take a look at this footage from FNAF 2 seems normal enough right but what if I told you that the mimic is in this video no I'm not lying to you and no I've not doctored the footage either the mimic is here they have been here since the very beginning give up well if you look very closely you'll find that the mimic is this guy right here hello internets welcome to Game Theory the show that cannot believe it has been 10 whole years of FNAF feels like just yesterday I was watching marlier scream at this tiny unknown indie game and now it's an indie horror Empire full of games movies books and More Much than a pizz Plex can handle 10 years is a big deal believe me we would know and so to celebrate Scott pulled out all the stops we got an anniversary week full of fanverse games demos books movie teasers and of course the Crown Jewel that was into the pit though while that offers a lot in the way of theorizing that's not what I wanted to talk about today don't worry that video is coming I just need a little more time so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss that video when it drops there may also be a special theorist surprise in store hint hint but for this episode instead of talking about the biggest release of the week I wanted to talk about the biggest surprise you see we knew about every release that was happening during this anniversary week ahead of time that was except for one steel wool had a mystery announcement slot and a lot lot of us just assumed it was going to be DLC for help wanted to but that's not what we got instead steel wool completely sideswiped Us by revealing a 40-second teaser not for DLC but for a brand new game we open on a 70 style carpet the camera tilts up to reveal a Jack In The Box playing music the music stops the Box opens and we hear a laugh as a clown mask Peaks out from the box the film re we're watching begins to burn up revealing the DAT 1979 n finally we see a title card appear from the darkness secret of the mimic the internet lost their Collective Minds over this not only were we getting a game exploring the character that was a complete mystery when it appeared at the end of Ruin unless you happen to read the books but it was also going to be a prequel set before any other FNAF game a lot of us have been theorizing about the origins of Freddy's ever since we got the fredbear singing show ticket in security breach and in 2025 it looks like we're going to see if we were right but you know what I'm not willing to wait that long call me impatient but when you take a closer look this 40-second teaser has actually told us a lot more than you'd initially think this teaser confirms that we were right that the mimic is from the earliest days in Fazbear entertainment's history but it also suggests that the Mimi's first appearance wasn't in ruin nor was it security breach nor was it help wanted no we are being shown that the mimic has actually been hiding in plain sight since the very beginning the pieces were in place for us to figure it out we just weren't able to follow the breadcrumb or should I say paper trail to realize sooner so wind up that music box friends because when it opens we'll be diving in head first to see what Secrets the mimic has been hiding and in doing so I believe we may finally be able to resolve one of the biggest conflicts currently facing the FNAF timeline a wound first inflicted on me oh yeah today's going to be a big one so let's get into it the first thing we got to talk about is the design of funky Tom over here jokey fan name aside given the title of this game it feels pretty unlikely that this is supposed to be anything other than the mimic but he's not the disheveled Endo we saw in ruin now he's wearing a white mask with exaggerated eyelashes rounded cheeks and a bright red nose I can feel the childhood trauma rushing back it also pops out of a Jack In The Box so clearly steel will are going for a clown aesthetic with this newest version of the mimic or is it the oldest version this new old look does tie into our previous theories about the origins of Fazbear entertainment in that video we discussed this poster from Help Wanted 2 a poster with a circus tent and the date 1970 on it that along with the mascot costumes in the ruined basement glitch traps design official artwork of traditional mascot costumes and references throughout the books all seem to be telling us that Fazbear entertainment didn't start with the creation of fredbear's Family Diner but as a traveling circus instead of the animatronics or spring lock suits that we know and love today this circus used more traditional rudimentary mascot costumes they were still the same characters Freddy Bonnie and Chica but played by human performers though there was one exception we ended that theory suggesting that the mimic was also part of that same fazbar circus it shares design similarities with sun and moon a Jester who is associated with the carousel from the forfest circus a carousel that we watch burn repeatedly and help wanted to we see the Festival burn down both in the carousel level and in the fazer Blast Level and what else do we know is burnt the mimic in the first epilog of tales from the pizzza Plex when the mimic arrives it is first described as being burnt thus it seems like the mimic has been here since that Fall Fest in the 70s you might think I was celebrating this fact my first FNA theory was right let's go but then the worry began to sink in it always feels a bit wrong when a prequel introduces a new character plus this franchise never gets rid of characters we've had 28 versions of Freddy 19 versions of Bonnie and we even got 11 versions of balloon boy who asked for that so then why try to awkwardly insert the mimic into the previous law I mean Recon much except what if I told you we have seen this clown before somewhere you'd never suspect FNAF 2 I am of course talking about the characters I've been teasing since the start of the episode episode the paper Pals no I wasn't joking these guys really are the key to everything if you don't know who I'm talking about the paper pals are these simple characters made from paper plates that have been hanging out on the walls of peteras ever since their introduction to this day we've never really given them much thought they never seem to be that important but their continued existence in the franchise has always struck me as unusual in fact the only reason I was reminded of them is because I was watching Doros playthrough of into the hit and wouldn't you know it they are once again just hanging out for them to keep showing up especially in these modern titles they have to be important and I think the weird clown mimic is the piece that ties them all together originally there were three of these guys a Freddy pal a bonny pal and this thing according to the game files he's just called paper buddy and of the three he's definitely the weird one in FNAF 2 he could just disappear from the wall and suddenly appear in your office he didn't do anything thing he was just there now even his design feels out of place the other two are clearly characters we know Freddy and Bonnie duh but this guy doesn't have any recognizable features he's got red arms blue legs a big smile and a big nose it's just so weird in a series full of animal characters why have this generic humanoid looking thing naturally the only logical explanation we had at the time was that this had to be balloon boy he was one of the few humanoid characters we knew about by FNAF 2 and he wears a red and blue outfit but now that I'm looking back I'm not so sure anymore for Bonnie and Freddy we aren't just relying on the colors to show us who they are they have extra design details that connect them to their iconic characters bow TI's hat ears that sort of thing if this paper buddy was supposed to be balloon boy why not give him some of his iconic attire like the propeller hat or the sign or you know a balloon the thing he is literally known for what this therefore implies to me is that paper buddy is actually supposed to be someone else someone with a much simpler design and the answer of who becomes extremely obvious when you take a look at their appearance in FNAF world that's right not only were these guys considered important enough to be playable characters in one of the weirdest entries in this series but Scott also used it to give us a vital clue about who this guy was supposed to be and it's all because of one teeny tiny design change we've gone over paper Buddy's design already the red arms blue legs buttons big smile happy eyes big nose all of that is the same in FNAF weld except for his nose it's still as big as before and it's in the same place but the color is now different it's been changed to red and a red nose means one thing clowns what we're seeing is paper Buddy's design matching exactly with the iconic design of clowns and therefore also matches what we've seen seen from the mimic in this latest teaser now I recognize that this feels like a stretch this is all down to interpretation and could be taken a number of different ways believe me I was honestly unsure of all of this too that was until I found this the final clue that absolutely sealed the deal for me that paper buddy is the mimic take a look at the attacks the paper Pals have in FNAF world the first two are prize Ball 2 and Mystery Box 2 both generic attacks that would make sense for any character in any Pizzeria but the third and final attack is called something very specific mimic ball a move that mimics the last attack used I could not believe it when I saw this of all of the games it was FNAF World showing us that the paper Pals were specifically able to mimic others the third paper pal from FNAF 2 paper buddy is a paper version of the new clown mimic that we saw in the teaser in my previous Theory mentioned how FNAF 2 isn't a revamp of the old franchise but a call back to the circus origins of the franchise the red cheeked toy animatronics were calling back to the original costumes worn at the circus you have the carousel calling back to the Carousel from forest that we got to see in help one to and now we have paper buddy calling back to the clown mimic that was present at that same circus it all just fits together so neatly it could also explain the clown mask in things like sister location the one that would later to go on to become Enard why is that mask in such a position of prominence because it was the third member of that original circus Trio someone who had been there since the beginning although speaking of Trio while paper buddy being the mimic and appearing in FNAF 2 makes sense him being grouped with Freddy and Bonnie feels a bit odd right even for the early days of the franchise a clown isn't the obvious one to pair with Freddy and Bonnie cheer I'd have understood maybe even foxy but this guy is just so Random if you've followed us for a while you'll know that we are obsessed with these kinds of details the grouping of animatronics through merchandise or Decor can often tell us a lot about the history of the franchise we felt like Foxy had to come later because he had a separate stage to the other three it felt like chica wasn't originally part of the group either because she had our own party world spin-off during sister location and in ruin we figured out that sun and moon came much earlier because they were getting Collectibles alongside OG car characters while newcomers like Roxy and Monty weren't so placing the mimic clown alongside Freddy and Bonnie has to imply there's a special connection between the three so why make the mimic the awkward third wheel alongside this famous Duo well it turns out the rule of Threes isn't just an important literary technique it was also super important for performances at the circus particularly when it comes to clowns in a traditional circus you would have three major clown archetypes the AUST clown the white face clown and the Contra AUST clown we spoke about the AUST clown in our previous Theory these clowns were the ones with red cheeks that were designed to appear silly and make children laugh often they were portrayed as an intelligent but Lower Class Clown the laborer the one who would do a job often badly which led to them getting a pie in the face or falling off a ladder you know the typical slapstick stuff the Whiteface clowns on the other hand are supposed to be more serious and bossy they were of a higher status and so they would be responsible for assigning the tasks to the August clown and would often become frustrated at their failed results finally you have the Contra orust clown who was the middle ground still lower class than the white face clown but not to the same degree as the AUST clown and looking into clown literature which yes is a thing that I read the Contra ao's role was to do one thing mimic the white face clown no I'm not making that up it was right there on the page in front of me what we now have are three distinct characters a serious boss clown a smart worker clown and a mimicking clown now look at who we have at the start of Freddy's while we don't know a whole lot about the specifics of this Fazbear circus we do know one thing Henry and William were actively performing during the early days of the franchise one as a bear and one as a rabbit Fred Bear and spring Bonnie William was the businessman the serious one the guy who was trying to make Fazbear a success the Whiteface clown then there's Henry the intelligent laborer who was building the animatronics the orust clown and now we have a third paper buddy the mimic a clown animatronic that has been there since the early days of the franchise now mimicking the past actions of the white face clown William Afton making them the Contra or goose in this Trio three clowns three performers three paper poers that have been there since the start but sadly choosing afon to be the one to mimic wasn't the best decision when this trailer was announced Brian freyou the design director at Steel World tweeted about it saying the evil that men do lives after them the good is of interred with their bones this is a quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar my immediate reaction was oh yeah this is about afon being dead and now here's evil lives on in the mimic who is now continuing to hurt and kill people Beyond his death like we've been predicting this whole time but as I've thought it over I think it might be something more than that I actually think that this line is telling us the main plot point that we will see in secret of the mimic a plot point that will finally answer the question that has haunted me ever since the release of help wanted to what did Henry mean by a wound first inflicted on me this line comes from the insanity ending of FNAF 6 Henry talks about how afon used The Souls of the children he'd killed to create Remnant and then continued to torture them to create the fun times but the most important part of that monologue is when he turns inwards and begins reflecting on his own part in all of this he he ends up saying he needs to heal this wound a wound first inflicted on me one that I let bleed out for the longest time we believe this was referencing afon killing his daughter Charlie she was afton's first victim which led on to the killing of all the missing children that was the wound that was inflicted on Henry the death of his own daughter that then bled out the death of so many others but then help wanted to came out and it flipped that entire idea on its head in that game we had to light six gravestones in a specific order to receive the secret Bonny mask each grave had a different puppet next to it each referencing one of the six main animatronics Freddy Bonnie Chica foxy golden Freddy and the puppet the five missing children and Charlie however Charlie isn't the first grave you like she's actually the last one heavily implying that Charlie was the last to be killed honestly I don't hate it from a law standpoint there's a decent amount of evidence that can line up with it but by suggesting that it threw in to question that line of a wound first inflicted on me being about Charlie's death instead there had to be an earlier incident that wounded Henry that would metaphorically bleed out leading to the missing children's incident and the death of Charlie so what do I think this event is well it all comes back to that Shakespeare quote the line that Brian tweeted is delivered by the character Mark Anthony at Caesar's funeral Caesar was murdered by the character Brutus however Anthony isn't able to directly accuse him publicly so instead he tactfully talks around the issue calling Brutus an honorable man this dynamic between Anthony and Brutus I suspect is meant to be a reflection of Henry and Afton Brutus was able to get close to Caesar because Caesar loved him which is similar to the tactic used by afon throughout this series put on the spring bunny costume a character that the children loved and use it to lure them into a back room and kill them for this quote to be used to promote the prequel game from 1979 it's telling us that afon was abusing the love of this character way before the missing children's incident and this early murder at the hands of Aton is what I believe we will be seeing in secret of the mimic maybe it will even be revealed as aton's first it's unclear if the person Aton kills will be a major character like Caesar is in the play or whether it's just another kid with the importance more being how early it is in the timeline we only have a 40-second trailer after all much more is going to be revealed as time goes on but what is important is if William is Brutus Henry must be Anthony and that means he knew William committed the murder that murder is going to be the wound inflicted on Henry on the Fazbear business on their friendship that murder could have destroyed everything they built but as we know it didn't and afon would go on to kill again because just like Anthony Henry isn't going to accuse him directly maybe he was concerned for his businesses survival maybe he was concerned about providing for his new daughter Charlie maybe he just wanted to believe his friend could change but whatever his reasoning despite the wound Afton caused him he never came out and admitted what he knew he just allowed it to keep going allowed afon to keep killing English philosopher John Stewart Mill once said a person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury that is why he feels so guilty in the insanity speech because he knows that his inaction in that moment from the circus led to the creation of not one not two but three monsters William the yellow rabbit that would go on to kill so many children the clown that was designed to mimic afon now carrying on his horrible Legacy and himself the man who stood by and let the first murder happen leading to the deaths of so many others including his own daughter I guess at the end of the day they really were the perfect Trio but hey I think we can all agree that we've got a lot to look forward to with FNAF so many new games were demoed or teas during the anniversary plus we still got a bunch of new books and a second movie coming which means it's going to cost a pretty penny to keep up with this stuff thankfully though the sponsor of today's video Sofi is here to help you out they're offering one of you lucky theorists a chance to win $10,000 man if only I could get that many Faz coins the law could never hide from me again it might sound too good to be true but Sofi is the ultimate finance app that helps you Bank borrow and invest all in one place my wife and I recently moved out of our first ever apartment which is a bit of a scary time financially you've got to find somewhere 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