What if I told you that everything we thought
we knew about FNAF was a lie? That Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy were never possessed? that the bite of 87 never happened? Heck,
that the bite of 83 never happened. What if I told you that William Afton didn't die
because some spirits harassed him in a back room, but because he got careless and wet?
What if I told you that Golden Freddy never existed? You would all
think that I was crazy, right? That after 60 episodes covering this series,
that I'd finally lost it or gotten so desperate that I needed you to throw it all away and
start again for content. But I assure you, I'm still here. Totally sane, or,
I guess as seen as I've ever been, and totally suspecting that some,
maybe even all of the statements that I just made are 100% true. So open your
ears and listen to what I have to say, because once I'm done, none of us will
look at this franchise the same way again. Hello Internet! Welcome to Game Theory, where am I
the only one that hears that weird humming sound? I think it's coming from the subscribe button,
can you help me smash it? Oh, thank goodness, that was driving me insane. What's the small
disc that fell out? Probably not important. Today is a big day as far as FNAF theory goes.
Usually I'm here picking apart details from the newest book or trying to solve one very
specific part of the franchise's history, or reminding you that robot kids do, in
fact, exist. And Gregory is one of them. But this episode has a wider scope. It's
bigger. It touches literally everything released in the franchise thus far.
I don't know if I agree with today's theory or not. I don't even know
if I like today's theory or not. Scratch that. I do know, I kind of
hate it and what it means for the franchise. But regardless of whether you
agree or disagree, love it or hate it, I am asking you to keep an open mind about
it because this one feels important and the implications of it, if true, would
certainly result in the biggest shake up for the series since the conclusion of FNAF 6.
Today, I'm asking you to take everything that you thought you knew about FNAF 1, 2, 3 and
4. Possessed animatronics, the crying child, the missing children's incident, the
entire existence of Golden Freddy. Take all of that and burn it to the
ground. Maybe not burn it, We've seen that that tends not to work. Take it all and
put it through a paper shredder or something, will ya? Because none of it matters. None
of it! It’s all wrong. Or maybe it isn't. But before I explain why, I have to tell
you that brand new holiday Theorywear is available right now. And while I might not be the
hugest fan of the implications of today's theory, I am the hugest fan of the merch
that we've got lined up for you. Starting off with the newest addition to my
rainbow of jackets: Turquoise. You guys know at this point that I love me some bright,
colorful jackets, right? You may also know that a couple of years ago I partnered with
Creator Ink to make my own ideal jacket. Vegan leather zips on the pockets to
keep them secure, a special interior pocket that's a little bit larger to fit a
tablet or a Nintendo switch. And overall, a stylish well-fitting, brightly colored jacket.
And I got to say, we hit it out of the park. It is indeed my favorite jacket. The
only thing that I don't like about it is that it's only one color. And I want
to be able to wear any color I want at any time I want. So this time we remade the
jacket in a beautiful, vibrant turquoise. It's a color that I always wanted in jacket form
but could never find in the store. So you know what? We just went out and chose it ourselves.
So add this one to your collection my friends Yep. That didn't fit in the cadence at
all. Or, you know, maybe you prefer your jackets with a bit more LOOOORE! Well,
if you need a jacket that screams, I love puzzle solving. Get ready. We've got the next
installment of our Puzzle Jacket line as well. The Quest Jacket Volume three. It's not just
a jacket, it's an experience. Basically, this thing is an escape room that you can
wear, complete the puzzle that's built into the various parts of this jacket,
and you win yourself a special prize. The Quest jacket is something that was
created by us. We're the only people crazy enough to make a wearable item that is
also a series of puzzles and lore. In fact, we reached out to a couple of factories
and they outright told us, No, we will not make this jacket for
you because we were asking them to print things in places where you
don't normally print. It is just very complicated to make these jackets. There's
a reason we're the only people to do them, and I think you're going to have a blast with
this one because there's even more challenging puzzles to solve and a much more fashionable
design making this one more wearable than Quest Number 1. So are you ready to uncover
the mystery and save the Galaxy? Good luck Space Ace! Believe it or not, though,
we also have things that aren't jackets. Like our 4 channel candle set. Ever
wonder what the channel smells like? Probably haven't. Because. Well, why would you?
But dear viewers, smell-o-vision is finally a thing. With these candles themed around each of
our four channels, we've carefully constructed four signature scents that we think really help
encapsulate each of the channels perfectly screen fiend; which smells like red plum and cinnamon.
witty banter; with hints of jasmine and mint Mid-episode regret, very familiar with that
one, but it smells of beautiful sandalwood. And my personal favorite Fresh Lore; giving
you that clean aroma of linen. These candles are made of soy, which means that they burn
clean. They also last for up to 40 hours. So if your a gamercave is starting to
smell a bit too much like Doritos and Mountain Dew. These candles may just
be your perfect get. Or if you want another way to set some mood lighting,
check out our game theory plasma orb. We've harnessed the power of lightning
and mixed in some game theory to turn it into our signature green. When you touch it,
you're going to feel like a super powered mad scientist. And this is a big boy. Lots of the
online plasma orbs tend to be small, but nope, we went with the jumbo size here, so you are
harnessing a lot of lightning on your desk. Anyway, these are just a few of the items that
we got going on. There's an awesome blanket, lounge pants, a t- shirt, hoodie. There's
even a FNAF NASCAR jacket and a lava lamp. It did that thing where I said yes to too many
merch ideas, but gotta be honest with you, I love them all so much. Oh, and also
there's some flim theory merch in there, too. Kind of cool, I guess. But all of it is
waiting for you down in the description below. And he better do it quick before I decide to
retcon it all out of existence. Speaking of Retconning, back in 2019, we got the release
of Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, otherwise known as FNAF VR, a game that to this
day ranks as my third favorite from the franchise. On one hand, it was looking forward to the next
phase of the series by introducing a new villain, Glitchtrap, but it also had its
feet firmly planted in the past, a culmination of everything that had
come before in a very literal way, by collecting the first three games
and turning them into VR experiences. It really felt like an inflection
point for the series. A transition from the old story of a serial
killer in a haunted pizzaria, to the news stories it had yet to tell about
the killer living on through technology. But buried in the game were some
lines that made everyone stop and go, Huh? Right at the top, we got this moment. With the lunatics shown on screen being, of course, the picture of Scott Cowathon
himself. It felt like good meme fodder, a funny metal joke that also poked fun at Fazbear
entertainment, papering over their bloody history. But then the game chose to double
down. In one of the game's hidden war tapes. We learned more about this lunatic
spreading lies about theFazbear restaurants. It was weird. It seemed like
FNAF VR was actively throwing into question everything we thought
we knew about the franchise's lore. At the time, I went on the record to say this: And that's largely where the community left
it, it was a bit of a weird call for the series to disregard everything that had come
before, but honestly, it would have been fine. Here's the old original story
arc with the first six games, and here's the new one moving forward,
two separate story arcs told within the same universe. Fine. Until Security Breach came
out. Suddenly Springtrap was a key player again, and we were exploring the burned
remains of the FNAF 6 \ location. And the idea of the first six games
being the crazed ramblings of a hired lunatic were largely forgotten as
we were thrust yet again back into the story of the Aftons. Business as usual.
Only this time there was Muuuuuuuuusic-Man. So that was pretty much the status quo for
the past year. But then in late September, the unthinkable happened.
We got another book. I know, I know. I said the B-word. I'm sorry,
but stick with me. This one's different. You see, this one delivers on the hope that
we've had for the books from the very beginning, that they would take small moments from the games
and expand upon them to bring more clarity. Care to guess what moment from the games they chose to
expand upon? The story of a rogue indie developer hired by Fazbear Entertainment to create a series
of games covering up the company's shady past. And if there was any lingering doubt as to
how this story fit into the games, the title was none other than Help Wanted. I'm about to
summarize what exactly happens in the story, but the tl;dr of it is exactly what we predicted
back in 2019 that everything you thought you knew about the franchise is dead. Just not
exactly in the way that we thought, and it suddenly changes everything about how we should
be approaching this franchise moving forward. In the story, we follow a character named
Steve, an indie game developer stuck in a dead end job while working on a, quote, fetch quest
based game featuring cartoony chipmunks. Now, what could that be a reference to Scott? Just like
we hear about in FNAF VR, Steve is contacted by Fazbear Entertainment to create a series of
games in order to help rebrand the company. At first, he turns down the offer, not the company
to take no for an answer Fazbear then sets up an elaborate plot where they catfish Steve into
a date with the woman of his dreams during the date he passes out only to wake up and find that
suddenly he's married to the woman and suffering from severe memory loss. This happens a few more
times, waking up to discover that he now has children or that the house he lives in is being
foreclosed. Suddenly in desperate need of money. He contacts Fazbear Entertainment and starts
making games for them, four games to be specific. All the while, a constant ringing is happening
in his ears. Bit by bit, he becomes more sleep deprived and paranoid, which then feeds into his
games. At night he's haunted by night terrors, horrific monsters that keep popping out of the
walls, which only pushes him to work harder. And throughout it all, the ringing continues
to build, rotting his brain. Eventually, Steve discovers what's going on. The high pitched sound
that he keeps hearing has been creating illusions used to gaslight him. His house? Just a series
of blank rooms. the night terrors? Amusement park jump scares coming out of the walls. His beautiful
family? Robots with plastic faces and wheels, their physical description actually sounds a
lot like the staff boss. Steve is then given a choice of going back to the miserable real world
or returning to the happiness that he felt inside the illusion. He chooses the illusion, giving
his robot wife a hug who then stabs him to death. Oh, also there's a DJ on the radio called
DJ Dan the Music Man! It's not important to the lore It's just for the memes. It is a super
sad story. It's also in no way a “Tale from the Pizzaplex” considering the places isn't mentioned
once. But more than anything else, it's a story that confirms some of our greatest fears about the
franchise. First and foremost, illusion discs are now officially a thing in the game. If you don't
know what Illusion discs are, then good for you. You clearly avoided reading the novels.
I, however, not so lucky. Basically, these things use high pitched noises to
trick the human mind into creating intensely real illusions of things that aren't really
there: A robot appears exactly like a human, a pizzeria is more decorated than it actually
is, characters turn practically invisible on camera. These are all ways that they've been
used in the books, but up until this point, we've never had a reason to believe
that they were in the game universe. The only time that I've suspected that they
might be a thing in the games is this scene from Sister Location when we remove a random
flashing disk from fun time Freddy's chest. It was just speculation at the time but
now going back, listen to that scene. You hear it? That buzzing? That humming
is only present and scenes where we're directly interacting with an
animatronic in close proximity. Just saying there might have been more evidence
to suggest that these things were actually in the games earlier than we thought. But hindsight's
2020 with this new story. We know it's valid technology and that has huge implications for
things that we see throughout Security Breach, like when we hear high pitched ringing and have
distorted vision any time Vanny runs past us. Why glam rock Freddy apparently can't see Vanny
until he gets Roxy's eyes. It's all much more likely now because she's using illusion discs. It
may also play in to the mystery of who Patient 46 is. In retro CD number 15 we hear this clip.
One of the consistent features of the Illusion Discs is that they distort or blur any images that
appear on camera. We see this all throughout The Fourth Closet. So the fact that the still
image and the distortion are directly being called out here in the CDS indicate that Patient
46 may also be hiding behind an illusion disc. Who knows if my guess was right and Gregory is
meant to be patient 46. That could be why he's appearing all blurry here in the camera shots
from the DLC poster. Admittedly, that opens up its own can of worms and contradictions
that would merit their own discussion. Like, why would he be clear in all these other
pictures? I'm just tossing that out as something for us to chew on. Much more importantly, though,
the Help Wanted story confirms that FNAF 1, 2, 3, and 4 are canonically video games
within Freddy's fictional universe. They were created by a hired gun. A hired
gun who in the story is confirmed to not be familiar with the events that happened
at Freddy's. Quote from the story:“It took a few seconds for the name Fazbear to ring
a bell. But then Steve remembered the kids’ pizza places that had once been wildly popular
but had suffered a downfall after a variety of criminal allegations. There had been talk
of murders, though Steve didn’t remember how many. There was weirder stuff, too…
stories about paranormal events and that kind of nonsense.” Steve doesn't actually
know the stories and events that took place. He doesn't remember how many kids died. He
doesn't believe in paranormal activity. He is an unreliable narrator, which therefore
puts everything in those first four games into question. He knew rumors of paranormal
activity, so he created possessed animatronics. He knew about murders, so he put in mini games
depicting kids being murdered. As for the facts, though, he cannot be trusted and the story
tries to make it crystal clear that FNAF 4 was largely of his own creation, borne out of
the torture that Fazear was subjecting him to. As his hallucinations get more nightmarish, Steve starts seeing monsters literally appear out
of the walls. One of them is described as follows, quote:“It was the head of … something.
It was small but bulbous and veined, its large eyes almond-shaped with catlike
pupils. It lunged forward from the hole in the wall and parted its jaws to reveal a mouthful
of sharp-looking teeth. Its pointed tongue darted out like a snake’s when it sniffed the air.”
This moment isn't just to show a Steve's torture, it's to show us the influence that
it has on the games that he's making. Look at that description. Does it remind you of
anything? A character with catlike eyes, a long pointed tongue, sharp teeth, who likes to pop out
unexpectedly? It's Nightmare Foxy from FNAF 4. Look at this picture from the teasers leading up
into the game, especially the long pointed tongue. Who else pops out from the closet, from under
the bed, from behind the TV in that game? Foxy, the book is spelling out for us
why that game is so different, why it's no longer a game about Fazbear Pizzeria. The torture became so much that the story had
shifted from being a Fazbear story to being a Steve story. 4 games. 1 story. It’s the clue
that Scott gave us a long time ago during a live stream after the release of FNAF 4. At first
I suspected the line was all about dream theory, that all of it was happening in the
nightmares of a child. And I think that one was right. Then it shifted to
the four games being about one family, the Aftons. As their kids grappled with the sins
of their father. And I think that was also right. But now it's changed once again. It's
now four games about one new story, Steve's Story, the story of a
game designer that was being gaslit by an evil robotics company.
You know, I got to hand it to Scott. It's actually impressive how many times he's
been able to make that single phrase describe the same set of four games. It also means that
Scott gets to have his cake and eat it, too. He gets to make those first four games the equivalent
of dream theory without it actually being a dream. Oh was the puppet referred to as a he and funny
to him? Steve didn't know. Were there five victims? 10? 15 in that first set of pizzerias?
Don't know. Steve's just making his best guess. But most importantly of all, it means that
anything that doesn't physically appear in or after sister location and beyond is suddenly
cast into doubt. And when you think about it, that includes some major parts of the lore. For
instance, we know that Michael Afton is, in fact, a security guard for Fazbear entertainment at
some point, thanks to the security logbook. Plus, with Sister Location and FNAF 6, we know that
he ends up getting scooped and dying in a fire. Sister Location also proves the
existence of Elizabeth Afton and how she got scooped by Baby. But
the third Afton kid Crying Child, he's never been mentioned in any other game
other than FNAF 4. I made theories suggesting that he's the other spirit communicating
with Cassidy in the survival log book. But you know, that's just speculation because
I assume that he existed. in FNAF 6’s MIdnight Motorist there's reason to believe that
he's the one who broke out of the house, considering that Mike in the
chair says he's had a hard night. But again, that is pretty weak evidence.
Honestly, the closest we get to having physical evidence of his existence is
in Security Breach’s post-it room where there's a dinner scene made up of five staff bots
that appear to be simulating the Afton family. And one of those five is missing its head,
which we've assumed represents the Crying Child getting chommped. But all of that
evidence only stands because the crying child was thought to exist thanks to the
first four games. Maybe that's why we've never actually gotten the name for him, because
he was never meant to exist in the first place. And so Scott purposely hid the name in
order to allow the fifth Afton Child's identity to remain anonymous.
Ready for a big plot twist when it turns out that he has another child,
maybe a daughter, maybe called Vanessa. It's speculative as all heck. I'm just
throwing it out there as a consideration. Henry and Charlie are definitely in
this universe. We see Charlie's death in possession of the puppet thanks to the
minigames in FNAF 6. So that's all confirmed. But the missing children's incident
where five kids were murdered at the FNAF 1 location? unclear. It's likely
that it happened considering that in FNAF 6’s Lore Keeper ending. We see five
gravestones with one on a hill. The five missing children's incident victims plus
Charlie, the six victims of William Afton. It's the same thing with Princess Quest to
move forward in the Princess Quest minigame, you have to light six gravestones. So it seems
like those five murders happened. But then what about the extra five dead bodies that we
see appearing throughout the FNAF 2 pizzeria? What about hearing that the pizzeria
is getting closed down in the tapes? Even less clear. FNAF VR’s main ending proves
that William Afton is still the main killer in this universe and that he definitely
stuffed kids into the animatronics. However, whether those kids go on to possess
the animatronics is up for debate. Without the first four games being officially canon,
we don't really have any evidence for their possession. But perhaps the biggest ripple
effect of them, all this new understanding of the canonicity heavily suggests that
Golden Freddy may never have existed. That's right. My favorite clickbait Yellow Boy
may not actually be a thing in this franchise at all. Consider this. Golden Fredd, while
seemingly the super important piece of the lore to the franchise hasn't shown up
in a major way in any recent titles, he's only ever shown up in titles with
questionable canonicity like FNAF World, which is definitely not canon. Custom Night,
which is Afton’s personal hell. And FNAF AR which isn't really canon. And if you think it
is, then both Shamrock Freddy and Chocolate Bonnie are canon. And I refuse to live in
a world where that could possibly be true. But in the main games? nothing. In Sister
Location, his name is used in a Custom Night challenge. In FNAF 6 completely absent. And in
Security Breach. Sure, there's a Golden Glamrock Freddy that you can collect, but there's a golden
toy of every character that you can collect. In fact, I think Security Breach was outright
trying to tell us that Golden Freddy has never been a thing. Of the dozens of collectibles
that you can find throughout the game: plushies, figurines, keychains, sweaters.
Four of them actually seemed important. Three posters from FredBear's Family Diner, and an even older one from FredBear’s Singin’
Show. The Singin’ Show is… I don't know, man. It makes it look like the next game is going
to be a crossover with Bendy and the Ink Machine. But the FredBears Family Diner ones
are the ones that I want to focus on now. Look at these things. One of them has
the Golden Bonnie with a purple bow tie, just like you'd expect. But the other two show us
a brown bear with a black hat and a black bow tie. And you see, that is a huge detail. Up
until this point, we've been under the impression that there were only two mascots
at FredBear's Family Diner; Golden Bonnie and Golden Freddy. And FNAF 3 we see a Golden Bonnie
and Golden Freddy performing together on stage. Similarly, In FNAF 4. We see Golden Bonnie
and Golden Freddy again. It was always those two together with other characters like Foxy and
Chica not showing up until later. So why then in Security Breach would they show us a regular
Freddy as the one on the FredBear posters? Unless he is FredBear. It's everything that we've
been talking about today. Our evidence for Golden Freddy is all founded upon the original four FNAF
titles, games made by a guy whose brain was slowly turning to mush. But when you actually stop and
look for the physical evidence of who FredBaer was in the games that are still considered to
be canon, all we get is a brown bear. Golden Freddy was never real. He never existed. I
know it seems wild, but it actually helps answer a lot of questions that we've had
about Golden Freddy throughout this franchise. First off, his wildly inconsistent appearance.
In both FNAF 1 and 2 he appears gold with a black hat and bow tie. But in the final two mini
games showing Charlie being killed outside FredBear's Family Diner, the Freddy we play
as is brown with a black hat more similar to the FredBear that we see in the posters for
Security Breach. In the FNAF 3 minigame that apparently shows us FredBear's Family Diner.
He goes back to being gold with a black hat, but then in FNAF 4s minigame he's shown
to be gold with a purple hat and bow tie. His appearance has never remained consistent,
which could make sense that these are games being made by a guy who is under extreme
duress. If Golden Fredd isn't around, then who could have done the bite of 83?
Well, it could be that that never happened. We've never seen a gravestone for Crying Child
after all. If Golden Freddy doesn't exist, then where does Cassidy's soul reside?
Well, again, we still don't have any proof that the original missing children
actually possessed any animatronics. All their souls may have just moved on or
been immediately converted into remnant. Cassidy only really appears in Ultimate
Custom Night, so either their spirit is attached to Afton’s like Andrews is and the
FansBear Fright series, or it's just William torturing himself over the memory of this
one child that he murdered in cold blood. Long story short, I still haven't fully
worked out the ramifications of all this, and I'd love your help working through
it, because this revelation about the first four games being games demands a
whole new way of looking at the series. The ripple effects of this revelation are huge and
casts even more doubt into stuff that we thought that we knew about the games. I mean, with all the
new books and games and revelations. That we've had since the release of Security Breach I've
been meaning to do a “State of the Lore” video for a while just to make sure that we're all
operating on the same page of what is true and what isn't true. Because at this point it's hard
for even me to keep track of what we've proved. What's only speculation, all of that. And after
episodes like today, that sort of video feels more important than ever. So keep an eye out for
that one in the next couple of weeks. Which means that I'm back to researching FNAF from square one
and I thought we were done with the scary season. But hey! At least while I'm pulling my hair out,
I can look good doing it thanks to my new Game Theory merch, which just as one final reminder is
linked down in the description of this video. So grab yourself a jacket, a hoodie, one of the other
jackets, a plasma ball, one of the other hoodies, one of the other jackets. We’ve got a lot
of jackets and hoodies right now. Anyway, grab one of those items or multiple of
those items before they're all gone. Now, if you'll excuse me, I got to go hide
under my new Game Theory Blanket. Just the thought of revisiting all of this lore
yet again, is making me have nervous sweats. I guess I'll see you all next week. Unless I decide
to stay under here forever. But, hey, that's just the theory, A Game Theory! Thanks for watching.
And hey, if you want to go back to a time when we thought we knew the ins
and outs of this franchise, click here to watch our previous timeline on
the series. Ah yes, the days before Fazgoo Or if you're in the mood for horror game
lore that hasn't been entirely retcon yet, why not click the video on the right
where I predict the story of Poppy Play Time Chapter three. And with that,
as always, I'll see you next week.
Judging from the Thumbnail itself, All I can say is :
What ?
I usually agree with Mat. Not this time. I honestly don’t want this theory to be right at all, as it would have wasted all our time with a terrible retcon. It’s why we didn’t enjoy Dream Theory. I always figured that the FNaF games existed in the world of the FNaF games while the actual story of FNaF exist in our world as games. Given this story, I would propose that the illusion discs allow Fazbear Entertainment to let Steve see what they would want him to see. They would know, and with the discs, they could let him know too. Also, Scott confirmed that VR isn’t a reboot
Did he forget golden freddy is in princess quest? I'm not trying to say this aggressively I'm just asking
If I'm honest, I feel people look deeper into the indie game plot line than Scott actually intended. The main reason it even exists is because he simply wanted to make a canon entry that featured non canon and questionably canon characters, so he just made it so there were video games based on the events in-universe, it's no different than say the in-universe Chucky films established in Seed from the Child's Play series.
I'd understand it more if Matpat didn't feel SL-6 (and partly UCN given he thinks it's an event that occurs) were real given those heavily rely on information from 1-4 to work. As well as if VR and SB didn't have a lot of stuff that implied they still existed such as Fazbear Entertainment using the original circuit boards in VR as an example.
Also the part about it being like Dream Theory is exactly part of the reason I doubt it, Scott has made fun of Dream Theory on multiple occasions such as during UCN's development for April Fools and in the teaser for Freddy in Space 2. Considering that, I don't really think he'd pull what is pretty much the same idea.
Also I find it strange he dismisses the idea of FNaF AR being canon because he doesn't like the idea of Shamrock Freddy and Chocolate Bonnie existing when FNaF AR's emails do give in-universe explanations for those two in particular. Not to mention Security Breach doubles down on AR's canonicity with many references to the skins and the tapes mentioning Luis.
In conclusion, yeah not a fan of this one.
Indiegames using the story that debunks indiegames
great, another video that will make me question why people even enjoy fnaf lore.
There are several problems with this video.
This is by far the worst FNaF theory video I have ever seen. Also, he needs to stop making misleading thumbnails that point to anything.
Always thought the games The Dev made were the Fnaf 1-4 Remakes you played in HW.
Someday Matpat will make a theory about how Afton and Golden Freddy will destroy the universe in a god-like battle that reboots the entire franchise from scratch, but that they're stuck on a loop in which the battle repeats itself every time the reboot happens.