Five Nights at Freddy's (video game)

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Video game fandom
NameFive Night's at Freddy's, Five Night's at Freddy's 1
Abbreviation(s)FNaF, FNaF 1
Developer(s)Scott Cawthon
Publisher(s)Scott Cawthon
Release dateAug 8, 2014
Platform(s)Windows
Related articles on Fanlore.

Main article: Five Nights at Freddy's (video game series)

Five Nights at Freddy's (FNaF or FNaF 1) is the first game in the Five Nights at Freddy's indie horror game franchise by Scott Cawthon. It was released in 2014 and gained a cult following, much of which has been credited to YouTube let's players such as Markiplier and Jacksepticeye. It is followed by it's sequel, Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Plot and Gameplay

In Five Nights at Freddy's you, the main character "Mike Schmidt," are a security guard at a pizzeria called "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza." The goal is to last five nights without being killed by any of the wandering animatronics, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, or Foxy. The player cannot move from the room, and gameplay resembles a point and click game. At the beginning of every night the "Phone Guy" calls the player and talks at them, leaving small pieces of lore about how the animatronics get up and move at night. Outside of the caller there is little to the canon plot. A timer counts down from midnight to 6am and once it reaches 6am the player has won the night. The player can keep playing till night 7, which Phone Guy will then fire them.

During the game posters on the wall may change, as well as newspaper clippings that can be read by the player. A fifth secret animatronic, Golden Freddy, may also appear and cause the player to see hallucinations, such as seeing the phrase "IT'S ME" written on walls. By piecing together more of the story with these hidden texts, it's revealed five children went missing from the pizzeria lured by a man dressed up as a character, which caused it to fall in popularity. Mentions of foul smells coming from the robots, and blood oozing from their orifices, implied there were corpses inside of them. These have caused fans to come up with theories about the history of the pizzeria, animatronics, Phone Guy, and the player character Mike.

Fandom

Shipping

On DeviantART groups were made after FNaF 1's release where artists could submit ship art of the characters. One such group is fnaf-shippings, which opened on Oct 14, 2014. It's gallery consists of folders designated for only a few specific ships plus one folder for misc. ships. The ships it includes from FNaF 1 are FoxyxChica, ChicaxBonnie, FoxyxFreddy, and FreddyxBonnie. Of these folders FoxyxChica has the most images in its gallery.[1]

Foxy may have been shipped, or self shipped, frequently during early FNaF fandom, including in 2014. Foxy is listed on the Tumblrsexymen wiki and is claimed to have been a fan favorite for humanization and ships. The Tumblrsexymen wiki states:

His potential to be shipped with anyone, which could have been a substitute for self shipping as in 2014-2015 it was considered "cringe" or "immature" to create "Mary Sue" OCs, may have also led to his popularity. All in all, Foxy being perceived as sympathetic, his swashbuckling human design, and capability to be shipped appealed to all different types of fans, young and old, furry or not.

Tumblrsexymen Wiki, May 2022[2]

On Archive of Our Own FNaF 1 was not very popular; by October 2014 it had 65 fanworks and only 7 of those were labeled as a relationship.[3] Some ships (including those not listed under the "relationships" filter) included a Foxy/Bonnie College AU, a Freddy Fazbear/Bill Cipher crossover ship, and a Chica/Bonnie PWP. FNaF fanfiction and shipping content would not expand until the release of the second game in Nov 2014. By Dec 23, 2014, AO3's FNaF fanfic count increased to 208 and ships listed under the relationships filter did as well. The most popular ship on AO3 for FNaF 1-2 in Dec 2014 was Chica/Bonnie, with 10 fanfics.[4]

Ship Names

While it appears the majority of fans used the (name) x (name) naming convention for ships, there were some portmanteau names made. Usage of the ship name Frexy for FreddyxFoxy was used on Twitter around the same time FNaF 1 was released.[5] A list of ship names was posted on Nov 6, 2014 by Quotev writer ChaoticPanda.[6] ChoaticPanda's list gives an idea as to the oldest portmanteau names for the FNaF fandom. The FNAF 1 ship names labled by ChaoticPanda, along with others, are listed below.

  • Freddy/Foxy- Frexy
  • Bonnie/Freddy- Fronnie
  • Bonnie/Foxy- Boxy
  • BonBon/Freddy- Boneddy
  • Michael SchmidtxPhone Guy- Michaelphone
  • Chica/Roxy

Theories

Though it was implied the animatronics may have had dead bodies, or body parts, inside of them, it would not be confirmed that they were also possessed by the ghosts of dead children until later games. Despite this, it was theorized by fans very early on that possession was involved in the behavior of the robots. The Game Theorists echoed this theory on Oct 23, 2014.[7] One comment from his video confirms that this theory was not always so explicit:

It’s crazy to think that back when this game first came out, the idea of the animatronics being possessed by murdered kids wasn’t something that was explicit from the get-go.

Justin H, 2022

Based on the paycheck the player receives after night five, it's been theorized FNaF 1 takes place between 1990 - 1993, as the paycheck lines up with the minimum wage in the United States for the early 1990s.[7]

A deleted user on Reddit attempted to curate a list of early FNaF 1 theories, though the list itself was posted in 2021 meaning it's unclear how many of the theories were influenced by later games.[8] Some of the theories listed were:

  • Fans attempted to theorize who caused the bite of 87, with some believing it was Freddy due to a hand print on his face. Another was that it had been Foxy due to Foxy being the only robot with sharp teeth. Lastly some fans thought it was Golden Freddy due to his unstable nature.
  • Fans tried to interpret what Golden Freddy's "IT'S ME" messages meant. It seems most fans at the time believed it was one or more of the childrens souls writing the message, usually as a way to communicate with Mike. Some fans believed Mike himself was their murderer and the souls were trying to scare him.
  • Mike himself was a topic of theorization. While some believed he was the killer, others theorized that Mike was investigating the children's deaths or that he may have even been related to one of the dead children. This may have been used to explain why Mike continued to return to the job. Alternatively, other fans thought Phone Guy was the killer, and one comment stated: "Phone guy being the killer was a pretty popular theory back then since fnaf 1." A quote from Tumblr about this theory said:
OKAY BUT IF WE FOLLOW THE IDEA THAT PHONE GUY WAS THE MURDER IT EXPLAINS WHY THE ANIMATRONICS ARE TRYING TO KILL THE NIGHT GUARD

BECAUSE NOT ONLY ARE YOU DRESSED IN A NIGHT GUARD UNIFORM LIKE HE WAS

BUT THE ANIMATRONICS WOULD HAVE SEEN YOU GO IN TO YOUR OFFICE

AND HEARD THE MURDER’S VOICE

THEY’RE TRYING TO KILL YOU BECAUSE THEY THINK PHONE GUY’S MESSAGES ARE YOU SPEAKING

THEY THINK YOU’RE HIM

adobe-outdesign, Nov 14, 2014[9]

  • The "hide and seek theory." The theory that the souls possessing the robots think that they are playing hide and seek, and if you lose they will put you into a Freddy suit not knowing you will die.
  • Bonnie and Freddy's gender. Some fans believed Bonnie was a girl because of his name. For Freddy, some fans interpreted him to be possessed by the soul of a little girl due to him entering the woman's bathroom in game.
  • The cupcake is alive. The cupcake would change location and disappear when Chica moved, leading some fans to believe it was alive. In later games the cupcake does move autonomously as it's own animatronic.
  • The "Goldenphone" and "Chicaphone" theories. The Goldenphone theory was the theory that Golden Freddy was stuffed with the corpse of Phone Guy. The Chicaphone theory is the same, but with Chica.

Many FNaF 1 theories coincide with the release of FNaF 2, meaning theories unique to just FNaF 1 may be much fewer.[note 1]

Fanworks

Gallery

Video

Fan Songs

Fanfiction

Links & Resources

  • FNAF-Shippings- early FNaF 1 shipping DA group, later incorporated folders for FNaF 2 ships.

Notes and References

Notes

  1. ^ Archives of FNaF theory Tumblrs rarely go back further than November 2014, which is when FNaF 2 was released.

References

  1. ^ FNAF-Shippings, DeviantART. (Accessed 5/28/2022)
  2. ^ Foxy, Tumblrsexymen Wiki. (Accessed 5/28/2022)
  3. ^ Five Nights at Freddy's, Archive of Our Own. Oct 12, 2014 (Accessed 5/28/2022)
  4. ^ Five Nights at Freddy's, Archive of Our Own. Dec 23, 2014 (Accessed 5/28/2022)
  5. ^ Frexy, Twitter tag for 2014-2015. (Accessed 6/9/2022)
  6. ^ Five Nights At Freddys shippings, Quotev. Nov 6, 2014 (Accessed 6/9/2022)
  7. ^ a b Game Theory: Five Nights at Freddy's SCARIEST Monster is You!, YouTube. Oct 23, 2014 (Accessed 5/28/2022) (Archived 5/28/2022)
  8. ^ All the fnaf 1 theories, Reddit. May 8, 2021 (Accessed 5/29/2022)
  9. ^ OKAY BUT IF WE FOLLOW THE IDEA THAT PHONE GUY WAS THE MURDER, Tumblr. Nov 14, 2014 (Accessed 5/30/2022)
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