Tag: ask

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.

what are your thoughts about guts and griffith’s relationships with toxic masculinity and heternormativity? ’cause i feel like those are v important wrt to their characters/relationship

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this is under a cut because it’s long, rambly, and stupid, and doesn’t even answer the question.

lol this honestly just defeats me entirely. idk man idk, I spent forever writing out an explanation for why the subject of toxic masculinity in Berserk defeats me, ie largely due to Miura’s total incoherence when it comes to misogyny, yk, the fact that’s he’s a huge misogynist himself really muddies the waters when it comes to sussing out where his misogyny ends and the characters’ misogyny begins.

Like how can I analyze toxic masculinity in Berserk when Miura frames, eg, the protagonist grabbing a woman’s tit during an argument as a cute moment? It’s absolutely possible to write useful and interesting things on the subject (shoutout to @yesgabsstuff who often has good thoughts on it), so I’m totally not saying that you’re wrong about it being important to Guts and Griffith’s characters/relationship, but the way I approach meta, from a ‘here’s what the narrative has to say on this using things like symbolism and parallels etc’ perspective, just doesn’t feel compatible, and frankly I suck at looking at stories from any other perspective lol.

But then I was like, but why can’t I write about gender roles in Berserk when I won’t shut up about things like sexual repression, which surely can’t actually be a more coherent subject?

It’s like, sexuality and Berserk? Hell yeah I got things to say. Gender and Berserk? my brain melts. idk idk idk. Maybe it’s because Miura thinks he has things to say about misogyny and gender but sucks at it, whereas the sexuality stuff could conceivably be accidental lol, and in any case is more subtle and therefore has fewer chances to be self-contradictory. And, less cynically, I’m sure there’s a cultural gap too that affects my ability to suss out what Miura is going for wrt masculinity/gender roles/etc.

And like, I feel I could almost answer this re: heteronormativity specifically, but honestly that also has a significant gendered component that I don’t feel up to tackling. Griffith as a knight in shining armour to attract Princess Charlotte and become an idealized heterosexual couple as he represses his feelings for Guts? Ok. But then when it comes to gender roles/masculinity and Griffith’s attraction to Guts I fall apart again. Is there a sense that Griffith’s attraction to Guts is partially something to shy away from because it makes him less of a masculine ideal? IDK! How does Griffith sleeping with Gennon for the sake of his heteronormative dream fit in? IDK! Does Guts shy away from his attraction to Griffith due in part to insecurity in his own masculinity? IDK! Is insecurity in his masculinity a deliberate aspect of his trauma? IDK!

I feel like his trauma absolutely informs how he leaps into danger at any given opportunity and stands against every monster he sees, which is very typically masculine, like, mb I’ve got the seed of something there (Casca wishing he’d run away sometimes? His choice to stay with Griffith in chapter 71 as turning away from fighting his own battles to regain a relationship and a sense of emotional openness that helped him heal from trauma in a much healthier way, but tragically undone by Casca urging him towards his own masculine ideal? that masculine ideal in both guts and griffith’s cases leading to an unleashed rapey dark side, and in both cases as a tragic alternative to a fulfilling relationship with each other? hmmmm) but I’m not confident in my ability to carry that thread through with an emphasis on gender roles/masculinity.

But I mean, maybe I’m just overcomplicating it lol, it’s not like everything has to fit perfectly in order to be worthwhile as a reading, and I’m not exactly married to authorial intent. Idk I’ll probably end up pondering this further and if I come up with anything I’ll definitely write it out, but as for now this is going to have to go pretty much unanswered.

tl;dr I got nothin atm, sorry anon, and idek if anything I wrote here makes sense lol.

Personally I think you should write your take on how toxic masculinity and heteronormativity affects the
characters and their relationship and @ me or link me, because I’m
interested in seeing what you have to say.

And anyone else with Thoughts on the subject should feel free and encouraged to leap in too.

Saw your Judaeu posts; wanted to weigh in a lil cuz I love him. I’m always sad we never got to know much about him (rpg group gets so much backstory!) I always felt like ye, his advice was misguided but that he was trying to help make people happy. Like Casca, who maybe could be happy with Guts if she couldn’t have Griffith, since HE never felt good enough for her. Also, that maybe he didn’t see a point in hooking Guts and Griffith up if he figured the dream and princess still took priority?

Yeah I think his heart was in the right place, it seems like he genuinely just wanted what was best for everyone even if his methods were a little… underhanded and dishonest. Like towards the end eg, he probably thought Griffith would be better off with him and his thieves than with Guts and Casca as well as vice versa (and if Guts and Casca stayed together while taking care of Griffith he might’ve even been right, bc lbr that would’ve been a shitshow lol.) He’s likeable, and fun, and he has some great moments, like telling Guts he’s sure he’ll find what he’s looking for with the Hawks. Ngl his death scene always makes me cry lol, I do def like him overall, in part because he makes mistakes too.

Also I wonder if there isn’t a subtle indication from Miura that Judeau and Casca should’ve gotten together instead of Guts and Casca, and it’s its own little sub-tragedy based on stupid self-esteem issues that they didn’t. The way during the Eclipse Judeau does his best to save her and defends her with his own life while Guts is up on the hand still trying to “save” Griffith lol feels kind of starkly telling. I don’t ship them myself, I like their friendship and I kind of wish Judeau hadn’t had a crush the whole time lol, but it fits into the whole missed opportunity vibe of the Golden Age.

It is kind of a shame that the Golden Age side characters got way less backstory and development than the current RPG group, but the current group has so much more time. Like 200+ chapters vs 70. I did love the little enriching hints we got about the Hawks though, like Judeau feeling inadequate as a jack of all trades, the hints that Corkus is bitter about his own lost dreams. I’d say ‘etc’ but actually that’s about it really. Wish we got more on Pippin too.

The character of Griffith was inspired by Rose of Versailles’ heroine Oscar François de Jarjayes. She was considered a major feminist character who struggled with her place as a woman taking a man’s role. Kentaro Miura genderbended her character to a man who committed the most infamous rape scene in Manga history! What the hell?

lol I honestly can’t speak on this because I haven’t read or seen Rose of Versailles yet, though I plan to soon (it’s open in a tab as we speak lol).

But idk if it’s true that Griffith is directly inspired by/based on Oscar, and that’s not just a common assumption based on similar appearances and Miura being partly inspired by Rose of Versailles in general, then yeesh, I’d probably add that to the long list of reasons the Eclipse rape was bad and offensive writing.

It’s crazy. But I find the similarities between the King of Midland and Serpico eerily similiar. They both had noble blood, both had incestuous feelings for a family member, both are secretly jealous of someone , both had women in their lives that died in a fire, the king went insane, Serpico’s mother went insane too. They both appear laidback, but repress their emotions. The king didn’t have a close relationship with the rest of his family and neither does Serpico.

Haha, sorry anon but you’ve gone where I can’t follow. I don’t see Serpico’s feelings towards Farnese as sexual (he was the one who turned down her unknowingly-incestuous advances after all), though the rest is all fair I suppose. Maybe not really necessarily anything more than coincidence, and I’m not sure what meaning could be imparted by paralleling the two characters, but if you have an idea I’m curious.

I mean I guess if you do see Serpico’s feelings for Farnese as sexual you could argue that he fights Guts that one time out of misplaced jealousy or possessiveness rather than genuine protectiveness, but I can’t say I see it myself.

nothing of importance to add i just wanted to say that i was washing the dishes today while thinking of your meta when i had a random flashback of casca saying ‘you’ve bled so much for me blah blah’ at guts and she was moved because of that because it was proof he cared, and like i remember guts before leaving griffith saying ”this is better than just saying goodbye because it means that for you i’m still worth shedding blood for” or something along these lines!

omg I didn’t even think of this possible connection, nice!

I remember a little while ago I discussed scars and wounds etc with @therainykitty as a somewhat sexual thing with comparing the Casca scene to a few things including “the wound Griffith left, because you want to keep feeling that pain he caused you,” here, but this is another potential application of that, and tbh it makes a lot of sense to me.

Thank you!

Casca feeling angry and sad about what happened to her is very understandable and “No duh”! But some part of me remembers that she is a very prideful woman. How would she feel that she didn’t have the willpower to overcome her trauma and needed magic to become “normal”. How she regressed into eternal childhood. People in real life call her a “Potato”, why wouldn’t other people in the Berserk universe not see her that? It may not be easy for some people to accept her as someone who isn’t broken.

uggggh god I hate berserk fans, the people you’re referencing are so gross and offensive re Casca.

But I mean they are worse than literally every other non-antagonist character who has ever interacted with Casca, aside from Guts, so when you say “why wouldn’t other people in the Berserk universe not see her like that?” my answer I guess is, well, surprisingly Berserk characters are less shitty in some respects than Berserk fans lol.

Farnese lost her patience once and then immediately and respectfully apologized, and everyone else just kind of casually accepts her presence and helps protect her. Guts is clearly the worst to her, and not just the sexual assault but also dragging her around on a leash and viewing her as a lesser version of her old self and a reminder of the old days moreso than a person in her own right, but once he got a caretaker he removed himself from the situation as much as possible at least.

Though I don’t get the impression that Miura is going to condemn Guts for anything more than the sexual assault, and I even have some doubts about that :////

As for how Casca thinks of herself and her time regressed, tbh idk if I’d want Miura to explore this because I don’t think he’s capable of enough nuance and thoughtfulness to write Casca feeling ashamed of being traumatized/regressed and not fuck it up lol. That’s like a minefield of ableism and I’d prefer it if Miura just bypassed it entirely. I could see it being in character, she is prideful and she does have a complicated relationship with needing to be rescued, but I could also see Casca being angry that they healed her prematurely too, or any number of other reactions. I’d like to see her angry at Guts for treating her so belittlingly tbh, but after seeing dog guts in her mind idk that seems like a vain hope.

And re: your last bit, idk I don’t really see who in the rpg group would
have a hard time accepting her now that she’s healed. Everyone’s been consistently all in favour of the Elfhelm
heal Casca journey. I could see the group having to adjust to the change, and/or I could see Casca herself starting some conflict,
depending on her reaction to her trauma now that she’s awake (i mean if
she ended up anything like say post-Eclipse Guts, she could be really
dark and interesting and sow lots of intriguing discord), but I wouldn’t
describe that as people not accepting her as someone who isn’t broken
so much as Casca maybe being some degree of difficult to deal with as a
traumatized person in Berserk where reactions to trauma tend to be on a scale from dark to apocalyptic.

You wrote how NGriff “became the mask” and I noticed he’s always wearing armor. I don’t think he was ever drawn without it, I finally realized how weird it was during the tea scene, he just removes his gloves. At first I thought it was normal cause he was seen on a battlefield until then, but this was the very safe Falconia, no need to wear an armor.

omg right??? ty for pointing this out, like, what the hell is he doing having tea in full armour lol

but yk symbolically it does make perfect sense. the armour is such a strong metaphor for like, repression/denial/etc. like there’s even a chapter named after that metaphor (armor to the heart). it’s to the point where i feel seeing neogriffith wearing anything else would be a big indication that shit’s getting real for him.

interestingly the only time we see him without the armour as far as i remember is when he’s naked. or idk maybe it’s not interesting, maybe that was just a plot necessity since he’d just hatched out of an egg apostle lol, but it is kind of a strong contrast.

Regarding your previous asks I also think Griffith retains his emotions! And there’s even that scene that implies his emptiness and loneliness in the Falconia of the Millennium. So I’ve started thinking if he has maintained his emotions only towards Guts because of their terrifying intensity. This made me wonder something, whether he feels any sort of remorse for what he did to Casca. Do you think that’s possible?

Yeah I think it’s possible, but it would depend on like… what NGriff’s emotions even are I guess. If like you suggest he has residual feelings for Guts because they were so life-alteringly strong when he was a human and Guts survived the sacrifice, then his capacity to care enough about anyone else to feel remorse is probably long gone. similarly if it’s just the fetus fucking with him then guilt and remorse is probably totally out of the picture.

I’m really into the idea of NGriff having a full range of unfrozen emotions and just completely repressing them tho. like, if human griffith justified his dirty/cruel actions to himself by telling himself that it would be worth it and he’ll be validated by fate when he achieves his goal (which i think he did but i’m not going to get into it rn bc that’s an upcoming post), then neogriffith can double down on that because he has achieved his goal now and has basically had his entire life and all his actions validated directly by god lol

so even if part of himself has woken up or w/e and is there with his beating heart feeling actual emotions and being horrified at what he’s become, it’d be really easy for him to deny/ignore those feelings because he has divine right, his life was/is dictated by fate and god itself told him everything he does is exactly what’s meant to happen, and therefore he has no reason to feel guilty for anything ever

which has the potential to be a really interesting internal struggle in theory. in practice the fact that the guilt-worthy subject is rape really like, sours it for me lbr, i can only cringe at the prospect of Miura addressing it in the future, but welcome to berserk i guess.

Also if I was going to make a guess about what’s most likely to happen in actual canon, I’d say that NGriff is probably never going to express actual remorse for anything though there may be subtle hints of inner conflict. give or take how much or how little of his feelings end up genuinely being attributed to the patron saint of lazy writing, the fetus.

I always questioned the belief that (apostle = no emotion) cause of the numerous instances with the slug baron, Zodd etc. hell even slan right after griffith is told he’ll never cry again we see her crying. I think its just as you said how he’s become his mask, he’s the ideal version of himself with no struggles but it was when he was struggling that the victories meant something

Yeah totally, even all the way back in the Black Swordsman arc Puck gets his great moment where he calls the Count out on still having human feelings. And oh shit lol you’re right, that never occured to me but Slan wiping away tears like a couple chapters after Griffith is told “this is the crystalization of your last tear shed,” is more than a little suspect. I guess God telling Griffith he’ll never cry again could be less literal and more, you’ll never feel that despair that brought you to this point again, but still, like, the Godhand def have feelings, they’re just very dark/negative ones from what we see.

So idk, maybe we’re supposed to think that by incarnating himself as a flesh and blood person Femto/NeoGriff should’ve lost even those negative emotions for some magical reason, but something went wrong?

Or maybe Femto just believed he was emotionless despite that clearly not being the case, hoped he’d remain “emotionless” even after incarnating himself as a flesh and blood person, predictably turned out to be wrong, and decided to lay all the blame on the fetus so he could ignore his feelings.

tbh I could go for either explanation.

AND YEAH there seemed to be a lot of focus on how easy everything was for NeoGriffith – he barely had to lift a finger to defeat Ganeshka, transform the world, and become an emperor lol, it’s such a strong contrast to human Griffith having to work for his victories and face the possibility of defeat in tense moments, like the Battle of Doldrey was very suspenseful because of that, whereas the war with Ganeshka never had a single moment of suspense, NGriff was never not in control. I def wonder if that theme is going to go somewhere, especially with Guts, whose nickname is “struggler,” in contrast.

i know this will sound weird and i am by no means diminishing guts’ anger, i just wanted to ask, do you think that griffith still harbors resentment towards guts? i was re-reading the hill of the swords and i got depressed bc that’s their last zctual interaction. we don’t fuckin know anything about griffith and how he feels. we just know his heart was beating when he saw guts fighting. is he angry? does he remember the past bitterly? what is your take?

my take is yes, but neogriffith wouldn’t think so.

Like on one hand it’s very ambiguous and up in the air because we get absolutely nothing from his perspective after that one contemplative ‘why am i feeling things?’ moment, but on the other hand 99% of Femto’s screen time was dedicated to being resentfully petty and while NeoGriff might’ve hoped to genuinely have no feelings, that beating heart tells us otherwise, so I can only assume that some of those feelings are resentment.

Like I basically think his feelings now are probably a big unexamined tangle of

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that he is absolutely not going to acknowledge to himself until he’s forced to.

And possibly his emotions are dulled depending on whether NGriff only has some capacity for
emotion but not as much as he did as a human, but tbh I like to think he
feels just as much now and is just a lot better at ignoring/dismissing
it due to being a godly thing on another plane of awareness. And like, the wonderful symbolism of becoming the mask fits too – like his perfect leader image was partly how he buried and denied his emotions as a human (eg see his “it’s nothing,” to Casca in the river), so now that he’s an embodiment of that perfection it just works for me to think that he’s better at denying/repressing his feelings, but they’re still there.

Also I like to think that he got a petty kick out of being the one to leave Guts behind this time, after the Hill of Swords reunion.

When can we expect your new posts about Griffith? I am already excited and look at your blog everyday if it is already up…No pressure. Just a question.^^

well i’m flaky and can’t guarantee anything, but the last part is coming together. i said i’d finished it a while ago and just needed to edit it, but that wasn’t taking into account the fact that my “finished” fourth part was barely more than an outline lol 😡 ugh @ past me. i’d say a week or less, to give myself enough leeway to procrastinate more lol. i could probably finish it in an evening, but yk, it’s hard to predict when the next time i’ll feel like spending an evening writing it will be. And I work tonight so 😡 again.

i’m glad you’re excited for it! hopefully it’ll be worth the wait 🙂

when in times of doubt remember that miura wrote recently ‘now that i finally let go of my objection i am being asked abt him’. griffith and guts both talk as if they’re each other’s exes tbh. personally I am still cautious of the Het but still, seeing ppl saying ”guts has been through so much omg their reunion will be moving’ are making me laugh because i don’t think miura would ever do that. so yeah i am holding to that quote as if it’s a life line

This is true and lol I did love that moment in the story, it was such a bitter ex thing to think

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Also love that their relationship is so epic random warlocks on an island in the middle of nowhere know about their “profound connection” lol.

And yeah I’m really not expecting a happy reunion between Guts and Casca. It just seems like it would be out of place not just considering how emphasized Casca’s mistrust of him has been (even in Casca’s dream a chapter ago Farnese and Schierke were worried about dog Guts destroying the casket himself while in beast mode lol), but also considering the ominious build up.

And like, in general, Miura just does not seem like the type to go a straightforward happy romance route. That wasn’t their relationship back pre-Eclipse, and there are so many complicating factors that it would make no sense for it to be their relationship now.

tbh if they did have a happy reunion where Casca forgives him and then they make out or w/e that would be the biggest sign that she’s about to die for real or something lbr, which would just be the cherry on top of the suck sundae.

Anyway yeah I’m cautiously optimistic overall I guess, like you. Ty for this ask!

totally random, just wondering if you have any favorite manga (or anime for that matter) other than berserk? your takes on this story are always very insightful and interesting so i’d be interested if you have any recs you are willing to share :)

Thank you!

ngl my taste is pretty basic and there are like a million classic things i haven’t seen or read but here’s some of what I’ve enjoyed:

manga:

  • claymore – recently read it and thoroughly loved it. even the terrible het was so downplayed i wouldn’t’ve known it was there if it wasn’t for one (1) terrible line. probably my second favourite manga after berserk.
  • gunjo – dark, fucked up f/f, which i always need more of
  • devilman – everyone’s reading it now thanks to the anime but i beat the rush. anyway i’d rec the original manga and v little else in the universe lol, unless you have a v high tolerance for a range of bad writing from offensive to ridic.
  • pet shop of horrors – i mean i p much read it just so i could read fic lol, but it was pretty delightful despite the kind of shitty tokyopop translation. luv a ship that smoothly transitions from investigating someone for murder to co-parenting a child together.

anime:

  • utena – I can see why it’s a classic and I got really into it. also juri/shiori is one of v v v few f/f ships i’ve seen that perfectly hits my specific power dynamic buttons lol
  • samurai flamenco – came for the gay, stayed for how endearing it was. it kind of toes the line between text and subtext and the whole genre bending thing was v weird but v fun when you get into it imo
  • yuri on ice – obviously lol, everyone’s watched it
  • devilman crybaby – also obviously, tho i wouldn’t really rec it unless you have a v high tolerance for gratuitous everything and even then I’d only consider like the last 4 episodes genuinely great.
  • honestly everything else i’ve seen are also things everyone has seen like death note and cowboy bebop

and stuff I haven’t finished and therefore can’t rec but am enjoying so far:

  • jojo’s bizarre adventure, manga
  • gungrave, anime
  • michiko to hatchin, anime

What possible scenarios that Casca’s back now? Her response and Guts revenge? What would happen?

lol i didn’t even predict the fetus showing up in casca’s mind, idk.

i think it’s still possible that casca’s going to wake up and lose it? what with the whole thing about shoving her metaphorical heart in her metaphorical chest while it’s covered in metaphorical thorns. actually i’m pretty stoked about that because farnese had her line about wanting to help casca overcome her darkness the same way casca helped her, so either we’re going to get some good farnese and casca interaction or that’s going to turn out to be a pipe dream and casca’s going to do something dark, and either way i’m super intrigued.

whatever guts does would depend on what casca does, i figure. i’m thinking they’re not getting back together immediately, if at all. worst case scenario that i could easily see happening is that miura teases a reconciliation for most of the rest of the manga and i have to live with that sword of damocles hanging over my head indefinitely.

so like, if casca is chill and recovers with farnese’s help, the plot has to get going somehow. maybe we end guts’ narrative on a high note, farnese helping casca recover and guts having achieved a goal without ruining everything for once, return to griffith’s in a flash forward, and he’s about to attack elfhelm logically because it’s the last remaining threat to him but actually because he’s bored and misses guts. honestly i would mostly hate this scenario for many reasons, like guts’ narrative being passive and boring and ngriff having a more unambiguously villainous role, like it would just feel shallow thematically imo, but i could maybe see it happening. I’ve been mostly bored by Guts’ narrative for like 200 chapters now so it wouldn’t be out of place lol.

or something else entirely could kick start the plot. maybe the flower king encourages guts to go fight griffith and we start getting into skellig moral ambiguity. maybe magic deus ex machina happens. maybe casca learns of a way she can use magic to siphon her stupid kid out of griffith and that’s the new objective lol. I was gonna suggest that maybe guts takes off on his own for revenge spurred on by some unforseen event, but the fact that he’s on an island makes that unlikely I guess.

god tho i still think that the neatest and most efficient way to kick start things into gear, fulfill a lot of foreshadowy promises, re-motivate guts into doing something, and shake things up in an interesting way is for casca to use the behelit. this is the hill i’m going to die on, at least until it becomes impossible. and yk what, casca’s last remaining and most important piece of herself, her heart, being the kid could be solid set up for sacrificing it. “Someone so close to you it’s almost like they’re a part of you,” and “bury your human heart,” after all.

I mean the way we revisited the Eclipse and Casca’s trauma, ie, we didn’t, kinda makes me less inclined to think Miura’s going to do anything with it/make it a real motivation, but, yk. thorns and whatnot. ~i want to believe~

i just want something dark and permanent with real consequences to happen, guts’ story has been progressively lighter and happier for over 200 chapters by now, come on.

totally random question, but how is it possible for Casca to have the demon baby as her sanity’s tipping point? she was in that condition a while before the foetus was born… I don’t understand this lol and it seems unlikely to me that Miura forgot what he was writing since he has remembered smaller details throughout the years and this is a pretty big one to forget

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I wish I could understand an iota of what Miura is going for with the fetus tbh.

Idk, idk if it’s so much that the fetus being the last piece means the whole demonization thing was what drove her insane, the vibe I got was more like, it’s the most important part of her and everything around it “guarding” it (the monsters, the femto-pterodactyl) was what drove her insane. Which at least fits with the fact that she’s immensely traumatized.

This is a bit of an optimistic take tho, because I could absolutely believe Miura writing that it was the corruption of the fetus that mostly drove her insane and she just innately sensed it or something.