Sly Has Such A Way With Words

Platonic Love Meme: Sly and Penelope (p.1)

I saw this “Platonic Relationship Meme“ here on Tumblr. And I decided to try it with Sly and Penelope from the Sly Cooper series.

Man, Sanzaru really saw my man Bentley get some bitches and said "absolutely not".

"boy drama" HSHDJSK yeah i love the idea of penelope and murray being Bros just chilling and ignoring everything lmfao. like i get why we didn't (time, pacing etc... bah) but i really wish we got more of the extended gang just hanging out (tm). i can see penelope just being just down for tinkering w cool shit and having a good time w her new pals. and being totally oblivious to bentley's thirsting for her (kinda links in to me reading her as some kinda neurodivergent ig? i've said it before and i'll say it again but creating and maintaining an entire alter ego in order to get past age restrictions/implied gender bias and dominate the field of your hobby is absolute TOP tier nd girlboss energy)

trust one of my main issues with Sly 3 is how it's a game all about assembling a gang of thieves but benches them completely for almost its entirety. like i get wanting to roam the hubs as Penelope, Guru or PK whenever might be unreasonable to ask for (i guess?), but not having them around at all in the safehouse is such a bizarre choice. and the idea of having Penelope tinkering on gadgets in the back is perfect bestie

even looking past this, the cutscene sections of the gang hanging out together are so limited. we're mostly treated to them traveling in their silly goofy disguises (which ok, iconic). give me Sly 1 end of episode cutscenes, where the gang just idk has fun. give me Penelope beating the boys at their videogames

Are Penelope's parents still alive and if so, do they approve of Bentley?

Her parents have not met him yet.

I wanted to make a cute Bento…

And then I made an order of thirty stickers of this baby boy.

So far, I'm only still at the first episode of Sly 2, but It's impressive how much Sly Cooper 2 feel like the natural growth of the characters.

Sly 1 is a "beginner" thief that rush into his ennemy's lair with barelly any preparation, coming up with plans on the fly.

Sly 2 is about an experience Thief that reworked his methods. Now, his companions are much more involved in the operations. Now he carefully stake out and test the security before going for his target. He knows all the importants move of the thievus racoonus.

But who should the villain responsible be? Sir Raleigh, of course. He escapes from prison, kidnaps our heroine, and has her impersonated as part of a revenge plot.

How does he know to target her? Was he hired by someone? We don't find out until later...

And the impostor herself... She can get under Penelope's skin, taunting her every time they meet. She's holding that history of betrayal over the real one's head. And if any of the boys are around, she can get very crafty with her words without revealing a thing, amplifying our heroine's guilt.

With that, we'd have both a villainous Robo-Penelope and a heroic Penelope at the same time; the latter of whom now wants to redeem herself.

Let's also have our heroine engage in increasingly reckless behavior, especially after her reveal of betrayal. She'll think that risking her life is the only way to atone for her treachery. Don't worry; she won't actually wind up dead.

Forgot to mention. For this to work, Penelope would definitely need to have second thoughts either during blimp development or during her confinement as a kidnapping victim.

I want to believe Penelope was kidnapped and impersonated. She still designed the blimp. Her impostor (an evil robot) did everything else. Even her motive was fabricated.

Here's something that could happen in Sly 5.

When the boys (Sly, Bentley, and Murray) eventually find out and take her back, she's going to be a guilt-ridden mess hell-bent on destroying her impostor and her creator for breaking Bentley's heart and making everyone hate her, with several measures of self-loathing for nearly doing the same thing herself.

The reunion scene would need to happen early in the episode in which this story takes place, during the second mission, and no later. That way, the player can get used to her being fully playable for the first time ever before the boss fight.

All three boys, while elated to have Penelope back, will quickly notice that something is seriously wrong with her. They think her impostor did everything, including designing the blimp. When they ask her what's wrong, she refuses to elaborate.

Bentley is especially concerned, but incredibly proud of his reinstated girlfriend for her enduring loyalty.

Cue Penelope pulling her weight several times over during her return episode and defeating her impostor, only to be consumed by all the guilt and confess to none other than Bentley about her treachery by the end. The only thing she doesn't reveal is her motive, saying it doesn't matter because what she did was wrong.

And because I love a good, happy ending, she will be forgiven. As for Sly and Murray's reactions? I'll leave that for you to decide. Would Sly drive himself crazy over not knowing her motive? I think he might.

I realize she will need a very sympathetic motive for this idea to work.

2024 saw me bring these four together for the events of Thieves In Time...

I'd actually been working on it for 10+ years, but 2024 was when I finally decided to turn that story into a full length fanfiction.

new sticker design(?)

Penelope’s proposal

I imagine that someone as neurotic as Bentley would have trouble summoning the courage to pop the question (and maybe he’d be self-conscious about not being able to “get down on one knee” to do it). So I like the idea of Penelope being the one to propose because she KNOWS he wants to and she’s tired of waiting for him to ask her.