Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends/Headscratchers

• Why are there so few fictional friends? We see one, but very few works of fiction seem to produce friends. I could easily see a kid with a bullying problem create Darth Vader to get revenge or a Whedonite creating River.
  • Because the animators would have to pay royalties to use the likenesses of celebrities and/or fictional characters that they do not own the rights to. They were able to use Mojo Jojo as a one-scene gag because Cartoon Network owns the rights to the character and FHFIM is a Cartoon Network produced show. If they wanted to use Darth Vader, they would have to pay George Lucas the rights to use the character's likeness. Sure, they could create an Expy for the characters, but, they'd have to make sure not to make them look too much like the original or else they'd be sued for infringement.
• Are Imaginary Friends seen as citizens under the law? Can they get paid jobs? Can they marry each other or even humans? Most of them to be on their own or living in a foster home, but can't they at least rent an apartment?
  • Hmm... Complicated question. In Foster's Goes to Europe Or do they?! It is shown, that the Imaginary Friends need passports and tickets to travel per airplane and are therefor not seen as pets. However, it is often mentioned that the Friend's kids are their "owners", which sound more like they were pets or even slaves (which is definitely not the case). It's pretty hard to tell... But, if Wild Mass Guessing is right, there's no need to explain this inconsistencies anyway.
  • Herriman was a bagger at a grocery once, so getting a job is definitely possible. A successful job might be another story...
  • Coco gets and leaves several jobs in rapid fire, apparently getting full payload each time. One of the job is as security guard, implying that Imaginary Friends can have jobs of responsibility, or that Rule of Cool rules.
    • This troper always assumed the Fosters-verse was similar to Neopets'.
    • I think this is more a matter of individual opinion. Each person has their own view. At first a friend lives with the family of their creator, who is viewed, more or less as a surrogate parent. Then when the child is deemed too old, the friend is expected to go out and make a living of their own. The fact that friends have little or no preparation for this doesn't usually cross people's minds. And Mac's teacher even casually tossed a couple of friends in a schoolroom closet, as though they were confiscated toys.
• If everyone with imagination can create an imaginary friend, what happens if an Imaginary Friend tries to create an Imaginary Friend? Bloo has been shown to be at least as creative as Mac. I mean, how he turned the story about "Mac, I broke your Nintendo DS" into this awesome Her Codename Was Mary Sue Fan Fiction was just.... Awesome!
  • I could accept something like "an imaginary friends imagination is acctually that of their creator"
• Has any kid ever tried to "correct" a Imaginary Friend, by imagining them different from before? What would happen if they did? I mean, think about it. Mac could de-jerkizise Bloo, Madam Foster could make Mr. Harriman at least a little bit less stiff, heck, Wilt could even regain his lost arm!
  • Think about this carefully, with an eye towards Fridge Horror. "Quit being such a dick, Bloo, or I'll make you be nice."
  • Well given the most likely reason (IMO) Bloo is a jerk (Kid blames his imaginary friend for problems he causes) I would guess that would be hard for Bloo, a major point of his existence.
  • It would probably just make another Imaginary Friend who was identical except for the changed attribute, like when Goo was imagining all those different rehashes of Bloo.
    • My guess is that an Imaginary Friend's creator can change it as long as it is "his" Imaginary Friend. It's similar to growing or evolving. The moment a child breaks the bond with the Imaginary Friend, he can't change it any more.

If a kid tried to that, he would just make an alternate version of the friend. Goo did that in her debut episode, creating a series of Bloo clones, each one a different person.

• Didn't Frankie ever have any imaginary friends herself?
  • It's possible that growing up in an environment where there were already so many imaginary friends meant that creating one of her own was unnecessary.
• What happens to sexual fantasies?
  • Presumably by the time you get old enough to have them your mind can't focus enough to create a living being. At least it seems that imaginary friends are mostly made by children.
    • Teens can make imaginary friends. Teens can have sexual fantasies. Ergo, teens can make sexual imaginary friends.
      • They probably could, but their parents would kill them.
  • Lies, those horrible monsters in the house didn't come from nowhere. They came from Japan. Imaginary friends shouldn't need tentacles.
  • There was a comic story where a boy was forced by his parents to give up his imaginary friend, a brainless double of Frankie. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what he was using her for.
  • Care to provide a link to said story? Just curious.
  • Actually, it was a comic. It appeared in one of the Cartoon Network comics. And judging by how the imaginary Frankie acted, I can assume the boy who made her wanted mainly someone to do his chores and play with him.
    • One, it's already been pointed out that it was from a comic. And two, both the boy's and his parents' reactions seem to suggest that he created Imaginary Frankie because he wanted a girlfriend. After all, his parents think he's "too young" for this particular Imaginary Friend, and they look as if they're disgusted by the whole situation.
• With all the times Mac ends up in jail with the rest of the gang at the end of a few episodes (Cheese-A-Go-Go for example), you'd think his mother, overworked or not, would've been notified?
  • Who do you think bails him out?
    • Madame Foster?
    • Frankie?
• In the episode where the cast is going to Europe and Madam Foster stole Mac's airplane tickets, why didn't Coco just pop out an egg with more tickets in them? She did it maybe three times before in the same episode!
  • Coco doesn't take requests. The contents of her eggs are as random as she is.
    • Plus if you do that sort of thing too often, the airlines and the police would probably frown on it.
• In the episode where Mr. Herriman tries to overcome his carrot addiction, Bloo uses a wrecking ball to destroy a good chunk of the house so he can refuse to eat dinner that night (the meal in question was simply called "it," and Bloo found it disgusting). However, he actually helped Herriman, who says to Bloo that he "is eternally in his debt" as a result. So why didn't Bloo just ask to be excused from dinner? (apologies if that came out too wordy)
  • Rule of Funny?
    • Bloo misses the point pretty often, so he didn't think of that possibility.

• Can it be possible to create an imaginary friend that's completely indestructible. What stops any enfant terrible from creating an atomic bomb imaginary friend or a plague imaginary friend. What happens then?
  • Let us not forget World, from Destination Imagination. Who, at least in his own toybox world, essentially wielded god-like powers.
• Can a person create an imaginary friend capable of reproducing?

• In the show, people can create food imaginary friends. If this is true, then any starving person would instantly be able to feed himself by imagining that he had food.
  • Well, if you're starving, then it'd be hard to focus enough to create food.
  • Not to mention that since imaginary friends (regardless of their forms) are living beings. Think about that. You're eating a living, breathing being!
    • I always figured that an imaginary friend was sort of "part of" their creator, so to speak. So eating one would be more like the friend becoming one with their creator again, albeit in a messed up, almost cannibalistic way. And the way I just described it, it probably would do nothing to satisfy the stomach if it goes back to your mind.
  • In the episode where Terrence creates Red, just moments before that event, he says that its hungry and creates an slice of pizza (accidentally) who btw says that it would love him and stuff like that, just before he ates him

• In one episode, Goo managed to imagine two imaginary friends who looked like Mac and Bloo, but could speak Spanish (and the fake Mac had a long tongue). Would those imaginary friends be able to have the memories of the originals?
  • No, they weren't the same people, just lookalikes. One would assume they'd have their own personalities and memories.

• Wouldn't the constant imagining of friends overpopulate the Earth? Goo managed to overwhelm the entire mansion in only a few days with her over-imagination.
  • Maybe they've got a "Soylent Green is people" thing going on.
    • Well not every child is creative enough to create one of their own or perhaps just think it's less work to adopt.
• Can the people create imaginary friends who are non-sentient. So far we have had sentient fleas, doors, horses, puppies, and even mops and buckets.
  • Well, only one of the puppies was demonstrated as being able to talk. The rest were just pets, although with extraordinary abilities. Seriously, who imagines a dog with laser vision?
  • Are you kidding?!
    • Some kid with bullying problems and love for puppies and comics.
• Was anybody else bugged by Mac's reaction at the end of "The Bloo Superdude and the Great Creator Of Everything's Awesome Ceremony Of Fun"? I mean Bloo was clearly extremely ill, had absolutely no idea what was going on, and was hallucinating pretty severely. It seems unfair of Mac to get so angry at somebody for wrecking a party when they're in that state and have no idea they've done any of it. I mean Mac's supposed to be the nice one.
  • I like to think Mac was less angry about ruing the party and more angry about Bloo running around when he should have been resting, Besides, it's probably not the first time Bloo did something like. Sick or no sick a person's patience only goes so far.
• OK, I loved this show when it was on (anyone feel free to send me some DVDs for my birthday), but a couple of things about the premise have always bugged me...
  • One...so, any kid who dreams up an imaginary friend, it becomes real. But eventually, they outgrow them and they live at Foster's until someone adopts them. So, why would a kid ever need to adopt an existing imaginary friend when they could just imagine one that is more personally and specifically suited to their personality? Are some kids simply unable to imagine? Since the whole premise is a parallel to human adoption, does that mean that kids who are unable to imagine their own friend are somehow deficient -- the equivalence of impotent/infertile in humans? Or do parents just encourage their kids to adopt an imaginary friend out of some sort of moral/ethical motivation?
    • Easy: Some kids just aren't creative. Its easier for them to adopt a friend than try to create one when they don't have strong enough imaginations to make an imaginary friend.
  • Two...do imaginary friends age, and can they die? My gut impression is "no" to both questions. Sure, Mr. Herrimann is portrayed as an elderly rabbit, but Madame Foster may well have imagined him as older to begin with. If they never age or die, essentially when a kid creates one, he/she is creating an immortal being, who will be forced to go through endless cycles of abandonment and adoption. And if they are immortal, the planet would quickly be overrun with billions of them, not just the few dozen we see at Foster's.
    • I thought that if the creator of the imaginary friend dies, the friend dies with them. The imaginary friend is just another facet of their personality...I think....
      • If that's the case, then what does that say about Mac?
        • The way I see it, Mac may have imaged Bloo to be somewhat of a jerk because deep down, he, like many people, wishes he could act that way. Why do you think characters like Greg House from House, Sue Sylvester from Glee, and Bender from Futurama are so popular? Because even nice people like Mac wish they could behave however they want.
      • I've always thought that the friend was an opposing personality of the child. Look at Mac and Bloo's contrasting personalities and Herriman and Madame Foster too. Or that kid whose imaginary kid kept destroying stuff and getting him in trouble, two opposing personalities.
    • Well, think about this...if that's true, say an imaginary friend gets adopted by a compatible, loving kid. Couple of weeks later, his original creator dies in an auto wreck. So, the imaginary friend "dies" (ceases to exist), too. That would suck big-time for the kid who adopted him!
    • Well, in one episode, a new imaginary friend states that his creator went 'up there' and points up. Of course he meant that he went to Canada, but Herriman and Frankie naturally thought he meant he died. Since they offered condolences instead of wondering why he still exists, I say it is safe to assume they do NOT disappear when their creator dies.
• The whole point of the series is that Imaginary friends can exist. Why then, couldn't the characters just imagine convenient friends to solve any problem they're dealing with?
  • It's obvious that some kids have thought of that, which is we have salon friends, imaginary mops and buckets, a walking television, an imaginary camcorder...
• How did Madame Foster manage to steal the tickets from Mac? When she hugs him, there is absolute silence (I turned my volume up to check).
  • She wouldn't be a very good pickpocket if everyone heard you stealing things, now would you?
• So, anybody can create an imaginary friend. What happens if a kid gets really into H.P. Lovecraft and creates Cthulhu? Wouldn't that be bad?
  • Presumably a child would not be able to fully perceive Cthulhu to imagine him, and create thusly a less powerful imaginary doppelganger.
    • Plus that's where the giant monster friends come from.
      • Or else some kid who's really into South Park just creates Mint Berry Crunch. Problem solved.
• How come Bloo is so mean to Mac all the time? Aren't they friends? And what did Mac do? He's so sweet.
  • Character Derailment could be the main culprit. Regardless, this troper often views Bloo as the opposite of Mac in many ways. Mac is (usually) a level headed kind kid, while Bloo is more of a careless trickster most of the time. Just my thoughts.
  • They're Vitriolic Best Buds.
• I remember reading on The Other Wiki about another season, or at least a movie. Was that just a rumor, since the series ended?
• If there are Imaginary Friends, are there any Boogeymen? You know, Monsters in the Closet/under the bed/etc? It seems that if a kid is so imaginative to create a friend, shouldn't they be just as imaginative to create something in the dark of the night?
  • Might explain some of the Xtremesaurs.
  • Possible a child has to imagine then will a creature to manifest. Which would minimize the existence of scary monster.
• Was the finale advertised? I never saw an ad for it, and I watch Cartoon Network all the time. I saw an ad for the 'Imagination special, but that's it.
• Could people like George Lucas, J. K. Rowling, or Alan Moore accidentally create Imaginary Friends from their creations? I mean, they are very creative...ish. Meaning, their might be a Darth Vader or Voldemort walking around killing people.
  • Or Jar-Jar Binks.
    • God have mercy on our souls...
  • They probably created them when they made stories or at least created "aktor" who played such a character. So in this world there are probably no guys in rubber suits and makeup or CGI characters.
    • In this world, Jar-Jar is actually a Shakespearean-trained actor with a British accent and a degree from Harvard, and has a Playboy bunny girlfriend.
  • Actually it's been said that when people reach adulthood the ability to create friends just sort of switches off.
• In "Seize the Day," Mac makes a compass from a magnet and a needle to figure out which way was north. It was stated that is was around 5 or 6 in the afternoon, so why couldn't he have just checked where the sun was? If he's smart and resourceful enough to jury-rig a compass, I'd figure that he knows that the sun sets in the west.
• In the episode "Duchess of Wails", Duchess gets adopted, but the family happens to live next door to Mac. Mac's mother grows tired of Duchess's obnoxiousness and declares they'll move if it doesn't stop. Terrence lies to Mac and tells him his mother already decided they're moving to Singapore, Malaysia and Mac believes him. Mac knows Terrence is nothing but a bully, so why does he automatically believe him rather than go to his mother for confirmation?
  • Have you ever had an older sibling? Even if you know they're the type to mess with you, you can still get scared by some of the things they say. Mac may be smart, but he's still a kid.
• So in the first episode, "House of Bloos", Duchess is showing her papers to a family looking to adopt, referring to herself as a "pedigree" imaginary friend. What exactly does that entail for the world of imaginary friends? Does it mean she was created by someone of high standing, like with a lot of money, power, or creativity? Or did she just make that up to look better?
  • Duchess probaby just has proof she was created by a child from a well to do family, with a long heritage. If a friend is created by a Rockafeller for example, they'd probably brag about it.