- “I promised your mother I would keep you safe.”
- ―- Bill to Robyn.
William "Bill" Goodfellowe, is the tritagonist of Wolfwalkers. He was a hunter and is Robyn's widowed single father. His desire to keep his daughter safe is often at odds with her desire for freedom.
History[]
Early life[]
Bill was born in England and at some point got married to an unnamed woman with whom he had a daughter named Robyn. Sometime later, his wife passed away but before she did Bill promised her that he would keep their daughter safe.
The story opens in the 17th century, at that point in history, the only reason that an English person would be in Ireland is that they were part of The Lord Protector's entourage or they had been granted property in Ireland and came over to be a farmer. Since we see Bill and Robyn living in a small rented room in Kilkenny, Ireland. It is most likely that Bill came over as a wolf hunter, by order of the Lord Protector.
Personality[]
Bill Goodfellowe is a good man and a loving father, and seems to have a good relationship with his daughter, Robyn. Before moving to Ireland, he often took Robyn out on adventures in the forest and she is eager to follow in his foot-steps by learning to track and shoot the cross-bow.
Bill promised his late wife that he would keep Robyn safe and does his best despite her head-strong nature. Even though she has no real-world experience with wolves she proclaims she doesn't fear them causing Bill to remark that he "must be afraid for you" and many of his restrictions are intended to keep Robyn safe such as his insistence that she stay indoors to spare her from being assigned to the scullery. Even so, he realizes that she is chafing at the constraints placed upon her at their new home and is doing his best to keep her engaged by allowing her to help him build arrows and listening to her stories of giants and dragons.
Bill is in Ireland at the request of the Lord Protector and seems to be quite aware of the consequences of being on his bad side. Unfortunately, Bill is failing at his job to hunt and kill wolves around Kilkenny and this constant failure causes an anxiety that eats away at his good nature and causes him to become more short-tempered and more protective of Robyn as he begins to fear they may be separated.
His bond with Robyn becomes strained over time as she disobeys the Lord Protector's orders and keeps drawing his unwanted attention with her protests about how he is dealing with the wolf situation. When she infuriates the Lord Protector in the town square by talking about Wolfwalkers he sentences her to the stocks and only Bill's pleading defers that punishment. At one point, Bill confesses he is afraid of what would become of Robyn once he wasn't around anymore.
Unfortunately, despite the loving relationship he has with Robyn, she often fails to explain herself to him properly so he has no idea of the incredible experiences she has been having. This leads to Bill reacting to situations without being aware of what is going on and thus he ends up making things worse such as when he shoots Móll in wolf form because he believes Robyn is in danger. Bill can be stubborn at times like his daughter.
Physical Appearance[]
Bill is a tall and stocky English adult man with fair skin and short blonde hair with blonde sideburns and light blue eyes, much like his daughter's. His general outfit consists of a red long-sleeved shirt and pants with a brown leather tunic, a belt and buckled boots. While hunting he wear as black hooded fur cape and as a soldier he wears metal-clad armour. He has long sideburns and is noticeably taller than other characters.
As a wolf, Bill is larger in size and has a pelt of fur in two shades of grey with light black fur and dark grey around the neck, tail, down his back and across his muzzle. He retains his blue eyes and his sideburns shape into an angular fur pattern.
Role in the Film[]
We first encounter Bill as he returns to his room in Kilkenny to find that his daughter, Robyn has been busy with target practice with her cross-bow skills despite her claims of being busy with her chores all morning. Bill can clearly see the lack of progress she has made at cleaning the room but he doesn't chastise her for it. Instead, he is impressed with a shot that Robyn made to a wolf poster from fifteen feet away.
We learn that Bill and Robyn are recent transplants to Ireland with Bill being assigned the task of hunting down the wolves in the forest surrounding Kilkenny. He can see that Robyn is bored at staying in the room all day since, back in England, she used to accompany him on his adventures into the woods. However, Bill points out that the Lord Protector forbids children to be outside the city walls and she needs to deal with the new situation.
Bill leaves to go to the forest instructing Robyn to "stay indoors" but Robyn resolves to track him to the city gates for practice. She tracks him through the crowded and chaotic city streets until he comes up behind her to ask what she is doing. Again, he doesn't chastise her for it and even takes a moment to dance with her to the music of the city buskers before he is called away by the city soldiers. Robyn runs afoul of a group of the city's children, one of whom claims his father was a great hunter until the Lord Protector had him put in chains.
Robyn follows her father to the front gates where he finally puts his foot down and firmly tells her she can't follow and needs to stay inside. He tempers his firm outburst by offering to let her help make arrows that evening and she can tell him stories of giants and dragons. Robyn sullenly agrees and Bill heads off towards the woods but Robyn stubbornly refuses to stay behind and sneaks out of the city to follow him.
Robyn tracks her father a little ways into the woods watching him set a trap and move on when suddenly she hears a villager calling for help due to a wolf attack. Robyn runs straight into the chaos of wolves attacking sheep and threatening the sheepherder. In the confusion, she makes a mess of things, accidentally shooting Merlyn and being threatened by a wolf pack herself. Only Bill's prompt return and shooting an arrow into the lead wolf saves Robyn from harm. Bill is now rightly angry with Robyn for she not only disobeyed him but could have been badly hurt.
Bill and Robyn encounter Seán Óg who tells the two about Wolfwalkers and how they are upset that the ancient deal of leaving the woods alone has been broken. Sean then goes on to mock The Lord Protector's rule just as he rides up behind him and has Sean sentenced to the stock for his disrespect. The Lord Protector then reprimands Bill for not making any progress on ridding the forest of wolves so the woodcutters can work without fear. Upon noticing Robyn behind her father, the Lord Protector reprimands her for being outside the city walls, and orders her to be sent to the scullery. Before leaving to deal with a rebellion in the south of Ireland, he gives Bill a two-day deadline to finish off the wolves by the time he returns. Bill heads back into the forest, but Robyn, once again sneaks away to follow him.
We see Bill briefly as Mebh and Robyn spy on him from behind the magical vines that hide the entrance to the wolf den and they watch him setting a trap.
Robyn sneaks back into the city and returns to their room spending time actually cleaning the place as she rehearses how to explain the Wolfwalker situation to her father and how it can be the answer to the wolf problem in general. But then Bill returns home, tired and weary that every trap he set has been broken or sprung and he is again empty-handed. Robyn tries her rehearsed speech on him but it quickly goes off the rails as her father does not follow the script and gets upset when he learns she returned to the forest and did not go to the scullery as ordered.
This particularly bothers Bill as he is aware of how badly things can go when the Lord Protector is not being obeyed. As such he shuts down any further Wolfwalker talk and makes Robyn promise that she'll follow his instructions. The next day, Bill hand delivers Robyn to the scullery and heads out to the woods. Robyn returns to the room to find her father already there preparing dinner and again tries to tell her father about the Wolfwalker solution but he shuts her down telling her enough of her stories... Wolfwalkers are not real. Robyn leaves the dinner table in a huff and goes to her bed.
That night as Robyn sleeps she releases her wolf form in the loft where her body is sleeping. Her panicked cries come out as wolf barks that wake her father who comes to investigate and finds a wolf standing over Robyn's sleeping form. Bill grabs a crossbow and starts shooting at her forcing Wolf Robyn to flee out the window. Oddly, Bill doesn't try waking Robyn to make sure she's alright so her body is left to sleep in bed.
After her night's adventures with Mebh, Wolf Robyn return to her upstairs window but pauses going in as she smells something that leads her toward the castle. However, as she goes to explore she encounters her father who again shoots at her with his crossbow. She eludes him but the scuffle wakes the entire town. After Robyn discovers Moll in the castle and eludes the Lord Protector, she returns home to her body just as Bill is coming in the front door. She returns to her body just in time but her attempt to explain what happened is interrupted by a knock at the door. The Lord Protector wants to speak to Bill.
The presence of a wolf inside the city has the citizens in an uproar and The Lord Protector is tired of Bill's continued failure and demotes him from hunter to simple foot-soldier. Unfortunately, Robyn challenges the Lord Protector's speech to the townsfolk to try and explain that releasing the Wolfwalker will solve their problems. The Lord Protector is aghast at her talk of pagan nonsense and immediately sends her to the stocks. Only Bill's pleading changes the Lord Protector's mind but he tells Bill he has one more chance to follow orders or he will be sent off to war. Bill implores Robyn to follow orders or else they will be separated.
In the morning Bill takes Robyn to the scullery as he joins the foot soldiers in constructing a stage for the Lord Protector. That day the Lord Protector has a public showing involving a giant wolf being presented to the citizens to show that it has been "tamed" and is nothing to fear. Suddenly Mebh rushes the stage upsetting the Lord Protector who orders Bill to capture the child but Mebh's small size and agility makes it hard for him much to the Lord Protector's mocking disgust.
Bill is finally able to catch hold of Mebh and force her to the ground but as he tries to collar her, Robyn distracts him with her protests and the guards lose their grip on the chains holding Móll secure so she is able to bite Bill to defend her daughter. This allows Mebh to break free and dash to the city gates and threaten the people that she will be back with the wolves to eat them.
A thoroughly disgusted Lord Protector chastises Bill's ineptitude and demands that he prove himself a worthy soldier tonight or else he'll be in chains tomorrow. Since the giant wolf has no further value to him, the Lord Protector orders Bill to destroy it. Initially, Robyn protests the killing but Bill furiously orders her away. However, she steels herself and stands against him, protecting the Wolf with her body. When Robyn challenges why they must obey, Bill confesses that he is afraid... afraid of losing her... afraid of her being locked in a cage without him. Unfortunately she doesn't take this opportunity to try and actually explain to her father why she's so adamant about freeing the Wolfwalker.
She takes advantage of a momentary distraction to release Móll and rides out of the city on her back with Bill following as quickly as possible. He catches up to her in the fields surrounded by wolves with the giant wolf standing over her. In a panic, he pulls out his crossbow and shoots the giant wolf. The wolf pack erupts in mayhem, surrounding Bill and snarling as he tries to get Robyn to flee the dangerous situation. However, she can only react in shock and dismay at what her father has done.
Bill watches in disbelief as the giant wolf dissolves into a glowing ghost-like form and drifts away with Robyn struggling to get free from Bill's embrace so she can follow. She finally confesses that she is also a Wolfwaker and she has to go. Unfortunately, despite having a rare moment alone with her father, she doesn't explain anything about what being a Wolfwalker means, why she needs to go, or that she'll need to come back to her body. Instead she cradles into his chest and falls asleep thereby releasing her wolf form, which can't speak and just looks at her father sadly and then runs off to catch up with Mebh. This essentially leaves her father to feel as if she's left him forever.
Bill is emotionally broken, even when the Lord Protector approaches and demands to know what's going on, Bill has no fear of the man and can only croak "Robyn, she... she's gone". The Lord Protector heartlessly shows no concern for the situation and simply calls for Bill to be chained so they can deal with him later. During the long trek through the forest, Bill just follows along compliantly and only snaps out of it when when he sees Robyn's wolf form and reacts to prevent the Lord Protector from shooting her.
When the Lord Protector then prepares his cannon to fire on the entrance to the wolf lair, Robyn runs toward the cannon avoiding musket fire and drives the cannon muzzle into the ground causing a great explosion when it fires. Robyn is caught in the blast and stunned and the Lord Protector advances on her with his sword to deliver a killing blow as Bill strains against his chains and chokes against his collar. Bill's fierce desire to protect Robyn along with the collar choking him into unconsciousness allows his wolf form to be freed and he immediately charges the Lord Protector knocking him to the ground saving Robyn.
A fierce battle of sword vs fang ensues and the Lord Protector gets in a strike to the Wolf's face leaving a slash mark that slowly emerges on Bill's human face. The battle continues and Wolf Bill succeeds in shattering the Lord Protector's sword and pinning him to the ground just as he retrieves his musket pistol. He sees that the Wolf and Bill both have the same wound on their face and realizing they are connected somehow, he aims his musket at Bill's human form only to be saved at the last second by Robyn who returned to her human body and shoots the musket out of the Lord Protector's hand with an arrow.
Wolf Bill and the Lord Protector fight to the edge of the bridge with Bill clearly having the upper hand. The Lord Protector decides to die a martyr's death rather than die at the fangs of some devil wolf and unbuckles his armor to fall to his death.
After a brief reunion, Robyn and Bill rush to the den to help Mebh because she lacks the strength to heal such a severe wound by herself and it takes the combined efforts of Robyn, Mebh, Bill and the entire pack to finally heal her injury. Despite being shot by Bill, she asks him to stay and join their pack.
By the epilogue, all four Wolfwalkers are seen in the restored wagon traveling with the wolf pack to find a new home. Bill seems to have embraced the Wolfwalker lifestyle as he wears more relaxed clothing, has abandoned his wolf-fur cloak, and goes barefoot like Mebh and Mool. He also appears to have been forgiven for shooting Móll earlier probably because she realizes he was only defending his child as well as her feeling responsible for making him a Wolfwalker. In their final scene together, Bill is shown putting a flower in Móll's hair and sharing a smile with her before telling his daughter that all is well.
Relationships[]
Robyn Goodfellowe[]
Bill is overprotective of his daughter Robyn, though it is expressly in her best interests or his opinion of her best interests. He fears her getting into trouble or harm's way. Although strict, he is caring toward her, even if this causes their relationship to become strained. Bill learns to believe Robyn after seeing and becoming a wolfwalker, and the two are present in the pack as family. Bill fights against Lord Protector in wolf form to protect Robyn.
Móll MacTíre[]
Bill is unaware that Móll is a wolfwalker and is the one ordered to open her cage. Móll is the one that ends up biting Bill while trying to protect Mebh, resulting in him unknowingly becoming a wolfwalker. After she escapes with Robin on her back, Bill quickly follows and catches up to Robyn in the fields surrounded by wolves with the giant wolf standing over her. In a panic, he pulls out his crossbow and shoots the giant wolf in the chest with his crossbow causing severe injury. After he turns into his wolf form, Bill helps Robyn, Mebh and the pack to heal her wound. After being accepted as a wolfwalker, Bill and Móll are seen in the epilogue leading the wolfpack to their new home. Bill is shown putting a flower in Móll's hair and sharing a smile with her suggesting that some feelings of affection have grown between the two. However the creators have confirmed they are just friends.
Mebh Óg MacTíre[]
Bill is unaware of Mebh's friendship with Robyn and after she storms the stage claiming the giant wolf is her mammy he is ordered to restrain her. This results in him being bitten by Móll and unknowingly becoming a wolfwalker. Beyond that, Bill and Mebh never really interact in the story. Once Bill turns into his wolf form and helps defend the wolf's den and heal Móll's wound, he is welcomed into the pack. By the epilogue, Bill appears to be well-accepted by Mebh.
Wolves[]
Bill works as a hunter under Lord Protector's orders and is told to hunt down all of the wolves in the forest, shooting them with his crossbow and setting up traps in their forest. After becoming a wolfwalker and defeating Lord Protector, he accepts them as family and ceases being a hunter. It can be assumed that his hunter fur coat is comprised of wolf fur which is why, in the epilogue, he no longer wears it.
Lord Protector[]
Bill expresses distaste for Lord Protector's ruling but understands how dangerous it is to attract his unwanted attention or disobey him. He knows that the Lord Protector would have no qualms about separating him and Robyn. After becoming a wolfwalker, Bill protects Robyn by fighting the Lord Protector which results in his death.
Appearances[]
- Wolfwalkers (First appearance)
Books[]
Trivia[]
- Bill looks similar to Conor from Tom Moore's other past work Song of the Sea.
- Generally, a Wolfwalker only becomes a wolf when they are asleep. When the Lord Protector threatens Robyn, Bill struggles against the collar around his neck that is clearly choking him. Bill's fierce desire to protect Robyn allows him to release his wolf form even before he falls unconscious from the choking.
- Bill's voice actor is Sean Bean, an actor with a long reputation for dying in his films. When the Lord Protector takes aim at Bill's head it seems that history will repeat itself again, only to be subverted by Robyn's last minute cross-bow attack that saves his life.
- Bill is a widower.
Gallery[]
Quotes[]
“All is well, my love.”
”Yes, and that is why I must be afraid for you.”
"It's for your own good."
"Robyn Goodfellowe, enough of your stories."
References[]
- ↑ According to The Art of Wolfwalkers
| v - e - dCharacters | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| ||
| ||
|