That’s right, more Kipo (strap in, there’ll be more of these posts coming for at least the next few weeks.) Wolf is in many ways the polar opposite of Kipo, which makes it all the more wonderful that they wind up becoming such close friends (a few Wolf-related spoilers.)
The first word that comes to mind where Wolf is concerned is “survivor.” When we meet her, she’s wielding a spear topped with the stinger of a deathstalker that she killed, she wears a wolf-skin as a cloak, and she is a very small, very formidable badass. Whereas Kipo is completely new to the surface and doesn’t know anything, Wolf carries herself with a “seen and done it all” air that belies her young age. She has no desire whatsoever for a bubbly tagalong like Kipo, but Wolf’s also not about to watch Kipo get herself killed due to her ignorance of the world outside her burrow. So, very bedrudgingly, Wolf lectures Kipo on the dangers to avoid and keeps a running commentary on her “rules of the surface,” most of which run along the same kill-or-be-killed theme.
Wolf is prickly, surly, guarded. A loner by choice, she doesn’t play well with others, and her first plan of attack in any given situation is, well, to attack. She repeatedly warns Kipo not to trust anyone they come across, from Benson and Dave to the assorted bands of mutes who cross their path, and while it aggravates her when Kipo inevitably goes for the “let’s be friends!” approach instead, it can scare her too.
Because Wolf wasn’t always alone. She’s learned the hard way that trusting someone on the surface can come back to bite you, literally. As such, she’s always looking for the potential double-cross, expecting a mute to attack her, waiting for a seeming friend let her down. It’s a hard way to live – Wolf’s toughness is in part a reflection of how she’s had to scramble to survive on her own, but it’s also shaped by her fear of letting anyone else get close to her after having been hurt.
Obviously, this is a big part of what makes Wolf such a great foil for Kipo, as well as an unlikely member of the group as a whole. After having spent the majority of her young life in “me against the world” mode, she starts to care about a select group of other people (and, because Kipo cares about everyone, even more people by proxy.) Her badass fighting skills are used, not just to protect herself, but to keep them safe. She doesn’t want to see anyone hurt her friends, and she fights like hell on their behalf. And gradually, over time and under the influence of Kipo’s relentless friendliness, Wolf starts – very slowly – to let her guard down and let others in.
Kipo, Benson, and Dave all have an appreciation and enthusiasm for stuff, for trinkets or music or a delectable meal, and Mandu of course has her love of cheese puffs. Wolf often feels very out-of-step with all that; she’s unattached, both as a function of being used to not having much (I love a scene where one of the characters suggests they both name their favorite kind of cake on the count of three, and Wolf’s answer is a completely-monotone, “I’ve-never-had-cake, what-is-cake?”) and as a conscious sense of being “above” that kind of thing. It’s one more thing that makes her more serious than her friends, looking out for trouble instead of getting distracted by so-called trivialities. But I like the little flashes we get throughout the series of the few things that do matter to Wolf. As with her growing fondness for her friends, it helps us see the young girl beneath the hardened warrior, even though that warrior is still very much a part of who she is. The episode where Wolf ends up bringing Kipo to an old hideout of hers is great, and I love that she’s named her deathstalker spear. She’s stronger and tougher than me and could definitely kick my ass, but when she anxiously calls out, “Stalky!” when someone swipes her spear, it just makes me go, “Aww!”
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