Darwin Watterson

Darwin Raglan Caspian Ahab Poseidon Nicodemius Watterson III is one of the main characters in The Amazing World of Gumball. He used to be Gumball's pet goldfish, but one day he grew legs, gained the ability to speak, and generally adapted to life outside of water so he was adopted by the Watterson family.

Appearance
Darwin is a goldfish with arms and legs. His goldfish-shaped head takes up his entire body, with his fins and legs hanging down from it. He has retained his goldfish tail and fins, the latter of which he now uses as arms and hands. His legs are much longer than his body, ending with plain feet matching the color and texture of the rest of his body. Usually, though, he covers them with green and white sneakers. Darwin is also shown to have a bubbly butt on the back of his head, as revealed in the official trailer. A common misconception in Season 1 was that he also wore a black shirt as well as pants, but that was actually just a shadow cast by his big head.

Darwin apparently has thick coatings of blubber, making him resistant to massive pain, as he is shown unharmed in "The Responsible" after a painful face-first slap on a concrete sidewalk from way up in the air. The blubber's depth is about the length of Gumball's arm, as shown in "The DVD", where Gumball had to sink his whole arm into Darwin's head just to reach his cheekbone. Darwin also thinks he has perfect skin as shown in "The DVD". Darwin is shown naked in "The Meddler" without his shoes, but his feet are censored for some strange reason, possibly as a joke due to the fact that he only wears shoes. His feet were also shown in "The Goons", "The Skull", "The Club", and "The Dream", but uncensored. In "The Dream", he says that he considers his feet worthy of a censor because it is the only place he wears clothes.

In season 2, Darwin gets a redesign. His black shadow is more transparent, almost to the point where it's not noticeable. Also, his legs get slightly fatter, and he loses one eyelash on each eye (two on each eye instead of three). Like Gumball, his eyes are more round. Also, Darwin's personality has slightly changed; from being cheerful and clueless, to being easily angered, especially in "The Words". He seems to have an intense cruelty, as shown in "The Banana". His voice also started to sound slighty deeper, and whenever he screams, his voice squeaks, this is probably because of Kwesi Boakye, his voice actor, entering puberty.

Personality
Due to his sudden entrance into the world, his perspective of it is somewhat skewed and naive. He has trouble understanding many situations. Often people have to point out his misconceptions and faults, such as the time he didn't know the definition of dates and when he used a DVD as a pizza cutter.

Darwin is an overall happy person, sharing his best friend Gumball's optimistic view of life. His cheery personality shows in several episodes, most notably in "The Flower", where he was immune to the effects of Jealousy due to being completely satisfied with his life. It takes a lot to trigger a negative reaction from him, but when provoked far enough, he can get very intense. A good example is in "The Banana", where he trashed Banana Joe's locker and threatened grievous bodily harm to him, all in retaliation for his pen being chewed and his homework getting ripped. Incentives also seem to fuel him up, like in "The Fridge", where he repeatedly smashed a ball into Gumball's face, all for the sake of a top spot on the fridge.

Darwin's happiness may just be a facade, though, as in "The Words", it is shown that people actually annoy him a lot; he just hesitates to tell them off. With help from Gumball, though, he begins telling people, often with intense hostility, everything he hates about them. Another example is in "The Limit"; when Darwin, Gumball and Anais were all sulking and upset over having their day wasted going to the mall without any treats, Darwin wanted to retaliate against Nicole for this by destroying the car and tricking her into believing the three all died in it.

He also has poor memory, likely based on the misconception that fish have a memory of only three seconds. To him, basic spelling is complex, and the only numbers he knows are 2, 7, and 9. Also, in "The Mystery" he fails to remember anything he did the day before, while all of his other classmates remembers clearly.

Despite being humanlike, Darwin still sleeps in his fishbowl; however, because he has grown in size, he gets rather squished in there. He also still seems fond of fish flakes, as shown in "The Responsible" and "The Picnic". Other foods he enjoys are cookies, chips, and ice cream.

Throughout the series, Darwin has referred to Richard and Nicole as "Mr. Dad" and "Mrs. Mom" although at some points, he calls them "Mom" and "Dad". Whether this is because he shows more respect for them than a child would, or just the fact that he has some doubts of them being his "parents" is anyone's guess.

Darwin falls in love at first sight with anything that wears a pretty dress. An example of that would be in "The Dress", where he saw Gumball in a dress and completely fell in love, thinking he was a girl. At that time, he was so in love that he said to the "girl": "I love you", and a photo of him trying to kiss "her" was shown. When the dress later fell onto a fire hydrant, Darwin then fell in love with it.

Humorously, Darwin appears to be somewhat of a ladies' man. He has already had three romantic encounters: one with Masami, another with Rachel, and a third with Carrie. Masami chose him as her fake boyfriend, and even went so far as to kiss him. Rachel gave him a kiss on the cheek after he cheered her up at her party. Carrie received a spontaneous kiss from him, with him saying that he has wanted to do that for a long time. He's also shown to be somewhat smooth as to talking to women as shown in "The Bet", when Bobert repeated what Darwin told him to say, Tina was seduced.

In Season 2, Darwin is shown to be angered very easily and resort to acts of violence.

Also in Season 2, Darwin becomes more conscientious, as he would sometimes call Gumball out for his wrongdoings, such as his taking advantage of Bobert in "The Bet", and his being insensitive to Banana Joe in "The Promise". As stated in "The Sidekick", Gumball considers Darwin his "guardian," meaning he is the one who keeps him from making bad decisions.

Voice Actors

 * Kwesi Boakye (US/UK/AUS/CAN, season 1-2)
 * Terrell Ransom Jr. (US/UK/AUS/CAN, season 3)
 * Yumiko Kobayashi (Japan)
 * Andrea Di Maggio (Italy)
 * Iván Sánchez (Spain)
 * Ghadi Hakeem (Arab world)
 * Bergen Coşkun (Turkey)
 * Yago Machado (Brazil)
 * Sacha Capelluto (France, season 1)
 * Tim Belasri (France, season 2)
 * Gerardo Mendoza (Latin America)
 * Noah Nikolaisen (Norway)

Trivia

 * According to an interview with Ben Bocquelet, Darwin was originally designed for a show where mythical animals hid in a child's backyard. When the show wasn't produced, he added Darwin to the show because he liked his design.
 * Darwin seems to be multilingual, as he spoke a complex Chinese sentence in "The DVD" and spoke French in "The Treasure", though the latter may only have been a temporary ability gained through hypnosis.
 * Darwin can breathe in water, but he is shown to hold his breath and resurface for air in "The Pressure". He possibly does this for the sake of fitting in.
 * Darwin's blubber protects him from a lot of damage.
 * In Project Exonaut, Darwin is available as an exosuit for 1,000 coins.
 * In "The Dress", we see that he uses his left hand when he's drawing Gumball in the dress. However, he does other common tasks with his right hand. This suggests that he may be ambidextrous. It might be a development oversight as well.
 * Darwin's shadow was changed in Season 2 so people wouldn't mistake it for a shirt.
 * On an exclusive video on the official "Elmore Stream-It" YouTube page, it is revealed that Darwin can exhale for much longer than Gumball can.
 * Apart from Gumball, Darwin is the only character in the series who has made an appearance in every episode to date.
 * As stated in "The Spoon", the only numbers he knows are 2, 7, and 9. This may have changed though.
 * According to the episode "The Secret", Darwin cannot use the bathroom unless Gumball whistles for him.
 * Darwin's name is most likely based on the scientist Charles Darwin, who gained fame for his theory of evolution. A fish with legs or a "Darwin fish" is also considered somewhat of a universal symbol for Darwinism.
 * Poseidon, one of Darwin's many middle names, is a reference to Poseidon (known as Neptune in Roman mythology), the god of the seas from Greek mythology.
 * Ahab, another of Darwin's middle names, is a reference to Captain Ahab, an sea captain obsessed with killing the white whale Moby-Dick in the book of the same name.
 * Caspian, another of Darwin's middle names it likely a reference to The Caspian Sea, the world's largest enclosed body of water.
 * Darwin most likely has the longest name out of any character. He has seven names (including his first and last; not including the third) as shown in "The Party".
 * Darwin has a habit of standing in his seat as opposed to sitting down.
 * According to "The Goons", Darwin is Richard's favorite child.
 * Darwin was originally a CGI animated character, but this was changed later on because of the difficulties of having a major character animated in this fashion.
 * In "The Party", Darwin claims to be part suckerfish.
 * Darwin is quite athletic. He can run much faster than both Anais and Gumball, as shown in "The Quest", "The Kiss" and "The Remote", can climb faster than Gumball, and is a skilled swimmer.
 * He calls Nicole and Richard "Mrs. Mom" and "Mr. Dad", instead of just calling them "Mom" and "Dad".
 * Darwin has been known to be very polite in several episodes, especially during the first season.
 * In "The Words", it is revealed he's bald, although in "The Refund" it is shown that he can grow leg hair.
 * Darwin's head has exploded at least six times, three of those times happen in "The Plan".
 * Darwin's butt has been shown at least four times in the series, five times if you count the trailer.
 * In "The Bet", it is revealed that it took Darwin five years to learn facial expressions, and he still has some trouble recognizing them.
 * Darwin is a goldfish that grew legs and arms; this may be a reference to the movie Ponyo.
 * Darwin is the only Watterson that isn't a mammal or even biologically related.
 * In "The Hero", it was revealed that he was given to Gumball as a Christmas present. It is also revealed that he had his legs from a very young age.
 * His Cartoon Network description reads "Darwin used to be the family pet until he sprouted legs and became one of the Wattersons. He's innocent, naive, and Gumball's best friend."
 * In "The Flower", when Jealousy tried to posses Darwin, he said he was happy with his life and then expelled him, meaning Darwin might be immune to Jealousy.
 * In "The Game", it is revealed that he is the third of the several fishes named "Darwin" that the Wattersons have owned, hence his name.
 * In "The Internet", Darwin is shown to be good at playing the ukelele.
 * In "The Meddler", Darwin's bare feet are pixelated when he is taking a shower, but in other episodes, his feet are not pixelated when not wearing shoes as shown in "The Club" when he is swimming and also in "The Goons" when he is toe wrestling Richard.
 * In "The Dress", Darwin draws Gumball really good. This could mean Darwin is an expert artist. However in "The Mustache", his drawing somewhat resembles a four-year old's drawing.
 * According to the episode "Halloween", Darwin has samhainophobia, a fear of Halloween.
 * According to a recent interview, Darwin was inspired by Ben Bocquelet's childhood friend, Paul.