Like Five Nights at Freddy's lore? Here's the beginning of a theory I've been working on for a few months now. It takes a totally different approach to the lore, relying on symbolism, thematic analysis and allegory. Reading the games this way totally changes the story.
The Five Nights at Freddy's franchise is an allegory for the impact of trauma, generational trauma and coercive control told through a family and friends business. Abuse also fits under that umbrella - initially physical, mental and emotional abuse before being extended to corporate, political and workplace abuse.
Core to this theory is a single idea: Trauma - represented by someone being 'bitten' - turns people into animatronics, literally and figuratively. These entities exist only to follow their programming and to perform. They have no sense of 'self' - just a facade. They exist only for entertainment purposes and can be easily manipulated. Then, due to the trauma and abuse they have endured, they go on to bite/traumatise others.
Generational trauma and cycles of abuse are a big and integral part of the story. This is why so many stories echo and parallel one another.
In the books, this is represented by the concept of remnant (the soul/personality of the victim), dark remnant (the lasting byproduct of bad deeds) and agony (the emotional pain of the victim).
I believe the original deaths were an accident. William Afton stumbled across a means to transfer consciousness into animatronics - entities that could be controlled. He began to experiment to find a way to reliably repeat this feat. By the time we reach FNAF 4, I believe that Fazbear Entertainment had become a front for William Afton's research experiments. This included experimenting on potentially his own child, Crying Child, deliberately and systematically traumatising him while monitoring him through the Fredbear plush. This is shown by the fact that the FNAF 4 house is on the map in Sister Location, showing it was built specifically for this experiment.
This concept is presented to us via a dysfunctional family - the Afton Family - and their friends. Each version of an animatronic represents an evolution or facet of the self for these characters. I suspect each character is based on a real life story as the narrative they tell isn't clear or direct.
A key point to keep in mind is that the broad story of the game has several layers. The literal version - based on lore tit-bits over the years - has been well discussed and covered by theorists. However, the metaphorical, symbolic and thematic has not.
Multiple entities may be associated with each character depending upon the lense through which you read the game. For example, Foxy is thought to be inhabited by Fritz' soul and is associated with 'FoxyBro' Michael.
For this theory, it doesn't strictly matter whose remnant inhabits each endoskeleton. What matters is what and who each animatronic symbolically represents within the game's wider narrative. All characters represent different 'roles' in each game, based on the dysfunctional, manipulative family dynamic.
There are many parallels between the Fazbear brand and ideological movements such as multi-conglomerate corporations, cults, religion and brands.
Freddy himself represents the faceless corporation or other ideological movement. This is a constant until Security Breach. All other animatronics represent their own characters.
The toy animatronics and plushes are key to the narrative. Toys are symbolically and literally play things, given life by their owner to play roles in games. They lack a self, they are just pawns with no choice. Therefore, the plushes and toy animatronics represent items of manipulation. Here, this dynamic parallels coercive control - where individuals are manipulated into behaving a certain way either by being forced, tricked or unknowingly taught to behave a certain way.
Sister Location marks a turn in the franchise. It is where we start to follow the stories of the Afton Family and others more specifically. We begin to see new concepts at play like the impact of trauma on robotic functioning. The SL bunker is itself a metaphor for buried personalities, as a result of said trauma and coercive control.
It also marks a turn in the story. William Afton goes from trying to control people by turning them into animatronics (using trauma and abuse) to finding a means to preserve souls. I believe this became Fazbear Entertainment's goal once the technology became powerful enough to provide metal bodies to give souls immortality. Capitalising on William and other Freddy employees' learnings and experiments, they perfected a means to capture souls digitally and place them in robotic bodies. Elizabeth was a successful if unwitting victim of this.
Why would William and his collaborators make becoming a robot their aim? Perhaps they saw it as the next phase of human evolution. After all, these new robotic bodies could be built with additional capabilities such as the ability to see through walls, hear other animatronics thoughts and interact with other technology.
During Security Breach and Tales of the Pizzaplex, we see signs that the experiments are beginning to broaden with food, health and digital realms becoming targets. Virtual reality has become another means by which to transfer souls into digital consciousness. This is more powerful than the old means, where inflicting trauma-induced compliance. Create a whole new version of a person digitally and they will do whatever you want. The experiments also begin to extend to adults too, mimicking corporate and workplace abuse.
This theory, alongside colour theory and symbolism in general, can be used to decipher character designs, minigame meanings, settings and everything inbetween. Damage to animatronics is especially meaningful, indicating where trauma has impacted each character.
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