Revisiting FNAF 1 in 2025
Revisiting FNAF 1 in 2025
with all the extra context of future releases. I want to first look at the game that
started it all, Five Nights At Freddy's 1.
HELP WANTED
The first thing we see when we start Night 1, the classic Help Wanted newspaper.
At the bottom we can see the pay, which is a horrible $120 a week, using minimum
wage people have placed the game in the years 1992 or 1993, however I don't think
it's that deep. The pay probably just sucks because Fazbear Entertainment is scummy.
Is Fazbear Entertainment underpaying their workers really that unbelievable?
The advert also has a disclaimer about injury/dismemberment.
As for who's reading this, I'll talk about Mike Schmidt later on in the paycheck section.
The Phone Guy/Ralph
Once we get into Night 1 we hear our phone ringing. When we pick it up we meet Ralph.
We learn a lot more about Ralph in the Interactive Novel, The Week Before .
In The Week Before , we learn that Ralph had been working at Freddy's for an incredibly
long time, in fact he was the twenty-two-time Employee of the Month. Ralph originally
was a child psychology major, before dropping out to work at Freddy's.
Freddy's eventually lost its magic for Ralph, but he had to keep working there
to support his daughter Coppelia. But now Ralph is finally ready to move on.
In FNAF 1 we learn that Ralph is finishing his last week at Freddy's before we replace him.
Ralph mainly serves as a tutorial for the player, explaining gameplay mechanics. In
Night 1 Ralph tells us some very suspicious things.
1. Freddy's will wait 90 days or as soon as the restaurant is thoroughly cleaned out
to report us missing.
2. The animatronics "get a bit quirky at night", and jokes it's because
the animatronics haven't had a bath in 20 years.
3. Ralph offhandedly mentions the "Bite of 87" is why the animatronics can no longer
walk around during the day.
4. If the animatronics get into your office they will think you're a naked endoskeleton
and stuff you into a suit.
We'll get back to the Bite of 87 and the 20 years thing, but for now we'll move on to Night 2.
Night 2 Ralph explains Freddy and Foxy's mechanics and tells us the animatronics
get more active throughout the week. Night 3 Ralph doesn't really say anything of note
and actually gives us an wrong idea to sruvive. On the Night 4 call we hear Ralph's death.
The Week Before's canon ending tells us exactly what happened to Ralph.
"Maybe you’ve changed them, through your interactions with them this week. Some legacy.
“I—I—I always wondered what was in those empty heads … back there—” A chime sounds
behind you. What is that? “You know …” You turn around, thinking Foxy has rebooted
himself, but then you see what’s behind him. Freddy Fazbear. Something moans. Is it you?
“Oh no—” The animatronics scream. All of them. The doors in the office pop open and the
camera feeds cut out. The monitor spews static and snow dances across the screen. The
phone line goes dead."
"When you come to (how?), it’s dark. You can’t move your head, but through two small
eyeholes, you can just make out what appears to be the repair shop behind the stage.
I’m okay? you wonder. Something smells bad. It might be you. It’s me. Why can’t you
move your head, your hands? I’m not okay. All your choices have led you here, and
now you’re out of options. The only thing you can do is wait.
Ralph is attacked by every animatronic at once and is stuffed into a spare Freddy suit
in Parts And Service. He seems to have possessed the suit but he doesn't know it. To a lot
of people Ralph seems very shady, and lying on behalf of Freddy's, but I think The Week
Before tells us he's just a dork, who trusts Fazbear Entertainment's lies.
The Animatronics
Most of us know the 5 animatronics; Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Golden Freddy,
who are possessed by the five Missing Children murdered by William Afton in 1985.
With maybe one other mystery spirit haunting the Pizzeria.
In FFPS the names of these five children were revealed to be Gabriel, Fritz, Susie, Jeremy,
and Cassidy, whose name was later revealed in The Survival Logbook. Rarely in FNAF 1
we can see newspapers on CAM-4B, which tell us the story of the Missing Children Incident.
In the late hours of June 26th, 1985, William Afton, who was possibly an owner of Freddy's,
dressed up as animatronic character Spring Bonnie, and lured the five children to a
secret room named the "saferoom", which was supposed to be used by employees
wearing the Springlock Suits in the event that springlock mechanism failed and skewered
the wearer with animatronic parts. William Afton then killed the kids and stuffed them
inside the five animatronics.
This is probably why the animatronics like to stuff secruity guards in spare costumes.
The alt-continuity novel, The Silver Eyes dives deeper into the motivation of the spirits.
The spirits are vengeful towards their killer but don't know who he is. They also
think Freddy's is their home, and see anyone there at night as invaders, who
are trying to take away their "happiest day".
However The Week Before gives us a far different impression of the kids. In an
alternate path to the canon route, Ralph discovers that the animatronics have
gotten bored of their afterlife in the pizzeria, and are trying to escape, siphoning
electricity for their charging platforms in order leave Freddy's. Although in the canon path
Ralph must have done something to stop the animatronics from escaping.
This contradiction between the games and novels still really confuses me. I guess
the ghosts just like Freddy's more in the Novels. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The Paycheck
pay and that the date is November 12. And we finally learn the name of our
silent protagonist.
Mike Schmidt
