The Viewers are the fourth minor enemies encountered in Little Nightmares II. They are encountered in The Pale City chapter and are the main antagonistic faction of said chapter.
Website Description
The Viewers live life through the screen and cannot imagine a world without it. All those wonderful colours, sounds and shapes, dancing before their eyes, mesmerising them, pacifying them, fattening them up. The Transmission gives them all they need, and demands only one thing in return...
Appearance
Like all adult characters in Little Nightmares, the Viewers tower over Mono and Six, standing three times their size. Aside from that, the Viewers are perhaps the most human-looking monsters in the series, having almost normal body proportions save for slightly larger-than-normal heads; and dressing in casual or business casual attire. They also have different hairstyles, some even being almost bald, and also some being somewhat obese compared to the others. The Viewers' faces, however, reveal their true nature. Their faces appear to have been removed or wiped off completely, covered now by twisted folds of flesh that appear to have imploded or sunken into their skulls, some even appearing to have concave faces of which is likely because of almost constant exposure to the Transmission from the Signal Tower. As they watch televisions, the Viewers emit a deep, unnatural clicking sound akin to a Geiger counter. When angered, the Viewers' clicking turns into a guttural, crackling roar, and their movements appear unnaturally jerky and stuttering, akin to stop-motion animation or a sped-up film reel.
Strategy
The Viewers seem to be so addicted to their televisions that when Mono distracts them in any way, they will attack him. It is also shown that if a television turns off or if they are no where near one, the Viewer(s) will apparently attempt to vent their frustration on any living thing they see, specifically Mono himself. If any of them were to get close to the boy, they'd emit a sonic frequency from their heads that would lead to a game over. Mono is able to stop the Viewers pursuit of him by either turning on a nearby television or luring them to ones already on. Luckily, their television addiction can be used against them, as when a Viewer sees a television or Mono, they'd run towards them at full force and pay little to no attention to their surroundings, which would most likely kill them depending on where they are; for instance, they won't pay attention to large drops between themselves and a television and will walk right off the edge, falling to their deaths. Some Viewers, however, have displayed enough understanding of their environment to avoid and/or get past certain obstacles.
Little Nightmares Comics
In Episode 5 of the Little Nightmares Comics, the Ghost Child confronts two Viewers in the Pale City apartment. At first, the Viewers do not react to them in any way, watching a program on TV in which a baker is preparing food. However, when the child almost leaves the apartment, the TV turns off for some reason and the Viewers attack the child.
Little Nightmares II
Throughout the Pale City, Mono and Six find various bits of clothing, once belonging to the Viewers.
After escaping the Hospital and while walking near what appears to be a bus stop, several Viewers can be seen falling from buildings. Mono and Six get a more up close encounter with a Viewer after entering an apartment building in the Pale City. The Viewer falls through the ceiling and soon gets up, immediately running into the next room. Mono and Six find the Viewer with his head smashed into the screen of a television, seemingly dead.
Mono and Six go outside and into another apartment building. Inside, they find one Viewer peeking through the crack of a door, one watching TV in the hallway, and another watching in the bathtub.
After losing Six to the Thin Man, Mono will find a remote allowing him to interact with the televisions in the Pale City, turning them on or off. Mono will use the remote on a female Viewer, turning on a television hanging outside and turning off the one she is watching. The Viewer will run to the window and resumes watching the screen, as Mono uses the televisions to teleport outside. Later, Mono uses the televisions to make a Viewer fall off a building. On the roofs of the buildings, Mono will find several Viewers observing the Black Tower from afar, some of whom will fall off the building. After Mono pries off some of boards blocking a door, a male Viewer will come out and chase Mono until he electrocutes the Viewer in water. Mono does the same thing again to a female Viewer after luring her into the bathroom of another building. After Mono leaves the building, he passes by a large crowd of Viewers watching TV in an alleyway of the Pale City.
After leaving the toy store, Mono then lures two Viewers away from a television in an alleyway and to looking at one in a shop, allowing the protagonist to travel through the one currently unoccupied. However, a crowd of Viewers standing behind a fence notice him messing with the television and break down the fence to get to him. While he is able to get away in time by going through the TV, he travels out of the TV he set up for the two Viewers earlier, this breaks the TV screen and enrages the two Viewers. The Viewers angrily bang the shop's glass screen, some break through the windows, while one of them manages to open the door to the shop, allowing them all to enter as Mono makes his run. Although Mono manages to run deeper into the shop, the crowd of Viewers catch up and pursue Mono regardless of obstacles. With every Viewer in the area out for his blood, Mono runs through the shop and narrowly escapes through another television just before they could catch him.
Powers and Abilities
- Sonic attack: The Viewers have an obscure ability to attack Mono by releasing an intense Sonic wave from their heads.
Theories
- Many Viewers in the Pale City are seen nowhere near a TV upon their sudden death or disappearance. Locations such as the bus stop reveal a set of empty clothes on a bench and various Viewers jumping to their deaths with no television in sight. It's unknown how the Viewers' bodies can be sucked into the TVs from a far distance. However, it is suspected the Viewers' flesh may be capable of moving on its own and slipping out from their clothing to search for the nearest television screen, based on concept art.
- While some Viewers are seen gazing at a television, others make the desperate attempt to find one. However, those who stand atop the roofs of buildings, gaze at the Towers light, completely pacified, implying that although the televisions are primarily how the Viewers are exposed to the transmission, they can also be exposed to it through whatever light is emitted externally from the Tower.
Trivia
- It has been confirmed that the Viewers can get physically sucked in by the televisions[1], even to a point where only a Viewer's clothing is left behind[2]. This may happen after they are exposed to the broadcasts for long periods of time, and could explain the empty clothing in various poses throughout the Pale City.
- The Viewers can remain pacified in large groups so long as there is at least one television to present them the Transmission. However, as Mono is pursued by a large number of Viewers in the grocery store, the Viewers continue to pursue him regardless of the number of functioning televisions on the shelf, leaving suspicion that the transmission could no longer keep them pacified near the end of Little Nightmares II.
- The sonic emissions created by the Viewers do not appear to harm Six.
- The Viewers are, in some ways, similar to the Guests from Little Nightmares. Both are apparently obsessed with one particular thing (food for the Guests and television for the Viewers) and disturbing them will result in chaos. Furthermore, they seem to be fed upon by the main antagonists of their respective games that serve them (the Lady for the Guests and the Thin Man for the Viewers), although this has since been drawn to question as it is the structures they inhabit, the Maw and the Signal Tower, which are described as living entities in need of sustenance to survive.
- Initially, there were going to be Viewers with televisions for heads, according to concept art.
- Other Viewers would have appeared in a variety of disfigured shapes and sizes.
- Their in-game files' names are known as "TV_People".
- The name "TV People" is also shown on a Steam Trading Card.
- The Viewer's sonic attacks can shatter glass objects like bottles.