| “ | You paid no heed. Now you shall bleed. | ” |
– Warning plaque | ||
The Titan Watchers are the third boss enemies in Dark Deception and Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals.
Description[]
| “ | The cursed souls of men corrupted by greed are drawn to this place. In life, they valued only wealth. Now they are encased in the very gold that they so loved, burning in it for eternity. A fitting end for them. All that remains is a ruthless golden golem. Each one is driven to kill anyone that might enter and steal their lord's precious treasures. I have decided to refer to them as Gold Watchers. | ” |
– E's third note, detailing the creation of Gold Watchers | ||
Titan Watchers are currently the biggest known enemies in the Dark Deception franchise, standing around twice the height of The Manor and towering over other bosses like the Doom Ducky, Goliath Clowns, The Matron, Joy Kill, and Mama Bear's boss form. Unlike their smaller counterparts, the Gold Watchers, Titan Watchers do not freeze when looked at. Initially appearing in Monsters & Mortals as giant marble Watchers with a simpler design, they were eventually implemented in Dark Deception as properly scaled-up Gold Watchers in their Nightmare Mode, complete with the dark navy clothes and dirty golden accents.
Personality[]
While not much is known about them, the Titan Watchers likely do not respect anyone other than their master and creator, Malak, as well as Malak's other servants, like the underlings he put under their power, the Gold Watchers, who assist them in attacking intruders as they frantically lob axes (accurately in Dark Deception, erratically and randomly in Monsters & Mortals) with a deranged laugh. Assuming that they were once human like the other Watchers, it is reasonable to assume that the Titan Watchers are the greediest of mortals, and hence act more insane than their smaller counterparts when a "peasant" intrudes on their property.
Abilities[]
Strength[]
Like the Gold Watchers, the Titan Watchers are able to utilize and wield their giant axes very easily, able to generate and lob them two at a time every few seconds
Accuracy[]
In Dark Deception Enhanced, Titan Watchers are able to accurately hurl their axes at their targets. However, their axes do not travel that fast, giving their targets time to get away. In Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals, however, the sole Titan Watcher present simply throws his axes at random.
Behavior[]
| “ | They're always watching | ” |
– Warning graffiti | ||
Chapter 2[]
Deadly Decadence[]
Final Act[]
The Titan Watcher will appear behind the manor after the player goes back to the courtyard. During the fight, it will be constantly throwing giant axes at the player. Gold Watchers and Malak also cooperate with him to kill the player. The player must lure the Titan Watcher into throwing its axes into the locked gate in order to destroy the lock to proceed. After proceeding to the starting area, another Titan Watcher appears behind the portal and begins throwing its axes. The player must maneuver around the many gold watchers, Malak and these axes and escape through the portal.
Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals[]
 "Are you not aware that she offers only lies?" This article contains information on a subject that isn't considered canon in Dark Deception franchise.
|
Before they were implemented in the main game during the release of Dark Deception Enhanced, one Titan Watcher first appeared in Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals as colossal marble versions of Gold Watchers. Unlike its later appearance, this initial form of the Titan Watcher has smoother, more simplistic clothing, lacking any indentations or extruding patterns.
Like other bosses, the Titan Watcher will only become active if a player receives the "Boss Time" item from an Portal Boxes. Once summoned, the Titan Watcher will emerge from behind the manor and lob two giant axes every few seconds into the hedge maze while laughing hysterically. These axes will take down half of the health of any player they strike (and, in some unlucky instances, deal damage twice on contact, resulting in an instant kill). After a minute, the Titan Watcher will retreat behind the manor.
| Team | Bosses |
| Weapon | Great Axe |
| Health | Unkillable |
| Speed | Stationary |
| Damage | 50% of target's health (per axe) |
Themes[]
- This is for the boss character. For the themes of the opulent area they guard, see The Manor.
Symbolism[]
Going by the theory suggesting that each nightmare portal is tied to one of Dante Alighieri's Nine Layers of Hell, with the monsters inside them being manifestations of sin, the Titan Watchers and their underlings, the Gold Watchers, might represent Greed as they were people who pursued wealth and fortune to the exclusion of all else, so much that in the afterlife they sacrificed their humanity to a demonic smelter, leaving their souls to burn eternally within a shell of gold, the very wealth they coveted. They also seem to represent how Doug loved his wealth more than his family (therefore representing the sin of Greed) and would spoil his mistress with expensive gifts and other worldly possessions (namely a new car), all while also viewing his family as nothing more than a financial drain. It is unknown whether the Titan Watchers were never mortals, being simply monsters created by Malak, or were indeed mortals or the combined souls of mortals. Assuming the latter theory, the Titan Watchers may be either the biggest offenders regarding this sin, or each Titan Watcher is an amalgamation of several greedy souls rather than a single person. If that's the case, then the Titan Watchers are likely the souls of corrupted political leaders, businessmen, landlords, and members of the upper-class aristocracy who hoard all of their riches from the poor and abuse their power for the sake of accumulating more wealth, or a collection of greedy people (e.g. most or all of the officials of a corrupt government), which explains why they are much taller, looming over everyone else and even the very Manor entrusted to them. As the judges, juries, and executioners of their domains in life and death, the Titan Watchers essentially make and dictate the laws themselves as they are typically the ones with the highest authority over everything, meaning that anyone beneath them is nothing more than a peasant trying to steal their valuable gold or rebel against them.
A secret room found at the manor in Deadly Decadence is filled with graffiti written on the wall justify Doug's awful actions to his wife and daughter. As the Titan Watchers and their minions are backstabbing, axe-wielding aristocrats who wish to become immortal in some way, shape, or form, this implies that this room is showing Doug's thoughts at the time, either talking himself into carrying out his actions, or following the crooked ideas of his rich new friends when he received a position of wealth to be among them. The Gold Watchers themselves may represent Doug's friends, rich and powerful men that put bad ideas into his head, with the words "Libera Tutemet" (Free Yourself), "THEY HELD YOU BACK", "DON'T CHANGE EVERYTHING", "YOU DESERVE BETTER", and "LET THEM GO" representing how Doug's peers manipulated and convinced him into believing that he does not need his wife and daughter, since their poor mental stability makes them not only useless, but also a burden to Doug's riches and overall life. In the case of the Titan Watchers, they may be a representation of Doug's business partners or the employers who gave Doug his job as a lawyer in the first place.
Fittingly, just like the Titan Watchers, who view themselves as richer than everyone else, Doug's employers are likely the type of people that would blacklist their employees from their company or workplace for an alleged crime they committed (proven or not, they can afford to replace them as soon as their reputation is tainted, or as soon as they feel like it) and axe all connections with him soon afterward to avoid losing all of their wealth and reputation, potentially in the same way Doug's friends convinced him to axe his connections with his family. When Doug was eventually exposed for having allegedly harassed women on five separate occasions (something that his backstabbing friends may or may not have publicly leaked for reasons like entertainment or possibly even competition, as is expected for the power-hungry upper class), he was ostracized, marked as a pariah by the entire legal community that once considered him one of their own, with his so-called peers (and even more so his employers) not only being conspicuously absent in his time of trouble, but also severing all ties to him without a second thought, since their former association with Doug will likely cause them to lose their riches and their reputations as well.
Parallels[]
The process of how Gold Watchers are made mirrors the poetic death of the Roman general and statesman Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of the richest men of ancient times. Like the Gold Watchers, Crassus is obsessed with wealth, which he gained by the usual means of the ancient world (slave trafficking, forcing slaves to work in silver mines, speculative real estate purchases), but also in ways controversial even during his time; he set up a fire brigade in Rome (since fires were common, and Rome had no fire department), but he would only put out the fire if the owner of the burning building sold the property to him for a low price. Once the building is sold to him, Crassus would have the burnt building rebuilt by slaves, then sold at several times the price he got the property for. Crassus was overall willing to bend every possible law to increase his fortune, which rivals the entire annual income of the Roman treasury (totaling around 14 billion U.S. dollars in today's money). In 53 BC, Crassus headed out to conquer the Parthian Empire (an ancient Iranian cultural power) to gain not only riches, but also glory. He was utterly defeated near the ancient town of Carrhae (thus, while known for his riches, he also gained fame in the opposite way, being remembered throughout history as the cause of one of the most catastrophic losses of the Romans), then executed by the Parthians with molten gold poured down his throat to satiate his thirst for wealth (this is unproven, however, as all that is known is that the Parthians beheaded him and used his head as a prop in a play).[1] In a similar way, the Gold Watchers were covered in burning gold so that they could be excruciatingly and eternally bonded to what they wanted the most in life. It is very much possible that Crassus, along with other similar people, were used to form the Titan Watchers, as they were the most avaricious people in history, willing to increase their own wealth by any means necessary, even if it means sacrificing the lives of many and risking the integrity of an entire nation.
Phobias[]
As with most monsters in Dark Deception, Titan Watchers also likely represent various phobias.
| Phobia | Relevance |
|---|---|
| Automatonophobia Fear of Humanoids and/or Robots |
The Titan Watchers and their smaller counterparts, the Gold Watchers, are living statues with the intent to kill "peasants" with their axes. They share their status as a symbol of automatonophobia with members of the Joy Joy Gang (Lucky, Hangry, Penny, Joy Kill) and the Mannequins. |
| Aurophobia Fear of Gold |
The Watchers are golden golems with gold-trimmed clothes guarding a manor full of gold, with the Titan Watchers being the biggest of them all, being twice the height of The Manor. It is reasonable to assume that the Gold Watchers themselves have or are Doug Houser's greed, as shown by several plaques scattered throughout the walls of the manor, with the Titan Watchers representing the greatest extent of this greed. Clearly living the same lavish, opulent, and decadent existence prior to their transformation into statues, the Gold Watchers refer to those who enter their manor as peasants, which not only shows their disregard for the poor, but could also reflect how Doug lived an underprivileged life as a child, and consequently grew to fear and envy the upper class, who, ironic for those who supposedly do not care for the impoverished, may at times like to watch, spy, and jeer at the misfortunes of the lower class for entertainment (just like how the Gold Watchers use their telepathy to know where the player is at all times, no matter how far they are or how many barriers are between them, laughing constantly as they do so), their espionage being yet another thing that they can easily afford. The more powerful ones can loom over people and watch them openly (not caring about the fact that general public know they are watching, because there is nothing that the "peasants" below them can do about it anyway), in the same way as how the Titan Watchers loom over The Manor, watching all that goes on their property unopposed. All these could also represent the protagonist's fear of what he has become; having earned success as a member of a prestigious law firm, Doug likely covered up his other sins with his job as a lawyer, his money, connections, and/or overall status (in essence becoming one of the upperclassmen he once despised and envied), something that, at first, allowed him to revel in his perceived superiority (thus, "He who has gold makes the rules"), but eventually ended up haunting him in his later years. |
| Chrometophobia Fear of Money | |
| Megalophobia Fear of Large Objects and Entities | |
| Plutophobia Fear of Wealth | |
| Scopophobia Fear of Being Watched or Stared At | |
| Thanatophobia Fear of Dying |
Like all monsters in Dark Deception, Titan Watchers brings with them the threat of death due to their abilities and murderous intent. In their specific case, Titan Watchers may represent the fear of losing one's life to the wealthy (either for their amusement or due to the injustices that they can afford to maintain with their power at the expense of the lower class), or the fear of dying because of wealth itself (along with the greed, decadence, and other problems associated with it), which could change individuals for better or worse, something that could potentially harm not only themselves, but also those around them. The Titan Watchers also resemble executioners given their weapon of choice, axes, commonly associated with decapitation. |
Trivia[]
- Prior to Dark Deception Enhanced, a slightly smaller (but still giant) Watcher statue made out of stone (now made of gold in the Enhanced edition) can be found outside the manor in the original "Deadly Decadence" level, looming over the portal, implying that it is alive. It is likely that the Titan Watchers were an idea meant to be an improved form of this originally-static statue.
Voicelines[]
The Titan Watchers (and their smaller counterparts, the Gold Watchers) are voiced by Christopher Corey Smith, who also voices Malak, the Clown Gremlins (and their larger counterparts, the Goliath Clowns), and the protagonist, Doug Houser.
| Voiceline | Used | Audio File |
|---|---|---|
| *Spawn* | When the boss round for "Deadly Decadence" begins. | |
| *Laughing* | While throwing axes. |
|
Gallery[]
Dark Deception[]
Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals[]
.png "Watcher Titan (Open Jaw).png (4.68 MB)")
Misc.[]
.png "Gold Watcher (Marble).png (4.04 MB)")
References[]
[]
