I just realized something.
The DLC tells you something about Cuphead and Mugman as characters (and also Chalice too) because of how it's set up
The base game is all about self-preservation.
The DLC is about selflessness.
Think about it. All the bosses in the DLC are selfish. They're all criminals who hoard the ingredients for themselves for unknown reasons. This isn't clearer than with Esther, considering she has a vacuum which sucks up goods and valuables.
oh yeah and i guess saltbaker too
It's a stark contrast. Chalice's goal is, inherently, a selfish one, even if not nearly to the extreme the other bosses or especially Saltbaker's are. She wants herself to be alive again, and needs the brothers to help her. However, where Saltbaker's selfishness got the better of him, Chalice is able to overcome it by not accepting the Wondertart at all, even if it couldn't be baked.
She could have chosen to let Saltbaker have one of the brothers, people who she barely knows, but she doesn't.
Or, if you look at it with her in the jar, it still works. Ultimately, she just has to accept that having the Wondertart "just ain't worth it."
With Cuphead and Mugman, the time they express it- and by "they" I specifically mean Cuphead- is in the base game. The base game is them specifically making up for that mistake, and the DLC is spent showing how selfless they truly are.
They get no real reward for helping Chalice. They aren't getting the cosmic powers of the Wondertart. But, they do it anyway since they care about her.
I think this is why Saltbaker is such a good endgame villain. Whereas Cuphead is selfless (save for that one time), he's selfish and takes what he wants. Honestly, Saltbaker could parallel the bad ending, too. If Cuphead were to continue to be selfish, he'd end up similarly.
Like. If Cuphead DID continue to be selfish after the book closes on the base game... could he have ended up like Saltbaker? Not that extreme, but somewhere on that spectrum?
Maybe the base game was a good thing, after all. Without it, he may not have learned that lesson.
And, maybe that explains why Chalice is suddenly there, too. After all, as far as we know, she never owed her soul. So, if it was actually selfishness driving the DLC, it makes sense she'd appear in the bad ending, too...
