Okay, I’ve got to say something about this. Why is there all this “Dave remembers John?” There’s no reason for it. Dave and John hit godtier, right? They’re both still alive. That’s like saying that Bro should have some kind of longing for Grandpa Harley because of Jake and DStrider. Or that Jack should’ve made out with the Black Queen because Slick and Snowman do.
It’s alternate versions, guys. Not every interaction is going to be the same.
i have a response to this, actually! if you’re interested, i mean.
i agree that “not every interaction is going to be the same.” in fact, it’s pretty impossible for them to be. however, there’s been plenty of hinting that characters, at least the guardians, can remember their alternate sessions. first and foremost, the sufferer from the troll kids’ timeline. it is clearly stated that he remembers the timeline in which he was a kid playing the game. doc scratch does seem to paint this as an unusual turn of events, but his story proves that it is a completely possible turn of events nonetheless.
in this conversation between jane and ds, ds tells jane about how his brother is “weirdly obsessed” with the film con air, but doesn’t specify whether he thinks the obsession is weird because dave hasn’t told him a reason for it or because dave doesn’t know why himself. given the additional mention of the stiller sunglasses, however, i think it’s reasonable to assume that a reference to his relationship with john in their beta timeline is being made.
whether or not they’re still alive in the beta timeline has no effect on the alpha timeline, as far as we know. i’m not entirely sure what point you’re trying to make by pointing out that they’re still alive as god-tier, but do feel free to elaborate on that.
you also bring up that the notion of alpha dave missing beta john is akin to the idea of beta bro missing alpha jake. (or at least i think you do. it’s the only relevant meaning i can gather from your words.) who’s to say that he didn’t? we never really had words from beta bro on the matter, and he was presumably too busy chopping meteors in half, challenging god-like adversaries, and generally being badass and also dead to do anything that might imply such. that one is sort of left hanging, but i think it’s worth noting that even though we can’t say that he did miss alpha jake, we can’t say that he didn’t either. as for the relationship between jack and the black queen with regards to the relationship between spades slick and snowman, i don’t see any connection. the former set of characters was part of the kids’ session while the latter was part of the trolls’ session, which are a completely different kind of separate.
[while the kids’ session and the trolls’ session were made up of completely different physical universes, the alternate universes of the alpha and beta timelines are much more like going back in time in one universe and changing roles around. in this way, the relationship between the alternate timelines is actually more similar to the relationship between the kids’ session and the alternate timeline session where john was killed on LOWAS. and after making that comparison, i also have to mention how it was at least suggested that rose was also able to retain her memories of the alternate timeline by retrieving her experiences through dreams. of course, there are differences there, too. while the timeline from which davesprite originates was literally an alternate version of the same universe, the alpha and beta sessions are more like altered duplications of each other.]
in any case, with all the beta-origin objects visible in the beginning of act 6 animation, such as john’s sassacre book, there clearly seems to be a connection between the two universes, rather than being completely separate like the kids’ and trolls’ universes.
sorry this turned into sort of an essay. i just really wanted to put a lot of thought into it because i respect alternate opinions and wanted to be sure of my own! i didn’t want to answer without doing my research, you know? so thank you for making me organize my thoughts about all that, too.