| “ | These are my friends | „ |
| ~ The Crying Child talking about his Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy plushies. |
| “ | No! I don't want to go! | „ |
| ~ The Crying Child pleading with his brother to not bring him to Fredbear right before the Bite of 83. |
The Crying Child is a character within the popular indie series Five Nights at Freddy's.
He is the younger brother of Michael Afton and the youngest son of William Afton. Serving as the playable character in the minigame segments of Five Nights at Freddy's 4. The Crying Child ends up meeting an early fate after his head was shoved into Fredbear's mouth, causing it to clamp shut onto his head and killing him.
Appearance[]
The Crying Child takes on the appearance of a young boy boy with a black shirt with grey stripes and blue shorts, dark brown hair, and brown shoes, in his official artwork he is also shown to wear white socks, has brown eyes and has a bandaid on his left leg.
Personality[]
In the minigames, the Crying Child is shown to have a very timid, and emotional personality, he is constantly crying and is shown to be completely petrified of the animatronics. Because of these traits, he is often made fun of and bullied by others, including his older brother Michael Afton, who constantly torments and bullies him by scaring him as well as locking him inside of his own room for no other reason than because he finds it amusing.
Outside of his clear cowardice and fear of animatronics, not much else is known about the Crying Child in regards to his personality, though it is often theorized that he used to love the animatronics before witnessing something traumatic that lead to his fears, evidence of this includes the Fredbear and Friends TV Show that can be switched on in one of the minigames, as well as the fact that he has a Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy plushie, which he regards as his friends.
Biography[]
Not much is known about the Crying Child's background, all that is known is that he was one of the children of the franchise's main antagonist, William Afton, being born alongside his older brother Michael, as well as his sister Elizabeth. What is known however, is that he witnessed something that lead him to becoming terrified of animatronics, something which his older brother, as well as effectively the rest of town would go onto mock and exploit for the sake of making him miserable.
Leading up to the events of the game, the Crying Child's birthday party is shown to be fast approaching, with the minigames in Five Nights at Freddy's 4 taking place across a five day period that ends with the party itself.
5 days until the party[]
On the fifth day leading up to the party, Michael Afton decides to lock the Crying Child inside of his own room, something of which the Fredbear Plush (who is heavily implied to be his father speaking to him through the plushie) seems to express annoyance at, before assuring him that he didn't have to worry, and that he would be there with him.
At first, the Crying Child attempts to open the door to his room, knocking on it to presumably try and convince Michael to let him out. When that doesn't work, he collapses to the floor crying where the minigame fades out.
4 days until the party[]
On the fourth day keading up to the party, the Crying Child is able to leave his room, though not before the Fredbear Plush points out how Michael is hiding somewhere and that he won't stop until the Crying Child finds him.
From there the Crying Child explores his house, being followed by the Fredbear Plushie the whole time. Upon reacing the living room of the house, Michael jumps out from behind the TV, scaring the Crying Child and causing him to collapse to the floor crying.
3 days until the party[]
On the third day leading up to the party, the Crying Child, along with Michael go to Fredbear's Family Diner, where Michael promptly abandons him, obviously to scare him as he knows that his younger brother despises Fredbear's.
After crying under a table for an unknown amount of time, the Fredbear Plushie says that he should be able to escape if he makes a run towards the exit, motivating the Crying Child to get up and begin running to the left, only for the Fredbear Plushie to stop him and saying:
| “ | Don't you remember what you saw? Hurry and leave | „ |
It is never stated what it is that the Crying Child saw, however judging by how it seems to have a link to his fear of animatronics as well his hatred of Fredbear's in some way, it can be assumed that it was something traumatic. From there the Crying Child begins running to the right, toward the exit, only to be stopped by a person wearing a Fredbear suit, leaving him with no choice but to run in the opposite direction.
During this specific day, there is an easter egg where if the Crying Child goes back to the beginning area after the person in the Fredbear suit appears, you can see a brief shot of William Afton putting someone in a Spring Bonnie suit, it is unknown what exaclty he was doing here but it was likely something bad.
Continuing on to the left, the Fredbear Plushie tries to encourage the Crying Child to be strong, to keep going, however upon the person in the Fredbear suit catching up to him, he caves and collapses to the floor, crying.
2 days until the party[]
Once again finding himself in Fredbear's Family Diner, crying on the floor. The Fredbear Plushie tells him that "he" presumably Michael, hates him, before saying that he will be able to get out this time but that he needs to hurry.
Making it out of the restaurant. the Crying Child finds himself in the neighborhood where he can interact with various town residents. A majority of them just mock him for how afraid he is of the animatronics. This seems to show that not only does Michael enjoy bullying the Crying Child, but the entire neighborhood does as well.
Eventually, the Crying Child reaches his room, where the Fredbear Plushie tells him to be careful. From there the Crying Child is able to explore the house, having the option to explore another bedroom that presumably belongs to Elizabeth, before entering his own room, where he promptly gets jumpscared by Michael, who was hiding under his bed the whole time. Once again, just like previous days, this causes the Crying Child to collapse in a fit of tears.
1 day until the party[]
On the last day leading up to the party, the Crying Child is locked inside what is presumably the back stage of Fredbear's, while it's not said, it can be assumed that Michael was the one to lock him in there.
The Crying Child begs to be let out, screaming and crying, and when nobody hears his pleas, he collapses to the floor crying.
The day of the party[]
On the day of the Crying Child's birthday party, something of which was being hosted inside Fredbear's Family Diner despite his own hatred of the place, he is surrounded by Michael alongside his other friends, all wearing masks of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. One of his friends (likely the Bonnie-Mask) points out how much of a whimp he is, to which Michael simply responds by saying it was hilarious before rhetorically asking if he should get a closer look at Fredbear.
The Crying Child begs for him not to, but Michael doesn't listen, telling everyone to "give the little man a lift" they all cease him and take carry him over to where Fredbear is performing, The Crying Child continues to plead, saying that he didn't want to, but the bullies do not relent. Eventually reaching Fredbear's stage, Michael and his other bully friends shove him into Fredbear's mouth after a countdown, to where only seconds later, Fredbear's mouth comes crunching down onto the Crying Child's head, causing him to go limp, much to the horror of Michael and his friends.
Post Night 6 Cutscene[]
After beating Night 6 of Five Nights at Freddy's 4's game segments, players are granted with a cutscene where the Fredbear Plushie (seemingly a different person from the one talking to him on the previous days judging by the color of his text being different) talks to the Crying Child, comforting him and saying that he, along with the other plushies, were still his friends.
Prior to this however, there is a single line of dialogue spoken from Michael, where he apologizes to his little brother for what happened at Fredbear's.
The plushies of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy all begin to disappear as the Fredbear Plushie promises to put the Crying Child back together, before disappearing himself, leaving the Crying Child to cry in the void alone, and disappearing, signifying that he did not survive the bite.
Trivia[]
- The Crying Child is the only member of the Afton Family to never have been given a name. To this day, his true name is still a prevalent subject for theorizing and speculation.
- In the earlier days of the fandom, the Crying Child was given the supplemental name of "Chris," due to sharing syllables with his nickname.
- Many have theorized that the Crying Child's name is Evan due to pieces of information in the Survival Logbook that when put together, come up with that name. However, the process to find that name was forced, switching from a method to another in the last letter. If the method remained consistent, the result would have been "EVAD" instead of "EVAN."
- This led to several users coming to the conclusion that, by mirroring the name EVAD, they would get the Crying Child's real name: Dave, the pseudonym his father's novel trilogy counterpart used whilst being undercover.
- With the release of the Five Nights at Freddy's feature film, some speculate that Garrett, a fellow neutral Five Nights at Freddy's character, is the movie universe's version of the Crying Child, if this were true, it might also confirm that the Crying Child's true name is Garrett in the games.
- In later years, a duo of theorists going under the name Dual Process Theory proposed that Cassidy, the other name found in the Survival Logbook, belongs to the Crying Child instead of the fifth missing kid. This is because the text where the name Cassidy was found was altered, which would line up with the Crying Child being the one altering the book's text, as opposed to the fifth soul writing in faded text.
- He is the only member of the Afton Family to be of the Neutral Alignment.
- Ironically, each Afton child is on a different wiki due to their alignment: Michael on the heroes, the Crying Child on neutral, and Elizabeth on the villains.
- There are two instances where the Crying Child's status on this wiki could be affected:
- It is often speculated that the Crying Child is possessing Golden Freddy. If this were ever confirmed true, the Crying Child would stop being a Neutral Character due to Golden Freddy being a villain.
- Another theory suggests that Gregory, the protagonist of Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach, is actually the Crying Child after being reborn, if this turns out to be true, then the Crying Child would no longer be a neutral character either, as Gregory commits both heroic and villainous deeds in his appearances.
Gallery[]
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 Neutrals
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Mainline Games Other Humans Spin-Off Games Novel Trilogy Fazbear Frights One-Shot Tales from the Pizzaplex Movie
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