History YMMV / CantGoHomeAgain

* HilariousInHindsight: One of the original animatronics created for the series is Beelora, a glamrock version of Ballora. ''Tales of the [=PizzaPlex=]'' would reveal that there was indeed a version of Ballora designed for the [=PizzaPlex=].

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Marionette and [[spoiler:Charlie]], per Mable's words, were never meant to come across as brother and sister, adoptive ones at that, but something closer to a mentor and a pupil... in spite of [[spoiler:Charlie's]] inner thoughts starting to think of Marionette as a brother, and Marionette later believing himself to possibly ''be'' her missing twin brother. [[invoked]] [[UnfortunateImplications This caused some readers to later react negatively to her reciprocated crush on Baby, as they saw it as]] [[{{Squick}} a relationship between Marionette's adoptive sister and his blood sister]].

* TearDryer: The roadtrip to Mike's old home and, immediately afterwards, his cousin's birthday party, when [[spoiler:Charlie]] finally manages to turn her situation around and understand what being a living animatronic truly entails, is a much-needed heartwarmer after [[spoiler:her heartwrenching breakdown when watching her own funeral]].
* ToyShip: Once Gregory appeared in ''Going Home In a Box'', some longtime fans begun shipping him with the other kid who hovers near Foxy's, Chrissy. And then, when [[spoiler:Cassie]] popped up as well, others begun shipping him with ''her''. That's right, folks! We've got Toy Ship Wars!

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The entire idea of "Concept Unification", wherein an animatronic is stripped of its' exterior and its' endoskeleton is refurbished with a new appearance is ''not'' an original concept, to the surprise of many. In fact, it's a rather common, if not controversial, practice to save up on costs, ''especially'' by Chuck E. Cheese's.

* CaptainObviousReveal: Fredrick Fazzman [[spoiler:really being William Afton, which, in turn, makes Marionette and Foxy Aftons as well,]] can feel like this in hindsight, what with being an OriginalCharacter involved that deeply in the upper management of Freddy's. Nonetheless, it's still a very important twist, to the point of not being in ItWasHisSled territory.

* FanficFuel: Alongside the above-mentioned CanonFodder, ''Going Home In a Box'' strongly implies William Afton's victims -- and, thus, the amount of living animatronics out there -- to be near the hundreds, if not ''in'' them. Although a big cut of them remained in or near Hurricane, what happened to the others?

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Given how the ''Home'' series either foreshadowed or predicted things that would happen in the [=FNaF=] franchise ''years'' before the facts, sometimes with startling accuracy, some claim, obviously as a joke, that Mable's story is a retelling of what ''really'' happened in Hurricane, Utah.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Marionette and [[spoiler:Charlie]], per Mable's words, were never meant to come across as brother and sister, adoptive ones at that, but something closer to a mentor and a pupil... in spite of [[spoiler:Charlie's]] inner thoughts starting to think of Marionette as a brother, and Marionette later believing himself to possibly ''be'' her missing twin brother. [[UnfortunateImplications This caused some readers to later react negatively to her reciprocated crush on Baby, as they saw it as]] [[{{Squick}} a relationship between Marionette's adoptive sister and his blood sister]].

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Some of Mike and Marionette's dreams can come across as this, especially those that are do not foreshadow anything.
** Likewise, their return to Hickory Dickory's to deal with "troubling" animatronics, those being revealed to be Orville the Elephant and Music Man. It pops out of nowhere, serves nothing, and is never brought up again, but is far too tense to be a mere BreatherEpisode.
** DJ Music Man's appearances in ''Going Home In a Box'' tend to generally feel this way, having little to no foreshadowing and relevance to the plot on top of feeling out of place... all feelings overlapping with his appearance in ''Security Breach'' to boot.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Reaction to the Glamrocks other than Glamrock Freddy was overwhelmingly hostile at first, due to their behaviour towards Freddy himself and Gregory, with Chica taking the brunt of it. By the time ''Going Home In a Box'' hit the three-quarters-of-the-way point, it had done a complete 180, with many lamenting their treatment at the hands of Fazbear Entertainment and being increasingly worried to what their fate was going to be. ''Especially'' Roxanne, following a series of reveals about her, and Monty, in large part thanks to his possible romance with Louise.

* ContestedSequel: Opinions over ''Going Home In a Box'' seems to vary. There are those who believe it to be a natural continuation of the previous two books, improving upon their foundations, giving characters beyond Mike and Marionette much needed [[ADayInTheLimelight Days In The Limelight]] and setting up bigger things for the future; there are others who find it to be a step down from ''Almost Feels Like Home'' due to the glacial pace of its' underlying main arc and reveals, causing an ever-growing tension that frustratingly enough has no minor outlets and strings readers along for far too long; and then there are those who think it to be okay, with some things better and some things worse than the previous books.

* TearDryer: The roadtrip to Mike's old home and his cousin's birthday party, when [[spoiler:Charlie]] finally manages to turn her situation around and understand what being a living animatronic truly entails, is a much-needed heartwarmer after [[spoiler:her heartwrenching breakdown when watching her own funeral]].

* CompleteMonster: William Afton is a sadistic, hedonistic mass child murderer. Starting out by torturing and killing small, helpless animals as a child, he found sick pleasure in the feeling of control over them, before moving on to bullies and other children who he knew couldn't tell any adults about his behaviour: thus, he managed to paint himself as an heroic defender of the weak and pillar of his community whilst hiding his true intentions. Although his first victim is unknown, his most profilic work came years later as "The Purple Man", when he used his various businesses as cover for kidnappings, murders, unethical experimentations and a slew of other crimes. Not even getting married and having children did anything to change this, as he quickly proved himself to be mentally and physically abusive to Michael, Gabriel, Elizabeth and Marion, pushing the first to abandon the household. Upon his wife's death, he'd directly or indirectly cause the deaths of all of them and several of their friends over the following decade, only to go unpunished due to the shortcomings of the investigation team. Briefly disappearing and reappearing under a new identity, Afton would later uncerimoniously pass away, spending the remainder of his life scotfree and unpunished. [[spoiler:... his ''human'' life, that is: thanks to the decade of information he gathered, and the awareness that his body could've failed him, Afton figured out a way to survive that through a contraption of his own creation, not dissimilar from the animatronics he designed as head of Afton Robotics Industries. Using his newfound position, he'd go on to mentally manipulate several people to do his bidding, killing one in the process and almost causing many more to die as well. When finally confronted and given his just desserts, however, Afton not only doubled down on his personal philosophy, being unrepentant to the very end, but also had one last trick up his sleeve: disinherit Marion and make him question whether he truly was his son, leaving him with crippling doubts about his identity.]] Although he might finally be gone, William Afton's legacy looms like a gigantic shadow over anyone ever involved with him and his machinations, be they past, present, and future, and with the trail of blood he left behind possibly going across the entirety of the western United States, the true magnitude of his monstrous actions remains impossible to gauge.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The entire idea of "Concept Unification", wherein an animatronic is stripped of its' exterior and its' endoskeleton is refurbished with a new appearance is ''not'' an original concept, to the surprise of many. In fact, it's a rather common, if not controversial, practice to save up on costs, ''especially' by Chuck E. Cheese's.

** Likewise, [[spoiler:Scott being able to drive with an artificial leg]] might seem outlandish given [[TheNineties the time period]] of the series... except some jurisdictions have had laws in place regarding specific cases like that since ''[[TheSixties]]''.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The entire idea of "Concept Unification", wherein an animatronic is stripped of its' exterior and its' endoskeleton is refurbished with a new appearance is ''not'' an original concept, to the surprise of many. In fact, it's rather common, if not controversial, practice to save up on costs, ''especially' by Chuck E. Cheese's.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The entire idea of "Concept Unification", wherein an animatronic is stripped of its' exterior and its' endoskeleton is refurbished with a new appearance is ''not'' an original concept, to the surprise of many. In fact, it's rather common practice to save up on costs.
** Likewise, [[spoiler:Scott being able to drive with an artificial leg]] might seem outlandish given [[TheNineties the time period]] of the series... except some jurisdictions have had laws in place regarding specific cases like that since ''the Sixties''.

* CaptainObviousReveal: Fredrick Fazzman [[spoiler: being William Afton, which, in turn, makes Marionette and Foxy Aftons as well,]] can feel like this in hindsight, what with being an OriginalGeneration character involved that deeply in the upper management of Freddy's. Nonetheless, it's still a very important twist, to the point of not being in ItWasHisSled territory.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Reaction to the Glamrocks other than Glamrock Freddy was overwhelmingly hostile at first, due to their behaviour towards Freddy himself and Gregory. By the time ''Going Home In a Box'' hit the three-quarters-of-the-way point, it had done a complete 180, with many lamenting their treatment at the hands of Fazbear Entertainment and being increasingly worried to what their fate was going to be. ''Especially'' Roxanne, following a series of reveals about her, and Monty, in large part thanks to his possible romance with Louise.
* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:William Afton's end, pulled deep down into the red lake between life and death, whilst his "old friend" Henry watches over it to make sure he ''never'' resurfaces again.]] Exactly ''what'' is happening to him was never revealed, but strongly implied to be AFateWorseThanDeath, with Mable saying that [[spoiler:the lake]] is better left off undisturbed.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: A handful of fans' headcanon sees Marion to be somewhere on the autism spectrum, what with his stunted social skills, intense interest in toys, difficulty at elaborating emotions, and crippling shyness. WordOfGod clarified that, although she never meant that, she has absolutely no issues with it either.
* EvenBetterSequel: ''Almost Feels Like Home'' is near-universally considered to be a span above ''Can't Go Home Again'', thanks to a far stronger character analysis, wider cast, established setting and rules, and more memorable moments.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Given how the ''Home'' series either foreshadowed or predicted things that would happen in the [=FNaF=] franchise ''years'' before the facts, sometimes with startling accuracy, some claim, obviously as a joke, that Mable is retelling what ''really'' happened in Hurricane, Utah.

* TakeThatScrappy: [[spoiler:Eleanor]]'s appearance in ''Going Home In a Box'' sees Baby steal her necklace and accidentally break her base, Ennard tase her into shutting down, being thrown into a ''trash compactor'' and torn apart, Ennard tase her ''a second time'', and ''finally'' have her carcass thrown into an incinerator, where it promptly liquefies. Mable has made it abundantly clear she finds all books based on the [=FNaF=] franchise to be nonsensical abominations that exist as a cash grab, but of their characters, she only really extended that profound dislike to [[spoiler:Eleanor]].

** Likewise, Scott [[spoiler:being able to drive with an artificial leg]] might seem outlandish given [[TheNineties the time period]] of the series... except some jurisdictions have had laws in place over driving licenses with that specific handicap for ''decades'' beforehand. It's likely Scott's license after his accident bars him from driving anything but vehicles with automatic transmissions, but it's still wholly possible.

** Likewise, their return to Hickory Dickory's to deal with "troubling" animatronics, those being revealed to be Orville the Elephant and Music Man. It pops out of nowhere, serves nothing, and is never brought up again, but is far too tense for a mere BreatherEpisode.

* CaptainObviousReveal: [[spoiler:The Pizzaplex animatronics all being living animatronics and not mere machines. Because the ''Home'' series [[ShownTheirWork is very faithful to the time period it's set in]], the technology is simply not there for the opposite to even be remotely possible. Moreso, the narration repeatedly drops multiple hints of this, be it of their past lives, their emotions, their reactions to Agony, or their unnatural behaviour.]]

* AwesomenessWithdrawal: The time gap between ''Almost Feels Like Home'' and ''Going Home In a Box'' was one year and six months. Not an enormous amount by most means, but during that time period, it's harder to find people ''not'' talking about it on Mable's Tumblr blog than anything else. Even ''the author'' felt the withdrawal of not writing the ''Home'' series! This is also reflected by the amount of reviews and favorites, being slightly lower than the previous works as many fans had moved on and failed to notice the new installment had gone up (or, more recently, noticed it ''months'' after it was first uploaded).
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Some of Mike and Marionette's dreams can come across as this, especially those that are not foreshadowing of any sorts.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Reaction to the Glamrocks other than Glamrock Freddy was overwhelmingly hostile at first, due to their behaviour towards Freddy himself and Gregory. By the time ''Going Home In a Box'' was three-quarters done, it had done a complete 180, with many lamenting their treatment at the hands of Fazbear Entertainment and being increasingly worried to what their fate was going to be. ''Especially'' Roxanne, following a series of reveals about her, and Monty, because of his possible romance with Louise.
* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:William Afton's end, pulled deep down into the red lake between life and death, whilst his old friend watch over it to make sure he ''never'' resurfaces again.]] Exactly ''what'' is happening to him was never revealed, but strongly implied to be AFateWorseThanDeath, with Mable saying that [[spoiler:the lake]] is better left off undisturbed.
* CompleteMonster: William Afton is a sadistic, hedonistic mass child murderer. Starting out by torturing and killing small animals as a child, he found sick pleasure in the feeling of control over them, before moving on to bullies and other children who he knew couldn't tell any adults about his behaviour. Although his first victim is unknown, his most profilic work came years later as "The Purple Man", when he used his various businesses as cover for kidnappings, murders, unethical experimentations and a slew of other crimes. Not even getting married and having children did anything to change this, as he quickly proved himself to be mentally and physically abusive to Michael, Gabriel, Elizabeth and Marion, pushing the former to abandon the household. Upon his wife's death, he'd directly or indirectly cause the deaths of all of them and several of their friends, only to go unpunished due to the shortcomings of the investigation team. Briefly disappearing and reappearing under a new identity, Afton would go the rest of his life unpunished. [[spoiler:... his ''human'' life, that is, as he figured a way to survive past his body failing. Using his newfound position, he'd go on to mentally manipulate several people to do his bidding, killing one in the process and almost causing four more to die as well. When finally confronted and given his just desserts, however, Afton not only doubled down on his personal philosophy, being repentant to the very end, but also had one last trick up his sleeve: disinherit Marion and make him question whether he truly was his son, leaving him with crippling doubts about his identity.]] Although he might finally be gone, William Afton's legacy looms like a gigantic shadow over anyone who ever had the misfortune of dealing with him, and with the trail of blood he left behind possibly reaching all the way across the western states, the true magnitude of his monstrous actions remains impossible to gauge.

* HesJustHiding: In spite of his grim, yet well-deserved fate, and multiple statements confirming it, some readers refuse to believe that [[spoiler:William Afton]] is truly gone. Any time something even possibly implies his return, expect a bunch of people to exclaim that they knew it.
* ItWasHisSled: Mike and Marionette become a couple halfway through ''Can't Go Home Again''.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Given how the ''Home'' series either foreshadowed or predicted things that would happen in the [=FNaF=] franchise, some claim, obviously as a joke, that Mable is retelling what ''really'' happened in Hurricane.

* TakeThatScrappy: [[spoiler:Eleanor]]'s appearance in ''Going Home In a Box'' sees Baby steal her necklace and accidentally break her base, Ennard tase her into shutting down, being thrown into a ''trash compactor'' and torn apart, Ennard tase her ''a second time'', and ''finally'' have her carcass thrown into an incinerator, where it promptly liquefies.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Marionette and [[spoiler:Charlie]], per Mable's words, were never meant to come across as brother and sister, adoptive ones at that, but something closer to a mentor and a pupil... in spite of Charlie's inner thoughts starting to think of Marion as a brother, and Marionette later believing himself to possibly ''be'' her missing twin brother. [[UnfortunateImplications This caused some readers to later react negatively to her reciprocated crush on Baby, as they saw it as]] {{Squick a relationship between Marionette's adoptive sister and his blood sister}}.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Marionette and [[spoiler:Charlie]], per Mable's words, were never meant to come across as brother and sister, adoptive ones at that, but something closer to a mentor and a pupil... in spite of Charlie's inner thoughts starting to think of Marion as a brother, and Marionette later believing himself to possibly ''be'' her missing twin brother. [[UnfortunateImplications This caused some readers to later react negatively to her reciprocated crush on Baby, as they saw it as]] [[Squick a relationship between Marionette's adoptive sister and his blood sister]].

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Marionette and [[spoiler:Charlie]], per Mable's words, were never meant to come across as brother and sister, but something closer to a mentor and a pupil... in spite of Charlie's inner thoughts starting to think of Marion as a brother, and Marion later believing himself to possibly ''be'' her missing twin brother.

** Likewise, new living animatronics will likely continue to pop up as long as ARI, its' heirs, and its' technology are all around. What about them?

* ToyShip: Once Gregory appeared in ''Going Home In a Box", some longtime fans begun shipping him with the other kid who hovers near Foxy's, Chrissy. And then, when [[spoiler:Cassie]] popped up as well, others begun shipping him with ''her''. That's right, folks! We've got Toy Ship Wars!