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The prototype has been revealed and now we finally know not only who he is, but what his goal has been this whole time. Hello internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that's ready to take you to a better place. A land full of answers and theorizing. Well, here we are again, folks. Poppy Playtime has released its latest chapter and as usual, the internet is a flame with people arguing over whether the chapter is good or not. Even Markiplier got in on the debate. A chase sequence is not the time to introduce a new mechanic. The vast majority of people are going to die to that. As soon as you die, it loses ALL OF ITS VALUE. BUT EVEN IF THE GAMEPLAY
might be lackluster for some, one thing I think we can all agree on that isn't lackluster is the lore. This thing is full of the stuff, ready for us to chomp our way through like we're a wrong side animal eating our way through a giant bronze toy. Oh yeah, Bron finally made an appearance. Why they gave him the come hither eyes is a little confusing, but nevertheless, he's here. For the main game itself, it's a lot of the classic Poppy you've come to love. We start with a chase sequence running from a broken Huggy. We lose our grab pack with the all powerful omnihand. We meet some new allies in the form of Giblet and Chum Chumpkins. I love him. And we learn more about the experiments, how
the orphans were being brainwashed before and after being turned into toys thanks to a bunch of video recordings from a new employee, Miss Grace. We then continue to make our way through the factory only to be trapped by another new toy, Lily Lovebright, who turns out to be Miss Gracie. But she has lost her mind and has ended up isolated. Turns out the prototype not a fan of a staff member who helped turn the kids into toys. Speaking of, this is when we finally get to meet the prototype face to face. That's right, we finally got to meet the man of the hour and he is just as creepy as we were hoping for. He is a jester, just like we predicted, mixed with robot and human parts. He literally
did make Huggy, Kissy, Catnap, and Mommy a part of him. Notice the extra arms and cape on his back. I do wish there been a little more incorporation of the toy parts like we saw in the CatNap statue from chapter 3. Apparently, that was supposed to be the idea according to the original story director. Things change and we roll with it. The prototype ends up breaking Poppy. We then kill Lily Ludgate during another chase sequence. The prototype kills Huggy and Kissy. We do another chase sequence to escape the prototype's clutches. We are the chase sequence game. And we reunite with Poppy and Giblet to find the data center. We then get stabbed by the prototype and
dropped in a pile of Poppy gel, which is weird because that stuff literally revives us and we arrive at the data center only to be met by a familiar face or eye. Well, now, this is a rather interesting turn of events. Wow, I'm so glad they brought him back. He was one of their most interesting characters. Needless to say, there's a lot going on, but of course, the main plot isn't really where the true secrets hide. Instead, we're here for the secret notes, audio logs, and VHS tapes. Those are where the real secrets are. But, this chapter did something very interesting with them. As time's gone on, the lore for each chapter has become a lot less focused on sewing mystery and more focused on
clarifying the answers. Chapter 4 did do this a bunch, but we still managed to make three videos out of the hanging threads that were left. But, this time I felt like a lot of it was just left out on the table for us. For example, we got confirmation that the Young Genius program was from the 1960s. I guess add that to our win column. We also discovered that it wasn't just Harley not present for the creation of Poppy, but that none of the Young Geniuses were present. They may have been around for the early scientific process, but once Harley comes back in and brings them all with him, they have to reverse engineer Elliot's Poppy gel, which they wouldn't have to do if they were there in the
first place. A note from Leaf shows that they didn't even know Poppy existed until the prototype tried to escape with Theodore. But, the biggest reveal of the entire chapter came down to the big bad we've all been waiting for, the prototype. And the thing we've all wanted to know, the thing we've been theorizing about since basically the very beginning of the franchise, who is this guy? And I'm pleased to announce they finally gave us an answer. Oliver, if you want to talk, I'm here. It was never about me. It was a test run. The prototype. The prototype is Ollie, the real Ollie. He wasn't just mimicking Ollie's voice on the phone. He was using his original voice. I never thought my
first ever theory as host would be right on so many levels, but you know what? I'll take it. Add that one to the list, too, editor. But now the question is, who really is Ollie? What is his goal? Well, loyal theorists, thanks to that audio log of a hidden note scattered throughout the facility and some clear parallels to classic media IP, I think we can get a pretty good idea of not just what the plan is, but why. And how it's all going to end. During this tape, Elliot refers to Ollie as my boy, to which Ollie snaps and proclaims, You don't get to call me that. Bad language, the use of my, a possessive adjective, shows Elliot feels a sense of ownership.
Elliot also goes on to say, We could be a family. These two things make it abundantly clear that Ollie is Elliot's son, Poppy's brother. That's why Ollie keeps telling Poppy to come home. They are, or at least could have been, a family that shared a home together. It also gives us an answer for the radio broadcast we heard in chapter three. The body of a young boy has been found on the estate of the late Elliot Ludwig. Organs as well as key bones for the skeletal structure were reported missing from the body. At the time, we didn't know who this boy was. It only showed us that Elliot was aware of and conducting these experiments himself. But now it's clear
that the body was Ollie's body. Elliot knew he needed larger subjects to bring Poppy back, and so Elliot performed this experiment on his own son. Hidden away in his home, away from the labs of Playtime Co. and the young geniuses he'd been training. Nobody was to know about this. But it gets worse, because not only was Ollie Elliot's son, it also appears that Ollie was his adopted son. Remember, Elliot and his wife divorced in 1930, the same year he started the company. And without any word of another partner and all the pushes he did towards adoption, it feels more likely that a kid of Ollie's age was adopted,
just like we believe Poppy to be for the same reasons. She was only 11 in 1960, so she'd have been born 19 years after Elliot's divorce. Ollie also says this line during the tape. YOU'LL THINK I'M A HERO JUST LIKE HIM. THIS IS WHILE HE'S LASHING out to Elliot, but what he's doing is comparing him, comparing him to another parent in his life. Another parent that betrayed and broke him. Again, telling us that Elliot is not his original father. During chapter 3, we also discovered a cut room in the playcare that was assigned to Ollie. Something which the former director of Poppy Playtime also pointed to as something hinting at Ollie's involvement in the wider story.
Now, obviously, I know how you guys feel about cut content and Isaac no longer works for Mob so things can obviously change, but given the evidence and that it doesn't actively contradict anything, I think it's pretty safe to assume that these things line up and that does something very interesting for our timeline. We've always assumed that Poppy was created in the 1960s. Back before your internet service provider could see everything you were doing online, just like yours is doing right now. They can even see that you're watching this very video. Quickly, you better check out today's sponsor, ExpressVPN. Yeah, it's kind of wild. In places like the UK, internet service providers are required to log all websites you visit, the apps you use,
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In the 1960s, an unfortunate family death had pushed Ludwig down to his lowest. But with so much ambition, he rose back up and continued to fulfill his vision for the Playtime Co. toy factory. We believe that was referencing the idea that Poppy was brought back to life, bringing Elliot joy, and leading to the company's success. But now we have things like the Young Geniuses program, who made a bunch of cool and interesting discoveries during those years, which means it might have been referring to that rather than Poppy. Plus, with Ollie having a room in the Playcare, that would mean that the actual human part of the experimentation, the creation of the
prototype, didn't happen until after the Playcare was constructed in 1976. Elliot's experiments took a long time because he was working alone in secret. So, he knew he needed larger subjects after experiment 1004. So, he designed the Playcare, a place to gather together dozens of those larger subjects, children with no families, no records, and no one who would notice if they went missing. It wasn't Leith or Harley who came up with this idea of experimenting on kids. It turns out Elliot was the real monster this entire time. I guess throw him in with the rest of them, boys. But if he did have all these other options at his disposal, why did he pick Ollie? Notes scattered around the facility show us that Poppy was
indeed 1007 and that the prototype was exactly that, a prototype for Poppy herself. Ollie even declares this in that same audio tape. So, for everyone who was wondering what I was smoking in that previous episode, I know I can be a bit out there sometimes, but I don't mess around when it comes to Poppy. But, it does make me wonder what was so special about Ollie that he was the one Elliot chose to become the prototype for his perfect little Poppy. Well, theorists, it's because they had something in common. Both of them were broken. I've already mentioned how Ollie used to be hit by his original father, with a hammer, no less. But, during chapter 5, you can come across a VHS tape which tells you
how to look after your human. One slide shows us an MRI of a small child's head and brain and an x-ray of a child's hand that is full of metal rods. Clearly, a hand that has been broken or more accurately, smashed to bits and replaced. I believe this was Ollie's hand. Why? Well, besides the obvious smash hand part, take another look. Does it look at all familiar? It should. It looks like a smaller version of the prototype's hand. The chapter is even called Broken Things and the prototype, Ollie, is our main focus. Ollie was broken, mentally from the toll of being abused, but also physically. And Poppy, well, in the 1960s, an unfortunate family death had pushed Ludwig down to
his lowest. If Elliot was going to revive his daughter, he would need someone who, one, was also broken like his daughter in order to control for more scientific variables, but also who was too damaged enough that they could be deceived, tricked into going along with the process. That phrase actually comes up a few times throughout this chapter. The orphans are now in a better place, for example. This makes you think of the afterlife. They've gone to a better place. The prototype even refers to heaven a few times. However, I don't think the afterlife is what they're talking about here. Ollie mentions this better place even after becoming the prototype. This is something that becoming the prototype
would help him achieve. And that certainly isn't death. If anything, these experiments are the exact opposite. The biblical idea of heaven is a place without pain or suffering. And what does a broken heart child want to hear? That everything's going to be okay. That the pain will go away. That everything can be fixed. I can fix you. Poppy? I can make better. Ollie was told that if he went along with Elliot's scheme, that he would be permanently fixed and reach a better place where no one and no thing could hurt him ever again. But it was all a lie. Because in reality, he was just a stepping stone for the real experiment. for her. She's all you talk about.
All of this finally explains the dynamic we've been seeing between these two characters. Seeing a little girl with bright red hair and then the prototype's name being revealed to be Ollie along with the fact they're both orphans reminded me of two musicals, Oliver and Annie. What? I'm a theater kid. Are you really surprised at this point? Anyway, both musicals star orphan children, but their stories are drastically different. Annie is discovered in an orphanage by a millionaire. She gets to live in a mansion, travel around New York City, and generally do all the cool things that come with being the daughter of a wealthy man. Oliver, on the other hand,
has it pretty rough. He's raised in a workhouse and is beaten by those who run the place. Eventually, he gets out and becomes free in London getting wrapped up in the criminal underworld. Are you seeing the similarities? Poppy gets adopted by Elliot, the owner of Playtime Co and presumably a wealthy man. And so, gets all the privileges that come with it. Annie even gets kidnapped only to be returned at the end of the musical, just like Poppy returning to her father from the grave. The prototype, on the other hand, is a kid who is beaten, raised in a workhouse, the Playtime Co factory, and was taken advantage of by the man in charge, Elliot, only for him to escape and become involved in the evil
underbelly of Playtime Co. and the other monsters that lurk down there. These similarities and therefore the juxtaposition of these two characters is there to highlight exactly why the prototype is doing all of this. about me. It was for her. He was lied to so that Elliot could get what he wanted. And what Ollie wanted was thrown to the wayside. And so, to some degree, the prototype hates Poppy. She had everything so easy. She was who Elliot really loved. She was the reason his life was ruined further. The reason he never got his better place. If Elliot hadn't loved her so much, maybe Elliot would have just adopted him and they could have been happy. But that wasn't what happened. And if he wanted his
better place, he was going to have to take it for himself. In the note from Leith Pierre that mentions that he only found out about Poppy and the prototype because of the Theodore incident, he also mentioned something else we found down there, Elliot's body. This lines up with a confidential report we saw all the way back in the chapter three ARG, where an employee was found dead multiple weeks after they had been killed by multiple puncture wounds. At the time, we thought this was Rowan Stoll because that's who the chapter three ARG was really focused on. However, Rowan was eaten by BoxyBoo, not killed and then spat out. The prototype, however, doesn't eat his victims. He doesn't need to eat despite having a
digestive tract. Instead, he has a habit of, well, If he's doing that to those who betray him, how much more likely is he to have done it to the man who betrayed him the most? He killed Elliot out of rage for what he did. He then tried to escape leading to him working with another orphan, Theodore. Who knows, maybe they were friends in the Playcare before all of this. Theodore gets badly injured, and though the prototype could escape, it was at this moment he realized freedom wasn't the answer. Theodore had been hurt like he had been hurt. Elliot promised that there was a way to end that hurt, that a way to do that did exist, but the prototype wasn't going to find it out in the real world. He knew
what the outside world was, and it wasn't his better place, especially looking like this. So, he stayed behind, returned Theodore to the Playtime Co. staff, and was discovered along with Poppy and Elliot's body. Now, he just needed to figure out how to not only save himself from eternal pain, but also everyone else. Unfortunately, this led to Playtime Co. realizing what Elliot was doing, and that they could recreate it. They brought in Harley Sawyer, started the Bigger Bodies Initiative, and in turn caused more orphans to suffer. They too were lying to the kids. They weren't leading them to their better place. So, the prototype plans the Hour of Joy, but doesn't let anyone
leave. The toys that are here, they were broken, hurt, and tortured by Harley and his team. The orphans that remain, they are broken like he was. He's going to fix them, deliver on the promise Elliot gave him long ago, a heaven, a better place. That is what he's now doing. Lily jokes that Poppy doesn't know what happened to the orphans. And while in the CG5 song, we do see the orphans as humans, in that same video, we see the prototype working on more experiments while the song says, "I can make you better." Clearly, he has been turning them into toys and continued the experiments just like everyone else, all with the twisted idea that he's helping them achieve something better, immortality. Although, he may be running
around screaming at us and Poppy about how it's all for this supposedly noble cause, but in reality, there's another reason he's doing all of this. The reason he wouldn't let the orphans or the toys go is because he's lonely. Otherwise, we'll be left with nothing. Should infinity be long, he and Poppy seem to be the only ones who are truly immortal. They are the ones made by Elliot. They were made different. But if they're immortal, being alive forever gets lonely when everyone you know abandons you or dies eventually. Ollie is an orphan. Loneliness is something he's all too familiar with, being abandoned by his parents and then his adopted parent, Elliot. He doesn't want to be lonely again. He wants Poppy to come home and
to turn the other orphans and toys into immortal beings like him. That way, he'll never be lonely or abandoned again. That is Ollie's heaven, his better place. A physical location deep in the facility where they can be together forever. Notice the capitalization of the words. That's why he kills anybody who betrays him. They are leaving him, abandoning him like so many before. Honestly, the whole thing is kind of giving Frankenstein. In that classic story, a mad scientist is seeking resurrection and immortality. They create a monster using the parts of multiple dead bodies. Once it's made, they then reject the monster, leading to the monster feeling completely alone.
Sounds just like the prototype story, right? A monster made up of many toys, bones, and machines rejected by their creator. Those creators also used electricity to bring them to life, as we saw with experiment 814. Heck, Mob even used a direct quote from Frankenstein during the chapter 5 ARG. "By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open." But, it gets real interesting. If you follow it up with the Universal sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein. The bride as a character was never part of the original Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley. She was a creation of Universal entirely. But, she's become more entangled in the lore since. The bride was made, but while she was seen as a monster, she
looks far more beautiful, more perfect. Then, when the bride sees the original monster, she rejects him. Elliot continued his experiment and made Poppy, who is the perfected version of the prototype. She then rejects the prototype and his message. There's also another character called Dr. Pretorius, who wants to continue Frankenstein's work, which could very well be an allegory for our favorite doctor, who just so happened to show up at the end of chapter 5. Well, now, this is a rather interesting turn of events. But, why do I bring this up now? Well, it's because of how it all ends. In the end, Frankenstein, the bride, and Dr.
Pretorius are all inside the lab. But, after the bride rejects the monster, the monster decides that none of them are allowed to leave. He pulls a lever which blows up the lab with all of them inside. That is how I think this is all going to end. Yeah, it's simple, maybe a little predictable, but if it's done right, it could be really effective. The doctor has just been resurrected, and it looks like he's going to be helping us in the next chapter. He's never particularly liked the prototype. He only worked with him because the possibility of continuing his work intrigued him. Poppy has wanted to blow up this place from the start to kill the prototype. Which leaves us with the prototype, a selfish and broken child.
If he can't have Poppy and the better place he always wanted, then no one can. He's not going to let Poppy and the doctor escape after they've betrayed him again. And so, I think these three will end up in some kind of all-out brawl, bringing down the factory and themselves with it. And what about us? Well, in the Bride of Frankenstein, Frankenstein the human, not the monster, is actually allowed to leave before the whole place comes tumbling down. The human survives. So, on a happier note, I think we too are going to be allowed to survive as well. We're an innocent party in all of this, really. The prototype may not like it, but I think with everything Poppy's put us through, she might finally come
in clutch. Maybe she'll sacrifice herself so that we can escape. But, don't go thinking that when I'm saying the end, I mean the end of Poppy Playtime. I just mean the end of this story. In an audio log, we learn of a Tokyo factory location and a theme park location. So, there's definitely going to be plenty of opportunities to continue this story in those spin-off locations. But, hey, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching. World premiere on Game Theory. I have solved who Poppy Playtime's prototype really is.
