Hello and welcome to In Too Deep, where I over-analyse a certain section of pop culture.
Now I’ve talked about this franchise before, with how it scares us and why it’s so popular. But I’ve yet to talk about the lore of it because, well, MatPat’s Game Theory show (seriously, go watch it, it’s a great show) seemed to answer all the questions… or did it? Because while I agree with some of his conclusions, I think he’s still not painting the whole picture. So join me as I come up with a definitive, all-encompassing theory that will be invalidated when the fourth game comes out.
Note: You really need to go watch all of MatPat’s videos about this first, because I’m not gonna waste time explaining stuff he already covered. So while I’m going to elaborate on personal theories, I will make leaps in logic that require a knowledge of what the game series is actually about in order to follow. Go read up on the background first, or watch his videos, then come here. Because this blog is going to be long enough as it is without me explaining the ‘common knowledge’ on this lore.
The Videos
FNAF 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_LYe97ZVc
FNAF 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1kw1RmzrPc
FNAF 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPugMe4ePEw & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgACktyVXbk & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQv_k43MYdw
Now since I’m splitting these blogs into multiple parts (since the overall blog is over ten thousand words long, making it a mammoth even by my standards), I’m going to examine it piece by piece in order to build up a comprehensive picture of all the lore in the series. So the final thing we have to ask ourselves is: What is the completed picture of this look like? We have the who, what, when, where and maybe even the why. What we don’t have, is the how. How do all these pieces come into play? Well join me as I order this super long blog chronologically, so we can have a definitive timeline of everything that is going on.
1960s-1971: Fredbear’s Family Diner is open to the general public.
Reasoning: Well we know that animatronics weren’t made till the 1960s, so even if the first Freddy we see is an animatronic it can’t date earlier than that. Likewise we know McDonalds didn’t create a mascot till 1963, so it’s unlikely it’s earlier than that. We know it exists because Phone Guy makes reference to it, and we see it in one of the mini-games. We can’t work out when exactly this happened, but sometime in the late 1960s to 1971 seems to make sense as when this place was open, and that the Freddy we see is a suit rather than an animatronic. Plus we can guess that this is probably happening in Texas due to it being the home-place of the creator, and the headquarters for the real life Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant.
1972: The first murder happens and the Diner is brought by Big Business.
Reasoning: We see this first murder happen in one of the mini-games, showing that it does indeed happen and most likely creates the Puppet. We know that it happens twenty years before the first game in 1992, because Phone Guy talks about how these characters have been around for 20 years. We know that the management of the franchise isn’t in contact with the original owner, since they’re not paying him royalties. Likewise, we know that Purple Guy has to be over 18 in order to be driving the car, putting his age at about 20. So it’s safe to presume that if the characters have been singing the same song for the last 20 years by 1992, it makes sense that they were probably first commissioned to write a non-copyrighted version of “Happy Birthday to You†in 1972.
1972-1977: The Freddy Fazbear’s Characters appear as suits
Reasoning: They had to do something with these characters, but at this point animatronics weren’t yet open to the modern public. More likely than not these were suits used by various employees to entertain children. They must be 20 odd years old and, when Phone Guy says that they haven’t been washed recently, he’s probably talking about when he use to be the guy inside the suits.
1977: The First Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant opens.
Reasoning: The first Chuck-E-Cheese opened at this time, so it makes sense that the first Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza company would be open at this time as well. This also makes sense that this is when the first spring lock suits would be created, given this is the time where animatronics hit the ‘home market’. Now it’s entirely possible all suits were made to be wearable animatronics if they already had the suits from the early 70s, to try and get the best possible use out of them (and be able to use them when the animatronic breaks down).
1982: The Second Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant opens, with the murders taking place in the middle of the year, and the animatronics from the first restaurant coming here.
Reasoning: We know the second Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza had to open after the first, with the five year gap tying into the theme of ‘5’ found within the Five Night series. This would put it 5 years before FNAF 2 and 10 years before FNAF 1. Likewise the murders probably took place after the second restaurant opened, but before the first one closed. So we know the second restaurant must have opened at this time. We can presume that the secondary toy animatronics were created at first to be more appealing, with the criminal database software being implemented after the murders. So some of the tapes in FNAF 2 couldn’t have come from now, since it doesn’t fit the timeline. But the kids are murdered, the souls transporting to Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Balloon Boy. Those animatronics are brought over here from the first restaurant, where management probably found and removed the bodies (since it’s inconceivable that they wouldn’t find them). This place operates for a few years, trying to shun what happened in the first restaurant. The real killer isn’t caught, but another guy is set up to take the fall to throw the cops off, as theorized about the Night 6 phone call in FNAF 2. With the stooge convicted the real killer goes free, which is probably what keeps the spirits upset.
1985: The Second Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant is forced to close for sanitary reasons.
Reasoning: We know that this restaurant was closed at some point before 1987 for it to be reopened again, but we know that it can’t have been closed in 1982, otherwise the tapes wouldn’t make any sense. So saying it closed in 1985 works since it has a ‘5’ at the end, tying back to the Five Nights theme. This place was closed due to the smelly robots (which must be supernatural in origin, since otherwise it’s inconceivable no one found the bodies at this point), low admission and another round of police investigations. We know during this time that the new toy animatronics were messed with, which is probably what prompted the investigation in the first place. Police may even question if they got the right killer or not. The place is shut down over this, only to be open two years later.
1987: The Second Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant reopens, only to be closed a few weeks later.
Reasoning: We know that it’s the ‘grand reopening’, but we know it can’t have been from being closed due to the murders because of the phone calls in FNAF 2. We know the animatronics are acting just as screwy as before, resulting in a Bite that severely damages someone’s frontal lobe. This causes the restaurant to be closed down in November after only opening back up October 31st (cos why not that date?).
1988-1992: The First Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant is reopened, using the original animatronics.
Reasoning: We know that they got rid of the toy animatronics, and they needed to move to a smaller location. It makes sense they’d use one of the locations they already had ownership of, even if it was connected to a series of murders. They probably did it around 1990, since that would have been 8 years after the first set of murders, which would be a somewhat reasonable time for the heat to die down. Likewise if they were losing funds and had to close down at the end of the year, they probably could only afford to stay open for two years and couldn’t afford a new place. Phone Guy goes from costumed performer/trainer to head security guard to night guard, where he spends his nights safely in the back room.
1992: The Purple Guy is killed by the animatronics as the spirits still haunt the place, with the restaurant shutting down again.
Reasoning: Presuming he died October 31st (cos why not that date?), we can presume that his last night on Earth involved turning the animatronics into suit mode (to stop them from killing him) and being attacked by Golden Freddy, the ‘soul’ of the building. He goes into the Golden Bonnie suit and gets killed by it. Meanwhile Mike, the new security guard, deals with a week of the animatronics still attacking him because they haven’t had their souls been put to rest yet. The restaurant closes at the end of the year anyway, as shown in the newspaper clippings.
2022: Fazbear’s Frights opens and closes after a week of being harassed by Springtrap and then burning down.
Reasoning: The souls of the dead children come back to haunt the player (aka Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Balloon Boy) but no Golden Freddy (because this place didn’t develop a ‘soul’) while Springtrap (aka Phone Guy aka Purple Guy) tries to attack the player. We know that it takes place 20 years after the restaurant closed down, so that means it either takes place in 2022 or 1987 (when the second restaurant closed down), but 2022 seems more likely due to how the first restaurant’s closure marked the end of the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza company. A fire destroys the rest of the animatronics, freeing their earthly spirit from this world, but Springtrap appears to survive and will continue to haunt the land until his earthly body is finally destroyed.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 4: The Final Chapter
Okay, now for some wild speculation: FNAF 4 is about a movie production recreating the legend as a movie, either indie or big budget. The movie is most likely a recreation of the Bite of ’87, with the player character tasked at watching the recreated animatronics in the film studio so that no one steals them. These animatronics look scarier because it’s for a horror movie, of course they’ll try and make the things look scarier. The mini-games no doubt revolve around this period of the restaurants history, the Bite of ’87, and how that impacts the franchise as a whole. Likewise Springtrap no doubt makes a return at some point, to which he’s finally killed off properly by another fire… or lured into a trap set up by the player, which helps destroy him. Either way, Springtrap must be destroyed, as well as the new animatronics. Why the movie theory? Well since a movie about the games is being made, it’d make sense that this game takes a meta approach to the nature of the franchise popularity (since the third game dealt with how popular the series was in terms of fear factor, hence the Halloween attraction). So the scarier animatronics are made to appeal to the horror film crowd, the story is probably about the Bite of ’87, and the security guard is there to watch over the set. We’ll know if I’m right or wrong in a few months at any rate.
So there you have it. My over ten thousand word analysis of a game series that will no doubt invalidate so much that I came up with by the time the fourth game rolls around. Still, it was fun while it lasted. If you disagree with anything, or have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment. Till next time.
