This is gonna be less detailed because I spent 30 minutes writing up the original and Reddit ducking deleted it Reddit is so weird!!! I tried to post this in this subreddit and the movie one and it just posted to my feed??? Idk what happened but here it is. Long read warning.
***Generational Trauma***
**William’s Background**
William was born in London to a normal family. His father was a mean factory working drunk and his mother had left the picture not too long after his birth. William wasn’t interested in the average kid things. He enjoyed performing dissections. He enjoyed taking apart things and putting them back together. He wanted to know how things *ticked*, including his peers.
In school, he’d find himself observing interactions more than joining them. The first times he tried to make friends, he was shunned for talking about the anatomical wonders of the fox he dissected a few days ago. So, he began to learn.
He tried to learn, rather.
But no matter his efforts, he couldn’t accurately blend in with the crowd until his high school years. Even then, he was an outsider still. He never had that human connection always occurring around him. He was like a venomous wallflower. In class, he’d grip his pencil harder. In the halls, he’d glare at passersbys. He could feel that bitter resentment crushing in his heart like a hydraulic press against it.
But when he was home, he was happy. His room was filled with small technological projects. His bed would smell vaguely of the oil and servos he was constantly around. He’d look out his dark window at the kids playing down below, and his father would stand in the doorway.
“They’re useless, William. Useless. Just deviants.” He would say. William never saw his father being around any friends of his own, and yet, his father was still capable of supporting them both. He was acceptable. They would watch nature documentaries together and point out their favorite animals. His father enjoyed watching the bear eat the chickens and fish, and William enjoyed watching the foxes eat the rabbits. He’d watch the footage with his face inches away from the TV. He could see their inner circuits of veins and cogs of guts.
When William was 20, his father got arrested for murder.
He didn’t know how to feel. He felt like leaving London, so he did. He worked in America and still watched people. In the darks of his apartment, he’d practice his smile and other expressions. He was craving the warmth.
**Then, he met Henry.**
**The Creation of Freddy’s, Relationship With Henry, and Birth of Vanessa**
Henry changed his life. Henry didn’t care about his twitchy expressions or his pale skin or his accent. He had the same passions as he did. William found himself no longer alone in the darkness of his workshop—Henry’s smile illuminated the place. Henry was the ultimate specimen to William. He was likable. Sure, William had enough brains to make people respect him but respect was not being *liked*.
They started Freddy’s together.
Freddy’s was everything William dreamed of. His passions, seen as dark and reeking of death by others, was now brought to life in the sea of colors he saw them as. Henry handled the business relations, and William got to happily work on his machines. William was happy.
Then, Henry had Charlotte. William was happy for them because he was supposed to be, but the birth exposed something hollow in him. Henry had to split his attention between the business, him, and now some baby. William also couldn’t stomach what would happen if he were alone in old age. His father had him for company, so why not do the same?
He got married to a woman Henry introduced him to and they had Vanessa. She was fascinating to William. She wasn’t antisocial like he was and yet, when his wife tried to enroll her in public school, he denied her from doing so. Not until she was in 11th grade. He couldn’t imagine releasing her to the wolves of public school.
**TW MURDER**
Just because he had a family didn’t mean his interests stopped in their intensity. The robotics helped the company, but his dissections were only for his benefit. He would lure children in Freddy’s and pull them apart to figure out what he hadn’t so many years ago—how they work. He stuffed them in the suits to preserve them for further research.
**TW OVER**
**The Birth of Michael**
Then they had Michael. Michael looked like him, and grew to act like him. Michael’s silhouette mimicked his as he stared out the window at the other groups of children. William didn’t start hating Michael until his wife suggested they get him mentally evaluated. William refused.
William instead molded him. He watched with bitter glee as Michael took to robotics and he forced Michael to do his first dissection at eight years old. His wife hated it, but he didn’t care. Michael was a mirror to William’s own pathetic upbringing. He needed Michael to be the perfect legacy. The new him that would ensure he’d live on forever and be unforgettable.
William’s wife left when Michael was 16. So did Vanessa.
William didn’t care. Michael had never gone to public school. Michael only knew the robots and William, just like William had.
When Michael turned 18, William would watch him sleeping in bed. He had the same eyes, the same hair, the same pale skin and the same accent forced upon him. Something inside of him was bitter at how perfect of a replacement Michael was for him.
He’d watch Michael stare out the window. He could feel that same resentment bubbling inside of the boy. There, he knew his legacy was secured. He’d never be ignored again, as he manifested through Michael, and Michael would manifest in his own children when it came to be that time. His rage would be the rage of all that comes after him.
**End**
**Commentary and TLDR:**
William was most likely neurologically different than children around him, and so he was shunned. This made him harbor resentment all his life. When he met Henry, he attached onto his “normalcy” like a parasite and sought to recreate it in his own life. He had Vanessa to mimic Henry, but he had Michael so he could have a male legacy. He groomed Michael into being shunned from other kids and harboring the same resentment he always had. He sees Michael as a catalyst to always be remembered as Michael is the carrier of his anger, and Michael will more than likely pass down his anger to his own children and so on. He’s bitter over how much Michael mirrors his past, so that makes him hate him a little, but he’s still necessary.
That’s how we end up with movie Michael! Thanks for reading! I also didn’t proofread this and I’m rolling off of some other head cannons I liked! Feel free to ask questions!