Cowboy Bebop/WMG

Cowboy Bebop is the afterlife.
Each of the main characters, and many of the secondary character like Vicious, have undergone near-death experiences. It could be that the 'verse of Cowboy Bebop is simply the afterlife. The reason Ed doesn't remember her death could be because whatever happened was too traumatic and she blocked it out.
 * The Afterlife is awesome.
 * I think its fairly obvious that Spike is Jesus in Purgatory, he's even apparently Jewish.

Cowboy Bebop is a history of the Firefly Universe.
The gate disaster would be what used Earth-That-Was up.
 * More like Firefly belongs to the Cowboy Bebop Universe...
 * Joss Whedon got the "naked woman in a box" idea from Outlaw Star and almost everything else from Bebop.
 * Needs citation.
 * I've confirmed it with the Ministry of It's Bloody Obvious.
 * I've denied it by triple checking with the Sincretic Ideas Committee (IE: many people can stumble across the same ideas on a regular basis in creative fields), the Society of Thematic Convergence and the Journal of Opinions Not Being facts. The fact that ALL they're Western-Themed Space stories involving fringe societal characters means there will be some overlap. This sort of overlap does not mean "He took this from X!" it means it's the nature of the genre. Besides, if he was lifting from anime, he'd have nine times as many Anime references in Buffy when, after almost a decade, there have been close to none.
 * But there's no obvious reason to make a Western-Themed Future half-Chinese, especially when, as XKCD pointed out, they didn't cast a single Asian in a major role. (To be fair, the series Starhunter was a vastly more blatant rip-off.) Overall Firefly's setting seems awfully thin compared to CB's, probably because CB's producers dedicated one of their staff to work out in advance just how all the details of its world fit together. Whedon went by the seat of his pants, and it shows.
 * Other than a logical extrapolation of the sheer population size, political power, and economic pull of China today, what more reason do you need?
 * Mmmm. Because pandering to political demographics is so Whedon's style. Accept it. Your neckbearded demigod wasn't exactly being original.

Cowboy Bebop is a history of the Dune Universe.
If the above is true, and if the wild mass guess for Firefly being a history of Dune is true, then this must be true too. (Don't you love logic?)
 * Jossed according to the Dune prequel books. Earth was deliberately devastated in order to wipe out the thinking machines there in the Duneverse.

Cowboy Bebop is the future of the Tour Of The Universe Universe.

 * TOTU took place in 2019, which would be about right for it to be the world as it was just before the gate explosion
 * The ship in Faye's flashback has almost the same appearance as the Canadian Interplanetary passenger craft
 * Gren and Vicious were comrades-in-arms on Titan, TOTU's "travel brochure" warns of a badly deteriorating political situation in the outer solar system
 * The Helix Catapult is virtually identical in its operation to the gate system. The visual effect is also the same, both from a distance and from the viewpoint of the transiting ship. One is an elongated spiral, the other a series of loops, but the change could chalked up as one of Chessmaster Hex's breakthroughs in gate design, or some sort of safety alteration in light of the gate explosion.
 * Isn't turning the CN Tower into a giant magnetic railgun exactly the sort of thing that the civilization in the Bebop universe would want to do?

Ed is the granddaughter (or some other descendant) of Kaolla Su from Love Hina.
Same skin-tone, same eccentricities, and both are brilliant at techie stuff, although one's a Playful Hacker and one's a Gadgeteer Genius.
 * The rays of the sun got unmerciful after the disaster. You only have two options: tan, or leave Earth.
 * That doesn't explain the rest.
 * Prosaic explanation: reading the Omake of the first tankobon of the Love Hina manga -- Ed isn't explicitly cited by Ken Akamatsu, but it is clear that he was inspired by her in creating Kaolla and gave more characteristics of the former to the latter over time.
 * Given that Su is the princess of a magical kingdom, this implies that Ed is also a magical princess, albeit likely a deposed one. Has she ever been planetside on the night of a crimson moon?
 * The moon is in pieces now, so it's probably physically impossible for her to have been. :P

Spike is Jewish.
He uses a Jericho 941, an Israeli-made handgun. He has a "Jewfro". And his last name is Spiegel. Sure, the creators said they picked the name because it sounded cool, and they based his appearance on Lupin III and Japanese actor Yusaku Matsuda. That doesn't mean he isn't Jewish.
 * Spike is explicitly described as "Oriental" at least once.
 * Isn't Spike canonically half generic Asian? Or is that just the sheer plausibility of a partially Jewish heritage creeping into my perception of canon?
 * Jews are Oriental from a Eurocentric perspective.
 * Come on, anyone REALLY think Spiegel was his real name?

Jet is a miser.
The main cast is so constantly broke that they are sometimes unable to buy food. But when large scale expenses crop up (like repair bills), they are never mentioned again in the series, even if the series couldn't continue without the bills being paid. Therefore, Jet must have access to a healthy amount of money that he refuses to dip into for minor things like food.
 * Given how the other team members mismanage their cash (especially Faye, who also "borrows" any cash she can grab and tends to make large "deposits" at racetracks), this makes perfect sense.
 * About half their income must go towards keeping them in cigarettes...

Spike
Apparently, the scene in the movie immediately after Spike gets fished out of the river (where he imagines Jet telling him that "he" almost killed Spike but didn't succeed). It's probable that this refers to Vincent, but it could be a flashback (or flashforward) to immediately after the final battle with Vicious.
 * Furthermore, given what other characters in the series have survived -- Faye apparently survived being on a space shuttle that suffered catastrophic structural failure, for example -- it's possible that 2071-era medical technology was advanced enough to keep Spike alive following that battle. It's also possible that the Red Dragon would have made a point of it, since losing Spike, Vicious, and the three old men would have left them completely without leadership.
 * If Spike was, in the time between killing Vicious and collapsing, the highest-ranking member of the syndicate, then one would would think it would behoove the underlings to save him if possible.
 * And then Ed and Ein come back and they stop Vincent!
 * Oh my God, that means "You're gonna carry that weight" makes sense! It refers to Spike carrying the weight of leading the syndicate, along with the grief due to all the death and possibly guilt for surviving when he may or may not have been intentionally looking to die.
 * Pretty much, it's basically a Godfather scenario for the sequels, he had the favor of any surviving "Old Guard" AND the "Young-guns" I.E. the Brothers were attached to him from his days leading the "Muscle" he's pretty much the best chance the Syndies have of staying together.
 * Also, before anyone mentions Word of God: Shinichiro Watanabe has stated that he himself doesn't know whether Spike is alive or dead. He also refuses to make up his mind because.
 * ^Does this mean Spike is a true Schrodingers Cat? O.o
 * Exactly!
 * All right then, nobody eat him!
 * A person can live a long, painful time with a stomach wound like Spike had (in the hours to days range) depending on their constitution, if they don't succumb to the shock and if they limit the blood loss (which Spike looks like he is doing in the end). It is extremely likely that, if he can survive a fall from a fucking church, this is peanuts for him (though he'll probably have to poop in a bag for a while...).
 * That depends on which exact anatomical structures were damaged. The result of a severe abdominal wound inflicted with an edged weapon can be anything from a long convalescence followed by a full recovery, to "hello Mr. Spiegel, say hello to your new best friend for the rest of your life, Mr. Colostomy Bag" to--if there was damage to the abdominal aorta or the inferior vena cava--death in a handful of minutes as the victim's entire blood volume basically falls out of him.
 * Watch it in slow motion. They show every one of Spike's wounds except the one that was supposed to have killed him.
 * We seem to be forgetting one very crucial hint: Laughing Bull's description of a falling star as the soul of a dying warrior being released. At the end of the final credits, one star falls. Just ONE. Given that Vicious is Spike's dark counterpart in near every way, it seems unlikely that he would not be considered a warrior as well; thus, either Spike died and Vicious lived, or vice versa. Given Watanabe's lightheartedness, along with the tone of the series itself, it seems far more likely that Spike would be that last man standing, rather than the insanely bleak possibility of Spike dying while Vicious lives.
 * Problem with that is that Vicious is less a character and more a force of nature (or evil). He doesn't have much of a personality, and what we do see of him is likely too monstrous to qualify as the traditional Japanese ideal of the "great warrior", given that he has no respect or regard for anything or anyone, including himself. The star going out has to have been Spike, who does fit the classic image of the warrior. It's more likely that Vicious' passing will have simply been unmarked, because at the end of the day, he's simply not worth the heaven's effort. Monsters don't count.
 * Furthermore, there's no indication of exactly when that star falls, in relation to the final battle. It could be that star did represent Vicious and a second star is going to fall in a few minutes, when Spike finishes bleeding to death... aww, I made myself sad...
 * Yes, but he's also a dark version of Spike. He may be a force of darkness, but he's one that reflects Spike. The star has to be him.
 * Laughing Bull's description of the falling star is in another episode, and the star is described "A pitiful soul" who couldn't find his way to heaven. If you could say that those words describe Spike, then believe what you want to believe. But if you can't, disregard this line of thinking.
 * Confirmed. The work wouldn't go for Precursor Heroes, and Generation Xerox is impossible. That doesn't stop the creator from answering "Will there be any more Cowboy Bebop?" with "Someday... maybe someday."

With Spike and Ed (and Ein) gone and Faye realizing that she has nowhere else to go, the two remaining residents of The Bebop take solace in each other. and make lots of teh babiez OMG!!
 * That would make perfect sense, except that

There is a character named Cowboy Bebop, and he's always at his computer.
However, he looks nothing like Ed and may not have appeared on-screen.
 * Correction! Cowboy Bebop is Ed! See, Ed/Cowboy Bebop was controlling everything the whole time! Just like that dog from Silent Hill 2! Those times when Cowboy Bebop seemed to away from his computer was, in fact, a holographic clone he created by looping the Circle of Life Chain Consciousness. And now let me tell you about how Spike's "death" brings Cowboy Bebop into existence...

Tomato, Ed's childhood friend from the manga, is Cowboy Bebop and is remotely manipulating all of the events in the series.
No, man! Tomato is Cowboy Bebop too! They're both Cowboy Bebop! See, it all began with the Cycling at the heart of the universe...
 * What if... I am one of the tomatoes...

Ed is a descendant of L from Death Note.
They're both highly eccentric geniuses who are among the best in their fields, and they both go barefoot.
 * Between this and the Kaolla Su entry, Ed has an interesting family tree.
 * You'd have to have an interesting family tree to get someone as interesting as Ed. That level of quirkiness has to be genetic.
 * Su grew up, hooked up with L, had a girl, and this girl had a kid with Orihime and Ichigo's son... You know how it ends.
 * Wammy's House was full of highly eccentric geniuses, and Ed could be descended from any of them.

Cowboy Bebop is the history past of Gun X Sword.
Yes, in addition to being part of the same 'Verse as Dune and Firefly. But! The world of Cowboy Bebop is the past of both! Cowboy Bebop comes after the exodus from Earth but before the Alliance rises to power. The Alliance eventually managed to bring even most of the Rim under its control, expanding its sphere of influence until it eventually formed the Imperium. The Imperium lasted until it split under the weight of the competing Houses, falling apart and eventually isolating planets and systems until each is essentially back to pre-Bebop circumstances, lacking interplanetary contact.

This means that Spike is Van's (and possibly Mal's) past incarnation, Faye is reborn as Carmen99, Vicious becomes Ray and Julia Shino, Lin can be Joshua, and Ed could be Wendy, with Ein becoming Kameo. Jet could somehow have become the Man With The Claw...

Vincent is Alan Moore
There is undoubtedly a moderate resemblance.

Vincent is V from V for Vendetta
Both wear similar clothing, are the results of experimental biology test that destroyed their minds, strike on holidays (Vincent on Halloween, V on Guy Fawkes Night,) and have names that begin with the letter V. By the end of their respective narratives, both allow themselves to be shot and killed by someone (Vincent by Electra, V by Eric Finch.) Both have a homicidal disrespect for law enforcement officers. Both kidnap a young woman with the intention of her being the start of a new world order (Vincent: by repopulating the planet in the wake of everyone dying except himself and Faye, and V: by having Evie take his place after he has toppled the powers that be.)

Ed is almost a hundred years old.
The same anti-aging process that affected Wen affected Ed many years ago. She's such a genius because she's had a lot of time to learn stuff. While Wen got creepy and spent time in research labs, Ed spent all those years watching post-gate-explosion society and its technology develop.

Her father is easily handwaved away because they're both insane. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that Applederry is someone Ed latched onto as a more benign version of what Wen did with the adults around him.

Ed is a direct homage to Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking.
Let's look at the similarities: Both are children forced into self-reliance due to absent or dead parents. Both do a good job at it because of their unique talent - hacking and super strength respectively. Both cheerfully ignore social norms and do their own thing. Both get along extremely well with animals. Both have a wild mop of red hair, albeit done in different styles. Both have ridiculously long full names - Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV vs. Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim's Daughter Longstocking. Both have absent fathers who are almost as eccentric as they are. Evidence enough?
 * Furthermore, a working name for Pippi Longstocking was- get this- "Indian Jazz", and she was always at her computer.

Spike literally sees the past in one eye and the present in the other.
Spike's cyborg eye isn't just a replacement eye. Perhaps it's impossible to just graft a new mechanical organ onto his optic nerve, or maybe the nerve was damaged. Therefore, to complete his field of vision, the fake eye scans Spike's memory for images that are similar to what its camera sees.
 * No need to invoke bizarre technology if that's all you're after. Just say it's some sort of weird variant of Anton-Babinski Syndrome.
 * Therefore, when Spike wakes up after falling out of the window to hear Faye singing, he isn't just reminded of Julia. An image of Julia is in one eye, and Faye is in the other.
 * A much simpler way of managing this: the cyborg eye takes a few processing cycles longer to decode the camera image and transmit it to his occipital lobe than a normal human eye. So, the image in his left eye is delayed, showing the world as it was a few instants before the image shown by his right. This delay is enough for Spike to notice it, though he's Badass enough for it to not affect him much, and he's just excessively poetic in describing the symptom.

Ed is half-alien.
She's obviously very intelligent, but her way of thinking is odd. She can eat strange things. She appears able to communicate with Ein much better than the others. She looks quite different from most other characters. And just look at the way she moves. There's just something not quite human about it.
 * We've seen her father, and he seems human. But he also appears crazy enough to make this possible.
 * He obviously nailed Washu Hakubi. Cloudcuckoolander smexing red crab-haired Mad Scientist equals Cowboy Bebop at His Computer.
 * Look at this in combination with the above theories. L, Su, Orihime, Ichigo, and Washu combined is just crazy enough to actually produce Radical Edward.

Spike died in Episode 5. The rest of the series is his Dying Dream.
In episode 5, when Spike fights Vicious, he wears identical clothes to what he wears in the last episode -- a bloodstained trenchcoat. (In fact, he wears it every time he fights Vicious.) There is a set of stairs outside the church similar to the one he dies on in the final episode. Also, throughout the series, Spike mostly does athletic maneuvers that can be done by anyone in good shape. But his surviving a fall like that is hard to swallow. A similar principle can be applied to Vicious -- he takes a grenade to the face and shows up later without a scratch on him?!
 * Hey, when you're friends with Cowboy Bebop and his computer, the impossible happens!

Cowboy Bebop takes place in the same universe as Aria: the Animation.
No particular proof here, just Rule of Cool. Though that might make a good fanfic idea...

Cowboy Bebop was right about the disaster that's coming.
When does the explosion happen in the timeline? Do the math: 2012.
 * 2071 - 50 = 2012? Rather dyslexic sort of prophecy that...
 * Maybe 2012 will be just the beginning of the end. The process leading directly to the disaster will begin in December 2012 and then go on for a couple of years.
 * Makes more sense than my simply getting the date wrong.

Cowboy Andy from the session "Cowboy Funk" is the son of Isaac and Miria from Baccano!
He looks and acts very similar to them and it's plausible since Isaac and Miria are immortal.

Raidou Kuzunoha is Ed's ancestor.
Working off of another WMG, L is an ancestor of Ed.

L, is a great detective and despite one massive freak out takes the existence of Shinigami fairly well implying he may have some subconscious familiarity with the surreal. Both of these traits he would have inherited from Raidou.

If Ed and L are related, and L is descended form Raidou, Ed would also be descended from Raidou as well.
 * Why did you link a sequel instead of the original game...?

Maria is Ed's ancestry.
Their both cloudcuckoolander characters who hate wearing shoes and get dizzy whenever they have to put them on. Also, they even look a bit alike. Here's Maria, and here's Ed.
 * Yes, but Maria is probably Filipina, and Ed is Turkish. Reincarnation, maybe.
 * Maria's nationality is never really stated and all we know about Ed's is that she was born on Earth and her father's name sounds Turkish. She could easily be part Filipino, part Turkish, part nobody really knows what.

Each major character's personality is tied to a genre of music.

 * These are my guesses so far:
 * Jet, with his weary stubbornness and tragic backstory, is "blues."
 * Spike is early rock n' roll (carefree, simple on the surface, grooving with the rhythms of the universe).
 * Faye is tricky to pin down... I want to say jazz, though.
 * Ed is electronica, particularly of the more whimsical and ambient varieties.
 * Ein is hip-hop. Trust me.
 * Vicious is goth rock. What else could he be?
 * Alternatively, Vicious is no music at all. In some of the old Mystery Plays every character could sing except the Devil - because evil is inherently uncreative. Vicious is the same way, just brutal and cruel without any aesthetic or moral sense whatsoever.
 * Julia is country.
 * Julia is totally lullabies.

Jet Black is actually Captain Falcon.

 * Both are ex cops, both are bounty hunters in space, and both have falcons on the back of their blue outfits. Most importantly, both are very badass. Captain Falcon changed his name and stopped wearing his helmet so that he would not have people chasing after him all the time.

Jet Black loses his memories and becomes Dan Dustin.

 * Both look almost exactly alike, have similar personalities. Jet gets caught up in a simulated reality experiment and becomes Major Dan Dustin in Paradigm City.
 * And soon encounters a Badass who has little respect for authority and a rather familiar voice.

Cowboy Bebop is an allegory on reincarnation, Karma, and Dharma.
Much of Cowboy Bebop can be seen as a series of actions and consequences, somewhat like the cycle of samsara. Far from being an afterlife, it represents the "Dream" (see lyrics of "Blue" by "Seat Belts") of existence.


 * The occupation of Spike and Jet is that of bounty hunter, representing themselves as the force of nature that exists to bring people not to justice, but to confront the actions they've taken in the past. Their function is not to mete out punishment but to connect action to consequence.


 * Jet is a "reincarnation" of a former cop, Spike is a "reincarnation" of a former street thug, Faye is a "reincarnation" of a formerly very innocent person, Ein is literally taken from a coffin/grave (suitcase) after his former life as an experiment; Edward is perhaps the only true character with a Bhudda nature, capable of nearly supernatural feats and immunity to the violence and chaos of consequences surrounding the crew of Bebop.


 * In the episode "Mushroom Samba" each character is confronted (with the exception of Edward, again) with some aspect of their own step on the journey through reincarnation. Spike is seen on an endless staircase, symbolic of the long, long road ahead of him due to his former profession. Faye is awash in an ocean realm symbolic of her loss of identity and simultaneously lack of baggage from her previous life. Jet confers with the plants he cares for, learning from them how to lead a guiltless life and escape samsara, something he's been loathe to do, paralleling what he does for them (pruning away that which does not belong).


 * Spike creates Vicious, and while Spike "dies" initially, he "comes back" with baggage from his previous life. As an example, in the episode "Sympathy for the Devil" - the ageless youth had built up a lot of debt, seen as "weight," during his extended life. Upon dying, he finally feels this weight, asking Spike if he knows what he means. Spike replies "nope" and this is the first instance of the "bang" hand gesture.

The next time we see a reference to weight, and to the hand gesture, is after Spike has put Vicious, and therefore his own life debt, to rest - so he can finally die and actually move on - the reference not being "see you later, space cowboy" at the end, but "You're gonna carry that weight..." - again a reference to karmic debt that the ageless youth referenced.


 * Spike as cat/nemesis of the Christian/immediately vengeful death (the grinning sadist Mad Pierrot), representing what the Christian death and punishment does not allow: redemption through action.


 * Additionally, the guiltless Ed and Ein are relatively unscathed throughout the series, Ed being the one that does not get bitten by the latent memories/reminders/unfinished past business in the refrigerator ("Toys in the attic" - another reference to a past or childhood of the soul, and what baggage remains in the form of sad reminders). Ed, actually, can thrive/consume this residue, further cementing her pure bhudda nature.

Roger Smith is Cowboy Bebop
And his computer is all that remains of The Big O!

Cowboy Bebop takes place in the same universe as Planetes
Faye's shuttle was damaged by one of the pieces of space debris that they didn't pick up. They missed it completely, couldn't get there in time, or the debris collection department hadn't yet been formed.

In addition to L, Su, Orihime, Ichigo, Raidou Kuzunoha, Maria and Washu Ed's ancestors also include.

 * Pikachu: She appears human, but she still has her ability from her Pokémon ancestry lightning rod.
 * Pinkie Pie: carrying on her randomness energy and possibly even the Pinkie Sense
 * Naruto
 * The Doctor
 * Ed
 * Ed

Fay is a Deconstruction of the Ms. Fanservice trope
She flaunts herself as many anime characters do, but it's all a mask to hide her inner lack of security and trust. Eventually as the viewer you are filled with too much pity for her to find her very alluring. The fact that she is objectified with her body is more sad than anything especially when compared to her past self seen in the video.