I think shadow freddy is just a guide for the missing kids which is why he doesn't appear anymore. Rwq is now normally used for remnant/agony purposes of the story
Good theory but it has been basically confirmed that SF is under the influence/control of William, stated by Nightmare in UCN. (Where the NIGHTMARE Night in the FNAF 4 Files is called "Shadow Freddy"):"I am made from your wickedness." Also, heavily implied from the HRY223 Recording in FNAF 6's Insanity Ending: "He brought them all back, back to a familiar place, **with familiar tricks.**" and in fruit maze where William tells Susie the same phrase as SF in FollowMe: **"Follow me."**
@@stupidpersonwithbadopinions He isn't called Shadow Freddy in the decompiled game. Nightmare is actually in the same Active object as Nightmare Fredbear. What everyone was seeing as "Shadow Freddy" was from the exported files of the games. Which means the action of naming Nightmares textures "Shadow Freddy" wasn't an action from Scott, but actually whoever was exporting the textures.
Who knows, maybe one day we'll find out that Molten Freddy is actually the remnant of both Shadow Bonnie and Shadow Freddy. Or maybe we'll get a whole cast of shadow characters one day. That'd be fun.
@ahealthkit2745 My headcanon was that the shadows were hallucinations/sub-manifestations created by the Marionette. In other words, Springtrap had the phantoms & the Marionette has the shadows.
It's a shame we never got a game taking place right after the original murders, with the unwithered animatronics. The storyline is going so much into the future that it no longer seems like fnaf anymore, only another possessed aninatronics game. It would be cool to see the original pizzeria and to let the player walk around the place because let's say they couldn't afford or the cameras aren't working and to see the unwithered animatronics that still look scary move around, maybe even the puppet.
Shadow Freddy’s and Shadow Bonnie’s appearance in fnaf2 combined with the phone guy stating about “multiple and simultaneous springlock failures” always felt like they were modern springlock adult victims. Unlike the MCI kids, their bodies were removed from the springlocks but continued to haunt, and since they’re adults, they could understand more than the Freddy crew so they became helping hands to the missing children
I agree. Although the minigame at the start of fnaf 6 makes me wonder if the shadow animatronics are supposed to represent a sort of metaphorical corruption of the establishment. Like Afton's legacy haunting the location and ruining the ability of Freddy to 'deliver pizzas' and good vibes, to the children. They are constantly reminded of the horrors of what happened there before. I really prefer the idea of them being springlock victims but sadly, aside from one offhand line from Phone Guy in fnaf 3, we get no detail on who these characters are. And as far as I can tell, Scott has always treated them like easter eggs. Fnaf 4 being meant to 'tie up loose ends' and including a scene with the shadow animatronics in it seems to imply that yes, they are just imagined horrors, and were never real.
I feel like if Scott meant for the Freddy in FNaF 6 to be shadow Freddy he would make him purple with white eyes. Honestly the most likely explanation to me is the spring lock failure for adults. I personally really hate agony as a concept, it’s kind of a get out of jail free card for anything haunted that can’t be explained. Remnant I don’t like either but we need it to exist to explain why the fun times are haunted.
I really think Fnaf post game 4 is a nightmare to figure out lore-wise. None of the Circus Baby Pizza World stuff fits into the established timeline and the design inconsistencies across the game series make your complaint about Fnaf 6's rendition of Shadow Freddy look sort of silly. After all, Fredbear and Golden freddy are the same character, but they have radically different imagery throughout the whole series. @@NopeNothingD9
@@ahealthkit2745 well that’s because Fredbear wasn’t a thing when golden freddy was in FNaF 1. Pizzeria simulator is the last FNaF game in the series and scott has always consistently portrayed shadow freddy as purple. If Scott wanted to show that was shadow freddy there would literally be zero reason to not just make it purple. I think the fact that it isn’t purple shows that it definitely isn’t shadow freddy. I don’t think the grey freddy really means anything other than a glitch.
You don't think that the design inconsistencies across all the various games and offshoots are just that? I mean, just consider that this miraculous new look is made by a different studio, Steelwool. So, I really think they just wanted to make a passing reference to RWQ and shadow freddy. I'd like to remind you too that the sprite for Purple Guy has changed a few times too. Shit happens, designs change. Just look at how Springtrap looks in fnaf 3 compared to what he looks like in fnaf 6.@@NopeNothingD9
I always thought the shadows represented the agony of all the missing kids, forming into shadows. Shadow Freddy has the same design as Withered Golden Freddy, so he represents the 1985 missing kids. Shadow Bonnie has the shape of Toy Bonnie, representing the kids that were murdered in the FNAF 2 location. Given that we see shadow Bonnie, even in Special delivery and in Security Breach, tells me that they’re important in some way. Not to mention shadow Freddy was last seen in pizza sim since when you play the mini game of making a pizza and serving it to the kids. We never really questioned their importance back in Fnaf’s golden age, nor bothered to figure it out, but I think the shadows were originally victims of the springlock failures that phone guy mentions in FNAF 3. Even when we see that shadow Bonnie in the FNAF 3 mini game is helping a crying child, tells me the shadows are probably good in a way. While we never knew what happened to shadow Freddy, the FNAF Encyclopedia stated that there is still a mystery to his existence and we could possibly, key word is POSSIBLY, could see him return in the future. I do hope we see him again, because while shadow Bonnie is still a thing, shadow Freddy deserves more of the spotlight too.
Shadow Bonnie isn't in SB or Help Wanted, only Shadow Freddy is. But I do agree. I think the most logical and compelling story is that the characters are former spring lock victims. We never get any more lore or story about them, and there are no clues in any of the games that really tell us who or what they where. In dream theory, it makes more sense that the shadow animatronics are just that; Shadows that the crying child saw and misunderstood as real animatronics. I think the only time we'll see both of them together again is in either a short story from Scott or in a future 'past locations' compilation game, ala Help Wanted.
I think they were pieces of importance that Scott probably stopped giving attention since no one bothered to figure out their importance. It looks like the beginnings/foundations were set, like Shadow Freddy appearing in Pizza Sim, but no one cared to look at it.
I'm sorry, but you are fundamentally misunderstanding how stories are told. Scott put those pieces in the game and later admitted they where easter eggs. They never had importance. If he wanted them to be important, he could've added anything to the games to detail why they where. Instead, they are just creepy imagery that exist in (a few) of the games. He didn't make the games lore AFTER the games got popular. He made the games WHILE they where getting popular, and also clearly went in a different direction after fan backlash during the height of Fnaf 4's Dream Theory era. Shadow Freddy in Pizza Sim is there as a reference, as are dozens of other animatronics that don't crop up in any other games. If they where important, we'd have more minigames featuring them. @@EmiWi
I always thought the shadow animatronics were the souls of employees who got spring locked and now they want to help the children escape because they feel bad
@@ilikepigeons6101I actually really like that idea and use it a bit in my AU. Just the thought of the souls of the nightgaurds sticking around themselves and looking to get even would really add to the sense that FNAF is just a cycle of tragedy, agony and revenge.
I think Scott changed his some of his ideas of the story after FNaF 3. Not in a retcon sense, but in a building on the story kind of way. I think the Shadows are kind of unsolved, like the Paper Plate dolls. Great video thiugh.
100%. I think them being added to fnaf 2 was really just as a fun easter egg, no added story or details. Fnaf 3 introduced the whole idea of spring locks and changed the canon. It gave the first implicit clue about who Golden Freddy / Shadow Freddy and Shadow Bonnie could be, but even then, it's kind of a stretch. Especially because their designs (like most characters in fnaf) do not stay consistent all the way through the franchise. I think they, along with a lot of other poorly explained concepts (like golden freddy, spring lock suits, nightmare gas and illusion disks) are probably just oversights from Scott. Maybe one day we'll get some cool lore for them.
As both RWQ and Shadow Freddy are some of my favorite animatronics. I have never really thought about how RWQ has more time in the spotlight than his bear counterpart. I always thought they put shadow Freddy as a antagonist in one of Scott's games in the future.
I liked this one VHS's take on Shadow Freddy and also the Golden Freddy holding the spirits of both CC and Cassidy theory. Basically whenever Fredbear appeared as Golden Freddy, it was Cassidy. Whenever it was Crying Child speaking Golden Freddy would literally turn purple and into Shadow Freddy. Not sure how accurate that interpretation was, but it was always my favorite.
yknow, now that i think about it, i think the game crashing in the original games when in the context of dream theory is actually extremely clever, whenever the game crashes, its almost like the crying child waking up after a nightmare, golden freddy being a literal representation of fredbear which scares him awake, and seeing the springlocks in the shadows instantly waking him up aswell, nightmare can also be explained from this as he doesnt crash your game but puts you back to menu, meaning fnaf 4 is a dream, but not entirely.
Dream theory really does make perfect sense for the original 4 games, but it's just a really easy way to sum them up too. I really think that if Scott had let Dream Theory be canon, and just moved on and explored the characters and stories from a different angle (y'know, one that wasn't laser-honed on the Afton family), I think the series would've been a lot better for it. Maybe we would've gotten more clarity about if an MCI ever actually happened, maybe we would've had new characters introduced that replace Afton as the bbeg.
@@ahealthkit2745 Dream theory was never meant to be real. You can say that about... anything ever. Game theorists just got lazy and threw it to "Oh and it was alllll a dream :)" Since if there is any inconsistency, you explain it as: "It's a dream, it doesn't have to be literal!" until you gloss over everything. You want to tell me that a child dreamed accurate minimum wages and work schedules, multiple restaurants which, we know are real, over multiple eras (including past when he died?) Just to blanket explain... a missing beak. The Game Theorists had it in their hands and scott was giving them all the answers, then they went and made dream theory. He says he regrets getting involved in the theory community for a reason. To me it's quite clear it was supposed to be about what we have now. One story, four games, "It's me" etc.
Dream theory was never a way to sweep away inconsistencies, it was a theory backed up by Scott himself for a while. One that was only altered post fnaf 4. Fnaf 4 is the game that most strongly points towards dream theory and it's even mentioned in the movie in passing. If it wasn't brought up by the game's creator so often, you might be dead on with what your saying. You got super angry at me just suggesting that Dream Theory may have been canon at some point. Do you really prefer the murky tangled mess of alternate character allegories that the new book series is trying to push into the canon of the original 4 games? Scott never had the answers. He improv'd the story each game for the first four, seeding little bits of vague information that point in the general direction of a continuity, but never actually fully tethers itself to a strong narrative that goes all the way through the games. Dream theory was just accepted as the most viable theory, until fnaf 5 came out and surprised everyone with Afton Brand murder bots and Elizabeth. Turns out, golden fredbear plush was good ol' willy afton all along. Because the fans aren't right about anything, definitely *not* that Dream Theory was just a huge waste of potential and a terribly written end to a great series. I'm not going to waste my own time by replying to another wall of text from you. Get your facts straight and read up and look at the content at the time. Look at how Scott reacted to fans supposing the dream theory was true around the hype with the locked box in fnaf 4. It's not pleasant to know that the writer who makes these games made mistakes, but it's a hard truth that they are poorly written and full of loose ends. @@Colon-D...
I think that shadow Freddy is just a suit William used to lure kids, and then the animatronics in the FNAF 3 minigames, which also explains why the guide refers it as a “crumpled Freddy suit”, ALSO explaining why it appears in FNAF 2, being secretly stored there by William while he did crimes. big brain moment
The thing is, Scott says the series only had 1 retcon, and stated "To be clear, the one retcon mentioned was integrated pretty seamlessly, and most people didn't notice. If it had caused problems or confusion then I would have addressed it here." which to me feels like it couldn't be a dream, especially cause he also says "I used SL to clear up a misconception from FNaF 4. Currently, there is a misconception from SL that I may need to clear up someday as well"
The importance for both he and Shadow Bonnie are specifically in the implications of their existence. They're basically the same "thing" with the slughtly different purposes, meaning they only have to "develope" one of them
Honestly, Shadow Freddy is my favourite character since FNaF 2, and I think it's a concept that should be explored more. Really interesting video btw I agree
I always liked Shadow Freddy and I had a bunch of theories around them over the years My first ever theory was the springlock victim theory... but then it evolved into Shadow Freddy being the "manifestation" of the crying child's soul, like CC still being stuck in Golden Freddy with Cassidy, but sometimes manifesting as the entity of Shadow Freddy, thus having exaclty the same model as GF and being the "opposite" color as GF (being purple). I don't fully believe this theory anymore since a lot more proof is shown with the agony stuff, but I still think fondly of that theory
i love this video it really seems to show the role of shadow freddy in the community like this video is literally a summarize of shadow freddy in the community, including theorizes. for my part, i simply think shadow freddy is a shadow of golden freddy, because his design, face expression and poses are the same as golden freddy. really good video, i loved it, ur really underrated!
I think the reason for Shadow Freddy being listed with Nightmare Mode was literally that. If you think how the whole FNAF 4 was set up (including props for someone in hospital), then it would make more sense for Shadow Freddy to be seen as a nightmare for someone who could be in a coma.
This would also explain the whole suitcase issue when Scott wouldn’t open the suitcase at the end of the game because when the theory of ‘it’s all just a dream’ came out, everyone more or less dismissed it or outright disliked it, hence the wording ‘things are better left unknown’
I personally believe Nightmare's line "I'm your wickedness" means that Shadow Freddy came from somebody his actions were inflected on. I think that Shadow Freddy comes from Bite Victim and his constant crying, his agony. And it all started with his Fredbear plush. I connect its' glowing eyes with possession / an agony creature. I also believe that Shadow Freddy purposefully leads the animatronics to be destroyed by William, so they're set free and they can catch their killer. My theory is Shadow/AgonyPlush + WillPlush: - The agony from Bite Victim accumulates inside of the plushy, later taking form of Shadow Freddy. - William is the one speaking to Bite Victim, kind of scaring him while trying to somewhat help him. Meanwhile, I believe RWQ is indeed someone who went through a springlocks failure, and I believe it to be Andrew from Frights. I think that if Andrew was to be a character in games, it'd be RWQ. I don't know why. It fits well. I connect it with Andrew being TOYSNHK and MXES, an agony entity that represents Andrew, like Shadow Freddy that represents BV, but being good instead of evil. Andrew being RWQ, TOYSNHK and MXES would fit a clean narrative. He watches in the background, searching for William, finds him and puts him in UCN, then OMC tells Andrew to leave him to his demons, and he does so, but doesn't rest his soul because he can sense something wild is going on (Pizzaplex era), and becomes one with the Security program that is meant to keep the Mimic trapped. But that's just me.
1. It simply means "I'm your evil" in general towards William, just to say he's all of his evil actions taking a form 2. While ShadowPlush is a pretty goated theory, it doesn't fulfill the part of S. Freddy representating William's evil if he's made of the BV's Agony 3. It doesn't set them free, they are still in the funtimes, toys and the rockstars, they never achieve peace, it would make more sense if instead, he was just helping William achieve his goals, it also adds up since he literally follows Michael and Jeremy to their houses, then induces Nightmares onto them, it's clear he's evil 4. RXQ in no way resembles any Springlock suit, and he's literally made of Dark Remnant aka Agony 5. We are never certain if Andrew ever got springlocked in a suit, nor if he even possessed anything, the black curly haired kid inside G. Freddy in TNK could be anyone from Cassidy, Andrew or Renelle 6. MXES not in the slightest resembles Andrew, he takes the form of a digital purple bunny, acts like Glitchtrap, and his prototype design resembles Afton in the stingers 7. Andrew said he had no one to talk to, and he clearly said he never wanted to leave Afton till he feels like he's ready to go, which he never does since Afton gets exploded later 8. He has no reason to leave Afton just to go after The Mimic when he doesn't even know him, nor has any reason to care for him
I’ve wondered recently whether or not Shadow Freddy was either the CC or TOYSNHK/Cassidy, in some limited capacity; if Golden Freddy in-game is represented by Cassidy, thanks to his violence towards the player character, saying “It’s me,” and the UCN ending, then Shadow Freddy could be the Crying Child manifesting in whatever way he can; after all, he did see “shadows” of Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. If G Freddy is the CC, then Cassidy would also have motive to be Shadow Freddy, trying to lure the animatronics to Afton and whatnot. Even better, because UCN takes place a while after FNAF3, Cassidy would always end up wholly possessing Golden Freddy regardless, which reminds me…does anyone actually **know** what happened to the Golden Freddy suit? If it was sealed in the Safe Room with the Spring Bonnie suit, then FNAF3’s mini games don’t show that, and Fazbear Frights would’ve recovered it when they got a hold of Springtrap. So where tf did it go?
I always figured that Shadow Freddy was just Fredbear in shadow. Minigames were pretty consistent about colouring shadows purple so the minigane shadow freddy coukd easily have been William inside a fredbear suit.
I never really paid that much attention to the loading screens in FNAF World, but putting Shadow Freddy's "I will eat your soul", and Nightmare's UCN line "I will vomit you back" really makes you draw a connection to both characters being one and the same (or at least different versions of the same character) May seem like a reach. But honestly. This is Scott we're talking, the same guy who thought of the color schemes of the games first rather than lore; he seems like the sort of person to make the least substantitate clues being the actual truth.
Nightmare being a manifestation of the various MCI's and evil that Afton has done makes perfect sense to me, but the character design for Nightmare is so different compared to Shadow Fredbear and Springbonnie/RWQ. I really personally love the idea that the shadow animatronics are spirits of old employees who died trapped in the springlock suits, and that haunt the fnaf 2 location (and later on, try to help the spirits of the MCI escape)
Ultimately, something of a minigame to tie up their stories or to give some cannonicity to the theories would be nice. I doubt we'll ever get it tho. Seems like Shadow Freddy and Bonnie are treated more like easter eggs than anything else.
@@ahealthkit2745Toy Bonnie isn't a springlock suit (he isn't even that big for someone to fit himself inside) and you would need to consider Midnight Motorist for Shadow Freddy if you wanna go the direction of springlock victims
I extracted the color from “phantom shadow Freddy” in the fnaf 3 image. It’s more of a yellow then purple when extracted color. Phantom golden freddy? Edit : it’s grey untill you use a effect “saturation” and set it to max a few times. Repeated.
I always though of Shadow Freddy as helping William, but him helping the kids also makes sense. Even if it wasn't him showing them where he is, it's possible he KNEW there were going to be destroyed, making their souls free.
@@Classic-guy1991 the actor for Max (the babysitter character that got killed by Freddy.) made a post on twitter/X showing a shadow Freddy costume on set, and also hinting the character Max will have a connection to Shadow Freddy. He also makes a small appearance in a certain trailer.
I don't care what people say about Shadow Freddy, he deserves better and deserves to have the recognition he needs. I would love to see more of Shadow Freddy to turn out in the future so he will return in a bigger role and may be important than we think. I always viewed him as William's Wickedness due to the fact that he and Nightmare have connections to William. I like Shadow Freddy a lot and he's personally one of my favorite characters.
I think shadow freddy is the personification of everything that makes william afton evil while shadow bonnie is the personification of what is left inside william afton that is good.
Honestly, I think putting together shadow Freddy (FNaF world description) and nightmares voicelines together, they make a lot of sense to what they are saying, “I will eat your soul, and vomit you back, to relieve your horror.” I feel if you’d connect these two quotes together, it’d sound kinda funny and make sense since he will eat your soul, and then vomit it right back up 😂
I actually have a Shadow Freddy plush I got from comic con Sweden years back. I knew they were more rare/ con exclusive but I didnt realize they went for THAT much. I think I will keep him though cause hes cute.
3:18 has always been really interesting to me, much more unnerving than a game crash. you die, you get a warning of something that could possibly harm real people who ignore said warning
I saw an theory years ago that to this day still makes sense. It basically said that Shadow Freddy was a program in the AI of Freddy's software. It is the program that Afton used to lure the animatronics back so they could be dismantled. However I think he might have also used the program to cover himself up when killing. So that he would not appear on the cameras. Also would make sense why he is in help wanted (assuming that is him)
What I always saw being weird and I barely see anyone bring up is the fact that: 1.Shadow bonnie and Freddy shouldn't be directly connected, their designs always looked like they were trying to say that. Shadow Freddy is a lighter purple, in every one of his appearances, and he is actually called Shadow Freddy, fully canonically, and lastly he resembles Fnaf 2's golden freddy, which is somewhat obviously decades older than the toys, meanwhile Shadow Bonnie... is not called that, they are SPECIFICALLY always referred to as RWQFSFASXC, never Shaddow Bonnie, they are pure black, lacking any of SF's purple tones, they are a pure black void-like body, and they resemble Toy Bonnie, not withered Bonnie, not any other Bonnie, Toy Bonnie. The only thing linking them together is their teeth and eyes, their easter egg status, and their direct involvement in the story of the children's souls. 2. Although some people have noticed this, the 2 have very different... roles? so to speak. RWQFSFASXC is seen guarding and helping, they seem to guard remnant/agony in AR, trying to stop you from collecting any more, they help in the happiest day minigame with reaching one of the normally unreachable child soul, maybe metaphorically but I find it interesting that since that soul is unreachable by normal means, he is left with the responsibility of getting to it, somehow. Shadow Freddy in the meantime, is pretty aggressive and directly involved with what happens to... specifically the original souls, he guides the ORIGINAL animatronics to William, where they get somewhat freed by him breaking the bots apart, and letting them do the rest, and in fnaf world, as mentioned, he is one of the most aggressive teammates, and having some interestingly related moves, unscrew, which has a chance to instantly kill the enemy, also interestingly a move that seems to relate to how he lead the others to being disassembled, escape key, another insta kill move, not fully sure about it's relevance, and water hose, and instant kill move... interestingly something that happens to William at the end of that minigame, his spring locks fail due to moisture, killing him instantly. My honest interpretation of this is that, after what's left of the suits burn down in Fazbear Frights, at least a part of their souls gets set free, as mentioned in the video, the "conscious part" so to speak, and so, Shadow Freddy, which we know is at least one of the freddies in 3, since Phantom Freddy seems to resemble Golden Freddy more, I believe that once the original souls, or at least their conscious tortured part, get set free, Shadow Freddy's role is over, he has nothing else to do, he has accomplished his goal, so he disappears with them. RWQFSFASXC on the other hand seems more complicated, he is part of the Toy era of animatronics, meaning he is probably born from the souls of the dead children incident, the one that happened in the fnaf 2 location, but they are different, they appear pure black to us, at least, and seems to be connected directly to remnant, as we see in AR, my interpretation is that they are there more because of remnant, agony and whatever other otherwordly influences exist in the fnaf 2 location, we see paper pals and whatnot change and move around, so we get a good idea that the location is haunted, but the children are not in the robots, which sort of severs RWQFSFASXC from having the same role as Shadow Freddy, being there, and powered purely by remnant, and the reason that they don't disappear is that the remnant left behind never does, Shadow Freddy freed the souls of the originals, but their remnant is still inside molten freddy, and since the fnaf 2 kids never got "bound" to an endoskeleton, their remnant energy and agony just sort of scattered all throughout the building, making miscellaneous things act paranormal, it doesn't matter that the kids from it's incident got found and put to rest, their energy is still around, alongside the others'. From what I can honestly tell, these 2 got created by their respective child murder incidents, signified by their different era designs, Shadow Freddy, possibly influenced by the Golden Freddy soul(s), was created as a reflection of them, a very aggressive entity, whose goal is to make sure William Afton is killed and suffers, and that the souls are freed, once that is fully done with in the Frights fire, they are also released, having served their role. RWQFSFASXC on the other hand, had no such influence, they were born out of the energies created by the fnaf 2 location killing spree, having the, very different, design of Toy Bonnie, with the shared goal of Shadow Freddy of freeing souls, acting as a guardian, without the malicious influence of Golden Freddy, taking on the form of Spring Bonnie in the minigame in order to... access that location so to speak, we see them glitch out a lot, so we can assume they're not supposed to be there, and taking on the sprite of an already existing Bonnie allows them to influence that place enough to get to the last soul, but they are different, they are purely born out of the energies that are left behind by the incident, lacking SF's ultimate goal of freeing the souls specifically, and powered by the remaining remnant left behind, and as long as there is enough of it left somewhere without resolve, for example inside what is nowadays Tangle, they cannot rest, they have to keep going, that collected in AR, and the remnant inside Tangle has to be freed and released before they can also disappear.
Here’s my personal theory, which I’ve not seen anybody but me bring up: I think initially, Golden Freddy (in the first game) was meant to simply be a manifestation of the player-character’s fear of being stuffed, appearing as a limp Freddy Fazbear suit with “It’s Me” hallucinations. He crashes the game because he’s not killing you, As he’s not real. By the second games release, I think the idea of Golden Freddy being something tangible in-lore was likely already planned (Fredbears is mentioned in that game, after all), and shadow Freddy and shadow Bonnie were likely intended to simply be what Golden Freddy used to be, representations of the players fear of being stuffed into a suit. (Or otherwise killed, in the case of Shadow Bonnie) Shadow Freddy even appears in the back room, presumably where the player is stuffed into a withered-freddy style suit if they get caught, and they crash the game like Golden Freddy used to.
My theory is much like how Nightmare was intended to be Death itself taking the form of Fredbear to the crying child; Shadow Freddy and Shadow Bonnie are both Death itself taking the form of the characters being Freddy and Bonnie, whom later on rooted from the one and only Fredbear and Springbonnie - the animatronic suits highly involved in the various Springlock deaths throughout the company's history.
I’ve rarely heard or seen it spoken of, but I actually really like the way that the game “super FNAF” handles the lore around these guys. I watched GTlives playthrough of it. It puts it all together really well!
I was always under the impression that the Shadow animatronics were the result of springlock failures on 2 different employees. This is supported by the FNAF 3 training tapes, which mention that the suits had been deemed temporarily unfit for employees due to multiple failures at a sister location. It can't be referencing the Bite of '83 because it specifically mentions employees. It makes the most sense for the shadows to be actual employees, who then attempt to help the children after witnessing the MCI.
I read a theory once where it said the shadow animatronics are representations of previous security guards. Which is why they know where the safe room was
My theory is that Shadow Bonnie and Freddy combined in some way because in FNaF special delivery with Shadow Bonnie getting new purple remnant like clouds around him and in Ruin you see M.X.E.S (a black/purple rabbit with glowing eyes and teeth)
steelwool is planning on making a fredbear game maybe we'll see them in the game they were easter eggs in security breach so they haven't been forgetten im sure we'll see more of them later
Well I have some news for those who don't know in the steel wool and dawko interview steel wool said that shadow freddy MIGHT have something to do in the future KEY WOORD MIGHT
I have a theory that the Shadow animatronics are just hallucinations Michael has during FNAF 2 (I have many headcanons and I don't really believe in one theory alone but I'm taking that theory). Since shadow Freddy greatly resembles golden Freddy and golden Freddy is a yellow version of Freddy which in turn is an alternate version of Fredbear, it's safe to believe that Michael saw golden Freddy, had some kind of flashback and remembered his brother. Since he's still grieving over that incident he saw a shadow version of golden Freddy. And about his appearance in FNAF 3's minigames I think it's the crying child's soul manifesting into a figure that looks like shadow Freddy but isn't, trying to help set the children free and possibly helping his dad too, or not realizing his dad is there at all. (As for the suit that appears in the office I just think that's just withered Freddy since the phantoms are canonically, well, phantoms.) In short, Minigame shadow Freddy, FNAF 3's suit and FNAF 2 shadow Freddy are completely different entities.
P.s. It could be that Shadow Freddy is representing the 5 missing kids rage, created into this entity, which would explain why we haven’t seen him since FNAF Pizza Sim. If he represents the 5 missing kids, they have moved on, so shadow Freddy wouldn’t be around anymore. Shadow Bonnie on the other hand, probably represents the kids that were murdered in FNAF 2s location. They never really got closure, so the rage they felt created Shadow Bonnie. FNAF AR states that “the entity” is guarding the dark remnant. If we collect too much of it, we summon Shadow Bonnie. This results in him trying to catch the player, with his weakness being the flashlight that we use. There’s no doubt the shadows are very creepy, and have some importance to why they are around. If we’re lucky, we’ll see shadow Freddy again, but I don’t think we will, although I could be wrong???
Wait that’s actually a good point!: how ever it doesn’t explain how there was no shadow Freddy in fnaf 1 if it was the kids rage that formed shadow Freddy, still cool to think about!
Given FNAF 1 was the first game, I imagine Scott didn’t really think of adding them. We do see Shadow Freddy leading the FNAF 1 robots to the safe room, and the cutscenes that happen before each night in FNAF 2 seems to be from the perspective of Freddy, but when you brighten up the dark areas, we see purple.
I thought that the reason why we don't see the shadows after fnaf 3 (After-night minigame) is because their 'unfinished business' is completed. They lured the children back to William to confront him, leading to the spring failure. After that, they believed William was dead and so their 'unfinished business' is done. They no longer had a purpose to be there, and so they left.
Ive always preferred the idea of the shadow animatronics being past springlock victims barely being able to manifest to assist the children because I doubt those particular springlock suits remained
Intresting note is that shadow freddy says “follow me” in the fnaf 3 minigames the only other person to say that same quote is william in fnaf 6 fruity maze
Shadow Freddy could’ve been brought back to relevancy in the fnaf film. When the producers of the film released the 9-minute video of the camera footage Shadow Freddy appeared in one of the cameras. Such a missed opportunity instead of having him in the background as a suit he could’ve played a bigger role in representing the agony of the dead children.
Shadow Freddy is gonna be in the next FNaF movie, I assume they're going to play a babysitter role, as [Spoilers if you haven't watched the movie] Max died in the Shadow Freddy suit, and the actor for Max teased they're return as Shadow Freddy in multiple posts online.
I like the idea that he was created either from BV’s agony (which starts haunting the fredbear plush) or from William killing Charlie, and Shadow Freddy helps William create more agony until he dies, where SF can then leech off of William for eternity. Almost a deal with the devil, William gets help initially, but the consequence of his failures is eternal torment.
In my opinion shadow Freddy being an material essance of hate they have for William the line of Nightmare "I am flesh born of your wickedness" would make sense. Sure it doesn't make him more important than employees that died in incidents but makes more sense.
1983 - A worker named Herald McMuffington was on his day shift, he realized the FredBear performer had a heart attack, he called 911, the next day Herald was preforming, on his break time he went into the backstage and decided to drink a beer, without noticing, he left the suit on, the SpringLocks went off. Mr. Emily (Henry) called the police immediately as he was in the same room, about a month after in June (Evan’s Birthday month) he became a shadow creature, along with his friend Perry, who got springlocked in a SpringBonnie suit, but not the main one, this one was the ScrapTrap suit, but basically they were remnant, tho that night the FredBear suit was moved to a Augmented House, when it was night he turned into a Huge…Yellow Bear, it had sharp teeth, he was locked up, it was as if Mr. Afton knew what was gonna happen, the next day Mr. Afton rebranded the suit to a white base (representing the twisted ones) along with 9 others, tho on *every* Sunday, he turned to the same thing but black and with a yellow tophat/bowtie, he was confused..alone(not really he has 9 suit to talk to). And that about clears up this chapter. 1987 P1 - I’m splitting this into 2 chapters both for SL and FNaF2, let’s get into it. He saw a newly built elevator in the augmented house, he went in it and saw a yellow keypad, he put in the name ‘Shadow Freddy’ but decided to erase it and just go in, when he got in he saw a vent and went through it, on his left he pressed a blue button, he saw a White Ballerina, this was nighttime, and a Sunday, so he said “NI-” *please stand by* He went in the room and saw another room, he went in, he saw a white and purple Freddy with a black hat, so he said “What’s up my fellow ni-” *PLEASE STAND BY* He decided to go to the other room, he saw a white animatronic that had a claw, that’s when it hit him, he was at a underground facility for the funtimes, so in my timeline Afton Robotics and FazBear Ent. are 2 different companies, so he went to another room and saw a white and pink fox, went to the next room and saw a scooper, in that room he saw….NOTHING- Alright that clears up this chapter. 1987 P2 - He saw the door open in the house and ran out, he saw a *real* house, he went outside and saw a pizzeria, it said ‘FazBear’s Jr’s.’, he went in and saw a couple of kids, he ran to the parts and services, and there was the old animatronics, he decided to sit near Foxy around the corner, so in the middle of the night, he found a familiar face…shadow Bonnie was there, a nightguard named “Jeremy Fitzgerald” came to the pizzeria and worked for 6 nights, tho on Saturday (Custom Night), someone else came in, he got fired and that clears up this chapter 2023 - *wait til the end of the day*
Shadow Freddy is unironically my favorite character in FNAF 3 and I have the plush he went from being a cool Easter egg to a seemingly major character and the mystery is so cool. In my opinion, shadow Freddy is the agony or remnant of the employees. Its mostly accepted that shadow Bonnie is one of the victims from the "multiple, simultaneous, Springlock failures" I think shadow Freddy was one of those at first but went on to "eat the souls" of others like maybe Jeremy Fitzgerald
0:15 RWQFSFASXC (he) and Shadow Freddy (also he) are Immortal being created from Agony "counters" or like "same but different" of Golden Freddy and Puppet. when these two spawned, shadows spawned with them (GF-SH and P-RWQ) Shadows are also one of the strongest characters in whole universe (maybe Top 1 and Top 2) another reason why FNaF 3 is BY FAR most underrated scotts game and why i love it so much (Story or Shadows really starded in FNaF 3)
I think originally, Shadow Freddy was meant to be an unknowing accomplice of Afton's. Like either an employee, or even a business partner from his early days that would wear the Yellow Fredbear suit as part of the act with Afton's Yellow Bunny suit. Though, once the person in the Fredbear suit caught him in the act, he too was killed, thus leading to the need for a new Fredbear; the animatronic one that does the original "bite of". My theory is simply that Afton murdered the original person wearing the Fredbear costume after getting caught red handed killing Susie, and that it's a long lost, vengeful spirit of a possibly unnamed guy in a mascot costume. It's hokey and basic, I know, but back then the story was *much* more simple, and we had only a fraction of the amount of characters we do today.
Shadow Freddy was an ADULT VICTIM. Idea struck, basically in fnaf 4 crying child is stuck in a room crying with a body stuffed in a suit thats slumped over, we see this with the hair tuff. WHAT if, purple freddy is an EMPLOYEE, who didn't know about the murders and was really just trying to help the kids.
I've been hearing this theory that shadow freedy and rxq are just ulter egos cassidi and charlie cuz shadow freedy has the same disign as withered golden freedy but re colored and he acts aggressive just like cassidi. And the reason I think rxq is a ulter ego of Charlie is cuz in one of the FNAF 3 mini games we play as rxq giving kids cakes trying to represent freeing the kids and who else dose that charlie and i think the reason rxq looks like toy Bonnie is cuz henry aka Charlie's dad made toy Bonnie trying to show the conction between rxq and charlie
maybe the hanged engineers we see in sister location in the shadows are the shadow animatronic hmm?cause like there is a theory that the shadows are made from agony and you would have a lot of agony dying by getting hanged by animatronics. (guys ik my theory is stupid im kind of bored)
in fnaf 4 following the dream theory after Evan got bit. since he's like reliving the nightmare of getting his head crushed instead of seeing fredbear as this happy gold bear the memory is more of a dark entity or a shadow
The fact Shadow Freddy used to get more appreciation and acknowledgement than Shadow Bonnie and now it's the exact opposite of what its used to be is weird to me
When the game came out I had assumed that shadow Freddy was one suit worn by William Afton when he preformed the some of the murders. Early on in the series the color purple only ever really used to imply a connection to William and his less the legal activities.
I think back then some fans thought that c.c(evan) is shadow freddy. Maybe because that in one of matpat's theories, both him and cassidy possess golden freddy, and I think that sometimes cassidy takes lead while c.c would hide in the shadows due to his trauma before death. Like you said, shadow freddy is like the shadow of golden freddy. I almost believe that but then again I don't know if he suppose to represent someone or someone else.
I was and am a Big fan of Shadow Freddy, and In my opinion Shadow Freddy Can Be Both a Guide For MCI and Also Be Made From Agony. Since Both A Bear and a Bunny caused Tragedies i Think Shadow Freddy is a Represetation of the incident That happened in 1983.
i always thought shadow freddy was william using the freddy mask since he is represented as freddy but is still purple and lures the animatronics to become withered in the mini games. i also think springtrap is a representation of the purple guy when he went on his murder spree in the spring bonnie suit and this could explain why the spotlight is more so on him rather than shadow freddy
I also always thought that Shadow Freddy was just William Afton using a luer for the animatronics. He isn’t an actual animatronic, not really having a physical form at all. Really, I would go as far to say that Shadow Freddy and Afton are the same person, with William using some sort of trick to make him look like a shadow of Freddy. You bring up a good point about the killings and other such evil things being in the shadows, hence the victim childrens’ perception of various icons and characters.
i used to think that shadow freddy is the one pulling all the strings behind the scene's, making william become a murderer, making the bite of 83 happen, ect. However i don't believe this anymore mainly because there is no evidence to back it up.
So shadow freddy looks pretty close to golden freddy from fnaf 1. In the movie there is a purple freddy costume (mabye there was a physical dark purple freddy springlock suit) and the dead people wearing the springlock suits could be related, mabye the reason we stopped seeing him was because afton was presumably dead and shadow Freddy believed his job was done. That makes sense to me and doesnt seem to affect lore
Tbh, I love the ideas that Shadow Bonnie and Freddy were victims of Springlock failures with SpringBonnie and Fredbear and that they wanted to help the Missing Children find their killer and move on. It keeps the mysterious nature of them mostly intact, all the while giving them interesting characterization. They did presumably work with kids after all, so of course they would want to help the Missing Children. Thank you for making this video on Shadow Freddy. As someone who loves the ideas and concepts behind the Shadow animatronics, I did feel Shadow Freddy's absences in the rest of the series nowadays, and I'm glad I wasn't the only one. Thank you once again.
Don't forget the fnaf 6 insanity ending where Henry says : "Small souls trapped in prisons of my making now set to new purpose and used in ways I never thought imaginable. He lured them all back. Back to a familiar place. Back with familiar tricks. He brought them all together. [...] He set some kind of trap. I don't know what it was, but he lead them there again." Shadow Freddy is, according to Henry a trap, a lure, that William uses 😃😃😄😄
i think both shadows might just be reminders of afton's misdeeds. perhaps afton used both a bunny AND a bear suit to lure kids, not just one or the other. and they'd be purple colored just to emphasize the connection to purple guy. and it would only be natural to assume then, that shadow freddy evolved into nightmare tho i feel like if that was the case, it must have been at least partially retconned by now and it totally makes more sense to match the shadows with dream theory
Theory: because of his fathers springlock and taking the springbonnie suit whilst everyone else shared being left to rot is why we don't see a nightmare spring bonnie. And if you say that the springlock happened after fnaf 4 takes place, my argument is that it could be a premonition.
my headcanon is that shadow bonnie & shadow freddy are employees who got springlocked and their souls inhabited the animatronics they died on & the reason why their animatronics are black / purple is because of their suits rotting and growing purple-ish mold from being locked and left away for years.
Man this game could’ve been so good had they just let it be a dream like the first four games were hinting towards with the mini games showing background to why the dreams were happening and some form of real murders happening. They got to caught up with the weird spiritual side
Dream theory was never meant to be real. You can say that about... anything ever. Game theorists just got lazy and threw it to "Oh and it was alllll a dream :)" Since if there is any inconsistency, you explain it as: "It's a dream, it doesn't have to be literal!" until you gloss over everything. You want to tell me that a child dreamed accurate minimum wages and work schedules, multiple restaurants which, we know are real, over multiple eras (including past when he died?) Just to blanket explain... a missing beak. The Game Theorists had it in their hands and scott was giving them all the answers, then they went and made dream theory. He says he regrets getting involved in the theory community for a reason. To me it's quite clear it was supposed to be about what we have now. One story, four games, "It's me" etc.
@@Colon-D... i think there has to be some things in the game that are a dream/in the mind of a child. Sure some things physically happened in reality. But the idea of your work alarm being a morning bell??? Nah that’s just not a thing. And then in the fourth game with the hospital stuff and the electric alarm. I think the first four games outside of the mini games were originally planned for a dream theory
WAIT the shadow freddy plush is rare? mines all old and the brim of his hat is kinda coming apart. I didnt know he was a valuable little dude ! i woulda kept better care of em
We always thought that S.F. was a springlock victim who saw everything that had happened at that point, and he became a guide for the children in FNAF 3 to stop his former boss from hurting anyone else. And when Afton was springlocked himself, S.F. passed on to the afterlife now that he helped the kids. Meanwhile, Nightmare isn't related to S.F. but instead, a prasantification of death (along with Nightmarionne). Taken the form of a shadow Nightmare Fredbear due to what the crying child feared most, as he slowly lost their life. And he and Nightmarionne in UCN are death tormenting Afton with the image of what killed his child, and his first victim respectively.
I might say that maybe Shadow Freddy was supposed to be the other spirit living in Golden Freddy taking over? Or just a representation of the seconed spirit.
i think they're there to be there, they're like pieces of the memories of the whole story itself, if we count the fnaf 3 shadow bonnie minigame along the fnaf 4 minigame, golden freddy/fredbear along the shadows seem to be there since the very beginning of the story (the past), now i don't know how it's involved in the retcon, but i believe they're dreams (kinda like in the movie) caused by micheal's little brother, or by the movie logic, micheal's regrets, he lives in the shadows, meaning he's still living in the past wishing he could change it. In the security book it's said he tends to sleep with an eye open, maybe it could be making him see both real and dreamlike things (hallucinations). now the ghost kids, in the movie, they can see in dreams, by that logic, if we apply it to the games, and if their game version don't know who their killer is too, they could've learned it through micheal, making fnaf 3 purple guy minigames a bit more coherent
I think shadow freddy is just a guide for the missing kids which is why he doesn't appear anymore. Rwq is now normally used for remnant/agony purposes of the story
Good theory but it has been basically confirmed that SF is under the influence/control of William, stated by Nightmare in UCN. (Where the NIGHTMARE Night in the FNAF 4 Files is called "Shadow Freddy"):"I am made from your wickedness."
Also, heavily implied from the HRY223 Recording in FNAF 6's Insanity Ending: "He brought them all back, back to a familiar place, **with familiar tricks.**" and in fruit maze where William tells Susie the same phrase as SF in FollowMe: **"Follow me."**
@@stupidpersonwithbadopinions He isn't called Shadow Freddy in the decompiled game. Nightmare is actually in the same Active object as Nightmare Fredbear. What everyone was seeing as "Shadow Freddy" was from the exported files of the games. Which means the action of naming Nightmares textures "Shadow Freddy" wasn't an action from Scott, but actually whoever was exporting the textures.
Your profile picture is so funny
The theory you said might be right but i think shadow freddy is evan afton's spirit trying to get a new body
Haha RWQ and remnant
It really is a shame that the shadow characters went literally nowhere.
Who knows, maybe one day we'll find out that Molten Freddy is actually the remnant of both Shadow Bonnie and Shadow Freddy.
Or maybe we'll get a whole cast of shadow characters one day. That'd be fun.
@ahealthkit2745 My headcanon was that the shadows were hallucinations/sub-manifestations created by the Marionette. In other words, Springtrap had the phantoms & the Marionette has the shadows.
Maybe they just disappeared into the shadows
@@DiamondBatToons Well as long as there isn't prove it's good
It's a shame we never got a game taking place right after the original murders, with the unwithered animatronics. The storyline is going so much into the future that it no longer seems like fnaf anymore, only another possessed aninatronics game. It would be cool to see the original pizzeria and to let the player walk around the place because let's say they couldn't afford or the cameras aren't working and to see the unwithered animatronics that still look scary move around, maybe even the puppet.
Shadow Freddy’s and Shadow Bonnie’s appearance in fnaf2 combined with the phone guy stating about “multiple and simultaneous springlock failures” always felt like they were modern springlock adult victims. Unlike the MCI kids, their bodies were removed from the springlocks but continued to haunt, and since they’re adults, they could understand more than the Freddy crew so they became helping hands to the missing children
I agree.
Although the minigame at the start of fnaf 6 makes me wonder if the shadow animatronics are supposed to represent a sort of metaphorical corruption of the establishment. Like Afton's legacy haunting the location and ruining the ability of Freddy to 'deliver pizzas' and good vibes, to the children. They are constantly reminded of the horrors of what happened there before.
I really prefer the idea of them being springlock victims but sadly, aside from one offhand line from Phone Guy in fnaf 3, we get no detail on who these characters are. And as far as I can tell, Scott has always treated them like easter eggs. Fnaf 4 being meant to 'tie up loose ends' and including a scene with the shadow animatronics in it seems to imply that yes, they are just imagined horrors, and were never real.
I feel like if Scott meant for the Freddy in FNaF 6 to be shadow Freddy he would make him purple with white eyes. Honestly the most likely explanation to me is the spring lock failure for adults. I personally really hate agony as a concept, it’s kind of a get out of jail free card for anything haunted that can’t be explained. Remnant I don’t like either but we need it to exist to explain why the fun times are haunted.
I really think Fnaf post game 4 is a nightmare to figure out lore-wise. None of the Circus Baby Pizza World stuff fits into the established timeline and the design inconsistencies across the game series make your complaint about Fnaf 6's rendition of Shadow Freddy look sort of silly. After all, Fredbear and Golden freddy are the same character, but they have radically different imagery throughout the whole series.
@@NopeNothingD9
@@ahealthkit2745 well that’s because Fredbear wasn’t a thing when golden freddy was in FNaF 1. Pizzeria simulator is the last FNaF game in the series and scott has always consistently portrayed shadow freddy as purple. If Scott wanted to show that was shadow freddy there would literally be zero reason to not just make it purple. I think the fact that it isn’t purple shows that it definitely isn’t shadow freddy. I don’t think the grey freddy really means anything other than a glitch.
You don't think that the design inconsistencies across all the various games and offshoots are just that? I mean, just consider that this miraculous new look is made by a different studio, Steelwool. So, I really think they just wanted to make a passing reference to RWQ and shadow freddy. I'd like to remind you too that the sprite for Purple Guy has changed a few times too. Shit happens, designs change. Just look at how Springtrap looks in fnaf 3 compared to what he looks like in fnaf 6.@@NopeNothingD9
I always thought the shadows represented the agony of all the missing kids, forming into shadows. Shadow Freddy has the same design as Withered Golden Freddy, so he represents the 1985 missing kids. Shadow Bonnie has the shape of Toy Bonnie, representing the kids that were murdered in the FNAF 2 location.
Given that we see shadow Bonnie, even in Special delivery and in Security Breach, tells me that they’re important in some way. Not to mention shadow Freddy was last seen in pizza sim since when you play the mini game of making a pizza and serving it to the kids.
We never really questioned their importance back in Fnaf’s golden age, nor bothered to figure it out, but I think the shadows were originally victims of the springlock failures that phone guy mentions in FNAF 3. Even when we see that shadow Bonnie in the FNAF 3 mini game is helping a crying child, tells me the shadows are probably good in a way.
While we never knew what happened to shadow Freddy, the FNAF Encyclopedia stated that there is still a mystery to his existence and we could possibly, key word is POSSIBLY, could see him return in the future. I do hope we see him again, because while shadow Bonnie is still a thing, shadow Freddy deserves more of the spotlight too.
Shadow Bonnie isn't in SB or Help Wanted, only Shadow Freddy is.
But I do agree. I think the most logical and compelling story is that the characters are former spring lock victims. We never get any more lore or story about them, and there are no clues in any of the games that really tell us who or what they where.
In dream theory, it makes more sense that the shadow animatronics are just that; Shadows that the crying child saw and misunderstood as real animatronics.
I think the only time we'll see both of them together again is in either a short story from Scott or in a future 'past locations' compilation game, ala Help Wanted.
I think they were pieces of importance that Scott probably stopped giving attention since no one bothered to figure out their importance. It looks like the beginnings/foundations were set, like Shadow Freddy appearing in Pizza Sim, but no one cared to look at it.
I'm sorry, but you are fundamentally misunderstanding how stories are told. Scott put those pieces in the game and later admitted they where easter eggs. They never had importance. If he wanted them to be important, he could've added anything to the games to detail why they where. Instead, they are just creepy imagery that exist in (a few) of the games.
He didn't make the games lore AFTER the games got popular. He made the games WHILE they where getting popular, and also clearly went in a different direction after fan backlash during the height of Fnaf 4's Dream Theory era.
Shadow Freddy in Pizza Sim is there as a reference, as are dozens of other animatronics that don't crop up in any other games. If they where important, we'd have more minigames featuring them. @@EmiWi
@@ahealthkit2745 RWQ appears in SD, and Shadow Freddy never appears or referenced in SB but is referenced in HW, but doesn't actually appear.
I'm sure that guy in Pizza Sim is supposed to be Lefty
I always thought the shadow animatronics were the souls of employees who got spring locked and now they want to help the children escape because they feel bad
Exactly my thoughts on them, them being poor unfortunate souls to have been springlocked
I feel like the Shadows were meant to be the springlock victims mentioned in the Fnaf 3 tapes
springlock victims or victims of the animatronics, hence why shadow fred lead them into the safe room to be destroyed, as some sort of revenge
Me too, it makes much sense to me
@@ilikepigeons6101I actually really like that idea and use it a bit in my AU.
Just the thought of the souls of the nightgaurds sticking around themselves and looking to get even would really add to the sense that FNAF is just a cycle of tragedy, agony and revenge.
I think Scott changed his some of his ideas of the story after FNaF 3. Not in a retcon sense, but in a building on the story kind of way. I think the Shadows are kind of unsolved, like the Paper Plate dolls. Great video thiugh.
100%. I think them being added to fnaf 2 was really just as a fun easter egg, no added story or details. Fnaf 3 introduced the whole idea of spring locks and changed the canon. It gave the first implicit clue about who Golden Freddy / Shadow Freddy and Shadow Bonnie could be, but even then, it's kind of a stretch.
Especially because their designs (like most characters in fnaf) do not stay consistent all the way through the franchise.
I think they, along with a lot of other poorly explained concepts (like golden freddy, spring lock suits, nightmare gas and illusion disks) are probably just oversights from Scott. Maybe one day we'll get some cool lore for them.
Scott later started retconning things because Matpat kept guessing them, though.
You're putting too much stock in how ""good"" MatPat's theories were after FNaF3 @@Brain_pocketer
@@Brain_pocketerScott has only ever retconned one thing
if a change completely redefines previous (basically confirmed) information, that can be treated as a retcon.
As both RWQ and Shadow Freddy are some of my favorite animatronics. I have never really thought about how RWQ has more time in the spotlight than his bear counterpart. I always thought they put shadow Freddy as a antagonist in one of Scott's games in the future.
This would seem to be the case till you discover that, if anything, S. Freddy was much more important than RXQ, ever since his debut in Fnaf 2
I liked this one VHS's take on Shadow Freddy and also the Golden Freddy holding the spirits of both CC and Cassidy theory. Basically whenever Fredbear appeared as Golden Freddy, it was Cassidy. Whenever it was Crying Child speaking Golden Freddy would literally turn purple and into Shadow Freddy. Not sure how accurate that interpretation was, but it was always my favorite.
thats a pretty sick idea ngl
thats so cool :O what vhs tape is it?
That’s actually kinda neat
yknow, now that i think about it, i think the game crashing in the original games when in the context of dream theory is actually extremely clever, whenever the game crashes, its almost like the crying child waking up after a nightmare, golden freddy being a literal representation of fredbear which scares him awake, and seeing the springlocks in the shadows instantly waking him up aswell, nightmare can also be explained from this as he doesnt crash your game but puts you back to menu, meaning fnaf 4 is a dream, but not entirely.
Dream theory really does make perfect sense for the original 4 games, but it's just a really easy way to sum them up too. I really think that if Scott had let Dream Theory be canon, and just moved on and explored the characters and stories from a different angle (y'know, one that wasn't laser-honed on the Afton family), I think the series would've been a lot better for it.
Maybe we would've gotten more clarity about if an MCI ever actually happened, maybe we would've had new characters introduced that replace Afton as the bbeg.
Very cool theory
@@ahealthkit2745 Dream theory was never meant to be real. You can say that about... anything ever. Game theorists just got lazy and threw it to "Oh and it was alllll a dream :)" Since if there is any inconsistency, you explain it as: "It's a dream, it doesn't have to be literal!" until you gloss over everything. You want to tell me that a child dreamed accurate minimum wages and work schedules, multiple restaurants which, we know are real, over multiple eras (including past when he died?) Just to blanket explain... a missing beak.
The Game Theorists had it in their hands and scott was giving them all the answers, then they went and made dream theory. He says he regrets getting involved in the theory community for a reason.
To me it's quite clear it was supposed to be about what we have now. One story, four games, "It's me" etc.
Dream theory was never a way to sweep away inconsistencies, it was a theory backed up by Scott himself for a while. One that was only altered post fnaf 4. Fnaf 4 is the game that most strongly points towards dream theory and it's even mentioned in the movie in passing. If it wasn't brought up by the game's creator so often, you might be dead on with what your saying. You got super angry at me just suggesting that Dream Theory may have been canon at some point. Do you really prefer the murky tangled mess of alternate character allegories that the new book series is trying to push into the canon of the original 4 games?
Scott never had the answers. He improv'd the story each game for the first four, seeding little bits of vague information that point in the general direction of a continuity, but never actually fully tethers itself to a strong narrative that goes all the way through the games. Dream theory was just accepted as the most viable theory, until fnaf 5 came out and surprised everyone with Afton Brand murder bots and Elizabeth. Turns out, golden fredbear plush was good ol' willy afton all along. Because the fans aren't right about anything, definitely *not* that Dream Theory was just a huge waste of potential and a terribly written end to a great series.
I'm not going to waste my own time by replying to another wall of text from you. Get your facts straight and read up and look at the content at the time. Look at how Scott reacted to fans supposing the dream theory was true around the hype with the locked box in fnaf 4.
It's not pleasant to know that the writer who makes these games made mistakes, but it's a hard truth that they are poorly written and full of loose ends. @@Colon-D...
meh, i think dream theory is shit because it means none of it is real, so at that point why does anybody fucking care.
I think that shadow Freddy is just a suit William used to lure kids, and then the animatronics in the FNAF 3 minigames, which also explains why the guide refers it as a “crumpled Freddy suit”, ALSO explaining why it appears in FNAF 2, being secretly stored there by William while he did crimes.
big brain moment
Shadow freddy was honestly one of my favorite characters in fnaf 2
Bro, he sat there and did nothing lol
@@sageseraph5035he was interesting in the good way
@@sageseraph5035he was mysterious back in the day, so many theories.
*FNaF 2
@@sageseraph5035 He's still incredibly important to the lore.
The thing is, Scott says the series only had 1 retcon, and stated "To be clear, the one retcon mentioned was integrated pretty seamlessly, and most people didn't notice. If it had caused problems or confusion then I would have addressed it here." which to me feels like it couldn't be a dream, especially cause he also says "I used SL to clear up a misconception from FNaF 4. Currently, there is a misconception from SL that I may need to clear up someday as well"
scott's said a lotta shit about the story that doesn't make sense really,
@@seekerstheshy3842 Like what
@@seekerstheshy3842 nice, can you say WHAT ?
It's pretty obvious dream theory never was canon and it was literally made by The Game Theorists.
the retcon is S A V E H I M
The importance for both he and Shadow Bonnie are specifically in the implications of their existence. They're basically the same "thing" with the slughtly different purposes, meaning they only have to "develope" one of them
I believe that the shadow animatronics are the two dead technicians from SL that got hung. Kinda a wild idea, but I feel as that it works.
Why
Honestly, Shadow Freddy is my favourite character since FNaF 2, and I think it's a concept that should be explored more. Really interesting video btw I agree
I always liked Shadow Freddy and I had a bunch of theories around them over the years
My first ever theory was the springlock victim theory... but then it evolved into Shadow Freddy being the "manifestation" of the crying child's soul, like CC still being stuck in Golden Freddy with Cassidy, but sometimes manifesting as the entity of Shadow Freddy, thus having exaclty the same model as GF and being the "opposite" color as GF (being purple). I don't fully believe this theory anymore since a lot more proof is shown with the agony stuff, but I still think fondly of that theory
i love this video
it really seems to show the role of shadow freddy in the community
like this video is literally a summarize of shadow freddy in the community, including theorizes.
for my part, i simply think shadow freddy is a shadow of golden freddy, because his design, face expression and poses are the same as golden freddy.
really good video, i loved it, ur really underrated!
I think the reason for Shadow Freddy being listed with Nightmare Mode was literally that. If you think how the whole FNAF 4 was set up (including props for someone in hospital), then it would make more sense for Shadow Freddy to be seen as a nightmare for someone who could be in a coma.
This would also explain the whole suitcase issue when Scott wouldn’t open the suitcase at the end of the game because when the theory of ‘it’s all just a dream’ came out, everyone more or less dismissed it or outright disliked it, hence the wording ‘things are better left unknown’
Who else likes Shadow Freddy more than RWQ?
Me
MEH
I do
I personally believe Nightmare's line "I'm your wickedness" means that Shadow Freddy came from somebody his actions were inflected on. I think that Shadow Freddy comes from Bite Victim and his constant crying, his agony. And it all started with his Fredbear plush. I connect its' glowing eyes with possession / an agony creature. I also believe that Shadow Freddy purposefully leads the animatronics to be destroyed by William, so they're set free and they can catch their killer.
My theory is Shadow/AgonyPlush + WillPlush:
- The agony from Bite Victim accumulates inside of the plushy, later taking form of Shadow Freddy.
- William is the one speaking to Bite Victim, kind of scaring him while trying to somewhat help him.
Meanwhile, I believe RWQ is indeed someone who went through a springlocks failure, and I believe it to be Andrew from Frights. I think that if Andrew was to be a character in games, it'd be RWQ. I don't know why. It fits well. I connect it with Andrew being TOYSNHK and MXES, an agony entity that represents Andrew, like Shadow Freddy that represents BV, but being good instead of evil. Andrew being RWQ, TOYSNHK and MXES would fit a clean narrative. He watches in the background, searching for William, finds him and puts him in UCN, then OMC tells Andrew to leave him to his demons, and he does so, but doesn't rest his soul because he can sense something wild is going on (Pizzaplex era), and becomes one with the Security program that is meant to keep the Mimic trapped.
But that's just me.
1. It simply means "I'm your evil" in general towards William, just to say he's all of his evil actions taking a form
2. While ShadowPlush is a pretty goated theory, it doesn't fulfill the part of S. Freddy representating William's evil if he's made of the BV's Agony
3. It doesn't set them free, they are still in the funtimes, toys and the rockstars, they never achieve peace, it would make more sense if instead, he was just helping William achieve his goals, it also adds up since he literally follows Michael and Jeremy to their houses, then induces Nightmares onto them, it's clear he's evil
4. RXQ in no way resembles any Springlock suit, and he's literally made of Dark Remnant aka Agony
5. We are never certain if Andrew ever got springlocked in a suit, nor if he even possessed anything, the black curly haired kid inside G. Freddy in TNK could be anyone from Cassidy, Andrew or Renelle
6. MXES not in the slightest resembles Andrew, he takes the form of a digital purple bunny, acts like Glitchtrap, and his prototype design resembles Afton in the stingers
7. Andrew said he had no one to talk to, and he clearly said he never wanted to leave Afton till he feels like he's ready to go, which he never does since Afton gets exploded later
8. He has no reason to leave Afton just to go after The Mimic when he doesn't even know him, nor has any reason to care for him
I’ve wondered recently whether or not Shadow Freddy was either the CC or TOYSNHK/Cassidy, in some limited capacity; if Golden Freddy in-game is represented by Cassidy, thanks to his violence towards the player character, saying “It’s me,” and the UCN ending, then Shadow Freddy could be the Crying Child manifesting in whatever way he can; after all, he did see “shadows” of Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. If G Freddy is the CC, then Cassidy would also have motive to be Shadow Freddy, trying to lure the animatronics to Afton and whatnot.
Even better, because UCN takes place a while after FNAF3, Cassidy would always end up wholly possessing Golden Freddy regardless, which reminds me…does anyone actually **know** what happened to the Golden Freddy suit? If it was sealed in the Safe Room with the Spring Bonnie suit, then FNAF3’s mini games don’t show that, and Fazbear Frights would’ve recovered it when they got a hold of Springtrap. So where tf did it go?
I always figured that Shadow Freddy was just Fredbear in shadow. Minigames were pretty consistent about colouring shadows purple so the minigane shadow freddy coukd easily have been William inside a fredbear suit.
I never really paid that much attention to the loading screens in FNAF World, but putting Shadow Freddy's "I will eat your soul", and Nightmare's UCN line "I will vomit you back" really makes you draw a connection to both characters being one and the same (or at least different versions of the same character)
May seem like a reach. But honestly. This is Scott we're talking, the same guy who thought of the color schemes of the games first rather than lore; he seems like the sort of person to make the least substantitate clues being the actual truth.
I was under the impression that both Shadow Freddy & Shadow Bonnie were the spirits of former staff members who died in the old springlock suits.
Nightmare being a manifestation of the various MCI's and evil that Afton has done makes perfect sense to me, but the character design for Nightmare is so different compared to Shadow Fredbear and Springbonnie/RWQ.
I really personally love the idea that the shadow animatronics are spirits of old employees who died trapped in the springlock suits, and that haunt the fnaf 2 location (and later on, try to help the spirits of the MCI escape)
Ultimately, something of a minigame to tie up their stories or to give some cannonicity to the theories would be nice. I doubt we'll ever get it tho. Seems like Shadow Freddy and Bonnie are treated more like easter eggs than anything else.
@@ahealthkit2745Toy Bonnie isn't a springlock suit (he isn't even that big for someone to fit himself inside) and you would need to consider Midnight Motorist for Shadow Freddy if you wanna go the direction of springlock victims
HES BACK
Feels like forever since Shadow Freddy was mentioned. Nice to see this.
I extracted the color from “phantom shadow Freddy” in the fnaf 3 image. It’s more of a yellow then purple when extracted color. Phantom golden freddy?
Edit : it’s grey untill you use a effect “saturation” and set it to max a few times. Repeated.
I always though of Shadow Freddy as helping William, but him helping the kids also makes sense. Even if it wasn't him showing them where he is, it's possible he KNEW there were going to be destroyed, making their souls free.
Anyone else looking back at this after it has been kinda confirmed that Shadow Freddy will be in the second Fnaf Movie?
Will he?
@@Classic-guy1991 the actor for Max (the babysitter character that got killed by Freddy.) made a post on twitter/X showing a shadow Freddy costume on set, and also hinting the character Max will have a connection to Shadow Freddy. He also makes a small appearance in a certain trailer.
I don't care what people say about Shadow Freddy, he deserves better and deserves to have the recognition he needs. I would love to see more of Shadow Freddy to turn out in the future so he will return in a bigger role and may be important than we think. I always viewed him as William's Wickedness due to the fact that he and Nightmare have connections to William. I like Shadow Freddy a lot and he's personally one of my favorite characters.
I think shadow freddy is the personification of everything that makes william afton evil while shadow bonnie is the personification of what is left inside william afton that is good.
Honestly, I think putting together shadow Freddy (FNaF world description) and nightmares voicelines together, they make a lot of sense to what they are saying, “I will eat your soul, and vomit you back, to relieve your horror.” I feel if you’d connect these two quotes together, it’d sound kinda funny and make sense since he will eat your soul, and then vomit it right back up 😂
I think the crumple Freddy suit is the destroyed Freddy suit outside of the office in Fnaf 3
I actually have a Shadow Freddy plush I got from comic con Sweden years back. I knew they were more rare/ con exclusive but I didnt realize they went for THAT much. I think I will keep him though cause hes cute.
3:18 has always been really interesting to me, much more unnerving than a game crash. you die, you get a warning of something that could possibly harm real people who ignore said warning
I saw an theory years ago that to this day still makes sense. It basically said that Shadow Freddy was a program in the AI of Freddy's software. It is the program that Afton used to lure the animatronics back so they could be dismantled. However I think he might have also used the program to cover himself up when killing. So that he would not appear on the cameras. Also would make sense why he is in help wanted (assuming that is him)
This theory falls apart the moment you discover about Agony from The Books
What I always saw being weird and I barely see anyone bring up is the fact that:
1.Shadow bonnie and Freddy shouldn't be directly connected, their designs always looked like they were trying to say that. Shadow Freddy is a lighter purple, in every one of his appearances, and he is actually called Shadow Freddy, fully canonically, and lastly he resembles Fnaf 2's golden freddy, which is somewhat obviously decades older than the toys, meanwhile Shadow Bonnie... is not called that, they are SPECIFICALLY always referred to as RWQFSFASXC, never Shaddow Bonnie, they are pure black, lacking any of SF's purple tones, they are a pure black void-like body, and they resemble Toy Bonnie, not withered Bonnie, not any other Bonnie, Toy Bonnie. The only thing linking them together is their teeth and eyes, their easter egg status, and their direct involvement in the story of the children's souls.
2. Although some people have noticed this, the 2 have very different... roles? so to speak. RWQFSFASXC is seen guarding and helping, they seem to guard remnant/agony in AR, trying to stop you from collecting any more, they help in the happiest day minigame with reaching one of the normally unreachable child soul, maybe metaphorically but I find it interesting that since that soul is unreachable by normal means, he is left with the responsibility of getting to it, somehow. Shadow Freddy in the meantime, is pretty aggressive and directly involved with what happens to... specifically the original souls, he guides the ORIGINAL animatronics to William, where they get somewhat freed by him breaking the bots apart, and letting them do the rest, and in fnaf world, as mentioned, he is one of the most aggressive teammates, and having some interestingly related moves, unscrew, which has a chance to instantly kill the enemy, also interestingly a move that seems to relate to how he lead the others to being disassembled, escape key, another insta kill move, not fully sure about it's relevance, and water hose, and instant kill move... interestingly something that happens to William at the end of that minigame, his spring locks fail due to moisture, killing him instantly.
My honest interpretation of this is that, after what's left of the suits burn down in Fazbear Frights, at least a part of their souls gets set free, as mentioned in the video, the "conscious part" so to speak, and so, Shadow Freddy, which we know is at least one of the freddies in 3, since Phantom Freddy seems to resemble Golden Freddy more, I believe that once the original souls, or at least their conscious tortured part, get set free, Shadow Freddy's role is over, he has nothing else to do, he has accomplished his goal, so he disappears with them.
RWQFSFASXC on the other hand seems more complicated, he is part of the Toy era of animatronics, meaning he is probably born from the souls of the dead children incident, the one that happened in the fnaf 2 location, but they are different, they appear pure black to us, at least, and seems to be connected directly to remnant, as we see in AR, my interpretation is that they are there more because of remnant, agony and whatever other otherwordly influences exist in the fnaf 2 location, we see paper pals and whatnot change and move around, so we get a good idea that the location is haunted, but the children are not in the robots, which sort of severs RWQFSFASXC from having the same role as Shadow Freddy, being there, and powered purely by remnant, and the reason that they don't disappear is that the remnant left behind never does, Shadow Freddy freed the souls of the originals, but their remnant is still inside molten freddy, and since the fnaf 2 kids never got "bound" to an endoskeleton, their remnant energy and agony just sort of scattered all throughout the building, making miscellaneous things act paranormal, it doesn't matter that the kids from it's incident got found and put to rest, their energy is still around, alongside the others'.
From what I can honestly tell, these 2 got created by their respective child murder incidents, signified by their different era designs, Shadow Freddy, possibly influenced by the Golden Freddy soul(s), was created as a reflection of them, a very aggressive entity, whose goal is to make sure William Afton is killed and suffers, and that the souls are freed, once that is fully done with in the Frights fire, they are also released, having served their role.
RWQFSFASXC on the other hand, had no such influence, they were born out of the energies created by the fnaf 2 location killing spree, having the, very different, design of Toy Bonnie, with the shared goal of Shadow Freddy of freeing souls, acting as a guardian, without the malicious influence of Golden Freddy, taking on the form of Spring Bonnie in the minigame in order to... access that location so to speak, we see them glitch out a lot, so we can assume they're not supposed to be there, and taking on the sprite of an already existing Bonnie allows them to influence that place enough to get to the last soul, but they are different, they are purely born out of the energies that are left behind by the incident, lacking SF's ultimate goal of freeing the souls specifically, and powered by the remaining remnant left behind, and as long as there is enough of it left somewhere without resolve, for example inside what is nowadays Tangle, they cannot rest, they have to keep going, that collected in AR, and the remnant inside Tangle has to be freed and released before they can also disappear.
Here’s my personal theory, which I’ve not seen anybody but me bring up:
I think initially, Golden Freddy (in the first game) was meant to simply be a manifestation of the player-character’s fear of being stuffed, appearing as a limp Freddy Fazbear suit with “It’s Me” hallucinations. He crashes the game because he’s not killing you, As he’s not real.
By the second games release, I think the idea of Golden Freddy being something tangible in-lore was likely already planned (Fredbears is mentioned in that game, after all), and shadow Freddy and shadow Bonnie were likely intended to simply be what Golden Freddy used to be, representations of the players fear of being stuffed into a suit. (Or otherwise killed, in the case of Shadow Bonnie) Shadow Freddy even appears in the back room, presumably where the player is stuffed into a withered-freddy style suit if they get caught, and they crash the game like Golden Freddy used to.
I think Shadow Freddy is a ghostly spirit william afton could only control will he was alive. Shadow Freddy lures the animatonics, after all.
My theory is much like how Nightmare was intended to be Death itself taking the form of Fredbear to the crying child; Shadow Freddy and Shadow Bonnie are both Death itself taking the form of the characters being Freddy and Bonnie, whom later on rooted from the one and only Fredbear and Springbonnie - the animatronic suits highly involved in the various Springlock deaths throughout the company's history.
I’ve rarely heard or seen it spoken of, but I actually really like the way that the game “super FNAF” handles the lore around these guys. I watched GTlives playthrough of it. It puts it all together really well!
I was always under the impression that the Shadow animatronics were the result of springlock failures on 2 different employees. This is supported by the FNAF 3 training tapes, which mention that the suits had been deemed temporarily unfit for employees due to multiple failures at a sister location.
It can't be referencing the Bite of '83 because it specifically mentions employees. It makes the most sense for the shadows to be actual employees, who then attempt to help the children after witnessing the MCI.
I read a theory once where it said the shadow animatronics are representations of previous security guards. Which is why they know where the safe room was
My theory is that Shadow Bonnie and Freddy combined in some way because in FNaF special delivery with Shadow Bonnie getting new purple remnant like clouds around him and in Ruin you see M.X.E.S (a black/purple rabbit with glowing eyes and teeth)
Not important? He was literally in THE MOVIE
Hello hello huh
This aged well
0:45 Well, to be fair, of the two, RXQ (yes, FNaF World says the canon abbreviation is RXQ and not RWQ) has always been the one to stand.
steelwool is planning on making a fredbear game maybe we'll see them in the game they were easter eggs in security breach so they haven't been forgetten im sure we'll see more of them later
Well I have some news for those who don't know in the steel wool and dawko interview steel wool said that shadow freddy MIGHT have something to do in the future KEY WOORD MIGHT
I have a theory that the Shadow animatronics are just hallucinations Michael has during FNAF 2 (I have many headcanons and I don't really believe in one theory alone but I'm taking that theory). Since shadow Freddy greatly resembles golden Freddy and golden Freddy is a yellow version of Freddy which in turn is an alternate version of Fredbear, it's safe to believe that Michael saw golden Freddy, had some kind of flashback and remembered his brother. Since he's still grieving over that incident he saw a shadow version of golden Freddy.
And about his appearance in FNAF 3's minigames I think it's the crying child's soul manifesting into a figure that looks like shadow Freddy but isn't, trying to help set the children free and possibly helping his dad too, or not realizing his dad is there at all. (As for the suit that appears in the office I just think that's just withered Freddy since the phantoms are canonically, well, phantoms.)
In short, Minigame shadow Freddy, FNAF 3's suit and FNAF 2 shadow Freddy are completely different entities.
P.s. It could be that Shadow Freddy is representing the 5 missing kids rage, created into this entity, which would explain why we haven’t seen him since FNAF Pizza Sim. If he represents the 5 missing kids, they have moved on, so shadow Freddy wouldn’t be around anymore.
Shadow Bonnie on the other hand, probably represents the kids that were murdered in FNAF 2s location. They never really got closure, so the rage they felt created Shadow Bonnie. FNAF AR states that “the entity” is guarding the dark remnant. If we collect too much of it, we summon Shadow Bonnie. This results in him trying to catch the player, with his weakness being the flashlight that we use.
There’s no doubt the shadows are very creepy, and have some importance to why they are around. If we’re lucky, we’ll see shadow Freddy again, but I don’t think we will, although I could be wrong???
Wait that’s actually a good point!: how ever it doesn’t explain how there was no shadow Freddy in fnaf 1 if it was the kids rage that formed shadow Freddy, still cool to think about!
Given FNAF 1 was the first game, I imagine Scott didn’t really think of adding them. We do see Shadow Freddy leading the FNAF 1 robots to the safe room, and the cutscenes that happen before each night in FNAF 2 seems to be from the perspective of Freddy, but when you brighten up the dark areas, we see purple.
i still belive the 2 shadows are the old workers that used the original 2 suits and were killed by accident so they became shadow spirits
I thought that the reason why we don't see the shadows after fnaf 3 (After-night minigame) is because their 'unfinished business' is completed. They lured the children back to William to confront him, leading to the spring failure. After that, they believed William was dead and so their 'unfinished business' is done. They no longer had a purpose to be there, and so they left.
Ive always preferred the idea of the shadow animatronics being past springlock victims barely being able to manifest to assist the children because I doubt those particular springlock suits remained
Intresting note is that shadow freddy says “follow me” in the fnaf 3 minigames the only other person to say that same quote is william in fnaf 6 fruity maze
1:15 this image broke me
💀
Shadow Freddy could’ve been brought back to relevancy in the fnaf film. When the producers of the film released the 9-minute video of the camera footage Shadow Freddy appeared in one of the cameras. Such a missed opportunity instead of having him in the background as a suit he could’ve played a bigger role in representing the agony of the dead children.
Shadow Freddy is gonna be in the next FNaF movie, I assume they're going to play a babysitter role, as [Spoilers if you haven't watched the movie]
Max died in the Shadow Freddy suit, and the actor for Max teased they're return as Shadow Freddy in multiple posts online.
I like the idea that he was created either from BV’s agony (which starts haunting the fredbear plush) or from William killing Charlie, and Shadow Freddy helps William create more agony until he dies, where SF can then leech off of William for eternity. Almost a deal with the devil, William gets help initially, but the consequence of his failures is eternal torment.
In my opinion shadow Freddy being an material essance of hate they have for William the line of Nightmare "I am flesh born of your wickedness" would make sense.
Sure it doesn't make him more important than employees that died in incidents but makes more sense.
Anyone remember, the hoax, Shadow Chica 9 years ago?
1983 -
A worker named Herald McMuffington was on his day shift, he realized the FredBear performer had a heart attack, he called 911, the next day Herald was preforming, on his break time he went into the backstage and decided to drink a beer, without noticing, he left the suit on, the SpringLocks went off.
Mr. Emily (Henry) called the police immediately as he was in the same room, about a month after in June (Evan’s Birthday month) he became a shadow creature, along with his friend Perry, who got springlocked in a SpringBonnie suit, but not the main one, this one was the ScrapTrap suit, but basically they were remnant, tho that night the FredBear suit was moved to a Augmented House, when it was night he turned into a Huge…Yellow Bear, it had sharp teeth, he was locked up, it was as if Mr. Afton knew what was gonna happen, the next day Mr. Afton rebranded the suit to a white base (representing the twisted ones) along with 9 others, tho on *every* Sunday, he turned to the same thing but black and with a yellow tophat/bowtie, he was confused..alone(not really he has 9 suit to talk to). And that about clears up this chapter.
1987 P1 -
I’m splitting this into 2 chapters both for SL and FNaF2, let’s get into it.
He saw a newly built elevator in the augmented house, he went in it and saw a yellow keypad, he put in the name ‘Shadow Freddy’ but decided to erase it and just go in, when he got in he saw a vent and went through it, on his left he pressed a blue button, he saw a White Ballerina, this was nighttime, and a Sunday, so he said “NI-” *please stand by*
He went in the room and saw another room, he went in, he saw a white and purple Freddy with a black hat, so he said “What’s up my fellow ni-” *PLEASE STAND BY*
He decided to go to the other room, he saw a white animatronic that had a claw, that’s when it hit him, he was at a underground facility for the funtimes, so in my timeline Afton Robotics and FazBear Ent. are 2 different companies, so he went to another room and saw a white and pink fox, went to the next room and saw a scooper, in that room he saw….NOTHING-
Alright that clears up this chapter.
1987 P2 -
He saw the door open in the house and ran out, he saw a *real* house, he went outside and saw a pizzeria, it said ‘FazBear’s Jr’s.’, he went in and saw a couple of kids, he ran to the parts and services, and there was the old animatronics, he decided to sit near Foxy around the corner, so in the middle of the night, he found a familiar face…shadow Bonnie was there, a nightguard named “Jeremy Fitzgerald” came to the pizzeria and worked for 6 nights, tho on Saturday (Custom Night), someone else came in, he got fired and that clears up this chapter
2023 -
*wait til the end of the day*
Shadow Freddy is unironically my favorite character in FNAF 3 and I have the plush he went from being a cool Easter egg to a seemingly major character and the mystery is so cool. In my opinion, shadow Freddy is the agony or remnant of the employees. Its mostly accepted that shadow Bonnie is one of the victims from the "multiple, simultaneous, Springlock failures" I think shadow Freddy was one of those at first but went on to "eat the souls" of others like maybe Jeremy Fitzgerald
0:15
RWQFSFASXC (he) and Shadow Freddy (also he) are Immortal being created from Agony
"counters" or like "same but different" of Golden Freddy and Puppet.
when these two spawned, shadows spawned with them (GF-SH and P-RWQ)
Shadows are also one of the strongest characters in whole universe (maybe Top 1 and Top 2)
another reason why FNaF 3 is BY FAR most underrated scotts game and why i love it so much (Story or Shadows really starded in FNaF 3)
bro i didnt even know the shadow freddy plush was that expensive WHY DID I HAVE TO LOSE IT
I think originally, Shadow Freddy was meant to be an unknowing accomplice of Afton's. Like either an employee, or even a business partner from his early days that would wear the Yellow Fredbear suit as part of the act with Afton's Yellow Bunny suit. Though, once the person in the Fredbear suit caught him in the act, he too was killed, thus leading to the need for a new Fredbear; the animatronic one that does the original "bite of".
My theory is simply that Afton murdered the original person wearing the Fredbear costume after getting caught red handed killing Susie, and that it's a long lost, vengeful spirit of a possibly unnamed guy in a mascot costume.
It's hokey and basic, I know, but back then the story was *much* more simple, and we had only a fraction of the amount of characters we do today.
Shadow Freddy was an ADULT VICTIM. Idea struck, basically in fnaf 4 crying child is stuck in a room crying with a body stuffed in a suit thats slumped over, we see this with the hair tuff. WHAT if, purple freddy is an EMPLOYEE, who didn't know about the murders and was really just trying to help the kids.
I've been hearing this theory that shadow freedy and rxq are just ulter egos cassidi and charlie cuz shadow freedy has the same disign as withered golden freedy but re colored and he acts aggressive just like cassidi. And the reason I think rxq is a ulter ego of Charlie is cuz in one of the FNAF 3 mini games we play as rxq giving kids cakes trying to represent freeing the kids and who else dose that charlie and i think the reason rxq looks like toy Bonnie is cuz henry aka Charlie's dad made toy Bonnie trying to show the conction between rxq and charlie
maybe the hanged engineers we see in sister location in the shadows are the shadow animatronic hmm?cause like there is a theory that the shadows are made from agony and you would have a lot of agony dying by getting hanged by animatronics. (guys ik my theory is stupid im kind of bored)
in fnaf 4 following the dream theory after Evan got bit. since he's like reliving the nightmare of getting his head crushed instead of seeing fredbear as this happy gold bear the memory is more of a dark entity or a shadow
I've always wanted more shadow freddy content
The fact Shadow Freddy used to get more appreciation and acknowledgement than Shadow Bonnie and now it's the exact opposite of what its used to be is weird to me
When the game came out I had assumed that shadow Freddy was one suit worn by William Afton when he preformed the some of the murders.
Early on in the series the color purple only ever really used to imply a connection to William and his less the legal activities.
I think back then some fans thought that c.c(evan) is shadow freddy.
Maybe because that in one of matpat's theories, both him and cassidy possess golden freddy, and I think that sometimes cassidy takes lead while c.c would hide in the shadows due to his trauma before death. Like you said, shadow freddy is like the shadow of golden freddy. I almost believe that but then again I don't know if he suppose to represent someone or someone else.
I was and am a Big fan of Shadow Freddy, and In my opinion Shadow Freddy Can Be Both a Guide For MCI and Also Be Made From Agony.
Since Both A Bear and a Bunny caused Tragedies i Think Shadow Freddy is a Represetation of the incident That happened in 1983.
i will eat your soul
-Shadow Freddy
Shadow freddy and bonnie were simple easter eggs that had no canon lore what so ever. It was just there to be a good easter egg to a good scary game
Then what the hell is going on In follow me and the fnaf 3 minigames then
i always thought shadow freddy was william using the freddy mask since he is represented as freddy but is still purple and lures the animatronics to become withered in the mini games. i also think springtrap is a representation of the purple guy when he went on his murder spree in the spring bonnie suit and this could explain why the spotlight is more so on him rather than shadow freddy
I also always thought that Shadow Freddy was just William Afton using a luer for the animatronics. He isn’t an actual animatronic, not really having a physical form at all. Really, I would go as far to say that Shadow Freddy and Afton are the same person, with William using some sort of trick to make him look like a shadow of Freddy.
You bring up a good point about the killings and other such evil things being in the shadows, hence the victim childrens’ perception of various icons and characters.
i used to think that shadow freddy is the one pulling all the strings behind the scene's, making william become a murderer, making the bite of 83 happen, ect. However i don't believe this anymore mainly because there is no evidence to back it up.
You deserve these subs and more.
Your theories are pretty decent ngl.
i used to think that they were ghosts of past workers who got chomped by the springlock fredbear and bonnie
So shadow freddy looks pretty close to golden freddy from fnaf 1. In the movie there is a purple freddy costume (mabye there was a physical dark purple freddy springlock suit) and the dead people wearing the springlock suits could be related, mabye the reason we stopped seeing him was because afton was presumably dead and shadow Freddy believed his job was done. That makes sense to me and doesnt seem to affect lore
Shadow freddy being this weird manifestation of william's evil kinda goes hard ngl
Tbh, I love the ideas that Shadow Bonnie and Freddy were victims of Springlock failures with SpringBonnie and Fredbear and that they wanted to help the Missing Children find their killer and move on.
It keeps the mysterious nature of them mostly intact, all the while giving them interesting characterization. They did presumably work with kids after all, so of course they would want to help the Missing Children.
Thank you for making this video on Shadow Freddy. As someone who loves the ideas and concepts behind the Shadow animatronics, I did feel Shadow Freddy's absences in the rest of the series nowadays, and I'm glad I wasn't the only one. Thank you once again.
Don't forget the fnaf 6 insanity ending where Henry says : "Small souls trapped in prisons of my making now set to new purpose and used in ways I never thought imaginable. He lured them all back. Back to a familiar place. Back with familiar tricks. He brought them all together. [...] He set some kind of trap. I don't know what it was, but he lead them there again."
Shadow Freddy is, according to Henry a trap, a lure, that William uses
😃😃😄😄
i think both shadows might just be reminders of afton's misdeeds. perhaps afton used both a bunny AND a bear suit to lure kids, not just one or the other. and they'd be purple colored just to emphasize the connection to purple guy. and it would only be natural to assume then, that shadow freddy evolved into nightmare
tho i feel like if that was the case, it must have been at least partially retconned by now
and it totally makes more sense to match the shadows with dream theory
Theory: because of his fathers springlock and taking the springbonnie suit whilst everyone else shared being left to rot is why we don't see a nightmare spring bonnie. And if you say that the springlock happened after fnaf 4 takes place, my argument is that it could be a premonition.
Nightmare is literally a smooth animatronic using a sound illusion disc.....
my headcanon is that shadow bonnie & shadow freddy are employees who got springlocked and their souls inhabited the animatronics they died on & the reason why their animatronics are black / purple is because of their suits rotting and growing purple-ish mold from being locked and left away for years.
Man this game could’ve been so good had they just let it be a dream like the first four games were hinting towards with the mini games showing background to why the dreams were happening and some form of real murders happening. They got to caught up with the weird spiritual side
gotta love the fnaf community and their weird love/hate relationship with the dream theories
Dream theory was never meant to be real. You can say that about... anything ever. Game theorists just got lazy and threw it to "Oh and it was alllll a dream :)" Since if there is any inconsistency, you explain it as: "It's a dream, it doesn't have to be literal!" until you gloss over everything. You want to tell me that a child dreamed accurate minimum wages and work schedules, multiple restaurants which, we know are real, over multiple eras (including past when he died?) Just to blanket explain... a missing beak.
The Game Theorists had it in their hands and scott was giving them all the answers, then they went and made dream theory. He says he regrets getting involved in the theory community for a reason.
To me it's quite clear it was supposed to be about what we have now. One story, four games, "It's me" etc.
@@Colon-D... i think there has to be some things in the game that are a dream/in the mind of a child. Sure some things physically happened in reality. But the idea of your work alarm being a morning bell??? Nah that’s just not a thing. And then in the fourth game with the hospital stuff and the electric alarm. I think the first four games outside of the mini games were originally planned for a dream theory
WAIT the shadow freddy plush is rare? mines all old and the brim of his hat is kinda coming apart. I didnt know he was a valuable little dude ! i woulda kept better care of em
We always thought that S.F. was a springlock victim who saw everything that had happened at that point, and he became a guide for the children in FNAF 3 to stop his former boss from hurting anyone else. And when Afton was springlocked himself, S.F. passed on to the afterlife now that he helped the kids.
Meanwhile, Nightmare isn't related to S.F. but instead, a prasantification of death (along with Nightmarionne). Taken the form of a shadow Nightmare Fredbear due to what the crying child feared most, as he slowly lost their life. And he and Nightmarionne in UCN are death tormenting Afton with the image of what killed his child, and his first victim respectively.
I might say that maybe Shadow Freddy was supposed to be the other spirit living in Golden Freddy taking over? Or just a representation of the seconed spirit.
i think they're there to be there, they're like pieces of the memories of the whole story itself,
if we count the fnaf 3 shadow bonnie minigame along the fnaf 4 minigame, golden freddy/fredbear along the shadows seem to be there since the very beginning of the story (the past), now i don't know how it's involved in the retcon, but i believe they're dreams (kinda like in the movie) caused by micheal's little brother, or by the movie logic, micheal's regrets,
he lives in the shadows, meaning he's still living in the past wishing he could change it.
In the security book it's said he tends to sleep with an eye open, maybe it could be making him see both real and dreamlike things (hallucinations).
now the ghost kids, in the movie, they can see in dreams, by that logic, if we apply it to the games, and if their game version don't know who their killer is too, they could've learned it through micheal,
making fnaf 3 purple guy minigames a bit more coherent
And now Shadow Freddy appeared in the FNAF movie and might have a bigger role in the sequel, with Max's soul possessing him
I think shadow Freddy is when Freddy at a really hot taco and his agony manifested a being of pain.
Shadow Freddy is the phone guy from fnaf 1 who died, shadow Bonnie is the bite of 87 victim
I like to believe shadow Freddy is crying child. The purple in Fredbear’s hat. And 5th victim is just golden Freddy. But together they’re Fredbear
300+ dollars for a shadow freddy plush?!
What a steal!