7 Old Overdone Fan Theories That Need To Go
We've all heard them: The deep-diving analyses into the hidden depths of seemingly simple shows or movies like The Office or movies like Frozen that "prove" wild backstory or completely recontextualize what you're watching.
Sometimes these wild conspiracy theories can be fun - especially if they're either a little possible or so off the wall it's hilarious - but there are some that become so popular that it's simply grating to hear about it after a while, or others that are so wrong they just make you mad.
Here are 7 popular fan theories that, for one reason or another, need to be put to rest before some unlucky Reddit commenter finally blows a gasket.
That Grimdark Rugrats Fan Theory Where They're All Dead Except Angelica
One of the first of those #edgy fan theories out there on early social media was one that stated that the entirety of the beloved 90's cartoon Rugrats was happening inside of Angelica's head.
The exact details varied, but generally this theory set out to create a universe in which Angelica was surrounded by trauma, imagining each baby as the specific result of a tragedy or adult concept she couldn't understand. The twins were one baby that died before they were born, so she created two because she didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. Tommy was stillborn, leaving his father creating toys in the basement for the son he never had, and Chuckie died with his mom, leaving his father a nervous wreck.
Now, let's press pause for a moment, because even if the creators hadn't confirmed that this theory was bogus back in 2016, there are flaws you can pick out just by watching a few random episodes of the show the show. Namely: There are adult plotlines in Rugrats, and they actually have quite a bit of impact on the babies - obviously. Some of these stories include mundane things, like jobs and meetings and garbage can collection, that a three-year-old like Angelica could never comprehend well enough to incorporate it into the babies' stories. If they didn't exist...basically none of the things happening in the show would be happening. (Also, there are so many episodes that Angelica is not even in, which, given that it's supposed to be her fantasy about having friends, doesn't make any sense.)
There are a thousand extra emo theories about childrens' cartoons almost exactly like this one, and even if there are others with fewer holes, they're so generically creepy that it's almost like they're all the same - and none of them really add much insight to the stories they're attached to except to say, "Wouldn't this be f***ed up?" If anything, they're more of a reflection of how a certain subset of one generation feels about their childhood than anything else.
That One That Links Frozen To Basically Every Disney Movie
In late 2014, right after Frozen came out, there was a huge rumor that the movies Tangled, Tarzan, and The Little Mermaid were not only set in the same universe, but were inextricably tied together.
Probably thinking about the Pixar Universe theory that had gained so much traction before it (which actually now has its own website), fans theorized that the ship that gets dragged up from the ocean to kill Ursula at the end of The Little Mermaid was actually the sunken ship of King Agnar and Queen Iduna (Anna and Elsa's parents), lost when they were sailing to their niece Rapunzel's wedding in the nearby kingdom of Corona. They furthermore said that their parents survived the shipwreck, swam to a deserted island, and were killed by a leopard, but not before having another baby: Tarzan.
Now, that was a wild theory from the get-go, and even if Frozen 2 hadn't entirely refuted it by revealing exactly what happened to Anna and Elsa's parents, there would be several holes in it.
First of all, the time periods and geography absolutely do not match up. According to the Disney Wiki, the first Frozen is set in July of 1846, in the general area of Norway. While the on-screen evidence and settings of Tangled and The Little Mermaid place them around that time period as well, we know for a fact that Tarzan happened about 50 years later, around the turn of the century, when Britain was first colonizing Africa.
Second, though, Agnar and Iduna look nothing like Tarzan's parents. Even a queen couldn't go from brunette to redhead in the middle of a sea voyage in the 17th century, AND keep the color after a shipwreck.
That Fan Theory That Ash Was in a Coma and the Pokémon Anime Never Happened
This fan theory actually falls under a whole category of them that also don't really give that much extra to the stories they're in: The ones that posit that "they dreamed it all."
This is an age-old deus ex machina - latin for "god out of a machine," a term used in writing when all the problems in a story are solved all at once by some kind of miracle or all-powerful being or force, one that is more or less external to the plot. In short, it's the laziest way to write an ending.
In the very first episode of the Pokémon anime, Pikachu uses a Thunderbolt to try to save Ash from a flock of attacking Spearow. Right after that happens, Ash sees Ho-Oh, an elusive legendary bird Pokémon that is said to grant wishes.
The theory states that Ash was sent into a coma when Pikachu electrocuted him, but Ho-Oh granted Since Ash dreams of being a world famous Pokémon trainer, Ho-Oh grants his wish as repayment for his bravery. The rest of the show is LITERALLY Ash's dream - one he's living out while comatose. The theory is supported with the evidence that Ash has been 10 for literal years, and also he is somehow at the center of every major conflict and always able to solve the problem more readily than the adults.
This theory, like the Rugrats one, doesn't really add anything to the story. The one meaningful comment it does make is that Ash is a little too young to be doing the things he's doing, but given that it's a children's TV show, that's not really a point that needs making.
The Matrix In The Matrix Is Actually Part Of The Matrix
This one is a little convoluted, so bear with me. Everyone knows the basic concept behind The Matrix; the world we know is a simulation, and the real world is a dystopian wasteland run by some sort of AI who use that simulation to placate us and keep us from fighting back. A few rebels actively fight to break free of that system by taking a red pill that will allow them to enter the real world.
This particular fan theory says that the AI is already one step ahead of them, and the red pill was created to give humans who were dissatisfied with their original program something that will keep them more occupied. Essentially, it's like if you were opening a box to get to a present only to find another box inside.
This fan theory is worse than all the other "it was just a dream" ones because it just rewrites the whole movie, but with an extra dash of pessimism. It's taking the hopeful element out of the story and turning it from "we live in a box, but we can leave the box at any time" to "we live in a box and there's no way out, even if you try." It completely subverts the entire point - especially when you remember that The Matrix was created by two trans women, and is now seen as an allegory for their struggle to break from the constraints of the gender they were assigned at birth.
The Not-Just-A-Fan-Theory That Winnie The Pooh Characters Represent The Seven Deadly Sins
(Photo : Via: The Walt Disney Company)
There are about a thousand "seven deadly sins" fan theories out there, seemingly able to take any group of seven characters and play a matching game that kind of fits them together, to widely varied results.
This one is based on a widely circulated and possibly true rumor that A.A. Milne actually based her central characters on the seven deadly sins. Some of them track very well, but people constantly have arguments over which character is meant to represent which one, which pretty clearly shows that it's not a strong enough theory to hold water. (Also, some of the characters in the books don't even show up in the Disney movie that everyone knows now.)
It's fun to argue about which one would be which if you had to match them up, but it's another to try to tell someone it's fact that the author wrote it in. If it affects the story so little that it's not clear which is which, it's definitely not the airtight thing that the theory seems to suggest it is. It's not that it's not worth discussing, because it is, but a fan theory that constantly tries to posit itself as canonical should at least have its full story together before it becomes as behemoth as this one.
Any Fan Theory Saying That Jim And Pam Cheated On Each Other
(Photo : Via: NBC)
There is a particular subset of people in The Office fandom that are determined to prove that Jim and Pam are actually a terrible couple. These are actually two separate theories: One states that Jim cheated on Pam with Cathy off-camera while they were in Florida, and the other says that Pam cheated on Jim with the boom mic guy Brian while he was in Philly.
The first theory is easy to pick holes in, especially if you look at the deleted scene from the Florida episodes in which Jim is on the phone with Pam telling her in detail about how uncomfortable Cathy is making him and how crazy she's being. Even aside from that though, it would be pretty inconsistent of Jim - acting so put off in front of the camera only to then sneak off with Cathy later. If he were actually doing that, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have gotten Dwight to spray her with bug spray until she left.
The same thing goes for the story with Brian: yes, Pam could have been cheating, but it would be entirely inconsistent with her behavior and the rest of her arc at that time. She was home with a newborn and a toddler without her husband - when exactly would she have had the time, let alone the energy, to be having an affair?
These fan theories need to go because they're not based in the rhetoric of the show - they're clearly just the imaginings of very paranoid people. If you think Jim cheated on Pam or Pam cheated on Jim: Who hurt you?
That One Where People Say Friends Was Just Phoebe's Drug-Addled Fantasy
Throughout the nine seasons that make up the watershed sitcom Friends, we slowly learn about small but very dramatic bits of Phoebe's life. Eventually, you're able to put together that she was born to a polyamorous triad right after they graduated high school.
Her birth mother, not ready for a baby, gave Phoebe and her twin sister away to Lily and Frank, her other partners, and left. Frank also left not shortly after. At some point, Lily remarries, but the stepfather is in and out of prison. Lily eventually commits suicide, and Phobe spends some time living on the streets of New York. She does a lot of drugs, plays music, commits some vague crimes, and meets some strange characters.
The theory in question states that Phoebe was never actually part of the group of friends in Friends, citing evidence that her storylines were almost always isolated from the rest of the group's. Supposedly, she saw the rest of the friends frequently as she sang outside the coffee shop for money, and in her drug-addled haze she imagined what life would be like if she were one of them instead.
This theory is a fun way to explain away why their apartments are so big or how they seem to always be at the coffee shop in the middle of the day despite having jobs - Phoebe would have no context for what a reasonably-sized apartment looks like, she's just imagining the life of luxury she thinks these happy young professionals lead - but once again, taking something real and putting it all in someone's head doesn't really do much for the story, and in this case it actually takes away from the literal STATED point of the show: that your friends will always be there for you.
What do you think of these conspiracy theories? Do you think any of them actually have merit? Or is there one you're surprised we didn't mention? Let us know in the comments!
