Tag: a

In regards to the wagon scene: I personally have always seen Casca as being a trans dude, and Griffith, a gay man, knowing about that on some level. So when I look at the wagon scene, I see Griffith weaponizing his sexual orientation and basically trying to give Casca the validation they want in order to make them want to stay. If Casca is a cis woman it still holds up as crush validation. Opinions?

As a cis woman my opinion is not all that valuable here lol, and it’s under a cut because reading that opinion should probably be an opt-in experience and easy to scroll past

Basically I think that’s a legit and interesting take, though maybe not entirely compatible with canon. Not because Casca couldn’t be trans – I could definitely see that and I think it’s a logical reading of the character – but more because like, if Griffith knew and acted on that knowledge it would change the subsequent nightmare sequence w/ Casca as a housewife.

Also like if there’s an aspect there of Griffith knowing on some level
that Casca’s a man but deliberately withholding that “validation” until
this point when he needs something from him (idk if that was what you
meant to imply but the word ‘weaponizing’ makes me wonder) then I do
disagree with that.

But there’s no reason to assume Griffith was deliberately misgendering him either if his knowledge is subconscious and/or more recently acquired.

(And to be clear on that by misgendering I’m not talking about like Griffith using she/her pronouns bc if this isn’t an AU then Casca has obviously not socially transitioned. I’m more talking about ordering him to sleep with Guts four years ago, or complimenting the dress, things like that.)

Also funnily enough your take is basically the exact opposite of mine in that I emphasize the sense of oppressive heteronormativity and Griffith’s repression in this scene, while you go in the opposite direction with a sense of both characters’ gender and sexuality being validated. But it’s not like my preferred interpretation has anything to do with authorial intent lol, so yours is just as legit and worth consideration.

Plus a nice side effect of losing that undertone of repression is that it makes Griffith’s horror re: a life with Casca even more thoroughly centred around Guts’ absence. Also adds another layer to Casca’s decision not to leave with Guts but to stay with Griffith, if there’s an implicit understanding that he can be himself with Griffith while Guts still regards him as a woman.

Hmm idk if I have much else to say, especially since I’m like, trying to avoid a lot of the inevitable problematic implications inherent to Casca’s narrative, Berserk being what it is. Idk just like reading Griffith as a gay man is rife with issues, reading Casca as a trans man opens up another can of worms, one that I don’t think anyone needs my pov on. But ty for your interest in my thoughts, hope this was the kind of response you were looking for.

what do you think about casca getting her memories back? I like the idea of her joining griffith somehow but that’s probably not going to happen. I just don’t like her to be on guts side without any conflicts.

As far as I’m concerned the only thing worse than Casca like, having healing sex with Guts and being his narrative reward would be Casca joining Griffith, so I’m very much not on board with you there.

But I do agree that I would absolutely love it if Casca ended up as like, a secondary antagonist to Guts. That’s probably my ideal development for her tbh, and I don’t think she needs to join Griffith to conflict with him. They could conflict if Casca wants revenge and Guts has mixed feelings about that for a multitude of reasons, they could conflict if Casca just lashes tf out because it’s time for her to express some serious narrative-shaking rage, they could conflict if Casca goes apostle, they could conflict if Casca wants revenge against Guts too for how he treated her (ok unlikely, but god I wish lol), they could conflict if Casca kills or sacrifices someone in the rpg group or the moonlight boy maybe, etc etc etc.

So basically a big giant NO to Casca joining Griffith, but a big giant YES to Casca and Guts becoming enemies.

Serpico and even at times Farnese treats Casca as Farnese confidence booster. Like she gives Farnese purpose or doesn’t make her feel useless. Do you think we should be more critical about their behavior or am I overreacting?

I doubt very much Miura intended for the reader to be critical of their behaviour, but honestly so much surrounding post-Eclipse Casca skeeves me out wrt ableism and the way she’s so infantalized and objectified (like literally, treated as an unthinking object to be protected rather than a person), both by other characters and by the narrative itself, that I def don’t think you’re overreacting.

It’s something I blame Miura for more than Farnese bc I really don’t think we’re intended to see her as insensitive. and imo Farnese comes across better than anyone else when it comes to treating Casca as a person with feelings. like eg the scene where she loses her temper and then apologizes to her directly – as opposed to say, Guts, who yelled at her all the time back when he interacted with her but never apologized to her. Or as opposed to the rest of the rpg group who tend to treat her like a prop or an extension of Guts or Farnese imo.

But yeah imo there are still a lot of instances of people, including Farnese, talking about Casca and thinking about Casca as if her only value is to motivate Farnese, and the narrative doesn’t really condemn that line of thinking, it’s just part of the general portrayal of post-Eclipse Casca, and it sucks.

If in the story of Berserk swords are a metaphor for phallus and Guts biting Griffith’s sword is suppose to be bery suggestive….what’s to be taken out of Guts straight up grasping Serpico’s sword and snapping it in half?

Avoid handjobs from Guts at all costs.

but on the off-chance you wanted a somewhat serious answer, i’d say the swords = dicks thing is p dependant on context, and in this instance it’s less a direct sexual metaphor and more a demonstration of Guts big dick energy lol. The same way Guts’ sword always breaks other dudes’ swords, it’s a masculine power thing that shows how outclassed Serpico is in terms of raw force

and to veer a bit more freudian, just for fun, it may tie in a little to how he’s somewhat emasculated by Farnese. Particularly in comparison to Guts’ main relationship with a woman in which he is (currently trying to be) the big strong manly protector. mb made a little more plausible in that i think this is right after farnese took off with casca, which could encourage a reader to compare the two relationships.

for the is berserk homophobic thing. a saw someone describe griffiths storyline as ‘it makes the readers unable to sympathize with the gay-coded character who experiences every pain a human being can experience’

I actually never considered it quite like that before but ia, that’s also a big problem and another reason the Eclipse rape is a failure of writing. Especially considering how Femto’s particular villainy emphasizes/is an expression of some of that gay-coding. And a result of it too for that matter – he makes the sacrifice because of his feelings for Guts. And yeah you can interpret that as “he should’ve embraced those feelings and not tried to escape them,” but the fact remains that his extremely homoerotic feelings basically drove him to evil lol.

So yeah as well as readers not being able to sympathize with him, it makes his feelings for Guts kind of forboding. Which tbh is the kind of thing that wouldn’t bother me at all if there was like, any positive + textually gay content to mitigate it lol, like I’m not going to pretend I don’t fucking love that Griffith makes the sacrifice to escape his feelings and talk about how amazing his narrative is every day, but yk, in the context of the rest of the predatory gay content of the story it’s not something I’d praise from this particular angle.

do you think that berserk is homophobic?

yeah absolutely. ignoring every ounce of subtext, the only characters who demonstrate textual same sex attraction are child predators and groups of heretics having hedonistic and like fuckin baby eating orgies before dying horribly.

As for the subtext, I like to interpret it in as positive a way as possible (ie Guts and Griffith’s relationship and lives are totally fucked up because they fail to recognize and act on the attraction between them, largely because of their past traumas), but as much as I think it fits the story perfectly and is the neatest and most resonant reading of Guts and Griffith’s relationship, it’s still only subtext, and possibly accidental, so that doesn’t really mitigate any of the actual homophobia inherent to the story.

And then ofc you have the evil gay subtext, yk like Femto staring at Guts during the Eclipse rape and the Beast of Darkness talking about Guts’ longing for Griffith and Guts assaulting Casca to feel closer to him. Hard to defend that lmao. I mean I can still read it as inoffensively as possible (the negative part comes when they redirect their feelings from each other to a heterosexual outlet, eg) but yk, that’s just me wanting to enjoy the story, that’s not a nuance I’m gonna give Miura credit for.

And also because this is all subtext it’s very nebulous and v open to interpretation.

Like for instance, another less forgiving interpretation of the subtext might be that Miura intended for Griffith and Guts’ relationship to be positive inasmuch as it is platonic, and for the implications of sexual attraction to be something negative that should have been overcome. I feel like that’s a much less valid interpretation, because it’s pretty contradictory overall, but yk there are still some pretty fucked up implications you can pick up in the subtext, and the context of all textual same-sex attraction being evil doesn’t exactly help that.

Oh also I suppose one can argue that in Berserk every expression of sexual desire is negative whether it’s hetero or not, give or take the second half of the gtsca sex scene (and i can still argue it’s negative), and therefore the fact that all textual same-sex desire is evil is more neutral in berserk than it would be in other stories. but we live in a world where predatory heterosexual desire isn’t a damaging stereotype in and of itself but predatory same-sex desire is, so it’s not actually neutral regardless, bc of real world context.

Tho that fact does make Berserk more fun for me to read at least.

At the end of the day basically I choose to read the subtext in as
positive a way as possible and it works for me and entertains me a whole
lot, but that doesn’t make the homophobic implications go away. but enh
I’ve kind of made my peace with enjoying a very offensive work lol.

hi I really like your blog and I find your analysis interesting even though I don’t ship griffith and guts but you have made me see their relationship in a different way. I have a question. what do you think of the demon child within griffith? do you think he is the reason why griffith still has feeling for guts(and casca?)or is griffith trying to blame the child for his feelings like the time with charlotte when he denied his friendship with guts?also what do you think about moonchild?

Thank you! I’m glad you found something to enjoy in my meta despite different ship preferences, esp since I like to think a lot of what I have to say about them is applicable even if you go the platonic friends route in your interpretation.

When it comes to NGriff’s unfrozen heart, I definitely go with option B. I completely believe Griffith was lying to himself about his feelings, as he is wont to do lol, like you said – definitely related to his “take all the sad and frightening things and cast them into the fire” method of dealing with his feelings, ie pretending they don’t exist.

I’m going to link a previous post on this topic bc I feel like I said most of what I have to say about it already. But in short I definitely don’t think the fetus is responsible for Griffith’s heart beating while he watches Guts fight Zodd, though it may be responsible for Griffith saving Casca from falling rocks.

As for the moonlight kid, I’m not sure what to make of him. It’s suggested he’s the soul of Guts and Casca’s kid, what with the family imagery in that one chapter. Conversely it’s suggested he might be associated with Dannan, and therefore possibly taking the form of what that child would look like for the sake of… well I want to suggest manipulating them, bc I have high hopes that Danann is gonna turn out to be shady and using them for her own ends.

I do have a hard time with the popular theory that Moonlight Kid is part of NeoGriffith and like, escapes during the full moon to hang out with the rpg group bc the idea sounds very silly to me.

And on a personal level I hate him lmao. I just… I hate most cutesy fictional children, I vastly prefer Black Swordsman Guts to family man Guts lol, I don’t like that the kid’s role is to prevent Guts from succumbing to the armour because I want Guts to succumb to the armour, at least for long enough to shake things up and have consequences. I don’t like that Casca has strong maternal feelings for him despite not even having a personality right now, bc it’s so gender essentialist. Not in a surprising way, just in an annoying way. I don’t like the way he’s used to tease the audience about the possibility of Guts eventually settling down with a family. And I don’t like the implication that he briefly like, possessed NeoGriffith to make him save Casca lol, because again, it strikes me as really silly.

My biggest hope and dream involving Moonlight Boy is that he’s either a) secretly bad news because he’s a trick of Danann’s, or b) going to be what Casca sacrifices to become an apostle if she opens the behelit.

I remember reading Berserk for the first time and being totally unimpressed with Guts n Casca’s relationship. Then I really entered the fandom and it turns out a lot of people really like them together??? I thought “Did you guys read the same manga as me?” Lmao. I’m never gonna forgive Miura for forcing that shit into the story

image

I don’t think you’re the same person but I’m combining these asks into one post because it’s basically the same subject and sentiment lol

honestly yeah the relationship really just brings out the worst in both characters imo (rampant misogyny and general laddish unlikeability in Guts; dependency, victimization, and narrative passivity in Casca), and it seems so, so unnecessary to me.

Like they are the epitome of pasted on romance. The relationship that drives the narrative, provides the most tension and intrigue and character development is Guts and Griffith’s. Guts and Casca’s romance drives nothing, develops nothing, and the intrigue and tension comes from… how Griffith figures into it (eg as the person they’re both rebounding from, as the object of their early rivalry, as the person Guts is trying to get over post-Eclipse by focusing on Casca. like literally every single one of their scenes where they grow closer is a conversation about Griffith lol).

Plus Guts rescuing her and then escorting her to Elfhelm is not dependent on his romantic relationship with her at all – he’d do the same for any of his former comrades. She could be replaced with Gaston and absolutely zero things would change except Guts probably wouldn’t’ve sexually assaulted him.

The romance brings nothing unique to the characters, it adds nothing, all it does is diminish everyone involved, extremely literally in the case of Miura adding it so he could write Casca out of half the story in the most grotesque way possible and give Guts motivation he absolutely didn’t need and which diminishes his actual personal trauma which is what should’ve been motivating him.

It’s so frustrating! I swear I could write another 4 part essay about all the ways Guts and Casca’s romance actively makes Berserk objectively (yes i’m saying objectively, idgaf some things are universally bad regardless of personal taste, like most things to do with the Eclipse) worse lmao

And the thought of an AU where Casca also survived the Eclipse without the bullshit and got her own plot-driving complementary storyline as an active character with a goal is so depressing because it could’ve been amazing.

xiyyh
replied to your post “xiyyh
replied to your post “miura is really good at drawing facial…”

UGH i hate how entirely plausible this all is because it makes everything that’s already terrible even more tragic 😦 … and running with it being a possibility, it’d give guts a really bad association with his very thoroughly thwarted near-attempt at being purposefully affectionate towards griffith, possssibly even an acceptance of his own gayness. i know this is all just wild speculation but, jesus. ughhhhhhhhh it hurts.

oh man i kinda want to explore that now

like i always say the eclipse puts everyone’s potential character development on hold/cuts it down in its tracks, imagine if it also slammed the door shut on guts’ potential realization that he’s not straight

i mean it’s all there – the parallels to casca realizing she was in love with griffith when she stopped seeing him as a god, the realization that he fucked up because griffith was in love with him, guts taking this away from griffith’s sacrifice:

image
image

Like ending up burying a burgeoning realization about himself and his feelings fits right in here

(idt i ever posted it but i remember thinking once that guts’ post-eclipse character development would work so well if there was an element of him coming to terms with his sexuality. i think i was thinking about a hypothetical “what would change about the story of Berserk if all the subtext was intentional and going somewhere” angle lol. i bet that half baked thought is in my drafts somewhere.)

xiyyh
replied to your post “I just wanna say, there are 2 possible reasons Guts wants to keep…”

i was just about to say basically the same thing @chaoticgaygriffith did here lol … he needs that constant reminder of why he SHOULD hate griffith because he’s still so emotionally invested in him and it’s too easy for him to slide into pining and sadness over him. and guts has never seen the griffith /he/ knew do anything awful, so i imagine he has a really hard time accepting that femto=griffith, but lbr so do i, griffith was not cruel and miura is an asshole

yeah i mean considering neogriffith’s effect on him:

image
image

I feel like it’s pretty heavily suggested that part of why Guts is able to drop the revenge quest to take Casca to Elfhelm is because NeoGriffith showing up all hot and non demonic threw a bucket of cold water onto his rage boner and replaced it with a regular boner.

Like I will never, ever, ever get over how fucking sad Guts is about NeoGriffith ditching him lmfao, idk how anyone can look at that panel and think Guts feels nothing but hate for him now.

And yeah like Guts also separates human Griffith from Femto in his mind, like when he tells Rickert “that’s not the Griffith you know anymore” while remembering Femto. Which is another reason NGriff’s human appearance fucks him up, because it makes it harder for Guts to separate NGriff from human Griff.

@xiyyh said:
all of this! i agree.
guts saying/doing ANYTHING at this moment could’ve pushed him over the
edge imo. also just, ugh, griffith conversely loving and hating him
because of his dependence on guts for stability. not only stability tho
he’s fucking in love with him lol. so yeah griffith coming to terms with
his absolute need for guts (whether he likes it or not, & he does
not) during the same moment of guts realizing how bad he fucked up,
re-igniting griffith’s value in his own mind, hhhhhhh
and these parallels! my god. somehow berserk is constantly mirroring itself, it’s endlessly fascinating and infuriating

ALSO WRT your tags; lol i agree and i
don’t understand how anyone could read it any other way if i’m being
completely fucking honest

ty! it’s so good isn’t it, like the fact that griffith’s moment of pure despair was guts touching him is beyond amazing and so fun to think about. i just want to second what you said here.

The fact that ppl view gtsca as this epic love story truly baffles me. Nvmd that he’s treated her like shit, miura admittedly shoehorned it into the story to give guts more manpain. It has like 3 chapters of forced build-up (judeau lit had to push them together) and it’s implied that they’re both using e/o as an alternative to griffith. And indeed, as soon he reenters the picture, it starts to fall apart. And it lasted like, what, one week? But sure, they’re totally the loves of e/o’s lives lol

four days actually lol

but yeah, strong agree here. I do kind of wonder what Miura wanted to portray – like I definitely think it very much comes across in the story that he added their relationship entirely for the sake of fridging Casca to motivate Guts more (the fact that he admitted it is icing on the cake lol). But he also didn’t shove it in as a badly written last-minute true love story, he was very deliberate in showing that there were flaws there from the start, like Judeau pulling the strings, both rebounding from Griffith, both using sex as a distraction from their negative feelings, the jealousy during the rescue mission, Griffith still taking priority to Guts (and this holds true until after the Hill of Swords confrontation), Casca becoming Guts’ “sword,” their hookup helping enable Guts’ denial so he doesn’t realize he shouldn’t’ve left the Hawks until it’s too late, etc.

So idk bc to elicit the correct reaction from his readers during the Eclipse he had to make them invested in their relationship and Guts’ feelings for Casca, but he also doesn’t do a damn thing to make Guts feelings for Casca matter or affect his decisions or anything. So imo it ends up feeling awkwardly pasted on when we’re supposed to believe they have strong feelings for each other, and the rest of the time it feels deliberately portrayed as negative.

(Like I’ve pointed out before, but a good example of this is the way Guts decides he screwed up before and wants to stay with Griffith this time while talking with Judeau, before consulting with Casca. It would’ve been so easy to have him decide while talking to Casca, showing that what she chooses to do also affects his decision, but nope. Too bad for Casca if she really wanted to leave with Guts, Guts is sticking with Griffith now.)

Re: griffith’s torture chamber monologue do you happen to know what’s the original japanese word they translated as “hunger”? I wonder if it has any particular connotation in japanese

chaoticgaygriffith:

bthump:

I do not, but this is a good question and one I’m also curious about. I can say that the anime replaced it with “love” (whether the word itself changed or the translation, idk) so it wouldn’t surprise me if it sounds just as suggestive in japanese as in english, or more so.

@chaoticgaygriffith no pressure to answer this, but do you have any insight on the word? (i’m sure you know exactly the page we’re talking about but just in case, chapter 49)

And actually while I’m wondering about this I’ve always been curious, is it the same word Ganeshka uses on this page? (chapter 282)

the word used is 飢餓感 (きがかん／kigakan) which can mean either hunger literally or hunger as in a strong desire/wish for something

and seeing as how griffith was listing emotions here, moreso than physical sensations (although some emotions–like pain, or you could say even all of them ig–are at the same time physical sensations), i would argue that he meant the latter

though it’s probably unclear on purpose, or it’s like clever wordplay of sorts since he’s literally in pain and starved and also additionally emotionally in pain and starved

and no sadly it’s not the same word ganishka used (he used 飢え渇く／うえかわく／uekawaku) but i don’t think that means there’s no parallel to be drawn here

tyvm for the response! sounds like it basically has the same connotation of saying you feel hunger while thinking about someone in english.

i def don’t think he meant literal hunger since he’s listing feelings specifically for guts, but i like the idea that it could be deliberate wordplay (along with pain) to yk compare the torture to being without guts/his feelings for guts. which would be very fitting imo.

xiyyh
replied to your post “miura is really good at drawing facial expressions and there’s this…”

i’ve always thought it looked like guts wanted to kiss him here too lmao … and like … ha i know it’s completely impossible but look at griffs face tho. he’s like “NOW?? now guts? really?” then the behelit opens cause griffs just “OH /NOW/ YOU’RE GAY?”

hmm lol it’s likely total crap but it’s quite an interesting thing to ponder. cause imo miura is/was preettttyyy clear in his portrayal of expressional intent�� i don’t want to allow myself to believe this but to me it rly looks like that lmao
this is hot on the heels of guts fully
accepting his role in griffith’s (insert everything here) … i can only
imagine what would’ve happened if guts had an opportunity to say
something to him. he is probably at a loss for words, and all that
emotional buildup is trying to escape through his eyes lol .. god, griff
has no idea why guts is so emotional right here now that i think of it
🤔🤔🤔 guts showing emotions for him during this breakdown is a very
plausible thing to push him over the edge 😮

i like it lol i think i’ll keep it

good content

ok for real the way i see griffith’s moment of despair being guts’ touch is that it’s griffith’s final moment of understanding that he is never gonna get unfucked by his feelings. he desperately, desperately needs guts and there’s no possibility of living without him anymore. if guts left, griffith would mentally waste away like in his nightmare, if guts stayed griffith would exist entirely for his presence.

so like the way griffith shifted from wanting to strangle guts to holding his hand in the torture chamber when guts started crying for him, when guts touches him with that emotion on his face griffith is like, fuck i can’t hate him, i can’t separate myself, and the behelit opens.

i mean more powerfully than i’ve written lol, but that’s like, the gist imo.

so basically i completely agree.

ALSO wrt the possibility of Guts wanting to kiss him, I’m just gonna say:

image

idk Guts what did you do last time someone attempted suicide in front of you?

parallels everywhere.

just finished the movies and bc i love your meta i just wanna say icb they made the waterfall scene to just be guts and casca calmly have sex. the movies only really work to prove how if you leave the entire character development and depth of guts out the series itself changes significantly

thank you! and yeah ikwym, it makes me wonder what people who got into the movies first take away from them characterization-wise.

like obviously griffith is completely different lol, transformed into a two dimensional conniving ambitious dude who happens to be in love with Guts. But also like you mention, how does guts and casca’s relationship come across? I feel like it’d be even more boring, like i consider guts’ flashback to be like the lone highlight of their interactions together, and without that it’s just… so rote. Same w/ the anime on that point actually.

idk i think the ovas are a pretty decent hook to get people into the story, but anyone who stops there instead of reading the manga is seriously missing out.

berserk is just: no confronting or talking about our feelings we repress them like men (until they literally cause the apocalypse)

lol p much. like i’ll argue forever that dreams in berserk are ways to avoid dealing with your feelings and the whole story is about repression due to trauma.

not even in a guts and griffith are attracted to each other but can’t figure it out way, tho it’s so easy to read that as part of it, but repression due to trauma also describes guts’ whole monster hunting campaign post eclipse, the way behelits and turning into monsters work, and imo like 90% of guts, griffith, and casca’s characters in general. and farnese, at least pre-guts. and serpico.

cascaslament
replied to your post “Agree on Black Swordsman Guts, he’s my favorite too. Also speaking of…”

guts leaving casca doesn’t show that he isn’t loyal- it shows that he could not think and wanted to keep her out of pain and wanted to take matters into his own hands. he only had sex with that apostle so he could lure her out and kill her. i’m not even sure if it really counts as sex. you have to remember that guts’s intension wasn’t to leave casca to rot, but to keep her safe, even if it was the wrong thing to do. i’m not sure that you understand the importance of casca to guts…

just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean I don’t understand. I’ve tackled this subject like, a lot, so I’m not going to fully repeat myself here, but suffice to say I’ve read Berserk multiple times and, whatever Miura’s intent is, absolutely nothing has convinced me, or even strongly suggested to me that Casca is all that important to Guts beyond being a symbol of his humanity he’s clinging to.

And I can think of so many examples of Guts treating her like garbage, up to and including sexual assault (twice! treated as a joke during the Golden Age, and treated seriously as drama later on), that it baffles me that other people find their relationship like, positive lol, let alone endearing or something that reflects well on Guts.

anyway here’s the scene where Guts ditches her:

image
image
image

Rickert: dude, I think you should stay with your girlfriend in this magic safe cave instead of hunting monsters for no reason.

Guts: mmmmm no, I’d rather hunt monsters.

He had at least a month at Godo’s to decide on his course of action, and he’s perfectly calm and controlled here. If her safety was his first concern, he’d stay with her instead of leaving her for two children and an old man to (fail entirely to) protect. To say he left her because he couldn’t think and he wanted her to be safe is an extremely forgiving interpretation which isn’t backed up by the text of the story.

He’s not even considering her a person in her own right at this point, with his casual “nah” when Rickert suggests like, saying goodbye lmao. She’s basically just a representation of the Hawks to him here. Like imo the kindest interpretation to Guts is that he’s deliberately avoiding her because she reminds him too much of everything he lost/threw away, and that’s still pretty fucked up.

On the off chance you’re interested in a more in-depth look at how I think Guts actually feels (and yeah I know that’s not particularly likely lol, but I like linking stuff) here are some other posts I’ve written on the topic:

https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/175552652716/ok-yk-what-if-half-of-the-gtsca-sex-scene-is

https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/177852466736/i-ship-guts-and-griffith-and-ive-always-thought

Re: griffith’s torture chamber monologue do you happen to know what’s the original japanese word they translated as “hunger”? I wonder if it has any particular connotation in japanese

I do not, but this is a good question and one I’m also curious about. I can say that the anime replaced it with “love” (whether the word itself changed or the translation, idk) so it wouldn’t surprise me if it sounds just as suggestive in japanese as in english, or more so.

@chaoticgaygriffith no pressure to answer this, but do you have any insight on the word? (i’m sure you know exactly the page we’re talking about but just in case, chapter 49)

And actually while I’m wondering about this I’ve always been curious, is it the same word Ganeshka uses on this page? (chapter 282)

what’s your favorite scene in the whole manga?

I feel like this should probably be a harder question to answer because there are so many amazing scenes, but honestly it’s easy: Griffith’s torture chamber monologue.

It’s the absolute heart of Berserk and it’s everything I could possibly ask for in a ship.

Griffith starting off with the pages on his dream. The brightest thing he’d ever seen. Then darkness. And every single time I turn the page from this

image

to this

image

it takes my breath away lmao.

It’s a monologue about how Guts holds Griffith’s heart in his hand.

image
image

And like look at this shit!

image

The sole sustenance keeping him alive oh my god. Why just him? Why indeed.

And the monologue that begins with showing us the dream Griffith dedicated his entire life to pursuing ends with this:

image

I just fucking can’t handle it. This is seven pages of absolute perfection, and these seven pages are what Berserk’s about, both literally and thematically, and that’s why I’m stuck in this fandom no matter how many other aspects of the canon disappoint me lol.

Like, a few of my favourite ship tropes are: love/hate, someone ruining their own life because of love, power dynamic reversal due to desperately intense emotions, someone forced to choose between love and the thing they value most in life, betrayal and obsession/desperate need, two people who are singular to each other, etc and this scene hits every branch on the way down.

how bout you, if you have a favourite scene you want to talk about?

image

I just wanna say, there are 2 possible reasons Guts wants to keep feeling the pain Griffith caused him.

1. Because he wants to want to kill him, and it’s a reminder of why he wanted revenge in the first place. His rage needs fuel.

2. Because Griffith (Femto) deliberately wanted to hurt him. yk as opposed to NeoGriffith saying he doesn’t give a fuck and leaving him moping in the snow. He’d rather be looked at with hatred than not seen at all.

and imo it’s both.

i am so sleepy + i have no idea what i’m really going for here but like

i think trees and branches are like, symbols of connection or reaching for connection or smthn like that. or like, at least when they’re white

image

“since when was it that despite her bent shape lady farnese came to have feelings for me beyond those of a mistress for her servant?“

image
image

ok those branches aren’t white but i just like the similar phrasing lol

like i just glanced at a couple pages of serpico’s backstory and was like, woah that’s a lot of branch imagery lol. and there’s obviously the whole creation of the world tree, ganeshka’s loneliness breakdown, etc.

i am putting a pin in this for if i think of more significant seeming tree imagery. or yk pending how the whole fantasia arc goes. world tree fast travel system branches, casca having a breakdown beside danann’s cherry tree, yadda yadda yadda.

i mean it just seems to fit this whole idea i got where like half the fantasy content of berserk works as a metaphor for interpersonal relationships and all that jazz.

What do you think would have happened if guts hadn’t accepted his new companion’s fellowship and stayed travelling alone with casca?

straight up, he would’ve murdered casca. like no doubt in my mind, basically the whole point of the chapters between the hill of swords and the rpg group catching up to him is to tell the reader that without the rpg group casca would not have lasted much longer w/ guts.

after he killed casca?

boring default answer: revenge rampage part 2 to distract himself from this new giant heap of guilt, now with more passive suicidal tendencies

better answer: behelit opens, he sacrifices griffith, everything comes full circle

best answer: revenge rampage part 2 to distract himself from this new giant heap of guilt, but he feels like he’s just as bad as griffith/femto now and ends up joining him after a confrontation (and probably sex as a substitute for uh “giving him a heap of raw iron” lbr). all the thematic stuff about inner monsters becoming literal outer monsters is a build up to guts as an example of a human just succumbing to his dark side without the help of a magic transformation

caveat to best answer: with griffith he may actually recover some of his “good” self, as he’s still an echo of that last glimmer of the whole campfire in his chest metaphor, and depending on what’s going on with neogriffith internally they could end up both sort of balancing light and dark. would also fit neatly with the way the apostles do under ngriff’s influence, but this would be the emotional version rather than the metaphysical one lol.

Agree on Black Swordsman Guts, he’s my favorite too. Also speaking of which, what do you think of people who say him banging the female Apostle is OOC because of his issues with sex and because “he’s faithful to Casca”?

Whether by accident or design (since yk from the sounds of it Miura wrote the first chapter or two before really figuring out where he wanted to go with the story) I actually consider the opening few pages to be very in character lol, which might be an unpopular opinion, idk.

Consider: it fits perfectly into Guts pattern of self-destructively doing whatever it takes to get close enough to his enemy to blow their head off. He’s deliberately let monsters throw him around, break bones, shove him through walls, eat him, and stab him just so he can maneuver himself into position to take them out. This is an apostle that likes to fuck her victims, ergo.

It also like… actually I’d never thought about this before so bear with me bc this is going to get rambly, but damn it’s actually perfect, because it also makes the connection between Guts’ sex related issues and his stupid monster fighting rampage very direct on page one.

Like if that’s not purposeful then Miura accidentally hit it out of the park with our intro to Guts. But actually it’s gotta be purposeful. Even if it’s just to equate Guts’ particularly phallic violence (big sword, shoving his fist into the monster’s mouth mid-sex and blowing her head off) to sex right off the bat because Miura wants to like… well I think it’s part of what Miura wanted to kind of examine. Swords are dicks in Berserk, just like they’re dicks in a lot of action stories. But what does that mean – why? What’s the connection between violence and sex that makes that imagery fit?

And the answer here is Guts’ rape trauma. Liiiiike ok I completely think that Guts lashes out at enemies, particularly enemies that are bigger and stronger than him, particularly monsters once he learns they exist, because of that trauma. He is very driven to destroy anything that scares him, and that’s the root of it. Monsters scare Guts, we see this very viscerally during the first Zodd encounter and the Wyald encounter, and (particularly after he abandons his emotional support in the snow) Guts is driven to destroy them.

So like on one level Guts fucking the apostle is like, a hook for the dudes and a surface image for Miura to unravel: cool manly action hero bangs chicks and kills monsters, sometimes at the same time! On a character level, it’s a self-destructive strategy to get close enough to kill her because Guts absolutely isn’t the kind of cool hero who regularly bangs chicks, he’s the kind of dumbass who would do anything to kill a monster. And potentially on a thematic level it’s a story opening that primes the audience to equate sex and sex related issues to Guts’ monster killing revenge rampage, ie set up for an undertone of Guts lashing out not because he’s righteously angry or a hero who protects the innocent and kills evildoers, but because he’s traumatized and killing monsters makes him feel better.

image

(god that panel is gr8 shorthand for everything i want to say lol)

Or idk maybe it’s not that deep. But damn it now I’m definitely going to include this scene in the next big meta post I write about Guts, his dream, trauma, and his relationship with Griffith.

Anyway I definitely 100% believe the first bit I said, about it being in character for Guts because it’s a self destructive ploy to kill her. The trauma theme stuff is more of a stretch but it’s worth thinking about.

(Also lol @ Guts being faithful to Casca when he left her to rot in a cave for two years. I mean they had sex once and the last significant interaction they had before the Eclipse was Casca essentially breaking off whatever form of relationship they’d begun.

I feel like people reach for that bc they need an explanation for why cool badass protagonist Guts is basically celibate and has never expressed attraction to a woman other than casca (and tbqh casca’s debatable), but honestly it’s cause he’s gay.)

madchen
replied to your post “what do u think are guts and griffs favorite physical and not physical…”

“rugged handsomeness” is a good word that griffith would definitely use when describing guts… i think he also really likes guts legs and hands. he thinks his perpetual frown is endearing and also thinks he’s very clever and smart in his own way.
guts obviously loves griffiths hair a
lot and he also loves his lips and hands. and broad greek athletic youth
shoulders and small waist + frame. he’s actually bonkers for griffiths
mix of soft/feminine features and masculine features. griffiths voice is
a soft tenor and guts thinks it’s like, masculine and sweet in an
elegant prince sort of way

i was gonna day guys loves griffiths
devotion tho i realize now that’s just “determination” flavored
differently-which makes it fitting from a certain perspective. like,
devotion to his dream sure but also the potential for devoted adoration
and sweetness + attention turned guts way. i like to think guts heart
would burst when he realizes how sweet on him griffith is

this is all extremely good i just wanna second everything

especially the detail of griffith being fond of guts’ default frowny face, and extra emphatic yes to guts liking griffith’s masc and fem traits in combination

and yeah to that last bit, I think they both love like, each others’ intensity and determination/devotion because they want it aimed at least partly at them. or like, they both know, whether consciously or not, from the start that that intensity is aimed at them and they crave it.

(honestly makes me want to frame the current state of their relationship as both deliberately witholding it from the other lmao. ngriff: fuck you i only care about my dream now. guts: well fuck you too i only care about uhhhh casca)

@madchen said:
first one is when all
the pta mom are asking him if he can really organize the fundraiser bake
sale in less than 24 hours after debbie tragically had a recreational
hiking accident 

lmao i see it

Based on the different arcs in the manga, what’s your favorite Guts (like Black swordsman!Guts, Golden Age!Guts etc.)? Also do you prefer Femto or Neo Griffith?

Honestly, Black Swordsman Guts, especially in the Black Swordsman arc (tho he’s also p good in the Lost Children arc). The way he starts out as the epitome of the asshole antihero out for revenge and that image almost immediately starts crumbling until you’re shown that he’s terrified and pathetic and not a whole lot better than the monsters he’s fighting and really sad about a bad breakup.

The way he opens the story by banging an apostle on page one and eventually you realize that is one of a grand total of two occasions on which he’s had consensual sex. The way he ends the first arc crying after a kid swears vengeance against him. The end of the first chapter when he tortures the snake apostle and the art and tone shift to make Guts the villain and the monster the pitiable victim. Encouraging children to kill themselves because he’s upset. Refusing to admit how monstrous he’s getting when he gets temporarily possessed. Letting a zombie kid stab him.

The driving mystery of why Guts is so obsessed with revenge followed by the reveal that it’s because he had a relationship comparable to marriage with the dude he wants to kill and Griffith didn’t just betray him, they betrayed each other and like half of Guts’ motivation is guilt/distracting himself from guilt.

The way his current situation, haunted by monsters claiming ownership of him after being given to them by someone he loves reflects his childhood so effectively.

I mean yeah part of what makes Black Swordsman Guts great is what the Golden Age reveals about him too, but I’ll still take Black Swordsman over the happy Golden Age version.

For one thing, when Black Swordsman Guts is a dick, the narrative is very clear on that being a negative thing. While when Golden Age Guts is a dick (eg most of his scenes with Casca) it feels like we’re supposed to find that at least somewhat endearing. And also like… I just really, really love the way Miura starts Guts out as strong badass archetype and then immediately sets about complicating it by answering the question of: what would make a real human person this fucking over the top and ridiculous? What’s actually underneath the cool image?

Like Guts goes from badass mccool 80s action hero send up to being directly compared to Vargas in terms of how sad and pathetic he is within a couple chapters, and it’s So. Good.

Answer to your second question under the cut

This question… is actually a very tough call lol. Like yeah okay the smart money’s on the character whose introduction didn’t include a gratuitious rape scene, but I genuinely love Femto regardless? Mostly because I disregard that choice of intro since it was um Badly Written lol, and Femto had me at

image

And I just love dark inner monsters as a concept in general despite the author’s reliance on rape as his primary illustration of evil.

On potential alone I’d go with NeoGriffith, because boy he is full of potential to be amazing depending on where those hints about his feelings, isolation of being a singular god, etc go. But what we actually see from him is like… so bland 99% of the time. Like yeah that’s purposeful, that’s a big part of the point, but still. He does feel like a shell of the old Griffith, literally – the outside with v little of the depth (so far).

I can headcanon and theorize a bunch to make him interesting to me, and I do, but idk if that counts lol.

So as for what we’ve got on the page and how seeing him makes me feel, I’m actually going to pick Femto. Like, the same way I inwardly cheered when we saw Guts’ slasher smile at Godo’s after he killed the pig apostle, because it was such a “he’s baaaaaack” moment, I cheered when we saw Femto confront Ganeshka. I love his stupid offensive camp villain makeup, I love his stupid exoskeleton, I love what a petty asshole he is, I love how silent and scary he was when he first appeared and I love how awkward and pathetic he was when he lowered his hand and let Guts escape, I love that he expresses emotions, I love that Void had to basically tell him to shut up during his petty back and forth with Guts in his first scene, and I love him partially out of spite because Miura tried to make me hate him in the shittiest way possible.

Like yeah okay put your super gay character in vampy makeup and make him a rapist to piss off the manly protag while writing out the woman you have no idea what to do with, fuck you I love him anyway.

I have a tendency to love the characters the narrative goes above and beyond to try to get me to hate, because I don’t like being told what to do lol, and if I feel like the narrative is pushing me to feel something without properly selling it/while poorly and/or offensively illustrating it I get contrary. Like basically the Eclipse rape only made me feel hate for Miura. If I hated Femto for it, then I feel like I’d be validating Miura’s bad and offensive writing.

Which is not to say I don’t fully understand and respect people who do respond to the Eclipse by hating Femto. This is just how I personally respond to fiction lol.

i ship guts and griffith, and i’ve always thought that Casca and guts do genuinely love each other but that they forced a romance between themselves. whats your opinion on their relationship? again i think they love each other but griffith is both of their first choices, didn’t the beast of darkness even say something like that?

I think that’s a reasonable way of reading their relationship.

The Beast of Darkness is definitely pretty overt about suggesting that Griffith is Guts’ first choice, calling him his “true light” while Casca gets grouped in with the RPG group as “warm lights,” as well as suggesting that Griffith is more “precious” to him than Casca.

And ofc I definitely agree that Griffith is Guts’ number one choice. Casca I’m less sure about, I think she was more torn between them and maybe ended up prioritizing Guts by the end, when she told him to leave to pursue his dream. But that’s p ambiguous.

My own opinion on Guts and Casca’s feelings for each other is that they’re… complicated lol, but imo genuine romantic love doesn’t really enter into it. I don’t enjoy their relationship so I’m biased ofc, but I do think Miura was like, conscientious about portraying their relationship as a more low-key realistic hookup between friends, rather than burgeoning true love, and motivated by a number of complex feelings and factors other than straightforward romance.

Like both rebounding from Griffith, “licking wounds” and comforting each other after experiencing some extreme self-destructive feelings, genuinely liking each other as friends by now, the fact that Guts saved Casca and Casca feels like she owes him the same way she wanted to be Griffith’s sword after he saved her (Casca pointing out Guts’ scars from the 100 man fight when he saved her then, and asking for a wound in return), Judeau’s heavy-handed manipulations pushing them together, Guts inviting Casca along for sex while prioritizing his dream (”I don’t know whether you’ll get in the way of what I want to do or the opposite”), Guts letting Casca comfort him the way Griffith didn’t, etc.

Additionally I think that their hookup serves as a distraction for Guts, a way to continue repressing the realization that he fucked up when he left for as long as possible because accepting that he ruined everything because he was wrong about Griffith’s feelings is… not easy lol, and this is shown in how he invites her along and still intends to leave the Hawks again, rather than rethinking things based on new information and deciding to stay this time. It takes him like four days to finally accept that he shouldn’t’ve left.

And post-Eclipse I think Guts sticks with Casca in part because of what the Beast of Darkness suggests, that she’s a reminder of the pain Griffith caused, and in part because he wants to try to move on from Griffith now that NGriff has soundly rejected him, and in part because he’s longing for a piece of his happy past and that’s what Casca represents, and in part to atone for abandoning Griffith the first time, and in part because she’s his friend and comrade and he wants to help her.

So like, basically tl;dr I think they care about each other, but the romance aspect did end up being forced and I would’ve liked their relationship a lot more if they’d stayed platonic friends, and it probably would’ve been better for them too.

Also I headcanon them both as gay and repressed lol, and I think the story makes that fairly easy to do, which is nice.

i linked a few related posts under the cut if you happen to be interested

this is a pretty thorough post on my interpretation of guts and casca’s relationship, the op is more of a meta take on how Miura doesn’t portray their hookup entirely positively, and the response is p similar to my answer here but with illustrative pictures lol

this is an illustration of guts maintaining denial thru sex with casca

and this is a really long look at how casca figures into guts and griffith’s relationship with lots of exploration of repression and sublimated feelings lol

After looking into some of your meta, what’s your personal opinion on Judeau and his actions affecting the development of Guts’, Griffith’s, and Casca’s relationship?

Judeau’s clear agenda in the back half of the Golden Age is hilarious to me because it’s like Miura couldn’t get Guts and Casca to fuck naturally, so he had to make it a side character’s sole mission in life to arrange their hook up.

But actually to be less cynical, I think it works very well with the overall tone and thematic takeaway from the Golden Age. Why was Judeau meddling? Well, it’s strongly suggested that it’s because he was in love with Casca himself, but didn’t consider himself worthy of her. He thought Guts would be better for her, and that Casca would be better off traveling with Guts than leading the remnants of the Hawks, so he shoved Guts at her until they boned.

And look how that turned out.

Moral of the Golden Age: tell people how you feel instead of just assuming you’re not good enough for them.

And like, something I really love about Judeau’s character is that he seems to fill that character trope of friend who gives good advice and lays out some of the story’s themes and nudges the protagonist in the right direction for the plot. But like everyone else in Berserk he’s more layered than that – he has his own reasons for saying the things he does and directing Guts the way he does, and those reasons are kind of based in low self esteem. He’s another factor that helps bring everyone to the Eclipse.

Sometimes he does give good advice, but sometimes he gives genuinely bad advice, because he’s biased.

image
image

And I think there’s a potential parallel between Judeau trying to set Guts and Casca up, and Guts trying to set Casca and Griffith up before he leaves. Guts feels unworthy of Griffith because he doesn’t have a dream, but Casca does, so he shoves her at Griffith to get her to take his place as his sword, but yk with added romance because heteronormativity.

It’s not unbiased-dude-trying-to-be-a-good-bro-for-his-friends advice, Judeau’s own issues are a factor in him trying to get Guts and Casca together.

Judeau feels unworthy of Casca because idk he’s insecure about being a jack of all trades, master of none lol, so he considers Guts, who is the best at least next to Griffith, more worthy of Casca and tries to get them together.

image
image
image

And in his dying moments, he knows he fucked up. That he should’ve just said something.

image

And yk what, he may think Guts is more worthy of Casca because he’s the best at something, but Guts was up on top of a giant hand trying to save Griffith long after that stopped making sense as a course of action while Judeau was down here trying to survive with Casca, and I think we all know who Casca appreciated more in this moment.

There’s something to be said for just being there with someone instead of leaving them in the snow/trying to convince a dude to sling her over his shoulder and run lol. Same with how Judeau was with Casca throughout the year of hiding and trying to survive while Guts was fucking off on his eat pray love vacation.

It wouldn’t surprise me if we’re meant to see Judeau/Casca as a tragic missed connection and the better alternative to Guts and Casca getting together.

(On a personal note I don’t actually like the idea of Judeau/Casca both bc it’s het lol but also since it’s just, yk, dude pines, wants the girl but meddles in her life for her own good, Casca’s feelings towards Judeau aren’t explored at all, etc. But the way Miura portrayed Judeau’s regret and his presence vs Guts’ absence makes me think that the takeaway is that in the best version of events Judeau would’ve told Casca how he felt and they would’ve got together. And thematically that fits imo.)

Also while I’m on this topic, I want to take yet another opportunity to point this great moment out:

image
image

hmmmmmmmmmmm

Judeau then immediately segues the conversation to the whole “Casca’s life sucks right now, you need to save her from it, etc” bit.

But I fucking love this moment specifically because it’s telling us that not only is Judeau overtly meddling to get Casca and Guts to hook up, but Judeau believes that Guts knowing how Griffith really feels about him will impede his plans.

And I mean it’s true, he wants Guts to leave with Casca and when Guts realizes how hard he fucked up and how much Griffith desperately needs him and always did he wants to stay. But it’s just such a nice touch to tell us that Guts and Casca… only work in the absence of Griffith. Guts gets with Casca when he falsely believes Griffith looks down on him. Guts chooses to stay with Griffith when he’s convinced he was wrong about that.

(And post-Eclipse, Guts abandons Casca for his revenge campaign, and chooses to stay with her when NeoGriffith says unequivocally that he’s over him now lol.)

It adds to the sense that Guts and Casca are both rebounding from Griffith, and they only work together as long as they both want to distance themselves from him. When he’s back in their life they get weird and jealous immediately, and then they both independently choose not to leave the Hawks together (Guts telling Judeau he wants to stay, followed by Casca telling Guts she can’t leave with him) and Casca tries to break up with him lol.

what do u think are guts and griffs favorite physical and not physical qualities of the other 🤔

Ooh okay this is fun.

Guts’ favourite physical quality of Griffith’s:

image

[insert more picspam here, we all know Guts is fixated]

let’s be real, it’s the hair.

Griffith’s favourite physical quality of Guts’:

I was gonna say something like his buff arms, or his strength in general, and I think that would also be a legit answer, but yk what I’m going with

image
image
image
image

I think I just wanna say Guts’ face in general. Like maybe this is just Miura failing to properly objectify his point of view manly man protagonist, but when he’s making Griffith’s heart flutter his heavy brows and intense focused stare tend to be pretty prominent.

Also I’d argue that Miura kind of emphasizes Guts’ rugged handsomeness this way during/after the rescue mission, when the love triangle’s rearranging itself to put Guts in the centre:

image
image

moreso than at any other point in the story. So yeah.

Guts’ favourite non-physical quality of Griffith’s:

Ok this one’s tricky because I want to say Griffith’s like, larger than lifeness. His respectability, leadership abilities, ambition, that whole package, because that’s what makes his attention that much more valuable to Guts. He doesn’t want just anyone’s attention, he wants Griffith’s attention, because Griffith is the coolest guy he knows lol.

But! Like the entire point of the Golden Age is Guts learning that he’s been prioritizing the wrong aspects of Griffith. And obviously I don’t think Guts only liked Griffith because of his image lol, just that Guts really valued that image because like… he wants to be admired by someone admirable.

But I’m also going to say Griffith’s playfulness, because there’s something there that grabbed Guts early on, not just something he admired but something he genuinely liked, and I always come back to the waterfight. Guts has never had a friend his own age before, and he’s never had a chance to be a kid in his life. The waterfight is I can only assume the first time Guts fought just for fun.

And despite all the smokescreens of status and admirability and godliness etc, at the end of the day they just genuinely like each other, they like hanging out and having fun together.

Maybe you can say it’s both in combination – the fact that he’s larger than life, but has this more human, real side of him that is reachable and that he can genuinely connect with. It’s what makes Griffith’s “superiority” something he loves and wants to live up to, rather than something he resents.

Idk.

Griffith’s favourite non-physical quality of Guts’:

His determination. Whether it’s used against him, like during their first duel (or post Eclipse), or to fight for him, or to protect him, I think Guts’ willingness to do anything in a fight makes him swoon. One reason he refuses to try to reign him in despite Casca complaining that Guts gets away with everything lol. And one reason his heart started beating while he watched him fight Zodd.

What do you think? I kind of just stuck really close to things basically stated in canon but I think there are better, and probably shippier/more fun answers lol. If you have alternative suggestions I want to hear them.

Do you think that now that casca has regained her memories something tragic is finally going to happen again and shake the (frankly stagnant) current storyline? Honestly *dennis reynolds voice* somebody has to die. Preferably somebody from guts’ new party by guts’ own hand

The line between think and desperately, desperately hope is thin lol, but yes. Also completely agree that the best outcome would be Guts killing one or more of his friends himself in beast of darkness mode.

The theory I’ve been pushing and will continue to push until Miura proves me wrong is that Casca’s ptsd despair is going to open the behelit, she’ll choose to become an apostle, and consequently Guts will succumb to the armour in his grief and outrage. Also symbolically it’s nice because something has to cause Guts to lose himself to the armour, we know this because of fifty pieces of foreshadowing, and Casca becoming a monster would work great for that since she basically symbolizes his tie to his humanity right now.

But anyway, whatever ends up happening, I hope it really shakes things up, raises the stakes, and causes serious permanent consequences, because we need a dose of darkness soon imho, and Guts’ fix Casca quest ending in tragedy would just… work so perfectly for me. I want it so bad lol.

a-girl-named-chester
replied to your post “Okay but how come guts reacts this way when seeing griff tortured face…”

Unsolicited opinion here lol, but I think another reason Griffith might be pretty again in his domestic nightmare sequence has to do with his internal self-image. Like, I have long hair now, but always envision myself with my old short hair.
He might have been envisioning himself the way he used to look, even if he was still disabled in the dream. (Also this is stupid, but until now idk if it really registered in my mind that he was disabled in the dream whoops)

Oh yeah this is totally a legit reading of the scene too, and it makes sense and is what I typically assume to be the case. Like it does seem like a stretch to assume Griffith wouldn’t even have any scars (tho the way the scene’s illustrated his face does have kind of a… like an ambiguous look to it the way it’s shadowed and shaded throughout?

image
image

like I’ve always vaguely wondered if we’re supposed to read some scarring into the way Miura shades his face in this scene. But idk. I also think it’s thematically appropriate for Griffith to picture himself without scars here regardless of whether that would actually be the case in reality, yk, his beauty being a thing, the sort of heteronormative picturesque nightmare here, etc. So really I could go either way.)

I know the movies went full missing skin + exposed face muscles, but I complain about the patches of missing skin thing being stupid too much to just accept that lol. (Also if that’s the case why the hell wouldn’t you bandage his face too? what were you thinking, ova people?)

But idk whatever the case is it doesn’t really change my feeling that Guts’ reaction to seeing his face is a little too intense to be taken fully at face value.