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| “ | The Viewers live life through the screen and cannot imagine a world without it. All those wonderful colours, sounds and shapes, dancing before their eyes, mesmerising them, pacifying them, fattening them up. The Transmission gives them all they need, and demands only one thing in return... | „ |
| ~ Description of the Viewers on the Little Nightmares 2 website. |
The Viewers are supporting antagonists in the 2021 indie horror video game Little Nightmares 2, serving as the secondary antagonists of the fourth chapter "The Pale City". They are the remnants of the human population of the Pale City, having been brainwashed and distorted by the TV transmissions released by the Signal Tower. As Mono and Six close in on the Signal Tower, they are forced to avoid dozens of Viewers living in the heart of the city.
Characteristics[]
The Viewers are entirely characterized by their obsession with watching TV, reaching great lengths just to indulge in the Transmission being broadcast through the Pale City's televisions. They have become so brainwashed by the televisions that they will completely disregard their own safety just to keep watching television, recklessly walking into danger just to reach a television, often resulting in their deaths. They also willingly throw themselves off of buildings while they are entranced by the Signal Tower and a notably aggravated Viewer ends up killing himself by smashing his head into a television out of desperation. Despite all of this, it is rare, but possible for aggressive Viewers to break out of their trance if they are focused on killing Mono, as proven in the final chase sequence with them where they are briefly distracted by TVs on a shelf, only to continue chasing after Mono by pushing the entire shelf over. The folds of flesh that make up the Viewers' faces has left them unable to vocalize properly, as they always emit deep, crackling noises that sound like a mixture between growling and static.
A female Viewer demonstrating her sonic scream ability.
While they are normally docile due to the Transmission keeping them hypnotized, the Viewers become hostile whenever they are disturbed from their trance, especially if Mono gets too close to them. If the television a Viewer is watching gets turned off, they will actively seek out a new one to watch. However, if there are no working televisions in sight, Viewers will angrily attack the nearest living thing they can find. Despite the danger they pose, the Viewers are generally shown to be unintelligent creatures, as Mono can use their own addiction and homicidal nature against them: Mono can use a remote to turn various televisions on or off to distract Viewers so he can progress, and aggressive Viewers can be lured to their deaths. The Viewers' primary method of attacking Mono once they get close to him is by screaming directly at him, as their screams seem to emit a sonic wave that is powerful enough to cause Mono to die from a seizure.
Appearance[]
Although they tower over Mono and Six just like the rest of the antagonists in the game, the Viewers are generally human-looking by comparison aside from their rather oversized heads, resembling normal urban citizens who wear casual clothing or more formal outfits such as suits and dresses. Their physical appearances differ between genders, with male Viewers appearing to be balding and middle-aged or well-groomed and sharply dressed, while female Viewers frequently wear waitress outfits and range between middle-aged or elderly in terms of age. Despite all of this, every other aspect of the Viewers' physical features are incredibly unnatural. They no longer have faces, leaving no distinct features or sensory organs except warped folds of flesh (though they are mysteriously able to see without needing eyes). The severity of their facial deformation tends to differ between the Viewers' character models: some simply have blank faces, while others appear to have large holes hollowing out their heads or scrunched up holes where their mouths used to be. It is implied that this is a side effect of the Viewers slowly getting sucked into the televisions, thus destroying their faces in the process. Further physical features include severe twitching similar to the Thin Man's glitchy movements, extremely pale skin, wobbling heads and shambling whenever they walk or run.
History[]
Background[]
A horde of Viewers watching a television in an alleyway, showing how much their lives are being consumed by the Transmission.
Prior to the events of Little Nightmares 2, the Viewers used to be the bulk of the citizen population of the Pale City until the Thin Man and the Signal Tower distorted the city and its residents. While the Pale City crumbles, the Transmission gains paranormal control over the city's televisions, hypnotizing the citizens into watching TV endlessly, regardless of their own safety, and even become entranced by the Signal Tower itself.
The power of the Transmission is great enough to completely destroy the citizens' faces as they watch too much TV, while simultaneously being granted sonic energy that allows them to kill other living beings just by screaming at them, thus turning them into the Viewers and wiping away control over their own lives and everything that made them human.
While the Viewers have a tendency to take their own lives in their desperate attempts to seek out televisions or the mesmerizing effects of the Signal Tower, the fate that seems to befall most Viewers is eventually getting sucked into the televisions to never be seen again, leaving nothing but their clothes behind. Because of this, the Pale City is littered with loose clothing indicating their disappearances from the world. What happens to Viewers who get sucked into televisions is unknown, but it may have something to do with the Thin Man's machinations or the Signal Tower's effects.
Digital Comics[]
The Viewers make an appearance in the fifth chapter of the promotional digital comic book app for Little Nightmares 2. A child wearing a white sheet over themselves known as the Ghost Child scavenges for food in the Pale City, sneaking into an apartment owned by two Viewers to look for leftovers. As the Viewers mindlessly watch TV, the Ghost Child comes across a bloodied cage with a hole in it, following a trail of blood to find a wounded rat in a wardrobe. Carrying the rat with them in an attempt to save it, the Ghost Child tries to escape from the apartment through a window, but cannot find an easy escape route as the rat seemingly succumbs to its wounds. The Ghost Child then turns around after hearing a signal screech, noticing that the television in the apartment has been turned off. The Ghost Child turns to the left of the television only to be attacked by the two Viewers, reaching out and screaming at them, leaving the child to an uncertain fate.
Little Nightmares 2[]
Viewers are all too willing to watch TV in odd places, even in a bath.
Throughout their journey in the Pale City, Mono and Six come across various bits of clothes littering the city, left behind by Viewers who had been absorbed by the televisions. It isn't until after they escape from the Hospital where they first come across the Viewers in person. While the children pass by a bus stop, multiple Viewers are shown throwing themselves to their deaths from their apartments. As Mono and Six enter an apartment, a male Viewer suddenly crashes through the ceiling above and charges head first into an active television, instantly killing him. Mono and Six then make their way through an apartment complex occupied by a few Viewers watching televisions, including a male Viewer watching television in a bath.
Viewers gazing at the Signal Tower.
After Six is kidnapped by the awakened Thin Man, Mono acquires the ability to transport himself through televisions and eventually finds a TV remote that can turn any television he comes across on or off. The remote itself plays a crucial role in a series of puzzles where Mono must avoid Viewers in the city, first exemplified when Mono finds a female Viewer watching a television that must be travelled into to progress. Mono distracts the female Viewer by turning on a television hanging outside a window and turning off the television she is watching, allowing the Viewer to head over to the hanging television to watch it instead. Transporting himself through the hanging television, Mono climbs up to the apartment's roof to find another Viewer watching television. Turning on a television on the opposite roof and turning off the television the male Viewer is watching causes the Viewer to try and reach the other television, walking off the roof to his death. Further up ahead, Mono comes across several Viewers on a series of rooftops watching the Signal Tower itself, who then proceed to off themselves by falling off the building.
In a tight hallway filled with water, Mono comes across a boarded up door with a hostile Viewer banging on the other side of it. After Mono pulls out two of the boards, the Viewer breaks in and immediately tries to kill him. Mono lures the Viewer into the water and pulls a lever to electrify the water, electrocuting the Viewer to death. Mono eventually enters an apartment with electrified water in the bathroom and a female Viewer watching television next to a stool needed to escape from the room. Turning off the television to aggravate the Viewer, Mono lures the Viewer into the bathroom to be electrocuted to safety while he jumps onto a toilet to safety. He then comes across a horde of Viewers watching a television in an alleyway, but ignores them and makes his way through a toy shop.
Mono escaping from a crowd of angry Viewers.
After exiting the toy shop, Mono finds himself in a street where dozens of Viewers wait behind a wooden fence. Seeing the shop ahead as the only way forward, Mono switches on a television in the shop window and switches off another television to distract two Viewers so he can transport himself inside the shop. Just as Mono travels through the television to enter the shop, the crowd of Viewers notice him and break down the wooden fence. The television Mono exits from then unexpectedly breaks, letting the Viewers snap out of their trance and start breaking into the shop. Enraged, the Viewers break into the shop and chase Mono through it in an attempt to kill him. Mono runs past a shelf filled with active televisions, which seem to distract the Viewers momentarily, but they are so focused on hunting Mono down that they resist their urge to watch them and push it over. Luckily, Mono finds a television at the end of the shop and escapes through it before he can be cornered by the Viewers and killed. The Viewers are not seen again after this point.
Trivia[]
- The Viewers' theme is called "Shopping Spasm".
- The Viewers seem to represent the notion that watching too much television is bad for you and becoming dependent on TV can lead to self-destruction.
- In most of Little Nightmares 2's earlier trailers, the Viewers' distorted faces were kept hidden. It wasn't until the release of the Halloween Trailer where the Viewers' faces were eventually revealed.
- While not shown onscreen, the idea that Viewers are getting sucked into the televisions has been confirmed by the Little Nightmares Twitter account in response to fan art of a Viewer.
- The Viewers' role in the game seems to draw parallels with the Guests from the first game: both are distorted groups of humanoid monsters who are obsessively dependent on a particular thing (the Guests gorge themselves on food and the Viewers are mesmerized by watching television); the levels they are featured in revolve around a series of puzzles where they must be avoided; both are seemingly preyed upon by the main antagonists of their respective games and are last featured in their respective games during a hectic chase sequence where the protagonist gets pursued by dozens of them.
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 Villains
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| Protagonists
Little Nightmares Very Little Nightmares Little Nightmares II Little Nightmares (comic series) Little Nightmares Comics The Sounds of Nightmares | ||