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What is your favorite inconsequential fan theory?

I'm talking about a fan theory, that if true doesn't drastically upend the fundamentals of the fiction it is set in.

Mine is that in the American Dad episode 'Can I Be Frank With You', that Snot's uncle is actually just another Roger persona. He appears suddenly and conveniently to pitch a bizarre scheme, he loves hanging around with teen boys and doing drugs, and the very instant that the plan has a setback he kills himself out of sight of everyone else. That's just Roger in a suit and glasses.

Edit: Ok, so, people are having trouble with the word "inconsequential".

94 comments
  • Sisko was killed in TNG's universe. Sisko survived in DS9's universe due to the prophets saving him. The Trek universe diverged at Wolf 359.

    The Dominion War has drastically different outcomes. Existential crisis in one universe where Sisko does a lot of meddling; barely mentioned in the other.

    The biggest change to the cast is that Worf marries Jadzia Dax and becomes Ambassador to the Klingon Empire in one universe; in the other universe, he does a brief inconsequential stint at DS9 (without Sisko), never marries, then returns to the Enterprise E as pretty much the same character from TNG, and at some later point, he gets the Enterprise E destroyed.

    The Picard timeline is set in the universe where Sisko died at Wolf 359.

    • Fascinating, but I’m not buying it.

      Still, well formed and fascinating.

      Edit: this makes sense if you played Star Trek Online, and I’ll give OP a break for that, but most of the crazy stuff that would have supported this theory 6 years ago has been ironed-out in-canon. Even if it wasn’t done well.

      Still, I really enjoyed the alt history version!

  • I’ve always liked the idea that Kevin from Home Alone grew up to be the Jigsaw killer…

  • I wouldn't call this "inconsequential", but not only is Deckard a Replicant, he's a very specific Replicant.

    Gaff (played by Eddie Olmos) was the original officer assigned to hunting down the escaped replicants, before Holden and before Deckard. When the escaped Androids originally tried to storm the Tyrell corporation, one of them got "fried" going through an electric fence. And it was either there, or in another encounter, that Gaff was wounded in the leg, forcing Holden to take over the case, and we know where that ended up...

    I posit that the android that got "fried", didn't actually get fried. In concert with the Tyrell corporation, they programmed him with Gaff's memories in order to finish the job, which is why Gaff is chaperoning him, driving him around; to make sure the memory implant holds. It's why Gaff seems to know what he's thinking and can make origami to give him hints. It's why Gaff at the end of the movie says "You've done a man's work". And it's why Gaff is such a dick to him. Imagine chaperoning your artificial replacement around that everyone thinks can do just as good a job as you...

    I always watch Blade Runner from that perspective. At least until the sequel came out and ruined it for me.

  • In Stargate SG-1 — spoilers — the last season they're stuck on the ship stuck in time for a long time. I listened to the director's commentary on it, and the actors themselves talked about how there was supposed to be a Carter and Teal'c romance. You can still see it in some of the looks they give each other and whatnot, but it was cut.

    So not "fan theory" as such, but something not usually considered part of the canon but which definitely has credible support for it. (Amanda Tapping, the actor for Samantha Carter was talking about it on the commentary track.)

    Doesn't really change much, as all of them but Teal'c forget what happened after the conclusion.

  • Char Aznable's wild shift in character between the end of Zeta and the beginning of Char's Counterattack can be directly pinned on Kamille Bidan's mental crippling at the end of Zeta and Haman Karm's actions in ZZ.

    Char, who always had a rather strong protective streak, more or less pinned his hopes on Kamille as a key to the future. Instead he directly experienced the Newtype backlash of Kamille being mentally crippled, and subequently could no longer sense him. This convinced him that humanity was doomed to eternal conflict, unless it was forced to advance.

    Still unable to get over his protective streak, Char then manages to extricate Mineva Lao Zabi, the last remaining Zabi and perhaps the only one who he doesn't actually seem to harbor any hatred towards, to Earth. But Haman just creates a double, which she uses to drag Neo Zeon into yet another war for personal power. This convinces Char he cannot trust the future to anyone else, even after protecting the ones he cares about.

    Thus, we reach CCA with a Char who is fixedly convinced of both the need for forced human advancement, and that he alone must be that leader.

  • That Crocodile is Luffy's mom. Gender Bent by Emporio Ivankov's devil fruit power so he can hide his true identity.

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