WMG / Nancy Drew

Bess's father and George's mother are brother-and-sister

• Bess and George are presumably first cousins, since many of the books that they're in mention them having some of the same aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives, but in book-#55 of the original book series, it's mentioned that Bess's mothers maiden name is "Boonton" (or something that starts with a "B") without mention if George's mother has the same maiden name as her (or whatever George's mother's maiden name is). From that, I've assumed that Bess's father and George's mother are probably siblings.
  • If her mother's maiden name was "Boonton", then wouldn't it be the siblings are Bess's mother and George's mother? Neither cousin has the surname "Boonton" nor anything that starts with a "B", and it's very uncommon for men to take their wives's surname, especially back when the books were written. George's last name is Fayne, not Boonton.

'Sonny Joon' is the pseudonym/resplendent destiny of a Sidereal Exalt.

• Consider this: Wherever Nancy goes, be it France or Italy or Egypt, this mysterious figure has always preceded her. In some cases, he even leaves notes that help her to solve puzzles- seemingly unintentionally. He's intelligent but quite eccentric, and- no matter how many times he gets fired- Sonny is always able to find a new job, dangerous though those jobs be. I theorize that this is not a coincidence. He's in fact a Sidereal (probably Chosen of Secrets) trying to smooth the way for Nancy to solve those mysteries that need solving, and probably lightening his own workload by doing so.

Message in the Haunted Mansion: Abby and Rose are gay, and a couple.

They're "gal pals", after all.

Curse of Blackmoor Manor, meta: The entire game is one long puzzle by Jane for the uninitiated - us, the players.

• Tired of hiding her true family history, Jane decided to spread the secret to the entire world by making a computer game like she always wanted. However, the secret can't be just given away, so she decided to include every puzzle that her ancestors included so only the true of heart and stout of mind could find the treasure.
  • Unfortunately, her plan was undermined when someone released a walkthrough for it.

Curse of Blackmoor Manor was written/programmed entirely by American wizards

See below:

"For one thing, Essex does not have moors. Fens (wet-lands), yes; moors, no. Therefore, the house should be Blackfen Manor. Worse, Penvellyn is not an Essex name - especially not one that would have survived from the 14th century. This story belongs in Devon or Cornwall - on Exmoor, Dartmoor, or Bodmin. Where they have moors, dark manors, rumours of beasts, and ancient families with names like Penvellyn!" There is also a mythical Beast of Bodmin.

• Fridge Brilliance: If the previous WMG is true, then Jane may have deliberately re-located her family estate to Essex in-game to prevent annoying video game fans from showing up in the flesh and snooping around her family's estate.

Ellie York from The Deadly Device will return in The Ghost of Thornton Hall.

The trailer for The Ghost of Thornton Hall depicts a setting absolutely identical to the desktop background on Ellie's computer. Big Southern-plantation-style estate, trees with Spanish moss, etc. Ellie says she grew up in the South; perhaps she, or at least her family, is connected to Thornton Hall.

• Jossed.

Nancy is being reincarnated by Hanyuu in the Second Chance scenarios.

Every time Nancy dies or gets fired, Hanyuu intervenes by taking Nancy back in time to just before she made her mistake so she can solve the mystery. Her reason for doing this is because solving the cases somehow relates to the fate of Hinamizawa and if the cases go unsolved and the villain succeeds, everything goes to hell and she'll have to go through the tiring process of taking Rika back in time yet again.

Bess, George, and Ned are psychic.

And that is how they always somehow know what Nancy is supposed to do next, but they are given very limited visions of the future, hence they cannot tell Nancy what to do afterwards unless Nancy asks them, in which case they have a vision. However, their powers are limited; sometimes, the visions they see are either blurry, or their psychic powers just don't work all the time, which is why there are times where they say, "I wish I could help, but I think you know what to do". And in later games, their powers cease all together, which is why Nancy ultimately has to seek other sources for hints.

• Ned seems to have gotten his powers back recently, though, if Warnings at Waverly Academy are any indication.

Curse of Blackmoor Manor: Linda really was turning into a werewolf.

Jane knew this all along and she only claimed to have been responsible for making Linda think she was turning into a werewolf because she didn't think Nancy would actually believe her if she told the truth. Of course, this also means that by the time Nancy leaves, Linda will be a full-fledged werewolf...

Curse of Blackmoor Manor: Ethel is the real power behind whatever was happening to Linda.

Ethel is the only person who pays attention to Jane prior to Nancy's arrival. She knows all about the Penvellyn magic, and she tutors Jane in super-creepy midnight ceremonies. This gives her the perfect chance to be either overtly or subtly influencing Jane to manipulate Linda into leaving them alone. Leading into...

Curse of Blackmoor Manor: Ethel and Hugh are having an affair.

Which might explain why she wants Linda gone and Hugh to come back to Blackmoor.

Curse of Blackmoor Manor: Jane is immortal.

And that is why she never dies no matter how much time you waste. She only pretended to be running out of air just to make Nancy feel guilty, and also because she didn't want to spend all of eternity trapped in a box.

• Alternately, Jane is secretly claustrophobic, and only felt as if she was suffocating because she was trapped. The box actually contains enough air for her to survive for hours, and it probably isn't airtight anyway, because the floor it's sitting on is uneven.
  • She's a little girl who just got a metal box slammed around her. She panicked.

Warnings at Waverly Academy: Izzy is related to Lillian Weiss from Stay Tuned For Danger.

The two share a strong resemblence in both looks and personality, for one matter. There is also the fact that Izzy is from New York. Thus, it can concluded that Izzy is either Lillian's niece (assuming she has an untold-of sister), or her daughter. If you choose to go by real time, ie, the time the games were released, she would've been around seven or eight during the events of STFD; if you choose to narrow the timeline even further, she would've been around ten or eleven—in either case, it contains the Unfortunate Implications that Lillian had Izzy in her teen years, married the father, and divorced him before she met Rick, as she looks to be in her late twenties in STFD. If this is the case, it explains a LOT about Izzy's behaviour.

• Hold on a second. I can think of a theory that is worse. Nancy Drew video games operate in Comic-Book Time - one of the games takes place during the Great Depression, for crying out loud - so there really can be any amount of years between Stay Tuned and Waverly. What if Izzy's father was Rick Arlen? Then it would turn out that Lillian broke down and went mad with jealousy not just because Rick left her, but because her left her with a small child. Talk about an Asshole Victim!

The culprit in Ransom of the Seven Ships will return for the final game.

How can we be certain that he really did fall into the sea and drown, or get eaten by sharks at the end as guessed by Nancy? He may have another plan up his sleeve where he had a contact come pick him up, and he only made it appear like he had fallen in and drowned so he could take Nancy by surprise when the time came. He may very well return for the final game to finish Nancy off once and for all in a final showdown between the two of them, which would make for an EPIC ending.

• Or how about ALL past culprits work together in a world wide mystery that brings back all of the fan favorites and an actual appearance of Sonny and Prudence!
• That would be AWESOME! Of course, it would ruin the whole ambiguity about what they look like, but still.
• Look, Dwayne is nuts. He would kill the damn shark and he would swim away if it meant he could kill Nancy another day.

Nancy Drew is a Time Lord.

• This Troper saw this and realized that yes, it was inevitable.
  • How many second chances does it take before she's just dead? And back-to-back ones within the regeneration period would kill ANY Time Lord.

Alternately, Nancy Drew is a vampire.

It would certainly explain why she never seems to be tired and doesn't age. Also, it kinda amuses me that people are scared of the ghost girl in the mirror of Shadow At the Water's Edge fame, but not of the fact that Nancy herself doesn't appear in the mirror.

• Well, the reason why she doesn't appear is explained in that instance (the mirror was a projecting a recording or something along those lines), but she didn't show up in the mirror in Message in a Haunted Mansion either.
• Maybe Nancy grew bored with immortality, and solves mysteries to entertain herself? (This theory also explains why her clothes are so outdated- she dislikes today's fashions.)
• One problem, though. If Nancy's a vampire, why is she so sceptical of the existence of ghosts? Does her world have vampires, but no other supernatural creatures?
  • That's either a really bad case of denial, or a cover-up. She knows better than anyone how easily journals can be stolen, and she doesn't want any prospective thieves to know about her condition.

The last couple of games have been building up to something amazing in the series.

• Think about it. In "Ransom of the Seven Ships" we get to see Bess and George's faces and the bad guy gets away. Then in "Trail of the Twister" there is specific continuity, where P.G. Krolmeister gives Nancy a trip to Japan for solving the case. During the Japan case, Nancy hears of a castle in Germany that scared off a ghost expert (leading to the expert quitting her job). The game after that takes place in a castle in Germany. Tell me that there's not something suspicious going on. Just tell me.
  • There could be something going on, or the game-designers could just be having fun building up a broader continuity for these games.

Nancy and Ned are the Reincarnation of Frances Humber and Dirk Valentine.

• She did find the treasure he left for her. It just took longer than he thought it would. (And this theory would make the ending even more of a Heartwarming Moment than it already is.)
  • Alternately, Kate and Carson Drew are the reincarnations of Frances and Dirk, with Kate retaining Frances's gift for the piano and Carson, making amends for Dirk's crimes by serving justice as a lawyer. The two are perpetual Star-Crossed Lovers, destined to always be parted by the early death of one or the other. This time, at least, they both lived long enough to marry, and to produce a daughter who'd go on to find her parents' lost treasure.

P.G. Krolmeister is a Brain in a Jar.

It would certainly explain how a man who has documentedly lived for over 200 years is able to have such an energetic voice and demeanour by the time Trail of the Twister happens. Someone who has practically dominated the world market for such a long time would certainly have the time and resources to research ways to prolong his own life to ludicrous lengths. In the present day, he also has a fully automated system that allows him to keep his original voice as well as either control precision machinery that lets him keep designing inventions, or ways to communicate his ideas to select assistants.

Alternatively...

P.G. Krolmeister is a Legacy Character.

The title is held either by a chosen successor or a descendant who has a similarly insane intellect and knack for inventions.

• Could be an invoked example, if the first P.G. was a bit of a crackpot and set up a family trust stipulating that all of his descendants had to have the same initials as him in order to access its funds.

Waverly's Mr. Harris is a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark. He is actually Indiana Jones.

As theorized here:

Ever since WAC came out, a lot of us have been curious what Mr. Harris looks like. He must be pretty fine to have all those teenage girls after him.

If you’ve seen Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, you’ll remember that Indiana Jones was a dreamy young professor. All of his female

students were in love with him. Wouldn’t you be, if your teacher looked like this?

And of course, Indiana Jones is played by Harrison Ford. I think Mr. Harris was an inside joke reference to Indy that HER snuck in.

Conclusion: this is what Mr. Harris looks like.

Samantha Quick and Colin Baxter were working together during Phantom.

As explained in this essay.

The entire series was written as a celebration of female masturbation.

Bobbie Ann Mason pointed out in The Girl Sleuth: A Feminist Guide that it's more than a bit odd how often Nancy is given a chance to stick her fingers in a dark hole and say something like, "There's a tiny knob in here! I've found a secret compartment!"

Bess goes on to become a Big Beautiful Woman, after dating someone who wants her to gain weight, rather than lose it.

Bess has always been described as being overweight, even if the actress playing her was thin. More recent versions of the character have been depicted as always trying to lose weight, but never able to shift "that last five pounds". Heck, at the end of the computer game "Alibi In Ashes", Bess laments having staked out the ice cream parlor that the suspect visited, because she had to keep her cover all day. That's right, Bess spends an entire day, from opening till closing, eating ice cream after ice cream after ice cream, no matter how full she feels! If anybody else at that place happened to have a thing for women with big appetites...

Even if that game wasn't your preferred Nancy Drew canon, there's no reason to believe that she ever did lose any more weight, since it was seemingly impossible. That makes it very appealing to date somebody who not only doesn't want you to try losing more weight, but actively encourages you to pig out, while complimenting your good looks even more when you do get fat.

In The Haunting of Castle Malloy, there is actually a haunting... but not the kind you'd expect

.In some moments of the game, when you stumble upon some puzzles, objects or gameovers, there is a magpie who sits at the scene, shouts and quickly flies away. It seems to follow you. When you find Malloy family tree in the tower, there are magpies sitting on its branches. Celtic mythology is mentioned in the game, and it is known that Celts believed in reincarnation - in fact, the circle in the famous Celtic cross symbolizes the circle of death and rebirth. The magpie is probably the reincarnation of some of the Malloys, watching over you.

Jane's Game Portal is more than it seems.

In Danger By Design, you have to score high in an online game that's clearly the work of Jane Penvellyn from Curse of Blackmoor Manor. The latter game's closing letter makes it clear that Jane, too, will be creating a puzzle to guard the family secrets. As Loulou won't live forever, it'd make sense for her to devise an alternative way for future Penvellyns to access the parrot's clues. As it happens, one of the games that are listed on the site, although not yet functional, is named "Loulou's Loopy Lupine". Eventually, when Jane gets that particular game up and running, it'll contain the clues needed for her great-great-grandfather's puzzle.

The Poppy Dada painting seen at the end of Secret of the Scarlet Hand incorporates Koko Kringle bars because...

...she began a relationship with Sonny Joon. It can't have lasted long, of course. There's 'pretentious avant-garde artist' weird, and then there's Sonny Joon weird.

Minette is Bipolar or Borderline.

While one cannot make a psychiatric diagnosis since we do not have the qualifications, this is for wild mass guessing. So anyway, Minette is prone to volatile mood swings, impulsive behaviour, and very very harsh temper tantrums. Everyone saw her as simply quirky and eccentric before; suggesting perhaps either they didn't know, or perhaps she was undiagnosed. After fainting in Danger by Design, presumably she was given psychiatric help and thus was able to make a "Come-back collection" by Resorting to Danger.

Secret of the Old Clock was a dramatization of a real event in River Heights

Brenda Carlton in Alibi in Ashes says the events of Old Clock happened in River Heights, not "Titusville" as stated in Old Clock itself. Nobody contradicted her about it, so it does seem to be true. The game we play is a dramatic retelling of an event from a few years before Alibi in Ashes, but set in the 30's and in a different town because the narrator (something no other ND game has) thought it would be more fun.

The Beast of Blackmoor Manor was a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax Legacy Character.

The Bosinny family circulated the Beast legend, and used a wolf-head costume to maintain it over the centuries, as a way to discourage superstitious peasants and nosy outsiders from snooping around the Penvellyn estate. This was particularly important during the decades when a non-initiate was head of the Penvellyn family, and during the interlude between Elinor's execution and Philippe's reclamation of the property. Hence, Elinor's refusal to let anyone hunt the Beast on her lands: she didn't want her own Bosinny tutor/initiator/Secret-Keeper to get shot.