Thought's On: Penelope's Betrayal

So yeah, if you haven't played the Sly Cooper series (Sly Cooper 3 and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time in particular) then yep, there are going to be major spoilers in this article. Given the last game Thieves in Time was released in 2013, I'd say most would have heard this stuff by now.

One Final Salute by Armagenanstar

Added this image cause it's amazing, go check it out and show it some love.

So anyway, the Sly Cooper series is something I got into a few years ago (it was ultimately the reason I got a PS3) and I enjoyed the series and it's characters immensely. However, one thing has always bugged me about it and it's this: Penelope's betrayal of Bentley and the team. Her actions just felt so out of character compared to Sly 3 (not to mention her design) and it was clear from the early work on Sly 4 that she wasn't originally intended as the boss for the Knight level.

While I don't mind a betrayal twist, this one just didn't sit well with me. Given all the things Bentley had created, I felt a little confused as to why she wanted to build weapon designs as all of Bentley's creations were probably worth a lot more in aiding people then killing. I mean, if he can build a super advanced wheelchair and a time machine, what couldn't he make? If money or power was the goal, then even Penelope's own skills could have easily brought her that, let alone the two forming a business together.

Then there was the hate towards Cooper. This felt more like an influencing effect then an opinion that grew over time. More confusing was her plan as when dealing with time travel, there are the consequences of ones actions to think over. After all, removing the Coopers so that Bentley would be 'free' of Sly's influence would only work if each and every stage of his life had been planned out as without Sly, who could say whether Bentley would become the genius that he was or that he and Penelope would have ever met at that point. Her plan seemed to miss these fine details. By the end of the game, she had escaped a maximum security prison (which feels odd given what happens to her in the third game) and that she was sending Bentley postcards of places with her graffiti mark on them, clearly taunting or teasing (depending on your point of view) Bentley to come find her.

Actually, thinking back to her complaints about the Cooper code of honor seems a little more hypocritical of her given that in the Black Barron part of Sly 3, she gave a small speech about honor when it came to those minions who were betraying the Black Barron by working for another team and trying to destroy the Cooper hanger. The character change between Sly 3 and Sly 4 felt like such a huge shift in her personality and having gone over both games again (because I wanted to write this), it was more easier to see those changes.

I also wondered why Bentley had to have another personal drama to his life. The fact he had to deal with the issues of his legs and no longer being able to walk (or being useful to the team) was hard enough for him, but throwing in the betrayal of a loved one and the fact his own creation was used to cause all the problems just felt unnecessary. I feel they could have had the same story, but have it more to do with being forced to work for the bad guys or that they have some kind of mind control. Bentley has already had to deal with enough and this felt more like it was forced onto him, possible to save time or that they needed to tie in a plot they had forgotten about until further down the track. It was poorly done is in my opinion (but that's just me).

While looking around to get peoples opinions on this, there were a great number of theories. My favourite of the bunch is that she may have been influenced by Clockwerk, given that those who have dealt with him at some point all tend to have a strong hatred towards the Cooper clan. I like this idea as not only does it explain Penelope's actions (and thus, open the option for a redemption ark......because I want a redemption ark), but allows the return of one of Cooper's greatest villains. After all, he had made himself a full metal body and was basically immortal in his quest to destroy the Cooper clan and in the second game it referred to Clockwerk having a hate chip. So if he was a machine well before they attacked Sly's father, what would be the possibility that he would have a back-up of himself, something that would activate when the previous version was destroyed? If you were so hell bent on the destruction of your hated enemy, would you not have a back-up plan in case you were somehow defeated?

The idea of a hate chip could work well with the idea of thought implantation. What if Clockwerk found away to use his eye components to focus his own hate into a means to influence others in sharing that hate. He could subject people to it, perhaps without them even knowing, during a conversation and by the end they too could also share his views. Would make for an interesting twist for more characters to appear having a strong hatred of Cooper, even though they've never met him (or having more friends/allies turn). Just an idea.

You could then link it up to the certain villains and their plots in both Sly 2, 3 and 4, meaning that Clockwerk was still manipulating Cooper's downfall from behind the scenes. Throw in a plot that he's been slowly crafting a more unstoppable body and you have the ark for Sly 5 and 6, thus having a second trilogy to work with Sucker Punch's own trilogy. I don't mind having new characters thrown in like in Sly 3, just so long as the main focus is on Sly, Bentley, Murry and Carmelita. A few time travel elements, some world traveling elements and some personal character arks and you could pull off a return for Sly.

I guess this is turning into more of a fan wish list by this point, but the Penelope story still feels very incomplete and the last thing I feel this series needs is a reboot with plot points still unresolved, which is something I don't like (then again, given past things that did that, they ended up resolving them in a bad way, so I should be careful what I wish for I guess).