I’ve just been having feelings about Casca lately that are probs 90% projection. We’ve talked about this before I think the most likely explanation of Casca’s character arc revolving around feelings about the men around her (that therefore must be romantic) is misogyny. But it’s also shitty and #relatable because despite being in an atypically profession for women Casca is a Good Girl. And as someone who was raised to be that way you are pretty much trained to be this way by your parents.

And once we bring in the after effects of multiple traumas and possible
closeted feelings it gets even more complicated because I really did
just throw myself into my relationships, both platonic and romantic. So
basically it’s not good writing but it’s all weird and complicated for
me as someone who relates more and more to her as I get older.

Makes me wish we got more pre-Hawks backstory for Casca, what her family life was like, yk, other than her parents selling her lol, to have more of a foundation for her character.

but like this is legit. idk projecting on media is a time-honoured tradition, and if it makes it more entertaining or meaningful or understandable or w/e then it’s probably the best thing to do lol.

I don’t identify with Casca rly myself (I mean tbqh I almost never relate much to fictional characters on a personal level lol, I have kind of a disconnect there) but it absolutely makes her narrative more interesting to me if eg I read her desire to “give something” to the men in her life sexually as a result of trauma and being rescued/feeling like she owes them, rather than Miura just being a misogynist who thinks its romantic.

like idk exactly where to draw the line between ‘good writing’ and ‘bad but makes a surprising amount of sense if you look at it in a certain way writing’ anyway lol.

(btw I think I saw that you replied to one of my posts a couple times around when you sent these but they don’t show up on my activity page bc tumblr is broken so idk lol)

madchen
replied to your post “i feel like i want to say something but idk whatsogriffguts good”

this isnt true i drink a lot of wine and
post like two new two sentence pieces of content a week!!!!

new content for the week: guts rides griffith; griffith drinks a lot of wine

i meant new canon content lol but yk what this is valid and good and basically canon so ty

seisans
replied to your post “madchen
replied to your post “@madchen said:
whenever i see people…”

oh i do actually think casca’s not gonna forgive guts though! say what you will about miura but at the end of the day he’s a brilliant writer, and i feel like whether or not he understands women and casca as a character, he knows what would make for a really bad story. guts and casca having a happily ever after would be the most boring shit ever, i don’t think he would do that
but i DO think that all the little
nuances of casca that make her so relatable to women and maybe
especially wlw were just kind of accidental. no man understands women
like that

ohh yeah i see what you mean then by Miura only ever accidentally writing women well. bc like I do think he sometimes does pretty good with writing women as interesting well rounded characters, but boy when he gets into gendered stuff specifically, yk that kind of men are like this and women are like this shit, or the experience of being a woman in a misogynistic world stuff, etc, it’s absolutely super basic at best and usually just Bad as we see over and over with Casca, among other examples.

So yeah when it comes to like, eg expectations of a nuanced and thoughtful portrayal of Casca’s reaction to her extremely gendered trauma I have basement level expectations, and it wouldn’t exactly surprise me if Miura thought Casca being in love with Guts and/or forgiving him was a reasonable emotional response as a woman-driven-by-her-emotions-for-men.

But yeah, characterization aside, narratively it would just not be good writing, and lbr we’ve had a ton of foreshadowing and it’s not pointing towards Guts and Casca getting a happily ever after. At least not any time soon. And I’m just gonna keep my fingers crossed that whatever actually happens effectively nips the romantic potential in the bud.

You’re acting like Casca is being forced to stay with the Hawks , when she could’ve leave anytime she wanted. Victimizing her when she was an equal warrior like the rest of the Hawks until Guts came along, even Corkus said no one could beat her when they assaulted Guts and tried to take his silver coins. She was amongst the best warrior Griffith had they all respected her. Both Guts and Griffith hurt her more especially Griffith since she’s more familiar with him since she knows him longer.

…what is this a response to? Where did I suggest Casca was forced to stay with the Hawks?

The closest thing I can come up with is my tags on this post, which are referring to the fact that Casca is upset because she wants to leave with Guts and now feels like she can’t because of Griffith, and I think that’s pathetic writing that could be vastly improved if Casca was motivated by something other than men.

I mean if we’re talking about Casca’s term as leader of the Hawks, the text insists over and over again that she’s basically forced to lead them bc of her sense of duty and bc everyone just turned to her as their replacement for Griffith – Judeau tells Guts multiple times that leading the Hawks is terrible for her, we see that it drives her to suicide, and when the Hawks learn that Griffith isn’t going to recover they want Casca to keep leading them and Judeau tells them to stfu because they’re asking too much of her.

And I think Miura choosing to emphasize the toll leading takes on Casca emotionally is a shitty writing choice, especially compared to Griffith’s issues with leadership which are all about guilt, vs Casca’s which are all about how difficult it is.

Also like, are you saying I’m victimizing her by pointing out how often she needs to be rescued because she’s always conveniently feverish/on the verge of exhaustion/suicidal/up against someone so strong someone else has to step in/etc? There’s a well-known piece of writing advice: “show, don’t tell.” We’re told that Casca is the third best fighter in the Hawks who can defeat ten men. We’re shown Guts or Griffith rescuing her (or Guts easily defeating her) way, way more often than we’re ever shown her actual fighting skills.

This is a deliberate choice on Miura’s part, to shove Casca into the role of victim as often as possible despite what we’re told of her skills. I’m not dumping on a real woman who has a lot of bad luck lmao, I’m dumping on Miura’s misogynist writing.

Casca was a full character for about 90 chapters, in which she had to be rescued, let’s see… I count eight times: nobleman, guts, ch 15-21 (which could be counted as like 4 separate rescues but i’m being generous here), silat, suicide attempt, wyald, judeau during the eclipse (could be 2 separate times but let’s call it one), skull knight at the eclipse.

Compare it to the number of times we see Casca defeat her enemies
herself in those 90 chapters: Adon at Doldrey, the nobleman (after Griffith throws her a
sword), a few attempted rapists as she’s running from the 100 man fight
(before Judeau and co show up and get the rest for her), and one of the
Bakiraka assassins.

(I counted the nobleman in both categories lol bc Griff threw her a
sword and chopped off his ear first to interrupt the rape attempt, but
Casca finished him off and was also a kid so she gets points for that.
Just fyi.)

Or compare that to Guts, who is a full character throughout the whole 300+ chapters of story, and had to be rescued once when Griffith rode back for him after their first raid, once when Griff leapt in to save him from Zodd, a monster neither of them could actually defeat and it was actually fate that saved their asses, and once when Skull Knight showed up at the Eclipse. Oh, I suppose there was one time Gambino killed an enemy on the battlefield for him when he was like six. And Skull Knight didn’t save him from Slan, but he did save him from the subsequent cave collapse, so let’s be fair and count that too.

Versus an uncountable number of times he defeated his enemies himself.

Or compare it to human Griffith who is a character for about as long as Casca, and has to be rescued once after he’s tortured to the point of helplessness. Maybe twice if you include Zodd killing Wyald while Wyald’s holding him. And even after he’s physically helpless he manages to save the group once himself.

My point being that Miura chooses what to write, and he chose to write a ridiculous amount of situations where Casca needs to be rescued. He chose to make her a victim many many times even though she’s theoretically a highly accomplished warrior, and then he went all in and turned that into her entire character in the 250 chapters post-Golden Age, and I am absolutely gonna criticize that choice.

Finally, I often cite the way the Hawks fully respect and admire Casca as one of my favourite things about her character, and I don’t think I’ve ever suggested that she wasn’t hurt by Griffith and Guts lol, so i’m not sure why you brought those things up.

madchen
replied to your post “@madchen said:
whenever i see people
gush about casca as like a…”

tbh luca might be one of the better written female characters too never mind that shes a sex worker. she gets a few monologues of her own which is more than i can say for casca.
anyway yea i dont
think its intentional and even if it is its full of many of the mistakes
that men make when depicting violence against women that idc

i always forget about luca lol but yeah she is actually a pretty well-rounded character considering her comparatively small amount of screentime and she gets to fill the role of smart philosophical character explaining the arc’s themes lol, which is kind of refreshing. ofc we still see her tiddies and get ridiculous campy fanservice from her, but i mean, that’s a woman in berserk for you. like jeez we even saw flora’s aged-down tits lmao.

@seisans said: i honestly feel like all the good
writing involving the female characters of berserk was like. purely
accidental. not that miura didn’t try to portray gutsca as a stupid
decision, he really did imo, but he also has no idea what women are like
and is just writing out of his ass. i firmly believe that

I know in my soul you and maddie are right but I’m trying to cling to every scrap of hope I can now that Casca’s mind is back and she could potentially like, do literally anything that isn’t either ‘get back together with guts’ or ‘maintain a tense relationship that could return to romance at some point in the future for the sake of a happy ending, thus filling me with dread for the remainder of berserk.’

@madchen said:
whenever i see people
gush about casca as like a strong female character its like… what the
fuck are yall talking about she literally is there to throw hysterical
fits and then gets fridged 😦

also you put into
words what is eternally frustrating to me abt casca ie miura is a pretty
decent writer when it comes to portraying human fault in his characters
so cascas writing comes off almost like a deliberate comment on her
places as a woman constantly bound to two men and being miserable and
directionless bc of it.
i mean miuras female characters in
general like dude… please i know its “””dark fantasy”” but not every
woman has to be under constant threat of depowering and rape or be frail
and helpless before she meets guts or w/e

and then our
“”powerful women”” are bland and matronly or sexualized femme fatales
snooze. this turned into a rant  basically cascas writing is my kill
switch 

yeeeep.

and yeah like agh that’s basically what i mean when i say her lack of independence is interesting to me in theory, like… i genuinely believe it could be intended as an actual flaw and commentary on misogyny, like I’m torn on that. bc Miura does use Casca to give us his hot takes on misogyny a lot, and it really, really feels to me like he wrote g*tsca as a highly flawed relationship on purpose, and ffs she’s compared to his sword right after they fuck, that cannot be intended as a good thing, right?

but his writing of Casca is just so genuinely bad and misogynist so often that it’s just as likely that he just plain sucks at writing a hetero romance that isn’t super sexist.

honestly it almost feels ridiculous to complain about the misogyny in berserk, because duh lmao, but sometimes I just get caught up in how frustrating it is, esp bc Miura is such a good writer in other ways. Like I’d say Farnese is the best written woman in Berserk and even she goes from sexy sadomasochist to caretaker with almost nothing in between, with a side of being into Guts the same way Casca was into Griffith.

Don’t you think that Casca is a little boring and overrated? The character who only purpose is revolve around male characters and be their love interest -especially if those men have special bond- is annoying, but people think so highly of her when she’s not really that complex, interesting and independent character, especially when her sole role only is rubbing the salt on Guts’ wonds. ://

Kind of yes, kind of no lol.

I find Casca a very frustrating character because I think she had plenty of potential to be interesting, and we see brief flashes of that in canon, but Miura fucked her over at every turn, flattening her, making sure every aspect of her character revolved around men somehow, etc. Personally that potential is more than enough for me to love her, because I’m easy when it comes to angry women with swords lol, but that’s just me and my ability to ignore what I don’t like about canon.

For example, when she brought Guts up to that cliff by the waterfall so she could take her anger out on him by trying to murder him. The narrative never really acknowledges how utterly fucked up that was, it’s played off as Casca being a hysterical woman, but man in theory that is a very interesting, super dark character note.

Casca’s lack of independence is actually interesting to me too as a major character flaw. But again, it’s something that the narrative… doesn’t necessarily acknowledge, but rather seems to treat as the default role of a woman.

Like Miura’s misogyny is never more blatant than when it comes to how he writes Casca, and it sucks, but despite that he’s still a really good character writer, and that still shines through even with Casca. She has relatable moments, she has awesome moments, she has strong dialogue, moments that make me feel empathy, and interesting traits. I mean the most heart-wrenching part of the Eclipse imo was when we saw it through her point of view as she fought with Judeau. Miura’s writing still makes me feel real feelings for her, and I can’t not love a character I feel for lol, even if that writing fails her enormously in many other ways.

Like it blows that her motivation for joining the Hawks and becoming an incredible swordsman was being in love with Griffith, but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s an incredible swordsman who can lead an army and it’s cool and badass. Like, it seriously blows that she’s almost 100% motivated by men – either being in love with them or fighting against their misogynist violence – but I can still read moments like her capture of Doldrey, or the way she can take command of the Hawks in moments of panic, and want to cheer for her. It blows that she’s always being depowered somehow so she can be rescued, but I can still read dialogue like “they say she can defeat ten strong men at once” and go ‘yeah that’s my girl’ lol.

BUT ALL THAT SAID like, I can completely understand being exasperated by her character too. Like, I personally can kind of… ignore how badly she’s often written and just take the parts I like and form my opinion based on that. But that’s not something anyone should be required to do, and her writing fucking sucks let’s be real.

No one should feel like they have to like her when she pretty much exists as an example of Miura’s misogyny, and when she is forced into the love interest role for the sole purposes of a) no homoing Guts and Griffith and b) getting horrifically and off-the-charts offensively fridged for Guts’ manpain. One of my pet peeves is people calling fans misogynist for disliking fictional women, cause like, the thing is she’s not real and hating her as a poorly written and often offensive fictional construct isn’t the same as hating a real woman, so yk, I support you lol.

Plus yeah I do think she’s often overrated in lots of fandom – a good chunk of Berserk fandom doesn’t acknowledge the enormous flaws in her writing, and does consider her to be genuinely a well-written ~strong female character~ lol. So yeah in that case I think she’s overrated. Though it might be more accurate to say Miura’s writing is overrated.

idk tl;dr I like Casca but her writing is so deeply flawed that I completely get disliking her.

freewilllife
replied to your post “ugggggh tumblr still refusing to show me like half my notifications so…”

In a way it shows that the mangaka is not able to imagine that there are women who don t consider it a true sacrifice if there aren t “feminine” and soft. Like I have barely seen a woman who is able to perform that “trick” 100 % of her time anyway.

yeah pretty much. it wouldn’t even bother me much if Miura didn’t keep framing Casca’s more feminine traits as a prelude to romance/establishing her as an acceptable love interest, while also having her ask for reassurance that she’s feminine enough for Guts multiple times. Like, there’s nothing inherently wrong with writing a woman who has a combination of masculine and feminine traits, or even writing a woman who’s insecure about not being as feminine as other women, but lol I hate how Miura went about it.

also hey if femininity is a prerequisite for being guts’ love interest there’s no need to awkwardly feminize casca when griffith is right there being described as “prettier than me, and I’m a woman”/”so pretty i could hardly tell he was a man”/etc js lol

ugggggh tumblr still refusing to show me like half my notifications so i missed these til now, sry.

@madchen said:
whenever casca starts
acting out i think of that ten year study that concluded women only
express rage at the incompetence of others and at injustice

not that its That Deep
like u said… alovelyburn said that miura starts “chickifying cascas
character” once he decides to make her a love interest and it shows.
suddenly she starts crying more often, is passing out from endometriosis
and her anger is explicitly regarded as womanly as opposed to just

at some point I want to write out a full “it could be that deep” style analysis of Casca’s role in the story wrt the intersection of misogyny and heteronormativity. Like, I swear to god there’s a bizarrely coherent reading there even though there’s no possible way it was intentional on Miura’s part lmao.

But yeah as far as reasonable interpretations go it’s just sad facts that Miura uses Casca as like, a shallow way to examine misogyny, in how yk her whole life revolves around sexual violence, while simultaneously writing her romance v misogynistically as well, and it’s awkward af.

Like yeah Casca definitely got more feminine when she became Guts’ love interest, like to the point where Guts reassuring her that she’s “womanly” enough is a prelude to sex (jfc) and every one of their positive encounters before up to then shows her being nuturing/”soft”: bandaging his wound at Promrose, needing to be rescued bc of her period, tending to Guts’ wounds with the elf dust (w/ Judeau commentating that she’s softer now), wearing a dress while Guts reassures her that she looks good in it, being rescued by Guts again, etc.

But also ngl I get the sense that she was kind of doomed from the start with Judeau’s “our Casca gave up being a woman” line while talking about how she’s the 2nd best swordsman in the Hawks.

Like Casca was sadly never going to be a good portrayal of gender non-conformity because her lack of femininity was framed as an unfortunate sacrifice and something that should be rectified as soon as we met her.