#the second part will be the actual red string theorizing this is mostly just presenting my initial thoughts

[furbtasticworksofart]

Part One: Debunking Henry Schmidt

(Part One, Part Two)

*Warning for alleged casting leaks, and terminal Copium. This textpost is heavily focused on Henry Emily, a character who has not been officially confirmed anywhere. It is at best a connection of loose strings and at worst based on things that will be entirely disproved the moment we get an actual trailer or a plot summary. *

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒎𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒇 𝑰 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅. ♥

So firstly, we assume that the big ole' leaks are true and that Henry Emily is real. He doesn't have to be played by Skeet Ulrich for the following speculation to apply but that's a good mental picture for what I'm doing so we'll go ahead and assume that leak is true as well.

However, we also have the alleged casting of Charlie, which throws most of my previous Henry Schmidt theories/fanfic ideas completely out of the window. While it initially felt possible that Henry by himself, or a character very similar to him, could be Mike's father and a driving source of conflict, Charlie's inclusion creates many issues.

The main reason the community came to the conclusion Mike's dad might be Henry was because it made sense that for this alternate universe, Garrett was a sort of narrative equivalent of Charlie: The only victim, and possibly first, of William's to be killed outside the pizzeria with a much more personal and involved motive. Thus, Garrett gets brought back in the sequel possessing the Puppet, and it creates all sorts of new exciting conflict. Mike learns he has a deeper connection to the pizzeria's, and even juicier internal conflict over his already strained parental relationships, now knowing the kidnapping was no random act of violence and instead a personal vendetta he never knew about. It also helps a less familiar audience connect to these characters they already knew from the first movie and get invested while revisiting similar ideas from the games in completely new context for the more die hard fans. Yippee!

But... if Charlie is real, and she is the puppet, as the leaker implied, things in regards to Henry Schmidt Theory become a lot less certain. Mainly because Garrett as a Charlie parallel was kind of the driving point of Henry Schmidt as a concept. If Full On Normal Charlie is out here doing the kind of Charlie things we expect from her, then that's less of one character being similar to another as a sort of reflection of a separate canon for the audience's benefit, and moreso two characters having parallel arcs and ideas in the narrative that will presumably interact with each other in fun ways.

It also begs the questions: What would that mean from a story perspective? How could the narrative of Charlie's story, adapted or otherwise, fit with the interpersonal Schmidt family drama in a way that feels compelling?

The answer is that we don't force them to be directly related!

Garrett's role in the narrative can instead be a new, more innovative one, maybe instead more as a ghostly presence more directly tied to Mike, revisiting and reinventing ideas more connected to the Crying Child. I'm not sure exactly how it all slots together, but regardless of it's lore importance, it will be important to Mike and potentially Abby's character development.

I mean. Okay, we could have two spirits fighting over control of The Puppet like an Xbox controller, PuppetDuo is indeed a real possibility. And yes, Henry could have one previous kid before Garrett who got killed, but that gets complicated REALLLL fast. You either have to start retconning a lot and saying Mike has severe memory issues, imply Henry was the bio dad with zero personal input in Mike's life (which is very OOC for him for MANY reasons and honestly makes for a pointless reveal), or we go full TFC and make Mike a robot and make Garrett not even real and undermine the entire arc and writing of the first movie.

Options which I do not find very interesting! I would rather see Mike and Abby interacting and learning about the Emily's, developing cool dynamics, and starting new exciting drama. How would Abby and Charlie interact? How would Mike and Henry interact? What might Charlie know of and/or feel about Garrett? And that's not even touching on the juicy juicy intrigue of Vanessa's potential internal conflict all throughout this movie! The possibilities are so fun, and I don't think they need to be limited by the idea that every character is directly linked to each other. In some ways, I find the idea of characters only initial connection being the shared tragedy and loss they've suffered far more compelling.

TLDR: Puppet Garrett is still a slim possibility, but if Charlie Emily is real, I don't think Mike is Henry's kid. I think Henry and Charlie will have their own, separate backstory, which will interact with the Schmidt's and Vanessa in a fun way.