Lopee IS The Game
Ever since the devs announced we'd be getting a way to destroy Painter, I've wondered how they'd have Sebastian respond to it.
The most I could imagine was something similar to Sans' response when you kill Papyrus in Undertale: once Papyrus has been dusted— regardless of what neutral run you're on —Sans seems to disappear from the game entirely, until his mandatory encounter in the judgement hall. The only hint that he's still around to keep an eye on you is a bit of flavor text that you only get if your battle with Shyren progresses into a concert.
I wondered if the devs would do something similar with Sebastian, and make it so that killing Painter took away our ability to interact with Sebastian at all. If Painter's room generated before Seb's shop, then maybe said shop would be empty of its merchant and we would be unable to buy any gear. Maybe when Seb yoinked files from our grasp, he would do so silently, rather than with a quip. Maybe if we died, he would refuse to appear on the death screen or give us any information on what had killed us. Things would only go back to normal once the progression of time reset itself and the player started a new run with a still-running Painter.
I don't know much about game design, much less that of Roblox games, but I was trying to think of what the devs would be capable of doing within the limits of programming hosted by the platform. In that vein, I was also trying to think of what the writers would be able to effectively justify while still allowing the gameplay to progress as normal.
Which is why Sebastian's actual response, not to mention Lopee's interference in the aftermath, blew me away from more than just the characterization or lore perspectives.
The objective of the main expedition is to retrieve the crystal.
After ripping our heart out with his bare hands, Sebastian declares his intent to remember us (which we already know he can do, given that he recognizes us when we visit the shop on every run) and to kill us on sight every time we return for a new run.
If Sebastian were to follow through on this, it would effectively mean that destroying Painter has hard-locked the player out of ever completing the main expedition.
Sebastian's response breaks the boundaries of the game. It interferes with game progression in such a way as to make achieving the win-condition impossible.
It's entirely fitting that Mr. Lopee interferes so directly and harshly. His existence is all about making sure nobody goes out of bounds. It's just that up until now, those efforts have been concentrated mostly on players.
This whole time, I'd been thinking of how Sebastian might respond within the boundaries of the game. I never considered that his response might actually be game-breaking, much less that the game itself would penalize him for it and then reset to correct course.
This game, man.