Rickert is a former member of the original Band of the Falcon, and a prodigious engineer and blacksmith.
He serves as the Band of the Falcon's youngest known member during the Hundred-Year War, and is ennobled alongside the band's commanders by the king of Midland following their recapture of Doldrey.[1] A year after Griffith's untimely imprisonment and the exiling of the band, Rickert is left not only as the sole survivor of his unit when apostles attack,[2] but also as the only one of three surviving members not to have been branded, having been absent from the Eclipse. For two years, Rickert lives with Godot in the mountains, honing his engineering and blacksmithing – ignorant of the grim circumstance of his comrades' deaths.[3] Following the Great Wave of the Astral World, he and Erica flee their overrun mountain cottage and seek refuge within Falconia.[4] Their stay is short-lived, however, as Rickert brazenly displays his detachment from Griffith's dream by slapping his former leader[5] and so is forced to flee the city.[6]
Personality[]
Rickert has a gentle, rational, and somewhat childishly innocent personality that contrasts with the rough ones of the typical mercenary. He perceives that Corkus was the one who started the fight with Guts and thus was responsible for losing his men. During the battle of Doldrey, he makes a short speech about the mercenaries being cornered: they will live if they fight and die if they lose, perceived by Corkus as indication that "Rickert has lost his mind", defining the out-of-character moment. The party celebrating the end of the Hundred Years War shows him overwhelmed as he cannot handle the women fawning over his cuteness.[1]
Rickert's early contact with Guts involved a degree of idolization for saving him during the swordsman's first battle with the Band of the Falcon. This mellows down to friendship, during which he becomes one of Guts' friends during his tenure in the band. His gentleness has been commented on by Guts, who prevented him from accompanying him on his journey because he is unable to hate Griffith. Rickert seems to share a brotherly bond with Pippin, who he is almost never seen without and who protects him during the battle of Doldrey. This bond may extend to the other band members to a certain degree, as he forged swords for the deceased ones during Guts' two-year absence.
Perhaps Rickert's greatest attribute is his intelligence and engineering skill. He is shown assembling a crossbow in his first appearance. His most notable work is creating the Cannon Arm for Guts by assembling it from parts he found in Godot's storage. During his apprenticeship under Godot, Rickert learns blacksmithing and upon Guts' return, upgraded his arsenal.
Story[]
Golden Age Arc[]
Early on, Rickert was saved by Guts during the latter's first battle with the Band of the Falcon. After Guts lost to Griffith, he was inducted, and Rickert defended him by rationalizing that Corkus got his men killed by attacking. This came with a degree of idolization for Guts that would mellow with time.
When Griffith and Guts are at Zodd's mercy, Rickert is among the leading mercenaries charging in to attack Zodd.
After the battle with Wyald, Rickert is responsible for keeping watch over the wounded band members while the others move ahead. He is also injured as well, sporting a broken arm; a big reason as to why he was not present in the end events of the arc.
Rickert spies a strange light across a lake, which quickly passes him and heads for the camp. Rickert returns and is horrified to find that apostles are attacking the camp, with the Count feasting on the massacred soldiers and the light, which turned out to be Rosine, having led several of her pseudo-apostles to the area to feed. Rickert is frozen with fear and is about to be killed and eaten when the apostles are fought off by the Skull Knight.
This is not Rickert's last meeting with the Skull Knight, as a short time later the Knight finds him and deposits the unconscious Guts and Casca with him to keep them safe. Rickert takes them to Godot's mine house, where he intends for them to stay and recover and meet Erica. However, shortly after becoming well enough to walk, Guts leaves on his own, trusting Casca's safety to him and Erica. Meanwhile, Rickert begins the practice of creating swords in his spare time, and in the time Guts is gone creates a great number of them and uses them all as grave markers for the slaughtered Band of the Falcon.
Conviction Arc[]
Two years later, about a month before Guts' return, Casca untimely escapes and wanders off. [7] Rickert is very distressed and went to look out for her as much as he could and was forced to return home empty-handed to take care of Erica. Guts is equally upset when he finds out, but Erica chides him on how hard Rickert worked to find her and how Guts should have stayed around to watch Casca and help her recover, which causes Guts to realize his mistake. After Godot reinforces Guts' equipment, Rickert resupplies Guts and provides him with more tools for his upcoming quest: miniature bombs with highly condensed power.
Millennium Falcon Arc[]
Rickert meets Guts one more time when he returns with Casca in tow having survived the Tower of Conviction's events. They soon meet the incarnated Griffith Guts immediately attacks, and Rickert wonders why the two are enemies while Guts duels Zodd, who forced the Black Swordsman to force his way through as he stood between Guts and Griffith. After Griffith leaves with Zodd, Guts tells him the truth, in that he betrayed the Band of the Falcon. When the young man resents having been ignorant whilst Guts carried the burden all alone, Guts tells Rickert he will not take him in his quest for revenge as Rickert is too gentle a person to hate Griffith.
After Shiva is slain and the astral and physical worlds are merged, Rickert determines he must take Erica to Falconia for their survival, and fends off a horde of harpies and a cockatrice with a repeater crossbow in the back of the wagon they have enlisted. The two also witness Irvine in action.
Fantasia Arc[]
Upon arriving in Falconia, the two meet Luca and her girls, now working as apartment complex managers, and Daiba, though they do not find out his true nature until later. Not long after arriving, he is summoned by Griffith, who wants to meet with Rickert. Before the two meet, he is pulled aside by Locus, who shows him on a whim the nature of apostles and what they do in their spare time in Falconia: gladiating and other horrific forms of blood sport, which is needed to sate their bloodlust so they do not attack the people they are supposed to be protecting. Rickert is horrified by this, and is inwardly tormented as he goes off to meet Griffith.
Rickert then engages Griffith, going back and forth cryptically for some time before slapping him across the face. Onlookers are shocked and outraged, and Griffith himself seems unable to process it, as Rickert tells him off for his audacity and what the Band of the Falcon members meant. In doing this, he inadvertently proves the God Hand member vulnerable to physical harm. He leaves, after telling Griffith the Falcon of Light isn't the Griffith that once led the Band of the Falcon, and Griffith allows this, stopping Locus from attacking.
However, apostle Rakshas attacks Rickert a night later. His life is saved by Silat and the Tapasa after what they see as an act of retaliation, who fend him off and succeed in breaking his mask, which causes him to leave before finishing the fight, but he promises to return and attack again when he has found a new one. Knowing they have little time, Rickert engages Silat, answering some of his questions and requesting some of his assistance in protecting Erica.
Rakshas attacks again the next night, but Rickert is ready. Erica being kept inside and quiet, Rakshas is injured by a trap and further injured by the Tapasa, who spray fire at him with a modified fire hose. The shock and pain cause Rakshas to enter his apostle form, putting the men's lives on the line as well as Erica's when he finds her. Erica's life is saved by Daiba, the Kushan beastmaster and sorcerer, who reveals his nature and repays her kindness to him. Rickert, Erica, Silat, the Tapasa, and Daiba flee from Rakshas on several Garudas, but are alarmed to find that he can fly. Rickert himself takes out Rakshas, revealing a cannon he created and blasting the apostle's head at mid range.
A Kushan garb-clad Rickert is seen during the assault on the Seahorse.[8] After realising Guts is among the ship passengers, he reveals himself to Roderick, explaining that they need to seize the ship.[9] In the capital of Kushan, Silat is urged by Rickert to release Guts from the dungeon he was taken to, with the Bakiraka man explaining it was done for his safety and their own. After being taken by Daiba to the room in which Schierke is being kept until she returns from the Astral World, he learns of the showdown between Guts and the Kushan sorcerer. Later on, he briefly talks to Isidro and Puck before asking what happened to Casca, only to stop himself after deducing it was Griffith's doing, but not being cognizant of the surrounding details.[10] While in town, Rickert explains to the mages and Farnese's group the daily culture in Kushan and how they are comrades. When the group departs back to the palace and entrusts Magnifico's safety to him, Rickert can only think back to Silat's earlier declaration to wage war with Griffith. Rickert worries over fanning flames of war believing it to be too soon to engage with Griffith.[11] When a Qliphoth manifests and trolls emerge in the city, Rickert prepares to fight them off.[12]
Abilities[]
Rickert was a passionate soldier, if not the most notable fighter, though he had enough skill to survive the band battles. Though not an overtly threatening physical fighter, Rickert's greatest asset is his brilliant mind when it comes to engineering, having been the one to design many of the weapons we see Guts using in the series. Skilled in metalworking and war craft, Rickert and his weaponry has saved more than one life, including his own.
He is not without the ability to use the things he creates, having used a wagon-mounted repeating crossbow to fend off harpies at one point. With some time for preparation, Rickert's tactical war designs are incredibly useful in fending off even powerful apostles, such as Rakshas. Within hours, after looking at a creation he had never seen before, he was able to modify it to spray fire instead of water.
Portrayal[]
Japanese Voice Actor(s)[]
- Akiko Yajima: Berserk (1997 Anime)
- Minako Kotobuki: Berserk: The Golden Age Arc/Berserk (2016 Anime)/Berserk Musou/Berserk: The Golden Age Arc - Memorial Edition
English Voice Actor(s)[]
- Michelle Newman: Berserk (1997 Anime)/Berserk: The Golden Age Arc/Berserk: The Golden Age Arc - Memorial Edition
- Erica Mendez: Berserk (2016 Anime)
Notes[]
- According to the Berserk Official Guidebook, as of the Fantasia Arc, Rickert is 19 years old, 166 cm (5'5"), and 61 kg (134 lbs). (NOTE: The Berserk Official Guidebook is highly questionable in its veracity.)
References[]
- ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 8, "Moment of Glory"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 10, "The Eve (2)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 22, "Prologue to the War Chronicle"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 37, "Covered Wagon"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 38, "Bridge of Parting"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 38, "Soaring Escape"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 17, "Cracks in the Blade"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume TBA, "Is the Sleeping Dark Beast Just Standing Quietly?"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume TBA, "Morning After a Steady Foggy Night"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume TBA, "Water's Wavering Surface and War's Shadow"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume TBA, "A Viper in the Bosom"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume TBA, "Uninvited Assassin"