Berserk/Headscratchers

"Serpico"
 * What happens when an Apostle is made? Does Femto or Griffith (human form) appears before the candidate? Or do Godhand say well there is five of us but one of us is on vacation.
 * If the Dreamcast game is anything to go by (which it very well may not be, it's canonical status is in question), only four of the Godhand appear. No idea what they say about the presumably absent one, but maybe they refer the new Apostle to Griffith to open up some "exciting new job opportunities" for him.
 * It wouldn't be too weird for only four of them to show up, either. Presumably, that's what they've been doing for centuries before Femto was created. The last thing an Apostle-to-be would have on their mind would be questioning why the God Hand is lacking a "finger".
 * Am I the only one who thinks this series had better, tighter pacing during The Golden Age Arc?
 * You weren't reading The Golden Age month-to-month, that probably has a lot to do with it. On the other hand, the art is fucking fantastic nowadays. It's a lot better than it was at the beginning, and the art was great to start with so that's saying a lot.
 * The golden arc did have the fact that it was baed upon the complex relationship between Gutts and Griffith as well as having the backdrop of total war to make it seem more epic.
 * Also, the Golden Age Arc was plotted around the arc of Griffith's and the Band of the Hawk's rise to power, which followed a clear progression. Since then, things have been jumping around a lot more (especially now that it's constantly cutting away to the New Band of the Hawks).
 * This has been bugging me for awhile...are Kushans monotheistic or polytheist? I know they are based on Ancient India and use Hindu terms but then the use the singular word "God" a lot too (and not in reference to the Holy See). Hell, in one scan a general refers to a "Buddhist Preisthood" if that's not just a Blind Idiot Translation.
 * That's never mentioned in the Dark Horse translation. I have no way of knowing if it's there in the original Japanese.
 * Polytheism doesn't mean worshipping all gods you believe in. There are Hindus who worship specifically Shiva, Vishnu or some other god.
 * During the pivotal Battle of Doldrey the Hawks had a river behind them. Griffith had them burn all the boats they used to cross, so as to prevent their retreat and force them to fight to their true potential. So how did they leave? Did they have to make new boats? Hell, there's no wood around there, it's all just a desert. Maybe Midland soldiers arrived and ferried them back across.
 * It's been a while since I read the manga, but you don't need boats to cross a river. After they won, they could have crossed it by fording it from a place they couldn't reach due to being trapped by soliders. Or they could not have crossed it at all, where were they headed anyway?
 * It wasn't the kind of river you could just cross over...Maybe this was only in the Anime, I'll have to read it again. They crossed it get to the Battle of Doldrey (you can see the river in the wide shots before the battle) and they went back across it to return to Wyndham for the victory parade.
 * "Morgal and Waratoria are small countries, but because they are on the Easternmost border of the Vatican order, they have strong warriors who've crossed blades with the Kushan's many times in the past."

Okay, Serp, that's cool and all but if they are on the Eastern border with the Kushan Empire why did Ganishka just go right past them and into Midland? If they are indeed small countries, skilled Vatican soldiers and sworn enemies of the Kushan it should have been a priority to deal with them. I suppose geography was never Berserk's strong point.
 * It would depend on the geography, no? Which is better, forcing their way through countries that are used to fighting them and know their own territory well enough to stall an offensive, as opposed to sneaking around, taking over the unprepared, fragmented country next to them, and then taking them down from both sides?
 * Ganishka was probably more worried about Griffith's return than those two small countries. It's doubtful that they could be a real danger to him in the long run, but Griffith was a HUGE threat to him. So, he decided to take over Midland and build up his demon army there, so he would be prepared when the time came.
 * So..what exactly DOES Griffith want to do after he gets his own kingdom? Is he obsessed with power? The romantics of it? Does he want to use his authority to bring about some end?
 * Before the Eclipse he just wanted to rule a kingdom, and seemed to only be interested in power and status for himself. Now, however, it's hinted that he is going to use that power to unite mankind, before bringing about some sort of Apocalypse.
 * It struck me that he is creating a fantasy world in which dreams are made possible for good or for ill.
 * Yay! An apocalyptic Land of Ooo!
 * Why are Kushan spellcasters drawn to look like Buddhist Monks? I get that it's ancient India-esque but Isn't Miura worried about Unfortunate Implications?
 * It's part of the Fantasy Counterpart Culture. A large religion with mystics fits in nicely with the rest of the Kushan Empire, and gives an excuse for magic users to show up. Besides, seeing as how pretty much everyone is evil, and the Crystal Dragon Jesus religion meant to represent Christianity is shown to be both completely wrong and responsible for a lot of the worlds problems, I doubt he cares about any Unfortunate Implications in his work.
 * Yeah, but...Alright. Whatever.
 * In all fairness, the 'Christians' are depicted as encouraging Reborn!Griffith's rise to power while the Hindus are shown to create monsters and makes demonic armies.
 * By the way, isn't the term "Buddhist" actually used in the manga(by a Kushan general in Mule's introduction before he is mauled by Apostles) or is that just a crappy translation?
 * As far as I know, the Kushans in Berserk is vaguely Hindu.

The second reason is that Casca is one of the most potent reminders that Griffith is not a good person, and that despite appearing to be the messiah, he is a man with dark issuses. We are shown that his actions in the eclipse do have a permenant effect on both Gutts and Casca and that it would be foolish to fully sink into the stary eyed admiration that alot of the citizens of Midland have for him.
 * How is it possible that Isidoro, Serpico, and Farnese weren't possessed by evil spirits drawn by the Brand? I mean, they're with Guts for awhile before he gets a Talisman and it even happened to Farnese once before.
 * Probably because Isidoro, Serpico, and Farnese know about them. The spirits usually possess people who are either unaware of them or unprepared for them. When the target does knows about them and resists, the spirits will instead talk to them, and try to degrade the victim's will by preying on their desires and insecurities. I would guess that they can only possess people when their minds are unguarded; people who are expecting them and ready to fight are way more difficult.
 * Why doesn't Schierke simply venture into Casca's mind and draw her out the same way she brings Guts back when he uses the Berserker Armor?
 * Because Guts has a protective seal that safeguards his ego, making retrieval possible, while Casca...doesn't.
 * Not just that, but its because the cause of Casca's current... state is psychological, not magical.
 * Plus, the entire point of Caska's existence after she got her mental state has been a long, continuous wangslap to the face of her fans. Berserk's creator clearly very deeply hates Caska, considering all he has put her through in the name of, apparently, sheer sadism. So to fix her would be counter-productive. This, incidentally, bugs this troper very, very much indeed.
 * ^^^ Unless you can cite an actual statement by Miura stating that he hates Caska, I think it's a little much to say that he hates her just because what she's been through. It's a major part of the story, not a "take that you bitch!" subplot. Don't confuse the author's personal feelings with the natural progression of the plot.
 * Alternately, Miura wanted to show the readers what would actually happen if a girl got raped by a demonic being with the power of a god. Unlike most hentai, mental breakdown would probably result. Also, how else would she have been 'fixed'? To restore her sanity right after the eclipse would have destroyed whatever impact it had on the reader to begin with.
 * But it is annoying that Casca as a broken woman-child's now lasted nearly twice as long as Casca the heroic swordwoman. I'm personally starting to think that he just doesn't know what to do with her, and is keeping her in Heroic BSOD mode to avoid really having to deal with the repercussions the Eclipse would've had on her character.
 * It's possible that the reason is because of Guts. The story is about him and his quest for revenge on Griffith. Having someone else with pretty much the same background and motivations as him would dilute the story a bit. On the other hand, keeping her insane means she could provide more opportunities for doing something major with the story than she could if she were normal, like, for example, going and joining Griffith again. She is pretty much the third most important character in the story, so having her do something drastic would change things a lot.
 * That and he might have a weird fetish for helpless, infant-like women....
 * Or he just wants to annoy people who do have a fetish for Rape As Backstory warrior women. It'd be fitting: There's this perfect specimen just right there, but he refuses to do anything with it. Also, undoing the whole thing would be just a different kind of Death Is Cheap. It's refreshing to see something really bad and heart-rending happen to a main character that can't just we fixed with a handwave.
 * Two reasons struck this troper for the decision. The first being that keeping Casca the way she is fits in with the story being dark and gloomy and realistic in the fact one can't simply wish bad things away. It also gives Gutts a more humanising touch by making him into caretaker.
 * I always imagined that even if there was a way that Casca could be cured with magic, it wouldn't be Schierke who would be doing the major healing in the end: it would probably have to be Guts.
 * Of course, this runs into another problem when you realize that women who are "weakened" or "depowered" (unless it's a one-episode case) seldom get better. Why else are fans paranoid of female characters encountering such things?
 * I have to admit that one of my big fears about the chance of Casca getting cured is that she'll be chickified for real.
 * It Just Bugs Me that the series's name seems to apply more to Zodd than Guts. That is to say, Zodd fits the description of a berserker more closely than Guts, at least in this troper's opinion. Consider:
 * Recklessness in combat
 * Doesn't notice wounds (He has a Healing Factor, but still...)
 * Animal inspiration (Tiger/bull/ape thing)
 * Fights naked (at first, then wears very minimalist armor.) His Apostle form is still naked.
 * Perhaps it's named after the Berserker Armour? It wasn't introduced for a long time, but Miura doesn't seem to have a problem with stretching out the story, so it could fit.
 * Berserk armour is the reason why in this tropers opinion. In addition we have the black hound which fits in with the whole bloodthirsty berserker side as well as Scorpio comparing Gutts to a berserker in the tango at the beach hut.
 * Drifting somewhat off-topic, I think the name has more to do with the fact that the whole world's gone berserk, what with the flesh-eating apostles, evil religion and genocidal tyrants who just want to spit in the face of god.
 * And it's perfectly fitting to have a character who embodies the worst negative character traits that the protagonist struggles with, and moreover, distinctly fears, to provide a foil for what Guts could become.
 * Why exactly do the Godhand do the things they do? It Just Bugs Me that they don't seem to have any real reason for offering demonhood to suckers and making life more miserable. Are they servants/slaves to ? Do they have some grand scheme in the making of becoming omnipotent? Or are they just spreading misery for shits and giggles?
 * I don't suppose you'd accept 'they are just jerks' as an answer?
 * Actually I would. At this point it's pretty much the only plausible one. It's actually pretty scary that beings as powerful and influential as the Godhand would spread such misery For the Evulz. At least  has the excuse of being.
 * I think it comes back to the idea of fate/destiny. They do what they do because they are ultimately cruel and evil people, becoming part of the Godhand probably ramps it up to 11 but it's still something that was there. Griffiths Bebilith was to him a sign of destiny so he ran with it, I am guessing there's probably something in there about the idea of free will and destiny, the Godhand enslaved themselves to their destiny, and the words to do as they will is simply to do what their 'destiny' is in their eyes.
 * The Berserk universe has no shortage of mistreated or sociopathic people. We don't know the backstory of the rest of the Godhand yet, but if they're anything like Griffith, they're probably crazy as hell. The fun thing about is that it isn't The Heartless. It cares. Just not in the normal way.
 * Some of the Apostles seem to have been pretty decent people before becoming demons. It's not until after they're no longer human that they become evil. I would guess that the process corrupts their minds in some way, to make it more likely they will spread suffering.
 * Yeah, I'd bet. Take the Count for example. I'd imagine that after you dismember and consume your wife who has been cuckolding you and performing pagan rituals in your home, you've become a pretty unstable person. And Void or Femto explicitly say that when you make your sacrifice, you offer up part of your heart as well, becoming unable to feel pain or sympathy for others. Interestingly, though, one recalls that the only actual command any apostle is ever given is 'Do as you wish," or something to that effect. One imagines that there could be a few 'hero' apostles wandering around who don't necessarily butcher and rape every poor soul they run afoul of, and just... do their own thing.
 * Well, as far as I can tell, Locus and that archer fellow in the New Band of Hawks seem like pretty decent fellows, for demons. They probably have some absurd off-screen bodycount, and have probably eaten a baby or two at some point, but for the most part seem like pretty decent guys. Zodd, for that matter, for all his Blood Knight-ness and tendency to rip through armies for the hell of it, is a relatively decent fellow, not engaging in any over the top villainy for the hell of it.
 * It's important to note that the conditions required to activate a Behelith and then to become an apostle are not conducive to postive mental health. Thus it makes sense that most of them are bad people as only bad people would be willing to become a demon.
 * It seems to me that Griffith even in the beginning started out as a vindictive, power-hungry, amoral son of a bitch who would do just about anything to achieve his goals. Think about some of the things he does before the eclipse: He plans two different assassinations of nobles just below the king, in the process orders a man's daughter kidnapped and held as insurance... These are not the acts of an okay guy. That's why he relied on Guts to keep that kind of thing a secret. He wanted to keep up the appearance of being perfect. The events of the eclipse just cement how villainous he actually was - torture and humilation or not, he knew exactly what he was doing when he gave up the hawks as a sacrifice, and decided that their lives were worth less than power. So I figure that after Raping The Dog so spectacularly little things like making apostles and fucking the world up really isn't too big of a challenge.
 * To be fair, each time Griffith carried out a secret assassination, it was against people who were trying to kill him as well (Julius, who plotted an assassination during the Fall Hunt, and the Queen and circle of nobles who plotted against him and tried to poison him during his own victory celebration). Griffith was certainly no angel, but neither are the majority of the people in Midland for that matter. Crapsack World, people. Crapsack world.
 * The key word here is "why?". Griffith did do a lot of terrible stuff, but he always had a reason for it: it was to pursue his dream of being a ruler. Assassinating his enemies, sacrificing the Hawks, and all that, were things he did to accomplish his goals. But immediately after becoming a demon, he rapes Casca just For the Evulz. It's pretty clear that demonhood includes Raping The Dog for no reason at all as part of the package.
 * Pay attention to the story: The rape was so he could corrupt her and Guts's child for his eventual rebirth.
 * But it's not at all clear that Griffith knew that would happen at the time. The whole idea of the Godhand and causality is that all these people doing whatever they want always leads to what  wants to happen. Griffith didn't actually need to know he'd get a new body for raping Casca. It might've just worked out that way because, even as Femto (probably especially as Femto), his motives are still part of the cosmic plan.
 * I always thought that since he had sorta recently found out that Casca and Guts were hooking up, possibility of feeling abandoned or losing his trusty right hand warrior (Either one could be that), I thought the rape was some wierd "No, she's mine" thing.
 * Griffith did behave badly but the setting of the story is such that he had too if he wished to advance. The whole torture thing however meant that he was psychological destroyed and thus promises of power were lapped up by him. So while he is undoubtly the villian, he remains quite sympathetic.
 * And he completely destroyed any sympathy he had when he raped Casca. Sacrificing the Hawks, while really bad, is at least understandable from his position. It was the only way to pursue his dream, he was physically and mentally broken at the time, and the Godhand didn't portray it as all that different than his men dieing for him on the battlefield. But what he did to Casca has no excuse at all. It wasn't necessary at all, it was just him being jealous and spiteful, having a powertrip where he gets back at Guts and Casca for "rejecting" him and destroying the two of them in the process. It's the point where he crosses from being merely 'ruthless' into being outright Evil.
 * He didn't rape Caska because he wanted to, he raped Caska because it was the worst possible way he could hurt Guts, who was his best friend. This was the sacrifice that the Behelit demanded.
 * No, sacrificing the Hawks was what the Behelit demanded. Raping Casca was something he did on his own.
 * All this Griffith apologism frightens me.
 * This troper always interpreted it as revenge aimed at Guts. Griffith wasn't blind to Caska's devotion to her commander. Sociopathic narcissists often intentionally act oblivious to the emotions of others to soak up their affection without having to share in it and given Griffith's high standard of what constitutes a friend, he clearly isn't above viewing the Hawks as privately below him. Knowing he was about to lose his most loyal follower and the man he trusted enough to keep privy his most dire acts of ambition (the assassinations he cut Guts in on) was a blow to his ego he couldn't take. Notice how little Femto reacts to raping Caska, all while staring Guts dead in the eyes. It wasn't about her, it was about hurting him through her.
 * This troper took things a little differently. Griffith doesn't really qualify as sociopathic (at least in the Golden Age). Guts, an emotionally stunted individual, puts out his first real emotional connection since age 6 to this charismatic leader and the men who follow him. Then, when he thinks that he and Griffith are Twu Fwiends, he overhears Griffith's monologue to Charlotte. Griffith there states that any man who serves Griffith and not himself is not an equal, and therefore no true friend, but rather a tool for Griffith to use. This causes Guts to leave, emotional connection bruised. Griffith, on the other hand, freaks out when the ONLY person he is shown to let his guard down with (regularly) is leaving. Griffith seems similarly stunted in his ability to reach out to people, and when HIS friendship with Guts is threatened. It seems that his speech to Charlotte is more a veiled admission that he doesn't care about her at all, and that she is a means to an end. He thinks of Guts as a friend, but his own emotional hangups keep him at arms length, and he uses him as a tool for his own purposes. It's less that Griffith is narcissistic and more that he feels he can't AFFORD to be seen as a normal part of the group. That's why Guts leaving hits him so hard, and why Guts taking Casca (his second closest emotional attachment) from him puts him over the edge, which in turn makes him ripe for the Moral Event Horizon of the Eclipse. The rape is just pure mean-spirited "You ruined me, I'll ruin you". Basically, he was punishing them both (mostly Guts) for their perceived betrayal.
 * Indeed, this troper thinks that if  hadn't saved the day, Femto would probably have tossed Casca to the rest of his horde and did the same thing to Guts ... assuming Femto survived the latter experience.
 * Seconded - how exactly does he get eviler? This dude is currently fucking up MoralEventHorizons all by his lonesome.
 * Double indeed. Mirroring what somebody above said, Griffith's actions during the Eclipse is suppose to remind us that there is something wrong with this guy, in many, many contexts. It especially takes a special kind of evil person to rape a person that he himself saved from the same fate, but just look at the moments before the feast. Even though Guts and Casca were discussing their future together as lovers, their one priority during their most dire hour when they got warped to the Nexus was to get Griffith to safety. These two were not thinking of themselves and only had Griffith's well-being in mind, and he went and backstabbed them in a very heinous way out of his own spite and selfishness. Also just looking at the circumstances of sacrificing his comrades and raping Casca: Griffith condemned his allies to death, but he didn't actually do any of the killing himself. He did, however, go out of his way to rape Casca in front of Guts. I admit that one can successfully argue the justification for killing somebody, since you can kill for several different reasons (self-defense, war, revenge, for the hell of it, the so-called greater good), but you only rape people because you're a sick individual (because there's no need to rape people, only want because you're a douchebag). Period.
 * Why does Black Swordsman Guts (Guts before the flashback) still have issues about being touched? I thought he was over what happened because of Gambino and Donovan after being intimate with Casca?
 * I think with Casca it was more something along the lines of If It's You It's Okay, so other people touching him would still freak him out. Everything that happened during the Eclipse probably didn't help.
 * Yeah, if anything the Eclipse just sent those issues roaring right back with a vengeance.
 * True, Guts being pinned down and forced to watch  qualifies as a Mind Rape in itself.
 * He seems to have it at least partially under control and can overcome it at times: remember the first page of Berserk where screws a woman which turns into a demon? If it gives him some kind of advantage, he certainly doesn't mind contact. Or Miura just decided his badass main protagonist should be different than he originally intended… or he forgot.
 * Remember that Guts' aversion to being touched has much to do with his trust in others as it does with a single physically and sexually traumatizing experience. Guts was not only raped as a child by one man, but the rape happened because he was betrayed by a man that he viewed as a father-figure. Guts might not have openly or even internally condemned Gambino for what he did to him, but it was obvious that his trust in others was ruined forever and it was therefore hard for him to form bonds with others. When Guts met Griffith, he was beginning to open up to him as a friend and he might have even as gone so far as to disclose to Griffith about his traumatizing past, but when he overheard Griffith's high expectations of what he considered a real friend (you can interpret that speech however you'd like; someone above gave a good analysis of it) - and how even Guts didn't seem to qualify for those expectations - that just shut the guy down even more. You notice that it was at this point that Guts starts to interact with Casca a lot more, especially after their time together after falling off of the cliff where they learned that they weren't so different from each other. He starts talking to her in a way that he never talked to Griffith in, showing how he is regaining his trust in forming relationship with people. It all accumulates to the point that he has an emotional breakdown while they're making love, where Guts spills all of the trauma he endured as a kid that he's been keeping in for all of these years. This is the first time that Guts shows such an emotionally damaged and fragile side to anyone and he is understandably ashamed and embarrassed because of this, but Casca soothed his wounds and pretty told him that it would all be okay in time because they had each other to cope with their trauma. It was at this point that Guts finally found somebody that he could trust and relate to, and in an ironic twist on Griffith's expectations of a true friend, it was Casca who became Guts' equal. But there was no doubt that Guts placed some trust in Griffith, since he at least considered Griffith his friend, but during the Eclipse, everything just came tumbling down. Griffith betrayed whatever trust that Guts had for him in a very epic way, and to make it worse, Griffith took away the one person that Guts knew that he could trust. And to make it extra worse, Griffith used Guts' issues in trust against him, since he horrifically tortured the person that made Guts regain his sense of trust in people (since Guts' trust in people is his Achilles' heel.). In short, Guts had two major violations of trust in his life: one when he was child and the other during the Eclipse, the latter taking it up to eleven by a) eliminating the trust he had in one person he cared for b) having the person whom he trusted AND loved being taken away and c) being forced to relive his first violation of trust which was very physical.
 * Of course, to be more optimistic, Guts is regaining his sense of trust in others upon forming his new group of True Companions, and he's not as freaked out when people touch him now, so all is not lost.
 * I think it is stated in the lost chapter that a person becoming a demon assumes a form he/she wishes . So, why do most people opt for disgusting phallic creatures that make anglerfishes look cute?
 * Because they're fucked up people.
 * Well it seems the form they take is dependent on their desires and seeing as sex and violence feature quite strongly is it any surprise that a lot of demons are based on that? Look at the count.
 * Most of the demons are male. All Men Are Perverts and Freud Was Right. Self-Demonstrating Article.
 * Irvine, the new Band of the Hawk's expert archer/hunter is a self described loner who enjoys nothing more than hunting alone in the forests for days on end. So who exactly did he sacrifice to become an Apostle?
 * Perhaps His own eyes? Notice he has no pupils, and his bow has an eye? By giving up his human senses he lost the thrill of the hunt (like playing a game on godmode), It's never stated the sacrifice had to be human, just that which is most important to the person. This works nicely with the whole "Not all Apostles are Complete Monsters angle. Though that's just speculation.
 * It gets kinda disturbing when you remember that sacrifices are consummated by having demons eat the sacrifice. That means that the last thing Irvine saw in his life was a demon about to eat his eyes.
 * I'm not sure that's always how it works. Didn't the Behelit Apostle sacrifice "the world"? Apparently concepts are fair sacrifice fodder in the grand scheme of Causality.
 * Perhaps it might work if you value that concept more than anything else and there's a great possibility of it coming true in the future, just like the Behelit Apostle's sacrifice resulted in the rebirth of Griffith and thus consequently the coming of the new world.
 * You're all either looking at it wrong or over-analyzing it. Just because Irvine's a loner now doesn't mean he always was. Whatever secrets he's hiding is something that's probably going to be revealed in the future.
 * Speaking of Apostles, I don't get how Wyald could reach the state of being one. His hedonistic sadism doesn't seem like it's possible to make him suffer a Despair Event Horizon needed for the Behelit, nor the kind of guy who'd have anyone to sacrifice.
 * True form of Wyald was that of the frail old man. This Troper can easily imagine Despair Event Horizon for such a man (feeling of uselessness, fear of death etc.). Sacrifice could be his family or some other caretaker. Also personalities can change rapidly when you become apostle. Take Count for example sure he was Knight Templar but otherwise he was decent Lord and father.
 * It just bugs me that I can't easily get to the main page for Berserk by searching "berserk" here at tv tropes. Instead, Berserk Button or the WMG entry. What the hell?
 * I have found Griffith to be more sympathetic than Guts.
 * Nothing says sympathetic character better than ordering murders for political gain and raping your friends!
 * Exactly why is training with a huge ass sword not standard? At least for elite mooks? I mean, as badass as Guts is, he is still a NORMAL badass, meaning any warrior should be able to do what he does. In real life, no one uses the kind of sword Guts does because it's flat out impossible, but if it's possible for a normal person to do it in Berserk's universe, and once you've trained with it enough, there are virtually no downsides to it except in maybe cramped spaces (and even then, Guts managed to work around it) in comparison to normal sized swords. I just don't see why Guts has been the only one to think of using this method. At the very least, elite warriors should train with it, but the only one who ever used anything like it is Zodd, who is an Apostle.
 * Because for most people, learning how to do so just isn't worth it. It took Guts YEARS of training before he could swing something the size of the Dragon Slayer, and the only reason he actually needs a sword that big is to fight Apostles. A regular sword works just fine on regular people, which is what most warriors spend their time fighting. There no point in them spending so much time and effort learning how to use something they don't actually need to use.
 * A good point, but it should be remembered that Guts' abilities would be valuable to any mercenary or soldier, not just to those needing the power to take out a demon. The ability to cut through men in plate mail like they were made of straw would be highly coveted by all commanders and fighters.
 * Guts may be an ordinary human, but he's an ordinary human who has been using oversized blades since very early childhood. It's unlikely that a regular person could just start training with a blade like that and have anywhere near the skill and strength with a blade that Guts has without spending decades catching up, which is time they could better spend mastering a more practical weapon. It's pretty much stated that the Dragon Slayer is a blade that has terrible disadvantages in many cases - the difference is that Guts is a master swordsman, and therefore able to overcome them.
 * Theory: Guts is human, but not a baseline human. His super human strength is the result of greater theoretical potential combined with Training From Hell. The range of potential within the populace ranging from Weak-Average-Strong-Superhuman. Albeit, this doesn't explain why per say super human traits exist within the Berserk human populace, it however does not seem plausible that Charles Atlas Super powers would exist for real. If all it took to turn a regular person into a super human with training with out concern for their physical limitations, there would be super humans running all over the place. The reason that there aren't is that at a certain point increasingly strenuous training does nothing but cause debilitating injuries. A universe where the above wasn't the case would have EVERY soldier/fighter be a trained super human.
 * Guts is not human anymore. His capacities even before the berserker armor were superhuman. Schierke states as much when she points out that the brand of sacrifice causes him to perpetually live in the hazama, the shallow ethereal dream land. The reason that hungry ghosts can manifest around him and kill normal people is that he is a walking wrinkle in reality. Because he lives in a perpetual astral state his thoughts have influenced his physical reality. His rage has literally warped his personal reality. Much like his sword has become capable of killing a member of the god hand by dint of its deeds, Guts has literally forged himself into someone that can weild it. Notice that prior to the eclipse his sword is large but not freakish.
 * There's also the theory that Guts himself is supernatural from birth, and that the occult stigma he gains from his birth actually has some merit. See the WMG for details
 * Okay. There's no theory behind this, but has it ever bugged anyone that Guts gives Gambino so much credit over Shisu? I know that she died when he was three or four so they didn't have as much time together, but Shisu is perhaps the only other person besides Casca who loved Guts unconditionally, which is more than I can say for his strict but reasonable adoptive father. Yet, even through all of the bullshit that Gambino put Guts through - that he was knowingly aware of - Guts still feels more parental love toward Gambino than Shisu. Heck - when he was explaining his past trauma to Casca, it wasn't Shisu who took Guts in as a baby: it was Gambino. Go fig. A question worthy of more discussion would be if there will ever be any mention of Shisu from Guts for the rest of the series?
 * Shisu is practically Berserk's central Disposable Woman.
 * She died when he was barely 3, too soon to really have any significant place in his memory, and too soon to form any feelings toward her. Gambino was a prick, sure, but unlike her, was around for Guts' formative years, was hence able to come to be seen as the closest thing to a parent the kid even knew about, and the one who left a larger impact on him.
 * Her name isn't Shisu. It's Sys. Shisu is the wrongful translation of her name in Romaji, just like Roshinu is Rosine and Femto is Phemt.
 * Gut's isn't really AWARE of Sys.
 * What really bothers me is why Griffith wanted to hold on to Guts so badly. Unless I'm really missing something, it seems like pure Yandere. Guts is setting off on his own, which is Griffith's exact own definition of what a true friend would do. Griffith seemed to have no tactical use for Guts at the time he left after winning the duel. The war the Hawks fought for Midland had ended a month ago, and the only way Griffith could advance further seemed to be purely through Princess Charlotte and politics. So was Griffith really as emotionally dependent on and madly in love with Guts as I think he was, or am I missing something big?
 * Griffith seemed to have abandonment issues. He wants friends he can respect, but even more so he wants people who will always be with him.
 * That and Griffith seems to have an special obsession about Guts since he actualy managed to hurt him in their first encounter, when Griffith was already considered invincible. Griffith probably held Guts in very high regard and he was probably the only person he considered "close to an equal", seeing as how he eventualy becomes his right hand man and personal confident. When Guts actualy managed to defeat him and leave, Griffith probably had an emotional breakdown because not only Guts went against his wishes but also actualy defeated him when he tried to stop Guts. The inability to make his will prevail coupled with losing Guts pushed him through the Despair Event Horizon. Hell, in the manga, Griffith keeps thinking about Guts EVERY DAY after it happens, even while having sex to princess Charlotte and enduring horrible torture and confinement. If anything this is a canon headscratcher, Casca says Griffith never acted that way towards anyone through all the years she's been in the band of the hawk.
 * Sooo.... What about that dragon, huh? The one Godo talked about but didn't want to talk about? He said that he made that sword so that it could slay a dragon - and apparently it worked. But then he went onto saying that nobody had the strength to wield it... So what I want to ask is: Cool Old Guy, are you nuts?! I mean, he said that the Dragon Slayer succeeded in killing a dragon, but how could it if he said that no one had the strength to wiel - hold on. Is he perhaps implicating that he, Godo the Blacksmith, was once a dragon slaying, crouching blacksmith, hidden badass??? Okay, farfetched idea. But still. Am I missing something here?
 * As awesome as that would have been...but there was no actual dragon involved. It was not forged to slay any specific dragon, but to theoretically be able to kill one. While telling the story, Godo remarks that he doesn't think dragons and other such monsters are real, and if they were, a human could not possibly beat them. So it's only fitting that a weapon that could kill them could not be wielded by a human.
 * He put it into catapult and launched it at the dragon?
 * Is it just me, or is the series getting more Nipple-and-Dimed?
 * Judging by episode 285 with all of the Innocent Fanservice Merrows...nope.
 * True, but I was referring more to how they're being drawn as of lately. Earlier, they were really obvious, but in this latest chapter, not so much. They're kind of decreasing in visibility. Knowing Berserk, they're probably never going to go away, but I have noticed another shift in Miura's art style in the latest chapters.
 * I noticed something in chapter 71 of the manga. Casca had just come from taking care of Griffith in the wagon, and Casca is clearly upset and crying outside. But I noticed that she was clutching her stomach in one panel. Was it possible that Casca was showing signs of morning sickness?  Just speaking in general.
 * I'm re-re-re watching the original anime (English dubbed), and I'm surprised at myself for never bringing attention to this before. In the first episode, after the opening, two dudes are in a tavern, talking about how shit-tastic Midland is. One of the guys says, "I can't take it. Ever since Griffith became king, I've lost all hope." Whoa, what? How did this happen? This has to be a mistranslation for the English, but I'm wondering if the same was said in the Japanese dialogue. Were these some aborted plans for Griffith's reintroduction into the physical plane after the Eclipse?
 * I don't understand: how the hell does Femto's costume - er, body, work? His head area looks like a helmet because we can see his pale skin underneath, but then some say that he's technically naked, and the very clear depiction of him  seems to suggest this... Unless it was all just a case of Right Through His Pants after all or he can just - I'm not even going to finish that (it sounds as disgusting in my head as it does if I typed it).
 * The whole "spandex costume with helmet" probably is indeed part of his body. The reason his head looks like a helmet with a human head inside probably has to do with how his new form is shaped somewhat according to what he wanted to look like (which begs the question of how fucked up some of the other God Hand were at the moment of their rise), and he wanted to look like a guy with a falcon/hawk themed "armour" (and wings).
 * So, do any of you Berserk scholars know why is it that a person like Flora gives off a very faint aching feeling in Guts and Casca's brand but the Child - who has weirdness plastered all over him - doesn't? I know that the Child in his demonic form did, but Child v.2.0 doesn't.