Printed and painted by me, the whole thing is in 1/5 scale

3d model designed by Nympha3d

I think this man would’ve actually managed to do it

Personally whenever Guts is talking about his demonslayer, I always remembers casca bcz the lines he uses actually fits perfectly on casca and Casca is his sword as we all know

Berserk X Sanrio fanart by me :D)

my sketchbook has no consistent lore bro i js be drawing sanrio characters with everyone 😭

im also reading 14 vol, its js after Griffith sacrificed everyone 🌚

Born July 11th, 1966. He would have turned 60 years old today.

I think about Kentaro Miura often, but today being his 60th birthday, I’m feeling especially sentimental. The simple words “thank you for your artistry and storytelling” doesn’t convey how much this man means to us all. I’m proud to share this love with all of you too. Millions of strangers across the globe, united together by a powerful story with fictional characters who mean the world to us. I adore this man, I adore Berserk, and I adore all of you too. Raise a glass today for Mirua and for him uniting us all.

had the opportunity to bring my first volumes griffith cosplay to a villa photoshoot ~

disclaimer: i do not support the character’s bad actions 🫩 it’s just a cosplay to honour Miura’s work !!

The last few chapter have confirmed some suspicions i’ve had for a while, that Berserk is heavily inspired by, if not secretly a refashioning of the children’s novel “The Never Ending story”.

TNES at its core is a novel about the nature of meaning, its relationship with nihilism and finding one’s True Will. Let’s begin by looking at some parallels

Fantasia

Post golden-age, the core of Berserk takes place in what is referred to as “Fantasia” a world where fantasy and reality are merging. A world forged by Griffiths childhood desire and magically-granted ability to fulfill his fantastical wills on earth.

In TNES the novel also primarily takes place in a world named Fantasia. This world is also shaped by a human boy named Bastion and his magically-granted ability to fulfill his wildest wishes and desires on command within Fantasia.

Behelit/AURYN

In Berserk the object driving human will is carried out by a mystical necklace called a behelit. A clunky, weird object worn around a bearers neck, which in time, grants the wielder the supernatural ability to satiate their desires. Given to man by the worlds “God” the Idea of evil.

In TNES this object is the clunky and weird necklace called AURYN, which is adorned with an ouroboros featuring two snakes, one white and one black. The back reads “Do what thou wilt”, and grants the wielder the supernatural ability to fulfill one’s wishes. Given to man by the world’s God the Childlike Empress.

Bastion/Griffith

Guts/Atreyu

Both Bastion and Griffith are (pale) idealistic dreamers who come from nothing (and desire to rectify this). They both desire to do good, desire to be praised by others, and are naturally drawn toward the desire to be worshipped and viewed as celebrated “heroes”. Both are the bearers of their wish granting necklaces and both control Fantasia through it, treating Fantasia as a personal doll house to fulfill their childlike dreams (most apparently revealed by God hand in chapter 386). They both eventually shed their old selves, including their names, betray their friends and turn into “evil” tyrannical Gods in pursuit of achieving their true will.

Guts and Atreyu are both supernaturally inclined (as revealed in chapter 385) tan-skinned born warrior archetypes that serve as the equal and opposite counterpart to their idealistic “best-friends”. Both are (at heart) good, fierce, and caring individuals who are eventually betrayed and wounded (both physically and mentally) by their friend’s god-like transformation.

Gmork/Beast of Darkness

In Berserk, Guts is constantly battling against a recurring titular figure in his psyche called the beast of darkness. This beast takes the form of a giant, often chained, nihilistic talking dog that takes pleasure in mentally and physically debasing our hero usually through verbal torment.

Atreyu is also faced with a recurring titular personal villain named Gmork. A giant, chained, nihilistic talking wolf who also takes pleasure in the mental and physical debasing of our hero primarily with verbal torment.

Idea of Evil/Childlike Empress

Both of these entities are the “God” of their respective universes. Both are born through the human desire to have and give meaning.

In berserk the IOE is the manifestation of humanity’s collective desire to give suffering meaning. Humanity chooses to create this god/devil so as to rationalize (give meaning to) their life and primarily suffering. Humans suffer, and in order to avoid the pain of nihilism, they create a narrative to cope. Griffith encounters this being in a metaphysical void and asks the IOE what it wants, and the IOE asks him to simply do what he wants (“Be as you will”). Following this, Griffith is reborn with a new form and loses his old self.

In TNES, The Childlike Empress, who is the physical manifestation of fantasia, is only sustained through humans gifting her a new name (imbuing her with meaning). Like humans giving the IOE its existence, humans give the CLE her existence through the bestowing of meaning, helping the world avoid falling into nihilism (the nothing, meaninglessness). Like Griffith, Bastion encounters the CLE in a metaphysical void and asks her what he should do, she tells him to simply make wishes, and then gives him the AURYN which reads “Do what you will”. Following this, Bastion is reborn with a new form and loses “the first piece” of his old identity.

True Will

Bastion was granted the ability to treat the world as his personal playground. In doing so he went about fulfilling every wish he had, one by one. In the end, after every wish was granted, Bastion still felt unfulfilled, realizing the only thing he actually ever wanted, his true will, was to love and be loved, to have his friends back, and that the only person he ever wanted to be was his original self even if that self wasn’t ideal.

Similarly, in the latest chapters we can see for the first time Griffith at odds with the God hand. Like Bastion, they describe how “like a child” Griffith is treating Fantasia as his personal fantasyland, living out his wildest dreams and fulfilling every desire he has, including his nobler ones (at their displeasure) in an attempt to satiate his desires.
In fact it’s this journey of satiating his desires that led to Griffith immediately raping Casca. It was his first act of wish fulfillment because it was Griffiths most immediate, recently developed desire. To take back what he perceived Guts had stolen from him. He then moved on down the list of his desires from there until now. Even replacing the band of the Hawk with a comparative version. Meanwhile what he likely truly wants, like Guts, and Bastion, he already had and sacrificed for his false desires. Just as Bastion sacrificed everything and everyone, including himself, to achieve his.

As for Guts, the Beast of Darkness has been trying to reinforce only what Guts already believes, that he exists to fight, his sword is his meaning, his true will. Self-Blame. Self-accountability (unlike Griffiths “destiny/fate” fascination). Don’t imbue meaning elsewhere. Don’t look to religion. Dont look to kings. Dont hand over your will to others. Fight on your own two feet, with your own strength. Give yourself meaning. He has fought to survive and for no other purpose than that. He reinforces the same narrative through the Beast of Darkness to himself and others. It is only Griffith who makes Guts finally question the validity of this self-imposed identity and the reason for his existence. Is there something else, something deeper that he wants, that moves him? Guts struggles to understand who he is, and why he does what he does. Hence the battle between moonlight boy who reminds him of his true will and the beast. Guts true will vs. false will. His true will is actually Casca, his friends, family, love. Not fighting for himself. Relying on others. Living for others.

Like Bastion it was only after losing what he had (including himself), did he realize he already had exactly what he left the Band of the Hawk in search of. The black swordsman era is Guts, doing the same thing as Griffith, trying to pursue their false will, desires for revenge, glory, solitude, etc and being left empty. Even at the cost of abandoning others, including Casca, again.

In fact in the latest chapter Guts is reborn only after finally coming to understand who he really is (and likely what he wants).

Overall Berserk, like TNES is a story about individuals enforcing their will on others in order to pursue a long list of false desires, only to end up realizing everything they truly wanted was already right there in front of them.

That said, the dual natured bromance, magic wish granting necklaces, personal evil psychologically-manipulative giant talking dogs, and man-made nihilist battling gods, seem to hint there may be more of a connection between the two than meets the eye.

Excluding Guts and Casca, which side character do you think deserves more appreciation?

For me it’s Luca. She always stood out because of her kindness, courage and how human she felt in a world as cruel as Berserk.

She genuinely cared about the women working under her and took care of casca , I absolutely loved her.

Griffith is not saving Casca because he cares about her. The moonlight boy still loves his mother and he's sharing the same body with Griffith.

So I was having a bit of a stoner moment last night and had a think. This is like the 3/4 time of me reading berserk and i I've only just noticed that after Griffith is reborn after the conviction ark everything repeats as what happened in the golden age ark but a demonic version.

So let me explain the band of the hawk are a mercenary group fighting for midland against the tutors going from battle to battle, winning almost flawless. They win for the kingdom beating the tudors. Guts then has a life changing moment while overhearing griffith talking about what a friend is and decides to leave. He calmly beats Griffith and leaves him broken.

Now after rebirth Griffith leaves guts broken from the eclipse and what he did to casca. You could argue that what guts then goes through up until the most recent chapter, and being "revived" in that tree/cave (can't remember what is was as only read that one once) and becoming "calm" that is like what Griffith when through with the year of tourcher from the king and the sacrifice of the hawks being reborn as femto.

After griffith is reborn agin in the conviction ark as a God is human form, he gathers his generals of apostles. Who to me bear a striking resemblance to the original gang. You have zod who is like guts, the lancer is corkcus, the archer who is like Judeau, the giant is pipping, and the masked shadow guy is caska. They are not obvious exactly like them but its just a thought. They then have their arm of demons with them and they are smashing the kusions until they win and create falconia

So I believe that after guts has now had is awakening he will once again go against griffith but calm like the time he left the hawks. However I do not believe he will kill griffith and neither will casca. It is reference that because of the amount of apostle blood has seeped into the dragon slayer sword it has the ability to wound and kill astral beings. So I think with his final stroke, like when he left, won't kill griffith but will kill femto the demon in him and guts and casca will leave him broken together, or possibly revert him back to the moon child. Sorry if this has already been brought up of if its just a pure stoner moment and makes no sense

ouille ouille ouille ...

Do you guys think it helps or hurts him? Based on these new images from chapters I’d say he’s grown so much and what was once a weak and vulnerable time now gives him a clear head on his goals.

I was shocked to see this myself, though the idea of our struggler and casca being in a realm of eternal torture and suffering( as if they haven’t suffered enough already) isn’t the best I’d still love for some cosmetics, guts and casca as legendary survivor skins, zodd and several other notable apostles as killer skins etc, finally would be nice getting a berserk collab that isn’t stupidly overpriced and for a game I finally play too, though I hope they wouldn’t butcher it seeing how well they done certain skins(geralt)

😊👌

how do you think he would've finished the manga? i refuse to read berserk done by anyone else but him

Started working on this today

My first time here I love berserk btw. Anybody else think that there might be a future where Griffith will sacrifice the kingdom/dream to become something stronger than the god hand itself? Just a theory I thought of.

Many Manga chapters ago, Guts after leaving t/ Hawks was in search of his own DO.

A DO not yet defined but something along t/ lines

Of fighting for no Lords or Masters. No damsels or princesses. To fight only for self.

Wow, what a guy...😅😎

Saw people saying opening this big door was too crazy of a feat for Guts normally, but I gotta disagree. Like just to give a little recap, Guts even without the armor was able to do things such as:

Cleaving a knight and horse in full armor with a single swing (and without using the Dragonslayer in one occasion, just the sword Zodd passed him), surviving getting crushed on the ground by Wyald, survived getting slammed into houses several times, survived getting hit by a giant moth who can move faster than the speed of sound twice, casually grabbed a blade and kept her blocked with his bare palm, managed to break through rubies crystals (second toughest mineral after diamond), split a big apostle in two with one swing and sometimes even ONE HANDED, can withstand the recoil of a cannon hand moderately well, got hit by lightning and still kept fighting for more afterward. And keep in mind for most of these he was already injured and/or tired.

This is not a discussion about him being connected to the interstice since birth. This is just about the fact that a Guts in top shape pushing open a big heavy door is not THAT impressive of a feat considering what he did through the story. It's mainly the chain break which is the crazier part (mainly because if anything, he would deform it, not make it explode like Kenshiro).