A Theory on Twelve Forever’s Time Period
So, I’ve noticed that there’s been a lot of confusion about what time period Twelve Forever takes place, and I’ve been asking similar questions as well. However, with the help of context clues, I MAY have figured out the general time period for the show.
(Take this with a grain of salt, as a lot of this theory relies on me heavily over-analyzing and treating two throwaway lines as some sort of deep, planned-out indicators and not just jokes. And if you want an immediate answer, just scroll to the bolded words.)
In Dustin Forever, Dustin specifically mentions podcasts, and how he’s going to create one to allegedly educate society on the truth of the world or whatever. Now, based on a quick search, it seems that the term ‘podcast’ was coined in 2004, also the same year they began to catch hold.
Thus, we have our first indicator- If we take the whole ‘Dustin is making a podcast’ plot point seriously, then this indicates that the show’s earliest time frame is 2004.
But, that’s not all! As many on this site have pointed out, the setting of Bethune seems to be largely devoid of smartphones and other similar devices. Calls, at least as far as I can tell, have all been made using wired-in home phones.
Granted, we don’t seem to see any cellphones either... But for now, I’ll use the absence of smartphones as a frame of reference. Based on some sources I’ve found and an admittedly-rushed Google search, it seems that smartphones became popular around the beginning of 2011, when their sales began to outpace that of PCs.
If we take these details to be fact, then that narrows down Twelve Forever’s time period to the years 2004-2011. That’s a time frame of seven years, essentially. And while at first glance this seems to be about as definite as we’ll get unless Season 2 gives us more details, there is ONE more thing I want to point out...
(This is where I REALLY begin to overthink things, so take this section with a grain of salt... or a full-on pound)
In Manguin Forever, we’re introduced to our titular Manguin. In the episode, he noticeably gets a Guy Fieri-styled makeover after hanging out with Reggie. Now, if we REALLY wanted to take this brief visual gag seriously, then a quick search reveals that Guy Fieri became famous and launched his show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on April 23, 2007. If we want to be technical it was first-released as a one-off special on November 6, 2006... But 2007 is the ideal year because that’s when his popularity would have begun and thus when a child like Reggie, who doesn’t seem particularly interested in cuisine, may have noticed his show and his vibrant style- Thus inspiring her to suggest it to Manguin.
This further narrows down the time period to the years 2007-2011, bringing our timeframe to four years instead. Twelve Forever would take place after 2007, and before the beginning of 2011.
If we want to take our Guy Fieri reference even further and look at the show itself, School Forever reveals that the show begins in the first semester of Reggie’s school year, due to the presence of snow. Guy Fieri’s show debuted on April 23, 2007, AKA during the Second Semester of school... Thus, the show would ideally have its earliest possible date as the latter half of 2007, after its summer.
Thus, this gives us two possible time frames; Either the show can take place between the latter half of 2004, up until the beginning of 2011,
OR (if we want to take Manguin Fieri that seriously) it’s the latter half of 2007, up until the beginning of 2011.
Now, are there problems with this theory? VERY MUCH so... For starters, part of it relies heavily on the assumption that Manguin Fieri isn’t just a silly visual gag by the animators and that it has actual in-universe presence; In other words, it assumes that Reggie has actually seen Guy Fieri on TV within the show itself.
Likewise, the time in which smartphones became ‘popular’ is a bit of a vague question with a vague answer, especially when one considers what ‘popular’ means. Additionally, the lack of any smartphones within the show could just be a creative choice that isn’t meant to be an indicator of any time period in general.
Nevertheless, this is my pretty silly theory on Twelve Forever’s time period! It’s a flawed theory that relies on taking jokes WAY too seriously, so try not to take it as immediate fact or anything! I’m just spitballing and speculating for fun here.
Jeez I feel like Matpat from Game Theory and that’s probably not a good thing
