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This article is about a character in Umineko When They Cry. |
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- "Don't try to understand. You’ll just get a headache."
- — Willard to Lion
Willard H. Wright (ウィラード・H・ライト Wirādo H. Raito) is a former first-class archbishop and Chief Inquisitor of the SSVD, enforcing Van Dine's Commandments. He first appears in Requiem of the Golden Witch.
Profile[]
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A member of the "SSVD", the 8th District Repentance Enforcement Agency of the Great Court of Heaven. An Inquisitor of Heresy and a first-class archbishop. He is commonly known as "Wright of the Twenty Wedges" or "Wizard-hunting Wright". He was an ace Inquisitor of Heresy in his youth, feared for being both ruthless and merciless in his work. However, at some point, there was a change in his work attitude, and his previous flashy escapades became a thing of the past. His current style is often fickle, alternating between laziness and obsessive bursts of energy regarding mere trifles. By now, everyone has given up trying to understand him. He has already filed his resignation and had it accepted. Only a few days remain before he'll lose the name of Wright. |
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Appearance[]
Will has short brown hair with a red streak running down along his bangs and a necklace around his neck. His clothing consists of a blue trenchcoat with light blue trim and a white shirt underneath, grayish-looking pants, and black boots. He also wears a purple sash (or scarf) wrapped around his waist with one end hanging beside his leg. A brown strap goes across his chest to his belt (maybe) that is sitting on top of the sash/scarf. A black band adorns his left arm.
Personality[]
Although he appears gruff and quick to anger, Will is genuinely good-hearted and opts to be as lenient as possible during his investigations.
Abilities[]
Similar to Dlanor, Will is a personification of the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories and uses his powers to enforce the rules of the mystery genre. Will wields a black sword with which he can create red truths. Will can also slice apart fiction from reality and slice through possibilities, realities, truth, and fiction, which may take the form of meta-world-warping powers as shown in Requiem's Tea Party, where he slices apart the scene of Kyrie about to shoot and kill Lion.
In Golden Fantasia, Will seems to be able to stop time as seen in his SP attack "Return Dust to Dust".
Background[]
Will was an Inquisitor of the Great Court of Heaven and spent his time executing witches. Over time, however, he grew malcontent with SSVD's brutal standards and resigned from his position.
Relationships[]
Overview[]
- Bernkastel (employer, enemy)
- Lion Ushiromiya (friend, partner)
- Dlanor A. Knox (friend)
- Clair Vaux Bernardus (opponent)
- Gertrude (acquaintance)
- Lambdadelta (master)
Lion Ushiromiya[]
Bernkastel[]
Dlanor A. Knox[]
Role in the Story[]
Willard was briefly alluded to in the TIPS for episode 5 as the leader of the SSVD and rumored to be more powerful than the Eiserne Jungfrau's current leader, Dlanor A. Knox.
Requiem of the Golden Witch[]
Will makes his first proper appearance, resolving a case taken and misunderstood by his old teammates of the SSVD. He saves the servant who was unfairly accused and then leaves immediately.
Will is then called by Bernkastel and goes to Rokkenjima to attend Beatrice's funeral. This Rokkenjima is a special world with many differences; namely, Battler does not attend the conference and Lion Ushiromiyaexists.
He is forced to accept the role of detective when Bern asks him to solve Beatrice's murder with Lion as his sidekick. The two start questioning the adults about the figure of Beatrice, later asking Kinzo himself about his version. They then interview the cousins, and Will gets closer and closer to Lion as the two start to know each other better.
Will then exposes his theory about the witch's death, giving his support to Lion when it is revealed that they are Beatrice II's child and not Natsuhi's. After that, he listens to Yasu's confession and frees Clair's soul to rest in peace after solving her riddles. With the end of the funeral, Will says goodbye to Lion and heads back home to his cat Diana.
In the Tea Party, he arrives just in the nick of time to save Lion from Bernkastel's revenge, who shows them the truth of Rokkenjima. Lion escapes after Will tells them that they are the last hope for Beatrice to have a happy ending. While fighting off Bern's army of cats, he loses an arm in the process and heads out with Lion to try and find a happy Kakera despite his injury.
It is suggested by the ???? scene that they are both killed by Bernkastel.
Twilight of the Golden Witch[]
It is revealed that he and Lion were saved by Lambdadelta and have become her pieces. They were brought with Lambda to the after-party that Battler held.
When the goats attack Rokkenjima, he and Dlanor fight against those who believe that the Rokkenjima Incident was caused by magic. After Rokkenjima is eaten by the goats, Will goes to the Golden Land with the others and fights against more goats, dying when the Golden Land is destroyed. He is then revived alongside everyone else by ANGE-Beatrice's magic.
In the Magic Ending, it's stated in a letter Erika received that Will started taking badminton lessons under Lion. He reappears with the other characters in the ????.
Other Appearances[]
Golden Fantasia[]
Willard is a playable character, specializing in close-ranged sword attacks. His special ability is "SP Cancel", which lets him cancel special attacks into other attacks. He has story modes with Dlanor, Kanon, and Bernkastel.
Trivia[]
- When Will's design was first revealed, a fan nickname for him became "Itomimizu" (イトミミズ tubifex worm) due to one user pointing out that the red streak in his hair looked like a worm.[2][3]
- Will's alternate palette in Ougon Musou Kyoku CROSS is based off the Vocaloid KAITO.
- Will is named after Willard Huntington Wright, a famous art critic who wrote several very popular detective novels starring his fictional detective, Philo Vance
- SSVD may be named after Wright's pseudonym, S. S. Van Dine.
- Willard's appearance may be a reference to Van Dine's short story, "The Man in the Blue Overcoat".
- Under the Van Dine pseudonym, Wright also penned the essay Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories.
- Will shares the same birthday as Wright.[1]
- Ryukishi07 intended for Will to become "Black Will" and Bernkastel's piece in Twilight, but he didn't include it because he felt it would take away from Battler's role.[4] Black Will would've represented Will's personality back when he first became an Inquisitor and actively used Van Dine's rules. Ryukishi once considered writing a story about Will as a newcomer to the SSVD, but scrapped it.[5]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 07th Expansion All Character Settings Collection
- ↑ Episode 7 Shinsou Kaimei Dokuhon Ryukishi07 comment on page 85: "Since Will is a protagonist, I sought attractiveness and worked on his design while going through trial and error. I wanted to give his hair an accent and put in a mesh, but I didn't think he'd be nicknamed "Itomimizu" (laughs). My efforts paid off, and I think he became a little different kind of handsome man than Battler."
- ↑ nicovideo page explaining origin of Itomimizu and original Itomimizu forum posts
- ↑ Shinsou Kaimei Dokuhon Episode 8/Interview
- ↑ @07th_official tweet on April 10, 2013: “Oh, Black Will! I think when he became an inquisitor he was pretty dark. A very harsh kid, definitely. I meant to write a short story with Will as the main character, when he was a rookie, but I shelved it. Umineko is a work that uses so much strength you can really only write it once in a lifetime.” Translation by ramblingsofthegoldenwitch
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