On the motives of Afton, the original story and its evolution, and Glitchbear, among other things.
Hello, hello hello! This post was written as part of a series of additional files for the SAT, a bibliography- and appendix-included timeline, project of the VFTP team, of which I, Wythos, have the pleasure of being a member.
Before you hop on to read, be aware of what this IS and IS NOT.
This is not:
- A beginner’s guide in the sense that not every little detail is explained. There are some concepts and ideas that are expected to be known beforehand.
This is:
- The laying out of how I personally believe this chunk of the story is executed, obviously presenting the reasoning for why. Although these are my thoughts and I am not infallible, I believe usefulness can be found in this, hence why I decided to write it down in the first place. So, read and pick and choose. For all I know, it could be helpful.
That’d be it. Don’t forget to check out our bigger project if you’re interested!
╰⪼ The SAT: Schizo Archive Timeline
A blast to the past.
.. can often sooth our biased minds from already accepted ideas, leading us from the beginning to the present day to see if our beliefs hold up or not, or how they do, or how they don’t. Did they survive the evolutionary process? Did they come into existence because of it? Do you have ANY IDEA of what I’m talking about?? Let us see.
My idea is the following: we’ll appeal to Proto William, “Purple Guy”, and reinvent the wheel from there on.
Back to basics!
Peer back into the past and see it as is. As the first entry, FNaF1 set up the mystery of the children’s bodies’ whereabouts and the possessed animatronics, hinting at the bodies being stuffed in the suits with one of the newspapers reporting bad smell and gushing liquid coming from the robotic performers. FNaF2 followed up on that, again mentioning the smell of the bots (in one of the phone calls), and it gave us a straight answer, setting Purple Guy as the killer who killed because he could while painting the Puppet as supposed life giver of the children. With no clear motivation and a smile on his face, it appears Proto William was but a simple murderer who found gladness in his doings.
This is logically the first step, the foundation. Afton is barebones in this stage, and since Scott once planned FNaF3 to be the end, he would have apparently stayed that way, because it is not until FNaF4 and TSE that Cawthon begins to flesh out the main villain of his franchise, building a story around him and thus giving him real reasons to kill. As real as testing paranormal hypotheses on children can be. With FNaF 1-4, we already have a decently well put together idea of Afton … except that we really don’t.
We know, thanks to SL clarifying WillSpeaker and the fact that this is not a retcon, that William is aware of his young son’s spiritual brokenness (if you’re reading this you should know the concept of shattering and being “put back together”), and so this would evidently result in him doing something to carry on with the promise he made to his dying child. Here, I would personally opt for SparkVictim, since it works nicely in a 1-4 scenario where BV is the engine driving Afton.
And speaking of which, the following game comes in to back up our suspicions, also breaking the mold of 1-4 and opening the story up to 1-5. The infamous “fear chambers”, introduced in SL and clarified way later in the story Dittophobia, show that William did indeed start investigating from BV, the power of strong emotions like fear, which we know can cause shattering according to TFC and that it’s likely been a thing in Scott’s mind since long ago, due to TSE and the mention of “memories lingering”.
(Do you see where this is all coming together? The novels spelled out the meaning of being broken and “put back together”, elaborating on how it works in general and with strong emotions. In this way, Scott took the time to clarify this concept that had originally left us confused in FNaF4 to connect it to William’s research regarding this same topic.)
So, at this point in time, we know BV shattered, died, and William knows about it (if you believe WillPlush, you can say he realized through observation), yet evidently not fully, causing him to start experimenting to grow in knowledge. For the chambers, however, he needs test subjects, children, and thus Afton makes the Funtime animatronics with built-in parent-distracting and kidnapping features, among these Circus Baby’s ice cream dispenser and claw, Funtime Freddy’s parental tracking and storage tank, Ballora’s “deter and misdirect” remote function, and Funtime Foxy’s parental voice sync and replay.
Small intermission here. It’s common to see people argue the Funtime animatronics were made only for the purpose of killing kids, but knowing that William does that manually regardless of whether they were made before or after the MCI (case in point, the DCI), it’s clear that the Funtimes aim for something different. And unlike killing, I believe kidnapping kids alive from the pizzeria would be much harder, not to say impossible, without being spotted. He was already spotted during the MCI, and he got lucky the cameras didn’t recognize him because he was wearing a suit. If he were to try to kidnap kids from Freddy’s, it would be extremely suspicious. Just imagine a man wearing a Spring Bonnie costume getting out of the building with five kids following behind him and into his car. How would he even do that? But anyway, in case logic isn’t convincing enough, I have the novels to back me up. It’s honestly surprising how much TFC shares with the lore of SL and FFPS, but it makes sense considering Scott labeled the novels a reimagining of the games’ lore. A concept or two would surely be shared.
So anyway, William makes the Funtimes to get test subjects and it goes south, and Elizabeth dies. The grand opening of CBPW is cancelled, but Afton does not give up and eventually opens CBEaR, an underground rental service where his bots are able to kidnap kids as intended while he manages his fear chambers and other experiments regarding Elizabeth’s soul in Baby and remnant. For this, William makes the Scooper (stated to be a remnant injector and reservoir), which he uses on Baby and the other Funtimes to basically break them and experiment with them. With Elizabeth … and the souls of the Classics, whose endoskeletons are taken from the abandoned Freddy’s pizzeria down into CBEaR to partake of the innovative tests.
And that’s where I’ll stop for now. See, the thing is that the experiments’ plot is a line that goes from BV, crosses through the chambers, then through Elizabeth, then through the discovery of Remnant, through the Endo extraction in Follow Me, and finally ends into SL. It evades the general plot of dead, missing children at Freddy’s, so I’ll go back to that now that I’m sort of done with the other thing.
About the murders, there is something important that many often forget which I must say, and that is that the murders’ plot works without Elizabeth’s death and was originally planned to be that way, because 1-4 is self-contained, so the reason for the murders would be in there. This means her death likely didn’t inflict any change on the murders’ line, but rather stayed on its own and served its purpose, as I said above. I wanted to make this clarification because there is a mindset circulating around the LizPreMCI believers that her death inside Baby inspired William to stuff the MCI kids in the suits, sort of like imitating Elizabeth’s death conditions to cause possession. While this makes logical sense on the surface, after pondering about it I don’t think it is the case. I understand that this is in fact the case in the novel trilogy, but there is a reason Scott stated the novels aren’t gameline and are instead a reimagining of the games. One of the differing factors is that William discovers possession by Elizabeth’s death in the books, while in the games he has both BV and Charlotte to fulfill that role, both of which die before Elizabeth.
Having made such a long clarification, I can now go ahead and continue with the line of the murders’ progression. This one is simpler on a general level, but can contain a hard-to-pass roadblock if not handled appropriately. I’ll explain.
The flow is rather direct: William learns about possession likely from observing the Puppet after Charlotte’s death, which Scott edified in FFPS to be an incident caused by drunkenness and possibly rage/jealousy; on top of that, there’s the stuff going on with BV, so past 1983 he would definitely know something about the paranormal. Afton would then run an experiment (or two, in this case) to prove this possession concept after discovering it, like in the novels, so he murders two groups of kids, these being the MCI and the DCI. Up to this point it’s simple, nothing too overly complicated, right? Here comes the big trouble, that is actually both good news and bad news.
Good news first. Under ShatterVictim or MemoryVictim or any other alternative theory where BV is in Freddy’s with his pieces (keep your eyes open, I explain why this is the case later on), a 1-4 frame is such a reduced story that the options for how William goes along to put BV back together are very limited, which is good because there’s less possibilities to test and think about. Bad news: this is the complicated part, the one thing keeping us from fully knowing the two lines correctly, because this is where we might begin to question whether William followed up on his promise or if it was a mere farce. A lie. Luckily, we have some content to analyze, the one and only FNaFWorld. Or just World, for short.
If you’re a self-proclaimed knowledgeable theorist, you should know about World and the clock ending– you should know so much about it that I wouldn’t have to explain why I think Glitchbear is very clearly a representation of the Final Speaker, riiiight? Anyway, so my initial thought is AftonGlitchbear. Controversial, I know, but at least if I’m wrong I won’t fall thinking the two games made to clarify FNaF4 give us two different identities of the same character, that’s… not right at all, if you ask me. Quite literally the opposite of clarifying something. And besides, the only other realistically possible option is Charlotte, and I don’t see how she would get from the Puppet, to the plush, and then back to the marionette.
There is an argument often made to avoid CharlieSpeaker while keeping CharlieGlitchbear, this being the idea of the Puppet merely taking the form of the Final Speaker during World to appeal to BV. However, such an argument relies on World being a spiritual landscape in which these things can occur, and thus I will have to dismiss it, as World is no such thing. World is meta in acknowledging it’s a videogame in our real life world; real life is exactly what the Flipside is, and we know this because it is stated that the thing that went wrong in it is related to Scott’s madness. Before you hang me from the neck, read the following lines and connect the dots. The game makes it SUPER clear.
“Everything that happens out there has an effect here. Do you understand? Something has gone wrong, now it can be seen here. Something went very wrong. That’s why I am here.” –Yellow Eyes.
“You don’t know as much as I do, but I will tell you that this is a safe haven, a sanctuary. Whatever has gone wrong, we have to fix it. It will be an adventure! Something horrible must have happened on the flipside, because it’s causing this world to fracture. Objects like the tree behind me have broken.”
“The funhouse is full of false walls and secret doors! Don’t get lost! You are getting close to the core of the game! That is where the problem is!”
“Each guardian protects a button. Once you have found and pressed the buttons, the gates protecting the game’s security system (the owl) will be lowered! That’s when you can strike at the heart of whatever is corrupting this world.” –Adv. Fredbear.
(Animdude is the final boss, found past the owl. Just thought I’d mention that in case you didn’t know/remember.) And if this is not enough, be aware that Glitchbear talks about “the puppet master” (Scott) and the gameplay he’s set up for us, including even the method in which we acquire the red chips. Yes, Glitchbear is meta too, that’s why it’s important to note that it’s a representation of the Final Speaker NOT meant to be a canonical appearance of said character.
IT’S. ALL. META.
(If you’re searching for more information on this topic, I recommend checking out this other neocities post, made by another theorist.)
But enough of that. Let’s get to work and establish the main plot: the clocks are breadcrumbs we set in place at the order of Glitchbear that BV needs to find in order to rest. Accomplishing this gives us a crying child trophy, with the exception that it is not crying, indicating this whole ordeal made BV content. On top of that, we get confirmation of this in the source code of one of Update 2’s teasers, in which we find “He put the pieces back together”.
So… what? Well, by virtue of World being meta, including Glitchbear, we can clearly tell that whatever the clock set up is doesn’t quite happen the way we’re shown in canon, but I think we can get information from it. For example, we can get that the breadcrumbs/clocks that intend to guide BV are the Follow Me hints, which lead us to BB’s Air Adventure, Mangle’s Quest, Chica’s Party, Stage 01, and the unnamed RWQ game, the minigames where the MCI kids are trapped, the minigames known for being noticeably similar to things from BV’s life. Thus, FNaFWorld served its purpose in clarifying the fourth game somewhat decently, as it gives us the info necessary to conclude that the FNaF3 minigames are BV’s pieces and that they are with the animatronics. His “friends”, as he calls the plushies of said characters.
How did the pieces get there? Well, that’s the fun part to think about. I like to think of 1-4 as “one big MemoryVictim”, because you can tell Scott wanted to do something cool and unique with FNaF4 connecting to other events and past characters of the franchise, the two bites, the 87s in the teasers’ code, and the good ending in FNaF3 and all that jazz. In fact, this was so unique Matpat thought Scott had gone for Dream Theory! People tend to belittle ShatterVictim, saying that it makes no sense that BV would shatter into the animatronics. And that’s a, uh, decent point, but the inclusion of MemoryVictim into the mix explains this heap in ShatterVictim’s logic AND some of the other things it doesn’t account for. Especially now, after the release of Ticket to Fun and the surprising confirmation of Arcade Theory (which was already hinted at by RTTP, and has possibly been a thing since FNaF3 because of the arcades in the safe room), we can be sure of BV’s presence in Freddy’s. Not only as Golden Freddy, but as his pieces, since the FNaF3 arcades that hold them come from the pizzeria. So, if you want a practical answer to the question posed, the most SIMPLE, BAREBONES one I could think of is: BV shattered, possessed Fredbear, and when the animatronic was moved to Freddy’s, his spirit (and obviously his pieces) followed suit, thus setting up camp in the pizzeria. Then they would go on to infect and haunt stuff like the arcades together with the MCI. Ghost things, tampering with the building and all that. That’s one answer, the simple path for you; the best answer, for me, is the one that takes into account the other clues and elements from FNaF4 without neglecting the main premise of BV at Freddy’s: MemoryVictim.
Anyway, the point is that World tells us what BV’s pieces are, it gives context to the minigames from FNaF3. However, it’s still not fully clear what William does in canon that could equate to him putting BV back together. People have come up with some ideas, but I personally don’t fully buy them. Think of it as hard as you want and as long as you please, you wouldn’t be the first one to waste their time and energy on this. Not like I was the first one either, but I am one of them, and let me tell you it’s not very productive. In whatever way you think about it, William isn’t the one responsible for putting the pieces back together. In fact, it seems more like it’s something left out from his character entirely, as the one fulfilling such a promise in the third game is Charlotte, and in SL, it’s Mike with Elizabeth. Never William himself! Can you believe it?
… Well, if you can believe it, then I’m not surprised. Of course William wouldn’t want to truly fix BV, and even if he did, it would likely be just for testing’s sake. He wanted Elizabeth fixed, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize it was not because he wished for her to be free. Same for BV. But going back to the point in question, if Glitchbear puts BV back together but William does not, doesn’t that make them different characters, even though they are both one as the Final Speaker? Yes, but no. Follow my logic on this, bear with me… What the meta character does for meta purposes doesn’t have to necessarily be applied to the canon character it represents. Just saying. I mean, look, Glitchbear is in World because of the thing corrupting it, i.e. Scott. So that’s his origin, it’s meta; Glitchbear is supposed to be a glitch in the game, and repeatedly interacts with the main gameplay. That’s his general existence, it’s meta; Glitchbear’s objective is setting up the breadcrumbs/hints that only WE can see in Follow Me to prevent BV from being corrupted by Scott’s madness (“Something went very wrong. That’s why I’m here. But I won’t let the same happen to you”). That’s his general role, it’s meta. What part of him isn’t meta? What is there of him that we can apply to someone in canon when we can’t do that appropriately? Just like how the characters in the game are mere characters, so is Glitchbear. Adventure Freddy isn’t the canon animatronic possessed by Gabriel, and Glitchbear isn’t the canon plushie who is in reality William.
This is the idea I propose, and I’m honestly surprised I don’t see this around more often outside Discord. It’s just WorldMeta, nothing new. I didn’t even make it, I explored different views under WorldCanon or WorldMixedCanon until I realized all fell apart, then I found out about this theory in particular and concluded it is very likely (not to say factually, knowing people don’t like to use that word) true after exploring the evidence and the GAME’S OWN DIALOGUES. It’s crazy how spoonfed it is, yet how hidden at the same time! But anyway, what I CAN say is true is that I can for once be content with World, having now reasoned why other alternatives fail greatly while this one simply doesn’t. The mistake was assuming that what Glitchbear did corresponded to something done in canon.
You might be confused, perhaps perplexed. I’ll sum it up the following way: as I see it, according to Scott being the thing that went wrong in the Flipside and Yellow Eyes saying that he won’t let the same happen to BV, World as a game is about saving BV from Scott’s maniac corruption of the FNaF world, by setting the Follow Me hints in place so that we, the player, may find out how to put him back together in FNaF3. As I said, it’s meta, and this does not correspond to something done in canon. It is not an analogy or weird mysterious way of narrating a secret process that occurred in the real FNaF story, albeit it ties into the canon lore by showing us that the FNaF3 minigames are BV’s pieces, and Happiest Day is the way he is put back together. World is its own story, and with all the confusion it caused, it’s no wonder Scott would regret linking it to the canon lore the way he did.
So, with this idea, we’ve got our response to the previously asked question. Why does it seem like William didn’t put BV back together? Because he didn’t. It was supposed to be Charlotte in FNaF3 (supposed, because FFPS and MoltenMCI exist now). However, even if William didn’t fulfill his promise, it served him as the beginning of his journey into madness. Thus, both lines are now finished.
But before I end this, let’s have a last intermission here, for the love of the game! This one is about Charlotte in FNaF3. Was she there? Was the Puppet there? Was she really the one responsible for setting up Happiest Day? Yes, yes, and yes. Even though the concept of the guard setting up HD is tempting under MikeGuard, the clear implication is that the player is the same in all the secret minigames, and since Charlie is the player in HD… take a guess as to what that means. I know one could argue for a type of team work between Charlie and/or BV and/or Cassidy and/or whoever else, but the steps taken to progress go against this idea. We cannot start freeing the kids before we get the cake in Mangle’s Quest, as demonstrated by the notion that we can reach Gabriel in BB’s Air Adventure while being unable to do anything with him, something you can test yourself if you play the minigame, get the rainbow balloon, and then play it again without having played Mangle’s Quest. Once we get the cake, however, we can go and free him. The fact Charlie can give cake in HD means she got it from somewhere, which then makes her the Quest player. Coincidentally, that’s the minigame with the “Shadow Puppet” in its sunken world (name gotten from the character encyclopedia). In the other minigames, the shadow creatures found in these places correlate to the character we play as: Chica’s Party has the five cupcakes, BB’s Air Adventure has the three BBs, RWQ’s game has… well, RWQ, who IS the shadow creature that belongs to the purple sunken world (you could also count Jeremy’s soul I suppose), and Mangle’s Quest has you already know who. And the other minigames don’t have sunken worlds, just thought I’d mention that. My point with this is that Charlie is the player of Mangle’s Quest, and in turn that makes her the player of the other arcades.
But leaving the technical stuff to the side, there is an easier way to prove Charlie was in the attraction, you just have to look back at the past, back at how the story used to be. And I’m here to do that for you, right? I’ll show you just how simple this is. In 1-3, Happiest Day happens in Fazbear’s Fright, and we see with our own eyes that Charlotte is giving cake at the party. So, she must be there in some way, just as the spirits are there because of the arcades and the animatronic shells. There, as easy as can be, and if you want something more interesting to ponder on, then take a look at the Puppet on Cam 08. This doesn’t matter much, but I find it intriguing that the other Phantoms appear on the cameras as they are, unlike Phantom Puppet. This is the case with Phantom Mangle, Phantom BB, and Phantom Chica. But Phantom Puppet doesn’t appear on the cameras, Puppet does, and that triggers its phantom. It makes sense if you think about it. According to what we can gather from the Frights story What We Found, the Phantoms’ appearances are based on the items found in the attraction, which we can actually see in the game itself (funnily enough, Phantom Foxy is missing the forearm we see in the box of pieces). So Puppet’s presence being the cause of Phantom Puppet’s existence is valid and reasonable, leaving the possibility that we see the real Puppet on cams up in the air for anyone who’d want to believe it. With that, I can leave this topic here and end both the intermission and my talk all together.
Here are two maps I made depicting the evolution of Afton from 1-3 to 1-6 AND the lines I’ve been blabbering about: the experiments’ line, and the murders’ line. After the maps there’s a small extras section where I yap about some other small things. That would be the end, so thank you for reading and goodbye! –Wythos.
Extras.
.. for the road. Some food for thought, in case you’re interested.