(Rain World) complete-ish story analysis of The Watcher
The Watcher is a contentious DLC, but it’s also got the richest story Rain World has ever told. This long ass post dissects The Watcher’s narrative with a specific focus on its central question:
When the world beneath your feet cracks and crumbles, will you hold on to all you once knew? Or dive into the unknown?
This post goes through the main story and picks out important elements to form an overarching reading of the whole DLC. It also doubles as a general recap to make sense of The Watcher’s more cryptic storybeats, but it’ll overall be a lot less confusing if you’ve played the whole thing yourself.
⚠️ SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE DLC (v1.5 CONTENT!) ⚠️
Nothing lasts forever. It all decays, crumbles, disappears. Let me re-frame that core question: in the face of great upheaval, will you cling to a dying past? Or embrace the future, and become something new?
Think about this question as you read. It will tie things together.
Spinning Top: childhood lost
Formation of the “watcher” identity in intro
And through the middle of it all, a lonely lost slugcat trying their best to outlast the ravages of a warped world.
Watcher’s story begins with their childhood getting cut short. An unknown slugcat attacks their family. Watcher’s parent and sibling run up to fight the attacker, but Watcher cowers behind a tree, too scared to act.
The unknown slugcat likely killed their targets. But Watcher, who lived due to their fear, learns a violent lesson: to survive, you must distance yourself and hide. Watcher is taught a survival mechanism that involves inaction; passively observing their world—hence the name, “Watcher”.
As a result of the reclusiveness beaten into them by nature, Watcher is lost and lonely. It’s implied that they yearn to return to a safe home with companions, so when they meet Spinning Top, an attachment to the Echo quickly forms.
Spinning Top wanders into Watcher’s reality
Typically, an Echo is a terminally aloof being. They barely pay slugcats any mind, only using them as an audience for the Echo’s strange musings, and then send the rodents off with a small gift.
Spinning Top, the Echo of a child, shares that same deeply detached personality. When Watcher first meets them, they jeer at how funny it is that Watcher excretes, and how the slugcat will eventually meet the same sorry fate as their own shit. Spinning Top is so divorced from corporeal existence that it’s the most interesting thing they see in Watcher.
But Watcher is not deterred. Spinning Top is a potential companion and friend, and despite the Echo’s jaded and strange nature, they embody a spark of childlike kindness that appeals to Watcher. Spinning Top makes an effort to genuinely talk to Watcher despite the latter not having the gift of communication, and Spinning Top’s gifts are greater than Karma, as they attune the slugcat to the ripples that constitute the countless realities of the world.
Watcher resists detachment and searches for their companion
Eventually, Spinning Top pulls Watcher into a complete mess of strands, connected together not by gates but by tears in reality. Here, Watcher is lost. Each world offers a completely unique threat: burning fire, flaying winds, churning floods, and ruthless swarms. None of these places offer Watcher the familiarity or safety of a home. When they do return to the closest thing to home—the base game regions—Watcher finds them consumed by corruption. Watcher will never find any anchor of comfort here.
And as Watcher’s control over the ripples grows, their capacity for detachment becomes even stronger. They begin to actively tear apart the fabric of reality around them, drifting randomly through worlds at their own will. The nature of their camouflage is revealed to be Ripplespace, a layer of reality where Watcher is truly, truly alone. If anything, Watcher’s powers only enable their detached, evasive, and fearful tendencies even further. Why shouldn’t they just resign themselves to hiding in a corner of Ripplespace forever?
In spite of this development, Watcher pushes against their passivity. Spinning Top acts as a sort of anchor against the madness of the strands, a familiar friend who offers kindness. Long ago, Watcher froze in the face of peril. But now, every time Spinning Top disappears, Watcher follows and follows. They no longer simply survive and observe, but actively take risks and explore. And by utilizing the same listless powers as their friend to achieve this, Watcher comes to understand how their struggles overlap and empathizes with Spinning Top.
Spinning Top’s dream - left behind
When Watcher reaches maximum Ripple, they dream of a void. Suddenly, their old family passes by them, happily running up to a great golden light in the distance. Watcher briefly chases after, but like the violent memory from long ago, they freeze in their steps. Their family is gone, and Watcher is alone again.
When Watcher relives their tragic past, their family is quickly followed by hordes upon hordes of slugcats, all darting into the light. This foreshadows Spinning Top’s own struggle, a child whose entire species ascended while they alone remain. Watcher’s ripple powers seem to deepen their empathy, manifesting an impossibly accurate picture of their companion’s pain.
The children move onward
Watcher’s journey to find Spinning Top also begins to affect the Echo as well. The presence of a companion reminds Spinning Top of their long-lost “creche days” among mothers, fathers, and fellow children. Eventually, Watcher even joins them in the lonely plane of Ripplespace, and it is this that prompts Spinning Top to face their past.
In their former bedroom, Spinning Top reveals a sorrowful hypocrisy. They find corporeal life to be an undignified soup of proteins and acids, and yet they endlessly yearn for the warmth and comfort of their childhood. Spinning Top is scared to let go of it all. None of their loved ones stayed behind as fellow ghosts, and the only individuals who did were other aloof, afraid ghosts. Spinning Top is no exception.
One child learns that they’ve stagnated for far too long, and they must move onto whatever comes next. Spinning Top accepts the unknown, and disappears into the white door of ascension.
The other child learns that it’s okay to take action; to embrace the childlike joy and curiosity that they’ve beaten down for so long in order to survive. Watcher dives into Spinning Top’s toys, and old scars begin to heal.
Both children learn to grow and mature. They do not languish in the grief of the past, and accept the hurdle of change that they must bring on their own.
Prince: twisted regression
What if Watcher went the other way? Instead of maturing, what if they clung even more desperately to their old desires?
The Rot is easily the most potent symbol within the story of The Watcher. This section is the longest.
The unfortunate mess
Nothing lasts forever. It is an indiscriminate, all-encompassing fact of life that everything eventually declines and dies. The Rot is the most pure form of this idea: it is a mindless mass that consumes everything it touches. “After a point it’s all like this”, Spinning Top states when in a rotted basegame region.
Watcher’s story develops on this in a very interesting way, where a certain strand of the Rot has evolved and become sentient. The Sentient Rot is capable of spreading across the ripples and consuming the entire world, but most notably it is spread specifically via the actions of other characters. Spinning Top accidentally carries it into the basegame map because they are childish and reckless, and Watcher intentionally spreads it hoping that it will help them reconnect with their past (something to be discussed in more detail soon).
The Sentient Rot holds the “living memory” of the things it consumes, allowing it to “protect” the past—or at least a twisted version of it. As such, Sentient Rot infestation becomes a symbol for a character who is “stagnating”. Instead of accepting losses or looking to the future, they remain attached to old desires and woes. As time passes, these desires become harder to obtain, and slowly destroy the individual who clings tight. This self-destruction is the Sentient Rot consuming their surroundings.
Consider how Watcher’s exploration through the basegame map is quickly consumed by the Sentient Rot. With this in mind, Watcher getting sent across the ripples by Spinning Top becomes a blessing in disguise. Even though the sudden change brought great confusion and commotion, it was their only escape from the infestation. If Watcher was given the option to stick around, they would’ve literally been devoured by their desire to return to the past (that is, their family & home). The whole prologue is a fairly literal depiction of Watcher’s core question: hold onto the past, or dive into the unknown?
Additionally, the Sentient Rot also does not disappear when Watcher hides in Ripplespace, because the rot of stagnation is a fundamental struggle. Watcher can hide from outside dangers in their bubble of isolation, but it’s not enough to escape the festering from within.
The birth of Prince
After performing a wrong warp, Watcher eventually ends up in Outer Rim. No region identifies with the concept of decay quite like the rim. Physically, it’s at the edge of the world. Temporally, at the edge of time. All life, all development is gone. This is the perfect place for the Sentient Rot to fester, which begins to ironically grow a great tree in the bowl of a starcatcher to the west.
Watcher climbs up this tree, named The Throne. When Watcher reaches the top, they are given a Karma Flower that allows them to leave, at the foot of a giant Rot bulb. Whatever thread they escape into is then infested with Sentient Rot. If Watcher returns, they’ll find another flower, and a new path, and a chilling, painful voice. The entity inside the Rot bulb, having suddenly gained a sense of self, now speaks to Watcher, describing how it evolved from a mindless mass to an enlightened, singular individual. And then, when fed enough, the bulb hatches.
Prince, having just been born from the Rot of all things, is too naive to give any weight to the concepts of suffering or conflict. They view Watcher as their savior for “feeding” The Throne and helping bring Prince to life. They dote over Watcher, laughing and cheering even if the slugcat pelts them with rocks and spears. The Throne even grows an entire shelter to cater to Watcher’s needs.
Prince’s dream - Watcher is enticed by rotten comforts
After Watcher meets Prince, they experience another dream. They wake up in a dark sea and swim toward a light, surfacing into a warm forest identical to the one they grew up in. Visually, the sequence reflects Prince’s ascension into a singular individual with a supposedly higher purpose, now able to perceive a world they love and crave.
However, the presentation of the dream shows that Prince strikes a sinister emotional chord with Watcher. The slugcat feels alone and lost, but Prince is an adoring companion who offers a familiar home, not unlike the tree that was ripped away from them. In Watcher’s eyes, The Throne is an opportunity to return to how everything once was. No longer wandering, no longer alone. Would it really be so bad if Watcher strengthens this bond, and helps their new friend flourish?
Watcher spreads the infestation to every pocket of reality that they can reach. By desperately striving to secure a friend and reunite with the past, they have ravaged their whole world. But what do they have to show for it?
Prince, the oxymoron
Prince leads an oxymoronic existence. On one hand, Prince believes they are an “evolved” or “mature” individual. Like the iterator(s) that the Sentient Rot has consumed, Prince tasks themselves with ending the cycle. However, they consider themselves “something new”. They are allegedly aware of how the iterators failed, and they believe that they are more capable of actually succeeding than the iterators ever will be.
This is where Prince’s naivete creates a critical misjudgement. Despite having a technically “evolved” form, Prince seeks to achieve their lofty goal via the most regressive, basal method possible: consume everything, across all spacetime. The iterators sought to create a path for all life, no matter how simple, to grow and improve spiritually. Prince effectively seeks a devolved form of the task by dragging the world down into a primal state of being, driven solely by hunger.
Prince’s most dire mistake, however, is that they want to secure a perfect, unchanging state where everything can be preserved. In their words, “a living memory of all life, forever!”. Nothing lasts forever, not even the horseman of death itself. So when Watcher spreads the Sentient Rot further across the ripples, Prince’s kingdom eventually loses control of itself—and like a balloon popping, Karma Flowers erupt from the Rot. Prince is paralyzed, and their dominion ends with a whimper.
Watcher is tragically left in a worse position than when they started. They chose a path of stagnation: after indulging in companionship and comfort that was too good to be true, they ended up alone in a rotten wasteland of their own making.
Weaver: learning adulthood
Even if the Sentient Rot has infested every region and effloresced, Watcher can continue. It is possible for them to rebound, and follow a greater path.
Watcher stumbles upon a godly mentor
When Watcher tears open their own warps, it catches the attention of another entity. Returning to the region, Watcher finds the warp closed by The Weaver. They are a booming, godly figure who seeks to restore order to reality. Upon their meeting, Weaver thunders forth a strange metaphor to Watcher:
CONSIDER: A droplet of rain pierces the still water. A ripple, A ring, ever expanding.
Within the cosmos, Watcher’s life expands outward like the ripples of a droplet: in every direction there is a different parallel self, a new possibility of Watcher’s existence.
CONSIDER: Movement along the circumference of a ring. From one eye a loop, from one eye a spiral, from one eye the motion of a line.
The cycle is driven by movement along the ring of a ripple. This experience is deeply personal, and it can be perceived in completely different ways. The previous species never came to a consensus on how it worked, after all.
CONSIDER: A second drop. A thousandth. A multiplex of rings, spirals, interacting in countless ways. A froth. A seeth. An effervescence of disruption!
Every single living being has their own droplet, their own ripples, and these countless instances of life intermingle and tangle to create reality itself.
NOW: An understanding. A path. A purpose. Movement along the line, from distant to origin. From spiral to loop. From loop to point. An understanding!
Weaver teaches Watcher about a new path; a higher calling than flitting across strands. Watcher can escape the impending ruin of decay by seeking ascension. Somehow, Watcher can unravel their ripples, pulling them back into the starting position of the droplet, and this will unite their alternative selves into one. Watcher can ascend.
For a normal slugcat, their alternative selves are separated by different physical bodies. By rising their Karma and entering the Void Sea, a slugcat will dissolve their physical body, allowing for all those selves to individually reunite as one at their metaphysical origin point - The Egg.
Watcher’s situation is more complicated. Spinning Top gifted godlike powers to Watcher, but the slugcat is also supernaturally blocked from pursuing ascension. Watcher’s ripples are all tangled by the warps that cross between them, which keeps the slugcat trapped in this not-corporeal, not-incorporeal state.
Watcher grows, and their scars heal
Through their meetings, Weaver passes down their divine gifts onto Watcher. The slugcat gains the ability to banish the Sentient Rot, seal all warps they travel through, and cleanly warp without creating a tear. And for every warp Watcher sews shut, Weaver assists them by sewing another warp of their own.
Consider how the metaphor of ripples connects to the world map; a big tangled ball with the Daemon “droplet” at the center. Watcher’s world map is quite literally an extension of their own self (or more accurately, selves). Watcher is marked by a great deal of trauma and struggle, which twisted and tangled their world into one full of tears in reality. Weaver is effectively a mentor figure who teaches Watcher to both help the world around them whilst healing themselves, which comes in the form of dispelling the Sentient Rot and closing the warps.
After all the warps have been closed, Watcher is transported to... the beginning of time, possibly? The specifics aren’t too important. Here, they find the Weaver, who gives their final teaching to the slugcat:
Two big, beady eyes.
The specific meaning of this reveal is extremely open, but I see it as Weaver trying to convey the similarity between Watcher and Weaver, as the two characters’ eyes are nearly identical. In spite of the immense difference in size, powers, and metaphysical knowledge, Watcher has begun to close the gap. It is possible for a little slugcat to achieve the very same radiance.
And then, Weaver is gone.
Ascension: growing up
In computing, a “daemon” is a background process which lies dormant when not in use. Within the region of Daemon, Watcher can find three pillars which correspond to each of the main characters. The left pillar awakens when Spinning Top departs from the world. The right pillar awakens when Prince is born. The central pillar awakens when all of the warps are closed. Awakening all three pillars causes Daemon to initiate the final act of this story.
When considering the requirements to awaken Daemon, and the events that soon follow, it is implied that the function of Daemon is to unlock Watcher’s metaphysical evolution—the daemon drives ascension.
Watcher gains closure
Movement along the line, from distant to origin. Weaver's teachings become reality. Watcher is torn to the beginning of their journey in Hydroponics, and then Outskirts, and then to the endpoints of their three companions. Spinning Top and Weaver are gone; they accomplished what they wanted and moved on.
Prince’s conclusion is particularly special. Watcher meets Prince in a crumbling, sloughed Throne. Prince is happy to see their friend one final time, and grants them a parting gift: the mark of communication. Prince proclaims that they are more similar to the iterators than they once thought.
Prince granted enlightenment to Watcher. This act is plainly antithetical to Prince’s old ideology of embracing animalistic chaos, but there is beauty to this contrast. Prince was once the epitome of “spiritual immaturity”, and they were gravely punished by the universe for this. But even an individual like Prince can mature and develop, rising from that state of ultimate failure. Now, Prince sits among a bed of Karma Flowers, in harmony rather than conflict.
Finally, Watcher is returned to the tree of their childhood. Overall, this sequence is akin to Watcher gaining closure on their old life, as they approach the cusp of what lies beyond.
The truth of the ripples
In this final sequence, the underlying fabric of reality is revealed to us: the ripples and cycles are caused by rings of countless selves, which orbit throughout the cosmos. These rings are managed by the Daemon monoliths, which are the proverbial “droplet” in Weaver’s teachings.
Earlier, Watcher set the stage for evolution, and now their awakened Daemon performs its function. It rearranges their ripples into equilibrium, making them all truly parallel. Every single one of Watcher’s selves are now in the caves of Depths, on a united path to ascension.
The Choice
As every single instance of Watcher dives into the sea, they are no longer bound to the limits of the cycle. Watcher could ascend, transforming into something new, or they could cling to the decaying old world and haunt it as a ghost.
Watcher is offered a choice: will they hold on to all they once knew? Or dive into the unknown?
Watcher embraces the unknown. In the beginning of the story, Watcher’s childhood was ripped away from them. Here, they choose to leave—and enter adulthood. They ascend, evolving into a young god.
Closing remarks
Watcher's world crumbles around them. Their family dies, their old lands are consumed by Rot, and they are spat out all over the earth. Transformation is thrust upon them.
Watcher can refuse to acknowledge their new existence. They can attempt to "freeze" the progression of the world with the Sentient Rot, but the world simply continues along, now damaged. Ultimately, their best choice is to accept that things have changed, and to look toward the future. By doing this, Watcher helps a friend along their own journey of self-acceptance. They mend the world around them, mend themselves, and eventually evolve into something greater, something that they truly desired.
Through the pain and the confusion, they embrace the unknown.
Thanks for reading! There's a lot of finer details within The Watcher that have their own analytical juices and wonders, but I wanted to only focus on the broad-strokes elements here.
Watcher has a whole lot of pretty crazy lore that simply didn’t fit into this post. Why are worms such an important physiology to this world? Why do I think all ascended beings become Void Worms? What’s the deal with the Elder Ripplespawn? What about stardust? What in the world is a Bone Shaker? I might make another big post like this, specifically about my favorite details and theories.
Truly an artificer baby. Lore & circumstances under the cut (artificers slugpup that was left by the scavengers survives and is adopted by one) (warning there’s a lot)
first off scav naming conventions that me and my friend invented.
Scavenger names are mostly circumstantial, with more being added to their name as necessary depending on how formal the setting is, how familiar they are to the other person referring to them, how many others are in the room, and what is on their person. Generally it goes as follows:
Physical traits
This is usually the color of their fur, but can also include the color of their eyes, how large they are, patterns on their fur, scars, and other things that stay consistently true.
2. Object/flora/fauna
Fauna is the most commonly used, and there is a general stigma around naming your child something greater than you are. For example, if your name was Centipede, you generally wouldn’t name your child something like Vulture or Leviathan unless you have somehow proven yourself socially. This is the only part of the name that will always stay the same.
These two are generally considered the ‘true’ name, and is how they are most commonly referred to by friends and family or within small gatherings or parties.
3. Number of grubs (baby scavengers)
When formatted within the name, even if you have multiple, the word itself stays singular. It would be ‘two grub’, not ‘two grubs’.
4. [OPTIONAL] Hierarchical standing
Generally speaking, there are 4 standings—chieftain, elite, merchant, and worker, which are in order from most to least important. there are probably others in there but for all intents and purposes those are the basis.
5. Objects on person
This obviously changes constantly, and so is generally ignored unless necessary among a large group or if the scavenger themself prefers it. If multiple of an object are present, the singular form of the word is used. For example, if they have three grenades, their name will be ‘…with three grenade’ not ‘…with three grenades’.
6. [OPTIONAL] Parent name
Used almost exclusively in formal settings for adult scavengers, but is very common with scavenger grubs who do not have longer names until they are older and have more social status. Usually only uses part 2 of the name (object/flora/fauna) but can include the true name or more as necessary. Most scavenger grubs are raised by a single parent, and if they are raised by multiple scavengers, they can use any of their names or all of them.
If a scavenger becomes chieftain, they have the option to choose their own name and disregard any naming conventions. “Red Lizard with infinite priceless Pearls” “Leviathan” “Sun” “Endless Rain upon Desolate Fields” are all possible chieftain names.
Within Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moons’ range, newly anointed chieftains will travel to Five Pebbles to receive the mark of communication, and it is common for them to take on names similar to those of the ancient civilization.
now you know!!!!
The parent scavenger shown above is named Vulture, but their full name would be “Black Vulture of/with one Grub (worker) with many White Pearl (of Red Jellyfish)”. Most others would refer to them as Black Vulture, or just Vulture if they are familiar with eachother.
But their grub, Leech, would be referred to as simply “Leech of Vulture” as they do not have any belongings or status. They may be referred to as “Grey Leech of Vulture” or “Grey Green-eyed Leech of Vulture” as necessary.
The slugpup (whom me and my friend call Bing. Very important.) is dissolved into these naming schemes as well, but given that they are a baby and have no status or belongings, they should be referred to as “Slug of Vulture”. However, the “of [name]” implies direct relation, and Slugcats are generally not looked upon fondly (and obviously not Vultures biological child), so Bing is simply called “Slug with Nothing”, both to be literal and to mock them.
When Bing themself was adopted by Vulture they were met with much disdain and hostility. Vulture initially simply wished that Bing would not be killed, but eventually grew fond of them and functionally became their parent instead of casting them out as intended. Vultures other grub, Leech, is too young to have absorbed the reputation around slugcats, so they get along just fine. though because of this Vulture and Leech are not looked upon very fondly though either.
Simplifying the five urges murals for better understanding of what's depicted
I have seen some still struggle to understand what's going on on these murals, even after knowing what they represent, so I made these
Karma 1: strife, conflict, wrath
Left is stabbing right with a feathered lance
Right one doesn't seem armed, and is attempting to stop left one from going further
I have said this before but the red feathers remind me of the red cloth on explosive spears
Could be a thematic choice, could be a coincidental artistic choice
The weird blocky many eyed backpack looking thing seems to be connected to the mask, but since it's not entirely fused I decided to omit it for the sake of clarity
Karma 2: procreation, propagation
Seriously what's with the tube
Hand holding within the shirtless sleeve
Fun how the left one's mask has a red veil
Karma 3: bonds, community, exchange
From the hand holding to the shoulder pad boombox, this might be my favorite
Did you know this mural's concept art has them doing either a fist-bump or a finger heart?
Left one is giving (or receiving?) an obnoxiously big necklace
Right one is holding a scroll with the karma 3 symbol (contract? receipt? marriage?)
Right one also has a tail nub (vestigial?) and is also the second one of these to have a stripped pattern
Maybe some benefactors had a stripped skin, just like some humans; some humans are also born with vestigial tails
Karma 4: hunger, gluttony
That's a whole ass rosittere chicken
Or is it a lantern mouse? Unlikely given how much purposed organisms have changed but who knows
Also, 4 tits
Karma 5: self-preservation, ego, survival
Holding two shields to shelter from incoming knives, simple as that
I think many people tend to forget, or just simply not realise, that the Benefactors had a far greater variety to their naming conventions than is typically depicted.
The most commonly seen are the short sentence, as Four Needles Under Plentiful Leaves shows us, and the comma division, such as Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets. Every named echo follows one of these two formats, as do significant figures mentioned within pearls, like the iconic Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel. These are what I find most characters to be named after, and there's nothing wrong with that! They are the most common for a reason. But there is also far more you can do with them.
For starters, not every name was necessarily that long. From the vanilla white pearl dialogue pool, we have Eight Bogs. From Watcher's Bright Viridian pearl, we have One Glass Cylinder. And then there is, of course, the echo of Spinning Top, with their name heavily implied in their achievement.
Even before Watcher introduced us to Three-Carafe Nine-Frond and their messenger Nine-Leaf (another example of a shorter name), we had Eight Suns-Countless Leaves representing hyphenated names from the vanilla Deep Pink pearl.
While it may be implied to be the case in the Deep Pink pearl, I do appreciate Watcher's Pale Pink pearl for showing us that these different conventions did coexist, possibly as the result of regional and/or cultural differences.
Then there are the single word names of times past, such as Pel, the "ancient farmer-poet". Watcher, in its Pale Viridian pearl, also brought us K'Arelus of Mart. Now, we have no way of knowing whether K'Arelus is the name of a person or not. It could well be a location, collective, time period, or anything else. But it is worth noting that it follows the same "[NAME] of [NAME (typically that of a group/location)]" format as seen in so many titles.
And there are likely many more that I didn't recall whilst writing this, as well as so much room for further analysis past the very surface level observations shown here! I haven't even touched the titles and houses yet, and that is a topic worthy of extensive study. My point is, everyone should feel welcome to get a little more creative with their naming schemes, because no culture is a monolith, and the Benefactors certainly weren't, either.
