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#Imagine the power u would hold if u could redirect all of William's anger to one purpose hdbsgdhsdgsb
frederickabberline · 3 years
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William T. Spears' Fault-Finding Habit
I've always thought the implication that Will was quick to blame collections for the mysterious walking corpses was odd, when he later showed up and was immediately aware and accepting that there was an outside culprit. Why and how did he find out there was an outside perpetrator to blame, when Ronald was acting like William had been looking for excuses to blame collections, including the potential of collections having been covering up demon involvement?
In retrospect, I think Will being quick to blame collections during that time (when they all were, I assume, being put under pressure by the higher-ups) and then quick to accept there was an outside culprit is possibly just because he thinks in a sort of "who is the one responsible for this bad thing?" pattern and does not like being considered the one "at fault". (See: the way he avoids owning up to how badly he's doing at being undercover during the circus arc).
So, when the higher-ups said "who is at fault for this walking corpse issue?", of course William would find the easiest and most likely target to blame. It wasn't management, so it must be collections - "don't look at me, it must have been them".
Then, seeing that Grelle and Ron had been beat up, the fault must shift to an outside party. Whether that was a demon or someone else doesn't really matter. (Though it still begs the question of how he could know or guess that their being beat up had anything to do with the bizarre doll case, if we're assuming he meant that when he said Grelle and Ron needed to write a report on the culprit).
Anyway.
Perpetual fault-finding would be one of his most negative character traits, even if it's situationally useful (finding fault with the things a demon says to tempt him, for one, and he probably has a keen eye for proofreading lol), but it's also one that makes complete sense for him to have as a grim reaper.
Reapers in the kuro universe are defined by one thing they did "wrong". Just one mistake, that they could never have known the repercussions for. And if you're already the sort of person who tends towards being pessimistic and fussy, then to have your existence defined by your mistakes would naturally result in those traits getting amplified over time.
A fear of making more mistakes, a fear of being held accountable for something that shouldn't have been such a big deal, a fear of having someone else's mistakes put on his record.
A desire to not get blamed for anything more, becoming a habit of pointing out how others are the ones to blame, snowballing into a habit of actively looking for people's faults.
(As an aside, I would love to see the kind of extensive callout posts this man could make on tumblr if he had a blog lmfao)
Nobody is safe from his criticism; even if he won't talk back to his superiors directly, he still complains about the tasks they give him and how unfair they are whenever he gets the chance. Subordinates, peers, and higher-ups, enemy or ally, he's critical of them all.
Which begs the question... Does William believe he did anything wrong, when he killed himself?
If he isn't convinced of his own moral culpability in the defining event of his life and undeath, and that's what's feeding his fear/hatred of ever being the one held accountable for things, then that could have serious repercussions later if it turns out (or just William himself becomes convinced) that Dispatch isn't a morally neutral, natural part of the world order, or that their salvation and purgatory are based on false premises. If he isn't convinced he did anything that bad to begin with, it would mean he's already uncertain of Dispatch at its very core.
And if nobody is safe from his fault-finding, and he only avoids directly going against the higher-ups because it would harm his chances of redemption/ascension, then if something happens that (in his opinion - and it only needs to be his opinion, not the truth) disproves the very existence of those chances, I'm sure he'd have a hell of a lot to say against the higher-ups that he's been bottling up or redirecting into his frustrations with other people.
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