![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Notable Info:
Daniel Maslany, and the show runners, have revealed some interesting tidbits about the creation of Watts as time goes on. The idea for Watts was to have a detective to play off Murdoch who was in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, and Columbo. They have also suggested that they always intended for Watts to come out as gay, wanting to portray a character that was hiding from even himself and trying to fit in a mould that he didn’t fit.
Watts is something of an expert on wine, and aids in a case involving a poisoned bottle. In this case he manages to get both Murdoch and George drunk on separate occasions.
His vocabulary and speech patterns fluctuate from time to time. Llewellyn can be very well-spoken one moment, and then slip into colloquialisms and speaking plainly the next. Given that he’s had to work very hard to get where he is in life, he likely has taught himself a lot when it comes to communicating, but some of his old habits slip in now and again from his days running around on the streets with his adoptive brothers. He also has a series of verbal ticks in which he pauses, adds small sounds and hums, and sometimes seems to need to get his breath.
Llewellyn is fidgety, he doesn’t do well with not having something to do with his hands. Even when he’s just walking down the road he can be noted to veer off course and pick at foliage to pull off flowers or leaves that he can play with or press in his notebook.
There are a lot of parallels between Watts and Murdoch. Neither were raised by their parents, both were (in a sense) abandoned by their sisters, and both were driven to careers as successful detectives due to their turbulent childhoods. An interesting contrast is that where Murdoch tends to rely heavily on the science and forensics side of investigations, Watts’ methods are more about getting in a person’s mind. He generally focuses on the psychological aspects, preferring to get in a suspects head and figure out what their feelings or personal motivations might be when he’s working a case.
Watts isn’t confrontational in the physical sense. Even if someone is coming at him, he hasn’t been known to fight back. He prefers to use his words if he’s at odds with someone. If someone else is being threatened, he will throw himself between that person and their attacker. Even if he does try to use force where another person is concerned (seen a grand total of once in a mini-series), it will be for the sake of someone else.
He is very prone to fearing the worst. Watts will entertain worse case scenarios before the more positive ones, especially when it comes to the health and wellbeing of those close to him. This is probably because of how much that has been thrown at him through his life, it eventually seemed safer to be prepared for the worse.
Watts can be quite emotional at times, especially when in a stressful situation. He can become frustrated or anxious very easily, and has been seen in tears on several occasions when things get to be too much. He also tends to get quite dramatic, prone to gesturing grandly, especially when he’s on a role with something.
Watts is fairly awkward and insecure when it comes to how he deals with his feelings of attraction and affection for others. He is less likely to initiate affection or be forward out in the open when it comes to someone he has feelings for/crushing on. He’s not always sure about how to go about it, and is more prone to let the other person make the first move. Llewellyn seems slightly more comfortable in a situation where there’s no one else around, and recently has made more of an attempt to seek out the person he’s attracted to instead of letting the matter go. Once he feels more secure he does seem to relax and gain confidence, though.
He is fond of learning different languages! He knows about 6-7 based one what we’ve seen and some likely additions due to recent episodes. (Unfortunately I do not speak more than English and a little broken French. So when him speaking another language is necessary, I will have to use translators. I will be doing some check work across a couple and look at words on dictionaries to try to be as accurate as possible if I’m not sure. BUT. I RP for fun, so it’s not going to be perfect.)
Watts has a soft spot for children, especially orphans like himself. He is very protective of them and takes special care during cases involving them. He is seen during one case to gift books to a boy whose friend was murdered at the home for boys, assuring the child that 'Where we start in this world needn't define where we end up.' Given that orphans or the children of criminals were thought to be children without any hope for amounting to anything in life, he knows first hand how hard life can be and clearly wants to give them some hope. In another, he almost ends up murdered by a young girl whose father he incarcerated while trying to let her have some fun at the fair that she wanted to go to before child services arrive.
(I headcanon that Watts is true to his word in the episode with the boys home, and makes frequent visits with old books as gifts to make sure they always have something new to read. Probably likes to check in and see how they’re doing given that children in situation like these aren’t treated well.)
He has also almost been murdered several times through the series. The first time being during a side episode concerning a case that Jackson was trying to solve before his death. In this case, a Detective from Station House 5 has been murdering people involved in the case to keep his solve rate flawless. When Watts gets close and finds evidence of this while investigating alone, the other detective takes him hostage and almost shoots him in the head before Murdoch figures everything out and intervenes at the last possible moment. The second occasion involving the girl mentioned earlier. In the episode ‘The Talking Dead,’ he lets his guard down around Agnes who is out to get revenge on the people who sent her father to prison by attempting to poison his lunch while he’s trying to help her. Then he's almost murdered again in season 15 twice.
Llewellyn has a skewed sense of the passage of time and seems to have some memory lapses. He doesn’t notice time passing, or the absence of others for long periods. George left for France with Nina and was gone for quite some time, but when asked, Watts couldn’t recall the constable’s absence or the advice he gave to George about going in the first place prior to that. It’s worth noting, that this is often cited as a side effect of depression. But given it’s the Edwardian era and mental health was still hardly understood, it goes unaddressed.
He watches people around him very closely, especially if they become important to him in some way. It makes him genuinely happy to see those around him happy (Although somewhat wistful about it sometimes) and will go out of his way to nudge things in the right direction if he sees an opportunity. Ex: Stepping in to speak to Effie Newsome and alert her to the fact that George is ‘Sweet on’ her once George is out of earshot.
Watts has never killed anyone. During the episode ‘Brother’s Keeper’ he admits to discovering that he believes he is quite incapable of killing someone, even if it meant avenging someone important to him.
He can be a tad blunt and awkward, he doesn’t always understand social cues and people find him slightly off-putting before they get used to it. Watts lacks a filter, and rarely thinks about something before he speaks. So what you see is usually what you get when interacting with him. He has zero problems asking what might be considered a personal or uncomfortable question if he’s curious about something.
Watts loves street food, his favourites seem to be soft pretzels and hot dogs. His diet likely consists of these things, and what ever is offered to him by others.
He also has a very large appetite, taking frequent breaks or detours to find snacks or meals. Food is practically a way for him to communicate, between befriending vendors of different walks of life for information, sharing a meal with someone he’s friends with or close to, or showing extreme amounts of stress by eating whatever is on hand at an alarming (sometimes surprising) rate.
Llewellyn tends to sit on desks, or on chairs in odd ways. Kind of like a cat, if he fits he sits. Watts appears to have zero issues with taking up space in the world, and doesn’t seem to realize it’s inconvenient until someone else points it out. He will move if asked, but it’s more of a surprised afterthought. He also has been known to awkwardly climb over things instead of going around them, or using just about any surface to lean against (even those that wouldn’t support his weight).
He sometimes poses strange philosophical ideas about the world. Either when it seems pertinent to a case or when one of his colleagues is having an issue and in need of advice.
Watts tends to view the world with a ‘glass half empty’ attitude. He generally prefers to presume the worst is yet to come, and can get stuck on the negative. This is rather unsurprising when everything that has happened in his life is taken into consideration. He had slowly begun to improve upon that during season 13, but he has a long way to go and experiences more than his fair share of bumps and set backs.
Before Constable Jackson starts to help him with his cases, he tended to carry around dozens of scraps of paper in his pockets, and was prone to making messes just to find the right one. He can be very scattered and disorganized without a little help. He takes to keeping everything in a pocket notebook after Jackson takes the time to transcribe all his current work in one, Watts seems to keep the notebook neat and tidy for a while after Jackson dies. Probably for both the convenience and the memory. Unfortunately he slowly devolves back into keeping cluttered, scraps of notes in his pockets. The notebook itself becomes very messy.
Watts can be a tad jumpy about the idea of being attacked. He prefers Inspector Brackenried’s office due to it having separate exits (probably due to it providing an easy getaway) and he reacts with considerable fear and panic when approached from behind by Julia (albeit she is disguised as a man at the time) and takes him by surprise. It is possible he has been victimized for his oddities or bluntness in the past. He doesn’t respond well to people approaching him in anger, and will shy away from yelling.
Watts confessed to Jackson that he had tried his hand at gambling in the past and that it hadn’t ended well.
He isn’t used to the idea that people might worry about his life. Llewelyn thinks the job or his duties still take priority, regardless of what that might mean for him. He seems to be used to taking care of himself and watching his own back.
Watts doesn’t respect people who treat others poorly due to them being different in some way. He looks genuinely annoyed and troubled if someone spouts insults and bigotry, as well as clearly finding offensive humour to be tasteless.
(Although humour also tends to go over his head, he takes things quite literally)
He would like to believe things like miracles are possible. Llewelyn would like to believe there is more to the universe and the world around him. He also wants to believe people can change or be better than they have been in the past despite evidence in his life to prove otherwise
Unorthodox investigation methods including: Making weird sounds to imitate clues in hope of identifying them, staring at a blank blackboard and visualizing what the information would look like on it, opposed to writing on the board itself. He will even gesture at it when talking to others as if something is mapped out there to reference.
Like many members of the series, Llewellyn has met several historic figures through his investigations or in helping with Murdoch's, such as Emma Goldman and a young Buster Keaton.
Sometimes walks with a heavy slouch, almost as though he’s losing a fight with gravity. Or more likely, that he has scoliosis or some other similar back problem. During one episode, Watts zeros in on a posture correcting device. Having horrendous posture himself (frequently walking with an noticeable slouch), one does wonder if someone has tried (or succeeded) to force him to use one in the past in an attempt to correct it. Though less frequent in men, the era was not kind to those with physical abnormalities and it was often thought better to correct them than let the person be.
Daniel Maslany, and the show runners, have revealed some interesting tidbits about the creation of Watts as time goes on. The idea for Watts was to have a detective to play off Murdoch who was in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, and Columbo. They have also suggested that they always intended for Watts to come out as gay, wanting to portray a character that was hiding from even himself and trying to fit in a mould that he didn’t fit.
Watts is something of an expert on wine, and aids in a case involving a poisoned bottle. In this case he manages to get both Murdoch and George drunk on separate occasions.
His vocabulary and speech patterns fluctuate from time to time. Llewellyn can be very well-spoken one moment, and then slip into colloquialisms and speaking plainly the next. Given that he’s had to work very hard to get where he is in life, he likely has taught himself a lot when it comes to communicating, but some of his old habits slip in now and again from his days running around on the streets with his adoptive brothers. He also has a series of verbal ticks in which he pauses, adds small sounds and hums, and sometimes seems to need to get his breath.
Llewellyn is fidgety, he doesn’t do well with not having something to do with his hands. Even when he’s just walking down the road he can be noted to veer off course and pick at foliage to pull off flowers or leaves that he can play with or press in his notebook.
There are a lot of parallels between Watts and Murdoch. Neither were raised by their parents, both were (in a sense) abandoned by their sisters, and both were driven to careers as successful detectives due to their turbulent childhoods. An interesting contrast is that where Murdoch tends to rely heavily on the science and forensics side of investigations, Watts’ methods are more about getting in a person’s mind. He generally focuses on the psychological aspects, preferring to get in a suspects head and figure out what their feelings or personal motivations might be when he’s working a case.
Watts isn’t confrontational in the physical sense. Even if someone is coming at him, he hasn’t been known to fight back. He prefers to use his words if he’s at odds with someone. If someone else is being threatened, he will throw himself between that person and their attacker. Even if he does try to use force where another person is concerned (seen a grand total of once in a mini-series), it will be for the sake of someone else.
He is very prone to fearing the worst. Watts will entertain worse case scenarios before the more positive ones, especially when it comes to the health and wellbeing of those close to him. This is probably because of how much that has been thrown at him through his life, it eventually seemed safer to be prepared for the worse.
Watts can be quite emotional at times, especially when in a stressful situation. He can become frustrated or anxious very easily, and has been seen in tears on several occasions when things get to be too much. He also tends to get quite dramatic, prone to gesturing grandly, especially when he’s on a role with something.
Watts is fairly awkward and insecure when it comes to how he deals with his feelings of attraction and affection for others. He is less likely to initiate affection or be forward out in the open when it comes to someone he has feelings for/crushing on. He’s not always sure about how to go about it, and is more prone to let the other person make the first move. Llewellyn seems slightly more comfortable in a situation where there’s no one else around, and recently has made more of an attempt to seek out the person he’s attracted to instead of letting the matter go. Once he feels more secure he does seem to relax and gain confidence, though.
He is fond of learning different languages! He knows about 6-7 based one what we’ve seen and some likely additions due to recent episodes. (Unfortunately I do not speak more than English and a little broken French. So when him speaking another language is necessary, I will have to use translators. I will be doing some check work across a couple and look at words on dictionaries to try to be as accurate as possible if I’m not sure. BUT. I RP for fun, so it’s not going to be perfect.)
Watts has a soft spot for children, especially orphans like himself. He is very protective of them and takes special care during cases involving them. He is seen during one case to gift books to a boy whose friend was murdered at the home for boys, assuring the child that 'Where we start in this world needn't define where we end up.' Given that orphans or the children of criminals were thought to be children without any hope for amounting to anything in life, he knows first hand how hard life can be and clearly wants to give them some hope. In another, he almost ends up murdered by a young girl whose father he incarcerated while trying to let her have some fun at the fair that she wanted to go to before child services arrive.
(I headcanon that Watts is true to his word in the episode with the boys home, and makes frequent visits with old books as gifts to make sure they always have something new to read. Probably likes to check in and see how they’re doing given that children in situation like these aren’t treated well.)
He has also almost been murdered several times through the series. The first time being during a side episode concerning a case that Jackson was trying to solve before his death. In this case, a Detective from Station House 5 has been murdering people involved in the case to keep his solve rate flawless. When Watts gets close and finds evidence of this while investigating alone, the other detective takes him hostage and almost shoots him in the head before Murdoch figures everything out and intervenes at the last possible moment. The second occasion involving the girl mentioned earlier. In the episode ‘The Talking Dead,’ he lets his guard down around Agnes who is out to get revenge on the people who sent her father to prison by attempting to poison his lunch while he’s trying to help her. Then he's almost murdered again in season 15 twice.
Llewellyn has a skewed sense of the passage of time and seems to have some memory lapses. He doesn’t notice time passing, or the absence of others for long periods. George left for France with Nina and was gone for quite some time, but when asked, Watts couldn’t recall the constable’s absence or the advice he gave to George about going in the first place prior to that. It’s worth noting, that this is often cited as a side effect of depression. But given it’s the Edwardian era and mental health was still hardly understood, it goes unaddressed.
He watches people around him very closely, especially if they become important to him in some way. It makes him genuinely happy to see those around him happy (Although somewhat wistful about it sometimes) and will go out of his way to nudge things in the right direction if he sees an opportunity. Ex: Stepping in to speak to Effie Newsome and alert her to the fact that George is ‘Sweet on’ her once George is out of earshot.
Watts has never killed anyone. During the episode ‘Brother’s Keeper’ he admits to discovering that he believes he is quite incapable of killing someone, even if it meant avenging someone important to him.
He can be a tad blunt and awkward, he doesn’t always understand social cues and people find him slightly off-putting before they get used to it. Watts lacks a filter, and rarely thinks about something before he speaks. So what you see is usually what you get when interacting with him. He has zero problems asking what might be considered a personal or uncomfortable question if he’s curious about something.
Watts loves street food, his favourites seem to be soft pretzels and hot dogs. His diet likely consists of these things, and what ever is offered to him by others.
He also has a very large appetite, taking frequent breaks or detours to find snacks or meals. Food is practically a way for him to communicate, between befriending vendors of different walks of life for information, sharing a meal with someone he’s friends with or close to, or showing extreme amounts of stress by eating whatever is on hand at an alarming (sometimes surprising) rate.
Llewellyn tends to sit on desks, or on chairs in odd ways. Kind of like a cat, if he fits he sits. Watts appears to have zero issues with taking up space in the world, and doesn’t seem to realize it’s inconvenient until someone else points it out. He will move if asked, but it’s more of a surprised afterthought. He also has been known to awkwardly climb over things instead of going around them, or using just about any surface to lean against (even those that wouldn’t support his weight).
He sometimes poses strange philosophical ideas about the world. Either when it seems pertinent to a case or when one of his colleagues is having an issue and in need of advice.
Watts tends to view the world with a ‘glass half empty’ attitude. He generally prefers to presume the worst is yet to come, and can get stuck on the negative. This is rather unsurprising when everything that has happened in his life is taken into consideration. He had slowly begun to improve upon that during season 13, but he has a long way to go and experiences more than his fair share of bumps and set backs.
Before Constable Jackson starts to help him with his cases, he tended to carry around dozens of scraps of paper in his pockets, and was prone to making messes just to find the right one. He can be very scattered and disorganized without a little help. He takes to keeping everything in a pocket notebook after Jackson takes the time to transcribe all his current work in one, Watts seems to keep the notebook neat and tidy for a while after Jackson dies. Probably for both the convenience and the memory. Unfortunately he slowly devolves back into keeping cluttered, scraps of notes in his pockets. The notebook itself becomes very messy.
Watts can be a tad jumpy about the idea of being attacked. He prefers Inspector Brackenried’s office due to it having separate exits (probably due to it providing an easy getaway) and he reacts with considerable fear and panic when approached from behind by Julia (albeit she is disguised as a man at the time) and takes him by surprise. It is possible he has been victimized for his oddities or bluntness in the past. He doesn’t respond well to people approaching him in anger, and will shy away from yelling.
Watts confessed to Jackson that he had tried his hand at gambling in the past and that it hadn’t ended well.
He isn’t used to the idea that people might worry about his life. Llewelyn thinks the job or his duties still take priority, regardless of what that might mean for him. He seems to be used to taking care of himself and watching his own back.
Watts doesn’t respect people who treat others poorly due to them being different in some way. He looks genuinely annoyed and troubled if someone spouts insults and bigotry, as well as clearly finding offensive humour to be tasteless.
(Although humour also tends to go over his head, he takes things quite literally)
He would like to believe things like miracles are possible. Llewelyn would like to believe there is more to the universe and the world around him. He also wants to believe people can change or be better than they have been in the past despite evidence in his life to prove otherwise
Unorthodox investigation methods including: Making weird sounds to imitate clues in hope of identifying them, staring at a blank blackboard and visualizing what the information would look like on it, opposed to writing on the board itself. He will even gesture at it when talking to others as if something is mapped out there to reference.
Like many members of the series, Llewellyn has met several historic figures through his investigations or in helping with Murdoch's, such as Emma Goldman and a young Buster Keaton.
Sometimes walks with a heavy slouch, almost as though he’s losing a fight with gravity. Or more likely, that he has scoliosis or some other similar back problem. During one episode, Watts zeros in on a posture correcting device. Having horrendous posture himself (frequently walking with an noticeable slouch), one does wonder if someone has tried (or succeeded) to force him to use one in the past in an attempt to correct it. Though less frequent in men, the era was not kind to those with physical abnormalities and it was often thought better to correct them than let the person be.
