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The True Identity of The Prototype

For a long time, players believed that the true identity of the Prototype was Eliot Ludwig, but with the release of Chapter 3, this is no longer certain. It is now down to 2 characters: Ollie, who we first met in this chapter, and Rich, who has been in all 3 chapters.


Although Rich appears in every single chapter, he seems to have no connection to the story. In Chapter 1, he was working in the Storage Room. In Chapter 2, he was demoted to the Rejected Toys Room. In Chapter 3, he is back, as we see him in a tape while exploring one of the caves. One line jumps out when you listen to the tape:

Stuart: "I take it you're not a fan of this place, are you?"
Rich: "Nope, never liked the feel of it. I mean, don't you think these kids deserve some real sunlight? Instead of Flood Lights and painted Skies? We're not even allowed to talk to these kids! [...]"
🔗 You can listen to the tape here.

The VCR Player for Rich's and Stuart's Tape

Rich really cares about these kids. The company pushes hard for Stuart to choose a replacement and he offers the job to Rich. We know that the higher you are in the company, the more you learn about the true nature of things. It is the executives who are running the Bigger Bodies Initiative. So there's a chance that when Rich was promoted he was told about the whole experimenting on children thing. And because he cared deeply for them, he probably did not like it very much. If Rich were to resign, Playtime Co. would not want him to release the vital information to the public. So they may have turned him into Experiment 1006. This would also fit in with his personality, as we know that Rich can be very tempermantel and in the Poppy Playtime ARG it is mentioned that the Prototype is very tempermantel as well. It would also fit with the Prototype's goal of stopping the experiments on the children and stopping them from building more Bigger Bodies, which can be heard when playing as the monster in Project: Playtime.

Temper of The Prototype mentioned at the bottom.

However, there is one other rather clear piece of evidence: On the front of the Prototype's shrine, built by CatNap, we can see a human skeleton wearing a yellow construction hat. All the tapes in which Rich appears can be found in the place where he worked. In Chapter 3, the tape is near toolboxes, construction platforms and construction lights. Rich worked in construction. The shrine could symbolically show us that Rich is the man inside the Prototype.

Prototype Shrine

The Prototype rallied all the toys to help him take revenge on those who had harmed them, promising them the one thing they longed for: Freedom. But as we know, after The Hour of Joy, all the toys are still there, and they never got the freedom they were promised. But why? The death screens from Poppy Playtime are presumably from multiple people, but the ones written in capital letters seem to be from the Prototype. In the Chapter 3 Death Screens, one stands out:

"THIS RESEARCH MUST STAY BURIED."
"NOBODY MAY LEAVE."

He never wanted the toys to leave the factory, he wanted to keep everything locked up. And it makes sense, the world is not going to accept a whole bunch of flesh-eating sentient toys. If these experiments were brought to light, people would try to experiment more, which would make them case 0 and only bring more pain and suffering to those who have already suffered enough. One of the death messages says:

"THESE SOULS DESERVE PEACE."

Peace will not come to them if they are released into the outside world. But they are not at peace in the factory either. And now characters like Kissy Missy are helping the player, realising that the freedom they were promised isnt coming, and turning on the Prototype. This then leads to CatNap tying up and torturing anyone who loses faith, these so-called heretics, as we see with DogDay. However, it is CatNap who is blinded by his faith as another death message reads:

"BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND."

With this evidence, I think it is pretty clear what the Prototype actually wants. He wants everything the Company ever touched destroyed. From his point of view, this is an act of mercy. The toys will finally be able to rest and be at peace, which is why, at the end of Chapter 3, while CatNap is suffering instead of helping him, the Prototype kills him and drags him away. He has ended CatNap's suffering. Those who did these terrible things need to see justice and that's why we're here. We are the last of the staff. The employee we play must pay for his crimes. For this to work, the Prototype has to put us in dangerous situations from which we are unlikely to escape. One detail that stands out is the last tape we get in Chapter 3: Log 24459. In this tape, Harley Sawyer, the doctor who started the Bigger Bodies Initiative, talks to Experiment 1006. There are a few key details in it. The Prototype occasionally slips from singular pronouns to plurals:

Experiment 1006: "I posses a question." (Singular Pronouns)
Experiment 1006: "You stick us, beat us, tear our flesh, do you feel it?" (Plural Pronouns)
🔗 You can listen to the tape here.

Which makes sense, considering he's been adding parts from other toys to himself, as Mummy Long Legs told us. This last section is the big clue, though:

Harley Sawyer: "Regardless, I learn something new about you every day."
Experiment 1006: "Thank you."
Harley Sawyer: "You thank me?"
Experiment 1006: "Absolutely. I learn something new about you every day."
🔗 You can listen to the tape here.

Log 24459

If you listen to it, you can hear the Prototype imitating the Doctor's voice. He has the ability to imitate voices he has heard before, which is the last thing we learn about 1006 in this Chapter. This is where Ollie comes in. An important detail about Ollie is that he's a child. The factory was abandoned 10 years ago. Any child who has somehow survived that long would be at least a teenager, and he must be in the factory somehow, because he sends us keys throughout the game. It's also unlikely that he's a toy with a child's voice, as every toy we've come across has an adult voice. What if the Prototype is actually using Ollie's voice to trick us? Poppy is the one telling us to trust Ollie. Maybe she used to play with Ollie, so she's willing to trust him. In the game files, there is a room in Home Sweet Home called "Ollie's Room", suggesting that Ollie was once a real child in Playcare, which would have allowed 1006 to mimic him. We had no help in Chapters 1 and 2, so why do we suddenly need help in Chapter 3? Sure, he gives us various keys for the facility, but when it comes to puzzles and monsters, he offers no help. The only time he talks to us is to tell us where to go next, leading us into more danger. Ollie doesn't speak entirely in plurals, but neither does the Prototype, especially when he's imitating someone else. However, Ollie does occasionally use lines like this:

Ollie: "But she needs you. We need you. You are our Mission."

In the context of the scene, he seems to be talking about himself and Poppy, but calling us their mission seems like an odd choice of words, especially when you consider that 1006's mission is to lead us here and kill us. Throughout the rest of the run, he also uses 'we' a lot, again in a way that could be interpreted as him talking about himself and the player, but then there are lines like this:

Ollie: "WE need to make that Red Smoke go left instead."

The 'we' is capitalised, and after several patches it is still there, showing us that it is a deliberate decision. This is also not the first time we hear from Ollie. During the Project: Playtime Phase 3 trailer, you can actually hear him giving the opening monologue, teasing us about who he really is:

Opening Monologue Project: Playtime Phase 3

"Compassion is the discarded gem of the forsaken, [...] call me a forsaken soul."

This means that he does not care about us and our freedom. He has lost his compassion, just like Rich. He will kill anyone who gets in his way, just like we hear happening to Kissy Missy at the end of Chapter 3. Rich telling us how he was cast aside and left in the depths of Abandonment is literally what happened to the Prototype. He was just a play thing for Harley Sawyer and then eventually cast aside into the depths of the facility once he had served his purpose. Remember how Experiment 1006 talks in capital letters? Well, in Project: Playtime, the VHS tapes use the same capital letters, and the use of the plural confirms that this is 1006.

VHS #2 in Project: Playtime

"WE UNDERSTAND. YOU DESIRE ANSWERS. YOU WONDER WHO WE ARE. IT WAS YOUR DOING THAT MADE US."

Screening Room in Project: Playtime

And in Phase 2, we actually get a gift from 1006. It is the phone, which will be so familiar to anyone who has played Chapter 3. Everything suggests that our new friend Ollie is actually the Prototype, a fake voice imitated from a child he once knew, to give us a false sense of security and allow us to be manipulated. All in the hope of achieving his goal of burning down the Playtime Co. that has tortured so many people. After all this time, The Prototype, Rich no longer cares who he hurts. Their deaths are now what it takes to wipe the company's legacy from the face of the earth. But remember this is just a Theory, a GAME THEORY!

Please note that all information is taken from Game Theory: Don't Trust Ollie (Poppy Playtime) by The Game Theorists. I strongly recommend to check it out for additional Information.

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Pub: 04 Apr 2024 13:23 UTC
Edit: 08 Apr 2024 15:08 UTC
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