Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach / YMMV

Five Nights at Freddy's Main YMMV Page
Games: Five Nights at Freddy's | Five Nights at Freddy's 2 | Five Nights at Freddy's 3 | Five Nights at Freddy's 4 | Five Nights at Freddy's World | Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location | Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator | Ultimate Custom Night | Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted | Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery | Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach
Novels: Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes | Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones | Five Nights at Freddy's: The Fourth Closet | Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights

Abandon Shipping:
- Early in the game's prerelease cycle it was common to ship the then-unnamed blonde female nightguard with Vanny, typically as Foe Yay Shipping. What caused people to jump ship was the increasing implications, through additional teasers, names of merch, and the Special Delivery emails that the two are actually the same person, either through a Split Personality or Vanessa simply being Vanny out of costume. This is outright confirmed in two endings, one where Vanny is unmasked post-humously and another where she's free of all brainwashing… although a shot of Vanessa watching Vanny from the roof (after Vanny was unmasked as Vanessa) in that first ending rather complicates matters. While a few still speculate that the two are separate characters, much of the fandom has found the idea of a once-popular enemies-to-lovers ship being canonically selfcest inherently hilarious on principle.
- Vanny/William was another popular pre-release ship, with Vanny's loyalty to William being taken to its most extreme conclusion, and William either rejecting her or reciprocating. While the process was slower, the pairing became significantly less popular due to the Special Delivery unintended email leaks and the Retro CDs in this game, which not only depicted their dynamic as overtly abusive but also raised the possibility that Vanessa herself is an Afton. Understandably, people found the idea of shipping them uncomfortable, and post-release the Peepaw Willy meme has become a more common way of portraying their relationship.
- A non-romantic example; before Ruin, it was common for Gregory to be portrayed as friends with the other Glamrocks when they aren't Brainwashed and Crazy, especially Roxanne, who was often portrayed as a mother figure towards him. Come Ruin however, and the revelation that the non-brainwashed Roxy still hates Gregory for stealing her eyes caused this trend to die down (though not completely), with fans instead latching onto Roxy's canonical friendship with Cassie.
Accidental Innuendo: Vanessa has a voice line late in the game where she gets on the intercom and frustratedly asks why Gregory is still at the Pizzaplex. As she continues talking, she switches tactics and offers Gregory a 'reward' at the main stage, with her voice dropping to what's supposed to be menacing. However, Heather Masters' voice-acting makes the offer sound downright flirtatious out of context. Needless to say, the fandom had fun with this.
Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Cassie's situation at the end of "Ruin" works as a cautionary tale warning people to not trust strange calls asking you to do odd and dangerous things, even if they sound like someone you know. The technology to copy people's voices is available in real life and people have used it to exploit others. It's understandable that Cassie, being a child (and Gregory potentially being her Only Friend), would've been taken in by the Mimic's convincing act, but attempting to contact Gregory and verify whether he's OK or not before going to the Pizzaplex would have saved her a lot of grief.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: The entire plot of Ruin is that a robot is mimicking Gregory's voice and tricking Cassie into rescuing "him" for its own gain. While this was recent technology at the time of the DLC's release, people have used AI voice generation to exploit others by making them think their loved ones were in danger.
Angel/Devil Shipping: Because it's all but outright stated that he murdered Glamrock Bonnie and also wants to kill Glamrock Freddy, any ship between Montgomery Gator and another Glamrock (especially Freddy) can be seen as this.
Angst? What Angst?: Despite how Freddy pleads for Gregory to tell him the truth about where he got the extra parts to upgrade him with while in Parts and Service, he doesn't actually react to the sight of his mutilated friends, whom Gregory damaged to get said parts.
Annoying Video Game Helper: The instruction cards that appear to tell the player how things work are perfectly fine around the start of the game, but the problems begin when they pop up to give details that have already been shown before, such as explaining the security badges after every single badge collected. They get especially bad when upgrading Freddy, as they'll pop up to tell the player to click on clearly-glowing parts that Dread Unit has already said to remove. Even worse, the player has to hold the button prompt to get rid of them rather than just clicking it, making them take a good few seconds to get rid of if the player's already seen them.
Anti-Climax Boss:
- Burntrap's fight with the Glamrocks at his disposal isn't a particularly long or complicated boss fight (some issues aside), and is found as considerably underwhelming.
- The "fight" with the Mimic in the Ruin DLC consists of running through what's essentially one long corridor and completing a simple puzzle you've done dozens of times throughout the game at the end. The secret ending has you do even less, as instead of doing the puzzle you just push a button.
Applicability: The major twist of "Ruin" is that the panicked voice messages from Gregory aren't actually Gregory, but a malevolent robot copying his voice to exploit Cassie's compassion for Gregory for its own needs. The DLC released around the same time that audio deepfaking was rising in popularity, with a common scam being people receiving faked voice messages from their loved ones, claiming that they've been kidnapped and need to be sent money as ransom.
Awesome Ego: Roxanne's a major Narcissist who both constantly hypes herself up as the best thing around and constantly puts down Gregory as a nobody, but plenty of fans enjoy her attitude because she's decently capable of backing up her boasts and getting an Eye Scream from Gregory actually makes her more capable of backing her claims up. It helps how there's the implication she actually possesses an Inferiority Superiority Complex that makes her need self-validation because she doubts her hype, which even without leather pants treatment is something fans find endearingly lovable. Her Jerk with a Heart of Gold status, relationship with Cassie, Heel–Face Turn, and Big Damn Heroes moment in Ruin only made fans love her even more.
Best Level Ever: While as a whole, the Pizzaplex is an impressive game "world" with plenty of cool levels, even in spite of the glitchiness and confusing lack of direction to them, the section most players really liked was the West Arcade. The mission to turn on the power while avoiding DJ Music Man is well-remembered as having some of the tensest moments in the game, from the memorable scene of him reaching into the bathroom to grab the player to the climactic chase scene through the hall of arcades. To top it all off, you get to listen to quite possibly the best boss music in the series along the way.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- Very early on, an Endoskeleton can be spotted crawling away on a wall... just to never be seen again. While this foreshadows the appearance of more endos later on, it is never explained why just this one in particular can climb walls and why it does not stop moving upon being observed.
- Why is there a burning room under Roxy Raceway? Given that the series has a penchant for ending with the setting burning down, one might assume it would tie into that… but even in the endings where the Pizzeria does burn down, the room that's perpetually on fire has nothing to do with it.
- Doubles as Trash of the Titans and, due to how obtuse it is to find^note, also counts as an Easter Egg. The room that the Daycare Attendant, a Neat Freak who obsessively keeps the Superstar Daycare clean regardless of whether Sun or Moon is in control, first emerges from clearly hasn't been cleaned in a long time. Giant cobwebs cling to the ceiling, and the floor is littered with scattered and often dirty toys, broken S.T.A.F.F. bots (including one that's folded like laundry for some reason), busted pieces of animatronic endoskeletons^note, and general filth. This room is also where the Balloon World and golden Moon figure are found through a blue pipe, and that section of the room has what look to be children's drawings on the nearby walls.
- The Balloon World arcade machine itself has very little to do with the plot, even compared to the other playable arcade machines within this game.^note Given Moon's familiar behavior, it may indicate that William Afton applied the same procedure to Moon as Freddy gets at the final boss battle. The eclipse in the glitch segment turned out to be Foreshadowing, as "Ruin" shows Sun and Moon with a combined body, as well as a third personality, Eclipse.
- Freddy's voice distorts after upgrading him with Chica's voice box, indicating some sort of mismatch. In older builds of the game, it's a crapshoot as to whether and when his voice will go back to normal after he initially reacts to the upgrade, with no further comments from anyone. The reversion of Freddy's voice was eventually revealed to be a bug, as a later update to the game fixed it so the distortion is permanent after the upgrade.
Captain Obvious Reveal:
- Vanny is really Vanessa, the only human woman who appears in the game? Who'd have guessed! Freddy even mentions the obvious connection that "Vanny" sounds like "Vanessa"+"bunny". The Dummied Out Vanny Meter even indicates this reveal by turning Vanessa into Vanny.
- In the Ruin DLC, Gregory turns out to be an animatronic named Mimic who lured Cassie down to the Pizzaplex so it could manipulate her into freeing it. Almost everyone who has played Security Breach called this twist immediately, to the point where multiple Let's Players theorized this ending very early on in the game. It doesn't help that, in almost every ending in the original game, Gregory escaped the Pizzaplex unscathed, so it makes no sense that he somehow got trapped in the same building, let alone why he would choose to return there.
Catharsis Factor: Let's face it, Gregory personally damaging the game's animatronics to install their upgrades into Freddy is somewhat cathartic to longtime fans who wished that the previous protagonists would actively fight against the enemies when they start trying to kill them. This is especially true in regards to Monty getting damaged, assuming you believe he really did kill Bonnie and thus had it coming.
Common Knowledge:
- The Daycare Attendant's names became quickly accepted as "Sun(ny)drop" and "Moondrop" among fans, based on posters the two appear on. However, its official names are merely "Sun" and "Moon" based on subtitles and the names of their collectable merch items, with their candy brands bearing the "-drop" suffix. This revelation hasn't stopped "Sun(ny)drop" and "Moondrop" from being treated as the names of the characters, however, possibly due to having more creative appeal than "Sun" and "Moon". A few people even call Sun "Sunrise", presumably as a contrast to "Moondrop". Despite this, "Moondrop" eventually saw use for the name of the Moon form in the Tales from the Pizzaplex series.
- The Pizzaplex burns down in the Burntrap Ending... except no, that wasn't the Pizzaplex. That was the abandoned ruins of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, located deep underground, beneath the Pizzaplex. At no point in said ending is the Pizzaplex itself seen burning down; considering how far below the abandoned restaurant is, the fire may not have spread all the way up to the Pizzaplex. While the "Ruin" DLC takes place in a heavily damaged Pizzaplex, the source of the damage is an earthquake and it's implied the ending it carries on from is the Princess Quest ending, not the Burntrap Ending. That being said, the Pizzaplex does burn down in the main game's "Fire Escape" ending.
Contested Sequel: The game has proven contentious amongst fans and critics alike. Some praise it for its ambition and scope, hailing it as the biggest and best FNAF game yet. Others are critical of what they see as poor game design, the abundance of bugs and frustrating mechanics upon release, and the lore and endings being obtuse even by the standards of a FNAF game.
Continuity Lockout: Given how this game is swarming with easter eggs and lore relating to the franchise, it's kind of a given.
- All the exposition about where Vanny came from, along with most of the context for what's up with Vanessa, is in Help Wanted and Special Delivery. This, combined with how little Vanny shows up in gameplay, means that the dancing rabbit lady is more of a non-sequitur in the narrative than anything else.
- The ending that takes place in the game's Very Definite Final Dungeon requires being familiar with at least Sister Location and Pizzeria Simulator, else you'll be at a loss over how Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place burned down, who's the rabbit-like animatronic who survived, and who's the Freddy-headed mess who stops him from escaping the collapsing building (although admittedly even long-time FNaF fans are conflicted about that last one).
- At the end of the Ruin DLC, we find out that Gregory is actually an animatronic called the Mimic, who was copying his voice. This information has not appeared in any of the games and is exclusive to the Tales from the Pizzaplex anthology book series. If you haven't read these books, you won't know who the Mimic is or why it's so important.
Critical Backlash: Following the release of Ruin and several bug-fixing patches to Security Breach, people have begun warming up to the game quite a bit. Even beforehand, some have pointed out that despite the game's flaws, there's still plenty of things to like about it. The speedrunning community has also straight up embraced this game bugs and all, given that they allow for some truly incredible speedrun gimmicks, such as beating the game backwards or without moving the camera.
Crossover Ship: Fans often pair Roxanne with Loona from Helluva Boss, given their abrasive attitudes, Inferiority Superiority Complex, and similar appearances (especially given that they are both anthropomorphized wolves). They also have a Hair-Trigger Temper and are very dangerous when they get serious.
Disappointing Last Level: The 6 A.M. segment if you choose the "Stay" option. Save stations are disabled beyond this point and it is very easy to die a cheap death which will send you all the way back to the beginning of the endgame and undoing up to a couple of hours of progress, unless you're on the True Ending route, where the game autosaves when you reach Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. It makes getting the better endings less of a fun challenge and more of a frustrating chore. Steel Wool later added a save station that works past 6 AM in a patch to alleviate this problem.
Draco in Leather Pants: Overlooking the animatronics' attempts to kill the player character is, for once, NOT an example of this, as they are Brainwashed and Crazy. The same also applies to Vanny. That said, they are still not immune to this trope:
- Roxanne Wolf is a fairly mild case; being Popular with Furries, even by the usual standards of this fandom due to her attractive design and costume, along with her being the only Glamrock beyond Freddy who's given character and personality in the game, there are many who felt bad for what happened to her during the events of the game, and often ignore how she has the most hostile and mean-spirited patrol/hunting dialogue of the three when trying to kill Gregory^note. Besides that, even before Ruin showed she had a hidden caring side, a number of people also downplayed her ego and competitive streak in favor of making her into a wholesome mother figure towards Gregory when not brainwashed. A few people still portray her and Gregory as friends even after Ruin established her hatred of him.
- In fanworks, many players who portray the Daycare Attendant tend to tone down or ignore Moon's obsession with finding and punishing naughty children, instead making Moon more grumpy and stern than malicious. Sun, while not malicious in-game, normally gets its manic nature and seeming inability to notice personal boundaries toned down or overlooked as well, as many players find Sun's behavior in-game to be overwhelming.
- Montgomery. Gator. Given how a number of fans find him attractive and/or badass, this kind of treatment was pretty much inevitable; on top of downplaying his Hair-Trigger Temper, fans frequently lump him in with Chica and Roxy as a tragic victim who deserved better, despite the heavy implications that he murdered Glamrock Bonnie to take his place in the band; if a fan portrayal shows Monty to be responsible for Bonnie's death, it will usually be depicted as either something Vanny brainwashed him into doing, or an accident that he feels guilty about. His implied desire to kill Glamrock Freddy in order to become the face of the Pizzaplex is also commonly overlooked in favor of portraying Monty and Freddy as friends or even lovers, likely not helped by the fact that said desire is shown in an optional-to-play minigame. In general, fans portray Monty as more benevolent than canon implies him to be, and have even expressed interest in the idea of him as an ally.
Esoteric Happy Ending: The three-star ending concludes with Vanessa being freed from Glitchtrap's influence and joining Gregory and Glamrock Freddy for ice cream. It would be good, except Vanessa, as Vanny, is heavily implied to have killed people, as evidenced by the fact there are reports of missing children. As such, those murdered children are left unaccounted for.
Evil Is Cool: Thanks to his design, Super-Strength, and Pre-Asskicking One-Liner before his boss fight, some people see Montgomery Gator as a total badass, which is likely one of the contributing factors towards his Draco in Leather Pants status.
Fandom-Specific Plot:
- There has been a large amount of fanart and fanfics (sometimes collectively called the "Choose Your Guardian AU") depicting Gregory (or sometimes another child) ending up in the PizzaPlex, with another animatronic taking care of them instead of Glamrock Freddy. Monty and Roxanne are currently the most popular, with fans thinking of many different ways each animatronic could help out Gregory/the child with their own special abilities. And while it is usually limited to the Glamrocks, the Daycare Attendant, the S.T.A.F.F. bots, and even Vanny have gotten their share of fan works where they take care of the child.
- Several fanfics explore the lives of Gregory and Freddy after the Burntrap Ending, or both of them with Vanessa after the 3-Star Ending. For the former, many fans see the two as being scavengers who are trying their best to make do, like stealing car batteries to keep Freddy functional and taking shelter in abandoned buildings. For the latter, many fans like to depict Vanessa and Glamrock Freddy having to work together as Gregory's guardians, either as a platonic duo or outright acting as his surrogate/adoptive parents.
- Don't like the animatronics getting destroyed or think it's too mean-spirited? A bunch of fan-made videos and fanfics focus on Gregory coming back, apologizing, and helping to fix Roxy, Chica, and Monty, especially if they've been freed in the True or 3-Star endings. These also fit another plot, given the animatronics are as nice as Freddy says they should be in the main game. Alternatively, Gregory may find a less lethal way to disable them that doesn't involve smashing them to bits.
- It has become exceedingly common to see stories where Glamrock Freddy is possessed by Michael or Henry and has come back from heaven to stop William from killing kids for the umpteenth time.
- There's a surprising amount of fanart revealing Michael survived Pizzeria Simulator and is now actively trying to stop the events at the Pizzaplex in some way or another. Sometimes he is portrayed as a father figure to Gregory, on the grounds that his resemblance to the Crying Child would make Michael more protective of him.
- In spite of the game all but outright saying that Monty murdered Bonnie in order to steal his spot in the band, there are plenty of stories that depict the event as a complete accident and something that Monty still feels guilty over. There's even a tag on Archive of Our Own called "Montgomery Gator Did Not Decommission Glamrock Bonnie".
- A fairly popular Crossover plot is to have someone from the other series take Gregory's role as the child who gets locked in the PizzaPlex and teams up with Glamrock Freddy to escape. Sometimes, the "enemy animatronic swaps with Glamrock Freddy" and "enemy animatronics get fixed" are used in conjunction.
- The Ruin DLC spawned no less than two: fanfics set after the Normal Ending, where Cassie and Roxy survive and try to escape the Pizzaplex, and to a lesser extent, works featuring Gregory, Vanessa, and/or Freddy coming to the Pizzaplex to save Cassie.
- It's also common for fans to portray Gregory living at the Pizzaplex, with the freed Glamrocks and a freed Vanessa acting as his "family" of sorts. Sometimes this may take place after the aforementioned stories where he saves or repairs them.
Fanfic Fuel: Following the release of Ruin, a number of fanfics have been written about Cassie's birthday with Roxy. Said fanfics may or may not also feature Gregory and/or Cassie's dad.
Fanon Discontinuity: The three-star ending is treated by some fans as the game's "true" ending, since all of the animatronics survive, and both them and Vanessa are freed from Glitchtrap's control, as opposed to the more tragic two-star "True Ending", where all of the animatronics (minus Glamrock Freddy) are brutally maimed and seemingly destroyed when the underground pizzeria is burned down, and Vanessa's fate is ambiguous^note
Fountain of Memes: The main Pizzaplex animatronics (and Gregory, alongside the other PizzaPlex animatronics) have lots of memes associated with them, but Roxanne Wolf and Glamrock Freddy especially take the cake. It certainly helps that a large number of fans are voice actors or voice-over artists themselves and have made fan content while portraying the characters themselves.
Franchise Original Sin: Many have criticized the Mimic's appearance in the Ruin DLC, due to it coming out of nowhere and entirely relying on the completely separate Tales from the Pizzaplex book series, where it was introduced and had most of its screentime in, to explain what it is. However, this is not the first time the games have used book characters: Cassette Man, aka Henry Emily, was a character original to the books before appearing in Pizzeria Simulator. The difference between the two is that Cassette Man's connections to the cast are explained in the game itself during the good ending^note, with the books simply serving as further context, while the Mimic only has vague allusions to what it actually is supposed to be. In addition, Cassette Man left a lasting impression on the fanbase with his "Connection Terminated" speech, considered to be one of the most iconic moments in the franchise, while the final confrontation with the Mimic is in comparison an Anti-Climax Boss consisting of the exact same gameplay as the rest of the game.
Game-Breaker: While the flashlight is helpful, it doesn't have a long battery life, even with upgrades. Enter Monty Golf and the FazCam, which has a light included. While the camera flash has a cooldown, the light is infinite and has a wider spread than the standard flashlight. The light is yellow and dimmer than the standard flashlight, but after gaining the FazCam, the only reason you'll ever need the flashlight is for the true Blackout Basement portions, which are few and far apart.^note
Genius Bonus:
- The V.A.N.N.I. mask in Ruin is mentioned offhand to implant an "occipital transponder" when Cassie first puts it on. It's not explained any further in-game, but the occipital lobe processes visual and spatial information and responds to motion stimuli — essentially, it's where the brain orients the body and creates a "map" of one's surroundings. This explains how the mask changes Cassie's perceptions so completely, to the point that she's unable to walk through certain objects even though they aren't really there; it's altering the "map" with fake stimuli to convince her brain she's actually running into a physical object.
- The ending in Ruin where Cassie puts on the V.A.N.N.I. mask while running from the Mimic and hallucinates Gregory on the hill is given the rather Non Sequitur name of "Brazil" in the game's files, compared to the more straightforward names of the other endings, "Normal" and "Scooper". The name is actually a reference to the 1985 film Brazil, where the protagonist's happy ending is revealed to be an insane delusion; with that context in mind, the name and the ending itself make a lot more sense.
Goddamned Bats: The S.T.A.F.F. Security drones. While they won't force a game-over like the main animatronics, they will still jumpscare the player and loudly alert the animatronics to your location. The main issues with them are the fact that they are found almost everywhere in the Pizzaplex, often in tight corridors, and the way they almost auto-lock onto players despite seemingly not being near their vision. They also move rather fast, requiring mastery of timing to get past them without being caught.
Good Bad Bugs: Has its own page.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: Roxanne's insecurity over her popularity and self-worth becomes this now that she's one of the more popular characters from the game, and not just for obvious reasons; even without leather pantsing her, there are fans who wish to hug her and tell her that she's the best and/or that she's not a loser, and also — as stated below — long for a future installment that gives her a happy ending, possibly even acquiring her as an ally (the latter of which actually happened in Ruin, albeit only during a brief cutscene near the end).
He's Just Hiding: Some fans refuse to believe that Monty is dead after Ruin, believing that he is still salvageable despite him never showing up again after getting electrocuted and drowning. Given the heavy implications that his death is Laser-Guided Karma, this may be another case of Draco in Leather Pants.
Ho Yay: Freddy and Bonnie's dynamic has been read by some fans as romantic, as whenever Freddy talks about Bonnie, he sounds very defeated and mournful as if he's talking about a deceased lover. The Ruin DLC only adds more fuel to the fire with Bonnie's dressing room. Not only did Bonnie keep both a plushie and a small golden statue of Freddy, but on the wall there's a poster of Freddy signed "YOU & ME FOREVER & EVER - LOVE, FREDDY".
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: The enemy Glamrocks (and Vanny) are Brainwashed and Crazy, and therefore cannot be blamed for attacking Gregory. On top of that, they are generally seen as more interesting characters. Meanwhile, Gregory himself, while he does have fans, is also disliked by some for his maiming of the Glamrocks and not being entirely honest with Freddy about the upgrades. He's even received criticism for killing Vanny in one ending. He probably gets hit with Ron the Death Eater more than any other character in the series, with a few people even viewing him as a Karma Houdini. Even Montgomery Gator — despite the implications that he not only murdered Glamrock Bonnie, but also wants to kill the beloved Glamrock Freddy — gets more sympathy from fans than Gregory. Gregory betraying Cassie by severing the elevator cables in the Ruin DLC's Normal Ending has really not helped his standing among the fans.
Karmic Overkill: Some feel this about the rest of the Glamrock animatronics; while being an active threat to Gregory throughout the game and being responsible for the recent disappearances of children, them being wrecked by Gregory just so he can give their upgrades to Glamrock Freddy doesn't feel right, considering that they have been tampered with by Vanny to act that way^note. It says a lot that a lot of fans have been clamouring for (or theorizing) a future installment where the other Glamrocks get repaired.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Glamrock Freddy is quickly shaping up to be the character that people want to ship with almost everyone, regardless of the ship making sense or not. It certainly helps that he's a fatherly Beary Friendly Nice Guy who is loyal and sees the goodness in almost everyone, even his hacked/possessed animatronic band mates; the fact that he also sports a Heroic Build is also a plus. While more commonly shipped with Montgomery Gator, there's also a decent amount of fans that pair him up with Glamrock Bonnie, Roxanne Wolf, Glamrock Chica, Vanny/Vanessa, and even other animatronics/characters from previous entries.
LGBT Fanbase:
- Glamrock Freddy has become quite popular with men while Roxanne has similar reception with women; it helps that the Glamrocks have a campy appearance, making them more appealing to LGBT fans.
- Many fans like to ship Freddy and Monty, as well as Roxanne and Chica due to their Tomboy and Girly Girl dynamic, with Roxanne being a Butch Lesbian and Chica being a Lipstick Lesbian. The fans of Freddy x Monty tend to lean more towards Bara Genre. There's also a fanbase for Freddy x Bonnie thanks to a few comments Freddy made.
- Vanny/Vanessa is also frequently headcanoned as LGBT+ (typically lesbian or asexual), in part due to the Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery emails where she wears rainbow hair extensions and doesn't respond to Luis flirting with her over email. Notably, she was frequently shipped with what turned out to be herself pre-release.
Memetic Badass:
- Taking into account that he's basically one of the few protagonists in the franchise to actually fight back against the animatronics^note and outright win, leaving many of them horribly wrecked in the span of a single night, Gregory has been seen as a hardcore Badass Adorable who isn't afraid to resort to violence in self-defense. Some have even playfully joked that Glamrock Freddy isn't protecting the kid, Gregory is the one protecting Glamrock Freddy, while others have jokingly theorized that Gregory would actually grow up to be — or is even related to — the Janitor from Willy's Wonderland, a fellow Memetic Badass who also fought against a horde of murderous animatronics and defeated them in spectacularly brutal ways over one night.
- The Map Bot has been hailed as one of the most powerful beings in the FNAF universe, as it's one of only two enemies^noteThe other being Moon that can know when Gregory is inside Freddy, and is physically capable of ripping Gregory right out of Freddy's chest. This has led to memes and jokes that the Map Bot is a Super-Persistent Predator who will move heaven and earth and travel to the ends of the universe in order to give a map to somebody. The fact that, according to Word of God, Map Bot caused more glitches during development than almost anything else in the game has only pushed this further, with some viewing the Map Bot as an outright Reality Warper who will twist physics itself to deliver maps to everyone in its path. For extra hilarity, it turns out that even in the released game the Map Bot can be exploited to warp Gregory to places he's not meant to be in, making this even closer to canon!
- Pizza Bot has gotten similar treatment, despite not even having a physical model. This is because it's remarkably easy to have Pizza Bot's HUD and sound effects get stuck on the screen, making it seem like the bot is the one fighting the other animatronics. The sound effects can even, somehow, get stuck playing on the main menu. Pizza Bot transcends the game!
- "Giga" Monty, the glitched version of Monty with AI that will never stop chasing you once alerted, no matter whether you get into Freddy or climb up onto an inaccessible area. Many memes arose of how like Moon and Map Bot, this Monty is an unstoppable force of nature.
Memetic Loser:
- Vanny. Due to her rather scarce appearances throughout the game, her death in two of the endings, and the fact that her knives wouldn't do much to the metallic and strong Glamrock Freddy protecting Gregory, there's many fan art and animations that have made her a lot less menacing than she was made out to be.
- William Afton comes back again with a new form (named Burntrap) as the game's True Final Boss… only for him to be defeated by the Blob almost immediately after being introduced, and doesn't accomplish much before that either, simply siccing broken animatronics after a 10-year old while trying to take over Glamrock Freddy via very slow hacking. Because of this, the fandom delights in depicting his current form as an old man in a wheelchair^note or a walker with Vanny looking after him like a retirement home nurse. This portrayal of him has even been dubbed as "Peepaw Willy" or "Peepaw Afton".
Memetic Molester: Vanessa has a line just before 6 A.M. to Gregory that is given in a lower menacing tone. However, it comes off as more... seductive. There have even been memes about Afton condemning this behavior and Freddy attacking her for this.
"Gregory, I think you deserve a reward. Go check the main stage."
Memetic Mutation: Considering it's another entry in the already meme-filled Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, it's no surprise that the game has its fair share of memes. It was able to create such a large amount of memes in just a short span of time, that it actually has its own page.
Memetic Psychopath:
- Due to decommissioning most of the animatronics by himself, nabbing some of their parts to upgrade Glamrock Freddy, and giving incredibly vague answers when Freddy asks questions while also trying to brush off his concerns, Gregory is jokingly characterized by some fans as not only a Memetic Badass Adorable, but also a bit of a cold-blooded and ruthless young kid, with many humorous animations and fanart outright giving him weapons and/or presenting him as a bloodthirsty little gremlin who eagerly craves and uses violence as a first resort. His seeming cold decision to cut the elevator cables at the end of Ruin — effectively sending his "best friend" to her death after she went through hell trying to save him — only added fuel to the fire.
Tumblr user urlocalllama: remember when we thought gregory was going to be a little, scared child we'd have to carefully protect... but he's instead made of highly concentrated pure rage, salt, and a little murder?
- Thanks to her cruel, mean-spirited voice-lines, Roxanne Wolf has been used in parodies of the "You should kill yourself...NOW!" meme. Interestingly, the books' revelation that this toxic behavior is actually a result of her becoming Brainwashed and Crazy makes this a retroactive/unintentional example of Ron the Death Eater, as well.
Mis-blamed: Due to being the first big project after Scott's retirement, many have taken to blaming Steel Wool for all the game's issues, with the most vocal outright accusing them of "stealing" Scott's franchise with the intention of running it to the ground for a quick buck. This ignores that Scott still had a large amount of involvement with this game, Steel Wool is a very small company attempting to make what is for all intents and purposes a AAA game, and that their previous FNAF game didn't suffer from any of the problems this game did (and in fact is one of the most widely-loved games in the series).
Moe: Almost all of the animatronics can qualify, actually. It helps that this generation doesn't (normally) kill people:
- Glamrock Freddy, with his fatherly, Nice Guy demeanor.
- Glamrock Chica. Big Eater tendencies aside, she has a bubbly nature and a cute design.
- Even before the books revealed she's not normally cruel and Ruin revealed she had a hidden caring side, Roxanne had effectively succeeded Mangle as the (Jerkass) Woobie that everyone wanted to hug and make feel better.
- Sun, despite having No Sense of Personal Space, is a friendly, jovial and playful fellow.
Nausea Fuel: Chica in the Ruin DLC just looks absolutely disgusting (especially to folks that have a heavy dislike of garbage), having somehow eaten an entire garbage bag and other rotten food and somehow covered herself in disgusting green slime.
Obvious Beta: Upon release, Security Breach was plagued with bugs, pathfinding issues, and mechanics detrimental to the game experience (such as being unable to save after 6AM), making it obvious that the game was rushed to be released or at least needed more time in development. It also features opportunities for innocent players to accidentally break the game's sequence nearly beyond repair. While many of these bugs were later patched out, and some questionable mechanics were addressed (like adding a single save station in the Atrium so players could finally save their game), it still tainted some players' first experience with the game.
One-Scene Wonder:
- The Daycare Attendant's Sun form is around for about two minutes before being completely overshadowed by Moon (excluding one five-second-long cutscene for Gameplay and Story Integration). That said, its Large Ham personality and friendliness have made it a beloved Ensemble Dark Horse.
- DJ Music Man is seen for only one boss fight and exits the story afterwards, not even having a single line, but is beloved for his amazing boss sequence and the song that plays during it.
Popular with Furries: Natch. It's a FNAF game. Helping matters is the characters having more "conventionally attractive" and muscular humanoid designs this time around. Roxanne and Freddy in particular are very popular.
Porting Disaster: While the game has issues on every platform, the PlayStation release had an issue that rendered the retro-themed minigames outright unplayable at launch — this wouldn't have been that big of an issue if it weren't for the fact that three of the minigames are required to unlock the Golden Ending.
Preemptive Shipping: After some character designs were released, much of the fanbase began shipping the then unnamed blonde security guard with Vanny, the Copycat Killer antagonist in a bunny costume. Many of them jumped ship when more and more material released implicitly implied that they were most likely the same person^note. By the full game's release, most people look back on the ship in amused tones, with Vanny/Vanessa being more commonly shipped with other characters.
Recurring Fanon Character:
- Glamrock Foxy is easily the most popular fan animatronic to see in stories and fanart, mostly owing to Foxy's Ensemble Dark Horse status and the fact he's the only member of the original four to not appear in any form in this game (as images of Glamrock Bonnie can still be seen). As for his design, he is often depicted as having fully embraced his pirate theme, wearing a pirate's coat and hat along with his classic eye patch and hook hand. If he was replaced in the past, Roxanne is almost always who took his role and unlike Monty and Bonnie, the duo had a good relationship and Roxanne is normally crushed by him getting decommissioned.
- Glamrock Ballora is also popular, albeit not to the extent of Glamrock Foxy. More often than not, she loses all of her creepy traits, becoming a straight up fanservice style Robot Girl, right down to losing her Eyes Always Shut trait. As for her role in stories, she is always a heroic character who serves as the Team Mom, helping Gregory and Glamrock Freddy defeat Vanny. If she was brainwashed, expect her to somehow be snapped out of it unlike the other animatronics. Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when an actual Glamrock Ballora appears in the Tales from the Pizzaplex story Cleithrophobia, albeit nothing like the fandom version.
Ron the Death Eater:
- Being a protagonist both known for having an implied Dark and Troubled Past and prone to morally grey actions in an IP that where almost every situation is an Ambiguous Situation has made it almost inevitable that Gregory is sometimes interpreted in a harsher or more cynical light by some members of the fandom. While some of these are legitimate Epileptic Trees about Gregory's characterization or role in the story, there are others who exaggerate his more questionable moments as pure villainy rather than, at worst, pragmatic ruthlessness to survive. For example, while Vanny getting 'disassembled' in one ending is obviously a horrible way to go out, Gregory not only does it in self-defense, but is urged by Freddy to do so. Other than his Troubling Unchildhood Behavior, Gregory is portrayed in-story as a Mouthy Kid whose darker personality traits most likely come from seemingly living on the streets and having to 'grow up' faster as a result, with no major indication as to otherwise. It got even worse for him in this regard come the Ruin DLC, which (seemingly) has him cut the elevator cables — with Cassie inside the cabin — to keep Mimic imprisoned at the end, despite the whole reason that she was there in the first place being to rescue Gregory.
- Overlaps with Epileptic Trees; following Ruin's release, a few people have suggested that the culprit behind Bonnie's death is not Monty, but rather Roxy. Their reasoning is that Bonnie has claw marks and green paint on his torso, and Roxy has green claws (even though Monty is also green). This ignores how Roxy not only had no homicidal tendencies prior to being brainwashed, but also had no motive, and she only goes after Gregory's voice in Ruin because he stole her eyes, to say nothing of how she apologizes for almost killing Cassie. A few people also say that Roxy has no right to hate Gregory because she tried to kill him in the main game, despite the fact that she was brainwashed at that point.
- Vanessa sometimes gets portrayed as irredeemable because she's a child-murderer. While it's true that there are few crimes as heinous, the fact that the game makes it crystal clear that she has no choice in the matter is frequently ignored.
Rooting for the Empire: While Gregory is certainly not without his fans (there's a reason why he's considered a Memetic Badass), there are a select few fans that find the Glamrock animatronics and Vanny (all of whom are Brainwashed and Crazy) to be more interesting characters, and as such wish that they would succeed for the sake of more screentime over him.
Sacred Cow: Even those who dislike the game love and adore Glamrock Freddy for being a sweet, kind, and caring father figure to Gregory and the Token Good Teammate of the animatronics^note. The fact that he's even willing to sacrifice himself to protect Gregory and ensure he gets out safely in more than one of the endings just adds onto it. It's gotten to the point where some fans of the series even wish that he was their father figure. Complain about the game's bugs and glitches all you want, but don't ever accuse Glamrock Freddy of being a bad character unless you want the fandom to stuff you into an animatronic suit.
Salvaged Story: One of the most common complaints from the fandom was how often Chica was snubbed when compared to the other members of the original four animatronics, such as being the only member to not appear in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location. Here, she's front and center along with Freddy.
Scrappy Mechanic:
- The lack of an auto-save feature^noteapart from certain scripted events like the Lost and Found sequence or the path to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place has been one of the game's most vocal complaints, since there are certain parts of the game that deprive you of save points, so a single mistake could cost you a lot of time and backtracking for now-unopened collectables. This is most prevalent in the Arcade section of the game and becomes most frustrating in the final act of the game, 6AM, which disables all save stations, forcing you to re-do missions and grab collectibles all over again with each ending or death. Players who are more interested in finding secrets, lore, and easter eggs (many of which are inaccessible until the final act of the game) find the lack of a save feature incredibly frustrating given how much is left to explore in the game, and how it expects you to do it all over again after a single loss or ending. Steel Wool subsequently announced in a patch update in February that a save station in the atrium will be added to enable saving at 6 AM.
  - This also creates another bug; the Retry mechanic automatically loads the last save you made, but because the game has no auto-save, if you die near the beginning of the game (or just didn't know that there's no auto-save), it's possible that it'll load a save file from a previous playthrough if you have one, or try to load a non-existent save and dump you outside the map.
- Glamrock Freddy's very fast battery draining is a fair mechanic to balance out the benefits he offers Gregory for most of the game. However, due to the above lack of auto-saves and zero save stations in the late game, Freddy becomes direly necessary both for survival and secret hunting, which will require his upgrades. As a result, his energy-guzzling battery becomes an incredibly frustrating chore to micromanage.
- Upgrading Freddy in Parts & Services has a few gameplay oddities that can cause frustration. The gist is that you must select specific parts of his body when prompted to remove/add them, followed by playing a "Simon Says" Mini-Game to finish it. The area you need to click in order to get it right is extremely precise; there is no grace if you're even just a tiny bit off the button, and you will be punished by a game over. For the voice box where the Simon Says game features the buttons connected to wires of the same colour, it isn't immediately obvious (especially if this is your first time in Parts & Service) that the wires aren't valid things to click. Finally, you cannot preempt the sequence by pressing buttons before its finished giving the commands, and the delay between the end of that and when you're safe to start has about a 1/3rd second delay, causing unexpected deaths if you are rushing through it.
- The S.T.A.F.F. Security Bots, when touched, trigger a jumpscare but won't kill you: instead, they sound an alarm that draws the other animatronics to your location. However, they continue doing so even when it can't possibly matter, such as when you're on the run from more threatening animatronics or even during boss sequences, at which point they have no real effect other than to unnecessarily break up the gameplay.
Self-Fanservice:
- While Vanny is already considered quite attractive due to her curvy body, skin-tight outfit that leaves little to the imagination and conventional good looks under the mask, a lot of fanart redraws her mascot head to look a lot less creepy and menacing; often making it more expressive to the point it matches her real face. She is also sometimes portrayed with an even fuller figure than she actually has in-game.
- While the Glamrocks do have somewhat idealized bodies in-game, such as Freddy's and Monty's barrel-chested frames or Roxanne and Chica's curves, sometimes fanart does things like give Freddy and Monty more prominent muscles, make Freddy and Roxanne fuzzier — as opposed to the hard plastic casing they have in-canon — or generally make them less cartoony.
- Sun's Slasher Smile tends to be toned down to a more cute-looking, happy smile.
Ship Mates: Shippers of Glamrock Freddy/Monty generally also ship Glamrock Chica/Roxanne and vice versa.
Shock Fatigue: In the Ruin DLC, there are many, many loud noises upon impact and sudden life-threatening situations that play throughout, and they eventually become annoying rather than startling. Kane Carter, member of the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative and creator of Popgoes, even came out and criticized the DLC for it.
So Bad, It's Good: Despite the many glaring issues with the game, especially at launch, there is a not-insignificant part of the fanbase that loves the game precisely because of its imperfections. The Speedrun community in particular has embraced the game with open arms, as there are many, many different ways to break and exploit the game's systems. There is even an entire speedrunning category about beating the game backwards.
Suspiciously Similar Song: Fans have pointed out that the game’s main theme sounds very similar to Van Halen’s "Jump" (These comparisons were being made all the way back in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location).
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Ruin is widely accepted by fans as being better than the base game, thanks to its simplified structure removing the many frustrating aspects of the original game's design, the refocus on horror elements, and not being nearly as glitchy. While not free of scrutiny, fans have overall been much kinder to it overall.
Take That, Scrappy!: There are some very obvious moves towards this in the Ruin DLC.
- In the game's intro, Cassie gets her own flashlight from a destroyed, crumpled Security Bot. A few moments later, she gets jumpscared by a disheveled looking Security Bot, once again setting off the alarm that was the bane of players' existence in the main game, only to shut itself off and slump over pathetically. Much later in the DLC, Cassie gets jumpscared once again by a S.T.A.F.F. Bot, which repeatedly asks her if she needs assistance, before, you've guessed it, slumping over pathetically. Except for if a rare easter egg where the real Gregory can be heard speaking through it, trying to reach out to her, takes place, Cassie even tells it to shut up.
- The Flashlight Battery Recharge stations are completely redundant as Cassie's flashlight has infinite battery. They can be seen at a couple of points in the DLC, badly malformed or burned. One of them has even been graffitied by some past visitor. There are no remnants left of a manual save station, presumably because those things were so despised Steel Wool erased them from existence, and in their place, an autosave mechanic is used.
Trans Audience Interpretation: A number of fans headcanon Roxy as trans, stemming from The Ultimate Guide suggesting that the that Twisted Wolf could be an alternate universe version of Roxy, and a separate theory popular in the fanbase that Roxy replaced Foxy, and perhaps was even built off the base of a Glamrock Foxy. In addition, she spends the game constantly questioning her self worth and attempting to reassure herself that she looks beautiful, which when put through this lens, can be interpreted as someone struggling with gender dysphoria.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Despite this being the most directly narratively-driven game in the franchise, the actual plot is rather bare-bones and regulated to "escape the Pizzaplex". You learn very little about the protagonist Gregory (why was he in the Pizzaplex, why did he lack a guest ID, and what did Glamrock Freddy mean about him being "broken?"), those unaware of previous FNaF games will be completely lost about Vanessa and Vanny because Security Breach basically tells you nothing about them, and the sentience of the new animatronics is more or less glossed over.
- That's not even covering the ending of finding out Springtrap/Afton is still alive below the Pizzaplex, with Afton being a very quick final boss with little actual plot about how he survived the fire, or how Vanny/Vanessa (who completely disappears from the plot in this ending) connects to his survival. There is also the matter of the mysterious, gigantic "Blob" who appears out of nowhere in the ending to attack Afton, and is given no explanation for it doing as much as existing. It's implied to be Molten Freddy, but how he survived the fire is left up in the air.
- With the very in-depth way the animatronics are characterized, one would think that could have given scenarios where we get to learn about the relationships between them (something the franchise never really got around to before), but sadly they never really interact with one another in spite of chasing Gregory together at various stages throughout the game. It certainly could have given more depth to them. We do learn briefly about Glamrock Freddy's opinions of them, but that's really it.
- Some fans wish that the other animatronics were playable with their own unique play styles, such as Roxy using her X-Ray Vision, or Monty using his strength. The closest we get to that is decommissioning them and installing their parts onto Freddy, but it’s generally agreed to not feel the same.
- The heavy implications that Monty killed Bonnie to replace him and is plotting the same for Freddy could easily make for an interesting subplot of their own, but they're barely elaborated on in the main game and have little impact beyond making Monty (theoretically) less sympathetic. Ruin does expand on them a little (even showing us Bonnie's damaged body), but by this point it doesn't matter much since the Pizzaplex is abandoned, Freddy is gone, and Monty has gone feral.
- Considering that the Mimic was the villain of the "Ruin" DLC, one can't help but be disappointed over the fact he's the only character from the Tales from the Pizzaplex series to appear, especially since characters like Ballora are still stated to be in the Pizzaplex in sealed off areas, which is what "Ruin" was all about exploring.
Underused Game Mechanic:
- Installing Chica's voice box gives Freddy the ability to stun animatronics. The problem is that when you're in Freddy, animatronics ignore you anyway, so the ability is essentially little more than a pass-card. The only time it's useful is to chase off Roxy during the final boss fight... which contradicts what it usually does and is never communicated to the player.
- Destroying the animatronics has little to no effect on how they operate. Roxy loses her eyes, but due to the game's questionable programming, often reacts to Gregory as though she can still see. Chica loses her voicebox, which does little more than remove her sound clips. Monty is a subversion, as while he loses his legs, he still turns up in a lot of places, though the final boss fight is the only time his gameplay adjusts for it as a vent crawler.
- Gregory can check the cameras to see where the animatronics are... which is rarely if ever necessary, since, as this is a free-roaming game instead of placing the player in a fixed location like the other FNAF games, the player can always see if the animatronics are anywhere near them. Even should the player use the cameras to monitor the animatronics, running into a security bot causes them to jump immediately to the player's location to begin a chase sequence, making the cameras even less useful.
Ugly Cute: Sun is an Unnecessarily Creepy Robot whose face is stuck in a permanent Slasher Smile, but some fans sincerely find it cute and endearing because, even though it's overbearing and manic, it really does just want to play with children and make sure they have a good time.
Unexpected Character: During the last leg of the "Ruin" DLC, players were surprised when they encountered, of all characters, the Candy Cadet from Pizzaria Simulator, who even offers some Five-Second Foreshadowing if you collect the Faz-Tokens around the area.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While Gregory's situation is indeed rough, being hunted down by Vanny and implicitly being homeless, a fair few feel his actions in the 'decommissioning' quest-lines earn him fewer sympathy points. It's established that the animatronics have human-like sentience, so damaging them to take their parts feels closer to Organ Theft, especially once you see the enemy Glamrocks afterward, made worse by the fact that they are Brainwashed and Crazy, making what Gregory does to them seem uncalled for. It isn't helped by him doing it after Freddy tells him not to damage his friends, nor by him lying about it straight to Freddy's face, raising issues of Questionable Consent that are never addressed. This leads to several darker fan interpretations of his character, from Memetic Psychopath jokes, to legit fan theories about his being Evil All Along, to full-on character hate.
Unpopular Popular Character:
- Mr. Hippo is apparently considered lame in-universe, given Gregory's and Glamrock Freddy's reactions to a Mr. Hippo magnet. In Ultimate Custom Night, Mr. Hippo's funny long-winded monologues have made him an Ensemble Dark Horse in the fandom.
- The Daycare Attendant is said to be terrifying to the children it takes care of, no matter if it's Sun or Moon at the time, and has given at least one kid sleeping issues. Compare that to general fan reception, where it's beloved for its clownish design and over-the-top personalities as both Sun and Moon. It's also loved partly because it's so dang terrifying.
  - Sun in particular seems more popular than Moon, due to Sun's determination at keeping Gregory out of the Superstar Daycare after banning him, as well as barely posing any real threat.
- Map Bot is only viewed with annoyance by Vanessa and Gregory, but it being a Self-Parody of the franchise's jumpscares has made it somewhat of a beloved character.
The Un Twist: A prevalent fan theory is that Vanny and Vanessa really are different people, not just different personas but actual body doubles of one another. One argument for this theory comes from a literal — rather than metaphorical — reading of the Escape ending, which has Vanessa looking down on the deceased body of Vanny, assuming that she's still in her physical body and not reduced to a spirit. However, this theory ultimately comes from how the connection between the two is so obvious that it could be construed as a Red Herring; this isn't helped by the actual Red Herrings set up in previous installments, particularly revolving around The Bite of '87.
Viewer Gender Confusion: The Daycare Attendant is an odd example of this, caused mostly by its gender ambiguity. While in-story the only pronouns used are it/its, its more cartoony masculine voice and it being referred to as "Dayman" and "Nightman" in the files leads fans to refer to it with he/his pronouns and treat it as canonically male. Additionally, some fans use he/his or they/them^note because they find the Daycare Attendant too much of a person for "it" and find the pronoun dehumanizing.
Viewer Name Confusion: As detailed above, many people think/thought the Daycare Attendant's names are "Sun(ny)drop" and "Moondrop". It's actually just "Sun" and "Moon".
Visual Effects of Awesome: Much like the VR game that came before it, Security Breach has once again updated the models and graphics of the animatronics, making them much nicer to look at… Especially up close.
Win Back the Crowd: Ruin was received much better than the base game for its far less glitchy release, stronger emphasis on horror, and a much better story. Even some sore story points from the first game, like the ambiguity of Glamrock Bonnie's fate and William's widely criticized return (depending on whether or not you believe the Mimic is Burntrap, but at the very least most fans were happy William wasn't the villain this time) were addressed and mostly improved.

YMMV / Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach

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