Character-specific pages: William Afton
Animatronics: In General, First Generation, Second Generation, Third Generation, Fourth Generation, Fifth Generation, Sixth Generation, VR Generation, Seventh Generation, Adventure Characters
Humans: Protagonists, Instructors, The Afton Family, Other Humans
Novels: Silver Eyes Continuity, Fright Generation
Miscellaneous: Companies, Film Continuity
Indexed By Game: Five Nights at Freddy's, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, Five Nights at Freddy's 3, Five Nights at Freddy's 4, Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, Ultimate Custom Night, Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted, Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery, Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2
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Fazbear Entertainment & Afton Robotics
Tropes about both companies
- Adults Are Useless: For a time they had an unseemly habit of covering up bodies discovered and disguising crime scenes behind drywall and stuff.
- Bad Boss: It starts at paying you $120 a week; even though this is salary pay for a part-time job it works out to $4 an hour. Wanna work the Saturday shift for overtime? A whopping fifty cents more. Gets worse in the second game where it's down to $100.50 a week. And if you don't make it through the night they'll do everything in their power to keep the police and media from finding out. The paychecks at least turn out to be this way since they're the United States minimum wages for the late 1980s and early 1990s. Still, minimum wages for a job like this...
- Amplified in the Tales From The Pizzaplex series where it's revealed that they straight out psychologically tortured the man they hired to make cover up games for the incidents that took place in previous pizzerias by trapping him in his house and gaslit him with a robotic family while also siccing horrific looking creatures onto him to "inspire" him to keep making the games, only to have him killed when he attempts to rebel against the simulation.
- Blatant Lies: "Safety is top priority at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza." Yeah, bullshit. At least until you realize it isn't your safety that's top priority; it's the company's.
- Card-Carrying Villain: It’s stated policy that if employees are killed on the job they will file missing person reports ninety days after disposing of any bodies and cleaning up all crime scenes. They’re so open about it one game implies them doing so is public knowledge.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Their casual and blatant disregard for the safety of employees and customers provides much of the series' Black Comedy.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Can't even bother to offer decent paychecks, are too cheap to ensure night guards have enough electrical power and prefer to clean up your remains before filing a missing persons report rather than fix their equipment or fess up. Everything that happens is the unspooling consequences of the higher-ups cutting costs and skating by on the least possible efforts.
- Dangerous Workplace: It's uncertain whether they have any actual ties to the dangerous natures of their attractions and even so it's not clear whether it's out of malice or stupidity but they do still give you the job, thus the hell that ensues and you're far from the first to take it.
- Determinator: In spite of years of child murder, missing people and other incidents and atrocities linked to their brand names coupled with enough lawsuits to bankrupt any fabulously wealthy person multiple times over they will stop at nothing to try and make the bigtime with Freddy and co. And they'd have succeeded within multiple attempts by now were it not for their comically flagrant corruption impeding them on (almost) every rung of the corporate ladder.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- While not exactly evil per se they still have quite a history of ignoring safety. However, when the springlock suits'... major flaws became apparent they're immediately taken out of service and put away where they think no one can find them. Mind you, from the tone of their memo about this (and the mention of "insurance representatives") it's implied to be less about moral and ethical concerns but rather about thinking of the bottom line.
- Played for Laughs when they express sheer disbelief they had to fire Fritz Smith on his first day for tampering with the animatronics.
- One of the endings in Pizza Simulator requires you have horrible managerial skills even by their standards.
- Fatal Flaw: Greed of course. Time and time again the biggest thing that drags them down is extreme corner-cutting in search of profits, resulting in faults and accidents that bring their latest establishment down in flames; usually in the literal sense. The robots go haywire, sanitation isn't up to code and, oh yeah, the same suspected murderer keeps returning through lax security. Even the Pizzaplexes, arguably their most successful ventures to date are filled with flaws and corruption abound which results in one establishment's destruction or closing in some endings of Security Breach.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Technically outranks even William Afton himself in this regard; it's through their poor business, technical and hiring decisions causing the plots of the games to happen but they never really make any sort of physical appearances.
- Hate Sink: It's pretty clear you are not meant to like these people. They give you a job of life-threatening danger, refuse to pay compensation if you are injured while working, hide your corpse if you get killed and don't even seem to pay you well enough.
- Made even worse after it was confirmed in the Tales From The Pizzaplex story "Help Wanted" that they psychologically tormented the indie dev who made the games based on the incidents at the pizzerias only to call him a "complete lunatic" in their VR experience.
- Idiot Ball: They grab this and hold it as hard as they can. Ignore signs that things are not what they seem? Check. Never once consider there might be something more dangerous than they can imagine going on? Double check. Tell everyone how little there is to worry about even if proven otherwise? Triple check, quadruple check and check again.
- Incompetence, Inc.: Oh boy howdy, where do we even begin? The possessed attractions and other machines that viciously kill almost anyone they catch on the premises at night for starters. But how about the faulty wiring that causes the establishment to burn down in 3 assuming it's owned by or directly affiliated with them? Or the fact they let a child-killing maniac run loose without reprisal? Perhaps the fact that the most advanced of said entertainment devices are so dangerous they can crush skulls? It's a miracle they continued for so long in the face of such lethal incompetence!
- Indian Burial Ground: The original establishments had a combined body count numbering in the double digits, most if not all of them children. The bodies of anyone after an ill-fated birthday party in 1983 were apparently never discovered.
- Laughably Evil: Their incompetence and lack of regard for basic safety standards lends itself to a good bit of Black Comedy; especially prevalent in Security Breach where they cross into Cartoonish Supervillainy.
- No OSHA Compliance: Customer safety is not a top priority and neither is workplace safety. And that's not even getting started on the springlock suits...
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Most of what happens under their watch (the Bites of '87 and '83, the murders taking place, the "multiple simultaneous springlock failures", the generally perilous conditions facing their staff) can be chalked up to them either being too lazy to police themselves or too incompetent to do so rather than outright villainy. Then everything beginning from Help Wanted reveals they were also involved in a much more direct form of villainy: apparently they started actively covering these things up by hiring an indie developer (NOT Scott Cawthon by the way) to make games about the events (which would in turn suggest they might've known more than they let on) thereby allowing them to discredit rumors.
- Pet the Dog:
- They at least try making improvements in the second game. New animatronics that'll be on the lookout for criminals, giving more of a warning about their "kinks" and saying they're not really sure what's causing their behavior, springing for a light source that doesn't run on everything so the power won't cut out on you (just the flashlight) and supplying a Freddy mask to at least protect yourself. It can be assumed the lack of a doorway is just something they can't afford at the moment due to trying to update the animatronics.
- A lot of their policies from the first game make sense after seeing the second and fourth games. For example, they fire Fritz Smith and Mike Schmidt (both of whom were actually William's son Michael Afton) for tampering with the animatronics. In the second game it's revealed the animatronics had facial recognition to spot potential threats within the restaurant, thus it's understandable why they'd fire Michael; it might actually be them making sure he isn't a threat. Also, turns out the "don't touch Freddy" rule comes from Michael getting his younger brother killed by an older animatronic as a teenager.
- The good ending to Pizzeria Simulator has them thank you for working with them and admitting they were trying to tie up loose ends on their part. They add one last thank you as they say that their company is now officially disbanded... Until the VR game. That being said it's apparent the Pizzeria Simulator corporate entity was apparently owned by Henry at this point, who liquidated the company to clean up loose ends. Unfortunately he clearly underestimated whoever decided to buy up the rights...
- Refuge in Audacity: One possible explanation as to why they stayed in business is that no one will believe robots haunted by ghosts actually exist.
- Serial Escalation: Their attempts to cash in on Freddy and friends have only grown more outlandish with the passing of time.
- Riches to Rags: They've been on a downward financial spiral following the murders, the Bites of '87 and '83 and the money they wasted building the second restaurant and its animatronics that would later be scrapped.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When shit hits the fan they have a tendency to just drop everything and leave. Most iterations of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza have been left to decay immediately after closure with almost everything left where it was.
- Skewed Priorities: A policy regarding the springlock suits is if the springlocks come loose and the animatronic components inside cause any accidents/injuries/death/irreparable and grotesque maiming employees should do their best to maneuver away from populated areas before bleeding out so as to not ruin customer experiences.
- Start of Darkness:
- The second game (actually a prequel) is this for Fazbear Entertainment as another set of children are reported missing and it all goes downhill from there. The attractions finally start hunting the night guards, the restaurant is shut down mere weeks after opening despite the company's desperation, the state-of-the-art animatronics the company blew most of their budget on are to be destroyed following the tumult they caused and the restaurant's life is highly implied to culminate in the Bite of '87 during one last birthday party. This causes them to start legitimately cutting corners excessively to ensure the show goes on.
- The fourth game (actually another prequel) might be this for Afton Robotics as after the possible death of his youngest child William likely falls into despair, murders his partner and closest friend's daughter out of anger, goes mad and becomes a Serial Killer.
- There Is Another: The third game reveals at one point Freddy Fazbear's Pizza had apparently been a franchise instead of a single location.
- Un-person: Their corruption reaches outright cartoony levels. If employees are discovered dead they clean the rooms, hide the bodies and then file missing person reports in a few months. This isn't some clandestine coverup; it seems to be an advertised policy.
Fazbear Entertainment, Incorporated / Fazbear Entertainment, Limited Liability Corporation
"These characters will live on. In the hearts of kids, these characters will live on."
— Press statement by CEO
You'll never see them but these are the wonderful people who hired you to watch over their restaurant. Pity they didn't mention the free-roaming attractions would be trying to shove you into a metal-lined animatronic shell or something but we guess that would scare off some people. You'll only see them mentioned on the safety rules sign and your paycheck, not that it stops them from having a whole host of their own tropes.
- The Bus Came Back: After chronologically being gone since the events of the sixth game Fazbear Entertainment makes a big comeback with the Mega Pizzaplexes. They had a convenient location after someone decided to set up an apparently fake one after all.
- Cartoonish Supervillainy: Aside from the usual blatant middle fingers to safety regulations (mainly the lethal attractions) Security Breach dials the Greed up to downright cartoonish levels.
- They fire employees for minor reasons and replace them with S.T.A.F.F. Bots.
- The one fire escape in an entire Pizzaplex is for VIPs only.
- The bowling passes allow free bowling for a year... minus the shoes, balls, passes to get into the bowling alley, passes to enter the atrium where the bowling alley is located and passes to enter the building.
- A customer complaint implies they take
pizza slices from the trash, combine them and sell them back to customers. - The Faz-Cams are only sold in the golf course which bans flash photography so said cameras are immediately confiscated to be put back on sale and the cycle repeats.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Help Wanted reveals they commissioned a VR experience to try and capitalize on the events of previous games and attempt to discredit them. They also hired an indie developer (which wasn't Scott) to produce horror games as a way of making any past incidents seem like tall tales. They're also willing to go to the effort of attempting to discredit anyone who could potentially derail this even if it means letting an undead murderer back into the world and it's heavily implied they knew the virus was in the VR game but were unwilling to actually deal with the problem as it would potentially involve restarting development and erasing all files to ensure the threat was eliminated because you know, that'd just cost more money.
- Insistent Terminology: They refer to Freddy's nose in his Parts and Service game in Help Wanted as the "large black button on the center of Freddy's face".
- Karma Houdini: They seemed to have successfully covered up the events of previous games and repaired their reputation, also being rich enough to build a mall or two.
- Mysterious Backer: After the deaths of the founders in Pizzeria Simulator someone else appears to have taken over and is keeping things alive for unknown reasons.
- Not Me This Time: They appear to have made a return in Pizzeria Simulator but it's actually an impersonation by one of their founders meant to lure in the remnants of his former friend's misdeeds. Zigzagged by an announcement in the true ending of the game stating the Fazbear franchise's remaining assets have been forcibly liquidated.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Their reaction when they fired Fritz on his first day for tampering with the animatronics."First day on the job? Really?!?!"
- Villain with Good Publicity: While usually averted as they have quite a poor reputation due to rumours alone, by the time of Security Breach it seems they've has shaken off their bad mojo enough to build an entire series of malls and make bank off of them.
Afton Robotics, Limited Liability Corporation
William Afton's own company that serves as the "sister location" to Fazbear Entertainment.
- Bus Crash: It's safe to assume that by the time of Security Breach they've been completely dissolved with no chance of coming back unlike Fazbear Entertainment; that said it's likely their rights were also bought up as well...
- Elaborate Underground Base: They had one serving as both a maintenance facility for attractions and a place for William to conduct his experiments.
- Evil Counterpart: To Fazbear Entertainment. Sure, it's not like they're quite the saints either but at least they're just trying to be a successful company while Afton Robotics' products are outright programmed for kidnapping and murder; then again the robots were designed by William himself and how much the employees were aware of their employer's actions is unknown.
- Evil, Inc. / Murder, Inc.: What William made his company into unlike Henry who was presumably the one trying to keep Fazbear Entertainment afloat.
Fazbear's Fright
Fazbear's Fright: The Horror Attraction
While Freddy Fazbear's Pizza has finally kicked the bucket for good this time it seems the dark legacy lives on in "Fazbear's Fright: The Horror Attraction". And of course what's a building without its owners? But they want an authentic experience and thus have searched far and wide for any remnants of the old business. All they found were empty shells, a hook, a hand, a paper plate doll... and eventually an animatronic.
- Ascended Fanboy: It's possible the whole reason anyone would ever want to bring back Freddy and friends in any way, shape or form was that they enjoyed the original restaurants as kids. Anyone who were children between 1983 and 1993 would likely be in their mid-thirties or forties. A newspaper at the beginning even says they're hoping to bring their childhoods back "in the worst way possible". Yay...
- Failed a Spot Check: They don't seem to notice the attraction they found has the remains of a human being inside even though there's obviously innards hanging off of it. Or that lifting up the mask reveals a mummified face.
- Idiot Ball: Good gravy. Building the place with deliberately faulty wiring?! A ventilation system so run-down it needs to be rebooted lest either a lack of air or unknown gas start making people hallucinate?! The place going up in flames before even opening to the public is a godsend!
- Incompetence, Inc.: They give Fazbear Entertainment and Afton Robotics a run for their money with the sheer idiocy that went into the construction of Fazbear's Fright. There's hoping they didn't plan on following corpse policies as well.
- Lethally Stupid: The main hazard of the third game is less about Springtrap himself but rather the incredibly busted equipment and the fact they didn't think to check to see if Springtrap was safe or notice the rotting corpse inside. Frankly its lucky their lawsuit magnet of an attraction burned down before opening.
- Milking the Monster: The whole point of their business; to create a "horror museum" based upon the Urban Legends of the creepy, and reputedly murderous/haunted, animatronics at the now-dead Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. This isn't just their love of the old pizza joint, they genuinely expect to make money by cashing in on these stories. And then they find Springtrap, who is the mutilated carcass of William Afton possessing the suit he died in. Let us repeat: they took the Artificial Zombie of a goddamn six to eleven-time child murderer... and made it part of a haunted house.
- No OSHA Compliance: Fazbear's Fright somehow manages to be more of a giant middle finger to common sense and safety than Freddy's could ever dream of being, built with crappy wiring and a dangerously inept ventilation system that goes offline easily. Freddy's, at least, is trying to build a successful enterprise - but Fazbear Frights? When the CEOS of Freddy's look like smart people, you've messed up.
- Self-Deprecation: Turning a children's entertainment industry into a horror attraction? Sounds an awful lot like Scott Cawthon turning his kid-friendly Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. art style into his horror success story.
- Stylistic Suck: The attraction has intentionally low-quality materials to keep things "Fazbear Authentic".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Building Fazbear's Fright with a ridiculous amount of fire hazards bites them when the place goes ablaze due to either arson or the faulty wiring and destroys nearly everything inside. While it's implied this may have been intentional arson on the part of Michael Afton trying to kill his father for good, a fire probably would've happened regardless.
