third posting in a row because i cannot leave well enough alone, to continue onto this thought:

"is the "candy" timeline the "wrong" timeline? is the "meat" timeline the "correct" timeline? we can make arguments that the "meat" timeline is the arguably more "canon" one, since it has more of an impact and relevance to paradox space. but does that fully erase the idea of the "candy" timeline being relevant, or truth? we do see that it has affected the characters, given them a chance to grow and change. i assume sometime later in hs:bc we will see a more direct colliding of said timelines and the ramifications that come with that."

we already have confirmation that in going "ultimate", you gain all the memories and understanding of the various parts of you throughout paradox space. this includes doomed timelines, dead/dreambubble selves, and... alternate realities of your self. so in that alone, we can extrapolate that the candy timeline is already "relevant" and "essential" and "true" because without it, rose or dirk would not know the "alternative fate" that they are trying to desperately escape.

theres this beautiful part at the end of the epilogues with rose...

(candy 33)
ROSE: As I explained to you on that morning sixteen years ago, there are three critical features of canon: essentiality, relevance, and truth.

JOHN: yeah.

ROSE: We have been untethered from the mooring of “truth” for some time now.

ROSE: So while we, in our subjective experiences of conscious perception, feel in this moment that we have known each other for a very long time, technically it’s not true at all.

ROSE: I want to thank you.

JOHN: for... for what?

JOHN: didn’t i fuck everything up by not going to fight lord english?

JOHN: it’s my fault we’re all living in this meaningless hell world where everyone’s vaguely out of their minds, and we’re all about to go to war over... freeing prisoners from the whipping cream camps!

ROSE: Oh, whatever.

ROSE: The war is just as irrelevant as everything else that’s happened here in the last decade and a half.

ROSE: At least with a conflict, we have something to DO.

ROSE: Something to strive for and against. Something to believe in.

ROSE: I’m thankful for that. But more than anything, John, I’m thankful that I got a chance to be happy.

ROSE: I am blind against the veil of this world.

ROSE: It’s all ambrosia to me.

ROSE: I don’t care if it’s not true. I care even less if it’s not canon.

ROSE: I have a beautiful wife who I love more than I thought possible, and a daughter who I am immeasurably proud of.

ROSE: It can all be senseless, ephemeral noise that dissolves in the void. A whisper swept up by the wind before it’s uttered.

ROSE: I’m still grateful to have felt this way.

of course, this is rose, she already had a vague understanding of what becoming her "ultimate self" really was. but it is still relevant! she states, out loud, that despite knowing that there is a "true" version of her out there, a "canon" version, this version of her is still important! and shes glad she lived it. she outright tells john that his idea of this "meaningless hell" is narrowminded and stupid, because all of it is irrelevant and nonsense. but she states that its impactful, because it allowed her to love. and change. and be happy. and i love that for her!

anyways i got off the rails really quick with this. all of this to say that even if you want to be pigheaded about it, theres absolutely no way to untangle the "candy" timeline from the "meat" timeline, even in a meta sense of declaring one "noncanon". it just doesnt work, thats not how canon works, thats not how the epilogues work. sorry for posting another huge mini-essay i just have a lot of thoughts