| “ | I did it. I found it. It was right where you said it would be. | ” |
— Michael talking about Sister Location
|
Not the page you're looking for? Try Michael Brooks, a character with his first name from the Charlie trilogy, or Mike Schmidt, his alias from the first game.
Michael Afton (also known as Mike Schmidt and Eggs Benedict) is the main protagonist of the Five Nights at Freddy's game series, first appearing with his real name in Sister Location. He is one of the sons of William Afton, and older brother of Elizabeth Afton.
Appearance
In Sister Location the reflection of a simple, black silhouette in a dirty mirror is all that can be seen. In the Custom Night minigames, he is shown to have a fairly light complexion, with medium, almost auburn, brown hair that seems to be parted in the middle, and blue eyes. He also wears a purple long sleeved-shirt, blue pants, and brown shoes.
Like his father William, he appears to have an elongated smile, although it appears more friendly and warm, rather than his father's sadistic and unnerving smile. In the minigames, he appears to lack his cheeks as the background can be seen through his smile; This sprite detail is otherwise only shared with Fredbear.
After being reanimated and becoming a living corpse, he appears to be physically dark purple, due to his skin rotting. He also seems to have lost his nose and almost all of his bottom and front teeth. His eyeballs seem to be missing from his now dark and empty sockets. The only sign of life from them is the two small white illuminating pupils, similar to the ones the animatronics sometimes possess.
Personality
His background is mostly told via silent actions within retro-graphics, reading messages in red pen in the Survival Logbook, or by reading between the lines throughout the games. Between his mini game presence and piecing together information gleaned from the Survival Logbook, he is a talented artist as seen from the many drawings on the pages of the logbook drawn in red pen, and he has a bad habit of chewing bubblegum as seen on one of the questions, just like Pete from Step Closer. He is quite sarcastic, evident from the many shrewd comments written about the company's lack of safety or concern for its employees, and has a snarky sense of humor, evident in both the Logbook and Sister Location monologue.
The Logbook also shows that Michael is paranoid while on the job, suggesting that he sleeps with one eye open. When asked why he wanted the job on page six he states for the free pizza, implying that his reasons for working are fairly simple. In the book when asked in the form of a question what he would like for his end of week bonus, he circles the money basket instead of the exotic butters that he got from Sister Location, meaning like anyone else, he would've rather had a basket of cash than any other meaningless prize, showing Michael has his priorities straight and is a responsible person. He relates to Clara from the The Immortal and the Restless writing "Everything about this place is crazy and no one seems to notice except me."[1]
After Sister Location, Michael Afton's main goal was to find William, although it's unknown what he planned to do afterward.
Biography
Five Nights at Freddy's 1
- Main article: Mike Schmidt
Michael gets the job as a night guard in this location, under the name Mike Schmidt, apparently trying to get free pizza.ㅤ
The animatronics, believing that Michael is William, due to the fact that William is his biological father, mistake Michael for him and try to kill him.
Michael then sits in the office surviving with nothing but cameras, lights, and doors for 5 nights until he gets fired after being caught tampering with the animatronics.
Five Nights at Freddy's 4
His role in the minigames is unknown but he is equally likely to be either the Crying Child, or his Older Brother. It is heavily implied by the Survival LogBook that Michael is the protagonist of the nights, being haunted in his dreams by nightmarish variations of the animatronics. In these dreams, he is a frightened little boy, forced to defend his bedroom in a similar manner to his office. From his fifth night, he also faces Nightmare Fredbear, a monstrous representation of the Bite of 83. On his last two nights, he faces the enigmatic Nightmare and manages to triumph against it.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location
He is the technician of Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rentals and by extension, Circus Baby's Pizza World. He has been revealed to be the player in the final cutscene of Custom Night, where he seems to have a British accent.
In Sister Location, Michael is instructed by his father to go to the underground facility and find his sister. This implies that William Afton is aware of the souls of the children staying behind, and knows his daughter's soul is within Circus Baby. Michael trusts his father, and goes to save his sister. On night 1, Michael arrives at Circus Baby's, and HandUnit welcomes him, showing him how to check the animatronics' stages, and if they are not in their proper places, he must shock them to put them back on their stage. Michael successfully shocks Ballora and Funtime Foxy, but fails to shock Baby.
On night 2, Michael checks Ballora and Foxy, but when he checks Baby, the controlled shocks do not work, requiring HandUnit to shut down the system. Baby begins to speak to him, and tells him to hide beneath the desk. After surviving the Bidybabs, Michael crawls through Ballora Gallery, avoiding her by listening for her music. He then reaches the Breaker Room, where he restarts all the systems while playing audio to keep Funtime Freddy from attacking him. Michael then leaves Circus Baby's.
On night 3, Michael returns, checking Ballora and Funtime Foxy. He then runs through Funtime Auditorium while avoiding Funtime Foxy. Michael reaches Parts and Service, where he performs a repair on Freddy, and catches Bon Bon in order to get Freddy's second power module. When he returns through Funtime Auditorium, Foxy attacks him, knocking him out.
On night 4, Michael wakes up in a springlock suit. Baby begins talking to him, explaining she kidnapped him. Then, two technicians enter the building, and send Ballora to the Scooping Room, where Michael is. He then gets to witness Ballora get scooped. He then has to survive an attack of Minireenas.
On night 5, Michael checks the stages, only to see two hanged technicians. He then returns through Funtime Auditorium, and enters Parts and Service, to see a lifeless Circus Baby. She explains that she is pretending and something bad happened that day. He then enters a random number sequence into a keypad that flips out of Baby's left central faceplate. After entering the passcode, Michael gets a chip from her upper arm plate so she can communicate with him after she's been scooped.
Michael sends Baby to the Scooping Room. She then instructs him to go back into Funtime Auditorium and follow her instructions. Once Michael completes Baby's instructions, he is in the Scooping Room. Baby reveals that her helping him was actually part of a plot so she could use him as a host body for Ennard. As a result, Michael gets scooped and dies.
Transformation
After beating a Custom Night on Very Hard mode, you will be greeted to a secret cutscene, which shows the events after Ennard put himself in Michael's body, replacing his organs.
In the first mini game, Michael looks like a normal man, wearing a purple shirt and blue pants. The people around him wave cheerfully.
In the second mini game, Everything is the same just with him having a minor skin color change from tan-pink to tan. The people around him continue to wave cheerfully.
In the third mini game, Michael's skin seems to be more of a green color. The first person he walks past has a bewildered expression on his face. The rest are normal, just waving cheerfully.
In the fourth mini game, Michael's skin becomes a darker greenish-brown; his eyes are also now completely black. The last three people he walks by look confused.
In the fifth mini game, he looks much more decrepit than he did in the past mini games, with a strange glowing in one eye and the loss of some hair. Everyone around him seem very concerned.
In the sixth mini game, his skin has turned a dull purple, now having a white glow in both of his eyes and no hair. He also acts to be more senile and less cheerful than he was before. There are fewer people around him and one of them is hiding behind their house in fear.
In the last mini game, he is hunched over and his skin is a dark purple color. He has lost both shoes, and his appearance is now very reminiscent of his father's Purple Guy form. Everyone around him has hidden behind their houses in dread.
Eventually, his body has a spasm, and he regurgitates the robotic parts belonging to Ennard into the sewer. He lies on the ground, presumably dead. The player then hears Baby's voice repeating "you won't die", and Michael gets back up while all of the Ennard's eyes show up in the sewer. Finally freeing Elizabeth, Michael's only remaining goal is to "find" William, although it's unknown what that means.
Golden Freddy "Very Hard" Cutscene
After beating "Very Hard" Golden Freddy mode in Sister Location, Michael Afton, most likely right after the events of Five Nights at Freddy's 3, speaks to Springtrap.
| “ | Father. It's me, Michael. I did it. I found it. It was right where you said it would be. They were all there. They didn't recognize me at first but then they thought I was you. And I found her. I put her back together, just like you asked me to. She's free now. But something is wrong with me. I should be dead. But I'm not. I've been living in shadows. There is only one thing left for me to do now. I'm going to come find you... I'm going to come find you. | ” |
— Michael Afton
|
After this, Springtrap walks in for a second before the screen goes black. Looking in the background, the words "Fazbear's Fright can be seen.
Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator
Some time after Fazbear's Fright burnt down, Michael took the job of manager of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, in order to possibly achieve his final goal of finding and ending his father. After buying a Fazbear franchisee package, he was left with $100 as a starter budget, and was aided by Tutorial Unit. As well as working on the Pizzeria itself, he became acquainted with his managerial office. He was told to prepare for a "big party" on Saturday, which would act as his "ultimate test".
Michael was also tasked under paragraph 4 in his contract with salvaging vintage animatronics which had appeared in the back alley, supposedly for parts. The first of these was the remnants of Ennard, now known as Molten Freddy. Over the next few days, he salvaged his father, now in the form of Scraptrap, his sister, now in the form of Scrap Baby, and the mysterious Lefty. While in his office, during his managerial shifts, Michael fended off the salvaged animatronics, by luring them with sounds, and using the resources available to him.
On the final night, Mike's boss revealed that the Pizzeria was a trap for all the remaining animatronics, with Mike having kept them distracted by luring them around the labyrinth in the vents in circles. Henry praised Michael as his "brave volunteer", telling him that, while there had been a way out, he knew Michael did not want it. Henry then burnt the Pizzeria to free the souls and kill everybody, including Michael and himself.
Gallery
Trivia
- When finishing each of the Custom Night challenges in Sister Location on the hardest difficulty, the reward will be a series of retro-style cutscenes that show Michael and his decaying body, ending with a final scene where Michael gives a long speech addressing his father.
- William Afton was thought to be the protagonist of Sister Location, Eggs Benedict, before it was revealed that it was Michael. Michael rotting and turning purple, and the appearance of Springtrap after Michael's speech, led some fans to be confused regarding if Mike was Purple Guy, if there were two Purple Guys, if William Afton even existed in the games, or if Mike was Springtrap.
- Michael Afton's goal in Sister Location seems to be to put Mike's sister back together.
- Springtrap appearing in the wreckage of Fazbear's Fright during Michael's speech after Mike's line "I'm going to come find you," fans speculate, could be an indication that FNaF 3 is when Mike finally finds his father, as Springtrap, and some theorists believe Michael was even the one who burned it down.
- Michael is heavily implied to be the protagonist of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, since the voice lines for Molten Freddy, Scrap Baby and William Afton suggest that all of them know the protagonist closely.
- The Survival Logbook features a page asking about recent dreams. Mike, the night guard writing/drawing in the Logbook, draws Nightmare Fredbear, heavily suggesting he is the one having the nightmares in FNaF 4's main gameplay.
- A spirit writing in faded text in the Logbook asks "Do you have dreams?" on the same page as Michael's drawing.
- Michael tells his father "they thought I was you," presumably in reference to the Funtime animatronics mistaking him for William.
- Arguably, this explains why Mike is repeatedly attacked by animatronics throughout the series. If he looks exactly like his father, a serial child-killer, the angry spirits of children would want to get revenge, and/or their facial recognition systems would register him as a criminal.
- However, it should be noted that the children still went after Phone Guy, Jeremy Fitzgerald and Fritz Smith, all of whom wouldn't have this same reasoning behind it.
- This may, unintentionally, have been foreshadowing, as this scene sparked the debate of Michael being Springtrap within the Community itself.
- Arguably, this explains why Mike is repeatedly attacked by animatronics throughout the series. If he looks exactly like his father, a serial child-killer, the angry spirits of children would want to get revenge, and/or their facial recognition systems would register him as a criminal.
- The shadowy image used for him at the end of Sister Location resembles famous singer Rick Astley, mostly known for the 1987 hit classic "Never Gonna Give You Up."
- According to the Logbook, Mike has a habit of chewing gum.
- Looking at how many coffee rings seen on the Logbook pages, he may also have something of a caffeine addiction.
- In every game there is a soda cup on the desk, even in FFPS, which may also indicate this.
- This strangely also applies to Jeremy Fitzgerald and Fritz Smith.
- Both of these characteristics are shared with Pete, who is a separate character, from the story Step Closer.
- In every game there is a soda cup on the desk, even in FFPS, which may also indicate this.
- Looking at how many coffee rings seen on the Logbook pages, he may also have something of a caffeine addiction.
- The Logbook also says that Michael relates to Clara from The Immortal and the Restless, because no one believes them.
- He'd rather lose his arm than his frontal lobe.
- It's debated whether Michael Afton is the Crying Child, the Older Brother (aka Foxy Bro) from FNaF 4, or another brother completely separate from both of those.
- At first glance, Fazbear Frights: Step Closer appeared to give new evidence to both sides of the debate. On further inspection, this doesn't actually appear to be the case, as he far more closely parallels one over the other.
- The protagonist, Pete, starts the story off by pulling a prank on his younger brother, Chuck, by dragging him into a back room with Foxy, as an attempt to get out of babysitting him. This first action appears to parallel the older brother.
- By the time Foxy first appears, however, Pete is the only one left in the room, as Chuck was long gone; The prank ended up backfiring, with Foxy's song cursing Pete. For the rest of the story, Pete is tormented by Foxy for several days, ending with an incident that sends Pete to the hospital, presumed to be dead but not. This more closely parallels the crying child.
- Others say this story has nothing to do with the canonicity if the games.
- It is also worth noting that this story follows an ongoing trend within Fazbear Frights, where a story follows a bully and his victim, and in the end, the bully ends up dead while the victim survives.
- One infamous theory is that crying child was rebuilt as a robot by William, and is Michael. This is believed because of the strange phenomenon of Michael not dying after being scooped.
- The third edition of The Freddy Files series, The Ultimate Guide, documents him Michael as the older brother referring to him as "The Older Son" and has him mentioned separately from the Crying Child multiple times. However, The Ultimate Guide is unreliable due to it being a direct copy-paste from the infamously incorrect Freddy Files: Updated Edition in some places.
- Additionally, the specific sections in which this is mentioned are labeled as Fan Theories, and shed light on theories regardless of their canonicity. A noteworthy example is the inclusion of Miketrap, the theory of Michael Afton being Springtrap, in The Freddy Files: Updated Edition, despite Scott Cawthon directly stating this theory was incorrect several years prior.
- In Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator there are rare boot screens that show the animatronics in the back alley. One of the screens has a poster of a man with three other figures that are believed to represent the Afton family. The man seems to represent William Afton, one figure is a clown, which seems to represent Elizabeth, the other is a bear, which is thought to, and could potentially, represent the Crying Child, and the third is a ventriloquist dummy who looks like an exact replica of the puppeteer, which seemingly represents Michael. The older brother is noticeably absent in the poster which has led to the assumption that the older brother is depicted as being Michael.
- This artwork, however, has been stated to not have any lore relevance by the artist, so any connections to the Afton Family are coincidental.
- Additionally, an alternative interpretation is that the artwork is representing the FFPS group, with Molten Freddy being the bear, Scrap Baby being the clown, the puppeteer being William Afton, and the puppet being either Michael Afton, due to it's similarity to the puppeteer, or Lefty, due to literally being The Puppet.
- This is also seen in Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, as in the S.T.A.F.F. Bot silo, a table is seen with S.T.A.F.F. Bots representing a family of five, which are often believed to represent the Afton family, though a handful of fans aren't sure that these particular S.T.A.F.F. Bots represent the Afton family at all.
- It is worth noting that of these S.T.A.F.F. bots, the headless one, often believed to represent the crying child, can be seen outside of one of the secret rooms, being the one based on Michael's living room from Sister Location.
- Its still debated whether the server-bot represents Michael or Phone Guy.
- Some fans point to the movie, and claim it confirms Michael as the Older Brother. The main sources are the tragedy in his past mentioned in his plot synopsis, and the actor for Young Mike referring to Garrett's actor as his little brother.
- However, the incident in question was a kidnapping, not the Bite of '83.
- At first glance, Fazbear Frights: Step Closer appeared to give new evidence to both sides of the debate. On further inspection, this doesn't actually appear to be the case, as he far more closely parallels one over the other.
- Michael is one of two characters to tamper with animatronics, the other being Fritz Smith.
- For this reason, it is somewhat generally believed that it's Michael working under an alias.
- It is theorized that Michael is the FNaF 3 Nightguard.
- The Fazbear Frights book "What We Found" seemingly infers the theory to be true. However, this confirmation stems from a book, therefore, it cannot be cited as proof.
- Although many believe his shirt disappears while he's decaying, looking back at the other sprites shows that it's color actually decayed with him, and simply has the same color as his skin at the end.
- People theorize his soul is inside of Glamrock Freddy. The evidence posited is Freddy's monologue about his "friends" while Gregory is going beneath Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place.
- However, this could just be Freddy referring to the other Glamrock animatronics.
- The use of the word "friends" is rather odd, as Michael has no known friends to speak of.
- If this theory is true, it may mean that Glamrock Freddy could represent Michael while Gregory and Vanessa represent the Crying Child and Elizabeth Afton, respectively.