History Main / StockEpilepticTrees

See Also: WMG/GrandUnifyingGuesses, WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees, and StockParodyJokes.

* Every character [[DoppelgangerCrossover with the same actor/voice actor/]][[NamesTheSame name]] [[DoppelgangerCrossover as a character from another franchise]] ''is'' actually that other character. (Tongue in cheek, usually.)

** The hero is insane and delusional, [[CuckooNest and the entire story is their hallucination in an]] [[BedlamHouse asylum]]. Usually with an element of Main/AndYouWereThere, with the other characters representing people from the hero's life or staff and patients from the asylum.

* Characters X and Y share the same last name, therefore are [[SameSurnameMeansRelated related]]. This one might fly in a world with MinimalistCast -- but the more characters there are, the less likely it is. Unless, of course, your name is Creator/CharlesDickens.

* The Future is actually in the past, and vice versa.

* Character X is transgender and is now Character Y. Seems to be common among the fandoms of Western Animation shows that used models that were re-used a lot such as ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends''.

* The genius/loner/{{Cloudcuckoolander}} is [[HollywoodAutism autistic]], the nervy character has an anxiety disorder, TheEeyore is depressed, or the cloudcuckoolander or TheDitz has a learning disability. Again, this is sometimes done out of a desire for representation.

!!Theories common to Wiki/TVTropes fandom

* X character is [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Ash's]] [[DisappearedDad father]]. While an ubiquitous enough Wild Mass Guess ''in''-universe (to the point of [[WMG/PokemonAshsFather having its own page]]), crossover theories about Ash's father are also very popular, [[UpToEleven which can additionally overlap with other items in this section]].

* Characters X and Y share the same last name, therefore are [[SameSurnameMeansRelated related]]. This one might fly in a world with MinimalistCast -- but the closer you get to LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, the less likely it is. Unless, of course, your name is Creator/CharlesDickens.

** An inversion is the theory that a character who's a DreamPerson, ImaginaryFriend or hallucination is real.

* WMG/TimeLord (that a certain character is a Time Lord from ''Series/DoctorWho'', especially any Time Traveller in the history of everything ever.)

** Sometimes paired with "and Y is his/her TARDIS".

* [[DoppelgangerCrossover Every character with the same actor/voice actor/]][[NamesTheSame name as a character from another franchise is actually that other character.]] (Tongue in cheek, usually.) Subverted in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': J.D. and Turk recognize The Janitor while watching The Fugitive. Creator/NeilFlynn (who plays The Janitor) actually had a minor role in The Fugitive. In the Scrubs universe, it was The Janitor himself who played the part.

** The cast died in the first episode and now they're all in Purgatory. Explicitly {{Jossed}} by the creators of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', among other writers. There was an infamous (false) rumor that this was how ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons'' would end. After being explicitly {{Jossed}}, ''Series/{{Lost}}'' [[spoiler:actually ended this way. However, it was a case of the characters ending up in Purgatory either during or after the series, rather than being DeadAllAlong]].

** Every once in a while this actually makes sense: Check out the WMG for ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' for a pretty good example.

* LukeIAmYourFather. A legitimate trope, but fans take it way too far, especially with their tendency to assume that the BigBad is the father of TheHero, even when there is obvious evidence against it. This is probably influenced by the [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian widespread belief]] that Freud was right and that all conflicts can be reduced to [[OedipusComplex Oedipus]] CallingTheOldManOut.

* Any fantasy setting is often presumed to be EarthAllAlong either far in the future or far in the past, the epileptic trees even covering up cases where the dates are explicitly stated through an Unreliable Narrator. For stories that take place in a ConstructedWorld (which isn't supposed to have anything to do with our world): Show X takes place AfterTheEnd, or else in the distant past and two of the characters are [[AdamAndEvePlot Adam and Eve.]]

* Any ManipulativeBastard or TheTrickster is [[Creator/HPLovecraft Nyarlathotep]].

* [[DoppelgangerCrossover Every character with the same actor/voice actor/]][[NamesTheSame name as a character from another franchise is actually that other character.]] (Tongue in cheek, usually.) Subverted in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': J.D. and Turk recognize The Janitor while watching The Fugitive. Neil Flynn (who plays The Janitor) actually had a minor role in The Fugitive. In the Scrubs universe, it was The Janitor himself who played the part.

* FanonWelding: Show X is set in the same universe as Show Y.

** Inversion: The spin-off is not really set in the same universe as the original.
** Or sometimes: The spinoff IS set in the same universe as the original
*** Alternatively, the SpiritualSequel is set in the same universe as the previous work, thus being a StealthSequel.

* Show X is set in the same universe as Show Y.

!!Theories with their own pages:

!!Theories common to general fandom:

* Any character with CharlieBrownBaldness (especially if they're a child) has leukemia and/or cancer, and their lack of hair is due to them being a chemotherapy patient.

* Any character with CharlieBrownBaldness has leukemia and/or cancer, and their lack of hair is due to them being a chemotherapy patient.

** The hero is insane and delusional, [[CuckooNest and the entire story is his hallucination in an]] [[BedlamHouse asylum]]. Usually with an element of Main/AndYouWereThere, with the other characters representing people from the hero's life or staff and patients from the asylum.

* The protagonist is fighting on the wrong side, because the "evil" characters are actually in the right and he/she is too blind or prejudiced to notice.

* AllJustADream: This sometimes reflects either some fans' lack of faith in the writers or their lack of imagination; revealing that the whole story was a dream as a DeusExMachina has been a DeadHorseTrope for quite a while. Variations of this include:

** A subset of this is "all characters are actually ''part'' of the main character." For example, both ''WMG/FinalFantasyXII'' and ''WMG/Mother3'' had this idea, the latter for a character from a ''previous'' game.