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Persona Perspectives: The Existence of Teddie

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This is going to contain a fair amount of spoilers for Persona 4 and maybe even a couple for Persona 3 so be warned.

Loyal subjects, I'm the Keyblade King and today, let's open the door on how our little furry friend came to be, shall we?

Most questions in Persona 4 get answered to some degree, either within the first game or some other version of it…and yeah, there’s a lot of those to cover the ground.

However, one question that has never truly been covered is the matter of Teddie. If you read my retrospectives on the Kingdom Hearts series, you’ll know I can usually take a simple answer most of the time. Teddy gains a human body because he develops an ego and that’s all there is to it. I can pretty much accept that. It’s incredibly weird but, hey, that’s something that is pointed out at multiple times by the other characters so the team writing all this are pretty aware that Teddie may not make too much biological sense. Realistically, given the game in question here, something like that should be taken on a more ideological or even theological level. Teddie grew an ego, essentially a soul and as of such, a body grew around that soul. That’s not so strange when you think about how this all takes place in a world where everyone has a repressed ego which takes the form of a horrifying monster often controlled by gods. One of those gods being the moon itself.

In all honesty, it’s not so much what we see of Teddie in the game that is confusing. The Persona series tends to put the facts in front of you and see if you can figure them out; sort of like a ‘see beyond what you are seeing’ sort of thing. An example I’ve already talked about is Kanji of course. Although it’s not all character subtext either. Take for example the screen that pops up after you max out Teddie’s social link. Teddie’s S.Link arcana is The Star which gives the player access to summoning the Persona Helel. A bit odd that the little fluffball Teddie gives the player the ability to summon what is effectively the angelic version of Lucifer but moving on from that is Helel’s title. He’s the light BEARer. Now, be honest, who actually put that together with Teddie’s many puns when they first played through the game?

So, today we’re not going to be so much investigating what we actually see of Teddie but what we don’t see in the game. I’m referring to Teddie’s birth and general existence. We’re told at a fairly late point in the game that Teddie this whole time has been a shadow. Shadows, for the unaware, are effectively described within the series as uncontrolled egos. In the past, I’ve called them the collection of thoughts that you have for a split second before pushing them out of your mind because they’re that bit too extreme and you don’t really want to admit you ever had them. This role is only truly made clear in Persona 4 but it’s referenced a few times in Persona 3 as well. What’s interesting about Persona 3 is that all the major bosses of that game are shadows but are all hinted to be a separated part of the game’s main villain or at least her avatar which would suggest multiple egos and personalities, if Persona 4 is to be completely believed and the narrators are fallible so that may not be the case. It could well be that Persona 3’s Nyx and Ryoji Mochizuki are very unique beings within the game’s own set of logic and rules. Nyx, out of reference to her Greek mythological origin is the manifestation of the night but she’s also seen as the manifestation of death and brings about the Death Arcana in pure shadow form. Maybe they don’t exist on the same plain as shadows; however, oddly enough Ryoji is very similar to Teddie as both are shadows which somehow gained a human form and a conscious of their own. For Ryoji, this comes from the bond of a human and I think the same can probably be argued for the driving force behind Teddie’s own birth of ego. But Teddie doesn’t seem to come from any Gods or anything of the sort. He’s never revealed to be an agent of Izanami which honestly might make sense within the narrative as he’s the one who gives the Persona 4 protagonists the tools to begin their investigation into the truth but by the end of Persona 4, or definitely Persona 4 Golden, we would have been aware if Teddie had links to the goddess. Apparently he doesn’t have any.

Although this may offer more questions rather than just solving none. It’s simply never made clear why Teddie has the ability to change his form and develop a conscious, hell, even passive mind. Stranger still, he winds up right where the protagonists first enter and has special skills such as the creating of the glasses which can see through the fog inside of the TV world. At the moment, there are no given explanations for why Teddie, alone, has these abilities but who knows, we may get our answer in future games or in interviews but for right now, it’s fun to speculate. Generally, from what I’ve seen in blog posts and that sort of thing, there are three big theories concerning Teddie (although I’m sure there are tons of others) and I’ll be fair and go over them all and give my general opinion on them.

Teddie is the Protagonist’s shadow.

This one is probably my least favourite of all the theories we can have. It does make sense in a lot of ways though; I can’t exactly fault it as one that has no credibility. I’ll explain why in a bit. Teddie’s S.Link is the only one in the game that is non-optional. It is a part of the story in which you have to follow. That makes it similar to Pharos which just happens to be a shadow which was sealed within the Protagonist of P3, so I presume the idea that Teddie may be the Protagonist of P4’s shadow stems from that. This may also explain why Teddie gets along so well with the likes of Yosuke and Nanako and, especially, why he gravitates towards the P4 Protagonist very early on in the game. In Persona 4 Golden, it is revealed that Teddie’s ultimate reveal of self comes at the point when he claims he is going to become independent of the Protagonist and surpass him. That adds more fuel to this fire and it could be a clever way of pointing out how the two are actually very close beings and that Teddie having grown an ego over his course of development is finally his own person, seperate from the protagonist. What’s more is that Teddie has the ability to enter the velvet room. The personalised soul room that only the Protagonist is supposed to be able to enter. Yeah, from that alone, it really does seem like Teddie is the Protagonist’s shadow. The only real evidence that I can put up in a type of objection doesn’t even come from the games which makes it a little invalid but we do see the P4 Protagonist’s shadow in the anime. It’s hinted at, though, that Adachi and the Protagonist are both so comfortable with who they are that they simply don’t have shadows. Adachi isn’t so much supressing his ego as he is merely keeping it away in fog and the Protagonist is shining his ego on everyone that walks by. The general reason I don’t like this theory is just because it’s a bit bland to me. It makes a whole lot of sense, don’t get me wrong, but it sort of takes away from a few of the ideological points that you can see popping up when comparing the Protagonist and Adachi. It’s a very dangly third wheel that doesn’t really belong but still sort of matches the other two in some weird way.

Teddie is an experiment of Strega

So coming off a more bland and basic one with a lot of evidence to its exact opposite. This is a theory which is pretty much solely based off on how one of Teddie’s weapons is called the Strega claws and how he imitates Takaya at one point during the game. That is pretty much it. I think this theory was generally created to put up an explanation on how Teddie can change his shape. He himself comments that he changed himself into a cute and cuddly Teddy bear so that he could be more approachable to humans. Strega and the Kirijo group was no doubt experimenting on shadows and it might be possible that they in some way created Teddie to be an extremely abnormal shadow. This would also explain Teddie’s knowledge of the human world and his ability to construct glasses. His eyes are a lens; something that is manufactured rather than natural. Now, not all shadows even closely resemble natural things. Godsake, some of them are literally walking tables but it’s odd that Teddie’s eyes are a type of specific lens that can see through the fog, as though they were made specifically for that purpose. Now the implications of this are freaking ridiculous and there’s not really any further hints towards this being an actual thing even when the P3 team show up. I like this theory simply because it’s interesting to me and I find it fun. If it actually was a real thing, I would be quite happy and intrigued because it would set up for some more mysteries on whether there was any more experimental shadows created.

Teddie is Nanako’s shadow

I really like this one. This theory is my favourite one for, probably very obvious reasons. This one comes in the middle of the evidence scale that is created by the two previous entries but thematically, this one probably makes the most sense. At the very least it does in my own mind. Nanako is a very strong driving force for both the characters and is also made to be one for the player at home. She’s a very cute little girl who has obviously gone through some dark shit in her young life. You really don’t want to see her come out badly from all of this and if you chose the bad ending, then your punishment is Nanako’s death. She is held on a very tall pedestal, although credit to the writers; she’s certainly no Mary Sue or even annoying in the slightest. Teddie is probably the opposite, being intentionally very annoying as well as cowardly and useless at the start of the game until he begins to create his own sense of self. The two characters both gravitate to the Protagonist and view them as a protector figure and someone that they can look up to. If a shadow is the suppressed self, then we can imagine what it would be like for Nanako who has had to (for lack of a better word) man up and take a lot of responsibility in her own home as well as, evidently from any conversation you try to get out of her at the start of the game, steel herself up in terms of her father’s safety and other such likes. Her suppressed self would be a cry baby. Something that completely fears isolation. Something that fears death. Now look at Teddie at the very start of the game. It seems pretty similar but maybe I’m trying to force that. To me, it works. For people who try to denounce this theory by saying that the perverted Teddie wouldn’t be the ego of a little girl need to realise that Teddie only becomes like that after he’s been around the main characters for a while. It’s almost like imprinting, that since these humans (teenagers) are the first humans Teddie witnesses, he begins to try to emulate them to an extreme degree. I think it’s also a bit telling when you consider that Teddie was originally planned to be female and he cross-dresses a fair bit, especially in a lot of the media given to him. The largest piece of evidence though during the point of the game when Nanako is kidnapped and brought into the TV world and is about to die. The protagonists note that no shadow for Nanako actually appears and they speculate that this is because she’s too young to have any major issues she’s hiding away. First off that is bullshit, both in terms of the game’s story and in terms of its theological themes. Nanako obviously has her own identity and ego and therefore she is likely to have a part of that ego which she is suppressing. However no shadow ever makes itself known. Instead, what we get is a very concerned shadow in the form of Teddie. Teddie rarely leaves Nanako’s side after she returns and is brought into hospital and seems to be the most aware that something is greatly wrong with her. In the end, he ignores the confrontation with Namatame and the thought of revenge to be with Nanako and wish her life. Something, and we’re never entirely told what, but something occurs which brings Nanako back from the brink of death and also unlocks Teddie’s lost memories. And yes, my personal favourite theory about this, is that Teddie realised his connection to Nanako. He realised that he was her shadow and is even seen starting to fade as her life gives out. The reason he is able to enter the Velvet room may be linked to how the Protagonist desperately wants Nanako and Teddie to return to him and so the Velvet room accommodated to his wish. At least, that would be my theory on the matter.
Just ramblings more than anything else. Share your thoughts if you want in the comments. 
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