History Main / FanWank

** As a NecessaryWeasel resulting from [[MostWritersAreHuman the actors playing the Doctor all being human mortals]], the ageing of the Doctor's individual faces is inconsistent -- the Doctor can take TheSlowPath for 400 years and not age a day in one story, but look visibly older after only five years in another. This has received an attempted HandWave by River Song in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler Let's Kill Hitler]]", where she suggests that Time Lords can control their ageing and even age backwards if they want to (possibly used by the Tenth Doctor to reverse his age between his courtship with Queen Elizabeth in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" and his death in the Specials), but there are points where the Doctor is physically ageing, getting only drawbacks from doing so, and clearly ''doesn't'' want to.

* ''Manga/DrStone'' starts with the main characters Senku and Taiju being [[TakenForGranite petrified for over 3700 years]] and [[AndIMustScream remaining conscious the whole time]], but [[AngstWhatAngst they seem perfectly fine after they revive]]. Since it's shown that being petrified and revived heals all physical injuries, some fans tried to justify this by claiming that petrification and revival also heals ''mental'' issues, meaning Senku and Taiju ''did'' GoMadFromTheIsolation, but their sanity was restored after they revived. This is unlikely, however, since some flashback scenes from Senku's perspective while he was petrified show that he was perfectly calm and rational even after counting billions of seconds.

-->-- '''Chad Orzel''' [[http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/10/12/the-astrophysics-of-bedtime-st/ tries to make sense]] of ''Goodnight, Moon!''

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' states that the chem stimulant Jet existed as a Pre-War drug, which contradicts ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', where it's established that Myron invented the drug himself. While this has never been addressed in canon, fans have noted that a plausible explanation practically writes itself: Myron is an amoral, drug-dealing sleazeball and staggering case of SmallNameBigEgo, so it's completely in-character for him to reverse engineer a post-apocalyptic version of Jet from available ingredients, and then lie about inventing it to puff up his own reputation.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' fans possess within them a camp of people that seek to ship [[PairTheSpares Lucca with either Glenn or Magus]], despite the fact that both of them are roughly twice her age. She does comment on Frog's handsomeness in the ending where he returns to human form, but nothing else comes of it.
** Making matters more absurd? Those who ship Magus with ''[[IncestYayShipping Schala.]]''

* The Scarecrow's "isosceles triangle" spiel near the end of Film/TheWizardOfOz is wrong three different ways. Some fans argue that it was not a CriticalResearchFailure by the writers, but an allegorical touch meant to warn against trusting the hollow promises of politicians (such as the Wizard, ruler of the Emerald City) or a TakeThat to Ivory-Tower academia (as simply having the degree didn't necessarily make Scarecrow any smarter).

* Why, exactly, have we never seen a male Mithra in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''? The official explanation for a lack of male Mithra [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] was originally simply that they're unadventurous and so never leave home, to the consternation of those who are uncomfortable with the concept of the NonActionGuy or just of not being able to play a cute catboy. With the release of the first expansion, we see our first truly wholly Mithra town and still no men (due to early fears of running into the [=PS2=]'s technical limitations), the explanation was elaborated as the slightly less plausible "they never leave the Mithra homeland" without clarifying that Kazham wasn't it, and thus the FanWank engine got the push start it needed. The most popular fan explanation is that they're too rare for use as anything but dedicated breeding stock, and what man would complain about that job, up to and including being chained up in the shadows? ''Wings of the Goddess'' does finally show ''one'' male Mithra in a cutscene (clothed, no less), but this may be too little, too late. Similar questions existed for the "all-female" Viera race found in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' and other [[TheVerse Ivalice]]-bound games, until ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: Endwalker'' added them as a playable race.

* Why, exactly, have we never seen a male Mithra in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''? The official explanation for a lack of male Mithra [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] was originally simply that they're unadventurous and so never leave home, to the consternation of those who are uncomfortable with the concept of the NonActionGuy or just of not being able to play a cute catboy. With the release of the first expansion, we see our first truly wholly Mithra town and still no men (due to early fears of running into the [=PS2=]'s technical limitations), the explanation was elaborated as the slightly less plausible "they never leave the Mithra homeland" without clarifying that Kazham wasn't it, and thus the FanWank engine got the push start it needed. The most popular fan explanation is that they're too rare for use as anything but dedicated breeding stock, and what man would complain about that job, up to and including being chained up in the shadows? ''Wings of the Goddess'' does finally show ''one'' male Mithra in a cutscene (clothed, no less), but this may be too little, too late. Similar questions exist for the "all-female" Viera race found in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' and other [[TheVerse Ivalice]] - bound games, until ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: Endwalker'' added them as a playable race.

* Why, exactly, have we never seen a male Mithra in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''? The official explanation for a lack of male Mithra [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] was originally simply that they're unadventurous and so never leave home, to the consternation of those who are uncomfortable with the concept of the NonActionGuy or just of not being able to play a cute catboy. With the release of the first expansion, we see our first truly wholly Mithra town and still no men (due to early fears of running into the [=PS2=]'s technical limitations), the explanation was elaborated as the slightly less plausible "they never leave the Mithra homeland" without clarifying that Kazham wasn't it, and thus the FanWank engine got the push start it needed. The most popular fan explanation is that they're too rare for use as anything but dedicated breeding stock, and what man would complain about that job, up to and including being chained up in the shadows? ''Wings of the Goddess'' does finally show ''one'' male Mithra in a cutscene (clothed, no less), but this may be too little, too late. Similar questions exist for the "all-female" Viera race found in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' and other [[TheVerse Ivalice]] - bound games.

If the canon author tries to do this to his own work, it's called a {{Retcon}}, ReVision, or otherwise some form of ContinuityPorn. In general, fans treat "retcon" as a value-neutral term, whereas "fan wank" carries a connotation of [[SturgeonsLaw being crap]]. That said, fan wank can [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools still be enjoyable]], especially if the author is [[LampshadeHanging clearly aware of how ridiculous the theory is]], and some fan theories can even be adopted by the original work in the form of AscendedFanon (or a ShrugOfGod, which means no canon commitment either way and gives the fans room to work with).

* Explaining TechnoBabble in more detail;

** At several points Manga/StardustCrusaders, Jotaro's [[FightingSpirit Stand]], Star Platinum, demonstrates NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: it suddenly becomes able to extend its fingers to hit Dark Blue Moon and Strength's users, gains a VacuumMouth to inhale Enya's [[FogOfDoom Justice]], and most glaringly of all, [[spoiler:suddenly becomes able to [[TimeStandStill stop time]] just like DIO's The World]] during the final battle with no foreshadowing. Some fans theorize that Star Platinum actually has an AdaptiveAbility and can gain any power it needs to protect Jotaro.

* ''Film/{{Enemy}}'' has ''many'' theories about "what it all means." Here's .[[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/03/14/enemy_movie_ending_explained_the_meaning_of_the_jake_gyllenhaal_and_denis.html one take]] from ''Slate''.

* In the backstory of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', there were 20 Space Marine Legions before the Horus Heresy, where 10 Legions rebelled. In order to prevent another organized revolt in the future, the remaining Legions were split into much smaller Chapters. Two of the original twenty Legions -- and whether these Legions stayed loyal or rebelled -- were intentionally left blank, so Space Marine (both loyalist and Chaos) players could fill in the details themselves when making their own Chapter/Legion, if none of the established lore fit the tone they were going for. The explanation for the identities and fates of these two blank Legions has caused no end of FanWank. Later novels set during the Horus Heresy expanded considerably on the time of the Space Marine Legions, including the "Lost Legions"; while they are never named nor are their Primarchs brought up, dialogue suggests they did, in fact, go with Horus -- and were wiped out for it. However, this information directly contradicts other equally canon sources that suggest the two Legions were destroyed before the Horus Heresy for other reasons, ranging from siding with alien species to simply succumbing in battle.

* From ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]'', a particular fan wank from the Koopaling [[EnsembleDarkhorse fansite]] [[http://www.lemmykoopa.com/ Lemmy's Land]] considered Bowser Jr. to be Baby Ludwig von Koopa under a different name and appearance, which was finally {{Jossed}} with ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii''.

* ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'' is particularly interesting because Creator/AndrewHussie actually pays attention to FanWank theories and sometimes canonizes them in later strips or shows them to be wrong in some egregiously {{anvilicious}} way, depending on how much he likes the theory and/or how much he feels like [[TrollingCreator trolling the fans]].

* Aside from the two ''Franchise/CareBears'' movie continuities, as the [[Headscratchers/CareBears Headscratchers]] mentioned, what happened to Dark Heart after he turned human, and for that matter, why did he attack them, why did he [[IncrediblyLamePun care]] about a girl that saved his life once? What was his backstory, and speaking of which, the backstory of all of the villains and the pre-Wishing Star bears and cousins?

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' fanfiction is very nearly the most written anime fanfiction on Website/FanFictionDotNet, mostly due to what Kishimoto decided to wait to reveal: the name of the Fourth... Fans thought his name was "Arashi ___" with the common idea being "Arashi Uzumaki" because everyone thought he was Naruto's father. We do now know his real name, which is [[spoiler:Minato Namikaze]], but fans remain free to speculate on his actual situation (reincarnated as Naruto after sealing the Kyuubi in himself?), village laws (the idea of "Clan Restoration Act" for a dying clan), the concept of a council (sometimes split into a Shinobi Council and a Civilian Council), {{shipping}}, Naruto's mother, bloodlines, members of Akatsuki, and whether or not Madara is actually immortal.

** ''Film/TheLastJedi'' has been receiving this by its defenders due to the polarizing reception to it. For example; why would [[spoiler: Luke ever try to kill Ben Solo when it seemed out of character for him? Many just claim he "was older and thus developed off-screen", and thus made a mistake since he is "human"]]. Why didn't Hux shoot the Resistance ship when they arrived at the Resistance base at the start of the film? Many say because he was arrogant and wanted to make them suffer. Why didn't Holdo reveal her plans to the crew? Fans claim she suspected a spy or wanted to teach Poe a lesson in being too gung-ho, or that they were following real world military protocols and thus had no reason to tell him. Your milleague may vary if these are seen as legitimate explanations.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan wank is exemplified by the "Klingon Forehead Problem": Klingons in [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]] had smooth foreheads, whereas they have ridged foreheads in every other work. Fans have been wanking on this for decades, with theories from Klingons removing the ridges with cosmetic surgery to better disguise themselves to just not all Klingons having them. Creator/GeneRoddenberry initially claimed that they always had ridges, but the original series [[DirectLineToTheAuthor lacked the makeup budget to show them]]. In ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'', though, the crew meets 23rd-century Klingons who have smooth foreheads; ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' explains this as the result of a genetic engineering experiment GoneHorriblyWrong that infected a significant portion of the population. One novel said much the same thinbg, and the non-ridged Klingon were human-Klingon hybrids shunned by the rest of the Klingon population. That could explain why they were sent off to patrol the border, were permanently pissed off at humans and lack the Klingon honour so prevalent in later shows. (The non-canon ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' shows how they were cured in the late 23rd century.) But another ''[=DS9=]'' episode shows some original series Klingons arriving with ridged foreheads; fans wank ''this'' away by claiming they had cosmetic surgery to pass themselves off as "normal" Klingons.

* In the ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' games, whether Raikou, Entei, and Suicune are cats, dogs, or whatever. Many forums moderators decided that people are free to call them whatever, but if there's any argument they are "officially" the three legendary ''gerbils''. ''Anime/PokemonGenerations - Episode 6: The Reawakening'' seems to suggest they are dogs, but raises more fan wank than it settles.

** Making matters more absurd? Those who ship Magus with ''[[IncestIsRelative Schala.]]''

** In an early fight in Manga/VentoAureo, Giorno's Stand, Gold Experience, is pierced by a Stand arrow used by Polpo's Black Sabbath. This turns into a PlotHole later on, where it's revealed that [[spoiler:if a Stand is pierced by an arrow, it evolves into its Requiem form, gaining new abilities]]. One common explanation is that [[spoiler:since the arrow used to turn Silver Chariot and Gold Experience into their Requiem form has a unique, scarab-shaped design, that specific arrow is somehow special, and the only one which can unlock a Stand's Requiem form]]. However, this is never explicitly stated, and is in fact rather unlikely considering how [[spoiler:all of the arrows, including the so-called "Requiem Arrow", were made from the same meteor, meaning that they should all be identical other than their shapes]].

* Comic book superheroes lend themselves well to UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny-style battles, and {{crossover}} wanks between Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} and Creator/{{DC|Comics}} characters are common. ''Comicbook/MarvelVersusDC'' tried to take advantage of this by pitting Marvel and DC characters against each other and determining the winner by fan vote. The most controversial here was [[Franchise/XMen Wolverine]] against SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}; although Wolverine [[PopularityPower unsurprisingly]] got more votes, this was back when Wolverine wasn't yet functionally immortal, but Lobo ''was'' and had fought Franchise/{{Superman}} to a standstill. Even the comic book artists couldn't figure that one out, so they had the fight [[TakeOurWordForIt take place offscreen]]. Fans wanked that Wolverine bribed Lobo to take a dive; a later ''Lobo'' comic claimed it was Professor X who paid Lobo to take the dive (to spare Wolverine's ego and reputation).

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan wank is exemplified by the "Klingon Forehead Problem": Klingons in [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]] had smooth foreheads, whereas they have ridged foreheads in every other work. Fans have been wanking on this for decades, with theories from Klingons removing the ridges with cosmetic surgery to better disguise themselves to just not all Klingons having them. Creator/GeneRoddenberry initially claimed that they always had ridges, but the original series [[DirectLineToTheAuthor lacked the makeup budget to show them]]. In ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'', though, the crew meets 23rd-century Klingons who have smooth foreheads; ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' explains this as the result of a genetic engineering experiment GoneHorriblyWrong that infected a significant portion of the population (the non-canon ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' shows how they were cured in the late 23rd century). But another ''[=DS9=]'' episode shows some original series Klingons arriving with ridged foreheads; fans wank ''this'' away by claiming they had cosmetic surgery to pass themselves off as "normal" Klingons.

* In ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'' fandom, one of the most obvious and yet never directly addressed questions is why all the [[AliensSpeakingEnglish aliens speak English]]. Various theories have emerged, the most popular being that the stargates themselves act as translators. Further speculation suggests that travel through a stargate somehow implants individuals with the ability to speak other languages, but it didn't originally manifest because the Earth Stargate uses a haphazard jerry-rigged control system ([=McKay=] complains that the Earth gate ignores ''hundreds'' of important commands that normal gates use). The producers, for their part, claim it's just a convention to make everything feel less contrived.

** The [[AnachronicOrder Dalek timeline]], why [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the Daleks in the first story were so different in personality and power level to later ones]] and why their precursor race is given as "Dals" at first and then (more memorably) as "Kaleds". Some novels suggest that the early Daleks were a prototypical race of Dalek sent to live in the city on their own as an experiment, who then disowned the inferior beings who created them. Others suggest that the Dals were a race wiped out by the Kaleds, and a Dalish word was used to name the race ("Dal-ek" being Dalish for "God" or "{{Ubermensch}}"), leading to the early Daleks to mistakenly assume they were descended from the Dals.

** The "UNIT Dating Controversy" refers to figuring out just when the heck the Doctor worked for the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Long story short: some hints in the 1970s UNIT-involving stories suggest they are set in the near-future (the late-'70s and 1980s), even when [[NextSundayAD to all intents and purposes they appear to take place in the then-present day]]. The problem is, the show itself forgot about this conceit by the time of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead an (actual) early-'80s story]], which explictly dated long-running UNIT chief [[Characters/DoctorWhoBrigadierLethbridgeStewart the Brigadier]]'s ''retirement'' to 1976 -- thereby inextricably knotting its own continuity. Unknotting it is a conundrum big enough, wanky enough, and enough of a fool's errand that the revival series makes a generous point of mocking it whenever the subject comes up.

* From ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', a particular fan wank from the Koopaling [[EnsembleDarkhorse fansite]] [[http://www.lemmykoopa.com/ Lemmy's Land]] considered Bowser Jr. to be Baby Ludwig von Koopa under a different name and appearance, which was finally {{Jossed}} with ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii''.

** The many, many efforts to make a coherent timeline out of the series have led to endless FanWank. The most accepted resolution was to split the timeline in two in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', made possible by the game's use of TimeTravel. Creators Creator/EijiAonuma and Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto confirmed that there was a timeline but refused to show it to anyone, only occasionally saying which games come after which. That was until the 2011 release of the artbook/encyclopedia ''Hyrule Historia'', which indeed reveals the whole timeline -- and shows that ''Ocarina of Time'' split the timeline into ''three''. Fans still aren't sure what to make of that, with some questioning why "game overs" in other ''Zelda'' games don't cause additional timelines. [[KeepItSimpleStupid Other than the obvious, that is]].

* In the backstory of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', there were 20 Space Marine Legions before the Horus Heresy, where 10 Legions rebelled. In order prevent another organized revolt in the future, the remaining Legions were split into much smaller Chapters. Two of the original twenty Legions -- and whether these Legions stayed loyal or rebelled -- were intentionally left blank, so Space Marine (both loyalist and Chaos) players could fill in the details themselves when making their own Chapter/Legion, if none of the established lore fit the tone they were going for. The explanation for the identities and fates of these two blank Legions has caused no end of FanWank. Later novels set during the Horus Heresy expanded considerably on the time of the Space Marine Legions, including the "Lost Legions"; while they are never named nor are their Primarchs brought up, dialogue suggests they did, in fact, go with Horus -- and were wiped out for it. However, this information directly contradicts other equally canon sources that suggest the two Legions were destroyed before the Horus Heresy for other reasons, ranging from siding with alien species to simply succumbing in battle.

* Why, exactly, we have never seen a male Mithra in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''? The official explanation for a lack of male Mithra [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] was originally simply that they're unadventurous and so never leave home, to the consternation of those who are uncomfortable with the concept of the NonActionGuy or just of not being able to play a cute catboy. With the release of the first expansion, we see our first truly wholly Mithra town and still no men (due to early fears of running into the [=PS2=]'s technical limitations), the explanation was elaborated as the slightly less plausible "they never leave the Mithra homeland" without clarifying that Kazham wasn't it, and thus the FanWank engine got the push start it needed. The most popular fan explanation is that they're too rare for use as anything but dedicated breeding stock, and what man would complain about that job, up to and including being chained up in the shadows? ''Wings of the Goddess'' does finally show ''one'' male Mithra in a cutscene (clothed, no less), but this may be too little, too late. Similar questions exist for the "all-female" Viera race found in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' and other [[TheVerse Ivalice]] - bound games.