“That's how you do it!”
― Girlfriend, Friday Night Funkin'
Girlfriend, alternatively referred to as the Girlfriend, is the deuteragonist of Friday Night Funkin'. She is Boyfriend's partner and the daughter of Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest. She is frequently seen sitting on top of speakers, bopping her head to the tempo of the music, cheering Boyfriend on and keeping track of combos. While not considered an antagonist, she is the first opponent faced by Boyfriend, teaching the player how to play the game with her only track, Tutorial.
Appearance[]
Girlfriend is a young, chibi-styled light-skinned woman with long, thick auburn hair. Two short locks of hair stick out from her head, one much thinner and smaller than the other, and the shine on her hair resembles a skull. She wears a sleeveless red mini-dress and matching high heels. Her fingernails are painted red, as shown in her singing animations, where she points with both hands in the direction of the arrow note being hit. She is normally on a set of three speakers, sitting on the large middle one with her legs crossed.
During Week 4, her hair gets blown as a result of being on top of a moving car.
During Week 5, she wears a similar sleeveless red mini-dress with a fluffy white collar, red gloves with white cuffs, white thigh-high stockings with small red bows, and yellow bell earrings. The speakers she sits on are wrapped in festive Christmas lights.
During Week 6, her regular appearance is rendered in a pixel art style.
During Ugh and Guns, she has her hands up as she is held at gunpoint by two Tankmen crouching on the two smaller speakers that lay beside the large speaker she sits on. During Stress, she is held up from her waist by Boyfriend.
In the Ludum Dare prototype, she sits on a dark blue-magenta winners' podium resembling stairs.
Personality[]
Girlfriend is portrayed as a young, mysterious woman. With a love for cherry soda and her boyfriend, she appears to be tranquil in almost any situation, even in the face of death. Being a demon, she possesses a great deal of power but chooses to hide it. She is always seen with Boyfriend at her side, courtesy of true love as she genuinely loves him very much.
Like Boyfriend, Girlfriend has been confirmed to not be the sharpest tool in the shed, to the point where her faith in her Boyfriend is practically blind faith. Her lack of intelligence can result in her getting into difficult situations, such as getting her hand stuck in peanut butter jugs and having to wait for hours for someone to help get it out, although she can use her magic to free herself.[2] However, she is still capable of making smart decisions and knows what to do when dealing with taxes[3] and facing death. Girlfriend has been described as being mean "in her own special way."[4]
Girlfriend also likes to do immoral things, appearing to not care about the consequences of her actions as long as she gets what she wants. Thanks to her mother's limousine, she can hold up McDonald's drive-through slots as she and her Boyfriend hold the store hostage to get whatever food they want.[5]
Relationships[]
Daddy Dearest[]
Daddy Dearest, the father of Girlfriend, likely has good intentions with his daughter, but he is highly overprotective of her. He will not let her date whom she wants and even tries to kill her boyfriend after he beats the father in a singing battle, which occurs after he stops the couple from having sex. He does not seem to care about how killing Boyfriend will affect his daughter, in those terms, Girlfriend thinks that her father is a rude overprotective bitch and doesn't want to be around him a lot. He will go into long lectures.
Mommy Mearest[]
Mommy Mearest is Girlfriend's mother. Like with Daddy Dearest, she is presumably well-intentioned with Girlfriend, but she also won't let her and her Boyfriend date and is very overprotective. Mommy Mearest seems to be just as willing to try to kill Boyfriend as her husband is, not caring about the consequences that murdering him will have on Girlfriend. However, she does hand down clothes and iPhones to her daughter, showing that she cares about giving Girlfriend nice things. Girlfriend is willing to steal from her mother, as she and Boyfriend engage in the theft of Mommy Mearest's limousine in order to hold up the entire drive-through slot at McDonald's.[5]
Boyfriend[]
Boyfriend is Girlfriend's partner. The two love each other very much and are never apart. Boyfriend is determined to do whatever he can to stay with Girlfriend and protect her, including by singing off against her parents and others. Their closeness is shown when Boyfriend happily catches Girlfriend and receives a hug from her during the cut scene for Stress thanks to true love.
Pico[]
Not much is known about how well Pico and Girlfriend are acquainted with each other. It is possible that Pico does not like or care about Girlfriend very much, as he readily kicks her off her speakers in unused frames of the animation where Pico leaps in from the sky in the cut scene for Stress. It is implied that Pico is jealous that Girlfriend is dating his ex-boyfriend, Boyfriend.
Henchmen[]
In artwork found in the art booklet that comes with the CD of Friday Night Funkin' - The Official Soundtrack Vol. 1, Henchmen can be seen purchasing alcohol and snacks for Girlfriend.
Skid and Pump[]
Skid and Pump are tricked into believing that Girlfriend is made of candy by Monster, who tasks the children with getting Girlfriend for him so that he can eat her. The spooky kids challenge Boyfriend to a rap battle for her, but they just want to play[6] and don't really follow through with the task given to them. Girlfriend doesn't seem concerned as Skid and Pump sing with Boyfriend, happily spectating the battle.
Monster[]
Monster wants to eat Girlfriend, and he sings in gruesome detail about how he plans to do this. However, even with Monster's constant threats, Girlfriend does not seem to be afraid of him during his songs.
Senpai[]
Senpai quickly falls in love with Girlfriend after meeting her, believing her to be a "new fair maiden" who came "in search of true love." This makes sense as Senpai aims to win the player's heart, and the dating sim is Girlfriend's. He challenges Boyfriend to a singing battle to determine who can be with her. When he loses, he gets angry but is still determined to win Girlfriend over, threatening to castrate Boyfriend after getting freaky with Girlfriend.
Spirit[]
Spirit knew Girlfriend when she was a young child, as he has been trapped in her dating sim game for 14 years[7][8] and recognizes her after escaping Senpai's body. He doesn't seem to be happy to see her, likely due at least in part to her being the daughter of the person who trapped him in the game. Because of his apparent distorted sense of justice, Spirit believes that it is fair to take Boyfriend and Girlfriend's bodies for himself in order to escape the game. He fails to do this, however, with Girlfriend and Boyfriend simply leaving Spirit behind in the game after her man beats the specter.
Tankman[]
When Girlfriend and Boyfriend end up in the Restricted Military Zone, Tankman has his soldiers hold Girlfriend at gunpoint. However, Tankman and his men are bored, so they do not immediately kill her. Tankman is very rude to Girlfriend, insulting her on her appearance and being vulgar toward her and Boyfriend. When he orders his men to kill the couple after he loses twice, Girlfriend happily reveals her demon powers, showing her preparedness to fight back if necessary and that she isn't afraid of the Tankmen.
Trivia[]
General[]
- Girlfriend is the first character to not have a "danger" icon, the others being Daddy Dearest, Boyfriend in Week 6, Senpai and Spirit.
- However, the reason why she doesn't have one is most likely because she's not really in danger of losing during Tutorial since she's only teaching the player how to play the game.
- Girlfriend is the first opponent to not use a microphone, the second being Monster and the third being Spirit.
- Girlfriend is the first opponent to lack any tuned vocals, the second being Pico.
- Girlfriend is tied with Boyfriend and Spirit for having the least tracks out of any character in Friday Night Funkin', having one each.
- If Boyfriend fails to hit a note during a +5-note combo, an animation of Girlfriend crying will briefly play. However, this won't occur in Week 4 and Week 6 as there are no versions of this animation for those weeks.
- Girlfriend is afraid of thunder and lightning,[9] as she will briefly react fearfully whenever they occur along with Boyfriend in an animation in Week 2.
- Girlfriend has several unused voice clips that were going to be used for dialogue purposes but have been scrapped alongside the dialogue.[10]
- An unused animation of Girlfriend resembling her sprite from the Game Over screen for Stress is present in the Flash file for her being held by Boyfriend in Week 7.[11] Titled "girlfriend inards," the sprite's exact purpose is unknown, although it may have been intended for the unfinished beginning cut scene for Week 6.
- Whenever Newgrounds is down for maintenance, an image of Girlfriend pouring beer on the Newgrounds servers appears between the "Newgrounds Is Down / Please Stand By" message. The art for Girlfriend was made by Arzonaut.
- In early stages of development, Girlfriend was meant to cross and swap her legs during her idle animation. During the one frame when both legs were separated, there would've been darkness and sparkles in her dress. This idea was scrapped in favor of her just bopping her head to the music, which was easier to animate. Time constraints were another issue.[citation needed]
- In the Week 7 update, Girlfriend's unused cheering animation was added to the Tutorial.
- On the 22nd of May, 2022, JohnnyUtah uploaded a piece of artwork depicting a much more muscular and seemingly older Boyfriend next to a surprised Girlfriend.[12] PhantomArcade has confirmed that he will find a way to officially implement it into Friday Night Funkin'.[13]
- Comments made when the image was uploaded to Twitter revealed that the muscular Boyfriend is from an alternate timeline where he was forced to kill Girlfriend for unknown reasons,[14] and that the Girlfriend in the image is a blow-up doll dressed to look like her that he's kept as a companion since the incident.[15]
- In December 2020, ninjamuffin99 stated that his favorite Friday Night Funkin' character was Girlfriend.[16] However, in August 2022, he would instead state that his favorite character is Senpai.[17]
Lore[]
- Girlfriend loves Cherry Cola, as confirmed by an interview with a creator.
- Girlfriend is a gamer and likes to play roblox.[21].
- An official comic reveals that Girlfriend also enjoys playing horror games and jumpscares make her scream with delight.[22]
- It was confirmed by both PhantomArcade and ninjamuffin99 on the former's Twitch live stream that Girlfriend is extremely unintelligent, having an immense amount of faith in Boyfriend to handle things.[23]
- Girlfriend being unintelligent is reaffirmed by ninjamuffin99 in a Twitter AMA.[24]
- In the Week 7 track Stress, it's revealed through the Game Over screen that Girlfriend is a demon, much like her parents, despite her human-like appearance. In addition to her red skeleton and spiky teeth, she is also shown to have a pair of slightly curved black horns that protrude from her forehead. Given that they are only visible here, it is possible that either they are hidden underneath her bangs, or they haven't grown out yet.
- Similarly, in the cut scene that plays before Stress, it is shown that Girlfriend can make her eyes gleam red and make her skin turn a light shade of purple, acting as a visual indicator of her using her demon powers.
- According to ninjamuffin99, the reason Girlfriend looks like a human is because of "true love."[26] Additionally, he has stated that this fact will come up later in the game.[27]
- Similarly, in the cut scene that plays before Stress, it is shown that Girlfriend can make her eyes gleam red and make her skin turn a light shade of purple, acting as a visual indicator of her using her demon powers.
- The official Girlfriend shirt design by PKettles shows bat wings in her shadow and a heart tail attached to the letter d in the text with her name,[28] both features of succubi. According to PhantomArcade, the design reveals one of her future abilities.[29]
- Girlfriend and Boyfriend cannot be hypnotized or mind-controlled into not loving each other. Their relationship is practically the only thing that occupies their minds, and they would die without it.[30]
- Girlfriend would burn down her house if she tried to cook.[31] The only thing she can "cook" is PB&J sandwiches, and Boyfriend acts extremely enthusiastically whenever she makes them for him for dinner.[32]
- Girlfriend also enjoys eating fistfuls of peanut butter as a snack, as she doesn't like waiting for the bread to toast. She sticks her whole hand in the jug and is too unintelligent to pull her hand out of it, so she stands where she is for hours until either her parents or Boyfriend find her and help her get her hand out.[2]
- Girlfriend is neurodivergent, as she has ADHD and autism, confirmed by PhantomArcade during a live stream.[33]
- Girlfriend is nice and chunky, just like Boyfriend likes her.[34]
- Girlfriend was stated to weigh 900lbs in a Tweet by ninjamuffin99.[1] However, several official artworks depict Boyfriend carrying Girlfriend with no difficulty; it remains to be seen how this is explained.
- A doodle by PhantomArcade depicts Girlfriend as a person of size.
- Girlfriend was stated to weigh 900lbs in a Tweet by ninjamuffin99.[1] However, several official artworks depict Boyfriend carrying Girlfriend with no difficulty; it remains to be seen how this is explained.
- Even when Boyfriend isn't slouching and when Girlfriend isn't wearing her heels, she is still taller than him.[35]
- PhantomArcade has implied that Boyfriend and Girlfriend appear very short as a symbol of their innocence.[36]
- In a Reddit AMA, it was confirmed that Girlfriend's favorite animal is a Hominid, not realizing that a Hominid isn't an actual animal.[37]
- Girlfriend prefers to watch subtitled anime.[38]
- In a Twitter sketch, it was hinted that Girlfriend is an artist.[39] This was later followed up by a sketch of her showing Boyfriend a painting she made of Pim Pimling and Charlie Dompler from Smiling Friends.[40] However, in a Twitch stream, it was confirmed that due to her severe lack of intelligence, she doesn't know how commissions work, meaning that she probably doesn't have an exact price on art commissions in general, though she sells her commissions for 1 trillion dollars.[41]
- Girlfriend's favorite Newgrounds game is probably Alien Hominid, due to the cuteness of the titular character.[42]
- Girlfriend uses hand-me-down iPhones from her rich parents, and she's only barely smart enough to use them.[43]
- The Friday Night Funkin' Kickstarter poster shows Girlfriend holding a white phone with a red case with hearts. It has only one camera with a dot under it.[44] It bears the most resemblance to the iPhone XR, which is the only iPhone to have a single camera and a dot below it.[45] The Newgrounds Summer Festival 2021 artwork shows her using a clear-cased Product Red iPhone 7 Plus or 8 Plus,[46] but this is only semi-official.
- If Sonic.exe ever tried to mess with Girlfriend and Boyfriend, he could trap them in a nightmare dimension for all eternity, but if he mentioned there's no McDonald's, they would immediately kill him and escape.[47] If there was a McDonald's, they would presumably stay.[48]
- When Girlfriend and Boyfriend go to McDonald's, they normally get whatever they can pressure the window clerk to give them for free. They hold the store hostage, stealing Mommy Mearest's limousine and holding up the entire drive-through slot.[5]
- If the McDonald's were to have no Chicken McNuggets included with the Happy Meal, they would start yanking all the iron bolts and screws out of the PlayPlace.[51]
- In a situation involving Girlfriend and Boyfriend meeting Darth Vader, Girlfriend would start charging up in the background upon Boyfriend seeing Darth Vader coming ominously with his lightsaber out. Darth Vader would sense an ominous force and would start to get a chill within his suit; he would pull out his lightsaber and make sure he's ready to completely try to take on whatever's about to come at him. Boyfriend would then slam his microphone into the Fisher-Price control panel on his chest, leading to Darth Vader freaking out, coughing and dying. Boyfriend and Girlfriend would then start hopping on his back and beating him up, yanking on his helmet and smacking his bald, crispy head around.[52]
- Girlfriend is crosseyed.[2]
- When Girlfriend and Boyfriend sign up for a driver's license test, they use a fake ID, and they crash into trees and run away. As a result, the Henchmen are stuck driving Mommy Mearest's Porsche back, and she tears the Henchmen's fingernails and eyelashes off.[53]
- Girlfriend and Boyfriend need fake IDs because they don't want the police called on them; they go to the same DMV every few months.[54]
- Girlfriend can use demon magic, including to give herself a penis.[55]
- Girlfriend and Boyfriend like Neon Genesis Evangelion, but only the scenes where things fight, as they are too unintelligent to understand the plot.[56]
- Whenever Boyfriend fails a song and gets "blue-balled," Girlfriend holds his hand until he feels better.[57] Girlfriend is obliged to kneel to hold Boyfriend's hand due to being taller than him.[58]
- Girlfriend never got far enough in her dating sim to see the sprite of Senpai as a catboy.[59]
- Boyfriend likes drinkable yogurt, and Girlfriend is sometimes really nice and gets him some; if she gets him 5 of them, he will drink them so fast that he starts choking because he isn't swallowing fast enough, and he then spits it all over her face. Girlfriend buys them for him anyway because she loves him.[60]
- If Boyfriend sees a poster for Planes, he throws up wherever he's standing, as he hates Cars with a passion. Sometimes, when he accidentally swallows things around the house that he's not supposed to, Girlfriend simply shows him the Planes poster, and they immediately get back whatever they're missing.[61]
- When Boyfriend texts Girlfriend to ask if she wants Chick-fil-A, he knows to get extra Polynesian Sauce once she starts sending nudes.[62]
- In the wintertime, when Boyfriend and Girlfriend look away from each other for more than 10 minutes and then look back toward each other, they hold their arms out wide and run toward each other to hug each other, as their object permanence is sometimes not very good. Sometimes they will go to kiss and accidentally bump into a cold pole and kiss it, and both get their tongues stuck to it for hours. The fire department even knows them by name.[63]
- If Girlfriend became a worm, Boyfriend would still love her. While it would impact their love lives and change things, they could get used to it. Boyfriend would also figure out a way to change her back, even if it took him a decade.[64]
- Girlfriend could possibly beat Hank J. Wimbleton in a fight.[65]
Inspirations[]
- According to PhantomArcade in a Tweet, one of the core inspirations for Friday Night Funkin' is the 1981 anime adaptation of the manga Urusei Yatsura.[66] Girlfriend is presumably based on the series' main character's girlfriend Lum, who has a boyfriend named Ataru Moroboshi, whom Boyfriend is presumably based on in turn.
- According to JohnnyUtah in a video made for the YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming?, the blocks on which Girlfriend sat in the Ludum Dare prototype of Friday Night Funkin' were meant to be a podium serving to present her as a prize to the player. They were subsequently changed to speakers as a result of fanart and messages from fans who interpreted the boxes as speakers, which the developers thought was a great concept.[67] ninjamuffin99 has also Retweeted one fan's message with this interpretation and called it "Funkin history."[68]
- Girlfriend's skeleton is based on the X-rays that Body-Snatchers would display in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.[69] The unused "girlfriend inards" sprite is particularly reminiscent of said X-rays.
- Girlfriend's design was initially inspired[70] by the girl from Rhythm Heaven.[71][72]
- PhantomArcade has stated that Girlfriend may have been inspired by the girl from Daicon IV Opening Animation without him even realizing it, as he has been a fan of the anime for a long time.[73] Both characters have auburn hair, red outfits and tremendous power.
Gallery[]
View Girlfriend's full gallery here.
Notes[]
References[]
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| Antagonists | |
| Upcoming | |
| Scrapped or Unused | |
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