This Is Alex Bale Levels Of Theorizing My Guy!!!

This is Alex Bale levels of theorizing my guy!!!

I can absolutely see it!!!

The Eddsworld Reset Theory

Has anyone else noticed the continuity oddities with Eddsworld? A lot of the goofy hi-jinks the gang go on can easily be explained by cartoon logic, but there are some things that don't quite... line up. Mostly in regards to character death. This is another long one, apologies.

I get that technically the only major irreversible character death is Jon in the finale, but think about it. People die in Eddsworld all the time, especially during the Goulden Era. Some examples right off the top of my head are the Zombeh trilogy, WTFuture, and Matt Sucks.

You could argue that the Zombeh trilogy is its own isolated canon, at the end, everyone dies including Tom and Edd who realize they were bit at the end of the third episode, but in WTFuture, Future Edd goes back in time of the current timeline and lands literally seconds after Matt had his arm ripped off. This outright confirms that not only were these characters zombified and then killed, but they somehow came back as they were previously as though nothing happened. Matt Sucks -where Matt gets turned into a vampire- has this as well, with Edd and Tom being nailed to the wall and killed in an attempt to kill Matt, who then burned alive anyway. The very next episode, everyone is alive and well, making no allusions to what had happened in the episode prior. Eddsworld: Beyond actually references this, that Matt and the sun are old enemies. He even hisses at the sun, showing fangs, as though he was a vampire. Is Matt still a vampire? But he died, didn't he? It could just be a silly "if you know you know" reference for those still going back to the older episodes and doesn't really matter all that much in the long run, which is fair. That being said... Also in WTFuture, Matt goes back in time and becomes the ruler of everything, taking the place of every single important historical figure, basically becoming the dictator of the world and its history, (and you thought Tord was bad). Even Matt's own friends are affected by this change, praising Matt and his glorious endeavors as apposed to being mildly annoyed with him as they typically are. The next episode, everything goes back to normal. Cartoon logic. But later, in part one of Hammer and Fail, Matt mumbles this to himself:

If... if every episode is its own contained world, which is how a lot of cartoons typically allow timey-wimey plotlines like WTFuture, how would Matt remember him being ruler? Heck, even the painting of Matt as king is in Tord's room after it's established that Matt's time travel had been reversed.

Does this mean other characters can remember this kind of stuff too? Do Tom and Edd also remember every single time they've died? There is in-canon proof that each contained episode link the each other in a variety of ways, but the beginning of every episode starts the same: the house being in one piece, and Tom, Matt, and Edd, (and Tord, I guess) being perfectly alive and well. In fact, after several episodes of the gang's house being blown up and destroyed (Zanta 2, Space Face part 2, etc.), the only time the house remains irreparable is The End part 2. So what gives? It makes me wonder if there's someone or something that is pulling time-manipulating strings in the background to ensure these characters -and their house- remain alive, even repairing their time-travel based wrong-doings. Something along the lines of a Reset, perhaps? It's important to remember that physical objects and sensations, like the house or damage to the characters bodies, are removed and set back to how they were, but the memories of the characters affected have stayed. Physical changes, mental stays. At first, I thought that if this Reset thing is the responsibility of an actual person, that it'd be Tom. Considering the whole implied-possession character trait and the fact he gets beaten up the most out of the three, (Spares he gets thrown in the trash in favour of a Matt clone only for the clone to never be seen again, he gets electrocuted in Space Face 2, he gets shot in the face with a laser twice (Space Face 1 and Zanta 2), gets a full body cast in Zanta 3, etc.), the Resets would give him a better stand against everything thrown at him as well as lean into his supernatural origins. Plus, he cares about his friends, and has shown displeasure in the idea of losing them, specifically Edd, meaning the Resets might also not be exclusively selfish. But there's another character that fits the bill even more. Take another look at the examples of continuity oddities above. Notice the character in common? Matt. Matt is the one (to my knowledge) most likely to make multiple references to events in previous, seemingly unrelated episodes. He is the only one shown to have kept his memory of WTFuture. Matt is still shown to be a vampire, after having died from burning and having then been seen in daylight several times later with no consequence. Is this a coincidence? Yes, absolutely. You can even tell that Legacy makes strides to avoid this kind of confusion with the noticable lack of character "death" until The End. Is this a fascinating coincidence nonetheless? Oh, yes, absolutely.