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| “ | 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. We need to deal with all of these issues at once. I'm here now with a solution: The Bigger Bodies Initiative. Giant toys. We can increase our workforce and simultaneously decrease the number of lawsuits and people on our payroll, IF... the people we have working... aren't... people. Put me in charge of it, and I will save this company. | „ |
| ~ Harley Sawyer’s introduction in VHS 1. |
| “ | Mortality is the curse of the weak, the fire that incinerates the flesh. I strive to snuff that flame. Call me a monster, but I am simply a man who escaped incineration and embraced the infinite! | „ |
| ~ Harley Sawyer’s speech about his desire for immortality in the trailer for Phase 2: Incineration for Project: Playtime. |
Dr. Harley Sawyer, also known as Experiment-1354: The Doctor, is the overarching antagonist of the Poppy Playtime franchise.
He is the egotistical and sadistic former protege of Elliot Ludwig, head of Playtime Co.'s Special Projects division and the director of the Bigger Bodies Initiative, making him the catalyst because his idea of horribly transforming, mutilating orphaned children and his own employees into becoming monstrous mascots and toys, leading to it's downfall.
He is voiced by Baldwin Williams Jr.
What Makes Him Entertaining?[]
- Baldwin Williams Jr.'s vocal performance manages to give so much character through his amazing voice acting, by making him sound not only cool and threatening, but manages to characterizes him as arrogant, smug and egomaniac with him talking condescendingly, but calmly towards the Intruder/Protagonist.
- Additionally, his transformation into an experiment also gives his voice, giving his voice a unique, cool effect which sounds a bit creepy.
- While not played for sympathy, nor does it serve as a justification for his crimes, he still has a compelling & interesting past, with him being a part of the Young Genius Program, and managing to form a close bond with Elliot Ludwig due to his implied troubled home life, claiming that he doesn't miss it, which made Elliot sympathize with Harley. However, once Elliot discovered Harley's lack of humility, along with his belief on science' use of progress for the sake of progress, rather than for the benefit of others, Elliot kicked him off the Young Genius Program, hoping that this decision will humble him. This led to Harley viewing this as a complete betrayal and is implied to have been the start of his villainy.
- Manages to convince and manipulate Playtime Co.'s Higher Ups on his idea of the Bigger Bodies Initiative despite how completely immoral it is and how it completely goes against the principles of Playtime on helping orphans find a home.
- He managed to create truly large to life Giant Toys that managed to not only move, but talk, have intelligence, with each having unique abilities, demonstrating his intelligence, once Playtime Co. kicked him and turned him into an experiment, Playtime wasn't able to make the toys in the same quality he used to make them, with all of them being too small and dying instantly.
- His insane intelligence being too valuable to waste is also the ONLY reason why Leith decided to have Harley turned into the Playtime Automated Companion as opposed to simply feeding him to Boxy Boo and why the Prototype chose not to kill him and make his remains part of his body.
- His stands out in comparison to the rest of the antagonists in Poppy Playtime that the Intruder has to face, as rather than killing them, he chooses to test their survival abilities through the Nightmare Critters, Mini Huggies, the Red Smoke and Yarnaby.
- Furthermore, he stands out from the other Bigger Bodies experiments due to being digitalized (as opposed to becoming yet another living toy), & having full control over the whole Prison due to this, which is very cool.
- While not a redeeming quality, he respects the Intruder's survival abilities to the point where he says that they deserve to be feared by the Prototype.
- Despite trying to kill the Intruder and putting them through psychological torture, he manages to remain calm and mannerly towards them. With him being intrigued by the Intruder, by their survival abilities and their reasons to return back into the abandoned factory, a sharp contrast to the other villains who have never expressed this towards the Intruder.
- He also manages to bring a good argument on Poppy being untrustworthy towards the Intruder, as he reveals to them that she did know about the Hour of Joy before it was going to happen and never told any of her allies much less the Intruder. He's also not wrong about her stringing them along for her mission putting them on a "need to know" basis and having betrayed them before by preventing them from escaping Playtime in the climax of Chapter 2.
- Most of his deception is him using the brutal truth and twisted facts rather than outright fabrications, such as when he manipulated the Warden into giving him his Omni-Hand, he said that the Warden can either do so or get ripped apart by the toys.
- At the same time, he also correctly deduces that the reason the Hour of Joy was so efficient was that there were members of Playtime who conspired with the Prototype while the Warden was still stuck in disbelief.
- Most of his deception is him using the brutal truth and twisted facts rather than outright fabrications, such as when he manipulated the Warden into giving him his Omni-Hand, he said that the Warden can either do so or get ripped apart by the toys.
- His teeth-clenched teamwork with The Prototype revealed in one of the VHS tapes is interesting, with it being revealed that they both hate each other, with the Prototype directly telling Harley that he'd be dead if he wasn't useful, and Harley snarking and criticizing the situation the Prototype is in, showing he isn't afraid of him.
- He is usually very calm and sophisticated in most of his appearances.
What Makes Him Detestable?[]
- He is the founder of the Bigger Bodies Initiative, meaning he's responsible for all the tragedy and suffering in Poppy Playtime, including him corrupting Playtime Co. from the inside from a benevolent toy company helping orphans, into a company that would torture and experiment on orphans, infants and their own employees, along with being responsible for the Hour of Joy, which led to Playtime Co's downfall.
- He manipulated and groomed Quinn Navidson, into doing well on the Game Station so he can turn Quinn into a Bigger Body, after Quinn was transformed into Yarnaby. He emotionally abused Yarnaby by isolating him from everyone except Harley himself, in order to groom him into his personal bodyguard/pet. Once Harley was fired and taken out of the picture, the psychological effect of his abuse was so bad that all Yarnaby could do was whine and sulk awaiting for his master's return.
- When Yarnaby met his end, rather brutally, Sawyer completely disregards merely calling him a "pet," showing that he genuinely doesn't care about Yarnaby and only viewed him as a pawn.
- In Chapter 4, he tests the Protagonist by nearly killing them and trying to force them to kill a Nightmare Critter, while enjoying testing them for his own sadism & curiosity.
- He is often smug and egotistical, which usually gets the better of him.
- He shows no regret for any of his actions and crimes, which shows how evil he is.
- Despite mostly being calm, there are times he can get angry and lose his cool easily, with Leith Pierre outright pointing out that his childish temper is a bad look for him and he's not wrong at all.
Trivia[]
- He's currently the only character from Poppy Playtime to be Entertainingly Detestable.
External Links[]
- Harley Sawyer on the Villains Wiki
- Harley Sawyer on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Harley Sawyer on the Poppy Playtime Wiki