Tag: b

You mentioned something before about Muria’s “shit writing sometimes” what do you mean by that?

Under a cut because I don’t like to be rly critical of Berserk out in the open lol.

iirc the context of me using that specific phrase was both the Eclipse rape and Griffith’s night with Charlotte.

I think the Eclipse rape was absolutely terrible writing (well, storytelling, let’s say, because a lot of what’s bad about it is in the art) for several reasons:

1. destroys Casca as a character to make Guts feel bad and motivate him.

2. objectifies and eroticizes Casca during the rape (v sexualized angles, lots of t+a, overlong and overly graphic, etc), either to titilate the straight dude audience or bc Miura doesn’t know how else to depict the sexual assault of women.

3. totally overwrites Guts’ own childhood trauma – now his worst memories, the stuff that makes him feel the “worst he ever feels” is something that happened to someone else, who doesn’t even get a reaction to her own pain because her mind is basically wiped. I find this really unfortunate because I liked that Guts had actual personal trauma instead of the more typical for dude protagonists trauma-by-proxy. And it’s not realistic that he would get over it after one flashback and confession to Casca, but that is what we’re shown happened – because after that his childhood trauma is never referred to again, except in one flashback chapter featuring teenager Guts. It’s lazy writing imo, and it ruins an interesting and personal traumatic backstory that manly dude protagonists almost never get by replacing it with a dime-a-dozen misogynist fridged girlfriend backstory.

4. tbh it is really jarring and fucked up how you spend 2 emotional chapters with Casca, in her head from her point of view, as she fights and runs with Judeau, and then the 2nd chapter ends with a bunch of tentacles ripping her clothes off and suddenly you’re back with Guts and you never get Casca’s perspective again. tonally it’s a mess – heartfelt tragedy to pornographic objectification within a page – and it’s just so emblematic of how Miura treats Casca as a character. Her main function in the story is to be objectified and assaulted and saved by men, and when she gets good, relatable and empathetic character moments they’re short-lived before she becomes a damsel again.

4.5. and speaking of perspective, it’s fucked up that this horrible experience that breaks Casca’s mind is shown from Guts’ perspective. We’re meant to be relating to his horror at seeing his former best friend raping his girlfriend, we’re not meant to be relating to Casca in this moment. During her previous rape attempts we at least got her perspective on it, we were shown her fear, we heard her thoughts. But not here – here she’s just a violated body existing to traumatize Guts.

5. Based on Miura saying he had Guts and Casca get together just to make the Eclipse more dramatic it strongly suggests to me that not only was her rape solely there to make Guts feel bad and give Femto something to do to make everyone hate him, he wrote her out as a character afterwards because he didn’t know what to do with her – she wasn’t around during the Black Swordsman arc so he had to throw her away for a while, then turn her into nothing more than a symbol of Guts’ humanity, with no character of her own. (Actually tbh Miura didn’t even need to say he threw Guts and Casca together for drama, that comes across pretty clear to me in the writing lol. When I read that my reaction was pretty much just a sense of validation.)

6. Also regressing into a walking infant is not a realistic reaction to trauma, it’s just storytelling convenience, and Casca’s current character as basically a child with an often still sexualized adult body skeeves me out.

Okay that’s enough about the Eclipse rape. I really, really hate it tbh lol.

I also mentioned the scene where Griffith and Charlotte fuck, and more briefly I think that’s bad writing because Miura literally wrote a rape scene – Charlotte said “no” – and then he treated it as consensual sex narratively because Charlotte got into it partway through. Which is very typical male writer bad writing, it’s something you see a LOT – prim virgin has to protest to show that she’s pure and proper, but the dude is good at sex so she soon realizes how great it is and everything’s okay – and it’s really misogynist and fucked up. It’s offensive writing, and it’s just plain bad writing because what we see depicted (rape) isn’t what we’re told happened (consensual sex that Charlotte enjoyed and has no misgivings about and the negative part is that Griffith is a self-destructive idiot who seduced her too soon and ended up in a dungeon for it, not that she said no).

If there was even a hint that Miura recognizes it as rape, some context showing that Charlotte’s feelings about it are complicated, anything like that, I’d be more okay with it, but there’s really nothing. Charlotte adores him to pieces afterwards and the king is angry because he’s a rapist creep, not because he’s protective or anything. Tbh I wholeheartedly approved of the film version’s choice to give Charlotte more agency and have her ask Griffith to stay and move his hand to her chest herself. It seems more in keeping with the spirit of the scene and Charlotte’s feelings about it.

In a more general sense, basically I think Miura as a storyteller has a lot of strengths, but he also has a lot of flaws. Like overall I find Miura’s strengths as a writer are enough to keep me going through the bad stuff, but sometimes it’s a struggle lol and I like to complain about it occasionally. Not all his flaws revolve around rape or offensive writing choices (like eg I think he walks a fine line with tone and sometimes his lighthearted moments come across as jarring, interrupting the flow of action, or awkward), but those are the ones that really stand out and that I’m most likely to describe as shitty writing lol.

ok wait ignore that last post, while trying to find out more about him i read miura’s tv tropes page, which lists his stated influences on berserk and

Kaze to Ki no Uta

everybody go home, gay mystery solved

ok so i talk a lot about how gay berserk is but i tend to qualify that as my author is dead opinion regardless of miura’s intent which could be anything yadda yadda yadda, and like i exaggerate a lot too and deliberately find subtext that I don’t think is intentional. and like eg when i wrote that big gay analysis I was v careful to say that I’m making no guesses or assumptions about Miura’s intentions.

but yk what i do have some thoughts on Miura’s intent, especially right now after seeing a few ppl in succession complain about how berserk isn’t gay omg, so here’s what i genuinely believe. i’m not saying this is like, 100% inarguable truth lol, this is theorizing, but this is my earnest belief, like, if you asked me my real opinion on Miura’s intent wrt the gay content, this is it:

I think Griffith is absolutely intented to be read as gay, or at the very least in love with and sexually attracted to Guts.

I also think Serpico is intended to be read as gay for that matter though it’s much less relevant and I’m more tentative about this. Like I def get gay vibes from him and fully expect him to never exhibit sexual interest in a woman but I also wouldn’t be too surprised to be proven wrong.

And I think the undertone of sexual desire wrt Guts’ feelings for Griffith is very intentional. I don’t think the general Berserk audience is meant to read Guts as anything other than heterosexual, but yeah I think the gay subtext applies to him as well, purposefully. I think Miura’s intention with that was to a) heighten the intensity of his relationship with Griffith, both friendship and enmity, and b) add to the sense of missed opportunity in the griffguts relationship.

And yeah speaking of, I think the relationship between Guts and Griffith is purposefully layered with romance and suggestions of physical attraction. I don’t think Miura intended it to, say, the degree I wrote about in my giant gay analysis, but I definitely think a lot of it is intentional.

The visual chemistry and romantic atmosphere in certain scenes like the “do I need a reason” scene. The homoerotic tension of their first duel, commented on by the characters. The parallel to the Count and his wife. Casca very nearly telling Guts that Griffith is in love with him several times of course. Casca and Guts’ early relationship having suggestions of romantic rivalry for Griffith. Certain aspects of Guts’ romantic relationship with Casca, eg the way their sex scene parallels significant moments each of them had with Griffith (the final duel in Guts’ case, trying to comfort him in the river in Casca’s). Griffith thinking about Guts while fucking Charlotte. The sensuality of Griffith’s resurrection and Guts’ reaction to it. The extremely suggestive language the hound uses while goading Guts about his “longing for” Griffith.

Like here’s the thing: Guts and Griffith’s relationship and history of betrayal is introduced to us through a parallel to a dude and his wife. 10 minutes after they meet properly for the first time Guts asks if Griffith is gay and Griffith doesn’t answer. Their subsequent duel is extremely deliberately homoerotic and Guts offers himself sexually to Griffith if he loses. A couple chapters later he walks in on Griffith naked, stares at him, then two of their most influential moments follow with Griffith still naked – the waterfight when they start to bond, and Griffith’s imperious speech about his dream. Casca is canonically jealous of Guts’ relationship with Griffith because she has a crush on Griffith. They both have non-consensual traumatic sexual encounters with other men in their histories. Guts’ trauma is referenced when he first meets and duels Griffith in his offer of sexual slavery to him, and Griffith’s trauma is revealed in the same sequence that Casca reveals she’s jealous of Guts and nearly says that Griffith is in love with him directly, which ties those experiences to their current relationship, colours it, and explains why these dudes are so fucking repressed about it.

Berserk is, imho, largely a gay story. It’s not textually gay (except when it comes to predatory stereotypes) but the subtext is purposeful. It’s commented on by the characters. It’s almost as much a gay story as Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (the movie I use as my #1 example of subtextual gay where the homoeroticism is both purposeful and the whole point) is a gay story. It’s not representation, it’s not all that positive, I’m not praising Miura for this lol, but it is pretty undeniably there.

If I had to guess at the author’s motives, I might hedge my bets and say the subtext is there to heighten the central relationship and make it intense and full of chemistry. Gay subtext is engaging, even when the audience doesn’t pick up on it, or flat-out refuses to. Like, there’s an old hollywood adage that if you want to generate electric chemistry between two friends you play them as lovers.

But hell, if I wasn’t hedging my bets I might just say that Miura just wanted to write a story about two dudes who love each other but are too emotionally repressed and fucked up to do anything about it, and end up destroying each others’ lives because of it, and he’s being published in a seinen magazine so it has to stay mainly subtext.

Like I don’t think the subtext is absolutely integral to the understanding of the story, but I think it exists to add more layers of meaning and more emotional resonance to it, and I honestly think it’s kind of ridiculous to suggest that it’s totally accidental (let alone not even there and solely wishful thinking).

jyuanka
replied to your post “you can tell that guts and griffith are meant to be ambiguously gay bc…”

i like to think the woman on skullknight’s horse armor is a depiction of flora, flaring her wings for protection, being there as a good omen

yeah i always assumed it was flora too. i kinda figured it was just a token of whatever their relationship was, but i like the idea that it’s for protection, whether symbolic or actually magic.

dancewithaskeleton:

bthump:

you can tell that guts and griffith are meant to be ambiguously gay bc when miura wants to make it known that a dude is into women he incorporates it into their armour motif

guts and griff don’t have naked ladies on their armour designs, ergo they’re gay

also farnese is gay too

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(and skull knight is still bi bc obviously he and void had a thing and he and zodd have a thing)

Yeah, everything is a thing and nobody is allowed to be straight 😂, take a few steps back my man

this is a joke post not srs analysis lol but you are correct in that no one is allowed to be straight

you can tell that guts and griffith are meant to be ambiguously gay bc when miura wants to make it known that a dude is into women he incorporates it into their armour motif

guts and griff don’t have naked ladies on their armour designs, ergo they’re gay

also farnese is gay too

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(and skull knight is still bi bc obviously he and void had a thing and he and zodd have a thing)

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this fucking call back. guts’ driving motivation hasn’t actually changed. griffith’s definition of ‘friend’ still applies. the reminder of griffith’s desire for an equal now that he’s a singular god. like just

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I like how Muria did everything in his power to prove that Griffith is not some kind of “evil heartless monster” antagonist type, but people end up misinterpreted him anyway. What a shame! Do you know why?

Yeah it’s really unfortunate bc he’s such an interesting complex character and I wish more people appreciated that. Tho I have a few ideas on why so many Berserk fans ignore most of the text and write Griffith off as evil from the start.

I mean obviously the biggest one is that Femto’s defining act of evil is rape. And tbh I put the blame pretty squrely on Miura for that one lol, like, I can’t actually blame anyone for being unable to feel sympathy for or enjoy the complexities of a character who later turns into a monster and rapes another major character.

Like the problem with using sexual assault as your major illustrative example of the ~darkness in the hearts of men~ or whatever is that it’s pretty damn common for people to have experienced it themselves, or know someone who has, and therefore reactions to a depiction of rape are inevitably a lot more visceral than reactions to say, murder or torture. Even if Griffith is depicted as a sympathetic, three dimensional, very interesting character throughout the Golden Age, I can’t blame anyone for not giving a fuck and just hating him anyway because his evil alter ego’s first act was rape. People ignoring your good writing is a price you pay as a creator for using rape as shock value and cheap drama.

(Plus when you add his badly written night with Charlotte to the mix, like, again, I can’t blame anyone for going “fuck this guy” and not caring about his depth of character. Like I don’t think the night with Charlotte is meant to be read as rape because there are zero indications that we’re supposed to think it’s skeevy or even potentially morally dubious once Charlotte gets into it – to me it reads like a badly written bodice-ripper type scene where the woman just has to get turned on and then she forgets propriety and enjoys herself – but again, that’s on Miura and his sometimes shitty writing.)

However, that said, from what I’ve seen the vast majority of Griffith haters still love Guts, who also sexually assaults the very same character (except Guts hadn’t even just been magically transformed first, and the first time he sexually assaulted her was long before the hound ever made an appearance), so like, when so many people condemn one character and excuse another for the same thing, there’s obviously something else at work.

So putting aside the rape, I think there are a lot of other factors as to why Griffith is so hated while very few of his haters extend that ire to Guts as well.

Like, for starters, Griffith is gay, or at the very least, gay coded and feminine in appearance and clearly in love with the protagonist, which definitely makes a lot of straight cis dude fans uncomfortable and a lot less likely to be able to empathize with him, judging by the offensive nicknames they tend to use for him.

But then there’s also just the way Griffith lies to himself, which, if you tend to take things at face value in a story, is going to give you a serious misunderstanding of his character. Eg, a lot of fans think that when he tells Casca he doesn’t feel guilty for the deaths of the people who follow him he’s being genuinely truthful and sociopathic lol, ignoring the fact that he’s self-harming grotesquely during that conversation, among other hints that he’s deluding himself. Lots of people take character dialogue as ultimate truth, missing other context clues that are often more revealing.

And then there’s the fact that he ends up betraying the protagonist and becoming an antagonist, and a lot of people just aren’t interested in moral grey stories so they project black and white values onto it. So since Griffith/Femto/NeoGriff is the antagonist, everything he’s done must have been evil and he must’ve been solely motivated by selfish desire for power, and they’ll twist the story to find support for that. Like I’ve seen people who take Griffith’s “I will choose the place that you die” as evidence that he’s been planning to sacrifice everyone for power from the very start lol, even though that makes zero sense, just because they need Griffith to have been villainous all along or the story doesn’t fit their moral framework.

Like, while Berserk takes a general moral stance that a person’s actions shape them, a lot of people believe that a person’s actions reveal their true, innate nature deep down. So, to them, Griffith sacrificing the Band isn’t an act that turns him into a monster, it’s an act that reveals he’s always been a monster and now the veneer of humanity has been removed. Yk, the kind of fans who say that if Griffith was a good person he wouldn’t’ve sacrificed his friends, because no good person would ever do that, as though Good and Evil are qualities a person is born with. Which I consider to be an extremely boring way of looking at fiction, and a troubling way of viewing morality, and totally at odds with what Miura’s attempting to say, but people will always bring their own philosophy to the table.

Similarly I think that, at least for some people, this is why Guts’ frankly evil actions get totally downplayed or written off – because he’s the protagonist so he has to be A Good Person. Therefore he had to have been possessed by an evil spirit when he assaulted Casca (despite the fact that the first time was in Godo’s spirit-repelling cave and most people forget that even happened, and the second time was in broad daylight without a ghost in sight or any visual indication that Guts was anything other than himself.) Or they say it’s okay because Guts stopped before actually penetrating her, and he’s had a hard life, and cut him a little slack and let him get back together with Casca bc he’s a good person and he deserves to be happy blah blah horrifying blah.

idk I’m definitely not accusing everyone who hates Griffith and flattens his character of being a hypocrite lol, like I said, there are plenty of possible reasons to view him as evil, and some are totally reasonable. But yk there is kind of a double standard at work when people love Guts and hate Griffith and I think it’s worth looking at why that might be.

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guts and griff tiny on the side pursuing their dreams while dwarfed by their other half and their feelings for him. and these monologues in general are pretty comparable so i feel like this is purposeful.

also like – while griffith has come to the realization that his dream is nothing compared to guts, guts gets it into his head to pursue a dream because of his feelings for griffith (not just love but respect and admiration etc), and wanting griffith to return them. they’re kind of evolving in opposite directions here, but both motivated by the other.

Guts thinking about the Band, remembering them and recognizing that their memories are part of what drives and inspires him and keeps him going now. His bros and comrades get one page, and Casca and Griffith get the next two and like, goddamn that image. (And this isn’t even about how his platonic Hawk bros get their moment and then his objects of sexual affection get theirs js.)

Like yeah I wrote a long post about how Guts and Casca’s relationship is all about Griffith from start to end but yk I could’ve just posted this page because it says the exact same thing in a lot fewer words.

I mean look at it. Guts and Casca having sex. Casca is facing towards us/Guts, Griffith is, once again, facing away. But they’re wrapped in his cape. They are connecting to each other in Griffith’s absence – Griffith is unavailable, emotionally and literally, but Casca is there and ready to be connected to. And his presence literally surrounds them as they fuck out their feelings about him thru each other.

And it’s two pages before Guts’ revelation that leaving her behind was just like abandoning Griffith which makes him vow to find her and make up for it. Liiiiiiike these parallels aren’t subtle.

more on this page bc i’m not over it yet

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speaking of comparing griffith watching guts fight zodd with his heart beating to the moment griffith first sees guts facing off against bazuso

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(incidentally the same page guts asks whether griffith is gay)

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more half faces, sultry eyes, talk of risking death, and guts’ lookin sweaty

like I don’t rly think this is a purposeful callback to these moments lol, but i sure have fun drawing the comparison, and that sexy half face is pretty consistent.

then from griffith’s perspective you have guts looking, imho, hotter than he usually looks. the half-face cuts off his missing eye, he’s sweaty and panting with exertion, the lighting highlights the planes of his face very well, hair catching the light, intense expression but not heightened or exaggerated – just makes him look angry in a manly way lbr.

like ok i’m not going thru 250 chapters looking for images of guts from the perspectives of other ppl with crushes on him like farnese, bc i didn’t keep track of that on my readthru so i have no idea where they might be, so i have no comparisons here when it comes to guts’ image. but yk, basically i just think this page feels charged af and i love it.

bthump:

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……..
……..

and the matching clouds of breath on that page as a subtle reminder that griffith may be a god now but he’s got human characteristics now that he’s flesh and blood

and a subtle illustration of his turbulent emotions despite the serene image he portrays – we see guts panting heavily after exerting himself, while griffith looks calm, yet he has the same breath, and his heart is pounding

legit question- do you think guts would still have some muscle mass in blackswordsman casca au? cus i can see he doesn’t know to control his own strength and he hates it but at the same time it would be realistic if he lost a little weight since he goes into a little depressive episode when casca leaves him for two years. what do you think?

idk if i know enough about how like, muscles work lol. he’d probably lose most of it at least if he’s not fighting or working out for 2 years. in canon i think current casca is drawn quite a bit less muscled now the few times you see her naked.

madchen
replied to your post “madchen
replied to your post “ok the chapter where neogriffith’s…”

i see people actually insist that like “nooo griffith made it clear it was the fetus making him feel stuff sweetie :)” and its just. i get the writing and irony or whatever behind thinking that but its sloppy and easy and not emotionally satisfying. or maybe it is for freaks who hate griffith idk.

i’ve seen people insist that griffith made it clear he doesn’t feel guilty lol, so many berserk fans have like negative reading comprehension

like with the fetus idk, maybe i could see an argument that it’s ironic? like lol griffith thought he’d escaped feelings but now something else’s feelings, which he’s responsible for creating during the eclipse, are fucking him over again, serves him right. maybe the idea of evil is punking him or smthn. but yeah it would still be sloppy, emotionally pointless writing lol.

tbh even if the fetus is only forcing him to save casca i feel like… it’s unnecessary. one of my major writing pet peeves is when you could explain something thru organic characterization and development you’ve already established, and instead you decide to explain it through artificial means like magic/brainwashing/physical changes to their mind/whatever.

if neogriffith’s blood is unfrozen, well, we don’t know what that means exactly, but one thing it could mean is that he’s reverting back to human griffith in mind. because he’s on another plane of godlike awareness he’s never going to be entirely human griffith again, but if miura tells me that human griffith’s emotions are unfrozen or w/e then I would absolutely believe it would fuck him up and make him do irrational things without thinking, like save casca from rocks. and i’d believe that griffith would deny it to himself and continue acting cold and aloof, bc lol it’s griffith, now re-dedicated to his dream with godlike powers and memories of being a monster and choosing to sacrifice everyone he loves, obviously he’s going to deny and repress whatever he’s feeling.

you don’t need the additional step of magic baby possession to justify it, it just takes away from all that excellent character work we already have.

like ok i’ll take the baby possession when it comes to his reaction to casca if it ends up being true, fine, but i absolutely refuse when it comes to his feelings for guts. that just crosses a line.

madchen
replied to your post “ok the chapter where neogriffith’s heart starts going offvisible…”

yes im so confused by people who insist that it has to be the fetus bc we were told point blank like… are we reading the same character driven story? do you like interesting stories? how dumb would it be if the irony behind the cold evil villain was actually just a magic baby and not his own feelings bc lol he was a one dimensional evil sociopath all along like snoreeeee

omg right?

i seriously can’t wrap my mind around the concept of a writer spending about 70 chapters establishing the intense emotional connection between guts and griffith, showing us that griffith’s feelings for guts are even more powerful than his ridiculously epic dream, and then bringing griffith back as an antagonist while hinting that his feelings are still there in some form, the feelings that drove the plot of a huge important narrative arc that is basically the character foundation for everything that comes after…

only for those feelings to actually be fake now and coincidentally just the feelings of a fetus he absorbed one time.

like why would anyone want to either write or read that lmao

ok the chapter where neogriffith’s heart starts going off

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visible exhale of breath as the fight begins

eventually guts kicks a sword through zodd and gets thrown back

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this is rickert’s commentary, but it reminds me a lot of this

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and immediately following that panel ngriff’s heart starts making itself known

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denial followed immediately by one of the best pages in the manga, as though in counterpoint

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the composition of those final 2 panels is interesting

ngriff on one side, fetus or guts on the other. who’s to blame? well, the first is neogriffith’s thoughts, the second is neogriffith’s reality.

whether the fetus is responsible for neogriffith impulsively saving casca for no reason is whatever. it seems entirely possible to me that we can blame the fetus for that. neogriffith thinks the fetus is fucking with him, and maybe he’s partially right.

but when it comes to blaming the fetus for making his heart stir here instead of blaming his very own feelings for guts, the visuals just don’t support it.

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speaking of great moments

the view of griffith from behind and cut off at the eyes – his feelings hidden from guts, the audience, himself

contrasted to guts’ feelings at the forefront on display – guts’ ‘gh’ like the words, the apparent acknowledgement are a physical blow. ntm the way he holds himself back until griffith confirms – twice – that he feels nothing. hope is painful, and even worse when it’s given and then ripped away in like 30 seconds

if griffith remained serene i’d suggest that his face is largely hidden for the impact of ‘i am free’ and i think that’s part of it, but since his heart starts beating as he watches guts fight (in an echo of the very first time he saw guts in that courtyard js) i def think that this is a nice visual set up for neogriffith’s emotional ambiguity. we’re on the outside looking at a mysterious blank page, even when we’re in neogriffith’s thoughts – because griffith himself doesn’t understand his own heart.

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i will never be over how ideal this moment is

femto reaching out -> closeup of guts -> closeup of femto -> femto failing to act -> guts + co escaping -> femto watching them disappear with a lowered hand, shown from a high angle -> a panel depicting femto from far above as a tiny dark smudge, alone and distant, singular, surrounded only by monsters

yesgabsstuff:

bthump:

yesgabsstuff:

mastermistressofdesire:

buhserk:

i was thinking about griffith’s parents earlier, what they might’ve been like, what happened to them, etc. and i thought about griffith’s mother and nearly burst into tears

I’ve thought about this too like.

Damn who was that lady.

Also i had this dream like she was a single lady and stuff and then she got sick and she had these really assholish lovers and thats were griffith gets his….

And griffith saw her getting murdered or something and ran away proper.

My thoughts are not very coherent about this.

@jillresia @griffithsgaymom @yesgabsstuff @bthump any ideas?

I always assumed he was some kind of out of wedlock birth and that his mother was very young. I kinda feel like she had some kind of job that was “respectable” before getting pregnant and after that had to hustle for her money either by prostitution or thieving. (Probably some combination of the two.)

I mean what would be more distracting and seemingly harmless than a very pretty young woman with a baby? She could pick a lot of pockets that way. I feel like he ended up wanting to help in some way when he got older but I feel like she didn’t let him get too involved in the worst of it. She had some holdovers from her old life, maybe even a book or two and she tried to cobble together some education for him. (This may have led to her putting her trust in people she shouldn’t have and Griffith suffered for it. He never wanted to see her sad so he never told her.)

I feel like she used to get into self destructive moods too but never let herself take it as far as Griffith would grow to. Despite her best efforts to hide these feelings, Griffith still internalized the idea that it was his job to keep her happy.

He gets his looks from her. She died young. I feel she probably died from disease rather than violence because I think that really solidified his desire to never live in poverty again. She always told Griffith that his father was someone important (which might go a long way to explaining his absence regardless of what kind of person his father actually was.)

I could see his father being anyone really. A part of me wonders if his father actually was wealthy or possibly even noble because it would be easier for someone like that to abandon their child. I could also see him equally being a product of love or of violence. It’s like this huge blank slate.

Also who were Guts’ biological parents? It always makes me sad to think that but for fate he could have been raised by someone who loved him.

i have few ideas of my own but i love all these. esp griffith’s mom being a part time thief, i really dig that for some reason.

i guess one thing i can add is that i really dig the idea of griffith’s parents having been in love, and both common, before dying young

it’s a good contrast to griffith’s dream of a marriage of convenience with charlotte. and maybe his mother waxing poetic about his dead father griffith never knew, hearing about love but only ever seeing the sad aftermath, is part of why he’s kind of disconnected from the concept

I totally agree about the blankness there making them both more mythic. The romantic in me wonders if Griffith’s father died in the war? Like his parents intended to marry but he was conscripted before they could and she found out she was pregnant after he died. I wonder if his father was actually someone like Guts.

i kind of like the idea of his father being guts-like, at least in a born soldier (or some other trade), happy just doing his thing kind of way. it wouldn’t really make a difference to griffith as a character necessarily or inform his relationship w/ guts in any way as he never knew him, but it adds a level to griffith’s choice between guts + dream, and how by choosing his dream he throws away part of his humanity and changes into something else.

relatedly i was thinking about griffith’s mother being a dreamer who longed for more, but what if she was actually relatively content? at least before dad dying. idk i’m liking the idea of his parents being symbolic of what griffith throws away in pursuit of his dream.