He's just standing there. Pixels. Blocks. A jagged, grinning silhouette that has haunted the collective nightmares of the internet for over a decade. If you’ve spent even five minutes in the Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) community, you know the man. He’s the "Purple Guy." But if you stop and think about it for a second, the design choice is actually kind of bizarre. Humans aren't purple. They're pink, brown, tan, or pale.
So, why is William Afton purple?
It’s the question that launched a thousand YouTube theories and spawned the "Why he ourple" meme that eventually took over Tumblr and Reddit. Honestly, the answer isn't just one thing. It’s a mix of technical limitations from the early days of indie game dev, symbolic storytelling, and some pretty gruesome "biological" reasons that come to light later in the series.
The Technical Reality: Why Scott Cawthon Chose the Color
Let’s go back to 2014. Scott Cawthon was making a horror game about animatronics. When he needed to show a human antagonist in the low-resolution Atari-style minigames, he ran into a practical problem.
Black backgrounds.
The minigames in FNAF 2 and FNAF 3 almost always feature dark, shadowy hallways or pitch-black voids. If Scott had made William Afton a "shadow" figure in black, he would have been invisible. If he’d made him a realistic skin tone, it would have looked jarringly detailed or confusing against the neon-and-grim aesthetic of the 8-bit style.
Purple was the solution.
It’s a color that stands out perfectly against black while still feeling "dark." In visual design, purple is often used to represent something "off" or unnatural. Think about it. Disney villains like Maleficent or Ursula are often bathed in purple light. It’s the color of bruises, shadows, and royalty—but in this context, it’s the color of a predator hiding in the peripheral vision of a security camera.
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It’s Not Skin, It’s a Shadow
There is a massive misconception that William Afton actually walked around in real life looking like a giant grape.
That’s not what was happening.
At least, not at first. In the early games, the purple color was a stylistic representation. He was a "shadowy figure." Because he was a murderer operating in the literal and metaphorical shadows of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, the color purple was used to signify that he was a person whose identity was hidden. He was the man in the dark.
Think of it like a silhouette in a film noir. You see the outline, you see the shape, but the details are obscured. He wasn’t literally purple; he was just unlit. This is supported by the fact that in different minigames, his shade of purple changes. Sometimes he’s a deep violet; other times, he’s a bright, magenta-leaning "Pink Guy." This variance suggests that the color wasn't his actual skin tone, but rather a way for the game to say, "Here is a person whose face you cannot see."
The "Sister Location" Twist: When He Actually Turned Purple
Then 2016 happened. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location changed everything.
This is where the lore gets complicated—and a little gross. While the "Purple Guy" we see in the first few games is William Afton, the protagonist of Sister Location is his son, Michael Afton.
The end-of-night minigames in Sister Location show Michael walking down a suburban street. As the days progress, his skin starts to change. It goes from a healthy tan to a sickly green, then a dull blue, and finally... a deep, rotting purple.
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The Ennard Incident
For those who aren't deep in the weeds of the Freddy-verse, here is the breakdown of what happened to Michael. He was "scooped." An animatronic hive-mind called Ennard used a machine to remove his internal organs and wear his skin like a suit to escape the underground facility.
Eventually, the body started to decay.
The purple color in the Sister Location minigames is literally necrosis. It is the color of a corpse that has been dead for weeks but is being kept "alive" by supernatural means (the "Remnant" or the possessed metal inside him). When Ennard eventually gets ejected from the body into the sewer, Michael’s purple, lifeless husk stands up and keeps going.
So, in Michael’s case, he is actually purple. It’s rotting flesh. For William (the father), the purple was mostly a shadow, though some fans argue that William’s obsession with immortality might have led him down a similar path of physical degradation.
The Evolution of the Meme: "Why He Ourple"
You can't talk about this topic without mentioning the meme. It started with a low-quality screenshot of William Afton from the FNAF 2 minigame with the caption: "why he ourple 😂."
It was a total "shitpost."
The intentional misspelling of "purple" as "ourple" became a shorthand for the absurdity of FNAF’s deep lore. It poked fun at the fact that a generation of kids was losing their minds over the backstory of a purple pixel-man. But beneath the joke, there’s a real appreciation for how such a simple design choice became one of the most recognizable characters in modern gaming.
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Scott Cawthon eventually leaned into it. In the FNAF movie (2023), Matthew Lillard plays Steve Raglan/William Afton. While he isn't literally purple for most of the movie, his clothing—specifically his tie and shirts—frequently feature shades of purple. It’s a nod to the fans. It's a way of saying, "We know what you're looking for."
The Psychological Impact of the Color
Why does it work so well?
Color theory tells us that purple is a "cool" color. It’s stable like blue but has the energy of red. When you apply it to a character like Afton, it creates a sense of unease. Red is too aggressive; it screams "villain" too loudly. Blue is too calm. Purple is right in that sweet spot of "something is deeply wrong here."
Afton is a technician. He’s a businessman. He’s a father. He’s a serial killer. The purple represents the duality of his character—the professional man who owns a pizza chain and the monster who hides in the back rooms.
Putting the Pieces Together
If you’re trying to explain this to someone who hasn't played the games, here is the short version:
- In the early games: He is purple because he is a shadow. It was a way to show a "mystery man" using a limited color palette.
- In the later games: The color becomes a literal plot point involving a rotting corpse being used as a human suit.
- In the fandom: It became a meme that solidified the character’s identity.
It’s rare that a technical limitation (needing a color that shows up on a black background) turns into a central pillar of a franchise’s identity. But that’s FNAF for you. It’s a series built on accidental brilliance and fan theories that sometimes become canon.
How to Track the Lore Yourself
If you want to dive deeper into the Afton family history without getting lost in the 10-hour long video essays, here is how you should actually approach the games:
- Play the FNAF 2 Minigames: This is the first time we see the "Purple Guy" in action. Pay attention to his eyes—the glowing white dots. It suggests he’s always watching, even when he’s just a silhouette.
- Watch the "Custom Night" Cutscenes in Sister Location: This is the only time we see a character literally turn purple on screen. It’s the smoking gun for the "necrosis" theory.
- Read the "Fazbear Frights" Books: If you really want to get weird, the books go into detail about "Remnant" and how spirits can keep a body functioning long after it should have decomposed. It explains the "science" behind the purple skin.
- Look at the Silver Eyes Trilogy: These novels give William Afton a more human face (and a different name at times), helping to bridge the gap between the purple sprite and the actual man.
The mystery of "why he ourple" is basically solved, but the implications of what that color represents—death, shadows, and a total disregard for the laws of nature—are what keep people coming back to the series. Whether he's a shadow or a corpse, the man in purple remains the most terrifying thing to ever come out of a 1980s-themed pizzeria.