The agony and the ecstasy of TikTok fan theories
"I've waited years for someone to ask me about my theories!"
Let’s discuss a recent TikTok trend that has folks sharing their most intense fan theories.
Fan Theory TikTok provides the perfect dose of low stakes drama
A fan theory is a theory that a fan has shared. It usually describes thoughts they have about a TV show or a movie and so on that are not actually discussed in that medium, for instance, when people say Scooby Doo is actually just a metaphor for kids trying to escape a draft or that Friends was just Phoebe’s fever dream. None of these things are confirmed. Just fun. Content is made to be engaged with, people engage with content, bada bing bada boom.
I’m not going to dive into the ethics of fan theories or how they can easily go off the rails. That discourse can be summed up in a classic internet mantra that’s older than I am, yet I still see Facebook group and subreddit moderators sharing it every day — “never go real life.”
I’m also not going to dig into how this seems to be another example of the fact that TikTok is just Tumblr 2.0, because though the discourse and the rabbit holes ARE eerily similar, I simply believe that this is the natural order of things when you give teenagers unfettered access to thousands of other weirdos.
Instead, I honestly want to dig into some of my favorites and celebrate the tiny, contained capsules of easily digestible drama they rain upon my For You page.
This particular trend has users utilizing audio from the Netflix reboot She-Ra and the Princesses of Power to express their excitement about finally getting to share their stories.
“You’re asking about my theories? I’ve waited years for someone to ask about my theories! Hang on.”
The first fan theory I saw posited that Prince Charles’ infidelity led to the creation of The Mandalorian on Disney+. No further info.
Credit: @aidan.not.aiden
How do so many TikTokers who have not gone viral before know that they have to let their viral content simmer so they can gain followers as people wait for elaboration and follow-up videos? Is this programmed into the minds of young people now, just like the fact you’re supposed to wait a few minutes before texting your crush back so they’re more excited to hear from you? I personally would surrender all of my information at the slightest hint of interest, but alas. @aidan.not.aiden did exactly that and sent the entire Star Wars side of the internet scrambling.
I am not on the Star Wars side of the internet, but I am on the nosy side. I’m not on the Princess Diana internet, either, and side note — why do young people love her so much? Is it because the parents of said young people were at an impressionable age when she died, and because there’s constant tabloid conversation surrounding her decades later and everyone seems to be taking a stab at her life story? OK, I think I figured it out.
Anyway, friend and fellow journalist Alani Vargas, who once casually informed me that she knows what Emily Blunt’s finsta is, happens to be an expert on all things … all things. She really knows a LOT about Disney, though, so she was the right person to ask to get to the bottom of this.
She told me that it had to have something to do with Disney’s failed Superstar Limo ride, which involved being chased by paparazzi in a limo, and just so happened to be in formation when Princess Diana … well, you know. Michael Eisner, the CEO of Disney at the time, was also behind the helm of Disney’s animation renaissance, which included The Lion King. And who directed the newest iteration of The Lion King but Jon Favreau, the showrunner for The Mandalorian. She cited a tweet from 2019 (girl, how) from Eisner that proved he is a fan of the baby Yoda show.
Now, a day later, @aidan.not.aiden revealed the TRUE theory he had been referencing — essentially what Alani told me, only a bit … worse? He said Eisner caught the blame because the Superstar Limo ride’s new iteration (slow-moving with celebrity animatronics) and the WHOLE new Disney Park (California Adventure) flopped, and ultimately he resigned, handing control over to Bob Iger who did not vibe with theme parks and instead really wanted to focus on movies and TV, which led to Disney’s entry into the streaming wars, the creation of Disney+ and baby Yoda.
Hmmmm. Alani, the voice of the people once again, noted that the streaming wars were always gonna happen — it didn’t take a boring theme park to make the folks at Mickey’s house think, hmmm, we should do what everyone else is doing.
So, sorry buddy, bit of a flop there. But it did send a bunch of excited people down a rabbit hole they might not have encountered otherwise.
“I did actually have a lot of fun trying to decode it … I knew a little bit of the history of California Adventure but it was fun to go to YouTube and watch the channel defunctland’s video on Superstar Limo and why it failed and Michael Eisner‘s involvement,” Alani told me. “It was a little frustrating to kind of wait the day and a half to see what the actual conclusion was … and then it was even more frustrating to hear the outcome and it was sort of a letdown after coming up with mine. And hearing that it sort of had these holes. BUT it’s for fun and it was all in all fun!”
The kicker, though? Mr. @aidan.not.aiden posted his Diana theory on the anniversary of her death. It was an accident! But the classic TikTok storytime waiting game did not pay off in this instance.
Credit: @fruitylilibet
In my opinion, this is the perfect amount of low-stakes internet drama.
I’ll give you some more fan theories — and regular old theories — rapid-fire:
Ella Enchanted is the most prolific piece of high camp anti-capitalist media ever produced
Flesh Pit National Park (THIS took an entire day away from me)
The equal and opposite impact 9/11 had on emo and country music
Gwen from Total Drama is a pick me and bad goth representation
The little kid from Age of Ultron made the Avengers lose in Infinity War
Here’s a link to the sound if you wanna see 8,000 more.