It’s surprising that Joss Whedon’s main canon of work has existed for almost 20 years, and only recently have people started drawing mind-blowing connections between his various television series and movies. It made all sorts of crazy sense for Tim Burton, and now we’ve stumbled upon a fan theory that creates a literal Whedonverse.
This theory popped up on Imgur sometime recently, combining several key elements of Whedon’s series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, and The Cabin in the Woods: namely, the existence of Potential and active Slayers, Watchers who control their movements, and government organizations committed to stopping supernatural powers at any and all cost. What follows is a saga spanning five hundred years, all revolving on finding the one special woman to bring order to the world. (Click to enlarge!)
It’s a pretty awesome thread uniting Whedon’s major properties. Someone on Reddit’s r/FanTheories came up with basically the same narrative almost a year ago, as did Cracked (albeit in video form).
But where’s the mention of Melaka Fray, the Slayer from some indeterminate future? Same with Dollhouse’s Echo and the other dolls, who must somehow fit between the awakening of the Senior Partners in 2004 and the Initiative’s failure in 2012. Perhaps Rossum thought they could artifically create a Slayer’s impulses and map it onto an empty shell? (To be fair, Cracked does agree that the Watchers could be Rossum could be Blue Sun.)
Of course, Dollhouse’s series finale “Epitaph Two” takes place in dystopian 2020, where the imprinting technology has been used to create armies as well as ensuring immortality for the highest bidder. This connection could be established and explained away by saying that it occurred only in Los Angeles, or that it’s an alternate universe. Still, it would have been cool to see some dolls make it into space.
This fan theory brings new meaning to Firefly’s beloved motto: “No power in the ’verse can stop me.”
I’m on board!
Shiny!
What about Dr. Horrible?
Where does “Much Ado About Nothing” fit in?
You’re also leaving out Fray, the future-earth Slayer (and the first instance of a potential being born)
@5, Second paragraph under the final picture of River
But where’s the mention of Melaka Fray, the Slayer from some indeterminate future? Same with Dollhouse’s Echo and the other dolls, who must somehow fit between the awakening of the Senior Partners in 2004 and the Initiative’s failure in 2012. Perhaps Rossum thought they could artifically create a Slayer’s impulses and map it onto an empty shell? (To be fair, Cracked does agree that the Watchers could be Rossum could be Blue Sun.)
This theory has actually been around in fanfic form for alot longer than a year…
Basically falls apart because it ignores anything that isn’t TV or movie, whereas Buffy has loads of canonical comic book material. This ends up amounting to some pretty lazy fanwank.
Nope. I’m too fond of the Ancients from Cabin in the Woods being the audience.
Also, why do people feel this urge to meld everything together? This was precisely why the only episode of Community I hated was that one from the gas leak season about how all their pre-Greendale histories were intertwined. Luckily Harmon came back.
Just let things stand on their own, entertainment products do not have to be inbreed zombies.
Pretty cool thread, with one nitpicky comment: It was Wolf, Ram and Hart, not ‘Heart’. (I also correct improperly placed apostrophes.)
What if the dolls and imprinting technology is responsible for the hands of blue or the Reavers? The technology could have been lost when Earth was used up, and they tried to replicate it on a wide scale and made Reavers?
But what about Doctor Horriles sing-along blog? Where does that fit in? There are no secret organizations in it (unless you count the evil league of evil, but they arent a secret group), and there is no slayer. Oh! Wait! I’ve got it! What if Doctor Horribles sing-along blog was set at the same time as the Buffy episode “Once more with feeling”, and the demon who caused Sunnydale to sing acctually affected the whole world, causing the characters in Doctor Horrible to sing?! And maybe Billy (Doctor Horrible) used to be in the initiative, but quit and tried to be evil, and thats how he knows how to make (sort of make) his weapons.
@11 That’s actually a really cool idea. I can totally see Rossum becoming the Alliance and being responsible for reavers. Maybe it wasn’t an accident like they said in Serenity, what if the reavers were Rossum’s second attempt at total human destruction?
And watching over it all for those 500 years is the sainted Cordelia Chase who was once a human woman and became a legitimate higher power