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Bobby Barrows
Dearbobbyjy2
Artwork of Bobby from the manual
Gender
Male
Age
8 (born November 7,1986)
Status
Deceased (in canon ending)
Hair color
Blond
Eye color
White and without pupils (Red in manga)
Occupation
N/A
Appearances
Clock Tower: The First Fear
Voice actor
None

Bobby Barrows (ボビィ・バロウズ Bobyi Barouzu) is the primary stalker and secondary antagonist of Clock Tower: The First Fear. He is the first Scissorman to appear in the Clock Tower series, although he had an ancestor named John Barrows. Bobby is the son of Mary Barrows and twin brother of Dan Barrows.

Throughout the game, he relentlessly stalks Jennifer Simpson in the Barrows Mansion and tries to kill her. In the good endings of the game (Endings S, A, B and C), he dies. If a bad ending was obtained (Endings D through H), then he lives and possibly kills Jennifer depending on the specific ending.

Biography[]

Hands

Walter assisting one of the Barrows' birth.

Mary Barrows gave birth to a pair of twins, Bobby and Dan, with the help of Dr. Walter Simpson, in November 1986.

However, they were not normal twins. The children were ill, their bodies deformed. They should have died of their afflictions, but they did not. Most horrifically, they devoured Walter's right hand when they were born. Walter immediately discovered that the children were demons, and thought that they should have died. As a result, Mary had Dr. Simpson sealed in a padded room that was intended for her, where he died three days later of suffocation.

On September 14, 1995, Mary would adopt four girls, Jennifer Simpson, Laura Harrington, Anne and Lotte, from the Granite Orphanage and bring them to the Barrows Mansion. Bobby, now 8 years old, would attack the girls there, wielding a huge pair of scissors to deadly effect as he hunted them through the mansion.

Appearance[]

Bobby appears as a deformed and demonic 8-year-old boy with white eyes, a sickly pale, skull-faced complexion, and unkempt blond hair. He wears a dated school uniform consisting of navy blue shorts and a matching jacket. He wields his trademark giant pair of scissors, which he uses to murder his victims.

Personality[]

Bobby is shown to be brutal, sadistic and merciless despite his young age.

In The First Fear video game, Bobby has no lines of dialogue and there are no direct references to what his personality is like. Despite this, there is much that can be inferred about his personality from his actions and other clues that the player can discover.

Bobby demonstrates a clear murderous intent, trying to kill Jennifer at every opportunity and stalking her relentlessly until she finds some way to escape him. Furthermore, depending on the player's actions, Bobby can kill Anne and/or Laura in various gruesome ways. This includes ramming Anne down through a glass ceiling with his shears.

He is clearly sadistic, and enjoys tormenting his victims. For example, when he wins a panic event against Jennifer and overpowers her, he will dance for a few moments before continuing his pursuit. In addition, there are multiple instances in the game where he can be heard giggling offscreen before ambushing Jennifer.

AnneWindowManga

Bobby mercilessly killing Anne.

In the manga, Bobby is much the same as he is in the game: brutal and sadistic. When Laura, Anne, Lotte and Jennifer are in the main hall after having arrived in the Barrows Mansion, Bobby peers in at them from outside through a window and waits eagerly for his chance to strike. When the girls have gone to their bedrooms, he attacks opportunistically. Jennifer witnesses Bobby ramming Anne straight out a second floor window of the mansion with his shears. Later, in one of the bathrooms, Jennifer finds the corpse of Laura bound unceremoniously by her hands to the showerhead in a bath tub.

It is highly probable that Bobby's evil nature stems from his demonic origins. For example, he and Dan devoured Walter Simpson's right hand as mere newborn babies. This suggests that there was evil in him and his brother since birth. The influence of his mother, Mary, may also have played some role in his cruel behaviour as he grew older. This, however, is purely speculative.

Abilities[]

Bobby is immortal, owing to a ritual that prevented time from passing normally in the Barrows Mansion.[1]Indeed, in the game, being hit by heavy objects and even falling from the second floor of the mansion only seem to knock him out for a short while. 

Bobby possesses a high degree of strength, being able to hold his own against Jennifer during panic events and carry his shears one-handed while climbing ladders. He is also able to lift his scissors over his head while doing a short distance run.

In the end, Bobby's high strength and durability cannot save him. When Jennifer restarts the Clock Tower at the end of the game, time is allowed to pass normally in the mansion and the deformities that should have killed him at birth do so.[2]

Clock Tower: The First Fear[]

Trigger points[]

Bobby can be triggered at several points during the game. He can be found:

  • After discovering Laura Harrington's body in the shower
  • After witnessing Anne's death via pool.
  • After witnessing Anne's death via ceiling.
  • If Jennifer plays the piano in the piano room, West Wing (if the ceiling panel does fall)
  • Behind the curtain in the piano room, West Wing (if the ceiling panel doesn't fall)
  • In the wooden crate of the storage room, West Wing
  • In the mannequin room, West Wing (if Jennifer inspects the leftmost mannequin in the center)
  • In the garage, if Jennifer is being chased by Bobby, she can climb a wooden ladder to the high platform in the garage and then knock down the ladder. Once Bobby leaves, Jennifer must immediately jump down or Bobby will cut a hole in the ceiling with his scissors and potentially trap her.
  • In the west wing library (if Jennifer attempts to hide between the last two bookcases)

Fate[]

Canonically, Bobby does not survive the events of Clock Tower: The First Fear. Depending on the endings, though, he will live or die based on the player's choices.

  • Ending S: Bobby falls to his death from the sound of the Clock Tower.[3]
  • Ending A: Bobby falls to his death from the sound of the Clock Tower.
  • Ending B: Bobby falls to his death from the sound of the Clock Tower.
  • Ending C: Bobby will try to avenge his brother's and mother's deaths, but fails. Bobby falls to his death from the sound of the Clock Tower.
  • Ending D: Bobby is not featured in this ending, but he lives.
  • Ending E: Bobby breaks into the elevator and kills Jennifer.[4] He lives in this ending.
  • Ending F: Off screen, Bobby breaks into the elevator and kills Jennifer.[5] He lives in this ending.
  • Ending G: While Bobby lives in this ending, he is not featured directly.
RearviewMirror

Bobby's scissors in Ending "H".

  • Ending H: While Jennifer attempts to escape in the car, his giant scissors rise from the back seat. Bobby presumably lives in this ending.

Legacy[]

Bobby's legacy as Scissorman lives throughout the game series by his giant scissors or his demeanor to chase the player:

  • In Clock Tower, Bobby's twin brother, Dan (under the pseudonym of Edward) lives on his brother's legacy by committing murders using giant scissors similar to his. In the novelization, it is revealed that Dan intends to resurrect Bobby by offering Jennifer as a sacrifice to the Great Father, unite with his brother to become one being, and begin the apocalypse.
  • In Clock Tower 3, the Scissor Twins (Ralph and Jemima), murderers similar to Bobby who lived long before he did, have been resurrected and live out Bobby's legacy.
  • In Haunting Ground, in Ending A, Debilitas is seen clutching a giant pair of scissors to cut some leaves in the garden, which may be a reference to Scissorman.

Creator's comment[]

The idea of Scissorman's blades comes from watching the movie "The Burning" when I was a child. The scary backlit silhouette of a murderous demon, with his garden shears, sent shivers down my spine (...)

The bodies of the two brothers were deformed so they could not naturally live on earth. By stopping time, they could successfully escape death. However, as a result, it means that they cannot get away from the reach of power from the other world (in other words the Burrows mansion) and it is that restriction that Dan tries to escape from. Thus, Dan created a "cocoon" with human flesh and blood, and transforms into a perfect body inside it. Of course to compose such a huge frame, it goes without saying that it is the flesh and blood of many victims (...)

As shown in the room with the piano, we considered the existence of a space where Jennifer cannot move as Bobby's migration pathway, such as the construction of the attic at the beginning of development of the game (the existence of Dan was not set at that time). However, as development continued, a terror event in addition to being chased by the Scissor Man was needed, so the setting of Dan was created. Scissor Man's "warp" becomes possible by the ability of Dan.

Hifumi Kono [6][7]

Trivia[]

Patua

Patua, Brückner's deformed son.

  • The reason Bobby's age is 8 years old is due to the fact that The First Fear takes place in September 1995, and Bobby celebrates his birthday in November.
  • Bobby is probably inspired by the film Phenomena. Patua and Bobby share the exact same deformed face and same hairstyle. Both use blades or scissors to slash their victims.
  • Another possible inspiration is the German story "Die Geschichte vom Daumelutscher" from the famous book "Der Struwwelpeter" by Heinrich Hoffmann. It features a boy who, as a punishment for sucking his thumbs, gets them both cut off by a tailor with a giant scissor. Bobby bears a striking resemblance to the boy's clothing and, just like the tailor, wields a giant scissor.

Gallery[]

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