Headscratchers / Milo Murphy's Law

• Why does Milo get rid of Diogee so easily?? Does he do worse than Milo in terms of luck??
  • Milo's objections to Diogee's presence seem to be based largely on places where dogs would commonly not be allowed or encouraged to be, like school, school functions like football games, hospitals, and running freely in the street.
  Milo: He's not supposed to be in the street.
  • My assumption is that, as a dog, Milo is concerned Diogee would not be able to react to the various disasters that surround him, and is telling him to go home for his own saftey.
• What would happen if Milo was shot with a Good Luck-Inator?
  • Then he'd probably be a normal boy. The good luck would balance out the bad luck.
  • Or maybe the ray wouldn't hit him. Murphy's Law might make it impossible for such an event to transpire. Aside from which, who would build a "Good Luck-Inator" in Danville? It has "Good" right there in the title, so we can rule out the League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investments In Naughtiness.
    • Dr. Doofenshmirtz already built one and used it on himself.
  • Probably would only put a dent in Milo's bad luck, like the roof caving in on his room on a sunny day vs a rainy day.
  • Considering that The Good Luck-Inator worked on both Doofenshmirtz and Candace, both of whom were Butt Monkeys in Phineas and Ferb, I’m going to assume it would also work on him.
• While it's established that this show and Phineas and Ferb takes place in the same universe, when exactly does the show take place? Does it take place after the events of the Series Finale of Phineas and Ferb or before?
  • According to Dan Povenmire on Twitter, 'Milo Murphy's Law takes place immediately after the end of Phineas and Ferb. So, at the earliest, the show could've started the first day of school, and at the latest, it could be about month since then.
  • It does start on the first day of school, that's why it shows Zack having just met Milo.
• I know this is a weird question, but what if Milo was some sort of masochist or psycho who WANTS bad things to happen? Luck is a subjective thing, what is seen as good luck by one person can be seen as bad luck by another person, so what would happen?
  • Milo is already a major optimist. He sees his disasters as fun. If his luck warped itself around his interpretations, it'd stop making bad things happen so he has less fun. So if he was a masochist or psycho, bad stuff would still happen, he'd just enjoy it even more.
• In the football episode why was it deemed morally acceptable for Milo to weaponize his bad luck against the opposing team? If that happened in Gravity Falls that would be considered cheating. IS it cheating to do something like that?
  • To be fair, the Middletown Tigers were already cheating with having teenagers/adults as their football team by holding them back for years. But yeah, I don't know if affecting the other team with Murphy's Law can really be justified. At the least, it's better for Milo to use his luck to support his team than to unintentionally weaken them.
  • To be fair, all he was doing was cheering for a team. You can cheer for the enemy team all you want; he wasn't doing anything against the rules, because everything that happened as a result was only caused indirectly by him.
• So Cavendish and Dakota are sent to guard pistachios from harm, literally described as the most inconsequential mission they could have. Why then, when they fail, even bother replacing them if the mission is so worthless? And why use Brick and Savannah—competant agents who are doing IMPORTANT work???
• With regards to the Doctor Zone Files, Milo and Sara state that the show has a 50 year history, clearly a nod to Doctor Who. However, in every iteration of the show that the Murphy siblings reference, the lead actor playing Doctor Zone seems to be the same individual, and he doesn't appear to be aging at all. So, has the same actor been playing Doctor Zone for fifty years? Or is the MML equivalent of the BBC just very good at pulling The Other Darrin?
  • The creators of the show have hinted that there's more to Doctor Zone than meets the eye. That probably has something to do with it.
  • And as of "Fungus Among Us" we now know that it's likely the lead is actually a Pistachion replacement, since it was the Pistachion, not the original, who put the present over his hand to conceal his non-human limb.
    • Nope: Derek, the Pistachion that replaced Orton, is so bad at acting that he got the show cancelled after two episodes, as revealed in "The Phineas and Ferb Effect". Him replacing Orton thus has created an alternate timeline in which nobody even remembers what Doctor Zone even is. This was actually foreshadowed in "Fungus Among Us": Sara's t-shirt lacks the Time Ape image it normally has.
• So, we're told that Vinnie and Balthazar are protecting pistachios because the pistachio plants will go extinct by their time. However, the nuts they're protecting are in pistachio carts and stands, meaning they're likely roasted and no longer capable of germinating new plants. So, then wouldn't a more effective strategy for them be to guard pistachio plants, and/or bring back raw pistachios to their timeline to repopulate the species.
  • Furthermore, couldn't they just be assigned to protect nuts away from Milo's hometown?
  • Given the dismissive attitude of other time agents and their boss towards them, it's likely Cavendish and Dakota were given a completely pointless assignment with no possibility of success simply because everybody hates them. Sort of like how Joel's bosses didn't like him so they shot him into space.
    • Also, there IS one episode where they actually do attempt to protect a live pistachio plant. But that just raises further questions about subsequent episodes...
    • In one episode, it's revealed that even their pistachio-loving boss considers it their organization's most inconsequential assignment and sees Cavendish and Dakota's constant failures at it as a reason not to trust them with anything else.
  • This is actually questioned when Brick and Savannah are set to guard a pistachio cart.
  • Perhaps the destruction of the pistachio cart(s) will cause a major pistachio company to go bankrupt and their pistachio orchard is cut down and turned into toothpicks and the land is turned into a strip mall.
  • Why couldn't they simply purchase a pistachio sapling, and then plant it in the future? Or "borrow" one and time travel back with a replacement sapling once they've established an orchard, you know, to prevent any potential butterflying? Or is that not "time travelly" enough for the a Time Travel organization?
  • My assumption with the parts where the guys are selling pistachios, the idea is that they raise the public appreciation of the pistachio, thus inspiring more people to care if they start dying out, thus ensuring more attempts to save the species later.
• At the end of "Missing Milo", Mr. Block doesn't remember the Bad Future. Does that mean he won't remember having sent Dakota and Cavendish to their pistachio-saving assignment if they ever fulfill it?
  • If you told this to Mister Block, this link would probably be his response.
  • It could be possible that the Time Bureau building gives everyone in it Ripple-Proof Memory but since Mr Brock was outsides the Time Bureau building he wasn’t protected?
  • Since Brick and Savannah have a successful track record of changing time, there's obviously a process to protect this information. Most likely either Mr. Block himself is shielded from all authorized assignments, or at the very least there are protected files that would let him confirm that, yes, he did put them on an assignment to protect the pistachios. Since the Pistachion menace wasn't an official mission, Mr. Block and/or the files weren't shielded.
• Why does Zack go fishing in Time Out when he's terrified of fish (as shown in Murphy's Lard)?
  • Speaking as a someone who had a phobia of drowning but was forced to go on cruise vacations as a kid, I'd say Zack goes fishing because his parents made him, and the exposure helped him with the phobia.
• The peach In “Missing Milo” raises a few Questions. Disregard the fact that the peach is a product of a Bootstrap Paradox, the peach would also need to have a few unusual properties. It would have to essentially be static (defy entropy). It can’t decay. It either can’t be bruised or it is from the start and can’t be again (When it hits his head). Otherwise the peach would eventually not be a peach anymore. The letter must be too because Milo seems to imply that he’s going to do the same with it. To avoid the problem with the letter you just write it on a new paper then it’s just the message that’s the product of the paradox which avoids the violation of the object having to be static.
• In “Island of Lost Dakotas”, if you pay close attention there there’s not just an extra Dakota there’s also an extra time machine. Where did it go? Is it still parked there?
• Island of Lost Dakotas establishes that going back in time and changing your own history creates a sort of paradox clone, where the past self must go somewhere else because there can't be two in the same place. Fast forward to A Christmas Peril, and all of the future Dakotas and Cavendishes disappear when they prevent the event that caused their timeline to exist. So how DOES changing the past work in this universe?
• If this takes place right after Phineas and Ferb, and it's in Danville, then why isn't Roger Doofenshmirtz the mayor?
  • Maybe he lost an election shortly after the series.
  • A Tri-State area is an area where multiple towns or cities that effectively function as a singular entity are spread across the border of 3 states. This means that the tri-state area is at minimum at least 3 separate cities that directly border each other. So while Milo lives in Danville it's possible that the mayor we see is the mayor of a neighboring city and Milo happens to live very close to the border of Danville which would regularly take him into other cities fairly frequently.
• While we're on the subject of Milo Murphy's Law being connected to Phineas and Ferb, the season 1 finale reveals that Professor Time, the inventor of time travel, is...... Doofenshmirtz? This is despite the fact that Phineas and Ferb built a time machine long before then, and even that was based of the designs of Xavier Onassis.
  • Perhaps Professor Time travelled back to the 19th century at some point, encountered Xavier Onassis there, and gave him the idea to build his own time machine, which would then end up in the museum. And Doof is recognized as the inventor of time travel since he's the first to go public with it and demonstrate that his time machine actually works.
  • Related to the above, Doofenshmirtz will become Professor Time 15 years after the events of the episode, but in "Phineas And Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo" the boys travel 20 years into the future, where we see Doofenshmirtz still being, well, Doofenshmirtz.
    • Is Doofenshmirtz the inventor of time-travel, or just the first to successfully monetize it? I mean, certainly Xavier Onassis and the Flynn-Fletcher boys played a hand as well. Most real-world inventions were a result of the cumulative work and patents of many people—the automobile, the airplane, the light bulb, television—so to just credit Henry Ford, the Wright Bros., Thomas Edison, and Philo T. Farnsworth—is oversimplifying things just a tad. A percieved local kook who laid the groundwork for an innovation but died unknown and uncelebrated is probably lucky his work is even recognized as a (mostly) nonfuctioning museum piece. Fridge Brilliance-slash-Fridge Horror kick in if you realize Onassis may have living descendants who could successfully sue Doofenshmirtz for royalties. Maybe in twenty or 25 years, when the Time Bureau is founded, Doof/"Prof. Time" is really just a powerless figurehead they trot out from time to time for public appearances, like Ronald Mc Donald or the Burger King...a corporate mascot's face they stamp all over cheap mass-produced merch. (Cavendish did mention owning licensed Prof. Time underwear.)
  • Wasn't the future Doofensmirtz seen in "Phineas And Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo" just from an alternate future created by future Candace?
  • They didn't consider Xavier Onassis when writing the show.
• When it comes to Murphy's Law, how is Danville never out of money to pay for the damage it caused?
• So why is Bradley's arm still a plant?
  • Based on the tweet, it's for the lulz.
    • Not exactly. They HAVE an endgame planned for that (or rather, all the things), but those things will be explored in Season 3... which fate is still unknown.
• What is exactly the Pistachions' beef with humanity? is it because we eat pistachios as a snack? because that argument feels flawed considering the comparison between a Pistachion and a pistachio plant is like comparing a human to a monkey, plus they have no issue with Zack's Chop Away At My Heart song, a song literally about romantizing chopping down trees, including at least two of them being fans of Zack, we could assume that King Pistachion suffered prejudice from humans upon gaining self-awareness, but that's also never stated either, it just feels they are too much evil for the sake of being evil.
  • Considering the fact that the Giant Pistachion leaves the battle against humans due to the sheer carnage and helps humans at a soup kitchen, plus the fact that originally, Melissa would've remained a Pistachion and grown into herself to show that Pistachions aren't EVIL by definition, it indeed appears that King Pistachion (and by extension Derek) are simply prejudiced against humanity.
• So in Dakota's flashback episode, he knows the name of the cashier at the burrito stand, despite the fact that this is supposed to be the recruits' test run...are there non-B.O.T.T. time vehicles or devices out there? Is this not Dakota's first run at the recruits' test? ...Now that I am saying this I'm wondering if there may be nepotism involved in Dakota getting into the B.O.T.T. — Block doesn't use an ID number for him when introducing him to Cavendish, and he isn't wearing a uniform at all in this. While that is definitely in-character for him, it's a little surprising Block would let him get away with it.
  • Dakota apparently had at least one successful mission without Cavendish (preventing the "Mississippi Purchase"), and he didn't have his own time vehicle (despite using one's own time vehicle being the intended purpose of the test; they definitely weren't expected to work in groups), so he was probably a special case. He might have been a rookie agent, not a new recruit, and they were giving him a partner (particularly a stickler like Cavendish) in hopes of reining in his impulsiveness.
• Dan Povenmire has revealed that Phineas and Ferb's "Act Your Age" takes place in a slightly different timeline from MML in which Doofenshmirtz didn't know he will become Professor Time two years afterwards. This in itself causes some confusion whether "Act Your Age" is canon or not, but he later states that Doof still wants a mid-life crisis in both timelines (making the alternate timeline bit kind of an awkward and pointless Hand Wave considering the original question asked) meaning that the events in "Act Your Age" still occur in both timelines. However, considering that there is now a confirmed "original" timeline with the difference being that Doofenshmirtz doesn't know about his future... how much different is it from the "altered" timeline in Milo Murphy's Law?
  • We know that, for Doof not to be aware of his future, Milo, Cavendish and Dakota wouldn't have needed to visit him during the dire times within "Fungus Among Us", and for that not to happen, Derek the Pistachion should have disappeared like the rest of his kind when his father was destroyed as a sapling in "Missing Milo". However, in the original reply, Dan stated that Milo, Dakota and Cavendish traveling to 2175 in the first place would eventually cause Doof to know about it, stating that the sapling being saved initially from Milo after the sentient blob merges with it has caused the timeline to alter. Would that mean that Dr. Zone never would've been made in the "original" timeline Act Your Age takes place. Would it mean that Dakota and Cavendish still would've been stuck protecting pistachios, and never gotten fired from the BOTT, and never be hired by PIG? Would Cavendish ever notice the alien abduction in "Abducting Murphy's Law", causing him to go rogue when no one believes him? Would either of them ever be aware of the Octalians?
  • Furthermore, does Doofenshmirtz's building still get destroyed by Murphy's Law? Would Doof still have to crash on Milo's couch, or would Doof never, ever meet Milo and friends? If the latter, how much would Doof's absence affect Season 2 of Milo? "Cake 'Splosion" only has him accidentally teleport Martin to the Cake 'Splosion event, which didn't affect Milo and Amanda, but Doofenshmirtz's De-Guminator was essential to Melissa's solution to get Ol' Bessie in "The Ticking Clock" working.
  • Cavendish going rogue and Doofenshmirtz staying at Milo are both essential parts for Doof and Dakota's friendship, as well as the creation of Cavenpuss. If even one of those things is not happening, then Cavenpuss may have never existed.
• If the bad luck is hereditary, why does Sara not have it?
  • Word of God has said that it's only inherited by men.
• If the destruction of *The* pistachio plant causes the extinction of pistachios by 2175, that means that that particular plant would HAVE to be the only individual of its species left able to reproduce — and yes, maybe that leaves sterile crop pistachio plants to keep on being replanted, but if there's no pistachios left in 2175 even counting those which are commercially-farmed, that means that the farms have stopped being harvested. This particular plant isn't mature enough to produce the nut, so where are C+D getting their pistachios to sell?
  • If by *The* pistachio plant you mean the one from Missing Milo, then that doesn't cause the extinction of the pistachio, it was the younger self of king Pistachion, killing it erased him and the Pistachions, but the unmutated trees remain. We need to remember that Pistachios don't go extinct in Milo's time; Brick mentions that the only reason C+D are tasked with saving the pistachio is because Mr Block, who appears to be somewhere between his 40s and his 50s, liked them when he was a kid, suggesing that they actually die out, somewhen around the mid 2100s, the guys were sent back in time to save the pistachio earlier because it is easier to patch a cracked dam than repair a burst one.
• The Lumbermaxes song for the battle is "Saw Away at My Heart", which is literally the exact same as "Chop Away at My Heart", but with saw replacing chop. Considering that Zack's band did seem to be rather popular, did no one notice or call out on Max for this blatant plagiarism?
  • Presumably, the band would have still owned the rights to the song, or at least their record label would have. So, can you be accused of plagiarizing your own work?
  • Kind of. Generally the idea of a company releasing the same game but with minor alterations is seen as plagiarism by some. Either way though, I feel as if the crowd, realistically, wouldn't be as cheerful as they were. Unless this whole thing was a Take That! on how all boy-bands sound the same, which I can totally get behind.
• In the Milo-less timeline, Sara is still wearing her Time Ape shirt, even though it's been firmly established that Doctor Zone exists because Milo traveled back in time (with Cavendish and Dakota, who served as the models for Doctor Zone and Time Ape) and described the show as he knew it to Orton Mahlson.
• Milo reveals to Melissa and Zack that he could never finish a board game. He even states that he could never finish a game of playing cards. However, playing cards is a common activity for Milo and Melissa on their "Not-Football Fridays", as revealed in "Rooting for the Enemy", which implies that either he did finish a game of playing cards, or Melissa already knows that Milo never finished a game... despite the fact she didn't know in this episode.
  • She might have known he never finished a cardgame when playing with her, but not that he never finished one period.
• Since Murphy's Law only affects male members of the Murphy family, what if someone in the family starts transitioning, is nonbinary, or genderfluid?

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