We cannot say with 100 percent certainty that a giant robot did not intervene at the last minute.

On 16 April, with tensions at an all-time high between the U.S. and North Korea, the communist nation did the unthinkable (actually in their case, I guess it’s quite thinkable) and launched a missile…only to have it blow up a few seconds later. It was a stroke of luck that may have averted a potential outbreak of war in this corner of the Pacific.

In fact, it was so fortunate, many are having trouble accepting that it was simple luck that caused this failure. Soon after, the internet did what it does best and concocted numerous theories as to “what really happened” to the missile.

Our Japanese writers compiled a list of the top five for your reading pleasure.

1 – The U.S. had it all under control

A very popular theory is that the U.S. hacked into the launch systems and triggered the rocket to blow up when it did. This theory is propelled by the presence of U.S. Vice President Pence on the peninsula (try saying that five times fast) at the time of the launch, with the logic being that he felt comfortable enough to put himself in South Korea because he knew his men had the missiles all under control.

2 – The launch failed on purpose

Equally popular is the notion that North Korea blew up the rocket themselves. Had they actually gone through with the launch, the U.S. would have attacked and eventually taken over the country. On the other hand, if they didn’t launch they would look weak. So, North Korea opted to launch-but-not-launch by taking their own missile out before it could be considered a threat.

▼ “When the North Korean missile launch failed, rather than ‘serves them right’, my timeline is flooded with theories that ‘if they had really launched, the U.S. would have beat them up, so they failed on purpose.'”

3 – A mobile suit stopped the missile

Twitter users noticed a strange coincidence in timing between the missile failure and the removal of the giant Gundam statue in Odaiba. Could it have actually been called away on a clandestine mission?

▼ “It is no coincidence that the giant Gundam in Odaiba disappeared at the same time the North Korean missile failed.”

4 – Pretty Cure stopped the missile

On the same day as the missile launch, the anime series targeted at young girls, Pretty Cure, was trending on Twitter. Sure, that’s a loose correlation, but that could also just mean those magical school girls are really good at covering their tracks.

▼ “Maybe Pretty Cure stopped the missile, because my timeline is just a bunch of information about the missile and people saying ‘Pretty Cure, ganbatte!’ (‘Go, Pretty Cure!’)”

5 – Some mastermind set everything up so they could profit

Of course it wouldn’t be an Internet theory round-up without one about a secretive organization who was pulling the strings all along so they could somehow gain power or money for themselves. China, Prime Minister Abe, and the U.S. themselves have all been raised as potential Illuminati in this charade.

Of course, that would only be if this all was really a charade, which it most likely wasn’t. Probably a lot of people’s lives were saved that day simply because of dumb luck, which is not a terribly comforting thought. So it’s understandable that people want to make some sort of sense out of what happened, even if it means believing in a bunch of evil-fighting fairy-powered teenage girls like the Illuminati.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun
Photos: RocketNews24
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