#i just had to make them fight first and make them go thru self introspection and discovery

[fxnker]

out of context scene i pulled out of my ass bc i wanted to make myself suffer more 4 some reason. their looks are based on a timeskip i made up in my head, here's them 2~3 years later if u care. don't ask me anything bc i don't know ok...... (they still haven't gone on a date)

[cascae]

I wonder what would have happened if casca and guts swapped places?

oh oh oh  . . .   firstly the thought of casca,  though strong as she is,  trying to lead this giant looming bastard of a man thru endless nights and attacks from demons is killing me,  but i do think she’d find a way to manage it in her own way  (i’m taking them swapping spots mostly as swapping fates in the eclipse,  so hopefully i’m understanding right –– and i could also look at this from more of a casca coming in as the outside in the hawks vs guts... let’s split this up hehe i like this question!)

1.  simply swapping fates during the eclipse  ––   i.e.  guts wakes up with his mind essentially locked off from him  &  casca wakes alone.

in this scenario, i think there’s two potential ways this might have played out  ––  for casca, she’s very much the type to focus on the external world. she often avoids introspection and instead relies on the steadiness of others (namely griffith’s leadership and the tangible/simultaneously intangible nature of being with him, which she didn’t have to analyze because at the very least she was useful to him and therefore there was always a reason to be beside him that she could cling to – even if she wasn’t with him “as a woman” as she puts it, she was irreplaceable to his goals).

upon the betrayal by griffith + in this case guts’ loss of memory/selfhood, i think she’d hold a similar rage as guts does canonically.  however, historically, her experience with rage and hurt has her responding by rallying behind someone. even in the year prior to the eclipse when she herself is leading the hawks in griffith’s absence, she’s still actively working to rescue him and subsequently be close to him. this isn’t to speak to her ability to split off  ––  when it comes down to it, and this is also something we do see with her as acting leader of the hawks, casca can and will survive above all.  she can rally behind herself in moments,  but a lot of times we see her relying on others when it comes to emotions / even her own understanding of self.

so, all that said, i think more than guts might’ve, casca would be tempted to stay with guts in the cave.  i think she would have a hard time leaving him because her rage and hurt would be placed differently than his is.  so my first answer is that she would stay with him,  and eventually they’d probably leave the cave and much of the conviction arc would play out in terms of what is “fated”.

alternatively, let’s say first and foremost she’s just angry, rageful, and wants to get back at griffith for what he did (essentially all in the same way as guts).  if she were to leave, i think similarly to guts she would leave him behind.  which i say only because i think if she were to go on the same sort of crusade against demonkind that guts does canonically, she would have a similar line of thought in terms of bringing someone defenseless / who makes her ache w regret every time she looks at him would make for a harder journey. 

2.  still following the above,  but focusing in on what casca as “the black swordsman” would look like.

so assuming she follows the latter theory from above,  casca on her own would be so interesting ... i’m going along, still, with the idea that the ‘demonified’ child of guts & casca’s was born. in her more full aware state, she’d have a similar reaction as guts did in canon, and wouldn’t trust it completely to begin with, but following the sort of innate connection they have in that arc, if it were to carry over, i think she wouldn’t necessarily try to kill it or anything. which leads me to the view of the black swordsman.

in her travels, looking so small and less threatening than guts might, i think her reputation would be different. perhaps even she wouldn’t garner the title he does  ––  alternatively, like we see in the conviction arc in casca’s own storyline, she might better suit “the black witch” title she temporarily holds. if the child is following her like it does in canon as opposed to focusing its attention moreso on guts, then i think similar events as in conviction would occur where we see evil spirits literally dispelled by her / avoiding her, because of the child’s protection. so all in all it would be a different experience  ––  she would still be fighting and killing every demon she came into contact with to fight her way to griffith himself, but i think the perspective of her and some of her fighting styles would be different. she relies on agility & strategy more than guts does, mostly.  

regarding her journey itself, though her motives would be similar to guts’ they certainly wouldn’t be exact. the brunt of her anger towards griffith would be the fact he used her (guts has the right to be angry on this count as well, but i think a lot of his anger centers around both the personal betrayal and what griffith does to casca in front of him  ––  so in casca’s case, assuming the eclipse functions similarly to canon, she’d be furious that she was considered a “pawn” in terms of griffith’s plan but also in terms of griffith’s torturing of guts, that he assaults her to spite guts particularly, i don’t think that would go unnoticed entirely by her) and the fact that she was never anything more to him than a tool, with even less merit than guts (re: i’ve never heard him say “i want you” until he said it to you, etc.)

SO, long words all to say i think following her as the black swordsman post-eclipse would be so wildly interesting because she would hold also that sort of eternal frustration of “i ought to be _____ as a woman”, so there’s the added idea that if she were to leave guts behind, her guilt would be a lot around shouldn’t she have been the one to nurse him back to normalcy? shouldn’t she be playing maternal & kind & loving? but then she’s spurred on by her anger, the rage she feels towards griffith and his lack of care towards her. she had based her entire life on him needing her, and at least holding platonic affection for her. when that crumbles ... she’s pissed! she’s hurt, certainly, but she’s absolutely enraged.

3.  swapping moreso their origin stories, or at least their initial entrance into the band of the hawk.

i won’t go into the eclipse as much here, but just the dynamics and how they’d shift were the trio shuffled emotionally. say guts is griffith’s right hand prior to casca showing up out of the blue and besting some of griffith’s best men  ––  griffith ultimately engaging her in battle and generating his little obsession that he has for guts for casca instead. i think... well, number one, the dynamic between guts and casca would be interesting. i think the idea of a man being threatened by the sudden appearance of a woman who is skillfully better than him is fundamentally different and more aggressively charged than vice versa. guts’ frustration with casca would likely show itself differently than hers with his,  but i would imagine it would still end similarly with a slow burn romance should she be the one to save him on multiple occasions on the field. 

(minor cw for manipulation of a sexual nature in this paragraph) regarding her position with griffith, i can’t think of too much else to say because it would be essentially the same as what his relationship with guts is. i was going to say possibly more manipulative but i think that’s mostly because i think griffith has a tendency in canon to utilize sexual situations as power plays (i.e. with charlotte, and then nearly with casca first in the cart right before the eclipse). and i don’t think that path was necessarily closed with guts, but with casca & the assumption that the struggles she holds with her identity as a “woman” and what determines “usefulness” in that position carry over, it could be more prevalent. plus guts actively rejects griffith even jokingly in terms of flirtatious advances, whereas i think there’s a possibility casca would be swayed by that and ultimately be manipulated into perceiving her and griffith’s relationship to go far past friends or comrades, making his eventual betrayal cruel. in this case, i think casca would most assuredly take on the same route of black swordsman as guts does and leave guts behind initially to get revenge on griffith.

further than that, i think if this particular swap happened, griffith might have, instead of doing what he did during the eclipse to casca in order to spite guts, killed him in front of casca to garner the same reaction. or would have found another route to break the pair of them, which could mean that casca would be journeying on her own as opposed to with guts by her side after the fact. though i’m not sure frankly, it could go either way!

anywho, those are my thoughts, apologies for how long this got... i think it’s such an interesting question because the implications in terms of gender especially would be entirely shaken up. it would be interesting also to see the way in which she carried herself afterwards and if she would have a similar resolute persona, so to speak. thank you so much for asking this it was fun to try and work through :-]