I'm new to Berserk. I watched the 1997 anime first, then started reading the manga, and I finally caught up to the latest chapter this week.
I just wanted to say that I think the Golden Age is absolute peak. Everything about it was incredible. The characters, the pacing, the development, the climax... it was just cinema. Watching the anime first actually made the whole experience even better for me.
I also really liked the Conviction Arc. I thought it was great and stayed true to the themes of the story. But after that, I started having really mixed feelings, maybe even disappointment. I don't know if that's an unpopular opinion, but the story started to feel messy to me. I'm the kind of reader who doesn't really enjoy one mystery being piled on top of another without many answers, and that's how it felt. New concepts kept getting introduced, the villains kept changing, and I eventually found myself getting more confused than invested.
I really liked your Golden Age and GriffGuts posts, and I agree with a lot of your takes, so I was hoping you could share your perspective on a few things.
What's the actual purpose of the Brand of Sacrifice? Guts and Casca are still alive, and Femto doesn't seem interested in hunting them down or finishing anything. I feel like I might be missing something.
After Femto is reborn as Griffith, why does everything suddenly get so much worse? Why did he even need to be reincarnated as Griffith in the first place? Was everything that happened at Albion necessary for that? And if it was, why don't the other Apostles need something similar if they also have human and monster forms?
I don't really understand the Beherit. What makes it so important? And once magic, witches, and mages were introduced, I started wondering where they had been before the Eclipse. Did I miss something?
I also had a hard time getting into the whole Ganishka storyline. His kingdom, his army, and everything surrounding him just didn't click for me. What do you think Miura was trying to do with that part of the story?
Also... Skull Knight?? 😭 What exactly is his role in all of this?
The Berserker Armor is another thing I'm still trying to wrap my head around. Where did it come from, and what exactly is it supposed to represent? I know a lot of people love it, but it honestly started feeling a bit like an RPG item to me. Like Guts suddenly got this legendary armor that gives him a massive power-up, and it took me out of the story a little. Am I looking at it the wrong way?
What do you think about the Beast of Darkness? Is it literally something supernatural inside Guts, or is it more like a manifestation of his trauma, rage, and darker impulses? I wasn't always sure how I was supposed to interpret it.
Why did Griffith take Casca at the end? And what's your interpretation of the Moonlight Boy? I feel like I understand bits and pieces, but I can't quite put the whole picture together.
And finally... I really don't like Sonia 😭. She feels so random to me. What do you think of her as a character?
Sorry, I know this is a lot, so please feel free to ignore any of these. And if you've already answered some of them before, I'd be happy to read an old post if you want to point me toward it.
Thanks in advance!
Hi! Thank you, I'm glad you've enjoyed my blog! And yeah, idk if my feelings are quite as strong but I definitely agree that the Golden Age is peak and the story starts getting a little lacklustre in the Conviction arc in some ways. I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.
cut for length
1 -- Watsonianly the purpose is to mark them as sacrifices that belong to... ghosts and demons and beings of the astral plane. Narratively it has fallen by the wayside since Flora largely neutralized it.
I believe for most of the story it was the explanation for Guts' Beast of Darkness, a lot of his implausible strength and fighting ability, and his theoretical ability to defy fate - Skull Knight explains that the brand puts him a step outside reality, giving him one foot in the interstice. The conclusion I drew from this based on other Berserk worldbuilding was that Guts' astral body, which sort of like reflects his psyche I think, has an influence on his physical existence, allowing his own rage/inner darkness to power him slightly and gain form and voice.
However! It seems that has been dropped or I was wrong to draw those connections lol because our new explanation is that Guts was just ~born that way. So now I don't know what the brand is for. Maybe we'll see someday.
2 -- The answer to this is basically just, that's how Miura wrote it. I'm not sure what you're referring to specifically by everything getting worse though - he did have to fight a bit of a war with Ganishka? I wouldn't say that was worse than the Conviction arc status quo though. Then he fused the real world and the astral world, resulting in fantasy creatures roaming around everywhere, if that's what you're referring to. He did that to give humanity an enemy to unite against and make Falconia a safe place people would flock to.
And apostles and the Godhand are different beings, so the rules are different. The Godhand are beings of the astral realm or whatever and could not physically manifest in the real world without reincarnating the way Griffith did, but apostles are physical beings in reality. It's not just about Femto/Griffith changing form, it's about physically existing.
3 -- The behelit Guts is carrying, or all behelits? They're magic stones that allow for people to make a sacrifice and become a monster or, if they get the extra special crimson behelit, a Godhand. The behelits do this by essentially opening a tunnel into the astral realm and allowing the Godhand to appear. The behelits are also indications of fate - fate dictates where a behelit is, and ensures it eventually falls into the hands of someone fated to become a monster or demon. Guts' behelit is an ominous sign that Guts, or someone close to him, is likely to make a sacrifice and become a monster, or at least get the opportunity to do so after falling into despair.
Narratively Guts' behelit serves as foreshadowing and a reminder that Guts is never too far from becoming a monster.
As for the second half of this question, pre-Fantasia arc, witches and monsters and elves etc existed but were scarce. Puck explains at some point in the Conviction arc that most people can't even see elves and stuff like that because they have no belief in them and no experience with the astral plane. Farnese is only able to see Puck after having her worldview rocked by a bunch of magic shit happening.
Witches, as we see with Flora, lived isolated lives using magic to be hard to find, so it makes sense that we never saw any during the Golden Age. Guts and co start seeing more magic stuff post Golden Age because Guts has a foot outside reality after the brand and the sacrifice, ghosts manifest around him thanks to the brand, etc.
So yeah, these magical beings live away from humanity, in their own little pockets like Flora, mostly invisibly like Puck, or in big communities like Elfhelm, closed off to regular people.
(Yeah we were introduced to Puck because he was being tormented in a bar and Guts saved him - Farnese being unable to see him because of her initially rigid worldview was probably kind of a retcon. But you can explain it by suggesting that since the town Guts is in in chapter 1 is being terrorized by an apostle, maybe that area is more open to seeing magic.)
4 -- Plotwise, the Ganishka conflict introduced a few things that are relevant now, like Daiba, and Kushan in general. It established NeoGriffith's attitude towards humanity and his general vibe. It also allowed NeoGriffith to become a big hero who saved the world so that many people would follow him without question. Ganishka's leveled up form, Shiva, provided an apocalyptic threat that allowed humanity to unite and ally with apostles, and killing Shiva allowed Griffith to fuse the real world and the astral world, bringing fantasy creatures into reality to further his goal of building an empire.
Thematically it also provides a contrast to the 100 year war in the Golden Age, showing how powerful and untouchable Griffith is in comparison to his human self, but also how empty he is. The fact that it was an easy victory for Griffith with very little tension is a way of separating him from his more vulnerable humanity.
Honestly I enjoyed that half of the Millenium Falcon arc much more than Guts' side of the story so I'm glad the whole war plot was there.
5 -- We don't know what Skull Knight's role narratively is yet, except for being an occasional mysterious guide to Guts who shows up to explain stuff sometimes. There are hints here and there - we know for sure now that he's the 1000 year old former emperor of Midland, Gaiseric. We don't know if he was a former sacrifice like Guts, if he was a former incarnated Godhand. We do know he used the Berserk armour too much in the past and it fucked him up. We know his goal is to trap the Godhand in the "vortex" they're called to when someone makes a sacrifice (presumably inbetween the astral realm and the real world), as he explains in the troll cave scene with Slan, chapter 218 or thereabouts iirc. Flora suggests he's using Guts for his own ends. Eventually we'll probably learn what his whole deal is.
6 -- The Berserk armour was made by some dude we meet in Elfhelm, and it gives the wearer superhuman abilities by essentially removing their ability to feel pain and allowing them to fight through broken bones and stuff. This is dangerous to the wearer, and it saps their lifeforce, and without a lot of magic help is liable to essentially take over the wearer's humanity and turn them into their inner monster. With Gaiseric his representation of his inner darkness was a skeleton, with Guts it's a hound.
So it has a lot of drawbacks theoretically and narratively it allowed Guts to kick more ass and gave Miura room for more epic fights with more scary opponents, while still creating tension through the threat of Guts losing his humanity and becoming a monster while wearing it.
But since that still hasn't gone anywhere and Guts is fine, I do think it ended up just being a convenient RPG power up lol, unless something dark still happens with it in the future.
7 -- Kinda both? It's literally given form thanks to Guts being a step outside the real world after the Eclipse (or because he was born that way, whatever) but it is a manifestation of Guts' trauma and rage. It essentially represents the part of Guts that wants to fight so he can lose himself in battle and not have to think.
Which is basically his coping mechanism.
8 -- We don't know for sure but with the recent chapter it seems like Griffith kidnapped Casca for the same reason he invited Rickert to join the Hawks, ie he's lowkey trying to recreate a piece of the past he destroyed. I'm sure that's not the logic he's using consciously - maybe he tells himself he wants her as bait, or as someone who can babysit him when he werebabies out lol. But he seems to be missing the past just as much as Guts does, and I guess Casca represents that to both of them.
As for moonbaby, best guess is it's the fetus that was created when Guts impregnated Casca, then Casca got raped and miscarried the now demonized fetus, that fetus was eventually used to create NeoGriffith's human flesh (when he hatched from the behelit-apostle at the end of the Conviction arc, after that apostle ate the fetus). And now on the full moon, when magic is most powerful, the spirit of the kid takes over his body or whatever.
It sucks imo.
8 -- I like Sonia. I think she's funny, and she represents one of my favourite themes of the story - the isolation and loneliness of seeing the world differently/being on another plane of existence, which parallels Griffith. She also provides opportunities for Griffith to be more personable and patient and basically normal-seeming, which I enjoy seeing. Not necessarily because it's genuine, but because it shows that he's not just an aloof saintlike figure, he's also able to be likeable.
Whew I think that's everything. Let me know if you have any follow up questions! I didn't cite a lot of direct quotes/pages bc most of this is just plot stuff that was explained in the manga, but easy to miss or forget or overlook the significance of, and I'm answering mostly from memory rather than re-reading parts of the manga. Hopefully this is all fairly accurate though lol.
Okay, beyond the messing around, if I can be completely honest for a moment the latest chapter and the way how it rewrites the relationship between Griffith and the GodHand has left me with this dreadful feeling, which I truly hope I am wrong about. The way how it calls out all his savior antics and world building and his kingdom as just a front he is hiding behind- which, to be fair, is just confirmation of what we already know- but this revelation being done in the form of taunting by the GodHand, coupled with his unusual reaction... has me fearing that this entire time the reality of Griffith's situation has been this:
The only difference now being:
He no longer has somebody to drag him out of there.
In this grand chase of his that was spurred on by both guilt and ambition, for every single sacrifice to be worth something he chose power believing that he wouldn't have to need anybody else if he was strong enough.
And he got exactly what he wanted.
This time around he is completely and utterly alone.
I’m so glad the God hand told Griffith what he already knew all along. He was such a good actor I thought he had bought his own lies. He knows he is playing pretend.
And not his heart starting to beat with Guts approach. It may appear small but this is huge. He still has a tiny bit sliver of humanity.
Yeah I love the suggestion that Griffith has doubts and is at least somewhat self aware about them. Gimme those feelings!
Do you think the bthumps from the newest chapter are meant to recontextualize Hill of Swords? That it was actually this connection they share as similar half-astral beings that made his heart bthump then? At least in some scanlations of 385 Puck says that Guts has been connected, so I guess that means connected to Griffith? Idk how Puck would know that though. But Griffith clearly also has something else going on since he saved Casca then and now, so I think that indicates he also still has some human emotions left (or maybe it's the fetus but I think especially the new chapter works better if it's just his own emotions). Although, his heart is also shown to be bthumping before and after he thinks back to saving Casca on HoS, so I'm not sure how that makes sense if the bthumping is some Guts-related magic thing and not his human heart reawakening. And why would Griffith talk about Guts being the one who could move his heart and him being free (and then seemingly being proven wrong), if the bthumping turns out to be something else entirely? I like Griffguts being magical soulmates, but I'm not so sold on this. What do you think?
Thanks for all the great work you do! <3
Anonymous asked:
What is up with Griffith feeling his heartbeat and saying "You noticed it, didn't you, Guts?" Does this imply that Griffith noticed some kind of astral connection back in the "bthump" scene in Hill of Swords?
So my hot take on this I think, after re-reading the last 3 chapters, is that I don't think there's necessarily any kind of like, magic astral connection between Guts and Griffith. I think chapter 384 suggests a parallel between them, rather than something literal.
I think Griffith's "So you've come to realize it" line refers to Guts coming to realize he's half in the astral plane or whatever, and Griffith's heart is notably beating while he reflects on it because like, now they're equals or closer to it and Guts can touch him and fight him properly and he thinks that shit's hot, basically.
OH LMAO and I actually almost forgot about this, BUT!
There's that whole thematic thread firmly established in chapter 250 of monsters and magical people who see the world differently feeling lonely and isolated. I don't think it's a coincidence that we got another little Sonia + Schierke moment this chapter since Sonia was the main illustration of that thread. Now Guts is someone who can understand Griffith and connect on his level. He's no longer "the absolute, without equal."
Also I would guess that Griffith knew Guts had this ~potential~ or whatever since he became Femto. it seems like the kind of thing he'd just know when he becomes a demigod on the astral plane.
I've also always said that it makes perfect sense for Griffith to save Casca even without a fetus influencing him, and I think that's even more blatantly the case now that we've seen Griffith emotionally unraveling and feeling discontented with his dream and trying to recreate the past.
So yeah idk, Moonlight Boy is probably still going to be a plot point, maybe related to Casca's eventual choices, but looking less and less related to Griffith's feelings at least imo.
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