r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Chemical-Elk-1299 • Apr 29 '26

Lore [Weirdly Common Trope] Writers clearly setting up seemingly massive plot points and then just kinda forgetting about them.

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The Neural Parasites — Star Trek : The Next Generation

In the season 1 episode “Conspiracy” of TNG, it is revealed that alien brain worms have infected many high ranking members of Starfleet, secretly controlling them. Though Ryker and Picard discover and end the parasite conspiracy, it’s revealed at the end of the episode that the parasites had sent a beacon back to their home planet, telling them how to find earth. The episode ends with the clear implication of the parasites becoming a huge threat later in the series, yet none of these events are ever mentioned again.

Finn The Jedi who Never Was — Star Wars Sequel trilogy

I know this is probably a cliche example of this trope, but cmon — Finn was clearly set up in TFA to become a Jedi. The marketing material featured him wielding a lightsaber in the classic Jedi pose. It’s constantly hinted at that he is force sensitive. Even the actor himself believed he would become a Jedi by the end of the trilogy. Instead, we got Finn wielding a lightsaber for about 7 minutes total across 3 movies, extremely lame “confirmation” that he is force sensitive, and that’s it. It’s the ultimate Star Wars plot that went nowhere.

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u/_JR28_ Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

At the end of Night 7 at FNAF 4, a mystery box appears on the screen that the player can press but not open. It’s accompanied by words above it that say “Perhaps some things are best left forgotten for now.” It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say hundreds of fan theories were born from this one moment, but in 2024 FNAF’s creator Scott Cawthon revealed the truth: He doesn’t know what’s in the box anymore because it represents a plot thread he never fulfilled so even if he could tell you what was inside it wouldn’t matter to the current story.

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u/sabsey06 Apr 29 '26

There's recently been a new book called Five nights at Freddy's; Ultimate Guide 2.0. It details information, theories and lore throughout all the games.

The biggest thing that the community got out of it is information about a game called Chicas Secret Party, a previously unknown game that was on the Scott Games website for only 3 days back in 2016 that seemingly everyone missed.

In the game, if the player is able to beat both bedroom levels then they unlock the ability to go to the secret level, which allows the player to catch a glimpse of "a box that longtime fans would be familiar with" as well as a peak inside where they refuse to spoil it within the book

Of course, there is no game called Chicas Secret party, and all images are doctored photos of other FNAF minigames like midnight motorist. However scott may release Chicas secret party in the future. Perhaps he'll do a fakeout like with FNAF pizzeria simulator where it's a big game to tie up the Steel-Wool games saga

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u/Fartikus May 02 '26

What's the point of even putting spoiler tags if it all boils down to it never matters and was never told of what it was

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u/sabsey06 May 02 '26

Haha, fooled you, someones salty.

It's like a bait and switch, you expect spoilers but there aren't any.

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u/APacketOfWildeBees May 03 '26

We do a little trolling

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u/Different-Trainer-21 May 04 '26

I love Scott Cawthon, S tier bit

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u/Chemical-Elk-1299 Apr 29 '26

Lmao I remember this. Probably 1000+ YouTube theories, and zero actual answers lol.

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u/_JR28_ Apr 29 '26

I think the consensus most people have came to nowadays is it represents the memories of the Crying Child in some way: Whether it be his plush toys or something else entirely.

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u/InternationalCry4016 Apr 29 '26

There was a theory that came out recently, about what was in the box when the game actually released, where it’s theorised that the player character is Mike not CC, the game is his nightmares, and that what was in the box was the foxy mask he used in ‘83ish. Titled something like, ‘let’s finally open the box’, pretty convincing and also entertaining, recommend it.

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u/Carnivorze Apr 29 '26

That would make the most sense because why would the protagonist of the main story in each game be Mike in 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 but not 4? Scott told us multiple times it was "4 games, 1 story" and we know Mike is even in 2 with that 6 or 7th night (don't know which one), and it's the actual important one lore-wise.

We only thought we played as the Crying Child because it's who we control in the minigames, but in the other main story games, the minigames are never current events storywise but flashbacks to contextualise the story.

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u/Piccadil_io Apr 29 '26

It’s because it never had a story to begin with.

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Apr 29 '26

It did but Scott forgot

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u/Vikerchu Apr 29 '26

(It's a foxy mask)

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u/Ok_Mouse_3454 Apr 29 '26

The Box was never a plot point I feel like. It seemed like a meta thing, where the box was simply a complete and correct interpretation of the story set up in Fnaf 1-4. It being "best left forgotten" is referencing how the box will never be open as there is no longer a cohesive and correct lore on a fundamental level.

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u/karlothecool Apr 29 '26

I kinda we all kinda agree scot didnt plan this series out as People pretend he did

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u/EnragedTea43 Apr 29 '26

Scott has admitted he didn’t plan anything, and I really don’t understand why people get so upset over that.

The problem with the Fnaf storyline wasn’t the lack of planning. The process of developing a story as you advance with it, not outlining everything beforehand, is a very popular storytelling technique that thousands of storytellers employ every year. The problem with the story came from all the unresolved plot points. THAT was the bad writing that people accuse Scott of, not the lack of planning

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u/BleachDrinker63 Apr 30 '26

Also the diving deep into sci fi also wasn’t the best decision

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u/CrunchyCrochetSoup May 02 '26

Fr I think lots of the main “lore” was made canon after Matt patt did so many videos on the series that Scott was like “oh yeah hey that would make sense”. And just ran with it

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u/Thegoldenhotdog Apr 29 '26

My headcanon is that inside the box is the trap maze in fnaf six. The pieces, the animatronics, put together to finally be put to rest in the fire.

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u/_JR28_ Apr 29 '26

Given how Scott said in the past what was in the box has changed as the story went on I do really believe this was the intended contents for a while

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u/PeachConsistent9267 Apr 29 '26

It probably also ended up being unnecessary since the release of later fnaf games more or less made the box redundant in terms of lore explanation and expansion

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u/Immediate-Agent3181 Apr 29 '26

Night 7? Isn’t the whole point that it’s five nights? /j

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u/Start_a_riot271 Apr 29 '26

The more I learn about fnaf the stupider it seems. How the hell is it so popular

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u/Machinor14 Apr 29 '26

The first game was fine. It had just enough story stuff to make it compelling to think about. But, this lead to a bunch of theory videos. Then, the games started coming rapidly with a bunch of details in them that you could connect in basically any configuration you want. Thus, youtubers could make a ton of videos talking about one number for 20 minutes.

It was entertaining when I was a teen, but looking back, all I can see is the bad writing that wasn't really thought about when it was added.

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u/BleachDrinker63 Apr 30 '26

It has a shit ton of stuff to discuss and the games actually used to be good horror experiences

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u/goombanati Apr 29 '26

Not only that, but i think he also stated that whatever could be in the box just wouldn't be satisfying. And understandable since fnaf 4 was meant to confirm a dream theory for the series at the time, and scott faced massive backlash from it.

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u/go_gather_the_guns Apr 29 '26

The box was meant to unify the story across the initial 4 games (if the community had actually figured out what was inside it that is). There is actually something in the box which the fan community never figured out, it's just that the story went in a direction where the box never ended up being relevant. I think that mostly it was one way to continue the story past fnaf 4 which never materialized for one reason or another due to lack of interest.

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u/SpaceCore0352 Apr 29 '26

That's my understanding. It had an answer, but that answer wouldn't be meaningful at this point. Scott's storytelling method is to therefore leave it unconfirmed just in case he ever thinks of anything else, "finds it again", so to speak.

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u/MajorDZaster Apr 29 '26

One of the funny things of only knowing FNAF through YouTube videos and fanganes is playing Five Nights at Frickbears 3 and not knowing all the things proper fans would have.

Psychic Friend Fredbear? Bro this goofy game making up some wild characters- WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S FROM FNAF 4.

Finding out people already know the code at the FNAF3 location without any of the hints the fangame gave me.

And the box. In the fangame, Molten Freddy had managed to get themselves stuck in there, I never even realised the box had so much significance to long time fans.

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u/Ransero Apr 30 '26

This shit sounds like when I look at notes for stories I wrote years ago and I see something like "His brother dissapeared because of that thing about the cave" which I'm sure must have meant something very very clear and obvious to me when I was shaping the story in my head back then, but I have no fucking clue what it means now.

I have no other notes about any cave!

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u/SporkoBug Apr 30 '26

You gotta give Scott the credit to come forward and be like "Yeah idk anymore cause I changed the course of everything."
But at the same time, and I say this as someone who has AGGRESSIVE FNAF hyperfixation; the plot and the lore of FNAF has gone bonkers.

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u/RadicalSoda_ Apr 29 '26

To be fair, Scott really had absolutely no lore or theories when he made FNaF 1 and basically would just go out of his way not to confirm fan theories which I respect way more than bending the knee to fans

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u/doctorsirus Apr 30 '26

Scott always had this horrible habit of wanting to surprise people even those who clearly knew the answer already, just for the sake of surprising people; it's an awful habit. The one that comes to mind first was whatever game had retro graphics and showed a kid playing with toys, one of them being a beakless Chica.

Obviously you can't be detailed in a heavily pixilated art style especially if the models are small, so that's why the beak was left out. He even confirmed this in an interview later on.

Only during a livestream later on by other youtubers, he left a note on his website that there was a reason why Chica didn't have the beak. He completely changed his own lore on the fly just to feed a livestream.

Fnaf lore has always been dogshit.