"People, especially nowadays, are so obsessed with knowing everything. They'll have to invest their time in finding it."
— Poppy
Well, Poppy, that's what tropers are for.
- Author's Saving Throw: Shortly after the Mars Argo case was dismissed due to Poppy, Titanic Sinclair and Argo settling privately, Poppy changed her video style slightly, perhaps as a way to show herself to be less of a "Mars Argo" clone.
- Moriah would later on issue a statement declaring that she and Sinclair would be parting ways after the release of I Disagree, stating that Sinclair was abusive and manipulative to her as well as "glamorizing suicide". This led to some of Argo's fanbase supporting her after she originally stated that Argo had been lying about her past with Sinclair.
- Black Sheep Hit: Musically, while her viral success has been consistently apparent, her biggest chart-based hit is "Lowlife", a mostly straightforward love song fusing reggae and pop that sticks out when compared to her much more quirky and experimental future discography.
- Character Blog: She used to use her Twitter for weird Poppy sayings, but a lot of it has been scrubbed aside from retweets.
- Corpsing:
- In "How to Load a Gun"
, when Poppy slides the magazine into the gun, she very briefly flinches and grins, which many saw as a rare out-of-character moment. - In "Kids React Cast Meets Poppy For The First Time", Poppy can be seen smiling at some of the kids' more hysterical reactions to her (including one who tries to ward her off by making the Cross with her arms).
- In "How to Load a Gun"
- Creator Backlash:
- While she hasn't outright said it or divulged to what degree it affects her, it's clear that her work with Titanic Sinclair is something she would like to put behind her, with her work and general artistic behavior since their split developing away from them (most notably by how Moriah is more open to speaking "out of character").
- She also spoke negatively of her experience of being signed onto Mad Decent, claiming that it was poorly run. She was also miffed by how in her account, they released vinyl pressings of some of her music without her consent.
- Poppy and Titanic tried very hard to erase the prior work of Poppy's life (when she was "Moriah Poppy") either because it was too personal, it was not in line with Poppy's current image, or they are ashamed of it. Lyrics from "American Kids":
I burned all my shit in a bonfire
All my teen regrets were a tripwire - Creator Breakdown:
- During an out-of-character response to the Mars Argo lawsuit and drama, Moriah disclosed that the Poppy project, including her general privacy surrounding it, is a way to deal with previous abuse in her life.
- The Apple Music liner notes of I Disagree greatly imply that much of the album and its themes, consciously at the time or not, were reflective of Moriah's personal state while working with Sinclair up until their breakup. She doesn't directly name him, but the themes she highlights of aggressive empowerment after long stretches of abuse certainly line up with it. In the notes of "Don't Ask", she even admits that while she still loves I Disagree, she wishes to part ways with its sound in part due to its personal ties to this period."This track is also saying don’t ask me about any things that have happened in the past, because I’m not going to talk about them anymore."
- Cut Song:
- There was a produced song called "Chewing Gum" uploaded to her SoundCloud, but it was deleted almost immediately after and didn't become a part of the Bubblebath EP. In 2020, Poppy confirmed that she uploaded it herself, planned it to be a B-side to Bubblebath, and to this day still likes it, but it was taken down by Island Records, her label at the time.
- At one point, a 15-second snippet of a song called "Everybody wants it all" surfaced, obviously in Poppy's voice, though Titanic denies it. Presumably, it was canned because the reference to Mars Argo's final video was too blatant.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Poppy is a natural brunette who dyed her hair platinum blonde to fit with the "That Poppy" aesthetic.
- Fan Community Nicknames: Popsisters, and more rarely, Poppy-seeds.
- Flip-Flop of God: Poppy has given two answers regarding the origin of her name. The first (probably closer to the truth) is that her friend got the name from a character in a movie she and Poppy were watching, and she started introducing people to her as Poppy, and it eventually stuck. The second answer is that "it descended from the heavens and landed in [her] lap, and [she] just decided to go with it."
- God Never Said That:
- Even though she considers herself "from" Nashville, she was not born in Nashville. Her real birthplace is probably Boston, Massachusetts, as in a very old vlog from around 2011-2012, she stated that she grew up in Boston until about 14 years of age. However, she doesn't really correct people when they say she's "born" in Nashville, since she doesn't like talking too much about personal details.
- Poppy never said her name is a play on the word "pop" as in pop music. That's just a happy accident. In actual fact, she had the name before even working with Titanic.
- Titanic and Poppy never said every video had a hidden/deeper meaning behind it, nor did they say that the videos form any kind of overarching story, nor did they say that Poppy is inherently a satire/parody. But this is usually taken as gospel thanks to in-depth theory videos from people such as Night Mind (which, to be fair, Titanic tweeted), leading to a bit of an Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory situation.
- Line to God: Has a Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat (thatpoppy) and Reddit account. She used to have a Tumblr, but deleted it for reasons unclear.
- Looping Lines: All of Poppy's speech is voiced over after shooting. Moreover, all of the sound effects are added in. The reason for doing this is unclear, but may be to provide a "fake" vibe, or simply to have the lines sound cleaner without needing a small microphone on Poppy or a boom mic. Titanic Sinclair also does this on his channel. At the end of this video, you can observe the trope stopping.
- Money, Dear Boy: "Money" (at least taken totally at face value) is entirely dedicated to this. Commenting on the song, Poppy said "Money makes people happy, and that is why I am singing about it. You can buy anything with money."
- Reality Subtext:
- The entire narrative concept behind "Hard Feelings" from Am I a Girl? — Poppy questioning her own creation and contemplating whether she's "a replica of someone that you loved" — is a massive fourth wall-leaning referencing the Mars Argo controversies earlier in the year.
- Several tracks off I Disagree are believed to be Poppy's way of further addressing the Mars Argo debacle as well as her inevitable separation from Titanic Sinclair. "Anything Like Me" is frequently read as her backlash towards her compliance with Sinclair's direction, as well as her regrets of how she dealt with Mars herself. "Nothing I Need" (the last song written for the album) is also very transparently about Poppy recognizing Sinclair as a problem and deciding to finally part ways with himnote .
- "Never Find My Place" is transparently about coming to terms with the abuse she suffered under Titanic, and the song includes the line "nobody here is free and clear", referencing to her early dismissal of Mars.
- Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Not Poppy herself, but after abuse allegations against him surfaced from Evan Rachel Wood and several other women, Poppy pulled three photos that featured Marilyn Manson from her Instagram account.
- Screwed by the Lawyers: The music video for "Money" was pulled because some of the 8-bit sprites in the video were used without permission.
- Streisand Effect:
- Part of what has buoyed Poppy's popularity is her cryptic nature and her penchant for obscuring details about herself. She's tried to hide her real name and age. She has deleted information about her true early life. She and Titanic have attempted to erase her past work. Because of this, communities have formed trying to piece together everything about her. Ironically, the concept of fans wanting to learn everything about pop stars' lives is exactly what Titanic and Poppy make fun of.
- When asked how old she is, Poppy says "I do not identify with an age" because she doesn't want people to talk about her age, but what she's making instead (and also because of the catch-22 of pop stars either being too young to be taken seriously or too old to be considered talented). Ironically, because of this Vague Age setup, people practically discuss nothing but her age; it's a common point of discussion.
- After people really started looking into the past of the Poppy project, Titanic started deleting any comments relating to Mars Argo from his and Poppy's channels to avoid drawing attention to his dead past project. Naturally this led to a "Cult of Mars Argo" fan group, an attempt by some people to unearth every scrubbed video, and their previously low viewed videos skyrocketing in popularity.
- What Could Have Been: It's widely believed that Poppy and Grimes' collaboration, "Play Destroy" from Am I A Girl? in 2018, was one of two, with many speculating that the Grimes-released track "We Appreciate Power" later in the year featuring HANA was originally supposed to feature Poppy. To make a long (and ambiguous) story short, Poppy claims the two wrote both songs together but suffered a falling-out resulting in non-disclosure agreements barring proper credit, while HANA denies this and claims she co-wrote "We Appreciate Power" with Grimes, with Grimes being visibly indifferent with the debate, Poppy, and their collaborations in general.
- Write What You Know: The song "Aristocrat" — about the narrator sneaking into a high class party — was reportedly based on an actual story Poppy/Moriah got into before she became famous, where she snuck through a window into a "secret party" where the host wasn't aware of her presence.
