Hey all, haven't posted in a while, been in my own head trying to deal with things. I may or may not be doing blog things in the future (stories, character interactions and so on) but I needed to talk about something in the latest Poppy Playtime chapter that, to this point, I've seen NOBODY talk about. There will be spoilers but it's unavoidable because of what I need to explain. So, under the cut? the "subject" of Sweet street.
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So, what am I talking about? Well I'm assuming you've all played, or seen someone play, chapter 5 and know about the area called Sweet Street. As of this moment the purpose of Sweet Street is.... unknown. It's built like some kind of theme park ride but it's SO far underground that there's no way in hell that's what it was used for. my best guess is that it's used to acclimate toys to the setting of a theme park before transferring them. That way kids can wonder around and watch the toys living their daily lives....
Not gonna lie but that is a GENIUS idea. "Hey kids, do you want to visit sweet street and see what all your favourite characters get up to when they're not having adventures?" I mean... if it weren't for all the inhumane experiments on children and insane brainwashing to convince them they're a character? it'd be really cool. A place where fantasy and reality overlap, where the toys you love aren't just people in a suit earning a paycheck but the real deal.
Anyway, Sweet Street is where we meet the secondary antagonist of the chapter, Lily Lovebraids, who brings you to this giant doll house. After some exploring and errands you find rooms where people can look in without being noticed and in one of these you find a note labelled "observations: conditioning".
This report is written by Jessica Newman, a doctor that's been a big part of the experiments and args so far, detailing how things go regarding an unnamed "subject." Cliffnotes? They put someone in the dollhouse who didn't like it but, after a couple of months, began to see it as home and humans as friends as long as they were in costume.
Now, here's the thing, when you first find this note your immediate response is to assume it's about Lily Lovebraids, after all she is the toy you encounter here and the note does mention "friends" as if it a role to be filled like how Lily is playing make-believe with toys (which I've only just realised is incredibly weird to say given that she is a toy herself.) It makes sense for a toy that's suddenly lost all her friends (the humans in costumes) with no explanation to want to fill that roll.... except Lily didn't exist prior to the hour of Joy.
Lily Lovebraids is, or was, a playtime employee by the name of Gracie Green, also known as Miss Gracie. She was responsible for all the conditioning videos you see this chapter to convince the kids to want to be a toy and then convince the tots that they've always been toys. It's messed up.
Anyway, you learn this via several audiotapes during the chapter and the id card next to the body in Lily's room, the key point though is that Gracie was turned into a bigger body by the prototype and that, while Lily Lovebraids may exist as a toyline, the bits and pieces that playtime co were planning to use for the bigger body were only brought in a couple of days before the hour of joy took place.
In summary, the subject Jessica was talking about can't have been Lily Lovebraids, both because of the person that was turned into Lily and the fact that it was one of, if not the, last experiment ideas the company came up with.
This leads to the first question I have with this note that nobody's talking about. Who is this subject? Why put them in a dollhouse? why put them in sweet street with humans in costumes and not among other toys like every other experiment we've seen so far? It wouldn't be an issue if the note didn't call out that the subject didn't "recognise the house as their habitat and kept trying to leave". First of all the entire side of the house opens up, there's a front door and a whole lot of windows that should be no problem for a toy. Getting out should be easy.
Secondly, framing it as the subjects habitat implies that it was built with the subject in mind, or at the very least wouldn't be difficult to adapt to. This is especially weird to me because... I mean look at the place. Yeah it's a doll house but everything inside is perfectly functional and like a normal house. There's not a single other bigger body we've seen so far who wouldn't be too big for this place. Lily is literally the only toy that makes sense for the scale of the place but, like I said multiple times, Jessica can't possibly have been referring to her. this feels like such a huge deal but nobody is talking about it.
that's not the only thing off about the note though. Something else I find interesting is how Jessica finishes her observation. She questions whether the lives lost because of sweet street, likely because of toys killing humans out of costume (doesn't that sound familiar), are worth it if the illusion is so fragile. I find this interesting for two reasons, the first because it's attached to the observations on the subject finally accepting the house and friends, thereby implying that either the subject was doing the killing or that there have been prior subjects who have killed the humans and that whatever the company is trying to achieve clearly isn't working.
The second, and biggest, weird thing is that it's Jessica who is saying this. Jessica has basically been the face of the experiments so far, the observations, questioning the toys and so on. But, what some of you may not know, is that she was also a major part of the arg prior to the release of this chapter. In it, we learn several key things. One, she REALLY doesn't seem to care about the crap they put the toys not even thinking about it and just trying to focus on the progress. two, she was raised in play are and then joined the team. three, she has no other family and four. she survived for a while after the hour of joy.
it's this fourth thing I want to focus on because we get to see how she acts after it goes down. After all the toys have escaped, after all the doors shut, after hundreds of people are killed, what does she say? "It'll have to be a big cleanup crew they send. Then we'll be back to work making sure this never happens again."
like..... Seriously??? there's been mass murder of parents and employees, she has no idea what happened to the children and all she's thinking is when will she get back to work? and apparently THIS is the person who wonders if what they're doing on sweet street is worth it? Miss "you signed up for the torture if children and didn't think setting them free would end badly" Newman doesn't see what she's doing as worth it? Seriously, what the HELL were they trying to do with Sweet Street if THIS staunch supporter didnt see the point???