#conrad griffith

[mechadeimos]

[baranedizille]

Angels

[thekingofwinterblog]

So a bit of symbolism I have never seen anyone comment on is what fingers each of the 5 Godhand of Berserk represents.

From left to right, we first have Conrad.

Starting with the Pinky, there is Conrad. The littlefinger unlike the rest has little symbolism behind it.

He is the forgotten member, the one with a very mundane name, who never really does anything to stand out, and who's demonic form is that of a giant bedbug.

Next, the Ring Finger is Ubik.

The ring finger is the mystical finger, the one given higher signifigance than the rest of a mytholical scale, and fittingly, he is the most blantly open and frequent about making use of his magical powers to compensate for his less than impressive body.

The middle finger is Slan, the one who is the embodiment of everything evil and disguisting about sex in all it's forms.

The middle finger is, fittingly enough, the finger of vulgarity, with the raised finger along with a fist used, having become a go to insult due to it's visual similaity to an erect human dick.

The index finger is represented by Femto, the evil messiah of an artifical, false god.

As the index finger he points the way, showing the path for those around him to follow, wheter if be conquest, or helping him destroy his former, closest friends in the worst manner possible.

But despite appearances, he is not in charge.

Symbolizing the thumb, is Void, the real leader behind the Godhand, the leader who the rest intentionally or othervise follows.

They are all under his thumb so to speak.

He is also the most vocal about the groups misson to enforce the "Flow of casuality", or in other words, putting his thumb of the scales of destiny.

[quinnzilla99]

Gut's Desire For Revenge

[persephonyed]

closed starter for @musingmixtape from conrad !

plot: simply this.

they'd grown up together, naturally orbiting in and out of each other's social circles, as if their relationship was the finish line at the end of a prolonged mouse chase. there had always been a naturally pull between the two, and it was only a matter of time before conrad had pulled her to the nearest hideaway and they'd finally indulged in all their fantasies. that was months ago, and they were still attempting to hide things — it wasn't like they weren't both intended for another's hand or something, of course not. but it may have also been the key reason for their secret meetups and hidden affairs. and this wasn't a problem until the rumor mill ran it's course, and foul whispers had gotten back to conrad's ears. because, as it usually is, the gossip was wicked and a wounded heart never acted rationally. "is he why we couldn't meet last night?" the boy finally came out and questioned her. "is he the reason why you cancelled our plans?"

[cinemaquiles]

Uma verdadeira novela: "O circo dos horrores" (Circus of horrors, 1960)

[bthump]

I just wanted to say that the discussion around what Griffith really thought of the Hawks is addressed quite directly in chapter 77 where in the 'Reality within his Conscious Realm' Griffith asks Ubik and Conrad, "Which way's the castle?" and they say, "Ah, yes, boy. Your FRIENDS said they'd wait for you there." (they did not use caps, but still). And then Griffith goes there, and it's just a mountain of corpses

That's a good point actually. One of those little details that I never really think about but yeah it's a pretty direct statement that whether Griffith admits it to himself, he thinks of the Hawks as his friends deep down.

Thanks for pointing this out!

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Today in Christian History

Today is Thursday, March 21st, 2024. It is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; Because it is a leap year, 285 days remain until the end of the year.

1526: In Zurich, Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock escape from prison down a rope. Pacifist Anabaptists, they believed Christians should not hold power, but had been condemned to life imprisonment on concocted charges of fomenting revolution. Captured again that year, Manz and Blaurock will be again imprisoned, and Manz will be executed by drowning in 1527.

1556: Archbishop Thomas Cranmer is burned alive on orders of Mary Tudor, officially because of his “heresies” (he had been a leader in the English Reformation), but actually because of his role in providing King Henry VIII with a divorce from Mary’s mother Catherine many years earlier.

1656: Death of the archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher. His Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti proposed a biblical chronology that placed the creation of the world in 4004 BC, and his dates will be incorporated into the notes of many Bible versions.

1806: Burial of David Dale, a Scottish manufacturer and philanthropist who sought to alleviate the condition of the poor by providing food, housing, and education at his mills. He had opened new mills to provide work for the unemployed. Strongly evangelical, he served as a lay preacher and headed many philanthropic endeavors, and was known as a lenient magistrate.

1843: Gungaram Mundel contracts cholera. He had been the first convert at Khari Baptist Church, Calcutta, and his profession of faith had eased the way for other Indians of the area to follow Christ.

1863: Death of Davis Griffiths, a missionary to Madagascar, who had translated the Bible into the Malagasy language.

1965: Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr (pictured above). leads more than three thousand civil rights demonstrators on a march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. By the time they reach their destination four days later, the number of protesters will have swelled to twenty-five thousand.

1979: Muslim militants burn down the fifth-century historical Coptic Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Old Cairo.

1994: The people of Augusta, Georgia, dedicate a monument on Green Street to the memory of Christian philanthropist Emily Harvey Thomas Tubman.

2007: Teacher Christianah Oluwasesin of Nigeria is beaten to death by a mob on an accusation that she touched a student’s handbag which had a Koran in it, thus defiling the Koran.

[gone2soon-rip]

CLARENCE GILYARD JR (1955-Died November 28th 2022,at 66).American actor. Gilyard was known for his roles as second private investigator and right-hand man Conrad McMasters to Ben Matlock (played by Andy Griffith) on the legal drama series Matlock from 1989 to 1993; Pastor Bruce Barnes in the Left Behind movie trilogy; Cordell Walker's (played by Chuck Norris) Texas Ranger partner, James "Jimmy" Trivette, in the 1990s crime drama Walker, Texas Ranger; Theo, the terrorist computer expert in Die Hard; and Lieutenant (junior grade) Marcus "Sundown" Williams in Top Gun.He later became an associate professor of Fine Arts.Theatre department at the University of Nevada,in Las Vegas.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Gilyard

[swallowerofdharma]

What Guts is for Griffith

a dispassionate analysis written for a better understanding of both characters and of Berserk

Part 6: What is it he desires so much?

Not unlike the English word dream, 夢 (yume) refers both to those images we conjure in our sleep or to a wish we want to make happen. An older kanji expression for it, mostly discarded in favor of the new one, was 寝目, where the first character refers to sleeping and the second to eye (or eyes), making the concept of dream/dreams an equivalent to something like sleeping eyes.

A very well known aquatint by Spanish painter Francisco Goya, from the satirical series Los Caprichos published in 1799, is titled El sueño de la razón produce monstruos (The dream/sleep of reason produces monsters). The full epigraph reads: “Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her [reason], she [fantasy] is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels”. In his illustration, Goya is portrayed having fallen asleep while drawing at his desk, all around him there are creatures associated with evil and folly. The satirical series Los Caprichos depicts human vices like greed, vanity, but also delusions and superstitions, in the context of the values promoted by the Enlightenment. Goya’s etchings and paintings are still well known today, especially for those people who love the arts or have investigated the irrational worlds and the superstitions of the pre-Enlightenment Europe. The epigraph, however, demonstrates how Goya’s message is more complicated, as he believed that human imagination shouldn’t be replaced by the strictly rational plane and that fantasy, if united with the reason, is the irreplaceable source for artistic minds. Goya’s works opened the door for many of the visual elements in dark fantasy tales. Kentarō Miura isn’t dissimilar, in Berserk logic and reason aren’t the real answers. Humanity, confronted with darkness, death, fear and despair, looked for a reason and failed, conjuring the idea of evil or the idea of a savior, the desired one, both fallacious delusions, fantastical beliefs that generated a nearly omnipotent power structure, that oppressed them even more and added to the caos. Griffith devoted his life to a dream, and in doing so he envisions a future through sleeping eyes. Griffith’s madness is showcased in some of his expressions, but often times in the Golden Age arc we are purposely shown how fundamentally human he is.

During the eclipse Void explains: “All lies within the currents of causality. Everything has been determined. All of your lives have been spun into this sacred point in time, the eclipse”. Once the altar for the sacrifice is formed, Ubik opens a portal to Griffith’s unconscious mind, his past memories relived through the logic of a sleeping/dreaming mind. He says to Griffith: “This is not an illusion. It is the reality within your conscious realm… materialized within this dimensional plane”. The words confirm that it isn’t indeed the conscious mind, the awake and rational one, because a special filter is applied to what Ubik conjures: Griffith’s memories are materialized within this dimensional plane, which isn’t reality, but a dream-like state, an in-between: “This is a weird place”. In this sequence, we are given a visual reference for the expression used by Void: “All of your lives have been spun into this sacred point in time”, as we can see an old lady while she is working yarn into a thread on a spinning wheel, like one of the Norns, or Moirai, would do on her spindle.

Griffith is made to relive certain memories and emotions, especially his guilt and fear, through his child self and with the assistance of the old crone, who has followed him to a pile of corpses: “What’s wrong? Are you afraid now? Do you want to turn back? You mustn’t think that way!” The old crone is now revealed as being both Conrad and Ubik. Following the story further, and especially through the double pages illustrations of the four Guardian Angels of Desire, after the great roar of the Astral World, we gain a better idea of their roles and their domains: Conrad being a manifestation of disease and Ubik of madness and illusion. Considering the physical and mental conditions of Griffith at the time of the Eclipse, Conrad and Ubik are the ones who have more power over him. Griffith’s mental anguish is displayed fully. The most instrumental memories, of the back alley boy playing a game, of the death of the unnamed child soldier and of Guts’s final words that dismissed Griffith’s insecurity, together with physical and mental torture are the instruments to guide him towards a precise choice.

[alovelyburn]

Rambles about the Millennium Falcon Arc Part 2

You know, I really should have just tacked the Griffith stuff here onto the last one, but it was so long.....

Anyway as a result this is a bit of a transitional piece that covers Griffith’s establishment of his Apostle inner circle as well as Farnese and Serpico’s backstory. Ahoom.

Oh and headsup for discussion of... incest I guess? Eh, you know what I mean, if you’ve read Berserk you know what they’re like in this part.

Rambles about the Millennium Falcon Arc Part 2

1. So, one thing I forgot to mention, is this kind of subtle heart theme that turns up in Neo/Femto’s stuff, like Femto’s entire chest reflects it as well...

With his chest muscle area resembling a biological heart which then heads down into a series of stylized hearts. It’s interesting – the heart theme I assume is a call to his role as the King of Longing – it seems analogous to Slan’s dildo corset. Things that represent them. I have to look closer at Ubik, Conrad and Void to see if they have anything similar.

 Anyway, back to Griffith scaring the hell out of Kushans.

 2. I love how Griffith just kind of waltzes over there and kills this guy. It does remind me of an old conversation I witnessed where people were arguing that Griffith in his current form isn’t a good swordfighter anymore because he doesn’t have a bunch of swordfighting feats. I think that’s a little silly though, like okay he came back to the world and just left all his skills behind, sure.

3. So, because Miura never really broadcast what Femto/Griffith could do (and sometimes showed things quite subtly, although obviously not right here), I’ve seen a lot of confusion over this and people just kind of forgetting some of the things he can do, I’m going to try to keep track of his demonstrated abilities. None of them have official names obviously but this one I call “Immunity to Violence.” Specifically physical violence, because it appears that physical weapons just don’t connect with him at all – he doesn’t block them or dodge them they just never touch him. I wonder if this is the issue Guts ran up against in recent chapters.

Guts definitely got closer than like, the arrows but that could have something to do with the amount of force or the fact that Guts was closer to begin with?  Who kooooows.

Yeah, I’m sure that the dozens or hundreds of arrows that just fell out of the air and landed roughly the same distance from him all at once was a coincidence, cool. I mean, obviously this guy doesn’t even believe it, it’s just such a silly thing to say.

4. I don’t remember whether I’ve talked about this before, sob. But I often think about like, why some apostles’ human form have an actively bestial look to them, like Zodd, and some are just entirely human looking, like Locus for example.  And then you also have some people in the middle like Grunbeld. There’s a few things that could explain this.

-They could get more bestial over time like vampires in some vampire mythos will tend to do.  I don’t really think this is it, though, in part because Grunbeld is quite a young Apostle but he still looks partway to Zoddville.

-It could be that their “human” form as an apostle is not necessarily what they looked like in their human life, like it could be that it reflects something about them or their desires. This is probably more likely than the first, and someone like Wyald is strong evidence for that because his actual human form was a frail old man while his Apostle human form was, well, Wyald.

-It could be that they just don’t all walk around in full human or full awakened forms all the time. Maybe if they go fully into their human form they look like they did in life, but some of them choose to live in a mid-transformed state. This is the theory I like the best, because it explains a number of things, such as Grunbeld being obviously too tall to be human. It’s also probably correct, because you do see Rosine stop at different points along the human to apostle scale.

That really had nothing to do with anything but anyway.

5. Locus is one of those characters I wish we had more information on. But I also wish we had more information on.... people who have powers but aren’t mages or seemingly otherwise magical. Sonia is the obvious first example – a seer, a medium, a telepath, just kind of out of nowhere. In the Grunbeld novel, they have another character who had some kind of psychic or mystical oracling ability, and then we have this mention by Locus.

Generally speaking I find Berserk’s worldbuilding quite fascinating and well thought-out, although I do think there’s a shift in the kind of world this is meant to be between the Black Swordsman arc and the Lost Children arc. @Chainusser has discussed how the basic components of the world seem to have switched from the middle ages to somewhere approaching the renaissance, for example – Miura loved his anachronisms, but I do think that’s true. But that’s only one of the changes really – we also started getting oracles and psychic girls out of nowhere which honestly maybe shouldn’t bother me since the witches also came out of nowhere, but I do kind of want to know what their relationship to the world is. Are all their visions sent by the Godhand the way the blind priest in Conviction’s were? That’d be pretty uh interesting.

5. “The wind whispered that the world had begun to change.” I love the way the world starts to warp itself in response to Griffith’s presence or even just the approach of a time when he’ll be present. It happened in the Golden Age, and it continues to happen. It’s one of the things that makes me think the reincarnated Godhand of a given millennium is meant to change the world for its next era – the world literally starts to prime itself for major changes.

So what do you think the chances are that Raksas is actually the one who takes out Griffith? Can’t say it wasn’t foreshadowed if so.

I love this bit a lot – the brutality and chaos caused by the Apostles and the casualness with which they present it.

One of the things I like about this whole sequence, the whole thing from Griffith’s arrival through the Apostles kneeling before him is... the sheer carnage that they cause when they arrive, breaking down gates and decimating dozens of fighters in a handful of seconds. Because it does underscore the strength of the army Griffith ends up commanding but also the brutality of them, which contrasts beautifully with the more controlled and civilized way they behave once Griffith gets his talons on them.

I also like... how freaking menacing they look back there.  Now this is kind of interesting, too:

6. “That’s the Hawk of Light. The savior of the world. Or perhaps...”

Schierke’s first appearance. I think it’s interesting that she refers to Griffith as both the Hawk of Light and then on the next page as the Hawk of Darkness. She also reflects some uncertainty as to what he is and what he is there to do – the savior of the world, or perhaps...

One of the things I notice about the way the mystical types perceive Griffith  -- and I’m not going to claim this is universal because I’m ultimately just referring to the ones I can remember – is that they don’t tend to refer to him as an inherently malevolent force but rather as a confounding force that creates... chaos as a byproduct of his existence. Here I’m thinking all the way ahead to Elfhelm, where the people Guts talked to about Griffith perceived the monsters and destruction he created not as an end to itself but as something done in order to accommodate his creation of Falconia but I mean we’ll get into that more later I’m sure.

Anyway the point is...

 Schierke obviously finds him distressing and dangerous – I think at some point he’s actually called dreadful? Maybe that was a fan translation. But it does make sense considering one of the first things he does is start burning down powerful witches. Even so, he does have this air of ambiguity to him as is appropriate for one whose actions may cause suffering or salvation.

Also, Master of the Sinful Black Sheep (Apostles), King of the Blind White Sheep (humanity). I’ve seen it suggested that the latter is the Holy See specifically which I guess would work as a messianic reference, but I do think it means humanity as a whole since his deal is that he’s leading all of mankind into one nation under, well, him.

7. The destruction, the violence, and the beauty that shines through it and overrides it, it’s very appropriate to Griffith, don’t you think?

I wonder if every incarnated Godhand becomes the master of the Apostles or if it’s just part of Griffith’s specific thing. Better than that, though, I wonder if there were Apostles when the last Godhand incarnated.  That might seem like a somewhat random question, but this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now: when Void’s Eclipse is shown there are no apostles anywhere. And the name Apostle in itself suggests followers of something or someone – a messianic figure for example. Also, we’ve never met an Apostle older than Zodd, and he’s only 300. Now obviously there could be older ones out there we’ve never met, but it is interesting isn’t it? It wouldn’t be farfetched to suggest that they are, well, Apostles of Griffith specifically and that this specific form of human-turned-demon may have been created specifically for this era.

Okay so lemme talk a little bit about Griffith for a moment.

I always say NeoGriffith is my favorite of all the Griffiths – and he is. He is the embodiment of all the things that draw me so powerfully to Berserk – the embodiment of the questions raised by the worldbuilding, and his enigmatic nature is incredibly intriguing to me: what does he feel? Is it anything? How does he feel about his situation? Does he have regrets? Is he happy? Is he capable of happiness? Does he find Falconia satisfying, or does he miss the people he lost? Obviously that One Scene, you know the one, seems to imply that he does miss them and does harbor some regrets. But at the same time he also implies that he doesn’t feel that way until the transitional period between Moonkid and NeoGriffith, thus implying that on a day-to-day basis he’s fine.

NeoGriffith is, like I said, an enigma. I’ve seen people say he comes off as a bit robotic, going through the motions of fulfilling the things Griffith wanted to do for no particular reason other than that Griffith once wanted to do them. I’m not sure I’d go quite that far, but there is a certain emptiness to him and it’s hard to say whether it’s because he himself is empty or because honestly most of what he does amounts to going through the motions because he lives on a stage and he is in a constant state of performance. He does show hints of reactions from time to time that seem genuine – the smile as he walked away from Rickert after being rejected comes to mind – but most of the time it’s like he’s semi-sleepwalking through life, and the thing is that does make sense because ultimately Griffith as he is now is a fundamentally different kind of being than he was as a human.

Also, Miura once commented that he wrote Griffith as someone who didn’t talk about his mental state, which does imply that there’s something going on there beyond what’s immediately evident – especially since that was a response to someone noting that he seems like a secondary protagonist after his reincarnation. So he wasn’t talking exclusively about Griffith’s emotional and psychological issues during the Golden Age. There’s something happening behind his placid surface.

But all that said.... he does lack a lot of human Griffith’s charm, and sometimes it’s difficult to believe that it’s the same person – although, in fairness, it isn’t really.

But all that said as well, I will note that it’s actually pretty hard to tell how much like Hawks Griffith he really is, because when we knew Hawks Griffith we saw him through Guts’ experience, and Griffith was never “normal” about Guts. My point being its entirely possible that from the outside – from the perspective of people who weren’t the best friend Griffith was in love with and confided everything in – the personalities would not be as visibly different as they are to us.

(In fact I’d say that’s probably the case.)

Miura once said that Griffith’s return to the world was the beginning of his and Guts’ relationship as adults. So that’s interesting, too.

And now on to Farnese and Serpico!

8. The relationship between Serpico and Farnese is kind of awkward to write about, because of the Serpico/Farnese relationship being weird and because as a result I’m going to have to talk about incestish-tinged emotional relationships. But here we go.

In one of those quotes posted on Twitter, Miura talked a bit about his unwillingness to do that anime thing where someone is really strong but has a skinny body, so he felt like Serpico’s formidability had to come from his speed. I don’t think he directly mentioned Serpico’s wits, but I do think that not unlike Griffith, his mind is one of his stronger assets, and so is his ability to play pretend. I mean I can see why some people consider him to be a Griffith type even though as I’ve said before I don’t really think they’re that similar.

Anyway, for a small kid without money, developing those skills – learning how to defend himself without brawn, learning how to outsmart an enemy or let them think he’s helpless and then snap out at them becomes key to his survival. He still kind of uses that strategy – appear meek and weak and then unleash when necessary.

But even though the skills in question end up helping him later in life, when he was a kid it just made things more difficult – he talks about having to bear the pride that his mother put on him and having it stripped away daily. It seems like her insistence that he remain prideful tended to force him to his feet when he was attacked but instead of saving him, it made his tormentors even more cruel, and the beat him down until that pride drained out. And then he’d go home and have it pushed onto him again. It’s another thing he has in common with Farnese later – the weight of “family” expectations that he can never live up to. That, really, he doesn’t even want to live up to.

I guess his mother had “consumption”, aka tuberculosis? Because I don’t know that untreated advanced cancer would have allowed her to live long enough to end up burning on the stake whereas TB may give you a few years. Plus she was having coughing fits.

It’s interesting to me how this idea – the dream that is a burden – keeps coming up, particularly in reference to these poverty-stricken people who are meant to try and raise themselves up to nobility. This makes sense because in the kind of society we’re talking about here, it’s almost impossible to actually achieve that feat, so trying to do so is like trying to run on quicksand. In Serpico’s case he isn’t really allowed to let go of that and try to build a life inside the world that he actually inhabits instead of the one she dreams of him entering.  

It’s a bit different with Griffith because he’s... Griffith, I mean he’s built different. But even he found it burdensome by the end. Serpico also lacks Griffith’s unrealistic charisma and I’m not saying this to bag on Serpico I’m just saying that he lacks the Griffith option of turning his enemies into followers, so all he can do is try to survive them.

Enter Farnese.

Yeah she did think that. I mean I guess the thing is, at this point in their lives they’re both needing something the other can provide. Farnese, living in this loveless house, neglected and ignored, is desperately looking for someone to love her and pay attention to her – thus the progressive set of animals she tries and fails to bond with which is a whole other issue. But I do think she initially took him in for the same reason she picked up all these animals. If he hadn’t taken to her, I’m honestly not sure what she would have done. Thrown him on the pyre too? Kicked him out into the streets? Probably something like that.

But that doesn’t happen, because Serpico has basically been primed for this moment by his mother’s insistence that he aim to enter noble society. ...he’s also been primed for it by the events of his life as a poverty stricken kid who has to support his dying mother and himself, and is constantly getting beaten half to death for it. For him, as ill-tempered as she is, Farnese is a savior of sorts – she takes him off the streets and out of the cold and gives him a better life, and because she does he is able to afford a caretaker for his mother, thus lifting that off of him as well.

The fixation he develops on her as a result of that reminds me of Casca’s fixation on Griffith, or Farnese’s fixation on Guts – though it manifests differently because Serpico is a different person. But, you know. As a result of this person upending the world they felt trapped in and showing them a new way of life, they develop this devotion to that person. Although I will say in Serpico and Farnese’s case, in many ways she didn’t free him so much as give him a more comfortable cage.

9. The way Farnese treats Serpico is, you know, completely abusive. It’s also odd because there seems to be very little motivation behind it, and it’s not as though she doesn’t care about him. I think one big thing is that at this point in her life, Farnese is still in the habit of trying to control everything that she feels threatened by or is afraid of – not to say she’s afraid of what Serpico would do to her but rather she’s afraid of being emotionally invested in someone who doesn’t invest back.

Which brings me to what I think is the primary reason she does this: as a test of his devotion. It’s something people with a fear of abandonment do sometimes: push people to see whether they come back. How much do you love me? If I say this thing, will you forgive it? Do you love me enough to overlook how mean I am? Do you love me enough to not get mad when I hurt you? Do you love me enough to stay when I tell you to go?

If the target leaves, it just confirms their fear that they’ll always be left behind. But at least it hurts less if they know it was their choice.

And if the target stays... it’s not enough. It’s never enough, because they always think the next thing will go over the line and they’ll be alone again.

Serpico recognizes that isolation and loneliness in her because he lived with it in his own life. I imagine too that part of the reason he sticks by her so hard is because of what he did to get there: he failed his mother – left her alone and unable to fend for herself, with only a caregiver to spend time with. He chose Farnese instead. Having made that choice, he can’t go back without making it all worthless.

Which isn’t to say he doesn’t love Farnese or that he wants to abandon her, I don’t think that’s the case at all.

Something ghastly compelled her – it’s the fear though, isn’t it? Farnese is afraid of a lot. And her way of staving off that fear is to try to control it and if she can’t control it, then she tries to join with it. A fire can’t burn its own flames. Lightning can’t strike itself. If she keeps dancing with the storm, then it can’t sweep her away.

Editorializing moment but while I understand what’s going on here, it’s also the only thing I have a hard time with. I’m an animal person, idk what to tell you.

I like how Miura let the reader and Serpico come to understand Farnese bit by bit together. Not that you could tell from how I frontloaded info oops.

But the fact that she’s willing to burn her beloved keepsake because of an offhand remark from her father speaks volumes. She’s chasing his shadow, trying to be seen. Trying to win affection from a rock. Basically.

Serpico understands her, though, because even if they come from different places and had different experiences, they know the same pain. They both lived in isolation and loneliness in their childhood. They both spent most of their time afraid. To bury that fear they surrounded themselves in walls that obscured their core selves from the world – even though to do that left them cut off from the things they wanted to reach for, alone in the cold.

And I think this – this moment when he comes to truly understand her and chooses to stand with her even when she tries to push him away – its really the moment when their relationship started developing in the direction that it did. For better or worse. ...mostly worse, really, at least until later.

And the reason it’s mostly worse is this little catch in the road. Because the thing is I... this is a I guess a controversial topic, but for me it was always very obvious that Serpico and Farnese were kind of... I mean, look, I’m not trying to make a statement about children having romantic feelings for each other (although I mean, they do – I remember when I was in like 5th grade people talked about who they had crushes on all the time, they even “dated,” idk, do people not do that anymore? I HAVE NO IDEA, I DON’T KNOW ANY CHILDREN) but I am saying the relationship between them is... romance...flavored? And I mean, I guess some people have a hard time seeing/accepting that because they’re siblings but like, they didn’t know that at first, and Farnese still doesn’t know. I’ll bring up some other stuff in a minute but first let’s just say... their being related changes the trajectory of their relationship in a way that neither ever fully adjusted to.

 And we’re about to get into all that in this next chapter I guess!

"Time passed within the labyrinth. The two saplings beneath the snowy drift became bent and entwined as they grew. And before they knew it, trees begin to extend their branches beyond their miniature garden... bearing curious fruit.”

Farnese uses Serpico as a shield between herself and the obsequious social climbers trying to cling to her skirt. That’s the thing, like she’s obviously snubbing them but as soon as we move away from her and see what people are saying about it...

No one cares about her. No one’s talking about how sweet or intelligent she is or how charming or how beautiful, it’s just gdi I want to marry into her family. And I mean look that’s probably because the only thing of the above that they can attest to is her looks – she won’t talk to them so it’s not like they know how bright she is or even what her personality is like once you get close. But knowing that must be a turnoff for her when she has Serpico there at her side. Besides if she marries into some noble family isn’t that the same as staying there? Wouldn’t she just end up alone in a house again?

And okay here comes the uhh incestish portion of this treatise.  I know it’s a touchy subject, and I’ve had some disagreements with people who don’t believe there was anything particularly romancey going on between them, but I’m going to state it and back it up, and by the way it’s not like I want them to get together ok, it’s the same thing I always do: just look at what’s on the page and take it for what it is.

Okay so the point about them that I most often see is that Farnese only asked to run away with Serpico because she was desperate to escape the arranged marriage, not because she had any particular romantic interest in Serpico himself. I’m here to say that’s incorrect and here’s why:

First – the way she treats him, the way she whips him and then gets noticeably excited by it, and the sexualized way in which her interactions with his bare skin are presented are extremely reminiscent of her reaction to whipping Guts back in the day... which was very obviously because she was attracted to him. ...and to whipping, I guess. Also....

Second - Serpico is aware that she’s into him before the arranged marriage thing comes up, he’s just kind of ignoring it. In the guidebook there’s this one bit where it says that she uses her actions toward him as an outlet for her feelings and desires. Which makes sense because the more she loves the more she fears, and so she lashes out and she gets possessive and she tests and she hurts him in order to reassure herself or comfort herself, or vent the things she wants into a more “acceptable” form if you consider whipping your servant and biting him acceptable I guess, I mean uhhhh it’s not but you know, maybe it’s more socially acceptable than having a relationship with an underling even if he is titled.

Sometimes I feel like the way Farnese treats Serpico is the way some weirdo Griffith haters think he treated Guts, lmao. You know like the people who are all, yeah he had feelings for Guts but obviously he was super-abusive. Like I don’t know if they have whipping headcanon going on or what. Anyway.

More on that in a second, but first...

The juxtaposition here is really cool – Look at the way the page is constructed with the panel layout of the bottom a reflection of the top, emphasizing the way Serpico and Farnese’s experiences and relationships with their defining but absent parents are similar and different. In Serpico’s case, his mother is mentally absent – because she’s so sick, he grew up in a state of parentification. He had to fend for himself. Farnese is the same way – she grew up in a gilded cage instead of a hovel and the streets, but even so she was left to raise herself, emotionally abandoned, and each of them were ultimately subject to the demands and expectations of those parents which forced them into roles they wouldn’t otherwise have taken on.

And this expression – the same face she had on when her father told her to throw away her beloved bunny doll. Parental relationships can just be like. Needles under your skin, I don’t know.

Okay so like, Farnese doesn’t know they’re related, you know? She isn’t asking him to do this just so she can escape – she has feelings for him, Serpico was already aware of that. That being the case, and knowing how terrified she is of abandonment or rejection, and the fact that to issue this request is to defy the orders of the father she’s been chasing all her life... imagine how hard it was for her to ask him this.

I don’t really think that she’d made this request if she weren’t in love with him, because it’s too big a risk. If it were like that – if all she wanted to do was escape – there’s no reason she couldn’t have just said let’s leave, fuck this place. She didn’t have to frame it as a romantic overture. But the fact that she comes out with this now, right after her father announces that he’s betrothed her to some guy she doesn’t know, is also pretty telling. It’s her last chance to try to say what she hasn’t been saying before it’s too late.

 And I think...

The shock and pain on her face when he rejects her speaks for itself. I just think after all they’d been through together, and everything she’d thrown at him without his complaining, and all the times she tested him and found that he was always still there with her... she didn’t... expect him to reject her. This ultimately sets her off into a frenzy because...

Remember, when she hurts, or is afraid, she tries to control it, and then she tries to merge into it. It’s just the same as when she feared the burning outside her window and fought it by throwing torches on the pyre, or when she was afraid of the storm so she went out and started dancing with it, destroying things. I think... the fact that her father is trying to oust her from the house, that the person she thought returned her feelings rejected her (which to her mind means she’s now trapped into this marriage), she feels like it’s burning her down, so she expresses her pain by burning everything else down too. And that’s why....

She is able to calm down when Serpico saves her, and holds her.

The thing is, when she tried to initiate a romantic relationship with him and he turned her down, she probably registered that as the end of the road basically – the thing that finally drives him away from her. But when he saves her, when he still cares about her and stays with her, she’s able to regain enough security and stability to stop her rampage. But the thing is...

Remember she is a person who is terrified of rejection. The fact that she never brings it up again doesn’t mean that her feelings changed. It means that she is never going to take that risk again, because she barely survived it the first time.  Also honestly, when someone rejects you, leaving it alone and not bothering them about it is probably the right thing to do, you know?

I think Serpico’s feelings are a little more difficult to read, in part because he’s so masked up all the time. But in an interview Miura does refer to him as analogous to Andre from Rose Versailles, which is telling if you know the story because he’s the attendant who loves Oscar and stays by her side even though he has no reason to believe he’ll ever be able to be with her. It also got into Miura’s theory on romantic ideals – the three types of man that he believed women would dream of, in Farnese’s case being the faraway one that she longs for (Guts), the one who sticks by her side (Serpico) and down to earth guy with money who woos her (Roderick). It’s also mentioned elsewhere that Serpico has “special feelings” for her, which could mean anything really. And their relationship is described as having the “outward appearance of a mistress/servant relationship, but....”

NOW, LISTEN. I don’t want anyone walking away from this thinking I want siblings to hook up, lmao. It’s not that, it’s just that I think that... it’s important to register where these characters are coming from because we’re about to go on a long journey with them, and one that both challenges and changes their dynamic. If we can’t recognize that Farnese and Serpico have this kind of like emotionally incestuous thing happening, or that those feelings never quite faded (at least up to this point in the story), then a lot of things later make less sense.

And the other thing is... Farnese has no idea that this is even an issue. She doesn’t know Serpico is her brother. To her, he’s just a guy she loved who rejected her. So this story looks very different from her angle than it does from Serpico’s or the reader’s.

Anyway, moving along.

It’s interesting to me how Serpico... is like “yeah maybe this is where she’s meant to be!” Because the last time we saw her burning things with that look on her face, he recognized it as a coping mechanism – pushing people away. But at the same time, I think at this point he was probably just relieved and pleased that she had found something, since they were no longer able to be as close as they were. The distance that came up between them after he rejected her means that he can’t warm her the way he used to, even though he’s still there at her side.

Somehow I forgot that the people they were burning weren’t even pagans, they were like... Lutherans basically, yeesh.

This is like the final boss in Serpico’s life. Sorry that’s kind of callous but what I mean is, he’s been running from his past for so long, struggling with his feelings about his mother who was ... not a good parent but through no fault of her own. And he had that... caretaker’s curse of half-wishing she’d die, and at the same time still loving her, and hating her. He ran from it really – has he even stayed in regular touch with her?

...yeah, Lutherans. It’s tragic though because it’s not like she even had the capacity to understand or decide to join this other sect, not that it’s okay to burn people for being Lutherans anyway.

This is such a heartwrenching moment. The thing is, it seems cruel – it is cruel. But she’s trying to protect him. In this moment, surrounded by the Holy See’s knights, what can they do?

The scene of the burning there, that’s from when Farnese burned her beloved worn down bunny. Because her father told her to, and she ultimately... chose to follow his edict rather than holding onto something she loved.

So. Farnese tells him to burn his mother – the broken down thing that he still loves – and he does it. So he can follow her, at the expense of losing something he held onto until now.

The metaphor of fire that keeps coming up in Berserk – fire that keeps the dark back, fire that marks the presence of a true leader. For Farnese, fire means a way out of the cold that she’s lived in her whole life. Serpico lived inside it with her, and they gave each other warmth, but as long as they were trapped inside the world defined by others – the Vandimions, the church, they would never truly be able to thaw. Serpico seems to recognize this drive in her  - the way she’s drawn to Guts’ light, ironically enough, given that he is so dark.

It foreshadows, too, the way Guts will change their dynamic as Farnese develops her feelings for him, and Serpico... deals with that.

All right, well, that was longer than I expected. Just proves I can bang on forever about literally anything because I never thought that much about Serpico’s past before.

You know what I have thought a lot about though? The Beast of Darkness, which is coming up next time same hawk time same hawk channel.

[maturemenoftvandfilms]

I knew I was attracted to older men the first time I saw Sebastian Cabot in family affair I was about 8 years old to this day I still fantasize about him along with him is Tom Bosley William Shatner William Conrad And broadrick Crawford

I knew I was attracted to older men the first time watching Tom Bosley in Father Dowling Mysteries. I wasn't as young as you as I was 15 or 16 at the time. The early 90s watching the likes of Bosley, Andy Griffith, Charles Durning and Ed Asner had figuring out what I like real quick.

[onesingulartheaterkid]

Quotes from rehearsal:

(Once again, all real names have been changed to the name of the character they’re playing)

Borachio: (unintelligible screaming)

Borachio, calmly: I spilled my Sprite. 

~~~

Conrade: And Dogberry arrests me. 

Verges: I do too! Just because it is the 1940s doesn’t mean you have to erase the work women do. 

~~~

(During the wedding scene)

Hero: I feel like im gonna get beat up. 

Claudio: Verbally, yes.

~~~

Director: The Best Man’s here. And the Best Woman’s here. 

Beatrice: Maid of Honor?

Director: whatever it’s called. 

~~~

Director to Claudio: You’re doing the right thing by shaming Hero. They think it’s wrong, but you’re doing the right thing.

~~~

Antonio to Hero: Here’s some wine to null the pain!

~~~

Dogberry: Remember that I, Dogberry, am an ass!

Verges: You’re my ass 😭🫡

~~~

Fun fact: Dogberry, Verges, and the watch are gonna play The Andy Griffith Show Theme on kazoos as an entrance song. I think that’s awfully iconic and so in character for them. 

[kaijuboarcreations]

Into the Andersonverse: A full timeline of events for the confirmed continuity of Gerry Anderson Supermarionation shows (Fireball XL5 to Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons)

(Disclaimer*: i actually opted to follow Thunderbirds are Go canon for ages *don't ask me why it's a process plus the actual ages and birth order for the boys is heavily debated in both the og series and are go so don't at me* Also yes I took a few creative liberties to fill in some blanks they are marked by ** so you know what isn't canon, and yes it doesn't always make sense *aka how Venus is a war orphan if the war ended before she was born* but you can't blame me for that, that's just how it was written)

Anyways yall better love me for this it took me three days to make

1988: Sally "Grandma" Tracy is born (maiden name unknown)

2012: Professor Mathew Matic is born in Britain -Aloysius "Nosey" Parker is born - Jeff Tracy is born in Kansas to Grant and Sally Tracy**

2015: Commander Sam Shore (real name Samuel Arthur)is born in Kansas

2017: Charles Grey (Colonel White) is born in England

2028: European Atomic War and Mass Riots in France

2029: Conrad Turner (Captain Black) is born in Manchester, England

2030: Steve Zodiac is born on Mars -Sam Shore leaves home to join the navy

2031: Edward Wilkie (Dr Fawn) is born in Yalumba, Australia

2033: Professor Matic graduates with 22 degrees in astrophysics, robotic, and astronomy, and becomes a navigator for Zero-X interplanetary missions -Sam Shore is given command of a World Security Service submarine -Bradley Holden (Captain Gray) is born in Chicago

2034: Sam Shore befriends Admiral Jack Denver -Patrick Donaghue (Captain Magenta) is born in Dublin Bay, Ireland -The European Atomic War ends (the war left Venus and Conrad Turner orphaned)

2035: Venus is born in Paris -George Lee "Phones" Sheridan is born in South Carolina -Adam Svenson (Captain Blue) is born in Boston -Richard Fraiser (Captain Ochre) is born in Detroit

2036: Paul Metcalfe (Captain Scarlet) is born in Hampshire, England

2037: Jeff Tracy becomes a Colonel for the US Air Force and later transfers to the Space Agency -Patrick Donaghue and his parents immigrate to the US, living in poverty in Manhattan

2038: Troy Tempest is born in New York City -Jeff Tracy marries Lucielle** -Charles Grey graduates from the University of East Angila -Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward is born to Sir Hugh and Lady Amelia**

2040: War damage fixed -Sam Shore marries Elaine MacDonald -Scott Tracy is born**

-"Brains" is born -The Southeast Asia revolts -Juliette Pontoin (Destiny Angel) is born in Paris

2041: Atlanta Shore is born from Elaine and Sam in California -Seymour Griffiths (Lieutenant Green) is born in Trinidad

2042: John Tracy is born** -The Iceland Dispute -The Panama-Ithsmus rebellion begins -Karen Wainwright (Symphony Angel) is born in Cedar Rapids -Chan Kwan (Harmony Angel) is born in Tokyo

2043: The Panama-Ithsmus rebellion ends -Magnolia Jones (Melody Angel) is born in Atlanta -Dianne Simms (Rhapsody Angel) is born in London

2044: Virgil Tracy is born**

2045: Professor Matic takes the role as a professor for Universe University -Conrad Turner joins the British Air Force

2046: Marina is born -Gordon Tracy is born** -Charles Grey moves up to the rank of 'Captain' -The British Civil War begins (during which Conrad Turner is badly wounded)

2047: Steve Zodiac joints WSP Academy -Tanusha "Kayo" Kyrano/Tintin Kyrano is born** -Britain joins the World Government -Charles Grey becomes Admiral while commanding the World Navy Destroyer fleet -Conrad Turner joins the World Air Force

2048: Charles Grey joins the Universal Secret Service and marries his field partner Elizabeth Sonmers -Edward Wilkie starts medical school in Brisbane

2049: the British sector of the USS is reorganized by Charles Grey

2050: Professor Matic designs and builds the world's first Nutomic Hyperdrive Motor and is given an honorary position as Major while heading the XL project -Alan Tracy is born** -Charles Grey is promoted to the head of the USS British sector

2051: Steve Zodiac becomes an astronaut and sub-lieutenant at Space City -Prototypes of the XL project are debuted including XL1 Alpha -Adam Svenson receives a full ride scholarship to Harvard University at age 16

2052: the Anti-Bereznik Riots (of which Patrick Donaghue was involved where he was later arrested and imprisoned for 90 days)

2053: Steve Zodiac befriends space explorer Jim Ireland who sets off on a 10 year voyage -Seymour Griffiths loses his parents in an air disaster

2054: Richard Fraiser joins the World Government Police Corps after being rejected from university and the Air Force -Bradley Holden graduates from the World Navy Academy in San Diego immediately enlisting in the World Navy submarine service

2055: Steve is promoted to captain and is assigned to co-pilot Fireball XL5 -Conrad Turner joins the World Space Patrol and mans Fireball XL3 -Adam Svenson joins the World Aeronautic Society as a test pilot -Patrick Donaghue finishes his studies and graduates from Yale University with degrees in physics, electrical engineering, and technology and he takes a job as a computer programmer for a firm in Brooklyn but soon quit for a life of crime -Edward Wilkie graduates from Brisbane with degrees in medicine and biology and joins the Australian sector of the World Medical Organization as assistant medical controler. Later that same year he is promoted to health controller of the Scandinavian sector.

2056: Venus joins the World Space Patrol -Colonel Grange suffers a mental breakdown while piloting Fireball XL5 leaving Steve to bring them to safety -Marina's mother dies -Troy Tempest joins the World Navy Academy in San Diego -Lucielle Tracy passes away

2057: All Fireball XL ships are outfitted with the Nutomic Hyperdrive Motor -Paul Metcalfe graduates from Winchester University with degrees in History, Technology, and Mathematics -Adam Svenson is promoted to active field agent for WAS -Patrick Donaghue becomes a kingpin for organized crime in New York due to his leadership over several gangs and hacking abilities -Edward Wilkie revolutionizes the WMO's medical technology through robots which places him in the position of Administrator for Advancements in Medicine and Medical Science -Juliette Pontoin attends University in Rome

2058: Elaine Shore suffers a heart attack and passes away -Phones takes on work as a mercenary -Karen Wainwright attends Yale University at age 16

-Lady Penelope becomes chief operative of the Federal Agents Beareu where she meets Jeff Tracy (wait...... F.A.B..... so that's what that stands for....)

2059: Paul Metcalf begins study at West Point Military University in New York -Richard Fraiser transfers to Chicago and takes on one of the toughest crime syndicates in the country

2060: An attack on his vessel causes Sam Shore to lose use of his legs. He and Atlanta move to Marineville to command the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (which is newly established)

-Gordon Tracy interns with WASP** -Troy Tempest is captured on a failed mission and is rescued by Phones who he convinces to join the navy -Troy Tempest arrives at WASP Marineville -Juliette Pontoin joins the World Army Air Force and is transferred to the Intelligence Corps where she hones her skills as a pilot, leads the Woman's Fighter Squadron

2061: Magnolia Jones joins the World Army Airforce at age 18

-Gordon Tracy suffers an accident while working with a high speed hydrofoil**

2062: the start of the events of Fireball XL5 -Jeff Tracy establishes International Rescue -Seymour Griffiths graduates University in Kingston Jamaica with degrees in telecommunications, technology, and music and joins WASP as a junior hydrophone operator (his brothers followed but were killed in an accident which Seymour transferred as a telecommunications operator at Marineville) -Bradley Holden joins WASP as the Lieutenant commander security chief and takes the role of piloting Stingray in her prototype years -Karen Wainwright becomes a full fledged field agent for Universal Secret Service after several years of training -Magnolia Jones becomes lost while taking the XKF 115 aircraft on a test flight and loses contact with control -Chan Kwan graduates University and is determined to fly solo around the world

2063: Venus earns a degree in Space Psychology -Steve Zodiac is awarded Astronaut of the Year -Paul Metcalfe graduates from West Point and joins the World Air Force -Juliette Pontoin leaves WAAF to start her own pilot contracting firm -Magnolia Jones returns after being lost for almost a year after rebuilding her craft from the wreckage. She shortly leaves to focus on flying and setting up a freelance air taxi service -Dianne Simms meets Lady Penelope and is offered a position in the FAB to train as an agent

2064: Bradley Holden receives a severe back injury taking him out of the line to duty and landing him a desk job at Marineville -Troy Tempest becomes captain of Stingray and takes on Phones as his co-pilot -Chan Kwan attempts her voyage around the world but stops to answer a distress call to rescue a group of men from a burning tanker ship in the Pacific. Six months later she tries again and succeeds

2065: the events of Thunderbirds begins -the Spectrum Organization is established and Charles Grey turns down the position of Supreme Commander of the USS to take on his role as "Colonel White" for Spectrum under the Spectrum Selection Committee -Seymour Griffiths joins Spectrum under the codename "Lieutenant Green" -Conrad Turner joins Spectrum under the codename "Captain Black" and quickly climbs the ranks as Spectrum's top agent -Paul Metcalfe joins Spectrum under the code name "Captain Scarlet" (thanks to recommendation from Conrad) -Adam Svenson joins Spectrum under the code name "Captain Blue" -Patrick Donaghue is pardoned for his crimes and is offered a position as an agent of Spectrum under the code name "Captain Magenta" -Dr Edward Wilkie is approached by Spectrum to become the Supreme Medical Commander of Cloudbase and given the codename "Doctor Fawn" -Juliette Pontoin is approached to join Spectrum's squadron of fighter pilots and is given the codename "Destiny Angel" -Magnolia Jones is selected by Spectrum as a fighter pilot and is given the codename "Melody Angel" -Lady Penelope quits her role in the FAB to focus on her work with International Rescue. The FAB dissolves soon after. -Dianne Simms is forced to leave the FAB and becomes a chief security officer for the Euro-Charter Airline company -Chan Kwan's father dies and she takes over the family air taxi company 2066: Richard Fraiser fakes assassination and joins Spectrum under the code name "Captain Ochre" -Bradley Holden clears a health check under Spectrum and is recruited as an agent under the codename "Captain Gray"

-Karen Wainwright quits her work with the USS to become a pilot full time. Shortly after she passes her exam to join Spectrum and joins the Angel squadron under the codename "Symphony Angel" -Dianne Simms is approached by Spectrum to join the Angel squadron and is given the codename "Rhapsody Angel"

-Chan Kwan is approached by the Spectrum Selection Committee to become an Angel pilot, in which she is accepted and given the codename "Harmony Angel"

2068: the events of Thunderbirds end and the events of Captain Scarlet begin (the Mysterons declare war on Earth after the Zero X Mars expedition comes across their settlement and attacks)

[beevean]

It's really interesting that Griffith first appears in the Black Swordsman arc. I guess that means Golden Age takes place before it?

This is an interesting way to introduce a villain! Showing them when they're evil, and then flashing back to how they got there in the first place!

Also, from my understanding, Griffith takes on the name Femto after becoming a demon. Is that a necessity, or him being dramatic?

It does. The Golden Age spans from Guts' birth to the Eclipse. The BS arc takes place sometime after the Eclipse, but before the Lost Children Arc, the one that immediately follows the GA arc.

So yes, you're going to experience Guts' youth knowing that his friendship with Griffith is not going to last and that the guy did something terrible, but not knowing the details until the end. With how long and complex the story is, you're probably going to forget how the manga began. And then you see exactly what happened that made Guts thirsty for Griffith's blood :)

Yes, Femto is Griffith's name after becoming a Godhand. It's implied that it's part of the ritual, since he should have no more ties with his human life. (should. :) )

Fun fact: the names of all members of the Godhand come from sci-fi stories!

The Godhand's names are all references to classic science-fiction books. These books are Destination: Void by Frank Herbert, Slan by A.E. van Vogt, This Immortal (originally serialized as "…And Call Me Conrad") by Roger Zelazny, and Ubik by Philip K. Dick. Femto, on the other hand, is used in mathematics to refer to the measure of one quadrillionth of something (such as a femtosecond being one quadrillionth of a second).

(however, there is another theory that Femto is supposed to be Phemt. But to this day I have absolutely no idea what a PHEMT is supposed to be, so Femto it is lmao)

[bthump]

Correct me if I'm wrong. In order for Godhand to form in the form in which it exists now, 5 Eclipses had to occur. 5 new angels: Void, Ubik, Konrad, Slan and Femto, with Void appearing after the fall of Gaiseric's empire, approximately 1000 years ago. Between 5 Eclipses 4 time intervals of 216 years. It turns out that 216 * 4 = 864 years should have passed from Void to Femto. But it is said that about 1000 years have passed (and the empire fell 1000 years ago). We add another interval of 216 years and get 1080 years. But then, it turns out, since the showdown between Void and Gaiseric, 5 time intervals between 6 Eclipses should have passed? I hope I expressed myself clearly. Thank you in advance! <3

Hmm, I see what you mean. lol I've never really thought about the math before. But honestly I've always theorized that Gaiseric was an incarnated godhand given the direct comparisons to Griffith and NGriff resurrecting his empire, and this fits that theory, since incarnated Godhands happen once every thousand years. So you'd get Gaiseric in year 0, who then incarnates at some point and builds a skull-themed empire, then Void in year 216, then (imo) Conrad in 432, then Ubik in 648, then Slan in 864, then Femto in 1080, which is close enough to a thousand.

My theory is basically that Gaiseric becomes godhand with the previous four, incarnates back to earth like Griffith did, builds his empire, then Void sacrifices it to ascend, Gaiseric turns on the Godhand, destroys or imprisons the other 4 but Void survives, and this is how the cycles go according to fate. Something has to get rid of the previous set, and I like the idea of the incarnate fifth doing it, with the noob surviving to start the process over.

GRANTED the flashback we saw throws a wrench into that theory, in the form of Gaiseric fucking a fairy queen, but a) It's strongly implied that the godhand are also the elemental spirits Schierke calls on (because Schierke states that those spirits are the same as the Holy See's 4 archangels, which are said by Mozgus to be the Godhand) so it makes sense to me that their relationship to Elfhelm is more complicated than just 'enemies,' and/or that this was the event that made them enemies, and b) Griffith also has emotions lol lbr so there's no actual reason Gaiseric couldn't have been in love with Danann's mom or whatever.

Also I've seen Miura mention the 216 years thing once, and it wasn't particularly enlightening:

Interviewer: I see. I have a few more questions on Berserk's mysteries, now. What was the "216 years" thing for the Eclipse about? Miura: Ah, that's just when solar eclipses happen at the same place. Interviewer: Oh, so that's what it means. Miura: Yeah, and if you divide it by a thousand years you get exactly five people. Just happened to work out. Interviewer: Interesting.

Given the pretty cavalier answer, it's also possible that we're just meant to round up to a thousand from 864, or it's a plot hole because Miura didn't think the math completely through. But I'm a fan of my theory lol so I've got my fingers crossed for that explanation.

And I mean even if Gaiseric isn't the incarnated godhand from a thousand years ago, there's no indication it's Void either, so the math could still work out, and the previous incarnated Godhand just isn't a big enough deal in the story to be an interesting foreshadowed reveal.

Thanks for the ask, hope this answer makes sense. I'm never quite sure when it comes to math lol.