Your Headcanons?

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Buffy

In Buffy, the Watchers do most of the heavy lifting about dealing with demon activity. Consider, we only know of three organizations dedicated to fighting evil, The Knights of Byzantium, who are solely focused on fighting Glory, the Initiative, who are a relatively recent organization, and not well run, due to not knowing much of anything about demons, so much so that they ran a lot of experiments and exist on the whims of a Wolfram & Hart controlled Congress, and the Watchers. The Watchers have offices all over the world, demons are a worldwide phenomenon, and not just limited to hellmouths, and even if they were, there is at least one other Hellmouth on North America alone, in Cleveland.

Since Buffy never takes a trip to stop an apocalypse in Paris, Shanghai, Cleveland, etc., someone else must be doing it. With both the Knights and the Initiative being too ineffectual to do much, and no other organizations dedicated to fighting evil in the show's universe, it must be the Watchers. They travel all over the world, they do have training in fighting, in magic, and in various types of enemies. This is why Kendra was always traveling, she was being used as a problem solver for the Council, because Buffy was unwilling to leave Sunnydale, or ever play ball.

Star Trek

At some level, the other Alpha Quadrant powers do what they can to appease the Federation, out of fear of receiving their wrath. The UFP is an organization that is constantly growing in members and size. So much so, that by the 24th century, they are probably bigger than any other power in the quadrant. This is due to the fact that every other power is based on a single race(Klingon Empire, Cardassian Union, Romulan Empire, Ferengi Alliance, etc.) This means that industrially, economically, etc. if they put their minds to it, they could out-produce and out-gun everyone else in the quadrant. However, their intentions are remarkably noble, wanting to explore, tinker, make peace, and generally trying to have good relations with everyone. While there are those in each government who want to go to war with the UFP, they know that if they do that, they will most likely lose. This is because, while the UFP favors peace, and is willing to bend to others in the name of said peace, they will, if riled, fight a war that they will win.

This is due to, unlike present day superpowers, or those in the past century, a large amount of their economy probably doesn't go to their military(Starfleet). Instead, most of the UFP's resources go to infrastructure, research, and peaceful expansion. This is why we see all the 'only ship in the area' plots. After Wolf 359, Starfleet got a lot more resources, and their fleet was somewhat ready for the Dominion war. This is also why the Starfleet had a rather limited engagement with the Cardassian Union during what is supposed to be TNG. To the Federation, it was a minor border skirmish that was taxing to the men on the frontlines, but to the Federation as a whole, it wasn't that big a deal. But for the Cardassian Union, it was a kill or be killed war, and they're only hope was to try and bleed the Federation enough to make them come to the bargaining table.

If pushed too far, the UFP would divert huge amounts of resources to Starfleet, and the gloves might come off. And the UFP, if it wanted to, could really end their neighbors if they wanted to. So, wanting survival, they know not to push them that far.

Doctor Who

The Doctor, beneath the surface, doesn't really value other lives, unless they are Gallifreyan. After centuries of life, and seeing so much death, any compassion for humans is on the level a human might have for a dog. He will care about what happens to his personal dog, and he likes having them around to keep him company, but they are not a real priority. He mostly goes through the motions, but after losing so many, even from old age and time, he is tired and doesn't feel as deep connections as he used to. This also explains his general apathy about humans dying or being mortal peril in later seasons.

Avatar

The Na'vi are xenophobic. The Na'vi do not talk to humans unless they are in Avatar suits. The whole reason for the catsuits and virtual systems, and RDA investing a heavy price for them, was so that they could actually talk to the Na'vi and try and establish a trade agreement(in bad faith, as they were already mining and going to anyway). This, plus their shoot on sight policy, as well being unwilling to talk to anyone unless they are actually a member of their tribe, leads me to think that they are a xenophobic people in general.

The Last Airbender

Aang is a killer. Any qualms about murdering the Fire Lord is utter hypocrisy, and his crisis of conscience is a false dilemma. Remember, he has destroyed entire fleets of Fire Nation ships, with full crews on board, in the season 1 finale, and taken out entire armies in other actions. Even if he only wounded most of them, several of them probably died from their wounds before they received medical attention. This means he has killed several people, and the only reason he thinks that killing the Fire Lord is unacceptable is that he's naive enough to not realize that in battle, people do die, and he is responsible for it.

Battlestar Galactica

Due to their own stupidity, all of the Colonials died out within a few years after the series finale. Moving from an equivalent of a 21st century society, to a stone-age level one, without any advanced tools, medicines, foods, and general shelter, ensures mass death due to starvation, disease, weather, animal attack, dysentery, etc.

In essence, they doomed themselves, and the show tries to put a happy face on it.




Okay, those have all been somewhat of a downer, let's try and lift this up.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow/Crimson Skies

Both of these take place in the same world. They're very careful to never mention that the United States still exists in Sky Captain. With the abundance of planes and dirigible carriers, this is the world of Crimson Skies, and the age of Sky Piracy is still on-going.

[Dînadan]

Star Trek

At some level, the other Alpha Quadrant powers do what they can to appease the Federation, out of fear of receiving their wrath. The UFP is an organization that is constantly growing in members and size. So much so, that by the 24th century, they are probably bigger than any other power in the quadrant. This is due to the fact that every other power is based on a single race(Klingon Empire, Cardassian Union, Romulan Empire, Ferengi Alliance, etc.) This means that industrially, economically, etc. if they put their minds to it, they could out-produce and out-gun everyone else in the quadrant. However, their intentions are remarkably noble, wanting to explore, tinker, make peace, and generally trying to have good relations with everyone. While there are those in each government who want to go to war with the UFP, they know that if they do that, they will most likely lose. This is because, while the UFP favors peace, and is willing to bend to others in the name of said peace, they will, if riled, fight a war that they will win.

This is due to, unlike present day superpowers, or those in the past century, a large amount of their economy probably doesn't go to their military(Starfleet). Instead, most of the UFP's resources go to infrastructure, research, and peaceful expansion. This is why we see all the 'only ship in the area' plots. After Wolf 359, Starfleet got a lot more resources, and their fleet was somewhat ready for the Dominion war. This is also why the Starfleet had a rather limited engagement with the Cardassian Union during what is supposed to be TNG. To the Federation, it was a minor border skirmish that was taxing to the men on the frontlines, but to the Federation as a whole, it wasn't that big a deal. But for the Cardassian Union, it was a kill or be killed war, and they're only hope was to try and bleed the Federation enough to make them come to the bargaining table.

If pushed too far, the UFP would divert huge amounts of resources to Starfleet, and the gloves might come off. And the UFP, if it wanted to, could really end their neighbors if they wanted to. So, wanting survival, they know not to push them that far.

Agree with this somewhat; the fact that pre-Wolf 359 'we are not a military' Starfleet was able to fight multiple wars simultaneously with little noticeable effect on the Federation shows that if they ever did go full military the other races would be in trouble.

Although on the mono race nature of the other powers, remember Starfleet looks to be predominantly human, so it's plausible that the Klingons and Romulans have multiple 'vassal'/'protectorate'/etc races but they're barred from military service and have restricted travel options. Also, considering how many alien races have been shown that are outwardly identical to humans and the proto-Vulcans of 'Who Watches the Watchers' looked identical to Romulans, its plausible that there are multiple races that look like Romulans and Klingons and background characters in groups of those races are actually of the lookalike races (similarly, many of those humans we see walking the corridors of Starfleet ships might be of the looks identical to a human races rather than humans). Come to think of it, it's probably a pity that Kang, Kodos and Kor showed up on DS9 with the uptodate Klingon make-up; would have been interesting if they'd had being Klingon more about culture than biology and had the flathead and ridged Klingons be seperate, co-existing species that shared a cultured/one had assimilated the others culture/etc. Would have also explained the cultural shift they underwent between TOS and TNG.

The Last Airbender

Aang is a killer. Any qualms about murdering the Fire Lord is utter hypocrisy, and his crisis of conscience is a false dilemma. Remember, he has destroyed entire fleets of Fire Nation ships, with full crews on board, in the season 1 finale, and taken out entire armies in other actions. Even if he only wounded most of them, several of them probably died from their wounds before they received medical attention. This means he has killed several people, and the only reason he thinks that killing the Fire Lord is unacceptable is that he's naive enough to not realize that in battle, people do die, and he is responsible for it.

Maybe it's a case of it being different up close (think of the old Stalin quote "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic."); basically those soldiers Aang has wounded/killed in battle are an abstract and are something he hasn't seen up close, whereas the Fire Lord was up close and personal.

[Megabob452]

The Last Airbender

Aang is a killer. Any qualms about murdering the Fire Lord is utter hypocrisy, and his crisis of conscience is a false dilemma. Remember, he has destroyed entire fleets of Fire Nation ships, with full crews on board, in the season 1 finale, and taken out entire armies in other actions. Even if he only wounded most of them, several of them probably died from their wounds before they received medical attention. This means he has killed several people, and the only reason he thinks that killing the Fire Lord is unacceptable is that he's naive enough to not realize that in battle, people do die, and he is responsible for it.

Maybe it's a case of it being different up close (think of the old Stalin quote "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic."); basically those soldiers Aang has wounded/killed in battle are an abstract and are something he hasn't seen up close, whereas the Fire Lord was up close and personal.

This came up in a fanfic I read a while back where in one chapter Zuko calls out Aang for all the carnage and death left in his wake. Basically, since Aang is a twelve year old kid, very susceptible to cognitive dissonance, he subconsciously believes that the people he's fighting will turn out alright. If he doesn't see the dead body, he assumes they survived. Add in his near constant movement throughout the series, Aang rarely sees the unintended consequences of his actions, that the people he's harmed suffer long after he's left a particular place behind, all the while believing that everything is sunshine and rainbows. The author went into greater detail about the psychology at work, but the sum of it is that Aang simply isn't aware of his killings until he had to stop and think about doing it ahead of time.

[phantom000]

Did Aang teach Toph how to bend metal? I mean it shows her figuring it out while the guru is explaining things to Aang and the metal in her cage seems to glow like the stars do in Aang's vision. All they would had to do was show her eyes glowing then she smiles and says 'now i get it!'

Is that what they were going for or is that just me?

[Megabob452]

Did Aang teach Toph how to bend metal? I mean it shows her figuring it out while the guru is explaining things to Aang and the metal in her cage seems to glow like the stars do in Aang's vision. All they would had to do was show her eyes glowing then she smiles and says 'now i get it!'

Is that what they were going for or is that just me?

I think you misinterpreted the scene. The guru was telling Aang about how there is more to reality than meets the eye, bringing up the point that refined metal still has bits of earth left in it that cannot be seen. Toph just happened to be realizing this at about the same time, the little specks of glow in the metal being her interpretation of finding the earth impurities. I'm pretty sure this was meant to explain the concept of metalbending to the audience with minimal exposition.

[SlackerinDeNile]

Battlestar Galactica

Due to their own stupidity, all of the Colonials died out within a few years after the series finale. Moving from an equivalent of a 21st century society, to a stone-age level one, without any advanced tools, medicines, foods, and general shelter, ensures mass death due to starvation, disease, weather, animal attack, dysentery, etc.

In essence, they doomed themselves, and the show tries to put a happy face on it.

That made me laugh, those are some ****** gods (or is it just one?) you have to admit.

[BigGangnam]

I personally have a crossover headcanon that, due to similar aesthetics, biological features, and overall attitudes and temperments, the Centauri of Babylon 5 are a product of Gallifreyan genetic engineering, that they were meant to serve the roles that the Minbari and Drakh served for the Vorlons and Shadows, and that the Time Lords were a sort of mediating party between the Shadows and Vorlons before a combination of their own motive decay and time erasure put an end to that.

[phantom000]

Did Aang teach Toph how to bend metal? I mean it shows her figuring it out while the guru is explaining things to Aang and the metal in her cage seems to glow like the stars do in Aang's vision. All they would had to do was show her eyes glowing then she smiles and says 'now i get it!'

Is that what they were going for or is that just me?

I think you misinterpreted the scene. The guru was telling Aang about how there is more to reality than meets the eye, bringing up the point that refined metal still has bits of earth left in it that cannot be seen. Toph just happened to be realizing this at about the same time, the little specks of glow in the metal being her interpretation of finding the earth impurities. I'm pretty sure this was meant to explain the concept of metalbending to the audience with minimal exposition.

They should have played with a little more. Like in an earlier episode have Toph playing with some metal pieces and asks 'why can't i metalbend? waterbenders can make ice, firebenders can throw lightening why can't earthbenders metalbend?' Kitara could then explain that icebending came later, its a seperate skill that must be learned after you master waterbending, which would suggest it is possible its just something that they haven't figured out yet. It would actually fit into Toph's character, wanting to prove just how good she is imagine how her people would see her if she was the first to master metalbending?

[StrangeDevice]

I know it's got its problems, but I prefer to think that The Return was the final story for Kirk, Generations just didn't cut it for me. Better he perish wiping out the Borg's Central Node rather than fall off a damn bridge on some unremarkable alien world.

[Megabob452]

They should have played with a little more. Like in an earlier episode have Toph playing with some metal pieces and asks 'why can't i metalbend? waterbenders can make ice, firebenders can throw lightening why can't earthbenders metalbend?' Kitara could then explain that icebending came later, its a seperate skill that must be learned after you master waterbending, which would suggest it is possible its just something that they haven't figured out yet. It would actually fit into Toph's character, wanting to prove just how good she is imagine how her people would see her if she was the first to master metalbending?

Again, minimal exposition. If they had Toph outright question whether or not metalbending is possible ahead of time it wouldn't have been a surprise when Toph went and did it. Up until that point it was generally accepted by the characters and the audience that metal was an element separate from all the others, an element that had no benders to command it, guaranteed to hold everyone regardless of their element. Only when Toph looked beneath the surface and found the earth inside the metal did she prove everyone wrong, and she proved that she truly is the greatest earthbender in the world.

Contrast this with Bolin and lavabending. Much of season three kept beating the audience over the head with his lack of metalbending, bringing up the issue in every other episode, every attempt of him trying to do it ending in failure. They wanted it to be a surprise when he gets lavabending instead, but thanks to Ghazan showing off lavabending everyone saw that bait and switch coming a mile away. When he finally did it, the reaction to is was 'it's about damn time'. Nowhere near as impressive as Toph inventing metalbending.