Some islands are set in the past, others in the future, and a chunk of them in the present. Well, they're all islands. They're all isolated societesnote Though they often interact, like Counterfeit and Early Poptropica Island developing at their own time!
We don't know that Erewhon Prison is located adjacent to New York City (or at least, the Poptropica version of it) until the climax of Super Villain Island. Well, it's a prison containing the worst of villains, only a helicopter ride can take you there (and you need to parachute yourself down), and the only access inside is a secret entrance. It's more-than-likely the entrance is kept top secret, and the prison is intentionally secluded from the public.
Also, why New York? Why not California, since Erewhon is loosely based on Alcatraz Island?note Escape from Pelican Rock would come later Given that Poseidon gives you his trident to defeat Zeus, it's a definite Percy Jackson reference. This can also give explanation to why it was just Poseidon who helps you, when in the original Mythology Island it was both Poseidon and Hades.
Captain Crawfish's dream has clones of him doing nothing but sleeping. Compared to the other three villains he appears to be the eldest, with his grayed hair. The elderly are stereotypically known to be heavy sleepers. Captain Crawfish is sleeping while he's asleep.
Adding more to this, they're ghost clones to be exact. And with Captain Crawfish appearing to be one of the older villains...
The player character doesn't eat the golden apple at any point in Mythology Island. Because what happens if you do so? You become immortal, and we're not entirely sure it's possible to be revoked of that.
And if the player did eat the golden apple, it would generate Fridge Logic concerning islands where you have a Near-Death Experience, especially in the case of the Survival Island episodes.
Less horrifying but more on the hilarious side: in Night Watch Island, the player character says this when you click on the chocolate-flavored soap sud bubbles in the MacGuffin’s store: “I wish my mom would've washed my mouth out with these.” Implying that the player character has cursed before.
A good number of the NPCs (yes, even the adults), don't seem to be the brightest or the most competent. Even the officers and detectives don't seem well fit for their jobs. They leave the bulk of the work to the player character, who typically is a child (depending on who's actually playing). So really, it's no surprise that Poptropica islands are constantly facing villainous threats, five (24 Carrot, Steampunk, Zomberry, Game Show and Poptropicon episode 3) even end up in apocalypses.
The Booted Bandit of Escape from Pelican Rock looks like an exact carbon copy of the player character. Depending on how many islands you have completed before Pelican Rock, your player might be regarded as a Poptropica hero. Wonder how many favors looking like an international legend was done for the Booted Bandit before that point...
Speeding Spike is the only Super Power Island villain who didn't make an on-screen appearance in Super Villain Island. In the bonus quest, one of the inmates managed to steal an officer's key to escape, and threw said officer in their cell. The prisoner is from Super Power Island. It's not far off to assume that the perpetrator was Speeding Spike, who was actually doing this offscreen the entire time.
The dreams in Super Villain Island imply some backstories regarding the featured villains. A more obvious example is Black Widow, whose dream hints that harsh criticisms concerning her own art drove her into becoming an art thief. However, they're mostly ambiguous. But that's the catch: they're ambiguous. A prime example is Dr. Hare's dream, which is Played for Laughs but could also be implying a Dark and Troubled Past. Heck, the featured four villains' Fandom Wiki pages have speculations on their pasts based on their dreams.
Rubbing salt into the wound, there are a number of existing Poptropica villains with backstories that give them a more sympathetic light: for example Arabian Nights' Scheherazade, Monster Carnival's Ringmaster Raven and Vampire's Curse's Count Bram. Black Widow, Dr. Hare, Binary Bard, and Captain Crawfish wouldn't be the only ones with pitiful backstories if the above is true. And there are plentiful of Poptropica villains, which raises this question: how many more of these characters suffered tragic pasts to end up as these diabolical figures?
The shrink ray thief in Shrink Ray Island is revealed to be Mr. Silva, CJ's teacher. When we are first introduced to him, he presents himself as a caring teacher. So naturally CJ trusted him... And he went on to betray her, steal her invention, and even hold her hostage in his classroom. The best thing we can take from this is that when adults aren't incompetent in the Poptropica world, they're potential threats in disguise. Mr. Silva also ended up in Erewhon, which is reserved for the worst of criminals. It's that bad Poptropica In-Universe considers it as a supervillain crime!
On Pelican Rock Island, the twins initially seem like helpful side characters who provide key information to the player character at the start and later help the player character in escaping the water surround the island. But looking closer at everything they do makes them a little more notorious.
For starters, they only pop up and reveal they had been planning their own escape after the player character has already opened a way out with the - separately, highly elusive, but together, near impossible to get - drill bit and mixer.
Then they stall the escape, which is at best is because they need more time for the raft, and at worse, making sure the escape happens on their terms.
Then, when they do escape, they block the way out through the tunnels, forcing the player character to take the - dangerous and closely watched - roof out, where the player character would had inevitably been spotted and caught had it not been for Patches letting the bird go.
And then the twins say they'll go straight after the trio escapes the prison, but they decide to rob a bank for "seed money" in the next line (a bank which they hint at having robbed before).
Their decision to aid the player character may seem kind and helpful. But the player character is believed to be a major criminal (the police chief is able to have a bunch of police standing around an empty hillside on the off-chance that they'll re-catch the Booted Bandit, so the Bandit must have been quite the threat to have that amount of surveillance dedicated) and the twins have no other reason to think otherwise - no one believed the character's protests of mistaken identity. They are willing to help one of the hardest to catch criminals - who avoided capture for at least 20 years - in order to make their own escape a little quicker. Even the twin's early dialogue, which tells the player character they can can dig their way out, is probably just some pre-escape gloating.
In Super Villain Island, the player character and the four (no longer evil) villains fall into the water after the lab explodes. The villains make their escape by swimming. So... what happened to Binary Bard, who is half-machine? Is he actually a waterproof machine? Or should we assume the worst case happened to him moments after...?
