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Animator Scott Cawthon RETIRES, fans say 'he gave me a childhood'

Scott Cawthon announced his retirement on his website days after fans slammed him for his Republican donations

Animator Scott Cawthon announced his retirement via a post on his website on Wednesday, June 16. The news comes after fans slammed Cawthon for his political and religious views after screenshots indicating that he made plenty of donations to former president Donald Trump and to the Republican party went viral on the Internet.

"Turns out scott cawthon, well-known as the creator of five nights at freddy's and less known as being a christian fundie, maxed out his political donations to republican candidates and PACs in 2020," an internet user, who identified themselves as the 'Chief Imagineering Officer of Antifa', had written while sharing the controversial screenshot.

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It was alleged that the animator donated to other GOP politicians like Mitch McConnell, Tommy Tuberville, Kevin McCarthy and Ben Carson. Cawthon has a huge fan following as the creator of 'Five Nights at Freddy's, for which he provided the voice of Phone Guy. 

Why did Scott Cawthon retire?

On the seventh anniversary of the first FNAF game's trailer, Cawthon wrote that "I was in my mid-30s he created the series is now approaching his mid-40. I realize that I miss a lot of things that I got to focus on before FNAF became such a success," he said on his website. He said that he missed making games for his children or "just for fun", or RPGs, "even though I stink at it". 

Cawthon added that he was shown "tremendous love and support over the last week, a lot of which has come from the LGBT community", and says that the kindness people showed him was "surreal".

Four days ago the animator took to Reddit to defend his donations after the LGBT community took offence at the people he contributed to.

" Even if there were candidates who had better things to say to the LGBT community directly, and bigger promises to make, I believed that their stances on other issues would have ended up doing much greater harm to those communities than good. All of this explanation, I fear, is wasted, as people don't want to discuss with one another anymore; they want endless apologies and submission. People who are expecting those from me will get neither. I've always been supportive of creators, and have tried to treat everyone fairly, and treat everyone with dignity and respect. I've never cared about anyone's race, religion, gender, or orientation. I just treat people as people, everyone the same, and because of that, I've ended up with a very diverse group of people that I've worked with over the years. It wasn't intentional. It just happened that way. I choose people who are best for the job; I treat everyone the same, and I ended up with people from all walks of life in my professional life and my personal life as well. That's the way it should be. That's the way I want it to be. That's the way I will continue to be," he shared.

Animator will be choosing his replacement

Cawthon began his message by asking his fans to have a look at a particular piece of fanart, which he posted alongside. "I have boxes and boxes of artwork like this from fans that I've saved over the years," he wrote, adding that he has tried answering as much of his fan mail as he could and apologized for missing any. He mused that one day when he has a  bigger living room, he'd make a "giant collage" of his entire collection of fanart. "Stuff like this has made it all worthwhile to me over the last seven years."

The animator goes on to say this retirement is not the end of FNAF, but that he will be passing on the torch to someone else who will run the show, "someone of my choosing and someone that I trust." He said that an announcement will be made in due time.

'Thanks for the memories and jumpscares'

Many fans took to Twitter to mourn Cawthon's retirement. "#ThankYouScott the man, the myth, the legend. we will miss king," said one. "#ThankYouScott you've inspired me to do art and anyone can tell that my name is based on fnaf and it's been since I was 13 its been a wild and fun ride thank you scott for everything," another fan said. "Thanks for giving the world this game, it really was a great conversation piece to talk about. Thanks for the memories and jumpscares. Lots of love #ThankYouScott," a third chipped in. "The world of gaming will never be the same. Thank you Scott Cawthon. For everything, you've done for us. I wouldn't be here without the things you made, the worlds you helped us to escape to, the spark that would give life to my creative side. Heart suit #ThankYouScott," a fourth wrote. Another said, "Thank you Scott for giving me a childhood."

Kids are his 'whole world and universe'

Cawthon said he wanted to focus his attention on his family now. "I have SIX kids now," he said. "I love them dearly; they are my whole world and universe". He said that he wants to spend his time "protecting them and making things for them", and asked his fanbase to respect his decision. "I will still be around, just not in the capacity that I used to be. What a blessed career I've had; what wonderful people I've met; and what a tremendous blessing to have been able to know all of you."

He thanked his fans and signed off, saying: "See you on the flipside."