Hello! What do you think about Will's relationship with his stepson Wally? I know the situation in season 3 was extremely complicated. However in my opinion Will's interaction with Wally, especially in the hospital, was kind of strange. In the end I don't think Will gets along with children or even likes them that much.
In terms of how it was written and acted, Will and Wally’s relationship reads to me as a pitch-perfect example of a well-meaning stepfather and a kid who’s still young but more than old enough not to have intrinsic trust in adult authority figures. Walter likes Will enough to be pleasant under more or less normal circumstances, but displays some distrust and hostility when in a scary and upsetting situation that he can fairly reasonably blame on Will. (It’s not Will’s fault that Dolarhyde attacked them, but it certainly would not have happened were Will not who he was.)
The hospital scene between the two of them kind of kills me, but I think it’s really great in terms of its nuance - Will is trying to comfort Walter without patronizing him (and failing in both regards), and trying to Act Appropriately in a more general sense. He’s trying very hard to play the role of a Good, Normal Adult in the situation instead of what we know is true of him: when he or those he cares for are threatened, he instinctively goes for the metaphorical if not literal jugular, societal niceties be damned. And he is incredibly unsettled when Walter reveals that he’s learned things about Will’s past independently, and that right now he would rather Will be the guy who kills people who hurt others, instead of the sanitized, well-meaning but ineffectual man he’s forcing himself to pretend to be. From Walter’s point of view, I think it’s very much a matter of “you killed this guy before to save someone you didn’t even know, but now that my mom’s been shot you’re talking about how we should arrest the guy unharmed and get him help???” In these circumstances he perceives Will’s Good, Normal Person mask as just a mask, and he resents him for it. And Will knows there isn’t much he can really do to make the situation better at that time, so he gives Walter space (which I think really is the best thing he could do; it’s clear that platitudes aren’t going to be accepted, and he can’t exactly swear bloody vengeance just then even if that’s what ultimately ends up happening!).
As far as how Will gets along with children in general goes, the only examples we really have are Walter and the kid in episode 4 of season 1, and then only very briefly and in an obviously very abnormal scenario (i.e. talking the kid down while he’s holding a gun). I could see a lot of different reasonable interpretations of how good Will is or isn’t with kids who aren’t 1. his stepchild or 2. kidnapped and groomed to murder their family - the only things I think we can say are really textually supported are that he’s very aware of children being active agents with minds of their own and opinions about the world, and that he’s also very deliberate and careful about how he might influence them (in high-stakes situations, at least). Which can result in both abnormally positive and abnormally negative relationships, depending on the child and the circumstances!
