Handler Walter - The Making of a Hero

Walter is a character who seeks death, but ultimately chooses life.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:58 Walter's Introduction
07:00 Walter's Mystery
13:28 A Character Who Cares
17:48 True Motivations
25:45 Who Would Burn the World

[bclxprss]

I actually think that Walter deliberately chooses victims of early gen augmentations as his hounds. Not out of desperation, but to give them "a reason to live" as he says in the story trailer. To give them a slim hope to fix themselves or failing that, to give them a chance to strike back at "the carnival of horrors" that his father unleashed

[threesofthree]

Nothing in the game broke my heart quite as much as hearing Walter say with his dying breath: "Look at you... 621... you found a friend..."

[Xelkyr]

Walter's emblem is also a subtle but fascinating insight into his character. It's a hand with leashes. But if you look closely, it's not a human hand. It's a puppet hand. And it's not actually holding the leashes. It's bound up in them. Like Walter, at first glance it seems domineering and dehumanizing. But the more you look at it the sadder it becomes and the more you realize what Walter considers himself to be.

[richardrussel]

Biggest twist in armored core was walter NOT betraying 621. The game really made it seem like he would, when in reality it was 621 who would do the betraying

[swiftstrike]

The amount of irritation Walter showed when Rusty mentioned 621 be a walking advertisement for Arquebus really caught me off guard. That was when I really became invested with his way of doing things.

[andrewrogers]

Walter is probably the best written character in the entire game.

[wayroad]

Wild how well everyone is characterized without ever showing what they look like.

[Raptor]

I love how Ayre gives Walter respect and sympathy in the end. She understands why he would try to wipe out her people, how he views it as a tragedy made necessary by an unavoidable reality, and how, in the end, he is fighting to protect humanity like Ayre wants to protect the Coral. And when Walter ultimately decides to stop fighting, to encourage 621, and acknowledge Ayre as a friend of his friend, she sees how even someone who sought to destroy her and her people can still be worth trying to save (even if it is risky).

[RobotPanda]

In the fight with Walter where Ayre basically screams at both of you to stop... thats one of the most impactful lines in dialogue ive heard in a long time. You've already done your job. The Xylem was disabled and crashing to the ground. The fight between Raven and Walter was pointless, and Ayre knows how meaningless it was. Truly a heartbreaking scene

[ashenhunter]

It’s weird how people say this game doesn’t have much of a story, I was more invested in this story than I was in Elden Ring

[jesterscircus.]

Every time I die to ibis, walter always says it shouldn’t end this way. Not exact words which tells me he’s more human than he wants to admit

[bendonatier]

An odd thing with Walter and Rusty, is that they really don't care what you want, just that you want it. Rusty demands you have a reason, and when you show one he is ready to stand at your side, or face you as an equal, proud to know that it's there. Walter wants you to help him and wants to take care of you so that you see him as a friend, and when he see's that you've found a friend, even if it isn't a friend in him, he's happy for you. I can't tell whether it's childish or wholesome just how happy for you they are that you've made a choice, even if that choice will kill countless souls.

[CoolDude]

Friendly reminder: Walter continuously sticks up for you, offers handing you over to the Redguns with Michigan (assumed to be a longtime friend of his) for a better life, and in the endgame fight with him, wants you to take all the credits to reverse the Augmentations to live normally.

Best thing about him, is that he lets you exercise freedom in what you want to do. You can tell that in the Intercept the Redguns Mission where you take on Balam and G1 Michigan, that Walter just tells you to get it done and there’s nothing more for him to say. He knows you’ve taken the job to take out his friend, and he doesn’t want to stand in your way, and instead supports your decision despite how broken up he is about it. Even when going the ALLMIND route, he isn’t mad that you’re betraying him and his wishes. He knows you’ve made the choice, so he accepts it and gives you one last compliment about how you’re now his “biggest threat.”

[anuragpradhan]

Your first line, is on spot.

In the LoR ending, it is implied that he just a torso strapped into the HAL AC - even then, all he is screaming about is that we need to take all the money and reverse the augmentations.

Because he has 4th gen augmentations done to him, he can see Ayre and thus, he realises why we are fighting against him.

"Look at you, 621, you found a friend." Made me tear up slightly. It felt like a good bye from a respected teacher. He understood why we fought against his wishes, and I in turn, wish to understand why he made his choices - its the least he deserves from 621.

[procrastinatingphoenix]

So I think what the story trailer and Walter's "did what it took to get us here" was attacking a PCA base to draw their attention somewhere that isn't Rubicon's orbit. Make a lot of noise to distract them. Could be wrong but that's what makes sense to me.

I love how Walter take little digs at Snail, calling him "deputy commander" just to remind him Freud can pull rank at any time.

I think Walter might be a bit of a Michigan fanboy (good choice). Like how some people have particular sports players they love to follow. He just sounds more normal/casual when taking to Michigan and seems genuinely disappointed when you take the job to kill him.

[MountainKing]

When you mentioned Walter being fatherly, I'm surprised you didnt bring up an early line with the Redguns.

"Gun 13? I'll stick with 621. Don't let the Redguns teach you bad manners."

Genuinely a cute moment from him early on.

[aickavon]

Small correction. 621 isn't incapable of speech. They can talk. This is confirmed after meeting Ayre where Walter comments that we (off screen) told him we could hear a voice in our head. A lady in our head calls us studmuffin.

[jimboslam]

If you get beaten by CEL he yells "Not like this!!" Which really surprised me the first (out of countless times) I heard it. It sounds like he was more upset about 621 being done in than the mission being failed. Walter was a solid dude even his emblem is interesting. A arm with bands wrapped around it. Like he "pulls the strings" or hes holding on to something and something is holding on to him.
The amount of character development with such little but efficient dialog is something i am absolutely amazed by.

[wither]

Walter is very much the ''i cant form an attachment to them even though i love them'' trope and we love him for it.

[brynshannon]

Walter was without a shadow of a doubt one of my favourite characters in all of Armored Core. Ayre too, actually, because she's UNUSUALLY nice for an AC character. I still wish there was somehow an outcome where Walter, Ayre, Carla, and Raven could have reached an understanding and made it through together.