Peepaw Willy

Peepaw Willy is the family ship between William Afton and Vanessa Shelly.

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)
Vanessa is William's daughter and only known child. Due to her father's position at Fazbear Entertainment, Vanessa became well-acquainted with the diner and the animatronics. It appears that the two genuinely care for each other, though any semblance of a normal father-daughter relationship was ruined as William became a serial child murderer. He gave the toy plane of his first victim, Garett, to Vanessa when she was a child. At some point, William would force Vanessa to assist him with his murders. In adulthood, Vanessa became a cop and befriend the security guards at Freddy's to help with her father's plans.

After Mike Schmidt becomes the new security guard, William tasked Vanessa with keeping him in the dark about his plans to murder Mike's sister, Abby. Once, Mike recounts memories of how his parents were a picture-perfect family before his brother went missing. Vanessa wistfully replies that it sounds nice, indicating that she didn't have such a childhood with her father. Throughout her time with Mike and Abby, Vanessa grew attached to the siblings and didn't want William to claim yet another victim. Mike could tell that Vanessa was terrified of something, though she refused to say outright who it was. Instead, she threatens Mike against ever bringing Abby back to the diner again.

Eventually, Mike confronts Vanessa about what she knows. Vanessa reveals the whole truth, about how William stuffed the children's bodies into the animatronics and controls them, as well as her relation to the killer. She knows that they will try to kill Abby that night and gives Mike the necessary tools to fight back. Mike tells her to come with him, but Vanessa is too scared to face her father. Mike rhetorically replies, "He really messed you up, didn't he?"

Vanessa has a change of heart and arrives just in time, pointing a gun at her father. William unmasks himself and demands Vanessa to stop her defiance and help him with his plans. He doesn't expect her to follow through on her threats, but Vanessa does indeed shoot the gun at him. William strangles her, but stops as he sees Abby about to enlighten the animatronics on who killed them. Vanessa grabs him, proclaiming that she won't let him hurt her too, so William stabs her. For a moment, he looks nearly remorseful, but quickly recovers and sees that Abby has successfully turned the animatronics against him.

Fanon
Fans were surprised with the movie revealing that its iteration of Vanessa is William's child, rather than Michael.

The movie is not the first time Vanessa's relations to William were discussed. Since the release of Special Delivery, there have been many speculations about Vanessa being an Afton in the games, because of her last name starting with an A. Such theories were further fueled in Security Breach when Vanessa's therapy recordings indicated that her father was named "Bill", a nickname for the name William. Some take the movie lore to be confirmation for these theories.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION