History Fridge / Fringe

** In particular, Walter characterizing himself as "the Candyman" reflects not only his sweet tooth and childish nature, but his desperate desire to "make the world taste good" by fixing it. This has particular relevance to [[spoiler: his abduction of Peter from the Other Side, which was his own attempt to right a tragedy but ended up having disastrous consequences.]]

* One thing I realized about the alt-verse some time ago: Their Statue of Liberty is brown-gold, that, like the Red Lantern exampe above, could be easily mistaken as just a one-off quirkiness. But then again, our own Miss Liberty was that same color in its early days, only acquiring its verdigris crust over time. So, it's easy to assume that, since the alt-verse's technology is higher in a bunch of aspects, they had at the time some way to keep the statue's original coloring, or at least recover it at some point.

* The Season 4 episode, "And Those We've Left Behind." I recall that Raymond was taking some sort of medication, but Kate, his wife, would have to remind him to take it, as he supposedly forgot every time. He would apparantly forget the reminders too. But of course he would be unable to reminder these reminders, for he never recieved them, and wouldn't for at least a few years... For each time we see Kate reminding Raymond to take his medication, she was actually talking to Raymond's future self. Raymond was intercepting his own reminders!

* There's a brief moment in the Season 2 finale when we get a look at some of the comic books that are popular in the Alternate Universe, and we see that Denny O'Neill's ''"GreenLantern and ComicBook/GreenArrow"'' is called "'''''Red''''' ''Lantern and'' '''''Red''''' ''Arrow''" in this world. At first glance, the color swap appears to be a one-off joke. In RealLife, though, comic book writer Martin Nodell got the idea for GreenLantern after he went to a train station and saw an engineer [[LineOfSightName using a green lantern and a red lantern to signal to trains when to run and when to stop]]. [[TruthInTelevision So there was, in fact, a pretty good chance that the famous superhero could have ended up being called "Red Lantern" in our world too]].

* This troper isn't finished with season 3 yet, but the fact that [[spoiler: Peter appears to Olivia while she believes she's Fauxlivia. At first this Troper thought it didn't make much sense, and it implied Olivia needed Peter to save her--but it actually works. Fauxlivia would only consider seeing Olivia a sign of raging insanity because Olivia was her enemy. Peter is more neutral and thus a far more credible source of information.]]

***** Walter also lost Peter at relatively the same time. "Subject 13" happened at roughly the same time Peter crossed over. During the episode, he's still dealing with the changes from crossing universes. If Peter died at Reiden Lake when Peter and Walter crossed over, then Subject 13 never happens because Walter is recovering from losing not one, but ''two'' Peters.

* That the Observers were all white men always bothered this troper a bit, but she wrote it off because they also never struck her as quite human. When their greater nature is revealed in Letters of Transit, this troper wondered if maybe this lack of diversity should not have been a handwave, but a subtle clue. That there were so many allusions to Casablanca and the Nazis in the episode confirmed this in her mind, and now the Observers always seem downright Aryan to her.

** This editor saw it as suggesting their Statue of Liberty is [[ReplacementGoldfish new]], having been replaced after 9/11 saw it destroyed, taking the plane intended for the World Trade Center either [[SmashTheSymbol intentionally]] or [[Film/{{United 93}} unintentionally.]] The latter more likely, since the plane that crashed in a field in our world made it all the way to the White House over there.
*** I thought it was because they have better technology and were thus able to prevent it from developing in the first place.

* Upon analyzing a few elements of the story, the Observers' origins and powers, and September's explanation to Peter, this troper has reached a terrifying, but enlightening conclusion: The Observers are [[spoiler: the ultimate Bigger Bad of the story in more ways than one. If one analyzes the Vaccum DoomsdayDevice, they will see that the glyphs on it match some of the Observers' language symbols, and its design seems exactly the same as many of their tools. While it's stated that Walter created the machine and sent it back in time, he had no way of creating it with modern technology, even if he is a genius, as there's no technology in either universe that could cause the destruction the machine does, but the Observers have that technology, as well as the technology to travel back in time. They are the real creators of the machine. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, read below.]]
*** [[spoiler: I also became quite suspicious of the Observers' BlueAndOrangeMorality regarding watching but not changing the past and the future, but seeming determined to ensure Peter stops the war between the universers, only to erase him from existence later. When September said that the Observers are "one of the many possible futures of mankind", I had the ultimate, horrifying realization: the Observers are a temporal paradox. [[TimeyWimeyBall By creating the means to travel back in time, they became an unstable anomaly in the time line, as they exist, but at the same time may not exist due to destiny not being written in stone. Their efforts are not just to understand humanity's history, but shape it in order to ensure that their future is the only possible one]](If there's no such thing as destiny, then basically ANY SMALL THING could erase their future, which is why they got so tense when July saved a random girl). When September stopped Walternate from healing Peter, he created a series of events that would cause the destruction of both universes, destroying the Observers' existence completely. As [[IncrediblyLamePun observed]] with Walter saving Peter and September saving them and later Peter's erasing from existence, [[ButterflyOfDoom any small change creates a new set of events, however odd and seemingly unrelated to that particular change]]. But they also wanted to make sure than when they colonized the Blue Universe, the Red Universe wouldn't be able to help, [[XanatosSpeedChess so they erased Peter from story to create yet another series of events that would lead the shutting down of the Machine and closing the bridge between universes, as well as permanently stopping William Bell and ZFT from trying to create a new universe in which the Observers couldn't possibly exist]]. This is also why the Commander in the finale doesn't want Windmark trying to go back in time to erase the Fringe Team: If they did that, all their XanatosGambit would be nullified, and they would risk William Bell trying to destroy the universes again or creating another timeline where they once again aren't sure to exist. It's also possible that Walter and Massive Dynamic's scientific experiments were the prelude to the creation of the Observers. It's all WildMassGuessing of my part, but it also fills in most of the plot holes and unanswered questions. The whole story was the Observers trying to create a StableTimeLoop to preserve their existence.]]

*** [[spoiler: Like this troper explained at FridgeHorror, the Observers are a temporal anomaly, as they created the means to travel through time, but time isn't written in stone, which means it can change and erase their existence depending on the sequence of events. The Observers are not only trying to understand and study human history, but gently directing it to their path. [[ButterflyOFDoom They don't want to risk changing things, which is why they don't like when one of them changes anything, as it can lead to a completely different future]]. Their focus on the Fringe team is due to September's interference with Peter Bishop, which leads to the war between universes and William Bell's plans to try and destroy both universes. They can travel backwards and have psychic powers that allow them to predict certain events, but it doesn't not make them TheOmniscient. They're basically trying to create a StableTimeLoop that ensures their victory and survival, at the expense of mankind.]]

** Of course it could also be suggestive of the darker world that is the alternate universe. A Red Ring's power is fuelled by rage rather than willpower and essentially makes the wearer a lethal warrior. Significantly, the rage must be rage motivated by personal loss, an allusion to the more dangerous world that the universe is.

* There's a brief moment in the Season 2 finale when we get a look at some of the comic books that are popular in the Alternate Universe, and we see that Denny O'Neill's ''"GreenLantern and GreenArrow"'' is called "'''''Red''''' ''Lantern and'' '''''Red''''' ''Arrow''" in this world. At first glance, the color swap appears to be a one-off joke. In RealLife, though, comic book writer Martin Nodell got the idea for GreenLantern after he went to a train station and saw an engineer [[LineOfSightName using a green lantern and a red lantern to signal to trains when to run and when to stop]]. [[TruthInTelevision So there was, in fact, a pretty good chance that the famous superhero could have ended up being called "Red Lantern" in our world too]].

* The entire episode of "Brown Betty" in ''{{Fringe}}''. At first glance, this episode may appear to be funny and a bit out there (which makes sense seeing as the majority of the episode is a story that Walter is telling Ella while he is high). But if you penetrate the subtext his bizarre story is actually very close to home.

* When you think about what the people on board the container ships have signed up for ([[spoiler:they have mutated into new creatures to populate the new world]]), when you start to think about it, it really is quite horrible. [[spoiler:There is no indication that there is any animal life being created other than them for this new world, and so for them to survive as species, they will all need to have their own place on the new food chain. When they signed up, did they know that a lot of them will be eaten by other members of this cult?]]

** This editor saw it as suggesting their Statue of Liberty is [[ReplacementGoldfish new]], having been replaced after 9/11 saw it destroyed, taking the plane intended for the World Trade Center either [[SmashTheSymbol intentionally]] or [[{{United93}} unintentionally.]] The latter more likely, since the plane that crashed in a field in our world made it all the way to the White House over there.

* Upon entering in Bell's safeplace, Walter stumbles upon a vinyl disc that Bell stole from him, said disc is David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World. The lyrics for that particular song ([[MindScrew in one interpretation]]) talk about two men in a journey of self-discovery and what they found there, a perfect epithomy of Bell's and Walter's friendship.

*** [[spoiler: Like this troper explained at FridgeHorror, the Observers are a temporal anomaly, as they created the means to travel through time, but time isn't written in stone, which means it can change and erase their existence depending on the sequence of events. The Observers are not only trying to understand and study human history, but gently directing it to their path. [[ButterflyOFDoom They don't want to risk changing things, which is why they don't like when one of them changes anything, as it can lead to a completely different future]]. Their focus on the Fringe team is due to September's interference with Peter Bishop, which leads to the war between universes and William Bell's plans to try and destroy both universes. They can travel backwards and have psychic powers that allow them to predict certain events, but it doesn't not make them TheOmniscient. They're basically trying to create a StableTimeLoop that ensures their victory and survival, at the expense of mankind.]]

* Remember that mystery guy on the zeppelin from Olivia's subconscious, and how Olivia said at the end of the episode ""...But, I think he's the man who's gonna kill me." Well, [[spoiler: the image on his shirt is the same image that appears William Bell's nanites at the end of season 4, and Bell was indirectly responsible for killing Olivia then.]]

* Upon analyzing a few elements of the story, the Observers' history and September's explanation to Peter, this troper has reached a terrifying, but enlightening conclusion: The Observers are [[spoiler: the ultimate Bigger Bad of the story in more ways than one. If one analyzes the Vaccum DoomdsayDevice, they will see that the glyphs in it match some of the Observers' language symbols. While it's stated that Walter created the machine and sent it back in time, he had no way of creating it with modern technology, even if he is a genius, as there's no technology in either universe that could cause the destruction the machine does, but the Observers have that technology, as well as the technology to travel back in time. They are the real creators of the machine. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.]]
*** [[spoiler: I also became quite suspicious of the Observers' BlueAndOrangeMorality regarding changing the past and the future, but seeming determined to ensure Peter stops the war between the universers, only to erase him from existence later. When September said that the Observers are "one of the many possible futures of mankind", I had the ultimate realization: the Observers are a paradox ClockRoaches. [[TimeyWimeyBall By creating the means to travel back in time, they became an unstable anomaly. Their efforts are not just to understand humanity's history, but shape it in order to ensure that their future is the only possible one]](If there's no such thing as destiny, then basically ANY SMALL THING could erase their future, which is why they got so tense when July saved a random girl). When September stopped Walternate from healing Peter, he created a series of events that would cause the destruction of both universes, destroying the Observers' existence completely. But they also wanted to make sure than when they colonized the Blue Universe, the Red Universe wouldn't be able to help, so they erased Peter from story to create yet another series of events that would lead the shutting down of the Machine and closing the bridge between universes, as well as permanently stopping William Bell and ZFT from trying to create a new universe in which the Observers couldn't possibly exist. This is also why the Commander in the finale doesn't want Windmark trying to go back in time to erase the Fringe Team: If they did that, all their XanatosGambits would be nullified, and they would risk William Bell trying to destroy the universes again. It's also possible that Walter and Massive Dynamic's scientific experiments were the prelude to the creation of the Observers. It's all WildMassGuessing of my part, but it also fills in all the plot holes and unanswered questions. The whole story was the Observers trying to ensure their future.]]

*** Like this troper explained at FridgeHorror, the Observers are a temporal anomaly, as they created the means to travel through time, but time isn't written in stone, which means it can change and erase their existence depending on the sequence of events. The Observers are not only trying to understand and study human history, but gently directing it to their path. [[ButterflyOFDoom They don't want to risk changing things, which is why they don't like when one of them changes anything, as it can lead to a completely different future]]. Their focus on the Fringe team is due to September's interference with Peter Bishop, which leads to the war between universes and William Bell's plans to try and destroy both universes. They can travel backwards and have psychic powers that allow them to predict certain events, but it doesn't not make them TheOmniscient.

** September actually said that they are from one future, one of the timelines branching off from now. The one they come from and the one they create by invading the past are probably not the same but existing parallel, so they don't know what will happen in this one.