Five Nights At Freddy's

For ages I have been obsessed with decoding the mystery of this franchise. I've seen all the play-throughs, watched all of the Game Theorist videos, and filled notebooks with my ramblings trying to puzzle it all out.

What is the timeline of Five Nights at Freddy's? Who are the characters? How does everything tie together?

The simplest answer is, of course, that they don't. It's extremely possible that there is no real solution, with the lore simply growing and losing continuity as the games and novels progress. It's possible, and simple, but not exactly very satisfying is it?

I am also a fan of the theory that it is all just the nightmares of a guilty conscience. While Game Theorist was in favor of it being the mind of William Afton in prison long ago before the more recent games, I am much more in favor of the character that strangely gets left out of most theories: the older brother. The older brother who's actions led to the death of his younger brother being tortured night after night by horrific images of these animatronics until he too is caught within the trap for the animatronics in Pizzeria Simulator.

It's only marginally more satisfying and doesn't in any way address any of the questions I have about the franchise. However, with the new information that the books could just be from a different view and not entirely against the canon of the series, I have formulated a likely timeline of events, and even included two possible scenarios for who exactly is the guard of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria.

**The following will contain spoilers for all of the Five Night's at Freddy's games and novels.**

There are certain things we can nearly be assured are true from the existence of the books. Regarding them as an alternate viewpoint means that while some details are malleable, some essential facts are true.

• Henry and William Afton opened Fredbear Family Diner together.

• Henry and his wife get divorced and Fredbear's Family Diner shuts down.

• William reopened Freddy Fazbear's and Henry was hired to create the animatronics.

• In roughly 1984/1985, William kidnapped and murdered five children: Suzie, Fritz, Michael, Jeremy, and Cassidy.

• Ten years later in 1995, the animatronics are rediscovered and William gets trapped in the Springtrap suit.

• William melts down the original animatronics and makes the Funtime Animatronics.

• William escapes the Springtrap suit. (!!!)

This lays out the rough makings of a timeline for our story. If we then take these essential things we know to be true from the novels regardless of what perspective it is from, and then insert in the things we know to be true from the games, we are then able to get a workable timeline of the series as a whole.

• Henry and William Afton opened Fredbear Family Diner together.

• In 1983, Charlotte is murdered by William Afton outside of the restaurant and the Puppet "saves her". (Revealed in Pizzeria Simulator, the novels, and Five Night's at Freddy's 2 minigames)

• Henry and his wife get divorced and Fredbear's Family Diner shuts down.

• William reopened Freddy Fazbear's and Henry was hired to create the animatronics.

• In roughly 1984/1985, William kidnapped and murdered five children: Suzie, Fritz, Michael, Jeremy, and Cassidy (Revealed by the novels and Pizzeria Simulator)

• Freddy Fazbear's struggles to stay open for years after these events, before eventually closing its doors. (Revealed by the Five Night's at Freddy's newspapers)

• Ten years later in 1995, the animatronics are rediscovered and William gets trapped in the Springtrap suit.

• William melts down the original animatronics and makes the Funtime Animatronics.

• William escapes the Springtrap suit. (!!!)

• Baby and the others are put in an underground facility and rented out for parties. However, they all escape as one amalgamation within a security guard.

• The security guard expels the amalgamation known as Ennard, but continues to exist.

• Eventually Baby is cast out and reassembles herself.

• Baby, the amalgamation Ennard, an animatronic named Lefty designed to trap the Puppet, and Springtrap are all lured to one location which is set on fire and the animatronics are destroyed for good... or are they?

This is a much more cohesive timeline, however there are four significant events that still haven't been placed.

• In 1983, the crying child from Five Night's at Freddy's 4 is terrified of the animatronics and the week culminates in his older brother and friends accidentally getting the younger brother killed.

At first glance this seems obvious. It must have happened at Fredbear's Family Diner based off the animatronics. However, the TV show and toys show the existence of the animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's. However, since it was still called "Fredbear and Friends" we can safely assume this was before Freddy Fazbear's and therefore takes place between Charlotte's death and the closing of Fredbear's Family Diner.

• A new and improved Freddy Fazbear's opens, creating new toy versions of the animatronics to catch potential predators and bringing back the Puppet to protect children. The Puppet gives these children new life in the animatronics, and the animatronics start behaving strangely toward adults. A guard is attacked, and the establishment is shut down in 1987 after only being open for a short while. The toy versions are scrapped and the originals get put into storage. (Revealed by the Five Nights at Freddy's 2 phone messages)

This also seems obvious at first. However, the messages in Five Night's At Freddy's 2 are not referring to events that happen in the second game. It refers instead to summer and is clearly pre-recorded. In addition to this, that location is where the murders took place based on the mini-games, and is therefore the same location that struggled to stay open for years, but the newspaper says that it was only open for a few weeks. Based on the novels, Charlotte did not recognize this location, but did recognize the location from Five Nights At Freddy's 1. The best I can work out is that the first Freddy Fazbear's was opened at the same location as Fredbear's Family Diner and is where the first game takes place albeit many years later. This is the number one thing I have struggled to figure out.

• Circus Baby's Pizza is open for one day. William's daughter Elizabeth accidentally gets killed by Baby and her soul inhabits the animatronic.

Based on the information from the books about Circus Baby, I'm going to place this event roughly around 1996. During this time, Charlotte sees the establishment open, so it seems to be roughly accurate.

• Fazbear's Fright opens and releases Springtrap. The building is burned down, but Springtrap escapes, and Michael goes in search of his father.

There are two potential places for this event to go. Either it is before William escapes the suit, and this is how he is freed from the storage room and it's only after the fire at Fazbear's Fright that he manages to escape the suit. Or, it takes place after. In the novels, it said they found Springtrap in the storage closet seemingly dead, and moved him a bit out of the way. At this point or slightly before, William escapes the suit, and leaves Springtrap on the floor of the storage closet, but not without leaving a bit of himself behind. The suit is found by Fazbear's Fright, and it's William's soul, not his body that is trapped in it and then subsequently caught in Pizzeria Simulator. I'm going to choose to put this event after since at this point all of the occurrences are still going on in the novels, and presumably have not yet reached the point of a horror attraction.

With the addition of some speculation and not 100% conclusive theories, we can fill in some gaps and create a somewhat cohesive timeline:

• Henry and William Afton opened Fredbear Family Diner together.

• In 1983, Charlotte is murdered by William Afton outside of the restaurant and the Puppet "saves her". (Revealed in Pizzeria Simulator, the novels, and Five Night's at Freddy's 2 mini-games)

• The crying child from Five Night's at Freddy's 4 is witness to some aspect of this and is terrified of the animatronics. The week culminates in his older brother and friends accidentally getting the younger brother killed just a short while after Charlotte's death.

• Henry and his wife get divorced and Fredbear's Family Diner shuts down.

• William reopens Freddy Fazbear's and Henry is hired to create the animatronics.

• In roughly 1984/1985, William kidnapped and murdered five children: Suzie, Fritz, Michael, Jeremy, and Cassidy (Revealed by the novels and Pizzeria Simulator)

• Freddy Fazbear's struggles to stay open for years after these events, before eventually closing its doors. (Revealed by the Five Night's at Freddy's newspapers)

• In 1987, for just a few weeks a new version of Freddy Fazbear's opens with toy animatronics with facial recognition. The Puppet gives life to the murdered children, and the animatronics behave strangely toward adults. Someone is bit and the location shuts down. The toy versions are scrapped and the original animatronics are put in storage.

• Ten years after the murders, in 1995, the animatronics are rediscovered and William gets trapped in the Springtrap suit.

• William melts down the original animatronics and makes the Funtime Animatronics.

• William escapes the Springtrap suit. (!!!)

• Circus Baby's Pizza is open for one day. William's daughter Elizabeth accidentally gets killed by Baby and her soul inhabits the animatronic.

• Baby and the others are put in an underground facility and rented out for parties. However, they all escape as one amalgamation within a security guard.

• The security guard expels the amalgamation known as Ennard, but continues to exist.

• Eventually Baby is cast out and reassembles herself.

• Fazbear's Fright opens and releases Springtrap. The building is burned down, but Springtrap escapes, and Michael goes in search of his father.

• Baby, the amalgamation Ennard, an animatronic named Lefty designed to trap the Puppet, and Springtrap are all lured to one location which is set on fire and the animatronics are destroyed for good... or are they?

So what about the gameplay? The gameplay isn't explained much in the timeline.

Five Nights At Freddy's appears from it's dilapidated appearance and the rain to take place at roughly the same time as Springtrap's creation, and therefore is in 1995. Since we know from the books that the former security guard was William, that would assume that the Phone Guy is William, and the player is the replacement security guard.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 takes place sooner, in November of 1987. Once again, the man on the phone is William, the man who will take over as the security guard when the place opens again. Jeremy interestingly enough is later confirmed to be one of the names of the children, however as this takes place after it is either an extremely unlikely coincidence or it's a fake name. The same goes for Fritz on the final night, and it is presumed that Jeremy is the one bitten.

Five Nights At Freddy's 3 is simple for now. You merely play as a security guard in this attraction. The "Phone Dude" is no one significant, however the training tapes are recorded by William.

Five Nights At Freddy's 4 is intriguing. It's widely accepted that you play at the crying child. However, the layout of the room, and the entire house in fact, is completely different. While this could just be for simplicity sake, I would assume at this point that the creator knew how much people would look into things. This could be anything from a strange nightmare, to the older brother, to a different child entirely, to just an error due to the nature of the game.

Five Nights At Freddy's Sister Location you play as a guard sent there for Baby. It is heavily implied that the character is Michael.

Five Nights at Freddy's Pizzeria Simulator you are a owner in this franchise, seemingly unrelated, but revealed at the end to be someone related to the events.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions with this theory. When exactly does the location with the toy animatronics open? Why does it seem like the murders took place there if they were only open for a few weeks? Why does the layout of the FNAF4 game not match the house of the child if it is that child? If not, who is the person in the game? Why was William Afton questioned about the design of Circus Baby when Henry is the one that created her? Who is the Phone Guy? If it is William, why isn't the accent the same? If it's someone else, how does he fit into this story?