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bigshotlunar · 1 year ago

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Been reading Berserk finally!

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bigshotlunar · 1 year ago

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ELDEN RING: Shadow of the Erdtree

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bigshotlunar · 1 year ago

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when did you first get into berserk? what made you fall in love with griffith, guts and their relationship/dynamic? (btw i love this blog. it's a gem admist the rubble that is the berserk fandom. keep up the good work ❤)

Thank you, that’s awesome to hear!

Well I watched the anime with a friend and then read a scanlation several years ago, and I enjoyed it and casually shipped griffguts but I didn’t really get super into it back then, probably because the scanlation was hard to follow and often confusing, and I never ended up rewatching the anime despite being tempted bc the rape and attempted rape scenes put me off too much to dive back into it.

Then a couple years ago I got into a conversation about Berserk w/ someone and found out Guts and co finally got off the boat so I was like, hey maybe I should re-read it and catch up. So I found the dark horse translation and just fell completely head over heels for it lol.

And I think I got so into it bc of the double whammy of how well Guts, Griffith, and griffguts hits so many of my favourite ship and character tropes, and how thoroughly the story is about their relationship, and how it’s actively enriched by reading their relationship as mutual pining and repressed attraction lol. Like, it legit fits everything perfectly and makes the story more coherent and thematically rich.

So like, on a personal level, everything griffguts is just enjoyable to me. I love how Guts reads like Miura’s attempt to take an over the top action antihero archetype and actually delve into what would make a dude that fucked up. I love the way the Black Swordsman arc subverts expectations that way - you expect a big action climax when Guts encounters the dude he wants revenge on, and instead he’s physically helpless at the time and can’t do much of anything except lie on the ground listening to a story that parallels his own backstory lol, the climax is actually fueled by emotional revelations about his former relationship with the dude he wants revenge on, and then we segue into the Golden Age and learn all about Guts’ traumatic childhood and why he has giant issues around being traded away by someone he loves, as well as why he’s irrationally driven to fight strong opponents.

Like I’m admittedly just a sucker for big tough scary badass is still basically a scared abused attention starved kid deep down.

And Griffith is just my ideal character. Like start off with one of my favourite character types of calm, collected, competent dude who is a huge mess of issues behind that veneer, and then add about 50 more things I adore, like his narrative of being torn between his love for another dude and the thing he built his entire life around; the way he lies to himself (”I don’t feel guilty” while he’s self-harming, eg); the way his feminine beauty is emphasized both as an asset and a source of trauma; his hardcore repression; his pursuit of a utopia; the way his dream of a utopia is ultimately framed as stemming from a desire to escape from a harsh reality; his guilt and self-loathing; the emotional vulnerability that occasionally seeps through the cracks in his mask; self-destructiveness; the irony of becoming a monster because he already erroneously sees himself as one; trying to escape his feelings of love because they’re devastating and life-ruining… ok I need to stop at some point here.

And god griffguts like. The aformentioned dude being torn between the thing he values most in life and his love for another dude - fucking love that. Destroying his life because of that love. “How long ago did someone I was supposed to have in hand… instead gain such a strong hold on me” is like a summarization of my absolute favourite romance dynamic where feelings + emotional vulnerability reverses the expected power dynamic. Epic misunderstandings stemming from strong characterization - like I understand why Guts left, why he didn’t explain himself to Griffith, why Griffith threw his life away after that, why Griffith chose to sacrifice him, and it’s so satisfying because it makes perfect sense from a character standpoint. I love that kind of romantic tragedy, 2 people fucking up due to their own tragic flaws. And the potential they had - like the reason it’s a tragedy is because they could’ve been so perfect together. Guts wanted someone to look at him, someone who loved him and admired him and needed him, and that was Griffith. And Griffith wanted someone to know him, even the parts he himself hates, and love him anyway, and that was Guts.

Like they’re positioned as each others’ positive alternatives to their destructive dreams, but due to their respective issues and insecurities they end up losing that relationship in favour of pursuing those dreams. It’s perfect.

And like I mentioned, reading it as romantic pining just makes the story better. It fits into the theme of trauma getting between them and ruining their potential, it fits into the sense of lost potential for a mutually fulfilling relationship, it fits into the way the tragedy comes not from their intense feelings for each other but from their failure to define and act on them, it fits into the way the misunderstanding that separates them is literally just both dudes failing to realize their feelings for the other are mutual and returned:

Guts: