| Walter C. Dornez | |
|---|---|
| Hellsing character | |
| First appearance | Hellsing Vol 1 |
| Created by | Kouta Hirano |
| Voiced by | Japanese Motomu Kiyokawa Romi Paku (Young) English Ralph Lister |
| Profile | |
| Aliases | The Joker, Shinigami (Angel of Death in english translations) |
| Species | Artificial Vampire,formerly human |
| Affiliations | Millennium Hellsing Organization British Crown |
Walter C. Donnelly Dornez (ウォルター・C（クム）・ドルネーズ Worutā C. (kumu) Dorunēzu) is a fictional character in the Hellsing anime and manga series created by Kouta Hirano. Walter is a member of an organization called Millennium. He previously served as a member of the Hellsing Organization, and also as the retainer of the Hellsing family. In the TV and OVA series, his voice actor is Motomu Kiyokawa and his younger version is voiced by Romi Paku, and the English dub is by Ralph Lister.
Walter is by far the most controversial character among fans, who were unhappy about the treatment and execution of his storyarc.
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He was born in either late 1929 or 1930. The place of his birth is unknown. Walter has lived with the Hellsing family for perhaps his entire life. It is known that Walter was educated at Balliol College, Oxford (where Arthur Hellsing and Sir Hugh Irons were educated) after World War II, and read philosophy and politics. Hellsing: The Dawn records Walter and Alucard (in the body of a little girl) storming Millennium's base during World War II in Warsaw, Poland, and putting an end to their first attempt at creating an army of artificial vampires.
In modern times, Walter serves primarily as Integra's butler and also makes special weapons for use by Hellsing's vampires, Alucard and Seras Victoria. However, he is still one of the organization's most capable operatives, wielding high-velocity monomolecular wires with incredible skill and precision. Walter's efficiency and power was so great that he earned the nickname the "Angel of Death," and even at the age of 69, Walter can still rip his way through hordes of the undead. In the manga, he also helps Integra make numerous difficult choices that Alucard occasionally poses, such as whether or not to kill innocent humans in order to achieve mission objectives.
His overall attitude during his pre-vampiric time seemed to be one of proud resignation to the fact that he was becoming old, and was not as effective a fighter as he once had been. When Alucard tells him how growing old must be terrible, Walter tells him that "If we cannot have our pride with prosperity, then we should reject such prosperity", enforcing the position that Walter is proud of being human, and would not embrace the prosperity of vampiric immortality because it would mean sacrificing that pride. Ultimately however, it seems that his fear of becoming useless overcame his sense of pride, as his ultimate wish is to become "a shinigami [God of Death] in body, mind and soul". To this end, he attempts to destroy Alucard in order to prove his capabilities to himself.
In the latest developments of the main Hellsing storyline, Walter is captured by The Captain of the Millennium Organization during their invasion of England. He has gone through a similar process to the Major and the Doc's troops (although hastily conducted, according to the Doc), and now appears forty or so years younger, serving as Millennium's new secret weapon (when the Major sees the finished product, he remarks "It was determined 55 years ago that you would join us"). Walter himself does not add many more details, both affirming he was brainwashed to fight Hellsing, and that he is fighting of his own free will against Alucard. In Volume 9 of Hellsing, Walter has leaped from his perch on one of Alucard's stakes to confront him, crushing what was left of Alexander Anderson underfoot, saying that people become trash once they are dead, and that trash should not be mourned for. He then tells everyone he was brainwashed and rejuvenated. When Seras intervenes, Walter asks if she would like more the explanation that he is fighting of his own free will against Alucard. Enraged by his desecration of Father Anderson's remains, Yumie attacks him, but is easily outmatched and cut into pieces in a single move. After listening as Walter explains himself, Alucard criticizes his decision, saying that his old, aged body was many times more beautiful than his new, unnaturally youthful one. He also makes ironic use of the statement "If we cannot have our prosperity with pride then we should reject such prosperity". This comment was made by Walter, but referenced by Alucard to mock Walter's hypocrisy regarding his fear of becoming old and useless. Also, during Walter's brief fight with the Captain, the Major's dialogue seems to imply his previous remark meant he had made the choice to forcefully draft Walter into Millennium ever since witnessing his feats of power during WWII.
In the TV series, Walter is never artificially rejuvenated, instead saving Integra and then crashing in a helicopter. He later appears on a stretcher and mentions Alucard as "the true immortal vampire." However, the TV series does not follow the plot of the manga, as the Major and Millennium do not exist in it.
Although a human for the majority of his life, Walter possessed tremendous combat skill on par with or exceeding many supernatural beings. During the initial Millennium assault on Hellsing, he dispatched a large force of ghouls with ease and confidently engaged an artificial vampire. Also, during the first attempted Millennium takeover of Sir Penwood's military coupound, he managed to defeat an entire unit of artificial vampires armed with automatic weapons without taking a single step. As a 14 year old boy, he managed to hold his own against the Captain for a good portion of their fight. His headbutt to the Captain's face actually injured the werewolf, and he was even quick enough to wrap his wires around the Captain's neck (though neither attack had any lasting effect). Particularly, he was able to withstand punches from the Captain, even though an impact resulting from Seras and the Captain punching each other's fists at the same time blew off both their arms. This opens the possibility that Walter had some physical enhancement as a human; a punch to the head or gut from the Captain would have killed any normal human and probably most vampires, yet Walter withstood both one after the other. Alternately, it is possible that the Captain's later enhancements were much improved over those from 1944 (however, judging from the fact that Walter's wires had exactly the same effect on him in 1944 as they did in 1999, this is rather unlikely).
His speed and agility are of particular note, and even in his old age he was able to dodge bullets from assault rifles. In his youth, Walter displayed great acrobatic skill and even as a senior citizen he still can perform exceptional feats of balance and coordination. His strength is also considerable, when the transformed Walter first appears in the manga, his micro-filaments wrap around several buildings and slice them in half, with no evidence of any physical strain on Walter's part.
Walter's primary weapons are a set of very long microfilament razor wires, which he controls as if they were extensions of his own body. The wires are sharp enough to slice through steel and concrete with no trouble though he can use them to bind and restrain targets without damaging them. Also, he can create extensive movements of the wires with very little bodily movement; a simple hand gesture can enable him to cut down scores of foes. When turned into an artificial vampire by Millennium, all of his abilities were restored to their full extent and augmented far beyond it. In his final battle with Alucard, he demonstrated previously unseen abilities with his wires, including stopping a high fall (slicing several buildings in half in the process), forming mesh shields to block bullets, and binding targets and controlling them as puppets.
Formidable as his new form was, the rushed and flawed transformation procedure rendered his body highly unstable. This manifested by his growing increasingly younger until he resembled his fourteen year-old self. At this point, he could no longer withstand bodily harm, and later his right arm crumbled apart. In his final moments before dying, he reverted to his original, aged body.
Walter's middle initial, C., is pronounced in full in the OVA series as "クム" (kumu). "クム" also accompanies the "C" as furigana in chapter 74, Relics. This is the Japanese transliteration of the Latin word "cum", which means "with". There is much disagreement over the romanization of his surname, with the most common variants being Dorne, Dornez, Dornes, Dolnez, and Dollneaz. This is confused even more by the addition of a second "d" in some variants of his name (i.e. Ddollneaz), as on the back cover of the original Japanese version of manga vol.4 Walter's name is written: "Walter Cumm Ddollneazz." The American manga release by Dark Horse reveals his name as "Walter C. Dornez" in Volume 2.
Walter's prototype was in Daidoujin Monogatari along with Heinkel Wolfe.
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