I don't think Gunter had anything to do with Bubbles' zombifying revival. If he did, he'd be dealing with even worse psychological trauma and he'd be much, much worse off mentally - Bubbles doesn't remember him! Bubbles is also decomposing while also being "alive". So Gunter has no way of getting closure; Bubbles can't forgive him because he doesn't know what happened.

Considering how much the guilt was affecting him through life, I could see Gunter having a breakdown if he sees Bubbles.

(I'm kind of amused that the thread started out about the event and theme, and went on to plot/Gunter's story wrapup speculation. x) )

Another possibility. There won't be any more plot because the story last year was just to explain the changeover to Neugarten. :( :(

We'll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile we can all have fun speculating.

The battle challenger thing hinted that Bubbles does have at least some vague memory fragments, so I think it's possible that at some point more will come back to him. If he and Anne were to have a chance meeting somehow, or even seeing Gunter, would one of them recognize him? Would it maybe trigger something in Bubbles's memories? I don't know, but I see it as a possibility.

Yeah, I'm not sure, although I hope that wouldn't be the case. I don't know which came first, the idea to change Neugarten or the idea regarding Gunter and Bubbles. It's possible that staff wanted to make changes to Alegarten and then came up with a way to do that and add to the site lore at the same time. But I hope even if this was like a plot device to change the event around, we could still get something more in the future. Because as it is, the story definitely feels unresolved.

Yesss, speculating is half the fun! It would be a disappointing not to get any kind of follow-up to last year's stuff and have proper closure to this character arc. :/ I understand if they want to do it after the event to avoid souring the mood with heavy feels, though.

True, though I don't know how well that would work out. :'D I don't think Anne or Gunter would really feel... very happy to see Bubbles in his current physical state, let me put it that way. If he remembers more on his own (maybe he hears about Anne from another zombie that went to see what all the new food hubbub was about?), he could probably try to keep in touch via letters, but even then it would be horrifying to randomly get a letter from someone you know is dead.

They would probably be relieved and shocked to find out that he's alive, but if they insist on seeing/meeting him, they would also have to get used to the fact that he's kind of... a waterlogged living corpse. Seeing someone you love in that state is... oof. Let's not go there. Bubbles would be a constant, tangible reminder to Gunter of how he murdered his own brother.

Yeah, the subject matter definitely makes things complicated, and like how dark do they really want to go with this?

I'm open to whatever staff is willing to give us, even if it's not a full-blown plot but just some little lore things. We'll see what happens eventually.

Yeah I agree completely. I think most of us would like some closure to the whole situation involving Gunter and poor Anne. Meanwhile, Bubbles would probably be alright enjoying his life in the Underground without family reunions. Just like Amy Elsie! ;)

Where Anne is concerned we have no idea if she thinks in terms of "Filthy zombies" or "The Unliving are a new species." Fantine spent some time as a zombie and had a relationship with Skitters - we haven't heard that she has nightmares about this. Sarah is good friends with Elsie.

This item shows that some Unliving moved to Atebus.

Maybe some Unliving visit the main shopping centre where Quick Bites is located. Anne sells a small range of poop items along with radioactive booger burgers, rotten shrimp eggrolls and gelatin made out of 100% blood so Unliving shoppers would know where to go if they wanted a meal.

If Anne has met some Unliving and accepts them for what they are it might be a bit easier for her to accept that her father now runs The Lost Skeleton. She'd definitely be sad that he doesn't remember her but she could also feel relieved that he isn't dead as such and seems to be enjoying his life in the Underground.

PS: I'm sure the Unliving would also like this item from the Candy Shack :)

I think what meant is there's a bit of a difference between meeting some of the Unliving people who you've never met before and becoming friends with them that way, or someone willingly choosing to become a zombie/Unliving character, and someone like Bubbles who was either killed or nearly killed and then something happened to turn him into a zombie which may or may not have been something he wanted to happen, we don't really know at this point since the details of his transformation have yet to be revealed.

I don't think we even know how old Anne was when all that happened too, like was she old enough to remember him and know him well before he died?

I think it could maybe happen eventually that she would want to try to form a new connection with him in the future, but initially it would probably be a bit jarring to see someone you knew when they were alive/human in a really different state. Especially because as far as she's concerned he's been dead for all these years, and she has no idea he's been around in the Underground doing his own thing.

There's a lot of possibilities that could be explored, which is mainly why I would love to just have something happen lol. Plus I just like plots and site lore and stuff. ;~;

All we know about Anne from the Subetapedia is who her father and uncle are, she's friends with Jo (Home Appliances) and she hates her job but thinks her work hat is cute.

In Quick Bites she says

She's had a year to think about it all now. If she hates her job will she move to Veta and take the brewery over permanently? She's selling Brewery stock there for Neugarten so maybe she'll think of leaving Quick Bites if the brewing part or the Brewery itself doesn't give her too many bad feelings.

What does she mean by "Where on Subeta is my father?" Is she wondering where he's buried? Does she think he might be an Unliving and has she been searching for him?

In the Neugarten news announcement she says

This suggests that she might say something more about it some time but will it be this year? There's another week to go so it's possible we'll get an update in the next few days.

Perhaps Anne actually knows Bubbles now, but she doesn't know he's her father. That would be quite a shock to find out, I think.

Also, do zombies eat poop? Even if you don't subscribe to brains-only fare, I can understand blood, arms, and other body parts, but poop is literally just leftover waste from things eaten. Kind of like if humans ate dirt.

Yeah, I think they've definitely given enough hints that we'll be getting some more lore related to this at some point. Even Gunter's text in the SAI "Gunter doesn't seem up for talking right now." implies that he may have something to say eventually.

I was kind of hoping for something new this year, but I could understand that maybe staff thought a break this year would be nice to just have a simple, calm event. Considering the lore we got last year in addition to the changes in the holiday that weren't that well-received by everyone, they could just be using this year to listen to some of the user feedback and see how it goes, and maybe we'll get some more lore next year or something.

But there is still another week to go for the event, so we'll see if anything happens. :)

There are poop items in The Lost Skeleton and Half Baked, so at least some of them do lol. Could be used as a flavor enhancer I guess, not necessarily for nutrients.

There's something a little odd about Gunter's letter. He gives Anne basic details about the actual murder but doesn't say what he did with the body.

As he's supposed to be full of remorse etc you'd think he'd have told Anne where her father's remains were supposed to be so she could arrange for a proper funeral or whatever. We know he didn't put the body in a pig pen for pigs to eat otherwise there would be no Bubbles. (The Food Market sells raw port and there have been all kinds of pork products for years. This indicates that there were pigs around before Quentin and his ghost friends discovered the Urubu in February this year).

I'm hoping we get at least some answers if we don't get a plot. Amber denied having a plot this year, but there's always next Survival. She also said that Anne knows about Bubbles, but didn't go into more detail. I guess maybe she visited Shadowglen and recognised him but he didn't recognise her (Or maybe he did, but didn't quite know who she was).

The main thing I really want to know is how he became a zombie, was he already infected when he died, or is there another way to become one?

It wouldn't take much of a plot to explain what you mentioned in your post. Anne could make an announcement about her side of things in the news or write a journal page we can read from a link in Quick Bites. Ian Asmodeus could have discovered there is more than one way to become a zombie. Or, as you suggested, Burkhart was already infected at the time.

Also, if Anne knows about Bubbles now, she wouldn't still be wondering where her father is as stated in her Quick Bites announcement.