Berserk / Tropes I to P

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

I

• I Can't Dance: During the ball, Guts makes the suggestion that Casca ask Griffith to dance with her, but she shyly declines, insisting that she would step on his feet.
• I Choose to Stay:
  • Played straight by Isma at the end of the Sea God chapters. She could have stayed in the sea with her mother, but she chose to stick around her newfound friends Isidro and Schierke by joining their quest.
  • Subverted in the Golden Age arc. Although Guts returned to the Hawks after leaving them a year earlier, he was determined to leave again after rescuing Griffith and helping out the Hawks - this time, with Casca. However, after seeing the extent of Griffith's mutilated state, Casca feels that it is her responsibility to take care of him and tearfully tells Guts that she can't go with him. Guts, on the other hand, tells her that if she stays behind then he would stay behind to be with her, but Casca tells him that he needs to go alone in order to find his own dream, no matter what. It's interesting to add that before this confrontation, Judeau had just gotten through lecturing Guts to take Casca with him - by force if necessary - but we'll never know how either scenario would have ended.
  • Later averted post Eclipse, when Guts sets out on his two year long Apostle slaying rampage instead of staying with Casca. Tragically, it's implied that Casca is in the child-like state she is in because she had nobody to help her work through her trauma, because Guts, the only other person who had experienced it, left instead of trying to help her.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Griffith's reasoning behind his Face–Heel Turn, not that the audience has much sympathy. Guts gave a more sympathetic one when Casca accused him for being the reason for Griffith's and the band's downfall, sincerely feeling sorry for what has happened but not sure what he could have done to correct what has already taken place.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty:
  • When Femto has Casca in his grasp, Guts can only watch helplessly his beloved getting molested.
  • When Slan had Guts in her clutches as she manifested in Qliphoth, clawing off his armor and beginning to act as if they were having sex.
• I Have Your Wife: Griffith gets some hired goons to kidnap Minister Foss' daughter in order to get him to thwart the Queen of Midland who was planning to poison him during a ceremony honoring him and the Hawks.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Oh, lordy. Given how long the series has been going (all the way back into the early 90s), there's been a ton of ways of spelling many of the character names over the years. Gatts vs. Guts vs. Gutsu vs. etc.
  • Other prominent examples: Farnese/Farneze/Parnesse, Isidro/Ishidoro, Casca/Caska/Kaska/Kjaskar, Puck/Pak, Rosine/Roshinu (this one's still very popular). Schierke in particular caused everyone to facepalm when she debuted because nobody was sure what that was supposed to be in English; "Silke" was popular for a while until her name was actually printed later on.
    • In universe, we have Isidro giving his name as Ijidodo when he gets so beat up he gets mush-mouthed, which his opponent takes as his name.
  • Even more common is Sys/Shisu, with no one ever realizing the latter is simply a romanization of the Japanese pronunciation of her name, much like Rosine/Roshinu.
  • Notably, several decades after the manga's debut, a lot of suspicion developed that a once-universally accepted translation was in error; with all the talk of "Falconia" in the story arc that Miura titled "Millenium Falcon" (for the obvious reference on several levels), many people suspect the proper name of Griffith's mercenary company should be "Band of the Falcon", not "Band of the Hawk";^note The source of this confusion is that Japanese uses the same word for both birds, and traditionally the two genuses of birds were not considered distinct in Japan. with Miura himself confirming this in response to a fan Q&A. Two decades of fandom inertia by the time "Millenium Falcon" went to print made it basically impossible to correct in the zeitgeist, however, and Band of the Hawk remains the official translation.
  • Another famous one is also the Clingy MacGuffin of the story: Behelit/Beherit/Berith. The actual spelling IS Beherit, which is one of the many variants of the pagan idol of Judeo-Christian demonology known as Baal-Berith.
  • Last and not least (at the moment), Femto/Phemt. While the former is widely known as the last Godhand's name, the real spelling is very likely to be PHEMT, the technical concept after which he is named, for strangely symbolic reasons once you understand the meaning of the concept.
• Inertial Impalement: Guts and Casca each made their first kill at a young age by being attacked and holding out a sword so their attacker stabbed themselves under their own momentum:
  • In his first battle at age nine, Guts was struck to the ground by a grown-up attacker but held out his sword as he fell, causing his charging foe to skewer his neck on the outstretched blade. Two years later, Guts accidentally killed Gambino in the same fashion while he was just trying to defend himself.
  • Casca was just a twelve year old peasant girl when a wicked nobleman took her in under the pretense of making her a servant, and attempted to rape her. Griffith intervened like a Knight in Shining Armor, but instead of saving her himself he threw his weapon to her and told her to take it if she had something worth protecting. Casca and the nobleman dived for the sword at the same time, and she grabbed it so that the nobleman fell on top of her and was run through. In her own words,
    Casca: I don't know whether I stabbed him or if he fell onto the blade. It was my first kill. I was so scared I couldn't cry and couldn't move. I just gripped the bloody sword tightly.
• Insult Friendly Fire: When Isidro shows up to support Schierke as she's confronting Bonebeard's crew on the docks, he tells them that they're disgusting for kidnapping kids, and if they're really pirates they should be kidnapping ladies with more of a "treasure chest...pirate booty". Schierke is blushing with embarrassment that her rescuer is like this, and it may have something to do with the fact that in the process of insulting the pirates he basically implied that she has a childish figure.
• Iron Maiden: A few iron maidens are featured during the Conviction Arc, and Casca very nearly gets shut in one, which is about the point when all hell really breaks loose.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Judeau tries and succeeds to help Guts and Casca start a relationship together despite his own feelings for Casca.
  • In fact, when he has mere moments to live, one of the last things he says is intended to remind her of Guts and cheer her up a bit.
• If I Can't Have You…: Griffith's thought of Guts leaving the Band? If he couldn't have him stay, he'd rather kill him in one of several different ways that he contrived in his head.
• If We Get Through This…: Played to a similar effect when the Hawks are about to depart on their Griffith rescue operation. Rickert is unable to go with the healthy Hawks because of his broken arm, but Judeau reassures the young lad that once they come back with Griffith, he would be the first one to hug him. Little did either party know that it would be the last time they would see each other...
  • Not to mention that Guts and Casca were looking forward to the end of this mission, since they had planned on departing from the Hawks and starting a life together. The poor, lovestruck fools.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The Apostles. In the first episode of Berserk (2016), we first find this out by implication. After the scene where Guts is menaced by the demons, we hear a woman's scream, then immediately segue to the Baron cutting a steak. Given the conversation that follows, we can assume it wasn't beef... In the manga, it comes right out and says that he's a monster who eats human flesh, and many references are made of the Count's cannibalistic tendencies.
• Idealized Sex: Averted, even in the case of Guts and Casca. Though the Official Couple of the series, Their First Time is far from perfect, with Casca bleeding during penetration and wincing in discomfort, and Guts being a bit too rough and frantic with Casca due to his inexperience. Oh, and the part where he suffers a mental breakdown from reliving his childhood rape and nearly strangles Casca. After a cool down, the two have much "fluffier" sex after.
• Idiot Crows: Yes! For all of its seriousness, Berserk actually pulled off a variation during the Battle for Doldrey, when Adon pathetically surrenders to Casca and an idiot Puck is used behind Casca. Here, take a look!◊
• Immune to Fate: Both Guts and the Skull Knight have this ability, for reasons that aren't 100% clear at this point. As far as the story would go, Casca also seems to have it.
  • Or ARE they?
  • That, and the Skull Knight is most decidedly not a human anymore. He shed his mortal body as far back as when the Godhand first came for him, but he didn't do so by becoming an Apostle. And as his dialogue with the witch indicated, Guts is essentially traveling down the same path that he did, starting with his use of the Berserker Armor.
• Impaled Palm: Happens to Guts during his fight with the one-hundred mercenaries, where an archer shoots at Guts but he blocks it with his hand to protect his vitals. He then breaks the arrow with the same palm, kills the archer, and presumes fighting with one hand.
  • This trope is yet another example of the horrendous type of torture Griffith went through for a year.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The warden got what was coming to him.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Related to the above, this is surprisingly averted throughout the Golden Age Arc. Mooks might have very low life expectancies, but they have pretty good aim. They managed to shoot Casca five times.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy:
  • A pregnant (not that this was known at the time) Casca is raped by the demon Femto after his creation. This drives Casca insane and corrupts the fetus into a demonic-like grotesque.
  • Emperor Ganishka's demon soldiers are created by dumping heavily pregnant women into an enormous artificial womb that radiates the woman full of demonic energy. The now-demonic fetus rips its way out of the uterus and joins the others.
  • Guts' biological mother was executed/murdered by hanging when she was heavily pregnant with him, and he was more or less delivered as a coffin birth.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Okay. We know that this is a fantasy story, but the ways in which Guts uses his BFSs, especially the Dragonslayer, are ridiculous, even with all of the explanations given. It gets even wackier in the new films, where, in the second installment during his fight with the hundred soldiers, Guts deflects a projectile sword with his own sword and sends its through its wielder, several meters away. Not kidding. But hey — no one's complaining here.
• Important Haircut: Farnese, when she tries to convince Guts to let her join him.
  • When she first joined the Hawks as a child Casca had long hair at the start of the Golden Age Arc (several years later) it is cut super short but grows out slight through out then after the eclipse it has become long again.
• In a Single Bound: Serpico's Wind cloak gives him gravity-defying powers.

• Inciting Incident: It was like any other day for young mercenary Guts: take up a contract with some snob general, kill some Giant Mook for him, get paid, get lost. On this day, however, he was Being Watched...
• Indignant Slap: Rickert slaps Griffith after learning he was responsible for the Eclipse that killed all but three of the original Band of the Hawk.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: It seems that just about everybody in the first Band of the Hawks has shades of this when they compare themselves to Griffith (Corkus has a bad case of this). They're all confident enough in their abilities, but feel that they will never reach the level that Griffith is on, and for the most part don't even attempt to. The only one to try to make attempt to better themselves was Guts, after several months of debating his merit when comparing himself to Griffith. And look how that turned out.
• Inherent in the System: Why life in Midland sucks. True in both the temporal sense (the setting is the Dung Ages; power is concentrated in the hands of a privileged few and war is constant) and the metaphysical (bad people are rewarded with near-unlimited supernatural power; good people are demon chow).
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: A few examples, though some could qualify as Innocent Fan Disservice Girls. Slan, for example, is always naked, as are some female Apostles, like Rosine.
  • Since being raped by Femto and taking on an infantile mind, Casca has become this, possessing no sense of shame or modesty whenever unclothed. This serves partially as comic relief, but is also played quite a bit for drama, since Guts is still very much sexually attracted to Casca and tries to restrain himself from sexually abusing his insane ex-lover.
  • And in a rare male example, Griffith, who is quite comfortable being in the nude around others.
  • Isma is a more straightforward example, having no aversion to standing butt naked in front of Isidro and quick to ditch her clothing when she has to jump into the water. Unlike the examples above, she is not evil and is otherwise a perfectly normal teenage girl... who happens to be a Merrow.
    Isidro: T-t-t-t-t-t...
    Isma: Tits? Don't worry, they didn't get smaller.
• Innocent Flower Girl: The girl whose family aided the Griffith rescue team and gave Griffith a bouquet of flowers.
• Instant Illness: Besides having that pesky period to deal with, Casca also succumbs to a fever from being Caught in the Rain with Guts.
• Intimate Healing: Casca to Guts - on orders from Griffith, and she sulks about it afterwards - and later Guts to Casca.
• Intimate Psychotherapy: When Guts had an emotional breakdown from reliving his childhood rape while making love to Casca, rather roughly at first, and then goes so far as choke her, he at first attempted to walk away and deal with his issues on his own. Casca, however, gave Guts a Cooldown Hug and the two proceed to have sex again, though more gentle this time around. After this, Guts's dark childhood ordeal is not talked about again.
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: Rosine's entire operation in the aptly named "Lost Children Arc."
• Invisible to Normals: Normal people who are either dedicated followers of the Holy See who only see what they want to believe and/or have most likely never had a mind-shattering supernatural event happen to them can't see elves or any non-threatening preternatural creature that doesn't want to maim, devour, or rape them.
• Invulnerable Horses: HA! Horses and any other animal are just as likely to get bumped off in a gruesome fashion just as the humans are. Do you know how many horses have been decapitated in this series? Hell - Wyald once punched a horse in the face to get the upper edge on Guts. You don't know whether to decided if that was bitch move or badass.
• Irony: Though there are several cases of irony throughout the series, the most iconic would pertain to the fates of Griffith and Casca. Ever since Griffith first saved her from being raped by a nobleman, Casca was able to successfully evade future sexual assaults either by her own merit or being saved by Guts, and Griffith was the person that Casca looked up to the most. During the Eclipse, Casca ultimately gets raped by none other than Griffith as his very first action as demon lord Femto. To add more drama to this is when you look into Casca's character development throughout the Golden Age Arc, where her central struggle focuses on the feelings she has toward Guts and Griffith: she wanted to be of importance to Griffith, as a warrior and a woman, but realized that she had no place in his heart or as his sword, and found love with Guts. The climax to this struggle comes during the Eclipse when she is raped by Griffith. In a sense, Casca is "finally" with the man she desired to be with from the beginning and was inevitably used as his ultimate weapon against Guts, but in a cruel and horrific way. Fate has not been kind to this woman.
  • Also, how Farnese turned from a rampant, Pyromaniac Knight Templar whose motivation was to burn heretics and accused witches, of which half of the motivation went to her own gratification, to a soft-spoken student of witchcraft who merely wants to be of use to others around her.
  • The series in general just loves throwing cosmic irony at the audience, for obvious reasons.
• It's All About Me: When push comes to shove, this is how all would-be Apostles act. The lives of their supposed loved ones mean less to them than their own pain, so they have few qualms against letting other Apostles consume them just to have a new lease on life as an Apostle.
• It's Going Down: The Tower of Conviction near the end of the Retribution Arc.

J

• Jedi Mind Trick: Schierke is quite good at this.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Came from none other than Wyald, the resident villainous moron of the series. After getting a can of whoop-ass siced on him earlier by Guts, Wyald came back, refusing to die much to Guts's chagrin, and decides to plan his final revenge on Hawks by taking Griffith hostage and snatching his Behelit in order to get another chance at life (which is not on his body - for now). The Hawks are desperate to get Griffith back but don't want to risk injuring him. Then Wyald, although backed into a corner due to his injuries and his will to live, gives a cruel Hannibal Lecture to the Hawks by presenting Griffith's frail body to the mass, and telling them that with his amount of bodily mutilation, the Band of the Hawk is over and Griffith will never return to normal. And as much as the Hawks did not want to come to face with the cruel reality - it was true.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: A magic user entering someone's mind in astral form is sometimes the only way to save their individuality from being swallowed up by some powerful force or Tulpa. It can be very dangerous for the interloper because the rules that govern the dream world and any luminous body who enters it spring from the mind of the dreamer, and the first thing that the entrant should do is figure out what that dreamer's conceptions are.
  • When Guts first wears the Berserker Armor and loses his mind to rage, Schierke has to enter his mind in her luminous body at great risk to herself. There she sees flashes of Guts' horrifying experiences and confronts his ego subsumed within the Beast of Darkness, and puts him back in control by reminding him who he is and who he needs to protect. Many more times after that she enters Guts' mind and goes with him in spirit form to temporarily tame the Beast and make sure that Guts does not lose himself.
  • The only means by which Casca might be cured of the trauma which led her personality and memories to be repressed, which becomes clear in the Chapter of Elf Island: Danann takes Casca, Schierke, Farnese, and Ivalera down to a bed of magic mushrooms at the base of the great tree, and leads them in a ritual to enter Casca's dreams.
• Just a Kid: This reaction that a lot of adversaries had to seeing a young Guts on the battlefield. They were in for a world of deadness.

K

• Kansas City Shuffle: In volume 11, when Guts is fighting Wyald, Wyald has just hit Guts into the air so hard that he can't figure out where he landed, giving Guts an opportunity to prepare a desperate trick: He props up a dead member of the Black Dog Knights behind a tree as a decoy for himself, and hides in the forest canopy above, waiting for the time to strike. Wyald senses the presence of his foe behind the tree, but a falling leaf makes him realize that Guts is actually hiding above him, so he chops the tree in half expecting Guts to come diving from the treetops and quickly turns to intercept him with a mighty punch. He thinks he's outsmarted Guts, but realizes a second too late that what he just punched is actually another decoy consisting of a tree branch dressed up in Guts' armor. Guts himself, coming down directly behind it, slips through the resulting opening in Wyald's defense and stabs him through the neck with his sword.
• Kick the Dog: Gambino does this both literally and figuratively throughout his appearance. In fact, he probably deserves some sort of distinguished achievement award - the man manages to Kick the Dog by petting the dog!
• Kid Samurai: Isidro is a simultaneous parody and Deconstruction, who shows that a real-life Kid Samurai would be both incompetent and delusional.
  • Isidro is actually highly competent for his age, being able to put up a good fight against a pirate captain. However, he fails to acknowledge that he's simply not in the same league as the adversaries his party primarily deals with.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: An anonymous captain who criticizes Guts for showing how exhausted he is (he just sprinted up several stories of a spiral staircase, killing nonstop). Just as he's telling Guts that he's already lost by showing weakness, his head is cleaved in two.
• Kill It Through Its Stomach: Happens when Guts wears the berserker armor for the first time, when an apostle eats him when he just put on the armor, but Guts rips through its stomach.
• Kiss Diss: When Guts suggests that Casca should stay behind on the dungeon quest to save Griffith, how does she respond? She sizes Guts up, and allows her lips to get mere inches away from his... and tells him to stop worrying about her safety and to do his job. Guts is understandably flustered after this.
• Kneel Before Zod: A cruel example, even for this trope. When Griffith is reborn as Femto, Guts' arm is caught between the jaws of the apostle Borkoff, and is thus forced into a kneeling position when Griffith presents himself to him in his reborn form. Then, to make it even more cruel, Griffith begins raping Casca in front of Guts making it quite a despicable act of dominance and submission.
• Knight in Shining Armor:
  • The Skull Knight is the combination of this and the Black Knight. Griffith is a deconstruction.
  • Azan seems to be one as well.
    Azan: There's only one thing we can do as knights. We are going to protect the people from demons.
• Knight of Cerebus: Played straighter in the TV series, since it wasn't as dark in atmosphere (that and the ever persistent presence of General Adon). When Nosferatu Zodd turned up with his prophecy, we knew that things were going to take a less optimistic turn in the story, but despite that the series managed to included a good dosage of comedy. It wasn't until the complete introduction of the Godhand and their newest member, Femto that we knew that shit was getting seriously ugly.

L

• La Résistance: The Midland resistance against the Kushan occupation of the capital of Windham was headed by Sir Laban and Minister Foss.
• Lady and Knight:
  • Charlotte and Griffith respectively, though it's zigzagged all over the joint what with Charlotte being the bright lady character type and Griffith being the knight who (literally) looks bright but has dark intentions.
  • Guts and Casca also have shades of this during the Retribution Arc and is also zigzagged. Casca is the bright lady, though to her pursuers she is a dark lady. Guts is the dark knight, though he's more of gray knight. Casca became an even bigger threat to the inquisitors and the Holy Iron Chain Knights when they found out that the infamous Black Swordsman, deemed as an omen of evil, came to St. Albion to save her.
• Lady of War:
  • Casca is a downplayed case before the Eclipse, being a Tomboy with a Girly Streak. She acts tough, has short hair, and wears male clothing, but she uses a lighter sword and armor with subtle touches of femininity in their design, enabling her to fight more gracefully than her male comrades using nimble flips and somersaults.
  • Farnese is a Double Subversion of this trope. At first, she can't really fight despite being the leader of the Holy Chain Knights, but after she makes her Heel–Face Turn she starts genuinely working towards this trope, including teaching herself to fight with a dagger and learning sorcery from Schierke.
• The Lady's Favor: Symbolically. Casca tears a strip from her sleeve to bandage an arrow wound on Guts' arm, exactly where a lady would traditionally bestow her favor on a knight, foreshadowing their later Relationship Upgrade]. Something of a subversion considering that in the same scene she is explicitly contrasted with Charlotte, who fits the traditional image of a high-born lady much better. Something that's Harsher in Hindsight, though, is that the arm that Casca bandages is his left arm, the same arm that he sacrifices during the Eclipse in his attempt to save her.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • All over the place, most of it coming from Puck. When Magnifico first shows his cowardice in battle, the elf notes that "there was never a character like this before..." — obviously recalling Corkus, who Puck never even met.
  • The description of (and backstory for) Guts' Dragon Slayer is one, since it's only given after the sword has been seen in use for a long period of time in the comic. Godot specifically says that he made the sword to make fun of a King's request for a sword that could slay a dragon, and that its ridiculous size makes it completely impractical as a weapon.
• Laughing Mad: With all of the madness that happens in this universe, expect it to happen a lot.
  • Jill laughs during the climax of the fight between Guts and Rosine, when the slimy, deformed corpse of a child that was undergoing Rosine's apostle spawn transform spilled from its cocoon. Jill remarked that the experience pretty much ruined her childhood.
  • Griffith, upon his Despair Event Horizon and his failed attempted at suicide.
  • And then there's Guts, who is the most disturbing case. He did this a lot during his Black Swordsman days, caving in deeper and deeper into insanity with each apostle kill. His laugh sends extra chills down the spine when he flashes his Slasher Smile afterward.
• Law of Inverse Recoil: It's zigzagged a bit, since Guts has a cannon (which shouldn't produce recoil) but since it's attached to his arm as a prosthetic, thus it is not open-ended and is smaller in size, he gets a powerful recoil with each blast. And that recoil has both saved his life and done some damage.
• Layered World: The Berserk universe has the human world, and then mentions astral planes. A space where the Godhand and demons can take physical form, and is implied to be the case people go to when a Behelit is activated. Then Griffith merges the planes, leading to demons and Godhands physically appearing at any time.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall
  • Luca once commented that she has no idea what's going to happen next because she's not the main character.
  • Puck ends up doing this a lot after the Golden Age arc finishes and the focus returns on the present. Chapter 359 has Isidro reminisce about what all they had to save Casca from, leading Puck to mention that it makes one feel like it was forever ago — or 20 years, to be precise. That is how long it took for Casca to go from The Ophelia to getting her memories returned in real time.
• Leave No Witnesses: What prompted Guts to instinctively stab Julius's son Adonis was the fact that anyone who recognized him would trace the assassination back to Griffith.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Every soldier under either Guts' or Casca's command were willing to fling themselves at the much more powerful enemy when they didn't have a chance in a zillion years. Just - God bless these poor, brave bastards.
• Leg Cling: A variant with the infamous volume 13 cover. A shirtless, bloodsoaked Guts is depicted cradling a naked Casca in his (severed) arm, while he holds a broken sword in the other arm and has a sinister smirk on his face. The backdrop of the scene is full a demons, and Guts looks quite manly and victorious in the moment... If only it had actually played out like this in the actual story.
• The Legions of Hell: Demons are everywhere, and their masters are the four known as the Godhand.
  • Five, actually, depending on the time period.
    • Or less, taking into the following into account: that the number in the far past isn't clear, that an Eclipse takes place every some 216 years, and that Void is credited as the eldest of the Godhand, we should presume that their number has changed over the years.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Most of the time, Serpico pretends to be an easygoing doormat and jokester with no real interest in fighting, during which he has Eyes Always Shut. When he opens his eyes in response to a serious threat, his Obfuscating Stupidity comes off and his deadly fighting skills come out.
• Lewd Lust, Chaste Sex: A variant during Guts and Casca's love scene. While Miura was pretty descriptive and realistic when they have vaginal intercourse, no visual detail is given when Guts gives Casca oral sex, other than showing panels with Guts spreading her legs apart, and then Casca looking down and shuddering in pleasure. Extra odd because Miura does not typically shy away from showing some amount of detail even in the case of oral sex - both fellatio AND cunnilingus.
  • This even occurs in the third movie - which had two rated releases partially for this scene.

• Light Is Not Good: Griffith has white hair and white armor, he is nicknamed the White Hawk, and nearly everyone loves him. He is the Big Bad. Do the math.
  • And, as if the church wasn't already bad enough (it is, after all, inspired by the medieval catholic church), Inquisitor Mozgus becomes an angel-like pseudo-apostle covered by white feathers and having a light breath.
• Lightning Reveal: Used to re-introduce Guts after the two year Time Skip which opens up the Lost Children Arc.
• Lighter and Softer: The arcs after Guts gains his new True Companions are not as relentlessly grim compared to the ones before it where he travels alone and pretty much kills everything in his way. There's still lots of gore and tragedy going on around them, and they all have scars to carry, but there's more hope on the horizon and more frequent funny and heartwarming moments to break things up.
• Like an Old Married Couple: How Guts and Casca start acting toward one another after they affirm their relationship.
• Literal Maneater: The unnamed female apostle behaves this way, luring lustful men to her so that she can transform into her true demonic form and eat them. Also counts as I'm a Humanitarian because she was once human.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Guts is this to Griffith in a BIG way.
• Living Prop: Borkoff. He doesn't have any characterization and the only notable thing about him is that he's the apostle who Guts lost his arm to. But he has a name, and he is frequently seen in the background with the other apostles, often as a member of Locus' cavalry.
• Load-Bearing Boss: When Guts destroys Slan's "Trollguts" manifestation in Qlippoth, the entire cave and all it's monstrous inhabitants explode in a welter of chaos.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: In manga example.
• Locked in the Dungeon: Griffith, for a horrifying year of torture. Guts was also locked in a dungeon at the beginning of the series, but he busted himself out of there.
• Long Runner: A direct consequence of the series' Schedule Slip. The first volume was published in 1990.
• Losing the Team Spirit: After Griffith's arrest, the whole Band of the Hawk's morale just shuts down with the lose of their leader and their status in Midland, along with the remaining members either dying or abandoning the crew. Guts' return brought a lot of hope back for the time.
• Lost Love Montage: Every once in awhile, Guts will have flashbacks of the good times he had with Casca before the Eclipse happened, often reminding him of the one time he felt true love in his life, his big mistake of leaving her behind for two years, or how their relationship is fragmented for the time being.
• Love at First Punch: The eventual romance between Guts and Casca all began with them sword-fighting to the death. The literal first punch came after Casca was told by Griffith to lay with Guts for two days after he fell ill, and Casca showed her chagrin for the act by punching Guts square in the, er, guts.
• Love Dodecahedron: Berserk is less big on that than many other series but a Love Triangle shows up every now and then, partly due to the fact that Guts is a Chick Magnet. So far: Judeau had a crush on Casca, who had a crush on Griffith, who himself is attracted to Guts who has a thing for Casca. All of which is settled when Casca reciprocates Guts' feelings right before things go to hell. After the Eclipse, Farnese and Shierke have a crush on Guts, who loves only Casca but she can't love him back any more due to her mental condition. Farnese herself is courted by Roderick and used to have a flirtatious relationship with Serpico, and Schierke has a Puppy Love thing going with Isidro, who in turn has a similar relationship with Isma. And on the enemy's side, Griffith is lusted after by Sonia but he is already betrothed to Charlotte, while Sonia has formed a close relationship with Irvine and Mule, her beleaguered attendant.
• Love Epiphany: Casca finally realizes that she is in love with Guts after he left the Band of the Hawk, but still didn't want to accept her feelings due to her pride as a soldier under Griffith, who she fought so long for to earn his love and respect, but finally accepted that for his plan to succeed, he'd have to marry Princess Charlotte and needed Guts' strength the most, leaving her no room to be Griffith's sword or woman.
• Love Hurts: The result of the feelings that Guts, Griffith and Casca all have for one another, which is undeniably love (though in different if not arguable ways).
• Love Redeems: Guts and Casca's son had been corrupted by evil, but despite this, the child still loves its parents and comes to their aid multiple times.
• Love Triangle: The Guts-Griffith-Casca triangle is the main one of the series, and it can be easily said that this triangle alone is even more complicated than the series' Love Dodecahedron. Of course, this has two centers, as it is implied that the feeling of Griffith for Guts goes beyond being simple true companions.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: The Snake Baron.
  • Also the sound of bones snapping beneath hooves.
• Love Will Lead You Back: Played with. Swallowed in anger and grief, Guts left Casca to seek revenge. He was gone for two long years, and one could wonder if he ever had any intentions on returning to Godo's place had the Child not popped up to give Guts a premonition that Casca was in danger. Upon receiving this message, Guts rushed back to Godo's, but only to find Casca has been missing for a month. After a night of soul searching - aided by a Lost Love Montage - Guts recommitted himself to Casca and vowed to never leave her again. Now he only had to find her.
• Lover's Ledge: Griffith tried escaping this way after his illicit affair with Princess Charlotte. Unfortunately, he was immediately surrounded by the palace guards as soon as he feet touched the ground.
• Low Fantasy: During the Golden Age Arc, Berserk starts out as a low fantasy, taking place in a primary world where fantastic beasts are not suppose to exist and characters attempt to rationalize these phenomena. The story then quickly descends into Dark Fantasy territory when the plot approaches the Eclipse and the world begins to unravel into a secondary world, though still retaining the attitudes of a low fantasy (i.e. lots of gray morality, not-so-shiny heroes, humans are dominate, etc.). Eventually, the series has become even less of this as it went along.
• Ludicrous Gibs: A constant byproduct of Guts' fighting style.
  • A particularly deserving example is when Guts slashes through a soldier's head, and his jaw, eyeballs, tongue, scalp, and entire undamaged brain fly off in different directions.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Farnese's father eventually reveals to Serpico that he is his biological father. Serpico expressed his excitement in his usual way.
• Lying on a Hillside: This is the last serene moment that the Band of the Hawk have together.
  • It's safe to notice that Guts met the Hawks while they were lounging on a hillside.

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• Mr. Fanservice: Well now, the series has Guts for you tall, dark, handsome and snarky girls and Griffith for you chicks who dig the whole Bishōnen thing. There's some Fanservice for everybody, even for the female readers.
• Ms. Fanservice: And for the guy readers... well, practically every female character who goes topless or completely nude in a consensual way could count, but we'll give special designation to Casca, for guys who like level-headed, tomboyish (and perhaps dark-skinned) Action Girls, and Slan for the guys who are total kinks.
• Made of Evil: The Behelits, Berserk Armor and a couple other things.
• Made of Iron: Guts, who can be beaten to a pulp by a monster the size of an elephant and still be on top form the next day. Averted in the case of Griffith, who ends up crippled by torture.
  • Justified, as elf dust has powerful healing properties. This is lampshaded by the elves when they complain how much they've had to work over such a short time.
  • Basically, a person's ability to take damage and heal disability free is measured by how important they are to the plot. Griffith needed to be crippled, Guts needs to stay in top form, mooks are unimportant.
  • The most hard to ignore case of this comes when Guts recovers from a MASSIVE, nearly fatal beating by Wyald fast enough to be in sufficient fighting shape to take on the legions of hell with his bare hands probably only twelve hours later. There was no elf dust involved either.
• Made of Plasticine: While main characters tend to be Made of Iron, especially Guts, less plot-armored characters such as Mooks, Red Shirts, and helpless victims are easily reduced to Ludicrous Gibs as if their bone or muscle didn't offer any resistance. Usually this is done to show the sheer appalling power of Guts', Apostles', and other inhumanly strong attacks. Guts routinely hits people so hard that their eyeballs and entire intact brains pop out of their shattered skulls. Perhaps the craziest example of this is Irvine's ability to decapitate enemies by headshotting them with his arrows: The arrow pierces the skull and keeps moving so that it rips the head right off the body by pure momentum with no regard for the neck muscles or spine, leaving the neck looking as if it had been Clean Cut by an edged weapon. However, the trope is averted in the most gruesome way possible when Guts amputates his own forearm during the Eclipse, especially in the third Golden Age film where he's shown having to hack through every last strand of resisting sinew before he can free himself.
• The Magic Comes Back: Griffith's ascension as Femto and subsequent rebirth into the human world caused it to slowly merge with the supernatural world. It finally becomes a permanent change during the battle with Emperor Ganishka. This is a bad thing. Remember those trolls attacking the village of Enoch? Now they're everywhere, and that's just for starters.
• Magnetic Hero: All three main characters have a powerfull effect on people: Griffith has the looks, the social skills and the intelligence to conquer the world. Guts can turn the tide of any battle by diving right into the action and kicking ass, greatly inspiring his allies and terrifying his enemies and Casca is a role model for Midland's usually rather meek and oppressed women; good men are in love with her, bad men want to possess her. There are other leading figures in the series, but none of them compare to the PowerTrio. Exept emperor Geiseric. But he is long dead. Officially...
• Magnetic Plot Device: The Brand of Sacrifice borne by Guts in Berserk draws hungry ghosts to him like a lightning rod, making his life (and the life of his lover Casca, who also bears the Brand) a literal living Hell.
• Makara: The makaras are among the strongest pishachas in the Kushan Army. They're created by infusing whales with the astral essence of war elephants, which makes them vicious and hybridizes them to have tentacle-like trunks, finned ears, and finned legs that allow them to go on land. On land, they aren't fast, but they are big, strong, and have a hide barely anything gets through. They also have a ranged attack in that they can spout a high-pressure stream of water from their trunks.
• Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: So, while Guts and Casca are separated from the Hawks, General Adon shows up with a troop of mercenaries that he hired to catch Guts. Guts makes a path for Casca to escape, when Adon sends some men after her in order to kill her. When they catch up to her and eventually over power her, the mooks are mad that she was able to kill some of their comrades, so they want to thank Casca for doing so... by raping her. THEN killing her. Um, okay then.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Guts and Casca's first time is in the woods, against a tree.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe:
  • Briefly played for immense drama in volume fourteen during the aftermath of the Eclipse, when Casca miscarries the child she was pregnant with in front of Guts. Upon seeing the fetus (which is malformed, mutated, and ALIVE) Guts is not sure if the baby is his (since he and Casca had sex before the Eclipse happened) or was conceived through Casca's horrific rape at the demon lord Femto's hands. Guts is so distraught that he even begins panicking at the possiblity. "Luckily" for Guts, the Skull Knight, who is present, confirms that Guts is the father, but the child was nonethelss tainted by the rape. This news didn't make Guts any happier, mind you.
  • Rosine's mother was raped by soldiers sacking the town before she conceived Rosine, so it was unclear afterwards whether she was her father's daughter or a Child by Rape. This is a large part of the reason that her father abused her.
• Man in the Iron Mask: Late in the Golden Age Arc, The King of Midland imprisons Griffith in a dungeon under torture as punishment for deflowering his daughter, even though the mere fact that Griffith is alive represents a threat of rebellion from the Band of the Hawk. At least the King tries to prevent that from happening by preemptively outlawing Griffith's followers and ordering Midland's army to wipe them out. The king keeps the place of Griffith's imprisonment and the nature of his crime a secret to avoid losing face and to make sure that Griffith doesn't escape, telling the guards he'll kill them and their families if they breathe a word about it. Of course, the Hawks do manage to break Griffith out of prison a year later, and for bonus points they find that his captors had literally put him in a locked iron mask that concealed the horrible things the torturer had done to his face.
• A Man Is Always Eager: Although both he and Casca are the least sex-crazed characters in Berserk, Guts is shown to be a bit less nervous about initiating sex with Casca as this is his first time as well. And afterward, Guts is shown to be very eager about making love to Casca a hundred - no, a THOUSAND - more times.
  • This of course plays into Guts's Heartbroken Badass status later, as he is not only desperate for Casca's emotional love, but also her physical love and his beast within uses this longing for his own desires.
• Manipulative Bastard: Griffith. He WILL emotionally manipulate you one way or another. In fact, at least in the manga, Guts finally realizing that Griffith is using him for his own goals is a key motivation for him to leave the Hawks.
• Manly Tears: In this series, real men don't get called weak if they cry when any human being would. Guts, for instance, has cried numerous times in response to personal tragedy or intense emotion, and this just serves to humanize a guy whose bona fides as a badass are beyond question.
• Marital Rape License: Emperor Ganishka tells Princess Charlotte she cannot refuse him, because as the queen of a conquered nation, she must marry him and bear his children.
• Mark of the Beast: Inverted in that Griffith was the one who made the Deal with the Devil, but those who are given the mark are to be sacrificed to demons; thus it's called the Mark of Sacrifice. It'll bleed when the individual is near a demon.
• Marshmallow Hell: Just before devouring Corkus, the unnamed female apostle also tightly hugs him and sandwiches his head in between her boobs.
• Mars Needs Women: Most male apostles or evil spirits won't hestitate to have their way with any human female in the vacinity. Trolls apparently have no females in their species and reproduce exclusively by raping and impregnating human women.
• Massive Numbered Siblings:
  • In her backstory, Casca mentioned that she was the youngest daughter out of six siblings (and added that it was unusual that none of them had died of starvation up to the point of her being taken away...).
  • Later, it was mentioned that Farnese had three older brothers (not including Serpico), but she suffered due to her Parental Neglect and has suffer for it. Or rather, others have.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Farnese and Guts first meet when she arrests and interrogates him on behalf of the Holy See, which leads her to develop a sadomasochistic sexual attraction to him that she is heavily in denial about. She eventually makes a Heel–Face Turn after learning to admire him and they become friends, or at least that's as far as it's gone. He's only ever had eyes for Casca, so her love for him is one-sided.
• Mauve Shirt: A couple of minor recurring characters that lasted for several volumes, like Gaston, but don't have the same level of Plot Armor as the main characters.
• Medieval European Fantasy: The world of Berserk has most of the familiar elements of a fantasy setting based on medieval Europe: warfare conducted with knights, footmen, archers, and castles; government by a warrior class made up of monarchs and nobles; a state-sanctioned religion based on the Catholic Church that has great independent wealth and political power; heretic and witch hunts; castle towns and peasant villages; and the existence of magic and various magical creatures/species.
• Medieval Morons: Uneducated peasants are depicted alternately as being too blind to acknowledge the supernatural dangers happening to them because of religious indoctrination and a built-in Weirdness Censor, or being overly quick to form mobs with Torches and Pitchforks to Burn the Witch! or drive out benign supernatural beings out of panic, paranoia, and ignorance. There's some who can think for themselves, and even some who change for the better, but far too many of them are like mindless sheep.
• Medieval Stasis: Ziggzagged. If you look in volume 10, when Charlotte is telling the team about the history of Midland, the landscape is still looking medieval-esque, even 1,000 years in the past. However, with the presence of Viking-like warriors and Emperor Gaiseric and his army, the world looks to be influenced by The Low Middle Ages. Right now, the world looks like a combination of The Late Middle Ages and The Renaissance, with a generous helping of The Cavalier Years and even hints of The Enlightenment.
• Mega Neko: Ganishka's monstrous demon tigers.
• Melancholy Moon: Every once in awhile, we see Guts staring at the moon, lost in his own thoughts. He and Schierke also share a tender moment this way.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Averted. In the Berserk-verse, women are just as expendable as males and are not given any Karmic Protection against gorny death. While there are technically more men shown dying on-panel due to most fights happening on battlefields, when it's not the case, women get no special treatment and are killed just as gruesomely and indiscriminately as men. Oh, and in case you're wondering, children and babies WILL be killed on-panel in the same atrocious way as their parents were.
• The Mentor: Godo, though not a swordsman, gives Guts a place to train for a year, made him most of his weapons and equipment, gave him insight and advice, and above all, managed to be the only person in the series to make Guts bite his own tongue and think about how he was acting like a complete asshole to people for reasons that were primarily his doing. And he did all this knowing that he was going to die soon and before he refurbished the Dragonslayer for the final time. Awesome work, man.
• Messianic Archetype: Griffith and Guts can both be seen as this trope. Griffith is a dark version of this, in reality being a Dark Messiah who is also an demonic demigod, as he was "crucified" but was then "resurrected" in the demonic sabbath of the Eclipse. He has currently "ascended" onto his throne that is Falconia. Guts is becoming a straighter example as the story progresses. He has the unusual birth down, and he is against the populace's belief that Griffith is The Chosen One, and has since gradually begun gathering "disciples" and little by little, people who would have normally been afraid of Guts are growing to admire him. Wanna know what's really fucked up about this? See below.
• Million Mook March: The Kushan Empire loves intimidating their foes with huge formations of soldiers. Doesn't do much to intimidate Guts OR Griffith, though.
• Mind Rape:
  • Ubik gives Griffith a vision of the consequences of him following his dream, forcing him to realize how many people died so that he could get this far, which results in him carrying out the sacrifices for the Eclipse and turning into the demonic Femto
  • And then, Femto basically mind rapes Guts by physically raping Casca in front of him and barring any efforts of saving her, leaving him utterly helpless. He's virtually raping two people at once. This is driven home in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III: all while he is raping Casca, he's staring Guts dead in the eyes.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Gambino reacted quite violently and a bit like a brat when Guts managed to cut him on the cheek during his childhood training, ending with Gambino giving the kid an even nastier cut across his nose which ended up physically scarring him for life. On a more comical side, Guts himself is quite Afraid of Needles and acts like a baby whenever he has to get sewn up.
  • The fall of Griffith is due to a mental version of this, he took being beaten by Guts in their rematch after the war... quite poorly.
• Misery Builds Character: Though it isn't explicitly stated, a large portion of the backstory goes into showing why Guts is such a hardened (and therefore exceptional) warrior. Most of his life has been misery heaped on tragedy, forging him into an inhumanly durable person.
  • Off course, the story also points out that there are limits to this, and sometimes there isn't much character left when the dust settles. Poor Casca...
• Mistress and Servant Boy: Farnese and Serpico's relationship. It was on a more twisted level back when Farnese had a limp grasp on her marbles, but now she is much more lax and is more preoccupied with serving others. Still, Serpico is still loyal to her and her first before anyone else.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Most of the Apostles, the qlipoth creatures and the Pishacha are combinations of various animals that aren't supposed to go together. We got tigerbullapes, manspermwhaleelephants, froghorses, elephantwhales, and ratmonkeypigs, just to name a few.
• Model Scam: The noble who approached Casca's family when she was twelve gave them the pretense that he wanted her as a servant for his castle. In reality he just wanted her body.
• Modesty Bedsheet: Zig-Zagged when Griffith and Charlotte sleep together, we get various explicit shots of the act, but the scene ends with a tame shot of Charlotte sleeping with the sheet covering her nudity, albeit with Toplessness from the Back.
• Moment of Weakness: The Godhand exploit this. People hit their lowest low and they get offered a chance to never be in this situation again if they sacrifice their loved ones. Even worse when it's to recruit a new member of the Godhand since it's picking someone with the potential to become the vilest person and putting them through hell so they won't bother severing all ties and unlike Apostles like the Rosine, they seem incapable of regretting the deal.
• Monster of the Week: Originally, Berserk was meant to be focus on Guts encountering random monsters in each issue with little overarching plot, and it follows this system during the Black Swordsman arc. It soon abandons it, tough.
• Monster Whale:
  • The Kushan Empire can mutate animals into shock troops, including a whale that takes on elephantine characteristics like a long trunk and reverts to its original form once killed.
  • A trolual appears during the Elf Island arc to highlight the mythical world merging with the real one. Thankfully it doesn't attack or even come within sight of the ship, it just shows up to eat a sea serpent that was about to eat a seabird.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: Isidro is disgusted to observe that the trolls attacking Enoch village, already known to eat livestock and people, even devour their own wounded.
• Mood Whiplash: The first thing Guts sees after being in a coma for a few days after the Eclipse is Erika comically falling on her butt. Guess Miura really needed a lighter moment after all that insanity.
• Mooks: Thousands and thousands of them, all meeting grisly deaths. The series' kill count is remarkable - one site, that only counts into the high two hundred chapters, lists it as well over a thousand.
  • Guts kills 100 in a single battle at one point. He only gets better at it.
  • Mook Horror Show
• Moral Event Horizon: Enforced, In-Universe examples occur whenever a Crimson Behelit is activated. As Griffith finds out, you have to be willing to cross it in order to join the Godhand and become a powerful demon yourself.
• Moral Luck: Played with. Guts often goes into battle despite serious injuries or overwhelming odds, coming out on top through sheer determination. Griffith and his fellow raiders pat him on the back for this, which drives Casca crazy. In volume 5 she calls him out, saying that his Leeroy Jenkins behavior in battle would have put everyone in danger if he hadn't been so lucky, and that if it were up to her instead of Griffith she'd punish him. Conversely, when Casca goes into battle feverish from a severe period, she faints after fighting Adon Coborlwitz, falls off a cliff (together with Guts who tried to catch her), and gets told off by Guts for putting herself and her comrades in danger by going into battle at less than full strength. Ironically, by the time they get back to camp after the ordeal of the hundred man fight, Casca is the one who asks Griffith to punish her however he sees appropriate, while Guts backs her up and Griffith welcomes her back since she and Guts did well against Adon's mercenaries. Imagine if they both hadn't been so lucky!
• Moral Myopia: Guts is loyal to his friends. If you are a hapless soldier/guard who gets in his way, he won't think twice about slicing you in two. Even if you were just doing your job and not hurting anyone. Guts is also somewhat apathetic about people he doesn't know. During his darker moments, he would probably say that if you can't be strong enough to defend yourself, you could at least be smart enough to stay out of his way.
• Morality Pet: Puck for the borderline-sociopathic Guts of the first issues. Post-eclipse Griffith/Femto seems to be fond of Sonia, the rookies and the refugees that accompany him for the second, demonic Band of the Hawk, though since he was a first-class Manipulative Bastard from the start, it's difficult to tell how genuine this affection might be. His total lack of remorse over everything he did during the Eclipse does not encourage the idea that he considers people anything more than tools anymore.
  • Also, Guts' new team is pretty much a cage full of adorable pet hamsters for him (though they have a nasty bite). Ever since they were assembled, Guts' mood and behavior have become a lot more mellow, not only because now he doesn't have to take care of Casca all by himself (which caused him stress in a very bad way), but because they're collectively the voice of reason behind his combat action now. Guts even lampshaded this once by saying that he knew that he was wrong when a bunch of women and children start telling him what to do.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Just about every monster in the manga.
  • The monster in chapter 319 takes this up to eleven as all you can see is a giant mouth of very sharp teeth.
  • Godo lampshaded this in volume 14 when Guts is up against the swine apostle.
• Muggles: Basically, anyone who can't see the supernatural (and to a greater extent, anyone who can't cope with it, i.e. defend themselves or just have experience with this side of the reality). Everyone more or less starts out as a muggle, as a lot of the supernatural go unnoticed because a) they exist on a different plane (the Nexus) that everyday humans aren't a part of, and b) people only bother to detect what their minds are able to comprehend (and Holy See religion that forbids the old pagan beliefs in the supernatural aides in this). However, this only really applies to the less harmful beings in the Berserkerverse (like elves), as the more threatening variety (like apostles and trolls) are a bit more difficult for the mind to ignore for obvious reason... And now that the natural and the supernatural planes have merged, no one is exempt from not believing anymore.
• Muggles Do It Better: The Apostles are demonic beings bound to five deities of evil, but at the end of the day they are just big beasts, and Guts is the living proof (literally) that a common human without any magic or supernatural power, counting only on athleticism, training, smarts and gadgets, can bring them down. It gets subverted later, when the presence of the Berserk Armor makes Guts stop being technically a common man without magic advantages.
• Mundane MacGuffin Person: Princess Charlotte, while being one of the kindest and sweetest people in the story, is only sought after for her position as being the sole heir to the throne of Midland, a kingdom that everyone wants for some reason.
• Mundane Utility: Puck once tried to use a Behelit as fish bait.
• Murderers Are Rapists: The Tudor soldiers who corner off Casca weren't merely going to kill her and be done with it - they were going to rape her first.
• My Greatest Failure: Guts's greatest failure, without a doubt was being unable to save Casca from being raped by Femto. Also, he came to realize how much he screwed up by leaving Casca when the two of them needed each other the most, but instead decided to drown his sorrows in killing Apostles, which didn't help him very much in the end.
  • My Greatest Second Chance: And now that he has straightened things out the best he could, he's devoted himself to protecting Casca, starting with rescuing her at St. Albion. Remember: hurt Casca? You're dead. Get in the way of Guts trying to protect Casca? You're still dead. Both Isidro and Farnese learned not to either fail or get in the way of Guts when it came to Casca's safety - the scary way.
    • This is more of an Anti-Hero variation, since Guts still profoundly hates the Godhand and Apostles, and even admitted to himself that even though he may have lost the right to avenge the Band of the Hawk he would NEVER FORGIVE GRIFFITH for what he did to Casca.
• My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: After facing off with Nosferatu Zodd for the first time, Guts's goals in life became centered around training himself and becoming stronger so that the next time he encountered Zodd or another bigger enemy, he'd win (or, at best, survive). Then, more serious stuff settled into the plot - like the Eclipse - and Guts's eyes were set on one thing and one thing only: Revenge. With that, Guts would get into battles without really caring how much stronger his foe was. Later on, the trope was re-introduced with the appearance of Isidro.
• Mysterious Past: Out of all of the recurring characters, and even some of the villains, Rickert and Schierke have no backstory given about how they came to be with their wards. Judging by the track record of the other characters of this story, they probably weren't happy ones.
• Mysterious Protector: The Skull Knight.
• Mystical Pregnancy: Supernatural pregnancy variant. Guts and Casca's baby is conceived normally, but things turn to horror during the Eclipse when Griffith, now demonic, rapes Casca and poisons her womb and unborn child with his demonic seed. The baby is born prematurely as a demonic fetus that can teleport at will and have control over demons and monsters. It also appears before Guts during his darkest moments (and also Casca) but because of its nature Guts is never too happy to see it despite it trying to help him.
  • Later used with Emperor Ganishka's demonic daka army, which are "born" when pregnant women are dunked into a vat of demonic amniotic fluid which instantly mutates the fetus which then proceed to claw their way out of the mother's womb.
• Myth Arc: In essence, the tumultuous personalities of Guts, Griffith, and Casca are explored as well as their relationships to each other throughout the series. Their relationship pretty much influenced the fate of the entire world as it always comes down to these three. This is great and enticing to the reader, but the unfortunate myth stall kind of sours it.

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• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • You would need someone to clean you up after you heard that you were facing "Nosferatu Zodd."
  • Guts has a few nicknames such as a hundred man slayer which he earned slaughtering a hundred soldiers in a single night and later when people learn he's The Black Swordsman they tend to freak out and even some apostles are wary of him.
• Near-Rape Experience: Guts almost rapes Casca in when he finds her disheveled after killing some would-be rapists, the sight of her partial nakedness causing him to succumb to The Beast. He comes to his senses just in time to stop, but he already bit her breast hard enough to draw blood, and at once he thinks My God, What Have I Done?
• Near-Villain Victory: The Eclipse is a very VERY close call or counts as an actual victory since Guts is completely and utterly defeated by the demons and pinned down with injuries that will kill him in a few minutes while Casca is driven insane and the band of the Hawk is already eradicated. Only the Skull Knight's arrival keeps the story from ending right there.
• Never My Fault: When he returned to Godo's house to find Casca was missing, Guts immediately went to blaming Rickert instead of looking how he played a role in Casca's condition.
• Never Sleep Again: Ever since he got the brand, Guts can only get some shut eye when he finds a spot in full sunlight. Eventually he gets so conditioned to this he can't fall asleep at nighttime anymore even when he knows he is in a safe spot.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Guts assumed that Griffith would eventually get over his leaving. Boy was he wrong. To make it worse, had Guts stayed a little while longer (or had Casca not gone and told Griffith that he was leaving) then maybe Griffith wouldn't have a massive breakdown and derail everything he worked for and the whole group could have a happy ending. (of course that would have been a boring manga)
  • In an attempt to kill Griffith, the Skull Knight appears to have broken the entire world!
  • Griffith is at first unsure whether he should accept the God Hands' offer despite them trying to tempt him but Guts scaling the mountain tips him over the edge as he blames Guts for his current state
  • Guts' current relationship with Casca is certainly laden with this trope. While Guts used Casca's fate during the Eclipse as his strongest motivation for casting vengeance on the Griffith and the God Hand, actually staying with Casca during her mental and emotional instability probably would have done a lot more for her in the long run. Instead, Guts leaves her no more than a month after the ordeal and right after she miscarried their unborn child, which obviously didn't make her mental condition any better and proceeds on his mission for two years. Even though there is a glimmer of hope when Guts finally realizes the error of his ways and dedicates himself to protecting Casca and staying by her side no matter what, he's unfortunately not as prepared for the task of caretaker as he thought he would be and things just go even more awry between them.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: All that Earl Julius's assassination attempt on Griffith did was increase Griffith's popularity, as it appeared that he saved Princess Charlotte from an assassination attempt. This incident also gave Griffith more of an excuse to eliminate the Earl as an opponent.
• Nipple and Dimed: A bizarre case. Miura has no qualms with sex and nudity, even the full frontal male one. No problems with showing genitals very clearly, orgies, pedophilia, rape in all its forms and all kinds of explicitly sexual things that few manga writers would dare to show so clearly on panel. So it's pretty strange that no man on his pages is shown to have nipples... when women's are clearly shown at every turn!
  • From some screencaps of the next movie(s), that's apparently going to change. NSFW.◊
• Noble Demon:
  • As hard as that might sound in Berserk, but Locus and Irvine (as well as some of the other apostles in the New Band of the Hawks) are pretty nice and friendly.
  • Zodd also fits this. He’s fiercely loyal, and will lend a weapon to a sworn enemy to keep things 'fair'. Though, 'fair' for a guy who morphs into a two-story monster mid-combat still plays pretty fast and loose with the definition.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Griffith is the noble male while Guts is the roguish male.
• No Ending: The TV anime of 1997-1998 infamously ends on the darkest moment of the series, without explaining how Guts made it out of the direst of circumstances. While the very first episode confirms that Guts made it out okay in the end, it doesn't say anything about the fates of the other characters.
• No Fourth Wall: Puck, as the first comic relief character, occasionally references contemporary popular culture and addresses the audience.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed:
  • Supreme King Gaiseric: The founder of Midland alluded to in volume 10 was based on the actual King Gaiseric who ruled the Vandals' kingdom in Europe in the 5th century. He was famed as a brilliant general who was seen as a threat even to the Roman Empire. In the manga, Gaiseric is said to have created a vast empire, similar to the Romans, that was destroyed by God's wrath. He banded together with his small tribe and brought them great fame as a kingdom that exercised its authority in the Mediterranean region.
    • It is hinted that Emperor Gaiseric survived his fallen empire in the form of the Skull Knight, a recurring character who aids Guts and stands in opposition to the God Hand.
  • Emperor Ganishka: The man himself, working as Griffith's enemy in Berserk, was based on King Kanishka, who ruled over the actual Kushan Empire, a vast empire in India and Central Asia during the 2nd century. He was also a profound Buddhist and adorned his empire with its respective figures and promoted it vigorously. Like his real-life counterpart, Ganishka also decorates his palace with famous Buddhist and Hindu figures but has demonized them to suit his nature.
  • Mozgus appears to be based on Ivan the Terrible, due to his daily routine of slamming his face into the ground during prayer and his biblical methods of execution.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Guts delivered one of these to Griffith during their first rematch... and then got his ass handed to him by Griffith. During his Black Swordsman days Guts enjoys torturing Apostles after having beaten them
• Non-Action Snarker: Evarella. She's pretty judgmental for someone who doesn't do anything.
• Non-Indicative Name: Guts' trademark Dragonslayer sword is never once used to slay any dragons. The name was originally meant as a joke — a sword that the maker thought couldn't be used by anyone, in order to kill a creature he believed didn't exist. Even later on, when Griffith merges the planes and causes fantasy creatures to come alive, Guts never gets around to fighting an actual dragon.
• No Periods, Period: Averted — Casca insists on fighting during her period and nearly gets killed because it's taking her edge off.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • A family helps the Band by giving them a place to stay while on the run from the army of Midland after rescuing Griffith, because they believed that he and the Band were innocent of the crime of treason. Then, Wyald and his Black Dog Knights came along, and, well...
  • And then there were those that remained with the Hawks, and out of pure loyalty, rescued Griffith from torture and imprisonment. And we all know what he ultimately did to them...
  • In the second chapter the priest and his daughter who give Guts a ride are soon murdered by ghosts for their trouble despite Guts warning them that no good will come of helping him
• No-Harm Requirement: A particularly depraved aristocrat (who'd slept with Griffith once in exchange for funding the Band of the Hawk) finds himself on opposing sides. When they meet, he tells Griffith his men were ordered not to harm him, and thinks it'll be enough for Griffith to submit then and there. Astoundingly enough, Griffith didn't feel the same for him, and kills him on the spot.
• No One Could Survive That!:
  • Early on in the manga, a young Guts is shot with an arrow and falls off a cliff, prompting the bowman to proclaim, "He won't survive the fall."
  • The entire Eclipse, which Guts was not supposed to survive. Zodd is quite surprised that Guts defied his prophecy although Guts, as well as Casca, who also survived, is unconscious at the time due to the severe physical and emotional trauma. They were both saved by the Skull Knight before the apostles could finish the job.
  • At the end of volume 21 of the manga, after the Tower of Conviction fell after the mock Eclipse the Kushan army comes and Guts and Casca are surrounded while the other surviving party members escape. No one thinks that they could avoid capture. Moments later, to their surprise, they see Guts escaping with Casca (and Puck) on horseback into the horizon, chopping up Kushan soldiers all the way.
• No One Should Survive That!: Flimsy though it may be, Guts', Griffith's, and Casca's Plot Armor have all saved them from falling victim to injuries and events that normally would have killed any other schmuck in the series, from brutal torture, to limb dismemberment, to being shot at with multiple arrows. Pretty much a plot point of the entire series, especially when it comes to Guts, who has even lampshaded that had it not been for one factor in a life or death situation, he would have been dead several times over.
  • Griffith's plot armor is actually hinted at as he is destined to be a God Hand, who are able to affect causality and thus make sure that he survives until the Eclipse. For this very same reason they can't kill Guts who the Skull Knight says is outside the effects of fate
  • After his second match with Serpico in a basement filled with pillars that limit Guts movements, he wins because the ceiling collapses after he strikes the final pillar collapsing a section of the ceiling before his opponent can kill him. When asked if he planned it Guts admits that he didn't and that a lot of his fights seem to be like that.
• Not Himself: Immediately following the Eclipse, Godo and company notice a big change in Guts' personality, most definitely his increased rage and blood lust.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The Eclipse that ends the Golden Age arc, and the fusing of the worlds in the latest arc.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In the manga, Puck chastises Guts - who at the time is just as vicious as the monsters he hunts for - for being so cruel to Vargas, a kind but revenge-driven man who wants the apostle who mutilated Vargas and forced him to watch as he ate his wife and children dead, saying that they weren't much different and should consider each other allies. Guts laughs it off, but later reconciles to himself that he and Vargas weren't so different after all, since he and Guts shared the same cruel fate when encountering apostles.
• No Woman's Land: In this Crapsack World, everybody has it hard, but it's especially hard if you're a lady, where you're in danger of getting raped by anyone, anything, anytime, just 'bout anywhere. Not only that, but your husband/father/brother are more than likely jerks to you, and may even try to rape you too. If you're lucky, you just might escape with your life but most likely, you will be raped and THEN you will also be killed or eaten alive. If you're not kept around for reproductive purposes that is, in which case your baby will rip trough your womb and gut you like a fish. If you're a title character, you are not given anymore immunity than the background women - in fact, that just makes you more ample prey. It's Inherent in the System.
• Now That's Using Your Teeth!: During the duel on the Hill when Griffith his standing on Guts' sword and asks him to surrender, Guts tells him that he talks too much and bites the tip of his sword. This is the first of many times that he catches an attack with his teeth: In the Conviction Arc while Guts is fighting Bishop Mozgus' torturers the Small one tries to pluck out his eye, but Guts bites down on the pliers and counterattacks with a headbutt. Examples pulled off by other characters are listed below. For other kinds of toothy exploits, see entry for Cutlass Between the Teeth.
  • During the pursuit of the Black Dog Knights, Wyald catches Guts' sword in his teeth and uses his free hand to punch Guts' horse unconscious.
  • Tragically, Casca loses their sword to the jaws of an Apostle in this fashion during the Eclipse.
  • The grand prize for this trope goes to Bishop Mozgus, who successfully uses his jaws to stop a thrust from Guts' freaking Dragonslayer!
• Nude Nature Dance: The pagan worshipers from the Retribution Arc dance naked around the cauldron as part of their orgy, presumably to connect with their animal passions. Unlike the trope's normal use it's played for creepiness.
• Number of the Beast: The Eclipse, which heralds the birth of a new member of the Godhand, happens once every 216 years. 216 = 6 x 6 x 6...

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• Oblivious to Love: Guts and Casca were both guilty of this around the time that Guts decided to leave the Hawks, but luckily, they later become official.
• Offering Another in Your Stead: Defied by the villainous Slug Count. When his attempted Human Sacrifice goes awry, leaving him on the hook to be Dragged Off to Hell, the Godhand tell him that he can only save himself by offering up his daughter. Despite all the horrors he's committed, he can't bear to, so he's killed.
• Official Couple: Guts and Casca were pretty much set to fall in love with each other from the moment they met.
  • Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: Unfortunately, everything else came with it.
• Offing the Offspring: First occurs when Gambino tries to kill Guts but this leads to Guts killing him instead. Then Guts tries this on his own tainted child. It is also presented as Emperor Ganishka's Freudian Excuse when his mother tried to kill him so that his half-brother could get the throne.
• Oh, Crap!: A Crapsack World has a lot of Oh, Crap! moments:
  • First notable moment was when Guts battled Nosferatu Zodd for the first time. He kept his cool for the first moments - until Zodd turns into his apostle form.
  • Then came the time when Guts was facing off Wyald, his second encounter with an Apostle. He took it a lot better than with his fight with Zodd, but it was one of the few other times that we see Guts tremble with fear.
    • Likewise, Wyald as a few of these himself, such as when Guts pulled the most epic of cock-blocker in order to save Casca from being raped by him, and then it gets better when 1) Wyald sees that Griffith does not have the behelit on him when he's near death, and then 2) look who's right behind him.
  • When the Hawks were transported to the Nexus where the Eclipse ceremony is held (a.k.a. Hell), and the realization of what the God Hand meant by "sacrifice" hits them.
    • The entire Eclipse ordeal was littered with Oh, Crap!, one tragic expression after the other. It was basically a Mass "Oh, Crap!" convention.
    • Of particular note is the look of absolute, unlimited and all-consuming horror on Guts' face when he realizes that Femto, a.k.a. GRIFFITH, is going to rape Casca, right in front of him. In the movie, Guts is so horrified that he actually yells, "What are you doing, you asshole?!"
    • When you mention that, Casca has this subtle, but nonetheless horrified look in her eyes when Femto kisses her that just about any survivor of sexual assault can relate to that says, "oh no. NO."
    • In a very startling addition in the third film, the Godhand - including FEMTO - have an Oh, Crap! moment when Guts, through sheer willpower, almost breaks through a forcefield that Femto erected in order to prevent Guts from saving Casca.
  • When Farnese found out how the world really worked in volume 17.
    • Farnie might as well be the queen of this trope.
  • On amore positive note, any mook who realizes what Guts's Unstoppable Rage is capable of doing to them. This is not limited to humans, by the way.
• Old Hero, New Pals: Guts' new companions. To add a split situation, the same goes for Griffith, only its an inversion for obvious reasons.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: The Golden Age Films have Sounds of Tortured Souls as well as Blood and Guts.
  • This song from the third film.
  • There is also "Murder" on the official soundtrack. This track was infamously used during the Eclipse, and that chanting gave the scene all the more terror.
• One Curse Limit: Once branded as a sacrifice, no one else can sacrifice you, which is good considering that you aren't even supposed to survive being branded the first time around, and are by this time still being trailed by the demons who want to claim your soul from the first ceremony.
• One-Gender Race: The merrow appear to be this.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Guts tends to swing the Dragonslayer with only his right arm. Of course, his left arm is just a metal prosthesis, so this is standard for him. This is all more than enough why he's pictured in the trope's main page.
• One-Man Army: They call Guts the Hundred Man Slayer for a reason.
• One-Winged Angel: Most Demons start off mostly human, only to explode into a giant monster when the time for talking is over. Rosine does it twice.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Guts tends to have this attitude with his major injuries. If only. To hell with that stab wound! It wasn't going to stop Guts from making sweet love to Casca!
• Only One Name: Most of the cast have only one mentioned named, unless they're really important on the aristocratic level (e.g. Farnese di Vandimion).
• "Open!" Says Me: Prison door thick enough to prevent a ridiculously-sized sword from breaking it? Bitch, please.
• Opening Narration / Opening Scroll: "In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, not even over his own will."
• The Ophelia: Casca becomes one after the Eclipse.
• Opposing Combat Philosophies: Midland and Tudor have different armies. Tudor seemed to favor brawny Mighty Glacier units themed after huge animals, including the Black Rams, Whale Corps, and Holy Purple Rhino Knights. Meanwhile, Midland prefers lightning-fast units, most successfully the Band of the Hawk, and designates their best as "white," such as the White Dragons, White Tigers, and (briefly) White Phoenix.
• Our Hydras Are Different: One of the first signs that Griffith has brought the material and spiritual realms together is the appearance of a massive hydra chasing a herd of unicorns and followed by a flock of harpies. While it's undoubtedly reptilian, the shape of its skull makes it heads look disturbingly humanlike.
• Our Ogres Are Hungrier: They look like something between a human and a sperm whale with noses on the crown of their heads and massive tusks. Just look◊.

• Out-of-Clothes Experience: Happens a few times in dream sequences and flashbacks, such as when Guts is being chased by his deformed child in the first volume and when he has a nightmare of he and Gambino. Most recent was when the combined force of Femto and the Skull Knight succeeded in breaking the world forever by merging the physical and supernatural worlds together and sent a wave of energy that was felt around the entire planet, including Guts and the friends who were at sea. This describes the experience well. NSFW.
• Out with a Bang: The Female Apostle's modus operandi - she transforms from her human form (a naked woman) mid-coitus and devours her victims. It works on Corkus during the Eclipse^note although he only gets to second base, but she doesn't get so lucky with Guts later on.
• Outrun the Fireball: At the end of volume 10, the Bakiraka woman ignites a huge fireball in the sewer that the Griffith rescue team has to outrun. Luckily for Griffith's sharp eye and Pippin's large hammer, they are able to evade it unscathed.
• Outside-Context Problem: One of the main reasons why even weaker Apostles and minor supernatural beings are such a threat to humans.
• Overdrawn At The Bloodbank: Everyone and everything bleeds a LOT. Guts himself is almost constantly dripping blood (especially from his brand), but he never seems to run completely dry. It's occasionally lampshaded when Guts needs to interrupt his battle to patch up, but his blood loss is still pretty unrealistic.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The bakiraka assassins are pretty hardcore, hyper-trained badasses who can kill off groups of mooks in seconds. But every time they go against Guts or Griffith they are beaten back rather easily. Although Silat recently earned a lot of kickass credentials by refusing to fall under the sway of Griffith and continuing to walk his own path in the new world.
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: How Guts kidnapped Farnese at the beginning of the Conviction Arc.
• Over-the-Shoulder Murder Shot: There's a scene like this where it's a family of three devouring their newborn. Alive.

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• Papa Wolf: Guts, in later stages of the manga, eventually starts to display fatherly protectiveness towards Schierke.
• Paper Cutting: Guts' Single-Stroke Battle with Serpico in the Chapter of the Binding Chain has Serpico end up with the front of his boot busted open because he narrowly jumped to avoid the Dragonslayer, while Guts finds that he received a very thin, shallow cut on the cheek from Serpico's saber. Guts, impressed at how Serpico almost got him, licks the blood that flows from the cut and says "Nice draw style."
• Parents for a Day: Whenever the Moonlight Boy shows up, insane Casca takes it upon herself to look after him, but as always, his stay is never long.
• Parents Know Their Children: Implied trope. The theory as to why Casca reacted "favorably" to Griffith's presence at the Hill of Swords despite her otherwise extreme PTSD-induced amnesia and pain caused by her brand is because she could possibly sense her child's Od/consciousness/spirit inside of him, since Griffith had previously used the child's misshapen body to reincarnate himself to the physical world. This theory also explains Casca's relationship with the Moonlight Boy (since she doesn't go around swaddling every toddler that she sees).
• Parents in Distress: Although tainted with evil, the Child does love its parents enough to protect Casca by manipulating the very demons that are out to get her in order to fend off would be assailants, to giving Guts cryptic messages warning him that Casca is in danger. The little guy gives a rather heroic sacrifice by using the last of its strength to protecting Casca at the Tower of Conviction.
• Parental Abandonment: Everywhere. Prominent examples:
  • Guts' birth mother died before he was born - via execution by hanging. His birth father is never mentioned. His adoptive mother, Sys, died of the plague when he was very young, and Gambino - well, we know enough about his deeds to the boy. Guts eventually calls his adoptive dad out, though by accident.
  • Griffith's parents are never mentioned.
  • Casca's parents sold her to a noble as a servant (though he wanted her for services other than cleaning and cooking.)
  • Farnese and Serpico both share a father who is emotionally and physically distant from both of them (especially so in Serpico's case since he was born out of wedlock). Serpico's mother died under the traumatizing circumstance of her being burned at the stake as a witch by both he and Farnese, and Farnese's mother was always out partying, which was not good for her development.
  • Isidro is an inversion of the trope, as he left his parents for some reason.
  • Schierke's birth parents are never mentioned and it as never explained how she came to be under the guardianship of Flora, but now that she's dead Schierke definitely qualifies.
  • Rosine, like Isidro, is an inversion, but on a more diabolical level, as she sacrificed her parents to the Godhand in order to become an apostle.
  • Princess Charlotte's birth mother died, her stepmother more or less ignored her (who is also dead), and her father who had previously tried to rape her is now dead.
  • New companion Isma is a subversion, as her father died and her mother abandoned her but her mother came back upon the reveal that she is a merrow.
• A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: YES. Beserk has a lot of these, especially of the pagan variant.
• Patrick Stewart Speech: Guts gives a very similar mini speech in the form of his Pre-Mortem One-Liner to the Snake Baron:
  Guts: Humans are weak. But we want to live. Even if we're wounded or tortured, we feel the pain.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Guts is tormented by bad dreams related to the events he's suffered, first due to his childhood trauma, and then after the events of the Eclipse. What's worse is when people, specifically Puck and Schierke, go into Guts' inner memories, they are bombarded with horrific images of the Eclipse. Also, in Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage, when Casca briefly regains her sanity, she said that she was having bad dreams.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Of all the people he killed and/or maimed, Guts mostly takes on absolute bastards who totally deserved what they got.
• Paying for the Action Scene: The second part of Guts' Establishing Character Moment (after he makes a demoness Go Out With A Bang) has him enter a Bad Guy Bar, put a few coins on the bar telling the barkeep "for the disturbance". Before the barkeep can ask for clarification, Guts has started attacking the mooks, destroying them and the furniture, leaving one alive (and more than happy to take a message to the Evil Overlord).
• Pec Flex: A non-comical version at the end of Descent where Guts is fighting ghosts in the field, he jumps to attack and his pecs bounce upon landing. Serious a scene as it as, the display did not disappoint.
• Perilous Old Fool: Jill's dad. Give him credit that he did actually manage to shot Guts.
• Perspective Flip: The coming of the Antichrist is part of the entire lore. Which is Guts. Wait, Something's wrong here. Why is Griffith a Messianic Archetype again? Why is he acting like a Messiah? People see Guts as a child-slayer and demonic conqueror? Oh dear.
• Phallic Weapon: Guts' big fucking, um, swords. Haha. Laugh all you want, since most of the fandom, including the abridged series, already does. But Word of God mentioned in an interview that Guts' swords not only represent his strength and determination, but also his, er, virility. It's no wonder Casca got knocked up on their first go.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: The lose of his left arm and his right eye serves as Guts' painful reminder of what he failed to save during the Eclipse.
• Pietà Plagiarism: The cover art of Volume 13.
• Pillow Pistol:
  • Guts' swords were already his Security Blanket, but the dude literally sleeps with his sword, especially after his childhood rape. This isn't healthy.
  • In a metaphorical twist, Guts manages to sleep without his sword when he and Casca spend their first night together as lovers, as after the emotional distress he revealed to Casca earlier and she accepting him regardless, SHE had become his sword. In the movie depiction of the scene, however, Guts is still embracing Casca... but his sword is *still* in arm's reach off to the side. Just in case.
• Pimping the Offspring:
  • The incident that led to Guts' Hates Being Touched mentality was being sold to a pedophile by his adoptive father Gambino, a drunk who blamed Guts for his sister's death (she was already mentally imbalanced from miscarrying when she found Guts birthed from a corpse and adopted him). Guts murdered the pedophile then Gambino before setting off on his own.
  • A preteen Casca was sold to a nobleman by her dirt-poor family ostensibly to serve as a maid, but he tried to rape her before they'd even left the carriage. Fortunately Griffith was there to rescue her (read: give her a sword and tell her to defend herself).
• Pint-Sized Kid: Every kid who's from the ages of 10 to 12 is short as hell. But then again, if you're comparing them to Guts, everyone's a midget.

• Pirates: Captain Sharkrider and his pirate crew are a group of stereotypical pirates - only they suck at what they do and Guts and his gang always take some time to talk shit about them.
• Plague Doctor: One member of Inquisitor Mozgus' Quirky Miniboss Squad wear such a suit. He is a torturer rather than a doctor - he has to wear a suit due to a serious allergic reaction to sunlight.
• Playing Cyrano: Guts does this with Casca towards Griffith. Also, Judea does this with Griffith towards Casca.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Tear Jerkers ahoy:
  • Was first used after the Eclipse, when Guts is out of it for a few days after the trauma he had sustained and he had a dream that the Band of the Hawk were riding off, leaving him behind.
  • Was also used non-canonically in the Sword of the Berserk video game. When Casca briefly regains her sanity, Guts is desperately trying to keep her conscious, but the couple only have a few moments together before the effects of the mandragora fade, returning Casca to her insane state. All Guts can do is hug her, crying, "My love... come back."
  • In the second movie, Casca says, "Please don't go," as Guts walks off after he defeats Griffith.
• Plot Armor: Even this trope gets deconstructed. The band of the hawk is unbeatable, no matter how dire the situation. But an evil god is providing it and when the planned moment comes for the armor to fall off the bodies pile up sky high.
• Plucky Comic Relief:
  • Isidro and the two elves.
  • Puck seemingly exists for this reason.
  • Arguably Corkus, as well, and much less slapstick and annoying about it, too.
• Pointy Ears: A handful of characters, human and non-human, have 'em. The fact that Guts' ears, while still human, are somewhat sharper than other humans (the same can be said for his teeth) has led to considerable fan speculation about what exactly he might be. Being born from a dead woman with no known father means anything is possible.
• Poor Communication Kills: Guts could at least try to explain himself to people occasionally.
  • Also, it was because Casca was mute that got her the attention of Mozgus, since she didn't - nor couldn't - curse at the other supposed heretics. Understandable, since back in the day, people who had any sort of impairment were more than often seen as weird and in alliance with the devil. Apparently, a young and beautiful insane woman is more likely to be in league with the Dark Prince than his own crew of malformed minions.
  • This, along with pride, is essentially what caused the downfall of the Hawks and Griffith being turned into a Godhand, if Guts had taken the time to explain why he was up and leaving after the end of the war to Griffith, because he overheard Griffith telling the princess what he would consider a "true" friend, also Griffith just stating Guts was his friend to Guts and asking him to stay, might have convinced either of them to not fight and end up with Guts winning and causing Griffith to... react poorly.
• Post-Victory Collapse: Happens all too often after a battle or just something really climatic.
• Potty Failure: Casca has an accident in volume 23.
• Power of Friendship: Camaraderie is probably the second most important theme in the series, with Guts learning to work with comrades and forming bonds with them, and also the after affects of having such bonds broken in very tragic ways, most notably between he and Griffith An important highlight in the Golden Age arc was when Griffith talked to Charlotte about what he defines as a true friend. Guts overhears this and takes it to heart.. Upon forming his new True Companions, Guts remarks to himself that he never thought he'd have comrades again after the events of the Eclipse. Relates to the Power of Trust below.
• Power Of Hate: Yes. Guts had shades of this as well as his standard Unstoppable Rage. When he wasn't slicing away at Apostles, some of which he had no connection to, Guts spent his spare time thinking about that one Apostle in particular that he hates above all else... And Mr. Uber-scary-hellhound-beast helped with that. However, Godo later deconstructs this when he lectured to Guts that hate is where a man goes to when he is really afraid and is overwhelming with sadness. Guts' power of hate was eventually displaced by...
  • Power of Love: After realizing his mistakes, Guts gave up his two-year vendetta in order to come to Casca's aid and to keep her near him so that he doesn't loose her to anyone or anything again. Not to mention it caused Guts to chisel off an arm with little hesitation in order to save Casca from Femto. That's pretty damn powerful.
    • Not to mention that having Casca by his side healed Guts of years of post-traumatic stress, and Casca resolved that her place was in Guts' heart.
    • Also invoked a couple of times. What's the last and best way to bring Guts back from being drawn over to his Superpowered Evil Side, or from just going on another blinding, roaring rampage of battle? Remind him of his love for Casca.
    • Inside of Casca's mental state, she is still aware that Guts is protecting her at a great cost to himself, so much so that he's been manifested as a ferocious, black, three-legged dog that defends the last remnants of her sanity and the gateway to her memories.
    • In essence, Guts and Casca's love is pretty much the most positive thing to come out of this series. That's kind of depressing when you look at it.
• Power of the God Hand: A dark example, the Bid Bads are known as the Godhand.
• Power of Trust: Because of Guts traumatic childhood, he rarely trusts people, not even allowing a tap on the shoulder. After joining the Band of the Hawk, and learning the value of camaraderie, he slowly opens up to certain members of the band. However, the events of the Eclipse reverted Guts back to his original mistrustful self, possibly to an even greater degree. Puck the Elf eventually earns Guts's trust so that he becomes his first travel companion. During the Conviction Arc, however, he trusts the Hot-Blooded Isidro enough to save Casca while he fought off monsters, and after that when he and Casca travel together but he almost rapes her when his inner beast got the better of him he allows Isidro, Serpico, and Farnese to come along with him, entrusting them all to help him fight monsters while protecting Casca. He even admitted to himself that under any other circumstance, he would not have let them come with him, but because of the difficulty of fighting demons while protecting someone who was incapable of protecting themselves, Guts was at his rope's end.
  • Griffith also displayed a Power of Trust moment during Guts's first mission with the Hawks by entrusting him with the task as being the rear guard, even though Guts didn't want to be part of the band and was at a high flight risk at the time. The event began to change Guts's way of thinking toward the Hawks.
• Pocket Protector: Used twice- once with Griffith's Crimson Behelit deflecting a crossbow bolt, the other with Mozgus' holy book stopping a sword.
• Power-Upgrading Deformation: What becoming a demon tends to do.
• Pregnant Hostage: In essence, Ganishka made his demonic army by collecting pregnant Midland women and then tossing them in a demonic vat, demonizing their babies and having them claw themselves out of the womb. Casca had shades of this during her horrific ordeal of being held captive and raped by Femto when she was pregnant.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Guts get in a good one.
    Guts: When you meet your God, TELL HIM TO LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!!
  • From the English dub of the third Golden Age Arc movie:
    Corkus: This can't be happening! Or I'm in an insane, shitty, fucked-up dream!
• Precocious Crush:
  • Schierke has this for Guts.
  • Implied that Jill had one for him too.
  • Sonia has one for Griffith.
  • Don't forget the adorable Collette, who was all shy and helpful and bashful around Guts, and also died horribly the same issue that she was introduced simply for being near him. Does that count as Kill the Cutie?
  • How could anyone miss younger Casca's obvious fawning over Griffith when he rescued her?
• Prefers Going Barefoot: Daiba and most members of the Bakiraka clan seem to prefer going barefoot, the former because he's a yogi and the later because they're martial artists and assassins.
• Pretty in Mink: A few furs, especially among the royalty and nobility, given this show's setting. One standout is a dress Charlotte wears with a trim of white fur, but arranged as lines of puff balls.
• Primal Fear: No. Berserk doesn't stop at Nightmare Fuel and mundanger. Now we have those fears that everyone can relate to, including the valued reader: a fear of the dark (Guts virtually cannot sleep at night because he has to fight off monsters and evil spirits the whole time), being eaten alive (happens too often with both monsters AND humans), blood and guts (chances are that you will NOT die in one piece), giants (those goddamn scary apostles), monsters and scary beasts (again, those damn apostles - AND just about every supernatural creature is out to get you. It's a surprise that unicorns and fairies haven't been wiped out), bugs (Rosine and her little minions), snakes (um, the Great Goatheads phallis), and probably dozens more. Alas, the one that takes the cake is the sadism and the squick and for added horror, the humiliation involved. What's the worst thing about being apprehended by the guards and going to a trial that might end with your execution? No, it's not the actual trial (or even the actual execution). It's:
  "No no no! I'll be raped!! I'm going to die!! HELP ME GOD!!" Volume 19
  • 'Tis just ONE example. Reading Berserk pretty much makes you want to go into a fetal position and cry yourself to sleep sometimes.
• Primal Scene:
  • Childlike Casca walks in on Luca and Jerome. Cue in "dwa" face from both Casca and Jerome.
  • In chapter 350, while going through Casca's memories, Farnese and Schierke ultimately come across she and Guts making love - from her point of view. Insert Farnese slapping her hands over Schierke's eyes so she won't see.
• Princess Classic: Charlotte, at least as far as this series would go.
• Princess for a Day: Subverted. Casca and the rest of the Hawks are allowed to dress up in fancy clothes and enjoy an evening at a ball held in Griffith's honor. However, the ball was also used to announce the Hawks' risen status to nobility! Too bad that status was short lived.
• Private Military Contractors: The Band of the Hawk.
• Promotion to Parent: Rickert to Erica.
• Prolonged Prologue: Twelve volumes, man. Twelve volumes.
• The Prophecy:
  Nosferatu Zodd: If you call yourself a true friend of that man... be prepared... for when this man's dream comes crashing down... You will face... Your DEATH. A death you can't escape.
• Proportionately Ponderous Parasites: After Guts cuts his way through the insides of The Sea God, he's attacked by a swarm of critters resembling long-legged Giant Spiders. According to Schierke, they protect the Sea God in exchange for nourishment.
• Proud Warrior Race People: The Bakiraka.
• Psychosexual Horror:
  • During Casca's healing arc, Farnese and Schierke astral project into her mind to clear away the stupefying amount of baggage she has from being raped by Griffith during the Eclipse. As such, most of the monsters they face have a distinctly phallic appearance.
  • Farnese's horse is possessed by malevolent spirits who then attempt to rape her, though she's saved by Guts.
• Psychotic Smirk: Griffith's
• Public Execution: Public execution is practically a form of theatre in Berserk.
  • The Count requires his subjects to attend public beheading of those he has falsely convicted of heresy, complete with a scaffold for the executioner and an elevated box seat for himself. He also uses the execution of Vargas as bait to lure Guts into the open.
  • Farnese's duties as head of the Holy Iron Chain Knights involve publicly burning heretics at the stake, often several at a time in front of large crowds.
  • Mozgus has his torturers use the breaking wheel to execute the peasants who tried to assassinate him, and has their broken bodies put on display as an example to the refugees who witnessed it.
• Pulling Themselves Together: Zodd responds to Guts chopping off one of his arms by using it as a club, and then pressing it back in place where the severed limb reattaches with a hiss of steam. The Ogre that attacks Enoch village demonstrates the same ability when Guts cuts his arm off.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Although plenty of the human Mooks Guts casually mows down are assholes, there are lots of others who are simply doing their jobs and just happen to be on the wrong side. General Boscone in particular is just trying to win the war for his country, and does not engage in any personal villainy outside his military duties.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Barely made it as an example, but damn is it awesome.
  Guts: "THIS IS - MY DECLARATION OF WAR!!!"
• Putting the Band Back Together: Through their best efforts, the few members of the Hawks who remained ultimately FAILED at their mission.
• Pyrrhic Victory: One of the results of the above, since although the Hawks succeeded in their mission of rescuing Griffith, not much good came out of it since Griffith was too physically damaged to lead the Hawks to their former glory again.

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