Freddy Fazbear, the animatronic singing bear and main mascot for Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria was brought into existence in 1983. We know this from the year printed on the coins in the game Fight Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted. The 1980s, the golden age of the pizza arcade. Kids all over America were flocking to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, the only place where you can chow down on a mid slice of pepperoni and throw quarter after quarter into an 8-bit video game, Like Ms. Pac-Man. One such kid was a regular preteen, known only to us as Gabriel. Gabriel loved the pizza and the games, but what brought him back to Fazbear's Pizzeria was truly their animatronic mascots. State of the art - at the time. They could sing, they could dance, they could, well, that was pretty much it. But Gabriel loved it. -[Vanessa] Welcome to Freddy's. Have you met them yet? -[Mike] Met who? -[Vanessa] Foxy. Bonnie. Chica. And… Freddy. Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy were fan favorites, but Gabriel loved Freddy, The oversized animatronic bear with a black hat and bow tie. He admired Freddy. He loved Freddy. And it was a good thing he did, because after Gabriel's horrific murder, Gabriel became Freddy, a version of Freddy out for revenge, a Freddy that sliced up more than just pizzas, and a Freddy who had no problem saying Game over to your life. (Freddy Laughs) (Screams) ♪ Metal Music ♪ Welcome to Horror History. One of this year's most anticipated films is Five Nights at Freddy's. Based on the popular video game and media empire created by Scott Cawthon. Cawthon wrote the film and has been the creative lead behind the FNaF games, sequels, spin offs, novels, guidebooks, and the rest of the Fazbear empire. The Freddy mascot from the Five Nights at Freddy's universe ironically became the mascot for the entire multimedia franchise. And although he has delivered some memorable scares, I wouldn't call him the main antagonist of the series. In order to fully understand how a creepy robot from a decade past became one of the most feared supernaturally possessed horror gaming icons, we have to dig deep into the history of Fazbear Entertainment, Inc. And its original owners, William Afton and Henry Emily. (Impact) The evil begins as it does in many stories. With a British person. William Afton, the co-founder of Fazbear's Pizzeria and Gabriel's eventual killer, Was a calm, sophisticated brit hiding an array of psychopathic tendencies. He's seen as a manipulative and focused businessman with the goal of building a pizza franchise empire. Sometime in the early 1970s, William Afton created Afton Robotics, LLC. This would soon combine with his interest in entertainment dining facilities. In the late 1970s, William Afton met another entrepreneur named Henry Emily, and the two collaborated to form their first entertainment dining facility aimed at children called Fredbear's Family Diner. This original diner was much more reminiscent of the establishment's Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza, which was a direct rival to Chuck E. Cheese. In my Horror History episode on Charles Entertainment Cheese, it was noted that around this time period in the early 1980s, Chuck E. Cheese wasn't doing well, and many knockoff children's entertainment diners were popping up, mimicking the layout of their restaurants and using their own band of anthropomorphized animals who sing and perform. Showbiz Pizza and Fredbear's Family Diner were two such ripoffs. But where Showbiz Pizza would fade into obscurity, Fredbear's Family Diner would gain a far more insidious reputation. Where Charles found himself in the seedy underbelly of children's entertainment. With drugs, gambling debt, and Internet hoaxes, Freddy Fazbear gets into an even more demented world of children's entertainment. This restaurant centered around Fred Bear and a yellow rabbit character named Spring Bonnie. Fred Bear was, in a sense, the original Freddy Fazbear. However, he would go on to take a whole new form after Fredbear's Family Diner Went out of business under mysterious circumstances. -[Instructional Voice] I think the name of the place was Fredbear's Family Diner or something like that. -[Instructional Voice] They're closed for years, though I doubt we'll be able to -[Instructional Voice] track anybody down. As time goes on, Fred Bear and Spring Bonnie would gain new friends Chica, the backup singer chicken, and Foxy, the pirate, who, if you haven't figured it out yet, is a fox. All of these characters look like they really could have participated in the robot pizza wars of the 1980s. In 1983, it's believed that William Afton's oldest son killed his youngest by holding him up to the mouth of the Freddy Fazbear animatronics face. The little boy who was scared of Freddy was crying in fear. His tears caused the spring lock mechanism to malfunction and Freddy's mouth to bite down on the boy's head, crushing it. This tragedy, or one like it, is the cause of Afton's murderous and psychopathic tendencies. Under that corporate facade lies an egotistical sadist who doesn't just want to kill his victims, but designs their deaths to ensure that they physically suffer first. It's not about the killing. It's about causing pain in others. Where the sadism comes from is up for debate, but many FNaF scholars believe that Afton was irreparably changed from the loss of his son. Fredbear's Family Diner only stayed open for a few years after this incident, But just long enough for William Afton to kill his first known victim, Charlotte Emily, the daughter of Fredbear Family Diner’s co-owner, Henry Emily. But this is where the first puppet is possessed, as Charlotte possesses a puppet that had been programmed by her father to protect her. Although this would all lead to the closure of the original Fredbear Family Diner, This wouldn't be the end of the company or the iconic character. Freddy would evolve and take on many different variations and forms, Which I'll discuss more at the end of this lesson. But for the sake of our timeline, let's just focus on the two main forms Classic Freddy, and Withered Freddy. As the original Fredbear's Family Diner closed, The original Freddy mascot was stored in the back of a new restaurant, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where he would be known, as Withered Freddy. The new restaurant was off to an actually okay start Until William Afton's sadistic side allowed itself to emerge, But William Afton's murderous tendencies didn't stop there, and soon, Gabriel and four other innocent children would become His next victims. (IMPACT) ♪ Mysterious Music ♪ Gabriel was a ten year old boy with bushy brown hair who visited Fredbear's Family Diner in June of 1985. It's heavily implied that the well behaved Gabriel was at the restaurant slash arcade to celebrate one of his friend's birthdays. Little is known about Gabriel because at the end of the day, Gabriel could have been any ten year old. When Afton killed him, it wasn't because of who he was. It was about the act of hunting and killing him. On the night of June 26, 1985, Gabriel and his friends, Jeremy, Susie, Fritz and Cassidy Were approached by one of the restaurant's big, goofy mascots- Spring Bonnie. What they didn't know is that inside the Spring Bonnie costume was William Afton, and he was luring them into a trap. Afton invited the group of kids into the back rooms. No, not those back rooms. The back rooms of the pizzeria. And the five children found themselves in a darkened room alone with the British pizza mogul. Afton shut the door behind them and pulled out a knife, his weapon of choice. In short order, Afton had stabbed and murdered five innocent children. -[Vanessa] Some kids went missing. -[Vanessa] That's why the place shut down. -[Vanessa] The police searched Freddy's -[Vanessa] They never found the kids. Attempting to cover up his crimes, he stuffed their bodies into the empty space inside the very same animatronics that the kids came to Fredbear's Family Diner to admire. Inside the Freddy Fazbear animatronic, the restaurant's headliner and mascot, He shoved the body of little Gabriel. The next morning, Afton told police that no one was allowed to touch the animatronics, So their bodies were never found, despite customer complaints of Smells, mucus, and blood throughout the restaurant. While Afton avoided criminal prosecution for these murders, eventually known as the Missing Children Incident, people began to suspect that he was somehow involved in the kid's disappearance, and the pizzeria's business began to suffer. But that turned out to be the least of his problems. The souls of the children that Afton had killed lingered in the mascot suits, And instead of moving on to the afterlife, they stayed on earth and eventually learned how to control the same animatronics that their bodies had been stuffed into. When Gabriel was alive, he was a mild mannered, polite child, But after his murder, he became vengeful and enraged. Once he learned how to control the Fazbear animatronic, Gabriel saw this newfound power as an avenue to get revenge on the man that killed him and hopefully then move on from the mortal world. Jeremy, Susie, Fritz, and Cassidy shared a similar goal with their ghosts inhabiting the other animal animatronics, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Golden Freddy. While it's not mentioned exactly what year Fredbear's Family Diner was shut down, It seems likely that it happened shortly after the murders. This does not stop Afton and now working on his own, he opens a new location in early November of 1987, going by the date on the paycheck you receive in Fight Nights at Freddy's 2. However, in this new location, Freddy is given a makeover and is back to looking like his classic self, along with the others. These new versions of Freddy and his friends used a different technology than the others. They were actually animatronic suits that had what was referred to as a spring lock mechanism, Allowing them to operate as both an animatronic and a bodysuit. In animatronic mode, the characters could move on their own, but in bodysuit mode, the machinery would be pulled back, allowing a person to step inside and wear it like a costume. It is here in 1987 that the first incidents of Freddy Fazbear and the other possessed animatronics openly demonstrate an urge to kill. And even though their goal was to get revenge on William Afton as soon as nightfalls, They'll go after any adult in the building, which is usually the security guards who protect the Pizzeria during the off-hours. It's speculated that as lingering spirits, they can't differentiate one human from another all that well. They just see a tall man wearing the purple security guard uniform and associate that with William Afton, who was wearing purple at the time that he killed them. -[Hiring Manager] They interact with the kids just fine, -[Hiring Manager] but when they encounter an adult, they just stare. Freddy Fazbear is the lead murder robot, taunting his victims and maliciously stalking them. Like Aston before him, Fazbear enjoys killing and shows his own streak of sadism as he does it. (Screams) As the new restaurant was open to thwart the bad reputation of the previous location, They put out an ad in the local paper to hire new nightguards and attempt to shift the public view of this new location as a positive thing, listing it as vintage Pizzeria given new life. Using the word vintage is particularly funny, considering that the other Pizzeria was only closed at the most, like, two years previous to this. Anyway, we never learn who the first guard was to answer the ad, but we know that it did not take long before Freddy and company must have come for him, because he almost immediately requests to be moved to the day shift. According to the phone message left for his night shift replacement, Jeremy Fitzgerald, -[Hiring Manager] You're only the second guard to work at that location. -[Hiring Manager] The first guy finished his week but complained about conditions. The hiring manager also suggests a number of temporary solutions in dealing with the characters, one of which is for Jeremy to wear a Freddy Fazbear mask in order to confuse them, which initially throws them off. But even that only does so much. Afton and his company are able to keep Freddy's murders a secret for a while. But eventually, Freddy and others start attacking during the day. The restaurant is closed, and somehow Jeremy isn't given this information And is locked inside with Freddy and his friends For one last night. So after just a few weeks, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza is closed and the attacks are covered up as new animatronics malfunctioning. According to a story that the company had printed in the paper. This coverup works. A new location is opened in the early 1990s, And the crimes of the previous location seem to be buried. This time, the animatronics from the previous location are scrapped, and the originals from Fredbear's Family Diner are refurbished, Making Withered Freddy the new Freddy. It's never specified if Gabriel can possess multiple animatronic suits at one time, Or if it's just the one that his body was stuffed into. But either way, this new form of Freddy is out for revenge. Under what seems like Gabriel's influence. This time, Jeremy the nightguard does not return. This could be for several reasons. He may have been killed during his last shift, or he may have just realized that it wasn't worth risking his life for $20.10 of overtime pay. Even factoring in the inflation since 1987, that's the equivalent of $54.05 in today's money. Whatever happened, Jeremy does not return. And a nightguard by the name of Mike Schmidt starts the job in the early 1990s. We don't have an exact date for Mike's tenure, but based on inflation and what he receives as pay compared to what Jeremy got for the same position, early 90s seems to track. Mike is deliberately kept in the dark on Freddy in his past. -[Hiring Manager] I wanted to record a message for you to help you -[Hiring Manager] Get settled in on your first night. -[Hiring Manager] I actually worked in that office before you. -[Hiring Manager] I'm finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact. Once again, all training is done via voice message. And while the person on the phone does their best to try to hide the fact that Freddy has killed other guards, he does slip up here and there saying that he's surprised that Mike has made it this far on just the third night. -[Hiring Manager] Most people don't last this long... It seems this time, the company attempted to protect itself by installing secure steel doors that the guards could use to lock themselves into the office when they see Freddy, Chica, Bonnie or Foxy approaching, which offers a little more protection than just putting on a bear costume and hoping that they think that you're one of them. But the company has a limited electricity budget, meaning that Mike couldn't keep the protective doors armed the entire night. And it wouldn't be long before the roaming animatronics set their sights on him. (IMPACT) ♪ Mysterious Music ♪ Mike would do his best to monitor the activity going on in the restaurant during his Fight Nights at Freddy's. But Freddy and the others were good at sneaking past when the security cameras were looking elsewhere, along with the other guards before Mike. It seems as though Freddy killed whoever it is that is training him over the voicemails, Because in the middle of the last one, it cuts out. And what can be assumed is Freddy's demonic voice is heard mumbling gibberish Leaving Mike on his own. -[Hiring Manager] Hey. Wow. -[Hiring Manager] Day four. -[Hiring Manager] I knew you could do it. -[Hiring Manager] Hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow. -[Hiring Manager] It's been a bad night here for me. -[Hiring Manager] I'm kind of glad that I recorded my messages for you when I did. -[Hiring Manager] Hey, do me a favor. -[Hiring Manager] Maybe sometime you could check inside those suits in the back room. -[Hiring Manager] I'm going to try to hold out until someone checks. -[Hiring Manager] Maybe it won't be so bad. -[Hiring Manager] I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there, you know? -[Hiring Manager] Oh, no. (Demonic voice mumbling) According to the check stubs, Mike did make it through one more night and was paid double his rate for overtime, which was only another $120. After this, the murdered children possessing the animatronics finally stopped targeting security guards long enough to go after their main target, William Afton. In the mid-90s, William Afton returned to the dusty and shuddered Freddy Fazbear's Pizza to dismantle his original animatronic creations. The children's ghost chased Afton into his safe room, where another, unpossessed animatronic, a Spring Bonnie, had been placed for storage. Fleeing the vengeful ghost, Afton jumped into the Spring Bonnie suit to hide. But over the years, the pizzeria building had decayed, and on that rainy night, leaks were plentiful. One of these leaks was right over the animatronic that Afton was hiding in, and soon enough, it shorted out its spring lock mechanism. According to these vintage instructional tapes uncovered in FNaF 3. A spring lock mechanism is a design inside of the animatronic suit that allows a user to pull a crank and lock the machine parts so that the wearer Won't be ripped apart by the gears. -[Instructional Voice] To change the animatronics to suit mode, insert and turn -[Instructional Voice] firmly the hand crank provided by the manufacturer. -[Instructional Voice] Turning the crank will recoil and compress the animatronic parts -[Instructional Voice] around the sides of the suit, providing room to climb inside. -[Instructional Voice] Please make sure the spring locks are fastened tight to ensure the -[Instructional Voice] animatronic devices remain fixed. And whoever created the instructional tapes seems very aware of what can happen if the instructions are not followed. -[Instructional Voice] Please pay close attention while learning how to operate these suits, -[Instructional Voice] As accidents/ injuries/deaths/irreparable and grotesque maiming can occur. When Aston climbs into the suit, in an instant, the robot's gears sprung shut on his body, mutilating him and causing an extremely slow, Extremely painful death. Shortly after, the ghosts of the slain children, including Gabriel in the Freddy Fazbear animatronic, decided that they no longer needed to inhabit their robot bodies and moved on to the afterlife. But the cycle of violence continued beyond just Gabriel's, inhabitation of Freddy Fazbear. For one, Afton came to possess the Spring Bonnie robot that his body was Now enclosed in and became known as Springtrap, another murderous animatronic. Once Gabriel had moved into the afterlife, Freddy himself took kind of a backseat and isn't heard from again until 30 years later. After the last Freddy Fazbear's Pizza had closed. In 2023, a horror attraction based on the restaurant's sordid history was opened Called Fazbear's Frights: The Horror Attraction. Freddy is not heavily featured in this attraction, but a very withered version of Freddy sits outside of an office door. Shortly after this, Fazbear Entertainment puts out a VR game called the Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience, where they embrace the idea that their once beloved mascot has turned into a horror icon. -[VR Game] And while it's true that some stories associated with our name were loosely -[VR Game] based on actual events, the majority of them were total fabrications from -[VR Game] the mind of a complete lunatic. -[VR Game] Lawsuits pending. -[VR Game] But we aren't above laughing at ourselves. -[VR Game] Ha ha ha. -[VR Game] That's why we have recreated many of these completely fictitious scenarios, -[VR Game] Lies! That you've been fed over the last several years -[VR Game] Into a hilarious VR game. The virtual experience contains the in universe versions of FNaF 1-3, As well as some additional game modes. It's kind of like how the Stab movies are actual movies inside of the Scream franchise. Throughout the experience, it becomes evident that William Afton's soul is still out there, manifesting in the game As a new villain known as Glitchtrap. The release of this game actually helped reinvigorate interest in the Fazbear brand by marketing the game as a horror experience to adults. They also reminded them how much they loved the Fazbear brand as kids, which helped generate interest in giving their own kids a similar experience. At least that's my take on the events. Because it wasn't long before a new entertainment center called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Megaplex is built, most likely in the mid to late 2020s. It seems to have evolved from Freddy Fazbear's Pizza almost 40 years earlier. It's kind of like a Discovery Zone or Disney Quest, basically a high end arcade play center hybrid. There's a new futuristic version of Freddy called Glamrock Freddy, Who doesn't seem to be possessed, but he does appear to be sentient. -[Glamrock Freddy] There you are. -[Glamrock Freddy]How odd. -[Glamrock Freddy] Your guest profile is unknown to me. Who are you? A little boy named Gregory gets trapped in Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex, But this time the security guard, a woman who goes by Vanessa, Is out to get Gregory and wants to kill him. This is because Vanessa is a follower of William Afton, whose soul still lingers around possessing various animatronics. This time, Freddy takes on a different role, as his goal is to protect Gregory from Vanessa and Afton and ensure that the little boy makes it through the night. There's also a new threat to worry about, known as The Tangle, An amalgamation of different animatronic parts with a fun time Freddy head. Although Glamrock Freddy seems to be more of a protagonist this time around, his overall role hasn't really changed. He was originally out to get revenge on William Afton and notoriously caused harm to security guards. So maybe Freddy is up to his usual antics. Depends on how you want to look at it. As a horror villain, it's in my opinion that Freddy Fazbear is, at its core, a lesson about the dangers of not letting go of the past. Gabriel as Freddy Fazbear is consumed with revenge for his murder, taking the lives of innocent nightguards, William Afton killed the missing children because he couldn't get over the trauma of losing his own family. If either of these characters had simply left past in the past, The cycle of violence could have stopped. Beyond that, the FNaF series itself is constantly looking back to the past. With 8-bit style mini games and a restaurant setting that was huge 40 years ago, It is most popular with an audience of now adults who get to see a spin on a familiar location from their childhoods. In Fight Nights at Freddy's 3, random nostalgia hunters try to raid the old pizzeria for animatronics, turning themselves into new victims. This concept is probably once again directly inspired by real life, Where urban explorers and animatronic archivists have raided old Chuck E. Cheeses, Showbiz Pizzas and other similar establishments to document and preserve these relics of the past. But the message that the franchise and the Freddy Fazbear character delivers, May not have even been an intentional one. At least, that's the conclusion I came to after looking into the past and into the mind of the game's original developer. (IMPACT) ♪ Mysterious Music ♪ It seems likely that the lesson about letting go of the past is likely a subconscious one accidentally delivered by the game's creator, Scott Cawthon. The 45 year old developer was also born at the perfect time to have spent his formative years in the establishments that Freddy Fazbear's Pizza is based on in the 80s. Freddy Fazbear, more than anything else, is the copyright safe version of Billy Bob Brockali of the Rock-afire Explosion, the in house animatronic band seen in Showbiz Pizza restaurants from 1980 to 1992. Even just his acute knowledge of the Chuck E. Cheese knockoff, Showbiz Pizza demonstrates Cawthon's fascination with a specific screenshot of the 1980s. But intentional or not, the warning about holding on to the past couldn't be clearer. In the FNaF universe, revenge literally traps you, trapping you as a ghost here on Earth and as a demonic spirit inside an animatronic. It's only until your soul learns to let go that you find peace and move on. And if that never happens, well, you're doomed to continue your murder spree forever, Which seems to be the case for many in the FNaF-verse, Because Freddy's train of games, books, and now movies shows no sign of stopping. The theme of not being able to let go has even persisted in the games themselves. Scott Cawthon developed the first six main games in the series, which include FNaF 1-4, Sister Location, Pizzeria Simulator, and the spinoff, Ultimate Custom Knight, all of which have William Afton as the main overarching antagonist of the series. In 2019 Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted was set to release. This time being developed by Steel Wool Studios. While this was originally just going to be a collection of VR ports of the original games, It ended up including a story of its own that mostly exists in the game's subtext. In Help Wanted, you play as a game tester, testing out the VR versions of the Five Nights at Freddy's games, which now exist in universe as the Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience, which I mentioned earlier. But the games contained this glitch character named Glitchtrap, who most fans believed to be sort of a digital incarnation of Afton. At this point, a lot of fans felt that William Afton's story had been told and were hoping to see a new antagonist for this new era of FNaF, The Steel Wool era. But that's not what happened. Even the movie series seems to be holding on to the franchise's past rather than pushing forward into new territory. Scott Cawthon said that his script is based on Five Nights at Freddy's 1 and that he hopes to turn the sequel games into their own movies as well. Not that that's a bad thing. The only reason I point it out is because it is a telling choice. This will be the third adaptation of that original story. In the movie canon, Mike Schmidt, the guard from the original Fight Nights at Freddy's, Gets hired as a nightguard and brings along his daughter during his shift. – [Mike] I will work, and you will sleep. – [Abby I understand. – [Mike] Give me your hand. It seems as if the movie canon will be separate from the game canon, Because in the movie, the animatronics are targeting Schmidt's daughter, Trying to kill her and get her to become one of them. -[Mike] What do they want?
-[Vanessa] They want to make her like them. -[Mike] Abby! While it seems that earlier iterations of Freddy or Gabriel were more set on protecting children, it does track that Gabriel looks to other children as a means of companionship. So that is my take on the very convoluted history of Freddy Fazbear. And if this video came out on time, you guys will have received a Freddy Krueger episode and a Freddy Fazbear episode all in one month. So let me know if there are any other horror Freddy's that I can cover. Before we wrap this one up. It wouldn't feel right, not to mention a few of the other forms of Freddy Fazbear That I held off talking about for simplicity's sake. So just as there are many different forms of Chuck E. Cheese, Including the Pizza Time Theater era, the Tuxedo era, the Skater era, etc. There are also tons of alternate looks for Freddy. Five Nights at Freddy's 4 takes place in a child's bedroom, and the player is attacked by nightmare versions of the animatronics, one of which is the very terrifying Nightmare Fredbear. It's widely believed in the fandom that the child that you're playing as is William Afton's surviving son. Fight Nights at Freddy's 2 introduces many alternate forms, such as Toy Freddy and Shadow Freddy, which means we can only assume that while Gabriel's body was stuffed into one specific animatronic, he was able to somehow inhabit the other Freddy robots. The original five games all contain an alternate called Golden Freddy, Who very little is known about. He almost seems to be a cross between the old school Fredbear and the redesigned Freddy Fazbear. The fifth game, Fight Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, gave us Yenndo, Short for yellow endoskeleton bear, a very Terminator-esque version of Freddy Fazbear. The last one I'll highlight is Phantom Freddy from Fight Nights at Freddy's 3. A burnt, partially destroyed character that somehow survived the 40 year time gap. The alternate forms are just another cool way that Fazbear Entertainment mirrored the unsettling evolutions of its real world counterparts. But if you want to fully understand the world of the 1980s robot pizza mascots That gave way to the creation of the Fight Nights at Freddy's franchise, You should check out my horror history on the rat himself, Charles Entertainment Cheese. Please! It's probably my best video. I feel like it should have, like, at least four times more views. Remember to subscribe to CZsWorld for new horrors every week. Ring the Deathbell for all notifications, and I'll see you in the next one. Assuming we both survive.
