🌌 Eve's Stellar Cosmos! 🌌

The take I wanted to make is that Poppy should not be receiving all this blame that she's getting. Here's why I think this:

1. While she was (theoretically) what caused these kinds of experiments to begin (since she was Elliot's daughter and likely the family member that passed away), she was reincarnated against her will. I'm sure that Elliot's daughter was young before passing, so being able to revive her at all is extraordinary. But to be brought back to life as a toy, and forever under the confines of the Playtime Co factory? I could certainly see why she would be longing for freedom and hate the Prototype, especially for being put into a case (that not only trapped her in a small space, but *sedated* her with red smoke, by the way.) This, too, is probably why she escaped the scene when the Prototype located the trio at the end of Chapter 4, but more on that later.

2. She may have been involved with the Hour of Joy, but was she directly influenced or killing anyone? No. She was clearly against it, and felt sympathy for those who had suffered at the hands of a unneeded massacre. Could she have made an effort to stop it? Maybe, but I doubt it. We have to keep in mind that the Prototype is THE most powerful AND hyperintelligent toy in the whole structure; even if she *was* to try and put a stop to the Hour of Joy before it began, even if part of it was meant to act as revenge towards those who experimented on the toys, her efforts would have been ceased quickly. This, in return, is probably another reason why she chose to keep you for longer in the Playtime Co factory, as she and others have mentioned how capable the player is (with the Doctor even saying that they are what the Prototype fears most.) If Poppy was capable of stopping the Prototype on her own or with her alliance, she would have done so by now, and not have forced your stay for longer.

3. Even if it sounds extreme, Poppy's plan to explode the Playtime Co factory is justified. Her intentions were not only to kill the Prototype, BUT to save the orphans that are still alive and sleeping in the labs AND destroy the facility as a whole as an effort to prevent any further experimentation from being done to other children. When she was discussing this plan with the player in the middle of Chapter 4, she noted how the plan had to account for various things, specifically what I just mentioned. The only thing that I could argue with is the fact that the kids living in the Safe Haven were the ones who were meant to blow up the place, and that she could have given them a bit more consideration and empathy. However, if they were to initiate the plan, the chances of escape for most of the kids are slim following the explosion, so, when Poppy entitled them to blowing up the structure, it was either because she wanted to account for helping them get put out of their misery, OR because she knew the sacrifice was necessary. Many plans or actions in general, account for sacrifices to be made, whether minor or severe. Doey made good points about considering the kids' lives, but based on the fact that they are arguing about the overall plan in Chapter 4, this shows that this discussion has happened at least multiple times before Poppy "abandoned" the Safe Haven. Plus, with how powerful the Prototype is sought out to be, it would be rather difficult to eliminate him in another way aside from something as impactful as the grand explosion Poppy suggested.

And

4. Poppy, in my opinion, did not betray Kissy and the player. As we observed, Poppy discovered not only that Ollie was being mimicked by the Prototype this whole time, but that it was planning to put her back in the case, a place that brought her fear, trauma, and discomfort. Having both of these things now colliding in her head, and with the Prototype rapidly approaching their location, Poppy, in the end, became rather hurt and overwhelmed, showed by her moments of emotion during the reveal and that one moment of frantic breathing. Not wanting to experience the same torture, she ran out of the scene, yet there was never any hints of her doing it maliciously, or, in other words, *purposefully* to leave Kissy and the player in the dust. She knew Kissy was afraid of the Prototype, and that the player did make their best effort to commit to her plan, yet it was her overload of various emotions that caused her to run away in hopes of not being contained once more. If you were significantly connected to a toy that caused an absolute massacre of both the innocent and the guilty AND that wanted to contain you in a confined space that you have already been trapped in for years, I wouldn't blame you for running away. Maybe it's not best to leave two of your remaining allies in a state of vulnerability, but even if Poppy did stay, there wouldn't have been too much that she would have been able to do or to have control of. She's clearly proven herself to be selfless, based on the fact that she cares for the children, is willing to save the orphans while accounting for the Prototype, AND becomes severely emotional when someone she was close to ends up being killed or hurt. Therefore, her runaway, to me, was not a betrayal or any sign of her ever manipulating anyone, but, rather, of a young woman who is just afraid of experiencing more years of suffering and isolation against her own will.

I didn't expect myself to want to go into such a level of depth about this subject, but it irks me to see that, even while Poppy does have her flaws like anyone else, that she is having so much blame and hatred thrown on her. She just wanted what was best for future generations, and was willing to make the necessary sacrifices to ensure that it would happen. She was justified with her decisions (the exception being lying to the player about letting them escape at the end of chapter 2), and showed a lot of selflessness in regards of saving those who were and weren't associated with the Playtime Co factory.