Now shush. This is NOT a Mikevictim theory. I hate Mikevictim.
See, we know that it happens in 1983. FNaF 3 takes place in 2017 and FNaF 1 takes place in 1993. If Michael was a younger kid in 83, then ten years would have passed and he would have only been max 20, so he would have no business as night guard for Fazbear pizzeria. So Mikevictim is out of the picture. But if we had Mikebro instead, it would make sense to have him be let's say 14-15 in FNaF 4, then he would be 24-25 in FNaF 1, so about in his late 30s-early 40s for FNaF 3. Easy math.
Plus, like. Fucking, CC died so. He's not the SL player because he's fucking long dead. Shut up I'm right.
So yes, of course, Mikebro. But. I believe that in FNaF 4, we play as Michael Afton after the events of the minigames. Let me elaborate.
In the minigames, we play as Evan Afton (little bro, 83 victim). We see how the two brothers operate their life, Evan is bullied by Mike, etc. And everywhere we take Evan, whether that be indoors or out, we can see the Fredbear plush, fan-dubbed Winnifred. So that. And in the final minigame, Evan dies. The next night (which is optional,) we meet Nightmare and NmFredbear.
However, in the actual gameplay (the part that induces actual nightmares), Winnifred is nowhere to be seen. This is because it's not ours, it's our brother's. This is also supported by the fact that the minigame bedroom (Evan's) is not at all similar to the gameplay bedroom; the only thing that looks kind of reminiscent of the minigame room is the large purple dresser near the right door. Other than that, they're almost completely different.
In the security logbook, we find out that Michael (who writes in red pen) knows about NmFredbear and knows what it looks like. How could be know if he didn't see it in person? Plus it's a pretty good drawing, very detailed, so that means he'd have seen it up close and so many times that he's memorized the design. How could he have done that if he weren't player character?
Reasons the Nightmares might be Michael's and why they look the way they do:
1. He was traumatized by the Bite of '83
We know he was the one who threw Evan into the jaws of Fredbear. He had to stand and watch as his baby brother got ham-and-cheesed by the robot; he had a front-row seat. He had to have been pretty messed up after that. Don't believe me? Well, imagine you were in his position; a dumb, bratty kid from a terrible home, forced by your friends to bully your only living sibling despite knowing he doesn't deserve it and knowing he already has terrible mental illnesses. On his seventh birthday, you take it a bit too far and lose him forever, your dad stops talking to you and your mom suddenly disappears. All while being trans in the 80s. Yeah, I imagine it'd be pretty difficult.
2. He saw Elizabeth get scooped
You know how NmFredbear has tummy teeth? Why, if he knew that Fredbear used his mouth to kill Evan? Well, remember in MatPat's big FNAF Lore Stream in 2015, when Scott was live updating his website ScottGames.com? "What's seen in shadows is easily misunderstood in the mind of a child." Mikey can't have been older than twelve when his sister died, and he likely saw it from a distance. So, in his eyes, it looked like Circus Baby opened her stomach and swallowed her whole.
3. Sound illusion discs
In The Twisted Ones, (From what I understand) we discovered that auditory and visual hallucinations can be created if one is exposed to an ongoing high-pitch sound for long periods of time. And in the FNaF 4 main gameplay, good ol' Scotty's got us sitting in a near-silent room for six hours, our only companion being a quiet screeching beep and garbled nighttime ambience. If William really wanted to punish Mikey for killing his baby bro, the best way to do that would be to use a sound illusion disc (or, knowing him, probably multiple) to create the Nightmares and a distracting, headache-inducing noise in his bedroom. And we know they exist in the game universe thanks to the Sister Location night three Parts And Service task: When we open FunFred's torso to remove the power module, it's on a sound illusion disc. This one in particular may have been originally used to mimic voices as it says the Funtimes are able to on their blueprints.
So those are some theories. Lmk if I got anything wrong
