[@mattmanganon] Sorry and sorry everyone, today was busy and distracting irl. I'm glad y'all were able to come up with a solution for the Merlin confusion.

I think I found a solution. I agree different timelines for worlds and time moving differently in each one can be a thing. I was thinking that for Star Wars with its many series and movies. But for Dotty there's a way to preserve her innocence before the family loses their world and ends up in Traverse Town. Like you said, you want her to end up being hit with reality later. What if she left and went on her adventure before that happened to her family? Now she's hit with the realization that because she wasn't there to protect her family with the power she has, they lost their world and were scattered across others a la Spider-Man. And with Cruella de Ville you could say she's one of P&P's actual babies, but wasn't taken when the others were. She didn't understand what happened at the time besides gaining many more siblings. But now that she's a little older she does.