Foreshadowing / Five Nights at Freddy's

All spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!

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Games:

Five Nights at Freddy's

• In the first night, Phone Guy claims the animatronics aren't actually a threat and theorizes that the reason they will stuff you into a suit, effectively killing you in the process, is because they will think you are an endoskeleton without a suit and, because that's "against the rules", they will attempt to fix that. Your first big clue that this is false and the animatronics truly are hostile toward you is there is an actual endoskeleton out of its suit Backstage — when Bonnie goes back there he completely ignores it, and instead stares directly at the camera the entire time.
• For Five Nights at Freddy's 3, Phone Guy's line "I'm gonna try to hold out until someone checks" foreshadows that the animatronic suits can actually be worn without getting lethally maimed, and that Phone Guy knew that. Evidently, he was hoping that he could use that knowledge to avoid dying when he got stuffed, so that he could eventually get rescued. Considering that it wasn't a springlock suit, he most likely didn't last very long.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

• The first game establishes that the animatronics used to wander around in the daytime before the Bite of '87. In this game, however, Phone Guy mentions on Night 1 that the animatronics even walk around in the daytime. Isn't that neat?
• The fact that you're paid less money than in the original Five Nights at Freddy's is also a sign of how the game actually takes place before the original.
• Phone Guy's presence alone is a foreshadowing written in giant neon letters for those who played the first game. He's alive and well all the way to Night 6, whereas in the first game, he was murdered in the Night 4 phone call.
• The Withered animatronics are horrifyingly broken-down versions of the cast we met in the first game... but a closer look shows that disrepair is not the root of all of their design differences. Their heads' shapes and construction in particular indicate that they are actually different models of the base animatronics in addition to being rotted and damaged. This is a big hint at the reveal that they came before the FNaF 1 incarnations and got remodeled into the classic set, as the initial presentation of them being the classic set's decayed forms didn't allude to them undergoing any design adjustments before they withered.

Five Nights at Freddy's 3

• An announcement on Steam Greenlight contained the message "My name is Springtrap." Sure enough, when you finally unlock the Extra Screen, the game officially names the new animatronic as Springtrap.
• In many ways, the truth about Springtrap has been foreshadowed since the first game. A suit that is apparently wearable, hidden even to the employees, and in this game, the recordings state that the suit can injure and maim if put on. In the ending, The Purple Man puts on the suit in a panic and it kills him.
• Sometimes when opening the game, a couple of pictures can appear, showing a horribly mutilated corpse inside Springtrap. And as the Night 5 minigame shows, it's the murderer's corpse.
• The game drops several hints about Fazbear's Fright burning down at the end. Phone Dude jokes about stuff catching on fire before admitting the possibility is a real concern, the electronics in the building are established to be old and become increasingly erratic as the week progresses, and the Phantom animatronics look like they've been burned.
  Phone Dude: Yeah, I wasn't joking about the fire. That-that... that's a real risk.
• The second night, Phone Dude decides to play some cassettes he found. Said cassettes are of Phone Guy from the first game explaining how to wear and operate the animatronic suits, hinting at the true nature of Springtrap and what's inside it.
• If you look closely at Springtrap's jumpscare when he gets you at the right side of the office, you can briefly see what appears to be part of the killer's jaw inside his mouth.
• Springtrap's physical appearance has some foreshadowing: he's golden and due to decay, his face seems to have a constant smile on it. The Murderer wore a yellow suit during his murders and was always depicted with a big grin on his face.
• Unlike the previous animatronics, Springtrap's always making sure to hide as much of himself as possible, only going for it when it's too late. Turns out he's had a lot more experience with this whole "murdering" thing before.
• One that is realized only in hindsight: during the "Happiest Day" minigame, we learn that six children were definitely murdered by the Purple Guy, as there are six ghosts, each possessing Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Golden Freddy, and the Puppet. However, in both ending screens, the Puppet's head is nowhere to be found, not even in the distance as in the case of Golden Freddy. There is also the Puppet's hallucination trigger, who appears very much alive compared to the others. These allude to the eventual reveal in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator that the Puppet, and by extension the soul who possesses it, was not set free like the others and continued to roam the Earth until it (well, she) was trapped by Lefty.
• The trailer has an ominous scene of Springtrap twitching against the wall, with gold text that transitions to red-underlined throughout. At first, you'd think it's just Rule of Scary, but it's a full render of the final minigame. Springtrap is twitching because those are the killer's death throes, and the text is a reference to his bleeding out inside a suit.

Five Nights at Freddy's 4

• The emphasized sharp teeth in the animatronics' designs in this game are likely due to the protagonist being the victim of an accident involving an animatronic chomping down on his head. Nightmare Fredbear's teeth are particularly large and sharp, and appear to be coated with blood.
• If you hold Nightmare Foxy behind his closet for long enough, he'll transform into a plushie, referencing the fact that the Nightmare animatronics are actually nightmares.
• Throughout the minigames, the Fredbear plush constantly tries to help you, but just manages to make things worse somehow. This culminates in his animatronic counterpart accidentally causing severe brain damage when the kid's jammed into his mouth.
• Another hint is the fact that the kid's bedroom in the mini-games looks nothing like the bedroom in the main game.
• Sometimes flowers, an I.V. drip, or a bottle of pills appear on the bed stand, heavily hinting that the protagonist is in the hospital.
• Foxy's plushie when you stun him in the closet still has a head, but weirdly, he lacks a head in the minigames. Seemingly minor, until you learn what happens to the kid.
• For those who believe that the game takes place in 1983, there is one glaring hint that alludes to their theory. The restaurant featured in the minigames does not feature the Fazbear gang as its main hosts, or even as regular working hosts. Where they should appear (like in the Show Stage or Parts and Service), Fredbear and Spring Bonnie take their place. The second game establishes that Fredbear's Family Diner closed years before 1987, and the third reveals Spring Bonnie had been decommissioned by then as well.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location

• On Nights One and Two, you don't see Baby, but you can hear her voice on Nights Two, Three, and Four. Baby's been scooped, to help form Ennard.
• On Night 3, you have to take a trip to Parts and Services to remove Funtime Freddy's power module, opening him up and taking a good look at all of his wires. When you return to perform maintenance to Baby on Night 5, opening up Baby's face reveals... nothing. There are no wires or machinery in her at all, indicating that Baby has already been 'scooped' and something very wrong is going on. Another indication of this is that, unlike Funtime Freddy on Night 3, the Baby sitting in front of you on Night 5 has no eyes, which indicates that the endoskeleton is no longer inside. So, who has been talking with you for the past two nights?
• On Night 4, Baby mentions that she has learned how to pretend. Come Night 5, and it turns out that Baby was pretending to be your friend to put the plan in motion, and Ennard is pretending to be Baby to get you to the Scooper Room.
• Also on Night 4, Ballora gets 'scooped' and you spend the rest of the night with her broken purple eye staring at you from the darkness. The same purple eyes that appear on the figure in the Real ending.
• On Night 5, if you look closely, you'll notice the little mask above the fan is missing. It's Ennard's, and the thing has already formed to kill you and take your skin.
• Also on Night 5, you can sprint all you like in Funtime Auditorium without triggering a Foxy jumpscare. This is because Foxy is already part of Ennard by that point. Additionally, Ennard also doesn't jumpscare you (yet) because their escape plan requires that you first send Baby's animatronic suit to the Scooping Room.
• Usually, players are shocked by The Reveal that Ballora, Funtime Foxy, and Circus Baby had already been to the Scooping Room, but if the player pays attention, then they would have noticed that Ballora got scooped in front of the player in Night 4, Funtime Foxy was not heard or seen when going through their area on Night 5, and that Circus Baby was already only an empty husk without eyes.
• In a way, the tagline and the trailer's text is now foreshadowing after Custom Night's Golden Freddy cutscene. "There was never just one" — never just one Purple Guy, there's now William and Michael Afton. And "anger is restless" — well, Michael does want to find his dear old dad and pay him back for leading him to have his insides scooped out to make way for his dad's machinery, doesn't he?
• If you look at the HandUnit keypad, it has a sticker reading "Mike." There's also a lesser-known variant of Eggs Benedict called Eggs Michael. Sure enough, the Golden Freddy cutscene confirms that Eggs' actual name is Michael, and he may or may not be that other Mike we've seen.

Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator

• The map on your computer shows that while the vents do lead to your office, the party area where your visitors come and children play is entirely disconnected from the vent system. Thus the animatronics have no access to it, unlike previous games where they wandered the entire building. This is because the person who built the place wants them close enough to hear the children, but unable to harm them.
• Once again, the game is in first person. However, there are several clues that you're playing as the same protagonist as Sister Location. Molten Freddy (aka Ennard), Springtrap, and Scrap Baby all mention that they recognize the player in assorted dialogues and the final speech given by Cassette Man likely alludes to SL's Custom Night ending.
• It seems that this was finally averted with William; the cutscene that explains the basics of the game has a recurring Freddy's employee in a purple suit whose chin is similar to William's corpse in Springtrap. The cutscene is stylized like 1950's cartoons, but it's still something.

Ultimate Custom Night

• Chica was indeed given lore relevance, as the joke demo cracked wise about; we learn from Withered Chica that "She was the first", meaning it's likely that The Puppet's first experiment with giving life was done on Chica.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach

• When you look at the Steam grid poster for Security Breach, you might notice that there seem to be a pair of purple lights peeking out from the eye holes in Vanny's mask. The foreshadowing is twofold; the fact that Vanny is being controlled somewhat by Glitchtrap, and the return of William Afton, whom you confront in one of the two-star endings.
• There is a note from Vanessa that reports on a theft from inside the PizzaPlex, but there was no break-in and nothing showed up on the video feeds. Vanny is Vanessa's split personality, one which Glitchtrap compels to do his bidding. Freddy also mentions that the other animatronics are not normally like this and that something or someone must have corrupted them somehow. Pretty much the same thing is happening with Vanessa, with her being benign until Glitchtrap made her Brainwashed and Crazy.
• The construction update messages suggest that the PizzaPlex is built on top of something that's draining power. One of the two-star endings reveals that the setting of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator is underneath the facility, and its power is being used to restore William.
• One of the notes talks about recalling the Monty Mix because of Chica's misbehavior in pursuit of it. Another tells the staff not to dispose of pizza or pizza-flavored products, including the Monty Mix, in the garbage compactor, for fear Chica would go after it. Put together, these notes foreshadow how Gregory ends up damaging Chica enough to temporarily disable her and take her voice box.
• Another note is about how Monty got smashed by the giant bucket at the catwalks of his Gator Golf and had to have both of his legs replaced. Like with Chica, this is how Gregory must defeat Monty during their confrontation.
• Gregory does not have a guest profile, no prior passes or merch, and starts the game already being chased by Vanessa. He also shows a surprisingly resourceful and ruthless streak, such as driving a car and using jumper cables in one ending and thinking of stealing the other animatronics' parts to upgrade Freddy with little guilt at the idea. While Vanessa and the animatronics bring up his family, Gregory never mentions anything of the sort despite being stuck in a dangerous situation without being able to contact anyone outside. Freddy is also the one who gives him the FazWatch, with no mention of a phone that could have an app with similar use installed. The one-star ending offers a potential explanation: he's shown sleeping in a box in an alleyway, with a newspaper as a makeshift blanket. This suggests he may have been homeless or otherwise significantly disadvantaged, and thus had to learn how to be independent to survive. He wouldn't have a guest profile or any passes beforehand because he probably can't afford any of it, so he most likely either snuck in or was brought in through unofficial means, possibly explaining why Vanessa was chasing him. He doesn't bring up anyone from outside because he possibly has no one, either, and everyone else just assumes he has a family looking for him.
• The first time Gregory crawls through the air ducts, he can look out the vents into the rooms of the other Glamrock animatronics. He'll find Roxy at her mirror talking to herself, giving herself a pep talk. If he lingers, she'll glance up at the vent he's hiding behind and comment, again to herself, "Your fans are watching you right now… I know." Her eyes allow her to see through walls, as you'll discover later in the game.
• A poster in Parts and Service shows a Glamrock Endo spending time with a bunch of children. However, someone has vandalized the picture by drawing purple bunny ears on it, making the image evocative of William Afton's M.O. as a Serial Killer. There's also a ghostly silhouette of a waving rabbit next to it, also in purple. Guess who's being revived under the building using a Glamrock charging station, and what he does to Freddy in the True Ending?
• Vanessa has a purple Color Motif. The first promotional image featuring her has 'PROTECT' in purple glitchy font. If you look closely at her in-game character model she has painted her nails purple. A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the final "Freddy and Friends: On Tour!" shows her gazing blankly with a purple filter over her. If you took the fire escape route she'll catch you in the elevator, which is also purple. It's another hint towards her and Vanny being the same.

Literature:

Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones

• Earlier in the novel, Charlie and John go see a movie called "Zombies vs Zombies". Later on, we get a sequence of Animatronics vs Animatronics.

Fazbear Frights

• A very subtle example can be found on the cover of Step Closer. Astute readers will notice that Foxy's appearance on the cover bears some distinct differences to his incarnation in the first game; his eyepatch appears to be either missing or on the wrong side, and his teeth are noticeably different in design than the ones he has in FNaF 1 (in particular missing the gold teeth he had in that game). It turns out this is not a design oversight, but rather a hint that the series as a whole is a Stealth Sequel to Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator and that this Foxy is a different model from the one seen in the games, as confirmed in Epilogue 6.
• In "Gumdrop Angel", Angel is bewildered by the Birthday Gummy flailing as it continues to be eaten by children. At the end of the book, she has become the next Birthday Gummy and moves in the same way trying to free herself.
• Similar to "Gumdrop Angel", "Kids at Play" has Joel hit a Kids at Play sign and finds a nasty-looking organic substance nearby. At the end of the story, Joel has become a Kids at Play sign, and his shed teeth, hair, eyes and skin are found by the Sheriff, who doesn't know what they are.

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