“ | What is it that you think you see? What game do you think you are playing? What have you brought home? | „ |
~ The trailer for Five Nights at Freddy's 4, describing the nightmare animatronics. |
The Nightmare Animatronics are the main antagonists of Five Nights at Freddy's 4 and supporting antagonists in Ultimate Custom Night and Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted.
They are monstrous versions of the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza animatronics that are easily recognizable due to their sharp claws and teeth, cracked and broken suits, and fittingly enough, nightmarish appearance. The Nightmare variants of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy are creations of William Afton that he uses to torment several kidnapped children. However, Nightmare Fredbear, Plushtrap, Nightmare Balloon Boy and Nightmare haven't been given an explanation yet, although it can be implied they're a similar situation.
Jack-O-Bonnie, Jack-O-Chica, Nightmarionne and Nightmare Mangle are special cases, seeing as they weren't haunting any dreams and aren't hallucinations made by Afton: instead, they are literal video games characters in-universe, conjured up by Fazbear Entertainment to trick the public into believing the events of the first six games were just rumors.
Appearance[]
Alongside the Twisted animatronics from the Novel Trilogy's universe, the Nightmare animatronics appear as the most menacing out of all the animatronic types.
Most of the Nightmare animatronics are featured with a deteriorated appearance with a big series of rips and holes all over, sporting a total of ten fingers with spike-like claws/nails, an excessive amount of long dangerously sharp teeth (found in both the structure of the animatronics and the endoskeletons), and small metallic eyes. Their endoskeleton heads look suspiciously similar to that of a human skull, with a line of indentations down their forehead.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
As revealed in the Tales from the Pizzaplex books and hinted at by several details in the games, William Afton had constructed Nightmare Freddy, Nightmare Bonnie, Nightmare Chica and Nightmare Foxy to torment children he kidnapped as part of an experiment with hallucinogenic gas he's running in an off-limit area of Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental.
Dittophobia[]
Rory, one of the kids kidnapped by Afton as part of his experiment, is constantly tormented by Nightmare Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy in his "dreams", while during the day his distant parents ignore him. One day, the machine which pumped the hallucinogenic gas into the fake house breaks down, and Rory finds out that his house is more run-down than he remembers, that his parents and most of his memories are false,and that he's actually seventeen rather than seven; he also discovers the real Nightmare Animatronics, and sees them as what they actually are: simple mannequin-like endoskeletons wearing costumes and moving on a railtrack; he then leaves the house, finding himself in a currently out of power underground facility, where he discovers several papers documenting the experiments with hallucinogen gas he was subjected to. Rory then returns to the fake house (where a generator is kept) to turn the facility's power back on. Here, he once again meets the Nightmares, but manages to get over his fear of them. However, just as he's about to fix the generator, he hears Afton's recorded voice telling him to turn the gas back on. In his recording Afton states that, while nobody cared for or loved Rory in the real world, he has kept him safe and watched over him for years; the voice is so persuasive that Rory actually decides to fix the machine pumping the hallucination gas; this results in him seemingly forgetting everything he has learnt since the beginning of the short story, and going back to see himself as a seven-years old haunted by nightmares.
Five Nights at Freddy's 4[]
Somehow, Michael Afton has nightmares that involve the Nightmare animatronics, implying he was one of the victims of his father's experiments or that he otherwise learned of them. For four nights, he battles Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy. On the fifth night, however, he faces the mysterious Nightmare Fredbear, who wasn't a part of Afton's experiments. On the seventh night, he confronts Nightmare, a darker and even more mysterious version of Nightmare Fredbear.
Ultimate Custom Night[]
Nightmare Freddy, Bonnie, Fredbear, Mangle and Balloon Boy, Nightmare, Nightmarionne and Jack-O-Chica all appear as antagonists, with Nightmare Chica and Plushtrap being secret antagonists that can only be summoned by Dee Dee. Some of the Nightmares directly address William Afton, indicating that they have been made somewhat real so they could torment him. See their pages for more info.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted[]
In Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, several of the Nightmares appear in various modes, including Dark Rooms and Night Terrors. They also a play a slightly bigger role in the Curse of Dreadbear DLC given its Halloween theme.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach[]
The Nightmares do not physically appear in Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, but there are references to them, such as Nightmarionne's physical appearance being referenced in the Infected S.T.A.F.F. Bots.
Spin-offs[]
FNaF World[]
All the Nightmares, excluding Nightmare Mangle, appear in the game as unlockable characters.
Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery[]
In Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery, some of the Nightmares return as active antagonists, including Plushtrap, Jack-O-Bonnie, and Jack-O-Chica.
Personalities[]
The Nightmares are cruel, twisted animatronics who are sadistic in nature. They are scary, vicious, and monstrous whose sole purpose is to scare and violently kill the protagonist within his nightmarish dreams. This is shown through their death quotes in Ultimate Custom Night, where they taunt the player for their success in killing them. While the player character is implied to be William Afton, the Nightmare Animatronics make it clear during their death quotes that their reason for killing Afton is not out of anger or hatred towards him, but simply because they enjoy killing him. This is best seen in one of Nightmare Freddy's lines, where he gleefully tells the player about his joy that the player is a victim that cannot perish, meaning he and the other nightmares can kill the player as many times as they want.
Trivia/Speculation[]
- For years, the Nightmares have been controversial among the fans, with the subject of whether or not they were real being a controversial one. While the Tales series confirmed Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy are hallucinations, Jack-O-Bonnie and Jack-O-Chica are in-universe game characters, Fredbear, Nightmare and Plushtrap haven't been fully explained yet (although Plushtrap is heavily implied to be a real animatronic toy and Nightmare claims to be the embodiment of William Afton's wickedness).
- In The Twisted Ones, it was revealed that the Twisted Animatronics appear in their twisted forms due to Illusion Discs, which change a person's perception of what they see. This is somewhat of a connection to the Nightmares which could hint that they are illusions. Supporting this further is that both sets of animatronics possess the same monstrously feral behaviors and appearances. Additionally, in the Midnight Motorist minigame, a grave dirt can be seen behind what is assumed to be William Afton's house; this could indicate that the Nightmare animatronics buried themselves during the day like the Twisted animatronics did. The footprints could also belong to one of the Nightmares, further supporting this.
- The first half of this was semi-confirmed in Dittophobia, as the Nightmares are revealed to be mannequins that become the way they do due to a hallucinatory gas, mirroring the Illusion Disc from The Twisted Ones.
- In Sister Location, the digital map seen on the Breaking Room's monitor shows three extra rooms connected to Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, of which two are labeled "Obsv. 1" and "Obsv. 2" respectively, while the third one is left unnamed. Their layouts perfectly matches that of the several locations seen in FNaF 4, with "Obsv. 1" resembling the neighborhood from the post-night 8bit minigames, "Obsv. 2" resembling the Bedroom, and the third unlabeled room resembling the Hallway from Fun with Plushtrap. The map also shows in each room one white dot (likely representing a child) and several gray dots (which represent the animatronics): "Obsv. 1" has two gray dots (which likely represent Fredbear and SpringBonnie), "Obsv. 2" has four (representing the four main Nightmare animatronics), and the third unnamed room has five, likely representing Plushtrap and four others; in the Fun with Plushtrap minigame from FNaF: Help Wanted, some Minireenas can appear in Plushtrap's hallway, seemingly showing that the four extra dots were supposed to represent Minireenas. This appears to confirm that Plushtrap was a real animatronic toy.
- In the Survival Logbook, Michael Afton, when asked to describe his recent nightmares, draws a picture of Nightmare Fredbear.
- This led many to believe that the FNaF 4 main gameplay is a series of nightmares Michael is having, based off real experiments his father conducted (and to which Michael himself may have potentially been subjected to at some point). This is further solidified by the fact that a reversed and distorted version FNaF 1 Night 1 phone call (which Michael heard when he was working at Freddy's under the fake name "Mike Schmidt") can be sometimes heard as a background sound through the FNaF 4 gameplay.
- It's unknown whether Nightmare Fredbear really exists, or is just a product of Michael's imagination.
- In Sister Location, by typing 1-9-8-3 on the Private Room keypad, all three screens change from static to angles of the Bedroom and Hallway from the fourth game.
- This could possibly mean the Nightmares were created by William himself, like how his novel counterpart created the Twisted animatronics. This was eventually confirmed for Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy.
- This easter egg is absent from the Custom Night, as the keypad is used for fending off Lolbit.
- The Fredbear plush from the fourth game can also be seen, alongside a remote control or walkie talkie.
- This could possibly mean the Nightmares were created by William himself, like how his novel counterpart created the Twisted animatronics. This was eventually confirmed for Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy.
- In The Twisted Ones, it was revealed that the Twisted Animatronics appear in their twisted forms due to Illusion Discs, which change a person's perception of what they see. This is somewhat of a connection to the Nightmares which could hint that they are illusions. Supporting this further is that both sets of animatronics possess the same monstrously feral behaviors and appearances. Additionally, in the Midnight Motorist minigame, a grave dirt can be seen behind what is assumed to be William Afton's house; this could indicate that the Nightmare animatronics buried themselves during the day like the Twisted animatronics did. The footprints could also belong to one of the Nightmares, further supporting this.
- Despite Scott saying that the Halloween Edition nightmare animatronics are non-canon (except for Nightmare BB), they have appeared in more than one game; it's however Scott may have meant that the non-canon Halloween Edition nightmare animatronics had nothing to do with the FNaF 4 lore specifically, not that they've never existed in any form.
- It is also believed that the Nightmare animatronics, specifically Nightmare Freddy, Nightmare Bonnie, Nightmare Chica, and Nightmare Foxy are a metaphor to Michael Afton and his friends tormenting the Crying Child in the real world, which was deconfirmed with the release of Dittophobia.
- It's possible that Nightmare symbolizes the Crying Child's death.
- Further evidence to support this is that Nightmare's jumpscare audio is actually an ambulance's siren or the heart monitor still beeping.
- However, the game files and other media imply Nightmare is actually Shadow Freddy.
- In UCN, Nightmare claims he's the embodiment of William Afton's wickedness.
- When the Nightmares were added as virtual MyMoji stickers to Quidd, there was a Nightmare Springtrap included with the others, although Springtrap does not canonically have a nightmare counterpart outside of Plushtrap in the series' universe. It was taken down after being notified that the character and design was based off of fanart.
- Similarly to the Phantom Animatronics, the Puppet, Mangle and Balloon Boy are the only Toy animatronics to receive nightmare counterparts.
- When asked if Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica will receive their nightmare counterparts for the fourth game's Halloween add-on, Scott denied it.
- Aside from Nightmarionne, Nightmare Mangle and Nightmare Balloon Boy, most of the nightmare animatronics seem to bear a resemblance to their withered counterparts from Five Nights at Freddy's 2, aside from the teeth and eyes. The only exceptions are Nightmare Fredbear, Nightmare, and Plushtrap.
- Nightmare Mangle is the only nightmare animatronic that is not a playable character in FNaF World.
- Nightmare Foxy and Jack-O-Bonnie are the only characters who do not return in Ultimate Custom Night.
- From the files for Security Breach, one of the unused collectibles is "Nightmare Helpy", implying Helpy was intended to have a nightmare counterpart.
- Weirdly, in the Character Encyclopedia, it's stated that Nightmare Freddy, Nightmare Bonnie, Nightmare Chica, Nightmare Foxy and Nightmarionne appear in Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery, despite it not being the case.