Today we end the torment. 19 books, 11 games, eight whole years, all
leading to this moment. The ultimate FNAF timeline is finally complete. The pieces are in place for us. Now all we have to do is put this story of
tragedy, jealousy and loss back together. Hello Internet! Welcome to Game Theory, the show that feels
like a kid revealing the class project that he's been working on all year. Except here. It's the class project that I've been working
on for the past decade of my life. This one is b
ig, my friends, and I got to
admit, I’m kind of nervous. Haven’t attempted a timeline video on this
franchise since 2018. Back in the days when Mike was the crying
child Afton coming back was actually a surprise and Fazgoo wasn't a phrase I'd ever thought
I'd have to utter. But since the last time I did something like
this, we've had three more massive games, the death and revival of the FNAF movie and
more robot kids than you can shake a staff bot at. It is exhausting trying to keep track of th
is
whole franchise, which honestly is why I'm here today. The lore at this point is complicated. It is full of speculation and theory, so to
hopefully make it a little easier for everyone and to give us all a baseline to talk about
this franchise moving forward into the future. It's time to reveal my current workings FNAF
timeline. But just before I do, I just want to explain
a couple of things. First, this timeline is massive. Seriously, it is huge. This thing towers over any video project we
h
ave ever done on the channel. But when you look at the totality of this
franchise, the story of FNAF really boils down to the story of one man, William Afton,
his successes, his failures, his rise to becoming co-owner of one of the most successful restaurant
franchises in the world, and his eventual fall to the monsters he helped to create,
only to then be reborn in a new digital form later. That's why I've decided to split this timeline
into three main chunks: the foundation of Freddy's, how th
e business started and how
it came into being, The Afton era, William's decades long murder spree and post purple
guy, basically modern FNAF. Everything that happens after the pizza simulator
fire. And because there are lots of new big revelations
in this thing that seemingly come out of nowhere as well as just points I want to talk about
further, I decided to dedicate one episode to each chunk. I originally wanted it to be one seamless,
continuous video, but it just felt incomplete without some
sort of explanation at the end
of each one. Once this whole thing's done, I promise I'm
going to merge all the narrative bits into one massive video so you can just skip my
explanations. But for now, this just felt like the best,
most satisfying, most complete way to do this. That being said, this is still about the story,
the broad strokes of the franchise. So in order to make sure that you guys know
that I'm not just pulling answers out of thin air, not only am I discussing some of the
more c
ontroversial bits at the end of each chunk, we're also putting in a handy little
graphic in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, which will show thumbnails, video
titles, books and any other citations that we need throughout the video. So if you wish to understand that specific
statement in more detail, you know exactly where we've taken it from. That way you can look into those details for
yourself. So sit back, grab some popcorn or your pitchforks
if you're the type to get upset when I s
ay something controversial and make sure that
you subscribe, since this is going to be a video that you're going to want to come back
to a few times in order to fully dissect. Without any more waiting, I present to you
the story of a loving, obsessive father who slowly descended into madness and along the
way discovered the secret to eternal life. Our story begins not in the 1980s or even
in the 1970s, but all the way back in the 1930s. It was the throes of the Great Depression,
and people were
in desperate need of cheap entertainment, especially in Utah. One of the states hit hardest, fourth highest
unemployment in the nation and full of transient; people looking for work in Salt Lake, finding
none and ultimately moving on to find their fortunes out in California. People were tired and they were hungry. But as they traveled, there was one thing
that could lift their spirits. A simple roadside attraction called Fredbear’s
singin’ show. The ads were plastered all over town featuring
an
animated bear drawn in the popular pie eyed, cartoon style for characters at the
time. He resembled cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Felix
the Cat, Betty Boop. It immediately said that this Fredbear’s
was a place where you could bring the family and the price honestly couldn't be beat. For $0.50 you could get food and entertainment
as you watched the local trained real life dancing bear perform on stage. Normally you only got to see dancing bears
at large traveling circuses like Barnum and Bailey, wh
ere the tickets would go for about
a dollar. And that's a dollar without food. But this was a smaller show like the type
from the Von Brothers or the Robbins Brothers, where tickets would sell for just a mere $0.50. Watching that bear do tricks on stage brought
a glimmer of joy at a time when so much was wrong with the world. The simple show would go on for years, bringing
happiness to hundreds of travelers, passing through, looking for a quick meal. But it left a permanent impression on one
lit
tle boy, capturing his imagination in a way that nothing else had. One little boy named Billy, that was his nickname
at least. But his parents like to call him William. William Afton. The bear could dance. It could sing. For decades, William dreamed of recreating
that moment of bringing a musical bear to life. But how? William was smart, without a doubt. And he had a keen mind for business, but wasn't
the most creative. How do you make a singing dancing bear come
to life? The best he could do wa
s using rudimentary
costumes. William was inspired by the work of Walt Disney,
who throughout the fifties and sixties was pioneering the use of mascot suits throughout
his theme park, the big innovation: suits with five fingers. This allowed the performers wearing the suits
to use their natural arms and hands to interact with the guests as opposed to the older models
where the arms would just hang limply by their sides. Finally, with a simple mascot suit, he would
be able to realize his childhoo
d dream. He would be able to bring Fredbear to life. To appeal to the kids (and for copyright reasons)
he changed Fredbear from a realistic brown animal to a cartoonish yellow bear with a
purple hat and bow tie. But feeling like one character wasn't enough,
he added another friend: a yellow rabbit with a purple vest and matching tie named Bonnie
the Bunny. While Fredbear was certainly his first love. Bonnie was extra special because that was
his. It was an original character that he had created
from scratch. And I do mean scratch. William's hand-sewn costumes were rough with
seams and stitches visibly showing, but it was the best that he could do. And you know what? It was just enough. Bonnie and Fred Bear would perform on stage
to small but enthusiastic crowds. Finally, he was able to deliver fantasy and
fun to all the kids, delighting and inspiring them in the exact way that he had been delighted
and inspired so many years ago. And things could have ended there. That could have been
the end to his story. It could have been perfect. Had it not been for one thing, other people
saw the success of his idea and they wanted in. Enter Chica's Party World, a rival restaurant
starring performing animal characters. His idea, except they did it better. William may have been the first, but obviously
he wasn't the best. It hurt the prideful William Afton to admit
it, but this restaurant was able to do the thing that he always wanted to do; make the
animals actually come to life. All of
the performers in this restaurant were
robots, simple metal skeletons that were powered by battery packs. But all of them able to freely turn and talk
and dance on their own, no human required. It was like magic. Magic that came from the mind of a brilliant
creator named Henry Emily. This Henry, in some small way, had been able
to harness the power of life itself. Afton admired him. He was jealous, to be sure, but he also looked
upon this man with awe. Off to one side of Chica’s Party World was
a small cabaret stage featuring an elephant magician on the other hippo known to ramble
on and on, that one was more of a joke for the parents. But it was the main stage that was for the
kids: a rocking band of characters featuring a yellow chicken thing with a Southern drawl
named Chica, backed by a band of other country themed characters, including a pig with a
banjo, an upbeat frog from the local swimming hole and a brown bear with a heavy southern
accent. Wait, a bear? But bears were his ani
mals. Why not a cow or a horse? Something to fit the country theme a bit better. Why did he have to be a bear? And adding insult to injury, they had the
nerve to call this thing Nedd Bear a direct copy of his own Fredbear. [Nedd Bear] Whoops, That's gonna leave a mark No, that was not okay. Aftons jealous admiration turned to hardened
bitterness, a bitterness that would only grow over the next couple of years as families
continued to choose Chica's Party World over Fredbears. William just couldn
't compete with the appeal
of the robots. Eventually, his restaurant would go bankrupt,
only to get bailed out by, of course, Henry Emily. Another insult, another humiliation that William
wouldn't soon forget. 1979: Despite being bitter, Afton couldn't
deny that what came next was a period of massive success and expansion. With the two franchises now merged into one
it was the best of both worlds: Afton ideas with Henry's robotic expertize. The two men decided to launch under a new
name Fredbear
's Family Diner, a pizza chain that would eventually come to feature a mix
of humans and performing suits as well as on stage animatronics. They decided to stick with Fredbear as the
headliner, considering the yellow bear was easily identifiable as a brand because he
was the original performing animal mascot. Afton appreciated that. This new restaurant would also see a mix of
characters as the two franchises merged into one, with Pig Patch and Happy Frog performing
right alongside Fredbear and B
onnie. And as part of this one Big Fredbear family,
they even got themselves official merch that released, ranging from masks to magnets. That said, not all the characters were winners. The reception to some characters was just
mediocre, so they faded away into the dumpster storage units and retro budget tech stores
of lost nostalgia, waiting for their chance to step back into the limelight if and when
a headliner went out of commission. Others, though, would fare much better, like
a new pirate
fox, as well as a blue guitar playing variant of the yellow Bonnie Bunny. Ultimately, the franchise would get so big
it would spawn its own cartoon show: Fredbear and Friends. Business was booming! In the end, Fredbear and Bonnie’s popularity
would be so strong that they would be able to support the Fredbear’s family diner franchise
all on their own, while also spinning off a new sister location dedicated to their friends. In 1983, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza launched,
giving a dedicated home to all
this new supporting cast of characters: Chica the Chicken, Bonnie
the Blue Bunny, Foxy The Pirate, and of course, the headliner, a brown Freddy Fazbear. Business was good, and Afton was happy…
mostly. It did bother him that the one original character
that he created, the one that he himself played, Golden Bonnie, got passed over for inclusion
in that cartoon show, the only character in the roster of regulars to get ignored for
the show. But other than that, things were going smoothly. He had him
self a wife, two sons, a daughter. He had a thriving business. And best of all, he was able to learn the
craft of robotics from the man that he both loved and hated: Henry. Together, they were constantly pushing the
limits of what these characters could do because it was quick and easy. New characters introduced into the roster
would be given a simple hand-sewn suit with five fingers that any performer could wear. Eventually, Henry would design one of his
signature animatronics for that characte
r, utilizing a divided mouth with either a hinged
or sliding jaw design. This was the first generation of animatronics. But why stop there? Afton had big ideas. What if the animatronics weren't just locked
to the stage but could freely roam the restaurant and interact with the kids? What if his mascot suits could become animatronics? What if you could use more than just rigid
metallic skeletons? Why not experiment with tubes and wires that
would give the animatronics fluidity and flexibility whi
le still providing structure? The possibilities for this technology were
endless, Afton fell in love with robotics. He had started with a dream of bringing one
simple singing bear to life. But with robots, he had stumbled across the
tools that gave him the ability to control life itself. And thanks to Henry, he was practically speed
running his way to an engineering degree. And while William wouldn't admit it out loud,
one other thing that kept pushing him forward was the desire to beat his form
er rival, to
prove himself smarter and more capable, to surpass the man who everyone else considered
to be a visionary genius. But pride cometh before the fall and tragedy
was about to strike. Okay. So that brings us to the end of part one of
the story. That said, at the end of each of these chunks
I want to break down some of the logical leaps that I made since the more narrative format
doesn't give me much of a chance to justify a lot of the big decisions. And admittedly, there are some large
leaps
in here. Let's just start off with Fredbear's Singin’
Show, shall we? We know based on the retro poster that was
hidden in Security Breach, that at least at one point Fredbear was an actual bear. And like I called out in that narrative segment,
dancing bear shows were a real form of entertainment. The only problem is that timing wise, none
of our main characters would be the people in charge of that business in the thirties
and a series of pizza restaurants in the eighties without them jus
t being extremely old. Best case scenario if Afton’s running the
singing show when he's 18. That still puts him at nearly 70 when the
first pizzeria opens and his murder spree begins. It just doesn't make a lot of logical sense
because he doesn't become immortal until his first death in spring trap. That's why I suspect that Fredbear's Singin’
Show was either a family business that after then carried on to a new generation or something
that he saw as a kid and just wanted to recreate when he gre
w up. The Fredbear Singin’ Show thing also starts
laying the groundwork for some of the core elements of this story that Freddy's was a place of fantasy and fun,
and that Afton, despite eventually falling to become the heartless serial killer and
mad scientist that we know him as, again, as someone with good intentions and a love
of entertaining kids, he wanted to bring things to life from the very beginning, a theme that
recurs a lot for him throughout the rest of the franchise. Next up, let's
talk about those mascot costumes. One thing that I keep going back to is the
design of Glitchtrap. It's a handcrafted suit. You can see the seams and everything. It even has five fingers for the performer's
hands. It is very much not a spring trap suit. This is something much more rudimentary. It came at a time before animatronics were
a part of the story. That's why I suspect that it was actually
the first, predating literally everything. It's also a suit that is very personal to
Afton. He put
his digital consciousness in that form,
it's his personal avatar, it's the way that he sees himself. There's also a whole separate discussion to
be had here about the habits and rituals of serial killers. So the fact that he's choosing to lure kids
and kill them in this particular suit actually says a lot about his emotional attachment
to it. So, well, Fredbear seems to have started as
someone else's creation. Golden Bonnie was uniquely William’s, giving
him a personal connection, and that's it
at all. In this whole franchise, only one set of characters
have themselves five fingers: the nightmares. even Golden Freddy; Fredbear was a five fingered
wearable suit at one point in the story, as we see in this shot from the graphic novel. Before he, like everyone else, was turned
into an animatronic. This seems to imply that all of the main characters
had similar wearable mascot outfits, at least at one point in time, and that whoever is
having the FNAF 4 nightmares (if they even are nightma
res, something that will touch
on in part two) saw those mascot suits specifically. Lastly, we have to talk about the elephant
in the room, the literal elephant, Orville Elephants, as well as the rest of the Mediocre
Melodies. For a while now, I have suspected that the
Mediocre Melodies played a much more important role in the story than just being a bunch
more animatronics to fill out the roster. Especially Nedd Bare, which is just so suspiciously
close to Fredbear. And yet there are two key de
tails that were
going to have to justify with any Mediocre Melodies mention. One, they're very rudimentary with external
battery packs, implying that they come very early in the timeline. And two, we know that at minimum, Mr. Hippo
does eventually become an official member of the extended Freddyverse. But if these things are supposed to be cheap
generic rip offs, why would you be trying to rip off yourself? You wouldn't. You would be stealing someone else's ideas. So if Afton created Fredbear, t
here would
have to be some rival franchise. The only other person who would likely be
ripping him off? Henry. We've talked extensively about how the Mediocre
Melodies are clearly Henry's design esthetic, so it just has to be him. I don't think Henry is doing this maliciously. It doesn't strike me as the type. He was likely building the robots at the orders
of someone else that was running a rival restaurant franchise. But that's enough motivation to start Afton
down a path of jealous rivalry, bu
t also begrudging admiration. As the Freddy Files Ultimate Edition says,
it's important to revisit the beginning of Henry and William's relationship. So here you go. I think this is where it begins. Also, this is future MatPat here coming back
to add this one end, it seems like the recently released character encyclopedia has backed
up all of this speculation. I've had this timeline written for about a
month now, but I've also been holding off a bit to see what wrenches this character
encycloped
ia might throw into it. And on this particular point, I've got to
say, it seems like we might actually have nailed it. They actively call out the suspicious similarities
to the main Fredbear crew, quote from on the pages: “Nedd Bear looks like an imitation
altered just enough to avoid copyright issues.” I don't know about you, but that seems to
imply that we were right on the money. Knowing all of this at one point, the franchises
had to have merged. That's really the only way that you get Mr.
H
ippo from the rival franchise as part of the Fazbear crew. This also mirrors a lot of what happened in
the real life history of Chuck E Cheese, with two rival restaurants, each with their own
casts of characters merging to become one unified brand. Again we've gone into that in detail with
other videos, just wanted to remind you all of that here. But why would I call out the rival restaurant
as being named Chica's Party World? A few things, actually. First, we know for a fact that a location
nam
ed Chica's Party World exists. It is mentioned in the source code teasing
Sister Location. So it is out there somewhere and doesn't fit
cleanly anywhere. Second, in the story The Puppet Carver, Chica
is very explicitly looped in with the book versions of Pig Patch and Nedd Bear, implying
that she started as a Mediocre Melody. Thirdly, her design just fits better with
a theme of down home country animals with southern accents playing the banjo and eating
with bibs, and with her being the headline
r of the show with her name on the restaurant
it would make sense then that when the restaurants merged, she was the one that was added to
the main cast of characters, while all the other Mediocre has faded away. It's also why when Freddy's closes after William's
killing spree, she's the one to branch back off into her old franchise and is therefore
missing in Sister Location, a detail that's bothered me for years at this point. It might also explain why William decided
to stuff his first dead k
id into Chica. That one was Henry's creation, not his. Is all of this a big leap? Yeah. Is it connecting a lot of dots that are very
spread out across the franchise that I've been holding on in the back of my mind for
years? Absolutely. But I think it makes sense. It also serves as a clean answer to a lot
of the random threads that Scott's been leving dangling for years. So with all of that in mind, my friends, we
can close the book on the foundation of Freddy's. And don't worry next week I'll b
e back to
give you arguably one of the most confusing parts of this entire timeline situation. Part two The Afton era. I promise it will actually be next week. This time, no more waiting around. I am just as eager to get this one out the
door as you are to watch it, I promise. You know what else I promise? I promise that we'll actually get to talking
about the games. I would have liked to have talked about them
in this episode, but there just isn't that much in the games that helps us depict any
thing
pre-family diner. Although let's be honest, this franchise has
never been just about the games anyway. Even back in the early days of FNAF we were
decoding images and source code that Scott fed us through the website, the modern day
books and the clues that we get from those things. Now they're just modern extensions of that. All of it is crucial to understanding this
franchise and its lore, unless, of course, Steel Wool finally gets around to making that
Fredbear's family diner game they
want to make so badly. But in the meantime, while we wait for that
inevitably cryptic game, I hope that this start to the timeline helps to fill in some
of those gaps. I'm excited to share part two with you next
week. If you haven't subscribed and rang the bell
make sure you do it now so you're notified when that part drops. I cannot wait to see your thoughts down in
the comments below. And as always, I remind you, it's all just
a theory. A GAME THEORY! Go easy on me, I tried my best.
Comments
I love that I've spent nearly a decade listening and learning the lore to a game series that was legitimately too scary for me to ever play
I love how MatPat and Markiplier just carried the fnaf fandom on their shoulders. We wouldn’t have FNAF without Mark and we wouldn’t have such a huge interest in this lore without Mat. I applaud you MatPat for going on with this for so many years
Congratulations MatPat for being in the FNAF movie!! 🥳🥳🎉🎉😊
I've never been brave enough to play the games, but the lore of FNAF has always really interested me, so these timeline videos feel like a great way to ease into it.
I like how this story gives more personality to William, and shows how he wasn’t always a heartless killer and that he actually cared
This isn't a project, this is practically a doctorate in FNAF for Mat and the Game Theorist Team. Respect!
Watching this after he quit hits diff
I love the origin story he created. Really fits. Big leaps or not, I like it
Chica's voiceline "I was the first, I have seen everything." Really lines up. It was her pizza world, she might have been Henry's first robot created.
I applaud Game Theorists for having the patience and the determination of making a timeline for such a complicated lore series.
A minute of Silence for Mattpat’s Departure…
so proud of you for making it into the movie brother. seeing you grow all these years and make it on the big sceeen filled my heart with so much joy!
The fact that Mat cited his sources for this video like an MLA college essay shows the dedication him n the team have, absolutely wild
As a historian, I love how different this video is from your normal ones. I like how you focused on the story and didn’t go the route of “here’s a fact, here’s why it’s important”. This video was awesome and worth the wait just for your script writing and story telling abilities. All of it could have been wrong and I’d still have enjoyed the video
Watching this after his announcement 😢
We are going to miss you mat pat you will never be forgotten
I really hope to see Matt in the FNAF movie. He's truly earned a role for all he's done for the franchise
8 years, wow. Congratulations Matpat, I never thought the day would come. Edit: Why the likes everyone thinks I'm a bot help
this is the first matpat video i have ever watched, and yet i'm still so sad for him to leave
I’ve never watched any other fnaf video or played any game but with the movie coming out I thought I’d watch this. I really did not expect just how much lore this series has