#Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King

[anime-cafeteria]

[suzalulusource]

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Stage 05 “The Princess and the Witch” (2006) dir. Satoshi Toba, wr. Ichirō Ōkouchi // Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King (2012) dir. Toshiyuki Kubooka, wr. Ichirō Ōkouchi // Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Stage 06 “The Stolen Mask” (2006) dir. Hiroaki Kudō, wr. Ichirō Ōkouchi

[alovelyburn]

I send you the Charlotte/Griffith ask, because I’m really interested in your opinion, but you obviously don’t have to talk about them if everything has been already answered the way you would answer the ask. Or….. you can go even more in depth about them being together? I know it will probably never be as important as his relationship with guts (but I wish he would be able to be with her the way he was with him, i guess that’s my shipper side) Also yeah, the wedding. Why not now? What role is Charlotte having in narrative now? They do sleep together but he doesn’t go with the marriage? Why Miura does that? Oh and did he ever said anything about them getting closer or liking each other?

And the Original Ask:

I was just messing around with @zombiesgohome about not knowing what to say because she and I share a brain, lmao. But yeah basically I love Charlotte, she is in my... Top 5? Characters, probably along with the two primaries, Farnese and Zodd. It's something like

Guts

Griffith

Farnese

Charlotte or Zodd

Zodd or Charlotte

At least offhand. Anyway, that said I'm not sure my answer is going to be all that different than anyone else's, sob.

When it comes to Charlotte herself, I think she's a great character - despite being tertiary she manages to have at least as much of an arc as much more prominent characters as she debuts as this borderline agoraphobic, meek little thing who hides behind columns to being capable of defying the king to save Griffith, facing down her fears, and generally toughening up. She's able to do what very few female victims in Berserk do - she fights off her own would-be rapist without any help or intervention from outside forces. She does seem to have regressed during the timeskip between the eclipse and the black swordsman arc, but I'm not sure I can really hold it against her as she's locked in a palace with the most powerful man in the nation, who is her father, tried to rape her, and destroyed Griffith out of jealousy, with no protection at all aside from her bedroom door.

The bit about his willingness and ability to destroy Griffith is pretty relevant - not only is Griffith a larger-than-life figure to both Midland as a whole and Charlotte in particular, he was also the most popular and famous man in the nation, and had just ended a multi-generational war. The willingness to tear that down, and to do so with no hesitation and without even the mercy to just kill him and let it be done... makes the King genuinely terrifying.

It's then followed up by her being locked in a tower by a literal demon who is ALSO a sovereign who wants to rape her, so yeah I'm not shocked that she's terrified and traumatized. Even so, once removed from that situation she bounced back pretty quickly, which also shows how resilient she is.

When it comes to her relationship with Griffith, I think @zombiesgohome said it best: she feels to me as though she's in a different story than everyone else. Her world is a bit like a medieval period set shojo romance or like a romance novel - she's the princess in the tower and Griffith is the knight who saves her and now she's waiting to live happily ever after. It's an illusion he's been weaving for her since the Golden Age, and she is seemingly still quite oblivious to the reality of her situation, though the extent to which she buys into his knight-in-shining-armor romantic lead routine is sort of a testament to his skill with navigating and manipulating people.

That said, I think its thoroughly to her credit that when she saw Griffith as he was in the dungeon - mutilated and unable to speak, without any of that unearthly beauty and charm that he projected before his fall, she didn't falter in her love for him. She still wanted to be with him, she still protected his life with her own, she still bargained with the King she despised to try and secure his safety. That being the case I think it's fair to say she's a Good Egg.

As for Griffith's relationship with her... well, whenever I write Griffith talking about his potential for a life with Charlotte, usually in the context of angsting about his feelings about Guts, I inevitably have him say something like, "I wouldn't be unhappy with her."

Basically I don't think he has anything against her, I think she's pleasant and he likes her enough that he's capable of being happy with her, but whereas for Charlotte it would be a love match, for Griffith it's a political match. That doesn't mean he cant enjoy her company or that they cant be allies and decision makers and chart the course of their nation together - she does seem to share his vision for equanimity and already showed the beginnings of that perspective when they first met. But I don't see him pining over her when he's away from home.

And I don't think he's ever going to feel about her anything like he felt (or feels) about Guts. Which in fairness isn't so much a mark against her - I don't think he's ever going to feel that way about anyone else.

There are a few reasons for that, IMO.

The in-world reasons are like... she's kind of not his type - his interest in Guts and his explanation of that interest way back before the first duel seems to imply that Griffith is drawn to kindred spirits - a person who is, like him, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible, risking everything up to and including his own life in order to achieve the next thing, taking big risks with the hope of an equally big accomplishment as a payoff. The fact that Guts does these things in different areas than Griffith doesn't negate the fact that he does them, and Griffith finds that appealing.Also blah blah about his semi-canonically not being into women as per semi-explicit word of God? Plus, he's an emotionally numbed demon so the time for him to find a new love is probably past at this point, even if he could have done it back in the day.

But I think the bigger and more important reason is the out of world reason, which is that the story is about Guts and Griffith - it's the same reason Guts can't settle down with Casca (at least until the end of the story, if he does it at that time). To really develop Griffith into a closer relationship with Charlotte would really require more time spent on them than the series seems likely to do. This is especially the case now, since the story is starting to draw itself in the direction of the ending, so there probably won’t be a lot of new threads opening, I expect?

The wedding... is a good question. It's hard to say in part because I'm not sure how much time has actually gone by inworld - it's been A While for us but for them? Falconia was only established in Volume 34, we're on Volume 41, and two volumes were spent on a couple of days in Elfhelm, so maybe there just hasn't been a chance to get to it yet. The other thing is, Griffith being Griffith and tuned into causality and thus at least sometimes aware of things to come, may be waiting for a specific moment or event. Who knows?

On the question of their having kids, I wouldn't be shocked although I do wonder what that would even mean. Griffith's not... human or even a normal demon, would she even survive that? And what would be born, exactly? I guess a lot of that depends on the precise nature of his current self - is his physical body more or less human? We know his nature is no longer human but his natural state is also an insubstantial spiritual being residing within the Vortex, so like is his body human and he just taps his spiritual abilities or is he physically demonic at this point? If you ran a DNA test on Griffith what would you get? ...do demons have DNA...

It's interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if she were pregnant by the end of the series - a part of him left behind even when he's gone from the physical realm.

And while Miura did not say anything about them getting closer to my knowledge, I don't think there's anything wrong with shipping them - exploring things you're unlikely to see in canon is one of the reasons fandom exists.

[shagrathmovies]

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King - 2012 - Toshiyuki Kubooka

[uozlulu]

This English translation baffles me in places. They add characters names when characters don't use them and then they leave details out like this page calling the main castle knight chichiue (father). Admittedly it's obvious that they're father and son, but still it's weird that they just kind of left that out of the translation.

[thiagowdr]

ベルセルク 黄金時代篇I 覇王の卵 (Beruseruku Ōgon Jidai-hen Wan Haō no Tamago) Berserk: Golden Age Arc I-The Egg of the King - Toshiyuki Kubooka - 2012. ★★☆☆

ベルセルク 黄金時代篇II ドルドレイ攻略 (Beruseruku Ōgon Jidai-hen Tsū Dorudorei Koryaku) Berserk: Golden Age Arc II-The Battle for Doldrey - Toshiyuki Kubooka - 2012. ★★☆☆

ベルセルク 黄金時代篇III 降臨 (Beruseruku Ōgon Jidai-hen Surī Kōrin) Berserk: Golden Age Arc III-The Advent - Toshiyuki Kubooka - 2013. ★★☆☆

[crisis-actress]

@bthump hi! and thank you for tagging me!

for the berserk ask meme:

What year did you get into Berserk?

my memory is terrible, but i want to say…2015-ish? my sister kept pushing for me to watch it because she knew that i would love griffith and guts. though i didn't become obsessed until around 2017.

Did you watch the anime or read the manga first?

the egg of the king movie, much to the chagrin of my sister. i picked up the manga shortly after, and the rest is history.

Who’s your favorite character and why?

griffith. surprise, surprise! i literally have a whole google doc consisting just of snippets from books/articles that i've read that somehow relate back to him. it's how i like to fan these days lol.

i love his complexity. i love the tensions between his performance as the chivalrous knight, the violent path to his dream, his consuming love for guts and his inner self-hatred & guilt & desperation. it's interesting to me how his self-objectification becomes a double edged sword. and i love the tragedy of his perpetuating guilt machine; the sunk cost fallacy of sacrificing more bodies to make sure the others weren't in vain. plus, his playful side is very charming to me.

Do you have a favorite story arc? 

golden age, with lost children/conviction as a runner up

What are your top 3 ships?

griffith/guts, judeau/casca, serpico/guts

and i guess griffith/laban? i don't think it's supported by the text or anything, but i’ve been working on a fic about them

Who’s your favorite apostle?

rosine and irvine 

Is there a character you’d know that you’d be friends with?

luca and roderick for sure

Who’s your favorite God Hand?

femto and slan

You’re allowed to bring one character back from the dead. Who are you bringing back?

rosine, if she can reunite with jill

[inuh]

[blanksoullesseyes]

Bazuso being defeated in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King (2012)

[anime-cafeteria]

[moodscreencaps]

berserk: the golden age arc i - the egg of the king (2012) dir. toshiyuki kubooka

[downloadarmy]

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I – The Egg of the King

Guts, an immensely strong sword-for-hire, has little direction in his life, simply fighting one battle after the next. However, this all changes suddenly when he meets and is bested by Griffith, a beautiful and charismatic young man who leads the Band of the Hawk mercenary army. After Guts joins the Band and the relationship between the two men begins to blossom, Casca, the tough, lone…

[victorwave]

Berserk Golden Age Arc I- The Egg Of The King OST - Blood And Guts by Berserk Golden Age

[gaycrpg]

cinematic parallels:

Devilman: Crybaby (2018) // Berserk: Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King (2012)

[berserksweg]

For the salty ask list... 25 for the golden age arc. Thanks!

How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX?

Yes, I would end the golden age arc differently (Well, okay, I have wish fulfillment, and then just some minor stuff because it needs to end in the same way for the rest of the story to happen)

So if I were to make the golden age its own story, basically to make it all have a happy ending, I would change one thing, Griffith is never caught with the princess. With this, the band of the hawk are never outlaws, Griffith doesn’t get tortured, and the eclipse doesn’t happen. I’m writing a story for this, but want to finish it before I post, but that is basically the idea I’m starting with (fun fact, watch the first two movies of the trilogy and stop right after either the party or when Guts leaves to not have a completely sad ending.) Of course this doesn’t factor in the Kushans, or the whole egg of the king bit, which is an issue for a later time. Of course Guts would eventually comeback and reconstruct all his relationships with the Band of the Hawk (especially Casca, wink wink) and bada bing bada boom, Griffith would marry the princess and get his kingdom! Simple!

But since I love the rest of the series, here’s a minor eclipse change: don’t frame Casca’s rape like a hentai. That has always disturbed me, and I know some people get off to it, but honestly it’s just gross. I get to know the magnitude of what happened you have to see how horrible it was, but like I feel there was a better way to do it than what was done. I don’t know, Berserk is one of the only media I consume that has such explicit scenes, so I don’t have much of a background on it. maybe just frame it as a definite bad thing (Which to me it is, but how I’ve seen other misconstrue things... With Casca back now, hopefully it will be obvious for even the dimmest of bulbs)

So there’s that, feels a little ramble-y sorry.