SOTM SPOILERS AHEAD!!
okay so I’ve seen a few questions about SOTM and how it effects previously established lore and I kinda wanna give my two cents on and try to clarify maybe theorize a little.
“So William and Henry didn’t make the original designs anymore?”
No. They did. At least the ones we know. It’s kind of complicated. Firstly, Fazbear Entertainment and by extension Fredbear’s Family Diner was already an established business when they collaborated with Edwin. So by that logic Fredbear and most likely Springbonnie probably already existed. The prototypes we see of them in the R&D section were supposed to be for the new establishment as this was pre-bite. Both would go on to be reworked/rebranded into new characters being Freddy and Bonnie. Chica and Foxy is where it starts to get a little more muddy. Chica was obviously designed by Fiona, at least her Chica’s party world version. But I think it’s also important to remember that for all of these the Murrays were contracted to make them. Meaning I imagine they were given some kind of description of what they were looking for, hence Chica at first being referred to as the design for the hen animatronic. I imagine that at least the basic idea of there being a chicken animatronic was commissioned by them. With Foxy it’s kind of unclear, we see the puppet version of Foxy and we know Fiona made puppets. We even see she made a pirate wolf/fox of some kind for David. So I see it either being, Foxy was Fiona’s original character but he was put for lease or sale and bought by Fazbearent. OR Foxy specifically and the Foxy pirate stage show we see was made for or in collaboration with FazbearEnt. But regardless of if William and Henry made the original designs or ideas or not they had final say on the versions we know today. They ended up not using Fiona’s designs for the first Freddy Fazbear’s location, which are described as ‘creepy’ by Edwin. Seeing as these animatronics go on to match the style of animatronics we know were designed by William and Henry I think it’s safe to say they had a hand in making the final versions we know from the other games. So yes I do still think the majority of the original gang that we know can still be attributed to Afton and Emily.
“So does this mean that Afton and Henry didn’t make the springlocks?”
As I said before I don’t think so. Fredbear’s was already an established brand. We know that location specifically used Springlocks. I think it’s more likely Henry and William came up with the idea, maybe had some kind of prototype, and worked with Edwin to improve upon the idea or use the technology for new suits that were planned to be at the next location. So it was more likely that all three (or at least Henry and Edwin) worked on the Springlock technology.
“Okay so then what was William Afton after in stealing from Edwin? If he didn’t want the characters or the springlocks what did he want?”
Well, I’m glad you asked. First of all, I believe William was after employees. He was poaching employees from Edwin, we see this implied a couple times throughout. Most likely because he was working on creating Afton robotics at the time and wanted workers for himself. Especially given that Edwin’s business was on a downward spiral and wouldn’t have lasted very long. Secondly, although it’s still debatable if Fazbear entertainment even was sending groups to the factory or if it was the mimic luring employees there the whole time. We know Arnold most likely was tricked and lured there by the mimic. But I think the way Edwin speaks about trying to keep things from them and being betrayed and the fact he puts all his plans so only he can access them does imply William was after something. That something? I believe was not the characters (although FazEnt would end up taking the majority of those too. Although I think that was through a buyout as most of them were for sale or lease and Edwin needed money) but I think he wanted the technology. Think about it. There’s so much stuff we see in Edwin’s factory that seems like it could’ve been used in a lot of the sister location’s technology specifically. 1. There’s the scooper. There’s just.. straight up the scooper. Right there. Edwin made the scooper. I don’t think there’s any debating that. 2. This one might be a bit of a stretch but I can’t help but feel the Tiger sections the mimic acts strikingly similar to how we see Funtime Foxy and Funtime Freddy function. It’s very reminiscent of the way Funtime Foxy reacts to light in the Funtime auditorium section. 3. The most important reason I believe is because of the mimic’s ability to copy voices. Which we see is an ability in some of the Funtime animatronics as well. I mean Funtime Freddy literally has the ability to mimic voices. They outright call it mimicry. Funtime Foxy also has an ability to “Parental voice sync and Replay” which to me sounds like it’s talking about a form of mimicking as well.
To give the TLTR version:
-Original Gang most likely still was William and Henry’s idea at least what animals they should be but they commissioned Fiona for the designs and never ended up using her designs (except for Chica during the Chica’s Party World Era but the Murray’s owned that). Switching to their own designs last minute.
-Springlocks still most likely were invented by Henry and/or William as Fredbear’s existed before Edwin’s partnership with them. The prototypes we see of Fredbear and SpringBonnie were supposed to be for the new location but most likely never got used because of the incident in 83.
-William Afton was still stealing ideas from Edwin even if it wasn’t the animatronics. I believe he was more so after the technology which can be reflected in his later inventions like the Funtime animatronics. He also was most likely poaching employees from Edwin’s dying business to work at Afton Robotics.
I hope this could help clear up or anything about it! I know this is a bit of a yapping fest but I hope it made some sense of things!