| NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Circus Baby from the Fourth Closet. The mainstream version can be found here. |
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| “ | You look at me and you see a soulless monster; how ironic. How twisted. How backward. How unfair. | „ |
| ~ Baby showing her scorn and hatred towards Charlie. |
| “ | Do you know why my eyes were always glowing? Do you know why I twitched and shuddered in the dark? It was because your father left me turned on all the time. Every moment, every day, I was aware, and unfinished. Watching him as the hours passed, and he created toys for the little Charlie, unicorns and bunnies that moved and talked as I hung in the dark, waiting. Abandoned. | „ |
| ~ Baby revealing her tragic origins. |
| “ | It's not fair. I never had a life. | „ |
| ~ Baby's final words upon being impaled by Henry's suicide robot. |
Elizabeth Afton, also known as Circus Baby, is the secondary antagonist of the Five Nights at Freddy's Novel Trilogy.
She is the fourth and final android replica of Henry's daughter, Charlotte Emily who was murdered by William Afton. During her creation she was corrupted by Henry's agony and later possessed by Afton's abused daughter, Elizabeth. After being locked away by Henry, she is accidentally freed by Charlie eleven years later and impersonates her to steal her life. She then became determined to serve her father and gain his approval and love no matter the cost nor the atrocities. However she is ultimately defeated by Charlie who sacrificed her life to stop her.
Appearance[]
Humanoid[]
Circus Baby is described as "Elegant and feminine", her walk as "Gracefully, yet mechanically". Her split face is said to appear "Exquisitely sculpted" with "Rosy cheeks, enormous, round eyes" and "Long, black lashes". She has a red and white outfit with a short skirt; her hair is tied into two "Silky pigtails". Her overall appearance is dominated by "Sleek and controlled beauty". Baby is usually seen in a more humanoid form than her video game counterpart, with Jessica noting that Baby looks like a mannequin. However by retracting the needles on her body, Baby can alter her form to resemble her in-game appearance.
Charlotte Emily[]
When Baby mimics the appearance of Charlie she looks nearly identical to her but with rather noticeable differences. Her hair is somewhat darker, she is slightly taller and skinnier, she also wears makeup and lipstick. It’s also stated that her facial structure is slightly different from the real Charlie as well. For her attire she wears a red dress with black combat boots.
Animatronic[]
Circus Baby's animatronic form is described as a gigantic, cartoonish child with slim red hair, as well as a frilly red crop top with a matching skirt. She has many features relating to a clown. Her facial features include a pale face, long eyelashes, rosy cheeks, red lips, a garish pink nose, bright green eyes, and vibrant blue eyebrows. Her pins are described as thin, sharp spines like porcupine's needles, each capped with red knob like a pinhead that sticking out of her face, her body, her arms and her legs. In this form, her stomach can split open at the middle and shot out an enormous mass of wires and pongs.
Personality[]
| “ | Circus Baby: It’s strange. I have these memories. I know they don’t belong to me; and yet at the same time, they do. I know that they don’t belong to me because I don’t feel anything when they come to mind. They are just there, like a long road you walk on, lined with billboards of things happening somewhere else.
Jessica: Well, what do you feel? |
„ |
| ~ Baby revealing the depths of her emotional turmoil. |
Baby is a vengeful, manipulative, hateful, spiteful and cruel android intent on getting what she wants no matter the cost. She has an immense hatred for her fellow creation Charlotte Emily (who is a robotic duplicate of the real one murdered by Afton) being jealous she was treated with love and affection by Henry while she was left in the corner of his workshop unfinished and even being called “wrong” by him. She claims that all the replications of Charlie were made alive when Henry poured his emotions into them. Baby herself was made alive by Henry’s fury which naturally made her aggressive however she claims she could not comprehend her feelings or have any real agency until she got a soul of her own.
She showed herself to be highly intelligent and articulate putting on caring, loving, sensitive and kind masks to trick people. When she pretended to be Charlie she had all of her friends fooled save for John. She adopted Charlie’s awkward, quirky and kind personality but she failed to capture many of Charlie’s core traits, such as her sense of nostalgia and love for her past. She also didn’t properly adopt her appearance correctly which shows that she isn’t a perfect manipulator. She also telepathically manipulated Charlie into setting her free by pretending to be Sammy in her dreams. She also was not above using her looks to manipulate people like when she attempted to seduce Carlton to catch him off guard and kill him. She also has extensive medical knowledge being able to perform countless complex surgeries on Afton and ensuring to sterilize herself so he does not contract an infection.
She also has no qualms when it comes to murder, kidnapping and assault. She brutally attacked Clay Burke, attempted to shred Carlton to death with saws and kidnapped several children for Afton to experiment on. She even threatened to rip Jessica in half for simply insulting Afton. She also gruesomely murdered Charlie’s Aunt Jen by ripping her own stomach out and callously asked her if she had any last words. Overall she has no real remorse or shame in her actions. Ironically enough, she is also shown to be a germaphobe wiping her hands after murdering Jen.
Her hatred and jealousy of Charlie goes even deeper. She was intent on killing her even if it was against Afton’s assigned objective noting that she hated Charlie more than she loved him. She mocked her for being nothing more than a facsimile of the real Charlie and called her soulless and a mere ghost of Henry’s grief just to hurt her emotionally. She even intended on impersonating her once more after she kills her to forever steal her identity out of pure and utter spite.
Despite this Baby is not a complete monster, but a broken, sad, tragic and lonely person. It’s revealed that she was not only corrupted by Henry’s agony but she was possessed by William’s abused daughter Elizabeth. This instilled Baby with a deep sense of love for William rightfully considering him her father. This made her willing to do anything to gain his approval which led her to becoming just as malevolent as him. Baby was also deeply saddened when her father was disappointed in her and didn’t see her as “enough”. It’s likely she refuses to accept the fact that her father see’s her as nothing but a pawn presumably because her servitude to him is the only purpose she has. It’s also implied that the reason she impersonated Charlie was not just for pragmatic reasons but because she wanted to experience what it was like to truly live. Despite subverting her care for him once she was exposed, she seemed to have genuinely loved John at first, happily going on dates with him, enjoying their time together, and even getting upset when he doesn’t reciprocate her feelings. In the end when she dies, her end is played for sympathy as she laments that she never had a life, something that even Charlie shows slight empathy for. Had Baby been treated with actual love and affection rather than coldness and scorn she may have never turned into the monster she was.
Biography[]
Creation and Origins[]
A incomplete Baby left abandoned in Henry's workshop.
The robot who would become Circus Baby was created in the mid 80s by Henry Emily. She was meant to be the fourth and final robot made to replicate his late daughter Charlotte who was murdered by his business partner, William Afton. Each robot was made to simulate a different stage in Charlie’s life to replicate her growing up. The fourth robot was meant to be Charlie as a fully grown woman. However each robot was powered by the different emotions Henry was feeling in his grief. The fourth was powered by his rage as by then he had realized he had gone insane and deluded himself. So for that reason the fourth robot was unfinished and left to rot in Henry’s workshop. However, Henry didn’t bother turning it off, thus for years it was forced to watch motionlessly as Henry showed affection for the other replications of Charlie, by making toys for her and spending time with her. This made the robot jealous and seething with blind rage towards Charlie to the point one night it attacked her, thankfully Henry caught it and shut it off. However at some point Afton would steal it away intent on finishing it and making it into his own creation; Circus Baby.
Baby killing Elizabeth Afton.
As she was being worked on, William became so obsessed with completing her he neglected his own daughter Elizabeth. After coming home from kindergarten with a paper with a gold star on it, Elizabeth wanted to show her father her proud work, only for him to shoo her away twice. However, she returned a third time while holding the paper in the air, thinking that he didn't see it beforehand. This resulted in William pushing her to the ground, her arm hurting after she had fallen on it. William stepped on her graded work as a way to prevent her from retrieving it. In tears, she tried to grab the paper under his foot, leading him to hit her across the face. During this, she saw Baby and noticed how her father gave all his attention to. As a response, Elizabeth became fascinated, obsessing over the animatronic to the point that she would steal a stick of lipstick from her kindergarten teacher's purse and use it to draw bright red circles on her cheeks, and draw a Joker-like smile on her face.
After sneaking to her father's workshop, she approaches Baby, who ends up luring her closer and killing her. William eventually realizes his daughter possessed Baby. However, Henry would soon take back Baby and realize just how dangerous she had become. Out of shame for his creation which he viewed as a reminder of his pain and regret, he locked Baby away in the fourth closet inside his house. Eventually Henry committed suicide out of his grief and Charlie moved away leaving Baby trapped behind the closet.
The Twisted Ones[]
Baby emerging disguised as Charlie after her supposed death.
Eleven years later Baby decided to telepathically transmit messages to Charlie via her dreams. She tricked Charlie into thinking she was her brother Sammy whom she was programmed to believed was kidnapped and killed by Afton years ago instead of her. Eventually Charlie finds the closet, but before she could open it she is attacked by Twisted Freddy and seemingly killed. Henry’s house then gets crushed from a tree collapsing on it. However the destruction of the house resulted in Baby finally being set free from her prison.
As Charlie's friends mourn over her death, Baby disguised as Charlie drives up and got out. She was slim and tall, with long, straight brown hair that glistened in the sun. She strode purposefully toward the diner. They all watched motionless, as if the slightest sound might rupture the illusion and send her away. The woman was almost at the door.
They rushed to the doorway to meet her just as she walked in. Arty seemed confused, his mouth opened slightly and his brow furrowed. John watched for a steady moment, then turned away decisively, facing across the table with a grave expression. He didn't speak until Arty met his gaze, "That's not Charlie."
The Fourth Closet[]
Baby attempting to convince John she is the real Charlie.
Six months after the events of the previous book Baby reunited with Afton after over ten years of being apart. She then became Afton’s accomplice and surgeon, helping him remove the Spring Bonnie suit he was trapped in although it led to his state deteriorating, which will eventually lead to his death. To circumvent this he tasked Baby with kidnapping several children for him to experiment on and to find the real Charlie. William wants to know the secrets behind her creation and how she came to life by being powered by emotions and not a soul. He also opened Circus Baby’s Pizza as a front and base for his plans. Meanwhile, Baby has near seamlessly managed to impersonate Charlie. All of her friends are fooled but John knows better and picks up on the various subtle differences. Such as the fact that “Charlie” doesn’t remember key things, her general lack of interest in her old passions and the way that she dresses. For this reason John keeps his distance from “Charlie”.
Baby staring at the ground as her "friends" converse with each other.
One day the gang of friends reunite with Carlton now that’s he’s off from school for spring break. “Charlie” attempts to talk to John and the two have a discussion to clear the air. They discuss the events of six months ago regarding the Twisted animatronics and how she “almost died”. John then coldly responds that he thought the same. “Charlie” then begins to cry at the fact that John isn’t accepting her. John then asks if she remembers the last thing he said to her, about how he told her he loved her. “Charlie” of course denies remembering this and comes up with the excuse of gaps in her memory. “Charlie” then asks out John on a date, specifically to the location of their first date at the Thai restaurant. John hesitantly accepts and notes to himself that they eyes he saw on that woman were not Charlie’s eyes. Later on back in Carlton’s house the gang discuss their recent endeavors. The whole time “ Charlie” mumbles instead of giving coherent answers. Carlton then tells her that the land where her father's house used to be has been cleared out and the debris has been taken to a junk yard so it's possible she could build a new house. He cracks a joke about the killer animatronics not being there which causes Jessica to elbow him. “Charlie” brushes it off and just laughs about it to avoid suspicion.
Sometime later “Charlie” goes to the scrap yard Carlton mentioned and talks to the foreman Bob, about scrap from a recently destroyed house. She infers the foreman about how he heard the cries of a girl in the scarps and tried to rescue her getting his knees scraped in the process. Bob gets highly uncomfortable and asks if he’s in any trouble. “Charlie” assured him that he’s not as long as she does her a favor; take her to the scraps of that house. Later that day, “Charlie” sneaks into Jessica’s house to ask if she can help her get ready for her date with John. Jessica however gives her friendly advice on the matter, telling her to just try to work things out and communicate. Later on the date “Charlie” and John have a talk about all that has happened recently.
"Charlie" whilst on a date with John.
John begins to pressure “Charlie” about the supposed gaps in her memory, the holes and inconsistencies in her story and her overall different demeanor. This causes “Charlie” to get heavily defensive and break down insisting that just wanted to “change for the better” and “distance herself from her past”. As the two wind down “Charlie” asks if John knows where her Aunt Jen is as she needs to talk to her. John however claims that he does not know and the two end their date. As they leave the restaurant “Charlie” asks if they could go see a movie but John rejects this coming up with the excuse that he has somewhere to be. Later that night John is suddenly surrounded by a group of clowns one of which is Circus Baby herself. John manages to evade them and leaves. That night however Baby breaks into Clay Burke's house and attacks him. Although he is severely injured he survives and is hospitalized. Later on Baby witnesses as William Afton is experimenting on Funtime Freddy. William tells Baby to raise the temperature of the endoskeleton two more degrees. However, Baby notes that it's in pain but Afton doesn't care and demands she do it anyway. Although, Baby advises him he is at risk of destroying them he snarls that they can't be destroys but they will become more like she did. He then injects Funtime Freddy with the remnant from the endoskeleton which gives him life. He then demands that Baby continue her search for their final component Charlie. He theorizes that since Clay Burke had the animatronics is his basement for so long she may be in his house. However, Baby claims she already looked but Afton demands she look again.
John discovers the truth about Baby.
At the hospital John and Jessica find out that Clay has been spying on "Charlie" and in every photo he took of her she was blurry while everything else wasn't. Suddenly "Charlie" enters the room and noticeably looks disappointed that Clay is alive. To lighten the mood she makes a joke about hospitals smelling bad. Later on, when John and Jessica go to Charlie's aunt Jen's house for answers she confirms that the woman who they have been seeing for the last six months isn't Charlie. However, Baby soon enters Jen's house and questions her on the location of the real Charlie. When she refuses to give her answers Baby decides to kill her. Baby then mockingly asks if she has any last words. Jen merely professes her love for Charlie and how she always has. Baby then rips out her stomach killing her. However in the chaos Jessica and John escape with the real Charlie. Baby reports back to Afton and he goes on a monologue about his desire to find out what is was that Henry discovered. He demands to know why Baby has yet to find it and calls her a disappointment. Baby then asks if she's still not enough and William coldly responds with a no. Baby then states that she knows where to look next. Later on Baby drops by John's house in her Charlie disguise. She looks around suspecting John is hiding Charlie. However, John makes her stop by asking her out on a date which she happily accepts. However on the date things go bad when John makes it clear that he knows Baby is an imposter. John them threatens to expose her in the public. Baby somewhat threatened by this kisses John on the cheek, pays the bill and leaves. Jessica foolishly decides to follow her resulting in her getting captured.
Baby holding Jessica hostage.
When she awakens she finds herself tied to a chair and Baby reveals her true form. Baby then goes on a rant about her problems and inner turmoil. She then shares a bit of her past as Elizabeth and how all of Afton's love and attention went into building Circus Baby. Jessica then interjects stating that Afton built nothing with love. Baby enraged threatens to rip Jessica in half. Suddenly, Jessica escapes her bonds and makes a break for it only to be confronted by Afton himself. Afton explains his plans and his goal to become immortal before he dies. He then reveals that not only has Baby been the one kidnapping the local children, but he himself captured the original animatronics and fused them together into one endoskeleton. He then has Baby and a reluctant Jessica preform a complex operation on him to remove his kidney. Although Jessica refuses, Baby reminds her that the only reason she is alive is so she can watch and help. After the operation os completed Baby smashes the kidney into the amalgamation hoping for some kind of change. Jessica passes out from the shock and Baby locks her away with the other kidnapped children. Later, while Carlton attempts to find the earpieces Charlie made in hopes of reverse engineering them so they can be invisible to the animatronics. However, Baby finds him and pretends to be Charlie to approach him. However she senses that not only does Carlton know she is an imposter but he is attracted to her. Baby uses this to her advantage to lure him in for a kiss only to return to her true form and emit saws from her face to kill Carlton. However, Carlton uses the earpiece to make himself invisible to her. Baby confused looks for Carlton for a bit before giving up and leaving.
Charlie and Baby come face to face.
Later on when Charlie and John return to Aunt Jen’s house for answers they come face to face with Baby. Baby tries to lure Charlie in with promises to reunite her with their "father' but Charlie knows she is lying. Suddenly, John goes on the offensive and attacks Baby with a lamp but it does nothing. Suddenly, Baby grabs him by the shirt and kisses him just like Charlie did under the oak tree when they were little. However, Baby used her illusion disc to overwhelm John's senses causing him to be knocked out. Charlie tells Baby she'll listen to what she has to say as long as she doesn't hurt John. Baby questions what Charlie is and what makes her so special. Charlie however retorts and questions what she is. Baby then decides to show Charlie her origins. She then touched Charlie's head and shows her memories regarding her dark past as Elizabeth and how William abused and neglected her. She recalls how she ended up killing Elizabeth as per her programming. Charlie is shocked that such a sweet little girl could be the spirit inhabiting someone as twisted as Baby. However Baby claims that the anger isn't from her. Baby then shows her the true source of that rage. When Henry lost his child he fell into a deep depression and began to cry into Charlie's Ella doll. His emotions spilled into it and he had did the same to the other robotic counterparts of Charlie including her. However she was left to rot in his workshop abandoned. This left her in a blind and seething rage one that she could not comprehend until she received a soul of her own. She expresses anger at the irony that she had escaped the life of one neglected daughter only to inhabit another. She then reveals that this whole time she was the one who telepathically communicated with Charlie to gaslight her into setting her free from the cage Henry condemned her to. Charlie is confused and though it was Sammy calling her. However, Baby gets angry that she still doesn't understand. She yells that Sammy is alive and got to grow up and that the real Charlie was the one who died. She then says that she is just a robotic recreation of the real Charlie and doesn't even have her soul, she is nothing but the ghost of Henry's regret. To prove this she rips the Ella doll containing Henry's emotional power out of her chest. As, Charlie crawls away, Baby claims that Afton wanted her to find out how Henry imbued her with his own emotions but she would rather kill her as her hatred for Charlie eclipses her love for William.
Baby's death.
Charlie manages to regain her bearing and smash a paperweight into Baby's face which stuns her momentarily. Baby soon corners her and notices that John has woken up. She then transforms into a perfect copy of Charlie the one that John actually knows. She then spitefully asks Charlie how far she can get with John before she notices she is an imposter again. Charlie then pulls Baby close and tells her she was right and that she was not meant to be here, neither of them were. She then presses the on button for Henry's suicide robot and it's blade impales them both. As she dies, Baby voices her regret and sadness stating that she never had a life. Charlie then slides the Ella doll to her before they both die, ending the threat of Circus Baby once and for all.
List of Victims[]
- Elizabeth Afton: Killed by Baby when she was reprogrammed by William to murder children. Her soul would later possess Baby.
- Aunt Jenny: Killed after helping John and Jessica find "Charlotte".
Trivia[]
- In contrast to her more malevolent original counterpart, the novel version of Baby seems to be far more tragic, humanized, fleshed out and sympathetic.
- In the graphic novel adaptation of The Fourth Closet, Elizabeth's hair color is inconsistently colored with it appearing brown most of the time and on one occasion blonde like her game counterpart. This is most likely due to Scholastic rushing the graphic novel adaptation.
- She is so far the first and only antagonist in the franchise to be an android rather than an animatronic.
- This version of Baby is the first character in the series to be infected with Agony. Agony would later be expanded upon in the Fazbear Frights anthology series through several antagonists such as Eleanor and the Yellow Rabbit. It would even later be introduced in the games via the character of The Mimic.
- She is also the first animatronic in the series to have been romantically interested in someone with it being implied she had a crush on John.
- Baby seems to be a germaphobe having wiped her hands immediately after killing Aunt Jen and vigorously sanitizing herself before she operates on William Afton.
- In The Silver Eyes, when Baby is first seen as an endoskeleton twitching violently in Henry’s workshop, the book claims that the endoskeleton was actually an incomplete Foxy but the Fourth Closet contradicted this and revealed that it was actually Baby. It’s possible that since the book was primarily told from Charlie’s perspective, she could have mistakenly assumed Baby was Foxy at the time.
- In The Fourth Closet, Baby wears several different outfits in her human form alongside her signature red dress. However in the graphic novel adaptation she only wears the dress. It’s likely this was done to save time for the artists.
- Baby killing Aunt Jen is changed in the graphic novel adaptation. Instead of ripping out her stomach she merely chokes her to death. It's likely this is because the original death would be too gory to depict.
- Baby's relationship and rivalry with Charlie mirrors the relationship between their respective fathers William and Henry. Baby was jealous of Charlie for her happiness and the fact that she was surrounded by love whereas she was surrounded by misery and loneliness. William was ultimately jealous of Henry for that same exact reason which is why he chose to ruin his life. However, while Baby's plight is treated sympathetically, William's "tragedy" is just a petty excuse for his actions.
