#like for example things like facepaint and lower body

[hershelwidget]

Something something here’s the gang but even funkier than before

cannot stop giggling at how much Undertow does n o t look like a professional doctor and how TINY Apollo is and how much Marigold’s outfit resembles Nastasia from SPM

please don’t consider these official designs until I draw them in my notebook, these are just kinda bases or big ideas as to what they’d look like

[adobe-outdesign]

The Mutilated Puppets are...

...Previous characters on the show, and they were mutilated later on, rather than being made like this. They seem to have old articles of clothing on them (Mint Eye’s chaps/pants are a good example) and are mutilated in oddly specific ways.

Some of the mutilations aren’t even useful - Mint Eyes is missing their lower jaw and it seems like he needs that cowbell to signal the others instead as if he’s mute. If the puppeteer was going to make a lookout puppet from scratch, removing the jaw doesn’t make sense.

Likewise, both the facepaint and clothing are unnecessary - the Puppeteer could’ve picked up any old blank puppet and attached blades to them, but instead they’re heavily decorated. We see blank puppets that attack, so it’s not like the designs are necessary.

We also have some indication of previous characters so far - as I pointed out in this post, this clown mentioned in this poster for “The Cowboy vs The Clown” might have once been Mime Face, as they are quite literally painted to look like a mime/sad clown.

But why are these puppets mutilated, especially if they used to be characters on the show? In the second trailer, we’re given three rules:

Play your part

Guard your strings

Don’t look up

The thing about rules is that in order to enforce them, there has to be some kind of punishment if they’re broken. I’m guessing that each of the mutilated puppets broke one of the rules - possibly one for each rule given that there’s 3 of them so far - and this is the result.

For example, take Mime Face. If they were the aforementioned clown character, then them being the one who broke the “play your part” rule makes sense. Clowns are supposed to be fun and upbeat - if your happy clown character is suddenly crying and showing sadness, then that’s an issue. Their face being repainted to show them weeping reflects this.

We don’t know much about them, but Edward Scissorhands is a pretty good contender for the “guard your strings” rule, as he lacks a lower body and literally glides on his strings. While Mime Face has a blade, Edward Scissorhands has six. The emphasis on blades and strings makes sense if he was a character who had his cut at one point.

And we have a lookout character who carries binoculars and specifically has their eyes painted over. If anyone was going to break the “don’t look up” rule it would be someone who’s entire job is to survey and see things. Even the swirls make sense in this context - if you looked up into the sky and saw a giant figure controlling you with string you’d probably look a bit out of it too (and that’s assuming they didn’t just straight-up loose their mind at the sight).

TL;DR: Mutilated puppets are ones who broke the 3 rules - Mime Face broke character, Edward Scissorhands didn’t guard his strings, and Mint Eyes looked up.