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Indigo Park: Salem is Important

I've already done a post on why I think Lloyd is important. I go over how I think he's the first mascot and the OG face for the Indigo brand. Not to mention, drawing a parallel to Mickey and Oswald. You can read it here.

There is also this picture at the beginning of Rambley's Railroad can suggest that Lloyd is giving the deed to the park to Rambley. I.e. transferring ownership to him, as seen here.

We also see Lloyd as a statue that's very similar to the style of the Rambley and Isaac statue we see when entering the park. I haven't seen this mention with people, but I think the biggest case for the other important mascot is Salem.

(Lloyd's statue in his maze)

Anything regarding to Salem is a mystery. Salem's part in Rambley's Railroad is completely destroyed. There's splats of blood, Rambley glitches out, Salem's cutout is ripped in half, and hints that Rambley's Railroad used to be Lloyd's Limos, in the backrooms.

(Salem's section destroyed in Rambley's Railroad)

(Lloyd's Limos in the backrooms)

Any important lore drop for Indigo Park, Salem is somehow connected. In the video game portion, where it's revealed Salem was the one who was corrupting the squirrels, then goes ahead and corrupts Mollie.

This is hinting to something big, something that possibly happened to the mascots at the park. Rambley did say, in a way, the mascots are like their cartoony selves. Via when he tells Ed the truth and in the credits song. Something either corrupted them or it could be symbolic to how trauma changes you. Within the same game, if you drop near the first half off of it, we see Mollie's sprite in a cage.

I mention trauma is because I think it's obvious that Mollie and the other living mascots were physically and emotionally abused by the staff and the on-goers at the park. Mollie can repeat things that were said back to her.

"I wanna play with the birdie!" "Don't touch that thing, son." "It barely hurts at all..." "Get up, you stupid freak." "Get back in your cage, bird." "The customer is always right." Mollie and Lloyd are conscious beings who were tossed around and mistreated from the employees to the people visiting the park. They treated them like they were just props, things. The parent calls Mollie a THING. The employees called Mollie a "stupid freak" and for her to get back in her cage. As shown in the video game. They were treated like rag dolls and if they didn't do want the employees wanted, they would get beat or screamed at, or left to rot in cages. It just makes the line "It barely hurts at all!" more dark.

It barely hurts at all.

She's convincing herself that the abuse she is going through is fine or that she's used to it. Or an employee saying the abuse she is going through isn't hurting her. It barely hurts at all. I wouldn't be surprised if Indigo Park's underlying horror is mistreating people as just tensions of the park to sell a fantasy towards parent for a quick buck, instead of, y'know, treating them like people.

Not to mention, Salem uses potions. Magic. A possible hint to how the mascots were brought to life. They aren't robots or anything, but they're conscious, living beings. Now, let's take a look at Salem's intro card. It was censored before chapter 1 was released, but I believe it is important.

Note of some important things here. They are a major trouble maker, super quick, and cunning. Interesting. Personally, in a speculation of mine is that Salem was the first one to act out and think what the employees and on-goers at the park treating them and the other mascots were wrong. Anytime something of lore is dropped or something of importance, Salem is involved. Salem is important.

Either or not they're an ally or enemy to Rambley and Ed, we'll see. Heck, Salem doesn't have any merch minus a keychain. So, whenever Salem is on the screen pay attention. Isn't it odd that Rambley NEVER mentions Salem? Like, the dude mentions Lloyd and he hates his guts. Interesting.

I just realized that the picture of Rambley and Lloyd with what looks like some contract being handed off to Rambley from Lloyd in Rambleys Railroad looks very much like the picture on the ride in Disney "The many adventures of Winnie the Pooh" Of Owl being given the deed to the ride from Mr. Toad (since The many adventures of Winnie the Pooh replaced Mr. Toads wild ride.)

Could this possibly be a refrence to the picture? Or confirmation to the theory Lloyd was the original mascot?

Indigo Park Spoilers (and very long post) ahead

Since Indigo Park is the newest fandom I've been dipping into, I figured I might as well make my own analysis for the game. The question I'll be discussing today is,

WHAT EVEN ARE THESE THINGS?

(sry for bad picture quality lol)

The thing I find interesting about these mascots (Molly, Lloyd, and what we've seen of Finley) that kind of sets them apart from other monsters in the mascot horror genre is...they almost seem like they're just animals. (I'll go over evidence for this in this post)

Think about it. In other mascot horror games, we've gotten:

animatronics possessed by dead children

employees/kids surgically(?) turned into toys

people mutated by a giant ink machine

animals/people who have had their DNA spliced with a mutagenic chemical

A little girl somehow turned into a monster (I think??)(really sorry Amanda I don't know what you are)

etc.

(I'm not up to date on all these properties and I know there's many more, so forgive me if my lore understanding is less than adequate. you know how it is with indie horror)

The important note about all these is that for the most part, these mascots are intelligent, or at least have the capability of intelligence. Almost everything on this list was at one point human, in fact.

So why do I think Indigo Park is any different? What leads me to believe they aren't intelligent? (at least, the animal versions of the characters that we run from in the game. Whether they are separate from the versions of the characters Rambley interacts with is something I'll touch on later)

I think the most obvious piece of evidence in regards to Molly and Lloyd (again, not much info on Finley yet) is how Lloyd acts. He doesn't talk at all, he just stalks the main character and attacks like an animal might (with the exception of a couple times he stands on two legs or props himself up here and there).

As for Molly, I hear you saying, "But she talks! We hear her speak!" And yes, dear reader, you are right. Molly does speak. This would disprove my argument of the mascots being purely animalistic, if it weren't for this kill screen.

Now, do we ever actually hear Molly say something that isn't a repetition or couldn't reasonably be a repetition? Has she said anything to prove her intelligence at all? (genuine question here because I haven't examined every one of her voice lines lol. If I'm wrong about this then whoopsie!)

Despite the past 250 words of speculation, though, whether they act just like animals isn't actually that important. We'll see more of them in later chapters anyway (or Lloyd and Finley at least) so that will likely prove or disprove this point with time.

The more interesting question is, what are they? Like, physically?

When Molly dies, we clearly see blood around her decapitated head. At the very least that rules out animatronics or something mechanical. In addition, in the audio of the hidden tape you get when you show Rambley one of the collectables, you can hear two staff members complaining about being replaced by "new mascots" right after they "got a new raccoon costume." This could mean a few different things, but it seems to imply that the mascots we see in this chapter are meant to be replacements for actors in suits (for meet and greets, promotion, shows, etc) and/or replacements for limited, expensive, and cumbersome animatronics. If this is true, we can also probably rule out them being human. Unless Indigo Park also had a secret human experimentation lab, which I wouldn't put past them.

I think it's too early to definitively state what these mascots are, but based on the evidence of above, I have a theory.

My personal theory is that these mascots are just animals who have been changed or mutated in some way to allow the park to have more "realistic" representations of the characters (also probably to cut down on the costs of paying a human employee). That would explain why they act the way they do and why they are so violent. They literally are just wild animals who have been warped to represent these cartoon characters.

Another important caveat to this theory is that, if this is true, then the mascots who attack us in the game are most likely NOT Rambley's "friends" as he knows them. That would explain why he doesn't call attention to Molly chasing us or Molly's dead body (with the exception of one very small reaction when he talks about the mascots). You would expect him to seem a little more upset if he thought that was his friend, but maybe on some level he knows it's not really her, just a representation of her.

That brings up another question, which is a can of worms I won't fully open here: Do Molly, Lloyd, and Finley have sentient "AI" equivalents like Rambley? If not, does Rambley know his friends aren't real? I'll let you decide.

Anyway, that just about closes my thoughts on this silly raccoon game. Thanks for letting me ramble on about it, and thanks for making it to the end of the post!

Lemme know about your own theories in regards to what these things are, or if there's any key evidence I missed. Kinda threw this together lol. Most of it will likely get disproven by future chapters but hey, thus is the price of theorizing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯