i genuinely love will as a character but his change in season 2 and 3 always throws me off. Like its established that he outwardly is very unstable and capable of bad things, but has a good heart. He has his dogs, and his moments relating with characters like georgia are really sweet and caring. Then he does a sort of 180 and becomes cold and borderline nasty at times. I dont mind him embracing his darker side but i dont get how his kinder, gentler nature got almost wiped out completely.
Oh, I have a lot to say on this topic! My opinion is that Will has always been a cold, arrogant, and selfish person. He does have good and soft sides, but every negative trait he shows later has been present in him from the start, and I’d say they always prevailed.
We know Will’s an inherently dark person and that he has been trying to keep himself away from temptations - more or less. He initially tried to get into the FBI and then became a police officer, likely because he was hopelessly drawn to darkness but quickly realized it’s dangerous for his stability. He was forced to leave the police force because he was incapable of pulling the trigger even when his life depended on it. He preferred to allow himself to get stabbed rather than to fight back and kill someone, which points to him having very serious issues with his violence. He knew that once he kills or harms, he’ll be unable to stay away, and it’s proven when he shoots Hobbs and then immediately tries to kill unarmed Stammers.
At the same time, Will still tries to stay close to darkness in safer ways. He’s a teacher in the FBI Academy at the start of the show, but we can see him re-create the crimes he wasn’t involved in. It’s proof that he willingly craves contact with violent and disturbed minds. He had no other reason to delve into Marlows case like this.
This constant struggle leaves Will lonely and pretty hostile. Jack’s first impression of him was that he’s rude and arrogant (when they clashed about the name of the museum). Will is rude and haughty with his students, too - just look at how he treats them. He tersely thanks them for clapping and then snaps for them to stop. He devises a little malicious test for them.
Will: It's [Hobbs’] resignation letter. Anybody see the clue?
A few hands go into the air. Will ignores them.
He looks so long-suffering with them, as if they are idiots. The fact that he asks a question, waits for people to think and raise their hands, and only then he tells them there is actually no answer is petty at best. He also admits to Jack that he doesn’t consider lessons socialization because he doesn’t have to actually talk to students, he talks at them. Not good for a teacher or even for a person who works with other people like this.
You mentioned Georgia, and here is the thing: Will seems to sympathize only with people he can relate to personally, who remind him of himself in some way, and most often, they are murderers. He’s bitter about not being able to save children in E4 because like them, he struggles with understanding what family means; he feels close to Georgia because he also thinks he’s losing his mind and no one can understand him; he’s gentle with Peter because he sees him as his fragile mirror; he’s soft with Reba because like Bryan said, they are both people in love with serial killers. With everyone else, Will is indifferent or cold. These traits were less visible in S1, but after he started to Become, they began to come to the surface. His softer sides still have a degree of selfishness to them.
So I don’t think he changed much - he wasn’t a pleasant person even in S1 and before that.
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