#alright anyways my one complaint about the game itself (aside from the obvious stuff) is that shiny hunting is gonna take. so much focus.

[prismit]

ok, beat scarlet! final, spoiler-free thoughts:

i wish they’d held off on releasing it for at least a year, both for the devs’ sake, and so that we could have gotten a fully finished, polished game. but even with its flaws, i really loved it and i think it’s my new favorite main series game!! the story is the best they’ve done since gen 5 imo (though gen 5 definitely hasn’t been dethroned, and i don’t think it ever will). also i love the sub-legendaries, they’re so cool.

[orrtala]

Let's talk about Peepers.

It's not going to be an analysis of his character, no, I'm leaving it after I watch the entire S2. I was considering if I should write this post at this point, but I had to, otherwise I'd explode. (A threat of not being to able to liveblog in the near future and lack of Internet overall also helped in writing that post.)

I should note that I got to "The Bad Hatter" and don't know what happens after this episode.

So let's talk about Peepers, his relationship with Hater, some hypotetical scenarios and how I tend to overanalyze a children cartoon.

Back in S1 he used to be a punching bag who was totally happy giving Hater all the control (to be fair Hater was competent back then in spite of his Hatey moments) and being in the shadow, doing the hard work. All in the name of the Hater Empire! …But not really. One could say the changes began back in "The Prisoner", but the real deal was shown in "The Bounty", where Peepers did draw a line - he had his ambitions and had to follow them. He still wanted to be a Commander of the empire that was supposed to rule the galaxy; perhaps even the universe itself. And after that he was shown to lose his paticence with his boss, acknowleding his flaws out loud.

Fast forward to S2 and Hater is not the greatest in galaxy anymore; despite his abilities and powers he got distracted by Wander way too many times for other villains not to notice. Peepers still follows him, though this time not without justified and verbalized complaints and screaming. And when they get to Dominator despite being the powerful one Hater is a distraction, while Peepers takes job into his hands and saves everyone along with Sylvia. "If you march in to my galaxy, you're gonna have to deal with me!" was it?

Peepers and Hater's relationship took a big step in "The Axe". We as the audience learned that without each other the won't be able to function in the villain world without each other, and Hater finally understood he needed his Commander. Peepers meanwhile seemed to be fully aware of his abilities and why he nedeed skeleton man in the first place. After he left the skullship he didn't consider the obvious 'there are so many other villains out there wonder if any of them would use a competent right hand?' No, he was looking for a job in a NEWSPAPER showing that he does believe Hater is still the most powerful conqueror this galaxy could have. Not to mention his whole flashback song, where we witnessed him caring about Hater beyond the whole conquering thing. One more thing worth the note is that Sourdough noted how Peepers is the one who 'knows what's being a true villain is all about'.

After this episode their relationship started to be much, much better, though not without its hiccups.

"A true villain turns weakness into a strength!" I love this line. He technically tells Hater how great it is that he used his obsession with the tag game in conquering planets… But what he's really saying is that he used Hater and his shenanigans to get back to the top ten. Not to mention that he considers Hater as his weakness overall; despite everything that happened not only he has some ounce of belief in him, not only he can not imagine conquering the galaxy without him ("The Axe"), he genuinely cares about the guy to some extent.

This sentence aside "The It" gave me a lot to think about (and laugh for that matter). Peepers had no qualms about freezing his boss in coldbrrnite and leavin him behind, just like he didn't have any problem with locking him up in the box to use him for conquering planets. And the Sequence happens, where it's more than obvious what Peepers wants, how he is the real villain in the Hater Empire, how he revels in his pragmatic villainy and using Hater for conquer. At the end he learns his lesson how while his boss is the instrumental part in building the empire overall, if he's busy with Wander, he's not able to carry out the mission and needs to stay away.

Time for the next Peepers-Hater episode. So what happens? "The Cool Guy" happens. Hoooo, boy, "The Cool Guy".

The figurines play from the beginning is the obvious way of explaining stuff to Hater without boring him at the more formal meetings (the way that Hater took to the heart, if his 'commercial' in "The New Toy" is any indication), but Peepers is also having fun. Until Awesome happens and takes Hater away. For almost the whole episode Commander is busy fretting over Hater's abscence and irresponsibility while phoning him like a worried mother. (Don't worry that much, Peeps, Hater is a good enough boy to use a straw and a napkin.)

And then he decides he had enough, the time for invasion was coming with big steps anyway, had to do it himself.

Two major things happen: first of all his little speech. He knows that all Hater wanted was to be popular, not to conquer planets. He says that in such a mocking tone that made me think: a) he actually doesn't really care what his boss really wants, jsut used his abilities, apperance and desires for galactic domination, b) is it just me or he sounds like a parent who dismissed their kid's desires and 'knows' what's better for them, roping them in a job they didn't really want? I'm probably taking the analogy too far here, but yeah.

The second thing is that he tried to conquer the planet on his own in his name. But wait, didn't he just try to conquer in his boss' name despite his abscence? Nope. You don't put your face-eye on the banners where Hater's face is supposed to be if you want to invade in his name.

But wait, didn't I say that Peepers acknowledged that he needed Hater to conquer the galaxy? Yes, but with Hater's incompetentence and him controlling pretty much everything he might have thought: "Alright, I'm doing all the work anyway, I'm much more capable of being the leader!"

"Bow down to your new master!" Peepers had no idea that Hater was around to watch the invasion. So who was this 'master'? Come, on, he was testing the grounds, he wanted to see if he'd manage to conquer the planet on his own, though still using the skullship which is Hater's symbol. He even had a peep pep talk with himself for flrap's sake. But then Awesome happened (whose words imply that he actualy knew what Commander was planning to do? Or he just wanted to make a joke? I don't really think he'd care any way, but still.) After that Peepers retracted and used Hater's name, but the Thing happened anyway. Commander goes back to his boss just like the boss comes back to his Commander… though not without a little Wander distraction.

After that Peepers gets Hater to the 2nd spot on the villain leaderboard, though not without problems, like partying hard with Wander or making Major Threat fake his return to villainy. Not to mention getting smacked around few times. But overall Peepers could work with that and only Dominator was the real obstacle to get back on the first place. What could go wrong?

Then "The Battle Royale" takes place and Hater falls – literally and figuratively for Dom. Which is a big, big problem for Peepers.

In "The New Toy" watchdog is absolutely fine with Hater not taking the part in the battle; in fact he's delighted he's allowed to lead the attack by himself. Unfortunately not only his boss sabotages his plans, but it's also obvious that without Hater's cooperation he couldn't get anywhere near beating Dominator.

"The Bad Hatter" is the main reason I'm writing that post. Once he finds out Hater has Wander's magic Hat he takes it to make weapons to defeat Dominator and…

(x)

…I said I was going to think about it, didn't I?

Despite the fact that he cares about Hater somewhat and is willing to call him a friend, he is absolutely, 100% ready to put him aside for his own ambitions. He wants to defeat Dom and wants the galaxy to be HIS. There are even parallels with the civil war Wander talks about for grop's sake!

So let's recap: Peepers uses Hater, though he still cares for him, he does consider the posibility of working without him to pursue his dreams, he is thinking how much better he'd fill the leader's position and he'd be glad to be done with Hater's nonsense.

You're going to ask: 'Ok, why are you telling us the stuff we already know?' Well, I'm getting there.

Given what we've seen in the S2 so far it's not without merit to think that Peepers might want to leave Hater after all. Anyone who has been following me knows how surprised I was that he didn't leave skeleton man's side after witnessing Dominator and her powers back in "The Greater Hater" and developed their reluctant friendship (which, for the record, I love, but it was still shocking to see that).

As of now they still have Dom to deal with, so while I don't think Peepers is going to do anyting of the sort in this season, but S3 is still a fair game. Hater might have a moment of clarity or whatever to get the job done, but it'll never be in the long term - Hater from S1 is not going to come back, he's still going to be distracted by Wander, he's still going to be ultimately redeemed. What would Peepers do in that situation? Would he still follow Hater into the path goodness? Possible, but not without complaining. Or some kind of story arc that would happen beforehand for that matter. Where he could at the very least think about leaving Hater to his own devices.

So let's play a game of 'Peepers gets a better job proposition where he actualy can fullfill his dreams of ruling the universe'. Maybe not even in someone's name, but his. Of course it's absolutely hypotetical situation, but still very much possible.

Ok, so in that scenario Commander leaves his Lord to work for somebody else/begin reign in his own name. So Wander would have to do someting, right? Nope. Sure, he might have few words for Peepers, he'd definitely try to do something, but ultimately he'd fall deaf on his ears. Peepers doesn't care about Wander, he doesn't consider him a threat, he'd love to ignore him entirely and for Hater to do the same. I did complain that these two barely interacted, though it made sense why. Now with the possibilty I described here it would make even more sense, especially in narrative way.

But there would have to be someone who'd talk him down, at least partly, right? There's Sylvia, I guess, they did find a common ground in "The Battle Royale", recognising that they had similiar struggles, and I was told they have more interaction in few next episodes. But I don't feel like Sylvia could do that much. Her words would have some effect, maybe, but not that big.

So who has any chance to talk to Peepers to get him out of this path?

Hm, this redeemed/almost redeemed guy maybe?

Tl;dr Peepers stop stealing the show.