William

Constructing William's Personality

Since so little is seen of human William on the show, there is quite a bit of wiggle room in constructing his personality. Even a good deal of the facts on the Facts and Assumptions page could be argued since we don't have concrete proof on a lot of stuff (although I still stand by my logic). So, as a public service for those who may be pulling their hair out with the onslaught of too many possibilities, I'll be presenting examples of Williams that are already out there, and tips on how to use Spike to infer things about his human counterpart.

Oh, and there are some

General Qualities That Every William Should Have

The first two facts on the Facts and Assumptions page...The ones about love being his main driving force and about him being a passionate fellow...Yeah, you gotta have those. I can suspened my disbelief for a lot of things, but for William to remain at all in character he's got to have those two qualities at bare minimum. Even if it's a fantasy AU.

Examples of Williams

The Adorable Spaz - This is the type of William seen most in fic. This version will often be akward in social situations and may get twitchy or stutter when panicked. This William is a good man, but not without his faults. He may have a temper (but he isn't violent). This version will often be outwardly sexually repressed if not inwardly. But do not be fooled by outward appearances. This William is a fountain of randy passion just waiting to be unleashed (at least if you're writing a saucy fic). He is also often fairly, if not very, liberal beheath it all. The adorable spaz displays his temper best (along with a good deal of romantic passion) in Ariane's To Dream Again. He is shy, gentle, randy, and at his most liberal in my The Slayer & The Poet. He is saucy and sweet and coaxed into being very liberal in Evenstar's The Making of a Man and The Spanking of a Man. And he's thrust into the future in Sandy's Destiny's Child (a sequel to The Awakening).

The Gentle Gentleman - This version is shy and gentle and shares many qualities with the adorable spaz but is calmer in general and, hence, is not much of a spaz. You can find this version in Elsa Frohman's A Cricket From California and The Gift of the Magi, Erykah Miszti's Time Explains Us, and Perletwo's Spirit Guides.

Going With The Crowd a Bit - This version is the most likely to have friends as he's willing to go with the crowd a bit on a few things. But he's still very much like the first two Williams other than that. Keep in mind, that just because this William is willing to try to play the game, that doesn't mean that he'll keep on playing it. See an example of this William in Perletwo's A Night On The Town.

An Actual Poofter - This William is bisexual or homosexual. Either way, his main love interest in the story is a man. This version may also be any of the above types as well. He could also be either fairly liberal or be young and completely naive. An example of this William is in The Green Chick's Rhymes With Gleaming.

Warped By Society - This version of William, while still sensitive and shy, has been warped by society in his views on men and women. He tries to be good, but ends up doing very bad things (and not fun bad things) in desperation and/or in the name of trying to be a proper Victorian man. This William crosses lines that no other William would ever even approach, let alone cross. This version can really only be used if discounting LMPTM and is best used in angst. Be warned, he may start out looking gentle and harmless, but he's a dangerous William to have around. This William can be found in Herself's Mr. Grieves and the Fallen Woman and Mrs. Grieves and the Abandoned Husband.

Using Spike to Infer Things About William

Even though Spike has his bad-boy persona up much of the time, there are still some things about William that we can learn from him. Things that typically don't change just because the persona changes. Plus, William can't help but peak through the cracks every now and then.

Personality Type - If Spike were to take the The Myers-Briggs personality test, he would likely come up as an I[N/S]FP (ISFP or INFP)...and so would William. Initially I thought William/Spike to be an ENFP because he really seems to crave company, and at the time, he seemed more intuitive to me than sensory...but it's not just any company he craves and he's more sensory than I originally had him pegged. The fact that Spike becomes very depressed when all alone, and yet doesn't go out on the town for random company, suggests that he really is an introvert at heart. Not just any company will do. As human and vampire he craves the company of a few particular people and puts up with the rest. Not that he wouldn't like to be accepted by the group at large. Spike *seems* to thrive in the company of others, but what I forgot was that he puts on a good show. Spike has learned how to fake extroversion, just as he's learned how to fake being a low-class bad boy. To survive as a vampire, he had no choice but to learn how to talk people up and seduce them. That's more of an extrovert's natural talent. For instance, when we see him at the Bronz (after being chipped), he's either having a drink (or a spicy snack) by himself or with someone he knows. Without the ability to feed on humans, he has no reason or motivation to get chatty with random people. And he certainly wasn't interested in socializing with the Anointed One's gang back in season 2. He only did so to get in good with them. He knew how to play the game. William probably knew how to play the game (rules for genteel Victorian society were clearly spelled out and taught), but he didn't seem to relish it and wasn't able or willing to fake much enthusiasm for it. At the party, his primary focus was Cecily. He joined the discussion to be near her. Even when speaking to the others, he often looked directly at her. One gets the feeling that at a party, he would spend as much time sitting by himself and writing poetry as he could get away with. I'm sure that their is a bare minimum of socializing that he would do and he would certainly take any opportunity to be with the object of his affections, but otherwise I think he'd rather be sitting in a chair with a blank sheet of paper or a good book. Spike fooled me into thinking William was just repressing his extroversion, but I realized, as I reevaluated my fic and the way William/Spike plays in the mind-movies in my head, that William really is just being as true to himself as he can and that Spike is just a big ol' faker. Sneaky, sneaky, Spike. Not that I blame him. ;-) Now the sensory verses intuition part I just underestimated. Upon reading the ISFP and INFP descriptions again (inspired to do so by Maia [gil_gaer] on BAPS) and upon closer inspection, I've changed my mind on the S vs. N part There are a few things which don't ring true to me regarding the ISFP side (I don't see William/Spike becoming *overly* cynical and practical), however, there's a crucial thing or two which doesn't ring true to me on the INFP side. For instance, neither William nor Spike seem to have any grand desire to make the world a better place (for humans or vampires or whatever, respectively). Having said that, I don't think Spike is terribly skewed one way or the other. I see him as a borderline S or N. I see a lot of S and N qualities in him and I definitely think he has a lot of intuition...but I also see a lot of sensory in him. It's a tough call. Maybe William/Spike is right on the line between S and N, and only he would be able to tell which side he fell on (if he were real). For instance, in the poem from LMPTM, William talks a great deal about experiencing Cecily through his senses. He talks of the way she looks, smells, and sounds. But he also has some rather abstract and spiritual imagery in his poem, as well. Is William an ISFP? INFP? I[N/S]FP? You make the call.

Love of spicey food - I don't buy into the idea that human food is rather tasteless to a vampire, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that if Spike likes spicey food, then so does William.

Love of romance fiction - If Spike watches soaps, then you just know that William reads romance novels. He's probably a big Jane Austin fan.

Drawing ability - In Crush, you can see various drawings that Spike has done of Buffy displayed in his Buffy shrine. The style is different than Angel's and I highly doubt that Spike would pay someone to do them, so that leaves the bleached-blonde vampire as the artistic culprit. And since William would have had a classical education, it makes sense that he could draw.

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