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| “ | follow me. | „ |
| ~ Shadow Freddy's only quote in the series. |
| “ | I will eat your soul. | „ |
| ~ Shadow Freddy's loading screen in FNAF World. |
Shadow Freddy is a supporting antagonist in the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise.
He is an enigmatic character whose origins and motives are unknown. He has lured the animatronics to William Afton, resulting in them being demolished and Afton himself dying, but it's unknown which side he was on. He is widely speculated to be an agony creature created from Afton's murders who's on his side.
Appearance[]
In his original and most known appearance, Shadow Freddy has exactly the same appearance as Withered Golden Freddy, although the color is changed from golden/yellow to dark purple.
He completely lacks a left ear and has many tears over his body. Unlike Golden Freddy, his eyes and teeth glow white. In Five Nights at Freddy's 3, Shadow Freddy lacks the glowing white effects for the eyes and teeth and is covered with green levels that appear to be lighting from the Office itself.
In the minigames of Five Nights at Freddy's 3, he looks like Freddy, except purple.
In Five Nights at Freddy's; Help Wanted he looks exactly like FNaF 1 Freddy Fazbear, except black with white eyes and teeth.
Biography[]
Five Nights at Freddy's 2[]
Shadow Freddy appears only as a rare easter egg encountered in the Parts/Service room after everyone leaves it (including Foxy the Pirate). He sits in Withered Bonnie's place.
He appears in a slumped position similar to Golden Freddy in the first game and also uses his model. Brightening up this image reveals that Shadow Freddy is purple in color like several other key items/characters in the franchise, bearing comparisons to William Afton's minigame sprite, the Puppet's "tears", and Fredbear's hat and bow tie among other things.
Five Nights at Freddy's 3[]
Shadow Freddy plays its most significant role in Five Nights at Freddy's 3. In the end-of-night minigames, Shadow Freddy lures Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy in that order to the secret backroom next to the toilets. Because their programming prevents them from entering it, they are forced to turn around and walk away, at which point Afton ambushes them from behind and dismantles them. Shadow Freddy does not appear to the now-released ghost of one of Afton's victims, however.
Rarely, the player may see Shadow Freddy slumped in the leftmost end of the Office. He once again assumes the same position that Golden Freddy does in the previous games. He does not attack or jumpscare the player.
Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator[]
Shadow Freddy makes a brief appearance in the beginning minigame of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.
In the minigame, Shadow Freddy shows up as an obstacle in the third level, attempting to stop Freddy from giving the children pizza. Freddy needs to throw pizza at him to stun him for a brief moment, allowing Freddy to get pizza to the children behind him. In the fourth level, he begins duplicating rapidly and the entire minigame starts glitching. The minigame cuts to black and we are introduced to Scrap Baby and the Cassette Man.
Interestingly, he is called Dark Freddy in the game files.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted[]
Shadow Freddy serves as Freddy Fazbear's replacement during the Parts and Service mode in hard mode, but has no changes in behavior.
Other Media[]
FNAF World[]
Shadow Freddy is an unlockable character. He uses three attacks in the game:
- Unscrew: 30% chance to insta-kill one enemy.
- Esc Key: 15% chance of insta-killing multiple enemies.
- Water hose: Kills all enemies under 30% health.
As Shadow Freddy's attacks all only have a small chance of actually killing someone, it's necessary to have stronger party members alongside him. Successfully insta-killing an enemy can quickly put the fight in the player's favor, though bosses are immune to this ability.
Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones[]
Shadow Freddy likely makes a small cameo in the book. He took Clay Burke, John, and Jessica into the underground location where Twisted Freddy and Charlotte Emily are.
Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)[]
Shadow Freddy makes a minor cameo, being the suit that Maxine is stuffed in after she's killed by Freddy. He's a completely purple recolor of Freddy, thus being similar to his minigame sprite from FNaF 3 in appearance. It's very possible that Maxine will possess Shadow Freddy to be an actual ghost as much like Golden Freddy in the potential sequels for the important role.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Speculations[]
- Fans have made theories that Shadow Freddy is actually Golden Freddy.
- Shadow Freddy is also theorized to be the apparition of one of the employees who wore the spring-lock Fredbear suit, which malfunctioned and killed the employee. Thus the suit itself was put in storage. If this is so, it could be possible that he is a victim of William Afton.
- Shadow Freddy bears comparisons to Nightmare in overall appearance and behavior, suggesting they may be one and the same. If not, then they are most likely counterparts.
- This has been suggested in the Fazbear Frights, as the story Hide and Seek from the sixth book had Shadow Bonnias the main antagonist, and he appeared in the dreams of Toby, the main protagonist, as a monster with sharp teeth and claws. Although, he was also described as having sharp teeth in the real world as well.
- Nightmare was even called "shadow freddy" in the game files for Five Nights at Freddy's 4. But strangely enough, isn't called such in later installments.
- While Shadow Freddy is dark purple while Nightmare is pitch black, this is only a color change, not to mention that different characters went through many different changes while still remaining the same person (the most notable offenders being Springtrap and Scraptrap, who are both William Afton despite the enormous changes in design, although such design changes can be justified by both fire damage and self-repair).
- Nightmare may be the form Shadow Freddy takes on within Michael Afton's dreams to feed on his Agony, in particular his fear from his shift as "Mike Schmidt", as well as his guilt of having killed his younger brother as a teenager.
- It's been also speculated that Shadow Freddy is nothing but pure agony due to Shadow Bonnie's connection to Remnant, which is implied to be agony.
- A popular theory is that Shadow Freddy is the spirit of the Crying Child from Five Nights at Freddy's 4, taking the form of the animatronic who killed him. It would explain why Shadow Freddy hides away in the storage room in the second game, much like the Crying Child (albeit, he was forced into the room), and also why he helps William Afton in the third game, as Afton is his father. Additionally, this theory would still hold up if the Crying Child is possessing Golden Freddy alongside the vengeful spirit of Cassidy, as it's possible that while the two spirits inhabit the suit, the Crying Child can take a pseudo-physical form of the animatronic resembling the one who killed him. It would also make sense as to why Shadow Freddy follows William to Fazbear's Fright and doesn't follow him after the events of the sixth game, as his father is, for the most part, gone for good.
- A recent and plausible theory is that he's William's evil in a somewhat-physical form, as an agony creature similar to the Yellow Rabbit or Eleanor.
- Nightmare says "I am your wickedness made of flesh" in Ultimate Custom Night, which is William's repeated nightmare, and Nightmare is implied to be Shadow Freddy.
- He's purple, the color used to represent William.
- He says "Follow me" in the third game: The same thing William says in the secret ending of the Fruity Maze minigame in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.
- He follows William, appearing where he is/was: The second game's location, Fazbear's Fright, and even The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience (although that's likely not the real Shadow Freddy).
- Assuming he is Nightmare, then him tormenting Michael could be explained: If William wants Michael dead, then Shadow Freddy would also want Michael dead.
- However, there is also a few bits of evidence here and there that imply that Shadow Freddy isn't exactly William's evil given physical form, but is rather a dark spirit who was created with small fragments of the man's said evil. The same applies to Shadow Bonnie.
- Additionally, The Freddy Files indicate Shadow Freddy lured the animatronics to the Safe Room to help them kill their killer, making his alliance with Afton debatable. That said, the book could also be wrong, as it already has other inaccuracies.
- It's been also theorized that he's just William Afton putting on a Freddy costume. However, Shadow Freddy can teleport during the Five Nights at Freddy's 3 minigames if the player doesn't follow him (although this is not common), and there is no Freddy suit within the Safe Room where William is lurking, indicating the theory isn't true.
- Shadow Freddy has been also speculated to be an animatronic who left the mysterious footprints in the Midnight Motorist minigame of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, as he's already been connected to luring people in places, and the footprints match the ones that Shadow Freddy would leave. If this is true, then he might have been the one that lured away Afton's son. However, why he would do so remains unclear.
- If Shadow Freddy is the animatronic that lures the unknown child from his house in the Midnight Motorist minigame, some suggest that Shadow Freddy is the spirit of the Crying Child luring Michael Afton to the mound of dirt nearby (implied to be his grave) to show him that something has gone wrong.
- Those who believe that Shadow Freddy is an agony creature theorize that Afton's runaway son is the Crying Child, and that Shadow Freddy showed him Charlie's corpse to feed on his agony and put fear into him.
- Some theorize that Shadow Freddy may have some relation with Lefty from Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, as both of them are a dark and shadowy colored variation of the Freddy animatronic in their respective games, and have a more important role in the story than their normal counterpart. Interestingly, Shadow Freddy, Nightmare and Lefty are the only black coloured bears at the game series. To further support this theory, Nightmarionne and Nightmare interchange roles in the Halloween update of Five Nights at Freddy's 4. In addition, Lefty has a slumping poise similar to that of Shadow Freddy.
- Some think that Shadow Freddy is the true identity of the Fredbear Plush seen throughout the Five Nights at Freddy's 4 minigames.
- The Fredbear Plush is connected to William Afton and might even be the same person: However, Afton is shown in the game as a cameo, in the same location as his son, busy helping or killing an employee. Shadow Freddy is implied to be William's evil/wickedness.
- The Midnight Motorist minigame is implied to be William coming to his house after killing Charlotte Emily, and given the theory above, the Crying Child and Shadow Freddy have been connected before.
- Despite mostly a heroic character (or at least, a neutral character helping an innocent child), the Fredbear Plush is actually somewhat controlling and manipulative, forcing the Crying Child to go to places where he will be scared by his older brother, constantly telling him that said brother hates him and doing nothing to comfort the child when he's crying (as in, the entire time where's he's on-screen, hence the name).
- The final minigame has the Crying Child in a dark void: Nightmare proclaims that "the shadow fears [him]".
- Coincidentally or not, the Clock Ending in FNAF World has a lot of connections to the Crying Child.
- It was speculated that Dark Freddy and Pizza Party Freddy/Party Freddy from Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted is actually Shadow Freddy. However it is likely they they are just inspired by him.
Trivia[]
- Unlike Shadow Bonnie whom is portrayed as hero/anti-hero in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 with evidence him put missing children souls to rest in minigame, Shadow Freddy is heavily implied to be a villainous character in the series. Although, he does do a few things that often fall into the Grey Zone, making his morality uncertain/unpredictable.
- In Five Nights at Freddy's 2, due to static in camera and color being gray and white, its wires were thought to be tears
- Unlike popular belief, he doesn't crash the game like Shadow Bonnie in the second game, or Golden Freddy in the first game.
- The Crumpled Freddy suit in the third game's office was often mistaken to be Phantom Golden Freddy.
