Arthur Watts

Dr. Arthur Watts is an antagonist in RWBY who was introduced in "The Next Step". He is an associate of Salem and part of her inner circle, and a disgraced former scientist from Atlas who had faked his own death in the Paladin Incident.

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.

Past
In "Worst Case Scenario", it was revealed that when Watts used to work with Pietro Polendina, he wore a yellow turtleneck sweater underneath a white lab coat along with light gray pants and black shoes. His moustache was a tiny bit thinner than it was now.

Mistral Outfit (Volumes 4-6)
Originally, Arthur wore 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.

Atlas Outfit (Volumes 7-Current)
Following his arrival in Atlas, Watts began to wear a large, symmetrical purple and pink coat with fur lining along its hood. Additionally, he wore four rings on each hand, which he could use to hack Atlesian technology.

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 Raven Branwen when Qrow Branwen 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.

Even before his apparent fall from grace in his field, Arthur had a self-serving and strategic mindset, creating a backdoor in Mantle's security network for his own personal use and potential exploitation.

Powers and 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 biomechanical engineering. The new stinger and tail that he constructed do not appear to inhibit Tyrian's production of venom, but rather use it, with the addition of making the actual stinger itself retractable.

In "A New Approach," he mentions that he made the code used in Mantle's systems, and in "As Above, So Below" Ironwood confirms that he designed Mantle's entire security network. In "Worst Case Scenario," he is shown to have been a member of the team that originally created Penny Polendina.

Watts' acumen in technology and computer systems, along with rings on almost every finger, allows him to synchronize an array of scrolls to hack into the Atlesian security systems. These rings seem to be filled with hard-light dust. In "A Night Off", the use of multiple, small scrolls to make up the processing power of a single, centralized system permits Watts to remain mobile and difficult to locate, playing into his pragmatic and strategic mindset.

Trivia

 * Arthur Watts alludes to John Watson, from the Sherlock Holmes stories, if he 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.