Something To Chew On - Blog Posts

dannie-the-micro-mouse

3 weeks ago

The Two Sides

You know...when looking at the roster of bigger bodies/main toys on both Poppy and Prototype's sides, it's kind of cool to see that they're pretty much reflections of each other.

Here's pretty much the basic comparison between the two groups.

Poppy and Prototype: Both are the main leaders of their respective groups, both are closely tied to each other in Lore and connection, both are intelligent(though the Prototype is smarter), both agree on the same things such as leaving the factory, and both can even behave almost the same way.

The Prototype:

Lies to get others to do what they want for a greater purpose

Kills or gets others to kill anyone that opposes him

Has his primary follower which he betrays(Catnap)

Then there's Poppy:

Lies to get others to do what they want for a greater purpose(Poppy is very secretive to Doey even when Doey demands an answer and Poppy is constantly not letting the Player in on certain information until way later AFTER the Player does the tasks)

Poppy is not against getting the Player to kill any toy in the way up until an actual ally of her dies because her plan backfired.

Has a primary follower, Kissy Missy, which she abandons(also the Player too).

Player and Doctor: Both are known to be former workers in the factory and most likely in the labs, both have a connection with the "bell" that Sawyer mentions, both are the most human(Sawyer compared to anyone else) of the group, both are described to show a lot of promise and capabilities, and Sawyer constantly talks about how the "experiments hurt us", grouping them up together as one(he does that quite often).

Doey and Mommy Long Legs: Both are described or shown to take care of the other toys like parent-figures, both comment about eating and how long they haven't eaten, when things go south both go into a frenzy and get really hostile, both talk about constantly playing games with the Player when hunting them, both have skepticism and distrust with the player at first(Mommy was going to kill them anyway), both were viewed highly by the orphans(Matthew for Doey's case), and both show active hesitation or defiance to the leader.

Catnap and Dogday: Both are very tied to religious themes such as Dogday's terms of "Poppy's Angel" and the fact that he was crucified while for Catnap, it's his "Lord", "Angel of Salvation", "I rejoice in him", and the other dozen religious theme going on with Catnap. Both also look for a savior(For Dogday, it's Poppy and the Player. For Catnap, it's of course the Prototype).

Kissy and Huggy: Both have the same abilities as their respective toys, a lot of parallels in their injuries, and avid followers for the leader.

Now obviously, there's the differences between the two sides. While Poppy is described to be a a nice and mature leader, the Prototype, given what we can assume, is cold and ruthless.

The Doctor is very talkative, lacks fear of death, often makes his own decisions, and is very feared upon by everyone else. While the Player, is silent, been described to show fear and shake, constantly listens to orders by Poppy, and is constantly underestimated until the Player successfully does the impossible for the four time in a row.

While Doey is shown to be extremely caring and protective for the Save Haven but also generally has no ill will even to the Player until everything blows which then makes him go insane and he obtains his crash out. But for Mommy, she has a fake mother-like personality that she keeps to mask her hunger and desire to kill the Player, sets it up already where the Player was going to die anyway, and is willing to kill the toys she takes care of when they fail.

Dogday, given what little what we've seen of him, doesn't seem to possess a desire for the Player to die as he tries to get to leave the place now as there's no saving anyone here. He also despises Catnap for being a follower of the Prototype but also because Dogday fell victim to Catnap's Autobot Jazz joke gone wrong. He's also overall hopeless about being saved as he just tells the Player to move on from Playcare and to continue with Poppy's mission. Meanwhile Catnap, is...self explanatory. He obviously doesn't want the Player in Playcare either but when the Player continues to push it, Catnap becomes hostile.

Kissy is very gentle and shows little to no harm except for a few moments of stress and during the Hour of Joy while Huggy is extremely hostile, barging down doors to get to the Player in seconds and still trying to kill the Player after falling fifty stories.

Now as stated previously and listing off the differences and similarities, it's pretty clear that they're meant to be almost mirrors of each other. Two factions that are essentially the same but then there's the question on why one group is way more hostile and twisted than the other.

That's when it became clear to me about one interesting thing to note: Isolation.

The Safe Haven, and pretty much everyone in the group is a community all huddled together where they help each other maintain sanity and survive. All three bigger bodies(DD, Doey, and Kissy) are all pictured together in a mural. But what about the other side?

When we look at how they interact...they don't. It's a toy eat toy world. All three bigger bodies(Catnap, Huggy, and Mommy) are all on different floors. Each have their own different sections, none of them even acknowledge each other.

Poppy's side and the Prototype's side is essentially:

Isolation vs Togetherness

We see a core theme of how isolation creates monsters. This was shown no better in Chapter 4 and the main monsters in the other chapters.

Huggy: Shown to be with Kissy but for some reason, they're no longer together and Huggy is alone on the first floor doing the same job as he always did.

Mommy: Constantly felt left behind when the children never came back, was the only toy like her in the Game Station for possibly years and eventually went insane by Playtime Co.

Miss Delight: Was specifically picked out to be the one to die among the sisters, causing her to go insane with hunger and turn on everyone else.

Dogday(possessed): He's the only one left of the Smiling Critters, alone in the cell, and alone where no one in the Safe Haven knew where he was(or perhaps didn't/couldn't help him). When the Player meets up him, as he's being used like a puppet by the minis, the first thing he says is to leave him.

Doey(at the end of the game): After everyone else at Safe Haven died, he crashes out and unleashes the monster form and attacks the Player.

Catnap: Automatically the odd man out of the the whole group both in the cartoon and as a bigger body. Theodore was described as anti social and struggled making friends so he was already alone when the Prototype came in. Catnap's room is a section below the prison where it's an underground bedroom where again, he's alone. Catnap's job is primarily at night which it would make sense if he was the only one with that job. Ollie even acknowledges that there used to be eight Smiling Critters but it's just him(of course, he neglects to mention Dogday).

Yarnaby: Literally described to be isolated by Sawyer to the point Sawyer was his whole world.

Baba Chops: Although not much information about game variant, the cartoon variant is a homebody, someone who stays alone at home often and rarely interested in going out.

Harley Sawyer himself: He felt that no one understood him and when Elliot kicked him out of the program, he felt even more betrayed and went deeper into isolating himself, trying to be the best scientist, the biggest genius, etc.

Most likely the Prototype too: Never seen to interact with anyone(besides the scientists) in any tapes regarding containment and has probably been down in the labs pretty much the whole time. If anyone was isolated, it was the Prototype as he's the leader of the most deranged, isolated group of children to walk the factory. If anything, he particularly aimed for toys that suffered in isolation knowing what that could do someone. He would know of course.

Not sure where I am going with this but it's something I've noticed. I'm curious to see if isolation gets to Kissy Missy now that she's alone and was just abandoned by her leader she was loyal to.