mostly berserk meta. i'm into berserk mainly for griffguts and i'm a huge fan of griffith.
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.
jyuanka
replied to your post “Dry the River – No Rest”
hmmm try Draw your Swords by Angus & Julia Stone
ooh absolutely, the lyrics are basically perfect from Griff’s pov. ty for the suggestion!
@seisans said:
IM SO READY FOR THEIR LOVE STORY
ikr just gimme like a few chapters worth of flashback just for SK and Void. I need to see their tragic breakup in detail.
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.
oooh this is extremely griffguts, i like it. ty!
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.
nightmares/visions of being children screaming apologies to corpses? i mean you could sum this up with “guilt issues” I guess lol:
ooh I’d argue the way both their dreams are based in childhood desires, a la:
this
this
(re: dude’s son who died in battle)
this
this
this
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.
Honestly I like most of them lol, Berserk has a lot of fun and enjoyable tertiary characters.
If I had to list a few faves, maybe: Anna, Zodd, Theresia, Silat, Rosine, Irvine, Raksas, Gaston, Luca, tbh I liked Nina too for being a ridiculous walking disaster, Gambino actually – not as a person obviously but I think he’s p well-written as an abusive parent, can I count ascended Ganeshka lol?, and I’ll stop there.
Yeah assuming Casca both opens the behelit and then does actually make a sacrifice, I’m bracing for it to be Farnese even though that would be really disappointing and the last thing Berserk needs is fewer female characters going forward lol. But she does seem like the obvious candidate.
On the other hand my alternate theory is that she could sacrifice whatever entity counts as her fetus, whether it’s the demon fetus incorporated into NGriff or the Moonlight Boy or both or whatever. Most sacrifices we’ve seen have been parent/child, and we just saw the fetus as Casca’s metaphorical heart during the quest to put her back together. The fragile heart being what you bury when you sacrifice someone who is “part of your soul.” Plus it would have the added benefit of totally crushing that burgeoning hope for a family vibe and making Guts extra sad. Yk, it wouldn’t just be sacrificing the fetus, it would be sacrificing the concept of a happily ever after in a way.
Idk that’s probably wishful thinking, lbr it would be too perfect for me to ever happen lol. But I really want it.
Also I dig the idea of someone sacrificing Griffith (idk whether it would be possible but it should be) but if Casca’s gonna open the behelit it’s probably going to happen like, right now, and if she sacrifices Griffith then Berserk is over and I feel like that would be a really sudden ending lol.
GRIFFITH.
lol tbh I’ve been overthinking this question which is why it took me a while to answer. Like, weighing pros and cons, does the Eclipse rape count as bad character writing for Griffith/Femto/NGriff or does it at least make sense as long as you accept Miura’s premise that people’s inner darknesses are gonna be rapists 99% of the time, or is it a mistake that reflects on the character writing because of the weird tonal issues it raises with NGriff’s narrative? Like, is it a flaw more because it disaligns the way the author wants to portray Griffith vs the way the audience responds to Griffith? How is that weighted against Guts losing so much of what made him interesting through sometimes good, sometimes poor character development? If it’s believable character development is becoming less interesting still a flaw or just like, my opinion man?
And honestly fuck all that, idc. Griffith is the best written character because his highs are higher and more consistent and I find his lows easier to ignore bc they’re wrapped up in other bad writing, and there’s no way to give an objective answer to this anyway so I might as well let my opinions fly and gush for a while.
I just love his narrative.
From his first appearance as Femto taunting Guts by saying he’s beneath his notice to the hints that he certainly didn’t always feel that way to the first flashback of Griffith telling Guts he’s “the first person I’ve ever spoken to like this,” he’s introduced in such an interesting, intriguing way. Then in the Golden Age the way his apparent easy superiority and confidence eventually gives way to the reveal that he’s a giant mess of insecurities and guilt – and the way this reveal sheds so much interesting light on everything that came before, like his dream speech to Charlotte, his “I will choose the place where you die” speech to Guts, risking his life to save Guts, asking Guts to assassinate Julius, etc.
And the way all these apparent contradictions manage to come together to perfectly depict a man who hides behind an image so well that he believes the act himself, except in occasional moments of vulnerability when the truth seeps out.
Like there are so many interesting subtleties to dig into and so many contradictions to navigate but at the same time this one page tells you everything you really need to know to understand him:
This is a dude who will prostitute himself to a pedophile to prevent as many deaths as possible and then the next morning claim he doesn’t feel responsible for those deaths.
He will bury his guilt so hard that his reaction to a kid’s convenient death is triumphant delight, and then fret about killing hired goons and ask if Guts thinks he’s cruel, because Charlotte/his dream reinforces his image – his conviction – and Guts/love unravels it.
Also like, in general it’s fantastic how our impression of Griffith begins with the impression he leaves on everyone:
and then that is like, turned over and examined in the way Miura does, by showing how fucked up you have to be to embody a cool fictional archetype. (Incidentally I love how he does this with Guts’ antiheroism too. Like, hey turns out you gotta have a pretty fucked up life to become a cool monster fighting badass. tho even so Griffith’s is a little better imo because we spend more time with the image before revealing what’s underneath, whereas Guts didn’t even get a full chapter of tricking the audience into thinking he’s just a surly badass b4 the cracks started appearing.)
THEN his feelings for Guts come into it and complicate everything and we’re shown that there’s an internal war in Griffith between Guts and the dream that Griffith himself doesn’t even seem to realize until it’s too late. Which is just delightful bc god knows my favourite literary device is dramatic irony and idk if knowing more about Griffith’s inner conflicts than Griffith himself understands counts but damn it’s fun. And the moment when he does finally acknowledge it (”as he shines so glaring within me… the junk grows dull.”) is just intensely satisfying because we’ve been waiting for it since at least Casca’s “it’s as if… as if…” in chapter 18.
And the way everything cumulates so utterly perfectly in the sacrifice. Everything we see, everything in Griffith’s narrative, every moment leads directly to “I sacrifice,” and it all fits together immaculately. The dream as a defense mechanism, guilt, shame, emotional denial, “take all the frightening and sad things and cast them into the fire,” his desperate search for like, absolution, the way in the build up to the eclipse he’s stripped of everything he ever relied on as a defense, fucking love as the determining factor
the fact that he’s not sacrificing guts because he values the dream more, he’s sacrificing guts because he values guts more. like that’s just so fucking good, come on.
Honestly, Femto and NeoGriffith are both great as symbols too – Femto as everything Griffith was ashamed of but without the shame; NGriff as pure conviction, as the perfect image with none of the driving guilt. I can’t exactly say they’re great characters since the whole point of them is that they’re not fleshed out or relatable or understandable as humans one can empathize with, but they’re great conceptually. It’s cool to see the fully fleshed out, contradictory Griffith and then see him divided and carved up into representational aspects of himself.
Also the few hints of more are super satisfying with the full weight of Griffith’s human narrative behind them – Femto letting Guts escape, the unfrozen heartbeat, you know what I’m about.
And idk at the end of the day with Griffith Miura successfully (IMO) depicted a dude who would choose to sacrifice a group of people I really liked and become a demon for the greater good, for petty reasons, and out of fear of his own feelings, all at the same time, and make me empathize with that decision, and that seems like it would be hard to do. I mean granted, I’m in the minority when it comes to empathizing with him, but idk I can only answer this from my perspective lol.
Anyway to wrap this up I’m plugging this thing again because really could I have ever given any answer other than “the dude whose character arc I wrote over fifteen thousand words about”?
madchen
replied to your post “What do you think is the best way to adapt/be inspired by Berserk…”
WHAT
lol i guess like, they got gay historical fantasy political scheming in common
Honestly, ihni where that line is drawn lol, I don’t think I’ll be any help. Sorry, I wish I could give you a good thorough answer, but I‘d just as likely be completely wrong lol and accidentally advise plagiarism or smthn.
I hope you figure it out though and write your thing because any story inspired by some aspects of Berserk is probably worth writing!
@madchen said: berserk is literally an edgy spin off of
devilman and the dark souls franchise is heavily influenced by berserk
for like. a frame of reference. good artists steal etc etc@griff-guts said:
also to add onto what maddy said which i 100% agree with: the themes of
berserk are rly quite common in literature and other fiction. being
betrayed by a best friend, isolation and loneliness, dreams becoming
destructive, the nature of humanity and evil etc are all big parts of
berserk you can transfer into just about anything. berserk as a story
rly isn’t that revolutionary or original when you strip it down to its
essentials. its the writing, the tone, the characterization tht make it
originalI just want to add that the character of Laurent from the book series Captive Prince is also loosely based on/inspired by Griffith, and it’s not really the plot points that make that obvious (although there’s that too), it’s his, you know, “inner turmoil,” the themes around his feelings and such. So think about the themes of Berserk that you like and try exploring them in ways Miura, and maybe also other writers, didn’t.
omg lol i just started reading captive prince the other day. i was already enjoying it but if this is true i’m like, extra into it
i can’t decide if the first panel is a prelude to these, a contrast to these, or if i’m just seeing patterns where they don’t exist lol
concept: griffith reading outloud to guts while they’re lounging around in bed
madchen replied to your post “Hi! Do you have any other ships like Griffith x Guts you love? Like,…”
I can only think of a couple suggestions lol, and I might’ve been unnecessarily detailed since neither ship is all that obscure and you’ve probably heard of them, but w/e you gave me an excuse to compare them to griffguts lol and I’m taking it. so ty.
The first is Ryokira (manga version especially), which is kind of obvious and often compared to Griffguts since Berserk is partly inspired by Devilman. Both are friends to enemies ships, both involve inner darknesses and divine transformations/reveals, both have very convoluted borderline incestuous resurrection plots lmao, both have a blond in love with his bff and jealous of his bff’s sort-of-not-really girlfriend, both have one character ruining his whole life goal because he fell in love.
Ryokira is nice because it’s canon – even requited canon in the sequels, though you have to read Devilman Lady for that, and that’s a tall order lmao. There’s some fuck shit going on w/ homophobic (and transphobic) concepts of how same-sex attraction and gender intersect in both Devilman and Devilman Lady, but if you can power thru that it’s def worth reading the original manga, and like… worth reading a summary of DL lol.
And the other is H@nnigram from NBC’s H@nnibal!
tbh there are actually a surprising amount of similarities imo:
- mutual pining
- friends to enemies
- betrayal
- one character begins to succumb to his inner darkness because he wants revenge on the other
- one character is so in love with the other he destroys his own life and that love is the direct cause of his subsequent imprisonment
- one character tries to escape his own life-destroying feelings by killing the other and fails (fails way harder than Griffith tbh, who at least partially succeeded)
- both characters are lonely – one is antisocial, one is very social but hides his true self – and their connection is the only thing that assuages that loneliness for both of them.
- one character reacts to perceived rejection after letting the other “see” him very badly
- one character thinks about the other after (and probably during) sex
unlike Griffith H@nnibal is “evil” from the beginning so h@nnigram’s initial friendship has layers of deception and it’s pretty fucked up, and most of the romantic subtext and text happens after they become enemies. However also unlike Griffguts, H@nnigram is canonized at the end, and none of the het love interests last. Plus there’s no sexual assault.
Tbh I actually highly, highly recommend H@nnibal. It’s very weird and surreal with the most fun (imo) self-awarely pretentious bordering on campy tone, and 3 of the 4 main characters end up in same-sex romances. Also like, the Hannigram journey of ever-escalating subtext to absolutely incredible proportions until they finally just admit they’re in love is the most fun I’ve ever had watching a tv show ngl. And at only 3 seasons w/ 13 eps each it doesn’t take too long to get through.
vriska and terezi from homestuck are the
femslash hyper intense it’s complicated and our grief moves allegorical
mountains equivalent to griffguts that everyone whines about wanting
that being said
homestuck is literally a million words long and requires a good
appreciation of detail and meta to get into but its funny and enjoyable
you just have to chill out
oh yeah i’ve seen you mention them a lot in comparison
i
can’t lie i’m never gonna be able to get into homestuck but it’s good
to throw out there for anyone more able to read it than i am lol
I can only think of a couple suggestions lol, and I might’ve been unnecessarily detailed since neither ship is all that obscure and you’ve probably heard of them, but w/e you gave me an excuse to compare them to griffguts lol and I’m taking it. so ty.
The first is Ryokira (manga version especially), which is kind of obvious and often compared to Griffguts since Berserk is partly inspired by Devilman. Both are friends to enemies ships, both involve inner darknesses and divine transformations/reveals, both have very convoluted borderline incestuous resurrection plots lmao, both have a blond in love with his bff and jealous of his bff’s sort-of-not-really girlfriend, both have one character ruining his whole life goal because he fell in love.
Ryokira is nice because it’s canon – even requited canon in the sequels, though you have to read Devilman Lady for that, and that’s a tall order lmao. There’s some fuck shit going on w/ homophobic (and transphobic) concepts of how same-sex attraction and gender intersect in both Devilman and Devilman Lady, but if you can power thru that it’s def worth reading the original manga, and like… worth reading a summary of DL lol.
And the other is H@nnigram from NBC’s H@nnibal!
tbh there are actually a surprising amount of similarities imo:
unlike Griffith H@nnibal is “evil” from the beginning so h@nnigram’s initial friendship has layers of deception and it’s pretty fucked up, and most of the romantic subtext and text happens after they become enemies. However also unlike Griffguts, H@nnigram is canonized at the end, and none of the het love interests last. Plus there’s no sexual assault.
Tbh I actually highly, highly recommend H@nnibal. It’s very weird and surreal with the most fun (imo) self-awarely pretentious bordering on campy tone, and 3 of the 4 main characters end up in same-sex romances. Also like, the Hannigram journey of ever-escalating subtext to absolutely incredible proportions until they finally just admit they’re in love is the most fun I’ve ever had watching a tv show ngl. And at only 3 seasons w/ 13 eps each it doesn’t take too long to get through.
madchen
replied to your post “miss-soso-25
replied to your post “i know i’ve been talking about…”
tfw you discover your misogynistic manga is misogynistic
lol ikr. i wish i had the version of berserk where casca’s narrative is deep and meaningful and not
in love with dude a -> in love with dude b -> horrifically fridged to prove how evil dude a is now and to motivate dude b
miss-soso-25
replied to your post “i know i’ve been talking about casca a lot recently but I just kind of…”
I’ve literally never read a more shallow and lame interpretation of a character before, omggg ��
lol that’s not a character interpretation, that’s a critique of berserk. I literally just quoted her dialogue and explained what sucks about it.
But hey if you have a deep and meaningful interpretation of her chapter 45-46 monologue about how first she was in love with Griffith and then she started feeling things for Guts and that’s the root of every decision she’s made since she was twelve, I’d love to hear it. It’s not like I enjoy Miura’s misogynistic writing.
Like, she literally, straightforwardly describes basing her entire identity around her romantic feelings for Griffith, to the point where when she started feeling something for Guts she felt fundamentally changed and it freaked her out. Idk how you’d defend that writing choice or why you’d want to tbh.
Honestly, ihni where that line is drawn lol, I don’t think I’ll be any help. Sorry, I wish I could give you a good thorough answer, but I‘d just as likely be completely wrong lol and accidentally advise plagiarism or smthn.
I hope you figure it out though and write your thing because any story inspired by some aspects of Berserk is probably worth writing!
Awesome, I’m glad 🙂 and again like, feel free to link me so I can check it out when you have some stuff posted!
dreamygatsu
replied to your post “honestly before reading berserk i expected g*tsca to be some star…”
why do u put the * in “g*tsca” kfnfnf
lol i know it looks ridic and like i’m censoring it, but it’s just a courtesy thing so my negative posts about it don’t show up when ppl search for the ship
ikr, it really surprised me how downplayed and non-romantic their relationship was in the manga considering how fandom talks about it. and ofc it’s not even close to subtle about the fact that griffith is guts’ #1 priority and vice versa throughout the Golden Age. I mean, that’s literally the whole point lol, Griffith’s conflict during the GA is Guts vs the dream, and Guts’ conflict post-Eclipse is Griffith vs his humanity.
like the direct source of tension of both of their narratives is in resisting the fact that the other is Their Most Important Thing In Life.
also tbh I think the anime is to blame for a lot of the fandom’s interpretation of g*tsca. It often emphasizes their relationship in a way the manga just didn’t lol. Like eg anime Guts’ ultra romantic “I never want to stop holding you” or w/e the line was complete with Touching Music vs manga Guts’ ‘come with me because I want to fuck more’ complete with Ominous Eclipse Foreshadowing.
flooracle
replied to your post “flooracle
replied to your post “Hi! I have read an opinion ‘bout…”
Kinda does! 😮 To me it comes off as he’s finally found a social order he can get behind and will do whatever is necessary (by his morals) to uphold it. Nothing personal for Griffith like Guts.
yeah ia, locus’ devotion to griffith really feels way more like a knight to a king or even symbol, rather than anything personal. which is fitting for neogriffith who doesn’t seem like he’s had a personally revealing interaction ever lol, and it makes a great contrast to human griffith and his relationship w/ guts, and even the rest of the hawks too.
ty! and tbh I don’t think you don’t have to worry about that (unless Miura decides to retcon hard facts).
in addition to the count not being able to sacrifice guts because he doesn’t love guts lol, they point out
you can’t mark someone for sacrifice twice.
But yeah there’s nothing saying that someone marked for sacrifice can’t use a behelit themselves, and everyone knowledgeable about these things seems to believe that Guts potentially could use it (like Slan saying “why not make a sacrifice” in the troll cave, eg).
Though I don’t think the behelit is Guts’. Whether Miura was considering it for a while is a possibility, but since the Berserk armour made an appearance and we started getting a lot of “is it yours or are you just carrying it for someone hmmm” moments, I feel like it’s been really unlikely that Guts is ever going to use it. The armour is more his way of letting his inner darkness loose. Which has the handy effect of not being necessarily permanent, but with the ever present threat of becoming permanent. Perfect for a protagonist lol.
Also speaking of the Beast of Darkness telling Guts to assault and murder Casca so he can pursue Griffith, I think that could be another like… factor in Casca using the behelit. Right now she’s the symbol of Guts’ humanity, so if she becomes a monster it makes thematic sense for Guts to follow suit by losing himself to the armour. He could later be brought back by ~the power of friendship~ to demonstrate that despite their quest ending in tragedy and darkness, it was still worthwhile because of the character development and relationships formed along the way.
Ha! I’ve been fretting for ages about how Casca going apostle could work thematically w/ the whole interpersonal relationships as positive influences/power of love and friendship stuff of the last 200 chapters, but there, that totally fits! Then mb Casca could have her own personal narrative rather than continuing to be a symbol of Guts’ humanity.
hard same. I’d love to see one of those significant haircut moments for her, a sort of ‘casca’s back’ thing. yk assuming disaster doesn’t happen.
ok yk what
if half of the g*tsca sex scene is meant to be a positive step towards guts getting over his trauma, and ignoring my personal feelings by all rights it absolutely should be, because the central point of berserk is that interpersonal relationships are positive ways to heal from trauma and guts having a flashback and then talking it through in front of Casca b4 having comfort sex seems like it fits right into that theme
so yeah if that is meant to be a positive emotionally healing experience, then i simply do not understand why it… changes literally nothing.
guts’ dream is a distraction, swinging his sword is his way of not thinking about his issues, and after this he goes right back to harping on about his dream and insisting he’s gonna keep fighting stronger and stronger enemies.
during the wyald fight he refuses to let casca help and refuses to run because he feels like he’s got a score to settle with monsters as a concept, and therefore he has to beat wyald all by himself (”by my own sword”), which is also an indication that he’s still mired in his issues, obsessed with his dream, lashing out to assuage his personal pain.
and he finally, finally chooses to let go of his dream for someone else’s sake when it’s Griffith who needs him, not Casca.
having sex with Casca after the flashback should be Guts’ turning point. When Casca asks him to stay his answer should be yes, or at least be ambiguous enough to show that he’s seriously considering it. that he’s beginning to recognize that relationships > dreams and the Hawks are his family. He suggests that Casca come along, but makes it very clear that his dream gets first priority when he does. “Whether bein’ with you will get in the way of what I want to do… or the opposite… I can’t tell now.”
rather than considering staying when Casca asks, he immediately says he wants “to draw a line, keep things separate.” And ofc Griffith ends up being the turning point. Casca telling him Griffith destroyed himself because of him, thinking about Griffith’s emotional vulnerability during the rescue mission, finding Griffith after a year of torture and now dependant – these are all what lead to Guts wavering and wondering if leaving was a mistake. Not Casca yelling that he’s a selfish idiot who only cares about himself and dreams, but Casca yelling that Griffith ended up in a torture chamber because of him.
Miura even shows us Guts choosing to stay with Griffith before even consulting Casca.
Like he could’ve split the difference, had Casca tell Guts she can’t leave with him because she needs to take care of Griffith and have Guts make up his mind then, showing that his relationships with Casca and Griffith are at least equal in importance, but nope. Guts wants to stay with Griffith regardless of what Casca decides. It’s before they talk again that he reaches his conclusion that he fucked up and the Hawks were his home all along:
their relationship could not be more of an afterthought to Miura here. it’s so painfully clear that he added it just to destroy her character and motivate Guts, because where there should be a shitload of thematic resonance and character development in their relationship, there’s none. it’s absolutely unnecessary, it affects nothing at all except the eclipse rape, to such an extent that it’s awkward, because it would’ve been so easy and straightforward to tie it into existing themes and make their relationship matter, and Miura just didn’t bother.
Like if I shipped them I’d be mad lol, I’d feel ripped off. Instead I’m just weirded out by how badly written this one subplot is in the midst of the otherwise pretty outstanding Golden Age.
lol I’m glad you’re into my ideas, ty! and also yeah, ikwym about The Dread too. At least we’ll always have the Golden Age I guess? As far as endings go, “You’re the only one… you’re the only one… who made me forget my dream. I sacrifice.” is flawless so I’ll just pretend that’s the real ending if I need to lol. Or Guts picking up the Count’s behelit and walking sadly out of the castle at the end of the BS arc.
a+ content. guts not even rly bored, just staring off into space and idly running a hand thru griffith’s hair.
I made a sideblog and just started liveblogging into the void lol. ihni how people found me but eventually followers started to trickle in. Tho like, I liveblogged half of Berserk before I got more than a handful of readers, so perseverence is probably key. Don’t be discouraged if your first few posts don’t get much response.
It probably would’ve helped if I’d followed people first and sought out interaction too lol, so I recommend doing that, replying to people’s posts, reblogging stuff and starting convos, etc. I know I’m more likely to follow people (or regularly scroll through their blogs when I’m bored lol, since I like to keep my dash fairly slow) if I’ve seen them in my notes and interacted with them. And it’s a good way to make friends.
So yeah I guess my advice is just do it, follow people and don’t be shy about interacting with them, and don’t expect to get like hundreds of followers immediately, but give it some time and eventually you’ll get noticed. Build it and they’ll come lol.
Oh also tag your posts. Personally I avoid putting anything that could be even a little controversial in the general Berserk tag lol, but if you tag stuff berserk, or griffguts, or whatever, ppl should see it.
C A S C A
I got this pipe dream of Casca using the behelit, being the one to kill NGriff, then ending up an immortal mercenary a la Zodd. (Hey, if the rumours are true about her being named after this book it might be plausible.) It would be a sad happy ending for her – alone, a monster, but like, finally her own sword.
And Casca riding off into the sunset with Farnese as a genuine happy ending is my other pipe dream, so Farnese is another character I’d prefer not to die.
I suppose I’d like Rickert to live too. And I can’t immediately think of a fitting way for Serpico to die, and I like him, so I’ll err on the side of wanting him to survive also.
I’d probably want Puck to live, though I could maybe see killing him off for a huge “shit just got real” moment since he’s the second longest running character in the manga and p much represents positivity lol. But I doubt it.
I’d want Charlotte to outlive NGriff and take over ruling Falconia. With Anna.
I think that’s about it, everyone else I either couldn’t care less if they live or die, or I actively want them to die lol.
On that note, Guts is the character who I probably most want to die. After his whole narrative full of being “the struggler,” refusing to die againt all odds, etc, I’d find it so anticlimatic if he lived happily ever after and died of old age lmao. His story should build to a v meaningful and emotional death imo. Also purposeful – self-sacrifice, dying to take NGriff down with him (lbr the two of them dying together would be gr8), letting NGriff stab him the way he often lets people stab him when he’s upset lol, something like that. It should feel like a choice on his part, a significant and revealing contrast to his struggler thing.
imo the only other fitting cap to his life of refusing to die would be becoming immortal, and I think that would be framed as a sadder ending for him than a meaningful death, since he’d basically be following in Skull Knight’s footsteps in that case, which has always been suggested as a Bad Ending.
Also I want NGriff to either die or live forever haunted by Guts’ memory.
This is all ignoring the ominous afterlife thing, which tbf is a huge thing to ignore, but w/e. I’m not that interested in Berserk’s afterlife, idc whether my faves go to the nice whirlpool or the mean whirlpool. (Tho honestly the happiest ending of all as far as I’m concerned would be Casca and Farnese living happily ever after while Guts and Griffith end up dragging each other to hell and ~becoming one~ so if afterlives feature heavily at the end let’s do that. hey it’d be a fitting end to all the equals shit too. you’re truly equal when you’re just a big mass of souls melding together.)
(I mean theoretically ending up in heaven together works too but I feel like there are too many hoops to jump through to justify that lol. just as long as they aren’t in separate afterlife pools.)
Oh, lots.
Off the top of my head I find them fairly disappointing. I feel like Miura’s really half-assing this glimpse into Casca’s psyche – eg we got a few scattered Golden Age scenes from Casca’s perspective, but they didn’t bring anything new to the table, we didn’t learn anything about Casca that wasn’t already obvious. The chapter full of dick monsters was ridiculous lol, and the whole concept of piecing Casca together like gluing together a broken doll is like, kind of cliche and super shallow? Again, we’re not learning anything about Casca, we’re just montaging through a dumb dream quest.
On the other hand this sequence does have good points. I loved Farnese w/ tiny Casca. The fact that Farnese is now v intimately familiar with Casca’s whole life, seeing through her eyes and feeling her feelings, is interesting from a shippy standpoint even if canon does nothing with it. I liked that dog Guts just fucked right off and got destructive to everyone around him when pterodactyl Femto showed up, to the point where they were worried he’d smash Casca. Gives me hope lmao. The portrayal of the Eclipse was remarkably restrained so I applaud Miura for that lol. And of course I loved that Casca’s heart is covered in ominous despair thorns, and that shit got dark as soon as Casca saw Guts after waking up.
Like it’s not enough to make me super confident that g*tsca isn’t gonna happen, but it was enough to make me fistpump lol.
I have mixed feelings about the fetus showing up. On the one hand, I fucking hate that fetus and every glimpse of it fills me with dread. On the other hand, the fact that it symbolizes Casca’s heart backs up my wild reach-y theory that she might sacrifice it lol.
I have seized on the fact that Danann 180ed from ‘get lost Guts Casca’s scared of you’ to ‘wear this dress and go see Guts right now’ and I completely believe that Danann is plotting something and Casca going into despair as soon as she sees Guts (who has a behelit on him js js) was planned.
Actually here’s my post full of plot-focused theorizing if you’re interested.
(This is the anon who talked about replacing the rpg squad lmao)
Actually you know what, I’d be so happy if Guts’ group was made up of
Farnese, Serpico, Puck, Silat, and Rickert. That’s it lol. I’m not even
gonna complain about Casca bc I don’t think she’s going anywhere
Honestly same, this would be a rly fun lineup (well, lose Erica, but i think you did in your 2nd message lol). I’d love to see Silat and Guts interact more especially tbh, I think they’d be entertaining reluctant allies.
you're the only one 