Did Five Nights At Freddy's Ever Have A Good Story?

Pinned comment question: What's your favorite narrative (in any medium) with excessive amounts of lore?

Nothing in this franchise is quite as funny as the concept that Elizabeth was there, in the pizza sim building, going on and on about how this must be a gift from her dad, and how she's going to make him proud, and Afton is literally there, in the same ventilation system, listening to it all with no comment on anything. They never ran into each other? They never discussed this or anything?

i got so far into this video and went "wait didnt henry get into a car accident and kill his family" before realizing that i somehow managed to merge fnaf lore and the little bit of the walten files story i remembered in my mind

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Remnant is the Midi-chlorians of fnaf

Fucking loved Micheal and William roasting each other

bonnie staring at the camera in cam 5 is still, to this very day, one of the most horrifying realizations that hits you. these things know you aren't an endoskeleton, as bonnie ignores the endo in that room and chooses to stare at YOU. that was the most solid fucking story telling yet in fnaf 1 had you not known about the MCI prior to seeing that.

I wish we never got “remnant” as an explanation for Michael getting up after ennard leaves. The idea of a corpse still moving for reasons neither the audience nor it understand is so much cooler than “magic goop”. Idk, maybe I just don’t like how it was handled, undertale had a similar concept and I kinda enjoyed it there

Nezumi please I already feel bad enough for being british I don't need it to be lore relevant

I never knew how much I wanted a scene of Michael and William yelling at each other when they have reach way past their breaking point and are just two extremely broken and tired people, but I loved it and I need more.

Okay but "lore-or" is actually such a good genre name to lump all of the fnaf inspired horror games that have come out with an emphasis on hidden stories and lore instead of actual horror elements (bendy, poppy playtime, hello neighbor just to name a few)

I will defend Fnaf 3 until the day I die, so my answer to this question is yes, but only until the Afton Saga started (4- SL- FFPS). After you look at the first few games retroactively it becomes really clear Scott just made it up as he went along. It's a miracle it managed to stay good for that long to begin with

I honestly just assumed that Micheal Afton was kind of...possessing / haunting his own corpse. He was killed in a pretty brutal manner and piloted around like a reverse mech suit. Given his unfinished buissness, and the precident of haunted things in the series (animatronics) I don't see why Michael possessing / hauning his own corpse is out of the question, or rather would have been.

i remember when the first fnaf came out, it was right when i moved out for the very first time. watching markiplier's lets play of that game, by myself and in the dark, more by myself than i ever had been before, it really scared me! "sleep with all the lights on in my tiny and lonely new apartment" kind of scared me! jumping at every little creak and thump in my decrepit old apartment building, for seven whole months,right up to the day i moved out of there. and honestly, remembering that year and remembering fnaf fondly go hand in hand for me. and i mean, you know. five nights freddy waiting for me in front of my fridge

My thoughts is that the first 3 games told a story that you could fill with headcanons because names were kept blank, we knew no motives. He just did the things and the place is haunted. It wasn't supposed to be in depth But now... it's just super convoluted with having to remember names and specific events

I swear at this point you deserve WAY more recognition. These are genuinely some of the most fun video essays ive ever listened to

This video was boss. It's rare to look at the plot straightforwardly without the wild speculation, this really brought us back to what we know. It's a shame we didn't get some more mechanical analysis but what you've covered is still very comprehensive. It's also nice to see you address the more obvious financial issues with the series with nuance and tact. Oh and the bit with Scraptrap and Michael made me laugh my head off.

I think my biggest gripe with where the series is going is that they just refuse to let william die, in more ways than one. The Aftons shouldve died and stayed dead in pizzaria simulator in my opinion, handing off the torch to another villain (which preferably for me shouldve been vanessa, but i do like how theyre seemingly trying to give her a redemption arc...just a redemption arc off screen. Yikes). Plus, with all respect to matpat and what hes done for fnaf, he also seems to refuse to let the afton storyline go, which is making a hefty portion of the community do the same thing. But maybe scotts love for rewriting the lore after matpat gets something right will work in my personal favor lol. Luckily though, i think theyre slowly wading away from the aftons, but who knows 😮‍💨 I really do like the new age stuff, even though i do think its gotten much to child friendly and frankly, boring. Its got some amazing potential (potential that ive decided to start writing my own version of the story lol), and i really hope it works out in the end.

1:19:12-1:20:01 Peter dropping the hardest monologue to a random person in the bathroom has to be the funniest thing I’ve seen all week and 1:13:28-1:14:33 just pure gold here

I was laughing way to hard at that Father and son reunion at the pizzeria simulator bit

something that never fails to impress me is your ability to write conclusions that hit right in the feels. there's just something so effortless about the way you string cathartic imagery into something emotional and maybe even a bit melancholic, yet still endlessly forward-driving and unerring it really does capture the experience of something important to you coming to an end and all the bittersweetness that entails, but also the follow-up excitement towards whatever wonders still await you on the path you've claimed as your own