how do you deal with so many fans of the show being anime bro assholes? i liked this berserk meme page on fb and there was one joking about her rape, and it made me want to scream. and of course all the comments are some variation of lololol #triggered. it makes me feel guilty for enjoying the world miura created but at the same time i want to fight these mother fuckers. i guess ultimately i have to get over it and this question is rhetorical but it still makes me upset
Three guesses that you’re referring to Guts, The Black Swordsman, because I s2g I just unfollowed them a few days ago over the same thing. If you’re not talking about them, then I’m still not surprised because there are so many FB pages that are like that, including them (and it disappoints me because I made amicable comments on their page in the past despite that they reposted my cosplay photos without permission).
Honestly, beyond just ignoring, blocking, and avoiding this side of the fanbase, the one thing that makes me feel better is the thought that if Guts was real, he most likely would not like these people. A lot of fans idolize Guts because he represents an idealization of masculinity, as well as a symbol of a bygone era of anime and manga that embraced such masculinity (that and because nerds like to whine about how much better the 80s and 90s were). Long explanation short, while Guts certainly embodies these hypermasculine traits, he also defies and deconstructs them, despite how many fans actively ignore such traits and observations. Here are some examples:
Guts cares about his friends and loved ones - A LOT
Guts just wants to belong somewhere and to have a family
Guts tries to please people whom he wants to impress because he cares about how those who are closest to him perceive him
Guts takes rejection very hard
Guts doesn’t like hurting innocent people and he doesn’t like it when other people hurt innocent people (Wyald storyline, hint hint)
Guts loves Casca unconditionally (and I really don’t think fans understand what unconditional love means, despite how volume 9 basically described it; then again, a lot of these fans are sexist, so I wouldn’t be surprised)
Guts love/d Griffith (to whatever homoerotic degree of your choosing) and I don’t think he’s ashamed of it (despite how homophobic the fandom is)
Guts is not afraid to cry
Whenever Guts leaves people that he holds dearest to him behind, bad things happen
Being a super-killing machine is physically, psychologically, and spiritually eating away at Guts
Guts feels remorse for many of his actions and tries to make up for them
Guts always wants to pay back people who are good to him
Guts hurts a lot and he just want to find a place or a person to help wash aways his pain
Suffice to say that whenever Guts is being a macho-douchebag that the fans admire, the story isn’t painting it as being a good thing, and that’s why he went through so much character development in the first place! Guts isn’t a knight not that the title makes a person good in shining armor or a purveyor for goodness, but he’s probably one of the most decent men in this world, and I think that’s definitely a reason why people gravitate toward him.
With all that being said, do you really think Guts - if he were real - would be the type of guy who would joke about women being assaulted and raped?
(You know how in a lot of media centered around teen life where there is a football team full of obnoxious assholes except for the one token nice guy? Guts is that guy.)
I think one thing we can take from the story - and I think Miura meant it too - is that Berserk is a coming of age story about two boys growing up in this brutal, patriarchal world, and that you have three outcomes: you grow up to be like Guts, you grow up to be like Griffith, or you grow up to be any of the shitty secondary and background characters whose sole existence is to prey on the weak.
Many fans want to be like Guts but fail, some manage to be like Griffith which isn’t extremely admirable in a certain context, and a lot just end up being douchebags.*
In fact, you notice how - with the exception of Griffith - all bad men in the Berserk-verse are conventionally fugly, but luckily have a 8/10 chance of being killed off, often hacked apart by Guts?
Just imagine that the fanbase are those people.
* It goes without saying that I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT ALL MALE FANS because I know a lot of male fans who aren’t douchebags
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