What Are The Phantom Animatronics HIDING? | FNAF Theory

Hey everyone, and welcome to my latest FNAF theory! Today, I talk about the Phantom Animatronics from FNAF 3, why they're hostile, if they're possesed or not, and more! Like & Sub if you enjoyed!
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Thumbnail: @WitheredCircle
Phantom Freddy render: HystericPanda
Music: Leon Riskin
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#FNAF #Gaming #Theory #FiveNightsAtFreddys #FNAFTheory #FNAFLore
#FNAFTimeline #SecurityBreach #FNAFSB #RuinDLC #fnafruin

[@Justaguy689]

Something to note is that when you leave a ventilation error alone for too long, you’ll start to hallucinate multiple springtraps, so I don’t think phone dude is referring to the phantoms as hallucinations

[@zetorocks811]

The Phantoms are burnt because the guard is most likely paranoid of the place burning down during the night, due to what Phone Dude says on night 1 “so we have to make sure EVERYTHING works, and nothing catches on fire!” “Some of this equipment is BARELY functional! Uh, I wasn't joking about the fire, that- that's a real risk.” It’s also foreshadowing the fire at the end of the game.

[@WitheredCircle]

that makes sense tbh it's pretty simple

[@logansgamingchannel6169]

The phone call about hallucinations is actually in reference to hallucinations of Springtrap that appear after your ventilation goes down as shown in a game mechanics overview of fnaf 3.

[@WitheredCircle]

makes sense but the books say the Phantoms are also hallucinations

[@logansgamingchannel6169]

@@WitheredCircle some of the guidebooks seem to have a few issues with them and might be unreliable

[@xaviervalencia9296]

My favorite phantom animatronic is Phantom Freddy because of his design. My take on them is that they’re the souls that latched onto William when he got springlocked and could change their appearance to match the fears and memories of the people that they come in contact with. This explains why Hudson sees the phantoms differently from how Michael sees them. The Phantom Puppet is different however, as it is a projection of Charlotte, explaining why the Puppet shows up in FNAF3 as both a physical animatronic and as a phantom animatronic.

[@TheShinobiReal]

my fav is phantom puppet cuz it looks so cool

[@kyletheorangeguy7090]

i think the phantoms designs are like that is because its a visual representation of how Aftons influence corrupted them hence why they attack Michael

[@KRZJeordy]

I like Phantom Foxy the most because it's the only one that's really scary, and while you're playing you don't realize that it's going to scare you.

[@shronkler1994]

do you realize any of them are gonna scare you if you dont realize foxy will?

[@KENSHIROez3260]

I believe Phantom Animatronics is never a soul of the kids at all but something like Djinn because Djinn like place that are dirty and abandoned like Fazbear Fright did and Djinn have ability to shapeshift into something that a lot of people fear This can be further supported by Marionette having Phantom counterpart despite still roaming around

[@Sonicmid]

Imo I think the phantom animatronics are spring trap, agony and memories of the characters from the stuff in the attraction. William has knowledge of one of these characters. BB: the audio lure Chica: the arcade machine because Susie Foxy: the head Mangle: the weirdest one but likely the head in the office Phantom puppet : their mask Phantom Freddy: golden Freddy because of DCI

[@burner555]

William was at FNAF2 location so he must remember them from there Except Classic Chica for obvious reasons

[@monstrdog7031]

The phantom puppet leaves a big hole in it, but I used to go with a soul splitting/wondering spirits with molten mci, with what remnant would be left in the shells of the classics scattered through the building. That remnant could still be helping with the hallucinations, with phone dude's warning/any planned arson ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[@CreeperokGames]

My favorite phantoms are the withereds, cause I like everything tied to them. But Phantom Freddy is at the top cause it's the first time we see G Freddy walk(even if he's not real and don't have a leg, which is ironic) and I simply like WF design especially Golden variant, cause my favorite character, Shadow Freddy have it. So if we count Crumpled Freddy suit as phantom he'd be the favorite.

[@NickMT2017]

I always wondered why Scraptrap in Pizzeria Simulator couldn't summon the Phantoms if he could do it as Springtrap. We know from the books that painful deaths and emotions can create agony, which can then attach to nearby inanimate objects. Unlike Pizza Sim where most of the props seem to be newer or never-before-seen, Fazbear's Fright is full of old suit pieces, posters, and memorabilia from past locations. Springtrap is clearly more aware and in control than the spirits of the missing children, so it's likely he's using the agony of his death in combination with all the agony in Fazbear's Fright to create the Phantoms. William also saw the Withereds as the day guard in FNAF 2 and when he dismantled the Classics in Follow Me, so that checks out on how he could create them in the first place (this could also argue that the FNAF 3 guard isn't required to have seen them, or that both Springtrap and his victim must see the same things). On the side of the night guard being required to see the old characters in order to hallucinate them, Michael is the only candidate other than maybe Henry who appears to have taken the fall for William, being jailed and convicted in the FNAF 1 newspapers (explaining his late appearance in Pizza Sim). It's seemingly impossible for there to be a Hudson stand-in in the games, because of FNAF 2's ending newspaper saying that the location was open only a few short weeks. Phone Guy says "new Summer job," but Mr. Hippo's UCN dialogue explains that as Scott's mistake. Phone Guy was clearly reading a short company greeting and glossed over the Summer part, as maybe the FNAF 2 location planned to open early but ran into issues after they failed to retrofit the Withereds. With only a short "few weeks" in FNAF 2 during Fall, the possible guard that could then go to FNAF 1, survive, and still have any desire to participate in any Freddy's related stuff is massively slim. The burn marks are the dumbest part to solve, simply because they could be foreshadowing the fire, Michael's plan to burn the place down, or even just Phone Dudes line about the fire hazard of the faulty equipment. Adding it all up, the FNAF 3 guard would have to have been to FNAF 2 in the short period it was open, went to FNAF 1 and lived, experienced a traumatic fire or had the idea impressed on them so that it influenced their hallunications, and found out about some small team that was making a horror attraction out of Freddy's past. Finally, the Surivival Logbook which belongs to Mike shows the FNAF 3 location in it's pages, implying that it was printed as a parody by Phone Dude and co. and that Michael likely filled it out on either his first "0" night or on night 1 before things got serious. For the Puppet, that one's tough. If the Puppet was physically in Fazbear's Fright, then how are it's arms in pristine condition in that one rare screen with Lefty? Springtrap probably couldn't escape because Michael locked down the building after he left, so the Puppet would be trapped and burned too. The answer is either another agony hallucination like the multiple Springtraps that appear on the cameras during a ventilation error, or something similar to the FNAF 2 end-of-night hallucinations that show the Puppet staring at the Classics. All in all, this game personally takes the cake over FNAF 4's confusing lore for me. But the Phantoms are actually my favorite class of characters only slightly above the Withereds and Nightmares.

[@JonathanJohnJohnny-fv6ng]

I think a lot of the subjects in this video can be pretty easily explained. The reason phantom Chica is the fnaf 1 version while all the others are fnaf 2 is just because the design's face translated better onto the arcade than withered Chica would've. Withered foxy and freddy are also arguably better than fnaf 1 foxy and freddy so Scott simply wanted to use the better models (they were also already withered which matched with the fact they are burnt.) This also leads us to why are the phantoms burnt anyways? This is simply just foreshadowing for the player. This along with phone dude's talk about fires and hallucinations, it makes sense why the phantoms would be burnt. It forshadows the ending of fnaf 3. What about the fact that in help wanted the phantoms aren't the withered versions but rather the fnaf 1 versions? At the time the game was released, steel wool did not make withered versions of the animatronics, so they simply used what they did have. Why is phantom puppet not in help wanted? It was probably difficult to translate the effects of phantom puppet into VR, which is a real shame since it would've made the VR version of fnaf 3 a lot more terrifying. I will say it is odd that phantom puppet looks real for a moment, before becoming a phantom when they enter your office. However, I believe this is to show us that the puppet is actually at the fnaf 3 location. This is just a theory of mine, but the reason I believe this is the case is because they show up as real (which scares our poor night guard and creates the illusion.) The reason phone dude doesn't mention finding puppet and bringing it in is because puppet wandered there on its own. They literally don't know they have it. Puppet is here to tie up loose ends and move on by ensuring William dies in the fire. Again just a theory of mine.

[@pheonix8167]

Fire might happend before fnaf 3

[@WitheredCircle]

yeah but there's no evidence for one

[@Scorp-tw8xd]

8:40 also its maybe because Jeremy did throw a few punches to William while he tried to kill him,making him still pretty pissed about it

[@WitheredCircle]

That's a theory with no evidence unfortunately, as cool as it is The most aggressive one is actually either Chica or Freddy, they're really relentless and attack for longer in FNAF 1

[@frightsphoney42069]

I love both FNaF3 and the Phantom animatronics a lot, really love how you did this theory! Keep it up!

[@WitheredCircle]

thanks!

[@maxdeadwow963]

Phantom Mangle is my favorite from fnaf3. quick thing I think the phantoms are created by springtrap purposely or not from the memories of mike. though it gets weird for puppet because it uses the fnaf2 Cutscene but it could just be a gameplay thing, anyways great video.

[@NaiFarang]

Loved the theory! Also something that I have not thought about is that: how could fazbear entertainment know about some of the phantom animatronics? (as seen in help-wanted) Was it maybe known to the public that Michael was experiencing the Phantoms or maybe a different reason?

[@burner555]

Mike sketch them or they're made up by the rogue dev

[@NaiFarang]

@@burner555 interesting

[@saber_the_silly]

Idk how I found your channel but omg you need more views. I thought this video had at least 110k views, so I hope this video takes off cause it's clear how much effort was put in.

[@WitheredCircle]

thanks a lot!

[@mylastaccountgotdeletedtha6936]

You say the absence of phantom Bonnie is ok because of gameplay reasons but don’t consider the fact that HW didn’t even have withered models until a patch? Hell, FNAF 1 foxy was used in the FNAF 2 sections, is that supposed to be a similar retcon?

[@WitheredCircle]

It's likely a miscommunication or some deadline issues. I go by the latest iteration of the game to draw my conclusions and generally ignore older bugs or patched out features

[@terrantitanium6441]

my favourite Phantoms are Freddy and BB

[@JonathanMacLeod-km9cp]

Bro your seareosly underated

[@ModHaterHD2003]

I am proably one of the view people who kinda like the phantoms sure they are annoying in game but the idea behind them is still pretty interesting in my opinion

[@oneroushorse]

“Fnaf free”

[@WitheredCircle]

Yeah the actual subtitles don't have that lol KZbin subtitles suck

[@chrisk6637]

No,the're not

[@WitheredCircle]

Fair lol They're still interesting to discuss tho

[@engineeermaybegaming8029]

i think the reason in help wanted the phantoms uses their fnaf 1 model is mostly because the group that made the game didn't, couldn't or weren't allowed to use the withered models, or at least thats what i heard i also wanted to point out something about the toy animatronics, it's that they were never haunted and if they did it would be by the same 5 missing children, so they got controlled by the same souls that controls the original 4 (5 if we count golden) after all who said ghosts cant haunt more than 1 machine? Or maybe they might have been controlled by the puppet (which IS haunted) "then explain phantom mangle and phantom bb's existence?" well they are ghosts after all, they can take any form they want, chances are, phantom bb and phantom mangle may be the souls of bonnie and golden freddy, since these 2 characters specifically doesnt appear in the game, phantom bonnie and phantom "golden freddy" not existing because like explained there would be a confusion between these 2 with springtrap and phantom freddy respectively as for the phantoms hostility, they might try to scare off the player so they could burn the place down with the equipment errors but hey thats just a theory, A GAME THEORY!

[@sockjems2558]

Personally I think the phantoms are burnt because of the alleged Fall Fest fire that's portrayed in Help Wanted 2, Maybe Mike was responsible for the fire and so when he is sleepy from the lack of oxygen, he starts to relive the fire and the dreams he normally has are turned into hollutionations. I'm not so sure it's because Mike wants to set fire to them.

[@VersesEditz]

all of this has very good evidence also my favorite is phantom fred boy

[@Taro_Yanada]

I agree on the fact that the phantoms are created because of Springtrap. Thet's very obvious. And they are clearly meant to be part of Mike's memories, turn around against him. Although I don't think it's because he directly interacted with them. Well, not necessarily. As you said, and i'm glad you did, the Phantoms were changed in FNAF VR to look more like ther FNAF 1 counterparts (I've tried to make a post about that for MONTHS by now, but I couldn't find a good way of showing it). I think they look like that because of the Happiest Day minigames. And this is something no one talks about, but, didn't you notice that all those animatronics are related to the HD minigames? P. Mangle is related to Mangle's Quest, P. BB to BB's Aor Adventure, P. Freddy (Who has FNAF 2's GF design, mind you) to Stage 01, P. Chica to Chica's Party, and P. Puppet to Happiest Day. Even P. Foxy could be related to the OG Bite of '83 minigame! And for the Glitched Minigame, i think Springtrap himself being Springbonnie, who is most likely the animatronic Shadow Bonnie born from, links them all three together. And i think the new designs for the Phantoms do not really change what i said, but they do help disprove the MikeFritz theory. It's weird, because no one talks about this. We see in What We Found that the Phantoms are the protagonist's memories being turn semi-real because of all the agony around the place, then what does that mean when the characters from the HD minigames, which are BV's memories, appear to Mike as his'? And, bear with me here, because it's kind of confusing, but here i go (And this explanation is based on ShatterVictim, so be ready for the whackiness here). So, BV's soul shattered at the end of FNAF 4, and pieces of his spirit came to inhabit the main 5 animatronics. When William Afton took the animatronics' Remnant and fused them together, he also put BV's pieces back together, before absolutely shattering even more souls by injecting said Remnant into all the Funtimes. Eventually, by SL, the animatronics merge into one single body, Ennard, and they put BV's memories inhabiting the robots into a single mass again (They even reference this fact by putting on a mask of a birthday boy). They get into Mike's body, and after who knows how long, they leave his decomposed body. But their Remnant (+ Elizabeth's Remnant) is still in Mike's body. So now, all the MCI kids memories are also Mike's, and if the MCI kids have BV's memories, then Mike also has BV's memories. So, later on in the timeline, during FNAF 3, Mike's hallucinations involve his memories, which were originally BV's memories, manifesting as the Phantoms. It's overcomplicated, but it works really well, and it explains why they are like they are, why they are who they are, and where exactly they come from. Great video still!