By Bryan Smith on March 15, 2015 at 12:22pm
WARNING: This article will feature an unprecedented amount of spoiler content for the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” series. Please proceed with caution if you aren’t caught up on the events of the three games and wish not to be spoiled.
The “Five Nights at Freddy’s” series made a big explosion ever since the first game launchedin August 2014. Barely eight months later, the third game has released and mystery still lingers around every corner. With “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3” being the supposedly last game (though doubtful with secrets teasing even more), there’s still a lot of answers missing that only theories and guesses can fill in.
At this point in time, players know that Springtrap contains the body of the Purple Guy, the real antagonist of the game. Since the Purple Guy destroyed the animatronics containing the spirits of the children he murdered, those spirits go after him. In a panic, Purple Guy hides into a golden Bonnie suit (though not officially called Golden Bonnie, it might as well be) that so happens to be a hybrid animatronic. As we also know from recordings from the Phone Guy (the one from the first two games, not Phone Dude), these hybrid suits are lethally dangerous because of faulty springs and mechanics. The Purple Guy broke the rules of not breathing on the locks and making sudden movements, which causes the suit to revert to the animatronic. With the locks failing, the Purple Guy is murdered in the suit and is left to rot away in the pizzeria until “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3.”
So we know what happened, but there’s still the big question: Who is the Purple Guy? That question is still left in the shadows of some bigger secrets that Scott Cawthon hid so expertly. While there isn’t any way of finding out right now, we can easily deduce a likely culprit. For the basis of this speculation, I'll be building upon Game Theory's second video talking about the game.
To put it simply, Game Theory suggests that the Phone Guy was the Purple Guy based off the information, clues, hints, and lack of any other possibilities. His guess could be right… assuming that “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3” doesn’t disprove that idea. Unfortunately for the theory, it’s been debunked in several ways.
To help put things into perspective, the timeline for “Five Nights at Freddy’s” goes as follows with the help of the Phone Guy’s dialogue, paychecks, newspaper clips, and minigames: FredBear’s Family Diner started off the events with the Purple Guy murdering a kid outside the diner, which presumably becomes the Puppet. At some point two children disappear between here and the events at “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.” Flash forward to “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” where the animatronics (presumably under the Puppet’s influence), attack the security guards - this time you as Jeremy Fitzgerald. After the fifth night (or during/between the sixth night), someone used a Golden Freddy suit (Purple Guy) to lure in five more children and kill them. After the sixth night, Jeremy is set to take the day shift, which is most likely the day the Bite of 1987 happened. This particular facility is then shut down as the older models, not the toy ones, are put into storage for a smaller facility.
Flash forward to “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” Mike Schmidt is now the night guard for the smaller facility. The animatronics have a very distinct child scream this time around, which means Purple Guy must have stuffed their bodies in these suits or the spirits of the kids are possessing these specific animatronics. Phone Guy is presumably murdered by the animatronics. After seven nights, Mike is fired for (humorously to us) tampering with the animatronics. This facility is soon shut down as well, thus ending the Fazbear franchise in restaurants.
The Purple Guy then comes back. Judging by the leaking and holes seen during the minigames for “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the pizzeria has been shutdown for a while. He destroys the animatronics that he stuffed the children in before as he feared that either they’ll come after him or more investigation could mean more jail time or a death sentence for him. Despite destroying the animatronics, the spirits of the children corner him in a secret room previously sealed away. He hides into the Golden Bonnie suit dubbed Springtrap, which kills him almost immediately. The spirits depart as the suit with the Purple Guy is left to rot in the pizzeria for many years. That is, until “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3.”
So what do we know about the Purple Guy? We know that he’s a murderer who has killed at least eight children, possibly more. The Purple Guy wasn’t convicted, as seen in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3” with him not in jail for murdering children. Some unfortunate soul may have taken his place in jail (or he was released/escaped jail, but there’d most likely be newspaper clips about that). We do know someone was captured for the murders, but yet again Purple Guy is free when he returns to destroy the animatronics. He also seems to enjoy Foxy. The most interesting part of Purple Guy (as seen in the second game) is that he has a badge and a phone. The first thought is that the Purple Guy is a security guard, seeing he can get into the pizzeria so easily and without question. The second thought is that the phone makes the Phone Guy the most likely suspect, since he matches up a lot in comparison. That is, again, until “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3.”
Phone Guy is most likely dead judging by his last call on the fourth night. He’s most likely gone before Jeremy even gets into his seat. Since the animatronics here have the childish screams for the first game, the suits are still intact before Purple Guy even got to them. Unless Phone Guy just so happens to be the world’s strongest man and muscled his way out of the building, he’s pretty much dead. Another interesting note for the Phone Guy is that he knew that about the spring lock failures in the hybrid suits. We find that out in the third game from his recordings. Considering Phone Guy has been around these suits for so long, it would be very unlikely he’d be stupid enough to go into the hybrid suit. The Purple Guy probably didn’t even know about how intricate the suits functioned and his first attempt with Golden Freddy probably was luckier than anything.
With Phone Guy out of the way, that leaves the other security guards and the Phone Dude. We can rule out the Phone Dude and the last protagonist since Purple Guy is in Springtrap at this point. Mike Schmidt probably isn’t likely either, judging how infamous the franchise became after 1987. He probably didn’t even know about the whole ordeal or is in desperate need of income. It’ll also be incredibly stupid to return to Freddy Fazbear’s place when he could easily be caught.
That leaves Jeremy Fitzgerald, Fritz Smith, or an unknown security guard. Or even possibly someone who just happened to be a murderer and Scott Cawthon is pulling our legs. The two known security guards are around during the main events that heavily damaged Freddy Fazbear’s reputation. For Fritz, him being Purple Guy seems unlikely. The first thing to note is that the night Fritz takes is his first and only night. He gets fired (just like Mike did) for tampering with the animatronics. Now, say, if Fritz wanted to dispose of the bodies properly, he would have taken the chance then and there seeing they’d be easy to deal with.
With one last guess, that leaves Jeremy Fitzgerald. For one thing, he starts several days before the incident with the missing children. This could easily give him enough time to get used to the facility without others getting suspicious of his actions right away. That also gives Jeremy amble time to come in and use the Golden Freddy suit to lure the children in. The Purple Guy also wasn’t an employee when he first murdered a child back at the first diner nor when Foxy was a main attraction, if we assume that the Foxy death minigame is accurate at all. Though that minigame could just be Scott hammering in the fact that Purple Guy was in fact the murderer.
Interesting to note that during the fourth night onward the place is “under investigation.” While the Phone Guy states that previous employees may be… suspicious at the very least, the facility is on lockdown. The Phone Guy tells us this on the fifth night:
“Hello, hello? Hey, good job, night 5! Um, hey, um, keep a close eye on things tonight, okay? Um, from what I understand, the building is on lockdown, uh, no one is allowed in or out, y'know, especially concerning any... previous employees. Um, when we get it all sorted out, we may move you to the day shift, a position just became... available.”
Now the possibility that a day shift guard could easily disprove any theory that Jeremy could be Purple Guy. Phone Guy’s mention of other night shift guards being suspicious could also mean Jeremy didn’t do it. However, that would raise the question on why the animatronics don’t strike the day guards if Purple Guy is standing right there. The animatronics are much more aggressive towards the night shift guards. A very damning piece of information also comes forefront when someone used the Golden Freddy suit. The Phone Guy tells us on the sixth night:
“Hello? Hello...uh...what on earth are you doing there, uh didn’t you get the memo, uh, the place is closed down, uh, at least for a while. Someone used one of the suits. We had a spare in the back, a yellow one; someone used it... now none of them are acting right. Listen j-just finish your shift it’s safer than trying to leave in the middle of the night. Uh we have one more event scheduled for tomorrow, a birthday. You’ll be on day shift, wear your uniform, stay close to the animatronics, make sure they don’t hurt anyone okay, uh for now just make it through the night, uh when the place eventually opens again I’ll probably take the night shift myself. Okay, good night and good luck.”
The two biggest events take place almost in a row. Remember, Jeremy was around for both of them. The next day is most likely the Bite of 1987 for him. Now why would the animatronics suddenly go berserk and bite now? The one night shift guard, who just so happens to be around when the children went missing, is now doing the day shift. The Puppet, presuming he’s controlling the animatronics, made whoever caused the Bite of 1987 attack Jeremy. Whether Jeremy himself got bit or some poor child/parent is still unknown, but the person did survive the bite. Even if Jeremy got bit, that could have given him even more incentive to come back and destroy the animatronics.
With this knowledge, it may look like Jeremy is the most likely suspect to being the Purple Guy. However, this is simply speculation. Fritz or another unknown security guard could very well be the Purple Guy. This is simply what I guessed at with the given information.
So who do you think the Purple Guy is? Do you think it’s Jeremy Fitzgerald or someone else completely?
Game Theory
