Girlfriend

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That's how you do it!
Girlfriend, Tutorial

Girlfriend is the deuteragonist of Friday Night Funkin'. She is Boyfriend's partner and the daughter of Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest. She is usually seen sitting on top of a stereo, bopping her head to the tempo of the music, cheering Boyfriend on, and keeping track of combos. She is the first opponent faced as she teaches the player how to play the game with her only track, Tutorial.

Appearance

Girlfriend is a young woman with light skin and long, thick auburn hair. Two short locks of hair stick out of her head, one being much smaller than the other, and the shine on her hair resembles a skull. She wears a sleeveless red minidress 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, although sometimes this detail is not added. She normally sits with her legs crossed on a large gray speaker, with two smaller gray speakers laying beside the large one. She is drawn in a chibi style.

During Week 5, her sleeveless red minidress has a fluffy white collar, and she wears matching red gloves with white cuffs, white thigh-high stockings with small red bows, and yellow bell earrings. The speakers she sits on are all wrapped in festive Christmas lights with green wiring.

During Week 6, her regular appearance is brightened and rendered in a pixel art style. Her stereo has added shading and shine.

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 seems to be calm and collected in almost any situation, even in the face of death. Being a demon, she seemingly possesses a great deal of power, but she mostly 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 lacks intelligence to the point of being unafraid of almost anything.[5] In general, she either does not realize when she is in danger or is confident that she can get out of such situations,[6] which may also be due in part to the power she has. 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.[7] However, she is still capable of making smart decisions and knows what to do when dealing with taxes[8] and facing death.

Girlfriend has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.[9] The only individual she has been shown speaking to is Boyfriend. In Week 6 and Week 7, she does not speak at all, and she seems to barely acknowledge the opponent, if at all. Furthermore, she occasionally has poor object permanence.[10] Girlfriend's talents as an artist and painter show that she is a creative individual. She has a poor concept of time, too, which is a common ADHD trait. She doesn't know very well how to handle money, either; she will normally make commissions (due to being an artist), but she will ask for 1 trillion dollars,[11] or when she has to pay for a hamburger, she will pay less than what the hamburger costs.[12]

Girlfriend has been described as being mean "in her own special way."[13] She also likes to do immoral things, appearing to not care about the consequences of her actions as long as she gets what she wants. For instance, using her mother's limousine, she and Boyfriend hold up McDonald's drive-through slots as they hold the store hostage to get whatever food they want.[14]

Abilities

Girlfriend is known to have multiple powerful abilities, but the details that can be inferred about them are limited at this time. In the cutscene for Stress, it is shown that Girlfriend can make her eyes gleam red and her skin turn a light shade of purple, acting as a visual indicator of her using (or preparing to use) her demon powers. It has also been directly stated that Girlfriend can use demon magic, including some form of shapeshifting, as she is able to give herself a penis.[15]

Girlfriend appears to have some form of invincibility or immortality, as she was apparently completely unharmed after falling from a plane, which her parents even knew would not be a problem for her.[16] Additionally, an official Girlfriend shirt design shows bat wings in her shadow and a heart tail attached to the letter d in the text with her name,[17] both features of succubi. It was stated that the design reveals one of her future abilities.[18]

Girlfriend might be able to conceal her powers in order to hide her demon nature. This is also a reason as to why Pump's eyes don't glow cyan whenever near her in Week 2.[19]

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 whomever 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.

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 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.[14]

Boyfriend

Boyfriend is Girlfriend's partner. The two love each other very much and are never shown to be 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, even when in dangerous situations. Their closeness is shown when Boyfriend happily catches Girlfriend and receives a hug from her during the cutscene for Stress thanks to true love.

Pico

While Girlfriend’s opinion on Pico is unknown, Pico makes it abundantly clear through his actions towards her that he has a problem, as he views her as the person who “stole” his ex. It may be possible Girlfriend shares the same sentiments as Pico, but it’s difficult to figure out what exactly goes on inside her head.

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. He 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[20] 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 is evidently not afraid of him during his songs.

Senpai

Senpai is likely someone whom Girlfriend has known for a long time as a love interest in her dating sim game. After Girlfriend is sent into the game, Senpai quickly falls in love with her 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[21][22] 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, but there may be another reason that is currently unclear. Because of his apparent distorted sense of justice, Spirit considers it "only fair" to take Boyfriend and Girlfriend's bodies for himself in order to escape the game and get revenge on Girlfriend's father. 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 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

  • ninjamuffin99 stated that Girlfriend's name is simply Girlfriend.[23] Prior to this confirmation, like with Boyfriend, there have been various attempts to figure out the character's "real" name, with some names coming from Tweets. These include the following:
    • Bertney (on Twitter, by Kawai Sprite in a conversation with Newgrounds animator Luis Castañon).[24]
    • Keith (on Twitter, by ninjamuffin99. This name is the same as one of Boyfriend's random names).[25]
    • Cherry (by fans, based on her love for Cherry Dr. Pepper).
    • Lucy (by fans, derived from Lucifer. This is based on Girlfriend's demonic nature).
    • Amelia (by fans. The source is unknown for now, but this name is mainly used in fanfictions).
  • Girlfriend is the first character to not have a "danger" icon, the second being Daddy Dearest. 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 and Monster are currently the only characters in the game to fully sing real words instead of using a chromatic scale or gibberish.
  • Girlfriend is tied with Boyfriend and Spirit for having the least tracks out of any character in Friday Night Funkin', having one each.
  • If the player fails to hit a note during a 70-note combo or greater, Girlfriend will briefly cry. However, this doesn't occur in Week 4, Week 6, and Week 7, as there are no versions of her crying animation for those weeks.
    • A variant of this animation is used in the cutscene for Guns after she is insulted by Tankman.
  • Girlfriend is afraid of thunder and lightning;[26] 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 as dialogue sound effects but have been scrapped alongside the dialogue.[27][28][29][30][31] In the voice clips, Girlfriend makes random sounds like beeps and boops, similar to the beeping sounds that Boyfriend makes.
  • 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.[32] Titled "girlfriend inards," the sprite's exact purpose is unknown, although it may have been intended for the unfinished beginning cutscene 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 due to time constraints.[33]
  • 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.[34] PhantomArcade has stated that he will find a way to officially implement it into Friday Night Funkin'.[35]
    • 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 in order to prevent a bad future,[36] 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.[37]
  • In December 2020, ninjamuffin99 stated that his favorite Friday Night Funkin' character was Girlfriend, as he finds her cute.[38] However, in August 2022, he would instead state that his favorite character is Senpai.[39]
    • Another reason behind ninjamuffin99's fondness for Girlfriend is the fact that she is very unintelligent.[40]
  • Prior to the Pitstop 2 update, one of Girlfriend's transition stickers lacked the bright colored outline the other stickers have. This sticker was the only one to have this property.

Lore

Main article: Girlfriend/Lore

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.[41] Girlfriend is presumably based on the series' main character's girlfriend Lum, who has a boyfriend named Moroboshi Ataru, 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.[42] ninjamuffin99 has also retweeted one fan's message with this interpretation and called it "Funkin history."[43]
  • Girlfriend's skeleton is based on the X-rays that Body-Snatchers would display in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.[44] The unused "girlfriend inards" sprite is particularly reminiscent of said X-rays.
  • Girlfriend's design was initially inspired[45] by the girl from Rhythm Heaven.[46][47]
  • 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.[48] Both characters have auburn hair, red outfits and tremendous power.

Gallery

View Girlfriend's full gallery here.


Notes

  1. In a Tweet made in February 2021 by PhantomArcade, Boyfriend and Girlfriend were stated to be 20 years old. It is unclear if PhantomArcade was confused in this Tweet, if the two being 19 years old was retconned, or if Boyfriend and Girlfriend have no specific age and only a range. However, given that the two have been stated to be 19 more often than not, this one instance of them being stated to be 20 may have been a mistake or a temporary retcon that ended up being scrapped.

References

  1. PhantomArcade (December 15, 2020). "When I was 19 my partner's father told me to turn off the Persona Q music I was listening to because it was fruity, and then played ACDC music on his guitar. I had similar experiences at 18, and even now many years later. The BF and GF are 19, stylized to be chibi". From Twitter.
  2. framework (April 29, 2022). "nene and darnell age in fnf". From YouTube.
  3. Funkin News (April 4, 2025). "pico, bf, and gf are 19 years old". From Twitter.
  4. ninjamuffin99 (January 31, 2023). "it is me dev, girlfriend friday night funkin is 900lbs chonker". From Twitter.
  5. PhantomArcade (April 3, 2021). "except GF would definitely not be afraid of RUV, or Whitty for that matter. Her and BF are too dumb to be afraid, plus they're definitely not in danger.". From Twitter.
  6. framework (April 30, 2023). "BF and GF are unintelligent". From YouTube.
  7. One Of (June 19, 2022). "Girlfriend likes eating fistfuls of peanut butter". From YouTube.
  8. PhantomArcade (October 23, 2021). "They're both dumb as hell. But let me put it like this. GF knows how to file taxes, and BF knows what to do if you accidentally shoot a bullet into your thigh and can't afford a hospital visit.". From "PhantomArcade AMA" on Reddit.
  9. framework (April 30, 2023). "Boyfriend and Girlfriend are neurodivergent". From YouTube.
  10. Lendon (March 14, 2023). "More BF and GF Fun Facts". From YouTube.
  11. framework (April 29, 2022). "gf commissions". From YouTube.
  12. Lendon (June 18, 2023). "Phantom Arcade Stream || "Wat Da Funk This Boy Up 2"" (1:22:31). From YouTube.
  13. Spiro96 (January 4, 2023). "Boyfriend and Girlfriend are assholes". From Internet Archive.
  14. 14.0 14.1 PhantomArcade (June 19, 2022). "whatever they can pressure the window clerk to hand off for free. They hold the store hostage stealing Mom's limo and holding up the entire drive thru slot". From Twitter.
  15. framework (November 20, 2022). "FNF work, it leaked, no point in hidin' it" (47:36). From YouTube.
  16. Snowy does fnf (April 28, 2021). "Phantom arcade explains week 7 lore". From YouTube.
  17. PhantomArcade (April 19, 2021). "Some people are asking what the Girlfriend Shirt listed in the Kickstarter will look like. I worked closely once again with @PitooKettles who I got to do the other 2 shirts. They knocked it outta the park once more. FOLLOW THE PIMP ARTIST 👉👉@PitooKettles". From Twitter.
  18. PhantomArcade (April 19, 2021). "Now, this shit DOES reveal one of her future abilities. But hey, if it's gonna cost money it might as well be tight as hell, u dig?". From Twitter.
  19. Lendon (May 7, 2024). "Weekend 1 Asset Review (Darnell Nene Pico Bf) + Doodle Requests" (3:00:55). From YouTube.
  20. PhantomArcade (October 23, 2021). "the parents do it out of a weird pride and to be condescending as singing performers, the spooky kids wanna play, the monster is just insane, pico does it out of nostalgia/old habits, senpai does it to try and upstage you without violence, the tankmen do it cuz they're bored, etc". From "PhantomArcade AMA" on Reddit.
  21. File:Downbad.jpg
  22. PhantomArcade (April 9, 2021). "Cutscenes will give context one day, but Senpai is just a video game character from a dating sim GF plays. But, spoiler, there’s also a living soul the dad trapped within the game/character. Imagine you got stuck in Mario and you can only jump/smile/etc for 14 years". From Twitter. Archived from the original on April 9, 2021.
  23. ninjamuffin99 (December 31, 2020). "girlfriend and boyfriend". From "i programmed Friday Night Funkin AMA 2: the sequel" on Reddit.
  24. Luis Castañon (October 7, 2020). "she's bertney now. too late.". From Twitter. Archived from the original on October 7, 2020.
  25. ninjamuffin99 (December 6, 2020). "Keith". From Twitter. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020.
  26. PhantomArcade (April 3, 2021). "lightning freaks them the fuck out, they nearly piss themselves every time". From Twitter.
  27. File:GF 1.ogg
  28. File:GF 2.ogg
  29. File:GF 3.ogg
  30. File:GF 4.ogg
  31. Tailys (May 10, 2021). "So i found this on an old version of FNF...". From YouTube. Archived from the original on May 24, 2021. Video not archived.
  32. "Funkin/bf_holding_gf_edits.fla". From "FunkinCrew/Funkin" on GitHub.
  33. Lendon (July 12, 2023). "Original Idea For GF's Idle Animation". From YouTube.
  34. JohnnyUtah (May 22, 2022). "🎤yeah I ….ok". From Twitter. Archived from the original on May 22, 2022. Image mirror available.
  35. PhantomArcade (May 22, 2022). "jeff now that u made this just know I WILL find a way to make it canonically appear in game". From Twitter. Archived from the original on May 22, 2022.
  36. JohnnyUtah (May 22, 2022). "so get this he's like "BURP BURP" and explains that he travelled through a portal and has to allow girlfriend to die in order to save the timeline and the future". From Twitter. Archived from the original on May 22, 2022.
  37. JohnnyUtah (May 22, 2022). "also since she's dead that's the blow up doll it all works". From Twitter. Archived from the original on May 22, 2022.
  38. ninjamuffin99 (December 31, 2020). "GF my fav cuz she is so cute :) Mom music been pretty damn fun to make, Pico close second. I imagine the next stuff we add will be my new fav, I think we're slowly chipping away what makes this game fukin awesome, so it's only getting better and better.". From "i programmed Friday Night Funkin AMA 2: the sequel" on Reddit.
  39. ninjamuffin99 (August 11, 2022). "SENPAI MY FAV LEAST FAV UHHH FUCK YOU BLOCKHEAD IN WEEK 5 BACKGROUND MALL LMFAOOO". From "ninji mofin AMA episode 4" on Reddit.
  40. ninjamuffin99 (March 25, 2021). "gf cuz she is a dumb dipshit". From Twitter.
  41. PhantomArcade (January 1, 2022). "The 1981 Urusei Yatsura is one of the core inspirations for FNF. A deranged stupid couple goes on infinite adventures that range from heartfelt to dumb as fuck. Horny MC + horned other worldly powered GF. Blue hair.". From Twitter.
  42. DidYouKnowGaming? (November 14, 2021). "How Newgrounds Changed Gaming ft. JohnnyUtah" (11:05). From YouTube.
  43. ninjamuffin99 (February 3, 2021). "this tweet is literally Funkin history btw, in the gamejam version we just had GF sitting on blocks, but speakers literally just make sense". From Twitter.
  44. DidYouKnowGaming? (November 14, 2021). "How Newgrounds Changed Gaming ft. JohnnyUtah" (11:25). From YouTube.
  45. PhantomArcade (March 5, 2021). "this was the initial inspiration for Girlfriend". From Twitter.
  46. RebelTaxi (February 12, 2021). "Friday Night Funkin Creators Interview (Pizza Party)" (13:30). From YouTube.
  47. DidYouKnowGaming? (November 14, 2021). "How Newgrounds Changed Gaming ft. JohnnyUtah" (10:56). From YouTube.
  48. PhantomArcade (January 2, 2023). "been a fan of this for a long time, mighta been an influence without even realizing it". From Twitter. Archived from the original on January 3, 2023.