farnese pulled casca out of that coffin now she can put the concept of gutsca in it and nail it closed
vague spoilers for the newest chapter, rambly not-really-theorizing
I am just gonna pray that ‘for now’ is still in place and nothing’s been forgiven or forgotten and assuming things don’t proceed immediately to hell it’s gonna be Farnese supporting Casca emotionally rn while Guts stays tf out of it, and Farnese’s little statement about blowing Casca’s darkness away or whatever gives me hope for that.
ALSO
I’m torn about this. Because on the one hand, I’d be inclined to guess that this is foreshadowing for a moment in which Guts will be under the threat of being consumed by the Beast of Darkness but will manage to overcome it because he’s grown as a person and his friends come through and save themselves or whatever. Potential for terrible things to happen, but with a different outcome this time.
But on the other hand Guts has never been properly taken over by the stupid Beast of Darkness and I feel like that’s something that has to happen at some point, and we’ve already had Eclipse-but-with-a-different-outcome-thanks-to-Guts’-companions back in the Conviction arc with Isidro saving Casca for him so either way it’s going to feel repetitive, so idfk.
I guess my biggest hope is that Casca’s trauma specifically re Guts and the Beast of Darkness isn’t forgotten, and the BoD remains a giant barrier between them preventing a happy romantic reunion, and I’m gonna cling to every scrap of ominous foreshadowing bc I need that hope.
(And ftr no I’m not hoping Casca is assaulted again or anything like that just in case anyone wants to read this in extremely bad faith, I’m hoping Casca resoundingly rejects him, or Guts like, doesn’t trust himself and leaves (in a way that doesn’t lead to this turning out to be a mistake w/ a tearful reunion near the end), or something else not completely terrible.)
Like I’m trying to think of what Miura would do with Casca, and the past g*tsca relationship knowing that the relationship wasn’t intended from the beginning and was never portrayed as a grand romance but rather just a hook up with potential and a reason for Guts to be angry, and Miura said he added it for the sake of Eclipse drama. Also knowing that Casca only survived the Eclipse so Guts would stay pissed off, and the whole Beast of Darkness issue. And then there’s that fetus too. So I honestly just don’t know, but I’m hoping it doesn’t add up to either a happily ever after for them, or the two of them resuming their relationship only for more tragedy to fuck them up, or a potential future relationship as a happily ever after reward hovering over my head for the rest of the fucking manga.
All I truly want is a nail in the guts/casca coffin asap, and then mb I can finally know peace.
Yeah, I think it’s a rly interesting aspect. I don’t think I have enough knowledge of Christian theology to say anything smart on the topic beyond being like, hmm yes Griffith is the messiah in a very cynical take on religion. I coud see it being a very grim take on self sacrifice in that sense, ie sacrificing his humanity by sacrificing people he loves so much they’re like part of himself.
sorry this took so long, i was barely online yesterday
But absolutely, totally agree. this moment is so good because there’s no possible rational explanation for Griffith’s actions, and he doesn’t even try to give Guts one afterwards, for once.
@bthump right??? I have friends and a cousin who denies that there were any romantic feelings between them but I’ve noticed that most of the fans who deny it never provide evidence for their claims. I’m still waiting for my cousin to give me a reason(he’s the only one I actually expect would come up with some evidence but I have evidence of my own)
And another thing that gets me is that people know that Berserk was inspired by Devilman which was a shounen ai.
Yeah Devilman’s clear influence on Berserk and Guts and Griffith’s relationship trajectory is a pretty huge indicator lol.
hetero goggles tho man, they’re powerful. like Berserk is a story where one dude asks the other dude if he’s gay five minutes after they meet and that dude completely fails to answer, and people still manage to miss the subtext somehow.
@just-a-daft-punk not sure if I’m interpreting your comment correctly, do you mean guts and casca would’ve run off together earlier if it weren’t for casca’s feelings for griffith? because tbh i don’t see it myself, it took judeau practically shoving guts at her multiple times and then an attempted suicide and emotional breakdown for guts to make a move. and right before leaving he dismissed the idea of getting together with her out of hand because he wanted to prioritize finding a dream and becoming griffith’s friend.
like guts just didn’t really show any interest in her beyond leering at her in her dress once before his two chats with judeau imo.
@bthump how I feel whenever I meet a berserk fan who adamantly denies the obvious chemistry between Griffith and Guts.
lol it genuinely throws me off ngl. it’s weird how two people can read the same story and come away with vastly, vastly different conceptions of what it’s about. I get that there’s always variation between any two readings of a story, but Berserk has one of the widest gulfs between different types of fans I’ve ever seen.
I just want to draw your attention to Griffith’s clenched fists that we don’t see in the scene itself, only Griffith’s memory of it. It’s a nice little depressing detail.
i ventured out of my cozy berserk circle and saw a mildly analytical post that presumed that guts and casca were in love and casca was guts’ number one priority after they had sex – specifically that he would stay for casca but not griffith – and it was like stepping into the evil mirror universe
Yep I totally said that and I’m still working on it (I finished part 3 of 4 last night). It’s slow going because I procrastinate for days/weeks between occasional evenings spent chipping away at it lol, and don’t get too excited because a lot of it is comprised of stuff I’ve talked about before just kind of tied together under an overarching theme of exploring the dream vs Griffith’s feelings for Guts (though there’s new stuff too so hopefully it won’t be a total boring slog for any of my followers who may actually want to read over 10k words about Griffith.)
Also speaking of Casca and Griffith this is a great little underappreciated moment:
Casca moving defensively in front of Griffith and drawing her sword to protect him from Zodd, only for Griffith to tell her to run with everyone while he decides to personally be the one to leap directly into near certain death to try to save Guts.
This. This. This
Parallels. It’s always the parallels.
The look on her face when she realizes its because of Guts… She seems quite… sad?
Idk if you wanted an explanation or if you were just making an observation, but I’ll seize any opportunity to post this part lol.
Also speaking of Casca and Griffith this is a great little underappreciated moment:
Casca moving defensively in front of Griffith and drawing her sword to protect him from Zodd, only for Griffith to tell her to run with everyone while he decides to personally be the one to leap directly into near certain death to try to save Guts.
Absolutely, like he just sent a volly of arrows at Zodd that did absolutely nothing. And Griffith is very aware of how dangerous the situation is because he tells Casca to retreat with everyone else. Like, diving into that situation, trying to rescue an injured dude who has an enormous terrifying monster dead set on fighting him, I’m pretty sure he had to know his odds of survival were not high lol.
To whatever extent he was even considering his own survival when all his focus was on not letting Guts die.
because i want to complain but also i want to be vague
i hate chapter 39 because it practically states the point of this meta directly on the page but that means i can’t just skip it i have to like, fuckin write about it
@bthump Right? Like that’s a literally batshit crazy thing to say to someone and Guts is just like “wow he really cares.” I was 100% sold on the two of them as a deal and on the series after that.
oops i almost missed this but lmao yeah. and like that was guts’ reaction to griffith fighting him when he tried to leave too. griffith’s not the only one with a ridic concept of friendship.
guts: i hate being touched. i never let anyone touch me. the only time i ever touch anyone is when i’m holding them down and shoving my sword through their chest.
casca: griffith is literally sitting in your lap and holding your hand right now
you're the only one 