creature containment zone

(disclaimer before we start that i have no idea what i'm talking about and that 99% of my understanding of william afton comes from springtrappd's analysis)

SO... my main thought here comes from the fact that they're both simply very theatrical yet sinister characters (and they're also both tumblr sexymen lmao) BUT! it also comes from the way both william and the dca live their lives as two distinct personas + have a very similar primary want in their lives that leads them to take similar actions...

firstly, let me talk about that "two distinct personas" thing: with the dca it's obviously sun and moon, but for william it's him and the yellow rabbit, which isn't as literal and immediately obvious

now, these aren't absolutely perfect parallels. the yellow rabbit is a costume that afton both created himself and actively makes the choice to put on, meanwhile the dca is generally two guys with the same body and they have little to no control over that or each other. however, these personas each serve the same purpose to both characters

william and sun are each their most presentable selves. these are the faces they show to the public and to the people around them, their "real" faces (in a sense). but, more importantly, these faces serve as the masks for the other personas which are:

the yellow rabbit and moon. two figures who hide behind a mask of innocence to lure in their prey, yet are both more genuine than the faces beneath it. cheerful murderers who'll hunt you down with a skip in their step as they hum a jolly tune.

additionally: this is a description that applies to vanny/vanessa as well, but she's got her own differences that i'm devoting to their own section farther down

secondly, the primary want they share! so they both have a very similar need that they both require in order to feel secure and like themselves, and this need is what incentivizes them to antagonize children specifically: a need for control.

the specifics of this vague concept obviously vary between the two of them, but they each need a sense of control in some way, shape, or form. control over their image and the way they come across to others, control over their environment and their role within it, and (most importantly!) control over the people around and beneath them. they especially need to pretend that they have more control over these things than they actually do, otherwise they completely lose themselves.

for william, this shows through:

the way he treats his family (he treats them more like his possessions and only truly values them through what they can do for him, elizabeth is shown as his favorite yet he still physically hurts her both as elizabeth and circus baby, he was doing weird experiments to the crying child, he sent michael to go help baby knowing he'd probably die, ect.)

the way he runs his business (seeking profit at the cost of human lives, a disregard for anything but success and the illusion of a spotless record + afton & the mci generally representing the horrors that can happen when you value profit over safety)

the way he views his creations/animatronics and the remnant inside them ("Look at you. Look at the NASTY things you have become! Look how small you are! How worthless you are! You are wretched, rotten little beasts! I MADE YOU!", the entirety sister location)

the fact that his main targets are children who can't fight back (perfect example of this would be charlie's death. especially because of the effect it would have on henry, someone who also very important to afton's character BUT that's a separate post i'm not qualified to make lol)

additionally: this post verbalizes this point really well! ALSO do be aware that a lot of these points of his character do mostly come from external media e.g. the books (which i haven't read ^^;; so take my word with a grain of salt)

and for sun:

it's obsession with how the daycare is managed and run (the main gimmick for their encounter is that they absolutely have to clean every mess gregory makes, it's emphasis on gregory breaking the rules and getting in trouble/being punished, banning gregory from the daycare despite how bad of a decision that is... it's reaching for any sense of control over it's environment at any cost)

the entire hw2 coloring minigame ("Now you just sit right there and don't move. I'll go fetch whatever materials you need, okay?", the main task being to replicate a design rather than make something new)

the way both sun and moon are constantly at odds with each other for who gets to be in literal control over their body, and the way this defines their entire dynamic and character.

additionally: moon also has a distinct but still very similar need for control too (apart from it's struggle with sun), but the way moon shows it is a lot more literal since it mainly wants control over what it gets to do and when it gets to do it, which is something that is usually taken away from it

LASTLY, HOW THIS ALL RELATES TO VANNY AND VANESSA:

before i say anything i wanna state the overarching dynamic here: afton > vanny > dca. this is their chain of command, the root and it's subsections, the cycle of abuse. they're each replicating the same tragedies in different but similar ways. patterns and behaviors and such.

it's also this chain of command that makes it so vanessa doesn't actually directly parallel afton as much (she's under his control which would make her more directly parallel his kids) but that doesn't mean she's entirely absent from it, since even if it's his routine she's still the one performing it! it's all listed under her name, acted upon with her own two hands... the biggest difference is that she isn't choosing to do these things as she lacks control. she's the reluctant follower after all.

all of this isn't to say that she's a completely helpless, brainless puppet for afton to use freely... or even to erase her complicity and trained helplessness in regards to her actions... it's just that this one of the biggest distinctions and differences between her and afton, despite their surface level similarities.

vanessa is someone who finds more power in following someone else's word rather than her own, because she's been silenced into submission her whole life and now it's the only thing that she feels that she knows how to do. and now she's unwillingly become a living echo of his influence.

she's someone who's been robbed of her own identity time and time again because of factors out of her control, unable to break out of the horrific cycle of violence and abuse that defines fnaf as a whole... and almost the exact same thing can be said for the dca, which is why the dca even parallels afton to begin with. because afton is controlling vanessa is controlling the dca. it's all CONNECTED!!