ok I’ve watched a clip now and I see exactly what you mean lol. completely agree, that whole vibe would work perfectly. destruction + the love song + identity issues + the hands + the sense of futility… like, nice. and I’m immediately adding the song to my berserk playlist.
Tag: ask
If Beserk doesn’t end like how Metropolis the anime ends I’ll be pretty disappointed. I’d send a link if you don’t know what I’m talking about but the Ask feature doesn’t allow for that
Unfortunately I haven’t seen it so I don’t really know what you mean exactly. I just read the wikipedia plot summary, but I’m not sure which elements of the ending you’re referring to, or if it’s a detail that might not even be mentioned in the summary.
But if you want to clarify, or if someone else wants to jump in and agree disagree if they know what you’re referring to specifically, plz do.
How about some Lokus/Griffth/Guts? Can you see it?
lol i feel like this is the hardest possible guts/griff/apostle configuration to make work. Unlike Zodd who wouldn’t care that much about being a third wheel, Locus seems pretty personally devoted to Griffith. Like I think I once chose Locus as the apostle most likely to hate Guts lol, I could just see him getting super jealous and uptight while pretending it’s nothing deeper than the fact that he doesn’t trust Guts.
Like he’s got both Guts and Griffith’s all encompassing ridiculously intense past relationship to contend with AND the fact that they are/were mortal enemies and Guts probably still wants to kill Griffith on some level, I feel like that’s a double whammy of things that would make Locus hate Guts.
(I mean I’m kind of making up the idea that he’d be the jealous type, but idk based on some details like his outrage when Rickert slapped Griffith, the way he, as a knight, didn’t find a lord he wanted to serve until Griffith which makes me figure he’d be extra loyal and devoted once he does join Griffith, his wistfulness about apostles having a place in Falconia, etc, yk on an emotional level he seems pretty invested in Griffith. Add a sexual relationship to that and I could see him being jealous.)
and again I guess in like a scenario where NGriff and Locus are already having sex and Guts walks in and gets a chance to join in and takes it because he’s kind of past the point of self denial, I could see it happening. but man I think the atmosphere in that room would be painfully awkward and tense lol. A lot of both of them pretending the other isn’t there except occasionally to glare at him when their hands accidentally brush.
How do you feel about griffith and casca’s relationship? Personally I liked their relationship before the eclipse and I find it heartbreaking in general. That flashback scene where they’re riding near a lake and casca is looking at griffith with the sun behind him really gets me for some reason
I also really liked their relationship tbh. I would’ve been happier about it if Casca hadn’t been secrely in love with him all along, but otoh that does add a metric ton of gay subtext thanks to the parallels so I can’t be too annoyed about that lol.
I talk about them quite a bit in this post (the first part is about their relationship in general, then it goes into the pre-eclipse stuff in more detail) if you’re interested in a more detailed take.
But yeah in general I think they have a pretty sweet relationship that’s kind of a sad missed opportunity, not for romance but for a more emotionally fulfilling friendship. I love how they’re both protective of each other, physically – like Casca stepping in front of Griffith, sword out, when they encounter Zodd, or like Griffith trying despite his complete inability to do something to help Casca when Wyald grabs her – and emotionally, with Casca trying to comfort Griffith in her flashback and Griffith stamping down his own feelings so he can be a strong comforting presence for Casca many times.
And overall I think they’re pretty dysfunctional lol but in an interesting and engaging way that shows they genuinely care about each other and just kind of suck as people. Yk like most relationships in Berserk.
(And yeah ia, that flashback is v touching and sad.)
This is of course all pre-eclipse, Femto is neither here nor there where their relationship is concerned lol.
The Queen of Midland married the King of Midland for political reasons, did her duty as a wife, but actually was having an affair with Julius and didn’t realize she loved Julius until he was gone, and had previously tried to rationalize her feelings for him. Maybe I’m reaching, but I see a parallel with Griffith, Guts and Charlotte (the Queen also looks like Griffith and Griffith kills her, Guts kills Julius, and Charlotte is the king’s daughter).
nice tbh, I could see this as a purposeful parallel – marrying someone for political gain while being in love with someone else – or at least consider it p telling that the Golden Age is full of people being in love with people they theoretically shouldn’t be, whether that’s actually true or whether their feelings conflict with their goals or whether it’s their own issues and insecurity talking lol.
Guts and Griffith are surrounded by like, echoes of their relationship from various angles and I could see this as one of them.
Do you consider griffith a villain or just an antagonist/deuteragonist?
I really don’t think Miura is taking the straightforward villain route with Griffith. He hasn’t been so far, what with framing him as the protagonist of his own story. He’s an antagonist to Guts, but yeah I don’t think villain is the word for him.
I’d classify Femto as a villain, tbf, but then I’d also classify the Beast of Darkness as a villain. I think that’s kind of the point of Berserk, that everyone has that dark villainous side and everyone has a heroic side, and some are more one than the other, whether they’re monsters or regular humans. And the key isn’t even to overcome that dark side, but to find a balance.
p much I think the conflict of Berserk is going to come down to the light vs the dark within the individual characters and within humanity as a whole, and NGriff as an individual is probably literally representative of humanity as a whole.
Back to that Zodd/Griffith/Guts question. Well if it’s more realistic that Zodd and Guts fight over Griffith as Griffith gets off watching than what would happen if you take into account the rest of the Apostle squad? I doubt Griffith will be able to get off for the whole time Guts brawls the apostles lol
my first thought was an au where guts is scott pilgrim, and i resent that bc i hated that movie lol.
all right tho the monster orgy vibe is good and if guts like, walked in on that i’d be all for him just joining in and taking his opportunity to fuck griffith. one of those, yeah okay this might as well happen kind of things.
tho i’m actually picturing this with nameless like, tentacle monster apostles rather than the hawk squad bc the named apostles have too much personality lol, if i start thinking about them i’ll just overthink this and start wondering how they’d get along with guts in a group sex context and it will be ridic.
so like now i’m feeling this as more of a slightly disturbing backdrop for guts/neogriffith. yk like mainly griffguts, but with some hr giger monsters getting in on it for atmosphere.
but if you have any ideas for how that encounter – guts + griffith + some or all of the apostle generals – would go i’m all ears.
The other day i saw a berserk summary on some site and it was so cringe-y, it was like “this is a story about revenge” “it’s about guts, casca, his woman, and the monster who betrayed them and corrupted their unborn child with his semen” “blind ambition is the reason griffith sacrificed the hawks” “casca, the woman griffith wanted to possess” (?????) “guts will never surrender to god and his servants he will fight til the bitter end”…i just. We need to ban dudebros from berserk.
not to overuse old simpsons as a point of reference but i’m sideshow bob and every quote here is a rake
lol while i was reading those volume summaries i was thinking that i might understand general berserk fandom if they like, just read the covers and never bothered to read the actual manga inside. this is some strong evidence for that theory.
(also lmao if those are legit word for word quotes bc “casca, his woman” combined with “casca, the woman griffith wanted to possess” is hilarious)
Reading the dark horse berserk translation for the first time and I’m cringing so hard at those ultra edgy backside cover descriptions (the vol.6 one also seems to imply that charlotte’s attraction to griffith is mutual? ew) and the pop culture references (“groovy”,”you shall not pass” etc.). Berserk truly attracts the worst crowd and it baffles me because it’s anything but a macho manga.
lol you know i’ve never actually read most of them, i always just skip past. tho i just checked out volume 6′s and yeah lol @ growing attraction between the king’s daughter and griffith. like it doesn’t really surprise me that the summaries are aimed at a straight dude demographic + emphasize the macho manly action/horror, but still, that’s p egregious.
but i gotta say, using the phrase ‘callow beauty’ to describe griffith is kinda interesting. i’m so used to seeing everything about him described as calculating and machiavellian that it’s almost refreshing to see a summary of part of berserk that paints griffith as earnest and naive lol, even if it’s completely inaccurate.
also i kind of assumed they’re translated from the japanese covers instead of dark horse writing their own summaries but maybe they are straight from dark horse if they’re including like lotr references lol. or maybe it’s just creative license with translating.
i just gotta ask, what do you think of a potential guts/ngriff/zodd threesome? (sidenote: do zodd’s uneven horns bother you too?)
lmao honestly I have a lot of ships that I can imagine being into threesomes but griffguts is not one of them, I think zodd would get murdered. like guts would fight him to the death before letting him touch griffith. and griffith would rather watch guts fight someone over him than get double teamed anyway.
like guts/ngriff/zodd = guts and zodd fighting while griffith jerks off imho
whether this is literal canon or modern au lol.
tho to be more fun if there is a scenario in which this happens – say guts is in falconia for whatever reasons, whether he’s straight up lost control of his life and gone beast of darkness and murdered all his friends and decided to join griffith or whether it’s part of a larger plan or something, and ngriff and zodd are already fucking on the regular and guts walks in on them or something and ngriff is like, ‘care to join us ;)’ – guts would start by immediately trying to compete with zodd over who can fuck him better.
zodd would win objectively but lbr he’d still end up so intensely third wheeled he’d get up and make himself a sandwich. and griffith probably orchestrated this scenario just to get guts to fuck him anyway.
tho also one more concept i can throw out, guts and zodd fighting/competing over griffith could turn sexual between them. i mean it would be a disservice to their canon interactions to ignore that there’s some chemistry there lmao
in which case griffith would immediately regret everything, kick zodd out, and give guts the most intense lay of his life.
also ia zodd’s asymmetrical one horn look does kind of bug me lol.
what do you think of the new band of the hawk? also what do you think is going to happen with charlotte?
I like them a lot.
Also I think we’re meant to like them which I find v interesting and hopeful lol. Like from Raksas who is a huge dick but also very entertaining and fun to Grunbeld who has a whole backstory novel in which he’s 100% sympathetic protagonist from everything I’ve heard about it, they’re made to be likeable characters. Which is great because it makes it less likely we’re headed for some kind of boring Guts’ side vs Griffith’s side, Good vs Evil story lol.
Not that I’m too worried about any conflict between them being framed as simplistically as good vs evil, but still.
My ideal plotline is probably Guts’ side and Griffith’s side teaming up against a greater antagonist, like those few chapters where Guts rode Zodd into battle against Ganeshka writ large, and the fact that Griffith’s side of the story isn’t framed as evil or even antagonistic but as protagonists of their own narrative makes that seem more possible.
Failing that, just like I love Guts getting monstrous without literally becoming a monster I love seeing apostles that are sympathetic and humane. Moreso than say, Rosine who is sympathetic but also yk, pretty damn fucked up regardless, apostles like eg Locus are just chill. Locus is like a famous knight who apparently exorcised his apostle bloodlusty urges by competing in tournaments before he joined Griffith, and since joining Griffith has been pretty dedicated to fostering peace between humans and between humans and apostles. Give or take possibly sending Raksas after Rickert (or possibly not, we don’t know yet) he hasn’t done a single negative thing that we know of. Same with Irvine, who seems to hunt animals, rather than people, and Grunbeld who has the aforementioned novel where he’s p much portrayed as heroic as far as I can tell, and Zodd who is compared to Guts the most when it comes to the whole man vs monster thing.
So yk even if they do ultimately end up fighting Guts, I feel like it’s not going to be a simple conflict where we’re meant to root for one side or the other. Tonally the fact that there’s a conflict at all would probably be depicted as negative.
as an aside, imo the biggest argument against that hope tbh is the new fast travel system which feels like nothing but set up for an eventual attack on Elfhelm, but yk what, I’ve also been arguing that Eflhelm is going to end up being manipulative assholes, so maybe it’ll all work out in my favour anyway. Like maybe they’ll show up just as the readers suddenly realize we want someone to kick Elfhelm’s ass.
Like Miura has talked about writing Griffith as a protagonist of his own story, and you don’t spend a hundred chapters on a narrative that follows those protagonist/heroic story beats just to suddenly make them evil no good antagonists again lol.
I feel like Guts and Griffith’s stories are going to end up being basically morally equivalent from different angles. Man vs inner monster; monster vs inner man lol. Human volition, monstrous strength, yadda yadda yadda.
Like this is one of the strongest themes of the story lol, one brief scene where they team up cannot be the sole payoff, come on. Especially when it’s Guts and Griffith in conflict, rather than Guts and Zodd who don’t have that whole history of being ridiculously in love with each other.
Anyway like, the two sides don’t necessarily need to team up again, but conflict between Guts and Griffith’s narratives falls soundly on the monster side and it’s gonna be depicted as such, and therefore negative. like guts will be consumed by the armour when that happens and he’ll probably have killed or will kill one or more of his friends as well, that kind of negative.
When it comes to Charlotte though, I really have no idea lol. If I have any guess at all, it’s that she’s probably not going to do anything particularly significant. Like, thematically she’s got nothing going on that I can think of, she’s just kind of there being in love with Griffith and enabling his power grab, so I can’t really theorize about how she’ll fit into any future conflict.
I know a lot of people want her to learn about Femto/the Eclipse in the hopes that the rose coloured glasses break, because in a way i think she’s kind of representative of buying Griffith’s perfect image, but I doubt it. Even if she does like, see him transform into Femto or something lol, even if all of Falconia sees it, I don’t think it’ll change anything. They’ve seen him lead an army of monsters and speculated about whether he’s even human already, showing off a black outfit and bat wings is probably not going to make or break anything for him relationship or publicity-wise at this point.
I guess my biggest hope wrt Charlotte is just that she’ll get some screen time acting in some capacity as a leader. She’s got some inner strength at least, as we saw like, during the Griffith rescue mission a million years ago, let’s see her use it in some way as queen.
I was thinking, if the demon child appears during the black swordsman arc and miura said he came up with g*tsca only until later in the story, then what was it originally supposed to be? Straight-up guts and femto’s child lol?
tbh I actually love it in the Black Swordsman arc bc I don’t think it was meant to be anything particularly significant, like, plot-wise (tho lmao i wish, but it’s probably only a coincidence that it looked kind of like a fetus lol)
I think it was just supposed to be a recurring demon that represents like, the self destructiveness and futility of Guts’ revenge rampage. like a proto beast of darkness but instead of being scary and cool it’s just sad and pathetic. the twisted remains of yourself after you’ve been consumed by revenge.
which i say mainly because of that one image where guts sees it with vargas’ face. but also if you re-read its early appearances with that in mind it fits very nicely with the rest of the black swordsman arc’s themes and the way it unnerves guts more than anything else he sees, and the way it appears when he’s feeling self-doubt and fear of failure, makes a lot of sense.
also his chapter 2 nightmare where it chases him works super well with that in mind. This nightmare is later echoed by his chapter 13 nightmare where it’s a monstrous representation of donovan chasing him, which is echoed again after Guts kills Adonis and sees himself as that monster. It’s very neatly cyclical – chronologically, it goes Guts’ own personal monster followed by Guts’ fear of becoming a monster followed by Guts well on his way to becoming that monster. And I just love that the fetus thing isn’t a cool monster, it’s just pathetic, which is perfect in the Black Swordsman arc where Guts is paralleled to Vargas.
relatedly it’s really off-putting to re-read the scenes where it appears after miura retconned it into being his weird demon kid lol. Totally fucks up that interpretation. Like you can maybe read it as a reminder of Guts abandoning Casca/his repressed guilt over it, but I have no idea how that’s supposed to work with the nightmare, or the direct comparison to Vargas, etc.
Maybe it still kind of works as a symbol of Guts becoming a monster in that the fetus is is all demony because it was corrupted by Femto or w/e, but like… considering all its later appearances are helpful and protective rather than sinister, it really doesn’t work for me. It’s a big mess.
Any thoughts on neo griffith/beast of darkness or guts/femto fucking? (Srry i watched venom today so i’m in a mosterfucking mode)
hell yeah
especially beast of darkness/neogriffith tbh, i am super into this concept. or even a role reversal au where guts was the one who became a godhand member or mb apostle.
and femto/guts also has its appeal. or femto/beast of darkness, monster4monster.
guess i’ll put this under a cut in respect to ppl who follow me more for meta than long posts about monsterfucking lol
side note to kick this off: i once had a shockingly coherent berserk dream where femto turned out to be a periodic temporary transformation, kinda like a werewolf, and he’d turn back into post-torture griffith after wreaking some evil havok, and griffith wouldn’t remember anything. and this led to guts having sex with griffith-as-femto (who was less hilarious petty ex a la black swordsman arc and more like, the kind of atmospheric scary horror movie monster who motionlessly watches you from across the street and appears in the bathroom mirror after you look away briefly lol) in order to distract him from like, leaving to go murder people. and guts framed this to himself as like penance for abandoning griffith but at the same time he was also into it because despite being terrifying femto was still a version of griffith who he loves and has been pining for for 4 years. it was a high quality dream tbh.
but anyway, like the way their relationship is depicted as so obsessive and singular i feel like there’s something v compelling in either of them becoming the extra evil embodiment of the worst aspects of themselves and the other still wanting him bc even that darkness is an aspect of the person he loves? like that’s p canon actually
(not to mention how suggestive the beast of darkness gets)
like either of them, canon guts or au griffith where guts became a monster, hating the other for destroying everything and ruining his life but still high key “longing” for him.
relatedly, the canon mutual pining thing during the golden age but then the first time they act on their repressed sexual feelings is after one becomes a monster and consequently has lost that repression and has nothing stopping him from acting on his lust? and the other is like, oh no you’re a monster and i hate you now but also i’ve been lying to myself about not wanting this for 8 years and i’ll take what i can get.
doesn’t quite fit with actual canon (one can argue femto is even more repressed lol) but whatever, actual canon sux.
or both of them having succumbed to their inner darknesses but still finding that spark of light and their own humanity in each other is srsly good stuff.
like lbr neogriffith letting beast of darkness guts fuck him instead of fight him and predictably feeling all those not actually frozen feelings even tho it’s just like, a vague twisted echo of what their relationship could’ve been once… also good. maybe focusing on the physical to distract himself from/ignore his feelings to the point where he doesn’t notice he’s got tear tracks running down from the corners of his eyes afterwards. i mean what better time to get that payoff on ‘the crystalization of your last tear shed’ right?
also there’s a devilman spinoff/missing scene manga where akira lost his consciousness to the demon he melded with and ryo brought him back by kissing him. and i’m js
the sex version would work v well in berserk. imagine guts waking up from a prolonged stretch of time as the beast of darkness while balls deep in neogriffith and just clinging to him like an anchor, at least until he comes and eventually regains the presence of mind to assess the situation lol.
what other angles are there? idk i feel like there’s a lot of room for playing around with the monster versions of these characters.
i mean i get why ppl often don’t want to even ship post-eclipse griffguts let alone their evil monster versions bc miura poisoned that well, but honestly idgaf personally, i’m not gonna let that stop me. ngriff/femto/beast of darkness all have so much potential here.
also sorry i focused more on feelings than physical specifics but that’s bc a) i’m better at talking about feelings and b) femto and the beast of darkness are anatomically pretty boring lbr lol. i mean femto especially is barely a monster physically, that’s like, all feelings lol.
hey… thought in griffiths thoughts on guts hypothetical facial hair andddd maybe vice versa though tbh i don’t think griffith could grow a beard even if he tried lmao
the thought of griffith with a beard made my brain 404 lol. and honestly kind of guts too, i can’t even picture either of them with facial hair
i think griffith would be fine w/ guts growing a beard? maybe even like it? tho wait didn’t i get specific and say griffith was into guts’ jawline once, maybe he’d be annoyed if guts grew a beard and it hid any part of his face lol.
idk what are your thoughts?
I’m in love with that fanart of Femto holding Guys’ broken sword. Would be so neat to have a broken sword come back sometime, like when his sword broke in the battle of Doldrey. Thoughts?
yeah i was also super into that fanart. probs not the artist’s intention but made me think of casca holding guts’ sword after he left lol
mm on the subject of broken swords in general, ngl ia, i like the idea of the dragonslayer breaking
like if guts dies that would be an appropriate af prelude to it. a nice subtle rebuke of living your life by the sword.
actually it could also be a gr8 prelude to guts sorting out his feelings properly. you know like how i say that i want to believe guts’ current sidequest is a distraction from his conflicted feelings towards revenge/griffith/etc and what he should actually be doing is trying to untangle the emotional snarl that happens when your “true light” is also your nemesis lol. well the point is guts’ sword shatting could be a nice symbol of his distractions failing him and leaving him no choice but to confront his own feelings. maybe say something.
like it would go nicely with a third duel that has a strong emotional core
@ anon who sent me an ask last night, my answer to your question is i hate miura
but tbh i have no energy or desire to get in depth here so apologies if this comes across as flippant. if you want a better answer feel free to message me or ask me unanon.
scream what r your thoughts on that pic you reblogged bc i think guts definitely borderline begged griff to sit on his face
for once i have no deep thoughts lol, but i’m gonna agree bc your take sounds about right
where r guts favorite places to kiss griffith and vice verse…
guts kissing griffith: neck esp the nape of the neck + where neck meets shoulder, jaw, temple/hairline like as a casual thing when they’re chilling, i want to say back of his hand bc i like the image of guts jokingly kissing his hand like/as he’s royalty but sometimes turning it into an intimate thing like bringing his knuckles up to his lips all sweetly
griffith kissing guts: legs + inner thighs b4/after a bj, bridge of his nose (yeah where the scar is), palm of his hand, aaaaand i’m gonna say the scar where he stabbed him which is a dual possessive/subconsciously apologetic thing. not like kissing it better, but like wanting it to be associated with positive things to guts while also reminding himself of guts joining him.
(and ofc i want to hear your thoughts too)
also
madchen replied to your post “an awful question: griffguts favorite/preferred positions?”
i’ve been busy w life but obviously hard agree
with all of this. griffith throne fucking fantasy is backwards in guts
lap as if he’s facing the entire court
this is exactly how i was envisioning it lol, nice
how would you rank berserk arcs from favorite to least favorite?
Golden Age > Black Swordsman > Millenium Falcon Griffith’s side > Conviction > Millenium Falcon Guts’ side > Fantasia
Just finished reading vol 34 and I’m genuinely confused about the creation of Fantasia. Did Griffith merge the physical and astral worlds on purpose or…?
Yep.
You get a bit more info about the whole merging of the worlds thing in the next like 10-15 chapters, w/ Rickert
visiting Falconia and talking to Locus, and some dudes talking about how
the world was altered in Elfhelm, so if you want to just keep reading and draw your own conclusions then ignore the rest of this response.
But basically I think the idea behind it is that for humanity (including apostles) to unite and yk stop being dicks to each other on a grand scale, they need a common enemy. And merging the worlds allows humanity’s collective imagination into the real world, turning it into a high fantasy and giving humanity a shitload of their own nightmares to deal with as that common enemy.
I think Falconia is also a side effect of this – humanity, or at least Midland and co, collectively willed it into existence as a safe utopia with a bird theme because Griffith just saved the world and they all want him to lead them. There’s that historical memory/legend of Gaiseric’s empire, so this is like version 2.0.
Quick and easy way for Griffith to gain a utopian kingdom with full support of the vast majority of the people in it. Plus saving the world, turning it into high fantasy, and ruling the only peaceful kingdom in it kind of gives you carte blanche to do whatever you want. Societal expectations are out the window. Human Griffith as king probably would’ve faced huge obstacles when it came to gaining support and implementing even small changes in, say, how much power the nobility had, while NeoGriffith can do whatever the hell he wants.
There’s also the effect of allowing the Godhand to exist physically in the world, I think, which will probably turn out to be important. Does it grant them more power? Does it make them vulnerable? Both? Something else? idk yet but it’s intriguing.
what do you think of the theory that griffith sent rakshas to assassinate rickert?
tbh I lean towards assuming Locus sent Raksas after Rickert, but I’d also be pretty ok with it turning out to be Griffith after all. bc like, if it’s Griffith then that’s got some intrigue because it seems like a reaction driven by emotion rather than logic – Rickert isn’t a threat in any way. He’s a kid and he was planning to leave on his own. And it’s a plan that spectacularly failed, while all NGriff’s plans succeed because he has fate on his side. Therefore, if NGriff sent Raksas, then it was probably a stupid decision driven by an emotional need to, idk, erase that rejection from someone from his past.
I think it’s a lot more likely that Locus sent Raksas on his own initiative though. Partly bc it’s kind of a hard sell that NGriff would fuck something up that bad lol, but also because, like… sending an assassin after Rickert, even if I can argue some emotional complexity out of it, crosses the line into villainous for the sake of villainous that I don’t think NGriff is actually going to cross.
Tho again like, if he does cross that line it better be in a way that I can argue demonstrates interesting emotions. I’d rather it involve Guts than Rickert tho.
an awful question: griffguts favorite/preferred positions?
no this is a high quality question despite what probably made you think of it tonight lol
cowgirl, griff riding guts, is the favourite. at least at first. it’s like how i automatically assume their first time would go. griffith has more experience and would take the lead, but guts would still be the one to top for trauma reasons. relatedly griffith’s past experience w/ m/m sex would have been with him having v little control and p much just being used, so this would be a nice change for him too. they can see each other and make eye contact and feel emotionally intimate. good way to make their first time a positive and enjoyable experience for all, 10/10.
also related but extra intimate, sitting up facing each other and making out, wrapped around each other.
more advanced relationship-wise, griffith being taken from behind, hard and desperate, manhandled a bit. maybe bent over something, or just face down ass up. made to feel like guts can’t not fuck him in that moment and just desperately needs him. also neck kissing, no matter how rough it is. griffith would love dirty talk whispered in his ear too but that might be a little beyond guts. well actually guts could probably manage easy stuff like “need you” and “god you’re so good” and w/e, which would work just fine for griffith.
add mild bondage when they level up further, but i’m not going to get into that rn bc we’ve chatted about it before
guts eventually bottoming i see as p missionary style, again at least at first, super slow, best described as “lovemaking,” griffith getting super perfectionist. and guts would bask in being under so much loving attention from griffith.
also sleepy morning sex while spooning. mb intercrural sometimes, either topping.
i think both would enjoy giving blowjobs and probably rimming too.
also griffith def fantasizes about guts fucking him on midland’s throne after he becomes king. like in guts’ lap, guts actually sitting on the throne. some manhandling and teasing, guts power tripping a little on having him there, making him wait to come, etc. i’m gonna say that’s a heat of the moment fantasy that griff feels weird about after he comes tho. yk it’s got an undertone of prioritizing guts over the kingdom.
i mean honestly idt any sex position is going to be ooc as long as it’s set up right (like guts being fine w/ getting fucked from behind the first time would not be believable to me, but yk, maybe after a while it could work), but there’s a few i immediately jumped to.
did i miss any good ideas?
sorry I’m not sure if you’ve answered this before or not but I have to ask you. I was lurking reddit the other day and I found this post about guts choosing casca over his revenge on griffith. what do you think?
I genuinely think the authorially intended reading of Guts’ decision is that it’s complicated and there are multiple reasons Guts is choosing to take Casca to Elfhelm over revenge right now. It’s not a simple matter of Casca straightforwardly being more important to him or just choosing Casca over Griffith.
Hopefully this is the kind of answer you’re looking for, idk the subject is a little broad. I’ve kind of said this in some other posts too but I think it’d be handy to have a nice and orderly list to link to so I’m just throwing it all out in response to you.
So here are the various complicated reasons I think Guts has for going on his take Casca to Elfhelm quest:
1. He gives a fuck about Casca. He gave a fuck about her and saved her life even back when he hated her, because she was his comrade, and I’d certainly hope he cares about her now.
2. Elf cave is gone, and he’s not so shitty a person that he’s just going to abandon her in a field for ghosts to eat.
3. He is aware that revenging made him a worse person and he wants to be better. Guts at his best is someone who does not abandon his friends and family but rather stands by them in their hours of need, and he wants to be that person again.
Good Guts:
Bad Guts:
Good Guts:
Bad Guts:
Like, yk, abandoning people or staying with them is kind of Guts’ major thing throughout the story.
4. He is longing for a piece of his lost past, and Casca represents the Hawks.
Additionally suggested by how every time he pictures her from the past, after that last pic, it’s as a Hawk commander.
And statements like this:
And the general fact that he’s trying to “force” her sanity back despite forboding warnings and actually contemplating on page how awful it might be for Casca, suggesting that it’s less for Casca’s own sake and more Guts’ selfish need to regain some of his happy past.
5. Griffith looking human and sexy makes him forget his urge to kill, lessening the temptation of revenge and probably making Guts doubt his ability to follow through.
nuff said
6. Guts’ whole revenge campaign was less about revenge and more about making himself feel better and getting Griffith’s attention. Last time he saw Griffith the dude declared that he was completely free of his feelings for him and then “deserted” him in the snow lol. This has also lessened the temptation of revenge – now pursuing Griffith feels extra fruitless, because Griffith (claims he) doesn’t give a fuck.
quick illustration:
swinging his sword making him feel better
guts wanting attention
7. He feels guilty for abandoning Griffith back in the Golden Age and refusing to abandon Casca (this time) is a way to make up for that mistake.
8. Like the Beast of Darkness says, Casca reminds him of “the wound Griffith left” because he wants to keep feeling the pain he caused him. Both because it helps simplify his conflicting and confusing feelings into rage, and because, harkening back to point 6, imho it’s a masochistic reminder that he meant enough to Griffith for him to be worth lashing out at.
I mean consider the context of some discussions of wounds in berserk. “I too want a wound… that I can say you gave me.”
Or Griffith tracing his shoulder where Guts’ sword failed to touch him, maybe:
Anyway regardless of how suggestively that statement can be taken in the greater context of Berserk and wounds, there’s definitely some truth to it because it’s what Miura gave as the reason he didn’t kill Casca:
9. He’s still planning to return his focus to Griffith eventually. He hasn’t so much given up his revenge quest as put it on hold. It’s probably easier to say “not now” to himself than to say “never.”
10. Narrative convenience keeps him on the straight and narrow. eg:
cue Guts literally passing right out ten seconds later. it’s pretty easy to decide to get on a boat instead of get revenge when you can barely stand and going for revenge would be literal suicide. and even then Guts needed Serpico to step in and tell him not to be a dumbass.
Soooo yeah I think that about covers the various reasons Guts has for putting aside his revenge quest to take Casca to Elfhelm, which add up to smthn a lot more complicated than choosing Casca over revenge. I contemplated adding another section that’s like… a giant list of Guts utterly failing to prioritize Casca or demonstrate that she’s “more precious than Griffith” lol, but I might just do that in a separate post next time I’m feeling salty.
i love that femto wears lipstick. griffith rlly just went “you know what my ideal demonic form needs other than wings? dark lipstick”. he’s committed to that goth aesthetic
true lmao. yk i can fault the author to hell and back for the whole makeup wearing villain thing, but i cannot fault griffith for going full goth
dude knew what to pair with the exoskeleton and wings
“When I think of my wife, I always think of the back of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brain, trying to get answers. The primal questions of a marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?” – this quote from gone girl is me @ neo griffith
unanon guts
Something funny that I noticed in a chapter of Berserk is that the king of the fairies told Guts that Casca is “scared” but honestly, is that true? because Casca did show fear to Guts after the elicpse … but after the birth of Griffith she let herself be played by Guts even though it was difficult to handle her, but everything changed when Guts tried to rape her, which generated in that Casca hate and all her expressions They showed that, a quite understandable hatred.
Sorry, just want to make sure I’m understanding you correctly, do you mean you think that instead of being afraid of Guts after he sexually assaulted her, Casca hates him?
Bc honestly I’d argue that it’s probably both, or at least I’d like to hope Miura doesn’t boil Casca’s feelings down to “fear” but allows for some rage and hatred too.
I think the timeline of Casca’s feelings that we’re pretty explicitly shown is that after the Eclipse she’s scared and mistrustful of him (Guts forcibly grabbing her several times afterwards and nearly kissing her after ripping her dress probably didn’t help that), but then Puck speculates that Casca “sensed” that Guts rescued her during the Conviction arc and therefore trusted him.
Then Guts got possessed and strangled her, dragged her around tied to a rope for a while, then sexually assaulted her, and those positive feelings understandably vanished to be replaced with fear, mistrust, and ia, what definitely looks like hatred in a lot of her expressions. And I really hope that’s followed through and not ignored or downplayed.
what are your thoughts on the scene of rickert slapping griffith?
major thought: it’s a sign that griffith is emotionally compromised. not just the slap but also the way griffith did not have a single thing to say in response to rickert other than acknowledgement that the hawk emblem has changed, ie that he’s not the same person rickert was loyal to
his silence suggests that this is troubling to him. that rickert’s rejection is meaningful to him as a rejection of his identity, and therefore that acceptance from the last remaining member of the old band (who is sane and hasn’t declared war on him) would have been meaningful to him.
which suggests that this
said by Guts to Rickert shortly before this lol:
applies to griffith.
basically i think that scene is a strong indication that it’s not just his dream ngriff’s longing for.
here’s another post where i talk about this scene a bit if you want like a better explanation lol
oh also I hope there’s also potential for ngriff to have a bit of an identity crisis a la ascended ganeshka after rickert’s refusal to accept him as the same person and ngriff’s acknowledgement – especially w/ his “nothing has changed” statement being repeated.
like there’s room for irony in both directions there, ykwim? “nothing has changed” = lol ngriff still has feelings for guts, he was right but not in the way he thought. and “nothing has changed” = a denial which he’s forced to confront eventually
oh and one more thing along those lines – you could suggest he’s doing the same thing guts is doing right now
idk. i hope this all adds up to something.
Man griffith’s sad parting smile at guts after he sacrifices the hawks is the most heartbreaking thing ever and I die thinking about how that was last we ever saw of human griffith (if you doun’t count the lost chapter) and how he’s been dead for years. Everyday I wonder what would happen if neo griffith’s heart “unfroze”
this is a mood
idk how he does it but miura nailed this expression. what a mixture of like, genuine love and relief that he’s escaping it
here’s hoping we find out some good interesting stuff about neogriffith’s unfrozen heart soon
The lv promo is out and i’m honestly dying of laughter. Like what the hell is this ajsjshsjxhsjdh: youtu(.)be/jm5T5Ok2Gms i thought this announced project was gonna be something big but no…why we berserk fans must suffer like this
lol so i read some of the comments and knowing the guy is playing guts for the sake of a black swordsman pun and it’s not meant to be serious makes this kind of cute imo
Hi there, Sorry about this but I wanted to start reading Berserk but I’m really confused on if I’ve found the right chapters. Does the story start with Guts already being with the band of hawks for three years? Or are there chapters I’m missing? Or do I start with the Black Swordsman arc (Episode 0A?) Thank you!
Ah I think I’ve figured it out haha Thank you anyway, love the blog!(I’m
the anon asking about if I was starting in the right place.)
I just got home from work and saw this and wanted to reply real quick before bed, it’s probably unnecessary by now but just in case lol.
So yeah you probably know this, but definitely start from the Black Swordsman arc, there are sometimes fans who will recommend skipping it but they’re wrong. the chapter numbers are a little weird, the first 16 are unnumbered so some sites repeat them, some give them different designations (like 0A presumably).
And i’d say make sure you’re reading the official dark horse translation, because there are a lot of confusing scanlations floating around the internet that i don’t recommend. mangaseeonline has it if you’ve found a scanlation and want to switch over.
you're the only one 