No spoiler tags will be used on this page. It is assumed you have read the "lost chapter".
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 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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- So this is why humor is appearing more often as the story goes on...
- The scary thing is that it's recently been confirmed by Mr. Miura himself that he takes breaks from writing and drawing Berserk due to psychological reasons. So, I guess you told us so! Hang in there, Miura!
- Hang in there, Miura! Man, I got some bad news...
- Fridge Horror: The Godhand are so goddamn evil they're making the writer suffer.
- I guess Your Mind Makes It Real after all.
- Going on this, the Godhand are trying to break Miura. Why? If they can bring him to the Despair Event Horizon, Miura will probably not bother with any happy ending, and end the series with the Godhand winning and everyone in Hell. And Femto is enjoying every second of it.
- I guess Your Mind Makes It Real after all.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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...
- Jossed with the clan's establishment as disgraced Kushan exiles and Silat's willingness to disobey the Emperor.
- And it'll probably be part of Griffith's plan to make Casca his.
- 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.
- What about Ubik?
- 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.
- Yes, yes it would. It would obviously be much weaker than Idea of Evil, but gaining in strength.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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....
- 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).
- 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.
- 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...
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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."
- It is a mistranslation. Zodd really says that the Skull Knight has been "our foe for a millenium."
- Sooo.... Chekhov's Gun? (See discussion page)
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.
- Reread Volume 3. Can't sacrifice a sacrifice.
- Plus, sacrificing a woman he's practically married to and then running off another person who was a little girl when they first met? Really, that's DEFINITELY not so many kinds of outrageously wrong and out of character. Plus, it's obvious Ishidro is the Guts to Schierke's Casca; trust me, she's far more likely to end up with him provided neither get killed.
- 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.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed. She is a mermaid, but she's still shown fleeing the tentacles after that transformation.
- And it might actually end well this time! Dun dun duuun!
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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- Of all the WMG mentioned here, this one is the most *WILD*.
- Can't... comprehend... the insanity!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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...
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1). Berserk began before the Warcraft franchise even came into being. 2). World of Warcraft did not invent any of these combat styles. 3). Neither did Dungeons & Dragons.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- And to add, this can go along with the "Guts isn't entirely human" theory.
- 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.
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.
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.
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".
And Griffith's union with Charlotte would break it.
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).
- 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.
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'.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
- That - is actually kinda scary.
- 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
- 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.
GUTS.
Sorry. I just like the whole Norse aspect of the series.
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?
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...
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..
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:
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.
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.
- 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.
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?
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.
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.
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).
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.
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".
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.
- Alternatively it will be Casca, who may regain her sense at that time, that will tell them everything.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome AND snarky
- Pointy Ears
- Wolf motif
- Doom Magnets
- Stupid people mess with them all the time
- Ripped
- Arch nemeses have a hawk motifs (though, I hear that Haguro is also compared to a lion)
- Said arch nemeses have an unhealthy relationship to them to the point where both are thinking about the object of their obsession while they're having sex with women.
- Unfortunate enough to have to helplessly witness the rapes of the women they love, enacted by said arch nemeses just to piss them off.
- Both vow to protect them afterward.
- Missing their left arm in the midst of protecting their love interest.
- 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.
- Or euthanize it because, well, wouldn't you?
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.
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...
- 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.
- 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.
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.
... Making Griffith himself the Hawk of Darkness. And it could be Fricka from The Prototype.
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 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!
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.
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.
- 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
- 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:
- Baby will grow up and become badass
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.
Actually this will certainly not happen but i still think the idea has potential for something ground breaking in the genre.
...just because its the only pairing that nobody seems to have even thought of...let alone asked for...
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...
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.
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.
Clearly, Guts has been doused with Getter Rays at some point.
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...
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"?!
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.
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.
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...
- It's the same reason why people called bullshit when Aizen in Bleach was revealed to be Lonely at the Top.
- 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.
- I never said he would turn out to still be a good guy...
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- Back when he was dying, Wyald mentioned there being four of the God Hand. That wold make this one extremely unlikely.
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.
- 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.
- 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'.
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.
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...
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
- The Moonlight Boy will be the catalyst to Griffith's downfall.
- If and when Griffith is defeated he'll undergo a Villainous Breakdown of EPIC proportions.
- Each member of the Godhand has a specific purpose, that they're are choosen to fit in every specific incarnation
- 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.