Surprise! Bet you didn't expect to see an update to this little one-shot ;)

Well...to be honest...this isn't an update. There's actually a lot of things I want to get off my chest about this fandom. That's right. The FNaF Fandom. And here's why:

Right around supper time I was watching some trailer for an upcoming new horror film. While skimming the comments, I noticed someone brought up FNaF, and how somewhat compared it to the new horror film. As I read the responses, I couldn't help but feel an ache in my heart. Normally I ignore these sort of comments and move on, which I did. But to be honest it also got me thinking on how much people think of this fandom as "cancerous" and "toxic".

And to be honest, sometimes I believe them.

The "typical" Fnaf fan fights over theories, ships, Mangle's gender, the series being milked, and plenty of other crap. It gets even worse when said fan tries to stand up to a hater or troll. They may think they're helping, but they're actually doing more harm to the fandom than good. It's exactly what they want. They use your response to prove their point that the Fnaf fandom is made up of "Autistic 12 year olds".

But it's remarks like that that make me wonder if they even know what Autism is, or what it's like living with it. I, personally, don't suffer from Autism. But I do suffer from stuff like ADD, Social Anxiety, and Depression. But despite what most say about the fandom, it's not as bad as people say it is.

In truth, Five Nights at Freddy's actually helped me with not only my writing, but I also met a lot of awesome people. Some I can even relate to! I have awesome friends in real life, don't get me wrong. But I'm not into the things they're into, and they're not into things like Fanfiction. Plus I am a nervous train wreck when it comes to trying to talk to people and make new friends. Heck, I don't even have a best friend in real life. The ones I had never lasted long. I have never had a friend at school I could truly call my "BFF".

Fnaf gave me the chance to express my creative writing. The fact that the characters didn't have a canon personality helped a lot. Did you know I based some of their personalities for In the Flesh off of my emotions in real life? Did you know Blu's depression and anxiety is loosely based on my own depression and anxiety? Did you know that Goldie locking himself in his room and not coming out for a long time is actually based off of someone I know in real life who locks themselves in their closet for long periods of time during a fight? Did you know the fights that happen between the fazgang are inspired by verbal fights I've seen first hand?

Did you know the encounter with Mike's attackers in In the Flesh was originally never planned to be in the fic? I only added it in because people complained of the fic being "too fluffy" and wanted a fight. I never wanted to add it in. I would've been fine just ending an epilogue after Goldie and Blu made up. But I did it because I wanted to appease all my readers. I'm the sort who doesn't want to come off to people as rude. So no. I didn't run out of ideas. I added it in out of kindness to a few of my readers. It hurt when people said that the last two chapters of In the Flesh were crap... And I've kept this to myself for nearly a year.

People are entitled to their opinions, yes. If you hate Fnaf or the fandom, fine. Whatever. But insulting and harassing isn't an "opinion". People should have the right to do what they want. If people wanna do fnaf related things, okay. If people don't wanna do fnaf related things, okay. You're your own person. Do what makes you happy. It makes me embarrassed when I see fans on certain YouTube channels demand or argue over Fnaf related subjects. Because of that, it gives others a bad impression of Fnaf fans in general.

The only reason I haven't left the fnaf fandom after all that's happened is because I refuse to let that affect my love for the series. But all this hate surrounding it has made me hesitant to want to continue writing Fnaf shipping fics. There's so many ships I want to write about, but I always worry that it would make non-fans thinks that the fnaf fandom is all about shipping animatronics and smut.

But I try and not let that fear stop me from shipping animatronics ;). If people are entitled to their own opinion, shouldn't we be entitled to write and draw what we want?

Yes, the FNaF fandom isn't the best fandom on the Internet. And there are times that I am ashamed of being a Fnaf fan. But I hold onto the fact that not everyone in the fandom is as crazy or "toxic". And for those who think the fnaf fandom is dying, think again. The fnaf fandom, like many others, will never die. Fans will come and go. And some day I'll move on to a different fandom and write fics for that. But that won't be for a long while because I still love Fnaf. And even if I do move to a different fandom, Fnaf will always hold a special place in my heart. And the friends I made are still going to be my friends (You guys know who you are. You're the best! ;3).

So as a conclusion to this unnecessarily long message that I'll probably delete in a few days, remember this:

The FNaF fandom isn't just made up of psychotic fanboys and fangirls.

Not all fnaf fans are as bad as people make them out to be.

We are writers.

We are artists.

We are gamers.

We are animators.

We are musicians.

We are game developers.

We are voice actors.

And most of all:

We are a community.

A family.

Until next time, my lovely readers ;)

~CB