BoM/TWS Message Forum

Regarding the book: all I can say is that it's mostly a quirk that Will caught up.

As for Will's intent: it's not exactly completely unraveling the Libra, but he's not against unmaking the stuff it does if it's too dangerous. The BoM arc I did had Will realize the consequences of blindly handling the Book of Masks, or using it without due precautions, but he had some ideas about it. The way I see it, Will knows the Book of Masks is dangerous and is willing to seal it, as well as find the ways to unmake the stuff that has been done with it, but he's not above using it. For one, before meeting with Frank and Joe, he was devising ways to use the Libra in a positive way. Blackwell's acts with their parents may have shaken Will a bit from using the Libra, and Lucy's argument goes that way, but there's a counter-argument coming from Dr. Gus, who intends to use one specific spell (the Membrum) for medical purposes. He's in-between those two points of view. Best I can say is, Will isn't being dishonest when he says he wants to learn how to unmake the stuff from the Libra, but he's not very keen on destroying it. It's more in line with "responsible use of magic".

That said: the stories where Will becomes one with the Libra suggest the idea, but since Will essentially *is* the Libra, he wouldn't go against the thing that might "fix" him. Canonically, there's sigils that counter everything the Libra does up until the Test spell; after that, it just becomes additional commentary and potential new uses, but no turning back. Erasing a mask, undoing the golem paste or returning a corpse-golem to flesh are things that version of Will can do, but never does (or apparently never does) because he's more interested in what he can do with the regular spells of the book. This version of Will I'm writing has had some rough-ins with the Libra and thus thinks more carefully about it, considering it dangerous, but that doesn't mean he's not willing to experiment with it. The flashback arc with Nash should better explain what he intends to do with that knowledge, but again - it's not written yet.