1973: Setting the Scene: The Opening of Fredbear’s Family Diner

Before there were any of the beloved animatronics we know today, there were two men and their dream for creation: William Afton and Henry Emily.

Afton and Emily were business partners who opened Fredbear’s Family Diner, a new brand of children’s entertainment restaurant that involved singing animatronics. This passion project for these men introduced us to the two iconic faces of the franchise: a yellow Fredbear and a yellow Bonnie the Bunny.

What set their diner apart from competitors was Afton’s revolutionary invention: “Springlock Suits.” Unlike the standard mascots that had people in cheap suits, these were dual-purpose machines. By using a hand crank to wind the animatronic endoskeleton parts back into the inner wall of the suit, a human could slip inside and perform. Afton’s vision for these suits was to keep the children’s dreams alive and make the animatronics as realistic as possible.

The men would don their suits to entertain the children. Emily would be in the titular golden Fredbear mascot, later known in the franchise as “Golden Freddy,” while Afton would be in the secondary mascot, a golden rabbit costume, later known in the franchise as “Spring Bonnie.” I speculate their dedication to the passion project might stem from the men’s family-oriented values. Afton had three children: Elizabeth, Michael and the “Crying Child.” Emily had one daughter: Charlotte.

As their business grew, Afton and Emily expanded and opened “Fazbear Entertainment,” a chain of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurants. The number of mascots grew as well and then came the characters we know and love: Foxy the Pirate, Chica the Chicken and a fresh version of Bonnie the Rabbit. During this time, Afton created new animatronics, like a Fredbear Plush with a camera hidden inside of it (a gift for his son) and a branch of “Funtime Animatronics.” Business was booming, and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong … that was until … The Bite of ‘83.

1983: The Bite of ‘83 (“Five Nights at Freddy’s 4”) (Game released in 2015):

The first game in the series chronologically, FNAF 4, takes place in a little boy’s bedroom and follows the nightmares of the Crying Child.

Someone who intentionally tormented the Crying Child, though, was his own brother, Michael.

As players, we are looking into the mind of a boy who has been psychologically abused by his own brother and now, his fear has manifested into over-the-top versions of his father’s animatronics.

On what was supposed to be a happy day, the young boy’s birthday, the Afton family decided to spend a day at one of their restaurants. But with some light-hearted bullying, things took a tragic and unexpected turn when Michael and his friends teased the Crying Child into “kissing” Golden Freddy. They lifted him up and shoved him into the head of the animatronic’s mouth. Because Golden Freddy was in singing mode, its jaw continued to operate. The pressure snapped the child’s skull, leaving him in a coma.

The Crying Child did not die immediately. In his final moments, the boy was alone in a hospital room where he experienced delirium. The monsters that caused him unbearable pain appeared to him as apparitions. His Fredbear plush sat beside him as he lay in a comatose state, and soon after, the plush started to speak to him through the camera attached to it. The voice is often interpreted as Afton himself speaking to his son saying, “I am going to put you back together.” Yet after this, the Crying Child passed away, and his soul inhabited Golden Freddy.

This moment is where the horror of the FNAF franchise first begins. The very reason Afton set out to kill kids is to find out what happened to his son’s soul and to strike revenge on his business partner, but we will get to that part later.

Year Unknown: (“Five Nights at Freddy’s 5: Sister Location”) (Game released in 2016):

In the years that followed the Crying Child’s death, Afton spiraled. His own creation, one that was supposed to entertain children, killed his son. But, Afton kept his fan-theorized promise to “put his son back together” and began putting pieces of his son’s corpse into the animatronic. The Crying Child was directly killed by the animatronic, which is the reason why he possessed it. This realization changed Afton’s life. He becomes obsessed with the concept of “putting people back together,” and began a twisted pursuit of immortality to maintain the soul of his son.

He wanted to understand what exactly happened to his child, so he began to modify the aforementioned Funtime Animatronics with the sole purpose of catching another child. One animatronic in particular, Circus Baby, was built with a retractable claw from her stomach to specifically capture children.

The Afton family, specifically the children, did not have the best luck when it came to their father’s inventions. One day, Elizabeth snuck into a newly opened sister location of Fazbear’s called “Circus Baby’s Pizza World” with the intent of eating some ice cream from the animatronic Circus Baby. Not knowing what modifications her father had made to the animatronic, she reached for the ice cream and the animatronic’s claw snapped out of its stomach, killing Elizabeth. This resulted in her soul possessing the personality of Circus Baby.

The location closed down due to a “gas leak,” but fans know it is actually due to the death of Elizabeth. This incident opened Emily’s eyes to Afton’s dangerous pursuits and caused Emily to subsequently fire Afton.

1985-1987: The Missing Children

this will be updated later i am NOT copy pasting anymore from the article today.

Here's the article that i took this all from. I did NOT write this. The complete fnaf lore and timeline explained