Tag: Anonymous

Are you afraid about the “happy ending” Miura promised?

lol extremely

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 :/

What are your top 5 favorite Berserk moments?

You asked for top 5 but fuck it I’m doing top 10 because when I came up with 5 I felt like they were all way too obvious lol. But also these are off the top of my head and not absolute, they’d probably change depending on what I’ve re-read most recently.

And I’m containing this to single panels.

10.

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Guts catching a glimpse of NeoGriff on a distant hill, shining sunrise behind him, the sadness in his eye, the symbolic darkness that surrounds him after their eyes meet and Guts is carried away in a boat… it’s good shit and, if purposeful, might be my favourite example of the bright companionship/dark isolation imagery.

9.

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This is specifically Guts’ memory while running through the tunnels on the way to Griffith and failing to convince himself that Griffith is a perfect godly being bc oh shit he was in love with me and I abandoned him and destroyed him. Just, yk, with a little less self awareness than that, and a little more resolute denial.

8.

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I said only one panel but I mean I can’t just have Femto there without the associated words, so w/e close enough.

7.

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Holy shit a moment that doesn’t involve Griffith or griffguts?? But honestly I may hate the circumstances and everything surrounding it but goddamn Guts’ flashback and monologue here are good. And this panel in particular always gets me because of this particular illustrative detail Guts shares, Guts’ paw-like hand, the dog association as he tells Casca about killing Gambino… it’s such a good allusion to the beast of darkness ultimately being born out of Guts’ childhood abuse.

6.

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😦

5.

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Peak Griffith.

4.

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This is absolutely everything I could possibly ask for post-Eclipse on one page.

3.

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Come on. Griffith’s moment of ultimate despair is the touch of Guts’ hand.

2.

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Ok this encompasses the whole moment of the sacrifice, “you’re the only one…” etc, but I’m picking this panel to illustrate it because Griffith’s expression obliterates me every time I look at it. Look at how in love he is, like, the following words are almost redundant this image illustrates the sentiment so well.

1.

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Yeah this one is the most obvious, but it’s my fave for a reason. This is the purest expression of Griffith’s narrative, this is what it all boils down to: valuing Guts over the dream. This is what I’m about.

Have you notice that no women in Berserk when having sexual intercourse aren’t on top they’re always down.. Besides Farnese gett on top of Guts and putting her muffin on Guts sword ( =.=). Also Griffith and Charlotte scene seems to me he didn’t wanted her touch as what set him on was Guts. P.S forgot Slan sexual assaulting Guts.

in the first orgy scene there’s a few women topping. maybe the 2nd too, but i’m too lazy to check rn lol. and tbf there are only 3 consensual sex scenes in berserk other than background orgies (more or less) and two of those involve awkward virgins so it’s not like a huge sample size.

People in the Berserk Fandom need to get a grip, liking Griffith doesn’t mean we accept what he did with the Band of the Hawk. Grffijth is more of a tragic character that fell from grace because his life was manipulated by higher beings aka demons. Gutsca fandom with their “fuck Griffith ” like stfu their ship sink before it started lmao, and Guts is looking for a reason to forgive Griffith. They even hate on Farnese and other females cause she’s not Casca wtf, and Casca woke up <3 Babe is back

Ok there’s a lot of opinions here coming at me so I’ll do this one at a time.

  • Personally I accept him sacrificing the band lol, that’s just another reason I love him.
  • I wouldn’t say he fell from grace because his life was manipulated by god, like tbf that’s technically true but part of what I like about how fate works in Berserk is that everyone still has free will. God created a set of circumstances that would inevitably lead Griffith to making the sacrifice, but Griffith is still the kind of dude who would sacrifice his friends under those specific circumstances. And again, I love that about him.
  • Yeah I sure hope it’s sunk.
  • Enh I don’t begrudge anyone hating any fictional character for any reason as long as they’re not offensive reasons or offensive about expressing it. Then again these are Berserk fans we’re talking about so it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a lot of sexist shit there lol. But I don’t rly pay attention though so I haven’t seen any of this personally and can’t judge for myself.
  • Yay Casca’s back!

Honestly Griffith deep down feels like he can’t relate to anyone, of course Guts was an exception, but he didn’t outright said it. Griffith is an ENTJ? He’s introverted and social, and people love his charisma, but don’t see him and maybe that bothers him he has to meet their expectations which is depressing tbh. I feel bad for Griffith, he’s a beautiful tragedy a bouquet of roses so beautiful but go down it’s rotten and sharp thorns. I feel for him, unpopular op tbh, I love him lol.

wingsfreedom:

bthump:

lol well if you love Griffith and sympathize with him you came to the right place. tbh i’ve never been into the whole personality type thing so all I can do is nod along with your assessment lol, but yeah I definitely think Griffith feels removed from everyone except Guts.

I remember @mastermistressofdesire wrote something about this here. It’s an interesting analysis in case you haven’t seen it 🙂

Honestly Griffith deep down feels like he can’t relate to anyone, of course Guts was an exception, but he didn’t outright said it. Griffith is an ENTJ? He’s introverted and social, and people love his charisma, but don’t see him and maybe that bothers him he has to meet their expectations which is depressing tbh. I feel bad for Griffith, he’s a beautiful tragedy a bouquet of roses so beautiful but go down it’s rotten and sharp thorns. I feel for him, unpopular op tbh, I love him lol.

lol well if you love Griffith and sympathize with him you came to the right place. tbh i’ve never been into the whole personality type thing so all I can do is nod along with your assessment lol, but yeah I definitely think Griffith feels removed from everyone except Guts.

Not so serious question. After the copious amounts of bathing scenes with the girls, do you think we might get one with the guys in the future?

i wish, guts and serpico having a naked water fight would fit right in like i was just saying in that last post lol, but miura is a coward

like i’m js the golden age was significantly more popular than everything after for a reason, miura needs to stop being stubborn and return to his homoerotic roots

Casca’s dress has wings and feathers that looks like Griffith. They pair of wings in the middle looks like the white hawk. She is dressed in White. I don’t think it means anything, but still…

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.

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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.)

Don’t you think SkullKnight is a fishy fella, I mean his rivalry with Void is the same as Griffith and Guts. Who knows maybe in the past SkullKnight was the one who wronged Void and he used the Behelit, Miura does things differently.

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.

Sorry about my last question it was all over the place, but I guess what I was trying to say is it will be nice to see what Casca Dream or agenda will be something that doesn’t involve Guts. I don’t understand the fetus than the egg said, let’s die together was that hung already dead and it surprisingly saved it the egg? Anyways, here’s hoping Casca turns evil I mean she looked pissed off when Griffith sacrificed them, unlike Guts who was like “is this what you wanted”.

Oh yeah I see what you mean, and totally agree. Sorry if I misinterpreted your last ask. But yeah my real hope for Casca is to see her with her own goal that’s totally separate from Guts. I still haven’t given up on my dreams of Casca getting angry and fucking shit up.

I don’t get the fetus thing either tbh, everything about it is a hot mess. I don’t think it saved the egg in any way, Eggman was giving up his life to basically hatch NeoGriffith, who grew out of the fetus, but Eggman didn’t know that so he just ate the thing for no reason. lol idk.

what would you think if berserk ended like devilman did ?

cutting for devilman spoilers just in case, i know it’s 40 yrs old but the anime is still relatively new and ppl are still getting into it so

Depends which aspect. I don’t think a full on everyone dies apocalypse would suit Berserk, and if Casca wakes up only to die horribly to piss Guts off again a la Miki I would absolutely hate it.

But ngl the ryokira ending would be perfect for me. Griffith killing Guts and then having a breakdown is one of my ideal endings lol. Especially if, like Ryo, he acknowledges he’s in love with Guts first and doesn’t want to kill him. And that aspect is probably what you meant, so yeah, I’m all for that ending.

A boy who wanted to be a soldier had a toy knight with him reminds me of Princess Charlotte giving Griffith a pendant that looked like a knight. When the boy died, Griffith was talking about the death of his dream. After Griffith made love to Charlotte, she saw the pendant in her bed. Soon after we see Griffith captured and his own dream is soon destroyed.

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 🙂

DO YOU THINK CASCA IS GOING TO BLAME GUTS FOR EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED AND GO FIND GRIFFITH OR DO YOU THINK SHE KNOWS THAT ITS NOT GUTS’ FAULT AND STAY BY HIS SIDE???

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.

during griffith’s monologue in the dungeon he listed jealousy as one of the feelings he had for guts.. what did u think of that? what was he jealous of?

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.

Griffith is asexual?

No, he’s gay and wants to fuck Guts.

Also if this is a response to the last thing I posted, please don’t take me saying “griffith has a fucked up attitude towards sex due to trauma” as “griffith is asexual” because those are absolutely not equivalent statements.

Who were griffith parents?

No idea, and tbh I kind of like the fact that we never see them. It gives Griffith kind of a force of nature feel, where his actions and personality are based more in themes than in like, a more down to earth kind of characterization – all we really know is that he’s a street kid with a childish dream who never let that dream go.

I know I’ve had some fun conversations about who Griffith’s parents might’ve been and how they might’ve affected him for whatever amount of his childhood they were there for, and I think there are a lot of great headcanons and stuff. The one I generally default to is that he never knew his dad and his mother was a prostitute, because I feel like that kind of backstory could inform how he feels about sex as a transaction and bodies/lives being bought and sold, which is something his dream is kind of based on changing.

But ultimately I’m glad that canon never gives us an answer lol.

Does griffith have albinism?I know that his eyes sometimes look purpleish? I mean he is the only human character with pure white hair

if he does he pencils in his eyebrows and wears mascara

dreamscape kid griffith also has darker eyebrows and eyelashes.

I don’t think there’s any explanation beyond white haired anime dudes being a thing tbh, and it’s a character design that helps him stand out from the rest of the cast. also makes a great contrast to guts and femto.

Do you think griffith liked his body?

huh, this isn’t rly something I’ve ever thought about, interesting question.

I’d say that in general he’d think about it in a utilitarian way – he knows what he’s capable of with it and he’d work to keep it that way. that includes fighting and being able to seduce a princess, or whoever else may be necessary. it’s a tool.

you could probably make a good argument for him having some issues with it/detachment from it though, that could feed into him thinking about his body as a tool rather than a part of him. like, looking at the way griffith said he seduced gennon eg, it seems like a way of removing himself from what actually took place – rather than thinking of it as gennon using him, griffith used a tool (his body) to get what he wanted, that kind of thing. a way of granting himself a sense of autonomy and detaching himself from the body which he’s washing in the river and thinking of as dirty now.

plus i feel like that attitude would make for some interesting character study-ish thought processes during his torture, with both the pain inarguably tying his body to him (also possibly related – his self harming habit?), and the torturer’s fetishization of his physical beauty, and afterwards when his body is no longer useful as a tool and he’s grown so used to the pain he feels numb and “like [his body is] floating in mid air.”

and ngl neogriffith’s feelings towards his body could also be interesting. femto was like, on the astral plane, his body was arguably not even real, but then neogriffith incarnates in flesh and blood again. he’s probably more concerned about his feelings lol, but he’d likely be like, super detached from his physical form, due to having lived on another plane of existence and being a pseudo god or w/e, and also literally untouchable. now it truly is nothing more than a tool, and one that can’t be broken or forcibly tied to him because no one can even inflict pain on him.

and therefore his thought processes could be extremely interesting if/when he is touched. though for me interesting is basically griffith lying badly to himself about not caring/not feeling/etc.

i was reading your part 3 meta and i just reached the point where you’re basically saying that griffith thought that guts rejected him and that in all the fond memories he had like their first meeting guts was just forced to stay in his group and this makes so much sense but i am also in an emotional freefall!! anyway i will read part four now but what i want to say is that you’ve done a great job!

Thank you so much! I’m both sorry and glad it made you emotional lol, Griffith’s narrative is just the saddest thing to me ngl and I’m glad other people can see it too.

I just wanted to say that your content regarding the new Berserk chapter was like a ray of light, after diving into the shit pile that is the general Berserk fandom. I started reading Berserk over 10 years ago and I cannot say how excited I was over restoration of Casca as a character and now I´m just tired…

Thank you, and yeah lol I know how you feel. I avoid the general Berserk fandom as much as I can but man the occasional times I do check it out are just painful.

Why are you guys so pessimistic? I hope I am not offending you i just dunno why our impressions are vastly different. 355 completely subverted the expectations of g/tsca fans. Casca is gonna be angry, and I am sure she won’t get fair treatment by Miura but at least it will not be lovey dovey.. there are multiple ominous warnings and Casca was cheerful so far bc she didn’t remember. Also Guts is off revenge rn so the narrative *must* push him back to it. Which means g*tsca is cancelled imo

Nah, you’re right I am typically kind of a pessimistic person when it comes to continuations of things I’m into lol.

And actually thank you for this because it’s a good reminder that there are multiple reasons why g*tsca is not as sure a thing as lots of other fans think it is.

I have a lot more to say on this topic/the new chapter/etc lol, some hopeful and some still pessimistic, and today is going to be a day for it so I’ll probably answer your “why our impressions are vastly different” question soon (though idk if I’d say they’re “vastly” different), but I don’t want to here because this positivity is a good way to start the day lol.

I also think Griffith raped Casca, because he was angry at Casca, when she overheard her telling Guts to LEAVE Griffith to accomplish his own dreams and live his own life. Casca was Griffith’s most loyal follower and she knew Griffith wanted Guts back, yet she prioritized Guts’ dreams over Griffith’s feelings. There were times during the rape Griffith gave Casca the same look he was giving Guts. He was angry at her.

This seems like it’s a response to something I’ve said, but I’m not sure what. But yeah I don’t really disagree I guess, I think that could definitely be part of it, at least in theory.

In practice tbh I have my doubts that Miura put any more thought into it than symbol of humanity’s evil + jealousy + emasculating Guts, based on the actual depiction of the scene. Femto does give Casca the evil stare, but to me that seemed like an echo of those jealous looks we saw him shooting Casca and Guts at times pre-Eclipse.

But yeah this is a perfectly reasonable idea imo. If Femto is a monstrous expression of Griffith’s negative feelings it stands to reason that anger over Casca urging Guts to leave might be part of it.

The scene where Griffith gives Casca a sword reminds me of when a tortured Griffith was having a vision of his former self giving him a sword to remember his dream of the castle before the eclipse. Casca took the sword and defied her fate, while Griffith took the sword but succumbed to fate.

oh damn this is a really good connection and i am actually really pissed off at myself for not noticing it. not even just the chapter 72 bit – like I swear to god I have a total blind spot when it comes to this fucking scene because first while I was writing that Griffith meta like 75% of the point was “Griffith’s dream is a coping mechanism” and it wasn’t until I was almost finished writing all four parts that I realized “what do you fear in this place” and then vision Griff pointing to the castle was basically Berserk stating that fact directly.

AND NOW you’ve pointed out that vision Griff throws down a sword and I’m like !!! what the fuck I’ve been thinking about swords as coping mechanisms in Berserk for ages now how did I miss this too???? even after connecting this very page to Griffith retreating into his dream as a coping mechanism???

like look at this

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So thank you for sending this ask lol.

Wrt defying vs succumbing to fate, I think you have an interesting point there. While Casca isn’t technically defying her fate, knowing how fate works in Berserk, she is defying the “natural way of things,” ie strong prey upon the weak, as is Griffith. It turns out that Griffith’s fate all along is to overturn the natural way of things. But with the way later Berserk kind of sets up Guts defying fate vs Griffith succumbing to it, it’s ironic that in order to fulfill his (and Casca’s) dream and change the world Griffith essentially accepts fate’s mastery over his life and in doing so becomes the strong who preys upon the weak first, essentially taking the nobleman’s place here.

I don’t rly know where to go with that rn, but it’s something to think about.

For my part, I want to take this parallel as another indication of how swords and dreams are emotional defense mechanisms in Berserk (as you may have guessed from how I opened this response lol).

When Griffith throws the sword to Casca the straightforward reading is that he’s telling her to defend herself.

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Which he is. But there’s another level where she’s protecting not just her body but her heart. With the sword she does defy what seems to be her fate, and switches from meekly accepting that this is just how the world works to fighting back.

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And that’s what Griffith represents to her, which is the big reason I think she’s so uttery devoted. He represents that defiance, and that potential to change the world. And her dream to be Griffith’s “sword” after taking up the sword he threw her is basically her way of coping with the general shittiness of the world and how it’s fucked her over throughout her childhood by fighting back.

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idk at some point I’m going to have to sit down and hammer all this out.

speaking about berserk playlists idk if you knew but there’s a band called beast in black with a whole berserk themed album called berserker (i don’t agree with all of it rly but it’s fun as a concept)

I was like, vaguely aware of them but I didn’t realize they had a whole Berserk album, I thought it was just one or two songs, nice! Metal isn’t really my thing so idk if I’ll  ever really listen to it all lol, but that is a pretty cool concept tbh.