#carmoe

Where I was before, which is 'P isn't just Carlo in a new Puppet body but he also isn't entirely a separate being- rather he is a little both and neither'.

I actually think the DLC in general did a really good job of maintaining ambiguity on the subject- enough so that everyone will walk away having their existing point of view affirmed. Two characters who knew Carlo extremely well (Rosaura and Lea) come to radically different conclusions after meeting P, while P himself gains more parallels and more contrasts to Carlo.

I've said from the beginning that Lies of P doesn't answer this question for a reason. In-narrative Gepetto is the only person obsessed with drawing neat lines between what is and is not 'Carlo', because the version of 'Carlo' he is chasing is one that isn't real. Gepotto wants everything to break down into clean neat rules, structures, and binaries. He wants P to just be a automaton copy of his son and useful vessel for carrying out his plan- it doesn't matter if he has Carlo's skills, bonds, memories, ergo. He is a Puppet and a Puppet Can't Be Human, and Carlo needs to be human, needs to match up this idealized perfect version Geptto has in his head, or else Gepetto won't have successfully erased his mistakes and gotten his second chance. Rather then drawing conclusions based on what's in front of him and living with ambiguity and uncertainty, Gepetto starts from his idealized world and his idealized son and works backwards, doing whatever atrocities are necessary to get to that romanticized vision, without any regard for what anyone else needs or wants.

That's part of the difference between Gepetto and Romeo in their pursuit of bringing Carlo back: Romeo would have been perfectly content with P and he valued P/Carlo's freedom and well being more then his own selfish desires, deciding to mercy kill him rather then let him be chained by Gepetto after he realizes he can't persuade P of the truth. Romeo makes his choices based on what is rather then recklessly and callously pursuing what he thinks should be.

It's also the difference between Gepetto's efforts to resurrect Carlo and P's resurrection of Sophia. P's gives Sophia new life not because he misses her or because of guilt or regret, but rather to set her free and finally give her the chance to live her own life, something the game telegraphs very heavily through the butterfly symbolism. Again he places Sophia's well being ahead of his own desires or feelings, something Gepetto categorically can not do.

Any clear cut answer to the question undercuts the point Lies of P is trying to make. 'P is Carlo reborn' undercuts P's central arc of slowly gaining humanity through building relationships and breaking free of the neat clean rules lain down for him by Gepetto, while 'P is not Carlo' undercuts his most important relationships and their character arcs, since if P isn't Carlo then the King of Puppets isn't Romeo and the new Puppet at the end of Rise of P isn't Sophia- meaning Romeo's desperate attempts to save P wheren't an active choice but him just following his pre-programming/the wishes of someone long dead and Sophia's isn't really set free, but rather a facsimile of her is created solely so P can feel better, which is the exact thing he just fought Gepetto about.

Instead Lies of P rejects the premise of the question, because it isn't important to begin with. P is both himself and Carlo, both a Puppet and human, both a lair and a hero. Whichever answer is technically true, nothing changes that P is inherently worthy of love, autonomy and respect- things that Gepetto denies him in every version of the story. P himself probably doesn't real know where he ends and Carlo begins and that's okay, because the bonds, both the ones from before Carlo died and the ones P built after he awoke, endure and give him reasons to keep fighting and growing and making the world better. It's those voices that call to him during the final battle to give him the strength to defeat the Nameless Puppet- Antonia, Eugénie, Sophia, Vegini, Romeo, and those relationships that matter.

Overture only reinforces this idea because it is all about P coming to terms with Carlo's past, confronting the grief and pain left behind by Carlo's passing, and figuring out what he can and can't do about it. Throughout the DLC everyone heroic wants to save somebody: Gemini and Alidoro want to save Lea, Lea and P want to save Romeo, and of course Romeo, we know, wants to save Carlo (which Gepetto will prey on), but pretty much no one gets to save anyone, at least not long term. But just because they can't be saved doesn't mean their lives don't have value and the struggles to preserve them don't matter. Those relationships and the ripple effects from the acts of kindness and heroism taken in their name matter and stretch forward in time. Lea still falls in the end, but Romeo was held by his mentor one last time before Gepetto got his claws into him, and Lea dies knowing that their is hope for the future- that the love and loyalty and kindness she gave to Carlo isn't just lost to the void, but is carried forward by P.