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Me personal theory:
Robert's sister somehow got SUPER hyped up on spiked candy, making her more sick and then making her go ballistic, which everyone mistakes for a possession, so they call Gregor to deal with it. Skid and Pump are there because they know Rob's sister from school (but don't know she's his sister until the events of the episode) and came over because they thought it was cool that their classmate got possessed, because of course they would think that.
Because of this they all end up isolated from Kevin's plot of dealing with the spiked candy. This could lead to a joke at the end of the episode with someone warning the boys, Robert's family and Gregor about the candy after they already figured it out and got the sister back to normal.
Edit: Just saw the new character outlines on the patreon post preview (since I can't afford to donate) and they're almost certainly Robert's parents and grandma, with the individual description hinting at their future appearances... Or I'm just huffing copium.
I think SM 6 is gonna have 2 main plots/POVs, one being Kevin and the Candy Dealer + Candy Cartel (because Kevin has 8 minutes of voiced lines and one of the OC submissions options was in the Candy Club), and another being Skid and Pump + something to do with religion (based on something that was shared on Patreon), and that those 2 plots will overlap, like with Lila, Jaune and the cops and Bob with Skid and Pump in SM 5
I keep forgetting to talk about this but the time has finally come, does anyone else wind it weird that Susie is the sixth playable character in the SM board game? Like, let's look at the others and then I'll epxlain.
Skid and Pump are the main characters so of course they're there, and the same goes for Lila. Roy has one of the clearer defined character arcs in the series and represents the Hatzgang as a whole. John is the more serious of the cops who have their own background plot which is building the overarching narrative. Kevin is the series main "comic relief" and a fan favorite as well as seemingly being a very major character in the next episode.
With all these characters, I'd probably guess the last one is Frank if I didn't know it was Susie, which tells me that Susie will become a much more important character than she currently is, which I'm really excited for. Unfortunately, this also might imply Frank's episode was one of the two to get cut and his arc will either be greatly reduced, though I hope I'm wrong about that.
You know, I was looking at the Halloween drawing and comparing it to the new one when I had a horrifying realization.
In both images Roy seems uncomfortable with being in a proper costume, but has no issue "making" a generic (and non horror adjacent) costume in Tender Treats.
I tried to figure out why when I remembered that specific costumes, usually with some morbid/horror twist, are sometimes used in roleplay which coupled with Roy's trauma would explain his aversion to traditional Halloween costumes and for the holiday in general, which could be a great parallel between him and the spookies.
(Also the ghost on the right in this year's image is meant to represent Dexter, you can tell by the mis-matchd eyes)
Analyzing the SM6 spoiler collage
A bit late to the party with this one, but I have some ideas I haven't seen brought up by anyone else so buckle up and get ready to theorize!
Let's start with the easy stuff:
priest-Gregor
exorcism-Gregor attempts to perform an exorcism but likely gets possessed himself (see the demon priest poster at the movie theatre in Tender Treats)
church-We get a better look at the local church, seeing as the door we see in Tender Treats has a cult diamond shaped window in it, there should be some pretty interesting stuff in there, maybe even the tome from the ARGs
burglars-The thieves
cat lady- Even if you're like me and not a patron you can still tell based on blurred image previews and post titles that one of the new characters is an old woman and there's also a bunch of cats slated to appear in the episode. It's pretty easy to see the connection.
touhou plushie in the bottom left-just confirming there will be more Touhou references
Less obvious stuff that I feel really confident in:
the nine circles of Hell-Since were likely to meet a new demon this episode we may also get a glimpse at the SMverse version of Hell
women drinking-Lila goes to Jaune's house and gets drunk with her, this is also where we meet Jaune's husband in person, since he's confirmed to be in the episode
furnace-Dexter's body is cremated, likely by Patty after she's possessed by the new demon to release Moloch, who then possesses Gregor
Ones I'm less sure about:
marionette-Either something to do with the over-arcing cult plot or just a reference to the general idea of possession
angel-Possibly an angelic being who appears later in the episode, or more entertainingly, a character who acts as a rival to Susie, who is obsessed with angelic imagery
water bottles and ice bottles-My best guess is something to do with Kevin and the candy cartel
eyes-While it may be tempting to relate this to Eyes, I think the stark bright eyes against black may represent the Candy Dealer
person waking up-Someone comes to after being un-possessed and feels great and doesn't remember the possession, either that or something with some new character
blood flow-I honestly have no fucking clue on this one, maybe some kind of demonic infection or just saying there will be a lot of blood
Spooky Watch (a Spooky Month x Yo-Kai Watch au)
An idea first pondered by @crossover-enthusiast and actually "made" by me. This will involve both lore and hypothetical gameplay/structure.
The Premise
Due to (as of yet undefined) things his dad did, Skid naturally has the ability to see spirits, referred to as spooks.
He half-accidentally summons Moloch, who runs loose, in an effort to convince Pump the spirits he's seeing are real, as you could probably tell, Skid and Pump are less oblivious and somewhat more mature.
While trying to catch Moloch, the boys meet Eyes, who is the leader of all the spooks in town. Learning about what's happening, they gift Pump (as well as Roy and Kevin) a spooky watch (a visual cross between the yo-kai watch and the cult pendants) hoping to let humans and spooks better understand and befriend each other. Eyes is unaware that most spooks are going to use this "thinning of the veil" for their own ends.
After Moloch is dealt with Roy's parents and later mayor Evermore find out about the watches and form the cult in an effort to take and/or recreate the watches so they can enslave the spooks.
Spooks!
Moloch is mostly unchanged, with the exception of not having a lower body at all, as he's a molten gargoyle.
Dexter, specifically the Dexter Fella, is the one spook everyone can see, in the vane of Manjimutt from the anime, always being mistaken for a weird short man. But unlike Manjimutt, Dex intentionally scares people, just not for the reason he wants.
The actual Happy Fella and Sad Guy are also spooks, named Laughella and Gloomuy.
Ooga Booga is a spook that just wants to jumpscare people. In a hypothetical game, she would act like Babblong.
Frank is now Vanab, a van spook based on the toy van Frank from the Deadly Smiles credits. He would also act as the Spooky Watch Mirapo, except instead of teleporting you, he just picks you up and zooms you away.
The Thieves appear as the very yo-kai they were dressed as in the 2019 Halloween drawing by Pelo. Their goofy, reoccurring side villains.
Here Bob is Vealsin, a pig-devil spook who is obsessed with exotic food, an obsession he shares by inspiriting people. When the boys, Roy and Kevin all get to the abandoned Boys n' Grills where Bob declares them his dinner guests, then the eating rhythm game, and then the fight. Bob being a cultist is reflected in Vealsin willingly working with the mayor.
And lastly, SKIDAD! He appears from the mannequin after Moloch gets loose and acts as the Whisper. He looks like a sentient speech bubble.
O yeah I know it's been a couple months but since I reblogged the post again:
0, 1, and 9 for Kevin
3, 5, and 8 for Roy
Kevin
----
0- The background changes for his nervous breakdowns, art style shifts are always a pleasant surprise to me, especially when their associated with a specific character.
1- It's simple but effective. He manages to have the vibe of someone who (when Skid and Pump aren't around) generally enjoys his job without really being passionate about it. And I just plain love his little floof.
9- This poor bastard needs someone in his life and given who he's usually shipped with, I'd say their pretty good. The only one I take issue with is him and Lila since Kevin feels like a guy in his mid twenties, roughly ten years younger than Lila.
----
Roy (thank you so much for asking about him, I have so much brainrot of him)
----
3- The scene with his parents and him then giving the candy to Rob for his sister. It just does so much for all the characters and is the first major scene for Roy's arc, it's also more wholesome than a lot of the "individual" scene endings in both TT and past episodes.
5- Like Pump, he has some residual effects left over from his encounter with Eyes making him sensitive to supernatural energy. We might see this in a scene where Carmen and Richard come home from a "late meeting".
8- Roy's sensitive about his weight but in a very complex way. He was picked on for it when he was little, but Carmen would always console him, having been a heavier kid herself. The only issue is the same assurances also came from *you know who*, which left Roy feeling very conflicted. If someone makes a dig at him over it he would usually stand up for himself, but for a while after The Stars he would just kind of glaze over while Ross and Robert whooped a bitch.
----
Happy to see this game resurrecting.
Volume 7 of Spooky Months Headcanons
Been a while, hasn't it?
Mr. Wonder was a banker. His son would somewhat follow in his footsteps and become an accountant.
Kevin used to have long hair but has had to keep it short since he started working at the Candy Club, as part of company policy.
Dexter had a bowl cut as a kid (This is a reference to a specific character from a specific show that only @crossover-enthusiast will get)
Pump absolutely gets arrested for doing something stupid on his 13th birthday.
While we're at it, Pump would drink at Skid's 21st birthday even though he's a year younger. Because you cannot seriously tell me that a 20 year old Pump would give a flying fuck about drinking age laws.
Jaune and Lila used to be friends with Carmen. They were the only girls who didn't bully her for her weight, but in their teens Carmen's weight wet to all the right places and she ditched them for the popular girls.
This started as a bit of a joke, but I took a liking to it, Robert is actually his middle name, his first name is Tom. Which you might remember was his original name when The Stars came out. He prefers to go by Robert to better fit with his friends.
I just realized we recreated the Kevin-Skid-Pump dynamic with Dave, Shawn and Val
Oh damn, you're actually right!
Love to see it
Spooky Month 6 predictions
So, as a non-patron, my access to sm6 teaser is very limited, but that's exactly what makes me so fascinated by what I can get of them.
After combing through the teaser, I've managed to construct an outline of the episode's plot.
I hope my fellow non patrons will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
LET'S BEGIN:
The episode begins with a typical spooky month set up with a montage of Skid and Pump running around town.
Some scenes in this segment are: Lila and Jaune are getting drunk together, the Kevin clip we got the other day and a scene with Rick and the cops at Gonuts, this sequence will likely introduce a new character or 2.
Most importantly, they come across the Hatzgang and Robert asks them to take something to his sister at the hospital.
After this, the boys come across Frank, who drops them off in front of the hospital at the same time as Gregor arrives, having been called by Patty to handle the Moloch situation.
At this point, we cut to a corner of hell where a New Demon (hereafter referred to as ND) realizes how long Moloch's been gone and decides to find him.
Back in the human world, the spookies try to follow Gregor into the morgue and briefly succeed, meeting a new mortician character, only for Patty to boot them out.
Afterwards they run into two men, one dressed in a Happy Fella costume and the other being the teased business man character, looking for the room of a severely ill girl who made request with a Make-A-Wish type group to meet Happy Fella, the boys assume the girl in question is Robert's sister, but she isn't and Rob's sister meets Happy Fella at the expense of a far more sick child.
Somewhere around this point we get a side plot involving the thieves looking for something hidden in the church, but their search leads them to the house of an old cat lady, this acting as the episode's major subplot. The item in question likely being cult related.
Back to the boys, we see that Robert's sister has many Happy Fella dolls, one possibly being possessed by Dexter, Skid and Pump naturally start destroying them.
Afterwards, they return to the morgue where Dexter's body has been cremated, releasing Moloch and letting him possess Gregor or Patty, either way, whoever he doesn't possess gets possessed by ND, who arrives at the perfect time start a demon fight! (which ends up being 2 bodies ragdolling in midair and occasionally smacking against each other)
Pump suggests they call Lila, but Skid says she told him she'll be busy, this is then contrasted with a scene of Lila and Jaune in full pisshead mode, when Jaune's husband calls to check up on them.
Then we get the climax of the boys (possibly with the presence of an angelic being) performing a double exorcism.
Annnd, that's it!
Special shout out to @crossover-enthusiast for helping my iron out some of these ideas.
Analyzing the SM6 cast line up teaser
More fun for the non-patrons as a height chart of episode 6's characters dropped and I have *thoughts*
Before we delve into the analysis, be advised that this will reference my SM6 prediction post, which can be found here.
And out last bit of preface
These three new characters teased in an earlier update are hereafter referred to as the businessman, the new mortician and the cat lady.
Bear that in mind.
So here's the 2 lined height chart, so let's start putting names to these blobs!
Line 1: The Thieves, Lila, Skid and Pump, Susie (she's pretty hard to see, but you can mostly notice her shirt and hair), Mr. Wonder, Jaune, Jaune's Husband (who was shown in full in an earlier update).
The next figure at first appears to be another shadow, but upon closer inspection seems to be Father Gregor, after that we have;
The Cat Lady, Dexter (likely in another missing ad or for his body being unpossessed, if for a moment), Patty, John and Jack, then we have the first totally new character, a massive person (taller than Frank, making them the new tallest human in the series) who brings me to my first new theory:
This character, whose proportions are highly evocative of a cartoon vampire, will be either yet another new mortician, or in charge of the hospital's blood bank. Funnily enough, this actually matches weirdly well to a half-joking conversation me and @crossover-enthusiast had the other day.
Line 2: Skid and Pump again (for reference), Ross, Robert and Roy, Kevin, Radford (in his teased casual outfit), the actor in the Happy Fella suit, Mayor Evermore, The New Mortician and then... Roy's Uncle??!?!
This might be my biggest validation yet, as I've had a thought for some time of us first seeing the New Demon in hell, torturing the Uncle, if this ends up being true, I am officially the king of the SM fandom!... Where were we?
Oh yeah, we then have; Ignacio, The Businessman, Frank and yet another totally new character, a portly person I have no solid theories on.
Before I leave, I'd like to mention some characters who are missing here (other than Moloch and any other supernatural characters who might appear). Those being; Lucky, the Actor and Actress and Rick.
Rick is the only notable outlier, as he's a relatively major character, so where is he?
Well, I think Rick's absence is quite simple to explain. While not outright confirmed, Rick is heavily implied to be working at Gonuts in episode 6, meaning he's wearing a new uniform. I think Pelo just didn't want to spoil this, and so left Rick and his new outfit out of the line up.
And that's all I've got! One last note before we're done here, I'm pretty sure next week's update will be the episode 6 trailer, so there's that.
8 Days to Hollow Sorrows
Today's headcanon: Kevin has multiple exes, all of whom have since come down to the Candy Club to antagonize him on at least one occasion. This is mostly because Kevin's aggressive side really came out during the breakups.
This was at the end of a patreon post about the credits tier so....
This is pretty big, because we know HS will feature 3d animation (like in "Hi Kevin" scene Pelo tweeted), so there's good odds that they needed an on model and fully rigged Gregor model for something in the episode itself.
Get hyped!
EDIT: He's doing a different dance on X
Reviewing the Hollow Sorrows soundtrack
I did this back with the TADC pilot an had a great time with it, so I'm back with the latest addition to the SM score
Foolish Sinners
I really like the variety on display here, the spider's presence being underscored by frantic strings being a particular highlight. Short and sweet opening track.
The Garden's Guardian
Given that Gregor is the featured character of the episode, it's really important for his theme to be both effective and non-intrusive, as it plays several times in the episode. The actual feeling of the song is a great example of "showing the character's truth", as in, encapsulating Skid and Pump's first impressions of the father.
I'm Glad I Picked This Job
One of those fun bit tracks we get every so often in SM, and with a lovely chip-tune feel. My only complaint is that it makes me more bitter about the fact we won't get a proper sci-fi themed episode.
Sweet Enough
This one I'm a bit mixed on, we didn't really need another variant of Sweet & Sour, especially since we actually get 2 in this episode alone. It's not bad by any means, it just felt a bit unneeded.
Holy Sweet
I like how deliberately out of place this song feels, it feeds into the sense that Gregor is new and not used to the town's "local ways". Again, this also calls back to a character's truth, with Kevin's immediate dislike of Gregor.
Vessel's Parasite
I love the way this song unfolds like a summoning ritual for Moloch, it helps in setting just how much of a threat he really is. There's little else to say, just a great horror track.
The 9th Circle
So, this is the first appearance of what I've dubbed the "exorcism motif", but only later into the song, after it expands on Vessel's Parasite. This is followed by the emotional interlude, which I'm somewhat disappointed didn't feature the Happy Fella motif. The piano segment following this is the exorcism motif I alluded to earlier.
Valley of Shadows
I love this track, easily my favorite for this episode, it conveys a very unique energy that I feel it could only really be accompanied by a monster rampaging through town. I also like how it just so happened that the first SM episode to release after Undertale Yellow features what's easily the most Toby Fox-esqe track in the whole series, at least up to this point. I can't be the only one picking up the Dummy motif, right?
Ashes to Ashes
I'll just say what we're all thinking, I wish we got more of the evil Spooky Swings at the beginning, but alas, that isn't what the scene called for. Then we get the more intense version of the exorcism motif, which leads into the final confrontation. Said confrontation just amps up the drama of the melody, but in a very natural way.
Ruega Por Nosotros
I really like this simple track is composed of 2 neat segments, Gregor's motif and the exorcism motif. It helps sell the feeling of a literal hollow victory.
33:20
This really is just great eldritch ambience to be a cultist too, but that's all it needs to be. It also helps show Eyes as a genuine threat for the first time.
Disbelieve
First off, I find it interesting that the title isn't "Disbelief", but "Disbelieve", as if it's an order. Which would be fitting, as this is the first time we see the boys in genuine emotional pain and confusion. I'm very interested to see if this theme's motif will make any future appearances or quotes.
Judgement Hour
A really solid credits theme, it doesn't quite top Compliments to The Chef, but the way it starts as a Friendly Nightmares remix, before the Ooga Booga break and then goes into it's own thing is really creative and makes for a unique experience.
Now for the tracks outside the main episode.
I enjoyed this year's variation of the Newgrounds theme, and it's interesting how you can almost make out a genuine melody in title_missing3, like it's foreshadowing a theme for the Candy Dealer. Tubular Swings is nice, but nothing to really write home about.
I KNOW WHAT THE NEXT SPOOKY SHORT IS GOING TO BE ABOUT
Okay, I know this is a bit of a clickbait-y title, but I'm writing this in a stroke of inspiration (courtesy of @crossover-enthusiast) and really think I'm onto something.
A while back, Pelo used this image to announce he was working on a second Spooky Short, one about Kevin's greatest fear/enemy, in his own words.
Since then, we've had a few hints on it's further contents and it's from those contents I believe I've cracked it's general plot.
This tiny image show's Kevin at work, nothing noteworthy there, if it wasn't for one of the updates on the short:
It's pretty obvious that Kevin is in casual attire. The best explanation for this, at least in my eyes, is that the short will open with Kevin finishing work and going home. The focus of the short will be on Kevin's personal life. But we can get even more specific in our prediction.
In this video (shoutout to @spooky-month-archive) we hear that Skid and Pump want to go trick or treating, and given when it's being recorded, it has to be for the short.
So now, with all this in hand, let's move onto THE PREDICTION
Kevin gets off work at the Candy Club and goes home (likely a small dingy apartment). He tries to relax, but Skid and Pump turn up at his door trick or treating, he initially tries to get rid off them, but then encounters the enemy alluded to earlier, who I'm guessing is either Kevin's landlord/lady or an ornery neighbor. Whoever they are, Kevin's enemy has a go at him, which provokes the spookees, who stand up for their "friend". The whole idea of the shot being that Kevin is more openly accepting of the spookees by the end.
We only have about 2 months before the short comes out, so we won't have to wait long to put this theory to the test
Assigning Starkids to Spooky Month characters
Kevin - Jon Matteson
Dexter Erotoph - Jeff Blim
Michelle Erotoph - Jaime Lyn Beatty
Patty Azure - Mariah Rose Faith Casillas
Jack - Corey Dorris
Rick Hedony - Dylan Saunders
Jaune - Lauren Lopez
Aaron - Joey Richter
Costume Guy - James Tolbert
Ignacio - Curt Mega
Radford - Jae Hughes
Carmen - Kim Whalen
Lil Streber!! I put a bat cloak I found on pintrest on him
Also bonus Kevin!!
CandyBats doodles