Gepetto: What I Don't Have Time To Cover On The Future Post

Meaning Characters' Connections To The Source Material

So I’ve been busy reading a lot of other comics including from GlobalComix gold. I’m not going to leave a link because I don’t have an affiliate program set up. Besides I’ve got access to a Webtoon that people can read for free. It’s been around for a while so this barely counts as spoilers. Unless you wanna go in blind.

Gepetto is a cyberpunk take on The Adventures of Pinocchio. So yeah there are androids in place of puppets, among other things. Which is what we’re getting into here. This is a complex story about adapting the mythology of Pinocchio into a creative format. All of which revolve around a war between surviving humans and androids in a wasteland of a world.

Characters And Their Ties

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, the title character Dr. Gepetto, the two(?) Pinocchios, the main hero Carlo Colodi, and his companion Rosaura. These are all character from the original story and some of their adaptations that fit thematically throughout time.

More Alike Than You Think

Gepetto is without a doubt easy to nail down as the scientist who wanted androids to find coexistence with humans. I mean, it was partly because the failure to bring his son back as an android in the Pinocchios shows how much the guy still cared. He’s not simply working for money like the desperate original incarnation, he’s genuinely frustrated that people are finding ways to actively take advantage of one another. This is especially the case with his business partner, but we’ll come back to him later. The only thing to take away from this is how people made a culture of treating androids as disposable products.

Let’s address an elephant in the room, there’s more than one Pinocchio.

The first one readers meet is more or less based on the original, a selfish and manipulative puppet who still loves his creator. It’s why he tore the fake skin face of his older counterpart off, he wanted to look like he was more deserving of Gepetto’s love. With Gepetto dead and an inheritance he left behind, this Pinocchio became the leader of other androids to prove to himself that he’s still worthy of that love and to spread it like he’ll continue his father’s wish. The wish apparently was that Gepetto wanted to destroy all the humans based on a message that the scientist left behind.

Not only that but he actively lied to a number of people including the other androids. To one of his lieutenants Rosaura, this made him untrustworthy. Long story short, the other androids are designed to not lie. It’s why she defected unlike some of the android leader’s other soldiers.

As for the other/older Pinocchio, he’s more like the modern counterparts, a naive if loving character. He too loves Gepetto and lied that he inherited the memories of Gepetto’s late son out of concern for his creator’s sadness. But it looked like this act of kindness was the very thing that set off the events of the series. Gepetto’s supposed quest for vengeance against humanity is based on this lie.

Finally there’s the main hero Colodi Carlo who Rosaura joined. At only eight years old, he’s thrust into a cold cruel world not unlike every other Pinocchio. With childlike naivety, he took influence from the world around him including his adoptive father. But upon being thrust into the events his innocence allows him to look at the world differently. Meeting a rogue android Whale and Gepetto’s wish at coexistence, there’s a sense of things could change for the better. It certainly helps to have companions like Rosaura and Whale around. Only problem was, since they’re androids the powers that be label him a traitor, kind of like how the classic Pinocchio was meant to have been killed off for his selfishness. At 18 and becoming a cyborg, he embodies Gepetto’s hopes for coexistence and a more complete Pinocchio than the two above. This is because at the end of the series, it is revealed that he is actually the revived son of Gepetto (the original Pinocchio), having inherited the boy’s personality but none of his memories.

Innovative Perspectives

Other characters like Colodi’s other companion Whale and the main villains Antonio and Alidoro are liberties taken with familiar yet fresh perspectives.

Whale, Colodi’s main companion, is named after the dogfish/shark/whale Pinocchio and Gepetto were trapped in which leads to their reunion/reconciliation. In contrast to the Android Leader, Whale possesses the original code of Gepetto’s dream of coexistence. Her time with Collodi allows Whale to develop as a person devoid of anyone’s perceptions. She does not blindly follow any code like the other androids, choosing her own found beliefs. In this way, Whale may be a linchpin to Gepetto’s plot, but she is far from being just a plot element.

Then there’s our overarching villain Antonio, named after the carpenter who gave Geppetto the log that became Pinocchio. Here Antonio wasn’t just Dr. Gepetto’s sponsor, he was a power mogul and a corporate leader. He leads the world from the shadows not unlike a lobbyist influencing events for his own gains. Not only that but he occupies the cloned body of Dr. Gepetto. This is essentially his way of taking credit of Gepetto’s work and twisting it for his own ends. Which is even more apparent as it turns out Antonio was the one who started the war by impersonating Gepetto and sending out a fake code to the Android Leader and the others. You could even say Antonio shares similarities with the Stage Coach, manipulating people (human or otherwise) into being his work mules while he sits comfortably in the shadows.

With this Antonio twisted everything to suit his own ideals and power. This is arguably best shown in Alidoro. In the original story, Alidoro was a dog Pinocchio helped after finally learning responsibility. Who in turn helps Pinocchio with a favor. Here Alidoro is nothing short of a reflection of Antonio, a faceless lie meant to oppress others for his own benefit. Meaning he’s a clone of Antonio’s original body, enhanced to the point of being in danger of breakdowns.

The Lynchpin

Finally the piece that ties everything together, Gepetto’s Inheritance codenamed the Blue Fairy. The Blue Fairy/Turquoise haired Fairy was an addition to the original Pinocchio story meant to turn a tragic fairy tale into one about redemption. The quest to find this last piece of Gepetto’s work is what leads to a grand resolution. For the androids and humans, this was their way to avoid a tragic end, if only to selfishly save their own necks. But because of how anyone can get their hands on it, including Antonio this seems like a false hope.

Gepetto never designed the blue fairy with safeguards in case someone wicked would get their hands on it. Unless… you consider how the Blue Fairy casts a spell on Pinocchio to make his nose grow every time he lies. Or in this case connect to the entire setting, where Antonio exposes his own lies.

Finally there’s the happy Real Boy ending. Originally the Blue Fairy was a last ditch effort for protection against his consequences, only to have been a false glimmer of hope. In this case, the Androids thought the Inheritance could extend their lives. Or in Antonio’s case, to wipe them out for going out of control. But throughout Gepetto there are instances where the boundaries between humans and androids are thin. Cyborgs, clones, brain syncs, artificial fertilization/gene-altering, etc. This is because Dr. Gepetto helped develop all of these. As the androids developed and finally free themselves from Antonio’s lies, the Blue Fairy reveals the true purpose of the inheritance to Collodi after the Androids sacrificed themselves in a last-ditch effort to save the setting from Antonio’s petty pyrrhic play.

The Storyteller Is Not God

Finally there’s one thing that really stands out in Gepetto. The idea on who gets to tell the story. Remember the original Adventures of Pinocchio was a tragedy meant to scare youths into behaving. But the writer had to change the ending with more chapters by demand and executive meddling (might be one of the few exceptions where this is good). But do you know the name of the writer of the original Pinocchio story? It’s Carlo Collodi. Moral of this story, it’s not just the writer who tells the story.

Think about it, Antonio in Gepetto is meant to represent every behind-the-scenes ruler. He constructed the narrative to drive people into passionate frenzies to cover his own tracks and hoard power from it. So when he gains control over the setting he influenced, he envisions himself as a god.

But then there’s our hero Carlo Colodi. When he gains the Inheritance after taking Antonio down, he gains power but doesn’t really have the ability to get what he wants. In this case he is both the point-of-view character and the creator. It’s like how the original Carlo Collodi was asked by his editor to expand the story after much demand, Carlo even planned a sequel where the real boy ending was a dream. Instead cyborg Colodi becomes the example to follow, not a leader or influencer, but a proof-of-concept. Collodi the writer himself was disillusioned with political writing and went into allegory.

As for that sequel, it was still outlined with a good ending. I’d like to think that Carlo accepted that just because he’s the writer, he doesn’t have the final say. Maybe he even found optimism, even when things are still depressing.

Stay Tuned For The Gutternaut Post

So with everything I took from Gepetto out of the way, I hope you’re ready for the streamlined main idea post. Keep yourself posted on Gutternaut and until then remember to look between the panels.