Honestly I Understand The Hate And Upset Around These Things Going On. It Just Makes Me Sad That Because

What is Wally?

I know I've already talked about how I don't think Wally is a puppet, but with the new update, there is now more evidence for this claim. Though it also leaves more questions about what he is.

I do think, that at one point, Wally was just a puppet, but I think he gained more than just sentience as the story progresses. The videos are my main focus for this, as they all seem to be memories from Wally's pov. We see Wally's hand or hands in frame multiple times, showing that not only is it from his view we are watching but that he's not holding anything to record the moment. Even if sentient, a puppet can not upload memories onto a website. So Wally is built into the website in a way, though this was already hinted at with all the drawings he manages to add to the site.

But he's also not just on the website. Of the audio clips that can be found on the site through Wally's drawings, one of them is Wally talking about how he has more eyes than he did before. Sure there are a lot of eyes on the website for him to look through, but he also points out that we are the ones who have drawn his eyes. How, though, would he connect and see through the versions of his eyes we draw?

Lastly, the goo, or the substance that comes from the original Welcome Home items, though I call it a black goo since that's what seems to be on the staff-only site. This goo seems to thump like a heart and leaves people feeling sick and drained when they make contact with it. A goo that someone, likely Wally, is apologizing for. We already had clues that the people behind the Restoration Project were feeling pain while looking for clues because of the hidden answers in the get-to-know section. But with the staff-only site and the goo, we now see its effects a little more clearly. Especially shown with the phone ringing that is written all over the staff site, but without a known source.

At this point, I'm starting to think that Wally's awakening of sentience also brought out something almost eldritch in nature. Though it's clear Wally doesn't have control over it and is suffering as well from the effects. It's why he's trying to contact us, to ask for help. To want to be heard and seen as well as to hear and see in turn. But, what are we letting him into? The audio found on the error site asks us to let him in, but to what? He doesn't want out, he wants in. I feel somehow that's an important distinction that he's not asking to be freed as much as he's asking us to give him access. Access to what? Currently, I think our minds. In the same way that he is in the heads of the Restoration Team, though I don't think he means it maliciously as much as it's part of the goo/eldritch thing that is also present.

Can't wait for more of the story to come out!

Also just want to say I love the new side art. It still has the eyes watching, but also little hints of all the characters. Flowers for Julie, feathers for Poppy, letters for Eddie, butterflies for Frank, you get the idea. Like a little of everyone is represented, it's so cute.

The first thing I want to discuss is if you wait a bit on the error page, a drawing of stars will appear with audio from Wally. This is titled soon. and is the most... "questionable" audio from Wally which is why it must be shared first.

Is Wally truly a puppet?

And no I don’t mean in the sense that he was a person before hand. (Please note this info is from memory as the site is down)

First off, the Restoration Team of Welcome Home talks about how they are finding pictures and old paraphernalia from the show. They talk about old scripts and show parts of books, but at no point do they talk about having the actual puppets. Yet Wally is seen as present.

Both in his drawings in the guest book as well as some other messages, it is shown that Wally is active and aware of the site.

Going back to the Restoration Team, hidden in the Q&A section there are hidden messages about needing to get it out and that it hurts both alluding to something in the Team leader’s head.

In order to supposedly get whatever is hurting the Team leader out of his head he started the website and the restoration project. And what if he did? What if it was Wally in his head that he had to get out and in doing so put him into the website? Maybe not fully or maybe letting Wally interact at least keeps him quiet, but most of the signs of Wally being around seem more like they come from inside the website than anything. Especially if they do not have his puppet, it makes me wonder what Wally is.

I know that Clown has made a few post talking about Welcome Home more relating to gaining a concise and awareness, so I know that the thought is mainly a puppet gaining sentience, but is he just a puppet? 

Most of this is just speculation and such but I still think it should be consider that Wally may not be confined to his puppet body.

Let's be careful before labeling Wally or Home as "The Villain" of Welcome Home

Or anyone for that matter imo

Listen, I can completely understand why people would go to that conclusion. "So Below" and the eerie vibe that Wally gives off in his obsession don't exactly give either a flattering light (I know there are also the art pieces on Clown's personal blog, but I'm not counting anything that hasn't been officially released yet)

But whenever someone labels a character who is acting weird as "the villain," it puts a bad taste in my mouth. At the end of the day, characters in fiction are real people with motivations, so labeling one as "evil" or "the villain" can sometimes erase that complexity. And after the most recent update, we know that Wally has A Lot of very, very complicated feelings about the situation.

Before I get into that though, I wanna point out something that Clown himself has said describes the brand of horror that "Welcome Home" gives off to themselves personally. Click here for the link to the post.

Before I get into that though, I wanna point out something that Clown himself has said describes the brand of horror that "Welcome Home" gives off to themselves personally. Click here for the link to the post.

"My home doesn't feel like home anymore."

That line sticks to me pretty hard. There's a pervasive feeling of unfamiliarity, unreality, that exists in the core of the story itself.

I think we see, firsthand, Wally experiencing this in the latest updates. In all of the hidden Bug/Answer secret videos, we see a familiar pattern. We get some sort of scene of two other characters talking, a scene in whatever universe they call home, until at the very end one of the characters addresses Wally (who was apparently there the whole time) and the video glitches out.

A key part that not a lot of people seem to realize though is that these videos are from Wally's perspective. See the above picture with Wally's hands. In every scene, Wally is present and was supposedly taking part in an activity (in the above one, helping Poppy with knitting), before the video started playing.

Whenever I saw these videos I had that same feeling that something felt. Different. The interactions felt like scenes you would see in the animated/cartoony aesthetic we'd see from the various art pieces, it doesn't feel like it's "on set/TV" to me. They're moreso just intimate glimpses into their lives. But they're shot in the real world, and that feels. Wrong.

This is very likely the same feeling that Wally's having in that moment. "My home doesn't FEEL like home." It's like he's disassociating, having a brief episode of that unreality feeling. Those bouts of strangeness don't go away until, like clockwork, someone says his name and the video ends, snapping him out of it.

Do other people in the neighborhood also feel the same way? Maybe, but we don't know. What we do know is that Wally, whether or not he tries to explain this to others, feels isolated by this sensation. "My neighbors are only neighborly until they know I'm different in a way they can see."

The only other person he likely shares this feeling with? I'd take a guess that it's Home. Nearly every time Home has been featured, Wally has been there, close. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only physical puppets/props we’ve seen of the cast are Wally and Home.

According to this post by @eldritchravens, Home is the only other person who talks directly to Us, the viewers. That's probably why they're so close, because they're the only ones who can truly confide in each other about this.

"So does that mean Home is manipulating Wally?"

Again, I really don't think that's the case. I don't wanna call people villains quite yet. Besides, we see (or well, hear) Home and Barnaby have a conversation together, and from how Barnaby reacts it's fairly casual.

This shared feeling is likely why Wally is so obsessed with us, including the Restoration Employee. They seem to be sharing a similar sensation to Wally's bouts of unreality, in the fact that it seems they're the ONLY one who doesn't remember Welcome Home being a thing. They seem to be one of the few things that Wally (and maybe even Home) consider to be "Real." Hence their obsession with "seeing" us.

"Isn't this Wally or Home manipulating the Employee though?"

Maybe, I don't know. We don't really know much of what's going on right now, we're only getting glimpses. For all we know this could be a side-effect of Wally/Home trying to reach out. For the time being though, I want to keep my own expectations in check. I'm choosing not to label Wally, Home, The Restoration Team or anyone as a "villain" until something definitive comes up.

It is very, very likely that Wally is going to be doing something more dangerous later down the line (or maybe even is doing so now). But if he's doing anything, I get the feeling it's more out of desperation. He wants something to quell this feeling inside of him, this pervasive sense of unreality, and to connect with something he feels is "real." And, for better or for worse, that thing is us.

This whole thing isn't to bash on people for speculation or theorycrafting, I personally think speculation is very healthy! But it's still important to remember what the core of this story is going to be. We're only seeing the very start of the story right now, and we don't know what'll happen down the line. It's useful to keep that core idea at the center of our speculation so we can have reasonable expectations going forward.

As for me? This doesn't feel like a story with villains. I don't think he'll pull a Monika from DDLC and start gaining a kill count, but if something does happen to the rest of the cast, my money is that it'll happen completely by accident, and he'll regret it. Hard.

I found the other bird! Whether he is still apart of Welcome Home or not who knows. He could be like Julie’s sisters and is a character that shows up less or he could have been scrapped. In general or in the story who knows.

Once more going through Welcome Home’s website and something I notice is Julie’s “horns”? I think at least. But they seem to change. Sometimes disappearing all together sometimes varying in size. While sometimes it may be her hair that hides them I still thought it was interesting to note. Especially if they do it because of her rainbow monster species has such a trait like they change based on emotion or something. Though I would then question how that would work for a puppet. Who knows? Also in the picture with the three outfit styles I noticed the trademark in the corner which might relate to an artist of the show? Just random thoughts to share.

Random thing I found scrolling through Clown’s tumblr. Though it is an older art that I found near the early stages of Clown’s project still thought I’d share.

For all I have seen this picture, it never crossed my mind that it is on the site meaning it is cannon. In some way at some time Wally used cake as a pillow in Welcome Home. I’m laughing way too hard at this.

Thank god someone can read and see!!!

Ok so I think I’ve figured out what most of this letter says confidently

Here’s what I’ve gotten so far. Don’t mind my terrible handwritting

The red-ish words are things I’m not fully confident on and I couldn’t for the life of my figure out the word after right in the bottom section.