The Rocky Horror Picture Show/Headscratchers

What is so damn important about Brad and Janet?
It's almost explicit that Frank and company caused their blowout to trap them there. No reason, implicit or explicit, is ever given for this. In fact, Riff-Raff, who was almost certainly involved, seems downright irritated by their presence. Why the hell did they lure them in there?
 * Obviously because they're innocents - who doesn't love corrupting the innocent?
 * 'Cause Dr. Frankenfurter was horny and fed up with waiting for Rocky, so he decided he needed some company. And who better than a couple that was just engaged, at least one of them bisexual(In denial?)?
 * This is Rocky Horror we're talking about. It goes better if you don't even try to make sense of it.
 * It was all Frank's idea, and he did it for the lulz. What livens up a party more than getting a couple squares to revolutionize their perceptions of sexuality? Frank probably forced Riff Raff to get Brad and Janet there, and Riff Raff's annoyance about this is one of many contributing factors towards his rebellion against Frank.
 * Er, this troper has never seen reason to believe Riff Raff, Frank N Furter, or anyone at the castle, had anything to do with Brad & Janet's car breaking down. Of course, she's only seen the movie, and not the play... so...
 * "Well...how 'bout that." The look he gives the camera says it all.
 * There's also the way he knew the problem was a flat tire before they told him.
 * Seeing as we never really get to know much about how Transylvanians think, it might just be that they're doing what is considered 'culturally polite', although, it seems Riff Raff and Magenta disagree by the end... so, maybe, it's Frank's twisted take on societal norms?
 * Uh, but, Brad has to back up to cause the tire damage, are we also now suggesting that Frank, and Riff Raff are precognitive?
 * The road was blocked, which is why Brad had to back up. Hence, you only need to add the roadblock to the plan to make it work.
 * Maybe Frank wasn't after Brad and Janet specifically; he just leaves sharp things on the road (or has a Tire Exploder Ray) in order to get new playthings from time to time.
 * He wanted witnesses. I mean, it's hard enough for a person who isn't as self-absorbed and show-offy as him not to want as many people as possible to see him creating life. And on the side, he also thought they were both kinda hot and wanted to see what might come of it.
 * My opinion? He eventually wanted Rocky to be full-brained. Brad and Janet were just a repeat of the Eddie and Columbia incident, albeit it didn't work out right.
 * I don't think he'd want Rocky to be full-brained. If Rocky was full-brained, then he'd know of "[Franks'] plan", which is presumably to use Rocky as a living sex toy, and with the knowledge that his entire life is just to make love to a crazed alien transvestite and nothing more, I'm pretty Frank knew that Rocky'd get pissed. I think Frank just wanted some new partners to add to the gang of misfits, as I assume something very similar occured to Columbia and Eddie (Except on a motorbike, hehe).
 * Stage Rocky really IS aware of these things, though; he has much more personality and what seems like full awareness of his situation despite being "half-brained". So in that scenario, this theory could work.
 * It is quite possible that the minister of the wedding and his assistants knew what was going on between Brad and Janet and where they planned to go, and merely diverted them.
 * User:Mac Phisto read a fanfic where Ralph & Betty were the original targets (which is why they were at the wedding in-disguise), but after witnessing Brad proclaim his love for Janet, they changed their minds in wanting someone even more "innocent".
 * Right before they come to the road block that forces Brad to back up and blow out the tire, a motorcyclist (who is implied to be a Transylvanian,I think, since they all appeared to have arrived on motorcycle) comes whipping by them coming from the direction that is blocked off. Janet, as I recall, even wonders where the motorcyclist could have come from if the road was blocked off. Frank's castle was the only civilization for miles. It was a trap. Probably not for Brad and Janet in particular, and they may not have been the first victims of it.

Who is the dope Columbia loves?
She says "The only thing that gives me hope is my love for a certain dope." At that point, Eddy is dead, she's no longer a Franky fan, and she never really seemed to have a thing for Rocky, so who is she talking about? "Audience: What's your favorite color?
 * Maybe Magenta? They seem to have something going on between them during Touch-A Touch-A Touch Me. Or maybe by dope she means drugs.
 * I always thought the dope was Frank, in an "I want to hate you, but I can't" kind of way.
 * I think it mentions in the Fridge Horror entry for this that they were controlled by Frank for this particular song. So, I think that "But it was over when he had the plan/To start working on a muscle man" is Columbia almost breaking this control, then "Now the only thing that gives me hope/Is my love of a certain dope" is Frank gaining control again and making her flatter him.
 * She's referring to Eddie. Her lyrics in Rose Tint My World talk about how she was once Frank's devoted groupie/lover before he dumped her for Eddie and she ended up falling in love with Eddie...though she still was extremely devoted to Frank. Then, when Frank (well, mostly Riff Raff, but still) started working on Rocky, Frank tossed Eddie aside (literally, into the freezer...and stole half of his brain too) and Columbia started to realize that Eddie was the one that loved her and that she lost him to Frank who really didn't give that much of a damn about her either way. She's basically singing about how she viewed the world through "rose tinted glasses" (hence the title of the song) and now that the metaphorical glasses have shattered, all that's left of her optimism and joy is her love for Eddie.
 * Likewise, Rocky's verse is about how he cannot control his sexual urges, Brad's verse is about his insecurities about his newfound sexuality, and Janet's verse is about how Frank's seductive nature has taken control of her and caused her to embrace her lust.
 * It always seemed to me that she meant dope as in...dope. Weed. Marijuana. Her drugs are the only refuge she feels she has left to her in her depression. The idea of the "dope" being a person has never even occurred to me until I read this JBM.
 * Agreed, especially since, when the movie was made Colombian marijuana was considered some of the most potent. One of the audience lines was:

Frank: Magenta!

Audience: What's your favorite reefer?

Frank: Columbia!"


 * I always believed that she used a name (misspelled though it was) as an homage to the "certain dope" she loved.
 * In at least some versions of the play, Columbia is on drugs. Before I saw the movie, I was familiar with the soundtrack recorded by some theatre company that added in bits where she was obviously inhaling something, and instead of taking a level in badass by confronting Frank before being Medusa'd, she had a section where she just flailed around while high for a bit before presumably passing out. If you don't want to take that as canonical, you could always just interpret the line as a metaphor for being "addicted" to the decadent lifestyle she has in the castle.

Riff Raff's disappearing hump
Where did Riff Raff's hump go when he reverted to his native uniform? Was it fake the whole time he was dressed as a butler?
 * This troper assumed the hump was meant to be fake in cannon, as a part of the human "costume" he was wearing.
 * "What hump?"

Why is Shock Treatment considered an "unofficial" sequel?
It had some of the same characters (albeit played by different actors), some of the same actors (albeit playing different characters), the same writer, same director, and same studio
 * Honestly? Because it sucked. The story bore little resemblance to the original Rocky Horror, was very poorly received, and was significantly different from the sequel that was originally planned (involving Frank's mother coming to earth or taking a spaceship to the planet Transsexual).
 * Shock Treatment isn't considered a true sequel simply because the story has nothing to do with Rocky. That's it, plain and simple. And the story you're talking about is the plot of Revenge of the Old Queen, which would have been the third in the series, but never ended up being made.

Why do Brad and Janet never fight androids?
Well, if you use the term "android" loosely, I guess you could say Frank, Riff, and Magenta are androids because "andro" means man... since they're from a different planet and not technically human, I guess this could count as androids? Also, Rocky, since he was built and not born, is somewhat of an android himself, although he doesn't really fight Brad or Janet.
 * Perhaps Rocky is a Dragonball Z style android. And he fights with his penis.
 * I figured that the lyrics referred to two different sci-fi movies (androids fighting, Brad and Janet) thrown in with the other movie references.

Magenta's "Time Warp" verse
In the original play, she sings the whole verse by herself. Why does Riff get half her lines in the movie version? It's the same actors, so you would think they would keep it the same.
 * Well, Magenta's actor sings Science Fiction in the play version, but that's Richard O'Brien's voice in the film version, as well. Perhaps Richard O'Brien wanted to showcase his voice more, or someone involved in production wanted to tone down Magenta's role since she has the least plot influence of any character.

How do Eddie and Rocky manage to function properly with only half a brain?

 * It is possible to survive while missing large parts of ones brain, just with severely impaired functioning (depending on which part is missing.) I thought they actually made it pretty plausible to, since Rocky is capable of only basic functioning and has no personality where as Eddy seems to have just a personality (he seemed kind of like a singing, dancing zombie) but not even enough actual presence of mind to know where he is, what's going on around him or how to react to it...or maybe I read too much into Eddies one and only scene.
 * I'm fairly sure that it isn't literally half of a brain. Maybe Rocky got some movement, sexual, and very few language parts of the brain, while Eddie still kept most of it. I mean, most of the song "Hot Patootie" Eddie seems to just be miming what he used to do without really having any realization of what's going on, similar to Rocky in "Sword of Damocles".
 * A head isn't able to stay alive without a heart or lungs, and yet we have multiple old horror movies present us with that exact scenario of a talking, disembodied head. Hell, Frankenstein did it too by having a full-on brain transplant, despite the fact that the brain in question was pickled and had been deprived of oxygen for God knows how many years. Rocky Horror is an intentional send up of those old horror movie tropes which involved fantasy science with ridiculous notions like surviving with "half a brain."
 * A person can survive with half a brain, provided "half a brain" is only one of the two lobes. Of course, this works much better if the person is a child and not a grown man, but still...

The Clock Chimes Seven Times...
But the clock reads 6 o'clock!? (Just before the Time Warp starts.)
 * It's a time warp.

Why doesn't Brad just leave Dr. Scott in the dining room?
When Frank is chasing Janet (after striking her), instead of running to help her, he grabs Dr. Scott and starts pushing him. If he'd left him behind, I'm pretty sure he could have caught up and tackled Frank in a matter of seconds. Doesn't make much sense to me, other than the obvious reason: he's an asshole. "Janet: Brad, let's just leave.
 * Maybe he thought something terrible would happen to Dr. Scott if he was left there, so he wanted a chance to try and save them both. However, Dr. Scott is perfectly capable of moving around on his own, so at the very least Brad is an asshole for patronizing him.
 * I always thought it was foreshadowing Brad's emotional breakdown over his new-found bisexuality, specifically the "help me" line of Rose Tint My World. It felt like he was instinctively dependent on having his teacher and close friend near in such a high strung situation now that his world was shaken up. And he's an asshole, in the cares more about his feelings than another's kind of way, which had been showcased throughout the whole movie.

Brad: Now, Janet, let's just ask for a phone."

So...
Dr Frank-N-Furter is from a place where everypony is a transvestite?
 * Why he- *rereads* ...You're too much of a brony for your own good.