even if wyll doesn't get as much love from the writers as he deserves, what they do with him thematically still goes kinda crazy.
like, you meet wyll and he's the epitome of a fantasy hero. noble son knight in shining armor goodest of good boys right. and both the game and wyll himself want you to understand this SO MUCH that it's almost hard to take it seriously at first. the way he constantly makes references to fairy tales and theatre, and speaks about himself in third person which makes it feel like he's just telling a story... and everything with mizora and karlach, his falling out with his father, it's all very standard tropes. the legend of ansur and balduran is literally the most stereotypical fairy tale hero thing ever.
but then you dig deeper into his psyche, learn more about Wyll Ravengard The Dude With Feelings outside of just the events that have happened to him, and you realize that oh fuck this is all projection! it's his coping mechanism AND a story mechanism. you realize that when it's not just recounting epic tales of his life, wyll is actually... pretty uncomfortable with expressing himself!!! and being social!!! and it's not even that he takes up the "blade" persona as a way of masking his guilt - he's very forthcoming about his regrets and the difficult choices he doesn't regret - "the blade" is just as real as any other part of wyll, but he makes it his entire identity WHILE ALSO keeping it a separate character from wyll ravengard in his head.
so much of his life, so much of who he is, has been defined by unlucky misadventures and tragedies outside of his control, and he sees no choice other than to keep fulfilling the role of a hero no matter how bad things get for him, because he's just that selfless. but the moments where wyll shines brightest are when he DOES take control, act outside the script and do unexpected things for the sake of himself. i just wish he could see that..
