Finding Out More About the Afton Family - FNAF Theory

[@FNAF-fr3k]

I feel like mike changed his last name to Schmidt so he could cover up the fact he killed his brother so he could get the FNAF 1 job.

[@Limitedprodigy002]

I’m writing this as we’re going through so please forgive me, I’m writing this after I watched the Mike segment; There’s a noticeable note I’d like to point out in FNAF 1, that may or may not add to the Michael Afton is Mike Schmidt argument; in the start up screen, where you see the newspaper ad for Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza- it’s circled around with looks to be red ink from a pen. In the security logbook; what does Mike use? A red pen and as far as we know- he’s the only one that canonically uses a red pen in the lore. It’s basically Mike’s signature color in that logbook; to separate him from the other entities like Cassidy and The Altered Text in the logbook. It might be a red herring or out of coincidence but it is a note worth taking. I’d also like to note that Mike Schmidt was tampering with the animatronics, the custom night kind of implies that he does but in my understanding; it also implies that he knows how to work with animatronic equipment. which gives me the idea that it is Michael Afton because at the time, other than William or Henry- he’s the only other character who has the know-how because of his technician background. Edit: I know you said it could be William but it’s more likely that he’s the guard that was BEFORE Jeremy in FNAF 2 (because how else would he get easy access to the spring Bonnie suit?). Fritz Smith who came after Jeremy was fired on his first day, which was the night shift he was on. I don’t think Fazbear Entertainment would hire the same guy twice neither do I think William would put THAT MUCH effort to go back on the night shift, who could have simply asked to be put back on the night shift. Not to mention another thing that I want a put a not on, Michael has a classic Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Security Logbook; implying that at some point he was a security guard at one of those establishments- it can’t be Fazbear’s fright simply because 1) it’s not a functional pizza place and 2) not under the official Fazbear company Why I mention this is because in the logbook, it’s implied that the book was taken from Mike and was repurposed for the next guard (hence why in the beginning, it says “oh most of this is scrubbed and erased”) like why would the guys from Fazbear’s fright erase all of that? For their attraction, that would’ve been a gold mine But for Fazbear Entertainment, that wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary, because if a guard is writing oddly suspicious things about your company, you as Fazbear Entertainment would want that stuff GONE so rumors can’t be spread and end up causing distress upon your next hire. So In conclusion, I still believe Michael is Mike and Fritz from the first two games because of plenty of factors like- Jeremy still being on the nightshift when the kids went missing, the only viable suspect would be the guard who switched to the dayshift before him Fritz Smith was a new employee as opposed to the guard before Jeremy or Jeremy himself. He was fired on his first day. And Mike having a Security Logbook that was likely reclaimed by Fazbear Entertainment meaning it was still active at the time that Mike had it

[@TerminalError]

I hadn't even considered the pen color! As much as I would like to just say "its a design choice you're looking too far into it" (just because I'm a little biased towards my theory) this is a series that counting animatronic toes and a slightly different yellow text means something. I do think my reasoning for William being both Jeremy and Fritz is flawed but it seems to coincidental that the two guards who we play as in fnaf 2 both share a name with a kid who William killed. I also was thinking that it was William returning to the night shift weeks later since his pink slip doesn't have a date on it. I don't think he could have just changed shifts however because without William on the dayshift they have no dayshift guard. I hadn't considered where Mike got the logbook from before. After thinking about it however, the logbook isn't necessarily a "logbook". It's more of an activity book for kids which made me think it was something he could've gotten from the prize counter, similar to how Mike from the movie gets his badge from the prize counter (I know it's not a great solution and there's no evidence but it helps my theory lol). But I had fun making these theories and I hope you enjoyed watching!

[@Limitedprodigy002]

@@TheUnrealRager Mike in the movie was confirmed to be 25 in the novelization also it’s an alternate like the silver eyes, where most things would be held up for the question. Mike Schmidt in all sense of the word, is an adaption, it doesn’t mean he is an exact replica of games Mike. Which means Mike being 23 in FNAF 1 would be totally dismantled. If you work with the adaption, it essentially just confirms that Mike was at least around 25 when FNAF 1 took place, whether it’s 1993 in the games or 2000 in the movie. Simple things like that.

[@Limitedprodigy002]

@@TheUnrealRager also as for Mike Schmidt being the Bonnie Bully, I disagree; there is absolutely no evidence pointing towards that. Also Mike Schmidt, strangely like Fritz 6 years before him was fired for multiple things like general unprofessionalism, odor, and most notably tampering with the animatronics which implies that Mike Schmidt has knowledge about how an animatronic works enough to tamper with it and the only canonical characters who have that sort of knowledge would be Michael, Henry, and William (At least during this period.) Mike being phone Guy also doesn’t make sense either, because phone guy has been working there multiple years, since the beginning, even to the point where he recorded tapes for springlock suits which would’ve been decommissioned when Mike accidentally killed his brother, so if Mike was phone guy, he would be recording at the age of 13 to 15 years old which makes no sense at all. Phone guy is a full on adult at that point.

[@Limitedprodigy002]

@@TheUnrealRager you do Mike is short for Michael right? And you do know Michael also goes by Mike- he literally writes it in the logbook. Not to mention that hand unit is broken, so it could very well just mean that Mike somewhat knew this after the first night so he placed a sticker just as a little a joke. While yeah, Cassie’s dad is a technician, doesn’t mean he’s Mike Schmidt, there’s also the running theory that hems Jeremy and that roughly has as much if not more evidence than the current one your presenting.

[@Limitedprodigy002]

@@TheUnrealRager the exotic butters outright confirms it that it’s michael, the Mike from the logbook expresses his frustration about how he didn’t get the cash basket but the exotic butters, Michael Afton is literally the only canonical that has ever had that happened to that we know of. Scott wouldn’t just add that to say “oh yeah, another employee got the same thing” That solves absolutely nothing in the lore at all. Mike from the logbook also watches Immortal and the Restless; something that’s also distinct to Michael Afton who we already know is the main protagonist to FNAF SL. None of it would make sense unless you’re suggesting that he isn’t the protagonist of SL, completely ignoring his monologue that he found it and he should’ve been dead.

[@Brandon-jf9cv]

For your reasoning, why Michael isn’t in Fnaf two for the facial recognition if they aren’t possessed he looks so much like his father that even his sister first thought it was him so facial recognition from the 80s probably would think it was him too. and if it wasn’t the facial recognition I think they’re still possessed, but not in the way most people think I think some parts were taken from the withereds and using the toys so they became like the funtimes erratic, that’s why they stare at adults and attack the night guard, but are fine around kids.

[@TerminalError]

@Brandon-jf9cv Idk how, but I forgot that the entire reason the older animatronics are at the fnaf 2 location is for spare parts. I've also seen a different theory going around that would disprove my theory if true. It's basically saying that Cassie’s dad is Jermey from fnaf 2, but I think the only evidence for this is they are both named Jermey because the facial recognition wouldn't make sense and the only reason they would attack him at that point is because he's an adult wearing the security guard uniform. I do like the theory, however, and I might make a video on Cassie's dad's life. Thanks for commenting btw!

[@Shaso-xv3tw]

As for Mike and FNAF 1, I think the fact that we can hear the FNAF 1 phone calls in the dreams in FNAF 4 suggests that the person having the dreams was the same person in FNAF 1. Therefore we can say with some confidence that if Michael Afton is the FNAF 4 person he’s also the FNAF 1 person…

[@TerminalError]

@Shaso-xv3tw tldr: Mike hears the fnaf 1 calls because someone else listened to them, and he overheard while he was a child. I actually had an explanation for this. Idk why it didn't make it to the video (and I'm honestly surprised you're the first person to point it out), but my explanation for hearing that in fnaf 4 is due to his dad working at Freddy’s. The phone calls are pre-recorded tapes, and we don't know when they were recorded. We assume the week before because phone guy says he worked right before us, but I can see fazbear not paying someone new to record the calls. So because his dad works at Freddy’s, Mike probably overheard someone (whether it was his father or another employee) listen to the tapes (or maybe heard them being recorded but much more unlikely). Because he overheard them and didn't actually listen to them, he wouldn't have been paying attention to the words and, therefore, give a reason to the calls being reversed in fnaf 4. Thanks for commenting btw and I hope you enjoyed the video and that this explanation made sense.

[@honeyybutter]

@@TerminalError since his dad was the owner and only security guards heard it and its also strongly implied the tapes were recorded like the week before. so i don't think it really holds up, but cool idea

[@TerminalError]

We have seen William with the security badge on multiple occasions, so he has been a night guard at some point in his career. But you are correct that the tapes were recorded the week before, and idk how I forgot that.

[@michaelafton7818]

If Gregory is an incomplete cc his willingness to fight the animatronics could be that he represents the side of cc that braved through the fear to fight the nightmare animatronics (if we assume either that he's the fnaf 4 protagonist or atleast one of the victims of the experiments)

[@c.r.blankenship9040]

So regarding Mike changing his name from FnaF 1 to Sister Location… we technically don’t know that Mike’s last name is Afton. It’s entirely possible that Mike’s last name is Schmidt and that Schmidt is his mother’s name. I also think that there is definitely a possibility that Vanessa is actually William’s daughter, depending on the placement of Security Breach, FnaF 3, Follow Me, and Sister Location. In particular, if Follow Me was way later than common consensus (say well into the 2000s) and Security Breach was earlier than we thought (which is possible if you consider GiBi’s date of 2015 for FnaF 3) there would potentially have been time for William to remarry and have a fourth kid something in the 2000s

[@majesticman420]

good fortnite theory

[@TerminalError]

One of my best if I do say so myself

[@CryingFredbear]

@@TerminalErrorhey, you should try to find out hints towards Mrs Afton and what happened to her. I am very curious to see your take on this.

[@michaelafton7818]

At 8:02 you say Mike didn't change his name in sister location but technically we don't ever find out what he was trying to type because hand unit autocorrected it to eggs Benedict so while it is true that we can assume he was going to type some name starting with Mike or Michael given the name tag on hand unit he could have been intending to use Mike Schmidt and when it autocorected to eggs Benedict he just went with it and saved the Schmidt name for another location to save himself the effort of coming up with aliases

[@broly-x.7890]

Man this is underrated, I see the amount of effort you put into this one video Thanks you so much to make this video. I now know the afton family will thanks to you bro Keep up with the Great work And imma sub you

[@TerminalError]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked the video, and I hope I can get more stuff out you like in the future.

[@broly-x.7890]

@@TerminalError i guarantee you will be successful on making those kind of video Anyways I have a suggestion for you for future video if you are interested on making Just like the afton family you did could you also do that to other characters like Henry for example Or make a video about every human FNaf character and their backstory and plus add some theory.

[@TerminalError]

I have an idea similar to this on my idea list. It was gonna be a video going over all the characters and animatronics in the series one by one and go over their importance to the story. I also liked the idea because I could break down the characters into youtube shorts so the (probably) 30 + minute video can be more digestible for people. Looks like since people want the video, I should work on that soon after my next video.

[@madi-4308]

this is a really well made video & theory, i can’t believe you don’t have more subscribers !!

[@TerminalError]

Thank you! More subs come with time, so I'll be a big youtuber one day!

[@Afton-ph9uw]

Really good theory! I don’t believe in this theory but it is really interesting seeing other people’s interpretations of the Fnaf timeline, it feels like I’m listening to a fresh new interpretation of the story that nearly no one talks about

[@raiandesu2538]

3:00 I've never seen a single person say they believe tape girl to be Vanessa, its widely agreed upon that we play AS Vanessa in the events of help wanted 1, and getting controlled in the endings. I don't think we even have a name for tape girl tbh. So I dont think that really disproves glitchtrap taking control of her. Still a quality theory other than that one single thing

[@TerminalError]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! I do think some theorists are starting to say tape girl is Vanessa after the release of HW2, but this is my reasoning for it. We only have a small pool of people who are confirmed to have been mind controlled from HW1, Jermey, Vanessa, patient 47 (Gregory), and tape girl. Since Jermey and Gregory both broke the mind control, and we've seen Vanessa mind controlled and haven't seen tape girl since Hw1, that made me believe these 2 were the same character. It doesn't make sense for us to hear Vanessa’s messages in the curse of dreadbear if we are Vanessa. The only thing I thought would go against this is that the tape girls' voice actress is different than Vanessa's, but Vanessa also changes voice actors with every appearance, it seems. Sorry for the long response.

[@thehackedcat2644]

May I branch of your idea for a theory video?

[@TerminalError]

Yeah, go for it!

[@MauroRosa-mp7ml]

Michael is most probably the fnaf 1, c.n, 3, 4, sl and f.f.p.s, because: 1- it is implied that in fnaf 1, 2 and s.l he was doing what he was told to do by William; 2-Dittophobia( the nightmare chambers from fnaf 4 and sl) is the reason for why mike is both so good at fnaf as a whole, and so reluctantly obedient to his father( manipulation using fear); 3-If Mike worked in fnaf 3 and not fnaf 1 and 2 then the phantoms wouldn't make as much sense( weaker connection, given that its implied that william had a role in both fnaf 1 and 2 animatronics, and that springtrap is responsible for the phantoms); 4- William could be the reason why michael is often charged with smelling bad, since, if Mike was working for retrieving the animatronics then it would be explained, since they are said to smell foul; 5- Fazbear entertainment as a whole seems pretty shady, probably also because of the presence of mike's dad;

[@theshadowking666]

Nice FNAF theory

[@TerminalError]

Thank you!

[@violetnocte]

I don’t think the sprites are a good reference for height (one person calculated Fredbear’s height by comparing him to CC under the implication that he’s seven and Fredbear, who is meant to be usable as a costume by a human being was calculated to be 13 FEET TALL) There’s also the fact that William is taller than he realistically should be. Remember that he’s supposed to be able to fit inside Spring Bonnie. The guy who he’s helping into a suit reaches to his shoulders. And when he puts the employee’s mask on, he’s still a little taller if you don’t count the ears. I really just don’t think the sprites are good references for height. Also I don’t think Scott was thinking “I need the heights to be 100% accurate” when designing the sprites

[@Tyt-v4u]

wat if william creates greg because he waz sad that his son died

[@thatotherkidyt]

amazing theory what game is this about

[@michaelafton7818]

At 6:57 you say the only reason you could think of the toys flagging Michael as a criminal is if he was charged for cc's death but you said this shortly after playing a clip where he explicitly said the funtimes mistook him for william who presumably would have a criminal record by this time in the series and thus the toys might have mistooken Mike for william also it doesn't even matter if they mistook him for william because (of I remember correctly) it was mentioned that the toys seem to not trust adults anymore suggesting the possibility of being havked/tampered with or possesed

[@echothesilent4693]

A whole video section about a theory based on an unnamed game mechanic that's never addressed by the character and canonically isn't verified to exist.

[@michaelafton7818]

A major reason people belive Mike is fnaf 1 amd 2s protagonist is because amongst the phantoms seen we see mangle the puppet balloom boy and withered foxy proving beyond a doubt that the fnaf 3 protagonist has atleast seen these 4 characters most likely as a night guard and not as a customer considering withered foxy wouldn't be on display for customers to see and similarly we see classic chica and either freddy or golden freddy wich is less concrete because freddy and chica would still be on stage but if it is actually withered golden freddy and not classic freddy (wich seems to be the case) then that's even more evidence of Mike at fnaf 2 as the floating spectral head of retired pizzarea mascot possesed by an angry spirit isn't the kind of thing fazbear would show and thus withered golden freddy was likely only ever seen by night shift employees

[@forgod2388]

Wait I got a question. In your other theory, you said The Puppet was the Mimic. But, how did the Mimic know how to make spirits live on? (tell me if i need to explore more about my question)

[@TerminalError]

So, I actually have 2 ways to explain this. The first requires the crying child to be the first death (which I believe to be true but these gravestones in Help Wanted 2 are throwing me for a loop). He dies and possesses golden freddy/fredbear, the puppet witnesses this and manages to recreate this later when MCI occurs. This is my preferred theory, but the second way I feel is also likely with modern fnaf. Since the puppet was watching the kids in order to stop them from leaving, and it's Mimic program causes it to learn from what it sees, the Mimic studied the kids before death and creates a Mimic program based off the kids (so basically a Mimic program trained off the kids). It then uploads the program to the animatronics, effectively "giving life" to them.

[@forgod2388]

@@TerminalError Now you said there was multiple Mimics, but you never tried to explain how that worked, like did Henry or "Edwin", technically, create the different versions of the Mimic or did he like share the information of this revolutionary technology with other people, and I'm also curious on why would Edwin or Henry create new versions of it if he was furious at the thing.

[@TerminalError]

I'm not entirely sure how it works because there's no evidence yet other than the programs name. In the books, the Mimic program is given the name "Mimic1". I come from a programming background, and the 1 in the name normally means you've made, or are planning on making, multiple copies/versions of the program (obviously not hard evedice, but it's a common naming convention). If I had to speculate on why/how multiple were made, I would say that Edwin made the program and put the program into a leftover animatronic he had. Edwin, being smart, probably realized his code was advanced and created a copy that he could hold onto when he could put it into a more advanced robot (that way it would have a fresh Mimic software uploaded and wouldn't have any knowledge from his son). In a later story, they say fazbear made a new animatronic that could change size and shape and put a copy of the program into it (giving us the Mimic from Ruin). These 2 mimics are the 2 confirmed mimics we see in the games. We have the animatronic Mimic that is running off a copy of the software and glitchtrap, a separate copy of the software with no animatronic to inhabit. RyeToast made a theory touching on this next part but because there is a software Mimic, we could be dealing with more animatronics that are running on this software. I believe their video says the funtimes could be running off of it (or at the very least the ones in Help Wanted 2). It's also kind of implied through the matching game in Help Wanted 2 that the glamrocks run off of a version of the Mimic program because they need to be taught how to act rather than programmed how to act. The Mimic1 program makes things kind of confusing because a) the program shares a similar name to the mimic animatronic and gets confusing when someone just says "mimic" and b) with the software being a separate thing from the animatronic, multiple animatronics could be running off this program and we wouldn't really know. Like even the fnaf 1 animatronics could be running off it even though they aren't Mimic animatronics.

[@forgod2388]

That response was pretty long, but that's what FNAF lore is about I guess. So I'm all about it! I have a theory on how there are multiple Mimics in the FNAF universe, but I don't have much evidence, and its just a sensible logical thought. I think, Henry (or Edwin) wanted to create the most revolutionary technology, even tho the year was 1938 (or lower) lol, to help with animatronic technology in the future, so he started to create PROTOTYPES of a new kind of animatronic, an animatronic that could replicate human actions (and I'm calling these prototype Mimics ProtoMimics). And he would keep upgrading the ProtoMimics, because there was always a mechanical error some something, until he has perfect the ProtoMimic technology, and in celebration, he gave his first official Mimic to his son to play and hang out with. And he could've worked on these ProtoMimics for Chica's Party World, which could explain why many sources say Chica Party World's animatronics are very life-like. Context: I think the reason why the Mimic that was given to Henry's (or Edwin's) son is called Mimic1 because it is the first perfection of the Mimic technology, so its the first of its kind. This theory could also explain a lot of other stuff, like why (if we go by the theory that Henry created the Pizzaplex) Henry would use Mimic technology for the Pizzaplex, and a bunch of other stuff. But for the part that stumped me, Mimic1 having no legs, I came up with a theory that Henry (or Edwin), before he gave it to his son, he ran out of tools, wires, for more experiments so he just took the legs of Mimic1. I could go deeper if you like.

[@TerminalError]

That theory sounds pretty interesting! I do have 1 rebuttal about it, and it's about the date. If Henry/Edwin started making the Mimic prototypes in 1938, he'd be well over 100 by the time pizza Sim comes around. Besides that, the theory seems really good. I've also been tinkering with a new Mimic theory over the past week or so, but I'm not entirely sure I'll make a video on it. My theory is that the fnaf 1 animatronics are running off of the Mimic program and aren't the original animatronics. I thought it was crazy from my first evidence piece but found more things that sort of fall into place because of it. The first evidence was how the phone guy says the animatronics want to stuff you into a suit, which I thought was a similar thing to the Mimic in the books that is set to disassemble animatronics and begins ripping apart people when it runs out of animatronics. My second evidence is the design changes between fnaf 1 and 2. Chica has the most obvious differences, like the amount of toes change, the jaw mechanism, and the head shape. The last evidence piece I have is less evidence and more opens the timeline up a bit. I see a lot of people struggle to put follow me into the timeline because it needs to occur after fnaf 1 (1993) and before the wall gets closed off sealing springtrap away (argued to be between fnaf 1 and 2). So if William disassembles the animatronics between fnaf 1 and 2 in order to make the funtimes, fazbear would need to remake the animatronics and could go for ones running on the Mimic program. This then can put William's death after fnaf 2 closes (after the MCI where he used the springlock suit) and still allow for fnaf 1 to take place. Obviously, this theory isn't perfect and still needs to be touched up, but I also think a lot of people won't like this theory, so it might never make it to a video.

[@pilloeglade5463]

The name change stuff is so early in fnaf yet still argued about today. It's crazy. Personally I don't like Gregbot theory. I think the vision distortion is for gameplay. I don't think there is any convincing evidence that connect Greg and crying child. At best comparison is symbolic. But the rest of the vid... I can sort of see it. Rip the Afton mom. Mom's get nothing in this franchise lol.

[@TerminalError]

Lmao, now I feel bad because I PLANNED on including the mother in the video, but there's such little information about her that my theory was less of a theory and more just fanfiction (it was also just bad). Also, I can see why many people don't follow the Greg bot theory. I think im falling off too since Gregory is now (almost) confirmed to be patient 47, and being both doesn't make too much sense. But, I also can't discount the vision thing because even small details mean something in the franchise. I had someone point out to me that the red marker/pen used to circle the job ad in FNAF 1 matches the red pen in the survival guidebook for Mike. Can't 100% say it's an intended detail, but I also can't disprove it.

[@ridtom6055]

Neat!

[@TerminalError]

Thank you!

[@Takejiro24]

Someone else who thinks Vanessa is being controlled by Elizabeth (or Vanny persona *is* Elizabeth ala Jekyll and Hyde) with her childlike mannerisms being used as evidence?! LET'S. FUCKING. GOOOOO! 🤟

[@TerminalError]

Hell yeah! I'm suprised more people aren't saying this now since help wanted 2s release and Fuhnaff's (I hope I spelled his channel name right) most recent video!

[@EpicToePummler]

OMG NO WAY ITS MIKE HAWK

[@TerminalError]

Omg I didn't know Tony Hawk had a brother! Does he skateboard, too?

[@Mrlazy16]

Nice roblox theory

[@TerminalError]

Thank you! I couldn't decide between roblox and skibidi toilet. I'm glad I chose roblox

[@canalzaturno4681]

What if the phone guy is actually Michael afton? No other person would know so much about the Aftons