Some Disorganized Thoughts About Poppy Playtime Ch 5 (Spoilers)
G’day, folks, I watched 8-BitRyan play Poppy Playtime chapter 5 immediately after its release, and I wanted to share my thoughts. While I can’t speak for the gameplay (all I know is Ryan did get pretty frustrated by some of the chase sequences), I liked the chapter quite a bit. Frankly, the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. While I get that people say it’s not as traditionally scary as, let’s say, chapter 3 (which is still the best), I still think the psychological horror was well done, with the brainwashing of kids and Miss Gracie and the Huggy memory sections and whatnot. I also liked Lily Lovebraids because her backstory is interesting and because she’s just a very entertaining character. Even though I feel like she, graphically, looks like a PS2 character that somehow found her way into a modern game.
Also curious what people thought of the Prototype’s reveal (fortunately, I was lucky enough to avoid the leaks). I had mixed feelings initially. It’s just so hard to meet everyone’s expectations when the hype got so high after years of mystery over this character’s appearance. But now, I have to admit that his design is growing on me, and it helps that I’ve always loved spooky jesters (I mean, I’m 200,000 words into a novel about Sun from FNAF, so…). Yes, I do get that he doesn’t really match his description, nor does he resemble Catnap’s shrine. (I just imagine that Catnap’s shrine was inaccurate because he’s technically just a child using what he found lying around. The poor boy did his best considering he has cat paws instead of fingers!) Then again, I never really wanted him to look like an abomination of random toy parts, to be honest.
As mentioned before, I really like the jester aspect of him. I don’t mind the face, even though I question why he would look that way. I like to believe he either had a more normal, kid-friendly face at one point (he is a toy, after all), and it broke off to reveal what we saw in the game (like what we’re seeing now is kind of a skull, hence the big, exposed teeth and eye sockets), or he’s currently wearing a mask, and his real face is beneath it. (People did say he is supposed to have a working jaw, which was clearly not the case here.) The robot-spider legs are fine. Certainly more interesting than him just walking around like a normal person. The worst thing for me, though, is how the other toy parts were incorporated, especially the three arms on the front. It’s just…weird.
Also do think it’s super interesting that the Prototype really was Ollie at one point and that he was Poppy’s adopted brother. Still not sure the details of how that all worked out, though. I mean, so Elliot adopts this boy, then proceeds to choose this kid specifically to experiment on in order to bring Poppy back. My best guess is that Ollie had died or, perhaps, was terminally ill, and Elliot decided that turning him into a prototype for Poppy seemed better than just letting the kid perish? Perhaps in the process, he was hoping to save both of his kids and not merely sacrifice one for the other? Maybe I missed something, or this simply hasn’t been explained quite yet.
Still think it’s weirdly amusing that Elliot says they can possibly still be a family after this. Like, you’re going to be just living your life with your two children, a living porcelain doll and a jester, huh? How are you going to explain that at family gatherings?
I look forward to chapter 6, though I really hope they don’t drag the story out beyond that. I’m excited to see Sawyer return after he was underused in chapter 4. And I’m more interested now in the relationship between Poppy and the Prototype, abusive though he clearly is to her. (At the same time, it’s interesting that he reacted with genuine surprise when he broke her face, so that didn’t seem to be purposeful like I had initially thought.) Anyway, if I’m inaccurate about any details, keep in mind that most of my brainpower over the years has been spent trying to make sense of FNAF lore rather than Poppy Playtime. I try to follow Poppy’s lore as best I can, but I’m no expert, by any means!