Pip Bernadotte

Pip Bernadotte is one of the main characters in the Hellsing manga series and its OVA adaptation. He is the leader of the mercenary detachment called Wild Geese and allies with the Hellsing Organization. He has been a member of a family of Mercenaries for generations and has been hired by Hellsing to shore up security and staff vacuum left by Valentine brothers' assault on Hellsing HQ. Pip is also the love interest of Seras Victoria. 
When the Millennium Organization attacks the Hellsing Manor, Pip is killed by Zorin Blitz while attempting to save Seras. Following this, Seras drinks all his blood, absorbing his soul, turning him into her familiar. This allows Pip to aid Seras in battle to defeat the members of the Millennium. 30 years later, he is still active as "Seras' shadow", helping to guard the Hellsing Manor.
He is voiced by Hiroaki Hirata in the Japanese version of the anime and by Yuri Lowenthal in the English version. As a child, he is voiced by Hiromi Igarashi in Japanese and by Karen Strassman in the English version of the anime.
==Appearance==
Pip is an average-heighted man with carrot-colored hair and freckles. Perhaps his most notable features are his eye patch and long braid. He usually wears a cowboy-style hat with the left side flap folded up; it has what appears to be an emblem of a Griffin on the front. Pip is also a compulsive smoker, and is shown with a cigarette in his mouth more often than not.
==Biography==
===Background===
Pip Bernadotte is a Frenchman and is of Swedish ancestry. His family has had at least one member serving in the Wild Geese for six generations. His father was a mercenary who was killed in combat while gathering money for Pip's delivery. As result, Pip was raised by his grandfather, who was also a mercenary. Pip (along with the rest of the Wild Geese) primarily uses an AK-74 assault rifle as well as a Colt Single Action Army Revolver. Although having no supernatural powers, he does have experience from warfare and skills with firearms and military tactics.
===Hellsing===
Pip is hired by Walter C. Dornez to replace all the Hellsing staffs killed by the the Valentine Brother's invasion of Hellsing Manor. Walter's mistress, Integra, was initially reserved about hiring mercenaries whose sole motivations are for more monies, but Walter assures Integra that Wild Geese are professionals known for their loyalty to their benefactors.
On his first debriefing, he openly insults Seras Victoria over the absurdity of vampires but is quickly put in his place by Seras' 'aggressive reasoning', involving nearly breaking his neck by flicking him only with her forefinger. Pip and the other members of the Wild Geese, now believing Seras' and Integra's claims about vampires, proceed to train at the shooting range outside Hellsing Manor with Seras - training that ended with Seras blundered into shooting targets both friends and foes alike. Pip was quick to tease Seras for her stupidity, raising her irritation further with his obscene cadence and making her bursting into Walter's office complaining sexual harassment.
Soon after Pip is deployed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil along with Seras and Alucard to find the whereabouts of Millennium. Alucard and Seras are later attacked by BOPE units of the Brazilian military police after being declared in public as international terrorists, a ruse perpetrated by Brazilian officials in exchange for immortality promised by Millennium. Pip stealthily kills the Brazilian officials in charge of the BOPE unit while Alucard massacres it's members. Later after Seras' and Alucard's victory over Tubalcain Alhambra, the Millennium member in charge, Pip hi-jacks a helicopter and brings it to Seras and Alucard as a way to escape. Pip is later seen with Alucad and Seras at the conference which members of Iscariot, Hellsing, Millennium and The Convention of Twelve attended.
Pip is later seen throughout the attack on Hellsing Mansion during Millennium's invasion of London (Operation Seelöwe 2). Zorin Blitz, a Millennium First Lieutenant, attacked Hellsing Manor with roughly 1/3 of the Letztes Bataillon, though the attack was initially a disaster. Seras Victoria was easily able to shoot down Zorin's zeppelin with the Harkonnen II's AA cannons, forcing the surviving members to carry on on foot. Despite this, the survivors, behind halved in number and having lost all their heavy equipment, continued to attack, only to fall into a minefield set up by Pip.
Ultimately, the Millennium forces were able to bypass the mine field with the help of one of Zorin's illusions and breached Hellsing Manor. Zorin joined her battalion of troops in the destruction of the Wild Geese; killing all those in her way with her painful illusions and massive scythe. Eventually she encountered Seras and although Zorin was easily able to kill her she instead left her alive after scraping her eyes on her scythe, slicing off her left arm, and paralyzing her with a blow to the spine. Pip, already severely injured, tried to save Seras, but was instead brutally killed by Zorin, being impaled by the entire blade of her scythe.
Just before he dies from his sustained injuries, he finally kisses Seras for the first time, after she had rejected him several times earlier, and tells her to drink his blood and become stronger. Seras drinks his blood after he dies, and gains his memories and experiences. Seras also becomes a true vampire at this point (since she had previously refused to drink blood) and begins for the first time to show abilities similar to Alucard's. Seras then healed herself (save for her left arm, which now spews shadow matter) and effortlessly destroyed the remaining members of Zorin's Battalion, before defeating Zorin.
Because Seras had drank Pip's blood, his soul now lives on through her. He makes his first reappearance in Volume 9, giving Seras tactical advice during her battle with The Captain at the Deus Ex Machina's storage room. At the end of the battle, he manifests out Seras' body and stabs the werewolf's chest with a tooth that has a silver filing, killing the Captain.
30 years later after the confrontation against the Milennium Organization, The Iscariots talk about the seemingly poor security system of the Hellsing Manor while walking inside the mansion. However, when one of them pinches a wall, the shadow covering the whole hall is revealed and Pip's voice is heard. The Iscariot recognizes Pip, calling him Seras Victoria's shadow, revealing that the shadow (Pip) had covered the entire mansion to detect threats.
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
*Pip is the only known character that became a familiar and was able to fully maintain his awareness and personality, because he willing offered all his blood for Seras to drink. Because of this, he is also able to contact her even without being summoned, showing that he is conscious the entire time that he is within her. Meanwhile, most of the other characters who were seen as Alucard's familiars were sucked dry by him against their will, turning them into a sort of mindless zombie-like creatures. 
*Although it is never exclusively disclosed, Hirano confirms Pip to be French in the back of volume 6's tankoubon, where it is stated that he is "French and loves boobs". Hirano also mentioned in a filler-chapter that Pip is of Swedish ancestry.
**Regarding Pip's Swedish ancestry, the Royal House of Bernadotte is the current royal house of Sweden, founded by one of Napoleon's marshals: Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. The current Crown Princess of Sweden is named Victoria of Bernadotte, this is a very interesting fact considering Pip and Seras's romantic relationship in the series and them uniting when he becomes her familiar.
**His French status is clear in the English dub as he speaks with a French accent
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