NEEEWSS!
Information by celrock
Supporting Evidence by Celrock and Nairobi-Harper
I had a conversation with celrock today. You most likely know celrock for awesome fanfiction and great theories. However, I believe that celrock, a good friend of mine, found out a theory that I had no idea of. We both used supporting details, and we found out the most surprising things. Here is what she came up with – a theory that blew my mind! Please do not report this, I do not know where else to put this. Anyway, read it, people. Here is what we came up with.
I (Nairobi-Harper) said the following…
'But, considering when the twins' birthday was, March 31st according to the comic, Tommy would have most likely been born before the summer, or at least in early summer, in either of these months...
April
May
June
Although, using this contradiction, I would mark his birthdate as April. I'm still going to say that it's March in my fic, though.'
Although now that we have talked more, I have decided that I am going to say that it is _. His birthday cannot be in March because a comic reveals that the twins were born on March 31st, and they are older than him.
celrock (my good bud) said the following…
'Interesting theory! I will agree that perhaps Tommy was born in late spring, early summer, as when you watch the first season, much of the episodes seem to take place in spring and summer, with Candy Bar Creep Show and Touchdown Tommy, obviously taking place in the fall, after Football season has started. And of course, it was a 4th. of July barbecue in Barbecue Story, which was the 2nd. episode of Rugrats, post Tommy's First Birthday. As for Dil's birth though, I would say he was born more like in the fall, maybe when Tommy is about one and a half, or slightly older. Let me tell you how I derive at this altered thinking. First of all, I've been watching my nephew Zack develop since birth up to his current age of 15 months, and I've watched Rugrats for over 21 years, but I've also been rewatching much of the series while watching Zack develop, and if you pay close attention in the series, in season 1, Tommy is still very much crawling, with some walking thrown in. While watching Zack develop in real life, I'd have to say that season 1 of Rugrats takes place during Tommy's first month as a one-year-old, as I noticed how Tommy moved in that season, was very much how Zack moved around between his first birthday, which fell on 10/10/14, and sometime post Thanksgiving of 2014, which fell on 11/27/14. Then, we cut to seasons 2 through 6, and I say this as Dil started appearing on the series come season 6. If you pay close attention, during seasons 2, 3, 4 and 5, Tommy develops more physically, doing less crawling and more or less, walking everywhere he goes, unless he's riding in a stroller by the time Dil is born in The Rugrats Movie. Also we have to keep in mind, that we've had one set of holidays pass by by the time Dil is born, as we see them celebrate 4th. of July in Barbecue Story, Halloween in Candy Bar Creep Show, Christmas in The Santa Experience, Passover in A Rugrats Passover, Chanukah in A Rugrats Chanukah, and Thanksgiving in A Rugrats Thanksgiving. Now, we don't see a Valentine's Day special hit until after Dil is on the series, in the episode, Be My Valentine, Parts 1 and 2, which aired during season 6, post The Rugrats Movie and Dil's birth, and another 4th. of July special, in Discover America, which happened after Dil came on the series. Also, before they go to Paris, it's fall, as depicted in the 3 part mini series special, Acorn Nuts and Diapeyed Butts, and post Kimi joining the gang, we see three more holidays celebrated, which equal the first ones for Dil. They are, Halloween in Curse of the Weirwolf, Christmas in Babies in Toyland, and Easter in Bow Wow Wedding Vals. So, here's my rethinking of things, to the best of my ability, however, for some reason, the producers didn't have all of the babies age by the end of the series, which in my opinion, I feel should have happened, for any of this to make sense. I mean really! For Tommy to celebrate 2 Halloweens and 2 Christmases and still only be a year old? It's just realistically, not possible. So, here's how it should have played out, to the best of my ability, if you include what episodes took place, and what characters were in what episodes. Also, keep in mind nobody celebrates Qwanza with Susie until Kimi is on the series, in A Rugrats Qwanza, and the gang didn't know Susie at the time of The Santa Experience, or if they did, she wasn't around for that episode. Of course, Meet the Carmichaels aired in season 2 after The Santa Experience, but keep in mind, no holiday specials really fell in chronological order, if they did, A Rugrats Thanksgiving and A Rugrats Chanukah would have aired before The Santa Experience. I wonder if anybody's ever actually figured out in theory, the actual order of the Rugrats episodes. Now, on with my thinking on the whole birthdate thing, if we try to look at this in terms of what holidays took place with what characters. And did you notice how we celebrate Angelica's birthday during season 3, yet, she's 3 for the entire series? Makes me wonder if in actuality, if that episode should have fallen close to Tommy's birthday. Perhaps she turned 3 before Tommy turned 1, but her party was scheduled for sometime later, I mean, we all know how workaholic her parents are, there's a chance this could have happened. Now, on to my thinking.
Tommy had to be born in May or June, to have him a year old for that 4th. of July in Barbecue Story. And according to Nickelodeon Magazine, Phil and Lil are 15 months when Tommy is 1, which means they're three-months-older than Tommy, so if Tommy was in actuality, born on say 6/11/90, that means Phil and Lil were born in March of 1990. If Chuckie was born in 1989, and I seem to recall in the AGU episode, RV Having Fun Yet, he stated how much older he was than Tommy, oy... now I can't remember what he said, grumbles, but if he's something like a year, 2 months, and 13 days, oh please, I hope I didn't screw that up, then he had to be born in April of 1989, if Tommy was born in June of 1990, ok, hold up, if Tommy was born on 6/11/91, and Chuckie is 1 year, 2 months, and 13 days older than him, then that puts him at being born on 3/29/89. And obviously, Angelica and Susie were born in 1988, not sure exactly what month, though we can safely say that Angelica was 3 and a half in the episode, Angelica Order's Out, which aired prior to Dil's existence, as Drew makes a comment stating that Angelica's birthday isn't for another 6 months in that episode.
Now, as mentioned earlier, we celebrate all holidays except Valentine's Day by the time Dil is born, and Tommy is 1 in the Passover episode, so it's quite possible that Tommy was born in March or April, which had the episodes aired in order of holiday, Passover would have aired before Barbecue Story, but that's a theory to figure out another day. But, if we go by this, then Dil had to be born possibly in early January of the next year, while Tommy was still one, getting closer to his second birthday, but making Dil alive for Valentine's Day in February.
Then, in terms of when the gang meets Kimi and Kira, it happened in either late September or early October, post Dil's birth, as the 3 part fall special takes place prior to going to Paris, and we celebrate a Valentine's Day and a 4th. of July with Dil, but not with Kimi. However, in Curse of the Weirwolf, we celebrate Halloween with Kimi, and in Babies in Toyland, it's Dil's first Christmas, and in Bow Wow Wedding Vals, it's Chaz and Kira's first Easter together.
So, by the time Kimi bursts on to the scene, and with her birthday happening sometime after Easter, she was obviously born in 1989, but after Chuckie. So if Tommy was born in March or April of 1990, and let's say Chuckie was born in January of 1989, let's say Kimi was born in May or June of 1989. However, in actuality, everybody except Dil should have aged by one year by the end of the series.
I hope I didn't confuse you too much there, and maybe together, we could sit down sometime, and figure out what order the episodes should have aired in in actuality, if that theory hasn't been figured out already, in terms of the calendar, and what was going on in different episodes, etc. If I should ever find that out, will be sure to let you know and share it with you.'
This was an excellent theory, although that is not my main point.
I (Nairobi-Harper) replied…
'Hmm... your theory is interesting as well and seems more fitting than _ was. I'll rewatch the RV Having Fun Yet episode, and I had a feeling that what happened right after Rugrats in Paris could help contradict Staredcraft's theory. And, yes, I think that we should try to figure that out together sometime.
And, let's keep in mind that Kimi turns 2 in one of the last episodes of Rugrats; perhaps, if we looked at a few episodes before that, then we could settle on her birthday. She turns two-years old in Season 9 of 'Kimi Takes the Cake.' If your theory is as fitting as I believe that it is, then Chuckie should be 2 1/2 by now and Tommy's second birthday would most likely be a bit after that. Also, if we look at how the weather looks outside (I'm assuming that it's not winter), in that episode, then perhaps we would be even closer to finding out her birthday. I was recently scrolling through Rugrats wiki, and I looked for the episode before 'Kimi Takes The Cake.' The episode before 'Kimi Takes the Cake,' is 'Fountain of Youth,' where it is clearly summer. I'm not sure if this is correct, although, this would mean that Kimi's birthday takes place in summer or early fall. Those are our only possibilities there, because it seems to be summer in 'Fountain of Youth,' which aired before the last episode of the series, 'Kimi Takes The Cake.' And you're right, even if Kimi was born a LOT later than Chuckie like I think she is, they still had to be born in the same year or else Kimi would have to be in sixth-grade with the others. In 'All Grown Up,' Kimi and Chuckie are clearly both in seventh-grade; to be in seventh-grade (at least where I live), Kimi would have to turn twelve BEFORE late November to be in a seventh-grade classroom. They're in the same class as seen in 'Memoirs of a Finster.' But considering the Rugrats' timeline, it's confusing - Tommy was born in either late spring or early summer, and if it's summer again in 'Kimi Takes The Cake' (when they are swimming and taking vacation, the typical summer day), then Tommy should be 2, shouldn't he? But, I guess they always meant for us to ignore that. Otherwise, I'm far too confused.
I know for one thing that Tommy's birthday is difficult to put an exact month on. It's clearly not in winter or fall, because to start - it snows in the Rugrats universe, and it wasn't snowing then. Second of all, how can it suddenly be fall and then summer (4th of July), in the next episode? That's impossible! It depends on the time between the first episode and the second episode; we see Tommy turn one in the first episode of Rugrats, and in the next episode, they are celebrating the 4th of July, as you mentioned. If not too much time passed between the first and second episode, I'd say that Tommy was born sometime in June or at least near the beginning of June. Unless two months managed to pass between those two episodes, we know that his birthday is in late spring or early summer. If you notice the background and go through the holidays in the series, you notice that late spring and early summer are the only possibilities, because he is one in July and I know that the series doesn't pass time THAT quickly. I am assuming that this would make his birth month June, because I've noticed that Rugrats never passes that much time between episodes. But, we could still agree that it's May. But the point is that the latest that his birthday could've taken place is June, because as I said before, he is clearly a year old in the episode about July 4th. So, I'm assuming that his birthday is in May or June, no later or earlier than those dates.
Thanks to a comic, we know that Phil and Lil were born in late March. You provided us another piece of information there, that Phil and Lil are 15 months when Tommy is 1. But, is he exactly one, you know, exactly 12 months? If not, that's the confusing thing. But, it could still be good enough info to get us closer to Tommy's birthday. Alright, so March+3 months=June. That'd be just about right, because they had a 4th of July episode after Tommy turns 1! So it seems that we've agreed that Tommy was born in early summer, June to be exact. But, then again, there's always a chance that they're 2 months older than him if the magazine didn't state whether or not Tommy was 12 months. For now, though, let's just say that the twins are March babies (which Nickelodeon confirmed themselves), Tommy is a summer baby, and Kimi was born in late summer or early fall.
Oh, BTW, to mention, we both seem to be just about right on Tommy's birthday. Notice that after the first episode, there seems to be a series of episode where it's summer up until 'Little Dude' where Tommy is taken to the school that Didi teaches at; for school to be going on at that time, it must be September, which is quite the coincidence, since that episode aired on September 8th of 1991. So, yeah, just to confirm it, Tommy HAD to be born in June. A few days before July 4th is too late, from what it seems. I'd say that Tommy is about twelve months and a few days old once 'The BBQ Story' airs. Or he could be thirteen months by then, but I'd say that he's twelve months and a few days just not to stir up any confusion.
There's no denying that the series has a screwed up timeline. 'Baseball' can't take place in fall, it'd have to take place in late summer. I'm basing this off the fact that we have 'Moose Country' not airing too long after this episode where it seems to still be summer - next we get a Halloween-like episode. So if 'Baseball' takes place in fall, it was VERY early fall. But if it takes place after 'Little Dude,' where it's September, then it'd have to be fall, right? This is so confusing.
Now let's skip all the way up to 'Angelica's Birthday,' when Angelica is turning three (or was it four?) Tommy is still one while Angelica is 3. However, if we say that her birthday her birthday took place in spring, then I have absolutely no idea where the rest of the timeline would fit in, because Dil isn't in that episode yet which means that he wasn't born! Tommy has obviously celebrated two holidays TWICE and still hasn't aged, which SERIOUSLY screws up our timeline.
But, what if a few of the episodes take place out of order? Let's think about that. In 'Little Dude' it'd have to be late August or early September for school to take place. It should be late summer by then. But skip an episode or few later and we see 'Baseball.' I'm not a big sports fan and I've never watched the sports, but, by the time that 'Baseball' rolls around, it should be fall. It feels to me like during that time, Thanksgiving should be coming soon. But that's not a big example. Here's my main example: Alright, so, we both now know that 'Fountain Youth' takes place before 'Kimi Takes The Cake,' where a character finally ages since 'Angelica's Birthday.' But here's the big problem about that. 'Fountain Youth' seems to take place in summer; let's just agree that it DOES Take place in summer, because it seems to. 'Kimi Takes The Cake,' airs after that, and there is no sign of it being summer anymore. In fact, it could just as well be spring or fall. And we've also agreed that Tommy's birthday most likely takes place in summer. Tommy would have to be 2 by then, and Kimi would have to be older than that!'
As for Dil's birthday, I agree that Tommy would have to be 1 1/2 by then. After 'The Rugrats Movie,' when Dil debuts on the screen, there is an episode where it's fall - it is even mentioned to be fall!'
celrock (the intelligent Rugrats fan out of the two of us) replied…
'Glad you like my thinking on this whole thing, and find mine makes a lot more sense than that one you found online. As for the whole birthday thing, I just realized a few things that I hadn't thought about earlier. For starters, during Dil's existance on the series post The Rugrats Movie, prior to Rugrats in Paris, we not only celebrate a Valentine's Day with him, and a 4th. of July with him, but you might recall in the episode, Planting Dil, it's the first day of spring, and yes, in Acorn Nuts in Diapied Butts, it's clearly fall in that episode. And that's the last episode that airs before they go to Paris. However, I rewatched that 3 part mini series special the other day on Amazon Prime, and just realized something. In part 3, when they're at the hospital, and grandpa Lou has broken his leg, Tommy mentions how at his birthday, he wished really hard for a Reptar. Now, I sit there and watch that going, wait a minute, at his birthday, he was more interested in eating Spike's dogfood than the party itself, and he doesn't even know of Reptar until the episode, At the Movies, the 3rd. episode to air during season 1, when he sees a commercial for the Reptar movie playing in theaters prior to going to his first movie, The Dummi Bears, a Land without Smiles, and then, as we know quite well from the episode, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil escape the theater to go find Reptar. So, it's obvious that Tommy had to have aged at some point between Dil's birth and Acorn Nuts and Diapied Buts. If he was born in June, then perhaps his 2nd. birthday was in June, prior to the airing of the Discover America episode in season 6, and if you notice, between seasons 6 through 9, don't all of the Rugrats except for Dil, seem a lot more developed physically? Don't they seem to be taking on more of the characteristics of 2-year-olds than 1-year-olds to an extent? Also, during the Rugrats in Paris movie, when the gang meets Kira at the karaoke bar, she mentions that Kimi is almost 2. If Rugrats in Paris took place prior to Halloween of that year, and Kimi has a birthday near the end of the series, it's quite possible that Kimi turned 2 sometime in there post coming to America, before Curse of the Weirwolf, and it's her 3rd. birthday in Kimi Takes the Cake. However, you may be thinking, nobody got potty trained during this time, and Chuckie only says one word to the grown ups in Rugrats in Paris, and doesn't speak more words come the end of the series, even though it's quite possible he's age 3 by the end of the series, unnoticed, as they want us to think they didn't age during the series, when I personaly think in acutlaity, they aged by a year by the end of the series. However, Tommy is bald the entire time, and Angelica can always speak rather fluently to the best of her abilities to the grown ups. First of all, let me start by saying, that some kids don't start getting hair till after they're 2. This was the case with my sister-in-law Cathy, who's my nephew Zack's mom, who was still bald on her 2nd. birthday, and didn't start growing hair till sometime when she was 2-years-old. Perhaps the same is true for Tommy too. And maybe after what everybody went through with potty training Chuckie at age 2 in the episode, Chuckie vs. The Potty, it's quite possible, that Betty and Kira decide to wait to potty train Phil, Lil, and Kimi, till they've turned 3, causing Kimi to actually turn 3 by the end of the series. Also, girls mature faster than boys, so it's quite possible, that Chuckie is even slow to mature as a toddler, causing him to not talk fully to the grown ups at a later time, while Angelica and Susie, could talk to the grown ups during the entire series. And also, most of the older boys that appear around the Rugrats in the series, like Deen in Angelica's in Love, Josh in New Kid in Town, Big Binky in He Saw, She Saw, and Timmy Mcnulty in The Olympics, Fugitive Tommy, and a Very Mcnulty Birthday, those kids had to be at least 4, if not 5-years-old, making them a bit more mature. Also, that brings me to another point. Timmy ages during the series in A Very Mcnulty Birthday which aired during season 5, and you might recall during the episode, Ransome of Cynthia in season 4, at the beginning of the episode, they're returning home from Susie's birthday party, as Didi asks how it went, and everybody brings home goody bags of candy from the party, which Angelica tries to get from the babies by tricking them into thinking Cynthia was kidnapped after not getting to keep her own candy. So obviously, everybody ages by one year by the end of the series, they just don't make a big deal about it, as you might also recall Angelica starts preschool, which most people start at age 3, prior to turning age 4. She went for a trial run which is obvious in the episode, Educating Angelica in season 4, and then, she officially starts preschool in the 22 minute special, Preschool Days, which airs during season 8. You also might recall she was in preschool, along with Susie and Harold in the episodes, Hello Dilly and Angelica's Assistant, which also both aired during season 8. So, everybody had to age by one year by the end of the series, but the producers kept this more or less discrete, as they already had so much other stuff going on, I guess celebrating birthdays again was just, not at the top of their list. Seems kind of dumb in my opinion, and if I should ever redo the Rugrats series in some alternate universe, where maybe I'm an extra Rugrat character, you bet ya the episodes would play out in the order they would have hit on the calendar, not in the order they played out during the series, and, in my version, everybody would develop more fully by season 9, which would including celebrating the 3rd. birthday of Chuckie, and the 2nd. birthdays of Tommy, Phil and Lil. And also, Dil would develop more so during my version, being more or like 6 or 7 months, if not 8 or 9 months of age by the end of the series, rather than being 3-months-old the entire time, and I only know he was depicted as being 3-months-old, via what Steve Mindakowski says on his website, the unofficial Rugrats website.
So, what do you think? Interesting? And, does it seem to make sense? Also, what do you think about one of us possibly rewriting the entire Rugrats series as a fan fic story, but putting the episodes in chronological order according to how they would have fallen on the calendar, not exactly how they fell during the series, since we already know a lot of things happened out of order to begin with?'
That's the interesting part!
Overall, here is what we came up with as for birthdays.
Tommy's birthday is in June. In the episode that aired after his birthday, it is the fourth of July, which means that he would have to be at least thirteen months old or twelve and ten or twenty-something days by then. He turns two before 'Acorn Nuts and Diapey Butts,' most likely a few months before that episode aired. Where is our proof? He says that he spent his last birthday "wishing real hard for Reptar." Keep in mind that he had no idea who Reptar was until "Going to the Movies." He could not have been talking about his first birthday, he was talking about his second, which would have to have been a few months before this episode.
Chuckie's birthday is sometime in Spring. In an 'All Grown Up,' episode, Chuckie states exactly how many months older he is than Tommy. Even though celrock and I forgot which episode that is (well, actually, we did not, I could simply not find proof), we are assuming that he said that he is a year and two months older. We know that Tommy is a June baby, so if you subtract two months from June, you end up with April. Chuckie was most likely born in April.
Kimi's birthday takes place in either late summer or early fall. How do we have proof of this? In the episode before her birthday, it is obviously summer – watch that episode, 'Fountain Youth,' and you will understand that it is summer by then. For these episodes to be in order, depending on when in summer 'Fountain Youth,' took place, Kimi was born in either late summer or early fall. She was not turning 2, she was turning 3, because we see summer in season 1, and in season 9 (when this episode airs), they have another summer. That would mean that all of the characters have aged by a year by the time that 'Acorn Nuts and Diapey Butts' rolled around. Do not tell me about Rugrats' screwed up timeline, that is not what we are talking about.
Phil and Lil's birthday was confirmed to take place on March 31st in a Rugrats comic, which is also another way that celrock and I found out when Tommy's birthday is. celrock told me herself that she read a Rugrats magazine where it reveals that the twins are 15 months – if Tommy were 12 months at the time, add 3 months to March, and you get June, confirming that Tommy was born sometime in June.
Angelica's birthday probably took place in Spring – let's say maybe late February or sometime in March. How would we know that her birthday took place in Spring, most likely early Spring? Pay attention to where the party is at. She has the party inside, which means that it is most likely to have a party outside. There are no signs of snow or rain, so there is a good chance that her birthday takes place in early Spring – which we will list as March. Now, let us continue with the list.
Timmy's birthday does not take place in summer. I am assuming that it takes place in fall, although it could just as easily take place in winter. I might need to talk to celrock about this.
We do not know enough information about Harold to determine his birthday. Please contact me if you have any information as to when Harold was born; he never had a mentioned birthday or a party. All we know is that he is younger than Angelica although her age.
Dil's birthday is most likely in summer.
Susie is younger than Angelica according to the 'All Grown Up' episode 'Lucky 13'. If Angelica was born in March, let's say that she was born in April or May.
Kudos to celrock for this theory, and I apologize for not writing it on a forum, I could not find a forum that would accept this. Anyway, think about it and you will soon realize that we are correct. celrock came up with the main idea as we discussed when we think their birthdays take place, and she came up with some of the supporting details and information. Here are the supporting details and information that I came up with –
The twins were born on March 31st according to a Rugrats comic.
Tommy would have to be 2 by the time that 'Kimi Takes the Cake' aired if we consider that he was born in June.
The episode that aired before 'Kimi Takes The Cake,' which was 'Fountain of Youth,' took place in the summer, so it is safe to assume that Kimi's birthday is in late summer or early fall.
Angelica turns 13 before Susie and Harold do – she is older than them.
Angelica says that she is 4 at least once in the series – in the episode with that boy Dean, I think.
We know that Tommy was born in summer because an episode where it is the fourth of July is the second episode of the series. If I am correct, Tommy would have to be born sometime in June for this to work.
Timmy's birthday cannot take place during summer because it cannot rain during summer – at least, it is odd to rain during summer, placing his birthday in either fall or spring.
Supporting Details and Information that celrock came up with
Tommy spent his first birthday trying to eat dog food, so when he said that he spent his birthday wishing for Reptar, that was impossible unless he is a Time Lord. Also, he did not find out about Reptar until a few episodes after his first birthday. This could only mean that Tommy and the gang aged between 'Rugrats the Movie' and 'Acorn Nuts and Diapey Butts.'
She helped me support that Susie was born in spring.
She basically came up with the full theory.
She also came up with at least seven more reasons. I would give her most of the credit, as she came up with a lot of the ideas.
Anyway, take time to think about the theory, please!