WMG / Sparklecare

The only reason doctors like Doom, Cuddles, and Livings are kept on the staff...

Is to protect the outside world from them. There are Five Nights At Freddys theories saying that the security guards keep their dangerous job so that no one else has to do it. Maybe Sparklecare has a similar situation.

• Jossed. President Meat indicates that all the doctors are in the same state as Barry - dead and trapped in hell. It's possible that they were good people before coming to Sparklecare, but being there has driven them mad.

The outside world is worse off than Sparklecare.

We never see anything about the outside. Ever. The only thing we know about it is that it has freakish diseases all over the place. Perhaps Sparklecare Hospital isn't so bad when you compare it to the possible nightmarish Hell going on outside.

• Technically, what we see in the first panel is literally all there is in this world - it is revealed to be hell itself, and Barry can't escape from that one area. However, what the "real" world is like is yet to be seen.

The outside world is one big case of Dark Is Not Evil.

Should we ever get to see it (most likely by Barry escaping the hospital), there will be a major Art Shift, and everything will look gritty. Every character will look horrifying, but turn out to be benevolent.

• Dubious. See above.

The hospital is an Eldritch Location

It either corrupts doctors and makes them insane, or it actually created characters like Doom and Cuddles (which explains their... weird appearance.)

• The creation part seems to be jossed, although the corruption part is very possible. Most, if not all of Sparklecare's staff are people trapped in hell. Although whether or not the hospital itself is sentient, as this theory implies, remains to be seen.

Dr. Doom is the Anthropomorphic Personification of Sparklecare itself.

Based on a theory about Umlaut. If the above theory is true, then maybe the hospital created Doom as a figurehead for itself so it could interact with the outside world. Nurse Snare (who may or may not have been accompanied by Kills, Shortnick, and the other sane doctors at the time) found out about Doom, and, as the first theory says, began working at the hospital to keep Doom in. And maybe it isn't just Doom. Maybe Cuddles, Sunshine, Nya, etc. are all part of a Hive Mind controlled by the hospital.

• Jossed, he seems to be just another doctor. If anything, President Meat would be the one who represents Sparklecare itself.

Also if the Eldritch Location theory is true, Barry is not from the outside world.

He is a creation of Sparklecare. Maybe rather than create beings who are already insane, Sparklecare likes to create sane ones and torture them just For the Evulz. Or maybe Barry was meant to be crazy, but something went wrong during his creation, so all the torment that Barry goes through is actually Sparklecare's way of "punishing" him.

• Jossed, President Meat tells Barry that Sparklecare is hell, and he is dead. He could have been lying, though...

Nurse Kills is hiding something.

Her kindness probably isn't completely fake, but maybe she will turn out to have a darker side. Maybe she used to be as demented as Dr. Doom, but she had a Heel Realization. That's why Doom is in love with her - he loves Kills' old self, and wants her to go back to her old ways.

• With the reveal that Sparklecare is hell, this seems likely. How could someone as seemingly sweet as her have ended up in hell? What did she do during her lifetime?

Dr. Suffuzz is hiding something.

His Nervous Wreck attitude is all an act. He will turn out to be a total sociopath, maybe even worse than Doom and Cuddles! Or maybe his nervous tendencies aren't an act, and he will turn out to be a Soft-Spoken Sadist.

The comic will have a Downer Ending.

It will probably involve Barry going insane or dying. Or both.

• "Barry will die" is seemingly confirmed, thanks to Dr. Sunshine giving him HIV, but with all the twists and turns in the comic, surely that can't be it?
• The comic seems to be giving Barry more and more terminal diseases, which, ironically, gives me hope that he will survive.
  • Maybe he'll have to make a Deal with the Devil with someone in order to live. If the Eldritch Location theory is true, that someone may be the hospital itself. And in return for not dying a horrible death, Barry has to work at Sparklecare forever. Hey... maybe that's why EVERY staff member is there. No wonder most of them are insane...

Dr. Doom is a member of Klonoa's species

But the other members cast him out because he's freakin' insane. Or maybe Sparklecare's world is a dream world...

• As for the slight differences in appearance (different ears, extra arms and legs), maybe he suffered some kind of accident that mutated him and drove him insane, in the same vein as The Joker.

As of the Oct. 31 update, Barry has the same disease as Kid Dies, or something similar.

After the pharmacy lady shoves those pills into his mouth, he is seen vomiting out rainbows, as well as what look like cherub versions of Dr. Cuddles. Knowing this webcomic, it's likely that the cherub Cuddles aren't just for show.

• Jossed, apparently they instead give people nightmares.

Alternatively, those pills cured Barry's HIV from earlier.

This would be pretty nice. And very ironic, since it happens in the Halloween strip.

• Jossed, Barry has no such luck. See above.

There will be a parody of the "HERE'S JOHNNY" scene from The Shining.

I was hoping it would happen when Doom chases Barry near the beginning, so maybe it'll happen later.

Miley will be back.

In a The Cat Came Back kind of way, she'll keep impossibly popping up alive again, only to be more violently killed each time. Hence why she was given a name at all.

• If this is true, maybe she'll turn out to be an Eldritch Abomination of some sort.

All the doctors will come together in the climax.

Maybe Barry tries to escape, and they all chase after him together. Each doctor will get to the front of the crowd at least once and say something to taunt Barry. Here are some possible examples:

Dr. Doom: Come back, Barry! We just want to be your friends!
Dr. Cuddles: There's nowhere to run! It's operation time!
Dr. Livings: Don't be scared! I love you, Barry!
Dr. Sunshine: We catz need 2 stick together! >:3
Dr. Nya: I gonna give you a BIIIIIG hug!
Lunesta: You must be getting tired of running. Have some "sleeping" pills.
Dr. Memento: You're very sick, Barry! Let us look inside you!

• Thanks to Dr. Doom's Heel–Face Turn, this seems unlikely. Maybe all the other doctors will turn against him and Barry, or maybe all the doctors will come together against someone else, probably President Meat.

At some point, Barry will fall off the pathway that leads to the gift shop.

But he won't die. Something even weirder will happen instead.

The knife in the 12/26/16 strip will be used in the next strip.

In the last panel, you can see a knife◊ on the shelves, to the right. This scene already had one instance of Chekhov's Gun (the two teddy bears turning out to be alive), so it's likely that someone will grab that knife in the next strip. Maybe Nurse Kills' getting mad at Dr. Doom will cause him to go through a total Sanity Slippage.

• Sadly jossed, Dr. Doom stays gloomy instead of snapping, and they simply move on to another room.

Doom and Cuddles named each other.

That's why each one has a name that would be more fitting for the other. Also, it would be heartwarming in a really odd way, kind of fitting for this comic.

Who is the President?

In this strip, Nurse Snare mentions that Sparklecare has a president. Let's try and guess who the President is before they're revealed!

• Miley Smiley, based on the theory about her coming back. She will turn out to be far more powerful than she seems. Though this doesn't explain why Doom killed her.
  • Seemingly jossed, the President's name is revealed to be President Meat. Maybe it'll turn out to be her, but that seems unlikely.
    • Now jossed for sure.
• Or maybe the President won't be very powerful or important to the story. This will make sense if the theory about Sparklecare being an Eldritch Location is true, or if the below is true.

We will meet Richard Sparkle at some point.

So far, all we've heard are a few mentions of him, but it seems like he'll turn out to be very important to the story. He might even be the Big Bad.

President Meat will have a Nonstandard Character Design.

He will have a much more realistic, detailed design that invokes Evil Is Visceral.

• Partially jossed, based on our first look at him in the 3/20/17 update. His art style is just the same as the rest of the comic, although his design is weirder than anything we've seen so far.

President Meat is not a Cartoon Creature, but a living piece of meat controlling a robot body.

Now we finally know what he looks like. Notice that all of his facial features seem to be part of the meat in the packet that serves as his head. Maybe he really is just a talking slab of meat, and the rest of his "body" is actually robotic. Just look at the arms!

• Alternatively, his body is that of another creature, and Meat is a Puppeteer Parasite. His packet's price tag (for $666) possibly implies that he is very unnatural, even for this world.
  • Not so, necessarily—all numbers here are 6's, it seems. The clocks on the wall have only them, all room numbers are 666, and each employee's DOB is 6/6/66.

Meat will be killed in the same meat grinder that Doom used to kill Miley.

If he dies, what more fitting death for him?

Barry will become a very unusual sort of Blithe Spirit.

Typically, a Blithe Spirit goes to a place that's gloomy and miserable, and makes it bright and happy. What Sparklecare needs is to be less bright and happy, because the doctors are so concerned with being happy that they act downright psychopathic to their patients. Barry knows this is wrong, and as we see with Dr. Doom, at least one doctor realizes this. Maybe Barry will make more doctors have Heel Face Turns, and turn them against President Meat.

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