How does William see his kids?

I think most generally agree that William Afton obviously doesn't love his kids, at least no more than disposable tools. He doesn't care for them, in the novels he neglects and abuses Elizabeth and in the film he outright stabs Vanessa, seemingly leaving her for dead. As for the games, well he leaves Elizabeth knowing it's her, trapped deep underground to be electrocuted as a routine maintenance check-up by technicians. William is an evil man with no kindness even for his own flesh and blood, and the novels reflect this with his inability to create that same spark of life Henry had when making his lifelike robot Charlotte's.

So then how does William view his children? Does he just simply despise them? Well, I don't think it's that either. I think he merely sees his children as a means to an end. To what? His own image. William values his own self image to the public, and having a family fuels his ego in that regard. While he may not inherently despise his kids, he despises feeling less than Henry, someone he so deeply envied as shown in the novels with his stacks upon stacks of journals about Henry ranging from jealousy to near worshipping.

I think William felt so jealous of Henry's artistic abilities and his talents in robotics that he couldn't take it, he wanted to always be better than him. Feeling less than him was a major blow to his ego and was why William even committed the act of murder on Charlotte in the novels and very likely the games as well, but in the games I think the Bite of ‘83 contributed as well. It's not a requirement for the idea I'm about to propose, but it could explain something, that being the existence of the Security Puppet. The Marionette is notably absent from the novel's timeline, yet exists at Fredbear's in the games. Why? Well what else do we know happened at Fredbear's? The Bite of ‘83, an incident where a child was bitten on stage because of bullies. Henry felt so paranoid and protective of Charlotte he decided to design this Puppet doll to watch her closely, and protect her from accidents or bullies - but he didn't anticipate a malicious targeting, especially from his own close friend.

William relished in this murder of Charlotte because for one, by now I believe he would've lost the Crying Child which harmed his ego, it embarrassed him to feel less than Henry, so not only was he taking it out on Henry by making him lose a child, he got to watch one of his creations fail at its task. For so long he'd been envious of Henry's perfection in robotics, seeing something of his fail felt amazing. And I think with this perspective of him viewing his family as only a symbol of success in-mind, the fact he seemingly tries to keep Elizabeth safe from Circus Baby can be viewed simply as him trying to maintain that image, rather than out of genuine care for her, for losing another kid would be even more embarrassing for him.

So what do you think? This was primarily just speculative and less on the theorizing side, but I wanted to get my thoughts out anyways on how I viewed William Afton as a person. Also working on probably my longest post to date currently, and that's why both Fazbear Frights and Tales from the Pizzaplex are in-continuity to the games.

I think most generally agree that William Afton obviously doesn't love his kids, at least no more than disposable tools. He doesn't care for them, in the novels he neglects and abuses Elizabeth and in the film he outright stabs Vanessa, seemingly leaving her for dead. As for the games, well he leaves Elizabeth knowing it's her, trapped deep underground to be electrocuted as a routine maintenance check-up by technicians. William is an evil man with no kindness even for his own flesh and blood, and the novels reflect this with his inability to create that same spark of life Henry had when making his lifelike robot Charlotte's.

So then how does William view his children? Does he just simply despise them? Well, I don't think it's that either. I think he merely sees his children as a means to an end. To what? His own image. William values his own self image to the public, and having a family fuels his ego in that regard. While he may not inherently despise his kids, he despises feeling less than Henry, someone he so deeply envied as shown in the novels with his stacks upon stacks of journals about Henry ranging from jealousy to near worshipping.

I think William felt so jealous of Henry's artistic abilities and his talents in robotics that he couldn't take it, he wanted to always be better than him. Feeling less than him was a major blow to his ego and was why William even committed the act of murder on Charlotte in the novels and very likely the games as well, but in the games I think the Bite of ‘83 contributed as well. It's not a requirement for the idea I'm about to propose, but it could explain something, that being the existence of the Security Puppet. The Marionette is notably absent from the novel's timeline, yet exists at Fredbear's in the games. Why? Well what else do we know happened at Fredbear's? The Bite of ‘83, an incident where a child was bitten on stage because of bullies. Henry felt so paranoid and protective of Charlotte he decided to design this Puppet doll to watch her closely, and protect her from accidents or bullies - but he didn't anticipate a malicious targeting, especially from his own close friend.

William relished in this murder of Charlotte because for one, by now I believe he would've lost the Crying Child which harmed his ego, it embarrassed him to feel less than Henry, so not only was he taking it out on Henry by making him lose a child, he got to watch one of his creations fail at its task. For so long he'd been envious of Henry's perfection in robotics, seeing something of his fail felt amazing. And I think with this perspective of him viewing his family as only a symbol of success in-mind, the fact he seemingly tries to keep Elizabeth safe from Circus Baby can be viewed simply as him trying to maintain that image, rather than out of genuine care for her, for losing another kid would be even more embarrassing for him.

So what do you think? This was primarily just speculative and less on the theorizing side, but I wanted to get my thoughts out anyways on how I viewed William Afton as a person. Also working on probably my longest post to date currently, and that's why both Fazbear Frights and Tales from the Pizzaplex are in-continuity to the games.