Berserk/Characters: Difference between revisions

Also called the Black Swordsman, the main protagonist is a [[Badass Normal|naturally badass]] [[Anti Hero]] with a round ton of [[Dark and Troubled Past]]. Born from a deceased mother {{spoiler|not [[Death By Childbirth]], she was already dead}}, he was raised amongst mercenaries by an [[Abusive Parents|abusive foster father]] and was later {{spoiler|[[Rape As Drama|the victim of rape]] by one of his adoptive father's men}}. Guts is also a survivor of the demonic sabbath known as the Eclipse, during which he lost his right eye and part of his left arm. His injuries are not the only marks he bears from this event; Guts is also marked with the Brand of Sacrifice, a supernatural emblem that draws the attention of demons and the restless dead. Both groups are eager to finish the job left undone when Guts survived the Eclipse

Although he claims to be a complete asshole, Guts is actually a [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]] who simply acts aloof and unreasonable towards anyone he meets, including his [[True Companions]]. He does truly care for his companions, but since the Brand attracts astral demons, and his [[Hell Hound]] [[Super Powered Evil Side]], the Beast, tends to make him [[Unstoppable Rage|go berserk and thus dangerous even to his companions]], he prefers [[Its Not You Its My Enemies|to keep them at a respectful distance]].

* [[Twenty Four Hour Armor]]: Considering that his ass is constantly swarmed with evil spirits attracted to his brand, [[Justified Trope|it's best to be prepared.]]

* [[Action Hero]]: He's a rare [[Anti Hero]] variant.

* [[Anti Hero]]: [[Sliding Scale of Anti Heroes|Type IV --> Type V --> Type III]]

* [[Ax Crazy]]: When his [[Super Powered Evil Side|inner beast takes over]], no-one is safe.

** [[Badass Baritone]]: Damn - even his voice is badass! And it was shown (or rather, heard) in the anime that Guts went through some ''major'' puberty at around age 14 or 15 since he has a deep voice then. It just adds to [[Tall Dark and Handsome|teh sexiness.]]

** [[Kicking Ass and Taking Names]]: Killing fifty mooks was ''nothing'' to him - [[One Man Army|he had to take it up a notch!]] And we're not necessarily talking about humans here...

* [[Big Ol Eyebrows]]: Oh yeah!

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Guts's childhood was pretty much one big [[Break the Cutie]] ordeal for him. By all accounts, he was a fairly nice kid who [[Well Done Son Guy|wanted to please his surrogate father]]. It did not end well. At all.

* [[Death Seeker]]: Arguable. Guts likes to talk about how much he wants his [[Revenge]] on Griffith and the Godhand, but he acted very suicidally in the beginning. He'd get into battles with Apostles that he would just ''barely'' survive - usually by extreme luck - and it can be argued that Guts probably doesn't expect to defeat the Godhand, but he fought so rampantly because of the grief and sadness that he suffered during the Eclipse and his unquenchable hatred for the Godhand. It's only when Guts realized that he wasn't the only one to survive the Eclipse and who suffered a great deal ( {{spoiler|his lover, Casca, [[Rape As Drama|who arguably]] [[Break the Cutie|had a MORE traumatizing]] [[Go Mad From the Revelation|ordeal during the Eclipse]]}}) [[What the Hell Hero|that he started to clean up his act]], since his death will almost [[Worth Living For|certainly mean Casca's death.]] Nowadays, Guts has returned to the crazy ol' [[The Berserker|berserker]] persona that everyone loves and fears.

* [[The Dreaded]]: Typical pre-Eclipse reaction: "It's Guts: [[One Man Army|the Hundred-Man Slayer!]] Run!!" Typical post-Eclipse reaction: "What? [[Black Knight|The Black Swordsman]] is ''here?'' Oh god, [[Big No|NO!]]"

* [[Dude Where's My Respect]]: Zigzagged since it was more of an internal conflict than an external one, as Guts had [[Earn Your Title|made a name for himself]] [[One Man Army|through his exploits with the Hawks.]] The conflict came from the fact that no matter what he did, Guts always felt that he was beneath Griffith, especially after overhearing Griffith's speech about what he deemed as a true friend: someone who goes after their dreams and doesn't blindly follow the dreams of others, someone who is equal to him. What Guts really wanted to gain out of leaving the Hawks was to someday reach a level that was the same as Griffith's so that they could then be true friends. It's really sad when you think about it that way, [[It Got Worse|since none of that came true after he left.]]

* [[Freak Out]] {{spoiler|When Guts wakes up after [[Wham Episode|the Eclipse]] and finally has some time to fully realize the horrible results of the event he spends an entire chapter blindly running through the woods in extreme mental agony, having meaningful flashbacks about his fallen friends, [[Its All My Fault|and clearly blaming himself for everything that happened.]] He only cools down when he remembers [[Face Heel Turn|Griffith]] was the real cause of the whole nightmare. Guts promptly [[Took a Level In Badass|re-invents]] himself as the [[Took a Level In Jerkass|Black Swordsman.]]}}

{{quote| "[[Pre Mortem One Liner|When you meet your god, tell him to leave me the FUCK alone!]]" }}

* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Embodies this after finding his new [[Five Man Band]]. But he's still ''a lot'' nicer than when he was still travelling alone.

* [[Hero With Bad Publicity]]: While Griffith is the [[Villain With Good Publicity]] in this story, Guts is the ([[Anti Hero|anti]]) hero with bad publicity. There's no doubt that he has ended up saving lives by killing apostles, but because of his [[He Who Fights Monsters|HIGHLY]] [[Good Is Not Nice|morally]] [[What the Hell Hero|questionable]] [[Destructive Savior|actions,]] he's not well liked by the towns' folk that he encounters. This is most especially seen when Guts is [[Wandering the Earth]] alone, but when he stops being [[Loners Are Freaks|a loner,]] [[Took a Level In Kindness|makes a mood shift,]] and gets an audience because of it, a lot more people are appreciative of his actions. Still, so long as [[The Messiah|Griffith]] is walking the earth, Guts' presence will always be seen in a [[Anti Christ|negative light.]]

* [[Huge Guy Tiny Girl]]: Guts is the Huge Guy to Casca's Tiny Girl, even though since [[Hot Amazon|Casca is not exactly small]], this is more of a ''really'' Huge Guy and Above Average Girl.

* [[The Hunter]] (He at first killed a bunch of things because it was his job. Now he does it because [[Its Personal]].)

** In fact, the manga starts with a good helping of this trope, [[R Rated Opening|as to inform newcomers of what's to come]].

* [[Men Are Uncultured]]: The only way for Guts to get into books and [[Dancesand Balls|pimped-out balls]] is if some sort of woman is involved. {{spoiler|With the former, it has to be pornographic}}.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Maybe not intentional but the guy is ''very'' [[Tall Dark and Handsome|tall]], ''very'' [[Heroic Build|ripped]], ruggedly handsome, appears [[Shirtless Scene|shirtless]] or even [[Male Frontal Nudity|completely naked]] several times, so it only comes with the territory that he garnered a devoted female fandom.

* [[My God What Have I Done]]: Happens two prominent times. First was when he accidentally {{spoiler|killed the Count's son}} leading him to go into [[Heroic BSOD]] mode. The second was when he almost {{spoiler|[[Near Rape Experience|raped Casca]] when the Beast got the best of him.}} After that, Guts began to keep his distance from her, fearing that he might hurt her again - [[Murder the Hypotenuse|or worse.]]

* [[One Man Army]]: And HOW! He got the moniker Hundred Man Slayer ''before'' becoming the monster-killer he is today.

* [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: The first traveling companion of this [[Tall Dark and Handsome|dark, towering, wayward swordsman]] is none other than - a ''faerie''... So why does this man continue to strike fear into my heart despite this?

* [[Red Oni Blue Oni|Red Oni]]

* [[Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training]]: Since childhood, [[Child Soldier|Guts has been trained as a warrior]]. Now, he can wield an [[BFS|impossible weapon]] with [[One Handed Zweihander|one hand]] and can [[One Man Army|take out scores of enemies all by himself. Sometimes ''in one swing''.]] ... It's just too bad that he has [[No Social Skills|crummy social skills]] because of [[Raised By Dudes|his upbringing]] ([[Rape As Backstory|along with his traumatic backstory]]).

* [[Single Target Sexuality]]: As mentioned above, Guts is one of the least sex-motivated male characters in the series, and has [[Chick Magnet|attracted]], been [[Precocious Crush|fawned over]], been [[I Have You Now My Pretty|molested by]], and has seen numerous women naked. But at the end of the day, he only has eyes for one woman: Casca. {{spoiler|Aside from that one time where he had sex with a she-apostle - whose intent was to eat him alive during intercourse - but he knew it all along in order to slay it}}, Guts has only had {{spoiler|genital-genital}} sex once in his life, and it was with her {{spoiler|after getting through some post-traumatic stress from being anally raped when he was a kid}} and only [[A Man Is Always Eager|looked forward to doing it more with Casca]]. Even after all of the horrible events that the two of them have been through, Guts is still strongly devoted to Casca.

* [[The Social Darwinist]]: Back when he was [[Took a Level In Jerkass|a bigger jerk than normal]], Guts adopted the "only the strong deserve to live" motto as his own. The irony in this of course is that {{spoiler|he pretty much verbally condemned Casca, who is currently defenseless and can't take care of herself, to the same fate as those who couldn't fight against the strong}}. Alas, [[What the Hell Hero|Guts cleaned up his act after awhile]] and seems to have dropped this ideology upon re-realizing [[I Will Protect Her|what he wanted to protect the most]].

** He has also engaged in some [[Cold Blooded Torture]] of some particularly horrible enemies before killing them, with no purpose beyond making them suffer...[[Kick the Son of A Bitch|and we probably cheer him for that.]]

* [[Star Crossed Lovers]]: He and Casca are two of a kind and paid dearly for this...

* [[Stupid Sexy Flanders]]: Overloaded with testosterone, chiselled physique, dark, rugged, [[Tall Dark and Handsome|handsome]]... Need we say more?

* [[Super Powered Evil Side]]: The Beast, his [[Enemy Within]], easily one of the most evil entities of the series. {{spoiler|It used to live in harmony with Guts during the Retribution Arc but, now that he decided not to lose Casca to anyone or anything, the Beast constantly tries to goad Guts into killing Casca so it could take over his body again.}}

* [[Tall Dark and Handsome]]

** [[Tall Dark and Snarky]]

* [[Took a Level In Kindness]]: After having gained so many [[Took a Level In Jerkass|jerkass levels]], Guts gets progressively nicer after a resounding [[What the Hell Hero]] from Godo, and especially after forming a group of [[True Companions]].

* [[Uh Oh Eyes]]: Take heed in this warning, children, as the windows to Guts' soul also signify how much immediate danger you are in:

** [[Blank White Eyes]]: You will not survive to read the end of this [[Killed Mid Sentence|sen -]]

* [[Well Done Son Guy]]: As a kid, Guts's primary motivation was to make his adoptive father Gambino proud. It ended badly.

** ... But it should be mentioned that because of his status as an [[Anti Hero]], Guts doesn't enjoy killing or hurting children, and so far, he has only killed kids who became monsters, and therefore, [[What Measure Is a Non Human|Guts sees them as fair game]] (that, [[Justified Trope|and they were trying to kill him]]), and by accident; in both situations, he didn't take it too well. In truth, most kids actually LIKE Guts - a lot more [[Adults Are Useless|than the adults]] - and Guts is okay with them being around him [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold|more or less.]]

A stock [[White Haired Pretty Boy]] and leader of the mercenaries known as the Band of the Hawk, he is also Guts's closest friend until the Eclipse. Griffith recruits Guts to his band [[Defeat Means Friendship|after defeating him in battle,]] and Guts quickly becomes his right-hand man. There are also many hints that his friendship with Guts [[Ho Yay|might not be completely platonic...]]

Upon nearly achieving his dream, however, [[Et Tu Brute|he falls apart when Guts chooses to leave the Hawks]], an action born from Griffith's own philosophies of independence and the tireless pursuit of one's dream. Devastated, he seeks temporary solace by sleeping with Princess Charlotte, an act that sets off the inevitable countdown to the Eclipse. Crippled for life after a full year of torture on the King's orders for having deflowered the Princess, Griffith is later freed by his companions. After overhearing Casca convince Guts to leave ''again'', Griffith crosses the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and uses the Crimson Behelit to summon the Godhand, albeit unknowingly.

* [[Anti Hero]]: Type V (In the Past), now he's a straight up villain.

* [[Et Tu Brute]]: Seeing Guts leaving him and then Casca choosing Guts over him made Griffith completely lose it.

* [[Fatal Flaw]] --> [[Pride]]: Face it: this is Griffith's major fatal flaw and it's pretty hard to edge around (it's even implied in his [[Meaningful Name|namesake]]). Most of his actions revolve around the fact that he believes that he's destined to become a ruler and that [[The Ubermensch|no one can]] ''[[The Ubermensch|quite]]'' [[The Ubermensch|reach his standards.]] Just about everybody he encounters [[The Messiah|loves him]], and he's totally fine with that, [[The Chessmaster|especially if it gets him closer]] [[Manipulative Bastard|to his goal.]] Griffith is a hard worker, but failure isn't an option for him and he rarely does, which sets himself higher on his own pedestal. But when he loses ''one'' battle against Guts, just ONE... ''Everything'' comes crashing down for him, [[Break the Haughty|and he just goes on a downward spiral of self-destruction]] (of course, you can also interpret his reaction in that Guts was his [[Living Emotional Crutch|emotional crutch]] or that he [[Ho Yay|had feelings for him]]). Again, we see this from a more sympathetic light, since Griffith genuinely wasn't a bad person to begin with. But again, this all changes when the Eclipse happens. Other flaws that can be associated with Griffith can be his [[Ambition Is Evil|ambition]], [[Its All About Me|his selfishness]], and quite possibly his [[Hypocrite|hypocrisy.]]

** [[Red Oni Blue Oni|Blue Oni]]

* [[I Have You Now My Pretty]]: {{spoiler|Casca...}} will never be the same after what he did to her.

* [[Its All About Me]]: Oh Griffith, [[Jerk With a Heart of Jerk|you selfish bastard]].

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Much like Guts, he also has a large female fandom, but for [[Bishonen|completely]] [[Draco in Leather Pants|different]] [[White Haired Pretty Boy|reasons]].

* [[My God What Have I Done]]: {{spoiler|When Griffith is being transformed into Femto, he has a moment of this...only to realize that he can no longer feel remorse. In the anime his inner voice suddenly becomes colder after the "last tear you ever shed" moment making it sound like Femto is [[Hannibal Lecture|lecturing]] Griffith.}} No more going back from here.

* [[Spell My Name With an S]]: While he is widely known as Femto, it is highly probable that the actual spelling of his name is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHEMT "Phemt"], the technical concept after which he is named.

* [[White Haired Pretty Boy]]

After the Eclipse, she is left in the care of fellow survivor Rickert while Guts [[Walking the Earth|hunts for Griffith]]. The two are reunited two years later during the mock Eclipse at the Tower of Punishment, after which Guts decides to care for her himself. This turns out to be more difficult than he expects, and his frustration at the trouble he has protecting her, along with the urgings of his [[Super Powered Evil Side]], leads him to {{spoiler|nearly rape Casca.}} Casca now fears Guts and wants nothing to do with him, made even more painful for him since she is [[Morality Chain|the only reason why he decided to change his ways]]. She is instead looked after by Farnese and [[Find the Cure|finding the cure]] to her state is the reason for Guts and his party's are current journey to Elfhelm.

* [[Armor Piercing Slap]]: More like an [[Megaton Punch|armor piercing punch]], though the words that followed stung Guts more than the actual physical punch.

* [[Bandaged Face]]: Coinciding with her [[So Beautiful Its a Curse]] status during the Conviction Arc, her face is bandaged up as a syphilis victim in order to draw male attention away from her.

* [[Crouching Moron Hidden Badass]]: Post-Eclipse, she mostly acts like an infant barely aware of her surroundings. At times, however, some of her previously [[Badass]] traits briefly bubble to the surface.

* [[The Heart]]: In Guts' new [[Five Man Band]], Casca is the one that everyone in the group is willing to protect. The whole reason why Guts formed the group in the first place was so he could have more people to watch over her and to get her safely to Elfheim.

* [[Heros Muse]]: If we looked at this from [[The Heros Journey|a Joseph Campbell perspective,]] Casca is this to Guts, as she is the one that he loves the most and is the drive of his adventure. Due to the nature of her predicament, he can't be with her until he has completed his current quest (getting to Elfhelm to find a cure to a her insanity), but she is at his side throughout his journey. And although they might not have the best relationship right now, Casca's presence serves as a reminder to Guts of what he has to gain if he completes his quest and what he doesn't want to lose.

* [[Huge Guy Tiny Girl]]: Casca is the Tiny Girl to Guts's Huge Guy, even though she is [[Hot Amazon|not actually that tiny]]. [[The Big Guy|Guts is just]] ''[[The Big Guy|really]]'' [[The Big Guy|big.]]

* [[The Lost Lenore]]: She is this to Guts big time. Casca did not die but was "lost" via a brutal [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]] scenario that ended with her being psychologically gone, [[Star Crossed Lovers|unable to remember Guts or have an actual loving relationship with him.]] Though Casca serves as Guts' primary source of [[Heartbroken Badass|anguish]] and [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|vengeance,]] she is also his one sign of hope since Guts' central drive in the story since the Retribution Arc has been to protect Casca and find a cure for her insanity.

* [[Morality Chain]]: What she is to Guts, especially when it comes to fighting off his [[Super Powered Evil Side]].

* [[Never a Self Made Woman]]: Lampshaded by Casca herself. She got where she is now because she met Griffith and was loved by Guts. Without either of them, her life is purposeless and she is nothing by herself, something she acknowledges during her heart-to-heart with Guts after he comes back from his time out.

* [[Onee Sama]]: Outside of the main commanders, the Hawks refer to Casca as their "sister."

* [[So Beautiful Its a Curse]]: A negative example. Casca is one of the two most attractive female characters in Berserk (the other being [[Gorgeous Gorgon|Slan]]). Many men have complimented Casca on her beauty - that is, while most of them are attempting to rape her. Her situation only gets worse [[The Ophelia|post-Eclipse]]. While in her care, Luca states how Casca's beauty, in conjunction with her [[Adult Child|innocent and helpless nature]], will land her into trouble with these sort of men. [[Defied Trope|To avoid this]], Luca wraps Casca's face in bandages and passes her off as her syphilis stricken sister. It works for awhile with some [[All Men Are Perverts|sex-crazed]] pagan worshipers - until they rip off her bandages.

* [[Star Crossed Lovers]]: She and Guts are bound together for life but at what price?

* [[Violently Protective Girlfriend]]: Well, it's zigzagged, since those were Casca's intentions when she and Guts became an official [[Battle Couple]] after their [[Relationship Upgrade]]. She knew very well that Guts could handle his own weight, but she still wanted to watch his back when he was in trouble. This was put to the test in the battle against Wyald, where Casca rushed to Guts' aid when he got pummeled and was ready to defend him against Wyald, though the roles ended up being reversed when [[I Have You Now My Pretty|Wyald got his hands on her.]]

Guts's current [[True Companions]] who joined him gradually during his quest. After believing that he could handle it all alone, Guts realizes that he can't protect Casca unaided, due to her mental state and their [[Star Crossed Lovers|mutual curse]]. He then warms up to his haphazard companions and learns to trust them.

Wary of Guts's [[Super Powered Evil Side]] and distrustful of Guts's ability to control it, he confronted him about this quite a few times, all of which ended up in a duel between the two in Vritannis, where he showed once more [[Awesomeness By Analysis|his superior strategy skills]]. [[Defeat Means Friendship|After being defeated]], Serpico has stopped acting hostile towards Guts and has grown to respect and appreciate him, {{spoiler|as shown as the the two worked together in sync to defeat [[The Emperor|Ganishka]]'s elderly henchman, Daiba}}.

* [[Adorkable]]: Quite so given his klutzy behavior ([[Crouching Moron Hidden Badass|though a charade]]), his [[Extreme Doormat|doormat-ish demeanor,]] and [[Bishonen]] good looks. Aw, [[Fan Nickname|Serpie!]]

* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: Towards Farnese. {{spoiler|Literally. If you don't favor [[Brother Sister Incest|the other interpretation]].}} Her wishes don't have to be reasonable, but if you go against them, you're in trouble, even if you are Guts. He also has traces of this behavior toward the younger Isidro and Schierke.

* {{spoiler|[[Brother Sister Incest]]: Likewise subverted. When he finds out, his feelings for her become more brotherly.}}

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Mainly in his fight against Guts {{spoiler|both of them}}, but again, it was against ''freakin [[Badass|G]][[BFS|u]][[Charles Atlas Superpower|t]][[One Man Army|s]]'' if you aren't an Apostle, you need ''everything'' in your side to last a few minutes against him.

* [[Crouching Moron Hidden Badass]]: His facade when he was a member of the Knights of the Holy Iron Chain.

* [[Dual Wielding]]: He usually uses both his cutlass and his dagger in battle.

* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: In terms of ability only. He's a great with thrown weapons and has taken up [[Dual Wielding]], which makes his skill set very similar to Judeau.

* [[To Be a Master]]: Isidro's whole reasoning behind following Guts around, even if his [[Step Three Profit|plan doesn't seem that practical]] at times.

* [[Armor Piercing Slap]]: Guts usually treats Puck's tantrums with about as much concern as he would a mosquito, but every now and then when Puck is genuinely mad, he'll manage to land a blow that Guts actually feels. They usually just make his eyes water, but for a little guy, that's not bad.

* [[Light Em Up]]: Puck is able to cast a dazzling spark and can sometime help in battle with this power.

* [[Not So Imaginary Friend]]: Being surrounded by [[Muggles|people]] [[Invisible to Normals|who can't see the supernatural]] (at least the non-aggressors), including Puck, a lot of people who encounter Guts wonder what the hell he is talking to.

Rash, daring but mild-mannered and [[Tall Dark and Handsome|very handsome]], he seems to show some personal interest in Farnese due to her [[Rebellious Princess|rebellious]] attitude and her reputation, despite his obvious ulterior motives.

* [[Big Ol Eyebrows]]: Very similar to Guts

* [[Tall Dark and Handsome]]

Ready to do ''anything'' [[Well Done Son Guy|to gain his father's attention and recognition]], he schemed to have [[Arranged Marriage|his sister marry his best friend]], Roderick, in order to unite both their families. {{spoiler|But he utterly [[Epic Fail|failed]] and thus, fearing his father's wrath, fled with Guts's Companions in order to escape punishment.}}

[[Dirty Coward|Cowardly]] and unusually awkward, [[Non Action Guy|he never takes part in physical fights]] and reacts rather comically to the supernatural happenings he witnesses.

** [[Non Action Guy]]

* [[Well Done Son Guy]]: His motivation.