#Welcome home theory

[citrineaura]

(Awakens from sleep, checks partycoffins tumblr) Omg an update is a-comin'! That means my updates are a-comin'!

Hee hee anywaysss....sit tight for upcoming analyses and theories on whatever the new update brings us! Can't wait! Cheers!

[serene-hatterene]

…OH 🫢

Oh… I just had an EVIL thought about what might be in store for the next Welcome Home update.

In the July update, we learned about Sally’s “Julie-Rella” play she put on, with Julie as the titular princess and Frank as the Prince.

We also know that Julie hibernates in the winter, and a recent post by Clown might be hinting that the next update (“Springtime”?) will focus on her. Not to mention Frank’s “Bug-a-Bye and Good Night” song, which Playfellow probably meant to be about not just the bugs but Julie as well (though he likely is truly singing about his feelings towards Eddie).

Hmmm… now what fairy tale does that remind you of?

My thoughts are as follows:

Sally will put on a “Sleeping Julie” sort of play in which Frank will once again play the Prince and have to wake Julie up by kissing her. However, Frank won’t be able to bring himself to do so due to his feelings for Eddie and lack thereof for Julie, which leads to him and/or Julie having a dissociation episode/becoming self-aware like Eddie did at the Homewarming party. If Eddie is truly gone in the next update like I’ve seen some people theorize, this would be salt in the wound for a grieving Frank (assuming that nothing… ESPECIALLY not a certain house… messes with Frank’s memory and makes him forget Eddie).

Or, Frank will actually be forced to kiss Julie in order to wake her up from her hibernation, and dissociates either immediately beforehand or afterward for the aforementioned reasons.

…And maybe Wally will be “Walleficent” 😆

[pastelalleycat]

wouldn't it be funny if barnaby, howdy, and julie ended up in a polycule?

this is half a joke and half a pondering on julie's favorite color being breen (blue + green, barnaby + howdy, color symbolism...), but like. welcome home LOVES its Revelations and Curveballs. as much as i adore julaby and i do think canon is leading up to it, i'm not disqualifying the idea

future me please tell me if i jinxed it.

[in-this-essay-i-wont]

Look. I know I am overthinking everything ever. I know. But there’s such a big fucking difference between howdys business and how it intertwines with his character and Eddie’s, because like LOOK BRO

The SMALL ASS TEXT THAT HAS EDDIES NAME???? COMPARED TO THE LARGE EMPHASIS THAT HOWDY HAS FOR HIS BUSINESS AND HIMSLEF???

Like Eddie’s name is so small and insignificant to the post office compared to howdys sign, like Eddie can barely find a place for himself and who he actually is outside of his function as a mailman- where as howdys name is the first thing for his sign! It’s huge! Like it’s a part of who he is, it’s a part of his love for jokes and laughter- compared to Eddie where it seems more of an all consuming way for him to lose himself in what he can function as, and not who he actually is. Which, ya know, kinda explains the whole breakdown before the party for home warming, because taking away his function leaves him with the little part of himself that he always seems too busy to express.

Chat this is devastating I need to be put down

[ceaselessly-mad]

"The door? The door… Yes, the door. I could have left, couldn’t I."

Or aka, my guess as to what I think (???) happened at the end of brick-by-brick. Way too long theory ramblings below:

So we only have the audios and transcript to go by, but for me, it seems like Poppy momentarily became hyper aware of her surroundings, and is now openly addressing both the literal stage/props/backdrops for the shoot and even the cast members of the show.

She questions where she is, not recognizing the stage as her barn, and the transcripts don't specify who she's talking to, even though they sounds awfully familiar to Sally and Frank.

So trying to visualize what's happening, I sort of imagined Poppy understandably freaking out over the person trying to open the door, her pushing herself towards the window to make distance, and accidentally knocking down the bricks, causing one of the ??? to exasperatedly ask why she hadn't just opened the door (though honestly something completely different could be happening).

Either way, this just brings on a whole new set of questions. At what point does the puppet world and the real world mesh together, if that is what's happening? What is happening to the puppeteers of the puppets that do suddenly gain this awareness, at least during that moment? Does this mean that the Looky-Loo storybook series are based on actual episodes of the show, otherwise how else did we getting a recording of between a physical puppet and cast members, if this is just happening within a book? You know what I mean???

Anyways thanks for looking and reading if ya got here ♥️🏠

[paper-starz]

WELCOME HOME LETTERS + a mini theory???

Home page- I O M A About- A R News- T Media- Y G Neighborhood- N S F E Stickers- E Playfellow Exhibit- N Merch- P Y R E Guestbook- W W W (could be a website) Transcripts- Y Wally's page- W (for those who are searching for the letters!!)

Its either www. or .net, that im sure. We gotta make our own address.... wait a min.... What does Home wear at parties...

ADDRESS

you know... speaking of which... where WAS Eddie this update? He was strangely... absent.

and hes the one with the decoder.... and symbols are everywhere this update.... and they are containing lettters.... Oh my god. Eddies being a mailman again. He's sending us letters!!

[catghoststories]

Frank, Eddie, and the Tell-Tale Heart

So, I know the main focus of this update was Poppy, which I was happy to see (though I'm not happy to see what happened to her).  I do have a theory cooking about her, Sally, and the Commedia Dell'arte, but Frank n' Eddie are my favorite pair, and I've been stewing over this particular theory since the July '23 update.  This tiny line from the Looky-Loo storybook is what cinched it for me.

Source: Merchandise Page, Looky-Loo Storybook

This line isn't read out loud, but we can see it at around the 9 minute in the video, above Eddie, looking so polite.  It reads,

"Villains!" I shrieked, "I can deny it no longer! I admit the deed!—tear up my flower bed!—here, here!—it is the ticking of my beloved alarm clock!"

This isn't the actual line from The Tell-Tale Heart.  The original line reads "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

Source: The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart is about someone murdering their roommate, cutting him into pieces, and hiding the evidence under the floorboards of their house. 

And I think this is what Frank is going to do to Eddie, in an attempt to protect him in a perverse, misguided way.

This rewritten lines seems very specific to Frank and Eddie.  We know Frank loves his garden.  And who's the only character in the Neighborhood who owns a clock?  Eddie.

At the end of the Homewarming video, Frank sees how distressed Eddie is.  As many have theorized, Frank seems to be somewhat aware of what's happening, although we don't know to what extent.  But he sees that Eddie is now in the line of fire of The Powers That Be, and he becomes worried for him.  

I think Frank will dismantle Eddie and hide him in his garden until he deems it 'safe' for Eddie to come back, once the 'eyes' are off him.  (Kind of reminds me of the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings).  An unintentional—or perhaps intentional—side effect of being dismantled and put back together, with new parts, is that Eddie doesn't remember things well. 

Including, possibly, his and Frank's relationship.

This goes along with the theme we've seen several times in WH now, including this new Halloween update.  The puppets unintentionally—yet seriously—harm their loved ones in order to protect them from something they deem far worse—whatever that may be.

As these posts by kykudos, oniongrass, and nikkiiiscute discuss, there is an image from one of the hidden bug clips of Frank's garden with 9 clothespins—one buried in the dirt.

Source: Welcome Home Hidden Audio ('til it's back on the official site :3)

And there's the references to burial in Bug-a-Bye and Goodnight, too.  This post by the-nosy-neighbor goes quite a lot into this song very well, especially how it might indicate Frank could put Eddie into a suspended state!

Source: Transcript Page, Bug-a-Bye and Goodnight

Now I have been thinking about this dismantling/reassembling thing for a long time, especially since the last Halloween update.  Eddie is one of the puppets with a new costume, and he is Frank(enstein)'s monster.  And he has a big yellow band-aid on the back—Frank's color.  If Eddie is taken apart, Frank will patch him up again.

Source: Clown's Tumblr

(Also, I'm curious about the blue hand and face in Eddie's costume design. That's Barnaby's color. Does Frank use Barnaby's spare parts to put Eddie back together?! 😳 Especially since I feel like Barnaby's time on Mister Bone's Wild Ride is fast approaching—but that's yet another post 😅)

But based on the Tell-Tale Heart line, Frank may have been the one to do the dismantling in the first place, which is quite dark.  Based on the below picture from the former staff member page—clearer image here from Clown's Tumblr—Frank may be aware they're puppets and made up of various parts.

Source: Welcome Home Wiki until it's back on the official site :3

There is also an intense piece on Clown's Ko-Fi here (please support Clown if you can!) that shows butterflies doing SOMETHING to Eddie. Are they putting him together? Or taking him apart to join them in their hibernation? 🤔

Frank also likes gelatin. As he tells Poppy in their hidden audio, 'it holds perfectly sliced fruit beautifully'.  Perfectly sliced, cut up fruit, eh?  Gelatin is a preservative that we also see in the cookbook recipe, and we all know Eddie has an unholy encounter with his single pea.  So yet another symbol of suspended animation that is related to Frank and Eddie.

Source: Merchandise Page, Cookbook

So it seems like Frank has some experience in preservation, hibernation, etc. and knows how to use it, if it comes to it.

The next big update will likely be spring-themed.  A long time ago, Clown posted that Frank has a holiday in spring. Of course this isn't canon until it's on the website, but either way, I think Frank will have an important role in the spring update, which I believe will also focus on Julie.  We may see him wake up Julie from hibernation...and Eddie from his dirt nap.  

Source: Clown's Tumblr

(I've been so curious about that shadow behind the flower.  At first I thought 'OMG, it's Eddie's hand!', but I don't think so. 😅 I dunno what it is, but it doesn't quite seem flower like to me...🤔)

This Ko-Fi post (again, please support Clown if you have the means!) was posted around Easter this year and had a bunny/Easter theme.  Clown says "What is there to say though... Well! We know what the next holiday is in our Home Sweet Home, I'd say."  A huge theme of Easter/Spring are Rebirth and Resurrection.

As this post by serene-hatterene so beautifully details, Frank may feel pressured to kiss Julie to wake her up to prove his heteronormativity.  Maybe to further protect Eddie, too, to prove they aren't a thing.  Seems like Julie's family may show up this update, too, and we know family can cause a lot of pressure for couples during holidays. 😬

My last item isn't that strong, but I have been thinking of since the July '23 update.  In Eddie's Big Lift, Frank says the following line:

Source: Transcript Page, Eddie's Big Lift

The tense of "You always did work too hard" always bothered me.  Why doesn't Frank just say, "You always work too hard!"  And Eddie doesn't seem to know what he's talking about. Frank sounds almost wistful here.  It's like he's talking about his ex—a former version of Eddie, pre-dismantling, perhaps?

(Also, 'Enjoy the ground, Mr. Dear'? Dude, if this theory is right, that line is even more screwed up than it already was. 😳)

Here is my order of how I feel these events actually happened:

Secret Bug Audios (Eddie and Frank flirting) -> 1st Halloween Audio (Eddie still seems like his chipper, knowledgeable self) -> Homewarming -> Springtime (and Eddie's Resurrection)? -> Eddie's Big Lift

Not quite sure where this last Halloween update lands, but I feel like it's later.  Eddie seems ignorant of the potential adverse effects The Brickening (TM) could have on Poppy.  I feel like he's been more sensitive to Poppy and others in the past (but maybe I'm wrong, I'm biased towards him, heh).  Perhaps after his Reconstruction, his memory has now been reset, and he has "fallen into line" with the other Neighbors and their weird, pile-onto-one-person ways.

Anyway, what do you all think? 😬😬 I do hope I'm wrong, since Frank is my favorite, and this would make me feel very differently about him. 😬😬😬 Please tell me your own WH theories, too! I find them so interesting!

[hypnautic-cereal]

I find it kind of interesting that in both Eddie and Poppy’s cases, both Sally and Frank played a role in their breakdowns

Sally decided to give Eddie the day off and bring him to the Homewarming party; Frank was the only one to notice something was wrong with Eddie

Sally also came up with the idea to brick up Poppy’s windows to help her from getting scared of the play; Frank and Sally were the ones to show up and ask if Poppy was alright when the door was open/locked

I don’t know where these could lead to, but it’s just something I think that’s best to keep track of

[gachagon]

This is big spoilers for the commercials in the Awayfrompryingeyes website on the Welcome Home site.

I've been saying since DAY 1 that Eddie Dear was going to be one of the most important Neighbors to pay attention too, aside from Julie, Frank, and Sally. And this update just practically confirmed it, I had this long running suspicion about Eddie Dear, and it's that I think he was one of the first besides Wally to gain sentience in a way.

I know most people believe Wally was the one who "woke" up first essentially and was able to see the reality of what they were actually living in, but I think Eddie Dear was the first of Wally's friends to actually wake up. My reasoning for this is that Eddie's "backstory" on the neighborhood page is so vague and strange compared to the other neighbors. He's the ONLY one who doesn't remember where he came from, and we see routinely throughout these updates that he's kind of the odd man out a lot of the times.

And that's not totally unusual for a kids show, but there's something about Eddie that just points to him being a lot different from the other puppets. Like that he's also the only one who's able to actually tell what time it is, as he's the only neighbor with a real watch.

And he really REALLY wants to fit so badly into the world of Welcome Home that he sticks to his job as a mailman as much as he can. But even looking at his interactions with the others, you can tell he's not quite playing the role he's been set as perfectly.

I don't think Home (the house) had anything to do with Eddie waking up, I actually think it was a combination of Eddie just not being able to mesh well with the part he has to play and the other characters breaking his routine without asking him. The moment that really shakes him is when he can hear the Narrator say "And Eddie Dear was happy." and i think that's because he really doesn't know if he is happy or not. Home is still strange because its obviously the one thing that Eddie fixates on when he first gains sentience, but I don't think its what shook him out of just being a puppet only.

Eddie is also so obviously playing along with the idea of Homewarming and doesn't actually know much about it. But he's not letting the others know this, as when he's alone is when he tells himself to just "focus on the festivities" instead of the other confusing parts of Homewarming. When he's with Poppy decorating the tree (with turkey...? and gravy...?) He just makes it seem like what they're doing is a no brainer, and something everyone does during the holidays.

But when he starts spiraling at the party, all of the things he helped decorate look strange and confusing to him. He can't focus on anything, staring into the wallpaper makes it seem worse, and the fabric of his own reality is literally being ripped at the seams (there's just an excessive amount of video tearing which I equate to Eddie's sense of sanity at the moment and just how present he really is)

It's here that Eddie finally realizes just what they're doing, and what everything really truly looks like. Eddie even tries to focus solely on Frank's face to sort of ground him, but the goddamned credits for the episode itself is playing over Frank's face and obscuring his vision. The scene itself wants to move on but Eddie is still able to see what the audience normally wouldn't be able too, and that split from his reality to ours is what makes him freak out in the end.

[laundrycannon]

HOME'S HEART

With the new information that came out with the Welcome Home commercials video, I think we have been not looking into the heart imagery as much as the eye imagery that appears in Welcome Home.

I think it is important especially with the new commercial update and the heartbeats in the audio:

"Gradually, a heartbeat begins to be heard. It becomes steadily louder, faster and more insistent throughout the sequence, mixed with the static all the while. EDDIE’s breathing can be heard, steadily more panicked." I think it may have something to do with this chair as well...

They did call it Home's "Love Seat"

Is this Home's heart?

[rebelcracker-s]

yapping about the welcome home 10/18 update because i am so incredibly normal

Hello neighbors! Not exactly my usual content, but since when was I consistent :P I have a lot of thoughts about the new Welcome Home update, so I thought I’d make a post discussing my thoughts n findings, and try to analyze them to make sense of Welcome Home. 

SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

First of all, right off the bat, on the first page of the storybook, you can see this:

All of these dots in white diamonds are meant to represent eyes, like the Looky-Loo branding alludes to. While they’re all mostly looking in different directions, we have these two who are looking right at the reader. I think these are meant to represent Wally’s eyes. Since we know from the hidden audios from the June ‘23 update that Wally can see through every drawing of his eyes, it looks like Wally is watching us or at least W through the storybook. It’s a tiny detail but so creepy nonetheless!

I want to focus on the end of W’s version of the storybook rather than the contents of the storybook, but I loved seeing a story centered around Sally and some depictions of Sally & Poppy’s dynamic! (Also Eddie calling Sally rude—THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING. Based eddie tho LOL) I also loved seeing the neighbors all being so eager to help Poppy, but oh my goodness, the way that they did it… YIKES. Poor Poppy…

It’s so interesting that we’re seeing the characters one by one realize that something is wrong with their neighborhood—first Sally in last year’s Halloween update, then Eddie in the Homewarming update, now Poppy. 

It’s also interesting how Eddie and Poppy’s episodes(?) parallel each other. First of all, they very clearly focus on isolation from the rest of the neighborhood. Eddie loses all perception of the other neighbors, and the “single pea on a plate” represents his isolation from everyone else. Poppy is literally bricked off from the other neighbors, and she can’t hear them and vice versa until she screams and the door is opened.

The second interesting thing is that both of these episodes have Home involved. Eddie gets uncomfortable and immediately finds himself staring down Home even though he’s inside them. Poppy hears knocks, doors opening, and doorknobs turning—all of which are methods Home uses to communicate. I don’t know if Home is meant to be a metaphor for isolation or a genuine antagonistic force trying to corner the characters when they’re alone and at their weakest. Maybe both? 

Still, I was considering that the character who scares Poppy at the end of the storybook audio could also be one and the same with the “monster” (in quotations because it’s unclear whether this is an actual monster) Sally talked about in last year’s Halloween update. That would create a common thread between the two Halloween updates. Still, I’m not sure what that monster is meant to represent and if it is supposed to mean Home or something related to them, like the weird portal underneath it…

Third, it’s very interesting how the two episodes end. Both Eddie and Poppy are brought out of the episodes by the intervention of the other neighbors. But it’s not just any neighbors—both times, it’s Sally and Frank. Sally is the neighbor who notices something is up with Eddie first; she brings him to the Homewarming party, then pulls Frank over to Eddie at the end of Eddie’s episode. When Poppy’s episode ends, we hear two neighbors asking about her. It’s not explicitly stated whose voices they are in the transcript, but it’s clearly Sally and Frank.

Sally and Frank are a really interesting pair; their canon interactions include them getting into a physical fight over song lyrics. But somehow, we’ve seen them twice breaking up these episodes. They don’t appear to be as close as Frank is with Eddie or as Sally is with Poppy, but it would be a very weird coincidence if this was an accident both times. 

I strongly believe that Sally and Frank are both aware of what’s happening and trying to work together to either gain a bigger understanding of it, protect the other neighbors, etc. (I also have a theory that Howdy is in on it too, but I won’t focus on that right now.) This is why we see them coming to both Eddie and Poppy’s aid after their episodes. 

Another thing!! Connections to other literature seem to be really important in the lore of Welcome Home, so it’s not a throwaway that the play Sally puts on is Tell-Tale Heart. I don’t know a lot about Tell-Tale Heart, but it appears to be about a character who kills a man and buries his still-beating heart under the floorboards, only to be driven mad by the sound. I’m pretty sure we’ve heard Home’s heartbeat before, so I wonder if Tell-Tale Heart is supposed to connect to them… I’ve seen people connect it to Cask of Amontillado, but I’ve never even heard of that so I’ll let other theorists tackle that for now.

On a final note, Wally saying that “everything is as it should be” as the last line of the storybook…completely creeps me out!!!

That’s all for now. I should probably update my other theory soon lol 

[ukiiyostar]

hey while on the subject of Welcome Home, I'd like to talk about something I found interesting (tl;dr at the bottom)

so the team uncovered a toy telephone, one of those where you can dial the characters and they give you a pre-recorded answer, right?? But the thing about these pre-recorded messages is that they're supposed to reply to the kid, no matter what they're saying or if they're saying anything it at all, y'know? So it is incredibly interesting that the messages shown are that of the characters responding to silence.

the person on the phone says nothing, and the characters, upon hearing nothing, respond with "hello? hello are you there"s like any other person; they start talking as their character and when it becomes clear the person on our line isn't going to respond, they end the call

And here's where it gets more interesting, and it has everything to do with Eddie Dear

So you see, all the characters have different responses to the silent call before leaving: Barnaby tells a joke, Julie invents a game, Poppy thinks she might've broken the phone and tries to fix it (unsuccessfully), and Sally assumes they have stage-fright, just to name a few examples.

But then you hear Eddie's call

He starts off with the post office jingle and when no one answers, he tries singing the jingle again, this time a longer version and he quickly runs out of breath

It is then that he thinks to himself "maybe there's no one there"

He is the ONLY CHARACTER in the cast that even CONSIDERS this; and seconds later he is the ONLY ONE that begins to QUESTION the NATURE OF THIS CALL

LOOK AT HIS DIALOGUE

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE????

The other characters assume it's a prank call or some other excuse, but Eddie is the only one who wonders; the only one who begins to contemplate like "wait, why am in a call anyway?"

add this to other Eddie events like the santa commercial and homewarming...

I think he's actually waking up. hell, who's to say he isn't already awake? and this only makes me scared of what will happen to him.

speaking of which, I read another theory earlier that said that perhaps the reason this is all happening to him is that the Playfellow Workshop was planning on removing him from the show because they felt he was "insignificant" or simply didn't add anything other than being the mailman, and they slowly started removing his presence from the media (the way he's skipped on the santa's toys commercial thing and that other episode when wally and Barnaby go around asking everyone EXCEPT Eddie what homewarming is) until they could get rid of him completely.

what do you guys think?

tl;dr = looking at the toy phone responses, it's weird that they have a line replying to silence seeing as that's not the point of the toy, and also it's weird that Eddie Dear is the only character who, out of all the other responses, is the only one to acknowledge the odd nature of the call. my theory is that Eddie might be the next (assuming Wally and/or Home to be the first ones self-aware) to wake up from the puppet illusion, paired with another theory that the company was trying to remove Eddie from the show

[serene-hatterene]

I noticed something about Frank’s Homewarming outfit…

His sweater is the exact same color as…

THE PEA!

I’ve seen theories suggesting that the pea could represent Eddie and the isolation he experienced leading up to the Homewarming party, as well as Home’s/Playfellow Workshop’s disapproval of his feelings for/relationship with Frank. While I like this theory, I’m wondering if the pea could also somehow represent Frank.

In addition to being a reminder that Home is always watching (hence the pea on the plate resembling an eye), this could be Home sending a subliminal message to Eddie that he had better leave Frank alone as if Frank is the pea on the plate. Some people have speculated that Eddie will be completely absent from the next update as he will have been taken off the show, but what if we see Eddie avoid Frank instead, perhaps even suggesting to Frank that he spend more time with Julie instead?

[4ddi3addie2005]

THINKING ABOUT THE WORDING HERE ESP WHEN IT COMES TO FRANK…

“STILL STANDOFFISH, BUT A LITTLE MORE ANXIOUS”

Girl wdym “still”??? I’m reaching a little with this one but it does kinda poke at everything being an Act… just bare with me.

“CONCERN STARTS TO SHOW THROUGH”

Show through??? Show through what??? What does his Concern need to fight against???

Also why is Frank whispering to him? Like it was so abrupt, the switch from “This is how I’m supposed to be talking to you” to “Hey wait man are you for real???” you KNOW? Alarm bells are definitely going off for him. It doesn’t seem like a reaction from someone who expects his friends to be helpful at all if Eddie is having a bad trip.

And this may be me overthinking but it was kinda strange how Sally vanished completely. Even in the video you could see her just pop out of frame with no explanation. It’s almost like… the script broke? The illusion of the Show fell apart? Leaving Frank and Eddie, the only ones with their foot in reality at the moment?

IDK GUYS just jotting down everything I felt during my exploration… wildest day everrr

[cutepastelstarsalior]

Soooooo that Update yeah?