- "Nothing - nothing - is gonna stand between me and my legacy!" - Walt Arnold, Hothead.
Walter "Walt" Arnold was the coach of the Smallville Crows football team and a metahuman with the ability to create and control fire. After his death, he was succeeded by Coach Wayne Quigley.
Personality[]
Despite his distinguished history and reputation of coaching the Smallville Crows, Walt Arnold was shown to be overambitious, short-tempered and an control freak, hence his pyrokinetic abilities. He was prone to outbursts, arrogant and obsessed about winning, believing that the only thing that matters in his life is protecting his legacy and winning his last game. Arnold was also shown to be abusive to his players, especially Trevor Chapell, by burning his arm with his hand. He went to extreme lengths to secure his status as coach; such as providing a midterm for the players, trying to burn James Kwan and Chloe alive to keep them silent about his activities, and even locking Clark in a sauna full of Kryptonite. All these qualities lead to his own fiery demise.
Powers and Abilities[]
Walt using energy projection
- Pyrokinesis: Walt gained the ability to create and control fire from a sauna he received as a gift from the Smallville High Alumni association after his 20 coaching years for the Crows. He used meteor rocks in the sauna, breathed in the hot fumes, and soon developed the ability to control heat and fire. Walt used his powers to make solid objects ignite, to control the direction and rate at which flames would spread, and to somehow set water aflame.
Vulnerabilities[]
Walt becomes so enraged and burns.
Despite being able to create and control fire, Walt was not immune to fire. Eventually, he burned to death using fire he had himself created. It's unknown if regular heat and fire can kill him, as his powers gave the fire a different nature seeing as it could light water on fire.
Early life[]
Walt Arnold was noted to have brought the Crows to victory for over 25 years and had won 200 games. (The game played that episode, which he did not see, was the 200th game that Arnold had won.)
Arnold coached Jonathan Kent when he attended Smallville High and has been using the same techniques since including the phrase "be your own man" to encourage students to play football. Arnold also coached Pete, Pete's father, and Pete's brothers.
Season One[]
Walt talking with the players.
Arnold lit Kwan's car up after the principal threatened to fire Arnold from the job. Kwan would have died if Clark hadn't pulled him out just in time. When a cheating scandal broke out, a football player told Principal Kwan that Walt had given several players on the football team test answers to ensure his team's eligibility to play. After the coach discovered someone had squealed, he gathered them up to intimidate them with his pyrokinetic ability.
Walt uses his skill against Chloe.
However, Chloe Sullivan followed them to the field, getting plenty of pictures of a pyrotechnic sprinkler system. After the coach found out about Chloe's presence at the field, he lit the Torch on fire, frying the computers and destroying the pictures of him from the school hard drive.
Walt burns himself to death.
When Clark confronted Arnold about Arnold's abilities, Arnold locked Clark in the meteor-rock-filled sauna, but Clark broke a window, which caught Jonathan's attention to break into the sauna and release Clark from the room. Walt was defeated when Clark confronted him the second time. During their fight, Clark continued to mock him, causing him to overdo it with the fire, burning himself to death in the process.
Appearances[]
- Season One: Pilot (Mentioned only), Hothead
- Season Four: Devoted (Mentioned only)
- Smallville The Comic: Raptor (Mentioned only)
Notes[]
- Walt was the first freak of the week to actually die. Jeremy Creek electrocuted himself in the Pilot, but survived, while Greg Arkin (who was thought to have died in Metamorphosis) turned into hundreds of bugs and reappeared in the episode Homecoming.
- Coach Arnold was the first adult meteor freak in the series (Jeremy Creek, from the Pilot was 26 but with the body of a 14 year old).
- Arnold was also the first of two Smallville High School faculty members to gain powers from meteor rocks, the second would be Desirée Atkins.
Trivia[]
- Dan Lauria also played a character named "Jack Arnold" on The Wonder Years. Walt's surname, Arnold, is likely an homage to this popular character.
- Walt's powers reflects on his bad temper.
- Walt got his powers from a sauna which also produces heat.
- Walt was the only villain who got killed by his own power.
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Next Coach: Wayne Quigley |