What are your favorite fan theories (possible spoilers)?

[Tribble]

Voyager is destroyed just after the credits roll in the last episode, with Janeway being the sole survivor. This was either due to an accident or Janeway getting rid of all the witnesses to her antics, take your pick. The funny part is that we never actually see them get all the way back to Earth, or the aftermath of them doing so, so it fits.

Also, it's pretty much canon now that Janeway was suffering from some kind of mental disorder the entire time, which would explain a lot. Naturally I prefer Chucks version of events.

[The Romulan Republic]

Another Harry Potter one:

There are 49 seats on the Wizengamot.

The exact number is never stated in books or films to my recollections (maybe its up on Pottermore now though, for all I know). But Harry's description during his trial, and the screenshots of the Death Eater trials in the Goblet of Fire film, suggest a group of maybe a few dozen. It couldn't be much more than that, realistically, given the small size of the Wizarding population- not unless they had something like Athenian democracy, where everyone (or at least every member of the privileged class) could vote, and there's no evidence for that (for one thing, we never see representatives of various pure blood families Harry knows present in the court- which also tells against the "hereditary seats" fanon).

So, a few dozen, tops. And 49 fits because its 7x7, with 7 being a magically significant number in the Potterverse which is frequently featured in Wizarding institutions (seven Ministry departments, 7 floors in the Ministry, and of course seven Horcruxes are all examples IIRC). Plus, as an odd number, it would eliminate the risk of a tie vote (barring abstentions or absences).

[Elheru Aran]

I wonder if the amount of HP fanon is an attempt to fix issues within the series, logical inconsistencies, etc? Certainly seems like there's a LOT of it even with Pottermore et al. filling in many blanks...

[The Romulan Republic]

I wonder if the amount of HP fanon is an attempt to fix issues within the series, logical inconsistencies, etc? Certainly seems like there's a LOT of it even with Pottermore et al. filling in many blanks...

Partly its that, partly its just the shear size of the fandom, and the fact that the series' initial readers were a generation who pretty much grew up at the same time as internet fanfiction was becoming a big thing.

Edit: I mean, just look at FF.net- Harry Potter has the most stories of any fandom by leagues (well over half a million IIRC). Most of it is shitty shipping fic/fetish fic/angst-laden adolescent revenge/power fantasies, but there's some good stuff in there too, and there's just more of it because its such a large fandom. And sometimes a story will get a large enough audience that its ideas become widely-accepted in the fan community (this seems to have happened with Methods of Rationality, to the severe detriment of the overall quality of fanfic in my opinion).

[The Romulan Republic]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

-The Mayor was a Wolfram and Hart client. Demonically connected politician that close to LA? Almost has to be.

-Buffy being expelled/having to move to Sunnydale was due to Wolfram and Hart meddling. After all, there was no proof that Buffy burned down her school gym- if there had been, she'd have presumably been charged with arson. So why was she expelled, and why would NO school other than Sunnydale take her? The answer: Wolfram and Hart pressured/bribed/enchanted/blackmailed key officials in the LA school system, to ensure that she'd be sent to Sunndale. That way, she won't be killing clients of theirs' or messing with their headquarters in LA, and she'd be keeping the Hellmouth in check (Wolfram and Hart doesn't like anyone else's apocalypse interfering with their apocalypse).

-Donald Trump was a Wolfram and Hart client in the Buffyverse, but they dumped him (like that mobster in that one season one episode who tried to shoot up a police station) for being too erratic and incompetent and drawing too much attention.

[FaxModem1]

-Buffy being expelled/having to move to Sunnydale was due to Wolfram and Hart meddling. After all, there was no proof that Buffy burned down her school gym- if there had been, she'd have presumably been charged with arson. So why was she expelled, and why would NO school other than Sunnydale take her? The answer: Wolfram and Hart pressured/bribed/enchanted/blackmailed key officials in the LA school system, to ensure that she'd be sent to Sunnydale. That way, she won't be killing clients of theirs' or messing with their headquarters in LA, and she'd be keeping the Hellmouth in check (Wolfram and Hart doesn't like anyone else's apocalypse interfering with their apocalypse).

That does make sense, aside from the only reason they moved to Sunnydale as opposed to anywhere else is Joyce's new job after the divorce. An alternate theory is that the Watchers manipulated the bureaucracy to get her to Sunnydale via Joyce's art dealer job in Sunnydale. And then they put Giles there, waiting for her to arrive as he did in the Wishverse. If there's one thing the Watchers seem to do, is manipulate bureaucracy in their favor.

[The Romulan Republic]

That as well.

You could even combine the two theories. The Watchers' Council and Wolfram and Hart seem like natural enemies, yet there's little to no mention of them directly clashing. One theory is that they're in a sort of Cold War- in which case "The Slayer does not come within x-miles of Wolfram and Hart's headquarters", or something to that effect, might be standard practice. So the Council and Wolfram and Hart would both rather have Buffy in Sunnydale than starting a war in LA.

[FaxModem1]

That as well.

You could even combine the two theories. The Watchers' Council and Wolfram and Hart seem like natural enemies, yet there's little to no mention of them directly clashing. One theory is that they're in a sort of Cold War- in which case "The Slayer does not come within x-miles of Wolfram and Hart's headquarters", or something to that effect, might be standard practice. So the Council and Wolfram and Hart would both rather have Buffy in Sunnydale than starting a war in LA.

Potentially supported by Canon, as Wesley and Rutherford Sirk made a sort of allusion to it:

WESLEY
Impressive. And does the Watcher's Council know you stole the only known copy of the codex when you left?
SIRK
There is no council.
WESLEY
(flips through the book) Not anymore, no. So you opted to, what, uh, play for the other side? Cross the line?
SIRK
These are complicated times. Lines become blurry. How did you know?
WESLEY
Something about Watchers and—(punches Sirk, knocking him out) libraries.

So, there did seem to be some sort of Cold War-ish line between them. But then we run into the problem of Wesley being generally ignorant of them until personally encountering them. It's quite possible that the Watchers were just out of touch, and didn't recognize the player on the board who was outpacing them in capability until it was too late.

[The Romulan Republic]

Or that it was above Wesley's pay-grade, so to speak. Clearly some Watchers were aware of it. Wesley was a fairly junior Watcher when he was introduced, and pretty clearly got the Slayer assignment for toing the party line and possibly for having the right family connections, not for knowledge or experience.

[Civil War Man]

Indeed. I wonder if Average Wizard just thinks of themselves in such a position of privilege over the Muggle class that they never think to ask why they're all so keen on a government which holds such power.

Reminds me of that LBJ quote: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." Just replace white man with Wizard and colored man with Muggle.

The weird thing is, you don't see much indication that the average wizard is terrified of the government coming to get them if they criticize Minister Fudge. They probably should be, given the presence of shit like Dementors and the seeming lack of effective checks and balances on the Minister's office, but we don't see it. Sure, you can put it down to shoddy world-building, but that's where I'm getting the "secret despotism via mind-control" idea from, basically.

The most powerful despotism is the one the people don't even know exists.

I'm now picturing the wizarding world as They Live. Somewhere near Diagon Alley, Rowdy Roddy Potter is fighting Keith David (can't think of a Harry Potter pun for the name, so I'm just declaring that Keith David is a wizard) in an attempt to force him to wear magic sunglasses that expose the corruption of the Ministry.

[NeoGoomba]

Norm Macdonald had a great one about Breaking Bad:

Walt actually dies in the car he tried to steal, from a combination of his cancer making him weak/exposure to the elements in the final episode. Everything that we see afterwards, even the flash-forwards in earlier episodes, are his arrogant final flashes of how he WANTED his final days to go. Sneaking past Law Enforcement to see his daughter one last time, his poisoning of whatsherface with the ricin, and the implausible machinegun car to kill the neo-nazis and save Jesse.

[Q99]

I wonder if the amount of HP fanon is an attempt to fix issues within the series, logical inconsistencies, etc? Certainly seems like there's a LOT of it even with Pottermore et al. filling in many blanks...

A lot of it is there's plenty of fascinating world building in there, enough to form a strong skeleton, but with enough gaps that one wants to fill it in.


The two things I find to make a work highly talked about and expanded on in fanwork is worldbuilding, and characters developed enough that it's easy to imagine them in different situations.

[The Romulan Republic]

Rowling is pretty good at characterization, most of the time. She's less so at logical and consistent world-building, but she created a setting with enough whimsy and style to be memorable, and enough intriguing gaps to give analysis-minded fans and fanfic writers endless fun trying to fill them.

[The Romulan Republic]

Not sure this is a "fan theory", so much as just an interpretation of canon, but:

Star Wars: In TLJ, Snoke talks about a champion from the Light Side of the Force inevitably rising up to meet the Dark Side champion that is Kylo Ren. Now, in the previous generation, we had Luke and Anakin/Vader. But Luke was not, in fact, the Light Side counterpart to Vader- he was the Light Side counterpart to Palpatine.

What lead me to this, in part, is how Luke ultimately wins his victories: he doesn't triumph through superior combat ability, but by understanding his opponents' psychology and emotional vulnerabilities, and using those to either turn them to his side, or turn their own weaknesses against themselves. So to does Palpatine, though Luke acts from a Light Side position, and Palpatine from a Dark Side position. If Palpatine had walked into the Senate or the Jedi Temple and pulled out a light saber, he would have killed a bunch of people- and then about a hundred Jedi masters and a thousand security guys would have descended on him and overwhelmed him through shear numbers. Palpatine won in the Prequels by understanding his opponents (and particularly Anakin's) emotional weaknesses, and using them to manipulate people. He didn't win through direct combat, but through psychological manipulation and political maneuvering augmented by the Force. Luke does the same, both at Endor, where he helps Vader find the good in himself and turn back to the Light Side, and in his last stand on Crait, where he exploits Kylo Ren's obsessions and insecurities to distract him and delay him, and does it in such a manner that his own death will inspire the galaxy and the Resistance while humiliating Kylo in front of his subordinates. In other words, he goes for a psychological victory to achieve what he cannot through raw power and direct combat. But whereas Palpatine manipulates people in order to corrupt them, Luke either tries to bring out the best in them, or turn their own weaknesses against themselves. In this, he is a Light Side counterpart to Palpatine.

This exchange from RotJ is particularly telling, to me:

Luke: "Your overconfidence is your weakness."

Palpatine: "Your faith in your friends is your's."

Both men understand their adversary's psychological vulnerabilities, and attempt to exploit them.

So where does Anakin, as the Chosen One, come into this? He was originally a champion of the Light Side meant to face Palpatine, but he fell. The Light Side found a new champion in Luke, while Vader by RotJ he was straddling the line between Light and Dark, torn between the Champion of the Light and the Champion of Darkness, and which way he ultimately went determined which side ultimately won. Luke and Palpatine were the avatars of the Light and Darkness in that battle. Vader's soul was the battleground.

[FaxModem1]

That tracks rather well, as in the Disney Canon, the only scene we see with Luke in Battlefront 2 is to talk to Del Meeko, help him realize that he is a good person, and say that he has a choice. This leads Meeko to convince Iden to leave the Empire, and both become heroes of the New Republic/Rebellion. All because Luke is someone who analyses people, and takes the correct and moral way to get them to do the right thing. Well, unless its his nephew, then he's totally gonna kill the kid in his sleep.

[The Romulan Republic]

That tracks rather well, as in the Disney Canon, the only scene we see with Luke in Battlefront 2 is to talk to Del Meeko, help him realize that he is a good person, and say that he has a choice. This leads Meeko to convince Iden to leave the Empire, and both become heroes of the New Republic/Rebellion. All because Luke is someone who analyses people, and takes the correct and moral way to get them to do the right thing. Well, unless its his nephew, then he's totally gonna kill the kid in his sleep.

Depending on whether you believe Luke or Kylo's version of events, Luke never actually decided to go through with it. Its was an impulse in a moment of fear that he spent the rest of his life regretting. It is out of step with the Luke we see both at Endor and on Craite, and the one you described from Battlefront 2, but its a believably human mistake. Imagine being in Luke's shoes, weighed down with the burden of training a new Jedi Order but at least believing the darkness of the Empire is behind you, then realizing that history is repeating itself and that the students in your care are going to be the first to suffer, and that you could stop it all with just one push of a button. If you went back in time (or lived at the time and could see the future) and could kill baby Hitler, would you?

It was a terribly wrong impulse, but it is, to me, an understandable one, that just for a moment, he would be tempted. And it underlines the subtle threat of the Dark Side, how even someone as wise and good and experienced as Master Luke Skywalker could be tempted. As Yoda said: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to the Dark Side.

Edit: I think the problem with the film here is that we just get this one brief flashback- we don't see how Luke went from the man who redeemed Vader on Endor to the man who considered murdering his nephew in cold blood. So its a very jarring transition.

[The Romulan Republic]

Star Wars:

If she had not left the Order, and the Jedi had not fallen, Ashoka would have become a teacher of younglings. We often see her acting as a mentor to younger Jedi children in the series, and she seems to be fairly good at it. I think it would have come naturally to her.

[The Romulan Republic]

With Padme....

I'm of mind that Anakin was subconciously using the Force to keep her from dying (thereby having discovered the power he wanted without realizing it).
That weakened him to the point he couldn't clear Obi-wan when he jumped.

When he was on the operating table, Anakin cut the link due to the pain he was in, and then Padme died.

He go the power he wanted by joining the Dark Side, but ultimately sacrificed it, and her, for his own survival.

Just gone back over this thread and realized that this doesn't really work. IIRC, didn't the med droids say that she was not seriously injured, as far as they could tell? So there would be no reason for her to die when the link was severed, unless the droids screwed up their diagnosis anyway.

[Solauren]

With Padme....

I'm of mind that Anakin was subconciously using the Force to keep her from dying (thereby having discovered the power he wanted without realizing it).
That weakened him to the point he couldn't clear Obi-wan when he jumped.

When he was on the operating table, Anakin cut the link due to the pain he was in, and then Padme died.

He go the power he wanted by joining the Dark Side, but ultimately sacrificed it, and her, for his own survival.

Just gone back over this thread and realized that this doesn't really work. IIRC, didn't the med droids say that she was not seriously injured, as far as they could tell? So there would be no reason for her to die when the link was severed, unless the droids screwed up their diagnosis anyway.

Okay, what if he reversed the link then? His powers were healing her of the damage she'd taken from the Force Choke (which we've seen kill), fully by the time he was about to jump, but that drained him so he didn't make then jump.

Annd then when his life was in danger (arguably far greater danger), it reversed and drained her?

[SolarpunkFan]

I kind of this one from TV Tropes (If only because the theorists aren't taking themselves seriously).

Neon Genesis Evangelion (original series & End)/Batman the Brave and the Bold (TV series)

"Kamandi's Future is after Instrumentality. The water's red, so it's gotta be the tang/LCL that the people got turned into. The absence of people caused nuclear power plants to mutate animals who become the new rulers of Earth. Kamandi is one of the few that resisted the Instrumentality. And, hey, we need to connect this series with Neon Genesis Evangelion somehow."

Original post

[Q99]

Q sent the Enterprise into the Borg in Q, Who to prepare them not only for the Borg, but the Dominion.

As a result of Q, Who, the Borg came, and the Federation had a bit of warning, but they'd run into the Borg sooner or later anyway. However, this did cause the Federation to do a crash researcher project resulting in ships like the Defiant and later Sovereign, and perhaps just as importantly refits like the Lakota had. While the Federation had the technology to do ships and refits like that, the fact they had working prototypes and such tested or at least far down the pipeline by the time the war started certainly helped.

[FaxModem1]

Q sent the Enterprise into the Borg in Q, Who to prepare them not only for the Borg, but the Dominion.

As a result of Q, Who, the Borg came, and the Federation had a bit of warning, but they'd run into the Borg sooner or later anyway. However, this did cause the Federation to do a crash researcher project resulting in ships like the Defiant and later Sovereign, and perhaps just as importantly refits like the Lakota had. While the Federation had the technology to do ships and refits like that, the fact they had working prototypes and such tested or at least far down the pipeline by the time the war started certainly helped.

I think this is pretty much canon. Starfleet and the Federation was enjoying the time of peace they had in the mid part of the 24th century, with their biggest concern being the Cardassians, who weren't militarily powerful enough for Starfleet to go on a total war footing for. The Borg attack took away that innocence, so that they knew that they had to step up their game and be ready for actual threats in the future.

Still sadly wasn't enough for the Federation to be completely ready, as the Dominion still significantly outgunned and outnumbered them, but probably not as bad as it would have been before they geared up for fighting the Borg.

Thankfully, it didn't cost them the Federation's soul, as Admiral Leyton tried to do with his little coup.

----------------------

My own theory:
Starfleet's prime directive is in part due to how all the founding members of the Federation destroyed themselves before rebuilding as a newer, more enlightened government. Earth had World War III, the Vulcans had the Time of Awakening, the Tellarites had the Voice Wars, and I'm sure the Andorians had something as well. Due to this, they know how hard such a war is, but know/believe that a society needs to grow beyond such a cultural crisis in order to be able to navigate the path to world peace and eventually becoming an a player on the interstellar stage.

[tezunegari]

Q sent the Enterprise into the Borg in Q, Who to prepare them not only for the Borg, but the Dominion.

As a result of Q, Who, the Borg came, and the Federation had a bit of warning, but they'd run into the Borg sooner or later anyway. However, this did cause the Federation to do a crash researcher project resulting in ships like the Defiant and later Sovereign, and perhaps just as importantly refits like the Lakota had. While the Federation had the technology to do ships and refits like that, the fact they had working prototypes and such tested or at least far down the pipeline by the time the war started certainly helped.

I think this is pretty much canon. Starfleet and the Federation was enjoying the time of peace they had in the mid part of the 24th century, with their biggest concern being the Cardassians, who weren't militarily powerful enough for Starfleet to go on a total war footing for. The Borg attack took away that innocence, so that they knew that they had to step up their game and be ready for actual threats in the future.

Still sadly wasn't enough for the Federation to be completely ready, as the Dominion still significantly outgunned and outnumbered them, but probably not as bad as it would have been before they geared up for fighting the Borg.

Thankfully, it didn't cost them the Federation's soul, as Admiral Leyton tried to do with his little coup.

----------------------

My own theory:
Starfleet's prime directive is in part due to how all the founding members of the Federation destroyed themselves before rebuilding as a newer, more enlightened government. Earth had World War III, the Vulcans had the Time of Awakening, the Tellarites had the Voice Wars, and I'm sure the Andorians had something as well. Due to this, they know how hard such a war is, but know/believe that a society needs to grow beyond such a cultural crisis in order to be able to navigate the path to world peace and eventually becoming an a player on the interstellar stage.

My personal theory is that Starfleet was already in a modernization program before "Q, Who" happened.

During the Cardassian War they realized that the Mirandas and Excelsiors are beginning to be subpar for combat operations and the new Ambassadors were too few to make a difference or just bigger ships using the same technology.
And there were beginning rumors of new Romulan designs that dwarf anything the Alpha/Beta powers have.
This leads to the later peace treaty (the really bad one resulting in the Maquis) and the Galaxy Project.

And twenty years later we see the commissioning of Nebulas and Galaxys as the first of the "New Starfleet".

That would allow for the development of Intrepids, Novas, Akiras and Steamrunners for their reveal in 2371.

"Q, Who" only hastened the development and possibly changed armaments and the development of Second Generation designs like the War-Galaxy seen during the Dominion War.

And "Best of Both Worlds" finally made the necessity of new ships obvious and possibly silenced any fanatically pacifistic opposition.

[Captain Seafort]

I think this is pretty much canon. Starfleet and the Federation was enjoying the time of peace they had in the mid part of the 24th century, with their biggest concern being the Cardassians, who weren't militarily powerful enough for Starfleet to go on a total war footing for. The Borg attack took away that innocence, so that they knew that they had to step up their game and be ready for actual threats in the future.

I disagree with that, mainly because the brainbug of a pre-Wolf era of peace isn't supported by the evidence. There were wars with, at least, the Tzenkethi, the Tholians, the Cardassians and the Talarians. YE suggests that there was nearly one with the Klingons. None of those that occurred were on the scale of the Dominion War, or the YE Klingon War, but neither are any depicted as brief or trivial, and the overall picture is of a Federation involved in near-constant skirmishing.

[FaxModem1]

I think this is pretty much canon. Starfleet and the Federation was enjoying the time of peace they had in the mid part of the 24th century, with their biggest concern being the Cardassians, who weren't militarily powerful enough for Starfleet to go on a total war footing for. The Borg attack took away that innocence, so that they knew that they had to step up their game and be ready for actual threats in the future.

I disagree with that, mainly because the brainbug of a pre-Wolf era of peace isn't supported by the evidence. There were wars with, at least, the Tzenkethi, the Tholians, the Cardassians and the Talarians. YE suggests that there was nearly one with the Klingons. None of those that occurred were on the scale of the Dominion War, or the YE Klingon War, but neither are any depicted as brief or trivial, and the overall picture is of a Federation involved in near-constant skirmishing.

Yes, but their skirmishes seemed to be so small scale that people like Picard viewed that they were ready for anything that might come. They had peace with the Klingons that turned into an alliance, and the Romulans had retreated to their part of the galaxy, only returning in the 2360s because of how the Federation seemed to be dominating the politics of the quadrant at the time.