The TRUE Identity of the Player
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Who do we play as in Poppy Playtime?
Who do we play as in Poppy Playtime? It's a question we've had since day one of the franchise, but as the series slowly heads towards its inevitable end, we're running out of options. So let's take a look at our few remaining characters and solve this mystery once and for all. Hello, Internet! Welcome to Game Theory, the show that knows that for every theory we get right, we often get one wrong. And Poppy Playtime is no exception. There have been three key mysteries plaguing us. I've actually been referring to them internally as the three P's of Poppy. Who is Poppy? Who is the prototype? And who is the player? I'm sure Yossi is profoundly pleased, perhaps even palpitating at the plentiful, practically preposterous proliferation of punchy plosives I'm presently producing.
Sorry, bud. Anyway, over the last five years, I have tried desperately to answer these three questions. One of them, we nailed pretty early on that Poppy was the daughter of Elliot Ludwig, a prototype we flipped and flopped over the next few years. Although technically, I was more right than I realized in my first episode as host, so long as you ignore the part where I also suggest it might be rich. But that just leaves us with one mystery left. Who is the player character? This one has been the biggest enigma for me. mostly because we know so little about them. We know that they worked in the factory at some point, but they weren't important enough to be known by Harley Sawyer. However, despite being an employee, they weren't present during the Hour of Joy, hence they're still alive ten years later and able to receive the note from Poppy telling them their colleagues had survived.
Finally, they feel guilty about their involvement in what Playtime Co. did, as seen in their Chapter 3 hallucinations and the message we hear from Poppy when we're dumped into the vat of Poppy gel at the end of Chapter 5. Hence why they returned to Playtime Co when told that there is someone they can still save.
What are the three key mysteries in Poppy Playtime?
But despite the lack of evidence, I did put together an answer. One that I was convinced had to be the right one. My theory was that we were playing as PW, Preston Willard, a scientist from Playtime Co and the owner of the orientation notebook. They fit everything pretty well. Obviously they worked for Playtime Co, they were involved in the experiments and felt very distressed at the concept. And while that means they may have known Harley, it doesn't necessarily mean he knew them. Harley was pretty up himself, I could see him not paying attention to just another scientist with a lack of drive for what they did. But then the Chapter 5 ARG dropped just before the release of the game, and now I can Yep, PW was turned into a toy by the prototype.
This was supposedly a blessing because Preston was kind to him. But that does mean that PW is kind of out of commission. Even still, I refuse to believe that we are just a random character. Narratively, that would just be so unsatisfying and disappointing. You hear that, Bob? It would be so unsatisfying and disappointing. For our story, our dedication, our sacrifices to matter, we need to be someone that we as an audience have some kind of emotional attachment to. Plus, let's be honest, the list of available options is getting smaller and smaller by the chapter. So rather than wait around for the next chapter or two or twelve to tell us who we are, I wanted to go down the list of suspects, put them up against our criteria, and see
who is the most likely to be our player character. Grab your shiny new pressure hands, theorists, because we're about to put the pressure on these characters to see which one fits that player-sized mold. First up, Stella Graber Ah, Stella. One of the earliest characters we were introduced to in this franchise. In fact, she's been referenced in every chapter up until Chapter 5, which felt a little odd to me. Why has this character, who's been so prominent in notes, VHS tapes and ARGs, suddenly not been mentioned at all in this chapter? Like, guys, we thought she was poppy after the very first chapter she was that prominent.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Who do we play as in Poppy Playtime?
0:00–1:51
2
What are the three key mysteries in Poppy Playtime?
1:51–5:02
3
Who is the player character in Poppy Playtime?
5:02–8:45
4
What theories exist about the identity of the player character?
8:45–16:29
5
Who is Stella Graber and what role does she play?
16:29–19:58