Lies of P follows the story of P, a puppet who has been created in order to save Krat from getting destroyed by puppets that have went into frenzy. But how did P manage to not get affected by the frenzy in the first place? Read ahead as we talk about what’s so special about P in Lies of P.
Why wasn’t P affected by the Puppet Frenzy?
P was a puppet created by Geppetto to fight against the Puppet Frenzy. However, there is an ulterior motive behind it which is only revealed by the end of the story and through some scrambled up dialogue of some of the puppets, and some notes and documents scattered throughout the game.
In order for P to be able to do his task without succumbing to the frenzy, Geppetto created P to not be bound by the Grand Covenant, unlike all of the other puppets. This is also the reason why P is able to tell lies and portray himself as a human.
What is the Grand Covenant?
The Grand Covenant is a set of laws given to all of the puppets to prevent them from causing harm to humans. This covenant is designed similarly to the real-life Asimov’s Law of Robotics. It was created by Geppetto and Venigni after a rogue puppet named Arlecchino murdered Vegnini’s parents mercilessly.
Only a couple of laws were revealed throughout the game:
- First Law: All puppets must obey their Creator’s commands.
- Law Zero: The Creator’s name is Giuseppe Geppetto
The Grand Covenant was something that was known to the public as a way to ease their anxiety and assure their safety from using the puppets. However, Law Zero was a hidden law that only Geppetto knew, and it also plays a role in Geppetto’s ulterior motive.
Why did Geppetto create Law Zero?
Geppetto’s secret motive was a result of who he was in the first place: a father to his son Carlo. However, due to his excessive dedication to designing and creating the puppets, he neglected Carlo as a result.
At the start of Chapter 11, we are shown images of what actually happened to Carlo as P moved towards the abbey. Due to an unfortunate incident, Carlo was killed. Geppetto was so hit with devastation and guilt that he decided to use the power of Ergo, the very power that made the puppets possible, to resurrect his son by all means possible.
After witnessing puppets who have their egos awakened, Geppetto then discovered that, by amassing great amounts of Ergo, he could somehow revive Carlo as a puppet with all of his memories intact and as close to becoming human as possible. And so he created P to act as a carrier of the P-Organ, a mechanical heart that acts as a vessel to hold and process the Ergo that P collects.
Geppetto then secretly added Law Zero to the Grand Covenant so that he could still have ultimate control over the puppets, but he left out P from the covenant’s bounds so that P could still collect Ergo and move as freely as possible thanks to his “free will.” Not only that, but by also creating P in Carlo’s likeness, the Ergo that will be collected will be refined to the point that the resulting “personality” will be undeniably close to who Carlo was.
Geppetto then ordered the rest of the puppets to go on a rampage, thus causing the Puppet Frenzy as a way to speed up the process of collecting Ergo and to try to hide his plans for reviving his son. Once P has collected enough Ergo, he then plans to take the P-Organ out of him and place it into the very first puppet that he created, presumably one that he melded with Carlo’s body. This way, he can still control this new Carlo, as the puppet is still bound to the Grand Covenant.
Though it was not mentioned in the game, this law also allowed Geppetto to select which puppets fell into frenzy, which is why there are still other puppets like Polendina and Pulcinella who aren’t in a frenzied state as they serve their respective masters, who Geppetto still finds beneficial to his plans.
The result of Geppetto’s plans coming to fruition can be seen during the Lies Path ending, while the results of P’s learning of the truth and going against Geppetto can be seen in the other two endings: the Truth Path and the True endings.