I personally think Mr. Hippo is more aware than most of the animatronics there. My main reason is because while all of his band mates have creepy lines with Cassidy’s voice echoing after their words, Mr. Hippo does not. He’s the only one out of the 5 that seems to have some control of himself. Another reason that shows he could be more sentient is his stories. While they might be jokes, he still goes on and on about his life, which shows he’s one of the only animatronics that remembers his past life (if those are his memories to begin with like you said)

My favorite line from Mr. Hippo: "You should try it sometime. Oh, wait you can't because you're dead." The line delivery is just so nonchalant it's hilarious.

I've always liked Mr. Hippo, his stories are entertaining, and he seems content with the events life has thrown at him. His friendship with Orville is really sweet, and even his jumpscare isn't that threatening, just him waving his arms around. Despite his new status as the butt of the series' jokes, Hippo maintains a chipper mentality. Be like Mr. Hippo.

Maybe it's because I have MatPat's theory about how the Mediocre are Henry's creations, but Mr Hippo line about not seeings ducks die but noticing fewer over time made me think of Henry, not noticing what was William doing in the pizzerias in the first place. Maybe Mr Hippo it's Henry, confused about how he ended in UCN, who he is and what's real or not.

Before I finish the video, I wanna speculate that the tragedy was that they were actual elders murdered by William..... Or, Mr. Hippo and Orville are representations of Henry and William's early friendship.

I'd love a "Fnaf World"-esque game where the end objective is to help set the trapped souls of all the animatronics who just want to rest free. It wouldn't have to progress the story further than that or provide any other "deep" lore elements other than potentially giving us more voiced lines and context behind certain characters we still would like to see.

UCN is an eternal prison, But not only for William "What is this new prison? Is it me trap? Or is it you? Perhaps is us both"

My theory was that... Afton didn't *only* kill kids. It's just that, the kids had parents to look for them. So Mr. Hippo is an adult, killed by Afton. And, he remembers the other animatronics being his friends, as his brain struggles to rationalize what it's going through.

I think that it's horrible that 'the one you shouldn't have killed' or Cassidy is holding every other spirit back and not allowing them to pass on because Cassidy wants to torture william. Quite selfish of Cassidy. But then again, william did brutally murder Cassidy. I can't really blame Cassidy. I would've done the exact same thing.

The fun old man (Though, maybe he’s only just living in Afton’s mind rent free as part of Cassidy’s torturing.)

You know, I have a fondness for Mr. Hippo that seems to be rarely shared. His long-winded diatribes remind me a lot of my great-uncle, who could spin similarly lengthy yarns at the drop of a hat. I miss him dearly, and so when I first heard Mr. Hippo's monologues I was surprisingly content to simply listen to him speak when all of my friends were writhing around in agonized boredom. I certainly got my lack of brevity from him, which I've been trying to curb, but I can still find myself going on and on about nothing in particular. I could probably make a satirical joke at this point about how long this comment is getting, but it really just proves my point. In reality I'm not sure of exactly what the limit there is for me talking circles about nothing in particular, and I'm not sure I want to find out here. Oh well. What's typed is typed, I have already trimmed it down substantially, if you could believe it. I don't like going back to edit my comments much, so I proofread very carefully to spot any grammatical errors. What you say is what you say, you shouldn't edit after posting the comment unless you add onto your already existing statement. You don't know how many edited comments completely diverge from the original context after being edited. It can be really sneaky and disingenuous, especially if you are in an argument. How did I get this far off track? I don't know. First thing I knew I was talking about Mr. Hippo, and the next I was rambling about who knows what. I suppose I should just leave it there, I always have a hard time capping comments like these, I'm not ever entirely sure how to end them, or how they'll be received either. So... yeah.

To be fair, in UCN, the fact that some characters are present twice, and most importantly both Springtrap and Scraptrap while we're supposed to play as William Afton still makes me think that all of those characters in the select screen are just recreations from said one he should not have killed. Pretty sure the soul of, for example, the Puppet, has already moved on, the Puppet in UCN simply being a recreation of the one that one vengeful soul inhabiting Golden Freddy. It's just William, that one sould, and maybe Old Man Consequences, but it's not like anyone really knows what's the deal with this guy (oh hey, new vid topic?). But then again, I may be wrong. Although you do have a great point. The Fnaf franchise can be jokey and all, but goddam the amount of murders, when taken seriously, is quite frightening. At this point everyone got desensitized to child murders here, but damn. Great video, love it when you overthink!

I always found his stories unironically comforting and engaging rather than boring as I'm sure was probably Joe and Scott's original intent. I couldn't help but get quite defensive when SB tried to imply he was the in-universe Scrappy Doo. As for the stories themselves I was admittedly in the camp that they were Scott being very cheeky making fun of the fanbase's over-analytical tendencies but this video has definitely made it clear there are some very real in-universe implications for the character and UCN as a whole. Loved the video.

The FnaF story is like time travel, don't think too much into it so you don't want to get a massive headache.

Could Mister Hippo be a portion of Henry Emily? He didn’t see William kill any kids but he saw their population go down. He never stopped William.

"Orville, the bird might be dead." As you showed this line, I thought of the many mini-games we play throughout the games where we give items to kids, one specific one that I thought of was when we were the puppet giving cake to kids to make them happy. But the kids didn't become happy, they were frozen. Now He never says anything about bringing the birds back to life, so my words just might not mean anything at all.

So my headcannon is that Mr. Hippo and Orville was just too old men who William got caught killing a kid and that's how they both ended up in UCN, being the only 2 adults victims of William

People always forget just how DARK the story of Five Nights at Freddy's really is. Childhood trauma and broken families, child MURDER with many of those families never getting justice. Children's souls bound to a body that turns them into monsters, where their minds have been dulled down and have almost forgotten who they once were. All they know is revenge and anger and it turns them into mindless beasts that kill anyone that even remotely ties to what little memory they may have. Even Afton's transformation into Springtrap is a horrifying one. Such a fate to fall upon a person, no matter how evil they may be. A pain filled death, but never dying. Afton's body is GONE and what little of it that remains after the springlock failure has grown and adapted itself to the new mechanical body that it has been given, a body that seems to barely be able to keep him up straight. Seriously, have you ever noticed why Springtrap is always standing and leaning the way he does? The suit can barely keep his back straight! 30 years with nothing but pain and agony, memories of agony, always on the verge of death, but never dying, it would drive anyone to insanity. AND PEOPLE SEXUALISE A CHARACTER LIKE THAT. Looking past all the goofy humour, FNAF is still TWISTED and dark... Mr. Hippo is an obscure but good example...

Cassidy (Yellow Bear) being the True villain is a great idea no one wants too talk about ironically Because we hate William, we would be like Cassidy too. Also imagine Cassidy not letting Anyone pass on including The Marionette and is controlling them on strings, truly villainous.

It’s funny how a purple character has lines that can be attributed to the man behind the slaughter. I mean, Scott could’ve chose any other character for this and yet… the purple Hippo is the one. Also, Orvile, his friend, is a shade of yellow/orange, which happens to be the opposite of purple on the color wheel… really makes you think… Why he ourple though? Jokes aside, it’s great to see jokey characters such as Mr. Hippo be given the spotlight. Another awesome vid!

Mr. Hippo likely remembers a lot more than most of the animatronics. Maybe he’s one of the only characters who haven’t forgotten their past, but small details are being obscured and replaced. Puppet said that the others were like animals, but I don’t think Mr. Hippo can be lumped in with them, seeing how he clearly remembers *something.* Whether that something is memories from his human life, or a fantasy he overheard, it’s clear he isn’t just a brain-dead machine that Cassidy is manipulating. Mr. Hippo knows what happened, but key events have been corrupted. He’s aware of the situation, but keeps slipping in and out of the past. He’s confused.

thoery: mr. hippo's story's are story's of william and henry back when they were friends mabey him thinking about ducks dying gave him the idea of imortality and also a lot of the storys have something to do with with death so william just couldent catch a break and also the line: "Y’know sometimes I feel like a fish leaping over and over again. Always trying to get somewhere. Oh, I don’t know where only to find myself in the jaws of a beast." kinda gives wiliam a better motive i would say

This video made me remember the interview series here on KZfaq. The part the struck me the most in that series was when Charlie (lefty) said "I understand your anger" and then cassidy screamed at them at the top of their lungs all glitchy and things as GF "you don't understand our anger!" Then proceeds to say "if you did, you wouldn't be killing him so soon" like cassidy doesn't care about other's feelings or thoughts. Not even Charlie who was the first victim of William. She only cares about her anger the most and that she wants to keep him alive just yo torment him while not letting the other souls move on and rest. It's what Charlie is trying to do. Give the souls rest so they can move on from afton.

I absolutely love Mr. Hippo! Thinking about it, his seemingly random stories remind me of the Candy Cadet's ones. I don't know, I really like the concept of minor characters telling stories that draw parallels to what we know is the canon lore, and maybe giving hints to solve some questions. 3:52 THIS LINE! I really think this line is about Henry. "I never saw any ducks die myself" (he never saw Afton commiting the murders) "but I did notice a substantial decrease in the duck population over the course of a few years" (but he noticed the news about children missing) "I just never thought to stop the man and tell him that he was killing the ducks by feeding them sourdough bread!" (he always suspected it was Afton. He just didn't want to believe it because he was his close friend so he never confroted him about it, or about the robots with weird design choices very obviously made to lure and kill children that he made).

“It has managed to hurt others a lot more than it has managed to hurt him” is a great line, kinda summarises the whole series really beautifully

Now we can finally find out about what he really did with those birds..

A while ago, I was looking at transcripts of Mr. Hippo’s stories and something caught my eye. The story about the ducks probably is a reference to the missing children, but something notable is that the man would only come every Wednesday. In one of the FNaF 1 newspapers that can replace the rules, we learn that two of the children went missing on June 26th. Do you want to know what year June 26th was on a Wednesday? 1985. Mr. Hippo’s story was trying to tell us that the MCI happened in 1985, but everybody ignored it, so he told us outright in “Into The Pit”!

It always seemed like Mr Hippo was the character that represented the “Don’t think about it too hard” phrase. He might be their default for things where the lore could be muddied if anyone else were used.

Orville and Mr. Hippo are orange and purple. They’re old friends now in the afterlife. The orange one talks about how despite the attempts to free Afton, he will never let him get away. I think Mr. Hippo might be a representation of what William could have been if he hadn’t started killing; a pleasant old man who chills with his Buddy and might’ve been casual witness to some dark things with his robots.

It's weird because of the duality of it: some of the spirits are more than excited to torture their killer for all of eternity but there are probably some who want to just rest

Mr.Hippo and Orville being a representation of William and Henry’s old relationship is a good theory to me. He says he never actually saw any ducks die, but saw a decrease. He never thought to stop the man killing them by feeding them sourdough bread. This could be Henry noticing the missing children, not seeing William kill them himself. He might have suspected William of murdering and as the evidence got more obvious, he did not try to expose William because they were great friends. When the birds are frozen, it could be William defending himself, saying the children are just missing instead of dead so William would not be suspected of murder. I couldn’t find any more connections in the rest of the story. Of course, mr hippo is purple and Orville is orange, two colours sometimes represented with William and Henry. Mr Hippo would be Henry according to this story though. Maybe the colours don’t matter? Anyways, thanks for reading this.

My headcanon is that Mr Hippo's gimmick as an animatronic is that he tells stories to the patrons in a pirate's Cove kinda area, while the other MMs perform on-stage. If this were true, it's possible that this is why UCN Hippo's spirit was allowed to keep some form of memory, because he would need stories to tell. That makes it feel even more icky to me in a way, because the only reason that Hippo knows what he knows is because it was meant only for the benefit of others. It's a fluke.

Maybe he tells you to not read too deep into his stories because reading too deep into them brings questions, questions that could be uncomfortable, questions that could imply uncomfortable things that are a reflection of uncomfortable things that are happening. Or maybe the door was just blue.

I kind of always just assumed that Mr. Hippo's stories were just what the victims possessing the anamatronics experienced when not in murder mode. A pleasant dream where everything seems normal, but is really a warped reality of the pizzeria and children they perform in front of. They still have this feeling of being trapped (In the jaws of a beast) but can't really place it. Feeling more like a lingering thought in the back of their minds than a constant feeling of agony. Also assumed the "Duck" population going down was them noticing kids going missing over the years, and that seeing them dead wasn't something they could easily comprehend, being dead themselves without really realizing it. Mr. Hippo seemingly realizing all of this more since he seems more self aware than everyone else, even being able to recall stories and tell them to us. Is definitely an interesting way to look at what these kids are actually experiencing during all the hours of the day they're on stage in the suits.

I think this is the best video you've made so far! I've written off a lot of UCN in my mind over the years without thinking much about it but I've recently been mulling it over again. It really is interesting, and I think Mr. Hippo perfectly embodies the layers of silly nonsense covering up the tragedy that UCN as a whole utilizes for its presentation.

I like how this videos is like those moments when Patrick stopped saying goofy stuff and says the most real thing you've ever heard Another great video

You'd think at some point I'd start wondering why I'd insist on getting into this particular fandom when the type of character I have a soft spot for ISN'T a mysterious murderer or any detective or whatnot, but sweet bumbling 'idiots' like Mr Hippo, Sundrop or Glamrock Freddy. Like, wouldn't I be happier investing my time in some other- YAY, MR HIPPO VIDEO GOES CLICK!! 😃

I always felt that the “birds” in the stories are innocents that the animatronics killed even though Orville was well intentioned because they lost touch with reality.

I love this as a possible plot point. I always assumed everyone in UCN outside of Afton and the One You Shouldn't Have Killed were constructs of a sort, but _if they're not_, if they have souls of their own and are being held prisoner for the sake of a vengeance they may or may not be that invested in...that's horrifying.

i think the man with the ducks and the ducks disappearing could be a metaphor for the kids and afton

So in a way, one of the victims became a victimizer of their own after death, if that's what this is: To torture Afton, they keep others trapped as tools for the torture. Their anger towards Afton is too great to see or care what other harm they're causing. Considering how abusers were quite often themselves abuse victims, perpetuating that cycle, it would make a lot of sense. Since I at least think of Glichtrap and Burntrap as digitized copies of Afton - not as Afton himself or his actual soul - they're probably all still trapped in UCN together, torturing Afton.

This video made me realize Mr. Hippo's eyes clip into his head in almost all of his renders

I rarely see anybody acknowledge that it's not just Afton's soul trapped in UCN, but (and a withered Bonnie line helps back this up too) actually almost all of the souls Afton has hurt as well, being forced to power these animatronic figments and rip apart their killer's spirit over and over again by a once (presumably) innocent child wronged like the rest of them, now turned into just as much of a malicious being as Afton. the "one you should not have killed"s actions really show how badly Afton has messed with these souls to make one of them imprison him and all the others for neverending revenge and possibly entertainment. I guess what they say is true for Afton: You reap what you sow.

This was a really great video. Mr.Hippo Message can be interpreted in so many different ways and while a lot of people interpreted as a joke or a message as to not look to much into things. Your interpretation really makes it feels like he was really trying to tell us something but was just being vague. I love this. Different Interpretations is what we truly need in Fnaf. Keep up the good work.

Now I do believe that one Orville line is Cassidy/The One You Shouldn't Have Killed speaking THROUGH him, and not him speaking his mind, but the rest of this theory goes quite hard.

Perhapse Mr,Hippo doesn’t want you to read to far in, for he doesn’t want you to realize what he knows.

idk why but whenever i heard mr hippos storys, i had always imagined him as an old dementia ridden grandpa. hes talking to his friends and remembering things they did but he has to keep correcting himself because he cant remember it properly. like hes slowly forgetting everything. i never did imagine him as someone haunted by a ghost though, to me he was just the sweet old grandpa of the group (all of the mediocre melodys have old people energy tbh) who is also dealing with a horrible illness

While I don't think that Cassidy (or whoever's controlling UCN) is holding all the other spirits from passing on, I think it is one of the coolest ideas ever. A victim becoming a villain.

This video reminds me of that Afton fellow. Ah, it seems that he has met his end. Ah, what a pity. You know I, I don’t feel too bad about it though, after all if it weren’t me, it would’ve just been one of the others I guess… I’m honestly just glad to be out of those air ducts. You know it’s… it’s not easy for a hippopotamus to fit up there… and… not easy to get down either. I’m not as young as I used to be as you can see, I used to be able to do all sorts of things, you’re young, you’re vibrant, you have that sort of pep in your step. Ah, it reminds me of a conversation I was having with one of my good friends Orville. We were having a nice picnic one day. I believe it was summer? Oh, perhaps it was… was it the fall? Yes, yes, it was the fall because the leaves had turned already. But I said to Orville, I- I says, “Orville, I have a story to tell you.” And Orville looked at me, you know, kind of odd and- and said, “Well what’s it about?” I- I said to him, “Not every story has to be about something Orville. Sometimes a person just wants to talk, why does it have to be a story?” I said to him. He just looked at me and he said, “Well y-y-you said you had a story.” You know, he was quite right, I did in fact. I told him I had a story. I suppose if a person just wants to talk, it’s best to not announce that you’re tellin’ a story. Tellin’ a story does come with its own pressures and expectations I- I suppose. After all, if you’re just talking to a friend then, there’s no more expectations then if you were talking into the wind. Words… by themselves are not expected to carry… aren’t expected to stick. But if, you know if you announce that you’re tellin’ a story well then… there better be a point to it all. No one wants to sit and listen to someone ramble on and on and on with absolutely no end in sight. So, you know, it’s- it’s good to be mindful that when you tell someone that you’re about to tell a story, that you have something to say. Tellin’ someone that you’re gonna tell a story is tantamount to asking them to stop what they’re doing, and pay attention. You’re basically saying “hey, hey, hey buddy, stop everything, stop what you’re thinking, I have a solution to everything.” And well, I didn’t really have any story to tell. In- in hindsight I probably just misspoke when I said that I had a story. I think it would’ve just been better to tell Orville that I had something to tell him rather than tell him that I had a story, but you know e- even then it might’ve put too much importance on the whole thing. Either way it was quite a nice day. I remember, I remember that we were drinking tea.

My immediate thought is that Mr. Hippo represents Henry, and I was surprised when you didn't say anything about it. The whole "fish" story seems way too applicable to the child murders, and Henry "noticing" but not putting the pieces together and acting on it until it was much too late. Generally, there's not a lot we know about Henry's emotional journey, but what we do know lines up pretty well with Mr. Hippo.

Hey this is the first time a FNAF video has really reminded me that this is a game built on death. Yeah, everyone talks about the horror aspect and deaths caused by animatronics, not even making light of the topic. It's refreshing to hear someone say "the children's souls never get to rest". It makes the line about "They're like animals but I'm very aware" heartbreaking more than it's horrifying. Those children are "like animals" and that's tragic.

So I haven't caught up with a lot of the recent lore, but here's what first came to my mind: The Mediocre Melodies in UCN are very strange and have a lot in common that almost none of the other animatronics have in that game, and it's their secret lines. The only exception is Mr. Hippo for the obvious reason but also very strangely is that Pigpatch doesn't seem to have any kind of lore relevance, but I'll talk about that later. Happy Frog and Ned Bear both same the same "I will never let you go kind of thing," but Orville's stands out the most as he's the only one to reference the ending of FNAF6: "He tried to release you... tried to release us." This implies he too was there and was intended to be released. So 3 similar animatronics all have a similar connection to a key event in FNAF6; and where in the game is the number 3 important? Molten Freddy: he is an amalgamation of Funtime Freddy, Funtime Foxy, and Ballora. Since the Funtime's goal was to capture kids for remnant extraction (and again I really don't know what the current state and properties of remnant are so I could be wrong), their fusion at the end of SL just made one giant remnant soup of an animatronic. So the Mediocre Melodies in UCN could be stand-ins for the all the leftover remnant burned up with Molten Freddy. Now the fact that Mr. Hippo is in so much more control of himself/thoughts and is aware on a different level than the others makes me think the remnant of him is more "aged" if you will than what you'd get from a child, and the fact he only has stories about one friend, Orville, is interesting. It's almost as if two adults who knew each other were killed by the Funtimes and their remnant fused with the others. I believe these two adults are the two technicians you see in SL's night 5. It always just felt so random and has always been brushed over that these two nameless, faceless characters are just shown dead right in front of the player; and I believe they didn't kill themselves but were actually killed by Ennard, who then hung them up so nobody would suspect the Funtimes were responsible. Now Pigpatch is obviously the weirdo in all this, but I was listening to his voice lines and they stood out to me in that they are proverbial mockery towards the player, and that if you think hard about them they almost all can be tied back to Afton in some way. He considers your death pathetic/"Even monkeys fall from trees": Dying to the very springlocks Afton used to hide himself and commit crimes "If you sit by the river long enough, you'll see the body of your enemy float by": Afton is the enemy corpse that keeps coming back around no matter what happens or how much time passes Etc. These voice lines alone mean almost nothing, but it's just the fact they are directly mocking the player, who is most likely Afton in this game, and can be seen as a bunch of references towards him and making fun of him that make them so peculiar.

11:10 This made me think of something. What if UCN isn’t actually William’s nightmare, but Micheal’s instead. In Sister Location’s Custom Night, we are told that Michael looks IDENTICAL to William (especially after The Scooping). If Cassidy is so blinded by rage they created a purgatory just for their murderer, would they even bother to check if they caught the right person? Another point for this theory is that both Spring Trap, and Scrap Trap are enemies in this game. What if the reason William came back is because Micheal is the actual one stuck in this limbo, while William turns into Glitchtrap and begins his plot in Help Wanted? (This is probably false due to William’s screaming)

Need a documentary on the history of Porkpocket as a character at some point, I think. Also, fun little thing: Mr. Hippo's voice lines are approximately a third of the total audio length for the game's voice lines. For all of UCN. Anyways, I think he's sort of like Candy Cadet, but far, far less direct with his words. These long, drawn-out stories might have similar meanings, such as the man with the ducks - someone looking closely would notice he's killing them, but may consider it to be an accident, that the man doesn't know. Perhaps that's an allegory for Freddy's as a whole, how people looking into it would notice that the accidents with staff and the deaths and disappearances of guests and employees and so forth are not really random and sparse enough to be truly accidents, that something intentional _is_ there. But no one did until it was really too late, until it had stopped already. The dead birds one also might well be something similar - perhaps in reference to seeing the souls or evidence of them and believing it to just be normal children, or some interaction with the animatronics. Frozen in place, stuck. Unable to move or leave or act. As others have said, he doesn't have the sort of lines the other Melodies have, where a second voice guides them to say violent threats about never letting their target leave. Part of that, of course, is that it wouldn't fit with that voice to ramble as he does, nor with his quirk there to have such a short line, but it could've been put into the end of a line, interrupting a story, or put at the start and he talks unnoticing of it or even mentions it himself. But there's nothing. This might be that the Melodies were never possessed and so basically still aren't, instead being pretty reflective of their characters - kid-friendly, childish characters, which don't well fit the theme when they're tearing you apart, so they get guided to say other things.. but Mr. Hippo doesn't. He's unique like that. Perhaps he knows what's going on to some degree, and, as you suggested, the stories could be a way to get out for a while, since the games don't continue until he's said what he has to say. Or perhaps he just wasn't worth the effort. The picture you paint is one of denial, where he knows what's going on but won't admit to it. Instead, he'll reminisce on stories of a past, whether it's his or the character's or just an imagined one, and when thoughts of death come into his mind he pulls himself out of it. Otherwise maybe he'd just be another mad, raving soul, raging against his cage and anything nearby. Overthinking is definitely not what I'd call this. The story is so very convoluted, yes, but things like this that don't stretch between multiple things aren't so bad in that way, just very, very hidden. The intent is there, and it's clear - or at least its source material is, before the muddling to hide it within the game. 13:41 SB has a lot of jokes about how machines are superior to people - the company, after all, laid off most of its staff to replace them entirely with robots. It's a commentary on the world, sure, and a continuation of a joke - but it's also rather horrible to think about. Or that line in Parts And Service, where the safety measures are deactivated - presumably, measures the animatronics would otherwise take to stop someone pressing the right button sequence and opening them up - and so it's recommended that absolutely no mistakes are made, because otherwise they are now free to become aggressive and act on it, because rather than just setting them into a maintenance mode they are wholly freed of 'safety' restrictions, whatever those may entail.

All in all, Mr. Hippo's voice lines are genuinely just nice (at least to me) to listen to. a kindly old man with meandering words about something kinda philosophical while also just an anecdote about his day. it's the kind of energy i get when going on walks with my dad or my grandpa, both storied men. tales of my grandpa's childhood on a farm, my dad's days in the coast guard, and whatever other silly stories i can squeeze out of them. I don't have UCN but i think if i ever got jumpscared by mr. hippo i'd just take it as a moment to unwind (since i wouldn't be able to skip it). let the adrenaline leave me as i prepare for the next attempt.

I feel like I’m reading a little too far into this but mr hippo seems to have a loose understanding of what’s been going on and perhaps has secretly been trying to act on it to not much avail, but considering how, despite him being a joke character, his appearances in security breach imply he’s helping us here and there in some spiritual way, like how the little magnet helps you progress to the daycare or how he replaces glamrock freddy in the ending scene to make up for his disappearance edit: on a side note, considering how the mediocre melodies were only introduced in fnaf pizzeria simulator it could imply he’s from a later batch of spirits that were placed into the animatronics, and from his loose insight on the events of fnaf, perhaps in his time alive he was investigating all of the happenings of the pizzeria (maybe with orville or the rest of the mediocre melodies) and is now the only one who remembers loose details of it edit 2 (why am I so invested in a joke character): orville could also be a little nod to the phrase “elephant in the room” as the only times he speaks for such long periods of time is when orville is present with him, of course this doesn’t hint to much but perhaps the only reasons he remembers the details about fnaf is because orville holds some relevance to him concerning the matter, hence allowing him to recall what he knows edit 3 (help): mr hippo mentioning the “man” who’s clearly referencing afton, buying sourdough bread and killing ducks, and then later mr hippo talks about the frozen birds and then realising they’re dead, from this mr hippo possible might’ve been present when afton was murdering the children, the sourdough bread representing afton’s murder plot perhaps, the fact me hippo knows this implies that he might’ve understood what afton was planning to do but didn’t have the guts to stop him, eventually however he eventually mustered up the courage to step in but by the time he got there it was too late and afton already went through with it, but in a desperate effort he tries to save the children with the help of orville and failed, hence the “frozen” birds later finally being realised as dead

I like to imagine the animatronics themselves are sentient and mr hippo is providing an example of preprogrammed memories and personalities within them. Fazbear entertainment has always been a little too obsessed with realism. Still trapped with no escape, sure, but maybe not containing another dead kid.

(after watching) You're overthinking, yes, but everyone else is underthinking it, so you're a nice counterbalance. I think its pretty clear at this point that Scott likes to start a story with ambiguity so that if inbetween him having the idea and it becoming inalterable canon someone points out a way it doesn't make sense, he can pivot. Also so that he can freely flow last year's idea into next year's idea without too many restrictions on himself. So if we take the Hippo stories as the early portion of the Cawthon story lifecycle, its probably best not to delve too much deeper than establishing the premise. In this case, that's Hippo being a real human who is in a state of confusion and dysphoria because he is not fully grasping his current state of existence.

Ngl, I love when you overthink in your videos. I do the same myself LOL. And, it truly makes me think about it a little more. Also Mr.Hippo is a treasure 😆 But, this definitely was another great one! Also I have to say, I REALLYY love how you articulate. I get every point you're trying to get across, and it makes for such a great watch.

I hope Mr. Hippo makes a return in a fun way. Like as part of one of the arcade machine puzzles that have to get done in a dangerous area with a lot of dialog boxes to skim through.

"What is this new prison? Is it me trapped? Or is it you? Perhaps, it's us both." - Withered Bonnie, Ultimate Custom Night

I suppose some of the problems with a game based on obscure lore are that it is difficult to tell which details are important, why the author gave us a particular important detail, and how to fit it into the overall picture.

I think the joke of one of the Mediocre Melody members becoming a glamrock version of themself would’ve worked better, as a joke at least, if Happy Frog became the Glamrock. Because she’s the first animatronic who says that she’d like to replace Freddy, or at least implies it. It feels like that voiceline was the set up and making her a glamrock would’ve been the pay-off, but they chose Mr. Hippo instead because more people liked him. It’s not set up very well, this joke of Mr. Hippo being slotted in when Freddy leaves.

9:53 made me chuckle for some reason I think it's that photo paired with that audio 🤣

I'd like to think that Cassidy (the one you should not have killed), only created recreations of all the animitronics and their behaviors, souls included. When you spend 40-50 years with other souls in the same torment as you are, I'd like to think you become a close family/group of friends. I don't think Cassidy would want to keep her friends tormented. Plus it makes William's hell a lot more personal for her. It's the perfect game she created to torment him for eternity. We have grown used to children's murders in horror, but it's good to remember the connotations of that. I think DSAF said it best in phone guy's monolougue, (can't remember which phone guy), "The Holidays are coming up, did you ever stop to think about the unopened presents on Christmas morning? The parents who won't ever get to see their children again?" Obviously I'm not quoting word for word but I still think it's one of the best monolougues I've heard that really goes in depth about the consequences others have to endure outside of Freddy's. Losing a child is one of the worst pains in human existence. I say that from knowing the impact it's had on my mom. (Thanks for reading, kinda rambled like Mr. Hippo does haha)

I could honestly sit next to Mr. Hippo and listen to him for hours 💜

"And someone will say I'm overthinking it" Mr.Hippo: A story is just a story

This is a very interesting theory. I always thought that there was something more to Mr. Hippo than it let on..he's just a very interesting character.

Glamrock Mr. Hippo > Glamrock Freddy

Mr hippo’s dialogue was improvised and so could not have been planned with intentional pieces of lore.

You may think you looked too deeply into this, but this is better than most of MatPat's FNaF Theories as of recently.

Finally Someone Who talks about Mr Hippo and Not Roast him to Death.... I personally like Mr Hippo as A Character. And I think its amazing you don't brush him under the rug Like everyone else. Mr Hippo Justice ! Anywho Good theory.

Oddly enough, Mr.Hippo has a really comforting voice in my opinion. He reminds me of my Papa from NY. Just thought I’d mention that

This makes me want a video on the UCN animatronics' feelings as a whole

If the UCN hell is really the victims and others souls being forced to torture William does that mean…phone guy-

I like the idea Mr. Hippo is on the surface, not that serious of a character, but there’s the subtle hint his stories hold a small tragedy or theme when you think about it. It’s what makes him one of my favorite characters and best mediocre melodies.

This was actually a very well done video; you provided a very unique perspective on this and made me rethink some of the larger implications the FNAF universe has slipped by. Great work!

0:54 dont forget, if you close the game and reopen it, Mister Hippo will jumpscare you immediately and *continue his story.*

It's odd that Mr. Hippo seems...content with his current situation. Yeah, he attacks us, yeah, but he's oddly calm about him being dead.

Jokes on you, Orville is gonna be the protagonist for the next 50 games!!!!!!!! B

We tend to forget how dark FNAF truly is. Watching this discussion about Mr Hippo really reminded the, as you said, tragedies of FNAF’s overall story- it’s devastating, and it seems Mr Hippo is experiencing these tragedies too

Damn, that ending shot of the bench hits hard every time I rewatch this

I love that crazy old geezer of a animatronic

I actually saw a theory that the mediocre melodies are possesed by another missing childrens incident by impulse evan 37

And this is why I feel UCN ruined Golden Freddy as a character. It turned him from a mysterious and unique character into a ragaholic kid who’s unable to let Afton (and by extent, the plot) rest properly. This plot point is simply irreversible and we’re stuck with it unless Scott ever decanonizes UCN in the future. I could ramble on and on like Mr. Hippo does about how I’d rewrite UCN but at that point, I’d be just going into deep escapism myself. All I do know is that UCN is (at the very least) where I stopped enjoying the canon.

I was looking forward to this one, thank you for putting in the effort! 😁

BLESS THYSELF WOTH THY WISDOM OF HIPPO

Mr. Hippo does have a point with the lemonade mixed with tea thing, tastes delicious

Man this is a really good video. Raises a lot of questions I'd never thought to ask. Were the mediocre melodies haunted? Or are they just UCN's representations of other victims of Afton? I've also seen some interesting suggestions about Mr Hippo and Orville in the comments. Takejiro24 raised an interesting point that perhaps they could represent William and Henry's relationship. An interesting point from that reply section: Mr Hippo not directly seeing any ducks die but noticing a general decline in the duck population could be representative of Henry noticing the the kids William killed were no longer coming to the Pizzeria. Another point Takejiro24 raised was they could represent elders killed by Afton which would make sense because of their voice acting. The colours of Mr Hippo and Orville are also interesting, as they correlate to the purple man, who we know is Aton, and the orange man in Midnight motorist, who is theorised to be either Afton or Henry. I personally believe the man in midnight motorist is Afton which makes me wonder if perhaps these characters are meant to represent two different sides of Afton's personality. I don't really have evidence to back this up, but it's some interesting speculation.

Weird fact : ducks shouldn’t be eating too much bread because it’s making them fat and they get a condition called Angel Wings which makes it impossible for them to fly, so you should feed them vegetables instead (I don’t remember which ones so please look that up)

Considering Mr Hippo is purple and is constantly hanging out with one other friend may be representing William and Henry in some way. I dont know how but its nice to look into it

"Nah that's not pigpatch, that ProkPocket" 💀

It kinda sounds to me like he's got dementia. He has those two stories, one about a man feeding birds who he regrets not telling not to use sourdough but in the other story he's the one feeding the birds and they're all dead despite the fact he claims he never saw any dead birds.

Omg this was such a good essay that made me think about Mr.Hippos in ways I never thought I would. I mean I always liked him for being silly but damn this adds a geuninley emotinal side to him. I've been loving these video essays ya make they're a really cool way of getting deeper takes on certain characters that ya just don't really see frokm other fnaftubers consider me a new sub :]

Re-commenting because I accidentally deleted it tying to add my after thoughts next to my prediction 💀 I said something along the lines of "Mister hippo represents/references old man consequences" And as I was looking at the different chapters of thus video I was like "I knew i wasn't the only one 😀"

i love mr hippos talking segments. i love when he's talking about people rambling on with no point it gets me every time

That line about whether the story takes place in the Summer or the Fall makes me think of how in FNAF 2 Phone Guy's recordings say it's a Summer job, but FNAF 2 takes place in November according to the paychecks. Probably not actually important, but it's a thing???

Mr. Hippo does sound like someone who does podcasts.

For a while my friend and I were obsessed with Mr Hippo's stories and we both would play Mr Hippo stories on a loop until we fell asleep XD

My favorite part of this whole Mr.Hippo deal is that in UCN VR they added a living room with like a fireplace or something and he sits there while telling you these mildly disturbing stories. Perfect.