Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment’s free-to-play battle royale, is known for its cast of diverse characters, many of whom have gritty, dark, and often tragic backstories. Fan-favorite Wattson, however, is known mainly for her electrical engineering skills, positive outlook on life, and fondness for puns. But despite her youth and sunny disposition, Wattson’s past is much stormier than one might expect, and her connection to the Mercenary Syndicate runs even deeper than the murky waters surrounding Stormpoint. Read on for a recap of Wattson’s story, and a look at some shocking facts many fans aren’t aware of, like the story behind the mysterious ghost she keeps mentioning, and the absolutely massive robotic army she controls.
1. The Basics
Full Name: Natalie Paquette
Age: 22
Height: 5’4
Homeworld: Solace (specifically, Kings Canyon itself)
Introduced in Season 2, the easy-going electrical engineer was the second Legend to be added to the game.
The daughter of the head electrical engineer for the Apex Games, Luc Paquette, Wattson invented the shrinking ring that forces squads to face off in increasingly-close quarters. Sadly, her father would never see his daughter’s invention in action, as he mysteriously died the day it was unveiled.
Orphaned and alone, Wattson withdrew socially – until the other Legends visited her house and found her cowering under the kitchen table. With their support, she joined the Games as a competitor, and the rest, as they say, is history. Known for her bubbly demeanor, diminutive stature, and seemingly endless collection of Nessie plush toys, it’s quite easy to underestimate her. But just like the brilliant engineer says, size and strength aren’t everything – and her kindness should not be mistaken for weakness.
2. Her Best Friend is Wraith
Despite their 10-year age gap, Wraith has been close at Wattson’s side since the beginning. The two are like sisters, and Wraith has repeatedly come to Wattson’s aid since joining the Apex Games. From holding vigil over Wattson’s bedside when she was injured by Prowlers during Season 5’s story mission to escorting her out of the room when a fight broke out among the Legends afterwards, Wraith and Wattson have been attached at the hip since day one.
After the events of Season 5, Respawn tweeted an image depicting Wattson napping at her very cluttered office desk. While the focus of the image was a letter from Gibraltar (more on that later), there are tons of other Easter eggs included in the image that are worth unpacking.
A closer look at the lower right side of the desk reveals a karambit-style version of Wraith’s kunai knife (confirmed to be a gift from Wraith), and in the upper right corner is a Nessie toy with a strip of pictures from a photo booth resting against it.
In a rare moment of levity, the stoic Legend is depicted cracking a genuine smile, with an arm wrapped protectively around Wattson’s shoulder.
3. She Struggles Socially
Between her deep love for puns and her self-described “knack for saying the wrong thing without realizing it”, Watttson perceives herself as awkward, and struggles in social situations. In her own words, “Electrons and circuits, I get…it’s people I do not understand.”
So it makes perfect sense that a book entitled “The Science of Effective Communication” is lying on her desk. Interestingly, she appears to be using a piece of paper with Crypto’s logo on it as a bookmark, and the author of the book has a Korean last name, implying Crypto (a social recluse himself) may have lent her the tome.
Tacked to the wall near the box of Bamboozles cereal is a poster for The Flyer Liars, Lifeline’s band, along with a letter from Lifeline inviting her to a show with the promise that she’ll be provided with earplugs. This, combined with Wattson’s oft-stated preference for “sweet silence”, has some fans theorizing she may have a form of sensory processing disorder. The ear coverings on her hood make a lot of sense in this context, as her ultimate ability repels loud ordnance and airstrikes, and many of Wattson’s squadmates have extremely noisy ultimate abilities (looking at you, Bloodhound).
4. She Invented the Ring
It’s well-known that Wattson is the brains behind the bane of every Legend’s existence: the ever-shrinking ring that slowly damages those who try to stay outside of it. But there’s more to the story than that.
Tasked with creating something that would keep Apex competitors from camping and force them to engage each other, Wattson’s father, Luc, had hit a dead end. But while he toiled in his workshop, a tween-aged Wattson rifled through every scientific textbook her father owned.
“He thought I was still playing with Nessies,” she tells Pathfinder in the official Apex lore book, Pathfinder’s Quest, “I was. But I was also learning.”
She came upon her “Eureka!” moment when she realized that filling the space between two ‘bubble shields’ (dome shields) with heat rays and progressively shrinking the inner shield would force squads to move closer together instead of camping out in treetops for days-long matches.
5. She Invented the Anti-Ring
A closer look at the sketchpad on Wattson’s desk reveals a very familiar shape.
Yep, that’s a Heat Shield. While this image was Tweeted in October of 2020, Heat Shields wouldn’t make their in-game debut until March of 2021. Based on the right side of her notepad, Natalie spent those months trying to decide what to name her new invention. ‘Heat Shield’ certainly gets the job done, but ‘Void Ring’ sounds pretty badass.
6. A Ghost Gave Her That Scar
Speaking of the void, one of Wattson’s most unique physical attributes is a Litchenberg figure scar on her left cheek, a branching pattern of electrical discharge that appears on items that have been exposed to high-voltage electricity. Survivors of lightning strikes often have Lichtenberg scars resemblings Wattson’s, and the story behind her scar is equally electrifying.
Unaware of just how skilled an engineer his daughter had become, Luc Paquette didn’t believe in Natalie’s idea to use bubble shields for the ring. Furious at her father’s unwillingness to listen, a 15-year-old Wattson stormed off into the rainy night, determined to show him her idea would work. But to get her hands on the shields, she had to pay a visit to the abandoned ruins of Singh Labs.
Once inside, Wattson was met with an apparition of a spectral, severed head that screamed at her to leave, scaring her so badly she lost her shoes as she escaped, slipping in the mud outside.
She soon calmed down, however, refusing to return home until she’d proven her idea would work. With both bubble shields set up in the forest just outside the lab, she hooked up a generator and began filling the gap between the shields with heat.
But lightning struck the generator, and without her rubber-soled shoes to protect her, Wattson was electrocuted and launched 20 feet in the air, slamming into a tree and breaking several bones. Worse, the rain had let up – allowing the fire from the destroyed generator to spread to the surrounding forest (yep, that’s how the Shattered Forest got barbecued).
But as the flames inched closer, a portal opened, and a kunai-wielding ‘ghost’ stepped out, gently lifting Wattson from the ground. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the doorstep of her father’s cabin. Days later, Natalie’s design for the ring was approved by the Mercenary Syndicate for use in the Apex Games.
It wasn’t until she joined the games that she and Wraith came face-to-face once more. But due to the fact that Natalie had grown up (and Wraith had grown hair) since their encounter in the Shattered Forest, neither Legend recognized the other until Wattson mentioned seeing a ghost in Singh Labs, and Wraith realized that the ‘ghost’ was her.
Suddenly Wraith’s overprotectiveness makes a whole lot of sense, as much of it seems to stem from feeling responsible for Wattson’s near-death experience.
7. She Knows Both Crypto and Caustic’s True Identities — and Their Mother
The truth will set you free. And keep you grounded. pic.twitter.com/5D7WG3lyLW
— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) December 31, 2020
While Caustic’s true identity is an open secret, his adoptive brother Crypto has managed to keep his true identity under wraps, because unlike Caustic, Crypto is being hunted by the Syndicate. But after the events of Season 5, Gibraltar sent Wattson a letter (the one pictured in the middle of her desk) affirming Crypto’s innocence.
An animated short Respawn posted on Twitter in December 2020 depicts Crypto inviting Wattson to his apartment and confessing the truth of his identity. In a Twitter comic from April 2021, she firmly puts Caustic in his place, reprimanding his actions in brilliant, hilarious fashion.
But her connection to their family goes even deeper, as she’s also the last person to have seen Caustic and Crypto’s mother, Katerina Ticacek, AKA Mystik. After Mystik contracted a deadly virus in Season 9, it appears Wattson may have attempted to resuscitate her. It’s not clear if this attempt succeeded.
Concerningly, Wattson has almost used Crypto’s real name during matches on multiple occasions, potentially putting them both in danger.
8. Her Grandmother Killed a Legend
The ultimate purpose of Pathfinder’s Quest was finding the mirthful MRVN’s creator.
After finishing the book, readers were directed to a video uploaded to the official Apex Twitter account. Entitled ‘The Truth’, the animated short revealed that Pathfinder had multiple creators – an entire team of scientists known as ‘The Group’, who made him for the purpose of helping them solve the Outlands Energy Crisis of 2655. The team included several members of different Legends’ families, but the lead scientist was Wattson’s paternal grandmother, renowned geologist Dr. Amélie Paquette, who we first caught a glimpse of in Pathfinder’s episode of Stories from the Outlands.
Another one of his creators was Dr. Ashleigh Reid, who betrayed the team and attempted to reroute the shipments of branthium – a rare, powerful fuel that ultimately saved the Outlands from total collapse.
After severing Dr. Paquette’s hand when she refused to use it for a security bypass, Ash became distracted by Pathfinder, who created a diversion just long enough for Amélie to snatch up Ash’s sword and impale her on it, resulting in the mortal wound that led to her consciousness being transferred to a simulacrum.
9. That Legend Wants Vengeance
Ash has recently been awakened to the reality of her existence as a simulacrum. There are now two beings lurking beneath the simulacrum’s metal frame: Ash, the ruthless Apex Predator we all know and love, and Leigh, the terrified remains of Ash’s human consciousness.
Desperate to silence ‘Leigh’ (who Ash abhors due to Leigh’s perceived weakness) and gain full control of her consciousness, Ash has set about destroying every tangible reminder of her life as a human, starting with the sword Wattson’s grandmother killed her with.
The next item on her list? Wattson herself. In the penultimate episode of Season 11’s story, Ash corners Wattson as she’s examining Storm Point’s lightning rod. With her sword drawn, she seems set on creating a skinsuit shish-kebab, but she instead shoves Natalie off the ledge of the structure, causing her to land safely in the waters below.
This is likely the result of Leigh managing to gain control of herself at the last moment, desperate to prevent the simulacrum from erasing her consciousness completely. While Wattson is safe for now, there’s no guarantee Ash’s dark side won’t make another attempt on her life.
10. She Has an Army of MRVNs at Her Disposal
The good news is that Wattson has some backup.
After the night Wraith saved her life, Wattson’s father programmed all MRVNs on Solace – Pathfinder included – with the ability to hack survey beacons and, should the need arise, protect Luc Paquette’s most precious invention: his daughter.
If Wattson is in danger, literally every MRVN on the planet has been programmed to come to her defense. There’s just one problem: after she joined the games, Wattson deactivated the protection protocol due to the fact that, by the nature of the Apex Games, she is frequently in danger. As satisfying as it might be, calling in an army of MRVNs to beat up Revenant wouldn’t exactly be sportsmanlike behavior.
Only time will tell if her encounter with Ash will push Wattson to reactivate the MRVN ‘babysitting protocol’, but one thing is certain: watching every robotic cook, maid, and customer service representative on planet Solace leave their post and storm King’s Canyon would be absolutely hilarious.
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