Berserk / Tropes E to H

Tropes for Berserk
Tropes A to D | Tropes E to H (Famous Last Words, Fan Disservice, Foil) | Tropes I to P | Tropes Q to T (Shout-Out, Shown Their Work) | Tropes U to Z

---

E

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Berserk: Prototype, which is included in Volume 14. Its style and general aesthetic is a little more comical and reminiscent of a Fist of the North Star-type violent Shounen, which the manga was originally envisioned as. It also has several wildly different plot points from the manga. Guts has a badass eyepatch and acts more like his mercenary self than his Black Swordsman persona, Puck is still Puck... well, kinda girly, but still Puck, and his crossbow is a normal one instead of the repeating crossbow from the main series.
  • In the first few volumes of the manga proper, Puck is definitely not Invisible to Normals as he is later on. Not to mention that he never does his Chestnut!Puck Art Shift like he started doing later on.
  • The very first panels of volume one are an R-Rated Opening in which Guts is having sex with the unnamed female Apostle, and kills her when she transforms and tries to eat him. Given that Guts is later established to have a lot of hang-ups about sex, and is also very faithful to Casca, a lot of fans consider this out-of-character for him.
  • The first chapter also features a scene in which Guts is surrounded by a large number of soldiers who take him captive. Anyone reading farther along in the series would realize that it's laughable to think that those soldiers had ANY chance of taking Guts against his will, given his inhuman sword skills. There is no indication in the chapter that Guts surrendered on purpose, and doing that would mostly be out of character for him, so the scene stands out all the more compared to later.
• Eaten Alive: The fate of most of the Band of the Hawk during the Eclipse.
• Eating the Eye Candy: There are a couple of times in the story where a female character can't help staring at some part of Guts' chiseled body that they find attractive.
  • After thrashing him with a cat o'nine tails, Farnese gets momentarily distracted at the sight of Guts' bloody and muscular chest.
  • While reapplying a protective seal to a shirtless Guts' neck, Schierke pays special attention to his large back, and starts blushing.
• Eats Babies: Most Apostles qualify for this. They don't care if the one they're eating is an innocent baby. No, they don't. In fact, the fresher and more tender the meat, the better!
• Egopolis: Griffith's very own magical dreamland version of this trope, Falconia, is even more pompous and shiny than you would imagine from him. It looks like paradise to the much plagued Midlanders, but the readers only see an obvious deathtrap.
• Eldritch Abomination: Most Apostles and Qliphoth monsters.
  • The Godhand, although The Idea of Evil might fit better.
  • Oddly, it's the more powerful Apostles who are the exceptions. Zodd is a winged beast with feline and bull features, Grunbeld is a crystalline dragon, and Locus is a metallic centaur lancer. Scary for sure, but nowhere as hideous as most Apostles.
  • Averted again with some of the first Apostles seen during the Eclipse - prior to the truly disturbing ones stepping out of the shadows, quite a few of the first wave of them resemble giant fish, dinosaurs and dragons. Disturbing in how monstrous their actions become, but they're practically normal in comparison to the Apostles who emerge following them.
  • And then there's Shiva, the name given to whatever the hell Ganishka just turned into... He's so gigantic he makes Midland's capital look like a tiny maquette. Then he starts walking...
  • And for those of you who like aquatic themes, The Sea God. An actual sentient wacky pirate crew (complete with pirate ship) is among its countless tentacled appendages. And that's just what it's like on the outside. It's insides almost qualify as an Eldritch Location with a ton of nasty creatures calling it home. And it only gets worse once you reach its heart.
• Eldritch Location:
  • Being a Layered World, the Berserkerverse has no end to the weird ass locations, but weirdest of them all (or out the places already presented to us) is the Vortex, which is where the Godhand and the Idea of Evil hangout. The whole landscape is made up of faces - which are alive. And of course the waterscape is blood.
  • It may not look like it but Falconia is definitely one of these as well.
• Elemental Powers: Special note goes to Serpico, who is represented by wind and Isidro, who is represented by fire. Other characters play with various elements, both classical and atypical. Examples include Ganishka's use of lightning, the Child's appearance during the full moon as well as his power over demons, Puck's healing and light abilities, Femto's power over the friggin' space/time continuum, and Schierke just zigzags in and out of everything.
• Emerging from the Shadows: Right after Guts saves Casca from Silat in chapter 42, having returned from his one year absence from the Band of the Hawk, he looms over her while covered in shadow for a moment until the light hits his face and Casca recognizes him. This is far from the only time a character does this.
• Emotional Torque: Volume 13. This was THE turning point in the fandom where fans had to make a choice: either drop this series altogether and try their damnedest to forget it, or stick it to the end just to see how Miura was going to resolve all of this. Dare we say that if you didn't feel anything while reading volume 13, whether you thought it was a necessary evil or if you felt downright disgusted, fans will probably ask, "What's wrong with you?!"
• The Empire: The Tudor Empire and especially the Kushan empire are large, powerful, and autocratic states that seek to dominate their neighbors through conquest.
• Empowered Badass Normal: A lot of fans argue that Guts isn't a normal human anymore due to the effects that the Interstice has on him. If this is the case, then congratulations, Guts. You have attained yet another badge of badassery.
• End of an Age: Symbolically speaking, the demise of the first Band of the Hawk and the dramatic change in our three protagonists signified the end of their glory days once the prologue ended. Hence, the reason why the arc covering this plot was called "The Golden Age Arc." (The fact that such a Dung Ages Crapsack World was dubbed "The Golden Age" is very much an intentional irony and only serves to foreshadow just exactly how much worse things can get.)
• Enemy Mine: Guts and Zodd pull this off to defeat Ganishka's projection in Vritannis. It's about as awesome as you might expect.
• Empathic Weapon: The Berserker Armor changes shape to match its wielder, taking on a skull facade for Skull Knight and turning into a face similar to the Hellhound for Guts.
• The Epic: Berserk fits all of the criteria of an Epic work of fiction. It is a longer-than-average story with a vast setting and huge cast of characters. It depicts events such as wars, catastrophes, and adventures spanning a world and multiple planes of existence and happening over long periods of time. In the middle of all this the main subject is the (anti)heroic protagonist, Guts, who together with his companions goes on an arduous quest in which they perform great deeds and have numerous distinct adventures. As an added bonus it fits some of the guidelines of the classical Greek and Roman epics, as the manga and anime both begin In Medias Res, subsequently showing in flashback How We Got Here, and all versions include at least one trip to the realm of the dead. All that it's missing is an invocation of the artists' muse at the beginning.
• Erotic Asphyxiation: When Guts kidnaps Farnese as a hostage during his escape from captivity and she gets possessed by an evil spirit, she strips naked, straddles him, and starts choking him with a cord while encouraging him to "split her open" with his sword. Farnese, the one doing the strangling, found it sexually thrilling in her possessed state, but Guts was not the least bit aroused and on the contrary wanted her off of him as soon as possible.
• Establishing Character Moment: Guts is formally introduced in a tavern in the castle town of Koka - and by "formally", we of course mean that he brutally maims and cleaves a bunch of the Snake Baron's mooks with little to no effort or qualms. This scene not only presents Guts as a total badass, but also as a ruthless man. It only makes the audience question, "why is he like this?"
• Et Tu, Brute?: Guts leaving him is what causes Griffith to throw his dreams away.
  • Not to mention how his backup plan was demolished when he found out that Casca had chosen Guts as her lover.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Several ruthless villains and antagonists such as Rosine, the Count, and Minister Foss turn out to have friends or family members whom they truly love and would do anything to protect. Guts takes advantage of this on more than one occasion.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Berserk may be a Dark Fantasy story in an absolutely Crapsack World but the character's aren't one dimensional including some of the bad guys. While some can be rather monstrous, they can show a set of standards or a glimmer of morality however faint.
  • In order to become an apostle, you have to sacrifice the one you love. Even if it is a dick move consigning a loved one to death not to mention horribly selfish, it does mean you have to be able to give a shit about other people. This means that The Sociopath is incapable of becoming an apostle or at least they can't be this before they become an apostle. This also give the God Hand an odd though probably unintentional set of standards in that they will not accept people into the fold who turn out to have souls black as pitch.
  • A peculiar example, but worth a mention: the deformed embryo of Guts and Casca's child is described by the Skull Knight to have become tainted by evil because its mother was raped by Femto. 80% of its appearances however are of it protecting Casca's life.
• Even the Dog Is Ashamed: A dog that Gambino took in after he was crippled looks notably mortified at the latter's continued abuse of Guts. He promptly kicks it for that.
• Even the Girls Want Her: During the victory parade after the battle of Doldrey, Casca gets flowers and cheers from crowds of young women who consider her cool and beautiful.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Everyone wants Griffith, no matter how straight they otherwise be. Numerous presumably straight men including Owen and Laban get strange feelings around him because of his beauty and charisma, and even Guts isn't completely immune to this.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: Guts wakes up four days after the Eclipse missing his right eye and left hand and finds that every last one of his comrades are dead, except for Casca who was driven insane, Rickert who wasn't there, and Griffith who was the one that betrayed all of them. Once he gets over his Freak Out, he is forced to start again from scratch.
• Everyone Can See It: Judeau sees the growing attraction between Guts and Casca and tries to push them in the right direction for the sake of their happiness. It eventually pays off.
• Everyone's Baby Sister: Casca is more like Everyone's Big Sister in the Golden Age arc: she's a capable soldier and the Hawks' second-in-command, but everyone is still more protective of her than anyone else. Later on, Schierke fits this role (like when Guts starts a Bar Brawl when a drunk gets too close to her), and Casca (having regressed to a childlike state due to the events of the Eclipse) is even more like this.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Ever since getting branded, this has very much been the case for both Guts and Casca. Every night, ghosts and specters attack them, either directly, or by possessing whatever happens to be nearby: people, animals, corpses, mounds of snow, trees...the list is endless.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: It ain't when it's shown during a graphic rape.
• Evil Gloating: Many lesser baddies have tried this against Guts. All of them had it backfiring explosively right in their faces... literally. Naturally, Guts will then gladly return the favor.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: The apostles after making a sacrifice in order to become one.

• Evolving Weapon: The Dragonslayer was just a normal BFS, but once Guts started slaying demons with it, its blade eventually becomes "tainted" by being constantly soaked in the evil blood of these creatures, resulting in a much more effective, supernaturally-empowered weapon.
• Exotic Weapon Supremacy: Averted after Guts easily beats Silat, despite his many exotic weapons.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Guts is fighting a regenerating demon (an offspring of the Count who possesed a knight who swore to kill Guts after he got his ass handed to him) whose wounds heal as fast as they're inflicted. The demon taunts him by saying that it can regenerate endlessly as long as its head is intact. Guts chops the demon's head in half and thanks it for telling him. Then the demon's head try to possess Guts. Who reacts by smashing it into a wall with his BFS.
  • In volume 9, Silat invokes this trope during his second confrontation with Guts at the Hawks' hideout, first trying to decipher how Guts was able to strategically counter the trajectory of his chakram. Guts defies this by nonchalantly saying that he guessed, more or less.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: When in Action Girl mode, Casca has short, cropped hair, but when she goes insane after the Eclipse, her hair gradually grows out, representing how she shifted from Lady of War to The Ophelia. And she cuts it short again after her mind is healed.
• Expy:
  • Guts. Yes. Think about it for a moment: an aloof, jaded and apparently lonely warrior, Covered with Scars, travelling with two kids, one Hypercompetent Sidekick and a former leader woman, driven by his desire of revenge on one side and his longing to retrieve the woman he loves on the other side. Doesn't he sound like Kenshiro?
  • Femto's design looks like that of Batman, especially when he's "flying".
  • Emperor Gaiseric, a ruthless conqueror known as the "Demon King" for his mercilessness, draws heavily from Oda Nobunaga.
• Extreme Doormat: Farnese and Serpico respectively, though in both cases it's subverted. Serpico was seen being walked over by Farnese when they're first introduced, displaying a goofy face, no combat skills, and being a bit of a klutz - until it was revealed that he was all an act and that in addition to killer instincts he has a spine and will sometimes refuse to obey Farnese if her orders are too self-endangering. Farnese appears to become more of a doormat when she leveled up in kindness, allowing her father to talk down on her and almost letting her brother manipulate her into marrying his best friend for his own ploys. However, she does certainly have goals and ambition and she doesn't want to be seen as a burden to the rest of the group. Her mother is actually aware of this and fore warns her brother that she can't be easily manipulated.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: After seeing Griffith's mutilated body, Guts goes so apeshit insane on the Midland soldiers that his comrades are more shocked than usual at how he's utterly slaughtering the soldiers and Guts can barely stand when they get away. Only Casca's touch can cool him down after it all.
• Eye Catch: A rather minimalist version, just an all-black title card with a less than 1/4-screen version of the show's logo appearing in opposite corners.
• Eye Remember: A zigzagged variant. Guts's last memory in his right eye while it got clawed out were the last moments of Casca's horrific rape. He sometimes recalls what the last sight of his right eye was in order to remind himself exactly why he hates Griffith so much. It's scary when others remind him of his last sight, but when he reminds himself - eep.
• Eye Scream: Guts gets his right eye clawed out by a demon during the finale. And worse, his remaining eye is repeatedly threatened in several following arcs.
  • Not to mention the fact that eyes tend to be targeted with disturbing regularity. Arrows go through skulls taking the eyeball with them, heads are crushed causing the eyes to protrude like a real-life version of those squeeze toys, chakrams cut eyes in half, one of Bishop Mozgus' disciples uses red-hot pliers to pull eyeballs out... You get the idea.
    • During his fight with the Bird, one of Mozgus' torturers, not only is his left eye in danger of being poked out, but his right eye gets re-stabbed by one of the disciple's talons. They just won't lay off that eye even AFTER it's gone, won't they!?
  • It's not terrible in the anime, but in the manga, it happens so ridiculously often that it almost becomes a bit much for some.
    • Special mention goes to when Ganishka's transformation vaporizes the Kushan animals... Their eyeballs fly away intact as the rest of their bodies disintegrate.
  • Don't forget about Casca stabbing one of her would-be rapists in the eye with a stick and then the same guy gets his remaining eye gouged by one of Judeau's knives a moment later (only in the anime). Of course, the guy had it coming, but still. * shudder*
• Eyes Always Shut: Pippin and Serpico are both drawn with their eyes always shut, and only open them when they are really getting serious. Guts does a downplayed version after losing his right eye by not wearing an eyepatch, and simply keeping his right eyelids closed. Void is the most extreme example, as his eyelids are actually sewn together.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: A good half of the Eldritch Abominations presented in Berserk have eyeball where they just should not be. Special mention goes to Wyald, who has a three big-ass eyeballs (two on each shoulder and one on his chest), the Sea God who has a heart covered with eyes, and the Idea of Evil itself.

F

• Face Doodling: One time while Schierke is in a trance on the ship, Isidro and Puck draw clownish pirate make-up on her face and get punished for it with some irate magic when she wakes up. Ivalera didn't try to stop them because she thought it would be funny. Hi-larious.
• Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: The trolls of Qliphoth are all male, and reproduce by abducting and raping human women, who become pregnant with troll fetuses that tear their way out of their mother's body.
• Face–Heel Turn: Many villains in the series were not that way when their stories began:
  • Griffith may have been a morally ambiguous character before the Eclipse, but at least he always felt a duty to take care of his followers. Sacrificing every one of them to be devoured by demons and then raping Casca while forcing Guts to watch were the acts that turned him into a villain who cared about nothing but his own power.
  • The King of Midland starts the Golden Age arc as a benevolent and reasonable ruler, but he turns into an insane tyrant after Griffith provokes his Disproportionate Retribution.
  • Rosine was once only an adventurous child who wanted to escape her parent's abuse and find a place where she could be happy. When she sacrificed her parents to become an Apostle, she became a sadistic insect queen who turned kidnapped children into monsters, terrorized her home village, and created a false utopia where her elves senselessly fought each other to the death for amusement.
• Face Palm: Guts does this when Casca has a moment of, er, Potty Failure in volume 23.
  • Roderick's expression during Magnifico's Epic Fail of announcing Farnese's engagement to Roderick.
• Failed State: The Kingdom of Midland collapses into near-anarchy after the end of the Golden Age Arc, having suffered significant military losses in first the Hundred-Year War and then from turning on the Band of the Hawk, as well as a Succession Crisis caused by the death of its heir (the king's younger brother, assassinated by Guts on Griffith's orders), queen (ditto), and king (natural causes) in rapid succession, leaving only the Princess Classic Charlotte alive of the royal family. This leaves it easy pickings for the brutal Kushan invasion. Even after the other neighboring states form a military alliance to launch a crusade against the Kushans, all the talk is of dividing Midland up between them in the event of victory rather than restoring it.
• False Prophet: After betraying the band of the hawk in exchange for power and a position among the god hand, Griffith re-enters the human realm and poses as a savior for humanity who would "vanquish the shadow that blots out the sun" when he is actually a harbinger of death and destruction. His image as humanity's savior is mostly based on (a) a premonition seen by people throughout midland and (b) backing from the holy see, Berserk's equivalent of the catholic faith.
• Famed In-Story: Especially strong mercenary bands, armies, and heroes can gain reputations that cross international borders. Nosferatu Zodd is spoken of in hushed whispers by mercenaries the world over, while every knight's son knows of Locus, the Moonlight Knight. The list only begins there.
• Fanservice: While the above trope is correct in how much disturbing sexual violence there is in the manga, volume 18 a teenage prostitute getting a severe spanking from another prostitute, which would certainly appeal to some.
  • Volume 9 is pretty notorious for its fanservice as well.
    • The sex scene between Griffith and Charlotte is fairly pornographic.
    • Not to mention Guts and Casca's love scene - which is also pretty graphic - offered up a rare instance of female-targeted fanservice, since the Male Frontal Nudity of the cultists wasn't really pleasant to look at, but Guts's MFN moment, with his ripped, sweaty, scar-covered body... It's very easy for male AND female fans to having wandering fantasies while reading the love scene.
• Fantastic Aesop: For all of Berserk: humanity shouldn't blame all of its problems on some abstract concept they have no control over because that will create an unstoppable God with an unlimited army of rape monsters that will kill everyone.
• Fantasy Conflict Counterpart:
  • The Golden Age Arc draws some inspiration from The Hundred Years War, with the long-running conflict between the Kingdom of Midland and the Tudor Empire specifically being called the Hundred-Year War. Mercenaries like the Band of the Hawk were historically a significant part of European armies from late Rome through the mid-19th century. Somewhat uniquely, the story seems to be told from the French perspective rather than the English POV, with Tudor eventually being diverted from prosecuting the war by an Enemy Civil War sparked by a Succession Crisis, mirroring the concurrent Wars of the Roses. This gives Midland an opportunity to retake Doldrey and end the war.
  • The post-Eclipse invasion of the Kushan Empire seems to parallel the Islamic invasions of southern Europe, though Kushan is visually patterned more after Mughal India.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • The Kushan Empire resembles real life Southeast Asia, specifically India, with some Middle Eastern influences thrown into the mix.
  • Griffith's kingdom of Falconia is looking a lot like Ancient Rome here.
  • There are subtle hints to the real-life counterparts of various countries mentioned by Serpico briefly in one chapter, as well as clothing choices and character names hinting at nationality. Midland has been confirmed to be the Berserk universe's version of Denmark by Miura, and Chuder's "Holy Empire" seems to relate to the real German Holy Roman Empire. Farnese and Serpico coming from a fantasy version of Italy (port-based, mercantile, money-lending, seat of the Vatican). Surprisingly, most of the courtly dress rarely worn by the various protagonists is quite accurate to the vaguely 15th century Europe that the series seems to take place in.
  • There's also all of the traces of Scandinavian/Norse mythology about, which makes sense since Denmark is part of Scandinavia. Of course, we're talking about the persistence of the berserker imagery.
  • Judging by the name of the location and inhabitants (such as Skellig and Puck), and the general mythology around it, Elfhelm sound to be inspired by the British Isles.
• Fantasy Gun Control: In Berserk's fantastic setting, where magic can reshape the landscape in a matter of moments and strong swordsmen sometimes end a fight scene on a literal mountain of bodies, the exclusion of firearms from the story is heavily downplayed. On one hand, just about all armies and navies make extensive use of cannons, to the point where the objective of the first raid that Griffith makes Guts participate in is to set the enemy's gunpowder stores on fire, and he sets his own artillery as an ambush for the enemy. Guts and Grunbeld each have a miniaturized cannon as part of their personal weaponry, and use their explosive power as a devastating trump card against hordes of enemies or powerful monsters, to which can be added Rickert's portable rocket launcher and the miniature bombs he made for Guts. The big caveat that makes the trope still present is that besides these characters, warfare is still universally waged with arrows from massed bowmen and crossbowmen, and even the countries whose large number of cannons suggest the technological capacity to mass-produce hand firearms for their troops continue to rely on old-fashioned archery without a hand gun in sight. The fact that Rickert also invented an Automatic Crossbow for Guts that fires faster than any gun suggests that bows won't become obsolete any time soon. Miura showed his work here, in that historically it did take a while for man-portable firearms to become prevalent: the main advantage of muskets over longbows wasn't firepower, range, or accuracy, but ease of training, and bow formations could still theoretically have been competitive until reliable repeating rifles and breech-loaders were introduced in the mid-19th century.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The setting has pretty much everything, especially after magic comes back to the world, not just apostles (not to mention how some apostle forms are stand-ins for other supernatural creatures like werewolves, centaurs, and minotaurs) and elves (though they're really faeries) and how other apostles seem to have vampiric motifs): Unicorns, dragons and their kin, more trolls, ogres, kelpies, gremlin-thingies, the walking dead, sucubi (which are really weird Blob Monster things), monster pirates, Kushan ninjas, mages, golems, low-tech mechanized humans, merfolk, telepaths, vikings at one point in history... oh, and the evil god... You gotta see it to believe it. What's Miura gonna throw at us next?
• Fat and Skinny: The last two members of Rosine's forest guardians while in their human form. In their demonic forms, they become a giant rhinoceros beetle and praying mantis respectively.
• Fate Worse than Death: Being branded is the single worst fate anyone can suffer, even in this already 100% hostile universe. Not only does it make you a priority target of every demon and evil spirit in existence, it allso guarantees your ticket to the lowest pits of hell making your living flesh the last line of defense against an ocean of insanity waiting to consume your kicking and screaming soul forever. It doesn't matter how nice you have been in your life, you will end up down there. In fact, being a good person makes you a very likely target for the brand since the one sacrificing you must love you with all his heart.
• Faux Action Girl: Farnese, who is initially presented as a Knight Templar warrior, but is just a figurehead for the Holy Iron Chain Knights.
• Favors for the Sexy: Played for laughs in the second movie, where in Casca's unwanted menagerie of noblemen was one man who was willing to serenade her. Casca didn't know how to respond, so she ran away.
• Fetal Position Rebirth: Griffith has undergone this twice so far: once when his body is being reconstructed as Femto, and second when he is being reincarnated into the physical world through the Child's body. Also, Jill is briefly seen in this position when she almost got transformed into an "elf" by Rosine.
• Fetus Terrible: Guts and Casca's baby, though it is subverted; see Love Redeems below.
• Field of Blades: When Guts comes back from his two-year demon hunt, he finds that Rickert forged swords for each member of the Hawks and has planted a field of blades on a hill as a memorial to the fallen.
• Find the Cure!: Guts's journey to Elfhelm, where Casca's post-eclipse madness may be cured.
• Fine, You Can Just Wait Here Alone: Used to a similar effect during the Griffith rescue operation, when Charlotte and her maid tag along to the Tower of Rebirth. Charlotte gets frightened quite easily, to the point where she can't even walk on her own. Begrudgingly, Guts offers to carry the princess on his back and if she didn't like it, she could just wait at the top. She accepts (Casca didn't like it very much, though).
• Finger-Tenting: The jerkwad aristocrats who hate Griffith's peasant guts love doing this in their dark, shady headquarters of cunning-ness. Yes, clasping your hands at your eventual downfall always assures your victory.
• Finishing Move: Guts kills almost every major Apostle villain with the same move: blast it with the arm cannon and then while it's reeling from that, cleave it in half with the Dragonslayer. If he's feeling especially sadistic, such as during his Black Swordsman days, he'll torture the demon with either a dagger or his repeating crossbow.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Almost all of the friendships in this series are like this. Guts and Casca take the cake. Surviving being literally dragged trough hell together tends to leave a mark.
  • After the Eclipse Casca doesn't even remember Guts, so this doesn't really apply post-Eclipse.
• Fire and Ice Love Triangle: Casca and her feelings toward Guts and Griffith. Pretty obvious on who's the fire and who's the ice.
• Fire of Comfort: Fire is often used to symbolize hope and passion throughout Berserk. After they reconcile their relationship, Guts and Casca discuss how all of the Hawks represent a "bonfire of dreams." Later in the story, Guts describes his love for Casca as a flame that keeps him burning despite the darkness that shrouds him. Figurative usage aside, fire is essential for night time survival in the Berserk-verse, as it keeps demons and ghosts at bay until sunrise.
• Fist of Rage: Guts clenches his fist in anger upon realizing his great failure of not recognizing that Casca was more important than revenge, and then triumphantly clenches his fist during his second chance resolve.
• Five Stages of Grief: Not quite a straight example, but the three main characters all represent some stage in dealing with grief and despair. Guts best represents the anger stage, only feeling better for short bursts when he is in the heat of battle, but it never lasts long. Because of this, he also has traces of the denial and the depression stage when he left Casca. Griffith represents the depression stage, since after his year of torture, he just gave up all hope of attaining his dream. Alas, we find out that Griffith also stands for the bargaining stage, to a very horrific degree. And Casca represents the denial stage, especially so after her traumatic ordeal of the Eclipse, where we have not seen her true self for over two years and it has been suggested by Skull Knight that Casca simply does not want to face the world after her experience. Arguably only Rickert manages to make it to the acceptance stage, mourning his fallen comrades and working through his grief as best he can.
• Flanderization: Puck has always been rather goofy, but during the Black Swordsman and Lost Children Arcs he was mostly occupied with trying to be Guts' conscience and keeping him from losing his humanity. Once Guts acquires a new adventuring party, his role as comic relief has increasingly been the dominant part of his characterization.
• Flashback Echo: Happens a few times to Guts. The first time was during he and Casca's first night together, when he has flashbacks of his childhood rape while he's trying to make love to her (conveniently when he begins having sex with her from behind), and he almost strangles her as a result of the post-traumatic stress. A second time comes during the Conviction Arc, when Farnese is pinned down and is about to get raped by a possessed horse, and the horrifying sight bears an uncanny resemblance to the time when Casca was raped by Femto. This triggers Guts' rage BIG TIME.
  • Also, the only time insane Casca has any recollection of her past life is when she is about to be assaulted... which triggers an onslaught of horrifying images of her assault and rape during the eclipse. The end result has varied, from her remaining virtually defenseless until someone comes and saves her, or when she flies into a hysterical rage and goes Ax-Crazy on her assailants.
• Flapping Cheeks: In the Birth Ceremony Chapter, when Isidro and Puck track Casca and Nina's whereabouts to the cave where the pagans have kidnapped them, Isidro tells Puck to fly with the news to Guts as fast as he can while Isidro himself stalls for time. Fully appreciating the urgency, Puck launches himself at such cartoonish speed that the air resistance causes his cheeks and even his eyelids to flap!
• Flaying Alive: During his yearlong imprisonment under the Tower of Rebirth, Griffith has parts of his skin peeled off by the royal torturer, who nonetheless makes sure to keep him alive. In the Conviction arc, heretics leave the flayed skin of a priest they killed swaying on a tree in the middle of the refugee camp, which only increases the wrath of Bishop Mozgus.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: How Serpico and Farnese met. After getting beat up by some local bullies and left in the snow, Farnese finds Serpico and brings him back to her family's mansion. She begins to nurse him back to health... but says that he has to be her servant boy from then on.
• Flower Motifs: The morning after sleeping with her Griffith leaves Charlotte the pendant she gave him before a major battle and a piece of Lily of the Valley which represents returning happiness.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Griffith is called the demon of desire and is implied to represent desire and longing. Despite his hatred for Griffith, Guts, for a brief moment, forgot his hatred entirely when he first saw Griffith reincarnated in human form as he was before the eclipse. Griffith also seems to still have feeling for Guts, ambiguous as they may be. This is illustrated further when Guts was severely injured after teaming up with Zod to beat the Emperor and he saw Griffith on a hill looking down at him with a look of interest at the least and perhaps a bit of longing. All of this is ambiguous but it's clear that there's more than hatred between them.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Guts loves this trope, and rightly justified too since it was his job in the Hawks as raiding commander. Except for that one time during the Eclipse, where, well, you know what happened.
• Forced to Watch: One of the most heinous examples in anime or manga. Guts is forced to watch Casca be brutally raped to the point of insanity by Griffith turned Femto. He tries to reach her by chiseling off his own arm which was trapped in the jaws of a demon only to be dogpiled by more demons and was forced to watch the rape as a demon clawed out his right eye.
• Forceful Kiss:
  • One of the supreme examples of Fan Disservice in the series was when Femto kisses Casca right after he got done molesting her and before he began raping her in front of Guts. As a finale to this heinous act, he forcefully tongue kisses her as he explicitly rapes her from behind, making sure Guts sees EVERY DETAIL of what he's been doing to her.
  • Guts also forcefully kissed Casca when his Enemy Within almost drove him to rape her.
  • And then Slan kisses Guts in Qliphoth. Imagine softly kissing your lover's tender lips - which are made of troll guts. Hm.
• Foreshadowing: A lot of it takes place within Berserk, from Chekhov's Guns to prophetic bombshells. One particularly disturbing piece of foreshadowing is presented in volume two, where Vargas's description of how he was Forced to Watch his family get tortured and eaten by the Count and how he was mutilated in the act echoes how Guts was forced to watch Casca's rape at Femto's hands and how he mutilated himself while trying to save her.
  • In the library scene, Griffith shows Guts the Kama Sutra open on a page that illustrates the pose that he later puts Casca in while raping her during the eclipse.
  • While making their way through the dungeon to rescue Griffith, the characters discuss a legend involving four angels of darkness. Someone interjects that he thinks there are actually five. Guess how many members of the Godhand we start out with, and how many we end up with after the Eclipse.
  • Both Nosferatu Zodd and the Skull Knight make some very eerie (and accurate) predictions about what will exactly happen to Guts and is troupe...
  • Shortly before the eclipse there is a scene in which a crippled and helpless Griffith desparately throws himself at Casca. It upsets her very much and is disturbing by itself, but when he forces himself on her again as Femto...
  • In the flashback where Casca talks to Griffith who is washing himself in the river, Griffith gets worked up over the sacrifices required for his dream, clawing his arms and making them bleed hard. No guesses as to who does indeed sacrifice the lives of a thousand men to preserve his own life...
  • Another interesting one during one of Guts and Griffith's first encounters. Griffith tells Guts that he "wants him", making Guts ask if he's gay, though Griffith meant as a soldier. Later however it's revealed that Griffith developed some pretty strong feelings for Guts, that may have gone beyond simply friendship.
    • You can take this in another context of foreshadowing where Griffith tells Guts the usual "You belong to me" lecture after their naked water fight, but then he adds that he would determine the place and time of Guts' death. Hmmmmm...
    • In the end, this all wraps up to some pretty creepy Fridge Brilliance when the Eclipse happens when Griffith brands Guts, Casca, and the Hawks. The brands marks those who are chosen as sacrifice by the demon-to-be, and it is later revealed that a branded sacrifice can't be sacrificed by any one else, only the demon who branded them in the first place. Basically, so long as they're branded, Guts and Casca literally belong to Griffith.
• Foregone Conclusion: Since so much of the manga is a flashback, you already know that Guts loses an arm and an eye, gets a prosthetic arm and a BFS, gets marked with the symbol of sacrifice, ends up becoming an embittered wanderer who has lost almost everything and, oh yeah, you know that Griffith becomes the Big Bad after sacrificing Guts for power.
• Forging Scene: Guts has maintenance done on his Dragonslayer via this.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: While Casca didn't die and Guts remembers what happened to her very vividly, which drove him to Revenge the most, he forgot about the pain she suffered during the Eclipse and left her for two years to waste away in his own pain and sadness as well as kill anyone in his way, sometimes forgetting that he wasn't the sole survivor of the Eclipse. This led to his What the Hell, Hero? lecture from Godo and to his My Greatest Failure revelation later, resolving to better himself and protect Casca.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Guts and Casca have clothing that make sure to give detail to every curve and muscle on their body.
• Four Is Death: There are four members of the Godhand initially. Averted when Griffith/Femto makes five.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Many, but one of the most notorious is in which when Schierke gives the fire Dagger to Isidro, you can actually see Farnese blush.
• Freudian Trio: Guts was The McCoy or the Id, as he was hot-blooded and more ready to act, Casca was The Spock or the Superego, who always put the plan before any action, and Griffith was The Kirk or the Ego, who settles any argument between the two (but he usually sided with Guts). However, since all three characters underwent massive Character Development, their roles were subjected to change. For instance, Casca became more of the Ego when her hidden self was revealed, and Griffith become more of the Superego when his Hidden Depths were revealed - and a lot of other things.
• From Bad to Worse: Has pretty much been the hallmark of the series in general. The Eclipse was only the beginning. For reference, this is a series that started with the main character's adoptive father arranging to have him raped, then trying to murder him, forcing the kid to kill him. And yes, it gets worse from there. The world and the characters get hit with this so much that the series might as well be called "From Bad to Worse: The Series."
• Full-Frontal Assault: Casca does this quite often, since she won't let the threat of rape keep her from prevailing over her those who attempt to do so. Sorta mixed with a heroic and a villainous example in the latest scenario in volume 23, where some bandits strip her naked and try to gang rape her, but Casca grabs a sword and kills them all, covering herself in their blood. The display is quite erotic, but the fact that she is genuinely Ax-Crazy at this point due to traumatic flashbacks, adding the part that Guts saw this and became aroused to the point that he almost raped her himself, takes away from that aspect.
  • In the third movie, Guts assumes such a position against the Skull Knight, since Skull Knight's introduction scene is merged with Guts and Casca's love scene. Of course, this is a heroic variant (and a superb moment of female-geared Fanservice).
  • Can't forget ol' Zodd during his introduction. Clearly villainous.
• Functional Magic: Schierke's magic seems to be a cross of Theurgy and Rule Magic, elves and demons have innate talent, and there are magic items like behelits and the cursed armor.
• Fungus Humongous: The magical flora of Elf Island includes giant mushrooms, which form a staircase down the great tree. At the bottom is a bed of magic mushrooms which have absorbed the great tree's power. Inhaling their spores induces the sleep in which the Passage of Dreams may be performed.
• Funny Background Event: Usually involving Puck and/or Isidro and later Magnifico.
  • The pirates get one when discussing their captain's latest idiot plan while he's trying to make an impressive speech to the heroes. He casually reaches for a rope and pulls, tightening nooses around their necks and hauling them up without breaking his stride.
• Futile Hand Reach: Add Say My Name and you have a typical Guts-saves-Casca scenario.

G

• Gambit Roulette: Griffith's plan to capture Doldrey involves a legitimate Batman Gambit, but it also works flawlessly in spite of a factor that could have ruined the plan that Griffith simply left up to chance. After Griffith lures Gennon's forces away from the castle, Casca and her group simply ride in through the castle's front gate which has been left wide open despite a battle being in progress. While this stroke of luck was caused by the idiocy of whoever was in charge of the castle's defense (Adon Corbowitz, we're looking at you), Griffith did not even know that this would happen and was not shown to have had a plan for Casca getting past the gate if it had been closed. It could not have been because he knew from spies or other sources that Adon had an ill-conceived plan to let the attackers in and ambush them, because the ambush came as a complete surprise to Casca, who surely would have been told by Griffith. Berserk (1997) has this flaw in Griffith's plan as well. Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II - The Battle for Doldrey fixes this by Griffith having an actual plan to get Casca inside, by having her group disguised in the armor of Adon's Blue Whale Knights and using Adon—who they captured in the woods in this version—as a Trojan Horse so that the defenders would let them in.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Guts first encounters the Holy Iron Chain Knights after getting the hell smacked out of him by Rosine. He still manages to kill several of them before getting knocked out.
• Garden of Evil: Qliphoth is a strange dimension where all forms of life are corrupted, evil, and extremely deadly.
• Genre Shift:
  • Downplayed: From about the Millennium Falcon Arc, Berserk has placed less emphasis on being a gritty, dark, almost gothic, low fantasy horror story and introduced more elements of a whimsical heroic fantasy adventure, without lowering the stakes or losing its capacity to horrify when it wants to.
  • Also worth mentioning that Miura first intended that Berserk be done in the Shōnen style of story-telling during his Early-Installment Weirdness with Berserk the Prototype.
• Geometric Magic: Schierke casts a lot of her spells by drawing runes and magic circles. The charms that she draws over Guts and Casca's brands to dampen their effect are an example of this.
• The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: Guts' Fairy Companion Puck has made more pop culture references than every other member of the cast put together. His notable character impressions include Bruce Lee, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Danpei from Tomorrow's Joe, Devilman, Doraemon, a Gundam Frame, a Saint from Saint Seiya, and Yoda from Star Wars.
• Giant Mook: Many especially large Mooks appear, starting with Bazuso and getting progressively bigger.
• Gibberish of Love: It's really the only way to describe Guts' speech pattern toward Casca during the ball, where he's so smitten by her appearance that at first he can't form a coherent sentence.
• God Is Evil: The Idea of Evil inverts this. Instead of the supreme deity or creator of the world being evil, the idea of evil itself was turned into a God by the wishes of the people for an explanation for their suffering.
• God and Satan Are Both Jerks: The pagan cults really aren't any better than the Church, what with the whole cannibalism and implied infanticide thing. On top of that, the deities they worship seem to be the Godhand going by different names.
• Go-Go Enslavement: When Casca and Nina were captured by the pagans, Nina was stripped naked and intended to be used as a sacrifice, while Casca was dressed in a poncho that barely covered her, and was intended to become the Great Goathead's, er, "bride".
• Going Commando: In this world, undergarments do not seem very common, especially for the ladies. This could be some Truth in Television, since, due to the level of modesty in the era, people didn't talk about their underwear in the Middle Ages much, nor could organic clothing last for centuries, so we have very little to base this on and can only speculate what people wore for underwear back then based on pictures. Schierke and Isma are clearly seen using underwear which look a bit like 19th century bloomers, but that's measured against countless examples to the contrary.
• Goldfish Poop Gang:
  • Adon Coborlwitz is a one-man Goldfish Poop Gang, who refuses to give up no matter how many times Guts and Casca defeat him.
  • Captain Bonebeard's pirates are low-level and comedic bad guys who are easily trounced by the good guys each time, but stubbornly refuse to accept defeat and keep coming back for more punishment. Ironically the first sea battle Bandits in general really.
  • Then you have the Holy Iron Chain Knights who wear fancy armor but are actually a bunch of sheltered rich boys with no fighting skills whatsoever who make other Mooks look competent.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: While being imprisoned in a deep, dark dungeon, his sole human contact being with the deformed little man who is responsible for torturing him for a year Griffith wonders if he will go insane - or if he has already gone off the deep end.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Half of what contributes to Casca's madness after the Eclipse, much of it deliberately inflicted by Griffith.
• The Good Kingdom: Why, little 'ol Midland, of course, which has been bullied by not only one empire, but TWO over the span of the series, before Griffith came into action. However, this might all change now that Griffith is basically in charge of the place now that Falconia has arisen, bringing on the age of darkness. Fun times.
• Good Princess, Evil Queen: Played for Drama. The kind and naive Princess Charlotte is contrasted with her Wicked Stepmother the Queen of Midland, a cold and elitist woman who tries to stage a plot to assassinate Griffith. However, Charlotte is exceedingly naive, which is exploited by Griffith, who treats her as Meal Ticket to getting a kingdom.
• Gorn: Brutal hand-to-hand combat, torture and rape are all drawn in elaborate detail. Hordes of soldiers are monsters are killed in each battle, with blood and limbs spattered about. It's to the point it has a reputation as one of, if not the most violent manga outside of the niche genre of plotless exploitation comics.
• Gothic Horror: Berserk certainly had the archetypal atmosphere in the Black Swordsman Arc, the Retribution Arc, and in The Prototype. Traces of the genre are found throughout the series though, since it tends to overlap with Dark Fantasy.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: Roderick, upon proposing to Farnese, gifts her a greenhouse full of roses. He simultaneously deprecates his own gesture and compliments Farnese by saying that if you put a bunch of roses together in the same place, there's nothing special about them, and that they're only fit to adorn a special flower like her.
• Gratuitous English:
  • Wyald's motto of "Enjoy exciting!" in the Japanese manga.
  • Cap'n Bonebeard delivers—for no discernable reasons—the lines "Come on-a my house!"^note This being a Shout-Out to the song of that name recorded by Rosemary Clooney in 1951 which was subsequently covered by Eartha Kitt in Japanese) and "Yes we can!"
• Gratuitous Japanese: Both the Berserk (1997) English dub and the Dark Horse English manga edition include certain bits of untranslated Japanese. Perhaps the localization team thought they would sound awkward if translated literally, but the effect of Medieval European Fantasy characters using Japanese words and phrases is weird for an audience:
  • In the Berserk (1997) dub as well as the Dark Horse manga, the names of Adon's techniques are left untranslated, such as "ganzansenpuu" which means "rock-cutting whirlwind".
  • In the Dark Horse manga, the Skull Knight refers to the elf king "Hanafubuku", which is not a proper name but an untranslated epithet that means "flower storm" in Japanese, specifically the way that cherry blossom petals look when blowing in the wind.
• Gratuitous Rape: Rape happens a lot in this series, and while the main characters' experiences with sexual assault are for the most part seriously explored, the sheer number of other characters who experience sexual assault as well as how often rape of minor characters is used just to show that War Is Hell and Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil can lead to complaints of overusing it.
• Gray Rain of Depression: Dark clouds and rain reflect the grimness of Guts' fate and the depth of his grief and anger after waking up from the Eclipse. It's especially poignant when he finds Casca out in the rain and witnesses the birth of their deformed child.
• The Great Serpent: The Snake Baron is in his giant form and seen wreaking havoc across Midland during the Golden Age Arc.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Idea of Evil cosmically, it's on the very top of the Berserk-verse as far as evil is concerned, but it has little to do with Guts' quest.
• Greek Chorus: Sir Owen and Sir Laban fit this role, especially in the Golden Age Arc, always seen together and commenting on Griffith's role in the court, but never actually interacting with the primary characters. This changes after the Kushan invasion, which separates them from each other, shows them independently engaged in important missions, and has them significantly interacting with main characters including Guts and Griffith.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Many instances of jealousy and envy between characters can be identified:
  • Casca was jealous of the attention that Guts got from Griffith from the first time they met.
  • After being rescued from imprisonment, Griffith grows green with envy when he notices that Guts and Casca have become an item, Kubrick Stare and all. It is unclear who he envies more due to his ambiguous sexual orientation. It's possibly both.
  • Averted with Judeau. Despite his unrequited crush on Casca, he knows he has no chance whatsoever, noticing the bound she and Guts had formed, even before either of them would realize it. Preferring to lose with honor, he helps a lot in the cementing of Guts and Casca's relationship, even going as far as encouraging Guts to take Casca away with him, by force if necessary.
  • During the Griffith rescue operation, Casca had the Green-Eyed Monster attitude toward Princess Charlotte for a bit, since she admitted that she was still worshiping Griffith like before, even after she and Guts made love for the first time earlier. She tried reconciling to herself, but ended up saying the wrong thing to Guts about the matter, which succeeded in pissing Guts off even though HE admitted to himself that he couldn't take his mind off Griffith. But don't worry - they made up later.
  • Then, post-Eclipse, there's the unspoken rivalry between Sonia and Charlotte. Charlotte is Griffith's Meal Ticket, but is too smitten and naïve to realize it. Sonia is a faithful servant to Griffith, gifted with clairvoyance, and as such considers herself the only girl worthy of him. Sonia is very jealous of Charlotte but her nascent and reciprocated bond with Irvine might wash it all out.
  • There's also the jealousy Farnese feels for Casca for being the object of Guts's affection. Farnese is technically betrothed to Roderick, who is himself quite handsome and chivalrous, but she definitely has a crush on Guts who doesn't see her beyond being Casca's caretaker and Schierke's apprentice. Farnese even breaks down in front of Casca, telling her that she's really ungrateful to ignore Guts after all he did for her. Casca seems to understand Farnese's distress, which causes Farnese to feel sorry for lashing out and hug her while saying "it's not fair".
    
    This might actually have played out for the best or, knowing this series, worst concerning Guts's relationship with Casca in her present state, since it would appear that after her scolding from Farnese, Casca has been slowly warming up to Guts again and was in a room with him alone except for Puck and Evarella and seemingly unafraid of his presence. So, nice job fixing it, load girl.
  • Finally, there's Schierke's Precocious Crush on Guts but, unlike Farnese, Schierke only has shades of this and knows deep down that she's way too young for Guts (he is more than twice her age). Plus, her Puppy Love moments with Isidro also seem to drop some hints about who she may eventually like.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: During a Bar Brawl in Vritannis, Schierke clubs a lecherous drunk on the head with a wine bottle which shatters and splashes out its contents, laying him out unconscious on the floor.
• Grievous Harm with a Body:
  • Zodd smacks Guts using his own severed arm after it gets chopped off.
  • During the Black Dog Knights' pursuit of the Hawks, Wyald threw his spear with the body of the girl he raped and killed earlier still impaled on it.
  • Played for Laughs in episode 343 when Isma is being attacked by two animated pumpkins, and in a panic she successfully smashes one against the other.
• Gut Punch: Even though Berserk starts off plenty dark with the Black Swordsman Arc and makes it a Foregone Conclusion that something traumatic happened to Guts that messed up his personality, there's nothing that can prepare a first-time reader for the shock and horror of the Eclipse which marks the point where the tone of the story gets even darker and stays that way for a long time. To review what happens, a former good guy making an epic Face–Heel Turn and becoming a godlike demon lord, damn near the entire cast of likable characters dying horrific deaths, the sole female protagonist being brutally raped to insanity by said former good guy, and the main man who tried so desperately to save his friends and lover failing to do so, losing an eye and an arm in the process. Wow.

H

• Half the Man He Used to Be: Happens quite often to the Mooks that Guts faces, thanks to the Dragonslayer being easily capable of hacking them in two.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Mozgus (who constantly tells Guts how the lord is swiftly going to smite him) versus Guts (who in turn tells Mozgus to take his religion and shove it where the sun won't shine) is as much about talking smack as it is about actual violence.
• Hand on Womb: It's debatable, but some fans believe that Casca knew about her pregnancy before the Eclipse as one possible giveaway is in volume 12 where she is seen resting her hand on her stomach.
• Hannibal Lecture: Even when chained up in a dungeon, both Guts and Griffith demonstrate the ability to deliver a Breaking Speech to their interrogator that makes them completely loose their composure.
• Happily Adopted:
  • Guts' early childhood is a rather nasty subversion of this trope, since his adoptive mother Sys loved him, but Gambino abused him after she died.
  • The blacksmith Godo adopted Erica when she was a little girl who had just been orphaned in a war. He raises her with gruff affection, and she loves him as her real papa.
• Happiness Realized Too Late: In the Golden Age Arc, Guts leaves the Band of the Hawk because he's decided he needs to become what Griffith would consider a true friend: someone who doesn't cling to another person's dream, but fights to realize their own. Before leaving he talks to Judeau and Casca about how he didn't belong in the Band of the Hawk in the first place, and was like a traveller who stopped to warm himself by their campfire before resuming his lonely journey. It turns out Guts didn't realize just how much Griffith needed him emotionally, and that despair sets off a chain of events that leaves Griffith ruined and the Band of the Hawk about to split up. When Gaston and the raiders come running to Guts and say they want to go with him, Guts has a crushing realization that the Band of the Hawk was his family all along, but now it's too late to undo the consequences of his choice.
• Harbinger of Impending Doom: A Hawk soldier who got a third of his body bitten off stumbles out of the castle that Guts's party was raiding and warns them of Nosferatu Zodd.
  • Guts acts as this in the beginning of the manga toward a priest and his daughter who offer him transport, saying that evil spirits are following him and that it would be unwise to be near him. The priest dismisses it, saying that he has "good spirits" on his side (Puck)... Too bad the priest didn't know that this attitude is Inherent in the System.
• Harmful to Minors: Guts has had it rough as a kid. On a related note, he is also this himself due to killing a noble's child who witnessed a murder of his and for just putting various small children in harms way, but hey, so long as they don't die...
• Hates Being Touched:
  • Guts, quite vocally at the beginning, as a result of being raped as a child.
  • This trope is applied to post-Eclipse Casca as well, after she gets raped.
• Hate Sink:
  • Gambino is the adoptive father of Guts. Gambino repeatedly proves himself one of the most personally hateful characters in the story, between abusing Guts, putting him through Training from Hell, and even selling him to the pedophile Donovan for a cheap price. Gambino ends up killed when he drunkenly tries to murder his own son for "killing" the only woman he loves, which Guts had no control over and could not have prevented.
  • Donovan is a mercenary and sadistic pedophile who rapes Guts for a meager sum of three silver coins early in his life. This act traumatizes Guts for the rest of his life and nobody spares a glance when Guts kills him on the battlefield a mere day later.
  • Wyald seems determined to be as big a repulsive monster as he can in his relatively small screen-time. He leads a band of mercenaries in raping, torturing, and murdering any unfortunate man, woman or child who crosses their paths For the Evulz. He also casually kills his men, either for questioning his orders, fleeing from battle, or simply to amuse himself. In addition, he's also a massive misogynist, raping any woman he comes across, and even claims that women "look best with nothing on" during his Attempted Rape of Casca.
  • Emperor Ganishka is the sadistic leader of the Kushan Empire, who commits depraved acts on a regular basis. While his goal is to challenge the similarly villainous Godhand, Ganishka is simply destructive about the matter, permitting mass rape to spawn his demonic soldiers, the Daka, kidnapping Princess Charlotte in an attempt to rape her, and attempting unsuccessfully to kill everyone in Midland.
• Headbutt of Love: Guts does a few of these gestures to Casca once he makes his feelings known to her: he kisses her forehead, wipes and kisses her tears away, and presses his forehead against hers. Post-Eclipse and before the Beast ruined their relationship, Guts still embraces Casca whenever she is frantic.
• Healing Hands: Puck and Ivalera produce magical dust that can heal other people's wounds. Puck often uses his hands in order to apply it, giving him a sort of healing touch.
• Heartbroken Badass: Guts. Big time. Ever since the Eclipse's aftermath, his one true soulmate Casca, due to her unfortunate condition, just can't reciprocate anything he feels for her. And, to make it worse, the Beast's urgings almost got him to rape her. Consequently, Casca now fears Guts and outright refuses to be around him. (But the quest to Elfhelm might change this...) However, this might come at a price, since even though the Skull Knight said that there was a chance for Casca to be cured, which truly lifted Guts's spirit for the first time in a long while, the Skull Knight also said that what Guts wishes for might not be what Casca wishes for. When thinking back on this, Guts really looks frustrated and heartbroken again. To stick to the optimism, Casca seems to be warming up to Guts little by little after Farnese scolded her, since it appears that she can at least handle being in the same room as Guts is in without the others.
• The Heartless:
  • The Idea Of Evil is basically one giant heartless of humanity itself, as humans needed a reason for suffering and the general crapsackiness of Midland, and well, everywhere else. It sometimes seems as if Apostles also derive some of their power from the suffering they inflict.
  • Also, the Beast (mentioned below), who doubles as Guts' Enemy Within AND his Superpowered Evil Side, as it was born out of all of the negative emotions that Guts gained after the Eclipse, and it disturbingly lived in harmony with Guts for two years. But when Guts decided to put hate aside for love, that's when things got nasty.
• The Heavy: Griffith, aka Femto, of the Godhand. While he is not the only Big Bad, he is one most directly involved in the plot and serves as the most personal foe of Guts.
• Heel Realization: This is ultimately what convinces Griffith to sacrifice the Band of the Hawk based on the vision imparted on him by the Godhand. They showed him plainly that Griffith had always been an ambitious man willing to kill people left and right both on the battlefield and in the shadows, as well as leading his own men to their deaths in the process. So why is sacrificing the rest of them to turn into a powerful demon any different? By realizing that he's always been terrible for the sake of his dream, he has no reason to stop now.
• Held Gaze: Guts and Casca do this at least twice to each other at the end of volume 8, when Guts was preparing to leave the Hawks, but he was still grappling with the feelings that he was developing for Casca. In fact, the whole event on the hill was more or less orchestrated by Casca because of her growing feelings for Guts. Then they do it a few more times when Guts comes back after a year, but this time around, the end result was more favorable.
• Hell Hound: The Beast. Easily one of the most vicious and evil entities in the series, and that is saying something. The worst part? It's the Superpowered Evil Side Guts is trying so hard to suppress and that tries constantly to goad Guts into killing Casca so it could take full control of Guts's mind and turn him into a being of pure hatred.
• Hell on Earth: The weakening separation between the Astral world and the mundane one lead to horrors such as Trolls running loose, and after Griffith merges the physical and astral worlds with his defeat of Ganishka the potential for this has only gotten worse.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Several characters wear them, but they always find their way off their heads halfway through battle. And then everyone just stops wearing them.
• Here There Were Elves: Puck and Schierke have both mentioned that back in the day, it was very common place for people to seek the aide of witches and wizards, elves were just about everywhere, and the majority of people believed in pagan worship, coming down to the fact that even though the planes weren't merged, the natural world was very much aware of the supernatural world. But with the rise of the Holy See, the old ways have all but been either forgotten or pariahed. But never fear, for Femto's reality warping powers are here! Of course, it might not be the best thing to happen to the world...
• Hero-Worshipper: Isidro idolizes Guts and follows him because he wants to learn from him and become a Master Swordsman himself, but he isn't good for much besides gawking at Guts' heroics and the occasional Indy Ploy before he Took a Level in Badass during the fight in Qliphoth.
• The Hero's Journey: Or Berserk: The Epic of Guts. Guts' story seems to be following the basic guidelines of the archetype, starting with:
  • Unusual Birth: Guts was born from the corpse of a hanged woman.
  • The Ordinary World: His early life takes place in a roaming mercenary band in a Crapsack World.
  • Need for Adventure: When he is cast out from his home band, Guts roams from battlefield to battlefield and works for numerous companies, but doesn't know what he wants for himself.
  • Call to Adventure: Guts' fight with Bazuzo was witnessed by Griffith and he was later initiated into the Hawks. This serves as Guts' first taste of the strange world, since adjusting to a life with the Hawks was a bit odd for him (a group made up of younger members who had strong bonds with one another, not to mention how they were Weirdness Magnets themselves).
  • First Supernatural Aid: Nosferatu Zodd gives Guts a chilling prophecy of things to come.
  • Crossing the First Threshold: Guts leaves the Hawks in order to find meaning to his own dream, and defeating Griffith, who takes the place of the threshold guardian, allows him access to achieving this. Guts receives a second prophetic warning from the Skull Knight which serves as his second supernatural aid in his journey.
  • The Spiritual Death and Rebirth: When he returns to the Hawks a year later, the tragic Eclipse happens. His flesh is seared and scattered, and he is "reborn" as a new man with a burning vengeance. He is now fully initiated into the strange world, and is given further supernatural aids (the Dragonslayer and possibly his cursed brand).
  • Right now, Guts' story seems to be set in the Road of Trials segment: he is struggling out of his personal and dark abyss that was created from the events of the Eclipse after finding his light (who is Casca, in place of the goddess figure) and a new meaning to his life, yet there are many obstacles that threaten to pull him into that darkness (examples: his Enemy Within, or his encounter with Slan). This also overlaps with the Night Sea Voyage, first where Guts had to rescue Casca from the Tower of Conviction, and currently he is crossing the vast sea in order to retrieve a cure for her insanity. Since Miura isn't planning on ending the series anytime soon, and with the suggestions of the rest of the guidelines, the possibilities are endless of what is in store for Guts next.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Griffith has one of these after losing ownership of Guts in a duel which ended with his sword getting shattered.
  • Happened a lot more than that. First instance happened with Guts after he assassinated Duke Julius' son by mistake. During the Eclipse, Guts almost lapses into this as a result of Griffith's betrayal, but snaps out of with rage. The most severe case in the series by far is what happened to Casca, who experienced physical, sexual, psychological, and emotional trauma so horrifying during the Eclipse that she is now mentally gone.
• Heroic Resolve: When Guts was surrounded by the apostles who were taunting him with the half-eaten remains of his comrades and friends during the Eclipse, he gave an angry shout that was almost as if in defeat. But when he saw his lover helpless and in danger, he got pissed the fuck off.
  • Before the Eclipse, during the fight with Wyald, Guts is KO'd when Wyald goes One-Winged Angel and slams him against a tree. Casca rushes to protect Guts - trying to slap him into consciousness - but she is accosted by Wyald who decides to rape her to death. Guts is awakened by Casca's desperate cries, and summons the strength and willpower to save Casca by epically castrating Wyald.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Pippin and Judeau both gave up their lives trying to shield Casca from Apostles during the Eclipse.
• Heroic Second Wind: Guts had one of these moments during his battle with Wyald (ironically after he had a Heroic Resolve moment when he saved Casca). After being thrown into a tree and left dangling there within an inch of life, Wyald approaching to finish the job, Guts has a flashback of when he was living with Godo and Erica. Erica questioned Guts about why he would put himself into such brutal situations, even while training, and Guts answered her by saying that he wants to get strong enough to defeat a monster whose strength was beyond any that he could imagine. Erica asked Guts if he would lose, to which he replied that he didn't know; she asked him if he would win, and he gives the same answer; then she asked him what would happen if he loses or wins... and that apparently gave Guts the strength to inflict some damage on Wyald in order to escape, giving Guts ample time to formulate a plan in order to defeat him.
• Heroic Willpower: Although it's cursed, Guts is able to wear the Berserker Armor to its full potential by "full potential" it still increases his endurance by minimizing the amount of pain he feels without being completely taken over by his Superpowered Evil Side, with the help Schierke.
• A Hero Is Born: The Golden Age Arc begins with the protagonist, Guts, being discovered as an orphaned newborn baby. Even if it doesn't occur at the very beginning of the manga, it's basically the start of the chronological story, since the first three volumes were an Action Prologue In Medias Res.
• He Who Fights Monsters:
  • Guts, obviously, for quite some time. It got to the point that some of the more sympathetic Apostles (ie, Rosine) are outright terrified of him. The Knights of the Holy Iron Chain are wrong in believing that the Black Swordsman is a mass-murdering psychotic, but their reasons for thinking so are entirely justified.
  • And Emperor Ganishka. He wants to defeat Griffith and his army of Apostles, and in doing so becomes a titanic monstrosity and sacrifices virtually all of his human soldiers. Somewhat subverted in that he was an Apostle before he waged war on Griffith.
  • The Skull Knight, though we've never been definitively told his backstory. All that's certain is that he sacrificed his humanity to fight against Apostles and the God Hand.
• Hidden Depths: Lots of characters, Guts, Casca, Farnse, and even minor character Pippin gets a moment. Probably the biggest would be the manga itself which for the first two volumes seems very much like its just going to be volume after volume of ONLY sex and violence and then...character development, story, questions of morality, and so on enter the picture.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Casca and Serpico both have these from time to time, more so for design purposes since they have the most distinct bangs, but it could also reflect some of their personality traits:
  • After the Eclipse, Casca is shown having these a lot more when she is in her severe emotionally and psychologically fragmented state.
  • Serpico, having a very sly and cunning nature, has these when he's at his best.
• Hidden Elf Village: Elfhelm, the home of the elves, witches, and wizards of the world that is located on the island of Skellig. It is a rather straightforward example of the trope, as the witches here have taken many precautions to isolate themselves from the world, although they are quite welcoming of Gut's party and curious about them. Another subversion is that the elders of Elfhelm are now actually taking interest in what happens outside of their village due to Griffith merging planes together.

• Hilarious Outtakes: Including Griffith's actor bursting into song at hilarious moments.
• His Quirk Lives On: After The Eclipse, Guts adds throwing knives to his arsenal, modeled after Judeau.
• History Repeats: During the Conviction Arc at the showdown at the Tower of Punishment, Casca is caught by Mozgus and is handed over to the mob to be burned at the stake as a witch. All the while, the sun is getting covered up, the tower is crumbling in an uncanny resemblance of a hand, and Guts is once again struggling and fighting his way through hoards of evil spirits so he can make it to Casca in time to save her. Yep. A mock eclipse is happening, and Guts fears that he won't be able to save Casca again.
• Holding Hands: Daaaah! They're so cute together, Guts and Casca! ... Too bad!
  • Intertwined Fingers: And of course, this happens during their love scene.
• Holding Your Shoulder Means Injury: Justified in the case of Casca in volume 8, where she gets shot by a poison dart in the shoulder during her fight with Adon.
• Hollywood Magnetism: Guts is able to grasp his BFS with his prosthetic hand thanks to magnets.
• Hollywood Psych: Insanity seems to be one of the many underlying themes in Berserk with a chunkful of the characters having a range of insinuated psychological problems.
  • Guts' personality highlights paranoid personality disorder. Ever since his childhood rape Guts has trouble forming bonds with people, has a hard time trusting them, and always sleeps with his sword.
  • Griffith's personality highlights narcissistic personality disorder as he would normally put his interest before those of others, even if he seemed well-intentioned.
  • Emperor Ganishka might have started out having paranoid personality disorder ever since his mother tried to poison him, but it quickly became antisocial personality disorder when he became an apostle, since according to him, everyone is out to get him.
  • Apostles such as the Snake Baron, Wyald, and the Count show signs of sadistic personality disorder.
  • Farnese's earlier behavior is a candidate for borderline personality disorder as she was seen being sympathetic and professional one moment and then totally out of line and hysterical the next.
  • Nina has shades of dependent personality disorder. She is seen being very dependent on Luca and can't seem to function properly without her guidance to an extreme.
  • In the eyes of other, Schierke would have schizotypal personality disorder, what with her otherworldly philosophy, her magical getup, and her lack of social experience (and the fact that she actually practices magic). Sonja could count too.
• Holy Backlight: Griffith presents himself in this manner quite a few times, especially after his reincarnation. The stark contrast of how Guts introduces himself.
• Homage:
  • Chapters 311-314 are The Shadow Over Innsmouth in Midland!
  • Miura also makes many visual homages to various paintings, including the works of M.C. Escher and Hieronymus Bosch.
• Hope Is Scary: We all know the general mood that Guts has been in since the Eclipse, but in volume 28, Guts is given a glimmer of hope when the Skull Knight suggests that Casca might be cured of her insanity once and for all if Guts can get her to Elfhelm. The message is so paralyzing that Guts actually smiles a real smile at the thought of Casca being returned to normal... that is, IF that's what she truly wants, so says the Skull Knight. Now, Guts is more worried over the Skull Knight's cryptic message than whether Casca can be cured at all.
• Hope Spot: People think that Mozgus is an angel sent from God. They can only watch him fight Guts who they perceive as evil during a sacrifice and are absolutely convinced that Mozgus will deliver them from evil. Guts then brutally kills him and they all have a few moments of absolute horror before the demons consume them (except a scant few who manage to cluster around his corpse, which protects them).
  • And ironically, as monstrous as he might have been, Mozgus was doing a decent job of that. He and his disciples were fighting off the demons pretty well, and even after his death, Mozgus' body is consumed in the flames he was able to breathe, and those keep back the demons from killing the few people who huddle around his body thinking him a fallen angel/saint.
  • At the beginning of the Eclipse ceremony, we see Griffith in a moment of hesitation about whether he really wants to go through with this or not, making the audience believe for a brief second that Griffith wasn't going to sell out his friends and comrades. Oh, wait. Nevermind.
  • The Hope Spot that got all of our hopes up in a very shitty way was when Guts sees Casca in the hands of demons and tries to rescue her, only to have his arm chomped down on by a demon. Then Femto comes along and starts having his way with Casca, so Guts takes a last resort at saving her by chiseling off his own arm in order to free himself from the demon. Seeing that he's mere feet away from Femto and Casca, it seems as though Guts will at least be able to save Casca from what was happening to her already and kill Femto.... it doesn't happen. And we all know what ensues after Guts gets dog-piled by demons moments after freeing himself from one.
    • This is amped up in the third movie, with Guts being thwarted not twice, but thrice. Once Guts was done, in this version, ripping the rest of his arm off, Guts charged toward Femto and Casca with the broken sword and actually DID get within striking range to end Femto. However, Guts could never land a blow because Femto used his reality warping power to put up a force field between he and Guts, and despite all of his willpower (in which Guts managed to edge a bit closer to Femto), it's not enough and Guts is sent flying several meters back away from Femto and Casca. After that, Guts tries again, but then the infamous Dog Pile of Doom happens.
  • In addition, Casca briefly regains her sanity at the end of the non-canon Dreamcast game before she reverts to her child-like state.
  • In a monumental moment, Casca has finally regained her sanity, and fortunately doesn't remember the Eclipse. Until she sees Guts. And then it all comes rushing back to her. There's a risk she'll break again, but at best, she'll have to start properly learning to cope with the kinda of trauma that Guts has had to learn to cope with for years, but worse... And then, Griffith shows up.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Luca. She's also one of the few genuinely good characters here.

• Horrifying the Horror: The Nightmare Face Guts gives Rosine as he's being impaled through the cheek by her stinger is paralyzing enough to give him an opening to deliver the final below.
• Hot Springs Episode: Against all odds there is one when Guts and his new crew visit Flora's mansion, which must be the nicest place in the entire Crapsack World. It's especially soothing since A: The ladies can be naked without someone or something trying to rape them. and B: Guts really, REALLY needed a bath after two years of uninterrupted demon slaying.
• Hotter and Sexier: Again, given that Berserk is being presented in a whole new medium with brand new special effects, a lot more elements can be exaggerated, such as sex scenes. Unfortunately, since the movies also played up violence, and most sex scenes in Berserk are rape or near rape, most of these scenes aren't very delightful to watch.
• How Dare You Die on Me!:
  • When she thinks Guts got pummeled to death by the Apostle Wyald, Casca goes into a tearful rage and starts slapping the shit out of Guts's face.
  • She tried this again during the Eclipse on Judeau. Unfortunately, it was not as effective.
  • Gambino mutters something like this about Sys in his delirium after his leg got blown off. Implied that he tried to get back to her time as she lay dying, but he was too late. Possibly the ONLY time one can possibly shed a tear for this man.
• How Many Fingers?:
  Guts: 'V' for 'Victory'?
• How We Got Here: As the Black Swordsman arc, despite being the first in the series, is actually the second arc in-universe, set following the Golden Age, most of the Golden Age Arc is one big Flashback leading up to Guts's current circumstances. Basically what happened before everything literally went to hell.
• Huddle Shot: Happens when the group clusters around knocked out Schierke in chapter 268.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Guts and Casca actually don't count, since she's tall for a woman despite looking small next to him, but during his post-Eclipse adventures he does always seem to have at least one small girl hanging around with him, be it Jill or Schierke. Not in a weird way, they just seem to like him. He tends to treat them like an Aloof Big Sister, when he's not trying to chase them off (for their own good) with his facade, but every now and then he can be surprisingly sweet to them◊.
• Human Sacrifice: The various pagan cults, not to mention the Sacrifice necessary to become a demon or another Godhand.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters:
  • Justified - it's because that's the only way to survive. Again, life in Midland sucks.
  • Also, all demons used to be humans who made a Deal with the Devil.
  • ALSO, the "devil" in question is a manifestation of humanity's collective unconscious. Basically, there's NO evil in this world (one that's stuffed to the gills with evil, mind) that can't be traced back to human bastardry.
• Humans Are Flawed: The source of all problems everywhere in this story is human weakness, not inherent evil. One must keep in mind that a rotten person who would love to have some demonic powers to be a more effective asshole would be unable to use a behelit because he doesn't care about anything but himself.
• Humans Are Special: It's implied that all of the magic and magical creatures in the Berserk universe are created from the collective mind of humanity. All magic, monsters, and supernatural phenomenon are created, unintentionally by human imagination. Also, the only ones who seem to be capable of the most drastic alterations and events to the world through the supernatural are humans. All of the members of the God Hand were once human, most spell casters and magicians are human, and only humans are capable of breeding with any supernatural creature to varying degrees (from a sailor who has a daughter with a mermaid to Trolls that kidnap village women to reproduce). Now imagine the kind of world humans could create if they could collectively and actively control the forces that they normally unconsiously create.
• Human Pincushion:
  • Casca gets shot at with five arrows when the Midland army ambushed the Hawks shortly after Griffith was arrested for high treason. And yet, Casca continued to fight her way through the barrier and led the Hawks to safety.
  • Played painfully straight during the beginning of Griffith's torture, where the torturer sticks several large metal needles into Griffith's flesh.

---