I have a lot of problems with Poppy Playtime despite really liking it. I wasn't really able to put it into words, but after chapter 5 came out, I think I'm able to better explain what the series should've done instead.
I think the biggest problem with the franchise is that it's too nonsensical to really feel scary, or grounded in reality. The world of Poppy Playtime is so grimdark and depressing, that it loops back around to being funny. There needs to be some sort of hope in a world to make the tragedies feel earned, or even scary.Ā The fact that Playtime Co ground up thousands upon thousands of orphans, and nobody noticed makes zero sense. What I would have done is make what the factory is doing legal in the Playtimeco universe. There is one Dystopian book series in particular that sort of reminded me of the surgical part of what playtime is doing. The series is called "Unwind" and I think that Mob could've taken a similar approach to the dismemberment of children.(That sounds weird, but hear me out.) In the Unwind series, abortion has been banned, and as a compromise, unwanted teenagers are legally allowed to be "Unwound" by the state after their parents sign a form. The process of unwinding involves taking all of the teenager's body parts and transplanting them into different people, with the justification that life doesn't really "end." The process of Unwinding reminded me of what playtimeco does to children, and I think that the story of Poppy Playtime would have benefitted from the government allowing Playtimeco to "unwind" orphans and put them into toys for the sake of science. I think that having what playtimeco is doing being technically "Legal" would solve a lot of the lore problems, and answer a lot of questions as to why the government doesn't investigate what happened to the missing employees. Just my take though.
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