Sumith Prasad
In Peacock/Universal Pictures’ horror film ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s,’ William Afton is the kidnapper and serial killer who abducted and murdered Mike Schmidt’s brother Garrett and five other children. When the kids possessed the animatronic mascots at his pizzeria Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, he started to use them as his murder weapons. He unleashed the mascots against anyone who ended up in the pizzeria to kill them. Even Afton’s own daughter Vanessa fails to stay away from his murderous rage, which shows how homicidal the man is. But why exactly did he start killing? What’s the serial killer’s motive? Let us share our theories regarding the same! SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Personification of Evil
William Afton’s known victims include Mike’s brother Garrett and five other children, led by the boy with blonde hair, in ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s.’ However, in the eponymous video game series by co-screenwriter Scott Cawthon, he killed several others in addition to these six kids. While Afton’s motive is explicitly revealed neither in the movie nor the game series, several plot points help us theorize the same. One of his earliest victims is Charlotte Emily, the daughter of Henry Emily, the former business partner of Afton and the co-founder of Fazbear Entertainment. Afton must have killed Charlotte AKA Charlie to make Henry suffer.
Afton is an embodiment of evil. Therefore, it is not surprising that he must have been jealous of Henry since the latter led a pleasant and joyous life with his daughter Charlie. The lack of happiness and contentment in his life must have led Afton to put an end to the joy Henry had been experiencing by killing his daughter. According to a fan theory, William might have taken Charlie’s body to the pizzeria, only for her spirit to possess the Puppet. The “reincarnation” of Charlie might have motivated Afton to dive into the same with the help of certain experiments.
The Deadly Experiments
One of the popular fan theories concerning William’s motive as a serial killer concerns his wish to gain immortality. After witnessing Charlie’s return to life as a Puppet, he must have wanted to make sure that it wasn’t a one-time occurrence. If that’s really the case, William killed the children to discover whether they would be brought back to life as possessed animatronics. His experiments resulted in Gabriel, Jeremy, Susie, Fritz, and Cassidy possessing Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Golden Freddy respectively. Their reincarnation must have convinced him that immortality isn’t an unattainable wish.
Afton also melted the endoskeletons of his victims to create a particular liquid, which, in his eyes, can grant one immortality. He even made murderous animatronics using the liquid, only for one of them to kill his own daughter Elizabeth Afton, who is different from Vanessa. By this time, Afton reached a stage where he started to enjoy murders. He conceived animatronics using the endoskeleton liquid to murder more children. Although there is the prospect of gaining more liquid from more victims, there are several instances in the game series in which Afton kills his victims with a smile on his face, which shows how viciously he cherishes the act of killing.
Glitchtrap, which is possibly another variant of Afton’s Spring Bonnie AKA Yellow Rabbit, even dances gleefully after killing a victim. Afton inhumanely stuffing his victims inside robotic suits further makes it evident that he eventually becomes a cold-blooded murderer who can kill just for the sake of killing. Such a trait is visible in the movie adaptation as well. When Vanessa stands against Afton to prevent the latter from murdering Mike and Abby, the serial killer doesn’t hesitate to stab his daughter. By that time, he lost his senses to differentiate his child from his potential victims, which sends Vanessa into a coma.
Afton tries to kill Mike and Abby only to enjoy the act of killing. His homicidal impulses have separated from motives and reasons, which leads him to kill people for the sake of seeing lives getting eliminated in front of his eyes.
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