#vritannis

[mugiwara-shuenobi]

#berserk #vritannis #kushan #kentaro miura

[cacaitos]

also the schierke side of the troll arc is boring, i hate that arc because i hate all children.

#txt #the farnese one i at least like farnese a bit but also The Horrors. guts' is okay i like the slan womb thing #you don't know how freed i was when they got to vritanis and schierke was away from guts for like five minutes #after reunion at the hill of swords the only arc i've liked on guts' side was their stay in vritannis cause again it was less about #children things

[bscully]

At Vritannis Schierke released the hanged Kushan to "neutralize" the negative thoughts they died with so they may rest in peace

What if Griffith did the same as well, just with different means? Giving the dead some closure & a chance to say goodbye to family?

#Berserk #Griffith #Schierke #Theory

[palominocornliveblogs]

I strongly suspect that this is going to be the last arc of Berserk. Not even due to the whole "literal death of the author" thing, just, things were pretty clearly winding up to the final confrontation.

What I think will happen is that Guts, Casca, and co will cut a bloody swath through Falconia and kill Griffith, and with his death the whole "spectacular kingdom but everywhere else is full of monsters" thing will collapse into... well, not the old normal, because like Guts said, you can't force things back to how they were, but into something similar. (Time is a spiral not a circle and all that.)

I suspect Guts and Casca will ride off into the sunset together, horrifically fucked up but desperate to start their new life together. I give it 50-50 odds whether their son will somehow be saved from his body-share with Griffith, or if he'll end up dead as collateral.

I think Skully is going to finally kill Void (and the other three godhand), and then, as he's nothing but armor powered by rage, cease to exist. If he's lucky, he'll get to be with his beloved cherry blossom maiden in whatever afterlife.

I don't think Danann, Isma, and the rest of Skellig Island will return.

I'm guessing Isidro will go back to his hometown and make amends with his parents, happily settling down to a "normal" life with the memory of the most amazing adventure ever always staying with him. Schierke will become a village witch somewhere (maybe in Isidro's village, even, I'd like to see them become friends) like Flora used to be. Farnese will travel to learn and teach magic to more people. Serpico will finally disentangle himself from her and return to Vritannis, try and make amends for what he did during his time with the church. Roderick will return to Iith, maybe become a bit more responsible. Maybe even Magnifico will grow up and return to his family a better man.

I'm guessing Charlotte will die trying to save Griffith, and realize with her dying breath that he never cared about her as more than a meal ticket. Sonia... I think she might realize that Griffith only sees her as a tool and maybe even turn against him. The rest of his new Band will get killed, of course. Possibly Griffith himself will sacrifice them. Owen and Laban will probably live and continue to be Those Two Guys for whatever comes next. The pope is going to kick the bucket pretty soon, though I'm not sure if it'll be of natural or violent causes.

I bet Rickert, Erica, Daiba, Silat, and the Tapasa are about to meet up with Guts and co while they're at sea, and they can figure out a strategy together. I suspect Daiba will die in the final confrontation, but not without being critical to defeat Griffith. Silat and the Bakiraka will get the glory of taking down Griffith and Raksas, but choose not to return to the homeland that was so horrible to them and probably establish their own country. Rickert, well, if he lives (I give it even odds that he'll die) will settle down as a blacksmith somewhere, with Erica as his assistant. Luca and her girls are obviously going to help take down Griffith and in fact are probably going to meet up with Casca soon; they're resourceful, so I suspect they'll survive and build a new life in whatever future is in store.

Of course, what I WANT to see is Guts slaying god and bringing down the whole horrific system, being recognized as the ACTUAL hawk of light (but refusing the title), and then settling down in an honest profession (as a butcher or something, snerk) with Casca and some more children, both of them making progress on their trauma, with the Dragonslayer and Berserker armor both destroyed in the final confrontation.

[star-fiend]

#berserk #manga #comics #kentaro miura #guts #the struggler #schierke #mage #witch #vritannis #daka #wheel of flame #fire elemental #galgalim #ivalera

[akavir]

:D!

#berserk #berserk 2016 #berserk 2017 #schierke #anime #manga #vritannis

[214c]

@ guts before they fight at vritannis

#berserk #berserk serpico #serpico

[midnight-in-town]

Hi. I wanted to know, what followers of Griffith's do you see as potential turncoats in the future of the story?

Hello! Well, I read your question in two different ways, because I guess it depends what you meant by “followers of Griffith”? :))

You wrote Griffith not Femto though, so can I assume that, besides the Apostles, you’re also counting all the humans that were blinded by his incarnation? 

Including the people who don’t follow him exactly, but who took refuge into Falconia, because this city that he brought back is for now the only safe place ever since the different planes merged?

Anyway, here’s the list of characters I could see being more than simple “followers” of Griffith/Femto in the story, if we’re going by the broader definition: 

Nosferatu Zodd

The most likely case, to be honest. He may have bowed in front of Femto and seems to obey his every word but, more than a master, what he seeks is…

And he doesn’t hesitate to safeguard his opponents at the end of a fight if that means more fun at a later time with them (see the Skull Knight post Eclipse).

You could say he doesn’t really care about which sides he picks during fights as long as he gets to face a strong opponent, as we saw when he and Guts teamed up against Ganishka’s attack on Vritannis. 

Anyway, my main point is that for now Zodd follows Femto, because he lost to him, just before his incarnation. However, it surely won’t last because…

…I believe there is foreshadowing that Zodd is drawn to both the Skull Knight and Guts, who may be the only ones able to rival with Femto’s strength (obviously, otherwise there would be no story).

So there is Sonia’s little prophecy (which isn’t just about Vritannis in my opinion) and there is also the first meeting with the Moonlight Child…

…because Zodd was watching the beginning. And now that… 

it was heavily emphasized that Femto/Griffith = Moonlight Child in episode 358 

also that we know that the boy’s one (the only?) of Femto’s weakness (because he can’t control the transformation + he can be affected by the boy’s feelings for his parents)

…the fact Zodd seems aware of this transformation (since he was there in vol28) might vouch that he’ll change his mind about dumbly following Femto, because Guts’/Skully’s/the Moonlight Child’s sides are more interesting.

Imagine this: if Femto is definitely the strongest, then how about teaming up with them to defeat him? For sure, that would be one hell of a fight for Zodd. :))

It’s my take on him because let’s just say that Zodd as someone’s follower (even if they’re as powerful as Femto) when he always seeks a rival doesn’t really suit him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Irvine?

Putting a question mark on this one, because I just don’t know for sure. His character is mysterious and we haven’t seen a lot about him but…

…he sure doesn’t behave like his fellow Apostles and he acknowledges his condition of being “a beast”.

We know that Apostles are not simple monsters, they sacrificed what they held most precious to fulfill a wish or their dream: so we don’t know Irvine’s backstory, but if he enjoys being alone and can act nicely to a kid, there is a chance that there is more to him… 

Or so I say, but Griffith behaves kindly to kids too so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Still, if I had to bet on another Apostle besides Zodd, for now it would be him even if that might be too easy. 

Sonia and Mule

I could call Sonia a lost cause, but that’d be without Mule, who always has her back and also the weird encounter that Sonia had with Schierke, implying these two (with Mule and Isidro) will meet again, whether on opposite sides or not. 

Anyway I’m not Sonia’s biggest fan, but it’s clear that the story is not going to call for more kids to be destroyed because of Femto’s dream (y’know, getting his kingdom and all). We already had that, it was presented as a terrible feat and I honestly think that Sonia is meant as a parallel to this boy…

…because she looks at Griffith with undying loyalty, like he’s her hero, and it will kill her too if she refuses to face that he’s there to doom the whole world.

Thankfully for her, I believe Mule is capable of bringing her to this realization, that is if he can manage to reach it first, but I have no doubt that he will, because he questions the things he sees more than most.

Luca

Luca and the others found a haven within Falconia, but seeing how they supported “outcasts” like Rickert and Daiba…

…we can easily guess that they will be useful again once Guts and Casca’s side are to reappear, especially considering Luca’s previous bond with “Elaine”. 

Besides, just when it comes to Luca, she has a history of standing up against blind crowds…

…in that she’s a true hero, so I don’t see why this would not keep up in the future. Again, she proved she still had it in her after the Tower of Conviction arc, when choosing to believe in Rickert’s story about Griffith sending an assassin after his life, simply because he defied him. 

Charlotte?

Yet another question mark because I’m not sure about what exactly Sensei intends to do with her character. But for now, I truly want to believe in her. 

In one way or another, she’s loosely and indirectly related to Gaiseric (who’s Skully “the foe of all inhumans”) as the current official ruler of Midland after all.Secondly, she knows the previous Band of the Falcon, since she helped them saved Griffith:

So I can’t help but wonder about what she would think of her charming knight in shining white, armor once she finds out that he sacrificed all his old comrades to become a Godhand, after they endangered themselves (and her) to save him.

Lastly, even if she acts very innocent and often focuses on herself, I think she has it in herself to make a good Queen one day, at least once she gets a little more backbone and confidence:

I mean, this isn’t the topic but being coddled by a father who actually wanted to bed her is probably the main reason Charlotte never really had to worry about ruling her own country before the rise of Falconia. 

Even now, it seems that she’s perfectly fine with only being Griffith’s Queen (she’s truly madly in love with him), but here’s to hoping that she’ll realize that she’s the one who’s meant to be in charge.

If she can achieve that, then maybe she’ll have a role to play when it comes to defeating Griffith/Femto. 

That’s my take on it! I hope it answers your question Anon. :) As always feel free to disagree and have a nice weekend!

#berserk #griffith #femto #charlotte wyndham #nosferatu zodd #moonlight child #luca #sonia #mule #irvine #berserk theory #anon #answers #btw i honestly have 0 idea about Laban and Owen but they seem to be off on the wrong path unfortunately #my analysis

[skellig-island]

Alright, here we go ya’ll. Let’s read “The Flame Dragon Knight” together. Expect all the spoilers here. It’s 4 chapters long, with a prologue and an epilogue.

Under a cut just in case not all of you wanna spoil yourselves.

So the prologue is about how a bunch of female corpses have been showing up around the city of Nordcapity. We also meet Grand General Kirsten, the only genuinely good guy in this place, unfortunately he doesn’t get much focus, but he’s suspicious that the crime is being committed by some noble rank person. This part is pretty dumb since it doesn’t come up again until much later and it’s not really mentioned after this.

So chapter one starts with a description of the setting. “The Grand Duchy of Grant was an island nation, the island itself also called Grant. (...) Grant was shaped like a giant basic, dominated by a vast caldera (....) the capital city, Nordcapity, was situated in the center of the basin’s hollow.” To pass to the city you must also pass a citadel called “Fire Dragon’s Lair” which prevents Tudor (remember those guys from the Golden Age?) from fully invading the island.

We meet Grunbeld Ahlqvist (yeah, that’s his name) as a captain of the Fire Dragon’s Lair and he flashes back to 14 years ago when he was a whee lad. Not really, since at that age he “was already taller than an average adult man”. He also lives alone with his mom cause his dad died and his mom made sure to educate him in swordsmanship. 

It’s also explained that the people of Grant don’t subscribe to the religion of the Holy See, instead they’re essentially Norse pagans who believe in Odin, the valkyries and that “only the brave will be called to the Hall of the Gods”. They don’t say they’re Norse but you can draw some conclusions.

Grunbeld also fights a lot with the local kids and one day he gets beaten up by the older adult brother of one of the kids. A giant wolf finds him collapsed in the forest and this is how he meets Benedikte, who is blind. She tells the wolf, Ludvig, to bring Grunbeld to some springs and they talk there. Benedikte calls him a dragon and Grunbeld is like “wtf are you on kid?”

Some pages later, Tudor invades Grunbeld’s village and they rape his mom in front of him. Yeah, there’s a lot of rape in this novel. Also they cut off some other guy’s testicles and leave him to bleed to death.

So the Tudors gather all the children and lock them up into cells because they intend to give them conversion education to make them loyal to Tudor. The put Grundbeld in a restraining board cause he’s fucking huge even though he’s 14. This is where he meets Edvard, the son of the grand duke and Sigur who is also nobility; later on they’re revealed to be childhood friends.

The kids are educated by a guy named Abecassis who will get what’s coming to him at the end of the novel, don’t worry. He “educates” them also makes them spar with wooden swords against each other. 

One day, Abecassis makes Grunbeld (who by now had become a symbol of hope for the children) fight against an experienced soldier, hoping that he would lose and make the kids lose hope. But Grunbeld wins, so Abecassis decides to punish Sigur instead, they rape her and burn her back.

So 4 years pass and Grunbeld is even bigger now, so Abecassis decides to get rid of him for good and brings a tiger (the same kind that crashed the party in Vritannis) and tells the kids that anyone who volunteers can help Grunbeld. Edvard and Sigur volunteer and they hatch a plan to beat the tiger.

Night arrives and they try to use torches to keep the tiger away since they don’t have any weapons. Except a heavy war hammer that a normal man can’t lift, and was left there to mock them since they didn’t expect them to be able to raise it. But Grunbeld does, to the shock of everyone except the reader. Also Edvard’s left eye gets slashed by the tiger.

So Grunbeld kills the tiger and Kirsten arrives to finally save the children. Abecassis manages to escape. There’s a banquet later on to celebrate the victory and we meet Haakon, who is the grand duke (the boss of everyone) and Edvard’s dad. It’s made clear here that not a lot of people like Haakon cause he’s kind of an asshole and also wants to convert everyone to the Holy See religion.

Benedikte appear again and dances for everyone, cause she’s a priestess. Also it turns out she’s Kirsten’s granddaughter. And also Kirsten adopts Grunbeld cause Grunbeld is now an orphan and Kirsten is the best guy in this novel, he’s my favorite character here. Grunbeld and Benedikte talk some more after the party and that’s the end of chapter 1.

Stay tuned for the rest.

#berserk #the flame dragon knight #grunbeld

[mugiwara-shuenobi]

#berserk #vritannis #kushan #kentaro miura

[cacaitos]

im going to be honest with you since guts got his new travel party the only part i've liked is their stay in vritannis only.

#txt #elfhelm undecided #ppl will be like falconia chapters are boring when on guts's side we'll be on that fucking boat still. make it make senseeee

[palominocornliveblogs]

A totally correct and accurate summary of the last two chapters

Griffith: I'm in charge here.

Midland nobles: How dare you!

Princess Charlotte: He's my fiance. He's in charge.

Midland nobles: ...okay.

Vritannis forces: But no, actually.

Pope: He's the second coming of Jesus.

Vrittanis forces: ...okay.

[berserktransparents]

schierke in vritannis, with and without the seagulls

#schierke #schierke berserk #berserk #kentaro miura #transparent #transparent edit

[lulalin]

Reading again the chapters in Vritannis made me realize how much I missed the dark, less fantasy, elements of Berserk.

The political intrigues, the last bit in the story where humans still acted by themselves, characters having some development, the gritty medieval aesthetic.

The Boat Chapters where too many and too fillerish ( Fuck those pirates. Just fuck 'em ) but I found Elf Island such a bore too.

Miura drew it in a cutesy artstyle I'm not a fan of, and the aesthetic was some old unoriginal, pure "fantasy" stuff.

I fucking hope Miura doesn't intend to add Morda to the RPG party too, cause we have just too many people here, and half of them matter literally nothing to the story. I don't care about the mages on the insland, I care about the shitty world that was left behind in Griffith's Fantasy Hell.

Speaking about Griffith, Falconia is boring as fuck too. The palace has a cool design, but the rest of the city is just Rome™, like, Miura researches so much, couldn't he take some inspiration from actual utopian cities imagined in the XV century? The City Of The Sun? New Atlantis?

Also when will Griffith's character come back? How much will I have to wait for him to finally do and say something that's not Causality? Do we need Rickert to slap him again? Guts? The fetus? (boo, the fetus is cheating)

Sorry, I'm just cranky cause we are on Hiatus after Casca came back.

#Elfhelm is shit. SHIIIIT! There. I said it. #only good parts of Elfhell: Guts confessing he's grateful of having his party and Casca being back

[akavir]

#berserk #berserk 2016 #berserk 2017 #ivalera #charlotte #griffith #sonia #schierke #midland #vritannis #anime #manga

[jojolightningfingers]

The New Party Meta - Part 2

Welcome back to my attempt to dissect character relationships in Berserk! Today we’re gonna talk about the disaster that is Serpico!

Serpico-->Guts

Serpico's relationship to Guts is intrinsically one that revolves around his relationship with Farnese and as such is slightly challenging to parse. It feels at times as though there are two halves to it—the half which deals mostly with how Serpico feels about Guts and what he means for Farnese, and the half which deals more with how Serpico interacts with Guts in matters where he's suppressing his “personal feelings” and doing his best to get along with him.

The biggest and most obvious thing is that Serpico considers Guts to be a threat—to Farnese's safety, and to hers and his views of the world and their places in it—and he has told Guts this on at least one occasion. He has stated that were it his choice, they would not be traveling with Guts. In the beginning, before they're traveling with each other, he does try to hide these feelings—neutral faces and simple requests that he not antagonize Farnese overmuch, which only break in the instants that he attempts to claim Guts' life (shooting him in the back with a crossbow bolt, the one-stroke battle after Farnese is possessed, and their later battle on the cliffside spring to mind). The real heart of their relationship, as laid out by Serpico himself in his own ruminations, is both that Guts is dangerous for Farnese's well-being and changing her in ways that Serpico could not or did not think to try to (which, I think, bothers him more than he lets on) and that Guts also is changing him, making him feel things with an intensity that shocks him (“While I arrayed myself in feigned ignorance, perhaps before I knew it, I too was affected by that heat. You certainly are a man impossible to ignore.” “Truth be told I thought to kill you many times. And the violence of these emotions within me shocked me.”)

Yet, they do still get along with each other quite well on the surface, when Serpico's threats don't hang over them overmuch. Even right after the Tower of Conviction, when the Kushan attack, Serpico admits that there's nobody more reassuring to fight alongside than Guts. Serpico is willing to offer him his shoulder when he's wounded, to try and carry him to safety when he's been struck by Ganishka's lightning (and here I think it's interesting that Guts calls him out on trying to do that, accusing him of not thinking straight because there's no way he can lug Guts back to shore even with the sylph hood). He overhauls Guts' attire with ease of use in mind, which Guts shows appreciation for. He defers to Guts as the leader of the group. With the exceptions of the instances in which Guts dons the berserker armor and poses a legitimate danger to the entire group, Serpico seems to have mellowed out to Guts the more time has worn on, and I wonder if that's not because of the extent to which Farnese has changed for the better—proving perhaps to Serpico that Guts is far less of a threat to her than he thought.

As far as the facet comparisons go, I think Serpico most represents Guts' fixations—on someone who he feels he must protect at all costs, and on someone that he believes to be a danger to that person. There's also an interesting little thing going on regarding how Serpico feels about his freedom—he's stated that he feels chained down by obligations (to his mother, to his father, to Farnese), and Guts, while certainly chained down by the obligation to keep Casca safe now, once roamed the lands without aim and without purpose, and he wasn't very happy doing that. What I'm saying is that what Serpico thinks he may want, as far as this freedom goes, may not be what he actually wants in the end.

Serpico-->Farnese

If I'm being totally honest, the first time I read Berserk I thought theirs was a nigh impossible to sort out trainwreck, and I do still kind of think that now.

There are two big things to keep in mind when trying to figure Serpico's side of the relationship out. The first is that Farnese is the most important thing in Serpico's world, without question. Serpico will, and does, prioritize Farnese's safety over the safety of everybody else in the group even after he warms to them. The second is that he considers Farnese his other half, considers them to be if not exactly the same, then similar enough as makes no difference—save for expressions in emotion of course.

Serpico was introduced to Farnese as Farnese's servant, and up to a certain point, this is how Serpico acts to her. He goes where she goes without question or complaint, but he is not always direct about it. He appears to refuse Farnese's order to kill Guts because they're only supposed to capture him, but he makes an attempt to do just that as soon as she's run away. He doesn't explicitly protest her decision to leave the Holy See and go chasing after Guts, but he does pick and choose his moments to try and get her to go back. The only reason that Serpico appears to stop acting like a servant to her is because Farnese stops acting as his master.

Serpico knows Farnese—he knows her moods, her expressions, and what each of them mean, again because he was raised with her, but he only is certain of them until she begins to change. And then, frankly, he's at a loss. He does not “know this defenseless side of her”, as he tells Guts. He resists these changes in his own way—trying to get her to return to the Holy See in an oblique manner, trying multiple times to kill Guts, who he perceives as the root cause of all these changes. And then, eventually, he stops, because Farnese is growing for the better and he can tell that it's for the better despite how he personally feels about it. So he lets it happen, neutrally accepting at first (“[...]the wind has blown. A wind strong enough to blow down everything you yearned for. And so I shall at least see to it that my other half isn't torn to pieces in the storm.”) and, gradually, with pride and happiness at her accomplishments.

And then, of course, there's the romance that never was. It's my read on it that Serpico does harbor at least some romantic feeling for her—otherwise he wouldn't call Farnese's mother 'astute' after her comment (“Such companions cannot be separated, because they cannot stand without entwining against each other, just like a pair of trees... my, the scent of the forbidden.”). This is of course to say nothing of his initial reaction to her entreating him to run away with her after her father intends to marry her off, though that's admittedly ambiguous at best and may or may not be influenced by him knowing that he's related to her while she does not.

There's also the slight side-issue of what kind of negative feelings he may harbor towards her because, for all that he's devoted to her, he does imply she's something that he's chained to, and Serpico again has weird issues with the idea of being free. When she asks him outright if he hates her his answer isn't an answer (“To talk of hate...”) and the subject is immediately dropped, never to be brought up again. Worthy of consideration, maybe, but as far as present canon goes it may well be a moot point, as they both seem much happier with themselves and each other.

Oh yeah and there's also that he completely, 100% loses his cool when Farnese says she wants to become a witch, and it notably takes him a while to wrap his head around that idea and accept it. Not sure what the significance of that is but it was pretty funny.

Serpico-->Schierke

Serpico and Schierke don't interact directly very often, but she does give him items blessed by wind elementals and oddly enough, they appear to be the means by which he begins self-reflecting in earnest. He thinks the wind is the thing most alien to him, being free to do whatever it wishes without consequence—so then, what does it say that he masters that power so quickly, as Schierke notes?

The other interesting thing is his general attitude towards magic. Delighted, I think, isn't the right word, but he seems much more smiley when in magical places, surrounded by magical things. The aforementioned sylph hood and sword are things he considers heartening to have in battle against monsters and they end up rather attached to him—he's impressed with their power, and with Schierke's power. He urges Schierke to have pride in herself when she feels down about her inexperience, calling her skills miraculous. He defers to her on matters that he's less experienced in, with a view that isn't colored by differences in age or gender.

Serpico-->Isidro

Serpico and Isidro aren't very close to each other—if Isidro's view of Serpico is hard to pin down and theoretical at best, Serpico's view of Isidro is even harder. He does have opinions of him though—opinions that giving him a dagger that spits fire is probably not the safest idea (though he does note that at least it's better than Farnese getting it), and that Isidro's skill in improvisation is surprisingly good (noted mostly by how Serpico sits up and takes notice when Isidro starts dual-wielding against Guts in practice, managing to make some headway but ultimately coming up short).

Aside from this the bulk of their interaction is kind of the hotheaded eager to prove younger brother and the cool aloof older brother who checks some of his more reckless impulses, though Serpico doesn't seem to go out of his way to do it. Serpico holds him back, physically if need be, when he's about to do something rash, he's constantly telling Isidro to mind himself in battle, and he's willing to explain himself to Isidro if Isidro doesn't understand something (at the end of his second fight with Guts, for instance).

I think the problem here is that we don't see a lot of the interactions they do have, but are implied—they do after all go out into Vritannis alone together to search for a ship, and at some point Isidro must have told Serpico something about his past, because Serpico's the only one who brings up that Isidro grew up in the mountains.

#berserk #serpico #meta posts #bizarre adventures #i might do a meta on serpico as a complete character later because holy Fuck #theres a lot to unpack here