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yk what as much as i absolutely adore guts’ total lack of rage here, i feel like this is a huge writing mistake.

and not only because miura basically used guts’ resignation upon being sacrificed to try to narratively justify the eclipse rape as a way of actually pissing him off, but also because, frankly, griffith sacrificing him should send guts into a giant tailspin of rage and hurt.

it’s a very clear replay of his childhood trauma.

like while i think it’s not necessarily ooc for guts to feel sad and wistful after griffith makes the sacrifice, rather than heartbroken and rageful, I think a) it would be just as in character for the sacrifice itself to send Guts into Black Swordsman mode, esp with watching all his friends die horribly and b) it would be thematically tighter and fit with what we see of the Black Swordsman arc better if that had been the case.

As of like, chapter 12, we know everything we need to know to understand Guts during the Black Swordsman arc. He’s a walking bundle of trauma because someone he loved essentially handed him over to a hoard of monsters and ghosts, and that reminds Guts of Gambino both calling him a cursed child who should’ve died and selling him to Donovan.

And having Guts be not really all that upset over the sacrifice, but more upset over Femto’s petty demonstration of evil afterwards completely shifts the focus from Guts’ personal trauma and feelings of betrayal to manpain over his girlfriend’s trauma.

like this?

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Is extremely good shit, especially after we see his childhood later.

Guts’ frantic denial after Griffith does make the sacrifice, as he’s trying to “save” him, is also perfect set up for this in the way it echoes Guts denying Donovan’s assertion that Gambino sold him. But then instead of giving way to rage and betrayal, Guts just… resigns himself.

The rage and betrayal could’ve even be put on hold until Femto appears. All we’d need to see to justify Guts shifting from regret and dull sadness to pure unadultrated rage and pain would be something akin to what we saw in the Black Swordsman arc – Femto coldly telling Guts he should be dead/he’s nothing but a sacrifice/he belongs to the apostles/something along those lines. Ie an echo of Gambino telling Guts he sold him before trying to kill him.

(and we could have femto sic the apostles on guts + guts survive just long enough for skull knight to show up. we don’t even have to lose femto failing to kill him as he escapes.)

Imo the sense that Guts is personally very fucked up by the fact that he’s once again been traded away by someone he loves, respects, and admires is lost after the Golden Age in favour of the sense that Guts is fucked up by losing someone he loves and gaining an evil demon antagonist in his place, with a side of being mad about Casca.

On the plus side we get the sense that part of his rage comes from just missing Griffith, and I can’t deny that I absolutely enjoy the fact that Guts isn’t angry at human Griffith, but is only angry at demon Griffith. The way Guts separates the different versions of Griffith in his mind and still feels love and regret and guilt and fondness etc for human Griffith is good shit and it’s hard for me to say I’d give that up for anything lol.

But I think it would still be better writing if he was directly angry about the sacrifice, and if his feelings of love and regret and guilt were all mixed together with rage and betrayal and all aimed at all three versions of Griffith. And despite everything I would ultimately rather have that + no Eclipse rape than what we got.

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I wanna improve my skills more and challenge myself by crossin’ swords with stronger and stronger enemies… If I stay there may be no lack of battles… but I’m sure there wouldn’t be enough of the battles I want. I’ve made up my mind. I’ll never entrust my sword to another again. I’ll never hang from someone else’s dream.

(for clarity’s sake this is an illustration of Guts’ dream of becoming Griffith’s equal, not a ship thing lol)

i like my femto as a manifestation of griffith’s self loathing hot take more the more i think about it, bc like, it’s a gr8 way of exemplifying berserk’s “people’s actions/choices/etc shape them” “he who fights monsters” etc theme.

which yk is everywhere from the concept of the sacrifice (choosing to sacrifice your loved ones makes you evil), to guts’ sword gaining more essence-of-darkness power the more ghosts and monsters he kills with it, to regular old non-metaphorical character progression like the black swordsman arc.

but the self loathing specifically is a great touch because what it means, which holds true in berserk, is that it’s not doing generic bad things that slowly fucks you up, but specifically doing things that you yourself find abhorrent. it’s pushing past your own limits.

eg tombstone of flame was a dark moment for griffith, because he felt guilty about the assassinations.

for guts? didn’t make an iota of difference because he didn’t care.

for griffith every battle feeds his dark side because every life lost on the road to his dream makes him feel guilty, and pushing away that guilt and doing it anyway is what shapes him and makes him capable of doing more and more, until sacrificing the hawks (guts excluded) can be framed as just another round of casualties, another scoop of bodies on the mountain.

for guts, the things that feed his dark side tend to be more along the lines of going above and beyond and torturing apostles and killing children or using them as hostages lol. or mistreating his friends eg abandoning and attacking casca. he has a very strong dividing line between people he cares about and canon fodder.

griffith didn’t have that dividing line, he cared about every death he caused, ally and enemy alike, which ironically made him more susceptible to corruption, in that it basically gave him practice burying his heart lol, until by the eclipse he was like, fuck it i’m a monster anyway, might as well make it official.

i don’t think this is the be all end all, i think there’s also a strong ‘one’s environment shapes you’ theme that intersects w/ this, particularly wrt trauma feeding ppl’s dark sides as well. plus this is only part of griffith’s reasoning for making the sacrifice lol.

but yk, it’s a good + interesting element of the story.

prettykitten123
replied to your post “do you have any… griffguts pillow talk ideas… i think griff likes…”

For a post coital small talk thing I imagine Griffith maybe bringing up maybe a favorite game he used to play as a kid or a toy he used to be attached to. I also see them maybe laughing about some of the funny moments that happens in the Band of Hawks when they’re not in battle but at their camp site. I also see Griffith talking about something he read in a book or maybe he mythology he likes or a person he looks up to. He would definitely try to get Guts to talk more
About his thoughts.
When it comes to Guts I’m not quite sure what he would talk about. I’m
inclined to say maybe a happy moment that wasnt really all that
significant but nice that happened to Guts. Griffith is the only person
Guts would let himself be vulnerable to and vice versa so I do see him
talking about more personal subjects though I dont think Guts would be a
fan of talking about heavy subjects after him and Griffith just
finished doing the horizontal cha cha

So yeah I do see Guts talking about
minor nice momenta he had in his childhood. The things he talks about
arent significant but the fact that he is willing to discuss them is
what’s important since Guts is secretive about his childhood.

this is so heartwarming tbh, especially the idea of guts talking about a nice moment of his childhood, i could see that (idk what it would be, but yk i’m sure he must have /some/) and it feels like it would be a really touching counterpoint to being triggered (in canon, or in a previous time w/ griffith in this hypothetical scenario, yk).

berserk-zine:

berserk-zine:

I’m excited to announce that issue 2 of the Berserk Fanzine project is  underway! This time the zine will be completely re-conceptualized to be more like a magazine. We want to feature writers this time too! 

We’re opening a call for writing submissions first. If you’re interested in contributing a written piece, please read the details and apply at the link below! 

Full Details | Writer application 

weekend reblog~

madchen
replied to your post “also somewhat relatedly i love the thought of all those little moments…”

i actually always saw the last thing griffith remembers as a call back to the first bit we see of them together in the black swordsman arc (when griffith pulls the bodies off of guts) idk why now bc they both look older and i like this better.

i think it might be anyway, like not a return to that scene specifically bc they are def older, but it’s another scene where griffith seems to help a minorly injured guts after a battle. the first time we saw them together was a flashback, the last time is a flashback, the first time they were just starting to open up to each other, the last time they have their arms around each other just enjoying each others’ presences

yk as an illustration of their relationship it’s pretty apt especially as a compare/contrast to that very first scene, whether it’s intentional or not

also somewhat relatedly i love the thought of all those little moments in their relationship that we know existed but never get to really see, at least not in detail, in like the 3-4 years they had before everything got all fucked

the little quiet moments pre and post battle, eating together, drinking together, chatting about nothing important, or griffith opening up to guts the way we’ve seen a few times but must’ve happened more than that, laughing together, sparring together, whatever. there’s just so much potential there.

but i’m glad that we got to see just enough of them to hint at the little chill unimportant-to-the-plot moments, just enough to get the sense of the casual intimacy of their relationship

like guts trying to see griffith after the zodd fight because why the hell shouldn’t he go visit him? or like corkus calling guts griffith’s favourite. or like guts casually reclining in griffith’s study paging thru the kama sutra while griffith talks about the assassination attempt.

or like owen’s memory

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and some of the official art is gr8 for this too

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and mb my favourite two examples:

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like, i love that after the eclipse guts’ mournful memory of griffith is one we never actually saw, nothing particularly important, nothing relevant to the plot – just one instance of griffith glancing back at him before a battle.

and griffith’s last memory before making the sacrifice is also nothing relevant to the plot, nothing particularly important, just the two of them limping away after one battle out of a hundred together.

because it’s those moments that really, really define their relationship, moreso even than griffith saving guts from zodd or guts dedicating his sword to griffith or griffith’s breakdown when guts left or guts realizing he fucked up when he left, etc etc.

+ it’s those little details that rly sell their relationship even when we don’t get to see all that much of the casual pointless in-between moments imo. like the big important moments are incredibly good and why i ship them, but it’s just nice to know that those moments aren’t the only ones that matter.

madchen
replied to your post “do you have any… griffguts pillow talk ideas… i think griff likes…”

Griffith definitely tries to prompt guts into talking more and more (he tacks on “and…?” to guts one word answers) bc he loves guts as a person and listening to him talk about anything even like… what he had for lunch today (evening quickies :/) or dirt or whatever. vice versa too like u said. i think its a lot of personal and seemingly meaningless stuff sometimes that feels very intimate. just like griffith commenting on his nail beds that he pick and raising his hand to guts face to show
griffith also likes to
spring shit on guts when hes feeling especially vulnerable and bold
post coital. nothing serious but “how do you think id look in a dress?”
or “have you played strip poker before?” or the dreaded “was that good
for you too?”

yesssss i love this! griffith just listening starry eyed to guts talking about the sandwich he had for lunch or w/e. and uggh while i’m so bad at thinking of examples i love the thought of them just talking about nothing in particular.

and the question thing is so weirdly perfect? like one part wanting to fill the silence afterwards, one part getting like, mild emotional security listening to guts talk about something afterwards, and one part just being freer w/ his words/thoughts after sex. idk i love it. ty!

do you have any… griffguts pillow talk ideas… i think griff likes listening to guts talk(i keep sending you questions im sowwee but your scholarly opinions matter)

lol now this… i have absolutely nothing. what do people talk about? what do people in weird fantasy medieval times talk about? what do griffith and guts talk about when it’s not plot related? ??? ????????????

idk like, i could see them pretentiously philosphizing together but probably not right after sex. talking about their day? griffith maybe would, idt guts would. idt guts is that small-talk-y. he can go on for sure, but it’s mainly self-reflection and philosophical stuff. (then again he has done that after sex in canon, so)

but like ignoring the question of conversation topics, i def think griffith would like listening to guts talk, and vice versa. i could see griffith asking guts questions to try to get him to talk about something he’s interested in. and guts would be happy to listen to griffith talking about… idk whatever. serious topics, self-reflective ones, or what kind of tea he had that day with which asshole nobleman he had to humour, or whatever.

do you have any ideas about what they’d casually chat about?