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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | What’s a dozen children - a thousand - next to this? What would they have been otherwise? Another drooling automaton out in the world, blindly accepting the offerings of better men?! I gave them purpose! I made their lives matter! | „ |
| ~ Harley Sawyer talking about the crimes he commited during the Bigger Bodies Initiative, unsuccessfully attempting to justify them. |
| “ | It was going to be mine. It was ALL going to be MINE! My discovery. MY recognition. I WAS THE ONE WHO PAVED THE GOLDEN PATH. | „ |
| ~ The Doctor's angered breakdown before the Intruder strikes the final blow on him.
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| “ | You've... saved... no one... | „ |
| ~ The Doctor's last words before his death.
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Dr. Harley Sawyer, also known as Experiment-1354: The Doctor, is the overarching antagonist of the Poppy Playtime franchise.
He is the former protégé of Elliot Ludwig and later the head of Playtime Co.'s Special Projects division and the director of the Bigger Bodies Initiative, the catalyst that had led to the company's experiments revolving around orphaned children, as well as what led to the company's eventual downfall. Realizing that the company was a failure, Sawyer tried to save it through his experiments, turning people of all ages into living toys that would serve Playtime. However, Sawyer would prove to be a liability causing numerous incidents; culminating in the "Theater Incident", which led Leith Pierre to betray him and turn him into an experiment himself.
After the "Hour of Joy", the Doctor was recruited into partnering up with the Prototype, taking control of the Prison. All the while, the Prototype and the Doctor worked together to achieve the former's enigmatic end goal. He's the second arch-nemesis of the Intruder, and the arch-enemy of Doey the Doughman.
He was voiced by Baldwin Williams Jr.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Although he initially respected and looked up to Elliot Ludwig (with it being implied he saw him as a father figure) and was heartbroken when he expelled him, he had no respect for the man’s ideals and selfless philosophy and was outright annoyed by them. He ultimately subverted his care for him when Elliot begrudgingly removed him from the Young Geniuses Program calling him a "soft, pathetic, small-minded backstabber." Even years later he still maintains a massive hatred for him believing him to be a naive, broken man whose benevolent goals were nothing but a “childish fantasy."
- Despite working with Leith Pierre, Eddie Ritterman and Stella Greyber on the Bigger Bodies Initiative, nothing implies the Doctor had any respect or loyalty towards them and would've likely betrayed them once his work was done.
- Even if he did at some point, it doesn't help the fact that he constantly disobeyed and ignored them whenever they tried to set limits with him, with his recklessness being the whole reason they betrayed him, and any respect he may have had is clearly subverted when Leith turns him into an experiment, with the Doctor planning to kill him out of revenge.
- Although being turned into an experiment to forcibly work for the company was a horrific process for him, it's not played sympathetically as he brought it onto himself due to all his crimes and insubordination toward the company. It’s also quite fitting because he did the exact same thing to countless other innocent children. In addition, he still displays moral agency, as unlike others, he didn’t lose his memories and maintained his intellect and sense of self.
- He's so vile that even the Playtime Co. higher-ups, most notably Leith Pierre, couldn't stand him due to him being responsible for numerous incidents and outright not listening to them. Even the Resource Extraction Specialists hoped that he would get eaten by Boxy Boo and Eddie outright called him a “son of a bitch”. Even the Prototype (the main villain of the game), someone who is just as evil as Sawyer, is completely disgusted by him and his crimes and would've killed him if not for his usefulness.
- While he repeatedly talks about his "golden path" benefiting humanity and claims his experiments gave the orphans lives meaning and purpose, he is not a well-intentioned extremist, as in his final moments he rants about how he was supposed to gain respect and recognition for his discovery. This shows he is purely narcissistic and just wanted glory.
- Despite Poppy Playtime's high heinous standards, Sawyer stands out as the most heinous character of them all, due to being the man responsible for all the horrific and terrible things in the game through his acts of mistreating, torturing, imprisoning, and experimenting on people (mostly children) for years. Ultimately, it’s because of his actions that the Prototype led the Toys to commence the "Hour of Joy" massacre as a mass rebellion against Playtime, costing the lives of almost every single Playtime Co. employee in the factory (including some tourists and innocent lives).
- While his Q&A video gives him a redeeming quality in the form of having a pet cat he genuinely loved and cherished, it's ambiguous just how much of the Q&A is actually canon to the game itself, meaning it doesn't hold up.
- Additionally, while the video does involve him in some comedic moments, not only is the canonicity of it to the main game not confirmed, but he never cracks any jokes himself, with the humour instead being derived from his irritation towards the unrequited questions. Additionally, he seems to revel in his work and mocks his coworkers in the video, unlike the Intruder who genuinely cares about their coworkers, showing that his characterization has not changed whatsoever.
- Most of his humor is dark in nature, with a prime example being him flipping a coin to determine whether he hated Leith or Dr. White more (the former being heads, the latter being tails), and then a literal human head dropping into his palm, with him nonchalantly saying "Oh look at that… It's heads.", implying that he may have killed Leith via decapitation at some point before the events of the game (although he would've deserved it since he's no better than the Doctor).
- Despite all the comedic moments the Q&A video gives him, they are overshadowed by his moments of sadism, such as taking pride in neurologically linking three children together to create Doey and coldly saying he wouldn't have saved Pianosaurus with a very apathetic "Rest In Keys." Him saying he would only even consider swapping places with one of the experiments shows that he is fully aware of the suffering the toys feel but does not care in the slightest.
- Additionally, while the video does involve him in some comedic moments, not only is the canonicity of it to the main game not confirmed, but he never cracks any jokes himself, with the humour instead being derived from his irritation towards the unrequited questions. Additionally, he seems to revel in his work and mocks his coworkers in the video, unlike the Intruder who genuinely cares about their coworkers, showing that his characterization has not changed whatsoever.
Background[]
- Even before the events of the game, he was already ambitious, arrogant and unfeeling as a young man when he was a part of the Young Geniuses Program. His ideas and experiments were made for the pursuit of progress and progress alone rather than for the benefit of humanity. His behavior left Elliot Ludwig with no choice but to expel him, which the Doctor irrationally saw as betrayal and lashed out at him for it.
- It's heavily implied that he incriminated his late mentor, Elliot Ludwig, by putting the mutilated corpse of a young boy in his estate to ruin his legacy and good name just to get revenge on him for "betraying" him.
- When Playtime CO. was financially struggling, he came up with an idea that would solve these problems: The Bigger Bodies Initiative, where people would be turned into monstrous recreations of Playtime's toys, with the justification that, because they aren't humans, they won't be paid or be able to sue the company. During his time leading the project, he unethically experimented on hundreds of people, the majority of whom were employees and young orphans (and possibly the infants). He would subject them all to a fate worse than death by having them turned into giant toys by testing them in the Game Station, having them electrically shocked and gassing them with nightmare-inducing red smoke, and then tearing out their organs and remains to put them into the toys, and would still continue abusing and mistreating them to make sure they stay loyal by throwing them in prison cells (alongside Leith Pierre).
- As another part of the initiative, he and Leith Pierre had assigned the Bigger Bodies to different roles that would support the experiments: CatNap was made to gas children with red smoke so experimenting on them would be easier (and it can be assumed that using such gas would be easier than using opium poppy gel mixture for soul transfers), giving them very violent nightmares as a side effect, Yarnaby was supposed to serve as the Doctor's own bodyguard/pet, Mommy Long Legs was supposed to host the Game Station (which tested orphans to see which Toy fit them the best), Huggy Wuggy had to stand still as a statue in the lobby during the day without break (while serving as a "night guard" that would stop any break-ins via fatal means), while Boxy Boo was instructed with killing any employee who tries to reveal the Bigger Bodies Initiative to the public, resulting in at least one man (Rowan Stoll) being killed.
- This mistreatment and abuse eventually led to the Prototype and CatNap organizing a massive rebellion and massacre called the Hour of Joy, that would end up costing the lives of almost every single Playtime CO. employee in the factory, including some tourists and innocent lives (with few exceptions, like the Intruder, P.W. and Leith Pierre), with there being implications that the Doctor participated in the massacre himself like every other Toy. This incident caused Playtime Co's downfall and left the company with no choice but to permanently close its own doors, thus destroying the legacy of Elliot Ludwig and forever shattering his hopes and dreams.
- He, either directly or by having his men do it for him, experimented on Poppy by ripping out her parts, examining them and putting them back in. This act was not only horrific and painful for her, but it also left her with severe trauma and hatred for the scientists. It’s also possible this was one of the reasons the Prototype started the Hour of Joy, as he may have wanted revenge for what they did to Poppy.
- He manipulated and groomed an orphan named Quinn Navidson into showcasing his true potential at the Game Station so he could transform him into Experiment 1166 aka Yarnaby. He also isolated and conditioned Yarnaby into being obedient and subservient to only him so he could have him become his personal bodyguard. This resulted in Yarnaby becoming so dependent on Sawyer that, when Sawyer was “removed”, Yarnaby was so depressed that all he could do was sulk.
- He also disturbingly thought Yarnaby's lower intellect and pathetic noises to be amusing and says he might get a good laugh out of it, though he generally did not care for Yarnaby at all.
- His conditioning of Yarnaby turned him from a playful, innocent experiment to a ravenous, hostile attack dog, essentially dehumanizing him, to the point that when the Intruder is right in front of him, Yarnaby goes completely feral and tries to kill them on sight.
- In an interview between him and the Prototype, when the latter asked the former if he feels anything about his treatment of children and toys while experimenting on them, the Doctor dodged the question and talked about his desire to uncover the Prototype's "secrets," making it clear he feels no regret for anything he has done and all but says he enjoys doing it.
- It's also stated that he is even outright disgusted at the idea of his fellow scientists and colleagues feeling sympathy for the experiments noting it as "nauseating".
- It's also revealed that he's the one responsible for putting Kevin Barnes into Project: Doey, despite the Scientists warning him that it would be a terrible idea due to Kevin's "neural abnormalities", which resulted in Doey becoming violent and unpredictable. This makes him indirectly responsible for Doey's fall to villainy and his death, as well as the deaths of Jack Ayers' parents.
- He caused the Theatre Incident, which resulted in the deaths of over 60 innocent visitors and a dozen Specialists, and while it's not confirmed if this was accidental or on purpose, he displays zero remorse about it.
- Aside from the Theater Incident, it was revealed that his recklessness and unethicality was the cause of several other incidents at the company (which cost various lives), such as Huggy escaping into the woods, CatNap escaping confinement, the infamous Rowan Stoll debacle and half a dozen other unnamed incidents.
- When he is transformed into an experiment he immediately lashes out at Bruno White and Leith Pierre for betraying him and threatens to kill the latter refusing to acknowledge he brought it on himself.
- What's worse is that when Bruno is killed during the Hour of Joy he mocks his death not even showing any sadness at the loss of his former right-hand man and classmate.
- During the Hour of Joy, he manipulated the prison warden into giving him the Omni-Hand under the pretext that he would get him out of the factory safely, and it's also heavily implied that the Doctor betrayed and killed him once he did.
- Sometime after Playtime Co. was abandoned, he used his Omni-Hand to technologically take control of its prison and proceeded to further torment the toys by starving and/or hunting them for his own sadistic enjoyment.
- It's implied he would've done the same to the upper levels of the company if not for the Prototype stopping him by limiting his control to the prison.
Poppy Playtime[]
- He tries to kill the Intruder, his own former employee, whilst toying with them when they go into the prison, using the Nightmare Critters and Yarnaby (whose death Sawyer bristles at) to try to attack and eat them, while telling them not to get completely eaten, as he plans to use the remains of their corpse for use of an experiment, possibly to turn them into another toy.
- Throughout the chapters, in the official Mob Entertainment's video series "The Story So Far", he (as the main narrator of the brief series) has been watching the Intruder wandering in the factory while facing numerous toys/experiments (those include Huggy Wuggy, Mommy Long Legs, and CatNap) with him outright confirming this to the Intruder, meaning he has been stalking them the whole time.
- Him not even recognizing the Intruder (his own former employee as mentioned above) shows that he doesn't acknowledge things about his workers in the slightest.
- Despite him working with the Prototype, it's merely pragmatic, as the Prototype only spared him for his intelligence, with it being implied that the Doctor would've betrayed him if he could.
- He crashed the train that the Intruder was on to derail them.
- He tries to kill the Intruder multiple times by testing them through their journey, with both the Mini Huggies and Nightmare Critters, and the Red Smoke, which kills them slowly and painfully, unlike the other deaths by other characters (which are quick and instant).
- In addition to trying to kill the Intruder, the Doctor taunts them about their doubts and their past, which includes taunting them about losing a loved one in the Hour of Joy, telling them about Poppy knowing about the Hour of Joy, that she doesn't care about them and has been hiding specific key details from them (which is true albeit only partially).
- He hypocritically mocks Poppy and the other experiments by claiming that all they wanted was violence and that they "made hell real" by taking over the factory even though he has committed just as horrendous if not even worse crimes. Additionally, he was the one who created the “hell” he speaks of as he made the experiments to begin with and started all the problems at the company showing he doesn’t even want to take responsibility for his own actions.
- He sadistically laughs about damaging the Intruder's Purple Hand, giving them no choice but to use a Grapple Handle that he electrified, which leads to them being electrically shocked by him. This leads to the Intruder falling into a section where they have to survive the mouse and cat tag-styled chase sequence from the larger Baba Chops.
- He forces the Intruder into a test of morality by trying to force them to sacrifice a Simon Smoke critter by electrocuting it to death in order to be released from a locked room, giving them a time-limit for them to make their choice otherwise they'll be eaten by the Nightmare Critters outside. He'll be glad with them if they go ahead with it or will be disappointed if they don't.
- His reason for choosing a Simon Smoke critter as the victim is also incredibly petty, as it reminds him of the fantasy novels his assistant would always leave around the lab.
- He attempted to kill the Intruder one final time by sending them down a trap door below in order to kill them by using his robot bodies to attack them.
- Although his death, via his brain being electrocuted immediately after the Intruder took the Omni-Chip, is quite brutal, it doesn't make him sympathetic, as he deserved it for everything he has done.
- His last words to the Intruder are him spitefully claiming that they failed to save anyone, refusing to show even a speck of remorse for any of his crimes.
- Despite his death, he still leaves a huge impact, as he managed to distract the Intruder long enough for the Prototype to find the Safe Haven, allowing him to destroy it and kill everyone in it, causing Doey to spiral out of control and go into an animalistic rage, which tragically ends with the Intruder having no choice but to kill him in battle.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He has a tragic and sympathetic background. It's implied that Harley had an abusive and harsh upbringing, given how it's specified he never missed his home, believed that no one cared for nor understood him, and Elliot theorized that he was not surrounded by kindness. His time with Elliot during the Young Geniuses Program was noted to be the one time in his childhood where Harley was truly happy and able to smile. When Elliot expelled him from the Young Geniuses Program in concern for his misguided ideals about scientific progress and in an attempt to humble him into growing into a kinder person, it completely broke Sawyer, with him angrily vandalizing his biology books and seething about Elliot's decision. Based on the tear marks on the pages, he was so hurt by the decision that he ended up crying. While he irrationally viewed this as a betrayal, the fact remains that if Harley had been shown love and wasn't rejected by Elliot, he wouldn't have become the monster that he now is.
- Additionally, it's shown that even decades later he still kept Elliot's removal letter from the program, proving he never got over the "betrayal" and was still hurt by it even until his death.
Trivia[]
- He, alongside Leith Pierre and Eddie M.N. Ritterman, are the only Poppy Playtime villains to be Near Pure Evil.
- During the lead up to Chapter 4 of Poppy Playtime, an ARG was made to tease the reveal of the Doctor's return. During the ARG, he hacked the real life Playtime Co. IT email and left it open for questions for participants to ask to look for clues to continue the ARG. One person asked "Did you kill Elliot Ludwig for your greed and experiments?" and the Doctor responded with "...stay quiet." This heavily implies that Elliot Ludwig was murdered by the Doctor in an act of revenge. If MOB Games outright confirms this, whether in Chapter 5 or in another ARG, then that would make the Doctor even worse than he is now.
- To highlight his NPE status, his voice actor Baldwin Williams Jr., was appalled by his plan on turning employees and orphan children into toys.
- He was initially considered to be Pure Evil before it was decided his past was tragic and sympathetic enough to be a preventing factor.
- However thought it's theorized that he could still be alive and have an possible return in the next chapter, if it turns out to be true. Then its possible that his NPE status could be affected and might be back for PE.
- Ironically, he's currently the only canon NPE in the franchise to have a morality-based prevention, despite being the most evil one.
External Links[]
- Harley Sawyer on the Villains Wiki
- Harley Sawyer on the Poppy Playtime Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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