MatPat has returned with another Poppy Playtime theory, this time predicting that the protagonist isn't as innocent as initially assumed. The protagonist has not yet been officially named, but it is known that they were previously an employee at Playtime Co, where the story takes place. They returned to the factory ten years after the staff vanished, in hopes of rescuing them.
At the beginning of Chapter 1, the protagonist received a letter saying the employees that vanished ten years ago are still within Playtime Co. Disturbingly enough, the letter says "We're still here", implying the letter is from one of those missing employees. The starting screen for the first chapter informs the player that the protagonist is also a former employee of Playtime Co. This little tidbit is all the confirmed information fans have been given about Poppy Playtime's player character, but MatPat has found clues that could elaborate on what exactly the character's job was.
MatPat from The Game Theorists has delved deeper into Poppy Playtime's latest chapter and discovered some unsettling theories about the game's protagonist and the children that were sent to Playtime Co. In Chapter 2, the player is forced to play a series of games that were originally intended to test the skills of children. There is documentation of these tests logging the children's progress, but what makes this more worrying are several posters that mention orphans. Some are encouraging adoption, others mention an education program for orphaned children. This brings up some startling points from Mommy Long Legs. She says "They called me Mommy because I was the closest thing they ever had to one." This practically confirms that the children were all orphans. Then she talks about the player being an employee at Playtime Co, meaning she recognizes the player. As Mommy was only involved with monitoring the children during the experiments, she could have only seen the player if they were involved with those experiments. What's more, the experiments were only known by a select few employees, suggesting the player is someone of importance, but perhaps not a scientist. In Chapter 2, a series of names belonging to company leaders are presented, but one is knocked over. MatPat believes that name belongs to the protagonist, who he posits was the Head of Production, as that is the only department unaccounted for.
While it seems that the player's goal is to rescue the staff, after this new theory, one has to wonder if the real mission of Poppy Playtime is that heroic. While it's certainly possible that the player character is wracked with guilt, and hopes to right some wrongs by risking their life on a rescue mission, a darker possibility is that they're going to ensure that those employees never escape and tell the world what Playtime Co was doing and what crimes the main character was directly responsible for. For whatever reason, the player did not vanish along with the other employees and seems to have lived a life of freedom ever since, but an employee escaping and revealing what happened could put that freedom at risk. However, there is also the possibility that the employees still being around was a lie, all to lure the player into the company so the living toys could get their revenge.
Whether the protagonist turns out to be a hero or villain will only be confirmed as future chapters are released. However, Chapter 3's release date is uncertain at this point, stated for either late 2022 or sometime in 2023. Fans will have to content themselves with theories like MatPat's dark new video until the next chapter of Poppy Playtime is released.
Source: The Game Theorists/YouTube