Darnell
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“To me, nothing is more stunning than the luminous glow of a burning city.”
― Darnell, Darnell Plays With Fire
Darnell is the opponent of WeekEnd 1. His tracks include Darnell, Lit Up, 2hot, and Blazin'. He is an assassin and a friend of Pico and Nene, attempting to kill the former for sparing Boyfriend when the three were hired to kill him.
He is tied with Nene as the fourth guest character introduced to Friday Night Funkin', the first being Skid and Pump, the second being Pico, and the third being Tankman.
Appearance
Darnell is a young man with dark skin and a tall, sloped purple flattop that swipes up in a sharp arc in the front and curves up and outward slightly in the back. Above the front and back curves, the hair extends upward and outward slightly, with the front extension curving up very slightly and the back one being flat. The slope rises slightly more steeply from the back before falling a little toward the front. He has white eyes with no pupils. He wears a purple hoodie with yellow sleeves and drawstrings, dark gray trousers, and white sneakers with yellow shoelaces, purple midsoles, and blue outsoles. The outsoles have the number "99" engraved on them, as shown in his kicking animation. A pair of bluish-gray headphones rest around his neck. He holds a lighter in his right hand and a microphone in his left hand. His idle animation has him tapping his left foot while bopping his head, and he wears a determined grin. All of his singing animations, except for his up pose, have him extending his pinky finger out, and all of them have him producing a flame from his lighter. He is drawn in a chibi style.
During Blazin', his idle animation is a fighting pose instead of a dance, and he no longer has his lighter or microphone. His expression is also more serious.
During Week 5, Darnell's appearance is simplified and brightened, looking similar to how he appears in the Pico series. His hair is black, and he wears a purple shirt with yellow sleeves and red sneakers with pink shoelaces and soles.
Origin
Darnell originates from Darnell Plays With Fire, a short Flash movie created by Tom Fulp in 1999 as the first entry in the Pico franchise. The movie involves Darnell demonstrating his pyromania by exploding and burning down large buildings in a city as he teaches viewers about fire. The film was removed from Newgrounds temporarily and re-released on the 29th of April, 2006.
Personality
Darnell is a trigger-happy person who is characterized by his pyromaniac tendencies; he loves setting things on fire so much that he apparently even goes as far as to burn down 9 buildings to watch them burn for his own pleasure, giving him a near sadistic nature. Darnell is very intelligent and has a high intellect, as he is able to understand many things with little effort. Like Nene, Darnell appears to have some degree of selfishness, attacking his own friend Pico for the presumed sake of money.
History
During Week 5, Darnell is one of the many spectators of Boyfriend's rap battle with Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest at The Mall, appearing in the background of Cocoa and Eggnog.
While Darnell does not physically appear in Week 7, he is one of the assassins hired to find Boyfriend's body and confirm that he is dead. Upon discovering that he is still alive, Darnell is very happy, as he has the opportunity to finish his job and kill Boyfriend.[6]
A sneak peek of WeekEnd 1 shows Pico running away from and fighting his friends, Nene and Darnell, who are trying to kill him.[3] Darnell is seen bleeding from his nose and mouth. Multiple parts of a bigger image briefly flash in the teaser; when pieced together, these reveal a scene where Daddy Dearest is offering Pico money to do something to Boyfriend. In the same image, Darnell and Nene are seen, with Darnell holding a stack of cash in one hand and a lighter in the other. The full image was later posted on Newgrounds, revealing that Daddy Dearest is paying Pico, Darnell, and Nene to kill Boyfriend, as indicated by Daddy Dearest's full speech bubble and the "assassins" tag on the Newgrounds submission. Another image of a production frame for a cutscene depicts Darnell spray painting on a wall.
Abilities
Darnell is an experienced pyrotechnician who enjoys experimenting with explosives and fire. Although its canonicity is debatable, Darnell Plays With Fire supposedly demonstrates his skills in rigging explosives and burning large buildings down, which is also an indicator of his intelligence as a supergenius. In the movie, he states that he makes his bombs with ammonium nitrate fertilizer and blasting caps.
Darnell's original animated sprites in the Pico series depict him holding a pistol and a knife, indicating that he has experience with these weapons. In Pico 2, Darnell uses a gun to shoot down the Ghettobots' UFO. Additionally, Darnell is interested in music, as he owns a DJ turntable and a set of headphones; his musical expertise is further shown in Friday Night Funkin'.
Relationships
Pico
Darnell and Pico are close friends. In Pico 2, Pico quickly works toward stopping the Ghettobots upon learning that they're threatening Darnell's life, and Darnell invites him to come to his house to practice on a DJ turntable. However, in Friday Night Funkin', Darnell and Pico fistfight each other after rap battling, due to the latter breaking the contract they had with Daddy Dearest to kill Boyfriend, which left Darnell in financial ruin. Afterwards, he and Pico shake hands and reconcile.
Nene
Darnell and Nene are friends. While the two were never shown interacting in the Pico series, they team up in Friday Night Funkin' to assassinate Boyfriend and attack Pico.
Daddy Dearest
Daddy Dearest hires Darnell to kill Boyfriend, offering him money to do this, which he accepts.
Boyfriend
Darnell is hired to kill Boyfriend, though it is unclear if he knows who his target is. He seems to be determined to get the job done.
Trivia
General
- Darnell and Nene were both confirmed to be coming to Friday Night Funkin' in a sneak peek showing a cutscene for WeekEnd 1.[7]
- Darnell is one of 4 characters to have a song named after him, the other three being Monster, Pico, and Senpai.
- He is also the only character with a song whose name has a number in it.
- Darnell and Nene's sprites were accidentally leaked late March 2022 through a link to the test build of an unreleased update found in the GitHub repository for Friday Night Funkin'.[8][9] Lead animator and artist PhantomArcade confirmed the leaks were real via a Tweet[10] and Twitch live stream titled "FNF work, it leaked, no point in hidin it".[11]
- Along with the sprite leaks, there were songs that were leaked as well featuring Darnell. The songs in question were also confirmed to be real as PhantomArcade revealed that IvanAlmighty was the one who did the voice for Darnell in those songs.[5]
- This also makes Darnell the fifth character in Friday Night Funkin' to not be voiced by Kawai Sprite, the other four being Skid and Pump, Monster, Mommy Mearest, and Tankman.
- Along with the sprite leaks, there were songs that were leaked as well featuring Darnell. The songs in question were also confirmed to be real as PhantomArcade revealed that IvanAlmighty was the one who did the voice for Darnell in those songs.[5]
- Within the Friday Night Funkin' fandom, a popular name for Darnell is "Chud", as one of the sounds in his chromatic scale sounds like he is saying that. PhantomArcade called him Chud while reacting to fanart during a live stream, stating, "The beautiful sounds of Chud. You'll get the Chud, and you'll like the Chud. You've all signed up for Chud Nation." He also called Darnell "Chudnell".[1]
- In a cutscene for WeekEnd 1, Darnell is seen spray painting.[12] This is possibly in reference to artwork done by MindChamber for a sticker on the now-defunct Newgrounds store.[13]
- Darnell appearing alongside A-Bot, a mascot of the Newgrounds Audio Portal, in the next level is presumably a reference to how the two are both mascots of the Audio Portal and have appeared alongside each other in official artwork for the site.
- Darnell also appeared in the old Newgrounds vote system for audio, but he was replaced by Pico in 2015 and was phased out by 2020.
- Darnell wearing headphones in Friday Night Funkin' is a possible reference to an animation featuring him and A-Bot from the old Audio Portal.
- The headphones may be based on the ones Pico wore when he replaced Darnell.
- The soles of Darnell's shoes have "99" on them, referencing the year Pico's School released, which was 1999.[14]
- Darnell is currently the runner-up for the most tracks in the game, at 4. This is just barely beaten by both Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest, who both have 5 tracks each.
- However, Darnell currently holds the record for most songs in a single week.
- Sometime in mid-2022, after WeekEnd 1 was delayed, a Friday Night Funkin' modder named waldoesque posted a supposed leaked frame for one of the finalized cutscenes in the update.[15] In this image, Darnell can be seen spray painting on a wall and saying the line "Yo! Really think so?". While the image was fake and Darnell doesn't talk during any of the cutscenes, the sentence "Yo! Really think so?" stuck around in the community and became a meme (though it didn't really pick up traction until just before the update released).
Lore
- Darnell is neurodivergent, as he is a pyromaniac and has migraine.[18]
- In the Pico 2 demo, his room (an unfinished location) has various burn marks on the floor and walls.
- Darnell is described as "hormonal".[18]
- Being hormonal means acting upon one's urges, oftentimes sexual, based on one's hormone levels. This commonly occurs throughout puberty in adolescents.
- Darnell is a "supergenius" with an IQ level of 241, meaning he has "very superior" intelligence.[18]
- In his Pico's World bio and on his presidential campaign poster in Pico's School, Darnell is stated to have 5 years to live. Given that he is alive in the present day, it is likely that the claim was a lie made to increase his chances of becoming school president. His poster in Pico's School: Love Conquers All further supports this, as it instead promotes his ideals of integrity, honesty, and ingenuity.
- An unused school hallway background for Pico 2 suggests that the claim worked and helped him successfully become president, as the hallway has a new banner that seems to promote Darnell as acting president.[19]
- In the Pico 2 demo, Darnell's house is located in Center City, but he mentions having to go to North Philly to talk to his father, suggesting that his parents are divorced.
- Tom Fulp has confirmed that some of Darnell's favorite musicians are Krept and Konan, DigDat, Santan Dave, and Blood Orange.[20]
- Darnell would like songs that involve fire and burning things, and as such, he would listen to "Burn It Down" by Linkin Park.[21]
- According to Tom Fulp, Darnell might have majored in chemistry if he had entered college, due to his love for accelerants.[22]
- While disassembling A-Bot to take little pieces and sell them for extra cash, Darnell went into where some of the hydraulic fluid was and tried to use it as lighter fluid to burn down some nearby buildings, and it worked.[23]
- If Pico had creased Darnell's shoes, they would not have shook hands at the end of WeekEnd 1; he would have instead broken his neck.[23]
Inspirations
- It was confirmed that the style of Darnell's white eyes is heavily inspired by Little Orphan Annie comics.[24]
- As Pico was originally inspired by 1990s Children's Tylenol Cold illustrations, Darnell's original design in the Pico series was an extension of said illustrations' style.[25][26]
- Darnell's pyromania was inspired by and based on Tom Fulp's interest in playing with fire as a child.
Gallery
View Darnell's full gallery here.
Darnell's static idle pose as an opponent.
Animation of Darnell getting pissed.
Darnell lighting up a spray can.
Darnell preparing to kick a spray can up.
Darnell kicking a spray can up.
Darnell's singing animations.
Left pose animation.
Left flame loop animation.
Down pose animation.
Down flame loop animation.
Up pose animation.
Up flame loop animation.
Right pose animation.
Right flame loop animation.
Darnell's laughing animation.
Darnell as he appears in the teaser for a future content release.
Preview of Darnell in the sneak peek of a cutscene for WeekEnd 1.
Pre-uppercut animation.
Block hit animation.
Flinch animation.
Dodge animation.
Fake out animation.
Hit high animation.
Hit low animation.
Punch high animation.
Punch low animation.
Spin animation.
Uppercut animation.
Notes
- ↑ For years, Newgrounds users speculated that Pico and his friends were around 10–14 years old during the events of Pico's School and Pico 2, but Tom Fulp confirmed that all of the main characters of Pico's School were high school seniors (approximately 16–18 years old). Although Fulp later retconned this with the statement that "Pico and his friends don't really have super defined ages", MindChamber's statement contradicts this regarding Pico.
References
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