Thank you EaPs, it was fun watching this show. While I will miss it, I won’t forget the fun I had enjoying the silly moments and anticipation for the newest story beats.
It was fun watching the chaos unfold and these characters come together in the way they did.
Due to time restrictions I couldn’t add everyone or finish every detail unfortunately, but even then, I hope I did the characters I did manage to fit in some justice in their antics.
Thank you for the fun times EaPs, and while I probably will still be drawing these characters, for now all I have to say is.. byeeeeeeeeee
To Davis, Flora, and Matt, for pouring so much heart and creativity into EAPS, to the BAs for bringing these characters to life through VR, and to everyone who’s been a part of these shows over the years,
I was honestly not expecting Puppet to be in today's episode, I'd also frankly forget about the deal she and Ruin made.
I went back to watch the video [this video right here] when that deal was made, and wrote a couple of notes on what was said.
[Fat theory/rant under]
A lot of what she says is about how she's 'not allowed to die', this being because she's not made up for her debt.
"Yours is a bit bigger than mine, but I carry mine personally." Puppet carried her guilt personally because she knew the most of the faces of those she killed, and she actively despised Ruin for not doing the same. Although did acknowledge that his was more anonymous rather than vindictive/personal.
Due to what Puppet had done, both she and Ruin hypothetically should live until the end of the universe, not just any dimension - all of them. And of course, Puppet hasn't done that. Or has she?
"No matter what, you're stuck here - not here, not even in any dimension," As long as I'm alive, at least." The "not here" refers to the dimension they were in, the dying dimension that Ruin returns to upon his death in today's episode. [Side note- I find it quite humorous that that dimension is more linked with Puppet now, rather than Eclipse. It was originally his comfort place, until Puppet discovered it and it has been associated with her ever since.] Now, the last bit: "As long as I'm alive at least" could in theory mean that Puppet is still alive. However, I don't think that is quite the case.
I think something similar to what happened to Nexus has occurred. Now please don't mind the connotation between the two, what I mean is what happened to him after he came back.
Nexus himself didn't come back. He's dead. [Not too sure whether the following bit was stated by the characters themselves, the VAs, or if I'm just plain wrong and a little crazy] But he partially, in soul, came back. For the most part, it was the NSP that did it, but that can relate back to Puppet with her powers. And what there actually was of Nexus was just the lingering remains of his consciousness. He wasn't actually there.
I think Puppet making that connection with Ruin and intertwining their souls has made her lingering conscious attach to him. Their deal should, by all technicality, be null and void with her being dead. After all, it was only supposed to be in effect with her being alive, with her powers being there, to keep it going. Puppet's lifespan meant that regardless she should have lived till the end of the universe, their deal just meant that Ruin would as well.
If Puppet's consciousness is attached to Ruin, that means that she can infact live out that promise that she made to herself. Although she didn't think that it would make up for what she'd done, it's still the very least that she can do.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that Puppet still lingers. She not only influences the characters, but also haunts the narrative. Only slightly, but definitely enough to make her continuous mentions interesting.
A pretty obvious point to her influence is Charlie. She possesses the puppet body after all and has previously been influenced by the knowledge and personal feelings of Puppet. When FC reappeared being an example. She knew exactly who he was and how she 'should' feel about him. But it wasn't actually her that was feeling this way. It was Puppet.
Puppet as a person is dead. But her consciousness still lingers.
"We'll witness it. We'll wait." Long after I've forgotten about him, and FC, and Eclipse, and all of them, even after all that. We'll still be working on it." Puppet's wording of this implies that she and Ruin will witness the end of the universe together. It seems almost out of the question that they wouldn't. But it wouldn't be just the two of them, or rather it wouldn't be Puppet singularly herself.
To ensure that the Puppetmaster died along side her, she merged herself with it. They became one.
Another detail from today's episode was that Puppet seemed a little harsh, a little vindictive. That could be because she was mad that Ruin had died despite their deal, or, because of the duel consciousness of herself and Puppetmaster, equal influences in a lingering consciousness. If Puppet in some shape or form isn't dead, then that means that Puppetmaster isn't either.
I kept close to his original design that I had for him because I really like it, I just made it more gross and spooky. Fingernails! Teeth! Those chompers are my favorite part of the design. I added clothes because I couldn’t stop imagining them in this upgraded look after Puppet and Eclipse sealed them in their dimension. They’re whimsical and twisted and oughhh
If you can’t tell, Puppetmaster is meant to look a little bit like a spider. I can’t look up the term I’m thinking of because I have really bad arachnophobia and don’t wanna risk seeing the images, but I contemplated giving Puppetmaster that bulbous part of a spider where the silk comes from. Except it just looked like it had a fat ass and there were a lot of other complications so I decided against it.
In its older design, Puppetmaster had little strings of hair to mirror Puppet, but with this design, it made things a little too busy and wasn’t super visible, so I sadly had to get rid of the hair. Bald little freak
The colors and style is also a little different. It’s meant to lean a little more towards the style I have for mgafs since that’s where we first encountered Puppetmaster, but it’s a whooole lot darker visually and I also added some slightly harsher shadows and grit to lean more into that horror aesthetic
I have ideas for the other goobers, but I’ll save it for later. Along with the other songs I listened to/thought of when making Puppetmaster’s initial design, I added some new ones to the mix that I feel work really well, a big one being “The Circus” from Deltarune (specifically a version on YouTube that’s slowed and pitch corrected)
