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alovelyburn · 2 years

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Rambles about the Golden Age Part 14

Today we’re covering the rescue through the death of Wyald. Making some progress!

This whole part is heartbreaking, I’m just saying. And the next one is also going to be pretty depressing!

So...

1. I don’t quite remember much about the first time I read Berserk, but what I do remember is from this point forward I probably cried a hundred times. Just seeing him in that state -- the entire post-rescue Golden Age, to be honest, was incredibly difficult to read and I think this is the first reread I’ve done where I didn’t feel sort of tempted to skip it.

All that said, one of the frustrating things about this whole period is that Griffith is kept internally silent (and obviously externally silent as well). I think this actually has a pretty powerful effect fro me as a reader - he is viewed from the outside, so we are as unclear about where his head is and what he wants or thinks as anyone else. But I do think he is readable from visual cues and....

...ok one thing I keep seeing is that Griffith is a hateful shell of his former self and despises Guts because he blames him for the imprisonment. The thing is, that’s not untrue, right? At least not at first. It is a fact that he went on at some length about the conflict in his heart about Guts, and the list is quite long - malice, friendship, jealousy, futility, tenderness, sorrow, pain, hunger. All the feelings one gets when they are deeply hurt by someone they love. And, of course....

The first thing he does when he sees Guts is try to strangle the life out of him. There’s that malice and pain. But the thing is, if you want to say that he hates Guts based on that, then you have to take the whole scene into account as well as their history. Not that I approve of people trying to strangle each other, but from Griffith’s perspective he was extremely close to and reliant on Guts - the only person he loves and trusts - and then abandoned out of nowhere with no explanation. He thinks Guts is disgusted by him and that pain drove him into a mindset where he burned his whole life down.

Again, not okay to strangle people, but that’s the logic, right? Which is why it’s important that when he sees Guts crying for him, when Guts grieves for him...

...all the malice and anger dissipate and what does he do? He tries to comfort Guts by resting his hand on Guts’ just like he did for Casca so many times. It’s that easy. All he needed was to know Guts didnt hate him. Basically.

And not to get ahead of myself, but from this point until the last moments before the Eclipse, he really isnt hateful or angry, just... sad but otherwise all right. Anyway we’ll get to that later. Now.

2. A lot’s been said about this torturer and specifically what he did to Griffith. Because that line about being husband and wife is pretty suggestive, not to ,mention hes literally licking Griffith’s tongue here. Also he is referred to as a pervert and is displayed in the guidebook alongside Donovan.

I have no idea whether he sexually abused Griffith directly, but I do think it’s fairly obvious that it was a sexual experience for the torturer, it’s just a question of whether it was the torture alone that he got off on or if he did other things too. I don’t know, and other than saying this guy is a complete idiot who gets a somewhat quicker death than he actually deserves when Guts runs him through and throws him into the pit.

And there’s Judeau recognizing that Casca is in extreme danger of falling back into her old pattern with Griffith.

3. I love watching Guts work. So does Griffith, he always did - after all, it was seeing him chop Bazuso up that made him want Guts to begin with. So what’s with the stare... well I aside from how watching Guts makes him feel on a personal level, I imagine it’s also incredibly difficult to watch since he can’t do anything to help. I imagine some combination of resentment, lust, admiration, and frustration is in play here.

4. There’s a certain irony to the King whining that Griffith should have rotted away by now when he’s the one who insisted he live for a year. He has no one to blame for all this but himself - Charlotte wouldn’t have cut him off if he hadn’t sexually assaulted her and locked the man she loves in a dungeon to be dismantled. And insisting on killing him sure isn’t going to help his case with her.

5. One of the theories I see tossed around a lot is that Griffith is angry because Guts took his most loyal soldier (Casca) and that’s his problem. ...that’s silly. There’s literally no point to having soldiers now and he’s not an idiot, he knows that. And he never had that much interest in Casca anyway - that always strikes me as a way to No Homo a way around what IMO is fairly obvious - he’s jealous because he can tell Casca and Guts have something going on and he’s in love with Guts. The first of the two panels on the second row establishes the scene he’s seeing and the second establishes what he’s focused on, which is Guts (drawn in a sensual way). And that look in his eyes, that’s almost always shown when he’s looking at Gut - he’s the only person Griffith consistently has that reaction to.

6. She’s a little in denial here, but at the same time I’ve always liked that his physical condition didn’t repulse her or make her turn away from him. I don’t think Charlotte gets enough credit for being strong (even if quietly so) and loyal even in the face the greatest tests.

Right down to the point where she nearly dies to protect him.

But I can’t imagine how terrifying it would be to the Hawks here to have potentially gotten Charlotte killed.

How is that even an exchange? Anyway.

So later we find out that what he says to her is “I’ll come back for you.” I will say right now that I don’t think he believes that for a second. He’s just trying to get her to leave so that she won’t die.

Obviously there’s less to say about battle scenes, but I do have a couple of comments:

7. There’s a thing that happens with the Hawks and Griffith later on that I find quite disturbing. Just the way they talk about him and treat him in general after he comes out of that dungeon. And this page is kind of noteworthy toward that issue because the thing is...

One of the reasons watching him in this state is so hard to see is that his mind is still completely intact. He’s just as brilliant, just as quick thinking, just as observant - and this isn’t news, I mean his body was savaged not his mind.

But the way Guts (and Casca) express surprise that he was the one who tipped Pippin off to the crack in the ceiling is a bit of a warning sign for me that even though his mind is there, not everyone is going to think about that - they may even assume otherwise.

8. This whole scene - the quiet before the storm. I think it’s incredibly important to establishing a few things: first of all, the fact that Casca so easily falls back into Griffith’s grip, which Guts does see:

And just like he suspected he would, he really just accepts it. This tendency he has to assume that Casca would just pick Griffith over him every time, which is honestly correct (at least until the Eclipse) ends up being a sore spot for him even post-Eclipse - it’s played into when she runs to Griffith on the Hill of Swords, for example. It helps that his initial belief, going back to what he said to Judeau before he left the Hawks, was that Griffith and Casca were sort of... supposed to be together. And now that his dream is gone and he’s no longer unconquerable, it becomes evident that Casca is just as wrapped up in Griffith as she ever was - and just as wrapped up in Griffith as Guts is, himself.

The other thing, though, is how quiet and peaceful and mild Griffith is. I’m a little baffled by people who think he spent this whole time fuming and plotting revenge on Guts or whatever - he’s... okay? He’s at peace. I’m not saying he’s happy, of course he can’t be overwhelmed with happiness given what he’s lost. But he’s not.... angry, he’s not hateful. He rests quietly, smiles as the innkeeper who helps them, and ultimately as they leave Windham, he lets go of those flowers, and his dreams, seemingly forever, as the castle he reached for fades in the distance.

I don’t believe he’s bitter and resentful. I do think he feels the loss of what he was and what he hoped to achieve, but for the moment at least he seems... at peace?

It’s predictable that what shakes him out of that is of course, danger to Guts. Because when Guts is going off on Wyald, you get one of the most heartbreaking moments in the series:

The last time Guts fought an Apostle (not that they know that’s what they are), he and Griffith both nearly died. Watching Guts fight Wyald, Griffith is visibly upset upfront, and then when he’s been hidden in a cave to protect him, he clearly wants to go help Guts, but he can’t. And once Wyald unleashes his apostle form it just gets worse:

As he has his standard quiet panic attacks and ultimately physically struggles to go and help the obviously in danger of dying Guts. He clenches his teeth so hard he literally bleeds.

And anyone who thinks he didn't care about Casca try to explain to me why he’s desperately trying to go to her when Wyald assaults her.

Anyway, love seeing Guts basically learn on the spot how to fight Apostles - knowledge that comes in great handy for literally the rest of his life to date.

9. Casca’s continued tug of war between Guts and Griffith is pretty interesting - I’m not sure if you could say her interest in Griffith is romantic as such at this point - between her not-a-relationship (per Miura lol) with Guts and Griffith’s current condition, she does seem to have transitioned into a caretaker mode. Which isn’t to say the feelings aren’t still in there, but they’ve gone latent I guess since that’s not what Griffith needs right now.

In fact, that kind of recalls my comment on the cave scene waaaaaay back when - though she was in love with Griffith ultimately I do think what Casca wanted most was to be able to give him what he needed the way he had done for her. Which means his current state ends up dragging her old feelings back up because now he finally does need her.

That said, she ping pongs a lot between uncertainty and commitment. After starting to drift away from Guts throughout the rescue and progressively falling back into her old pattern of circling Griffith like a satellite, seeing Guts in such danger pulls her out of it and drops her back where she was when they were first making promises to each other, and it’s evident in how coupley they act in this moment and in the wagon bandaging scene - all while Griffith continues to take mental notes on that relationship.

...honestly I do kind of struggle with the insensitivity of doing all these things in front of Griffith’s face considering how much he’s been through. But admittedly I dont think she could help it.

I had a whole section here about the Holy See and Casca’s name but eh, I guess I’ll do that next time. Anyway...

10. This is one of my favorite scenes in the entire manga, but also fuck this scene it’s too heartbreaking. I honestly don’t understand how anyone perceives him as a hateful scheming evil monster in this period of his life. To me, he is just... fragile. Happy to be out of the dungeon, but heartbroken at what it cost. Happy to see Guts again, but unwilling to let himself be seen by him. Guts says he can take the mask off because its only them, but of course I doubt there’s anyone in the world he wants to see him in tatters less than Guts.... because of his pride, and because of his love.

This scene has that Grizabella in Memory feeling - the once beautiful one who has fallen and is reminding themselves of who they were before. But make no mistake, Griffith is very aware that he can’t recover from this. No matter how much Guts tries to reassure him...

He knows what’s happening. I mean for one thing he was the one there when it happened. Also all of his studies, all those things he learned in his quest to be great, would have told him what was done to him isn’t recoverable.

It’s also incredibly sad to me that it took this to let Guts talk to Griffith the way he used to - as a person - and to see him on the ground instead of on a pedestal. The way he talks to Griffith is just. Almost the way I imagine they were before Promrose got Guts’ head screwed on backwards.

It’s sad and wistful but... fond? I don’t know, it’s just a sad, beautiful scene between two people who love each other immensely however you care to define that.

AND THEN WYALD COMES BACK TO MESS IT UP HAHAA.

So, I’m actually kind of annoyed that Wyald gets cut out of adaptations because I do think it’s a crucial part of the story - I get that he’s kinda nasty and censor unfriendly, but he serves two major purposes, I think.

First, he is the first apostle Guts defeats, and fighting him is really what teaches Guts how to fight and defeat apostles. Without this scene, the leap from getting his butt handed to him quick like a fast food order to fighting apostles in the eclipse or killing them outright in the black swordsman era seems kind of random.

Second, and perhaps even more important, it serves to point out That Thing that’s been bothering me. The thing that always bothers me when I think about post-torture Griffith and his relationship with the Hawks, but honestly also pre-torture Griffith and the Hawks, namely they do not treat or see him as human. Wyald calls them out on seeing him as their precious thing and that’s what he is. They didn’t even rescue him just to rescue him, they did it so that he could save them from their life as bandits by building them back up. And Miura went out of his way to have them say that in the leadup to his rescue, and then have Wyald here point to it directly.

Basically my feeling is that the Hawks loved and respected him but as the White Hawk, rather than as Griffith. And this is partially something he did to himself right, because he constructed the image of a perfect leader - a symbol, which is what he is to a LOT of people from the commoners who take pride in seeing one of them rise to the nobles who saw him as evidence of a dangerous incursion on their dominance. To the Hawks, he was superhuman - Casca describes the way they saw him - the way she saw him herself before she had a reality check through the Gennon situation: a miracle. He was able to take a bunch of people who are ultimately fairly ordinary and turn them into something special and they loved him for that but of course they don’t know him as a person. In that sense they loved him for what he is able to do for them and how he reflects on them rather than who he is, because they don’t know him.

That caused immense pressure even when he was still in his prime, but because Griffith is a strong person -- because he forces himself to be strong -- he was able to carry that on his back without showing the strain. But now, because he has lost his gleam and can no longer bring them glory or help them rebuild the way they assumed he would, he loses his superhuman glow... but he’s still not a person to them. He is a doll. And that plays out very distinctly in the next bit of this arc - which I will get to another day - when they discuss where to put him and who should watch him like they’re settling custody of their pet dog or their stamp collection or something.

Anyway I’ve talked about this before both here and on the g/g server, and I would have thought maybe I was reading too much into it, except Wyald literally calls them out on it, so.

I wish these things didn’t have the white bar in the center because this is a phenomenal double page spread... and a fantastic turn of events. Because after chapter upon chapter of Guts and the Hawks in general barely managing to scrape by and survive Wyald, when Zodd shows up it’s immediately evident that, in the scale of things, Wyald is a relative small fry vs. apostles like Zodd. Not just because he;s just physically much larger than Wyald but because of how the Hawks react to Zodd and the way Wyald reacts to Zodd.

It will also always be interesting to me that Zodd seems to act like an agent of the Godhand like he’s Gmork or something.

And I wonder what would happen if Wyald HAD killed Griffith there. Would a secondary choice get the call instead? Or is it impossible for Wyald to kill him... in the sense that the world/idea of evil has spun the story and Griffith doesn’t die here in that story?

Finally, Wyald’s true form, the broken old man... the guide book implied that his sacrifice was a lover, so i wonder if he sacrificed his wife or something. I guess we’ll never know.

#berserk #rambles about berserk #berserk meta

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