Recap / Tales from the Pizzaplex: GGY

Recap: Five Nights at Freddy's: Tales from the Pizzaplex: The Bobbiedots Conclusion
GGY | The Storyteller | Bobbiedots, Part 2

"You’re something of a phenom. Do you know what that word means? It means you have unusual skill, like a hacker. I assume you know what a hacker is. Yes? Do you think of yourself as a hacker?"

Tony had to concentrate to keep a grin off his face as he and his friends strolled out of the Fazcade. He couldn't wait to dive into the GGY mystery. He had a really strong feeling about it, like it was just the tip of an iceberg that was going to knock his socks off. He didn’t know why he thought that, but he’d learned to trust his instincts. There was something here, something that he was going to unravel. And it was going to be epic.

12-year-old Tony Becker is an aspiring investigative journalist who loves to find out the facts and piece together stories from reality, which, unlike his friends, he finds much more entertaining than fiction. While at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex, he comes up with the idea to base their new creative writing assignment on the mystery of GGY, the top scorer on several arcade games who nobody's seen, and who outpaces every other player by millions of points. As he begins to dive into the search, though, he starts becoming more and more certain that there may be something more dangerous going on than he ever thought possible.

The thirteenth Tales from the Pizzaplex story, and the first of the fifth book, The Bobbiedots Conclusion. It is intrinsically tied to the series' main game tie-in, Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, and serves as an explanation/backstory for Gregory, Patient 46, and the Retro CDs.

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Tropes related to “GGY”:

• Adaptational Explanation: So far, the games haven't clarified that Gregory is GGY or Patient 46, leaving this story as the first and currently only confirmation.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Apparently, when Tony was little, he was this to his neighborhood as he delivered hand-typed "newspapers" to everyone. Until he started accidentally dropping their little illegal secrets, and his dad's tires got slashed for it.
• Ambiguously Brown: Ellis is described as having "dusky" skin, which implies a more median-dark skintone.
• Ambiguously Evil: While it's never explicitly stated, it's very, very, VERY likely that Gregory isn't actually evil here, and is simply possessed by Glitchtrap the same way that Vanessa was:
  • The therapy tapes from Security Breach have him being amused by rabbit ears, fascinated by disguises, and says he "likes being invisible" so that he can slip around unnoticed.
  • The actual gameplay of Security Breach shows Gregory being confused and scared rather than manipulative, even when there's nobody around for him to pretend for. With him hesitating before saying his name, many theorize that he actually was struggling to even remember it, and his lack of knowledge of Vanessa or Vanny (other slaves to Glitchtrap) can be chalked up to this Trauma-Induced Amnesia.
  • In the story, Gregory picks the nickname "Dr. Rabbit" because "it just came to him," sometimes says very thoughtful and meaningful things (while the game's Gregory doesn't say much outside of the normal realm of a child), and the end shows him becoming uncharacteristically quiet and unnerving as he sizes Tony up, before inviting him to "meet his friends."
• All for Nothing: Tony's investigation ends up scrapped from his final project, and as he's thinking about the mystery itself, Greg lures him to the Pizzaplex, implying he was killed for delving too deep. The Retro CDs in Security Breach have the fourth and fifth therapists tell Gregory/46 that the Pizzaplex employees had begun to suspect him, however, which could imply that Tony's questions led to Finbarr or other employees delving more into the GGY hacks.
• Appeal to Flattery: One of Tony's preferred methods of getting information seems to be sucking up to the people he's talking to until they tell him what he wants to know.
• Awful Wedded Life: While the Brownings seem to like each other, downplaying this trope, Mrs. Browning hires Tony to paint the basement to make a "man cave" for her husband so that she doesn't have to watch sports with him, saying she might end up snapping and killing him if she has to watch one more game.
• Bad Bedroom, Bad Life: To represent his family's downturn in luck, Tony's new bedroom is "closet-sized," with a tiny uncomfortable bed and uncomfortable view of the dry backyard and nearby trailer park.
• Batter Up!: When Tony sneaks out to meet Crystal, he brings an aluminum baseball bat in case he runs into trouble.
• Bears Are Bad News: Far from his friendly, outgoing Security Breach persona, in this short, Glamrock Freddy is programmed to creepily stalk Tony whenever he brings up GGY.
• Best Friend: Tony and Ellis have been best friends since they were toddlers, but Tony's actually feeling very tired of Ellis's childish personality and thinks he might want to eventually only hang out with Greg.
• Big Sister Instinct: Crystal's reason for seeking out and warning Tony is that she has a little brother his age, and would feel like a jerk for not trying to keep him safe.
• Braids of Action: Crystal's iconic hairstyle is a long, dark braid.
• Brainy Brunette: Tony describes his hair as being a dark brown, and he spends a lot of time piecing information together.
• Canon Character All Along: While the "GGY" hints in Security Breach were always theorized to be related to Gregory, it was confirmed at the end of the story when "Dr. Rabbit" is revealed to actually be Gregory... which also makes him Patient 46, and implies a whole lot of wild things about his past.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Greg is introduced just as "Rab", and just seems to be one of Tony's uninterested friends until The Reveal.
• Childhood Friend: Tony and Ellis, who used to be neighbors and whose parents introduced them when they were little.
• Connected All Along: Deliberately foreshadowed early in the story:
  "The goal of this story," Mrs. Soto said when the paper rustling and murmuring died down, "is to focus on a mystery while also wrapping it in subplots that seem to have nothing to do with the plot but actually are essential to it."
• Constantly Curious: Tony, which is why he wants to be an investigative journalist.
• Cool Teacher: Mrs. Soto is a strict grader, and Tony doesn't like her focus on fiction over nonfiction, but he also finds her to be very knowledgeable and good at her job. He also has a close relationship with Mrs. Hawkins, the pun-loving librarian. We're also told that Mary Schneider was beloved amongst the entire school.
• The Cracker: While Finbarr initially believes that GGY couldn't have hacked the system, it becomes clear that he at least hacked his playpass. Crystal later confirms that there's indeed strange lines of code that GGY has been placing into the animatronics.
• Determinator: In order to get a good story, Tony breaks into several places, steals from Fazbear employees, and hacks into his school files.
• Disappeared Dad: Tony's father was recently imprisoned for embezzling from his large company. His father claimed innocence throughout, but begged Tony not to investigate, as he didn't want him caught up in whatever dangerous conspiracy was happening.
• Downer Ending: After his story was destroyed, Tony was most likely murdered by someone he thought was his friend.
• Easily Forgiven: Mrs. Hawkins is completely unfazed by Tony breaking into her computer, assuming he was doing it for one of his fun little investigations. Even the principal, while very disappointed in Tony, doesn't seem like he's going to put it on the kid's record, due to his clean past and good grades.
• Five-Finger Discount: Tony is able to sneak into an employee kiosk by swiping the identification card from an employee. He and his friends had apparently previously written about pickpockets, and thus Tony was quick to learn how the whole process worked.
• Gamer Chick: Crystal, Kenzie and Dana. Dana especially appears to be rather competitive, while Crystal and Kenzie are only competitive against each other.
• Hackette: Crystal admits to Tony that she hacks for fun, mostly just to poke around and see how things work.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Background character Amelia explodes at the arcade game she's playing and starts kicking and beating it. She looks about ready to kick Finbarr, too, before security sends her off.
• He Knows Too Much: While not directly stated, it's made pretty clear this is why the therapists were killed off, and why Tony's most likely next.
• Intrepid Reporter: Little Tony Becker, who'll do anything to get the story, and doesn't realize the dangers of getting too close to people's secrets.
• Kid Detective: Tony definitely falls into this trope, though perhaps a bit more realistically, as the adults around him are tired of his shenanigans and constantly tell him not to get himself in danger, only for him to end up likely dying for his snooping.
• Kiddie Kid: Ellis, which is why Tony's growing tired of him.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Finbarr" tells Tony that his name means "fair-haired," gesturing to his blonde curls and saying they were lighter when he was born.
  • Crystal chooses the screen name "Morrigan99," referring to an Irish death diety (or, three, depending on who you ask).
• Monster of the Week: The titular GGY... and, quite likely, the entity controlling him.
• Most Gamers Are Male: Joked about, as Axel stubbornly believes that GGY has to be a boy, and Tony quietly disagrees. Later, another player, Dana, indignantly tells her friend that there's no way GGY is male and must be a girl.
• Most Writers Are Writers: Tony spends a lot of time puzzling over his writing, overthinking his own words, and trying to figure out how best to pen a good story.
• Mysterious Past: This story just raises further questions about what happened to Gregory prior to Security Breach, mainly by confirming he was Patient 46 and likely possessed by Glitchtrap.
• Named by the Adaptation: Security Breach's five therapists are unnamed in the original game files. This game almost definitively names the first four as, in order: Mary Schneider, Raelynn Lawrence, Treena Welch, and Georgia Lowe.
• The Nicknamer: After finding out about nom de plums (or, as they call them, "numb de plumbs"), Ellis and Gregory become obsessed over the idea of using different pen names for every story. Ellis seems the most into it, though he's less interested in Tony's classic history references and calls him "Tinkerbell" rather than "Tarbell."
• No Full Name Given: A couple characters in the story go without surnames, most notably Ellis and Crystal.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Knowing that GGY has killed several therapists makes the end of the story, stopping right before we find out what he does to Tony, all the more unsettling.
• Only Known by Initials: Why it makes it so hard for Tony to find GGY; that's the only name anyone knows them as.
• Playful Hacker: Crystal, who's more curious than ill-intentioned.
• Plot Parallel: It can be, well, pretty easy to read Tony's indignation at his "realistic and eerie" story being turned into "something bizarre and unbelievable" as a reference to the rapid escalation of Five Nights at Freddy's mythology shift. Should also be noted that in the new story, "the wizard" that GGY is apprenticed to (Glitchtrap) is in battle with "a tentacled monster" (probably the Tangle).
  • In a Doylist sense, the short itself has quite a few similarities to Fazbear Frights' "The New Kid", with the trio being made of a mysterious but charismatic New Transfer Student, the cheerful childish one, and the quiet loner with a working mom and missing father. (Tony is a lot more sympathetic than Devon, though.) Both stories end with the "new kid" slowly sizing up their next victim, as they are revealed to have been the Big Bad all along.
• Power Trio: Ellis calls him, Tony and Greg "the three amigos."
• Quirky Curls: On cheerful, enthusiastic Ellis.
• The Reveal: That "Rab" is actually Greg, and therefore very very very likely to be Gregory from Security Breach... thus, GGY.
• Shout-Out:
  • Tony makes his nickname "Tarbell," after muckrack reformer Ida Tarbell. (Ellis calls him Tinkerbell instead.)
  • Tony did a lot of research into Irish Mythology and how it shaped the local culture, and so is able to recognize the name meanings of Finbarr and Morrígan.
• Signature Headgear: Axel is mainly identified via his army-green bucket hat.
• Stalker without a Crush: Tony starts noticing Glamrock Freddy following him when he's poking around over GGY. Crystal later explains to him that GGY had modified his code, though she wasn't sure what it was for.
• Stealth Prequel: To Security Breach.
• Struggling Single Mother: With her husband in jail, Tony's mother had to go back to work and "barely" makes enough money to support them, even as they live in her mother's house.
• Surfer Dude: Finbarr isn't mentioned to have anything to do with surfing, but he sure partakes in a bit of Surfer Speak.
• Trespassing Hero: Tony first sneaks into an employee kiosk at the Pizzaplex, then breaks into his school in order to search its files. It's stated that he and his friends had broken into the school before, just to see what they could find.
• Uncertain Doom: The story ends with the eerie note of Greg asking Tony to come to the Pizzaplex to "meet some friends." It's heavily implied that Gregory, as GGY, is trying to lure him there to get himself murdered.
  • Technically, the therapists aren't confirmed dead either, but the Retro CDs state that at least one of the first three was found dead, mangled by machinery, with the heavy implication that that's what happened to all of them.
• Vague Age: This story takes place at least one year prior to Security Breach, possibly more. Tony is twelve during this story, and if Gregory was the same age, that would put him at thirteen or fourteen, when he sounds and acts much closer to the 8-11 range. With the fact that Tony states he has a baby-face, is incredibly short, and seemed confused on the first day of school, it's possible that Glitchtrap snuck a younger child into the middle school solely to get at the same therapists as Vanessa, and "Rab" is younger than he appears.
• Wham Line: “Thanks, Greg,” Tony said with exaggerated politeness. Because everyone realized, oh shit, that's GREGORY.
• Working-Class Hero: Unlike his richer friends, Tony Becker has become very poor following his father's imprisonment. He's only able to go to the Pizzaplex because he does odd jobs for everyone in the neighborhood all weekend.

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