Where is the Mimic in FNAF 1 and 2?

Everywhere... They're all... the Mimic...

The Mimic has been the main villain of a couple of FNAF games now, most notably Secret of the Mimic which is literally named after it. But I don't think it's just in the newer games; In fact, I think we've been playing against the Mimic since the beginning. Most if not all of the FNAF 1 and 2 animatronics are the Mimic, and I have proof!

...Well, not really proof. But I have evidence. EVIDENCE!

In the FNAF 1 custom night, you change the animatronics' power levels by modifying their "A.I. Level". This shows that they were using some kind of AI, which isn't necessarily the Mimic, but Fazbear probably has it at this point, so it would make sense for them to use it. This could also tie in with this line from FNAF 2:

"The idea at first was to repair them. Uh, they even started retrofitting them with some of the newer technology."

If the Withereds were retrofitted with the Mimic technology around the same time they used it for the Toys, it would explain how the old and new animatronics both ended up with the same player-stalking technology.

There are also callbacks to the older games in Secret of the Mimic that reference the animatronics' behaviour in these games. During the parachute.exe escape sequence, Dispatch/M1 taunts Arnold by telling him that M2's gonna kill him and stuff him in a suit. Ralph (Phone Guy) tells the player in FNAF 1 that this is what the animatronics will do to them if they catch them, and this actually happens to Ralph in some endings of The Week Before, including the Real Ending.

But there's another more interesting detail in the parachute ending, and it's actually what inspired this theory in the first place. In the prototype Freddy's location, while Arnold is using the springlock suits to trigger the door sensors, M1 tells him:

"It can not see you in that suit. But I can."

"It" being M2. This reminds me of FNAF 2, where most of the animatronics ignore the player if they put on the Freddy head, apparently because they believe the player is an animatronic in a suit. Given these similarities, it makes sense to me that the FNAF 1 and 2 animatronics could have some form of the M2 program as their AI.

The biggest hole in this theory is Foxy, specifically the fact that he can see right through the Freddy mask in FNAF 2 (and in one ending of The Week Before). But this can be explained if Foxy uses the M1 programming instead of M2; Maybe they all used M1 at the old location and they never got around to upgrading Foxy with M2, or they just tried something different with Foxy for whatever reason. We know from Secret of the Mimic that M1 can recognize a human wearing a springlock suit, so it isn't a stretch to say it could do the same with a Freddy mask. Besides, Foxy has always been set apart from the other animatronics in some way, between its unique game mechanics and it being the only animatronic to still attack you in FNAF 1 if its AI level is set to 0. This could all be explained if he's running a different Mimic program than the other animatronics.

So, is there absolute conclusive proof that the Mimic is in the original FNAF games? Nah. Honestly there isn't even that much evidence for it. But there's more evidence for than there is against! I think so, anyway. And it's a fun theory regardless, with plenty of space to explore new ideas if it turns out to be true - what if Foxy's broken all the time because M1 just doesn't want to perform? He doesn't seem so out of order when he's charging down the left hall, and he's awful camera shy...

Next time: What really happened during the MCI?