Why Does Springtrap Have an Axe? It All Comes Back to a Fiery Fanmade Music Video

Nothing sends a chill down the spine quite like a really good horror villain. What that villain looks like and what their dark deeds include varies from story to story.

In the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, one of the best villains in the game is a raggedy-looking animatronic rabbit named Springtrap, aka William Afton.

Springtrap first appeared in FNAF 3, and quickly became a fandom favorite. Like most of the FNAF animatronics, Springtrap's great power comes in his size and strength. But lately, he's been spotted gracing the internet wielding an axe. So why does Springtrap have an axe?

The question may lead you down dark and dangerous paths. Here's what we know.

From the start, Springtrap was best known for his speed, his intelligence, and his ability to jump-scare and take his victims down in a mysterious manner disguised by static.

Yet there's something pretty chilling about seeing the beastly 6-and-a-half-foot-tall animatronic wielding a glistening axe. So where did the axe come from?

It all started with a fiery music video created by legendary game music creators The Living Tombstone.

In 2015, shortly after Five Nights at Freddy's 3 had become a sensation, The Living Tombstone created a music video for a song called "Die in a Fire." The music video featured the FNAF 3 animatronics as they sought revenge on the person who trapped them in their un-living nightmares: William Afton.

In the video, William can be seen grabbing an axe. Springtrap himself doesn't appear in the video, but because William is Springtrap, fans began associating him with the axe.

And as one user in the comments of the music video wrote, "Bro literally made the axe canon in ['Dead by Daylight']. Respect." Another wrote, "The fact that after 10 years the fire axe became canon thanks to this fan song is crazy to me."

As a nod to the music video, people began creating animations showing Springtrap with an axe, and in the 2016 horror game Dead by Daylight, fans finally got what they wanted and Springtrap was given his axe.

In FNAF cannon, he does not have an axe, but fans don't mind going out of the box on this one.

But before Springtrap became an axe-wielding maniac, he was William Afton.

Here's what you need to know about how one became the other. Matpat's Game Theory offers a fairly conclusive explanation of William's theorized lore. At least as far as we know.

William was once the owner of Freddy's Pizzeria, and the entertainment was famously some disturbing and questionable animatronic animals. With a dark and disturbing past.

There are still a lot of questions in the world of FNAF about how exactly William became Springtrap on an emotional and mental level. But we know how he physically became the homicidal animatronic: William was chased into the murderous arms of the springlocks of the empty and waiting Spring Bonnie suit, thus being reborn as Springtrap.

But what was chasing William is where the shocking lore comes in: William was being chased by the spirits of children he killed who had been trapped in other animatronic suits.

William also lost two sons and his daughter to the revenge-obsessed animatronics over the years, and possibly his wife, whom fans suspect is ballerina-inspired Ballora. From his kids to other people's kids, William was an utter menace who was a murderer in life and a murderer in death.

Once the tortured and homicidal William becomes Springtrap, he finds himself at the mercy of whomever buys the pizzeria, which doesn't go over so well.

It's a confusing and convoluted story, but one that continues to evolve with every FNAF game and movie. All we really know is that William was not a good person in life, and he became a worse monster in death; shiny new axe notwithstanding.