Matter Of Perspective: Puppeteer

Spoiler Warning: Elements of Puppeteer’s story, including ending, are discussed in this article.

There’s something about power that is attractive to many. Being powerful more often than not gets what you want, and even offers the option of making things happen to your desire. Power is something that can be earned, bought, or taken by force but the result is generally the same. You have the power which leads to you having control, so it’s no wonder so many have fought to obtain this concept for themselves. Everyday power battles are fought on Earth, but according to Puppeteer, our home isn’t the only place where power is king.

The Moon is a place under the control of The Goddess, who is shown to be someone who is fair and keeps the realm peaceful. That is until a curious and lonely bear gets control of the Moonstone, separates the dark and light sides to take power for himself. This is the birth of the Moon Bear King, a being born out of the darkness and of thoughts that have been against the Moon Goddess’s rule over the realm. To be quite honest, he manages to get twelve generals on his side too to help take over from the Goddess, so maybe dissent was in the making for a long time.

The Moon may be in tranquil harmony under the Moon Goddess’ rule, but that only appears to be because she doesn’t let the inhabitants grow up and realise their full potential. Let’s take the Bear King, who we discover was nothing but a little teddy bear before taking power. All he wanted was friends who would stick around with him to get rid of his own loneliness. The Moon Goddess didn’t exactly help him, so he took control. Others joined his coup and became part of the ruling party, spreading their darkness across the world.

The spread of darkness is the biggest act of rebellion the Moon Bear King can orchestrate against the legacy of the Goddess, as she lived to control the two sides in a state of balance. But destroying that balance effectively eliminates any remnants of her power and her influence on the Moon’s inhabitants. This darkness also turns the Moon and the King into one of the most powerful places in the galaxy. After all they become so powerful not even the Sun can stop the spread.

Of course while this occurs Kutaro, along with Pikarina, is on a mission to save the Goddess as well as the prisoners of the King. At first he appears to be of little consequence to the King, but all hell breaks loose when Calibrus, the magical scissors, are stolen. Of course the Moon Bear King rallies his own generals and allies to bring back Calibrus at first, but as the story continues Kutaro starts killing off the generals, leaving the King with fewer and fewer allies.

Though the King does execute General Tiger for failure Kutaro does kill a lot more in effort to keep the scissors and free the Goddess. He becomes a weapon of mass destruction in the Moon’s civil war and as the situation gets more desperate so does the King. He only wanted power so people would actually pay attention to him and know the pain of his own suffering that was ignored for so long. He does everything he can to kill Kutaro because Kutaro represents all the children that left and didn’t play with him. If the King can kill Kutaro then he would find some peace within himself, having satisfied that lust for revenge.

 

But Kutaro brings the war right to the Bear King and cuts him to pieces, allowing for the Goddess to return to power. As she does this she strips the Bear of his power, turning him back into the small teddy he once was and suppressing his rage, turning him into a being of childlike innocence. Though it appears to be a happy ending the Goddess has stripped away the Bear’s free thoughts, those that took him to a place of anger and replaced them with happier ones. In a way it’s a kindness, but in another, it’s like she lobotomised him.

So who is the real monster? The one who was sick of being ignored and alone, or the one who took away someone’s thoughts?

2 Comments

  1. That’s probably just how it has to be until there are some more advances in fairy world neuro-science.

  2. I did find it weird (and brilliant) that Kutaro was straight up killing the enemies in this game as opposed to knocking out or locking them up.nice read,

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