Poppy Playtime Chapter 2 brought players a load of new lore to unravel in their quest to discover what happened at Playtime Co. and how the poppy flower relates to the process of making humans into toys. Poppy Playtime Ch. 1 left players suspecting that Playtime Co. was up to some sinister experiments in order to make lifelike toys. Then, Poppy Playtime Ch. 2 confirmed this to be the case, and gives clues that the poppy flower might be important for turning humans into toys, and not just the name of their doll, Poppy Playtime.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Poppy Playtime Ch. 2.]
Poppy Playtime Ch. 2 continues the player's investigation into the mystery of the Playtime Co. employees who vanished a decade ago. The player is a former employee who received a letter and a VHS tape stating that the missing employees are still in the Playtime Co. factory, trapped. Players encounter a new list of toy monsters in Poppy Playtime Ch. 2, and they make it obvious that these toys were once employees. While the exact process of making humans into toys has yet to be revealed, the information given in Poppy Playtime Ch. 2 suggests that the process was far from pleasant.
The poppy flower is a recurring symbol in Poppy Playtime, not just in the name of the game and the doll within it, but for the meaning behind the poppy flower and for the reasons researchers at Playtime Co. used it. From the beginning, the poppy flower is emphasized. In Poppy Playtime Ch. 2, this emphasis on the flower starts to make sense in the context that it isn't because of the Poppy Playtime toy. Rather, it's because a poppy flower mixture is crucial for the process of making humans into toys. Some speculation suggests that even the player might become a toy in Poppy Playtime.
How Humans Were Chosen To Become Toys In Poppy Playtime
The humans who became toys in Poppy Playtime were not chosen at random. Letters and VHS tapes are the first indicators of traits that researchers looked for in their subjects. Huggy Wuggy is mentioned to be a success because he has a high level of intelligence mixed with a high level of obedience. Intelligence is important for the researchers as it's mentioned in an earlier experiment as well: the Prototype. Players can find a note in Poppy Playtime Ch. 2 about Marie Payne, who became Mommy Long Legs. The note talks about her caring qualities having transferred into Mommy Long Legs with her, and that she does love the children, but the researchers noted that her aggression when children weren't around was an unexpected problem that needed to be addressed.
Playtime Co.'s Stella Greyber, who's possibly Kissy Missy, seemed to be in charge of which children were taken for experiments. One note found in Poppy Playtime Ch. 2 says to give all the files about the children's performance in Playtime Co.'s games to Stella Greyber to review. In the tutorial for each game that Mommy Long Legs makes the player participate in, it explains what aspects the game tests. These details show that the process of creating toys from humans had a lot of thought put into it, likely through trial and error, which makes the realization of what Playtime Co. did to both adults and children horrifying.
The Importance Of Poppy Flowers In Poppy Playtime Ch. 2
With the Poppy Playtime doll being placed in an area accessed through the door surrounded by a poppy flower painting, players were mislead to believe that Poppy Playtime is the poppy flower they were told to seek. Instead, Poppy's name is likely derived from the poppy mixture that Playtime Co. uses to make toys out of humans. A letter in Elliot Ludwig's office explains Experiment 814, which was done on a rat. After a controlled diet for two weeks - what exactly was in the portions mentioned is unknown - it then says that the rat was killed and put in a poppy flower and preservative gel mixture for one week until it was shocked in an attempt to resuscitate the rat. The researchers must have seen potential in the poppy flower mixture - the note mentions poppies having unusual properties - if they were still using it for Experiment 814, assuming the experiments were numbered in the order they were conducted.
It's likely that this poppy flower mixture was improved upon and ended up being the key to bringing people back to life as dolls, adding credence to the Poppy Playtime theory about Laithe Pierre and Playtime Co. being the real villains. This would explain why the toys seem to bleed when injured, as seen with Mommy Long Legs as she's being crushed. This might not be blood in the general sense, as the blood of the toys could instead be a red poppy mixture. It's seen again in the doll maintenance video for Poppy Playtime. When the piece of her back with the string pulled to make her talk is removed, there are red, gloppy strings attached to it from within the Poppy doll.
This suggests that the mixture is needed for not only the revival of humans as toys, but within the toys themselves. Whether this poppy mixture being within the toys is necessary for the transference of the human or as a type of fuel for the toys to live off of remains unclear. It is interesting to note that Poppy Playtime chose a flower that's tied to death and remembrance as the centerpiece for its experiments to revive the dead, and that Elliot Ludwig's note references the symbolism of poppy flowers.
The information about the process of making humans into toys confirms suspicions that players had after playing Poppy Playtime Ch. 1 about the missing employees being the toy monsters roaming the Playtime Co. factory. Though parts of the human to toy process are still missing details, players also learn in Poppy Playtime Ch. 2 that these experiments were either conducted in a search for immortality, or to resurrect the dead family member of Elliot Ludwig - or perhaps both. If these experiments were perfected, then players might encounter toy monster versions of Elliot Ludwig and Laithe Pierre themselves after what they've learned in Poppy Playtime Chapter 2.