Harley Sawyer

Aliases: Dr. Harley Sawyer, Dr. H. Sawyer (in report), Dr. Sawyer, Harley (by Leith Pierre) Sawyer, Experiment 1354 "The Doctor", The Big Mean Doctor (by Doey the Doughman), The Doctor (experiment designation; nickname), Doctor (by the Warden)

Affiliation: Playtime Co. (formerly), Head of Special Projects at Playtime Co, Nightmare Critters (subordinates), Originator of the Bigger Bodies Initiative, Bigger Bodies (creations), Pianosaurus (subordinate, deceased), The Doctor's Bodies (reserve bodies), The Player (enemy), The Prototype (former enemy; ally), Yarnaby (subordinate, deceased)

Date of birth: Unknown

Date of procedure: March 18, 1994 - October 16 1994

Status: Alive

Species: Cyborg, Human (Formerly)

Gender: Male

Dr. Harley Sawyer, also known as The Doctor, is a secondary antagonist of Poppy Playtime. He serves as the main antagonist of Chapter 4: Safe Haven. He was fist revealed in Project: Playtime in a VHS tape.

A cunning, cruel, intelligent, and sadistic man, Sawyer was the Head of Special Projects at Playtime Co. and the originator of the Bigger Bodies Initiative. He proposed the latter to the company's executives in 1990 as a means to cut the company's costs by replacing the human workforce with oversized organisms modeled after many of the company's characters, decreasing the risk of lawsuits, and allowing Sawyer to quietly further his own scientific research.

Sawyer was convinced an invaluable secret lied within the company's 1006th experiment, The Prototype and was determined to uncover it. After being betrayed by Leith Pierre for his repeated shortcomings, and turned into an experiment himself as a consequence, Sawyer would serve as a source of direction and knowledge for Playtime Co.'s scientists.

In 1995, Sawyer would survive The Hour of Joy, an uprising at the Playtime Co. toy factory that saw the death of countless employees and visitors at the hands of the company's numerous experiments, and utilized the event to gain power. Afterwards, he formed an uneasy alliance with The Prototype to uncover a secret, possibly the same secret that he was trying to find before his betrayal. He gained control of the prison through the Omni-Hand and employed his loyal creations to maintain his rule. In 2005, he toyed with The Player until being killed by the latter, whom he claimed had saved no one before meeting his end. After the Prototype captured Poppy, the Player and Giblet were able to restore a backup of Sawyer, who was amused at the turn of events.

Appearance

Harley Sawyer's human appearance is unknown. After becoming Experiment 1354, he was reduced to organs (lungs, liver, and giant brain) stored and kept alive within Vital System Centers scattered around the prison. When he looks through a television, an eye surrounded by static will appear on the screen. The Doctor can also take control of mechanical vessels around the room his brain is located in. When they activate, a yellow eye with fingers around it will appear until it turns into a larger, chaotic, red eye when it starts to attack. When The Doctor possesses his mind to one of the vessels, its screen will show the exact same eye from the television when he is looking through it.

Personality

Harley Sawyer was a cruel, merciless, narcissistic, apathetic, and amoral scientist who cared little for anyone or anything other than himself and his goals. Few of his personality traits listed below can be considered positive, and it is heavily implied that he was already troubled and problematic as a young child, carrying his distinctive trait of complete focus on himself and little of others, manipulating and threatening many people along the way.

While his "normal" personality appeared to be one of staidness and stoic behavior combined with a gentle voice and general politeness, this was merely a weak facade; It is demonstrated that his real personality was of an angry, violent, and irritable man who could hardly tolerate anyone, even his co-workers, and frequently yelled at people when his temper got the best of him. In the tape Your gift has finally arrived, Sawyer found out someone was recording him and ferociously yelled that the camera be turned off immediately, starkly contrasting with his generally stoic demeanor. With this attitude, he was widely disliked by everyone; his colleagues when he worked as a neurosurgeon thought of him as a joke, as he constantly worried that the world was not too far off from ending and was a major perfectionist, while in Playtime Co., none of the heads (Eddie M.N. Ritterman, Leith Pierre, and Stella Greyber) could tolerate his behavior for long and various Specalists wished he could be killed off by Boxy Boo.

Sawyer was well-known for his lack of empathy or really any kind of positive feeling towards others; in the Chapter 4 tape: The Doctor, Eddie complained that Sawyer had absolutely no regard for the safety of the Playtime Co. facility or its staff, while Stella agreed with him and noted that Sawyer refused to follow her boundaries that she set regarding the children in Playcare. In Prisoner Profile, Experiment 1166, he found it disgusting that the few security staff Yarnaby showed loyalty to had some form of sympathy for him.

Sawyer also appeared to be notoriously picky; in the Sandwich Note, the writer tells their friend that Sawyer resented sweet pickles, telling them that if they take his order, they mustn't pick out sweet pickles lest they get punished severely. Even though the writer admits this was merely a joke, it provides a good insight of his personality and implies he is very childish despite his age. In the tape reporting about Kevin Barnes, Scientist #4 bemoaned Sawyer's choice of continuing to include Kevin Barnes with the other two children despite his aggressive behavior that could render Doey as a dangerous asset; considering the dangers of this, it is likely that the scientists warned against this choice numerous times which he refused to listen to, which shows another level of his pickiness.

In Project Proposal: 1188, the person writing the proposal states that "Dr. Sawyer insists he handle the extraction himself.", indicating that Sawyer was very much dedicated to the Bigger Bodies Initiative and/or wanted to be credited for the extraction, either as an honor for his dedication to research or an arrogant way to gain recognition. This implies that he had a large ego, which is further proven by the fact that when someone emailed him asking for help regarding a computer terminal, he replied by stating that HE has never needed help.

In the Prisoner Profile for Yarnaby, Sawyer notes that "it" should be kept isolated, having only contact with him, saying: "By the time I'm done...I'll be its whole world. It’ll know nothing else.” This shows Sawyer to be manipulative and apathetic to the plight of his experiments, not caring for them in the least. It also shows him to be very merciless and cruel, as what Sawyer implies is him having total control over Yarnaby, which no doubt would involve manipulation and torture in various ways. After Yarnaby’s death, Sawyer shows no feeling for his pet, merely stating that he had more on hand, further supporting the idea.

In Chapter 4: Safe Haven, Sawyer states that he wishes to make a game out of The Player. Later, he (in one of his bodies) sarcastically waves at them, showing that he can be extremely sadistic and that he likes to toy with people who are at his mercy. It is noted in Sawyer’s Secret he was shown to have a complete lack of regard for the lives of the children in Playcare stating that they would've been nothing more than another "drooling automaton" out in the world blindly following better men and says that he made their lives matter with this project. He also calls the fantasies of Elliot Ludwig "childish", while also stating that he was broken and naive. Sawyer breaks down about his project being stolen from him as he paved the Golden Path but was supposedly never given credit for it. His last condescending and remorseless words are "You've... saved... no one."

History

In his youth, Harley Sawyer joined the Young Geniuses Program at Playtime Co. Despite him implying a bad home life, his personality and intellect quickly gained the attention of Elliot Ludwig, who saw greatness in the boy, but was disheartened by his lack of humility. This led him to regrettably remove Sawyer from the program, an action that embittered Sawyer against Ludwig. As Sawyer grew up, he studied neuroscience and became certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery which led to him being hired at Playtime by Leith Pierre on January 15, 1990 to join the Special Projects division, with him quickly gaining the nickname of "The Doctor".

Sawyer's first experiments at Playtime Co., in pursuit of neurological reactivation, were met with limited success. Experiment 1015 had minor brain activity and Experiement 1026 sustained a state of conscious awareness for 45 minutes before both passed away. By then, the company had fallen into dire straits financially and was suffering from major internal problems. Seeing this, Sawyer proposed the Bigger Bodies Initiative, the an experiment-focused program aimed to replace employees with giant, living toys to cut costs. This garnered approval from the higher-ups and Harley Sawyer was promoted to Head of Special Projects.

Soon after, the initiative succeeded in creating a living creature that did not cease functioning after a time: Experiment 1160, Boxy Boo. Sawyer, reveling in his success, chose to attune the experiment's appetite to human flesh to deal with potential leaks. Sawyer was particularly reluctant in giving Stella Greyber some information, but Leith Pierre later told her anyway. After 1160's creation, Experiment 1163, Pianosaurus, was made, though Sawyer wrote him off as a failure, now determined to preserve higher cognitive function and no longer interested in making feral beasts.

During this time, an orphan named Quinn Navidson became an interest to Sawyer, and after communing with the boy to convince him to try harder at his Game Station testing, which he personally observed, Quinn was made into Experiment 1166, Yarnaby. Though still a feral beast, he did exhibit a sense of loyalty. Noting this, Sawyer conditioned the creature to serve him only, isolating him from everybody else. From here, Sawyer's dedication to experimentation only went on, with his main interest being The Prototype. Sawyer was convinced that there was a secret within this experiment, resorting to drastic measures to try and uncover it, even going as far as to torture The Prototype with the hope of making more discoveries for his research.

Wishing to add to the Game Station, Sawyer and his team were tasked with creating experiments who would play vital roles in the facilities' minigames. One of these was Experiment 1174, whom he considered a great success and increased his motivation even more. However, Experiment 1176, though successful, didn't interest Sawyer whatsoever, as he wished to create experiments which wouldn't be limited to fulfilling specific roles.

In November 1990, Sawyer insisted that he personally handled a delicate extraction for their most sophisticated Bigger Body to date: Experiment 1188, CatNap. By this time, Sawyer had achieved his goal of preserving complete cognitive function, later writing how CatNap's success rivaled even Huggy Wuggy, the previously considered 'optimal outcome'. Shortly later, Sawyer was informed that someone named Jane Ellswin, had managed to make PJ Pug-a-Pillar lose her during Statues. Upon confronting her about this, she claimed that PJ relied on his senses to find someone, so she simply gave him something else to find. Noting that Jane had only gone through the Game Station twice, yet had already realized this, Sawyer took an interest and determined that she would be a great subject for her assigned toy, Rabie Baby. Later, after dealing with a troublesome employee and ironing out temper issues with Mommy Long Legs, Harley Sawyer would attempt the ambitious goal of linking the neural networks of three subjects together into the Doey the Doughman experiment and succeed.

Behind all of Sawyer's achievements, trouble smouldered. Sawyer began warning his colleagues of "one bad day", which many jovially dismissed. Leith Pierre had also had to remind Sawyer that himself and the other executives ultimately still had the most authority on the project, and that it wasn't his place to try and control it. He had slowly gained a disagreeable reputation among his fellow staff and his superiors, as some would find out his involvement in several incidents that plagued the Bigger Bodies Initiative. This all came to a head with the Theater Incident, when both staff and even visitors were killed. After investigator Gerad Lockehart confirmed that the expected culprit was responsible, Stella Greyber, Eddie M.N. Ritterman and Leith Pierre met up together to discuss what to do about Harley Sawyer's negligence.

In this meeting, the idea of killing him was put forward, as well as simply demoting him, but neither could work as they still needed his intellect and he wouldn't take the loss of his position kindly. Out of options, another thought occurred to Pierre.

Upon regaining consciousness, Sawyer slowly realised what his co-workers had done to him. He had been turned into an experiment himself, his procedures directed towards their own pioneer. When Leith Pierre revealed himself as the one who gave the order and made Sawyer aware of his new duties, Sawyer raved and fumed at Pierre but was ultimately helpless, subject to the whims of the scientists he used to lead. Quietly, Sawyer thought about his goals, about how he was going to discover the Golden Path and claim the credit for it.

Sometime later, The Hour of Joy occurred. Harley Sawyer, impressed by its execution, leveraged the event to gain control over the prison by acquiring an Omni-Hand from the Warden. With this newfound power, Sawyer brought many of the toys under his rule and set up obstacles and traps to protect himself against his enemies. By this point, Sawyer had also reunited with Yarnaby, who was still devoted to him. The Prototype, despite the torture that Sawyer had caused him, decided to keep Sawyer alive for his knowledge, as he required it to discover some sort of elusive secret.

In late 2002, Sawyer detected activity from a computer terminal containing information about his past. Determined to put an end to this, he hacked the Playtime IT email account which had been helping to unlock terminal permissions, and eventually gained full access to it. He was soon flooded with emails following this, to which he replied. After later hacking the digital Playtime Co. account who had been assisting the terminal group, he warned them to stay out of the terminal, only for them to discover a maze which contained his digital thoughts. Finally, Sawyer got his way, terminating the terminal's connection and leaving behind one simple message: "You were warned".

In 2005, The Player re-enters Playtime Co. in search of their missing co-workers. Sawyer watches from the security cameras, making video logs documenting their journey as they come closer to his domain.

As The Player climbs aboard a train to enter The Shelf, a small TV turns on. The Doctor reveals himself to The Player and decides to make a game of them, stating that they cannot hide from him. Once The Player arrives, The Doctor terrorizes them with Nightmare Critters, Mini Huggies, and Red Smoke. Afterwards, in an experiment testing room, The Doctor comments on their defeat of Experiments 1170, 1188, and 1222, before releasing Yarnaby, who escapes from the cell and proceeds to search for and attack The Player in the nearby rooms.

After Yarnaby’s death, The Doctor contacts them again. He commends their tenacity before questioning everything they know, divulging scandalous info and speculation against Poppy to spur distrust and dismissing their actions as futile. Despite the persistent irritation, The Player continues further in, destroying his lungs in Cold Storage and his liver in the Secondary Lab along the way.

Eventually, The Doctor deactivates The Player’s Purple Hand and drops them in a holding area full of cages, stating that "poor Yarnaby" was not his "only pet", before releasing an enlarged and aggressive Baba Chops. Dodging the threat, The Player reroutes power to an exit and flees into another room, but The Doctor traps them there too and presents them with a choice to test their morality: die inside that room when the Critters break in, or kill the Simon Smoke toy trapped inside a container in the room to reopen the door, stating that both Poppy and "that brutish glob of clay" (Doey) would do it. If The Player kills the toy, the door opens as The Doctor congratulates them on understanding. If The Player escapes the room without killing the toy, he frustratedly concedes and allows The Player to "see The Doctor now".

The Player takes an elevator to The Doctor’s lair as he asks them if they hear "a bell" tolling for someone in a "far-off place". The Player enters The Doctor's room to find him as a mere brain inside a machine. But before they can proceed, The Doctor, controlling one of his reserve bodies, grabs them from next to the door and throws them onto a trapdoor, which then opens as the Doctor sarcastically waves at them. The Player lands in an area full of The Doctor’s reserve bodies and tries their best to avoid them and turn on the power. As they do so, The Doctor rambles about Elliot Ludwig and his fantasies, stating that he will bury himself "so far down" that nobody would ever find him, and ranting about how his discovery was taken away from him.

The Player, however, powers on the terminals and rushes back into The Doctor’s room, allowing them to reach his brain and remove his Omni-Chip, causing a power surge that threatens to destroy him. In a last ditch effort, he sends all of his bodies at The Player, but the system implodes, disabling his robots and finally making him perish for all the destruction, cruelty and pain that he caused. As he dies, The Doctor weakly tells The Player that they "saved no one".

At the end of Chapter 5, The Player overrides the Labs access as stated previously in Chapter 4. Although as done as planned, they had brought The Doctor back to life. Despite his organs and brain destroyed, as he reactivates, the Doctor tells the Player "Well now, this is a rather interesting turn of events..."

Abilities and Anatomy

Unlike the other experiments that he created, Harley Sawyer was not transformed into a toy, but instead had his mind transferred into the factory’s computer system via his human brain being put into a type of life support machine in order to keep him alive. Technically, he still "eats"; there is an absorption of nutrients into various mechanisms in a wall that connects his systems. As a digital entity named The Doctor, he could control all technology within the factory with the use of the Omni-Hand, as well as take possession of android bodies he created in order to interact with the real world and attack The Player during their final encounter.

There was a theory that The Doctor is still alive and may return in Chapter 5. Even though this was unlikely because of the fact that the Omni-Chip was stolen by the Player, and that the rest of his organs, including his brain, were destroyed, it was proven correct after he is restored using a backup in the ending of Chapter 5.

Trivia

It's presumed that the person recording in VHS #2 was Rowan Stoll, calling back to the events recorded in Rowan Stoll's Computer Database. This event is when he finds out about Boxy Boo, leading up to his third recording.

The Doctor is the first main antagonist in a chapter that is not based on a Playtime Co. Toy.

He is also the first main antagonist to have appeared in a previous game in Poppy Playtime, first appearing in Project: Playtime in 2022.

His nickname, "The Doctor", references himself; a doctor wants to keep their patients healthy and alive by helping them combat issues with their bodies, just like how Sawyer wants to keep Playtime Co. alive by creating the Bigger Bodies Initiative to combat the current problems of the corporation. Since Sawyer is referred to as "Dr. Sawyer", he possesses a doctorate of an unknown degree. Given that Sawyer started as a neurosurgeon, it is probable that he holds a Doctorate of Medicine. In the Lockehart Trait Recording, it is said that Harley Sawyer is ABNS-certified, meaning he is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery.

It was theorized that Harley Sawyer had a professional or personal relationship with Elliot Ludwig, given his position in the corporation.

The fact that the two had a professional relationship would be confirmed in Chapter 4 Icepick ARG, where Sawyer was recognized by Ludwig for his exceptional skills in the Young Geniuses Program, albeit with Ludwig having nothing to do with his rise in Playtime Co. as he had kicked him out of the program, and Ludwig himself was probably dead by the time Sawyer was recruited by Leith Pierre. However, it is heavily implied in the Chapter 4 ARG that Sawyer was involved in Ludwig's death.

He appears to have had some part in "extracting" something for the creation of CatNap, as seen in the second page of the Experiment 1188 Bigger Bodies Proposal.

He is the first character in Poppy Playtime who speaks with a British English accent rather than an American English accent, the second being Eddie M.N. Ritterman.

This may infer that he was born in England, or is an American person of British descent.

Leith Pierre explains in "CatNap Check-In" that Sawyer is "out" and he is doing the interviews until a replacement can be found, leaving it unclear if Sawyer is dead or has gone rogue.

The Orientation Notebook also disproves the theory that Harley Sawyer was dead, as he was still alive by May 1995 as he had a meeting with P.W on May 26th; the check-in took place in 1994.

A weekly checkup document written about Yarnaby around the 16th of October 1994 also mentioned that Sawyer had been "removed".

This "removal" is likely related to The Theater Incident, which was caused by Sawyer.

It was later revealed during Chapter 4 that many of Sawyer's organs including his brain, lungs and liver were in fact preserved and kept inside jars near his lair potentially as power sources.

It is likely that, throughout the entire story starting from Chapter 1, The Doctor was watching The Player through cameras.