Flutiebear: Rambling My Way Through Thedas

rhiannon42:

I was re-watching some cutscenes from Uncharted 3 (for fic research, obviously), and I noticed that Young!Nate has a man’s watch hooked on his belt. It looks pretty high-quality, which makes me wonder why he hasn’t sold it for some probably much-needed coin. Why is it so important that he’ll keep it but not wear it? Did he steal it and decide he liked it? Did it belong to a family member? Why doesn’t he have it as an adult (I checked through many screenshots to verify that the wristband/watch thing he has is different)? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

And so now I will be mildly obsessed with this tiny detail. Because I am a huge nerd.

My first thought: It was his father’s.

My second thought: It wasn’t his father’s.

My third thought: Not only was the watch not his father’s, it didn’t even look like something his father once owned, or might’ve owned, or would’ve wanted to own. But Nate stole it anyway, because it looked like something he wished his father would’ve owned. It was the kind of object his ideal father would’ve kept on his wrist: someone rich, or smart, or sophisticated; someone who could give him the world; someone who always had the time (for him).

My fourth thought: Young!Nate’s watch is his first attempt to build a fantasy identity for himself, to use talismans to recreate himself in the image of who he wanted to be, rather than what he was handed. It’s, of course, the same thing he does with Francis Drake’s ring later on; he builds up this elaborate lie about his secret ancestry that was so much better than the rotten, broken bloodline he was originally given, a lie so elaborate he eventually begins to believe it. In the case of the watch, young!Nate wanted the worldly, sophisticated father he didn’t get lucky enough to have, so instead he invented him.

My fifth thought: It’s the same watch that shows up on Victor Sullivan’s wrist.

My sixth thought: ITS THE SAME WATCH THAT SHOWS UP ON VICTOR SULLIVAN’S WRIST.