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No spoiler tags will be used on this page. It is assumed you have read the "lost chapter".

The Holy See, The Idea of Evil, and Godhand all linked, and have the same origin

This is an attempt to tie together a bunch of facts and credible theories...

Gaiseric initially tried to do for Midland, what Griffith started at the time of the main series. Gaiseric came across political resistance and in his effort to overcome it, and not lose his dream, he ended up dawning the Berserker Armor, and taking other extreme measures. During his final battle in the armor, he ended up bleeding to death, which forced his witch ally to bind his soul to a different set of armor.

At the same time as his unification effort, a new religious movement either grew out of Gaiseric’s military campaign, or in direct resistance to it. This movement would eventually become the Holy See. Gaiseric tried putting down the down the movement, which added to his atrocities. The stories of his sadism at this stage were also partially due to a combination of misguided I Did What I Had to Do and the Berserker Armor’s influence. One of the priests he tortured was rescued by four pagan spirits.

However, the priest still blamed all things pagan for the instability in Midland. The Holy See was created in an attempt to weaken the pagan spirits’ hold over humanity by forcing humans to stop praying to them, and instead pray to a non-existant god. Hence, why so many churches are built on top of sites that were originally shrines.

Its important to note here: the Holy See is not inherently ‘evil.’ It was founded as an alternative way to help humanity. The Holy See’s primary attraction was protection from several of the scarier pagan spirit threats such as the chestbursting Ogres, incubi, and similar monsters.

However, along the way, it became corrupted by circumstance. After reaching a certain size, humanity’s power of belief began shifting the scales away from the pagan spirits and towards ‘willing’ a new set of spirits into existence.

Note: A lot of the converts to the new religion would most likely be part of a Trauma Conga Line, which subverted the religion’s original intent. While belief was concentrated into a single idea, the emotions that fueled that belief were negative.

The first spirit willed into existence would either be the Idea of Evil, or what would eventually turn into it. This in-turn made a devil’s pact with the priest to become Void, the first of the Godhand. The priest, having escaped from Gaiseric, gathered his congregation at the Tower of Rebirth where he executed the first apostle ritual, which summoned up the Abyss. The resulting demons ate his massive congregation as sacrifices.

Note: Not so coincidentally, if you flatten the Holy See’s chief symbol: bird with a spiral around the base, it looks like an evolved version of the sacrificial brand. The brand is the original Holy See symbol. Between the time of the first sacrifice, up to the start of Berserk’s story, the symbol evolved into the current three-dimensional bird.

Rather than turn into ‘angels,’ the members of Godhand actually became representative of widespread fears of the time. Void - his exposed brains, long reach, and closed eyes represents the collective distrust in leadership. Slan, a succubus, and so on, until Griffith: the corruption of the prophet / second coming archetype. Note: its not clear when each Godhand member actually joined between Void and Femto, so this unifying theory doesnt elaborate on each Godhand member’s specific circumstances.

Outside of the Holy See, Gaiseric joined forces with the other pagan believers in an effort to shut down Godhand. As opposed to gaining powers in a similar fashion as Godhand, Gaiseric accumulated magical artifacts. As time went on and he switched armor sets and the like, he ended up becoming his artifacts. His deathly visage came about because of all the loss of life he was responsible for.

While the war with the Holy See waged on, enough believers joined, where humanity’s collective belief began to drown out the Astral world, severing most of the connection, with the exception of the Abyss.

Note: its possible that Guts’ apparent immunity to causality might not be because he’s an ‘exception’ to the prophecy. Its likely that the known prophecy is only HALF of the whole story. Guts’ perseverance definitely has a role, but also some of his background, like being born from a woman hung from a tree, suggests some degree of divine protection. Even the witches in the main arc note he’s able to walk a fine line between being magically powered by emotion, which not being dominated by it (represented by the beast).

Note: Its likely there are pagan opposites to the Godhand members. Guts has a high likelihood to be Femto’s opposite, playing the role of the ‘true prophet.’ Casca is a good candidate for Slan’s opposite: female strength and virtue, even in the face of extreme trauma. The Skull Knight and Void conflict makes them an obvious pairing. Opposite to the Idea of Evil, would be a pagan spirit. That would leave the other two Godhand members representing Manipulation and Pestilence respectively. Pestilence’s opposite would most likely be a healer. Manipulation’s opposite would most likely require someone representative of truth or justice.

Note: Seemingly, two members of Godhand appear to proactively engage with Guts. The first being Griffith, and the second being Slan (succubus). Slan and Guts interactions start soon after Guts butts heads with his inner beast, and nearly rapes (and/or eats?) Casca. Casca on one hand requires Guts to keep the beast in check, and in contrast, its clear Slan wants the opposite. Even though this is indirect, these interactions represent the first time the Casca dynamic, and the Slan dynamic come into conflict.

The Skull Knight's Behelit Sword can summon the spirits of past Apostles killed by Guts.
But in a twist they've been purged of the Godhand's influence, given some Heel–Face Brainwashing and now loyally serve Skull Knight to help Guts' quest. Of course Guts would be horrified at the idea of working with his past horrific enemies like Rosine, Slug Count, Mozgus(and Egg), and even Wyald, but he technically did work with an Apostle to fight Ganishka(Zodd), and at this point they'd need all the help they can get against the Godhand and their legions. Plus plenty of Black Comedy seeing a bunch of horrific child-eating monsters try to be nice and friendly around the heroes.

The series will end with the founding of a new religion
The characters will eventually discover The Idea of Evil and why it exists. At some point after this, someone will realize the best way to fight it is to convince society that their suffering doesn't need to have some external cause, and must be endured and overcome. One thing leads to another, and their universe's version of Hinduism comes along.

Caim from Drakengard is Guts' and Casca's child
Think about it. Both Guts and Caim are Blood Knights, both live for revenge up until a certain point in their lives, and both are a One-Man Army. It helps that Caim was heavily inspired by Guts. They also both lose an eye at one point and are referred as the One-Eyed Man.

The child didn't die, but was transported to another world, where it was found by the King and Queen, who named it Caim. He lived a normal life until his foster parents were killed by the Black Dragon, where he followed in his father's footsteps of revenge and bloodlust.

The Skull Knight knew trying to cut Griffith would merge the worlds, and was in fact counting on it
He wasn't trying to kill Griffith at all - he knew it would have been a futile effort. Instead, the very thing everyone took as a horrifying side effect that solidified Griffith's rule, was actually just the thing the Skull Knight was trying to accomplish.

Griffith is essentially a god, and he had already won: merging all the worlds together may have made it easier for him to solidify his rule and bring up the prophesied age of light, but he wouldn't have really needed it - he could've gone and become the lord of everything by himself, just with less fancy fairy tale stuff. No, the Skull Knight was gambling on an entirely different thing: by merging the worlds, it would be easier for him and Guts also to become far more powerful - by finding more magical aid and getting to kill stronger foes - allowing them to jump up the difference between them and the God Hand, and ultimately bringing them victory.

  • To add on, The merging of the realms has allowed the Godhand to incarnate on the mundane world, perhaps the Godhand are only truly immortal and invincible in the spirit world, here, they are just exceptionally powerful Apostles.
Guts will use his behelit...to sacrifice the Beast of Darkness.
The Beast is very much a part of Guts and is more important to him than he'd like to admit.

Berserk will turn out to be the biggest pratical joke ever made
So, after decades of horrific examinations of humanity and God, after conveying character development, after offering hope and despair.... it will have a very silly and anti-climatic ending that puts all of that to ruin. Here's three possibilities of this gnostic revelation:

  • Theorem A: When Guts & Co. reach the realm of the elves, everything will degenerate into a 90's shounen anime, with everything that it entails: Totally Radical dialogue, easy Black-and-White Morality, lots of comedy (down to sweat drops and similar super deformed "expressions) and lots of perversion that is taken in comedic lightness (which, based on the manga's history, will just be in pure poor taste). Likeliness: exceptionally high, because Berserk was originally conceived as a shounen.
  • Theorem B: Just when Guts prepares to final blow, everyone will just get bored and leave the set. It's revealed that everyone is actually a French stereotype, walking around in Paris with those stereotypical hats and striped clothes and eating cheese. Likeliness: also exceptionally high, since Midland is based on medieval France.
    • Midland is based on medieval Denmark. But they could still be eating lutefisk and playing with Lego blocks.
  • Theorem C: A "Truman Show" Plot will unravel and reveal that Guts' life has been a really complex and bizarre reality show, and that everyone else was an actor except him. Likeliness: given the sheer pitch black hole "comedy" of this, the most likely option.

Guts and company finally manage to reach elfheim and it turns out to be the lone continent from Claymore
They will discover that they call apostles as "Dragonkins" and that the king of elves was actually Isley of the North and that he is already dead.
Gaiseric found immortality and his reign lasted for over 200 years
Then when he finally reached the end of his mortality, about to die, he sacrificed the capital city of his kingdom and became Void.The reason for this WMG is a simple math equation: were Void really to have become a God Hand 1080 years ago, there should be six of them around right now, instead of five. The only alternative is that at least one of them has died over the millennium, but it makes for a more exciting WMG this way.

The four God Hands (excluding Femto) will be killed by Guts within the space of a few panels
It's been stated that the Dragonslayer grows in power with each entity it kills. Hence, if it kills something as horrifying as a God Hand, Guts would take a massive level in badass. But what's going to happen is that Guts will make a Dynamic Entry into the Amazing Technicolor Battlefield, kill Ubik, Kill Conrad, and then kill Slan. Void will attempt to project a shield, but to no avail. Then Guts will be ready for the Final Battle against Femto and the Idea of Evil....
  • I obect to this one on the grounds that it has to be the Skull Knight who takes down Void.
    • No one said Skull Knight can't use Guts' sword if he is unable to. It'd be pretty much - Guts gets downed, Skull Knight takes sword and kills Void, tosses sword back to Guts and then evaporates.
  • There will be no fight against the Idea of Evil. Guts has already battled Sea God, or so to say his heart. This fight and supposedly fight against Idea of Evil are really similar. Think about it: Guts faces giant beating heart, that makes monsters appear out of nowhere. Creation is like basic feat of a God, and if it's berserk then it's creation of monsters or evil spirits.

Miura has developed a serious case of Vicarious Traumatic Stress Disorder from drawing this manga for years and years, which is a huge factor in the Schedule Slip
Back when he started, Miura didn't figure that working on a manga with such explicit horrifying material could have serious consequences on himself. Working on Berserk for so long took a serious toll on Muira's psychological and emotional health, which is why he's taking so many long breaks; his employers are letting him recuperate so the guy doesn't fucking kill himself. I mean, if I spent so much time living in the heads of fictional people who've lived through the deepest darkest bowels of human depravity and cruelty, I'd snap and turn into a moe-addict too.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Falcon of Light. Chosen by the Idea of Evil and all of humanity. But is that REALLY so important when you look at the big picture? The Idea of Evil is a human invention, and humans haven't been around for that long. In the long run, humans are going to die out along with the Idea of Evil, and even the Earth itself and all life on it is going to disappear. Someday, Griffith is going to be completely forgotten because the will of mankind is so puny compared to the will of nature and the will of the whole universe. Somehow, this is all going to occur to Griffith, and that's when shit really starts to go wrong.

Griffith has invalded Elfheim, Puck will become and apostle
Most of the foreshadowing coming from Flora not long after her introduction.After she elaborates about the Behelits and how they will always return to the person they're meant to corrupt, as Guts tries to throw it away, Puck stops him and carries it off claiming it's his.

The most logical thing to drive Puck over the Despair Event Horizon would be arriving at Elfheim only to find it razed.

  • Nope. Latest chapters confirm Elfheim is perfectly fine for the time being. Puck even has a bunch of "brothers" there.

Guts will gain a power-up from the land of the elves
He's kinda lagging behind Griffith.

Casca is half-Kushan
Hence, her distinct appearance. She describes herself as having been raised in a border area plagued by raids, which is probably the Midland-Kushan border. The events led to this could have either been voluntary or involuntary. Donovan and some of the extras, I'm not so sure about.
  • Hey, she could be all Kushanese: a Kushanese-Midlandian (like a Japanese-American).
    • Just compare her to Silat. As for Donovan, Pippin and most dark-skinned extras that aren't explicitly Kushans, they mostly are of clealy African descent or mixed race in the case of Pippin who was probably a mulatto.
      • Well, Miura has a knack at not making everybody a paper-doll cut out of each other, even if they're from the same ethnic group. Silat has a lot of sharp features to his face, as well as a lot of the Bakiraka, which could reflect how they were perceived as not really good guys - and maybe even a bit stereotyped - while Casca's features are a lot more soft and "normal" which is probably how a lot more Kushan people look like, judging from the way the children look. Personally, I always thought that a half-Kushan person would look like Guska, since he looks like both of his supposed parents and thus has features of both a Kushan and a Midlandian (or is it "Midlander"?).
      • Also with the Casca's true ethnic origin thing, I always imagined that Casca's home village was comprised of Kushan refugees: it's in a place that's technically a safe haven, but it's close to their home turf. Plus, it's possible that Casca's family was given the crappy land by the Kingdom of Midland because the government wanted to "assimilate" the Kushan immigrants into their society (or they were just cautious of their allegiance) - but from a confined distance which was basically an ethnic ghetto.
  • Let's also not rule out the possibility that Casca could be of a completely different race/ethnicity that is yet to be named, or she could be a mixture of races (since India, the Middle East, and Africa are hardly homogeneous in phenotype so Casca's design could be purposely ambiguous). Surely Miura had more in mind for his world building other than just the "white-European dominate, one or two groups of brown people" fantasy scheme. There are even fan theories stating that Guts might not be the white Midlander that the reader assumes he is...

Seems like a lot of Bakiraka worked for Midland...
What with Silat working with mercenaries to attack the Hawk's encampment, and those five assassins who fought the Hawks in Wyndham when they were saving Griffith...Well, guess what? they were sent into Midland by Ganishka, to work with the kingdom and see what they can learn from the inside...
  • Jossed with the clan's establishment as disgraced Kushan exiles and Silat's willingness to disobey the Emperor.

Casca will regain her mind, but she's gonna Come Back Wrong...
...as a Haruko Expy who lives For the Evulz. Living without any inhibitions for so long is going to make a huge change in her personality, only now it's coupled with her intelligence and willpower. Now the world is truly screwed.

God Hand has a "good" equivalent
Each time it gains a new member, some badass who was supposed to die in the process ends up surviving, becoming a member of an opposing force. As such, in addition to Guts and Skull Knight, there are three other such people.
  • Maybe they're the godhand, and Griffith and the other memeber's are the devilhand, maybe?
  • Flora was probably one. But who would she oppose, Slan or Conrad?
    • What about Ubik?
      • I always figured they were in a Power Trio with Void, not unlike Guts, Casca and Griffith.
  • Would this require an Idea of Good?
    • Yes, yes it would. It would obviously be much weaker than Idea of Evil, but gaining in strength.
      • Maybe, it is what have saved guts all this years, just think about it. If it wasn't for the people that have helped guts this far, and the people guts have helped, its probably he would have died very much ago. I mean, i don't think of the idea of evil being so dumb to let one of the few person with enough power and good heart alive. The Idea of Evil want Guts dead, thats why Guts finds danger after danger, because the idea of evil is trying to kill him. But, the idea of good do everything he can, besides that the idea of evil is more powerful than him, to make Guts alive.
  • Maybe, they have lived a life in peace. And his descendents are Gut's companions. I mean, in this manga there is EVERYTHING except coincidences, first of all, Serpico's spirit really like him, which seems to be something unusual, as pointed by schierke. Besides that Schierke says that, when someone becomes mature, is hard to learn Magic, Farnese seems to do it very good. Isidr...well, he has show TOO much lucky for a human surviving a lot of dangerous situations and there is hints that he has some natural instinct to battle. Maybe, they are descendant's of survivors of the ceremony.

Conrad actually regrets becoming a Godhand
While Conrad is still complicit in his brethren's atrocities, he doesn't take as much active glee as Ubik or Slan, and he doesn't use his powers to indulge in selfish dreams like Griffith/Femto. There's also his design. Assuming the Godhand choose what their reincarnated forms are, Conrad resembles a grotesquely swollen monster to reflect how he inwardly views himself. He balks at Slan's interest in making Guts one of them, which could either be Pragmatic Villainy, or a sign he abhors his companions' vile ambitions. He's the least focused on because he's secretly waiting for an opportunity to topple the others and end his loathsome existence.

Zodd is Guts' biological father
They practically have the same face. Not to mention Zodd's apparent interest in Guts.
  • Sure they do...if Guts got hit with an Ugly Stick 40000.
    • It's not unheard of since they both have Pointy Ears. And a lot of apostles are creepy-ugly. Wyald couldn't possibly be born that way.
      • The bit with Wyald is true; his real form is a frail old man.
  • And his mother could have been hung for carrying a demon's (or, as far as the executioners knew, a well-known killer's) child. People have died horribly for less in this series.
    • This would also be an interesting twist since we know that most male apostles are horny and often force themselves on human women, and that people who have become apostles still have children from their human life. However, we have yet to see a case where an apostle procreated with a human and gave birth to a Half-Human Hybrid (or even apostles having little apostles with other apostles).
      • Probably because women that male apostles have sex with have a pretty short life expectancy....
  • For the record, I call Law of Inverse Paternity.
  • That... would be awesome.
  • Perhaps the death of Guts' real mother was the reason Zodd became an Apostle in the first place.

The series takes place on a forgotten Feudal World in the Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40,000.
The setting of Midland is certainly grim, gritty, and vicious enought to fit in the 40K universe. The Godhand are just a local group of greater Slaaneshi or Tzeentchi demons; Griffith's joining them and sacrificing the Band of the Hawk was just his way of embracing Chaos. And Guts? If he ever got rid of that brand on his neck Chaos-taint, he'd probably be prime Space Marine material.
  • Additionally, Guts is one of the missing Primarchs. This would explain his prodigious strength and fighting skill, as well as why he doesn't have a mother. The woman he was found underneath just happened to be there when Chaos brought him to Midland, and isn't his real mother. And the Berserker's Armour isn't really a dwarven artifact, it's been cursed with the power of Chaos (probably has the Mark of Khorne on it somewhere).
  • Given that there were two missing Primarchs, this troper would surmise that Griffith would therefore be the other missing Primarch. Not only would this explain his and Guts unusually strong bond and their incredible combat strength but tie neatly into the fact that exactly half of the Primarchs fell to the influence of Chaos and "Femto" is nothing more than his appearance as a Daemon Prince.
  • And of course... the Idea of Evil? The Warp. They even have similar origin stories.
  • This would accomplish the impressive feat of making Berserk more depressing. Even if Guts and his True Companions somehow triumph against all odds against the Godhand and their Apostles and the Inherent in the System misery of Midland in general, the entire galaxy is still going to be screwed.
  • The members of the Godhand represent different Chaos gods. Conrad is likely a Daemon Prince of Nurgle (he manifested himself with a pile of rats once), Slan is obviously a Slaaneshi Daemon Princess, and Void and Ubik and Femto follow Tzeentch. As for Khorne? He clearly decided to be subtle for once and settled for tainting the missing Primarch Guts, meaning that the Beast isn't just a Superpowered Evil Side, it's the manifestation of Khorne's will. Zodd the Immortal is clearly a follower of Khorne.
    • Nope, Zodd is just Zodd, maybe he is just like that, or if you really need an explanation for the demon-side; maybe he just beat a major demon down and stole it's power through the laws of Rule of Cool
    • He looks like a Bloodthirster though. Of course he's a demon of Khorne.
      • Or if not, certainly a Champion of Khorne.
    • Compare, if you will, Gut's brand to the mark of Khorne. They're just a few lines short of each other.
  • The Skull Knight is really a manifestation of the God-Emperor,
  • This Troper can totally imagine Farneze as a Sister of Battle, now. I mean, she was once a Knight Templar until recently, and she loooooooves fire.
    • Casca would also be something of a Sister of Battle. A dignified, loyal and fiercely brave Action Girl who can actually pull her weight and keep her cool even when surrounded by Hell itself? Who else could be the rightful consort of a Primarch like Guts?
  • Consider the following: Daemonculaba, a method used by certain Chaos Marines to create new members. Compare it to the Emperor's demon-soldier factory.
  • If we postulate than this WMG is true then, well, there's only one way this series can end...
We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. In fealty of the God-Emperor, our undying Lord, and by the Grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus on the Imperial world of Midland. I hearby sign the death warrant of an entire world, and consign a billion souls to oblivion. May Imperial Justice Account in All Balance. The Emperor Protects.
  • Of course Guts would then have to fly into space, sneak aboard the imperial flagship, and start mowing down space marines by the thousands...
  • Even a Space Marine Primarch would be hard pressed to take on full chapters of marines on his own while basically unarmed and unarmored (and really, pretty much anything that Guts could plausibly get his hands on short of a daemon sword is going to be useless against Imperial weaponry). Then again, in the "Guts is one of the missing Primarchs" WMG, Bezerk would be taking place during or just prior to the Great Crusade, and the Emprah was markedly more reasonable than the rulers of the later Imperium. Of course, that would mean Guts probably is going to die during or shortly after the Horus Heresy, just in time to see the start of the Grimdark.

You aren't thinking far enough.
What if, rather than it just being another world, Berserk is the distant past of Terra. Guts? He's the origin of Khorne. Khorne was born during the Middle Ages on Earth. Who else would have enough raw anger to birth Khorne-Guts. The Beast is likely the embryonic form of the Chaos God. The Idea of Evil may be a primitive Chaos God. Each of the demons and the Godhand is an example of a Chaos Daemon. Tzeentch is likely in control of the Idea of Evil to fill one of his countless gambits, because that's how he roles.

Berserk is an Alternate Universe of both Warhammer and Warhammer 40K.
In the 40K timeline, Slaanesh was the last of the Chaos gods to be formed from the unending depravity of the Eldar. The other three gods represent rage, disease and scheming, with Chaos Undivided generally bringing madness. Now consider the Godhand: Slan is Slaanesh, Conrad is Nurgle, Void is Tzeentch, and Ubik and Femto are Undivided. The only god missing is Khorne, the god of blood, who will be brought into being when so much blood is spilled, when the emotion of rage so dominates the planet that a god is birthed from it. Thus Zodd will become the new Godhand, and Guts will be his greatest servant, just as Khorne elevated Genghis Khan to Daemon Prince.
  • Seeing as the Godhand were all once mortals (?), it seems more likely that they're a group of daemon princes rather than the Chaos Gods themselves.

Guts is a distant relative of Conan the Barbarian
This is justified on accounts that both are sword-wielding, muscular badasses that kind of rampage across their respective Low Fantasy worlds, doing mighty deeds.

is an alternate universe version of Guts.Let's go through the checklist, shall we?
  • BFS? Check.
  • Badass? Check.
  • Only one functional eye? Check.
  • One arm held funny? Check.
  • Skunk stripe? Check.
  • Had a bright future ahead of them before being screwed over by higher-ups? Check.
  • Know of the true evil that goes on behind the facade? Check. (Griffith/Yunalesca)
  • End up accompanying/being accompanied by a whiny kid who can barely fight? Check.
Now we know why they're kept in separate universes, the sheer amount of awesome they radiate would cause said universe to explode otherwise.

Guts has a medical condition called CIP: Congenital Insensitivity to Pain.
Congenital Insensitivity to Pain is a neurological abnormality that results in being able to feel normal sensations, like the wind or bright sunlight, but literally not feel any painful sensation whatsoever. In the real world, this is considered particularly dangerous because children cannot find their own bodily limits and accidentally do permanent damage to themselves (running on broken legs, ignoring major burns, and not realizing they're sick when their body doesn't get sore are common occurrences in children with CIP). Have you ever noticed that Guts' injuries rarely hamper him? You can't count the number of times Guts has been hit by crossbow bolts on two hands, and yet he just casually pulls them out or breaks them off and keeps fighting on. Hell, during the Eclipse, he didn't even flinch when he cut off his own arm, and when he earned his title of "hundred-man-slayer", sure he passed out at the very end when his body physically couldn't go on, but never slowed down until then—exactly what happens to people with CIP. It also helps explain why, despite suffering so many major injuries over the course of his life, he never loses any of his agility or endurance (something this troper knows from experience does not happen in real life to a normal person).

Alternative explanation: Guts is just really good at ignoring pain in the heat of combat. Most of his injury-ignoring feats are performed while his life's on the line and his adrenaline is pumping. After the fighting stops and his combat juices dry up, Guts gets a rude awakening to all the things he's just done to his body and becomes sensitive to new sources of pain: he fought back against the doctor who was trying to stitch him up after the Hundred Man Fight, and was squirming and protesting while Casca gave him stitches after the fight with Wyald. He was also tortured by his burns after the fight with Ganishka. While his healing is remarkably fast, he does not show congenital insensitivity to pain.

Georg Prime is an alternate universe version of Guts.
Now, Georg may use a katana and fights like a Samurai, while Guts is a mercenary who uses the mother of all BFSs, but most everything else fits. Both are Lightning Bruiser badasses capable of kicking all kinds of ass. Both live in worlds controlled by some transcendental entities that manipulate the flow of causality (the Idea of Evil and the 27 True Runes). And hell, both bear a striking resemblance to each other. And while we're at it, Georg tends to wear an eyepatch over his right eye, despite it still being fully functional. Perhaps this could be telling: either Guts has been fooling everyone all this time and his own right eye is still good, or Georg seems to share some kind of connection (or possibly memories) to his Midland counterpart and acts accordingly. Perhaps Suikoden does not take place in an alternate universe, but in the exact same universe as Berserk, in the distant future, with Georg being a reincarnation of Guts!

Seriously.
  • Actually, it was Femto who was designed with Batman as inspiration.
    • Femto is the camp 60s Batman and Guts is one of those alternate Batmans who think killing is cool, like Azrael.
    • Didn't quite get it at first, but when you think about it: both had incredibly traumatic childhoods (though Batman's was mostly just one crucial event, whereas Guts' was pretty awful in general), despite the incredibly awful experiences they both go through that would have broken an ordinary man, they never give up and continue to fight to the bitter end, both start off working alone but gradually gain a group of True Companions who they love, but keep their distance from due to their traumatic pasts (in Guts' case this happens twice), and at an earlier point in Berserk's story, Guts was essentially a Byronic Hero, which Batman also is quite often. Batman also wore a cursed suit of armor at one point.
    • What did Batman's curse armor look like.

The anime is the result of a tabletop RPG gone wrong.
It all began when a player Min-Maxed their way to your ultimate killing machine, and since it was technically allowed the DM declared they had to roleplay through the part where Guts got so fucking powerful. Griffith is the DM's character, hence why he gets so much screentime; the players became increasingly problematic for the DM and refused to follow the plot he had about this 'war of Midland' thing. So just when they had rescured Griffith and were looking forward to roleplaying in the present, the DM created the 'Eclipse' scenario to deter them from continuing. Totally screwed off at the GM, the players leave the game, hence why the anime stops just after the Eclipse. The manga, of course, is the Fanfic the DM wrote after the game broke up, continuing his idea of how the game should have gone.
  • Gone wrong? Unfinished due to a really complicated setting and a lack of patience to continue and overwhelm Guts' presence is something, but wrong is when you have so many problems that you give up the whole game facepalming and crying, almost screaming to your lungs, like you have just seen the worst filler episode of Naruto, ever. They probably just didn't understand what was going on at the time, not following Kentaro Miura's flow because they just weren't patient and inspired enough.
  • The first half of this theory is correct. Regarding the post-Eclipse portion of the story, though, rather than a fanfic it's the GM's new gaming group, plus the players of Guts and Casca (and Puck, unless he's supposed to be a GMNPC :P ), who stuck it out through the rougher portion of the storyline. New players' characters - Serpico, Farnese, Schierke, and Isidro - were introduced as they joined the gaming group, eventually forming a new party. If any portion of this a fanfic, it's the alternate perspective look at the new Band of the Hawk, written by the GM on his off time while the party heads for Elfheim, as background information for later when the story gets back to Midland.
    • By this theory, Isidro is a The Loonie player who took a ton of Flaws (Young, Short, etc.) without exchanging them for very good Feats, thus resulting in a goofy "kid warrior" character who survives on luck (which was probably one of the only useful Feats he took) and Hilarity Ensues / Rule of Funny for the GM and the rest of the players.
    • Well, partially, the group got tired of low fantasy so they had the GM kill off most of the players so they can roll new ones. Guts was the only experienced player so all the other original PCs sucked. Now they're min-maxing more, but they still aren't perfect with it so Guts still tends to take center stage.
    • I would have thought Sylphie casting telepathic bond every battle would have given it away, honestly.

Skull Knight is Emperor Gaiseric.
........Slan calls him "Your Majesty", after all. Ok, so this one is not all that wild.
  • I wouldn't be completely surprised if Gaiseric was actually Void, given the guy's status as a leader of men in life (a lot like Griffith) and that skull motif which Void also shares. Which means Skull Knight would probably be one of the Emperor's most loyal knights, who was betrayed much like Guts was and now has Void (and the Godhand in general) as an enemy.
  • If this is any indication, the Skull Knight is indeed Gaiseric and Void is the "wise man" imprisoned in the tower with a Crimson Behelit, and you all know what calling down the angels means.
  • Chapter 362 all but confirms that Skull Knight is Gaiseric. He even says toward the end of the chapter, "What you bore witness to...was the end of a foolish king...and the beginning of a dead man stalking the endless night."

King Gaiseric is a Red Herring
Unless this is a mistranslation, The Skull Knight has been around for several thousands of years, while King Gaisaric rose to power approximately 1,000 years ago, meaning the two can't be one in the same. As such, The Skull Knight might have had a relationship with King Gaisaric similar to the one he has with Guts, or King Gaisaric went on to become Void.
  • It is a mistranslation. Zodd really says that the Skull Knight has been "our foe for a millenium."

The Dragonslayer will get to live up to its name.
With recent developments such as the return of supernatural creatures to the world, such as unicorns, Guts may very well have a chance to kill a dragon a real one, not just a dragon-like apostle like Grunbeld. We even see a dragon sitting on a castle at one point.

Guts will get a Harem End as the universe pays him back for being a badass.
Casca will regain her memory but also understand from Farnese taking care of her and talking to her that she is in love with Guts and offers to share with her. The three adopt Jill and then meet up with Luca, depending on Schierke's relationship with Isidro she may end up being Guts' lover when she becomes an adult.

Then they all go to Elf Land, set up a community while letting a defeated Griffith who has been depowered and knocked off his pedestal to rule the crap sack world.

  • While we're at it, Slan makes a Heel–Face Turn, and joins in. Erica grows up and gets the hots for Guts as well. And since Guts is so badass that Even the Guys Want Him, so does Isidro. And Roderic. And Serpico. And Griffith ultimately becomes his sexual slave (and becomes happier that way). Everyone lives happily ever after...especially Guts!
    • And now by the looks of things, he's about to have caught the interest of a few thousand Merrows!
    • I always figured he would use the behelit, under the Berserker Armour's influence, sacrifice Casca, kill Griffith, and live happily ever after with Schierke.

Guts is a Norse God
Guts is secretly an Aesir. His immense battle prowess has left me to believe that he is, in fact, godlike. He should have died of blood loss a decade ago but he's still fighting. He's also Ashley Williams.
  • He's missing his eye, like Odin.
  • He's missing his arm, like Tyr.
  • His inner beast is a wolf, like Fenrir
  • Guts is a berserker
    • Okay, the last two aren't gods but you get my point.

Scheirke and Isildro will come to have a Toy Ship
This is definately what's been hinted at lately: they've been ship teased to the ground ever since they met, and they're probably the most healthy and wholesome relationship in the manga. (But I'm fully prepared for it all to get subverted somehow, considering how things go in this story).

Isma will join the Guts clan
Not really a WILD guess, seems likely though.
  • Confirmed.

Isma is Granmammare
She's quite an energetic, excitable, and hyperactive lass, so eager to learn about this whole new world she is immersed in, and is quite taken in with the very first person she comes across, while being a powerful entity closely associated with the sea and sealife. Quite like her daughter Ponyo will be a couple of millenium down the line. But furthermore, this means that the world of Ponyo is actually the future of the world of Berserk. That would certainly explain a few things, such as the lack of shock and surprise among the general populace at seeing a a fish with a humanoid head, and the universal nonchalance of a devastating tsunami. Because after the merging of the worlds in Berserk, things like that are now regarded as perfectly normal!

Isma is an avatar of the sea god
Come one guys, this is Berserk we're talking about. Theres no way this will end well.

There is no Idea of Good in the world...but there will be before the story is over
Deep breath, folks, this is going to be a long one: the Big Bad of the Berserk world is "the Idea of Evil," which was created because enough people subconsciously wanted a justification for their suffering. Unable to accept that sometimes shit just happens, they believed there had to be some kind of cosmic justice behind it, so much so that that it actually happened. But since most suffering is decidedly undeserved, said cosmic justice was completely utterly evil and only worked to perpetuate human suffering even more so that its existence can be maintained.

Continuing...Guts rejects all that. Destiny? Fate? Accepting that somehow everything that happened to you is for a high reason? To hell with that! He's going to fight against whatever comes his way and never give in, no matter how impossible it might seem.

And it seems to be working. Guts keeps surviving cosmic disasters and battles with shit that kills everyone else around him, all without any superpowers (at least until he dons the Berserker armor, although that's been as much a hindrance as a help). And he's gaining followers who admire his attitude and want to emulate him.

Here's where the theory comes in. If the universe truly conforms itself to match the human subconscious, well, Guts has introduced a new idea into the mix. He's established the idea of rejecting fatalism, of not needing a God to explain away everything, of hope and determination in the face of absolute despair. Now that Griffith has torn down the wall between the Astral Plan and the material world, the power of human minds on reality is probably going to increase. Guts will gain more and more followers as the series continues as people grow wise to Griffith's true nature starts to become apparent. As he continues to defeat the forces of evil when it is shouldn't even be remotely possible, more and more people will realize his is the better way. Finally, enough people will come to believe what Guts does that they will create a new force in the universe, an Idea of Good that will triumph over the Idea of Evil, since it will no longer have enough followers to maintain its existence.

Hence Berserk won't just end with Guts defeating Griffith and the God Hand, it will end with Guts, by the sheer force of his own awesome will creating a new god and ending the cycle of suffering that has plagued the world, and bringing it back to an acceptable, real-life level of suffering, sans demons and sacrifices and the Religion of Evil that has kept everything so awful.

At least, that's how this troper would write it.

Zodd will perform a Heel–Face Turn at some point
Think about it. He's a Blood Knight whose favorite enemies are the Skull Knight and Guts. Enemy Mine much? Also, he already fought together with Guts once, though that was more a forced alliance. And finally, he's currently The Dragon to Griffith. Now think about who was Griffith's last dragon and what happened to him. Yeah, that's Guts. It may very well happen that Griffith will ditch Zodd or his entire demon servants at some point.
  • By saying they clash with the whole Falcon of Light image, they must be made to disappear, popular imagery will likely have written them out anyways. This could work.
    • This would make even more sense if Zodd was Guts' father (see above).

Griffith will perform a Heel–Face Turn
Basically, a two part Heel–Face Revolving Door. The Idea of Evil and having an unbreakable destiny is all but appealing. Knowing that what Guts is doing is crazy but right, combined with a wanting of friendship, he will betray the Godhand.
  • No. Griffith is so beyond his Moral Event Horizon that his redemption would require him to kill himself so many times over, the universe would most likely end before he atones for all his sins.
    • Griffith has killed thousands of people to give himself incredible power and appear to the world as the messiah. His greatest crimes are small compared to some of the mass-murdering, mass-torturing, mass-everything going on in the world. And, Griffith is a known Magnificent Bastard. He may use his status as Messiah to kill the Idea of Evil. It'd be like FF: Tactics - The idea of good and evil transcends crimes you and I think of, and history is written by people with imperfect perceptions. Griffith and Guts will never be friends again, but the sympathetic way the new Band of the Hawk has been set up implies to me that they won't always be enemies.
      • Griffith vs. the IoE might happen, but if it does, it'll be Evil Versus Evil. Messiahs and Big Goods don't rape people.
      • Well, nobody says there would be a Big Good in that war: only Magneficent Bastard Dark Messiah Griffith against ulimately evil Godhand. In fact, I think that Griffith would betray the Godhand and start a war between his disciples both human or Apostle and satanists and rogue demonic Apostles of Godhand.

The process of founding the Idea of Good
First, someone will found the Church of Pure Badass, with Guts being considered the Patron Saint of that church. This is because he's one of the only people to survive the ascention of a new Godhand member. You can't tell me that isn't Badass. From there, because he's fighting the Godhand, being a Badass would be associated with Good. From there, the Idea of Good takes hold.

Guts will be killed, at the very end, by Theresia
Because wouldn't that be a twist/Chekhov's Gun?

Silat will join Guts
Silat will undergo similar character development as Farneze and will sooner or later join Guts' team. C'mon, not all Kushans have to be evil.
  • It is bound to happen. Silat has openly questioned Griffith's legitimacy as a Messiah and despises the blind following of a deity for the sale of an uncertain greater good. He has a bone to pick with Guts for both the defeats he suffered at his hands but if he has been kept around and not Put on a Bus like Rickert or Luca, it means he will have a role to play sooner or later. And since he doesn't seem to happy with Griffith, the logical choice is joining Guts and his True Companions.
    • It's been clearly shown many times over anyway that ordinary Kushan and even Bakiraka are no more or less evil than anyone else in this setting, on average. That said, Silat doing that down the road seems highly likely. Especially in light of Rickert and Luca's return from their bus trip, and the former's decision to get the Hell out of Dodge after getting more glimpses of the true nature of Apostles, Griffith and Falconia itself (which Griffith did NOT take kindly to). Both narrative causality and sheer necessity will cause most Griffith-skeptic and -hostile groups and individuals to coalesce.

Guts is actually slowly destroying the idea of Evil
Guts is functionally constantly kicking the idea of fate in the teeth. Each time he would seem to be about to die he manages to get away from it, he also doesn't have any kind of reverence for the supernatural, instead seeing the world as kind of a 'it is what it is' kind of thing. Griffith became what he was by embracing a destiny and breaking when it didn't perfectly match what he saw. Guts just keeps struggling, that tears at fate, at the rules and principles the Idea of Evil maintains and lives off of. Given enough time he might be able to destroy the idea of evil, making people see that prophecy is just assumed goals and that sometimes things go wrong for no reason. The human subconscious changes and the idea of evil grows weaker, it NEEDS those of the Godhand and the various demons to maintain the suffering and torment, and they need it to maintain their power.

Berserk is a Medieval version of the Deadlands Universe
Encompassing idea of evil empowering servants of darkness, fear and suffering feeding them and making them stronger. And Griffith might be the equivalent to Stone in this version. Unfortunately the forces of evil have made a lot of headway, however normal mortals can still get pissed off and fight back.

The Whole Thing Started With Void Entering The God Hand
Void was the first God Hand, but before him there were no Behelits nor Apostles. The Idea of Evil still existed in the Abyss but it didn't have as great an effect on causality as it does now. As human, Void was an important figure in the Gaiseric Empire. He was a magic user who was attempting to control fate. He was going to try to safely enter the Abyss, something no other magic user could do, believing that the power to control reality resided there. And he did this during an eclipse because the immense power the collective unconscious gave such an event. Instead he found the Idea of Evil which also desired to control reality because that's what all humans want on some level. He became the first God Hand and created the Behelits to control the flow of causality using the near omniscience possessed by the Idea.
  • During the rescue of Griffith from the tower at the end of the Golden Age, it's mentioned that there's a legend about Gaiseric's fall being due to an old man praying to four angels. If this is taken as literal, it means that there were already four God Hands at the time of that eclipse ceremony. If that's true, it suggests that the God Hand members come and go and perhaps can be killed, but it also means that it has existed for longer than a thousand years with no end in sight. If that's NOT true, then it means, yes, Void was the first God Hand... and Femto will be the last. Not really less ominous.

Everyone will get a Good End, up to and including the people who have already died.
What about people who shouldn’t, like Donovan and Griffith?
Charlotte's going to find out about what Griffith did to the Hawks.
If she doesn't reject him, it would probably qualify as a Moral Event Horizon. If she does, it could be the first major dent in Griffith's plans that will eventually lead to his downfall.

Berserk takes place in Creation
All the Exalted besides the Infernals have been corrupted, imprisoned or killed off. The Ebon Dragon Exalted Griffith and had him usurp the Light motif because that's how the Ebon Dragon rolls and then arranged for Isidoros to Exalt Guts because he needs someone to screw Griffith over later.

Guts will Screw Destiny disabling Godhand in some way
We all know there is a Behelit around Guts. Assuming it is really meant for Guts, he will refuse to use it when destiny said he would. In other words, Guts will perform a Screw Destiny maneuver that no one would see coming, shattering the Godhand's ability to predict/influence world in a major way. Combines nicely - WMG: There is no Idea of Good in the world...but there will be before the story is over.

Guts and Casca will die to make the Idea of Good
In the end I think Guts will be given a choice: fight Griffith or go join Casca in her demise. If a man so barraged and filled with hate and rage can forfeit it for his love, it would be powerful enough to give birth to an Idea of Good or Love.

Void was the first (and only) Godhand to undergo the Incarnation Ceremony before Femto
The Eclipse goes down once every 216 years in the Berserk universe, and each Eclipse marks the birth of a Godhand. There are five members of the Godhand at the time of this writing, meaning it's been 1080 years between the birth of Void and the birth of Femto. Since Femto went through the Incarnation Ceremony, which happens only once every 1,000 years, to become Griffith again two years after the Eclipse, then it's only logical for Void to have done the same thing roughly 82 years after the first Eclipse went down. Which raises some rather interesting questions concerning Void's identity before the first Eclipse, and also about how the Skull Knight became what he is today. Did the Berserker Armor convey a kind of immortality to the Skull Knight, or is there something more sinister behind it all?

The child that Casca found on the beach is not Casca and Gut's child.
For all we know, their child is now the newly reincarnated Griffith, who doesn't even know (consciously) that the bodily vessel he has taken is what it is. That leaves the creepy child to be....the Hanafubuku King/Lord of the elves. Notice how in chapter 316 that the child glows in the same way as Puck and Evarella, expect larger and more organized. It would also explain how he is so magically powerful.
  • Why would the Lord of elves need to protect Casca so badly?! And why wouldn't Puck or Evarella recognize him? Also he (the child) has no wings.
    • The Elf King has been revealed, and nope, it's not the Child.

And in relation to Griffith's body being made of Casca and Gut's child...

Griffith's new body will prevent him from directly hurting Guts or Casca at a critical moment.
Karma bites back, and Griffith will find that he while he has removed the effect that Guts has on swaying him away from his goal, he now can't prevent him from dislodging his plans by killing him directly (thus committing patricide in the process)...
  • Or at least he will be swayed by Casca instead of Guts. Note, we already seen that he reflexively shielded Casca from a debris once.
  • On the flip side, this could pose a problem if Guts ever got the chance to take a stab at Griffith, since Griffith is using the body of Guts and Casca's child... Killing Griffith would mean killing his own son. I'd like to think that Guts isn't so implacable that he'd become a Gambino.

The mysterious child is the soul of the Casca and Guts' child.
As an alternative to the theory above, when their child's body was used as Griffith's vehicle for rebirth, its soul was not, and is now wandering the earth trying to protect its parents the same way it did when it was still in the flesh. It can manifest physically only on specific occasions, probably related to cycles of the moon or other natural phenomenon.

Berserk was partially inspired by Power Rangers.
Come on guys, the animal motifs? It's obvious Miura drew some of his inspiration from at least an episode or two of The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. The Red (Angry) Ranger gets pissed that The White (Chosen One) Ranger stole his lady (The Pink Ranger). But back to the animal motifs. It's an interesting and refreshing spin on the idea. The various armors of the Berserk universe would be so much more bland if not for the prominent animalistic features they sport. As for the apostles, they would fit perfectly in with the monsters Zedd and Rita are always creating for The Rangers to fight. Though sinister and horrifying, their design formula is actually quite simple: add face where face should not be, mix with animal parts, then make it all turn out wrong. Though, in the case of the New Band of the Hawk, make it all go pretty alright. Also, The White Ranger was reincarnated very much like how Griffith was. However, instead of being initially evil and becoming good, Griffith was the opposite.
  • I always thought of Locus' Apostle form as looking like a Power Ranger helmet...
    • Pre-emptively jossed by the fact that Super Sentai, the source material for Power Rangers takes precedence in Japan over Power Rangers. Miura might've heard of Power Rangers, sure, but it's more likely he's a Sentai fan.

Guts, Griffith, and The Skull Knight form The Holy Trinity of The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost, respectively.
From the get go, Berserk established its style by drawing elements from high renaissance and protestant reformation art as well as The Bible. Griffith is obviously a deconstruction of the messiah archetype and follows nicely with Jesus's story of being the savior during a time of war and need. The only difference is that Berserk puts a spin things by making Jesus betray Judas in an actualized Abraham Issac Scenario.

Kentaro Miura Plays World of Warcraft.
Guts, Zodd, and The Skull Knight represent the three talent specializations available to the warrior class in Blizzard's vastly popular mmorpg. To explain for those unfamiliar with the game: Guts would be an arms warrior. He is incredibly strong and can move at lightning speeds. Warriors have a spell called charge that grants the same effect. Zodd is clearly a fury warrior. They are referred to as barbarians in WoW lore and Zodd fits the M.O. needless to say. He frequently dual wields and dresses in a loin cloth. Protection warriors are tanks and very survivable. The Skull Knight fights with sword and board, nothing flashy, but devastating by implementation. This Troper would also surmise that Griffith is/was a paladin turned wrong. The only difference is that in the Berserk universe, you can sacrifice your party for a wicked ass buff, as Griffith did.
  • Rrrright.. yup, he stolen everything from World of Warcraft, he did, over a decade ago before anyone even THOUGHT of WoW! Kentaro Miura is really a time traveller!
  • Not saying he stole anything. Just speculating that he might play. World of Warcraft got most of its class designs from Dungeons and Dragons, a table top rpg which existed long before Berserk and shares many similar qualities.

The Skull Knight is saving up the Behelits in order to achieve a One-Winged Angel form or will use the Sword Of Resonance for that same effect

Guts and Casca's child was reincarnated
In recent chapters a black haired kid has appeared on a full moon. This troper believes it is Guts and Casca's err.. son? The reason is that Griffith may not have been reincarnated because he still has the Femto form and it was Guts' and Casca's child that was brought back instead.
  • Alternatively, a recent chapter shows the demon child trapped in Casca's mind. Maybe the demon is trying to reach out to the group and the Moon child is a projection of how he would look if Casca hadn't been raped.

The giant tree is the idea of evil
Now that the astral plane and the normal one are merged, the Idea of Evil has to manifest somewhere and that tree is the only thing big enough to be it.

Griffith's merging of the planes will backfire spectacularly.
  • We know that being in between the spiritual plane and the physical one means that your spirit can influence your physical self and improve your abilities (see Shierke's speculation about the source of Gut's strength when they're fighting the Trolls near the church), this will be massively amplified by the fusion of the planes.

The Skull knight is screwed.
Now that the Godhand can apparently freely manifest in the physical world what do you think the odds are that they'll immediately eliminate the guy who has been a thorn in their side for thousands of years?

The Child is the true hawk of light.
It fits perfectly with Miura's contrasting origins and destiny approach toward the characters. Griffith was in a good position to become king with his Arthurian myth behind him and everything, however, he ultimately fell. The child's birth was literally tainted by evil, however, his actions thus far have been in service of good. Sometime after Griffith brings about an Age of Darkness, Guts will exact his revenge (most likely dying in the process) and the Child will appear as the true savior of Midland.

The Skull Knight ate his elf companion.
All the foreshadowing Miura has done points to the behelit being Puck's. If Gut's elf companion is destined to betray him, then it would mean the Skull Knight's betrayed him as well (What with the cycle of karma and all). Puck mentions that the Skull knight smells like an elf sometime around volume 17-18. If elf dust can miraculously heal wounds, then perhaps consuming one was how the Skull Knight gained his immortality.

Guts will have to cure Casca in the end, not the king of Elfheim.
It has been speculated that the reason why Schierke can't just go into Casca's mind and use magic to cure her mental state is because she's that way due to a psychological reason, not a magical one. Skull Knight also said at one point that being cured might not be what Casca wants. It could be that the real Casca has entombed herself in her psyche so she won't have to face Guts or the world after her rape, and she just doesn't want to come out. Since the whole world of Elfheim is based around magic, I doubt that their king could do anything more than to make a passage into Casca's mind so that Guts can get through to her, since he and Casca have the strongest bond with each other (even if Casca in her current state detests Guts) and that bond could have something to do with coaxing the real Casca out of her child-like shell.
  • Jossed as of the Elf Island arc. Guts does not participate in the ritual that has Casca's mind being restored - instead, it falls to Farnese and Schierke to gather up the shattered pieces of Casca's mind in her mental landscape in a Journey to the Center of the Mind, which soon turns into a Battle in the Center of the Mind because Casca's mind is full of monsters as a result of what she went through during the Eclipse, ultimately culminating in a representation of Guts battling a representation of the Hawk of Darkness.

Casca will be the one to kill Griffith.
Though highly improbable, there is a sense of personal rape revenge in the world of Berserk, especially among the main characters, such as when Guts killed Donovan after he sodomized him, Griffith killed that noble on the battlefield years after he whored himself out to him, and when Casca had to stab that noble who wanted to make her his sex slave. (Of course this would be a giant slap in the face to Guts and his whole pursuit of revenge on Griffith if Casca ends up being the one who offs him....)
  • It actually could be just the opposite - a massive moment of both character development and catharsis for Guts when he realizes/comes to terms with Casca having even more reason than him to kill Femto (she was far more damaged, psychologically at least, than Guts was by the betrayal, and said betrayal ran far deeper, as not only had she been with Griffith for longer than Guts, but unlike Guts, who chose to strike out on his own after a while, she always remained at his side), and he will gladly let her give the killing blow. Conversely, this will add insult to injury to Griffith/Femto's fate, as even without any feelings left towards Guts his pride would likely demand he be struck down by someone he once considered a worthy (almost) equal (Guts) rather than someone who'd always ultimately been nothing but a disposable tool on his road to greatness.

The Child is the antithesis of the Beast.
Yet another alternative theory of the appearance of the mysterious black-haired child is that it's purpose is to be the direct opposite of the Beast: while the hound-like creature is an entity that dwells in Guts' mind and represents the dark side of his heart, the child is the embodiment of everything good in Guts' heart. The force is so strong that it takes on a physical form in the image of the child that was meant to be Guts and Casca's son, which in itself represented the love that the two shared and how Casca is the only person who keeps Guts from succumbing to the Beast's influence.

Guts' biological mother was executed with her unborn child on purpose.
Since the world of Berserk is filled with unnecessary evil and torment, I wouldn't be surprised that the innocent unborn child of a convicted woman would not be spared from execution of the mother. However, what if there was some prophecy going around that would involve the future Guts and some people didn't like it very much (whether they considered themselves "good" and wanted to prevent said evil (Guts) from rising, or they considered themselves evil and wanted to prevent said (semi) good from rising), so they decided to go all Sarah Connor on Guts' mama and killed her while Guts was still in the womb. Unbeknown to them, the child lived....
  • And to add, this can go along with the "Guts isn't entirely human" theory.

The elves are the opposite to the behelits
If the behelits made Apostles, the elves made.........prophets?...angels?...demons? whatever, the point is that they made a...good version of the apostles, The Skull Knight is from this group, as proof of it, Puck say that he smell like and elf...okay, the smell of something can't be in something for centuries. Less if that something travels around the world slaughtering apostles. Also, even if it is confirmed not being human, it was also hinted that he isn't an apostle neither. when he and guts encounters in volume 17-18, when Guts feels him, he, confidently, say that it wasn't and enemy...just an old friend, that means that whenever he feels the Skull Knight, he feels something completely different from the apostles.
  • Alternatively, the Behelits are made from elves. It’s possible that when Void became a Godhand, he was helped by elves that didn’t know any better, and the process deformed them into the instruments of evil they are now. It would partially explain why Puck isn’t afraid of them and considers them friends.

Flora was the Schierke to the Skull Knight's Guts

As in, she was a True Companion and helped him suppress his inner beast.

The Skull Knight said they were both friends at one point, Flora always looked at his ghastly armor in a tender manner, we don't know how old Flora really is so she could have even been a child at the time the Skull Knight wore it (since he's been around for a long, long time), and the Skull Knight said Guts was going down the same path he's walked for a while. It's possible he isn't the only one.

Farnese will be the Berserk equivalent of a Red Mage

You know how in Final Fantasy, a red mage is practically a jack-of-all-trades but never really excels in magic or melee fighting? Well, being the mere figure head of a group of "knights" that have little to no real skill in combat, Farnese could become an archetype later. She's currently learning magic under Schierke, but even Schierke said that the best time to learn magic is when you're young, so Farnese will probably never become a grandmaster witch. Now, suppose that Casca gets better and continues to be the badass action girl that she once was, giving the True Companions one more fighter, but leaving Farnese kinda, there. Guts didn't recruit Farnese because she was some great fighter, but so that she could take care of Casca in her mental state. One of Farnese's purposes to learning magic was so she could better protect Casca, but when the time comes that Casca doesn't need to be protected that much, then Farnese will be feeling all the more useless - until Casca repays Farnese for taking caring of her by teaching her the way of the sword. She most likely will not be as good as Casca, but she'll have enough combined knowledge in magic and melee fighting to not be a faux action girl.

Femto did what he did to Casca to "reclaim her"

While we are yet to hear Griffith's official reason for doing so, it is best assumed that he, in Femto form, raped Casca in order spite Guts. This little troper, after coming across a useful essay here, thought about the possibility that Griffith may have raped Casca in order to "reclaim her", which can also go under the "Spite Guts" category but on a different level. Just thinking about how Griffith acted toward Guts with the whole, "you belong to me now" deal and how he very clearly did not like it when his "property" defied him, he might have thought this way about Casca as well, even though Griffith had no romantic implications toward her and had no physical relationship with her but it was insinuated in a vision before the Eclipse that Griffith probably kept Casca around as a third wheel love interest in case his plans with Princess Charlotte did not go accordingly, so perhaps he always felt confident that Casca would always be there for him to fall back on. After seeing that she couldn't be his sword or his lover, Casca finally turns her attentions toward Guts... And it was noted that seeing Guts and Casca in love was what finally triggered Griffith to activate his Behelit. Griffith isn't dumb: he knows what loving couples do in their spare time. So not only has Guts surpassed him in skill and has practically taken his place among the Band of the Hawk, but he also took Casca away emotionally, and what's worse - he defiled his property. It didn't really matter if he actually had any romantic feelings toward Casca or not. Griffith cannot have this. So when the Eclipse goes down, Griffith, now Femto, decides to show Guts that Casca, her body and being, belonged to him and only him , showing it in the cruelest, most hideous sort of way.

This troper thought of this because she can just picture what Griffith would say if Guts ever came around to asking, "why Casca? Why to her?": Griffith simply replying, "I was simply taking back what was mine" like the Manipulative Bastard he is.

  • Heh. Always thought that this was one of Femto's motivations for raping Casca, along with another, perfectly compatible Greed/Envy-related classic- e.g. "You [Guts] took something precious [Guts himself and/or Griffith's hopes and dreams] from me, so now I'm returning you the favor".

Gaiseric's bloodline has supernatural properties protecting the world from the God Hand

And Griffith's union with Charlotte would break it.

Something about Guts

It has been a matter of some discussion by fans of the series whether or not Guts is entirely human. In addition to his feats of superhuman speed, strength, and resolve, he is the only human character in the series shown to have pronounced canine teeth (fangs) and slightly pointed ears. As Guts is an orphan, born of a hanged corpse on a battle field, his true paternal lineage is currently unrevealed.

  • This could be plausible, though the only exception would be that there have been other (seemingly) human characters that have pointed ears (Griffith, Gambino, Sys). But Guts has teeth, so there's still that part. Miura himself seems to have stopped designing characters with pointed ears altogether.
    • That, or I thought that Guts' pointy ears might have been a trait among a certain group of people in a particular region in Midland (I noticed that a lot of the people in Gambino's mercenary band had pointy ears). So, perhaps there is an entire ethnicity in which their apical ancestor was an apostle or some supernatural being and Guts belong to this group.
      • Well in any case Guts' continued use of the Berserker Armor seems to be either slowly killing him and/or turning him into something not human à la Skull Knight (or both; not mutually exclusive).

If Guts represents The Berserker, then Casca represents the Valkyrie.

Just tracing back to the good ol' Scandinavian mythology motif throughout Berserk, could it be possible that Casca's character and imagery was loosely based off of the Valkyries? I'm just speaking in the context that Valkyries led the way to worthy warriors, but in this case, not necessarily to the afterlife after they chose which warriors would die. Casca, who was the series' only genuine Action Girl, led her squad of warriors into battle, some of which would have obviously died honorable deaths. In her present state, she doesn't do any fighting.... but she continues to lead Guts's way as his Morality Chain. Who knows? In the future, Casca's role might very well be to lead Guts into some battle that will lead to his death - which would lead to the ultimate battle in the next plane (which goes accordingly to Norse Mythology). Heck - if she ever gets better and starts fighting again, the Valkyrie could become Casca's entire motif. Just sayin'.

Eventually there will be a short story-arc ending on Everybody Lives.
I think such a story-arc will involve Guts protecting some group of innocents from an Apostle, possibly because Casca showed a liking for them. Not only will he succeed, but he will succeed completely. Not a single one of them will come to any harm (although, how long-lasting their safety would be would be questionable). I base this on two things: 1) There is no series for which such a thing would be more emotionally impactful. Think about it. Even with all the evil in the universe, even with Guts being who he is, even if Destiny Says So, SOMETIMES the good guys just win, SOMETIMES the bad guys just lose, SOMETIMES there isn't a price to pay, SOMETIMES even someone as ruthless as Guts can be the White Knight riding in on his noble steed to save the, day, if only for a little while. and 2) I think such a Hope Spot might aid in Casca's recovery, if she could see that maybe there is some good left in this world.
  • We already kinda' had something like that with the Enoch chapter. Guts and company not only managed to defend the village from the Trolls (without any further innocent loss of life), but they were able to rescue women and children who had been dragged off to the Qliphoth. And the place's subsequent collapse ensured it would no longer be a problem (until a certain big event transpired in the manga, anyway). And they reintroduced pagan concepts and customs to the Holy See worshippers there. AND the whole adventure cemented the group as True Companions in Guts' mind. Hasn't done anything directly for Casca, but the new dynamics the group built up certainly made the journey for the cure much easier.

At the very end of the series, a grown-up Theresia will show up and kill Guts.
You have to admit, it would be fitting.
  • Definitely. Guts dismissed her threats as meaningless, so that's exactly why she will succeed in killing Guts. Bonus points if Theresia looks exactly like her dead mother and is now a countess. And for extra tragedy just when Guts finally won too. He will no longer be anything like the bastard who gave Theresia her reason to seek revenge.
  • This would be poetic.

Guts will kill Femto, lose his brand of sacrifice, and then be re-sacrificed by Theresia.
A variation on the above, hear me out. Now, I know your initial reaction is "You can't sacrifice someone you hate!" However, Theresia doesn't really have anyone she loves left who she could sacrifice to become an Apostle. So instead, she doesn't really sacrifice a person, she sacrifices her right to vengeance. She wants to PERSONALLY kill Guts, but in exchange for the power of an Apostle, she agrees to let the Godhand have him. Here We Go Again!.

Casca will become an Apostle Spawn.
Well, think about (even if you don't want to). Casca's baby was completely deformed because it came in contact with Femto's... ''essence''. They made bodily contact. And Casca of course had forceful bodily contact when he raped her (which is how her baby got tainted in the first place). Because the baby was developing as a normal human, but got affected by a supernatural entity, it was in between two planes of reality. We could say that the Child was practically an Apostle Spawn. But fully developed humans can also became Apostle Spawns, as we know from experience. Even though sperm can only survive in the female reproductive system for a limited amount of time, it probably doesn't apply to super evil demon sperm, so for all we know, Femto's cellular material can be having some latent effect on Casca as a whole - but it's only being held back because Casca's insane at the moment. So curing Casca could mean awakening her very own Superpowered Evil Side (if said side will be, in fact, truly evil).

A less drastic theory would be that as a result of being in direct bodily contact with Casca, it's the direct cause of Casca's insanity.

But getting back with the Came Back Wrong theory, this outcome will screw Guts up royally - nay - imperially. If Casca is cured but she awakens as an Apostle Spawn, this leaves Guts with two choices: to kill the woman he loves just to uphold his revenge against all Apostles, or to spare her, even if she may turn out evil and may go about her own thing. Neither choice will make the situation better.

On a more optimistic level, since not all Apostles are evil (or at least, not down right evil), Casca could be the True Companions' trump card in defeating enemies and can thus get upgraded to Empowered Badass Normal, since I've heard other fans talk about how Casca will be pretty much defenseless against the hordes of monsters roaming the earth, even with her swordsmanship.

  • Nice and well thought out. But not possible. Casca is just like Guts: out of the stream of Causality because she's a sacrifice. By your reasoning, Guts would also be some sort of an Apostle Spawn, simply due to his own Superpowered Evil Side. I agree that there are high chances for Casca to Come Back Wrong, but I don't think she will this way. If we're going to fear for anything, Puck has much more potential to turn evil than Casca. Why? The Beherit he so dearly holds onto.

Charlotte finding out of just being a Meal Ticket to Griffith
What do you think will happend if Charlotte finds out that she is just a meal ticket to Griffith
  • Since Griffith never really had any affection for her and only needed her for that reason, I'm guessing, "You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness."
  • Not unlikely, even pre-eclipse Griffith didn't seem to actualy like her. After having crazy compulsive sex with her, he's not only crying but reacting the same way he did after uh, doing things with that old baron in exchange for war funds, he's even scratching the same place he did after that happened!
  • Or alternatively, you know how apostles can sacrifice loved ones to regenerate themselves as implied by The Count? It's possible that Griffith is saving Charlotte for that purpose, and it's possible he can screw with the rules a little since he's one of the Godhand.
Casca is totally going to have another Damsel out of Distress moment in these next few chapter.
The last few panels of the most recent chapter (as of 6/23/11) shows the pirates boarding the Seahorse and engaging the True Companions, with Farnese having to defend not only Casca and the Child, but Schierke's physical body. Roderick's being engaged, Isidro's being in engaged, Magnifico is cowering in some corner, and Serpico is fighting too. Farnese is probably going to get over-powered, none of the other members will be able to help her, and then we get back to the usual Berserk routine: the pirates want to have their way with Casca, and begin to close in on she and the Child (and as a bonus, they want Farnese and Schierke's body too). Enter Casca truly going Mama Bear on their asses in order to protect the Child, leaving everyone else awestruck and pretty freaked out over what had just transpired.

The First God Hand Member?
Who do you think is the first member of The God Hand?
  • I'd say Femto was the first and last (if you add up the years, 1000 years ago would have been the 5th before Griffith, and I think that Femto incarnated into Emperor Gaiseric)
  • Pretty sure it's Void, considering he's the oldest member of the Godhand

Puck is going to activate the Behelit...
... But he's NOT going to make the deal or the turn, thus earning the true Power of Friendship!

Griffith raped Casca to spite Guts.
Ok, I took this for granted for a long time, but someone above mentioned the possibility that he saw himself as "reclaiming" her, so I figured I'd throw in my personal theory. I don't recall Griffith ever showing a strong emotion towards Casca. Yeah, he had that vision of her, but that was just because he knew she'd be the one to take care of him, not because he gave a shit about her. However, its painfully clear that he was deeply in love with Guts, and as the manga continues this becomes even more evident. So, he raped Casca just to get back at the man he loved for leaving him, and choosing her over him.
  • I think he personally did it to spite them both. He was pretty Yandere for them both at that point in time, and his Despair Event Horizon came from his learning that both of them were in a relationship together. He had grown to hate Guts during his year of torture, but he still believed that Casca had his back until that revelation, and he even had thoughts about settling down with her as shown in that little fantasy sequence before the Behelit returned to him. Plus there's the theory that Griffith, with his newfound powers as Femto, gleaned the event of Guts' rape at the hands of Donovan so long ago from either him or Casca, the only one he told about the incident, and decided to exploit this little weak point in the cruelest and most horrible way possible.
  • Particular to Casca, I always thought that Griffith did it to punish her for pitying him, since even though Casca resolved that she was going to stay behind with Griffith instead of leaving with Guts, it wasn't because she had feelings for him, but because she felt sorry for Griffith in his crippled and thought it was her responsibility to take care of him. As we've found out, this is the wrong thing to imply on a man with a pride/superiority problem.

The legacy of the Band of the Hawk will turn into a Vicious Cycle.
Well, it already happened once: Griffith threw his first band away and made an entirely new one, each with an exact counterpart to the original lead members. Since Griffith is pretty much immortal, and stronger than his other Apostles so that he may dispatch them when he sees it necessary, while other members are going to age and die, we could see a new Band of the Hawk being created a hundred years from now, considering that Guts fails to kill Griffith. Alas, this could mean that a hundred years from now Guts's descendent(s) will have to lay witness to every new band's formation, and will continue this eternal struggle.

Guts is intended to be the sixth member of the Godhand.
Ok, this is based primarily on an image from "The Depths of Hellfire." We see the Godhand standing on a hand, with four on various fingers, and Femto on the palm...so, if the palm counts, then that means there must be a sixth member for the pointer finger. Now, based on what we know this sixth member should come about in a quarter-millenia, but that would make it superflous to the story. Furthermore, at least twice its been suggested that Guts could make a sacrifice himself (once by the beast, and once by Slan). It sounds like he's being pushed in that direction. Whether or not he'll succeed, we have yet to find out.

There's going to be an uprising in hell.
Tracing back to the discussion in the Fridge section, it seems that two-thirds of the Berserkerverse are going to hell, since it has been speculated that just being in contact with Apostles or demons will give you a first class ticket. And since there is going to be some obvious over-crowding issues down there from the diaspora that's going to happen what with the natural and supernatural worlds being merged... I don't think the tenants are going to be putting up with that b.s. anymore. No, there's going to be an uprising. They'll literally become The United Legion of Hell And who's going to be head of the union when it forms?

GUTS.

The Berserk storyline is going to play out as an epic Norse saga.
Guts already has many attributes of a Norse god, right? Well, he isn't a god, but that's okay, because he doesn't need to be one. Anyway, all of the events surrounding Griffith's merging of the supernatural world and the natural world and claiming his own kingdom is starting the Age Of Darkness - in other words, it will be Berserk's equivalent of Ragnarok. This mean that the world will go through some more detrimental deterioration, and during the final battle, the Godhand will meet its end, but at the cost of most of the world's population. In the aftermath, everything will be reborn: the Idea of Evil will become the Idea of Good (or at least, the Idea of Neutrality), and Guts and Casca will survive it all and repopulate the earth. Okay, so Miura could probably play out the Ragnarok canon to his taste, but it would be cool to see that in the future of the Berserkerverse, Guts' story will become legendary.

Sorry. I just like the whole Norse aspect of the series.

When influenced by the Beast, Guts is a counterpart of Femto.

After reading this post, I don't think the parallels between Guts' and Griffith's alter egos are meant to be a coincidence (although I don't entirely agree with everything that some posters have mentioned - particularly the viewpoints that talk about Guts' relationship with post-Eclipse Casca as just another power struggle between he and Griffith - the similarities are kinda creepy).

My own theory on this is that Guts truly doesn't see Casca as just some object of possession between he and Griffith and that he does want to see her well again... but the Beast does want Guts to believe that, as we've seen in volume 23. I think that while Griffith/Femto has similarities with Guts' Enemy Within - that's just it. Femto and the Beast have similarities, but that doesn't equate to Griffith/Femto and Guts himself having similarities. So, perhaps the Beast has an even more malevolent role to play in Guts' life. Maybe it doesn't just want Guts to kill Griffith: maybe the Beast wants Guts to actually become Griffith, or rather, a being very similar to Griffith. Hence all of the parallels between Griffith/Femto and Guts when he's being manipulated by the Beast. Maybe the hellhound has some future role to play with the Godhand??? It's pretty much a supernatural creature after all, so who knows?

The only way to beat the God Hand is through the collective conciousness of humanity.

Berserk scholars know about the missing chapter with the Idea of evil. It's very existense is based on humanities need to have a reason for all their suffering. And the more suffering there is, the stronger it logically becomes. The God Hand draws all it's power directly from that source too and they only have gotten more invincible when the world sunk away into hell. Humanity is helpless against it, because it is completely oblivious to the true nature of the universe. So if Guts wants to win against such a foe, he only has one possible way to do it: Inspiring the people to be more badass and rejecting fatalism. He already did that to several characters before, but it didn't have any effect yet because it was only on a small scale. If Guts where to do something that caused Griffith's pretty facade to fall off in a sufficiently epic way wile the intire world is watching, the God Hand might suddenly start to weaken. Not enough to render them powerless, but enough for Guts to finally fight on a more equal footing likely allowing him to finally strike a blow against Griffith/Femto. And when more people see that God-on-Earth Griffith is not only a loathsome devil in disguise but that he can bleed after all, the massive flood of hot blood will become unstoppable and gradually drain the powers of the Idea of evil away. And then you will see some payback like you never saw before...

The Skull Knight was originaly King Gaiseric who escaped an eclipse and Void was an old friend of his who bretrayed/rebelled against him.

When talking to Farnese and one of his torturer-servants in the tower of conviction, Mozgus mentions that the room he was using for praying is the very same room were King Gaiseric tortured a man for unknown reasons, and that man managed to bring Gaiseric's downfall by praying to god. Since Void and the Skull Knight are old rivals, this could mean that Void was that man and imply he had a red behelit at the time of the torture. The man used the behelit to call forth the God Hand and used Gaiseric and his kingdom as a sacrifice to become a God Hand himself, but Gaiseric managed to escape the eclipse like Guts and Casca. Later he would become immortal through unknown means and hunt the God Hand and the apostles for a millenia to the present day.In fact, escaping the eclipse could be the direct cause of his immortality, which would lead us to..

Whoever is branded as a sacrifice but escapes the eclipse becomes a type II immortal after some time

If the WMG above is true, this could mean that the ones branded by sacrifice are not only removed from the stream of causality but also become a type II immortal IE undying but killable. The reason Guts and Casca are rounded by apostles and evil spirits wherever they go is because a branded person exists in the border between life and death or "hazama" as described by Schierke, and she also questions herself if being in the hazama for a long time could have affected Guts and Casca in some deeper way, namely Guts going from very strong to absurdly mighty after the events of the eclipse. They would keep aging but remain killable through conventional means. Assuming the Skull Knight is has been branded as a sacrifice before, of course. This doesn't explain his horse, though.

Or the reason for his immortality could also be:

Prolonged use of the Berserker armor leads to the user's flesh being absorbed by the armor but renders the user into a type II immortal.

Its heavily implied that the Skull Knight was the previous user of the armor, and its mentioned that its last user wore it for such a long time that the armor absorbed his flesh and blood leaving only his bones. Seeing what the armor did to him, he asked flora to keep it sealed in her magic vault. Again, this doens't explain his horse.

At some point during the final battle, Guts will give up, only to be inspired back into action by...Magnifico.
Ok, this probably sounds crazy, but think about it: First off, Guts has had a great affect on everyone around him, he just really hasn't had time to influence Magnifico yet. Beyond that, Magnifico is now in a position to start learning how little everything he values really matters and, like his sister, to realize how weak he is. Furthermore, the screwing destiny is easy when you're somewhat like Guts...however, imagine how incredible it would be if someone like Magnifico pulled it off. Even knowing he couldn't win, even having some kind of potential escape hatch, when Guts goes down he runs forward to fight because, having seen what he has, he'd rather die than live in a world where his life is not his own. This would be the ultimate Screw Destiny: even the most pathetic among us can rebel against our destinies. Such a display of will might actually be a major blow to the Idea of Evil itself, who was now losing his grip not only on the destinies of heroes, but on the destinies of common people. Seeing this, Guts gets his second wind.

How Casca is going to get her scar.
During their love scene, when Casca is emotionally healing Guts of his childhood trauma, she says that she wants a scar from Guts, which more than likely signifies that she either wants to get a scar from protecting Guts, or that she wants a symbolic scar given to her personally by Guts. Even though this was back in volume 9, I always took this as a sign of foreshadowing. So how is Casca going to get her scar on account of Guts? The best theory I've come up with is as followed:

So, Casca gets cured, and let us assume that everything turns out fine. Guts is as happy as can be - except the Beast still wants Guts to kill Casca, and perhaps it's the Beast's presence that will partially get in the way of Guts and Casca reaffirming their relationship (other than Casca having to come to terms with all that has happened to her), since he is still worried that he will succumb to its influence and turn on her. So Guts is still cautious when he is around Casca, which puts a road block in their relationship not only because Guts is going to such lengths to protect Casca, but because Casca herself might feel even more useless (and I don't mean that in the Chickification sort of way - HELL. NO.). Now cue in a dramatic turn of events. Everyone seems to like the "Elfheim is going to get destroyed" theory, so we'll go with that. Apostles are everywhere, the team is fighting amok, and Casca wants to participate in the action as well, but Guts adamantly tells Casca to stay out of it and that he'll protect her and blah blah Knight in Shining Armor-speech blah. Way to put a defunct Action Girl down. Amidst all of the carnage, Guts succumbs to the beast, and slaughters all of the enemies present. That's good and all, except now he's going to turn on his friends. Maybe he even strikes out against one of the team (probably Serpico), and Schierke can't get through to Guts in his subconscious. It's not a full moon, so the Child is not present. Crap. what's left for them to do?

Invoke the Power of Love.

Casca steps in. She sees Guts in this malevolent armor, clearly not himself; she is perhaps a bit frightened by him. But Casca steadily begins to approach Guts, perhaps with more courageous steps at confronting the entity that has been taking physical and emotional advantage of Guts for so long (insert the rest of the group yelling, "No Casca! Don't!"), and starts talking to him. It's basically going to be the standard "I know you're in there!" speech, with Casca recanting how good of a person Guts really is, and how much she loves him. She then takes the boldest step by embracing Guts in the berserker armor - leaving her totally open for him to bite her on the shoulder with that big-ass monstrous helmet. But she doesn't let go, despite the pain and the blood. The Beast, now closer to his goal than ever, tells Guts to finish her off, only all of the good emotions start to flood back to Guts' subconscious from hearing snippets of Casca's words and feeling her embrace (insert love montage here). Then, Guts is finally able to rid himself of the Beast once and for all, and comes back to his senses... Only to see Casca bloody and unconscious on the ground.

Don't worry. She'll get better. AND she'll have a lasting reminder in the form of a bite mark, something that Guts will not be too proud of, but something that will give Casca a new found meaning in her life as well as giving her a more heroic She's Back reintroduction as she and Guts take another step in their healing relationship.

And that's my theory, which hopefully encompasses the fact that Casca protected Guts (from himself) and that Guts gave the scar to her himself. I had better not see this on Fanfiction dot net.

At the end of the series Godhand still won't be defeated
Guts wil only stop Griffith's plans and save the world, but Godhand will still be around. Guts and his team will start picking up orphans and train them to become Apostle hunters. Because if Guts is capable of beating so many Apostles, imagine what damage to Godhand's cause could do an army of badasses trained by him, Serpico, Schierke, Roderick and Farnese (and additionally maybe Skull Knight, Azan or Casca), with equipment created by Ricket.
  • I think the most awesome thing next to Guts becoming a Norse god would be if Guts became a Beowulf-like king among his own clan of Apostle hunters.

Those with Pointy Ears are of demonic lineage.
Reiterating some factoids above, it's possible that people with pointy ears might not be entirely human, and might actually be part of an ethnicity/nation of people who had an apostle as an apical ancestor. They're kind of like the "elves" of the Zelda-verse: they have pointy ears because of some meaningful lineage, but other than that, they're pretty much normal humans. Because of their demonic lineage, they've become pariahs and have no national boundary of their own, so they must live off the borders of other states as mercenaries (so, they're basically a combination of the proud warrior race and proud merchant race). If they stay in one place for too long, they're subjected to ethnic cleansing, which might have been the unfortunate fate of our hero's mother. So, maybe reason why we've been seeing less characters with pointy ears is because the story simply is not taking place in their territory.

Let's look at Guts in particular for a moment. We've discussed both here and in the headscratcher section that it's arguable that Guts isn't really a normal human anymore because of the influence that being a part of the nexus has on him. In essence, we can all argue that Guts has now attained another level of badassery: Empowered Badass Normal. But it's not just because he's in between the natural and the supernatural realms, but by being exposed to this is re-exposing him to his apostle ancestors, giving him a power boost. So Guts is technically a self-hater if this is the case, but at the same time, what better person to hunt apostles than one who is part apostle himself?

Here's the kicker. The only other main person besides Guts who has pointy ears is Griffith (yeah he's not technically a human anymore). So that would mean that he and Guts are practically kin. Perhaps this partially explains their bond to one another... And a reason why Griffith was chosen by the crimson behelit. How creepy is that?

The Skull Knight IS the Petal Storm King

Remember back when he came to "visit" Guts at the beginning of the Conviction Arc?

It was very brief, but Puck did mention that an Elf aura emanated from the Skull Knight. You know how Miura works, nothing in the manga is thrown just for the kicks of it. If Puck said something like this, it's Foreshadowing.

The Skull Knight has something to do with the elves.

Many believe he was the Emperor Gaiseric. Slan calls him "Majesty". He wears a crown of "bones" around his skull. Clearly, he used to be royalty before becoming an undead. Plus, he talks about the Petal Storm King, but not even Puck nor Evarella seemed to know about that king... There's something just not right here.

My belief is indeed that the Skull Knight IS the Petal Storm King and he's just acting as Guts' Cynical Mentor in order to test his mettle and to help him unleash his full potential, in order for him not to do the same mistakes he did back in the days. He might be a mentor to Guts in the end and will help him bringing Casca back.

However, the Skull Knight knows what Casca really wants and knows that this will cause Guts huge pain. I'm pretty sure he will tell him something around the lines of Be Careful What You Wish For, because maybe it's better for everyone if Casca remains in her state. The Skull Knight definitely knows more than what he lets on, so I'm pretty sure he has something to do with Elfhelm in one way or another.

  • Denied pal. He knows the Petal Storm King (Queen, as we all know), but he isnt the king.

If Guts is Batman, then Serpico will be Nightwing and Isidro will become the Jason Todd.

The white entity that helps Guts control the berserker armour is the child they met on the beach.

In the Falconia arc Guts ends up fighting a sea God and almost gets taken over by his demon. However the child they found on the beach watches the sea god and we get multiple close ups of the child when Guts is found safe. Considering Miura this is probably going to be realised when the child starts talking.

Guts and Zodd are descedants of Emporer Gaiseric.

It would make sense in context. All three are Badass, Have considerable fighting skills and all have something to do with god hand (if Gaiseric is the Skull Knight).

Griffith discarded some of The Child's essence, which turns into The More Grown Up Child

Shortly after he was reborn with The Child's flesh, he visited Rickert and Guts to see if there's any reaction to them. While he initially felt nothing, he felt a reaction when Guts fought Zodd, and later protected Casca from a bunch of falling rocks. Seeing how he wishes to be 'free', he could have found a way to seperate those parts of the Child which still has feelings for his parents, keeping only those he needs.

Miura put a veiled Pro life aesop in Berserk

He makes some very valid points too. Just look at the corrupted child:

  • It's treated as a character, even tough it was only conceived a few days earlier and should only have been a pile of cells.
  • Guts wants to get rid of it as soon as it appears, but Casca stops him from doing it.
  • The Skull Knight also urges Guts to kill it. He is a very cynical guy.
  • Even tough it's evil, the child ultimately proves to be on the side of it's parents, not the Godhands.
  • If Guts had killed the child, Casca would have been burned at the stake without Guts knowing of it.
  • Now that it appears to have been purged of corruption, the child turned out to be very cute and infused with some superpowers that could prove helpfull against Griffith in the long run.
  • So Miura tells us that aborting an unwanted foetus denies it it's right to choose for itself what it wants to do with it's existence. And the boy does rather well, considering his origins.

    • Hmm. No. Miura doesn't care if a baby is killed on-panel for petty reasons or in a massacre. Plus, the baby itself was used for the reincarnation of Griffith/Femto, a demon lord. So no, it doesn't work. Given the setting and how high and indiscriminate the death toll of Berserk is, it's highly doubtful Miura wants to make an "anti-choice" statement. Plus, there's absolutely no proof that the child is "purged of corruption" since it only appears sporadically.
    • Except no baby is is killed on panel for reasons that are justified as good. Sure, Guts killed child apostles but they were posing a real danger to him and he was still in his sociopathic black swordman days. In fact, Guts very existence is an indication that Berserk has a pro life message because Guts was born from an executed woman. Nobody cared for baby Guts yet he refused to die until someone did come along who decided to care for him. That, and Guts, the last person who is supposed to be alive in this universe positively refuses to die and despite the Godhand and his enemy within, he does a lot of good and is still heroic, what with his love for Casca.
    • Now you're just shoehorning your beliefs In a World… where abortion has little to do with the story. If anything, Miura is actually denouncing the hypocrisy of "anti-choice" with Mozgus who will save a baby on one hand but who will torture its mother and tons of innocent people (children included, look at the corpses in the "garden" of the Egg of the Perfect World) and dump them like garbage once they succumb to their injuries on the other hand. All of it being justified with some "divine duty".

Gambino wanted to kill Guts out of jealousy.

Not that Gambino didn't also hate Guts because he "supposedly" was the cause of Sys' death, but Gambino might have also have been jealous of young Guts due to the attention that Sys gave to Guts. Finding baby Guts spared her from insanity, so she must of put a lot more attention into him, aside from just taking care of him as a mother should. Even her last words were of Guts, not Gambino.

Griffith will try to make Gut's companions join him
He could attempt it with his new powers that basically makes everybody except Guts want to give him oral sex. But Guts will prevent it by finally telling everyone about his past and what he did.
  • Alternatively it will be Casca, who may regain her sense at that time, that will tell them everything.

Guts will be blinded in his other eye...
...and it will only make him EVEN MORE badass.

Akira Inugami is Guts if Berserk had taken place in a high school setting.
They do have a butt load in common:

Charlotte will be the ultimate Big Bad of Berserk.
  • Someone mentioned above that Griffith may sacrifice her, using his status as a member of the Godhand to bend the rules to allow the sacrifice (since she's not really a "loved one")...however, strictly speaking no rule bending would be required for HER TO SACRIFICE HIM!!!!! The trigger for this would likely be the realization that he never loved her. This realization would likely also turn her into a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, trying to euthanize the entire universe so that no one else would ever have to feel a broken heart like hers.

How Theresia is going to make her evil comeback.
Now that Theresia is considered another Ensemble Dark Horse, now we can discuss how exactly she is going to come back into the picture after all of this time. I think that she will come back... but not anytime soon, since there is honestly no telling at what point in time Berserk is going to come to an end (staying true the Icelandic saga tradition, Berserk can end when Guts is in his 70s or even with a possible descendant after his death... Who knows what Miura is planning?). I think it would be reasonable for Theresia to come back when she is in her late teens or early twenties. I hear a lot of fans saying that she's simply going to become an apostle herself, but that seems too easy and kind of overused now. Rather, I think things will go down like this:

Wandering the world without a home or parents, it's unfortunate to think that little Theresia might have fallen on desperate times: after losing her home and possibly being forced out of the castle town that her father reigned, she might have possibly became a prostitute, but I think there's an even stronger chance that she might have followed in her mother's footsteps and became involved with pagan worshipers (orgies and all). Only Theresia takes it up a notch by becoming an actual sorceress.

A dark one, of course. We haven't seen any legit wicked witches in Berserk yet.

Theresia becomes a dark witch, using her powers to sway men to her will, disposing of them along the way, and eventually climbs back up the social ladder through lust and deceit. Then, to gain even MORE power, she willingly becomes involved with an apostle, remembering how powerful her father was, perhaps even marrying one, and they produce offspring (that is to say if she re-enters the story at an even later age, like in her 30s or 40s).

And her magic, political power, husband, and children will all be her instruments of revenge against Guts.

Basically, I picture Theresia becoming this Morgan le Fey/Echidna/Elizabeth Bathory kind of woman, surely a deadly foe for Guts (I mention Echidna because I imagine Theresia's half human/half monster offspring being particularly difficult enemies for Guts if the "Guts is part apostle himself" theory is correct, since they would match him in power).

On a lighter note, this would make Theresia the "bread-winner" in her family, as she is calling all of the shots, making her apostle husband the Henpecked Husband.

She'll still be scary as shit.

Griffith will sacrifice his new Band of the Hawk.
Given that he's acting as the Messianic Archetype, it certainly wouldn't do for people to go around claiming he used hideous evil monsters to do his work for him, as he similarly demonstrated on Gannon. Zodd will survive, and join Guts until the day of reckoning occurs in a singularity of badassery.

Casca's life will get worse.
In the fridge section, somebody mentioned how the sheer magnitude of what has happened to Casca is pure unadulterated horror itself, and I don't think any of us are denying that. I at first disagreed that Miura could possibly think of anything worse that he could do to this women above making her be raped by the epitome of evil... but I think he can now. How so?

By forcing her to marry the epitome of all evil!

So along the storyline, Griffith does indeed dispose of Charlotte, since he had empty feelings for her to begin with. But he still needs "something." I know that half of the fanbase says that Griffith has no empathy for anything while the other half says that he and the rest of the Godhand have the most embodiment of human emotions... at this point, I just don't know what to think of Griffith's complex characterization. All in all, say that he still does have some feelings (be they of affection or of malice or both) toward both Guts and Casca. Guts just keeps getting stronger and stronger and has his own army of allies and can possibly out match Griffith, earning Guts more resentment from Griffith. That, and Casca is cured at this point and is at Guts' side again, which miffs Griffith even more (since you can interpret Griffith's deeds toward Guts and Casca during the eclipse as his own way of separating them as what he saw as punishment for their actions). So if violating Casca wasn't completely successful at driving Guts into a pit of despair, what else can he do?

How about using said unholy tryst as a form of marital rite and drag her off to hell to be with you for eternity?

I always found the Griffith-getting-Casca-killed-so-he-can-officially-take-her-to-hell-and-force-her-to-become-his-bride scenario plausible, since Griffith fantasized about Casca becoming his wife before he ever did with Charlotte (if he's ever done so with Charlotte). Of course, Guts probably isn't going to take this sitting down and he'll probably make the greatest sacrifice of getting killed (or even killing himself) in order to go down to hell and defeat Griffith once and for all, which could be one possibility for a final showdown.

"And then what?" since both are technically dead at this point?

Uh, I guess the "Formation of the Idea of Good" theory mentioned above could play a role...

Guts' Five-Man Band is going to become the good Godhand.
I know that Guts has more than five companions, but let's just say the pick of the litter - Farnese, Serpico, Isidro, Schierke, and Puck - will Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence and form a good equivalent of the Godhand in the ethereal plane. Could be a possible answer to the "good Godhand equivalent" theory if the "creation of a non-existent good Godhand" theory is correct.

Griffith wants Guts to be a Godhand.
Given how possesive he is, it wouldn't be surprising that he wants Guts under control instead of simply killing him. Plus there's the fact that, due to what happened in the Eclipse, Guts escaped the flow of causality and continues to shove a middle finger in its face. The last thing a system that runs on Because Destiny Says So is someone outside it, and converting them to their cause makes them a very useful puppet. Griffith is making it so that either Guts is killed, or broken to the point of Heel–Face Turn. Screwing with the physical plane is just part of this.
  • In the Black Swordsman arc, I remember the rest of the Godhand discussing how they wanted Guts to come over to The Dark Side... I'm not sure if that included Femto though, but it's a possibility. That or I thought the complete opposite would happen and Femto wouldn't want the competition if Guts became a Godhand/apostle.

The Skull Knight is the Grim Reaper.
As this world's Anthropomorphic Personification of death, his first priority is to rid it of the immortal creatures messing up the natural order, starting with the Godhand.

The Godhand (sans Slan) are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Striking similarity?

  • Femto - War
  • Void - Death
  • Conrad - Pestilence
  • Ubik - Famine

Slan is more of a personification of the Seven Deadly Sins (seven guesses as to which one), but I will add that the lines of which Godhand best represents which horseman is blurred, since there are several interpretations on what each of the four horsemen represent in themselves. For example, the White Horseman (pestilence) would actually be more befitting for Femto instead of Conrad, since scriptures say that the White Horseman is suppose to represent The Antichrist, and so far, Griffith deceives the people as a messiah, conquers all that oppose him, and he returned on a white steed; however, according to the cool wiki, there are some allusions that Ubik can represent the Antichrist, since he also has powers of deceivement, as he used them on none other than Griffith when he first appeared. Of course, Conrad could himself take on the role of the both the White Horseman and the Black Horseman (famine), since his image was present when Wyndam was wrought with plague. Pretty obvious why Void would be the Pale Horseman (death). Of course, if you wanted to throw the theory mentioned above into the mix... They are rivals after all.

  • An alternate interpretation of this theory is that Griffith is in fact the oft forgotten 5th horseman: Conquest.

Rickert is the Leonardo da Vinci archetype of Berserk.

Sure, Godo looked a lot like da Vinci (being an old dude and all), but for the most part he just made better than average weapons. It's really Rickert who improved most of what Godo made, the crowning achievement being the iron arm with a built-in cannon AND repeating crossbow. I'll tell ya what: Rickert might not be my favorite character, but the kid has potential for being the leading scientific mind of the Berserk world. Maybe he'll be the one to finally bring the world into its renaissance, and better yet, there's the possibility that Rickert is going to making some inventions that will turn the tides of whatever battle is to come - depending on who gets to him first.

Griffith has a long lost twin who is the true Hawk of Light.

... Making Griffith himself the Hawk of Darkness. And it could be Fricka from The Prototype.

Casca is a descendent of the Bakiraka.

Assuming that Casca is 100% certified Kushan.

Ever since I saw Silat and Casca dish it out in volume 9, I always thought about the possibility that Silat wanted to go after the Hawks to especially kill Casca, perhaps because the reason why her folks emigrated from the Kushan Empire was because they were exiled, and maybe they were exiled from a branch of the Bakiraka clan. Think: maybe Casca's She-Fu abilities - which are also apparent in Silat - weren't taught to her, but are innate. Basically, Casca's 'rents did something that the rest of the Bakiraka didn't like, so now there's a price on their heads, including all of their "issue", and they had to flee from the Kushan Empire to avoid possible death. However, Casca grew up unaware of her lineage, so she has no idea what is going on.

I bring this up also because a lot of fans wish for Casca to have her own story once she gets better, since they want her to be a truly independent woman who is not bound by the two dudes who essentially screwed her to begin with (no pun intended). That said, some fans hypothesize that Silat could have role in her story: maybe they become comrades or rivals. Or, it could be revealed that Casca is an heir to the Bakiraka (by birthright or some other coincidence), which brings up the possiblity that she is suppose to marry Silat. Of course, if she keeps to The Chief's Daughter ideal (which she sorta already has while with the Hawks), Guts has already won.

But applying the above with the "At the end of the series Godhand still won't be defeated" theory stated previously, it just makes me wildly guess a bit more with...

Guts and Casca are going to become a Ruling Couple.

Guts forms his own group of apostle hunters and eventually becomes king. Casca is a long-lost Bakiraka princess. They both love each other a lot.

Put two and two together, folks.

Thus, the beginning of an awesome Heroic Lineage whose goal is to thwart Griffith's rule (bonus points in that Guts himself could belong to a nation of people independent from Midland (pointy ear theory), so this would effectively create an alliance between his group and the Bakiraka of Kushan).

May the saga continue!

Schierke was the witch that Griffith was suppose to kill, not Flora.

Griffith's minions only said that they went to Spirit Mansion to take the head of a "very powerful witch." BUT, unbeknownst to them, there were two very powerful witches living in that mansion... And they killed the wrong one. In fact, to speculate a bit more on Schierke's backstory, of which we know very little about, maybe Flora took in Schierke as a baby because she was destined to become a very power witch who would help Guts save the world, even surpassing Flora herself. Classic Genocide Backfire and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy scenario.

Peekaf is real.

We've come to learn that All Myths Are True in the Berserk universe, and thanks to its Layered World, we have some very reasonable explanations for how the story of Peekaf went down in reality. Now that the layers have all merged, it's very likely that he's among the many mythical creatures that are now running around all over the place. And chances are, after growing up in isolation, surrounded by Elves who didn't accept him, that he may not be a sweet little kid anymore.

Guts' family is a zigzagged xerox of his childhood family.
Guts' childhood:
  • A baby (Guts) was born under very heinous conditions (in which some fans think had a supernatural connection)
  • A mercenary father (Gambino) does not like son and tries to kill it but fails
  • A mother (Sys) was insane but loves baby regardless
    • Said mother also goes through a miscarriage
  • Baby grows up and becomes badass
Guts' adulthood:
  • A baby (Guska) is born under very heinous conditions induced by supernatural events
  • A mercenary father (Guts) does not like son and tries to kill it but fails
  • A mother (Casca) is insane but loves baby regardless (but stays insane)
    • Said mother also goes through a miscarriage (of said baby)

So naturally:

Guts will cure Casca with... True Love's Kiss.

Now won't that be ironic?? It wouldn't be entirely unfathomable, since the story is going into that fantastic, Heroic Fantasy route lately, and they are going to the land of fairies and everything whimsical. Plus, it still has all of the dark undertones, since Casca is "asleep" like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, but it's due to her insanity. Add the fact that Guts hasn't kissed Casca with love since before the Eclipse - well, why not? All of Guts' recent motives have been powered by love, why not just add another theory to the roster?

Of course, no one's saying that this will all end in fairytale-ish way. It is still Berserk.

There is going to be a Josei spinoff manga with Luca is the main character.

Actually this will certainly not happen but i still think the idea has potential for something ground breaking in the genre.

Guts will end up with Roderick.

...just because its the only pairing that nobody seems to have even thought of...let alone asked for...

Berserk is Kentaro Miura doing the most complex after-action report in history for his F.A.T.A.L. game.

Gritty, down-to-earth Medieval European Fantasy? Check. Set in one of the most horrific Crapsack Worlds imaginable? Check. Gorn-tastic violence with disemboweling and dismemberment abound? Check. Rampant prostitution and promiscuity? Check. Rape as far as the eye can see? Check. The reason that there's such a long wait between volumes is because it takes the players so long to roll d100s every time they want to do something, so games last forever. Of course, this just raises the question of why a writer as talented as Miura would think it was a good idea to play FATAL...

Guts' father is Nosferatu Zodd

So far, we have heard little to nothing about Guts' parentage other than that he was born from a corpse in a hanging field. This little theory stems from the pointy ears, which everyone seemed to have in the early parts of the manga, but which only two characters seem to have now — Guts (as a nod to his original design) and Zodd (who has them by dint of being a demon). Guts can't go One-Winged Angel like a true Apostle (since he has not made a sacrifice to become a demon), but he does have that Superpowered Evil Side that has quite literally hounded him throughout the post-Eclipse part of the manga and may account for his superhuman strength, speed and endurance. And Zodd certainly seems to have an odd kind of respect for the Black Swordsman despite the fact that he is his master's enemy.

  • Given this is Guts we're talking about, Zodd was probably pretty fine before becoming a demon.
    • Here's an idea: Zodd is actually Guts' uncle. Guts' true father was actually a rather handsome Bishounen demon that got the looks while Zodd got the muscles, and he had a Friendly Rivalry with his brother Zodd, with the two greatly respecting one another...but unfortunately, Guts' true father died sometime in between conceiving Guts and Zodd meeting Guts. Zodd can see some of Guts' father in him, and while he can't figure out why, he doesn't care since it gives him a chance to continue the rivalry through a proxy; as such, he extends the same amount of respect to Guts that he extended towards Guts' father, even if he does so unintentionally.

The Black Beast isnt just Gut's Hatred

Think about it for one second, other people have as much hatred as him or similar yet none of them are manifestating such a thing, my WMG is that the black beast is a spirit that is trying to gain posession of Gut's body, and it entered for the first time inside Gut's post eclipse before he developed awareness of the spirits, going a bit deeper it could be Femto just implanted the spirit to drive Guts even crazier.

  • ... That's actually a really creepy possibility (as far as Berserk goes).
  • Makes sense. If the Black Beast is Gut's unrestrained hatred, it'd be kind of stupid to remove Casca as a Morality Pet-she's the primary reason why Guts is full of Unstoppable Rage. If Guts were to no longer care about Casca, he'd have FAR less reason to be angry at Griffith, and by turning him into a monster he probably wouldn't be full of rage anymore, just sadism. Rather the Black Beast would want Guts to become The Unfettered, doing whatever it takes to get revenge without worrying about those he cares about. I bet the Black Beast was put there to corrupt Guts, so that Femto could have him as his soldier/he just plain old hates good.

Berserk is the distant past of Getter Robo
Crapsack World filled with Cosmic Horrors? Axe-Crazy protagonist who regularly does what should be impossible?

Clearly, Guts has been doused with Getter Rays at some point.

Miura is going to get so fed up with the fandoms constant accusations of having gone soft that he will end the fantasia arc on an incredible downer.

Don't be surprised if all the kids in Guts' party suddenly get eaten by a tentacle monster.

  • Well, if we're going to go that far, we mind as well just admit to ourselves right now that...

... Miura is going to end the series with an Esoteric Happy Ending.

I've heard rumors that Miura is planning for the series to end on a happy note.

But given what kind of series he's given to us, what the hell is Miura's definition of "happy"?!

Farnese is going to learn fire based magic at some point.

And she will use it to incinerate an apostle wile looking a tiny little bit too happy. Just like that her Character Development will come full circle as she is now purging the REAL evil with fire.

Guts is the true Hand of God
He has been wiping lesser Apostles. He survives everything, as if something were putting things right for him. He made Griffith lose his temper and started the chain of events that ended with the birth of Femto. He even forced the Emperor to adopt another strategy and brought exactly what God wanted. The Skull Knight would be, too!

The Skull Knight is the "wise man" imprisoned by Gaiseric while Gaiseric became Void.

The dominant theory of Gaiseric becoming the Skull Knight and the "wise man" becoming Void is a bit too obvious for a story taking decades to unfold, not to mention it relies on the existence of a previous Godhand that has otherwise not been referred to in the story. With the information currently available a more likely origin for the Godhand and Skull Knight is this:The angels who punished Gaiseric were actually the Four Spirits, summoned by the Skull Knight to take revenge on Gaiseric for whatever reason. On the verge of death Gaiseric used an Egg of the Emperor to make a pact with the Idea of Evil, which had only recently became self aware due to the recent wars and plagues causing the world to become more miserable than it previously had been, using his subjects as the sacrifice needed to become a Godhand. Because Gaiseric/Void not only cheated death but became an immortal demon god in the process Skullsy gave up his own humanity so that he could kill Void, perhaps adopting Gaiseric's skull mask in order to mock him.

Guts will hunt Griffith throughout the ages and into the present.
An alternative take on "The Band of the Hawk will be a Vicious Cycle" theory and the "Eclipse survivors become Type II Immortals" theory is that the story will end in the Berserk-verse's modern era, with Guts (maybe Casca) surviving several hundred years into the future, vowing to bring down Griffith in his current persona, kinda like Highlander.

The Godhand are motivated by sadism.
The Idea of Evil apparently exists as an explanation for why there's suffering, and the Godhand claims that they're following destiny, but beyond Void and maybe Femto, do you really think they're entering the Moral Event Horizon Olympics simply because destiny/we need to explain why Midland is Midland? While the former may go to explain why they're turning the world crapsack, it doesn't justify their means(using vulnerable and broken people as evil incarnate instead of just using the plentiful amount of ordinary scum). Its more likely that they're simply making Midland miserable because they want to, and the whole Idea Of Evil ordeal simply helps. They target people hitting the Nietzchean Abyss not just because they want both their servants and enemies to be miserable, but turn desperate people into monsters since they plain hate decency.

Griffith/Femto is unhappy.

Griffith got the magnificent kingdom he always wanted, but when we get around to see him again (if we all haven't become 10 years older by that time...) we find that he's Lonely at the Top, and eventually realizes all he really wants is Guts.

  • Griffith is a complete and utter sociopath, so he can't be Lonely at the Top and his leather pants have invaded this WMG. More likely that his magnificent kingdom isn't as impressive as he dreamed it would be.
    • I never said he would turn out to still be a good guy...
    • I meant along the lines of Yandere or Villainous Crush, not that Griffith is a "good guy underneath who just needs Guts' love". Sorry for not elaborating.

The Beast IS Guts.

Okay. I might be going on in a bit of a tangent so you'll have to bear through, but I was thinking about what someone had said to me awhile back about Guts and I've been researching on what makes Berserk such a great horror story in context, since the term seems to be thrown around whenever monsters + gore is present. To briefly state, there are three types of common horror protagonists: the hero who overcomes, the hero who fails, and the hero who is the horror. The last two are especially popular in Japanese horror, and you see how all three of these apply to Guts.

The last one is the one that I really want to look into. If we apply the "Guts isn't entirely human" theory to this, what if we were to say that the Beast was always with Guts and is an integral part of his pre-story (by pre-story, I mean birth)? If Guts is part of some demonic lineage, then it would mean that the Beast is in his blood. In fact, what if there actually is a berserkr race and everyone in this group has some sort of anima that unleashes their fury (or at least aides to unleash) and reaches its "prime" when the individual experiences their Darkest Hour? I guess the story is just named after Guts' extraordinary drive and endurance, or quite possibly the Berserker armor, but it would be interesting if there was a real clan of berserkers that Guts was genetically linked to.

Of course, if this is true, then that would mean that Guts would be inherently evil since if any other individual's anima acts the way that Guts' does, well....

Then again...

Going back to how Berserk is a good horror, there is another element when talking about monsters in horror stories: their symbolism and representation is most often more frightening than their actual physical appearance. So I've always surmounted that behelits, apostles, and the whole sacrificial rite are suppose to represent the darkest recesses of the human heart... the anima (I'm not a wiz on Jungian theory, mind you). So with this in mind, if we are to believe that Guts is part apostle, he merely inherited this potential for dark recourse, not necessarily an apostle's physical strength.

To further add some moral complexity to it, this could be another Nature Versus Nurture thing, since if one never has to unleash their inner beast, they will never have to depend on it and have it eat away at them. Surely not everyone born with this wants to become a fighter, and just because they might doesn't mean that they won't have a heart. Guts started his life as an innocent baby and sweet little kid but was forced into a life of violence, and although he retained a compassionate side, he still had a battle-thirsty side to him that almost went to straight up bloodlust after the Eclipse, Guts' darkest hour.

This is when the Beast actually starts to make a physical appearance, since Guts has reached his peak and is a true berserker. But now that Guts has resolved to fight more or less for love, he's trying to suppress that crazed berserker side of him, his anima. And since the Beast is just his anima anthropomorphized and not an independent entity, it's really is Guts clashing with himself.

Thus, Guts (the protagonist) is the Beast, the horror.

In conclusion, I guess an individual berserker's potential is dependant on how they are raised and how willing they are to embrace it, since I bet some individuals would have no problem with becoming vicious, heartless warriors if they're willing to go over the edge.

I hope that made sense...

Related to Puck activating the behelit:

So, there's plenty of theories on how the way Puck dotes on the behelit being foreshadowing toward him becoming an apostle. OK, I can get behind this. Here's the thing: he DOTES on the behelit. Besides Isidro, it seems like it's the one thing he cares the most about. So, if it gets activated by Puck, we're going to find out what happens when someone sacrifices a behelit. Probably would break the system, much like the above theory on if Guts is the one to activate the behelit and then giving a big fuck you to the God Hand. This could be AWESOME.

The real reason Flora had to be removed was her ability to teach magic to muggles.

You may have noticed Farnese is gaining magical power rapidly ever since the worlds were merged, even tough she only started learning it fairly recently. This is because magic is now a mundane fact of life that anyone can learn with relative ease, providing someone teaches them. Obviously, the god hand would have a bit of a problem if a lot of humans could use this power against them so they had Flora killed, not for her power but for her knowledge.

Griffith will actually prove to be the downfall of The Idea of Evil.

The Idea of Evil came about because of humanity's need to believe that all the bad things that happen in the world are happening for a reason. Their collective consciousness feeds it, and it continually shapes fate and tilts things in the favour of the Godhand. However, now that Griffith has set himself up as Messianic Archetype, people will start believing in a force of good that will protect them from the bad things that will happen. That collective belief will create The Idea of Good, which will balance the scales and give Guts, The Skull Knight, and their allies a fighting chance.

Casca was The Heart of the original Band of the Hawk - and played a bigger role in Griffith's Despair Event Horizon than what fans were led to believe.

So it's time for some Casca appreciation. A lot of fans think of her as just this third-wheel character whose only real purpose in the story is to serve as a source of romantic strife. With that, fans simply surmise that when Griffith found out that Guts was going to leave a second time, that was what triggered his Despair Event Horizon. But I think otherwise.

Okay, to start, Griffith and Casca's relationship always perplexed me, mainly coming from Griffith's perspective because he's just so... Griffith. But I think that while Griffith never really saw her for romantic desires or as his soldier of fortune (like Guts was), Casca was an important instrument to Griffith's success. While Griffith was their leader and Guts was their champion, Casca was the embodiment of all of the their combined effort and goals and is the center of their morale: she was the Heart of the Band of the Hawk. Casca had done a great deal for the Band of the Hawk, not just for Griffith's sake, but because she saw them as her family, and loved them so. And since the Band of the Hawk was Griffith's most cherished and precious thing, it's natural that his love for Casca would have come from that, since she was the heart of all of that.

Basically, Griffith's love for Casca is loosely akin to Joseph Campbell's interpretation of the goddess figure, much like how Guts views present-day Casca in the story.

As the emotional centerfold of the Hawks, Casca served as Griffith's lifeline in many ways. While you can argue that Guts' presence distracted Griffith away from his dream (and, it's a pretty damning case against Guts since Griffith even said it himself as his Wham Line), you can also argue that Casca's presence gave him focus, one example being when Griffith nearly had a breakdown after having to spend the night with General Gennon, but Casca was right there to cool him down. I think that might have actually have been the point when Griffith started viewing Casca from this standpoint, since Griffith had probably never shown that sort of vulnerability to anyway before. From then on, she served as a reminder to Griffith of all of his sacrifice and everything he had to win by using the Band of the Hawk; Casca, at this point, was also 100% committed to becoming Griffith's sword and woman, which also helped to boost his ego, probably.

To another extent, Casca also indicates the relative "health" of the Hawks. Remember that she was the only one who managed to keep the Hawks together and alive during Guts' and Griffith's absence, and Griffith was probably surprised to find out that the Hawks were still hanging by the threads, all due to Casca.

However, being tortured and isolated for a year took its toll on Griffith's psychological well-being, and I think this is where Griffith's feelings toward Casca began to manifest into something else...

Remember that I said that Guts served as a distraction for Griffith. I think that Griffith did love Guts, but for entirely different reasons that were pretty damn destructive, considering what Griffith went and did after Guts left. I honestly think that Griffith was 100% (or at least 87%) done with Guts after that: Guts betrayed and left him and (partially) messed everything up for Griffith and his ambition. After being rescued, Griffith probably subconsciously knew that his dream was screwed, but he didn't have to believe it if he only had the Band of the Hawk with him, and most importantly, Casca.

Only problem is, Casca was being "distracted" by Guts as well... and if Griffith lost Casca, he knew everything would be over, not just because if she left, the Band of the Hawk would most likely permanently disband, but also because the embodiment of everything that the Hawks was and what Griffith worked toward would be gone forever, far away from him.

I believe that's where Griffith got very desperate, so much so that he contorted his original depiction of Casca. She wasn't just his mascot anymore, but a woman, a desirable woman. And alas, in order to cement his feelings toward her, he'd have to physically consummate that relationship. Of course you can make this 10x more creepy by saying that by having sex with Casca, Griffith would be having sex with the Band of the Hawk, the thing he loved the most. It's kinda like how priests of some religions would have sex with the temple maidens of a certain goddess in order to have symbolic sex with that goddess. Yeahhhh... Enter the wagon scene, where it's heavily implied that Griffith was trying to rape Casca in vain. She knew that Griffith would pose no threat to her in his state, but the gesture disturbed her regardless and she reacted with fear and defiance. To be honest, whether Griffith was even a bit physically capable or if if he was trying to seduce her under consensual circumstances, I think Casca would have still rejected his advances. And that's the key to this scenario under any circumstance: Casca rejected Griffith, cementing her fidelity toward Guts. This was a big blow to Griffith, since she would never have denied him in the past.

But the biggest and final blow came when Griffith overheard Casca telling Guts that she was going to stay with Griffith and the Hawks after all... but for all of the reasons that he didn't want to hear: "He's tiny", "he's weak", "he trembles so."

That’s not the sort of attitude to carry with the Band of the Hawk; that’s not how the mighty White Hawk should be regarded.

Casca admitted then and there was no hope for the Band of the Hawk, for Griffith.

Even though he might never had planned on being with her as a woman despite how much she wanted to be with him at one point, and that she wasn’t his greatest champion at arms, Griffith knew that Casca would always have his back on his journey toward his goal, and she would always be a reminder of how unstoppable he was with achieving his dream, always placing him on the highest pedestal. But now, she was only with him because he was weak and pitiful, and if he wasn’t in that condition, she would have left him. No matter how much she loved them, Casca saw a life outside of Griffith and the Band of the Hawk; soon, they would no longer be her top priority. Even if she was still physically with Griffith and the Hawks, her heart was somewhere else: with Guts. Not to mention that in hindsight, Casca was pregnant, and if Griffith had not activated the crimson behelit and Casca stayed behind (or, if he didn’t activate the behelit at that point in time), her top priority would have been to her child, and the child would have always been a lingering reminder of Guts. She was no longer the Heart of the Hawks, and Griffith’s lifeline was severed. His dream was over.

So while Guts' betrayal marked Griffith's first step toward his Despair Event Horizon, Casca's betrayal made him cross the finish line of that marathon.

In the end, I think this has to do with Casca's character development greatly. She obviously had some self-worth issues and was never really aware of how important she was to the success of the Hawks. Maybe Griffith wasn't even aware, and that's what leads some fans to kind of overlook Casca's role in all of this, but then I remember one really important scene that is also overlooked. Remember when Judeau was telling Casca about how he tried to organize a rescue party to search for she and Guts but how the nobles didn't agree because they were just cannon fodder to them?

Well, Griffith angrily said, "Those two are key to us. I cannot afford to lose them."

I think Griffith was more aware of Casca's importance to him and his dream after all.

So in conclusion, this makes what Griffith did to Casca during the Eclipse a zillion times worse.

  • At this point, one could write an entire thesis about the sheer number of ways that rape scene crossed the Moral Event Horizon and you would still miss out on a few subtle aspects.

How dark Berserk is relates directly to the number of companions Guts has.

If you read the entire thing it's obvious. Why was the opening arc so dark? Because Guts started out on his own and only had Puck with him later. What were the sweetest moments in the golden age arc? The ones involving Guts being close to the hawks and especially Casca. Why was the eclipse so shocking? Because it took away everyone Guts cared for. Why did the ending of the conviction arc feel relatively upbeat despite the staggering body count and the return of Griffith? Because Guts had rescued Casca and some new friends were ready to join him. And why did the Sea God arc feel like a goofy adventure despite it having plenty of horrible things going on and Guts almost drowning in a pool of gore? Because Guts now has an entire platoon of followers including a BadassCrew of sailors and a magical merrow army. At the current time, Guts is almost a straightforward hero with little of the "anti" left.

Of course things could all change for the worse again when some of these companions would die...

But on the bright side: You can now trust Guts to risk his life for ALL his friends, not just for Casca. For that was the purpose of the Sea god arc: Bonding with the team, growing it into something formidable.

The beast is a metaphor, either for Miura's younger self or a part of the fandom.

In the first case it is the hot shot young mangaka who once tried to make a name for himself by being as edgy as possible. The guy who started out making a series of non-stop ultra violence and taboo breaking scenes. Present day Miura became much more nuanced but the old urge to be super hardcore still claws to the surface from time to time.

In the second case the hound stands for the part of the fandom that doesn't like the recent new kid characters, the more adventurous tone and the generally more hopeful outlook of Guts. They also want Casca gone because they think having her around in her current state brings down coolness factor. They just want Guts to keep slaughtering things wile spouting nihilistic lines with a mean scowl and nothing more. Guts telling the beast to shut up and wrapping it in metaphorical chains should tell us something of Miura's opinion on those nay sayers.

The godhand has always been 5, and will always be 5.
The godhand all prayed to 4 angels, each one of them. These 4 angels are the other 4 of the godhand, who exist outside of time. The only time there are 4 is the exact moment that 1 of them is about to pray.
  • Back when he was dying, Wyald mentioned there being four of the God Hand. That wold make this one extremely unlikely.

Griffith's transformation is not complete.
Because two of his sacrifices, Guts and Casca, are still alive. Since he's not fully transformed yet, he is vulnerable in ways that the other members of the Godhand are not.

The Incarnation Ceremony inevitably causes the God Hand to be wiped out.
The Eclipse that creates a new God Hand member occurs every 216 years like clockwork. The Incarnation Ceremony that allows Griffith / Femto to re-enter the physical plane and all the wacky metaphysical nonsense that happens afterward happens every thousand years. There are five members of the God Hand. 216 X 5 = 1080, close enough to 1,000 for government work. So every fifth God Hand is able to take advantage of an Incarnation Ceremony. So what happened to the last five? We don't know, but given the series' emphasis on fate, we can make an educated guess: inevitably the newly corporeal God Hand makes a play for world domination and merges the planes of existence into one, which has the unintended side effect of somehow making them vulnerable to a sufficiently pissed-off mortal who goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Over time, the planes of existence sort themselves back out like oil rising back to the top of water after they've been given a good stir, leaving behind legends (which Fade To Myth) of all the fantastical creatures, gods, and demons that once lived side-by-side with mankind. Two hundred and sixteen years later, the first of the new God Hand is born, and the cycle begins anew.

Femto's rape of Casca had other effects, and when she recovers, she will Screw Destiny as the embodiment of Chaotic Good.

The Idea of Evil is essentially a construct born of human desire, using causality to enact its will on the universe according to its purpose... but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's self-aware enough to fully understand the consciousness that made it, or what aspects of human desire is being fulfilled by its actions. Casca didn't just lose her mind due to the horrible trauma of what was done to her and what she witnessed, but also because she came into direct and nightmarishly intimate contact with a creature whose entire existence was foreordained while Guts, the other most important person in the universe, was watching and unable to help. In other words, she became the literal breaking point between Griffith's and Guts' respective threads in the tapestry, and she herself shattered accordingly.

However, this leaves her with a Blessed with Suck superpower: she is no longer affected by laws of causality. She may be affected peripherally by the actions of others, but she no longer has a destiny of her own, and could possibly ascend via Abstract Apotheosis when people being conquered by the God Hand begin crying out for salvation, something that the God Hand certainly aren't going to give them. Being the only person in the world with true free will, she'll convert the existing Crapsack World governed only by Lawful Evil to a more traditional, D&D-like world where Lawful Evil is opposed by Chaotic Good.

It also means there may yet be hope for redemption, both for living villains who were never given a true choice to be anything but what they are, and for the souls of the damned who never did anything wrong themselves.


Guts is unknowingly being aided by The Idea of Evil
Think about it. The very purpose reason The Idea of Evil exists is just to cause humans to suffer. Now, going back to the initial story arcs of Berserk,excluding Golden Age and ending at the Tower of Conviction, Guts has pretty much been vilified by the people he ended up saving. Now, if I was the embodiment of humanity's evil, I'd see potential in Guts and manipulate everyone for the sake of spurning mankind to suffer more. Hence why it allowed Griffith to go against its purpose and become a messiah to the people. For the sole purpose of having the Falcon of Light (and probably the rest of Femto's fellow demons) be struck down in front of his followers and let the world plummet into despair.
  • Hell, this might not even be the first time it would do such a thing. Remember Emperor Gaiseric and the collapse of his kingdom? Caused by a wise man calling forth five angels to smite him? It can be agreed that these angels were the Godhand and either the wise man or Gaiseric becomes Void. It appears that whoever the previous five members of Godhand were, they were replaced with Void, and eventually Ubik, Conrad, Slan, and finally Femto. If the idea of the renewal of Godhand coinciding with a great catastrophe which causes widespread suffering for humans is repeating. Then this could by how the 'Ideal God of Man' manipulates casualty on a grand scale where even the chosen members of its hand are mere pawns to it.
    • If this is the case, then it's likely that Guts' intended fate is to eventually die (or become something similar to the Skull Knight) or become the next 'Void'.
      • But, considering how Guts tends to strangle fate until it turns blue, something unexpected will probably happen. After all casualty is not a circle, but a spiral.

Griffith never became Femto and instead is currently dead, or worse.
When Griffith agreed to become an apostle in his despair, there was no successful merger between Femto and Griffith. The reincarnated version of them that we see is not Griffith at all; rather, Femto tricked the utterly broken Griffith, killed him, and took over his life/identity. That's why "Griffith" felt no remorse for what he did to Guts and Casca, above all the other reasons, and why he did such a horrible thing to them in the first place. Alternativey, Griffith really IS in there somewhere, but he is basically a dormant spirit who lacks any sort of control over himself and cannot stp Femto. That could also be a part of the reason that Griffith ruined both Casca and Guts; Femto just wanted to break Griffith even further if possible, by forcing "Griffith" to also break both the people he cared most about. In this case, even if Femto could be separated from Griffith somehow, Griffith would be dead both inwardly and outwardly.

The Idea of Good is hiding out in Elfhelm and will turn Guts' crew into a god God Hand
Because these plot points need to be sped and Guts' crew need a power up badly.

The Petal Storm King isn't going to help Casca in the way we think.
Sure, someone - not particularly the Petal Storm King - will probably give Casca a potion that will give her her lucidity back or something, but we should know better than to believe that her deep, deep problems will go away that easily. That would be the easy part.

Maybe I've been watching too much The Legend of Korra (which turn was probably inspired by Star Wars, and isn't Miura a Star Wars fan?), but I thought it'd be interesting if what the Petal Storm King gave Casca was spiritual and existential guidance to help her overcome her collective trauma and struggles. It'd be a perfect opportunity to give her some more arc development apart from Guts, and I think the two of them having a dramatic confrontation over what he did to her would be good catalyst toward her spiritual journey, as well as being a good close when she's ready to confront him once again (a la symbolic sword fight, as always.

And Skellig has to be a big island (archipelago?). There has to be a mystical swamp somewhere.

Berserk Musou will have a What If? story where Eclipse is averted or thwarted

It's Dynasty Warriors, and Koei has been known to make some What If? with better outcomes. While the story won't end after Eclipse and the birth of Femto, I think they will at least give us a chance to see what happens if Eclipse GET prevented. Ways to do it:

  • By doing certain tasks before Eclipse, Griffith can be convinced to even refuse the Godhands' offer, or just make the Godhands never appear by not getting him onto Despair Event Horizon.
  • Guts endures the demonic onslaught and then kills off the majority of demons or even the Godhands AND Femto in the first place. The Skull Knight saw no reason to save the day. However, the price is, Casca was still damaged. But at least the Godhands will never bother humanity again.
  • The ultimate one: Guts accomplishes all those while saving his friends and preventing Casca from being damaged, proving that he's the ultimate, unstoppable badass of Midland.

Let's all remember that this is probably Just for Fun and an overdue Throw the Dog a Bone that Guts really deserved, and remember that Tropes Are Not Bad. Fearing that Guts becomes a Mary Sue because of this? Fair play is fair play, the Godhands and Femto have been enjoying their Villain Sue luxury for quite some time, it's OK to 'switch place' for a time.

Especially when the game they're in is meant to make the player feel like a completely unstoppable One-Man Army... Yep, Guts is already one, but surely the player will want it that not even demons can stop them...

Guts is supernaturally lucky.
Surviving his mother's hanging, getting picked up by mercenaries twice, even winning when gambling with his soldiers. Guts has displayed luck that's unusual.

If the series is ever completed, it'll have a happy ending.

The Idea of Evil exists because people needed a reason for their suffering, but that doesn't mean they want something to actively make them suffer. The "reason" they need isn't "What is making me suffer?", the reason is "What is the point of my suffering?" The Idea of Evil's plan is not to make everyone miserable for no reason, that would go against its purpose. Its plan is to force all of humanity to endure a degree of suffering that they feel would be a fair trade for an amount of happiness, it's just that there's a huge disparity between the value of happiness and the value of pain: offer someone fifty bucks if they'll let you cut off one of their toes, and they'll probably tell you to piss off; offer them a million, and you'd get at least a few takers. Offer to make sure that they, their friends, and their family are all set for life, and they might gladly offer you their whole leg. The thing is, the Idea of Evil is the only figure that knows the exchange rate and it doesn't ask permission or consent, so to everyone in the Berserk universe, it's just an insane amount of suffering with no apparent benefit.

Griffith planned to rape Guts after Casca.
His rape of Casca was based out of spite, a means of punishment for Guts leaving the group and for the changing dynamic between the three. Thanks to his Godhand powers he's aware of Guts' own trauma involving being raped, so afterwards he planned to humiliate and hurt Guts in the worst way possible. Why start with punishing Casca? To maximize the pain. He wanted to show what was in store for him with the knowledge he has no way of stopping it, and have him fail to save the woman he loves all at once. Thankfully for the Black Swordsman the Skull Knight arrived, or he'd probably be just as broken as Casca.

Speculation of the backstory of Apostles.
  • Slan: Her cult is a sign that, like Void is implied to be, she was a religious leader. Though not necessarily a good person, she was a powerful figure for free love and came to rival the church. However this cult would come crashing down, and it's possible part of her despair involved being raped. The demonic pagan orgies are a perversion of her old faith due to having embraced evil.
  • Ubik: A genius in life, he was involved in politics and the sciences. He was very knowledgeable in supernatural phenomenon, and started to uncover information about causality, the Behelits and such. Knowing the truth of fate and the world he lives in drove him mad, and embraced the Crimson Behelit so as to rise above and become the closest to independent he wishes-as an arbiter of fate.
  • Conrad: Depending on who came first, he could be either a fan of Ubik's work or vice versa. He was a master Plague Doctor, attracting a following to his healing. However there was a tragic secret he learned too late; he was a Typhoid Mary. As he would cause more harm than help, the people despised him and demonized him, burning him at the sake. This despair activated his Crimson Behelit just in time, and now he embraces his nature as an agent of pestilence.
  • The Snake Baron: Despite his current claims, he was never a baron. He was but a bog-level servant for the actual aristocracy, and spent his days faithfully serving his master. He rose in service like a more low-tier Griffith, however for all his loyalty he was fired and made poor. This led to his despair, and embracing a ruthless baron as an Apostle to feel empowered.
  • Nosferatu Zodd: Given how disciplined he is even as an apostle, it stands to reason that he was a prestigious military commander. To improve his position he was try a dangerous maneuver on the enemy, leading to his capture and torture. Due to his Even Evil Has Standards ideology, he either sacrificed a loved one who sold him out or just a loved one, but had regret and decided to retain his own take on morality.
  • Wyald: In spite(or really because of) his later behavior, as a human he was rather chaste. He used to be a celibate monk of sorts, living to a ripe old age as seen with his elderly form. However he remained a deeply lustful person despite condemnations. Think Frollo. He had a close friend who ended up living a great life full of pleasures of the flesh and war, which made him really envious. As a sick old man his clergy left him, and he felt he wasted his life in the papacy. This compensation and general depravity is why he's such an egregious Serial Rapist.

Griffith will betray the Godhand.
As per the Idea of Evil, the Godhand's purpose is to provide a reason for the pain and despair in the world while enforcing it. In general, they seemed content with enforcing a Vicious Cycle. Griffith, however, is different; he actively changed the world, and serves to be an agent of hope and a messiah. Of course this is entirely Pragmatic Villainy, since even before the Eclipse he didn't give a damn about making a better world and has devastated most of it to force people into his Gilded Cage of Falconia. He is defined by his ambition, so why would he want to stop at being a Godhand? And I doubt he'd want to be anything less than superior to everyone, including the Godhand and The Idea of Evil (in fact, he'd probably take offense at being subservient to that or fate).

Now that he's established Falconia, the Hawk of Light is biding his time so as to ascend past even a Godhand and become a true god. To do so, he needs to alter the very nature of the world which he does by fusing the astral and physical planes, all to reach greater heights until there is nowhere left to rise, however far that may be. There are a number of possibilities; I think the most likely is that as he knows the nature of the Idea of Evil, he hopes to use his followers, the power of their worship empowered by the fusion of planes, to become an idea god and the ultimate DarkMessiah. Maybe he wishes to manipulate the World Tree to reach greater heights. Either way, he plans to change the game and become the unparalleled power.

Obviously, the other Godhand aren't going to tolerate this renegade, which will lead to an Enemy Civil War. Void in particular, given he's the closest they have to a single leader and seems the most consigned to their role of manipulating fate. The Four Godhand will fall on the arrogant new king like the four angels a millennium ago, though whether they succeed or get killed remains unclear. Given Guts and Casca have the biggest right to his head, Griffith will fend off his first encounter only to have an opening for those he betrayed most of all to kill him. For bonus points, the transformations and power-grabs he's done will be the very things that makes him semi-mortal and once more his ambition leads to his downfall.

While Guts and Casca have gained their revenge, it will be a Bittersweet Ending. Though members of the Godhand may be slain, there will be at least one member who survives like was implied last time during the reign of Emperor Gaiseric. The world will take centuries to recover from the changes done to it. The Idea of Evil will still exist, and may continue to exist in some form so long as people desire a reason for their suffering. But Griffith's own actions have permanently changed the status quo, allowing the cruel hand of causality to weaken its grasp. Ironically his act of benevolence will allow real good to come about and lessen the Godhand and Apostles' grips, either increasing the supernatural forces who wish to better the world or even forging a new god who represents hope and the desire for a better world. An antithesis to the Idea of Evil, a god to its devil. A better world.

In short Griffith will try to break the cycle to become all-powerful, but it will be the very thing that leads to his downfall, kind of like last time. Of course, whether he'll go through with all this depends on how similar or different Femto is to Griffith besides the Lack of Empathy.

The Behelit in Guts' possession is not meant for him...
...It's for Casca, and the moment she regains everything that had shattered within her, she'll not be able to cope with it and use it (as it finds its way to her) as a last effort to escape it all. Alternatively...

The Behelit in Guts' possession will become Femto's undoing...
Casca, her memories and herself restored, ends up performing a Heroic Sacrifice once it all is lost (Thinking that Guts have been killed by Femto during the final confrontation, for example), uses the Behelit and it's revealed that she still cherish and treasure Griffith above anyone and anything else, essentially branding him as a sacrifice as Casca crosses the Moral Event Horizon and as fate and consequence dictates, have Femto torn apart by her apostle-form and his soul dragged off to hell forever to complete the sacrifice, leaving a much weaker and killable monster behind for Guts to finish off than the Omnipotent humanoid eldritch abomination that's Femto. Pure poetic justice, as not even the Godhand are above the casualty of fate, turning this into a beautiful case of poetic justice and karma towards Griffith, considering what he did to her during the Eclipse.

There already is an Idea of Good...
...specifically, the Behelits.No, seriously.Behelits find their way into the hands of people who suffer, and grant them great power. This power is usually used to destroy the source of that person's suffering. In other words, Apostles follow the standard path of a hero in other stories.This isn't a coincidence. Just as the Idea of Evil is a perversion of humanity's desire for its suffering to be meaningful, Behelits are a perversion of humanity's desire for a world where villains meet terrible ends.

Berserk is intentionally becoming lighter in tone because the Idea of Good is growing.
Considering the theories that Guts is (unknowingly) creating or strengthening it: Miura is gradually lighting the tone of the series as a reflection that the Idea of Good is becoming real as Guts (and maybe, to some extent, Rickert) defy fate and gather more "followers". And perhaps its existence somehow affects or is affected by, but not exclusively, Guts' perception of life, as he seems more hopeful and okay about it in recent chapters.

Emperor Gaiseric is the Skull Knight and Void is another ruler from the past.
This would explain their apparent rivalry. Void could have been the ruler of another kingdom who opposed Gaiseric and became a God Hand to defeat him, this could have led to Gaiseric using the Beserker Armour and reducing him to his current state and the two have been trying to kill each other ever since.

Not only Silat, but Daiba will eventually join Guts cause too.
Maybe due his Moral Event Horizon at attacking Vritannis, he maybe won't reach True Companion status, but he will make a reliable ally. If the enemy is a Physical God leading hordes of apostles, you probably won't miss the opportunity to have another powerful magician at your side.

Gaiseric/Skull Knight used to be a God Hand.
It is said that every millenium a God Hand will be resurrected into a corporial body, Griffith being the latest one, We also know that Emperor Gaiseric basically came out of nowhere with a great army to unite all the city tates and tribes into the first empire of humanity. A sage imprisoned by Gaiseric, who professed Gaiserics sins even under every torture imaginable until angels were sent down to destroy Gaiseric decadent empire in one night (i.e. the sage being turned into the God Hand Void). This whole situation sounds very similar to the events of the latest eclipse. So maybe Gaiseric used his God Hand powers and charisma in the same vein as Griffith to establish his empire. And after seeing his empire turned to dust on the whim of his fellow God Hand and the newly created Void he swore to avenge his empire and bring an end to the God Hand and the Idea Of Evil.

Griffith isn't going to die at the end.
Instead, he'll simply be reverted to his cripple form, which might be further punishment that being killed at the peak of his reign. For added Irony, Casca could hand him his sword for him to kill himself with in a Call-Back of the first time they met, before walking away.

There will be an Idea of Good, and Guts will kill it

Because it is the Idea of Good, it is not a cosmic force of good, and where its rather easy to make the views on evil into an entity everyone would agree is evil, after all pretty much none would disagree that someone that causes suffering indiscriminately purely for the sake of suffering is evil, the views on good cant be coherently combined so easily, many places view it as the moral thing to do to rape gay people to try and make them straight, many religions declare the only way to be good is to follow there god, which obviously is mutually exclusive with any other religions view that only following THERE god makes you good, and many peoples idea of a hero is someone who violently destroys forces of absolute evil. These contradicting ideas would create a mad knight templar, either attempting to force its own twisted form of morality onto everyone with harsh punishments for even the most minor of crimes or simply declaring EVERYTHING it encounters evil and punishing them with a horrid death on the spot.

Void is Jesus
or the berserk world equivalent , while not possible to get an exact date berserk is set around the middle ages, and we know void would have had to join the godhand 1000 years before the story started, thus it is entirely within the realm of possibility for void to have been around at the equivalent time to the death of Jesus in our world, and the bahelit activate at the lowest point for someone, like saying being crucified, and as the first member of the godhand he could be considered the closest thing to the child of the Idea of Evil aka God this universe has and he is the one most involved in the creation of apostles , the other option is Void is Judus and Jesus was the sacrifice becoming a dark mirror of him

Griffith will eventually get a redemption, but not because of remorse for the Eclipse.

It'll be because he realizes the Idea of Evil and Causality itself have played him for a fool. This is a man whose only driving motivation is and has always been the idea of pursuing one's own dream. In confronting a healed Casca and a resolved Guts, who are not only defying their fates as sacrifices but consciously choosing not to be held down by the abuse they suffered in the past, Griffith will realize he's been a slave since the beginning; since the last two sacrifices haven't been killed, that means the ritual is incomplete, leaving Griffith's original identity room to reassert itself.

Aaand then Guts will turn him into a greasy stain on those cobblestones he loves so much, but he'll accept it. He couldn't kill himself by piercing his throat on the driftwood back then, but choosing to commit suicide-by-Guts will at least let him die as the man he was, defying his fate at last.

The moon child isn't Guts' and Casca's child. It's Casca's and Griffith's.
It's rare, but a woman can actually give birth to fraternal twins who are inseminated by two different fathers. Maybe Casca slept with Griffith sometime before the eclipse (somehow), or maybe Casca was pregnant with twins, the other fathered by Guts, but something about Femto's powers tainted one child into the deformed one that later became Griffith's flesh and blood body, but rewrote the other into being his child. The kid predominately resembles Casca, but it could be argued he also resembles Griffith (being pale and effeminate), and his interest in Guts as well as Casca could be less paternal and more Griffith's love/obsession for Guts being carried over. Hell, since he does also look like young Guts, maybe he's the child of all three, through demonic power shenanigans.

Guts will be the one to accidentally activate his Behelit, and be faced with the same choice Griffith did
Guts is heavily worried that something will happen to his new comrades just like it did with the Band of the Hawk, and it's often shown he has trouble keeping himself from attacking his friends alongside his enemies whenever he lets the Beast take over. In what more ironic way could his fears culminate than the Behelit being activated and Guts facing the same choice Griffith did: the Godhands can make him so strong he'll be able to fight and perhaps even kill Griffith, but in order to gain that power, Guts must sacrifice all his new friends to do so. Naturally, Guts would never go for this, but he could very well be given this choice in an extraordinary moment of weakness, such as being under the influence of the Beast, creating lots of tension on whether he'd be able to fight the terrible urge to go through with the deal.

Casca will be blindfolded in order to interact with Guts.

Casca is back and all would seem okay, except for the little detail that seeing Guts triggers her PTSD and makes her panic, making it impossible for them to touch, much less even talk to each other even as she's got her sanity back. This might seem like another highly complicated step to get through in order for Guts to be with his beloved again, but it might not be. Casca freaks out when she sees Guts, which begs the question if it's Guts himself she reacts to, or merely his image? Both times she's seen him, he's wearing his black armor which she associates with who he was during her insane days when she lost her trust in him. The Elf Queen and/or Guts' friends will ask him and Casca that they meet each other again, but this time, Guts will take his armor off, and Casca will be blindfolded. As Casca is blindfolded, she can approach Guts all the way and touch him, and being able to feel his skin, his breath and his warmth, overall, feel that he's the man she knows and loves (instead of seeing "the scary black swordsman") her PTSD won't be triggered. Guts in turn is a lot more vulnerable without his armor, in what will create a heartbreaking, intimate and emotional moment as the two can finally embrace each other while tears run down their cheeks.

After this, Casca can eventually take her blindfold off as touching Guts leads to her being able to see his face too without being triggered.

If Peekaf is real, then he will join Guts' Companion
Adding to the theory above, Peekaf will join Guts' Companion since he seem to fit right in with them. Why? Just for Fun Theory.

The reason the Neo-Hawks are so restrained compared to other Apostles

Age and the Placebo Effect, The only thing the Behelit ceremony does is transform people into Apostles, the rest of it is all them, the sheer act of sacrificing what the care about the most just drives them insane, along with power madness, the Neo-hawks however, seem to be refined and don't seem to have the same depravity their "lesser" brethren have, they have essentially, just got over the initial Depravity period all apostles have, once the shock wears off, they revert to their former personalities, all the Godhand did was give them power, how they chose to use it was upto them, and most picked Then Let Me Be Evil. Or...

They are more refined because they became Apostles for noble reasons
Gundbelds backstory indicates he became an Apostle to save his home, not for revenge or a moment of pure hate and/or despair, this affected his transformation, hence why his Apostle form is a crytalline dragon, rathr than the distorted Eldritch Abomination of the earlier seen Apostles, the Godhand operate with such a Blue-and-Orange Morality, that they can't truly recognize when despair is due to an evil and/or selfish reason or a pure reason, all the Neo-Hawks (save Rakshas... maybe), took the deal to save someone/thing but gave up hope of being able to do so on their own, which activated their Behelits, they took the deal but did so with a pure reason to do so, hence why they act more "humane" and don't seem so depraved as the rest.

Femto/Griffith won't be beaten by the Dragonslayer/Combat
But by remorse and regret, As shown by most apostles, none of them get exactly what they wanted in regards to what they initially agreed to be transformed for, usually, hoping it will strip them of their emotions, but what is the first thing Griffith does with his newfound power? an act of cruelty and spite, Griffiths emotions are probably still buried deep,deep down, and the one thing that none of the Apostles or Godhand show? Regret nor Remorse for their actions, at the end Guts will somehow tear down his grand plan of ruling, leaving him at square one, causing him to have an All for Nothing moment, and that moment will depower Griffiths power and causing him to become his former tortured and broken self, who if you remember was so fragile Guts near ripped his arm off just trying to lift him up, for added irony he will fall in such a way that his throat will be impaled by a bit of wood, just like he intended to before the Eclipse.

Skull Knight is an incarnated Godhand, just like Griffith
It's quite clear he isn't human, and knows alot more about the Godhand than anyone else, If he is Gaiseric, it's shown that the remains of his kingdom is full of skeletons who all have the Brand on them, which indicates Godhand, who in order to be made into one have to make a huge sacrifice of beings (whereas Apostles only need one), I figure, that Gaiseric paralleled Griffith in his term as a Godhand, even managing to be incarnated like Griffith, but something went wrong, perhaps Void betrayed him, in doing so it left the Skull Knight with less power, enough to keep going and fight against them, but not to the level he once was, perhaps he is grooming Guts to do the same.

Conrad is Ubik's descendant
This explain why the two later Godhand look so similar to each other to almost the point where they could be mistaken for twins. Considering the Eclipse that chooses a new Godhand occurs every 216 years, with Ubik assumingly the third to crop up, he probably recognized one of the candidates to become the fourth was his own flesh and blood. Being The Evil Genius and silver tongued scoundrel that he is, he managed to use convince Void and Slan in choosing Conrad over anyone else. The Idea of Evil allowed this, as nepotism is a lowkey form of suffering for anyone who fails to achieve their goals just because the other that was chosen is related to someone at the top.

When Griffith’s end comes, he will be Dragged Off to Hell by the original Band of the Hawk
However it happens, when Griffith eventually goes down, the spirits of the original Band of the Hawk will arrive to drag Griffith’s soul down to hell, just like Vargas and the other victims of the Count. Not only will this be the moment where Griffith finally faces some justice for the events of the Eclipse, but it will also serve as a curtain call moment for the readers, allowing us a chance to bid farewell to Judeau, Pippin, and the other characters we got attached to during The Golden Age arc. And it will be CATHARTIC AS FUCK.

Miura meant the 'Fantasia' chapter as a deliberate turning point in the story...
...changing the genre from fatalistic Low Fantasy to heroic High Fantasy.

Void was a victim of torture.
Out of the Godhand Void probably has the most disturbing appearance, and a number of Apostles have appearances relating to their pre-Apostle state; Femto looks like a hawk and his "helmet" resembles the one he wore after being tortured, Rosine has a form which reflects her Changeling Fantasy ect. Him and Skull Knight are clearly meant to be parallels to Griffith and Guts; perhaps like Griffith what finally broke a human Void into becoming a member of the Godhand was horrific torture.

Griffith is only a placeholder, and Guts is meant to be the real fifth member of the Godhand.
Slan tried to recruit Guts, he has a Behelit, and the Godhand know all about predicting fate. The theory is that the Godhand would try to sacrifice the entire populace of Falconia, and in the fight Guts would loose some of his companions and the Moonlight Boy. At this point Guts activates the Behelit and the Godhand make their pitch to Guts, revealing that everything about Griffith was to create an object of hatred that Guts would do everything to destroy. And Guts ultimately rejects them, which causes everything to fall apart. Griffith, meanwhile would be broken by the revelation that he was only ever a pawn, as well as the fact that Guts is a better man than he will ever be.

  • The Moonlight Boy will be the catalyst to Griffith's downfall.
Ok,so I think that the Moonlight Boy will be the down fall of Griffith due to the fact not only can he overtake Griffith's body once a month during the full moon (and Griffith being unable to do anything about it) but also since it's been pointed out that was all that child's abilities after everything he's been through and the physical Powers he displayed, it appears he'll be the one to knock Griffith off his pedestal. Which, goes back with way back to the earlier chapters about how the king of Midland complained about the burdens of being a king, how you wish someone would take over for his place, and how after what Griffith did to Casa, it seems the boy will be the catalyst to Griffith either dying or being de-powered. By Griffith's onw hand he just created the instrument of his own destruction.

Bonus points if his usually pretty facial features morph grotesquely ala Light Yagami during his own Villainous Breakdown. Alternatively he may go through Death by Disfigurement.

  • Each member of the Godhand has a specific purpose, that they're are choosen to fit in every specific incarnation
With the more recent chapters showing different entities serving as members of the Godhand, it makes sense that there is a specific function for each one of them, that once they've served their purpose would be discarded for a new choosen one of a new age. Griffith/Femto shows how the process works, they're are guided though their lives with a specific ambition, and once they have reached the peak of despair, the behelt awakens and begins the process of making them the new member of the God Hand after their predessessor is quietly "discarted". and each member has a specific role to play in the advancement of the plans of the Idea of Evil:

- 1º, The Philosopher: A wise individual who searched for greater understanding of the universe, and in the searching for that understanting, they aqcuire large followings that are inspired by their ideas and beliefs, only to eventually be brought down once those ideas come in conflict with the established way of thinking, the Philosopher them, after having their ideals shattered, offers his followers to the Godhand and ascends. In the Godhand, they serve as the unoficial leader that guides the other members towards their more high-minded, long term goals. Void and his unseen predessessor fit this role.

- 2º, The Seducer: A atractive and charming Individual that enchated many (often those frustated with societal constraints) with their beauty, and inspired their physical desires, causing them to break from common norms of society and search for other ways to enjoy their lives. Eventually they lose most their appeal, either because they're suplanted by others or because they're attacked for their disruption of the norms, at which point they sacrifice what's left of their admires. Slan and her predessessor fit ths role, and it's worth noticing that slan's predessessor in the flashback has a design inspired by the statue of Diana of Ephesus, a religious figure showing a fertility goddess with many breasts.

- 3º, The manipulator: A inbetween of the first two, this one was an intellectual that possessed great ambitions in the world, possibly in the political sphere, and was crushed by the competition, at which point they sacrificed their supporters. In the Godhand, they manipulate candidates to ascencion with their memories, deconstructing and twisting the facts in a way that would benefit the Godhand. Ubik and his predessessor serve this function, with the predessessor in question being the gaunt figure with only a mouth in it's face.

- 4º, The Beast Master: A person with a connection to the natural world, that uses that connection to manipulate lower creatures that would otherwise be unbound from the control of the God Hand,aka animals. How exactly this candidate would sacrifice to God Hand is unknown, since we don't know if the Godhand would accept animals as sacrifices or how they would gain a human following. Conrad and his predessessor fit this role, with their appearances also revealing how the Godhand chnages over time. The predessessor in question looked like a lion, a large predator that would harm and attack small human communites. As the humans developed ways to protect themselves from animals like that, Conrad instead focuses on insects and plague rats, small animals and that can infiltrate cities and infect and kill thousands in very short amounts of time.

- 5º, The Savior: A heroic figure that inspires others to follow them on their journey,often being taken as messiah, only to eventually suffer painfull and humiliating defeats at the hands of the main authorities of the world, after which they sacrifice their loyal followers and take the role actual messiahs to the humanity. Femto and his predessessor, the bearded warrior, serve this function. In the old times, these role could be fitted by a powerfull conqueror that gathers followers by strenght, and in Femto's case, gathering followers by providing relief from the sufferings of world and promises of salvation. Unbeknown to those followers is that the Savior in question is the byproduct of those injustices, and prepertatror of new ones.

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