What character flaws does William have and what is your second favorite character?
If I answer like someone in love, then of course he is a perfectionist, but if I face the truth, it is time to call things by their proper names. William is an intellectual tyrant who believed so little in a world where he could be judged that he chose to clear himself of everything at once and leave loudly. I will anticipate your thoughts and note that all the arguments about why he acted this way that come to our minds right now do not justify his actions, his control, or his decisions. They explain them, but they do not justify them. Justifying the way he confronted everyone with the fact that they would have to live in the world alone after he broke them is unethical. In that case, we might defend William, but about his brothers? What about Moran's condition? And what about Fred? He abandoned them. And William rationalised these actions so skillfully through intellect that even readers decided how good he was. In relation to his family, no, it was a cruel act that once again proves that instead of living through all his emotions, William very selectively turns them into familiar mathematical theories and distributes them to others piece by piece according to the rule 'I decided this, accept it, even if it breaks you'.
My favourite characters in the story (and my logic is based on who I never get bored thinking about) are the Moriarty brothers and Moran. As a child, after reading the books, I really liked Mycroft and even talked nonstop about him to my mother, about how much I admired his career growth and his mind, but in mtp, unfortunately, he does not make it into my top.
Hello, dear! If I may ask, how do you feel about William as an adaptation of the original Professor Moriarty?
I like it. Throw tomatoes at me for admitting it... but honestly? Criminal intellect versus morally justified Criminal Intellect? Yes, double it and give it to me.
From the perspective of the canonical Professor Moriarty created by Conan Doyle, William has something the og professors didn't have: a personality. Professor Moriarty's immorality remained "unjustified" (there was no point in justifying it). He was introduced purely as a narrative device to drive Sherlock and the plot forward. He has no face, and his hands are criminals through whom he acts, remaining unreachable to the reader and reinforcing the idea that only Sherlock can match him. William does not break this presentation entirely, but his character is already built upon the existing prototype of Professor Moriarty. I would not say this is a radical reinterpretation, but rather a continuation of the underlying social theory and sense of purpose, from which the familiar echoes of the original Professor's immorality emerge. In the books, it is a spider's web in which light becomes trapped and perishes, whereas in the manga the permissibility of actions is determined by their consequences. In the books, it is easier to side with Sherlock because of this clear moral separation, but the manga introduces complexity, forcing the reader to question who is right and who is wrong. Because human experience is highly complex, William introduces only a small reconfiguration of the causal model in which crime becomes a derivative of an ethical system.
Well, look, I am convinced that Mycroft would win 100%, but for us to actually see that, a single game would not be enough. They would be very close in skill, though with a slight advantage, so I can imagine the score as 18:15 in Mycroft's favour. William, sorry, but you would lose.
Do you think William would have been an activist if he were alive today?
If you mean online activism with a thousand reposts and live debates with random people then of course not, but if you mean whether he would actually have a working plan instead of teenage level extremism then that’s a different conversation.
In your opinion, how would William behave if he was in love? (what do you expect in fanfics to match the characterization) ik it's a bit of a headcanon question but I'm asking out of curiosity.
This is a complex moment, for there is nothing more important to William than his goal, be it his love for maths or devotion to his brothers. He is a man who sees himself as nothing more than a mere instrument. Consequently, love would torment him: William's entire identity is constructed around a fundamental axiom, that "I am a tool for the attainment of the Grand Plan", and his sense of self is entirely dissolved into this mission.
Love, by its very nature, demands the recognition of one's own self as valuable for its own sake, not merely as a means to an end. The emergence of a profound personal desire, one not subordinated to the Plan, constitutes a direct assault on this core axiom. For Liam, to permit himself to love would be to commit an act of existential betrayal against his former self. He would be forced to confront the question about who he is, an instrument for change or a man who desires happiness? This internal schism would be more agonising for him than any external conflict. Now, let us imagine a subsequent, unexpected change: Liam confesses these feelings to himself, thereby affirming their existence. He is incapable of loving except through the lens of maximising benefit for the object of his affection. Yet his understanding of "benefit" is absolute and total. He would begin shield the object of his adoration from any and all danger, an act which itself deprives a person of their right to error and their own potential for growth.
Even if Liam were to recognise this flaw of his, a conclusion would be that he himself is a manget for trouble for his beloved, and he would resolve to remove himself from their life, without ever having truly entered it. A faithful depiction of this sentiment isnot a story of ice melting, but rather a story of an ideal colliding with humanity, and the titanic, tragic price one must pay to remain faithful to either.
Hello! Despite being a huge fan, I have to admit that MTP is by no means perfect. Would you mind maybe sharing what criticisms you have about the manga/what flaws it has (if you have any)? Much love.
I do understand the story’s premise. But at the same time, as someone who’s a genuine fan of the original Professor Moriarty, I would have liked to see at least a hint of that metaphysical devilry in William, not just the author's attempt to “cleanse” the character.
- Social inequality, the class system and corruption are, of course, well-known themes, and credit where it’s due, the manga did well to bring them into focus. But the extent to which it diminished English culture, the way it oversimplified the social structure of Victorian England, was, at times, genuinely painful to watch. The English intelligentsia held a significant place in science and literature. The author followed a kind of “case of the week” formula, which meant that many aristocrats were portrayed as cartoon-ishly corrupt, stripped of any real depth.
- As for the “untouchability” of Moriarty’s team, I have no real issue with it. After all, in Doyle’s canon, Moriarty is indeed untouchable, not just by Scotland Yard but by the world at large, and only Holmes’s genius places him on equal footing. Mtp takes that fact as a narrative axiom and builds its entire world around it. Even so, there are some critical nuances here. First of all, this untouchability serves a purpose. It creates in the reader a sense that Moriarty’s team isn’t just a band of vigilantes but an unstoppable force of justice, an almost divine hand of retribution. It heightens their image as revolutionaries who exist above the corrupt system they aim to dismantle. The issue isn’t that the police can’t catch them. The issue is that, within the story itself, their plans almost always go perfectly. Before Holmes arrives, the team rarely encounters unpredictable situations that would force them to improvise or suffer meaningful setbacks. Their moral philosophy, that the ends justify the means, is almost never seriously challenged from within. Sherlock Holmes becomes a catalyst precisely because he is the first truly unpredictable variable, the element of chaos in their perfectly calibrated equations.
Now, onto my grievances concerning Sherlock Holmes himself.
If one can accept the interpretation of William, then the sheer horror of what they did to Sherlock leaves me speechless. We must not forget that the manga is based on a series of stories whose author actually lived during the Victorian era. Consequently, his works are a reflection of the social fabric of that time. The great detective Sherlock Holmes is not a misogynistic character; rather, he is a character who is utterly indifferent to women. That dreadful line "dislikes: women" is a pitiful obliteration of a perfect opportunity to portray Sherlock's mirror-like nature. Due to industrialisation and the rise of consumerism, women of his era were often implicated in cases of poisoning, where a wife is poisoning her husband for the insurance payout or theft, for which psychiatrists would diagnose them with kleptomania. As you see, aside from such scandalous crimes, women were seldom spoken of in criminal circles. Therefore, in his deductions, Sherlock never considered a woman as a potential criminal mastermind, because such a thing was deemed beyond their capability. Naturally, Sherlock would assist women when they required help as victims, but nothing more.
This is what Arthur Conan Doyle illustrated: men were largely indifferent to women, who existed as little more than their shadows. So, you must pardon me, but the decision to transform Sherlock into a outright misogynist in the manga and anime was utter idiocy.
How would William view religion and religious people?
He would observe and study religions through a scientific approach. After all, Moriarty has a work titled The Dynamics of an Asteroid, doesn’t he? This suggests that he would genuinely approach religions through mathematics and physics.
It’s quite simple: all religions on our planet share a single root — humans were literally observing the same cosmic phenomena. Most likely, William came to the same conclusion and began his own research in this field. Religion, in William’s hands, would be a tool for seeking answers to his questions, while he would fully understand that religion is the most terrifying ideology.
From this, it follows that religious people, in William’s eyes, would be victims of the most powerful propaganda in history.
Do you think William would do a Brazilian wax (asking seriously)
(Answering seriously) no, in his era nobody even thought about things like that! He just washes himself with my shower products! But I shaved a heart and my initial on him down there, so now you all know what he’s got down there! 🫶🏻
