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Alternative Character Interpretation in Five Nights at Freddy's. open/close all folders
In General:
In General
- The animatronics themselves. Are they simply machines with malfunctioning programming, or are they corrupted by being haunted? Likewise, there is debate over whether or not they're truly malevolent or if they do genuinely believe you need "help" back into your costume.
- One interpretation of the Phone Guy is that he's lying about the sentient robots being murderous to screw with your head. In this case, the guard simply faints from fear if caught and dreams of being mangled. The Phone Guy simply faked his death and recorded backwards audio after the first game's fourth night up until he retired. Humorous, but unlikely, unfortunately.
- The management, and Fazbear Entertainment as a whole. Are they genuinely evil, or just stupid? Or both?
Games:
Five Nights at Freddy's
- The reason why Mike keeps coming back to Freddy's. Is it because he is so desperate for money? Does he not want another poor sap to take his nightmarish job? Is he under contract that prevents him for simply quitting? Does he not believe that he's really in danger, but decided to keep the animatronics out just in case the risk is real? Is he trying to figure out what's going on? Is he some kind of Nightmare Fetishist who finds his job thrilling? Or is he a literal Nightmare Fetishist?
- Adding to the first possible explanation, some people have theorized Mike might be disabled, since he's unable to move from his seat, and is paid less than minimum wage (even for his day). Since people with disabilities often have a harder time finding work and additionally tend to have higher medical expenses, if he's disabled that might explain why he's willing to stay.
Five Nights at Freddy's 2
- Before the game came out and put this to rest, a popular theory after the knowledge of how the new bots differ from the old is that they're actually protecting Freddy's and the night watch from the old line of killer animatronics. Under this theory, you're the poor sod whose only means of defense is wearing a mask from the old animatronics, which places the new animatronics squarely in Hero Antagonist if they attack you for that reason.
- Freddy has gotten this treatment. Why, one might ask? In the pixelated post-death minigames that seem to reveal the truth of the murderer's identity being The Puppet (possibly), Freddy in one is chasing after him. Even assuming the Puppet was not involved, Freddy never does anything to hurt the kids, and is the subject of most of the Atari voice promptings to save the kids in each game he appears, suggesting a lack of ability to stop the murders on his part despite trying to.
- The Puppet gets some of this, of whether or not it's the murderer. The pixelated post-death minigames seem to suggest its involvement, but on the flip side, a mysterious purple man appears in some of the mini-games. In the cake mini-game, he seemingly kills someone, in another he's there when Foxy runs into a room of dead kids, and he can also appear in the Puppet chase
◊. If the purple man catches you during the chase, the game will actually terminate. The purple man's badge suggests he was a security guard, or posing as one. If the purple man was the one who killed the kids and the Puppet was the one who brought the dolls to life, is it possible that the Puppet was trying to save the kids in the only way it could? Or is the security guard just the Puppet's scapegoat?]] One theory even hypothesizes that the Puppet may have been the crying kid that died in the Cake-Giving Game, which was confirmed to be the case in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. - Similar to some interpretations for the previous game about the animatronics in general, are they hostile towards you and other adults because they think you're the murderer? The newer ones are even said to have predator targeting systems and facial recognition. Due to how the minigames make all adults similar in appearance, and the mention that each bot is vaguely hostile to any adult they come into contact with, many fans have taken the theory that the animatronics can't tell adults apart to know which is the one who killed the kids (or was framed for killing the kids, or whatever actually happened).
- However, remember that Phone Guy tells you that the older ones were fitted with "some" of the new technology before they were put aside in favor of the Toys. He never tells you which parts of the new tech they were fitted with. Is it possible that they too have some of the predator targeting and facial recognition technology inside them as well, just incomplete and (probably) malfunctioning from the bits of rotting dead children inside them?
- All the night security guards (like everything else in the game) is subject to some interpretation, but Jeremy Fitzgerald gets this especially: Is he just a guy doing his job and getting mixed up in things beyond his ken, or is he the Purple Man who kidnapped and killed the missing children, using the pizzeria as a base of operations?
- Most people who believe the latter interpretation of Jeremy often bring up the simple question of: Why are you even there on Night 6? Did you really not know about these horrific murders at your own workplace, or did you go to clean up any remaining evidence of your crimes?
Five Nights at Freddy's 3
- For Springtrap:
- Is he just malfunctioning like the previous animatronics or is he possessed by the vengeful spirit of William Afton? Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator seems to confirm the latter, as Springtrap (or "Afton" as he's referred to in-game) taunts the player if he kills them and expresses fascination over the living animatronics. There are also theories that William Afton is somehow still alive in the Springtrap suit (whether or not this is true, he's definitely not still alive (as opposed to being possessed by Afton's spirit) after the Fazbear's Fright fire, as Pizzeria Simulator seems to indicate he's not much more than a skeleton).
- The speaker sounds you use to move to manipulate Springtrap's travel are the "Hi" and giggling of Balloon Boy from the previous game. Is Springtrap just following his function to entertain children? Or is the killer looking for another victim?
- Some fans like to see Springtrap (as in Spring Bonnie, the animatronic/mascot character himself) as a sort of unfortunate victim, or even a Hero with Bad Publicity, considering he seemed to put the killer down, at least for a while. In the same vein, others also see him as an innocent victim of Grand Theft Me at the hands of said killer, made to murder his own loving audience against his will (making the springlock failure that killed the Purple Guy Spring Bonnie's way of finally getting revenge on him). You'll see artwork that shows him as almost having puppy dog eyes, as though the mascot figure itself is the true tragic figure; conversely, you can find artwork that play up his nightmarish design so hard that he looks less like a rabbit and more like a jackal.
- The ending of Sister Location adds an entirely new perspective to him: If he's really the (presumably) innocent son of the murderer, are his pleads for help and sounds of pain genuine? What if he really is looking for help, yet his sudden appearances in the office give the guard a heart attack? This has been jossed by Scott.
- The nature of the hallucinations: are they just caused by the shoddy ventilation system and the guard's fear of the animatronics, or are they related to the children the murderer killed? If they are the children, than that gives another one where [after completing Nightmare Mode, a news article appears saying that the attraction burned down. This can be either interpreted as the faulty wiring (which was foreshadowed), the guard committing arson for one reason or another, or the spirits of the children themselves burned the place down.
- The Fazbear Frights Guard and if you interpret the subtle hints that his playing the between-night minigames was the direct cause of putting the restless souls of the missing children at peace and/or that he was the one who set fire to the attraction, or if that was all just coincidence and he is just a First-Person Peripheral Narrator who can only observe and try to survive like the guards from the other games.
- As of Pizzeria Simulator, there's a theory that the protagonist of this game is Henry/the Cassette Man, due to the similar endings (Purple Guy burning, and when it failed, he ensured that it worked the second time, making it seem he was mostly after his old friend). It would also explain the phantoms being from different eras; he remembers them all. Not to mention that he is the only guard the Puppet doesn't just kill when she reaches him. On the other hand, he should be really old by the events of 3 if this were true.
Five Nights at Freddy's 4
- Were the older brother and the other kids who shoved the protagonist's head in Fredbear's mouth being sadistic monsters, or were they just being dumb kids who didn't know what they were doing until it was too late? The cutscene at the end of Night 6 strongly implies it to be the latter.
- In his Easter Egg appearance, William Afton can be found putting a Spring Bonnie mask on an employee. Was he just doing it as part of his job, or (since 2 revealed that a yellow suit was used to lure the children into the back) was he trying to frame another employee for his murders?
- In the Night 2 minigame, did the person in the Fredbear suit intentionally scare the child by following him, or did he just see that the child was upset and come over to try and help, accidentally scaring him?
- Fredbear himself. Despite the Nightmare Animatronics terrorizing the poor child, Fredbear — or at least the plush of him — seems to try to console the child, even going so far as to say that he and the others want to fix the child after he suffers the Bite. Is this actual good intentions... or just a precursor to the nightmares faced in gameplay? (Or good intentions gone (literally) nightmarishly wrong?)
- Is the player character the little brother who was shoved into Fredbear's mouth and the game is his Dying Dream? Or is it the older brother who's having nightmares from the guilt?
Five Nights at Freddy's World
- Is Fredbear (the NPC one) a slave to Scott Cawthon, or just his controllable creation?
- Is Chipper the real mastermind of the entire story, as evidenced by a music parody, or just a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere with a planned revenge?
- The playable animatronics in general. Are they mindless murderers who go out on a killing spree while viewing everything as a Sugar Bowl, or just random adventurers who aren't aware of their actions? If the former is true, then Rainbow's actions and attitude take on a whole new meaning...
- Did Scott create the entire game just to get back at the fanbase? And, on that note, was he mistaken in assuming the fans were continually harrasing him?
Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location
- In the Good Ending, is Ennard still trying to kill you? Or did you just take the thing home and it wants popcorn? Alternatively, you were stupid enough to bring the thing home and it wants to kill you while eating popcorn.
- Baby. Is she a caring animatronic that's worried about the well-being of her kind as well as you? Was she the one who tricked you into going into the Scooper, or was it Ennard using Baby's voice? Is she a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants herself and her kind to be free and will do anything to get there, even if it means killing her new friend? Is she just pretending to help you to reach the surface by herself?
- When Baby/Ennard tells you that "the scooper only hurts for a moment", is it Blatant Lies? Or Exact Words? Or perhaps Ennard is simply not aware that unlike animatronics, humans can't exactly survive without their skin?
- The game itself ultimately decides to Take a Third Option: as the Custom Night cutscenes demonstrate, Ennard was right.
- Is William Afton a.k.a. The Purple Guy the Villain Protagonist of the game? Is he already a Serial Killer or is he an innocent whose body was stolen by Ennard to commit the murders? On that note, did he program the animatronics to be bloodthirsty, or was it just an unfortunate glitch? Or perhaps Eggs Benedict really isn't William Afton, but then why do the animatronics use the voice of Afton's daughter on Eggs? The Golden Night ending subverts this; there's two Aftons, one of which is the nicer Michael Afton.
- HandUnit. Incompetent and glitchy mission control or intentionally trying to kill "Eggs Benedict" with bad advice? Baby's comments give credit to the latter, but he also tries warning the player about the Scooping Room before it's too late. Or is he the next-gen version of Phone Guy's tapes, a series of pre-recorded statements rather than an actual AI?
- Is Ballora truly against the plan of escaping or is that just Baby 'pretending' again, constructing a fake 'story' to get you to go along with their plan? After all, Ballora is not present as herself on Night 5, which is when Baby convinces 'her' not to attack you.
- Pretty much all of Night 5 can be called into question due to Baby's Unreliable Narrator status. Is it truly Baby speaking to you from Ennard's body, or is Ennard manipulating you with Baby's voice? Is "Ballora" truly trying to kill you via Ennard, or is Ballora's presence on Night 5 a concoction Ennard creates to scare you into obeying? One could also argue that "Ballora" is simply Ennard/Baby "pretending" to be Ballora to avoid suspicion, due to the fact that "Ballora" only attacks if you deviate from Ennard's plan.
- In the Private Room, Ennard implies that Eggs wants to see "her" again, most likely referring to his dead sister who was eaten by Baby, and believes she's still alive as Baby and thus, wants to keep her as near him as possible. This could be a reason why in the Fake Ending, he may have brought Ennard home with him, since they might have his sister in there.
- All the times in the game you hear Baby talking to you, was it ever actually Baby or was it Ennard using her voice all along? If it's the latter, what is Baby's true personality? Does she even have one? Was she opposed to being scooped like Ballora was? Was she already dead by Night 1, that being why she was missing from her stage?
- Does Ennard have its own distinct mind and personality? Does it have a hybrid personality made up of the combined A.I.s of all the Funtime animatronics? Or does it just take on the personality of whichever animatronic is currently in control of it?
Freddy Fazbera's Pizzeria Simulator
- William Afton, the Big Bad himself. Did he genuinely love his daughter, Elizabeth, as the previous game implied, or was it all just a facade in order to mold her as his heir to murdering children?
- The secret graveyard screen launched two variations of one theory; that the protagonists of 1 to 3 were either Michael Afton or The Cassette Man. Both had a reason to be in these locations, both know how to tamper with the animatronics, and they were using fake names taken from the dead kids to get re-hired again and again. (Although the fact that one of them is a walking corpse and the other is the founder of the pizzeria chain would make this harder for them.)
- Scrap Baby/Elizabeth, was she really the Token Good Teammate of Sister Location and was somehow corrupted by Ennard? Or was she really Evil All Along and was just "pretending" to be good in Sister Location?
- Speaking of which, how much of her is AI or Elizabeth. Her ending speech seems to be pointing that Elizabeth is completely in control, but it also must be remembered William Afton can also be seen as the father of Circus Baby, and her ending speech could be her accepting what he made her to be, a child-killing robot. It can also be both becoming one between games.
Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery
- Some speculate that Vanessa's bizarre search and order history isn't outright the result of Sanity Slippage, but Glitchtrap threatening her into compliance. Supporting this is the fact she apparently ordered flowers and chocolate for herself with the message 'Flowers for your grave,' with the implication that 'Brad' is Glitchtrap using an alias. There's also a more humorous interpretation that the flowers and chocolate, as well as the rainbow hair extensions, were Vanessa's attempts to stop Luis from pursuing her romantically.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach
- Is Roxanne Wolf a narcissist who is completely full of herself, or is she suffering from a inferiority complex that she tries to deal with through verbal self-affirmation? The way she repeats "I am the best" twice when you're spying on her in the vents, with a slight stutter the second time makes it sounds like she doesn't truly believe what she's saying. When she taunts Gregory with "I bet you don't even have any friends", is she projecting? The way she sounds so upset when she calls out to Gregory with "You think you're better than me?" might suggest that she isn't as self-confident as she looks at first glance… not to mention her crying at her failure to capture Gregory when you have to bust into her room inside Freddy around 4am, though this could also be interpreted as her narcissism being so extreme that she can't handle any blows to her self-esteem.
- Some have also suggested that, while Roxy clearly does have esteem issues and is a Sore Loser, her childish taunting is intended just to provoke Gregory into coming out of hiding to respond so she can help (before her boss fight, that is). Being a Mouthy Kid, it's not an unreasonable assumption. Every so often she will drop the attitude and say in a bored and exasperated tone, "Hey kid, come on out. We're only trying to help."
- Gregory has a surprising amount of both resourcefulness and ruthlessness bordering on Troubling Unchildlike Behavior. He sees nothing wrong with damaging the other Glamrocks to upgrade Freddy, nor with the idea of lying to him about it. Combined with the fact he has no records, it calls a lot about him into question. This may be accounted for when you consider the one-star ending, which implies Gregory is a homeless child who may have had to learn how to be independent and possibly commit morally grey acts to survive.
- Vanessa behaves like a hot-tempered Child Hater throughout the game, but the gameplay trailer depicts her in a different light in that she sincerely wants to help. Similarly, she has unused voicelines that are gentler in tone. The one time she catches you as a scripted event she just locks you inside Lost and Found and harshly berates you before switching to Vanny. Combined with the three-star ending showing her getting ice cream with Gregory and Freddy after being freed, and the CDs depicting her as more shy and anxious, it raises the possibility that at least some of Vanessa's more caustic moments is Anger Born of Worry as a result of Glitchtrap's control over her. It also helps that Heather Masters has implied that she's using essentially a 'mom voice' while voice acting Vanessa.
- Was Monty evil long before Vanny and Glitchtrap entered the picture, and did he consciously decommission Bonnie to take his place? Does he also truly hate Freddy and want to take his place as well? While the game points at it, a few people suspect that he may have a Hidden Heart of Gold and his potential role in Bonnie's death was under the influence of being Brainwashed and Crazy rather than maliciousness. Whether Monty was always a bad robot and to what extent is still up for debate.
Literature:
Fazbear Frights
- Some, such as Dawko, have suggested the possibility that Hazel has also had her body stolen by a Lonely Freddy at some point in the past, meaning that her seemingly supernaturally perfect behavior is actually the result of her being an artificial intelligence attempting to imitate Hazel and not quite succeeding. This would serve to make the story even more tragic, as it would mean that Alec was right about Hazel's behavior being an act, and possibly even that she was manipulating him, pushing him into a state where he could be isolated and drawn in by a Lonely Freddy of his own.
- Some have suggested that the Blackbird may at least partially have been Sam attempting to torment Nole as revenge for Nole being a jerk towards him on the set; evidence includes the rather unlikely circumstances of Sam's accident (and the fact that it doesn't fully match up with the story he gives at the end), the inconsistent behavior of the Blackbird, the reference to Sam once having played a nasty prank on a bully that completely stopped any bullying towards Sam (which the story pointedly does not elaborate on), and the fact that the Blackbird disappeared shortly before Sam was miraculously found alive. However, this would fail to explain the more explicit supernatural behavior of the Blackbird, leaving the matter ambiguous.
