Tag: ask

How do you think the story would’ve been different if Griffith could talk after he was tortured? What do you think Guts N Griffith w

oh no lol I think this got cut off. i have another message sent right after but it’s only the letter “S” so I think something went wrong/tumblr glitched and it would be great if you could resend your second question, because I’d love to answer it!

But as for the first part (and idk maybe I’ll end up accidentally answering the rest too) I think it would almost certainly change things.

And imo it wouldn’t be so much because of what Griffith would say than because of what Guts would say knowing Griffith can actually have a conversation.

Like, even despite having the relevation that he loves Guts so much his dream is dull in comparison, I find it so hard to picture Griffith actually saying anything like that outloud to Guts lol. He might, and I think that like, if someone was writing a fic eg, it’s possible to make it feel in character, so yk maybe having a tongue would fix everything because Griffith would finally be at the point where he knows what he feels and has nothing to lose by telling Guts.

But I think it’s more likely that what would actually change things is Guts starting the conversation. In canon he had that slow creeping realization that he fucked everything up, Griffith isn’t a god, Griffith needed Guts, and by leaving Guts threw away what he actually wanted. With Griffith actually available for comment, I could see Guts bringing this up.

Not like, “hey so are you in love with me or what?” lol, but more like just asking Griffith why, the way he always does when Griffith demonstrates feelings for him. He can’t come at it from an assumption that Griffith does love him, because Guts defaults to assuming he doesn’t, hence why it took him 3 days to finally accept Casca directly telling him he broke Griffith. He wouldn’t say, “is it my fault you ended up in a dungeon?”

But he might say, how did it all go so wrong? Some of the Hawks think it’s bc I left. I told them that was ridic but… then he sees the telling look on griffith’s face or something. THEN maybe the truth would smack Guts across the face and he’d tell Griffith why he left.

Conversely I could see Guts avoiding this conversation and Griffith absolutely not talking about his feelings unprompted until the Eclipse happens anyway lol. Or yk if they still got to the point where Griffith snapped and ended up in a shallow pond with a broken arm trying to kill himself, he would have screamed “stay away!” to Guts outloud, and everything would’ve come flooding out then. Considering his thoughts at that point (”I’ll never – never again with you”) I could see him just finally confessing everything he feels if he was able to, because he’s pretty far past self-restraint in that scene.

Idk if there’s anything Guts could say to avert the Eclipse tho, because at that point I think Griffith’s despair comes not so much from Guts maybe leaving again as the fact that because of how he feels Guts is fully capable of destroying him with a word. Buuut on the other hand Guts like falling to his knees in front of him and telling him he’s sorry and having his own mini guilt breakdown might assuage Griffith enough to pull him back from the brink of despair, and then they can start dealing with their shit.

I mean to be fair there’s a narrative reason Griffith had to lose his tongue, and it’s because they could theoretically talk everything out. So if Griffith could talk I think the Eclipse would be averted, though it might be a last minute thing lol bc they’re both still dumb and avoidant.

miura is open about berserks gay-influences. thought i just saw alovelyburns post i dont know how he said it in interviews. anyway when you make your protagonists’ intense feelings for each other the main driving force in your story its gonna turn into a love story lol

Oh yeah true, and tbf I don’t know exactly what he said in interviews either, since I’ve never even seen any direct translations, just paraphrases. But yeah lol regardless that last bit p much sums it up

Where do you think Rickert’s story is going? Like how is his storyline going to play into Guts’ and Griffith’s story (since the whole point of Berserk is Guts and Griffith’s relationship). Do you think he’ll meet up with Guts again at some point? Or maybe have another run in with Griffith? Sorry for all the questions lol but I’ve been thinking about Rickert’s overall purpose to the story at this point

Questions are gr8 no worries 🙂

Based on like, plot set up stuff in the last few chapters, my guess is that there’s going to be a time skip when everyone leaves Elfhelm. Rickert will have spent the last 10 or however many years in the Bakiraka village, he’ll be a cool warrior/inventor, he’ll give everyone weapon upgrades lol, and yk, village full of super intense assassins who do nothing but train + a wizard = handy canon fodder allies.

Now ofc I’m hoping really really hard that doesn’t mean we’re just going a rote route of Guts and co leaving Elfhelm to attack Falconia/Griffith and hitting up the Bakiraka and Rickert along the way for allies and power ups lol. I mean god could you imagine anything more boring?

Guts is due to go Beast of Darkness, so another possibility is that whichever of his friends survive whatever goes down trail him on his way to kill Griffith, stop at the village along the way, swap Guts stories with Rickert, get power ups and allies, and then go kick Guts’ ass and try to bring him to his senses.

Then there’s my Void (probably but hell maybe Elfhelm, I got some vague hopes there) is the actual big bad theory and Rickert and co could end up being part of an enemies teaming up to fight the worse dude plot.

Anyway I guess regardless of the circumstances my answer boils down to Rickert probably being the archetypal helpful ally who
provides weapons, maybe helps fight, and knows more about Guts and Griffith than just
about everyone else (pending Casca’s narrative future) and so can potentially provide ~wise insight~ wrt how the past could inform the future.

And also since he visited Falconia and met NeoGriffith there he could also tell Guts what happened, though I didn’t get the impression that he discovered anything particularly insightful. Unless the fact that he was able to slap Griffith goes somewhere interesting.

Has Miura ever reacted to or gave his opinion on the griffguts ship? Or Griffith or Guts possibly being gay???

I have heard second hand info that he’s been asked about the homoeroticism in interviews b4 and does the “two dudes can have an intense connection without it being sexual” song and dance.

Which doesn’t really make an ounce of difference to me lol. He added the gay subtext on purpose so whether he has to downplay it bc of industry/publisher concerns,
whether it’s something he regrets,

whether he just added it to make sure G+G have chemistry without anticipating that obviously many fans were going to take that and run with it, whether he added the subtext to highlight the fact that G+G never act on it and portray their relationship as “pure” in comparison to their histories of sexual assault (which imo would be the worst, most offensive option, and it doesn’t explain everything, but it’s a possibility I’ve been wondering about), etc, it doesn’t change the story he wrote, which is very very gay.

I’m lightweight confused about the whole NeoGriff, does he still care about Guts? Or have any feelings for him? Like is there any proof of this

Well there’s no proof, in the sense of like a definitive statement, because I think the point of NeoGriffith’s narrative right now is that it’s ambiguous. We’re being teased with the possibility, but Griffith is using the fetus as a scapegoat and excuse to ignore his feelings, and it’s technically left up in the air as to whether that’s true or whether Griffith is in denial. The reader is meant to be uncertain right now.

That said, I’m gonna give two reasons I’m 110% certain NGriff’s feelings are legit:

the first is straight up the entirety of Berserk lmao. Guts and Griffith’s feelings for each other are the core of the story, the driving thrust of every aspect of the narrative, from the Black Swordsman arc’s climactic reveal of those feelings, to the Golden Age’s exploration of them, to the Millenium Falcon arc’s tension as Guts tries to let go of those feelings and NeoGriffith’s feelings are left very pointedly ambiguous.

Like, even when Guts chooses Casca in the MF arc, his choice to stick with Casca is framed as the alternative to his feelings for Griffith. Those feelings drive Guts, whether it’s in feeling like he’s found the place where he belongs, striving to feel like he’s earned Griffith’s friendship, striving to hunt him down and kill him, or striving to escape his feelings.

You cannot write a story about those feelings, make Griffith’s choice to escape those feelings the epic climax of his narrative, then tease that those feelings may still exist only to go ‘psyche it’s actually just the unrelated feelings of a fetus.’ You can use the fetus to keep things ambiguous until the big reveal, but you can’t have the fetus be the reveal. it would be comedically absurd.

But the second reason is the visual details of two scenes:

image
image

Femto, completely pre-fetus, letting Guts go. These are Griffith’s feelings, maybe not entirely wiped away because Guts managed to survive the sacrifice, but for whatever reason, they’re there, and they’re still making him do irrational stupid shit for Guts.

We know Femto didn’t let Guts escape because he needed two people w/ brands of sacrifice and a fetus as part of a grand plan to resurrect himself three years later because we see that he has intent to kill. He tried to kill Skull Knight who narrowly dodged the telekinetic attack, and he’s raised his hand to attack again here, only to lower it after a close up specifically of Guts, the dude Griffith does stupid irrational shit for.

Then we close this moment with a distant shot of Femto from a high angle (used to make the subject appear weak/small/vulnerable) as a smear on the background, surrounded by monsters, perfectly evoking a feeling of isolation. This is what Griffith is left with after purposefully destroying his relationship with Guts – nothing but his own monstrousness.

This moment is followed through subtlely but consistently throughout NGriff’s narrative, in the way he’s portrayed as unknowable, distant, singular. He’s the absolute, without equal, and, in the context of Berserk’s themes, that’s just a grandiose way of saying he’s alone after sacrificing Guts.

The other of the two scenes is:

image

NeoGriffith has come to see Guts specifically to test whether anything can shake his heart. “It seems I am free,” he declares smugly. Then he watches Guts fight (and it’s v worth noting that his very first entranced glimpse of Guts back in chapter 12 was while observing another fight against a bigger stronger opponent, Guts throwing himself into danger then struggling his way out), and feels his heart start to stir after all.

“uhhhh that’s gotta be that fetus” thinks Griffith. Next page:

image

Like, everything about this says Griffith is lying to himself, at least where Guts is concerned. This is the page that inspired my url for a reason lol.

The positioning – Griffith left, fetus vs Guts right. Fetus is Griffith’s thoughts/hope, Guts is what’s right in front of him in reality.

The fact that this is the final page of the chapter, so it has a feeling of conclusiveness to it. Griffith is a champ at denial, but reality is still reality.

the “……..” “bthump,” that practically reads like a taunt.

The fact that Griffith deliberately came to face Guts to test himself, then his heart went off! Like I said at the start, there’s no way you make these dudes’ feelings the core of Berserk, have Griffith fail his own test of whether he successfully got rid of his, then say “lol it’s not really his feelings though.”

Liiiiike from a pure storytelling perspective, this scene is emotionally pointless if it ends up being the fetus after all. It may be significant to the plot eventually – I wouldn’t be surprised if it is to blame for Griffith saving Casca, even if I think that’s dumb as fuck lol – but the emotional purpose of this scene is to tease the audience.

Guts is unaware of Griffith’s heart doing anything so it’s meaningless to his emotional state and decisions.

It’s only meaningful to the audience, and only because we are invested in Griffith’s feelings after the Golden Age – we want Griffith to fail his test. “I am free” is disappointing, “my blood should have been frozen” is intriguing.
Griffith has dismissed his feelings by blaming them on the fetus, and if he’s right, then this scene is meaningless to him.

And if it turns out to be the fetus after all, it’s meaningless to us too.

Also I feel ridic doing this lol but I have such a huge backlog of posts by now that it almost seems like a waste not to link some when relevant, so for ~further reading~ lmao:

https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/165675984696/ok-the-chapter-where-neogriffiths-heart-starts

https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/174703956896/vs-of-only-10-chapters-previous-i-think-its

https://bthump.tumblr.com/post/174642925251/yk-what-this-is-what-berserk-is-about-like-if-i

I just wanted to let you know that I absolutely love the super analytical takes that you have on Guts and griffiths relationship. Its a shame that many berserk fans write off the sexual tension that’s shared between these two characters simply because they’re men and counting for the fact that many berserk fans are blatantly homophobic. What do you think berserk would look like if Guts chose to stay with Griffith when he became a lord? Or if guts stayed with crippled Griffith minus the eclipse.

Thank you so much!

Yeah it’s really unfortunate that a large majority of the fandom is totally steeped in homophobia bc honestly the most compelling aspect of Berserk (imo but also lbr objectively) is Griffith and Guts’ extremely charged relationship, and I think the fact that so much of fandom tries hard to downplay it is kind of itself proof of how super gay it is lol. Like they can insist it’s just platonic but the fact that they feel compelled to ignore huge important plot points like eg the fact that Guts’ sole motivation for leaving the Hawks was to become Griffith’s friend, or the fact that Griffith textually valued Guts over his dream, etc, is pretty telling. Would they need to ignore so much if they really believed they were only platonic bros?

(lol sorry think I just had to get that out of my system and you gave me an opening.)

But anyway wrt your question, I think it would depend why Guts chose to stay (did Griffith win their second duel? did some action of Griffith’s convince him that despite the speech Griffith does value him ridiculously highly? or did Guts never hear the Promrose Hall speech in the first place?), but regardless of the exact reason Guts stays, I imagine that Berserk would end up being pretty much a really compelling story about medieval politics and relationship drama lol.

Like, take the tone of Tombstone of Flame Part 2, and that would be Berserk. Cool political scheming and complicated yet intense character relationships. Actually I say “relationships” but really it’s just Guts and Griffith’s that gets the real intensity and complexity lol.

Tho speaking of, I don’t really know where Miura could’ve taken their relationship in this alternate version of Berserk. Like, I can only see them eventually getting together if the Eclipse doesn’t happen ngl. But idk I guess this version of Berserk would be shorter, and maybe Guts and Griffith would have some conflict (eg if Guts lost the duel, maybe Guts’ feelings of inadequacy vs Griffith’s feelings of rejection) that eventually gets resolved. Ooh yk the logical happy ending for them in this kind of AU would be Griffith forced to choose between his dream and Guts and choosing Guts.

So yeah how about that? Political scheming, Griffith’s rise to the throne, both Guts and Griffith filled with self-loathing and their relationship totally tanked because Griffith thinks Guts wanted to leave and he forced him to stay, and Guts thinks he’ll never be someone worthy of respect in Griffith’s eyes, neither of them acknowledging this and Guts maybe continuing to help him but beneath the surface their closeness is gone, but then plot happens, Griffith demonstrates how he really feels once again but rly decisively this time by prioritizing Guts over his dream again, and they both start to figure their shit out.

As for a no Eclipse AU, I think it’s actually the perfect scenario to force Guts, Griffith, and Casca to actually deal with their issues. Like, in canon the Eclipse is basically a giant distraction. For Griffith it’s an escape, for Guts it’s an excuse to bury all of his emotions except rage and swing his sword at monsters for 3 years (and that’s his own escape and outlet: “when I’m swinging this sword… I don’t have to think about anything”), for Casca it drives her insane and puts her entire character on hold.

Without it what you have is Griffith with no dream, his emotional dependency on Guts mirrored by his physical dependency, and no escape from either his feelings for Guts or his feelings of failure and self-loathing. You have Guts who has just realized how hard he fucked up, who blames himself for ruining everyone’s lives but especially Griffith’s, and who has just figured out how much he actually means to Griffith. And you have Casca who… idk I think maybe her biggest issue now is with Guts and Griffith both losing/giving up their “dreams” and gravitating towards each other, she’s lost her motivation. She switched from supporting Griffith’s dream to supporting Guts’ dream and she has to let both go and support herself instead of dudes imho. And okay, maybe Miura wouldn’t go that direction with her character, but idc.

But I’m going to stay vague on how these issues could be resolved and lead to a low key happy ending because I’ve had this as a fic idea on the backburner for ages and someday I might actually finish it lol.

what would open guts’ behelit and why/who he would sacrifice? this doesnt have to be about recent chapters (im hoping its casca’s behelit actually) but in an au

ngl I’ve wondered this a lot. What would make Guts fall into despair and choose to make a sacrifice?

pre-Eclipse, I don’t think there’s anything that could make him sacrifice Griffith, and Griffith is his most important person. Like, Griffith is his sole motivation for everything he does up til like chapter 130, so there’s nothing else that’s important enough to Guts to make him fall into despair imo. Griffith could make him fall into despair, but he’s not the sacrifice-the-person-you-love-to-kill-the-pain type.

However, that said, I think in like, an AU where the crimson behelit was Guts’ instead of Griffith’s, I could maybe see a scenario where Guts sacrifices the rest of the Hawks. Guts leaving the Hawks to go on his dream journey is kind of… paralleled to the Eclipse, in the sense that the Eclipse is a much more fucked up, dark, and emotionally intense version of prioritizing a dream (an escape from your feelings) over your friends – like in both scenarios the Hawks get screwed over because of someone’s willingness to prioritize their dream over their relationships to make themselves feel better.

So it stands to reason that if you jack up the emotional intensity, Guts’ reaction would similarly get darker and more intense until you reach his Eclipse.

Sooooooooooo idk I’m thinking maybe if Griffith successfully committed suicide after the rescue mission? Guts doesn’t reach him in time but is close enough to see it happen, blames everyone but especially himself… but idk I think if his despair was enough to open the behelit, what Guts would actually do instead of making a sacrifice is attack all the monsters until one killed him lol.

The problem I have is that Guts does have a need to escape his pain, he does it by killing stuff, but a calculated “yeah I sacrifice” doesn’t suit him. Like if he had the armour and this happened I could see him personally killing all his friends himself, but I can’t see him verbally agreeing to let demons eat them.

Maybe if he was the one who ended up tortured for a year and physically helpless. Take away his ability to lash out and he has no choice. Something else would still have to seal the deal tho, something involving Griffith. Being physically helpless would reinforce the idea of Griffith looking down on him which is what led to him leaving the Hawks in canon, so there’s something there…

OOH okay what if Guts ended up… idk getting blamed for the Queen’s assassination or something, maybe he was seen and recognized, whatever. Ends up in the torture chamber. Griffith sabotages his dream to rescue him. They save him but end up fleeing Midland, now Griffith is a traitor. So now Guts is physically helpless, can’t do the only thing he’s ever been able to do ie swing a sword, sees Griffith as insurmountably his superior now, they’ll never be equals, plus he blames himself for destroying Griffith’s dream, and has no outlet for anything he’s feeling.

agh tho would he sacrifice Griffith?

Ok more details: tensions are running high among the rescuers because it was meant to be a secret operation, but they were found out – and now every other Hawk still in Midland is in danger because if Griffith is a traitor they all are, and they could’ve been killed by now. So there’s blame being thrown around, esp at Griffith for gambling everything for Guts and losing. And while he knew it was a possibility, Griffith wasn’t intending to throw his kingdom away for Guts, so he’s like in shock right now at how fucked everything suddenly is. Meanwhile Guts is convincing himself that Griffith must be filled with regret and hating him…

lol idk can I just separate Griffith and have Guts sacrifice everyone else? I mean his dream, what he values above all else, is the idea of being Griffith’s equal (Griffith’s attention, respect, and love), it’s what he’d make a sacrifice for, so he can’t sacrifice Griffith to do it. Like Griffith’s dream and Guts are separate so he can sacrifice one for the other, Guts can’t sacrifice Griffith for his dream bc Griffith is his dream.

So idk I give up on the pre-eclipse scenario. All of the above but Griffith takes off before the Eclipse to find Rickert and the second unit or something and misses it lol. (Also I mean maybe Griffith losing his dream to save Guts would actually make Guts feel better, but idk I could def see him just feeling worse about that. So w/e.)

POST ECLIPSE tho is so much easier because now Guts can sacrifice Griffith. So after NGriff ditches him and Guts leaves with Casca, he kills Casca himself, behelit opens, Guts sacrifices Griff, Beast of Darknesses it up, and just lives for no reason but to kill, like he’s 14 again. And NGriff has to be a viable sacrifice bc there’s no one else so close to Guts they’re like a part of his soul, and even if you argue Casca is, she can’t be sacrificed twice. And I’m making this all up anyway so Guts can sacrifice NeoGriff bc I say so.

Anyway killing Casca is my automatic answer bc she represents his humanity and it was presented as a very real danger that could’ve happened if Guts didn’t meet his babysitters. Plus Guts would choose to make a sacrifice and go full monster rather than, say, committing suicide by apostle army, because he still has his dream which is now centred around killing Griffith.

Anyway ty for the question anon, this was fun to ramble about.

hey. asia… do you have any modern au coming out thoughtz?

(sry this took a while to answer bc i had to think about it lol)

tbh i could see so many different possibilities being in character, esp depending on the details of the au. But like, assuming this AU is as close to canon as possible while still being set in the present w/ current identity politics and a gay community etc, yk both still have traumatic histories, griffith still has a dream that requires marrying a woman, etc etc, I can maybe throw out a few ideas. tho again like, nothing set in stone.

I guess ultimately I really want them to be each others’ realizations.

I like the idea of Guts’ being a slow realization that kind of sneaks up on him, where first he realizes that he would absolutely be dtf Griffith and it’s not til after that realization that he figures out that makes him gay. Like I mean he’d fall into that “it’s not guys, it’s just you” cliche but he eventually realizes that no, actually it is men.

He might try experimenting too – like surely it’s just because Griffith looks androgynous, so being with a woman would be better – but nope, doesn’t work.

Might be worth mentioning here (tho i’m sure u already know this) that I hc Guts as gay rather than bi bc Miura did a great job of making his interest in Casca feel super inauthentic to me lol.

Also I think it’s fair to assume that his csa trauma would lead to some discomfort here, but at the same time I don’t think he’d consciously like assume all gay people are predatory or even assume his rapist was gay and not just a pedophile. He might be uncomfortable being checked out in bars at first, and I feel like he’d be prone to worrying that his sexuality makes him specifically more likely to hurt someone bc feeling like a monster is kind of a canon issue he has, but he’s smart and fairly self aware and wouldn’t make it anyone else’s problem for the most part, barring like flashbacks during sex or smthn.

Also he’s tough enough that he’d never really feel like he’s in physical danger with anyone else. So assuming he’s in a good place in his personal life (ie not in a walking disaster “don’t touch me” phase) I don’t think he’d show any discomfort. (And I mean in canon the first time we ever saw him relaxed and happy was while having a water fight with a naked dude who he thought came onto him when they first met a few days earlier. I really don’t think it would be a huge issue.)

And overall I think he’d be fairly low-key about it. He’s gay but it’s just a description to him rather than an identity to build his life around. He wouldn’t be closeted but he wouldn’t be out to everyone in his life like, idk coworkers or w/e. Tho eventually I think everyone would realize because I think he’d kind of want to show Griffith off lol.

Griffith I could see like, simultaneously knowing he’s gay all his life and refusing to fully acknowledge it. He’s gotta achieve a goal which requires a certain image which requires heterosexuality. Maybe he’s not actually attracted to women, whatever, but that doesn’t actually matter as far as he’s concerned.

So with Guts being his realization, what that means is that Guts is the breaking point where Griffith realizes he’d rather have Guts than the dream. Yk, like in canon, but with a) no torture chamber, and b) the addition of this realization leading to the larger realization that he can live as his authentic self and be happy.

Like I’ve mentioned before that in Berserk you have this dichotemy of the dream/het marriage/emotional repression vs guts/emotional expression and yk in a modern AU you can add coming out to emotional expression.

Like we’ve talked about this b4 but I’m saying it again bc I love this idea where Griffith realizing he’s in love with Guts and would rather be in a relationship with him than achieve whatever his modern AU dream is is like a catalyst for dropping the image of respectability and ~finding~ himself. He’d make a bunch of gay friends, start experimenting with more gnc looks, volunteer at pride, go to protests, etc.

Though if his motivations for achieving his dream are similar to canon (mb not the whole for the sake of the dead thing, but yk guilt, to assuage a feeling of inherent worthlessness, to justify things he did to achieve it that he’s ashamed of, w/e) there’s also plenty of room for some angst and drama in between that realization that he wants to give it all up for Guts and embracing a new life. Some “am I selfish/terrible for choosing Guts” soul searching or w/e.

ALSO I feel like modern au griffith could’ve been fairly gnc as a child – wanting to play with girls’ toys, singing along to britney spears, saying he wants to marry the disney princes when he grows up, wanting his hair long, playing dress up in dresses, etc – with some kind of catalyst that hammers home this idea that to get the thing he wants he has to police his behaviour and be like everyone else. this is self indulgent but i just like this concept of like, knowing what you’re about as a kid and then having to unlearn everything you’ve internalized since then. it’s an appealing narrative to me.

And like I could see Griffith’s trauma with Gennon actually affecting him and his opinions wrt sexuality/internalized homophobia more than Guts’ trauma affects Guts, mostly because Gennon was such a goddamn evil gay stereotype in canon, plus Griffith’s own self-loathing compounded w/ the idea that he’s always sort of known he was gay = a secondary motivation for trying to embody the image of a heteronormative ideal, to distance himself from the idea that he’s anything like Gennon. Like Griffith’s trauma comes with a side of effeminate stereotypes and ostentatious homoerotic castle decor, etc. But I don’t think it’s necessary either, like it’s not something I’m super interested in exploring and hey maybe modern AU Gennon is less of an offensive stereotype. and/or Griffith is v socially aware and capable of recognizing that Gennon isn’t representative. w/e, kind of a take it or leave it thing I guess.

Also I’m not really envisioning these 2 concepts (guts and griffith) in the same story lol. Maybe they could fit together but I didn’t really think about it.

And again like, I’m just throwing stuff at the wall lol, not saying this is my Official Take on Sexuality and Characterization or w/e.

I need some griffguts fanfic in my life man. Do you know of any (fairly long) griffguts fanfic series???

Sadly not very much since this is a v tiny fandom, and afaik there are no real epic like 100k fics, but here’s what I got.

The longest one I’ve read is still a wip but it’s def worth checking out:

do i wake or sleep – cainight

i’ve seen this recced before but I haven’t read it myself yet (also a wip):

taking it all the right way – diopan

this one’s p good and at least it’s over 10k?

the painted stage – alovelyburn

this is also good and not even quite 10k but hey it could still count as fairly long by some definitions lol:

oil, sweat, and cinder – applecrumbledore

I 100% believe that if Miura had written Casca as a dude, he would have been solely a love rival/competition for girl Griffith’s affections. Then when the eclipse happened, he’d be killed off. I just can’t imagine anything else for a male Casca lol, bc like you said, most of Casca’s story revolves around her being a woman

Yeah this sounds pretty spot on.

I mean maybe in theory dude Casca would have his own very different subplot and character arc, but I have no idea what it could be bc there’s nothing really to base it on. It’d basically be inventing a whole new character.

this is not a hate question i’m genuinely asking, when thinking about AUs how do you justify and form the personalities the characters have in them? bc if you have someone like guts who’s i’d say very largely a product of his environment and trauma it wouldn’t make sense for him to act like he does in canon bc in canon he acts like he does bc of certain reasons. the answer to this can be idc i just write what i want btw i just wanna know if you have something to say abt this :)

This is actually my biggest issue with imagining AUs lol, and why I’m kind of terrible at it.

I mean I think it’s easier for some people to see characters, their personality traits, and transpose them onto another setting, either with different reasons for those personality traits existing, or tweaking those reasons to fit a new setting (eg Guts could’ve still grown up in an abusive home in a modern AU, with a lot of the same issues). I think it takes a certain kind of talent to be able to like, know what to emphasize and what to downplay to make it work and make the characters feel IC in different settings while discouraging the readers from asking too many questions lol. But it’s a talent I absolutely don’t have.

Like if I was writing a griffguts f/f au fic (to take inspiration from that last ask), I have no idea what I’d do. I’d have to spend forever carefully figuring out exactly how to change their backgrounds to make sense and keep them in character. Like you could maybe argue that if Guts showed a willingness to fight/kill at a young age and a talent for it Gambino might still keep her around and teach her to use a sword bc he doesn’t really give a fuck as long as she can help him make money. Idk how believable that is, but it’s like, theoretically possible. If Casca can lead the Hawks Griffith could lead the Hawks as a woman, but ascending to the throne within the system just wouldn’t work in Berserk’s setting, she’d have to go full on Xena-esque warlord and forcibly take a kingdom. Which would still change her character significantly bc she’d be way darker. Her focus would be 100% military rather than focused on political machinations.

She could still be driven by a combination of childish determination and guilt tho at least? Idk my point is that there are a million things to consider in AUs and my problem is that I feel like I have to consider all of them bc I have a nitpicky analytical brain lol, I’d get stuck on all the details, while other people are good at just pinpointing the important stuff and focusing on that and making it work. So I’m basically with you lol, and when ppl ask me about stuff like AU ideas and whatever my answers tend to be kind of shallow bc of this.

Also this is why my favourite AUs to think about tend to be canon AUs/for want of a nail stuff where it’s the same as canon but a character made a different choice or something didn’t happen or whatever. It’s so much simpler.

How different do you think Berserk’s story would have been if Miura wrote Griffith as a girl instead of a boy? And made Casca a boy instead of a girl? Do you think we would have gotten some typical love triangle crap, or do you think Miura would have done something original?

Well Griffith trying to ascend to the throne thru military feats and heroism would ruin Miura’s ye olde sexism vibe, so he’d either have to boil Griffith’s whole narrative down to just seducing a prince thereby changing the entire plot, or go full (less campy) xena-esque historical fantasy where misogyny just isn’t really a problem. Which would actually be awesome, and if Guts was a woman too that would be the ideal story lol.

Also obviously Guts/Griffith would be considered canon. Like even if it was the exact same level of subtext as the actual story, Berserk would be known first and foremost as a tragic dark romance, and the fact that it’s full of blood and action would be considered secondary. No one in the world would read it and think Guts and Griffith were just platonic friends. I mean, I guess if I were reading it I’d deliberately choose to see them as platonic friends lol, but even I’d know they’re supposed to be in love.

I mean like, if this scene was hetero it would instantly seal the deal on their inevitable romance lbr, you’d be called delusional if you didn’t acknowledge it:

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And it’s just one moment out of so many lol.

Bringing Casca into the picture, Miura would go just as hard or harder on the Guts vs Casca as romantic rivals vibe. They probably wouldn’t have a bonding moment followed by burgeoning friendship tho, and obviously they wouldn’t hook up. I figure they’d remain standoffish and surly until the Eclipse, at which point something else would drive Casca insane and Guts could still eventually grow as a person by choosing to take him to Elfhelm bc he’s all that remains of the Hawks or w/e. Or more likely he’d die and something else would drive Guts’ Millenium Falcon narrative.

I don’t think there’d be much subtext between Guts and Casca in this theoretical version of Berserk, bc if Casca can’t be Guts’ actual love interest and no homo bridge between Guts and Griffith, what would his role in the story even be, other than the dude who brings Guts’ insecurities out (ie Casca’s pre-romance role). The story’s all about Guts and Griffith, making it het just cuts out the middle man.

On the other hand, if Guts and Casca did still eventually become friends and eventually Casca became the symbol of Guts’ humanity and way of distracting himself from Griffith, I might ship it lol. I can’t lie, I’d actually hate griffguts if it was het, especially if Griffith was a woman, and I’d be searching for an alternative. The narrative about destroying yourself and your ambition because you fell in love would be extremely not my thing if it was a woman falling for a dude, Griffith sacrificing Guts for her dream in this case would probably make me cheer lol, and I’d be first in line to suggest that NeoGriffith’s feelings aren’t real.

So idk I guess my answer to your question is that it would probably still be love triangle-y, but instead of Guts and Casca getting together the focus would stay on Guts and Griffith, probably with Casca as a more minor character. And the plot wouldn’t necessarily have to change, but the setting would to an extent, if we accept that a woman could become a war hero as part of a rise to power.

Also a lot of details would almost certainly change, like Casca’s backstory of being rescued by Griffith and hero worshipping her. I imagine Miura would be more likely to emphasize the protective aspect, and have Casca fall in love after seeing Griffith vulnerable, after joining the Hawks just because. Griffith saving Guts and Guts feeling like he’s found his home could be the same, but if Griffith is a woman I wonder if Guts’ backstory would change a bit to emphasize his mother – maybe instead of dying she’d take off. Yk, that kind of change.

My preference would be to change very little just on principle tbh, but I’m trying to think of what Miura would do lol. Anyway idk, this is getting long so I’ll end my answer here.

I’m curious. Does not Tumblr also allow you to post with images? since 4 weeks ago my Tumblr does not allow me to do that and just when the review of Farnese and Casca ends … it’s a pity that you can not make good reviews for people to enjoy and give you their opinion … by the way I send my support to your blog for that problem

Yeah it’s been glitching a lot more recently. And it used to be easily fixable by just refreshing the page and starting over, but now that doesn’t help, I need to close my whole browser before it’ll let me upload images again lol, it’s awful. Maybe that’s a firefox thing rather than a tumblr thing to be fair though.

If it hasn’t been working at all for you, have you tried restarting your browser? (I know I leave mine open for weeks at a time lol so you never know)

also if you’re writing a post with lots of images, i’ve found that it’s a good precaution to save as a draft every time you upload a new image, just in case it glitches. that way at least you don’t lose everything if it refuses to save lol.

anyway I hope the problem gets solved so you can make your post 🙂

How bout a college AU between Guts and Griffith? I’m thinking they end up being dorm mates and that’s how they first meet. Griffith possibly majoring in Biology or Chemistry. While Guts is undeclared and doesn’t quite know why he’s even there. Griffith being intrigued by Guts because he’s not like usual students on the campus and c’mon he finds Guts attractive. They maybe go on a few study dates and a few romantic ones around the campus.

Second part of college AU  I don’t think they’d actually get deeply
romantically and sexually interested (at least Guts) until their junior
or senior year. Griffith is shameless often showing Guts off to family
and friends and just everybody in 5 mike radius. I still think they’re
relationship would be complicated and maybe even toxic. I feel like
Griffith would still be really fearful of Guts leaving him and always
needs confirmation. While also being jealous and obsessive a lot of the
time.

lol I’d have to imagine this set this in a country with free higher education bc I can’t see Guts either going on scholarships or digging himself into debt just for the hell of it. But yk what they’re in medieval Europe in canon, so why not put them in modern day idk, denmark or whatever?

That aside, they’d both totally be into each other at first sight. w/ modern aus I feel like there’s a lot more freedom to have them actually recognize and act on their attraction a lot quicker than in canon, but they could both still have trauma complicating things.

Though without an all-consuming dream I think Griffith would be a lot more forthcoming about his own feelings. The dream is the source of like 90% of his canon stupidity lol, his inability to understand his feelings because he refuses to acknowledge he has any because he has to be the perfect leader because of the dream, eg. Though I think he’d still have elements of self-loathing without the dream, esp if he still has csa trauma in his past, so there’s a basis for a fear of rejection.

Also I could see Griffith being obsessive/possessive – that just seems like a part of Griffith’s childishness and something inherently him – but I don’t think he’d demonstrate it day-to-day. In canon he’s very chill 99% of the time, so in a modern au I think you’d only be able to tell how intense his feelings actually are in really significant moments. Otherwise it would manifest in just like, wanting to drag Guts out on pseudo coffee dates all the time or something lol. Little things that Guts would respond really well to because he rly wants that feeling of being wanted.

And they both have serious issues with perceived rejection which could fuck things up for them in a modern AU too. But again, I don’t think it’s constant, I think it’s something that comes out in bigger moments. Guts, say, telling Griffith he’s too busy to hang out today wouldn’t bother Griffith, but eg Guts deciding to get his own apartment would freak Griffith tf out. And likewise, Griffith having a social life that doesn’t involve Guts wouldn’t bother Guts, but Griffith eg ditching Guts bc he has to network would make him extremely broody and insecure.

Also I think either of them dating someone else before they’re officially together would send the other into a tailspin of seething jealousy. imo moreso in a modern AU than in canon because the two of them getting together is a more easily recognized possibility than in canon. Also if Griffith knows he’s gay in a modern AU and dates another dude before Guts, that might be a good catalyst for Guts realizing he’s super jealous bc he’s in love with Griffith.

Idk I just wanted to like muse aloud based on your asks lol, ty for sharing your ideas!

sub space griffith. just spreading good vibes.

this was a good thing to come home from work and see lol ty

(established relationship canon au where griffith and charlotte have arranged themselves a lavender marriage and the whole focus of an epic length story is guts and griffith slowly but surely working all the kinks out of and into their sex life. like i s2g every time i think about these 2 having sex there are fifty potential land mines and hazards and ways everything could go very wrong but also ways everything could go very right. there’s so much material there!

like just reading this ask made me think about how badly griffith could crash afterwards like the first few times. just from like, getting too into it to think and existing blissfully in the moment for an hour or two and therefore second guessing everything all at once when his brain comes back online after.

but then eventually he would just be able to enjoy losing himself during sex with no misgivings and that would be a genuinely significant bit of character development for him lol.)

Arranged marriage AU between Griffith and Guts

I gotta admit, I got nothin lol. This is like so different from canon my limited imagination can’t even begin to conceive of it. Like, in a world w/out heteronormativity where guts and griffith both have families w/ some amount of power (or idk have peasants ever done arranged marriages? i always think of it as an upper class thing), I’m already totally lost at sea.

If you want to throw some more ideas for this at me plz do tho, I’m intrigued, just not really capable of coming up wtih anything myself lol.

My Boy by Billie Eilish … I sort of get Guts or Casca feelings towards Griffith vibes. Also Ocean Eyes by the same artist. If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of music do you normally listen to???

yk I don’t rly know, I don’t have any genres I’m particularly into, I just tend to hear a song and look for more by the same person, and find music that way. And I don’t listen to the radio or use apps like idk spotify or w/e that rec u stuff so my method is just stumbling across it for the most part. I used to get most of my music from fanmixes lol.

And speaking of I’ve never heard of Billie Eillish either but I like these, ty! Especially My Boy tbh. And yeah I’m getting the same vibes.

Exist in me (scary all over flip) by Zaya Worldstar Money by Joji I definitely suggest watching the lyric video for the last song

ty! lol this kind of music is so different than what I usually listen to, it makes for a nice + interesting change. Also while they’re both rly abstract wrt lyrics, I’m feeling them for griffguts vibes. First feels like Guts pov post-Eclipse to me, and 2nd feels like Griffith pov from the duel to the Eclipse.

R u familiar with the Castlevania series by any chance? Sorry that this isn’t Berserk related, but wanted to hear your thoughts on this series if you know it.

The netflix one? Yeah I watched it, and it was good, but it didn’t really grab me tbh. The animation and voice acting were good, and it was engaging enough that I watched it in one sitting, and the characters were fun, but idk if I have much else to say about it other than that. I’ll probably watch season 2 when it comes out, and probably ship Trevor/Alucard until the inevitable het takes over lol.

(Also tbf it’s slightly Berserk related since I remember reading that Berserk was an inspiration for elements of the show, tho I forget what. But either way I don’t mind getting non Berserk-related asks lol)

What’s your opinion on the Berserk movie trilogy? I just finished watching them today and I have mixed feelings on them. They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t great either lol. I gotta admit tho they really did a good job with Griffith’s character design. They captured the whole ethereal beauty thing really well imo.

Yeah I kinda feel the same. I love the character designs to pieces tbh, I feel like they totally nailed everyone’s look, evoking Miura’s late Golden Age art, aka his best art imo, without copying it completely.

And I really liked some of the adaptation choices, like obviously the deliberate emphasis on the griffguts subtext was a lot of fun. Loved every change they made to the scene where Griffith shows up at Charlotte’s window – the way he’s completely out of it and nearly collapses on her, going ‘wait what the hell am I doing I should leave’ and having Charlotte ask him to stay, etc. Liked how they streamlined it to Griffith showing up personally after the 100 man fight. I really liked how they moved “the crystalization of your last tear shed” to after Guts’ post-Eclipse breakdown, and the whole violent history of humanity sequence during Griffith’s transformation was p great too. And in general I liked how they depicted everything they didn’t change from the manga, at least in the first two movies. There were a lot of good subtleties, it looked good aesthetically give or take some cgi, etc.

But I will never not be salty about losing Griffith’s backstory + Tombstone of Flame, and therefore like his entire motivation and character in general. I mean come on, Griffith’s self-harmy rant to Casca and “do you think that I’m cruel?” are absolutely necessary.

Instead they went for more of a Griffith is a shallow ambitious asshole who happened to fall in love with his bff, ruined his life because of it, and then decided not to make the same mistake twice angle. Like, the appearance of the pile of corpses in Griffith’s mind when Ubik’s convincing him to make the sacrifice doesn’t even work in the movies, it’s too little too late to show us his guilt issues now, especially without an actual focal point like the dead kid, or any visceral demonstration of how he feels, like the prostitution or the self harm. It all just comes across as shallow. They might as well have cut it out and had Griffith agree to make the sacrifice as soon as Void mentioned giving him wings and his dream back lol.

In general I actually feel like they did a fairly good job keeping the basic themes of Berserk intact while cutting out a ton of it lol. eg they lost 90% of Guts decision to leave, but Casca got a line towards the end about how people are weak so they cling to dreams and other people. So like, despite the fact that they cut out a huge amount of important stuff about Guts and Griffith’s dreams, I know they got the basic point and managed to convey it.

Tho ofc a lot of those scenes they lost are necessary not just bc of the information they convey but because of the emotional impact, so eg cutting Guts’ post-Zodd rooftop scene was still a terrible decision even if technically it doesn’t tell us anything absolutely necessary that we couldn’t’ve figured out from Guts angrily thinking about Casca calling him a mad dog followed by Griffith saying he had no reason to risk his life for him. It’s still a ~moment~ and it’s important to the impact of the Promrose Hall speech.

Also the third movie especially is kind of a mess imo. The rape scene was practically comedic w/ the music they added and way too long, the pacing was overall awful, they had Griffith overhear Guts wanting to stay for some reason which really muddies his whole subsequent breakdown, and they completely butchered the best and most important moment in the story:

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Like, this is coming from someone who thinks that like, half of Griffith’s motivation for making the sacrifice was just to get rid of Guts lol, I have no problem with him feeling spiteful here, but my god, this is cartoonish. Look at the original:

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Even the anime caught more nuance of feeling and it was never that great at conveying subtle emotions thru expression:

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Idk this is long and disorganized lol.

tl;dr I also have mixed feelings. I enjoy the experience of watching the movies, and I feel like the people who made them probably have a lot of the same takes on Berserk that I do, which can make a lot of details they included fairly rewarding (eg one I often cite is showing how Griffith lies about not feeling emotion by having him back his horse away from Gennon after claiming he doesn’t gaf), but overall I disagree with a lot of their adaptational decisions and it’s fairly frustrating lol.

I’ve heard there are some similarities between Berserk and Captive prince. Can you tell me the similarities-you see in the book

I only just started reading it so not yet, but sure when I finish the first one I’ll make a post and tag it anonymous for you. might not be for a while, I don’t read every day lol.

Tho I can say that so far the only similarity seems to be blond/brunet gay + political scheming in a made up historical kingdom lol, but again, I’m only a couple chapters in.

Do you think we’re ever going to get a straight answer on who Skull Knight really is or his full backstory? Or the members of the God Hand (excluding Griffith/Femto)?

If I was gonna place a bet, I’d say that we’re probably going to learn Void and Skull Knight’s backstory, but probably not the rest of the Godhand.

Skull Knight’s got a lot of parallels going on with Guts and Griffith, and there have been hints that Guts is in danger of repeating the past by doing the same thing he did – succumbing to the armour/revenge probably – so it seems likely that we’ll learn more of that past to shed light on the present.

I mean idk maybe we’ve already learned everything we need to know through hints and hearsay, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we do eventually get a fuller backstory on Void and Skull Knight and Gaiseric’s empire etc. But I think the rest of the Godhand’s backstories are gonna be left to our imaginations, because it just doesn’t seem too likely that they’ll be relevant.

what are contrasts and parallels between guts and griffith in your opinion?

lol despite this being a gr8 essay prompt I’m just going to brainstorm and list a bunch of stuff.

parallels:

larger-than-life figures often compared to storybook characters.

self-harming
while denying feeling responsible about people’s deaths. (Guts does
this a couple times in the Black Swordsman arc lol)

obsessions/dreams (castle vs revenge/becoming griffith’s equal/killing a bunch of stuff)

in
both cases dreams are defense mechanisms/escapes from the pain of the
world. “what do you fear in this place?” *points at castle* vs “when I’m
swinging this sword I don’t have to think about anything.”

personified inner darknesses (maybe you can become a real monster, like your friend)

guts deserting griffith vs neogriffith deserting guts, complete with maudlin comparison from guts

guts picking up the behelit in the black swordsman arc

farnese’s feelings for guts vs casca’s feelings for griffith

guts
similarly gathering followers with the phrase, “do what you want,”
maybe even things like griffith’s “blazing inferno” vs say serpico
musing on being affected by guts’ heat.

ok it’s a stretch but possibly both of them currently doing their damndest to forget the other?

denying feelings of guilt by rambling about their dreams in front of
Casca while dripping blood as Casca screams at them to stop hurting
themselves.

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nightmares/visions of being children screaming apologies to corpses? i mean you could sum this up with “guilt issues” I guess lol:

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ooh I’d argue the way both their dreams are based in childhood desires, a la:

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this

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this

(re: dude’s son who died in battle)

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this

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this

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this

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Contrasts:

Well there’s the surrendering to fate vs defying fate thing. Griffith embracing destiny by making the sacrifice. Relatedly ofc, defying God vs becoming the messiah.

I
have a post here that kind of boils down to saying that Griffith’s
narrative is about succumbing to evil in pursuit of the good, while
Guts’ narrative is about balancing the good and evil within himself. In a
way you could maybe say that Griffith is about harsh contrasts while
Guts is about shades of grey.

Guts allowing Casca to comfort him vs Griffith shutting her out.

Potentially the way Guts deliberately attempts to “let go” of his obsession with Griffith vs Griffith choosing his obsession, if
Guts’ revenge quest is meant to parallel Griffith’s kingdom. imo the
waters get muddy thanks to Guts’ dream sabotaging his relationship with
Griffith in the Golden Age vs Guts dream being the remnants of his
relationship with Griffith and sabotaging his “relationship” with Casca
post-Eclipse. Like, you could at the same time argue it’s a parallel in that they both try to let go of their obsession with the other by fixating on a goal (kingdom/fix casca). I mean the former is more likely, but fuck it I prefer the latter lol. (Hey Guts didn’t get the ominous armour of inner darkness until choosing Casca and since then his warnings about losing himself to it have gone hand in hand with warnings about Casca’s wishes not being Guts’ wishes. So in a way sticking with Casca is actually subtly tied to his inner darkness even if it is telling him to chase down Griffith. Hey you never know.)

Their Golden Age narratives parallel each other but in opposite directions which makes for a contrast: Griffith shifts from his dream as the most important thing to his relationship with Guts as the most important thing, while Guts shifts from his relationship with Griffith as the most important thing to his dream as the most important thing.

I guess there’s the obvious black vs white colour scheme thing lol. Which goes hand in hand with Griffith’s image as a knight in shining armour vs Guts’ scary black swordsman image. Tho I think it’s an oversimplification to say that eg NeoGriffith is evil with a good image and Guts is the opposite, which I’ve seen a lot lol.

Guts as a human struggling with his inner monster, NeoGriffith as a monster struggling with his inner human?

both struggle with loneliness and isolation but Griffith is social and Guts is a loner.

strategy vs… instinct? not quite the right word, but yk Griffith’s way of fighting is more intellectual and strategic and while Guts utilizes strategy a lot it’s more subconscious – like when he caught Silat’s chakrams because he didn’t overthink their trajectories.

Hmm I’m probably missing some obvious ones ngl, but I have to stop at some point and I feel like I’ve started scraping the bottom of the barrel lol.