CatNap is a Fucking Terrible Villian and Here's Why 🤡💩

As many of you might know, Catnap is a very well-received villain in the Poppy Playtime community, but honestly, I don’t think it’s deserved, and I’m going to explain why.

I understand that sometimes less is more, but in Catnap’s case, I think he appears too little in the game. A villain with minimal screen time can be effective as long as they make a proper impact, and it’s not too little. At least Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Longlegs have their moments. Catnap is barely in the game. Out of over three hours of gameplay, Catnap only appears for three minutes in total, minus the boss fight all the way at the end. Don’t worry; I’ll get to that in a minute.

Along with that, Catnap barely does anything in the chapter. We are told what he’s capable of, but we never actually see it ourselves, which, in my opinion, weakens him as a villain. For example, we are told by Ollie in the game, “Every shadow and every flickering light is a hiding spot. He always stalks his prey first. He’ll take anything you have to defend yourself. And once you’re most vulnerable, he’ll kill you. He lives for the hunt.” So, I thought, “Cool, this is probably going to be a game mechanic when we come across Catnap,” but nope, it isn’t. It’s just words without any substance or importance to the gameplay.

We are also told in the ARG for the chapter that Catnap can contort his bones and change size at will, but we never see that. His final form in the boss fight doesn’t count because it’s just a hallucination caused by his red gas.

Imagine if Mr. X, the iconic relentless stalker from Resident Evil 2 (Remake), was hyped up throughout the game as an unstoppable force who could track your every move, break down walls, and cause genuine terror. Now, imagine if instead of actually experiencing these moments, Mr. X only showed up for a brief cutscene at the beginning, a few minutes of random appearances that didn’t affect gameplay, and then disappeared until the final boss fight.

Catnap was hyped up and teased in the marketing to be this terrifying and powerful presence that stalks you and watches your every move, but all he does is just walk past you, slightly noticing you, and then not appear for the next hour—only to stomp around in the boss fight.

And don’t even get me started on the death scene. The reason I hate the death scene so much is because it’s just not impactful to me. If we didn’t see so little of what he could do and what he was actually capable of, and if we actually had scenes with him other than the boss fight where we were in actual danger, the death scene would’ve felt more deserved. Also, I just think the death scene is very underwhelming in general.

Now compare that to Mommy Longlegs. She is a genuinely great horror villain, in my opinion. Her presence is felt throughout the entire game, and her personality is so well-established at the beginning of the game. She’s psychotic, manipulative, and most importantly, dangerous. From her demeanor alone, you can tell what she’s capable of. When you are in a room, you don’t feel threatened or anxious that Catnap may come at any time. In Chapter 2, after you cheat, you feel anxious, thinking Mommy could come at any time, but that never came into play in Chapter 3. Controversial opinion, but I think she could easily beat Catnap in a fight with two of her arms off. Let’s not forget her death scene, though—easily the best in the entire game. You can genuinely feel her pain as she’s being crushed, and it makes the player more empathetic toward her, which, in my opinion, makes her even scarier because it’s on a personal level, kind of like the bear from Annihilation.

Also, none of Catnap’s actions make any sense. He says he’s going to come for you, but he never does. Even when he has the perfect chance to kill the player, he never does, and I have a theory for that: Catnap is a fucking pussy, both literally and figuratively 🐈.

He doesn’t immediately catch the player and get it over with because he’s scared of us. He’s seen that we were able to take down Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Longlegs, two toys that are significantly stronger than Catnap. Catnap is a weak little bitch, and he knows it, so the reason he doesn’t appear much for the entire game until the end is because he’s trying to create a plan to get rid of us without having to go into physical contact with us because of his physical flaws. Even when he did decide to try and get rid of us head-on, he completely failed because he’s too fucking slow. He’s weaker than the other monsters, he’s slow as fuck, and the only advantage he has is that he smokes pot. Plus, he’s a serious simp for the Prototype because the Prototype saved him, and he knows that without the Prototype’s protection, he’s dead fucking meat. And don’t give me the excuse “But he was able to kill all the Smiling Critters” because I have two explanations for that. Either he got help from the Prototype to kill the other Smiling Critters because he knew that if he tried to do it alone, he would’ve been completely overpowered by several other monsters the same size as him, or, my personal favorite, Catnap didn’t actually kill the other Smiling Critters and he just took the leader, Dogday, convincing them that they were the last Smiling Critter to sound cool because he’s a fucking wussy.

Also, the scene where he tells us “Leave Playcare or I’m coming for you,” even though he could have killed us at any time anyway, is because Catnap saying that is his way of giving up and trying to find an excuse to make the player leave because he knows he’s way out of his fucking league.

The only reason he confronts us head-on as a hallucination in the final battle is that he’s too scared to show up properly, and after the boss fight, when he climbs into the room and slowly reaches his paw towards us instead of just grabbing us straight away before the player can do anything, it’s because he’s hesitating to grab them—so fucking afraid of them that the mere thought of trying to grab them makes him piss himself because he’s so insecure and weak. He’s probably shitting himself, knowing that if he grabs the player, he might actually get his ass kicked. The guy is so insecure and weak that he can’t even muster up the courage to finish the job. Instead of being a fearsome villain, Catnap is just a spineless, trembling retard who can’t even follow through on his own threats. It’s no wonder he’s only effective in hallucinations—he’s too fucking scared to do anything real.

Another reason why he’s weak? Look at his physiology. He looks less like a cat and more like an anorexic inbred furry fucked a Great Dane. The best he could do is have the gait of a giraffe with cerebral palsy. No wonder he’s so slow. He’s basically like that one kid who talks a big game but always backs out when it’s time to actually step up. Catnap is just trying to play it safe because he knows he’s outmatched.

Alright, let’s get even rawer with this. Catnap’s whole “I’m a terrifying predator” act is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Ollie’s creepy lines—“Every shadow and every flickering light is a hiding spot. He always stalks his prey first. He’ll take anything you have to defend yourself. And once you’re most vulnerable, he’ll kill you. He lives for the hunt”—are just the Prototype’s way of covering Catnap’s sorry ass. Catnap, with his giant ego and tiny balls, begged the Prototype to make him sound like the scariest shit in the game. “Come on, make me look like a total beast,” he whined. The Prototype, being the manipulative fuck it is, played along, giving Catnap the hype he so desperately needed.

Dogday? Just another gullible idiot who bought into Catnap’s bullshit. Catnap had him convinced he was the ultimate predator, thanks to some Prototype-powered bullshit. But when it came time to face reality, the Prototype took one look at Catnap and thought, “You’re a fucking joke. Your ego is as big as your failures.” So, the Prototype dropped him like a bad habit, saying, “You’re a lost cause. Get fucked.”

In the end, Catnap’s terrifying persona was just a desperate cover-up for his crippling insecurity and pathetic reality. The Prototype’s parting shot? “You’re a fucking embarrassment.”