#{No sympathy; no sympathy};Casca | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

deripmaver · 8 months

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Which is worse, rape or murder? - Or, should Casca have died during the Eclipse?

Unlike most of my meta posts, this is one I'm making as a direct critique of a specific take I've seen. It's similar to my meta about apostle Casca in that regard, where I want to look at a specific idea and why I dislike it, as opposed to wanting to explore my thoughts on an aspect of canon. To be clear, this is only something I do if I've seen a take a bunch of times, enough so I know it's not a one-off. It's also not something I do because I want to engage in discussion with the people who've said whatever the take is, it's something I do in case other people who agree with me might be interested in a meta post that's more in line with their viewpoint.

I provide this disclaimer because, as I've said a few times now, the idea that it's the better choice to have Casca die during the eclipse is one that I just really dislike, and I make that preeeeetty fuckin clear. I can't control who sees this or who comments, but I did think I should make my stance explicit.

Berserk fandom is an absolute treasure trove of bad takes about rape and sexual assault. Considering the seriousness with which the manga takes rape, despite it's sometimes quite dodgy framing and portrayal, the fact that the fandom is Like That is fully a testament to cishet men's inability to consume media without turning into a brainless amoeba of toxicity.

I have to say, though, what shocked me the most was that this particular take, that Casca should have just died during the eclipse, was not from the dudebro side of fandom ('cause if she had they couldn't make their silly little "casca enjoyed it" jokes).

I'm coming right out of the gate with my opinion, which is a firm no, Casca should not have died during the eclipse, and the story would be weaker if she had. I'm going to presume during this analysis that the people who say this assume that her death would be instead of her rape, as opposed to her being raped and then dying, which would be... Horrific. Even more horrific than canon, lol.

I do have sympathy for some of the people who wish she had died, and in a way I understand, though I vehemently disagree. Some of the posts with this POV sound almost traumatized as they proclaim I wish she would have died, it would have been better. As this is something I've only noticed in the tumblr fandom side of things, where most people are women, I think this comes from women readers feeling furious and sick about one of the most vile rape scenes out there. In some ways its intentionally vile, in others - ie how grotesquely sexualized it is - it's unintentional. Then, of course, she continues to suffer in her disabled, infantilized trauma state. I hear these readers wanting to shout at Miura that he should have just killed her off rather than force her, and us, through reading that. It would have been kinder.

I have... Far less sympathy for others. There's a side of fandom that simply does not care about Casca (in a different way than the dudebros who don't care about her despite gushing about how she's peak tomboy waifu). It's amazing the veneer of progressivism these people put on as they say that Casca should have died, because she did not contribute to the narrative before the eclipse, and she certainly hasn't after. Going to get even spicier for a second and point out fandom's long history of wanting female characters dead because they get in the way of mlm ships, and how I think this is SOMETIMES simply another manifestation of it.

To be fully fucking clear, I do NOT think that being a grffgts shipper (censored so this doesn't show up in the tag LOLLLLL) precludes being shitty about Casca. I think tumblr's demographics, and those demographics' typical shipping preferences, mean that grffgts is naturally going to dominate. By simple statistics, most of the people whose opinions I hate are going to be grffgts shippers. Same with most of the people's opinions I like on tumblr tbh. I do, however, think it's prudent to point out old school fandom misogyny, and how I personally feel it's showing up in the fandom, and also point out that it pisses me off that Casca dying during the eclipse is at all presented as the least misogynistic outcome.

I'm also going to say now that this is firmly being kept in the realm of fiction. In real life, there are horrific discussions about how being a victim of rape defiles you for life, and that it's better to die without the "shame" of being raped than live with it. While I have to be blunt it's difficult for me to separate some of the discussion of Casca dying during the eclipse from that anti-survivor bias I see in real life just because ~we live in a society~, I in general think this sentiment is coming from a place of simply analyzing, narratively, which outcome is less misogynistic given how the rape in canon is portrayed.

Would it narratively have been better for Casca to have died? What about the impact of her death versus her current storyline?

First, I think I need to outline my interpretation of the eclipse rape. I don't think that the decision to have Griffith rape Casca was Miura simply being a misogynistic cishet dude who threw in rape for the hell of it. I also don't think it's OOC. Again, there's much to critique in how it's drawn, but not in the fact that it happened. Griffith, in his moments of feeling out of control and powerless, uses sexual advances to reassert his control over the situation - see Charlotte, or the wagon scene with Casca. A distaste for sexual violence committed by his enemies doesn't mean Griffith is incapable of wielding sexual violence as a weapon himself. In real life, there's a paradox where rape committed by political or social enemies is seen as the worst crime one could ever commit, while the mundane rape committed as a consequence of patriarchy is excusable and the victims should be blamed and shamed. Did Miura have the gender studies acumen to think about that when writing? I dunno, but neither does anyone who thinks he didn't.

I also think it's supposed to establish his actions during the eclipse as fully over the moral event horizon. Without it, it's easy to ask if ultimately, Griffith's decision to sacrifice his followers to a cruel death is justified to create a perfect utopia. With it, it establishes Griffith as acting fully on cruel, malicious impulse in moments of emotional turmoil, which puts his future utopia in jeopardy. I can't be the only one who sees Falconia as a ticking time bomb. Of course, this doesn't mean he needed to rape Casca, but simply that I think it was necessary to his character to do something that crossed that moral line. He could have raped Guts I suppose. Killerbambi has entered the chat.

While I think this might sound strange, I actually think it's immensely validating to have a character who is a victim not just of rape, but of rape committed by someone she already knew. That's genuinely unique in media on the whole, which plays into that paradox I mentioned earlier - in real life, the vast majority of assaults are committed by someone the victim knew. Having the story surround the continual, horrific trauma of betrayal, of having to watch the person who hurt you move on while trauma keeps you in horrible stasis is almost so realistic it's... uncomfortable. Painful. Hard to read.

There's no greater purpose to what happened to Casca. She didn't grow from it, instead she regressed.

Her general lack of agency post-eclipse is much critiqued in the fandom and like. Fucking yeah fair LOLLLLLL BUT ALSO... But also. Fandom on the whole can be so cruel about traumatized female characters, like there's no way they can do trauma "right." In Casca's case, her lack of agency is turned into a reason she should simply have been killed off instead, as though there aren't so many survivors who, while not as literally as she does, retreat into a shell of themselves and are frozen with trauma as the world begins to pass them by. Of course, the critique would be that she's not a real person, she's a female character written in a misogynistic way by a man, but I personally think this overstates Miura's issues with his portrayal of rape. To me, it presents what they think are his biases as justification for their own biases.

Time and time again, I see survivors discuss feeling validated by Casca's trauma response after being assaulted. Even the parts of the rape scene that I vehemently dislike, such as the hyper-focus on Casca's body and the physical reactions she's having, I've seen more than one person say they felt validated because they too had an unwanted arousal response during an assault. I'll still critique the scene, but regardless of if this was Miura's intention, its impact is clear.

I'll again plug this article by Jackson P. Brown, How Berserk’s Casca challenges the myth of the “Strong Black Woman.” Just to show a quote from it:

All of the action of the story after Conviction Arc is in service of restoring Casca's mind. During Conviction Arc and after, Casca has groups of women who love and protect her, with women as her source of safety. Guts is single mindedly focused on bringing her back, putting his body on the line again and again to protect her and restore her. I wondered about including Guts here because I'm sure I'll get some anon about the Beast of Darkness, which again fair LOL. I have complicated feelings on that, but mostly I think the importance the narrative puts on her mind and her protection is touching, and I think this outweighs how the negative things apparently mean that she should have died.

Her story and trauma, despite its flaws, is shockingly realistic and validating to so many people. She's also a key narrative component post-eclipse, and not just ~for Guts' manpain~ or as a helpless plot device, her story is her own. I've written about Elaine as a character and what she represents, but in brief, Casca doesn't disappear after the eclipse. Miura wrote Elaine with these moments where Casca comes to the surface, and while I wish we had more of her POV I think you can look at how she's coping from how Elaine reacts to the world around her.

I also think it's necessary to have Casca at the Hill of Swords. There's Guts, who Griffith torments in the way only a bitter ex can, and Rickert, who doesn't know what happened the day of the eclipse, but I think Casca is the key component in that scene that cuts through all of Griffith's posturing and Guts' anger. She is there, making the real, human cost of what Griffith did during the eclipse unignorable in a way that no other character could. It's one thing for Guts to be furious with him and Rickert ignorant, it's another to have someone who loved him so innocently and dearly trembling just at the sight of him. Let's not pretend that the depth of betrayal in this scene would be the same if you swapped her for, say, Judeau.

It's funny, Miura is quoted as saying that his initial reason for keeping Casca alive was to provide Guts an ever-burning flame of vengeance, an eternal reminder of everything that he lost during the eclipse. What's wound up happening, on a meta level, is that Casca provides the reader a constant reminder of what happened during the eclipse. As more and more focus is given to her PTSD with her revival, the cruelty with which Griffith acted (and continues to act) becomes harder and harder to ignore. It becomes more difficult to push it aside as just bad, misogynistic writing.

And also, quite simply, I like narratives about trauma recovery, and therefore I'll always find Casca's story worth telling despite my frustration with a lot of it. It's absolutely wild to me that for how often I see the fandom complain about her being "fridged" they think it would have been better to see her ACTUALLY fridged, no chance of coming back at all, just dead to fuel Guts' revenge arc. Would it really be better to have her be just another dead girlfriend? Really?

That's really what it comes down to. I like Casca as a character, and I want her to have lived. The people who wish she had died, many of them simply don't like her as a character. Not all, particularly in that first group I mentioned at the start, but many. Everyone has their preferences of course, but I don't think I need to respect when someone thinks a character has so little influence on the narrative that they should have just died, especially if that character is Casca.

If Casca had died during the eclipse, it would not have been a good death. It would not have been brave, or triumphant, or worth anything for her as a character. Judeau died to protect Casca, but even his death was not brave, it was just sad. That's the whole point of the eclipse.

To have Casca die that way would be a disservice to her as a character, far moreso than to have her struggle on as a traumatized victim of sexual violence. That's genuinely what I believe.

#berserk #casca #casca berserk #berserk meta #casca the og victim of yaoi IN CANON

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conostra · 5 days

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Griffith's Relationships (2)

The White Hawk. The White Phoenix. The King of Falconia. The Savior. Femto. The Blessed King of Longing. Once, the greatest mortal to ever wield a sword. The bane of the Black Swordsman. The most beautiful man alive. Him with a stature nothing short of pure magnificence. You know him. You love to hate him. I’m talking about one of the greatest characters not just in manga, but in all of fiction: Griffith.

Griffith is one of many examples of how masterful Kentaro Miura was with a pen, be it pressing against a notebook or a panel. An incredibly written character, as complex as they can come, with some of the most complicated, deep, and tragic relationships I’ve ever seen put to any form of media.

Today, I’ll be discussing what is inarguably a core tenet of Berserk: Griffith’s relationships. With two exceptions, there is no dispute that Griffith’s relationships are not the singular most important part of the media he resides in, there is no debate over whether or not they are still crucial parts of understanding both Guts’ disposition, and the world of Berserk itself. Griffith’s different approaches to interacting with those in his vicinity warps the very world itself, and his whims shape the very nature of the conflicts the protagonist engages in.

Here, we will be discussing Griffith’s most important relationships through Berserk, how they shaped him, and what they explain about who he is and how he got to where he is now.

Part 1: The Boy, and The Hawks

Part 2: The Governor.

Part 3: The King.

Part 4: Charlotte.

Part 5: The Wings of the Hawk (1)

Part 6: The Wings of the Hawk (2)

______________________________________________________________

Part 2: The Governor

Griffith was a young boy, molested by an old man to increase the odds of a shot at his pipe dream. Later on, Griffith proves he deserves no sympathy. A larger-than-life figure, a literal living legend, born from a mountain of bones and bloodshed he could have prevented. But here, in this moment, acting out of pure desperation to succeed after a watershed moment in his time as a leader, Griffith is small. He is weak. He is taking on an impossible task, chiseling a quarry into a sculpture with nothing but a rock in his hand. To go from a peasant in a run-down town, to a noble, much less a king, would get him laughed out of any of Midland’s few places that would accept him, and perhaps fare much worse fates when presented with any of that royal blood itself. He needs any resources he can scrounge up, even more so after the devastation that the death of a young boy under his care wrought on his psyche. And so, in this moment, Griffith chooses to put his dream, and his people, over himself, allowing the most debasing act humanely possible to be performed with his body, giving up any notions of autonomy through the “allowed” desecration of his physicality, all for the sake of attempting to gain his self-efficacy back through the easing of the also grueling task that still lays before him.

This obliterated Griffith’s self-image, the very notion of himself that he carried in his own mind. He breaks down into tears the dawn of the very next day, Casca alone there to witness. While attempting to talk very seriously about the logistics of the coming struggles he must deal with, putting on the face that it is through these reasons alone he performs the acts he does, he also grips his arms, tearing so hard he rends his own flesh, blood running down into the water he was cleaning himself in below. His real mental state slips through, if only for a moment. This Griffith is not as emotionally or psychologically refined as who he will become. He looks at Casca, spotting her as she attempts to flee the scene before his breakdown begins. He asks her, quite plainly: “Am I dirty?” And, although you cannot blame Casca for how she responds, considering she is even younger than him, she does not say no. She does not respond to the question at all, letting it linger, before asking him a question of her own.

He did it for troops, he says. He did it for money, power, means through which to acquire all he desires. But he primarily did it, of course, as a shortcut. Whatever resources he gains through other means, means less resources have to be gained at the expense of his troops. Whatever gold, whatever prowess, whatever the currency, he reasons that it has a value not just worth itself, but one which includes the cost of the lives he would have to stake in order to get it through warfare. This is how Griffith, in his own way, warped by the path he has been on and the decisions that have been both made by and thrust upon him, shows his affection. Shows how valuable his troops, his people, how valuable each individual life is to him.

To the governor, Griffith was easily worth whatever measly trinkets he had to throw his way. In fact, Griffith was quite literally “worth the value of his weight in gold, an intoxicating phantom.” To this day, all this time later, that singular night of “revelry” has dominated his mind. Obsessively. Every boy now in his… care… bears resemblance. Every one of them carries his face. Every one of them wears his hair. Every spare, waking moment has been filled with nothing but the thought of how he might, one day, be lucky enough to cage the White Hawk. And one day, an opportunity arises. The Hawks, the greatest force in Midland’s army, have been sent to capture the very castle he resides in. And this lingers in his mind as the battle draws out, the chance to once again have Griffith in his palms nearly as titillating as the memory itself.

So much so, in fact, that the Governor throws the battle away. He sets outlandish rewards for an even more outlandish request: take the Hawk, and clip his wings, and carry him to me, with nary a scratch otherwise. And this costs them the battle, and may well lose them the war. And this leads to yet another face-to-face with the Hawk himself.

And those eyes.

Griffith puts on a very cold, calculating facade through the entirety of Berserk, but it is very clear that this is exactly that- a facade. When he is in a particularly expressive mood, there is one part of him that betrays his true feelings: his eyes. Eyes show the soul, or so they say, and Griffith embodies this idea to his very core. Griffith’s eyes are as much windows to his true feelings as they are windows to hell. They are known for almost literally freezing characters in place, with the pure intensity they emanate out into the world, and specifically at whoever is looking. They are his truest way to show how he really feels about any particular event, and in the case of the Governor, they hold such raw malice that it instantly makes him sweat. It also betrays that despite what he claims immediately after his eyes betray him, the governor has, indeed, occupied quite a space in Griffith’s mind since the event transpired.

Those eyes Griffith carries, which wear his passion, his fiery disposition, however he may feel and to whoever it may be directed right on his face. Those eyes, here, so full of seething disgust and rampant hatred, that even he cannot pretend so well as to feign ignorance to his feelings. The Governor notices the waves of turbulence, seeing those eyes, and asks Griffith outright if he has any hatred for him. Griffith rejects the idea, recovering from his stupor at the mere sight of the man who once violated him, and denies him. No, he says, “I do not resent you.” But once again, Griffith betrays himself.

He goes on another long tangent about the logistics behind his decision-making, and then slips again.

“However, it would be quite beyond reason to say that I’ve yearned for you.

I simply have no emotional interest in you at all. Resentment, endearment… nothing.

I just took the liberty of using you when the opportunity appeared.

You were like a stone lying by the side of the path I walk.

That… and nothing more.”

And then, when all is said and done?

Griffith stabs him in the face, citing that him being alive to spread unsightly rumors would be a risk to his dream.

Once more, Griffith engages with his emotions in an emotionally self-destructive way, and once again, his habits are reinforced. There is no blowback from doing this to the governor. There is no solace to be found in it, sure, as the effects he left on Griffith linger into perpetuity, but there is no harm in his action. Except for to himself. It allows him to continue engaging in these behaviors, to continue to shut himself off emotionally and act as though rules, and logic, and objectivity are what gear his thinking, even though he is, at his heart, an emotional man, controlled by emotional experiences. Perhaps, if not for the governor’s hanging influence over his life, he would not make the decisions he does later. Perhaps, if not for the governor’s hanging influence, he would not act the way he does. As I will discuss later, Sexuality, Affection, and Romance become both a part of Griffith's toolbelt and a looming shadow that darkens his thoughts.

Because the governor’s touch did not just poison Griffith’s body, but his mind, his heart, and the very soul of his will.

#berserk #griffith #casca #guts #governorgennon #griffith definitely took the WRONG lesson from this encounter #what it did to my GOAT is... incredibly unfortunate.#and what comfort #what solace could Casca give #as a child younger than him #less experienced #seeing her god reduced to a man?

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victimsofyaoipoll · 6 months

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I fought hard for Casca winning the bracket but I'm glad that people finally understand how intense the misogynistic, demeaning treatment she gets from the bad eggs in the berserk fandom really is. I was not kidding when I said that that tattoo of Griffith kissing her was the most sfw Eclipse tattoo only because of cropping. I wasn't kidding about the beast of darkness. I wasn't kidding about that unhinged Griffith fan trying to tell me he "didn't consent" to his heart being frozen over. And I'm glad to know that telling people about this fandom treatment towards Casca will actually illicit sympathy from them. If anyone deserves bronze it's her.

How do you berserk fans deal with this

#not poll #propaganda

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bthump · 6 months

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Hello!

I really like your blog and metas, thank you for writing about this series!

I was reading some of your posts about the tower of conviction, and though I agree Guts' attitude towards the weak hadn't changed since the black swordsman arc, I don't think the narrative was exactly condemning the refugees either. It seemed more like the arc was portraying the tragedy of looking for a savior, which it painted as natural for humanity (like Nina needing Luca, eggman wishing to have been found by the priest, even Farnese looking up to Guts). And I think Guts tries to distance himself from this particular search for connection because it's kind of the source of his own tragedy - he lost almost everything when he started viewing Griffith more as a symbol that he had to reach than a loved one.

Anyway, that was a lot of rambling 😅 just wanted to share a different view.

Just sent an ask about the tower of conviction arc and realized what a hypocrite Guts is, given his whole thing is being torn between Casca and pursuing a divine figure haha

Thank you very much!

Yeah I don't think you're wrong, that's a solid angle to view the themes of the Conviction Arc through imo. I never actually made that connection between the Conviction Arc's take on saviours and Guts pursuing revenge, but that's intriguing. I think it makes sense as a parallel to Guts pedestalizing Casca as a representative of his past, but yeah as a parallel to wanting to defeat Griffith, it's definitely something to consider.

And yeah I don't think it was like, Miura's intention to say that the refugees are all bad people who deserve to die eg, but I do think that he uses them as an example of this particular weakness/negative of humanity in a way that I find distasteful. It's a very cynical look at humanity that ends with tens of thousands of disenfranchised people dead and very little narrative sympathy for them. I wish there was more emotional and/or moral weight given to the mass death at the very least, rather than just like, Luca clucking her tongue and musing about how they didn't act to save themselves. But yeah I don't think it invalidates the whole arc and the themes Miura explores or anything like that.

Anyway yeah thanks for the ask, these are interesting thoughts to ponder!

#ask #anonymous #a #b #arc: c #lol mb i should re-read the conviction arc...#theme: humanity #theme: parallels #man i don't have a tag for this conviction arc stuff for some reason. i'd better start one #theme: torches

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alovelyburn · 1 year

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I was wondering who your top five favorite Berserk characters are and why you like them? My bad if you’ve gotten this ask before.

Not in a few years! 1-3 are easy for me, it just gets tough after that because at that point there are a lot of characters I like without any of them standing out as particularly more amazing than the others.

...this is very long.

Guts Despite I guess being more of a vocal Griffith advocate, Guts is actually my favorite character not just in Berserk but in Manga as a whole, and arguably in..... fiction. I mean I can't think of anyone I like more offhand, anyway. As for why... I'm generally fond of the kind of character that he is: a complex personality with a lot of heavy issues, rage and emotional struggles. If you look at any media with a Guts-like character I probably like them - Auron, Senji Kiyomasa, Jason Todd, whatever, they're just my kind of thing but Guts is really the granddaddy of that type and he's more nuanced and interesting than any of the other ones I've personally run across. Jason kind of skirts close sometimes but it depends on the writer... and Western franchise comics are just less consistent by nature. There's also the Punisher but he's a homicidal maniac.

So, even though I like this type in general, it's sort of rare that they're the actual protagonist right, like usually the protagonist is some teenager and the broody complicated guy is like the mentor, or a scary guy they have to deal with or, in the case of a romance usually the love interest. That doesn't stop them from being fun characters that I like, but it does tend to limit how much exploration they get.

I appreciate that he's a protagonist who isn't always a nice or admirable person - that he makes mistakes and hates himself for it, that he sees his own monstrousness and struggles to control it and sometimes gives in to it (or even makes use of it). And the coexistence of his sometimes seemingly contradictory traits - his protectiveness vs the way he hurts people, his desire to belong vs his tendency to abandon, his insecurity and his cocky swag, his uncertainty vs his steel will - also makes for a multifaceted personality. Miura said he designed characters with a mind toward what they'd bring out in Guts and as a result, Guts has a lot brought out in him, I guess. Generally speaking the more complicated a character is the more interested I'll be in them anyway. This is something that's going to come up with Griffith as well, but I also have an attraction to moral ambiguity. I genuinely believe he's capable of being just as cruel, just as monstrous, as Griffith ever was (and vice versa) - and in a lot of ways we've already seen him do that - it's just that I guess a lot of people don't register it that way because his specific priorities better align with their sympathies and also he's the protagonist so people will tend to side with him anyway. But that... doesn't change that he's a person who will use a child as monster bait, or that he sexually assaulted a woman he's supposed to be protecting, or that he let the pilgrim camps around the tower of conviction get sucked into hell in order to get his ex back. It doesn't change that he's selfish and cruel sometimes.

Traditionally I also tend to be drawn to characters who kind of defy I guess stereotypical gender...norms? Guts in a lot of ways is a classic masculine type, but I appreciate that he isn't the no-emo badass that, I guess, he gets perceived as by some people. I love that he cries more than most of the characters in the series, or that his primary motivation is heartbreak over Griffith betraying him. That his rage is more cope than anything else.

I always say he'd reconcile with Griffith if he had a chance, as we know, but if you think about it that's kind of a dick move, I mean Griffith did feed the Hawks to demons and rape Casca in front of him. But that doesn't mean I dislike that I feel he'd do it, on the contrary, that just makes his emotional workings more interesting to me because it's a little desperate and sad, and a little selfish and monstrous, and I think he'd... know that it was a dick move and that he's a little pathetic for being willing to do it. And I think he'd struggle with it and hate himself for it. But I still think he'd do it. Which is interesting to me.

I also love that he's not motivated by romance. It's a rare gem of a thing, and I mean I do obviously believe he has romantic feelings for both Casca and Griffith, but even with that being the case I don't think his romantic feelings for either are his true motivators - he's not attached to Casca just because she's the woman he was planning to be with, he's attached to her because she represents the Hawks in his head. And while his feelings for Griffith have a romantic component I do think it's just one color in a massive storm of feelings. I always think Griffith is in love with Guts, whereas Guts loves Griffith which includes also having romantic feelings for him but it's not necessarily the primary driving force in those feelings.

Also, I really love a stone-cold badass. I've never been a person who automatically gloms onto the underdog, I guess; I know a lot of people are inherently turned off by overpowered characters or characters who rarely lose or whatever, but that just doesn't bother me, I love watching a character cut through an army solo, it's just fun for me.

Along the same lines, I love that he's relentless and can't and won't be stopped. This is kind of an interesting one because I feel like for a lot of people a big chunk of his appeal is that he is always kind of struggling against larger forces and he gets fucked up and he takes hits but keeps going. Whereas for me, the part that appeals to me is just... that he keeps going, whether that means fighting and fighting and never taking a hit or taking hits and getting back up is less important to me than the fact that he's always continuing to go.

And I like the way he mouths off to gods and demons.

Griffith Even though Guts is my favorite, I do actually think Griffith is Miura's master creation. The subtlety of his characterization, the ambiguity that sometimes ripples back just enough to reveal the edge of this vast and complicated personality and the way the reader is left to connect the dots is really fascinating to me - though I do wish people were better about connecting the dots instead of drawing over them.

I say this a lot, but Griffith is the one who actually embodies the reasons I love Berserk the work itself, the world, the philosophy behind it, etc. That someone like him can break is evidence that anyone can break. That someone as good as he is can be cruel is evidence that anyone can be cruel. That someone as terrible as he is can be kind is evidence that anyone can be kind. He encompasses the breadth and depth of humanity in Berserk's world, in all its beauty and all its hideousness.

I love every Griffith, though I do think all of them are distinct in their own ways.

During the Hawks Era, there is a certain innocence to him that persists despite the things he sees and does. He is... childish, I mean honestly, when I think about Griffith in the Golden Age this is maybe the main thing that comes to mind? Because he can be the adult in the room, he can be the genius strategist, the brilliant combatant, he can be serious when he needs to but these are all roles, and when his guards are down (mostly around Guts) his reserve melts and he's expressive and silly and playful and ultimately his self-image is literally that of a barefoot child.

That kind of informs a certain earnest purity that comes through in the way he sees the world and the feelings he has about things or people, and the specifics of the ambitions he holds. Even some of the things that people use against him - the piles of corpses you could say - are things that by the standard of the day really aren't anything he needs to feel bad about, but he's tormented by them to the point where guilt ultimately becomes arguably the driving force behind his actions more than the original ambition that created those corpses to begin with.

I think in the end, what drove Hawks Griffith was still a kind of kid looking at the castle kind of idealism - the dream of self-discovery intermingled with the yearning to build the kind of world that wouldn't make people go through the things he did. The issue is that in a more realistic world, as Berserk has tended to be (magic and stuff aside), that is hard to sustain.

You know what he reminds me of? For anyone familiar with Fate/ there's a thing about Artoria/Saber where she became a martyr to her own Kingdom because she ended up living for the country and sacrificing for the country which made her increasingly dehumanized and Gilgamesh, charmer that he is, realizes she's trying to carry the world on her shoulders he basically determines that she's inevitably going to be crushed under the weight of her own self-imposed burden, which he thinks is hot. Aside from the hotness of it, that always reminded me of Hawks Griffith - the way he tried to carry the Hawks on his back and never let them see that he was imperfect, the way he lived to maintain that image so they had something to believe in, and the way it strained the man underneath.

And that! Is! FASCINATING, look as much as I love Guts for being basically made of steel, I also love Griffith for not being as mentally resilient as Guts is - in fact so many of the reasons I glommed onto Griffith are the direct opposite of reasons I love Guts - so much of Griffith's character is driven by his feelings for Guts, especially during the Golden Age, and I find that to be just as fascinating as Guts' romantic ambivalence. In so many ways Griffith seems larger than life and inhumanly perfect - invincible like he can withstand anything, but all that strength can't hold him up when his heart breaks. In the end its his fragile human heart that is his downfall every time. And the breakable interior underneath his epic hero exterior makes for an interesting cocktail.

This is getting too long so I'm going to try to be brief with Neo - obviously he embodies the larger cosmic themes of Berserk even more than Hawks Griffith does - but I also find him fascinating as the fallout from everything that went on with Hawks Griffith. Because Griffith tried so hard to be a person who lived for his dreams and wasn't battered about by his emotions but he couldn't manage it and so when he's remade in the image he desires he becomes the thing he wanted to be, and its beautiful and epic and inspiring but also kind of hollow and sad. Griffith lives in the fallout from making the wish with the consequences he didn't expect, and it's interesting because it's not wholly clear how much he realizes what he's lost - how much he feels it - until the external imposition of factors that bring his emotions back full force for those shreds of time between transformations.

Farnese She's been my third favorite for... ages. That said, she's not Guts or Griffith so I don't have as much to say about her. I just think she's an interesting character - the changes that take place in her as she tries to reinvent herself are really cool to me.

If you line the events we know up chronologically you get a pretty cohesive story about this emotionally abandoned girl who cycles through various forms of trying to locate herself and her place in the world and forming kind of frantic dependencies on various copium flavors until she is ultimately forced to face the lie that her life had been, at which point she has to start over from nothing. I think that's a cool and very human story. Also, it's interesting to me to see this person who, when we first meet her, seems so powerful (in a political sense) and determined have all those masks torn down until you see the terrified lost person inside all the trappings... and then to see her build herself back up, but in the way she chooses and through the means she desires, having finally been untethered from the obligation and demands of her family or the church.

Farnese is kind of a normal person to me, you know? Like Guts and Griffith are Epic Heroes - they're Made Differently in that heroic form. And people like Serpico are kind of skirting the edges between normal and epic - I'd call him kind of a normal hero as opposed to an epic hero and then there's Farnese who is very cool yes, but ultimately also a basically normal person. And watching her grow and adjust in this world that is deeply hostile to normal people - not just the Berserk world as a whole but the specific path that she goes onto by following Guts - is A+ entertainment for me. It also makes her admirable, because she was born to such extreme wealth and could have had such an easy life if she decided to put her tail between her legs and run home, but she didn't.

So... yeah I mean I think it's a good arc.

From here the short list was Charlotte, Serpico, Zodd and Rickert.

Charlotte I talked a lot about why I like her so much pretty recently, but to quickly recap... I enjoy watching her develop from a sheltered shy shrinking violet into someone who is, while still very gentle and quiet, far stronger and more resilient than one would have expected. I love that she has these progressive views - I assume she got most of them from her father who was quite progressive as well before he lost his damn mind, but it means she and Griffith are aligned on a lot of political views.The risks she takes to save Griffith, the way she loves him even when he's lost everything and can't talk anymore, the way she's able to fight off the King without assistance and protect herself for the year that follows... it works for me. She's a different type of character than someone like Guts or even someone like Farnese, and of course she doesn't get a lot of screentime since she's a relatively small character, but I've seen a lot of growth in her. I also think she's adorable and her romantic fantasy version of the world is kind of... just. Interesting. It's interesting when one character is in a different genre of story than everyone else, I don't know.

Rickert He stole Zodd's spot. Mostly because I always like that "last of the old Guard" type of character, and I find his emotional struggle where Griffith is concerned really interesting. In a lot of ways it echoes Guts' struggle, albeit without the UST. The bit where he smacked Griffith - that whole scene and everything leading up to and after it, is one of my favorite parts of the series - I love that despite knowing what Griffith has done, he still wavered on the edge of whether to stand with him or not. I also love that he decided not to, and that at the same time he still holds his reverence and love for the Griffith who used to be, even though he can't accept the Griffith who is. Even then after that, he's still reluctant to believe Griffith would have him killed - which I think he's right to doubt, because I'm so sure it was Locus who did that. Anyway, he doesn't do much - rather he does a fair amount but he does it in spurts and then vanishes for years at a time - but I'm always glad to see him when he shows up.

Serpico is still on the edge for me right now, but I've been warming to him more during the current reread, I guess because I had to think about him more than I normally do. So I wouldn't be shocked if he eventually overtook Charlotte or Rickert - not sure which. I just need to see more of him/think more about him to get a sense of where he falls for me.

I also think that if we get the full backstory on Skull Knight and Void there is a high chance that they'll just knock the bottom two off entirely and give me a legitimately solid Top 5 instead of, honestly, a Top 3 + extras.

#ask #hawkfawun #ariel talks about berserk

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adamwatchesmovies · 4 months

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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

With 2015's Mockingjay – Part 2 the Hunger Games, the story was decidedly over (barring a preposterous Rise of Skywalker-style resurrection or a Forever Purge-like resurgence of the titular games). The only way to keep the franchise going was with a prequel. The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes focuses on the storyline's "villain behind it all", Coriolanus Snow, when he was young and making his way to the top. If a prequel had to be made, this is the way you go. Unfortunately, the characters way back when turn out to be much less interesting than they were when we first met them and the same goes for the Games.

Eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) is determined to get his once-wealthy family out of poverty. When Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) assigns Coriolanus to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the District 12 female tribute to the annual Hunger Games, he thinks he’s positioned his student to lose the coveted Plinth Prize scholarship. Instead, Coriolanus displays a type of sympathy that’s uncommon to the people of Panem and his champion becomes a favorite among Panem's people. With the scholarship now within range, will Coriolanus’ sympathy hold up?

While the premise is intriguing, there’s an inherent problem with it. When we met Snow, he was cold, calculating and charismatic, but in a “I love to hate this guy and want to see what’s coming next” kind of way. This younger Snow is sympathetic and innocent. When loss-of-innocence storylines work, it's because a part of you hopes for a happy ending where the protagonist doesn't completely fall from grace. It isn’t a spoiler to tell you that by the time “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes ends, Coriolanus is a murderer with no desire to abolish the Hunger Games who only wants to consolidate more power. You know there's no hope and you’re waiting for the movie to catch up. Making that wait feel even longer is Coriolanus's transformation. It takes a long time, until the final act when the change is so abrupt you feel like you missed a scene.

Another flaw with the film are the titular Hunger Games. Katniss volunteered to participate in the 74th annual Hunger Games. Here, we're getting the 10th. In that gap, there have been some significant changes. Part of what makes winning the Plinth Prize scholarship difficult is that people have gotten bored of the gladiatorial bloodbath. You can see why. The arena is just an empty circle with weapons in the center. Even when the battlefield gets an impromptu facelift, it only allows the children to run and hide so the conflict can last even longer. It's nothing like the arenas we saw before, with varied landscapes and threats ranging from venomous insects to monstrous beasts, poisonous rolling mists and more.

Most disappointing about the picture is that you often see what it could've been. Tom Blyth is great, as is Rachel Zegler. There's a doomed bond that forms between them and it grabs your attention. As Snow becomes increasingly sinister, you wonder what will happen to the people he's allowed close, including his classmates and Lucy. It's a shame the film spends so much of its running time following Snow before he becomes corrupt. If the 157 minutes had leaned more towards the darker chapters of his story, we'd have a real winner.

The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is well made, the performances are solid and it has a great concept but the execution is disappointing. For what it does well, I won't say that it feels like an attempt to wring more blood from a stone but this prequel does not feel essential. When you're saying that about the fifth entry in a series, it means you can only recommend it to the most fervent fans, the kind who care more about getting more than anything else. (Theatrical version on the big screen, December 7, 2023)

#The Hunger Games The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes #The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes #The Hunger Games #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Francis Lawrence #Michael Lesslie #Michael Arndt #Tom Blyth #Rachel Zegler #Peter Dinklage #Jason Schwartzman #Hunter Schafer #Josh Andres Rivera #Viola Davis #2023 movies #2023 films

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philosophicalparadox · 1 year

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love to know more about "Lightning in the Dark" from your wips :3

I just answered an ask about this one, which you can find here:

But, i didnt want to make that post too long, so I didn't add a snippet. Thus I will put one here!

Know that this one isn't NEARLY as far along as Passions, and it's really...pretty dark overall. Soooo I went ahead and found the least grim of the scenes I have jotted down right now - it's a long scene and it's still kinda angsty-bittersweet, but it ends on a happy note:

...Griffith heard familiar footsteps approach, breaking him from his thoughts. He knew they were Guts', but the cadence was wrong somehow.

The distant sound of rain pelting against the tents outside grew more intense as the storm settled in over their heads, and settled a profound ache pounding into Griffith's knees with each fat drop. He wanted to groan in frustration and protest.

When Guts pushed open the tent with his foot, flicking heavy droplets inside, it took every fibre of his being not to - for Guts was, to Griffith's surprise, holding a very wet looking Casca in his arms.

"Sorry buddy, but Casca's gotta stay in here tonight." Guts voice didn't give him room to argue as he set her down on the edge of the table his sword was resting beside. "She's sick."

"I am not sick," Casca argued weakly. "If I was, you really think Dieter would let me in here?"

"Fine, you're woman sick. Better?" Her glare, softened by dark circles under her eyes, did the answering for her. "It's not like I can help it. It's not always this bad, but some times are worse than others." She swayed a bit on the edge, gripping the table with near-white knuckles to stabilise herself. "And I told you, I'll be fine on my own."

"Yeah right, last time this crap gave you a fever like that you hurled us both off a cliff, remember?" Guts jabbed. But there was no teeth in it. "Now take this. It's the same fever medicine Dieter gave me for Griff - potent stuff, that." Guts extended his hand, a brown, leaf-wrapped pill held delicately between his fingers. "Supposed to not upset the stomach as bad as willow."

"Good," Casca replied. "Cause I hate taking willow when I feel like this. It helps in the end, but," she shuddered in mock disgust. "It's hard stuff to keep down when you're already nauseous." She took the pill and a water flask from Guts, who turned then to Griffith.

"I know this isn't ideal," he said gently. "But this girl has a bad habit of knocking herself out, and I wanna keep an eye on her, 'kay?" Griffith replied with a suspicious, cautious side-eye. Guts heaved a sigh. This was gonna be a fun night.

_page break _

Casca began changing her clothes, faced away from the boys. Movement caught her eye and she turned slightly to find Guts had made up the backup mattress, sized for one person, beside Griffith's own, which was big enough for two. "Hope you don't mind sleeping on the outside wall," Guts said. "Griffith can't climb over both of us in case he needs to piss in the middle of the night. I've left a bit of space so you can navigate around us if you need to, and so you don't get wet if the wind soaks the wall." He stood up and approached her where she held her still wet shirt, the back of his hand finding the side of her neck. "Fever is still kinda hot. That medicine should kick in soon though." He stepped away for a moment, grabbing a linen cloth from the table. "You should wipe yourself down. You're covered in sweat and rain."

"That was the plan," Casca replied. She looked at the cloth for a long moment. She could feel Griffith glaring-but-not-glaring at her back, and wondered for a moment if it was a good idea - but she also felt terrible, and frankly didn't want to deal with that shit.

"Can you do my back?" She asked before she could stop herself. "It's just, I don't think I have the balance to try right now. My head is swimming." She tried, on purpose, to sound extra miserable in the hopes of catching Griffith's sympathy bone, but she dare not look to see if she had succeeded; besides, it wasn't like she needed to try hard. She really was dizzy as hell.

"Sure." Guts said non-chalantly, grabbing the wash bowl he had just finished filling and starting to work between Casca's shoulder blades.

There was a whine from their right.

"Oh hush you," Guts said, though his tone was more affectionate than patronising. "I didn't forget you." He looked over to see Griffith with a surprised and kind of embarrassed look on his face. Clearly he hadn't meant to make that noise. Guts could only smirk.

"I wipe you down like this every night, don't I?" Guts remarked cooly, trailing the cloth down Casca's back. "I won't forget to do it tonight just because Casca is here." She wasn't sure if he was trying to be reassuring or condescending, because to her it sounded like both.

"Don't patronize me." Griffith snapped.

"Then don't act like I should have to, and I won't." Guts sassed back, handing the cloth over to Casca. She took it before turning to look at Guts' face, which held an amused smirk. Griffith, on the other hand, was anything but amused.

"Come here," Guts said as he sat a bit away from the mattress on the floor, putting the second bowl he had collected from the table and cloth to the side, but keeping his legs open. "Dieter says it's good for you to move around a bit. You've been doing really good with it, but I can't pick you up all the time." Griffith glared at him for that last line. He seemed to sulk in his aggravation for a moment.

"Come on Mr. Moody, before the water gets any colder." Griffith continued to glare for a moment more, before rolling his eyes and breathing a sigh. Guts's charm had won over his annoyance -if only for today.

Griffith sighed again at the prospect before him. He had gotten used to rolling out of bed and crawling to the bedpan, but it didn't mean it wasn't painful on his knees - knees that already hurt with the weather. With one last glance at Casca, who watched their interaction with feigned disinterest, he resolved his stiff tendons to move.

It was all well and good, until his knees hit the carpet. He winced against the uncomfortable pressure against his kneecaps which quickly evolved into a stretching, pinching pain. He tried to shuffle through it, but after just a few tiny "steps" he felt his body involuntarily curling in on itself.

"Knees painful?" Guts asked, stretching out his arm for support. Griffith looked up at him for a moment before he nodded, reaching for Guts' arm. "That's okay," Guts reassured, leaning forward on his knees to tilt Griffith onto his haunches, hooking his hand under Griffith's knees and arms and pulling him into the space between Guts' legs in one smooth, practiced motion. "We gotta do your stretches anyway. Do you want to do them before or after the wash?" Griffith looked at him expectantly. Guts sighed. "After the wash. I don't even know why I ask."

Casca looked on with a mixture of fascination and apprehension. Was this what it was like when Guts was taking care of him? She had hardly been allowed in here since he woke up from his coma, so on one hand it was interesting to see what exactly Guts did. On the other hand, she really hadn't expected the...casual-ness? The coolness? Of Guts behavior. Before, she felt like he was forcing himself to be calm and cool for Griffith's sake, which was fine - but now didn't feel forced, exactly, but it did feel practiced. This entire interaction did. Which kind of surprised and simultaneously alarmed Casca for some reason. Not because it was a bad thing, exactly, but more that this wasn't a side of Guts she was used to seeing.

"Up" Guts ordered softly, and Griffith obeyed without fuss, raising his arms so Guts could remove his shirt. "Shit." Guts muttered, before he glanced toward Casca a little unsurely. "Uh, Casca, while you're there, could you grab his night shirt from that box on the table? I always seem to forget that damn thing." Casca blinked in response. "Sure," she replied.

Removing the gown from the box, she noticed how incredibly soft it was. "Is this Mueslin?" She asked incredulously.

"Yep. Dieter kept a few like that, since cotton doesnt stick the way linen does. Im not sure what purpose such a thin cloth is for the sick - it sure the hell ain't for keeping them warm," Guts replied as he took the folded cloth from her and set it on his thigh. "But Deiter says it's supposed to do something about night sweats and keeping oozy things dry, or something. Plus it's pretty easy to clean, I guess." He then turned his attention back to Griffith, who was beginning to lean on Guts' shoulder. Casca tried not to look too hard at his scars, but the only other thing to focus on was the strange burning feeling that was growing in her gut - something that resembled jealousy, she noted with surprise.

She watched, distantly transfixed, as Guts methodically wiped Griffith down, only acknowledging Casca to tell her to look away when he needed to completely undress him to clean between his thighs, a thought which had Casca grateful that neither of them could see her face.

When Guts sounded the all-clear, though, he wasn't fully done doing...implicating things. Griffith had his gown on, which not only didn't hide many things, between his semi-open thighs, but Guts had moved on to helping him stretch and massage said thighs, which was...too much, for her.

"I-I'll just...stay here...until you're all done." Casca replied, hoping her high octave voice didn't give away the fire she felt coloring her face. Guts quirked his brow at her, but chalked it up to a growing list woman-things he didn't understand.

Once there really was an all clear, and Guts had Griffith and him tucked into bed, Guts invited her over. "I put down a few extra cloths, in case you...uh, Y'know..." It was Guts' turn to be embarrassed by the implications. Nonetheless, Casca was grateful. Washing blood out of mattresses was a pain, and she sure the hell was not about to let a man do that kind of thing for her.

"Thanks," she added as she crawled under the, thankfully, big hide blanket behind Guts. It was the first time Casca really noticed he had pressed the mattresses together to make one really big one, rather than have her sleep alone. The thought made her smile as she tucked in for the night.

Guts - and Guts alone, thankfully - heard Griffith's teeth click when he felt and heard Casca shifting around behind them. Casca did, however, hear Guts reprimand him. "Be nice," Guts warned. "There's a reason I'm sleeping between you two, so please don't carve me up over it, 'kay?" A grumbled huff came from Griffith, and Casca was a little shocked by how jealous and, frankly, petulant he seemed. 'Does he really dislike me so much? Or is this all because he wants Guts to himself?' Either situation seemed likely for him at this point - besides, it only went to prove how much Guts was not kidding about Griffith being a "moody pain in his ass sometimes" - a phrase she wouldn't have believed if you'd applied it to Griffith even a year ago.

"Lets just try and get some shut-eye, ok?"

Casca felt the air lose its static as they both quieted down and their breathing synchronised. She felt the dregs of the rain pulling down her mood sharply -or maybe it was her menarchy, or the situation just now. She didn't know, but a wave of melancholy swept her into near tears on the turn of a heel, and suddenly she felt very upset about the fact, of all things, that Guts had turned his back to her in favor of holding Griffith. She knew he didn't mean anything by it - but her heart said things her mind wasn't agreeing with right now, and it stung a bit that she wasn't getting cuddled when she felt like shit.

As if sensing her distress, a hand appeared, reaching for her own - but it wasn't the hand she was expecting. No, this hand was familiarly small and scarred. She wasn't sure it was on purpose until he actively grabbed at her fingers, clutching them with what awkward coordination he had.

She wasn't sure if it was an apology or an attempt at comfort, but she took it to mean both things. She curled into Guts back and squeezed Griffith's hand slightly; she smiled when he squeezed them back.

Huzzah, the only happy scene I have written down RN. Feel free to ask about anything else, anon! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to post this draft. :)

#berserk #berserk fanfic #Lightning in the Dark #recovery au ish #griffguts #griffgutsca #ask game

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nighttbound · 2 years

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“Aw, did your mommy sew that for you?”

“--Well tell your mommy she can’t can’t close a stitch to save her goddamn life!”

#I NEED TO MAKE MORE ANGRY CASCA ICONS #the thing is he'll be angry and he'll STILL BE SMILING WIDE SOMETIMES #AND ITS HORRIFYING #{No sympathy; no sympathy};Casca #;open

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translationandbetrayals · 1 year

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My top 5 villains in manga

Even though this is my opinion, it’s based on the impact these characters have in their story, and how they also are used for the main protagonist’s development. Of course, it is still important their own development and complexity, so it’s not only just being a bad guy, but it’s also their thoughts, their ideals, their actions. Making a good villain isn’t easy task, so that’s the reason why I think that a good villain always makes a good story. Here are my favorite villains, or antagonists.

5. Kira Yoshikage/Jojos part 4

Honestly, this place is arguable, but Kira has something special. Diamond is Unbreakable at the first half of the story, looks like a slice of life, where villains have little or no impact at all. Even though manga and anime are different, in the anime you start knowing him, while in the manga is introduced very later, as it wasn’t planned.

When he is introduced, we see a guy who wants to live a peaceful life, but he makes horrible things in such a cold-blooded way. The spectators have no sympathy for him, it’s very difficult to see him as a charming guy, because he is emotionless, is an awkward man. We understand this guy is a sociopath, and he will have no remorse and won’t hesitate in killing someone who he sees as an obstacle. When he chases Shigechi, and kills him by his stand Killer Queen, we understand why he is so fearful, his methods are relentless and merciless, and leaves no clues because everything disappears of the existence.

His determination and extreme luck, makes him more detestable to watch, as everything turns on his favor. However, despite being pretty smart, his own confidence made the Bites The Dust plan to not work, due to his narcissist personality, so the main protagonist and the group corners him and finally beat him.

The second half of the story is all about Kira, and holy heck, he really makes DIU really interesting and fun to watch, he “carried” the whole part 4.

4. Griffith/Berserk

The favorite of a lot of people, and yes, it’s an incredible character because of his ideals and determination, and his complexity makes him an incredible leader. However, Griffith is special because he was forced to be a villain (or always was?).

Griffith has an incredible charisma, being the leader of the group and recruiting Guts, and being very close friends. Even though Griffith has a well fit personality for a villain, he starts being a good character, a character we feel sympathy for, and wish he doesn’t suffer or die. However, the story gives us clues that he will betray all the group, with no behaviours indicating that. In the eclipse, that betrayal finally happens, Griffith sacrifice all the Band of the Falcon because he actually has no option, the prophecy and the destiny claimed he is going to become Femto, and he let it happen, taking the easy way out. This amazing arc creates Femto and destroys the humanity left in Griffith. The synergy between Guts and Griffith before and after this arc, it’s incredible, and makes Guts development to be brutal.

Griffith/Femto’s actions since the eclipse are merciless and not nice to watch for the spectators (Casca scene), so after watching human’s worst part through the vision the Hand of God lend him, he became the worst of mankind.

I think Griffith’s analysis should be extensive, but the Eclipse Arc defines the whole picture of Berserk and their characters. Griffith is an incredible villain, but he was very weak to not become the villain, and Guts in the other hand, has done the impossible to challenge his fate and not become the villain to destroy evil.

3. Satō/Ajin

Perhaps the most underrated villain I’ve seen, in one of the most underrated shonens. The villain determination for their goal, it’s something the spectators will always enjoy watching, because it proves they have a great personality, and Sato has perhaps one of the most enjoyable personalities I have ever seen.

I find amazing when characters have an equal power, but someone use it as it's maximum potential. Satou is one of them, proving he is a very smart character. Taking the ideas he had for the ghost, it is mind blowing, if you think you have seen a character willing to do everything to do what they want, Satou probably will have more determination than him.

When he threats to take the nation, no one was aware of what he can do, no one could predict how he would do it. I won’t spoil it, because Satou is one of those characters is better to watch rather than explain, because he is like the Joker in the way that he enjoys what he does and will take everything just for fun.

2. Friend/20th century boys

Friend is a special villain, because you know that here, the character beyond the mask, it’s pretty forgettable, from the other villains mentioned here, it is the least interesting. However, Friend must be understood as a concept rather than a character, is what it represents.

The beginning of the story we are given a background from a cult with a symbol, that symbol belong to the protagonist childhood and his friends from that time, and created a prophecy book, so the villain was part of that group, and we must figure out who is.

Friend was made to accomplish all the prophecies of that book they made when kids, like if it was a game that became real. It starts simple, a small cult, with a unique and noticeable symbol. However, Friend and his charisma and his way of planning things, everything turns on his favor, and the world is dominated by him. So, it’s not the character itself, but the impact it makes on the story, and how invincible, nearly a god (there is an incredible scene, the best one so far, where he is portrayed as a god, and the own characters feel it, and it’s very well done) he becomes. He could easily be the best villain of all times, only if the characters who portrayed him were more interesting, because no one is at the level of the next one.

1. Johan/Monster

I love how Naoki Urasawa not only made three of the best seinen out there, but also the best two villains I have ever seen. The monster without name is, perhaps, the most complex character too.

A man is evil since born? or society corrupts you bad enough to turn you evil? Monster tries not to directly answer it, but to give you an understanding of how people are influenced by bad people, and how those bad people were influenced by other bad people. Its not evil itself, but rather how people fight against those amoral temptations. That’s what we see with the synergy of Johan and the main protagonist, Tenma.

Johan was born in a context without love (in psychology and also in the series, it is mentioned that this is a crucial factor for a person to be able to love, to have a good development and be a good person), so he was damaged since the beginning, he was a victim of a cruel experiment, just to later be part of another cruel experiment. His infancy was marked by those experiments, where he was formed to be the next Hitler, but the charisma he had, and the evil was beyond the control of the experimenters. Everyone failed Johan, except for Tenma, when he saved him, so the journey of the story begins.

From all the analysis that Johan can offer, I like it more in a psychological way rather than metaphorically (the Anti-Christ), even though Urasawa’s works are pretty metaphoric. Johan is, properly speaking, a sociopath. He feels no guilt, no remorse in manipulating people or killing them. He tries to forge an identity for himself, but he can’t find it, he just keeps seeing the world in a nihilist way after the discoveries he knows in the progression of the story, so he keeps a very good development as well. It’s because in the lack of a name, a lack of identity, he can’t enjoy the world as he understands it, he has no goals other than that, because he was born without one. In this progress, we see Johan also tries to give everyone his own ideals, to prove his philosophy is right, such as Tenma’s case, where he thinks every life is worth saving, while Johan says we are all different, except when we are dead.

Such as Griffith, the analysis could be more extensive, and with these two characters, the interpretation of their ideals, their philosophy, their actions, could depend on every spectator, so not always the interpretation of these villains will be equal. In Johan case, it’s more difficult, because the manga tries to give him a context full of mystery, full of ambiguous interpretation (like the end).

The anime of Monster will be available in Netflix on January 1st, it will be in good quality, please enjoy.

-Alfredo Salas

#Anime #Manga #essay

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sepulchrypha · 2 years

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NO SYMPATHY, NO SYMPATHY.

>> Villain Casca verse that I definitely want to explore more.

#original character #surreal #cartoon #casca rousseau #big bloody mess

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cosmicjoke · 2 years

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Understanding Griffith

I swear I’m not turning my blog into a “Berserk” blog, lol, but there’s just a few other thoughts I want to put down here, because I’ve been thinking about it over the last 24 hours or so, since finishing the manga up to it’s last, published chapter. Again, these are thoughts about Griffith and Guts, and particularly, I want to discuss the chapters following Griffith’s rescue from Windham Castle, his reactions during the battle against the Black Dog Knights, and the chapter “Armor to the Heart”, because honestly, I found these to be some of the most telling, and moving, moments of the entire story.

I’ve already noticed a tendency in the fandom to simply label Griffith as an entirely evil person, and a tendency to want to claim he always was from the start, but I don’t agree with that at all.

The thing that not many seem to want to discuss is how difficult it was to actually get Griffith to make the choice he did, in the end, to strip himself of his humanity and become a demon by sacrificing his comrades, etc... He needed to be heavily manipulated into making that decision, his destiny being manipulated by the Idea of Evil from before his birth, so that he would nearly gain everything, only to then lose it all and in the most humiliating and devastating way possible. Griffith is subjected to brutal torture for the period of an entire year before Guts and the Band of the Hawk come to his rescue, and in that year, he loses everything. His physical beauty and ability, his status, his power, the respect and regard and admiration of his comrades. He gleans, during the rescue, that Guts and Casca have fallen in love and are now together, and since he doesn’t know that Guts was unaware for that entire year of Griffith’s imprisonment, he can only assume that the two of them developed this relationship while he sat rotting in a torture chamber. This of course gives birth to negative emotions in Griffith regarding the two of them, anger, jealousy, a sense of betrayal, etc... From Griffith’s perspective, and with his limited knowledge, he thinks Guts and Casca abandoned him to be ruined physically while enjoying their new found romance. This, piled on top of Griffith’s sense of betrayal from Guts for abandoning him and the Band of the Hawk in the first place, which was the catalyst for Griffith’s spiral into self-destruction.

But during their escape and during the battle, specifically, against Wyald, we see Griffith display open concern, care, fear, affection and sympathy for both Guts and Casca. The struggle between these emotions, those positive and negative, is evident, but I think maybe the true tragedy of it all is that, for a time during this stretch in the story, it’s Griffith’s positive feelings for them which start to win out. During their fight in the sewers with the Bakiraka, Griffith shows open regret and sympathy for Charlotte after she blocks him from being hit with a poisoned dart, and looks as her with honest sorrow as she’s pulled away to be taken back to Windham, though he’s unable to speak. When Guts is fighting Wyald, Griffith is nakedly concerned for him, openly frustrated at his own inability to help in the battle, grinding his teeth so hard together that he makes his gums bleed. When Casca is about to be raped by Wyald, Griffith tries to break free from his caretakers to run to her aid. He isn’t able to because he can’t even stand on his own. He looks at Casca with genuine sympathy as she cries over Guts’ predicament. His expression is one of open joy and wonderment when Guts shows himself to still be alive, and appears to have defeated Wyald, etc... These are all real, genuine emotions from Griffith. This is proof, beyond doubt, that he really did care deeply for both Guts and Casca alike.

And then, in what I still think is one of the most moving and heartbreaking moments of the entire series, there’s the scene between Guts and Griffith in the covered wagon, after the battle, when Guts is remembering their battle against Zodd. Griffith looks at Guts with such fondness in one panel, such real affection, and it’s incredibly poignant. And, of course, there’s the moment when Griffith indicates to Guts his wish to wear his old armor. I think the full page panel of Guts sitting at Griffith’s back, buckling his armor onto him, is one of the most moving and heartbreaking images of the entire series. It encapsulates their entire friendship, and the depth of it. It’s such an incredibly intimate, private, and tragic moment, seeing Griffith reduced to this, but finding in Guts a friend who tries as best he can to preserve for Griffith what little pride he has left, by allowing him this moment of fantasy, of wearing his armor and pretending it might still be this way for him in the future, telling him, as Griffith tries and fails to draw his sword, that he’ll be wielding it again in no time, even as he knows full well he’ll never hold a sword again. The affection between these two, in this scene, is so real, and it’s that realness of affection, that true bond and love, that makes everything that happens after so horribly tragic.

It was only after Wyald appears again and puts Griffith through the horrific humiliation of being stripped naked in front of all his comrades and having the true extent of his invalidity shown to them, and after he overhears Guts and Casca in conversation, hears how much they now pity him, where once they both admired him more greatly than anyone, that his negative emotions regarding Guts and Casca begin to really take shape, when he begins to really unravel and grasp desperately again for his lost dream.

But even then, Griffith didn’t choose to sacrifice his comrades out of hatred for Guts and Casca, like I see some people try to claim. He chose to sacrifice them out of desperation, misguided beliefs about himself, and the bleak reality of his own future as a total invalid. During the Eclipse, when everyone is brought into the Abyss, we see that Griffith still cares for Guts, specifically, even after what happens with Wyald, when he tries to hold onto him as they’re lifted into the air on the giant hand. Griffith tries so hard to keep hold of Guts, to keep him from falling to his death, that his own arm begins to tear free from his body, and it’s Guts who lets him go to stop that from happening. So even at this point, Griffith is resisting his anger and resentment towards Guts, and his affection and love for him is still dominate. And even in this weakened, wretched, and ruined condition, Griffith had to be heavily manipulated by Ulik and the other members of the God Hand into making the choice he did, convinced by them that he had always been a bad person, and that it would do no one any good for him to go on pretending otherwise. He was literally steered by the Idea of Evil, through every single event in his life, from birth to the Eclipse, to end up there in the Abyss, to have that specific conversation. He was given everything to succeed, and then had all of it taken away, was mentally and physically broken down, shown hallucinations, and then, in the most vulnerable condition possible, convinced of his own evil and the fruitlessness of resisting his fate. This is a deep seeded fear of Griffith’s that the God Hand purposefully targets and uses against him to prod him toward making the decision he does. Griffith’s fear of his own evilness is shown earlier in the story more than once, when he asks Guts if he thinks he’s a cruel man, and before that, when he sits over the body of that boy who died in battle and asks Casca if he died for his dream. This latter incident so deeply affects Griffith, that he later allows a wealthy pedophile to sleep with him as a means of gaining funds in a way other than battle. He does this specifically in order to spare the lives of his comrades. He’s questioning the morality of himself and his dream, and struggling terribly with a sense of guilt and fear over the destruction brought about by following his dream. This fear is a point of deep vulnerability for Griffith, purposefully preyed upon by the God Hand and the Idea of Evil to manipulate him into sacrificing his comrades. They tell him to give up now would do none of the people that already died for his dream any good, because then they will have died for nothing. He gave in because he saw for himself only overwhelming misery and despair in his future, and because he was manipulated into believing the goodness in him never existed, while simultaneously having his sense of regret and remorse over others dying for his dream used as a weapon against him (which in itself proves the lie of the God Hands claim of Griffith never having good in him). If that’s not the definition of tragic, I don’t know what is.

People like to point to the horrific acts Griffith engaged in after he becomes Femto as proof of his always having been evil, or to say his hatred and jealousy and bitterness towards Guts and Casca was always more powerful than his love and affection. They point to him raping Casca in front of Guts, him telling Guts he feels nothing over the lives of his sacrificed comrades after coming back as the Hawk of Light as proof of this. But what people persistently fail to mention in this assessment is that those things were said and done only AFTER Griffith had been stripped of all his humanity. Femto is no longer Griffith in possession of all that made him who he was. He’s a demon, in possession of Griffith’s memories, and lacking totally all of Griffith’s positive human emotion. It was only after he became a demon and was stripped of his humanity that those negative feelings that had begun to develop in him really took over, and, really, were the only feelings left in him, and that’s what leads him to commit such horrific acts. What he does as Femto isn’t something he would have done had he still really been who he was as a man. I think this is an important distinction to make, one which I see few people actually acknowledge, sadly.

I think it’s almost important to follow the actual timeline here. Guts is 14 when he first meets Griffith, and states that Griffith is just about the same age as him. By the time Guts leaves the Band of the Hawk, three years have passed, which would make both of them 17 years old. Griffith is just about 18 years old when the Eclipse happens. He’s 17 years old when he’s being brutally tortured in Windham Castle. He’s, essentially, a child. I think this is also really important to acknowledge. He isn’t a fully mature man.

Anyway, I just think it’s important and vital to understanding the story, and particularly the dynamic between Griffith and Guts, to acknowledge and understand all of this, and I just wanted to get it out there.

#Berserk #Guts #Griffith

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