Thoughts and Fiction

Fan Theories

A Collection of miscellaneous fan theories about a great many things.

  • Ultimate Zonai Theory Part 2

    Origins, habitation and population movements. Part 1 Part 3 In part 1, it was argued that the Zonai King Rauru, in the flashbacks of Tears of the Kingdom (TotK), founded Hyrule between the events of Skyward Sword and The Minish Cap. There’s nothing particularly out there or groundbreaking about this conclusion, but the timeline was…

  • Ultimate Zonai Theory Part 1

    Introduction and Timeline Placement Part 2 Tears of the Kingdom (TotK) has thrown a spanner into the Zelda theory community. The Zonai, introduced in that game, are an entirely new element of the Zelda timeline, which complicates many old theories and established narrative details. The term Zonai was first used during Breath of the Wild…

  • Mario Timeline: New Super Mario Bros.

    Over a series of posts, I have slowly and somewhat unintentionally begun to build my own Mario Timeline. But for a lot of Mario games (especially the side-scrollers), creating a timeline is more a practice in storytelling, world-building, and wild speculation than theorising. Many of the games don’t have much of a story to work…

  • Return of the Deku Scrubs (mini post)

    Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom looks awesome. I’m excited, I can’t wait to play it, and I can’t believe I haven’t talked about it yet. Alas, I’m in the middle of writing my MA dissertation, so this can only be a brief comment. I’ll probably make another, more substantial post about it in September…

  • Nintendo Switch: The Ultimate Zelda Console

    The Wii U was the ultimate Zelda console. Thanks chiefly to the eShop/Virtual Console, it could play an enormous library of Zelda games. It also had HD remasters of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess and the spinoff Hyrule Warriors. And whilst Breath of the Wild is a Switch game (the launch title, no less), it…

  • Realistic Superheroes

    Reflection on The Boys and the Realistic Superhero genre. In recent decades, a number of films, TV shows, and comic books have attempted to depict a Realistic Superhero story. There have been so many now that it could almost be called a genre – or at least a subgenre. Even conventional superhero stories are starting…

  • Warrior-Plumbers: The Mario Timeline Continued.

    A while ago, I wrote a blog post about the Mario Timeline. I didn’t actually make a timeline – I’ve not played enough of the games for that – but I had some thoughts on how to make one. And, now, I’ve had some more thoughts on the matter, so I thought it was worth…

  • Monstrous Hylians Treating Monsters in Monstrous Ways

    (A new, more coherent, version of this post is available here.) The Hylians/‘good guy’ factions in The Legend of Zelda are doing horrifying things to the monsters. When you kill a monster in a Zelda game, it explodes in a puff of evil smoke. Then, depending on the game, it drops an item. Sometimes it’s…

  • The Mushroom Kingdom: A Land of Tyranny and Stockholm Syndrome

    I may have gotten carried away on this one, maybe let my mind wander a little too freely. But Princess Peach is a tyrannical dictator and all the toads/mushroom people have Stockholm Syndrome. I refuse to elaborate! Okay, maybe I will. How did the Mushroom Kingdom survive before Mario showed up? The Mushroom Kingdom’s people,…

  • Fallout Falls In: Season 2 Predictions

    I don’t know what I mean by ‘Fallout falls in’, but I like how it sounds. Spoilers for season 1 of Fallout. The new Fallout show dropped on Amazon Prime a couple of weeks ago. I am a little late in discussing it – I had uni commitments – but I do want to talk…

  • Zelda: In Defence of The Downfall Timeline

    Ahh the Zelda Timeline, some hate it, some loathe it! I joke. But then there was a fair amount of disagreement when Nintendo, during Zelda’s 25th anniversary, published the official timeline (in the pages of Hyrule Historia). Fans had been theorising about it for years and so when the official chronology was revealed, some people…

  • Bad Batch Season 3 Episode 8 Theory

    Hi all, Just a short post this week. I was working on another post, but whilst watching the most recent episode of the Bad Batch, I had a theory that I wanted to share before the next episode airs on Wednesday. Spoilers ahead. As part of an ongoing effort by Star Wars showrunners to explain…

  • Star Wars: Why Walkers?

    The tactics and vehicles used in Star Wars ground battles often look cool but don’t really make a lot of sense. The AT-AT walkers in The Empire Strikes Back, most notably, defy all logic. It’s imposing to see them approach, and it’s a great scene, but why are they so slow? All it does is…

  • Creating a Mario Timeline

    A few random thoughts on the series’ chronology. There have been a few attempts on YouTube, at least that I’ve seen, to construct a unified Mario timeline – one that includes all of the games. It’s a task that my own nerdy inclinations are sympathetic to, but it does seem a tad insurmountable. There are…

  • Star Wars: The Confederacy Doesn’t Make Sense.

    I love Star Wars and I grew up watching Clone Wars, but what is the Confederacy? It’s bugging me. I might be missing something. Across the comics, books and video games, there are probably some good explanations. I don’t know. But based on what I’ve seen in the films and TV shows, and what I’ve…