Often times I’ll hear someone describe a “fan theory” that’s super complex and connects all these dots and I’ll think, “you’re just patching over holes the writers and directors screwed up, don’t do their jobs for them.”

But other times, they’re kinda compelling. Like the ones on this Reddit thread:

What fan theory do you 100% accept as true? from AskReddit

Let’s delve into some juicy theories, yeah?

1. Shrek

Not sure if this counts but Donkey from Shrek being one of the kids from Pinocchio who turned into a donkey is pretty mind blowing…

– Mattmandu2

2. The Empire Strikes Back

The Empire Strikes Back: Admiral Ozzel is a rebel spy.

Everything Ozzel does in his brief bits of screen time is to the detriment of the Empire. When the probe Droid finds the rebel shield generator, Ozzel tries to dismiss it as smugglers before Piet speaks out of turn and gets Vader involved. Later, Ozzel orders the fleet out of hyperspace too quickly, giving the rebels plenty of time to activate the aforementioned shield generator that Ozzel knew about.

“Clumsy as he is stupid” or Rebel sympathizer who gave is life to give the Alliance as much time to evacuate their base as possible? I side on the latter.

– JustafanIV

3. The MCU

That Loki was controlled by the tesseract more than he let on.

His eyes glowed multiple times and he shed a tear when Thor tried to talk sense into him.

– ELW98

4. The Jetsons / Flintstones

The Jetsons and the Flintstones are living at the same time in a dystopian future where the ‘haves’ live above the clouds and the ‘have nots’ are stuck on a wasted Earth.

The signs include that Flintstones celebrate things like Christmas and other holidays which doesn’t make sense and The Great Gazoo alien appears in both series.

– lowsodiummonkey

5. James Bond

James Bond’s primary purpose is to be a distraction to keep attention off the spies who actually spy.

Villains and other spies know him, he rarely takes an alias, he makes his presence known early on and keeps messing up operations for the villains, but other spies have already infiltrated their ranks and work while Bond does as much visible damage as possible to keep the others safe.

– BettyVonButtpants

6. The Wizard of Oz

Glinda dropped Dorothy’s house on the Wicked a Witch of the East, not the tornado, and uses her to gain control of Oz.

One of the first things Glinda tells Dorothy is that SHE killed the witch. They praise her so she’ll accept it, and when the Witch of the West comes along, who killed her sister? Dorothy.

Glinda then puts the ruby slippers on Dorothy’s feet but DOES NOT TELL HER THAT SHE CAN USE THEM TO GO HOME. Instead, she sends Dorothy to Oz in possession of objects that a witch would MURDER her for.

Dorothy, being forced into a situation where her only salvation is Oz and her worst enemy is the queen inadvertently exposes the Wizard of Oz as a fraud AND murders the Witch of the West.

Now, who’s left to rule Oz? Glinda f*ckin’ witch of the north. She used Dorothy as an expendable pawn to gain control of Oz without having to leave her bubble.

And when Dorothy is done upheaving the two biggest powers in Oz, Glinda sends her home and makes her think it was all a dream

– taz20075

7. Pokemon

Pokedex entries are written by young trainers. When a professor sends a bunch of ten year olds out into the world to document Pokemon, of course the “research” can’t be expected to be professional in the least. This is how we end up with the creepy legends of ghost pokemon that might have been passed around as playground rumors, or impossible facts like macargo being hotter than the actual sun.

There’s no reason why out of all the Pokemon professors, one of them couldn’t have revised their dex information and correct the tidbit about pidgeot breaking the speed of light or gardevoir creating black holes or blazikens jumping over 30 story buildings. Its likely they leave the kids to their own devices without bothering to fact check, and kids, being kids, are going to exaggerate.

– cold_french_fry

8. The Blair Witch Project

I 100% believe the two men accompanying the woman in the original “Blair Witch Project” planned and successfully executed a plan to murder her while they were deep in the woods.

Too many factors point to good old fashion murder than a supernatural occurrence.

– ThatCoryGuy

9. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka knew what he was doing.

There was no seat for Augustus aboard that boat.

He knew Augustus Gloop would fall in there.

– shronkey69

10. Mad Max

The Mad Max films do not take place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, it’s just that’s what happens when a bunch of Australians get lost in the desert.

– CDClagett

11. Peter Pan

Peter Pan kills any lost boy that grows into adulthood.

Captain Hook and his pirates are all lost boys that have escaped and aim to stop him

– An*lCystFist

12. Toy Story

Andy’s parents are in the middle of a divorce when the first Toy Story is taking place.

– irishamerican

13. Pinky & The Brain

Pinky is the genius.

Even the theme song hints at the theory, “One is a genius, the other’s insane: they’re Pinky and the Brain”.

– elee0228

14. Rick & Morty

Rick is Morty, and evil Morty is just a Morty that knows he’ll become Rick if he doesn’t deviate.

Rick said “I used to wear blue pants” and when he’s drunk he asks for redheads (Morty likes redheads).

Can’t think of other coincidences off the top of my head but I rewatched some of those episodes under that context and it made sense

– Destroyer11id1

15. Popeye

Spinach is just a front.

Popeye is on steroids!

– Dark-Knight179

I can’t pick a favorite!

What fan theory do you love?

Tell us in the comments.