Death, also known as the Wolf, is the overarching antagonist of DreamWorks' 43rd full-length animated film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a spin-off of the Shrek franchise.
As his name suggests, he is the physical embodiment of death who takes the form of a white wolf in a black hooded cloak. During the events of the film, Death is personally intent on killing the legendary Puss in Boots once and for all as punishment for carelessly wasting eight of his nine lives and thus starting a tormenting hunt against Puss, this despite going against his duty and boundaries by his own admission.
Physical appearance[]
Death appears to be an anthropomorphic silvery-white wolf with an elongated snout, a gray "mask" marking on his face, sharp teeth, and large, round eyes that have jet black sclera and bright red irises that glow when he's excited. He wears a black cloak with a built-in hood, and brown trousers under the cloak. He also has brownish-gray wraps around his wrists and calves, and carries a pair of razor-sharp sickles that can be combined at the handle and extended to form a double-bladed scythe. Each sickle can be bent inwards for compact holstering or be use as brass knuckles which he used to break one of the crystals. Both sickles have eight cat heads crossed out on them, referring to Puss's eight past lives.
While characters such as Puss in Boots or the Three Bears Crime Family resemble real-life animals (cats and bears, respectively), in Death's case, however, he is much more anthropomorphic/humanoid than what a real-life wolf would look like, and his assumed form resembles less a wolf, but a more classical depiction of a werewolf.
Personality[]
Death is a cunning and sinister individual whose sole purpose is to take the souls of the dead. Although he waits in the shadows for people to die naturally, if someone angers or offends him enough, he will physically manifest in order to attempt to take their life by force.
Death is sadistic and thrill-seeking, as he takes a degree of pride and pleasure in his job, and openly admits that he enjoys striking fear into his victims. This is shown by the pleasure he took in scaring and provoking Puss in Boots with his taunts, eerie whistling, and his very presence, and how he got especially excited when he managed to draw blood on the cat. Death also admits to having a dislike of cats and the fact that they all have nine lives, finding the very idea to be "absurd".
Despite Death's sadistic and sinister nature, he does have a sense of honor and nobility, as his main reason for pursuing Puss in the first place was to punish the cat for arrogantly squandering his eight lives with reckless abandon, concluding from this that it would be best to kill Puss before he wasted his final life. Not to mention Puss often declared that he "laughed in the face of death", therefore Death was insulted and disrespected by Puss for his claims of false immortality as well as his deeds in wasting his lives. This indicates that despite representing the end of mortal life, Death holds life sacred and is disgusted by those who don't treat their own lives with true appreciation or care and believe they live forever. He also has a sense of fair play, as he always gives Puss the chance to fight back whenever they encountered each other, even giving Puss's old sword back to him for their final duel on the Wishing Star. This suggests Death prefers to give fair fights for those who challenge him, but his comments about how much he would enjoy taking Puss out from the realm of the living seems to indicate that he may have brought him his sword back just for sport, finding it more entertaining to see Puss fight rather than just surrender.
When Puss finally stops running from him and instead fights him while promising to respect his final life with his friends, Death, although initially enraged that Puss has changed and thus "ruined his hunt", quickly calms down and recognizes that killing him now would be pointless and unethical. Thus, Death honorably decides to let Puss live out his final life, respectfully biding the cat to live his last life well before warning Puss that they will meet again eventually when his life finally comes to a permanent end. This all but proves that Death isn't unbeatable, even if he is unavoidable in the long run.
Overall, Death is best described as a harsh, but fair and reasonable individual who takes his job seriously, enjoys a thrilling challenge and is more than happy to mete out severe punishment against those who disrespect him and his job, but doesn't kill just for the sake of doing so and is able to respect and spare those who prove him wrong.
while on Sora's team he felt sorry for innocent lives so he redeemed his actions by helping all the heroes who wanted to change for the better, especially him becoming a teacher for Class 3-E, and other heroes to understand how protecting each other's lives is a matter of which is justified.
Powers and Abilities[]
| “ | Everyone thinks they'll be the one to defeat me. But no one's escaped me yet. | „ |
| ~ Death teasing his true identity to Puss. |
Being the physical embodiment of death, a natural universal phenomenon that is inevitable for every living thing, Death possesses vast physical and supernatural power. He is an exceptionally skilled and powerful fighter, being able to hold his own very well against the legendary swordsman Puss in Boots, and is one of the very few that can match the cat's speed and agility. In fact, Death is the only known individual who has ever managed to draw blood on Puss with a blade.
Death is very strong, being able to smash crystals with his blades and push one over with no effort at all, and has some amount of control over fire, which was shown by him conjuring a ring of fire around himself and Puss for their final duel. He is also unaffected by usually dangerous or lethal traps, shown by him being completely unaffected by the Dark Forest and effortlessly passing through the star wall, which totally vaporized one of the Baker's Dozen prior. He also has the ability to appear and disappear whenever and wherever he chooses. This is shown by how Death appears various times to Puss in Boots, with no sound other than his iconic whistle.
- Supernatural Strength: Death is shown to be very strong, being able to smash large crystals with his blades with no effort at all, and physically overpower Puss during their fights, even effortlessly restraining him with just one hand.
- Supernatural Durability: Death is also shown to be very durable, taking two direct attacks from Puss In Boots without injury.
- Supernatural Speed and Reflexes: Death is as fast as he is strong. His reactionary speed is great to where he is one of the very few that can match the cat's speed and agility, having outpaced him and even mocked him for his efforts during their first confrontation. Death's agility is also impressive given his wolf form is about 5 times Puss's small size.
- Sickle Proficiency: Perhaps his trademark ability is his skill with the dual sickles he wields. In battle, he swings his sickles with lethal force, able to cleave through wood and metal with little effort. He can also combine his sickles into a dual-headed glaive whenever he faces a worthy opponent. Death not only matches, but also exceeds Puss's swordsmanship. In fact, Death is the only known individual who has ever managed to draw blood from Puss with a blade.
- Pyrokinesis: A minor but effective ability, Death has some amount of control over fire, which was shown by him conjuring a ring of fire around himself and Puss for their final duel.
- Soul Reading: Being the harvester of souls, Death has the power to peer into a person's soul and see who they truly are, however they might deny it or are ignorant of their own true natures, as he saw for himself that Puss in Boots, whom he had labeled an "arrogant little legend who he thought he was immortal", but no longer saw that in Puss at the end of their last duel.
- Invisibility: Being the harvester of souls, Death is shown to be invisible and soundless whenever he wants to be. This is shown multiple times during his encounters with Puss as the cat is often the only one who can see and hear him, until their final battle at the Wishing Star.
- Immortality: Being the literal embodiment of death means that he would have to existed from the very beginning of life. This makes it clear that Death isn't truly alive and cannot grow old or fall ill and has roughly existed for eons.
- Intimidation: Due to his appearance and power shown throughout the movie, Death is heavily feared literally and figuratively by mortals. He is the first character to make the legendary "fearless" hero Puss in Boots feel fear for the very first time. Due to his love to feel fear from his victims, he uses his powers to torment Puss the entire movie. One of his most prominent choices of fear tactics is done by what is referred to as "Death's Whistle."
- Weapon's Transmutation: Death's main choice of weaponry is two sickles he carries. When facing a worthy opponent, he has the ability to combine his sickles into a dual-headed glaive which replicates a double-blade scythe. Even when Puss broke his dual-headed glaive, Death managed to quickly transmit them back into two sickles.
Biography[]
Meeting Puss and First Duel[]
After Puss in Boots defeats the Sleeping Giant of Del Mar to save some of the townsfolk and their governor, he tries to celebrate his victory with a song, only to end up crushed underneath the town bell, costing him his eighth life.
When warned by the town doctor that he was down to his last life and must go into retirement, Puss ignores him and goes down to the town's tavern to relax and drink some milk to avoid his problems. His attempts to deflect the serious news was then suddenly interrupted by a sinister, melodic whistle. The source of that whistle is coming from a mysterious hooded wolf, who appears seemingly out of nowhere, sitting right next to Puss. At first, the menacing figure claims to be a fan of Puss in Boots, disturbing the cat with his eerie compliments, but when he asks Puss to sign a wanted poster specifically where it says "dead", it's clear that he's got something else in mind. Believing the wolf is just another bounty hunter trying to collect a reward on him, Puss once again claims to laugh at death (which visibly annoys the wolf), and warns that he will not be defeated so easily. The wolf, however, calmly retorts by cryptically stating that while everyone he's hunted thought they could best him, not one of them has ever succeeded in escaping him.
Expecting an easy fight, Puss triumphantly draws his sword, only to have it immediately swatted away by the wolf. The two then begin their duel, but Puss is on the losing side the entire time, with the wolf somehow calculating and predicting every single move he makes while belittling his combat performance. After the wolf deflects Puss's sword with his sickles, Puss tries to do his signature air spin attack on him, but the wolf easily grabs him from the air by the neck and whispers into his ear that he is not living up to the legend. He then drags the cat across the bar and throws him at a table chair. Going on the offensive, the wolf continues to strike at Puss with his sickles, slicing one table cleanly in two. After a few more strikes, the wolf grazes Puss's forehead with one of his sickles, causing the cat to drop his rapier and hat, and also drawing a stream of blood which drips down Puss's face (according to the legend, Puss in Boots was never touched by a blade prior).
As the terrifying realization that his demise will be permanent finally dawns on Puss, the wolf picks up the scent of Puss's fear and gets eerily excited to dispatch the cat, dragging his twin sickles across the floor as sparks fly. This causes Puss to experience a review of his life, to which the wolf mockingly asks what is happening. The horrific beast then kicks Puss's sword towards its owner and demands the cat retrieve it so they can finish their duel. But instead, Puss succumbs to his fear, picks up his hat and flees into the tavern restroom without his weapon. Taking delight in striking terror into the supposed fearless hero, the wolf licks his chops and begins whistling his tune again while slowly walking towards the restroom. Puss locks the door, but knows that this will not stop him, especially after seeing the wolf's shadow somehow appear through the door. Upon breaking the lock with his sickle, the wolf opens the door, only to find his prey missing, having escaped through the tavern's sewage system. Amused by this, the wolf rhetorically tells Puss to run as far as he can, for he will not stop hunting the cat until he has succeeded in ending him.
Hunting and Haunting Puss[]
After the fight at the tavern, Puss became traumatized by the near-death experience. Heeding the doctor's word's, he goes to a cat sanctuary to spend the rest of his days in retirement. Then one day, he witnesses some shadowy creature through the window and sniffing at the bottom of the door. Assuming it to be the wolf he fought with prior, he tries to hide, but then sees it was actually one of the Three Bears Crime Family led by the infamous Goldilocks, who came in search of Puss so they can recruit him in stealing the map to the fabled Wishing Star from the terrible crime lord, Big Jack Horner. Realizing that the star could grant him his old lives again, Puss sets out to steal the map for himself.
While escaping from Jack's headquarters with the map on a horse cart, alongside his old companion-turned-rival Kitty Softpaws and a nameless dog he unintentionally befriended, he created a barrier of people to stop Jack's henchmen from chasing them by kicking gold unto the streets for them to grab. However, Puss then hears the whistle he heard from when he first fought the wolf and sees the supposed bounty hunter within the crowd cheering for him (on the occasion, the wolf places two coins on his eyes to send a message to Puss). Terrified, Puss orders the dog to speed up the cart, which he does. Then, within the dark forest near a river, during a three-way fight between Puss's group, Jack and his Baker's Dozen and the Three Bears, Puss attempts to recover the map, but then hears the whistle again and turns around to find the wolf standing on a rock formation with his sickles ready, causing Puss to run away in terror. While running through the trees, Puss sees visages of the wolf everywhere he looks until stopping at a tree. He then suffers from a panic attack until the nameless dog manages to calm him down.
Puss then gets trapped in the Cave of Lost Souls, where he meets all of his previous lives on crystal reflections, who attempt to persuade him to abandon his team to get to the star alone. Repulsed at how selfish and narcissistic he was before, Puss leaves in a huff, but as he walks away, the wolf suddenly appears from the shadows in front of him, shocking him. The wolf then begins smashing up the stalagmites showing the images of Puss's past lives while revealing that he has personally witnessed every one of his deaths while marking each one on his sickle. He then mocks Puss for being ignorant of his presence due to his claims of always "laughing in the face of death". Hearing these words, Puss realizes with horror that the individual in front of him is not a bounty hunter seeking money or fame, but in fact the physical embodiment of death itself, to which the wolf, now identified as Death, confirms. When Puss questions why Death has come after him while he is still alive, Death expresses how he despises cats for how they can prolong death with nine lives, especially when they waste away their lives without a care like Puss has with his original eight lives, and has decided to punish the cat by taking his last life. After Death smashes up the final crystal, Puss starts running for his life, with Death goading him to do so it will make the hunt more amusing for him. As Puss runs his way out of the cave, he sees multiple reflections of Death laughing at him on the crystals. When gets close to the exit, Death grabs him by the cape, causing it to tear and Puss to trip. But Puss continues to run away, with Death echoing for him to continue.
Final Duel[]
Soon, with Puss's friends and his enemies watching from the various points of the fabled Wishing Star (except for Big Jack Horner, who is trapped in his bottomless bag) they witness a final showdown between the fearless hero and the Grim Reaper, where the harbinger of Death slashes the ground with his sickles to summon a ring of fire around himself and Puss, to make sure he doesn't escape and that his friends don't intervene to backup Puss. Death admits he has enjoyed the chase thus far, but grown tired of the cheap novelty and is ready to make that final notch on his sickle. He gives Puss his sword back for a proper climactic battle. This time, Puss is ready to face the powerful enemy, now having true friends to protect and a last life he wishes to cherish.
Puss rises to the occasion and disarms his foe, mirroring the scene where they first met, where Death taunted Puss to pick up his weapon but with Puss now the one taunting Death, not out of arrogance, but out of mutual respect. Puss states that while he'll never truly be able to defeat Death, he will never stop fighting him so he can cherish this one life before it later reaches its end. Frustrated, but also impressed when Puss shows no fear of him as they stare each other down, Death curses in Spanish out of rage and tells Puss he is ruining his hunt.
Death tells Puss that he came to claim the life of "an arrogant little legend who thought he was immortal", but doesn't see that in Puss anymore. Knowing now that Puss understands the importance about the end of life, Death accepts defeat by telling Puss to live his last life well, reminding that they will meet again once Puss dies or passes away from natural causes. Puss accepts this by saying that he will accept whatever fate has planned for him when they meet each other again. Satisfied by Puss's response, Death happily departs from the Wishing Star, whistling that familiar tune as he walks off with a newfound respect for Puss, disappearing into the barrier.
Story of Joining Sora's Team[]
Death joined Sora's team to atone for his actions, especially when he saw that innocent lives had been taken by purely evil villains, so he knew that letting pure evil villains was a big mistake, so he helped the purely good heroes from most of the Sora's team member, especially when he protected Class 3-E. under the guidance of his wings, especially he made Class 3-E immortal after hearing Aguri's request, who died naturally after hearing his request before his death came to Korosensei, especially when he heard that Aguri's heart had been hurt many times by Yanagisawa, so Aguri sacrificed herself to save Korosensei, and Class 3 -E as a valuable thing for him, especially He feels that Yanagisawa's heart is really pure evil, which makes him annoyed and then makes Class 3-E into eternal heroes to chase and kill criminals who are truly pure evil to teach pure evil villains a lesson, especially He is the mortal enemy of all the teams Xehanort, who is purely evil, is one of the enemies of Xehanort, so he offers the power of immortality to Class 3-E, Naofumi, Rokuro, Kawasumi, Amaki, and all the other Heroes so they can be like Marceline, and other Heroes at god level, especially He is friends with Class 3-E when he liked the way Korosensei and Aguri taught Class 3-E so he shared his fighting techniques and all his knowledge with Class 3-E as his new favorite student because he was sad to see Class 3-E, especially when he saw that Class 3-E had redemption for heroes so that He makes Class 3-E perfect immortal heroes like other Heroes, and other villains so that He makes Class 3-E the seed of hope for future miracles to save innocent lives whether they are alive or dead especially Death feels happy with Class 3-E because Class 3-E considers him Korosensei so he protects Class 3-E under his wings so that Death understands that Class 3-E is a good child who has a pure heart like other heroes who cares about innocent creatures especially He became close friends with Class 3-E, and all of Sora's team who experienced their tragic fate, especially He became friends with Kitaro, Kimi Shirokado, and other Heroes like him who prioritized innocent lives as valuable things worth protecting. And Death saw the Baker’s Dozen joining Xehanort’s team but without Jack Horner yet…