Vanessa (Five Nights at Freddy's)

About

Vanessa is an NPC character who appears in the 2021 video game Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach. A night guard at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex, Vanessa is one of the antagonists in the game who is trying to catch the player. Following the release of the game, Vanessa gained notable prominence within the Five Night's at Freddy's community, inspiring fan art and spawning the White Woman Jumpscare meme. It is heavily suggested that Vanessa and Vanny are the same characters.

Origin

On December 16th, 2021, the adventure horror video game Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach was released.^[1] In the game, the character Vanessa, a night-shift security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex, is first introduced. The character, who is also the presumed main protagonist of the 2019 video game Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted^[2] and is mentioned as "Ness" in the 2019 mobile video game Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery,^[3] attempts to catch the main protagonist Gregory in order to bring him to Lost and Found to wait for his parents or the police to arrive. The character briefly appears in the February 2021 and October 2021 trailers for the game (shown below, left and right).

The character's full name is "Vanessa A.," which spawned a theory that Vanessa could be related to William Afton, a major antagonistic figure in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. Another common theory suggests that Vanessa and costumed antagonist Vanny are either the same person or twins.

Spread

Following the release of the game, the character achieved notable prominence within the fandom, with multiple users posting fan art of Vanessa on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit and other social media (examples shown below), including Rule 34 NSFW artworks.

Outside of the Five Nights at Freddy's fandom, the character is primarily known for the White Woman Jumpscare and X Jumpscare memes based on the jumpscare of Vanessa catching the player.

Vanessa = Vanny Theory

A large number of evidence suggests that Vanessa and costumed antagonist Vanny are either the same person or twins, as a well-known theory suggests that Glitchtrap's control over Vanessa results in her having the Vanny alter ego.^[4]

On January 1st, 2022, YouTuber^[5] SuperHorrorBro uploaded a video about the theory (shown below). The video received over 810,000 views in three days.

Related Memes

White Woman Jumpscare

White Woman Jumpscare is a jumpscare parody that refers to a scene in Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach in which the security guard Vanessa catches the player, suddenly taking up most of the screen. The scene has been parodied under the name "White Woman Jumpscare," an X Jumpscare format, inspiring exploitable variations.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References