Physical Appearance
The physical description of William's original self is largely unknown, since he is only ever seen in human form in some of the minigames. His sprite is usually very stylized with color ranges from various tones of purple depending on the minigame, which seems to be a stylization choice to showcase him hiding in the shadows. His mouth appears to almost always be put in the form of an elongated sadistic smile. William is seen as having a cleft chin outside of the minigames. It isn't until Five Nights at Freddy's 3 that he retained a semi-consistent appearance, underutilized as it may be, though he has expressive eyes and a mouth that conveys his emotional state.
The most detail William has shown is during the SAVETHEM death minigame, in which he is revealed to be a tall skinny man with a long neck and has yellow object on his chest that resembles a security badge, and holds a purple object, which is speculated to be a weapon or tool, or possibly just his hands extending in a beckoning pose.
Incarnations
William Afton, due to supernatural circumstances and his own willpower, is able to cheat death, and will always return in his new resurrected forms, no matter how many times he perishes.
Springtrap
Springtrap is William's first incarnation, appearing as a reanimated corpse sealed in a heavily damaged Spring Bonnie animatronic/springlock suit. This version first appeared in Five Nights at Freddy's 3.
The suit is a drab olive color, with darker colors on his stomach and the insides of his ears. A great portion of his right ear is missing, with a single red wire sticking out of the stump. Springtrap's entire body is torn and tattered, with gaping holes bearing exposed wires and caging throughout, making him appear much more macabre looking than any of the other animatronics from any previous installments in the series. His green/brown/black nose has an irregular squarish shape due to deterioration. While both of Springtrap's hands and feet are attached and generally intact, his legs are entirely stripped from the mid-shin down, fully exposing the endoskeleton wiring and metal. Several of his finger joints from each hand are missing their suit overlays. The middle and little fingers of Springtrap's right hand are notably missing their fingertips (this is no longer the case for his model in future games). A single black button can be seen on the middle of his chest. If one looks closely at the large hole in Springtrap's chest (which is located under his button), William's broken body can be seen. Springtrap has a wide, permanent grin, as the material surrounding his teeth has deteriorated. His jaw can be seen moving on occasions, such as during his second jumpscare, on CAM 15, his first rare-boot, along with Scott Cawthon's "Thank You!" image. Springtrap's endoskeleton feet appear wedge-shaped, with each sporting five toes. As of the 8th of October 2016, images of an early Springtrap model show his visible endoskeleton torso in the shape of an upside-down triangle. It has six "ribs", which almost act like actual animal ones.
Both of Springtrap's eyes are properly set inside of his head and appear to be pale gray in color. The eyes themselves as multiple blood-vessels can be seen in them. They also appear to be glowing, suggesting that William remains alive as a result of a paranormal event. Out of his whole body, only his head, bits of flesh and blood-vessels can be spotted. This is due to Scott not seeing a purpose in adding details in places not visible to the player during normal gameplay. His head can be seen more clearly in three rare-boot images depicting Springtrap trying to tear his own mask off.
As seen in Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, Springtrap also walks and crawls with a limp. The arm joints also appear to be loose, though this may simply be due to the deteriorated condition of the original suit. Help Wanted also alters his general design, the suit itself being a lighter color. The biggest change between the Help Wanted model and the original is William's body. The eyes are now bright green with black pupils, looking more animatronic than human this time. While the corpse's head is a dark purple in color, the rest of the flesh on the body is a dark brown. Parts of the flesh are missing, such as the strands of flesh on the lower legs, or the flesh that goes from the torso to the pelvis. His endoskeleton is rustier and seems slightly less detailed.
Springtrap's design in Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery is a lot closer to the Five Nights at Freddy's 3 design, with some very slightly different textures from his original look. The biggest difference is William's mouth, which moves alongside his jaw. Like most other Special Delivery animatronics, the more damage Springtrap takes, the more broken he is, gaining more dark burn and dirt marks over time.
Scraptrap
William returned once again in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator with a new design, dubbed Scraptrap. While he does retain some key physical details from Springtrap's design, there are some major differences. Unlike the previous design where his interior was mostly machinery, it is now almost entirely organic, and shows his human skeleton as well as flesh, with five bony fingers as his right hand. The reason as to why William is much more detailed this time is probably because his full body can be seen in one of the rare-boot screens. There are more torn patches in his suit with multiple metal-wires, and he has lost his left forearm, half his left ear, and the rest of his right ear. His feet now have fabric over them, with three large, round toes on each foot. His eyes no longer glow and now look completely metallic.
The mask also has significant differences, with much larger eye sockets, a black nose, a square muzzle, a singular pair of buck teeth at the top row and small sharp needle-like teeth at the bottom. Afton's mummified head is clean of blood, now with ears, thicker lips, rigged teeth, and a dimple. Upon closer inspection, there appears to be exposed muscle tissue on his forehead and cheeks.
Glitchtrap
Glitchtrap is a digital manifestation of William Afton and first appeared in Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted.
Glitchtrap takes on the form of a man wearing a cartoonish Spring Bonnie costume based of Spring Bonnie’s appearance from a poster advertising Fredbear’s Family Diner - being a grinning, bipedal, golden-yellow rabbit. He is wearing a purple star-speckled vest, a purple bow tie, and two black buttons near the top of his chest. He also has stitches stretching across his waving hand. He initially appears translucent, progressing into a less-spectral form over time.
He also possesses vivid purple eyes with small pupils, which are the first thing visible when he starts to appear to the player's right. In Blacklight Mode, his eyes will turn blue with white, circular pupils. He also has large whiskers on each side of his face, three eyelashes on both of his eyes, and large arching eyebrows.
Glitchtrap was shown to be able to hack into the majority of the animatronics' systems to become hostile towards children like Gregory, and was even able to control Vanny. He is also the main antagonist in the Princess Quest minigame.
Burntrap
William appears as the optional final boss in Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, named Burntrap. He only appears in the Afton Ending. This form is likely the result of Vanny somehow downloading William's digital consciousness from The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience into his old hybrid abomination of an animatronic suit, endoskeleton, and the little remains of his corpse.
Burntrap's new form appears to wear his old but modified tattered greenish-brown Spring Bonnie suit that has become even more severely withered, tattered and burned, with the entire lower jaw ripped out, revealing his skull, covered in blood with some burnt flesh remaining, and metallic black eyes with small purple pupils. The suit is missing fur, with exception of his chest, hips, left foot and upper left leg, which were all burned away, revealing more of his corpse's charred remains. His old endoskeleton seems to have been fixed using some parts from the new Glamrock Endoskeletons, rebuilding his left forearm and sharp claws.
Personality
Although seeming very cryptic at first, William's character traits and nature can be seen via silent actions within retro-graphics and by reading between the lines throughout the games.
William Afton is the textbook definition of evil. He is the sadistic and depraved serial killer who sparked the downfall of his own company, Fazbear Entertainment. He murdered almost a dozen children in cold blood, and started the tragic chain of events that leads various players throughout the series.
Judging by his actions and appearance within the games, William is wicked, cold-blooded and methodical, clearly showing no remorse for his actions. He was even malicious enough to murder his closest friend and business partner Henry's beloved daughter Charlotte, an event which caused Henry immense emotional turmoil to the point where he nearly committed suicide. This alone shows that William is more than willing to harm his friends, whether it be mentally, emotionally, or physically.
As shown in every minigame he appears in, he always smiles in an unhinged manner during his killings, and in the "Pizza Party" minigame in Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, which appears to be a recreation of one of Afton's murders, William (in his Glitchtrap incarnation) can be seen dancing gleefully after murdering his victim, taunting them while they are trapped inside of a robotic suit and suffering a slow and painful death. This example shows that William is extremely ruthless, taunting, and sadistic, and appears to take delight, satisfaction, and pride in the murder of innocent people and savors watching his victims suffer in agony, especially when his victims are mere children. One of William's voice lines in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator suggest that he is opportunistic and will proceed with his intentions, regardless of the risks.
Heard in the opening cutscene of Sister Location, William shows a rather calm and neutral personality. This is likely to hide his true intentions and evil mindset while showing that he is a manipulator and seemingly theatrical, being able to easily put on a character to fool people. The fact that he created the funtime animatronics, which are very advanced and technological, shows that he has a genius level intellect, a talent for robotics, and is very proud of his creations. He is also fascinated by how they have changed after the events of Sister Location.
His voice lines in Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery indicate that he is arrogant, boastful, and overconfident, and even suggests that he wants his victims to fear and respect him, as well as suffer slowly before he kills them. This is in stark contrast to his subtle, poetic, and calculated voice. His mannerisms are incredibly flamboyant and unhinged. It seems that William's hubris grew larger as he became more experienced as a killer, likely due to the fact that he was never convicted for his crimes and always got away with them. This explains his behavior in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. Given his nature, William is most likely not insane, he just seemingly does not care for the difference between right and wrong, and simply chooses to be evil for no other reason than to achieve his twisted and unethical desires.
However, it's heavily suggested that William's greatest fear above all is his own death. This is shown in one of the Five Nights at Freddy's 3 minigames, where he cowers in fear while facing the vengeful ghosts of his victims. This fear is so immense that he has developed an unbreakable iron will to live, no matter the circumstances. Ultimately, this is what pushes him to survive even in the deadliest situations time and time again. He showcases his willpower by confidently stating "I always come back". This ironically shows that despite William's immense cruelty, arrogance, and love of bloodshed and murder, he is at his core a cowardly excuse of a man when facing his own death and retribution for his actions. William knows Hell awaits him, and he intends to stay away from it at all costs.
Despite his cruel nature, it is implied in Sister Location that he loved his daughter Elizabeth, doing everything he could not to let her go near Circus Baby, as he had programmed the animatronic to snatch and kill children. Taking this into account, William's connection to Elizabeth may have not been as genuine as it seemed. However, the clear information for his relationship with his son Michael Afton seems relatively unknown.
History
William Afton was a businessman, entrepreneur, and robotics engineer who founded Afton Robotics, LLC and co-founded Fazbear Entertainment, Inc. William was married to an unnamed wife and they had three children: their eldest son Michael Afton, their only daughter Elizabeth Afton, and their youngest unnamed son.
At some point before the year 1983, William met a man named Henry Emily and the two became good colleagues. In presumably 1982, they opened their first location together, Fredbear's Family Diner.
In 1983, the duo opened their second location together, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. William, for unknown reasons, murdered Henry's daughter, Charlotte Emily, outside of said establishment. After this incident occurred, Afton's youngest son was accidentally killed by Michael after being shoved into Fredbear's operating mouth, which crushed the child's skull. This caused Fredbear's Family Diner to close and for William to presumably gain an immense hatred over Michael for his malicious action.
On the night of June 26, 1985, William killed five children: Gabriel, Jeremy, Susie, Fritz, and Cassidy at Freddy's wearing a Spring Bonnie costume in order to gain their trust. However, he was caught on camera and arrested, but was apparently let go by the authorities, likely due to the bodies never being found, and thus leaving no concrete evidence to prove that he was culpable. This allowed him to get away with his horrific crime. However, the five children would later go on to possess the pizzeria's animatronics: Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and the elusive Golden Freddy, with the help of the Puppet, who was possessed by Charlie. The spirits would then gain vengeance towards their murderer or any adult like him out of confusion, thus causing their homicidal behaviors and actions towards anyone who enters the pizzeria after dark. Customers started noticing blood and mucus coming from the animatronics, which lead to the pizzeria closing down and the company being sold to unknown buyers.
After the pizzeria's closure, William hosts a private party for his own restaurant called Circus Baby's Pizza World with a new set of animatronics called the [untime Animatronics. One in particular, Circus Baby, was seemingly made in honor of his daughter, Elizabeth. However, William didn't design these robots with the intent of entertainment, but to capture and kill children to obtain Remnant, a supernatural substance which he discovered from the haunted robots at Freddy's. It's presumed Afton wanted to use remnant in order to become immortal. Elizabeth was warned not to go anywhere near the animatronics, especially Circus Baby. However, she disobeyed his orders, which resulted in her death. This led to the cancellation of the pizzeria's grand opening and the incident to be masked as a gas leak.
William then opened Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, which is a service that lets customers rent out the Funtime Animatronics for private parties. He then sold the rights of his independent company to Fazbear Entertainment. At an unknown time period, William sent his son Michael into the facility to locate and "free" Elizabeth, whose spirit was possessing Baby.
In 1987, William, apparently as a security guard under a new alias, proceeded to kill five more children at the New Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Location, who are implied to haunt the Toy Animatronics (however, the toy animatronics might be powered by agony and the five kids who died were never brought up again). Afterwards, William once again vanished.
Sometime in the early to mid 90s, William, for unknown reasons, went to the abandoned lower-budget Freddy's restaurant to dismantle the original animatronics. However, he awoke the ghosts of the five children he murdered all those years ago and unintentionally freed them from their metal endoskeletons that trapped their souls. This resulted in them trying to attack William. Fleeing from the spirits, William escaped into the safe room where Spring Bonnie had been placed for storage. He donned the suit as a means to fool them.
In his arrogance, William stood and laughed at the ghosts while inside Spring Bonnie, believing that his plan had worked. However, the springlock mechanisms within Spring Bonnie went loose, resulting in the endoskeleton parts and gears to be sprung back into place with him inside, severely mutilating his body and causing his slow, agonizing, and ironic death, as he faced the same fate that befell his victims. William was then permanently trapped in the Spring Bonnie suit.
Three decades later, Fazbear's Fright: The Horror Attraction was made as a homage to the Missing Children Incident and other incidents that made Fazbear Entertainment infamous. Employees found the withered Spring Bonnie animatronic in the old safe room and reused it for the attraction. There, William's corpse was reanimated inside the suit, allowing him to come back as Springtrap. He remained there for less than a week, stalking and hunting the night guard during the night, until the building burnt down.
Springtrap was later revealed to have survived the burning, as seen from the final cutscene in Sister Location.
His fate after the fire was revealed in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. He left the remains of Fazbear's Fright, and because of the damage he sustained in the fire, he presumably repaired himself, becoming Scraptrap. He eventually ended up in the Back Alley outside Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, where he was brought in, salvaged, and later defeated in the burning of the pizzeria as part of Henry's (his old friend) revenge and ultimate plan, while the rest of the souls were laid to rest. Only two remained; William, and the vengeful spirit of Golden Freddy, Cassidy.
Afterwards, Cassidy refused to let William die, this was due to an act of revenge and punishment for his actions, the child trapped him in an artificial nightmare of his past, where apparitions of his creations and the many animatronics who held grudges against him proceeded to torture him for all eternity.
However, he escaped from his eternity and came back once again, this time as a digital virus known as Glitchtrap, after the developers of The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience scanned the ancient circuit boards of Scraptrap's charred remains, in which William's soul remained latched onto (due to Cassidy keeping him alive in his mind), he was trapped inside the game, and wanting to get out, he invaded the mind of a beta tester, who he brainwashed into committing his evil deeds at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex.
Residing in the remains of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, which was directly underneath the Mega Pizzaplex, William downloaded his soul into his old body in which he previously burned to death in. Vanny was able to repair and modify his original body, and after the transfer was complete, William regained his physical form and became Burntrap. He then saw two intruders, a child named Gregory and his companion [lamrock Freddy. William, somehow retaining his power from the digital realm to corrupt humans and objects through making contact with technology, attempted to take control of Glamrock Freddy through security monitors and sent the shattered and corrupted Glamrock Chica, Roxanne Wolf, and Montgomery Gator to kill Gregory. However, Gregory was able to reactivate the burning room trap in the old pizzeria that Henry used to kill William beforehand. William tried to exit to the building and pursue the escaping Glamrock Freddy and Gregory, but before he could do so, an animatronic amalgamation (or "The Blob" as referred to in the game files) grabbed him by the neck and dragged him away into the ceiling, leaving his fate unknown as of now.
|