Death, also referred to as the Wolf or Lobo, is the overarching antagonist of DreamWorks' 43rd full-length animated film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a spin-off of the Shrek franchise.
Appearance[]
Death is a large, silvery-white, bipedal wolf with an elongated snout, gray "mask" marking on his face, sharp teeth, and bright red eyes that glow when he's excited. He wears a black riding cloak with a built-in hood, and brown trousers under the cloak. He carries a pair of razor-sharp sickles that can be combined at the handle and extended to form a double-bladed glaive.
Personality[]
Death is a cunning and sinister individual whose sole purpose is to take the souls of the deceased. 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 by his words 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. 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. However, he does warn Puss that they will meet again eventually when Puss's 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 and enjoys a thrilling challenge, but doesn't kill just for the sake of doing so and is able to respect and spare those who prove him wrong.
Biography[]
Powers and Abilities[]
Being the physical embodiment of death itself, Death possesses great physical and supernatural abilities. 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 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 can go anywhere he likes, which is shown by him being completely unaffected by the Dark Forest, appearing inside a crystal trap that isolated Puss in Boots and effortlessly passing through the star wall.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In an after-credits scene of Pooh's Adventures of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, after witnessing Death's skills and ferocity in his hunt for Puss, Bowser has become so impressed that he now plans on making Death a member of the New United Alliance of Evil willingly or by force.