Fredbear's Family Diner was founded in the year 1967 by two enterprising individuals, William Afton and Henry. This quaint family establishment featured a friendly brown furry bear as its beloved mascot. In the early days, financial constraints led Henry to don the bear suit, as they couldn't afford to hire additional help. Both Afton and Henry were pursuing their education during this period, with William focusing on engineering while Henry delved into business administration and communication.
In the midst of running the diner, William's life took an unexpected turn when he met an unnamed woman. This fortuitous encounter led to their marriage, and three years later, they welcomed a son named Michael into the world. However, this relatively peaceful period in William's life took a dark turn when he was charged with the murder of a child who had been crying outside the diner, seemingly frightened by the restaurant's mascot, Fredbear the bear. The charges were eventually dropped due to a lack of concrete evidence.
In the early years of operation, Fredbear's Family Diner faced significant challenges, and it took four long years before it achieved any notable success. Interestingly, it was Michael who provided a crucial insight – the children found Fredbear to be boring. In response, William designed a brand new mascot, a yellow furry rabbit suit named Bonnie. The chemistry between these two characters ignited the diner's success, bringing in considerable profits. The financial windfall allowed William to indulge his engineering skills and design the first two Spring Lock suits, which were, unsurprisingly, Bonnie and Fredbear. This success only continued to grow.
The popularity of Fredbear's Family Diner attracted the attention of a larger company, which eventually acquired the establishment. In doing so, Henry and William found themselves relinquishing control and profit. However, this acquisition was marred by underhanded legal maneuvers, which left Henry and Michael's names erased from the diner's history. The new company, known as Fazbear's Entertainment, took over the reins of the franchise, much to William's dissatisfaction. In fact, he was so embittered by this turn of events that he severed all ties with anyone involved in the franchise.
Henry, on the other hand, found himself at a crossroads. Unsure of what to do next, he sought employment and became Phone Guy, serving a role within the newly established Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (FFP). This new venture, founded in 1973, introduced four furry animal suits: Freddy Fazbear, a variation of Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy the Pirate. William was further angered to learn that they had created four animatronics without his input, and this fueled his desire for revenge.
Notably, Fredbear's Family Diner continued to operate, serving as a sister location to FFP.
Turning the clock forward to 1976, William and his wife welcomed twins into the world, a blonde girl and a brunette boy. William began instructing Michael in caring for his younger siblings, emphasizing that "Daddy won't be around forever." During his spare time, William dedicated himself to designing and developing new robots, which he preferred to call "robots" instead of animatronics. He also laid the groundwork for his own company, Afton Robotics. However, there was another, more sinister plan hidden beneath the surface of William's activities: he aimed to destroy FFP from within.
Disguised as Dave Miller, William began working as a daytime security guard at FFP in 1980. Clad in the purple uniform that employees wore, he often lurked in the shadows to evade recognition, earning him the moniker "The Purple Guy" among the children who frequented the restaurant. It was during this time that he enacted a heinous plot using the Spring Bonnie suit he had created years earlier. He lured five children into a secluded back room, committing murder and hiding their bodies within the animatronic suits. To cover his tracks, he placed the fifth child in a spare Freddy suit, which he promptly painted yellow. Fortunately for William, the authorities wrongly arrested Henry instead, as one of the surveillance cameras had captured him wearing one of the suits. He was eventually released due to a claim of mental disabilities and an obsession with wearing the suits, along with an absence of violent behavior. Dave, however, was dismissed from his job when FFP closed its doors.
In the wake of these disturbing events, William utilized the illicit proceeds he gained from selling the children's organs on the black market to establish Afton Robotics. Everything seemed in place for him to open a new kid-friendly restaurant called Circus Baby's Pizza World. However, a newfound fascination with the act of harming children and profiting from their organ trade took root within him. He made insidious modifications to his robots, turning them into machines capable of kidnapping and killing children. Tragically, in 1982, a dreadful accident occurred when his own daughter approached Baby in his absence, leading to her untimely demise. While William was well aware of his culpability, he unjustly shifted the blame onto Michael, the older brother, citing that he should have protected his sister. This catastrophic incident led to the cancellation of the pizzeria, the crumbling of William's family, and ultimately his divorce. His wife departed, taking Michael and the other son with her, leaving William isolated.
This dark chapter in his life, coupled with his growing obsession, transformed William into a true human monster. Meanwhile, the spirits of the children he had taken the lives of began to wreak havoc. The first child found his way into a Puppet animatronic from FFP. The other five, guided by the first, merged their souls with the suits in which they had been placed. These vengeful spirits sought retribution and, in the absence of children, targeted any adults they encountered, fueled by the belief that each one was the infamous "Purple Guy" they had heard about in their past lives.
The infamous "Bite of '83" incident saw Michael's wife taking the children and settling near the still-prosperous Diner. She occasionally took her children there, reminiscing about happier times before their lives unraveled. On the other hand, William harbored resentment for these nostalgic visits and purchased a warehouse near their home. Within the warehouse, he constructed an underground chamber equipped with surveillance cameras aimed at the house, the Diner, and the street. Additionally, he prepared the warehouse for the development of Circus Baby Entertainment & Rental. He resumed his guise as Dave Miller and secured a job at the Diner, all while closely monitoring his sons.
The tragic "Bite of '83" incident took a profound toll on Michael, and he became a rebellious teenager who directed his frustration towards his younger brother. Unfortunately, the younger child had already suffered a trauma, having witnessed Baby's fatal encounter with his sister in the previous year. On the bright side, he had an unlikely friend in the form of Psychic Friend Fredbear, an inconspicuous plush toy. Unbeknownst to him, this seemingly harmless plush concealed a camera that William used to monitor his youngest son. More astonishingly, when the plush engaged in conversation with the boy, it was, in fact, the spirit of his deceased sister, haunting William's warehouse with supernatural abilities that allowed her to communicate through the camera system.
The tragic "Bite of '83" incident is a gruesome tale of a birthday party gone awry. It involved a terrible joke that led to a child's head being thrust into the jaws of a bear animatronic, causing a fatal head injury. The child was rushed to the hospital but, sadly, did not survive. His sister, deeply affected by the ordeal, made a valiant yet ultimately fruitless effort to save him. The young boy, after succumbing to his injuries, became a ghostly purple bear, forever haunting the corners of any location where the murderous animatronic resided.
In the wake of the "Bite of '83," Michael's mother experienced an unbearable anguish that eventually led to her tragic suicide. In the absence of his mother, Michael came under William's care. Still, his father held a deep-seated resentment towards him, believing that Michael's actions had led to another of his siblings' deaths. In a cruel twist, William began planning and constructing a room within the new establishment that was expressly designed for torturing children. The room was a sinister replication of Michael's original bedroom, and he would secretly abduct Michael while he slept and place him in this nightmarish chamber. Michael would be drugged, and nightmarish robotic versions of the Fazbear animatronics would haunt him during the night, a chilling reminder of the tragedy he inadvertently caused. This harrowing experience left a lasting scar on Michael's psyche but, somewhat paradoxically, contributed to his personal growth.
Fast forward to 1987, another iteration of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza opened its doors, boasting a new set of animatronics. Once again, William took on the persona of Dave, but this time he committed yet another series of heinous acts, leading to the loss of more innocent lives. The establishment temporarily closed but reopened in November, only to face another incident when the animatronic Mangle injured someone. The aftermath of this incident left Henry without a job, and the situation took an even darker turn when "Dave" was recognized as William, necessitating his withdrawal into the shadows for his own safety.
In the period following his disappearance, William began to contemplate the consequences of his actions and the havoc he had wrought upon his family and others. He couldn't escape the knowledge that his own choices had led to the deaths of those he held dear, leaving him alone with only his elder son, Michael. It was during this time of reflection that he hatched a plan to set things right. In his mind, if he was the one who had caused the chaos, perhaps it was Michael who could restore order. To guide his son along this path, William sent him a letter outlining the steps he should take. William was keenly aware of the spirits and possessions haunting the various animatronics, and he knew that his daughter's spirit was tied to Circus Baby's Entertainment & Rental. Thus, he sent Michael to that location, leading to the events that transpired in Sister Location.
In Sister Location, Baby initially mistook Michael for William but soon recognized him as her brother. This realization presented an opportunity for Baby and the other sentient robots from the rental facility to leave, using Michael as a disguise. To ensure that his brother wouldn't perish from the process, Baby conducted some esoteric research and discovered a method to prevent his death. Thus, Ennard was born, as Michael unwittingly entered the Scooping Room. Ennard, taking on Michael's appearance, attempted to live a normal life as a human being, but the dark magic was incapable of halting the rotting of flesh. Eventually, the facade crumbled, and Ennard exited Michael's body, relocating to the sewers, where it awaited a new role.
However, Michael, despite becoming an undying walking corpse, had unfinished business. He was driven by a sense of duty to free the souls of his father's victims. He began working at FFP, which had reopened in the 1990s, to investigate whether the possession phenomenon was still at play there. Sadly, before Michael started his investigation, Henry had met his demise at the pizzeria. Michael, adopting a false identity under the name Mike Schmidt, secured employment at the restaurant. Unfortunately, he was eventually terminated due to his decomposing state and allegations of tampering with the animatronics. He then patiently waited for the pizzeria's inevitable closure.
With the assistance of Shadow Freddy, who was actually the spirit of his younger brother, Michael began the dismantling of the animatronics, setting the children's souls free from their physical confines. Regrettably, in the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, decayed corpses turn purple, leading the spirits to mistakenly believe that Michael was the Purple Guy and thus attacking him. Fortunately, Michael recalled the Spring Bonnie suit and utilized it to mislead the spirits, offering himself as a surrogate for their vengeance. The suit, however, failed, resulting in a horrifying ordeal that left Michael's body crushed. Convinced that their tormentor was defeated, the spirits finally departed, leaving Michael behind in an abandoned room with a broken, rotting body and the spirit of his brother for company.
The events of FNaF 3 are well-documented but not particularly favored among fans. In the midst of theste occurrences, Fazbear's Fright met its fiery demise in an attempt by Michael to rid himself of the suit, which, to his disappointment, only caused him further harm. Nonetheless, this marked the final chapter in his long, unending life, and he resolved to confront the man responsible for the nightmarish chain of events: his father, William Afton. As for what the future holds, only Five Nights at Freddy's 6 can reveal the answers to the lingering questions in this twisted tale of animatronic horror.
