Your Headcanons?

[phantom000]

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.

Hmmm, i guess i pushed my suspension of disbelief a little too far. The idea of her figuring it out in one sitting, a problem earthbenders had been working on for generations, was a little far fetched. Like in The Force Awakens how Rey is able to use the force right off the bat with no training made me want to face-palm. Luke could only use it in a very subtle way and it took Obi-Wan's spirit to help him and it is implied that he is an exception.

[Rocketboy1313]

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 makes sense.

I wonder about lesser powers that exist around or even within the boarders of a government like the Federation. Much like the Swiss are all inside but not a part of the EU, and the economic power present in the Federation forces anyone who is not in it to obey their manufacturing standards or lose a gigantic trade partner. The Ferengi, Breen, Cardasians, Orions are all multi-planet alliances/empires/whatever but there are also dozen's of planets that the Enterprise-D encountered that were so newly encountered that numerous legal and cultural issues would crop up. Trek's vision of the galaxy is big but crowded when I think about it, and the idea that the Federation is the peaceful but strangely terrifying power in an entire quarter of the galaxy makes sense.

[Rocketboy1313]

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?

I like to think that being around Aang caauses people to become better at what they do. Either in a literal sense, that it is some kind of latent ability to cause people to be more centered and able to access abilities, or in the same sense that Superman inspires people to be better (Batman never kicks more ass than when he is trying to impress his bae, Clark).

[Megabob452]

Hmmm, i guess i pushed my suspension of disbelief a little too far. The idea of her figuring it out in one sitting, a problem earthbenders had been working on for generations, was a little far fetched.

Thing is, earthbenders weren't even trying to figure out that problem at all. Everyone just accepted the apparent fact that metal was unbendable. The very concept that there was earth inside never occurred to anyone. Toph was the first person to even try to bend it, and she only figured it out because of the different way she sees things.

[Killerbee256]

This is for the Batman franchise that has proven kind of correct in recent years' continuity.

The Joker is not one person, he is actually many many people.

In Batman Earth 1, it is revealed that Gotham city is patterned like a large spiral, as the Arkham family was big into psychic and paranormal concepts I believe the entire city is actually a psychic maze for some un knowable psychic creature, or even some kind of psychic drain point for the whole world (hence the number of crazy people walking around).

The Joker is a stand alone complex (like the anime) a mass delusion that causes people to snap from reality, dress like clowns, and start killing people.

There have been many Jokers, but they are rarely skilled enough to do much, they buy some purple clothes and face paint, attempt to rob a store and are shot dead, one more body for the sausage machine. But some discover a knack for things, pranks, gadgets, money laundering, or just serial murder they live on a while and are eventually killed in some backfiring death trap or explosion and more just keep popping up.

Much like the Judge in "Blood Meridian" the Joker will never die.

I think the sounds horrible, but knowing comics I shouldn't let it bug me, it will likely be retconed sooner or later.

[The Romulan Republic]

Hmm...

Some pet theories of mine:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

The Mayor was a Wolfram and Hart client. Corrupt politician who makes deals with demons living that close to LA? Its not a big leap.

Wolfram and Hart are responsible for Buffy going to Sunnydale.

We know that they don't like other villains interfering with their apocalypse, and they helped Buffy and Angel against the First Evil. They have access to a lot of prophecies, and might conceivably have known about things like the Master rising. Having an uncontrolled Hellmouth near their main base in this dimension, in LA, is not likely to be in their interests. Nor is having a fresh Slayer called in LA, where she can stake their clients.

Now, Buffy had to move to Sunnydale because she was expelled from her high school for burning down a gym full of vampires. But as she said, it was never proven (which probably explains why she wasn't in prison for arson, unless the Watchers' Council pulled some strings). So why was she expelled? And why did it just happen to be that the only school in the area that would take her was the one right over the Hellmouth (and well outside LA)?

Convenient, isn't it?

Alternately, the Watcher's Council pulled strings to make sure that Buffy wouldn't go to prison for arson, but would end up transferred to a school in a supernatural hot spot.

Mad Max/Firefly:

The world of Mad Max is Earth That Was. Pretty simple.

[phantom000]

Here are some crossovers i had in mind.

Van Helsing/Hellboy

Van Helsing, that's the Hugh Jackman film not the anime, is a prequel to Hellboy. During the rise of Hitler and Mussolini they learned of The Knights of the Holy Order and planned to steal their secrets. The Order leaves the Vatican, taking all their secret knowledge with them. FDR offers them sanctuary within the United States in return for their help in fighting the Occult Wars. The Order pools their resources with a collection of American paranormal investigators and the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is born.

Watchmen/V for Vendetta

Same idea. The truth of Ozymandias's plot was revealed, accusations flew back and forth and a war broke out, in the chaos the Norsefire took control of the United Kingdom. Nite Owl and Silk Spectre traveled to Britain to try and stop their fascist rule but were ultimately killed. Stories of their exploits are what inspired V to create his own masked identity.

[MissKittyFantastico]

Masters of the Universe (stop laughing, I'm serious)

Queen Marlena is directly responsible for Eternia's freedom twice over.

In the first case, not long after she popped out the twins, the Horde tried to invade. Eternia's got some pretty swish magic, but the Horde knows how to conquer magic (see Etheria). What made the difference wasn't the Sorceress, it was Marlena being an astronaut (from an era when NASA has crazy cool spaceships too), which gave Randor's forces the engineering primer they needed to start reverse-engineering Horde tech into weapons of their own, and fight the Horde laser for laser. (That's also why the Palace Guard ride sky sleds, and when Duncan builds a teleporter that can go anywhere in space and time the king's response is "Oh, that's interesting," even though he's still in the era of wearing tights and drinking mead.)

In the second case, there are several episodes where some doofus of an apprentice wizard tries to skip ahead to more advanced magic, and learns the lesson that instant power is invariably the path to disaster, and power is only good when it's been earned through patient hard work. Except for Adam and Adora, who just stick their swords in the air and holler about Grayskull, and one lightning strike later they're throwing tanks around like they're frisbees without any negative consequences (other than being dressed in next to nothing, not that anyone's complaining). Sure they're good people, but they're not bending the rules and getting away with it because they're nice - they can do it (and keep Skeletor from conquering Eternia/give Hordak perpetual headaches in the process) because they're half-human, and Eternian magic doesn't bind them to its laws the same way it does fullblood locals. (Just as well nobody figured that out, or Marlena would continually be hearing "Sooo, do you wanna maybe pop out a few more invincible champions?" Not that she'd put up with that sort of thing, cuz she's badass, but it'd be annoying for her.) (Presumably if Skeletor ever suspected, Evil-Lyn shot down the idea.)

[SlackerinDeNile]

Hmm...
Mad Max/Firefly:

The world of Mad Max is Earth That Was. Pretty simple.

Care to explain this one? Given that Earth was presumably badly nuked in the eighties how did the human race create working, long distance space ships from the ashes and rubble?

I really like Phantom000's crossover theories.

[Rocketboy1313]

Care to explain this one? Given that Earth was presumably badly nuked in the eighties how did the human race create working, long distance space ships from the ashes and rubble?

I really like Phantom000's crossover theories.

That is easy: The timeline of Mad Max is wrong and that disaster didn't happen in the 80's. Or it happened in the 2080's.

All of the Mad Max movies have a Conan-esc, folkloric feel to them. Like they are half-remembered legends of a society further in the future.