Will West

Character Analysis

Where There's a Will

Will West has the name of someone who should be Robin, living a normal life by day, fighting crime alongside Batman at night. But Will wouldn't be content to be the sidekick. He wants to be the hero.

And so far, he's doing a pretty good job of being a hero. He has super speed like the Flash. He can conjure up a radar map of the surrounding area like Daredevil. He has super smarts like Ozymandias. He's obnoxiously cocky like Tony Stark.

Will is so perfect he can even walk on water. Well, okay, he can walk on snow, but that's frozen water, and Will literally runs on top of it without leaving footprints (40.2).

So what makes Will a nearly perfect human being? It starts with his name. Will tells us that his parents "wanted a cooperative kid, so they named me the opposite of won't" (3.15). That's right. Will isn't short for William, so don't call him Bill. Or Billiam. He's just Will, because if there is anything to be done, he will do it—with an iron will.

For the majority of the book, Will appears to be a product of good parenting: he follows Dad's rules to a T, and he does pretty well as a result, so it seems like Dad knows what's up. But near the end of the book, Will raises a nature vs. nurture question when he speculates that he is a genetically engineered test-tube baby. That explains Will's super speed, healing powers, telekinesis, and everything else that manifests itself at convenient plot points. That's Will's greatest power—the power of narrative causality.

But, hey, even a superhero does better with good parents.

Ach-Willie's Heel

Will has some weaknesses, but the story does everything it can to hide them, as if in Will's case, Achilles were wearing chain-mail crew socks.

Will can be very short-tempered and shortsighted. He gets mad if his ego is insulted, like when another guy is macking on Brooke or when the doctor accuses our hero of taking steroids. Considering Will has super-speed and super-healing powers, it's understandable that an outsider might think Will is doing something to augment his performance, but to Will, everything is personal. "If you're accusing me of taking drugs, I swear to you that has never happened" (19.31).

Will is also careless, especially when it comes to technology. This is ironic, considering the fact that Will thinks students should be allowed access to the Internet while on campus. Yet despite repeated reminders, Will doesn't set up his tablet, which temporarily sets the team back when they have to analyze Ronnie's data stick. Once he does set up his syn-app, a virtual avatar, Will doesn't run the anti-virus program, which allows the baddies to hack in and observe him.

Someone hook Will up with the Geek Squad, because even if you think they're awful, they're still better than Will at everything technical.

Unlike Achilles, whose weakness proved to be a fatal flaw, Will's weaknesses end up being only temporary setbacks. One of his other strengths is finding friends to fill in his gaps: Ajay, for example, is a tech wizard who can clean up any of Will's messes. Will either doesn't yet realize his own flaws, or he does the irritating job interview tactic of turning his weaknesses into strengths. Until he becomes more self-aware, we have a feeling he'll be making a few more critical mistakes as the series continues.

Last Will and Testament

Making mistakes is okay for now, because Will is only fifteen. If someone recorded all the mistakes we made when we were fifteen and fighting demons, we'd be absolutely mortified.

Will…isn't. His emotions consist of anger, jealousy, pride, and lust. He's like half a catalog of the seven deadly sins. Although he's sometimes anxious when the fate of his parents is up in the air, he rarely expresses sadness, guilt, or remorse about anything.

Why doesn't Will ever show his vulnerable side? We could get into issues of masculinity and men not being able to show their sensitive sides—because our favorite thing to do is to read between the lines—but there seems to a simpler explanation for Will's steely façade.

He has no vulnerable side.

Will manifests all sorts of crazy powers right in the nick of time. He's invincible. Unbreakable. It's easy to blow off even the harshest of blows, physical and emotional, when you know you can easily triumph over any adversity. Plus, could it be possible that Will was also genetically engineered to not let his emotions get the best of him?

Even when he learns his mother is probably dead and he might see his father again, Will gets over it within a paragraph or two. Maybe it's in his genes. Or maybe he's too manly to let us see him cry. Yeah, well, boys do cry, Will. Even genetically engineered ones.