Five Nights at Freddy's has grown from an indie game developed by one person to a AAA franchise with a movie based on the series set to release this month. Although it might not seem like it at first glance, this series is packed with lore. The hard part is figuring out the details about what really happened during Fazbear Entertainment's dark history, and how much of it is told through unreliable narrators or put together as theories without solid confirmation.

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the series is the order in which events take place. It's widely accepted that FNAF 4 is - chronologically - the first game in the series, and while this makes the most sense, it's something that's never been officially confirmed. FNAF 1 is almost entirely devoid of lore, while later games seem to patch in the cracks of the story in a very convoluted way. Combining this with multiple Pizzeria establishments under the Fazbear Entertainment umbrella, several different murders, and various possible motives, it becomes hard to say that anyone really knows anything about FNAF's story.

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The First Freddy Fazbear Death

The games reveal multiple deaths throughout Fazbear Entertainment's history, but when it comes to which death occurred first, the story doesn't provide a clear answer. Many theorists have come up with solid reasoning to support a few different possibilities as to who was the first victim, using it to set up the rest of their theories as to why the following events continued growing worse and led to more victims. The two biggest suspects for the first victim are Charlie, daughter of Henry Emily who is believed to have been killed by William Afton, or one of Afton's children, believed to be his son Ethan.

Both of these theories make sense, as Charlie - who later possesses the Puppet - is accepted by the fandom as being the one who tied later child victims' souls to the animatronics seen in FNAF 1. Her being the first to die sets up the rest of the story in relation to the Missing Children's Incident, but her death being the first brings the question of motive. Charlie was killed by William Afton, but why would he kill her? So far, there's no clear motive.

However, if the first victim is indeed Ethan (a name plucked by the fandom from the FNAF books but never mentioned in the games), Afton has a motive for killing Charlie. Ethan is believed to be the child in FNAF 4, bedridden after being bitten accidentally by an animatronic in a prank gone wrong. If Ethan were to die first, this gives Afton a clear motive for killing Emily's daughter as a form of revenge, therefore giving many fans reason to believe Ethan is the first victim.

Confusingly, Chica claims that she was the first victim during Ultimate Custom Night, saying: "I was the first. I have seen everything." Chica is possessed by one of the children killed by Afton in the Missing Children's Incident: Susie, as confirmed in both the games and books. This calls into question what it means to be the first, though Susie being the first victim makes the least sense of the three children in question. For now, the fandom is still divided on this topic.

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William Afton's History And Family

A huge part of FNAF lore theories focuses on William Afton, the man who wore the Golden Bonnie suit connected to the murders of the Missing Children's Incident and beyond. William Afton was one of the founders of Fazbear Entertainment, along with Henry Emily. The Afton family's secrets and lore in FNAF are central to the series as a whole, generally acting as the cause behind the hauntings and murders.

The Afton family is accepted to have at least five members: William, his unnamed wife, and their children Ethan, Elizabeth, and Michael. Sister Location reveals the identity of William Afton's daughter, Elizabeth. Like Ethan, Elizabeth's life is cut short by one of William's animatronics, known as Circus Baby. Elizabeth became too curious about Circus Baby, and Baby pulls her into her cavernous stomach and kills Elizabeth.

This death is seen in one of the many 8-bit minigames and explained by Sister Location's Baby herself. Elizabeth's spirit is still in Circus Baby, and when Michael Afton - her brother - finds her, he's convinced to enter the Scooping Room and falls victim to the Scooper that's used to remove the innards of animatronics from their suits.

Here, theories take over to try to fill in the gaps. MatPat from The Game Theorists on YouTube has perhaps the most theory videos on FNAF found on one channel, and he proposes that Michael Afton is the security guard in the first few FNAF games. His argument makes a lot of solid points, until the later addition of the Rogue Indie Developer in FNAF VR: Help Wanted.

Help Wanted introduces perhaps the most confusing layer of lore to FNAF, as it welcomes the idea that the first three games are actually games in the FNAF universe - created by Rogue Indie Developer - and are not part of the real universe experienced by the player. That would make them games within a game universe, which means that Michael can't be the security guard and the minigames can't be taken as fact. MatPat posits that Mrs. Afton hired people to make the games for a positive PR spin on the murders and negativity surrounding the Fazbear brand, but does it mean that the established lore is no longer canon, and has been manipulated by Mrs. Afton?

Related: Real-Life FNAF Circus Baby Animatronic Shows How Terrifying She Really Is

FNAF Books And In-Game Stories

The books are canon, sort of. They touch on a lot of the lore, but at the same time, the books change a lot of names and take different paths with events that aren't seen in the games (an example being that Charlie is a robot made in various age forms, with one becoming a version of Baby). However, the games wouldn't be able to go into as much detail as the books over such a long period of time due to the limitations of game mechanics.

Then, there are in-game stories in Pizzeria Simulator told by Candy Cadet. YouTuber IDsFantasy sums up what could be misinformation surrounding Candy Cadet's stories in the video below. In the Short, IDsFantasy posits that the fanbase - believing that Candy Cadet's stories are all about five things becoming one, which players took to mean five souls in one animatronic - is actually incorrect. The YouTuber believes that the stories, while all focusing on five things and one, are all actually very different and tell three stories of different characters as opposed to the widely-accepted belief that these stories are just the same.

Given how vague FNAF is overall with the information it reveals about its characters and history, it's possible that the developers purposely made Candy Cadet's stories fit multiple interpretations to continue the general mystery of what really happened in this fictional universe. When it comes to FNAF's story, a lot of theories are taken as fact given how solid the arguments for them are, but it seems that the developers also provide fuel for creating more theories.

FNAF Fans Are Still Divided On Lore

Over on Reddit, user GrayzyZ recently asked players for theories they accept as canon, without them being officially confirmed. The thread received a lot of interest from the community, who immediately began to explore the topic and proved that - yes - even nearly a decade on from the first FNAF, players are still assuming when it comes to the story and lore.

Some of the key responses included rdsfmn, who noted that Molten Freddy containing the souls of the Missing Children's Incident victims still isn't proven, but is fully accepted by the community. Zoxary also noted that the theory that FNAF 4's child is Michael Afton's brother is also - technically - not confirmed, and now just taken as fact by the fanbase. The whole thread serves as a reminder that, when it comes to FNAF, any new book or game could retcon years of accepted belief.

In the end, a lot of the generally accepted FNAF lore is really based on theories instead of officially confirmed content. Between the multiple sources of content considered canon and the amount of retconning that happened with the release of the books, it's easier than ever to blur the lines between official story and fan theories. However, that might be a big draw for the series because it ends up feeling like there's always a new mystery to solve or a puzzle to piece together. With the movie releasing soon, there'll certainly be debates regarding where its content fits in the larger world of the Five Nights at Freddy's universe.

Source: The Game Theorists/YouTube, IDsFantasy/YouTube, GrayzyZ/Reddit, rdsfmn/Reddit, Zoxary/Reddit