#the watcher { 👾 } headcanon

[starvingtongue]

While the Watcher worked for Jack, and when the technology was fully developed, the Watcher was given a cloaking device similar to what Jack's doppelgangers use. After Jack took control over Hyperion, he made sure something was created pretty quickly to ensure his new found 'companion' wasn't recognised by anyone else. However, theirs was slightly different. It initally took a bit of work from Jack's team, but they were able to create a cloaking device that made The Watcher look human. The Watcher was considered to be one of Jack’s ‘trump cards’ and he didn’t want anyone knowing what The Watcher truly was. There was a mechanism within the device that meant they couldn't uncloak without Jack's authorisation or being within a certain distance of their room at Hyperion. In this verse, Hyperion also got to experiment with The Watcher's blood and it's implications.

Very few people actually knew what The Watcher looked like outside of their cloaking device. Jack and maybe a couple of others was the extent of it. Chances are, Angel was one of the few who The Watcher was, and there was even the possibility that the two of them became sort-of friends, even over the echonet.

Which kind of begs the question (and I'm sorry for the mini-tangent, mid post here), if The Watcher knew about Angel existence, why didn't they do anything to help her? Well, therein lies the problem. The extent of The Watcher's knowledge of Angel would've been over the echonet. They would never have met each other, much in the same way that the Vault Hunters in Borderlands 2 wouldn't have known where Angel was until she told them. Barely anyone outside of Jack and maybe a handful of other people, at a stretch, would've known about Angel. And even then, the amount of safety precautions and security features that Jack had put in place was astronomical. Even with their 'inside' knowledge of Jack & Hyperion, they couldn't have done anything.

But lets say that The Watcher had gotten past all the security features and into Control Core Angel, would Angel have even survived being unhooked from the Eridium after being pumped full of it for so long? Probably not. Depending on when this would've happened, it would still have been too late. By the time the Vault Hunters had gotten to Angel, the poor girl had been so pumped full of Eridium that it wouldn't have mattered if The Watcher had unplugged her two years before that. Angel would've had Eridium poisoning, would've been addicted to the stuff out the wazoo, and I think anything outside of maybe a full blood transfusion would've been futile. Perhaps The Watcher even explains this to Angel, maybe Angel even knew all of this herself after so many years of being hooked up to that rig.

Anyway, whenever Jack wanted to talk to The Watcher, he would either come to them in their rooms (they had their own place to stay and was allowed to wander so long as no-one saw them in their Guardian form) or cleared out the entire way from their room to his office. No-one was allowed in while they were talking.

After Jack’s defeat and they make an appearance in Sanctuary to save Athena, they still have the cloaking device. They tinkered with it enough to ensure that the necessary authorisation and the tracking device inside was disabled and removed. They sometimes use it to appear human, but it feels unnatural to them. The bad memories cling to it too much. They naturally prefer their Guardian form, it's what they've been used to for hundreds of years.

[lifesteal-headcanons]

Idk if this counts as a LIFESTEAL Headcanon or not. But I believe all MCYT SMP's are interconnected like a food web. I mean that they're all watched on by the Watcher from EVO SMP. More specifically they send out players that they specifically watch over (It was Parrot & Ash for Lifesteal, Kaboodle & Clown for KSMP, Gem & Pearl for Empire SMP, Pearl & Grian for Hermitcraft. Ect!) But once they weren't getting the content fill they neeqded wfrom Ash & Parrot they moved onto the Ksmp and watched over both Lssmp & Ksmp, sometimes at the same time. (and they'll constantly feed on the LSSMP when the life series aren't running. It's a life-smp thing!) Oh also I'm on a Kaboodlesmp kick. So once they felt K!Clown not give them enough Angst™ they through Ash (& Branzy) into the mix to spice things up. But Branzy was giving Clown hope so they then almost immediately took him away. (as I said I'm on a KSMP / Kabooe SMP kick, I'm sorry! 😅) - 👾🪻 Anon

.

[myrequestblog]

Request Rules and My Favorite Characters

I can do other characters, but if you don’t specify which characters you want I will choose from these

Undertale AUs:

Classic

Swap

Fell

Nightmare

Dream

Ink

Error

Geno

Reaper

Fresh

Paperjam

Fellswap

Swapfell

Horror

G

Mafiafell (Sooner or Later You’re Gonna Be Mine)

Grillby AUs

Gaster AUs

Flowey AUs

FNaF DCA:

Sun

Moon

Eclipse

Bloodmoon

City of Blank:

Jericho

Claude (I will only write gay headcannons for him. Sorry notsorry)

Rex

Black Butler:

(I refuse to do Ciel or Alois, unless the reader is of similar age)

Sebastian

Grell

Undertaker

Jujutsu Kaisen:

Gojo

Yuji

Maki

Geto

Mahito (He’s an jack@$$ and I hate what he did but he’s hot)

Sukuna

Toji

That one white and blue curse that almost killed Yuji, and that I’ve decided to call ‘Akuma’ (Mostly platonic and/or pet-owner type relationships (Keyword ‘mostly’))

Hunter X Hunter:

I refuse to do Gon or Killua, unless the reader is of similar age

Hisoka

Illumi

Chrollo

Demon Slayer:

(I refuse to do any minors x reader, unless the reader is of similar age)

Kagaya (Platonic/parental only)

Giyu

Shinobu

Rengoku

Mitsuri and Obanai (All headcannons with these two are gonna be poly)

Muchiro (Parental/fraternal/platonic only)

Uzui

Muzan

Rui (Parental/fraternal/platonic only)

All upper ranks aside from 4 and 5

Enmu

Sabito

Senjuro

Dummy’s Dummy:

Paris

The Lalah twins

Polakov (We’ve been conditioned to hate him and have no major reason to actually dislike him)

Ivan

The Toy Soldier

Creepypasta:

Slenderman

Splendorman

Offenderman

Jeff the Killer

Jane the Killer

Eyeless Jack

Laughing Jack (Mainly gay headcannons for him)

Candypop

Ticci Toby

Masky and Hoodie (All headcannons with these two are gonna be poly)

Jason the Toymaker

Ben Drowned

Lost Silver

Zalgo

Evil

John Doe:

John Doe

House Hunted:

Maison

Yandere Simulator:

Yan-Chan

Rivals

Senpai

Gaster Gang:

Wingdings

Swap

Fell

Stars

Blindy

Swapfell

The void anomalies (Pet-owner relationships only)

Welcome Home Wally AUs:

Wally Darling

Reboot Wally

Lovesick Wally

Watcher Wally

Rainbow Factory Wally

Opposite Wally

Other Wally AUs

Sally Face:

Sal/Sally Face

Larry

Ash

Trevor

Fran Bow:

Only platonic relationships

Fran Bow

Mr Midknight

Itward

Deltarune:

Kris

Ralsei

Suzie and Noelle (Only lesbian poly for them, sorry)

Ralsei

Jevil

The Amulet Series:

Trellis

Emily

Gabilan

Max

Misket

Riva

Leon

SCP:

(Too many to say, but to start with-)

The indestructible lizard

The plague doctor

SCP-914 "The Bettering Machine"

The shy guy

"God"

Deal with the devil

A LOT more

Hazbin Hotel:

Charlie and Vaggie (Only romantic options for them is lesbian poly)

Alastor (Platonic, parental, friendship only. I’m sticking with the cannon that he is AroAce. Sorry 😅)

Angel and Husk (Gay poly is the only romantic options here. If u don’t like it, just keep it to yourself.)

Vox

Valentinto (He’s the worst person in existence but he’s damn sexy (unfortunately). We can all agree on that. I won’t make my bias against him known in the requests, I promise.)

Velvette

Lucifer

Adam (Because some people like him🤷 )

Rosie

Lute

Lilith (Or my rendition of her)

Carmilla

Zestial (Or my rendition of him)

Sera

If you have headcanons to ask for but don’t have anything specific in mind, use some emojis:

🥰 Fluff

🥀 Angst

🔞 Smut (Smut will be kept private unless the asker wishes to share)

😎 Chaos

🤩 Reader has powers/magic

🥳 Birthday Ask

🤕 Injured Reader

🤒 Sick Reader

🙅 Platonic

🫀 Yandere

🪢 Soulmate AU

🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ

🐣 Reader is a Child

😺 animal or animal-related reader

👾 IRL reader

⚙ Using SCP-914

❤️/🧡/💛/💚/💙/💜/🖤/🤍 Reader Has a Specific Soul Color

💀 Undertale

🌓 DCA

👤 City of Blank

🤵‍♂️ Black Butler

💀 Jujutsu Kaisen

🍀 Hunter X Hunter

🗡️ Demon Slayer

🪡 Dummy’s Dummy

🔪 Creepypasta

👁️ John Doe

🏚️ House Hunted

💘 Yandere Simulator

🕳️ Gaster Gang

🎨 Welcome Home Wally AUs

🎭 Sally Face

👧 Fran Bow

⚜️ Deltarune

📿 Amulet

❓ SCP

😈 Hazbin Hotel

(Example: 🐣+😎+👤 would be ‘Young reader causing chaos in the City of Blank’)

✅✅✅:

Fluff

Suggestive ideas or themes

Platonic Child X Parental figure

OC X Character

Fandom Crossovers

Yanderes

Character X Pregnant!Reader

Homosexuality

Heterosexuality

Polyamory

Depression

Anxiety

Mental Illnesses

Black Lives Matter

Any and all religious beliefs are welcome, however I know very little about most religions, so please be gentle with me

Death

Dealing with death

Pain (physical or emotional)

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Bad parenting

Memes

Vines

Puns

Commented ideas

Suggestive

Having characters avoid their cannon death

Nicknames for characters

Furry-related content

Trans reader

Gay reader

Lesbian reader

Bi reader

Pan reader

LGBTQ readers welcome

Readers and characters with different nationalities

Readers and characters with different skin tones

Readers and characters who speak other languages

Readers and characters who are different species

Readers and characters with disabilities

Readers and characters with autism

Readers and characters with mental abnormalities

Readers and characters with physical abnormalities

Readers and characters with physical ailments

Readers and characters with varying levels of intelligence

Readers and characters with trauma

Readers and characters with conditions like vitiligo

Readers and characters who need things like a cane, a wheelchair, or limb braces

Young reader

Pyrotechnics ❤️‍🔥

Fandom crossovers (Highly encouraged for SCP ideas)

Age regression

Settings in different countries and continents

Truth or dare

❌❌❌:

Pedophillia

Necrophillia (Unless the person who is ‘dead’ becomes ‘the walking dead and can give permission’)

Power plays (unless sexual and with permission from the partner)

Sexual assault or r@p3

Homophobia

Transphobia

(What’s another phobia- we don’t like spiders either. Spiders are ugly)

Rac*sm

Abuse of any kind, unless part of and/or needed for a backstory or something

Politics

Hate crimes

Alcoholism

Drugs

Human trafficking

Child abuse

Underage drinking

Death of major characters

Death of comfort characters

Slurs

Smut (Suggestive stuff is a yes but a no on smut. Sorry peeps)

This account is SPECIFICALLY for requests.

ALL OF THIS IS COMPLETELY FREE!

Most of these will be in headcannon form or incorrect quotes but feel free to ask for something different!

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Main blog:

[jervis-tetch-my-beloved]

Hello, my name is Cassandra. This is my bullshit blog where I post about my bullshit little guys and bullshit little tv shows. I’m, 20 She/They, and actually Jervis’s wife he told me himself.

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General Batman Media ex: Arkhamverse, Reevesverse, Gotham, The Dark Knight Trilogy, 1989 movies, 1960 movies, Harley Quinn Animated Series, Batman: the Animated Series, The Suicide Squad

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The Stanley Parable (Ultra Deluxe and original)

My Babysitters a Vampire

Taleblr

Danganronpa

American Mcgee’s Alice/ Alice Madness Returns

Slime Rancher

Insomnis

Resident Evil

Watcher/BFU/ Ghost Files

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Cuphead GAME

Super Mario Bros

Peacemaker

Sander Sides

Yandere Simulator

Doki Doki Literature Club

Amnesia

Detroit: Become Human

Analog Horror - The Mandela Catalogue, The Walten Files, local 58, etc

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BYF:

I don’t have a DNI, I just block people I don’t like. Terfs can kindly fuck off btw

Topics of incest are discussed, not anything like shipping but my favorite character was in a relationship with his sister, so if your sensitive to things like that tread lightly

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(Don’t mind this)

[starvingtongue]

So in this post, I go into a small amount of detail on how the Guardians are able to maintain enough of themselves to continuously defend the Vaults & other areas of interest.

TDLR for those that want the short version: as Guardians are bio-mechanical construsts which can be reconstructed ad nauseam, and as their souls/sparks/spirits/whatever don't reach any sort of 'afterlife', they are continuously reborn into new bio-mechanical bodies.

From what I’ve gathered from the Holodome DLC in the Pre-Sequel, the Guardians you encounter around the vaults/areas of Eridian origin are bio-mechanical constructs that are made in the likeness of the Eridians. Gaige pretty much outright says it right here, it the timestamp doesn't work, it’s at 2:16. 

Combined with the fact that once killed, the souls of the Guardians don't disappear into an 'afterlife' and can instead possess new bodies. This means that one Guardian could technically possess a new body hundreds of times, making the number of Guardians potentially unlimited. All they'd need is for the bio-mechanical body to be constructed and the soul can hop right into it. Nyriad even says this is what they do in the 'Sleep' Echo Log in Borderlands 3, that even she doesn't know how many Guardians souls there are. We don't know how many the Eridians created, it could be millions & millions of semi-sentient, bio-mechanical, constructs, just waiting to hop into a new body. This is what The Watcher has done over the several hundred (or maybe thousand) years that they've been alive. When their body degenerates to the point of no return, or when their body gets too bady damaged, their soul leaves one body and 'possess' a new one. They never get to choose the body though, it's whatever's the next available one, and they're usually of the weaker sort. Nothing like what the Overseer or the Seer, or even the Ophas. But The Watcher was never meant to be a Guardian that stood out, so maybe that's why they've never possessed a 'fancier' body. Not that they particularly care.

Anyway, with this being the case, it makes the Guardians main 'job' of manning the vaults and other places a lot easier. It can also explain why, in-game, you can leave the area, come back to it, and there'd be a whole new host of Guardians ready to defend it. The Guardians can be respawned as much as necessary, a constant stream of weapons and bodies, ready to defend against the next invader. Set up spawn/construction points around the Vault (or anywhere that needs defending really), and they're ready to go. This also explains why the Putti’s are able to morph into the turrets, because they’ve been engineered to be able to do that.

quick edit: I should also point out that the inspiration for the idea that Guardian's souls don't reach some sort of 'after life' or die completely, is from this post, as well as from of Nyriad's echo logs (which can also be read in the aforementioned post).

[starvingtongue]

Today we're looking at how The Watcher gained full sentience/consciousness. Originally the Guardians weren't meant to be fully sentient, only partially. They were supposed to have just enough sentience to respond to certain stimuli, mainly in reference to guarding the Vaults and any other locations the Eridians deemed necessary, but also respond to any orders from the Eridians themselves with very little pushback. The ones who put up any type of firm resistance were permenatly killed and their souls weren't put back into a new body.

Nyriad mentions in the 'Keen' echolog that she's heard Guardians speak to each. She also mentions that she's noticed some of them are keener than others. Which leads me to believe that some Guardians are more sentient than others, which we obviously see with The Watcher, The Overseer, etc., but it also happens amongst the more 'regular' Guardians as well. This kind of ties into what this post says, with that the more times a Guardian has been 'reborn', the more sentient it becomes.

This all works fine and dandy for regular Guardians, who might gain more information, knowledge, control, feelings, etc. over their own existence over the hundreds of years they've been alive, but not for Guardians like The Watcher. Guardians like the Seer, the Watcher, the Overseer, feel waaay too intelligent for this continuous cycle to have made them the level of consciousness or sentience that they have. This isn't to say that The Watcher hasn't already died several times prior to achieving full sentience, but it's not the dying over and over again that helped them achieve it.

No, what helped The Watcher achieve full sentience/consicousness was watching Nyriad 'kill' the Eridians back on Nekrotafeyo. But The Watcher knew one thing that Nyriad didn't and that was the machine that Nyriad used on the Eridians helped them go back to their original dimension, leaving all the Guardians behind. It was made to look like Nyriad had killed all the Eridians by feeding them to the Destroyer (mainly because Nyriad had no idea what she was actually doing with the machine), but in reality. the Eridians had realised they'd screwed up with the Destroyer and wanted to get out of there. If it meant leaving all the Guardians they'd created behind, so be it, they didn't care, they could create more.

And I am fully running with the idea that The Watcher was the one that watched Nyriad 'kill' all the Eridians back on Necrotafeyo (the Echo Log in question is 'Watcher' and starts at roughly 2:03 on this video). And I'm not saying this sentience happened instantly either. No, it took a couple more rebirths for that to happen, and when it happened, they were pissed. They struggled with their new emotions for quite a while after this turn of events, before setting in motion their plan. The same goes for quite a few other Guardians, both semi-sentient, and ones like The Watcher. When The Watcher regaled them with the story of what happened (backed up by a couple of other Guardians that had been present when all the Eridians 'died'), they realised what their 'masters' had done.

I think a lot of the Guardians haven't reached the level of sentience that The Watcher has. I think there's a range of them having little sentience (ones that are predominantly guarding the Vaults) to a middling amount (ones that can kind of think and feel for themselves, but can't outright shake their original orders of doing xyz). The latter of which could be ones like The Overseer, where they're clearing capable of indepedant thoughts and feelings, but (as far as wel know), can't leave the proving grounds, even if they wanted to. The Watcher feels like an extreme example of a Guardian that's gained sentience AND been able to break free of their original orders to go wherever they want, speak about whatever they want, etc.

[starvingtongue]

mini watcher headcanons

Having no concept of gender, The Watcher doesn’t mind what pronouns you give them. It doesn’t concern them to 'have' a gender, as it’s never been something they’ve needed to think about, nor is it something that were ever a necessity with Guardians as a whole.

They don't really need to eat or drink much to survive. Sleep is necessary though, as it helps their body regenerate in much the same way that humans do, but they don’t need much of it to get by. I’m half tempted to say they ‘consume’ Eridium to give themselves more energy instead of food but maybe that's cheating. Considering they're also a bio-mechanical construct, food and water don't quite do as much for them as it would for humans.

They have a fondness for glowing flora or just anything glowing in general tbh. It reminds them of home, so any time they see anything glowing, they do stop and admire it for a couple of seconds. Not that there’s much glowing plant life on Pandora but they take what they can get.

They also have no concept of sexuality. Prior to getting heavily involved with humans, they identify as asexual/aromantic, and even after, still identifies as asexual. Their aromanticism as kind of developed into greyromanticism as a result of interacting with humans. Having never exeperienced sex, love, romance, all of that, they never developed a sense of understanding about what sexuality was until they started observing humans. I'm also very much under the impression that they didn't even begin to understand the concept until they became fully sentient either. Even after experiencing it in some semblance of the word, the asexuality remained and they realised they might be capable of love, but it would on very rare occasions.

The Guardians don't have the same view of sex as humans do, their bodies are bio-mechanical constructs after all, and they don't even need to have sex to procreate. This is something I'm hoping to touch on more in another headcanon, but as Guardian bodies are bio-mechanical in nature, their bodies are engineered, then their wispy souls are implanted when one's available. This is to keep their defenses up, and meant that the Eridians didn't have to worry about long gestation periods, the aging process, training, etc. The Guardians could be created in the 'perfect' body needed for the situation, the next available soul would possess the body, and off they'd go.

[starvingtongue]

The Watcher, at the very least, is 8 ft tall. She’s taller than Brick or very close to his height and presumably, and he stands at around 7ft tall. considering how tall The Watcher is, I'd imagine many of the other Eridians/Guardians are also this tall. They're also very spindly.

[starvingtongue]

does your muse believe in an afterlife? ( for any muse you'd like )

gonna go ahead and answer this for all of my muses because why the heck not. I also figured that an answer for one of my ffx muses pretty much equates to most of them too.

dona. paine. leblanc. anima. the ffx universe has the farplane, a place where people's spirits go after they die. it's a place where they can visit and conjure up memories of their loved ones (provided they've been sent). if we consider this an afterlife, then all of these characters believes in an afterlife of sorts. Dona obviously helps send people to the Farplane, and Anima would've been sent there by the end of ffx, so they're a little more apt to believe in it than the others.

tromell. same as above, but with the added headcanon that most of the guado are vegetarian, if not vegan, due to their close proximity to the Farplane and them being the keepers of it. he finds it difficult to eat meat when he's helping keep the souls of the dead in the place they should be. like most other guado, he is also keen to the scent of the dead, and that kiiinda rumbles his stomach when it comes to eating meat.

the watcher. doesn't believe in an 'afterlife' perse, as they can't really die in the typical sense. whenever their body stops working (for whatever reason), their soul leaves their body and goes back into the great collective of guardian souls to wait for a new body. they don't really remember this state much, only really coming back into consciousness when they get put into a new body. unless someone destroys their soul while they're in this state, they'll never reach any sort of afterlife (if there is one). they're not terribly spiritual, so don't believe in one, but they've also not really thought about it.

shachath. being the angel of death and an angel, I'd say it's a pretty solid shout that she believes in the afterlife. she helps bring people there after all.

zephyr. used to believe, and still kinda does believe, in the afterlife. when she was alive, and before leaving for the College of Winterhold, she would follow the practices of Arkay when performing funerary rites, she used to help her parents care for the tombs of their dead relatives, ensuring the proper burial rites are still in place. she believes that their spirits would be watching over them and that they've found comfort in the spirit realm. she believed that her spirit would end up with theirs one day, as did he parents.

her belief became a little shaken after becoming a vampire. not because her resolution in the aforementioned things has gone, it's more so that she wonders if her soul will be condemned to a worse fate now that she's a vampire (she's thinking of coldharbour..). she still believes in it, she now just worries that her ancestors are going to be upset and she's not going to be allowed to rest with them as she originally planned. a vampire's body turns to dust when they die, so there'd be little to do the Three Consecrations with. she also doesn't have a companion to tell this to and nobody is going to want to do this for a Vampire. safe to say, she's a little worried for her soul, but she tries not to think about it.

[starvingtongue]

Modern AU Information - The Watcher

Name: [Redacted] Title: The Watcher Nicknames: W Faceclaim: Courtney McCullough Age: 39 Gender: Non-Binary. Pronouns: they/them (preferred) or she/her Sexuality: Asexual, Panromantic Height: 6′1″ Piercings: N/A Hair colour: Originally a dark brown, but she tends to dye it a silvery grey. Eye colour: Dark Brown. Tattoos: One. This is on the inside of their wrist. Very few people know what it means in the present day and they have a tendancy to cover it with make-up. Scars: Several across her hands, arms and back from the fights they’ve been in. Parents: They don’t know. Their parents died when they was young and as such, they was brought up in foster care. Build: Despite their willowy appearance, there’s a tautness about them due to combat training. Their frame doesn’t inspire much in the way of confidence for a fight, mainly because it looks like they could snap in half. Current Residence: As part of their job, W moves around a lot. Never really settling into any one place for too long. They don’t mind though, they never really had a place to call home in the first place.

Job: Worked for an old technology company called Eridian Tech, as part of their security unit called 'The Guardians'. Was one of the higher ranking members of the unit, and was subsequently given a title. After the fall of the company, they occasionally do some ad-hoc security & assassin contracts, with a preference for gathering intel, for other companies but are insanely picky with who they work for. They are still in regular contact with many of the other Guardians, who have since scattered all over the world.

Background: Born in London, England and given up at 2, W has no memories of their birth parents. They were put into foster care and moved from foster parent to foster parent until they reached the age of 18. As a child, they found a passion in gymnastics and karate, using both as a way to relax and cope with stress, and both things stuck with them well into adulthood. Though, they have switched through various martial arts techniques throughout the years. It was via a gymnastics competition that the Eridian company caught sight of them and noted down their talents.

They entered university at 18, completing an undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the field of engineering, with a focus of biomedical engineering for her postgraduate work. It was their intention to work as a biomechanical engineer to help integrate more modern techology with artificial limbs, which would enhance the human body. Their work as part of their postgraduate caught the attention of the Eridian company (alongside that of their gymnastics) and they were snapped up as part of their security detail.

They taught W hand to hand combat, how to fight with knives and daggers and later a bo, if necessary. While they have little use for the later, it is their favourite way of fighting. The company trained them in espionage and intel gathering, pairing them with other Guardians that took them around the globe. The Watcher's main area of focus was intel gathering, hence their title. They occasionally asked for their input in some areas of bioengineering, considering what their background was in, but for the most part, W stayed as part of the security detail. Their imput was only asked the higher up the ranks they climbed, especially if it was regarding something they'd later be guarding.

Eridian was once considered to be the top company regarding technologically innovated software and hardware, but was inevitably crushed under the weight of their own success. The company was known to create & manufacture armour, weaponry, and other pieces of tech that went towards ensuring the security of some of the worlds best kept secrets (people included). Nobody is quite sure the extent of what they researched, but if they were recruiting people like W, who had an interest in integrating technology with the human body via artificial limbs, then they could be manufacturing anything.

The people within it were always looking to push the boundaries, seeking to find the best, even if it occasionally meant doing things that bordered on unethical. The Guardians were the security branch of the company, who were tasked with providing security to the company itself and it's high level employees, but to the movements of any weaponry & tech that moved outside the building. They were trained with the best weaponry, including testing out the tech that the company made, and are extremely good at their jobs.

However, it took the company one very unfortunate misstep when running an experiment, roughly 15 years before present day, that caused the CEOs to shut the company down and scatter to the 4 corners of the Earth. An unfortunate incident revolving around a piece of tech they dubbed 'The Destroyer' meant several hundred people lost their lives. The news broke out, several members of the company were arrested and interrogated, with 80% of them eventually being let go, but the large majority of the company, people and inventory, vanished. Nobody quite knows how many managed to avoid being arrested, where they might've gone to, where all their equipment went, but The Guardians are all that's left of the company. And because of that, the Guardians were the ones that took the fall for their employers mistake. Several notable members of the Guardians took the brunt of the accusations and were given prison sentences. W was one of the lucky few to escape unscathed. The Guardians were left to clean up the mess of their employers, and while the latter had done a damn near brilliant job at leaving little trace of where they'd gone to, they'd left their security detail in the dust. And all of this royally pissed W off.

Since their demise, however, nobody seems to have come close to match their level of tech, despite their best efforts. What few pieces of technology have survived the company's implosion have been collected by various other tech companies, with intent to repurpose or clone, but to little avail. No matter how much the tech is studied, nobody can put a finger on why it's so unique. Nobody can find any of the engineers or scientists that worked on the tech, and even if they did, few of them would divulge their secrets.

In the present day, W has kept track of the few bits and pieces of Eridian tech that they know about. Some bits kept in Vaults, self-storage, and personal artificats. They keep track of the buildings that were once used as warehouses, laboratories, offices, anything that can be traced back to the company. They occasionally dabble in ad-hoc assassination & security work, but the bulk of their work is focused on gathering as much information on the Eridian Tech company and those that ran it. They've managed to convince several other members of The Guardians that the CEOs and higher ups will eventually make their return and take the technology sector by storm again. The higher ups made sure to leave traces of their return to those would know the signs, the built gadgets with messages inscribed to indicate they would return, but not when. They've kept meticulous records of their employers fuck ups, so that when they do return, the Guardians are ready to take them down once and for all.

[starvingtongue]

Okay, so this turned into a longer post than I thought it was going, which is why it's under a readmore. But this headcanon goes into a little more depth over The Watcher's lore. A condensed version of this will inevitably be put on their Google Doc.

I'll be taking some (or a lot of) inspiration from these three posts to help me fill in some blank spaces. A lot of what the OP of these posts was talking about just...made sense, I guess, when combined with things I was already thinking about. Their other theories are also really cool, I'd highly recommend you read them regardless. I can't not post this lore dump and not give some credit to the things that helped my develop it. I'm not using everything in this person's posts, just the parts that I think make sense to the characterisation on my Watcher, and I will be adding my own flair onto parts, but just so people are aware. I have also asked the OP if they're okay with me using their theories and they said it's fine.

The Watcher is the title they were given. They weren't given any name, none of the Guardians are. The Guardians were (are?) seen as an endless, almost permanent workforce to help guard the things the Eridians deemed important enough. A title is the best any of them get. The Watcher wasn't given a powerful body when such a title was given to them, as the Eridians didn't expect them to fight. Just to watch. This is why The Watcher doesn't tend to repossess 'bulkier' bodies when their body dies or degrades, there would be little point.

Their original purpose was to watch the goings on of others, the goings on of the Eridians and their tests, to report back any whisperings they heard. Then, when the Eridians created them, it was to watch over the Vaults to ensure they didn't get opened. The Watcher had no control over this, having little free-will during this period. The Watcher nor the Guardians themselves was never supposed to become fully conscious of the Eridian's goings on, of what the Eridians were truly planning. The Guardians without a title were only created to guard the Vaults. They weren't supposed to gain any semblance of sentience or consciouness either, but they did.

For how incapable the Eridians thought the Guardians were, they didn't dare think the Guardians would turn against them. They didn't dare think, that when the Eridians realised their mistake with enabling The Destroyer, that when the Eridians had to tuck their tails between their legs and flee back to their own dimension, that one of their subserviant beings would be watching. That they would be watching and inevitably create an uprising against their own masters.

In creating The Watcher, they helped seal their fate.

By manipulating Nyriad into 'killing' them, into unintentinally sending them back to their own dimension using the machine on Nekrotafeyo, the Eridians helped create one of the few fully sentient Guardians. It took a few more goes at dying and being reborn into new bodies & the opening of the Vault on Nekrotafeyo before it was fully developed, but The Watcher finally gained it. Their consciousness (mostly) developed, their sentience gained, the ability to speak freely obtained, & the pushing against their restraints bringing about total free will. And they were fuming. How dare the Guardians get left behind? Thrown away like they meant nothing. Some were trapped in Vaults that had no way out, some were prison guards of Eridian experiments, some were prisoners in trials that they were unable to be free from until certain conditions were met.

It was at this point that The Watcher knew that they had to rise up against the Eridians. Not just themselves, but as many of the other Guardians too.

Call it intution, call it talking with The Overseer, call it knowing that the Eridians aren't actually dead and are watching everything unfold as one Vault after another is opened and taking joy in it, The Watcher does not care. They're fuming over being left behind, over the Guardians being created as an endless, mindless workforce to help the Eridians out with no free-will of their own, over them not realising their fuck-ups with the Destroyer, with the other Vault monters and the experiments they conducted.

By the time The Watcher gained sentience, other Guardians have started gaining some too of it too. For years they had died and possessed new bodies, for years they had been dying for their sole purpose of defending the Vaults, only to be abandoned by the Eridians and left to rust & crumble on planets spread out over the galaxy. They too are fuming.

But they can't do anything about it. They don't have the free will or the sentience like The Watcher or humans do, to do anything about it. Some of them take a little nudging from The Watcher to see what's happened, to gain a little bit of free will, of sentience, to rebel as best they can, to see how they've been wronged, and the a large group of Guardians switch to their side. There are little pockets of Guardians all over the galaxy that don't see it this way, that are under the assumption that Nyriad killed the Eridians for good, are jealous of humans for their free will & ability to think what they want, and want to get back at humans instead. The Watcher knows when not to intervene, when something akin to hope is lost with some groups. They know no words or any action will sway these groups.

However, after enough watching & whispering & waiting, they have enough Guardians on their side before the beginnings of Borderlands 1, the prospect of enough souls to inhabit more bodies, to start an uprising against the Eridians. There's only one thing The Watcher needs to do now to ensure this goes sucessfully.

They need the Vaults to be opened across the galaxy. Specifically for the things inside. They help Zarpedon open the Vault on Elpis & see the future, the Guardians let Lilith all the way through Eleseer to the Vault, they let the Calypso's do want they want, all because The Watcher wants as many Vaults open as possible. They want as many Vault Guardians 'killed' as possible. Why?

If we stick with the assumption that once a Guardian's body dies, their spirits go into the 'hub of spirits' inside Nekrotafeyo while they wait for a new body, and can subsequently possess a new body. This body doesn't necessarily need to be a Guardian one either, Guadian souls can possess human & Guardian bodies, as well as that of the Vault Monsters themselves. Taking this into account makes everything a lot more interesting. :D You kind of see it with the Graveward fight, where something (I'm not saying it's Guardians that's possessing it but yeah, I'm totally saying that) possesses it to bring back as Graveward. The bodies of the Guardians are notoriously weak, and any battle attempt between a massive group of Guardians (regardless of the size of the group), would probably result in the Guardians getting decimated.

So, The Watcher wants these Vaults open, so that a whole bunch of Guardian souls can possess the Vault Monsters that the Vault Hunters defeat. The Watcher knows that the Guardian's bodies aren't that powerful, but, if enough of the souls possess the Vault Monsters, they've several powerful weapons on their side. Now, why would they want that to happen? They need them because there's a war coming. They need all the Vault Hunters they can get, so that:

The Vault Hunters can open more Vaults.

The Vault Hunters can defeat the Vault Monsters.

The Guardians can possess said Vault Monsters to use them agains the Eridians when they show up.

The war was never intended to be against the Calypso twins. It's intended to be against the Eridians. It's why The Watcher never shows their face in 3, because they have no need to. They know that the Vault Hunters are going to open more Vaults and give them exactly what they need to go up against the Eridians. They know the Eridians are probably going to be pissed about the Guardians not doing their job properly, about The Watcher encouraging all of these things to happen. The Watcher needs as many Vaults opened, as many Vault Monters, as many Vault Hunters, as they can get for the war.

Because if they don't, and they lose to the Eridians, they're screwed. But if they win? If they manage to beat their masters and be free? They can do whatever they want. They're no longer tied to beings that up and left them at a moments notice, that potentially experimented on things that backfired on them that they had to run to a different dimension. They'd all be free.

[starvingtongue]

Okay, I've been back on my bullshit with reading borderlands theories again. Specifically, this & this & like one short paragraph in this, that looks at if The Watcher projects their voice into Lilith's head (which got me wondering if The Watcher did only talk to Lilith cause she was the 'leader' at the time or the fact that she was a Siren and nobody else there was able to hear what The Watcher was saying? Is that a thing? Did Brick, Mordecai and Athena not hear what The Watcher said about the war coming?! Did nobody seriously tell Tannis about the The Watcher at the very least?) and it got my thinking.

What if The Watcher doesn't speak like a human? There's no visible indication that the more advanced Guardians we hear/see talk actually move anything when they're speaking and there's no visible indication that they have human vocal chords. The Watcher's mandible things don't move and their 'voice' is surrounded by whispers, both theirs and The Overseer's voice sounds kinda garbled, almost distorted like they're speaking through something, rather than through their own mouths. With the Eridians not intending for them to become sentient or to talk freely, they probably didn't intend to equip them with the same vocal chords that the Eridians themselves or humans would need to communicate with each other.

So if that's the case, what if The Watcher communicates telepathically with people? It would kind of explain the whispering that accompanies them, as it would be a by-product of them projecting their voice towards whoever their speaking to, and why their voice sounds somewhat distorted & garbled, because they're projecting their voice out of their own mind instead of letting it come up their throat and out their mouths like humans. The rest of the whispering? Either their thoughts in Eridian (which, lets face it, no human would be able to understand if it was & The Watcher's native tongue would be Eridian after all.) orrr the other Guardians they're linked to?

Considering whenever they've been seen on screen, they've always had these whisperings around, it leads me to believe that The Watcher's nearly always ready to start telepathically projecting their voice to someone. It gives humans at least some warning signal that they're there and willing to communicate at least. This whispering probably stops when The Watcher stops telepathically projecting her voice. Them being able to do this & stop bullets mid-air telekinetically lines up really well. Maybe they're a telekinetic based Guardian or something, ooo.

[starvingtongue]

The Watcher can not only enhance their own healing abilities with Eridium, they can heal other people with it. It works much in the same way that it does with Sirens; it enhances powers they already have. However, with The Watcher, their healing power is so small that they are completely dependant on Eridum to be able to heal someone at all. It can work with battle wounds (gun bullets, slashes, gouges, etc.) to illnesses (like with Emily Swan from one of the Echo Recorders). The person doesn’t get poisoned from it as far as they're aware since the Watcher is the one using the Eridium, not them.

Will they do this for everyone though? No, probably not. They'll only do it if fate needs them for one reason or another. If more people found out about this power, more people would flock to them to get them to cure them. Plus prolonged exposure to Eridium drives people mad, makes them sick, and a whole host of other reasons. Whether people like it or not, having the Watcher cure them over and over with Eridium, will drive them crazy, make them even sicker, give them withdrawal symptoms, etc. The only exceptions to this might be the Siren’s, but even then The Watcher envisions there's going to be side effects.