The I Scream Man

OK

SO

THEORYTIMEBABY

So

Yea this will have spoilers for events in The Cuphead Show!. I will mention which episodes when they are brought up, and from what season it is. But yeah, most of this stuff will revolve around these episodes:

-The Devil's Pitchfork (TDP)

-The I Scream Man (TISM)

-Piano Lesson (PL)

-Lost In The Woods (LITW)

HERE'S THE SPOILER WARNING NOW, SO NO COMPLAINTS THAT 'I SPOILED SOMETHING'. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING INTO.

Aaaalllrrighty, here we go.

First off, obviously there'll be a season three. I mean, TDP literally ended in THE DEVIL KIDNAPPING MUGMAN AND DRAGGING HIM DOWN TO HELL. THERE IS NO FREAKING WAY THAT THEY'RE GONNA PULL THAT MOVE AND NOT MAAKE A THIRD SEASON.

Sorry, got a bit worked up there.

When the Devil tries to take back his pitchfork from Cuphead (in TDP), he's shocked with a blue.. lightning... thingy. Point is, it's similar, if not identical, to the shocks he received when he touched the magic invisible sweater. This means that they loosely run on the same power source, if anything. Or I could be overthinking this, who knows. Point is; ~Cuphead magic give Devil ouchies.~

Anyway. The Devil never actually took back his pitchfork, so Cuphead already has the upper hand (in a way?). Well.... he's got a weapon, at least.

Now, let's put that aside for a minute and talk about my big interest: Mugman's mental state in season two.

I mean, look at some of those episodes. The I Scream Man. Piano Lesson. Lost In The Woods. These ones were just.... bizzare. But there's one thing they all have in common.

Someone goes crazy.

In fact, all episodes from Another Brother to LITW (excluding Dead Broke) have some form of insanity shown (like Bowlboy, The Baroness, or even Elder Kettle going nuts). But those three episodes i mentioned above have a specific element that sets them apart from the rest of S2.

Mugman is the one who goes crazy.

Examples;

The I Scream Man: Mugman goes crazy, and even makes an attempt to kill said ice-cream man, all because he was annoyed.

Piano Lessons: Mugman's dreams are taken away as his mentor finds interest in his brother more than him. So what does Mugman do? He tries to eliminate Cuphead. With a piano, that ends up crushing the mentor, but also by grabbing Elder Kettle's gardening shears and proclaiming;

"Cuphead can't perform at the recital.... if he doesn't have any hands!!"

Which is followed by Elder Kettle;

"Mugman, what did I tell you about using my garden shears to mutilate your brother?"

The fact Elder Kettle says 'what have i told you about..." implies that this is not the first time Mugman has tried to actually, physically harm his brother. Harming anybody is way out of character for someone like Mugman.

Another instance he does this is in LITW. The brothers argue about each other (cuphead mad that mugman is always worrying too much, and mugman mad that cuphead never worries enough), and as the title suggests, they get lost in the woods. During winter.

Cuphead is basically dying of hunger and cold, while Mugman has built himself a shelter for the season. Fast forward a bit, Cuphead locks Mugman out of the house, Mugman decides to blow up the house with Cuphead inside (which doesn't work), and end of story.

So, that's three instances in a single season where Mugman has gone crazy and tried to harm someone, and two out of those three times, his target was Cuphead.

So, what am I implying? That Mugman is evil?

Yes.

That's exactly what I'm implying.

The show is based off of the video game Cuphead: Don't Deal With The Devil, and toward the end of the game, you have a choice to either give the soul contracts to the Devil, or fight him. Fighting him is the way to the true ending, but let's focus on the other one. The 'bad' ending.

If you give him the contracts, the Devil turns Cuphead and Mugman into his demonic minions.

So, if the show is based of the game...

Who's to say he can't do this in the show?

Think about it. If you were an evil demon enacting revenge on someone who wronged you, taking away a loved one is an obvious step in the revenge process. But taking said loved one and turning them into your own mindless slave, just to show the hero that he was unable to save the person he cares about the most?

That's just cruel.

And cruelty is exactly what the Devil is going for.

Look. This comes directly from his TCS page on this wiki.

"Mugman deeply cares for his older brother. The two are opposites, but complementary: While Cuphead is impulsive and acts without thinking about the consequences, Mugman acts as a conscience for him and brings him to his senses, with varying degrees of success. He often gets dragged into dangerous situations because of Cuphead, and while he enjoys adventures too, his concern is that he and his brother get out safely. Mugman never blames Cuphead when he puts their lives in danger, and is always by his side, even if he is sometimes annoyed by his carelessness."

That last line kind of proves that Mugman doing something crazy like trying to hurt his brother is extremely unlikely.

Which is why it makes more sense for him to be controlled or manipulated into being evil.

Remember Cuphead's nightmare back in Sweater Off Dead?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRep0ko5tTo

The cuphead show- Cuphead’s nightmareYouTube

Mugman is basically consumed by a demon.

Foreshadowing is fun....

Anyway-

Like I said at the start of the post, the Devil's pitchfork is now in Cuphead's possession, and something prevented the Devil from taking it. I don't have much information on why exactly that happened, and this post is getting super long already, so I'll look into that more and make another theory when the time comes. Until then:

TL;DR: Numerous events in season two show Mugman acting hostile towards Cuphead, which is unnatural for him. This, alongside the bad ending in the game itself, leads me to believe Mugman will be turned into a demon slave by the Devil in season three.

That's all folks, it's 11:02 PM and i have NWEA testing tomorrow. Peace out!!

*ps: mods, you should make a theory category. just a suggestion from another mod :P*