Funny / Small Saga

• There's just something hilarious and cute about how Verm is such a close expy of Guts that he's functionally an AU version who's a bit Lighter and Softer (due to the setting being less horrific) and similarly takes himself seriously and is mired in pain etc but is a cute little mouse. Mouse Guts.
  • As a mouse, he's actually one of the smaller members of the cast and doesn't loom over his RPG party the way later-Guts does over his, but he has a lot of the same mannerisms and attitudes including leaning against walls while others talk.
  • His older brother Lance has a white streak on his head, suggesting that Verm might end up with one himself one day. That wouldn't be off-center and a result of a particularly hard fight, would it?
  • One of the skills he can unlock is called "Too Angry To Die". That's just Guts. He's just Guts! As a Berserker he's a Lightning Bruiser powered by rage. Whenever Verm goes Berserk he yells something psychotically homicidal which is individual to each fight.
  • Verm is something of a Jerkass early in the game, focused entirely on revenge and dismissive at best of anything else. He sneers when Siobhan asks for help and calls them pathetic, and snaps at them not to follow him. If he does something good for someone else that isn't just because it will immediately benefit him as well, it's at Siobhan's urging and he's quite insulting about it. He's on his Black Swordsman arc!
  • You can pick up the Hoo Helm, an article of armor that dramatically enhances attack power at the expense of drastically reducing defense. Siobhan thinks it might be cursed, and Verm responds that he's already cursed and one more won't hurt. Verm no you're not actually cursed, the AU features don't go that far and your enemies aren't as bad in comparison! don't wear evil armor!
  • "Guts and teamwork... is that really all it takes to bring down someone as terrible as the Duke?" The Duke they're talking about is abusing his power and getting people eaten. There's a demonic duke that that applies to in Berserk as well, who didn't need too much teamwork to kill, but plenty of Guts.
  • "Can guts and teamwork kill a god?" Now, that is a trickier story due to the odds being much, much worse. Both these lines seem to have been chosen just to get in a little more of a nudge about who Verm is based on.
  • When the party assaults Sky Tower they're carried on the backs of owls, and Verm stands up and unsheaths his sword to hold dramatically in front of him. The only reason for it is Rule of Cool and to look like Guts riding on Zodd's back - he's not fighting an aerial foe like Guts was, he's getting dropped off.
  • There's not a close analogue to Griffith in Small Saga since, well, there's no process by which a rodent can become a human by horribly sacrificing their loved ones. Verm's brother Lance has some elements, in that in the prologue he's the smarter and more socially adept of the brothers and the one with the audacious, dangerous plan to raid Heaven. It goes very wrong and Verm has to use a broken sword to make a Life-or-Limb Decision, as in the Eclipse. Sir Leo has a few more - the way Verm once idolized him and later suffered a Broken Pedestal is one aspect, that they have a duel in which Leo's needle rapier crosses Verm's BFS and Leo takes no damage but eventually one-shots Verm is another. Leo has a cause to fight for and Verm doesn't, something that hits Verm hard.
  • Post timeskip, outside of battle Verm is less of a jerk and more quietly contemplative and appreciative of his friends, mulling over his purpose in life and why he fights, though he can still bring out the rage when he wants to. Guts in comparison has always had an introspective side that came out more readily after extensive Character Development that similarly made him more appreciative of the gaggle of people who ended up following him around and contributing.
    "As long as I was swinging my sword at a foe, I didn't have to think."
  • ...He's also become more heavily scarred and lost an eye that he keeps closed rather than wearing an eyepatch, and Gwen fits him with a prosthetic iron tail that he becomes an Instant Expert at using, parallels to the scars and prosthesis Guts acquired after the Eclipse, but he gets them at a point where he's developed as a character into a healthier person than Guts is generally allowed to be.
    "All my life I've been struggling. I'm used to it. I feel like I deserve to struggle or something. That I'm better for it. But it's stupid. And exhausting. I'm tired of struggling."
• While inspecting the Titan Cleaver a young Verm can regard it as amazing or ridiculous, something no mouse could wield. In general just as Verm is mouse Guts, the Titan Cleaver is Mouse World Dragonslayer. Other small rodents can't even lift it and marvel that Verm can swing it at all, it's regarded as being supernaturally lethal even against titanic foes, he carries it along his back...
• Poor Siobhan has a Running Gag of falling or jumping down and landing on their face with a squeak, while the other party members generally land with a cool pose.
• Duke Josh recounts his notion of the history of Clan Grey's occupation of the Ash Tower, accompanied by a horn that one of his guards blows into. The guard is overwhelmed by the effort and passes out, falling over backwards and laying with his tongue out. And he just stays like that, he's there when Verm and Siobhan come in too.
• Siobhan is a polite and kind young mole but after the jailbreak as the party discusses the Duke and their options she suddenly bursts out with "I bet he smokes so much to cover the smell of his own farts!" which grinds the discussion to a halt for a moment. Bruce and Gwen then blame Verm for being a bad influence and teaching them harsh language, something that he protests.
• Going on the paint sidequest, Verm's party refuses to help him steal paint from a god or to fight the god's three pet tortoises when they object to his theft, with different dialogue depending on who you take. Verm also has no idea what a tortoise is and keeps calling them talking rocks. His Berserk quotes are a bit lacking in intensity compared to normal. The first time he just tells the "rock" to get out of his way, the second time he tells the tortoise father that his daughter is a menace, the third time...

  Verm: "How can rocks talk anyway?!"

  Mother tortoise: "How can such a small mouse carry so much angst? Life has many mysteries."

• A late part of a fetch quest involves taking fabric to a shrew in Vinium, at which point she says to come back in thirty minutes. Verm then breaks the fourth wall a little.

  Verm: "Wait, in real time?"

  Penelope: "All time is real time."

• If Verm is glitched into participating in the fight with Blademaster Aquila, he still has a unique Berserking quote - "I'm not even supposed to be here!"