Yet another theory about that "one retcon:" It was 2014

[Rollerwings]

So Scott recently mentioned on the FNaF reddit that he did one actual retcon in the FNaF series but the retcon was "integrated pretty seamlessly, and most people didn't notice."

https://www.reddit.com/r/fivenightsatfreddys/comments/6y0qb1/the_retcon_issue/

He also said he would have addressed the retcon if it had caused problems or confusion. I take this to mean the retcon is not one of the issues that have spawned countless threads of (mostly) friendly debate.

Many fans have said that they take this to mean the retcon couldn't be the hotly-debated identity of the man in Springtrap, i.e. he was originally the killer but retconned in SL to be an innocent man in a case of mistaken identity. IMHO that sounds about right, and if Springtrap's identity was changed from Scott's original plan, it may have merely been one of those instances he mentioned in the post above and not a true retcon. ("The story has developed new details over time that may not have been planned from the beginning.")

Anyway, I haven't seen this possibility mentioned as the retcon: Maybe FNaF1 took place not in 1992/3 as we thought, but in the present day, i.e. 2014 when the game was released.

This may seem like a benign detail unless you're an absolute timeline purist, but changing the date would change Mike Schmidt's role from a fairly unimportant one in the grand scheme of things (a guy who worked a week and got fired) to a central character in the series.

I believe the Crying Child was "put back together" after his injury and recovered in a new house as the FNaF3 main gameplay child, with both of those time periods occurring in 1983 as hinted by the cartoon on the TV and the secret code for the camera feed. I also believe this kid would have been about 5 years old in '83, which interestingly would have also been Scott's age that year (going by the birth year on his copyright applications) and Charlie from the novel's age that year and mine. Go '78 babies!

The paychecks in FNaF1 do not contain a year, though many theorists figured by the minimum wage that Mike Schmidt would have worked in 1992/3, and this became a commonly theorized year for the first game's setting.

However, if Mike Schmidt is in fact Mike Afton, he would only be 14/15 at the time, and I can't see a teen passing himself off as an adult very easily.

So I'm actually beginning to think that FNaF1 happened in 2014, when Mike would have been 36. (And the low wage was just because Fazbear Entertainment was as stingy as they were corrupt.)

That might not be a retcon in the strictest sense of the term, but maybe Scott felt it was if it had become commonly accepted ("fanon") that FNaF1 happened in 1992/3 and he had never hinted before that we might've been wrong.

This would have Eggs Benedict/Mike Afton, as an adult, typing the secret code to see his childhood bedroom he'd had when he was 5.

This year also gives us a general idea of when other significant events took place:

-- Assuming Mike worked in CBEAR as an adult, then SL took place no earlier than 1996 when he would have been 18. (He was returning to free the sister he lost back in childhood.)

-- If FNaF1 took place in 2014, it still could have reopened shortly after the FNaF2 location closed. Phone Guy would have worked there from as early as 1987 all the way until that fatal night in 2014.

-- Phone Guy's "If I had to sing those same stupid songs for 20 years..." comment still fits. Say the pizzeria re-opened in 1994. Twenty years later would be 2014. (It's also possible his statement was a generalization, just like we'd say, "Ah, that Pizza Hut's been here a good twenty years.")

The year FNaF3 took place is still sketchy, as (small TFF spoiler:) page 55 says the game takes place 30 years after the horrific events, though interestingly, it adds that the exact horrific events aren't specified. Then literally a page later it says it's been 30 years since the last FFP closed.

Oddly, I'm not so sure the exact year FNaF3 took place really matters; it's more that it helped advance the story. If Spring Bonnie was sealed up in the safe room in the early '80s, the FNaF1 pizzeria closed in 2014, and Mike returned to the derelict pizzeria and was spring-trapped a few years after the closing, then Phone Dude could be basing his "30 years" on 30 years since the 1987 murders that closed the FNaF2 location, which could place the events of FNaF3 in 2017.

If this was the retcon, then I'm guessing it was done to fix the problem with Mike's age at the time of a 1992-set FNaF1 and possibly to set FNaF6 in more or less the present day, not years in the future. Thanks for reading!

TL;DR -- Maybe the retcon was that FNaF1 took place in 2014 instead of 1992/3.

[JustThatOneGuy13]

I think the retcon was that Nightmare BB is canon or explaining how the Nightmares are real (they could've originally been what the child interpret in the dark, but changed to being from hallucinary disks).

[chuckster]

makes sense, I suppose

I thought it was the bite of 87's culprit being changed from Foxy/Freddy to someone else, but hey, when was that ever an important thing? this is far more significant

[Sp00ky_Matt]

Originally posted by Aubergine Man:

makes sense, I suppose

I thought it was the bite of 87's culprit being changed from Foxy/Freddy to someone else, but hey, when was that ever an important thing? this is far more significant

the fan did the bite of 87!

[Witt]

Originally posted by Matt:

Originally posted by Aubergine Man:

makes sense, I suppose

I thought it was the bite of 87's culprit being changed from Foxy/Freddy to someone else, but hey, when was that ever an important thing? this is far more significant

the fan did the bite of 87!

Nah. The Margarine did it.

[Sp00ky_Matt]

Originally posted by Coffy™:

Originally posted by Matt:

the fan did the bite of 87!

Nah. The Margarine did it.

No, Buzz Lightyear did it

[BeetleDude]

Originally posted by Matt:

Originally posted by Coffy™:

Nah. The Margarine did it.

No, Buzz Lightyear did it

YEU BETH WRENG! ICED COFFEE DED IT!!!11!

[Sp00ky_Matt]

Originally posted by The Ultimate Old Sport:

Originally posted by Matt:

No, Buzz Lightyear did it

YEU BETH WRENG! ICED COFFEE DED IT!!!11!

Oh... Old Sport, will he ever learn?

[BeetleDude]

Originally posted by Matt:

Originally posted by The Ultimate Old Sport:

YEU BETH WRENG! ICED COFFEE DED IT!!!11!

Oh... Old Sport, will he ever learn?

WHIN WELL I EVAH LERN WHET, OLD SPORT?/!!1!