Darnell

Were you looking for the song?
Darnell is a background character that appears during Week 5. He is set to have a major role in Friday Night Funkin' in the future. He has 3 confirmed tracks as an antagonist: Darnell, Lit Up and 2Hot.
==Appearance==
Darnell is a young, dark-skinned man with 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 and yellow hoodie with yellow drawstrings, dark gray trousers and white sneakers with yellow shoelaces, purple midsoles and blue outsoles. 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. 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 Week 5, Darnell's appearance is simplified. He wears a purple and yellow shirt 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 going on a pyromaniac spree throughout the city and teaching 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 to the point where he 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.
A sneak peek of an upcoming level shows Pico running away from and fighting his friends, Nene and Darnell, who are trying to kill him. 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.
==Relationships==
===Pico===
Darnell and Pico are close friends. In Pico 2, Pico quickly words 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 fight each other for a currently unknown reason.
===Nene===
Darnell and Nene are friends. While the two were never shown interacting in the Pico series, they seemingly 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. He may be loyal to the father, as he fights Pico after the latter betrays his bosses.
===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==
*Darnell and Nene were both confirmed to be coming to Friday Night Funkin' in an animated sneak peek for the update adding new content after Week 7. The upcoming week is said to continue after the events of Week 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 is neurodivergent, as he is a pyromaniac and has migraine. Requires Ruffle.
**In Darnell Plays With Fire, he states that he makes his bombs with ammonium nitrate fertilizer and blasting caps.
***In the Pico 2 demo, his room (an unfinished location) has various burn marks on the floor and walls.
*Darnell is described as "hormonal."
**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 "gifted" intelligence.
*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.
*According to Tom Fulp, Darnell might have majored in chemistry if he had entered college, due to his love for accelerants.
*Darnell and Nene's sprites were accidentally leaked late March 2022 through a link to the test build of the next update found in the GitHub repository for Friday Night Funkin'. Lead animator and artist PhantomArcade confirmed the leaks were real via a Tweet and Twitch live stream titled "FNF work, it leaked, no point in hidin it."
**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.
***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.
*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."
*In a cutscene for the upcoming week, Darnell is seen spray painting.:File:Cutscene A - Scene 4 - Production Frame 490.png This is possibly in reference to artwork done by MindChamber for a sticker on the now-defunct Newgrounds store.:File:7DBBC994-1454-4003-AA31-6C6F82D8017C.jpeg
==Gallery==
View Darnell's full gallery here.
Darnell leaked idle static.png|Darnell's static idle pose as an opponent.
Leak 8 Darnell sings.gif|Darnell's singing animations.
Leak8DarnellLeftAnim.gif|Left pose.
Leak8DarnellDownAnim.gif|Down pose.
Leak8DarnellUpAnim.gif|Up pose.
Leak8DarnellRightAnim.gif|Right pose.
Leak 8 Darnell laughs.gif|Darnell's laughing animation.
Darnell teaser.png|Darnell as he appears in a teaser for the upcoming level.
Darnell preview.png|Preview of Darnell in the sneak peek of an animation for the upcoming level.
Darnell Bop.gif|Darnell as he appears in the background of Cocoa and Eggnog in Week 5.
Leaked background for Darnell level.png|Leaked background for the upcoming level, possibly an early version.
==References==
Category:Guest Characters
Category:Background Characters
Category:Non-Playable Characters
Category:Antagonists
Category:Humans
Category:Darnell
Category:Alive
Category:Male
es:
ja:
tr: