Why I believe Carnival will take place in the modern era, NOT the 70's/80's
featuring a bunch of neurodivergent rambles and hopefully some comprehendible evidence
TLDR; I think Carnival is akin to Help Wanted 1 in that it'll show Fazbear Entertainment bringing back an old event known as Fall Fest to cover up a past incident that happened there, which I believe to be related to Mimic.
Theory under cut cause the it's long
Starting with why I think it's taking place in modern times and not early 80's/70's:
Help Wanted 2 practically confirms that Fall Fest and Carnival are one in the same, and along with that we got some interesting new hints at Carnival through certain minigames.
First Aid features a character called 'Carnival Nurse' guiding us through caring for Helpy. Carousel seems to take place in a carnival. And Fazerblast is said to take place in Fall Fest through one of Carnie's voice lines; "Gather round folks! Come see the worst Fazerblast player in the history of Fall Fest!"
Odd details to be in what's assumed to be a training simulator of sorts based on the other minigames. So, maybe they are still training you, just not exactly for the Pizzaplex- but instead training you for the reopening of Fall Fest. Fazbear Entertainment planning on taking some of the newbies at the Pizzaplex/Pizzaplexes and transferring them to the Fall Fest location while it's opened (assuming it wouldn't be permanent since it seemed to be a seasonal thing) doesn't seem too far fetched for Faz Ent- it's a money saver.
And if I can circle back around to Fazerblast and Carousel specifically, they both heavily feature Pizzaplex animatronics, which wouldn't make sense for an event from the 70's/80's.
Fazerblast 1 includes the glamrock band fighting off threats in space- typical fazerblast stuff. Fazerblast 2 focuses on Glamrock Chica and who we can assume to be Pizzaplex Foxy. Both use cutouts seen in the Pizzaplex, as well as cutouts using the same art style as the ones in the plex- they aren't old or anything.
That's also not mentioning how Fazerblast is most likely a new concept created for the Pizzaplex that hasn't been shown or hinted at having any prior role in the franchise before the Pizzaplexes creation.
And Carousel features Moon as the main/only animatronic hunting you down, and Sun as your "tutorial", aka they're the one that tells you it's broken and you need to fix it. With how Sun talks about it and how the DA is the main center focus on the carousel, it almost feels as though there's some connection between them and the ride, like they were the one who attended to it and its guests during the day- almost like it was "their ride" at the carnival. Though I could totally just be looking too far into it lmao
Now moving away from Help Wanted 2 and backing it up to Help Wanted 1, specifically the DLC.
The DLC with the lobby that has the huge banner saying "Fall Fest '83"! Of course I'd bring it up lmao
With my theory taking the premise of HW1 and using it as a foundation, Fall Fest being referenced in HW1's DLC feels pretty important. A game made to cover up past events having a DLC with a big focus on the most likely location for Carnival. Might expand on this point later, but I feel it's worth mentioning that the Corn Maze level, the same level where we meet Vanny/the reluctant follower for the first time, is VERY explicitly shown to take place in Fall Fest, what with the huge banners saying "Fall Fest '83!" n all.
Kinda of connecting with the last point of Vanny being connected to Fall Fest in HW1- Balloon World, heavily theorized to be Gregory/GGY's Princess Quest equivalent, takes place in a carnival and features the Daycare Attendant, possibly giving more ties between the Glitchtrap followers and the carnival, as well as Sun/Moon.
Alright I have to add this in as a brief point- we have no confirmation that Balloon Circus and Carnival are connected, but since there's a possibility I might as well bring it up;
BC Chica is very clearly based on Glamrock Chica- the only other white Chica that may've been around during the 70's/early 80's was Funtime Chica and there's no similarities between FT Chica and BC Chica other than being white.
And that's essentially all the reasons I think Carnival could possibly take place in the modern era- but swiftly(and briefly) moving on to the Mimic connections to make the second part of this theory make sense;
The carnival catches on fire in the carousel and fazerblast minigame, Grimm Foxy is the main enemy in the corn maze minigame, and the corn maze minigame features this mural that looks like the aftermath of a fire. This all heavily implies a fire happening at the carnival and burning it down. Mimic was found in the epilogues in a burnt state that still hasn't been explained. With Mimics obsession with mascot costumes, something commonly used at carnivals, the event that left it burnt at the beginning of the epilogues could be explained by the fire that happened during Fall Fest.
(the mural in question)
---
With all that being said- what do I think will happen in Carnival exactly?
As stated prior, I think it'll be Fazbear Entertainment bringing back Fall Fest to cover up a prior incident involving the event.
I think someone- whether it be 3 star fam, Lucia, Danny, or a new character- is spreading the word about Mimic and it's starting to catch on. Fazbear Entertainment sees this attention and decides to bring back the event to cover up the rumors Help Wanted style, but it backfires just as hard as it did with Help Wanted. We'll be playing as someone that either goes in with the intention of investigating, or gets roped into investigating the secrets of Fall Fest's past, and get more insight on Mimic and better set him up in game as our new main antagonist.
Depending on when exactly this all takes place, the story could be different-
If it's after Security Breach, I could see it being 3 star family spreading the word and then going to investigate after Fall Fest's reopening to make sure Fazbear Entertainment isn't doing anything fishy (they always are).
If it's before Security Breach, I could see the connections between the Glitchtrap followers and Fall Fest becoming relevant, one or both of them showing up and trying to sabotage our attempts at unveiling the truth.
And it could go on- there's a lot of potential roads this theory could go down, those are just two that came to mind while writing this
----
Well now that that's done- YES I know this sounds batshit insane, but this is fnaf, what do you expect LMAO I just wanted to bring a new perspective to the table since everyone seems so confident that Carnival will take place in the past- and for good reason! But it's always worth thinking of it from a different perspective, yknow?
Shrug, just a fun possibility ^^ I don't have a closer line, but thanks for listening to my insanity! It may happen again!