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Charlie is an alias for Charlotte Emily, the daughter of Henry Emily, who is later confirmed to be the ghost that haunts the Puppet. Charlie made her first appearance in a minigame in FNAF 2 along with the Puppet, at which point she was a mysterious, unnamed character.
However, her second appearance in FNAF 6 pieced together much of her lore and her role in the bigger picture as the overall timeline ended. Charlie is one of the better-written characters in the story, and her personality is explored in considerable depth, both in her human and animatronic form.
As such, I’ll be going over Charlie’s entire existence in this guide, from her childhood experiences as shown in the games to her impact throughout the story as the Puppet.
Appearance
Charlie has been depicted with two different sprites, presumably at the same point in the FNAF timeline, which is a little odd. Regardless, in FNAF 2. Charlie is shown as a very young child of short height and stature. With a bald, hairless head, she is seen in a blue shirt and blue pants, with brown shoes being the only distinct piece of clothing.
Her appearance is further exemplified in FNAF 6 as Scott came to refine her features. Turns out that she is a girl of light-colored skin complimented with pitch-black hair tied into a ponytail. Besides that, she likes to visit her father’s establishment wearing what seems to be her signature clothes: a light-colored shirt with dark-colored pants and shoes.
Let’s not forget that the green bracelet Charlie is often seen wearing, the device the Puppet was designed to respond to if it went out of range. Such as the protective mechanism Henry designed to keep her daughter in the close, safe vicinity of the Puppet – but what did he want to protect her from specifically? I’ll explore that in detail in the lore section later.
Personality
As Henry describes in the epilogue of FNAF 6, Charlie is a very kind child who, from a young age, exhibited the noble characteristics of compassion, selflessness, and dignity.
Despite her physical and financial limited capacity, she would help anyone she saw in need to the best of her abilities. More importantly, she’d step up to look after the younger kids at her father’s restaurant, lifting them into her arms as her own siblings.
Charlie is also described to be very brave and tries to confront any peril while keeping her composure. However, she is seen crying and frightened in extreme situations, as is naturally expected from a child at her age – her courage to stay courageous, nevertheless, is admirable.
This trait is particularly observed in her animatronic form (the Puppet), as she is able to tap into new, supernatural powers. Perhaps the most well-known of Charlie’s traits have to be her intelligence and ingenuity, which we get to experience first-hand in the form of the Puppet.
However, she does undergo some regression over time, as although she retains her intelligence, she loses her sense of compassion and envelopes herself more in the rage of vengeance. Thus, the cold and calculating Puppet that we see for the rest of the timeline is born.
Role in the Games: Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Take Cake to the Children Minigame
The top-down minigame first shed light on William Afton’s murderous tendencies, and the minigame (Charlie) victim was considered William’s first at the time. Regardless, in this minigame, you play as Freddy and are tasked with giving a cake to each of the six kids. As such, if you fail to tend to any of the kids, they will turn red in impatience and exasperation.
However, if you play along as intended, the story outside the establishment will begin to progress. The neglected, crying child you’ll see outside will eventually be confronted by Purple Guy (William Afton), who will pull over in a purple car.
Charlie’s tears will subside for a moment, only to return tenfolds the magnitude before dying and turning into a ghost. The tragedy will be foreshadowed moments before happening as a voice will spell out S-A-V-E-H-I-M (Save him) throughout the minigame.
Puppet (Antagonist)
Along with Charlie, the Puppet also made its first appearance in FNAF 2, indicating that the Take Cake to the Children minigame events are a thing of the past.
In the form of the Puppet, Charlie is one of many antagonists out there to kill you, albeit with a unique mechanic not seen in other games. The Puppet is located in the Prize Corner, specifically in the big gift box in the center of the room.
On the main monitor, along with the camera locations and background footage of the camera you’re on, you’ll also see the option of winding up a music box. This is the Puppet’s main mechanic: continuously winding up the music box will keep it confined inside the box, rendering it harmless.
However, failure to do so will awaken the animatronic, who will spring out and come to kill you – nothing will stop it from achieving its objective unless, of course, the night ends at 6:00 AM beforehand.
Give Gifts, Give Life Minigame
The Give Gifts, Give Life minigame depicts a very significant turning point in the FNAF timeline: the moment when the mainstream animatronics started to come to life. You play as the Puppet under two different objectives, majorly specified in the upper half of the screen.
The first objective is to give gifts, at which point you should move over to each of the four dead children in order to interact with them (indicated by a sound). Then, upon returning to your initial position in the center, the objective will change to give life, at which point you are to once again approach each child.
This time, however, each child will have their face covered by an animatronic mask, indicating that they have come to possess that particular animatronic. Similar to the Take Cake to the Children minigame, a voice will spell out the following words throughout the sequence: H-E-L-P-T-H-E-M (Help Them), before concluding with a classic Golden Freddy jumpscare.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 3
Happiest Day Minigame
The Happiest Day Minigame can be accessed at any night by double-clicking the Puppet drawing in CAM 03 (Hall). In the minigame, you play as the Puppet (Charlie), capable of only moving back and forth across the room, housing the souls of the dead children.
The room, however, will remain uneventful as the minigame can only be progressed by completing the other cake minigames.
After obtaining all five cakes beforehand, the minigame will move on to delivering the Cake Ending. The Cake Ending realizes the good ending of FNAF 3, where the five victims of the Missing Children’s Incident find peace after the first demise of Wiliam Afton and move on to the afterlife.
Phantom Counterpart
While she is not capable of killing you in this counterpart, she can most certainly sabotage you, creating opportunities for other animatronics to strike.
If the Phantom Puppet ever appears on your screen (more specifically CAM 08), you must immediately lower the monitor or switch to another camera.
Failure to do so will result in the Phantom Puppet covering your screen for 17 whole seconds whilst muffling any important audio cues through static noises. In a nutshell, you are left vulnerable to the advances of Springtrap as well as the bloodlust of Phantom Freddy and Phantom Foxy.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 4
In FNAF 4, Charlie takes the form of something far more horrifying than the Puppet, almost as if Scott tried his level best to create a living horror similar to Nightmare Freddy: Nightmarrione.
This is a Halloween counterpart of Charlie/Puppet, which appeared in the 2015 Halloween update of FNAF 4 as the new final antagonist, replacing Nightmare.
Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria Simulator
Security Puppet Minigame
The Security Puppet Minigame is the most important aspect of the FNAF series as far as Charlie’s lore goes. It builds upon the events of FNAF 2’s Take Cake To Children minigame, adding extra layers of context in order to make it clear what exactly happened that night.
The minigame can be accessed by interacting with the Security Puppet item, which is required to be purchased in the pizzeria segment. When the minigame starts, you are instructed not to let your “assigned” child get to the exit – the indication of the child is that they are wearing a green wristband.
Furthermore, in the event that the child does make their way to the exit, you are to hold them back. However, in the first two runs of the minigame, you will notice that your assigned child is nowhere to be seen.
On your third run of the minigame, a cutscene will play out, which will lay bare the events surrounding the murder on that night. First, you’ll see the assigned child locked outside of the building along with the Puppet confined in its box under the weight of an object.
Then, in the aftermath of the murder depicted in FNAF 2’s Take Cake To Child minigame, the Puppet is seen rushing to the child’s body outside in the rain, slowly getting damaged before finally giving out.
L.E.F.T.Y (Antagonist)
Charlie makes her appearance once again as a murderous antagonist in FNAF 6, this time in the form of L.E.F.T.Y. Technically, she still possesses the Puppet, but the Puppet now embodies L.E.F.T.Y – I’ll explain all that later in the lore section. L.E.F.T.Y behaves as an antagonist in both the salvaging room and your office.
Salvaging L.E.F.T.Y is a matter of utmost awareness and vigilance, as the animatronic randomly progresses through three stages (indicated through physical posture) every time you note down the results. Two of these stages are harmless, albeit if you ever find L.E.F.T.Y slouching down a lot, electrocute him immediately as he’s ready to kill you the next time you record the results.
In the office, L.E.F.T.Y is capable of lurking up on you through either vent before actually killing you. As such, it’s important to listen for each vent very carefully at all times – if you hear anything from either vent, be sure to shine your flashlight to shun it away.
As long as you follow this important guideline, L.E.F.T.Y will be of no issue to you.
Ultimate Custom Night
It was all within expectation to see Charlie’s two counterparts, Puppet and Nightmarionne make their appearance in Ultimate Custom Night. After all, as implied in the game’s name, UCN was all about giving the players the opportunity to create their own customizable night, haunted by the animatronics of their own choosing.
Lore
Charlie’s Childhood
Charlie was born to the Emily household and was raised under the caring hand of his father, Henry Emily. – she is alleged to be his only child as no other siblings are known. Despite that, instead of growing up spoiled, the girl grew up embodying some noble characteristics, which even her father bore witness to in FNAF 6 (but we’ll explore that later).
Similar to the kids of the Afton household, Charlie grew up around her father’s company and all the mainstream animatronics. Even so, there is no evidence to support that she was particularly fond of animatronics, to the point of having a favorite of her own like Chris and Elizabeth.
Nonetheless, it is safe to say that she was not scared of animatronics and felt comfortable around them.
What set her apart from Afton’s children, though, was that she was a very ordinary girl – as ordinary as a typical child could get. As indicated in the books, she was quite sociable and enjoyed hanging out with her friends while finding fulfillment in her own hobbies.
Although the books and the games follow separate timelines, it’s safe to extrapolate details like these that do not cause contradictions in either timeline.
Circumstances of Her Death
Charlie’s life, unfortunately, was short-lived as, despite being an ordinary girl who stayed out of trouble, she was bound to get tangled up in her family company’s dark affairs.
William Afton, who had lost two children (Elizabeth and Chris Afton) to the murderous machines of his own making, instigated the sparks of darkness. However, due to a lack of tangible evidence, the murderer was never caught and continued to wreak havoc, all the more after the aforementioned tragedies.
Henry, nonetheless, firmly believed that the obscure force murdering children on Fazbear soil was none other than William himself. Not allowing him to drag the company’s reputation further in the mud, Henry cut off ties with the murderer and usurped the company for himself, vowing to rebuild it from scratch.
He was well aware of the risks that came with such a rash decision – making enemies of a dangerous murderer was no small thing.
The Puppet
While William could go after Henry’s own life, the possibility of him targeting Charlie was much higher, given his child-killing tendencies. As such, Henry made it an important point to devise proper security measures specifically against William’s ingenuity during the course of Fazbear Entertainment’s revamp.
After taking care of the logistics, particularly the production of Toy Animatronics, Henry began putting into place his own thought-up security measures. Henry mainly crafted a facial recognition system and installed it into his new Toy Animatronics – these animatronics would be able to distinguish William from other people before sounding the alarm.
However, knowing that he was up against a man who matched his intelligence, the idea of William somehow undermining his security system was nowhere near far-fetched.
As such, in order to guarantee the safety of his daughter, Charlie, at the very least, Henry created the Puppet, a marionette that would exist solely to protect Charlie. More specifically, the Puppet would function by ensuring that the “assigned child with a green security bracelet” would stay within the premise and not be lured outside.
Murder
While Henry was revamping Fazbear Entertainment, William was not willing to accept it. Having been cut off from his company and betrayed by his co-founder, the murderer was fuming with rage. He had sacrificed his family for the company, only to be robbed of it in the end – he was not going to let Henry get his way without having him lose something he loved.
As such, William set his sights on none other than Charlie – killing her would not only exact revenge but also satiate his child-killing tendencies.
However, the only thing that stood between him and his soon-to-be victim was Henry’s security system. While William could breach the facial recognition system under the guise of a mask, luring and isolating Charlie would be difficult due to the Puppet’s presence.
William eventually came to consider an important detail: how the Puppet rested in its gift box, only to be deployed once Charlie’s green security bracelet went out of range. Therefore, if he were to somehow trap the Puppet inside its own box, nothing would be able to stop him from running his knife through Charlie’s chest.
So, he set his sinister plan in motion.
Possession
The next night was tragic; Charlie, unable to process the situation, found herself locked outside of the establishment. Drenched in the rain and on the verge of tears, she cried for help as the bullies who had locked her out plummeted a large object into the Puppet’s gift box.
With the Puppet out of the picture, William coincidentally pulled up outside the alley Charlie was isolated in, stepping outside with a knife behind his back. It is highly suspected that William organized the chaos inside the restaurant, paying off a bunch of grumpy kids to do two easy yet odd things that ended up furthering his scheme.
On the other hand, Charlie was unaware of this, on top of the strained relationship between William and her father. As such, she viewed her dad’s “best friend” as her savior in the situation and rushed over to seek solace.
William let out a smirk as he lured Charlie closer before stabbing her in cold blood. One blow was all it took; moments later, William had disappeared, leaving Charlie’s corpse behind to eventually be tended to by the Puppet itself.
The Puppet was too late and, having failed its one and only purpose, rested on top of the child’s lifeless body. But it wasn’t over yet. The FNAF universe was seconds away from witnessing the first supernatural possession ever, causing the Puppet to rise up, embodying Charlie’s consciousness and her vengeful emotions.
Project L.E.F.T.Y
Charlie went on to further her desire for vengeance by granting sentience to other animatronics through the souls of William’s other victims. Hence, the frightening, bloodthirsty animatronics we’ve come to love and hate in the games came into being.
They would entertain children during the day as normal, but at night, they would lurk the building, checking if William Afton was among the night-shift staff.
On the other hand, of course, Henry would not allow that to happen. While he did want to bring William to justice, he could not allow those poor souls to stay confined in the prisons of his own making – instead, they should move on and find peace in the afterlife.
As such, suspecting that his daughter was among those vengeful, possessive souls, Henry launched project L.E.F.T.Y, an attempt to capture her daughter and free her of that which she possessed. Project L.E.F.T.Y was to be executed by an animatronic named L.E.F.T.Y (which stood for Lure Encapsulate Fuse Transport and Extract).
Its one and only purpose was to lure the Puppet out of hiding before encapsulating and fusing with it – it would then transport the animatronic back to Henry where Henry would extract Charlie’s soul and liberate her.
Exorcism
Before carrying out the final extraction process, Henry had his own preparations to make. In order to draw L.E.F.T.Y, along with the other rogue animatronics, back to himself (Transport phase), he opened up one last Fazbear establishment.
Although it was merely a bait waiting for the animatronics to bite, Henry went all out, ensured it had no loose ends and was always brimming with youth during the day. In a matter of days, all four animatronics, Scrap Baby (Elizabeth Afton), Scrap Trap (William Afton), Molten Freddy (Ennard), and L.E.F.T.Y (Charlie), had made their way to the back alley of the restaurant.
All that was left to do was to safely salvage them whilst confirming their identity before throwing them into the restaurant’s underground labyrinth. Henry had intended to trap Charlie and the others there so that they would give up their souls with minimal resistance.
Of course, part of selling the diner as a genuinely functional Fazbear restaurant was to have in place professional staff that would run the place. However, one such staff would have to be brave enough for Henry to entrust them with the responsibility of salvaging haunted animatronics – as we all know, this brave volunteer was none other than Micheal Afton himself.
Finding Peace
Micheal assumed the role of the restaurant’s manager from the outside, although late at night, he would go out to salvage the animatronics. Any animatronic found would be checked against the criterion of “Paragraph Four”, and, if it sufficed, would be locked up in the underground maze.
Once all the animatronics, including Charlie, were rounded up, Henry set the place ablaze. Everyone in the building perished that night, including Henry and Micheal, who intended to die along with the animatronics to bury the past for good.
Charlie finally found peace, seeing her murderer burn up to ashes as he cried for help. William Afton had perished for the third and final time, putting this big chapter in the FNAF timeline to a peaceful close.
FAQs
Question: Is Charlie a Girl?
Answer: Yes, Charlie is a girl. Her real name is Charlotte Emily, and Charlie is only her nickname, which is ironically used more. A potential reason why the community calls her that is because theorists initially assumed her gender to be masculine when FNAF 2 dropped along with the Take Cake to Children Minigame.
In the minigame, Charlie’s gender is not evident from her appearance, which is why many assumed her to be a boy. Perhaps Scott had initially planned the character to be a male but later changed his mind as he contextualized the entire event in FNAF 6.
Question: Who is Sammy?
Answer: I did say that Charlie did not have any known siblings, although she did have a twin brother in the books. His name was Sammy, and while the possibility of him being in the FNAF timeline is there, I highly doubt it as his existence would spawn too many contradictions.
After all, one must be careful when trying to mix the FNAF timeline told through the game and the sister narrative dictated in the books. The two are officially considered separate, and only minor details are safe to extrapolate from one timeline to another.
Question: What Happened to Chris Afton?
Answer: Chris Afton died as the infamous victim of the Bite of ‘87, the events of which can be traced back to Elizabeth Afton’s death. Elizabeth’s death is what initially drove William mad to the point of resorting to extreme measures.
He could not let any of his children near his animatronics, and those that were fond of them were to have that fondness eliminated by all means necessary.
As such, William mentally tortured Chris by showing him nightmares of the very animatronics he loved, so much so that Chris came to tremble in the presence of them.
This, of course, segwayed into Micheal’s incessant bullying as he would often jumpscare Chris by wearing a Foxy mask. The unchecked escalation of this behavior, caused by Chris’s forcefully-induced phobia at the hands of William, led to the Bite of ‘87.
Question: How did Elizabeth Afton Die?
Answer: Elizabeth Afton died in the clutches of Circus Baby at Circus Baby’s Pizza World. That’s because she would relentlessly try to play with her, an animatronic who her father had himself admitted was modeled after her appearance – why wouldn’t she want to play with a toy like that? But, of course, there was a gimmick to it.
Circus Baby had an inbuilt killing mechanism that would lure isolated children towards it by scooping ice cream before pulling them in and crushing them in its insides. William was fully aware of his daughter being a plausible target and, as such, forbade Elizabeth from playing with her.
However, his only miscalculation was that he underestimated a child’s determination to play, leading to Elizabeth’s self-isolation and inevitable death.
FNAF Charlie Guide: Conclusion
Regarding morality, Charlie stands out in the human roster as one of the kindest and most compassionate individuals in the FNAF series. However, equally great is the tragedy that fell upon her that caused her to go from a caring child to a cold, vengeful animatronic – her story is considered one of the saddest in the franchise.
Nonetheless, it’s good to know that she was ultimately able to find peace and move on to the afterlife. Although it was a gruesome and painful journey, she was, fortunately, able to witness her murderer tremble in fear as he burnt away until only ashes remained.