Blackadder/WMG

Blackadder

The S3 episodes are aired out of order and Ink and Incapability is the real finale.

As everyone knows, Blackadder's timeline/continuity leaves a lot to be desired. So there's no reason why they can't air the episodes out of order. In the beginning of the second episode of S3, George has just woken up from a nightmare involving being mistreated and then shot dead. At the end of the episode, Blackadder's novel has been destroyed and he's still just a butler who looks incredibly depressed. This makes his status both in the Christmas Carol and Blackadder goes Forth more plausible.

It is also of note that Pitt the Younger becomes Prime Minister in episode one and Pitt the Elder is Prime Minister in some latter episodes, the wrong way round.

• However, looking at the paintings and biography of the historical George IV, his personality and appearance resemble Blackadder more than they do Prince George. Therefore, it's possible that Blackadder became king as "George" and edited the historical records to take out all mentions of the real George.

The Blackadder lineage is actually descended from the original Baldrick.

In "The Queen of Spain's Beard", it is established that Blackadder is a virgin, and the episode in which he dies follows not long after. However, Baldrick sleeps with the Spanish Infanta while pretending to be Blackadder. If she had a child as a result of this encounter, it would be presumed to be Edmund's. Also note that the later Blackadders display much of the cunning that was missing from the original, and found in the original Baldrick.

• He did have sex with an old hag sometime after "The Queen of Spain's Beard". That explains all the future Baldricks.
• I'm pretty sure that in the ending credits song of "Head" in Series 2, there was a line "His great grandfather was a king. Although for only thirty seconds."
• "The Queen of Spain's Beard" is set in 1492, Edmund dies in 1498 - plenty of time to find a wench with whom to propagate (Rowan Atkinson's choice of words, in an interview promoting the second series in 1986).

Alternatively, the original Blackadder's son was raised by Baldrick.

Essentially the same as the above theory, except that Blackadder did manage to father a child (presumably with the Spanish Infanta, given that the Blackadders remained part of the nobility until at least Blackadder II) and this child was just influenced and taught (possibly even raised) by the original Baldrick. This would also apparently have been to the detriment of his own children.

The Blackadder lineage is Scottish.

Consider that Blackadder: Back & Forth shows us a Blackadder as a Roman centurion stationed at Hadrian's Wall. Presumably he is not killed by the Scots attacking the wall, but is taken prisoner and enslaved. Centuries later his descendant the Duke of Argyll has an affair with Queen Gertrude who ends up having Prince Edmund and introducing the line to England. Obviously part of the family (the MacAdders) stuck on in Scotland until at least the Regency...

The Blackadders after the original series are not descended from Prince Edmund but from his half brother.

See Blackadder=Scottish. Only, as has been pointed out, Edmund can't have had children. Plus, he is a total ninny. However the Scotsman who is his half brother seems pretty clued in. He might have another brother who assumes the Blackadder name as a political move. Thus the Duke of Argyle would look like Edmund (and the Scotsman we see takes after his mum.)

Baldrick and Percy were trying to murder Prince Edmund.

Why did they lay on an extra seventh goblet in 'The Black Seal'? They obviously didn't know that Edmund was a captive of the Black Seal.

The Baldricks hail from Nottingham.

Baldrick is descended from the Sheriff of Nottingham. This explains not only the family resemblance in both appearance and klutziness, but also the fact that the series ends with him building a time machine that they use to kill Robin Hood; of course, his plan backfires and Maid Marian ends up Queen of England, but the fact that the plan backfires just makes it more plausible.

Blackadder ties into Red Dwarf.

The revolutionary general Edmund and Baldrick were captured by was a ancestor of Arnold Rimmer (they're both played by Chris Barrie) and the tales of him palling around with Napoleon contributed to both his hero worship of Napoleon and his feelings of inferiority. Also Lister is part of a branch of the Baldrick family that exibits the general filthiness but initial intelligence of the clan.

Mad Prince Ludwig is an ancestor of Prince George.

Historical fact: King George I and his descendants were German, of the House of Hanover, to be specific. Ludwig is implied to be German. It is possible that he or one of his descendants married into what would be known as the House of Hanover.

• • This is strengthened by Hugh Laurie playing both characters, and Blackadder has a precedent for Identical Grandson.
  • And before anyone suggests that he was actually Spanish based on the Inquisition torture scenes: The Inquisition was all over the Holy Roman Empire (of which most of modern day Germany was part of).

The current generation of Blackadder is Ned Bigby.

"Ned" can be short for "Edmund", the family name could have been changed by the ancestor who fled emigrated to America, Ned is good at playing the system, and his general lack of Jerkass -ness could be explained by anything from self-awareness and personal effort, to the laid-back California lifestyle, or simply the idealism of youth (every other Blackadder we've seen has been at least 30), and going from the WWI British officer class in 1918 to being an apparently middle class kid in the American public school system in 2005-07 is about average for the long, slow Blackadder decline.

All of which means that somewhere in England there's a school with a Baldrick and a Percy who are missing their Blackadder...

• On a similar note, it is possible that Queenie from Blackadder II is an ancestor of Izzy from Total Drama Island. As my proof, consider that they are both crazy, childish redheads, and that Izzy could be short for Elizabeth.
  • Mmm, Izzy's probably related to Elizabeth through an illegitimate child Henry VIII had with someone or a cousin of Elizabeth's through the Tudor or the Boleyn line. Remember, Elizabeth was known as the Virgin Queen.
    • I know, but if you point out all the flaws in my theory, we'll be here all day. I do have a way to save this theory: Even if Elizabeth the 1st was known in OUR universe as a virgin, this is the Blackadder universe we're talking about. She could just execute anyone who knew she wasn't a virgin and blabbed about it. She's done so for much less.
      • Also, in that era "virgin" just meant "unmarried." That's the only way Elizabeth I qualified; the woman was the village bicycle.

Mr. Bean is part of the Blackadder Family.

Despite lacking the intelligence of other Blackadders he still can be a very crafty individual. This is supported by the fact that in an episode of the animated series of Mr. Bean a portrait of Blackadder II hangs in Buckingham Palace.

• Heh, a friend of mine referred to Mr. Bean as "Blackadder's retarded cousin."
• I thought Mr. Bean was an alien/supernatural being?
  • Probably because of his godlike entrance in the opening credits.
• Mr. Bean is indeed a member of the Blackadder lineage but the whole truth is a little more horrifying. His father was a Blackadder and his mother was a Baldrick. He retained most of his Father's looks with a few of his Mother's more dorky genes thrown in. He retained much of his paternal ancestors intellect and cunning but again it was muted by his mother's genes. He also picked up his mother's ancestors social awkwardness and their tendencies to make somewhat complex yet poorly conceived "cunning plans" This is why this version of Blackadder has no Baldrick, he is both. And Darling's decedent drives a blue car with three wheels.

Everyone survived going over the top in Blackadder goes Forth

The season end mentions that that episode is set in 1916, HOWEVER the Charlie Chaplin episode states at the end that the U.S. has just entered the war, an event that didn't happen untill 1917 therefore the Charlie Chaplin episode happened after and they all servived going over the top.

• • Same year does not equate to same month.
  • Actually, the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth takes place in 1917. Darling specifically mentions the year when they think there's a ceasefire.
  • "Everyone survived going over the top"? This could be the most unlikely theory on this wiki.
    • They survived of course! Just as they went over the top, Baldrick shouts his cunning plan, which is actually a real doozy. The whole gang escapes, giving Melchitt a bloody nose on their way out. Blackadder reasons that the war was pointless, and stupid, and has since been operating behind the wings to make sure world war 3 never occurs.
      • Why would he let World War 2 happen?
      • I think you're right about one thing. It's damn near a law of comedy that states that Baldrick's plan would have actually worked in that instance.
        • Here's one possible way they survived- they stripped off their clothes and claimed to be escaped German prisoners. George, given his German uncle, speaks the language like a native, and looks perfectly like an incompetent aristocratic officer. Blackadder and Darling used Obfuscating Stupidity and passed off any problems they had with the language as shell shock, and the same was assumed of Baldrick. Once they were taken back to the German trenches, they took the Germans hostage and radioed back to the British.
          • It's simple. They escaped the same way their ancestors got away from Witchsmeller Pursuivant.
• Well, everyone involved did go on to produce offspring in Blackadder Back and Forth (presumably legitimate, given they have the same last name) which suggests they may have survived. Maybe Darling did get to marry Doris after all...

Baldrick survived going over the top

He had the bullet with his name on it, so all of the others missed.

Inspector Fowler is a member of the Blackadder family

Ok so he is wet, but he is also reasonably crafty at times and has the Blackadder wit. Inspector Grim is decended from the Darling line, see his attitude to his superiors.

Edmund and Baldrick are constantly being reincarnated.

Each season tells key incidents in each of their lives, as if told from a past life regression. Thus we see their souls continue their development from season to season, with Baldick becoming progressively dumber and Blackadder becoming progressively more cynical after each misfortune which befalls him.

The Blackadder from Back and Forth went back in time and helped the Blackadder from season 1 overthrow the king and claim the throne.

And this is how he became king at the end of Back and Forth.

• Or, alternatively, he killed Prince Ludwig.
• He went back to the time of "Chains", bumped off Prince Ludwig, and arranged for Blackadder II to marry Elizabeth I. They had a son, thus founding the Royal House of Blackadder, still reigning in 1999.

Ebeneezer Blackadder is Captain Blackadder's father.

Blackadder Christmas Special must take place between 10/02/1840 and 14/12/1861, because Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are married. Blackadder Goes Forth ends in 1917, and cannot start any earlier than 28/07/1914. Captain Blackadder looks to be no more than 45, meaning he was probably not born any earlier than 1869. We know from the visions that Ebeneezer will have descendants, and if he becomes a big meanie in the aftermath of being visited by the spirit of Christmas, then he has at least eight years to amass a fortune and have a kid, and probably more. As for what sort of woman would be willing to marry him, money is a great aphrodisiac.

Presumably, Ebeneezer named his son after his Elizabethan and Georgian ancestors. As for what Captain Edmund is more sympathetic than the others, it may be a side-effect of Ebeneezer not being used to being a meanie.

Gregory House is a descendant of Prince George.

Fact: Before ascending to the throne, Prince George...well, he couldn't keep it in his pants. Only a few bastards were acknowledged, but there could have easily some not-acknowledged bastards out there, and they or a descendant of theirs could have emigrated to America. Eventually, one of the persons born to that illegitimate line was Gregory House, who happens to greatly resemble his ancestor, Prince George. The only reason no one picks up on this is because of Edmund taking George's place as Prince Regent.

Prince Edmund unknowingly fathered a child after the events of the first episode

This is just a matter of numbers, and thinking about how Lord Edmund Blackadder's grandfather could have been born. If Blackadder II is set in the 1560s when Lord Blackadder is about thirty, and taking into account the apparent age of his uncle Lord Nathaniel Whiteadder, it seems apparent that his grandfather would probably have had to have been born in the 1480s.

So, here's the theory: upon hearing the three witches who have mistaken him for Henry Tudor proclaim that he will one day be king, Prince Edmund rides away triumphantly and decides to celebrate: he gets incredibly drunk and has sex with a woman -- possibly a prostitute, or a peasant, or a peasant prostitute -- and only identifies himself by his new nom de guerre "The Black Adder". Nine months later this woman gives birth to a boy, and she gives him the surname "Blackadder".

Twelve or thirteen years later when the royal family is wiped out and Henry Tudor re-emerges to take the throne, she realises that her son is the bastard son of the late Prince Edmund -- perhaps she even meets the original Baldrick, who tells her about working for The Black Adder, and pieces it together from there. In order to keep the new claimant quiet, Henry VII gives the boy a lordship and has him raised in the court, and thus he becomes the first Lord Blackadder. He ends up marrying and having several children (at least three sons: Lord Edmund's father, Uncle Osric and Lord Whiteadder), and later grandchildren (including, of course, Lord Edmund).

Queen Elizabeth had at least two illegitimate children with Lord Edmund

This explains why the Blackadder line continues after Edmund dies unmarried- he's already fathered a child, and presumably sent him away to be raised by other people. We know he had to have been Blackadder III's ancestor since Ebenezer Blackadder saw them both as his ancestor.

The other child (possibly female) eventually led to Lady Elizabeth in Blackadder Back and Forth, who fits the crown perfectly. Elizabeth kept both children secret to preserve her supposed virginity. Queenie certainly doesn't seem the type to care about (or even remember) her offspring...

The Blackadder and Flasheart lines eventually mixed, the results being (in the far future...)

...CiaphasCain, a man with Captian Blackadder's views of war and Flasheart's flair for capturing the hearts of the soldiers.

The real moral of Blackadders Christmas Carol...

...was neither "spiritual rewards are the best" nor "bad guys have all the fun". The moral was in fact one of being sensible- don't let people walk all over you, but also don't act rude to everyone for no reason. This would have produced the best reward at the end, though both Blackadder and the Spirit missed it.

• The funny thing is that Ebenezer Blackadder is convinced to do a Face Heel Turn due to seeing selective scenes of his ancestors very much out of context. He never learned what gruesome ends they endured. In all likelihood his descendant will take over the universe (of COURSE!) but not too long after end up losing it all and dying horribly like all those before him. If only the Spirit had been less naive about what he showed the man and how he was obviously responding to it, another tragedy (or maybe a line of them!) could have been averted.

The Blackadders have some kind of genetic memory.

The first one was fairly dim and was taken advantage of by everybody as a result.

The second learned from this, and is a lot cleverer and he is mean to Percy and Baldrick because both of their ancestors were a Spanner in the Works to his ancestor.

Since the second one still failed, the third is much more ruthless and even evil.

It's hard to explain what happened to create Ebeneezer, since 3 seemingly won, but I'd assume that somehow 3 failed and the family stayed poor, but reached the middle class. Ebenezer was horrified by 3's behavior, and so he tried to be really good instead, but it didn't work- he was taken advantage of like 1, but when he turned evil, wasn't smart about it either.

Thus, the fourth is more balanced, having the snarkiness and cleverness of 2 and 3, but isn't nearly as nasty as either of them. We don't know whether 4 survived World War I or not, but the well-off and fairly likable time traveler Blackadder is likely his descendent, which shows some reward for 4's relative goodness.

• • Great now someone hijack this theory and see how we can relate it to Assassin's Creed
  • Ebeneezer could theoretically be Blackadder III's bastard son, so maybe he was discouraged that after all his father' cunning plans and evilness, Prince George was still remembered as a fat useless git, so he decided to try a completly different route and tried to be good.

Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII are a Blackadder and a George.

Wolsey is the Blackadder prevnting Henry (George) from causing mayhem, causing the country to go bankrupt, or getting them killed (for example Henry's constant want to invade France, and the few times he actually DID invade France).

• Very nearly canon actually. According to Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty Lord Blackadder's father actually was a Wolsey-like Cardinal Blackadder who among other things persuaded the increasingly senile and short sighted Henry VIII to marry Baldrick in a skirt (or 'Catherine Parr' as history ended up calling 'her'.)

The Blackadder lineage will continue onwards towards the Grim Dark Future where there is only war

Because no man gets out of a cycle of progressively worse lives that easily. Incedently, there is already a fanfiction that has a sequel in the works that demonstrates this theory.

The end of Blackadder the Third used to be different

Blackadder was killed in the duel and the Blackadder line continued through an illigtimate son, hence Captain Blackadder's reduced fortunes. The ending we saw was the revised timeline created by the Back and Forth Blackadder, who saw to it that his ancestor survived and became king, setting the scene for his own place on the throne. Edmund-pretending-to-be-the-prince eventually sent for said illigitimate son, not trusting anyone but a Blackadder as his heir and passing the boy off as his son from the rose bush. Blackadder Goes Forth still happened as we saw, but Captain Blackadder got more respect for being related to the king.

Most of the main characters are immortal.

Or at least extremely long-lived. Not only are Blackadder and Baldrick always present, but also George (and other Hugh Laurie characters), Percy/Darling, Melchett, Queen Elizabeth, and probably a couple others. They aren't Identical Grandchildren but are the same people. They just can't remember more than a few decades at a time with perhaps more vague memories of the distant past so they think they are the same as the rest of us. So Blackadder's reference to his father in II is really referring either to himself just decades prior, or to his real father but not remembering that he really lived hundreds or thousands of years in the past.

The stinger in the last episode of Blackadder II, "Chains," is not real

But, instead, is all a Dying Dream of Prince Ludwig's after Edmund impales him with a dagger. It's basically his life long wish fulfillment. Not only does he accomplish his goal of murdering the Queen and those closest to her in the court, but he has also created one of his best, and favorite, disguises.

• Man, I hope so.
  • I always stop watching when the credits roll, as it is just so needlessly depressing. And not much of a joke.

George from Blackadder Goes Forth used to attend the school in Family of Blood

"War is coming. In foreign fields, war of the whole wide world, with all your boys falling down in the mud. Do you think they will thank the man who taught them it was glorious?"

The time travelling Blackadder got his Elizebethan ancestor to marry the Queen

This explains why he became King Blackadder the Third- the first one still failed, the second one technically became a Prince, and the Regency and World War One incarnations became King.

• He brought her more Polos.
• Afraid not. Edmund I and Edmund II aka Edmund Ironside were real kings of England. Unless, of course, Blackadder managed to remove them from history.
• The two Anglo-Saxon Edmunds aren't counted in the English regnal numbering, which started fresh from 1066. Otherwise Edwards I to VIII would be called Edwards IV to XI. Edmund is a popular name in the Blackadder family, so it's not surprising there were two Edmunds in the Royal House of Blackadder before the 1999 one - it's just surprising there weren't more!

Black Adder really IS the Scarlet Pimpinel

Afterall, only the REAL scarlet pimpinell would criticize himself so thoroughly to throw everyone off the trail!

The Inbetweeners are descendants of Blackadder characters

Will is descended from Edmund, though his more cunning qualities are diluted. Neil is a descendant of Baldrick. Jay has his roots in Lord Flasheart (though, obviously, Flash's qualities are absent). Simon is harder to pin down, but displays some of George's haplessness when it comes to women.

Amy in Amy and Amiability and Nurse Mary are descended from Queen Elizabeth

After all, Amy seems to retain many of Queenie's cookoolander traits, and her casual attitude towards violence and Nurse Mary retains the soppyness-hiding-deviousness of Amy. And of course, this would eventually lead to the Elizabeth of Back and Forth

• Except those "Cookoolander Traits" were all just an act.
• Elizabeth was a pretty tough cookie underneath the fluffy bunny exterior too. This makes perfect sense.

After the events of Blackadder Goes Forth, (where they survive going over the top) Blackadder has a child, as does Baldrick. Those two children are Mr. Bean's parents.

Mr. Bean inherits his Grandfathers' features but not his personality. While Blackadder was the dignified manager of imbeciles, crossing with the Baldrick bloodline caused Bean to have the mind of a child, he also comes up with a few cunning plans.

The Harry Potter movies are the Blackadder alumni association

Just take a look at how many actors/actresses from Blackadder moved on to the Harry Potter movies. Professor Slughorn, Professor Sprout, and Hagrid, to name a few were all previously in Blackadder.