Will Vandom

Wilhelmina "Will" Vandom is a fictional character who first appeared in W.I.T.C.H. #1 in April 2001. She is the leader of the Guardians (known as W.I.T.C.H.), a group of teenage girls who guard Kandrakar, the center of the universe. In the English language adaptation of the series, the full name of the character has been shortened "Wilma", and in the animated series based on the comic, her voice is provided by Kelly Stables in the U.S. and Hōko Kuwashima in Japanese.

Will is a bit of a tomboy, but is also sensitive towards other people's feelings. She is a whiz at science and absolutely loves to swim, especially when Guardianship and school are stressing her out. Will also mentioned once that she likes to ride her bike. She loves animals in general, but she is especially crazy about frogs and tries to collect anything and everything frog related except for the actual amphibian itself. She also comes up with extremely good ideas in the face of danger, as shown when she allows Cedric to capture her and her friends to bring them to Taranee, and when she tricks Cedric into wearing the Crown of Light to defeat him. According to Matt's grandfather, she seems like a smart girl. She is also said to be allergic to nettles.

As a regular girl, she is good-looking, but is plagued by insecurity because she doesn't feel pretty enough. When transformed, she looks more like she'd like to look as an ordinary girl.

Before W.I.T.C.H.
Comics: Before she was a Guardian, Will was a normal girl who was born on January 19, thus bearing the Capricorn sign, and raised in the small town of Fadden Hills. When she was still young, her father left her and her mother. When she reached junior high school, she found out that she was able to read people's minds. (But she did not retain this power anytime during the original story lines.) The more she read her friend's minds, the more she realized the fact that they didn't enjoy her company. The only reason that they pretended to be nice to her and her friends was because they took pity on her due to Will's parents' divorce. Will returned home crushed by this rejection. Her mother suggested that perhaps Fadden Hills held too many painful memories of the past for both of them and it was time to find a new life in a new city. At that moment, an announcement on the radio advertised the sunny town of Heatherfield. Her mother decided that Heatherfield would probably be the best place for them to move to. In Heatherfield, Will saw herself as a W.I.T.C.H in a shop window. Thus, she met Hay Lin's grandmother who proclaimed her the Keeper of Kandrakar's Heart and leader of the team.

Animated series: Likewise, before she was made a Guardian, Will was a normal girl with divorced parents who lived in Fadden Hills with her mother. Unlike in the comic, however, her mother's job moved them to Heatherfield. Her birthday in the animated series is somewhere in the fall. Little else is known about Will's life before W.I.T.C.H.

Forming W.I.T.C.H.
Comics: The series began with Will and her mother moving into the city of Heatherfield on a rainy day. While Susan Vandom appeared to be looking on the bright side of things, Will displayed a sour expression of hatred for her new life in said city. Later on, she grew to love living in Heatherfield and begged her mother not to move away again. On her first day at her new school in Heatherfield, Will bumped into Taranee Cook, a girl who had also just moved to Heatherfield from the city of Sesamo. The two of them became fast, and later, best friends, and it was not long before Taranee and Will become friends with Irma Lair, Cornelia Hale, Hay Lin and Elyon Brown. Taranee is now Will's best friend in the series. As luck would have it, that night was the school's Halloween dance and the other girls urged Will and Taranee to come with them. They agreed, with Will a bit reluctantly. That night at the dance, Will saw a band boy named Matt and instantly fell in love with him. Unknown to her or any of the other girls, Cedric and Vathek, both native aliens from Meridian, came to the party in order to capture Will. Fortunately, Will escaped without even noticing Vathek in the first place, but Cedric was successful in convincing her friend, Elyon, to visit him at his bookstore where he lured her away with clever words. Later that night, a prank pulled by Uriah, a schoolyard bully, and his gang involving firecrackers in the giant jack-o-lantern put the girls in harm's way, but with Taranee's quick thinking (and a brief use of her powers) they managed to escape without a scratch.

The next day, the girls gathered at Hay Lin's house/restaurant to recall the strange dreams each of them had the night before. It was there that Yan Lin, Hay Lin's grandmother, told them the legend of the Guardians of the Veil, the group of warriors that the girls were supposed to become, and entrusted Will with the Heart of Kandrakar. Cornelia and Taranee were skeptical and decided to go on with their lives. Elyon then turns up and invites them to come with her on a date with Cedric which later turns out to be a trap. Two shadowy figures ambushed Will, Irma and Hay Lin from the shadows, allowing Will to summon the Heart and let them transform into their Guardian forms for the first time to fight them off. From that moment on, the group known as W.I.T.C.H. was born and their task at protecting and keeping order in the universe began.

Animated series: On Will's first day at school, Yan Lin (Hay Lin's grandmother) felt the Heart of Kandrakar, which she kept locked up in a box inside her closet, struggle to be set free. Following orders from the Oracle, Yan Lin used her weak mind-influencing powers to make Hay Lin invite her three best friends Taranee, Cornelia and Irma and the new girl Will for tea and cookies after school. While eating, Yan Lin explains about the Veil, Meridian, the Heart and the elemental powers each girl was given, although nothing is mentioned about Kandrakar. She then entrusts the Heart to Will. The other girls' new found connection to Will draws them close and makes them fast friends with her.

Profile
In the beginning of the comic series, Will is 13 years old, has red hair in a bobcut and brown eyes. She has a crush on Matthew Olsen, who later becomes her boyfriend after an attack by Cedric exposed Will's and W.I.T.C.H.'s secret to him. Will has a pet dormouse, who has various names and appearances depending on the country. Will lives in a large apartment with her mother, Susan Vandom, and her dormouse. Later on, her stepfather moves in and she soon shared her home with an infant brother.

Will loves caring for animals, and also enjoys swimming. She is very good at swimming, and is even on Sheffield Institute's competitive team. Because of her love of animals, Will is good at science, specifically biology. Will's full name shifts between Wilhelmina and Wilma. Her birthday is given as January 19 in the comics but is changed to the fall (possibly somewhere in November) in the animated series. In the comics, her star sign is Capricorn. Will loves frogs and collects almost anything with frogs on them, save for the amphibians themselves. Her frog collection ranges from stuff-toy frogs, clothes, furniture, accessories, blankets, alarm clock, and key chains. Her love for frog collections drew so much to the point that her room is filled with them on every corner.

Will is known to have a fiery and unstable temper but has the personality of a great leader. She has grown more cheerful throughout the series as she learns how to be good friends with the others. She is a bit of a tomboy, but is also sensitive towards other people's feelings and also her own. Will has issues with trusting people because she is afraid of being let down. At first she didn't trust the other W.I.T.C.H. girls either, as her other friends talked negatively about her behind her back, but she came to understand that they were really her friends.

Will is the leader of the Guardians and holds the Heart of Kandrakar, a mystical talisman that converts the five elements into mystical energy, allowing the girls to transform and magnify their powers. She has the power of quintessence and absolute energy. Her theme color is pink and her symbol is a pink equal sign.When in battle during the element roll call Will does not say absolute energy but "The Heart" in season one.

When Will transforms into her Guardian form she wears a purple (pink in the TV show) midriff with sleeves that go over her hands, a green mini skirt with swirls over her navel, blue and green tights with purple knee high boots, and wings, though her hair style doesn't change much.

In an issue that shows one of the girls' possible futures, it is revealed that Will could grow up to become an author and write books based on their adventures.

Powers and abilities
Will is the keeper of the talisman known as the Heart of Kandrakar, a small bright pink glowing jeweled sphere nestled in a silver clasp surrounded by a curlicue of shining metal, and she possesses the power of quintessence and absolute energy.

Comic books
In the comic book, Will could wield the power of Absolute Energy ever since she became a Guardian. This power manifested itself in energy blasts, which Will later learned to use as a shield. In addition, her powers allowed her to talk to objects and electrical appliances and give them a name. That's how she discovered all of them have a personality of their own.

Will also possesses other powers such as glamouring, teletransporting,. she can transform the girls between their Guardian and human forms. During the time of the Veil, Will could open portals. When she is in a desperate situation, Will can sometimes allow the Heart to improvise and help her out.

With the Heart of Kandrakar, Will can also create Astral Drops that are exact copies of the girls.

Animated series
As the fifth Guardian, Will controls the elemental power of Quintessence, the fifth element. Quintessence manifests itself as whitish-blue lightning that she can use to fire offensive lightning blasts, lightning bolts, and project defensive shields out of the quintessential electrical energy. By imbuing inanimate objects with the same life energy, Will can bring them to life and cause them to act on their own accord; however, they remain under her control. Will is still inexperienced in the controlling inanimate objects aspect of her powers. Will's secondary power is the ability to bring technological items to life via Quintessence, so she can talk to them and they can talk back but with their own distinct personalities.

As the Keeper of the mystical Heart of Candracar (also spelled Kandrakar), the physical embodiment of Candracar AKA the Heart of Infinity's power, Will can channel the tremendous magic of the Aurameres into the Heart and therefore enter the Guardians, greatly strengthening and amplifying their elemental abilities tenfold, and transforming them into their Guardian form with colorful blue and pink/violet costumes, older version of themselves, different hairstyles, and pixie-like wings which they can all use to fly through the air. Will can use the power of the Heart to close and, further down the line, open holes in the Veil, release a blinding pink light from the Heart, project a force field of pink energy, create numerous fake copies of the Guardians that would disappear in a flash of light, reveal the true form of another, locate other Guardians using their Aurameres and show images of places and people. The Heart of Candracar has a tele-empathic connection with Will, and is able to instinctively respond and act on its own accord whenever the Guardians are in severe danger. It can also absorb, activate, and merge with other magical items. When the Veil was taken down, Will soon learned how to open folds in space and time to traverse different worlds and dimensions.

Will has displayed the ability of superhuman strength and toughness on several superhuman scales; able to use a tree like a baseball bat and catch a falling catapult like it was a football. She has also demonstrated a sensitivity to magic and supernatural writing and phenomena. She has empathic abilities with animals as they seem to reflect her mood and has a natural affinity for tele-transportation, being the first to wield this universal Guardian ability. The former guardian and keeper of the veil, Nerissa, also has the same exact Guardian and elemental powers as Will though on a far stronger and more powerful power-level as she is much more experienced.

As the fifth Guardian, Will has been shown to:
 * Release blinding bright pink light from the Heart
 * Channel the tremendous magic of the Aurameres into the Heart and enter the Guardians
 * Create unusually strong blasts, bursts and bolts of whitish-blue electricity/lightning which can induce pain,electrify, and electrocute enemies
 * Brings electrical appliances to life through Quintessence
 * Opens and close portals in the Veil
 * Track down the other four Guardians via the Aurameres
 * Create Astral Drops that are non-magical replicas of the Guardians
 * Patch into radio signals with the Heart
 * Reveal the true form of another with the Heart
 * Create several powerless copies of the Heart
 * Lightning Generation & Control
 * Electrokinesis
 * Electrokinetic Shields and Barriers
 * Can revitalize the flame of life itself (via Quintessence)
 * Life-Force Generation (via Quintessence)
 * Life-Force Absorption (via Quintessence)
 * Animation and Reanimation (via Quintessence)
 * Technopathy (via Quintessence)

Will's abilities as her status as a Guardian/Leader:
 * Transform the Guardians' into their Guardian forms by Guardians Unite.
 * Flight
 * Throw beams of pure bright pink energy
 * Open/close portals in the Veil
 * Teleport across short distances
 * Glamouring and de-glamouring (an ability quite similar to shapeshifting)
 * Locate new portals in the Veil with the ancient Map of the Portals.

Love life
In the comic book series, Will's crush is and always has been Matt Olsen, a boy from her school who plays in a band. Their relationship, however, has not been easy. When Will's astral drop kissed him as a mistake and then slapped him across the face the day after, he finds it difficult to understand Will, even finding the situation annoying. He does, however, mention that this makes her "special." Due to Will's insecurity she can become quickly jealous of seeing Matt with another girl and always suspects that they're dating. She even once thought Matt was flirting with Hay Lin when in truth they were just talking and making jokes.

When Matt introduces Will to his friend Mandy she believes she must be his girlfriend because the astral drop saw them hugging. She becomes cruel to Mandy, even using her powers to make her lose a swimming contest. She also behaves cruelly towards Matt, saying how much of a coward he is for not telling the truth. When Mandy finally finds out the reason why Will is rude to her, she tells her that she used to date Matt when they were in kindergarten but they remained just friends after they became older. The reason why they hugged was because Mandy heard that night that her parents were going to have a divorce and Matt comforted her. Another situation which caused Will to have an outburst was when she thought Matt liked Orube. Will screamed to him to tell her the truth and how he did not understand her going as far as saying she believed he was her friend. This caused Matt to become a bit annoyed by her dramatic behavior. But Matt also has become jealous due to a misunderstanding, having believed that Will was dating Eric.

This lead him to ignore her, which caused Will to be very confused. Nevertheless, the two started dating again and left the misunderstandings behind them. During a date, they were attacked by Cedric who was trying to steal the Heart which Will used to save Matt from a deadly fall. Before Cedric could steal it away Matt saved Will and stopped Cedric. Because of these events Will was forced to tell Matt everything. The two of them become closer but Matt finds the responsibility of even knowing all this about Will is to much to bear and he remains distant with her. Will also becomes distant with the rest of the group who all believe this was a huge mistake and Will should never have told him. Matt and Will find each other again soon afterward and become closer, officially becoming girlfriend and boyfriend. However, in the newest issues, Matt becomes more and more involved with their adventures. He starts rather behaving very seriously and coldly toward Will, making her question whether he truly loves her.

In the first W.I.T.C.H. novel, The Battle of the Heart, Will falls in love with her new neighbor, a cute boy who is talented in dancing; however, he turned out to be an alien and stole the Heart of Kandrakar from her. Will and her friends went to his planet to get it back.