[ Theory ] Woby's Owner

[bruhmoment23]

First thing that struck my mind after the close-up of Woby's collar was her owner. Who did Woby originally belong to? This is more of a theory than a straight forward answer, for there is no answer to this question, atleast yet. Sadly i havent came across any vital clues that point directly to Woby's owner or her past but i came across a rather interesting quote.

Now to start off, Woby must have been sucked into the Constant with her owner, for example Woby noticing the shadowy hands as seen in Wilsons and Walters animations with Woby going after her owner to protect him/her from harm, ending with both the pet and owner landing in the plains of Constant. One thing i'm cross-minded about is "How did Woby and her owner get seperated?". There may be many scenarios left unchecked about what happened after they arrived in the Constant, that's when a certain quote from Walter examining non other than Maxwell comes onto the stage. Woby growls at Maxwell upon doing so, that could mean many things, specifically Woby either knowing Maxwell was on the nightmare throne and is able to sense the evil and corruption of nightmare magic from him, or Woby saw Maxwell kill her owner, ending in her both hating Maxwell and being scared to fight knowing she will share the same fate as her owner. Obviously this opens many more doors into this entire speculation, but to fraud my first theory, Woby doesnt respond to any of the statues in ruins and atrium, regardless of cycle, nor does she care about Fuelweaver or nightmare fueled crafts, meaning she cannot sense it being menacing and destructive. Of course this doesnt have to be the case, without any evidence or proof for all we know Woby could have been Woodies dog that he forgot or lost memory of.

Anyway those are my few cents on this short and not-so-bright theory, if anybody has found some interesting quotes/info about Woby or her owner please let me know and feel free to add it up in replies, as always let me know what you guys think about Woby and how she ended up in the Constant.

[pyroisshy]

Woby could be the dog of one of the singleplayer exclusive characters, but seeming as they both appeared in the constant after the moon broke off into the sea, I'm guessing that woby is somehow related to future Return of Them content/lore

[Zeklo]

The only thing I really want to add, because it makes for excellent food for thought is: while it is most likely that Woby is from the real world (due to appearance and what naught), it's also entirely possible that she's a native creature of the Constant that someone ended up raising, naming, and etc. It's far less likely, but opens up possibilities of there being some other presently unseen character whose current situation is unknown.

On the complete other side of the spectrum, a simple answer could be that she's just a normal dog who ended up fiddling with a very particular object, at one point, much like Walter did. Animals do tend to mess with things.

Ultimately I do hope this is a plot point that'll be expanded upon later, and not just new developments with no end goal.

[minespatch]

48 minutes ago, Zeklo said:

Ultimately I do hope this is a plot point that'll be expanded upon later,

Yeah, seems strange that Walter and Woodie are somehow connected.

I'd love to find out where that collar came from.

[Rinkusan]

I suspect that Woby's original owner might simply be Woodie. The collar obviously suggests that Woby as well as Woby's owner came from the real world and is therefore a Constant survivor, and this together with the fact that Woby has a monster-meat-triggered wereform strongly supports a connection to Woodie.

Does anyone happen to know what dog breed Woby is?

 

[minespatch]

2 minutes ago, Rinkusan said:

Does anyone happen to know what dog breed Woby is?

Maybe a Saint Berdoodle?

[Mike23Ua]

1 hour ago, minespatch said:

Yeah, seems strange that Walter and Woodie are somehow connected.

I'd love to find out where that collar came from.

Minespatchs come on dude.... It’s obviously the Curio Collectors Mysterious NOX you kept asking about. xD
 

(I’m almost willing to bet money on it.. but alas I am poor so 1$ is all you getting!)

[Rinkusan]

27 minutes ago, minespatch said:

Maybe a Saint Berdoodle?

I did a search on saint berdoodles, and as much as the white-and-brown color of the dog's fur AND the "floofiness" does resemble Woby, the things that makes me lean away from this dog breed are the white region of color cutting between their eyes onto their heads and the fact that this is an artificially mixed breed created in the U.S. in the 1880s (i.e. dangerously close to the Don't Starve timeline for them to be a common pet let alone a common pet in the woods of Canada).
https://dogtime.com/dog-breeds/saint-berdoodle#:~:text=Saint Berdoodle,Berdoodles are great family dogs.&text=Although they are “designer dogs,Saint Bernard and Poodle rescues.



I did a search on "white-and-brown dog breeds" afterwards and found this website. https://www.dog-learn.com/dog-colors/white-brown-dogs/

This website is honestly super-convenient for narrowing down dog breeds based on fur color. So far, I think the best candidate for Woby's breed is the Lagotto Romagnolo, even though for me personally, the two breeds look pretty similar. 
https://wagwalking.com/breed/lagotto-romagnolo



Lagotto Romagnoloes are an ancient breed of hunting-retrieval dogs originating in Italy. They are the OG "water dogs" (dogs that retrieve gunshot animals from the water), and they became truffle hunters during the 1900s. It would make more sense for this dog breed to have survived in the Constant compared to the Saint Berdoodle.

Here's a picture of Woby for reference.


All of that being said, I'm still looking up other potential candidates because neither of these breeds have the really short ears that Woby has. But who knows; maybe the short ears are an artistic choice (visual evidence is very hard to play with).

[Mike23Ua]

Don’t you guys think if this dog REALLY Belonged To Woodie that Woodie would have an Examination Quote for looking at it that Confirms this?

it has to OBVIOUSLY belong to someone we have not met yet...

[bruhmoment23]

7 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Don’t you guys think if this dog REALLY Belonged To Woodie that Woodie would have an Examination Quote for looking at it that Confirms this?

it has to OBVIOUSLY belong to someone we have not met yet...

Someone who is most likely dead. I really want to bet on Woby being Woodie's dog, but again there's not much info pointing towards that. Would be interesting if Woby originally belonged to Lucy if we're going the "Woodie path", for example a puppy being a gift from your beloved route. Aswell as Lucy "dying" or "disappearing" leaving Woby alone with Woodie.

13 minutes ago, Rinkusan said:

-snip-

Great info and catch Rinku, but yeah as you mentioned building up evidence on lines and scratches is crucial, but what if Woby came out from a shelter? Usually that's where alot of mixed dog breeds can be found, all though the location might make it seem unlikely, perhaps Woby doesnt have a specified breed and is just a cur like most dogs in the shelters. There could also be the possibility of Woby getting lost during tracking with the hunting party that owned her and her parents, eventually ending in Woby coming across either the cabin or something else.

[WhatTheCabbage]

Walter quote to max is " hi Mr. %s! Woby, stop growling at him!". Suggesting that maxwell might be the one responsible for dragging WOBY and her owner to the constant, which means before ROT. 

Or maybe she can just sense he is a jerk

[Rinkusan]

3 minutes ago, bruhmoment23 said:

Someone who is most likely dead. I really want to bet on Woby being Woodie's dog, but again there's not much info pointing towards that. Would be interesting if Woby originally belonged to Lucy if we're going the "Woodie path", for example a puppy being a gift from your beloved route. Aswell as Lucy "dying" or "disappearing" leaving Woby alone with Woodie.

Great info and catch Rinku, but yeah as you mentioned building up evidence on lines and scratches is crucial, but what if Woby came out from a shelter? Usually that's where alot of mixed dog breeds can be found, all though the location might make it seem unlikely, perhaps Woby doesnt have a specified breed and is just a cur like most dogs in the shelters. There could also be the possibility of Woby getting lost during tracking with the hunting party that owned her and her parents, eventually ending in Woby coming across either the cabin or something else.

Yeah, for all we know, Woby could have just been an unrelated dog who just so happened to have the lycanthropy curse who wandered into the Constant alone in a completely unrelated event to what we see in the Walter short. But I don't think Klei would have given her the curse - which is inherently lore-worthy in itself - if Woby had no other significance to the Don't Starve lore.

This curse is very confusing tbh.  

[Mike23Ua]

I can debunk the whole lycanthropy theory, Wolfgang has an adorable quote for her while In Big Form.

”Heh, Tiny Dog can become Mighty Too!”

[CameoAppearance]

As far as Woby's breed goes, looking for a single breed that fits perfectly seems like a dead end to me; she's most likely a mixed breed, maybe even a full-fledged mutt. She could have a lot of Lagotto Ramognolo blood, I just don't think she's a purebred.

[Blueleaf12]

Yeah I just kind of assumed she was a mutt. I doubt a random dog found in the woods would really be purebred anyway.

She does SEEM like a dog Woodie would own, but I don’t think she is his dog.

[Mike23Ua]

I got two confused reacts on my curio collectors Nox comment, lol it wasn’t meant as a joke, I’m being serious as an actual possibility, think about it? Walter is only holding onto the dog until he can find its owner.. We (Playing as Walter) never actually MET Trade Inn guy.. because he’s never been seen by any of the characters we play as in the actual game itself.

But what is a NOX? Well it’s like an OX But Not.

Interesting that the closest looking mob in DST to an Actual Ox is the Beefalo... it’s even more interesting how much Big Woby resembles a Beefalo but isn’t an actual Beefalo (like an Ox but Not..)

Woby also already has a name tag around her neck.. so she’s more then some random stray..

And IF She Belonged to Woodie then the very second a Walter Came across a Woodie she would rush to his side and Walters Task of returning lost dogs would be completed.

[minespatch]

Still, the real mystery is those horns and where they came from.

[wigfrids hat]

maybe it is just a side-effect from eating monster meat? that stuff can turn a large pig afterall. it would make sense a small dog wouldn't respond well to it

[4 Da LOLs]

the Inn Keeper said they had a nox impling that there may be a domestic nox somewhere

and they grow horns when in large form that may be similar to this mystery creature

this may be it the I N N K E E P E R L O R E!

[Canis]

On 6/16/2020 at 12:00 AM, pyroisshy said:

Woby could be the dog of one of the singleplayer exclusive characters, but seeming as they both appeared in the constant after the moon broke off into the sea, I'm guessing that woby is somehow related to future Return of Them content/lore

The first thing I thought of when I read this was "Remember Koko the gorilla and their pet kitten? Okay, this but it's Wilbur and Woby."

New headcanon.

[DaZoul]

On 6/16/2020 at 9:09 AM, Zeklo said:

The only thing I really want to add, because it makes for excellent food for thought is: while it is most likely that Woby is from the real world (due to appearance and what naught), it's also entirely possible that she's a native creature of the Constant that someone ended up raising, naming, and etc. It's far less likely, but opens up possibilities of there being some other presently unseen character whose current situation is unknown.

On the complete other side of the spectrum, a simple answer could be that she's just a normal dog who ended up fiddling with a very particular object, at one point, much like Walter did. Animals do tend to mess with things.

Ultimately I do hope this is a plot point that'll be expanded upon later, and not just new developments with no end goal.

Woby being from the real world or not is a complicated question. She is seen growing horns in her big form, and just having 2 forms is general is pretty weird. That said, let's not forget, that Walter was looking for the Werebeaver in the real world, so magic may be present in there too, we just don't know to what extent 

[sudoku]

Woby's owner doesn't necessarily have had to be dragged into the constant as who knows if their name starts with a ''W'', in fact I like that Woby wasn't Walters pet as it woulve been too convenient they both had ''W'' names.

[kilobit]

Woby's big form is actually explained somewhat by Wickerbottom.

As we've seen, this can also be applied to cases such as Woodie and his transformations, or Pigs.
Though this provides an explanation, it doesn't really narrow anything down, sadly. It... actually makes things more complex. We know she could very well be from the Constant, as Walter's short revealed that the Werebeaver did indeed exist in the real world. Though there are also arguments that say she could be from the Constant. Her base form seems most similar to a Vargling, which have different breeds due to various skins you can obtain. Perhaps she's a Varg, and all Vargs shrink down to Varglings when they get hungry. But then there's the whole... not looking like a Varg thing. And the horns.

I'd personally like to believe Woby is from the real world, as the implications of that are very interesting to me. Because... who owned her? Was she dragged into the Constant alongside them? If so, are they even still alive? Did she get tricked by Maxwell on her own? Howso, and why? Even though I can't know for sure, I'd say it's pretty unlikely for the both of them to have been taken in simultaneously. It seems as if 

For all we know, her owner could've been abusive, which is what allowed Maxwell to step in and take her. Perhaps he saw something in her. That'd also allow for Walter and Woby to stay together after all!! When this all ends. Whenever that is.