| NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of William Afton from the 2023 movie. The mainstream version can be found here. |
| “ | You couldn't just leave it alone, could you!? Lucky me! This is perfect. First, I killed your brother. Now, I kill you. Symmetry, my friend! Wake up, children! I have something for you to play with! This is gonna be so much fun. The little ones tell me you have a sister. She will love it here! You, however, are finished! Farewell, Michael Schmidt. | „ |
| ~ William Afton taunting Mike Schmidt. |
| “ | Look at you... Look at the NASTY things that you have become! Look at how small you are, how worthless you are! You are wretched, rotten little beasts! I MADE YOU! | „ |
| ~ William Afton's infamous breakdown as the animatronics turn against him. |
| “ | I always come back! | „ |
| ~ William's last and most infamous line before succumbing to his fatal injuries from the springlock malfunction, presumably foreshadowing his return as Springtrap someday in the sequels. |
William Afton, also known by his alias Steve Raglan or the Yellow Rabbit, is the main antagonist of the 2023 supernatural horror film Five Nights at Freddy's, the film adaptation of the popular video game franchise of the same name, and will return in some capacity in its upcoming 2025 sequel Five Nights at Freddy's 2.
He is a sadistic and notorious serial killer who murdered five children at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, an abandoned pizzeria that was once popular in the 1980s and hid their corpses inside its signature animatronic mascots, causing their spirits to possess them. He is also the abusive father of Vanessa Shelly, who serves as his accomplice and the archenemy of Mike Schmidt, as he was responsible for kidnapping and murdering his younger brother Garrett which traumatized him for years.
He is portrayed by Matthew Lillard, who also played Stu Macher in Scream.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- In the early-to-mid 80s, he kidnapped Garrett Schmidt at a campsite in Nebraska, eventually murdering him. This resulted in his older brother Mike being traumatized for years and causing severe depression among both Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt, leading to the family breaking apart.
- Mike would then later develop PTSD as a result of this event that would stay with him throughout his entire life, even when he reached adulthood. He would also have nightmares about the day he lost his brother as a way to figure out who Garrett's kidnapper and killer really was in order to avenge his death.
- Like his video game counterpart, he lured five children attending a birthday party at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place into a back room while wearing a Yellow Rabbit springlock suit during the 1980s, whereupon he killed them and stuffed their corpses into five animatronic suits to avoid getting arrested for murder, leading to their spirits possessing the pizzeria's animatronic mascots Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica (as well as her cupcake companion Mr. Cupcake), Foxy, and Golden Freddy.
- After committing his murders, he changed his name so as not to arouse suspicion and to avoid getting caught by the authorities, disguising himself as a career counselor known as "Steve Raglan" to hide his true identity.
- He used a kid's drawing of himself in the Yellow Rabbit suit holding the hands of the children he had murdered to manipulate the possessed animatronics by lying to them that he is their friend and father figure, leading to the amnesiac spirits of the children serving as William's minions, becoming hostile as a result and following his commands, unaware that he was their killer.
- Despite the animatronics working for him, it's revealed that William doesn't show any care for them since he was just using them as tools to commit his murders. While the animatronics are homicidal and murderous robots, they were forced to kill innocent people by William due to the influence that he inflicted on them, making this his actions and not theirs.
- He is indirectly responsible for the murders the animatronics have committed, which is demonstrated when they kill Jeff and his gang after they are hired by Mike's cruel aunt Jane Schmidt to break into Freddy's and destroy the place in order to get Mike fired so that his aunt would get custody of his younger sister Abby. However, Jane got what she deserved when she was later killed by Golden Freddy so he could take Abby back to the pizzeria.
- The animatronics even came the closest to killing Abby by trying to stuff her into a springlock suit so that she would become another possessed animatronic and join the others, despite the fact that she was only a 10-year-old child. Among the victims to be killed by the animatronics was Abby's babysitter Max, although her death was completely undeserved as it was easy to feel bad for her considering that she was a caring person towards Mike and Abby, despite being forced to work for Jane.
- While it is true that the animatronics are aggressive and dangerous due to them being brainwashed by William, it is not completely their fault, as they are just unfortunate and innocent children who never intended to hurt or kill anyone despite all the murders they've committed and their attempt to turn Abby into an animatronic so she'll join them, showing that it was really William's fault to begin with since he was the one who turned the animatronics into killers and used them as pawns in the first place.
- He likely constructed the razor-bladed Freddy mask device in the Parts and Service room to torture and kill night guards or innocent people who worked at the pizzeria, which is demonstrated when Bob, a security guard whom William had hired to work at Freddy's, got killed at the beginning of the film while attempting to find a way to escape, making William indirectly responsible for his death. Later, the same thing nearly happened to Mike until he managed to escape.
- He verbally abused his daughter Vanessa, possibly emotionally and physically abusing her, into becoming his accomplice, as he kept manipulating her for nearly two decades, making sure that she killed anyone who got too close to discovering the truth about him.
- It's also shown that Vanessa was William's spy, as she was sent by her father to watch over Mike so she can keep an eye on him and kill him if Mike discovers the truth about her father. Despite Vanessa being his daughter, William doesn't care about her and was only using her as a pawn for doing the dirty work. He also forced Vanessa to assist him in covering up the murders he committed.
- Even Vanessa herself is terrified of her father because of his heinous and vile actions, as she was shown nervously backing away when she refused to help Mike fight William in case he showed up at Freddy's when Mike tried convincing her to come with him to the pizzeria to save Abby from the brainwashed animatronics.
- It is implied that the reason Vanessa is scared of William is because she was abused by him in the past when she was a child, which leads to her being traumatized for years, even when she reached adulthood.
- During the scene where Vanessa revealed to Mike who killed Garrett, she showed him a photo of her and her father standing outside of Freddy's, where she happily held a toy plane. Mike realizes that the toy plane is the same one Garrett had at the time of his murder, implying that William gave it to Vanessa after prying it from the boy's cold dead hands.
- It’s Implied he murdered his wife but it is possibly she left William due to his abusive nature.
- It's heavily implied he intentionally got several night guards killed by the animatronics at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza prior to the events of the film.
- After coming across an unemployed Mike years after killing his brother while disguised as Steve Raglan, he convinced him to become the newest night guard at Freddy's with the intent of getting him killed by the animatronics.
- He also mocked Mike earlier for losing his previous job at a mall when he accidentally attacked a father in front of his son and everybody else after mistaking him for a kidnapper, which is completely hypocritical on his part considering he's done much worse.
- After the first four nights, he eventually arrived at the pizzeria himself on the fifth and final night, fully dressed in the same Yellow Rabbit suit that he used during his original murders in the 1980s and attempts to personally kill Mike. He then proceeded to overpower and violently beat him up while sadistically taunting Mike about how he killed Garrett and how his sister will join his victims as a new member of the animatronics.
- When confronted by Vanessa, who attempted to stop him from killing both Mike and Abby, he grabbed her by the throat and stabbed her in the side, putting his daughter into a coma as a result and leading to her hospitalization, which is still ongoing by the end of the film, with no guarantee she will survive or not.
- While William initially looked visibly remorseful when he stabbed Vanessa, he quickly got over it, throwing any potential care he had for her into question.
- When surrounded by the enraged animatronics as they turn against him when Abby exposed his true colors to them after she frees the animatronics from William's control by replacing his drawing with a picture of him killing the missing children to show the animatronics of what he did to them, he taunted his former minions about what they had become, calling them "wretched, rotten little beasts" and arrogantly proclaiming that he "made" them.
- While his death was extremely painful and horrible when he is slowly crushed inside the Yellow Rabbit suit after Mr. Cupcake bit a piece of it that caused the springlocks to fail before being left to die by the animatronics in the Parts and Service room as punishment, it is not played for any sympathy, but rather for karma and satisfaction as he truly deserved it for his atrocious actions, considering not only for what he did to the five children he had murdered as well as all the other innocent night guards (including Bob) that previously worked at Freddy's, but also for what he did to Mike, Garrett, and Vanessa because of how much of a heartless and malicious person he really was.
- Even William himself feels confident about returning despite initially showing fear and cowardice. While suffering, he says his iconic line "I always come back" as he willingly re-equips the Yellow Rabbit mascot head, showing confidence that he will return as Springtrap in the upcoming sequel as, like the animatronics who are possessed by the spirits of the children he had murdered, it's implied that his spirit will possess the Yellow Rabbit suit.
- While he does have some comedic moments in his Steve Raglan disguise and even has funny over-the-top expressions and lines after his reveal (which is something the original version, as well as his novel and Fazbear Frights counterparts don't have for obvious reasons), they don't detract from any of his nasty and horrific crimes, as he is still taken completely seriously in-universe and all of them are played for drama and nightmare fuel. In addition, his over-the-top dialogue before his defeat near the end of the film is meant to show how much of a sadistic control freak and abuser he really is as opposed to being funny.
Trivia[]
- To highlight the film version of Afton's PE status, his actor, Matthew Lillard, describes his character as a horrible monster who is living in plain sight in the world and who at the end of the day gets his comeuppance and is thrown into the horror realm that he created.
- While William Afton is currently Pure Evil, there's a chance this may change once he returns in the upcoming sequel Five Nights at Freddy's 2 as Springtrap.
- This is the fourth canon version of William Afton to be PE, therefore making every canon version so far Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- William Afton on the Villains Wiki
- William Afton on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- William Afton on the Five Nights at Freddy's Wiki
- His novelization version on the Hate Sink Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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