tbh one thing i adore about falconia is how well miura has built up the people there as extremely likeable. Like, most of the apostles we see these days, mule is a cute everyman, I know sonia’s polarizing but she’s sympathetic, charlotte and anna, luca who we already know and like, owen and laban, the leader of the defected kushians, etc.
there’s some tension with locus and rasksas and rickert now, and ofc zodd and grunbeld have both fought guts, and griffith is mysterious but still the antagonist
but at the same time silat and the kushian magician, whatever his name was, were both antagonists too and they’ve joined rickert so yk
that’s pretty much canon imo. he only went to one noble function and he avoided everyone while he was there. plus he ignored propriety all the time, like trying to walk in on Griffith while noblemen were visiting him in the hospital, only kneeling for the king when Griffith told him to, and angrily “hey pal”ing the king’s brother when he slapped Griffith lol.
oh also one of my favourite moments at Farnese’s family’s ball:
cue farnese saying, “wait a minute please, all my family are here in this place.”
Yeah tbh I really like his speech patterns/voice in the official translation. idk if he’s ever said y’all specifically in the official version (definitely ain’t tho), but the translator did a gr8 job with character voices.
so for a hot second i was vaguely wondering whether neogriff has magical rebranding powers, able to raise a city from underground and add hawk statues everywhere
but i guess it’s more like the return of a legendary city now with hawk motif because enough people around here subconsciously want a hawk-y city for their hawk-y saviour. another result of griffith cracking open the world and bringing everyone’s fantasies into reality.
i kinda love that.
I want a time skip bc I really want to see what Falconia looks like compared to the rest of the world after a few decades
I’m rly looking forward to finding out what the conflict is going to be when the antagonist is on the side of world peace.
“more Griffith.” That’s so fitting with the notion that he’s basically become the impression he used to leave people with, with none of the depth of humanity.
Time to finally lay out my thoughts on these parallels and contrasts between Gambino, Griffith and Femto/NeoGriff.
Ok so starting with Human Golden Age 100% Certified Organic Griffith, even tho the parallels start off strong in the Black Swordsman arc, whatever, we’ll go chronologically.
So I remember saying that I had many thoughts on this but going back an examining them I found that pretty much all of that was mostly just me agreeing with the things you had already gone over in your post.
One thing though, Guts visualising Griffith in the moon is kind of a very interesting image for me. Because we have two other strong instances of similar imagery. The night Guts kills Gambino and at the end of Run he makes from Godo’s cave post-eclipse. In both cases he’s down, flat on his back, exhausted, doubting everything he’s ever known, not having any particular desire to go on.
And just then he looks up at the moon, and slowly pulls himself up again.
The presence of the moon almost seems to galvanise his actions and light up the way for him. Guts in that moment, seeing Griffith’s face in the moon and dedicating his current life path to him kinda seems like a symbolic extension of this fact.
Actually It’s interesting how Griffith is visualised in Guts head as to do with sources of lights, On the stairs of promrose hall he appears like a beacon, visualised as light at the end of the tunnel, as an inferno, as the moon, campfires, “Dazzling”, “burns so bright”.
Guts is one of the maybe only characters who has never compared Griffith to inanimate things or commodities- Never a doll, painting, statue, fine wine, idol or sculpture.
Fires are quite alive.
Nice! I’ve been checking out the moon imagery as I read and scratching my head ngl. I feel like the full moon represents fulfillment of some kind. Magic is at its strongest, moonlight kid shows up, Guts finds the will to keep going, Guts dedicates his sword to Griffith, etc.
Conversely, the eclipse is technically a new moon, and non-full moons appear prominently occasionally during signficant moments like Guts and Griffith’s last assassination together, Sonia’s chapter on loneliness, Rosine flying back home and dying, Ganeshka leveling up to Eldrich Abomination status (”on a night when you can’t see the moon”), etc
But idk it’s not completely consistent or anything and it’s nothing I can draw conclusions from.
Also gooooood point about Griffith as a source of light to Guts I don’t have anything to add to that, but it’s perfect.
like a traditional narrative would have guts going on his fix casca sidequest, which is overall framed as A Good Thing, succeeding, and then getting a reward at the end in the form of a loving sane gf because he Did Good.
Berserk instead fills it with ominous foreshadowing because yeah Guts is growing as a person and trying to do good, but it’s not that simple. When he first chose Casca over Griffith he was a huge danger to her and he needed companions to mitigate that danger, and she’s still afraid of him. Guts’ motives are also in question – for one it’s suggested that he’s being selfish in trying to fix Casca because he’s not taking her needs into account (”That’s right, she went to pieces because she can’t fully cope with it. What will she do if she does get her sanity back?”), and for another, he was still planning to ditch Casca again right up until Griffith showed up and soundly rejected him, suggesting that part of his motivation for trying to move on from his obsession with Griffith is straight up spite.
Nothing in Berserk is ever simple and pure and uncomplicated. No motive, no goal, no relationship, no emotion.
Guts is overall doing a whole lot better than he was during the Black Swordsman revenge rampage fiasco. He’s made new friends, he’s subdued his inner beast for now, he’s maturing, etc. But the same was true of Guts during the Golden Age. I don’t think anything as bad as the Eclipse is going to go down, but the way Berserk rolls, you don’t get an A for Effort. Guts had a very noble goal when he chose to leave the Hawks, and it was still a mistake.
Guts has learned from his mistakes enough to recognize that friends are more important than stupid dreams and he’s embodying that lesson now, but I suspect there’s a new one waiting around the corner: not just ‘you can’t force back what was lost’ but ‘if you try anyway be prepared for the consequences.’
woah woah woah i just realized i called that panel of sexy guts a griffith point of view shot but it isn’t, he can’t even see his face. But in the context of the shot reverse shot set-up (Griffith’s eyes, followed by what he’s actually seeing, followed by a closeup of Guts looking sexy actually from Casca’s pov, followed by what he’s actually seeing again, followed by Griffith’s eyes again) it’s an even clearer indication that he’s jealous of Casca and wants to be her in that moment imo. Like that shot of sexy Guts is a v straightforward visual depiction of desire centred so wholly between Griffith’s gaze that it feels like what he’s imagining she sees.
And the panel directly after it visually emphasizes Griffith’s removal and distance from them. Like damn the longing is palpable.
bc this is basically an addition to my reply to you, i just didn’t add it to the original post bc it was getting long and yk my point is still the same.
Was I the only one who thought they might actually kiss in this scene the First time you ever saw/ read it? Because I did . I was ready to react. I was about to go on all those sites and say. “ YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD FOOL ME INTO THINKING THIS WAS NOT GAY. I WAS NOT FOOLED. I ALWAYS KNEW!! “
But it never happened.
And I was like “oh” as I calmly shut the page I’d just opened to rant and go nuts on.
So, I thought Griffith would go for a kiss after taking Guts’ face in his hand and saying he belonged to him forever and ever. This scene also is a good place for it.
If this were a man and a woman everyone and their mother would be making gif sets of this and saying how they were so close to kissing after having the “what is this relationship” talk only to be interrupted by the plot. They would be doing this even if they never verbally said their feelings and everyone would accept it as a fact because straight people.
i never thought they’d kiss because I never expect anything I really want to happen lol. but like, this scene is as romantic as you can get without a kiss. if one of them was a woman people would call you delusional for suggesting their feelings are platonic lmao, like:
gentle breeze wafting griffith’s long hair across his face? check declaration of feelings while looking away followed by a turn and hard eye contact? check awkward, surprised response? check inconvenient interruption? checkmate
going back to the manga but you cannot look at these panels and then tell me with a straight face that we’re supposed to think their feelings are brotherly or whatever:
and yk what while i’m on this and since yesgabsstuff brought up the duel, you don’t have your characters ask each other if they’re gay, fail to confirm or deny, and say things like, “if you win you can have my sword or my ass,” if you’re not trying to point the audience in a certain direction.
it’s subtext, but it’s like, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence style subtext, where it’s not just a nice bonus if u recognize the symbolism or the gay audience reaching bc we’re desperate, but it’s the clear intended reading.
In fact, I’ll go one further – the very first parallel we have for Guts and Griffith, the first example we’re given to contextualize the mysterious, intense relationship between Guts and Griffith/Femto and the nature of the sacrifice – which we already know is what happened between them – is the Count and his wife. “The person you loved the most and hated the most!” Cue that shot of Femto looking slightly over his shoulder so there can be no doubt who also buried his fragile human heart.
(like i just re-read this scene and i love it so much because everything leading up to these panels exists to make the audience go “what the fuck is their deal?” like puck even directly asks “what happened between those two?” And then we get the Count’s story and it’s like, ohhh ok i guess they were in love at one point and then betrayal and despair followed and now one’s a demon and one’s really pissed off. gotcha. And then nothing in the golden age disabuses you of that notion.)
(ps “That’s right… you couldn’t do it. You couldn’t cut away half of yourself.” The Godhand to the Count. “[…]And that unkingly half of yours shall all be gathered then in that place.” Skull Knight to Guts.)
Oh my god, thank you so much for adding that, because, honestly, that chapter with the Count has got to be my favourite instance of foreshadowing in every medium ever. Not only does it explain the relationship between Griffith and Guts (almost explicitly), but it also tells us right away that Griffith must have cared for all the other members of the Band of the Hawk. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to offer them as a sacrifice in the first place. Which is kind of unrelated to the point you’re making, but you can just tell that this entire thing with the Count went right over some people’s heads because they 1. insist there’s nothing between Griffith and Guts and 2. are convinced that Griffith had been planning to sacrifice his comrades all along, or at least did it without regrets when the opportunity presented itself.
It’s sad that all this brilliant writing goes almost intentionally unnoticed by so many people in this fandom.
That said, just for the fun of it, I’d like to add my favourite inexplicably gay scene to this post:
(excuse the gutsca)
Look at that poorly hidden jealousy, I’m dying.
Yesss I love this moment too. Like, look at that Griffith POV shot of Guts. Look at how utterly eroticized it is. lbr here Griffith isn’t angry because Guts and Casca getting together third wheels him or deprives him of power over them or whatever other awful no homo explanations I’ve heard, Griffith is extremely jealous and straight up wishing he was that cloth.
also 2nding everything you said about the Count chapter. It pains me that so many people skip over the Black Swordsman arc or disregard it when it sets everything up so perfectly.
Right from early golden age I’ve noticed Griffith has a tendency to sort of face painful situations with this smile. And in each case this expression comes immediately after a panel in which he has a very somber expression. You can see him steeling himself to put it on in that panel. You can almost see the transition from sad understanding to this false wall of- “Don’t mind it. Everything will be okay!”
This just hits me in the gut every single time. Everytime I see this panel I just feel so goddamn emotional. Because somehow in this moment you feel the burden that he feels.
And this picture just says it all. It’s finally a corporal representation of what has most probably been going on so long. The complete dichotomy between his words and the gory bleeding arms. And this makes me so sad and yet any less and neither Berserk nor Griffith’s character would be the masterpiece that it is today.
(contd) snuffed out (ironically so considering shes the one who doesnt know theyre related). basically: do you think that serpico and farnese are still reespectively knowingly and unknowingly incesting lmao?
That’s a pretty solid observation to be honest.
Hmm…I personally don’t think they are presently mutually incesting exactly. Because as you said Farnese’s interests have since shifted from the moment she ran into his arms as a teenager.
I think Farnese seeking out relationships had been for the longest time a way for her to find a meaning to herself and her own identity. Serpico was the first person in her life who seemed to have some sort of permanence in her life ( contrast with her ever absent parents and frequently changing maids and caretakers) and she was afraid of losing that and wanted to secure it.
I don’t think her offering herself naked to Serpico had anything to do with romantic attraction to him, she was rather using it as a bargaining chip to try and convince him to stay.(Stay with her and leave with her) Farnese is aware that she is hard to be around, she has scared off scores of people before, and she’s aware that she has since treated Serpico in less than kind ways, maybe because she wanted to test if he too, like everyone else would eventually leave.
But now that he hasn’t, she realises she doesn’t want him to. And she wants to give him an incentive to stay. Offering sex is her way of saying “here, this has something in it for you too.”
She’s using it as currency and it takes her a significant swallowing of pride in order to do so. So having Serpico reject her point blanc is a huge blow to both her desire of finally being free of her current lifestyle as well as the sense of power she had temporarily felt at the prospect of being able to secure him by using something that was hers to give.
I am not sure how far you are currently into the manga so I don’t want to talk about future events but let me know if there’s any other part which you’d like me to talk about with respect to Farnese specifically?
But I always read Farnese’s feelings towards serpico as dependence and affection but not as attraction. I feel what she draws from Serpico has almost always been comfort and security and she herself doesn’t necessarily want more from him but was willing to indulge in more if it allowed here to secure the comfort she derived from him.
Of course it is possible that now that her relying on Serpico for security has lessened to an extent, her feelings could morph but the current narrative has her pretty occupied with other relationships- Guts, Roderick, Casca and as of now I don’t think her feelings for Serpico have been given a chance to morph Except for the fact that her affection and concern is now manifested in more healthy ways .
Serpico though, is a whole different ballgame.
Serpico owes his identity to his relation to Farnese. It’s difficult to tell what his feelings are unless he himself spells it out for us and the one thing that is clear to us is that whatever his feelings for Farnese are- they are intense as hell.
In Serpico’s mind, his life is irrevocably entangled with Farnese’s. And he himself hasn’t quite let go of the childhood imagery they had of them both being damaged, twisted people who inevitable ended up twisting and entangling together.
And while he realises that Farnese has since grown, untwisted. He himself feels left alone and is trying his best to keep up but at the same time forcing himself to hold back and let Farnese take the decisions, she needs to take. Because once again Serpico’s self image is to do with being the provider of what Farnese needs. Serpico changes as Farnese’s requirements of him change. And yes I think your observations about Serpico’s lingering feelings is interesting because I don’t think it’s the knowledge of them being half-siblings that stopped Serpico in the woods when Farnese approached him ( they were already to self-confessed twisted for that to be that big a deal in the atmosphere that had been set up at that point) Rather I think it was the knowledge that this wasn’t what Farnese truly needed at that point which stopped him., he’d seen through her plot, he’d noticed her trembling and Serpico models his actions on Farnese’s wants we never even see his own. There is no doubt in my mind that if Farnese had ever truly wanted to start a sexual relationship with him, he would have obliged.
Would he have wanted to?
The Godhand knows.
Maybe.
I sure as hell don’t.
I’d actually really like to know your interpretation too, if you don’t mind. I haven’t had an opportunity to read a lot of Farnese- Serpico meta yet and would like to hear other views on it. 🙂
There’s nothing I can really add to be honest except my own headcanons and I’m not sure those count as meta but let me try.
A lot of Serpico’s commentary revolves around how Farnese has changed for the better but also about how he couldn’t help her.
Perhaps he hasn’t realized it (or has but hasn’t voiced it) but he had been unknowingly enabling her and her violent acts.
Serpico states many times that his desire is to keep Farnese safe (and by extension happy one would assume), the way he does this is by mostly following her orders and getting rid of obstacles that threaten her and he does without explaining his actions to her and sometimes without even telling her, Serpico hardly communicates with her directly (or perhaps doesn’t know how).
He never explains to her why he draws on duels. He never explains why he rejects her when she offers herself to him (assuming it was for the reasons you said before). When she asks him if he hates her he gives an ambiguous answer (which prompts her to slap him and reassure their relationship as master/servant). Whenever Farnese speaks of her feelings he never comforts her (at the beginning of their journey with Guts and when they go back to the Vandimion family for a while). Tries to kill Guts without her knowledge and remains weary of him for a long time.
You state before that Serpico’s identity depends on Farnese and perhaps it’s this co-dependency that might’ve lead Serpico to unknowingly enable her. She needs him for company and often violently reassures their master/servant relationship so that he will remain; he stays by her, reinforcing his own self-image as Farnese’s protector and of their lives being twisted together. He knows the things she does are wrong/unhealthy but never does anything about it.
Only when an external force (Guts) comes in and directly challenges everything Farnese knows is when she starts to change. And mind you, Serpico does try to get rid of him, why? Because he upsets Farnese and says as much. Serpico thinks he’s helping her by getting rid of any obstacles in Farnese’s way but he’s only been enabling her to continue on her destructive path. When they start traveling with Guts and Farnese messes up her duties, what is Serpico’s reaction? “I’ll take care of it”, he doesn’t allow her to overcome difficulties on her own until now.
I stated before that perhaps Serpico doesn’t know how to communicate with her in a healthy way; he still does show many times that he cares, but how is he supposed to approach her? How can he display brotherly affection, or any affection at all for that matter if he is just her servant? Or rather…he thinks she sees him as just a servant (I’d love to see what Farnese thinks of him now, she cares for him and isn’t as dependent anymore, perhaps she would even be happy to know that they’re siblings??)
I don’t think Serpico ever realized what he was doing. He loves her, he can’t say so directly so he can only express it through actions, actions that don’t always come across clearly and that aren’t/weren’t always as benefiting as he thinks.
mmmm…This is very nice.
Yes I agree with you it’s kind of like someone slipping a recovering addict suffering from withdrawal a tiny dose to try and help them.
@yesgabsstuff said: I think that Berserk’s
central conflict at least during the Golden Age is how you plan on
dealing with your shit? All of them (Casca included) minimize or reframe
what happened to them. Guts absolutely lashes out at others to deal
with his anger but they are impersonal others and it’s done in a, dare I
say, socially acceptable way so it doesn’t feel abusive. He isolates
himself. Casca throws herself into being hyper competent and into her
relationships so that she can keep a fear that would freeze her to the spot at bay. Griffith
has his dream and in case of emergencies, self destructive behavior.
That is of course until he decides to manage his helplessness by
actually becoming an abuser himself. Guts of course teeters on the edge
of this coping style too. It’s very interesting
I don’t really have anything to add to this but it’s basically perfect. I love your character insights so much. Like, damn, that bit about Guts lashing out but he (mostly) gets away with it because he’s a mercinary and later his war is with monsters. That’s so spot on and something I never would’ve thought of.
And now that you mention this about coping, it occurs to me that all the parallels he has to Griffith during the Black Swordsman arc that I noticed are in how they respectively respond to trauma. They both deny feelings of guilt, they both physically scratch themselves, they both suggest that a young dead soldier died happy, they both single-mindedly pursue a goal.
This is so interesting!
@yesgabsstuff said:
The poor man.
Seriously like he’s stuck in this hell of idealizing people that hurt
him. Even as an adult he’s not able to really see Gambino as both his
father and the person who was responsible for his rape. The Eclipse
always felt like a similar rape by proxy situation to me.
Totally, like… the way Miura writes as far as I can tell from interviews is that he doesn’t plan stuff out much, but as he goes he’s very good at recalling what he’s already written and picking up threads and using older material to enrich newer material. So while I don’t think Casca’s rape was planned from the beginning, I do think it might be purposeful that it mirrors Guts’ original trauma in that Gambino is Guts’ rapist by proxy, and Guts is Femto’s victim by proxy.
Which, disclaimer, I think is v misogynist bs and an immense disservice to Casca, but she 100% is there as a bridge between Griffith/Femto and Guts. Like if Femto’s laser stare at Guts isn’t enough then the Hound explicitly spelling it out by telling Guts to assault her to be closer to Griffith p much cinches it.
I feel like he does the same splitting
thing with Griffith after the speech. It’s very indicative of having
lived in an abusive, invalidating environment that he holds a monster
and man “who did his best” almost as two separate people in his memory.
Also, having to get up the next day as though his rape never happened is
pretty much the ultimate in invalidation. His survival as a child
certainly required him to have this idealized view of Gambino but it
takes a long time to grow out of that. He
does it to a less extreme extent with Casca too.
Oooh this is a great insight – the fact that Guts can’t reconcile the “dark” and “light” parts of a person also feels incredibly thematically relevant. In Griffith/Femto’s case they are literally almost separate people, and Guts draws a distinction between them, when, eg, he tells Rickert “that’s not the Griffith you knew.” But when it comes to Gambino, Guts is just unable to accept the fact that he betrayed him in such a horrific way. He denies it for years at first, and then when Gambino himself tells him that he sold him, it’s like he chooses to focus on the guilt of killing him and represses the fact of his betrayal.
With Griffith and the speech, it explains why, rather than realizing that the speech doesn’t invalidate the fact that Griffith still risked his life for him for no reason, it takes over his perception of Griffith to such a huge extent that he denies everything that belies it (eg do i need a reason, do you think i’m cruel, etc) as irrelevant, until it finally becomes impossible for him to dismiss all those moments. Guts is just not good at reconciling disparate parts of a person.
And with Casca it makes sense that he treats her current state as an aberration that needs to be fixed so she can return to being the person in his memories, and adds a layer to the ominous foreshadowing that he’s rushing her to ill effect when she’s dealing with the trauma in her own way on her own time.
I feel like I know Guts a little better now actually. Like, he’s still not bad at understanding people, but these are where his blind spots are.
And like Griffith
assuming he’s being abandoned because he’s “dirty” and fundamentally
unlovable? It’s both of their trauma reactions that caused all of this
to happen. (I’m not implying that any of what happened after he left was
Guts’ fault, just that his reaction triggered another.)
Ok now this is something I was actually thinking about earlier today when I was talking about how totally purposeful the gay subtext is. I didn’t go into it because it’s a weaker point and I’m not sure I have a full grasp on it, but this comment actually fills in a gap for me and makes this point more solid to me.
Because yes! Their respective traumas inform and deepen the meaning of both of their “breakups.” I’ve written an essay before on Griffith’s issues with feeling “dirty” and how that’s a direct line from Gennon to thinking Guts is walking away from him in disgust. And ofc the eclipse is a mirror of Guts’ initial trauma, Griffith is a parallel to Gambino particularly at the bitter end of his mortal life, and Guts’ inability to understand that the Hawks were his home and Griffith loved him is, like you were saying up above, the same type of thinking Guts used to deny that Gambino sold him, and probably started there.
So I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to suggest that part of the point of all the sexual trauma in these characters’ pasts is to inform some of their bad decisions in the present.
I mentioned the gay subtext and this is a little beside the actual point, but the fact that Miura heaped it on and verbally suggested it when they meet, both characters have sexual trauma, and everything bad happens because they misunderstand each other due to, one can make a solid argument for, that trauma and split up… well it seems like a pretty good depiction of how trauma can fuck up your life and future potential relationships.
I mean at its core Berserk is a story about reacting to trauma. It’s right there in the title. So it never feels irrelevant to tie things back to it imo.
Time to finally lay out my thoughts on these parallels and contrasts between Gambino, Griffith and Femto/NeoGriff.
Ok so starting with Human Golden Age 100% Certified Organic Griffith, even tho the parallels start off strong in the Black Swordsman arc, whatever, we’ll go chronologically.
I love all of this. And can I say that the whole thing with his flashback and Casca and him saying sorry to Gambino broke my heart? It hurt so much that he felt any guilt about it. If I remember correctly Casca at first says something like; “And he assaulted you?” And Guts is like; “No. Yes? I killed him. I killed my father.” That whole thing just broke my heart and the fact that we know that it’s what they have in common that tears them apart hurts to think about. I wonder if Guts reminded Griffith of anyone?
Oh maaan yeah that exchange is so good and sad. Verbatim (bc I have the page handy and I absolutely love this dialogue) it’s:
“Gambino assaulted you… so you killed him?” “No! Gambino was different! I never meant to kill him! He took me in when I was a baby and almost dead. He taught me the sword. So why…?! Why’d he sell me out to that pig-bastard?”
which is just so heartbreaking. Then it’s a page later that he tells her how he accidentally killed him and finishes with, “I’m sorry… Gambino. Father…”
And good question. You have to wonder, with Griffith’s love at first sight thing, what it was about Guts that had him so entranced from the start. He talks about his tenacious ‘throwing himself into danger and then fighting to survive’ fighting style, but it does make you wonder if that’s all there is to it. If Griffith had slowly grown to love Guts i think i could fully understand why, but dude was fixated and risking his life for him from the very beginning.
1. while i still have to wonder if magical griffith-induced contentment is enough for apostles who were formerly like, rich assholes who regularly ate people and terrorized cities and are now underground brawling out their aggressiveness, irvine here’s got a sweet set up
dude just wants to hunt, going out and saving people from monsters every day is probably his ideal life. i’m happy for him.
2. irvine is so cool.
lol @ these two kids being the ones protecting a caravan of wagons from a troll attack. like okay rickert is a former hawk and therefore a legit badass, but still, does erika have to be the one assisting him
yk now that i think about it, it’s worth pointing out that the apostle/sacrifice relationship first and most directly compared to griffith and guts’ is also the only sacrifice of a romantic partner we’re told about. the others are parent/child, the abstract concept of “the world,” and a city.
Time to finally lay out my thoughts on these parallels and contrasts between Gambino, Griffith and Femto/NeoGriff.
Ok so starting with Human Golden Age 100% Certified Organic Griffith, even tho the parallels start off strong in the Black Swordsman arc, whatever, we’ll go chronologically.
Griffith is everything Gambino never was, but that Guts needed him to be. Dude has daddy issues, let’s be real here, and Griffith was a bigger, better, brighter Gambino who actually loved him. Who risked his life to save him and didn’t even have a reason. To Gambino he was p much only worth the money he brought in, but to Griffith he was worth risking his life for, for no reason or reward at all. Griffith in turn is similar to Gambino in that he’s a mercinary leader with a hold over Guts, but he’s otherwise superior in every way. More noble than Gambino in that he’s driven by ideals rather than money, has greater ambitions, greater skill, better manners, better morals, etc.
He was another person Guts respected, admired, and looked up to, and another person who Guts desperately wanted to have look at him, with some v explicit comparisons drawn by the manga:
After the Zodd debacle but before the Promrose Hall speech is a period of just about limitless potential for them. Guts accepts that Griffith loves him, or at least feels some kind of strong emotions for him – he recognizes the significance of the words “for your sake” here – and returns the sentiment by pledging his sword to him.
I don’t know if this is the answer I was searching for or not… but for now… For now I’ll wield my sword. For his sake.
Look at that – recalling the night he killed Gambino just before he pledges his sword to Griffith. Replacing one man with a new, vastly improved version.
This is also why the Promrose Hall speech hits him so hard, imo. Because for a brief period here Guts knew some extent of Griffith’s feelings, and the speech ripped that knowledge away and made him feel insignificant in Griffith’s eyes. We the audience know perfectly well that Griffith is head over heels regardless of the speech, but all Guts knows is he isn’t seen as Griffith’s friend/equal and he desperately wants to be. Because he needs him to be that better version of Gambino who actually loves him, not Gambino all over again.
Of course unlike Gambino, Guts’ perception of Griffith is based on a misconception, likely fueled and heightened by his own issues. Guts doesn’t get to see Griffith crash and burn when he leaves and then contemplate how brightly he shines within him, even compared to his castle, but we do.
Anyway so Guts inadvertantly breaks everything, fast forward a year and Griffith, like Gambino was for a time, is now disabled and dependant and really fucked up about it. Like Gambino he blames Guts, though unlike Gambino he still loves and almost immediately forgives Guts, and also unlike Gambino Griffith’s state actually is in part because of Guts (ofc you can’t blame Guts for Griffith’s own shitty decision-making, but you also can’t dismiss the fact that Guts leaving without explanation caused Griffith to have a breakdown lol). And, finally, like Gambino, this culminates in lashing out at Guts.
Gambino irrationally blames Guts for the death of his lover and all his bad luck since, Griffith blames Guts for making him fall in love with him (”only you made me forget my dream.”). Very different reasons, very similar result.
Now, and this isn’t a direct parallel imo but it’s one that I feel may be somewhat suggested, Guts blames himself for both Gambino’s death, and Griffith’s “death.”
Gambino was a terrible person who Guts killed accidentally in self defense, and he still has serious guilt issues because of it. When he has a flashback his panicky explanation to Casca ends with him crying and saying, “I’m sorry Gambino. Father…” Guts acknowledges and understands that Gambino betrayed him but that doesn’t make his feelings about him simple, and it doesn’t lessen his guilt.
I think this is also a large part of the reason Guts takes ages to stop hacking at Femto’s egg and trying to save Griffith after “I sacrifice.” Because he does blame himself. And even after he admits to himself that Griffith did betray him, this is how he looks back before leaving and fighting more monsters:
Anyway this brings me to Femto I guess.
In a way the Black Swordsman arc is a version of Guts’ missing years between Gambino and the Hawks: cursed and a bad omen, but now very literally because he draws evil spirits who kill people who get too close. “You should have died eleven years ago beneath your mother’s corpse!” = you should’ve died when you were sacrificed during the Eclipse.
Routine fighting to survive vs literally fighting every night to survive thanks to the brand.
Continuing on after killing Gambino vs continuing on after Griffith becomes Femto, with hints of survivor’s guilt all around, and strong visual comparisons:
But the real parallels are in how he responds to Femto.
Guts still craves acknowledgement.
His first reaction isn’t raaaagh I’ll kill you, that’s what he does after Femto dismisses him to focus on the issue at hand. His first reaction is hurt followed by, straight up, a need to be acknowledged. This scene starts with Guts basically fighting for attention, powering through his attack on Femto while the rest of the Godhand cheers him on until Femto knocks him into a wall and they move on to the Count’s backstory. Void even tries to get them back on track and then has his ‘…okay ANYWAY’ moment lmao (Enough of the sideshow.)
Same thing happens when he meets NeoGriff for the first time. His initial reaction isn’t to swing his sword at him, it’s to let Rickert hold him back while he pleads for him to acknowledge his betrayal (which, as this post points out, is similar to his morning confrontation with Gambino).
In fact, there’s a pretty interesting contrast drawn just in the Gambino
chapters – when Gambino lashes out and gives him the scar on the bridge
of Guts’ nose, he admits he might’ve been a dick and gives Guts
medicine for it. “Perhaps it was for no other reason than to soothe his
guilty conscience.” When Gambino sells him to Donovan, he doesn’t even acknowledge what he did let alone regret it, and even throws it in Guts’ face to hurt him a couple years later.
But this comes back after Guts’ flashback.
Despite just violently reliving the worst thing Gambino did to him, the last thing he thinks of is his seemingly contradictory mild kindness.
NeoGriffith never gives him the regret he wants him to feel either. But despite that:
My point is that Guts’ feelings are just as complex towards Femto/NeoGriffith as they are towards Gambino. He feels betrayal and rage, but also inadequacy, guilt, and a continuing desire to be looked at and acknowledged. He’s still driven by a v basic need to make Gambino proud – it transferred to Griffith during the Golden Age, and now it’s still there, complicating his hatred.
Which ties into the larger themes of Berserk, the good and evil in the heart of humanity. Gambino demonstrates this subtly – he’s a dick who shows just enough complexity and v mild compassion for Guts to crave more kindness from him. He’s very human in a very negative way. Griffith is the larger-than-life fantasy equivalent, who starts out as a positive version of Gambino – loves and is interested in Guts, behaves selflessly for him, is admirable in a fantasy-hero kind of way, etc – and literally transforms into a personification of evil, becoming a more heightened version of all the negative humanity in Gambino.
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