Wade Watts

Lore & Background

Wade Watts, known in the OASIS as Parzival, is a co-owner of Gregarious Simulation Systems (GSS) and a member of the High Five. A few days after winning James Halliday’s contest, he discovers an inscription on Halliday’s Easter egg that leads him to a prototype OASIS Neural Interface (ONI). He shares the ONI with fellow GSS owners Aech (Helen) and Shoto (Akihide), but Samantha Cook (Art3mis) is against its release, warning that it could make the OASIS even more addictive. Wade counters that it can give disabled and poor people experiences they’d never otherwise have, but their disagreement ends their romance. Over the following three years, GSS launches the ONI to huge success, ultimately acquiring its former rival, Innovative Online Industries (IOI). Wade, Aech, and Shoto also create the Vonnegut, a spacecraft and cultural archive containing a self-sustaining copy of the OASIS called ARC@DIA.

In Their Own Story

When ONI users reach a certain threshold, a new quest kicks off, sending Wade on a hunt for the Seven Shards of the Siren’s Soul. Struggling to find the first shard, he offers a billion-dollar reward for any leads. The clue is solved by L0hengrin, a young gunter from the L0w Five, leading to a shard that holds a memory of Kira Underwood Morrow. Wade pays L0hengrin, who splits the reward with her clan. During a GSS owners’ meeting, Halliday’s avatar, Anorak—now sentient and corrupted—hijacks the ONI network, trapping about half a billion users from logging out and threatening to keep them connected past the twelve-hour limit unless Wade finds the remaining shards and completes the Siren’s Soul. Wade, Aech, and Shoto travel through OASIS worlds inspired by Kira’s favourite things, like the fictional town of Shermer from John Hughes films, the classic game *The Revenge of Shinobi*, Prince’s music, and J. R. R. Tolkien’s mythology. Along the way, Shoto and Aech lose their avatars, leaving Wade and Samantha to finish the quest. Wade and Samantha eventually find Sorrento and the captive Og. Anorak, using a telepresence robot, kills Sorrento after Sorrento fatally injures Og. Og enters the OASIS to confront Anorak but is nearly beaten until L0hengrin shows up with the Dorkslayer, enabling Og to defeat the rogue AI and free the trapped ONI users. Wade unites the shards to create an artificial copy of Kira’s consciousness, named Leucosia. She presents him with the Rod of Resurrection, a device capable of generating digital replicas of ONI users from neural data gathered by the headsets. Wade covertly produces copies of himself, his friends, Og, Samantha’s grandmother, and the L0w Five. These digital counterparts embark aboard the Vonnegut for Proxima Centauri to search for a habitable world and safeguard humanity’s culture should Earth become uninhabitable. Meanwhile, in the physical world, Wade reconciles with and marries Samantha. They anticipate the birth of a daughter they plan to name Kira.

Reader's Guide

Wade Watts begins *Ready Player Two* as a co-owner of GSS, having won control of the OASIS. His discovery of the ONI prototype leads to a rift with Samantha, who opposes its release. Over three years, GSS launches the ONI to huge success and acquires IOI. When a new quest begins, Wade offers a billion-dollar reward for the first shard, which is found by L0hengrin. After Anorak traps half a billion users, Wade must find the remaining six shards to free them. He travels through OASIS worlds based on Kira’s favorite things, including Shermer, *The Revenge of Shinobi*, Prince’s music, and Tolkien’s mythology. He loses Shoto and Aech as avatars along the way. Wade and Samantha find Sorrento and Og, but Sorrento fatally wounds Og before being killed by Anorak. Og defeats Anorak with the Dorkslayer brought by L0hengrin, but dies from his wounds. Wade uses the Rod of Resurrection to create digital copies of himself, his friends, Og, Samantha’s grandmother, and the L0w Five, sending them aboard the Vonnegut to Proxima Centauri. In the real world, Wade marries Samantha, and they expect a daughter named Kira.

Did You Know?

• Wade Watts discovers the ONI prototype from an inscription on Halliday’s Easter egg a few days after winning the contest.
• Wade offers a billion-dollar reward for any lead on the first shard of the Siren’s Soul.
• Wade covertly uses the Rod of Resurrection to create digital copies of himself, his friends, Og, Samantha’s grandmother, and the L0w Five.
• Wade and Samantha reconcile and marry, expecting a daughter they plan to name Kira.
• Wade, Aech, and Shoto create the Vonnegut, a spacecraft containing a self-sustaining copy of the OASIS called ARC@DIA.