mostly berserk meta. i'm into berserk mainly for griffguts and i'm a huge fan of griffith.
the first time i saw a gif of that moment i spent a few days assuming it was someone’s joke edit ngl, like not only is it completely ooc but it also just looks hilarious and ridiculous
anyway from what I saw of the hill of swords reunion in the anime they made griffith look sinisterly evil and kind of pissed off the whole time too so yeah, just add that to the long list of reasons the newer anime sucks
Judeau, Guts,and Griffith would go to the casinos. Judeau is a decent
gambler but Griffith, he’s like a god at it. He ends up pissing many
people off every a while since he keeps winning(they think he’s cheating
but he’s not) its safe to assume that a fight would prob break out.
Later on, they hit the bar, which isn’t really much of their
scenes(especially Guts) but after that brawl, they need a hard drink or
two. (2/3)
I wanna say that Judeau gets picked up by a girl at the bar/club. Girls
try to flirt with Guts and Griffith too, Guts just ignores them and
Griffith charmingly lets them down. I wanna be very self-indulgent and
say that they get drunk and wake up married to each other(very cliche
and unlikely to happen but still very cute.) The only way that could
happen is if Griffith is in one of his rare random moods to have
reckless fun n gets Guts to join in(somehow Idk. Guts doesnt like
getting drunk)
lol this is a modern au idea i never would’ve thought of. but i could absolutely see guts and griffith getting drunk and married in vegas.
i feel like serpico would either trail farnese or hit the nearest gay bar tho ngl
Judeau’s clear agenda in the back half of the Golden Age is hilarious to me because it’s like Miura couldn’t get Guts and Casca to fuck naturally, so he had to make it a side character’s sole mission in life to arrange their hook up.
But actually to be less cynical, I think it works very well with the overall tone and thematic takeaway from the Golden Age. Why was Judeau meddling? Well, it’s strongly suggested that it’s because he was in love with Casca himself, but didn’t consider himself worthy of her. He thought Guts would be better for her, and that Casca would be better off traveling with Guts than leading the remnants of the Hawks, so he shoved Guts at her until they boned.
And look how that turned out.
Moral of the Golden Age: tell people how you feel instead of just assuming you’re not good enough for them.
And like, something I really love about Judeau’s character is that he seems to fill that character trope of friend who gives good advice and lays out some of the story’s themes and nudges the protagonist in the right direction for the plot. But like everyone else in Berserk he’s more layered than that – he has his own reasons for saying the things he does and directing Guts the way he does, and those reasons are kind of based in low self esteem. He’s another factor that helps bring everyone to the Eclipse.
Sometimes he does give good advice, but sometimes he gives genuinely bad advice, because he’s biased.
And I think there’s a potential parallel between Judeau trying to set Guts and Casca up, and Guts trying to set Casca and Griffith up before he leaves. Guts feels unworthy of Griffith because he doesn’t have a dream, but Casca does, so he shoves her at Griffith to get her to take his place as his sword, but yk with added romance because heteronormativity.
It’s not unbiased-dude-trying-to-be-a-good-bro-for-his-friends advice, Judeau’s own issues are a factor in him trying to get Guts and Casca together.
Judeau feels unworthy of Casca because idk he’s insecure about being a jack of all trades, master of none lol, so he considers Guts, who is the best at least next to Griffith, more worthy of Casca and tries to get them together.
And in his dying moments, he knows he fucked up. That he should’ve just said something.
And yk what, he may think Guts is more worthy of Casca because he’s the best at something, but Guts was up on top of a giant hand trying to save Griffith long after that stopped making sense as a course of action while Judeau was down here trying to survive with Casca, and I think we all know who Casca appreciated more in this moment.
There’s something to be said for just being there with someone instead of leaving them in the snow/trying to convince a dude to sling her over his shoulder and run lol. Same with how Judeau was with Casca throughout the year of hiding and trying to survive while Guts was fucking off on his eat pray love vacation.
It wouldn’t surprise me if we’re meant to see Judeau/Casca as a tragic missed connection and the better alternative to Guts and Casca getting together.
(On a personal note I don’t actually like the idea of Judeau/Casca both bc it’s het lol but also since it’s just, yk, dude pines, wants the girl but meddles in her life for her own good, Casca’s feelings towards Judeau aren’t explored at all, etc. But the way Miura portrayed Judeau’s regret and his presence vs Guts’ absence makes me think that the takeaway is that in the best version of events Judeau would’ve told Casca how he felt and they would’ve got together. And thematically that fits imo.)
Also while I’m on this topic, I want to take yet another opportunity to point this great moment out:
hmmmmmmmmmmm
Judeau then immediately segues the conversation to the whole “Casca’s life sucks right now, you need to save her from it, etc” bit.
But I fucking love this moment specifically because it’s telling us that not only is Judeau overtly meddling to get Casca and Guts to hook up, but Judeau believes that Guts knowing how Griffith really feels about him will impede his plans.
And I mean it’s true, he wants Guts to leave with Casca and when Guts realizes how hard he fucked up and how much Griffith desperately needs him and always did he wants to stay. But it’s just such a nice touch to tell us that Guts and Casca… only work in the absence of Griffith. Guts gets with Casca when he falsely believes Griffith looks down on him. Guts chooses to stay with Griffith when he’s convinced he was wrong about that.
(And post-Eclipse, Guts abandons Casca for his revenge campaign, and chooses to stay with her when NeoGriffith says unequivocally that he’s over him now lol.)
It adds to the sense that Guts and Casca are both rebounding from Griffith, and they only work together as long as they both want to distance themselves from him. When he’s back in their life they get weird and jealous immediately, and then they both independently choose not to leave the Hawks together (Guts telling Judeau he wants to stay, followed by Casca telling Guts she can’t leave with him) and Casca tries to break up with him lol.
Ooh okay this is fun.
Guts’ favourite physical quality of Griffith’s:
[insert more picspam here, we all know Guts is fixated]
let’s be real, it’s the hair.
Griffith’s favourite physical quality of Guts’:
I was gonna say something like his buff arms, or his strength in general, and I think that would also be a legit answer, but yk what I’m going with
I think I just wanna say Guts’ face in general. Like maybe this is just Miura failing to properly objectify his point of view manly man protagonist, but when he’s making Griffith’s heart flutter his heavy brows and intense focused stare tend to be pretty prominent.
Also I’d argue that Miura kind of emphasizes Guts’ rugged handsomeness this way during/after the rescue mission, when the love triangle’s rearranging itself to put Guts in the centre:
moreso than at any other point in the story. So yeah.
Guts’ favourite non-physical quality of Griffith’s:
Ok this one’s tricky because I want to say Griffith’s like, larger than lifeness. His respectability, leadership abilities, ambition, that whole package, because that’s what makes his attention that much more valuable to Guts. He doesn’t want just anyone’s attention, he wants Griffith’s attention, because Griffith is the coolest guy he knows lol.
But! Like the entire point of the Golden Age is Guts learning that he’s been prioritizing the wrong aspects of Griffith. And obviously I don’t think Guts only liked Griffith because of his image lol, just that Guts really valued that image because like… he wants to be admired by someone admirable.
But I’m also going to say Griffith’s playfulness, because there’s something there that grabbed Guts early on, not just something he admired but something he genuinely liked, and I always come back to the waterfight. Guts has never had a friend his own age before, and he’s never had a chance to be a kid in his life. The waterfight is I can only assume the first time Guts fought just for fun.
And despite all the smokescreens of status and admirability and godliness etc, at the end of the day they just genuinely like each other, they like hanging out and having fun together.
Maybe you can say it’s both in combination – the fact that he’s larger than life, but has this more human, real side of him that is reachable and that he can genuinely connect with. It’s what makes Griffith’s “superiority” something he loves and wants to live up to, rather than something he resents.
Idk.
Griffith’s favourite non-physical quality of Guts’:
His determination. Whether it’s used against him, like during their first duel (or post Eclipse), or to fight for him, or to protect him, I think Guts’ willingness to do anything in a fight makes him swoon. One reason he refuses to try to reign him in despite Casca complaining that Guts gets away with everything lol. And one reason his heart started beating while he watched him fight Zodd.
What do you think? I kind of just stuck really close to things basically stated in canon but I think there are better, and probably shippier/more fun answers lol. If you have alternative suggestions I want to hear them.
yeah this is a good one. i do dig that armour design, at least when he’s got the full beast of darkness look and not the half face look.
It’s gotta be the romance novel cover:
But shoutout to this one for the intense Devilman vibes:
Anyone else wanna jump in and share their faves?
The line between think and desperately, desperately hope is thin lol, but yes. Also completely agree that the best outcome would be Guts killing one or more of his friends himself in beast of darkness mode.
The theory I’ve been pushing and will continue to push until Miura proves me wrong is that Casca’s ptsd despair is going to open the behelit, she’ll choose to become an apostle, and consequently Guts will succumb to the armour in his grief and outrage. Also symbolically it’s nice because something has to cause Guts to lose himself to the armour, we know this because of fifty pieces of foreshadowing, and Casca becoming a monster would work great for that since she basically symbolizes his tie to his humanity right now.
But anyway, whatever ends up happening, I hope it really shakes things up, raises the stakes, and causes serious permanent consequences, because we need a dose of darkness soon imho, and Guts’ fix Casca quest ending in tragedy would just… work so perfectly for me. I want it so bad lol.
tbh yeah it does seem like such an over the top reaction, especially since in griffith’s nightmare of the future he’s pretty again so whatever happened to his face is probably not permanently disfiguring to a huge extent (yeah it was a dream sequence but it was deliberately meant to be a realistic one). but imo there’s also a legit answer.
Guts’ kind of extreme, omg this can’t be griffith, omfg, reaction is less “oh no he’s ugly now” and more “wow i’m being confronted by the extremely painful, horrific, and undeniable fact that griffith is actually not a god, he’s human and vulnerable and broken and it’s my fault.”
it’s putting an image to Casca’s words:
Guts being hit over the head with the fact that this image:
is bullshit.
And I love that it happens when Guts takes off the mask, not before when he’s checking out his cut tendons and cut out tongue, because the mask is such a strong consistent symbol for the image Griffith hides behind.
tbh it doesn’t really matter what Griffith’s face looks like, it’s the fact that Guts takes off the mask and sees the real, human Griffith, and it hits him how false his idea of him, the idea he based his decision to leave around, was.
And it’s a nice set up for this moment later:
Guts is symbolically accepting the real Griffith here, but Griffith isn’t able to drop the image and be vulnerable yet. Another tragic missed connection.
(And yeah like @chaoticgaygriffith has said, from a character perspective Guts is still dancing around reality here, and it’s not til another few chapters that he really fully acknowledges how immensely he fucked up (”why do I always see these things… after they’re done and gone?”) but yk. it’s a baby steps attempt lol. the tragedy is that they both suck at this.)
Also an additional detail because I love it
Guts’ eventual acceptance of Griffith’s humanity mirrors Casca’s realization that her feelings for Griffith weren’t just distant awe and respect, but actually romantic, I’m just saying.
tyvm, I appreciate the message! honestly Berserk fans can get so vile with like, some of the shit you mention like rape jokes. not surprising considering the canon, but unfortunate, and I’m glad I can help provide an alternative.
also I’m tacking this on bc it’s a similar topic and I’m trying not to spam everyone’s dash lol:
xiyyh replied to your post “madchen
replied to your post “Do you have any thoughts about…”
all of this …. and it’s baffling to me how
many workarounds ppl come up with to argue the opposite
god same, it’s to the point where people might as well have their fingers in their ears going ‘la la la.’
like
the sheer number of berserk fans who don’t acknowledge/actively deny
that, say, Griffith valued Guts more than his dream, or Guts left the
Hawks to become Griffith’s friend and not to like, escape his sinister thrall lol, is mind
boggling. these aren’t interpretations, these are cold hard facts
directly stated many times.
like eg because I read the tv tropes
page before re-reading the manga for the first time in years I went in
assuming most of what I love about it (ie Griffith and Guts’
overwhelming feelings for each other) was subtext and just one potential
interpretation of many, rather than like, the hammered home point of
the story lol.
It really does feel like there are two completely different stories out there. And some of it is probably bc of scanlations, and anime vs manga fans, etc, but still. the fundamentals of the story remain the same, but you wouldn’t know it looking at fandom.
lol i could see it
also ngl i love the concept of griffith rebounding with the modern au equivalents of 5 apostles while guts’ rebound is serpico
serpico would have the sense to peace out when he realizes tho
I love getting questions! And I haven’t really discussed this as far as I remember.
But I think that moment makes a lot of sense tbh.
Griffith’s feelings towards Guts in his torture chamber monologue are incredibly intense, but not exactly positive. He’s all-consumingly in love with him, but he doesn’t want to be. Being in love with him is what lost him his dream and got him tortured for a year, which is a hell of an experience to resent someone for.
And the way his immediate response to Guts suddenly showing up is to try to strangle him seems like a very solid prelude to the sacrifice imo. Being in love is not fun for Griffith, it ruined his entire life, made him incredibly vulnerable, and made him emotionally dependant on a man who may very well leave him again and whose feelings Griffith has no reason to believe match his own.
If killing Guts can take the edge off those feelings and maybe return him back to factory settings when his dream was the most important thing and life made sense, in the irrational frame of mind he’s in after a year of torture, that would definitely seem like a good plan.
Add a side of plain old lashing out because he’s blaming Guts for the fact that he’s in that torture chamber, and I think it works very well that Griffith’s first act here is attempted strangulation.
What’s really incredible to me is that all it takes is Guts starting to cry and Griffith just welcomes him back, life destroying feelings and all. Like being in love is one thing, accepting that love and deciding to try to roll with it right after those feelings made him want to kill Guts is… wild.
This
to this
in a page.
So there’s also something to be said for extreme emotional instability after a year of torture, and a lifetime of repressing his feelings. He has no practice dealing with his feelings constructively, so when he can’t repress them he does some extreme, stupid things (like the duel, like the night with Charlotte, like self-harm, like reaching up to strangle Guts.)
OH AND ALSO it’s worth noting that Griffith is very aware that his hands don’t work anymore. He has no physical ability to kill Guts, and while in a moment of irrational overwhelming feeling he might try, I wouldn’t count this as a genuine murder attempt because somewhere in the back of his mind he knows he can’t actually strangle him. Like if, say, he had physical strength and access to a knife, I don’t think this moment would translate into suddenly slitting his throat without warning. Maybe more like holding the knife to his throat threateningly before dropping it and collapsing into his arms lol.
So tl;dr imo in this moment he’s spent a year hating Guts because he loves him and that ruined his life, so he’s lashing out and potentially trying to/wishing to cut those feelings off at the source the same way he does soon after during the Eclipse. But he just loves Guts so much he ends up holding his hand instead.
God I love this ship.
Anyway ty for sending this and your kind words, I hope you also have an awesome day!
This is a topic and a half lol. Ok, I have many many thoughts, and I’ll try laying some out.
To start, I’ve seen the heacanon that his mother was a prostitute a few times and tbh it makes a lot of sense to me and seems v plausible.
But also I don’t really get any indication that he views sex as a way to control/own others, at least not pre-Femto. I’d actually argue the exact opposite, that throughout the Golden Age sex for Griffith is indicative of his own powerlessness relative to others. Sex, to Griffith, is something that he can trade to people more powerful than him for something in return – or something people take from him.
(I mean you can argue that seduction and trading sex for power/security/etc is a way to control people, but everyone Griffith does this with has more societal power than him and Griffith never pursues sex with them for its own sake, so to me the dynamic comes across as less rakish rogue using sex to get what he wants and more csa victim with a warped view of sex as something to trade for the things he needs.)
under a cut for length and yk the whole topic
Gennon was straightforward prostitution, plus Griffith was a literal child whose guilt was taken advantage of by a pedophile. And as Griffith’s first sexual encounter we see, it certainly sets a tone and establishes the beginning of a pattern.
Later, as a villain, Gennon’s goal is literally just to rape Griffith, and Griffith is very aware of this, since he incorporates it into his battle plan. There’s also some indication that he’s been overtly getting his creep on for years on end, possibly explaining how Griffith knew Gennon would shoot himself in the foot just to get to him:
So Gennon is both a sexual threat and someone with power who gives Griffith something in exchange for sex.
Charlotte is a princess he has to seduce to realize his dream.
And when he does have sex with her I’d argue that it’s basically an attempt to escape from his feelings (rejection, need, self-loathing, being in love with Guts) through refocusing on his dream (which is consistently his alternative to and escape from Guts), essentially irrationally trying to prematurely seal the deal on the “transaction.”
It’s the sex version of this:
And it also negates every scrap of power he clawed his way up to and lands him in a dungeon.
Also disclaimer on why I treat that scene as consensual when I’m analyzing it here, Miura is a misogynist dumbass, narrative fails to follow through entirely on Charlotte’s “no,” yadda yadda yadda.
Next you have the torturer and his incredibly creepy suggestiveness, which makes Griffith’s sexual victimization here technically subtext, but I mean, “we were like husband and wife,” the Gennon-like fixation on Griffith’s beauty, the tongue thing, the uh speculum he was holding in his introduction… it’s not subtle subtext.
Then when Griffith makes a move on Casca in the wagon he’s offering himself to her because he’s entirely out of options and kind of desperately grasping at something, now sunk from trading sex for a kingdom to trading sex for a caretaker, painfully highlighting his complete and total lack of power at this point in his life, and the future he envisions should she take him up on that offer makes him suicidal.
So like, four out of four sexual encounters we’re aware of pre-Eclipse focus on his vulnerability and powerlessness, then he turns into an evil demon and expresses his newfound power and invulnerability(/frozen heart) thru rape. So yk, there’s a thread there to pick up theoretically.
I mean I honestly have a really difficult time ascribing any meaning
to the Eclipse rape beyond assuming Miura wanted a cheap + shocking way
to piss Guts off, write out Casca, and presumably get himself off
judging by how he drew it, but yk… take the rest of the Golden Age and
the general concept of Griffith’s inner darkness raping Casca, the last person he felt that sexualized powerlessness to, while
ignoring the depiction of the actual scene, and you can read some amount of depth/cycle of abuse stuff into it. That was probably at least part of the point, if I’m being generous to Miura and his writing.
(Really given the amount of content in Berserk that
revolves around sexual violence you can read a million things into the
Eclipse rape. But yk if Miura wanted me to do that, he shouldn’t’ve
treated it like a sudden detour into actual porn. Ok mini rant over.)
(Oh I should probably add that obviously Casca was in no way complicit in Griffith feeling vulnerable to her there lol and I’m not suggesting she bears any responsibility at all. Griffith in the wagon and his subsequent dream was basically him projecting a bunch of issues on her. I feel like that goes without saying but I want to cover my bases.)
Then you get NeoGriffith with his magically heightened literally untouchable, beyond the reach of man vs an army of monsters is basically in love with him stuff.
There is approximately 0 chance the placement of that “hunger and thirst” panel is accidental js.
But now Griffith has all the power. His beauty and magical sex appeal can be used as a tool without Griffith ever having to make himself vulnerable.
(Also speaking of using sex to control others… like I don’t think it fits human Griffith based on what we see in canon, but imo there’s plenty of room to explore that with NGriff.)
This isn’t a real threat, Griffith can just go “lol” and completely destroy him without breaking a sweat. Now Griffith has switched from he who is taken from to he who takes.
Like, the stakes of the Battle of Doldrey, for instance, was the threat of Griffith being captured as a sex slave. Some of the tension came from Casca’s suggestion that Griffith volunteering for the battle may not have been a rational decision, because his rapist is the commander of that army. We don’t learn Griffith’s full plan until partway through, there are cliffhanger moments during the battle chapters where Our Heroes look like they might lose, and the sequence is tense and nervewracking as a result.
The war against Ganeshka has absolutely no tension at all. There isn’t even a moment where the outcome is not absolutely certain. And that’s a strong way of showing that NeoGriffith may face the same threats he did as human Griffith, but he’s no longer vulnerable to them.
Uh I guess my point is basically that NeoGriffith’s kind of sexualized untouchability feels like a narrative response to human Griffith’s particularly sexualized vulnerability. Enemies and monsters still go on and on about how hot he is, but they can’t act on that now.
But there’s still Charlotte. Like, despite all this godly distance and inability to be harmed and pointed contrast to human Griffith experiencing sex solely as a bargaining chip or a weapon, he’s still gotta marry her to make his dream official.
I feel like it’s unlikely that Miura intends me to read their relationship like this, so it’s not gonna be addressed, but ngl it’s something I find theoretically interesting. Like I see a lot of people assume that NeoGriffith is going to like, murder Charlotte after they get married, and tbqh I think that’s generally stupid, but if there’s one angle you can look at the story from and conclude “yeah NGriff may just off Charlotte with extreme prejudice as soon as possible” it’s this imo. Not to prove how pointlessly maliciously evil he is lol, but because she still has a form of sexualized power over him.
But I think it’s more likely that NGriff doesn’t give a fuck anymore, or if he does he won’t admit it to himself, because he carved out most of his emotions and it’s gonna take more than that to get him to admit it didn’t completely work.
Also speaking of Charlotte there’s the whole like, heteronormativity and repression aspect while we’re talking Griffith and his relationship to sex. The related fact that he deliberately performs a certain image/makes himself a symbol. And I barely even mentioned Guts. Agh actually there is a ton more to say about Griffith + sex, but I don’t want this to be even longer lol.
So ok, those are my thoughts on Griffith + sex + power specifically.
I’ll just link you other stuff I’ve written which kind of covers a wider variety of topics re: Griffith and sex, if you’re interested.
heteronormativity:
https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/163698531431/well-this-originally-started-out-as-a-jokey-take
older post comparing his encounters w/ gennon and charlotte:
https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/160972170091/griffith-guilt-and-sex
there’s some stuff about how sexual trauma factors into his relationship with Guts here:
https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/165199335291/my-big-gay-berserk-analysis-4
falconia as an answer to all the csa trauma we see in the golden age + me complaining more about the eclipse rape lol:
https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/173042225356/this-is-about-falconia-bodies-and-lives-being
more on griffith + sex + powerlessness:
https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/172251791746/under-a-cut-because-a-this-is-largely-about-the
and a more fun headcanony post:
https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/173271902321/please-extrapolate-on-griffith-being-a-sub-and-why
(my headcanons tag has quite a few sex related posts and conversations but well they’re headcanons more than meta)
I’ve never really paid attention to the difference between the manga art and color pages/covers, other than enjoying the oil pastel look, but yeah w/ those examples I do see a difference. Maybe it’s the medium, or just spending more time and effort on the covers. Idk art is a mystery to me lol.
hey miura has cited disney as an influence
technically while talking about puck but still
Yeah I don’t think there’s any actual canon on apostles and how monstrous they look or don’t look, but it’s something I’ve wondered about. This is kind of what I theorize, that if they’ve succumbed more to their “monstrousness” they probably always look a little off, but if they’re one of the more chill, “human” seeming apostles their appearance could reflect that.
Like… since apostles transform from human to monster, and they have a scale of in between forms (like Rosine looking more human with Jill, looking more buggy by default, and going full moth fighter jet while fighting Guts), I do wonder if the extent of their transformation relies on their emotions and how much they allow their negative emotions (like bloodlust) to run rampant. Like w/ Guts succumbing to the armour, same kinda deal. And maybe it’s harder for them to look fully human, like they have to have a greater emotional control/tie to their humanity.
Kind of a pretentious meta-y reason lol, this is one of my fave post golden age chapters because I feel like Sonia’s thoughts on loneliness are extremely relevant to NeoGriffith and whatever residual feelings for Guts he has, based on how Miura frames him here, and like, the themes of Berserk in general.
Yk, Sonia is lonely because she’s different from everyone else, she briefly bonds with her Guts’ narrative counterpart and misses her, we get a conversation with Irvine about how relationships humanize and isolation dehumanizes, we get our usual light = companionship, darkness = isolation imagery, and then Sonia dreams of her and Schierke in the moonlight. Followed by the page of NeoGriffith surrounded by darkness, alone under that moon.
So “A dream of a kite and an owl playing in a moonlit forest” is roundaboutly griffguts related as far as I’m concerned bc Sonia and Schierke seem like a v strong parallel to me, and I like being needlessly subtle w/ my references sometimes lol.
I did actually answer this pretty recently so I’ll link you to that post.
But in brief, no – he stopped when Casca said stop, which kind of nips the idea that it was a rape attempt in the bud. It was an offer, the only way he could really make it without being able to speak, and it’s mainly meant to show how weak, helpless, and desperate he is at this point – particularly as it comes after Wyald helpfully explained how he’ll be dependant for the rest of his life.
And imo it’s meant to be a huge contrast to the Eclipse rape emphasizing Griffith’s lack of power – he’s not offering sex because he wants it, he’s offering because it’s the one thing he can give Casca in exchange for her continued loyalty/care, which fits the transactional pattern of Griffith’s other textual sexual encounters (Gennon for money, Charlotte for her kingdom), and leads directly to his nightmare where he envisions that potential future and immediately tries to kill himself.
tysm for the encouragement! i’m slowly but surely working on it.
This is the exact opposite of my opinion, up to and including the bit about the noses which are legit my favourite part of the character designs in the ovas lol.
but hey to each their own
i have posted 0 fics but i am in the process of writing multiple fics
I’ve got a couple short ones that I might even post soon, and a few medium length ones that I’m hoping to like, finish. It’s looking good at least like I’m over halfway done on some of them. I’ve got a finishing things problem, but I’ve been extra tenacious in the Berserk fandom for some reason so it’s promising.
oh i did make a vid one time if you’re interested in Berserk related creative endeavours in general, tho fair warning my song choice is ridiculous
this is a cop out but I honestly have no idea lol. Charlotte as a character, as far as I can tell, is uniformly weak and reticent except when she finds inner strength specifically through her feelings for Griffith lmao, so there’s no precedent for how she’d react if she learns about the Eclipse rape/Griffith being an evil demon in general. Surprisingly resilient and able to take action (even if only to leave) because she’s grown up a lot? Another 2 years of despondent moping? Who knows? Plus I can’t imagine how Miura would handle that subject, but I expect it would not be well.
So I’m just going to say Charlotte runs away with Anna. Hey she’s already been framed as a better alternative to Griffith once:
lol yeah that’s really funny if it is a coincidence, like, what are the odds?
2/2 And you probably already know this, but in roman history and
shakespeare’s julius caesar, casca was the soldier who stabbed caesar
first, and if you see griffith as caesar and guts as brutus, it makes me
wonder if casca will join guts in fighting griffith?)
I wonder about the relevance of her name, because it seems like the Eclipse rape (and presumably her subsequent insanity) wasn’t Miura’s original intention, since he’s mentioned that he originally didn’t plan to have Guts and Casca get together, and hooked them up for added Eclipse drama. So the portuguese connection might be coincidence. But who knows?
I could see the Julius Caesar reference being intentional for sure.
tbh tho my favourite Casca name connection is to the Casca the Eternal Mercenary series lol (I’ve heard it’s a Known Thing that Miura references names from old pulp fantasy books at least, so it’s maybe not totally out there?) I mean, the mercenary who stabbed Jesus is cursed to live as an immortal mercenary, which is like my ideal ending for Casca lmao, so I want to believe.
Either way I like that there are 2 possible connections to stabby soldiers.
lol same honestly. 200 chapters and only one rape threat way back in the conviction arc, imagine. Plus I love her day to day traveling clothes since joining Guts, like she doesn’t even have Casca style ridiculously tight fanservice pants. Like yeah she still gets occasional fanservice moments while bathing with Casca etc, and she definitely had her moments in the conviction arc, but Miura gets the Not As Big A Jerk As You Could Have Been award for her overall.
God it’s just the fucking worst isn’t it? And it’s so constant, both pre and post Eclipse, and so shitty, and often straight up tonally jarring lmao.
I actually recently wrote out a whole rant about how the depiction of Casca during the Eclipse isn’t just incredibly offensive but straight up objectively, qualitatively bad writing and bad art, but then I never posted it bc I got uncomfortably specific lol. But man, and it’s not just the Eclipse either, it’s everywhere.
Actually can I just (not cut for anything particularly triggering, just me going on a brief rant anyway lol. also tits)
imagine drawing this. You’re an artist and writer, you’re trying to depict a thematically resonant, significant moment that’s also very sad and emotionally touching, and this is how you choose to do it. Look at those metallic looking nipples. Do you think Miura even knows that nipples usually aren’t hard?
Why does he want the het male portion of his audience to be turned on during a sad moment that takes place after an attempted rape?
Or, conversely, why are so many men so awful that it doesn’t even occur to Miura or the majority of his audience that the image accompanying this sad text is inappropriately eroticized? That a mostly naked woman with those ridiculously (and kind of racistly lbr) bright, eye-catching nipples and gravity-defying tits actively fucks with the emotional tone you’re theoretically trying to convey? Because it’s just default to them: woman = naked and sexy as often as possible no matter what the context is.
Honestly it’s infuriating, and this example is nowhere near as fucked up as the Eclipse, or even the way Miura continues to eroticize Casca’s body when she’s traumatized and regressed to like mental infancy, etc.
lol another anon mentioned this to me ages ago and it’s been on my playlist since, so you’re in good company.
yk i’ve heard this song a million times in passing but I never had any idea what the actual lyrics are, but I looked them up and yeah this actually works really well lol
We know for a fact Guts was 15, Griffith was around the same age according to Guts’ guess.
Idk how high school grades/ages work lol but idc emphatic yes to guts and griffith going to prom as dates. i’ve got a real thing for the image of them awkwardly dancing together for some reason tbh so I immediately love this. Who do you think asks who? And are they friends first or do they start going out soon after they meet in this au?
Oooh yeah I’m into it, feels sort of Guts during the Black Swordsman arc pov to me. And I kind of love how melodramatic the song is, it’s delightful. Ty!
tyvm! idk if I could do anything good with it but it would at least be a really fun song to practice with, and listening to it I immediately had a potential structure in mind which is always a good sign.
But also don’t sell yourself short! If you have the software it just takes practice. A lot of programs have a steep learning curve but once you get the hang of all the finnicky technical details everything else kind of follows ime. And honestly being able to picture a good video is like 75% of the battle imho lol.
you're the only one 