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Writer's pictureRowena Spinks

Always watching: Eyes in Five Nights At Freddy's

Updated: Jun 4, 2023

Closeup of Funtime Freddy's glowing eyes

Unsurprisingly for a game involving surveillance, eyes have a lot of meaning and symbolism in Five Nights at Freddy's.


As a player, we watch the animatronics through multiple cameras. Tracking their movements and 'shining a light' on them to keep them out of the office is baked into the game's mechanics. However, this isn't the only place where symbolism around eyes plays an important role.


Have you ever noticed how some characters have only one working eye? I believe this is more than just an aesthetic choice. The most obvious examples here are the Mangle (who has one darkened eye with a pinprick of light) and Lefty (who has only one working eye). We also have edge cases like Foxy who wears an eyepatch but, if you watch closely, has two working eyes.


Symbolically, I think this represents how much 'vision' or knowledge the respective characters have over the events occurring in the games or - assuming the characters are based on real life people - the games themselves. Putting it simply, characters with only one eye or one misted eye have only a partial view of events. Likewise, the rare character with closed or misted eyes, such as Ballora, have no insight at all. This is why Ballora has eyes but never opens them in Sister Location.


You may think this is the end of what we can say about this facial feature but this is where things start to get really creepy.


Shadow Freddy and Bonnie are a very dark purple/blue, almost black. Only their eyes and teeth are visible in the darkness. I believe this implies that their eyes can see even through the darkness, perhaps beyond what is typically possible for a human.


The game confirms that this is an ability Roxy definitely has. Her eyes can see through walls, unlocking previously-invisible collectibles in the process. This shows that the animatronics can have visual capacities beyond that of humans. As Freddy says in the Fire Exit ending of Security Breach - now upgraded with Roxy's eyes - he has 'new eyes' and can perceive things differently.


With this in mind, we have to consider what it must be like to be in an animatronic's shoes. As a robot, their eyes can presumably take footage others can view. With wifi connectivity, it's even possible that everything they perceive could be watched in real time or recorded and shared with others. If so, they are quite literally always being monitored and there is no privacy at all. That's a fate very few people would ask for - a real, living nightmare. Imprisoned in a metal body, your mind and thoughts there for all to see.



I believe this is what is being represented by amalgamations like Ennard, Molten Freddy and The Blob. All of them are covered in eyes, representing the fact that remnant from multiple people are perceiving the world as part of a hive mind. As one entity, they perceive everything as one - taking data from multiple eyes. A system where they are under surveillance and yet are also the ones watching. Just like we are watching the animatronics, the animatronics are watching us.



So, if you've ever wondered why eyes pop up everywhere in Five Nights At Freddy's SFMs (animated music videos), now you know.


We are being watched.



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