In 2014, a new indie game crawled its way into the mainstream. Five Nights at Freddy's, created by Scott Cawthon, initially began as a survival horror game where you play as a night guard being assigned with keeping watch of animatronics at a Chuck E. Cheese-styled joint Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The goal is to survive until 6 AM whilst trying to reserve your power whilst also checking through security cameras so none of the freely moving animatronics can get a drop on you.
Since then, the FNAF series had become a media franchise with seven main games under its belt with an eighth game in development to be released later this year. Love it or hate it, you cannot deny that the series has made an impact on the development of other indie game titles, some trying to take some beats from it.
In a series of homicidal animatronics, the lore to the game is one of the series' main appeals. As confusing and almost convoluted as it is, many of its antagonists are hard to judge given the enigmatic nature of the series and unconventional story-telling. This is Five Nights at Freddy's Villains Least Evil to Most Evil. The Shadow Animatronics will not be featured on this list due to being hallucinations brought on by the gaseous fumes in the proposed Fazbear's Fright horror attraction.
Starting with Most Evil.
Most Evil[]
Gold[]
Surprising absolutely no one, the gold metal for "Most Evil" goes to William Afton, otherwise known as the Purple Man. Whether through his own devices or indirectly, Afton is responsible for nearly everything wrong with Fazbear Entertainment. First alluded to in the first game through a newspaper clipping, Afton is introduced through a sprite in one of the death mini-games. With a wide smile, Afton killed roughly around 11 children before stuffing their bodies into the animatronics making them possessed. Then in the third game, Afton returned to the pizzeria to dismantle the animatronics at least until the spirits of the slain children arise to get vengeance on him. This naturally leads to his first death in the Spring Bonnie suit becoming Springtrap.
What more needs to be said about Afton? While most of his backstory is still mysterious aside from our learning that he was originally a friend/colleague of Casette Man (and that he killed his daughter who went on to become the Puppet), and how he was the owner of Afton Robotics, the one recurrent element is how he is a sadistic child murderer who seems to be mainly motivated by killing for fun. The books themselves also lean towards the idea that Afton wanted to achieve immortality and that may be the case for his game counterpart, but other than that, Afton proves himself to be a sadistic prick. In Sister's Location, he sends his own son to the factory where he got disemboweled by Circus Baby and the others and reduced to a flesh suit. The only real plus that seemed to be in his favor was at the least he loved his daughter Elizabeth. But then the sixth game throws that into question where Circus Baby becomes more corrupt and eager to make her daddy proud meaning that he may as well have used reverse psychology on his own daughter to make her take on his legacy of killing children. While he seemed to be finally beaten in Pizzeria Simulator, there are some implications that some semblance of Afton survived the fire set by Casette Man.
Bronze[]
Bronze goes to Daddy's Little Villain Circus Baby. Initially she was created by Afton specifically to be used to lure kids and ensnare them within her stomach cavity with a hook. This fate would befall poor Elizabeth. In her debut game, Circus Baby presents herself as being a helpful aide of Eggs Benedict (or Michael) succeeding at keeping him alive. But there's a reason for that. She truly was needing Eggs Benedict for her plan to escape the factory: she lures him to the Scooper Room where he gets disemboweled. But even then, she sounds sorrowful over it promising that it wouldn't hurt for long. In PS, she has a noticeably different personality where she became more bloodthirsty, but part of that could be blamed on the animatronic parts corrupting her soul, or it could be her father corrupting her. Either way, Casette Man does tell her and the other souls that he hoped they found happiness when the dust cleared.
Silver[]
Next is the ever so creepy Glitchtrap, or I tend to call him "Pedo-hare." In the metafictional game FNAF VR: Help Wanted which in-universe was made to disspell the bad rep that Fazbear Entertainment had been getting. There seems to be some connection with Glitchtrap and Afton, but to what extent is uncertain. Some have theorized that Glitchtrap is really Afton's digitialized soul...somehow...and now he wants to break free by possessing one of the staff members which lead to him going crazy and killing himself. We even get a reenactment of Glitchtrap luring the player to the backrooms...only to stuff him inside one of the animatronic suits and do a little jig whilst doing it.
Others[]
Golden Freddy is a hostile yellow version of Freddy Fazbear that is seemingly without an endoskeleton. In the first game he appears when you look at a newspaper clipping of him accompanied by the ominous words "Its Me." In the Ultimate Custom Night, it is speculated that Afton is being kept in Hell by the vengeful spirit of Golden Freddy, otherwise nicknamed "The One You Should Not Have Killed." And his suffering will last forever.
Next is Nightmare Fredbear, and I'll also throw in the other nightmare animatronics as their main schtick is that they want to brutally murder a child. But Nightmare Fredbear in particular holds a special ire with the crying child as it was responsible for what many fans refer to as "the Bite of 83."
The Fun-Time animatronics, sans Circus Baby, come shifting into place here. Namely the reason as to why they are featured here us that they are also potentially hazardous towards children like how Circus Baby is when you take the time to study their blueprints.
Older siblings are typically terrible, but here is Big Brother from FNAF 4. He takes a sick glee at terrorizing the crying child by wearing a Foxy mask. That was until he got the smart idea to play a prank on his brother by putting his head into Fredbear's mouth. Yeah...at the least he stopped laughing after the incident and he seems fully remorseful for what happened to his brother. Doesn't save him from being on this list, though.
Next is the fandom's most agreed upon hated character, Balloon Boy. Appearing in FNAF 2, he doesn't attack the player directly. No, this little brat instead disables the flashlight and the vent blindspots making the player susceptible of getting attacked.
Least Evil[]
Gold[]
Casette Man, or rather, Henry, was Afton's business partner but got into a great loss after his daughter Charlotte was murdered and he later discovered what Afton had been operating. Not really evil, but he does mislead the player with the pseudo-pizzeria as a means of luring the remaining animatronics to be burned.
Bronze[]
This one goes to The Puppet. Beginning its life as a security animatronic, the Puppet becomes possessed with Charlotte's soul after she was murdered by Afton. From there, she brought life to the other animatronics so they could get revenge on their killer. But...while a noble goal, that nevertheless ended with presumably dozens of night guards killed by the vengeful robots. But still, at the least the Puppet did want the children killed by Afton to have their happiest day.
Silver[]
Here, the Toy Animatronics of FNAF 2 find themselves squarely under. They were wired to a surveillance database for potential assailants, but they nevertheless have no qualms with killing you unless you wear a Freddy mask (not that it would keep animatronics like Foxy from attacking you). Them being sent to be scrapped is kind of sad with that in mind.
Others[]
Good ol' Freddy Fazbear and the original band of Foxy, Chica, and Bonnie come jamming in on this rating. Freddy, the antagonist of the first game, is inactive at least until the power goes out and he then plays Toreador March to further rub in the fact that you're screwed. But given the context that they were once human children who had been murdered and stuffed into the animatronics makes their actions in-game sympathetic.