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Among the characters we have learned to love within the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, there are many people who feed into the history of the game that tend to go unnoticed.
Of course, the animatronics play a significant part in our experience with the game. Still, there is much more to explore as to why they act the way they do, which is impossible to investigate without looking into the fatal rampage of William Afton.
Although fans will be fully aware of the murders William Afton was responsible for, it’s hard to find much information regarding exactly what happened. More specifically, it feels impossible to find much information on the children and their lives outside of the animatronics.
Unfortunately, within the mainline FNaF games, these children don’t necessarily get the attention they deserve. But luckily, the release of Fazbear Frights has provided fans with valuable insight into what happened and what continues to happen due to Afton’s actions.
Susie is one of William Afton’s victims, arguably one of the most significant. Although she comes into the story relatively late, her story is integral to understanding what goes on outside of the pizzaplex – no matter how haunting her tale is.
Susie’s Appearance
Susie is an innocent young girl perfectly captured by her appearance. In Fazbear Frights 4, Susie is described as a bright-eyed, happy child with long brown hair and large brown eyes. Because of her small features, she’s consistently referred to as a cute-looking girl, emphasizing the character’s innocence. Her hair is also described as wild and tends to flow over her face.
On the day she was murdered, she wore a magenta and pink striped sweater and jeans adorned with rhinestones. When Samantha sees Susie for a final time at the end of Fazbear Frights 4, she’s wearing the same outfit. Additionally, even though her appearance in the minigames is different from her appearance in the books, she wears a similar outfit, making her instantly recognizable.
Within the mainline FNaF games, Susie looks like a small pixelated girl. Rather than having brown hair and brown eyes, she has short, curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes. In the few instances we see Susie, she has a similar innocence, but there is a lot of emotion surrounding the character as well. Unfortunately, it’s never explained why Susie’s appearance changes so drastically.
However, even though her physical appearance is different, she still wears a similar outfit. Rather than wearing jeans and a sweater, Susie wears a magenta dress with white details.
Several artist adaptations of the character will also showcase her to be wearing a red bow in her hair. However, I think this is just a technique to highlight the character’s age, and this accessory is never described as canon in the games or books.
Why is Susie Relevant to the Timeline?
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Susie is one of the main protagonists in Fazbear Frights 4 – a Five Nights at Freddy’s book written by Elley Cooper, Kelly Parra, Andrea Waggner, and of course – Scott Cawthon.
These novels were created to develop the lore of the pizzaplex and shed some light on the history of Afton’s relationship with work, family, and his partner Henry. Even though it’s explored briefly in the games, it’s great to have some concrete insight into the timeline’s history, and these books provide just that.
After spending so much time with the video games, I was skeptical about picking up the books in case they tampered with my ideas and theories surrounding Five Nights at Freddy’s, but I’m delighted I did. Rather than tampering with my ideas, they only encouraged further development and provided some information that fans will miss if they exclusively play the video games.
Because of her book-exclusive appearance, Susie is one of the many Five Nights at Freddy’s characters who are easy to forget. However, she is a significant addition to the franchise, especially as she’s one of the missing children most Five Nights at Freddy’s titles reference. Susie was one of William Afton’s first murder victims, yet there isn’t enough information about her. Fazbear Frights is a wonderful insight into her character and history, but for a character so detrimental to the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, I feel we deserve a little more.
I’d love to see more content surrounding Afton’s downward spiral and what led him to commit the murders, and I’d especially love to see a video game adaptation of the children before they possessed the animatronics.
Susie’s Personality
Susie is described as a charming and curious ten-year-old girl interested in playing and always investigating the world around her. However, not every character sees her imaginative personality as a positive. For example, within Fazbear Frights 4, Susie’s mother always refers to Susie as ‘vulnerable’ due to her quick-to-trust nature and curious personality. Additionally, her personality is considered one of the reasons she was so easy to lure from safety by Afton.
Susie’s relationship with her mother seems surprisingly distant, especially considering her age. Her mother frequently ignores what Susie is saying or speaks to Samantha instead, which leads readers to believe that Susie doesn’t have a strong connection with her family.
Her sister Samantha, who is a year younger than her, spends a lot of her time ‘playing’ with Susie or enjoying her company. However, the two are known to fight – specifically over one doll – which eventually becomes one of Susie and Samantha’s most prized possessions. I’ll cover this in more detail later on, as it feeds more into the history of FNAF than Susie’s personality.
The only character Susie seems to have a relatively consistent relationship with is the oak tree in her family garden, which she has affectionately named Oliver. Susie’s curious nature and childlike imagination make her naming the tree seem normal, but throughout Fazbear Frights, she seems almost obsessed with the tree’s wellbeing. For example, she suggests that the leaves falling off the tree signify that it’s unhappy or unwell, which many readers may find unusual.
Within the minigames Susie appears in, she showcases a more emotional side and tends to be tearful and slightly frightened.
Unfortunately, even though Susie tends to be overlooked by her mother and sister in the book, she never really shows an emotional side – so this character trait is almost minigame-exclusive. Because of this, many players suggest that Susie has fallen victim to the pizzaplex by the time she appears in the minigames, and Fazbear Frights only captures her life outside of the location. I mean, if an army of animatronics were chasing me down, I’d be pretty frightened too.
Because Susie adopts a different appearance in the minigames compared to how she looks in the book, the transition of a curious, friendly personality into something more solemn and scared is much easier to accept. While it’s evident that the character is the same, it doesn’t feel as jarring when we go from knowing happy, excited Susie to meeting the sad version.
Because of this shift, it also makes it easier for fans who haven’t read the book to experience the character without knowing every aspect of the lore surrounding her. It leaves no holes in FNaF fanatics’ enjoyment, which I appreciate about the franchise.
Susie Within the (Mini) Games
Outside this book, Susie appears in a few minigames within the central Five Nights at Freddy’s titles. Although she isn’t a prominent character, her importance within the story is still shown in these games. However, she adopts a different appearance from how we have known her within the Fazbear Frights book.
Rather than having brown hair and brown eyes, Susie has blonde hair and blue eyes. She looks incredibly similar to the pixelated version of Elizabeth Afton, so it’s essential to learn the differences and which games Susie appears in so you don’t get the two confused.
There are two special minigames in which Susie appears, Fruity Maze and Happiest Day. Both of these host significant plot points to the missing children’s mystery of Five Nights at Freddy’s and highlight some lore that may have been forgotten. In addition, they both show Susie as a friendly yet emotional character and hint at her ‘relationship’ with Chica.
Fruity Maze
Fruity Maze is one of three purchasable minigames within Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaria Simulator, and it’s one of the games where Susie appears as a playable character. You guide Susie around a maze to collect each fruit within this minigame.
The more fruit collected, the higher the player’s score, and the time limit you are given within the game increases. It’s essentially like a Five Nights at Freddy’s themed Pac-Man, so it’s very simple to play, but there are a few elements to it that will keep players coming back.
This minigame costs $150 and can be bought from Stan’s Budget Tech catalog. It’s a worthy addition to any gamer looking for a fun pastime, especially those looking to see Susie in action since she never features in the mainline games. At first, I was skeptical that the little girl in this game was Susie, but it became clear upon unlocking the secret gameplay.
If you know Five Nights at Freddy’s, you’ll know that there is a secret around every corner that undeniably applies to these minigames. After successfully collecting every fruit in the standard gameplay, Fruity Maze will shift from a relatively innocent game to something much darker.
Each fruit item is replaced with a dead dog, and the game takes on a decrepit and run-down look. Similar to how Balloon World looks in Security Breach once you’ve interacted with the glitches.
The dead dogs are a link to Susie’s history with William Afton since he was responsible for killing Susie’s puppy outside the Pizzeria. In addition, you can hear voice lines such as “he’s not dead” and “follow me,” which many players assume is Afton attempting to lure Susie away so she can be murdered and stuffed into the Chica animatronic.
After all the items are collected a second time, in this case, the poor puppy, Susie, will begin to cry. The dead dogs that still appear on-screen are now mutilated, and Susie’s every step will leave a trail of blood behind her.
I believe that this haunting gameplay is referencing post-mortem Susie, especially since William Afton in the Spring Bonnie suit appears at the end. Other fruits are replaced with coffins and flowers, but it becomes hard to collect everything since Susie also has to run from a number of Spring Bonnie shadows.
No matter how far you make it, it’s impossible to ‘beat’ this version of the game. The minigame will end no matter what, and William Afton marks the completion by telling Susie to come with him. I got chills when I witnessed this scene for the first time since it felt like one of our first insights into the murders, and it was a horrendously graphic one at that. After you see William Afton speak, you cannot play the game again.
Happiest Day
It’s important to note that Susie is not a playable character within this title, nor does the game explicitly state that it is Susie behind the mask. However, because of hints within the minigame and many fan-made rumors, it’s very easy to assume that Susie is one of the masked children.
The Happiest Day minigame is available within Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 and can be accessed by going to Cam 03 (Hall) and double-clicking the character drawing of The Puppet on the wall. It’s not night-specific and can be unlocked at any time within the game. But I’d always recommend unlocking this game towards the beginning of your playthrough before it’s too late.
Within this game, you take on the playable character of a child who wears a puppet-like mask and has to walk past several children wearing animal masks.
To the very far right of the room, a child is crouched under a table, crying. If you encounter several children wearing grey rather than colorful animal masks, you haven’t unlocked these characters within other minigames. You’ll need to do this to unlock the ‘good’ ending of the Happiest Day minigame, and I promise you it’s worth it.
However, the ‘good’ ending to this game, also called the cake ending, provides valuable insight into the lore of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Rather than walking through a room of children in masks to find an empty table, the player will place a large pink cake once they walk up to the table.
Additionally, there will only be four children wearing masks to represent Freddy, Bonnie, Foxy, and Chica. Because Susie is connected to Chica, it can only be assumed that she is wearing the mask, and these children represent the murders of Afton. The crying child will be wearing a golden Freddy mask now too.
When the player places the cake, the children will disappear and leave a balloon, and their masks will fall to the ground. This is to represent the souls of the murdered children finally being free. Once this minigame is completed, a star will appear next to your profile on the games menu, which doesn’t provide anything to gameplay but is a nice symbol to show you’ve completed something a few players don’t.
The History and Lore of Susie’s Character
In Fazbear Frights, we are quickly introduced to Susie’s curious and energetic side, and we assume that all is well with her family. However, if you’ve spent time with the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, you’ll know that there is far more than meets the eye.
Susie consistently speaks about the world smelling like rotting food and always associating colors with feelings. Additionally, she connects with a large oak tree in her family home’s backyard, which I mentioned briefly earlier. These factors showcase a creative side to her personality but also suggest that something is off about her character.
Of course, naming inanimate objects and presenting emotions in an accessible way tend to be traits of childlike behavior. Still, something is unsettling about Susie’s connection with the world. More specifically, her strong sense of smell.
As Fazbear Frights progresses, Susie’s intuition alerts her that something is threatening her family home, making it hard for her to sleep. She feels the need to protect her family from whatever lurks outside, but when she investigates the thumping surrounding her house at night – she’s greeted by nothing. The book suggests that Samantha quickly reassures her nothing is there, but Susie still feels uncomfortable.
Toward the end of the chapter, we receive an unexpected twist from the book, which I certainly wasn’t expecting. The thudding sound surrounding the family home is Chica, trying to persuade Susie to return to the pizzeria. But of course, we all assume that Chica is planning to lure Susie away to kill her.
By this point in the novel, we don’t know that Susie has already visited the pizzaplex several times and been murdered by William Afton, so Chica’s threatening nature lets players jump to the conclusion that Chica is the reason Susie is killed.
However, toward the end of the chapter, it’s revealed that Susie has been dead the whole time – and has been a ghost haunting the family home. Her family consistently ignores her, and her mother feels on edge for most of the book because Susie does not exist in the real world, but they can sense her presence. But the darker part of the story lies in the fact that Susie isn’t aware that she is dead.
It’s later revealed that Susie was murdered outside Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza by William Afton. On the day of Susie’s murder, Samantha and Susie fought over one of their dolls – Gretchen. This doll causes a lot of arguments between the two, so Susie steals her and hides her.
Unfortunately, Afton uses this doll to lure Susie into one of the backrooms by saying he knows where to hide Gretchen, where Samantha will never find her. Eventually, this doll becomes the only way Samantha can see Susie again – so Samantha must find her.
When Samantha finds Gretchen, she can see Susie one final time before Susie is taken away by Chica. The sisters exchange a hug and say their goodbyes. After the tension of the entire book, this exchange is incredibly wholesome. Still, I can’t help feeling heartbroken about the fact Susie’s mother didn’t get the same opportunity to say goodbye.
Susie’s Counterparts
Susie has one counterpart following her murder in the franchise: Chica. Even though Chica is usually seen alongside Susie within Fazbear Frights, it’s revealed that Susie’s corpse was stuffed into the animatronic suit of Chica. This would explain why she always states the world has a bad smell, as it’s probably referencing the smell of her decomposing body.
Within the Fazbear Frights book, it’s confirmed that Susie’s spirit possesses Chica, which is what brings the animatronic to life. When Susie states, “is it time to go back already?” in Fazbear Frights, this suggests returning to Chica’s body and returning to the pizzeria. It’s never explicitly stated in the games, but there are a few instances where Susie is connected to Chica – for example, the mask in the Happiest Days minigame.
Chica’s fun and loveable attitude is almost a perfect mirror of Susie’s – which I find incredibly haunting. Rather than appearing enraged and intimidating like most of the animatronics found at Fazbear’s pizza, Chica is one of the only ones to approach the children in a fun way – which is how I’d imagine Susie would, with her curious nature.
However, Susie’s spirit doesn’t possess every single form of Chica. Since Susie’s murder happened relatively early on in the Five Nights at Freddy’s timeline, it’s said that her soul and spirit only possess the first form of Chica, as seen in the first, third and fifth Five Nights at Freddy’s game.
FAQs
Question: What are the names of the other four children possessing the animatronics?
Answer: Outside of Susie possessing Chica, four children are stuffed inside the other animatronic suits. The children are named Jeremey, who possesses Bonnie, Fritz in Foxy, Gabriel in Freddy, and Cassidy in Golden Freddy. Although these children are never seen outside of the animatronic form, a cutscene titled ‘the happiest day’ will show each child wearing the mask of their animatronic surrounding a crying child next to a birthday cake.
Question: Is Susie in Sister Location?
Answer: Susie isn’t featured in Sister Location; however, many fans get her character confused with Elizabeth Afton, who possesses the spirit of Circus Baby. Although I can understand the confusion, it’s integral for fans to separate the two characters as their personalities have very different impacts on the Five Nights at Freddy’s lore.
When I started getting into the game, all the characters made it very hard to keep up, and I would often get Elizabeth and Susie confused. But when I read Fazbear Frights for the first time, it helped me understand their differences. So I can’t recommend it enough!
Question: How many people did William Afton kill?
Answer: It’s tough to say how many children William Afton was responsible for killing, especially after the accidental death of his daughter, but we know that the murder of the five children was entirely intentional.
As the story of FNaF develops, we become aware of Afton’s murder of the child who possesses the puppet, and I’d say hitting Susie’s puppy with a car counts as a kill even though it’s not a murder of a human. So it’s safe to say he took the lives of at least six people, but it’s hard to track his actions past that point. This is why I think there needs to be a deeper dive into his character within the mainline FNaF games.
Susie FNAF: Summary
The lore surrounding Five Nights at Freddy’s and the history of events is what will constantly keep me engaged with the franchise.
There is much to learn and consider, which makes it much more than a few video games. Or a few books, in this case. Susie’s tale is genuinely haunting, and I didn’t expect to feel so attached to such an ‘insignificant character.’
As Five Nights at Freddy’s is only increasing in popularity, I hope the children who became victims of William Afton are given more attention. Unfortunately, they’re featured so briefly in games that it takes a guide like this to provide enough information to sink your teeth into. I’d love to see a game that follows the children and their relationships with the pizzeria in the future, and I think many fans would develop a better understanding of what happened.