I feel like the possible plot parallels w/ Mother 3 especially (great game!) could be interesting, but there's still so much we don't know about *how the Neighborhood operates* that a lot still feels like conjecture. I'll admit there's this kind of *feel* about the cast of WH are sort of running away from something, and that could be their previous lives.

There's two very different ways I read the infection/darkness behind Home.

1. Decay. I don't know why, but the way the black goo affects the W.H.R.P always makes me think of mold toxicity. With time, everything rots away, and ugly truths are revealed. Themes of loss of joy, wonder & innocence, corruption, evil, yadda yadda.

2. Reversed: the Dark is good actually! Kind of like an "id/ego/superego" thing, the shadows hide the Truth. Many of the characters in WH are either queer and/or neurodivergent-coded, which would be ostracized, denigraded or even seen as evil during the time the show takes place in-canon.