Game Theory: The Monster In The Shadows (Poppy Playtime Chapter 2)

It's been so long, it's so good to see you again, well, it's not good, don't really say anything, mommy knows you thought you could come in here, right, like nothing happened, what a joke, well, they're all dead . them and you did, you tried to live knowing that for a brief time, but hey, that's just a

theory

, right, a

theory

, a theory, a theory, hello Internet, welcome to

game

theory, the show that has been popular for 11 years but still hasn't landed a movie deal. I don't know why I felt like mentioning it here in a completely unrelated note.

A few weeks ago we finally saw the release of Chapter 2 of Poppy Playtime fly across a network and this was longer than a tech demo so, big wins over the first part, but no, the team wasn't content to stop there, The newest

chapter

of Hoppy Playtime went further and required players to master not just one but two different play styles, Whack-a-Mole and Simon Says Yellow, We're Violets, Every

game

must have a Simon Says segment for some reason. reason, of course, I'm joking about this whole new

chapter

, it actually offered a lot of awesome stuff, cool puzzles, exciting chases, and an oversized stuffed toy that can't pull a lever.

The animation is so adorable I could sit through it. here and look at that all day, oh and there are also collectible trophies, now really challenging collectible trophies that will push you to the limits of your gamer senses, any secret trophies or anything we see up here, I need secret trophies, secret trophies, but we all know it. The reason we're really here isn't because of the gameplay innovation or the collectibles, it's because of the hidden notes and cryptic clues, ladies and gentlemen, we have some history to unravel and a spoiler alert. Poppy is not who we thought she was at first, this is what they need.

To understand today's theory, chapter 1 of Puppy Playtime focused on us, the player who returns to an abandoned toy factory to save some employees who disappeared there 10 years ago, through a mysterious note we are told that we have to find the flower, several riddles. and a giant Muppet chase, later we find the flower in the form of a giant mural of a

poppy

inside there is a replica of a house and a doll called

poppy

, play time locked inside a display case and of course, We released it without thinking about it because video game players had never seen a horror movie before, anyway, Chapter 2 starts immediately after.

Poppy agrees to help us activate a train that will help us get out of the factory, so much for wanting to help save those missing employees, but Hey, if a creepy doll and a doll start offering me ways to not be around the creepy doll that Talk, I'll take you up on that offer, but of course things are never that easy. Mommy Long Legs, a giant stretchy toy spider takes Poppy hostage and forces us to play. three minigames in her games station to unlock each part of the train code, we eventually exit our games, causing her to go into sick mode and chase us through a tight escape sequence where I've seen something like this before in Al In the end she gets trapped in a crusher and her remains are dragged away by a mysterious claw.

We rescued Poppy. We get on the train, but surprise, surprise, she betrays us, crashes the train and forces us deeper into the factory, so those are the highlights of the chapter. But we still have many general questions: who are we? Where are these missing employees? We are so worried about what is the true nature of the toys and who is secretly pulling the strings behind all this. Well, I think I have the answers. to each and every one of those questions and the last one is probably the best place to start since I just talked about how after defeating mom we see her remains being dragged away by a mysterious claw, no, no, burn traps, claw, but also, yes, burn traps. claw look hand see pool mom is very different from all the other designs we have encountered in the game so far, most of the toys we fight with are brightly colored, made of plastic or fur and, you know, they look like real toys.

However, this thing is dark mechanical and could take your eye out, it's like an erector on steroids and that's not all. If you zoom in and enhance the image of the claw, you can make out that there is organic material mixed in its bones and maybe even some. veins mixed in with the metal parts, so yes, the comparison with the spring trap, burn trap, call them what you want, is not a joke, but what is this biomechanical hybrid doing in the context of the poppy? Well, in chapter one we discovered the final vhs tape that cataloged the results of experiment one zero zero six dubbed the final prototype record in relation to experiment one 1006 the coordination and cooperation of the prototype are evidently within its skill set as well like the skill set of all other experiments of its kind, this along with a death screen that said experiment 1006, isn't it wonderful? led us to believe in a previous theory that our big blue boy, Huggy Wuggy, was the prototype, since you know he was the only character we met in chapter one, Occam's razor and all.

However, take a look at the hand on the TV screen we see during the VHS recording. Looks familiar. We see that hand appear again and another VHS tape in chapter two. Registration code zero eight five zero two in relation to the experiment one zero zero six. prototype The prototype appears to possess an unprecedented level of intelligence beyond that of all other test subjects, as well as an alarming willingness to commit violence. Experiment 1170 huggy wuggy is still the optimal result due to its sufficient intelligence combined with maximum obedience, obviously, this clearly tells us that Huggy is not experiment 1006 and is the owner of this mysterious claw, so that is the prototype, but what makes it so special.

During that same VHS tape we also hear how the prototype takes apart an alarm clock and uses it to make In short, a laser pointer is smart and can reuse things, which would explain Mom's concern at this point that this entity will reuse and repurpose her. to help the

monster

escape, which makes you wonder if the veins and bones or how this. The creature was originally designed or maybe that's what happened to all the other missing employees, their bodies were added to the machine. It's interesting that in our last theory we predicted that mommy longlegs would add the bodies of dead toys to herself to become stronger. correct in concept, we seem to be wrong in terms of who it applies to and in terms of what this will end up looking like.

Does anyone remember Sid from Toy Story 1? It looks like we might have found one of his creations, so right now it looks like the 1006 prototype will be our overarching villain of the franchise, taking bits and pieces from other toys and maybe even bits and pieces from other people to make himself stronger. That said, one toy that doesn't seem to have been added to the prototype yet is huggy wuggy, he may not have explicitly appeared in this chapter, but there are hints of him hidden when you enter the chapter's water treatment room. If you look closely, you can see blue fur scattered around the pipes along with traces of blood. the room Huggy fell into at the end of the last chapter and would seem to imply that Huggy got up and went into full venting mode hoping to come back until a future chapter which honestly makes sense, he can't die yet. he's basically the mascot of the franchise that even cares about poppy at this point, i mean i do it for tradition, but i feel like i'm definitely in the minority on that, speaking of poppy, let's talk about her, i mean what is she? name on the title screen after all, this is not Kissy Missy game time or Cat B game time, you know that well, just a few hours after chapter 2 came out, the fan community did what the fan community was going to do: they dug into the game's files and in doing so discovered An early version of this chapter is hidden, and while the game itself remains basically the same, the ending is where things get really interesting.

Normally you get on the train and Poppy gives you this ominous speech about how you can't leave and she betrays you. us and she sends us deeper into the factory for reasons that remain fairly vague. Terrible things have happened, but I know that whatever I need you to do, you are capable; However, in the cut version of this monologue, we actually get a little more detail about his motivations. You have a lot of potential, I know you came to find those who had disappeared all those years ago, but they are gone, long gone. time. Terrible things have happened and I am the cause of being able to exist as a doll that has killed so many people.

Now interpreting the cut content will always be a complicated science. Do you use it? No? how do you use it here? I'm only pointing this out because this seems to confirm one of our original theories. that poppy is the reason all of this is happening, she literally says that because she was able to exist as a doll, people died, which tells us two things, one, that she has been around from the beginning, she knows about the experiments being carried out on humans, she is. I witnessed it all Yes, we hear you, you are very special, you did it first, second, although it seems to tell us that Poppy is not who we originally thought.

Loyal theorists will remember that last time we predicted that former employee Stella Graber was the person. whose body and spirit were used to build Poppy in chapter one, we find a VHS tape that talks about her desire to stay young and her love for children, who almost seem to scream, make me an immortal doll

monster

; however, after the clue came up in this chapter we know for sure that she is no longer a candidate when we first enter the games station, we are greeted by Stella's voice. Hello children, welcome to the games station. I'm Stella and we have three super fun games to play.

Her name also appears at the bottom of a document that describes how to test children using the various modules of the play station. Quote, give all reports to Ms. Stella Graber for review so that Stella was clearly involved with any experiments being carried out at and from Playtime Co. they were started because the living doll poppy existed in the first place stella can't be poppy in that same document we also see references to mommy longlegs now if you look closely at the mommy longlegs commercial that plays at the top of the chapter you can see which is dated 1991, Hoppy was supposed to be the first living toy developed in 1950.

Therefore, if Stella was alive at the time of mommy long legs, then she couldn't be inside Poppy, so if Poppy isn't Stella So who is she? At the beginning of Chapter 2 we visited the office of Elliott Ludwig, founder of Playtime Co. It was here that we learned that he experienced a tragic family loss sometime in the 1960s. In the 1960s, an unfortunate family death had pushed Ludwig at its lowest level. This loss is what drove him to work harder and build an empire around his toys now it's actually not clear who this family member was, he would suspect that his daughter right dies or is dying and he finds a way to turn her into a living toy, yes, yes, I'm broke and I will. rejoin thanks fnaf go do something else with your life make your story more sensible stop trying to get into other people's narratives okay other people's very similar narratives anyway As I was saying, you'd suspect he's doing this for his son, right? and that's who Poppy is, it's her daughter, but there's a problem with that and it doesn't come from the game but from the game's website.

We learn from a newspaper article hidden in the about section of the Playtime Company merchandising website that Eliot's wife divorced him in 1930. This means that if a child came from that relationship, that son or daughter Biologically she would have been around 20-30 years old when Poppy was created, she seems a bit old to be honest, the loss could have been a grandchild, that's definitely a possibility but for me. I think the most likely option was that she was an adopted daughter. In chapter one we see many posters hanging on the walls that talk about the Playtime Co adoption initiative.

What if that program was initially started because Elliott had an adopted child and wanted to bring that joy to other families, thus modeling it on those values? of the

playtime

company and then when his daughter dies or is suffering, he, you know, has to find a way to put her back together so that his adopted daughter dies tragically and he tries something to revive herprobably. fusing her with poppy and it works something he does works she's in the doll but he's not exactly sure what he did might I suggest trying remnant or agony sorry sorry now I'm just going to try my best to do it anyway already We know it's not sure based on a note we found in Elliot's office in chapter 2.

This note talks about experiment 814 in which they try to bring rats back to life using the poppy flower. My suspicion is that this is because he was somehow able to revive his daughter inside of Poppy, a doll that we are told has the essence of the Poppy flower incorporated into her hair. This is also the reason why we found poppy hidden in the display case is so that his daughter can be preserved protected and also studied because he saw that it was possible and then he repeated it, which is why he is so happy with his wonderful experiment 1006, the prototype, after almost 200 additional experiments after poppy flowers and rats, this is where he finally cracks the code, he brought things to life, but the prototype is also. intelligent, he runs away and does not obey orders, sending the factory into chaos.

That's why we hear that Huggy Wuggy is actually the perfect creation because he is intelligent but also obedient. Experiment one one seven zero Huggy Wuggy is still the optimal outcome due to his sufficient intelligence. paired with the utmost obedience and that my friends are the story of how it all began in

playtime

co, we now know that elliot ludwig's adopted daughter is probably the entity inside the poppy doll and that our main villain of the series is the prototype of the first successful recreation of that technology of bringing something back to life toy that steals and uses pieces and parts of other things to become stronger, but there is still much more to discover here who or what is inside the other toys, are they employees or Are they something else?

What's up with the mysterious death screens we each see? When we die, what are they trying to tell us? If there are people inside the toys, what happens to the prototype? Is it someone important or is it just a random collection of people? And probably the most important question of all is who we are in relation to all of this. I suspect I may have figured out our character's name and his possible role in the company, but answers to that and more will have to wait for next time just because I have a few other things I want to check out first within the game. so be sure to hit that subscribe button to guarantee you'll see our second part of chapter 2 coverage when it comes out here in a week or two and until then remember it's all just game theory, thanks for watching.