 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| “ | 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 furious breakdown as the animatronics turn against him before being springlocked. |
| “ | I always come back! | „ |
| ~ William Afton's last words and most famous quote before succumbing to his fatal injuries from the springlock malfunction, foreshadowing his return as Springtrap in the future. |
| “ | Showtime! | „ |
| ~ William Afton's voice in the teaser trailer of Five Nights at Freddy's 2. |
William Afton, also known by his fake identity Steve Raglan, or as the Yellow Rabbit, is the main antagonist of Universal Pictures' Five Nights at Freddy's film series, based on the video game franchise of the same name.
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 arch-nemesis of both Abby Schmidt and Mike Schmidt, as he was responsible for kidnapping and murdering their younger brother Garrett which traumatized them for years.
He is portrayed by Matthew Lillard, who also played Stu Macher in Scream and Vinnie Wells in Archie's Weird Mysteries.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Unlike the Missing Children, who were tragically murdered by William himself and had their bodies stuffed into the animatronics, which caused them to possess the animatronics (a fate worse than death), staying trapped in the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, losing their identities (except for Golden Freddy) over the years and were brainwashed into murderous pawns that kill the night guards, which is heavily played for sympathy, William Afton has no sympathetic or tragic qualities, as he's little less than a monstrous, abusive, sadistic cold-blooded serial killer as presented by the narrative.
- 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.
- What's more, is that unlike William, the animatronics are friendly and playful to the children whenever they're near them in contrast to the adult night guards, thus ironically showcasing more of their humanity.
- 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.
- Despite his son, Michael Afton, being revealed to be canon in the film series, it is not clear if he really loved/cares about him or he just sees him as a used pawn to continue his dark legacy.
- Like in the canon games and the novel trilogy, he betrayed his former business partner and best friend, Henry Emily, by killing his daughter in cold blood, leading to him being filled with grief after he found out that William was the one who killed his daughter after the missing children incident.
- While he does have moments in his Steve Raglan disguise that could be considered somewhat comedic, like his funny over-the-top expressions and lines after his reveal (which is something other versions of the character don't have for obvious reasons), they don't detract from any of his nasty and horrific crimes, as he is still taken dead 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.
Background[]
- In 1982, he lured a boy to him while in the Yellow Rabbit costume with the intention of killing him, but eventually failed when Charlotte Emily, Vanessa's childhood best friend, saved the latter and chased them down.
- He brutally stabbed Charlotte three times on the back, which later led to the closure of the first Freddy's location as well as the tragic transformation of Charlotte possessing the Marionette and becoming a vengeful and evil entity who seeks revenge on the parents who have wronged her and for letting her die in the past or anyone who got in her way. This in turn, makes William indirectly responsible for Charlotte's actions in the second film while as the Marionette, with her being shown possessing people in a torturous and sadistic fashion and making them commit heinous acts, which includes Lisa (one of the cast and crew members of Spectral Scoopers), Abby and even Vanessa at the end of the movie.
- Five years later, 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.
- He is indirectly responsible for the murders the animatronics have committed, which is demonstrated when they possibly kill security guards (especially Bob), a group of vandals 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 Jane would get custody of his younger sister Abby.
- 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.
- 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 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.
Five Nights at Freddy's[]
- After coming across an unemployed Mike years after killing his brother while disguised as a career counselor named Steve Raglan, he convinced him to become the newest night guard at the pizzeria with the intent of getting him killed by the animatronics.
- He also mocked Mike during the session for losing his previous job at a mall when he attacked a father in front of his son and various other customers after mistaking him for a kidnapper, which is completely hypocritical on his part considering he's done much worse.
- While he did appear to be nice and friendly towards Mike in his Steve Raglan disguise, it was only to hide his true nature (and most likely so that Mike won’t know he will get killed by the animatronics when he starts working at Freddy's until he later finds out).
- He brainwashed the animatronics into attempting to turn Abby into a haunted animatronic just like them as he mentioned that she will "Love it here". He would've succeeded in that if not for Mike.
- 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 temporary hospitalization.
- While William looked visibly remorseful when he stabbed Vanessa, he quickly brushes it off afterwards and no longer cares.
- 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 while he is trying to beg Golden Freddy's ghost form for help, 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, as 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 third installment like the animatronics who are possessed by the spirits of the children he had murdered, and the post-credit of the second movie reveals that he survived and his spirit is now possessing the Yellow Rabbit suit.
- Even after his death, his actions are implied to have caused Mike, Abby and Vanessa to be afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder after their encounter with him.
- Even William himself feels confident about returning, as 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 third installment like the animatronics who are possessed by the spirits of the children he had murdered, and the post-credit of the second movie reveals that he survived and his spirit is now possessing the Yellow Rabbit suit.
Five Nights at Freddy's 2[]
- He was indirectly responsible for the Toy Animatronics' rampage, with the Marionette and William's son Michael Afton (who is just as sadistic and cruel as his father is) controlling them to kill people and Michael even making the same schemes from William. Among the victims to be killed were the cast and crew of the show Spectral Scoopers after Michael lured them to the original Freddy Fazbear's Pizza to get them murdered by the Toy Animatronics and even Abby's science teacher Mr. Berg when he is killed by the Marionette while she possesses Toy Chica. Unfortunately, the Toy animatronics were destroyed by the original animatronics when they arrived at the Schmidt household to rescue Mike, Abby and Vanessa after receiving Mike's call for help before moving on to the afterlife, although Michael would somehow escape.
- The Toy Animatronics are even shown coming the closest to killing two families consisting of an unnamed couple and a mother and her daughter which would've succeeded if Mike and Vanessa hadn't intervened.
- Even a year after his death, his actions have likely caused Vanessa to develop PTSD, forcing her to confront her family's murderous legacy repeatedly while being plagued by visions of her father. Eventually, she is abandoned and left behind by Mike at the end of the film as he completely starts to lose trust in Vanessa because she had hidden the truth about her family connection to William's crimes before she is possessed by the Marionette, setting her up as a potential villain for the third film.
- Upon awakening as Springtrap since his spirit is now possessing the Yellow Rabbit suit while being imprisoned in the ruined pizzeria, he starts plotting his revenge against Mike, implying that he now plans to kill him and his loved ones in the third film.
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.
- In his disguise of the Yellow Rabbit, Afton cleaned his knife in the same fashion of Ghostface, Stu Macher, an allusion to another Pure Evil that Matthew Lillard portrayed.
- This is the fourth canon version of William Afton to be PE, therefore making every canon version so far Pure Evil.
- While his direct kill count is currently 7, it could be much higher, due to Vanessa stating in the novelization that she doesn't know how many children her father has killed.
- He appears to take some inspiration from his novel counterpart, as both of them use a fake name (Steve Raglan and Dave Miller) and are an abusive father towards their daughter (Vanessa and Elizabeth).
- While he doesn’t care for his daughter Vanessa, in the 2nd film, his son Michael Afton wants to avenge him. When the third film is released, his status may change if he cares for his son Michael. Though that remains to be seen.
External Links[]
- William Afton on the Villains Wiki
- William Afton on the Five Nights at Freddy's Wiki
- William Afton on the Universal Studios Wiki
- William Afton on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
[]
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Main Continuity Alternate Continuities Fanon | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Live-Action Features See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Original Killers Crossover Killers Skins |