I love the idea that Scott was faced with the reality of “FNAF 3 jump scares aren’t jumpy or scary enough” and found it easier to create a whole new realm of lore and entire games worth of content and marketing instead of, you know, just patching the game with better jump scare animations.

Let's not forget that FNAF 1 was supposed to be a single standalone game, but after it became a success Scott turned it into a trilogy. He noticed how players were not satisfied with the jumpscares of FNAF 3, so decided on a 4th game. While the community was quick to uncover the lore from the first 3 games, the lore from the 4th game went largely unnoticed. Then Sister location and Pizza simulator came to "explain" the lore, ending it with another fire. I don't know why, but after that he made another 180 with Help wanted, VR and Security Breach. Telling us that the first 3 games were nothing more than games in universe, based on similar events. So in short, it was supposed to be a story of 1 game, then 3, then 4, then 6 and after that who knows... This all was mentioned by Scott himself or discussed by MatPat and friends.

The first three games have their flaws, but I love there story. The first three games story will always be living rent free in my head for a lifetime.

I really like the idea of Michael being the main protagonist who's trying to undo his father's and his own wrong doings, it makes the story more engaging and gives the main character a motive. The only thing I don't really care for is Sister Location and its dumb remnant shtick. I do think FNAF 3 was originally intended to be the last to occur in the timeline with Fazbear Frights burning to the ground along with Springtrap, just not the last game.

The reason for the shift from supernatural horror to sci-fi horror is because Scott simply loves writing sci-fi. Most of his games before fnaf were sci-fi. Altering the genre in sister location clearly wasn't that good for the story, but it's somewhat understandable.

Edgar Allan Poe's literary theory defines beauty as the combination of strangeness, sadness, and loss. The first trilogy of FNAF had this, which made it so great. By over explaining everything in rational terms, by giving names and faces to characters, and even going as far as to explain the "science" behind the hauntings (remnant) the story was stripped of an essential aspect of beauty, strangeness, and reduced to just a convoluted recounting of an unfortunate series of events.

"the whole point of purple guy is that hes a nameless murderer" all us bitches who tumblr sexymanified purple guy and called him vincent back before sister location: 👁👁

Remnant is just a cringe concept. It turns a creepy ghost story with a premise of “what if the animatronics that look like they’ll hurt you actually will kill you because they’re haunted. Basically just a simple concept that is understandable to everyone. Remnant takes that and turns it into a sci fi story. It also doesn’t make sense for the ghosts of the children to scare afton into the the spring Bonnie suit if they’re souls are supposed to be infused with the animatronics. Also wasn’t the entire reason that afton went to disassemble the animatronics was to collect remnant? Ghosts haunting robots because they were stuffed in them works so well and doesn’t need to be over complicated.

Just as the second game was likely changed to a prequel last minute, I wholeheartedly believe that the bite of 83 was supposed to be the bite of 87. I mean think about it, what seems the most likely? There were two separate bites, but only one is ever talked about for absolutely no reason despite there being multiple witnesses to the first bite AND for some reason the second bite was only talked about and never shown with the first one only shown and never talked about oooor Scott overlooked some details and fucked it up. I’m inclined to believe the second option.

As a veteran of FNAF it really sucks to watch my childhood burn out like a fire, usually I just blur out the lines by watching the video from the good days…. But that only works for so long, very good video man and excellent editing.

I've always said that FNAF should've ended with 4. FNAF 1-3 was the main story while 4 was only really showing/explaining the Bite Of 87. But I feel as if Sister Location is the moment where the FNAF story/lore was being dragged on and a bit too complicated.

I am extremely glad that as of late people are more willing to tear 4/SL to shreds for the nonsense they warped a tragic but sentimental ghost story into. The allure of putting a puzzle-like story together in any way that has as few direct inconsistencies as possible had largely overtaken the completely reasonable expectation to have a story be made SATISFYING in this fandom for a really long time, which was insanely frustrating.

I actually like the jarring shift between the night and day sections in Pizzeria Simulator; it makes the nighttime sections that much more unsettling on comparison

A great part about the murderer was that we knew NOTHING. Were they a man? A woman? A murderous customer? A crazed employe? A hitman of sorts sent be a competing restaurant to sank the reputation of Freddy's? Were we playing as them at any point? Prior to The Silver Eyes which threw that cool concept out the window, we *kind* of got a somewhat reliable interpetation that they were the night guard who worked in the new Freddy's on a Sunday, 1987, name? Fritz Smith, a man whose important job was to leave audio logs for later night guards, a man who faked his own death with an unwitting succesor being the forced alibi. Regardless if man or woman, customer or employee, Fritz or hitman, they ended up killed by the same thing they've used to take lives of others, before burning to a crisp. Hell, you could even speculate that they had some kind of a deal with a mysterious malevolent spirit taking form of shadow-like manifestations of Freddy's mascots, given how it appeared prominently in FNAF 3, a glorified boss fight against the killer with it only being natural that a villain of a ghost story would try to use supernatural beings for their own benefits, checking that ghost story trope of "Deal with the Devil" quite nicely. But of course, we just HAD to get a full character with a nonsensical role in relation to Fazbear Inc., a cartoony mad scientist who devolved into a Dr. Evil reject, with the goofiest and most generic evil speeches ever, and just HAD to give him a sad sob sob backstory. Truly, a great serial killer of children for a horror series, amiright :D? (Also, Fritz apparently never existed or smth, so he's not the Phone Guy, that one was just forgotten about the second Sister Location hit the shelves)

I was under the impression that this was waay more popular haha. Great job man! I'd love to see more in the future.

After hearing "this is the last game" 2 or 3 times before Sister Location I knew Scott might be up to something but with 4 I actually thought it was over, because 4 explained a lot of things in detail and the fandom had a clear timeline down. And then Sister Location dropped, it looked completely alien, nothing made sense, we had goofy ass voice acting for the killer robots, Afton was apparently running pizzerias and creating facilities and experimenting with souls or whatever the fuck and I started realizing that this would never end, let alone on a high note. What was once a gritty, silent and mysterious dark story about children being murdered in the 80s and possessing machines turned into some weird anti-hero sci-fi universe with way too many characters and information for what it had to feel like. Imagine if the Slenderman mythos was updated to include multiple slendermen instances, chemical warfare, paramilitary groups to help push them back and it turned into some world-ending threat by some horrible person pushing for slenderman summonings... This is the kind of Hollywood shit it's becoming. It genuinely sounds THIS insane to me, the lore. Scott made a ton of mistakes in expanding those games later on. Now we're left with just the skin of the original franchise but everything else has 0 Fnaf dna, we have games about killer animatronics but they're not horror games, the animatronics have been changed from creepy robots that can animate on their own at night to bombastic cartoon characters that talk, emote and move with character right in front of you and the setting and design of Fnaf has left the room ever since Sister Location. There is nothing like this franchise online that has forgotten its roots harder, it's unrecognizable to me. I was around 13-14 when the first game released (probably a bit older than you), I was there listening to The Living Tombstone on my shitty mp3 player before getting my first actual smartphone, I've seen this series roll ever since the beginning and I remember everything so vividly man. I wish it kept that same energy but it wasn't meant to be.

I think Micheal Afton being the protagonist for the first six games is a really cool idea if it, like most other things in fnaf 4-6, was actually planned out. The second trilogy has a good story underneath, with the idea of a sick man tearing his family apart (figuratively and literally) and his evil being spread to others. My personal headcanon of the shitshow that is SL's lore is that the funtime animatronics, minus baby, are a separate group of victims killed by Afton- a single mother and her child of two (funtime freddy and foxy). To have William try to 'rebuild' a family with the funtime animatronics after he loses two of kids to his creations, his wife (most likely) leaves him, and becomes estranged from his very traumatized son, is horrifying. It also, in my eyes, kind of retcons the mad scientist angle he's often portrayed through, which I agree is really dumb. The first 3 games worked because they had a shared idea and tone, even though the first game was supposed to be a standalone. The latter three games try to recontextualize the events and meaning of those first 3 games, which can't really be done well because the first trilogy had a consistent idea. I think the core ideas of a broken family which eventually started breaking other people and other families is awesome and could've fit in with the first three games, if that had been the original plan.

Lore from 1-6 made sense, and tied itself neatly together, with Henry's amazing speech at the end. Period. Everything after starts rewriting William's character and thats where it starts falling apart

I agree that the original story being told indirectly was my favourite aspect of it. I can tell Steel Wool liked that too and they attempted a somewhat indirect approach to the story in SB, but the issue I had with that game is that there wasn't even really any story being told there. It was so indirect that it just left me so confused and I was begging to just actually have more information to work with. SB Ruin did a good job with fixing that problem for me, but ye.... idk. I preferred Fnaf when it was just a sad ghost story about child murders taking place somewhere that most North American's recall growing up with.

Honestly, I think if FNaF 4 actually showed how the bite of '87 happened, instead of adding the bite of '83 into the lore, I think the story of FNaF 4 would've been far more emotional and conclusive. Think about it. From FNaF 1 to 3, the bite of '87 is alluded to and mentioned as if it was some huge event that stirred controversy and negatively affected Fazbear Entertainment's reputation. It literally has its own name, "bite of '87" like it was big. Imagine how epic and disturbing it could've been to finally witness the bite of '87 for yourself in FNaF 4. Imagine how sad it would've been to learn that the crying child was the victim of the bite of '87, and that Michael was the one who accidentally caused it. And instead of the Fredbear plush saying, "I will put you back together," at the end of the night 6 cutscene, he says something like, "Rest well, tortured soul." *I don't know, anything other than the story we actually got in FNaF 4!* Maybe the bite could've taken place at the original FNaF 1 location instead of Fredbear's Family Diner. Maybe it could've been Freddy or even Golden Freddy that could've done the bite. That would've been so much more epic for "the final chapter" in the series, don't you think? I'm not even sure what Fredbear's Family Diner adds to the lore, anyway. I feel like if you remove that point in the timeline, the story wouldn't change at all. But hey, that's just my opinion. *A GAME OPINION!* (sry i was legally obligated to make that joke) Anyway, this is a great and agreeable video! Nice work on it.

To me, every game had a purpose. FNAF 1: Established the main story, begins the plot with a simple story: The kids that were murdered possess the animatronics. Golden Freddy’s behavior is not explained yet but is established. FNAF 2: Reveals the killer, not the name, but the image of a purple figure. Reveals that there is a Marionette that granted the souls life inside the animatronics, explains why they were possessed in the previous game. Gave signs it was a prequel, the Phone Guy is still alive, the withered animatronics have older designs. The Bite of 87 is still questioned, and is said to have happened in this game. FNAF 3: Ends the main story, but shows that the killer is now basically immortal and is trapped inside the suit he chose to kill kids in. It shows the irony, the kids are now free from the suits, and now the killer is trapped inside suffering. FNAF 4: Finally explains Golden Freddy’s behavior in the previous games. There are 2 kids possessing him, Cassidy and the crying child, the kid bitten during the Bite of 83. There is another bite, but this was meant to confuse people into thinking it was the Bite of 87. Sister Location: The “I will put you back together” is explained in this game. This finally reveals the name of the killer and what he actually works on behind the scenes. He builds humanoid type robots to replicate the people he lost in his life, which meant he was probably trying to build his dead son back together again. We learn that William had a family, including his dead daughter inside of Circus Baby. It shows us that the character we play is the guilty older brother of the crying child, and his sister is about to manipulate him into being scooped so they can finally escape William’s underground facility. Remnant is not explained but theorized, as this is what William was experimenting on and this is what he was trying to do before he got springlocked, experiment on his family’s souls using the Funtimes. FNAF 6: The canon ending to the story before Scott handed the series over to SteelWool. Ennard has escaped with all of William’s family manifested inside him, and now they’ve become Molten Freddy, a mess of dead family members’ souls that have found their way to a new location to try and find William, who has survived the fire from FNAF 3 and now has become Scraptrap. Mike is alive after spitting Ennard out into a sewer, and finally meets the co-owner of the restaurant, Henry. Henry worked with William, and now wants revenge on him too after William murdered his daughter Charlie in FNAF 2 out of pure anger. We learn Charlie has possessed the Puppet, who gave the children life in the first place. Henry and Mike strategize a plan to burn Afton one more time, and once they do, Afton gets trapped in his own version of hell in UCN where he gets tortured by every creation he’s made over and over again. The rest of the games after FNAF 6 and UCN shouldn’t happen 💀

I do wanna note that while Fnaf 3 would make you think Springtrap was destroyed if you brighten the newspaper at the end you can see Springtrap staring at the camera behind the freddy bobblehead, which isnt an excuse really as to why he couldnt just end the story there but it did leave it reasonably open for Springtrap to return.

I like the use of The Living Tombstone's music in this. I would also like to point out, that I love Sister Location. The only problem I have with it is that timeline placement is SO COMPLICATED!

To me honestly ucn was the true end of the series, I get that people wanted it to be a short horror story with fnaf 1-3 but I think the continuation of the series really made the story and its characters more interesting. Help wanted onwards just doesn't feel right and I just don't care for the lore it adds, but I would rather have that than no more games or books. Great video

Sister location was the worst thing to happen to fnaf

Scott just flying by the seat of his pants with retcons and canon debates: i heard someone say once, "FNaF is the DBZ of horror" and that's stuck with me. im 34

The biggest mistake that was made in terms of the lore trajectory was intertwining the books with the games. What should have been a seperate side story in a different canon to the games is now required in order to understand what's going on in the games. I remember when the books came out and I swear I thought Scott said that they would be their own thing, which they should have been but that's not how it went.

I find it kinda funny that Matpat released a video not that long ago complaining about how toxic the FNAF criticism is on his and other similar videos, but no one wants to address in a serious way just how bad the lore has become or even understand where the criticism comes from. It was such a one sided argument of Matpat getting mad at criticism. I appreciate that there's growing amount of videos talking about how bad the lore in FNAF has become. There's no enjoyment in trying to piece things together in such a convoluted way.

FNaF 4 got retconned at least 4 times.

I miss the times where it just revolved around 5 possessed animatronics wanting revenge on their killer

I absolutley love how he used never be alone in the overview of fnaf 4.

As time went on, it honestly felt like FNAF started to become a fan-fiction of itself, much like Kingdom Hearts did... except slightly more competently written than the acid trip KH ultimately became. Though I WILL admit that Security Breach's faults are the result of franchise fatigue. In fact, I kind of see everything after FNAF 3 as spin-offs of sorts, as a sort of expanded universe, with only the first three games really focusing on the pizza place.

i 100% agree. the first trilogy was great, the second was good, a decent elaboration on the story, the rest are…. interesting. help wanted was such a good spinoff until the vhs tapes. security breach was just a mess. i think scott cawthon just wanted to stay relevant tbh. i just hope steel wool takes in the criticism from security breach and makes a better game if they choose to make another one.

Loved the whole vibe of the video. I used to be in LOVE with fnaf when I was around 8-9 (around the same time the game was released) up until a while after sister location was released and they made newer things that seemed too complicated for my little mini kid brain to process but I still enjoyed watching content related videos and gameplays. It genuinely hurts seeing the downfall of fnaf and how the hype for it isnt as much as it used to be.

Haven't seen the fnaf movie yet, but I'm certain it will not capture the errieness of the first 3 games at all. I think it should be a movie kind of like the lighthouse, with the quiet atmosphere, subtle storytelling, and especially with the square frame that movie had making it really claustrophobic. From the trailers, the fnaf movie just seems like any other modern horror movie, and much like the newer fnaf games.

fnaf 4 is where the fans started to control the lore since the whole purpose of fnaf 4 was to close it off with the "dream theory" but scott cawthon knew how mad the fans would get

I'm still fine with the lore added to FNaF 4. I think it gives the killer a compelling reason for the things he did and a decent set up for later finding out Micheal was the protagonist all along. On the flipside, Elizabeth felt entirely forgetable as a character. Her status as another Afton is the only thing that makes her important and that importance only lasts for two games. Sure, she does a lot as Baby, but what does her relation to the family actually have to do with the story?Meanwhile CC doesnt even do all that much after his death, but he still makes an impact by becoming the driving force behind everything. I know there wasnt a big plan for the story of fnaf at the beginning, but Elizabeth is the named character that feels the most like an afterthought.

I also liked how simple the lore use to be

At this point I stopped trying to follow the lore and I’m just here for the wild ride

For me 1-3 was already perfect, then 4 almost ruined it with the lazy "it was all a dream!" Thing, SL made everything confusing and FFPS was the perfect finale and made most things clear, UCN caused no issues in the grand scheme of things and then steelwool demolished it all with HW. I really wish everything after ucn was set in a alternative fnaf lore where henry failed or something because to this day even with all the mimic stuff the finale of 6 just doesn't hit that hard anymore

I was a fnaf fan since 2015, recently gave up on the franchise, because 1. the fandom is unbearable 2. it is just pure milking now. Scott is unable to finish the story, he keeps adding more and more to such a simple and well working base. and this makes even the base a mess. a mess that you end up not enjoying,a mess, where you'll never be right. never. because the story and the "canon" endlessly keeps changing. Scott is not a good storyteller. maybe he never was, I'm saying it with 19 years of storywriting behind my back. with experience and comparisons. as someone, who WASTED 3 active years just reading about the lore. blaming the lack of understanding of a story that NOBODY understands, on the reader, is maybe not the wisest thing to do. trolling his own community will become LAME as time passes,heck, even annoying. I guess I'm fine until I'm a youtuber who advertises his franchise, or I'm a blind fan, with influence. I used to like Scott, I really did, but as time passed, my eyes opened. he is nowhere a saint, nobody is. he is as flawed as everyone else. now, about the satisfying lore solving feeling. do you know, where I felt it after years? where I felt that "hmmm I'm solving the lore,it all adds together, it works, and it makes sense and it ENDS." not with fnaf, but with Hello Neighbor. HN started development before fnaf even came out. it was not a cashgrab etc back then, and unlike with fnaf, HN has not even one, but multiple simple storylines that you CAN figure out, if you do enough research. and I did. I'm talking about the original HN, not present HN, sadly. anyway, back to fnaf, it is just...at this point, it just wants my nonexistent money. Scott should stop on the top, because the higher you get, the bigger you fall.

As much as I adore Sister Location's story, it was definitely the beginning of the end for the series. FNAF 4 was already pushing it, but in all fairness, at least that game's story was pretty self-contained and didn't really interfere with a lot. Sister Location was the series' first wrecking ball to the canon that made the entire thing unnecessarily convoluted. Scott really should have just rolled with the Sci-Fi and have SL take place far into the future from the original time period, say, around the same time as or after FNAF3. It would have made a lot more sense than having futuristic machines made in the 80's, and said machines existing out in the open for multiple decades before FFPS without being detected by the public or authorities somehow. Don't even get me started on the lore AFTER FFPS, because I still don't know what's going on. They made a ton of stuff that had potential, but never did anything with it, and instead just threw random things together that make absolutely no sense if you think about it for more than 10 seconds.

i like yo curls

I used to LOVE fnaf when i was little, the atmosphere, the lore, the designs, the environment, all were really good. I was one of the few who weren’t bothered by fnaf 4 as back then we all assumed it was just CC’s nightmares, unfortunately it’s not, now it’s explained to be some escape room bullshit with scarecrows fear toxin making fucking mannequins look like scary nightmarish versions of the animatronics Sister location, while it has a lot of flaws i kinda dig the vibe of the game, it could have worked well as a non canon spin off but sadly that wasn’t the chase. The SCI FI bullshit really pisses me off and after pizza sim(which was where the series SHOULD have ended)the series just spiraled into a nonsensical mess of a story. Also while i don’t mind purple guy being given more depth as a character I definitely preferred when he was this ambiguous serial killer only known by a specific color

It started with fnaf 4 being confusing for no reason, but I like how Scott failed so hard at explaining fnaf 4 with sister location that he made things worse Sister location literally adds nothing to the franchise and whatever it did we wouldn’t have known until years later in a book which probably wasn’t even the original intention And can I just talk about how sister location is barely a “game” it’s just an interactive cutscene. There’s no strategy and everyone has the exact same “gameplay”

I think its pretty simple. When you start getting into rogue computers and AI and magical remnant that can bring things to life thats when people lose interest. It was a lot cooler when it was more of a haunted ghost story rather than some sci-fi stuff where they just had to keep digging and digging to try and one up themselves. When you get into mimics and illusion discs and all that sort of nonsense it has a way of just invalidating the whole thing, it went from relatively grounded ghost haunting style of horror to grand conspiracies, rogue AI and fantastical technology that keeps getting more and more convoluted. They had a chance with Security Breach and new and different characters like Vanessa and Gregory they seem to have fumbled that to some degree with all the nonsense surrounding them. I still maintain characters like Vanessa still have a chance to reinvigorate the franchise but with the reliance on Afton and all that stuff I'm not sure that's possible.

What really did it for me was establishing in the lore, that there was a Bite of 87, and in the 4th game, we get a cutscene, where we see an animatronic bite a kid on the head... but then Scott pulled a gotcha and "Oh nooo guyssss uhmm ackshually thats the Bite of 83" and it was clear at that point that I don't think Scott Cawthon really knew what he was doing and just didn't respect the fans enough. Coming back to it years later, he just pulled more gotchas at us to keep up the appearance that the lore is mysterious and cryptic. The fact that Fredbear's still has absolutely no lore relevance is also telling. Should've ended it with FNaF3 and let the books and spin-off games handle the rest.

Hot take: Not only do I prefer 3 over 2, 2 is my least favorite of the first 3. 3 has an amazing end to a ghost story with a whole other game inside of it if you’re trying for the good ending all the while all you have to defend yourself against Springtrap is props from a Scooby Doo episode is amazing. I will give 2 it’s credit; it’s lore is some of the best in the series; the death mini games are arguably the best part of the whole story of any game; phone guy is his most charismatic and likeable here; etc. the story of this game are SSS tier…my issue is that the gameplay is ASS. You have 11 animatronics to deal with. Over 2x as much as the original game, some of which have unique mechanics that don’t mesh well at all. The Freddy Head is the universal solution to about 80% of the animatronics-which is already a bad sign, why include this many from a gameplay perspective if most of them play the exact same?-which will often lock you into cutscenes for extended periods of time AND give you night blindness-assuming you don’t die because you were a nanosecond too slow. Then there’s Foxy, which on top of the immersion breaking question of “why can’t I just tape a flashlight to the head to always have a light in that hallway so he never approaches?” Foxy then decides to turn the game into a mashing mini game whenever he arrives and if you don’t hit him with 20,000 flashes you die. Then there’s the Puppet-is actually the character I mind the least since it’s at least unique without being directly annoying like Foxy. Even through in addition to the immersion breaking question of “why can’t this just be a button on my desk that I can always have down?”-is also the ONLY reason to use the cameras. This game, the one with the most camera real estate in the entire series, is also the one where 99% of the map is FUCKING POINTLESS. Then in addition to ALL of these counter-intuitive, immersion breaking mechanics all working together to grind you into the dirt-Toy Bonnie decides to just be a massive RNG liability and either be so quick that you probably didn’t flip down fast enough and died or slow enough that I could file my taxes, but couldn’t do anything else vital and will die to something else that you could’ve prioritized like Foxy or the Puppet creating lose-lose situations where you will die and your only choice is how. I 100% agree that FNAF 2 elevated the story to a level that has yet to be surpassed by any of the following games and is probably one of the best sequel stories in gaming…but I will never understand how anyone could like the gameplay.

Who else headcannons that only Fnaf 1-4 are canon?

I actually think the main story (fnaf 1 - 6) is actually a pretty good and satisfying one on a surface level. Tragedy around a haunted animatronic pizzeria, murders and machine accidents and one man following in his serial killer fathers footsteps to right his wrongs. its engaging and interesting and nothing can top that final speech in Pizzeria Simulator. But, the details of the story is what brings it down for me. Remnant, confusing timeline, multiple bites(??) and to top it off Purple guy, William Afton, was reimagined into a mad scientist experimenting with resurrection. Thats where the story loses itself to me. That's not even mentioning how hard the post fnaf 6 games have jumped the shark.

I like how William could’ve came back in some cool futuristic robot suit but just decided to come back in a burned and torn bunny suit with his corpse inside it

The same issue the COD Zombies story suffered from, prioritized lore too much, put everything in front of you, and killed all of the realistic mystery of it.

22:55 It was actually explained in the blueprints in Insanity Ending, he built a robot called R.A.S.C. to lure all the animatronics into the pizzeria

Unironicly great video, i absolutely agree with you fnaf has always had a special place in my heart and knowing more theories seeing as to how the story evolved and it having pretty much the perfect ending in fnaf 6 imo and just seeing it devolve into this indescribable mess is just sad to see, beautiful video you have there bro, i adored every second of it

if we just ignore the games after fnaf 4 we will be fine

I do not mean to be rude but i actually need to explain why its likely mimic wasnt a retcon and william had never returned. -Books featuring the Mimic were written in 2019. -Glitchtrap features frothing at the mouth and tears because the mimics creator cried and frothed when beating it. -The books which began being written in 2019 feature mentions of how Mimic curls up his arm as if he holds an invisible plush, the same way Burntrap holds his hand in 2021 SB. -Burntrap has a patch on a part of his back thats broken because Mimic enters costumes through the back. -Glitchtrap is a mascot suit because Mimic likes those and the books describe a springbonnie suit being at the Pizzaplex. -Epilogues featuring extra info on the Mimic were added to the books after the release of SB. -According to Steel Wool, Scott would give them a bunch of info without telling them what it meant. tl;dr: Due to misunderstandings or miscommunication, Steel Wool did not know or understand Burntrap was the Mimic, which is why The Books and RUIN which Scott was VERY hands on with feature The Mimic so much.

I definitely think FNaF 2 being changed to a prequel last minute (if that is what happened behind the scenes) is simply be because the phone guy needed to be alive for the gameplay / tutorial loop to work.

I grew up mostly watching FNAF gameplay videos by people like Markiplier. Then I started to play FNAF 1 and 2 myself. Also watched a lot of lore videos cos I got intrigued by the first three games. The story was dark and eerie, it was sad but also touching. It truly was a good story, and I love how you mentioned the way the story was being told to us. Then, a few years after SL games came out, I watched newer lore videos. I completely agree with you how the FNAF story lost it sense of horror by adding sci-fi elements like remnant. I also dislike how SL changed the first trilogy. So now Mike Schmidt is a pseudonym for one of William Afton’s sons? Purple guy is some mad scientist wanting to live forever? I just don’t buy it. I have massive respect for Scott Cawthon and the universe he created, I truly do! I just don’t like how he made the storyline so huge and complex when the simpler story of the first trilogy, in my opinion, was perfect. I hope the FNAF film sticks to the storyline of the first three games, but I don’t think that’ll happen. Still excited for it.

Fnaf 2 being a prequel is a twist. Thats why the marketing was there. Everybody was expecting the story to “pick up”. But Scott wanted to show us that we arent ready to pick up the story, because we still have more story to explore before moving forward. The depth of the story loses momentum when and becomes like every other linear story game if its not a prequel. Imagine going from Fnaf 1 to 3. Youd be like “what the heck???”

FNAF is the closest thing to 80s Slasher horror progression in a way, think Michael Myers, that aura of mystique of the first Halloween movie, the show, don't tell narrative that put a faceless void of a killer with no intent or moral in a quiet neighborhood to slaughter and stalk ordinary people is completely gone by the time the sequel came out and they tried to give him a reason to stalk Laurie Strode, recontextualizing everything and taking away all the magic of the first movie. After that every sequel got progressively worse, even the reboots failed at capturing that magic again. That's the unfortunate trend of taking something horror and trying to add things by explaining more, adding a lore. Sometimes things are scarier when they're subtle, when there's no overarching plot that connects every little dot, the fear of the darkness, the unknown, is the strongest primal fear we can experience, if you take that away, things are just not the same.

Theres no way you're saying Fnaf 3 was *easier* than Fnaf 1 💀 its definitely not a hard game but Fnaf 1 is a *joke* in comparison to it

i feel like it could’ve ended at the pizzeria one. and help wanted could’ve just been the games but in vr, and the security breach franchise could just be another universe with different lore and just similar animatronics

My one complaint about this video is that it talks about the secretive aspects of the story and how some things need to be studied and theorycrafted on, then proceeds in the same breath, to call things plotholes or "wrong" because its not on the nose about what it means whilst also IN THE SAME BREATH criticizing things when they are too on the nose. For example, Springtrap never died in the fnaf 3 fire, if you brightened up the image you'd see him in the background of the newspaper clipping, Henry calling the animattronics makes complete sense when a new Freddy's pizzeria suddenly pops up, which would most definitely catch the attention of the Freddy Pizzaria's animatronics. You mention plotholes but bring up extremely surface level observations that can VERY EASILY be explained away. When there are ACTUAL plotholes if you just looked a little deeper. Like how Sister location is supposed to take place before fnaf 4 but makes no sense because it gives William no motive to start his murder spree.

Glad I finally found someone who also thought FNAF 2 being a prequel was super forced. Like the whole thing with the “modern” building design with “no doors” like the phone guy says, the more futuristic animatronics and decommissioned older ones felt like it was trying to intentionally mislead the player into thinking it takes place after the first game before hitting you with the “twist” that it’s supposed to take place before. That’s not good storytelling. Clues to the true placement of the game in the timeline should be subtlety placed in the game’s world and not just suddenly slapped across the player’s face with the “1987” in the paycheck and not much else. FNAF 2 deliberately flies in the face of the idea that it’s supposed to take place earlier than the first

I've recently been trying to rewrite the FNAF lore from FNAF 1 to FNAF 6 while trying to keep a bit of the old vibe the original 3 games had, aswell as simplifying everything (like having one bite instead of two bites, making it less sci fi, etc.). Ironically though, Sister Location has been the hardest game to fit into this storyline, with how complicated it was, i still have yet to figure out how to remake that one UPDATE: I think i'm getting closer and closer to getting the story rewritten, specially with Sister Location, right now I'm mostly on the phase of throwing around ideas and seeing what sticks, but funny enough, quite a few of them have lol, if i do end up finishing this project, i might turn it into an animated series or something in my channel

Bro is just looking at a script. Looking away from the camera to above it

I don't think it should have ended at FNAF 3 I think it should have ended at FNAF 6 and the puppet did not rest at FNAF 3 happiest day minigame I believe to come a little while after the fire of FNAF 6 and how Henry lord of the animatronics back he use sounds and smells and Lord them back to Freddy's and Kill Them All to set their souls free

Fully immersed the whole video & kept coming back to it on my breaks while working today - great video, hope you do well here

I’ll admit the FNAF lore is interesting, but yes, there’s no doubt it’s complex. Scott even admitted he wasn’t a genius when he first started, but I’d give him credit for trying. I think his main fault, was that he took some things in different directions that seemed unnecessary. While the new story seems to be going into the past to help clarify some things so we can properly move on, I think it’s better to leave the old FNAF lore alone, and try to move on to the next generation.

The downfall of the lore started when “Remnant” became a thing

Rewatching this video again. But why did they think that to answer some questions about the lore, you had to READ NON CANON BOOKS? Yet the info is somehow Canon to the games ?

Honestly I’m okay with William Afton. What I’m not okay with is “remnant”. Harvesting the misery of children to make a chemical potion thing? Or whatever it is. I’m not even sure what it is. What kinda bullshit is that? Also they need to stop trying to bring Afton back from the dead lol Hear me out: FNAF3 Springtrap’s jumpscare is underrated. The fact that it’s so casual and human-like rather than leaping out at you like a wild animal is what makes it freaky

Pretty good video, I have one note to add; In the tapes of HW, its explained that the events of the previous games did happen, and that the in universe games were made to try and just cover up that they happened. At least thats how I always interpreted it

With the knowledge that the Crying Child is the youngest son of the Purple Guy/William Afton and the Puppet is possessed by the daughter of his co-worker (Henry Emily), the story of the first 4 FNaF games becomes a horrifying tragedy about a broken, misguided father who goes down a dark path of death and destruction after the loss of his youngest son. In this scenario, the line "I will put you back together" at the end of the 4th game is likely meant to represent WIlliam (possibly communicating through the Fredbear plushie or the Crying Child interpreting the voice as coming from it) trying to comfort his son in his final moments and promising to avenge him. He does so by lashing out at his co-worker's family (Charlotte), before taking out his remaining, uncontrollable anger on numerous other children, ultimately culminating in him meeting his demise at the hands of the very tool he used to end so many innocent lives (the Spring Bonnie suit). Of course, without the later games and supplementary material, we wouldn't know much of this without it sounding like wild mass guessing. In hindsight though, all of this added context makes the story of FNaF 1-4 that much more poetic and tragic, in my eyes at least. Then Sister Location came along and opened up Pandora's Box. While I like some of the character designs from Sister Location onwards (Ennard and Scrap Baby have really awesome designs in my opinion), the game's story and its consequences have been a disaster for the FNaF lore. This is why I mostly just ignore the games after FNaF 4 and just enjoy the many fan interpretations of the story through VHS tapes and the likes. It's also why I'm excited for the upcoming movie, as it's harkening back to my favourite era of the franchise.

The biggest lie after clicking this video was seeing it only have 177 views, like wtf, you deserve more

scott making william a crazy murder that also wanted to play GOD for some reason (remnant) will forever make my ass itch

you make so many good points throughout the video, it sucks because the first story of the three (honestly id even say just the first two) was genuinely scary and such a unique concept. gotta love what money and fame does to a franchise /:

I have the same feelings on the first trilogy. Up to that point the story was great. After Four I stopped caring, after Sister Location I stopped following the games. Finished the book trilogy, I remember enjoying it. What a shame it was for me to learn what had happened in the lore later... But I will still always look at the games trough the lens of 2015 me.

Ok but FNAF 3 was never really a conclusion to the story. The ending minigame that you see about purple guy turning into springtrap took years before FNAF 3 hence why you can see Springtrap in the game. And in the ending newspapers it's made clear (if you brighten up the pic ) that Springtrap survived the event of the fire.

i recently came back to the franchise and caught up on everything and I'm having trouble agreeing with most of the content here. I'm getting the impression that you're not as well versed in things as you're thinking. I really wish i could articulate it better but it really seems like at a certain point in the franchise you didn't like the direction and stopped following things or not as closely; or possibly even your perception of everything was forever changed and essentially ruined your ability to get as immersed in any later titles. There's a lot of things you laid out as fact or confirmed elements of the story when in all actuality we barely know anything - even from the first few games, and you use those points to support your stance that the lore/story got bad after you stopped liking the games. I will say the modern lore is very convoluted and requires you to dig in to multiple forms of media, but it's just as immersive as ever in my opinion. The questions and potential answers we get from RUIN alone got me super back in to the lore again. Overall I just feel like you're not making a case to convince people of your position and instead just venting about how much you didn't like things as they progressively changed from the basic formula of the first 3 or 4 games. Your segment on SL kind of drives that idea home, and the Pizza Simulator segment kind of set it in stone that you may just miss the style and presentation of the original trilogy. Even how much you liked Help Wanted supported the idea as well as it's essentially utilizing the better gameplay and mechanics of the initial trilogy, while adding a lot of good elements and the fact that it's VR in to the mix. As critical as I'm coming off, I genuinely see how much you like the franchise and care about how it has evolved over time and definitely empathize with that. I have and have had my complaints over the years but overall I wouldn't change it for different outcomes or circumstances. My main personal pet-peeve is that virtually nothing is confirmed at all, we just have a consensus of truth as our foundation for everything while we technically are all just shooting in the dark. I would maybe change Security Breach being a buggy mess, which overshadows the story it's trying to tell.. but luckily RUIN showed us it that there can be a *mostly* free-roam FNAF game done well; and HW2 will likely build on things [gameplay-wise] as well. With all that being said, your video quality, editing, and general commentary is great and well put together. But sadly this specific topic and points were not as flattering. Credibility in what you're saying is the end all - be all for this style of video, you've gotta be able to convince the viewers that you know what you're talking about to earn their trust, views etc. Especially in FNAF content, you really need to know your stuff otherwise you'll only reach a small fraction of the audience that's interested in this. I personally would be interested in seeing you go back through the whole series with a clean slate, especially since you were pretty young for the first few games and technically HW is the last game you played, and take it all for what it is while looking at the franchise in a few ways. 1-3 is/can be a closed story, 1-4 as well, repeating until the end of pizzeria simulator having their own closed stories. Maybe some weird closed loop[s] around SL too. The end of simulator should be looked at as the end of the arc or 'original' story and Help Wanted onwards should be looked at as a completely new arc/story. Between scott's words and the general premise of Help Wanted onward, you pretty much have to look at things that way or nothing will really ever make sense and things will look more and more like retcons or writing off previous in-game lore/truths as fiction. Plus there's the fact that people are just fallible and will overlook something that conflicts with prior lore/events during development or writing. So we as a fanbase have to accept that some things will inevitably not line up or make sense - especially with such a deep, convoluted ocean of lore that FNAF has and it's multiple canon universes with overlapping themes and plot lines. Sorry to ramble. I don't usually have much to say but when I do - it's a lot. Hope you took the time to take it all in and see I'm not trying to attack you in any way. I get the impression you have the mind to hear out criticism like this, whether you agree with any of it. I'll be keeping an eye for stuff in the future

honestly, the first book was great. The story was wonderful. It was understandable and left you thinking and wanting more. If you read the books, just read the first Silver Eyes. The other two took what the first one had and ruined it all.

Imagine if in early 2015 Scott announced on FNaF3’s steam page that he’d be updating the jumpscares to be scarier instead of making a whole new game and never touched the series again. Also FNaF2 becoming a prequel last minute is something to doubt. The Withered animatronics have completely different body structures and shape compared to the Classic animatronics. They’re meant to be the original four’s in-universe original modes, and then at the end the newspaper stated that they’ll be kept around in future setting up FNaF1. And we SEE the FNaF1 animatronics in FNaF2 in the opening cutscene, so Scott was clearly doing this intentionally. Also the FNaF1 models are reused in FNaF3. Scott does reuse models, idk what you’re on about regarding that. But I agree with the rest of the video. But the Phantom Menace was decent imo.

I agree that FNaF 3 had a satisfying conclusion, and the story should have ended there. I was in 4th grade, 10 years old, when FNaF 3 came out, and I remember wanting to ask Scott the answers. I think every game after the 3rd one was not as good as the original trilogy. The lore became more complicated after a while. Great video.

The family thing would have worked on paper, if it still sticked with the ghost story element and even giving the main villain perhaps a reason and some depth while still emphasising his well... Villainy. But they HAD to include some scifi BS in the mix.

I originally thought 6 was the best ending but after watching this I kinda agree with how 3 should have ended it. Although I think it would’ve been cool if Henry still somehow had that badass speech at the end of 3, finally killing afton

Happiest Day does not take place during FNaF 3 anymore. It was supposted to but it was retconned.

2:45 "REanimated animatronics" implies they've been alive before.

This was a great video! I still enjoy the lore of FNAF, but it did "jump the shark" in Sister Location... and again in Help Wanted. I do want to clear something up though: I don't think "Dream Theory" was ever Scott's intention for FNAF 4. Scott has made fun of that theory in the past. There is a theory called "ShatterVictim" that I think gives a much better explanation of FNAF 4. I recommend looking it up. It not only explains FNAF 4, but also the secret minigames in FNAF World and the locked box.

I’m so glad I finally found someone else who shares my same sentiment on SL. I thought I was the only one who didn’t like it, since everyone I knew was praising it and saying it was their favorite game in the series. Great video.

I really don't like it when people talk about how the best part of FNAF is the theory crafting. I feel like it's the worst part of it to be honest. Scott refuses to explain things and has only made things more and more confusing. I don't feel like it's a good thing when there are large chunks of people who believe completely different things about parts of the story for sanity sake. Scott should have simply made a guide/book/etc telling the story of Fnaf 1-6 so that casual players could understand things clearly and new players wouldn't have to rely on very outdated videos scattered everywhere. Then move onto the next generation of Fnaf that could take inspiration from the older games and be easy to reference without needing theory videos.

This series needs to be allowed to die. I completely agree that Scott should have just created a new horror franchise instead of rehashing these characters ad-nauseum. I can't even keep track of all of the variants. Scraptrap, burntrap, toy, funtime, they all just blur together. And I so dearly despise the way the original character models have been sterilized and plasticized from Sister Location forward. The most recent entries scream "we are cartoonifying this franchise to better appeal to children." When FNAF has finally run its course, I can only imagine the grief and disappointment the FNAF community is going to collectively feel when we look back at what this was in the beginning contrasted with the complete parody it has become.

im investing in this video hope it rises

Maybe fnaf 6 could have been not the try to end the franchise and just be a different Freddy's location during fnaf 1 or 2

Here’s my prognosis of the Fnaf lore: It got too convoluted and detailed

fnaf 1-4 gave a good story that was horror-focused and disturbing. After 4, everything turned into this complex cat and mouse chase with William Afton who also became a mad scientist who never dies and there’s also a Freddy Fazbear mall for some reason. There’s also barely horror anymore, the Glamrock animatronics don’t fit in with the rest and the purple guy should’ve just been dead instead of what burntrap is.

If you are a fan, man... take a break for god's sake, its a just game, everifying is ok!

When the retcons started to pop up is when I really lost interest in the fnaf lore. My thought was just “what’s the point of trying to uncover a story that the creator is just gonna change on a whim” if what is a fact can become untrue in an instant then why even bother I’ll always have a soft spot for the first three games story

Random question, but can I ask what mic you use? I really like the quality and I've been thinking of upgrading. Great video by the way!

Why tf is Elizabeth's death even called "the *bite* of 87", Elizabeth gets fucking gutted, see this makes no goddamn sense. Also Afton's smart enough to make these machines but dumb enough to get his daughter killed. No seriously, he had FACIAL RECOGNITION SCANNERS in fnaf fucking TWO, which need I remind you, is a PREQUEL to 1. Yet he couldn't program that into Baby to keep his daughter safe? Why the fuck did Afton even tell Elizabeth about it in the first place if he NEVER wanted her to go in it? Nothing makes fuckin sense.

I agree with everything in this video. That's why I'm excited for the movie. Hopefully no extreme scifi, time traveling ballpits and robot kids. It's going back to its roots as a ghost story, and I love that. That's what I always liked about fnaf.