How Lies of P Twists Pinocchio's Origins

I don't think killing Alidoro is framed as "the right choice" by giving you more humanity, but showing that P has the freedom to kill a wicked person as a human rather than the restrictions of a puppet.

His nose actually does “grow”. Not on the character itself but in the hotel if you stand by the stargazer and look at his shadow you’ll see the nose has gotten bigger

You can get the black cats mask as an equipable cosmetic and the lore description on it does in fact say his eyesight is fading

Also, I just want to say I'm happy your taking the game and it's lore "seriously". I hate to sound pretentious but it feels like people tend to shy away from experiencing things "genuinely" these days. Everything feels memed, ironic, a joke, etc.

One thing that's bugged me about the gemini thing is... he really doesn't talk all that much. Yeah, when you enter a new area or when something notable happens, he talks. But it's not constant. If you're running through a level again or backtracking/exploring. He doesn't randomly talk like the Forspoken cuff. And generally when he does talk, it's a lull in the action. The prolonged rise up the tram to the church, he fills a void so instead of mind numbing silence, at least you're listening to something, even if they are annoying, it still fills the void.

34:49 "red fox and black cat are the closest thing Lies of P has to a Patches type character" Slum Resident: Am I a joke to you?

I love how Lies of P is basically a war between Simon and Geppetto, and P and Krat are in the middle of it.

Great video! A cool thing about P is the use of his arms. Whenever he behaved like a destructive puppet (ie. Opening doors or aggressively deflecting the King's hand of friendship) he uses his left/Legion Arm. However, whenever he uses his right/human arm, it's always to be compassionate and healing. As an example, in the Rise of P ending when he gives a puppet Sofia's Ergo, he uses his right arm as well as the interactions with the cat in Hotel Krat. SO much attention to detail.

hearing how passionate and faithful the game has been makes me so excited for the Oz game, I'm a huge Oz fan but most of the adaptations fall flat, I'm interested to see what this team can do with it

I really love the opening to the Original Pinocchio. “Once upon a time there was- “A King!” You say. “No children. Once there was a block of wood.”

I love multi-hour long unironic video essays delving into all the complexity and details of things I've never heard of, eschewing brevity and embracing depth. Very good video and I like it.

Another important question to mention is Arlecchino's final question. The first Lie that we tell is when we enter the Krats Hotel, we lie telling “I'm human”. And the game heavily emphasizes that we told a lie. But at the end of Arlecchino's quest, we are asked the same question. The question did not change, but we as players and P as a character have. If you see these questions in an objective form, we are still a puppet; our body hasn't changed. On the other hand, can you still call P a puppet? after all the experiences, the bounding and the empathy he has shown. Having a more abstract perspective, one of the mayor points of Arlecchino's quest, you cannot answer the question telling that P is a mere puppet. And when we told Arlecchino that P is a human, he recognized P as one. In a way, this is the game telling us that we didn't lie. I like the idea that at the beginning of the game we were lying calling us a human, but at the end P is recognized as one; because of the experiences he has been through. I know this feels like basic writing, but it is the writing what makes the difference. If this was implemented in another game, it would be just a mere mechanic to decide the ending that we get. Meanwhile, Lies of P is a narrative masterpiece when it's just not a mechanic but it actually makes us doubt the human condition and our morals. Great Video.

There's also a whole lot of symbolism unrelated to the pinnochio story (and from soft and, somehow, batman) Both the p-organ reset statue and the final shot of P and Sophia mirror the pieta statue of michelangelo (of Maria cradling the dead body of Jesus). The stairs of the opera are the ones from the Opera Garnier in Paris, the one where phantom of the opera takes place! (Same way why the burning chandelier is Like That). The egg riddle is dissapointing on it's own, but also a reference to the best quote from Revolutionary Girl Utena (if a bird cannot break its chell, the bird will die without being born). And a bunch of smaller things, like Adalinas key to 221b, the Sherlock Holmes apartment, and Victor the Wrestler being Victor Frankensteins monster!

Thanks for the great watch! The point you caught about 'Cat's arena being filled with water because he may be blind' and 'Simon = shark' blew my mind. Just a few points I think you missed: 1.In the main hall Stargazer, the shadow of P's nose grows the more you lie. So yes, his noes grows too, not just the portrait. 2. The country of the Far East is most likely Korea, not Japan, in this game. Not just because the developers are Korean, but a lot of the boss weapons are direct references to Korean folklore and historical figures (the stories behind some of them are actually fascinating). The gold coin fruits also look like old Korean coins.

A little detail I realised while watching this story breakdown is about the summoning system, with the wish stones and star shards or whatnot. You basically make a wish everytime you use the summon bowl thing which comes in the form of a spectre that looks awfully similar to Romeo, almost as if Carlos dormant dream of fighting alongside Romeo as stalkers is being fulfilled, even if only for a short time.

Gemini’s dialogue feels like it’s from a game where he’s constantly talking, like it’s so casual but goofy it seems weird when it just came out of no where after not hearing him for 10 hours at a time. I think that was my only gripe, the pacing of when he would talk, you’d forget he even does it before it happened a subsequent time, the sudden banter (rather than it just being banter you hear all the time) was always surprising, like tone-wise it sounds like someone who was always encouraging you and trash talking and hanging out etc except it just happens once in a blue moon apropos of nothing. For most of the game he’s just a silent light on your butt. Note on the fox and cat, if you fight the cat the fox will attack you without letting you offer a coin, so she doesn’t seem to want them for her own sake once he’s gone. I think that lends credence to it being for the cat’s healing and not just a ploy for money or whatever

From my understanding from the start Manus had already taken the arm of god back and left that note before. The cutscene plays because now he had enough "great ergo" creatures dead that he could absorb into the machine thing

Ok, another thing now that I'm close to the end of the video! Simon actually has another motivation for his world without lies thing. It's been a while so i don't remember where it is said, but he had the ability to read minds. This drove him insane because he couldn't stop seeing every time someone told an untruth around him.

I like the irony that the particular point that got the Alchemists onto their path of bullshittery was finding the maid puppet that awoke the Ego of Geppetto's wife and presumably Carlo's mom, Camille, mentioned in three pieces of text across the entire game. Also, I could be wrong, I think Paracelsus was one of the Founding Fathers of the Alchemists. I think it was the lines in the Weapon and Amulet descriptions you get from Laxasia's Ergo that gave me that impression, when I compared it to other symbolism usually associated with the guy.

To add to Simon Manus, in addition to the Monstro allusions, he also shares some similarities to The Coachman (The Little Man in the original story iirc.) Like the Coachman, he tricks people into becoming inhuman beasts for his benefit by claiming to help them achieve their desires (a cure for the Petrification Disease, for example.)