YMMV / The Rugrats Theory

• Adaptation Displacement: The Vocaloid song inspired by the story is more popular than the actual text.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Being this fanfic is more of a set list rather than a straight up story, there are a few things in this that can be interpreted in many ways.
  • Was Drew Pickles originally married to Cynthia (Angelica's birth mother) before she died and he met Charlotte, or did Drew cheat on Charlotte with Cynthia and that's how Angelica came to be?
  • When Betty DeVille terminated her pregnancy, did she do it because she didn't want to be pregnant, or did she have to terminate for more tragic reasons?
  • When Susie made Rugrats, did she do it to exploit Angelica's imagination and mental illness for fame and money, or did she make the series as a tribute to keep the memories of Angelica and her creations alive?
• Cliché Storm: The fan theory follows the typical formula Creepypasta theories tended to have at the time. The entire series is all in one of the protagonists' heads, the world is "actually" ridiculously dark to the point of bordering on Narm, and there are multiple inconsistencies that the writer Handwaves away as the protagonist being crazy. The supposed Based on a True Story implications from it were also a recurring element from many creepypastas made around the same time.
• Delusion Conclusion: Arguably one of the darkest and most infamous examples of this trope in fan theory history, featuring mental illness being responsible for the entire series.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: While this is mainly a theory, it did inspire fan works with the idea of Angelica being the only real character in mind like Beautiful Monster.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Dil and Kimi aren't essential to the theory. Kimi - for instance - was real, but she was forcefully taken from her mother. Dil, on the other hand, was real, but Angelica couldn't tell the difference between reality and her fantasy world. Susie is also often excluded from the theory.
• First Installment Wins: The All Grown Up! side of the theory is rarely discussed. Most people only know of the first half, the part that revolves around the early Rugrats seasons. Even those that know of the later portion tend to ignore it.
• Fridge Logic:
  • Chuckie's mom died from a terminal illness (or possibly an injury that didn't kill her right away; all we know is that she died in the hospital after at least a few days), not a car accident, so his part of the theory doesn't make sense. The only way he could have died along with his mother is if he wasn't born yet...which may be why Chuckie is older than the other babies, because Angelica imagined him being born a year earlier.
  • When viewers rewatch the episode "Angelica's Worst Nightmare", and in that one Charlotte announces that she's going to have another baby, much to Angelica's annoyance due to her liking her status as the only child, only to later for Charlotte to find out she wasn't pregnant after all (fans believe it could have been a misread pregnancy test). Viewers might end ended up thinking, hey wait, you know that scary weird baby brother from Angelica's scary dream, where does he fit into this theory? But unlike the other babies who at least once existed, even if they didn't get a chance to be alive (or alive for long in Chuckie's case), Angelica's "brother" never actually existed except as a very bad dream, and this is especially true if the misread/inaccurate pregnancy theory is correct. Plus, Angelica probably didn't ever want to see her "brother" ever ever again, so of course she wouldn't imagine him.
  • Detractors of the theory have pointed out that it doesn't really make sense since:
    • There were episodes of Rugrats that didn't even have Angelica in them.
    • The grownups, Angelica's classmate Harold, the McNulty boys, and the pets can all interact with the babies, as can complete strangers. In fact, Tommy is the first Rugrat that Susie meets when she and her family move into the neighborhood, not Angelica.
    • The babies are shown in several episodes to make messes that the adults can see.
  • Cynthia is shown in several episodes to be the name the doll came with, so the doll being named after Angelica's mother doesn't make sense.
• Narm: The story is so relentlessly bleak that it ends up feeling a little bit over-the-top at moments. It does not help that many other similar theories took several cues from it, lessening the impact it may have had at the time of its original publication.
• Once Original, Now Common: The story popularized many common creepypasta elements that eventually became Discredited Tropes due to their overuse. While it was once considered one of the darkest cartoon-related theories ever made, nowadays many readers consider it to be blatantly over-the-top and cliche due to the similarities with other Delusion Conclusion stories and theories.

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