A deep dive into William T. Spears' character
I can't belive I'm creating a tumblr just for that, but I love this character so much and I feel like I'm going crazy with the fandom's mischaracterization of him.
1/ William is a workaholic who always follows the rules
No. He HATES overtime. There is not a single one of his apparence in the manga or anime where he doesn't complain about that. In the Circus Arc, he makes it clear that all that matters to him is to finish on time and REST.
In "The Tale of Will the Shinigami", he tells the young recruits that they can ask him question only until 5.30pm, because he ends his shift at 6. Plus, we also see in this OVA that he is NOT an overachiever. He had B average where he had the potential to do better. He simply does the bare minium (and I suspect him also to never be at his full potential when we see him fight in the manga.)
William is dedicated. He takes his job as a reaper seriously because he canonically values human life. If he works hard, it's to protect the balance between life and death, NOT for the Shinigami company (have you seen how much he complains about HR? The man hates the Shinigami working system.)
We see in the Circus Arc that he stayed longer than needed in the circus because he didn't want to leave if Sebastian was still around. Despite having said how much he hated to work at the circus, and how much he hated having to share a space with a demon, he stayed to protect.
So why did he become a manager if he hates working more (and doesn't seem to be craving power) ?
I think there can be sereval explanations:
As soon as he passed his exam and realised the true value of a human soul, he started to work harder to be able to better help the souls
He has trauma since what happened with Thomas' memories, so he worked hard to become a manager and have a desk job. He hates having to reap souls, as he is not detached enough, unlike what he says.
He thought that becoming a manager would get him closer to redemption, only to realise that it would probably never come, which led him to hate the company.
He was simply the only one competent enough to be a manager, and did not have the choice but to accept.
Now, about his "stick to the rules" personnality:
He is strict when it comes to the rules because breaking them leads to more overtime. But when a rule is not clearly stated or if he thinks it's stupid, he won't hesitate to break it (for example, he famously never hides his Shinigami nature.). William seems to follow his own moral compass or values more than some arbitrary rules. He is actually very free-spirited.
1/ William is emotionless and cold
Ok, he acts cold. But it is clearly a facade. First of all, someone who is actually cold and uncaring would not have to remind themselves to be cold and uncaring. Grell, who is a character who actually doesn't care about others, doesn't need to remind herself to stay detached.
William cares about others. That's why he needs to stay as detached and emotionless as possible.
In "The Tale of Will the Shinigami", he volonteers to mentor the young recruits (unlike Grell who did it only to spend time with William.). Quick reminder: William is someone who hates having to work more than he has too. Yet he volonteered to teach the new reapers.
In the same episode, he helps Thomas to improve his writing. He actually takes the time to read his novel and give him a constructive review, while he knew he was going to die probably before being edited.
At the end of the episode, he states that a true reaper has to understand the value of a human life (which makes sense, considereing the fact that reapers are humans who unalived themselves). William cares about the souls.
The most obvious evidence that he cares is his hate towards demons. He says that he finds their way of praying on humans' weaknesses disgusting. The other reapers (Grell, Ronald...) seem to just think of demons as there natural enemies. William is the only one to hate them on a personnal level . He is also the one who states that what Sebastian did to Beast was r*pe, or at least SA, even if she did not say no. He understands consent.
Still in the Circus Arc, at least in the French version (I am French, bonjour), William agrees to share information with Sebastian and Ciel only because "evil has already been done", referring to the death/disapearence of the kids.
Now let's look at the way the other Shinigami treat him: Grell, of course, is obessessed with him. Ronald, a young reaper, acts very casual around him (he is not intimidated or scared). In the musical "The Most Beautiful Death in the World", all the Shinigami seem to act as a team, and William is not treated different because he's the manager. William is even the one who assigned Eric to take care of Alan, because he knew the two were close. In the web radio that William and Ronald hosted together, their conversations are very banter-y. No power balance, Ronald chats with William as an equal, even if William often acts sarcastic. Ronald seems to take his degrading comments as playful banter. William even says that Ronald is efficient, if only he was more dedicated to the job and less of a womanizer.
Yes, William is far from warm towards his co-workers, often calling them stupid and lazy. But let's keep in mind of SERIOUS he is about being a reaper (either because he cares about souls or because he wish to end his punishment). William seems to be more the "strict but fair" type of manager, sometimes sarcastic with zero patience than the cold, emotionless bastard many people in the fandom think he is.
3/ William is abusive, especially towards Grell
I will never get why the fandom likes to paint Grell as the victim that much. I have nothing against Grell, but come on.
Grell is a serial killer. Yes she had her reasons and so on, but she literally is Jack the Ripper. She killed innocent women that were not on the list for very mysoginistic reasons. Not only it is morally awful, but it's also the worse thing a Shinigami can do. And as stated earlier, William canonically cares about human life. Worse: he understood the value of human life during his exam WITH GRELL. And cherry on the top, he found Grell flirting with a demon. Of course he's going to be mad.
William always has a reason to be violent with Grell. (I'm not saying what he does is good, but it's him being defensive, not abusive). She has been borderline SA-ing him every day at work for at least a century ("The Tale of Will the Shinigami" takes place about 100 years before the current time of the manga). Plus, his violence is played in a cartoonish way, never in a serious way. The "strict, serious character" beating up the "flamboyant, stupid character" is a very common trope in mangas, always played for comic relief. Look at how the manga portrays real abuse, VS how William hitting Grell is portrayed. Plus, let's not forget Grell is a reaper. She has supernatural resistence and strenght. She won't be hurt easily, and I'd argue that William never hit her to truly, badly hurt her. Even during the Jack the Ripper arc, Grell doesn't act the same way at all when Sebastian hits her (with the goal to kill her) than when William does (with the goal to punish her).
I've even seen people saying that William is transphobic and I don't think it makes sense at all. There is not one character in the manga who refers to Grell as a woman (probably because of the time period, both in the manga and the real world when it was written). Grell herself never gets mad when someone uses he/him pronouns on her or call her "sir". I won't get into details about how Grell's gender identiy is depicted, but it's a complex matter that cannot be summed up as "any character who uses the wrong pronouns is transphobic".
Now William never gets mad at Grell for expressing her femininitiny. He sometimes states that he disaproves her clothing, but it has more to do with the Shinigami dress code than her wearing female clothes. Each time he hits her, it's either because she slacks off or because she is being inapropriate with him. Plus, William is a reaper. He deals with souls and the complexity of humanity everyday. Do you think he doesn't understand that the soul is more important than the body, and that if Grell feels like a woman, then she is a woman?
And when it comes to the way he treats others: again, he simply seems to always be defensive. He can be sarcastic, unsupportive, degrading, but it's important to look at how this behavor impacts the one that are ont the receiving's hand. William is not Severus Snape. Other reapers are NOT afraid of him. Other reapers are NOT traumatized by him. I'm not saying that his behavior is pleasant (William is not pleasant at all), but it is more nuanced than just "abusive".
Finally, look at how Yana Toboso depicts him in official arts: she often draws him as a king, or a prince. She seems to like to give him some kind of noblety, a calm yet strong authority.
When he is not some kind of royal figure on her official arts, he is acting silly: drawing a picture of a pigeon holding his scythe, designing his own sparkling suit for for the circus...
There is also an official art from Yana where she drew William encouraging the actor who plays him in the musical, and praising him on his hard work.
So, I really don't think that Yana thinks of William as abusing or mean. More noble and/or a comic relief with a dry British humor.
Ok. I completly understand why people ship them, and there is nothing wrong with that. But I don't think they should be canon.
I know Yana Toboso said that Grell is in love with William but I personnaly think that she only loves what she projects onto him. She loves cold, mean, dark men. And William only fits the description on surface level.
In "The Tale of Will the Reaper", Grell did not care at all about William until he beat her up. She did not find him particularly attractive, and she thought he was boring and weak. She did not care at all when he showed acts of kindness towards Thomas (helping him with his novel), did not care when he was being analytical and dedicated when it came to their exam, and was overall annoyed by him being himself. She "fell in love" when he showed he was able to beat her in a fight (Mind you, he did not even get that violent, mostly dodging her blows.). She loves the idea of the cold and mean William, not the actual William. Grell hates sentimental people (she killed Madam Red as soon as she showed feelings). I am convinced that if she had to break into William's walls and discover his softer side, she would loose interest, or worse, get mad at him for being "weak".
For William, I don't think he's playing "hard to get". I think he just...dislikes Grell. She represents all that he despises: she does not value life, does not take her job as a reaper seriously, she does not respect boundaries, and she shows no care for others. Plus, if he actually secretly loved her, then yes, in this case, he would totally be abusive. But William canonically can't lie, so I don't see how he'd keep his feelings a secret.
5/The "William is a spy working for Undertaker" theory
I like this theory, I really do. But for me, the William we know values life too much to support what Undertaker is doing with the bizarre dolls. Unless William has been faking his entire personnality up to this point (which is a possibily but I hope not, it would be very lame), I could only see him not working WITH Undertaker but AGAINST the Shinigami association. As I said earlier, I think William hates the Shinigami working system, and could pair up with Undertaker to destroy it. (Maybe the Shinigami ordered the death of the Phantomhives which doesn't sit right with William at all?)
Or maybe he has another goal ("The Tale of Whill the Shinigami" could be a forshadowing? Is there a loved one he'd want to get back to life, despite his own moral?)
If I have to be realistic, I don't think William will play a huge part in the future. I think he is made to just be "a normal guy" who does his job, a bit like Larry in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Yana doesn't seem to want to develop any of the Shinigami characters. I don't think he knows much about what's going on either: remember, he is just a supervisor. He doesn't hold any power in the company. Maybe he knows some bits of informations here and there and would be able to connect some dots, but that's it.
Now, I do hope there is more to him, especially if we later discover what part the Shinigami association plays or why Undertaker deserted. Maybe there will be a huge fight between Undertaker's team, O!Ciel's Team and the Shinigamis, and in this case I hope we finally see him at his full potential.
I overall think many things can be done with him, especially with O!Ciel (I would LOVE him to mentor him in some way). But I doubt it.
William is a complex character. It's hard to really understand him bacause we don't know a lot about how the Shinigami system works (is a redemption possible? If not, are reapers aware that they are working for "nothing"? Is the Shinigami association shady?) and we never really see him in a stress-free environement where he can be himself.
In think he is actually deeply caring about humans souls, and has to force himself to supress his feelings, which makes him prone to anger and impatience. It also leads him to put a lot of pressure or himself and others, which can make him act degrading, sarcastic and sometimes violent. But I believe he serves as a moral compass, to remind us of how dangerous and disgusting Sebastian actually is. He is a "safe space" for the readers, since he represents honesty, neutrality, and a bit of a comic relief. His goal depends on if he thinks redemption is possible or not: he either works hard to be redeemed, or try to lose himself in his work to numb his feelings.
In my opinion, the reason why many people in the fandom dislike him so much is because there are many Grell fans. Since William is mean towards Grell, they just call Will abusive and that's it. I will die on this hill: if William had been a character in any other manga, the fandom would have loved him (after all, he is just Nanami and Kunikuda in another font, and both of them are fan-favorites.)
Anyway. That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed this analysis.
