#Doey System

[the-silent-fellowship]

Doey System

[PT: Doey System]

Doey System, a system that likes or feels connection to the character Doey the Doughman from Poppy Playtime. This can be related to the general character of Doey or the way Doey was made/formed.

[ID: in Alt text]

[Tags] @system-term-archive, @pluralitywords, @pluralterms, @radiomogai, @plurchive, @horrormogai, @poppy-playtime-archive

[logicpng]

so, i have some thoughts. i feel like the game doesn't explore doey much, so i'm gonna take that as an opportunity to stretch him a lil.

in short, i see him as neither one whole nor 3 kids in a trench coat, but something in the middle of the two: a grown up who never really got to experience a proper childhood, the 3 originals in a blend with each other.

the time between creation and game events likely is enough for them to learn how to cooperate (up until. yknow). collectively or individually though, goddamn they need therapy

[ Description in ALT, text transcribed under cut ]

1st image:

point at head with teeth peeking: teeth may show more subtly, particularly when mischevious

point at hat: hat always at an angle

point at hand: stubby hands omg <3

point at neck: neck constantly bent in some fashion

Generally friendly and curious, may be more closed off and bitter if kevin is more dominant.

Collectively an adult due to passage of time and gaining experience, but still retains some more childish traits due to isolation from outside world and trauma, both collective and individual (holy shit do they need therapy).

Parts operate more or less seamlessly, but depending on situation some may show more or less of their traits.

When stressed, cooperation between parts may break down.

2nd image:

Kevin

present strongest when angry, most of anger processing goes through him.

not actually angry/cranky all of the time though, just a bit more gruff/edgy compared to the other two. tends to show teeth when talking.

over the years learned to control his rage better, can redirect it into being a bit of a troll w/ the others

understandably, safe haven's destruction made him revert and lose all restraint, resulting in lashing out, mixed with extreme emotions from others.

Jack

loved doey strongest before conversion (rip), as such expressions tend to default to his

learned to cope with constantly fighting for survival by cracking jokes and being more optimistic

present strongest when happy, may speak more childishly when in distress or comfortable

reverts into reliving trauma of death and family loss with safe haven's destruction

Matt

present strongest when focused on the leader role, strikes a balance between kevin and jack

through time learned to focus more on necessary action rather than allowing to succumb to past guilt

definitely still very stressed out from responsibility, especially after poppy leaving, learned not to show it through cooperation with kevin and jack

safe haven's destruction just plunges him straight into a guilt spiral

Note pointing at bottom notes for each: safe haven's destruction is a massively traumatic event for them, resulting in the three regressing into child selves from distress, mixed in with emotions from individual traumatic memories

[skyedancer-system]

Going into Poppy Playtime Chap. 4 I was not expecting to get halfway decent plural rep but here we are????

Spoilers for the new chapter under the cut, and also cw for all the general Poppy Playtime stuff (child death + experimentation, body horror, if you know the game you get the gist)

SO THIS GUY HUH

Doey the Doughman, the surprise character revealed just days before the chapter dropped and who finally answered the question of the red/orange/yellow hand imagery we’ve been getting teased with for so long

In the chapter himself he’s pretty important to the plot and is an ally to the player, Poppy, and Kissy for (most of) the chapter, and he’s a pretty nice guy just with a bit of a temper, and very overwhelmed by having to keep the Safe Haven together and protected in Poppy’s absence.

But his personal story? How he was created via Playtime Co.’s Bigger Bodies Initiative? Oh god it’s honestly one of the most messed up ones yet other than Yarnaby (and that’s saying something considering this is child experimentation we’re talking about, and Yarnaby lost his entire self and was treated like a straight up animal, isolated so he would love and obey Harley and only Harley)

Where most of the living toys were made from one child, Doey was made from three. Jack, a visitor to the factory that got caught in a freak accident and was taken into Playtime’s care for his medical recovery. Kevin, a problem child in the Playcare known for his anger issues. And Matthew, an extremely kind boy who tried to keep hopes up among all the orphans in the Playcare, and was a sort of leader to them.

And all three of them are still present in some form; at various points in the game you see them switch, speaking and thinking differently, with varying opinions on everything happening. And from the tape of the Jack’s parents seeing what Playtime did to their son, we see that the three have separate memories as well, at least they did when they were first put together.

And this plurality that was forced onto them isn’t played for scary points like you’d expect from a mascot horror game. Yes it is part of Doey’s monstrous design once they get upset, but them being upset is because everything they had worked to protect was destroyed by the Prototype. All of the other kids turned toys that had kept their consciousness and relied on Doey for protection, mercilessly killed. Anybody would be horrifically upset in that situation. And one of the three boys - Kevin - lashes out at the player, the other two trying to calm him down only for all of them to fall into anger and emotion.

You can clearly see the three kids; one angry, two sad, all of their emotions coming together into a grief induced rage, with physical pain only compounding it. And when you eventually have to kill them and put them out of their misery, their last words?

“I’m sorry.”

They were just kids; three kids forced into a horrible situation and having to learn to live with it. And for a long time it seems that they did, working together rather peacefully until their lives were upheaved by the arrival of the player and Poppy’s reappearance.

Kevin’s anger at everyone and the world is completely justified; I mean he and the other two were experimented on and then kept caged like animals, being practically forced to kill! He wanted to protect them; to avenge the countless others that had been killed by the Playtime scientists and the Prototype! And considering things only went to shit after the player and Poppy showed up? Well it’s no wonder that anger got directed at them

It it a super good depiction of plurality? No, not by a long shot. But it’s definitely way better than I would expect from a game like Poppy Playtime.

I was not expecting this post to get this long whoops fbsnbdns; if anyone else has anything they want to add though we’d love to hear it!

[m45t3rc0mput3r]

I've seen multiple people frustrated with Doey as "bad DID rep," citing the "evil alter" trope. I, as someone with DID as well, respectfully, disagree, and I would like to explain why. Explanation and spoilers for Chapter 4 below.

My main argument is that Kevin, the "aggressive" alter, is not evil. He is hardly even painted in a bad light.

Kevin is a scared, traumatized, tortured child, and he acts like one. Can anyone blame him for reacting with violence after being turned into a toy monster? After being experimented on? After being abused and parentified? After his home and loved ones were destroyed in an instant, just when things were looking up? I would be more baffled if someone DIDN'T react aggressively to such horrible situations.

Like the other components of Doey, Kevin seems to want to keep the younger children safe. This sometimes involves aggression, which is also a completely natural response to everything he's been through. At no point does he really do anything "evil." Doey is an antagonist, not a villain.

In my opinion, Kevin seems like a rather fair example of a protector role in a system. The job of a protector is to, as the name suggests, protect those in the system and possibly others that system must care for. This can include through PHYSICALLY protecting the system and others. Some pieces of media bastardize protectors particularly by turning them into evil monsters, but Kevin ONLY reacts aggressively when it is completely just to do so.

If you walk away from Chapter 4 thinking he was an evil alter that deliberately ruined everything and not a scared, traumatized, abused child reacting to horrible circumstances, that is missing the point and is reactionary. Not all protectors are perfect. Not all systems are perfect. Especially not ones in this situation. It is not "bad rep" to have an imperfect system rather than one that is perfectly held-together and acts perfectly at all times, never doing something possibly morally disagreeable.

[an-eggs-quest]

HIIIIII :] you shooooould doodle Doey playing “shop” with the critters, they do have an entire trading post in the Safe Haven

Fun fact looking back on the trading post they have Bron and Catbee benches!

Dialogue:

Doey: Aaalright let’s see…how much for the train?

Bubba: 6 crayons!

Doey: Okaaay…the rocket?

Bubba: the BIG ball.

Doey: Yeesh.. you drive a hard bargain, don’t cha pal

[pain-is-too-tired]

I'm a Kevin Barnes defender 100%

That is my son. He did nothing wrong 😤

No but seriously, the way people talk about him like he isn't a traumatized kid reacting to grief after loosing almost everything he had. I'd snap too.

Poppy didn't explain at all why she left the first time, then she somehow one the few that survived and she's not even at Safe Haven when we get there?? And not only are we an ex-employee, but someone who came in with Poppy. I can't be mad at him. I'd attacked us too.

[k9protocol]

I need to ramble about this so bad!! Please be aware that this blog contains spoilers to poppy playtime chapter 4.

The way we unironically relate to chapter 4 in a different kind of level? It’s hard to explain but we kinda do. Although I’d like to talk about Doey! He’s such a system coded character and we really like how well written he is. Despite his sad story, they really show the struggle of dealing with identity after scientists basically murged the 3 kids into one dough body. Those kids are Matthew, Kevin and Jack! You can also see that on his body there are hands of different colors. Orange being Matthew, Yellow being Jack, and Red being Kevin. Throughout the game their tone of voice kinda changes and you can SORTA tell who’s talking.

You can also tell the difference in personalities too and how sometimes it feels like they’re fighting themselves. Matthew is the understanding one who’s really protective of his family, Kevin is more angry and cold, Jack is more emotional.

On another part of the game too, it’s almost like a switch front situation where there’s confusion as if one kid came out and is lost about what’s going on. And in a different part when Doey is mad at the player you can tell that the crying part could be Jack (or all of them), the anger is clearly Kevin, and Matthew is trying to remain calm. I do generally love though that again they still show that they are children dealing with this nightmare. Overall we just really relate to the identity struggle and confusion that is present in Doey’s character! Chapter 4 was really good!

Reminder we are aware Doey does not have DID/OSDD, it’s just how his character is that feels system coded but we don’t think he has either disorders.

-K9

[amongrascals]

omg TRADITIONAL ART?!?! that’s wild

oh, and btw the first image is of a little story thing in my brain and google docs about a helper T cell and a benign cancer T cell thingy. so that’s character designs! the other one is of a macrophage. funny story, my buddy at school really likes my design for the macrophage! a few times I have been flipping through my sketchbook and he sees the macrophage and says “smash.” I get it pal he is wonderful. psst shrimpo’s here too!!!

also an older and very half-assed doey doodle for my fellow ppt fans

[floofyflooftheallmighty]

Doey design I made at 3 am cuz I couldn't sleep <3

Also some headcanons-

[the-silent-fellowship]

Doey is love, Doey is Life

[canonicallyplural]

Doey the Doughman from Poppy Playtime chapter 4 is canonically plural!

He has the bodies + consciousnesses of three boys, who can each control the body

.

[arekksu-alex]

Doey with a system of down shirt, And a little black hat

[butch-bakugo]

I mean we all know doey is canonically a system, a did one at that, maybe osdd, but I really don't know if I, as a did system, can say if he is explicitly bad system rep.

Spoilers for Poppy's playtime chapter 4, Danganronpa 1 and the movie split.

Like i can point to a number of representations in media that are bad. Toko from Danganronpa has a homicidal alter. The monster from split. Split at least showed some of the more realistic representation via showing a little and protector and other alters but lost any good faith interpretation when it spread myths about blind bodies gaining sight from sighted alters and the whole .. the monster thing. Hell I can point to a few ambiguous representations that border good and bad like Sunnydrop and moondrop from Fnaf.

But doey is different. Doey is the enigma, litterally. His systemhood isn't explicitly demonized and his alters arnt the reason he attacks you. Even, Kevin, the "bad alter" dosent cause it. Sure his "bad alter" or the more aggressive one who doesn't listen to authority and throws tantrums has a short fuse but the reason he attacks in the end is because your actions killed the people he wanted to protect and didnt even achieve their goal. To an extent, he's justified.

He's more accurate and harsh system rep in the form of the fact most persecutory alters are meant to be or trying to be protectors in their own special ways. Its his voice, not Mathew's or Jack's, that repeats their mantra and warning, that people who speak gently to them often hurt them. Its a defense mechanism. Mathew and Kevin are both orphans in a facility that experiments on children who got sent there either due to having no where to go or being the children of employees who met similar fates. It wouldn't be a stretch to say Kevin was a victim of our broken foster/adoption system, one wrought with physical, verbal, emotional and sexual violence.

Jack is confused, Mathew is trying to hold things together peacefully and Kevin is just trying to keep everyone safe, including themselves. I don't know if I can see doey, even if he turns into a scary monster who tries to kill you in the end, as bad system representation. Because he's justified. You just litterally blew up the one thing he feels he can do right and feels like he can do to redeem himself. He's justified in attacking you. The visual of three people being trapped in the head of a body just trying to get out as they rip at the seems was viseral as a system. When I imagine my alters within my body, especially to defend it, it's similar. Like your head splitting at the seems like that girl from late night with devil and all these people coming out.

I don't think doey is the most sanitized, clear and easy to digest system representation possible. I know some touchy just-realized-they-were systems in teen bodies and "endogenics" who have no business in this space are gonna cry from the roof tops with zero nuance that because he becomes a monster at the end and dies a sad death, he's bad rep. No if, ands or buts. We aren't talking about a well thought out, barely visible background character in some grifter qUeEr Netflix slop that's all fluff and no hard candy.

But. For what he is, it's... Good? Not great. Not the best *tm. But certainly way above the worst. Way above bad. Although I could argue it could be better and your fair to be on the fence, I think he is. I think he's good rep. He's raw. He's real. He's clear and he's justified. Although we could make arguments day and night about wether or not the team at Poppy's playtime intended for doey to be system representation or not, I think it's pretty clear he was and for being made by a group of people without a (outwardly) system amongst them, it's good rep. He's ok.

I think we finally have one. One who shows it's not a death sentence even if he dies at the end and shows it doesn't make you a monster even if he becomes one. He's no bigger, scarier or more ruthless than any other experiment, not by a long shot and I think that's good. I wish he survived, I wish he didnt turn into a monster. I wish he would of simply escaped but I think he's ok. I see the representation and I raise you, maybe let the next one live to the end but keep up the good work? Its clear from the outside you tried and did a fairly good job. We need more casual rep.

*edit: didn't know the persecutory alter had a name, fixed wording.

[illfatedheir]

Okay but does anyone else feel oddly validated by Doey? Like as someone with DID my main three alters are like, the same. Atlas is responsable, Elliotte is nice, and Viktor is the "mean" one (he's really just protecting us.) Like we were this way long before poppy playtime so to see it shown is just comforting y'know?

[butchifiedcatfish]

So often we feel like the only person that understands Doey the doughman on a fundamental level because of our systemhood. Like so often Kevin is painted as evil and the “bad one” by fans (especially with Jacks parents death) when its very obvious due to a mix of trauma, fear and other things that could affect it that they attacked Jack’s parents. Something-something the gentle voices lie. Like he is a really complex character to analyse especially with the system coding that he has. None of the kids are evil, Kevin just seems to be the most neurodivergent coded out of all of them and playtime could of easily not suited his needs. From the little we get of Kevin he’s just an easily agitated autistic kid who has trouble with socialising due to the environment and being autistic

[ranibwsprimklez]

system here !! i definitely thought doey was system coded at least in my eyes, esp bc theyre young children and the combination is caused by a very traumatic event, DID being caused by trauma. he just felt very system-y to me !

:DDDD !!!! @brokerplushsg question answered bru