Web Video / Five Nights at Freddy's: The Musical

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Five Nights at Freddy's: The Musical is a Horror Comedy musical web series by Random Encounters chronicling the adventures of Markiplier and NateWantsToBattle as they work the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's.

The Original Series was first posted in five parts, with the Supercut combining them all having been released July 30, 2016.

• Five Nights at Freddy's, the Musical! (Night 1).
• Five Nights at Freddy's, the Musical! (Night 2).
• Five Nights at Freddy's: The Musical! (Night 3).
• Five Nights at Freddy's: The Musical! (Night 4).
• Five Nights at Freddy's: The Musical! (Night 5).
• And your one-stop location for FNAF:TM goodness, Five Nights at Freddy's: The Musical: The Supercut! (All-in-One with bonus never-before-seen footage).

The series later spawned the Prequel Series, originally a few scattered musicals and slowly forming a cohesive story.^note Because the idea of a full prequel era came later, they were released out of chronological order and with a lot of time in between. The supercut for the prequel series, renamed First Nights at Freddy's: A FNAF the Musical Movie, was released December 20, 2024 with a long livestream preshow that was taken down afterward, then rereleased the next day without the preshow. In out-of-universe chronological order, these are:

• "Blood and Tears" (based on Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location; has a later remake, "Out for Blood (Blood and Tears Remix)")
• "Ground Zero" (based on Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator)
• "Web Of Lies" (based on Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted)
• "Monster In Your Head" (based on Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach)
• "Dark Remains", the beginning of the four-part ending arc, wrapping up the musical lore rather than being based on a specific game.
• "Shadows of Agony"
• "Taking Back Fazbear's"
• "Virus"
• And finally, the full prequel supercut (again, all in one -- mostly -- with never-before-seen footage).

The in-universe chronological order has been confirmed to be Monster In Your Head -> Ground Zero -> Blood and Tears -> Web of Lies -> Dark Remains -> Shadows of Agony -> Taking Back Fazbear's -> Virus -> Original Series.

Both the original and prequel series have also spawned multiple bonus videos and April Fool's jokes over the years.

Tropes applying to Five Nights at Freddy's the Musical go below.

This web video series has examples of:

• Accidental Murder: Markiplier comes back after the first night loaded for bear in order to defend himself... and shoots the janitor, thinking it was Foxy coming to attack. Don't worry, Nate says the guy's in a stable condition in Night 4.5 of the Supercut.
• Achilles in His Tent: After escaping in "Web of Lies," Elizabeth tries to run away in "Dark Remains" until Balloon Boy guilts her into returning.
• Adam Westing: Mark and MatPat's roles play into the popular perception of them as a jumpy paranoiac who screams over the most harmless things and an unhinged deceitful psychopath, respectively.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: Most of the animatronics, especially the Fazbear Four.
• Adaptational Dumbass: In the second game, Foxy is the one animatronic (other than the puppet) who isn't fooled by the Fazbear mask. In the musical, though, he not only falls for the Mangle mask Mark made on the spot, but he falls in love.
• Adaptational Heroism: Golden Freddy, who appears as a superhero. On top of that, pretty much all of the animatronics really; some remain evil, but of those, one pulls a Heel–Face Turn and the other is a pretty good guy throughout most of the prequels.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Phone Guy and Henry Emily are combined into the Big Bad.
  • Trash and the Gang are working with Glitchtrap from "Web of Lies" on, and arguably even in "Ground Zero".
• Adaptational Wimp: The animatronics, except for Springtrap and those introduced in the prequels. The unstoppable Puppet loses to the office fan of all things. In Night 4, Mark easily restrains Freddy. Any time Freddy so much as actually tries to stand up to someone else, he fails, hard.
• Alliterative List: In Night 3, when the animatronics are trying to guess what's in the box.
  Freddy: ♪Obviously / it's full of party favors!♪
  Bonnie: ♪Pickles!♪
  Chica: ♪Ponies!♪
  Freddy: ♪Pizza!♪
  Bonnie: ♪The pox!♪ ...what?
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The first two nights are all Markiplier, with Nate coming out of nowhere to do Night 3 after Mark is arrested. Mark rejoins the story in Night 4.
• April Fools' Day:
  • Night 6 - Nightmare Night. The video's thumbnail showed "nightmare" versions of the puppets alongside Purple Guy screaming in terror. The actual video has Purple Guy repeatedly dozing off, only to be woken up by dreams of Bonnie conducting an unseen (but not unheard) group of Dreadful Musicians. The thumbnail was later updated with "APRIL FOOLS" stamped across it and Purple Guy now singing instead of screaming. The nightmare puppets remain, though.
  • Do the Jump Scare is another April Fool's joke video, a song for Trash and the Gang.
• The Backwards Я: Shown in the facility overview on the computer, as a shout-out to the Random Encounters logo.
• Bears Are Bad News: While Freddy averts it, MatPat bursts into the office in a bear suit while wielding a chainsaw.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the original, Mark and Nate survive five nights and the animatronics find a new job in game designing, but Freddy Fazbear's Pizza has burned down, the Puppet, BB.exe (who is alive even if he can be controlled remotely), and AJ are dead, and Phone Guy isn't finished with them yet.
• Blooper Reel: There's a whole playlist of them!
• Bullying a Dragon: In the FNAF musical supercut, AJ assumes one of MatPat's nicknames was "evil dirtbag with a chainsaw". MatPat says that nickname is his favorite as he kills AJ.
• The Bus Came Back: Mark was Put on a Bus due to being unavailable after night 2, but night 4 was delayed enough that his schedule freed up for him to return.
• Call a Human a "Meatbag": Glitchtrap in "Shadows of Agony", dismissively talking about all the murders in the restaurant.
• Call-Forward:
  • In "Ground Zero", on the list of things that are suggested to Mike to order for the pizzeria are a chainsaw and a flamethrower. The Balloon Boy robot and Springtrap also show up partway through.
  • After Mike dies, Phone Guy pulls out a folder of applications and is seen calling a "Mr. WantsToBattle".
  • Speaking of Nate, in "Taking Back Fazbear's", he gets frustrated with the animatronics and says he's glad he'll never see them again.
  • Counting all the Ironic Echoes of lines from the original in the prequels could make its own page.
• The Cameo: The ending arc and supercut of the prequels have cameo appearances from a lot of popular creators in the FNAF fandom, as well as the return of Mark and Nate.
• Car Fu: Baby attacks Glitchtrap right when he's about to kill Elizabeth by crashing a car she stole through the wall of Freddy's.
• Cat Scare: In "Ground Zero," tension builds as Mike tries to scan the vent, terrified, and then he's jumpscared by... a popup ad on his computer.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Every episode is darker than the last up until the epilogue. The prequels follow the same pattern for the most part, but "Taking Back Fazbear's" is much more lighthearted and silly before the drop back into serious territory with "Virus".
• Chekhov's Gun: The fan in the office, a constant in the video games that never did much, comes into play in Night 3 when the Puppet is knocked into it, destroying the Puppet and leaving Springtrap with no opposition.
• Composite Character:
  • Composite Setting, but still worth a mention. The restaurant most of the musical takes place in combines elements from the first three games (apart from Night 4, which borrows mostly from the fourth game). In Night 1 alone, it looks like it'll just be the first game, but we get the music box and puppet from the second and the air vent system from the third before the episode's end.
  • Eggs is actually Alexandra Vanessa Benedict.
• Continuity Cameo: When asked if Mark and Nate will appear in the prequel era (particularly Nate as his backstory involves having been a previous employee and he's teased at the end of "Ground Zero"), RE teased small cameos, and a later promotional image on both YouTube and Instagram hinted at Nate returning for one of these in the lead-up to "Shadows of Agony". This turns out to be true, with Nate appearing as a pizza delivery boy for Freddy Fazbear's, while Mark appears to have been a phone operator before his fateful week at Freddy's in the same episode.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
  • Purple Guy could have just asked Mark and Nate to let him have some of their hours, especially as Nate doesn't even want the job and Mark is wanted for murder. Instead he tried to scare them into quitting. He feels kind of stupid.
    Markiplier: You are kind of stupid.
  • After killing AJ, Phone Guy MatPat tells Mark that none of the events of the series would have happen if he didn't ignore his advice. It's possible that it was done to rub salt in the wound, but the prequels show that he's more than willing to have people killed if they look too into the animatronics and other evidence of his murders, or if they get the police involved as Mark did.
    Phone Guy MatPat: None of us probably would be together tonight if you'd just listened to what I told you about the animatronics on the first night.
• Counterpoint Duet:
  • "Night 4" for Mark and Nate.
  • "Dark Remains" for Baby and Phone Guy.
  • "Shadows of Agony" for Vanny and Glitchtrap.
• Curse Cut Short: AJ in the FNAF Musical Supercut.
  AJ: Sorry I'm late, traffic was a... (sees the office in a mess)
• Cutting the Electronic Leash: In the Epilogue, Phone Guy MatPat calls Nate's cell phone from jail and rants about how he'll kill him one day. Nate responds by nonchalantly putting him on hold and tossing the phone in a fountain.
• Cutting the Knot: When Springtrap starts going nuts on Phone Guy!MatPat, Nate says they should try to override the door controls. Mark just rips the button panel off with his bare hands.
• Dark Is Evil: Used throughout "Dark Remains," where darkness represents Circus Baby's Partyworks, Baby's misery, and the Big Bad's slippery slope after he "drove away the light".
• Dead Guy on Display: Springtrap strings Balloon Boy's decapitated head from the ceiling for the night guards to find.
• Deadly Euphemism: Chica talks about someone "hurting" Michael when he's obviously dead in front of her. Other characters talk about murder candidly.
• Deadpan Snarker: Nate is one of the protagonists but he isn't above making some dry, snarky remarks. It's especially evident in the supercut.
• Death by Adaptation: The Puppet dies in Night 3.
• Death Song: Mike dies right at the end of "Ground Zero".
• Decomposite Character:
  • Purple Guy, Springtrap, Glitchtrap, and William Afton are four separate characters in this series. Combined with Composite Character: we're led to believe for a long time that Phone Guy is Afton here, long before the movie universe pulled the same twist, and while he's revealed in Shadows of Agony to have actually stolen the real William Afton's identity, he's still the restaurant's owner and the serial child killer who created the haunted animatronics.
  • Vanessa's counterpart is Alexandra Vanessa Benedict, but Vanny is a security program that manipulated her (that is, "got into her head") rather than literally a corrupted version of her.
  • Also the case with Elizabeth Afton and Circus Baby; in the games, Elizabeth is the spirit possessing Baby after being killed by her, but here, Baby is already "alive" while Elizabeth is an active, living participant in the plot, and the two of them are played by different actors, even after they were recast. However, as Phone Guy has two actors as well (in-person and the voice used over the phone or while distorted by the mask), this was still unconfirmed until both characters appeared in "Dark Remains."
• Did Not Die That Way: Phone Guy is always seen lying to the police after someone dies or gets grievously injured in the restaurant — enough that the Board of Business stops believing him, kicking the plot in gear in the prequels.
• Disney Acid Sequence: Nightmare Night, a non-canon April Fool's joke depicting Purple Guy having trippy nightmares.
• Distant Duet: Night 4, Dark Remains, and part of Web of Lies.
• Donut Mess with a Cop: Mark escapes from the police car when the cops stop to get donuts and they leave the front door unlocked.
• Doomed by Canon: Naturally, all those new characters the prequels introduced aren't going to make it into the main cast. The creators even leaned into it by making a death guess post before "Virus" dropped to see which new characters the viewers thought might die before the end of the prequels.
• Downer Ending: In the prequel, Elizabeth is able to defeat Glitchtrap, but afterwards Liz is forced to beat a PTSD-crazed Circus Baby to death. Elizabeth tries to take the animatronics home, but Glitchtrap springs awake, shocks Liz, and reactivates the power in the building. This activates Henry's bomb, killing both Glitchtrap and Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Henry gets away with everything, being able to open up a new Freddy's after faking his death. The only silver lining is that Glitchtrap is dead and that thanks to being a prequel, we know Henry will eventually receive some comeuppance in the original musical.
• Driver Faces Passenger: Deconstructed in the Supercut version; before what was originally Night 3.5, while Nate is trying to call Freddy's, he turns to talk to Bonnie and ends up having to quickly swerve to avoid an accident when he turns back to the road.
• Dual-Meaning Chorus: The last chorus of "Dark Remains" has Baby and Phone Guy singing the same words but with a very different meaning from each of them; for one, it's a BSoD Song, and for the other, a villain singing about how much worse things will get for everyone else.
• Easter Egg: In "Web of Lies," a message is hidden on the equipment in the server room: "Sorry, no Markiplier. Chica is holding him hostage with puppy dog eyes."
• Eat the Camera: Done in the blooper reel for "Ground Zero."
• Enemy Mine: In the first half of the ending arc, Balloon Boy urges Elizabeth to find Vanny and ask for her help stopping Glitchtrap. While Vanny isn't very receptive at first, she relents when she sees that Glitchtrap is loose and that Elizabeth's late brother saved Trash and the Gang.
• Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: When AJ is quickly talking in "Blood and Tears", the closed captions just say "*Fast mumbling on the phone*".
• Evidence Scavenger Hunt: Night 3, where Nate is getting used to the job again and spotting strange things in the restaurant, while the rest of the animatronics search for where Springtrap hid Bonnie.
• Evil Versus Evil: The villains aren't all on the same side and sometimes work against each other, especially in the prequels, where Glitchtrap undermines Afton, berates and abuses Springtrap, and blames Vanny for his confinement.
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • Phone Guy MatPat brutally slaughters AJ with a chainsaw, complete with blood splashing onto the camera.
  • Springtrap literally gets his head chopped off a few minutes afterwards, and his headless body STILL attacks Phone Guy MatPat!
  • Phone Guy MatPat being mauled by Springtrap and then being burned alive. Subverted; he survived.
  • Not even the prequels are safe from this, as we've seen in "Monster In Your Head". It's hard to tell how Vanny "kills" Alexandra (though she does end up living, albeit scarred), but the end results in her blood being splattered all over the wall.
  • The supercut of the prequels, "First Night at Freddy's", features Elizabeth beating Circus Baby to death after the latter tried to choke the former to death, leaving oil-like blood on both of their faces.
• Faux Horrific: Mark screaming "PURPLE GUY!" in terror upon seeing... a man in a purple jumpsuit, who helps him up and reveals himself to be the morning shift guard. Brought back in a darker context when he does the same screech in response to seeing Purple Guy bludgeoning Nate with a fire extinguisher.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The Supercut shows that Mark and Nate remain in contact after surviving all five nights.
• Foreshadowing: "You're gonna burn for this."
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: In the supercut of the prequel, the "Web of Lies" segment is reshot with Katie Herbert as Elizabeth, as Adriana Figueroa couldn't make it due to illness and scheduling issues.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Plenty! For a few instances, the text on the article about Alexandra's injury is the lyrics to "Baby I Love You" and there's a hidden message in the server room during "Web of Lies" addressing the people wondering why Mark wasn't in the prequels yet.
• For the Evulz: The apparent motivation of Phone Guy MatPat in the ending, though a popular theory (before the prequel era confirmed he was an established character and not actually his actor) was that all those FNAF theories broke his mind. Not so in the prequels, which expand more on his character and show that he's obsessed with covering up his old crimes.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: A teaser for Night 3 has members of the crew sitting around, eating pizza, and suddenly losing power, which is the cue for them to start screaming through Freddy's "special song".
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The box Springtrap arrives in has a mailing label on it saying it was sent by Scott Cawthon. This is referenced in the Supercut's I Have Many Names line.
  • "Web of Lies" has a hidden message apologizing to fans of the original that Markiplier had not yet appeared in the prequels.
  • "Dark Remains" has text in the news articles about Alexandra's bite that infer that Bucket Bob somehow talked to the media.
• Glowing Eyes: Supercharged animatronics have this happen to them, and Baby displays electronic green glowing eyes at one point.
• Gone Horribly Right: AJ reveals Springtrap was meant to scare the other night guards from their job, but he got "a little carried away" in Night 5.
• Greater-Scope Villain: MatPat as the Phone Guy in the original series. In the prequels, when he is the main villain, the animatronic researchers at Circus Baby's PartyWorks take this role, showing that the problem is far beyond one person.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Freddy and the gang escape Circus Baby's PartyWorks by stealing a guard's badge and walking out in a Totem Pole Trench, being very obvious. Nobody seems to care too much.
• Hair-Raising Hare: As Elizabeth says, "Uncle William really likes rabbits." Just like in canon, there are enough of these among the animatronics (while Bonnie is friendly, the others are not) that hearing that the real culprit was a rabbit animatronic specifically is how Elizabeth realizes that Alexandra was actually telling the truth about her attacker.
• Hero Stole My Bike: Well, Anti-Hero anyway. Baby steals a car from a driver's ed examiner (who proceeds to blame the student) in order to get to Freddy's in "Virus".
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Vanny and Baby both end up on the heroes' side by "Shadows of Agony," leaving Phone Guy and Glitchtrap in an Evil Versus Evil dynamic.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In "Ground Zero," Mike's idealism slowly gives way to a desperation to keep the restaurant afloat that leads to, among other things, salvaging the suspicious-looking Springtrap rather than purchase a non-haunted animatronic and cutting corners with safety precautions in the building. Both of these things get him killed.
• Hope Spot: Given that it's a prequel, "Ground Zero" is almost entirely this. Mike is afraid of what's coming in the vent, gets scared by a popup ad, and seems completely safe... but gets killed at the end.
• "I Am" Song: "Monster In Your Head" is this for Vanny.
• I Have Many Names: From the Big Bad: "I go by many names. Phone Guy, MatPat, Scott Cawthon..."
• I Just Want to Have Friends:
  • The animatronics don't want to stuff anyone in a Freddy Fazbear suit, just to say hi. But their "quirkiness", Mark's paranoia, and the infamous Bite of '87 make it hard for them without someone freaking out or trying to kill them. Fortunately, Nate sees them for the harmless creatures they are.
  • In the prequel era, Springtrap of all animatronics, before he meets Purple Guy. Glitchtrap mocks him about not belonging when he tries to conscript him into the Trash Gang.
• Impostor All Along: Phone Guy isn't Afton; he killed him for trying to free a captive child.
• Job Song: A lot of the songs are from the perspective of guards and managers singing about their work duties, at least at first.
• Knight of Cerebus: Springtrap and Phone Guy MatPat, attacking in person, both herald darker turns to the story, and, on their own, are more threatening than funny. Baby is this for the prequels, introducing their darker tone compared to the original.
• LEGO Body Parts: Phone Guy is deranged enough to believe this will work, cutting off his own hands and the hands of someone he's just murdered, presumably to obscure the evidence of his crimes that the Board of Business had been looking for.
• Leitmotif: Phone Guy has a distinctive one, which carries over to the prequels. Nate also has one, the first notes of the Night 3 song.
• Lighter and Softer: Their portrayal of the Fazbear Band in comparison to the source material.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: Markiplier at the start of Night 2 loads a bunch of guns and carries them with him to work in a duffle bag.
• Locked Room Mystery: This is why everyone believes Eggs tried to kill herself in "Monster In Your Head" as the door was sealed from the inside via a bolt, with Eggs being the only one in the room. Vanny locked the door herself before attacking Eggs, using her powers as a digital glitch to disappear undetected.
• Logo Joke: The ending arc of the prequels all start their individual episodes with a grimy, weathered version of the RE logo and end with a glitched-out version.
• Match Cut: This is done with Circus Baby's left eye and a red light in William Afton's office in "The Dark Remains".
• Meaningful Background Event: At the beginning of Night 1, Phone Guy tries to warn Mark about the animatronics, but after saying that they "can be a bit... active," Mark drowns him out as he says not to be afraid since they just like to say hi. As we learn near the end of the Supercut version, Mark really should have listened.
• Minor Character, Major Song: "Ground Zero." Though Mike isn't a minor character in the source material, he is here, initially only appearing in this song (though he does get a little more screentime in the supercut) and then becoming Elizabeth's dead motivation for solving the mysteries of Freddy's, rather than the other way around.
• Mundane Utility: The epilogue shows Mark using Phone Guy/Afton's flamethrower-chainsaw to grill hot dogs.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Bite of '87 is often referenced. Nate was apparently the guard when it happened and in this universe it at first seems that Freddy was the perpetrator. "Web Of Lies" mentions the Bite as a possible hoax perpetrated by Phone Guy to distract authorities from the child murders he'd committed.
  • Springtrap being lured by Balloon Boy's voice is reworked as him chasing a Balloon Boy on wheels around the restaurant.
  • To other Random Encounters videos, the supercut has Mark speculate that the Janitor survived due to having some sort of black magic. Thing is, he does. All janitors in Random Encounters are played by the same guy and always sweeping, because he is the "Minesweeper" who "trained in the dark arts".
• Named in the Sequel: Prequel, actually. Because William Afton didn't have a name in canon until after the original musicals came out, he doesn't go by that name until the prequels and uses his other aliases (and his actor's name, to match Mark and Nate) in the original series instead.
• Non-Malicious Monster:
  • Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy aren't trying to hurt anyone, but their antics leave Markiplier so spooked that they drive him insane. Very much averted with Springtrap and later enemies Baby and Glitchtrap.
  • The Puppet whose main job is just to contain Springtrap. When Mark forgets to keep it asleep, it comes into the office... and dances.
• No OSHA Compliance: Zig-Zagged. Nate outright says that "Freddy's isn't exactly... up to code", but their plan to beat Springtrap relies on the one thing Freddy's got right in that regard: keeping multiple fire extinguishers in the building. Then it's up to whether Springtrap preemptively stole the extinguishers or Freddy's simply never bothered to make sure there were always fire extinguishers where there should be; the latter would be this trope, but it's implied the former is the case. Especially considering AJ knocks Nate out with one of them. And there's still something to be said for the fact that the one extinguisher they do find doesn't work properly — it literally blows up in Nate's face — indicating that no-one bothered to maintain them. There's also this:
  Nate: You can't legally work that many hours!
  Purple Guy: You can't legally let stinky animatronics bite children either!
  Freddy: Hey! That was an accident!
• No Song for the Wicked:
  • In the original series, none of the villains sing, even though MatPat has a background in musical theatre. This is brought up and addressed in a comment video.
  • Averted in the prequel series; there are plenty of Villain Songs there, and notably, in "Dark Remains", MatPat finally sings.
• Officer O'Hara: One of the cops has an Irish accent.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Mark when he's informed at the end of Night 1 that he's been scheduled every night that week.
  • Nate in Night 4 when Balloon Boy's antenna gets knocked off, causing him to shut down, leaving him a sitting duck for Springtrap.
  • The song in Night 5 is full of this as the gang realizes the extinguishers are all missing from their proper places until Chica finds one in the kitchen. Then she gets one of her own when she realizes Springtrap is right behind her.
  • Even Phone Guy gets one once Springtrap is released and promptly attempts to maul the psycho in the bear suit, even after Springtrap has his head knocked off!
  Phone Guy: WHAT IS THIS THING?!?
• Once an Episode: The original series has this with Foxy popping out of something, like an air vent, a closet, or dropping from the ceiling.
  Nate: You really can't go one night without popping out of something, can you?
• Parody Commercial: The trailer for "Monster In Your Head" is an ad for Fredbear's Family Diner peppered with glitch horror.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The animatronics are portrayed by puppets, but Springtrap's battle against Nate shows that he's still very strong.
• Playing Card Motifs: The last card tossed into the hat, which gets a shot focusing on it before Night 5, is the 3 of Hearts. Translated to its tarot equivalent, the 3 of Cups, that generally signifies finding community, trusting in friends, and relying on outside help; the previous scene has Nate and the animatronics searching for help and finding Mark, who at first wants nothing to do with them but starts reluctantly getting used to being around to help them here.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Mike's death in "Ground Zero" prompts the events of "Web Of Lies," as his sister Elizabeth became employed at Freddy Fazbear's solely to find out what happened to him.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Night 1 in a nutshell. As Markiplier checks the cameras, the animatronics end up accidentally startling Mark, which makes him scream. They then panic and go to check on him... and he utterly overreacts, suddenly sure they'll kill him. Their attempts to reassure him only spook him more. What's worse is this apparently happens a lot, as Chica mentions they lose many guards this way in Night 2, and the animatronics haven't learned.
  • Again in Night 4 when Bonnie randomly draws an easily misinterpreted image (showing the danger of Springtrap... by showing Springtrap standing over a bloody corpse) to try and convince Mark to help but only scaring him.
    Bonnie: Does this help explain? *holds up picture*
    Markiplier: *screams, grabs Freddy and a knife and holds the knife to Freddy's throat* STAY BACK!
    Bonnie: Huh, I guess it didn't.
• Power at a Price: In "Dark Remains", Baby "charges" the Fazbear Four to be able to remain active past 6 AM with one of the same experiments that was used on her, which comes in the form of Electric Torture but gives them the power they need.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • From Phone Guy MatPat, we get "Why, this is a crime scene! And you're the victims." *Evil Laugh*
  • Mark gets one shortly after, which doubles as a Shut Up, Hannibal!.
  Phone Guy MatPat: (referring to the animatronics) They just wanted to say hi!
  Mark: Not all of them! (releases Springtrap)
  • And from Shadows of Agony after the fight between Vanny and Glitchtrap.
  Vanny: I hope you like that bunny suit, because you're gonna DIE in it.
  Glitchtrap: Speak for YOURSELF. (destroys her)
• Present-Day Past: Mike has a Bendy and the Ink Machine keychain on his lanyard in 1987, and Nate references YouTube, Uber, and Steven Universe in what otherwise appears to be 1994.
• Prequel: A whole series of them!
• Redemption Equals Death: Before AJ's untimely death, he realized he should have just asked Mark and Nate to give him their hours instead of scaring them into quitting.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: William Afton is Elizabeth's uncle in this continuity, not her father. Word of God states that this was because the actors were too close in age for them to believably be parent and child.
• Restraining Bolt: Baby explains in "Dark Remains" that after she tried to escape the experiments done on her, she was fitted with something that would fry her circuits should she disobey again.
• Retcon: The prequel supercut edits some of Phone Guy's dialogue to smooth out the continuity, since the prequel songs were filmed years apart and the whole story hadn't been written during the earlier ones.
• The Reveal: Multiple.
  • Purple Guy orchestrated Springtrap’s villainy to get more hours.
  • Phone Guy is the Greater-Scope Villain and is played by MatPat.
  • Eggs is revealed in "Monster in Your Head" and "Dark Remains" an employee at Fredbear’s Family Dined and created Trash and the Gang before being attacked by Vanny and believed to be insane.
  • Phone Guy is not William Afton and is actually Henry Emily (or someone who also took Henry’s identity according to AJ) who murdered Afton and took his identity afterwards.
  • Glitchtrap was created by the real Afton for therapy through digital artificial intelligence and was trapped in a hard drive for suggesting to Afton the idea to replace his dead child with another one. Also, the reason he is evil is implied to be because he was banished for doing what he was programmed to do and had to witness whom he believed was his creator, hypocritically murder kids. He also is the reason Springtrap is more hostile in the original series, having “repaired him” through giving him some of his hostile evil code.
  • The real William Afton is innocent in the murders and is Glitchtrap’s creator.
  • The safety inspector, a very small and seemingly unimportant role in the prequels is Scott Cawthon, one of Phone Guy’s aliases which he uses after doing a Kill and Replace and faking his death.
• Revenge Ballad: Glitchtrap's portions of "Shadows of Agony."
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Nate's late rent notice has typos on it.
• Running Gag:
  • Commenting on the broken camera in the kitchen and how it should have been fixed by now.
  • "Baby I Love You," a 60s-style song, playing for comedic effect.
• Sad Battle Music: A lot of the production soundtrack is as depressing as it is tense.
• Sanity Slippage Song: "Dark Remains," about how Baby became a Broken Bird resigned to her fate and dreaming of revenge on her captors, having long since discarded morals and forgiveness, and how Phone Guy considers himself a monster and is more than happy to lean into it.
• Saved by Canon:
  • While Purple Guy, the guard in "Blood and Tears," is in legitimate danger, we know he's fine because it's his Origins Episode; after all, it can't possibly take place after the original.
  • Similarly, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy are abducted at the end of "Web Of Lies", but since this is another prequel, we know they will be fine.
  • The Puppet appears to die in "Taking Back Fazbear's", even though it should survive to Night 3; naturally, it was still alive.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Springtrap, though the can isn't as secure as one would hope, given that it's just a cardboard box sealed with duct tape.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: In two ways. "Blood and Tears," the series' first Villain Song, doesn't feature the cutesy puppet animatronics at all. While they do appear in "Web of Lies," that does away with the "Baby I Love You" running gag that had appeared in every other video.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Phone Guy MatPat calls Nate at the end, he says, "might be obvious now, but I didn't die in that fire." One of the popular FNAF fan songs is "(I Hope You) Die In A Fire."
  • One of the tracks on the prequel OST is "Setting Us Up The Bomb."
• Silly Love Song: "Baby I Love You" is pretty silly on its own, even outside of the running gag it exists for.
• Skewed Priorities: While Freddy's guesses of what's in the box in Night 3 are things Fazbear's would actually need and order, Chica just thinks of something she would want herself, and Bonnie's suggestions are just weird.
• Song of Courage: "Taking Back Fazbear's" parodies this, as the goofy mascot characters are trying to boost each other's courage to, well, take back Fazbear's, while putting off actually risking their necks to do anything about it.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Phone Guy, who dies in the games, lives in the FNAF supercut, albeit in police custody since he's the villain here.
  • Elizabeth Afton also survives the events of 'Web of Lies', and kills Circus Baby instead of dying to her, although she later dies in the end of the supercut.
• The Stinger: In FNAF: The Musical, after the credits of the full movie version, the four animatronics are seen playtesting a game they created. Bonnie suggests calling it "FNAF World" which is shot down. Freddy then suggests calling it "Five Nights at Freddy's" only to be chastised by Bonnie for taking all the credit.
• String Theory: Lizzy develops a theory wall, strings and tacks included, on the wall of Mike's apartment when she moves in.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • The animatronics are all hand puppets and the Puppet is an actual marionette. Balloon Boy is a remote-controlled bot on wheels.
  • Phone Guy MatPat chainsaws through a wall... only for the chainsaw to not cut the wall very much, leading to the equally badass move of ripping the remains apart bare-handed.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Night Five opens like this:
  Mark: Somewhere something's hiding in the dark…
  Nate: Somewhere Springtrap's out there roaming free…
  Freddy: Somewhere here, a monster's on the move…
  Mark: Something tells me we're all gonna be… DEAD!
• Summon Bigger Fish: More like Release Bigger Fish, since they already had him there. After Phone Guy MatPat kills AJ, Mark releases Springtrap to deal with him while he, Nate, and the other animatronics escape.
• Super Window Jump: How Elizabeth escapes Glitchtrap after being locked in a closet. We don't see the actual jump, but we do hear the glass break and see her land in the garbage, apparently uninjured.
• Suspiciously Apropos Music: The full version of "Baby I Love You" that appears in the credits and the soundtrack fits this, as while it's still a generic love song, it has a number of eyebrow-raising references to the actual plot of both the musical and the games it's based on, such as "inhuman squeals", roaming the halls at night, and the speaker being referred to as a "broken freak".
• Take That!: To YouTube's ad revenue, in Night 3.
  Nate: It's been seven years since I worked at this place.
  A part of my life I much regret.
  Saw kids burst in tears, a bear start eating a face.
  I tried to move on, and just forget...
  ...buuut YouTube ad rev isn't all that great. So...
• Tap on the Head: Nate gets knocked out with a fire extinguisher to the head near the end of Night 5. He wakes up less than 20 seconds later none the worse for wear.
• Tempting Fate: "Wow, weird. Everything turned out okay." Cue Phone Guy MatPat.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Mark is arrested and escapes back to his house at the end of Night 2, but is searched out by the new night guard and the animatronics (for being the only one skilled enough to stop Springtrap) during Night 4, becoming The Leader in Night 5.
• Totem Pole Trench: Freddy and friends do this with a lab coat to escape Circus Baby's Partyworks in "Dark Remains". They're... much more obvious than they think they are, but the employees seem to think it's none of their business.
• Tranquil Fury: Mark towards Phone Guy MatPat, which is surprising given his freak outs in the face of the animatronics were much more emotive.
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: Near the end of "Ground Zero" as the tension starts building with Mike starting to sense something is watching him.
• Tuckerization: Officer Pinkerton, named for one of the cast and staff members while not being played by him.
• Uncertain Doom: The ending of "Monster In Your Head" implies Alexandra is dead, but doesn't state it. She turns out to have actually survived in "Dark Remains".
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: The plot seemingly changes as well after Night 2, going from a night guard suffering sanity slippage and imagining the robots are evil to an actually evil animatronic being delivered, forcing the Fazbear Four to seek the night guard's help. The plots are then brought together when they recruit the former, traumatized, night guard as backup so he can prove to the cops he wasn't lying about the animatronics.
• Villain Song: While the original series doesn't have any, the prequels have multiple! "Monster In Your Head" and "Virus" are full villain songs, and "Web of Lies", "Dark Remains", and "Shadows of Agony" are shared back-and-forths between a hero and villain, though the hero in "Shadows of Agony" is a freshly redeemed villain.
• We Will Meet Again: At the end of the original series, Phone Guy/Henry Emily vows revenge once he gets out of prison.
• Wham Line:
  • After Nate fails to douse Springtrap, these lines are uttered.
  NateWantsToBattle: Well that didn’t go as planned [gets knocked on the head by a second fire extinguisher].
  AJ/Purple Guy: You can say that again.
  Markiplier: PURPLE GUY!?
  AJ/Purple Guy: Hey-J, I'm... not in a really good mood, so drop the rope and release my murder gremlin.
  • After the action is wrapped up and things seem headed towards a happy ending, Phone Guy calls the office once again and things take a turn for the nightmarish...
  Phone Guy: Uh? Hello! Hello, hello! Oh, hey! Congratulations! It looks like you guys managed to survive… Five Nights at Freddy's! That’s pretty awesome! Uh, unfortunately (thump) that really wasn’t how I, uh, expected all of this to end (thump). (Doors close) See, I… I-I really thought you guys would all turn on each other by now… but you didn’t (thump). So I guess I have to drop by the office (Chainsaw starts and everyone panics). (Breaks into the office wearing a mascot suit wielding a chainsaw and flamethrower) AND FINISH (takes off mascot suit head) THE JOB!
  Markiplier: Can somebody tell me what’s going on?
  Phone Guy: Why, this is a crime scene... and YOU'RE the victims! (Evil Laugh)
  • In Shadows of Agony, Glitchtrap attacks Phone Guy, who has always been referred to as Mr. Afton in the prequels. However, when he pulls off his mask...
  Glitchtrap: Wait. You're not William Afton.
  • Then in Virus:
  Lizzy: My uncle knows what you did!
  Glitchtrap: Your uncle is dead. [Lizzy looks shocked] The lunatic you’re thinking of is Henry Emily, William Afton’s disreputable partner. He offed your uncle years ago and has been using Freddy Fazbear’s to scratch his every sadistic itch. And he’s been real itchy. Wasn't your brother found dead here?
  • Another one that is actually the last lines of the movie and implies the name of the Safety Inspector.
  Purple Guy: Thank you for this job Mr…?
  Phone Guy: Cawthon. [raises out hand] Scott Cawthon.
• Wolverine Publicity: Bonnie has appeared in far more spinoffs and cameos than anyone else in the cast, followed by Purple Guy, for practical reasons; both were played by a regular member of the Random Encounters team rather than a guest star. However, "Ground Zero" brings back the voice actors used for Phone Guy and the animatronics, and "Web of Lies" brings them all back again along with MatPat (though, as an Easter egg in the video states, no Mark or Nate).
• World of Bad Cops: Mark escapes custody because the police left him in the car unguarded without locking him in. What's more is that a throwaway line from one of the cops implies this kind of thing happens a lot. The police are similarly incompetent in the prequels, to the point that a serial killer can get away from them by stealing his victims' identities yet remaining in his job at least five times.
• You Have Failed Me: In "Monster In Your Head", Vanny attacks Alexandra after the work she put into making the trash gang that the former wanted to use as minions went into waste, thanks to her boss. Glitchtrap is also prone to this, taking Bucket Bob apart after Elizabeth escapes.
• Your Other Left: Nate says this to Foxy while he looks for a fire extinguisher in Night 5.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The pre-supercut version of Night 5 ends on this note. It looks like everyone has come to an agreement. And then Phone Guy MatPat makes the scene.