Will Vandom

Normal Life

Full name:

Wilhelmina (in some countries it's Wilma) Vandom but she likes being called Will.

 

Age:
She's 14 when the comics start. Her birthday is 19th of January (Capricorn).

 

Family:
Her parents are Susan and Thomas Vandom. They got divorced before the first issue of the comic which gave the spark for the move from Fadden Hills to Heatherfield. Later the comics reveal that Thomas had left his family (reason?) and in issue ... blackmails Susan (reason?) for money. The matter is solved eventually and Will and her mother can live in peace.
Susan is the head of department at SimulTech, a software company. For a long time it's just the two of them and since both Vandoms are rather thick headed and tend to lie if they are out of arguments, they fight a lot and about almost anything. But of cause they always make up again and cherish each other's company, too. Susan buys Will a mobile phone, which makes Will the first of her friends to have such a thing. She calls it her 'babysitter'.
Later on Susan marries Will's history teacher Dean Collins.  He once was the lead singer of the band Greensuit and called himself Cole Dennis. While at first Will doesn't approve of their bond, especially since he's teaching at her school, Dean and Will later become close and closer until she sees him as a father.
Soon after that William is born. Even though neither Susan, nor Dean show any magical talent, William is being taught early on to control his baby powers by his sister. Will also got new grandparents through Dean. There is no mention of her own grandparents however.

 

Pet:
A Dormouse she found in the park the first day of school. In the comics it never receives a name, however Will grows very fond of the little guy. Dormouse is surprisingly active for one of his kind and loves to jump around Will's room making her mess even messier. It's quite hoggish and greedy (eats all the cookies) and knows exactly when to act cute in order to avoid anger or punishment.

While the two have quite the wild start, later on Dormouse is very gentle, greets Will when she comes home and enjoys being cuddled and stroked. Will often tells Dormouse what's on her mind which makes him an important friend to the young teenager. At the end of issue 26 Doormouse runs ahead of Will out of the apartment and right in front of a car. While he survives the accident, Mr. Olsen decides it's better to release him from his suffering and euthanise him. Will is devastated! She had just decided to give Dormouse more attention and after the drama with her dad one of her best friends has to die. In the following issue she stands in Olsen's Pet shop crying because one of the rabbits reminds her of her lost friend.


Home:
Will used to live in Fadden Hills, then moved to Heatherfield after the divorce of her parents. The Vandoms have a 4 room appartment (plus bathroom) on the top floor of an older building at the western outskirts of Heatherfield. For the two of them there's plenty of room. It's an open apartment where kitchen and living room merge together and very cozy. It gets a little tighter once Dean moves in with his many books and William is being born.

 

School:

Same as the other girls, Will goes to Sheffield Institute. She's in the same class as Cornelia. She loves biology and natural science classes and likes the seat in the second row by the window most. There she can dream away and distract herself from the boredom of lessons.

She usually rides her bike to school.

 

Traits:

Will is sensitive and shy as the comics start. She's insecure like many girls her age, especially when it comes to attire and her body but over time she becomes more and more outgoing and confident. Will is understanding and helpful but also temperamental. If criticised she quickly gets furious or starts crying, digging herself a hole of self-doubt. If in that state, she mopes a lot until she starts thinking everything over and finally discovers who was right or wrong.

She also gets jealous quickly and jumps to conclusions.

Will has heyfever though it's never thematised in the comics.

 

Style:

At the start of the comics Will is very much the tomboy wearing sporty, practical clothing, usually a little baggy with short tussled hair. Later on she starts wearing accessories and more blouses, tighter shirts or even skirts and styles her hair in different ways.  Still overall her style could be described as comfortable, sleek and resistant with a tendency to sporty and practical.

 

Hobbies:
Will is in the school's swim team and spends much of her time with training. Swimming helps her clear her head. It's one of the places she goes to if she's down.

 

Habits:
Leaving her clothes everywhere - Favourably in piles in her room. At the start of the comics she's often shown in front of her mirror with clothes covering the entire floor. She also has many debates about cleaning with her mom. When she's nervous, insecure or uncomfortable, Will curls her hair with her fingers. When she's down, Will likes to sniff on fresh mint leaves she sometimes plucks in the park.

 

Likes:
Will likes the scent of lavender because her mother puts small sacks of it between freshly washed clothes and so it reminds her of home. She absolutely adores frogs and has pretty much anything in frog-shape, however when meeting an actual frog she seems unimpressed if not disinterested compared to her squealing over a new stuffed version. She's said to like erasers with fruit scent and tough riddles. Apart from that she enjoys riding the bike at any weather and even uses it for flying. She ones jokes that it's her "broom". After all she is a witch.
Her favourite colour is fuchsia. In general, she's very fond of animals and feels comfortable helping out at Olsen's Pet Shop.

 

Dislikes:

...

 

Friends:

Will gets along with other people well, though it rarely seems to reach the value of a true friendship. She gets along with Mandy (issue 24) after a misunderstanding is cleared up and Neil (issue 71), who she both knows from swimming. While Neil confesses his love to Will two issues later, Will only sees him as a friend. Apart from that, Will's rarely seen talking to any other people at school. She seems to easily befriend children, however and elderly people.

 

Love interest:

Matt Olsen, her very first love. Unlike the others, the relationship of Matt and Will starts with the comic and runs all the way to the end. Some ups and downs included of cause.
Later in the comics she seems to fancy Nashter, a magical boy and member of the Runics team she encounters on Nune Boreal for the first time. He later comes to her school for a football match and incidentally works on the  and later twice on Earth. Nothing ever comes of the pair, however.

 

Travels:

Will doesn't travel too much and if she does, then usually to a place not too far from Heatherfield and with her friends or mother. She likes to pack practical with not too much stuff. The one thing she can't control herself when it comes to packing are sport items. She tends to pack several swim suits instead of just one for example.
Known longer travels Will made are: a vacation with the other W.i.t.c.h. girls to Green Bay (issue 16); a school trip to Noah's Isle (issue 73); a two-weeks-vacation to the Coral Sea that ends in a two-weeks-detour with her mother and Dean (issue 77); a trip with her friends and the Cook family to Sleepy Bay (issue 89); a weekend cruise with her mother, Dean, William and Cornelia (issue 128)


Magical Life

Guardian Role:
Will is the "chosen one" - the Keeper of the Heart and leader of the guardian team W.i.t.c.h. She's the decision maker and through the Heart also the most powerful of the five, though it takes her a while until she can effectively use the powers.

Especially towards the end of Arc one and partially in Arc two, Will is very insecure when it comes to her role as the leader. She doubts herself and is close to breaking under the weight of the burden of the Heart and the responsibilities it brings.

She has to make decisions and while at first she completely relies on the Heart, later on she becomes stronger and more independent, more confident. She grows with each challenge. She's also the responsible one, trying to play by the rules of Kandrakar or at least by what's right or wrong. This is why she sometimes clashes with Irma who's the least disciplined of the group. One thing that bothers Will is that she has to lie to her mother each time the girls go on a mission. Will has, by far, the most trouble with this fact, especially during her astral drops' revolt. At first she lies to her mother or a mission takes longer than expected and her mother Susan is worried sick or furious. Later Will has to lie to Matt, which she regrets a lot and then even to Matt's mother after he has been sucked into Ludmoor's book. She once says to Orube she should be happy about not having anyone to lie to.

 

Entrusted Artefact:
The Heart of Kandrakar

 

Element:
Energy, also called "cosmic energy" or quintessence.

 

Basic Powers:
It is said her powers combine the four elements to one "radiant might". This might appears in a pink glow or pink rays.  When she's angry they become a more red-pink color and waver like energy waves. Sometimes her magic also looks like pink lightning.

Apart from that she can create a magical barrier like a bubble or partial bubble around herself like a shield or to trap others.

Some sorces also say that her magic strengthens those of the other girls.

 

Communication Powers:
Most of the girls have a way to communicate with their element. In Will's case she can  communicate with all electronic devices. Not just her phone or fridge but also the alarm system of a museum for example or the school's vending machine talk to her. She can also make them work without electricity so even during a black out.
Will's electronic devices even have names and personality. For example there's James, the fridge who's polite and very strict and accurate when it comes to food. He's caring and knows that Will is down if she takes out the chocolate. Billy is the old television who likes to talk about how good the old times where and refuses to show new music or other - in his opinion - terrible programs. Will's printer is Mildred and her computer is George. The two bicker like an old couple, always complaining about work. Her alarm clock doesn't seem to have a name but she reminds Will of all her important meetings of the day. And of cause her phone that told her of Vera's (Elyon in disguise) magical powers and tells her of all important messages.

 

On rare occasions, the Heart communicates with Will. Sometimes by showing her things by physically floating in a direction, sometimes by images.

 

Heart Powers:
Thanks to the Heart of Kandrakar, at the beginning of the comics she is the one to call for transformation or transport the team to Kandrakar through beaming them up, to put it simple. Later in the comics she can use the heart to absorb other types of magic such as the seal of Phobos, the pure light of Meridian, the black Heart of the Ragorlang or the green magic of Kandrakar. In Arkhanta Will uses the Heart to free the banshee Yua quite spectacularly with a white eagle emerging to cut Yua's bonds and returning back to the Heart.
The Heart also shows and closes the portals in the Veil.

 

Guardian Powers:

Being a guardian seems to come with a set of powers all of the team can use:

  • Transformation - at first triggered by Will through the Heart of Kandrakar but later on, each girl can transform into a guardian without the Heart of Kandraka. When in guardian form, the five girls look a few years older. Will quickly uses this power to change clothes or hair styles in daily life. Later in the comics the other girls, too change their looks for different occasions but usually to look more mature. 
  • Dislocation - Will first learns it from Caleb. Dislocation is being done by putting both forefingers facing each other, left on top, in front of the body. A small ball of white-blue magic will appear and literally dislocate the person performing the magic to a place they focus on. Later in the comics the girls even learn to use dislocation to exchange their powers.
  • Invisibility - The girls can become invisible at will by creating some sort of source field around themselves that makes their appearance vanish.
  • Speed - It is easily forgotten but the very first time the girls transform, Will notices that she's a lot faster than usual. I presume that this goes for all the girls.

 

Gift of Xin Ying:

Like the others, Will gave her gift of Xin Ying to Maqi, in order to save his life.
While she has several other smaller powers, it is never explicitly mentioned if they are connected to her own abilities, the Heart or the nymphs.

 

Other Powers:

Will can sense the dark energy of enemies or see their aura. She gets headaches when Cedric, Vathek (while he's evil) or Elyon (while she's still evil) get near her or feels dizzy if getting near a portal to the other world.

In the special "The Year Before" Will seems to have telepathic powers. She reads the minds of her former friends in Fadden Hills and finds out how much they are bothered by her. Apart from the special, however she only uses telepathy through Taranee and later through the heart.

 

Non-magical people who know of her powers:

Sylla and Folkner both discover the magical nature of the five girls. Peter once almost catches them but if he has suspicions, they are never mentioned in the comics. In issue ... Will finally entrusts Matt with her secret.


Nemesis and Traumata

Weaknesses:

Everyone has a weakness, most people have several. Beside her messy habit, she loses control over both her feelings and her powers in the comic. She doubts herself and people around her and is truly devastated until she starts crawling back up to the light. Those dark moments not only come from the burden of the Heart. One time she almost kills Cedric out of fury after finding out he was responsible for Matt's disappearance. She's sensitive and because of that, sometimes her emotions seem to overpower and cause an explosion, sometimes even literally.

 

 

Personal Nemesis:

Through her role as the Keeper of the Heart Will certainly has the most enemies turned towards her. Here are the most personal attacks on Will that seemed to have shaken her the most:

  • Astral Will - Will's astral drop certainly for me is THE personal nemesis. She deliberately tried to destroy Will's personal life and caused her much trouble and pain and for the most part even succeeded.
  • Nerissa - Nerissa is after the Heart and to get it she has to go through Will. She's her first victim and the one tortured the most by nightmares created by the former guardian.
  • Liam - A young man who acts out of love but attacks Susan Vandom and kidnapps William. This clearly dropped him onto Will's bad list. It's not clear if she forgave him since he died shortly after but it is suggested that she at least understood his motive.

 

Traumata:

...


Childhood


Possible Futures

Every oracle gifted the readers with a vision of the future. While Will was the only one to see Endarno's(who was really Phobos at that moment), all of them watched Himerish's possible future, the first one and they even had a choice with Yan Lin's, the last one.

Himerish's Future

Himerish shows the girls not only a possible past, but the first possible future. They are in the Hall of Spirits and watch their future selves on a kind of mirror or screen.
In that future Will still meets up with her friends and they get together to move their things from Ms. Rudolph's house. Their time as guardians is over and they lead normal lives. Apparently it took Will the longest to find new purpose without the guardian life but eventually she wrote a book she accomplished to sell.

Endarno's Future

 

Endarno's version of the future is actually a trick.
He forces Will into a vision approximately 4-5 years ahead where her life has taken a lonely path. Matt breaks up with her, claiming the burden of their shared secrets have gotten too heavy and the other WITCH girls are no longer friends with her.

Will is the only one to see this possible future and it's the first future that is actually lived by one of the girls.

Yan Lin's future

At the end of the comics Yan Lin offers the girls another glimpse of a possible future, exactly 10 years. Each one receives a key to a door. By stepping through, Will becomes one with her possible future self, an important business woman in a company that creates cat food.
It also seems that this future self of Will doesn't spend much time with friends or family so Will quickly decides she doesn't want to become that woman and kicks down the door back in Kandrakar.