The Insanity Argument of Harley Sawyer, Part 1: Harley's perception of how society would view his actions
Note: I am not trying to "dismiss" Harley's crimes by arguing he qualifies for this defense, nor am I trying to put down people who disagree. It doesn't change what he did but it does change how I personally view the story, though obviously nobody has to share my perspective XD
I am also not a legal expert.
THE BIGGEST ISSUE (And the surprisingly easy explanation)
Most people, when they talk about Harley potentially being criminally sane: "Well, he hid the crimes and got mad when he saw a camera."
However, hiding a crime only undercuts the insanity defense if why you hid the crimes indicates understanding of the natural / quality / legal / morality of what was done.
Harley has a strange idea of how people are going to view his research:
Prosecution Rebuttal:
People who commit atrocities can want fame. Serial killers often enjoy notoriety after being caught.
This does not resemble the wish of a "Serial Killer". Dr. Sawyer specifically phrases his percieved frame as "recognition". Recognition implies fame far more legitimate. Also, notice what his rant focuses on. His discovery. His role in paving the golden path. THAT is what he thought he was going to be famous for.
Dr. Sawyer upholds Playtime Secrecy:
Dr. Sawyer shows clear anger upon finding a camera in his workplace, understands who Rowan Stoll is and implicitly wants to feed him to Boxy.
Leith Pierre claims to Stella Greyber that Dr. Sawyer had objections to Stella joining the project.
Defense Rebuttal 2: This could easily have been a reaction that Playtime trained into him rather than an innate understanding of "I am going to jail if I'm caught for this."
This Is Supported by Two Points:
Point Number 1: Harley's Pre Playtime Conduct:
"Misunderstood" in the case of his former employer, Leith Pierre, was Leith severely abused him, so whatever feelings the "scientific community at large had towards him they were not pleasant." Leith also says Harley had "quite a little reputation." Quite a little reputation can either mean that the persons literally has little reputation...or that they have a reputation that isn't...positive.
Note for Non English Speakers: in English, "quite a little reputation" is often slang for "infamy" or "having a substantial reputation, but often not in a positive manner."
Since this line makes it clear he had a reputation, that means that "quite a little reputation" could only mean that he was known by the scientific community - but not in a positive way.
(Prosecution Rebuttal 3: How do we know that this is not due to Harley's difficult personality and they didn't dislike him for the same reason his Playtime colleagues disliked him)
Defense Response, Continued:
"misunderstood by the scientific community at large" indicates a larger distaste for Harley then merely a poor temperment. Plus the framing of Leith's letter doesn't support that. Leith's letter has three objectives, inflate Leith, demean Harley, and present his job offer as desirable. He states in the context of ambition, big ideas, and looking to get ahead.
And given Leith circles Harley's name in the list Lockharte gives to him (and we know this is Leith because Leith's diary said that Lockharte is his investigator)
Here is Leith's letter itself: (Apologies for quality)
Now. Harley has had many years of practical experience. So he was having no trouble GETTING work despite his temperment.
But, he also had "big ideas" and was "looking to get ahead."
Given Leith circling Harley's name in red, and "this is the opportunity you've been waiting for, Dr. Sawyer. Your chance to get ahead." I think Leith sincerely had identified Harley's biggest desire.
Now. Back to Harley's "Big Ideas". Harley is brilliant, no doubt about it. And, "many years practical experience" means he had no trouble finding work. Why then, if he had ambition, "big ideas", and the experience and intelligence to match, was he not "getting ahead"?
The best thing I can think of, is that they were unethical.
I must also say that Harley made multiple such proposals to the scientific community. And yet despite negative feedback, he could not integrate it and simply tried again.
Now this, I personally think, is what separates Harley's pre-Playtime Conduct from simple arrogance. Harley's behavior isn't just odd, it's self-destructive. It does NOT benefit Harley to make unethical proposals after he knows people are not going to accept those ideas or admire them.
You have to understand that fame and recognition are a very deep and major part of Harley's desire. He is actively harming his chances at fame and recognition due to a fixed, false belief that the same people who rejected his ideas are going to change their minds and accept it, instead of look at him with even more disdain and disgust then they already are.
Go underground & discretely seek out likeminded people to do the experiments with (instead of Leith seeking him out)
Harley could - put his unethical ideas on the back burner and give more reasonable proposals to gain recognition, then try again later
I want to be careful as I am not a trained psychologist but this bizarre behavior comes off like a delusion.
It also is worth stating that in America, where I'm from and where PPT takes place, Harley simply proposing an unethical experiment wouldn't get him in legal trouble, as that would infringe on his first amendment rights. So Harley saying really disturbing ideas but never being able to follow up on them (because nobody wanted to do them with him) he would not get arrested for it. He would definitely garner a negative reputation, but he would not get arrested for it.
Harley's inability to absorb the feedback of the scientific community (to the detriment of his personal goals and wishes I might add) also is something that's repeated in Playtime. We hear from multiple people Harley is not a good listener. This too can be a sign of mental illness.
Leith, who has observed Harley through Lockharte, his PI, also states with confidence that the highly unethical experiments on children are Harley's way to get ahead. " This is your way to get ahead, Dr. Sawyer. The opportunity you've been waiting for. I know you'll make the right decision."
As Experiments 1026 and 1015 show, Leith was going to have Harley experiment on orphans immediately.
In the 1990s, post Belmont era, there is absolutely no doubt in my head that this was NOT Harley's way ahead-the only way it would pave for Harley was into a jail cell.
Prosecution Rebuttal: If Harley believed that his research would be admired, then how did he keep his ABNS certification?
Defense Rebuttal: One can be a technical expert in one area but severely deficient or impaired in another. Harley's delusion did not impact his ability to perform surgeries.
Remember, in Playtime we know that he was able to skate by even as people were losing patience with him simply because he was just that good:
It happens, more then it should, in the real world when sometimes, if someone is very very brilliant or very very prodigious in an area of expertise, even if they're a bit...off, people let things slide.
Notice also that about 3 - 4 years after the hiring, Harley's recklessness is finally brought up-
Either they're exaggerating, they allowed him to be reckless for 3 - 4 years...or he became more reckless over time, the last of which points to mental deterioration.
Plus, it's outright said Harley had a poor reputation despite said certification, so I am certain beyond doubt that that is what happened: despite his unraveling mental state, he remained extremely good at the field of expertise itself, so they turned a blind eye.
The research would never be shared. Not openly. Not the way Harley seems to hope.
Harley mentioned "money men" who needed to be placated along with Leith who needed "investments". I do not think Harley understood that these investors would be the few who would see his work, rather then the whole public,
Plus, the Orientation Notebook heavily implied they were having experiments participate in the theater performances and while Kissy Missy's personal appearance was "denied" the fact that it was requested at all...they weren't going to share the research with the world. They already were. Yet still, years after Leith's betrayal, Harley hisses, "It was going to be mine."
With that in mind, Harley's pre-Playtime behavior and his post, "WHO IS THAT? TURN OFF THE CAMERA NOW" is...odd.
It feels almost...installed. By someone else.
Back when the Chapter 4 ARG was playing out, we asked Harley when his mind was accidentally hooked up to the Playtime Co email.
One person accused him of murdering Elliot Ludwig. His reaction is strange, to say the least.
This led many people to think that he had killed Elliot Ludwig, even though Leith's earlier hiring letter established he did not join the company till 1990 in the same ARG.
And, sure enough, in Chapter 5, revealed Harley was fully innocent of murdering Elliot, despite his suspicious answer.
Now to be sure, there are other questions where Harley answers evasively concerning Elliot. But nowhere else does he compulsively think to himself,
That is not normal, especially for someone who overshares like Harley. Someone who always states exactly what they are doing in his professional reports. And someone who never curates or filters himself.
He has nothing to gain from whispering "Keep Quiet" to himself like this, it only makes people more suspicious.
Whoever shared Elliot's death with him (and, we don't know for sure, but I'm side-eying Leith right now, to be quite blunt-it is his journal entry after all) impressed very hard on him that he MUST NOT tell anyone.
And if he needed that much external pressure to "keep quiet" about a death at the hands of one of the experiments, then how much more for standard secrecy rules.
And you might be thinking: well, has Playtime ever gone this far to ensure secrecy from ANYONE ELSE? What could keep Harley from blabbing?
YES THEY HAVE, and here is a possibility.
"Keep our company secure!" "Secrets are a PROMISE" "Playtime Co. employees who violated NDA policies will face immediate termination."
Harley's "big opportunity" "the project of a lifetime"...the fame that he was so sure was going to be his...if my theory is right (and, I mean, he did genuinely seem to think he would be famous for these experiments) then he would lose the opportunity and be fired by Playtime Co. That would be enough to keep him in line while also expecting eventual public admiration.
the Orientation Notebook further elaborates on this. Gaslighting all employees by stating, "Please never talk about what we do with anyone because we're worried a rival company might steal it." YEAH RIGHT. That's the biggest worry here. SURE, ON.
They also confirm everybody signed an NDA before working here (as they state the reader of ON would have signed on)
this 1986 Employee Confidentiality Agreement Rowan Stoll signed is a great example of that:
https://poppy-playtime.fandom.com/wiki/Employee_Confidentiality_Agreement
It might also be relevant that Harley can be very...steerable.
Chapter 5 revealed that they built his brain jar for nine months and he genuinely never noticed. I wrote a deconstruction of that a while back where he did find out (and I don't regret it), but still, the fact they were able to keep a secret from him for so long is...quite telling.
Plus in the Young Geniuses Removal Letter, Elliot seems to hint that Harley's oversharing and disregard for keeping the Young Geniuses Program project secret was the issue, as he zeroes in on Harley's "lack of humility" and "as I know you appreciate not dancing around what needs to be said."
So I can buy, combined with his delusion and his strangely easy-to-trick demeanor, he could stay on and be gaslit. Afterall, Leith took special interest in Harley, and harnessing his intellect.
There might be one big question in everyone's head's right now:
He still should've known it was wrong even if he thought the public would admire him!
Yes! And that is what we will cover in Part 2 of my insanity defense findings, where I will discuss that, combined with Harley's bizarre prisoner profiles, his red maze thoughts, and his "I made their lives matter" speech to see how I personally think that he might be able to fulfill that aspect of the insanity defense as well.
Finally, there's something from the BBI proposal that seems...odd. Out of context, it could just be written off as a writer mistake or nothing. But, with everything else...
PW says in the Orientation Notebook that accidents are causing lawsuits. But, Harley talks like the lawsuit is the biggest problem. Does he imagine that they are going to just sue the company if they "see something they shouldn't"?
Harley Sawyer: "My name is Harley Sawyer. I'm called "the Doctor." When I look at this company we've built, I do not feel proud." "Declining profits, failed experiments, people are constantly seeing things they shouldn't." "How is that anything less than complete failure on our part? It's pathetic." "Now we're understaffed, safety protocols are being abandoned, workplace incidents are common. We can't avoid a lawsuit forever."
That is his ultimate conclusion of the Great Company Crisis...does this include "people seeing things they shouldn't" and if so, does he think that the greatest of his worries after 100+ felonies ...is a lawsuit?
Either way, I think that combined with Harley's clear expectation that he would have, 100% been legitimately famous if he had gotten to share what he did with the public, his pre-Playtime conduct, Leith's promise of fame for the unethical experiments that he seems very confident will hook Harley in...
I think maybe he thought he was going to be admired. And people who openly talk about horrifying experimental ideas repeatedly without absorbing negative feedback, despite craving admiration, and then believing when someone tells them that child experimentation is an "opportunity to get a head" in post-Belmont era 90s...yeah, I don't think that's someone who is thinking "this is illegal and society will hate it." Harley seems to have the opposite belief.
There are a few details that I didn't outright include as part of my evidance like Leith claiming Harley doesn't listen "anymore" and Eddie implying that Harley disregarding secrecy was part of the "trend" he h oped Bruno White was following. But Leith has shown a willingness to lie about Harley and Harley seems pretty...eager to please in Letter to Leith and Eddie's "half a dozen incidents" seems way too vague. So I'm not sure if they're exaggerating or not. But I think maybe that mental deterioration was why Harley was slipping.
I'm sorry if this sounds overly apologetic or victimizing. Some people have told me this is, and that's not what I'm trying to do. I have followed the ARGs very closely, and they have told me a very troubling story about Harley-the one that I am relating to you now. I am not trying to make excuses or soften anything. I am simply sharing with you the evidance as I see it.
