Hi! I’ve been thinking about griffguts a lot the past couple of days. do you have any favourite canon divergent ideas for them, any specific moments in the manga that you think would be the best/most interesting points for their story to branch off in a different direction? I hope you have a nice day <3
Hi!
Well first I want to say that I loved your recent fic's branching off point, that's one that hadn't occurred to me before and it works so well!
In general if we're going for a happy AU I think Guts just successfully killing Julius and never hearing the Promrose Hall speech is probably the most convenient and the best way to keep things going on in a positive direction, since that's when everything changes.
I'm a sucker for the "do you think I'm cruel?" conversation going differently, Guts giving a different answer, recognizing Griffith's self-doubt and vulnerability and realizing he's human after all, etc. I think that would be a good scene to like, insert an impulsive kiss under the right circumstances.
Griffith winning the second duel is an interesting one imo, because then you get a starting point with a lot of confusion, resentment, self-loathing, and betrayal that has to be worked through. At some point they have to be forced to confront their issues and recognize their misunderstanding, but you can have a lot of painful sad awkward build up to that first.
Guts learning about the Hawks' exile after a month instead of a year and racing back to save Griffith a lot earlier could be interesting. All of the proof of Griffith's feelings, some of the loss of dream since Griffith is a traitor now, but he still has a tongue and can maybe heal and hasn't spent a year imagining Guts to escape torture so there's less despair and maybe a little self awareness. Would Griffith give up the dream or would he try to find another way to gain a kingdom? What would Guts say when Griffith can say something back?
And of course, Casca not telling Guts to leave again in front of Griffith's wagon, averting the Eclipse but solving zero other problems, forcing the characters to deal with the circumstances they've found themselves in. This might actually be my favourite canon divergence branching point in theory, I just love the particular blend of despair and hope. They've lost everything except each other. It's good stuff.
And post-Eclipse, well, I feel like NeoGriffith kidnapping Guts instead of Casca would be one of those firmly established fanon AUs if Berserk fandom was bigger lol. Other than that though, it's hard to think of good canon divergence scenarios post-Eclipse lol, at least simple straightforward ones.
Like I have had the idea that the behelit is Casca's, and it opens when she sees Guts and remembers the Eclipse, and she sacrifices Moonlight Boy/Griffith as like a dual thing, which alters Griffith's relationship to fate because he's now a step outside of fate as a sacrifice and basically cancels out his godlike untouchability, and things unfold from there. But that's pretty specific lol.
How about you, are there any you're particularly interested in?
