Tommy Westphall, eat your heart out

If you've been around the internet for any length of time, you may have heard of the Tommy Westphall Multiverse, a theory posited by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie that "The last five minutes of St. Elsewhere is the only show on TV. Everything else is just a daydream." The theory goes to prove a problem with the almost incestuous nature of crossovers in American TV dramas, where one show will spawn another, which will cross with another, which will have a backdoor pilot for another show, and then another series will crossover, and it'll have a sequel, and so on. Fans mapped out all of the crossovers until they all intersected at St. Elsewhere. The problem? The finale of St. Elsewhere revealed that the entire series was the daydream of Tommy Westphall, a child with autism who spent his days staring at a snowglobe of the hospital. Which in turn means that he was daydreaming of an entire multiverse, spanning everything from Homicide: Life on the Streets to The X Files to The Simpsons.

Well, toku may have created another one.

Apparently, in a recent episode of Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger, a delusion changes history so that Super Sentai is actually an imported version of Power Rangers, an American tokusatsu series. This is the exact explanation given in the Power Rangers Dino Thunder episode "Lost & Found in Translation", in which Ethan and Kira are addicted to a (presumably dubbed) Japanese version of the Dino Rangers' adventures, while Conner flips out about it coming off as insulting (pre-empting the fans' complaints that it was insulting to Sentai) before just giving in and enjoying the whackiness. You know, kind of like Akibaranger. So does this mean Power Rangers is a delusion on the part of Nobuo, Yumeria, and Luna?

Well, it gets worse. If you recall, Power Rangers in Space featured a crossover with Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation called "Shell Shocked". And the 2009 movie Turtles Forever revealed that all TMNT material is part of a multiverse. Gee, I hope that's the only multiverse PR has crossed over with.

"A Friend in Need," the season 3 premiere of MMPR is a crossover/backdoor pilot for Saban's Masked Rider, something that exists that we (Saban included) like to pretend doesn't. And as we also learned in 2009, Kamen Rider exists in a multiverse where every Rider happened. Including that guy.

So I hope that Kamen Rider never crossed over with...oh wait. Super Sentai is part of the Kamen Rider multiverse, which is part of the Power Rangers multiverse, which is part of the Akibarangers' delusion. Also, Metal Heroes is part of the same shared delusion. On top of that, there is a Power Rangers Turbo/Beetleborgs crossover comic that cements the cross on both sides of the Pacific.

Well, as long as Power Rangers never crossed over with anything else with over 4 decades of continuity and...yeah, the Last Great Time War happened around Lost Galaxy. "Green Courage" showed a meteoroid field right where Gallifrey should have been. That was 1999. 2005 revealed Gallifrey had been destroyed in the Last Great Time War, which all but wiped out the Time Lords, Daleks, and Cybermen, and fucked over time enough to explain the continuity problems of all series involved. ONORE RASSILON!

Worse? Doctor Who has multiple spinoffs, including K-9 and Company, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and assorted media like a comic that crossed over with Star Trek: The Next Generation. And on top of all that, both shows are part of the Tommy Westphall Universe.

Congratulations, Akibarangers. I hope you like those snowglobes.

Things are not always what they seem: W.I.T.C.H. I – L

An important note before we start. You're going to start seeing trigger warnings here. Especially with the next batch, M-O. See, season two of W.I.T.C.H. is more mature than the first season, and around this time, it starts dealing with some more mature material. It's nothing too graphic or explicit to be shown on a kids' show for seven-year-olds and up, but it's still important to note.

These episodes are going to deal with torture. Now, I haven't warned for torture before, like in Lost Galaxy when Deviot tortures Leo because it's very expressly meant to be bad, and they don't show a whole lot of it. In "L is for Loser," we'll see the same thing going on to Matt. However, I know that animal cruelty is another story entirely for many people. So if this makes you uncomfortable, I suggest you skip "L is for Loser." There will be another warning down there.

( I is for Illusion )

( J is for Jewel )

( K is for Knowledge )

( L is for Loser )