#conviction arc

[princerevenant]

he was so real for that

[lavender-ages]

A little comparison between Trigun ch. 20 - Fifth Moon (1997) and Berserk ch. 173/176 - Convinction Arc (2001)

In honour of Trigun Stargaze premiere at the New York Comic Con on 10th October, I wanted to share this little (?) comparison between two of my favourite moments from two of my favourite manga...while also hoping Stargaze will show a biblically accurate Fifth Moon incident lol

I'm not saying for sure which author got influenced by who, but it's just interesting and funny to point out there are quite many similarities, yet these aren't rare tropes among the most different types of media, so Miura and Nightow might have had just a similar vision, a coincidence of life...

So please remember this is just for fun! :)

Now, let's compare the following, major scenes:

Angelic-looking villains/antagonists Knives and Griffith are reborn in a supernatural/unnatural birth from the sacrifice of someone else (who is not human either), after a short and gruesome "pregnancy". Both the Egg Apostle and Legato also cry tears of joy upon the rebirth of their messianic masters (and it's worth pointing out how both Legato and the Apostle lived as outcasts, rejected and mistreated by society)

2. Lots of feathers and beautiful hair. And they look so gorgeous

3. Then we have the protagonists, Vash and Guts who, funnily enough, share some slight physical traits: they both lost their left arm due to the villain (who's also the main cause of their psychological distress), their bodies are covered by multiple scars, and they look "devilish", more villain than the actual villains - who, instead, have an immaculate, angelic appearance for most of the time

4. The locations for the rebirth rituals look similar as well: old, rundown, ominous and mysterious towers/hills, isolated from the rest of the civilized world (which isn't really that civilized, honestly). Both Jeneora Rock and the Albion Tower get destroyed after the rebirth (Trigun), or just before (Berserk), but the result is the same.

Albion was mostly inspired by the movie The name of the rose, and the resemblance is uncanny (go watch the movie and read the original book by Umberto Eco!!); Nightow likely had a different inspiration, maybe Star Wars as for the rest of No Man's Land

5. As a new day begins, so does a new age. The history and shape of both worlds are forever changed after such a powerful manifestation of "evil*" has left permanent scars on the world, leading to an age of chaos, blood and uncertainty. Both Knives and Griffith aim to destroy the current world they live in and make one anew, and while Knives failed, things are going much better for Griffith (at least for now!)

*also, both Knives and Griffith are called "manifestation of Evil" or something like that by multiple characters throughout both stories

While these are direct, visual parallelisms, there are more:

the rebirth moment is the first time the heroes meet again with their antagonists after a number of years;

even if the villains have ruined the protagonists' lives in very cruel ways, harming the people they loved most, there's still a deep emotional bond between the twins, Guts and Griffith (but I highly doubt they will be able to truly amend their broken relationship, like the twins instead did);

Knives and Griffith's rebirths are witnessed, waited and prayed for by a number of people: Knives has Legato and the rest of the Gung Ho Guns, which are more or less aware (and supportive) of their master's second coming; Griffith is welcomed by an unaware mass of pilgrims and cultists who thought they were worshipping the Devil (well, they weren't too far off lol);

this also makes the two antagonists some sort of dark messiahs, anti-gods, fallen angels (even more literally in Knives' case, since he doesn't belong to the human race, while Griffith ascends to non-human nature only after the Eclipse);

lastly, and this is just for those who like to analyse things with their Shipping Glasses on (like me :D), but to me it can be said there's also some erotic tension between Vash and Knives, Guts and Griffith, stemming from romantic nuances in their relationships.

Maybe there are even more parallelisms, but this is what I could think of. Again, none of these traits are rare and hard to find in fiction, but it was simply funny for me because I've always thought the Conviction Arc ended before Trigun even began, but it's actually the opposite! The more you know...

[digitalzombie]

Ep. 148 "Reunion" | Berserk | Kentaro Miura

[chibibytes-anime]

Conviction Arc fanart by me :)- (u/BissXD)

[bissxd]

[thegodhand7]

[sweetmapple]

Farnese at 1000%

Guts... at his limit

[gayboss-too-close-to-the-sun]

I’m trying to figure out why the skull demon guy from berserk is such a homie. He just saved Luca’s life, which is great because she is Best Girling herself through the conviction arc, or as I like to call it, the Casca Retrieval Arc.

In other words, Berserk keeps getting darker but I still love it so dearly.