#pnf universe

[violetlunette]

So, this may be controversial but in the PnF universe, I think the Universe hates Candace the most. (Not taking into account MML as I haven’t been able to find a site to safely watch the whole series, and I ain’t paying 50$ for Disney Plus.)

(Edit: Okay, I may gotten the pricing wrong for disney plus as I was looking at the yearly option, but I digress.)

For those who may be unaware, Candace is a character in Phineas and Ferb who plays an antagonistic role as she is constantly trying to “bust” her brothers by showing her mom their inventions. Unfortunately, the “universe” (or the mysterious force, as Candace dubs it) will always make the inventions disappear at the very last moment. And usually in the most ridiculous ways possible such as it getting up and dancing away or having her eat or clean up the project herself (both times against her will). This has often led to Candace (and others) questioning her sanity and to her feeling emotionally depressed and defeated every day. Candace is quite literally the universe’s punching bag.

Now I’m people are going to argue and say, “Have you seen Doofenshmirtz’s backstory?” and yes, that is an excellent point. 

To recap Heinz Doofenshmirtz is the main villain of the series who fights with a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal of action, who happens to be the brother’s pet. Growing up he had a comically abusive childhood where he was bullied, his parents favored his brother and he was forced to stand as a Lawn Gnome every night. On top of that, he has a history of his love life going terribly wrong and gets his ass beat by a platypus daily. (Down, Perryshmirtz shippers.) Compared to the rest of the Phineas and Ferb cast it would seem that he and Candace are tied for having the worse luck, hell some would say he has worse luck than Candace.

However, I disagree as Heinz’s misfortune isn’t caused by random events like Candace’s. Everything bad that happened to him was a direct result of other people being jerks or caused by Heinz himself. (Minus his love life but we’ll get to that later.)

All of the humiliation of Heinz’s childhood was a result of his parents. The reason he was bullied to the point where his only friend was a balloon with a face on it was because his mother forced him to wear the dresses she made when she thought Roger was going to be a girl and because at night he was forced to stand watch as a lawn gnome by his father to protect the garden.

His failures with his inators are because Perry comes by and wrecks everything. 

Now it’s true that Candace had a loving childhood with a loving family and great friends. Yet I stand by the statement that the universe hates Candace the most in the PnF universe because the way Phineas and Ferb’s inventions vanish isn’t a result of anything she or anyone does. It’s a random act of fate. True, most of Phineas and Ferb’s vanish because of Heinz’s inators, however, he never intends to do. More often than not, he randomly bumps the button and it just so happens to hit Phineas and Ferb’s invention or Candace herself without any rhyme or reason.

Plus, there are times when Heinz wins and gets everything he wants without punishment.

The entire Across the 2D Dimension movie and the Quantum Boogaloo special show that Heinz could take over the Tristate area and get everything he wants. In the MML’s timeline, he becomes Professor Time, in The OWCA files he gets to become an agent and gets to work with Perry (something that appears to have always been his secret desire), and in Doof 101 (and Act your Age) timeline he becomes a teacher that allows him to bond with his daughter and is so happy that he has to make an inator to give him a midlife crisis.

With Candace, the best future she seems to get is a dull suburban life that’s a copy of her mother’s life. On top of that, despite appearing serene, one can argue that she’s not as content as she looks. It’s obvious she still holds deep resentments in her life as she immediately breaks out of her tranquil demeanor when she sees the past version of her brothers. If Candace was truly happy and had moved on, she wouldn’t have cared or reacted so strongly.

And whenever she gets her goals, it turns often out worse for her. In the Quantum Boogaloo special, Candace finally manages to bust her brothers and it results in a dystopian future, the loss of everything she loved and even her own name.

Even in other universes, Candace gets the short stick compared to Doofenshmirtz. In the 2nd Dimension Candace may be a rebel leader but it’s not until her brothers join the fight that they make any progress. Not only that, but they quickly begin to do better than her even though they literally just joined, and she had been fighting for much longer. It doesn’t help that by the end it seems that they’re better leaders than he.r Their actions led to them getting one up on Charlene and rescuing some of the agents, while Candace’s allowed Doofenshmirtz to escape.

In the Star Wars Universe, this Candace gets yanked pretty hard. Whether she was kidnapped or ran away to join the Empire, it is obvious she was brainwashed into believing their rhetoric. (Buford flat out states that orientation is brainwashing.) It’s hinted she grew up pretty lonely and is constantly disrespected by her superiors. Even though she does have serious talent, Candace is only allowed to do things like sock duty. But she puts up with it because she believes she’s doing her part. And in the end, she discovers that she’s been fighting for the bad guys and that she’s the villain. Doofenshmirtz isn’t much better here, but he can use the force and is recognized by the rebels to be enough of a threat to send one of their best agents to fight him, so at least he has some respect.

And here’s another thing that makes Candace’s pain feel less earned; she doesn’t do anything wrong.

Even though Heinz’s inventions vary on levels of danger they are usually used to humiliate, harm, or cause destruction. (Hell, some even kill.) The make-up-your-mind-inator is a good example of this as he was planning to use it on anyone that couldn’t make up their minds and destroy them. 

The reason varies but more often than not he’s doing something wrong, so you can argue his bad luck is karma. In the canon verse, Candace isn’t technically doing anything wrong. 

Yes, tattle-tailing is annoying as nobody likes a snitch but not only Phineas and Ferb are not only breaking the rules but they’re also placing themselves in danger. In the first episode, we see how reckless Phineas is in the first episode as he shows everyone how to use a seat belt as the coaster is climbing at a vertical angle up the tracks (and he doesn’t even put one on once he sits down). Another other example of this is with the Tower of Phineas which almost kills them. (And now is slowly killing everyone in the universe if it’s still doing that oxygen thing.)

Even when she’s not even trying to bust anyone, Candace is constantly yanked around by the universe. This is shown most clearly when she tries to get a Ducky Momo collectible;

It was something cute Candace wanted. She made deals for it, worked hard and no one would have been hurt if she got it it would have made everyone, even her, happy. Then when she is seconds from getting it, boom! The universe takes it at the last moment just to yank her chain.

A more prominent and remembered example is in “Candace Gets Busted” where she is pressured into having a party. She doesn’t even get to enjoy it as Candace spends the whole time keeping the house clean and protected. And even then, everyone is more interested in Phineas and Ferb. To top it all off, the universe gives Candace hope that it’ll let her get away with it like her brothers do all the time. Then at the last moment, for no reason, it sends the party back and gets her in trouble.

And the universe pulls that shit on her all the time. It gives her hope that she’ll reach her desires only to go “nope” at the last minute and ruin everything.

In the Temple of Juatchadoon, the Candace there isn’t even trying to get anyone in trouble; she just wants to report on Ohio and Rhode Island to share their adventures. If anything this would help the boys and make them more famous but because Candace is the one who wants to share their story, the universe goes out of its way to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The only thing where everything goes well for Candace--without Phineas and Ferb--is her relationship with Jeremy and Stacy. This is one of two things where Candace has better luck than Doofenshmirtz. (Though again on his part most of them are a result of incompatibility, him being rude, or karma. I don’t think any relationship was ruined because of a random act of fate. [Except with his date in evil love with whom I hope he gets together again.])

But even then, Stacy moves all the way to Uruguay in the future and with Candace’s luck, I find it very worrying that Jeremy is nowhere to be seen.

In conclusion;

While Heinz has had a sadder and harder life, the bad things that happen to him are usually a result of his actions or others. And even then, there are times when he succeeds and get what he wants. Heinz may have to work for it but we have seen several futures where he gets everything he wants and is happy (even when no one else is). On top of that in other universes, he usually has a position of power (however low it may seem), but not Candace.

In the best-case future scenario, Candace lives a reflection of her mom’s life where she still harbors past pain and resentments that are so strong that she was willing to put everything at stake to change the past. The fact that she’s willing to do this hints that she’s not as happy as she appears.

There’s also the fact that when she does get what she wants it usually comes with a heavier punishment. The biggest example is that whenever she busts her brothers, it ends with an apocalyptic future.

In other universes, Candace may get to show off her stuff more but she clearly isn’t happy and either finds herself in the wrong or quickly outshined.

And finally, there’s just how the universe likes to taunt her all the time. It waits until the very last minute to take away Phineas and Ferb’s inventions, or something she likes. (And in the most ridiculous ways too. Again, an invention literally just danced off one time.)

And there’s not even a reason for all of it; At least with Milo, we know it's because of Murphy’s Law. We can’t even say that her bad luck is because of the Phineas and Ferb effect because of the bad luck that happens away from Phineas and Ferb.

The only reason we have is the reason Candace always states; the universe is against her.

[cronchingsquips]

Can you draw Perry introducing Doof as his boyfriend to the flynn-fletchers? Please 🥺

They retire, perry’s been secret free for a while, now it’s boyfriend time

[tinyartistuko]

Don't ask, just me and my dumb Aus

I tried to make bill look similar to Phineas and Candace a bit to look like their father but still be Bill😭. I still don't if I fully like it or not.

(Phineas pointy nose and Candace long neck/head. I didn't want his head to be a triangle like Phin in his human form.)

[not-buffalo-marshmallow]

When Phineas Flynn said "summer belongs to you" and Candace Flynn said "it's me against the universe" and Milo Murphy said "it's my world and we're all living in it"

[cometcrystal]

"i'll admit my favorite memory was when you blew up all those aliens"

i can't remember if phineas was aware that that species of alien is able to grow their torsos back after exploding. did he know? or did he watch his sister fire tshirts at them, believing that she was mercilessly killing them all, and thought it was the coolest shit he had ever seen in his life? i'd believe that because he's kind of a little freak

[momphineasandferbmadeablog]

ten years after the events of the summer, a youtuber makes a three hour video essay called “What Happened to Phineas and the Ferbtones: Gitchee Gitchee Gone?”

[darkesttimelinesblog]

Four years ago…

[min0uet]

#1 thing i'm most afraid abt in the revival is the candace characterization actually bc we are in a paradox here

fact: candace's endless torment was part of the backbone of the show, one of the constants that kept the plot structure going. phineas and ferb must always do something new. candace and doofenshmirtz must always lose. any exceptions to these rules can't be permanent. status quo must be upheld.

fact: candace against the universe's character development seemed to finally be breaking this cycle. candace isn't alone anymore, she's letting go of her obsession to see the support that was always there for her and thus she's escaped her sisyphean cycle. to go back to the old status quo after this would be massively unsatisfying.

fact: the reboot is supposed to take place AFTER candace against the universe.

so what do we do now

[weeklycandacedrawings]

Rewatched CAtU this weekend. SSBD was probably conceptually the most threatening villain to appear in the series and an interesting foil to Candace. I just wish she actually got to be the main threat at the climax of the movie rather than immediately giving up and having her mind-control plant inexplicably become sentient instead.

[thedailyplatypics]

Perrypics in Candace Against the Universe (P1)

[misperceived-monotreme]

guys I think the universe is against her

we were ROBBED of the full song </3 I understand why they cut it but still 😔

bonuses :

[writergracethepanda]

Candace: I literally cannot believe I let you guys talk me into this.  Phineas: I literally said “I have an idea,” and you just went along with it without question. Buford: Yeah, it was very out of character for you.

[phineas-and-herb]

WIBTA if I sold the farm I started without my wife's say?

I (54M) recently emptied my wife (50F) and I's bank account to start a local bunny farm. I was very careful to get all the proper accommodations for the rabbits, build a proper hutch, tons of hay, and a huge sign to advertise our business. The last thing to do was get the rabbits, but this somehow slipped my mind. When my wife came home and saw the new farm, we didn't have any rabbits yet so naturally she exploded at me. I tried to protest that I didn't "forget" to get the rabbits, I was just gonna get them last, but she wouldn't let me speak. Suddenly, a rouge hot air balloon crashed right in front of my eyes onto our property and fell right on my wife (she was completely uninjured) but the hot air balloon basket was overflowing with rabbits. I told my wife she should apologize to me, and while she never did, she did seem a bit more accepting of the farm now that we were fully stocked with rabbits. But now I'm being offered a handsome sum of money for the farm, and I desperately want to take it. I figured since I'm the one who built and stocked the rabbit farm, that I can make this decision on my own. I even have a great idea of what to do with the money I'll make from selling the farm - I'm gonna start a van rental business, so even though we won't have the farm anymore, we'll still have a steady source of income. WIBTA if I sold my lucrative bunny farm to buy a van rental place?

[momphineasandferbmadeablog]

‘us against the universe’ scratches the same itch as ‘summer belongs to you’ just like slightly to the left

[masterdizzi]

The Latest Chibiverse episode was WILDD