What in God's name is going on in this story??? *SPOILER DISCUSSION*

[Virake]

I've beaten the game once, and I'm a little confused by the story. When the game revealed that Gepetto was the one who caused the puppet frenzy, I didn't realize it was meant that he did it intentionally. As in, he literally ordered the puppets to commit citywide genocide. Or maybe I just gaslit myself into believing there could be another explanation. In any case, you can imagine my shock when I saw him leave the massacre at the hotel. I have the following questions:
- Did Gepetto actually order the puppets to murder the entire population of Krat?
- If so, then why?
- Why did Gepetto have the rest of the hotel residents murdered?

[pcdeltalink]

I’m probably way over generalizing the story that I picked up on but to me it seemed like Gepetto’s whole thing was simply finding a way to bring back his dead son.

And he didn’t care what he had to do or who had to die in order to make that a reality.

That’s my two cents anyway, admittedly I didn’t stop to read a lot of the books or messages I picked up so I’m sure someone much better versed on the lore can give you a better answer.

[The Undead Watcher]

As far as i know Gepetto started it but shortly after they broke free and then started to fight the carcass monsters. Although it seems Gepetto didn't plan for this, he was certainly ok with it, as all he needed was a bunch of Ergo to revive his son.

[2olluxander]

İlk olarak Virake tarafından gönderildi:

Why did Gepetto have the rest of the hotel residents murdered?

Because they knew too much. Veignini was the one who deciphered the message that proved he did it. From there, everyone else in the hotel could've very easily found out. Leaving them alive would've allowed them the opportunity to reveal this evidence to the world - sure, Krat's in utter chaos, but the Puppet Frenzy and Petrification disease were largely limited to it.

With this in mind, their deaths don't look that suspicious. After all, the Black Rabbit Brotherhood left behind a LOT of evidence that they attacked the hotel, so if anyone goes there and finds its residents dead, Gepetto and his son aren't the first, second, or even third suspects. Even if the BRB aren't assumed to be responsible, the hotel was in the middle of a city filled with homicidal puppets and weird zombies. Any of those possibilities are sensible explanations for what happened, and honestly make more sense than what actually did.

The end result is that Gepetto risks a lot if he lets the hotel's residents live and risks very little if he doesn't.

[SteelaiRizel]

İlk olarak Virake tarafından gönderildi:

I've beaten the game once, and I'm a little confused by the story. When the game revealed that Gepetto was the one who caused the puppet frenzy, I didn't realize it was meant that he did it intentionally. As in, he literally ordered the puppets to commit citywide genocide. Or maybe I just gaslit myself into believing there could be another explanation. In any case, you can imagine my shock when I saw him leave the massacre at the hotel. I have the following questions:
- Did Gepetto actually order the puppets to murder the entire population of Krat?
- If so, then why?
- Why did Gepetto have the rest of the hotel residents murdered?

1. Yes, yes he did.
2. To collect far more ergo. He was also happy to let the petrification disease do it's work for even more ergo.
3. As the above poster mentioned, it's far better for him if they are all dead while he get's his 'perfect' boy. This is why the 'real boy' ending is considered the bad ending. The very bad ending.

What he creates isn't a real boy but a human puppet, a slave with the face of his son. An obedient walking flesh puppet.

[Fengard]

Geppetto did everything because he needed 2 things, huge amounts of ergo and the arm of god that in itself also needed huge amount of ergo. Simon was using the pretrification disease to reach the next human evolution, but also to get ergo to become a god. Geppetto also needed both his arm and the huge amount of ergo around Krat just to revive his son, Carlo. Still Geppetto didn't just want to revive Carlo, but to revive him as a puppet to control, to avoid another tragic event like before. That's why being truthful in this game is shown as being a mindless puppet but lying brings up P's humanity.

[樹皮]

I've always found it ironic that Geppetto was so obsessed with bringing Carlo back when there's a lot of evidence (like the necklace from the king of puppets) that Carlo never really liked him that much, nor did Geppetto treat him well. A do-over, I suppose? It would make sense why he seems a lot nicer to P for the most part.

[Washing Machine]

I'm just confused why dad instructed me to loop around half the town, a zombie infested street, some gang neighborhood and drop down a giant pit, all to get to the rabbit hideout that was literally behind a door panel next to his room.

[Fengard]

İlk olarak Washing Machine tarafından gönderildi:

I'm just confused why dad instructed me to loop around half the town, a zombie infested street, some gang neighborhood and drop down a giant pit, all to get to the rabbit hideout that was literally behind a door panel next to his room.

Because that portrait has Carlo's soul. It was painted by Dorian Gray, just like how Gray didn't age because the passing of time was taken away and reflected in his portrait. Also P's P-organ is Carlo's mechanized and ergo infused heart. Because of that P has a connection to Carlo's portrait and whenever P lies, his nose doesn't grow but it's reflected on the portrait and you can see it's nose growing. also lie enough times and you get a P lying nose as a weapon.

[Washing Machine]

Ye but why didn't they just open that door panel and let me go fight the rabbit gang if they're literally downstairs of the hotel?

It's a bit video gamey and really goofy to do this type of loop that makes no sense. They wanted to do some big metroidvania connected map thing but the lore makes no sense here. Dad lamenting how he doesn't wanna send me to dangers but I'm doing a completely unnecessary circle all over the town.

[Virake]

wouldn't it be easier and safer to just mine the natural ergo deposits? after all, a lot more people have died in Krat over the course of its history than were killed during the puppet frenzy.

[Budakiel]

İlk olarak Washing Machine tarafından gönderildi:

Ye but why didn't they just open that door panel and let me go fight the rabbit gang if they're literally downstairs of the hotel?

It's a bit video gamey and really goofy to do this type of loop that makes no sense. They wanted to do some big metroidvania connected map thing but the lore makes no sense here. Dad lamenting how he doesn't wanna send me to dangers but I'm doing a completely unnecessary circle all over the town.

Antonia wanted to keep the goldfruit tree a secret, that's why that pathway is locked off.

[Fengard]

İlk olarak Virake tarafından gönderildi:

wouldn't it be easier and safer to just mine the natural ergo deposits? after all, a lot more people have died in Krat over the course of its history than were killed during the puppet frenzy.

For what it's explained in the game, ergo isn't just life force or souls of dead people but it needs a specific process like the petrification disease to serve as a catalyst for it to transform into ergo.

[Virake]

İlk olarak Fengard tarafından gönderildi:

For what it's explained in the game, ergo isn't just life force or souls of dead people but it needs a specific process like the petrification disease to serve as a catalyst for it to transform into ergo.

how does this play into the puppet frenzy?

[Fengard]

For what I understand, Simon and Geppetto needed a huge amount of ergo and that's all. It seems that ergo can be used only after dying, not found like natural resources after a long time. For what I understand, petrification disease serves as a catalyst to transform people into next step of evolution if they survive. For those who die, then their soul and life energy gets crystalized into ergo. But alchemist seems to have a way to siphon that blue energy that it seems to be also ergo, but not crystalized.

Geppetto just needed ergo to revive Carlo and used the puppet frenzy as a front to cover P going around getting ergo. But also distract the alchemists of his plan. That's my best understanding.

[Shenai]

İlk olarak 樹皮 tarafından gönderildi:

I've always found it ironic that Geppetto was so obsessed with bringing Carlo back when there's a lot of evidence (like the necklace from the king of puppets) that Carlo never really liked him that much, nor did Geppetto treat him well. A do-over, I suppose? It would make sense why he seems a lot nicer to P for the most part.

I kinda felt it was less because he wanted Carlo back or loved his son, in fact he doesn't want the real Carlo back, with his personality intact, but a puppet.
So to me it seemed more that he did it for two reasons:
1) To assuage the guilt he felt from neglecting his responsibility towards Carlo. After all, Carlo died, and died of the Petrification Disease, which Gepetto knows the truth about.
2) To prove that he can do it. Gepetto is obviously highly skilled and always on the edge of invention. Bringing someone back from the dead, more or less, would be the crowning jewel to his achievements. I don't think he'll mind not getting public recognition for it, he kept his name out of a lot of things he was involved in before.

The Rise of P ending does seem to imply that he has _some_ genuine affection for his son though. Being "nice" to P most of the time felt pretty manipulative and disingenuous to me even before I found out more about his background.

Maybe over time Gepetto also got a bit obsessed with the idea of doing this. It's not clear in the game how much time has passed between Carlo's death and P's awakening. It does seem to be quite some time.
Poor Carlo, poor Romeo...

What I can't quite figure out is why it was Sophia who woke P, not Gepetto.