Inconsistent

[oatmealzz]

Berserk Thoughts

Griffith believed he built the current Guts from the ground up by forcing him to join his band, promoting him and giving him the resources to become the ultimate asset to the band. Not only did he dedicate a lot of effort towards one man, he also became emotionally attached and at some point, wanted to maybe share a life with him (up to interpretation). He (and Casca) realized that it ultimately led to Griffith being in a tough spot emotionally. Griffith had two options: focus on the dream or Guts but he couldn’t have both. In order to achieve his dream, he has to emotionally rid himself of his attachment to Guts as he “stood in the way of it ultimately”. This sentiment became realized post-torture as he started to echo Casca’s statement about Guts when she was in that cave. I don’t think pre-torture Griffith would agree with Casca on her statement that eventually Guts was going to be his downfall.

Griffith’s emotionally immaturity meant he couldn’t handle sharing his life with a “friend” and managing a kingdom at the same time. What initially was recruiting a 15 year old angry teenager who risked his life to fight impossible battles and train to become a killing machine for his dream, led to something else so emotionally meaningful, Griffith ruined his life’s work because he couldn’t handle his absence.

Also side note: throughout my multiple rereads of the golden age arc, I’ve always had this thought like; what did Griffith realistically expect from Guts? because it’s very clear that he want to share his life with him. There is a part of me, especially how he acted post-torture that believes PRE-torture Griffith would have gotten super jealous too if Guts was in a relationship with somebody. Obviously, it hurt more because it’s Casca and he believed that Guts was stealing her from him, even though he really took her for granted for the ladder half of the time they knew each other.

BASICALLY, he believed his biggest asset was his own as he stated multiple times. Owning slaves wasn’t uncommon in the world of Berserk. But the issue is that Griffith believed Guts owed his life to him. Therefore, he can’t leave him and dedicate his entire life to Griffith. He would never approve Guts being in a relationship with anybody especially somebody like Casca. His life would need to revolve around him and not someone else. This does not make sense platonically but whatever.

Second side note: Really big fan of the visual distinction of pre-time skip teenage guts versus post time skip. The visual indication where you can tell Griffith dedicated a lot of time to make sure Guts was like his best soldier; JUST based on how much bigger he gets post time skip. he’s like the one character with the biggest change in physique and honestly, you don’t really get that big naturally.

I remember like guts really liked to swing his sword as a form of training. I’ve had this headcanon that he started doing a lot more when he got promoted. It was the first time where the band leader put a lot of expectation on him and he happily accepted that.

I think back to that one panel one was explaining how he really appreciated Griffith paying attention to him or his words “somebody I really wanted to have a look at him.”

Obviously that line can be interrupted as many perspectives. I like to believe that he meant that he wanted somebody to pay attention to him because of his bad relationship with Gambino. The only way he could bond with Gambino was train to be a really good soldier. Therefore, his father figure invested his time into him and I think he really missed that aspect of that dynamic.

He wanted somebody to give him a chance, not because he wasn’t a good soldier, but because he knew that he could get better. At that point in his life, being a soldier was the only lifestyle he knew and liked.

[pinepickled]

Berserk Manga Spoilers

> > > > > So like. Narratively, Guts should've been kidnapped by Griffith on fairy island instead of Casca, right

[pinepickled]

@chorus-the-mutate sorry I'm replying here lol, responding to the question "elaborate on that"

I feel like we JUST got Casca back, the rest of the crew is beginning to learn the kind of person she is, she's finally present in the narrative and in control of her life- but she can't look at Guts nor can she even fathom confronting Griffith. Wouldn't it then make sense for Guts to be the one removed from the narrative next?

The team is hypercarried by him, like no one can even come close to doing what he does, they can only aid him in those major battles. They're definitely useful to Guts, and they've saved him over and over again, but Guts is invaluable to them. Losing Guts means they lose their pillar, their main fighting force, and the kindest/most sensible among them as well.

But, Casca was a general. She's gotten her mind back, she's more in charge than ever- certainly more composed and skillful than Farnese and arguably Silke, definitely at least on par with Serpico, and I won't even mention the little guys. She could act as the kind of mentor Guts just can't be towards the group; where Casca intentionally lifts and guides people, Guts takes a more hands off approach, allowing people to grow at their own pace while he protects their existence. Going on an insane fetch quest, through apostles and demons, to find a man Casca can't even look at would also be such an amazing grounds for growth for her and the rest of the crew. They could figure out ways they could handle apostles without Guts, and Casca would get the chance to overcome her trauma and rise to the occasion.

And that's not even mentioning what would happen to Guts while under Griffith's thrall again.

He'd be a caged bird much like Casca, but I think Griffith would've actually put him right back where he was; his right hand man. Guts says something about Griffith when he sees him again, "It was as though he were plucked from the past, unchanged, and for a moment, I forgot to kill him." THAT'S INSANE, but to me, I think it reveals that a part of Guts longs for a world where he could turn back the clock and never leave Griffith's side, where seeing his white falcon again would strike awe and respect in him, and not dark resentment and bloodthirst. So, imagine if Griffith had wiped Gut's mind of everything after their last ownership battle? If he'd been plucked from the past unchanged, by Griffith's side again unknowing that anything would be wrong? I think when Guts would eventually break out of that thrall, he'd be devastated. The wounds would all reopen, and so would the love and safety he felt while he was with Griffith. +, with Guts in Falconia, he would be able to see the paradise Griffith created, the dream he made reality. I think that would be a definitive blow to Gut's motivation to kill Griffith even after he remembers.

Cause honestly, I can't see Berserk ending with Guts winning. I feel like he could only, realistically within the confines of the story, die or give up. So, in the vein of giving up, having Guts be so devastated by being robbed of that compassion and care he'd been missing again, and seeing the world Griffith made possible, could be a good way to avoid the berserker conflict also. If Guts can't bring himself to fight Griffith, then the berserker serves no purpose.

I think unfortunately, we'll never know what Miura really wanted to do with Berserk. I know he supposedly wrote the ending before he tragically passed, but the chapter released after he did so felt so jarringly different from the rest of Berserk that I pretty much lost hope immediately. If I were to have communed with Miura beyond the grave, I think what I said above shouldve been what happened.

(Vaguely, I have a fic planned for this sort of route)

[oatmealzz]

BROOOOO

The tv show version of interview with the vampire is WILD. Forty minutes in and the main characters are getting into a bisexual threeway with eachother.

The movie version with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt sucked due to pacing issues but DAMN. Maybe the movie would have been better if they casted non-famous people with better on-set chemistry.

[bisexualmikisayaka]

i really can’t stop thinking about 364 and its implications, though, particularly with casca and the moonlight boy.. like, okay, imagine being casca. you went through an event so traumatic it literally broke your brain for like… 3? 5? years in story and like 20 years irl. and a large part of why it was so traumatic, aside from the brutal deaths of almost everyone you knew, was because it involved a violent desecration of your bodily autonomy by someone you loved and trusted and cared for. someone you just broke into a castle to save - namely, the castle of the guy who’s been trying to kill you and your whole crew for a fucking year and simultaneously ordering the brutal torture of this guy - violates you in one of the worst ways a person can harm another person, and leaves you with trauma so significant your brain shatters. and then years later you find out that a boy who you feel connected to like a mother is connected to her son, who sleeps in the same bed as you and whom you hold close constantly, is actually the other form of the man who destroyed you in that way. someone who you felt a deep and intrinsic tie to and safety and comfort around is the jekyll to the hyde who is the source of your trauma. and you can’t even look at your boyfriend without having flashbacks to the event that ruined you both, much less the guy who caused it all. now how the hell is a girl supposed to cope with that?

[mellowscastle]

I hope Nagito survives so he can make it to the last trial and buss his pants when he sees Makoto

[oatmealzz]

Genuinely shocked that there is no current existing fan fiction of a scenario where no one gets raped during the eclipse. No situation where Guts and Casca both survive and there’s no SA trauma involved. Skull Knight just saves them before anything bad happens to the both of them.

[estatheshrike]

So I thought: what if, throughout the Golden Age, Casca‘s goal wasn‘t to become “Griffith’s woman” or “Guts’ woman,“ but her own?

In canon, all she really wants is a man’s recognition. First from Griffith, then from Guts. And her shifting allegiance to Guts is presented as “development.“ But in reality, her arc should be about her, not about him.

Canonically, Casca was born in a village, sold into servitude, and nearly raped by her master. Then Griffith saves her and gives her a sword. She follows him, becoming his sword.

But now, imagine this:

Casca doesn‘t want “recognition as a woman.” What she wants is something concrete: a home and a family. Like she used to have. Ideally, back in a village again. But she suppresses her own dream because she believes Griffith’s dream is more important, and she owes him her life.

In this version, she‘s not so much jealous of Guts as she is envious that he has retained more independence than she has.

So we have a trio of dreams:

· Griffith: An enormous, all-consuming dream.

· Guts: The absence of a dream, a void, the desire to be more than just a sword.

· Casca: A small dream, which she herself believes is insignificant.

The Eclipse isn’t just violence. It‘s the destruction of a small, “insignificant” dream in the middle of a huge conflict.

Her tragedy is no longer just about being a “broken lover.” It becomes about being a person whose small, human dream was trampled by two epic, gigantic ambitions

And that, I think, is a far more powerful story.

[the-shrimpening]

Griffith is my favorite representation of being suddenly disabled, no other media shows it in such a painful and ugly way (as far as I've seen). Why should I suffer instead of others? When I was diagnosed I genuinely hoped with all my heart I could pass it on to someone else or make others suffer the same as me so they would understand. Honestly if he didn't do what he did to Casca he would be morally grey leaning on good I swear.

[tortured-griffith]

I think I might have mentioned it before, but that particular arc of his does remind me of "Metamorphosis" by Kafka. This sudden realisation that "Hey! You are now changed forever and things will never be the same and this will also transform others and your relationships in ways unimaginable before. And you will have to live with that or give up completely." The main difference between the two being that Gregor self-destructed, but Griffith took everything down with him too.

This might be one of the main reasons why his character post torture is so dear to me, there is no winning or losing anymore, just an effort to survive it all on your own terms. It is ugly and raw because that is how pain and loss is, and the point is that it is so very deeply human too, even this ugliness and pain. Eveybody who has ever said anything else, either never sat down and thought about it or just doesn't truly care. It is painful and unimaginable to witness, much less live through.

I am so very sorry that you have been through something like this OP. I hope you have found the strength to keep going.

[waywardsalt]

you ever think about casca leading the band of the hawk for a year after griffith was imprisoned. leading them alone taking up the mantle of leader on her own doing what she can to lead them as they're actively hunted down. running herself ragged walking a mile and more in the shoes of the man that saved her, gave her a place to belong and prove herself, who inspired her and to whom she devotes herself to as his sword. spending that year working to keep the band together and planning to save griffith and in the process becoming known and even somewhat praised as the leader of the band of the hawk. and once she gets griffith back, in such a horrible state that he will never retake the role she's assumed, he sacrifices all of those people she's tirelessly led and kept safe for his sake and violates her and tosses her aside to rot

[oatmealzz]

Malcolm’s daughter sounds a lot like his genderbent version Mallory from the if boys were girls episode from season four. I don’t know if this is a good coincidence or intentional hiring but it’s very neat.

[oatmealzz]

It’s funny rewatching the golden age movies and getting to the point where Guts loses to Griffith.

Like how did a Gigachad like Guts lose to a twink in a fist-fight?

No wonder he bet his ass on the line. He literally didn’t think he would lose and got absolutely crushed and humbled by a man who looks like a woman in hand-to-had combat OF ALL things.

[thatbrandedswordsman]

...maybe I'm once again tryin' to throw away something irreplaceable that I'll never have again?

Berserk Wuthering Heights 6/? - insp. @tortured-griffith | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights, Chapter 6 // Kentaro Miura - Berserk Volume 9, Chapter 37 "Knight of Skeleton" & Volume 12, Chapter 78 "Parting"

[oatmealzz]

The way I was listening to the wuthering heights song and the whole “how could you leave me when I needed to possess you” line came up. I’m not kidding when I see that weird recording of young Kate bush in dark burgundy lipstick sing, I just imagine Griffith singing towards Guts about possessing him and how he’s back in his life. Like if Guts wasn’t called Guts, lowkey he looks like a Healthcliff no I’m not kidding, I really thought about this.

Like the whole “bad dreams in the night about losing a fight and leaving behind what was very precious”. Lovely coincidence. Honestly it’s their song at this point.

Also love the sultry bedroom eyes she gives to the camera in that one video recording. I can totally imagine Griffith doing something similar.

AND THE WHOLE THING ABOUT MY ONE DREAM MY ONLY MASTER UGHHHH

I think about the hunger line from the manga and I think it highkey fits the whole wanting to consume or possess someone.

Look at the photo of young Kate bush and tell me you also see Griffith’s facial expressions there too?!?!

[tobaccopuff]

[oatmealzz]

In hindsight, how was Griffith going to lead a kingdom, when he couldn’t even handle baby’s first break up?

[politdiva]

I have so much respect for Kentaro Miura for seeing these characters and thinking… What if someone like them would have had a heartbreaking tragedy happen to them… And a little homoerotic tension??? Excellent.

(Thank you for this knowledge, legend of the fandom)

[campfireofdreams]

he even made this drawing! truly iconic 🙂‍↕️

[acecroft]

Let's go.

[taldigi]

I want that twink obliterated