Puck (Berserk)

About Puck (Berserk)

Puck is an elf companion in Berserk, a cheerful, nosy little spirit who attaches himself to Guts after the Eclipse and refuses to be shaken off. He heals with his dust, senses the feelings of everyone around him, and talks constantly, which in this series is a survival skill. The 1997 anime left him out completely. He joins properly in the manga and the 2016 series, where his warmth is the counterweight to Guts's darkness.

Appearance

Puck is a tiny elf, small enough to ride in a pouch or sit on a shoulder, with translucent insect like wings, pointed ears, pale skin and messy light hair. He usually goes naked or in a scrap of cloth without the slightest embarrassment, and his face is drawn in a cuter, rounder style than the humans around him, on purpose. When the story needs a pressure valve, Puck slips into an even simpler chibi form, strikes poses and comments on scenes the main cast is too grim to notice. The contrast is the joke, and it is also his camouflage.

Personality

Puck is kind in a way Berserk rarely allows anyone to be. He is curious, vain about his looks, easily flattered and incapable of leaving a suffering person alone, including, especially, Guts. He senses emotions directly, so cruelty genuinely confuses and upsets him. He copes with horror by narrating it like a travel show, which annoys his companions and keeps them human. Under the comedy he is brave in a specific way: he stays. Everyone else in Guts's life gets driven off by the darkness around him. Puck just complains and stays.

Background & Story

Puck is an elf from Elfhelm, of the wind spirit kind, who left home out of boredom and curiosity and drifted into the human world. Elves were once common in Berserk's world and are now mostly forgotten, which makes Puck a living piece of a vanishing age. The 1997 anime cut him entirely, along with much of the manga's supernatural side, so anime only viewers first meet him in the 2016 series, where he finds the branded Guts after the Eclipse and simply refuses to leave. He becomes the first member of Guts's new travelling party, its healer, its scout and, not least, the reason the long dark road has any laughter on it at all.

Powers & Abilities

• Elf Dust: Powder from Puck's wings speeds healing when sprinkled on wounds. It is no miracle cure, but on Guts's road it is often the difference between a bad night and a fatal one.
• Emotion Sense: As an elf, Puck feels the emotions of people near him directly. He knows when Guts is lying about being fine, which is most of the time.
• Flight and Scouting: Small, fast and nearly invisible at night, Puck scouts ahead, slips into camps and buildings, and reports back, the party's quiet early warning system.
• Light: Puck's body glows softly when he chooses, a tiny lantern that matters more than it should in a series full of literal and figurative darkness.

Key Relationships

• Guts: His chosen human. Puck heals him, teases him and refuses to accept his wish to be left alone, and Guts, in his gruff way, protects Puck fiercely in return.
• Casca: Puck helps care for Casca on the road and reads her feelings when she cannot speak for herself, treating her with a gentleness the rest of the party learns from.
• Isidro: His partner in crime. The boy and the elf bicker, scheme and play the fool together, and their comedy act hides a real friendship.
• Ivalera: A fellow elf who travels with Schierke. The two trade insults constantly and understand each other perfectly, two small survivors of a fading world.

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