Cutie

**Cutie** is a character in *It Takes Two*. She was the ruler of the Magic Castle who was reluctantly murdered by May and Cody in their attempt to make their daughter Rose cry on them, believing it would return them to their real bodies.

## Appearance

Cutie is a tuskless gray anthropomorphic elephant plush toy with a rubbery plastic torso, beady black eyes and ears whose insides are pink with white polka-dots. Cutie's body appears to be a sort of toy interface, having a red heart button, a slim rectangular purple button and a speaker in her left side; along with having a set of buttons in her right side. Those are blue, yellow, and green, each with their own symbol (A music note, speech bubble, and star). She wears a golden crown and red cape with a frilly collar. She is also capable of producing squeaky sounds, proven by the jump that she did after the crane game scene. Considering her peculiar appearance, she looks like a toy made for babies.

According to a dialogue between Cody and May, Cutie is not a queen per se. Instead, Rose herself gave her a Queen's crown and possibly her royal outfit, promoting her into a queen. Also, her status as Rose' favorite toy helped.

Despite of being bigger in appearance than Cody and May' doll avatars, she has two important weakness: Her limbs are too short, making her unable to reach her face unless she is using her trunk, also they are easily removable. It's also noteworthy that the cotton inside her acts as blood, at least in the plane created by Dr. Hakim.

## Personality

Cutie is shown to be very childish, innocent and playful. Despite her status as a queen, she acts friendly and casual toward strangers and even offers to help them feel better, being able to notice when something is wrong. This behavior even extends in cases of extreme damage, like the time when she offered to Cody and May to play jump the rope after they tore her right leg and ear.

In hostile situations, she would try to run, persuade or negotiate with her adversaries, fighting back rarely. If she has to, she would do it in a very passive-aggressive manner like using her trunk to trumpet at them, as a defense or as a way to block their objectives, like the time when she grabbed a tack or a thread spool to avoid being shoved off the bookshelf; or when she tried to shove May away when she was about to fall.

## Biography

### Background

Rose at some point of her life replaced Moon Baboon for Cutie as her favorite toy, and eventually she gave her a frilly cape and crown, turning Cutie into a queen. Rose then asked Cody to build her a magic castle made of cardboard where Cutie would rule, along with some medieval elements and themed guard toys he bought. Cody will also add some anachronistic details, like an incomplete train rails leading to the castle, toilets and a door leading to Cutie with two levers that electrify the intruders when the wrong one (green) is pulled. Considering her lines during the castle incident, Cutie knows how to bake cookies and jump the rope, things that she apparently learned while playing with Rose.

### It Takes Two

Cutie first appears when Rose meets with her parents to discuss their divorce. Cody ask Rose to put the toy in the table to talk about the divorce plans that he is having with May. Rose then stands up and goes back to her room, putting Cutie at the top of the bookshelf, which was decorated as a castle. After that intro scene and the start of the game where Cody and May gets stuck in doll bodies because of Rose's wish, Cutie plays a major role in the second part of the third chapter of the game.

After defeating the vacuum, the wasps and squirrels, and Moon Baboon, they get back to Rose but they learn that they cannot interact with her directly and just affect the objects around them. Then, they try to figure out how to get back to their real bodies. Prior to this, Cody came up with a theory about how tears could change them back. Eventually, May notices and remembers Cutie as Rose's favorite toy and that if they find and kill her, Rose will cry. The two agree to this plan and after passing various zones that represented parts of Rose' bedroom and defeating the castle's guards who were alerted of the couple's intentions by Dr. Hakim, they head for her area at the top of the castle.

Cody and May approach her while she is busy tending to some things. She notices them and welcomes them, even offering them hugs and cookies, which makes their intentions to kill her harder to do due to her kindness. Cutie then notices that something its wrong and offers Cody a hug. Cody hugs her back, though May shouts at Cody, revealing their real intentions.

Cutie hears this, panics and attempts to escape in a rocket. May however uses a cookie to divert the rocket' trajectory causing it to crash inside a crane game. They get her using the machine's claw, and Cutie gets her foot stuck in the lid of the prize box. Then, they try to get her out pulling both of her ears, but in the process, they tore her right leg out. Cutie will then sob and do a fetal position, until Cody and May reach her, in which case she will start flapping her arms.

The duo manages to catch her and attempt to throw her over the cabinet edge while dragging her, so Rose could see her in this damaged state. In this scene, Cutie would try to convince them with cookies or cry softly. If Cody and May fail to restrain her, Cutie will go the place where she stood before Cody and May started dragging her, while going back into fetal position.

Cutie trumpets at them while calling Rose for help, but it's useless because she cannot hear her. She then tries to grab a thread spool, dislodging a stitch ripper, which bounces off and catches on her right ear. Believing it to be a trick, the two pull harder until her ear rips off. Cutie tries to safe herself a last time grabbing a tack, but Cody pushes her nearly the edge. Cutie then tries to hit Cody and May with her trunk while trying to convince them to play jump the rope instead. Both easily evade her hits, May push Cutie's trunk away and then they reluctantly push her off, killing her. When Cutie falls to the ground, the game reverts back to reality where she is partially destroyed, with her ear unpierced.

Rose notices and grabs her, asking if she is okay. She then starts crying, which then, Cody and May head for the teardrops, where they believed that they can finally return to their bodies. Unfortunately, this proves to be wrong. This ultimately makes Cutie's death absolutely pointless, and the couple destroyed their daughter's favorite toy for no reason.

In the after-credits scene, after Cody and May returned to their bodies, Cutie is seen near the window of Rose's room being accompanied by a sewing kit, having been patched up with thick dark gray stitches and she also has some band-aids in her forehead and right leg.

## Trivia

* According to Josef Fares, the writer and producer of It Takes Two. Killing Cutie acted as a test to Cody and May to demonstrate their egoism and the things they are capable of to get back to their bodies, even making their own daughter cry on purpose.
* After her death, Cutie is no longer relevant in the later chapters of the game. However, in the scrapped fifth level "The Basement", Cody and May have to possibly repair Cutie as a way to defeat a demonic representation of their previously mutual hatred.
* If Cutie says the dialogue "Rose, Rose. Help me!" earlier that the scripted cutscene where she trumpets to Cody and May. In said cutscene, she will remain silent.
* Cutie claims to be Rose's best friend, which is the same thing that Moon Baboon claims.
* Cutie being torn apart is symbolic of what the talks of divorce are doing to Rose, with her being mended back together serving as a sign that Cody and May's relationship being repaired has helped her emotionally heal.

## References

1. ↑ [Dialogue between Cody and May. Circus scene, Rose' bedroom saga] **Cody**: *"Oh, god. That's right, yeah. Rose, uh, gave the elephant a crown, ya know a Queen's crown"*. **May**: *"So Rose made the elephant into a queen?"*. **Cody**: *"Yeah, i guees so. It's her favourite toy"*
2. ↑ [Castle incident, Rose' bedroom saga] **Cutie**: (After getting her right ear torn apart) *"What?. Everything is fuzzy"*
3. ↑ [Castle incident, Rose' bedroom saga] **Cutie**: (To Cody and May, who are trying to catch her with the crane's claw) *"You know, Rose wouldn't like this"*
4. ↑ Galleillo's gameplay (Minute 5:24)
5. ↑ Fragment extracted from "Exclusive: Josef Fares Discusses the Infamous Elephant Scene in It Takes Two".
*"The whole idea is having [Rose’s] super cute stuffed animal that you have to kill, and the reason is this. The parents have become so egoistic and totally forgot about what’s important for them, that they are ready to go this far to actually do something like this"*. (13th Apr 2021. Talby, Stephen. PushSquare.com)
6. ↑ Galleillo's gameplay (Minute 5:36)