Fnaf 2 & 3 had some pretty convoluted stuff in them too

Like a lot of older fnaf fans I sometimes have rose tinted glasses for when fnaf was just a trilogy, back when the lore was so much simpler. I think everyone can kinda agree fnaf 4 is when the lore truely became a mess, but looking back at fnaf just as a trilogy, those games had so many inconsistent details that the story is kind of incomprehensible once you go past the surface layer or without using knowledge from future games. This post was more for fun than anything, I was inspired by a post talking about how incomprehensible the lore is nowdays, so don't take anything I say here too seriously.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

- The game is a prequel: Let me praise the game first before I start complaint. Fnaf 2 being a prequel might legitimately be the only well pulled of twist in the entire series because 1. It's not debatable, the game makes it clear that it is a prequel, 2. the game puts in the leg work to ensure the twist fully makes sense in the pre-established narrative, and 3. the twist is actually conveyed to the player (looking at you fnaf 4). So there you have it, the one time fnaf's vague mystery method of story telling actually worked lol. Alright, let's get to complaining.

- This game just straight up retcons one of the only pieces of story information established in the previous game, the killer was convicted, and doesn't do anything to actually clarify this information was retconed. Like, the only way you can actually figure out this information has been retconned is when you stop, think and realise it doesn't make sense for the killer to be returning if he was convicted after the first set of murders. The game makes no effort to establish it just retconed something big from the previous game.

- Why are there two different sprites for the killer in the death-minigames? Why are they different colours of purple? Literally all this achieved was make people think there were two killers, which was compounded by the fact the game made no effort to establish the killer being convicted was retconed. So if you were actually looking closely at the games story, and saw that there were two different killer sprites, and that the first game said the killer was convicted, of course you would think that the new killer is a seperate guy. I mean, come on game.

- Why is Golden Freddy not called Fredbear on the custom night menu? This is the game that establishes Fredbear's Family Diner, yet you don't tell us the character who is meant to be Fredbear is named Fredbear?

Fnaf 2, overall not that many issues, but there was definitely a fue major ones. Let's hope fnaf 3 pays a bit more attention to detail this time round.

Five Nights at Freddy's 3

- Why do the minigame sprites for the animatronics have buttons if they're meant to be the classics? The classics don't have buttons, but the withereds do.

- How did the killer use a golden suit in fnaf 2 if the springlock suits were sealed off in the safe room after the children went missing?

- If the Follow Me minigames take place after fnaf 1, why is the safe room not sealed off when you told us it was sealed off after the children went missing?

- Why did phone dude say they found Springtrap in a room that got boarded up if the building was abandoned when William got springlocked? Who sealed him in the room?

- Why does the first phone call you hear in this game mention finding Springtrap in a boarded up room, and the final phone call mention the safe rooms being sealed off, if these two events are not connected?

- Why even mention that the safe rooms are being sealed off if Springtrap isn't actually being sealed off in the safe rooms when this phone call is recorded?

- I don't think I've said this enough, why doesn't the story we are told about the safe rooms in the phone calls line up with what we see in the Follow Me minigames?? They are written like and given to us like they are supposed to fit with each other, but they just don't.

- Why do the safe room phone calls and the Follow Me minigames line up so well if Follow Me takes place prior to fnaf 2?? Like, legitimately think about this for a second. The sprites have buttons, just like the Withereds do and presumably the unwithered versions would have. The building looks decayed, phone guy in fnaf 2 says the last location "was left to rot for quite a while". Phone guy in fnaf 3 says the safe rooms were sealed off after the MCI, the safe room isn't sealed in follow me but is sealed afterwards according to phone dude. The first game told us the killer was convicted and the second game leads us to believe that there are two killers because it never established the conviction was retconed so from our perspective it makes sense the killer was springlocked here because it was a different killer in fnaf 2!!! See how convoluted these games were?

- Chica's Party World, BB's air adventure, Mangle's quest, like literally what are these minigames even supposed to mean?

- Those children that were murdered in the last game, what happened to them? If they moved on because the Toy animatronics were scrapped, why didn't the other missing children move on when the killer dismantled the animatronics in the Follow Me minigames?

Ok, so a lot more points than fnaf 2, and arguably more convoluted and inconsistent as well since you can easily get a completely wrong reading on the order of events because the phone guy tapes and follow me just straight up don't align in the actual story.

As I said at the start, this was just a little fun seeing how many issues I could find in the original trilogy. Most of this stuff has been explained away in newer games and books or whatever, but I think it's interesting to see the issues with the series' story have basically existed from the start.