After reading these 10 crazy video game fan theories, gamers will never look at games like Animal Crossing, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, and more the same again.

People like analyzing their favorite fictional universes in an attempt to discover hidden meanings left by the creators. This extends to virtually all forms of storytelling and art, with video games having their fair share of fan theories. We scoured the Internet for the best and craziest video game fan theories out there, and found 10 that are especially interesting.

These fan theories run the gamut from the reasonable to the absurd, but all are backed by at least a little bit of evidence. Since video game developers rarely comment on fan theories, we may never know if any of the the ones featured here are true or not, however, past fan theories, such as the one that stated Super Mario Bros. 3 is a stage play, have actually turned out to be correct. So who knows...maybe a few of these crazy fan theories are right on the money.

Please keep in mind that this article will have some spoilers!

Animal Crossing is About Kidnapping

On the surface, Animal Crossing appears to be a happy-go-lucky game about a human villager living with anthropomorphic animals that are really into decorating. However, according to one particular fan theory, Animal Crossing is really about a child being kidnapped and indoctrinated into a cult.

While each Animal Crossing game starts off differently, they usually involve the player character being transported to a town, sometimes by a character named Kapp'n. Kapp'n, by the way, is modeled after the Japanese mythological creature kappa, which is known for kidnapping children.

Once the player arrives in the village, they are immediately buried underneath a mountain of debt, forcing them to complete a series of mind-numbing and repetitive tasks in an effort to pay it off. Upon paying off their house payment, Tom Nook has it upgraded (with or without permission), which throws the player right back into the red. If that weren't enough, there are guards at the gates that prevent the player character from ever escaping the village, further driving home the idea that Animal Crossing is about a kidnapped child that has no hope of escape.

Bloodborne Has Players Drinking Menstrual Blood

Bloodborne is one of the bloodiest games that released in 2015, and considering its title, that makes perfect sense. Players even drink blood vials in the game to heal themselves. While the act of drinking blood is pretty gross, it's made even more disturbing if one particular fan theory is to be believed, which states that the blood consumed in Bloodborne is menstrual blood.

The theory stems from the fact that players receive some blood vials from women, with the exception of the elderly women in the game, who would be unable to produce menstrual blood due to menopause. One character that gives the player blood vials stops once she becomes pregnant, which could be further evidence in support of the menstrual blood theory.

The game itself features a number of additional references to menstruation. There is a boss named Mensis Brain, and an arena called The Nightmare of Mensis that players must conquer in order to earn one of the rare Blood Rocks. Mensis, of course, being awfully close to "menses", the Latin word for menstruation.

Final Fantasy 8 Kills Off Squall

What if Squall died at the end of the first disc of Final Fantasy 8, and the rest of the game is just a dream sequence that appears to be moving in real time, but is really just flashing before Squall's eyes? This theory is one of the more popular fan theories to hit the web, and for good reason. There's actually a decent amount of evidence in support of it.

At the end of the first disc, Squall is impaled during a boss fight against Edea, and then falls off a platform. He awakens in another area, but his wound has mysteriously disappeared. The way the rest of the game plays out is like a series of plot twists that rely on a lot of coincidence and convenience, almost like a dream.

And then at the end of the game, once the final boss has been defeated, Squall experiences even stranger sensations, with images of his friends becoming blurry and distorted as the final cut-scene rolls along. There's then a disturbing shot of Squall with no face, and we see a pure white feather float down to him.

It is at this point that Squall finally hits the ground after being impaled by Edea, and is dead. The tone of the scenes shift dramatically, and everyone in Squall's life is shown to be extremely happy and joyful, as though Squall has made it to the Final Fantasy 8 version of Heaven. Maybe a Final Fantasy 8 Remake in the vein of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake could help shed more light on this theory.

Kirby Visits Post-Apocalyptic Earth

This theory involving Nintendo's resident pink puff ball Kirby is downright eerie. It states that the Shiver Star planet in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is a future, post-apocalyptic version of Earth.

Shiver Star itself looks very similar to Earth, complete with a single moon in its orbit, but the difference is that it is covered completely in ice. While it could just be a random ice planet, the places Kirby visits while there further supports the idea that Shiver Star is Earth, such as a shopping mall and a factory. There are no humans to be found in these locations, just mindless patrolling robots, suggesting that humanity has been wiped out.

Pokemon's Red Kills Gary's Raticate

In the original Pokemon games, the player's rival, best known as Gary Oak, has a Rattata as part of his lineup. The Rattata then evolves into a Raticate, and players battle it aboard the S.S. Anne. Following this encounter, Gary isn't seen again until Lavender Town, the creepy village that is essentially one big graveyard for Pokemon. All of Gary's previous Pokemon are accounted for, but Raticate is nowhere to be seen, suggesting that it has died and Gary has traveled to Lavender Town to put it to rest.

Mass Effect Indoctrination Theory

The ending to Mass Effect 3 upset so many players that BioWare released an extended version of it. However, there are some players out there that believe the original ending to Mass Effect 3 was actually rather brilliant, and these people typically subscribe to the Mass Effect 3 Indoctrination Theory.

The theory points to various pieces of evidence, such as the fact that Commander Shepard is the only character in the game that ever sees the "Vancouver Boy" that appears at the end of the game, and that there are numerous instances wherein Shepard could have been indoctrinated like other characters have. It also points to the final moments of the game as representing Shepard's deteriorating mind, and the three choices at the end as the final step of Shepard's Reaper indoctrination.

Portal's Companion Cubes Contain People

In Portal, the weighted companion cube is a cute-looking object with a heart painted on it. Players everywhere fell in love with the cube, thanks to the manipulation by antagonist GLaDOS, which made incinerating it all the more heartbreaking. Being forced to destroy the companion cube was bad enough, but it could have much more sinister implications. What if there are people stuffed inside the cubes?

This theory is supported by the wall writings of "Ratman", who places pictures of companion cubes over photographs of his former colleagues, perhaps hinting that his colleagues are the ones trapped inside the cubes. Whether they're dead or alive inside the cubes is anyone's guess, but considering GLaDOS's warning not to listen to the cube if it talks, we're leaning towards the latter.

Silent Hill 2's Mary is in the Trunk of the Car the Whole Time

Silent Hill 2 is disturbing enough as it is with grotesque horrors like Pyramid Head roaming the streets, but a fan theory makes the game even more unsettling. According to the theory, protagonist James actually murdered his wife, and his psychotic personality is represented by the appearance of the fog-filled town of Silent Hill. The theory further states that the corpse of James's wife is stowed away in the trunk of his car, so in a twisted way, he fulfilled her wish of taking her back to Silent Hill.

This theory is also used to explain James's choice of words in one of the game's endings. While there are many different ways that Silent Hill 2 can conclude, one ending sees James commit suicide by driving his car into the lake. As he does this, he says that he and his wife can now be together forever. While some may interpret this as James just acknowledging his impending death and his assumed trip to the afterlife, subscribers to the theory assert that James chose this particular method of suicide as it would keep he and his wife's corpses together in a more literal sense.

Skyrim's Bug Jars Will Trigger the Apocalypse

Dragons, demons, alternate dimensions...there's a lot threatening the lives of the people living in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. However, the biggest threat could potentially come from some bug jars adorned with runes. There have been many different explanations as to the purpose of these mysterious jars, but the most popular theory is that the jars are part of a massive ritual meant to bring on the Elder Scrolls apocalypse. This one is a little too complicated to explain without writing an essay, but it involves dragon slaying, transmutation circles, and mass murder.

One of the permeating themes throughout The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is death. There are theories that state that the game is actually about Link coping with the loss of Navi, and that the events of the Majora's Mask represent the five stages of grief. Another, darker theory explores the idea that Link himself has died.

The theory retains the five stages of grief angle, while also adding some new bits that point to Link dying at the beginning of the game. The evidence for this theory points to the fact that many of the residents of Termina are identical to characters that Link encountered in Ocarina of Time, and that the name of the "Termina" land being close to the word "terminal." Considering the time-traveling, complicated Zelda timeline, this is a theory that is hard to judge one way or another, but it's an interesting way to look at the game nevertheless.

While some of the aforementioned video game fan theories may be more believable than others, all of them are thought-provoking, and should make gamers consider their favorite games in a new light. It would be neat if some developers commented on the truthfulness of some of these theories, but at the same time, them being mum on the subject helps keep the mystery alive.

What other video game fan theories have you stumbled upon on the web? Do you believe any of the fan theories we have listed here? Let us know your thoughts on these and other video game fan theories in the comments below.

Sources: Cracked, DorklyGamesTM, Squall's Dead, The Game Theorists