my name might be Luka he/they

The type of orange cats who make up the Lazy Paw Gang and that Cooking Cat is are originally from Mafia Town pre-invasion, but the Mafia saw them as pests and drove most of them away.

Cooking Cat decided to remain in her home in hiding so as to try and preserve some of its original culture by continuing to cook its traditional cuisine (a big reason for what we see him do, in addition to the mafia just being bad cooks, in ch1 act4)

The reason why it's always night in Subcon is because the whole forest is literally stuck in time. I have no source for this I just think it goes hand in hand with the heavy theme of being trapped in the horrors of the past that ghost focused settings automatically arouse. Don't ask me how. I'm just the ideas guy I don't do the logistics.

In addition to being semi-verbal, the reason we don't hear Hat Kid talk a lot throughout the game is because she's still actively learning the language of the planet and is picking up words and their meaning as she goes. She's a freakishly fast leaner so by Chapter 3 she usually understands more or less of what people are saying to her. She also likes using the in-game stickers to communicate when she doesn't feel like talking, which is a lot of the time.

The Moon Penguins are unionized.

The law school the Prince went away to study at was on the island that now is Mafia Town, but back then hundreds of years ago was still the City of Calcite.

Snatcher HATES HATES HATES people pleasers and can sus them out like THAT. They remind him of his past self.

MU's favorite foods are Apochti and Spanakopita (greek MU is real to me)

That "How to kill kids" book Snatcher's always reading? He's not actually reading it. He's usually reading a different book but then pulls out that one instead when Hat Kid's approaching to send a message. I mean...it's all pictures and whenever you check he's always on the same page, plus we know he does crazier for the sake of performance.

Conductor is so fucking divorced bro. He has multiple kids but only a few still speak with him with his daughter being the one to still have a good relationship with him.

Hat Kid experiences lower empathy; feeling it for others doesn't come as easy to her as it does to other people, so she doesn't always realize something she does might hurt someone. She can be pretty careless in that way. Doesn't mean she doesn't deeply care for and love her friends like MU and Bow though, and try her hardest to be more conscientious for them.

Vanessa and the Prince were set to wed since birth for royal bloodline reasons, and even though when they met as children they quickly became close friends, the marriage and relationship itself was lavender in the sense they were both unknowingly on the aro spectrum. Though there was love there, the societal pressure for it to be romantic and hetero-normative caused the relationship to boil down to a performance as they got older and were made to fill their societal roles above all else. As Vanessa grew more and more concerned with properly playing her role out of fear of what would happen to her and the entire kingdom she was now suddenly responsible for if she didn't (thanks to the terror her mother instilled in her since she was little), she would lash out more and more when the Prince always inevitably failed to play the part due to undiagnosed ADHD and not being entirely cis (unbeknownst to him). As this progressed the Prince would slowly watch his dearest life long friend become colder and stranger to him, and would try to combat this by doing everything he could to accommodate her, but in the process would lose more of himself. Going so far away for law school was a choice made at least subconsciously in part to escape this stifling dynamic, and while it definitely was the best choice for the Prince and his own emotional/mental well being, for Vanessa being left totally alone (in her mind) to try and figure out her new role as Queen just caused further pressure and isolation, spawning a worsening paranoia in addition to her cold and controlling behavior. She came to believe her advisors and servants were spies out to get her, and when she cast them out or had them beheaded it just left her more alone, continuing the cycle. The Prince's letter talking about another woman he met in school was the true final straw. When he came back from school on break to surprise her, seeing him with the Florist just confirmed her own biases. You know the rest.

Vanessa did truly love her kingdom, and was horrified by/in denial about how it kept changing for the worse once under her rule. She wanted desperately for everything to just be okay, for there to have been nothing wrong, for things to stay as they were when they were good, for her and her Prince's relationship to be how it was before, for things to stay frozen in time. But sometimes love isn't enough, and sometimes it's the reason you do terrible things.

Bow LOVES magical girl anime

Hat Kid constantly throwing herself into harms way and her recklessness often worries Bow and later on it becomes a point of contention in their relationship. Hatties own nonchalant behavior towards the danger she finds herself in while Bow is made to wonder if her closest friend is alive or not in some cases gets. SO exhausting. "I know you don't care about yourself, but can't you at least care about me? How do you think I'd feel if you just weren't here anymore?" type of deal.

DJ Grooves GENUINELY feels horrible after what he did to Hat Kid over the time piece. As a result he stepped out of the spotlight for a while to reassess why he was making movies in the first place, and his role/responsibilities as an artist and public figure. It's why we don't see him at the cruise, but we do see Conductor, who if HE was the one to fight Hat Kid doesn't actually feel deep remorse and therefore doesn't step away to reflect and try to be better.

Hat Kid and Bow are technically older than the rest of the cast because they're originally from a place beyond time and space, and whenever asked their age they give a different answer every time as a running bit.

Following this logic, it's likely they'll outlive everyone else on the planet currently (aside from Snatcher which.....WOW that sucks. For everyone involved).

Hat Kid gets roped into doing contracts for Snatcher the same time she got roped into acting in BOTH Deadbird Studio movies, meaning the only time she could probably go to Subcon to finish the contracts was at night, meaning for like a week she was probably getting no sleep and was run ragged. I like to think in this time Cooking Cat did what she could to take care of this clearly struggling kid. He wouldn't have time to like, act as a guardian or anything, but definitely made sure the kid was at least eating full meals, which without Hat Kid might not have gotten through.

The reason Cooking Cat joined the others in berating MU was because she was scared of the already flimsy peace she maintained for herself in Mafia Town after everything being torn down too, scared that large scale rebellion would only prolong the violence and subjugation he faced under the mafia and that it was instead best to keep ones head down and do what they could under wraps. She quickly came to her senses and realized how wrong this was after the fact, and that MU was just a traumatized child in the same position as her, and went out to try and find/help her after ch5.

Being sourced from her own social paranoia related to her loved ones, Vanessa's ice magic can cause others see and believe horrible things that aren't true about their own loved ones. This is why in the mannor, when Hat Kid sees the frozen corpses scattering the hallways, she imagines them to be her own friends and family back at a home she, at this point, isn't sure she might ever return to.

Vanessa's curse only works if on some level you're willing to give into it. I don't doubt there's resentment for Snatcher on the kiddo's part, and they were susceptible to the chance to work against him (look it's not my favorite DLC but I wanna make it work in canon SOME HOW).

The Prince's hair is originally a similar deep blackish indigo that Snatcher adorns (a common physical feature for Subconites) but was heavily pressured into lightening it to fit in appearance with the royal lineage he was entering. The brown we see was as far he was willing to go before Vanessa decided herself it wasn't enough and had to go further.

Ok so let's talk about how Gears for Breakfast accidentally created the most compelling aromantic horror story I have ever laid eyes upon

Starting with the way the storybook is set up:

A typical fairytale

Now there's a certain heteronormity and ESPECIALLY allonormity that can be inferred by the ideas of a stereotypical fairytale that can be seen directly in the story book

The Prince and Princess always fall in love and always live happily ever after, that's just how it is!

And that allonormitive mindset bleeds into the entire genre to the point where WE as the audience see 2 people with crowns holding hands surrounded by hearts and we instantly assume we know what's going on here

But we don't

AHiT subverts the allonormitive fairytale narrative for something much darker, something that paints an idyllic fairytale romance as a nightmare scenario

And that's the important part to me:

Romance as a nightmare scenario and love as horror

Even if we don't know everything about The Prince and Vanessa's relationship we can infer one thing:

That Vanessa's feelings were FAR stronger than The Prince's were

Think about it: the only perspective we get from The Prince is a single letter and the act of buying flowers, THAT'S IT! while almost anytime we see Vanessa she's going on about how obsessed she is with The Prince

She bans bacon because he likes it

She cuts his hair without his consent

She fantasizes about locking him in the cellar

It's clear as day that what Vanessa feels for the Prince is far stronger than what he feels for her and that it's possible he can't even properly reciprocate her "love" for him

And while these actions are 100% abusive and not healthy in the slightest for ANY kind of relationship, it can still be interpreted as whatever type of "love" she feels for him not being the same as the love he feels for her, which is a common struggle and even fear for some aromantic people!

I do not speak for the entire aromantic community but the idea of someone developing feelings for me is genuinely terrifying and my inability to reciprocate said feelings resulting in a one-sided obsession is even more terrifying!

No matter how much he "loves" her back, The Prince will never be able to "love" Vanessa the way she "loves" him, and that's what destroys Subcon!

and the final nail in the coffin was a bouquet of flowers... a traditionally romantic gift...

Now let's talk about the cellar and how it ties into all of this (this might get a bit dark so be weary)

We can tell from the diary pages that Vanessa didn't just choose to throw The Prince down there on a whim, this was a PLANNED punishment that she fantasized about doing to him before the incident even happened

it obvious she wanted to completely remove his agency by literally chaining him to a wall, making him into a decoration to gawk at NOT A PERSON now there's a VERY SPECIFIC thing this could be a metaphor of but for the sake of not stretching too much and keeping this post "safe" im not going to make that connection what i AM gonna talk about is how being aromantic means certain people dehumanize you because in their eyes if you cant reciprocate their idea of "love" then you are less than human, something to isolate and mock almost like being locked in a cellar... Vanessa's treatment of The Prince removes his agency in the "relationship" and invalidates his "love" for her as "not being enough!" which is something that many aromantic people stuck in toxic relationships can relate to! her "love" for him is so intense and volatile and suffocating that nothing he can do even compares to what she feel towards him and she gets upset when he cant properly "love" her the way she wants him to!

and it kills him

she leaves him down in the cellar to die and it kills him

but this is just the beginning... OH BOY TIME TO TALK ABOUT

SNATCHER

oh boy where do i even start with this guy- seriously how do i even BEGIN talking about the aroace swag this ghost possesses???? they ditched their horrid ex, took over the woods, acquired an army of children loyal minions, and is just living their afterlife chilling in the woods without any need or want for another partner! sure sometimes he reminisces about her but does he plan on going back? HELL NO!!! he has all he could ever want! he doesn't need her! he doesn't need anyone!!! except his kids ofc

seriously this ghost is living my dream rn "but what about the soulmate comment from deathwish!" DO YOU THINK HE WANTS TO GO BACK???? im pretty sure that was just nostalgia (which does not equal actually wanting to be with her again) its clear that they're much happier spending their afterlife without the need for love than they were when they were alive and chained to Vanessa AND I LOVE THAT!1!!1!1! I LOVE SEEING CHARACTERS REALIZE THAT THEY DON'T NEED A SIGNIFICANT OTHER TO MAKE THEM HAPPY!1!1!1! I LOVE SEEING SNATCHER BE FREE FROM HIS PREVIOUSLY ALLONORMATIVE RELATIONSHIP!1!1!1! seriously this guy is living his best afterlife single and i love that for him sm now... why is this so important? why should this matter to you?

aro/ace characters are rare to come by in media and any sliver of representation we can get is always a welcome sight! seeing a character who was previously chained down by a relationship free himself of those chains and reclaim his (after)life for himself is a narrative that many aro/ace people can admire and relate to! seeing so much of a focus of romance in fandom spaces can be very hostile ESPECIALLY towards those who are romance repulsed and people who are just tired of seeing it everywhere i wrote this "essay" as a way to not only share a very underrated headcanon which ive held onto for years but to also shed light on how important stories like this can be for those on the aromantic spectrum! i hope ive made at least a few people think about this perspective more and i hope you can respect my personal interpretation of Subcon Forest's story (you can always have your own interpretation!)

anyways thanks for reading! idk what else to say so uhhh-