Genuinely, thank YOU as well for making the first post to begin with. It made me want to speak out as well, because this hurt me so much. WOTFI 2024 was fun, the song was a banger, it was just that ending that got to me so much. It hurts so much to see the hatred of the comments towards Mr. Puzzles. It feels too easily forgotten that Mr. Puzzles is a person no different than any of the others. Knowing something messed up happened to someone is not the same as excusing their actions.
Maybe Meggy really isn't the best person to be trying this emotional intelligence at all, you're right. Honestly, as someone who probably should go see a professional therapist herself after all her trauma, she might not be the best person to deal with someone else's trauma. She doesn't know what is best for others, probably not even herself. Look how long she pushed back her own traumas and refused to face them. Kudos to her for reaching out as she did in the song, unlike anyone else, for recognizing that scared child, but how it turned out is utterly terrible.
Speaking of scraps of hope being torn away from him...
Leggy seems to be gone for good. So, the one friend he still feels he has, likely for good now, has been torn from him forever. The friendship he felt for Leggy was not healthy, it was not even real. That's even more tragic. He wasn't even allowed to have that. But there's no way he can gain any kind of proper friend in an ASYLUM. If Leggy's in this "better place" with Kid Puzzles, it clearly didn't help Mr. Puzzles in the slightest. He's more obsessed with friendship than ever now... in a place where he's all alone.
What makes this double-crossing even worse to me on reflection? Mr. Puzzles, subconsciously, was definitely crying for help. His kid self right there on his screen even as he prepares to end them? He looks scared, sad, alone... Meggy saw this, it made her change her approach.
What makes me even more certain that this is a clear cry for help is the fact that the portal came to exist at all. There's no way he created that intentionally, and it only started to flicker into existence when Meggy showed signs of reaching out. It didn't disappear after that, it stayed. Subconsciously, he truly did want the hand to be offered to him, and his cry for help was answered.
Further going into how she is absolutely unqualified to be handling this, I know she's angry at Mr. Puzzles, but a kid is outright telling you he's never had friends and is showing how deeply he's escaped into TV, and these personal feelings towards Mr. Puzzles do not help here. Her response is aggression because she still sees that monster. Very understandably, considering her friends are in danger. But Meggy does not have enough in common with his kind of pain to truly understand. (Enter SMG3 and SMG4, who would likely understand better even if they're not showing signs of it canonically.)
The only way she was able to be better for him is as Leggy, a being that now no longer exists. A being that was never her. Meggy probably never was going to be the right one to reach out to him. I wonder if Mr. Puzzles, lost in his current madness locked up is even aware that the Leggy he knew is gone for good? Or does he see her as a traitor? Needing "Leggy 2.0," who will never betray him and is totally still here, considering his cry for help ended up well...
Anyway, you hit the nail on the head again and it made me think even more why this bugs me so much. The facilities in this universe are terrible, Meme Rehab alone shows that, I'm genuinely terrified for the kind of "treatments" they'll give Mr. Puzzles. Maybe the next time we see him it'll be like SMG4 lobotomized, maybe "reprogrammed" because that's the only way you could do that to someone with a TV for a head so far from human now physically.
Whatever happens to him there, it won't be good for him. SMG3 had the chance to make something of himself in his defeat, and it wasn't easy. Let's hope SMG3 with the psychiatry degree comes in here soon because EVERYONE is in need of therapy, but especially Mr. Puzzles.
Otherwise, Mr. Puzzles is on the path of further deterioration... not anything for the better.