They also took the innocent and gentle smile Guts has in those moments and I’m not down with that.
lol yeah tbh that might be my number one issue with the anime. they just make guts look so much pissier and dour compared to the manga, it really gives the impression that he’s constantly discontent and resentful. like idk i feel like it’s the art style in large part, a lot of the expressions miura draws rely on subtleties that seem like they’d be way harder to convey in the style of the anime, but it’s still unfortunate
so i was writing/planning 2 posts about what i thought were 2 entirely different topics (the portrayal of fear in berserk and griffith’s motivation and how it impacts his relationship with guts) and i realized that they boil down to the exact same topic:
how guts and griffith’s respective dreams are essentially coping mechanisms they utilize in lieu of relationships with others (each other)
anyway i’ve kind of lost the ability to crank out meta quickly so these posts might be a while coming but at least i’ve figured out how to frame them and hopefully now the writing will flow lol
So I got an ask that’s your basic typical how dare you call g*tsca unhealthy when you ship griffguts, and I’m not gonna publish it because I’m done giving these people a platform lol, but I do want to make something abundantly clear to that anon, and to anyone else who might care:
I honestly don’t give a single solitary shit whether a ship is healthy or not. I like ships that entertain me and I hate ships that bore me and g*tsca bores the fuck out of me. That is the axis on which I judge it.
They could have the most healthy, positive, completely non-rapey
relationship ever and I’d still hate it because every time they interact
romantically it diminishes both characters and sucks the entertainment
value out of the story.
So like, if I bring up the fact that it’s an unhealthy, not very romantic relationship, it’s not because that’s why it’s sucks, it’s because that’s an aspect of the story I feel like talking about.
@yesgabsstuff said:
I actually was
thinking about something you said in passing a while ago. We were
talking about how he learned how to behave around nobles and you called
it the “miss manners stuff.” I realized that we don’t really have an
equivalent expression for men and that got me thinking about about how
being polite and showing the “correct” deference to your betters is kind
of inherently feminized labor in a way? I also was thinking about how
that instinct for self protection, which is really what
I think it is at this point for him
extended his polite behavior to his own rape. I don’t really know where
I’m going with this but I had thoughts.
That doesn’t really undo the effects of toxic masculinity but rather adds a different dimension of his character for me?
Ooh yeah I see what you mean. lol it really is – I remember reading some studies about that in like a sociology class years ago or something, how a lot of behaviour coded as feminine is the same deferential behaviour eg men show to their bosses.
tbh idk I’d mostly separate the way Griffith behaves among nobility (deferential, always polite, always uses proper address/titles/etc, keenly aware of his place as an outsider and mitigating it with the shows of submission – smiling and apologizing when Julius slaps him is a gr8 example – etc) vs the way he behaves among the Hawks as their grand soaring leader.
BUT that said ia it is all tied to self-protection, and tbh you’re right – there isn’t a whole lot of difference between Griffith smiling when Julius slaps him, lip bleeding, and Griffith smiling when Casca hugs him, arms bleeding. I think he might tell himself that he’s trying to reverse the dynamic and comfort Casca instead of allowing her to comfort him because he has to be a strong leader and can’t show weakness, but I could definitely see a huge part of it being fear of his own vulnerability.
Idk I just really dig your point and tbh I think it would be really interesting to compare/contrast Griffith among the Hawks and Griffith among the nobles. Both masks stemming from the same place of vulnerability, yk?
lol i completely ignored that griffith intimidated julius by smiling at him when i wrote this. which i don’t think completely negates what i’m saying here, but mb adds another layer.
casually scrolling thru this scene to get a griffith quote about zodd right and this fucking moment still floors me every time. open that 2nd page in a new tab, make it big, and just fucking look at it.
this is as close to a confession of feelings he doesn’t even understand that griffith is ever going to get. this is guts asking a question he once asked 3 years ago (twice bc griffith avoided answering the first time) and he’s considered griffith’s purely rational answer inadequate the entire time. and griffith confirms that it was inadequate.
this time Griffith is like, hell i got nothin. I’ve done it before and I’d do it again and for once in my life i don’t have a logical justification handy.
and this is how guts looks at him, and this is how guts sees him, and this is how griffith looks at guts.
like just look at how heart achingly romantic and emotional it is. look at the feelings! look at the love! look how dazzled and awed Guts is! look how intense Griffith is! look how beautiful he is when Guts looks at him and sees him as someone who would risk his life for him! look at that perfectly/horribly timed interruption!
imo if confronted about his feelings for guts in some way, much like femto, he would probably try to give a Logical Explanation that has Nothing To Do With Him Being Gay, but first he would absolutely have to pause or flinch or something like that and we’d Know
lmao yes this is exactly what he would do and i would love it.
also
oh my god ppl take griffith saying that and are like “see he knew the eclipse was coming” like ……… what kind of reach
thinking griffith planned the eclipse sacrifice in advanced is the most baffling reading of all.
yknow …………………… the fact that ‘castle’ is used SO many times in place of ‘kingdom’ or even ‘king’ and the fact that griffith is often shown imagining the castle, running towards it, and especially as a child
says a bunch of things that i can’t quite articulate about the dream being abstract, symbolic, a childish desire that grew into an actual goal almost by accident
Judeau: hey this whole gain Griffith’s respect and True Friendship thing is
great and all but how about you have sex with a woman instead? Guts: mmmmmm no
you're the only one 