I must apologize - there’s gonna be two parts of the video that are muted for a few seconds because of copyright issues I was unaware of 😩 I hope you can enjoy nonetheless :)
This video is a decent analysis, and I'm really glad Ambience dm'd me this, otherwise I wouldn't have found it - I've been actively avoiding FNaF more and more for months now... Could you tell us what exactly you were saying in the muted parts? I feel like I missed out on at least one important point, although to be really honest I think most of this is obvious to anyone who has been around FNaF long enough. Thank you!
In FNAF 3 and Pizzeria Simulator, Afton felt like a genuine threat that can tear you limb from limb if he wants to, and he will. In Security Breach he feels like an old man fumbling his way around
I would've enjoyed it if that Glitchtrap/Malhare wasn't another reincarnation of Afton, but some sort of AI that's meant to "Replicate" Afton's actions, not be Afton's spirit somehow uploaded to the VR game from a random circuit board
Malhare felt terrifying he didn’t need to be dead murderer or actually be a thing to exist in reality he was much more terrifying than Afton in one game but they had to make him Afton and now we can’t get over that Afton should have stayed dead
I think him being a reincarnation was okay, but he should've stayed just a virus, infecting vanessa/vanny and playing a puppet master roll. Him being brought back as burntrap felt like kind of a rip off with the cool virus stuff and mind control he had going on.
If you ignore Security Breach and Help wanted, Afton is still a good villain. He's very much weird in the books, but in the games, he's pretty much perfect. Not to mention how cool Springtrap is
I'd argue that Sister Location and the sequel novels already turned him into somewhat of a cartoon supervillain. And even then you could argue that as far back as FNaF 3 and The Silver Eyes, he was already a bit of a jobber (if you overlook some details at least). He's much the same In Pizzeria Simulator, except he's been relegated to a timid side character at best like with the other animatronics and our protagonist (even though it's supposed to be 'their' game).
@@sulphurous2656 The Silver Eyes had the best version of the character because they didn't try to make him feel like this genius mastermind who awes the reader with his brilliance, but instead a deeply pathetic, sick individual who preyed on children and ripped families apart out of envy and spite. He was, ironically, the scariest William Afton we've ever gotten because he actually FELT like a real serial killer, like a plausible example of someone from real life who would do what he did. It was entirely consistent with the malicious dipshit from FNaF3 who put on the springlock suit and doomed himself. Then the sequels turned him into a cross between Voldemort and Dr. Robotnik.
Idk about that, when they introduced remnant in Fnaf 6 it basically went down hill. Why does he need to be a supervillain when being a sadistic killer for no reason other than pleasure is enough. Squimpus’ version is somehow better. The remnant itself is dumb and afton should’ve been a rotting corpse that has nothing left but murder. And I like the idea of him showing up as a ghost since that’s how he “came back” in the first place. But all he can do is possess people and I don’t think they should’ve brought his body back
For most of SB, there is no villain. We barely see Vennessa, We literally do not see Vanny unless we go look for her and when we do see her she is comically broken. We are introduced to Afton and kill him in the span of about 20 minutes, with no lines from him, no hint of Vanny in the boss arena or anywhere near him and an absolute flood of missed potential. I will not mention the Blob because I dont wanna talk about it. Its just bad. Also, Afton's bossfight is *literally just pressing buttons and waiting.*
@@technoboop1890 but just look at size of other fnaf games (1-UCN) and look at size of security breach, they really could do more sith SB. Old fnaf games were literally point and click games, and then we have semi-open world like SB.
The biggest thing is nothing is as hidden as it used to be. When FNAF came out there were a few odd things that only eagle eyed viewers would see like the original posters that described the bite of 87. In the sequel it was similar with the mini games that weren't guaranteed and if you wanted the story you had to get them all and try to decode it. By contrast security breach was a jumbled mess of ideas and if things aren't open then they are impossible to solve for.
Exactly. You have on one end, a bunch of concepts and details that leave you with no way of knowing what is important and what isn't, and on the other end, you have storylines that are half-hidden and implied to a degree that you have no idea what is trying to be told.
At the same time, some things are too hidden when they should be more apparent. The entirety of Security Breach treated Afton's involvement like a mystery when the community already knew he was pulling Vanny's strings. If they were going to involve him, they should've made his and Vanny's connection a clear plot point to develop both characters.
@@slenderminion2229 Yes. The books are proof of that. Scott said that we wouldn't need the books to solve anything but we pretty much only figured out the puppet storyline because of the books.
The thing about it is that the Afton storyline is basically revealed. The mystery of security breach is patient 46 . They are connected to some deaths and do have a presence in the game . For instance the hidden rooms and the posted note room . And it also looks like nightmarion has something to do with 46 too
Aftons story really started strong and regressed hard. At first he was a nameless 8-bit sprite. He had no name or motives, all we knew was that he was an employee that used a yellow suit to lure children and kill them. With 3, we find out he became essentially a victim of the same cruel fate he inflicted upon the children, and just like the children, wasn't stopped by death and possessed the suit that killed him with his own rotting corpse still inside. The newspaper clipping teases that he's not finished after the fire just like the trailer foreshadowed. The first book gave us a name, more backstory about him being a founder of the franchise, and Sister Location confirmed it to be canon in the game universe. Sister Location also told us about his family, but also really complicated things with how it related to FNAF 4, and things started getting too complicated with the story revolving more around the Afton family than the victims. The custom night final cutscene teases again that Springtrap is gonna return. Then FFPS kinda fumbles the ball with his redesign, gives him a goofy gravelly voice even though he'd always been silent as Springtrap (like his victims were), and reduces his presence to 1 of 4 identically behaving characters instead of msking them unique to each other. On the bright side it gave him a great sendoff with Henry righting the wrongs he made and revealing that Aftons first victim was Henry's daughter too. UCN finally puts the nail in his coffin and we know for certain he's done for. His story is shaky, and could've been told better imo, but its still satisfying at this point. He got his comeback and comeuppance. Then Help Wanted, Special Delivery, and Security Breach come and dig up his grave just to keep him as antagonist instead of making a new one. He comes back as a computer virus for some reason, sets up a woman to be his successor (actually an exciting prospect since its a new antagonist even if she'd be inspired by Afton), and then at the very end ends up taking Vannys spotlight anyway so he can stand still in a couple of rooms and be burned AGAIN. It's just so frustrating because if they really desperately wanted him to stay antagonist there could've been so many better ways to do it but they chose the worst way to do it and it completely undermines everything about him and makes me dislike him more and more form oversaturation.
I'd actually say that he got a fate worse than the kids since he was alive, the suit basically crushed every part of his body and left him there as a slowly rotting zombie in constant agony, and then the books and SB turned him into a cartoon super villain
everything you described reminds me of the Saw and Halloween franchises. a unique, interesting, and enjoyable horror concept. and then there came a second movie, a third, more and more and became oversaturated with the same villain. it’s unfortunate.
I've got to admit, I like the concept behind Glitchtrap. A version of William that was able to manifest inside people's minds and make them do his bidding; though, it feels like wasted potential since he was brought back to a physical state in Security Breach. It would of been better if they stuck with William being no more than a virus and affecting Vanessa's actions throughout the game. That way, William is still present in some way, but have a new antagonist to carry out the terrible actions.
Couldve made for some amazing scenes too, anything from Vanny replicating Afton's signature struggling robotic movement momentarily to hint at him, to the security breach robots being more threatening and smart, to him possibly even whispering into the mind of whatever character we are playing as, he doesnt fully abide by the limitations of being an AI or the limitations of being alive, he is in-between, they couldve used him to build up to the real afton's breakput from Cassidy's purgatory, theres a lot of wasted potential with him.
Precisely, a point I've heard made is that the Burntrap ending wasn't finished by the time the game released. Personally, I feel as though they should of either made Vanny the main villain or build up that ending more. Honestly, I would go with Vanny instead William due to the fact that they had stated in the video, "show, don't tell" make better stories and allows for speculation. That line could be used to show us the affects of Afton's presence instead of bascially telling the player that he has returned. Vanny should gotten more time to shine and more time to be established as a villain, but instead she feels like a toy tossed to the side for later use.
@@CaptainFeatherFootOfficial it somewhat feels like they shoved 2 or 3 games' worth of story into 3/4ths of a game, she is used, she is being showed at least once, but never more, it wouldve been so much better to give her the entire game, maybe hinting at afton mildly, second game or even dlc could focus on vanny being used by glitchtrap to bring back afton fully, since i still really adalantly believe that would be a really cool storyline to at the very least give a cutscene to, and a third game being basically the latter part of security breach, going into the sinkhole, witness afton being at least attempted to be brought back, have some exposition, more time, idk, and then the ending boss fight, just kinda my 2 cents but it really feels like they shoved too much story with not enough lore into a game without enough time to develop. And i slightly agree with others, if security breach had the initial scope and more time its plot COULD have worked, by giving Vanny more screen time etc, but it would still be a bit stuffed
@@Epsicronics Yeah, definitely does seem to be the case, and that's why I enjoyed the classic games more. They may of been simple and very straightforward, but that's what gave them their charm. Security Breach is (in my opinion) to ambitious for what it's meant to represent. As SB stands, it raises more questions than answers, like "What is the reasoning for Gregory to not trust Vanessa?", or "Who/What is the Blob exactly?" Expanding onto what you've stated, they've crammed so much story into a game that didn't feel like a completed game to begin with that it ruins the experience of the player. There is multiple ways to improve this game as a whole, but that could require the majority game to be re-done significantly. Security Breach in concept is not bad, not in the slightest; however, when it was being put into action, things weren't executed as well as they should of been which in turn made the game suffer. So yeah, that's why I feel there should be a priority to what is added to a game of this caliber.
The biggest lesson I've learned from what FNaF has done with Afton is that too much of a good thing will eventually sour it entirely. It's really unfortunate, and regardless of if they improve Burntrap or whatever else is to come in the future it still would've always been better if he was finished off when he was supposed to be. Really good video, it helps articulate a lot of the feelings I've had about him the past year.
Honestly, I think William is just a stand-in for the inveitable issue thats gonna come: FNAF burnout. You can only crank out so many games year after year until people just get tired. Maybe FNAF needs a few years to rest.
The best thing they did with afton was “kill him” but they ruined it by bringing him back with no *real* explanation. It sucks because it feels like they undermined the coolest moment in the entire franchise by doing so
And yet despite this apparent burnout, it feels like Afton was barely utilized at all to his fullest potential and that he was killed off too soon. FNaF 3 & The Silver Eyes feel like the the only instances where he was utilized in a non-wasteful manner.
@@wandereringshadow8658 I think with Scott gone it’s just downhill from here. He left around the time the game was being worked on and I think him leaving drastically changed how it was supposed to go. They had so many stuff they were going to do and we don’t even experience any of it. Just an unfinished story they threw out there hoping people were dumb enough to enjoy it
I think him coming back can work, but not him directly. The influence of his actions should have a lot more importance. His presence too; the mere mention of his name causing chills to all who hear. The whole thing with Fazbear Entertainment currently is to cover up everything he did. Why not do something with that? FF kind of did this and his legacy seemed to have continued in Eleanor before it cut short. TFTP seems to be doing this too in stories like Help Wanted and one story in the 3rd book I won't spoil. Vanny is inspired by his influence like a worshiper. Why not go into that "Glitchtrap cult" idea people are fascinated by? The point is, William CAN still have impact on the story without being there in the flesh. Always being remembered is him always coming back. Stellar work, my dude! I'm loving these essays like McDonald's.
I still consider Pizza Sim the true ending of the franchise, not because Scott left afterwards, but because that ending to Pizza Sim is genuinely one of the greatest experiences I've ever had with the series, and you really get this "final" feeling to it, like afton and all of the other characters WERE meant to die here, and we were supposed to get new villains and characters.
I personally miss the closure FNaF3 gave us. I really didn't expect another game and I didn't feel like there needed to be another game. I honestly think just getting the identity of the killer ruined the whole thing for me. I loved it when he was just an anonymous child murderer who felt like he could be anyone. Whether that be a random security guard or a customer or even Phone Guy. What the guy's name was didn't matter to me. FNaF3 tied up basically every loose end up to that point, set the souls free and burned Springtrap to the ground. Everything after felt like needless bloating to me. Sure there were some cool things after, but none of the games in this franchise quite made me feel as scared and emotional as those first three games. They felt so real. Nothing really feels real anymore, especially William Afton.
I agree, but only partially. Springtrap being a nobody was always very mysterious and engaging, and I dont think piecing together the puzzle was more fun anywhere than in those 3 first games. However, the continuation of the story was perfectly fine, and by doing so Afton could be more cohesively connected to the main plot of the game. It gave light to the origins of Freddy's outside of Fredbear's, gave answers to very popular questions like who was the puppet, and ultimately just tied up loose ends. The story could have ended with 3, but I feel there'd be a lot of dissatisfaction with that ending. I do think, though, that things should have ended AT LEAST at UCN. It was akin to the "culmination" of the series & gave us the satisfaction of what we thought was hearing Afton finally burn in hell.
@@kibbleknight2156 Fair enough. I've been meaning to revisit FNaF4, SL, PS and UCN for a while and I'm planning to go in with an open mind and see if I can warm up to them.
@@twinzzlers you're right, it is. Its very well written. At the same time, it would've been SO MUCH more impactful for me if Henry was already an established character in the lore prior to Pizzeria Simulator.
i love the old 8 bit minigames. for one, after dying you just. stumbled upon them. it makes u feel like u got lucky and found like a super secret little thing hidden in the game. i also love how they actually show us the events of the story with very very little text, only like text to tell you what to do in the minigame. and unlike a realistic cutscene, they show us these events in a way where they arent filled with like needless gore, and we can look at the cutscenes and try to interpret (or with those older games mostly figured out, used to interpret) what was happening. for example, i loved the discussion around what purple guy was holding in the "follow me" minigame when fnaf 2 released. was it a hand? a tool? or even a phone? there could be many different interpretations, and a lore cutscene being able to give us so much fun discussion was great! these text logs and audio logs are way less fun partially becuase its just text. theres no visuals to try to interpret things from. sure, we can still interpret like the paragraphs of text, but its not the same as looking at an atari styled minigame and talking about what you think the purple line on the end of the purple man's arm looks like. and with the minigames, we got to experience these events FIRST HAND. WE got placed into these lore moments, and WE got to play through them. isnt that way more fun than just. hearing someone talk about a lore moment?
Security Breach feels like it threw away everything 6 had closed up neatly. It feels like it just revived him just because…he’s William Afton, I guess? Ugh. It feels like a slap in the face. Everything that the series established up until the 6th game, the ending, the END of this game… ending of the 6th game is amazing. It’s legitimately an amazing wrap up. It almost feels like it was just thrown away, discarded…
Less scary and more obnoxious. I loved how the FNAF1 jumpscares were a roar fading into a scream, implying that's the dead children screaming. As the series continued jumpscares lost nuance and became just loud noise. I don't like jumpscares in general but in the first game they were cleverly done, with lore implications.
My main problem with Afton is that when it was implied that it might have been an ordinary employee of the pizza place killing children, it was terrifying and plausible. Learning it was the founder was a bit jarring, but not too unbelievable. Then we learned he not only built a lot of the animatronics, he specially engineered some to hunt children actively and lure them away. And then he becomes first an undead animatronic zombie rabbit, and then a sentient computer virus who escapes to reality. We are firmly in Mega Man territory at that point, and coupled with the complete lack of subtlety later on, it really hurt the series' credibility. Though I do imagine that the slightly shifting audience of FNAF played a part--Security Breach is much brighter and less outwardly intimidating than any prior game.
@@tonys6620 In part, but I do believe the Sister Location ones were ENTIRELY Afton's fault, given the whole "luring module" and "voice imitation" things.
With the part where I talk about ‘show don’t tell’, I think I phrased it quite wrong which I apologize for. Obviously the phrase is used for within the context of stories to help develop elements. In the video I made it sound like an excuse as to why people prefer the games - that was more of a really broad example yet I should’ve used something more within the context of the story and specific so I am sorry about that!
I really like glitchtrap, his design is creepy and his movement is uncannily fluid, but different from the twitching robotics of springtrap. I think him corrupting vanny and making her the new villian wouldve been amazing, allowing afton to exist as more of a puppet master/background villian while vanny took center stage. They could've left him out security breach but allowed his influence over the series to stay clear through vanny and the animatronics. If the dev's really needed to bring back afton, I think they should've waiting one or two games, since his constant changing of forms is tiring. Give vanny some spotlight for a few games while building but to the dramatic return of afton through burntrap or some other form. Also I think they should definitly go back to the somewhat cryptic minigames of the past where floor was implied but not always clear such as with midnight motorist. The game garnered so much popularity from having unclear lore that needed to be pieced together and theorized on, but that didn't have too high of a bar to enter. Watch two or three fnaf lore videos and you would have enough of an idea to theorize on. Now things are a lot clearer, with the books and games painting a clearer story and timeline; it's harder to theory craft when theirs less room to theorize. For secruity breach, what would've been cool is if they added more arcade machines besides princess quest that gave lore hints instead of all the book tie in's and logs in the game.
I believe that was their plan but because the community guessed the lord before them they put lore over quality and security breach turned out… disappointing. In lore, gameplay, and polish. I will say, the environment is the best in any horror game this year
@@QUBIQUBED the environment is amazing, but outside of the endo area and post-chica sewer/trash area it’s not really a horror environment. Everything is bright and open their isn’t really a fear of anything because you can see everything. And the few sections where lights do dim or get cut are over rather quickly. Also when it comes to fans guessing the lore beforehand, thats comes with the problem that they made it too clear what would happen after help wanted with the tapes. If they had cut the tapes and given us just some hint at what happened to the previous play tester glitchtrap would’ve been more mysterious and what would happen with vanny/vanessa after the ending would’ve been a lot harder to guess.
William can be developed after FFPS without devaluing the game itself. Namely, to offer a much greater alternative. Frights worked perfectly with him, making him really creepy and multi-faceted. He appears in two personas that we have not seen, namely the Patient and Miscreation. Frights offered a quality alternative to his FFPS death, so it does work. In SB, he was returned not only in a hackneyed way, but also for five minutes. He did not have time to show himself to be a worthy character. I love William Afton as a villain, especially his versatility and the aura around him. He's an interesting character, but SB did the worst thing that could be done to him, which was nothing. In the previous game, we were shown him in a completely different form, probably even the best of all time (Springtrap was already tired and in FNAF 3 he personally did not impress me). There is a chance to bring him back if you cross with Blob and really make William a threat, on an unprecedented scale and include a normal narrative and make the battle with him final, once and for all. You can restore William's reputation by showing him worthy. Either through the prequel, or by the method I described.
in russian community there's a trope that can be roughly translated to "he crawled away". it means, that a character, that almost certainly died (fell off a cliff, was sentenced to death, disintegrated into a weird mirror, lost his legs and an arm in a battle and caught on fire, etc) got back to action in later canonic artworks or fanfiction.
What always gets me is that it would've been easy and simple and COMPELLING to just make Vanny inspired by Afton without ever actually bringing him back. Copy cat killers aren't a new concept and this would've worked so well.
Not to mention that by having copycats inspired by Afton running around, they'd still effectively convey the message that he'd "always come back" without ripping the neat ribbon of his arc by bringing him back in the flesh. William might be dead, but there are people as insane as he was, and now that his atrocities had come to light and became famous, you bet that some sickos are gonna try to emulate him, whether by stalking down malls dressed in a bunny costume, or programming a malware that can turn tame animatronics into ruthless killing machines.
I think what really disappointed me the most with Security Breach waa how little it utilized Vanny and the whole concept of William Afton/GlitchTrap being able to brainwash people and turn them into his personal killing machines. Sure, the Burntrap design is cool and all, but I rather the story focus on Vanny being the main villain, rather than just the studio shoe-horning William in just like that.
I know the full speech. I can recite it from memory, but there's still something bloodcurdling about it, paired with the audio, the images, and the narrative, it will never cease to be scary in its own subtle way.
William Afton in Fnaf 1, 2, and 3 was a terrifying presence. You felt unease by knowing what he's down. In 3, you actually see the beast that caused so much tragedy, now in his own suffering. Fnaf 4-6 was decent, but was left much to desire (I like Scraptrap, but he needed improvements). Fnaf vr was pretty cool, and then afton died from irrelevancy and flanderization.
this right here, I felt like after the book now giving him the whole story, it kinda sucked a lot of the juice of the character's mystery and motives. But it was still a cool story, and then it just felt like afton had no mystery and his soul was a crypto currency.
Honestly Afton's downfall really started once he was given a name in the first place. The story was way more interesting when he was this mysterious purple killer with no known motive rather than some mad scientist family man. While this isn't explicitly stated, I always thought of springtrap to be in constant pain and agony within the suit, a killer reduced to his base instincts and incapable of making any sounds beyond the grunts you hear in fnaf 3. He's a big threat in the game he stars in, sure, but at the end of the day he's trapped inside this rotting suit with little agency of his own. In FFPS onward, suddenly he's this cartoonish evil villain who can speak in full sentences that just breaks any sense of horror the character previously had. In my eyes, the real problem with Afton is that Scott turned an animalistic killer who's punishment was to suffer for eternity along with his victims into some sort of evil genius big bad who keeps showing up being like "remember me??? remember when the fnaf games had cool and interesting characters???"
The thing I hate the most about the new Afton is how he’s turned into a mad scientist obsessed with finding immortality. I feel like the “he always comes back” line more referred to his legacy or how, up until 3’s ending/Pizza Sim, the dead children hadn’t found peace and were still spiteful. His initial motivation can be interpreted as killing out of grief, too. Once the series tried getting more meta and sci-fi, though, I think that’s when the writing took a hit as a result.
Glitchtrap could have worked if it was a copycat meant to imitate him. It would actually show the second layer of horror of afton's actions ; the fact that his actions have inspired _copycats._ He's not the first of his kind, and he won't be the last. Afton is horrid, but that pales to the idea of multiple aftons inspired _by_ him, and the fact that some of them reach heights he never will (afton was restricted by old technology. If glitchtrap was created by someone in his name, when afton himself could never have, isn't that a new level of horror? That this isna cycke of killers that will only develop, maybe some day to a point where they won't die at all? After all, if spring bonnie had safe springlovks, god knows what afton couldve done...) It's truly a different kind of horror still sourced from afton. It would've been so cool, it would've been a different _kind_ of horror, an implicit kind, one that comes to you the more you think about it. It would've been different, at least. What a missed opportunity.
I think Afton’s optimistic and positive outlook of his murders (and by extension, his demise) would have been a really cool part of his character if he wasn’t so over saturated. A strangely calm, charismatic, and optimistic antagonist that is also evil to the core is awesome! It just sucks that Afton always comes back :/
It still really bugs me how badly Glitchtrap was fumbled. Pizzeria sim (and UCN) was the perfect send-off in my opinion. It tied a lot of loose ends without being a giant "we won!" cliche or anything - bittersweet. When Help Wanted first released and people started theorising about Glitchtrap, I was excited. Help Wanted introduced a new storyline without completely denying (or "it was a dream!"-ing) the original story, and did it pretty well. Plus, Vanny helped put a new spin on it. And then security breach released. Wait so... Glitchtrap didn't matter? At all? Why are they doing "oooo spooky scary kill woman!!!" completely one-dimensionally? Wasn't vanny essentially brainwashed? Why are the only outcomes involving her "kill" or "restore brain instantly with no consequences" after presumably weeks of brainwashing? Why did they build up vanny as the new afton protégé only to completely tie up her arc in the first game she appeared in? And... wait... she's vanessa? Why is she a security guard all of a sudden? I thought the entire point was that she was a QA tester so would've been in direct contact with ... whatever Glitchtrap is? and why did they completely ignore the few descriptions of her that existed beforehand? auugghhh....... so, so much potential just completely ignored. As much as I wanted to fall in love with it (sun&moon are amazing) security breach was just not FNAF to me. At all.
It’s a shame that a lot of fnaf’s characters are mishandled. William Afton has a great feeling as a twisted vision of Doctor Frankenstein. Making monsters from machines and the dead. But unfortunately Afton is all over the place narratively.
while i haven't been a fnaf fan in a long time, i do still think ultimate custom night was the perfect ending for fnaf. fnaf3, the children refuse to move on because afton is still around. fnafPS, everyone gets incinerated and freed. UCN, the kid use their freedom to trap william indefinitely. how could that have been retconned? it would've been a perfectly fine story ending with the brutal, torturous revenge the kids would get on their old tormentor. it just would've been nice if everything was left on that note.
I've only watched a bit of the video so far but I would like to point out that the FNAF books being literal words on a page doesn't actually prevent show, don't tell considering that that is a WRITING technique. Writing can show a story as much as it can tell one.
Way back when people called William "Vincent" (a time we won't speak of) purple guy used to be scary because nothing was known about him aside from his malice
I'm not a fan of "Vincent" since he's stupid and makes people overlook the fact that this guy killed innocent children. I prefer him to just be the purple guy or the killer.
Maybe if Matpays theory about the ruin DLC being the ruins if Aftons Mind, we could learn his origin story before he met He ry and had kids of his own? It would be a fitting way to give us closure to why he's evil.
I love the idea of Afton’s boss fight in Security Breach. A Child Vs a Psycho in the series’ Night Shift vs Animatronic formula. However, it could’ve been done obviously better, and I honestly would’ve preferred Vanny sending the animatronics after us over Afton having weird Cyber Control over everything.
He's still my favorite character. I love that Freddy, Jason, Michael, Chucky, and Leatherface never really die and always comeback. Hell Springtrap's literal quote tells you that he's never leaving permanently, his quote is literally "I ALWAYS COMEBACK" be kind of lame if he didn't live up that. The best monsters are forever.
William Afton reminds me of Sylar from Heroes, who was a very menacing and mysterious villain in the first season of the show. But the showrunners got cold feet on the idea of having a new cast every season because they were already popular, so Sylar gradually lost his mystery, became a more integrated character, and became less of a threat as bigger forces showed up and it was all just disappointing.
Tbh when Help Wanted released I had hopes for Steel Wool. I honestly really liked that game even though William was still overused, I thought maybe they'll pass that role onto Vanny so I was pretty excited for FNAF future. But when I saw Security Breach, I realized they were not preparing for the future, but more like Glitchtrap was there literally for a fan service, and..nothing more. It's a real bummer because after Help Wanted, I even saw fnaf AR gameplays too, which had hidden messages that directly talks about Vanny so I was excited to see what Vanny will do in Security Breach. But no, Vanny has almost no screen time during the entire gameplay even though they advertised it as a main villain.
Great analysis - I would love to see a video about Henry’s monologue, it’s long been my favorite moment in the entire franchise because of how heartbreaking yet nostalgic and cathartic it manages to be. I felt so angry at SB’s uninspired reveal carelessly washing all the impact away just to lazily bring back the franchise’s Big Bad™ in hopes of appealing to the fanbase - which didn’t even fucking work anyway
Squimpus McGrimpus’ fnaf fan series that was done in the analog horror style has a far superior Afton, his voice is straight laced and deceptively normal, as opposed to the obviously villainous sounding (and strangely British) Afton in the games. Instead of being a killer for the sake of killing, it comes from a place of anger and resentment in the fan series as well, and we get to see him develop in one of the videos through a wonderfully performed monologue. It clarifies that Afton is a family man on the outside with charisma that wins people over, but deep down he is a warped monster whose rage eats him up and influences all his decisions. Please go do watch it if you haven’t already
Vanny should be an Afton fangirl, not a possessed/mind controlled slave to him. She should (somehow) know who he is and what he did, and be absolutely enamored with it. She should be trying to resurrect him _figuratively,_ not literally. Afton is dead -- killed in the fake Pizzeria fire, but Vanny wants to keep his legacy alive by killing more people in his name. I feel like that's a healthy balance between starting a new story and relying on the original one from FNAF 1-7: Make the original story an urban legend that inspires the new killer
It was pretty much the perfect way to go. The children are freed, Afton is in hell, Michael and Henry can finally be put to rest. It left some loose ends to still be mysterious. It was also a really fun game.
@@anarkerry8621 same. I've been here since the start, and as long as there's a believable way to continue the story, I will want it to continue. Unfortunately, some of the decisions made for how to do so were really dumb.
I think that while Afton was kinda shoehorned in when he made his Burntrap debut, there's many better ways they could have used him. My personal idea is something that incorporates the Afton family into it using the GlamMike theory. Imagine, going through the true ending, there comes a point where Gregory needs to exit Freddy, likely to squeeze into a vent. But then Vanny sneaks up on Freddy and manages to knock him out/deactivate him, dragging him away much like Moon did. So you need to find Freddy. You eventually manage to find a vent system, and as you crawl through, you hear Afton talking to Freddy, going on a monologue. "Well, my dear son...I finally have you right where I want you. You've evaded me for far too long, and your replacement for your brother cannot help you now." And so on. Thing is, as you're looping around the vent system, you get various holes to see into the room, and you see Afton circling a struggling, but chained up Freddy. But each of the holes you look through show Afton in a different form, as he's not truly there. He's just able to manifest himself as a spirit, a glitch, but Vanny needs to do the work. You see Glitchtrap, Scraptrap, Springtrap, and then finally him as a living human, giving a 3D living face reveal for the first time. All the while he speaks about the family, how his experiments have paid off and finally he could grant them all immortality. He talks about how difficult it was to manipulate everyone into blaming his old partner. The pain he endured and the blood he spilled to get his deserved reward. Trying to coax Michael to join him. Unfortunately the idea ends there for now, but I'm still working on it.
I still feel like had they gone the route of Security Breach taking place in a branching timeline post Pizzaria Simulator where Michael escapes and then goes on to make the Fazbear name something that he could be proud of with Vanessa trying to restart his father's murders, it would have had some more narrative depth especially in contrast to William and Henry. (Also because it could then give us one of the endings where Michael tells Gregory that he's survived Five Nights At Freddy's. And I just feel like that would be one of the most based things ever.)
I think this is a really interesting take on why the newer games don't have the same level of horror. It feels like in the original games when we got an 8-bit minigame it was like something was showing us this personally and for a specific purpose. Almost like it wasn't supposed to be there and we wasn't supposed to see it. In the new games everything feels like a game dev put it there for us My guess is that it might be explained away by saying the original games were made by the original company and the others were made by the company that took over, which makes sense but obviously we all kinda prefer when we feel like we're getting something the devs didn't want us to get
I think an improvement would have been, if Afton himself wasn't back yet in SB, but if Vanny, an Afton Cultist, was attempting to revive him using parts from the Pizzaplex and it was up to Gregory to stop her. That way Henry's sacrifice is still important, but Afton can still be in the story. As it is though, SB seems to take place after he has been revived, which is kind of bizzare.
Glad to see you did another one of these video essays. I watched your Nightmarrione one last week and I enjoyed your points. For Afton, I do think this character outsold his time post Pizzeria Simulator and his sudden return in Security Breach felt so forced and honestly underwhelming. The only way I feel Afton can get justice done to him… is in the same way like Nemesis from RE3 Remake, be added to Dead By Daylight. Afton is quite the terrifying and unsettling villain as a rotting corpse that’s fueled with rage and murder is honestly quite the scary and haunting idea
I rarely get FNAF related nightmares. But when I do, it usually involves Springtrap in some way, the idea of a being with an association with killing without remorse or second thought decaying in a suit and refusing to die just hits differently compared to a possessed robot that still follows AI protocol and lines of code. Springtrap is a biological nightmare that doesn't fully use an animatronic endoskeleton to get around, he *is* the endoskeleton.
For me personally, Fnaf 3 always had this feeling from the first time you play the game. Going through each night, wondering why only this random rotting suit can kill you and seeing at the end that this was the man responsible for every action in the series up to that point. No other game has given that feeling of wonder and shock like Fnaf 3 did.
There's a way to show and not tell in written words. It's a technique I've been working with that I call inaccurate perception. Basically, you are telling the same story from multiple perspectives, and while none of the perspectives tell the full story, and in some cases, the characters telling the story make inaccurate assumptions, you can still piece together the true story by finding out what narrative all the descriptions can explain. For an example, I'll do a few summaries from the perspectives of some of my characters, all describing the same scene. So, the first perspective is a character named Snapjaw Cranimandible. He could sense that something dangerous was lurking nearby, but was unsure of what it was. He just settled on it being a ghost, as those were normal where he came from. Before long, though, everything cut to black, and the next thing he knew, he was back home, laying in bed. He thought to himself that it was all a dream, and then went about his day. But for some reason, nobody acknowledged him. As if he didn't exist. The next perspective is a character named Femurr. He had made a statue of Mr. Cranimandible, and had planned to bring it to him. As he walked down the hall, he saw him, and ran to give him the gift. Mr. Cranimandible then turned around and grabbed Femurr by the neck slamming him to the ground. It was out of character for him, as Mr. Cranimandible had always been kind to Femurr. But this time, he wanted him dead. By the end, he succeeded, and Femurr's soul drifted off to nothingness. The next pov is Molten Cry. He had sensed the danger far sooner, and rushed to the scene. He knew he couldn't interfere, but he also knew he needed to be there. Upon arriving to Mr. Cranimandible's location, he saw some kind of blue energy shoot out of the shadows, hitting Mr. Cranimandible in the side of the head. He didn't seem to die, though. His mannerisms changed, now walking through the hall with his head down, looking almost sad. Not long after, though, some kid came running up to him, holding some kind of figurine. Mr. Cranimandible quickly turned around, picking the kid up by the neck before slamming him to the ground with enough force to shatter the kid's skull. At this point, Molten Cry knew he had no choice. He sprung into action, grabbing Mr. Cranimandible and melting him down to nothing. An unfortunate end to one of the great. The next POV is a character named Dispair. He was getting bored of passively tormenting the souls of the living, and decided to move on to those who managed the dead. He cast out his thoughts, making the creatures of cloth and bone turn on those they cared about most. A few minutes pass, and Dispair is sent back to himself with a jolt of burning pain. One of the victims he was controlling had died to some kind of heat. "Better luck next time", he had thought to himself, returning to quietly lying in wait, sifting through his plans and checking up on those he considered a threat, only to find that the count had gone from 18 to 16.
I don't mind William Afton being a villain, many people back then were very invested into getting to know him. In FNAF 2, William Afton (or Purple Guy by fans) is responsible for causing the "missing children" incident, and killing many children in a Spring Bonnie suit. Many people even invented theories involving William Afton, like one that William Afton is Phone Guy because of reasons like when he got attacked by animatronics while recording in FNAF night 4 and that he knows a lot about how animatronics work, which was commonly accepted at the time but when FNAF 3 came out, the theory starts to have a lot of holes, like William Afton and Phone Guy has different deaths, William Afton being squeezed to death by Spring Bonnie's endoskeleton and Phone Guy getting himself killed by Golden Freddy (and probably shoved into a suit), the more games that came out most FNAF 2 theories never made it alive and fresh new theories came out. I still believe that William Afton should keep coming back if done right. Also Steel Wool Studios had a lot of issues with Security Breach, like the game had so much delays that Scott feared that the game will lose popularity, so to keep the community busy, he created a beat-em-up spin-off called "Security Breach: Fury's Rage". He would have made change if he were there during development, but because of controversy regarding those "donations" he quit development of Security Breach, let's Steel Wool Studios complete it and retires from making video games, Security Breach does need some polish regarding bugs and stuff.
In my opinion, i feel like the fire purged and freed the souls of all the animatronics, the only reason Afton was able to come back was cassidy keeping him alive enough to make afton suffer, meaning when the circuit boards were scanned by the fnaf VR team, they made a digital copy of Afton and Cassidy. Michael and elizabeth have evidence for still being around, so i guess the aftons never die ever?
I'd love for Glitchtrap to be his own entity. Like, him having those basic Afton instincts but not much more, (like a clone, not resurection) but as any AI - learning, changing, craving. Wanting to "get out" of the simulation? As Afton, while dying wanted to get out of the suit and then the fire trap, so the Glitchtrap didn't know what he wanted to escape exactly: VR space? Pizzeria? Something like that. Slowly morphing and becomeing his own thing, dangerous and deadly on different terms. Wanting to exist - to be alive. that's what he needs remnant for, what he needs kids and animatronics to become real and then... he'll figure out the rest of the plan from there. this kind of animalistic survival insinct becoming a cold, calculated intrigue that really feels like an interesting take. He might even take a new name at the end, still Afton but not William - perhaps a variation, Bill, or maybe after the victim that gives him life. Just some random ideas of mine.
Security Breach literally pulled a “Somehow Palpatine returned” What’s the point of Henry’s sacrifice and infinite suffering from the vengeful spirit at this point?
The thumbnail and even general presentation for this whole video is immaculate and I appreciate all the work that seems to have gone into this video. Nice work!
Can we briefly touch upon his appearance in FNaF AR? Honestly I loved what they did with him there and it felt like he was becoming a great villain again. Sure, it's debated how canon the game is but I find that it at least brought the spirit of Afton's evil back to life. He's one of the hardest characters to defeat in game, with new mechanics which, at the time of AR's first wave, was unheard of. And lets not skip over his voice lines. He sounds deliciously evil, loving every moment of the horrific legend he is, practically fueled by your fear and is always searching for more. This is the Afton I know and love. It's a shame it couldn't translate into Burntrap in the following game.
Thank you for this video. I really enjoyed the script and how you exposed your points. I do agree with you that everytime danger is a thing in FNAF's latest games, the overused William Afton doesn't enhance the moment as it did in FNAF 3. Keep up the good work, you gained a sub! :)
The problem with FNAF is that they're trying to tell a story about a villain, while keeping him a monster. The difference is that a villain is a character. They have backstory, motive, personality. A monster is just there to be scary. Monsters work best when you don't know about them. The threat you don't know is scarier than the threat you do. But a villain is scary because you do know them. They aren't a boogeyman under the bed, they're the neighbor next door. The fear isn't from the unknown, but from the familiar being twisted. So now we know too much about William for him to be the monster he was in FNAF 1-4, but too little for him to be an effective villain.
This gives me some serious Halloween 6 flashbacks, where Michael keeps coming back with more and more lore surrounding him while he was at his best as a serial killer symbolizing the dangers of anonymity But then he becomes a vessel for a Halloween demon with a cult following. Should’ve ended it with the first movie.
i would've loved something where gregory and freddy go to the final 6 location and find afton, vanny would then try to start him up but it fails, and aftom crumbles and fall to the ground showing to vanny that alton is dead and what she's been working for is a lie, causing her to go even more insane. idk just an idea in my head.
the theories that the mimic was actually burntrap really helped put springtrap back to where he should be in fnaf by this point in the timeline for me. he's dead, gone. a ghost story. a mask for a robot to put on for the power it once held or its discarded humanity. i think the same goes for malhare, that he's a malicious bit of code playing the role of william afton because he is LITERALLY the big bad of the whole game malhare originated from. william, at this point, is a better villain when he's dead. his power lies solely in the fear his name once held and his memory, not in his current actions, and trying to bring him back for More actions just weakens him.
Actually we did get confirmation springtrap was alive before pizzeria simulator because there's a secret cutscene we're michael gives a speech and we see springtrap leaving the ruins of fazbear fright in the sl custom night
I choose to believe that it did end with fnaf 6 and there was no glitchtrap shenanigans in fnaf vr. If they were going to bring him back, keep him as a virus that influences people. It's different and in a few different ways, a little scarier.
That's the beauty of what Steel Wool did. They made it so that nothing they do effects Scott's original games in anyway unless you the player choose to view them that way. In the Steel Wool timeline the first 6 games are simply video games based on an urban legend (that also happens to be true). This means if you prefer to think as FNaF 1 - 6/UCN then you can view them as the truth behind the urban legend if you want to or you can view them as the games based upon that legend. It was actually quite brilliant on Steel Wool to give fans who don't like their games a way to write them off as non canon.
@@anarkerry8621 false. The first 6 games are the truth. The video games that exist in universe aren't the ones we played. Scott himself confirmed that. Infact the only reason it was a thing at all was so that they could use non-canon characters in fnaf VR, like Nightmarion or the Jack-O animatronics.
@@--CHARLIE-- that literally changes nothing about what I said. Point is that you can separate the two series very easily if you don't like Steel Wool's FNaF.
Dude if William Afton died in Pizza simulator that would've been such a good ending. He could even come back as Glitchtrap and that still would be fine.
FNaF as a franchise needs to end and wrap up. It had its run for a good 8-9 years, but it doesn't seem like there's much of a story to tell anymore. Pizza Simulator should be the true ending. I joined this fandom in 2014 when I was 8. Although I miss the golden years of FNaF, it's about time this franchise comes to an end. Sad to say...
I thought "he always comes back" was supposed to be a double entendre referring to William but also Michael always returning to fix what his father did
if Steel Wool decides to bring Afton back again for the Ruin DLC I want it to be his last appearance. I sincerely hope they've taken the fandom's reactions to peepaw willy and underutilized vanny and do whatever they can to try and salvage their story.
I’ve heard people say FNAF was a cash grab that went on too long back when sister location came out but I didn’t think that was true hell I didn’t even think that it went on too long up until ucn. It all made sense. Now it feels like a cash grab where the lore went too far and got too convoluted.
For me a reason burntrap return doesn’t work like his past appearance/returns is because those other times were either setup or we knew he was still out there Fnaf1 and 2, we knew he got away so we can assume he’d show up again Fnaf3, we saw that he survived and expected him to return eventually Fnaf4, did dream theory at first so spring trap didn’t have to return because he was just a dream at that point now Sister location, pretty much it just confirmed spring trap was alive and would finally show up in the next game Pizzeria sim, this was it, it was his end. Once he burned in that fire there’s no cliff hanger or tease that he lived. It was an end. UC, it just further proved he’s dead and now he’s living a personal hell forever All these scenerios either set up a return, we’re set in his past, or made no return ok But security breach, there’s no reason to come back. That past threat established was glitch trap and that was implied to take over a normal human. Burn traps body had no reason to be back
Pizzeria Simulator had the best ending. Henry put all those things and events together, he was unreachable before but he was busy to make a plan for his former friend. William seeked for immortality and sacrificed many on his quest, Henry could only watch as only the police found nothing about William. In the end, he had an idea of bringing the animatronics in the same room by saturday to put the souls into rest, instead of suffering in those mechanicals suits and forgotten.. It implied that Molten Freddy was possessed by, not the Funtimes, but an unknown soul trapped whithin.
For Glitchtrap, there was a way they could've done it with it still being Afton, whilst at the same time not. Basically, having Glitchtrap be everything that made Afton what he was, whilst leaving out whatever good was deep within.
Wow, I’m a newer fan, I joined the fandom around help wanted’s release and I always thought “why is it that so many people like springtrap so much? He’s just so basic” and I now realize I never saw it from this point of view !
He doesn't really have any villainous motivations anymore. Previously he did this for a reason, bring back his kids, satiate his jealousy, and other human motives. Now there is no hope of him achieving any of this. Why does he come back at all?
Imagine if they turned spring trap into some sort of eldritch force. Him going from being a virus to turning into an incomprehensible higher being that corrupts people to get revenge on the world after his destruction at the end of fnaf 6.
I was really excited with the revelation of Glitchtrap in HW, because it felt like we were going in a new direction. A killer’s bloodlust & personality instilled in computer program? That’s chilling. SB will forever be my least favorite for completely ignoring pretty much every games lore. So much was set up or concluded that they just decided to bring back or completely ignore. Afton is one of my favorite characters, but when it comes to cannon, ive decides to ignore SB, because the rest of his story was so good.
The princess quest mini game from FNAF VR made me believe that William would either return as a cosmic horror or a demon rather than just the rotting rabbit we know as Burntrap. My interpretation was that Vanessa set William free from hell, allowing him to infect other people’s minds. I hoped he’d be more of an overarching villain rather than a front and center antagonist, using other people as pawns in his game. Imagine if there was a cult centered around William, dedicated to following him, treating him like a GOD. I would have loved to see this. Oh well, at least Grandpa Willy’s got a better design now right (sarcasm).
The "threat of GlitchTrap" is the same threat as reboot Chucky: hacking "anamatronics." That's as far as it needed to go. A glitch. The final showdown in security breach is more of everyone (minus Bonnie of course) coming for you and even your once guard Freddy can become a threat if the hacking is successful. Could've been done by a Skynet AI logistical system all the same. "No person in place after hours beyond security personnel." Just cranked up to 11 due to a glitch error. Not much in the game would've changed. Afton. Skynet. Hal 9000. Discombobulated New Chucky. Whatever... all works in that game sadly.
I think if they used glitchtrap to introduce vanny, that would have been a perfect way to introduce a new villain. Introducing a new enemy by doing something that the old threat would never try is a great way to show why it has to be taken seriously.
I'd say the reason he comes back is that ever since FNAF 2 the mystery of purple guy has always been the largest driving force within the community, between FNAF 4 & Sister location when we were gradually given all answers to all the mystery surrounding purple guy there was only really one thing left to do with him - Kill him off. Vanny was a good idea for a villian, a copycat killer or puppet of a strand of afton's conciousness remaining - however what makes her an unsuitable villian is the fact she just didn't have the level of mystery purple guy did, her entire story was figured out within 2 games.
I'm at 6:32, so I have no idea if you mention this further in the video. But I feel that the old games felt much more mature and actually interesting, is because of also the mini-games. Which aligns with what you said "Show. Don't tell.".Good video! Keep it up dude!
The thing is, Fazbear entertainment isn't the same as before. Pre Pizza Sim it was Fazbear ent. Inc. Now, it's Fazbear ent. LLC. Someone else rebooted the company with a sinister purpose in mind.
yeah, i was reading up on the lore because of reasons, and it was impressive to watch it expand from "spooky animitronics will kill you!" to "The afton and friends show, starting afton's creations, afton's family, afton's plans and also you"
My headcannon for Burntrap & Da Blob's appearing in Security Breach is that they both had their souls smelted out of the animatronics, but Vanny tried to use their remains to recreate them anyways. That explains why Da Blob attacks Greg, as its made to kill everything, and is placed to guard Burtrap. Burntrap is literally a soulless recreation of William Afton.
The "original" trilogy of fnaf was going to be the first three games, though the fnaf fanbase was so picky they complained about springtrap's jumpscare not being as scary as the phantoms...so that's what led Scott to create fnaf 4, with the same methods being used from fnaf 3, audio cues, such as springtrap's heavy walking, crawling in the vents, and the classic "help...me"...or hhh aaa
even though I enjoy SB. that game just assassinated a good character. It has come to a point where I just personally ignore Help Wanted, AR and SB exist in the canon storyline (along with most of the books, because man does it get messier than what it already was). not because theyre bad or anything, but because it sometimes turns into a headache. and all of it because they couldn't let go of one great villain. had they made glitchtrap a copycat serial killer, it would be such a different story.
I must apologize - there’s gonna be two parts of the video that are muted for a few seconds because of copyright issues I was unaware of 😩
I hope you can enjoy nonetheless :)
Copyright really needs an overhaul
And possibly abomination
its fine man! your vids are still amazing!
*abolishion
Can you add subtitles so i can know what you were saying?
This video is a decent analysis, and I'm really glad Ambience dm'd me this, otherwise I wouldn't have found it - I've been actively avoiding FNaF more and more for months now...
Could you tell us what exactly you were saying in the muted parts? I feel like I missed out on at least one important point, although to be really honest I think most of this is obvious to anyone who has been around FNaF long enough. Thank you!
In FNAF 3 and Pizzeria Simulator, Afton felt like a genuine threat that can tear you limb from limb if he wants to, and he will. In Security Breach he feels like an old man fumbling his way around
He's supposed to look weak lmao, do you not understand the lore?
Peepaw :)
@Sonic. mid Facts
Funny enough burntrap is the only one that actually teared people limb from limb in canon
I think it's Eleanor.
I would've enjoyed it if that Glitchtrap/Malhare wasn't another reincarnation of Afton, but some sort of AI that's meant to "Replicate" Afton's actions, not be Afton's spirit somehow uploaded to the VR game from a random circuit board
THIS! This is what I wish they did instead of just recycling grandpa Willy over and over and over again.
Malhare felt terrifying he didn’t need to be dead murderer or actually be a thing to exist in reality he was much more terrifying than Afton in one game but they had to make him Afton and now we can’t get over that Afton should have stayed dead
They should have just let afton die, glitchtrap/Malhare should have been a glitch that would make it SO much better!
I think him being a reincarnation was okay, but he should've stayed just a virus, infecting vanessa/vanny and playing a puppet master roll. Him being brought back as burntrap felt like kind of a rip off with the cool virus stuff and mind control he had going on.
@@Endyre There’s a theory that they had burntrap come back was to possess the blob but same they should have kept him as glitchtrap/Malhare
If you ignore Security Breach and Help wanted, Afton is still a good villain. He's very much weird in the books, but in the games, he's pretty much perfect. Not to mention how cool Springtrap is
I'd argue that Sister Location and the sequel novels already turned him into somewhat of a cartoon supervillain. And even then you could argue that as far back as FNaF 3 and The Silver Eyes, he was already a bit of a jobber (if you overlook some details at least). He's much the same In Pizzeria Simulator, except he's been relegated to a timid side character at best like with the other animatronics and our protagonist (even though it's supposed to be 'their' game).
yeah
Child murderers tend to be a bit weird
@@sulphurous2656 The Silver Eyes had the best version of the character because they didn't try to make him feel like this genius mastermind who awes the reader with his brilliance, but instead a deeply pathetic, sick individual who preyed on children and ripped families apart out of envy and spite. He was, ironically, the scariest William Afton we've ever gotten because he actually FELT like a real serial killer, like a plausible example of someone from real life who would do what he did. It was entirely consistent with the malicious dipshit from FNaF3 who put on the springlock suit and doomed himself.
Then the sequels turned him into a cross between Voldemort and Dr. Robotnik.
Idk about that, when they introduced remnant in Fnaf 6 it basically went down hill. Why does he need to be a supervillain when being a sadistic killer for no reason other than pleasure is enough. Squimpus’ version is somehow better. The remnant itself is dumb and afton should’ve been a rotting corpse that has nothing left but murder. And I like the idea of him showing up as a ghost since that’s how he “came back” in the first place. But all he can do is possess people and I don’t think they should’ve brought his body back
For most of SB, there is no villain. We barely see Vennessa, We literally do not see Vanny unless we go look for her and when we do see her she is comically broken. We are introduced to Afton and kill him in the span of about 20 minutes, with no lines from him, no hint of Vanny in the boss arena or anywhere near him and an absolute flood of missed potential. I will not mention the Blob because I dont wanna talk about it. Its just bad.
Also, Afton's bossfight is *literally just pressing buttons and waiting.*
'Also, Afton's bossfight is literally just pressing buttons and waiting.'
Damn mans really just summarized every fnaf game in the series
@@technoboop1890contextually it’s not the same and you know that. The afton fight is embarassing
@@technoboop1890 but just look at size of other fnaf games (1-UCN) and look at size of security breach, they really could do more sith SB. Old fnaf games were literally point and click games, and then we have semi-open world like SB.
senator armstrong but bad
technically, the other 4 animatronics ARE the main villains.
The biggest thing is nothing is as hidden as it used to be. When FNAF came out there were a few odd things that only eagle eyed viewers would see like the original posters that described the bite of 87. In the sequel it was similar with the mini games that weren't guaranteed and if you wanted the story you had to get them all and try to decode it. By contrast security breach was a jumbled mess of ideas and if things aren't open then they are impossible to solve for.
@@Staurcomb agreed. Which is sad because there are good ideas there just poor execution.
Exactly. You have on one end, a bunch of concepts and details that leave you with no way of knowing what is important and what isn't, and on the other end, you have storylines that are half-hidden and implied to a degree that you have no idea what is trying to be told.
At the same time, some things are too hidden when they should be more apparent. The entirety of Security Breach treated Afton's involvement like a mystery when the community already knew he was pulling Vanny's strings. If they were going to involve him, they should've made his and Vanny's connection a clear plot point to develop both characters.
@@slenderminion2229 Yes. The books are proof of that. Scott said that we wouldn't need the books to solve anything but we pretty much only figured out the puppet storyline because of the books.
The thing about it is that the Afton storyline is basically revealed. The mystery of security breach is patient 46 .
They are connected to some deaths and do have a presence in the game . For instance the hidden rooms and the posted note room .
And it also looks like nightmarion has something to do with 46 too
Aftons story really started strong and regressed hard.
At first he was a nameless 8-bit sprite. He had no name or motives, all we knew was that he was an employee that used a yellow suit to lure children and kill them.
With 3, we find out he became essentially a victim of the same cruel fate he inflicted upon the children, and just like the children, wasn't stopped by death and possessed the suit that killed him with his own rotting corpse still inside. The newspaper clipping teases that he's not finished after the fire just like the trailer foreshadowed.
The first book gave us a name, more backstory about him being a founder of the franchise, and Sister Location confirmed it to be canon in the game universe.
Sister Location also told us about his family, but also really complicated things with how it related to FNAF 4, and things started getting too complicated with the story revolving more around the Afton family than the victims. The custom night final cutscene teases again that Springtrap is gonna return.
Then FFPS kinda fumbles the ball with his redesign, gives him a goofy gravelly voice even though he'd always been silent as Springtrap (like his victims were), and reduces his presence to 1 of 4 identically behaving characters instead of msking them unique to each other. On the bright side it gave him a great sendoff with Henry righting the wrongs he made and revealing that Aftons first victim was Henry's daughter too.
UCN finally puts the nail in his coffin and we know for certain he's done for.
His story is shaky, and could've been told better imo, but its still satisfying at this point. He got his comeback and comeuppance.
Then Help Wanted, Special Delivery, and Security Breach come and dig up his grave just to keep him as antagonist instead of making a new one.
He comes back as a computer virus for some reason, sets up a woman to be his successor (actually an exciting prospect since its a new antagonist even if she'd be inspired by Afton), and then at the very end ends up taking Vannys spotlight anyway so he can stand still in a couple of rooms and be burned AGAIN.
It's just so frustrating because if they really desperately wanted him to stay antagonist there could've been so many better ways to do it but they chose the worst way to do it and it completely undermines everything about him and makes me dislike him more and more form oversaturation.
I'd actually say that he got a fate worse than the kids since he was alive, the suit basically crushed every part of his body and left him there as a slowly rotting zombie in constant agony, and then the books and SB turned him into a cartoon super villain
Wish vanny would have been a copycat killer
I hope the films condense his character and ground him
everything you described reminds me of the Saw and Halloween franchises. a unique, interesting, and enjoyable horror concept. and then there came a second movie, a third, more and more and became oversaturated with the same villain. it’s unfortunate.
My thoughts exactly!
I've got to admit, I like the concept behind Glitchtrap. A version of William that was able to manifest inside people's minds and make them do his bidding; though, it feels like wasted potential since he was brought back to a physical state in Security Breach. It would of been better if they stuck with William being no more than a virus and affecting Vanessa's actions throughout the game. That way, William is still present in some way, but have a new antagonist to carry out the terrible actions.
Couldve made for some amazing scenes too, anything from Vanny replicating Afton's signature struggling robotic movement momentarily to hint at him, to the security breach robots being more threatening and smart, to him possibly even whispering into the mind of whatever character we are playing as, he doesnt fully abide by the limitations of being an AI or the limitations of being alive, he is in-between, they couldve used him to build up to the real afton's breakput from Cassidy's purgatory, theres a lot of wasted potential with him.
Precisely, a point I've heard made is that the Burntrap ending wasn't finished by the time the game released. Personally, I feel as though they should of either made Vanny the main villain or build up that ending more. Honestly, I would go with Vanny instead William due to the fact that they had stated in the video, "show, don't tell" make better stories and allows for speculation. That line could be used to show us the affects of Afton's presence instead of bascially telling the player that he has returned. Vanny should gotten more time to shine and more time to be established as a villain, but instead she feels like a toy tossed to the side for later use.
@@CaptainFeatherFootOfficial it somewhat feels like they shoved 2 or 3 games' worth of story into 3/4ths of a game, she is used, she is being showed at least once, but never more, it wouldve been so much better to give her the entire game, maybe hinting at afton mildly, second game or even dlc could focus on vanny being used by glitchtrap to bring back afton fully, since i still really adalantly believe that would be a really cool storyline to at the very least give a cutscene to, and a third game being basically the latter part of security breach, going into the sinkhole, witness afton being at least attempted to be brought back, have some exposition, more time, idk, and then the ending boss fight, just kinda my 2 cents but it really feels like they shoved too much story with not enough lore into a game without enough time to develop.
And i slightly agree with others, if security breach had the initial scope and more time its plot COULD have worked, by giving Vanny more screen time etc, but it would still be a bit stuffed
@@Epsicronics Yeah, definitely does seem to be the case, and that's why I enjoyed the classic games more. They may of been simple and very straightforward, but that's what gave them their charm. Security Breach is (in my opinion) to ambitious for what it's meant to represent. As SB stands, it raises more questions than answers, like "What is the reasoning for Gregory to not trust Vanessa?", or "Who/What is the Blob exactly?" Expanding onto what you've stated, they've crammed so much story into a game that didn't feel like a completed game to begin with that it ruins the experience of the player. There is multiple ways to improve this game as a whole, but that could require the majority game to be re-done significantly. Security Breach in concept is not bad, not in the slightest; however, when it was being put into action, things weren't executed as well as they should of been which in turn made the game suffer. So yeah, that's why I feel there should be a priority to what is added to a game of this caliber.
Literally would make Vanny a 100x better character
The biggest lesson I've learned from what FNaF has done with Afton is that too much of a good thing will eventually sour it entirely. It's really unfortunate, and regardless of if they improve Burntrap or whatever else is to come in the future it still would've always been better if he was finished off when he was supposed to be. Really good video, it helps articulate a lot of the feelings I've had about him the past year.
Honestly, I think William is just a stand-in for the inveitable issue thats gonna come: FNAF burnout. You can only crank out so many games year after year until people just get tired. Maybe FNAF needs a few years to rest.
The best thing they did with afton was “kill him” but they ruined it by bringing him back with no *real* explanation. It sucks because it feels like they undermined the coolest moment in the entire franchise by doing so
And yet despite this apparent burnout, it feels like Afton was barely utilized at all to his fullest potential and that he was killed off too soon. FNaF 3 & The Silver Eyes feel like the the only instances where he was utilized in a non-wasteful manner.
@@wandereringshadow8658 I think with Scott gone it’s just downhill from here. He left around the time the game was being worked on and I think him leaving drastically changed how it was supposed to go. They had so many stuff they were going to do and we don’t even experience any of it. Just an unfinished story they threw out there hoping people were dumb enough to enjoy it
i think fnaf just needs to end at this point, its been going on for so long that now its just shambling along with nothing left to say
I think him coming back can work, but not him directly.
The influence of his actions should have a lot more importance. His presence too; the mere mention of his name causing chills to all who hear. The whole thing with Fazbear Entertainment currently is to cover up everything he did. Why not do something with that? FF kind of did this and his legacy seemed to have continued in Eleanor before it cut short. TFTP seems to be doing this too in stories like Help Wanted and one story in the 3rd book I won't spoil. Vanny is inspired by his influence like a worshiper. Why not go into that "Glitchtrap cult" idea people are fascinated by? The point is, William CAN still have impact on the story without being there in the flesh. Always being remembered is him always coming back.
Stellar work, my dude! I'm loving these essays like McDonald's.
He could have just been like Dio in Jojo where even though he is dead is pretty still the cost of all the problems.
I still consider Pizza Sim the true ending of the franchise, not because Scott left afterwards, but because that ending to Pizza Sim is genuinely one of the greatest experiences I've ever had with the series, and you really get this "final" feeling to it, like afton and all of the other characters WERE meant to die here, and we were supposed to get new villains and characters.
I personally miss the closure FNaF3 gave us. I really didn't expect another game and I didn't feel like there needed to be another game. I honestly think just getting the identity of the killer ruined the whole thing for me. I loved it when he was just an anonymous child murderer who felt like he could be anyone. Whether that be a random security guard or a customer or even Phone Guy. What the guy's name was didn't matter to me. FNaF3 tied up basically every loose end up to that point, set the souls free and burned Springtrap to the ground. Everything after felt like needless bloating to me. Sure there were some cool things after, but none of the games in this franchise quite made me feel as scared and emotional as those first three games. They felt so real. Nothing really feels real anymore, especially William Afton.
I agree.
I agree, but only partially. Springtrap being a nobody was always very mysterious and engaging, and I dont think piecing together the puzzle was more fun anywhere than in those 3 first games. However, the continuation of the story was perfectly fine, and by doing so Afton could be more cohesively connected to the main plot of the game. It gave light to the origins of Freddy's outside of Fredbear's, gave answers to very popular questions like who was the puppet, and ultimately just tied up loose ends. The story could have ended with 3, but I feel there'd be a lot of dissatisfaction with that ending.
I do think, though, that things should have ended AT LEAST at UCN. It was akin to the "culmination" of the series & gave us the satisfaction of what we thought was hearing Afton finally burn in hell.
@@kibbleknight2156 Fair enough. I've been meaning to revisit FNaF4, SL, PS and UCN for a while and I'm planning to go in with an open mind and see if I can warm up to them.
@@sproospring The ending monolog in Fnaf 6 is amazing
@@twinzzlers you're right, it is. Its very well written. At the same time, it would've been SO MUCH more impactful for me if Henry was already an established character in the lore prior to Pizzeria Simulator.
i love the old 8 bit minigames. for one, after dying you just. stumbled upon them. it makes u feel like u got lucky and found like a super secret little thing hidden in the game.
i also love how they actually show us the events of the story with very very little text, only like text to tell you what to do in the minigame. and unlike a realistic cutscene, they show us these events in a way where they arent filled with like needless gore, and we can look at the cutscenes and try to interpret (or with those older games mostly figured out, used to interpret) what was happening. for example, i loved the discussion around what purple guy was holding in the "follow me" minigame when fnaf 2 released. was it a hand? a tool? or even a phone? there could be many different interpretations, and a lore cutscene being able to give us so much fun discussion was great!
these text logs and audio logs are way less fun partially becuase its just text. theres no visuals to try to interpret things from. sure, we can still interpret like the paragraphs of text, but its not the same as looking at an atari styled minigame and talking about what you think the purple line on the end of the purple man's arm looks like.
and with the minigames, we got to experience these events FIRST HAND. WE got placed into these lore moments, and WE got to play through them. isnt that way more fun than just. hearing someone talk about a lore moment?
Security Breach feels like it threw away everything 6 had closed up neatly. It feels like it just revived him just because…he’s William Afton, I guess? Ugh. It feels like a slap in the face. Everything that the series established up until the 6th game, the ending, the END of this game… ending of the 6th game is amazing. It’s legitimately an amazing wrap up. It almost feels like it was just thrown away, discarded…
afton is the perfect metaphore for the series. it keeps coming back, and it keeps getting less consistent and scary
Less scary and more obnoxious. I loved how the FNAF1 jumpscares were a roar fading into a scream, implying that's the dead children screaming. As the series continued jumpscares lost nuance and became just loud noise. I don't like jumpscares in general but in the first game they were cleverly done, with lore implications.
My main problem with Afton is that when it was implied that it might have been an ordinary employee of the pizza place killing children, it was terrifying and plausible.
Learning it was the founder was a bit jarring, but not too unbelievable. Then we learned he not only built a lot of the animatronics, he specially engineered some to hunt children actively and lure them away.
And then he becomes first an undead animatronic zombie rabbit, and then a sentient computer virus who escapes to reality.
We are firmly in Mega Man territory at that point, and coupled with the complete lack of subtlety later on, it really hurt the series' credibility. Though I do imagine that the slightly shifting audience of FNAF played a part--Security Breach is much brighter and less outwardly intimidating than any prior game.
Couldn't explain it better.
wasn't Henry Emily (the co-founder) the main guy who built the animatronics? And Afton was just a creep who used them to lure children?
@@tonys6620 In part, but I do believe the Sister Location ones were ENTIRELY Afton's fault, given the whole "luring module" and "voice imitation" things.
when you explained in Mega Man logic,i exactly knew what you meant.
seriously,things get really convoluted.
but at least it's not Metal Gear 😅
With the part where I talk about ‘show don’t tell’, I think I phrased it quite wrong which I apologize for. Obviously the phrase is used for within the context of stories to help develop elements. In the video I made it sound like an excuse as to why people prefer the games - that was more of a really broad example yet I should’ve used something more within the context of the story and specific so I am sorry about that!
Thanks for the clarification.
I had to scroll a bit to see this. U should probably pin this
Yeah, your original phrasing makes it seem like you think written media is inherently "telling" and is bad
I really like glitchtrap, his design is creepy and his movement is uncannily fluid, but different from the twitching robotics of springtrap. I think him corrupting vanny and making her the new villian wouldve been amazing, allowing afton to exist as more of a puppet master/background villian while vanny took center stage. They could've left him out security breach but allowed his influence over the series to stay clear through vanny and the animatronics. If the dev's really needed to bring back afton, I think they should've waiting one or two games, since his constant changing of forms is tiring. Give vanny some spotlight for a few games while building but to the dramatic return of afton through burntrap or some other form. Also I think they should definitly go back to the somewhat cryptic minigames of the past where floor was implied but not always clear such as with midnight motorist. The game garnered so much popularity from having unclear lore that needed to be pieced together and theorized on, but that didn't have too high of a bar to enter. Watch two or three fnaf lore videos and you would have enough of an idea to theorize on. Now things are a lot clearer, with the books and games painting a clearer story and timeline; it's harder to theory craft when theirs less room to theorize. For secruity breach, what would've been cool is if they added more arcade machines besides princess quest that gave lore hints instead of all the book tie in's and logs in the game.
I believe that was their plan but because the community guessed the lord before them they put lore over quality and security breach turned out… disappointing. In lore, gameplay, and polish. I will say, the environment is the best in any horror game this year
@@QUBIQUBED the environment is amazing, but outside of the endo area and post-chica sewer/trash area it’s not really a horror environment. Everything is bright and open their isn’t really a fear of anything because you can see everything. And the few sections where lights do dim or get cut are over rather quickly. Also when it comes to fans guessing the lore beforehand, thats comes with the problem that they made it too clear what would happen after help wanted with the tapes. If they had cut the tapes and given us just some hint at what happened to the previous play tester glitchtrap would’ve been more mysterious and what would happen with vanny/vanessa after the ending would’ve been a lot harder to guess.
Excited to see the video essay era of ozone, godspeed.
William can be developed after FFPS without devaluing the game itself. Namely, to offer a much greater alternative. Frights worked perfectly with him, making him really creepy and multi-faceted. He appears in two personas that we have not seen, namely the Patient and Miscreation. Frights offered a quality alternative to his FFPS death, so it does work. In SB, he was returned not only in a hackneyed way, but also for five minutes. He did not have time to show himself to be a worthy character.
I love William Afton as a villain, especially his versatility and the aura around him. He's an interesting character, but SB did the worst thing that could be done to him, which was nothing. In the previous game, we were shown him in a completely different form, probably even the best of all time (Springtrap was already tired and in FNAF 3 he personally did not impress me). There is a chance to bring him back if you cross with Blob and really make William a threat, on an unprecedented scale and include a normal narrative and make the battle with him final, once and for all. You can restore William's reputation by showing him worthy. Either through the prequel, or by the method I described.
in russian community there's a trope that can be roughly translated to "he crawled away". it means, that a character, that almost certainly died (fell off a cliff, was sentenced to death, disintegrated into a weird mirror, lost his legs and an arm in a battle and caught on fire, etc) got back to action in later canonic artworks or fanfiction.
I am part of the Russian community.
Привет ;)
@@creator_of_drama прив. крч, троп называется "он уполз", можешь почитать на посмотре.ли, в общем афтон из игры в игру уползает, задолбал уже.
Do people even know what his character even is lmao
Ой, да ладно тебе. Все равно FFPS как финал для него говно полное. Его смерть в TFC отличная и образец того как Афтон должен умирать.
What always gets me is that it would've been easy and simple and COMPELLING to just make Vanny inspired by Afton without ever actually bringing him back. Copy cat killers aren't a new concept and this would've worked so well.
Not to mention that by having copycats inspired by Afton running around, they'd still effectively convey the message that he'd "always come back" without ripping the neat ribbon of his arc by bringing him back in the flesh. William might be dead, but there are people as insane as he was, and now that his atrocities had come to light and became famous, you bet that some sickos are gonna try to emulate him, whether by stalking down malls dressed in a bunny costume, or programming a malware that can turn tame animatronics into ruthless killing machines.
I think what really disappointed me the most with Security Breach waa how little it utilized Vanny and the whole concept of William Afton/GlitchTrap being able to brainwash people and turn them into his personal killing machines.
Sure, the Burntrap design is cool and all, but I rather the story focus on Vanny being the main villain, rather than just the studio shoe-horning William in just like that.
Henry's speech will never not give me goosebumps, what a powerful speech
I know the full speech. I can recite it from memory, but there's still something bloodcurdling about it, paired with the audio, the images, and the narrative, it will never cease to be scary in its own subtle way.
William Afton in Fnaf 1, 2, and 3 was a terrifying presence. You felt unease by knowing what he's down. In 3, you actually see the beast that caused so much tragedy, now in his own suffering.
Fnaf 4-6 was decent, but was left much to desire (I like Scraptrap, but he needed improvements).
Fnaf vr was pretty cool, and then afton died from irrelevancy and flanderization.
this right here, I felt like after the book now giving him the whole story, it kinda sucked a lot of the juice of the character's mystery and motives. But it was still a cool story, and then it just felt like afton had no mystery and his soul was a crypto currency.
Honestly Afton's downfall really started once he was given a name in the first place. The story was way more interesting when he was this mysterious purple killer with no known motive rather than some mad scientist family man. While this isn't explicitly stated, I always thought of springtrap to be in constant pain and agony within the suit, a killer reduced to his base instincts and incapable of making any sounds beyond the grunts you hear in fnaf 3. He's a big threat in the game he stars in, sure, but at the end of the day he's trapped inside this rotting suit with little agency of his own. In FFPS onward, suddenly he's this cartoonish evil villain who can speak in full sentences that just breaks any sense of horror the character previously had. In my eyes, the real problem with Afton is that Scott turned an animalistic killer who's punishment was to suffer for eternity along with his victims into some sort of evil genius big bad who keeps showing up being like "remember me??? remember when the fnaf games had cool and interesting characters???"
Remember how he ended up rotting in hell in UCN forced to relive the monsters he had created?
I remember, I miss those days.
I disagree, him having a name give’s the people something to latch onto. And it’s honestly pretty good!
In my opinion no
If not we Will have still on Vincent.
The problem is how oversaturated he became
@@Bluetonium_19yes
The thing I hate the most about the new Afton is how he’s turned into a mad scientist obsessed with finding immortality. I feel like the “he always comes back” line more referred to his legacy or how, up until 3’s ending/Pizza Sim, the dead children hadn’t found peace and were still spiteful. His initial motivation can be interpreted as killing out of grief, too. Once the series tried getting more meta and sci-fi, though, I think that’s when the writing took a hit as a result.
Glitchtrap could have worked if it was a copycat meant to imitate him. It would actually show the second layer of horror of afton's actions ; the fact that his actions have inspired _copycats._ He's not the first of his kind, and he won't be the last. Afton is horrid, but that pales to the idea of multiple aftons inspired _by_ him, and the fact that some of them reach heights he never will (afton was restricted by old technology. If glitchtrap was created by someone in his name, when afton himself could never have, isn't that a new level of horror? That this isna cycke of killers that will only develop, maybe some day to a point where they won't die at all? After all, if spring bonnie had safe springlovks, god knows what afton couldve done...) It's truly a different kind of horror still sourced from afton. It would've been so cool, it would've been a different _kind_ of horror, an implicit kind, one that comes to you the more you think about it. It would've been different, at least. What a missed opportunity.
I think Afton’s optimistic and positive outlook of his murders (and by extension, his demise) would have been a really cool part of his character if he wasn’t so over saturated. A strangely calm, charismatic, and optimistic antagonist that is also evil to the core is awesome! It just sucks that Afton always comes back :/
It still really bugs me how badly Glitchtrap was fumbled. Pizzeria sim (and UCN) was the perfect send-off in my opinion. It tied a lot of loose ends without being a giant "we won!" cliche or anything - bittersweet. When Help Wanted first released and people started theorising about Glitchtrap, I was excited. Help Wanted introduced a new storyline without completely denying (or "it was a dream!"-ing) the original story, and did it pretty well. Plus, Vanny helped put a new spin on it. And then security breach released.
Wait so... Glitchtrap didn't matter? At all? Why are they doing "oooo spooky scary kill woman!!!" completely one-dimensionally? Wasn't vanny essentially brainwashed? Why are the only outcomes involving her "kill" or "restore brain instantly with no consequences" after presumably weeks of brainwashing? Why did they build up vanny as the new afton protégé only to completely tie up her arc in the first game she appeared in? And... wait... she's vanessa? Why is she a security guard all of a sudden? I thought the entire point was that she was a QA tester so would've been in direct contact with ... whatever Glitchtrap is? and why did they completely ignore the few descriptions of her that existed beforehand? auugghhh....... so, so much potential just completely ignored. As much as I wanted to fall in love with it (sun&moon are amazing) security breach was just not FNAF to me. At all.
It’s a shame that a lot of fnaf’s characters are mishandled. William Afton has a great feeling as a twisted vision of Doctor Frankenstein. Making monsters from machines and the dead. But unfortunately Afton is all over the place narratively.
while i haven't been a fnaf fan in a long time, i do still think ultimate custom night was the perfect ending for fnaf.
fnaf3, the children refuse to move on because afton is still around.
fnafPS, everyone gets incinerated and freed.
UCN, the kid use their freedom to trap william indefinitely.
how could that have been retconned? it would've been a perfectly fine story ending with the brutal, torturous revenge the kids would get on their old tormentor. it just would've been nice if everything was left on that note.
I've only watched a bit of the video so far but I would like to point out that the FNAF books being literal words on a page doesn't actually prevent show, don't tell considering that that is a WRITING technique. Writing can show a story as much as it can tell one.
Way back when people called William "Vincent" (a time we won't speak of) purple guy used to be scary because nothing was known about him aside from his malice
I'm not a fan of "Vincent" since he's stupid and makes people overlook the fact that this guy killed innocent children. I prefer him to just be the purple guy or the killer.
Maybe if Matpays theory about the ruin DLC being the ruins if Aftons Mind, we could learn his origin story before he met He ry and had kids of his own? It would be a fitting way to give us closure to why he's evil.
I love the idea of Afton’s boss fight in Security Breach. A Child Vs a Psycho in the series’ Night Shift vs Animatronic formula.
However, it could’ve been done obviously better, and I honestly would’ve preferred Vanny sending the animatronics after us over Afton having weird Cyber Control over everything.
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It sucks because he used to be my favourite character. Now he’s sort of just a shell.
It is what it is
He's still my favorite character.
I love that Freddy, Jason, Michael, Chucky, and Leatherface never really die and always comeback.
Hell Springtrap's literal quote tells you that he's never leaving permanently, his quote is literally "I ALWAYS COMEBACK" be kind of lame if he didn't live up that.
The best monsters are forever.
William Afton reminds me of Sylar from Heroes, who was a very menacing and mysterious villain in the first season of the show. But the showrunners got cold feet on the idea of having a new cast every season because they were already popular, so Sylar gradually lost his mystery, became a more integrated character, and became less of a threat as bigger forces showed up and it was all just disappointing.
Tbh when Help Wanted released I had hopes for Steel Wool.
I honestly really liked that game even though William was still overused, I thought maybe they'll pass that role onto Vanny so I was pretty excited for FNAF future.
But when I saw Security Breach, I realized they were not preparing for the future, but more like Glitchtrap was there literally for a fan service, and..nothing more.
It's a real bummer because after Help Wanted, I even saw fnaf AR gameplays too, which had hidden messages that directly talks about Vanny so I was excited to see what Vanny will do in Security Breach.
But no, Vanny has almost no screen time during the entire gameplay even though they advertised it as a main villain.
Great analysis - I would love to see a video about Henry’s monologue, it’s long been my favorite moment in the entire franchise because of how heartbreaking yet nostalgic and cathartic it manages to be. I felt so angry at SB’s uninspired reveal carelessly washing all the impact away just to lazily bring back the franchise’s Big Bad™ in hopes of appealing to the fanbase - which didn’t even fucking work anyway
Squimpus McGrimpus’ fnaf fan series that was done in the analog horror style has a far superior Afton, his voice is straight laced and deceptively normal, as opposed to the obviously villainous sounding (and strangely British) Afton in the games. Instead of being a killer for the sake of killing, it comes from a place of anger and resentment in the fan series as well, and we get to see him develop in one of the videos through a wonderfully performed monologue. It clarifies that Afton is a family man on the outside with charisma that wins people over, but deep down he is a warped monster whose rage eats him up and influences all his decisions. Please go do watch it if you haven’t already
Vanny should be an Afton fangirl, not a possessed/mind controlled slave to him. She should (somehow) know who he is and what he did, and be absolutely enamored with it. She should be trying to resurrect him _figuratively,_ not literally. Afton is dead -- killed in the fake Pizzeria fire, but Vanny wants to keep his legacy alive by killing more people in his name.
I feel like that's a healthy balance between starting a new story and relying on the original one from FNAF 1-7:
Make the original story an urban legend that inspires the new killer
I think literally everyone can agree that this entire series should've ended by FFPS.
Nah, FNaF is forever buddy.
I'm here for the long haul.
Though there are some who consider 3 to be the end point
@@llewelynshingler2173 even then, 6 is good enough. Any more and you're just milking it dry of any type of interest it has.
It was pretty much the perfect way to go. The children are freed, Afton is in hell, Michael and Henry can finally be put to rest. It left some loose ends to still be mysterious. It was also a really fun game.
@@anarkerry8621 same. I've been here since the start, and as long as there's a believable way to continue the story, I will want it to continue. Unfortunately, some of the decisions made for how to do so were really dumb.
To make the main villain boring to the point of fans saying "Not him again..." is a major red flag imao
I think that while Afton was kinda shoehorned in when he made his Burntrap debut, there's many better ways they could have used him. My personal idea is something that incorporates the Afton family into it using the GlamMike theory.
Imagine, going through the true ending, there comes a point where Gregory needs to exit Freddy, likely to squeeze into a vent. But then Vanny sneaks up on Freddy and manages to knock him out/deactivate him, dragging him away much like Moon did. So you need to find Freddy. You eventually manage to find a vent system, and as you crawl through, you hear Afton talking to Freddy, going on a monologue.
"Well, my dear son...I finally have you right where I want you. You've evaded me for far too long, and your replacement for your brother cannot help you now." And so on.
Thing is, as you're looping around the vent system, you get various holes to see into the room, and you see Afton circling a struggling, but chained up Freddy. But each of the holes you look through show Afton in a different form, as he's not truly there. He's just able to manifest himself as a spirit, a glitch, but Vanny needs to do the work. You see Glitchtrap, Scraptrap, Springtrap, and then finally him as a living human, giving a 3D living face reveal for the first time. All the while he speaks about the family, how his experiments have paid off and finally he could grant them all immortality. He talks about how difficult it was to manipulate everyone into blaming his old partner. The pain he endured and the blood he spilled to get his deserved reward. Trying to coax Michael to join him.
Unfortunately the idea ends there for now, but I'm still working on it.
I still feel like had they gone the route of Security Breach taking place in a branching timeline post Pizzaria Simulator where Michael escapes and then goes on to make the Fazbear name something that he could be proud of with Vanessa trying to restart his father's murders, it would have had some more narrative depth especially in contrast to William and Henry.
(Also because it could then give us one of the endings where Michael tells Gregory that he's survived Five Nights At Freddy's. And I just feel like that would be one of the most based things ever.)
I think this is a really interesting take on why the newer games don't have the same level of horror. It feels like in the original games when we got an 8-bit minigame it was like something was showing us this personally and for a specific purpose. Almost like it wasn't supposed to be there and we wasn't supposed to see it. In the new games everything feels like a game dev put it there for us
My guess is that it might be explained away by saying the original games were made by the original company and the others were made by the company that took over, which makes sense but obviously we all kinda prefer when we feel like we're getting something the devs didn't want us to get
i'm loving your style of video essays and look forward to future ones! great video!
a well-thought out take on fnaf is so rare nowadays as people just summarize the lore. thank you for sharing this
I think an improvement would have been, if Afton himself wasn't back yet in SB, but if Vanny, an Afton Cultist, was attempting to revive him using parts from the Pizzaplex and it was up to Gregory to stop her. That way Henry's sacrifice is still important, but Afton can still be in the story. As it is though, SB seems to take place after he has been revived, which is kind of bizzare.
Glad to see you did another one of these video essays. I watched your Nightmarrione one last week and I enjoyed your points. For Afton, I do think this character outsold his time post Pizzeria Simulator and his sudden return in Security Breach felt so forced and honestly underwhelming.
The only way I feel Afton can get justice done to him… is in the same way like Nemesis from RE3 Remake, be added to Dead By Daylight. Afton is quite the terrifying and unsettling villain as a rotting corpse that’s fueled with rage and murder is honestly quite the scary and haunting idea
I rarely get FNAF related nightmares. But when I do, it usually involves Springtrap in some way, the idea of a being with an association with killing without remorse or second thought decaying in a suit and refusing to die just hits differently compared to a possessed robot that still follows AI protocol and lines of code. Springtrap is a biological nightmare that doesn't fully use an animatronic endoskeleton to get around, he *is* the endoskeleton.
Yup
For me personally, Fnaf 3 always had this feeling from the first time you play the game. Going through each night, wondering why only this random rotting suit can kill you and seeing at the end that this was the man responsible for every action in the series up to that point. No other game has given that feeling of wonder and shock like Fnaf 3 did.
I love the voice they picked for Henry I just felt so sold when I heard it
There's a way to show and not tell in written words. It's a technique I've been working with that I call inaccurate perception. Basically, you are telling the same story from multiple perspectives, and while none of the perspectives tell the full story, and in some cases, the characters telling the story make inaccurate assumptions, you can still piece together the true story by finding out what narrative all the descriptions can explain. For an example, I'll do a few summaries from the perspectives of some of my characters, all describing the same scene.
So, the first perspective is a character named Snapjaw Cranimandible. He could sense that something dangerous was lurking nearby, but was unsure of what it was. He just settled on it being a ghost, as those were normal where he came from. Before long, though, everything cut to black, and the next thing he knew, he was back home, laying in bed. He thought to himself that it was all a dream, and then went about his day. But for some reason, nobody acknowledged him. As if he didn't exist.
The next perspective is a character named Femurr. He had made a statue of Mr. Cranimandible, and had planned to bring it to him. As he walked down the hall, he saw him, and ran to give him the gift. Mr. Cranimandible then turned around and grabbed Femurr by the neck slamming him to the ground. It was out of character for him, as Mr. Cranimandible had always been kind to Femurr. But this time, he wanted him dead. By the end, he succeeded, and Femurr's soul drifted off to nothingness.
The next pov is Molten Cry. He had sensed the danger far sooner, and rushed to the scene. He knew he couldn't interfere, but he also knew he needed to be there. Upon arriving to Mr. Cranimandible's location, he saw some kind of blue energy shoot out of the shadows, hitting Mr. Cranimandible in the side of the head. He didn't seem to die, though. His mannerisms changed, now walking through the hall with his head down, looking almost sad. Not long after, though, some kid came running up to him, holding some kind of figurine. Mr. Cranimandible quickly turned around, picking the kid up by the neck before slamming him to the ground with enough force to shatter the kid's skull. At this point, Molten Cry knew he had no choice. He sprung into action, grabbing Mr. Cranimandible and melting him down to nothing. An unfortunate end to one of the great.
The next POV is a character named Dispair. He was getting bored of passively tormenting the souls of the living, and decided to move on to those who managed the dead. He cast out his thoughts, making the creatures of cloth and bone turn on those they cared about most. A few minutes pass, and Dispair is sent back to himself with a jolt of burning pain. One of the victims he was controlling had died to some kind of heat. "Better luck next time", he had thought to himself, returning to quietly lying in wait, sifting through his plans and checking up on those he considered a threat, only to find that the count had gone from 18 to 16.
This is a pretty amazing insight, I hope you create something!
I don't mind William Afton being a villain, many people back then were very invested into getting to know him. In FNAF 2, William Afton (or Purple Guy by fans) is responsible for causing the "missing children" incident, and killing many children in a Spring Bonnie suit. Many people even invented theories involving William Afton, like one that William Afton is Phone Guy because of reasons like when he got attacked by animatronics while recording in FNAF night 4 and that he knows a lot about how animatronics work, which was commonly accepted at the time but when FNAF 3 came out, the theory starts to have a lot of holes, like William Afton and Phone Guy has different deaths, William Afton being squeezed to death by Spring Bonnie's endoskeleton and Phone Guy getting himself killed by Golden Freddy (and probably shoved into a suit), the more games that came out most FNAF 2 theories never made it alive and fresh new theories came out. I still believe that William Afton should keep coming back if done right. Also Steel Wool Studios had a lot of issues with Security Breach, like the game had so much delays that Scott feared that the game will lose popularity, so to keep the community busy, he created a beat-em-up spin-off called "Security Breach: Fury's Rage". He would have made change if he were there during development, but because of controversy regarding those "donations" he quit development of Security Breach, let's Steel Wool Studios complete it and retires from making video games, Security Breach does need some polish regarding bugs and stuff.
In my opinion, i feel like the fire purged and freed the souls of all the animatronics, the only reason Afton was able to come back was cassidy keeping him alive enough to make afton suffer, meaning when the circuit boards were scanned by the fnaf VR team, they made a digital copy of Afton and Cassidy. Michael and elizabeth have evidence for still being around, so i guess the aftons never die ever?
Well Beside C.C
@@elizabethluxe2070 Yeah.
I'd love for Glitchtrap to be his own entity. Like, him having those basic Afton instincts but not much more, (like a clone, not resurection) but as any AI - learning, changing, craving. Wanting to "get out" of the simulation? As Afton, while dying wanted to get out of the suit and then the fire trap, so the Glitchtrap didn't know what he wanted to escape exactly: VR space? Pizzeria? Something like that. Slowly morphing and becomeing his own thing, dangerous and deadly on different terms. Wanting to exist - to be alive. that's what he needs remnant for, what he needs kids and animatronics to become real and then... he'll figure out the rest of the plan from there. this kind of animalistic survival insinct becoming a cold, calculated intrigue that really feels like an interesting take. He might even take a new name at the end, still Afton but not William - perhaps a variation, Bill, or maybe after the victim that gives him life. Just some random ideas of mine.
12:56 “This is the sort of thing that you’ll see in thrillers. You’ll have a scene…”
I think he mutes the video for copyright reasons.
Security Breach literally pulled a “Somehow Palpatine returned”
What’s the point of Henry’s sacrifice and infinite suffering from the vengeful spirit at this point?
This reminds me of the MCU, how they are relying on the previous glory to keep the hype.
The thumbnail and even general presentation for this whole video is immaculate and I appreciate all the work that seems to have gone into this video. Nice work!
Can we briefly touch upon his appearance in FNaF AR? Honestly I loved what they did with him there and it felt like he was becoming a great villain again. Sure, it's debated how canon the game is but I find that it at least brought the spirit of Afton's evil back to life. He's one of the hardest characters to defeat in game, with new mechanics which, at the time of AR's first wave, was unheard of. And lets not skip over his voice lines. He sounds deliciously evil, loving every moment of the horrific legend he is, practically fueled by your fear and is always searching for more. This is the Afton I know and love. It's a shame it couldn't translate into Burntrap in the following game.
I'm reminded of an episode of spongebob where the Flying Dutchman scares Spongebob until it stops working. Afton's "washed up".
Thank you for this video. I really enjoyed the script and how you exposed your points. I do agree with you that everytime danger is a thing in FNAF's latest games, the overused William Afton doesn't enhance the moment as it did in FNAF 3. Keep up the good work, you gained a sub! :)
I like to pretend that afton coming back after pizzeria simulator is just an alternate universe
The problem with FNAF is that they're trying to tell a story about a villain, while keeping him a monster. The difference is that a villain is a character. They have backstory, motive, personality. A monster is just there to be scary. Monsters work best when you don't know about them. The threat you don't know is scarier than the threat you do. But a villain is scary because you do know them. They aren't a boogeyman under the bed, they're the neighbor next door. The fear isn't from the unknown, but from the familiar being twisted. So now we know too much about William for him to be the monster he was in FNAF 1-4, but too little for him to be an effective villain.
This gives me some serious Halloween 6 flashbacks, where Michael keeps coming back with more and more lore surrounding him while he was at his best as a serial killer symbolizing the dangers of anonymity But then he becomes a vessel for a Halloween demon with a cult following. Should’ve ended it with the first movie.
William afton is my favorite character
Same here. Sucks this man keeps coming back though lol.
@@soomi5667 Guess what, *WE NEVER PROPERLY KILL HIM*
i would've loved something where gregory and freddy go to the final 6 location and find afton, vanny would then try to start him up but it fails, and aftom crumbles and fall to the ground showing to vanny that alton is dead and what she's been working for is a lie, causing her to go even more insane. idk just an idea in my head.
For me the true cannon ending is at the pizzeria simulator. Because after that nothing makes sense
the theories that the mimic was actually burntrap really helped put springtrap back to where he should be in fnaf by this point in the timeline for me. he's dead, gone. a ghost story. a mask for a robot to put on for the power it once held or its discarded humanity. i think the same goes for malhare, that he's a malicious bit of code playing the role of william afton because he is LITERALLY the big bad of the whole game malhare originated from.
william, at this point, is a better villain when he's dead. his power lies solely in the fear his name once held and his memory, not in his current actions, and trying to bring him back for More actions just weakens him.
Actually we did get confirmation springtrap was alive before pizzeria simulator because there's a secret cutscene we're michael gives a speech and we see springtrap leaving the ruins of fazbear fright in the sl custom night
THERE WAS ONLY 6 MONTHS BETWEEN THE RELEASE OF THE FIRST AND THIRD GAME!?!?
jesus christ, scott really pumped em out! 3 months and then 4...
I choose to believe that it did end with fnaf 6 and there was no glitchtrap shenanigans in fnaf vr. If they were going to bring him back, keep him as a virus that influences people. It's different and in a few different ways, a little scarier.
That's the beauty of what Steel Wool did.
They made it so that nothing they do effects Scott's original games in anyway unless you the player choose to view them that way.
In the Steel Wool timeline the first 6 games are simply video games based on an urban legend (that also happens to be true).
This means if you prefer to think as FNaF 1 - 6/UCN then you can view them as the truth behind the urban legend if you want to or you can view them as the games based upon that legend.
It was actually quite brilliant on Steel Wool to give fans who don't like their games a way to write them off as non canon.
@@anarkerry8621 false. The first 6 games are the truth. The video games that exist in universe aren't the ones we played. Scott himself confirmed that. Infact the only reason it was a thing at all was so that they could use non-canon characters in fnaf VR, like Nightmarion or the Jack-O animatronics.
@@--CHARLIE-- that literally changes nothing about what I said. Point is that you can separate the two series very easily if you don't like Steel Wool's FNaF.
Dude if William Afton died in Pizza simulator that would've been such a good ending.
He could even come back as Glitchtrap and that still would be fine.
FNaF as a franchise needs to end and wrap up. It had its run for a good 8-9 years, but it doesn't seem like there's much of a story to tell anymore. Pizza Simulator should be the true ending. I joined this fandom in 2014 when I was 8. Although I miss the golden years of FNaF, it's about time this franchise comes to an end. Sad to say...
I thought "he always comes back" was supposed to be a double entendre referring to William but also Michael always returning to fix what his father did
if Steel Wool decides to bring Afton back again for the Ruin DLC I want it to be his last appearance. I sincerely hope they've taken the fandom's reactions to peepaw willy and underutilized vanny and do whatever they can to try and salvage their story.
I’ve heard people say FNAF was a cash grab that went on too long back when sister location came out but I didn’t think that was true hell I didn’t even think that it went on too long up until ucn. It all made sense. Now it feels like a cash grab where the lore went too far and got too convoluted.
For me a reason burntrap return doesn’t work like his past appearance/returns is because those other times were either setup or we knew he was still out there
Fnaf1 and 2, we knew he got away so we can assume he’d show up again
Fnaf3, we saw that he survived and expected him to return eventually
Fnaf4, did dream theory at first so spring trap didn’t have to return because he was just a dream at that point now
Sister location, pretty much it just confirmed spring trap was alive and would finally show up in the next game
Pizzeria sim, this was it, it was his end. Once he burned in that fire there’s no cliff hanger or tease that he lived. It was an end.
UC, it just further proved he’s dead and now he’s living a personal hell forever
All these scenerios either set up a return, we’re set in his past, or made no return ok
But security breach, there’s no reason to come back. That past threat established was glitch trap and that was implied to take over a normal human. Burn traps body had no reason to be back
Pizzeria Simulator had the best ending.
Henry put all those things and events together, he was unreachable before but he was busy to make a plan for his former friend.
William seeked for immortality and sacrificed many on his quest, Henry could only watch as only the police found nothing about William.
In the end, he had an idea of bringing the animatronics in the same room by saturday to put the souls into rest, instead of suffering in those mechanicals suits and forgotten..
It implied that Molten Freddy was possessed by, not the Funtimes, but an unknown soul trapped whithin.
For Glitchtrap, there was a way they could've done it with it still being Afton, whilst at the same time not. Basically, having Glitchtrap be everything that made Afton what he was, whilst leaving out whatever good was deep within.
Wow, I’m a newer fan, I joined the fandom around help wanted’s release and I always thought “why is it that so many people like springtrap so much? He’s just so basic” and I now realize I never saw it from this point of view !
great video! keep up these amazing video essays, im lovin em
He doesn't really have any villainous motivations anymore. Previously he did this for a reason, bring back his kids, satiate his jealousy, and other human motives. Now there is no hope of him achieving any of this. Why does he come back at all?
Imagine if they turned spring trap into some sort of eldritch force. Him going from being a virus to turning into an incomprehensible higher being that corrupts people to get revenge on the world after his destruction at the end of fnaf 6.
I was really excited with the revelation of Glitchtrap in HW, because it felt like we were going in a new direction. A killer’s bloodlust & personality instilled in computer program? That’s chilling. SB will forever be my least favorite for completely ignoring pretty much every games lore. So much was set up or concluded that they just decided to bring back or completely ignore. Afton is one of my favorite characters, but when it comes to cannon, ive decides to ignore SB, because the rest of his story was so good.
The princess quest mini game from FNAF VR made me believe that William would either return as a cosmic horror or a demon rather than just the rotting rabbit we know as Burntrap. My interpretation was that Vanessa set William free from hell, allowing him to infect other people’s minds. I hoped he’d be more of an overarching villain rather than a front and center antagonist, using other people as pawns in his game. Imagine if there was a cult centered around William, dedicated to following him, treating him like a GOD. I would have loved to see this. Oh well, at least Grandpa Willy’s got a better design now right (sarcasm).
The "threat of GlitchTrap" is the same threat as reboot Chucky: hacking "anamatronics." That's as far as it needed to go. A glitch.
The final showdown in security breach is more of everyone (minus Bonnie of course) coming for you and even your once guard Freddy can become a threat if the hacking is successful.
Could've been done by a Skynet AI logistical system all the same.
"No person in place after hours beyond security personnel." Just cranked up to 11 due to a glitch error. Not much in the game would've changed. Afton. Skynet. Hal 9000. Discombobulated New Chucky. Whatever... all works in that game sadly.
I think if they used glitchtrap to introduce vanny, that would have been a perfect way to introduce a new villain. Introducing a new enemy by doing something that the old threat would never try is a great way to show why it has to be taken seriously.
I'd say the reason he comes back is that ever since FNAF 2 the mystery of purple guy has always been the largest driving force within the community, between FNAF 4 & Sister location when we were gradually given all answers to all the mystery surrounding purple guy there was only really one thing left to do with him - Kill him off.
Vanny was a good idea for a villian, a copycat killer or puppet of a strand of afton's conciousness remaining - however what makes her an unsuitable villian is the fact she just didn't have the level of mystery purple guy did, her entire story was figured out within 2 games.
So exciting to watch you blow up dude. Keep up the good content
I'm at 6:32, so I have no idea if you mention this further in the video.
But I feel that the old games felt much more mature and actually interesting, is because of also the mini-games. Which aligns with what you said "Show. Don't tell.".Good video! Keep it up dude!
This man deserves more respect
The thing is, Fazbear entertainment isn't the same as before. Pre Pizza Sim it was Fazbear ent. Inc. Now, it's Fazbear ent. LLC. Someone else rebooted the company with a sinister purpose in mind.
I think the title should be changed to “oversaturated,” since desaturated would imply that FNAF does not saturate the use of Afton
yeah, i was reading up on the lore because of reasons, and it was impressive to watch it expand from
"spooky animitronics will kill you!"
to
"The afton and friends show, starting afton's creations, afton's family, afton's plans and also you"
My headcannon for Burntrap & Da Blob's appearing in Security Breach is that they both had their souls smelted out of the animatronics, but Vanny tried to use their remains to recreate them anyways. That explains why Da Blob attacks Greg, as its made to kill everything, and is placed to guard Burtrap. Burntrap is literally a soulless recreation of William Afton.
The "original" trilogy of fnaf was going to be the first three games, though the fnaf fanbase was so picky they complained about springtrap's jumpscare not being as scary as the phantoms...so that's what led Scott to create fnaf 4, with the same methods being used from fnaf 3, audio cues, such as springtrap's heavy walking, crawling in the vents, and the classic "help...me"...or hhh aaa
Somehow Afton returned.
even though I enjoy SB. that game just assassinated a good character. It has come to a point where I just personally ignore Help Wanted, AR and SB exist in the canon storyline (along with most of the books, because man does it get messier than what it already was). not because theyre bad or anything, but because it sometimes turns into a headache. and all of it because they couldn't let go of one great villain. had they made glitchtrap a copycat serial killer, it would be such a different story.