Five Nights At Freddy’s is a horror game filled with tragedy, mystery paranormal activity, tampering with forces beyond your control, the most obscure and uptuse lore imaginable with underlying themes of loss, grief, retro sci-fi, not being able to let go of the past and most importantly, the consequences for it. You come for the scares but stay for the story, mystery, and all the bat shit insane theories trying to decipher the lore.
Why am I bringing up Five Nights at Freddy’s on a Psychonauts Fandom wiki you ask? Because through the course of both Psychonauts games, the player, as Raz jumps into the minds of various individuals via a Psycho-Portal and Astral Projection. Many of which are deeply distributed individuals. In a franchise where deeply disturbed individuals are a dime a dozen, Five Nights at Freddy’s offers a plethora of possible mental worlds. Also, it let’s us speculate on the psychology and mentality of certain individuals.
So let’s grab a Psycho-Portal and jump straight into the mind of arguably the most disturbed person in FNAF; none other than series antagonist, William Afton. The man behind the slaughter. For this we'll be looking at the gameverse version of Afton, however I would like to look at his counterparts from the books and movie. Also there is some overlap and speculation about why he turned to murder, when and his personal relationships with his family. So submitted for your approval, fellow agents, I give you, "Through the eyes of a Psychonaut". What I hope can become a series of essays delving into the possible mental worlds of characters outside the Psychonauts franchise.
For this I have broken this essay down into 5 categories
Looks into Physiology
Mental Figures
Mental Landscape
TLDR Synopsis
Final Verdict
Part 1: Looks into Physiology
So what do we know about William Afton? In public, as shown in Sister Location, he speaks with a subtle, poetic, and calculated voice, showing a rather calm and neutral personality. It’s very likely that his mannerisms are very similar to the way he speaks. This is a sharp contrast to how he acts when he’s killing people, be they adults or children. Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery, as well as Pizzeria Simulator showing that he’s arrogant, boastful, overconfident, and incredibly flamboyant in his mannerisms. However these may both be different masks he wears, showing that he is a manipulator and seemingly theatrical, being able to easily put on a character to fool people.
He also plays the part of a friend and loving father to Henry, Elizabeth and likely The Crying Child. We don’t know much about his relationship with Michael or the mother of his children besides what we can possibly extrapolate from Sister Location. With him manipulating Michael into trying to help his sister by “putting her back together”. The mother of his children and possibly his wife has a possible analog in Ballora, whom sings and dances blindly most of the time we see her, her eyes closed aside from when she attacks. With some quotes from both Sister Location and Ultimate Custom Night:
“Why do you hide inside your walls? When there is music in my halls. All I see is an empty room. No more joy, an empty tomb.”
“Save me a dance for another day, perhaps?”
“Admit it: you wanted to let me in.”
“These are strange circumstances that have brought us together.”
This is a lot to unpack so let’s go through these one by one.
The empty room Ballora speaks of could be either the Crying Child, {whom I will call Evan because I don’t want to keep calling him Crying Child or C.C.} or Elizabeth. We know that throughout the franchise there’s this underlying theme of trying to rebuild the past and not being able to let it go. Afton’s wife wanting him to try to move on and enjoy life. But instead he wallows in his own misery. The loss of a child changes a person, and even many serial killers loved their families. Whether or not you believe Afton started killing before or after 1983, control over life and death is his undeniable goal. Even beyond his own immortality.
He want to let her into his secret life, but she would never understand, so he promises to do things with her, a “dance for another day”. Yet another mask that he wears. Her eyes are closed because, in William’s view, she’s blind to the importance of his work. Her only opening them when they start arguing, “attacking” him. Only when things start becoming more difficult are they brought together. In “strange circumstances” like when he has to do pr for the latest incident at Freddy’s. Her music box melody is called “Crumbling Dreams” composed by Michella Moss, whom while having no prior knowledge of the franchise previous to Sister Location had her lines and music approved by Scott Cawthon. Whom likely implemented many of these themes into the franchise because he liked them.
Part 2: Mental Figures
So which Afton is the real William Afton? The arrogant, sadistic, opportunistic killer who smiles and dances as his victims die painfully? The well spoken businessman and father of 3? The mad scientist trying to put his family back together through robotics, computer programming and soul harvesting? Is he insane, or simply evil? The answer; might be more complicated than that. Going back to Psychonauts, and the reason for this exercise, Cassie O’Pia, member of the Psychic Seven, the founders of the Psychonauts, has Mental Figures known as Archetypes. Mental two dimensional figures representing different parts of Cassie O’Pia’s personality.
We all have Archetypes that we use to representing different parts of our own personalities. Exaggerating certainly parts while downplaying others. You don’t act the same around your grandparents the way you do around your friends or the way you act online. The real you is somewhere in the middle. These Archetypes along with other types of Mental Figure having their own complex goals and desires, whereas others are driven only by simple objectives. Many are unique to his own mind.
With Afton, we see multiple different Archetypes. The calculating, well spoken, work-a-holic businessman, the morally questionable mad scientist, the loving, if at times negligent father and husband, the sadistic, ruthless, utterly evil serial killer, the grieving parent, possibly even an entertainer. In his mental world they would all be their own unique individuals with their own two dimensional appearances:
A man in a business suit.
A man in dirty clothes with a beard.
A man in casual clothes.
A man dressed in a black funeral suit
And finally, two yellow, anthropomorphic rabbits. One the entertainer, pristine and innocent.
The other the cold blooded murder with a more aged and broken appearance, drenched in blood.
Each one inhabiting a different part of his broken mind with other mental figures representing other parts of his psyche.
Of course his Inner Selves would only be one type of Mental Figure, the other unique to his mind would be his Memory Replicas. Many mental figures are based on a real-world person, as the mind’s host remembers them. Due to the very nature of memories, all of these mental figures are remembered with some amount of bias. Some are quite realistic, while others are extremely unrealistic, romanticized or bastardized. Constructs of this nature would likely include his family members, Henry, Henry’s family, his employees and of course his victims/the Animatronics. I could go in depth on each but let me give you a quick run-down.
Henry: Ex best friend and former business partner who is plotting against him
Charlotte: Nightmarion
Afton’s wife: Human Ballora
Evan’s Ghost: The spirit of a young child who’s constantly picked on, the idealized child.
Elizabeth: The princess inside a 7 foot tall clown girl mech in need of rescuing.
Michael: Jerkass brother in a Foxy mask who won’t stop asking questions or picking on his brother.
Funtime Animatronics: Dangerous guardians of Circus Baby’s Rental Place.
Cassidy: Nightmare Fredbear piloted by bratty little girl.
The other animatronics: The way they normally are but piloted by bratty children inside.
Employees and other people: 80’s versions of the staff bots wearing masks.
One final note is that we know Mental Figures can be defeated and destroyed by visiting psychics as well as each other. Depending on the role the Figures played in the mind, this can have serious ramifications on the mind. The change can be positive or negative.
With this we start painting a clearer picture of what it likely looks inside Afton’s mind. So with residents of the mental world sorted let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this:
Part 3: Mental Landscape
Afton’s mind would likely be divided into multiple large segments, each one a reflection of his own life and memories much like the Mental Figures that inhabit it.
Section 1: Hurricane Utah.
Not surprisingly to fans of FNAF, it’s very likely that the one primary area would be Hurricane Utah. One with Freddy’s, his house, and particularly himself at the center of it. Come on, this is William Afton, his entire life and afterlife pretty much revolves around this town and Freddy’s in particular. This version of Hurricane Utah would be an idealized 80’s version of the town. When Fazbear Entertainment Inc. was in its prime. The streets are bustling with people {Staff bots} looking to consume Fazbear Entertainment products. This is fairly straightforward as a hub section, with a few dark nooks and crannies to explore.
Section 2: Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza
Another no duh, Freddy’s would be a large section of Afton’s mental world, with this mental version being the first two games plus Fredbear’s Family Diner and Fazbear’s Fright rolled up into one location. The front area being bright, colorful, clean, filled with games to play, food to eat, etc. The animatronics would be performing on a gigantic stage to an audience of hundreds, like an Opera House or a Broadway Theater, with Spring Bonnie the performer always present. In his office is Afton the Businessman, looking to hire new employees for a job with terrible pay, worse hours, and minimal social interaction. The music box at the prize corner contains not The Puppet but their nightmare incarnation of Nightmarion. The fearful reflection of what he has created.
The “backstage” area being a combination of the parts and services areas from the first two games, the hidden safe room and Fazbear’s Fright. This area would be a stark contrast to the front, being darker, dirty, dingy, with more muted colors and filled with hazards as well as implements of torture and murder. Here would be Withered Spring Bonnie the killer, the Yellow Rabbit Man. Afton Pre-Springtrap in his Springlock Suit. Those unfortunate enough to see or follow him are usually never seen again. Avoiding him is paramount. You may also run into Nightmare Fredbear, who is controlled by Cassidy and looking to tear you apart. If our brave Psychonaut destroys Withered Spring Bonnie, they will revert to a Fredbear plushy, with Cassidy reluctantly thanking them, before asking them to leave her on the stage.
Section 3: The Afton House and neighborhood.
Here is where Afton the Father and Husband is with his wife, the ghost of his youngest son, the idealized Evan, and his problem child eldest Michael, whom he’s extremely critical of. Michael delights in bothering his father with questions about what is going at Freddy’s as well as bullying his younger brother. His wife, the human version of Ballora walks and dances around the house as his obedient wife. Her eyes closed yet able to navigate perfectly fine without tripping over anything. Here you’ll find the house to be a familiar configuration: The FNAF 4 house, complete with nonsensical bedroom with two doors leading to two hallways.
The rest of the neighborhood is mostly inaccessible houses besides Henry’s rundown house and garage. This is where you’ll find Henry, bitterly plotting against Afton while working on way less advanced animatronics. A stark contrast to how we know him; a brilliant robotic engineer and also a grieving father. Except he's just looking to stop Afton’s madness, which started when Afton murdered his daughter Charlotte outside of Freddy’s one rainy day.
His house is dirty with Charlotte’s room probably much like in the novels. How he sees his former friend and business partner, as well as a testament to Afton’s arrogance. Seeing himself as better than Henry at everything. Finally there’s a graveyard where you’ll see Afton the mourning father. He'll stand by Evan's gravestone and not say much. Only wanting to be left alone.
Section 4: The underground rental facility.
Connected to the Afton house is Circus Baby’s Rental Service, a mostly accurate albeit somewhat larger and expanded version of what we see in Sister Location. Here we’ll find Afton’s lab, with the morally questionable mad scientist version of him toiling away over his creations and remnant research. He doesn’t kill, that’s Withered Spring Bonnie’s job. He just takes the remnant that Withered Spring Bonnie brings him. A disconnect between the part of him that enjoys killing and the pure scientific part that is looking to harness the power of The Soul. Here you would see the Funtime Animatronics, with Circus Baby holding Elizabeth Afton hostage.
Another Human Ballora is here as well a tired, overworked Afton. Here Ballora argues with him, opening her eyes to reveal two orbs of purple fire. Should our heroic Psychonaut rescue Elizabeth and destroy the Funtime Animatronics, they’ll have to escape from Ennard whom is the largest of all with parts from all the Funtime Animatronics. A towering amalgamation of parts.
Part 4: The TLDR synopsis.
For everyone who doesn’t want to read everything that I wrote let me break it down into simple terms.
Afton’s Mental World would be an idealized 80’s version of Hurricane Utah as a hub with sections devoted to his house, Henry’s house, Freddy’s/Fazbear’s Fright Utah The Rental Place.
Mental Figure would include:
Afton’s Archetypes:
Afton the Businessman
Afton the Father and Husband
Afton the unscrupulous mad scientist
Spring Bonnie the Entertainer
Withered Spring Bonnie the Killer.
Other, non Afton entities would be:
Henry: Ex best friend and former business partner who is plotting against him
Charlotte: Nightmarion
Afton’s wife: Human Ballora
Evan's Ghost: Ghost of a young child who’s constantly picked on, the idealized child.
Elizabeth: The princess inside a 7 foot tall clown girl mech in need of rescuing.
Michael: Jerkass brother in a Foxy mask who won’t stop asking questions or picking on his brother.
Funtime Animatronics: Dangerous guardians of Circus Baby’s Rental Place.
Cassidy: Nightmare Fredbear piloted by bratty little girl.
The other animatronics: The way they normally are but piloted by bratty children inside.
Employees and other people: 80’s versions of the staff bots wearing masks.
Part 5: Final verdict.
Afton’s mental world would be equal parts dangerous and intriguing. A look into the complex mind of a serial killer. Could Afton be mentally healed? Possibly. But he would need constant check ups on his mental health to make sure he doesn’t slip back into his old habits. The debate on if he’s insane or simply evil will continue the rage on until the franchise is forgotten, until the extinction of humanity or the very heat death of the universe.
Also why did I use Glitchtrap as Afton with all the debate on if he’s Afton, The Mimic or a digital fusion of both? Why is he saying “bonjour" when he’s English and not French? Because I thought it was funny. Hopefully I can make this a series looking into the other FNAF characters as I like FNAF and Psychonauts. Anyway that’s all I got for you today, go away now.
