History Headscratchers / MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain

** I just thought that Fernando was Ruby's "The one who got away and they found each other again" like Sam was for Donna and that Ruby married someone else and had Donna, which would help a bit with the timeline.

** Or, you know, she ''does'' know of Fernando, but Ruby implies from "Fernando" that he was off fighting in some war in 1959, so it's possible he and Ruby just sort of drifted apart and she never told ''him'' about Donna, but told ''Donna'' about him.

** Whether or not the timing worked, I don't think it's a given that Fernando is Donna's father, it's more that he was the big love of Ruby's life. I think that him saying "Mexico 1959" was just a quick way of establishing who he was. There's no reference after their song to "oh he's the GRANDFATHER/GREAT-GRANDFATHER". Also, Donna - if not by name - evidently knew all about Fernando (she mentions him before Waterloo), but makes no reference to the possibility of him being her father. I feel like if Fernando stood a strong chance of being her dad, she'd know. He COULD be her dad, but there's not enough info in the script to require that she was conceived in 1959.

** I think a way to rectify this is refer back to WritersCannotDoMath or that the film takes place before the year it was released.

** To add even more to it, Bill says that he is "a man in my fifties" to Alexio. This means, if Donna ''did'' meet him aged 19, then he would have been anywhere between seven to fifteen years older than her at the time (which would place him somewhere between 51 and 59 in the "present" of the film and fit his comment) and would have been between the ages of 26 and 34 during the flashbacks. If he and Donna ''were'' the same age then it alters the timeline completely and means the movie takes place between 2010 and 2018 because, if Bill (and [[spoiler:the late]] Donna) are 51 in the "present", then it fits with Donna's [[spoiler:implied conception by Ruby and Fernando in Mexico 1959]], but any older than that means the film can occur anywhere between 2010 (2010 - 51 = 1959) and 2018 (2018 - 59 = 1959) both of which fit [[spoiler:with Donna's (implied) conception date and birth...]] so the timeline is missing approximately five years to accommodate for the ages.
** The thing is, the song "Fernando" is likely originally about the Mexican-American war (why else cross the Rio Grande?), or possibly about the Mexican War of Independence ("How proud you were to fight for freedom in this land") or even the Mexican Revolution, but even that one was in the 1920s. It won't fit either way, so Donna could easily have been in her twenties when she graduated from uni. I admit I don't remember where we got 1959 from in the first place, but my best answer is AnachronismStew.
*** Fernando himself declares that the last time he saw Ruby was in 1959, right before the number, “Fernando,” began. ("Ruby, mi Amore. Mexico, 1959!")
*** Yep - we either have to assume that the ''entire'' Timeline is borked... or they're ''not'' singing Fernando with a literal meaning of "war" and "fighting" in mind.

*** Fernando himself declares that the last time he saw Ruby was in 1959, right before the number, “Fernando,” began.
*** Yep - we either have to assume that the ''entire'' Timeline is borked... or they're ''not'' singing Fernando with a literal meaning of "war" and "fighting".

*** Fernando himself declares that the last time he saw Ruby was in 1959, right before the number, “Fernando,” began.

* In addition, if it is to be believed that Donna was conceived in 1959, as "Fernando" implies, and Fernando himself declares, that would mean Donna would've had to be ''nineteen'' when she graduated from Oxford. [[spoiler: Now Donna did graduate at the top of her class, so I guess her skipping some grades is plausible, but this still bugs me.]]

* In addition, if it is to be believed that Donna was conceived in 1959, as "Fernando" implies, that would mean Donna would've had to be ''nineteen'' when she graduated from Oxford. [[spoiler: Now Donna did graduate at the top of her class, so I guess her skipping some grades is plausible, but this still bugs me.]]

** The thing is, the song "Fernando" is likely originally about the Mexican-American war (why else cross the Rio Grande?), or possibly about the Mexican War of Independence ("How proud you were to fight for freedom in this land") or even the Mexican Revolution, but even that one was in the 1920s. It won't fit either way, so Donna could easily have been in her twenties when she graduated from uni. I admit I don't remember where we got 1959 from in the first place, but my best answer is AnachronismStew.

** To add even more to it, Bill says that he is "a man in my fifties" to Alexio. This means, if Donna ''did'' meet him aged 19, then he would have been anywhere between seven to fifteen years older than her at the time (which would place him somewhere between 51 and 59 in the "present" of the film and fit his comment) and would have been between the ages of 26 and 34 during the flashbacks. If he and Donna ''were'' the same age then it alters the timeline completely and means the movie takes place between 2010 and 2018 because, if Bill (and [[spoiler:the late]] Donna) are 51 in the "present", then it fits with Donna's [[spoiler:implied conception by Ruby and Fernando in Mexico 1959]], but any older than that means the film can occur anywhere between 2010 (2010 - 51 = 1959) and 2018 (2018 - 59 = 1959) both of which fit [[spoiler:with Donna's (implied) conception date and birth...]] so the timeline is missing approximately five years to accommodate for the ages.

** To add even more to it, Bill says that he is "a man in my fifties" to Alexio. This means, if Donna ''did'' meet him aged 19, then he would have been anywhere between seven to fifteen years older than her at the time (which would place him somewhere between 51 and 59 in the "present" of the film and fit his comment) and would have been between the ages of 26 and 34 during the flashbacks. If he and Donna ''were'' the same age then it alters the timeline completely and means the movie takes place between 2010 and 2019 because, if Bill (and [[spoiler:the late]] Donna) are 51 in the "present", then it fits with Donna's [[spoiler:implied conception by Ruby and Fernando in Mexico 1959]], but any older than that means the film can occur anywhere between 2010 (2010 - 51 = 1959) and 2019 (2019 - 59 = 1960) both of which fit [[spoiler:with Donna's (implied) conception date and birth...]]

** To add even more to it, Bill says that he is "a man in my fifties" to Alexio. This means, if Donna ''did'' meet him aged 19, then he would have been anywhere between seven to fifteen years older than her at the time (which would place him somewhere between 51 and 59 in the "present" of the film and fit his comment) and would have been between the ages of 26 and 34. If he and Donna were the same age, then it alters the timeline completely and means the movie takes place in approximately 2010.

** To add even more to it, Bill says that he is "a man in my fifties" to Alexio. This means, if Donna *did* meet him aged 19, then he would have been ''anywhere between seven to fifteen years older than her'' at the time and would have been between the ages of 26 and 34. If he and Donna were the same age, then it alters the timeline completely.

** The timeline is just a bit whacky in general. Meryl was 59 in the first film; Donna should have been no older ''than forty'' at the time. She graduated at 19 and became a mother at 20. Assuming that's correct - which the trailers and "Fernando" imply, then Donna is 40 in the first film as Sophie is 20 and Donna died aged 44.

** I just looked it up, and there is indeed an Oxford high school in Oxford, England. But it's an all-girls school. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oeq9MmQj2fw And there were male graduates in that audience]].

** Maybe she finished high school in one year instead of university.

* If this is supposed to be 25 years after 1979/1980, how come we see iPhones? Let alone some of the later models? The original iPhone didn't become available to the public until 2007, and this film supposedly takes place in 2004/2005. In addition, if it is to be believed that Donna was conceived in 1959, as "Fernando" implies, that would mean Donna would've had to be ''nineteen'' when she graduated from Oxford. [[spoiler: Now Donna did graduate at the top of her class, so I guess her skipping some grades is plausible, but this still bugs me.]]

* If this is supposed to be 25 years after 1979/1980, how come we see iPhones? Let alone some of the later models? The original iPhone didn't become available to the public until 2007, and this film supposedly takes place in 2004/2005. In addition, if it is to be believed that Donna was conceived in 1959, as "Fernando" implies, that would mean Donna would've had to be ''nineteen'' when she graduated from Oxford. Now Donna did graduate at the top of her class, so I guess her skipping some grades is plausible, but this still bugs me.

** He did say that.

* Maybe I missed something, but what happened with Sky's job? Did he [[spoiler: just quit in order to move back to the island for good?]]