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was renamed
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* BiggerBad: [[spoiler:The Idea of Evil cosmically, it's on the very top of the Berserk-verse as far as evil is concerned, but it has little to do with Guts' quest.]]
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Changed line(s) 314 (click to see context) from:
** And it's implied that if your nightmarish death is brought about by demons, then you go straight to a great morass of souls surrounding [[spoiler:a giant heart.]] And even if you don't, it's implied everyone goes there when they die, without exception. It isn't really Hell as the Judeo-Christians see it (if it had an analogy, it would be in the Shinto ''Jikoku,'' or "land of the dead," which is also a place which everyone goes to when they die), but from what has been shown of it in the manga, it ''isn't'' a very pleasant place.
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** And it's implied that if your nightmarish death is brought about by demons, then you go straight to a great morass of souls surrounding [[spoiler:a giant heart.]] And even if you don't, it's implied everyone goes there when they die, without exception. It isn't really Hell as the Judeo-Christians see it (if it had an analogy, it would be in the Shinto ''Jikoku,'' ''Jigoku,'' or "land of the dead," which is also a place which everyone goes to when they die), but from what has been shown of it in the manga, it ''isn't'' a very pleasant place.
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** [[spoiler:Perhaps chapter 307 is more appropriate when Griffith summons his own PALACE]]
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** [[spoiler:Perhaps chapter 307 is more appropriate when Griffith summons his own PALACE]]PALACE]].
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** Think about it. All that hard work and effort, and all that struggle? [[YetAnotherStupidDeath What it would take]] [[LuckBasedMission for for you to fail,]] and anticlimactically? [[HeroicRedRingOfDeath something as stupid as lack of sleep]], or [[MoralEventHorizon all that long term struggle finally taking a mental toll on you.]] Even losing the trust of comrades is detrimental.
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** Think about it. All that hard work and effort, and all that struggle? [[YetAnotherStupidDeath What it would take]] [[LuckBasedMission for for you to fail,]] and anticlimactically? [[HeroicRedRingOfDeath something Something as stupid as lack of sleep]], or [[MoralEventHorizon all that long term struggle finally taking a mental toll on you.]] Even losing the trust of comrades is detrimental.
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** Not to mention: It looked like Guts simply forgot to bring his sword [[spoiler: for the eclypse. In the manga it was broken and left stuck in Wyald's neck.]]
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** Not to mention: It looked like Guts simply forgot to bring his sword [[spoiler: for the eclypse.Eclipse. In the manga it was broken and left stuck in Wyald's neck.]]
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* AdaptiveArmor: The Berserker armor in many ways amplifies Gut's unique strengths and weaknesses, and certain parts of it change shape in response to battle conditions and his mental state. The helmet--which took on a canine appearance when he first put it on--closes over his face when the Beast of Darkness takes over his mind; if Schierke is there to protect him from the Beast, the lower half of his face emerges and his eyes become visible. As he gets injured, the armor enables him to continue fighting using drastic measures such as piercing his flesh with splinters to reinforce broken bones.
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* AdaptiveArmor: The Berserker armor in many ways amplifies Gut's unique strengths and weaknesses, and certain parts of it change shape in response to battle conditions and his mental state. The helmet--which took on a canine appearance when he first put it on--closes over his face when the Beast of Darkness takes over his mind; if Schierke is there to protect him from the Beast, the lower half of his face emerges and his eyes become visible. As he gets injured, the armor enables him to continue fighting using drastic measures such as piercing his flesh with metal splinters to reinforce broken bones.
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* AdaptiveArmor: The Berserker Armor.
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* AdaptiveArmor: The Berserker Armor.armor in many ways amplifies Gut's unique strengths and weaknesses, and certain parts of it change shape in response to battle conditions and his mental state. The helmet--which took on a canine appearance when he first put it on--closes over his face when the Beast of Darkness takes over his mind; if Schierke is there to protect him from the Beast, the lower half of his face emerges and his eyes become visible. As he gets injured, the armor enables him to continue fighting using drastic measures such as piercing his flesh with splinters to reinforce broken bones.
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** Not to mention: It looked like Guts simply FORGOT to bring his sword [[spoiler: for the eclypse. In the manga it was left stuck in Wyald's neck.]]
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** Not to mention: It looked like Guts simply FORGOT forgot to bring his sword [[spoiler: for the eclypse. In the manga it was broken and left stuck in Wyald's neck.]]
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* AbusiveParents: Gambino goes above and beyond with this. [[spoiler:It even gets him killed.]]
** This is also apparent in the Retribution/Peekaf story arc for both Jill and Rosine.
* AccidentalMurder: Guts defended himself from his AbusiveParent by taking up his sword... [[spoiler: and ramming it through Gambino's throat by mistake.]]
** This is also apparent in the Retribution/Peekaf story arc for both Jill and Rosine.
* AccidentalMurder: Guts defended himself from his AbusiveParent by taking up his sword... [[spoiler: and ramming it through Gambino's throat by mistake.]]
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* AbusiveParents: A lot of these show up throughout the series.
** Gambinogoes above started exposing Guts to the dangerous life of a mercenary when he was [[ChildSoldier six years old]], sold him to a rapist when he was nine, and beyond with this. [[spoiler:It even gets [[OffingTheOffspring tried to kill him]] when he was eleven. He blamed and hated Guts for everything bad that happened including the death of Sys, and was [[UngratefulBastard never grateful]] for Guts' love and obedience.
** Count Julius berates and injures his son Adonis in [[TrainingFromHell brutal sword practice]], and holds himkilled.]]
to an impossibly high standard while [[WellDoneSonGuy never praising him]] or showing affection even though the boy recently lost his mother. He wants his son to toughen up to prepare him for his responsibilities as a royal, and tragically [[spoiler: both father and son die without reconciling]].
**This [[spoiler: The King of Midland]] becomes one to his daughter after he starts [[SanitySlippage losing his mind]], at one point [[AttemptedRape attempting to rape her]].
** In the Lost Children arc, Mr. Zepek is a good-for-nothing [[DrowningMySorrows alcoholic]] who beats Jill when he isn't completely [[ParentalNeglect neglecting]] his duties as a parent. Rosine's father alsoapparent in the Retribution/Peekaf story arc for both Jill beat her and Rosine.
[[MamasBabyPapasMaybe questioned]] whether she was his daughter, since she was conceived after her mother was [[ChildByRape raped]].
* AccidentalMurder: Eleven-year-old Gutsdefended only took up his sword to defend himself from when Gambino tried to kill him, but Gambino ended up impaling his AbusiveParent by taking up his sword... [[spoiler: and ramming it through Gambino's throat by mistake.]]on Guts' outstretched blade.
** Gambino
** Count Julius berates and injures his son Adonis in [[TrainingFromHell brutal sword practice]], and holds him
**
** In the Lost Children arc, Mr. Zepek is a good-for-nothing [[DrowningMySorrows alcoholic]] who beats Jill when he isn't completely [[ParentalNeglect neglecting]] his duties as a parent. Rosine's father also
* AccidentalMurder: Eleven-year-old Guts
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* AllMenArePerverts: Given the number of rapes, orgies and just all around lewdness coming from male characters in the series, especially the background ones, the trope is played straight. Notable exception is Guts himself due to his faithfulness to Casca, even though he was seen doing it with the Unnamed Female Apostle in the very first volume. Perhaps a case of EarlyInstalmentWeirdness.
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* AllMenArePerverts: Given the number of rapes, orgies and just all around lewdness coming from male characters in the series, especially the background ones, the trope is played straight. Notable exception is Guts himself due to his faithfulness to Casca, even though he was seen doing it with the Unnamed Female Apostle in the very first volume. Perhaps a case of EarlyInstalmentWeirdness.EarlyInstallmentWeirdness.
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* AllMenArePerverts: Given the number of rapes, orgies and just all around lewdness coming from male characters in the series, especially the background ones, the trope is played straight. Notable exception is Guts himself due to his faithfulness to Casca, even though he was seen doing it with the Unnamed Female Apostle in the very first volume. Perhaps a case of EarlyInstalmentWeirdness.
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* AllWomenAreLustful: Women aren't much better than men in this setting when it comes to wantonness. The numerous orgies depicted attest to that, along with the fact that most adult females of the cast are linked to sex in one way or another. Again, exception is made for Casca who doesn't consider sex a priority.
* AllWomenArePrudes; Averted due to the above, in addition to the fact that there's no "anti-sex" female character in the show.
* AllWomenArePrudes; Averted due to the above, in addition to the fact that there's no "anti-sex" female character in the show.
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* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler: It's implied that if Guts had chosen to stay with Casca post-Eclipse, he could have helped her through the trauma they had experienced. By choosing to deal with his own pain the same way he had always done (leaving the source of his heart-ache behind and engaging in mass slaughter) he doomed Casca to the near child-like state she is in now.]]
** Similarly, the Godhand outright tell Griffith that while he has [[spoiler: already doomed most of the Band of The Hawk to be devoured by the Apostles,]] the fate of[[spoiler: Guts and Casca]] is still his choice to make.
** Similarly, the Godhand outright tell Griffith that while he has [[spoiler: already doomed most of the Band of The Hawk to be devoured by the Apostles,]] the fate of[[spoiler: Guts and Casca]] is still his choice to make.
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* DeathWorld: The world of ''Berserk'' has never been a pleasant place, but ever since [[TheMagicComesBack the magic came back]], [[FromBadToWorse it's gotten even]] ''[[FromBadToWorse worse]]''! Various spiritual creatures, including dragons, hydras, trolls, and sea monsters have appeared and have since been wreaking havoc on the unprepared populace.
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* DeathWorld: The world of ''Berserk'' has never been a pleasant place, but ever since [[TheMagicComesBack the magic came back]], [[FromBadToWorse it's gotten even]] ''[[FromBadToWorse worse]]''! Various spiritual creatures, including dragons, hydras, trolls, and sea monsters have appeared worldwide and have since been wreaking havoc on the unprepared populace.populace. Griffith's kingdom of Falconia is pretty much the only safe place for humans left, and while it's happy and prosperous, it's ''Griffith''.
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* ArtifactDomination: The Berserker Armor has the effect of bringing out the wearer's "inner beast" (in the Skull Knight's case, his familiar skull motif, in Guts' case, "The Beast", his Hell Hound evil side), turning him into a raging monster incapable of distinguishing friend from foe.
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i suggest we delete this bit for the moment. Here is the discussion page [1]
Deleted line(s) 42,43 (click to see context) :
* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: Played straight for both. Obvious for men (see the Rape tropes gathered in the corresponding section), less so for women. However most ''adult'' female characters with a pivotal role are very much connected to sex or just lustful. Most exceptions are underage (Schierke, Sonia, Jill...), elderly (Flora) or non-human (Ivalera, Isma), with Casca as a true exception. More evidently, the female half of the two tropes is seen in the orgies shown throughout the series.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Averted for the most part. There is no woman in the series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the wholesome, innocent and pure country girls which often end up being assaulted and raped by marauders and apostles.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Averted for the most part. There is no woman in the series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the wholesome, innocent and pure country girls which often end up being assaulted and raped by marauders and apostles.
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No sorry, the whole Questionable Consent is YMMV material, not clearly stated, except as you said during rape scenes which are clearly depicted as different than the orgies. Let\'s not edit war over this. I invite you to the discussion page so we can come to an understanding.
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* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: Played straight with the former, but downplayed (if not subverted) with the latter. Self-explanatory for men (see Rape tropes in the corresponding section), but women tend to vary between lustful [[SexIsEvil villains]], rape victims (or characters who [[QuestionableConsent don't seem to particularly enjoy it]]), and the occasional prostitute.
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* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: Played straight with the former, but downplayed (if not subverted) with the latter. Self-explanatory for both. Obvious for men (see the Rape tropes gathered in the corresponding section), but women tend to vary between lustful [[SexIsEvil villains]], rape victims (or less so for women. However most ''adult'' female characters who [[QuestionableConsent don't seem with a pivotal role are very much connected to particularly enjoy it]]), sex or just lustful. Most exceptions are underage (Schierke, Sonia, Jill...), elderly (Flora) or non-human (Ivalera, Isma), with Casca as a true exception. More evidently, the female half of the two tropes is seen in the orgies shown throughout the series.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Averted for the most part. There is no woman in the series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the wholesome, innocent andthe occasional prostitute.pure country girls which often end up being assaulted and raped by marauders and apostles.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Averted for the most part. There is no woman in the series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the wholesome, innocent and
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* AntiVillain: Downplayed with Rosine. She's certainly a [[TragicVillain tragic]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds character]], but has also done unambiguously evil things with a cheery demeanor.
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* AntiVillain: Downplayed with Rosine. She's certainly a [[TragicVillain tragic]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds character]], but has she's also done unambiguously unquestionably evil things with a cheery demeanor.demeanor.
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They\'re not shown explicitly enjoying it. Either way, it\'s milder than usual cases of the trope.
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* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: Played straight for both. Obvious for men (see the Rape tropes gathered in the corresponding section), less for women. However most ''adult'' female characters with a pivotal role are very much connected to sex or just lustful. Most exceptions are underage (Schierke, Sonia, Jill...), elderly (Flora) or non-human (Ivalera, Isma). More evidently, the female half of the two tropes is seen in the orgies shown throughout the series.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Averted for the most part. There is no woman in the series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the wholesome, innocent and pure country girls which often end up being assaulted and raped by marauders and apostles.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Averted for the most part. There is no woman in the series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the wholesome, innocent and pure country girls which often end up being assaulted and raped by marauders and apostles.
to:
* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: Played straight for both. Obvious with the former, but downplayed (if not subverted) with the latter. Self-explanatory for men (see the Rape tropes gathered in the corresponding section), less for women. However most ''adult'' female but women tend to vary between lustful [[SexIsEvil villains]], rape victims (or characters with a pivotal role are very much connected who [[QuestionableConsent don't seem to sex or just lustful. Most exceptions are underage (Schierke, Sonia, Jill...), elderly (Flora) or non-human (Ivalera, Isma). More evidently, particularly enjoy it]]), and the female half of the two tropes is seen in the orgies shown throughout the series.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Averted for the most part. There is no woman in the series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the wholesome, innocent and pure country girls which often end up being assaulted and raped by marauders and apostles.occasional prostitute.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Averted for the most part. There is no woman in the series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the wholesome, innocent and pure country girls which often end up being assaulted and raped by marauders and apostles.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: Sonia, who has yet to cross a MoralEventHorizon, despite her rather amoral nature.
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* AntiVillain: Rosine. She looks like a [[http://p1.storage.canalblog.com/19/63/275635/13316160.jpg beautiful moth fairy]].
** Sonia also qualifies. An ever-smiling, cute, blonde young girl couldn't possibly be a '''very''' morally questionable character, right? Mule may apply to an extent but he's more of an UnwittingPawn than anything else.
** Sonia also qualifies. An ever-smiling, cute, blonde young girl couldn't possibly be a '''very''' morally questionable character, right? Mule may apply to an extent but he's more of an UnwittingPawn than anything else.
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* AntiVillain: Downplayed with Rosine. She looks like She's certainly a [[http://p1.storage.canalblog.com/19/63/275635/13316160.jpg beautiful moth fairy]].
** Sonia[[TragicVillain tragic]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds character]], but has also qualifies. An ever-smiling, cute, blonde young girl couldn't possibly be done unambiguously evil things with a '''very''' morally questionable character, right? cheery demeanor.
** Mule may apply to an extent but he's more of an UnwittingPawn than anything else.
** Sonia
** Mule may apply to an extent but he's more of an UnwittingPawn than anything else.
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The numerous pagan orgies shown throughout the series had nothing \"questionable\" about them, the women in there were clearly 100% consentent and willing. Plus, the main cast has plenty of lustful examples: Slan (embodies lust), Farnese (lustful but repressed), Nina (lustful), the Queen of Midland (lustful) or the unnamed Female Apostle (lustful). And with this you have a good chunk of the pivotal female characters of the show. Additionally, being pure and wholesome =/= being a prude i.e. anti-sex.
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* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: Played straight with the former, but downplayed or subverted with the latter.
** AllWomenArePrudes: This is actually played straight for the most part, considering that prostitutes and sex-crazed females are in the minority (and most of the sex shown involves some degree of QuestionableConsent). You'd more commonly find pure, innocent, wholesome country girls getting raped by marauders or apostles instead.
** AllWomenArePrudes: This is actually played straight for the most part, considering that prostitutes and sex-crazed females are in the minority (and most of the sex shown involves some degree of QuestionableConsent). You'd more commonly find pure, innocent, wholesome country girls getting raped by marauders or apostles instead.
to:
* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: Played straight for both. Obvious for men (see the Rape tropes gathered in the corresponding section), less for women. However most ''adult'' female characters with a pivotal role are very much connected to sex or just lustful. Most exceptions are underage (Schierke, Sonia, Jill...), elderly (Flora) or non-human (Ivalera, Isma). More evidently, the former, but downplayed or subverted with female half of the latter.
two tropes is seen in the orgies shown throughout the series.
** AllWomenArePrudes:This is actually played straight Averted for the most part, considering that prostitutes and sex-crazed females are part. There is no woman in the minority (and most of series that is clearly "anti-sex" but a variation exists among the sex shown involves some degree of QuestionableConsent). You'd more commonly find pure, innocent, wholesome wholesome, innocent and pure country girls getting which often end up being assaulted and raped by marauders or apostles instead.and apostles.
** AllWomenArePrudes:
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** Guts, on the other hand, is an aversion, since he's a decent guy who has also done good, but he doesn't even pretend to love everybody, nor does everybody that he meets love him.
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** Guts, on the other hand, is an aversion, since he's aversion. While he may be a decent likeable guy who has also done some good, but he doesn't even pretend to love everybody, nor does everybody that he meets love him.
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** AllWomenArePrudes: This is played straight for the most part, considering that prostitutes and sex-crazed females are in the minority (and most of the sex shown involves some degree of QuestionableConsent). You'd more commonly find pure, innocent, wholesome country girls getting raped by marauders or apostles instead.
to:
** AllWomenArePrudes: This is actually played straight for the most part, considering that prostitutes and sex-crazed females are in the minority (and most of the sex shown involves some degree of QuestionableConsent). You'd more commonly find pure, innocent, wholesome country girls getting raped by marauders or apostles instead.
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oh, also extremely debatable
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** Zigzagged with Casca due to her [[AntiHero love interest]], although she did seem to prefer Griffith more when he was at his nicest.
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** Zigzagged with Casca due to her [[AntiHero love interest]], although she did seem to prefer like Griffith more most when he was at his nicest.
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* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: A rare instance where both tropes are played equally and without any compassion for either gender.
** The trope is most apparent during the numerous orgies and attempted/succeeded rape.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Likewise, if you're not a prostitute or just sex crazed, a background woman's only role is to be the pure, innocent, wholesome, traditional medieval country girl who gets horribly violated by marauders or apostles (usually they're one and the same).
** The trope is most apparent during the numerous orgies and attempted/succeeded rape.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Likewise, if you're not a prostitute or just sex crazed, a background woman's only role is to be the pure, innocent, wholesome, traditional medieval country girl who gets horribly violated by marauders or apostles (usually they're one and the same).
to:
* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: A rare instance where both tropes are played equally and without any compassion for either gender.
** The trope is most apparent duringPlayed straight with the numerous orgies and attempted/succeeded rape.
former, but downplayed or subverted with the latter.
** AllWomenArePrudes:Likewise, if you're not a prostitute or just This is played straight for the most part, considering that prostitutes and sex-crazed females are in the minority (and most of the sex crazed, a background woman's only role is to be the shown involves some degree of QuestionableConsent). You'd more commonly find pure, innocent, wholesome, traditional medieval wholesome country girl who gets horribly violated girls getting raped by marauders or apostles (usually they're one and the same).instead.
** The trope is most apparent during
** AllWomenArePrudes:
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extremely debatable
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** [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Subverted]] with Casca. She liked Griffith best when he was being nicest, and [[AntiHero Guts]] was never a "bad guy", he just [[DarkIsNotEvil looks like one]].
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** [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Subverted]] Zigzagged with Casca. She liked Casca due to her [[AntiHero love interest]], although she did seem to prefer Griffith best more when he was being nicest, and [[AntiHero Guts]] was never a "bad guy", he just [[DarkIsNotEvil looks like one]].at his nicest.
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** The fact that there exist such a large number of Apostles, people who at one point lost all hope and resorted to the power of the Behelit, just goes to show [[CrapsackWorld how shitty the world of Berserk can be]].
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** Ishidoro is a loud mouth idiot most of the time and is notoriously WrongGenreSavvy but he's killed a fair number of nightmarish creatures on his own
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** Ishidoro Isidoro is a loud mouth idiot most of the time and is notoriously WrongGenreSavvy but he's killed a fair number of nightmarish creatures on his own
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* ClingyMacGuffin: Griffith's Behelit.
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* ClingyMacGuffin: Griffith's Behelit. The Berserker armour also does not like the idea of Guts forcing his way out mid rampage
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** Wylad, a lone apostle, slaughters dozens of red shirts and it takes Guts several chapters to bring him down and even then it's only thanks to [[spoiler: [[BidDamnHeroes Zodd coming in to save Griffith]] that they walked away alive. a few hours later Guts is murdering Apostles left right and centre when the eclipse goes down
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*** Thanks to the AdaptiveArmour nature of the armour Guts can use the helmet to bite through his enemies. Both awesome and terrifying
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* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Serpico gives off the aura of being a clumsy and care free lieutenant to an over zealous commander. [[EyesAlwaysShut Until he opens his eyes]] and becomes a terrifyingly cunning and skilled swordsman
** Ishidoro is a loud mouth idiot most of the time and is notoriously WrongGenreSavvy but he's killed a fair number of nightmarish creatures on his own
** Ishidoro is a loud mouth idiot most of the time and is notoriously WrongGenreSavvy but he's killed a fair number of nightmarish creatures on his own
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* TheAbridgedSeries: ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged''
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* TheAbridgedSeries: ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged''''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged''.
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* AuthorExistenceFailure: What many fans fear will eventually happen due to the series' lax release schedule.
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* TheCorruptible: First it was Griffith, [[FaceHeelTurn and the process completed.]] In fact, we can go on to say that anyone who is destined to become an apostle is this. Now this is Guts, due to TheCorrupter mentioned above.
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* TheCorruptible: First it was Griffith, [[FaceHeelTurn and the process completed.]] completed]]. In fact, we can go on to say that anyone who is destined to become an apostle is this. Now this is Guts, due to TheCorrupter mentioned above.
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* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Literally the first time we see Guts, he's in the middle of having sex with an apostle before killing her. Later volumes show that Guts has ''serious'' hangups about sex, making it a very odd introduction to the character.
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* BurningTheShips: In the Battle of Doldrey, Griffith positions himself and the portion of his army that he expects to face the largest part of the enemy force with their backs to a river and no way to retreat. He does this not only to motivate his own men, but also as part of a BatmanGambit: Cornered and outnumbered, his force presents a tempting target that succeeds in drawing the enemy forces out of their castle, which is promptly captured in a sneak attack by a small flanking force.
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** And then subverted a [[UpToEleven THIRD TIME]] later when Guts faces Griffith again in order to win his freedom from the Hawks. Guts is doing it because he feels he's dishonoring Griffith as friend by simply following him without a dream of his own, not because he's unhappy there. Griffith, already semi-consumed by his ambitions sees this as a betrayal. Their fight ultimately ends with [[spoiler: Guts' victory]]. [[DespairEventHorizon It doesn't end well...]]
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* TheAbridgedSeries: ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged''
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The sword Godo offers to Guts after the Eclipse, capable of cleanly cutting through the blade of another sword and the tip of an anvil in a single swing. A merely ordinary sized sword of exceptional sharpness doesn't suit Guts' style though. [[WreckedWeapon It doesn't last a single fight]].
* AbusiveParents: Gambino goes above and beyond with this. [[spoiler:It even gets him killed.]]
** This is also apparent in the Retribution/Peekaf story arc for both Jill and Rosine.
* AccidentalMurder: Guts defended himself from his AbusiveParent by taking up his sword... [[spoiler: and ramming it through Gambino's throat by mistake.]]
* AccidentalPervert: Isidoro met Schirke. Isidoro triped. Isidoro's hands ended somewhere that they shouldn't. Isidoro was reverted to monkey state.
* AcheyScars: Coinciding with AllergicToEvil, the closer Guts and Casca come into proximity with a powerful apostle, the more their brands hurt.
* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: The scene where the Hawks are on the border of Midland after the Griffith rescue operation. It is actually their DarkestHour moment and the scene is very much dramatic because of this since it's building up to the much more dramatic ending [[spoiler: [[{{Foreshadowing}} such as when Griffith desperately threw himself upon Casca,]] [[BrosBeforeHoes and Casca resolving that she couldn't leave with Guts]]]]. However, there are [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming still softer moments]], such as Guts and Casca reassuring each other that they want to be there for each other as friends and as lovers, when the Raiders tell Guts that they are willing to follow him wherever he goes, and Judeau telling Guts to be with Casca no matter what. These moments reinforce the theme of friendship and the bond that the Hawks have with each other; thus, reassuring that [[{{Tearjerker}} our eyes weren't going to dry anytime soon]] after watching the [[DownerEnding final three episodes.]]
* ActionGirl: Casca, before... ''stuff'' happened.
* ActionPrologue: Roughly the first three volumes act as this, depicting Guts ruthlessly hunting and killing Apostles. It introduces story concepts such as the [[DoomMagnet Brand]] and its effects, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Apostles]], [[ArtifactOfDoom Behelits]], the Godhand, and [[OurFairiesAreDifferent Elves]]. The next twelve volumes of the manga go through an extended flashback explaining how Guts got involved in all of this.
* ActionSurvivor: Mentioned briefly [[{{Badass}} below]], anybody who isn't a fully qualified badass but still manages to survive near-cataclysmic events for more than two volumes is basically this. That's good enough in the [[CrapsackWorld Berserkerverse.]]
* AdaptiveArmor: The Berserker Armor.
* AdaptationDistillation / CompressedAdaptation: Given the fact that a twelve volume arc is being adapted into three one-or-so-hour long movies, the new trilogy focusing on the Golden Age arc falls into these. With TheLawOfConservationOfDetail in effect to save time, a lot of scenes (mainly battle sequences) were cut out in favor of the more important ones, and some scenes were meshed together with other scenes in the first film; hence, it will probably be expected in the upcoming films as well.
* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: [[HatesBeingTouched We all know why Guts doesn't like being touched]] [[spoiler: because he got raped as a child]], and it's shown ''very clearly'' to us in the manga version with three later scenes showing how much he doesn't enjoy it: first when being tapped on the shoulder by a general, second when he mutters in his sleep when Casca is warming him, and third when Pippin picks him up [[PlayedForLaughs for the lulz]]. These same three scenes show up in the anime adaptation too, only it's never explained why Guts hates being touched because the flashback sequence explaining it was omitted from the anime.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Without the Skull Knight the anime is left with a few plot holes.
** Not to mention: It looked like Guts simply FORGOT to bring his sword [[spoiler: for the eclypse. In the manga it was left stuck in Wyald's neck.]]
* AdultFear: No one is going to sacrifice their loved ones and turn into a demon in [[RealLife real life]], but this series gives you the unpleasant feeling that even your best friends and family members are just [[DespairEventHorizon one bad day]] away from [[HumansAreBastards stabbing you in the back]]. By the way: [[OhCrap YOU]], dear reader, might do the same as well. However, this is always a [[EarnYourHappyEnding choice]] you make, [[spoiler: as proven by the count who would rather go to hell than sacrifice his daughter to survive]].
** The whole series in general runs on this stuff. [[ChildSoldier Children being forced to become soldiers]], [[AbusiveParents abusive and]] [[ParentalNeglect negligent parents]], childhood sexual abuse, [[DomesticAbuse general domestic and spousal abuse]], [[BodyHorror realistic body horror]], [[SexSlave sexual slavery]], [[ReligionOfEvil religion that has too much power over the people]], [[ThePlague disease and pestilence]], [[RapePillageAndBurn horrible war and war crimes]], [[AttemptedRape rape]], [[NearRapeExperience rape]], [[RapeAsDrama more rape]] (most of it [[HornyDevils isn't done]] [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong by monsters either]]), [[BreakTheCutie and its]] [[BrokenBird after effects]].... Geez.
** Think about it. All that hard work and effort, and all that struggle? [[YetAnotherStupidDeath What it would take]] [[LuckBasedMission for for you to fail,]] and anticlimactically? [[HeroicRedRingOfDeath something as stupid as lack of sleep]], or [[MoralEventHorizon all that long term struggle finally taking a mental toll on you.]] Even losing the trust of comrades is detrimental.
* AdultsAreUseless: A plot necessity in the Lost Children Arc, for obvious reasons... Sans Guts, who's only [[YoungerThanTheyLook about 20-something]] himself, the adults present are totally abusive, complete morons, or massive cowards. The kids, whether they're apostles or not, are shown to be more ballsy than the adults around them.
* AerithAndBob: The Godhand is made up of the demons Femto, Void, Slan, Ubik... and ''Conrad''.
** Most of the names are from science-fiction novels. Void is likely from Frank Herbert's Destination: Void; Ubik is a book by Philip K. Dick; Slan is by A.E. Van Vogt and Conrad comes from Roger Zelazny's '...And call me Conrad'. Femto is either a prefix in the metric system for extremely small lengths (multiplied by 0.000000000000001, as a matter of fact) or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHEMT a technical principle]] (in which case it is spelled ''PHEMT'').
** The names are not radically different. The only reason Conrad seems strange in comparison to the others is because it's a real life name and the rest aren't.
** Furthermore, it's a foreign name in Japan, so it doesn't really stick out.
** How about this? We have Hawk members [[AwesomeMcCoolName Guts]], Griffith, Casca, Judeau, Corkus, Pippin, and Rickert. Then we have felled RedShirt members - ''Dan'' and ''Earl''???
*** In the manga, their names are a bit more "refined" for the period, and are called by "Dante" and "Errol".
* AffablyEvil: Griffith, to his army, might seem like the nicest, coolest guy in the world and if you didn't know better he would be... Just that [[spoiler: if it weren't for the voice in your head screaming, "Eclipse! Eclipse! Eclipse!" every time he's on the screen to remind you why hes a true BigBad.]]
* AfterActionPatchup: Casca does this a few times with Guts. These moments allowed the two [[RelationshipUpgrade to develop their relationship more.]]
* AlasPoorVillain: The death of Rosine, one of the Apostles. [[spoiler: After Guts mortally wounds her, she manages to fly away from him and finally realizes that elves are real indeed but she just isn't one of them. She then feels regret for sacrificing her parents to demons and in her delirious state, tries to return home, but falls to her death.]]
* AlienGeometries: Whenever the Godhand make their appearance when it's not in the [[EldritchLocation typical landscape]], it's usually in some weirdass [[ShoutOut Escher drawing]] scape.
* AlikeAndAntitheticalAdversaries: Started out as the Heterogeneous Heroes vs. the Homogeneous Villains variety, with the good guys, the original Band of the Hawk, having light-skinned people and [[AmbiguouslyBrown dark-skinned people]], men [[TheSmurfettePrinciple and woman]], [[CompetenceZone and with older and younger supporters]], and the bad guys, the Tudor Empire, being composed of older white men. Later, as more plot schemes and arcs develop and characters undergo more development, it turns into a Heterogeneous Heroes vs. Heterogeneous Villains scenario.
* AllergicToEvil: The Brand of Sacrifice on Guts and Casca will start bleeding or hurting if demons are near.
* AllGaysArePedophiles: Paedophilia is kinda common in Miura's work to emphasize just how [[CrapsackWorld crappy]] a place Midland is and it's not just homosexuals like Gennon [[spoiler: who kept a harem of young boys hostage and had sex with Griffith]]. Just ask Charlotte. Or even better, [[spoiler: ask Guts himself why he HatesBeingTouched so much]].
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Played straight with Sonia, the DarkChick in Griffith's new Band of the Hawk. She has a thing for morally dubious guys, be it Griffith or Irvine.
** [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Subverted]] with Casca. She liked Griffith best when he was being nicest, and [[AntiHero Guts]] was never a "bad guy", he just [[DarkIsNotEvil looks like one]].
* AllJustADream: This is what Corkus convinces himself is going on after his mind snaps during the Eclipse. Unfortunately for him, believing it doesn't make it true.
** The fact that a [[spoiler:naked woman]] appears out of nowhere [[spoiler:and attempts to seduce him]] doesn't help convince him otherwise.
** Otherwise often heard among people of the Berserk-verse in general, especially those that have no connection to the Astral World.
* AllLovingHero:
** Griffith, though he is more of a subversion (zigzagged at best), since he appears to be a good-willed person who loves everybody and everybody in turn either loves him or willingly follows him, but in truth he's a guy with some issues. This complex is especially seen after his [[spoiler: reincarnation into the physical world]] since he justifiably ''can't'' be a messiah since he is [[LackOfEmpathy devoid of the human capacity for empathy.]]
** Guts, on the other hand, is an aversion, since he's a decent guy who has also done good, but he doesn't even pretend to love everybody, nor does everybody that he meets love him.
* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: A rare instance where both tropes are played equally and without any compassion for either gender.
** The trope is most apparent during the numerous orgies and attempted/succeeded rape.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Likewise, if you're not a prostitute or just sex crazed, a background woman's only role is to be the pure, innocent, wholesome, traditional medieval country girl who gets horribly violated by marauders or apostles (usually they're one and the same).
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: A town is being bombarded by trolls that are ransacking their supplies and [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong procreating with their women]]. They need a RagtagBunchOfMisfits to save them now. But still... What can [[SmallAnnoyingCreature two faeries]], [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass a spineless guy]] [[EyesAlwaysShut who always has his eyes closed]], [[TheBigGuy a big]], [[DarkIsNotEvil scary-looking]] [[HandicappedBadass handicapped]] dude who carries around a [[{{BFS}} torpedo-sized sword]], [[GlassCannon a scrawny but powerful]] [[ChildMage kid]] [[CuteWitch witch]], TheLoad, a kid who's not even in the [[WrongGenreSavvy right show]], and a [[CuteMute mute chick]] who's oblivious to her own surroundings going to do about it? The town's predicament might be dire, but Guts's TrueCompanions are all just a bunch of '''[[LonersAreFreaks outsiders]]''' in the end.
* AllMythsAreTrue: Thanks in part to an extended and ''en masse'' case of [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve clapping your hands to believe.]] Serpico even remarked in volume 24 that ghosts and monsters were one thing, but witches and trolls were a bit too "fairy tale-ish" to believe. [[spoiler:And since the LayeredWorld was merged, they've become a lot more true.]]
* AllTrollsAreDifferent: They're '''vicious''' little beasts that look like a [[MixAndMatchCritters mix between a bipedal rat and a pig]], with a dose of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Condylura.jpg star-nosed mole]]. [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080612124723/berserk/images/2/23/Troll.jpg See for your self]]. They also reproduce by [[{{Squick}} raping woman]] and having their [[FetusTerrible young eat their way]] [[ChestBurster out of her womb]].
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Guts pretty much said that so long as he and Casca survive, he doesn't give two shits about anything else. Most exemplified during the Conviction Arc, where Guts would rather an entire hoard of evil spirits infest St. Albion, killing hundreds of refugees in the process, and a whole mock Eclipse go down than let Mozgus and the citizens [[BurnTheWitch burn Casca at the stake as a witch]].
** Also worth mentioning that if there is even the ''slightest'' chance that Casca's sanity might be restored to her, Guts is willing to take the risk each and every time. Has been exhibited canonically and non-canonically.
* AmazonChaser: Pretty much the reason why Guts chose Casca as his lover, instead of a regular noblewoman who can't fight, since he considers her to be more than just a woman.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: In the world of ''Berserk'' there seems to be two "races" under this category: individuals such as Pippin and Donovan have more [[DarkestAfrica African features,]] while people like Silat and Jarris (Griffith's new chief engineer) have more [[SimSimSalabim south Asian features.]] The former is played straight as they are less prevalent, especially in recent arcs, but the latter group has been subverted as they come from a country that is based off of south Asia called Kushan. Special mention goes to Casca, in which she is implied to be Kushan, but it is never outwardly stated and [[FacialProfiling she has generic phenotypes that could make her belong to either group]], leading fans to categorize her in a real world context, ranging from Indian, African, Middle Eastern, mulatto, even ''Tibetan.''
* AmbitionIsEvil: Griffith. Enough said.
* AngelsDevilsAndSquid: Being a FantasyKitchenSink has allowed all three types of entities to exist in the world of ''Berserk'' in some form or another. There is a ''lot'' of overlap between them, but the Four Elemental Kings are the closest you can get to straight angels, the Apostles and Godhand are the devils, and the more malevolent spiritual entities (such as, fittingly, the Sea God) are the squid.
** The Battle for Windham ends up as a somewhat muddled case of this. Griffith, who takes on an angelic appearance, leads his army of humans and [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Apostles]] against the now [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever gigantic]] and nearly mindless EldritchAbomination that was once Ganishka and his "army" of [[CthulHumanoid Cthul Humanoids]].
** An Interesting note is that the God Hand are referred to as Five Angels which makes it the case of God Hand being the Angels, Apostles being the Devils and The Squid can be the spiritual entities as well as Ganishka in the battle of windham.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Both Guts and Casca do this to each other ''right'' before their RelationshipUpgrade, Guts being more irate and Casca being a lot more tearful. But hey - TheyDo!
* AnimatedArmor: The [[spoiler: Skull Knight]].
* AnnoyingArrows: Played straight and subverted at the same time: the crossbows frequently used by various soldiers generally instantly pierce the armor of and kill other human beings, and while Guts himself rarely gets hit by them, a single bolt to his hand renders him unable to wield his sword two-handed, giving him a significant disadvantage in that fight. On the other hand, the Apostles are simply so large that the crossbows are simply too small to hit their internal organs, though Guts often shoots out their eyes to great effect.
* TheAntiChrist: Thanks to the prophecy about the white and black hawks and the fact he wants to kill the person the freakin pope declared as an AllLovingHero, this is ''technically'' Guts. Due to the violence InherentInTheSystem, this may or may not be a good thing. Or another way to look at it is that [[spoiler:Griffith]] is the anti-christ since, you know, no one is supposed to know that the anti-christ is the anti-christ. Schierke refers to him as the Hawk of Darkness, and she'd know better than most people.
* AntiHero: Guts, and ''maybe'' the Skull Knight.
* AntiVillain: Rosine. She looks like a [[http://p1.storage.canalblog.com/19/63/275635/13316160.jpg beautiful moth fairy]].
** Sonia also qualifies. An ever-smiling, cute, blonde young girl couldn't possibly be a '''very''' morally questionable character, right? Mule may apply to an extent but he's more of an UnwittingPawn than anything else.
* AnyoneCanDie: And boy howdy, do we mean ''ANYONE.'' [[MenAreTheExpendableGender Men,]] [[NoWomansLand women,]] [[InfantImmortality children and babies,]] [[InvulnerableHorses horses and other animals,]] [[SacrificialLion secondary characters]] - NOBODY is immune to dying a horrible and grisly death in ''Berserk.'' While we're at it, we mind as well add that being a main character does ''not'' exempt you from any degree of suffering, only getting by with a set of PlotArmor that mind as well be made out of glass.
* ApatheticCitizens: Casca's home village was marauded by soldiers and bandits so often that they made it a routine to just go up into the nearby mountains for refuge and watch the chaos unfold until it was all done for that week. Add the fact that their crops failed 9 out of 10 times and several people died of starvation during the winter, it was no wonder that they eventually came to the conclusion that, "[[InherentInTheSystem this is the way life is.]] Oh well."
* ArcVillain: Kinda mixed with ''Berserk's'' earlier MonsterOfTheWeek, format, but it's not confined. The more defined arc villains:
** The Black Swordsman Arc, Koka Castle: The Snake Baron
** The Black Swordsman Arc, Guardians of Desire: The Count
** The Lost Children Arc: Rosine
** The Retribution Arc: Bishop Mozgus
* AristocratsAreEvil: Especially when they turn into Apostles.
* ArmCannon: There's one in Guts's left hand, and he can also rig it with a crossbow.
* ArmorIsUseless: The plate armor all the {{Mooks}} wear might as well be tin foil as far as Guts's weapons are concerned, and Guts is just as MadeOfIron in or out of armour.
** Not necessarily - when fighting the apostle Grunbeld without armor, Guts says something to the effect of absolutely needing armor to survive against an enemy of his power. He also credits it with protecting him against the goat-cult leader.
** Not to mention Guts gets some extremely useful armor. Extremely useful in the sense that it makes him stronger. As far as protection is concerned, it does the opposite.
*** The armor is also extremely useful because [[spoiler: it's the only thing keeping the wound inflicted on him by Slan (which hurts the body and soul) from killing him.]]
*** Technically it doesn't make him stronger only removes the subconscious limit the minds placed on the body allowing him to push himself way, way beyond his limits. Although for all intents and purposes it makes him stronger.
** Averted in episode 330 of the manga. Guts, armed with a dull and conventionally-sized sword, is pitted against a noble wearing thick plate armor. Incapable of breaking past the armor, he ends up fighting a little more [[CombatPragmatist creatively]] than usual.
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: The Black Dog Knights were a branch of Midland's military consisting of the kingdom's criminals. They were [[RapePillageAndBurn incredibly ruthless]], and their leader, Wyald, was a real piece of work.
* ArrowCatch: In volume 22 by one of the Kushan army.
* ArtEvolution: The artwork in the manga was merely average in the beginning, with some characters looking [[UncannyValley rather odd]], and now arguably has some of the best artwork of any manga. [[http://www.berserkchronicles.com/englishpage.php?link=style.htm This gives a good example of how the art changes from volume to volume.]] With regards to Guts, the guy we see the most, he's been getting more square-jawed and square...faced as the series go on. [[http://karaii.tumblr.com/post/8495573908/the-evolution-of-guts-from-the-manga-berserk-as More illustrated references for your convenience.]]
* ArtifactOfDoom: Behelits, egg-like items that are direct conduits to the Godhand and allow their possessors the opportunity to become demons... for a hefty price. Griffith's Crimson Behelit, the 'Egg of the Conqueror', is the worst of all.
** The Berserker Armor as well.
* ArtificialLimbs: Guts's arm.
** Subverted in that while its usefulness in combat is [[HandWave handwaved]] by a magnet in it that lets it help hold a sword his fake arm is actually just a hunk of metal with some weapons inside it -- it's not functional as a limb, and he can't control it or grab things with it. Although it's a looong time between when he gets it and when this is explained...
*** But when his magic armor is active, he can use it like a normal limb.
* ArtShift: Puck and Isidro.
** Also, compare [[http://manga.animea.net/berserk-chapter-312-page-19.html this scene]] with a [[http://manga.animea.net/berserk-chapter-1-page-9.html typical Berserk scene]].
* AsleepForDays: After being rescued from the Eclipse, Guts and Casca were out of it for at least 3-4 days. After Guts finally wakes up, [[FreakOut he awakens into a nightmare.]]
* AssassinOutclassin: It's pretty much been proven that attempting to assassinate Griffith will ultimately lead to the [[KarmicDeath conspirator's own assassination.]]
* AttackAttackAttack: Guts' main combat strategy.
* AuthorExistenceFailure: What many fans fear will eventually happen due to the series' lax release schedule.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Though they became an OfficialCouple at the end of volume 9 and the beginning of volume 10, Guts and Casca still had some of those early relationship mishaps, which included Casca showing jealously toward Princess Charlotte and her relationship with Griffith and then Guts getting pissed at Casca when she spilled the beans. They share some tender moments in between, but when they finally rescue Griffith, there are some very awkward glances between everyone. However, in volume 11, the group encounters Wyald and his Black Dog Knights, and Guts is badly injured. [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Casca immediately rushes to Guts' aid]], but is then captured by Wyald and [[AttemptedRape nearly raped]]. Thankfully, [[HeroicResolve Guts rescues Casca just in the nick of time]] and the battle ensues... all the while Casca is worried to tears that Guts might be biting off more than he can chew. Guts is victorious, but it looks as if it was too late... until he gives Casca a reassuring thumbs-up. And then, [[http://www.mrsmanga.com/mangas/Berserk/059.069%20-%20Complete%20Volume%2011/Berserk%20v11c08p170%20copy.jpg awwwwwwww!]]
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: One ''could'' say it happens for Griffith, [[PlayingWithATrope if only]] [[spoiler:the whole thing didn't take place in hell, a crown was involved, and his friends weren't being eaten alive.]]
** [[spoiler:Perhaps chapter 307 is more appropriate when Griffith summons his own PALACE]]
* AwkwardlyPlacedBathtub: During their stay in Vritannis, Casca is given a bath by Schierke - in the cramped room that they paid for at an inn with Guts and Isidro still present in the room, veiled by only curtain and Schierke's attempt at tying Isidro to a chair so that he won't peek. Much HilarityEnsues.
* BabiesEverAfter: How Griffith envisioned life with Casca if his original plans did not go accordingly [[spoiler: right before he activated his crimson behelit via DespairEventHorizon when he saw Casca in love with Guts.]] Subverted in that [[spoiler: it's heavily implied that the baby in that vision was Guts', not Griffith's.]]
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Subverted in Guts and Casca's relationship. Guts and Casca conceived their child right around that point in the story where things take a strange optimistic turn in their relationship... and of course, it does not last. When [[FetusTerrible that baby]] was born, [[OffingTheOffspring Guts was not happy.]] Also subverted when [[spoiler: Griffith chooses to sacrifice the Hawks rather than lead a semi-ordinary life raising a child with Casca]] (see BabiesMakeEverythingBetter above).
* {{Backstory}}: There's a lot of it. Eleven volumes, in fact.
* BackToBackBadasses: Guts and Casca get one of these.
** Two, actually, when they were fighting the Bakiraka in the sewers. Those were the good ol' days.
* BadDreams / NightmareSequence: Guts has a lot of these, [[FlashbackNightmare first due to his childhood trauma]], and then after the events of the Eclipse. What's worse is when people, specifically Puck and Schierke, go into Guts' inner memories, they are bombarded with horrific images of the Eclipse. Also, in the non-canonical game ''Sword of the Berserk'', when [[spoiler: Casca briefly regains her sanity, she said that she was having bad dreams.]]
* [[TheBadGuyWins The Bad Guys Win]]: Man, it's hard enough having to make reference to the event so often, let alone having to actually admit and say, "Guts lost - ''[[MyGreatestFailure really]]'' [[MyGreatestFailure lost.]]" At least, [[CutShort as far as the anime adaptation goes]], that is.
* {{Badass}}: When your name is Guts and you can survive two years of drawing demons to you like a lightning rod, you earn the title...
** And the Skull Knight also qualifies in a big way. He's been in the demonslaying game even longer than Guts has, and it's rumored that [[spoiler: he went through the exact same thing Guts did when Void first became a Godhand]].
*** He's also hinted to be [[spoiler:the former Emperor of the World]]. Now ''that's'' badass (in its own way).
**** Heck - any character who survives more than two volumes is a badass by default.
***** I wouldn't be so quick to say that. That would include Farnese, Puck, Isidro, Corkus, the King, Charlotte...the list goes on. Berserk pretty much demonstrates how it's better to be lucky than skillful (or even useful on a regular basis).
***** Needless to say, Berserk is just LOADED with badass. The examples listed on this page are just the ''tip'' of the iceberg. If this wasn't such a shitty place to live with all of its flaws, the Berserkerverse would just be a WorldOfBadass. Aw, hell - it IS. See below.
* BadassBandolier: Guts and Judeau have them for their throwing knives (though Judeau had them [[HisQuirkLivesOn before Guts started carrying knives]]). Just in general, there are bags and pouches ''everywhere'' in Berserk (we weren't kidding about Miura being [[CostumePorn ultra detailed with the costumes]]). They're so prominent that they have become a MemeticMutation within the fandom.
* BadassCape: Oh yeah, Guts has one all right, huge, sweeping, black, tattered, and always billowing at just the right times for maximum effect.
** Griffith as well, with a neat, well-kept white cape in contrast.
** And the Skull Knight's got one too.
** Casca could count too. In fact, she, Guts, and Griffith are the only members of the Hawks to wear 'em, which certainly signifies their Badass status among the Hawks.
* BadassAndChildDuo: Guts and Schierke are this.
* BadassCrew: The Band of the Hawk, baby.
* BadassGrandpa: Azan is well past his prime...and still kicks ass!
* BadassNormal: Guts earned the title...and that goes double when it's done without superpowers.
** Most of the original Band of Hawk fall under this trope.
** Serpico counts as this: He can stand toe-to-toe with Guts by using superior tactics, which include fighting him in areas where his bulk and oversized weapon are a disadvantage.
*** To emphasize, Serpico does this same tactic ''more than once'' to Guts.
** Roderick counts as well: he's not much of a swordsman or a demonslayer, but a superior sea captain. Put him in command of his ship, and he racks up the kills on the high seas.
* BadassTransplant: As though Guts needed to be any more badass.
* BallroomBlitz: Happen at Farnese's father's ball when some [[OurMonstersAreWeird cute]] [[MegaNeko kitties]] sent by Emperor Ganishka come to [[{{Gorn}}entertain the guests.]]
* BandOfBrothels: Luca and her girls.
* BarBrawl / DinerBrawl: Guts makes [[EstablishingCharacterMoment his big debut]] in a BadGuyBar in the castle town of Koka in the first volume/episode by killing everyone one of the Snake Baron's mooks, sans one. In later arcs, Guts and his gang get into a beat down with some drunkard slobs who were harassing the girls while at an inn.
* BarbieDollAnatomy: Played straight initially -- Griffith is a Ken doll -- and averted later in the story -- some pages could easily be mistaken for {{Hentai}} -- though it's played as much to elicit [[FanDisservice revulsion]] as arousal.
** Not to mention Puck, who literally shows this trope off every time he appears.
** Oddly enough, men have genitalia but no nipples.
* BathtubScene: Post-Eclipse Casca gets a few of these. Cue in the LesYay with either Farnese or Schierke!
** Farnese gets one as well when she returns home for a short time.
* BatmanColdOpen: The series opens up with Guts killing some nameless Apostle (who's later revealed to have [[spoiler:killed Corkus]]) within the first five pages.
* BatmanGambit: Although it is difficult to know for certain what Femto is thinking, his plan appears to have relied on having one of his enemies [[spoiler:become so desperate to win that he goes through a radical ritual to turn himself into an embodiment of hell]] while at the same time predicting that another enemy will [[spoiler:execute a trans-dimensional sneak attack on Femto as soon as his guard appears to be down]], so that he can [[spoiler:re-direct the attack to deal a killing blow to the first enemy, releasing a world-altering energy wave]]. {{Justified}} as he is canonically and literally TheOmniscient, or very near.
* BattleCouple: Guts and Casca become this before the Eclipse.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: At one point in the Millennium Falcon arc, Schierke has to go inside Guts's mind using Astral Projection to snap him out of the influence of his inner beast the first time he uses the Berserker Armor.
* BattleThralls:
** Barbarian Marauders: The Black Dog Knights were hardly knight-like, in that they were [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores made up of the most violent, hedonistic mercenaries]] in Midland. So morally appalling they were that the King [[ThrownDownAWell exiled them to the outskirts of the kingdom.]]
** [[SlaveMooks Enslaved Grunts]]: The Kushan army would capture Midland soldiers and use them as CannonFodder in the front lines by disguising them as their own soldiers.
* BeAWhoreToGetYourMan: Discussed by [[StrawMisogynist General Adon]] during his first encounter with Casca, where he incorrectly assumed that she only became a general in the Band of the Hawk because she slept with Griffith. Really more of a "Be A Whore To Get Your Promotion" [[ZigzaggedTrope scenario.]]
* BeachEpisode: Hey, even Guts and his TrueCompanions need a break at the ocean, what with all of the weird shit they go through day after day.
** Not to say the beach is any safer for them than anywhere else...
* BeastWithAHumanFace: Many of the apostles retain their human faces in their more demonic forms. For some though, their human faces are placed on bodies that already have regular animal-like heads and some are even situated in places where human faces shouldn't normally belong on. Two prime examples that best illustrate this would be demon forms of the Baron of Koka Castle and the Count. The Baron looks like a gigantic humanoid snake but he has a human face in his mouth. The Count on the other hand, looks like a gigantic slug but he has a human face situated on the forehead of his slug head.
* BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: Subverted in Guts' new group with the three ladies (excluding Evarella). Schierke is TheSmartGuy, always formulating the plans but doesn't use physical action. Farnese would be the brawn, though she isn't an experienced fighter, but she's the most willing to put up a fight when necessary. And Casca is the beauty, as she is the most beautiful in the group, [[DistressedDamsel can't fight in her current condition,]] [[TheHeart but is the person that everyone in the group wants to protect.]]
* BeautyToBeast: [[spoiler:Griffith]], he got better though... which, considering it came at the cost of his immortal soul ''and'' his sacrificing the lives of those loyal to him, it was hardly typical.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The reason why grumpy ol' exiled Godo adopted little orphaned Erica. [[HappilyAdopted Yay!]]
* TheBechdelTest: Can you believe it? In such a dark setting, with such manly values and violent surroundings, there ARE indeed times when two named women talk to each other about something else than men. Can be survival (Luca and Nina), feeling out of place among regular people (Sonia and Schierke) or just plain outlook on life as a woman in a CrapsackWorld (Farnese and Lady Vandimion).
** It's funny that Casca, the series' only genuine ActionGirl, only talks to a woman once - and it's about a guy. In fact, Casca talks a lot about the guys in her life (but being a [[{{Tomboy}} chick]] who is practically OneOfTheBoys, it's somewhat understandable).
* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Arguably justified with [[spoiler: Griffith]], though it's not quite the torture that sends him over the edge, but more the consequences that followed afterwards.
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Played with. While those blindly clinging to the church quickly end up intensely ''dead'', Schierke explains that there's nothing wrong with believing in something beyond normal human perception; the problem is assuming that the force you're reaching out to will conform to your expectations. Magic-users believe, all right, but they don't believe ''dogmatically''.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Guts is a cocksure, [[TestosteronePoisoning ultra-macho]], Alpha male JerkWithAHeartOfGold who has been RaisedByDudes and who usually hits before speaking. Casca is a fiery, type-A {{Tsundere}}, Alpha ActionGirl who had to deal with sexual assault early on in her life and isn't exactly the submissive type. He has a thing for her, but is too maladjusted to convey such feelings. She has a thing for him, but also her pride and dutifulness as a commander. They go for the next best thing.
* BeneathTheMask / SilkHidingSteel: The Count's wife. On the outside, she appeared to be a sweet, endearing, obedient, and devoted wife and mother (and she might have been in some sense). But behind closed doors - especially when her husband was out of town - she participated in hot, provocative, and scandalous pagan orgies. And even when faced with death by her own husband's sword, [[BringIt she practically told him to give it his best shot.]] She only lost her nerves of steel when [[spoiler: the Apostles came.]]
* BerserkButton: [[{{Pun}} Well DUH!!]] But more seriously, there are two things that cause Guts' instant UnstoppableRage: a) Meeting a Godhand or [[spoiler: post-Eclipse Griffith]]. Period. b) Anyone trying to hurt Casca only has a few seconds left to live. And these seconds will be filled with pain.
** Actually anybody who tries to rape a girl in Guts presence tend to be [[BerserkButton this]].[[spoiler:He lost his cool and almost beheaded Farnese, while rescuing her from being raped by a possessed horse]].
** It don't stop with daddy. The Child, a being that was originally thought to have no real emotion or thought, was seen with a pretty damn scary DeathGlare when some pagan worshipers tried to rape Casca. They paid for it dearly.
* BerserkerTears: This happens a lot during the Eclipse between Guts and Casca.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: ''Griffith.'' Do ''not'' stand in the way of his dream [[strike:unless]] [[FateWorseThanDeath even if you have a death wish]].
* {{BFS}}: The Dragon Slayer; originally done as a marketing gimmick, it's actually justified later in the series - it doesn't really have much of an edge, and other characters [[LampshadeHanging mock]] it as being "more a slab of iron than a sword", but Guts swings it fast enough to tear people in half with brute force.
** The ginormous sword comes with an additional advantage: Durability. All the swords Guts used in the Golden Age arc broke at some point. Usually in the middle of a battle. His last "normal" sword didn't even last thirty seconds because Guts [[{{UnstoppableRage}} abused it so badly]] it snapped like a twig.
** Not only is the Dragon Slayer ultra durable, but it also double serves as a shield, since the blade is wide enough for Guts to hide his vital spots behind when on the defensive and to also deflect projectiles.
*** To further elaborate, when Guts was about to go Apostle-Hunting for the first time, he used a giant sword much like he used during his mercenary days, only to discover that despite its size, the Apostles were simply so large and tough that the sword generally broke before he could kill them. Discovering the Dragonslayer a second later, he realized it was one of the few weapons capable of killing them, purely because of its incredible mass.
* BicepPolishingGesture: Guts does this right before the Battle of Doldrey to show off how nicely his wounds healed with the help of the elf dust after his defeat of the 100 soldiers.
* BigBad: Void The Leader of The Godhand may count [[spoiler:until its revealed the Void is TheDragon to The Idea of Evil]] or [[spoiler:The Idea of Evil, the deity that created the Godhand]], or [[spoiler:Griffith]] who provides the primary motivation for the story.
* BigBadDuumvirate: The entire Godhand as a group may count, being the ringleaders of the majority of Apostles encountered [[spoiler:Until it's revealed they are being led by [[GodIsEvil The Idea of Evil]]]]
* BigBadassBattleSequence: The Battle of Doldrey. It's going to be even more glorious when the second movie comes out. The final battle against [[spoiler: Griffith and Emperor Ganishka]] can count as well.
* BiggerBad: [[spoiler:The Idea of Evil cosmically, it's on the very top of the Berserk-verse as far as evil is concerned, but it has little to do with Guts' quest.]]
* BigGood: Schierke's teacher, Flora. [[spoiler: After her death,]] the Skull Knight, the most powerful opposition to the Godhand, may qualify, although his true motives remain unknown. Potentially also the Four Elemental Kings, if they ever actually show up to do anything.
** On a more personal level, the strongest force of good is definitely [[spoiler: [[PowerOfLove the love between Guts and Casca.]]]]
* BigDamnHeroes: The Skull Knight pulls this perfectly when he [[spoiler:breaks into hell, fights past the Godhand, and rescues Guts and Casca from being eaten]].
** In general the Skull Knight has turned this skill into an art, for whenever he appears he only ever does two things: either mutter something mysterious and prophetic and vanish, or to rescue someone with a great deal of flair.
** Averted ''twice'' with Vargas' public execution by the evil Count. Puck tries to talk Guts into doing one of those but he refuses and leaves. Puck then tries to pull it off ''himself'' and fails miserably. Justified for Guts who knows well this is clearly a trap meant to pull him into a stupid heroic rescue where he would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
* TheBigDamnKiss: What? What the hell do you mean [[http://www.mrsmanga.com/Berserk/037.047/192 this isn't the epitome of romance in the series?]] There's gorgeous SceneryPorn '''and''' Guts's BadassCape is blowing in a caressing manner around the two. It's even more glorious in [[http://www.mattbrowning.com/berserk/colors/guts_casca_kiss_final.jpg amazing technicolor.]]
* BigOlEyebrows: Definitely Guts.
** And even more definitely Azan.
* BigShutUp: When the Hawks get sent to the Vortex and nearly everybody is panicking - especially [[DirtyCoward Corkus]] - Casca tells everybody to shut up in order to get them back in line. In fact, seeing Casca keeping her cool and trying to boost everyone's moral in such a dire situation was the last positive thing that Guts thought during the Eclipse.
* BigThinShortTrio: In their own circle, Pippin is the huge guy, Corkus is the skinny guy, and Judeau/Rickert are the short guys. Guts, Griffith, and Casca have their own dynamic.
* {{Bishonen}}: Griffith
* BlackAndGreyMorality: In the world of ''Berserk'', most people are either a monster (literally), have been turned into bastards by the horror of their world, or make themselves bastards in order to survive. There are some genuinely nice people around, but you have to look harder for them.
** Probably because they're almost inevitably raped and/or torn apart.
*** In Midland, being ''good'' is inevitably the mark of being a RedShirt.
* BlackComedy: You would think that the atmosphere that ''Berserk'' houses would be littered with this, but it's actually averted. Yes, [[SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror the story does still have its own brand of humor presented throughout]], but not the kind that treads into [[SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness making-fun-of-the-catastrophic-loss-of-life-and-ongoing-suffering-of-people territory.]] ''Berserk'' tends to rely more on deadpan and sarcastic comedy for laughs, with occasional slapstick thrown in.
* TheBlacksmith: Godo. He likes to see the sparks fly up...
** Rickert as well. He's the one who assembled Guts' artificial arm/cannon and a lot of other useful items for him.
* BladeBrake: During the Eclipse, when he gets separated from Griffith and falls from the mountain of face, Guts uses the cutlass that he always wears to stop him from falling, and then uses it to the climb his way back up. The faces are screaming and bleeding while he's doing this, by the way.
* BlankWhiteEyes: If you see Guts get these, it's time to start running -- they generally signify that Guts is ''beyond'' pissed and in the full grip of the BerserkerRage.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: Hawks' scanlation.
* BlindObedience: Most of the band of the Hawk towards Griffith, granted, he'd earned it by being a genius.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Luca is the redhead, Nina is the blonde, and Casca is the brunette during their time together.
* BloodFromTheMouth: Like waterfalls.
* BloodKnight: Nosferatu Zodd.
** Also Guts. He thoroughly enjoys violence, and although he always fights with a purpose, he does enjoy it very much.
* BloodierAndGorier: The TV series might have been LighterAndSofter compared to the manga, but the movie trilogy is back with [[{{Pun}} a bloody vengeance!]] Gore and sexual violence is certainly played up in the new movies, some fans even saying that the third movie, ''Descent'', [[http://kotaku.com/5981641/the-third-berserk-movie-is-by-far-the-most-violent-thing-i-have-ever-watched is by far the most violent thing you'll ever see.]]
* BodyHorror: Surprisingly used sparingly. A notable example is [[spoiler: Gaston's]] death during the Eclipse.
* BodyguardCrush:
** Serpico, for Farnese.
** Also, every female ever who gets protected by Guts, even if it's just for a little bit. Even if they're, like, eight. Also true for Casca as well, before she went crazy of course. Although its debatable if Casca didn't already have feelings for Guts before he single handedly killed 100 mercenaries to protect her.
* BoobsOfSteel: Though female anatomy is drawn on a realistic level (but it still doesn't protect them from having the most ClothingDamage done to them), Slan presentably has [[EvilIsSexy the largest pair of breasts]], being the most powerful female character in Berserk. A close second would be Casca, who is the series' only genuine ActionGirl.
* BootstrappedTheme: Ask any ''Berserk'' fan about the series' music, they will immediately think of "Forces".
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Guts uses a {{BFS}} and crossbow, though he prefers melee and is armoured appropriately.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The anime really tones down on the violence, nudity, and sex... at least until the Finale.
* BoyfriendBluff: Zigzagged during Griffith's gala, in which Casca practically dive bombs an unaware Guts and takes him in her arms, asking him to pretend to be her escort so the other men at the ball wouldn't bother her.
* BoyMeetsGirl: [[LoveAtFirstPunch Guts meets Casca.]] [[TheLostLenore Guts loses Casca]] during Eclipse and [[RevengeBeforeReason abandons her after.]] [[MyGreatestSecondChance Guts finds Casca again]] by saving her at the Tower of Conviction. Now, [[FindTheCure boy just needs to cure girl]] of her insanity in order to actually "be" with her again.
* BrainBleach: Do yourself a favor: get a membership to Costco or some other warehouse club, because you will need to replenish your supply ''a lot'' during the course of this series. You'll need over 5 gallons of the stuff just to get through the Golden Age Arc with your sanity ''slightly'' intact - AND IT JUST GETS ''WORSE.''
* BreakableWeapons: This common video game trope is played straight in ''Berserk.'' Even though freakishly large, Guts' original {{BFS}}s are, in essence, really big broad swords and do have their limit at how much stress they can handle. After fighting a hundred soldier a few nights prior, Guts' sword conveniently breaks at the worst possible time during the Battle of Doldrey. Luckily for him, a mysterious benefactor *coughZoddcough!* donates his freakishly large scimitar in order for Guts to finish the battle. We see a few more of the swords that Godo made for him break under the stress of training, but the audience is given a wake-up call that [[SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness not just any sword is able fight monsters]] during the Eclipse [[spoiler: when Casca tries to defend herself against the apostles, who end up shattering her sword into a hundred pieces, and when the sword that Guts was using to fight off apostles was of utterly no use when trying to rip through the hide of an apostle that was apprehending him]]. To fight these fiends, [[ChekhovsArmoury you would need a weapon that is capable of slaying a dragon...]]
* BreakingTheFellowship: After Guts leaves the Band of the Hawk, the rest of the Golden Age Arc is spent detailing how the original band is fragmented until [[spoiler: the whole band with the exceptions of Guts, Casca, Rickert, and Griffith is obliterated during the Eclipse.]] It's a bit eerie in that Rickert, through his teary-eyed and child-like idealism, actually lampshaded that something bad would happen if Guts left the Hawks.
* BreakTheCutie: Poor [[spoiler:Casca]].
** Or for that matter, poor [[spoiler:Charlotte]]. She loses her virginity in a very unromantic way to a man exorcising his (at that point) worst demon, and though she was in love with him, she has to stand and watch when he is arrested and tortured for a full year because of it, pining over him all the while. [[spoiler: And then there was that time ''her own father'' tried to rape her. She managed to fight him off, but still...]]
* BreastPlate: Averted -- Female warriors in the series usually dress reasonably sensibly, when they're wearing anything at all.
* BreatherEpisode: Their beach chapter doubles as this as the true companions have a rare chance at self-reflection and sharing their feelings as well as eating delicious and improvised seaside cuisine. This lasts for a good few hours [[GoodNewsBadNews before some more monsters come to attack them!]]
* BridalCarry: Casca gets this treatment from Guts after her fight with Adon.
* BringMyBrownPants: ... And you wouldn't after seeing an Apostle for the first time?
** The little boy Guts uses as a decoy plays it straight. And [[{{GoshHornet}} with good reason!]] Though he ends up [[{{TookALevelInBadass}} taking his first small level in badass]] when he is through.
* BrokenAce: [[spoiler:Griffith.]]
** Later on Guts. While the first chapters make it clear that something about his presence makes people dislike him, recently he has the status of the Ace with his friends: Isidoro sees him as his teacher, Schierke and Farnese both have the hots for him, everyone knows that he's their trump card in a fight and keeps his cool against huge odds... but they all known (or at least suspect) that he has huge issues about his failures.
* BrokenBird: [[spoiler: Casca]]
** Guts himself shows the other extreme: before the eclipse, while he was withdrawn and suffering from some trauma, most of the time he was still a pretty well rounded and healthy guy. Fast foward to his black swordsman days and he's become a cynical, cold, uncaring revenge driven monster after the events he witnessed.
* {{Bros Before Hoes}}: Casca played the bro when she initially chose Griffith over Guts after saving him from torture. [[MindRape It didn't end well]].
* BrokenTears: Used during the very horrific and very emotional climax of the Eclipse where [[spoiler: Griffith is raping Casca as Femto. Guts is crying streams of tears and blood at a man he considered a friend forcing him to watch as he raped the woman that he loved to insanity. Casca, in turn, is crying from being subjected to excruciating pain that the brand is causing her from being in such close contact with a power demon and also because she is being physically, sexually, and emotionally violated by the man that she looked up to in front of the man that she loved.]]
* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu
** The Skull Knight unintentionally does this to [[spoiler:the mountain-sized EldritchAbomination that was once Ganishka. Ganishka dies, but his death ends up [[TheMagicComesBack merging all]] [[LayeredWorld layers of the world]] at once, flooding the entire planet with astral creatures in minutes!]]
** With the help of the merrows, [[spoiler:Guts was able to pierce the Sea God's heart and kill it. But being stuck inside the monstrosity with many grievous injuries left him in little position to be able to escape it on his own as it began to "collapse" all around him.]]
* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Serpico is Farnese's half-brother. She isn't aware of this, and she developed feelings for him in their teenage years and even made a very emotionally charged advance on him. Serpico being in the know, he resisted.]]
* BugWar: Guts' entire battle against Rosine and her minions was basically this. Remember that Rosine didn't just transform children into insectoids, but also adults.
* BullyingADragon: The holy iron chain knights try to capture a severely wounded Guts alive. He tries to play nice for a wile since he knows his opponents aren't really his enemies. But when they poke him too much... [[{{Gorn}} EEEK!!]]
** An instance came up during the Golden Age Arc after the Hawks' first encounter with Nosferatu Zodd, where some nobles caught wind of the supposed supernatural account and decided to snark Guts off (who was walking with crutches at the time). Guts promptly smashes one of the noble's feet with the end of his crutch, and he actually had the balls to try and challenge Guts to a duel... a good stern and scary DeathGlare set him straight.
* BurnTheWitch: Casca gets herself into this predicament when she is suspected of having evil supernatural powers thanks to the brand on her breast that attracts evil[[spoiler: it was actually the presence of she and Guts's corrupted child that sparked the accusations both among the pagans who wanted to rape her and the Holy Iron Chain Knights who wanted to torture her, since the child summoned the demons in order to protect her in both situations]].
* {{TheBusCameBack}}: Rickert and Erika return in chapter 332 of the manga.
* ButNowIMustGo: And everything goes horribly wrong in T-minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Hey! Princess Charlotte! [[SexForSolace Free tonight?]]
* ButtMonkey: The pirates just can't catch a break. [[spoiler:Even after they're all transformed into hideous monsters]].
* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: It's actually done realistically by Guts on an unconscious Casca. She gurgles up the water and everything.
** The presence of CPR in a [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy medieval-inspired]] world does bring on some FridgeLogic though...
* CallBack: Oh, a lot. Especially with Apostles. During the Eclipse, we see three Apostles from the first three chapters of Berserk - the nameless female demon that has sex with Guts (in disguise, of course), Baron Koka and The Count. Furthermore, the Lost Children arc is focused around Rosine and (to a lesser extent) her two [[EliteMook semi-Apostle insect henchmen]], who attacked Rickert's camp with the Count just before the Eclipse. And during the sequence where Griffith rescues Charlotte from Ganeshka, we see Borkoff, the Apostle who took Guts's arm.
* TheCavalry: In the recent chapter 330, [[spoiler: when Guts is being held by the lord in his castle as a gladiator and is holding the lord's son as a hostage to make his escape, Martino, the old man from earlier, storms in with his comrades before the the lord's soldiers have a chance to shoot him.]]
* CanonDisContinuity: Chapter 83, in which [[spoiler:Griffith meets The Idea Of Evil]], has been removed from all printings by request of the author on the basis that it gave away too much of the plot too soon. In this case, it might be only temporary.
* CanNotSpitItOut: [[spoiler: During the Eclipse Judeau attempts to confess his love for Casca but is only able to say "I'm glad to see you cry," before dying in her arms, lamenting that she never thought of him as more than a valuable ally.]]
* CardCarryingVillain: The Godhands have one goal in their eternal lives: making humanity as miserable as possible. They take their job [[{{Deconstruction}} VERY seriously]] and gleefully go to unimaginable extremes to turn the world of Midland into a living hell.
** Even better, [[spoiler: the Idea Of Evil itself presents itself to Griffith with its very name when they meet]].
* CastOfSnowFlakes: Even incidental background characters, human or otherwise, are given unique and distinct appearances.
* CaughtTheHeartOnHisSleeve: Casca caught Guts's heart on his cape during the Griffith rescue operation.
* CaughtInTheRain: The predicament that led to Guts and Casca's second IntimateHealing encounter and an eventual RelationshipUpgrade from [[TeethClenchedTeamwork reluctant comrades]] to [[FireForgedFriends actual friends.]]
* ChainOfPeople: Happened in volume 19 on the Tower of Punishment, when Luca falls off a ledge during Mozgus's attack and Nina, then Jerome, then Isidro grab on hold. She still falls, [[BigDamnHeroes but the Skull Knight saves her.]]
* ChangelingFantasy: Subverted with Rosine, who is driven to believe that she is the center of one by parental abuse, then sacrifices her parents to fulfill her dream. By the time Guts fights her, she's been kidnapping children from nearby villages to turn into demonic fairies for a while and is practically insane.
* CharacterDevelopment: Farnese goes from being a clearly unbalanced KnightTemplar / StepfordSmiler to a quasi TeamMom while learning magic from Schierke. Also, Schierke herself, after a few adventures, starts seeing just ''why'' maybe humanity ''might'' be worth saving, after all.
** This applies to many characters. Guts has changed throughout throughout the story, from the vicious and cruel {{Blood Knight}} that we was in the early portions of the manga, to the more calm, composed, and melancholy warrior (with a {{Super Powered Evil Side}} that threatens to surface at times) that he is now. Even some minor characters, such the young girl Jill and the insecure prostitute Nina, develop in their own subplots.
* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: Absurd bodycount of the named characters, not even factoring in the genocidal slaughters on the battlefield every few episodes.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Guts is powerful enough to carry the Dragon Slayer because he's spent his entire life in battle, and as a result is hellishly strong.
** Plus, he learned how to use a sword as a child, using a full size adult sword, which taught him to use larger swords than normal from an early age.
* TheChase: The latter half of the Griffith rescue operation has this, with Wyald and his Black Dog Knights pursuing Griffith and the Band of the Hawk. The Hawks try to deflect the Dogs using explosives and rocks slides, but it's still not enough to deter them, so the two groups eventually clash arms.
* ChekhovsArmoury: A literal one. Toward the end of the Golden Age Arc, while Guts and Casca are (badly) recuperating after the events of the Eclipse, Ericka shows Rickert Godo's storage shed, which contains a lot of nifty weaponry and accessories - among them being several prototype prosthetic limbs and the Dragonslayer itself.
* ChekhovsGun: We already know how important the Behelit is in the manga, but in the anime it is treated in this fashion.
* ChekhovsGunman: Zigzagged with Puck in the manga, who was already introduced in the first arc since the story starts InMediasRes, but he is briefly mentioned in the middle of the Golden Age arc and makes a short cameo during the eclipse chapters. Played straight in the second movie with [[spoiler: Farnese and Serpico]], who are briefly seen at the Hawks' victory ball.
* ChestBurster: Nastier monsters such as the trolls of Qliphoth and Ganishka's demonic soldiers are born this way.
* ChildSoldiers: Guts as a kid and Rickert.
* ChildrenForcedToKill: Guts and Casca were both forced to kill somebody out of self-defense when they were kids.
* CircleOfStandingStones: When [[OurTrollsAreDifferent trolls]] attack Enoch Village, [[ChildMage Schierke]] [[SummonMagic summons spirits]] in order to cast her magic. One of them is [[ElementalEmbodiment a river spirit]], who used to have a shrine where now stands a church. When Schierke goes into trance seeking the attention of the spirit, we get to see a glimpse of what the shrine used to look like: [[http://www.mangareader.net/96-1145-120/berserk/chapter-25.html a circle of standing stones.]]
* TheClan: The Bakiraka.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The whole reason why [[spoiler:The Idea of Evil]] exists. Also implied in the manga as the reason elves exist, prompting Puck to whip out a banner saying "Cogito Ergo Sum" whenever someone says that they think he's not real.
** Arguably EVERY SINGLE supernatural thing on the series is more or less the result of this, as Qliphoth is implied to be formed from human nightmares and [[spoiler:the demons are all people transformed of God Hand, which in turn come from The Idea Of Evil]]. This is what makes the monsters so terrifying; no matter how many you kill, there will always be monsters around thanks to mankind.
** Also discussed in volume 24 during the groups' time at the mansion of the spirit tree, where Isidro suggested that if supernatural entities appeared because people believed in them, then all they'd have to do is stop believing and they wouldn't get hurt! Schierke added that it wasn't that simple.
* ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive: The jerkwad aristocrats who hate Griffith's peasant guts love doing this in their [[EvilIsNotWellLit dark, shady headquarters]] of cunning-ness. Yes, [[SarcasmMode clasping your hands at your eventual downfall always assures your victory.]]
* CliffHanger: The anime ends on a [[GainaxEnding weird]] but nonetheless [[LeftHanging climatic]] cliffhanger.
* ClingyComedyVillain: Adon.
* ClingyMacGuffin: Griffith's Behelit.
* ClothingDamage: Casca. A lot.
** Guts also suffered from clothing damage while he was killing apostles during the Eclipse (though not to the extent of which Casca suffered) and when his armor got ripped off by Slan when she manifested in Qliphoth.
* ClusterFBomb: Boy fucking howdy.
* CockFight: A strange variation. It happens between Guts and Casca over Griffith in the first part of the manga but the object of the fight turns about in an ''very'' dark twist during the Eclipse [[spoiler: when Griffith rapes Casca in front of Guts]].
* CoitusUninterruptus: An important message from the King of Midland asking him to kill the shit out of some people ain't going to stop Wyald from banging one of dozens of women in his room.
* ColdBloodedTorture: This happens ''a lot''. [[{{Kick the Son of a Bitch}} Guts to the Apostles]], the Apostles to humans, Mozgus to everyone he encounters (because maybe they might have been having some heretical thoughts at some point in their lives), [[spoiler: the King of Midland to Griffith]], so on and so forth.
** The most vile example is what Casca and Guts went through [[spoiler: when Griffith horrifically raped Casca during the Eclipse. Not only is she being horribly violated, but the brand on her chest is causing her ''excruciating pain'' during every waking moment, since Casca is most likely the closest ''any'' human has ever been to a Godhand. This is also a very cruel form of torture for Guts, since he's being ForcedToWatch all this happen to the love of his life by his best friend and he can't do a damn thing about it, even after chopping off his arm [[HopeSpot to try and save her]]. And it's made even worse since Griffith is ''[[KubrickStare smiling at him]]'' while he's doing this.]] It's no wonder that Casca's [[GoMadFromTheRevelation mind just shattered after the events]] and Guts [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds virtually hates the entire world now.]]
* CombatBreakdown: Several battles against powerful apostles end with Guts having to resort to outright suicidal strategies because he is too worn down from all the damage he took to even lift his sword. Often he practically crawls away after battle, even tough he won. Without Puck, Guts would be dead. [[NoOneShouldSurviveThat Period.]]
* CombatParkour: Casca centers most of her offensive and defensive maneuvers around flipping about the enemy.
* CombatPragmatist: Take a shot every time Guts uses a child as a hostage or for bait. Better yet, don't--it's dangerous.
* CombatSadomasochist: Slan. As if being impaled by Guts' {{BFS}} [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything wasn't suggestive enough,]] but it gave her an ''orgasm''.
* CompanionCube: Not only has Guts' swords served as his SecurityBlanket and [[PillowPistol extra nocturnal security measures]], but the relationship he has had with his weapons was probably [[FriendlessBackground the closest thing to friendship]] before joining the Hawks.
** Disturbingly, [[TheScrappy Puck]] treats [[ArtifactOfDoom the Behelit]] that Guts picks up early in the manga as one. [[TheDitz He does not seem to realize just exactly what it is.]]
* CompetenceZone: At the end, only an army made up of older teens and early twenty-something year olds were able to win Midland's war. The trend continues with Guts' new group, now with even ''younger'' members.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Why Apostles have been demoted to Elite Mooks in recent chapters.
** Already in effect before. The larger a group of baddies gets, the quicker they go down.
* ContentWarnings: Pretty regular with ''Berserk'' media, since the manga will most likely have shrink wrapping and parental advisory stickers wherever they are sold. Special mention, of course, goes to volume 13 of the manga, which has a ''very'' obvious advisory sticker over the depiction of [[spoiler: post rape and mutilated Guts and Casca]] on the cover, and the upcoming movie ''Descent'', which will receive the Japanese equivalent of an ''NC-17'' rating for "strong depictions of sexual activity." In fact, the theatrical release had to be ''edited down'' to an R-rating, since the original cut was considered too graphic to release to regular audiences. Alas, [[TakeOurWordForIt rumor has it]] that even the R-rated version was too much for some viewers to handle.
* ConspicuousCG: A major criticism of TheNewTens' film trilogy adaptation of the Golden Age arc is that the CG models, especially for minor characters, are low-poly and [[UncannyValley stiffly animated]]. This improves markedly between the first movie and the third.
* ConvenientMiscarriage: A non-ResetButton variant. Before the Eclipse happened and, ''[[RapeAsDrama stuff]]'' happened to her, Casca became pregnant when she and Guts made love, but neither of them were aware of the pregnancy until Casca miscarried their corrupted fetus due to the extreme trauma she sustained from the Eclipse. However, since [[TouchedByVorlons the fetus was touched by the supernatural world]] - and [[FetusTerrible accepted a nature of evil in the process]] - it survived and continues to be presence within the series.
** Although going through ''the'' most horrible experiences, Casca was pretty lucky for this convenience, considering how most [[DeathByChildbirth women give birth]] [[ChestBurster to demonic spawn]] in this series. You can thank PlotArmor for that.
* CoolDownHug: Casca dished these out to great effect when she was sane. Guts does this to her upon their reunion in the Retribution arc.
* CoolHelmet: Okay, [[HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic so when people actually do bother to wear helmets]], they're quite, ''unique'', to say the least. Simply put, no two helmets are exactly the same in ''Berserk.''
** Guts probably has the neatest ensemble. His first few helmets are similar, reminiscent of Rutger Hauer's character in ''Film/LadyHawke.'' When he gets the berserker armor, [[AdaptiveArmor it assumes the form of a dog's head]], very similar to the Beast (which makes sense, since whenever his helmet looks like this, [[SuperPoweredEvilSide you're in trouble]]). But when Guts has control over the berserker armor - hey! [[WholeCostumeReference He kinda looks like a medieval Batman! ]]
** Griffith's helmets always take a hawk-like form. They're pretty cool-looking during his glory days as a human... but when he becomes [[spoiler: Femto, a demon lord]], the image can [[EvilIsCool potentially]] become NightmareFuel. [[invoked]]
** Mooks, mooks, mooks. Their helmets can range anywhere from weird, frog-eyed goggle helmets, to looking like fucking triceratops and sharks.
* CoolOldGuy: Godo TheBlacksmith.
* CorpseLand: In an early story in the manga, Guts passes through the remains of an old battlefield with a priest and his family on pilgrimage and has to fight demon-possessed skeletons and other undead because of the Brand he bears.
* TheCorrupter: The Beast.
* TheCorruptible: First it was Griffith, [[FaceHeelTurn and the process completed.]] In fact, we can go on to say that anyone who is destined to become an apostle is this. Now this is Guts, due to TheCorrupter mentioned above.
* CosmicHorrorStory: It's not? What ''Berserk'' are you reading?
* CosmicPlaything: *FacePalm*. Okay. Where would you like to start? The part where Guts's life sucked even BEFORE he was born and how he narrowly escapes death every twenty-five minutes or how Casca has an invisible blinking sign that says "Rape me!" [[AllMenAreRapists to all men]] in a ten mile radius? Why even bother explaining it here? [[CrapsackWorld See below]].
* CostumePorn: Armor, clothing, dresses. If it's worn on the human body, Miura draws it in exquisite detail.
* CourtlyLove: Griffith, of course, [[InvokedTrope toyed with this concept]] concerning his relationship with Princess Charlotte, who was the quickest way to the throne of Midland if he were to succeed in wooing and earning her hand in marriage. The guy was doing a damn good job at it too, [[WhatAnIdiot until he messed it all up]] [[BreakTheHaughty in a moment of despair.]]
** Suggested between Guts and Casca at one point, when she uses a scrap of colorful cloth from her blouse to bind a wound in his arm... exactly where a knight would traditionally display a favor from a noble lady. Ultimately averted when TheyDo, and neither of them were ever much like a proper knight or lady in any case.
* CoversAlwaysLie: Volume seven depicts Guts with a shield. [[{{TheBerserker}} Guts never uses a shield.]]
** Also, volume eleven has Guts holding a crossbow. [[RepeatingCrossbow He doesn't have that kind of crossbow.]] [[BadassTransplant At least not yet.]]
** A cover during the [[spoiler: Eclipse shows Guts holding Casca while fiercely protecting her. Wow, if only...]]
* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: How Guts reintroduces himself to the Hawks after the one-year time skip, when he kicks Silas (random mook in the first anime) InTheBack when he corners Casca.
* CradleOfLoneliness: After Guts' departure, Casca is seen holding the remains of Guts' previously broken sword.
* CradlingYourKill: After unknowingly stabbling Adonis, the son of Earl Julius, a horrified Guts holds the dying boy's hand until it slips lifelessly out of Guts'. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone The moment changed Guts.]]
* CrapsackWorld: Oh yeah. Some people manage to survive and better themselves, but for most, it's a nightmarish existence topped off by a nightmarish death. To put it simply, life in Midland sucks.
** If you're a peasant, there is substantial evidence in the manga that your sole purpose is to be cannon fodder for whatever instance of nightmarish horror is currently roaming around. This is discounting the general misery caused by constant wars between neighboring countries, the in-series equivalent of a demonic version of the Crusades and the reconstruction of the entire world based on the vision of a spiteful, backstabbing sociopath.
** And it's implied that if your nightmarish death is brought about by demons, then you go straight to a great morass of souls surrounding [[spoiler:a giant heart.]] And even if you don't, it's implied everyone goes there when they die, without exception. It isn't really Hell as the Judeo-Christians see it (if it had an analogy, it would be in the Shinto ''Jikoku,'' or "land of the dead," which is also a place which everyone goes to when they die), but from what has been shown of it in the manga, it ''isn't'' a very pleasant place.
** Face it: if you started out as a halfway decent person in this world, you probably won't be going out as one (either because you'll be literally chopped in half by some demon or you'll give up your humanity to become one of those who causes the suffering, either metaphorically or via Behelit).
** Yet even with all the horrible things going on, the world itself has stunningly beautiful natural landscapes brimming with life. It has the potential to be a really nice place to live if not for [[HumansAreFlawed humanity who are so good at ruining everything for themselves.]]
* CreepyChild: The kid Casca found on the beach and is implied to be the FetusTerrible mentioned on the other pages.
* CreepyCrows: Really abundant in the shittier places. The crow and raven motif was used from a more sympathetic viewpoint when some of Mozgus' deformed disciples were feeding [[{{Pun}} a murder.]]
* CreepySouvenir: The torturer in the Tower of Rebirth [[spoiler: [[TongueTrauma cut off Griffith's tongue]]]] and made it into a ''necklace.'' [[KarmicDeath But he got his.]]
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: When something human dies in this series, it's extremely likely this is occurring.
* CrusadingWidower: Guts. Though he didn't marry Caska and he wasn't the dad to the Hawks, but this is essentially what he becomes.
* CryIntoChest: Casca does this a lot with Guts, both before and after they become a couple, with tears and without. Princess Charlotte does this with Griffith as well.
* CrystalDragonJesus: The Holy See.
* CueTheSun: Normally represents how Guts (and companions) has survived another harrowing night of fighting ghosts and hellspawn.
* {{Curse}}: Though they survived the Eclipse, by bearing the Brand of the Sacrifice Guts and Casca are doomed to be followed by evil spirits and demons until their dying breath, where they will then have to serve an eternity in hell.
* CurbStompBattle: After the [[spoiler: hundred man slaying incident]] groups of human enemies ,no matter how well trained or numerous, just stopped being a problem for Guts (as long as he is in sufficient fighting shape of course). An especially awesome example comes when a group of Kushan assassins try to kill Guts...who just had his sword upgraded and was eager to give it a try...[[spoiler: After seing the resulting pile of gore, Silat wisely decided not to waste his best mooks on an unwinnable battle.]]
* CursedWithAwesome: Guts is granted the Berserker Armor, which gives him incredible strength and speed, but it deadens the nerves so that the one who wore the armor would just fight and not feel anything. Guts has to wear this, or else he'll die due to the injuries he sustained in a fight with Slan.
** BlessedWithSuck: However, there seems to be [[PowerAtAPrice a lot more disadvantages to the Berserker armor than advantages]] in the long run, such as gradual loss of color vision, sense of taste, sanity, and the fact that the armor literally causes the wearer to go berserk, meaning that they won't be able to distinguish who is a friend and who is foe. Not only that, but the armor "repairs" the wearer's injuries by driving splinters into the body much like an Iron Maiden, so there is a chance that the wearer will die of blood loss along the way. Also, since using the armor puts a lot more stress on Guts' body, his recuperation period is much longer now.
* CuteMute: Casca, after what happens to her. Poor, ''poor'' Casca.
* CuteWitch: Schierke.
* CutShort: The anime, and frankly, they ''couldn't'' have kept it going without giving the censors a set of heart attacks...
** Although seeing as how it ended with Guts [[spoiler:cutting off his own arm]] and Casca [[spoiler:being raped]] while Guts [[spoiler:is forced to watch as the cost of his eye]], its questionable how much worse it could get.
*** ...This is Berserk. It can ''always'' get worse.
* DancesAndBalls: Lots of dancing balls are hosted by aristocrats. Most of them end in incredibly violent ways.
* DarkerAndEdgier: After reading this page, it should be obvious that ''Berserk'' is arguably the best example of the trope in manga.
** It's even {{Lampshaded}} in the American volumes, which bear this text on the back cover:
--> ''Berserk'' is the hammer of the manga forge, a white-hot amalgam of bruising action, breathless horror, and brimstone humor that separates men from boys, wheat from chaff, and heads from shoulders! DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?
* DarkFantasy: In spades.
* DarkIsEvil: Just about all [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Apostles]] are evil by nature, and [[ObviouslyEvil obviously so]]...
** DarkIsNotEvil: ...But it's not always the case. Some spiritual beings look creepy but are otherwise fairly benign, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly named]] Skull Knight largely devotes his time to fighting the forces of evil, and the Black Swordsman himself, SuperpoweredEvilSide aside, is the hero of the story.
* DarkMessiah: [[spoiler: Griffith after he uses the Crimson Behelit to become the fifth member of the Godhand.]] However to the people of Midland it is [[spoiler: Guts.]] This is not going to end well.
* TheDarkSide: The meta-example would be a bit too difficult - if not controversial - to debate within the lore of the story, but a good micro example would be the Beast that dwells within Guts, who represents everything dark and bad within his heart and is constantly trying to corrupt his soul with darkness with promises of power and vengeance against the one who wronged him.
** TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: Invoked by the Beast and enforced by the Berserker armor. The armor itself is [[PowerAtAPrice a mixed blessing at best]], [[CursedWithAwesome as it has great potential to the wearer]] [[BlessedWithSuck but comes with a plethora of baggage]], one that includes causing the wearer to gradually lose their mind and quite possibly fragment their memory. Now just add an already present SuperPoweredEvilSide who [[TheCorrupter constantly goads]] the [[ByronicHero morally-divided hero]] to succumb to complete and total darkness so that [[SplitPersonalityTakeover it can take over his soul]] to the picture and just think of what might possibly happen.
* DarkestHour: Once the Hawks make it to the border of Midland, they must come to terms with their predicament: they've been outcasted from the kingdom and Griffith is mutilated beyond repair. The dream is over.
* ADayInTheLimelight: When Guts and the gang arrive in Vritannis, Isidro and Schierke get a side story in this fashion that is primarily used to [[ToyShip develop their relationship]] rather than add to the main story arc. That, and it served to introduce our next batch of {{Clingy Comedy Villain}}s.
* DeadpanSnarker: Everyone seems to have their moments in this doom and gloom world, but Serpico takes the cake.
* DealWithTheDevil: What essentially happens when a Behelit is activated and the Godhand is summoned.
* DeadlyUpgrade: The Berserker's Armor?
** Also Guts didn't always have the Dragonslayer.
* DeathByChildbirth: ''Berserk'' loves to play this trope for the {{squick}}. The most "normal" case happened to Guts, whose mother bore him either post-mortem or while she was being hanged. Other cases include women whose children were demonized ([[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong or were impregnated by demons]]) being gruesomely killed when the demonic spawn [[ChestBurster claw out of their mothers' wombs.]]
* DeathByOriginStory: Everybody who died in the Golden Age arc, which is basically Guts' back story.
* DeathWail / TheScream: Played for tragedy during the Eclipse. First, [[spoiler: Guts screams in rage, anger, and sadness after seeing the slaughtered remains of his friends and comrades in a lake of blood. Then, after going through the immense horror of being forced to watch Casca get raped by Femto, Guts howls a scream that we can only describe as ''[[EmotionalTorque sheer pain]]'' when he watches her fall limp and broken after Femto is done with her.]]
** Although she tends to scream a lot in her insanity, newly insane Casca gives a truly painful and mournful scream when [[spoiler: she miscarries her deformed child and it disappears at daybreak.]]
* DeathWorld: The world of ''Berserk'' has never been a pleasant place, but ever since [[TheMagicComesBack the magic came back]], [[FromBadToWorse it's gotten even]] ''[[FromBadToWorse worse]]''! Various spiritual creatures, including dragons, hydras, trolls, and sea monsters have appeared and have since been wreaking havoc on the unprepared populace.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Half of Guts' motivation is to kill the Godhand; the other half revolves around protecting Casca. Guts protects Casca when she was a capable ActionGirl and after he [[MyGreatestFailure failed to protect her]] during the Eclipse and vows to do so from now on,especially after [[spoiler: he rescues her from Mozgus]]). As noted above, you hurt Casca, you '''die'''. Simple as that.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Subverted when Guts demands a rematch from Griffith, and then Double Subverted when he's beaten anyway, and is enlisted into the Band Of The Hawk.
* DeliberateInjuryGambit: Guts pulls this quite a lot against apostles, most notably against the Snake Baron in the first volume and against Rosine in the Lost Children Arc.
* DeliberatelyPainfulClothing: Guts wears the berserker armor, which snaps his bones and tears his flesh as it slowly eats away at his soul.
* DemonLordsAndArchDevils: The Godhand.
* DepravedBisexual: [[spoiler: Griffith.]]
** If he does qualify for this trope, then it would be the milder variety where he uses sex as a means to manipulate others, be they [[spoiler: young princesses]] or [[spoiler: ugly, depraved old men--who happen to be very rich]].
* DespairEventHorizon: Crossing this is pretty much required to activate a Behelit.
** Which invariably leads to crossing moral lines.
* {{Determinator}}: Guts is essentially the poster boy for the trope. Beat him, burn him, even impale him, he will ''not'' let go of that sword. And let's not forget Griffith, who's willing to achieve his childhood dream even if it means [[spoiler: everyone close to him being eaten by demons... and becoming one himself]].
* DeusAngstMachina: After [[spoiler: losing all his friends and 15% of his body in the Eclipse and having to watch helplessly while Femto raped Casca to the point of madness]] Guts understandably [[{{Freakout}} loses it]]. Ok, that was pretty bad. [[{{TemptingFate}} This must be the bottomline!]] Of course [[spoiler: the Skull Knight promptly arrives to inform Guts about the more unpleasant properties of his brand that will keep him from ever sleeping again and finally it is revealed that Casca was pregnant of Guts child and the embryo was corrupted by Femto into a ghastly demon.]] And that's just the beginning...
* DeusExMachina: The Skull Knight sometimes comes off as this. However, there is a catch: Even the Skull Knight is revealed to be an UnwittingPawn who just plays out his predestined role. So there is no such thing as coincidence in this universe.
** The crimson behelit invokes this. Griffith suffers irreversible physical damage after a year of torture and it seems to be end game for Griffith's dream... until [[ClingyMacGuffin the behelit reappears]] and more or less allows him be reborn bigger and better than before (albeit at a very great cost).
* DiabolusExMachina: The ending to the anime. NO, OH GOD NO.
* DiagonalCut: Serpico's Wind Sword has this effect.
* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: In chapter 290, after a battle with the pirates, Farnese and Roderick have a heart-to-heart talk about how each person on board has a special role, and Roderick let it slip that she's taking care of Casca, the most important person in Guts's life. He then thinks to himself that that was probably [[PrecociousCrush not the best thing to say to her]]...
** Casca also does this in volume 10 during the Griffith rescue operation. She wound up telling Guts that she was more or less jealous of Princess Charlotte and her affection toward Griffith... even though she and Guts had just shared [[spoiler: an entire love scene together a few nights previous.]] You can guess that Guts wasn't too happy at hearing this tidbit and Casca immediately regrets saying it and tries to apologize, but the damage has already been done.
* DidYouJustHaveSex: After initiating the Griffith rescue operation, Judeau eyes Guts and Casca together and notices how happy they are (especially Casca, since she has not been herself since the downfall of the Band of the Hawk a year prior). Guts and Casca indeed became "[[TheyDo official]]'' the previous night. Bonus points in that the night before, Judeau was more or less hinting at Guts to "cheer Casca up."
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Well what did you expect from a guy whose mission is to take out God himself? Guts puts himself up against [[EldritchAbomination unimaginable adversaries]] and usually comes out victorious one way or another. That being said - [[CrapsackWorld and living in this]] [[InherentInTheSystem kind of world]] - Guts doesn't come out of fights [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu without some damage being done]].
* DirtyBusiness: Guts left the Band of the Hawk partly because he was uncomfortable with being [[spoiler: Griffith's personal assassin and having to kill a child.]]
* DirtyCoward: Played with during the Tower of Conviction arc. Nina is definitely a coward, but Luca tells her that because of that, she might be the one who'll fight the hardest to live. She's also portrayed slightly more sympathetically than is usual for this trope, as she is deeply ashamed of her cowardice, and actually steels herself to pull off a HeroicSacrifice, only to lose her nerve (not unreasonably) [[ColdBloodedTorture when she sees exactly]] [[FateWorseThanDeath what would happen if she went through with it.]]
* DisappearsIntoLight: This is what recently happened to [[spoiler: Ganishka]].
* DisturbedDoves: Happens when [[spoiler: Griffith appears after being reincarnated in human form on Earth.]]
** Happens a few other times, like during he and Guts' naked water fight. [[AnimalMotif Birds just seem to like this guy.]]
* DoesNotLikeShoes: The entire Kushan populace. Except Ganishka. Probably only when necessary, though.
* DogPileOfDoom: What tragically thwarted Guts from saving Casca during the Eclipse. [[HopeSpot Damn it all.]]
* DomesticAbuse: Just another whiff of how realistically crappy life in Midland can be, sans monsters. Young Guts, Jill, and Rosine had it bad.
* DontLookAtMe: These are pretty much Casca's last words as a sane person [[spoiler: while she is being horrifically raped in front of Guts who is being {{forced to watch}} anyway.]] After that, she's [[CuteMute a mute]].
* DownerBeginning: The manga starts off at the point in his life where Guts is at his most hopeless, ruthless and outright evil. [[spoiler: Rickert later points out that if Puck hadn't teamed up with Guts at that time, he porbably would have lost his humanity completely.]]
* DownerEnding: The anime. And how!
* DramatisPersonae: The most recent manga volumes (Fantasia Arc) have begun doing this with the major characters.
* DressHitsFloor: "Cape Hits Floor" in the slightly more censored anime, where after their second IntimateHealing encounter, Casca starts fighting with Guts after he [[StayInTheKitchen insulted her]]... in nothing but his cape... This can count as [[CrowningMomentOfFunny a funny moment]] [[RuleOfFunny depending on]] [[NakedPeopleAreFunny how you look at it.]]
* DressingAsTheEnemy: Laban is able to save an entire ''castle'' full of prisoners by dressing them up in Kushan armor.
** In the 1997 anime, Guts infiltrates a fort commanded by Adon by disguising as a Tudor soldier.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** BungledSuicide: Griffith tried to do himself in during his DespairEventHorizon by attempting to impale himself through the throat. It didn't work. He missed.
** InterruptedSuicide: Casca tried to do herself in during her FreakOut by trying to jump off a cliff. It didn't work. Thanks, Guts.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Guts played with trope when he was with unconscious Casca in the cave. It was insinuated that he briefly thought about having his way with the her, but he mentally slapped himself for it. Still, the most that he did was gently brush Casca's hair, while the rest of the night was spent [[IntimateHealing holding Casca so that she wouldn't freeze to death.]] This probably served as the first subtle hint that Guts found Casca physically attractive, but at least it wasn't as disturbing as [[ParentalIncest the King of Midland's scene with his daughter.]]
* DueToTheDead: Played with to a crazy degree.
** People such as Rickert and Wyald play this straight. Rickert, being the good character, pays his respects to [[spoiler: the fallen Hawks]] by making a commemorative graveyard for them [[FieldOfBlades made up of swords]]. Wyald, the despicably evil character, maims and desecrates the bodies of the people whom he previously [[spoiler: raped and tortured]] and [[DeadGuyOnDisplay set their dismembered corpses on pikes as they ride into battle.]]
** Guts, being an AntiHero, falls in-between. In the recent Boyhood arc, Guts [[spoiler: pays his final respects to the child elf who sacrificed herself in order to heal him by spreading the remaining petals of her host flower in the field of the same flowers. At this time, Guts is still the anti-social and arrogant teenager that we were introduced to at the beginning of the Golden Age arc, but the gesture reveals that, throughout the crap he had to put up with in his childhood, Guts still has a softer, emotional side to him that he's willing to show [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe to people who treat him with genuine kindness.]]]] However, throughout his Black Swordsman days, Guts is repeatedly shown desecrating the deceased, unanimated or not. This isn't on the same level as Wyald, since Guts isn't evil, but it does show that Guts is rather ruthless and that he is in a dark, dark place at this time.
** Griffith, the ambiguously evil character, plays it straight once when he is paying his respects to the un-named boy who died in his company, and he genuinely felt sad over his death [[spoiler: to the point where it was half of the motivation for him whoring himself out to General Genon.]] He later subverts this trope, starting with the fact that he attended the funeral of the Queen of Midland [[spoiler: when he was the one who orchestrated her death.]] The example the cut the deepest was upon his [[spoiler: reincarnation into the real world, where he visited the hill of swords for the fallen Band of the Hawk. However, he visited not so he could pay any respects or admit any regret for being the cause of their deaths, but to validate that he ''had no regrets for his actions during the Eclipse.'']] Big OUCH.
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: All three main characters get these. A lot. They're an unhappy bunch, so you can't really blame them.
** Guts gets them when he goes through his HeroicBSOD after [[spoiler: assassinating Count Julius and, by accident, his young son]]. Also, the eye-shine never quite comes back to Guts' eyes after the Eclipse, save for one moment when [[spoiler: the Skull Knight tells him of the possibility of Casca being cured at Elfheim.]]
** Casca has these during her time as leader of the Hawks, prominently when she is about to attempt suicide.
** And Griffith - poor post-torture/pre-Eclipse [[BreakTheHaughty Griffith.]]
* TheDungAges: And it shows. Luckily, not everyone presented is [[MedievalMorons a complete mor]] - oh, wait.
* DwindlingParty: After Guts's departure and [[spoiler: Griffith's arrest]], the Band of the Hawk began to dwindle little by little, some of them being killed in ambushes, others simply abandoning the band. Luckily, [[NumberTwo Casca took over and held the Hawks together as best as she could]]. The real kicker came when [[spoiler: Griffith, having made his FaceHeelTurn, [[HumanSacrifice threw the Hawks to the dogs]] [[KillEmAll and allowed them to be eaten by voracious Apostles, '''one by one'''.]]]]
* DysfunctionJunction: '''Everyone has a problem in this world.'''
----
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The sword Godo offers to Guts after the Eclipse, capable of cleanly cutting through the blade of another sword and the tip of an anvil in a single swing. A merely ordinary sized sword of exceptional sharpness doesn't suit Guts' style though. [[WreckedWeapon It doesn't last a single fight]].
* AbusiveParents: Gambino goes above and beyond with this. [[spoiler:It even gets him killed.]]
** This is also apparent in the Retribution/Peekaf story arc for both Jill and Rosine.
* AccidentalMurder: Guts defended himself from his AbusiveParent by taking up his sword... [[spoiler: and ramming it through Gambino's throat by mistake.]]
* AccidentalPervert: Isidoro met Schirke. Isidoro triped. Isidoro's hands ended somewhere that they shouldn't. Isidoro was reverted to monkey state.
* AcheyScars: Coinciding with AllergicToEvil, the closer Guts and Casca come into proximity with a powerful apostle, the more their brands hurt.
* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: The scene where the Hawks are on the border of Midland after the Griffith rescue operation. It is actually their DarkestHour moment and the scene is very much dramatic because of this since it's building up to the much more dramatic ending [[spoiler: [[{{Foreshadowing}} such as when Griffith desperately threw himself upon Casca,]] [[BrosBeforeHoes and Casca resolving that she couldn't leave with Guts]]]]. However, there are [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming still softer moments]], such as Guts and Casca reassuring each other that they want to be there for each other as friends and as lovers, when the Raiders tell Guts that they are willing to follow him wherever he goes, and Judeau telling Guts to be with Casca no matter what. These moments reinforce the theme of friendship and the bond that the Hawks have with each other; thus, reassuring that [[{{Tearjerker}} our eyes weren't going to dry anytime soon]] after watching the [[DownerEnding final three episodes.]]
* ActionGirl: Casca, before... ''stuff'' happened.
* ActionPrologue: Roughly the first three volumes act as this, depicting Guts ruthlessly hunting and killing Apostles. It introduces story concepts such as the [[DoomMagnet Brand]] and its effects, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Apostles]], [[ArtifactOfDoom Behelits]], the Godhand, and [[OurFairiesAreDifferent Elves]]. The next twelve volumes of the manga go through an extended flashback explaining how Guts got involved in all of this.
* ActionSurvivor: Mentioned briefly [[{{Badass}} below]], anybody who isn't a fully qualified badass but still manages to survive near-cataclysmic events for more than two volumes is basically this. That's good enough in the [[CrapsackWorld Berserkerverse.]]
* AdaptiveArmor: The Berserker Armor.
* AdaptationDistillation / CompressedAdaptation: Given the fact that a twelve volume arc is being adapted into three one-or-so-hour long movies, the new trilogy focusing on the Golden Age arc falls into these. With TheLawOfConservationOfDetail in effect to save time, a lot of scenes (mainly battle sequences) were cut out in favor of the more important ones, and some scenes were meshed together with other scenes in the first film; hence, it will probably be expected in the upcoming films as well.
* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: [[HatesBeingTouched We all know why Guts doesn't like being touched]] [[spoiler: because he got raped as a child]], and it's shown ''very clearly'' to us in the manga version with three later scenes showing how much he doesn't enjoy it: first when being tapped on the shoulder by a general, second when he mutters in his sleep when Casca is warming him, and third when Pippin picks him up [[PlayedForLaughs for the lulz]]. These same three scenes show up in the anime adaptation too, only it's never explained why Guts hates being touched because the flashback sequence explaining it was omitted from the anime.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Without the Skull Knight the anime is left with a few plot holes.
** Not to mention: It looked like Guts simply FORGOT to bring his sword [[spoiler: for the eclypse. In the manga it was left stuck in Wyald's neck.]]
* AdultFear: No one is going to sacrifice their loved ones and turn into a demon in [[RealLife real life]], but this series gives you the unpleasant feeling that even your best friends and family members are just [[DespairEventHorizon one bad day]] away from [[HumansAreBastards stabbing you in the back]]. By the way: [[OhCrap YOU]], dear reader, might do the same as well. However, this is always a [[EarnYourHappyEnding choice]] you make, [[spoiler: as proven by the count who would rather go to hell than sacrifice his daughter to survive]].
** The whole series in general runs on this stuff. [[ChildSoldier Children being forced to become soldiers]], [[AbusiveParents abusive and]] [[ParentalNeglect negligent parents]], childhood sexual abuse, [[DomesticAbuse general domestic and spousal abuse]], [[BodyHorror realistic body horror]], [[SexSlave sexual slavery]], [[ReligionOfEvil religion that has too much power over the people]], [[ThePlague disease and pestilence]], [[RapePillageAndBurn horrible war and war crimes]], [[AttemptedRape rape]], [[NearRapeExperience rape]], [[RapeAsDrama more rape]] (most of it [[HornyDevils isn't done]] [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong by monsters either]]), [[BreakTheCutie and its]] [[BrokenBird after effects]].... Geez.
** Think about it. All that hard work and effort, and all that struggle? [[YetAnotherStupidDeath What it would take]] [[LuckBasedMission for for you to fail,]] and anticlimactically? [[HeroicRedRingOfDeath something as stupid as lack of sleep]], or [[MoralEventHorizon all that long term struggle finally taking a mental toll on you.]] Even losing the trust of comrades is detrimental.
* AdultsAreUseless: A plot necessity in the Lost Children Arc, for obvious reasons... Sans Guts, who's only [[YoungerThanTheyLook about 20-something]] himself, the adults present are totally abusive, complete morons, or massive cowards. The kids, whether they're apostles or not, are shown to be more ballsy than the adults around them.
* AerithAndBob: The Godhand is made up of the demons Femto, Void, Slan, Ubik... and ''Conrad''.
** Most of the names are from science-fiction novels. Void is likely from Frank Herbert's Destination: Void; Ubik is a book by Philip K. Dick; Slan is by A.E. Van Vogt and Conrad comes from Roger Zelazny's '...And call me Conrad'. Femto is either a prefix in the metric system for extremely small lengths (multiplied by 0.000000000000001, as a matter of fact) or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHEMT a technical principle]] (in which case it is spelled ''PHEMT'').
** The names are not radically different. The only reason Conrad seems strange in comparison to the others is because it's a real life name and the rest aren't.
** Furthermore, it's a foreign name in Japan, so it doesn't really stick out.
** How about this? We have Hawk members [[AwesomeMcCoolName Guts]], Griffith, Casca, Judeau, Corkus, Pippin, and Rickert. Then we have felled RedShirt members - ''Dan'' and ''Earl''???
*** In the manga, their names are a bit more "refined" for the period, and are called by "Dante" and "Errol".
* AffablyEvil: Griffith, to his army, might seem like the nicest, coolest guy in the world and if you didn't know better he would be... Just that [[spoiler: if it weren't for the voice in your head screaming, "Eclipse! Eclipse! Eclipse!" every time he's on the screen to remind you why hes a true BigBad.]]
* AfterActionPatchup: Casca does this a few times with Guts. These moments allowed the two [[RelationshipUpgrade to develop their relationship more.]]
* AlasPoorVillain: The death of Rosine, one of the Apostles. [[spoiler: After Guts mortally wounds her, she manages to fly away from him and finally realizes that elves are real indeed but she just isn't one of them. She then feels regret for sacrificing her parents to demons and in her delirious state, tries to return home, but falls to her death.]]
* AlienGeometries: Whenever the Godhand make their appearance when it's not in the [[EldritchLocation typical landscape]], it's usually in some weirdass [[ShoutOut Escher drawing]] scape.
* AlikeAndAntitheticalAdversaries: Started out as the Heterogeneous Heroes vs. the Homogeneous Villains variety, with the good guys, the original Band of the Hawk, having light-skinned people and [[AmbiguouslyBrown dark-skinned people]], men [[TheSmurfettePrinciple and woman]], [[CompetenceZone and with older and younger supporters]], and the bad guys, the Tudor Empire, being composed of older white men. Later, as more plot schemes and arcs develop and characters undergo more development, it turns into a Heterogeneous Heroes vs. Heterogeneous Villains scenario.
* AllergicToEvil: The Brand of Sacrifice on Guts and Casca will start bleeding or hurting if demons are near.
* AllGaysArePedophiles: Paedophilia is kinda common in Miura's work to emphasize just how [[CrapsackWorld crappy]] a place Midland is and it's not just homosexuals like Gennon [[spoiler: who kept a harem of young boys hostage and had sex with Griffith]]. Just ask Charlotte. Or even better, [[spoiler: ask Guts himself why he HatesBeingTouched so much]].
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Played straight with Sonia, the DarkChick in Griffith's new Band of the Hawk. She has a thing for morally dubious guys, be it Griffith or Irvine.
** [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Subverted]] with Casca. She liked Griffith best when he was being nicest, and [[AntiHero Guts]] was never a "bad guy", he just [[DarkIsNotEvil looks like one]].
* AllJustADream: This is what Corkus convinces himself is going on after his mind snaps during the Eclipse. Unfortunately for him, believing it doesn't make it true.
** The fact that a [[spoiler:naked woman]] appears out of nowhere [[spoiler:and attempts to seduce him]] doesn't help convince him otherwise.
** Otherwise often heard among people of the Berserk-verse in general, especially those that have no connection to the Astral World.
* AllLovingHero:
** Griffith, though he is more of a subversion (zigzagged at best), since he appears to be a good-willed person who loves everybody and everybody in turn either loves him or willingly follows him, but in truth he's a guy with some issues. This complex is especially seen after his [[spoiler: reincarnation into the physical world]] since he justifiably ''can't'' be a messiah since he is [[LackOfEmpathy devoid of the human capacity for empathy.]]
** Guts, on the other hand, is an aversion, since he's a decent guy who has also done good, but he doesn't even pretend to love everybody, nor does everybody that he meets love him.
* AllMenArePerverts / AllWomenAreLustful: A rare instance where both tropes are played equally and without any compassion for either gender.
** The trope is most apparent during the numerous orgies and attempted/succeeded rape.
** AllWomenArePrudes: Likewise, if you're not a prostitute or just sex crazed, a background woman's only role is to be the pure, innocent, wholesome, traditional medieval country girl who gets horribly violated by marauders or apostles (usually they're one and the same).
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: A town is being bombarded by trolls that are ransacking their supplies and [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong procreating with their women]]. They need a RagtagBunchOfMisfits to save them now. But still... What can [[SmallAnnoyingCreature two faeries]], [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass a spineless guy]] [[EyesAlwaysShut who always has his eyes closed]], [[TheBigGuy a big]], [[DarkIsNotEvil scary-looking]] [[HandicappedBadass handicapped]] dude who carries around a [[{{BFS}} torpedo-sized sword]], [[GlassCannon a scrawny but powerful]] [[ChildMage kid]] [[CuteWitch witch]], TheLoad, a kid who's not even in the [[WrongGenreSavvy right show]], and a [[CuteMute mute chick]] who's oblivious to her own surroundings going to do about it? The town's predicament might be dire, but Guts's TrueCompanions are all just a bunch of '''[[LonersAreFreaks outsiders]]''' in the end.
* AllMythsAreTrue: Thanks in part to an extended and ''en masse'' case of [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve clapping your hands to believe.]] Serpico even remarked in volume 24 that ghosts and monsters were one thing, but witches and trolls were a bit too "fairy tale-ish" to believe. [[spoiler:And since the LayeredWorld was merged, they've become a lot more true.]]
* AllTrollsAreDifferent: They're '''vicious''' little beasts that look like a [[MixAndMatchCritters mix between a bipedal rat and a pig]], with a dose of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Condylura.jpg star-nosed mole]]. [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080612124723/berserk/images/2/23/Troll.jpg See for your self]]. They also reproduce by [[{{Squick}} raping woman]] and having their [[FetusTerrible young eat their way]] [[ChestBurster out of her womb]].
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Guts pretty much said that so long as he and Casca survive, he doesn't give two shits about anything else. Most exemplified during the Conviction Arc, where Guts would rather an entire hoard of evil spirits infest St. Albion, killing hundreds of refugees in the process, and a whole mock Eclipse go down than let Mozgus and the citizens [[BurnTheWitch burn Casca at the stake as a witch]].
** Also worth mentioning that if there is even the ''slightest'' chance that Casca's sanity might be restored to her, Guts is willing to take the risk each and every time. Has been exhibited canonically and non-canonically.
* AmazonChaser: Pretty much the reason why Guts chose Casca as his lover, instead of a regular noblewoman who can't fight, since he considers her to be more than just a woman.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: In the world of ''Berserk'' there seems to be two "races" under this category: individuals such as Pippin and Donovan have more [[DarkestAfrica African features,]] while people like Silat and Jarris (Griffith's new chief engineer) have more [[SimSimSalabim south Asian features.]] The former is played straight as they are less prevalent, especially in recent arcs, but the latter group has been subverted as they come from a country that is based off of south Asia called Kushan. Special mention goes to Casca, in which she is implied to be Kushan, but it is never outwardly stated and [[FacialProfiling she has generic phenotypes that could make her belong to either group]], leading fans to categorize her in a real world context, ranging from Indian, African, Middle Eastern, mulatto, even ''Tibetan.''
* AmbitionIsEvil: Griffith. Enough said.
* AngelsDevilsAndSquid: Being a FantasyKitchenSink has allowed all three types of entities to exist in the world of ''Berserk'' in some form or another. There is a ''lot'' of overlap between them, but the Four Elemental Kings are the closest you can get to straight angels, the Apostles and Godhand are the devils, and the more malevolent spiritual entities (such as, fittingly, the Sea God) are the squid.
** The Battle for Windham ends up as a somewhat muddled case of this. Griffith, who takes on an angelic appearance, leads his army of humans and [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Apostles]] against the now [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever gigantic]] and nearly mindless EldritchAbomination that was once Ganishka and his "army" of [[CthulHumanoid Cthul Humanoids]].
** An Interesting note is that the God Hand are referred to as Five Angels which makes it the case of God Hand being the Angels, Apostles being the Devils and The Squid can be the spiritual entities as well as Ganishka in the battle of windham.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Both Guts and Casca do this to each other ''right'' before their RelationshipUpgrade, Guts being more irate and Casca being a lot more tearful. But hey - TheyDo!
* AnimatedArmor: The [[spoiler: Skull Knight]].
* AnnoyingArrows: Played straight and subverted at the same time: the crossbows frequently used by various soldiers generally instantly pierce the armor of and kill other human beings, and while Guts himself rarely gets hit by them, a single bolt to his hand renders him unable to wield his sword two-handed, giving him a significant disadvantage in that fight. On the other hand, the Apostles are simply so large that the crossbows are simply too small to hit their internal organs, though Guts often shoots out their eyes to great effect.
* TheAntiChrist: Thanks to the prophecy about the white and black hawks and the fact he wants to kill the person the freakin pope declared as an AllLovingHero, this is ''technically'' Guts. Due to the violence InherentInTheSystem, this may or may not be a good thing. Or another way to look at it is that [[spoiler:Griffith]] is the anti-christ since, you know, no one is supposed to know that the anti-christ is the anti-christ. Schierke refers to him as the Hawk of Darkness, and she'd know better than most people.
* AntiHero: Guts, and ''maybe'' the Skull Knight.
* AntiVillain: Rosine. She looks like a [[http://p1.storage.canalblog.com/19/63/275635/13316160.jpg beautiful moth fairy]].
** Sonia also qualifies. An ever-smiling, cute, blonde young girl couldn't possibly be a '''very''' morally questionable character, right? Mule may apply to an extent but he's more of an UnwittingPawn than anything else.
* AnyoneCanDie: And boy howdy, do we mean ''ANYONE.'' [[MenAreTheExpendableGender Men,]] [[NoWomansLand women,]] [[InfantImmortality children and babies,]] [[InvulnerableHorses horses and other animals,]] [[SacrificialLion secondary characters]] - NOBODY is immune to dying a horrible and grisly death in ''Berserk.'' While we're at it, we mind as well add that being a main character does ''not'' exempt you from any degree of suffering, only getting by with a set of PlotArmor that mind as well be made out of glass.
* ApatheticCitizens: Casca's home village was marauded by soldiers and bandits so often that they made it a routine to just go up into the nearby mountains for refuge and watch the chaos unfold until it was all done for that week. Add the fact that their crops failed 9 out of 10 times and several people died of starvation during the winter, it was no wonder that they eventually came to the conclusion that, "[[InherentInTheSystem this is the way life is.]] Oh well."
* ArcVillain: Kinda mixed with ''Berserk's'' earlier MonsterOfTheWeek, format, but it's not confined. The more defined arc villains:
** The Black Swordsman Arc, Koka Castle: The Snake Baron
** The Black Swordsman Arc, Guardians of Desire: The Count
** The Lost Children Arc: Rosine
** The Retribution Arc: Bishop Mozgus
* AristocratsAreEvil: Especially when they turn into Apostles.
* ArmCannon: There's one in Guts's left hand, and he can also rig it with a crossbow.
* ArmorIsUseless: The plate armor all the {{Mooks}} wear might as well be tin foil as far as Guts's weapons are concerned, and Guts is just as MadeOfIron in or out of armour.
** Not necessarily - when fighting the apostle Grunbeld without armor, Guts says something to the effect of absolutely needing armor to survive against an enemy of his power. He also credits it with protecting him against the goat-cult leader.
** Not to mention Guts gets some extremely useful armor. Extremely useful in the sense that it makes him stronger. As far as protection is concerned, it does the opposite.
*** The armor is also extremely useful because [[spoiler: it's the only thing keeping the wound inflicted on him by Slan (which hurts the body and soul) from killing him.]]
*** Technically it doesn't make him stronger only removes the subconscious limit the minds placed on the body allowing him to push himself way, way beyond his limits. Although for all intents and purposes it makes him stronger.
** Averted in episode 330 of the manga. Guts, armed with a dull and conventionally-sized sword, is pitted against a noble wearing thick plate armor. Incapable of breaking past the armor, he ends up fighting a little more [[CombatPragmatist creatively]] than usual.
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: The Black Dog Knights were a branch of Midland's military consisting of the kingdom's criminals. They were [[RapePillageAndBurn incredibly ruthless]], and their leader, Wyald, was a real piece of work.
* ArrowCatch: In volume 22 by one of the Kushan army.
* ArtEvolution: The artwork in the manga was merely average in the beginning, with some characters looking [[UncannyValley rather odd]], and now arguably has some of the best artwork of any manga. [[http://www.berserkchronicles.com/englishpage.php?link=style.htm This gives a good example of how the art changes from volume to volume.]] With regards to Guts, the guy we see the most, he's been getting more square-jawed and square...faced as the series go on. [[http://karaii.tumblr.com/post/8495573908/the-evolution-of-guts-from-the-manga-berserk-as More illustrated references for your convenience.]]
* ArtifactOfDoom: Behelits, egg-like items that are direct conduits to the Godhand and allow their possessors the opportunity to become demons... for a hefty price. Griffith's Crimson Behelit, the 'Egg of the Conqueror', is the worst of all.
** The Berserker Armor as well.
* ArtificialLimbs: Guts's arm.
** Subverted in that while its usefulness in combat is [[HandWave handwaved]] by a magnet in it that lets it help hold a sword his fake arm is actually just a hunk of metal with some weapons inside it -- it's not functional as a limb, and he can't control it or grab things with it. Although it's a looong time between when he gets it and when this is explained...
*** But when his magic armor is active, he can use it like a normal limb.
* ArtShift: Puck and Isidro.
** Also, compare [[http://manga.animea.net/berserk-chapter-312-page-19.html this scene]] with a [[http://manga.animea.net/berserk-chapter-1-page-9.html typical Berserk scene]].
* AsleepForDays: After being rescued from the Eclipse, Guts and Casca were out of it for at least 3-4 days. After Guts finally wakes up, [[FreakOut he awakens into a nightmare.]]
* AssassinOutclassin: It's pretty much been proven that attempting to assassinate Griffith will ultimately lead to the [[KarmicDeath conspirator's own assassination.]]
* AttackAttackAttack: Guts' main combat strategy.
* AuthorExistenceFailure: What many fans fear will eventually happen due to the series' lax release schedule.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Though they became an OfficialCouple at the end of volume 9 and the beginning of volume 10, Guts and Casca still had some of those early relationship mishaps, which included Casca showing jealously toward Princess Charlotte and her relationship with Griffith and then Guts getting pissed at Casca when she spilled the beans. They share some tender moments in between, but when they finally rescue Griffith, there are some very awkward glances between everyone. However, in volume 11, the group encounters Wyald and his Black Dog Knights, and Guts is badly injured. [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Casca immediately rushes to Guts' aid]], but is then captured by Wyald and [[AttemptedRape nearly raped]]. Thankfully, [[HeroicResolve Guts rescues Casca just in the nick of time]] and the battle ensues... all the while Casca is worried to tears that Guts might be biting off more than he can chew. Guts is victorious, but it looks as if it was too late... until he gives Casca a reassuring thumbs-up. And then, [[http://www.mrsmanga.com/mangas/Berserk/059.069%20-%20Complete%20Volume%2011/Berserk%20v11c08p170%20copy.jpg awwwwwwww!]]
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: One ''could'' say it happens for Griffith, [[PlayingWithATrope if only]] [[spoiler:the whole thing didn't take place in hell, a crown was involved, and his friends weren't being eaten alive.]]
** [[spoiler:Perhaps chapter 307 is more appropriate when Griffith summons his own PALACE]]
* AwkwardlyPlacedBathtub: During their stay in Vritannis, Casca is given a bath by Schierke - in the cramped room that they paid for at an inn with Guts and Isidro still present in the room, veiled by only curtain and Schierke's attempt at tying Isidro to a chair so that he won't peek. Much HilarityEnsues.
* BabiesEverAfter: How Griffith envisioned life with Casca if his original plans did not go accordingly [[spoiler: right before he activated his crimson behelit via DespairEventHorizon when he saw Casca in love with Guts.]] Subverted in that [[spoiler: it's heavily implied that the baby in that vision was Guts', not Griffith's.]]
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Subverted in Guts and Casca's relationship. Guts and Casca conceived their child right around that point in the story where things take a strange optimistic turn in their relationship... and of course, it does not last. When [[FetusTerrible that baby]] was born, [[OffingTheOffspring Guts was not happy.]] Also subverted when [[spoiler: Griffith chooses to sacrifice the Hawks rather than lead a semi-ordinary life raising a child with Casca]] (see BabiesMakeEverythingBetter above).
* {{Backstory}}: There's a lot of it. Eleven volumes, in fact.
* BackToBackBadasses: Guts and Casca get one of these.
** Two, actually, when they were fighting the Bakiraka in the sewers. Those were the good ol' days.
* BadDreams / NightmareSequence: Guts has a lot of these, [[FlashbackNightmare first due to his childhood trauma]], and then after the events of the Eclipse. What's worse is when people, specifically Puck and Schierke, go into Guts' inner memories, they are bombarded with horrific images of the Eclipse. Also, in the non-canonical game ''Sword of the Berserk'', when [[spoiler: Casca briefly regains her sanity, she said that she was having bad dreams.]]
* [[TheBadGuyWins The Bad Guys Win]]: Man, it's hard enough having to make reference to the event so often, let alone having to actually admit and say, "Guts lost - ''[[MyGreatestFailure really]]'' [[MyGreatestFailure lost.]]" At least, [[CutShort as far as the anime adaptation goes]], that is.
* {{Badass}}: When your name is Guts and you can survive two years of drawing demons to you like a lightning rod, you earn the title...
** And the Skull Knight also qualifies in a big way. He's been in the demonslaying game even longer than Guts has, and it's rumored that [[spoiler: he went through the exact same thing Guts did when Void first became a Godhand]].
*** He's also hinted to be [[spoiler:the former Emperor of the World]]. Now ''that's'' badass (in its own way).
**** Heck - any character who survives more than two volumes is a badass by default.
***** I wouldn't be so quick to say that. That would include Farnese, Puck, Isidro, Corkus, the King, Charlotte...the list goes on. Berserk pretty much demonstrates how it's better to be lucky than skillful (or even useful on a regular basis).
***** Needless to say, Berserk is just LOADED with badass. The examples listed on this page are just the ''tip'' of the iceberg. If this wasn't such a shitty place to live with all of its flaws, the Berserkerverse would just be a WorldOfBadass. Aw, hell - it IS. See below.
* BadassBandolier: Guts and Judeau have them for their throwing knives (though Judeau had them [[HisQuirkLivesOn before Guts started carrying knives]]). Just in general, there are bags and pouches ''everywhere'' in Berserk (we weren't kidding about Miura being [[CostumePorn ultra detailed with the costumes]]). They're so prominent that they have become a MemeticMutation within the fandom.
* BadassCape: Oh yeah, Guts has one all right, huge, sweeping, black, tattered, and always billowing at just the right times for maximum effect.
** Griffith as well, with a neat, well-kept white cape in contrast.
** And the Skull Knight's got one too.
** Casca could count too. In fact, she, Guts, and Griffith are the only members of the Hawks to wear 'em, which certainly signifies their Badass status among the Hawks.
* BadassAndChildDuo: Guts and Schierke are this.
* BadassCrew: The Band of the Hawk, baby.
* BadassGrandpa: Azan is well past his prime...and still kicks ass!
* BadassNormal: Guts earned the title...and that goes double when it's done without superpowers.
** Most of the original Band of Hawk fall under this trope.
** Serpico counts as this: He can stand toe-to-toe with Guts by using superior tactics, which include fighting him in areas where his bulk and oversized weapon are a disadvantage.
*** To emphasize, Serpico does this same tactic ''more than once'' to Guts.
** Roderick counts as well: he's not much of a swordsman or a demonslayer, but a superior sea captain. Put him in command of his ship, and he racks up the kills on the high seas.
* BadassTransplant: As though Guts needed to be any more badass.
* BallroomBlitz: Happen at Farnese's father's ball when some [[OurMonstersAreWeird cute]] [[MegaNeko kitties]] sent by Emperor Ganishka come to [[{{Gorn}}entertain the guests.]]
* BandOfBrothels: Luca and her girls.
* BarBrawl / DinerBrawl: Guts makes [[EstablishingCharacterMoment his big debut]] in a BadGuyBar in the castle town of Koka in the first volume/episode by killing everyone one of the Snake Baron's mooks, sans one. In later arcs, Guts and his gang get into a beat down with some drunkard slobs who were harassing the girls while at an inn.
* BarbieDollAnatomy: Played straight initially -- Griffith is a Ken doll -- and averted later in the story -- some pages could easily be mistaken for {{Hentai}} -- though it's played as much to elicit [[FanDisservice revulsion]] as arousal.
** Not to mention Puck, who literally shows this trope off every time he appears.
** Oddly enough, men have genitalia but no nipples.
* BathtubScene: Post-Eclipse Casca gets a few of these. Cue in the LesYay with either Farnese or Schierke!
** Farnese gets one as well when she returns home for a short time.
* BatmanColdOpen: The series opens up with Guts killing some nameless Apostle (who's later revealed to have [[spoiler:killed Corkus]]) within the first five pages.
* BatmanGambit: Although it is difficult to know for certain what Femto is thinking, his plan appears to have relied on having one of his enemies [[spoiler:become so desperate to win that he goes through a radical ritual to turn himself into an embodiment of hell]] while at the same time predicting that another enemy will [[spoiler:execute a trans-dimensional sneak attack on Femto as soon as his guard appears to be down]], so that he can [[spoiler:re-direct the attack to deal a killing blow to the first enemy, releasing a world-altering energy wave]]. {{Justified}} as he is canonically and literally TheOmniscient, or very near.
* BattleCouple: Guts and Casca become this before the Eclipse.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: At one point in the Millennium Falcon arc, Schierke has to go inside Guts's mind using Astral Projection to snap him out of the influence of his inner beast the first time he uses the Berserker Armor.
* BattleThralls:
** Barbarian Marauders: The Black Dog Knights were hardly knight-like, in that they were [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores made up of the most violent, hedonistic mercenaries]] in Midland. So morally appalling they were that the King [[ThrownDownAWell exiled them to the outskirts of the kingdom.]]
** [[SlaveMooks Enslaved Grunts]]: The Kushan army would capture Midland soldiers and use them as CannonFodder in the front lines by disguising them as their own soldiers.
* BeAWhoreToGetYourMan: Discussed by [[StrawMisogynist General Adon]] during his first encounter with Casca, where he incorrectly assumed that she only became a general in the Band of the Hawk because she slept with Griffith. Really more of a "Be A Whore To Get Your Promotion" [[ZigzaggedTrope scenario.]]
* BeachEpisode: Hey, even Guts and his TrueCompanions need a break at the ocean, what with all of the weird shit they go through day after day.
** Not to say the beach is any safer for them than anywhere else...
* BeastWithAHumanFace: Many of the apostles retain their human faces in their more demonic forms. For some though, their human faces are placed on bodies that already have regular animal-like heads and some are even situated in places where human faces shouldn't normally belong on. Two prime examples that best illustrate this would be demon forms of the Baron of Koka Castle and the Count. The Baron looks like a gigantic humanoid snake but he has a human face in his mouth. The Count on the other hand, looks like a gigantic slug but he has a human face situated on the forehead of his slug head.
* BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: Subverted in Guts' new group with the three ladies (excluding Evarella). Schierke is TheSmartGuy, always formulating the plans but doesn't use physical action. Farnese would be the brawn, though she isn't an experienced fighter, but she's the most willing to put up a fight when necessary. And Casca is the beauty, as she is the most beautiful in the group, [[DistressedDamsel can't fight in her current condition,]] [[TheHeart but is the person that everyone in the group wants to protect.]]
* BeautyToBeast: [[spoiler:Griffith]], he got better though... which, considering it came at the cost of his immortal soul ''and'' his sacrificing the lives of those loyal to him, it was hardly typical.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The reason why grumpy ol' exiled Godo adopted little orphaned Erica. [[HappilyAdopted Yay!]]
* TheBechdelTest: Can you believe it? In such a dark setting, with such manly values and violent surroundings, there ARE indeed times when two named women talk to each other about something else than men. Can be survival (Luca and Nina), feeling out of place among regular people (Sonia and Schierke) or just plain outlook on life as a woman in a CrapsackWorld (Farnese and Lady Vandimion).
** It's funny that Casca, the series' only genuine ActionGirl, only talks to a woman once - and it's about a guy. In fact, Casca talks a lot about the guys in her life (but being a [[{{Tomboy}} chick]] who is practically OneOfTheBoys, it's somewhat understandable).
* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Arguably justified with [[spoiler: Griffith]], though it's not quite the torture that sends him over the edge, but more the consequences that followed afterwards.
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Played with. While those blindly clinging to the church quickly end up intensely ''dead'', Schierke explains that there's nothing wrong with believing in something beyond normal human perception; the problem is assuming that the force you're reaching out to will conform to your expectations. Magic-users believe, all right, but they don't believe ''dogmatically''.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Guts is a cocksure, [[TestosteronePoisoning ultra-macho]], Alpha male JerkWithAHeartOfGold who has been RaisedByDudes and who usually hits before speaking. Casca is a fiery, type-A {{Tsundere}}, Alpha ActionGirl who had to deal with sexual assault early on in her life and isn't exactly the submissive type. He has a thing for her, but is too maladjusted to convey such feelings. She has a thing for him, but also her pride and dutifulness as a commander. They go for the next best thing.
* BeneathTheMask / SilkHidingSteel: The Count's wife. On the outside, she appeared to be a sweet, endearing, obedient, and devoted wife and mother (and she might have been in some sense). But behind closed doors - especially when her husband was out of town - she participated in hot, provocative, and scandalous pagan orgies. And even when faced with death by her own husband's sword, [[BringIt she practically told him to give it his best shot.]] She only lost her nerves of steel when [[spoiler: the Apostles came.]]
* BerserkButton: [[{{Pun}} Well DUH!!]] But more seriously, there are two things that cause Guts' instant UnstoppableRage: a) Meeting a Godhand or [[spoiler: post-Eclipse Griffith]]. Period. b) Anyone trying to hurt Casca only has a few seconds left to live. And these seconds will be filled with pain.
** Actually anybody who tries to rape a girl in Guts presence tend to be [[BerserkButton this]].[[spoiler:He lost his cool and almost beheaded Farnese, while rescuing her from being raped by a possessed horse]].
** It don't stop with daddy. The Child, a being that was originally thought to have no real emotion or thought, was seen with a pretty damn scary DeathGlare when some pagan worshipers tried to rape Casca. They paid for it dearly.
* BerserkerTears: This happens a lot during the Eclipse between Guts and Casca.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: ''Griffith.'' Do ''not'' stand in the way of his dream [[strike:unless]] [[FateWorseThanDeath even if you have a death wish]].
* {{BFS}}: The Dragon Slayer; originally done as a marketing gimmick, it's actually justified later in the series - it doesn't really have much of an edge, and other characters [[LampshadeHanging mock]] it as being "more a slab of iron than a sword", but Guts swings it fast enough to tear people in half with brute force.
** The ginormous sword comes with an additional advantage: Durability. All the swords Guts used in the Golden Age arc broke at some point. Usually in the middle of a battle. His last "normal" sword didn't even last thirty seconds because Guts [[{{UnstoppableRage}} abused it so badly]] it snapped like a twig.
** Not only is the Dragon Slayer ultra durable, but it also double serves as a shield, since the blade is wide enough for Guts to hide his vital spots behind when on the defensive and to also deflect projectiles.
*** To further elaborate, when Guts was about to go Apostle-Hunting for the first time, he used a giant sword much like he used during his mercenary days, only to discover that despite its size, the Apostles were simply so large and tough that the sword generally broke before he could kill them. Discovering the Dragonslayer a second later, he realized it was one of the few weapons capable of killing them, purely because of its incredible mass.
* BicepPolishingGesture: Guts does this right before the Battle of Doldrey to show off how nicely his wounds healed with the help of the elf dust after his defeat of the 100 soldiers.
* BigBad: Void The Leader of The Godhand may count [[spoiler:until its revealed the Void is TheDragon to The Idea of Evil]] or [[spoiler:The Idea of Evil, the deity that created the Godhand]], or [[spoiler:Griffith]] who provides the primary motivation for the story.
* BigBadDuumvirate: The entire Godhand as a group may count, being the ringleaders of the majority of Apostles encountered [[spoiler:Until it's revealed they are being led by [[GodIsEvil The Idea of Evil]]]]
* BigBadassBattleSequence: The Battle of Doldrey. It's going to be even more glorious when the second movie comes out. The final battle against [[spoiler: Griffith and Emperor Ganishka]] can count as well.
* BiggerBad: [[spoiler:The Idea of Evil cosmically, it's on the very top of the Berserk-verse as far as evil is concerned, but it has little to do with Guts' quest.]]
* BigGood: Schierke's teacher, Flora. [[spoiler: After her death,]] the Skull Knight, the most powerful opposition to the Godhand, may qualify, although his true motives remain unknown. Potentially also the Four Elemental Kings, if they ever actually show up to do anything.
** On a more personal level, the strongest force of good is definitely [[spoiler: [[PowerOfLove the love between Guts and Casca.]]]]
* BigDamnHeroes: The Skull Knight pulls this perfectly when he [[spoiler:breaks into hell, fights past the Godhand, and rescues Guts and Casca from being eaten]].
** In general the Skull Knight has turned this skill into an art, for whenever he appears he only ever does two things: either mutter something mysterious and prophetic and vanish, or to rescue someone with a great deal of flair.
** Averted ''twice'' with Vargas' public execution by the evil Count. Puck tries to talk Guts into doing one of those but he refuses and leaves. Puck then tries to pull it off ''himself'' and fails miserably. Justified for Guts who knows well this is clearly a trap meant to pull him into a stupid heroic rescue where he would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
* TheBigDamnKiss: What? What the hell do you mean [[http://www.mrsmanga.com/Berserk/037.047/192 this isn't the epitome of romance in the series?]] There's gorgeous SceneryPorn '''and''' Guts's BadassCape is blowing in a caressing manner around the two. It's even more glorious in [[http://www.mattbrowning.com/berserk/colors/guts_casca_kiss_final.jpg amazing technicolor.]]
* BigOlEyebrows: Definitely Guts.
** And even more definitely Azan.
* BigShutUp: When the Hawks get sent to the Vortex and nearly everybody is panicking - especially [[DirtyCoward Corkus]] - Casca tells everybody to shut up in order to get them back in line. In fact, seeing Casca keeping her cool and trying to boost everyone's moral in such a dire situation was the last positive thing that Guts thought during the Eclipse.
* BigThinShortTrio: In their own circle, Pippin is the huge guy, Corkus is the skinny guy, and Judeau/Rickert are the short guys. Guts, Griffith, and Casca have their own dynamic.
* {{Bishonen}}: Griffith
* BlackAndGreyMorality: In the world of ''Berserk'', most people are either a monster (literally), have been turned into bastards by the horror of their world, or make themselves bastards in order to survive. There are some genuinely nice people around, but you have to look harder for them.
** Probably because they're almost inevitably raped and/or torn apart.
*** In Midland, being ''good'' is inevitably the mark of being a RedShirt.
* BlackComedy: You would think that the atmosphere that ''Berserk'' houses would be littered with this, but it's actually averted. Yes, [[SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror the story does still have its own brand of humor presented throughout]], but not the kind that treads into [[SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness making-fun-of-the-catastrophic-loss-of-life-and-ongoing-suffering-of-people territory.]] ''Berserk'' tends to rely more on deadpan and sarcastic comedy for laughs, with occasional slapstick thrown in.
* TheBlacksmith: Godo. He likes to see the sparks fly up...
** Rickert as well. He's the one who assembled Guts' artificial arm/cannon and a lot of other useful items for him.
* BladeBrake: During the Eclipse, when he gets separated from Griffith and falls from the mountain of face, Guts uses the cutlass that he always wears to stop him from falling, and then uses it to the climb his way back up. The faces are screaming and bleeding while he's doing this, by the way.
* BlankWhiteEyes: If you see Guts get these, it's time to start running -- they generally signify that Guts is ''beyond'' pissed and in the full grip of the BerserkerRage.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: Hawks' scanlation.
* BlindObedience: Most of the band of the Hawk towards Griffith, granted, he'd earned it by being a genius.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Luca is the redhead, Nina is the blonde, and Casca is the brunette during their time together.
* BloodFromTheMouth: Like waterfalls.
* BloodKnight: Nosferatu Zodd.
** Also Guts. He thoroughly enjoys violence, and although he always fights with a purpose, he does enjoy it very much.
* BloodierAndGorier: The TV series might have been LighterAndSofter compared to the manga, but the movie trilogy is back with [[{{Pun}} a bloody vengeance!]] Gore and sexual violence is certainly played up in the new movies, some fans even saying that the third movie, ''Descent'', [[http://kotaku.com/5981641/the-third-berserk-movie-is-by-far-the-most-violent-thing-i-have-ever-watched is by far the most violent thing you'll ever see.]]
* BodyHorror: Surprisingly used sparingly. A notable example is [[spoiler: Gaston's]] death during the Eclipse.
* BodyguardCrush:
** Serpico, for Farnese.
** Also, every female ever who gets protected by Guts, even if it's just for a little bit. Even if they're, like, eight. Also true for Casca as well, before she went crazy of course. Although its debatable if Casca didn't already have feelings for Guts before he single handedly killed 100 mercenaries to protect her.
* BoobsOfSteel: Though female anatomy is drawn on a realistic level (but it still doesn't protect them from having the most ClothingDamage done to them), Slan presentably has [[EvilIsSexy the largest pair of breasts]], being the most powerful female character in Berserk. A close second would be Casca, who is the series' only genuine ActionGirl.
* BootstrappedTheme: Ask any ''Berserk'' fan about the series' music, they will immediately think of "Forces".
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Guts uses a {{BFS}} and crossbow, though he prefers melee and is armoured appropriately.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The anime really tones down on the violence, nudity, and sex... at least until the Finale.
* BoyfriendBluff: Zigzagged during Griffith's gala, in which Casca practically dive bombs an unaware Guts and takes him in her arms, asking him to pretend to be her escort so the other men at the ball wouldn't bother her.
* BoyMeetsGirl: [[LoveAtFirstPunch Guts meets Casca.]] [[TheLostLenore Guts loses Casca]] during Eclipse and [[RevengeBeforeReason abandons her after.]] [[MyGreatestSecondChance Guts finds Casca again]] by saving her at the Tower of Conviction. Now, [[FindTheCure boy just needs to cure girl]] of her insanity in order to actually "be" with her again.
* BrainBleach: Do yourself a favor: get a membership to Costco or some other warehouse club, because you will need to replenish your supply ''a lot'' during the course of this series. You'll need over 5 gallons of the stuff just to get through the Golden Age Arc with your sanity ''slightly'' intact - AND IT JUST GETS ''WORSE.''
* BreakableWeapons: This common video game trope is played straight in ''Berserk.'' Even though freakishly large, Guts' original {{BFS}}s are, in essence, really big broad swords and do have their limit at how much stress they can handle. After fighting a hundred soldier a few nights prior, Guts' sword conveniently breaks at the worst possible time during the Battle of Doldrey. Luckily for him, a mysterious benefactor *coughZoddcough!* donates his freakishly large scimitar in order for Guts to finish the battle. We see a few more of the swords that Godo made for him break under the stress of training, but the audience is given a wake-up call that [[SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness not just any sword is able fight monsters]] during the Eclipse [[spoiler: when Casca tries to defend herself against the apostles, who end up shattering her sword into a hundred pieces, and when the sword that Guts was using to fight off apostles was of utterly no use when trying to rip through the hide of an apostle that was apprehending him]]. To fight these fiends, [[ChekhovsArmoury you would need a weapon that is capable of slaying a dragon...]]
* BreakingTheFellowship: After Guts leaves the Band of the Hawk, the rest of the Golden Age Arc is spent detailing how the original band is fragmented until [[spoiler: the whole band with the exceptions of Guts, Casca, Rickert, and Griffith is obliterated during the Eclipse.]] It's a bit eerie in that Rickert, through his teary-eyed and child-like idealism, actually lampshaded that something bad would happen if Guts left the Hawks.
* BreakTheCutie: Poor [[spoiler:Casca]].
** Or for that matter, poor [[spoiler:Charlotte]]. She loses her virginity in a very unromantic way to a man exorcising his (at that point) worst demon, and though she was in love with him, she has to stand and watch when he is arrested and tortured for a full year because of it, pining over him all the while. [[spoiler: And then there was that time ''her own father'' tried to rape her. She managed to fight him off, but still...]]
* BreastPlate: Averted -- Female warriors in the series usually dress reasonably sensibly, when they're wearing anything at all.
* BreatherEpisode: Their beach chapter doubles as this as the true companions have a rare chance at self-reflection and sharing their feelings as well as eating delicious and improvised seaside cuisine. This lasts for a good few hours [[GoodNewsBadNews before some more monsters come to attack them!]]
* BridalCarry: Casca gets this treatment from Guts after her fight with Adon.
* BringMyBrownPants: ... And you wouldn't after seeing an Apostle for the first time?
** The little boy Guts uses as a decoy plays it straight. And [[{{GoshHornet}} with good reason!]] Though he ends up [[{{TookALevelInBadass}} taking his first small level in badass]] when he is through.
* BrokenAce: [[spoiler:Griffith.]]
** Later on Guts. While the first chapters make it clear that something about his presence makes people dislike him, recently he has the status of the Ace with his friends: Isidoro sees him as his teacher, Schierke and Farnese both have the hots for him, everyone knows that he's their trump card in a fight and keeps his cool against huge odds... but they all known (or at least suspect) that he has huge issues about his failures.
* BrokenBird: [[spoiler: Casca]]
** Guts himself shows the other extreme: before the eclipse, while he was withdrawn and suffering from some trauma, most of the time he was still a pretty well rounded and healthy guy. Fast foward to his black swordsman days and he's become a cynical, cold, uncaring revenge driven monster after the events he witnessed.
* {{Bros Before Hoes}}: Casca played the bro when she initially chose Griffith over Guts after saving him from torture. [[MindRape It didn't end well]].
* BrokenTears: Used during the very horrific and very emotional climax of the Eclipse where [[spoiler: Griffith is raping Casca as Femto. Guts is crying streams of tears and blood at a man he considered a friend forcing him to watch as he raped the woman that he loved to insanity. Casca, in turn, is crying from being subjected to excruciating pain that the brand is causing her from being in such close contact with a power demon and also because she is being physically, sexually, and emotionally violated by the man that she looked up to in front of the man that she loved.]]
* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu
** The Skull Knight unintentionally does this to [[spoiler:the mountain-sized EldritchAbomination that was once Ganishka. Ganishka dies, but his death ends up [[TheMagicComesBack merging all]] [[LayeredWorld layers of the world]] at once, flooding the entire planet with astral creatures in minutes!]]
** With the help of the merrows, [[spoiler:Guts was able to pierce the Sea God's heart and kill it. But being stuck inside the monstrosity with many grievous injuries left him in little position to be able to escape it on his own as it began to "collapse" all around him.]]
* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Serpico is Farnese's half-brother. She isn't aware of this, and she developed feelings for him in their teenage years and even made a very emotionally charged advance on him. Serpico being in the know, he resisted.]]
* BugWar: Guts' entire battle against Rosine and her minions was basically this. Remember that Rosine didn't just transform children into insectoids, but also adults.
* BullyingADragon: The holy iron chain knights try to capture a severely wounded Guts alive. He tries to play nice for a wile since he knows his opponents aren't really his enemies. But when they poke him too much... [[{{Gorn}} EEEK!!]]
** An instance came up during the Golden Age Arc after the Hawks' first encounter with Nosferatu Zodd, where some nobles caught wind of the supposed supernatural account and decided to snark Guts off (who was walking with crutches at the time). Guts promptly smashes one of the noble's feet with the end of his crutch, and he actually had the balls to try and challenge Guts to a duel... a good stern and scary DeathGlare set him straight.
* BurnTheWitch: Casca gets herself into this predicament when she is suspected of having evil supernatural powers thanks to the brand on her breast that attracts evil[[spoiler: it was actually the presence of she and Guts's corrupted child that sparked the accusations both among the pagans who wanted to rape her and the Holy Iron Chain Knights who wanted to torture her, since the child summoned the demons in order to protect her in both situations]].
* {{TheBusCameBack}}: Rickert and Erika return in chapter 332 of the manga.
* ButNowIMustGo: And everything goes horribly wrong in T-minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Hey! Princess Charlotte! [[SexForSolace Free tonight?]]
* ButtMonkey: The pirates just can't catch a break. [[spoiler:Even after they're all transformed into hideous monsters]].
* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: It's actually done realistically by Guts on an unconscious Casca. She gurgles up the water and everything.
** The presence of CPR in a [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy medieval-inspired]] world does bring on some FridgeLogic though...
* CallBack: Oh, a lot. Especially with Apostles. During the Eclipse, we see three Apostles from the first three chapters of Berserk - the nameless female demon that has sex with Guts (in disguise, of course), Baron Koka and The Count. Furthermore, the Lost Children arc is focused around Rosine and (to a lesser extent) her two [[EliteMook semi-Apostle insect henchmen]], who attacked Rickert's camp with the Count just before the Eclipse. And during the sequence where Griffith rescues Charlotte from Ganeshka, we see Borkoff, the Apostle who took Guts's arm.
* TheCavalry: In the recent chapter 330, [[spoiler: when Guts is being held by the lord in his castle as a gladiator and is holding the lord's son as a hostage to make his escape, Martino, the old man from earlier, storms in with his comrades before the the lord's soldiers have a chance to shoot him.]]
* CanonDisContinuity: Chapter 83, in which [[spoiler:Griffith meets The Idea Of Evil]], has been removed from all printings by request of the author on the basis that it gave away too much of the plot too soon. In this case, it might be only temporary.
* CanNotSpitItOut: [[spoiler: During the Eclipse Judeau attempts to confess his love for Casca but is only able to say "I'm glad to see you cry," before dying in her arms, lamenting that she never thought of him as more than a valuable ally.]]
* CardCarryingVillain: The Godhands have one goal in their eternal lives: making humanity as miserable as possible. They take their job [[{{Deconstruction}} VERY seriously]] and gleefully go to unimaginable extremes to turn the world of Midland into a living hell.
** Even better, [[spoiler: the Idea Of Evil itself presents itself to Griffith with its very name when they meet]].
* CastOfSnowFlakes: Even incidental background characters, human or otherwise, are given unique and distinct appearances.
* CaughtTheHeartOnHisSleeve: Casca caught Guts's heart on his cape during the Griffith rescue operation.
* CaughtInTheRain: The predicament that led to Guts and Casca's second IntimateHealing encounter and an eventual RelationshipUpgrade from [[TeethClenchedTeamwork reluctant comrades]] to [[FireForgedFriends actual friends.]]
* ChainOfPeople: Happened in volume 19 on the Tower of Punishment, when Luca falls off a ledge during Mozgus's attack and Nina, then Jerome, then Isidro grab on hold. She still falls, [[BigDamnHeroes but the Skull Knight saves her.]]
* ChangelingFantasy: Subverted with Rosine, who is driven to believe that she is the center of one by parental abuse, then sacrifices her parents to fulfill her dream. By the time Guts fights her, she's been kidnapping children from nearby villages to turn into demonic fairies for a while and is practically insane.
* CharacterDevelopment: Farnese goes from being a clearly unbalanced KnightTemplar / StepfordSmiler to a quasi TeamMom while learning magic from Schierke. Also, Schierke herself, after a few adventures, starts seeing just ''why'' maybe humanity ''might'' be worth saving, after all.
** This applies to many characters. Guts has changed throughout throughout the story, from the vicious and cruel {{Blood Knight}} that we was in the early portions of the manga, to the more calm, composed, and melancholy warrior (with a {{Super Powered Evil Side}} that threatens to surface at times) that he is now. Even some minor characters, such the young girl Jill and the insecure prostitute Nina, develop in their own subplots.
* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: Absurd bodycount of the named characters, not even factoring in the genocidal slaughters on the battlefield every few episodes.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Guts is powerful enough to carry the Dragon Slayer because he's spent his entire life in battle, and as a result is hellishly strong.
** Plus, he learned how to use a sword as a child, using a full size adult sword, which taught him to use larger swords than normal from an early age.
* TheChase: The latter half of the Griffith rescue operation has this, with Wyald and his Black Dog Knights pursuing Griffith and the Band of the Hawk. The Hawks try to deflect the Dogs using explosives and rocks slides, but it's still not enough to deter them, so the two groups eventually clash arms.
* ChekhovsArmoury: A literal one. Toward the end of the Golden Age Arc, while Guts and Casca are (badly) recuperating after the events of the Eclipse, Ericka shows Rickert Godo's storage shed, which contains a lot of nifty weaponry and accessories - among them being several prototype prosthetic limbs and the Dragonslayer itself.
* ChekhovsGun: We already know how important the Behelit is in the manga, but in the anime it is treated in this fashion.
* ChekhovsGunman: Zigzagged with Puck in the manga, who was already introduced in the first arc since the story starts InMediasRes, but he is briefly mentioned in the middle of the Golden Age arc and makes a short cameo during the eclipse chapters. Played straight in the second movie with [[spoiler: Farnese and Serpico]], who are briefly seen at the Hawks' victory ball.
* ChestBurster: Nastier monsters such as the trolls of Qliphoth and Ganishka's demonic soldiers are born this way.
* ChildSoldiers: Guts as a kid and Rickert.
* ChildrenForcedToKill: Guts and Casca were both forced to kill somebody out of self-defense when they were kids.
* CircleOfStandingStones: When [[OurTrollsAreDifferent trolls]] attack Enoch Village, [[ChildMage Schierke]] [[SummonMagic summons spirits]] in order to cast her magic. One of them is [[ElementalEmbodiment a river spirit]], who used to have a shrine where now stands a church. When Schierke goes into trance seeking the attention of the spirit, we get to see a glimpse of what the shrine used to look like: [[http://www.mangareader.net/96-1145-120/berserk/chapter-25.html a circle of standing stones.]]
* TheClan: The Bakiraka.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The whole reason why [[spoiler:The Idea of Evil]] exists. Also implied in the manga as the reason elves exist, prompting Puck to whip out a banner saying "Cogito Ergo Sum" whenever someone says that they think he's not real.
** Arguably EVERY SINGLE supernatural thing on the series is more or less the result of this, as Qliphoth is implied to be formed from human nightmares and [[spoiler:the demons are all people transformed of God Hand, which in turn come from The Idea Of Evil]]. This is what makes the monsters so terrifying; no matter how many you kill, there will always be monsters around thanks to mankind.
** Also discussed in volume 24 during the groups' time at the mansion of the spirit tree, where Isidro suggested that if supernatural entities appeared because people believed in them, then all they'd have to do is stop believing and they wouldn't get hurt! Schierke added that it wasn't that simple.
* ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive: The jerkwad aristocrats who hate Griffith's peasant guts love doing this in their [[EvilIsNotWellLit dark, shady headquarters]] of cunning-ness. Yes, [[SarcasmMode clasping your hands at your eventual downfall always assures your victory.]]
* CliffHanger: The anime ends on a [[GainaxEnding weird]] but nonetheless [[LeftHanging climatic]] cliffhanger.
* ClingyComedyVillain: Adon.
* ClingyMacGuffin: Griffith's Behelit.
* ClothingDamage: Casca. A lot.
** Guts also suffered from clothing damage while he was killing apostles during the Eclipse (though not to the extent of which Casca suffered) and when his armor got ripped off by Slan when she manifested in Qliphoth.
* ClusterFBomb: Boy fucking howdy.
* CockFight: A strange variation. It happens between Guts and Casca over Griffith in the first part of the manga but the object of the fight turns about in an ''very'' dark twist during the Eclipse [[spoiler: when Griffith rapes Casca in front of Guts]].
* CoitusUninterruptus: An important message from the King of Midland asking him to kill the shit out of some people ain't going to stop Wyald from banging one of dozens of women in his room.
* ColdBloodedTorture: This happens ''a lot''. [[{{Kick the Son of a Bitch}} Guts to the Apostles]], the Apostles to humans, Mozgus to everyone he encounters (because maybe they might have been having some heretical thoughts at some point in their lives), [[spoiler: the King of Midland to Griffith]], so on and so forth.
** The most vile example is what Casca and Guts went through [[spoiler: when Griffith horrifically raped Casca during the Eclipse. Not only is she being horribly violated, but the brand on her chest is causing her ''excruciating pain'' during every waking moment, since Casca is most likely the closest ''any'' human has ever been to a Godhand. This is also a very cruel form of torture for Guts, since he's being ForcedToWatch all this happen to the love of his life by his best friend and he can't do a damn thing about it, even after chopping off his arm [[HopeSpot to try and save her]]. And it's made even worse since Griffith is ''[[KubrickStare smiling at him]]'' while he's doing this.]] It's no wonder that Casca's [[GoMadFromTheRevelation mind just shattered after the events]] and Guts [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds virtually hates the entire world now.]]
* CombatBreakdown: Several battles against powerful apostles end with Guts having to resort to outright suicidal strategies because he is too worn down from all the damage he took to even lift his sword. Often he practically crawls away after battle, even tough he won. Without Puck, Guts would be dead. [[NoOneShouldSurviveThat Period.]]
* CombatParkour: Casca centers most of her offensive and defensive maneuvers around flipping about the enemy.
* CombatPragmatist: Take a shot every time Guts uses a child as a hostage or for bait. Better yet, don't--it's dangerous.
* CombatSadomasochist: Slan. As if being impaled by Guts' {{BFS}} [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything wasn't suggestive enough,]] but it gave her an ''orgasm''.
* CompanionCube: Not only has Guts' swords served as his SecurityBlanket and [[PillowPistol extra nocturnal security measures]], but the relationship he has had with his weapons was probably [[FriendlessBackground the closest thing to friendship]] before joining the Hawks.
** Disturbingly, [[TheScrappy Puck]] treats [[ArtifactOfDoom the Behelit]] that Guts picks up early in the manga as one. [[TheDitz He does not seem to realize just exactly what it is.]]
* CompetenceZone: At the end, only an army made up of older teens and early twenty-something year olds were able to win Midland's war. The trend continues with Guts' new group, now with even ''younger'' members.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Why Apostles have been demoted to Elite Mooks in recent chapters.
** Already in effect before. The larger a group of baddies gets, the quicker they go down.
* ContentWarnings: Pretty regular with ''Berserk'' media, since the manga will most likely have shrink wrapping and parental advisory stickers wherever they are sold. Special mention, of course, goes to volume 13 of the manga, which has a ''very'' obvious advisory sticker over the depiction of [[spoiler: post rape and mutilated Guts and Casca]] on the cover, and the upcoming movie ''Descent'', which will receive the Japanese equivalent of an ''NC-17'' rating for "strong depictions of sexual activity." In fact, the theatrical release had to be ''edited down'' to an R-rating, since the original cut was considered too graphic to release to regular audiences. Alas, [[TakeOurWordForIt rumor has it]] that even the R-rated version was too much for some viewers to handle.
* ConspicuousCG: A major criticism of TheNewTens' film trilogy adaptation of the Golden Age arc is that the CG models, especially for minor characters, are low-poly and [[UncannyValley stiffly animated]]. This improves markedly between the first movie and the third.
* ConvenientMiscarriage: A non-ResetButton variant. Before the Eclipse happened and, ''[[RapeAsDrama stuff]]'' happened to her, Casca became pregnant when she and Guts made love, but neither of them were aware of the pregnancy until Casca miscarried their corrupted fetus due to the extreme trauma she sustained from the Eclipse. However, since [[TouchedByVorlons the fetus was touched by the supernatural world]] - and [[FetusTerrible accepted a nature of evil in the process]] - it survived and continues to be presence within the series.
** Although going through ''the'' most horrible experiences, Casca was pretty lucky for this convenience, considering how most [[DeathByChildbirth women give birth]] [[ChestBurster to demonic spawn]] in this series. You can thank PlotArmor for that.
* CoolDownHug: Casca dished these out to great effect when she was sane. Guts does this to her upon their reunion in the Retribution arc.
* CoolHelmet: Okay, [[HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic so when people actually do bother to wear helmets]], they're quite, ''unique'', to say the least. Simply put, no two helmets are exactly the same in ''Berserk.''
** Guts probably has the neatest ensemble. His first few helmets are similar, reminiscent of Rutger Hauer's character in ''Film/LadyHawke.'' When he gets the berserker armor, [[AdaptiveArmor it assumes the form of a dog's head]], very similar to the Beast (which makes sense, since whenever his helmet looks like this, [[SuperPoweredEvilSide you're in trouble]]). But when Guts has control over the berserker armor - hey! [[WholeCostumeReference He kinda looks like a medieval Batman! ]]
** Griffith's helmets always take a hawk-like form. They're pretty cool-looking during his glory days as a human... but when he becomes [[spoiler: Femto, a demon lord]], the image can [[EvilIsCool potentially]] become NightmareFuel. [[invoked]]
** Mooks, mooks, mooks. Their helmets can range anywhere from weird, frog-eyed goggle helmets, to looking like fucking triceratops and sharks.
* CoolOldGuy: Godo TheBlacksmith.
* CorpseLand: In an early story in the manga, Guts passes through the remains of an old battlefield with a priest and his family on pilgrimage and has to fight demon-possessed skeletons and other undead because of the Brand he bears.
* TheCorrupter: The Beast.
* TheCorruptible: First it was Griffith, [[FaceHeelTurn and the process completed.]] In fact, we can go on to say that anyone who is destined to become an apostle is this. Now this is Guts, due to TheCorrupter mentioned above.
* CosmicHorrorStory: It's not? What ''Berserk'' are you reading?
* CosmicPlaything: *FacePalm*. Okay. Where would you like to start? The part where Guts's life sucked even BEFORE he was born and how he narrowly escapes death every twenty-five minutes or how Casca has an invisible blinking sign that says "Rape me!" [[AllMenAreRapists to all men]] in a ten mile radius? Why even bother explaining it here? [[CrapsackWorld See below]].
* CostumePorn: Armor, clothing, dresses. If it's worn on the human body, Miura draws it in exquisite detail.
* CourtlyLove: Griffith, of course, [[InvokedTrope toyed with this concept]] concerning his relationship with Princess Charlotte, who was the quickest way to the throne of Midland if he were to succeed in wooing and earning her hand in marriage. The guy was doing a damn good job at it too, [[WhatAnIdiot until he messed it all up]] [[BreakTheHaughty in a moment of despair.]]
** Suggested between Guts and Casca at one point, when she uses a scrap of colorful cloth from her blouse to bind a wound in his arm... exactly where a knight would traditionally display a favor from a noble lady. Ultimately averted when TheyDo, and neither of them were ever much like a proper knight or lady in any case.
* CoversAlwaysLie: Volume seven depicts Guts with a shield. [[{{TheBerserker}} Guts never uses a shield.]]
** Also, volume eleven has Guts holding a crossbow. [[RepeatingCrossbow He doesn't have that kind of crossbow.]] [[BadassTransplant At least not yet.]]
** A cover during the [[spoiler: Eclipse shows Guts holding Casca while fiercely protecting her. Wow, if only...]]
* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: How Guts reintroduces himself to the Hawks after the one-year time skip, when he kicks Silas (random mook in the first anime) InTheBack when he corners Casca.
* CradleOfLoneliness: After Guts' departure, Casca is seen holding the remains of Guts' previously broken sword.
* CradlingYourKill: After unknowingly stabbling Adonis, the son of Earl Julius, a horrified Guts holds the dying boy's hand until it slips lifelessly out of Guts'. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone The moment changed Guts.]]
* CrapsackWorld: Oh yeah. Some people manage to survive and better themselves, but for most, it's a nightmarish existence topped off by a nightmarish death. To put it simply, life in Midland sucks.
** If you're a peasant, there is substantial evidence in the manga that your sole purpose is to be cannon fodder for whatever instance of nightmarish horror is currently roaming around. This is discounting the general misery caused by constant wars between neighboring countries, the in-series equivalent of a demonic version of the Crusades and the reconstruction of the entire world based on the vision of a spiteful, backstabbing sociopath.
** And it's implied that if your nightmarish death is brought about by demons, then you go straight to a great morass of souls surrounding [[spoiler:a giant heart.]] And even if you don't, it's implied everyone goes there when they die, without exception. It isn't really Hell as the Judeo-Christians see it (if it had an analogy, it would be in the Shinto ''Jikoku,'' or "land of the dead," which is also a place which everyone goes to when they die), but from what has been shown of it in the manga, it ''isn't'' a very pleasant place.
** Face it: if you started out as a halfway decent person in this world, you probably won't be going out as one (either because you'll be literally chopped in half by some demon or you'll give up your humanity to become one of those who causes the suffering, either metaphorically or via Behelit).
** Yet even with all the horrible things going on, the world itself has stunningly beautiful natural landscapes brimming with life. It has the potential to be a really nice place to live if not for [[HumansAreFlawed humanity who are so good at ruining everything for themselves.]]
* CreepyChild: The kid Casca found on the beach and is implied to be the FetusTerrible mentioned on the other pages.
* CreepyCrows: Really abundant in the shittier places. The crow and raven motif was used from a more sympathetic viewpoint when some of Mozgus' deformed disciples were feeding [[{{Pun}} a murder.]]
* CreepySouvenir: The torturer in the Tower of Rebirth [[spoiler: [[TongueTrauma cut off Griffith's tongue]]]] and made it into a ''necklace.'' [[KarmicDeath But he got his.]]
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: When something human dies in this series, it's extremely likely this is occurring.
* CrusadingWidower: Guts. Though he didn't marry Caska and he wasn't the dad to the Hawks, but this is essentially what he becomes.
* CryIntoChest: Casca does this a lot with Guts, both before and after they become a couple, with tears and without. Princess Charlotte does this with Griffith as well.
* CrystalDragonJesus: The Holy See.
* CueTheSun: Normally represents how Guts (and companions) has survived another harrowing night of fighting ghosts and hellspawn.
* {{Curse}}: Though they survived the Eclipse, by bearing the Brand of the Sacrifice Guts and Casca are doomed to be followed by evil spirits and demons until their dying breath, where they will then have to serve an eternity in hell.
* CurbStompBattle: After the [[spoiler: hundred man slaying incident]] groups of human enemies ,no matter how well trained or numerous, just stopped being a problem for Guts (as long as he is in sufficient fighting shape of course). An especially awesome example comes when a group of Kushan assassins try to kill Guts...who just had his sword upgraded and was eager to give it a try...[[spoiler: After seing the resulting pile of gore, Silat wisely decided not to waste his best mooks on an unwinnable battle.]]
* CursedWithAwesome: Guts is granted the Berserker Armor, which gives him incredible strength and speed, but it deadens the nerves so that the one who wore the armor would just fight and not feel anything. Guts has to wear this, or else he'll die due to the injuries he sustained in a fight with Slan.
** BlessedWithSuck: However, there seems to be [[PowerAtAPrice a lot more disadvantages to the Berserker armor than advantages]] in the long run, such as gradual loss of color vision, sense of taste, sanity, and the fact that the armor literally causes the wearer to go berserk, meaning that they won't be able to distinguish who is a friend and who is foe. Not only that, but the armor "repairs" the wearer's injuries by driving splinters into the body much like an Iron Maiden, so there is a chance that the wearer will die of blood loss along the way. Also, since using the armor puts a lot more stress on Guts' body, his recuperation period is much longer now.
* CuteMute: Casca, after what happens to her. Poor, ''poor'' Casca.
* CuteWitch: Schierke.
* CutShort: The anime, and frankly, they ''couldn't'' have kept it going without giving the censors a set of heart attacks...
** Although seeing as how it ended with Guts [[spoiler:cutting off his own arm]] and Casca [[spoiler:being raped]] while Guts [[spoiler:is forced to watch as the cost of his eye]], its questionable how much worse it could get.
*** ...This is Berserk. It can ''always'' get worse.
* DancesAndBalls: Lots of dancing balls are hosted by aristocrats. Most of them end in incredibly violent ways.
* DarkerAndEdgier: After reading this page, it should be obvious that ''Berserk'' is arguably the best example of the trope in manga.
** It's even {{Lampshaded}} in the American volumes, which bear this text on the back cover:
--> ''Berserk'' is the hammer of the manga forge, a white-hot amalgam of bruising action, breathless horror, and brimstone humor that separates men from boys, wheat from chaff, and heads from shoulders! DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?
* DarkFantasy: In spades.
* DarkIsEvil: Just about all [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Apostles]] are evil by nature, and [[ObviouslyEvil obviously so]]...
** DarkIsNotEvil: ...But it's not always the case. Some spiritual beings look creepy but are otherwise fairly benign, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly named]] Skull Knight largely devotes his time to fighting the forces of evil, and the Black Swordsman himself, SuperpoweredEvilSide aside, is the hero of the story.
* DarkMessiah: [[spoiler: Griffith after he uses the Crimson Behelit to become the fifth member of the Godhand.]] However to the people of Midland it is [[spoiler: Guts.]] This is not going to end well.
* TheDarkSide: The meta-example would be a bit too difficult - if not controversial - to debate within the lore of the story, but a good micro example would be the Beast that dwells within Guts, who represents everything dark and bad within his heart and is constantly trying to corrupt his soul with darkness with promises of power and vengeance against the one who wronged him.
** TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: Invoked by the Beast and enforced by the Berserker armor. The armor itself is [[PowerAtAPrice a mixed blessing at best]], [[CursedWithAwesome as it has great potential to the wearer]] [[BlessedWithSuck but comes with a plethora of baggage]], one that includes causing the wearer to gradually lose their mind and quite possibly fragment their memory. Now just add an already present SuperPoweredEvilSide who [[TheCorrupter constantly goads]] the [[ByronicHero morally-divided hero]] to succumb to complete and total darkness so that [[SplitPersonalityTakeover it can take over his soul]] to the picture and just think of what might possibly happen.
* DarkestHour: Once the Hawks make it to the border of Midland, they must come to terms with their predicament: they've been outcasted from the kingdom and Griffith is mutilated beyond repair. The dream is over.
* ADayInTheLimelight: When Guts and the gang arrive in Vritannis, Isidro and Schierke get a side story in this fashion that is primarily used to [[ToyShip develop their relationship]] rather than add to the main story arc. That, and it served to introduce our next batch of {{Clingy Comedy Villain}}s.
* DeadpanSnarker: Everyone seems to have their moments in this doom and gloom world, but Serpico takes the cake.
* DealWithTheDevil: What essentially happens when a Behelit is activated and the Godhand is summoned.
* DeadlyUpgrade: The Berserker's Armor?
** Also Guts didn't always have the Dragonslayer.
* DeathByChildbirth: ''Berserk'' loves to play this trope for the {{squick}}. The most "normal" case happened to Guts, whose mother bore him either post-mortem or while she was being hanged. Other cases include women whose children were demonized ([[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong or were impregnated by demons]]) being gruesomely killed when the demonic spawn [[ChestBurster claw out of their mothers' wombs.]]
* DeathByOriginStory: Everybody who died in the Golden Age arc, which is basically Guts' back story.
* DeathWail / TheScream: Played for tragedy during the Eclipse. First, [[spoiler: Guts screams in rage, anger, and sadness after seeing the slaughtered remains of his friends and comrades in a lake of blood. Then, after going through the immense horror of being forced to watch Casca get raped by Femto, Guts howls a scream that we can only describe as ''[[EmotionalTorque sheer pain]]'' when he watches her fall limp and broken after Femto is done with her.]]
** Although she tends to scream a lot in her insanity, newly insane Casca gives a truly painful and mournful scream when [[spoiler: she miscarries her deformed child and it disappears at daybreak.]]
* DeathWorld: The world of ''Berserk'' has never been a pleasant place, but ever since [[TheMagicComesBack the magic came back]], [[FromBadToWorse it's gotten even]] ''[[FromBadToWorse worse]]''! Various spiritual creatures, including dragons, hydras, trolls, and sea monsters have appeared and have since been wreaking havoc on the unprepared populace.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Half of Guts' motivation is to kill the Godhand; the other half revolves around protecting Casca. Guts protects Casca when she was a capable ActionGirl and after he [[MyGreatestFailure failed to protect her]] during the Eclipse and vows to do so from now on,especially after [[spoiler: he rescues her from Mozgus]]). As noted above, you hurt Casca, you '''die'''. Simple as that.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Subverted when Guts demands a rematch from Griffith, and then Double Subverted when he's beaten anyway, and is enlisted into the Band Of The Hawk.
* DeliberateInjuryGambit: Guts pulls this quite a lot against apostles, most notably against the Snake Baron in the first volume and against Rosine in the Lost Children Arc.
* DeliberatelyPainfulClothing: Guts wears the berserker armor, which snaps his bones and tears his flesh as it slowly eats away at his soul.
* DemonLordsAndArchDevils: The Godhand.
* DepravedBisexual: [[spoiler: Griffith.]]
** If he does qualify for this trope, then it would be the milder variety where he uses sex as a means to manipulate others, be they [[spoiler: young princesses]] or [[spoiler: ugly, depraved old men--who happen to be very rich]].
* DespairEventHorizon: Crossing this is pretty much required to activate a Behelit.
** Which invariably leads to crossing moral lines.
* {{Determinator}}: Guts is essentially the poster boy for the trope. Beat him, burn him, even impale him, he will ''not'' let go of that sword. And let's not forget Griffith, who's willing to achieve his childhood dream even if it means [[spoiler: everyone close to him being eaten by demons... and becoming one himself]].
* DeusAngstMachina: After [[spoiler: losing all his friends and 15% of his body in the Eclipse and having to watch helplessly while Femto raped Casca to the point of madness]] Guts understandably [[{{Freakout}} loses it]]. Ok, that was pretty bad. [[{{TemptingFate}} This must be the bottomline!]] Of course [[spoiler: the Skull Knight promptly arrives to inform Guts about the more unpleasant properties of his brand that will keep him from ever sleeping again and finally it is revealed that Casca was pregnant of Guts child and the embryo was corrupted by Femto into a ghastly demon.]] And that's just the beginning...
* DeusExMachina: The Skull Knight sometimes comes off as this. However, there is a catch: Even the Skull Knight is revealed to be an UnwittingPawn who just plays out his predestined role. So there is no such thing as coincidence in this universe.
** The crimson behelit invokes this. Griffith suffers irreversible physical damage after a year of torture and it seems to be end game for Griffith's dream... until [[ClingyMacGuffin the behelit reappears]] and more or less allows him be reborn bigger and better than before (albeit at a very great cost).
* DiabolusExMachina: The ending to the anime. NO, OH GOD NO.
* DiagonalCut: Serpico's Wind Sword has this effect.
* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: In chapter 290, after a battle with the pirates, Farnese and Roderick have a heart-to-heart talk about how each person on board has a special role, and Roderick let it slip that she's taking care of Casca, the most important person in Guts's life. He then thinks to himself that that was probably [[PrecociousCrush not the best thing to say to her]]...
** Casca also does this in volume 10 during the Griffith rescue operation. She wound up telling Guts that she was more or less jealous of Princess Charlotte and her affection toward Griffith... even though she and Guts had just shared [[spoiler: an entire love scene together a few nights previous.]] You can guess that Guts wasn't too happy at hearing this tidbit and Casca immediately regrets saying it and tries to apologize, but the damage has already been done.
* DidYouJustHaveSex: After initiating the Griffith rescue operation, Judeau eyes Guts and Casca together and notices how happy they are (especially Casca, since she has not been herself since the downfall of the Band of the Hawk a year prior). Guts and Casca indeed became "[[TheyDo official]]'' the previous night. Bonus points in that the night before, Judeau was more or less hinting at Guts to "cheer Casca up."
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Well what did you expect from a guy whose mission is to take out God himself? Guts puts himself up against [[EldritchAbomination unimaginable adversaries]] and usually comes out victorious one way or another. That being said - [[CrapsackWorld and living in this]] [[InherentInTheSystem kind of world]] - Guts doesn't come out of fights [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu without some damage being done]].
* DirtyBusiness: Guts left the Band of the Hawk partly because he was uncomfortable with being [[spoiler: Griffith's personal assassin and having to kill a child.]]
* DirtyCoward: Played with during the Tower of Conviction arc. Nina is definitely a coward, but Luca tells her that because of that, she might be the one who'll fight the hardest to live. She's also portrayed slightly more sympathetically than is usual for this trope, as she is deeply ashamed of her cowardice, and actually steels herself to pull off a HeroicSacrifice, only to lose her nerve (not unreasonably) [[ColdBloodedTorture when she sees exactly]] [[FateWorseThanDeath what would happen if she went through with it.]]
* DisappearsIntoLight: This is what recently happened to [[spoiler: Ganishka]].
* DisturbedDoves: Happens when [[spoiler: Griffith appears after being reincarnated in human form on Earth.]]
** Happens a few other times, like during he and Guts' naked water fight. [[AnimalMotif Birds just seem to like this guy.]]
* DoesNotLikeShoes: The entire Kushan populace. Except Ganishka. Probably only when necessary, though.
* DogPileOfDoom: What tragically thwarted Guts from saving Casca during the Eclipse. [[HopeSpot Damn it all.]]
* DomesticAbuse: Just another whiff of how realistically crappy life in Midland can be, sans monsters. Young Guts, Jill, and Rosine had it bad.
* DontLookAtMe: These are pretty much Casca's last words as a sane person [[spoiler: while she is being horrifically raped in front of Guts who is being {{forced to watch}} anyway.]] After that, she's [[CuteMute a mute]].
* DownerBeginning: The manga starts off at the point in his life where Guts is at his most hopeless, ruthless and outright evil. [[spoiler: Rickert later points out that if Puck hadn't teamed up with Guts at that time, he porbably would have lost his humanity completely.]]
* DownerEnding: The anime. And how!
* DramatisPersonae: The most recent manga volumes (Fantasia Arc) have begun doing this with the major characters.
* DressHitsFloor: "Cape Hits Floor" in the slightly more censored anime, where after their second IntimateHealing encounter, Casca starts fighting with Guts after he [[StayInTheKitchen insulted her]]... in nothing but his cape... This can count as [[CrowningMomentOfFunny a funny moment]] [[RuleOfFunny depending on]] [[NakedPeopleAreFunny how you look at it.]]
* DressingAsTheEnemy: Laban is able to save an entire ''castle'' full of prisoners by dressing them up in Kushan armor.
** In the 1997 anime, Guts infiltrates a fort commanded by Adon by disguising as a Tudor soldier.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** BungledSuicide: Griffith tried to do himself in during his DespairEventHorizon by attempting to impale himself through the throat. It didn't work. He missed.
** InterruptedSuicide: Casca tried to do herself in during her FreakOut by trying to jump off a cliff. It didn't work. Thanks, Guts.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Guts played with trope when he was with unconscious Casca in the cave. It was insinuated that he briefly thought about having his way with the her, but he mentally slapped himself for it. Still, the most that he did was gently brush Casca's hair, while the rest of the night was spent [[IntimateHealing holding Casca so that she wouldn't freeze to death.]] This probably served as the first subtle hint that Guts found Casca physically attractive, but at least it wasn't as disturbing as [[ParentalIncest the King of Midland's scene with his daughter.]]
* DueToTheDead: Played with to a crazy degree.
** People such as Rickert and Wyald play this straight. Rickert, being the good character, pays his respects to [[spoiler: the fallen Hawks]] by making a commemorative graveyard for them [[FieldOfBlades made up of swords]]. Wyald, the despicably evil character, maims and desecrates the bodies of the people whom he previously [[spoiler: raped and tortured]] and [[DeadGuyOnDisplay set their dismembered corpses on pikes as they ride into battle.]]
** Guts, being an AntiHero, falls in-between. In the recent Boyhood arc, Guts [[spoiler: pays his final respects to the child elf who sacrificed herself in order to heal him by spreading the remaining petals of her host flower in the field of the same flowers. At this time, Guts is still the anti-social and arrogant teenager that we were introduced to at the beginning of the Golden Age arc, but the gesture reveals that, throughout the crap he had to put up with in his childhood, Guts still has a softer, emotional side to him that he's willing to show [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe to people who treat him with genuine kindness.]]]] However, throughout his Black Swordsman days, Guts is repeatedly shown desecrating the deceased, unanimated or not. This isn't on the same level as Wyald, since Guts isn't evil, but it does show that Guts is rather ruthless and that he is in a dark, dark place at this time.
** Griffith, the ambiguously evil character, plays it straight once when he is paying his respects to the un-named boy who died in his company, and he genuinely felt sad over his death [[spoiler: to the point where it was half of the motivation for him whoring himself out to General Genon.]] He later subverts this trope, starting with the fact that he attended the funeral of the Queen of Midland [[spoiler: when he was the one who orchestrated her death.]] The example the cut the deepest was upon his [[spoiler: reincarnation into the real world, where he visited the hill of swords for the fallen Band of the Hawk. However, he visited not so he could pay any respects or admit any regret for being the cause of their deaths, but to validate that he ''had no regrets for his actions during the Eclipse.'']] Big OUCH.
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: All three main characters get these. A lot. They're an unhappy bunch, so you can't really blame them.
** Guts gets them when he goes through his HeroicBSOD after [[spoiler: assassinating Count Julius and, by accident, his young son]]. Also, the eye-shine never quite comes back to Guts' eyes after the Eclipse, save for one moment when [[spoiler: the Skull Knight tells him of the possibility of Casca being cured at Elfheim.]]
** Casca has these during her time as leader of the Hawks, prominently when she is about to attempt suicide.
** And Griffith - poor post-torture/pre-Eclipse [[BreakTheHaughty Griffith.]]
* TheDungAges: And it shows. Luckily, not everyone presented is [[MedievalMorons a complete mor]] - oh, wait.
* DwindlingParty: After Guts's departure and [[spoiler: Griffith's arrest]], the Band of the Hawk began to dwindle little by little, some of them being killed in ambushes, others simply abandoning the band. Luckily, [[NumberTwo Casca took over and held the Hawks together as best as she could]]. The real kicker came when [[spoiler: Griffith, having made his FaceHeelTurn, [[HumanSacrifice threw the Hawks to the dogs]] [[KillEmAll and allowed them to be eaten by voracious Apostles, '''one by one'''.]]]]
* DysfunctionJunction: '''Everyone has a problem in this world.'''
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