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Why is Walter always smiling? It seems out of place


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For many years, all the survivors of Don't Starve were individuals with a murky past or bizarre behavior, grotesque appearance and did not inspire any trust. 
Why do we now find ourselves with Walter, a neat and smart boy, with sound principles, always well-disposed, always cheerful, optimistic and smiling? He seems alien compared to the other characters and out of place with the depressing atmosphere that Don't Starve had for so many years.

You suggest making Walter less attractive and more frowning, highlighting the struggle of a person dragged into the Constant and subjected to the horrors of this realm.

Before...

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image.png.71d56a948760f305544cbd13c6315dfc.pngimage.png.b7ac04223070d682a17928bf0f3ee67f.png
Now...

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25 minutes ago, Pop Guy said:

highlighting the struggle of a person dragged into the Constant and subjected to the horrors of this realm.

Do you think he actually cares about the "horror of this realm"?

 

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He is indeed alien compared to the rest of these poor fools and that's the point.
he's a kid who's fearless who enjoys thrills of the unknown and horror stories. The Constant is like a playground for him. That's why he's smiling. He, unlike the rest of the cast is happy to be here in a place where monsters actually exist. There's nothing for him to be frowning over.

If it matters so much, then use his survivor skin.

 

2 hours ago, Pop Guy said:

For many years, all the survivors of Don't Starve were individuals with a murky past or bizarre behavior, grotesque appearance and did not inspire any trust. 
Why do we now find ourselves with Walter, a neat and smart boy, with sound principles, always well-disposed, always cheerful, optimistic and smiling? He seems alien compared to the other characters and out of place with the depressing atmosphere that Don't Starve had for so many years.

You suggest making Walter less attractive and more frowning, highlighting the struggle of a person dragged into the Constant and subjected to the horrors of this realm.

Before...

image.png.826426670ea76a8c32dba0c4cac51a42.png

image.png.71d56a948760f305544cbd13c6315dfc.pngimage.png.b7ac04223070d682a17928bf0f3ee67f.png
Now...

image.png.6ec710a2d68b6dce6106a129655f433e.pngimage.png.fb67c9402778efb6dfb63b19d424f560.png

 

It's probably because when compared to the other survivors Walter was just lucky or as lucky as a survivor can be. So in the known order of events all the survivors except Wilson, Walter, and maybe Wanda (though her entry point is sketchy due to time travel) enter the constant first without any of Wilson's inventions this means no science or magic to assist them as canonically Wilson made those. They die and revive endlessly until Wilson shows up then he dies and revives too until he eventually beats Maxwell.

After various other events happen the survivors become far more experienced at surviving and trigger the events of return of them after they're more settled in the world. Then this is the point when Walter enters the constant as someone oblivious to danger, being somewhat protected from it by Woby, and being the only survivor with survival skills prior to the constant, then to top it all off he meets the survivors who are experienced in this world. That's not to say he didn't die it probably did happen off screen at some points but of all the survivors he's likely faced the least troubles of the cast in his stay while his personality likely kept him better mentally put together as well in his own way.

 

To summarize Walter came late to the party but was the best equiped to survive, immediately had a partner to keep him out of trouble to an extent, likely met the experienced survivors shortly after, and has a personality that helps him ignore the gravity of his situation which is likely why he can remain smiling. He's the only survivor who wasn't just thrown into the wild with no survival skills and forced to survive alone.

If it really bugs you, get a mod that lets you change your character's appearance to that of another one (I use Disguise Rod since it works on modded characters). I can make any character (except Woodie and Wolfgang due to their transformation mechanics) into a cute anthro that way! But it also makes Walter's smile not an issue if that bugs you.

He is too immature to comprehend what's going on. He has a naive childish outlook on everything and is overly positive, thinking nothing will go wrong. That's why he loses sanity while injured, it breaks his illusion.

In other words, he's just a chill guy. He's vibing. 

14 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

It's probably because when compared to the other survivors Walter was just lucky or as lucky as a survivor can be. So in the known order of events all the survivors except Wilson, Walter, and maybe Wanda (though her entry point is sketchy due to time travel) enter the constant first without any of Wilson's inventions this means no science or magic to assist them as canonically Wilson made those. They die and revive endlessly until Wilson shows up then he dies and revives too until he eventually beats Maxwell

When was it stated that Wilson came to the constant later?

Every character revolves around some kind of mental disorder.  Walter is insane similar to Wigfrid - a humble child living in his adventure dreams stereotype.
It's all fun and games for Walter until he gets slapped in the face by a humongous bear resulting in biggest reality check in his life.

His design choice of literally going insane over being hurt is a bit annoying but absolutely genius lore-wise - made to justify him running around with biggest over-confident poo-eating grin in the world compared to other characters with that depressed thousand' yards stare 24/7. 

4 hours ago, aidankocherhans said:

When was it stated that Wilson came to the constant later?

from a timeline made by Kevin Forbes a long, long time ago (it's also how we know about Wagstaff first before he appeared)

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