Fan theories are almost like the conspiracy theories of fandom.
Except they don't lead to people refusing to follow public health guidelines during pandemics or storm the United States Capitol Building.
Instead they can spread so far and so often the line between wishful thinking on the part of fans can get confused with canon—the works of a particular fictional realm that are recognized as genuine.
Fan theories generally arise to fill in the gaps or resolve unanswered questions from the original work.
Sometimes those lines blur.
Redditor redhead_in_red asked:
"What unofficial fan theory makes so much sense you consider it canon?"
Diversion, Just a Diversion
"James Bond is the loud distraction that lets the real spies do their work undetected."
"As soon as he rocks up to a new location he says 'BOND. JAMES BOND IS HERE. THE SPY. I'M HERE'."
- Legitimate-Suspect-3
GiphyTwo Sides, One Coin
"Mary Poppins is the same species as Pennywise (It), except she feeds off children's joy instead of their fear."
- perishingtardis
GiphyRebel Scuma
"Admiral Ozzel in the Empire Strikes Back is a rebel spy. He does everything possible to deflect suspicion from Hoth, first by trying to prevent Piett from reporting the finding to Vader, and then by trying to deflect suspicion to smugglers once Vader overhears."
"Then, once Vader has made up his mind to attack the rebel base, Ozzel "goofs up" the hyperspace jump, alerting the rebels to the Imperial fleet and giving them time they otherwise would not have had to evacuate the base."
"Everything he does is either hilariously incompetent, even by imperial standards, or perfectly designed to give the rebels the best possible chance to survive."
"'Clumsy as he is stupid' or an agent who sacrificed his life to give the rebellion a chance? You decide."
- JustafanIV
Animated GIFGiphySee an Optometrist
"Dora the Explorer is visually impaired."
- Shatterphim
"This one is true. I get so sick and tired of showing her where sh*t is on the map like how tf do you not see it bruh??"
- Alm8360NoScoPro
Giphy*pew-pew*
"Storm Troopers are actually very accurate, but in both New Hope and Empire, they were under orders to not shoot to kill."
"In New Hope, Vader knew Obi-Wan was on board. He wanted to face him personally."
"In Empire, it's because they needed them to escape on the Falcon in order to follow the tracer they installed on it, and thus find the new rebel base."
- ArcadianDelSol
GiphyWhich Witch Is Which?
"Nothing supernatural happened in the original Blair Witch project. It was just two friends conspiring to murder another friend, and terrorizing her before doing it."
- SnooChipmunks126
blair witch horror GIF by LionsgateGiphyDoes Michael know?
"KITT (Knight Rider) was built from a crashed Cylon (original Battlestar Galactica)."
- MadMacs77
Kid Smoking GIF by YK Animation StudioGiphyAn Eye Open
"King Of The Hill: Dale is in fact under surveillance."
"In the final episode, we learn that Boomhauer is a Texas Ranger. There is a theory that Dale was just wacko enough for the feds to notice, and they looked for, and found, a ranger who had known him from boyhood."
"It is more or less his job to monitor Dale. Since Dale isn't really dangerous, Boomhauers job is very easy."
"It's why we never really see him work, he just drinks beer with Dale, files reports weekly, and has plenty of time to chase women."
- Elendilmir
GiphyHoungry
"Palpatine siphoned Padme’s life force to keep Vader alive. That was his Sith secret to eternal life - draining the life of others."
- DJZbad93
GiphyMeta Morty
"Rick in Rick and Morty knows that they are in a TV show and actively makes an effort to keep the show entertaining because he knows that cancellation would be the true end to his existence."
- Yoctatrine
GiphyAndy's Dad
"In Toy Story, Andy's dad got Woody from a special promotion in cereal boxes that was stopped early because the show was canceled. That's why he's so rare and doesn't know his own backstory."
"Woody doesn't remember Andy's dad as a past owner because his name is also Andy and his kid looks a lot like him."
- Haterade_ONON
GiphyBetter Failsafe Than Sorry
"That Batman's plans to take out all the Justice League members in case they 'go rogue' isn't just about in case we get yet another Superman goes fascist story."
"It's a long term failsafe for future generations in case the Speedster or Kryptonian 5 generations down the line when the original leaguers are all dead isn't as nice as the original."
- Nayko214
GiphyR.R. You George?
"George R.R. Martin died after the last book release. He’s been impersonated by mall Santas in the off season so people would keep watching the show. All they had to do was switch hats."
‐ Pancake_Guardian
"What if the George R R Martin we know isn’t the writer, just the public face, and the ghost writer actually doing the books died and so he’s just stalling pretending he’s still writing them?"
- Thebogusgasman
GiphyNeverland
"Peter Pan is actually a villainous demon who murders children to prevent them from growing up while Captain Hook is the one who got away."
- ChampionshipRemote94
"He's a changeling so aside from the murder, yeah. It's Tinkerbell that originally stole him cos faeries are messed up."
"I totally think Captain Hook was a stolen child that came back to try and free the other kids."
- ghostofmyhecks
GiphySpongeBob Mutated Pants
"Bikini Bottom was the sight of atombomb testing, that's why everybody is so weird. They are mutated fish."
- MonoDilemma
Giphy"An aging covert operative brought out of a kind of forced retirement to infiltrate an island and prevent a group of mercenaries from killing millions with experimental missile-based military technology."
- AdvocateSaint
Giphy"Yeah, my brother and I decided that Connery's character in The Rock is an aged 007 and Eastwood's character in Unforgiven is a Man with No Name who survived into late middle age and tried to put down his pistols."
- Devi1_May_Cry
GiphySome of these make perfect sense.
Others stretch the canon pretty thin.
So what do you think?
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