#messy play at home | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kunikidas-lost-glasses · 2 years ago

Text

Theory on “Welcome Home” by my sister and me

Why we think that Home is the main villain and why we think that Wally is the only one left/his friends disappeared due to Home.

Includes Spoilers(?) for a lot of the hidden secrets of the Welcome Home website.

I have no idea if someone already came to similar conclusions. We are both still very new in the fandom (we have known “Welcome Home” for three days by now) and came up with this during breakfast so if you know theories which are similar, just know that we genuinely didn’t want to copy anyone.

TWs: Jumpscare (?), Scopophobia, Horror/creepy themes, unsettling image

-------------------------------------------

While talking about the currently unknown situation of the characters, we came to the conclusion that Wally is the only one left, that his friends disappeared, that Home is the main villain of the arg and is responsible for the disappearing of Wally’s friends as well as that Wally actually isn’t evil or twisted at all but that he just tries to keep the viewer/”You” away from Home/the truth because he’s scared, but I will come back to that in a second.

This post is structured in (...) parts:

Why we think that Wally is the only one left/that his friends disappeared

The reason why Home let his friends disappear

Why we think that Wally isn’t evil but rather tries to cover up everything

Explanations for the scenes where Wally seems creepy and threatening

The reason why he sent the old material to the restoration team but still tries to cover up things/Is there a restoration team?

The Guest book (Which plays a main role in this theory since we found the most proof which supports our theory there)

Conclusion

Now let's get started.

1. Why we think that Wally is the only one left in the neighborhood and why we think that his friends disappeared:

One of the main proofs for this part of our theory, is the fact that the character descriptions of all the characters, besides the description of Wally and the hidden one for “You”, are written in the past tense. Wally’s description and the one of “You” however, are written in the present tense.

Now it makes sense for the description of “You” to be written in the present since “You” is literally the viewer. “You” is you as you are browsing through the website, engaging with the content but what does that mean for the descriptions of the characters?

In this context, it only makes sense, that the others are gone and all that is left about them, is the old material like merchandise and information about them from the show itself. With Wally’s description written in the present tense, however, it implies that he is still there and due to this, the only left.

Another proof for this, is the fact that under each description, stands “Go back” while under Wally’s description stands “Good Bye”. Clicking on this link will simply lead you back to the overview of the neighborhood. While this can mean many things and while it does give off a somewhat creepy vibe, we came up with the theory that it’s literally just “You” saying goodbye to Wally after leaving his house again. After all, you click on the houses and “enter” them, in order to “meet” the characters and read information about them.

Now with the others gone, you can’t say goodbye to anyone since the houses are empty. All that is left are the memories about them but Wally is still there, in his home. Due to this, when you enter his house, you can say goodbye to someone since it isn’t empty like the other houses.

Also the blurry lines here in this picture, could imply that the things said here are only a memory of Wally.

But where are his friends, and I say friends because the website and Wally’s replies in the guest book make it very clear that he views them as such.

This question actually leads us to the next part of our theory:

2. The reason why we think that Home is the one responsible for the disappearing of the other characters instead of Wally:

Home clearly plays a huge role in the events and it seems to be a very powerful character too. However, very little is known about it.

The only thing about Home we know for sure, is that it’s very much alive and the only house in the neighborhood which is a character itself. The other houses are simply normal houses without a life of their own. This gets stated in the character description of Wally.

Now why do we think that Home is the one who let the other characters disappear and why didn’t it let Wally disappear too.

The main point for this, is the portal/void which can be found underneath Home if you remove the image of Home.

It’s pretty likely that the others disappeared through whatever this black hole is since it’s the only known exit out of what seems like the whole world of “Welcome Home” itself.

Now since this portal is directly underneath Home, it’s likely that Home has something to do with it or is directly connected with it in some way.

The portal is also obviously well hidden though so it doesn’t seem like something the other neighbors knew about.

Wally, however, is still in the world of “Welcome Home” and doesn’t seem like he ever left/can leave.

He tries to communicate with the outside world through staring at the screen, unlike other characters who usually never directly look at the screen outside of concept art and he picks up contact with “You” and the restoration team indirectly, through letters and hidden messages.

Also, the cut scene where he tells the viewer that he can’t see them, makes it seem like he is somewhat stuck in that world and is unable to leave for now, even though a portal is right there.

The other characters, however, are gone and the portal seems like the only option to leave. So why can’t Wally leave and if Home is “in charge” of the portal, why won’t it let him leave too?

The conclusion to which we came is that he tried/did something which angered Home and as a punishment, it took away his friends and made him unable to leave the world, forcing him to live in loneliness with Home as his only company/”friend”.

Maybe, he tried to communicate/did openly communicate with the outside world (maybe he and the others even left the outside world (maybe they produced the series which was known in our world there) leaving Home who couldn’t follow behind, so now it makes Wally suffer in loneliness just like it did then.) angering Home with this, so this is the punishment for it.

After all, Wally seems to be scared of Home and a lot of actions he does seem to be done in order to soothe Home, in order to prevent further harm caused by it.

This picture, for example, seems like he’s trying to soothe Home in some way/beg it not to cause harm to whoever it looks at here.

My sister also pointed out that Home looks directly at the viewer instead of at Wally so maybe he’s trying to prevent Home from making the viewer disappear too.

Maybe it is also a kind of flashback, showing a part of what happened in the past.

Also the audio where he sings a part of “Beautiful Dreamer” to Home partly seems to be an action he might do because he is thinking about the old times, after all he stated that Barnaby taught him the lyrics of the song, but it could also be done to keep Home entertained.

The part where he stops and asks Home if it liked the song, telling it that he doesn’t know the rest of the lyrics since Barnaby only taught him until this part, also seems like a backhanded reproach for making his friends disappear but it also kind of confirms that only Wally and Home are left, again. (If he were still there, I could go ask him and sing the rest of the song to you.)

After all, if Barnaby and the others would be still there, he could just go to him and ask him to teach him the rest of the lyrics.

In the Guest Book, Wally also stated that he loves his friends and the old art shows that he was close with them so we highly doubt that he was the one who made them disappear.

With that, we also come to the third part:

3. Why we think that Wally isn’t evil and why he tries to cover up everything:

As already mentioned, Wally genuinely seemed to love his friends and seemed to be close with them so we highly doubt that he made them disappear but if Wally isn’t the one who made them disappear, then why would he cover everything up instead of openly seeking help?

A possible explanation for it could be that he doesn’t want Home to cause any more harm, this time to the viewer so he tries to keep anyone far away from Home and vice versa.

He also only, as already mentioned, talks directly to the viewer, either in the Guest Book (which doesn’t count as the outside world since the people who wrote in the guest book were in his home and wrote something in it there and he only replies to what they said), or through hidden messages (white font on white background in the Guest Book; in separate tabs;...) seemingly hiding his replies from people who don’t search for hidden clues and seemingly hiding it from something in his world too, (Home?).

He also seems to be grieving after his friends.

A clue for this is the fact that the old pictures of the other character which were sent by the restoration team are completely damaged and drawn over with his paint.

It has to be his paint since firstly, the colors used are mainly the colors which are usually resonated with him and secondly, since it’s paint and he is the only character who’s shown to be painting/shown to be a painter.

Messing up old pictures with them but not completely destroying them, seems more like a thing, done out of desperation and grief upon losing them, after entering the stage of grief where one is trying to erase all the memories of a person but not being able to get rid of everything due to the emotional attachment to the person which is still very much present, instead of some kind of a ritual or a thing which was done with evil intent.

In a lot of messages, he also seems like he wants to make the viewer stop his search for hints and clues about what happened.

One of the messages where this is the most obvious, is when he tells the viewer that they “wandered off to far” in a separate tab sending them back to the neighborhood seemingly trying to make them stay in the neighborhood instead of trying to discover what’s hidden in new tabs.

Also the further you come with your investigation, the more creepy and direct his “warnings” get.

Speaking of creepy, there are a lot of scenes and details, where Wally comes off as creepy and twisted which leads us to the next point which is

4. Trying to explain scenes where Wally comes off as creepy and threatening in the context of this theory that he isn’t evil or twisted:

1. The hidden scene in one of the tabs/Wally’s first time completely revealing himself to “You:

The scene where he seems the most threatening and creepy got to be the one where he asks the viewer if they can see him, telling them that he can’t see them but if they can see them, they have to stay quiet.

Now why this scene definitely seems threatening and creepy, and while it can be interpreted in many ways, from genuine threat to a warning, here is our theory about this scene.

If you find this secret scene, it is clear that you are already aware that something is going on behind the happy and colorful facade and that you searched for clues and hints but also that you are already a lot closer to the truth than others.

Due to this, we think that Wally is now showing himself openly, in a hidden tab, again hidden away from clueless viewers and maybe also hidden away from Home, telling you once more to stop searching for clues or at least to do so discreetly.

It seems like you’ve come so close to the truth that he is now forced to step fully in action, showing himself directly but doing so hidden away from anyone besides you.

He is aware that there is someone from the outside watching him and trying to figure out what happened, but he can’t see “You” yet.

Now it doesn’t make much sense to tell you to stay quiet if you are already so deep in/if they can see him here, if he would really want to find and harm the viewer himself.

It seems more like one final threat/warning and an indirect hint that not only he is aware of the viewer but also someone else which can only be Home and that the viewer should stay quiet in order not to be found by Home too.

He’s openly informing us about some danger and while he makes it unclear if he is the danger or Home, in regards to all the clues, it seems like Home is the danger of which he is warning the viewer and that they should stay quiet because of Home.

2. “Wally is your best friend.”

This sentence which appears in the hidden character description of “You”, can be read in a neutral manner, it can be read as friendly or as eerie and possessive.

However, firstly it would make sense that he is your best friend since he is the only one left besides Home and if it’s true that he tries to keep the viewer far away from Home due to the danger striving from it, it’s clear that we can’t be best friends with the only other living being left in that world.

The possessive vibe can also come from him, finally having someone to interact with again after so long and him not wanting to lose yet another neighbor/friend again. After all, he has been alone since supposedly the 70s since this is when the show was abruptly stopped for unknown reasons.

3. The Barnaby patch on his armchair and the Barnaby photograph in the newspaper.

While a lot of people (including me) jumped directly to the conclusion that Wally killed Barnaby, I doubt that he did so by now.

One of the most likely explanations is, that he made Barnaby himself, also in regards of this shich can be found on Clown's website, which portrays Wally and a headless Barnaby where Wally exclaimed that he "made a dog".

(However the pictures on Clown’s website aren’t really canon anymore since they are from when Welcome Home was in its beginning stages and a lot has changed since then and I don’t know how far those pictures can be used for a theory.)

Also talking about this picture, it could also be that Wally tried to make a Barnaby after the real one disappeared and the fact that Barnaby has no head here, symbolizes that he isn’t the real one but rather a puppet resembling Wally’s old friend.

Another theory is that he kept that part as a memory of Barnaby. Maybe he did make him and had some fabric left which he sewed on his armchair as a memory after Barnaby disappeared.

The newspaper article is probably closely related to what happened in the neighborhood, since Wally has a finger over it, kind of hiding the picture from the viewer.

Maybe it’s an article about Barnaby missing since the photo looks a lot like those used for articles about missing people.

But I doubt that he killed Barnaby.

5. The reply “You don’t like me neighbor.” to a Guest Book entry saying that they hope that Wally isn’t evil or else they would be super bummed:

If his friends really disappeared as punishment from Home for Wally, it is likely that he feels guilty for what happened and views himself as evil.

Maybe he is the reason why Home turned evil or maybe he is the reason why Home came to life at all so now he blames himself for his actions despite not being what is viewed as evil.

4. Why did Wally send stuff to the restoration team?/Is there a restoration team?

While thinking about everything, we started to question if there is a restoration team since it also seemed likely that Wally is the one who is in charge of the page, but by now we think that Wally just has access to the page in some way but that there is a restoration team. A proof for that is the gloved human hand in the photo which shows one of the damaged pictures. It would be hard to fake this for a literal puppet.

However, it is clear that Wally is the one who sends the restoration team all the material. After all, who else should have all the material and the knowledge of a forgotten show and why should the person stay anonymous and use colorful envelopes, like the ones in the world of “Welcome Home”. Also there is Wally’s hand on a lot of the photos which show some of the material so I think it’s very clear that he sends all of this to the restoration team.

After all these years, he seems to have found a way to communicate with the outside world again.

But why would he send all of this when he tries to cover up the most anyways?

Our guess is that he wants to remind people of the show again, keeping the memory of his friends upright and maybe he wants to send his friends, wherever they might be, a sign that he is still very much alive.

However, he doesn’t want anyone to find out the truth and wants to keep everyone away from Home, either out of shame or because he doesn't want that anything happens again but with people slowly discovering what happened, he starts to take action to scare people away from the secret and from Home.

5. The Guest Book:

In the Guest Books are so many hidden clues for so much things.

Not only did we find replies which seem to be by Barnaby which implies that

Wally tries to act like Barnaby in order to prevent people from guessing that they are gone but there is also stuff like him drawing over replies which suggest that something is going on here/that there are many secrets on this website and replies of Wally which try to change the topic when people ask how’s it going over there (p.ex. him writing stuff like “Apple” to a question like this).

He also states in the Guest Book that he did in fact love his friends a lot but also him interacting with people who search for clues through white font on white background, asking if they are searching for him, openly showing himself even though in a hidden way, can be found in the Guest Book.

Conclusion:

All in all, we think that Wally isn’t evil due to him seemingly trying to keep the viewer away from Home, warning them in an indirect way and him hiding from something, even though he does interact with people openly through the Guest Book.

However the interactions in the Guest Book take place in his own world and every interaction with the outside world, outside of the guest book is hidden in some way.

He also genuinely seemed to be close with his friends and there are clues which imply him grieving after them, trying to get rid of any memories of them but not being able to do so due to him still being emotionally attracted, like the pictures of them which were damaged but not fully destroyed by him.

All over the website are hidden clues which suggest that the other characters are all gone and that he and Home are the only ones left. However, it seems like he can’t leave and is somewhat stuck in the neighborhood/his world.

We came up with the theory that Home is actually the one who let them disappear as a form of punishment for Wally for something he did, probably for leaving the neighborhood with his friends to the outside world where they produced the show in the 70s, leaving Home behind so now it makes him suffer in loneliness as a punishment for this.

A lot of images also suggest that Wally is actually scared of Home and tries to soothe it/keep it entertained in order to prevent any more harm caused by it but he also once seems to make a backhanded reproach to it for making his friends disappear when telling it that he can’t continue singing the song to it since Barnaby only taught him this part of it.

Wally also seems to try to keep the viewer as far from the truth and from Home as possible, getting slowly more and more direct with his warnings until he even seems threatening in the hidden tab where he tells the viewer that they should stay quiet if they can see him in this tab, suggesting that they are already far too deep in and most likely giving them a last warning to stay away from Home and the truth. Most likely he does so in order to prevent Home from causing harm to the viewer.

It’s likely that he only sended the material to the restoration team after finding a way to communicate with the outside world after all these years, in order to gain some company again, to send his friends, wherever they are, a sign that he is still very much alive and to keep the memory of his friends upright but he didn’t really wanted that people find out what happened so with people starting to get closer to the truth, he is forced to take action himself, scaring them away though interactions which are hidden away from viewers which are unaware of what’s going on and hidden away from Home as well.

While there is one reply in the Guest Book which suggests that he views himself as evil, it is likely that he might blame himself for what happened but if it’s true that Home took his friends away as a punishment, it’s only logic that he blames himself and therefore views himself as evil.

Maybe he also is the reason why Home came to life at all or maybe he is responsible for his friends disappearing through Home without wanting it.

However, all the scenes where Wally seems to be evil and unhinged, can actually be viewed in multiple ways often and could be made like this in order to mislead the viewer into thinking that Wally is the main villain when in truth he is only trying to keep the viewer away from Home out of fear that Home takes them away too.

Or Wally just got a bit funky in his time where he lived alone with only Home as company.

However, this is all just one big theory and it’s also kind of messy with a lot of interpretation since there isn’t a lot known about Wally’s and Home’s true motives but at this moment, we do think that Home is the one who made them disappear to punish Wally, that Wally tries to simply keep the viewer away from Home to prevent Home from making them disappear too and that all the scenes where he seems creepy and threatening are only made like this in order to mislead the viewer into thinking that Wally is the main villain but also in order to scare them away from trying to uncover the truth.

25 notes · View notes