Mild repeat post but I Still think it’s really understated by the fandom as a whole how much William loves the people around him. Like, so much so that even all of his platonic friendships Feel romantic. Everything with Vyncent is Incredibly obvious, but that Really doesn’t take away from the fact that William doesn’t just Exclusively focus his love on his blatant crush. He’s incredibly empathetic to the people he cares about, he falls in love Very Easily (my canon examples being Summer (a girl he saw in class Once) and Vyncent (a guy he met two months ago) and my non-canon but easy to see examples being Doug and Isaac. William even subconsciously shifts the way he speaks and acts to try and make someone he can tell is a quieter/shyer type of person more comfortable in high stress situations (Ashe and Norah).
BUT It’s also one of his biggest weaknesses. He loves A Lot and he’ll Do A Lot for the people he loves, to the point of hurting them. Think Grayscale: Yes, he does all of it because he deeply cares for his estranged older brother, but he also Hurts Tide because William doesn’t want to taint the view his father figure has of him. William hunts Cantrip and Xavier down not because he hates them or feels indifferent to them, he’s doing it in a weird, fucked up act of protection for Alan’s and everyone else’s involved safety.
William does what he does selfishly, but with so so much love. Mal uses it against him in s1, holding Tide’s life (a man William has known for Two Months) hostage, constantly trying to strike at PD’s bond, etc etc. William is at his strongest and most intense when he’s doing something out of a sense of care . But that also makes him very, very vulnerable to being betrayed and/or used (Doug in s1, David in Grayscale).
ALSO also, this is also relevant in UPP. William is at his most reckless whenever someone Else is endangered. When it’s just him, he’s Scared, obviously, but his plans and reactions are very clever and rational. He hides, he uses his surroundings to go unnoticed, he sneaks off the moment he has the chance to. But when it’s Someone Else, suddenly he’s yelling at monsters, attempting to smash glasses into people’s heads and practically Begging to be chased around. He stops thinking about how to get the horrors off his trail and starts thinking about how to get Everyone as Far Away from the danger as Soon as possible….
