I think it really just comes down to how you interpret Miura’s facial expressions but to me this looks tender and loving.
It’s Griffith’s last glimpse of Guts, after choosing to sacrifice him but before he starts shedding pieces of himself and transforming, and seeing that love in his eyes just makes this moment for me lol.
He’s content with his decision, there’s no anguish there or second guessing or wishing it could’ve been another way. It’s maybe even relishing this last glimpse of Guts, and of being able to feel that love without it also like, causing him pain, because he knows this is the end of it.
I mean I’m just reading really into it because this is how I see Griffith and his feelings at the end of his story, but I think it fits the image.
I think your interpretation is fair and makes sense, like, he does look pleased and I think he is, but the look in his eye is just so damn tender, yk? Like he’s saying goodbye, without malice, and just drinking in the last sight of Guts he’ll ever have. I think love is definitely part of this moment.
Ok, this is my long and thorough explanation of how Guts’ decision to leave the Hawks was ultimately shown to be a mistake.
I’ve been kind of meaning to write this for a while because I tend to take this statement as read in a lot of my meta and I wanted to have something to point to for the sake of clarification whenever necessary lol. Also jsyk this isn’t quite as long a read as it looks bc there are a lot of illustrative images.
And before I get into it I just want to make something clear: when I say it was a mistake I’m not saying that it’s a decision that reflects badly on Guts. It reflects many of Guts’ issues, and it stems largely from growing up with an abusive father figure, but based on the information Guts had at the time, and based on his personality and his values it was a reasonable decision to make from his perspective.
It’s just one that he ended up wholeheartedly regretting for very good reasons.
This basically rests on three premises:
1. Guts was happy and felt personally fulfilled with the Hawks.
2.
Guts chose to leave for one reason and one reason only: Griffith’s Promrose Hall speech made him feel inadequate.
3. Griffith’s speech absolutely didn’t reflect either his actual feelings about Guts or a particularly worthwhile life philosophy, and eventually Guts comes to understand this.
So let’s demonstrate the first part, starting from when Guts joined the Hawks.
Cue the waterfight scene with Griffith. And afterwards:
Then Rickert knocks him off the step and congratulates him on already having ten men under his command.
Guts is happy with the Hawks. After only a week with them he’s already chilling out about being touched, he’s feeling accepted, he’s responsible for others and he’s rising to that responsibility. He reflects on the night he killed Gambino and fled his first home, thinks “I still don’t have an answer to that question [of where am I going?]…” but then when Rickert congratulates him he thinks, “for now…”
For now, he’ll make his home with the Hawks. He tells Rickert to call him Guts and their clasped hands get their own panel. He’s forging new relationships and bonds with people, beginning to heal from past trauma, and growing as a person. He’s no longer swinging his sword just to survive, but as part of a unit, to help his friends and comrades survive and thrive too.
Three years later, when Casca accuses him of not changing since he joined them, of not caring about his comrades, he’s incensed.
He’s proud of having changed. He’s proud of his place in the Hawks, of being their raider captain, of Griffith’s faith in him. Casca’s words wound him because he has deep seated insecurities related to being an outsider.
His rivalry with Casca draws these insecurities out but overall he is very happy with the Hawks, he does care about them, and Casca insinuating otherwise pisses him off for good reason.
When Griffith nearly dies saving him from Zodd and then says he did it for no reason and implies he’d do it again without question, Guts like, basically reaches the pinnacle of his life.
And like, it is straightforward textual canon that this is everything Guts has desperately wanted all his life, thanks largely to his big pile of issues stemming from his fucked up childhood:
That is exactly what he has, and more importantly, what he understands and recognizes he has, after this staircase conversation.
When he first joined the Hawks we saw him remember that question he asked himself the night he killed Gambino and ran from his first (shitty) family: “where’m I going?”
After this conversation he remembers that night again:
He’s chosen to replace that first family, the abusive father he killed, the first mercenary band he grew up with, with the Hawks and Griffith. He has an answer to why he’s swinging his sword, and it’s not just to survive – it’s “for his sake.”
For now…
That little “for now” is important. It’s what he thought when he joined the Hawks three years ago, and it’s what he thinks now, because frankly, he is terrible at committment. This is an important part of Guts’ character. He’s slow to trust that others care about him because of his terrible childhood, and he’s very quick to believe he is unloved and unwanted. That “for now,” sets us up for the way one overheard speech makes Guts decide to rebuild his entire life from the ground up.
But hey, for now, he’s happy. He knows he’s cared for, he knows people, particularly Griffith, love and respect and value him. That to Griffith he’s worth risking his life for. He’s ready to dedicate himself to Griffith in turn. This is huge for Guts.
So yeah, he’s content and feels personally fulfilled with the Hawks and Griffith at this point in his life.
But then comes the speech.
This completely wipes away Guts’ assurance that Griffith loves, values, and respects him.
It changes everything for Guts and inarguably informs his choice to leave:
The real question worth asking isn’t why Guts decided to leave the Hawks, but why did one overheard pretentious speech about how Griffith has no friends affect Guts so profoundly that he immediately stopped viewing Griffith as a fellow human who would happily risk his life for him and began seeing him as a distant and perfect godlike figure who Guts would do anything to reach?
Like this speech comes after Griffith has literally died “for [his] sake.” In the encounter with Zodd, Griffith was dead because he instinctively ran into danger to grab Guts personally – it was only an unforseen twist of fate that allowed him to survive. And Guts knows this is significant, which is why he questions him about it, gets his answer, and dedicates himself to Griffith in return.
The speech erases that.
Afterwards, he has this incredibly unsubtle conversation with Casca:
Casca is laying down some basic facts here that add up to a confirmation of everything Guts believed when he said “I’ll wield my sword… for his sake,” on that rooftop.
Guts is the first person Griffith has ever said he wanted. Casca
hoped it was for his strength as an aid for achieving his dream, but
that is clearly not the case since he has nearly sacrificed his life –
and dream, Casca specifies – for Guts twice.
Griffith values Guts even above the dream he’s dedicated his life to, as is thoroughly demonstrated by his actions.
But Guts
completely disregards this. Casca straightforwardly tells him that
Griffith feels some unique and irrational emotions for Guts, and his
actions are proof of that, but Guts never stops to consider that maybe
Griffith’s actions speak louder than his words. At the most, what Casca’s angry monologue might do is give Guts the confidence that he’s capable of becoming Griffith’s friend, and therefore inspires him to leave.
But it certainly doesn’t make him rethink the truth or the value of Griffith’s speech to Charlotte.
I’m not going to get heavily into Griffith’s point of view here, I’ve done that very thoroughly in the second part of this giant thing
for anyone rly curious, but suffice to say his Promrose Hall monologue doesn’t have a
damn thing to do with how Griffith actually feels about Guts lol.
Guts doesn’t fit his weird and narrow definition of friend, Guts is actually far more important to him than this definition leaves room for. A friend is someone who has his own dream and would prioritize it over friendship, allowing Griffith to prioritize his own dream as well – Guts, conversely, has already taken priority over Griffith’s dream when Griffith risked it for him twice.
Griffith isn’t about to consciously admit to himself that his dream is no longer his number one priority, but our trusty commentator of their relationship, Casca, knows the score, and explains it to Guts, and completely fails to get through to him.
And the reason Guts prioritizes the speech over actual evidence of what his relationship with Griffith actually is, both in the form of Griffith saving him and Casca explaining things to him, comes back to his abusive childhood:
He is convinced that Griffith looks down on him because this is what he’s grown up expecting from people he respects and loves. He expects to be seen as worth nothing more than the money he can bring in and the fights he can win, he expects to be ostracized and seen as “cursed,” so Griffith’s speech overrides Griffith risking his life and dream to save Guts twice, it overrides Casca’s jealousy of their relationship, it overrides Griffith freaking out and refusing to let Guts leave without another duel, hell, for a while it even overrides both Casca and Rickert telling him that Griffith destroyed his life because Guts left.
He’s gone from feeling like a trusted, respected, and valued friend to feeling like nothing more than an asset to Griffith’s dream.
Remember, he did not feel discontent before the speech. In his three years with the Hawks before overhearing the speech, he felt like he’d found the place he belonged. He felt worthwhile, he felt valued as a person and not just as a soldier, and moreover, he was right to feel that way.
The Hawks do love, respect, and value him, and Griffith demonstratably values him even over his dream whether he’s able to admit that to himself or not.
And it’s only after overhearing the speech, overhearing that Griffith can only see someone as a friend and equal if they have their own obsession to pursue, that Guts starts feeling once again like he’s only fighting to survive, as we see him ponder during the 100 man fight, and here:
Before the Promrose Hall speech he felt like he was fighting for his friends and comrades, for Griffith, and he was proud of that, but now he feels like he’s worthlessly fighting for nothing. It’s incredibly depressing imo. This is straight up a result of Guts’ low self esteem, thanks to his abusive childhood.
This is Guts’ tendency to feel like an outsider rearing its ugly head. This is because he grew up being told he was cursed, used only as a source of income for Gambino, and turned on and nearly killed by Gambino and then the rest of the mercenaries. This is Guts feeling like he can’t trust any companionship to be genuine other than his sword.
Basically what happened is that Guts overheard Griffith’s speech in a moment of particular vulnerability. He’d just accidentally killed a kid and he was feeling like a monster about it. He was trying to find Griffith, probably to feel that same sense of acceptance and love he felt during the staircase conversation – he needed reassurance, and instead his world came crashing down around him and his feelings of worthlessness resurged hard.
And because of his outsider issues he extrapolates Griffith’s speech to his feelings about being part of the Hawks as a whole. Every Hawk has a dream except him, therefore he’s an outsider and doesn’t really belong.
And on some level, Guts knows this is bullshit.
It’s been one day and, now feeling the full weight of being alone again and apart from what Rickert pointedly calls his family, he’s already having second thoughts, reflecting on the warm companionship he’s giving up and acknowledging that his goal is inherently contradictory.
He wants to find his own dream so he can live for himself, when his entire reason for wanting that is to become Griffith’s equal. He’s not going out to find a dream for the sake of his own sense of independence, or because he personally also believes that a person is only worthwhile if they’re pursuing something.
He’s doing it because he overheard Griffith say that’s the only way to be his friend.
As he declares his independence from Griffith he is literally parroting Griffith’s speech here lol; it’s a giant contradiction and proof of what he mused on the night he left – he got this idea in his head by overhearing Griffith’s words, therefore he’s not actually doing it for his own sake.
Guts left for the sole reason of fulfilling Griffith’s weird and specific friendship criteria.
And after Guts comes back his whole narrative pretty much revolves around his slow and painful realization that Griffith’s speech was functionally meaningless, and yeah it turns out he did end up throwing away something irreplacable that he’ll never have again by taking off.
Like, just to underscore how significant it is that Guts lets Casca stab him as he internalizes this information, this is a huge sign of guilt. We see Guts do the same thing when the possessed kid stabs him all the way back in chapter 2. He denies feeling responsible both times, but the fact that he let himself be stabbed contradicts those words.
It takes him several days and several pretty huge anvils dropped on him before he finally accepts the fact that not only was leaving entirely unnecessary because Griffith did not actually look down on him or consider him unworthy, but by leaving he destroyed the thing he left to obtain in the first place: he left to become Griffith’s equal and when he came back, by any standards these two idiots would use to define power and worth, Guts is by far Griffith’s superior now. Entirely because Guts left Griffith is now disabled, helpless, voiceless, dreamless, powerless, and dependent.
And let’s be real, it’s a pretty damn harsh thing to accept that you not only rearranged the focus of your entire life and left your found family for no reason, but by doing so you lost the thing you rearranged your life and left your family to try to get. It’s no wonder Guts holds out for so long.
He keeps telling himself that Griffith is above the kind of emotion that would lead to him being declared a traitor one day after Guts left, that Griffith is untouchable, that Griffith has always had everything under control and always will. He insists to himself that Griffith is perfect and soaring distantly above him, because his reason for leaving is to become just like him. He has to believe it to justify his decision.
Since before he left:
to after he comes back:
But his ability to deny not just Griffith’s flawed humanity but also his devastatingly powerful feelings for him is growing weaker. Guts is beginning to realize that the fact that Guts was able to destroy him by leaving is itself proof that he didn’t need to leave.
Guts already had as strong a hold over Griffith as Griffith had over him. They were already functionally equals in this way.
Then I’ve made a huge mistake.
To make a long story short (too late), this is why Guts left:
And this is how Griffith really feels about Guts:
These two monologues exist to play off each other. Guts monologuing about his feelings for Griffith, how dazzling he is, how he needs to leave so he can be Griffith’s equal instead of feeling like Griffith is looking down on him. And Griffith’s monologue about his feelings for Guts, how the dream he’s spent every waking moment of his life pursuing pales in comparison to him, how strong Guts’ hold on him is, how he’s the sole sustenance keeping him alive.
It’s a point/counterpoint. Griffith’s monologue directly states that Guts is wrong about his reasons for leaving.
And again, I don’t think Guts’ decision to leave was actually stupid, or that it reflects badly on him. Griffith himself didn’t properly recognize his feelings for Guts until it was too late, and Guts had good reasons, both internal (a history of abuse) and external (Griffith’s stupid speech), for believing Griffith looked down on him.
But nevertheless he was still wrong, and here’s where Guts finally, finally realizes it properly, without pushing that realization away and denying it some more:
Unfortunately he realizes this about 30 seconds too late, which is what makes Berserk a tragedy.
Anyway, that’s about it. It may be worth noting that his regret over leaving informs significant chunks of the rest of his narrative, such as realizing he’s been being a dick by leaving Casca in a cave for two years:
And refusing to leave her again:
“Don’t abandon what you can’t replace. Weren’t those Godo’s parting words?”
Guts realizing he fucked up and shouldn’t’ve left the Hawks informs his most significant moments of personal growth over the series. Realizing he’s repeating that mistake is what finally sways him from the self-destructive path of rage and revenge to putting his energy into protecting Casca.
The fact that companions and loved ones are more important and genuinely healthier things to prioritize than dreams is one of the central themes of Berserk, and Guts choosing to leave the Hawks, his family, to pursue a dream, thereby losing all of his friends and loved ones, is the main illustration of this theme.
Also worth noting: the dream Guts eventually landed on was to just keep swinging his sword, getting better and stronger and fighting better and stronger enemies, except alone this time, instead of among comrades and friends. You know what that describes to a tee? The Black Swordsman arc, as is neatly pointed out after the Eclipse:
Guts would’ve been much, much better off staying with the Hawks and continuing to find personal fulfillment in his relationships and feelings of being loved and valued, but years of being told his only worth is as an asset, rather than as a person, blinded him to the truth and made it too easy for him to believe he’s looked down on.
Part of the tragedy of the Golden Age hinges on Guts’ low self esteem and inability to see that he’s loved because of it. This is what happens when you’re the protagonist of a really well-written, really tragic story: you make some wonderfully disastrous, character-revealing mistakes.
more light imagery
guts, looking up at the full moon and longing for a place to call home after killing gambino and fleeing:
guts, looking up at the full moon and realizing he’s found that home with the hawks:
guts, looking up into the sky a third time but there’s no moon and his home has just been completely obliterated:
a dilemma:
i’ve finished the ‘why guts leaving the hawks was a mistake post’ unless i want to add in a whole nother layer about how guts’ “dream” of fighting stronger and stronger enemies is also portrayed as terrible
on the one hand i don’t think it’s necessary to understand the point, on the other hand it’s still very relevant and probably the first thing ppl would think of as a counterpoint (what about guts’ dream though!) so it feels like I should nip that in the bud
on the third hand fully explaining that would make an already overly long post even longer
maybe i should write it separately and link to it?
ngl i feel like i’m creating this whole like, web of “My Berserk” lol where to fully understand my perspective you have to read fucking everything i’ve ever written, because i have premises resting on premises resting on premises and they’re all opposing takes to what general berserk fandom tends to think. like i feel like a lot of this should be self-explanatory but it’s not for some reason so I have to go through it all.
it’s like eg i’m over here going on and on about how griffith’s driving motivation is guilt and his narrative is about being torn between that and his affirming relationship with guts, while elsewhere in berserk fandom the default position is that griffith’s driving motivation is “evil lust for power.”
and it’s rly weird because like, i genuinely think i’m right about my take on berserk, but sometimes it feels like i’m inventing my own berserk because even the absolute most basic resting premises of my reading are at odds with the majority of fandom. It’s like, unnervingly insular lol. same is true for this, like i’m writing out ‘why guts leaving was a mistake’ so i have something to link to bc i feel like it’s an absolutely necessary thing to recognize to understand my reading of berserk, but it’s a niche opinion, and that feels so strange to me.
ok this kind of just devolved into me musing outloud lol. idk.
soft breeze, check. leaves, check. casca gets a starry/campfire-y background while griffith gets the intense bedroom eyes and general beautification, which i feel is a fair trade.
casca gets this romanticized shot right before treating guts’ wounds; griffith gets this romanticized shot right after not having an excuse for risking his life for guts.
anyway lol this is a prime example of casca getting some of the romance cues griffith used to get once a) guts decides griffith is unreachable at the moment and b) miura decided the eclipse needed more ~drama~
Yeah I definitely see Femto/NeoGriff as basically an angel within the world of Berserk. The Godhand have been referred to as angels a few times too. I love the idea of him basically existing to fulfill humanity’s desires but his residual feelings for Guts are like a bug or flaw in the system that impedes God’s plans. Tho who knows?
Imo yeah becoming an apostle or a Godhand essentially strengthens your negative emotions and weakens/destroys your positive ones. “A fissure in your heart will open into which evil will surge,” Griffith explicitly losing his ability to feel empathy as he transforms, in the lost chapter Femto is described as being physically (well astral-ly?) made of evil, etc. So yeah, it literally changes you, but not necessarily into something completely new with no relation to your original self – it’s more like, an alternate version of you.
Are you asking me what Griffith wants, or just kind of musing outloud lol, I’m not sure based on your phrasing. But imo he just wants a kingdom/empire. I think NeoGriffith basically retained human Griffith’s ambition, but lost the very human reasons behind that ambition (guilt, despire for an escape from harsh reality, to feel like he has a reason for existing) in his transformation, making him kind of this eerie being who just exists to create a utopian empire.
But again, residual feelings for Guts in the mix can and should complicate that rly interestingly.
Hmmm Farnese would still lead the holy iron chain knights, but they wouldn’t have a 2 year pilgramage trailing Guts. They do guard duty too come to think of it… maybe Mozgus goes around to all the kingdoms under the Holy See to be creepy and threatening and ominously suggest they start their own witchhunts etc to prove their devotion to the church or w/e, and they’re his personal guards. Maybe there’s some tension brewing between kingdoms wrt religion and there’s threats of holy wars breaking out. Or, ooh, Ganeshka would still be a thing, maybe this is the holy see’s attempt to unite kingdoms against the Kushans, since Ganeshka is amassing a huge terrifying army and starting to move west. W/e.
So Farnese ends up in Midland for a while. Casca would hate her at first for being a stuck up rich noblewoman who leads an army of guards and can’t even swing a sword, and since this is Griffith’s kingdom now Casca would be his right hand woman while Farnese is Mozgus’, so they might have to interact and feign politeness at like, the hospitality balls and during tense meetings.
(also lmao @ the idea of Griffith dealing with this shit, he’d absolutely hate having to humour someone like mozgus)
Farnese might be kind of in awe of Casca, as someone who clawed her way to power instead of just being appointed due to birth status, plus she’d be attracted to her, and both those things would manifest in hate lol bc Farnese is a mess. Casca would also be kind of jealous of how Farnese had everything handed to her, and would also feel attraction which would piss her off.
Also imagine Farnese spending hours ranting to Serpico about how horrible Casca is, and vice-versa w/ Casca complaining to Judeau, and both Serpico and Judeau being like, hmmmm.
I’d want to manufacture a scenario where Casca has to save Farnese. Political assassination shit? Slooooow burn where this rivalry continues until they go to war together, somehow ending up within interaction-distance of each other lol? Something lighter maybe – a hunting expedition meant to encourage comraderie gone wrong? Anyway smthn happens and Farnese transfers her devotion from God to Casca, and starts listening when she explains how fucked up the inquisition is, and they start bonding and realizing they have things in common despite wildly different upbringings, like parents who didn’t gaf and latching onto causes to feel fulfilled and being sole women surrounded by men, etc.
Idt Farnese’s worldview necessarily has to be shattered before she loses her faith, like in canon, bc I think her faith is just a coping mechanism for loneliness.
Also I rly like the idea of Casca being the one to save someone, instead of needing saving, and that being the start of a romance.
Ok that’s all I can think of for now, this is probably a longer response than you were expecting lol but I just love that love/hate shit so much.
Eventually I’m going to actually sit down and rly suss out the light/dark stuff in Berserk, but for now I’m just gonna say:
in the context of Guts’ feelings towards Griffith, light is the companionship he lost, and the longing for it, and therefore I’m calling Guts’ desire to kill Femto/Griffith his own way of trying to carve out his heart.
1. This is another one of my favourite expresions in Berserk tbh
2. I’m not saying this is deliberate, I’m not sure it would even be in character, but I can’t help but imagine this as Guts taunting Femto/Griffith about the fact that he was in love with him, his life was destroyed because of him, Guts drove him to make the sacrifice by leaving him, and Guts knows it.
Like yeah logically it’s just Guts being pissed off over the fact that Griffith sacrificed him to become a demon, especially with the follow up “thanks to me who’s fighting an army of the dead because of you,” but man, I’m js that knowing how the Golden Age goes gives this line potential Layers. You’re where you are now because this petty existence had all that power over you.
On the other hand this whole scene exists to set up Griffith making the sacrifice to bury his fragile heart bc of whatever went down w/ Guts, so like, it could be that deep?
Plus Femto’s response:
Just gonna reiterate that you mean absolutely nothing to me.
Whether that’s what Guts meant to say or not, I’m pretty sure he’s well aware of the irony of Femto emphasising his insignificance now, considering everything that went down between them. He might even stubbornly refuse to go back to post-Speech-to-Charlotte Guts, clinging to the fact that, no, I meant something to you and you meant something to me, and we both know that.
But then he would also have to know that it’s his fault that Griffith went this far. Which we know that he does, but idk, whenever I re-read the manga I feel like we should get to see more guilt from him.
Anyway, I don’t think Miura was fully taking all this into consideration while writing these first few chapters, but in retrospect you have to think about all the layers of meaning behind nearly every word Femto & Guts exchange. Like, this is off topic, but it’s in these chapters that Guts first finds out what sacrificing someone really means, and he doesn’t really react in any significant way, when realistically he should.
To be fair he’s unconscious when the Godhand actually explain the sacrifice and tell the Count that a sacrifice has to be someone you love so much it’s like they’re part of you. Which imo is kind of a hmmmm in and of itself, like there’s no reason Guts had to be unconscious at any point at all since he could barely move anyway, except to miss the explanation of who can be sacrificed. When he does wake up he just lies there and listens to the Count’s backstory before finally telling Puck to heal him. So I feel like it kind of suggests that Guts knowing that info might affect some things.
But otherwise yeah ia. I’m actually kind of rly into the idea of Guts stubbornly clinging to the knowledge that he was important to Griffith, hard earned as it was, now that you mention that. At least between the Eclipse and Griffith’s rebirth.
It’s like… idk I think there’s an argument that he left the Hawks because he knew he did mean something to Griffith, and that gave him the confidence to believe he could truly become his bff4ever if he changed his whole life lol. Whereas if he thought Griffith genuinely couldn’t give a shit about him he wouldn’t even try.
And then I think a similar way of thinking could be informing his behaviour during the Black Swordsman stuff. Like, I know I meant something to you, deny it all you want, I’m going to find you and force you to acknowledge me.
But after NGriff ditches him I think he kind of gives that up? Which is why he’s able to put his revenge thing on hold – it starts to feel futile when he genuinely believes NGriff feels nothing at all towards him. (Which is why that beating heart is a game changer in waiting js.)
idk lol I’m just thinking outloud.
And yeah like, it’s textual that he feels guilty for Griffith’s breakdown, from letting Casca stab him to:
But I do wish we saw more of that post-Eclipse other than the recurring moments when he thinks about Griffith kneeling in the snow and mopes lol. It kind of makes sense to me that we don’t see Guts feeling guilty after the Eclipse because I feel like the point of the Eclipse rape was to piss Guts off enough that he’d basically channel his guilt into rage, but I feel like we should still see more inner conflict. Not that we don’t see any, but yk, I always want more.
Ohhh, man, I remembered he got knocked out but I thought we didn’t get to see the exact moment when he came to … so I thought, you know, we don’t know exactly how much he’s heard?
But I went to check and this is him twitching awake after all the juicy details have been laid out:
Which is honestly even better than him hearing all that and not reacting.
He does get to hear these parts though:
I honestly like to interpret his expression here as loathing directed specifically @ the God Hand sans Griffith/Femto, for waltzing in and ruining everything lol.
And I agree with everything else you brought up! Like, Guts can actually be pretty confident and even cocky, so it’s not like he’s constantly putting himself down. He’s just a little naive, bless his heart.
I can’t WAIT for Neo-Griff to finally snap lol
It’s gotta happen. Even if Guts’ storyline is wall-to-wall disappointment I know in my soul NGriff’s is going somewhere good.
And yeah I’m sure the parallels aren’t lost on Guts lol, but i guess it’s not quite as direct as essentially saying ‘being able to sacrifice someone is proof that you love them.’ Also yeah I’m into that interpretation of his anger there, like imo he hates Femto on a personal level for being an evil version of the dude he loves, but he def hates the rest of the Godhand for facilitating it. His reaction when seeing Slan in the troll cave was even more overwhelmingly rage-y than when he saw NGriff on the Hill of Swords, eg.
1. This is another one of my favourite expresions in Berserk tbh
2. I’m not saying this is deliberate, I’m not sure it would even be in character, but I can’t help but imagine this as Guts taunting Femto/Griffith about the fact that he was in love with him, his life was destroyed because of him, Guts drove him to make the sacrifice by leaving him, and Guts knows it.
Like yeah logically it’s just Guts being pissed off over the fact that Griffith sacrificed him to become a demon, especially with the follow up “thanks to me who’s fighting an army of the dead because of you,” but man, I’m js that knowing how the Golden Age goes gives this line potential Layers. You’re where you are now because this petty existence had all that power over you.
On the other hand this whole scene exists to set up Griffith making the sacrifice to bury his fragile heart bc of whatever went down w/ Guts, so like, it could be that deep?
Plus Femto’s response:
Just gonna reiterate that you mean absolutely nothing to me.
Whether that’s what Guts meant to say or not, I’m pretty sure he’s well aware of the irony of Femto emphasising his insignificance now, considering everything that went down between them. He might even stubbornly refuse to go back to post-Speech-to-Charlotte Guts, clinging to the fact that, no, I meant something to you and you meant something to me, and we both know that.
But then he would also have to know that it’s his fault that Griffith went this far. Which we know that he does, but idk, whenever I re-read the manga I feel like we should get to see more guilt from him.
Anyway, I don’t think Miura was fully taking all this into consideration while writing these first few chapters, but in retrospect you have to think about all the layers of meaning behind nearly every word Femto & Guts exchange. Like, this is off topic, but it’s in these chapters that Guts first finds out what sacrificing someone really means, and he doesn’t really react in any significant way, when realistically he should.
To be fair he’s unconscious when the Godhand actually explain the sacrifice and tell the Count that a sacrifice has to be someone you love so much it’s like they’re part of you. Which imo is kind of a hmmmm in and of itself, like there’s no reason Guts had to be unconscious at any point at all since he could barely move anyway, except to miss the explanation of who can be sacrificed. When he does wake up he just lies there and listens to the Count’s backstory before finally telling Puck to heal him. So I feel like it kind of suggests that Guts knowing that info might affect some things.
But otherwise yeah ia. I’m actually kind of rly into the idea of Guts stubbornly clinging to the knowledge that he was important to Griffith, hard earned as it was, now that you mention that. At least between the Eclipse and Griffith’s rebirth.
It’s like… idk I think there’s an argument that he left the Hawks because he knew he did mean something to Griffith, and that gave him the confidence to believe he could truly become his bff4ever if he changed his whole life lol. Whereas if he thought Griffith genuinely couldn’t give a shit about him he wouldn’t even try.
And then I think a similar way of thinking could be informing his behaviour during the Black Swordsman stuff. Like, I know I meant something to you, deny it all you want, I’m going to find you and force you to acknowledge me.
But after NGriff ditches him I think he kind of gives that up? Which is why he’s able to put his revenge thing on hold – it starts to feel futile when he genuinely believes NGriff feels nothing at all towards him. (Which is why that beating heart is a game changer in waiting js.)
idk lol I’m just thinking outloud.
And yeah like, it’s textual that he feels guilty for Griffith’s breakdown, from letting Casca stab him to:
But I do wish we saw more of that post-Eclipse other than the recurring moments when he thinks about Griffith kneeling in the snow and mopes lol. It kind of makes sense to me that we don’t see Guts feeling guilty after the Eclipse because I feel like the point of the Eclipse rape was to piss Guts off enough that he’d basically channel his guilt into rage, but I feel like we should still see more inner conflict. Not that we don’t see any, but yk, I always want more.
1. This is another one of my favourite expresions in Berserk tbh
2. I’m not saying this is deliberate, I’m not sure it would even be in character, but I can’t help but imagine this as Guts taunting Femto/Griffith about the fact that he was in love with him, his life was destroyed because of him, Guts drove him to make the sacrifice by leaving him, and Guts knows it.
Like yeah logically it’s just Guts being pissed off over the fact that Griffith sacrificed him to become a demon, especially with the follow up “thanks to me who’s fighting an army of the dead because of you,” but man, I’m js that knowing how the Golden Age goes gives this line potential Layers. You’re where you are now because this petty existence had all that power over you.
On the other hand this whole scene exists to set up Griffith making the sacrifice to bury his fragile heart bc of whatever went down w/ Guts, so like, it could be that deep?
Plus Femto’s response:
Just gonna reiterate that you mean absolutely nothing to me.
idk tho in say an au where like, guts never overheard the promrose hall speech and they made it to tombstone of flame i could see griffith reaching a point where he’d be able to accept his own feelings
“do you think that i’m cruel” is just so like, emotionally vulnerable. he was totally getting there, to like, yk, being more honest w/ himself
and then you have him crying after charlotte which is also an emotional admittance
so it’s not like i exaggerate his ability to deny shit to himself (well maybe i do but i love that so fuck it) but i may not give him enough credit for occasional moments of honestly
then again that’s short term. it’s one thing to say griffith could throw care to the wind in the heat of the moment and have emotionally intense sex, it’s another thing to think he could live with himself knowing he’d rather have guts + love than charlotte + dream
on the other hand there’s no reason he has to think of it that way since there’s no reason he can’t have both. like… in theory there’s a perfectly legit berserk au where griffith and guts hooked up and griffith still became king, successfully having his cake and eating it too
so idk maybe if he got with guts it wouldn’t be so much denying that he values guts more than his dream as just dismissing that as irrelevant bc he’ll just get both
So much good fic has tones of both. Analyzers have some of the best fic ideas, and good fic is based on examining the source. Idk man ydy bc whatever it is it’s hella good shit.
But like Guts gets such puppy eyes sometimes when he’s sad, like after the Primrose Hall speech. Imagine Griffith withdrawing emotionally (and physically) after sex and Guts just not being able to contain his sad confused expressions?? (Let’s be real he was basically just a rlly sad puppy throughout the entire Golden Age.)
Idk man let’s be real would Griffith be able to shut out those unintentionally honest and sad puppy eyes?
Yeah v true, a lot of my favourite fics are rly analytical lol. and ty!
omggg I can just see it. I think that would actually be more devastating than the promrose hall speech for Guts. Like Griffith’s speech was impersonal, Guts felt inadequate but decided he could change to fit Griffith’s definition of a friend and then everything would be fine. But a much more personal rejection after the most intimate he’s ever been with anyone would really fuck him up.
Though I guess it would depend on how obvious Griffith was about withdrawing. Like if it was a full on rejection as he tries to re-orient himself back around his dream I could see Guts basically cutting and running in a fit of self loathing (or self destructing a la Griffith but in some other more Guts-y way); if it was just becoming more distant that would also fuck Guts up but like, more slowly over time rather than immediately. Maybe the 2nd one is better bc there’s more room for puppy dog eyes that way lol.
I pray there be happy worlds where Griffith had a moment of self awareness and realized he was about to seriously hurt Guts. Imo he doesn’t have the courage to admit he loves Guts, but he’s even less capable of letting something hurt Guts.
like they wouldn’t work everything out in a single heartfelt night, but before things went to hell Griffith was showing some real emotional openness.
Oh yeah I don’t think like, it’s inevitable that a sexual encounter between them is going to end in tears. I think this is just one plausible possibility. Bc yeah especially w/ Tombstone of Flame, Griffith was getting a lot more open. And def, I could totally see Griffith immediately regretting a negative reaction when he sees how hurt Guts is.
Like my Official Statement™ on griffguts as a potential couple
(yk like basically what I think Berserk genuinely suggests, at least according to my interpretation lol)
is that they would’ve worked, and without Promrose Hall the trajectory of their relationship was headed straight for both finding exactly what they each want and need most in the other. I actually totally think that if he had to, Griffith would choose Guts over the dream and would eventually be able to live with that.
But there’s also so much gr8 potential for drama lol, it’s hard to resist.
and ok one more thing about this part
this is actually pretty damn non-wholesome, to the extent that i’m kind of surprised none of the characters were like, ‘wait a second this oppressively cutesy place attacked us with a giant cage full of the trapped spirits of people they burned alive to power it’
like it just kind of happened completely without commentary or attention drawn to it, and lbr it’s berserk so it can get away with that
but also i’m happily filing it away as strong evidence that elfhelm is more than capable of being fucked up. like, magic drawing power from the lives of sacrificed people eh? where’ve we seen that before?
idk tho in say an au where like, guts never overheard the promrose hall speech and they made it to tombstone of flame i could see griffith reaching a point where he’d be able to accept his own feelings
“do you think that i’m cruel” is just so like, emotionally vulnerable. he was totally getting there, to like, yk, being more honest w/ himself
and then you have him crying after charlotte which is also an emotional admittance
so it’s not like i exaggerate his ability to deny shit to himself (well maybe i do but i love that so fuck it) but i may not give him enough credit for occasional moments of honestly
then again that’s short term. it’s one thing to say griffith could throw care to the wind in the heat of the moment and have emotionally intense sex, it’s another thing to think he could live with himself knowing he’d rather have guts + love than charlotte + dream
on the other hand there’s no reason he has to think of it that way since there’s no reason he can’t have both. like… in theory there’s a perfectly legit berserk au where griffith and guts hooked up and griffith still became king, successfully having his cake and eating it too
so idk maybe if he got with guts it wouldn’t be so much denying that he values guts more than his dream as just dismissing that as irrelevant bc he’ll just get both
So much good fic has tones of both. Analyzers have some of the best fic ideas, and good fic is based on examining the source. Idk man ydy bc whatever it is it’s hella good shit.
But like Guts gets such puppy eyes sometimes when he’s sad, like after the Primrose Hall speech. Imagine Griffith withdrawing emotionally (and physically) after sex and Guts just not being able to contain his sad confused expressions?? (Let’s be real he was basically just a rlly sad puppy throughout the entire Golden Age.)
Idk man let’s be real would Griffith be able to shut out those unintentionally honest and sad puppy eyes?
Yeah v true, a lot of my favourite fics are rly analytical lol. and ty!
omggg I can just see it. I think that would actually be more devastating than the promrose hall speech for Guts. Like Griffith’s speech was impersonal, Guts felt inadequate but decided he could change to fit Griffith’s definition of a friend and then everything would be fine. But a much more personal rejection after the most intimate he’s ever been with anyone would really fuck him up.
Though I guess it would depend on how obvious Griffith was about withdrawing. Like if it was a full on rejection as he tries to re-orient himself back around his dream I could see Guts basically cutting and running in a fit of self loathing (or self destructing a la Griffith but in some other more Guts-y way); if it was just becoming more distant that would also fuck Guts up but like, more slowly over time rather than immediately. Maybe the 2nd one is better bc there’s more room for puppy dog eyes that way lol.
idk tho in say an au where like, guts never overheard the promrose hall speech and they made it to tombstone of flame i could see griffith reaching a point where he’d be able to accept his own feelings
“do you think that i’m cruel” is just so like, emotionally vulnerable. he was totally getting there, to like, yk, being more honest w/ himself
and then you have him crying after charlotte which is also an emotional admittance
so it’s not like i exaggerate his ability to deny shit to himself (well maybe i do but i love that so fuck it) but i may not give him enough credit for occasional moments of honestly
then again that’s short term. it’s one thing to say griffith could throw care to the wind in the heat of the moment and have emotionally intense sex, it’s another thing to think he could live with himself knowing he’d rather have guts + love than charlotte + dream
on the other hand there’s no reason he has to think of it that way since there’s no reason he can’t have both. like… in theory there’s a perfectly legit berserk au where griffith and guts hooked up and griffith still became king, successfully having his cake and eating it too
so idk maybe if he got with guts it wouldn’t be so much denying that he values guts more than his dream as just dismissing that as irrelevant bc he’ll just get both
I’m going to lay out some visuals here real quick bc I just noticed another good detail lol
Griffith on a black background, Guts on a white background. Light and dark, connection and loneliness, and Guts as Griffith’s last connection to humanity before he’s carried up into darkness.
Guts and Griffith brightly lit in contrast to the surrounding darkness as they clutch each others’ hands, because this is what they are to each other. Their connection is what illuminates the darkness, what staves off loneliness.
Guts is both the source of Griffith’s despair and the only thing capable of preventing him from succumbing to it. “He was the reason I’ve been thrown into this darkness and now he’s the sole sustenance keeping me alive.” Same kinda thing.
Guts falling away, lit in comparsion to Griffith blending in with the background. Griffith losing that light.
These pages are just a great illustration of Guts and Griffith as each others’ brightest things, and what they lose when they give up each other.
though idt he really promised a happy ending so much as a not completely bleak and depressing ending, so it’s not as ominous as it could be
like it sucks for me because my ideal ending is basically guts once again succumbing to his obsession with griffith, meeting with him again in a climactic manner, realizing griffith is actually still stupid in love, some kind of visual suggestion of equality or guts looking down at him bc their persistant feelings equalize them despite everything, and then guts finding some kind of emotional catharsis in that, hopefully while one or both of them is dying
but the story ending with guts still obsessed with griffith would probably be a negative ending according to like, the themes of berserk lol
i think there are ways it could be swung in a more positive direction. eg remove casca from the possibility of a romantic happily ever after with guts, lean on threatening the possibility of guts ending up like skull knight, eg stripped of humanity and lost to the armour and immortal and doomed to seek revenge forever or w/e, and put guts’ genuinely conflicting, based in love, human feelings for griffith opposite that. in this way immortality would be associated with monstrousness and death with humanity, and guts and griffith dying together, or just guts dying, or w/e would be extra perfect, particularly if one or both fail to go through with killing the other at the last minute
(the whole sacrifices doomed to hell thing kinda fucks with that but it fucks with any possible non-depressing ending no matter what lol, so miura is either going to have to go dark with guts’ ending or do what i suggest and make him not actually irrevocably destined for hell after all)
like idk i know what i want and i think there’s enough groundwork laid for it to be possible, but there’s also groundwork laid for like, worst case scenarios too. everything’s up in the air
like man i can’t help but fear the possibility that guts is going to succumb to the beast of darkness, be pulled back yet again by his friends, and then ~overcome~ his desire for revenge/to be griffith’s equal while getting with casca. and then they idk team up with elfhelm to defeat griffith/the godhand. like i believe miura is better than that but it’s only belief, not fact
like remember when miura gave like a talk on writing at some thing idk and he discussed how he uses each character to draw out different emotions from guts, and one of griffith’s was ‘loneliness’
that is like the #1 thing i love about griffguts. two people, both alone in different ways, whose feelings of isolation are only fully eased by the other no matter how fucked up their thing gets or how much either of them change, whether magically or organically
tbh I’ve been looking at it as a reference to Griffith’s torture (in addition to the obvious christianity ref). Nails in wings and tail = cut wrists and ankle tendons, and nail thru throat = loss of voice.
It’d be interesting if it was foreshadowing though.
real talk i’ll accept guts’ narrative as being about successfully getting over griffith and moving on and eventually getting a happy griffith-free ending if and only if guts/serpico goes canon
and not just because the idea of guts moving on from his homoerotic obsession with a dude thru a hetero relationship kills me, but also because it just makes the most sense ~thematically~ lol
this moment was built up since like 40 chapters earlier when Skull Knight warned Guts that he’d have to make a choice not to pursue Griffith. Frankly I think it’s nearly comedic how hard the narrative railroaded Guts into making this choice, ie by showing that Guts choosing Griffith over getting on a boat would’ve been effectively suicide lol, and even then he still needed someone to remind him not to be an idiot – but the fact remains that this significant step on the road to moving on from Griffith was enabled by Serpico leaping in to save Guts from Zodd, a situation with a pretty significant precedent we all remember and love.
and like tbqh it’s criminal that guts and serpico’s interactions when they’re not trying to kill each other are almost always super bland bc out of the current group serpico has the greatest potential to have an interesting and intense relationship with guts imho and like, idk miura kind of tells us this a few times but never shows it.
tbh I think it might be a visual nod to how Casca was the leader of the Hawks. There was a strong emphasis on her role as the leader during the Eclipse, when Judeau was determined to save her, and to Guts she largely represents his three years of happiness with the Hawks now. She’s kind of set up as the representative of the Band 1.0, and the dress fits that.
This is a thread I like so maybe I’m overemphasizing it, but imo it would be nice if it was picked up again, and now’s the time to do it.
(or yk maybe it’s bc Danann genuinely wants to set her and Guts up and she knows Guts has a thing for ethereal figures dressed in white with wing motifs lmao.)
I’d love to see their history tbh, and yeah I hope it’s not just Void = Griffith, SK = Guts because that sounds boring af. Plus Skull Knight has strong parallels to both Griffith and Guts, so if his history with Void is in any way similar it would be cool if it was a remix rather than a repetition, where they both have aspects of both.
I mean there’s a theory of mine where Skull Knight was an earlier incarnated Godhand 1000 years ago, like Griffith, since Gaiseric was the previous ruler of what is now Falconia and has been compared to Griffith bc of it, and tbqh if Void sacrificed him along with the rest of his city to become the first of the next batch of Godhand members that would be like, rly interesting to me.
But that’s just a pipe dream lol. Not something I have evidence for other than Godhands incarnating once every thousand years, and Gaiseric appearing out of nowhere and building an empire with Falconia 1.0 as his central hub a thousand years ago, and Void looking shifty when Slan or Ubik talks about how unprecedented a sacrifice surviving is.
And yeah like I’m over here theorizing that he’s using Guts to get to the Godhand, like I definitely don’t think he’s just a chill friendly ally of Guts, helping him out of the goodness of his heart. He has an agenda. Tho as per Flora (”Old friend, I want to believe you still have the heart of a man” or whatever the line was) if he’s using Guts and co now and fucking them over he might end up making up for it later.
This is like, the fucking plan. Skull Knight and Danann are conspiring to have the behelit open in Elfhelm, by Danann’s spirit tree, summoning the Godhand, so Skull Knight can do his thing, quite probably aided by Elfhelm tree magic, and entomb them in the vortex. Probably alongside Guts and Casca and everyone else watching the show.
Also something genuinely bad and dark has to happen because of this, like say, Casca becoming an apostle, because Guts needs to feel the full weight of betrayal by SK and succumb to the armour. And this will be a heavy painful betrayal because it’s gonna remind Guts of Griffith, because of the way Skull Knight has rescued him in the past and earned his trust. (tbh more on this whenever I get off my ass and write a long meta post about Guts and what his relationship to Griffith means to him.)
But also the power of friendship is going to prevent Guts from going full Beast of Darkness forever the way it’s been suggested that Skull Knight lost his humanity to the armour. Just, god willing, hopefully not before g*tsca is laid to rest.
So. Still think Guts and Casca are pawns, still think the tree and Dragon’s Road thing are relevant, definitely think the behelit’s relevant, and I’m actually pretty confident that the Godhand are coming to Elfhelm and Danann and Skull Knight have this trap waiting for them.
Whether Danann and Skull Knight’s plan is successful is another story entirely. Whether defeating and trapping the Godhand away in the vortex is even a good idea is also another story entirely. And idk whether NeoGriff figures into this at all lol.
Oh also I know the behelit only opens when the laws of causality like, make it happen, but, a) Skull Knight referred to that in that ominous scene where Flora suggests he might be using Guts and it’s not stopping him from maneuvering things into place it’s just giving him a handy excuse b) fate works thru people’s encounters and choices and Danann and Skull Knight and Guts etc are people c) they’re high level magic users a step outside causality maybe they can tell when the behelit’s likely to open and are facilitating that for their own ends or smthn.
Also I know Miura has said he writes on the fly and doesn’t have a plan, but he must have some idea of where things are headed because he has actively been throwing foreshadowing down for 150 chapters. Maybe the details are vague in his mind but I’m quite sure he knows the broadstrokes of the story. Like after all he wrote the entire golden age knowing exactly where it would end up, give or take a few details. I’m willing to bet he’s been planning some Skull Knight shit since Flora’s appearance.
Anyway this is my theory now. I may go about it backwards, ie having a destination I absolutely want and then finding evidence for it, but yk what i want to live in hope until the next chapter so screw it.
That’s like a highly ideal ending honestly, the Griffith kills Guts and then it ends on him having a Real Emotion and it’s all terrible
yeah i feel like it’d be the perfect blend of tragic yet satisfying for me. even moreso if Guts does that thing he does where he lets himself be stabbed because he’s full of guilt and mixed feelings. like say, if he finds out ngriff hasn’t completely lost his human emotions beforehand and actually failed his emotion test on the hill of swords…
This is hard to respond to because I feel like for some reason you don’t want any of this to happen and this is coming from a place of disliking these aspects of Casca’s character, whereas I’m reading this ask and (aside from definitely wanting her and Farnese to be friends or at least have a strong connection and definitely not wanting Casca to return to basic jealousy of Guts and Griffith’s relationship for what should be obvious reasons) going “god I hope so.”
Please let Miura remember how angry Casca could be, how volatile she is, how righteously angry and pettily angry and resentful she could be. I’d love to see her blame Guts for everything he’s responsible for and even things he’s not responsible for. I’d love her to remember how Guts “rescued” her and instead of feeling like she owes him yet again, to hate him for it and to take her 3 years of forced passivity out on him.
Also Casca was right to blame Guts the first time so I can’t like, relate to your vehemence here. Her reasons might’ve been petty and her murderous tirade might’ve been unwarranted, but she was still spot on when she said his decision to leave the Hawks destroyed Griffith. She even told him outright that Griffith needs him beforehand too, he just refused to believe her.
Guts needed to be told how important he is to Griffith and the major tragedy of the Golden Age is that he still didn’t fucking accept that information until it was too late because Casca backed off after stabbing him and then they had sex, letting Guts avoid realizing how incredibly wrong he was about his relationship with Griffith for a few more days.
Hmm, like if the toy soldier was a symbol of the boy’s dream, the magnetic knight that goes with the female figure is a symbol of Griffith’s, and leaving it with Charlotte is symbolic of the immediate loss of his dream?
Bc I could definitely see it. I actually rly like the idea of that pendant being a symbol of Griffith’s dream bc it’s another way it’s intrinsically tied to heterosexuality in opposition to his feelings for Guts, a theme I both enjoy and am depressed by.
Plus it’s fitting since after he leaves the pendant with Charlotte and gets caught he’s able to acknowledge his feelings for Guts.
ty for sharing this 🙂
ooh these are some good visuals
how long will i have to creep in darkness… until him? but femto, depicted at peak inhuman here, is just more fucking darkness.
because this is still guts scrabbling for whatever’s left of the “dazzling” griffith, the griffith who shone and chased away the darkness of loneliness. like i’ve said this before and i’ll say it again, but his revenge quest isn’t (solely) about revenge, it’s about missing griffith and desperately wanting that connection again. the rage is a convenient reason to chase him that’s more justifiable to himself than “I still want him to look at me.”
the visual metaphor of light and dark, companionship and isolation, and how constant it’s been in guts and griffith’s relationship in particular is just so fucking good
I don’t really think this is an either/or option and tbh I really really hope neither of these things happen. Unless you mean find Griffith to kill him, that would be great.
“Knows that it’s not Guts’ fault” that what isn’t Guts’ fault? The Eclipse? Sure, I feel like the ship of Casca blaming Guts for Griffith’s breakdown has pretty much sailed and we’re probably not returning to that so I don’t think she’s going to be blaming Guts for Griffith sacrificing the Hawks. Though tbh I’d love to see her angry with him for fucking off up on the giant hand and not being there with her and Judeau and everyone else, whether that’s blame-worthy or not, but I doubt very much we’ll see that.
And even if she did blame him for something Eclipse related she’s still presumably about to remember Griffith and Femto’s actions which, if Miura has even the tiniest shred of decency, will mean she’s not going to go join NeoGriffith. She was a lot more pissed off than Guts was about Griffith sacrificing them before Femto even made an appearance too, on the off-chance people might think NeoGriffith not looking like Femto or maybe being distinct from Femto makes a difference. Like while Guts is just kinda sad and guilty Casca expresses some rage and betrayal while fleeing with Judeau.
On the other hand, there are plenty of things that she should by rights blame Guts for, like sexually assaulting her, like abandoning her for two years, like treating her as a symbol of his lost past with the Hawks rather than a person in her own right, like “forcing” her sanity back rather letting her deal with the trauma in her own time, so there are lots of good reasons she wouldn’t want to stay by his side either.
Whether Miura remembers those reasons or thinks they’re valid is up in the air but personally I’ve got my fingers crossed so hard in the hopes that we’re not heading towards romance that it’s gonna give me arthritis in a few decades.
I’ve assumed that it referred to wanting guts’ attention and regard, wanting guts to be focused on him, jealously guarding his relationship with guts, essentially.
but jealousy is kind of a weird word bc yk it can be synonymous with envy but also not necessarily, it can also be more possessive (like quickly double checking tells me that jealousy is more desiring to keep what you already have whereas envy is wanting what you don’t have, when they’re not used as synonyms), and context doesn’t really help here, so idk.
cause like if it is meant here as synonymous with envy then that could be interesting – he might be jealous of the way guts isn’t tied to a dream, ironically. the lack of guilt and the weight of death on his shoulders, etc.
but I guess without any additional information about the original japanese I’d still err on the side of jealous as in possessive of his relationship with guts and insecure about it, particularly considering guts and casca’s fling soon becomes an issue.
under a cut because a) this is largely about the hot button issue of griffith + sexual assault and b) it’s pretty off the cuff rather than carefully thought out so i want to reserve control over it lol
i’m gonna be honest, my biggest issue with the theme of griffith + beauty + sexual victimization is that it’s both very loud and clear, like it’s absolutely an intrinsic part of griffith’s narrative, but for some unknown reason it’s also more subtle than every other instance of sexual victimization we see? and i have no idea why miura was so coy about it but it makes it difficult and a little awkward to just take it as read
like even at the start w/ gennon. guts’ csa trauma is unambiguous – it’s violent, guts struggles and fights, etc. casca’s is also unambiguous attempted rape. she tries to run, and then is able to kill her attacker. but griffith’s is “voluntary” enough that like a majority of berserk fans don’t even see it as rape, despite gennon literally being a pedophile with a harem of child sex slaves, and griffith being a child, “who could still be called a boy in his innocence,” according to casca. the next morning griffith himself frames it as seducing gennon. also, unlike the other two instances, we don’t see what happened. All we have is Casca’s glimpse of Gennon’s hand on his shoulder and Griffith’s explanation the next morning.
And I actually have no issue at all with how it’s portrayed in canon, like anyone who isn’t a rape apologist and has an iota of reading comprehension should be able to figure out that it is rape and griffith was traumatized by it. I definitely don’t think Miura thinks Griffith freely consented or intended it to be read as ambiguous either. Griffith saying he seduced Gennon says way more about Griffith than about what actually happened. But compared to our other two protagonists and their formative traumas, it’s not nearly as in your face.
Then you have Griffith and the torturer, which is all left in creepy innuendo. Like it’s blatant enough that it seems willfully blind to assume there was no sexual assault going on, but again, it’s not like Miura shies away from depicting rape everywhere else in Berserk, so why is it only left in innuendo?
And yk what I think there’s a throughline from those – Gennon and the torturer as sexual predators obsessing over Griffith’s beauty – and both Griffith offering himself to Casca in the wagon and then Griffith’s vision of his future with Casca, t b q h. In that nightmare he’s attractive again, he’s virtually immobile, and again there’s the implication that Casca is having sex with him.
like I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to take all this together and say Griffith has some serious issues with sex even if Miura doesn’t come right out and say it like he does for everyone else.
like terrible, terrible depiction aside, this is probably the best set up for the eclipse rape we have. sex to griffith being a show of power or lack of power, and with griffith it’s always been the lack of it. with gennon, and charlotte, and casca in the wagon it’s been a trade – griffith giving them the only thing he has to offer in exchange for something they, with their greater power can give him. money, a kingdom, and… idk my reading of the wagon scene changes with the winds, but in this context i suppose it would be security, possibly griffith thinking if casca stays then guts will stay too after seeing them together.
and then this vision depicting a life like that. like the wagon scene and this nightmare seem to exist mainly to set up why the dark negative evil side of griffith would take this out on casca specifically, because griffith had just been projecting these issues onto her and when he gains power and loses his “goodness” he spitefully reverses their perceived roles.
BUT AGAIN this is both unnecessarily subtle and also a huge fucking mess thanks to how terribly written and depicted the eclipse rape was (and also the depction of the charlotte scene doesn’t help lbr) so I feel like i’m making shit up to make griffith more sympathetic lol. even though i’m like 90% sure it’s purposeful and also it doesn’t rly make griffith more sympathetic because i wholeheartedly sympathize with him even without all this lol, and femto is a literal demon made of evil so it doesn’t make him more sympathetic either. it just kind of ties a lot of themes together.
you're the only one 