I have heard on the grapevine that he’s been asked about it once or twice in interviews and does the typical ~men can have passionate relationships without it being sexual~ thing but I’ve never seen it first hand. (Well I guess I never will since it will always go through a translator first, but yk what I mean. Never seen more than a paraphrase.)
But also like, that doesn’t affect my reading at all lol. He clearly added intentional subtext, which is like, demonstrated when the characters themselves comment on it lol, and if he genuinely intended me to read them as two dudes who don’t want to fuck each other then he missed his target by so much that the dart somehow hit the wall behind him.
ok anime aside, anyone know if there’s any proof that these are guts’ thoughts, like in the original japanese wording or smthn? because they read so griffith to me in phrasing, and also if these are guts’ lines then it kills alot of my sympathy for him lol.
like kinda turns it from guts leaving without a word bc he didn’t think griffith would care, to guts leaving without a word despite knowing he was causing some amount of emotional damage, bc he’s thinking w/e griffith will get over it. like, surprise dude, he did not get over it. or, to be more cutting, he did in fact eventually stand up and start walking, and that was a bad time for everyone.
(on the other hand if i was adapting this and if it is genuinely ambiguous, i’d rly want to have both vas say these lines lol. i mean maybe it’s not completely a bad thing for guts to not be super sympathetic in his choice to leave. understandable, yes, but a mistake is a mistake and if guts gets these lines that’s just kind of underscoring it.)
honestly I never even doubted that these were 100% guts’ words, I mean now that you’re bringing it up I guess maybe they could be griffith’s (the like stumbling on a rock, a small thing part aka him lying to himself about how much it impacts him) but that makes zero sense to me considering in this very moment he’s just sitting there utterly defeated (like… even more so mentally than physically) so him internally monologuing this deeply feels really out of place. (i always considered him so completely shocked there everything else was just static to him. like he hears no sounds. doesn’t even feel the cold. can’t think. it’s just guts walking further and further away booooo) but you’re right about it killing a bit of the guts sympathy tho because yeah, why leave at all if you’re aware you’re already important enough to cause griff at least SOME form of pain. I mean isn’t that what he wanted all along like why willingly walk away if you’re semi-aware you already mean enough to someone to cause them a minor breakdown. (lol understatement of the century but then again guts at this point knew nothing of the true depth of griff’s feelings)
and this brings up another issue, if these are guts thoughts, and we then assume he was aware he was at least ‘a rock on griff’s road’ yet still left, can we then also safely assume that whatever he was aware of that griff felt for him, was not enough for him, like this whole scene always read to me as guts leaving because he wanted MORE (like yeah i know that’s the whole plot but hear me out) and steeling his resolve to go by winning back his freedom because his eventual return as griffith’s equal would magically undo the hurt and anger griff might’ve felt over guts breaking from his hold. like he had to at the very least know damn well that griffith valued him greatly as a captain and treated him different than the rest of the band, casca deadass tells him that and the only thing that stands in the way of him accepting it personally is his inferiority complex or whatever you wanna call it.
I know guts is a self-unaware idiot esp. in the golden age but cmon dude, he saw the way griff was sitting there stunned before him after that strike, he saw how he was completely shocked he’d lost the duel and thus his hold on guts. take into consideration guts’ own represses feelings for griff and you can imagine his heart must’ve ached at seeing griff so completely shook up.
BUT HE STILL WALKS OFF, monologues the above complete bs of an excuse to himself to justify why it is somehow okay for him to leave and become worthy of being griffith’s equal (that in any case, he already more than was but hnngg berserk is not a happy love story unfortunately)
Its actually good if that kills some of the sympathy because yes this is what inevitably kicked off all events that led to the eclipse and yes it was partly guts fault and YES he should feel very fuckin sorry.
and since the whole plot of berserk is in essence based on the weight of choice and how much of it is really your own or set in stone by fate this is a really good example of a really realllly reallllllly bad one with unimaginable consequences.
tldr; those have to be guts’ lines and yes its cool if you resent him alil for them lmao because this page is the arguably the worst moment in the entire manga cause it kicks off the end of all good things era.
It’s funny bc I just assumed they were Griffith’s words when I read it, since I didn’t remember the scene in the anime at all at the time, and imo it feels like something Griffith would think. Tho I do get your point about Griffith being beyond internally monologuing to himself, and idk I’m kind of torn… like I don’t rly disagree, he is absolutely emotionally fucked here lol, but the way I see Griffith, if there’s anything that would be running through his head at this moment it would be, “it’s fine it’s nbd idc at all it’s nothing” all the while kneeling frozen in the snow while the rest of the hawks there shuffle their feet and glance at each other awkwardly.
But I’m like, all about Griffith denying his feelings to himself so it’s an aspect of his character I mmmmay exaggerate a bit lmao.
But yeah wrt it being from Guts’ pov, I agree with everything you said, and like… yeah it rly does work. tbh I don’t think you’re wrong about anything there, there’s a lot of evidence that Guts at least knows Griffith has strong feelings for him and was devastated when he walked away. But omg I just… can’t handle that lmao.
Like, I need to see Guts as completely blinded by his inadequacy issues because otherwise I feel actual anger towards him and honestly I almost never get angry at fictional characters, I’m generally way more detached than that, so this is a very weird feeling lmao.
Like, it really does shift my attitude towards Guts leaving from seeing it as a
very innocent mistake since he never in a million years believed leaving would genuinely hurt griffith, to really actually
assigning him some serious blame bc he knew it would hurt griffith and
the only mistake there was miscalculating how much.
And like, that’s not just low self esteem, that’s callousness, and it’s callousness that resulted in my fave being tortured for a year and then deciding to become a monster so like, i guess that’s probably why it pisses me off lol. fuck you guts.
So tbh I still want to cling to things like Guts’ complete lack of understanding and denial when he comes back, during Casca’s tirade and his chat with Rickert, and in the tunnels on the way to rescue Griffith, etc, as evidence that Guts’ mistake was being genuinely blind to Griffith’s feelings towards him no matter how obvious they are bc of his low self esteem and inadequacy issues, rather than like, knowing Griffith cared to an extent but miscalculating how easily he’d get over it. And like, “this says to me I’m still worth spillin blood over in your eyes,” also kind of makes me hope that he thought Griffith only gaf about him as a soldier.
idk it’s a lot more palatable to me as another mistake in a big pile of golden age mistakes that no one can really be blamed for because they all have serious issues fucking them and their relationships up, alongside things like griffith failing to recognize his feelings and making his speech to charlotte, and casca running to grab griffith to stop guts from leaving, and both of them choosing to fight rather than talk, etc. And idk maybe if I was unbiased it would still feel like another one of those mistakes bc it’s not like Guts’ issues aren’t contributing lol, but idk it feels like Guts walking away goes above and beyond.
And agggh yeah like that moment is given an above and beyond treatment in Guts’ memories and related guilt issues, so that’s still perfectly reasonable… lmao it feels weird to be the one wanting to defend Guts when I was just saying that narratively everything is his fault and tbh I always feel like most of the fandom lets him off the hook way too much lol.
tl;dr I think you’re most likely right but that makes me feel negative feelings :((( and yeah ok those negative feelings fit the story but still :(((
i mean the sword blowjob was the farthest thing from subtle and while i think the second duel’s sword-breaking is largely about like… powerlessness moreso than clear sexual connotations like the first duel, it’s powerlessness in the face of griffith’s emotions for guts and his rejection by him, “how long ago did someone I was supposed to have in hand instead gain such a strong hold on me,” etc, so yeah. Totally a gay metaphor for griffith’s perceived rejection by guts.
(also i think you could argue that there are still some sexual connotations in the 2nd duel, it just feels like a little more of a stretch than w/ the hugely blatant first duel lol. but i mean, berserk equating wounds to sex not long after, guts breaking griffith’s sword before it hits him and then not even touching griffith with his own sword, right over top the scratch markes he gave himself which he traces after fucking charlotte later… lmfao fuck freudian imagery is such a fun rabbit hole, someone stop me.)
i need to write or say something more about how casca is always the symbol/connection between guts and griffith (bc she is a woman etc) bc i feel like its generally ignored and dismissed for bad men do bad things or whatever.
lmao one time i wrote 5k words on this topic and i still feel like it only scratched the surface, like it seriously feels like every single moment of casca’s screen time that involves romantic feelings is suggestive of this. and you should def write something about it if u feel inspired because I want to know other ppl’s opinions, it really is one of those things that isn’t really talked about much. maybe because it gets so fucked up and it’s so unfair to casca and lbr it’s a fairly depressing and dark subject.
i think berserk is walking that “revenge will destroy you” route and im not against a kind of emotional catharsis here but that would ideally be between guts and griffith and like that kind of reconciliation (given thats the angle were taking here) would leave an awful taste in my mouth bc of the eclipse rape lol.
tbh this is why i hope berserk isn’t so much going for a ‘revenge is bad and futile’ thing as it’s going for a ‘guts getting revenge in this particular case is bad and futile because it’s not his right to get revenge for the eclipse and also he wants revenge for the wrong reasons, ie bc it’s an easy outlet for his very complex feelings, but casca’s the hawk representative who never abandoned the band and also the person who suffered most so she’s the one who should get revenge.’
kind of suggested in part here at least:
and yea youre right about the
railroading thing ughhgh that really gets me (im a broken record but it
reminds me of vriska and like that shit gets me). it feels pretty hallow
when you have to acknowledge this in the context of the whole story
especially bc griffiths helplessness to the waters of fate and destiny
isnt emphasized as overtly tragic as it really is. which is a valid
storytelling choice ic it just, again, gets me.
also femto is the consequence of guts actions and its clearly framed that way idk what people get out of insisting otherwise.
yeah i feel you, griffith’s narrative is so sad to me, but a lot of what’s tragic about it isn’t in your face.
and yeah it’s like, you can say guts didn’t deserve to experience the eclipse, which is obviously true bc v few people deserve that shit, and def not for making a mistake based on low self esteem lol, but narratively it’s the consequence of his actions bc berserk is a very dark story. guts is the main character who actively made a choice which set all the tragedy dominos falling. it’s even ironically fitting – his choice to “abandon” the hawks and griffith resulted in losing everyone permanently.
like i think ppl equate saying the eclipse/femto/griffith’s breakdown/etc is a consequence of guts’ actions to saying either a) guts deserved to suffer and/or b) if this happened in real life it would be right to blame guts for everything lol, neither of which are statements that necessarily follow the first one, and are clearly untrue. but fiction operates by different rules than reality.
God, I was in physical pain reading this chapter. My heart just breaks for Rickert. The Griffith he followed, whose dream he shared and who he adored- who he wanted to save- that’s not the man who stands in front of him now, in this gorgeous prosperous city that was build on the corpses and dreams of hundreds upon hundreds of men. I always wondered if Rickert would feel like he shouldn’t have survived, if he ever found out the truth of what happened during the eclipse and met Griffith again. And this chapter kind of confirmed it for me. But unlike Guts he cannot drown in hatred and stake his life on revenge. All he could do, and all he had to console him was build that hill of swords. I can’t even imagine how lonely and helpless he must have felt, being the only survivor left with no answers and a thousand questions. But even so, the Griffith he faced this chapter cannot answer him, not really. I know I happily lost my shit and joked along with all of the ‘Rickert’s balls of steel and impending doom’ crap over the bitchsmack panel when it came out as a spoiler, but seeing it in the context of the chapter as a whole- wow. It took my breath away for a plethora of other reasons. People say he’s brave as hell for daring the slap the almighty Griffith but honestly I don’t think he even had time to work up courage, and it just happened on this spur of instinct- of way overdue hurt and that hurts me because jesus, Rickert deserves better dammit. Griffith’s reaction was on point though- I didn’t expect him to immediately chop Rickert’s head off or anything, but it’s impossible to read him nowadays. Is it just apathy? Like always? Does he even feel anything at all when Rickert rejects his new self- his pretty new kingdom? I can’t tell- I want to believe, but, alas. It’s Berserk. It kills. And I’m done.
Totally agreed about Rickert, I don’t often think about his survivor’s guilt but it’s a huge part of his character and it was rly satisfying to see him get to express some of his feelings about everything, directly to Griffith.
As for Griffith, his reaction is the most intriguing part of the scene to me ngl.
Like overall I think NeoGriffith is automatically interesting because of what Miura doesn’t show us? The last time we saw into his head was
like the first and only thing we find out about his internal life is that he’s not as unemotional as he appears, and every scene w/ NeoGriffith afterwards where his emotions are conspicuously hidden from us just adds to my sense that inevitably we’re heading towards a big revelation about his feelings specifically.
The scene with Rickert is especially interesting because it’s the first time we see NeoGriffith at a loss.
Like this is his only response to Rickert’s tirade, and it’s an acknowledgement of the difference between, well, who he is now and who he used to be, essentially.
Ngriff’s got nothing. And that is so damn interesting to me lol.
“Don’t throw away what you can’t replace,” is something Guts reminds Rickert right after the Reunion on the Hill of Swords and right before Guts does this:
NGriff starts putting a new Band of the Hawk together like he’s trying to replace the old one, and he’s invited Rickert to join. I got this idea from @mastermistressofdesire a while ago lol and it’s so perfect, like, basically NGriff invited Rickert along because deep down he wants validation from one of the original Hawks. It would be proof that “nothing has changed.” That he has successfully replaced the original Band.
But Rickert rejected him, and it seems like it throws him off. He’s supposed to be literally untouchable, but Rickert was able to slap him. He has nothing to say to Rickert in response other than to quietly agree that the Hawk symbol is different now. And his face is hidden from us while watching Rickert leave both times:
Like this ties in with this theory/hope of mine that NeoGriffith’s thing is going to end up being identity/isolation. As the absolute with no equal, as someone who has undergone huge changes and denies it (”this is the man I am.”), as a parallel to ascended Ganeshka, because he failed his own test and his heart started beating when he saw Guts and the first thing he did was deny to himself that it had anything to do with his feelings for Guts, and a few other little details, like eg this page at the end of a chapter all about sonia feeling lonely and isolated as the only person who sees the world the way she does:
Like c’mon Miura, all this suggestive emotional ambiguity has to be there for something.
Mmm all of this.
I personally subscribe to the idea that neo-griffith has a lot of damn emotions.
A glitch in the matrix.
Which he is now trying to cover up.
However without doubt he has intact memories of everything, as much as he has leftover resentment from the pain that letting himself fall in love eventually led to, he also remembers that his happiest memories have to do with the time he spent with the Hawks and specifically Guts.
In a way I see him trying to recreate that situation, rebuilding the good while clinically removing the parts he thinks were problematic – Guts and his own emotions.
So inhuman god with frozen heart or not all he’s ultimately trying to do is chase after the memories of happiness.
i’m like, super tired and finding it hard to string words together lol so there’s a few things i want to respond to but idk if i’ll manage it til tomorrow. just fyi
ok anime aside, anyone know if there’s any proof that these are guts’ thoughts, like in the original japanese wording or smthn? because they read so griffith to me in phrasing, and also if these are guts’ lines then it kills alot of my sympathy for him lol.
like kinda turns it from guts leaving without a word bc he didn’t think griffith would care, to guts leaving without a word despite knowing he was causing some amount of emotional damage, bc he’s thinking w/e griffith will get over it. like, surprise dude, he did not get over it. or, to be more cutting, he did in fact eventually stand up and start walking, and that was a bad time for everyone.
(on the other hand if i was adapting this and if it is genuinely ambiguous, i’d rly want to have both vas say these lines lol. i mean maybe it’s not completely a bad thing for guts to not be super sympathetic in his choice to leave. understandable, yes, but a mistake is a mistake and if guts gets these lines that’s just kind of underscoring it.)
omg i love all this ive been busy tonight w work and i have to get up early so ill respond better tomorrow but the war lord/captive role play is so true and good and the added touch of it contradicting his dream is yea… it isnt dubcon rp as much as guts flaunts his power over griffith and both griffith and his warlordsona are eyelash batting hoes tbqh and i love him
lol yeah p much exactly the vibe i was thinking, like part of the appeal of the fantasy to griffith would be that fantasy!griffith is Into It.
and awesome i’m looking forward 2 more of your thoughts and hope you have a good evening and morning w/ work and whatever else 🙂
I’m not sure I’m really understanding you right, but like, yeah ia that Berserk is super misogynist, though ngl NGriff still needing to marry Charlotte to seal the deal on his kingdom etc despite being basically a messiah now only makes me want to double down on my old “dream = sexual repression/heteronormative fantasy” reading lol.
also tbf compared to the shit most women in berserk suffer, charlotte co-ruling an awesome city with indoor plumbing and having a super charismatic husband who only pretends to care about her doesn’t seem that bad. but then i find it hard to empathize with fictional women whose whole lives revolve around their feelings for a dude, and the fact that griffith clearly does not return those feelings is the only thing that makes it palatable to me lol.
Like I’d say Charlotte is treated badly in Berserk not because she’s in a loveless relationship but because Miura has written her with absolutely nothing else in her life, yk? She is 100% defined by that relationship, so I can’t really bring myself to care about her beyond being exasperated by how badly Miura often writes women.
tl;dr actually i think i’m just twisting themes around to justify my intrinsic dread of a narrative where griffith was destroyed by his relationship with guts and guts’ mistake wrt that relationship, while guts getting over it by refocusing on a hetero love interest is narratively rewarded
though actually while i’m on this subject, I do kind of have a big issue with how this frames griffith.
cut bc this probably doesn’t really make sense lol, i’m rambling and i’m not entirely sure how to explain my thought process lol
like, if pre-eclipse griffith was a symbol of guts’ potential to have fulfilling relationships and find a place where he belongs, that guts then totally fucked up by “abandoning,” and post-eclipse neogriffith is a symbol of guts throwing away his potential to have fulfilling relationships by pursuing a stupid self-destructive dream, then there’s a bit of an awkward contradiction:
during the golden age, guts distancing himself from griffith was a bad thing that caused all his problems. after the eclipse, guts distancing himself from griffith is the narratively correct choice. this makes technical plot sense because in between griffith transformed into a demon lol, but thematically i think it’s unsatisfying.
griffith has essentially been replaced with guts’ protective relationship with casca. he fucked up and abandoned her, just like he fucked up and abandoned griffith, but now he’s making up for it by sticking around and protecting her – something he never got a chance to do w/ griffith. like, there was no magical cure to heal griffith, no long journey of personal growth, nada.
ignoring who could be
blamed for what if berserk happened in real life, bc this has nothing to do with morals or literal interpersonal responsibilities, from a fictional
storytelling perspective guts destroyed griffith when he made the wrong
choice by leaving. griffith’s year of torture and then eclipse causing
despair is the direct consequence of guts’ narrative mistake, and femto/ngriff
is an antagonist of guts’ own making.
so to then say that the right
thing for guts to do is to try to forget about him rubs me the wrong
way. it’d be one thing if griffith was dead and there was nothing guts
could do except try to avoid repeating his mistakes, but he’s alive and
currently acting on the world in a capacity that is, at least by some
standards, negative lol. the way stories work, that’s guts’ problem to
fix.
so if the thematic takeaway is that guts should just ignore
neogriffith and move on, and if he goes back to obsessing over him
that’s bad, then… i’m not satisfied with that lol.
also like, if the manga
decided to draw a very clear and explicit dividing line between human
griffith and neogriffith, essentially declaring everything human
griffith represented to guts as dead, that would also be one thing, but miura deliberately muddies the waters both by teasing the audience about
his beating heart and by guts’ emotional conflict a la “the instant I saw him I’d forgotten my
urge to kill,” and “longing,” and by continuing to utilize the light/dark imagery for their relationship, and having guts reminisce about original griffith after seeing him, etc.
so there’s this sense to me that neogriffith is simultaneously a symbol of guts’ self destructive dream (revenge, fighting stronger and stronger enemies, becoming griffith’s equal) and a symbol of guts’ mistake in pursuing that dream the first time – a symbol of what he threw away by leaving – and to me it feels unsatisfyingly contradictory.
and then on a purely emotional level lol it frustrates me that if the moral of the story really is that guts needs to move on and forget about the past and griffith and focus on the relationships he does have, then that means griffith was essentially a casualty of guts’ one step forward two steps back style character development. a character, from the perspective of his relationship to guts, who existed to be a consequence of guts’ mistake and teach guts a lesson through his destruction. and that just strikes me as unfair lol. idt guts should get to move on when griffith never had the opportunity – OR when griffith did take his opportunity ie the sacrifice, if we’re counting that, because then griffith moving on is evil but guts moving on is good.
and yeah maybe it’s a statement about moving on by suppressing your emotions vs moving on by forming new relationships, but griffith was railroaded by the narrative lol, he never got the chance to move on by forming new relationships, he was irreparably fucked the day after guts left. so if that’s the case then it’s weak.
but idk maybe i’m looking at this from entirely the wrong perspective. idk i’m just thinking outloud again rly. and until we find out what happens when casca has her mind back, it’s too early to draw any real conclusions anyway.
This is a very possible scenario. Too bad we should wait 10 years to see it.
lol ikr, and i feel like that’s if we’re lucky
guts and griffith’s hetero relationships during the golden age are both symbols of their dreams, and exist in opposition to their relationship with each other
charlotte as a symbol of griffith’s dream is painfully obvious, but lemme outline casca as a symbol of guts’ quick:
guts’ dream is to become griffith’s equal and winning casca’s affection is framed as a step on that path, since casca loved and admired griffith
casca metaphorically becomes guts’ sword after they sleep together, now supporting his dream instead of griffith’s
guts tells casca all about his dream, repeating a lot of what griffith said to charlotte at promrose hall
guts invites casca along on his dream journey as long as she doesn’t get in the way of what he wants to do
casca is the one who tells guts to leave to pursue his dream instead of staying with griffith
and overhearing that completely fucks griffith up much the same way overhearing griffith talking to charlotte about his dream fucked guts up
the question is does this change after the eclipse? and i think it does – casca without her character represents a responsibility distracting guts from his dream (plus she’s the last “feeble flame” of that campfire he abandoned when he left to pursue a dream, so she represents the Hawks) whereas now neogriffith represents his dream.
however – consistently sex with casca has still been connected to his dream. when the beast of darkness taunts him, and when he assaults her, it’s “to get closer and closer to Griffith.”
i don’t have a conclusion to this or a point rly, i’m just thinking outloud
well i guess my point is “the golden age can be interpreted as a cautionary tale about heterosexuality and that’s why it’s the best arc” lol
lol i appreciate u bugging me bc i need excuses to talk about this kinda thing
ummmmm good question tho lmao
I’m going to throw out some ideas for a canon au concept, bc I feel like I’m on more solid ground there, like the way my brain works I can’t rly conceptualize modern au griffguts unless I intricately map out like the whole world they’re inhabiting, backstories, how everyone fits in, etc lol.
So like, canon au where Guts assassinated Julius without a hitch, never heard the Promrose Hall speech, and inevitably hooked up with Griffith bc lbr here if he never heard that speech there’s no way in hell they’re not getting together at some point. You can like take it as read as far as I’m concerned ngl. And
I think it’s better or at least easier if it starts in an established relationship, just bc I
think griffguts trying to start out kinky would be disastrous lol. they
need to have sorted thru some shit together first.
1. tried and true sparring turns into more cliche. they get really into it one day, end up losing their swords and rolling around in the grass until guts pins griffith down, and griffith or both of them are like, ok this is a thing. next time they fuck griffith starts working on trying to get guts to do it again. and thinking about it as an extention of sparring might actually make it easier and more fun for guts tbh.
2. once griffith gets comfortable with being in a relationship with guts, starts letting himself fantasize about him, etc, he’d start to focus on how big and strong guts is, how good in battle he is, and things would just escalate from there. Then he’d start suggesting stuff in bed like guts holding him down and trying to get guts into it.
(also: griffith falling into a guts-as-an-opposing-warlord-who-defeats-him-in-battle-and-takes-him-prisoner fantasy. js js.)
(actually that would probably disturb griffith afterwards since he’d be getting off to a fantasy of his dream being taken away. but yk, that only makes it better and more interesting so)
3. he could read about bondage or w/e in one of his many educational books lmao and go ‘ohhhh yeah i want that.’
4. curveball: guts starts it by being kind of a cocky brat in bed, jerking griffith off slowly to make him squirm, ignoring griffith when he tells him to get on with it already, pushing his hands away when he tries to do it himself, etc. griffith realizes he’s actually really into guts flaunting power over him.
Tho in every scenario I think it’s probably more likely that Griffith just tries to encourage Guts to exert some physical power over him in bed, at least at first, rather than having an actual mature talk about what they both want lol. Less, “hey Guts I have this idea, how would you feel about it?” and more “hey so I happen to have this rope under my pillow”
and then Guts would actually initiate the mature conversation about it lol, because Guts is just way better at talking about feelings.
tbh I don’t really think it’s a matter of NeoGriffith transforming into a more powerful Femto form. We saw him as Femto once, when he killed Ganeshka’s ascended form, and I’m pretty sure that we only saw him as Femto because we were seeing him from Ganeshka’s point of view. I don’t think he literally transformed, I think it’s like, his ~ethereal~ form that only other godlike beings can see. Maybe Skull Knight can see it too, idk.
Miura uses a very deliberate point of view shot to reveal NGriff-as-Femto for the first time, which is why I’m thinking it’s not a literal transformation.
But like, when it comes to power levels, idk. It’s all down to whatever Miura makes up, right? If Guts needs to defeat NGriff/Femto who has Femto’s telekinetic powers etc, Miura will make it possible by revealing magic Elf deus ex machina power up thing or something.
My hope though is that it doesn’t come down to a physical might against might thing, but rather, an emotional confrontation.
At the end of the day, even if NGriff is as powerful as Femto and Guts is no physical match for him, he still has the same weakness that resulted in Femto finding himself unable to kill Guts, and letting him go after the Eclipse. And NGriff calling off Zodd while his heart was unexpectedly beating. And Guts has his own, “the instant I saw him I’d forgotten my urge to kill,” thing.
Like this is a protag/antag relationship where both are conflicted and reluctant to kill the other, and have therefore been avoiding each other for like 200 chapters lol, and when you think of it like that I don’t think power levels are going to factor in much.
So to actually answer your question, the scenario I see to defeat NGriff/Femto, assuming he is defeated/killed eventually, is that Griffith fucks himself over once again because of the resurgence of his irrational, life-ruining emotions for Guts, fails to kill Guts when he should or fails to defend himself when he should or possibly does kill Guts and then has a breakdown at which point Casca can freely kill him.
yeah I completely agree! She even specifically mentioned that Casca was afraid of Guts before the whole dream thing. Which is why I’m clinging to my theory that Danann sent Casca to see Guts with the intention of triggering her.
Like I mean, come on, right? Danann’s like, Guts you can’t join them in her dreams because I sense that she has a strong fear of you that would impede the ritual. Then as soon as Casca wakes up she’s putting her in a romantic dress and sending her on a happy reunion, which immediately turns dark when Casca sees Guts and starts having flashbacks. Oh no who could have forseen this outcome? Well, Danann.
like straight up it’s either purposeful or it’s v sloppy writing imo.
you're the only one 