Game Theory - I SOLVED The "Hour of Joy"! (Poppy Playtime)

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he solves one of Poppy Playtime's BIGGEST mysteries... the Hour of Joy.

The Hour of Joy was an inside job. You heard me right. Poppy Playtime's biggest and most consequential event didn't just happen because the toys wanted to rebel one day. It all hinged on the help of one employee. And I know exactly who it was. Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory. Today, we're diving, or should I say, fooling, back down the Bumzo Bunny rabbit hole.

That is Poppy Playtime Chapter 4. Last time we focused on how this story is going. going to end. With us sacrificing ourselves to save everyone, but in the end, we'll actually save no one. The prototype would survive and go on to wreak more havoc on the world. So with that positive outlook and the fact we can't really look much further forward than that, I wanted to instead look behind us to the start of the prototype's plan, the hour of joy. The hour of joy is the moment from this franchise. The moment that separates the law of playtimes past from the games we're physically playing. And just like last time, thanks to chapter four, we have been given

a few very small, clarifying details that tell us exactly how the hour of joy came to pass. Because while the prototype is incredibly clever, and while the toys are incredibly strong and hungry, it turns out they couldn't pull off this plan on their own. They needed help. They needed someone who would go along with their weird plan, a plan that would almost certainly backfire on them for doing so. Maybe watch your back theorists. As I've mentioned, in order to look back and figure out an earlier part of the franchise, we need to actually take a closer look at one of the more recent additions to the series and work backwards.

Because it's not really an indie horror franchise if you're not retroactively adding lore to previous games with new ones. One of the new VHS tapes in Chapter 4 presents us with an image of a character we haven't really seen in a good while. A resource extraction specialist. These guys were the primary characters we played as in Mob Entertainment's spin-off mob. Multiplayer game project Playtime. Here's the job. You need to collect toy parts to make a giant toy. Get that giant toy on the train, then leave.

Sadly, this game has largely been abandoned by Mob for the last year and a half, which was a shame because it was a lot of fun to play. Has anyone made a fan cam edit of Mommy Long Lips to I Am Your Mother? But more importantly, it was surprisingly useful for law purposes. The main thing for us was that the toys were running a mutt around the factory, which sounded awfully similar to what happened happened after The Hour of Joy, the big event on August 8th, 1995, where the toys finally rebelled against Playtime Co. and took over the factory. You can see the connection, right? The hour of joy

happens, the toys take over, and so Leith Pierre, ever the businessman, decides to send these resource extraction specialists into the factory in order to keep their giant toy-making operations alive, leaving them to fight off the giant toys that remained. That is the sequence of events that we've believed for a very long time. However, this Chapter 4 VHS tape tells us a slightly different story. You see, these tapes aren't just different colours. They also have their own labels to help us identify them. Things like break time, which was the tape with the security guards being on break that we talked about in our last video. Most of them are pretty on the nose, and this resource extraction specialist tape is no different, because on it is a label that reads

93 theater incidents. If that name doesn't ring a bell, I don't blame you, we've only recently learned about it during the Chapter 4 ARG. Man, Bob really did just hide all of their law in this thing, hoping people would solve it and pay attention, rather than putting it somewhere like, oh, I don't know, in the actual game? I don't know what you're smirking at FNAF. They learned this from you.

Who taught you how to do this stuff? You, all right? I learned it by watching you. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, the theatre incident. As the name suggests, the incident took place in the Playtime Co-theater. From what we could tell, based on all of the bird evidence photos,

we received, it was a fire that broke out and many people died. When the incident was then investigated by Playtime Co's private investigator, it was determined that the culprit was none other than Harley Sawyer. These two factors made it seem like a separate incident from the one in Project Playtime. They did both share the theatre setting, but the ARG didn't give us any indication that the experiments were involved in the theatre incident. It was just Harley Sawyer going insane and causing a fire. Now though, we have this tape that not only confirms the

resource extraction specialists were there because of the theater incident, it also confirms that the experiments were loose during the theater incident, just like they are loose in the theater of Project Playtime. And are we just stuffing the experiments back where they came from? Because I guarantee it won't be so easy to toss a new corner page over 60 visitors, that are the dozen research extraction specialists who get swimming in the bellies of those things. It just lines up too perfectly. Project Playtime is the direct result of the theatre incident.

Harley let the monsters out, they ran rampant across the facility, killing a bunch of people and setting the place ablaze. Forcing Leaf to create the resource extraction team in order to get the bigger bodies locked away once more. Now, this may seem like just a small change to our understanding of the Poppy Play timeline. But actually, this one alteration has massive ripple effects to other theories we've had over the years. One example is the identity of the player character. the Orientation Notebook, I had theorized that its author, P.W., a scientist for Playtime

Co, might be the player character. They were able to write about the incident and the extraction specialists. So if the incident was the hour of joy, that would mean they had to have survived the hour of joy in order to talk about it. But if the resource extraction team was formed after the theater incident, as we are now being shown, that means P.W. likely suffered the same fate as their colleagues and didn't survive the hour. of joy. Therefore, they can't be the player character. Now, there is still a chance that my theory is proven true down the line. We know the player didn't show up for work that day and was likely involved in the experiments due to the hallucinations in Chapter 3, focusing on their regrets,

and in Chapter 4, playing sounds from the lab at the end of the chapter, the place the experiments were happening. Right now, we just don't have any evidence that it was PW rather than just another scientist, and PW's diary entries do end the same day as the Hour of Joy. so I'm not particularly hopeful. This would also snowball into the current status of Leith Pierre. Again, because P.W. was writing about Leith forming the team, we thought that meant Leith was alive after the Hour of Joy. But as this is now tied to the theater incident, it's most likely that he too perished during the hour of joy like everyone else. However, the biggest change this has to our understanding about the law relates to the VHS tapes that we received not in Poppy Playtime, but in Project Playtime.

During each phase, we received a VHS tape that contained recordings of Harley Sawyer and his bigger body's initiative. But at the end of each of them, the tape suddenly changed to a text-based message from a mystery character. Based on their use of plurals when referring to themselves, them saying things like, you made us this way, and their use of the same telephone that OLLI used in Chapter 3, we believed this to be the prototype talking to us. Now that we know the OLLI we've been talking to is indeed the prototype. What did you do with OLLI? I'm right here copy. This feels all but confirmed.

The thing is, we've never really been able to put our finger on why they're talking to us, other than to feed us fans more lore. There are lines like, you must prove yourself and we will call you when the time arrives. Which felt like we were going to be part of some big master plan, though. That didn't really make a lot of sense with project playtime being after the hour of joy. But now that we know this game comes before the hour of joy, and thanks to a special VHS take from chapter four, things become much clearer.

How can this happen? There's filthies. Security measures. It's impossible. Personal agendas have long been the downfall of this company. Is it unreasonable to believe they were conspirators? This VHS is titled Warden Office 8-81995, the same day as the hour of joy. And despite their supposedly being a bunch of systems in place, the experiments have managed

to get through them and commit the hour of joy. That, my friends, is why the prototype is talking to us on the VHS tapes of Project Playtime. After the theatre incident, they are looking for ways to kill everyone, to cause the hour of joy, but they need help from an employee. They are asking us to betray our colleagues and allow the toys to escape and kill everyone. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that the person watching the VHS tapes in Project Playtime is the same character as our player character in Poppy Playtime. And that's because of one crucial detail that we're given in this VHS tape. But how could anyone even get through? It couldn't just be any old employee helping the prototype.

It had to be an executive, someone with access to the Omni hand. For a while, we felt like our player character could be one of the executives. But more recently, it felt like that was less and less the case. And then in Chapter 4, Harley said this. I can't say I remember seeing your face before. Harley knows the executives very well. That's been clear since the beginning. So for us not to be recognized, we cannot be playing as one of the executives in the main series of games.

But the person from Project Playtime that's watching the VHS tape, the one that is helping the prototype likely is. And the best part, I know which one it is. You might be thinking the answer is obvious. Harley, he's holding a big grudge against Playtime Co. PW refers to him as one of the executives in the Orientation Notebook, and thanks to another VHS, we know he's been working with the prototype. pretty much since Leith betrayed him and turned him into a discount Fnafendo skeleton.

Maybe when this place was fully operational, we were beating our heads against this. So of everyone, he's the one with motive to portray the company. The thing he lacks, though, is the means of which to do so. He was an executive before becoming an experiment himself, but he was turned into an experiment to take away some of his power. From now on, you're here to give the Laugh boys answers when they need them, and carry out procedures when and how we tell you to. That's it.

In that tape with the warden, he doesn't currently have access to the Omnihan, and so is using the hour of joy to manipulate the warden in order to get one for himself. But if it's not him, then who is it? Well, according to the warden, only four people have the executive access necessary to pull off something like this.

Leith Bia, Stella Graber, Eddie Ritterman, and himself. Quick side note, but hey, look, we now know who the fourth slide was back in Chapter 2. With the warden being the fourth executive, it only makes sense that the fourth slide is hit. So, good job, mob, another minor mystery solved. Although, I have a feeling they didn't give us his name because they realized coming up with the name using the letters they left on the floor. Doesn't really work, but I digress. With there being only four potential suspects, it becomes pretty easy to narrow down which one is our project playtime accomplice.

It can't be the warden, as the VHS shows he's pretty scared, confused by the whole ordeal. You know, unless he's just the most incredible. But we've already got plenty of those in this series, so I don't think Mob's gonna want to go back to that well too often. Right? Mob, you don't want to go back to that well too often. It's also unlikely to be Leith Pierre, as he's all in on the bigger body's initiative. He'd have no reason to want it to fail. He even keeps the doctor alive as a computer specifically because he needs him to keep the project alive.

So Leith is also off the table. Before Chapter 4, we didn't really know a whole lot about Eddie. But in this chapter, we finally get to hear from the man him. himself and he's fun. I'm a businessman, Mr. Silver, and I don't like dead angry. I get paid to see that things get done. And this, like everything else, will get done. Man, why does the British guy always have to be so unapologetically evil?

That leaves us with Stella as our only remaining suspects. Stella has always been an intriguing character to me. Much like Rich, she's one of the few characters that's been around on these VHS tapes since Chapter 1. Her presence felt so important that in our very very very very very very very very very very, first theory, we suspected that she might have been the person turned into Poppy. We later changed our view on that due to some other evidence, and with this new chapter, it's very clear Poppy is Elliot's daughter. I wish you were here, Dad, when you were running this place.

You always knew what to see. But that left Stella without any real role to fill. And yet, she is still very present and being shoved down our throats. Like she does have an important role that we just haven't figured out yet. Maybe this could be it. Except thanks to another VHS Dope in Chapter 4, we hear Stella talking to Leith about being completely on board with the bigger bodies initiative, just like all the others.

Well, the work itself, what you've all been able to do? I mean, it's nothing short of a miracle. That's a change I want to help make. And like that, we are out of executives, and Stella's role is once again left unanswered. Or it would be if it weren't for one thing. The timeline. In the Chapter 3, A.R.

there was a note about the bigger body's version of Catnap being introduced to playcare. Stella has written part of that report, so this takes place after her meeting with Leith in the Chapter 4 VHS. And yet, despite saying in the meeting that this is for the greater good, her focus is less on Catnaps' effectiveness and more on how the kids were responding. She states that she actually doesn't want to use Catnap on the kids because it will scare them. And even despite the kids warming to him, she claims to quote, still have reservations.

While she said that she was okay with everything to leave, really, she still wants to protect the kids. In the actual Chapter 3, a VHS shows how excited she is to have one of the children adopted, only to realize that they are one of the children being used for an experiment. Amazing. You'll be perfect for... Oh, it appears there's been some complications. The form says testing. You're in charge of all this. How could you not know?

I don't. I'm sorry. Now, there is a world where this tape happens just before the one we find in chapter 4, that this incident is the reason Leith has to tell Stella what's going on. But listen to that clip again and pay attention to Stella's delivery. You're in charge of all this. How could you not know? I don't.

I'm sorry. That I'm sorry is what does it for me. She spends the conversation saying she doesn't know what's going on or what. testing means. But her, I'm sorry, feels weighty, knowing even. She is the head of playcare. She should know everything that's going on. And if she didn't, I don't think she'd be keeping her composure quite so well.

But she's not panicking or promising to resolve the issue. She just sounds crestfallen, defeated, like she's had the realization that it's another kid she couldn't save because she does know what testing means. Then finally, in the chapter 4 ARG, right after the theater incident, we get one more recording that shows us that Stella, once again, still cares for people. Those poor, poor people. Did we really have to... We did what was necessary, Ms. Granger? Of course.

Despite supposedly being on side with Leith, she continues to question their violent methods and then stutters when trying to keep her composure. Because if she doesn't, she could end up like those poor, poor people. Word if this doesn't breathe beyond the factory's wall, I've made sure. What we're seeing are the cracks in Stella's armor. She tried to get on board to see things as Leif did, but she could never really justify Playtime Co's actions. The theatre incident showed that the progress Leith had promised her wasn't being made. The kids were still becoming monsters, but she also knew there was nothing she could do about it,

making her the perfect candidate for the Prototype's plan. After the theatre incident, Stella went back to her office in the playcare, and that is when the prototype reached out through the tapes. He asked her to trust him and sent her his iconic Olly phone to feed her more instructions when the time was right. In the phase two tape, the prototype recognizes that she wants answers from them and promises they will come in time. If Project Playtime hadn't been unceremoniously abandoned, I believe we'd have seen those answers. They would have been the prototype telling Stella exactly what she needed to do and promising her what he'd promised everyone else, that the orphans and the toys would all go free.

escaping their horrible fate. All she'd have to do is use her executive access, the Omni Hand, to open the way for the prototype and all the toys to escape. And hearing that, hearing that there was finally a chance to save the orphans without the wrath of Leith or Eddie coming down on her, I have no doubt that she would have accepted that deal. But as we know, oh too well at this point,

all of that was just another one of the prototype's lies. I can't leave. Not now, not ever. He lied to everyone about. what the hour of joy was. The toys didn't escape. They killed everyone in the factory and the orphans were locked away inside the prototype's lab. Just like Poppy, just like all the toys, Stella had the rug pulled out from under her. She was tricked and based on how the prototype was more than willing to punish Poppy when she didn't agree with his motives, he definitely wouldn't have been above

killing Stella too once she realized she'd been sold a lie. That being said, I'm not totally sure that's how Stella's story ends. I'll admit, this is a little more on the speculative side, but just like how I've been convinced Rich is going to be way more important to the actual games, because he keeps showing up in VHS tapes in every chapter, I'm also convinced that Stella has to be more directly involved with the games rather than just being an off-screen character. If we think about it, she was in charge of play care. She cared for the orphans, not just on an emotional level, but physically cared for them inside the facility. If the prototype wanted to keep these orphans alive for all these years, he might need someone with the skills and desire to help him do that.

Stella had helped once before she'd proven her trustworthiness, so why not have her continue to help him while he worked with the doctor to find whatever this secret is. I'm still your best shot of cracking that secret. And as for Stella, while she may not have appreciated being lied to, she sought what happened to anyone that opposed the prototype. We also know that when push comes to shove, she will bend the knee. just like she did with Leith. I could easily see us entering the labs in Chapter 5, but when we find the orphans,

it won't be the prototype we face. It'll be stellar, or whatever it is, she's become. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching.