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Nightmare Fuel / Five Nights at Freddy's 2

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You can't SAVE THEM
With copious amounts of Paranoia Fuel, jump scares, Fridge Horror, and an overwhelming sense of ambiguity that only serves to make things even more terrifying, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is well on its way to outdoing its predecessor in the fright department.
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    Pre-Release 
  • The advertising material is downright chilling, even outside of the game proper.
    • The first teaser gave us a lovely image of a creepier-looking Freddy with buttons and torn arms.
    • What they did to Bonnie. The second teaser shows him alongside a newer model. The original Bonnie has his entire face ripped off and his animatronic head missing, while the new Bonnie still looks somewhat malicious despite clearly being a newer, cuter model. Worse, it's very possible that Toy Bonnie's face and eyes were cannibalized from the old Bonnie and refurbished.
    • This trailer doesn't help any. The old, decayed animatronics are totally terrifying in this game. The latter portion comes off unsettling as well; a set of images of the animatronics coming after you combined with pulsating music and words that suddenly turn red (most especially "malfunctioning" and "and zero doors"), ending with Foxy flying at you with a roar.
    • The teaser image that originally revealed the Puppet is particularly creepy, with it hanging in a dark room staring at the camera.

    The Game 
  • First and foremost, exactly why the bots are after you in the first place. The first game gave a somewhat plausible explanation — the bots being possessed by murdered children. But that game takes place after this one. This is set before the children were murdered, so exactly what force is driving the bots to come kill you? The new criminal database system? The theory's that it's too quiet and the bots just want company? Or something else… unnatural?
    • It is implied that someone, presumably Purple Guy, tampered with the new bots' AI and facial recognition system before committing the murders.
    • But hey, even then, that totally does not explain how the older bots can even come after anything… which raises the question: What the hell is with this company's animatronics?!
    • It gets worse. There is evidence that suggests the pizzeria from the first game is the third or even fourth incarnation of the restaurant. Something happened in the first or second incarnation that was likely the five murders that made the old animatronics haunted in the first place. As evidence, the death minigames can happen before the murders happen.
    • It doesn't stop there either! The dayshift guard, your predecessor and most likely Purple Guy, had access to these animatronics' programming! He tampered with the A.I. of the Toy animatronics to make them incapable of distinguishing between innocents and criminals. He left you to be killed by the Toys while he went about killing the children.
    • There is evidence that Purple Guy murdered eleven kids instead of just five; the stuff about "malfunctioning A.I." is just a fabrication to cover management's ass.
    • If you listen to the Phone Guy's messages, he notes on Night 3 that there are rumors going around and on Night 4 there is a police investigation ongoing, which seems to imply that the murders occurred sometime before Night 2, which is when the old animatronics that are definitely haunted by the Purple Guy's victims start acting up. The new ones' AI probably is just acting up, but remember there was a previous incarnation and hints that the Purple Guy murdered more than five children. Maybe the children haunting the old animatronics were just the latest ones and when he got caught.
  • The game opens with a first-person view inside the old Freddy looking around the play area. It seems to imply this is after the the management has left the building and that it's "waking up". If you look closely, you will notice that this cutscene takes place in the first game's pizzeria. After the cutscene ends, the word "err" (short for error) flashes on the corner of the screen.
    • On Night 3, the game will play another small little cutscene where you look through Freddy's eyes; if you turn your head, both Chica and Bonnie are looking at you expectantly… Both of them have worried expressions on their faces. Implying there's something they're afraid of and they are going to Freddy for help. And then you find out that Night 3 is when Bonnie and Chica come out. After the cutscene ends, the words, "it's me" flash on the corner of the screen.
    • The 4th Night cutscene shows the original Bonnie and Chica now peering straight at Freddy (from your point of view) with angry faces, showing completely hollow eyes. It looks as though you failed to protect them and let them down — or something tampered with them. And after you turn away from Bonnie, you will see Golden Freddy and the words "it's me" come up again.
    • The 5th night involves Bonnie and Chica looking away, while the Puppet is staring at you dead in the eye, moving to face you whenever you try to look away. Remember this is the restaurant from the first game. From those same interludes we get the return of Two words: IT'S ME.
      • Fortunately, these scenes are all dreams. Well, nightmares, instead.
      • And this image from the Five Nights at Freddy's subreddit confirms that the Puppet's box is, in fact, somewhere in the first game's pizzeria.
      • Remember that faint circus-like music that plays randomly in the background of the first game? That could be the only thing placating the Puppet from murdering you.
      • Also, what about those banging sounds? You know, the ones that are clearly not caused by Foxy, as he does not kill you if the door is open when they start playing? Well, on Reddit a ceiling door was found. Perhaps something was trying to get out?
    • Throughout all of the through-Freddy's-eyes interludes, on top of of the near-darkness and overall creepy visuals, you hear what sounds like some sort of demented laughter and singing… It sounds barely human, very high-pitched and Creepy Child-like, which is then cut off by a flat, electronic sound:
    ''HaaHAaaa... HAaahaAahaHAaa... HAhaHA... HahaAaHAaaaa... HAhAhaHaahahaaaaaaaahaAAaaaaaAaaaaaaa... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA– *static*"
  • Each animatronic has its own unique attack animation:
    • Freddy snaps at the player's face, revealing his endoskeleton teeth.
    • Toy Freddy screams at the player's face with his Uncanny Valley Makeup.
    • Chica pops up with her dislocated jaw and over-sized eyesockets.
    • Toy Chica pounces on the player with her beak and eyes detached.
    • Bonnie reaches out and appears to grab the player by the neck (or the face), with a bare metal hand and a gutted face.
    • Toy Bonnie hops at the player in a goofy, yet somewhat unsettling, manner.
    • Foxy lunges at the player jaw-first. Sometimes heralded by the incessant laughter of Balloon Boy.
    • Mangle leans in from the ceiling, taking a bite at the player's head.
    • Golden Freddy's body just fades away while his head comes flying at you.
    • The Puppet plays Pop Goes the Weasel before seemingly throwing herself at the player.
    • Shadow Bonnie fades away and crashes the game. As does Shadow Freddy, minus the fading.
  • In addition to new attack animations, the robots also make a new sound when attacking you. It sounds less like a digitized scream of a child and more like a mechanical roar. Some think it's a distorted cry of "FREEDOM!"
  • Toy Foxy. Not merely ragged, she looks to be nothing but an endoskeleton put together wrong with only her mask intact. Made worse by the fact that he was torn apart so many times by kids that the staff just made it a Build-a-Robot attraction. Because of that, she's literally named "Mangle", both in-universe by staff and in the custom night screen. The disturbingly realistic eyeballs among all that carnage doesn't help.
  • No doors. Better hope your life insurance is paid up.
    • What makes this even more terrifying is that it makes confrontation all but inevitable now. You know they're coming and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. The only things keeping the bots at bay are your flashlight and your timing of wearing the Freddy mask.
  • The original game was bad enough with four (five if you want to count Golden Freddy) murderous robots. The new game has 13 animatronics trying to kill you. The new ones will grab you, while the old ones seem to be trying to kill you on the spot. And the Shadows can crash your game.
  • Withered Chica is terrifying enough, but Toy Chica stares right into your soul.
  • The fact that there are two generations of Freddy Fazbear animatronics trying to kill you.
    • The fact that there are four versions of Freddy is a more terrifying thought.
  • Wearing the Freddy mask. Oh, sure, it keeps you safe from certain bots, but it likewise obscures your vision save for the eye holes. You can barely see anything otherwise. And you can't check the cameras or wind up the music box again until you take it off. It ain't stopping Foxy, however, nor BB and Mangle if they're already in the office. Not to mention the Puppet...
  • Losing your lights. Run the flashlight battery down, and you won't be able to see Foxy coming until he leaps out of the dark toward you. Let BB into the office, and he'll break the flashlight and vent lights so that you'll have almost no warning of any other animatronics on their way to kill you.
  • The Puppet. She's a long, spindly black creature, with a ghoulish white face — with purple tears pouring out of its eyes — and striped extremities.
    • She's shown in the drawings to be active, giving prizes to children during the day. She doesn't seem suspicious or active here… but that's because she's being watched in the picture… In the game proper, it turns out she will kill you if you don't keep the music box wound. There is nothing you can do to save yourself once she decides to kill you.
    • What makes her even more dangerous is that you might often be in situations where you need to wind the music box while another animatronic is near you, which requires you to pull up the camera. You can't have the camera and the mask up at the same time.
    • Even worse, remember the whole "five dead kids" plot point? While it is now confirmed that the Springtrap suit was used in the actual killing, the Puppet is responsible for the hauntings that started this mess in the first place. Which, in an ironic sense and fitting way, means there's a puppet pulling the strings.
    • Hey, want more Nightmare Fuel? Get the "Give Cake" mini-game and wait a few minutes. Let's just say The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You.
    • What makes the Puppet even creepier? Let the music box run out, then flash the light in the room as it does (recommended during the first two nights so the other bots won't get you). She actually slowly comes out of the box with each flicker before going back in at the last notes, as if she's winding up to come for you.
      • How about the simple fact that the song the music box plays is "My Grandfather's Clock"? Even in the light of day with no puppets about, it's a creepy, creepy song.
      • Consider the part of the song that's playing: Ninety years without slumbering / tick tock, tick tock / his life seconds numbering / tick tock, tick tock / it stopp'd, short, never to go again / when the old man died. The music box is essentially counting down the seconds you have to live before the music stops… and the Puppet springs out to kill you.
    • One very, very unsettling 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' detail is in the Puppet's kill screen — in the VERY last split second before your screen fades to static, her face turns into an ANGRY expression. The fact that this is the only time her expression changes is very disturbing to say the least.
    • The fact that she's implied to be sentient by Phone Guy, who says "It's always... thinking.", despite supposedly being a robot — or even just a staff-operated puppet and not even supposed to move by itself at all — makes her possibly the creepiest character in the series.
  • The creepy drawings in general. The children have seen horrors that might make you think twice about going to Freddy's. One drawing features Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy with hollow eyes and creepy grins, and one shows the old Chica towering over a child opening her gaping mouth. And then there's Golden Freddy, the destruction of Mangle, and the Puppet… And Scott said that he doesn't include details for no reason.
  • Someone managed to get a brightened up image of the old Bonnie. Not only is he bigger than the door, he just stands there motionlessly. Well, besides the fact that he's blinking.
  • Toy Foxy in a heap (obscured by map) in the Kid's Cove. It shows how mangled note  she is, and makes her functionality even more horrifying.
  • Lovely minor features from the game include:
    • Random intervals where your flashlight stops working and you're left frantically mashing the button in case some shambling robot is staring at you from the darkness.
    • The sound of your character's heavy, frantic breathing inside the mask as you're left hoping you hear the sound of the animatronics shuffling away from you.
    • Having to juggle between checking the cameras, checking the lights, and also winding the music box and hoping you don't get caught out in the process of any of them.
    • The lovely sound Mangle makes when she's on-screen or in your vents… What sounds like radio static with a distorted voice.
  • Night 2 ramps things up. You start hearing more noises, the animatronics get faster, and start double teaming you and the Foxys come out to play. Oh, and the Freddy head won't work on one of them!
  • We can now add a NEW scare to everything else. You know that balloon guy in the game room? Yeah, he can move. If he gets into your room, he disables your flashlight and starts laughing. And laughing. And laughing.
    • Even more unsettling is that he doesn’t so much as twitch for the rest of the night.
    • He also SPEAKS while moving. Just normal stuff, like 'hello' and 'hi', but the fact someone besides Phone Guy is speaking to you is somehow just as creepy as the mechanical roars.
  • Withered Bonnie's death screen is notable, since he only has one arm now he grabs you in a choke hold — or is reaching for your FACE, maybe? — with its single arm and presumably carries you off to be stuffed into a suit. It's also possible that Withered Bonnie might actually be trying to outright kill you by suffocating you to death, or crushing your head, and considering Withered Foxy's death screen makes it look like he's trying to bite your head off…
  • Golden Freddy is back on Night 6.
    • It's worse than that; he can now come in through the main hallway to kill you. Think that's Nightmare Retardant compared to his old method of warping in? Think again, because he can still do that too. In fact, he visibly fades from existence before killing you if he attacks you this way. So, like classic Freddy, his Golden version now has two ways to kill you. Scott sure knows what he's doing.
    • His kill screen is his head coming right at you.
    • Not to mention he gets a few explanations about how he came to be, possibly being the suit the killer used, and only showing up at Night 6, which is coincidentally the same night in which you are informed of a second set of child murders used with a yellow suit. That thing is horribly, horribly haunted, and he certainly acts like it.
    • Oh, and when he stalks the halls? Instead of using his body, he transforms into a giant, laughing, floating head, presumably the size of Withered Freddy or Toy Freddy.
    • It's possible for Golden Freddy to show up during Night 2, long before you'd normally encounter him. While this is an incredibly rare event to witness, there's still a chance it could happen to you...
  • Even successfully warding off an animatronic with your mask is no reprieve. They slide into your office as the lights flicker out. They're gone when you can see again, but that brief moment of blindness while it's right there is terrifying.
  • There is a post-mortem minigame that first tells you to "Give Gifts". As the Puppet, you do as it seems to do at the Prize Corner and give four children in the corners gifts. Then, it changes to "Give Life"... and you place the heads of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy on the four dead children, and just as you finish, a fifth child appears in the center - and Golden Freddy's screaming head rushes at you. The implication? The Puppet is responsible for the animatronics being haunted.
    • Those aren't random Atari noises during the minigames. That's a mechanical voice saying letters in a specific sequence. It's spelling. SAVE THEM. HELP THEM. SAVE HIM.
    • Speaking of those minigames! Let's talk about three in particular. The Cake-Giving game, the Chasing game, and the Give Gifts game. The Cake Giving minigame has Freddy occupied with entertaining kids, while just outside, a man pulls up to a child left alone and apparently kills them, while "SAVE HIM" is being spelled out. In the Chase minigame, Freddy is chasing/following the Puppet down a blood-soaked hallway, while "SAVE THEM" is being spelled out. At one point, Freddy can be stopped by the very guard before you, dressed in a purple uniform, who says "you can't", and if you follow the other all the way, it leads to the Prize Corner where a dead child is. Finally, there's Give Gifts, Give Life, wherein the Puppet stuffs the kids into the suits. You see how this connects? Remember how Phone Guy said the bots were getting antsy around adults but still good with kids? This makes it seem as though Freddy and the Puppet tried to stop the murders and Freddy was blocked off by the Killer. However, note that both the guard (discerned by his badge) and the purple man who murdered a child in the Cake Giving game look similar.note  The animatronics may not be able to tell one adult from another. In which case, if they held the guard responsible for the murder…
      • Phone Guy did say, right after the second set of murders took place, that one of the day watch shifts had opened, and referred to not disclosing information regarding previous employees. The day guard may have been implicated for the murder. If Freddy and crew can't tell one guard from another, and they believe that a guard was responsible, that just as well may be why they go after the night guard!
  • The place has been totally shut down before, the robots left for dead, and they still found a way to return, just as they managed to do later down the road for Mike. This can happen again, and again, and again...
  • On rare occasions, you can see a pair of eyes looking at you from under your desk. Typically, they're attributed to BB, the balloon animatronic, and they do seem to have the same shape, but since the coloring's off it's unlikely it's him.note  Which leaves the question of what it is, how it gets under your desk and leaves without you noticing, and why it's there to begin with. It's pretty much like the original game's Golden Freddy, except it doesn't do anything and it can be easily missed if you aren't looking for it.
    • Speaking of rare chance occasions: most of the mini games will play out the same every time... except for "The Chase". Make sure you're ready for a surprise guest appearance by the Purple Guy. Because he's coming right for you...note 
  • The new kill screens, especially if you're in the mask. Picture this: Withered Bonnie shows up in the room. You put the mask on. And he just idles there for a moment. In some cases, if you weren't fast enough, he'll attack you right then and there. But maybe he'll go away and you go back to business as usu— REEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
  • Shadow Bonnie. It seems like it showing up is an extremely rare event, but take one look at thisthing and just you try to sleep well tonight. Stare at it too long and the game crashes.
    • It also showed up on this Twitch stream, around the 2:53:30 mark.
      • It showed up in this video too.
    • People have also been catching sight of an endoskeleton wandering around. Like the figure above, it is seemingly unrelated to the other characters.
      • Oh, and it also appears in other rooms.
      • It also appears in this video around the 4:43 mark.
    • Worse? There's another one. Ladies and gents, say hello to Shadow Freddy!
  • Here is Withered Freddy, in all his terrifying, massive glory.
  • The new animatronics in the menu screen will sometimes glitch out and change into their classic forms.
  • The new Game Over screen. Thought seeing your eyes pop out of a Freddy costume in the original game was frightening? Try seeing what it's like through the eyes of the costume you've been crammed into!
    • Something even worse to consider: given the death screen is from the perspective of a head inside a mask… it's quite possible that your hollow Freddy head was placed on you after your body was stuffed in an animatronic's suit. If there's enough metal crap in a full mask to force one's eyes and teeth out of place, it's possible the head injury would cause a concussion or else a quick death. Here, it's almost certain that your poor player character's death is a long and slow one, bleeding to death in the mocking company of killer mascots. When "crossbeam nicks a major blood vessel and you bleed out in a few seconds or minutes" is the merciful way out…
  • You know about the mysterious Purple-Suited Man who appears in the ATARI mini games? Their identity is a mystery, except for one detail: he's holding something in his hand.note 
    • Upon closer inspection of the Purple-Suited Man, one could not only make out what appears to be an electronic device but also a gold badge.
    • The source for that image is from a rare occurrence in the SAVETHEM minigame — the Purple Man shows up every now and then. If he touches you, the screen fades to blue static and words appear in the bottom left corner, before the game crashes.
  • The only time Phone Guy has ever really sounded distressed is on Night 6, where he says someone took a spare yellow suit from the backroom and did… something with it, and the same person also tampered with the animatronics. He also mentions in previous nights the animatronics were acting hostile towards adults and the police were doing an investigation on the place. It's definitely apparent he's withholding some information from you, but his voice gives way to a possibility. Seeing how cheerful he was in the first game, if Phone Guy ever sounds legitimately shocked at something, then that thing must be truly terrifying. It's implied that it's the horrifying child murders that began the pizzeria's downfall.
    • After all, the guy didn't even show this much conviction as all four animatronics attacked him at once in the first game. note 
  • The pulse-poundingly tense ambient noise that serves as a warning that one or more of the animatronics is very close to reaching the player, signaling an impending attack. In earlier nights, it crops up every now and then as animatronics come and go, but by the hardest nights, when there's no longer a moment to breathe easy, it is unending.
  • For something else to think about, consider this: While the Chase game takes place in the same pizzeria as the game, i.e., the 1987 Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, Foxy's game takes place in the first game's Pirate Cove, and the Give Cake game corresponds to neither — presumably the original diner. There are five dead bodies in the Chase game, five dead kids in Foxy's game, and one dead kid in Give Cake. Just how many kids have died?
  • The fact that on Custom Night you can't change the Puppet's AI is pretty creepy. You can change the AI of Golden Freddy, who may not even exist, but it's the Puppet who is incapable of being tampered with? What even is that thing!?
    • And its wind-up timer counts down faster and faster with each passing night. At maximum difficulty, it requires constant attention- which may leave you a sitting duck for one of the animatronics to sneak into the office.
  • Remember the rare eyeless Bonnie kill screen from the first game? Now there's three eyeless kill screens — one for Toy Bonnie, one for Freddy (now pictured above), and one for Foxy. And they can appear completely at random. That's right — you don't even have to be killed in the game to see the kill screens. You might just be preparing to start a new night and WHAM! You're greeted with sounds of creepy static and the distorted mug of a murderous animatronic.
  • Some child made a Balloon Boy papercraft that normally hangs in Party Room 4. For reasons unknown, it sometimes migrates to the Office.
    • There is also a Bonnie papercraft that appears to be designed as though it were crying Tears of Blood!
  • Then, of course, there's the animatronics appearances in this game. In the first game they were already creepy, but in this one Scott really ramped it up a notch.
    • First, there's Toy Freddy. As he's gets closer and closer to you, his mouth begins to open wider and wider. And if he gets in, his mouth gapes open, and he just stares at you with black eyes. Oh, and unlike the other animatronics, the shine in his eyes implies it to be of the glossed over kind.
    • Toy Bonnie is usually the first off stage, and thus first to probably give you a scare. There's just something about those big, green eyes staring into the camera that's really… unnerving. But when he gets into your office, they contract. And there's no conceivable way for him to have changed his eyeballs going from the vent to the room...
    • Toy Chica doesn't look that bad. Heck, you might even be able to call her cu- oh. She just removed her eyes. And her beak, revealing a big Slasher Smile worthy hole where it fits (the endoskeleton teeth really don't help at all).
    • Mangle might have looked good once, but the kids weren't easy on her. Now all that remains of her is a tangled pile of limbs with two heads...that can still hunt for you night after night.
    • Balloon Boy (or BB) is the odd one out, and it shows. He looks like a regular human, and actually speaks while he's moving (just things like 'Hi' or 'Hello', but it's still extremely weird to hear another voice besides Phone Guy's).
    • The Puppet is a tall, thin and downright sinister-looking thing, with a menacing mask for a face. One must wonder how the hell it ever managed to endear itself to children.
    • Turning to the old animatronics, we have Bonnie the Bunny. His horrendous looks go far beyond his gutted face (though it certainly adds a lot to them). His suit has multiple holes in it, revealing the endoskeleton underneath, and his hand and left foot is striped bare. And if that wasn't enough, his left arm was ripped off in such a way that it left several wires hanging from the stump. Bonnie's a donor, and it shows.
    • Then there's Chica. She always stands in a scarecrow-like pose when she's hunting for you, allowing you to see the stumps she now has for hands, and the mess of wires falling from them. But then there's her face. Her goddamn face. Her large, lid lacking eyes always staring at you, her robotic teeth combining with her costume teeth, the fact that her jaw is only hanging on by the wires connecting it to the head… somehow, that fact that you can somewhat make out the true endoskeleton head inside makes it even worse. And her costume teeth on her lower jaw? They go all the way behind the head. That's not right.
    • Foxy isn't a stranger to robotic Body Horror, and has even added a few more holes for us to gawk in terror at. However, what made Foxy the goofy one of the animatronics in the first game is gone now: when he gets to your office, he isn't leaning in with half-lidded eyes, he's leaping straight at you, wide eyed, and giving you an impressive show of all his teeth for the short moments of life you have left.
    • Freddy... isn't that bad, actually. Oh yeah, he looks old, he has holes, and even has wires coming out of his left knee, but they're small scratches compared to what the others have. But what he lacks in display he makes up in mannerisms. From the get-go, he's always staring at you, from the Service Room, from the hallways, to your office, even when you die, all while wearing a creepy smile upon his face. And when he finally gets into your office, he reaches for you. When you're facing Freddy, you know that it's not a malfunctioning bot you're dealing with, but a very intelligent force of evil that REALLY wants you dead.
    • Finally, there's Golden Freddy. An unsettling shade of yellow, missing an ear, wires coming out of an empty eye socket, creepy posture, dirty teeth… yep, this thing is haunted all right. Sometimes, he decides he doesn't even need a body to scare you, and appears as a ghostly face lining the hallway. Is it little wonder he was responsible for the Bite of '87?

    Post-Release 
  • Someone assembled this and speculated that during the Night 5 lockdown, the killer placed the bodies deliberately out of the camera frames. Keeping that in mind, what could this be, then?
    • Alongside that, another redditor went through the game files, and noticed something.

Ninety years without slumbering/His life seconds numbering/It stopped short — never to go again/When the old man died.

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