Duck (in Japanese: あひる, Ahiru) is the main protagonist of the anime and manga Princess Tutu.
She is voiced by Nanae Katou in the Japanese version and Luci Christian in the English version.
What Makes Her Pure Good?[]
- As a duck, she pitied Mytho for always having a sad and empty look in his eyes whenever she watched him dance, and it's her very desire to make him happy that convinces Drosselmeyer to give her the pendant that turns her into a girl and Princess Tutu.
- She first turns into Princess Tutu to save Mytho when he falls out of a window and does so by creating a bed of flowers with her dance to break his fall.
- She sets out to find the shards of Mytho's heart out of the same aforementioned desire to make him happy and be able to feel emotions again, despite knowing she wasn't allowed to confess her love to him, which is fabled to cause Princess Tutu to vanish into a speck of light.
- Along the way, she helps many individuals, whether they be anthropomorphic creatures, humans or spirits, who have come into possession of and are being affected negatively by the heart shards by inviting them to dance with her, during which she gets them to admit their true feelings and realize the negative emotions they're feeling aren't there's. This always results in them releasing the heart shards, which not only allows her to restore them to Mytho, but pretty much always leaves them happier and more well off as a result, in some cases, even resolving the problem or conflict they were previously dealing with.
- In a couple of cases, she saves Mytho from spirits who become possessive of him as a result of the negative emotions the heart shards makes them feel.
- When Mytho freaks out upon having the heart shard of fear returned to him, which makes him scared of Princess Tutu for reasons he can't pinpoint, she becomes mortified and feels awful due to thinking that restoring his heart for him is only causing him more sadness and pain, so she temporarily throws the pendant away and quits being Princess Tutu. However, upon witnessing the heart shard of curiosity luring him underwater, she resolves to use it to save one more time. In the aftermath of saving him and restoring that shard to him, Mytho asserts that he still wants to gain the rest of his heart, so she more confidently resolves to help him do that now knowing he actually wants it.
- The night where Fakir found out she was Princess Tutu, she outright tells him to his face that she doesn't wish to fight him when he tries to pick one with her.
- Despite sometimes being annoyed by Fakir's rude and condescending attitude and making snappy remarks in response to the things he says, she largely makes the effort to get along with him and even resolves to work alongside him to restore Mytho's heart. This leads to them gradually becoming closer allies over the course of the series and Fakir becoming more open, warm and friendly.
- She acts friendly towards and befriends Rue despite her initially acting cold and aloof towards her. When she later transforms into Princess Kraehe, she refused to give up faith that Rue, the girl she knew and her close friend, still wasn't truly gone.
- When Kraehe kidnaps Mytho, takes him to an underground lake and commands him in his emotionless state to shatter the heart shard of love if she doesn't confess his love to him, she's perfectly willing to do so despite knowing that doing that will probably cause her to vanish as long as Kraehe promises to take care of him. She is only stopped by Fakir reminding her that if she does that, there will be no one left to track down the remaining heart shards.
- She engages Kraehe in a dance off, and despite being at a major disadvantage due to dancing alone while she's partnered with Mytho, she manages to win over both him and the heart shard of love by pulling off the extremely impressive feat of performing a pas de deux on her own, which allows her to finally restore this important heart shard to him.
- When Kraehe leaves in a dejected state as a result of losing, she still feels bad for her despite trying to make Mytho hers and trying to make her vanish.
- It's partially thanks to her friendliness that Rue later realizes that her days as a normal girl when she didn't remember being raised and manipulated by the Raven were the only days she was truly happy, playing a part in her eventually becoming good again.
- Throughout the second half of the series, she saves several people from being brainwashed and sacrificing their hearts to the Raven by Mytho's evil alter-ego, the Prince of Crows (which he develops due to Kraehe previously dipping the heart shard of love in raven's blood, causing it to forcefully corrupt him) by reminding them of their true selves, desires and the people they really love. This also helps Mytho remember his old self and struggle against the raven blood's corruption, especially after she restores the heart shard of pride to him.
- When she encounters a wandering ghost knight that has been possessed by the heart shard of pride, which has made him search endlessly for a purpose and cause to fight, she tries to talk him down despite his attempt to kill her. She eventually gets through to him,, which allows him to make peace with what happened in the past, release the heart shard to her and move on to the afterlife.
- She saves Fakir from being assimilated into an oak tree by calling out to him as Princess Tutu, which guides him back and saves him.
- She saves Fakir again, this time from having his hands cut off by a group of men who have the misguided concern that he'll do similar harm to Drosselmeyer since he's related to him and inherited his power to make the stories he writes come to life.
- She eventually finds out that the rest of the hearts shards are in the five towers/gates surrounding Gold Crown Town, and despite Rue's objections to this since they know this will also set the Raven free, she positively reassures her by telling her that Mytho expressed the desire to get them back, so they should trust his will and judgement, as well as that a confrontation between the two is inevitable. She then summons them from the tower and returns them to him.
- Upon finding out the last heart shard is her pendant, she quickly tries to give it to Mytho even though she knows doing so will causes her to turn back into an ordinary duck without the ability to become a girl of Princess Tutu again. Though she is initially unable to remove it and Drosselmeyer manipulates her into believing it's because deep down, she still wants the prince's love for herself, Fakir assures her it's only because she's understandably scared of the story ending and not knowing what will come next, which is indeed the case. Once she comes to terms with this, the pendant comes off and she quickly returns it to Mytho, restoring him to Prince Siegfried.
- When the situation looks bleak enough that Prince Mytho considers shattering his heart to seal the Raven again, she convinces him not to by doing a dance of hope even though she's now just a duck. Even though the other residents of Gold Crown Town, who have been transformed into crows by the Raven raining his blood on them, mercilessly peck and toss her around on the Raven's orders to the extent she can barely stand, she keeps getting back up and doing her dance with some help from Fakir's limited writing powers. Eventually, she is able to get through to everyone, which allows them to break free from the raven's blood and return to normal, as well as inspire Siegfried to keep fighting, which results in him freeing Rue from the Raven and destroying the latter for good by attacking his core.
Trivia[]
- She's the only Princess Tutu hero to be Pure Good.
External Links[]
- Duck on the Heroes Wiki
- Duck on the Princess Tutu Wiki