Jeez, I wish there was a convenient way to crosspost things on GameJolt because this is a relevant post to FNaTI 6.0, Oblitus Casa, and FNaTI 6.5 all together. Regardless, I'm going to write this and post it here since this is chronologically the first game people should be playing if they want to understand the lore.

I know our writing can occasionally be messy. After all, we're not professionals! Although, it becomes incredibly frustrating when people decide that our lore "makes no sense" or "sucks" because of simple misconceptions that people have made about the lore we have tried to explain to you all time and time again. So, unfortunately, I am pretty much forced to pull a Scott Cawthon Miketrap and tell you all directly you are completely wrong about something. you're still real in my heart miketrap

If you've read the title, this is about the "timeloop" theory. I don't fully understand how this conception came along, but I believe it's because of the following three things mostly:

• Bendy and the Ink Machine

• A Mortimer Voiceline

• Henry's True Nightmare Speech

I want to spend this post debunking those three things in hopes that it clears up some confusion people have about the overall lore of Five Nights at Treasure Island. I hate doing things like this, but it really gets to a point guys. Oh well, guess I just have to bite the bullet.

Bendy and the Ink Machine

I'm sure some of you are confused... I'm a little confused as well to be honest.

There seems to be this conception that TI-OC is inspired by/paying tribute to Bendy. This has led to people thinking our lore is some sort of time loop similar to what is in Bendy. (I don't really know what's in that game because I've never played it)

This is just wrong. FNaTI and its current lore existed far before Bendy was created and released. Again, I've never played the game, so whatever is similar to it is purely coincidental. End of discussion.

"It's all a loop." - Mortimer

This voice line is easy to misunderstand, and I think people take it at face value way too much. It really has no meaning to our lore at all. When we write Mortimer, we write him as a non-canon easter egg character. Mortimer does exist in the FNaTI universe away from Discovery Island, but he is not aware of FNaTI or the events that are taking place there. The "loop" he is talking about is the Suicide Mouse cartoon itself, which is an endless loop of Mickey walking. It's pretty simple.

"this had been happening over, and over, on a scope greater than anyone can ever comprehend!" - Henry's Monologue

Sigh. Okay, I guess I can see where people are coming from here. This was not intended to be any sort of confirmation of a time loop or "cycle" though. This is Henry telling the player he has been the one to die in every single story connected to the greater universe. He is the one to die. Over and over again. The intent my cowriter had when writing this scene was not to imply a cyclical nature to the timeline stuff. It's hard to fully explain this without telling you guys too much, but we wanted to emphasize the importance of Henry's death and reference how it occurs in every version.

It's kind of hard to write timeline stuff without, well, having to use terms related to time. So a lot of the terminology used in Casa in reference to it is vague. Some intentionally so, as we wanted the exact nature and linearity of the different versions of FNaTI's coexistence to be unknowable and incomphrensible (because that's how you write good horror about that concept without treading too far into comic book or sci-fi territory), but also just because, simply put, we were not as good at writing this kind of stuff when Casa released (not to say we aren't proud of the writing! It's better than 6.0's lol) and a lot of the stuff Henry is talking about in that cutscene got fleshed out way more in later story discussions.

So wait, if it isn't a timeloop... what's going on?

I guess I can be funny and say we pulled an MCU. We pretty much did, except way before that concept got extremely old and tired out. There is some sort of "multiverse" I guess, but it's not a multiverse in the traditional sense. It only exists to gratify and acknowledge the other versions of FNaTI and it's fangames, and it has added a lot more purpose to characters such as GOD/MOTHER, Henry, The Face, and more. We aren't trying to be obnoxious about it, we just feel it's very neat and clean cut if we acknowledge these things rather than ignoring them.

There is now over a decade of history behind this series. Even if you disagree with making all of it canon, you have to admit that ignoring all of it would be cheap and dismissive, so we kind of had to tie it in somehow. This is an easy way to do that while paying tribute to the community that is the only reason these games ever actually got released. It's not something that we feel detracts from the story going on in these games, It's very much a background thing you can ignore that only factors into certain characters' motivations at most.

Some people prefer the old versions of FNaTI. That's cool, they're canon! Some people prefer fan-made stuff. Cool! That's canon too. FNaTI has always been a big sandbox for people to play with, even before we came into the picture. Why ruin that? Call it "cringe", but I think it's very smart and respectful.

I don't believe you, this is obviously some sort of retcon!

Uh, okay. We've had this planned since we started working on 6.0. We just didn't really know how to execute our story until Casa came into the picture. Here's Hourglass from TLO: TI in Henry's room on Floor 2:

Here's a beta voice line for Sparky the Dog that didn't make it into the final version of the game:

Speaking of Sparky, I think it's about time I wrap this post up. As a reward for those who have made it this far, here's a gift:

Thanks everyone! See you all again very soon.