Our Fan Favorite Theories - Ep. 107 of Intentionally Blank

[@koboldmartian4063]

My absolute favorite fan theory is that in the movies, Frodo doesn't know Legolas's name. The only time they ever speak to each other (kinda) in the trilogy is in the beginning when the fellowship is being established and Legolas regards Frodo and offers his bow. That's it. Cut to the end of the series when Frodo is chilling in Minas Tirith, there is a heavenly glow around him, everyone is happy. Merry and Pippin come in to hug him. Great. Then Gimli walks in and he mouths "GIMLI!". Gimli is a crazy rascal, we all love him. Legolas walks in and Frodo has this look like "OH! Its you! Heeeeeyyyy!". Hilarious and awkward. THEN we cut back to the door and Aragorn comes in and Frodo mouths "ARAGORN!"

[@kirstenbailey]

I will never look at this scene the same way again 🤣

[@MyHusbandIsLame]

Came here to say this!

[@EvelyntMild]

He was just confused why Haldir looked so different.

[@vampirelogan]

@@EvelyntMild @koboldmartian4063 OMG, yes! Frodo mouths HALDIR when Legolas walks in!

[@waybove]

Isn't he there when Strider says Have a dad Legolas?

[@retro_djr8650]

The theory that I always liked is that ET is a Jedi from a galaxy far far away. He recognizes Yoda on Halloween. He can move things with his mind/the force. I think this is one where the creators might have leaned into it because we do have the easter egg of seeing some of ET's people in the galactic senate.

[@mrjakeness2]

So what if this tike travel thing happened and it turns out that Brandon and Dan have been doing the food heists all along

[@obviousalias132]

I guess I’m from the best timeline where there were 120 secret projects

[@raylawler13]

Time to create a shared universe called Wilhelm in which they are all connected via the Wilhelm scream. The scream is the different iterations of the same person's parallel lives... or, as the case may be, deaths.

[@danwells9305]

YES

[@rmsgrey]

Agrajag lives!

[@crystinapierce6833]

Okay, but if Brandon goes back in time and calls Dan, I can TOTALLY see Dan just rolling with it and going along with Brandon’s shenanigans.

[@gottalottabones]

It pleases me that Brandon (the last person I would expect to have watched It's Always Sunny) has watched enough to agree that the theory about the show being court proceedings is great, is itself fabulous.

[@kaelmic7476]

>says up and ratatouille are so bad he doesnt understand why people like them >refuses to elaborate at this point i think its a prank

[@ThaneSton]

No, that's just Dan showing his incredible capacity for being wrong.

[@andrewjennings7306]

This guy is gonna write cosmere books. RIP

[@braydenroberts5474]

Anyone else come here hoping Brandon would talk about his favorite fan theories from his own work?

[@stop-motionstormtroopers8054]

Me when I hear that Dan's favorite Pixar movie is WALL-E: "I agree! Dan has amazing taste" Me when I hear that he doesn't like Up and Ratatouille: "Spoke too soon"

[@Adam_okaay]

No he likes Ratatouille

[@Ryan-qz9wm]

These two have the weirdest tastes in movies and TV and I love it

[@jackmcclish]

@@Adam_okaayhe does not. Citation: “Fresh? I don’t think so!” episode.

[@hkfifty871]

Every time, lol. One of the podcasts great constants is the massive emotional teeter totter Dan puts us through between his wonderful exaltations of some amazing (or under appreciated) piece of media that makes us go “Boy, Dan really has great taste”, closely followed by a vehement condemnation of something beloved and wonderful that makes us go “Dan is a monster”.

[@MasterJack2]

I often have these Dan moments. Most disappointing media; Me: Clash of titan has to be on that list, the trailer was legendary and the movie terrible. Dan: CLASH. OF. TITAN. Me: Helll yeaaahhh same mind!!! And then Dan "I hate UP" Me: you what now?

[@abhimac27]

11/22/63 proved to me that I would love for all of my favorite authors to tackle time travel. It is absolutely amazing.

[@paulbrooks4395]

On "Back to the Future" -- this is why shows like "Dark" and "1899" work so well.

[@thegodofalldragons]

I like the Back to the Future fan theory for another reason, as it implies Marty eventually remembered his new life instead of being stuck as a foreigner in his own timeline.

[@AlbioLakes]

Honor's final oath(edit: thinking about it maybe Unity's 1st) Kaladin(or dalinar's): "I have no enemies".

[@jeffreyday84]

My favorite is that Christian Bale's Batman learned about leadership by helping Newsies unionize and fight big business.

[@journeyofanauthor-alfredmu8544]

Footloose fan theory is the greatest thing I heard today 😂🤯 love it

[@KyninhaH]

I dunno, an alien wearing a barrister’s wig holding a law book with a fleet of flying saucers behind them amuses me as a tshirt design Also, to expand on the go back in time thought, what happens if EVERYONE got blipped back in time with foreknowledge? I imagine quite a lot of chaos as people figured it out.

[@Jonathan_Wall]

This is kinda the plot of Blake Crouch's Recursion. Great read

[@KyninhaH]

@@Jonathan_Wall ah neat! Thanks for the heads up on the book! 😄

[@DisneyBatchman]

That could be a massively neat idea to play with.

[@NarcoticIsland]

Modern day Back to the Future where Marty McFly has to board a flight and takes his shoes off only for everyone else to look at him like hes nuts

[@jamcdonald120]

14:30 one of my recurrening nightmares is "oh, there is a problem with your Highschool transcript, you need to repeat 9th grade"

[@gowzahr]

An interesting twist would be a team of people are about to go back in time to inhabit their younger bodies when the villain shows up with a team of henchmen and interups the process. The characters then have to figure out who has made it back and who hasn't all while trying to figure out a new plan for changing the past and avoiding the younger versions of the villain and his henchmen who have also managed to go back in time.

[@benpuffer7891]

Back to the Future theory. The original Marty died in the scene at the tunnel , run over by Biff. Doc time travels to save Marty and that is why Doc knows how to show up at the right place at the right time to save Marty.

[@rennanwhittington]

On the note of Arcane: My wife and I often discuss how Stormlight and many of your other works might best be represented on the screen in the animation and style of Arcane due to the difficulties with portraying the incredible magic and effects with live action. Either way, I would love to be able to enjoy your worlds in other mediums from film to animation to video games. Playing a video game as a Mistborn or a Radiant would be incredible.

[@raphaelr.4804]

Here's a theory for you: Frugal Wizard is actually a Cosmere novel. It's Hoid's origin story.

[@dantehosseini1950]

I thought this was going to be Brandon and Dan’s favorite fan theories about THEIR OWN books, and I was looking forward to hearing them laugh maniacally about theories they will neither confirm nor deny.

[@IzroneI]

Replay by Ken Grimwood is my absolute favorite book about the going back in time into your own body thing. It discusses a lot of the interesting aspects of what would you do.

[@evandickinson6393]

Re: being 14 with everything you know... You couldn't NOT be a different person... insofar as fixing 911...I think that moment was such a linchpin in history that preventing it would result in something similar or worse happening, maybe delayed a year or two, maybe an attack on/at a different level. Re: St Elsewhere...I'd argue that those shows weren't ALSO imagined by the kid, rather they were shows he watched and added cameos into his imagined story

[@Aigra]

As a German, I feel obliged to vote for asparagus

[@mcgeeal5342]

Not a single mention about Snowpiercer/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is hands-down the greatest theory in fiction 😭

[@jamesmontgomery7074]

I do like this one despite not having seen snowpiercer. The fan theory was a cool read anyway.

[@Adam_okaay]

My favorite fan theory is that most of Brandon's work is set in the same universe, and that Hoid plays a role in every story even if he isnt mentioned specifically in the book that it takes place in.

[@hermannandreaskran9392]

That’s possible, but don’t get hopes up that there is going to be a big crossover. The entire point of Brandon splitting up his works into different universes/multiverses is that he doesn’t need to take into account how the stories influence each other unless they are part of the same franchise. (Not completely sure if Cosmere counts as a franchise, but I can’t come up with a better word) Cosmere focuses on the fallout of the Shattering. When Sanderson had the idea for Spensa he originally thought to introduce her in mistborn era 4, but that would require limiting era 2 and 3 before they were finished. So instead he reused the idea of Cytonic so that, I assume, he could have awesome space battles without limiting future mistborn books.

[@Crowned_PvP]

@@hermannandreaskran9392 r/woosh

[@hermannandreaskran9392]

@@Crowned_PvP ok

[@user-ez9ng2rw9c]

​@@hermannandreaskran9392not sure if you're serious or not but they're absolutely heading towards a big crossover.

[@hermannandreaskran9392]

Not a big crossover between Cytoverse and Cosmere

[@pancho1117]

I think the better bad story idea going along with what Dan wanted to do is, once you change one event, you've created a new timeline, not everything is going to play out exactly the same as there will be different repercussions to events happening differently. So you know you can only change one event and everything else shifts after that.... What's the one event you change?

[@thomasmiller8289]

Funnily enough this is pretty close to the subject of a particular subgroup in stormlight archive, now that i think about it! Love it

[@PommyDragon2525]

45:20 You can still pull off the Tab joke, but instead it’s the fast food worker getting mad that they were called a Zero when our ProTag orders a “Coke, Zero”

[@yosefberger6259]

If the alien takeover idea wins, the shirt could be an advertisement for an alien law firm

[@RyanIONIC]

I love that back to the future theory. Now allow me to tear it down: the marty in the movies isnt the same Marty who was raised by the successful version of his parents

[@KeithCVI]

I would be devastated if I go back in time and made changes that inadvertently result in my daughters not being born (or being replaced by some other kids).

[@moyooo]

You guys need to discuss edge of tomorrow as one of the best recent time travel movies. It's terrific in my opinion - would love to hear your thoughts

[@hkfifty871]

I would like to hear more of these fan theories that Brandon has canonized because they work so well. (Also I’m SHOCKED that they didn’t touch on “Captain America could’ve lifted Mjolnir in Age of Ultron but chose not to” and then Cap wielding Mjolnir in Endgame.)

[@evandickinson6393]

I didn't read that as a choice...but the sentient mace NOT quite sure if Steve was quite worthy...the subtle shift made it seem like the mace took a measure of him and decided "not quite ready"

[@BirdMorphingOne]

11/22/63 did the whole, go back and stop the jfk assassination. Which is similar to what they're talking about

[@B-MC]

The question about going back first made me think "i feel like no one would believe me and/or i cant know what would happen IF i changed it. Things i would want to solve then i still cant solve now" but then got me thinking like what Dan Wells says "ive changed so much though that I couldnt possibly keep a low profile either. I dont know what ELSE i would do, i just know my perception is so different now that doing it again couldnt be tolerable."

[@devansmith691]

I love the fan theory for Snowpiercer that says it's a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory sequel. You might think at first it is just some dark twist fan theory like Dan was talking about, but my goodness, there is a TON of "evidence."

[@tisucitisin1]

Cobie Smulders's one actually makes sense as HIMYM shows a scene where she is a special agent type of thing running away from some thugs. That could work.

[@Sturdy_Penguin]

24:44 I appreciate Brandon's use of sapient vs. sentient. I can be a tiny bit pedantic in my head. Also when he said "The connective tissue between toys" I was imagining some kind of awful plastic-flesh hybrid where they are hollowed out and full of some blob of connective tissues that are physically animating the toys and cars.

[@thomasmiller8289]

Pretty sure that cars in cars canonically have organic brains and stuff crammed inside their car bodies alongside the mechanical parts.

[@rev.chuckshingledecker]

My favorite fan theory is that The Rock with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery is a secret James Bond movie and that Connery is actually the original James Bond. It’s 100% convincing to me and the first time I saw it in 96 I thought he was supposed to be Bond.

[@calebmauer1751]

There is a recent book, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (by Claire North), that covers the exact idea of going back in time and living your life again, and it covers ALL of the things Brandon and Dan discussed, and a lot more. Great sci-fi book, I highly recommend it.

[@IndiaTides]

I hope Brandon grow beard like Gandalf and have staff with all the time.

[@areeweblind]

sadly he will have to shave it when he goes back to teach at BYU.

[@TheAmyrlinSeat]

@@areeweblind so no beard Brandon at dragonsteel? ):

[@areeweblind]

@@TheAmyrlinSeat I think they say in the last podcast that he goes back in January, and he seemed to say hes keeping it until then.

[@keevan987]

The changes in the ways we're consuming older music are perhaps best highlighted by the fact that there's a family of radio stations which are now in their third decade of using the tagline "The best mix of the 80's, 90's, and today."

[@Rkcuddles]

Omg Brandon you should watch that Travelers show. Very good exploration of people coming back from the future and deciding what to change and what to leave alone. There are these historians that remember all the big events and try to change just enough. It’s cool. I can’t say too much more without spoiling

[@awdeful]

Late to the party on the comments by a solid year, but the start of time travel books you are talking about, I would recommend Claire North's - 'The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August'. It certainly has it's flaws, but it is about a person who is reborn at the start of their life, with all knowledge of their previous life, and what they do with it. Very on-point with your initial discussion.

[@slydragoon]

There was a crossover episode with the Jetsons and the Flintstones, and it involved traveling back in time. The fan theory that they happen at the same time requires ignoring things that were in the show.

[@Squiggly6942]

I believe Westworld had the same issue. They tried to subvert expectations because ppl figured it out and it backfired.

[@Enigmanaut]

Regarding the Tommyverse... the Snowglobe later appeared in the 12th Doctor's TARDIS on Doctor Who. Just sitting on a shelf somewhere. So, Tommy lives in the Whoniverse, and the Doctor came into possession of Tommy's Snowglobe at some point.

[@jennywilliams1455]

Pausing before you get into the theories so I'm sorry if you cover this one, but one of my favorite A Song of Ice and Fire theories is that Jaime and Cersei are Targeryens, bastards of Aerys taking the king's right of First Night with Joanna Lannister. It makes the story more interesting in so many ways, from Tyrion being Tywin's only true son to the inc*st, Cersei finding Rheagar attractive, and it makes Joffrey a mad Targaryen king. I love it.

[@zacharyhoskins1184]

I hear what they're saying about not wanting to relive middle school, but if you had an adult's experience I think it could be fun. A lot of the misery is not knowing how it turns out and lacking the confidence to accept childish taunts. Keep your head down get your work done and just be a ghost.

[@TheodoreMinick]

There is a similar book to the "Aliens take over earth using our own laws" story idea, but it actually goes the other way. It's called Year Zero, and it's based on the premise that aliens have been pirating earth music for decades, and now owe the music industry, collectively, more money than exists.

[@Lukelondon]

My Favorite is that Steve Buschemi is the same guy in Billy Madison, Big Lebowski, & Con Air

[@e443productions9]

The best part about the Pixar theory is the time traveling aspect of it lol

[@skypaladin9878]

I'm interested in how the time travel would affect their writing as authors. Would they change their books, can they even recreate the books?

[@Gig3dgs]

you guys should talk about monk and graphic audio

[@Zisteau]

The bad story idea sounds very close to Replay which is a fantastic book. I'm surprised neither of them is familiar with it.

[@G_zuz]

Brandon went back in time and wrote my books But by doing this he inspired me to create newer ones

[@paraalso]

I like the theory about Snowpiercer being a sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

[@DampeS8N]

The biggest plot hole in Back to the Future 2 is (and stop reading if massive plot holes will bother you) that Old Biff goes back in time and gives himself the Almanac and somehow is able to return to the future to leave the DeLorean for Doc and Marty to use again. He should have returned to an alternate future destroyed by his own greed.

[@calebmauer1751]

Yep, people just end up in whatever timeline is convenient to the plot, see also Jennifer getting left in the dark timeline but ending up in the good one. But you don't have a movie without the Old Biff plot hole, short of inventing some other way of sending the Almanac back in time.

[@GraydenProductions]

Just caught up on the last two episodes as this one drops. Lucky day!

[@insignificantdamage3446]

What if both Dan and Brandon went back in time, but their was a issue during the travel. Dan goes back to when he was 15, he remembers wanting to be rich, but he has a huge memory loss. Since he's been working with Brandon very closely in Dragonsteel, he has a huge knowledge of all the Cosmere books and so his 15 yo self thinks that he wrote them. Meanwhile, Brandon goes back to when he met Dan in college with his full memories. Except now all his books have already been written by Dan and the Cosmere is named the Danverse.

[@LimegreenSnowstorm]

My favorite fan theory is that Andy’s mom is Emily from Jessie’s past. Explains why Andy had a Jessie hat 👀 I also loved the theory that Rapunzel is Anna and Elsa’s cousin and their moms are sisters, and the parents died on the way to Rapunzel and Eugene’s wedding. The extended canon seems to have disproven it though.

[@jamcdonald120]

30:20 and brandon is the keeper of all literary canon, so its canon now!

[@SunRayz3r]

My favorite fan theory comes to us from the Princess Bride. During the Battle of Wits where Wesley (posing as the Dread Pirate Roberts) introduces Iocane Powder by saying “inhale this, but do not touch” which Vizzini says “I smell nothing”. I have heard, that was verbal misdirection, and that Iocane Powder is a poison administered by INHILATION, not through the mouth. So, once Vizzini inhales it, it’s over, and has lost. And the remainder of the Battle of Wits is just Wesley waiting for the poison to take effect.

[@briandw979]

I've never heard these before. Fans are smart man. These would make awesome stories.

[@StarlitSeafoam]

I love the darth JarJar theory, because it makes JarJar not only bearable, but almost brilliant.

[@lukashillebrand9670]

This episode is just amazing!

[@RA45742]

Mount St. Elsewhere is how physicians from large or academic hospitals refer to smaller referring hospitals

[@briandw979]

The tee shirt with the vikings v Cthulhu would be sick. I would love to buy one.

[@sundaycomicssection]

My favorite fan theory is James Bond 007 is a job title that various top agents have been promoted to over the years explaining the different actors who have played him over the years.

[@anthonynatale8958]

My fan theory is that the Groundskeeper is a time traveler sent back in time to prevent an evil villain from pulling off food heists. He’s been very successful but was set up to take the fall for the Cadbury egg theft. Now that he’s imprisoned, the villain is pulling off more and more incredible food heists like the alligator eggs and the underwater sphere of gin.

[@blinkyrem]

Event Horizon is about humanity's first trip through the warp in 40k, minus the gellar fields. Daemonic incursions ensue...

[@jordanneal576]

That idea of being sent back in time is one the mental experiments I do when I'm trying to sleep. I've had a lot of the same thoughts that you guy have had. Meeting up with your wife is one thing, but will the kids you have be the same kids you have now? It would be tragic if not. I'm a software dev so I'd make Facebook before Zuckerberg did, or Twitter or something. I've also wondered if I'd stop 9/11. Who knows what affect that would have... I'd also test out the rest of Junior High and High School. No way I'm sitting through that.

[@billyalarie929]

2:07 Give that one to Municipal Waste for SURE

[@ryanciesiolka9435]

34:53 "that's perfection" lol that's literally the town in Tremors! 😂

[@McCainenl]

Dan's troll face is truly a delight

[@mitigatedrisk4264]

I am 100% with Dan on Ratatouille. The main character is not likeable. He's a jerk to his friends and family. He's a jerk to the human he's working with. He has no character arc that resolves that flaw. He has no real character arc of any kind. I mean he goes through the beats of a character arc, but if you stop and ask yourself, "how did he change, exactly?" you realize that he hasn't. There's a point in the movie where he marionettes Linguini into committing what is, by any measure, sexual assault, just to keep his cover from being blown (literally, she's reaching for her mace), and the movie plays it off like a romantic moment, because Paris. In the final act of the movie, he screws over the restaurant and runs away, and when asked why he cares, is it because he's realized that he can't do it without his friend? Nope, it's "because I'm a cook!" He cares only about his own passion to the exclusion of all else, even though it causes him to hurt other people. That's how he was at the beginning, and that's how he is at the end. Remy's a terrible person who never gets better, which you can do well by playing it tragic, but the movie portrays it as heroic. It's the kind of script Remy would write about himself.

[@jennywilliams1455]

Star Trek did a small fanon-to-canon thing where they confirmed that food made in the replicator is reconstituted humanoid waste.

[@mugofpewter]

thank you for mentioning signs!! i was yelling it at my laptop all episode last week😂😂

[@dbmeboy]

I’m still not finding this episode on podcast addict.

[@crylorenzo]

Not exactly like Brandon's bad story idea, but I was reminded of "Erased" an anime series, also a live action one. Only seen the anime but heard that it's good in both. Fantastic series if you've never seen it.

[@datmarshy]

Brandon : I want to tread lightly Dan : let me come in with this giant tread

[@m.e.881]

There was a recent Hallmark original TV series that dealt with a modern teenage girl going back in time to hang out with her mom as a teenager in the '90s! It's called The Way Back Home and I thought it was really enjoyable! It's more of a drama, not a fish out of water story. There's a bit of a mystery in that the mom lost her little brother and father within a few months of each other and no one in the present day will talk about it. Everyone (but modern teenage daughter) knows how the father died, but the little brother is a cold case. I watched it with my own mom and we had a great time. Though, warning to anyone reading this comment: the last twist at the end is not great... Lol.

[@raptori]

You really need to read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, and Recursion by Blake Crouch. Both of them are takes on the idea of waking up in your earlier life, and they're both absolutely phenomenal!

[@calebmauer1751]

Yeah, the Harry August book is awesome. Haven't read Recursion, might have to check it out. I didn't like Dark Matter that much though so wasn't sure about Recursion.

[@raptori]

@@calebmauer1751 I preferred Recursion to Dark Matter, but it did have a fairly similar feel, so might just not be for you! For me they kinda felt like Dan Brown books, with the pros and cons that comes with 😂

[@Kestrel-lp8ho]

Kage Baker's Company series is the most thorough time travel conspiracy novels.

[@nathanielskinner6868]

As a person that actually enjoyed Jar Jars character right from the start, the sith theory is really fun and is based on reality as there is footage of Lucas saying that jar jar is the key. I don't however believe he was meant to be the ultimate bad. To your point about fan suggestions changing cannon, I think the general reaction to jar was so negative that Lucas wrote him out of the story just to save face

[@ClayHales]

I didn't see it as a fan theory, but I did see a bad photoshop just after the release of Phantom Menace of Darth Darth Binks, where they took an image of Darth Maul and put Jar Jar's head on him.

[@harrylambert7237]

Okay, I get how not liking Ratatouille is a ridiculous take, but Dan has a point when he says the first 10 minutes of Up was the only good part.

[@calebmauer1751]

I'll admit, 15 years after seeing Up in the theater, all I remember is the beginning, and then a talking dog and them ending up high up in a mountain. And like some kind of Howard Hughes villain?

[@chronovii2428]

Last night I watched Blade Runner-and whether Deckard is or isn't a replicant is a great, classic fan theory. Good episode!

[@matthewcrislip5023]

I wanna hear Brandon's take on the time turner in Harry Potter. Harry and Hermione separated themselves from the timeline, according to Brandon's logic. Are they then living with different characters, in a different dimension, for the rest of the series?

[@pogostick43]

Dan is 100% correct about Up.

[@danwells9305]

Preach

[@zenthepoet.]

Adoooonalsium

[@jamcdonald120]

24:45 thats ridiculous! Andies father (also named Andy) died from post Polio Syndrome shortly after gifting Andy (his son) with his toys he hid durring his original Polio Disease.

[@travisrafferty7804]

I like how Brandon says he’s going to tread lightly because of Demadred/mazrim taim. Lol

[@One_Bar]

Literally watched Signs after that episode and now I’m going to have to look up the fan theory and watch it again. THANKS BRANDON. 😂

[@zkatt3238]

damn, this is a VERY tough contest for bad stories

[@tarrantkorrin3796]

What I would like to know is would they write their books the same? Would they re-write all their existing books? Polish them up? Change them? Skip some entirely? Would they even have the patience to tell a story they’ve already told?

[@thegreyinitiate3680]

It’s funny how you happened to mention Maria Hill today…….. 😂😂