As this is a Fridge page, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!

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Fridge Brilliance

Of course the Devil owns a casino — the sum of all of the numbers on a roulette, a famous casino game, is 666.
- Also, many religions consider gambling to be sinful. Considering they cater heavily to the common cardinal sins of greed, gluttony, lust, and pride, is it any wonder that the Devil makes one his headquarters?
- It's also a reference to his M.O. "The House Always Wins", after all, and the Devil is perfectly happy to rig the games to win souls.
- The game also emulates the style of the late 20s and the early 30s — around the time of The Great Depression. Back then, gambling would have been seen as an extremely prideful show of excess, with the economy in such a horrific state, making the "gambling is bad" message era-appropriate.
Get to the last phase of "All Bets Are Off!" and King Dice will finally fight by making lines of cards march out of his sleeves, while laughing as a cartoonish villain. And it's nothing but Aces. So he's literally a Card-Carrying Villain with an Ace up his sleeve!
The Devil's first form has an attack where he grows goat horns and hooves, another where his head turns into a snake, and one more where he grows four more arms and tears his head off to become a smaller spider. In The Bible, goats represented evil, and as for the snake, the Devil himself took the form of one to tempt Adam and Eve. All three forms could also be a reference to demon princes, with the goat being Baphomet, the snake being Lucifer, and the spider being Baal.
The name of the setting is Inkwell Isles. The first Fleischer cartoon that combined live action and animation was "Out of the Inkwell".
The player can choose whether or not to join the Devil. Most cartoon characters pre-Hays code didn't have to conform to a standard of morality. Thus, while Cuphead and Mugman can get called out for gambling, they don't have to be role models for children.
Djimmi being based on Arabian genies but having heavy Egyptian theming is probably meant to invoke the theme parks' approach to foreign cultures — remember the Inkwell Isle II is actually a theme park. Imagine an entrepreneur from the 30s being told to design a genie set and responding "Arabia and Egypt are basically the same place, right?"
Djimmi smoking a pipe throughout his boss fight may seem sort of inexplicable, considering it doesn't really fit the rest of his design and it's barely used during the fight, but remember that in mythology, genies were said to be created from smoke and fire.
In two-player mode, you can revive your dead partner. How? By parry-slapping the ghost's heart. Effectively, you're giving your partner CPR.
- Elsewhere in the game, parrying ghosts gets rid of them. Here you're getting rid of the ghost by making them no longer a ghost.
During the fight with Werner Werman, you can see the cat, Katzenwagen, looking into the mouse hole. At first, you'd think this is just meant to invoke the classic Tom and Jerry scenario. Upon learning it's a mech suit, it all makes sense; it was on standby mode, ready in case Werner's fight went south.
- Further, Werner is German, and based on the Union Jack in the background, the owner of the house (and by extension Katzenwagen) is English. So the cat is a Tommy and the mouse is a Jerry.
Katzenwagen actually being useful/helpful to Werner fits the Tom and Jerry reference too. The two are often prone to forming an Enemy Mine when someone worse comes along.
During Wally Warbles' final phase, his head will occasionally transform into a garbage can as it spits out garbage upwards, all while he's on the stretcher. He's trash talking you.
- It can also be interpreted as him being a trashy dad.
- Him being kinda dead as his feathers are burned off? He's a deadbeat dad.
It fits that Cala Maria changes from a mermaid into a gorgon if you recall the Mythology about Poseidon (her mermaid form) and Medusa (her gorgon form).
Why does Cala Maria summon ghost pirates in one of her attacks? She's swallowed a lot of Seamen.
- It could also double as another reference to Moby-Dick, in which the whale swallowed a bunch of seamen.
- Another possibility: Cala Maria dives underwater several times (to collect her fish minions). She's getting the souls of dead sailors from Davy Jones' Locker.
Of all the King's Court members to choose from, why does King Dice personally appear in Mister Wheezy's match (as an arm and leg cameo)? Because they're both designed after the same person — Cab Calloway, that is! The connection also makes Dice stepping on Wheezy at the end of the match darkly funnier in a way.
King Dice's design is very clever, particularly the placement of the pips on his die head:
- His nose is the 1 of the die that makes up his head. ^note This could be a subtle allusion to "snake eyes" (rolling two ones), which is not only the roll that causes Cuphead and Mugman to lose the craps game, but also a way of calling him a metaphorical snake (as in, an untrustworthy person).
- Furthermore, notice the pips on King Dice's head. The front and back of his head each have 1 and 6 pips respectively, the sides of his head have 3 and 4 pips, and on top of his head there are 5 pips, which would leave the 2 side on the bottom of his head... but of course, you can never see it because the bottom side is where his body is. Or at least, not the side itself; you can still see the 2 pips... which serve as the buttons on his vest.
Pink is a vibrant color, perfect for showing off MDHR's colorization process, which would have been expensive and cutting-edge at the time, so the parry mechanic calls attention to it.
- A related thought process probably went into making the game Nintendo Hard: mimicking the style of the 20s and 30s is a difficult and infamously expensive process; all that effort would be wasted on bosses and levels that are only played once. By making them difficult, the amount of time the player spends in each level (either beating it the first time or perfecting the run) goes up exponentially.
As these two players note, Bonbon is an allusion to Marie-Antoinette (being able to decapitate and throw her head at Cuphead), along with the saying misattributed to her, "let them eat cake" (her castle is the cake).
Those mosquitoes from "Treetop Trouble" that are helping Cuphead and Mugman defeat their level's miniboss aren't doing it just to be nice and subvert stereotypes. The boss is a giant dragonfly and, in reality, mosquitoes are the ideal prey of the common dragonfly species. So, the boss has either enslaved them or is about to eat them later, but not doing so, because it has to defend its territory first, while the mosquitoes want revenge. It's also why, conversely, the dragonfly couldn't care less about killing them.
If you align the background of Carnival Kerfuffle with how it is positioned on the world map, they do line up, except for one thing: the roller coaster carts. They are positioned so that they seem to go the opposite direction as to how they go in the boss battle.^note But who exactly is the boss we're fighting again? Oh yeah, that's right, a clown! So it would make perfect sense if Beppi simply had the roller coaster carts to the opposite way for the battle, if anything for the comedy.
The ending to "Aviary Action!" also makes sense, following the upper example. Wally is at least partially based on the common cuckoo, which typically exploits other birds to raise their offspring (like Willy) and might attack them if they refuse or fail to do so properly. Said birds are mostly songbirds, which is what the medics happen to resemble and they are, in fact, doing Wally's bidding by helping him stay in the fight. It is little to no surprise that the medic birds ended up turning on him, as the blame for Wally's death would still mostly fall on the player.
How do Cuphead and Mugman come back after being killed in a battle? By Negative Continuity, a trope commonly found in cartoons like the ones that the game was based on!
As noted by many, for the Phear Lap boss fight, Cuphead is literally beating a dead horse.
Those electric dolphins in "High-Seas Hijinx". Pretty random even for this game (especially since more traditional electric eels show up in the second phase), right? But remember how dolphins hunt for food...
For Rumor Honeybottoms' first phase, she sends a British police bee to fight you. British police officers are also known as Bobbies.
- By extension, Rumor herself turns into a fighter jet...possibly a B-76 Bomber?
The attack where Rumor Honeybottoms turns her arm into a saw might seem bizarre, but there's actually a reason for it. It's a buzzsaw. Rumor Honeybottoms is a bee. Groan.
Of course Mangosteen, being a living 8 ball, would be fought on the 8 space of King Dice's board.
Mangosteen appears to be an 8-ball made up largely of ink or something similar, as evidenced by his knockout animation. Kind of like a real-life Magic 8-Ball.
It's a bit unclear whether Sally's third phase is merely a cardboard cutout of her while the real Sally's offstage, or if it's literally her transformed into a cardboard cutout. Either possibility makes about as much sense. If it's the latter, however, then it's quite fitting. Sally's so narcissistic that the only superior form she could think to transform into was herself as a goddess.
The Devil's Casino is described as being on "the wrong side of the tracks" in the intro cutscene. The train tracks where you fight the Phantom Express divide the Casino from the rest of Isle 3.
The Devil told the boys they have until midnight to collect all those contracts. Only one fight in the entire main game explicitly takes place at night, the Phantom Express, and it's the last one blocking your way to the Casino. So it's likely the last one they canonically fought before going back there.
The coins have Pie-Eyed shapes on them. While you could say that they just look like generic cartoon eyes, consider this: The coins are golden, and the Devil's eyes are yellow... maybe there's a hidden message behind this. Maybe not something too drastic like "The Devil is actually watching you through the coins", but something more subtle. You know what they say: The love of money is the root of all evils. And by using the coins to buy upgrades, you could say that, in a way, Cuphead and Mugman are using the Devil's power against him.
- Only against him at the last minute. Until then, you are committing violent acts against people you don't need to, in order to get gold to get weapons to fight exactly who the Devil wants you to. You're playing right into his hands.
How do Cuphead and Mugman use the powers purchased from Porkrind? The powers come in bottles, and their heads are cups. They probably pour them in there and mix them to use the shots. As for the charms, they’re small enough to fit in a pocket, or are pins (like the extra heart charms).
The Tipsy Troop are all modeled after behaviors people exhibit when drunk or inebriated. The taller glass is lust when fighting, shamed when beaten. Whiskey is barely standing up while fighting, happy-go-lucky when defeated, and the bourbon is angry upright, almost jovial defeated.
Goopy Le Grande is modeled after the slimes from Dragon Quest, who are the first enemy encountered in any DQ game. So it makes perfect sense that Le Grande would be one of the Starter Villains.
Why is King Dice of all people the Devil's right hand man? Because King Dice embodies gambling, and most religions consider it a sin to gamble.
Why do Cuphead and Mugman still end up under the Devil's employ even when they hand over the soul contracts in the Bad Ending despite the terms of the agreement? They threw all the debtors under the bus to save themselves rather than go with the Elder Kettle's plan to save them. They committed a grievous sin and doomed themselves anyway by doing so. The Devil had a way to get his hands on their souls no matter what they decided to do.
- In addition, the Devil's words in the opening says he might spare them if they collected the runaway debtor souls, not will. He never truly promised freedom. The Devil's in the details indeed.
Why do Cuphead and Mugman show fear when fighting against the Devil, but none of the other bosses? Because as Toons, they're at least partially Medium Aware. They know that even if the other bosses can "kill" them, they can't permanently harm them — per the genre. The Devil, on the other hand... even in a cartoon, as the ultimate evil, he can do any number of unpleasant things to them. Scar them, torture them... imprison and/or transform them. The possibilities are... not limitless, given the G-rating of most cartoons, but still include several unpleasant options.
- If he does win the fight, he shows their empty heads to the camera, so their fears are justified.
The boss fight with Werner Wermin indicates he defected to the British from the Austro-Hungarian army, but Werner still wears his pickelhaube helmet with pride despite teaming up with the enemy of the Germans. This may have been Werner's contract with the Devil; in exchange for Werner's soul, the Devil ensured Werner could survive the war by successfully switching sides.
Why wasn't it obvious that Cala Maria was a medusa? Because her snake-hair was chopped off! She replaced it with a dead octopus.
Why is the soul contract for Dr. Kahl's Robot and not Dr. Kahl himself? Because it wouldn't be the first time a brilliant creator's sentient creation got tricked and conned.
- Alternatively, Dr. Kahl sent the robot instead of himself because a robot can easily calculate chances and the best odds, giving a high likelihood of Dr. Kahl leaving the casino a rich man. The issue is that The Devil is the one running the casino, so there's no cheating allowed, unless it's by the casino.
What company does Rumor Honeybottoms run? A newspaper company. "Honeycomb Herald" sounds exactly like a newspaper name, not to mention all the typewriters.
Werner Werman's surname has two meanings, albeit depending on how you choose to pronounce it. If you choose to pronounce the W like a W, the surname sound like "war man" If you choose to pronounce it like how a German would. Which in this case would be pronouncing the W like a V, then the surname sounds like "vermin".
The new DLC for the game, The Delicious Last Course, can be abbreviated to "DLC".
- The driving motivation behind the DLC's story is a Wondertart, a special kind of dessert. Dessert is the course of a meal that comes last, hence the "Delicious Last Course" is the Wondertart itself!
When "Bootlegger Boogie" starts, both the ant cops as well as the Moonshine Mob are seen squaring off against each other. This may not have been the first time the ant cops have tried to bust them, but the Mob always managed to win each time because they have an anteater. The Mob only got busted because the player character(s) interfered and beat them up, including the anteater, allowing the police to apprehend them and force them into going straight in the epilogue.
Real life ant swarms easily overwhelm any other bugs in their path, and the ant cops' numbers are gregarious. The Moonshine Mob would normally have had huge trouble with them, which is why they employed a giant anteater as their Secret Weapon.
The Moonshine Mob actually had a proper plan that would have gone off without a hitch if not for the cups — having the Spider and Lady Bug stall the police to buy enough time to evacuate their product and for the Snail boss to get the anteater. The Spider, the tough guy who's in charge of the goons, arrives in first, calls his fly goons and kicks his caterpillar goons to fight the police and keep them busy. When that fails, the Mob tries the soft approach by sending in the Lady Bug as a sexy distraction akin to the Mafia Consort from Town of Salem — notice how the ant cops never try to bug spray her, or even appear on her row to attack her? With the police distracted, the Mob take the opportunity to smuggle out as much of their XXX brand product in the form of dancing barrels to avoid the cops seizing them (neither of the two appear together on a floor, it's either a barrel or a cop). Finally, when the lady goes down, the Mob Boss himself brings in the mob's ant-eating secret weapon to end the conflict in his favor. As to why he needed this distraction? The mob boss is an animal that's known for its lack of speed, and it would take some time for him to get to the anteater.
So, you face the Moonshine Mob in "Bootlegger Boogie". You beat the Spider, the Lady Bug, and the Anteater and figure the fight is over thanks to a unique "KNOCKOUT!" call, but then you notice a Snail on the Anteater's head attacking you afterwards. Listen closely to the high-pitched announcement at the start of the fight and the one near the end. Those are both coming from the Snail himself! Once you beat him, the real announcer will show up, clear his throat, and make the "KNOCKOUT" call, implying just how dirty the Mob is in screwing first-time players over if they are not paying attention, especially when they have one HP left.
The name "Bootlegger Boogie" works in multiple levels: the first and most obvious is that they're a gang of bugs bootlegging (what initially appears to be) moonshine, and the battle takes place in the middle of a large-scale police raid of the joint; but another is that the fight consists of reworkings of various scrapped and unused concepts from the base game, from the spider gangster being a redesign of the 'Flying Gentleman' shown off in an early magazine ad to the ladybug's phase being a reworking of the scrapped 'DicePalaceLight' fight that was once only accessible via debug mode — in other words, the fight is bootlegging cutting room floor concepts. And finally, the fight even has the audacity to bootleg a fake "Knockout!" screen, and even replace the announcer just for that gag!
Why would dough be found in a distillery? Because booze & bread share common ingredients: grain & yeast.
It seems weird that rather than engaging the Howling Aces in a straight plane battle, you fight them while standing on top of Canteen Hughes' airplane. Then you notice the directions the father's airplane and mother's airship attack from: the former above, the latter from the sides and back. Without the use of EX attacks or Supers, you literally wouldn't be able to hit them with your plane whose shots fire forwards and bombs hit downward+forwards. This also explains why Canteen Hughes' aircraft doesn't attack them — it can't due to being out of range. Fighting the Howling Aces in a straight plane fight would be one-sided in the dogs' favor, and thus a more unorthodox method is needed — standing on Hughes' aircraft and allowing the Cups to shoot above it, beside it, or behind it.
- Even ignoring the gameplay angle, the Howling Aces are professional pilots, while Cuphead and Mugman only just started flying planes after their deal with the Devil. Canteen is clearly experienced as pilot, as he taught the brothers how to fly, so he'd probably be better at keeping up with the Aces while they did the fighting.
The Howling Aces' second phase cleverly avoids violence against children when you see what's going on. You are not hitting the puppies, but rather their jetpacks, as shown by the jetpack smoke turning from white to grey when their health gets low, and their defeat animation involves their jetpack malfunctioning before sending them flying off.
- This applies to the main game as well. Wally's son can be fought, but rather than show any kind of damage or indicate that he's injured, he just starts crying.
If you manage to get the secret phase in "Doggone Dogfight", there is no Interface Screw. After all, the pups are now in the fight without their jetpacks (which were about to malfunction until their mother saved them). The mother is most definitely not going to fly her airship sideways or upside-down for the safety of her jetpack-less children!
Mortimer's first phase death quote may be this to anyone who is well aware of how seasons work. More so for those who live in the Southern Hemisphere.
The epilogue of the DLC has the villain being arrested, tried in court, and forced to perform community service for the residents of Inkwell Isle Four. The Devil doesn't go through something like this, as he's above the law due to being, well, the Devil, but Chef Saltbaker is another resident of Inkwell Isles and is fully subjected to legal punishment.
When you think about it, Chef Saltbaker being a villain makes perfect sense. Throughout their fight, they're shown attacking by butchering and using their fully-sentient ingredients as weapons. Sentient food isn't limited to the new isle, either — think back to the Root Pack or the Baroness' candy court. In this world, something as simple as baking a pie requires you to slaughter all kinds of innocent things. To be a chef in a world where most things are alive, you'd have to be Conditioned to Accept Horror at best and completely evil at worst.
In the base game, the bosses' transformations are implied (read: handwaved) to be the result of powers they gained from the Devil — and that still holds true in the DLC, where the bosses haven't made any contracts! Every boss's transformations can be explained through alternate means:
- The Moonshine Mob, the Howling Aces, Glumstone the Giant, and the King's Champions don't transform at all — their different phases are either entirely different people or just a logical extension of their abilities.
- Mortimer Freeze is a powerful wizard who can control anything made of snow, but he doesn't transform into anything himself — instead, he wears a snowman and a snowflake as Living Bodysuits.
- Esther Winchester's transformations are the results of freak accidents.
- And lastly, Chef Saltbaker is already able to cook magical pastries (such as the Astral Cookie), so it tracks that he'd cook things that could give him the powers he has. Not to mention most of his attacks, especially in the first half of his fight, come from external sources and ingredients. This is most explicitly shown when he increases in size — he adds a mushroom to himself to do it. Effectively, he's almost a baking-based fantasy-style alchemist, explaining his powers.
  - How do chefs and alchemy go together? Alchemy and chemistry historically have gone hand-in-hand, and any form of cooking requires some level of chemistry, albeit, in a different form compared to work done in a formal lab. Basically, Chef Saltbaker is a magical food-chemist, and his magic uses the mixing and transformation of ingredients as a base, making it resemble alchemy due to the combination of chemistry and magic. Plus, the label "magical" is often applied to creative or notable dishes, especially desserts, which are often baked.
During the secret boss fight, why is the Devil always the one you are facing and the Angel the one behind you? Because you need to face your demons, while the Angel always has your back!
Saltbaker is the best chef in the land. In other words, he's worth his salt.
Saltbaker's fight is notable for many reasons, including mostly abandoning the series' normal animation style. Why? Well, it's possible that it's done to emphasize that his ultimate goal is to gain control over the Astral Realm, another dimension of reality- i.e. a place that's not of this world. It's done to emphasize how otherworldly, in the most literal sense, that he's become.
The final boss in the DLC does not give you the option for a bad ending like in the base game. Cuphead and Mugman's journey isn't taken to save everyone from their debts to the Devil, it's about them trying to clear their own debts, more of their own self-interest. It's why they have the option of the Good or Bad ending, they become Heroes if they choose to fight The Devil to free everyone from their debt. By the time they face Chef Saltbaker, the Cup Brothers are not fighting for their own sake, they are fighting to free Ms. Chalice (if you choose not to play as her), so of course there is no Bad Ending.
- Also, if Ms. Chalice is the playable character, she would never have the Bad Ending option either at this point, she is a legendary hero of the land. Having someone die for her sake, much less one of the Cup Brothers, was never going to be an option.
Saltbaker's Heel–Face Turn doesn't come out of nowhere; it's actually foreshadowed by his last phase! More specifically, it's foreshadowed by how different it is to the Devil's last phase. The Devil's last phase involves him weeping because he's losing, only using one fairly weak attack; Saltbaker, meanwhile, never quits trying to win, even as the fight turns against him, never panicking or weeping, but simply continuing to fight. In short, Saltbaker has more Villainous Valor than the Devil does, and if the Devil is the incarnation of evil, it can only be a good sign that Saltbaker is not like the Devil. This foreshadows that Saltbaker is capable of making a Heel–Face Turn, unlike the Devil!
- There's a clever indication that he's not Beyond Redemption in his fight. Despite how monstrous he acts in the final battle, his final form shows that under all that malice, he does have a heart. It just needed to be brought to the surface. And it does.....quite literally.
The King of Games' champions are clearly based on chess figures, but what many players fail to realize during their first playthrough is that their attack patterns are based on their movements on the chessboard: the pawns Zerg Rush Cuphead and co. by diagonally jumping down then rushing them on a straight line and can't U-turn, the knight's pose, attacks, and taunts are L-shaped, the bishop's head floats diagonally, the rook sharpens its axe in front of you (it has nowhere to go as long as he's not done with you) while the sparks from his grindstone move straight, and the queen moves and attacks wherever she likes.
- Additionally, you fight them in the order in which their corresponding pieces are valued: Pawns are 1, Knights and Bishops are 3, Rooks are 5, and the Queen is 9.
The chores that Chef Saltbaker has to do for their community service punishment are tasks that most of the ingredient guardians would either have some trouble performing, or be very busy with:
- Glumstone is massive, which would make replanting something as tiny as the Gnome Berries' seeds a very awkward task for him since he could accidentally crush the seeds or spill the bag.
- While the Moonshine Mob have a lot of fly goons under their command, the gang going clean means a lot of internal restructuring and transport of inventory is gonna take place, and they're gonna need all the help they can get for that.
- While Mortimer Freeze is a very powerful ice magician and is strong enough to carry his own whale, brushing its teeth is something that ice magic can't solve directly (as anyone with sensitive teeth can attest) and requires physical precision. Thus, it would be one of the more strenuous chores for him.
- Serving customers at Esther's saloon during peak hours would greatly benefit from having the work distributed.
- Fixing a broken aircraft is generally not a light task for anyone, even those as skilled as the Howling Aces.
Many have considered Chef Saltbaker to be more cruel than The Devil himself, and there's a big reason why. Nobody is expecting anything different from the Devil: he's evil incarnate and to think otherwise would just be foolish. He doesn't try to be your friend, he just makes you do what he wants under a threat. Saltbaker, on the other hand, tricks the Cup Brothers and Ms. Chalice into thinking he's a helpful and supportive friend, betraying their trust in the end in the worst possible way in order to make the Wondertart for himself. Betrayal hurts the worst because it never happens from the enemy.
Most of the ingredients obtained from the bosses are explicitly shown in the story or game as to why they have them (The Gnome Berries are grown by gnomes in the mountains, the product that the Moonshine Mob are bootlegging is dough, the Howling Aces use pineapples as grenades in the secret phase). The ingredients that aren't shown still make sense logically:
- Mortimer Freeze would most likely need sugar for all the ice cream he makes to attack you with.
- Esther Winchester owns a saloon. Limes are commonly used in alcoholic beverages.
It seems odd that these bosses would put up such a fight over ingredients, but considering how Chef Saltbaker uses them, and the fact that they're used to make something that can affect the whole Astral Plane, it's likely that the bosses guarding these ingredients are at least aware of how powerful they are. Mortimer and Glumstone are both old fantasy creatures that may have some knowledge on the sugar and berries they protect; Esther and the Moonshine Mob are criminals that likely won't give up their ingredients without a fight; and the Howling Aces use the pineapples as weapons. If you can use something as a weapon so effectively, you're not just gonna hand it out to anyone who asks, are you?
Saltbaker says that the key ingredient in any dish is heart and soul. He tries to harvest one of the cups' souls for the Wonder Tart, and in response, the other two fight his heart.
A youtuber notes that with the game's infamous difficulty, it makes sense that the final boss of the game will be salt itself. Furthermore, it makes sense that a salt shaker who makes sweets would be a villain who makes a Heel–Face Turn; adding too much salt to a baked good will ruin it, but just a pinch will enhance the flavor.
- On a similar note to Saltbaker being salt itself, the Devil's Villainous Breakdown can also be interpreted as him being salty (metaphorically.) He starts out confident, but as you beat him more and more, he eventually gets angry, and then becomes a sobbing wreck. Fridge Awesome: In a game with salt-inducing difficulty, you get to make the final boss, the Devil himself, salty about fighting you too!
When Cuphead, Mugman, or Ms. Chalice die in the game, they become hearts that need to be parried. What does Saltbaker become when he dies partway through the fight? A heart that needs to be parried. That may be why he seems perfectly fine and in one piece after the fight, even with all the salt from his body filling the place and his bakery still being trashed.
Chalice has more health than either Cuphead or Mugman, a dodge-roll that makes her invincible, and her shots and supers are all stronger than the brothers' versions of the same attacks. She's also explicitly a legendary hero and trained fighter, unlike the brothers who only started fighting after living a largely uneventful life.
In the main game, the bosses fight back against the Cups because they're desperate to protect their souls. A completely reasonable reaction considering their positions and one the Cups understand and know about. So why wouldn't fighting the DLC bosses raise a few eyebrows from them, perhaps making them consider getting the Wondertart ingredients isn't as innocent as it seems? Well, looking closely at each boss, it's reasonable to see why the Cups would believe fighting them is a logical course of action:
- Esther Winchester is clearly an outlaw, as the "Wanted!" Poster on her saloon demonstrates, so an outlaw being hostile is to be expected.
- The same goes for the Moonshine Mob.
- Mortimer Freeze's level is called "Snow Cult Scuffle", and everyone knows cults are usually bad news.
- The Howling Aces are clearly modelled off World War fighter pilots, so it's easy to imagine they would be used to engaging in combat, especially under a perceived threat. Perhaps a more simplistic description is that as dogs, they are naturally possessive of what they consider theirs, in this case, the ingredient they hold.
- Glumstone the Giant takes the Cups by surprise by bursting out of a rocky covering, an aggressive demonstration that could naturally activate a flight-or-fight response.
- The King's Court are exempt, as they are an optional Self-Imposed Challenge for the Cups.
The Angel and Demon in The Nightmare are implied to be connected to the Devil, with the code and Jared Moldenhauer confirming their fight was meant to be a phase in the Devil's Final Boss fight. While the Demon's presence makes sense for obvious reasons, why is there an Angel? The Devil was once one. Leads to a double-whammy of Fridge Heartwarming and Fridge Horror in that this implies there's still some angelic grace left in the Devil, but that it's locked away and can only mourn as souls are corrupted and tormented.
"Don't mess with King Dice!" What's another term for messing with someone dangerous? Dicing with them.
Part of Chef Saltbaker's ingredients are limes. Considering how Saltbaker's animation style during his boss battle is very reminiscent of a classic Disney villain, this is an almost literal interpretation of "every villain is lime◊!"

Fridge Horror

Given the number of bosses whose soul contracts are called up, the Devil's been really busy in getting nearly everyone.
- Many of whom are, logically enough, the brothers' neighbors according to the book. Even if you didn't have to fight them, imagine learning that your entire community is in thrall to Satan.
Cuphead has to fight a child — Willy Warbles. There also isn't a choice, since the chick will gun for you no matter what.
- There's also the fact that his dad gets eaten. What'll happen to him?
- The DLC also has him, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice (who's an adult) having to fight the Howling Aces' puppies, and there isn't much of a choice since they too will gun for you as well.
- What about Cuphead? He's a kid!
The implications of the bad ending. The Devil succeeded in taking Cuphead and Mugman's souls and turning them into his slaves, but then given how they were powerful enough to defeat the bosses before, the Devil could send them to round up the runaway debtors (well, the ones who are still alive) and force them to surrender their souls to the Devil. And given the debtors' amazing powers, they would be able to wreak lots of havoc on Inkwell Isle. So basically, if you chose the Bad Ending, then pretty much all of the population of Inkwell Isle will be under the servitude of the Big Bad, with a lot of them able to do major damage. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!
On the boss's sides, they're all runaway debtors who want to be left alone. Then some upstart toons come and challenge them to a fight for the contracts. Small wonder they all put up a big fight.
- They must have gone through some real anguish after they're beaten but before the contracts are destroyed, just waiting in fear and dread for the moment Cuphead might hand their souls back to the Devil.
Not every boss gets the privilege of having their soul freed and then coming back for the game's happy ending, specifically the ones that were implied to be Killed Off for Real during their Boss Battles (Goopy Le Grande and Wally Warbles). This is debatable, however, as none of the members of The Root Pack or Dr. Kahl appear, either; it is possible that some bosses held a grudge against the brothers and refused to show up at the celebration.
- The Root Pack have the excuse of being a Stationary Boss, at least: it's unlikely they could leave the spot they're planted at.
  - Then again, so was Cagney Carnation, and he's in the ending.
  - Cagney can grow legs — he does it in the second phase of his fight.
- As explained on the character page, Wally might not have been too pleased with Cuphead and Mugman beating up his son, regardless of his soul being freed.
- Goopy and Wally being Killed Off for Real are subverted, as Jake Clark (who animated the two) confirmed on Twitter that the two are still alive.
- Dr. Kahl has a legitimate reason as well; it was his robot that owed the Devil his soul, not the doc himself, and you had to trash the bot in its fight. He’s probably rebuilding it, and considering the thing has to be autonomous to some level, and he was helping it in its battle, it’s probably his top priority.
Cala Maria spits out ghost pirates as an attack. Now, think about why she would have ghosts in her stomach. Also note that the background is full of destroyed and sunken ships.
- Keeping them company in the underwater afterlife?
  - Cala Maria is really a Gorgon in disguise as a mermaid (or rather, she's been one ever since she got into debt with the Devil).
Katzenwagen, the cat in Werner Werman's final phase, has "imprisoned" ghost mice trapped in its mouth that it uses to attack Cuphead and Mugman. But then it's revealed that Katzenwagen is actually only a mech Werner was piloting. So why exactly is Werner using a mecha-cat to kill his own kind? Could he actually be A Nazi by Any Other Name?
- Well, considering that he's a decorated soldier, based on the background of his stage... Perhaps Werner's fellows still got his back.
- Given the early 1930s setting of the game, the fact that Pickelhaube helmet Werner wears was de-spiked by the end of World War 1, how Germany was already being mocked for being overly militaristic in World War 1, and that concentration camp uniforms featured vertical stripes (rather than the horizontal stripes of the mouse ghosts), it's more likely that Werner is mockingly designed after 'the Hun' of World War I than after Those Wacky Nazis of World War II.
- The easiest explanation, given Werner's Gadgeteer Genius status, is that the ghosts are holograms and the projectiles are actually fired from Katzenwagen.
Here's one involving Beppi. After his first form is defeated, the rollercoaster starts. Now look closely at the riders. THEIR HEADS HAVE X-ES FOR EYES AND MANIACAL GRINS. Who's to say Beppi didn't slaughter his own co-workers or any visitors to the park and turned them into undead riders?
- Or, they could simply be dummies of the sort used for testing rollercoasters before opening every day.
Supposedly, Cuphead and Mugman are kids. While it's not surprising the Devil would not care about age when making a soul contract, why would kids be allowed in a casino?
- Because King Dice is enough of a sleazy manager to not care about who enters the casino — so as long as they're gambling, he won't even bat an eye. Furthermore, it wouldn't be surprising if King Dice keeps an eye out for particularly irresponsible gamblers so he can get them to blow all their money away/sign their soul off to his boss.
- In addition, kids are very impulsive and generally unaware of something being sketchy, meaning that for a Casino that cares not for the ethical issues of getting kids to gamble, they'd be the perfect customers.
- It could also be that in Inkwell Isle, the laws are different, which allows them to gamble.
Think about the Devil and the deals he tends to make, and then consider the implications of King Dice having lost a bet. There's a real chance that he may have lost his own soul (assuming he hadn't given it to the Devil already), his position, or who knows what. While unconfirmed and not a Kick the Dog moment even if true, it may put his wrath against the boys in perspective, and his battle with them may have very well been his Last Dance.
- That's something else to be considered: in King Dice's position, he was literally the Devil's right-hand man, yet he made a deal with his boss regarding whether or not Cuphead and Mugman would collect from the debtors, and obviously the Devil deals in souls. King Dice went so far as to betray the Devil when the boys arrived with all the contracts, refusing to let them meet, just to ensure he wouldn't lose. It begs the question — just what would the Devil have had to cough up if he had lost?
Miss Chalice being scared of the Devil in his boss fight and getting corrupted in the bad ending confirm Old Scratch is a threat to legends who are way above mere mortals.
An NPC in the first island strongly implies that all the coins scattered throughout the game are his. He doesn't seem to mind if the boys find a couple of them, but if the player goes for 100% Completion, you've collected up the poor guy's fortune and likely spent it all on upgrades, meaning he's unlikely to get any of it back.
- Not quite. He seems happy to let anyone collect his coins, so long as the Devil doesn't get his hands on them.
When Ms. Chalice loses all her health, she becomes a ghost, just like Cuphead and Mugman — but wait! If Ms. Chalice loses her physical body, doesn't that mean that whoever she's swapped out with no longer has a body to return to?
The power of the Wondertart. You can control the Astral Plane with the power of just one dish. But here comes the worst part. It requires a sacrifice, meaning only the most ruthless bastards can claim this power for themselves.
Glumstone swallows the main character(s) after the second phase, and the only way to finish the battle is to knock out the sentient ulcer in his stomach. Simple enough, but here's the thing: once that's done and over with, how do they escape afterwards? Hopefully they climbed back out... right?
Chef Saltbaker’s hysterical screaming and crying during his sentencing is rather comical considering his only punishment was just community service. But the existence of The Rook shows that capital punishment is a thing in Inkwell Isles, and Saltbaker was guilty of an attempted triple homicide (not to mention whatever he was gonna do with the Wondertart): he had a good reason to think he’d lose his head!
The Moonshine Mob has an anteater as their muscle and the police forces are ants, which, in the context of the storyline, is basically the same as having a sentient Godzilla trained to deal with the one thing that is capable of protecting the local arthropod populace from rampant crime.

Fridge Logic

The mixture between 20s American (just about) culture and ancient Greek imagery (what with all the bosses being modeled after Greek monsters plus Greek architecture) implies a type of Anachronism Stew going on.
Fight a giant robot in a junkyard? You use a plane. Fight a mermaid in the ocean? You use a plane. Fight a dragon flying in the sky? You don't use a plane. This even extends to the DLC: fight a cowgirl in the desert? You use a plane. Fight a team of Ace Pilot dogs in an aerial fight? You stand on top of someone else's plane.
- This is actually very easy to explain in every case:
  - Dr. Kahl's Robot has all of its weak points on the upper half of its body, and given the size difference between it and the cup brothers, there's zero chance of them nailing any of them on foot; if they tried, the robot would likely either step on them or detatch its head and fly away, forcing them to resort to planes.
  - Cala Maria resides in the ocean. Unless Cuphead and Mugman can walk on water, they need to fly to get to her.
  - Grim Matchstick's tower is surrounded by clouds solid enough for Cuphead and Mugman to stand on; attempting to attack Grim with planes would only result in them crashing into one of the fluffy hazards with how many there are.
  - Cuphead and Mugman did try to attack Esther Winchester on foot, but she grabbed the ingredients and fled in her saloon carriage; because they couldn't run fast enough to keep up, they had to go after her in planes.
  - Regarding the Howling Aces, it was mentioned in the Fridge Brilliance section that the bulldog attacks you from above and the saluki attacks you from the sides and back. Barring super moves, none of the weapons on Cuphead and Mugman's planes can HIT either of them, and thus they were forced to get a little creative in their approach.

Fridge / Cuphead

Edit Locked

As this is a Fridge page, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!