History Berserk / TropesAToD

* DwindlingParty: After Guts' 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'''.]]]]

** Guts deconstructs the badass. He can drink molten lead, routinely win fights against demons who would rip battle tanks apart, and can cut through entire armies of men on his own, but that's only because [[TrainingFromHell his entire life has been one big trial by fire]] and he's a broken wreck of a man as a result.

** Griffith deconstructs the RagsToRoyalty princely hero of fantasy stories. Rather than being noble, he's actually immensely ambitious and scheming, and views his TrueCompanions as tools for his own advancement.

* CameraAbuse: In the ''Golden Age'' films, the camera sometimes gets spattered with blood during fight scenes.

* 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 let 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.

* ButNowIMustGo: And everything goes horribly wrong in T-minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Hey! Princess Charlotte! [[SexForSolace Free tonight?]]

* 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.

* 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 might as well be made out of glass. Subverted in Casca and Guts, who have typical plot armor.

* DownerBeginning: The manga starts off at the point in his life where Guts is at his most hopeless, ruthless and on the verge of turning 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.]]

* 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...

** 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...]]

* 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.

** Casca and Griffith are straighter examples, crying immediately after they have sex with Guts and Charlotte, respectively. Casca sheds tears more because of the emotions of love that she's feeling towards Guts during the moment, and Griffith is crying more out of destement and self-disgust due to him anguishing over losing Guts.

* 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.]]

* CentralTheme: [[DespairEventHorizon Despair]] and [[DealWithTheDevil what people are willing to give up up to overcome it]].

* AmazonChaser: Pretty much the reason why Guts chose Casca as his lover instead of a regular noblewoman. He appreciates that Casca is capable and can defend herself and others. Given Guts's backstory and the crapSaccharineWorld they live in, this makes a lot of sense.

* 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.

* 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]].

* 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.]]

* BodyguardCrush:
** Serpico, for Farnese.[[spoiler: But he'll go through with it because they are half-siblings.]]
** 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.

* BootstrappedTheme: Ask any ''Berserk'' fan about the series' music, they will immediately think of "Forces".

** Serpico, for Farnese.

* DeconstructedTrope:

** Guts deconstructs the {{Badass}}. He can drink molten lead, routinely win fights against demons who would rip battle tanks apart, and can cut through entire armies of men on his own, but that's only because [[TrainingFromHell his entire life has been one big trial by fire]] and he's a broken wreck of a man as a result.

* 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...]]
* BreakTheBadass: Kind of, but instead of a new villain, [[spoiler:villain to be]] Griffith is the one who breaks Guts... Guts had just come back [[spoiler:from an assasination mission that went horribly wrong, and he ended up having to kill a child, and when he needed some serious emotional support,]] he happened walked in on Griffith and Charlotte talking, where Griffith said that to him, a friend needed to have his own dream, and not someone who simply followed someone else's dream, the revelation that he wasn't Griffiths friend, and the horrible, ''horrible'' timing for this, effectively broke Guts, making him leave the Hawks to go in a self discovery journey so he could be someone Griffith would consider as a friend[[spoiler:, as we all know, that had ''horrible'' results, since Guts defeating him with ease, and leaving him broke Griffith himself, and then ''it all went to hell'' soon after]]

* BridalCarry: Casca gets carried by Guts this way after her fight with Adon. She's the only Berserk female that gets this treatment from him; any other girl has to settle for a piggyback ride.

* 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.]]

* 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.

* ChildOfRape: [[spoiler:Rosine]]'s mother was raped by soldiers when their village was attacked, and her father believed she was not his child. Downplayed with The Child, whose father according to the Skull Knight was [[actually Guts]], but who was TouchedByVorlons due to its mother being raped while pregnant. In addition, many of the monsters throughout the series such as the Dakka and the Trolls reproduce through the rape of human women.

* ClaimedByTheSupernatural: The Band of the Hawk are all marked with the "Mark of Sacrifice" when Griffith's ascension ritual begins. All of them but Guts and Cosca are eaten by demons. The Mark bleeds when demons come near, and it attracts them as well.

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Why Apostles have been demoted to Elite Mooks in recent chapters.

** 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]]