About Webber's lore

[Szczuku]

Disclaimer- I'll talk a little bit in detail about Webber's human-inside-a-spider situation

I'm wondering how will Klei tackle Webber's lore with his rework. Because if you think about his lore for more than 5 seconds you realize that it's ridiculous, even for ds/t standards. For those unaware Webber was eaten by a regular spider, didn't get digested and continues to live inside that spider as the character we know today.

Although Klei is a bit inconsistent we can safely assume that spiders are roughly the size of rabbits (both can be caught in traps).

Then why did that spider decide to swallow Webber, whose bigger than it, whole, instead of biting him into pieces? Cuz it definitelly had to choke itself like some sort of python or other jungle snake.

How did the spider's body survive Webber? Cuz human body just got up and started using spider's body as a suit; arms going inside a pair of legs like sleeves, legs buldging out of spider's belly/abdomen.

How do those 2 bodies live together? How does being inside a spider suddently make Webber's human belly immune to monster food? How do both of them stay fed? Is human body's bathroom visit when (and what) the spider body gets to e- alright I'll stop 

As I said the longer you think about Webber's lore the less sense it makes and the more it sounds like something that came out of a questionable tumblr blog.

Klei, I seriously advise you to rethink Webber's origin.

Or atlest change 'lives inside a spider' to 'became one with the spider' or something like that.

Here's my take on it:

Human Webber (for unknown reasons) gets swallowed whole by a Spider Queen (she's canonically huge so I'd say it's plausible enough). Spider Queen turns nutrients into more spiders and since Webber didn't get digested he ended up going through that whole process. Thorugh spider biology and dst fantasy he ends up as the monster we know.

Sure it's not perfect but imo it's more solid and less questionable than his canon origin.

[me real life]

The whole method of unlocking Webber in DS (getting his skull from a spider and burying it, causing him to be revived) makes me think the spider DID bite him into pieces, was in the process of digesting his head, and then the Webber's skull situation is the player character taking the mutilated corpse of that spider, noticing that there's a dude's skull in there, and giving it proper burial... which for some reason causes lightning to strike the grave, fusing the two together and bringing Webber to life like some kind of terrifying little Frankenstein's monster.

[ExtollerOfTrolls]

Webber died and his skull was inside the spiders stomach. Someone found the skull and buried it. He was then resurrected. His whole origins are quite magical.

[ShadowDuelist]

I think of Webber as DS’s take on Venom (the marvel character) many of his quotes and references further remind me of it. OP’s theory of a spider queen not being able to digest Webber and just pooping him out as a human-spider symbiont sounds very possible (He even refers to spider queens as mommy longlegs)

Even with his spidery perks he is still a very naive kid, seemingly more than the other kids in the constant, so he probably canonically sucks at survival and that’s why his first interaction with another survivor in the constant is just him requiring to be revived. 
 

Being as naive as he is, was probably the reason he was eaten in first place.

[Well-met]

I can see klei retconning webber because it's too spooky for our average gamer

[cropo]

The Spider and Webber are definitely different entities and the spider is still alive. Webber has a unique quote that I don't think can be seen legitimately when examining one of Wickerbottoms Shipwrecked books.  ''I'm not very good at reading, but he is!'', either Webber is referring to the spider, or the spider is talking and referring to Webber.  Also, if Webber is saying the spider is good at reading it would hint that they are more intelligent than we may have initially believed.

 

 

It's highly likely that Webber was a spider before he entered the constant. When examining the NPC Maxwell, he says ''That's the guy who said he could help us''. Maxwell offered to help Webber the same way he ''helped'' the other survivors, likely promising to separate them or something. Why would Webber say ''us'' otherwise?

 

I think Webber must have been a sick kid, and was donated to science. It's possible he was gravely ill and Wagstaff is clearly dead set on using the materials in the constant to improve civilization back on Earth, he could have obtained a spider from the constant  through some lore shenanigans. His family was likely too poor to be able to treat him(or no method to treat him existed) and they had nothing to lose on the chance that Wagstaff could restore him to proper order, only to have the experiment go horribly wrong  (or horribly right?) and cause them to merge together, if Wagstaff wanted to simply combine the two together while keeping the boy alive as a sort of ''superhuman'' experiment, he would have went to great lengths to make sure the boy didn't die and basically did save him by fusing him with the spider. As for the bit of him being ''eaten'' by the spider, it might be that his spider DNA is attempting to eat away at his human parts as a side-effect of the fusion, and isn't working for some reason.  We could even go darker and guess that Wagstaff was grooming Webber to be a soldier to enter the constant, under the guise of a spider so the natural monsters wouldn't try to kill him on sight, and use him to gather information and materials like he clearly did for WX-78, also consider that Webber enters the constant with Monster Meat and a Spider Sack, he was sent to the constant prepared to colonize it from the start. If Wagstaff could get Webber in, breed an entire army of spiders that are at his bidding, with Wagstaff commanding Webber, he'd effectively conquer the constant(so he thinks) before even needing to enter it himself. This also fits in with one of the bigger themes of Don't Starve as well.  He is even given a disguise to infiltrate the civilizations in Hamlet, possibly provided by Wagstaff to have him unwittingly sabatogue them for Wagstaffs personal gain, but due to Wagstaffs limited knowledge of the constant could not prepare him for every threat like the Bunnymen who don't go to the surface but are otherwise ''civilized'' monsters.

 

Webber was probably seen as a complete freak by society, and in his solitude Maxwell would have come up to him and told him he'd make him better, if only he would just come to his little fantasy land.

 

As for the bit of finding his skull in DS, I never really took that for canon and figured it was just a fun way to unlock a new character, maybe I'm wrong and there is some deep meaning to him being unlocked this way but I think people should at least consider the possibility that this was simply a fun easter egg and isn't actually a part of the story. Otherwise, what is the lore reason Wilbur magically becomes non-exhausted simply from giving him a headpiece,  if Webber being revived that way is canon, what's Wilburs excuse?  Did the crown have some magical power in it, and one of his monkeys stole it from him and giving it back to him re-energizes him? I think it's likely there was no real lore reasons behind these myself.

 

An important note for Don't Starve is that nearly every creature in the game is a cannibal, spiders will eat their own dead, this has been a huge theme of Don't Starve and it was even intended for players to be able to cannibalize themselves which they only took out because it was too brutal for normal audiences. Even if he is eaten by a spider in the constant and that bit is canon, it means nothing on when he actually became a spider. He could have died as a spider, and one of his spider buddies ate his dead body like they do every other dead spider and was unable to entirely digest him because the spider wasn't expecting human bones being a part of its meal and reviving him just reverts him to his default spider state and he gets the title of ''the indigestable'' and we're confusing that for him becoming a spider at that point.

[me real life]

1 hour ago, Well-met said:

I can see klei retconning webber because it's too spooky for our average gamer

what

[Szczuku]

15 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

what

he's saying that dst fanbase is full of children and that Klei's letting go of the spooky aesthetic

[BlueBaby701]

3 hours ago, Sunset Skye said:

The whole method of unlocking Webber in DS (getting his skull from a spider and burying it, causing him to be revived) makes me think the spider DID bite him into pieces, was in the process of digesting his head, and then the Webber's skull situation is the player character taking the mutilated corpse of that spider, noticing that there's a dude's skull in there, and giving it proper burial... which for some reason causes lightning to strike the grave, fusing the two together and bringing Webber to life like some kind of terrifying little Frankenstein's monster.

Honestly this is the (with fierce competition) best theory, it isn't way over the top and it even explains his unlock

[Milordo]

37 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

he's saying that dst fanbase is full of children and that Klei's letting go of the spooky aesthetic

Now that you said that......when they will put others mutants animals for the lunar island?  They are so cool! 

[BezKa]

3 minutes ago, Milordo said:

Now that you said that......when they will put others mutants animals for the lunar island?  They are so cool! 

They won't, as far as I know.

[Milordo]

2 minutes ago, BezKa said:

They won't, as far as I know.

WHAT, why?   =( 

[ZTheNecromancer]

57 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

he's saying that dst fanbase is full of children and that Klei's letting go of the spooky aesthetic

Spoiler

Oh shoot they're onto me! I gotta run!

[Dragonboooorn]

You better hope Klei wont dumb us again. They already show how they can do reworks just for lolz. Woodie just got a funny cartoon instead of lore short. Why?

[BezKa]

1 hour ago, Milordo said:

WHAT, why?   =( 

Too scary, as far as I remember

[1bubbainpa]

5 hours ago, Szczuku said:

Human Webber (for unknown reasons) gets swallowed whole by a Spider Queen (she's canonically huge so I'd say it's plausible enough). Spider Queen turns nutrients into more spiders and since Webber didn't get digested he ended up going through that whole process. Thorugh spider biology and dst fantasy he ends up as the monster we know.

Idk if I want to see that animated chief

[SnoByrd]

I don't think it's as simple as the spider swallowing Webber and Webber just walking around because he can't be digested. They definitely seem to be fused into one entity and now they share a mind and body. Therefore, they share things like hunger and health. Since their bodies are fused, Webber can eat things like monster meat. And since their minds are fused, Webber sometimes refers to himself as 'we.' It's just how they fused that needs to be explained. It does bring up some questions though.

As @Cropo said, Webber implies that he was like this before he entered the Constant when he examines Maxwell's statue. Does this mean spiders exist in the 'real' world and not just the Constant? 

[Harrowick]

As for how the Spider even managed to eat Webber whole, there is Maxwell's quote suggesting they are almost entirely digestive system. Very, very stretchy digestive systems, it seems.

 

Also, isn't Webber usually drawn to be the shortest survivor in most official art? Unless that isn't canon. Just a thought considering all survivors have identical heights in-game. 

Webber as a whole is an enigma, is that the boy's name? Last name? How exactly did he die before Wilson came across his skull? What a fun character to think about. 

 

[Milordo]

2 hours ago, BezKa said:

Too scary, as far as I remember

There is an official and clear statement from Klei that they didn't want to do it anymore? Or it's only a assumption from the community? Because if it's true, that why are the mutants still in the game? 

 

[Cheggf]

I don't think a spider having stretchy skin and trying to foolishly eat someone (who was possibly sleeping) in one bite is too far-fetched in a game where the way to progress is having a giant bird eat you and spit you out in its nest, where someone's built a house. There are many different companions where the entire premise is that their mouth can hold a lot of things in it, despite their small stature.

[W0l0l0]

3 hours ago, SnoByrd said:

examines Maxwell's statue.

Are there any instances of Webber only referring to one part of himself? Does he do that? Then we'd be able to know for sure, as he might just have gotten used to talking using "we".

Otherwise we wouldn't really be able to draw conclusions just yet, as it could still mean anything. 

[Theukon-dos]

36 minutes ago, W0l0l0 said:

Are there any instances of Webber only referring to one part of himself? Does he do that? Then we'd be able to know for sure, as he might just have gotten used to talking using "we".

Otherwise we wouldn't really be able to draw conclusions just yet, as it could still mean anything. 

A couple, Actually.

 

Off the top of my head, The main ones are the Froggle Bunwich (Sandwich for me, Frog legs for him) and Flint (oh, to feel a sharp edge against my skin)

[W0l0l0]

Just now, Theukon-dos said:

Off the top of my head, The main ones are the Froggle Bunwich (Sandwich for me, Frog legs for him) and Flint (oh, to feel a sharp edge against my skin)

Those are interesting. In particular the Froggle Bunwhich implies they don't even think as one! Does that mean sometimes human is talking and sometimes spider is talking? aAAaA. So many possible explanations!

[eosdusknoir]

10 hours ago, Szczuku said:

Then why did that spider decide to swallow Webber, whose bigger than it, whole, instead of biting him into pieces? Cuz it definitelly had to choke itself like some sort of python or other jungle snake.

surprisingly enough, a lot of animals can overfeed themselves to death. not tarantulas, but don't expect a lot of logic from constant monsters though, i personally like the wacky feeling of it.

what really makes me curious is this one line: 

what did webber ask help for? the main assumption is that he asked to be separated from the spider, but wouldn't it make more sense that he would've gotten eaten after entering the constant? there's so many possibilities here for his lore. klei probably won't make something too dark for him (though, a child getting eaten alive by a spider is kinda dark already, and don't starve isn't especially a rainbows game), but i'm sure whatever we get it'll be pretty sad, since most of webber's quotes are already pretty sad on their own.

i just hope spider boy lives a good, happy life

[me real life]

10 hours ago, Szczuku said:

Klei's letting go of the spooky aesthetic

In what way? I look at recent DST updates and see cookie cutters, salt formations, Wavey Jones, naked mole bats, gnarwails (and the way they lose their horn), bull kelp stalks (shaped like a hand with long fingernails), the crab king, rockjaws, etc. In my opinion the spooky dark aesthetic of the game is just as strong as ever, we're just more used to it.