#monads lamp

[vampimich]

About Gemini and why he was 'broken'

---- LIES OF P SPOILERS AHEAD ----

So, I was watching a friend play Lies of P for the first time, and right from the beginning, I was reminded of how P first encounters Gemini inside one of the wagons from Geppetto’s workshop.

And the first thing Gemini says is: “Gemini will restart soon.” Which he says in a robotic, broken voice.

To which Sophia replies: “I see they got Gemini too…”

And there are two things I took away from that exchange:

Gemini is broken, like literally broken, just as Sophia later mentions when we see her at Hotel Krat.

When Sophia says “they got him”, she doesn’t mean someone obtained him. She means someone hurt or mistreated him.

So, what I’m trying to say is that when Geppetto got his hands on Gemini, he didn’t treat him well. Sure, it’s possible someone else stole him and tried to dismantle or reset him, but c’mon, given the state of Krat, who would realistically want to mess with Gemini?

We know Gemini belonged to Lea. Even if Neowiz didn’t give him to her in the DLC directly, the sand memory from Arche Abbey beach confirms she had him at some point.

So whether Geppetto took Gemini from Lea or got him through other means, it seems clear he intended to wipe his memory. If Gemini had been present during Lea’s passing, Geppetto would absolutely want to erase those memories. And even if he wasn’t there for that moment, Gemini was still Lea’s guide and companion, and probably knew Carlo too.

But Geppetto didn’t want that Carlo back. He didn’t want stalker Carlo to be back, he wanted a good obedient son. And Gemini could've led him astray from that vision. So Geppetto had to make sure Gemini was restarted.

Of course, he didn’t destroy him completely, because Gemini is still incredibly valuable, especially as an asset to Carlo. But he had to be an asset that Geppetto could control. And Gemini wasn’t cooperating.

That said, I don’t think Gemini could be fully wiped. Surely, those who created him for the Monad family put a lot of love and care into him. And Gemini is special, just like P. He’s more than a power-ergo device. So even with all of Geppetto’s knowledge and effort, he couldn’t completely reset him.

He must have been very rough with him, almost to the point of permanently damaging him. That’s why Gemini sounds so broken when we first meet him. Maybe Geppetto even thought he was had indeed broken him and just discarded him. That’s why we find him lying there on the floor of the wagon, a project that couldn’t be completed, at least not at the moment.

And yet, Gemini survived. His memory was affected, yes, but not completely erased. 

There’s still a lot he remembers. As soon as he starts functioning again, he mentions the BRB and how much he hates them.

So there’s still a lot of him in there. But the parts connected to Lea, Sophia, or the Monad family? Those seem to be gone.

He doesn’t seem to recognize Sophia as someone he used to serve. And when speaking about Lea in the DLC, he clearly knows of her, “the Legendary Stalker”, but never refers to her as an old friend. Maybe he still feels the connection, deep down, but the memories are missing.

So yeah. despite being tampered with and roughed up, Gemini survived. And now he’s on a journey alongside P, trying to figure out who he is now, while trying to remember bits of where he came from.

And that’s basically it, me just yapping again about this game because I love it so much and want to untangle every single detail there is to it.

[vampimich]

Sophia and her reaction to seeing Gemini with P

Hi all! I'm already in my new place but I still have so much to unpack, and organize, but I still wanted to take some time to write something about the game, so here we are!

I’ve been thinking about the Monad sisters a lot (I’m even making a fic about them), and I started wondering what Sophia must have thought when she first saw that P had Gemini.

Gemini is “The Monad’s Lamp.” Whether he was created in this generation or a past one, he’s clearly been with the Monad family for a long time.

And more than that, we know the last bearer of the lamp was her sister, Lea.

We don’t know what their relationship was like after Lea cut ties with the Monads, but they probably grew apart, mostly because of the distance. Then, after the Rose Estate Tragedy happened and Sophia was taken prisoner by Simon, she completely lost contact with her sister.

Sophia knew their parents were killed, but how could she possibly know what happened to her dear Lea?

I imagine that as she searched for anyone who could help her, she must have desperately looked for her too. But she never found anything; not her body, not her ergo, not even a puppet resembling her.

No one spoke of Lea again. And while Sophia probably understood what that silence could mean… I don’t think she ever truly lost hope.

So when P came to her and she saw Gemini at his side, and in such a battered state, what could she have thought?

This lamp had been Lea’s, just like the Rose Sword. Two possessions she had kept close even after cutting ties with the Monads. And now Gemini was here, broken and barely functioning.

Who had done this? What had happened to her sister? Was she really gone? And if so… what exactly had occurred?

Her sister was the strongest person she knew. Sophia must have prayed that if Lea had died, it had been a peaceful passing.

But given the circumstances? That hope must have completely disappeared.

I think when she saw P, she was horrified and hurt, but she couldn’t let it show. P, who looked so much like dear Carlo Geppetto, had no memories and barely understood the world around him. What good would it do to burden him with her distress?

Not that he could have understood her pain anyway, not at first, at least.

It’s also worth noting that Sophia is the one who sends us to Geppetto early in the game, saying we might have questions and that he might have answers. I wonder if, deep down, she was also hoping to learn something about Lea, and about how he had come into possession of Gemini (oh gods, if she only knew).

But as much as she might have wanted to know her sister’s fate, the truth was… she had to focus on herself.

She was agonizing, dying,  and painfully so. She needed the puppet’s help. If Lea was truly gone, Sophia knew she wouldn’t be far behind. Maybe they could finally both be at peace, free of burdens.

So even if she wanted to cry when she saw Gemini, she kept her composure. And maybe she even thought it best for him to remain with P. Carlo was gone too, but his ergo lived on, so of course his spiritual successor was the best one to carry the Monad’s lamp, the companion that had once been Lea’s now watching over her dear apprentice.

And with that, the shock turned into acceptance. From then on, she could see Gemini — and P — as her sister’s legacy, still living on.

But anyway, that’s just my interpretation from trying to flesh out the relationship between the sisters, since Neowiz barely gave us anything about them 🫠

And as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!