History FanDislikedExplanation / LiveActionTV

*** The [[FanWank implied explanation]] for why the Second Doctor and Jamie look visibly older, and for how Jamie knows who the Time Lords are (when he was told about them in his final story) in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors The Three Doctors]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors The Two Doctors]]", resulting in the events {{Fan Nickname}}d "Season 6B", is still fairly controversial. The theory states that the reason the Doctor can't control the TARDIS is that the Time Lords had been piloting it for him without his knowledge, and after his capture at the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]", when the Time Lords appear to alter his appearance and exile him to Earth, he was actually used as a BoxedCrook agent by the Time Lords for centuries until the sentence was carried out, during which he persuaded the Time Lords to let him have his beloved companion Jamie back. Creator/TheBBC has absorbed this into canon on account of "making sense" and there are several books set during these events, but many fans dislike it for diminishing the beautiful conclusion to the Second Doctor's story, being improbable based on what we actually see in "The War Games" and being rather unnecessarily cruel, forcing the Second Doctor to go through the pain of losing his companions again.

* ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'': After six seasons of mystery and false suspects, [[BigBad A]] is finally revealed to be [[spoiler: Cece Drake, also known as Charles [=DiLaurentis=], Alison's brother who had a sex change operation.]] This was a huge source of controversy, and some viewers said there were too many unanswered questions while others pointed out the UnfortunateImplications of the show's only transgender character being the primary antagonist.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': ''[[Recap/FriendsS7E16TheOneWithTheTruthAboutLondon The One With The Truth About London]]'' expands on the events that lead up to Monica and Chandler's hookup in a way that neither fans nor [[CreatorBacklash the writers]] were particulary fond of. Back in Season 4 when they had their one night stand, it was implied that they ended up having sex because Chandler was conforting her after her mother awakened her insecurities over whatever she will be able to get married and one thing lead to the other. But in the ''The One With The Truth About London'' is revealed that Monica simply went to the room drunk with the intention to have sex with Joey and that since he wasn't there she choose Chandler instead. This is often ignored because not only is [[ShippingGoggles a much less sweet way to kickstart their relationship]] but also because some fans felt that it was OutOfCharacter for Monica to want to have a one night stand with one of her close friends, no matter who he was, simply for being a bit sad.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}: ''[[Recap/FriendsS7E16TheOneWithTheTruthAboutLondon The One With The Truth About London]]'' expands on the events that lead up to Monica and Chandler's hookup in a way that neither fans nor [[CreatorBacklash the writers]] were particulary fond of. Back in Season 4 when they had their one night stand, it was implied that they ended up having sex because Chandler was conforting her after her mother awakened her insecurities over whatever she will be able to get married and one thing lead to the other. But in the ''The One With The Truth About London'' is revealed that Monica simply went to the room drunk with the intention to have sex with Joey and that since he wasn't there she choose Chandler instead. This is often ignored because not only is [[ShippingGoggles a much less sweet way to kickstart their relationship]] but also because some fans felt that it was OutOfCharacter for Monica to wanting to have a one night stand with one of her close friends, no matter who he was for being a bit sad.

* ''Series/WandaVision'': TheReveal that [[spoiler:the fake Pietro/Quicksilver was Agatha's "husband" Ralph Bohner]] went over very poorly with fans who either were expecting [[spoiler:Pietro to be the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' version of Quicksilver (since he was played by Evan Peters and acted like him)]] or expected [[spoiler:"Ralph" to be a demonic entity, like the show had been greatly hinting at.]] That both [[spoiler:Pietro and Ralph's]] identities had been built up as a great mystery only for the payoff to amount to be [[VulgarHumor the punchline to a dick joke]] fell very flat.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': According to Creator/JonFavreau, Din Djarin could never rule Mandalore after struggling with the Darksaber in ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett''. Fans who spent ''The Mandalorian'''s SeriesHiatus endorsing Din as the Mandalorians' new leader have countered that he could've mastered the saber if he used it in more than two ''Mandalorian'' chapters.

* In a bonus commentary video to ''[[Recap/GameOfThronesS8E4TheLastOfTheStarks The Last of the Starks]]'', a Season 8 episode of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', showrunner Creator/DavidBenioff [[WordOfGod explained]] that Daenerys [[IdiotBall "kind of forgot about the Iron Fleet"]] to account for her and her dragons' [[FailedASpotCheck improbable sudden blindness]] when they're suddenly sniped by ballistas from the Fleet, resulting in much escalating conflict and misery... a Fleet that they most definitely could have seen and avoided from miles away, as they flew and surveyed the clear sea from the clear sky. The statement rapidly became [[MemeticMutation widely mocked]] by many fans as a nonsensical HandWave that [[EpicFail (poorly)]] attempted to disguise an obvious PlotHole, even veering into VoodooShark territory.

* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Some fans were unimpressed that Saul's KnowsAGuyWhoKnowsAGuy criminal connections were shown to be from a little black book he purchased from Dr. Caldera in Season 6, when it seemed those connections were being created organically through his BurnerPhones business and criminal law practice, making him seem less like the expert in the criminal underworld he looked like in [[Series/BreakingBad the original series]] and more like a guy that simply got lucky to buy the book at the right time.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': According to Creator/JonFavreau, Din Djarin could never rule Mandalore after struggling with the Darksaber in ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett''. Fans who spent ''The Mandalorian'''s SeriesHiatus endorsing Din as the Mandalorians' new leader have countered that he could've mastered the saber if Favreau gave him more time to use it.

** ''[[Recap/HowIMetYourMotherS8E09LobsterCrawl Lobster Crawl]]'' gaves us one of Barney's biggest moments of CharacterDevelopment by having Barney [[spoiler: burning out the Playbook showing his womanizing days were over, granted a later episode revealed it was part of a ploy to give a WackyMarriageProposal to Robin but even then the episode makes an emphasis that the gesture was true.]] Then [[Recap/HowIMetYourMotherS8E18WeekendAtBarneys a later episode]] revealed that [[spoiler: there were actually two Playbooks and the one he burned was a decoy]]. To many fans and critics this threw away one of Barney's most humanizing moments for the sake of having the plot of one episode going, not helped by [[spoiler: the Playbook being destroyed again anyway]]
** After 8 years of WildMassGuessing and EpilepticTrees around the Mother's identity. It turns out her identity is [[spoiler: a completely new character that never appeared before!]] It became subverted however once the Mother became a beloved character in her own right but you will still find some fans disappointed that so many years of speculation were AllForNothing.
** The GrandFinale finally revealed why Ted's story was taking so many detours to get to the part where he actually met the Mother which infamously lead to one of the biggest [[AudienceAlienatingEnding Audience Alienating Endings]] on televion history. [[spoiler: Robin and Barney divorced three years after the events of the series, Tracy (a.k.a. the Mother) is revealed to have died in 2024 and Ted and Robin have rekindled their relationship between that and Ted telling the story since the point he met Robin because he wants his kids blessing to start dating her again. Basically negating a lot of Barney, Robin and Ted's development for the sake of Ted getting with Robin after 9 seasons of deconstructing their relationship and ultimately showing them as incompatible.]] This was so hated that an alternative ending was created just for the sake of ignoring this part of the ending even if it still keep some of the more controversial parts of the ending like [[spoiler: Barney and Robin's divorce.]]

** After 8 years of WildMassGuessing and EpilepticTrees around the Mother's identity. It turns out her identity is [[spoiler: a completely new character that never appeared before!]] It became a subverted however once the Mother became a beloved character in her own right but you will still find some fans disappointed that so many years of speculation were AllForNothing.

** The GrandFinale finally revealed why Ted's story was tooking so many detours to get to the part where he actually met the Mother which infamously lead to one of the biggest [[AudienceAlienatingEnding Audience Alienating Endings]] on televion history. [[spoiler: Robin and Barney divorced three years after the events of the series, Tracy (a.k.a. the Mother) is revealed to have died in 2024 and Ted and Robin have rekindled their relationship between that and Ted telling the story since the point he met Robin because he wants his kids blessing to start dating her again. Basically negating a lot of Barney, Robin and Ted's development for the sake of Ted getting with Robin after 9 seasons of deconstructing their relationship and ultimately showing them as incompatible.]]

*** The [[FanWank implied explanation]] for why the Second Doctor and Jamie look visibly older in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors The Three Doctors]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors The Two Doctors]]", resulting in the events {{Fan Nickname}}d "Season 6B", is still fairly controversial. The theory states that the reason the Doctor can't control the TARDIS is that the Time Lords had been piloting it for him without his knowledge, and after his capture at the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]", when the Time Lords appear to alter his appearance and exile him to Earth, he was actually used as a BoxedCrook agent by the Time Lords for centuries until the sentence was carried out, during which he persuaded the Time Lords to let him have his beloved companion Jamie back. Creator/TheBBC has absorbed this into canon on account of "making sense" and there are several books set during these events, but many fans dislike it for diminishing the beautiful conclusion to the Second Doctor's story, being improbable based on what we actually see in "The War Games" and being rather unnecessarily cruel, forcing the Second Doctor to go through the pain of losing his companions again.

* ''Series/TwinPeaks'': For the central plot of the show, the reveal that Laura Palmer's killer was her father was not only this for fans, but also for series creator Creator/DavidLynch, who never wanted to reveal the answer to who killed her in the first place, but had to due to ExecutiveMeddling. This reveal in fact contributed to the series' eventual cancellation.

* Later seasons of ''Series/TheXFiles'' had huge problems because of piling MythArc elements [[TheChrisCarterEffect that were left unexplained or not addressed sufficiently]], but one particular case was closed, and it was very anti-climactic. The fate of Samantha Mulder, Agent Fox Mulder's abducted little sister, was probably the biggest RedHerring of the series. Her abduction triggered Mulder's belief in the paranormal and motivated his career at the FBI and started the pattern of GuiltComplex. Mulder was tormented by her clones and doubles and statements that she's still alive. It was finally revealed that she had been abducted by the conspiracy who had collaborated with the aliens, horrible tests had been performed on her, and then she had lived with the Cancer Man's family. So far so good -- fans always suspected something like this. However, when she was 14, she was "saved" by fairies or angels that made her body disappear, meaning that her corpse will never be found, but Mulder did see her ghost.

* ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'': After six seasons of mystery and false suspects, [[BigBad A]] is finally revealed to be Cece Drake, also known as Charles [=DiLaurentis=], Alison's brother who had a sex change operation. This was a huge source of controversy, and some viewers said there were too many unanswered questions while others pointed out the UnfortunateImplications of the show's only transgender character being the primary antagonist.
* ''Series/TheMentalist'': The series' long-elusive ArchEnemy, often outsmarting the already [[SuperIntelligence superhumanly intelligent]] hero, eventually turns out to be [[spoiler:[[TheDogWasTheMastermind just a rural sheriff with friends in high places]]]].
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': The final arc heavily hints that Dexter's homicidal tendencies might have been sustained, or even heightened, rather than treated, by the Code he's been taught -- it turns out that a certain psychiatrist was obsessed with the concept, after failing to treat her own, truly homicidal, son. Even so, in the finale, Dexter decides he is a monster after all and goes into exile.

* Ever since its introduction in the books of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', the contents of the sugar bowl MacGuffin have been a ''huge'' source of debates with the fans. Handler himself gave implications as to the contents of the sugar bowl in interviews, but not everyone actually knew this, and he never gave any concrete answers. Well, when the Netflix adaptation of ''Series/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents2017'' aired its third season which revealed what was inside the Sugar Bowl, [[spoiler: a way to make yourself immune to the Medusoid Mycelium]], well, a surprising number of people came out and said this was AdaptationDecay. This is an exceptionally interesting case of this reaction, as the show's answer [[{{Irony}} had been the most common fan theory all along]].

* ''Series/Watchmen2019'' spends most of its runtime deliberately keeping the audience in the dark about what Adrian Veidt's [[GildedCage "prison"]] is, and how he got there. After seven episodes of buildup (with increasingly [[MindScrew surreal imagery]] just generating more questions with every episode), some viewers were rather underwhelmed by TheReveal that [[spoiler:it was a space colony on Europa]], and [[spoiler:Doctor Manhattan sent him there]]. Relatedly: that revelation also settled the question of [[spoiler:what "life" Doctor Manhattan created after the events of [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} the original book]]]]; not everyone found [[spoiler:"a living ecosystem on Jupiter's moon"]] to be a satisfying answer.

* ''Series/Watchmen2019'' spends most of its runtime deliberately keeping the audience in the dark about what Adrian Veidt's [[GildedCage "prison"]] is, and how he got there. After seven episodes of buildup (with increasingly [[MindScrew surreal imagery]] just generating more questions with every episode), some viewers were rather underwhelmed by TheReveal that [[spoiler:it was a space colony on Europa]], and [[spoiler:Doctor Manhattan sent him there]]. Relatedly: that revelation also settled the question of [[spoiler:what "life" Doctor Manhattan created after the events of [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} the original book]]]]; not everyone found [[spoiler:"a living ecosystem on Jupiter's moon"]] to be a satisfying answer.
* Virtually everyone who watched ''Film/ForrestGump'' assumes that the virus [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed doctors-cannot-identify]] that kills [[spoiler:Jenny]] at the end is AIDS. However, the author of the original novel, Winston Groom, said it was Hepatitis C in the sequel ''Gump and co.'' This is ignored by many fans because they feel the AIDS epidemic deserved to be referenced in the film's historical setting. It is also pointed that the film is an extremely loose adaptation of the first book anyway ([[spoiler:Jenny]] doesn't die in it, for one), with a completely different tone, and that Groom wrote the sequel as a TakeThat to the studio who had mangled his book and then screwed him out of profit with UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting. It wasn't until 2019 when screenwriter Eric Roth finally confirmed that the movie version of the character did indeed die of AIDS.
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* ''Series/WandaVision'': TheReveal that [[spoiler:the fake Pietro/Quicksilver was Agatha's "husband" Ralph Bohner]] went over very poorly with fans who either were expecting [[spoiler:Fietro to be the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' version of Quicksilver (since he was played by Evan Peters and acted like him)]] or expected [[spoiler:"Ralph" to be a demonic entity, like the show had been greatly hinting at.]] That both [[spoiler:Fietro and Ralph's]] identities had been built up as a great mystery only for the payoff to amount to be [[VulgarHumor the punchline to a dick joke]] fell very flat.

** The most recent example of this trope, and the biggest since "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]", came in Series 12's finale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren "The Timeless Children"]]; not coincidentally it also involves Gallifrey and the Time Lords. (deep breath) [[spoiler: The Doctor is '''actually''' a "Timeless Child" from an unknown world and species, whose infinite regeneration ability was genetically spliced into native Gallifreyans to create Time Lords, and has lived countless lives prior to the First Doctor's, all memories of them being mindwiped by the Time Lords to cover both their origins and the Doctor's work for a secret organization.]] While this did serve to explain a ContinuitySnarl in the Fourth Doctor story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius The Brain of Morbius]]", it ''also'' ripped huge holes in the established continuity of the franchise to, as of that episode, little dramatic purpose. As it looks to be central to Thirteen's MythArc, the full weight of this theoretically will be central to Series 13, and may in time subvert the trope if fans (at least those who haven't [[http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/2nd-opinion-part-1-the-timeless-children-doctor-who-no-more-93329.htm sworn off the show as a whole]]) come to feel it is fully justified.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]", the Tenth Doctor gives a speech about what regeneration is, in which he explains it as being a death, where "some other man" saunters off. Many fans objected to this, pointing at situations where other incarnations had considered it a rebirth, a healing or a second chance, and thought the speech was a preemptive attempt to guilt-trip fans into considering his yet-to-debut successor a ReplacementScrappy. Later Eleventh Doctor episodes write this off as "ego problems" and the Twelfth Doctor calls regeneration "Man Flu" in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]".

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E6TheArmageddonFactor The Armageddon Factor]]", we meet a Time Lord named Drax who knew the Doctor before he got his doctorate, and calls him Theta Sigma (or Thete for short). There's nothing in the story suggesting this is a nickname, but the fandom quickly decided it was and this became AscendedFanon nine years and three Doctors later in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol The Happiness Patrol]]" (and also in a Sixth Doctor {{Gamebook}}). Because we're not supposed to know what the Doctor's name is, and it definitely isn't just a couple of Greek letters.

* Later seasons of ''Series/TheXFiles'' had huge problems because of piling MythArc elements that were left unexplained or not addressed sufficiently, but one particular case was closed, and it was very anti-climactic. The fate of Samantha Mulder, Agent Fox Mulder's abducted little sister, was probably the biggest RedHerring of the series. Her abduction triggered Mulder's belief in the paranormal and motivated his career at the FBI and started the pattern of GuiltComplex. Mulder was tormented by her clones and doubles and statements that she's still alive. It was finally revealed that she had been abducted by the conspiracy who had collaborated with the aliens, horrible tests had been performed on her, and then she had lived with the Cancer Man's family. So far so good -- fans always suspected something like this. However, when she was 14, she was "saved" by fairies or angels that made her body disappear, meaning that her corpse will never be found, but Mulder did see her ghost.
* ''Series/TrueBlood'': The final season revealed why Lettie Mae was so abusive towards Tara: when Tara was young, her father abandoned them, causing Lettie Mae to descent into alcoholism and take out her frustrations on her daughter. Considering her treatment of Tara over the course of the show, most fans found it hard to believe something like that could actually happen to someone. Not to mention that such an important event in Tara and Lettie Mae's relationship should have been mentioned in the previous seasons. If anything, it comes off as a lazy attempt by the writers to conclude as many character arcs as possible before the series finale.

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': The final arc heavily hints that Dexter's homicidal tendencies might have been sustained, or even heightened, rather than treated, by the Code he's been taught -- it turns out that a certain psychiatrist was obsessed with the concept, after failing to treat her own, truly homicidal, son. Even so, in the finale Dexter decides he is a monster after all, and goes into exile.