Time to get myself mauled by the fandom: poppy is a mephone creation theory.
so. That’s a pretty big claim that fundamentally shifts our understanding of poppy as a character, and the entire context of how mephone creations work. I’m not claiming to have all the answers, but there was just too much evidence for me to ignore here that I just had to share. The craziest part? This is all based on poppy’s hair.
poppy’s hair seems like an incredibly stupid thing to base a whole theory around, but just hear me out. So far, we have seen poppy’s hair be used as a multi tool on a couple different occasions. First in episode two where a plucked leaf was used as a bandage to hold poppy’s work on bit together, and then in episode five where it was used to pick locks. But something about that bothered me. A lot of somethings, actually.
First of all, that’s not how leaves work, they’re way too flimsy to move the metal components of a lock into place. Second, how did paper know that poppy’s leaves could be used as a lock pick? And third, how can their leaves just switch properties as needed? Taking on the texture and malleability of fabric one day, and literally shining like metal another? Like with most things in this show, the most likely answer is mephone.
idiotic island is clearly an early creation just by its visuals, being nothing but the bars of a cage with no ceiling or floor, leaving the grass exposed to it inhabitants. Paper specifically states that he learned how to pick locks while locked away, and he would have had great access to the exposed grass. We know from the tree flashback that mephone, at least early in the timeline, struggled with properly creating many things, especially plant life. It’s not a stretch to assume that he struggled with giving grass and leaves their proper texture, making them stiff. This led to paper learning to use plants as lock picks, explaining why he would instinctively know poppy’s hair would work.
so that’s a couple questions explained by mephone nonsense, but what about the properties of poppy’s hair changing to suit their needs? Isn’t that just cartoon logic? To that I say; yes, yes it is. And that’s the point.
when revealing the truth to suitcase and knife, cobs points out that all the ‘insanity’ in Ina I ate insanity is because of mephone. By the normal rules of this world, the antics of the contestants are impossible. The cartoon logic of breathing in space, cherries squash and stretch powers, the unreasonable fast court system, paintbrush getting so angry they light on fire, test tube inventing time travel, ghosts being real, cosmic gods being contained within candle and silvers bodies, the island itself being alive, and so much more is all because of mephone. The insanity of the island is called out in universe for being impossible and only existing in the first place because of mephone. Next to all of that, doesn’t ‘an inventor that uses their own conveniently property shifting hair as a tool’ fit right in?
I believe that poppy is a mephone creation based on cobs. That mephone had complicated feelings towards his abuser, seeing him as both his father and tormentor. So, he did what he always does with nuance, and ignored it. He removed the bad until he got a character based on the father he wished he had. The overambitious inventor with a spark in their eye, without any of the baggage, none of the abuse, just the kindhearted genius he wished had made him. And then, they were most likely scrapped for being too much of a reminder. Even in all their kindness, mephone could still only see cobs, just like everyone else.
the only things I don’t have an explanation for is why poppy ended up underground instead of in meafterlife, or why they don’t seem to have any memories. My best guess is that mephone made their body but one look was all it took to bring the memories back, so he just buried them to get them out of his sight, never bothering to give them consciousness. And then somehow, they woke up years later under mysterious circumstances. Until we get a scene where poppy shows off their ability to dig into the ground and hibernate, I’ve got nothing.
but… yeah. I believe poppy is a mephone creation, please don’t burn me alive.
