History WMG / Coraline

Coraline mostly seems like a preteen in the book, except she misspells "sausages" as "sossajes", which would make her seem younger. But maybe her bad spelling is due to dyslexia, one symptom of which is bad spelling.

[[WMG: Weybie knew about the Other world the whole time.]]

During Weybie's introduction, he seems to know - or at least has been told - why the Pink Palace is off limits to families with kids, awkwardly saying he's not supposed to talk about it. It's possible that his grandmother has told him the truth, only to have him not believe her outlandish tale. Weybie's panic when confronting a frantic Coraline is less from Coraline herself and more the horrified realization that it's all real.

Another possibility is that she's told him only that it's dangerous, but nothing specific, and he was unprepared for Coraline's story of parent-stealing, wall-portals and ghost kids.

** Both are shapeshifters.

** IT feeds on fear, Beldam feeds on love.

[[WMG: Wybie is in love with Coraline.]]
Well, someone had to say it. This is mostly here as a break from the fantastic theories that makes people's heads throb more then before, but there actually is some rather obvious hints. First and for-most, guys don't just give dolls to girls only because of a resemblance. It seems more like an attempt to win her affection, or at least tolerance, than anything else.

[[WMG: The Otherword does not exist; it is the figment of a young girl's dreams and imagination.]]

For example, her father in reality appears to be a drone to his computer and work. The Other Father is manipulated by machinery such as the piano, and bossed around to do the Other Mother's bidding. The children's souls are just junk that a child could find and turn in to toys with some imagination. The cat only talks when in the alternate apartment. All of this is in Coraline's mind/fantasies as a way of dealing with her loneliness and feeling neglect from her parents (at the hand's of her clearly dominant mother, ergo why the Other Mother is the antagonist of her play-realm).

[[WMG: The Beldam created two types of Other people]]

* As far as I know, "beldam" just refers to a mean evil woman (ironically, from the french "belle dame" or beautiful lady). So I think the correct term to refer to her really is "The Other Mother".

The Other Father (And in the movies, Other Wybie) are the main source behind this little fan-theory. Both seem to have an "enough is enough" attitude when the Other Mother brings Coraline in, which is why both help try to help her, and both were destroyed in the process, so it's possible they were there since the beginning to get that state of rebellion. In the books, when Coraline finds Other Father's tortured form shoved in the cellar, the smell of burnt clay is described, implying they can be molded. There's various reasons why each of the inhabitants could have stayed in the Otherworld but here are the most popular: Other Spink and Forcible were failing dancers who wanted fame, Other Bobinski was a down-on-his-luck ring master that wanted an audience, Other Father lost his wife and child and was manipulated to stay ala your average abused spouse, and Other Wybie was a boy with parents so horrible that the trauma made him mute, and the welcoming arms of the Other Father and Mother made him decide to stay, although he, like the Other Father, realized what was happening was wrong, and tried to rebel. Terrible idea.
* This can also extend into a theory concerning the Other Mother: in the real world, she was gangly and homely, no one hanging around her, and on top of that, she couldn't have children. She went insane when she heard this news, and began dabbling in dark magic, creating the Otherworld in her part of the flat, which is why it's bricked off and no one has bought it: It's haunted, and people who say this can prove it. When the bricks open, it takes whoever lives there into an alternate version of the flat. She started slowly, changing her appearance and seducing the Other Father into her world, then Other Wybie, and then the acrobats and Bobinski. After she got everyone she needed wrapped around her finger, she began bringing in the children for snacks. The reason she never killed her Others was because she just couldn't create living, breathing dolls, too advanced. And, somewhere deep in her cold, black heart, there's a tiny warm spot of the girl who lived in the flat, enjoying the love, family, and friends she always wanted.

[[WMG: The other Bobinski was ''eaten'' by the Other Mother's rats.]]

[[WMG: The movie!Other Mother was...]]

** Wait, if that's the case..What the hell was the Other world before that? And why is this limited to animals?
*** The Other world was just a blank slate, like what happened when Coraline walked around the edge of the world. And who said it was limited to animals? just said these two particular beings had it (Cat because... it's practically canon, and the spider because of tunnelweb/bridge-web tropes).

** [[FutureMeScaresMe She is what Coraline may have become,]] if she had let the Other Mother sew buttons into her eyes. The Other Mother / Coraline went back in time to ensure that she becomes the Beldan, thus creating a StableTimeLoop. Because she has such control over her dimension, she can alter the rules of time so that the entrance to the Other World can appear, not neccesarily anywhere, but anywhen.

** Whenever the Other Mother changes her appearance to look like a prettier version of the childs mother, she is actually regenerating.
* the main [[WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog friend on the other side]]

[[WMG: the movie Other Mother was a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling changeling]] - a fairy child that is left behind when fairies steal a human child.]]

* Why do the book and movie Other Mothers have to be separate? I can understand Coraline (movie Coraline has emotions, book Coraline doesn't) being different in the book and movie, but the Other Mother could be the same. If so, perhaps the Other Mother stole the fairy child away as her first victim because she was also a changeling, and the Other Mother wanted someone like herself to love.

He changed his clothes and left them somewhere he knew Coraline would see them, so that Coraline (and therefore the Other Mother) would ''think'' he was dead. He was planning to hide and wait for the moment when Coraline needed his help again. However, the only time afterwards Coraline really needed his help was when the Other Mother captured her again; she made the deal with the Other Mother before he had a chance to help her escape again. The Other Mother later found the clothes and, deciding to use them to weaken Coraline's resolve, hung them in front of Mr. Bobinski's house.

They're both child heroes who have experience with the supernatural, and, under duress, tend to come up with efficient and sometimes ruthless solutions to the problem at hand. They fight crime!

The one from the book! Seriously! It's been pointed out that Book!Coraline and Movie!Coraline are completely different people. In the movie, Coraline is quick-witted, a little feisty, very playful, and not very well-mannered. In the book, Coraline has hardly any personality to speak of ("Yes, no, I'm an explorer"). She behaves like an automaton, going through the motions of the story without any apparent rhyme or reason. And when her parents disappear, she seems to take it awfully well, not freaking out like a normal kid would - and like Movie!Coraline did - but just kind of taking it all in stride and writing creepy stuff on her dad's computer. I'm calling Beldam-related shenanigans on this one.
* So I'm not the only one who preferred movie!Coraline and thought that book!Coraline was a bit of a CreepyChild? It's also interesting to note that book!Coraline has a moment where she wonders if there's an other her before concluding that there's just her. CreativeSterility / lack of imagination, perhaps?

[[WMG: Movie! The Cat is...]]

[[WMG: Movie! Mr. B was [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Zakhaev's]] former co-worker.]]

[[WMG: The cat is [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Aslan]]]]
Because he is a very powerful noble feline who loves children. And {{Aesop}}s.

But something happened to it (probably died of sickness or something) and the Other Mother was so overcome with grief that she tried to replace her lost, true child with other children. Wanting them to stay and not leave her like her true child had, she showered them with gifts and attention, and sewed the buttons on their eyes. But when the buttons were sewn on, she saw the button-eyed child looked ''nothing'' like her real one, and killed him/her in a fit of rage, grief, and insanity.

[[WMG: The Other World is somehow connected to Wonderland.]]
The Cat's ability to vanish behind objects and reappear elsewhere is a variation on the Cheshire Cat's vanishing abilities. And the reason Coraline was able to win the game and handle the Other World? It's in her blood -- somewhere in her family tree is Alice Liddell (or Pleasance, if you want book!Alice).

* Deadpan snarker? check
** clearly Movie!Cat glamored his eyes, as purple-eyed cats in Coraline's world would draw more attention than bright blue.

But she can't help swallowing up their life energy, either because her hunger is too strong or it's not an active process.

At the end, right before the credits, he pull his teleport trick through the mailbox. Based on this, one can conclude that all cats have such powers and are determined to defend the youth of the world from supernatural beings like the Other Mother.

[[WMG: The Other Mother is the creator of the Lalaoopsy Dolls.]]
They look awfully like her handy work, She must be using them as a new method of collecting children and they were a big seller this hoilday season, when a parent buys the doll for their daughter, she waits when the time is right to have it lead the child into a portal to the other world, [[FridgeHorror and then...]]

[[WMG: That isn't Coraline's parents writing "Help us" on the mirror.]]
It's the Beldam trying to keep Coraline's interest. Coraline's parents would have actually written "Save yourself" rather than lure their child into danger.

[[WMG: The whole thing takes place in the same universe as Series/DoctorWho]]

A continuation of an earlier WMG. Much like True Fey in TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost, beldam-kind turn humans into their own. They steal children until one makes the same bet Coraline did and loses, then becomes their real parent retroactively by twisting ThePowerOfLove. Which would explain why the other mother apparently killed her own mother--once her idea of love got fucked up enough it seemed like a loving act. Or the pressure of 'loving' a monster got too much. Or killing everything and emptying their world is the last step in Becoming . . .

[[WMG: The Entire Story is an Allegory for Coming of Age, much like Labyrinth]]

[[WMG: The Other Mother is an evil/twisted version of Dame Eyola from Literature/TheNeverendingStory]]

[[WMG: The Coraline doll isn't alive.]]

How much "nutrition," so to speak, she gets from a soul is determined by how happy they are, which is why she makes her victims happy with toys, games, food, etc. before eating them. If that was not the case, she would eat her victims as soon as they came through the door.

Ability to manipulate a whole world without even appearing? Check. Weird eyes? Check. [[EvilIsSexy Impossibly hot?]] Hell yes, check.

** IT can live 30 years without food, Beldam can live 60.

* [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya Haruhi]].

* Was because she can only take one child at a time, and the sweet ghost girl found the door first.

They came to Rapture as burlesque performers. During their stay there, they were spliced for [[GagBoobs cosmetic]] [[HartmanHips purposes]]. They escaped Rapture on a bathysphere during the Civil War, shortly before Ryan shuts down the service. They continued to work as burlesque performers on the surface, but the long-term effects of gene splicing caused them to be a bit.... [[CloudCuckooLander eccentric.]]

They're both child heroes who have experience with the supernatural, and, under duress, tend to come up with efficient and sometimes ruthless solutions to the problem at hand. TheyFightCrime!

* Coraline is going to team up with [[Literature/TheThiefOfAlways Harvey Swick]], and Bod, and they'll [[TheyFightCrime fight crime]] with the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.

* The Beldam may be a relative of the Shepherds...

She was a genius who was really, really good at making dolls. Then she realized, "Hey, children would love dolls who can talk and play!" So, she made a machine that could make dolls that are alive, and she tested it with herself. It didn't go very well.] After finding out she has effectivly turned herself into a [[BodyHorror horrifying, uncanny valley esque doll/spider creature]] she bricked herself inside a room and hoped she would die before her humanity died. Then she got another Inspiration moment and built a machine to subvert the real world, so that she would turn into a human again. Once she found out this could only work if she still had her eyes, she crossed the Despair Event Horzine and decided it would be perfect if she had some kids, to keep her sanity and humanity and tried to contact a girl in the real world. This worked, and found out her doll/spider self really, really enjoyed [[HorrorHunger Lifeforce]].

Maybe a small, unacknowledged part of Mel is slightly clingy and possessive, so leave it too her Shadow to take it and blow it out of proportion. When denied (although not by the owner, it’s still being denied), it turns into a monster. They also share the theme of different eyes: Shadow’s eyes glow yellow, while the Other Mother’s eyes are buttons. Frustrated by not being acknowledged, the Other Mother attempted to lure in Coraline as a sort of TakeThat And now the only thing Left is for Coraline to awaken to a punchy ghost and I can call this a Persona movie...