Character from Volume 8 by Rooster Teeth
The disgraced Atlas scientist whose virus infects Penny and whose contempt for everyone around him finally gets him killed — trapped in a burning room by the subordinate he couldn't stop belittling.
Watts infected Penny with a virus that is the linchpin of Salem's Atlas operation. Using his hard-light hacking rings and intimate knowledge of Atlas's infrastructure — he helped build most of it — he compromised the synthetic girl's systems, turning the Winter Maiden into a ticking bomb that will either open the vault for Salem or be consumed trying to resist. It's elegant work. Watts is proud of it. His contempt is his undoing. He needles Cinder constantly — her incompetence, her emotional weakness, her failure at Beacon and Haven. The criticism is technically accurate and strategically suicidal. When Cinder decides she's heard enough, she locks him in a server room and sets it on fire. Watts dies doing what he does best: trying to hack his way out of a problem, the genius unable to accept a situation his technology can't solve. He was brilliant. He was useful. He was so convinced of his own superiority that he forgot the most dangerous person in the room was the one he wouldn't stop insulting.
Middle-aged and meticulously groomed with a thin grey mustache, slicked-back grey hair, and narrow eyes that evaluate everything like a lab specimen. Wears a grey dress shirt with rolled sleeves, dark brown suspenders, a yellow-gold tie, and brown dress pants. Hard-light rings on his fingers interface with any computer system. No combat gear because he considers himself above physical confrontation.
Also known as: Arthur Watts, Watts, Doctor Watts