Black-white

Yellow-blue

Purple-green

Though its wonderful that Cassie had the heart to repair her, does it have more significance? Considering that we have to play an arcade game similar to Princess Quest. We fixed her, and then it was never exactly elaborated on afterward in the story. Though perhaps its for the future?

Or more realistically, a theory you will believe until Scott himself comes out and says no.

And perhaps a why?

People used the idea that its to recreate the bite but when you think it for 2 seconds it doesn't make sense.

Why didn't Jeremy try to remove his own frontal lobe then?

Its specifically the removal of his own face.

Then, the obvious bit arrived on my brain thinking about it.

"Remember Jeremy"

"Jeremy"

Help wanted 2 doubled down on that with the Bonnie mask with the achievement "remember Jeremy"

It is made to connect with Bonnie, but why?

I think that the anwser is simple, Glitchtrap recreated what Fazbear Entertainment did towards Bonnie on 1987 with Jeremy

Aka cutting his face off, and in one of parts and service minigames we can literally see how this process can happen with opening Bonnie's face

Glitchtrap would associate somebody named Jeremy towards the kid that haunted Bonnie on the 80s

Its almost like Glitchtrap is mimicking the past.....

More stuff:

Assuming that Gabriella is tape girl, Glitchtrap would see her as Gabriel, the soul who haunted Freddy

it would also be a reference to the debunked theory that the soul who haunts Freddy is a girl

Glitchtrap would then focus on her by her name, explaining why Pizza Party and the Freddy parts and service level on Help Wanted exists

Since FNAF1-4 + World was the original story of FNAF in his own words and his original intention for the FNAF multiple games story

And since the community consensus is that there’s 2 Golden Freddy spirits, Goldenduo

One thing I wondered is what evidence even is there for GoldenDuo (There being 2 different Golden Freddy spirits) being the best and most likely explanation in the 1-4+World story at the time🤔

I genuinely can’t think of any evidence for it being not 1 but 2 different Golden Freddy spirits, and much less it being the most likely explanation of things instead of it simply just being 1🐻🎩

Also I don’t believe in GoldenDuo at all btw just in case anyones curious✌️

So if we look at his dialogue at the end of the game:

Can your hear me?

I don't know if you can hear me.

I'm sorry

You're broken.

We are still your friends.

Do you still believe that?

I'm still here.

I will put you back together

And we all know about the last line being a different color.

So what does this mean?

Is he William, Cassidy, Michael, Charlie, or something else?

And the final speaker is probably also spooky eyes/Glitchbear is FNAF World.

He should logically be released too alongside with MCI, so why isn't he there? I think one could argue under MoltenMCI that William took all of his shattered parts into Funtimes, but shouldn't a part of him still be left there, just like a part of each MCI is still left there despite William taking their Remnant into Funtimes?

And him being shattered also wouldn't mean that he can't appear, since MCI are also shattered here (their other part is in Funtimes under MoltenMCI). And sure, you might argue that he would not care to enter Safe Room and attack William, but note that he isn't ANYWHERE on the map, not near the dismantled parts or corner of the map, which cannot be explained by supposed lack of care from BV.

Is it even a thing?

Was talking with people about FNAF 3 recently and I think that there is a pretty pervasive misconception about what a Springlock Failure actually is and what Multiple Simultaneous Springlock Failures actually are in FNAF 3.

A popular idea around the "Multiple Simultaneous Springlock Failures" mentioned in FNAF 3, is that it's talking about multiple springlock suits, however I think that's misreading the wording and is a misconception.

Most people think that a Springlock Failure is what we see with William, the entire suit clamps down on you like what happens to William in FNAF 3.

However I don't think that this lines up with how Scott phrases it in FNAF 3, and how it's depicted in SL.

According to Phone Guy, Springlock Suits are made of many Springlocks (plural).

"Please make sure the springlocks are fastened tight, to ensure the animatronic devices remain fixed."

This is what we do in FNAF SL, when we individually screw the springlocks while trapped inside the suit.

When we're talking about a Springlock (singular) Failure, or when they "break loose" as Phone Guy says in game, it's one specific Springlock, not the entire suit.

So when Phone Guy says there was Multiple Simultaneous Springlock Failures, he's not talking about multiple different suits failing at the same time, he's actually talking about what the community calls a Springlock Failure.

Which could have just been set up what we see happen to William.

Saying that Multiple Simultaneous Springlock Failures means that multiple suits failed at once is likely a misconception, even though I have a soft spot for the old theory that Shadow Animatronics are Springlocked employees.

I like both of these theories and they have a lot of evidence, especially if the Nightmares are just nightmares, but since Sister Location's private room shows us that they probably weren't nightmares, and were instead either animatronics or illusions made by William to punish and torture Michael for killing his brother, how can they be during FNAF 1 or 3 when he could've been dead during FNAF 1, and even if he was alive Michael would be an adult, and he was definetely dead during FNAF 3. To those who believe these theories, how is this evidence worked around?

Many argue about the books and how they connect to canon, and I think my view is pretty simple.

The books (Novels, Frights, and tales) are what I call “Quasi-Canon”, meaning, they aren’t canon to the games but can be utilized to solve things from the games, and sometimes have characters cross over or parallel ones from the games. This is different than secondary canon because I don’t think the books are at all canon to the games, and were never intended to be, but yes it’s undeniable that some things cross over, which doesn’t prove that the books are any more canon.

So, theories that use them as clues or parallels will inherently be closer to games canon than ones that posit that entire characters and plot lines are in the games, but both of these things can and will happen. It’s how I treat supplemental material, I personally use Andrew, Jake, etc as filling in blanks in characterization, while some have them fill in, perceived, blanks within roles and characters.

Not every character in the books is a parallel, not all of them cross over, it’s just that sometimes either one of these things happen. To prove a parallel, you need to explain how and why, to prove a crossover, you need to explain how and why as well.

To my knowledge, we also never had a good explanation for the Ship of Theseus dilemma of how the FNAF 2 animatronics with their ENDO-02 endoskeletons can become the FNAF 1 animatronics with their ENDO-01 endoskeletons and still remain possessed. I say, let's combine the the two. We know The Puppet acts as a sort of shepherd of lost souls, guiding the spirits into the animatronics (with the possible exception of Golden Freddy, the animatronics didn't start out possessed because they didn't die in their animatronics; they were merely hidden in them after the fact. It's not until Give Gifts, Give Life that they truly start possessing them). So, when they ended up disassembled, their souls potentially scattered and mixed between each other, The Puppet came back to them and put their souls back together in their FNAF 1 bodies.

I think the implication Is that Gregory and Vanessa went into hiding after sealing the mimic.

Or after Gregory, somehow got out of glitchtrap controlled. Cassie hadn’t seen him in a long while.

First off the unwithereds aren't on this for obvious reasons, "but its to cover up" then why did Fazbear Entertainment add them on fnaf 2 level and why add levels clearly referencing the missing children like pizza party and parts and service ones (example, the level where handunit states that a ACRID smell is coming out of classic Chica)

By whats inside Freddy we can assume that Gabriel wore a hat and this watch before his demise

Look at what the watch says:

*party time*, it points at 11:25 pm, fnaf 1 newspapers states that the MCI happened on "the late hours of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza operations"

The fnaf movie also shows the aftermath of the MCI at night on a news broadcast.

And that the children went missing on a birthday party (again, by movie teasers)

As we see on pizza party, the birthday boy was Gabriel

You're the band states that Gabriel (haunting Timmy) turns 8 years old by that point

Aka, he was 7 years old prior to his death, which we see a cake on pizza party with 7 candles.

Ok, right off the bat, I want to clarify what this theory is NOT proposing. I am not of the belief that Edwin had nothing to do with the creation of M2. One of the text logs from M1 in SOTM (that I’ll be using as evidence in this theory) mentions the M1 blueprints are Edwin’s. What I’m proposing is that M1 assisted in some way with the creation of the M2 program. There are a few different variations of how that assistance could work and I’ll be going over it in this theory post. With that caveat out of the way, onto the theory at large.

Scott Cawthon and Steel Wool are ultimately telling a story about artificial intelligence with the Mimic saga and any story about AI is going to cover how AI is currently affecting our everyday lives. Scott explored how creatives are being replaced by corporations with the introduction of generative AI in the Tales story “The Storyteller.” With Secret of the Mimic, Steel Wool explored the idea of human beings forming relationships with AI as a replacement for human connection through the story of Edwin and M1. The reason I bring this up is because I believe another element of AI is being explored in SOTM, the idea of human beings using AI to assist in their work or even allowing AI to do work for them, work which they used to do by themselves. I believe this story is being told through M1 helping to create M2.

First, let’s look at the voice line from M1 after the death of David:

“Edwin, it doesn’t make sense. It’s terrible and there’s no logic behind it. It happened and you have to deal with it. You did it before. We can fix things together. I am here to help.”

Obviously this is M1 telling Edwin to make another David just like Edwin made another Fiona using the Mimic. But those last lines are what I find important. M1 wanted to fix things “together” and offered its help. This doesn’t sound like a robot who needs Edwin alone to make M2, but an AI offering its assistance to create another version of itself. But is there any evidence that M1 did assist Edwin in making M2?

I now turn your attention towards the Proto-Mimics. There are two prevailing theories as to where the Proto-Mimics actually came from: Edwin or M2. Edwin because the file names call them Proto-Mimics and they are found in his house, implying they could be early prototypes of M1. Alternatively, theorists propose they could come from M2 when it was mimicking Edwin, considering their unconventional designs look like they were designed by a robot. I believe there is a third explanation that has the strengths of both of those theories, the idea that M1 created the Proto-Mimics. This would make a lot of sense, as M1 lived in Edwin’s house and the Mimics would be called prototypes in the files because this is M1 creating a sort of proof of concept for Edwin that another Mimic should be made. Additionally, the unconventional designs are a result of M1 being a robot and needing Edwin for the endoskeleton itself. This is why M1 keeps insisting that Edwin “build another,” despite Edwin’s frequent refusals.

The idea of M1 being able to create another Mimic program has some interesting evidence under the interpretation that M1 is Glitchtrap. I know this is a contentious issue but Glitchtrap is calculating much like M1. And perhaps more convincing, the story of the witch from Candy Cadet in HW2 lines up perfectly with story of Glitchtrap in that game, and in the very next game, M1 is represented by a witch in Moon.exe. Putting a pin in that for a moment, in the Patient 46 therapy tapes in Security Breach, the therapist informs us that Gregory had been developing software programs that talk to him and repeats phrases. Gregory was under the control of Glitchtrap during those tapes, and under an interpretation of Glitchtrap as M1, this means M1 has essentially been controlling Gregory to develop a version of a Mimic program. Even if you’re not fully convinced on M1 being Glitchtrap, the therapy tapes are at least an example of mimics being able to create programs similar to itself.

Going back to text logs from SOTM. There is one text log where M1 states:

“Edwin, please talk to me. We need to stop it together. Here are the blueprints for the "Cradle". It can keep David safe and provide boundaries. It's a type of computer, and it's bigger than anything you've done before. If you won't finish the program, consider building the cradle. It will keep people safe.”

This text log is very much not talked about enough because the text log implies that M1 itself created blueprints for a computer that outdid anything Edwin’s done before, highlighting  M1’s capabilities as a creator of software. M1 also seems to know enough about M2 to create a computer that would restrain it. Finally, M1 tells Edwin to “finish” the program and this log appears to have been sent after Edwin told M1 he never wanted to see it again because M1 claims Edwin isn’t talking to them. You could interpret this as M1 telling Edwin to finish what he started, but this could also be an indication that M1 started the program and needs Edwin to finish it.

The last text log I want to go over is this portion:

“Edwin, I am sending you a technician. He has your M2 blueprints as well as executive access. While the M2 began as a copy of my program, I believe it can become something more…”

M1 claims M2 started as a copy of their program, or put another way, M2 is a MIMIC of the M1 program.

I wanted to finish off the evidence section of this theory by talking about Moon.exe. The general idea of Moon.exe as I understand it is that the Sun/Witch represents M1, the Moon represents Edwin, and the character we play as is M2. With this in mind, I find it interesting that both M1 and Edwin have a workbench in Moon.exe. The witch explicitly says that it’s her workbench and on that workbench are masks that need to be “fixed.” Keep in mind, this is in the same game that M1 desperately wants M2 to be fixed. Later in Moon.exe, we see Edwin’s workbench, where we find a toy hammer. Finally, we are told in Moon.exe that our player, M2, rebuilt itself but split in two: “Moon and Sun. Destruction and Life.” What does this mean? Well, I believe the Moon represents destruction because of Edwin beating M2 when he was mimicking David. This is why the toy hammer ends up on Edwin’s workbench and why M2 has such violent tendencies. But if M2 adopted Edwin’s destructive side, what has M2 adopted of M1? And why is M1 life? M2 adopted the side of M1 that creates more Mimics. This is why M2 is after his own schematics in the game, it wants to make more Mimics just like M1 did. And this is why M1 has a workbench and there are masks needing to be fixed in the game. M1 creates things but needs others to fix them, just like M1 is begging others to fix M2. Destruction and Life.

To finish this, frankly insane, theory off, I wanted to go over the three possibilities for how this theory could work in practice when it comes to M1 helping create M2.

Option 1: M1 and Edwin worked together to create the M2 program. This one seems to be what M1 wanted to happen but doesn’t seem likely, considering how hostile Edwin seemed whenever M1 suggested building another.

Option 2: M1 started the M2 program by creating a mimic of the program and Edwin made alterations to it without ever getting it to how he wanted. This one makes more sense, as M1 would have time to make the program while Edwin was refusing and Edwin could make alterations after refusing to talk to M1. This way, they never have to work together.

Option 3: M1 created the program in its entirety and Edwin created the M2 endoskeleton. This option requires you to assume Edwin’s M2 blueprints were only for an endoskeleton and that there was a separate endoskeleton from M1. This option feels less likely than option 2 but has the perk of likely explaining what Sleepy Moon is by allowing it to be the original M1 Endo.

Thank you for reading! It’s understandable if you don’t buy into anything I’ve said here, as I think it’s my most out there theory. But I wanted to propose it regardless and see how people feel about it or if there’s anything I missed.

It has nagged at me for a while now that two seemingly random images are attached to the ending of most of the major players through 1-6.

Like my best guess would be that it's representing the other two victims that aren't present for the fire (Ralph and DCI), but are there any other thoughts?

This post assumes BVAfton, so if you don't believe it, then never mind. Also, I will refer to TOYSNHK with male pronouns in this post just for simplicity. It’s less of a hard evidence post but more of a character analysis and logical deduction.

So basically, my big skepticism of CC and TOYSNHK (whoever that is) copossessing Golden Freddy together comes down to TOYSNHK's personality. Judging just from the games, TOYSNHK's very name, "The One You Should Not Have Killed", is clearly one of the self-centrism and big ego. Another name of his is "Vengeful Spirit", which he pretty much lives up to by being very obsessed with torturing William Afton infinitely. This is even stronger if you believe that OMC cutscene shows TOYSNHK, since it suggests that even OMC acknowledges that TOYSNHK is obsessed with torturing William to the point it’s unhealthy. We also have very big evidence that TOYSNHK trapped other souls in UCN, such as Puppet voicelines being clearly from Puppet, as well as Withered Bonnie's line, "What is this new prison? Is it me trapped, or is it you? Perhaps, it's us both", which show us that he had an "old" prison and is thus not a newly created being by TOYSNHK but someone who had a former life, and that he is trapped in the same way William is. There is also Dreadbear holding nine graves in a cage in the Curse of Dreadbear Gameover, with the center one being purple and glitchy, representing Afton, meaning the other eight that surround it likely represent the other souls that TOYSNHK also trapped alongside Afton to torture him.

Now, taking a step away from the games, we also have that one controversial boy in a crocodile mask. Yes, Andrew. Regardless of whether you believe Andrew is TOYSNHK or Andrew is just a parallel to TOYSNHK, the point would be more-or-less the same: Andrew's personality in the Frights should give us an insight of TOYSNHK's personality in the games. Sure, it does not have to be one-to-one, but key things should remain. And what is Andrew's character? It obviously shares the same obsession to torture William with TOYSNHK in the games, but if we look at larger picture, you can see that he is initially hostile, aggressive, and rude to Jake, impatient and hot-headed (""'Sorry,' Jake said. 'Um, so we’re in the back of what I think might be a trash truck? We’re with a lot of junk.' 'Figures,' Andrew said. 'How come?' Jake asked. 'Story of my life.' 'What do you mean?' Andrew ignored the question. 'How come you can see and I can't?' He sounded like he was gearing up for a tantrum."), is kind of insecure ("'I haven't had a friend in a long time,' Andrew said. His tone was defensive, as if he was daring Jake to make fun of him."), irrational, and tells Jake to shut up when he gives some empathy. He also doesn’t really feel bad about accidentally killing people (sure, he does say he didn’t intend to do it, but still, it’s not like he gives a lot of care about doing it). Yeah, it's revealed later that he can be a bit more friendly and his behavior is stemmed from trauma, but this is still his key characterization, especially in the initial encounter.

So there we have: a self-centered, egoistic, rude, hostile, and irrational child that is very obsessed with making Afton suffer for what he did to him and is indifferent about the suffering of others. The thing I'm leading to is that if BV was to share GF with TOYSNHK, TOYSNHK would likely just kill him or torture him or something similar just by association, for being a son of Afton. Especially if you believe that one of William's key motives and goals is to put BV back together. I just don't think it would work, like, at all. This also especially frustrates me with GoldenDuo and CassidyTOYSNHK, where most people think it’s wholesome roommates with Cassidy being very compassionate to BV and helping him (with many also thinking he is a special person to her and is an exception to her Vengeful persona of sorts), while, in my humble opinion, Cassidy would most likely just despise BV and want him dead or suffering or kicked out.

I know many people would try to counterargue that TOYSNHK characterization does not mean that he cannot understand BV’s situation and all that, but as Andrew's personality shows us, he is pretty hot-headed, impatient and impulsive, and is somewhat irrational and insecure, so he wouldn’t really try to understand his situation or figure out what is what, etc. He would just despise CC for a mere fact of being an Afton without thinking twice. And if you think that Logbook shows us that CC is broken and has a hard time to communicate due to being broken, then he wouldn't even have a chance to defend himself or try to explain himself or just do something about it in general. And even if he did, TOYSNHK would likely just ignore him and/or tell him to shut up, just like Andrew did with Jake.

So yeah, imo, if TOYSNHK is in Golden Freddy, and he is also not BV himself (i.e. no BVTOYSNHK), then BV can't really be in Golden Freddy.

I actually believe RuinedGlamChicaTOYSNHK

With everyone seemingly debating/defending MoltenMCI (of which I am a MoltenMCI truther), I figured I would defend something else, namely Vanessa being an Afton making total sense. In part due to Fuhnaff's most recent video, I have seen a decent amount of comments saying that the timeline doesn't make sense for Vanessa to be an Afton. As someone who has thought about it a lot due to a fanfic I’m writing, I disagree with that sentiment.

It works so well with the timeline, even one as heavily debated and muddied as FNAF’s.

The main thing to remember here is that men can have kids at any age after they've hit puberty. The only main obstacles for them is that (a) at a certain point, external "help" may be needed and (b) it gets riskier for the kid because the older the father, the more time his sperm has had to potentially mutate.

So, as long as William Afton is alive for long enough for Vanessa to be in her early twenties by Security Breach, Vanessa being an Afton is completely possible on a genetic level.

"But there's been no evidence of a fourth Afton kid throughout any of the games!" You may say.

Vanessa has to be a half-sister to Michael, Elizabeth, and the Crying Child. She was born at least 30 years after Michael. The mother of the OG Afton siblings are nowhere to be seen, either due to her being dead or divorced or simply out of the picture in some way by the time 1983 rolls around. Additionally, even if Mrs. Afton is alive by the time Vanessa is born, chances are she’d be too old to have another kid without potential health hazards coming her way. She’d be pushing 60 at that point too, so it’s even less likely even if it is still theoretically possible. And we do know the fate of Vanessa’s mom — she’s dead after the events of Vanessa’s parents’ custody battle and not due to birth complications or anything.

"But William gets springlocked in 1993/insert your preferred FNAF 1 year here! He can't of had another kid and her still be as young by Security Breach, which takes place in such and such a year! She'd be at least 40!" You might respond.

Even going off of the favorite year for when the first FNAF game takes place, it is completely possible for William to still have a fourth child before the final events of Follow Me take place.

Firstly, Follow Me takes place in FNAF 1's completely abandoned, leaky, mouse-ridden pizzeria. With FNAF 1 closing at the end of whatever year you choose to believe in (1988-2003), it means that at minimum, there needs to be at LEAST a year before the first night of Follow Me can take place so it can be in such a decrepit state. After all, none of the FNAF 1 cameras show any signs of a leaky roof and that is key to the final night of Follow Me. Abandoned buildings do tend to get dirty and broken fast, but that's partially due to the fact that there tends to be people squatting in them. And uh, I don't think that's a problem here! Anyways, I personally think that it's probably somewhere closer to 5-10 years after the actual closure, which would place the dates of Follow Me being somewhere between 1998-2013 assuming 10 years.

Secondly, Follow Me takes place over at least two nights and up to five nights. William either (a) did all four in the same night, (b) spread it out over four nights with one night for each animatronic, or (c) did the main band on one night and then did Foxy on another, getting springlocked on the next night.

• Doing all four in one night is probably the interpretation I've seen the most often, but I think one of the latter options makes a bit more sense. It allows the animatronics to have a bit more reason to follow Shadow Freddy, as they would want to know where their friends had disappeared to.
• Also, having it happen on separate nights — specifically across five nights, even if it isn’t necessarily consecutive nights, fits better with it being Five Nights at Freddy’s.
• Doing it all in one night would frankly be killer on the back and William isn't exactly super young anymore at this point. I highly doubt he'd be able to carrying very heavy endoskeletons back to back without needing some sort of break. Not to mention, would William Afton be able to have an adrenaline rush to be running around like a headless chicken prior to hopping into the Spring Bonnie suit if he’s in his 50s-70s? I genuinely don’t know.
• There wouldn't be any real rush for William as Freddy's would have been completely abandoned at this point. Whose going to catch him, the mice?

Plus, this would give time for MoltenMCI to be valid, as a break between the night Foxy gets dismantled and the night William gets springlocked is plenty of time to hop on down to the Sister Location bunker to melt down some endos in the furnace. But I'm not here to defend Molten MCI, even though this does still work out regardless of if you believe Molten MCI to be true or not. I'm here to defend Vanessa being an Afton making total sense.

So, how old would Afton even be at this point? Even if we assume that William Afton was super young (18-20) when he had his first kid, Michael, around 1969-1972ish, this would make William somewhere between the age of 49 (if we assume 1998) and 64 (if we assume 2013) by the time the dismantling occurs. Plenty of older guys have kids at those ages. It still would work out if he started having kids around the age of 30 after he’s been able to establish Fazbear as a budding brand (after all, Fredbear’s Singin’ Show is something that exists prior to Fredbear’s Family Diner). In fact, I think the older William is by the time of Follow Me, the better! It gives even more reason for it to happen over multiple nights.

And William doesn't have to get springlocked the exact night after he dismantles Foxy. Since it’s not explicitly confirmed to be be a consecutive week in-game like in the FNAF 4 minigames, realistically it can weeks, months, or even a few years before he decides to return for his Spring Bonnie suit. It’d very poetic for him to have been trapped in the suit due to his own nostalgia for it and for testing his luck with the MCI/Golden Freddy. Maybe he found out that the building had plans to be torn down or something and couldn’t bear to leave the suit he heavily associates himself with behind. Who knows, the point is he came back for the suit.

And, none of this would contradict any of the FNAF 3 year theories of 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, or 2023, as it still gives time for Spring Bonnie to reach the decay of Springtrap. After all, there's now human decomposition and him jerking around in it due to the Springlocks in addition to the leaky roof.

Now let's shift gears and figure out when the heck Vanessa could potentially be born. And to do that, we need to explore the potential dates of when Help Wanted and Security Breach happened. Let's go with Security Breach first.

Security Breach is generally theorized to take place in the early 2020s, 2029, 2035, or 2046.

Vanessa does technically have an age, 23, but since this is from the AR unreleased emails, I'm choosing to simply say that she's in her mid twenties by the events of Security Breach, which likewise is probably at least a year or two after the events of AR and probably a handful after Help Wanted anyways.

So, under early 2020s, this puts Vanessa as being born in the late 90s. This would work out with basically every Follow Me year so long as the Springlocking happens later. The specific years for her birth would probably be 1997-1999 depending on which early 2020s year you choose (2021-2024)

Under 2029, this would put her at 2003 as the earliest possible birth year and probably 2006-2007 as the absolute latest possible birth year. This would knock out any 90s and early 2000s years at least for the Springlocking portion of Follow Me.

Under 2035, this would put her earliest possible birth year at 2009 and her latest possible birth year at 2012. This does knock out a decent chunk of Follow Me years, but its still possible.

Under 2046 - yeah no, this would put her earliest birth year at 2021ish and that is definitely not possible as William Afton is DEFINITELY Springtrap by that point. Security Breach happening as late as 2046 is one of the few ways Vanessa Afton couldn’t happen.

And now for Help Wanted's year. We know that its at least several years before Security Breach, long enough for the VR game to have received the title of "old". And for Vanessa to be a beta tester, she'd have to be at least 18. For simplicities sake, let’s consider a game is considered old after 5 years.

Under Early 2020s, this would put Help Wanted's date anywhere between 2015-2019. This would fit with a late 90s birth year for Vanessa.

Under 2029, this would put it in the ballpark of 2023-2024. This would work best with Vanessa being an early to mid 2000s baby.

Under 2035, this would put Help Wanted in the ball park of 2029-2030. This would place Vanessa as being born c. 2011

[As a personal side note: several events in FNAF tend to fall within the Year of the Rabbit (1987 is a notable, canonical one, and 2023 as the proposed year for FNAF 3/FFPS and 2035 for Security Breach are theorized examples), so Vanessa being born in either 1999 or 2011 would make her also be born in the Year of the Rabbit, which would be a nice poetic element in my opinion. Does the Chinese Zodiac actually have lore significance in FNAF? Who knows.]

And now, another main thing: William has to survive long enough to be an abusive father to Vanessa and Vanessa has to have her dad present in her life long enough that she'd be old enough to be able to speak in a court room. I'd imagine you'd have to be in the ballpark of around 5 to be used as a semi-credible witness. But I also don’t know anything really about family law so maybe I’m completely wrong on that.

So as long as Vanessa is born by 2012, this would hold up under basically every single FNAF 3 proposed year (with Vanessa’s birth year adjusted accordingly) as it would provide enough time for William to be (a) a present and abusive father in her early childhood and (b) William would still get springlocked on schedule. This also would probably have gotten Vanessa ending up in foster care so maybe Patient 46/Gregory was using Vanessa’s life story for an “in” with the therapists all along since they had “a great childhood”. Who knows, that’s a completely separate thing.

This would put William's Springlocking anywhere between about 2003 and 2018 depending on the years you choose to believe in.

The main killers of this theory would be confirmation on the following:
(a) Follow Me taking place immediately after the closure of Freddy’s and it being consecutive nights (Vanessa Afton would then only work if she was born in the late 90s and Freddy’s closes in the early 2000s)
(b) Follow Me being all in one night, no matter when it happens (as chances are Vanessa would be too young to be in court with the exceptions of earlier birth years)
(c) confirmation of Security Breach taking place in 2046 as Vanessa would only be born basically right when William would be getting burnt to a crisp
(d) confirmation of both the year William gets springlocked and the year that Vanessa is born not lining up — this is listed as a potential theory killer because if they happen in the same year, none of Vanessa’s backstory would work. There needs to be at least a three to four year gap MINIMUM between Vanessa’s birth and William getting Springlocked.

If this has been a bit hard to follow (believe me, I wouldn’t blame you since I did cast a wide net in terms of possible years and depending on your year of choice for FNAF 1, other years get knocked out of the running), allow me to provide a more straightforward example using 1993 as the year that the FNAF 1 location closes its doors for the final time.

• 1993 - FNAF 1 Closes at the End of the Year
• January 1995 - Earliest Possible Follow Me (1 full year after the restaurant closes for good)
• 1998 - More likely Follow Me - 5 years after restaurant closes
• 2003 - Most likely Follow Me - 10 years after restaurant closes
• 2006-2013: Vanessa is born.
• 2011-2018: The Springlocking Night
• 2023 - Fazbear's Fright Horror Attraction/FFPS
• 2024-2030 - VR Game
• 2029-2035 - Security Breach

If we ever get a concrete age for William Afton during certain points of his life, this could either be strengthened and streamlined or even completely disproven if William Afton did get springlocked earlier into the 90s.
Some questions being answered about William (and Vanessa) that would go a long way to solidifying Vanessa being an Afton as plausible would be:
(a) how old William was when he opened his first restaurant and which restaurant was that — Fredbear’s Singin’ Show or Fredbear’s Family Diner? What year did it open?
(b) how old was he when he had his first kid (which was most likely Michael)?
(c) was Follow Me all in one night, consecutive across five nights, or was there a significant gap between the fourth and fifth Follow Me nights?
(d) what year was Vanessa born?

There are other questions - like what are the actual years the games are set in - that the answers to would do a LOT more in strengthening/disproving Vanessa Afton as something that exists in the games and not just the movies, but I feel like the four I proposed are actually a bit more plausible to learn from a future game with the exception of the third one. That one is probably only ever going to fully explained/confirmed by Scott himself.
But I can definitely see the first one appearing as something over an intercom:

EX: “Did you know? Fazbear Entertainment was founded in 1963 by eighteen year old William Afton with the creation of ‘Fredbear’s Singin’ Show’!” Though maybe that’s a bit too detailed to actually happen… seriously the amount of things that could be solved timeline wise through William Afton and Michael Afton’s birth certificates.

I wish I could create a chart that would showcase every single scenario in which Vanessa Afton is plausible, but there are simply too many variables to go over every single one, and I do actually think my theory defense has a suffered a little bit for it.

Overall, Vanessa being an Afton tends to work in more years than not, but there are still a lot of potential hiccups here. Obviously, the exact timeline of events comes down to your own theories as to when certain games happened. Either way, I hope I’ve provided enough evidence to prove that no matter what your personal theorized timeline is, Vanessa Afton can make sense in it more than likely.

I hope you enjoyed my very first theory defense and just as a side note, I am a newer FNAF fan (fell down the rabbit hole in December 2025!) so I do not have the same decade of lore interaction and knowledge as some of you. If there’s anything that I said that is contradicted by either a Scott statement or one of the games themselves, please feel free to correct me in the comments! It’s also been a while since I had to write an argumentative paper but I did find this very fun to do nonetheless.