Cup Trio

The Cup Trio is the friendship between Cuphead, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice from the Cuphead fandom.

Canon
In the game, Ms. Chalice - as the Legendary Chalice - grants Cuphead and Mugman with Mystical Art powers to help them in their quest to claim the soul debts and defeat The Devil. In the DLC, Delicious Last Course, Cuphead and Mugman assisted Ms. Chalice in her mission to bake the Wondertart with the help of Chef Salt Baker, which promised to help her regain her living form and escape the astral plane. However, when Salt Baker betrayed the group, he kidnapped one of their the souls to bake into the Wondertart and rule over the astral plane instead. After Salt Baker's defeat, Ms. Chalice was left in her Legendary Chalice ghost form, but said that she didn't mind since she now had two best pals.

In The Cuphead Show, the relationship between Ms. Chalice and the bothers is explored further. Chalice is first introduced in the episode "In Charm's Way" (S1E13), where she surprises Cuphead and Mugman with her ability to charm people into giving her free stuff. Together, they ask her to teach them her tricks. Despite Chalice's insistence that they are naturals, their attempt to charm a security guard proves ineffective and she has to step in. Upon infiltrating a cookie factory, the police arrive to arrest them, but Cuphead and Mugman end up concussing themselves. Despite saying how much she likes them, Chalice chooses to escape using her ghost powers - stating that it is not worth troubling with the cops.

In "Charmed and Dangerous" (S2E2), Ms. Chalice shows up to the boys house and apologizes for landing them in jail by abandoning them. It is here that the exact relationship between Chalice and the brothers is further revealed; Cuphead is extremely friendly towards Ms. Chalice and enjoys her company, whereas Mugman is uncertain and almost resentful after she betrayed them. Despite this, they all agree to hang out and spend time together. At the end of the episode, Ms. Chalice reveals to the boys that she is part ghost after she drives off an angry mob. From that point on, Ms. Chalice would infrequently accompany Cuphead and Mugman in their mayhem, recognizing them as her best friends.

However, Chalice's relationship with the boys is eventually put to the test when it is revealed she had made a deal with The Devil: in exchange for her staying in the living world with her ghost powers, she would need to fulfil a favor at a later time. When The Devil tells Chalice to betray her friends so that he may capture Cuphead's soul, she intentionally stalls for time as long as she can until she is threatened with losing her life if she does not pull through with the favor. Despite following along at first, she ends up backing out at the last second because she cares about her friends too much.

In response to this, Ms. Chalice and The Devil agree to a dance-off competition. When Ms. Chalice ends up losing, Cuphead steps in and challenges The Devil to a game in exchange for Chalice's life, as well as his and Mugman's souls. Touched by Cuphead's selfless gesture, she gives her friend a hug and is joined by Mugman in doing so. After Cuphead beats The Devil in rock-paper-scissor, they all leave with their lives and souls intact, while The Devil is left to mope about his defeat.

From then on, the group carried on hanging out together and agreed to never mess with The Devil again... until Cuphead ran towards the newly opened Devil's Casino.

Fanon
Being the main characters of The Cuphead Show, the Cup Trio are a popular friendship to see together. Even before the announcement of the Delicious Last Course DLC and the show, fans were already including Ms. Chalice - in her original Legendary Chalice appearance - in the group of friends.

Although some fans appear to like pairing Chalice with at least one of the boys, the majority of the fanbase (at least, in regards of the TV series) seems to like viewing Chalice as part of Cuphead and Mugman's sibling rivalry, essentially as an honourary sister to the twins.

Fandom
FANFICTION

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