Speaking of, Wally Darling's constant staring at the fourth wall and soft-spoken monotone are obviously meant to come across as unsettling, but many have found them to be lovably awkward instead. It helps that his appealing fashion sense and overall design meant that he's supposed to look cute to the audience anyway when brushing aside the story's true nature.
Is Wally evil? He is the least developed of the puppets despite nominally being the main character, which alone makes him suspicious, and the many fourth wall breaks he makes can be seen as rather sinister. However, they can just as easily suggest that he's a victim of whatever force is messing with the site and the puppets as well. Or maybeit's a little bit of both. He's also greatly implied to have autism, which suggests that any creepiness on his part is unintentional and he just has No Social Skills.
In what way does Wally care about his neighbors? His png responses in the guest book establishes he has fond feelings for them, but is it the fondness one has for their friends, or the fondness one might have towards a toy or play thing? Is he under the impression that the others are less sentient than him?
Going off of the above, has Wally stopped caring about the others in favor of the player, who's more "real" due to our status as a human person rather than a puppet. Alternatively, does he care about both an equal amount, but is obsessing over the player because he hasn't seen us in so long?
Is Wally the only one aware of their status a children's entertainment character, or are the others also aware to varying extents? The 7/22 update hints that at least Barnaby and Frank may be aware as well. If he isn't the only one, is he aware of that fact?
Is Wally largely an Emotionless Boy who badly pretends to have more emotions than he's capable of? Or is he suffering from a depression-induced numbness? If the latter, than does he think contacting the player will help him cope with it?
How aware is Frank? Is he trying to help Wally, or impede him?
Speaking of Frank, how amicable is his relationship with Wally? In the 7/22 update they're shown getting along well enough in most of their interactions. However, Frank seems to be briefly unnerved by Wally in the "Just So" - Demo on the Media page. Is his friendliness towards Wally just an act for convience sake, or does he genuinely consider himself close to Wally?
Does Julie have plant based powers, or is she just eccentric when she's Talking to Plants?
On the topic of Julie, while her Odd Friendship with Frank is clearly platonic due to him being gay and in a relationship with Eddie, the fact that he was cast as the Prince in the "Julie-rella" short makes you wonder if either Frank is using Julie as The Beard to hide his romance with Eddie, or Julie has a one-sided crush on Frank. If the latter is the case, is she unaware of Frank being gay, or does she just not care?
Awesome Art: Even at the prologue stage, the art and designs for the characters and neighborhood are a feast for the eyes, delightfully taking inspiration from The Muppets and Sesame Street and running with it.
Dry Docking: Despite being a Launcher of a Thousand Ships there's also a sizeable portion of the fanbase that wants Wally to stay single because they have a crush on him, as is evident by the hundreds if not thousands of Y/N based fanworks floating around the internet.
Fan Nickname: The melancholic version of Beautiful Dreamer that Wally sings has been nicknamed "Wally's Lullaby."
Fans of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared naturally latched on to the ARG as both series feature a puppet show that isn't all what it seems to be on the surface. Comparisons have even been made between Wally Darling and Yellow Guy (yellow humanoid puppets with blue hair, specifically).
Fans of Amanda the Adventurer are similarly drawn to Welcome Home, as both feature the setting of a children's program that is not at all as it first appears.
At present, Wally and Barnaby are stated to be close friends, with Barnaby coming off as something of a Big Brother Mentor to Wally. However, they act a fair bit closer to one another than one might expect. For instance, there's one illustration of them sharing a bed.
The 7/22/23 update establishes that Wally and Frank have a cordial relationship. However, some have argued that he's jealous of Wally's relationship with Barnaby based on the 4-14-bf video.
More then a few fans have noted that Wally and the Interviewer in the Media page's "Live Interview Audio Segment" come off as if they're flirting with one another before Barnaby makes his entrance.
Interviewer: Yes- And you're quite the little charmer too, from what I heard- Wally: -You're not so bad yourself!
The Wally and Julie ship name is "AppleBlossom." explanation Apple due to Wally's love of them, and blossom due to Julie's association with flowers.
The Wally x Frank ship name is "Aware Husbands" (or "Aware Duo" for a platonic varient).explanation The "aware" part comes from the common headcanon that Frank is also aware of his status as a puppet.
The Wally x Howdy ship is sometimes called "Catereye." explanation A combination of the words caterpillar and eyeball.
The Sally x Julie ship is called "Sunflower."
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Wally, and to a slightly lesser extent, Frank, have both gotten this treatment. Wally has been shipped with every neighbor except the canonically lesbian Poppy, and Frank has been shipped with every masc identifying character despite his canonical relationship with Eddie. This also includes Wally and Frank being shipped together, with their ship name being "Aware Husbands."
LGBT Fanbase: Even before Night Mind's discovery stream, the ARG already had a large LGBT fandom due to the large amount of canonically LGBT characters. The fact that Clown Illustrations is also LGBT and mentioned that being queer is an integral part of the ARG also helped.
Memetic Loser: At present, Julie is jokingly treated as such by parts of the fandom due to her often being the designated victim in fanworks.
12 apples tall explanation Wally is stated to be only 3 feet tall, with one description refering to him as this. Fans were tickled by this revelation and frequently make fun of his height.
Wally and Frank have beef.explanation Fans have noticed that Frank doesn't seem to enjoy Wally's company in the canon illustrations. As a result, the fanbase has conflated this into a full on rivalry between the two. The 7/22 updated seemingly jossed this, but it's still a popular joke amongst the fanbase.
Depicting Wally harassing Howdy, or otherwise stealing apples from his shop, is very popular. Likewise, portraying Howdy as an Apathetic Clerk with a Soul-Sucking Retail Job is pretty common due to relatability. explanation Like the "Wally and Frank have beef" meme, both of these seem to be jossed by the 7/22 update in-universe (Howdy seems to enjoy Wally's company AND he's a Friendly Shopkeeper) but it's still a popular joke nonetheless.
Frank spies on Howdy. explanation Frank canonically has a fascination with butterflies. Howdy is a humanoid caterpillar. As a result, some fans have begun joking that Frank spies on Howdy in hopes of seeing him turn into a butterfly.
Wally's butt. explanation Some fans like to jokingly draw Wally with a prominent backside.
Just take it from me, I'm just as free as any daughter, I do what I like, Just what I like, And how I love itexplanation Livinโ in the Sunlight, Lovinโ in the Moonlight by Tiny Tim has become the fan-assigned theme song of the arg.
''WHAT'S THAT, PUPPET BOY?''explanation Similarly, many fans have made "Puppet Boy" by DEVO the unofficial theme song for Wally as a character. This actually led to a Colbert Bump for the aforementioned song: it's now the band's second most popular song on Spotify after "Whip It".
Julie fucking dies explanation In fanworks, it's not uncommon for Julie to bite it. This is done either for dark humor or for horror depending on the mood the fan is going for in any particular work.
Wally's hairspray explanation A common joke among the fandom is that Wally's hairstyle takes a lot of hairspray to accomplish. Likewise, Wally's hair is depicted as being comedically hard and firm, and he himself is depicted as being viciously protective of his hairspray.
Open na nor, Home. explanation TikTok user James.80085 has made several videos doing impressions of Wally. The one where he portrays Wally getting locked out by Home became particularly popular amongst the fanbase.
Are you pooping? explanation The audio from this TikTok became popular for edits due to the fact that the speaker sounds similar to Wally's Canon voice.
๐:] explanation An emoticon meant to resemble Wally, which has become popular to post under fan-made videos. Other varients include ๐:) and ๐:3.
Buff Howdy explanation Part of the fandom has decided that since Howdy is one of the only characters with an actual job, and that the job likely entails at least some manual labor, that he's secretly ripped under his button-up shirt.
The Sans-ification of Wally Darling explanation Welcome Home has recieved many, many fanmade AUs, many of which center around Wally in some capacity. This has resulted in him receiving comparisons to Sans from Undertale, who was rather infamously retooled into many different variants, to the point that the AUs had fandoms that wrote crossovers for the AUs, some of which included Alternate Self Shipping. As a result, people on the internet like to joke that Wally is the new Sans.
Moe: The Neighborhood Residents are all absolutely adorable, with their designs being very visually pleasing and having a wide array of comical and charming personalities.
Paranoia Fuel: In one early post, Wally claims that he can see the viewer "every time they look into his eyes". In one of the hidden audio files on the site proper, Wally tells you that every time you draw him, he gains new eyes to watch you with. Think about how much fan art Wally's gotten on social media when he says this.
Wally looks adorable but ultimately a bit weird. Much of the fanart dedicated to him makes him far more attractive, to the point of just being a yellow skinned human.
Fans of Howdy tend to draw him extremely muscular, or at the very least give him very detailed arms.
Some Frank fanartists will make him more conventional looking (namely by making his neck and head more distinct from each other). Some even go so far as to take away his destinct unibrow in favor of eyebrows.
Sally is also a victim of this. Many fanartists will give her a more notable "feminine" build, and some give her hair and treat her points as something of a headress in order to make her more "conventionally" attractive.
The first update establishes Eddie as an Extreme Doormat who is prone to overworking himself due to his dedication to his job. Frank is seemingly the only character to notice this fact, with the other characters unintentionally taking advantage of Eddie's personality. This resulted in much of the fanbase feeling bad for him.
Him being Ambiguously Evil aside, it's difficult to watch Wally's increasingly desperate attempts to communicate with the player throughout the first update. Particularly how frustrated he gets over not being able to hear us despite knowing that we're there. Not helping is how forlorn he sounds in not only the "Beautiful Dreamer" audio, but a few of the update audios as well.
, Wally claims that he can see the viewer "every time they look into his eyes". In one of the hidden audio files on the site proper, Wally tells you that every time you draw him, he gains new eyes to watch you with. Think about how much fan art Wally's gotten on social media when he says this.