Arthur Watts

**Arthur Watts** is a character from the *RWBY* web-animated series.

One of Salem's associates. He is tasked with meeting one of Salem's informants in Mistral. A former doctor and scientist for Atlas, he has defected under unknown circumstances. He is the only member of Salem's group who speaks to her conversationally.

In the XP4 fics, Arthur debuted in the XP4 Heroes Coalition - Remnant Chronicles.

## **Appearance**

Watts is a tall middle-aged man with a slim build and slightly tanned skin. He has short black and gray hair as well as a thick mustache and eyebrows, and green eyes.

He wears a gray overcoat with yellow linings, a yellow dress shirt and a black necktie. His pants are the same color as his overcoat. His yellow-buttoned undercoat and fingerless gloves match his cordovan shoes, under which he wears yellow socks.

## **Personality**

Watts is formal and sophisticated. He speaks in a refined accent, yet he can be arrogant and condescending, even to his allies. However, he is humble enough to admit not to take credit for things he did not achieve by himself, for when Salem initially thinks he found out where the Spring Maiden is, he reveals it was Qrow Branwen when he spoke to Leonardo Lionheart.

Watts states that he has a low opinion of failure, which extends to Cinder Fall after she was defeated by Ruby Rose. He criticizes and belittles Cinder and enjoys provoking her, especially since she cannot talk back. He also looks down upon her underlings, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. However, Salem chastises him for his needless "malignance" and he avoids speaking out of line in her presence.

Arthur also has a tendency to become overly excited about new topics of study. Case in point, when he and Lionheart report to Salem about the location of the Spring Maiden, Arthur shows immense interest in the Seer Grimm.

## **XP4 Fanfics**

### **XP4 Heroes Coalition - Remnant Chronicles**

In Chapter 9, Arthur, alongside Cinder Falls, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black, arrives in the Branwen Camp and confronted Raven Branwen and Vernal. Their objective is to take Vernal and use her power as the Spring Maiden to access the vault containing the Relic of Knowledge at Haven Academy. Raven initially refuses, wanting to remain neutral of Salem and Ozpin, but then reluctantly accepts when she is told of the White Fang's plan to attack Haven in a couple of days, but not before bargaining that she wants her brother dead. Cinder also sees this as an opportunity to get to Ruby Rose as well, much to Watts' dismay. They later left and made their way to Mistral.

## **Abilities**

Watts' abilities are yet to be seen, though he may have expertise in a field, seeing as Salem refers to him as Doctor. In "A Perfect Storm", Raven Branwen also identifies him as a disgraced Atlesian scientist, and Cinder tells him to go "tinker with [his] machines", implying technological feats. It is possible that he was the one who developed the virus Cinder used to hack into the CCT tower and rig the tournament in "Dance Dance Infiltration", as his signature W can be seen on Cinder's Scroll when she uses the virus to choose Coco Adel and Yatsuhashi Daichi's tournament match.

He is also able to give Tyrian Callows a new stinger after his old one got cut off by Ruby, displaying prowess in engineering.

## **Trivia**

* The name Arthur comes from the Roman clan name Artorius, meaning noble, courageous. Noble brings dark and royal colors to mind, while courageous brings red colors to mind.
* Arthur Watts alludes to John Watson, from the *Sherlock Holmes* stories, if Watson had connected with James Moriarty instead of Sherlock Holmes. The name Arthur likely alludes to the author of the original *Sherlock Holmes*stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
* A "watt" is a unit of power used to express the rate of energy transfer which is generally correlated to electricity in modernized society. As a result, it invokes the colors associated with electricity especially shades of yellow, blue, and white seen in lightning.
* The same "*W*" symbol that is present when Cinder is rigging the Vytal Festival tournament rounds appears on his customized personal Scroll and as a hologram in "Welcome to Haven" when Watts speaks to Lionheart.