William Afton

William Afton
Five Nights at Freddy's character
File:William Afton.png William Afton, as depicted in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 as the Springtrap, and in Help Wanted as the Malhare.
First appearance	Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2014)
Created by	Scott Cawthon
Designed by	Scott Cawthon
Voiced by	PJ Heywood
In-universe information
Full name	William Afton
Alias	Dave Miller (The Silver Eyes) Springtrap (Five Nights at Freddy's 3) Scraptrap (Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator) Glitchtrap the Anomaly (Help Wanted) Malhare (as Glitchtrap the Anomaly)
Species	Human (as William Afton) Animatronic A.I.
Gender	Male
Occupation	Founder of Afton Robotics LLC. Co-founder of Fazbear Entertainment Mechanical engineer Theme park attraction
Affiliation	Afton Robotics LLC. Fazbear Entertainment Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental
Family	Elizabeth Afton / Circus Baby (daughter) Michael Afton (son) Crying Child (son)

William Afton (colloquially known as "Purple Guy" among fans and the media) is a video game character and one of the primary antagonists of the Five Nights at Freddy's series created, developed and published by Scott Cawthon. Afton is initially featured as a minor supporting character in the minigames of the second and fourth games, as the main antagonist of Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and Help Wanted, and as a supporting antagonist in other installments of the series. Initially depicted as a purple-skinned man, following his death after being crushed within an animatronic rabbit mascot suit, Afton becomes known as the Springtrap and trapped as a horror theme park attraction for 30 years, before being freed by his son Michael. After reuniting with his daughter Elizabeth, known as the Scrap Baby, Afton himself renames himself the Scraptrap, continuing their plans for immortality by trapping the souls of others within animatronics. After subsequently being trapped within "the Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience" after the destruction of his body chassis, Afton becomes known as Glitchtrap the Anomaly.

During Sister Location, the character has been voiced by PJ Heywood as William Afton, while their animatronic forms have been voiced by various unaccredited actors in all other incarnations and subsequent media. The character has received a generally positive reception, and will be featured in the film adaptation of the series.

Conception and creation

Early concept art for the character depicts him with a more humanoid appearance, being that of a purple-shirted security guard. which was later used for his redesign in the Five Nights at Freddy's novel series. In the video game series, Afton is depicted as having purple skin as a result of advanced Henoch-Schonlein purpura. The character adopts several different animatronic forms as the series progresses, the vast majority of which being based around rabbit symbolism. The novel series describes the character as immensely overweight in their original human form and "skeletal" in their elderly post-human form. The character is voiced by PJ Heywood in Sister Location.

Characteristics and backstory

At the time of Five Nights at Freddy's 3, William Afton's soul is trapped within a decommissioned animatronic after he was crushed within its body chassis. Originally an animatronic designer and CEO of founder of Afton Robotics LLC. and Fazbear Entertainment alongside Henry Emily, investigating a method of trapping a human soul, William Afton grew unhinged following his daughter Elizabeth being crushed with his Circus Baby animatronic and his younger son having his frontal lobe being bitten off by a Golden Freddy animatronic due to the actions of four teenagers. After killing the teenagers and his daughter's babysitter Charlotte Emily and imbuing their souls into his animatronics in continuing his experiments in order to provide Elizabeth the ability to control the Circus Baby animatronic her soul is trapped in. However, upon succeeding, William is cornered by the five animatronics containing the teenagers' souls and trapped within an animatronic himself, dubbed "Springtrap". 30 years later, William's abilities to control his actions are restored by his oldest son Michael, who is then "scooped" by Elizabeth in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location while trying to similarly restore her control over Circus Baby. Sometime later, by the time of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, William and Elizabeth are reunited as Scraptrap and Scrap Baby after Elizabeth's sentience is restored. However, before they can build new, more humanoid bodies for themselves and resume their experiments, their chassis are both destroyed by Henry after he burns down the restaurant they are hiding in. Years later, by the time of Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, William is inadvertently restored to existence within "the Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience" as Glitchtrap the Anomaly (also known as Malhare) after the remains of his Scraptrap chassis are used in the program's construction, while he himself continues searching for Elizabeth.

Appearances

Five Nights at Freddy's video games

In the first game, Five Nights at Freddy's, William's existence is alluded to via a series of newspaper clippings mentioning a series of murders in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, and a suspect arrested for the killings. In the second game, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, William is revealed to have imbued the animatronic known both as "The Puppet" and "The Marionette" with the soul of Charlotte Emily, repeating the action with several other children to inhabit the rest of the game's animatronics.

In the third game, Five Nights at Freddy's 3, William is featured as the main antagonist as the animatronic "Springtrap". In the first four minigames, William dismantles the four animatronics in which he has trapped the souls of the four teenagers responsible for the death of his youngest son as they attempt to enter his safe room; however, in the fifth minigame, William is chased into his safe room by their souls and puts on the Springtrap suit in order to fight them. However, the suit malfunctions due to its faulty spring locks and crush William to death. In the main plot, set 30 years later, Springtrap serves as the main attraction of a horror attraction. Known for having previously killed a pair of night guards, Springtrap is freed by the newest night guard, William's son Michael, after Michael burns the attraction to the ground after five nights. In the fourth game, Five Nights at Freddy's 4, William makes a cameo appearance in the "Night 3" minigame where if the player returns to the dining room where a man in a Freddy Fazbear suit previously appeared, where William is seen forcing another employee into a Springtrap suit.

In the fifth game, Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, William Afton, revealed to be the founder of Afton Robotics LLC., is interviewed about an animatronic he designed named Circus Baby, over a hidden function that led to his daughter Elizabeth's death and her soul being trapped within the animatronic. 30 years later, after being awoken from within his Springtrap suit by Michael, William orders him to infiltrate Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental in order to retrieve Circus Baby and with her Elizabeth's soul, only for the animatronic to "scoop" Michael and use his body to host herself and several other animatronics as "Ennard".

Between the events of Sister Location and Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, Elizabeth's soul is expelled from Ennard by Baby's A.I. and provided a new body by William dubbed "Scrap Baby", while William himself inhabits an updated animatronic dubbed "Scraptrap". While seeking more souls to imbue within other animatronics, both are trapped within Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria by Henry Emily, Charlotte's father, who burns the restaurant, along with both of their chassis, to the ground, apparently killing them all, while an inexplicably alive Michael escapes.

In Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, William is revealed to have been digitally revived after being burned to death in Freddy Fazzbear's Pizza Simulator, after his soul was infused into the animatronic chips of the Scraptrap suit he was wearing, which were then used to create "the Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience". Now known both as Glitchtrap the Anomaly and Malhare, taking on the form of an animatronic rabbit, William inadvertently causes one of the game's testers to commit suicide, before attempting to escape from the game by merging with the player's avatar.

In Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, Glitchtrap returns as the main antagonist, have built a cult of followers in the real world.

Five Nights at Freddy's novel series

William Afton first appears in the novel series in Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones under the guise of security guard Dave Miller, becoming Springtrap at the end of the novel, who serves as the main antagonist of The Twisted Ones and the secondary antagonist of the final book The Fourth Closet. Afton additionally appears in the short stories "Into the Pit" in Fazbear Frights #1: Into The Pit and "The Man in Room 1280" in Fazbear Frights #5: Bunny Call, directly setting up his role in the events of Five Nights at Freddy's 3.

Other appearances

The ending of Ultimate Custom Night heavily implies the player character to be William Afton himself, trapped in a purgatory-like state after the events of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.

Merchandising

Funko has produced scale figures of Springtrap, Scraptrap, Glitchtrap, and other Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics standing at over eight inches tall, as a part of their Funko Pop! line.

Reception

Since the release of Five Nights at Freddy's 2 in November 2014 and Five Nights at Freddy's 3 in March 2015, William Afton and Springtrap have become one of its most iconic characters, described as "genuinely terrifiying", with various fan films being made about the character.

External links

• Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location at Steam
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location at Nintendo