CW: This article discusses tragic deaths and murder as well as suicidal thoughts.
With the continuous development of technology and devices’ capabilities, the gaming industry has boomed. As such, a vast amount of genres of games have entered the market. Today we’re talking about one of the largest horror franchises: Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Who is Freddy? Why are we there for five nights?
Five Nights at Freddy’s, abbreviated to FNAF, was created by Scott Cawthon with the first game “Five Nights at Freddy’s” releasing August 8, 2014. Since then, the franchise has created a plethora of games, literature, soundtracks, and even a film (hopefully coming out in 2024!!!).
The lore of this universe is absolutely insane and has been a topic of discussion for prominent theorists like MatPat, creator of Game Theory on YouTube. But, the general consensus of the story’s timeline is this:
A man named William Afton created a dining and entertainment location called Fredbear’s featuring two mascots Fred Bear and Bonnie the Bunny. Employees dressed in the hand-sewn suits would perform for the children as everyone ate. A merger would later happen between William and another restaurant that was using robotic mascots as dining entertainment. William and the robotic inventor Henry Emily decided to open a new location called Fredbear’s Family Diner. The mascots now were a combination of William’s hand-sewn suits and Henry’s animatronics. Due to the success of Fredbear’s Family Diner, the two opened a sister location in 1983 called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Unfortunately, a tragic event would occur that same year involving William’s son, sending him into a psychotic break.
William Afton became a serial killer, using the Freddy Fazbears locations to lure children and murder them, then hiding their bodies in the broken-down animatronics. As the years went on, William focused on learning more about robotics so he could make more effective killing machines. During this time, the company was losing locations and money from all the missing children. William would be fired, but not jailed, allowing him to come back to the locations as a security guard. While watching the cameras, he noticed the animatronics moving on their own. To investigate, he ripped the animatronics apart and melted them down. However, this released the spirits of the children he murdered and stuffed into the suits. To fight back against the spirits, he put on the same suit he used to kill them, however, the “springlock” system in the half-animatronic suit was activating, piercing his body with hundreds of screws and nearly killing him. For 30 years, he sat in his suit on the verge of death until the entire location was burned down.
The story does continue and gets way more complicated, but this is really all we need to to discuss the song “It’s Been So Long” by The Living Tombstones.
A Breakdown of the Genius That is “It’s Been So Long”
OKAY!! We know a little lore, now it’s time to get into this fantastic song created for the FNAF franchise. Many of the songs created to accompany the games have been popular in the last few years with many making their way onto TikTok.
“It’s Been So Long” is a perfect summary of what theorists like to call “The Afton Era”. It goes through his thoughts and feelings throughout the years, ending with his near death by the springlock failure. As a note, I am breaking this down as if William was saying everything, so I refer to the lyrics in that way.
Let’s look at the song verse by verse:
“I don’t know what I was thinking
Leaving my child behind
Now I suffer the curse and now I am blind
With all this anger, guilt and sadness
Coming to haunt me forever
I can’t wait for the cliff at the end of the river”
This first verse begins by referencing William’s son who was murdered by a malfunction of the Fredbear animatronic in 1983. Unfortunately, it was William’s older son and his friends who held up the younger boy and put him inside the open mouth right before its malfunction. William was so busy with the various locations that he was not there to protect his boy. This event awoke something inside of William, his “anger, guilt and sadness” did control his every move as if he were blind to the world around him. His negligence does haunt him forever. “I can’t wait for the cliff at the end of the river” is an interesting line as it might reference how much he wants everything to end, however as we know, once he gets to that cliff he actually falls into his serial killer tendencies. It is also important to note that this verse sounds as if it were sung through a walkie-talkie, which might be referencing how he used to watch and speak to his youngest son through a Fredbear stuffed animal with a camera and microphone hidden in it.
“Is this revenge I am seeking?
Or seeking someone to avenge me?
Stuck in my own paradox, I wanna set myself free
Maybe I should chase and find
Before they’ll try to stop it
It won’t be long before I’ll become a puppet”
The beginning of the second verse shows William’s indecisiveness in his actions. He wants to make everyone pay for his son’s death, especially Henry who added the animatronic element that malfunctioned. But, he worries that he’s not actually fighting for his son, but rather trying to get back at Henry for making a restaurant that copied his yet was better, for Henry killing his son and ruining William’s family, and for his businesses losing popularity. William is, obviously, not a great person, so instead of having this mental battle stop him, he leans way more into murder “before they’ll try to stop it”. Again, the last line is interesting as it is unclear who William thinks he will become a puppet for, but it could also be hinting at him eventually getting trapped in his suit, effectively becoming a real-life puppet. During this verse, the singing voice has also become clear and is accompanied by a very upbeat and almost aggressive bassline, representing the peak of William’s murders and the company.
Now for the chorus:
“It’s been so long
Since I last have seen my son lost to this monster
To the man behind the slaughter
Since you’ve been gone
I’ve been singing this stupid song so I could ponder
The sanity of your mother”
The chorus begins with William mentioning his son’s death again. He says he was “lost to this monster / To the man behind the slaughter”. These lines are not in reference to the Fredbear animatronic but to William himself. He is the monster that let his son die. He is the man behind the slaughter of many children at different locations. The second half of the chorus is written as if William is now talking to his dead son, which continues into the next verses. William mentions his wife, the boy’s mother, who since his death has isolated herself and spends all her time silently watching TV in the living room. William “ponders” her sanity because she has coped in a completely different way than he has, something he has a problem with. The chorus is also accompanied by even more bass and electronic sounds, but the voice is far more pronounced and is heard clearly over the music.
“I wish I lived in the present
With the gift of my past mistakes
But the future keeps luring in like a pack of snakes
Your sweet little eyes, your little smile is all I remember
Those fuzzy memories mess with my temper”
The music quickly turns somber and quiet as the next verse begins as if William was having a brief moment outside of his evil and angry mind. The beginning is fairly straightforward, he does feel immense guilt from how everything progressed with his son. “But the future keeps lurking in like a pack of snakes” is an interesting line. It seems that William knows he will have to go down in a ball of fire to actually stop murdering. This future seems inevitable to him like “a pack of snakes” going toward someone to attack them. He talks again to his son about his “sweet little eyes” and “smile”, finishing off with how these fading memories fuel his murderous “temper”.
“Justification is killing me
But killing isn’t justified
What happened to my son? I’m terrified
It lingers in my mind
And the thought keeps on getting bigger
I’m sorry my sweet baby, I wish I’ve been there”
This verse is accompanied by an abrupt switch in the music, back to how it was in the verse that begins with “Is this revenge I am seeking?”. William again seems to be fighting with his own mind where he knows that each murder kills his spirit and will eventually lead to his death, yet he still justifies each one. At this point in the timeline, William is starting to notice that the animatronics he had previously hidden bodies in were moving around at night by themselves. He seems to be referencing this, wondering if it happened to his own son. His body wasn’t placed in an animatronic after his death, but William worries that his spirit is trapped within the Fredbear that killed him. This thought haunts him, eventually “getting bigger” to the point where he takes apart the animatronics and melts them down. He finishes by apologizing again to his son.
The song finishes with the chorus again:
“It’s been so long
Since I last have seen my son lost to this monster
To the man behind the slaughter
Since you’ve been gone
I’ve been singing this stupid song so I could ponder
The sanity of your mother”
The music is the same as before. However, as the chorus finishes, the music now highlights a guitar and a piano in synth mode. The song has greatly slowed down and also become much quieter. This could be referencing the start of it all with William’s Fredbear and Bonnie the Bunny characters. Fredbear played the piano and Bonnie played the guitar. As well, I believe this ending symbolizes the springlock failure, the slow and empty melody hauntingly fading out in William’s mind as he wastes away for 30 years.
Conclusions
I know, this was a lot of lore. However, “It’s Been So Long” is such a great 2-minute and 54-second summary of William Afton’s journey in the first half of the FNAF story. I implore everyone to listen to these songs, not only because they’re all incredibly well-made and genuinely good songs, but also to take in the story in a different way. It’s also great prep for the film!
If you’d like to learn more about FNAF lore, I highly recommend watching Game Theory videos. They are currently releasing a series of “final timeline” videos, which is where I’ve sourced a lot of my knowledge from!