The FNaF Analyst
Location 3
Circus Baby Rentals
Disclaimer: Everything on the pages that follow is my personal adaptation of the story behind the Five Nights at Freddy's series, based on information collected from all the games and the book. It is not however fact or an official story confirmed by creator Scott Cawthon.
Since the release of Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, the biggest question hasn't been what happened, but when does it take place in the timeline. As usual when we get a rough idea of when things take place in this game series it makes the pieces of what actually happened fall into place a lot easier and a lot more accurately. So lets ask the question again, when do the events at Circus Baby Rentals that we see in Sister Location take place? Well let me tell you...
The two images to the left are vital parts of figuring out where Sister Location takes place in the game series time line, and just as a disclaimer, I know I'm not the only one to work this out because the second image was made my someone else, but for the sake of details in this theory we're going to cover it anyway! The top image is basically just a clarification for people who haven't seen this evidence yet, It's a screen grab from Night 3 task in Sister Location where you have to go to the Breaker Room to reset all the power to the building while trying not to die to Fun Time Freddy...I did...A lot, but that's besides the point! The Image below is a line drawing drawn out to make the map a little clearer without the static and numbers and stuff and what it highlights are the most important parts of the map for determining when this game takes place. As you can see the maps are exactly the same in both images, the screen grab and recreation have the same amount of rooms in the more noticeable white and the same amount of rooms in the more faded out grey colour. We know from playing Five Nights at Freddy's 3 that when Scott puts faded out sections like this on a map that it means that part of the map is on a different level, but what is this other level? Its the map of the house and pathway to Fredbear's, the plush trap mini game corridor and the child's bedroom all from Five Nights at Freddy's 4. And
as you can see not only are the Five Nights at Freddy's 4 maps above Circus Baby Rentals, but they are directly linked by tunnels that lead to different parts of the rentals building, so much so that when power went out in the rentals building it also went out in the house, and whether you realised it during all the panic from trying not to die to Freddy, you are actually resorting power to the house as well as power to the rentals building. So I've said that Sister Location is set below the Five Nights at Freddy's 4 house, but why? Well aside from the fact that, you know, the house is above ground, it also comes down to the obvious observations from the game trailer and the game itself...
I really wasn't lying when I said obvious observations... the image on the left is a screen grab from the trailer for Sister Location, very clearly stating that the games takes place 'Deep Below Ground'. The image on the right is a screen grab from the game itself of the elevator in which travel down to the rental centre at the beginning of every night, so yeah, not much to discuss there. Despite all that information about where it takes place, it does not necessarily mean the events that took place in this location happened at the same time as the events of Five Nights at Freddy's 4, I in fact think this happened after the closing of the first Freddy Fazbear Location, the first time it opened. Before I explain why, let me just explain why I think this is set at a different time to the Five Nights at Freddy's 4 location, it pretty much all lands on this image...
Specifically the bottom right camera image on the TV's showing us the Five Nights at Freddy's 4 house location. For those of you who don't know, this is the private room from Sister Location, this is where you fight Ennard to get the fake ending in the game. By typing 1983 into the keypad by the TV's you will activate the screens to show parts of the house. The thing that interests me here is not what we see or the fact these camera feeds exist, but what we don't see. Think about what you do as a player in the Five Nights at Freddy's 4 game, you play as a kid, who sits on his bed and runs around the room closing doors with a flashlight. The hours of this part of Sister Location are the exact same hours that is all happening in Five Nights at Freddy's 4, 12am - 6am. If you start the cameras as soon as you entre the room and leave them running through your entire play through of the private room, at no point do you see any of this happen. Why isn't it set before 1983 then? Well because if it were, all we'd see is a child, asleep in his bed but again, there is nothing. I do however think this game took place before the events of Five Nights at Freddy's 2 in 1987, placing the events of this location between the first closing of Freddy Fazbear's in 1985 and the opening of the new location in 1987. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing an exact date, all we know for sure is that Circus Baby Entertainment and Rentals existed because of the closing of a Freddy Fazbear's Location, we know this because of what HandUnit tells us in our first night in Sister Location...
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Due to the massive success and even more-so the unfortunate closing of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, it was clear that the stage was set – no pun intended – for another contender in children’s entertainment.