So like, Cu Alterâs profile mentions that this isnât how heâs supposed to look as a berserker, since he exists because of Medbâs wish using the grail. But since Cu in myth is described as a monster when he goes on a rampage, would his âactualâ berserker form look more or less like him as an alter?
good question! and one that I have spent a lot of time thinking about so this might get a little longer than you bargained for. the thing that stands out the most to me regarding this topic is this exchange from chapter america
which leads me to think that cu alter is supposed to look a lot more monstrous, but he purposely limits himself in order to keep a form thatâs still approximately human. I briefly mentioned it in these posts from the other day but the key here is that while cu doesât necessarily mind being a monster, he doesnât want to be nothing but a monster. cu alter is forced to act somewhat out of character thanks to medbâs meddling but even so he is cu chulainn and he will retain the dignity of a hero even as a warmongering beast.
this is something you can spot in the tain too: before riding out to his greatest slaughterfest he took precautions so that he could keep his sanity even as he exploded into a mass of flesh and murder, and afterwards he did his best to make sure the image that stuck was the one of him as hero and not as monster. cu chulainn is a figure that exists on the interstice between monster and hero but what I think is important is that while he is man and beast alike, he chooses to be a hero. he is by definition ulsterâs greatest hero yet continuously has to prove himself as such throughout his various tales. he is a monster but never lost himself in that monstrous nature and re-establishes the image of himself as hero again and again, by choice, even after the most brutal displays of bestial slaughter. as siegfried granblue put it: âunfortunately for you, Iâve decided to side with people over beastsâ
even though cu alter was summoned as a berserker he refuses to act like the beast he is expected to be. he is merciful to his underlings, he withholds his own monstrous form as much as possible, his mad enhancement is ranked at EX(C) because heâs perfectly lucid, just stubborn to the point where he seems insane. even though he is a monster he refuses to be a monster. and I believe it is specifically this quality that makes him cu chulainn berserker alter.Â
cu chulainn does not like his berserker self, and I think this is because the real berserker cu chulainn is nothing but the monstrous side of him. heroic spirits are merely individual aspects of the hero as a whole so itâs quite possible that the berserker version of him is one that doesnât keep establishing himself as hero, doesnât choose people over beasts. during the riastrad cu chulainn is invincible, but he only ever transformed when cornered into it and for him to even enter the berserker class requires either a forced alteration or to leave behind the part of him that would object to it. if this assumption is correct it would mean that cu alter is in fact closer to lancer cu than the unaltered berserker cu because despite everything he is still closer to cu chulainnâs heroic ideal than his true berserker self, and stubbornly clinging to his heroic pride (despite claiming to have discarded it) is what makes him a berserker cu that would not exist under normal circumstances.Â
so to answer your actual question, i think the real berserker cu will be barely even recognisable as cu chulainn. heâll have blue hair and red eyes but there will be none of the heroic pride that defines him behind those eyes. the saint graph will say cu chulainn but it wonât be him and to that effect he will probably either look almost completely different too or heâll look and act suspiciously the same until he transforms. speculating further you might even say that cu chulainn needs at least this much mad enhancement to even willingly appear as a monster instead of a hero and that is why cu alter has such a weird mad enhancement rank. I imagine the riastrad itself will look similar to spartacusâ crying warmonger or vladâs legend of dracula, turning him into more of a writhing mass of violent intent than anything resembling a person, but it depends on whether they approach it as berserker cu transforming for his np or being already transformed when you get him (i imagine heâll be less monstrous in the later case cuz they gotta keep him Hotâ˘)
titsay
stormborns
gummygunk
