History Main / FanWank

->''"These two methods clearly do not agree with one another, which means one of two things: either I'm terribly over-analyzing the content of the illustrations of a beloved children's book, or the bunny's bedroom is moving at extremely high velocity relative to the earth, so that relativistic time dilation makes the six-minute rise of the moon appear to take an hour and ten minutes. Calculating the necessary velocity is left as an exercise for the interested reader."''[[note]]It's 0.9963 c. Yes, 99% of the speed of light, roughly 668 million miles per hour.[[/note]]

The etymology of 'wank' shows that it means 'indulgence', particularly any kind of major self-indulgence. Not surprisingly, this leads to it being British slang for [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbation]], though it's mostly just their own egos that such writers are stroking. [[{{Lemon}} Mostly]]. The term was coined by ''Series/DoctorWho'' fan and ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' writer Craig Hinton, who was no stranger to it himself, and applied it to his own work.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Franchise/CodeGeass'' gets a lot of it even ignoring the shipping and endless debates about CharacterAlignment. A good portion comes from all the questions left unanswered by the staff either by choice or as a result of being ScrewedByTheNetwork. This includes things like C.C.'s real name, the true nature of Geass, the origin of Suzaku's superhuman abilities (and their suggested connection to Geass), the true fate of Kallen's supposedly dead brother Naoto and countless other potential topics.

*** Let's just face it; the floodgates have opened with ''Anime/CodeGeassAkitoTheExiled'' and ''Manga/CodeGeassOzTheReflection'' being canon and having their own craziness that needs to be factored.
* What gender the main character's Anime/{{Pokemon}} are in the anime.

* ''[[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Ranma ½]]'' is notorious among the fans for having an open ending. This leads shippers to writing piles upon piles of fanfiction hooking up the main characters with each other, [[FanPreferredCouple especially Ranma with someone who isn't]] [[BaseBreaker Akane]] [[{{Tsundere}} Tendo]], despite Ranma/Akane being the series' OfficialCouple. The ShipToShipCombat that developed between various factions was bloody - in fact, this very entry was changed to stop a FlameWar from starting.
** The exact laws and origins of the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo -- how much water is needed, what the exact temperature is, how much of your body has to be splashed, what sort of liquids would qualify, why drinking ''doesn't'' trigger it, whether the original victim drowned to death or was merely submerged (thanks to an early translation error and the Guide's insistence that the stories are all "tragic"), whether the springs confer any aspect of the original creature's personality, and whether the curses are age-specific.
*** Another common fan wank on the Jusenkyo Curses is adding the secondary effect of actively attempting to induce the transformation rather than simply making it possible. Typically by making the victim a [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere water magnet]] and [[InvokedTrope invoking]] ContrivedCoincidence to wet the victim if they haven't changed for too long. This idea is often used either (or both) to avoid RuleOfFunny explanation of where the convenient buckets/thrown water comes from in more [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructive works]], or to explain why Ranma [[VoluntaryShapeshifter gaining partial control]] over his curse doesn't simply turn into an effective cure due to the canonical {{Aversion}} of the SecondLawOfGenderBending: even if the water trigger of his curse is removed, and replaced with a voluntary mental triggering or other far more controllable trigger, the curse still forces Ranma to spend some time in his cursed form.
*** A gag scene in the Herb saga led to one of Ranma 1/2s most enduring fan wanks. In the story, Herb mentions he hates female Ranma because she resembles a monkey he threw into the Spring of Drowned Girl - a monkey, who in turn caused him to be cursed. As a result, the idea spread that anyone who falls into the Spring of Drowned Girl ends up looking like the [[CanonFodder original girl who drowned there]]. The creation of the Spring of Drowned Akane, introduced into the manga long after this piece of fan wank was created, just made matters even worse.

** Some fans wonder if maybe Happosai deliberately drank the Nanniichuan water that was supposed to be Ranma's cure in the final manga chapters, as it's a bit hard to mistake spring water for sake on first taste and Happosai is both extremely selfish and fixated on Ranma's [[AttractiveBentGender sexy female body]].
** KiAttacks get a lot of this. Everything which isn't explained in-universe tends to be attributed to Ki manipulation. Mousse having a HyperspaceArsenal up his sleeves? He's using Ki to compress space. The Happo Fire Burst explosives? Conjured from Ki. Akane's "signature" HyperspaceMallet (which she doesn't even use that often)? Obviously a Ki construct. Kuno's [[WoodenKatanasAreEvenBetter implausible use of his Bokken?]] Clearly, it's reinforced with his Ki!
*** This probably in part comes retroactively from Manga/{{Naruto}}, as such HandWaving is ''canon'' in Naruto; everything out of the ordinary is done with Chakra.

[[folder:Film]]

* In-universe fans of ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' have constructed a whole map of the ship and worked out explanations for everything on it - which pays off when the actors need that kind of knowledge aboard the real ship.
** Which is some subtle FridgeBrilliance as the Aliens who built the ship must have done the same thing from watching the same "Historical Documents"

** Luke uses the Force to choke a Gammorean in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'' ... but isn't that using the Dark Side of the Force? Not if he only used the Jedi Mind Trick to make the Gammorean ''think'' he was choking! Or maybe it's only considered truly dark if you use the Force choke with intent to ''kill'' someone, as opposed to just staggering them. Or, even simpler, that the Force Choke is not a specified "power" tied to one's alignment like Force Lightning, but rather merely [[MundaneUtility using the Force's telekinetic abilities to pinch a victim's airway closed]], and Dark Side practitioners are fond of it because it's an easy and psychologically effective way to threaten or harm someone.

* ''{{Film/Enemy}}'': There are ''many'' theories about "what it all means." Here's the take from ''Slate''.[[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/03/14/enemy_movie_ending_explained_the_meaning_of_the_jake_gyllenhaal_and_denis.html]].

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fandom's big issues:-
** Havelock Vetinari's sexuality - which way does he bend? (To extrapolate from the canon that the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork is naturally self-sufficient, austere and celibate is ''way'' too boring.)

** Or the true nature of Tom Bombadil - was he a random nature spirit, or the avatar of the world? [[GodWasMyCopilot One of the Valar or Ilúvatar in disguise?]]

** DorothyLSayers suggested that Watson's middle name is Hamish, a Scotch Gaelic version of James.

* Much of [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Star Wars EU]], ''especially'' post-EII ICS, is this; thought not only technical details are wanked up - Force powers are too.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

*** Why the Doctor gave his age as 953 in his Seventh incarnation but dated himself consistently from 900 in the new series starting from his Ninth incarnation - vanity, or having portions of his own timeline deleted in the Time War;

** As a NecessaryWeasel resulting from [[MostWritersAreHuman the actors playing the Doctor all being human mortals]], the ageing of the Doctor's individual faces is inconsistent - the Doctor can take TheSlowPath for 400 years and not age a day in one story, but look visibly older after only five years in another. This has received an attempted HandWave by River Song in "Let's Kill Hitler" where she suggests that Time Lords can control their ageing and even age backwards if they want to (possibly used by the Tenth Doctor to reverse his age between his courtship with Queen Elizabeth in "The Day of the Doctor" and his death in the Specials), but there's points where the Doctor is physically ageing, getting only drawbacks from doing so and clearly ''doesn't'' want to...

* On ''Series/{{Merlin}}'', Morgana and Morgause are established as half-sisters, though it's never definitively said whether they share a mother or a father. There's evidence for either Vivienne or Gorlois as the shared parent, but in series 3 it's [[TheReveal revealed]] that Morgana's father is not Gorlois at all, but Uther (making her half-sister to Arthur). Since Morgana and Morgause continue to refer to each other as "sister" after this, most fans assume that Vivienne is the shared parent. Added confusion comes out of the fact that Gaius initially called them "half-sisters" (long before he knew that Uther was Morgana's true father), a statement that doesn't make sense unless you assume that Morgause had a father who ''wasn't'' Gorlois (otherwise they would have been assumed to be ''full'' sisters).

* The ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}'' fandom was very weird about this. Pretty much all forums, the most prominent being Website/BZPower, had or have entire sub-forums dedicated to storyline-discussion and theorizing. On one hand, the amount of fanwank that built up during the toy-line's run is incredible. On the other, most of the fandom is very strict about adhering to canon, creating a sort of vicious circle that only the toughest fanwank survive. This eventually lead to the fans bombarding the official writer with their own ideas to canonize them. [[AscendedFanon Some]] [[PanderingToTheBase made it through]], but after a while, he had to leave the online forums due to LEGO's policies. Even after the toys were canceled, the fanwankery just kept on going. Fans are trying to explain the ludicrous powers through real-life physics (despite the wirter's insistence that they don't apply here), bringing back romance after the NoHuggingNoKissing rule, and declaring fan fictions as canonical alternate universes.

When the show itself canonizes such a theory, it's a {{Retcon}} or a ReVision or one of the two varieties of ContinuityPorn. When a fan does, it's Fan Wank. Note, however, that {{Retcon}} is a value-neutral word, while fan wank definitely carries a connotation of crap. On the other hand, theories that get popular can become {{fanon}}.

* Shego's plasma power in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': if she can blast through metal, why didn't she burn up a cheerleader? (Besides the [[FoeYay most popular answer]].)

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' gets a lot of it even ignoring the shipping and endless debates about CharacterAlignment. A good portion comes from all the questions left unanswered by the staff either by choice or as a result of being ScrewedByTheNetwork. This includes things like C.C.'s real name, the true nature of Geass, the origin of Suzaku's superhuman abilities (and their suggested connection to Geass), the true fate of Kallen's supposedly dead brother Naoto and countless other potential topics.

* The so-called Turn A Bang theory from the Gundamverse. After a scene in ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' depicting a period of history that was made up of clips from various other Gundam shows--shows that were originally toted as alternate universes--fans began trying to construct a timeline that would justify having all the shows in a single universe.

** Go to the Website/YouTube clip about the creation of the Transformers taken directly from the G1 cartoon it came from. Behold the number of comic fans trying to explain to innocent viewers how it fits into the Transformer God Primus origin from the comics, despite the fact the G1 Transformers cartoon made no reference to Primus, and as far as the TV producers were concerned, this was the intended origin for the show. However, Primus having created Cybertron before the Quintessons' arrival was canonized by the [[TransformersExpandedUniverse Wreckers]] comic.

* A rather interesting example occurred with ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''. Fans theorized that Terry and Matt's lack of resemblence to their father, specifically their black hair, genetically improbable given their parents' hair colors (red and brown respectively for Mary and Warren), had a role in the divorce. Flash forward to the ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' FullyAbsorbedFinale "Epilogue," and guess what? [[spoiler: Bruce Wayne is revealed to have been the boys' biological father, with Warren's genetic material having been, unbeknownst to anyone but CADMUS, overwritten with his. According to [[WordOfGod the series' writers]], this decision was influenced by the realization of said improbability.]]

* Aside from the two CareBears movie continuities, as the [[Headscratchers/CareBears Headscratchers]] mentioned, what happened to Dark Heart after he turned human, and for that matter, why did he attack them, why did he [[IncrediblyLamePun care]] about a girl that saved his life once? What was his backstory, and speaking of which, the backstory of all of the villains and the pre-Wishing Star bears and cousins?

** Luke uses the Force to choke a Gammorean in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'' ... but isn't that using the Dark Side of the Force? Not if he only used the Jedi Mind Trick to make the Gammorean ''think'' he was choking! Or maybe it's only considered truly dark if you use the Force choke with intent to ''kill'' someone, as opposed to just staggering them. Or, even simpler, that the Force Choke is not a specified "power" tied to one's alignment like Force Lightning, but rather merely [[MundaneUtility using the Force's telekinetic abilities to pinch a victim's airway closed]], and Dark Side practitioners are fond of it because it's an easy and psychologically effective way to injure or kill someone.

* The ''SilentHill'' series by its nature encourages this in their Fandom; GameFAQS is filled with exhaustive plot and character analyses. A sure way to troll any fan forum is to cut down EpilepticTrees with the insistence that it's all just deliberately Invoked MindScrew on Konami's part.

See also UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny, an entire trope driven by Fan Wank. Not to be confused with the other use of "wank" in many fandom circles, which refers to wankerish fannish behaviour of various kinds, such as pretentiousness, BrokenBase feuding, and general stupidity.

When the show itself canonizes such a theory, it's a {{Retcon}} or a ReVision or one of the two varieties of ContinuityPorn. When a fan does, it's FanWank. Note, however, that {{Retcon}} is a value-neutral word, while fanwank definitely carries a connotation of crap. On the other hand, theories that get popular can become {{fanon}}.

Particular common triggers for fanwank include:

* {{Crossover}} versus arguments between two or more major sci-fi franchises. ''[[InternetBackdraft Good]] [[SeriousBusiness gravy]]'', the fanwank.

Compare with EpilepticTrees, ContinuityPorn (the {{canon}} variety of this), and of course, the TV Tropes WildMassGuessing. ShrugOfGod and (even more so) AscendedFanon will, at least in theory, validate FanWank theories.

TropesAreNotBad, however; if nothing else, FanWank can be immensely enjoyable, particularly if it's coupled with a self-awareness about how ludicrously over-the-top and ultimately futile it is.

See also UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny, an entire trope driven by FanWank. Not to be confused with the other use of "wank" in many fandom circles, which refers to wankerish fannish behaviour of various kinds, such as pretentiousness, BrokenBase feuding, and general stupidity.

Naturally, these theories often venture way out into fantasyland. When the theory makes you say, "Oh come on!", the fanfic author has stepped over the line into FanWank.

* In the [[SgtFrog Sgt. Frog]] Western fandom, there is a lot of [[FanWank Fan Wank]] debates of whether or not the alien frogs, known as kerons, can have hair or not, some fans going as far as to saying their all wigs and or cannot have hair because they are 'frogs' and label any keron with hair, as a [[MarySue Mary sue]]. This originally started on Website/DeviantArt and then Tumblr, on a fandom confession blog which has since been deleted.

* The penchant ''{{Skins}}'' has for ambiguous series endings leads to lots of this.

** {{Retcon}}ning away the revelation of the Doctor's half-human lineage from the 1996 MadeForTVMovie.[[note]]River Song said it best: "Rule One: The Doctor lies."[[/note]]

** Who were the faces shown to the Doctor by Morbius in "The Brain of Morbius"? Previous incarnations of the Doctor (as intended by the production team but {{Retcon}}ned basically impossible), or incarnations of Morbius?

** As a NecessaryWeasel resulting from [[MostWritersAreHuman the actors playing the Doctor all being human mortals]], the ageing of the Doctor's individual faces is inconsistent - the Doctor can take TheSlowPath for 400 years and not age a day in one story, but look visibly older after only five years in another. This has received an attempted HandWave by River Song in "Let's Kill Hitler" where she suggests that Time Lords can control their ageing and even age backwards if they want to (possibly used by the Tenth Doctor to reverse his age between his courtship with Queen Elizabeth in "Day of the Doctor" and his death in the Specials), but there's points where the Doctor is physically ageing, getting only drawbacks from doing so and clearly ''doesn't'' want to...

*** Why does WOTAN call the Doctor "[[IAmNotShazam Doctor Who]]"?

See also UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny, an entire trope driven by FanWank.

* Some fans of the ''NinjaGaiden'' series try to fit in the events of the original arcade game (which is largely unconnected to the NES version and its later sequels, save for a few superficial similarities) into the continuity of the later console games by claiming that the two player characters (a pair of ninjas, one in blue and another one in red) are actually Ryu Hayabusa and his father Joe (or [[DubNameChange Ken]], depending on the version) undergoing a mission that they went through before the events of the Xbox and NES games (despite the fact that the player characters in the arcade version were never given identities).

When the show itself canonizes such a theory, it's a {{Retcon}} or a ReVision or one of the two varieties of ContinuityPorn. When a fan does, it's {{Fanwank}}. Note, however, that {{Retcon}} is a value-neutral word, while fanwank definitely carries a connotation of crap. On the other hand, theories that get popular can become {{fanon}}.

* ''ICarly'': Copious amounts related to shipping. One large pro-Seddie group interpret any form of communication or interaction as supporting their ship.

* Shego's plasma power in ''KimPossible'': if she can blast through metal, why didn't she burn up a cheerleader? (Besides the [[FoeYay most popular answer]].)

** Luke uses the Force to choke a Gammorean in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'' ... but isn't that using the Dark Side of the Force? Not if he only used the Jedi Mind Trick to make the Gammorean ''think'' he was choking! Or maybe it's only considered truly dark if you use the Force choke with intent to ''kill'' someone, as opposed to just staggering them. Or, even simpler, that the Force Choke is not a specified "power" like Force Lightning, but rather merely [[MundaneUtility using the Force's telekinetic abilities to pinch a victim's airway closed]], and Dark Side practitioners are fond of it it because it's an easy and psychologically effective way to injure or kill someone.

** Luke uses the Force to choke a Gammorean in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'' ... but isn't that using the Dark Side of the Force? Not if he only used the Jedi Mind Trick to make the Gammorean ''think'' he was choking! Or maybe it's only considered truly dark if you use the Force choke with intent to ''kill'' someone, as opposed to just staggering them. Or, even simpler, that the Force Choke is not a specific "power" like Force Lightning, but rather simply [[MundaneUtility using the Force's telekinetic abilities to pinch a victim's airway closed]], and Dark Side practitioners tend to use it because it's an easy, efficient way to injure or kill someone.

** Luke uses the Force to choke a Gammorean in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'' ... but isn't that using the Dark Side of the Force? Not if he only used the Jedi Mind Trick to make the Gammorean ''think'' he was choking! Or maybe it's only considered truly dark if you use the Force choke with intent to ''kill'' someone, as opposed to just staggering them.

* A common form of FanWank in ''DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th Edition is "refluffling," or using the mechanics of a power as written but changing the explanation of how the power works to better fit a character concept. It's commonly done with characters using the Martial (non-magical, weapons and skill-based) power source, to explain how someone with no magical powers can turn invisible (you see, he's really just hiding so well he'd might as well be invisible), control an enemy's actions (you're not making them jump off a cliff, you're staggering them, and it's just dumb luck that they happen to stagger 20 feet straight toward a cliff edge), etc.