A kinda niche au idea: AR is searching through different servers/worlds before coming across a world from one lone survivor, traveller, who's stuck all on his own; Legundo. Deciding that the man can be decent entertainment, AR sticks around in a spectral, "spectator mode" kinda form, though sometimes physically changes something to mess with the guy. Legs catching on to the fact that something (additional) is watching him and starts talking out loud to the entity he's dubbed "the ghost" (creative I know). AR finds the man's ramblings and reactions to their pranks amusing so they stick around for longer than they planned. Until overtime, they eventually start becoming attached.
I’m not sure if it’s specifically for this arg or if it’s a reference to something else, but it feels like if it’s a reference it’s an important one too know.
He legit might be. Like he is very much aware of Grian’s lore and has already incorporated the Rift into his own. Honestly, it seems quite likely that he should weave himself into it.
Ramble below:
We know that AR claims to do everything for the sake of entertainment, which is essentially what the Watchers were doing:
And he often encourages his viewers, saying he believes in us, which seems to be an action repeated by the Watchers.
And he discussed how rifts are different from portals. Something I found interesting was the fact that the Watchers seemed to exclusively use portals. In fact, it appears that the only rift that Grian ever encounters is the one between Hermitcraft and Empires.
I’m pretty sure that it was revealed that the Watchers were not behind the Rift. And I find it curious that they seemed to use portals only.
In one of the shorts, AR said that rifts can only form through natural causes OR by someone with incredible magic power. It is heavily implied that he is one of these people, a fact that is confirmed in his video where “he” beats the Wither without leaving the Nether - he creates a rift to let the version of him who completed the challenge leave, although I seem to recall him saying he could technically leave at any time. But I think that was a quirk of his ability to choose the universe, the strand, where the objective is always met.
Anyways.
In another of the shorts, he says something about “Travelers.” People who can travel between dimensions and times. I think he is NOT one of these people. That seems too… simple. Too easy. Too weak.
AR is definitely more than a simple dimensional traveler - he has admitted to influencing the actions of certain individuals within the dimensions he goes to. Although it could simply be another effect of having complete knowledge of a strand’s timeline.
AAAUUUGHHHH, ABOLISH. WHY MUST YOU MAKE ME QUESTION FREE WILL??
I DO THAT ENOUGH ALREADYYYYYY.
Y’know what. AR is not just a Watcher. If he is one, it’d be a much more powerful version. The Watchers exclusively made portals, likely lacking the power for rifts. This is a weakness that AR doesn’t seem to have.
(If anything, I’d think Grian is a Traveler, going off of vibes alone.)
One of the implied conclusions for AR’s identity is a glitch. This is interesting, because that is quite vague. It would be easy to just call him a glitch in the game and be done with it.
But I say AR is a glitched Watcher.
Like the Absolute Solver, perhaps - an existing program, a known entity, that evolved through some unknown force to acquire greater power.
In the short regarding Travelers, there seemed to be broken test tubes in the background. He could be an experiment gone wrong, Mewtwo-style. Or maybe he found something, an exploit, a power source.
I don’t think we have enough data yet to know conclusively what he is. But I think a Watcher of some form is a pretty good guess for now.
