answer). Fixed timelines cannot be changed, no matter how you may try to change the timeline. A fixed timeline is deterministic because the result of every choice has already been made throughout the whole timeline. That is the definition of a fixed timeline. Everything that can happen has already happened and cannot be changed. However, that says nothing about the mechanism of the choices and therefore cannot speak to how those choices were made and whether an agent was free in making those choices. As long as there is freedom of choice, even if the result of every choice is predetermined, then free will has been expressed. To most people, this seems like a contradiction, however, it is the nature of choice. How far does choice extend? Does choice end at the act of choosing or does it extend to the results of the choice? That is the key point to understand. As I have already shown, choice does not extend to the result of the choice of the agent. Choice, and therefore free will, only extends to the act of choosing and no farther. When Joe reaches the intersection, he can go left or right. We already know he goes left since that is predetermined. However, when we examine the actual choice we see that Joe is not under any coercion to choose left over right, he simply chooses left and his free will has been expressed. Even in a fully deterministic universe, as long as the agents are not forced into making choices, they have free will. Even in the Sacred Timeline, there is free will. The Time Lizards know this which is why they have pushed this Big Brother agenda so hard. The Sacred Timeline is by nature, unstable, otherwise, there wouldn't be a TVA in the first place. The Sacred Timeline itself cannot be changed as it fixed (supposedly), but this instability creates the many timelines that naturally branch from the Scared Timeline. This instability is inherent in the Sacred Timeline because the Time Lizards cannot actually control free will in the timeline.

The multiverse is the natural state of the universe because of free will, and they are trying to impose an artificial restraint on the universe that the universe itself is trying to break free from. It isn't just the variants that want to be free of the Time Lizards' manipulation; the universe itself is trying to get back to its natural state. Like Thanos, the multiverse is inevitable.

Why Time Travel is a Problem

 There is nothing in science that prevents time travel explicitly, but time travel poses a real problem to science and it isn't the problem you may think. The problem with time travel is the possibility of a paradox, and the common one most people think of is the Grandfather Paradox.  You travel back in time and kill your Grandfather. Since you killed your Grandfather, you would not exist to go back in time to kill your Grandfather--hence the paradox.

There is a more subtle one as well. On a dark and stormy night, you hear a knock at the door. When you open the door a man in a strange suit hands you a worn book. The man looks strangely familiar, but you can't quite place him. He says to you, "In twenty years, the technology will be available to build the machine in the book. Build it, go back in time, and give yourself the book." The man then turns and walks away. You look through the book and discover it is the plan for building a time machine. This paradox is actually worse than the Grandfather paradox, although t doesn't seem so at first glance.  Think about it for a moment and ask yourself the question: who originally wrote the book? Where did it come from?

The problem is the same in both of these paradoxes, in fact in every paradox. Paradoxes violate the Law of Conservation of Information. In the Grandfather paradox, information is being erased from the universe. In the second paradox, information has been added to the universe and both violate the Law of Conservation of Information.

Conservation of information is a corollary of the Law of Conservation of Energy and is a consequence of Einstein's famous E = MC^2 formula. The formula states that mass and energy are equivalent, they are just different forms of the same thing. The Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change its form. 

Mass is energy, but it is energy with information attached to it. In fact, all energy is a form of information since mass and energy describe the universe around us. An atom has some information associated with it, and when you split that atom, that information must be conserved the same as energy is conserved.  The information of the two components equals the information of the original component.

Time paradoxes violate this information conservation. In the case of the Grandfather paradox, information is being removed from the universe. Information cannot be removed from the universe, you can only change its form. In the second paradox, you are adding information to the universe, information that doesn't have a source. Both of these conditions violate information conservation but are possible if time travel is true. The paradox is that the Law of Conservation of Information is violated, something that simply you cannot do under science as we know it. If the conservation of information were possible, then physics is wrong and the whole scientific framework that we use to understand the universe just crashes. However, the laws of science have been proven over and over so it is the paradox that cannot happen not that the laws of science fail.

It is strange that nothing in science prevents time travel, probably because the notion of time in science is actually quite vague. It is really hard to define exactly what time is and if it actually exists. Yes, we have space-time, but that concerns the passage of time in a frame of reference as indicated by a clock. Clocks actually don't measure time. Clocks are simply chronometers that operate at an agreed-upon frequency that help us measure the world around us and synchronize activities around the solar system. Clocks are just fancy metronomes, that tick at a certain constant rate (in a perfectly flat portion of space-time not influenced by any measurable gravity). The agreed-upon rate is dictated by super-accurate atomic clocks--which also don't measure time.

Time paradoxes probably indicate that time travel isn't possible, given that the possibility of a paradox, even if that possibility is very rare. Maybe you can't change the past at all. For example, it may be impossible to kill your Grandfather even if you tried. The second paradox may not be possible either, but we simply don't know, and that is a problem. The very possibility, as improbable as it may be, may indicate that time travel will forever remain in the realms of science fiction.

WandaVision: What is Going On?

 Note: The following contains spoilers for the TV show WandaVision airing on Disney+.

The newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a new TV show called WandaVision. Wanda Maximoff, aka The Scarlet Witch and Vision, are the two main Marvel characters in the show. The show takes place in this strange alternate reality where Wanda and Vision are married and are living in a series of TV sitcoms starting with the 1950s and moving forward through the decades. The format is quite odd but I believe that the show actually explains what is happening. This essay is my theory on what is going on in WandaVision.

The main motif in the show is the classic television sitcom. This is more than just a gimmick. It is integral to what is happening in this strange alternate world. To understand we need to look at the show trailers for two important clues. The first is the Monkees song Daydream Believer that is used in the first trailer. The idea of “dreaming” is prominent in the trailers and Daydream Believer is a song about suburban life and the strange tone life takes after the wedding day. The next clue is in the last trailer where the narrator says “dreaming starts Friday”. The narrator uses the word dreaming instead of streaming. It is clear from these two clues that the show is composed of a dream world. We know from the comics books that Wanda is capable of altering reality so it appears that this world of WandaVision is a dream world that Wanda is creating for some reason. Wanda has to be creating this since this takes place after the events of the war with Thanos and Vision is dead.

This is confirmed by Agnes, the nosy neighbor (probably Agatha Harkness from the comics) where she sees Wanda looking at the red toy helicopter and says “the star of the show!” This reference clearly indicates that Wanda is the one that is in this dream state and is creating this alternate reality.

The episodes are in black and white but we find that certain objects in the show appear in the color red. We have the toy helicopter, the light on the toaster in the fake commercial, blood on the hand of the lady at the meeting after the strange radio signal. Red is a color closely tied with the Scarlet Witch and I think the color red represents reality or the real world. At the ending of episode 2, we have Vision turning red, his natural color, and Wanda's dress turning red, the color of the Scarlet Witch. The color red represents reality and the real world.

We have another important clue at the end of episode 1 where we see that Wanda is being monitored by what appears to be the organization called Sword. Sword is an acronym that means Sentient Weapon Observation Response Division. It is an organization like Shield that handles threats of an extraterrestrial nature. The Weapon part of the acronym implies individuals with superpowers that have become weaponized. In the case of Wanda, this may refer to her ability to alter reality, a power we haven't yet seen in the MCU but is probably now being revealed in WandVision. Since Sword is monitoring the dream state of Wanda, is clear that they have her in a facility where this monitoring can take place. This brings us to the toaster commercial which I believe is the explanation of what is going on in WandaVison.

The commercial starts with burnt toast and the narrator are addressing the woman in the audience, an obvious reference to Wanda. The burnt toast is bad. We don't want burnt toast. The answer to this bad situation is a toaster created by Stark Industries that will produce perfect toast when the red light blinks. In the commercial, the red light blinks, and the prop lady takes out the perfect toast and places them on a plate after giving a very odd look at the camera. In fact, the whole commercial is odd.

The prop lady doesn't act like a prop lady should in the commercial. If you have ever seen the Price is Right, you know what I mean. She is focused on the toaster and when the red light blinks she gives a look to the camera like she is saying “I told you.” We also have that red light. Red is the color of the real world, and since the toaster has a red light, it is connected to a real-world machine. The toaster is just a manifestation in the dream world of this real-world machine that is designed to correct a bad situation.

Let's look at the commercial again, but from a higher level. Something bad has occurred, some sort of disaster, represented by the burnt toast. The answer to fix the source of the disaster is a machine made by Stark Industries that is being monitored by doctors or scientists represented by the prop lady. We know that Wanda is being monitored by Sword, as she lives in this dream world, so it appears that the Stark toaster is actually a machine that Wanda is in where she is dreaming this alternate reality. Sword has her in a machine that allows Wanda to dream and because Wanda can alter reality, she is creating an alternate reality from this dream state. But why?

The dream is the key here. They have her in a dream state because mentally something is wrong with Wanda. The machine is designed to heal Wanda's mental state. Suppose after the battle with Thanos, Wanda has a mental break. After all, she watched Vision die twice. It is easy to see that if Wanda had a complete mental breakdown, her ability to alter reality would pose a serious threat to the world. I believe that the burnt toast indicates that Wanda was wreaking havoc in the world because of her mental breakdown and they were able somehow to put her into the dream state within the machine. I suspect Agnes, aka Agatha Harkness, a person closely connected to Wanda in the comics books, may have had something to do with getting Wanda in this dream state.

The sitcom motif of the show is a metaphor for Wanda's mental state. In the 1950s, sitcoms had little resemblance to the real world. They were these bubble worlds that existed in an almost different reality, far removed from the real world. The first episode sitcom setting is from that idealized world of Leave it to Beaver and the Dick Van Dyke show. This shows how far mentally Wanda is from reality, her deep mental break after the events with Thanos.

As the series continues we see the show sitcom motif change to shows from the 1960s and 1970s like Bewitched and Brady Bunch. The 1960s and 1970s sitcoms were closer to reality than previous shows. For example the two-bed bedroom of the 1950s sitcom became the one-bed bedroom in the late '60s and early '70s sitcoms. This indicates that Wanda is also moving closer to reality, that her mental state is improving. So the sitcom motif of the show is actually an indicator of Wanda's improving mental state while she is in the Stark machine.

There is a wrinkle in all of this though. In the scene where Wanda and Agnes are at the Rotary Club meeting, the leader says “the devil is in the details” and Agnes responds “that isn't the only place he is at”. In the comics, Wanda has ties to a major villain called Mephisto. Mephisto is portrayed as a “devil” character so it is clear that Agnes is referring to Mephisto. After the meeting, Wanda hears a message from the radio that sounds like it is saying “Wanda, what are they doing to you?” and immediately afterward, the lady who was running the meeting breaks a glass in her hand and the resulting blood is red, indicating a connection to the real world. I think this shows that WandaVision and Mephisto have a connection that will bring bloodshed in the real world. It may be that this alternate reality Wanda is creating is the vehicle that Mephisto uses to come into our world. There is quite a bit of speculation that Mephisto may be the main villain in the next phase of the MCU which is starting with WandaVision. I think this scene foreshadows the events we will see in the new MCU phase.

All of this is just a theory, but I think it fits the facts and is a reasonable interpretation of the clues given in the show. Time will tell if I am correct.