The Magic School Bus and Captain Planet Theory

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About

The Magic School Bus and Captain Planet Theory refers to a popular fan theory and creepypasta-like lore which posits that the students from The Magic School Bus were kidnapped by Gaia, the spirit of the Earth as portrayed in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, who then proceeded to brainwash five of them to be the five members of the Planteers in a shared universe.

Origin

In early March 2012, Jamie Steinheimer uploaded the earliest known image macro to his Facebook page, shedding a new light on the apparent resemblance between the characters from the popular 90s educational cartoon series The Magic School Bus, namely Arnold, Dorothy, Carlos, Wanda and Tim, and the five members of Planeteers from another 90s educational TV cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Wheeler, Linka, Ma-Ti, Gi and Kwame.

Spread

On March 5th, 2012, sci-fi and futurist culture blog io9^[2] highlighted the image macro in an article titled "Captain Planet's Planeteers were secretly the kids from The Magic School Bus," which gave further boost to the foundation of the shared universe fan theory involving two different franchises. That same day, feminist geek culture blog The Mary Sue^[3] put forth a headcanon detailing a new lore about how the pupils of the Magic School Bus were abducted by Gaia, the protector of the Earth in Captain Planet series, and relocated to an island where they were trained to become the guardians of the planet in a survival-of-the-fittest setting.

Gaia pulled a Jacob (see: LOST), kidnapping a bunch of children and relocating them to an island where she brainwashed them into thinking they were in “school” and she was their teacher, Miss Frizzle. In reality this was an indoctrination camp where she created the perfect pollution fighters by instilling a love of science and ecology into them at a young age.

Not all the kids made the cut. Phoebe resisted the brainwashing, unable to forget her previous life and constantly making references to her “old school.” It was a pathetic cry for help, and an attempt to hold onto her lest shred of sanity. Ralphie fell under Janet’s spell and the two escaped the island, only to be driven mad by their memories. Eventually, they turned to a life of crime becoming Hoggish Greedly and Dr. Blight respectively. The mysterious time-dialating effects of Gaia’s island accounts for their discrepancies in age. Keesha’s current whereabouts are unknown.

When her “class” had matured sufficiently, Frizzle/Gaia wiped their memories and sent them out as an eco-friendly sleeper cell until she had need of them. Years later, she gave them the power rings, and sent them off on an ecologically toyetic series of adventures.

Also on March 5th, Tumblr^[11] user AmberlySays posted the same image macro to her personal blog, where it garnered almost 500 notes over the next five years. On March 22nd, IGN forum^[7] member Chucks_Steelers407 submitted the image macro in a thread titled "OMG Magic School Bus kids = Captain Planet kids." In the following months, Steinheimer's side-by-side comparison entered widespread circulation on Tumblr. On August 13th, Redditor RageAgainstTheRobots submitted the image macro in a /r/FanTheories^[4] post titled "Ms. Frizzle's students from Magic School Bus are Captain Planet's Planeteers."

On July 7th, 2014, Fan Theories Wiki^[9] member AustinDR created an entry for the "Magic School Bus/Captain Planet Shared Universe Theory," explaining the crossover fan theory in details, along with a summary of fans' arguments against and for the case. On August 17th, Thought Catalog^[8] highlighted the Magic School Bus-Captain Planet shared universe theory in a listicle titled "10 Mind-Blowing, Bizarre 90s Cartoon Theories."

On May 2nd, 2015, Instagram account^[5] Horrorstories.ugh reblogged a slightly modified version of the original image macro, featuring a quote from the storyline as featured in The Mary Sue article.