Springtrap | William Afton (Fnaf)

William Afton, also known as the Purple Guy among other names, is the main antagonist of the ScottGames era of the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise.

Afton is the former co-founder of Fazbear Entertainment, the business partner of Henry Emily and the father of Michael Afton, Elizabeth Afton and the Crying Child. He helped Henry establish Fredbear's Family Diner and Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, managing the establishments while Henry built the animatronic mascots. Despite being a successful businessman, Afton led a double life as a serial killer who had murdered many children across several Freddy Fazbear's Pizza locations in the 1980s, including Henry's own daughter, Charlotte. At one point in his life, he founded Afton Robotics, LLC and created the Funtime animatronics, which were made to capture and kill children.

Sometime after 1993, after making the fatal mistake of destroying the classic animatronics and accidentally freeing the ghosts of his victims, Afton attempted to protect himself with the old, withered Spring Bonnie suit, the same used for his murders. However, the suit's spring-lock mechanisms failed and its suppressed endoskeleton fatally skewered him, transforming him into the undead human-animatronic hybrid, Springtrap.

APPEARANCE

He is a heavily damaged rabbit animatronic of a dirty olive drab color. A great portion of his right ear is missing with wires sticking out of the stump left behind. Springtrap's entire body is torn and tattered with gaping holes exposing caging and wires throughout, thus making Springtrap appear much more macabre-looking than any of the other animatronics from previous installments. While both hands and feet are attached and generally intact, his legs are entirely stripped from the mid-shin down, fully exposing endoskeleton metal and wiring. From his right hand, half of the middle finger is missing. Both of Springtrap's eyes are properly set inside his head and appear to be a pale gray. A single button can be seen on his chest. While being an incredibly damaged version of Spring Bonnie, his bow tie is entirely missing.

He does not typically open his mouth - instead, Springtrap wears a permanent, wide grin as the material surrounding his teeth has deteriorated.

Close examination of Springtrap and the rare boot images depicting him show that there appear to be human remains within the suit. When viewing the torso and other exposed sections of the endoskeleton, there are chunks of dark pink material that resemble human innards. In the boot images, Springtrap has his jaw open and is pulling the suit's head up, revealing a mummified-looking human head.

PERSONALITY

William Afton is the textbook definition of evil. He is nothing but a sadistic, ruthless, sociopathic, and remorseless man who is described as a creature and a monster rather than a human. Afton takes great pride and pleasure in taking the lives of innocent people (mainly children), so much so he cracks a wide, sadistic smile during his machinations, and to make him even more terrifying, he barely raises his voice and maintains his calm, poetic composure, treating his horrific actions as disturbingly casual. Afton even enjoys toying with his victims and gets off on tormenting them to the point he even exaggerates that he is sustained by fear. It’s implied that William’s bloodlust is so great that it overcomes his rational thinking and causes him to take unnecessary risks to satiate it, like going to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place just to kill a few more kids even though he suspected it was a trap, and even unnecessarily staying in Fazbear’s Fright for an entire week just to kill the night guard. Afton is also shown to be arrogant and egotistical, bragging about his construct Circus Baby and her many advanced features, as well as believing nothing can truly stop him by boasting that he "always comes back."

Despite his monstrous behaviour and nature, Afton is known to be extremely intelligent and articulate, knowing how to manipulate people to his advantage by toying with their emotions as well as putting on a kind, well-meaning facade. He wore the Spring Bonnie suit and pretended to be a benevolent mascot to trick various children into following him to the safe room to be killed; one child in particular was a little girl named Susie, who was heartbroken over her dog's death. Afton tricked her into thinking the dog was still alive to lure her to her death. He also tricked a little boy named Rory, whom he was experimenting on, into staying in his controlled environment by claiming he wouldn’t be able to function in the outside world after being trapped for ten years. He even pretended that all he wanted was Rory’s best interest by keeping him safe and cared for, but of course, this was a huge lie. It’s also implied that he even tricked his business partner Henry into thinking he was a good person, as it took him years before he finally understood William’s utter depravity. This isn't even counting the fact that he is a genius engineer who designed the technologically advanced Funtime animatronics which were decades ahead of their time.

Despite William’s arrogance and sadism, there is one thing he is implied to fear above all else: death. This is in full display when he cowers in absolute terror when confronted by the ghosts of his victims and even gets desperate enough to hide in the old and withered Spring Bonnie suit despite the high chance it could kill him (which it did). It’s even implied he begged Henry and or Michael for help when he was burning to death despite the fact he was their worst enemy. Henry even implies that the reason Afton is so afraid of death is because deep down, he knows that if there is a Hell the darkest pit of it will swallow him whole for his unspeakable atrocities. Ultimately, at his core, William is nothing more than a pathetic coward who is afraid of facing the same dread and pain he inflicts on others.

To make Afton even worse, he was a terrible father. He felt little to no affection for his own kids, having neglected and clearly ignored his younger son’s emotional turmoil and relentless bullying from his older brother Michael. He is heavily implied to have abused his children both mentally and physically, as well as being an alcoholic. Speaking of Michael, he seemingly saw him as nothing more than a disposable pawn, sending him on a suicide mission to Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental to free his sister's soul. This mission ended with his death and reanimation as a hollow living corpse, essentially condemning Michael to a fate worse than death. He was even willing to outright kill Michael when he opposed him in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator.

The only somewhat positive relationship he had was with his daughter Elizabeth, instructing her to stay away from Circus Baby as he programmed the animatronic to be homicidal toward children, and he wanted Michael to save her from the confines of the Rental Facility. However, it is heavily implied that William’s care for Elizabeth was never genuine, and she was a convenient tool for his goals. He was never explicitly shown to have remorse for Elizabeth’s death, and he even covered it up as a gas leak to save face. Afton also took no real precautions to protect his daughter from Baby besides verbally deterring her, and when she was killed by the animatronic and her soul haunted it, he abandoned her in the rental facility where she was tortured and mistreated for years until Afton finally told Michael to save her. It’s implied that Afton manipulated, corrupted and gaslighted Elizabeth into becoming just as bloodthirsty as him to continue his dark legacy. Even in alternate continuities like the novels and film, William is established to be an abusive father regardless. The novel version of William physically and emotionally abused his version of Elizabeth while the film version of Afton coerced and tried to kill his daughter Vanessa when she defied him. Ultimately, Afton is truly and utterly heartless and only cares for himself and only himself.

ABILITIES/SKILLS

•	 Undead physiology: Grants him functionality and mobility despite being biologically dead, allowing him to survive fatal injuries.
•	 Bionic physiology: Parts of his body are reinforced or replaced with mechanical components, enhancing strength and resilience.
•	 Nigh-immortality: Cannot die by conventional means, continuously returning no matter how many times he’s destroyed.
•	 Enhanced durability: His decayed, mechanized body can withstand extreme damage that would incapacitate others.
•	 Hallucination inducement: Can distort reality or cause terrifying visions in others, often weakening or manipulating them.
•	 Genius-level intellect: Exceptionally intelligent, capable of creating advanced robotics, software, and psychological traps.
•	 Mastery of manipulation: Skilled in deceit and psychological control, often turning allies into tools for his survival.
•	 Mechanical engineering: Expert at designing and building complex animatronic and cybernetic systems.
•	 Business management: Co-founded and ran a successful entertainment company, masking his crimes behind corporate operations.
•	 Indomitable will: Refuses to give up or die, relentlessly pursuing his goals regardless of pain, failure, or death.

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Remnant is a key object in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. Remnant is the term for soul energy which can take the form of a metallic substance which can bind souls to inanimate objects, making it one of the main reasons behind the paranormal occurrences in the animatronics. It also appears as a collectible in Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery.

In the original book trilogy, Remnant is instead the name given to the endoskeleton metal which the souls of the deceased children reside in. Afton believed if enough children possessed each robot, he could destroy them all in quick succession and thus collect this 'energy' to make himself immortal.

According to police reports that saw the substance, it appeared to be a bubbling liquid mercury. The appearance as a glowing silvery liquid is similar to remnant depicted in the novel trilogy, particularly Five Nights at Freddy's: The Fourth Closet.

The Heart Pendant is an object that is made from and charged with Remnant. Using the power of memories and illusions, it can change another person's appearance on the outside.

In Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator and Five Nights at Freddy's: The Fourth Closet, Remnant is described as behaving like a molten metal, able to be manipulated as such so long as it was kept at specific temperatures. The Amalgamation which is the melted down endoskeletons of Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, and Golden Freddy is used as a source of remnant to keep William Afton alive.