It could represent that even idf he is trying to get away of that feeling that he was a puppet he still is that person, doesn't matter what mask he is trying to use and for that he will keep making decisions with the heart of a puppet that now is being controlled by a better puppeteer, himself with less heart.

After all his weak heart didn't not allow him to stand up last time(with out realizing that it also allowed him to have the motivation to do good things like the phant site .

Sorry if it sounds like rambling it is like 5 a.m., and I am pretty sure I have the flu. Have a nice day :3

this is super interesting and accidentally lines up with one of the initial ideas i was playing with (the puppet being the actual ruler of the palace, not the fool)

ryuji being the one choosing to lug around a cognition is also a very... him idea to me. silly hijinks could be included in this. @lunemoths will probably get a kick out of that

* in reference to these drawings by my friend

you can give credit to aki for that one! they told me the dialogue sort of just popped into their head, but the context was the puppet being separated from the ruler & some sort of confrontation coming up where ryuji refers to the puppet similarly to the real mishima. (the puppets are sort of cognitive versions of people—i ought to draw them so i can make some notes)