Five Nights at Freddy's 4: The FINAL Chapter (And My Take On It)

[@whatthewhatthe9117]

“Symmetry my friend” has got to be one of the most thematically resonant quotes in fnaf, all things need closure, all things need answers. There are no gaps in the story only gaps in our understanding

[@drquem4279]

Narrative Symmetry

[@burnttoast3925]

this is so incredibly satisfying oh my goodness. and the fredbear mask being in the box makes so much more sense than the commonly accepted answer in the community, this is a wonderful video, and it feels like exactly what scott was going for.

[@mothmanparanoid]

this entire theory is Matpats dream theory but "let me copy your homework, dont worry I'll change it a little bit"

[@burnttoast3925]

@@mothmanparanoid fym? this is not at all like dream theory. it has the same components because. its the same game. but they reached an entirely different conclusion.

[@chlorrriiinnnneee4007]

Maybe I’m overlooking this, but at 24:50, Fredbear’s dialogue changes to this odd beige color we haven’t seen before. As you mentioned, fredbear’s dialogue was a bright yellow in previous mini games, so what’s with the shift? Well the crying child’s dialogue is white.. Fredbear is yellow, if you mix white into yellow it becomes beige! Maybe the beige text is showing them becoming whole.

[@Bongamingcomcast]

Yeah i saw that too lol i think you might be right, wouldn't like the shift indicate the fredbear plushie is now taking swift action to possess him before he dies maybe?

[@ender01o66]

​@@BongamingcomcastExcept we *have* seen this beige colour before in a previous FNaF 4 minigame, just not from the Fredbear plush.

[@vozaxhi]

it seems so clear now that it's hard to believe anyone had so much trouble figuring this out before, very satisfying. also S tier music choices i never thought i'd hear homestuck in a fnaf theory

[@childish4487]

The reason we all had trouble is the 5th MCI kid. We have the issue of 2 dead kids seemingly being represented by Fredbear. Would have been sooo much simpler if there was 4 MCI kids or puppet kid was one of them. It doesn't make much sense for 4/5 MCI kids to be in happiest day but a kid who died in an accident unrelated to them was. If I was to do a little retconing I'd write it so that the 5th MCI kid possessed spring bonnie instead. It also work well with UCN, being forced to have the pov of your killer killing more kids for sure would give them reason to be "vengeful". That is if you have to have 5 MCI kids, again you'd avoid all of this with there being 4 or the puppet kid being part of the MCI. Although for that you'd need to change half the FNAF 2 minigames. Alternatively the bite victim survived the bite, recovered over 2 years, in time for their birthday. Had a party at Freddy's on June 26th 1985 and was lured to the back room. This is presumably incompatible with the modern lore though, if BV is an Afton, I doubt William would kill his own son. Unless he saw something and tired to intervene?? With William killing them in the moment as he felt he had to and then regretting it? "The one you should not have killed" thingy from UCN would tie nicely to that now that I think about it...

[@damkylan3]

​@@childish4487 It's really not that confusing. Lengthy, yes, as you can see. lol But hear me out. First off, the idea that BV possesses anything has no backing at all. According to the rules of possession in this series, he just flat out doesn't. But even if we consider those rules a later development, FNAF World pretty much set things straight shortly after 4. As we know, FNAF4 established that BV's memories make up Happiest Day. FNAF3 showed that the five children are either lost in his memories, or share his memories. After he dies, BV goes into FNAF World, possibly some kind of limbo or something, where the pieces of Happiest Day are prepared for him. Could be by the Puppet, or Cassidy, or random supernatural beings, doesn't really matter. Point is, that's what FNAF3 is about. He's the one playing the minigames, the "pieces", and gathering the spirits together for the final party so the Puppet can finish their work and set them all free. No need for multiple kids inside GF. The reason ALL of this happens is tied to FNAF4's visual symbolism. It shows us everything. BV's plushies represent the MCI. The Puppet doesn't show up in FNAF4, because BV represents the Puppet, giving "life" to his plushies (and dying by bullying, just like Charlie), except Fredbear/GF, who is already unique among the plushies just like the real GF. That is also why Cassidy has unique abilities among the children. Now, it's not exactly clear why he doesn't just pass on after death, but it's likely because of his connection to these characters and his powerful emotions (which in FNAF, are the key to supernatural energy and longevity) keeping him tethered to them somehow. Hence why FNAF World is this trippy little dimension with cute versions of the characters. And finally, as a result, his memories get split among his new spiritual friends. Either by cosmic chance, or because the Puppet did it or some shit, idk, I need a drink. lol I could go further, but that's all the relevant info. FNAF being FNAF, I can't say that this is objectively true, but it's the most directly supported by the series itself.

[@mothmanparanoid]

im sorry are people just now finding out about dream theory?

[@ender01o66]

​@@mothmanparanoidThe thing that was never canon that people try to gaslight others into believing it was canon, but was retconned, despite the Scott retcon post saying otherwise?

[@calebkelly8221]

I had no idea that was Homestuck! Goddamn, that's sweet.

[@burnttoast3925]

OKOK i know i just commented but i had a thought. the reason the box is shown after the crying child has already died, if the fredbear mask really IS in it, is because that is him becoming one with the fredbear suit. he puts on the mask, and now. he is fredbear. it's best left forgotten because.. he would rather forget that tragedy, how he died, how he was tormented, how he was.. fredbear. he doesnt want to remember that.

[@TheHaddonfieldRegistry]

Also it's funny you mention the box might have contained a Golden Freddy mask for the crying child. Two games in the Steel Wool era so far have given us hidden mask collectibles: HW2 gave us the Bonnie mask, ITP gave us the Freddy mask. Both games feature fathers with a connection to the original era of Fazbears. I wonder if we'll get more adults that own either Foxy or Chica masks, and eventually a Fredbear mask.

[@edslushie570]

Finally a FNAF video that actually includes a recap of events in release order... I feel that's really important to understanding the fandom experience and I hate how so many theory/timeline videos neglect to mention it. So many videos are like "So you wanna learn about FNAF? Well ok, it starts with William Afton and Henry Emily" and I'm like "No it doesn't! It took 3 years for us to learn those names!"

[@ender01o66]

TSE released in 2015, FNaF 1 released in 2014... That's *one* year.

[@edslushie570]

@@ender01o66 That’s fair, I do not remember where I got the 3-years number from

[@ender01o66]

@@edslushie570 It's alright 😅

[@garfieldlovr3704]

that would probably be because many theory/timeline videos are talking about how they happen in chronological order according to the story. it would make zero sense to jump around in the story unless you're telling a story based on the chronological order of game releases, which some people have done.

[@ender01o66]

@@garfieldlovr3704 But, get this: What if the release order of each game *is* the chronological order? (Not including minigames.)

[@chopstick3555]

This is one of the best videos that I could watch before the 10th anniversary of fnaf. Thank you for making this video, you did a great job on the hard work that you put into it.

[@ender01o66]

The editing and music was pretty good.

[@broccolize]

music is a bit loud over your voice this is a great video though. you explain everything without assuming people already know the information, you have a nice chapter layout and editing style, and it's very easy to follow along to. i love the conclusion, and your idea about the box. it makes a lot of sense. just a good video all around. i feel like people forget what fnaf was about. nowadays it's about insane science experiments and futuristic technology, but i like the story of the older games where the story was simple and still creepy, and of course emotional. it feels so detached now. thanks for bringing these memories back

[@Big_Ben1987]

This is the neatest perspective I’ve seen for FNaF 4. I can’t wait to see the SL and UCN videos. Also, yes, It’s half past midnight of when I’m typing this

[@ender01o66]

lmao

[@Swordkiller55623]

Ngl, I would LOVE to see Scott Cawthon watch this video and then give a response to it somehow. Imagine how cool it would be if he explained if this was right or wrong? I genuinely love this theory and hope it was true, even if it got retconned at this point.

[@ender01o66]

I doubt, as he doesn't like to respond to theories.

[@swanns.proposal]

This video just feels right . I mean it just feels satisfying and seems right and i think thats how we were supposed to solve FNaF . Really really good vdieo keep the good work up

[@TheHaddonfieldRegistry]

There are 2 things interesting to me about all of this. 1) Scott recently said in his interview with Dawko that there was a miscommunication of plot between himself and Steel Wool when making Security Breach, resulting in a story unlike what he intended. But more importantly, he said he gave them pieces and expected them to work out the plot themselves without needing it spoonfed to them. Sound familiar? Yeah, it seems Scott has a history of being too cryptic, even internally. And if his vagueness can lead to an actual game in his franchise having a story unlike what he intended, then it stands to reason that Fnaf 4's vagueness and inability to solve may be because there are fundamental elements to the timeline that were incorrectly portrayed, or otherwise missing entirely. I think going over the original 4 games with a fine toothed comb from the perspective that Scott may have been TOO VAGUE with 4's storyline could be helpful in reevaluating old, accepted fanon. 2) So 4 was billed as the 'Final Chapter', and even though the subtitle was dropped upon release and the story slightly reworked, it ends with a cliffhanger/final tease. This was also around the same time he was working on the novels, which start out somewhat lore-accurate, but quickly diverge with the second installment. Where was the box's contents intended to be revealed? Were they ever intended to be revealed? I don't think so, I think, like you said, it was a 'final gift' to the fandom, but we quite literally were missing the key to unlock it.

[@galactic06]

I don't believe the bit about the bite being changed from 87 to 83 during development. The simple answer for all the 87s in the teasers was that it was a red herring. Despite how much people overcomplicated it at the time, fnaf 2 gives a pretty clear story when it comes to the bite of 87. Jeremy is moved to the day after the phone guy has already said the animatronics are acting aggressive towards adults, told to stay close to the animatronics, and then you get the newspaper saying the place has shut down. It's pretty clear this is what the bite of 87 is and has been since fnaf 2. It doesn't make sense why Scott would have decided to go back to an already resolved plot point in fnaf 4.

[@Mekap_Oble]

I thought about original dates for a long time, asking myself "why Scott would make confusion with 2 bites?". And I think the reason is fnaf 2 phone call, exactly that line saying Freadbears closed long time ago. I guess he simply overlooked it and noticed it only when mostly completed fnaf 4 and really hadn't other choice, besides directly saying he messed uped, but after so much love and praise I assume he hadn't courage to do it, so he tried to somewhat fix it. Also by dragging fnaf 4 to 83 he simplified canon. (I believe in original idea Fnaf 2, 4 and other many events happed in 87. Only fnaf 1, 3 and MCI happened in different years) I believe this is the reason why book trilogy wasn't in game canon, because timeline were overcomplicated with year 87 where happened like 90% of events

[@damkylan3]

I have a hard time believing he just forgot that because FNAF3 has a ton of references to it. Like “Stage 01”, where we see Fredbear on stage with Spring Bonnie for the first time. Sure, Fredbear is never mentioned by name, but it’s very likely he’d already decided Fredbear=Golden Freddy, and the phone guy tapes established that the spring lock “classic suits” were retired before 1987, meaning Fredbear/GF would not be on stage during 1987. Considering how quick the first four games came out, it’s unlikely he just wrote himself into a plot hole. Not that it’s impossible. But he had pretty firmly established these facts by the time 4 came out. I strongly believe he was just trolling us with those 87s lol

[@Roxrock]

Well he also makes fnaf 4 all about nightmares and fear, but in real life, someone who’s missing their frontal lobe isn’t able to be afraid. Scott specifically mentioned that the guy lost his frontal lobe so I’m sure that he made that choice intentionally. I think the bite in fnaf 4 is another red herring, similar to fnaf 2 seems like a direct sequel, but it turned out it was a prequel.

[@damkylan3]

Very good, concise break down. I'm always glad to see the Happiest Day parallels mentioned more often now. The Toy Chica hint is still confusing to me, so it's nice to see a different interpretation on it that isn't "omg it's all a dream". My main issue is the notion that the Crying Child is the dreamer, because of the backwards Phone Guy audio from FNAF1 which has zero connection to CC, and there's no reason why it would be in his dreams. Not to mention the fact that the nightmare room is not even close to CC's bedroom, though that could just be nightmare logic. lol In conjunction with the FNAF1 behaviors you pointed out, I feel this leans heavily towards Michael being the dreamer. Yes, even at the time. Because this audio was always part of the game. Now, you could argue that it's just meant to be evocative of FNAF1 and give that "going back to the beginning" feel. And maybe so. I certainly think it WAS supposed to do that, but it brings to mind what Scott said about there being no random easter eggs in 4, and that explanation doesn't feel like it justifies the inclusion very much. He wouldn't have to be Mike Afton as we know him today for this to work. They would simply be the brothers Schmidt, and not Afton, and wouldn't have to be the killer's children. Heck, maybe that was the "one retcon". If Mike is indeed the FNAF3 guard today (a subject of debate now), then I'd like to think this was already Scott's plan even back then, because who better to help enact Happiest Day than the older brother finally atoning for his mistakes? Something to think about, anyway.

[@MaddMoke]

Phenomenal. Such a good breakdown of your reasoning and really fits well. I am excited to see the followups you mentioned

[@Alexpg19]

Great video, but i wanna throw a few points that i picked up during the video: 1- The golden freddy jumpscare in the fnaf 1 custom night was only added in a later update, after people shared rumors about that setting revealing an easter egg. Given the stage01 minigame showing for a breif moment that one of the child dissapairs, i think its possible that scott had planned for the bite of 83 since fnaf3, althought it doesnt explain why the teaser all hinted at 87. 2- I wasnt too convinced about the answer to scott hints during the livestream, but i just wanna ask what do you think about the supposed fourth hint by scott that asks "Have you thought about who the security ward is?", if you havent seen it, its at 1:27:25 in the livestream. Some people believe it was meant to hint at the older brother beign mike, and the reason for beign 4 games 1 story.

[@dylio930]

I love the drawn to Life music! What a sadly forgotten game franchise

[@JJcSmith]

I really love your theory about the "Final Chapter." It seems to fit perfectly with the original story of Five Nights at Freddy's. Thank you for creating this video and presenting a new take on the story. There are many interpretations and perspectives on the story, and that's what I love about the series - it allows the audience to come up with their interpretations. Maybe that's just something I, as an artist, appreciate, even though that's probably not the intention for the community. I shall Subscribe now, can't wait for the Sister Location and UCN theories.

[@vamprascare621]

I totally agree on everything you said. I feel better knowing the story now since you shown the pieces from the minigames, and a Fredbear Mask in the Locked Box. I think Scott Cawthon would be happy about this.

[@G.N.F462]

honestly this is probably on of the best video on the subject.

[@massimo5501]

One thing I don't know why anybody never pointed out was why the skin color of the brother changes during the days. In te first days his skin is clearer, and when the bite occured his skin seems more orangeish. I found weird that nobody pointed that out because of the fact that everybody got crazy about the color change in the plush golden freddy diaologue in the last cutscene. I don't even know how it could change a thing, because we are still assuming that the one with the foxy mask in every minigame is the CC brother. Also, this skin change can open the door to think that who is in the Freadbear suit is his brother also. This could fit the theory that the brother is an employee of the Freadbear Family dinners, and that's why CC has so many merchandise of Freddys. Also could implies that the box is reffering to brothers past in Freadbear's. Some thing are best to left forgotten, for now; until the first game (1993) comes and he decides to face his past and re enter to work at Freddy's. That could also explain the reversed phone call in the gameplay of FNAF 4, wich would mean that we are playing as the brother, attormented by the guilt and nightmares of what he did to his brother. While working in Freddy's, the memorys came back to him and that could be why he is having nightmares with the animatromics of his past, and the ways he attormented his brother. I hope somebody read this comment, this is a theory that I liked to share becase when I found it, it has too much sense to me that the brother was the security guard in FNAF 1

[@mylam658]

I love you for the Mega Man 10 music. W taste. Also really good video, it really made me rethink a lot of my perspectives on the first 4 FNAF games.

[@azimuddin1890]

(4:47) Well I’d be okay with it if it was confirmed that it was a retcon but there isn’t a confirmation.

[@blueberryelf1150]

genuinely think you hit the nail on the head with this well done!

[@Hdx64]

One thing i've thinking more and more during these last years... Is how Fnaf as a whole feels... Immature. Almost... Almost like how a little boy imagine how work feels like. If you tell an 8 year old that you work as a security guard for a Pizzeria that features moving mascots... I believe FNAF1 gameplay is what that child will describe. Just switching cameras around while trying to not be eaten by the monsters... Then Fnaf2 Feels like a school break rumor/challenge... Like OHHHH YEAH! well... how would YOU survive if there weren't any Doors eh!? Fnaf3 trying to up the ante it's all about how the place is haunted While FNAF4 shows what the thing really was about... How the brother and his friends terrorized the little boy day and night which make him believe the rumors... YEAH... i do believe there is a REAL world component (contained in the newsclippings and tapes), but i think there are Two competing stories in FNAF... What it really happened and how it's being tainted by the way a kid interprets these things and present them to us. Hence why the importance of the TOYS, the toy phone, the fan, the grand father clock... To me the pieces put together are the toys they used to recreate these school rumours... The masks, the toy phone, the fan, the news clipping and his bedroom which features two opposite doors just like the office they pretended to play in. After all the box looks quite a lot like an old Toy trunk... I believe what Scott was afraid was... Will this be better than a dream? That this was all in the kid's imagination?? and How the 4th game is all about how the game they used to play/the game his brother used to scare him is creating a nightmare that explains FNAF1 as he dies and convinces himself to be one with Fredbear What would a kid believe you earn for that work? What would a kid believe as a good firing reason... Yeah, you were killed, you suck

[@michawhite7613]

Holy shit! You know what I realized while watching this? If it took place during 1987, which seems to be the original intention, then it would happen in the FNaF 2 location. This would be the birthday that the phone guy refers to in his night 6 phone call. This would explain why we see references to the toy animatronics. The purple guy would be the guard who was moved over to the day shift. If the masks in FNAF 4's bite scene are a reference to the Happiest Day minigame, it could be said that the kids who bullied the crying child were the ones the purple guy killed out of revenge. One of the kids, named Jeremy, would be the character you played as in FNAF 2. This would still leave some unanswered questions though. For one thing, it was implied during FNAF 2 that the murders had already happened, so the idea of killing these kids is out of the question. I also don't think we knew the names of the murdered kids yet when FNAF 4 came out. And I think the birthday phone guy was referring to was supposed to be on a Sunday, which wouldn't line up with what we see in FNAF 4. And it obviously can't be canon now, since we see Fredbear and the game takes place in 1983 at Fredbear's Family Diner.

[@BlRD47]

28:16 help wanted 2. Fall fest 1970

[@AmbientRainfall]

Ah, dang! I didn't know about this... thanks for your comment looking into it is interesting

[@BlRD47]

@@AmbientRainfall you’re probably correct with it being the start of Freddy’s but fall fest was the start of henry Willam

[@TiloDroid]

Thank you for your video. You mentioned quite a few new things to me like comparing sound effects in the game. That was very cool to see! Unfortunately, I'm a bit confused what your core message was. It seemed like you mentioned quite a lot of evidence, compared different games, established a connection but then it wasn't clear to me what meaning or motivation is behind those connections. I also have a few questions content wise: In the night gameplay of FNAF 4, you can hear the phone call from the FNAF 1 game (reversed and distorted: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lamQdaSbr7CAjMUsi=qY76yeXeJq5nFNl0). You said the crying child seen in the day gameplay is experiencing the nights. How can the child dream about the phonecall? I also understand you said the child got scared of the animatronics because he saw a person stuffed into a costume. How do you explain his fears before this event? Once again, thank you for your video! I'm looking forward to your video about the retcon!

[@leonard8452]

This is such a good video, It really takes me back to the earlier days of the theories. Well done :)

[@sabotagedgamerz]

Wow. This was a good video. I feel a big reason people came to the conclusions they did at the time was because people feel the symmetry needs some sort of logical grounding, which I think is reasonable. There are many valid explanations of why this symmetry exists, unfortunately people came up with Dream Theory at the time. I’m inclined to believe that either the FNAF 4 nightmares are Mike’s nightmares, and the minigames are rather his rememberings of the past, from CC’s perspective. Or, that CC saw all these things, and since his soul haunts everything else to happen in the series, these memories became reality in many ways. I still really like this video well done :3

[@JDW1560]

I honestly think you're for the most part right but there's one thing that I find to be an issue. It's the fact that there were five children lured into the backroom at Freddy's. The fifth child cannot be the Puppet as they were killed outside of Freddy's and the crying child cannot be it either as their death was disconnected from the MCI. While I personally feel as though the crying child being Golden Freddy is the most satisfying answer, I honestly can't find a way to explain the MCI contradiction without getting into the whole dream theory and dual spirit theory mess.

[@AmbientRainfall]

Sorry but I think you've misinterpreted what I've said a bit??? I didn't say they were the puppet at all! I went into Cassidy a bit in the credits. That might help clear things up a bit! Remember how in Pizzeria Simulator, we see Susie die? She was part of the MCI, but there wasn't a situation like Foxy Go Go Go going on. That minigame isn't literally happening with the bodies set out in public!

[@JDW1560]

@@AmbientRainfall Oh I think I made my point a bit confusing. I was talking about how the crying child can't be Golden Freddy due to the whole MCI thing. The first game states that there were 5 children who were lured into the backroom and goes against the whole "crying child is Golden Freddy" thing. If my comment is still confusing I can try and elaborate more if you'd like.

[@AmbientRainfall]

@@JDW1560 Nah you're good! I just reread the newspaper, I see what you mean now, so let me get into some specifics here. I said in the credits that in the video I'm gonna make on Ultimate Custom Night, it's gonna be called "Five Nights at Freddy's One Retcon." That video is actually gonna be about that, and that's why I bring up Foxy Go Go Go not being literal. The thought process behind Fredbear doing the bite was to make the bite and golden freddy tie together, make the biggest community ideas into one big explanation, but that went against the existing continuity. The preexisting newspaper lore was changed. Because of people not solving Five Nights at Freddy's 4 though, I think it was easier to change things even more in Ultimate Custom Night, with (spoilers for the video) GoldenDuo being made into a thing. He made the whole game be about how, actually that kid still exists, when previously Cassidy was just rewritten to be the FNaF4 kid, having them die from the bite of 83, and not be one of the kids lured backstage.

[@JDW1560]

@@AmbientRainfall That makes a lot more sense. Thank you!

[@shronkler1994]

22:52 Maybe if you're saying that Scott decided to make the game about the Bite of 83 before the game was being made. By the time that FNAF 4 was in development, I think Scott already knew that this bite wasn't going to be the bite of 87. The 87s in the source code were red herrings. I do think it's satisfying for there to have never been a Bite of 83, but it just doesn't line up IMO. The Bite of 87 was implied to have happened at a Freddy Fazbear's location to an adult, perpetrated by a character of the Freddy's cast - Freddy, Foxy, Chica or Bonnie. The Bite of 83, or the Big Bite was done to a child by the Fredbear springlock suit.

[@draagon9900]

homestuck music , my beloved

[@donrob7779]

Something I still can’t accept about the fnaf 4 dream theory he hates being LOCKED in his room and is traumatized by being LOCKED in the service room but he has nightmares where there are no locks at all. Seems backwards

[@AmbientRainfall]

That's the thing though... he's kept inside his room by the monsters on the outside! Like I go into the video, how the nightmares act is built around the older brother. The monsters outside his room prevent him from ever escaping, like how his older brother locks him inside!

[@donrob7779]

@@AmbientRainfall by that logic the nightmares would be trying to lock you in, not trying to get in with you. The only one instance in the cutscenes where we see someone locking a door to keep something out is in midnight motorist, where it seems someone, presumably CC locked the orange man out. And seeing as OM was showed up exiding hostility to the point the guy in the chair is concerned. Seeing as all of fnaf 1 animatronics come in screaming and shake you, and the nightmares scream/roar and pick you up and shake you which might be what it looked like from his perspective when his abusive parent got home. But since we’re only talking about games 1-4, this is following the retconned storyline, so can’t say that this was the case initially

[@nrudy]

Last night I was like, huh, I wonder if anyone is out there trying to figure out what the original story was. And then my feed led me here. I really like the idea that the community has collectively missed the parallels between the minigames and what that might imply. You kind of dance around it abit but I'm super intrigued about your future thoughts! I'd be interested in hearing your theory about why things changed because they couldn't work.

[@KRZJeordy]

I always knew that Fredbear and Golden Freddy are the same, for one simple reason, Yellow Bear, who else has that name? the Yellow Rabbit

[@kiracomments-chca2747]

MatPat needs to see this RN! You did good my friend. :>

[@ender01o66]

22:46 As confirmed in The Week Before, Scott named "The Bite of '87" with a year attached in FNaF 1, as there was always intended to be more than one bite. Otherwise it would have just been called "The Big Bite." Mangle also has a recording of a little Boy who was bitten prior to the "Bite of '87" in FNaF 2, and mentions that he likely wouldn't survive, which differs from the '87 Bite. Also, Scott was working on FNaF 4 for months by the time the source code changed to 83, there's no way he could've started from scratch. Not to mention, the FNaF 4 teasers stop using the '87s, because those same teasers confirm which character did the "Bite of '87", and this is reiterated in The Week Before. The reason both Bites are shown together in the teasers is to establish that they're connected to one-another. The first bite is what lead to the second bite happening. Cause and effect. So yes, it was always intended to be this way. Plus, if Fredbear was hypothetically the one who was "meant" to be the culprit, and every hint towards that being the case was in the previous games, that would then leave an empty hole for who caused the Bite, which would break things in the timeline more than "changing" the Bite date would hypothetically fixed. It's be broken either way. The only way it wouldn't be broken, is if there was always intended to be two Bites, which is the only logical answer, and is now the confirmed answer. 24:25 I also fail to understand why no one ever questions the significance of the plushies fading, and then him. The most logical answer is that these plushies represent his memories, and them disappearing/leaving him represents him being broken up. And that this promise of being put back together implies that the speaker will bring these plushies/memories back tot he Crying Child, if not partially being the reason he's being broken up to begin with. 26:16 Huh? It's not impossible at all, all you have to do is search up "FNaF 4 Halloween Update Steam post." That's for from impossible. 28:16 And... this was debunked by the Secret of the Mimic demo... set in 1979 with these same posters... same with them also appearing in the ITP game. I'm surprised these are being seen as throwaway easter eggs, when this video is about FNaF 4, the game where Scott said nothing was a throwaway easter egg... oh well. Also, 1982 is mentioned in the FNaF 6 teasers, so, even by this time, it is not the furthest back date mentioned. There's also the Classics not being washed since the 70's in FNaF 1's recordings. It also doesn't seem to be the oldest event, since RWQFSFASXC is present in the minigames, implying that their creation was older than this event. So, this event would be older, if not one of the oldest. 28:57 This bear character is referred to as "FreddyCake" in the game files. He's also referred to as Freddy in official merch, as well as his hex codes matching Freddy's in the Give gifts. Give life. minigame. As for the pronouns, in the 80's He/Him was used instead of They/Them in Hurricane when describing a singular person in a non-gendered way, so no, this is not a retcon, it's historical correctness that Scott implemented, which adds to the immersion of the world. Also, we're shown with FNaF 4 that the Fredbear animatronic could not move from his stage, while FreddyCake can (It's also noted in the Steam Greenlight messages that the animatronics could only start walking on their own after the deaths occurred via supernatural means. Fredbear is also only referred to as "Golden Freddy" once their possessed, and is so in Stage 01, at Fredbear's). 23:14 That's nice and all, but, the MCI had five missing children, not four. The colours here are also inverted, of which is hidden with the monochrome filter. Un-inverting this shows us that the final kid wears a mask with the colours of Fredbear on Night 7&8, Black with a gold top hat (regular Freddy also lines up with his Movie's spirit counterpart, with the white top hat, and lighter than brown yellow shirt). 35:05 Yup, context is everything. Without it, you get stuff like StitchlineGames. 16:02 "What is seen in shadows" this refers to something being seen in shadows. The only shadows we see in the minigames are of the ones of Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. RWQFSFASXC is seen in these shadows. RWQFSFASXC takes the form of Bonnie, the character easily misunderstood by them to be their friend. If what you said was true, and this refers to the true killer, this would imply that Eleanor was the true killer all along. This would also line up with what we're told in the Stitchwraith Stingers... "Where did Eleanor come from? Had she caused all this chaos, or had the chaos somehow caused her?" "He could see her, but he could see into her, too, and what he saw was a black, chaotic force that fed on human suffering. The fear, the pain, the death-she, not the Stitchwraith, was the cause of it. In both his head and his heart, Larson knew this to be true. He was surer of it than he had been of anything in his life." ...and what we're shown in the Into The Pit game, that they're a monster who takes the form of Spring Bonnie, who literally feeds on human suffering, hence them causing the murders. We're also given more info about them in "Hide and Seek," where it's confirmed to us that they can hide in shadows, and that whoever's, ow whatever's shadow they hide in for a while, they can control. And guess who's shadow they're hiding in during FNaF 4, and who does the Bite?... This also does a better job at explaining the Bite over it being springlocks, as this Fredbear is in animatronic mode; there's no springlocks to snap, as none are being held back, that is, if this variant of Fredbear even contains springlocks to begin with, considering their design similarities to the Endo-02s, who replaced the springlock endos. We're also shown an important detail in this story, as they're playing pretend as someone or something's shadow, there's also moments where they lag behind, where a character moves to another position, but the shadow stays where the person or thing was a few moments ago. We see this with Fredbear's "shadow" to the left of the room, despite Fredbear being to the right of the room. 37:31 While this may be the case for others, the Crying Child has seen what's inside the animatronics, their metal endos. This is why the Nightmares are portrayed as such in the Night minigames, unlike the Twisted animatronics, who are portrayed as fleshy. He knows what they are, so this wouldn't really make sense. Plus, the Night minigames are real events, which would have occurred prior to this sighting, hence debunking it. 38:10 I'm surprised you didn't add the context here, as you did with the other two hints. The context was that MatPat brought up the idea of FNaF 2's events being a dream, and this was the response; Four games. One story. This would read as: Even if FNaF 2 was a dream, all Four games are important/required to understand this One story. A modern example of this would be the FNaF Movie. Mike constantly has dreams of his supposed past, but despite being dreams, they're extremely important to the story. This was another way of saying that there were no random easter eggs, that everything had a reason for being there, every game had a reason to exist, even if it isn't 100% set in the same flipside of this world. Though, you are correct in saying that all Four games are supposed to connect into One whole, but that it was also referring to FNaF 2, as a response to an interpretation that came from the Toy Chica hint. 39:01 Ironically, the last stage is Stage 01. Well, until the Mega Pizzaplex was built anyways... 39:09 ... The pigtail girl having the same text hex as the final speaker?... Oh well... 39:32 Nah... they all wanted "DreamTheory" to happen, and are still salty about it not being the case, so they try and gaslight others into believing it was always meant to be the conclusion :/ 40:12 I agree, specifically that it would've been like how Sister Location's Custom Night's Golden Freddy mode was only unlocked later in an update, once everyone had beaten all of the regular nights, and had gotten all of the regular minigames.

[@ender01o66]

For the mask, I guess he doesn't wear one in the Movie either. Though, if he were to wear a mask, I'd doubt it'd be a Night 7&8 Fredbear one, the only known character he fears. The mask being the pieces put back together doesn't really make sense, especially with the added context from the Steam Post and FNaF World. "We are still your friends, do you believe that? The pieces are in place for you, all you have to do is find them." These are separate pieces, each having its own breadcrumb leading you to them, each piece is something physical in the FNaF 3 minigames... and these minigames are linked to the MCI, their Gifts. The reason behind him being broken apart to begin with. There's a reason him being broken up into pieces is represented with plushies of those characters... "It's not your fault. You didn't know. The other's didn't know, either. You're a little different from them, you know. You're not trapped yet. Find solace in knowing such." 43:05 Happiest Day existed prior to the pieces being put back together. Someone's Happiest Day, is well, the memory of the happiest day in their life. There's also failed Happiest Day's, where something was meant to be their "Happiest Day", but failed in being so. The pieces being put together inadvertently leads to this being changed for the golden Freddy spirit, as a consequence of the pieces being put back together. Happiest Day was always there, it was just made proper as a result of the pieces being returned, from the MCI, back to the Crying Child. Allowing them to fulfil Happiest Day. The MCI do Happiest Day, not the pieces. The pieces have to be something that is present in every FNaF 3 minigame that's given hints in the Follow Me minigames. And there is a reoccurring theme, the Sunken Place. 44:56 FNaF 1's hints say otherwise. The "It's Me" adjacent easter eggs in FNaF 1 are 1:1 with how the logbook functioned, one spirit talks through edited text, and the other, directly. This is also shown through the "(It's) Me" drawings in FNaF 1, which were remastered for the Movie's reimagining of the story. Cassidy was always here. Another thing to note, Scott said that the FNaF Movies would only contain the world of FNaF 1-3, and there's the Cassidy Script... 45:00 In FNaF 6, we're shown that these are literal, as Henry shows images of the minigames on the monitor screen, ripped directly from the haunted arcade machines. Why would the Golden Freddy spirit be retconned to be the Crying Child, and then retconned back to not being him?... Occam's Razor states that the middle option isn't true, only one and three are correct; nothing was changed. Plus, there were five children reported missing, neither Crying Child nor Charlotte went missing. 45:23 Yup, they are pretty important to UCN. I hope that UCN video releases, as I'm curious on what this theory is about. 46:36 ... Uhhh, the next video was not Sister Location... welp :P Sorry for writing this giant wall of text, lol. It was a decent video, well done :D

[@blue_azul]

Oh wow, that was amazing Can't wait for your next videos! Keep up the great work

[@uglyoldjafar7060]

homestuck music got me jumping out my skin also good video

[@tehdudester]

Oh my goodness!! I love this!!! It is so satisfying!!! Fulfilling! It feels right! Subscribed!!

[@SenhorSimplorio]

Okay but what about the 5th child that was explicitly shown to be murdered alongside the other four and is havily implied to possess Golden Freddy?

[@AmbientRainfall]

Hi! Sorry for taking a while to get to your comment. What we're shown in the mini games isn't exactly literal, Foxy didn't actually stumble in on a room full of bodies, we know from the first game's newspapers that the MCI murders were all separate events. The fifth kid was just rewritten to be the bite victim! Though, Ultimate Custom Night would further change things. Thanks for commenting! (Also, notice how Golden Freddy in the give gifts minigame appears TO the puppet, implying they're more than just a dead body beforehand? That also works with that kid being the first to die!)

[@Sguidroz]

@@AmbientRainfall I think you’re forgetting the important detail that the MCI kids are “missing children” for a very specific reason- the bodies are never found and there’s no proof they were murdered when it happened other than the footage of someone leading them away in a suit which we learned back in fnaf 1. The bite victims death happens VERY publicly with several witnesses and a definitive “culprit” present committing the murder in Foxy Bro, and if they had camera footage of kids being led to a back room they definitely have footage of a kid dying on the main stage since all the locations have cameras everywhere but the safe-room (something we can see directly through the cams in 1 and 2 as well). The MCI incidents are separate but that doesn’t explain the bite victim being neither missing or murdered by being lured somewhere in the same way. The bite victim would have to somehow survive the bite, go back to Freddie’s another time, and then go missing in a second unrelated incident to the bite

[@AmbientRainfall]

@@Sguidroz I'm not forgetting! It's a rewrite, by bringing up Foxy Go Go Go and everything not being literal, I was responding to the portion of the comment above which said they were murdered alongside the other four. The five disappearances are separate events, that's what I was clarifying. And, well... yeah. It was changed. That's something which made trying to understand everything about FNaF4 complicated. Although, I will say, I have a very specific interpretation of Midnight Motorist which actually does exactly what you say in your comment at the end there, but I'm gonna save a deeper explanation of that for a future video.

[@dwfan91-]

I LOVE FNAF 4!!!! great video too

[@IIIAdrianIII]

this music slaps

[@Bibimbap-cd7tc]

Close enough welcome back dream theory

[@NathanTheKid9]

This is a great video. Keep up the good work

[@Roxrock]

I’ve spent some time thinking about the ideas you’ve shared in this video, and this really got me thinking about the first 4 games + fnaf world again. I have a few ideas of my own I would like to share: I really think that the original missing children’s incident happened before the fnaf 4 mini games during 1983 or earlier. The evidence for this is that the original Freddy fazbears pizza wasn’t closed for many years after the incident, and at the latest, the fnaf 2 location was opened in the summer of 1987. If we go with the more popular 1985 date, there’s only 2 years between the MCI and the grand reopening, which seems like less time than the games make it out to be. In my opinion, a date in the early 1980s is more plausible. This would mean Freddy fazbears pizza existed during the same time as fredbears family diner, which could explain why the plushies and masks for the fnaf 1 characters exist even though we never see them as animatronics, and it would probably explain why the crying child is scared. I think that the crying child’s friends were killed in the MCI and they are the spirits that talk to us during the fnaf 4 mini games, as well as yellow eyes/ glitched fredbear in fnaf world. Fredbear’s promise to “put you back together” is to reunite the crying child with his friends so he can finally have the birthday he would have gotten if his friends were never murdered. Like you said in this video, the pieces put together is the happiest day. Some things in your video I disagreed with: I don’t think the bite of 83 was ever going to be the bite of 87, and that Scott was just trying to trick us, like how fnaf 2 looked like it would be a sequel but it actually takes place earlier in the timeline than fnaf1. I think more than 2 springlock suits exist because we see many around fredbears family diner, and there would need to be a spring Bonnie suit at Freddy fazbears pizza for purple guy to use. This could also explain why golden Freddy’s hat and tie are a different color, he was the other of the 2 suits mentioned to exist at the fnaf 1 location in the fnaf 3 phone calls. Here are some of my speculative thoughts I’m less confident are correct: I think the puppet is the fredbear that talks to the crying child and gives him his happiest day after giving the spirits life to get revenge on the purple guy, in the last fnaf 3 night mini game. The crying child has to find the clocks because the puppet uses his memories (from the fnaf 4 mini games) to gather the spirits for the happiest day. I think golden Freddy wasn’t related to any of the other victims though, which is why the puppet never gave him a gift, and he was never in the happiest day. Golden Freddy being separated from the crying child is why he torments purple guy in UCN (I don’t know why the crying child would be the one you should not have killed) I also think golden Freddy is the culprit for the bite of 87, if he was the most vengeful about his death. I think that’s most of the thoughts I’ve had after watching this and thinking about it, let me know what you think. I know this doesn’t solve everything (No idea what the lore in sister location’s private room means) But it could be what the story of the first 4 games was. Edit: I realized after writing this that the golden Freddy mask having its lights go out during the happiest day makes it difficult for the crying child to not posses golden Freddy while also being the one who receives the Freddy mask during the happiest day.

[@pixelfiendcombo5742]

I always assumed it was the bite of 87 but ppl started really reaching with theories and it got so derailed from what the story was intended to be

[@shronkler1994]

4:35 ermmm actually ☝🤓 golden freddy just requires you to put the mask on extremely quickly (or don't flash the hall until he's gone if he manifests there). you don't have to immediately take it off, but you might as well as he isn't a threat once he begins to fade. if you don't put your mask on in time, he'll just flip up your mask himself and kill you.

[@Uzuki0613]

I loved this video please keep making moreeee ❤

[@GudRace1492]

great video!!! congratulation.

[@SansINess53]

I honestly think FNAF 4 would've been the best ending for the series instead of security breach existing, but if so We need to consider fnaf will be smaller so the fanverse will be the one carrying fnaf in general so the fnaf movie may still be a thing in the theoretical timeline but the movie will be scarier but at a slightly lower budget.

[@CharaViolet]

Woah!! Amber!! I haven't heard of you in a while! This video's really cool but I don't think I really got it...

[@AmbientRainfall]

Heh- Hiiii! If you'd like I can give a brief summary. It's nice to see you again!!!

[@jbdbibbaerman8071]

Maybe this is a me problem, but im failing to see the significance of your insights. Okay, theres weird allusions to other games, sure. But it feels... Incredibly insignificant and unsatisfying? I also do feel like a little of this, especially before you started talking about the box, were pretty well established at the time, but maybe thats just my memory failing me. Finally, I don't really see how this helps at all in the modern fnaf landscape in understanding anything.

[@superl8296]

this. I dont really see where the theory started and the summary ended. Dont get me wrong the video was really well put together and was written in such a way that kept me watching, but yeah like you said most of this stuff was well established at the time of release. Theres definitely theories from this evidence you could make that we werent thinking but those werent made.

[@Bee-gc2do]

I see you using Homestuck tracks 👀

[@GameJam230]

One thing that still bothers me about FNaF 4 is that there's a general consensus in the community that Scott retconned the Bite of '87 to the Bite of '83 here, but... when did he decide that? I mean, all the teasers leading up to the game involved 87s, so we know he was still thinking of it as that up until the RELEASE of the game. It was only in a post-launch patch that he added the TV with the date 1983 with Fredbear and Friends (not that the TV ever necessarily implied the current date WAS 1983, it just suggested there was a definite point in history where Fredbear and the other Fazbear characters became associated with each-other, but don't dare try to say that to the theorist community because they just shun you off the forums for it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). Since nothing else changed about the story of FNaF 4 in that patch, it's implied that either A) he decided to retcon that EXTREMELY late into development, to the point that he basically broke the story because he wasn't accounting for it early enough into development, OR B) he never retconned it at all, and this community is just insane and echos whatever the popular theories say because people don't know how to do their own research and provide sources. But idk, that's my take on it. Personally, despite them popularizing it to begin with, I think that The Game Theorists created a really toxic and uninformed culture around theorizing (albeit unintentionally) because they never show what actually goes INTO compiling a theory, from basic evidence-gathering to forming relationships that are stronger than a simple coincidence.

[@AmbientRainfall]

Hi! Um, sorry but you're wrong about him adding the 1983 thing in a patch. I've looked on wikis, steam pages, nothing says that that happened, so I think you're misinformed about that. There are videos from only a day after the game came out showing the easter egg, so yeah!

[@GameJam230]

@@AmbientRainfall maybe I'm mistaken about that, but that's always the impression I had gotten was that it was an update that came out that Scott made for clarity reasons, which dataminers quickly looked into and found the change at the TV, but regardless of if it was a post game patch, it doesn't change... the rest of what I said?? That he clearly led the teasers up to it being the reveal of the bite of '87, and then suddenly changed it at the last minute? Whether it was a patch that came out soon after release or not is entirely not the point, I had just remembered it wrong I guess (although I'm definitely going to go look for the videos that led me to think that after finishing writing this)

[@AmbientRainfall]

@@GameJam230 The later teasers also stopped using 87 in their source code and website names after a while, you can check that sort of thing on the wayback machine! I understand being frustrated about it. I was too for a while

[@GameJam230]

@@AmbientRainfall (sorry in advance, I start to go on a bit of a few paragraph rant about how much Scott screwed up the timeline with 4 in this) I noticed that while trying to look for the videos I found too, but it still seems like he only realized at the last minute that he needed to retcon it. The issue with him retconning it is that Scott made a post sometime after FNaF 4, I think on his Reddit, essentially saying that he had only ever made one real retcon up until that point, meaning it MUST be from the bite of 87 to 83, right? But, now the question that comes up is WHY the bite occurring in 1987 is problematic to the story? The only explanation is that FNaF 4's minigames must have taken place before FNaF 2, as that is the only other point in time confirmed to be in 1987. Now, it's no mystery to the community that the events occur in that order, but the question is WHY exactly the timeline only works that way, when we know thanks to phone guy that they still had the yellow suits in the new Freddy's location. Then, by lining the FNaF 3 tapes up with the bite and the FNaF 2 nights, you can easily demonstrate a timeline of events from kid gets chomped, suits decommissioned, someone uses suits but they still don't know what happened, location gets locked down once kids are missing (and in FNaF 6, Jr.s is closed, which people have theorized before is the FNaF 2 location), and then by the night, phone guy brings up that the suit was used and "now none of them are acting right". Timeline would work PERFECTLY if Fredbear's Family Diner was open concurrently with FNaF 2 and we ignore the implication that it had been closed for a long time, but instead Scott just... moved the year of one of the most defining events in the series??? I mean, sure, we can assume that the FNaF 3 tapes are now meant to align with 1983, in the previous Freddy's location that was open simultaneously to Fredbear's, the Sister Location, but then WHY do they still have the suits as phone guy said in FNaF 2??? They should be LONG-SINCE decommissioned and thrown out, right? The problem with the 1983 retcon is that so many prior events that could have been made to line up just... don't, anymore. There is absolutely no version of the timeline that can be made with games from FNaF 1 to Pizza Sim that doesn't require ignoring the newspaper in FNaF 1 that says a killer was caught, or just saying it was someone who was framed, AND an additional retcon on top of it- being the bite of 1983 one- with a boatload of other inconsistencies formed. Other inconsistencies include the bodies scattered around the FNaF 2 location, despite there only being one confirmed MCI, and only 5 tombstones aside from Charlie's, but everyone seems pretty sure this happens BEFORE FNaF 2, in 1985. I suppose it's POSSIBLE that the time we PLAY FNaF 2 is actually 2 years after closure, similar to how the restaurant is long-since closed in the movie, this may have been the case for EVERY game, but if we move the bite AND FNaF 2's restaurant out of the year 1987... what was even the point of moving EITHER of them? The only reason why the bite would need to come before 1987 is because it couldn't happen at the same time as FNaF 2 (for whatever reason he decided), but he could have just... updated FNaF 2 with a new patch that puts the cheque a few years into the future. At least then he wouldn't be rendering the timeline completely useless. All I know at this point is that there is no consistency. Welcome to FNaF I guess.

[@Fynxens]

This is a very good video an conclusion

[@opticasylum6786]

Came for lore stayed for the bannger background music 🔥

[@tylamcgilverson3923]

IDK why you made me realize this... But there are 2 gold bear suits. Not 1 that gets new outfit

[@sufi09853]

Personally, and I wish this was cannon. But I just love the nightmare version of the Puppet in the FNAF 4 Halloween edition. Because that version of the Puppet has so many mysteries to it's design and why it's a recolor of Nightmare Fred Bear in the original FNAF 4. My theory surrounding it, and this isn't cannon to FNAF by the way. But what if just like what the puppet dose in FNAF 2, (which is give life to the dead kids), what if the Nightmare version of the puppet gives death to people in FNAF 4. A sort of grim dark version of the Puppets give life sort of idea from FNAF 2. But taken to the extreme in a messed up way. And if anyone is confused on what I am saying, what I am saying is, what if the Nightmare Version of the Puppet in FNAF 4 Halloween Edition is death itself that give death to people when there time is up. Kinda like a sort of Grim Reaper sort of comparison. I know it's not cannon, but isn't it kinda cool when you think about it? The puppets is meant to give life to the dead kids, right? So what if the Nightmare Puppet did the opposite and gave death to people? This sort of Grim Reaper sort of character that can appear when someone has died.

[@Hey303-jv9kj]

This is great

[@DefNotMyBurner]

I like a theory that pretty much excuses all the confusion in the lore regarding GF and CC, which is that FNAF 1-3 is an enclosed story, FNAF 1-4 is enclosed, FNAF1-6 is enclosed, and then finally there’s the ongoing modern story built off everything previous. Because clearly the story shifted and what was intended for FNAF 4 is not the same answer as today.

[@ddmaster08]

i like the sound design

[@zephyr7342]

I'm sorry to go off topic on such an excellent video, but are you using Drawn to Life music?? That's more of a jumpscare to me than anything FNaF can give me at this point

[@klipsfilmsmelbourne]

I use to thought 5th missing child was a lie in fnaf 4

[@Toaster003]

First 100% correct FNaF theory ever made

[@thatshimofficer8950]

Here before this blows up 😎

[@acedvulpes2759]

fnaf 4 by far my favorite game and was obsessed with the box when i was little and wasnt ever satisfied with the youtube videos i watched. (when youre just a child matpat is the only person you care to listen to) Ive heard different versions of this theory and im glad you stated it so perfectly. i have 2 questions i cant answer myself, scott said theres no random easter eggs, so.. what is with the shadow animatronics being represented so weirdly? in fnaf 2 it was withered Freddy and toy bonnie as shadows. in fnaf 4 shadow freddy is nightmare, as shown in the code. why is nightmare representing shadow freddy? If fredbear is the nightmare representation of the un withered golden freddy, then shadow freddy is represented by the un withered shadow freddy from fnaf 2. what the hell is the deal with the toy bonnie then? if you try to make sense of the shadow freddy and nightmare connection, theres no way you can explain shadow bonnie with the same ideas. Whats with the fnaf 1 phone call? why does the crying child hear the prerecorded message that mike is supposed to hear years later?

[@AmbientRainfall]

Hi! First I wanna say it's really flattering that you liked my video. Here's the best I can do to answer your questions in short (not really) form: I think while this might be a kinda nutty thing to hear... I don't think the shadows were ever thought of to be that important? There's some distinctions about them which help make them easier to understand, but just in general, y'know... if they were more important they'd have been focused on more directly. There's also the thing with how, in general FNaF portrays shadows as being purple? That's what's up with purple guy, he's always skulking in shadows. And so I think Shadow Freddy was thought up to be a kind of depiction of him of sorts, not really being him, but representing the fact he exists, in a weird way? Because he's purple too. Shadow Freddy in FNaF3 is really interesting: without going into why exactly I think this, I get the impression in Pizzeria Simulator, the message Henry has in the insanity ending, the "he lured them back with familiar tricks" line, I get the impression that's referring to William luring the animatronics to the safe room with Shadow Freddy, where their programming messes up, in FNaF3. So, again, it's framed in this way where Shadow Freddy is like the Purple Guy in some way. He's kind of representative of him, even though he doesn't really... actually exist in any important overarching capacity. I'm pretty sure the frights book give some bonus world building, but in general, like, that's what's up with Shadow Freddy. Shadow Bonnie I think is basically the same thing? But I mean, think about how JJ still hasn't been important really. A lot of those kinds of things are, I think, what he's referring to in that FNaF4 post. "Random easter eggs." He said that as though he'd done random easter eggs before, and I get the impression that's kinda what the shadows are, at least partially. Sorry if that's an unsatisfying answer, but I think it's what's intended for us to think, considering no game has framed them in a way that's really core to everything, or given any direct explanation. The way I theory craft is very focused around thinking about what the intent of being shown certain things is. Because the shadows are very random and hard to find generally, I think he conceived them as just being unimportant, because you know, not many people are going to see them. Nobody who plays the games without the community is going to know what they are, and so from that perspective, there isn't much importance on them. FNaF3 was intended to be solved as a community, and as such, because it assumed that the people who were searching for secrets in that game knew the secrets of the previous game, it used Shadow Bonnie to represent some of its secrets. If you want a more direct in universe explanation for Shadow Bonnie specifically though, I like to think of it being metaphorical of The Puppet's desire to help the others. Like, how it happens is that, the totality of Purple Guy's actions compels them to act and help people, and that's told through the Shadow Bonnie minigame where you comfort the puppet kid as the scary Shadow Bonnie. Okay so the Phone Guy thing is shorter of a thing to go into... it's kinda in a similar boat though. I think that it wasn't intended for people to find out what it was. It was just used as background audio, because hearing voices off in the distance is just kinda a normal nightmare, spooky type thing. It's heavily distorted too, and so I get the impression it was used for the same reason the "the joy of creation" thing was used in the first game's golden freddy phone call in night five. It's not important, it's just the audio of someone speaking, distorted for the sake of making creepy background audio. The clues to things in the series are stuff we're supposed to find, and I think it makes sense to infer that that is something too obscure for it to be a part of the story in some meaningful capacity. They're games first, with a puzzle to solve inside of them, y'know? When you look at it that way, stuff like the crying child getting comforted by his friends at the end of FNaF4 becomes a reward for going through one of the hardest main challenges of the game. We get the bonus info directly that he possesses Fredbear, like how the mention of "someone (using) a yellow suit" was mentioned in the second game's bonus sixth night phone call. The extra story is a reward. Those kinds of things are what it wants us to go out of our way for. The FNaF3 hints at the minigames are very easy to find because of that. It shows us things or tells us things very directly, but it's up to us to interpret what it all means. Any info that is that out of the way and requires deciphering like that I think gets into territory of it being unreasonable for us (and by extension somebody without the internet) to ever be assumed to find it. And, well I think that's also true about Nightmare being called Shadow Freddy in the files. It's such an out of the way thing, I don't really think it's that important. But, I do think that creatively, when thinking about the characters... that's just what the creator thought of the character being. Shadow Freddy's a recolor of Freddy that comes after Golden Freddy, and that's how it is again in FNaF4, only Golden Freddy is referred to by his original name here, him being Nightmare Fredbear. Whether or not it's Nightmare Fredbear or Nightmare that Mike draws in the Logbook isn't important, the important thing is that he sees those same nightmares at all. That's the kind of lines of thinking I come at things with. Again, I'm really flattered that you liked my video!! I hope this comment suffices, sorry if it's too much to read haha.

[@acedvulpes2759]

@@AmbientRainfall that was my interpretation of shadow bonnie too, my only problem being that a shadow bonnie (looks more like spring bonnie) is used in fnaf 3 minigames as stated, and same with shadow freddy. in fnaf 2 i really couldve shoved them away as fun characters like JJ and Endo 02. but the fact that they are directly involved in happiest day. also with shadow freddys inclusivity in the last night of fnaf 4. to me nightmare can be described as death, representing the passing to the afterlife, thats why he shows on the night the box is shown. shadow bonnie is a character that couldve had 0 lore implications if it wasnt just shoved into a minigame leading to happiest day. maybe shadow bonnie is to the mci kids as shadow freddy is to cc. i think rather than shadow freddy being a shadow of purple guy hes in the shadow of cc and represents the bite of 83, his own nightmare is twisted. when i was younger i believed that the puppet influenced the fredbear plush which influenced nightmare. i also had this idea that fredbear was possessed by a 5th child and cc takes on the role of nightmare, although saying that not sounds implausible, i think theres always been some strange connection between cc and nightmare, i only brought that up to mention how it wouldnt make sense in this theory’s context completely

[@acedvulpes2759]

After some thinking, adding onto Nightmares relation to CC. the brain represents that this is the bite of 83 victim as the 87 victim was missing its frontal lobe. As your theory heavily relies off of symmetry of the games, couldnt it make sense that we play as michael on the last night. this explains why he see’s his little brother CC as nightmare. why he hears the phone call, why he draws nightmare in the logbook. and why rather than playing as CC in a minigame, we play as michael, locking away the box. could it be we play as michael on the last night, the same way the protagonist switches on the last night of fnaf 2. this could explain the ends that dont line up

[@amitassasson1893]

Mike has to be the protagonist for fnaf 4 it doesnt make much sense for anyone else being it

[@NeutralNinetails]

Yo love the homestuck music

[@xyoung8687]

Homestuck music 📸

[@royaloreo1275]

Fremby

[@BakerBones]

your theories are really good, but i just have some trouble following you specifically when you don't address the other theories that much. i was waiting for you to say how jeremy was the bite of '87 victim, but it never came up. i get why you might not believe it; there is almost no evidence pointing to it, but i would appreciate hearing your insight about some stuff. also mentioning dream theory i felt like was kinda necessary. the template you seem to build your theories off of is how much is confirmed or easily inferred at the time of release. as scott said, the contents of the box changed, and ultimately the entire story. his supposed one retcon was that the nightmares were mike's, not the crying child's. this approach of what was originally planned for the story (because yes, it was supposed to be the end) is a nice breather from all the speculation. the pieces were all there, now they are just pieces of a different, larger puzzle.

[@damkylan3]

Actually, even at the time of FNAF4's release, the nightmares were most likely already Michael's. This is shown by the backwards Phone Guy message during the night. That has absolutely zero connection to CC. This, combined with the FNAF1 styles of attack of the Nightmares strongly indicates that Michael was always the dreamer. And then Scott went ahead and just made that clear in the logbook. I'm pretty sure the most popular conception of the "one retcon" is that the puppet's gender changed, since I believe he said this after FNAF6 came out. But I could be wrong. Either way, there's no one consensus.

[@BakerBones]

@@damkylan3 there you go, you just disproved this video's theory

[@damkylan3]

@@BakerBones lol well, like I said it’s likely, but FNAF’s story being how it is, I can’t say for certain this was true at the time, even if it is now.

[@josuawhite2209]

The music is too much

[@bvxfgdxsgtstg]

Et tu, Freddybear?

[@seansmith6255]

Mike bot is the solution

[@yellowdeceiver4818]

hats off to you if you figured out what was retconed

[@yellowdeceiver4818]

irrelevant comment but man i just heard homestuck music

[@vamprascare621]

I think the story is about William finding out his youngest son saw Charlie's body and the puppet, and Crying Child followed Shadow Freddy to Freddy's. Now, Crying Child is being punished with Nightmare Animatronics, and Shadow Freddy becomes Nightmare and is watching the Crying Child at the FNAF 4 house and biting him, haunting Fredbear, hints to we here Nightmare's laugh at the house and during the Bite of 83, and Crying Child being the last Child to possess an Animatronic.

[@AngelTheory-M]

i like a lot, this really make sense, but there still more to fnaf thanks to sister location 1-everything we see in fnaf 4 is a kid suffering of nightmare gas, making him remember his own party again and again, there no doubts is the vengeful spirit, because william afton never stops hurting him until now, and the roles are reversed in ultimate custom night, the one hurting william without end is the vengeful spirit 2-what is weird, happiest day was supossed to free the spirits, but we see fredbear still left, so the only way to make this sense, if the player of fnaf 3 was William afton, he create a fake happiest day to control the ghost kids, that why scott decided to called "the end", because isn't a good ending

[@KingdomHeartsFan-mu9cf]

This video made me feel like I was 10 again like when the game first came out. I miss the old FNaF so much. If Freddy is added to Fortnite, the modern series will be dead to me. But NOTHING will ever take away the enjoyment I have for the first four games, and all the amazing memories of theorizing as they came out.

[@Mekap_Oble]

Why would Freddie added to Fortnite ruin anything? Modern is ruined by incompetent developers, who have no idea about storytelling

[@GaybrohamStinkton]

Why is he putting on such an weirt voice 🤔

[@mothmanparanoid]

*Matpats dream theory exists* AmbientRainfall: Okay but can I copy your homework? dont worry I'll change it just a little

[@rishimazza]

First mwuahahaha