rupertpsmith:

into–the–abyss:

Black Butler has had its fair share of dramatic reveals.  Maybe there is one on the horizon for William….

*Warning: long post*

There is something quite striking about the
main battle of the Campania arc: Undertaker managed to take down one demon and
two shinigami single-handedly without even breaking sweat, all with a smile on
his face.  Considering that we haven’t seen the last of Undertaker, this
begs the question: who is capable of taking on such a formidable foe?

And
one night, at 3 a.m., something hit me: the crucial issue in Campania was reach.

In boxing, reach is the length from a fighter’s
fingertips to shoulder, i.e. the length of his arm.  Boxers
with a longer reach have an advantage over those with a shorter reach.
 There are, of course, other factors, (agility, footwork, etc.) but that
was the starting point.

The reach of Undertaker’s scythe is far greater than Grell’s chainsaw and Ronald’s lawnmower (and I’m not even going to address a
butter knife at this point.)  What this means is that Undertaker could
always slash either Ronald or Grell in a head-to-head match, and that is
exactly what happened:

Distracting Undertaker and attacking him from
a different angle was therefore the only possible strategy for Grell, Ronald,
and Sebastian.  As we saw how well that worked out with Sebastian, as
Undertaker seems to have superior senses than all three:

To add to that, Undertaker is also a master
strategist when it comes to fighting.  He knows how to use an opponent’s
weakness (Ciel in the case of Sebastian, aiming for the face with Grell,
knocking off glasses for Ronald.) Any opponent who is easily distracted,
angered, or who is protecting someone else isn’t going to be able to defeat
him.

Keeping in mind how Undertaker bested Ronald,
Grell, and Sebastian in Campania, what then is needed to take down Undertaker?

I believe it comes down to this:

1.    
An opponent with basic superhuman strength and agility

2.    
An opponent with a longer reach

3.    
An opponent with superior senses

4.    
An opponent who can fight strategically

5.    
An opponent who has no emotional or physical weakness to exploit

But have we even met someone who meets those
four criteria?  (You might have figured out where I am going with this
when you read that last one….)

That’s right, it’s going to be this guy:

Why?

I shall lay out my case for you.

1.  Strength and
agility

The character guide hints that William might
even be stronger than Sebastian.  Since Sebastian seemed evenly matched
with Grell from a physical standpoint, it would follow logically that William
is at least as strong as Grell, if not stronger.

If the OVA is any guide, then Will is also
agile enough to take on—and best—Grell in combat.

His reflexes are also quite good—in the Circus
arc, he managed to put his glasses on, sit up, and block Sebastian with his
death scythe as soon as Sebastian sat up in bed. And Will was asleep at the
time. That’s pretty quick.

2. Reach

This one is so very simple: William’s death
scythe allows for long distance attacks.  It seems to extend quite far—far
enough for him to reach the ground from atop the roof of a there storey
building.  That’s at least 30 feet!  He could easily stab or pierce
Undertaker in a vital spot from a very safe distance.

In fact, I think reach will be so important in
the final battle, because Yana actually referred to it as being an important
part of the battle with Undertaker:

Hint, hint: the key to defeating him lies in
neutralizing the advantage he has with the large reach of his scythe.

He could safely stab or pin down Undertaker
from a safe distance as was shown with Angela in Season 1 of the anime:

3. Superior senses

This one might not be as obvious, but there
are hints to be found.  Right after William is first introduced to us in
the manga and he is then about to take his leave, Sebastian flings Grell’s
chainsaw at the back of his head. Without turning, William catches it between
two fingers, not even flinching.

He therefore was able to sense it coming at
his head, without having to rely on his vision.

Undertaker gained an advantage over Ronald by
removing his glasses from the equation.  This, however, would pose no
problem for Will. Since he is capable of catching a motorized death scythe thrown
by a demon to the back of his head without even looking, it’s possible that he
doesn’t not need to rely on his vision to the extent that Ronald (and perhaps
Grell) do.  Though he was thrown off track by losing his glasses in the
OVA, I wonder if this is due to his being a rookie at the time.  Although
anything is possible, I wonder if by now he has become cool and stoic enough to
not be fazed should he lose his glasses in combat with a formidable foe like
Undertaker.

He is also the only shinigami who has spoken
of sensing Sebastian from a distance.  It is possible that this means that
his senses are then quite highly developed.

4.  Strategic
fighting ability

We haven’t seen Will fight in the manga
proper, but we’ve seen him in action in the reaper OVA. Oh, but you might be
saying—he almost lost that fight with Grell, didn’t he?  Yes and no.

Analyzing their fight is quite illuminating.
 The first time they come to blows, Grell just flat out knocks him into a
wall, and William does nothing to retaliate.  However, on their second
fight, Will quickly neutralizes Grell, then after some words, efficiently takes
down Grell in only a few blows.  What I think is likely is that he learned
Grell’s fighting style from their first encounter—and from this, Will emerged
knowing exactly how to defeat Grell in combat.  (Whether or not he let
Grell win on purpose so as to understand his opponent’s fighting style is
interesting to think about.)  As a result, their second fight is over in
seconds—because Will knew exactly how to defeat Grell.

 He is therefore a strategic, analytical
fighter, who understands his opponent and who is be able to predict his
opponent’s moves after just one encounter.  He is no-nonsense, cold,
efficient fighter, and that leads into the last point.

5.  No weakness
to exploit

For whatever reason, Will appears to be a detached,
stoic person.  Other than the frustration and annoyance that
his job brings, he rarely shows any emotion, and he often speaks of how emotions
are not a part of a shinigami’s job.  Would he be as rattled as Ronald should he lose his glasses in combat?  Would he be as distractible as
Grell?  Is he so tied to anyone like Sebastian is?  To all three points, I don’t think
so—Will has no attachments, nothing to hold him back nor anything to be
exploited.

Being cold and distant gives him an advantage against Undertaker in that there is little Undertaker could say or do to ruffle his feathers, so to speak.  What kinds of things could Undertaker even say to upset him?
 (I’m sure he could think of something….but wouldn’t William just shrug it
off and keep fighting?)  Where Grell is all talk during their fight in the OVA–William is all action.  And that cold efficiency would yield a better result when fighting against someone like Undertaker.

And, in addition to all of the above:

In addition to all of these things, Will is
already collecting information on Undertaker, he is aware of the Phantomhives,
and appears to be a generally perceptive and intelligent individual.
 Having knowledge on his side will only help him.

Now just think of how this will all play out
if he faces down Undertaker.  He has gathered information on the Bizarre
Dolls, so that won’t be a surprise to him.  He may have asked Grell and
Ronald about the methods Undertaker used to beat them, and therefore he might already have an
understanding of Undertaker’s fighting strategy and has already devised a counter strategy as a result.  He has
highly-developed senses, he has reflexes on par with a demon, he understands
how to use strategy to his benefit, and he is coldly focused on his goal.

All of these factors add up so that it may
very well be William T. Spears defeating Undertaker in battle.

We have yet to see Will’s full potential—and
the reason for this may be that Yana has been saving his pugilistic reveal for
the final showdown between him and Undertaker.  And given that this manga
loves to subvert our expectations, I think it is altogether possible that
William T. Spears has a few surprises up his sleeve.

If I were Undertaker, I’d be afraid…..

Let’s also not forget his vast pigeon army
willing to follow his every beck and call!  Swarm!  Swarm! Swarm!!!
 Go for the eyes!!!

Thanks are due to @eviltwintheory for helping me sound out these ideas and for providing me with
some points salient to this post.

As much as this post is basically “yes 100%” for me, and goes over in full one of the reasons why I think Will and Undertaker meeting in the manga is kind of inevitable… You missed a point. Or rather, you got it wrong. Whether you take it seriously or not, Will has been shown to panic when his glasses are removed in combat and in general.

During season 2 in a fight involving him, Sebastian, and Ronald, Sebastian knocks Will’s glasses off. Will drops everything and begins to ignore Sebastian while searching for his glasses. Arguably this is just the logic of season 2 and is made to correlate with the events of the ova, however, in the most recent seiyuu event something very similar happened.

Lau pinned Will against the wall and took his glasses, and Will was visibly taken off guard by this. He didn’t show his usual ‘fight’ response, his focus went straight to the fact that his glasses had been taken. This wasn’t a fight situation, so there was no reason for him to panic as he did in season 2, but it stands regardless that Will likely does not deal well with having his glasses removed, just like Ronald. He freezes up when his glasses are removed unexpectedly. This is canon.

Will seems cool-headed but he has shown himself to be very childish, and very stubborn. That was during his interactions with Ciel and Sebastian during the circus arc, where a lot of Will’s character as the manga presents it was established. You may also note that when he got out his scythe to work against Sebastian, having been asleep, he still put his glasses on first. Like. Why, Will. Why. Will’s nervous habit even centralizes around his glasses.

As a reaper, they are one of the most significant pieces of his identity, and as a person their loss is tied to past trauma from his ova.

Will would most likely be able to ignore anything and everything Undertaker says and keep his cool, by way of his stubborn nature. But I don’t think Will would respond well to having his glasses removed. There’s too much to contradict that so far and it would be a surprise to me if that was the case.

You’ve theorised before that Will’s emotions and empathy run deeper than surface appearances and I absolutely agree with that, so to say he has no emotional weaknesses is also incorrect. But he could brush aside any attacks aimed at those weaknesses because he is stubborn.

William could and probably will give Undertaker a run for his money in a fight, but he is no paragon. He does have weaknesses which Undertaker could exploit. What would be more interesting is if Undertaker does exploit those weaknesses and mid fight Will moves past them to win anyway. That would be infinitely more entertaining to the audience and could provide for some very efficient cliffhangers between chapters.

I personally have no doubts that Will and Undertaker are set to meet in the manga, I just wonder whether (and which) one will end up dead, or whether Will might get Undertaker to return to Dispatch (as happened briefly in anime season 1, near the end), or Undertaker might get Will to desert, which would be such a mind-blowing plot-twist. I mean. Maybe not for me since this is the sort of thing I ponder constantly, but for the rest of the fandom sure.

Anyway my point is neither Will or UT are perfect fighters, though I do agree that Will has the best chance of any character we’ve seen so far of stopping UT.

*mindblown* I never thought about Undertaker getting William to desert. I also thought William was potentially one of the strongest Kuro character, so if he leaves and possibly with Undertaker. I would think we’re fcked. Lol.