The Entire PRE-REBOOT Popgoes Lore (2016-2019)

The entirety of the old Popgoes lore, which consists of Popgoes Reprinted (1+2) and both the old Popgoes' Arcade games, written by me on one incredibly uneventful day.

Intro/Edit History

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IMAGE: Old Popgoes game logo

Welcome to the ultimate old Popgoes Lore guide! This will walk you through everything you need to know about the old Popgoes timeline. Keep in mind, This does NOT include this game (Arcade 2020), only the old version of Popgoes Arcade and all of the other games that have been made non-canon.

You may hear of other old versions of the lore, Such as the 2015 version with the scrapped games Silent Night and Encore, the other 2016 version with the first scrapped Popgoes sequel, The scrapped Phisnom sequel Popgoes IF, and The scrapped game Popgoes Finale. None of the scrapped games listed above will be discussed- only the Dead Forest and Popgoes Arcade 2 on top of Popgoes Arcade 2016 and the original Popgoes 2016, as those were canon right up until the reboot.
One last thing, any mentions of the JR's location in the guide has ZERO relation to the fangame of the same name. This is clarified in the guide itself, but this is just a reminder.

The retcons made are discussed in the outro. Please enjoy!

Changelog

v1.1.0 - 12/6/22: Spelling and grammatical improvements, Added Intro/Edit History and The Epitomes' Construction Sections, edited outro to discuss retcons made for the reboot, severely improved Fritz' Afterlife/Ending segment.

v1.2.0 - 1/26/23: Made it extra clear in the intro and title that this covers the old lore. Also clarified which variation of the lore is being discussed. Added images to each section.

v1.2.1 - 1/31/23: Minor Edits to some segments.

v1.3.0 - 5/10/23: Quite a few edits and revisions, some extra clarification on some things.

v1.4.0 - 8/6/23: Many clarifications and revisions. Hopefully, this the final round of changes. Thank you for the support!

v1.4.1 - 8/15/23: I lied; I got lazy and didn't finish all of the edits. NOW this should be the last round... Hopefully. I may consider combining the Simon's Goal & Destruction of Animatronics and the Epitome's Construction segments into a single bigger one, but this will be at a later date. Thanks again for the support!

The Fitzgerald Brothers & Bite of '87

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Image: Young Fritz and Simon, from the cutscene shown as a reward for beating impossible mode in Popgoes 2016 edition

Sometime in November 1968, twins Simon and Jeremy Fitzgerald are born. They are described as opposites, with Simon being pessimistic, yet lucky and Jeremy being positive, yet very unlucky. Jeremy becomes a huge fan of Fredbear's Family Diner, and collects all of the merchandise. However, his paranoia starts to get the better of him. He starts to fear some of the characters, such as JJ, after he accidentally sets her off using the buttons on her head. This causes her to run offstage and break.
After Fredbear's closed down, a new Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria opened. This place feature the withered animatronics before they reached their broken status. During this time, Simon wonders if the blood of young people will cause him to be immortal. To test this, he kills the 6 children and his legacy is solidified through the rumor of the Purple Guy. He starts his blood experiments after Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria closes, and then a new one opens in '87 (JR's location for all you FNaF 6 nerds, though FFPS/FNaF 6 isn't canon to the Popgoes Lore).
However, before Simon's experiments can be completed, the Bite of '87 occurs; Jeremy is bitten by Toy Bonnie on the forehead, just before JR's closes down on his final shift. Other Things of note that occurred during his shifts were hallucinations of JJ, the sighting of Shadow Bonnie who simply serves as foreshadowing for the Blackrabbit, and the nightmares he started having about the Toy animatronics (not the Withereds though). Simon, still caring about his brother, donates all of his remaining blood to his brother, as they are both universal receiver types. Simon is never seen again by Jeremy, and the blood donation is done anonymously; However, later Jeremy discovers the truth about his brother's killings and experiments.

Fritz's fears & his daughter, Bonnie Glade

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Image: Strings in his dreamcatcher form, from Popgoes Memories. This was a collection of slides showcasing characters from Popgoes Reprinted. For those curious, half of Reprinted was a remake of the original Popgoes, in a segment called Popgoes 1: The Blackrabbit. The other half was a sequel to Popgoes, titled Popgoes 2: The Dead Forest. They are both canon here and are discussed later.

Anyways, The FNaF 2 location closes down. Jeremy, wanting to escape bad press, moves from Texas to England. He also changes his name to Fritz Glade, an anagram of Fitzgerald, which he will be referred to from now on. He becomes a talented inventor as well, which is important later. Also for future reference, the FNaF 1 location is unimportant other than Simon's death in the Spring Bonnie suit; this is shown in the final minigame in FNaF 3.
Anyways, somewhere along the line he has a daughter, who names Bonnie Glade as to give a name with a negative connotation to something he loves. The mom is unimportant, but Bonnie certainly is. Afterwards, Fritz decides to combat his nightmares of the Toys with dream catchers, at the suggestion of a friend of his. He starts with the Puppet; He names his first dreamcatcher Strings, who is successful at quelling Fritz's nightmares of the Puppet. This is shown in the intro to Popgoes Arcade 2016. He starts work on more, but completes only one. This one is named Buttons, a dreamcatcher for JJ created due to the incident at Fredbear's. However, Buttons fails, and the rest of the dreamcatchers were scrapped due to Fritz's fear that they would fail as well.
The other dreamcatchers' names were:
Notes (T. Bonnie)
Bows (T. Freddy)
Eyes (T. Chica)
Pieces (Mangle)
Signs (Balloon Boy)

The Dreamcatchers and WeaselWare

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Image: Springtrap's jumpscare, seen after unlocking the secret ending in Popgoes Arcade 2

After this failure, Fritz goes to the auction for Fazbear's Fright in America, which is the FNaF 3 location (This auction took place after the fire at the end of that game). After learning of what happened to his brother and finding his skull in Springtrap's burned head, he buys everything in the auction and returns to England. Also, The Phone Dude in FNaF 3 was murdered by Springtrap at the end of Popgoes Arcade 2; This is really the only thing to note about that game.
Newly inspired by his items, he buys everything in the auction and returns to England. Newly inspired by his items. He uses his scrapped dreamcatcher designs and takes specific elements of them to put in the new robots for his new Popgoes Pizzeria. The name came from the sound of The Puppet's music box in FNaF 2. This resulted in the creation of Stone the Crow (BB, Signs), Sara the Squirrel (T. Chica, Eyes) Saffron the Squirrel (T. Freddy, Bows) Blake the Badger (Mangle, Pieces) and Popgoes the Weasel (T. Bonnie, Notes). He also creates WeaselWare, a system in which he can control the Pizzeria's new technology such as 3D printers, as well as the active animatronics. This works by connecting the "heart," or main AI core, of each animatronic to the system. Stone becomes deactivated from WeaselWare after someone writes "You'll Die Here" on his sign, as revealed by the scrapped Heart of Stone comic. Lastly, he starts the Buttons (JJ) animatronic, called Manora the Mouse, but scraps her before her design is finished. He also creates one more thing, but it's something much darker...

Simon Fitzgerald's Replica

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Image: The robotic replication of Simon Fitzgerald, simply known as Simon

After learning of his brother's death, Fritz recreates him as a robotic skeleton known as Simon, who he outfits with the fast-learning AI core Evolution. This allows him to communicate with similar AI in unique ways as well. After realizing both how illegal Simon was and that he has recreated a child murderer, Fritz chains Simon to a wall in the Warehouse below the Popgoes Pizzeria, where he learns about his origin hanging in Fritz's office by using the computers. He learns quickly, initially speaking in child-like sentences before developing fast with his thirst for knowledge. He's important later, but now we must return our attention to Fritz's now adult daughter, Bonnie Glade.

The Blackrabbit & SAVE BONNIE

TW: Image is gory, but unrealistic
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Image: a drawing depicting Bonnie Glade's corpse, shown right before the original Popgoes' Grave Ending.

Bonnie is interested in the paranormal, and her experiments suggest that if someone is murdered, they get a "second chance" at life. This is similar to the haunted animatronics in FNaF 1. She also believes in a "Happiest Day," in which a soul is set free and goes to... whatever afterlife exists. to test both theories, she needs to be murdered herself, and she devises a plan to exploit her father to do so. She puts on a 3D-printed Toy Bonnie mask, walks up to her dad and says, "Hey dad, look, it's me!" In a blind panic due to his PTSD, Fritz chops her up into 6 pieces with an axe. Fritz is obviously devastated, as he's just murdered his own daughter. He buries her in his backyard, and puts his axe in a well. This is an Easter egg you may recognize in Popgoes Arcade, both in the original and the reboot. Bonnie's plan works, and she now haunts the Popgoes' Pizzeria.
She is first shown working as a ghost in one of the Popgoes Pizzeria Arcade machines, which she escapes from in one of the endings to the game. Back to Fritz, he enters "Save Bonnie" into Popgoes' AI code to see what it will do. This results in Popgoes trying to print 6 pieces of Toy Bonnie for Bonnie Glade to possess, known as the Blackrabbit. Simon works this all into his plan to escape from his chains, but that is unimportant for now. It is Strings' time to shine.

The Main Popgoes game

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Image: Show Stage, from Popgoes 2016.

Fritz creates 2 more AI modules similar to Simon's Evolution module, known as Curiosity and Security. He uses them on Strings to upgrade him to Security Strings, or Sec-Strings for short (I will still refer to him as just Strings). Curiosity allows Strings to make assumptions about the world, but it also causes him to hallucinate similar to Fritz. For example, Gem Stone is a hallucination, and combination of Stone and Strings' thoughts about Fritz- a transparent, honest man. Grave Stone is his interpretation of the events of the Grave ending, discussed later. There is also the Security module, which simulates night guard behaviors. This was to make Strings' experience similar to Fritz's FNaF 2 experience, namely by locking him in place and preventing talking.
Anyways, Fritz puts Strings on the night shift at the Popgoes' Pizzeria in order to see what he will do. Because the animatronics don't deactivate at night due to it being a time of rest for them. Fritz can control them with WeaselWare, which causes him to panic. If he panics too much, he overheats and malfunctions. He only really dies if the Blackrabbit is built by Popgoes, who then attacks him. Shifting focus back to Simon, his plan starts here, which is to force Strings to hallucinate to gain confidence to trick Fritz.

The Grave Ending

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Image: The screen shown after obtaining the Grave Ending, showing Simon, the Luxes and Gravestone

For 6 nights, Simon uses his Evolution Module to force Strings to hallucinate the Lux animatronics- glowing versions of the Popgoes crew as well as the Blackrabbit- and he is finally confident enough to trick Fritz. Fritz had learned of what Popgoes was doing over the 6 nights, and Simon says he can "bring her back" if Fritz gives him control over WeaselWare, referring to Bonnie Glade. Fritz concedes, and gives him control of the system. Afterwards, Simon prints the Blackrabbit, who is possessed by Bonnie and kills Fritz, also setting him free. Since Fritz was murdered, he also gets a second chance, which is important later. Simon's 2nd plan begins now, and this is where the scrapped game Popgoes 2: The Dead Forest begins.
Bear in mind this particular scrapped game was canon until the reboot, So I will talk about it here.

Simon's Goal & Destruction of Animatronics

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Image: Security Buttons, a useful ally in the scrapped Popgoes 2: The Dead Forest

Simon becomes obsessed with philosophy- a concept he will never truly understand. He wants to know the meaning of life and being free, as well as why humans exist and what having a soul is like. Unfortunately, he can't find a concrete answer, but he plans to kill every philosopher and scientist he can until he does. To do this, he salvages parts from Strings and the Popgoes Crew, including their AI hearts, to help him as interrogators (The specifics of this are discussed in the next segment). Buttons is also upgraded to Sec-Buttons, a robot with a useless scanner, as an insult to Fritz's legacy. Strings is partially torn apart, and thrown down a flight of stairs into Fritz's old office, along with Buttons. He awakens a month later in the midst of Simon's plan. He is now missing both his Curiosity and Security module, which leads to him being able to move and talk.

The Epitomes' Construction

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Image: A render of Epitome Popgoes, discussed below

Simon begins the construction of the Epitome animatronics, the aforementioned skeletal interrogation gang, using the Popgoes crew's parts. His first creation is Epitome Popgoes, and the makeshift machine works. However, despite being controlled by WeaselWare via his heart, E. Popgoes still attacks Simon. He is severely damaged, losing a hand and getting his jaw unhinged. This particular variation is known as Frayed Simon (still referred to as Simon in this guide.) It is clear to him that he needs an upgrade, but first he builds the rest of the epitomes. He does this by taking the rest of the hearts from the old Popgoes Crew. After this, he then begins his final phase of his plan; this will have Simon upgrade himself into a powerful, Wendigo-Like form known as Deadline. The fate of the original Popgoes' characters and the gameplay of Popgoes 2 is discussed in the next section- Strings' final week has begun.

The Scrapped 2nd Game

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Image: The Popgoes 2 thumbnail, featuring Epitome Popgoes

Without their hearts, the broken pizzeria characters become the Heartless. They are desperate to get their hearts back- and they think Strings has them. They try to print out-of-proportion black limbs and become the Reprinted Animatronics before attacking Strings. To deal with the new Epitome and Heartless threats, Strings uses Sec-Buttons. Buttons can roam the pizzeria above to scan the Heartless and deny them access to the 3D printers in the abandoned area. Strings also prints the heads of the toy animatronics to lure the Epitomes away from him. This works, because the Epitomes have the Toy-hating hearts as parts. Strings survives 5 nights before Deadline is complete, but something odd happens along the way that could save hundreds from slaughter.

Fritz's Afterlife and Ending

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Image: Render of Deadline, as seen in the Dead Forest

Fritz doesn't get his happiest day due of his murder, and in his afterlife he has one last goal to achieve. Every night, Fritz calls Strings and gives him instructions as to how to deactivate WeaselWare. This will result in the deactivation of Strings himself, as well as the Epitomes, the Heartless, Buttons and Deadline. Bonnie has presumably had a happiest day by this point, and if Strings follows his instructions, Fritz will have his as well. On the 6th night, Deadline is completed. Normally, he would be too powerful for Strings to stop. This was the bad ending of the game. However, if Strings following Fritz's instructions, he deactivates WeaselWare as Deadline approaches. This shuts them both down. As Strings deactivates, he says one last line:

"You'll never come back."

The game closes.

This was the canon finale of the series.

Outro/Lore Changes in the Reboot

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Image: Popgoes Evergreen's game thumbnail, the upcoming canon sequel to This version of Arcade

Keep in mind that the lore will be heavily retconned in the reboot, which this version of Arcade is a part of. Also, remember that none of the stuff from Popgoes 2 will be included. Some other things being removed are Gemstone, Gravestone, The Luxes, and Possibly Strings himself. If you're wondering why they were removed, the first 3 listed were deemed to have little value and lore importance. As for Strings, It has been confirmed that Fritz never saw the puppet at JR's, causing the Strings dreamcatcher to be unneeded. However, he is not outright deconfirmed, and may be worked in somehow.
I initially left this as a review for this game, but I changed the review of the game to be an actual review, and put the original lore explanation here as an archive. I also plan on making a Part 2 to this guide when Evergreen releases, discussing the scrapped games that were mentioned in the intro (I can't WAIT to talk about Encore). I may also do this when MyPopgoes, a new spinoff in the series, ends up releasing on Steam.
Either way, Thanks for reading!

[Kirbo2020]

Thank you Enter :3 and the other guy I haven't responded to in a year and a half despite reading his comment less than a month after it was written

[Enter]

Bro is yapping

[chase]

Very Informative

[Kirbo2020]

Fazbear's was in the public domain by the time the Popgoes' Pizzeria came around, so Fritz was not sued.

[BENDYSFUNMARES]

so your saying when fredbears familly diner close frickin willy the wesel ripoff came and was like hey guys lets ripoff fredbears familly diner and boom time to get sude and the ther dead the end of my lore of popgoes