#like a griffith esque villain/beast

[ilynpilled]

jaime through the eyes of other povs

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do you think casca being a damsel in distress once again is a regression in miura's writing (assuming miura planned for this sequence of events)? like idk it seems like the story was always straightforwardly about guts and griffith. casca was the personification of the hawks and their camaraderie ofc, but now it's like she's a mediator between griff and guts, in a way that doesn't allow the readers to think of their personal rship, because casca is what always comes in between as the 'reason'. don't get me wrong i liked casca in ga arc, but it seems like griff/guts clash is gonna have casca as the main reason behind it and i kinda hate it. on a surface level, casca was the motivation behind conviction arc, elfhelm and now the next arc as well. so do u think that is a convenient red herring of miura to actually pull the rug on people or a legit change of plans on the main dynamic?

Yeah like I don't think you're wrong - rather than Guts being motivated by his own feelings towards Griffith to drive the story along, he's motivated once again by Casca turning back into a macguffin.

Idk if I'd call it regression exactly, I mean you can theoretically argue it's a sign of progression for Guts lol, needing an outside motivation to go after Griffith as opposed to being driven by revenge.

Like it feels like a convenient way to keep the plot going without Guts backsliding into revenge mode, but on the other hand man, isn't it about time Guts backslid? I feel like we're at that point where the ominous foreshadowing should be taking effect, unless there's a lot more story to go than I would've bet on. But maybe there is.

I don't think it's a total change of plans wrt the main dynamic, like he was planning to simplify it down to basic hero vs villain, save the princess shit. If he was then I'd definitely consider it a regression lol, but I do think it's more like, again a way to delay Guts' Black Swordsman-esque backsliding for a while longer while forcing him to do something. It's tacky imo lol, I don't think it's good writing - surely there were ways to motivate Guts without keeping him in passive reactive protag mode - but I don't necessarily think it's the be-all end-all of the protag/antag dynamic now.

There's still plenty of room for interesting emotions and confrontations, give or take Studio Gaga's ability to deliver on that, and there's still plenty of foreshadowing that needs to be delivered on. Guts needs to go beast of darkness, a behelit needs to open, Skull Knight needs to put some plan in motion for which he's using Guts, etc. So we'll see I guess.

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If you were Miura's chief assistant and decided to end Berserk in a couple of chapters, how would you do it (ofc it'd be an open and abrupt ending, but still)?

hmm interesting question. this is tricky lol, all the endings I like to imagine require like, another arc of build up to work.

well, casca sees moonlight boy, remembers fetus, flashes back to eclipse bc that's all interconnected in her mind, behelit opens. i know that much lol.

OK I KNOW. Casca sacrifices moonbaby which is not a werebaby but is an astral projection by the fetus griff grew out of or whatever. Sacrificing it removes any fetus influence from Griff. OH that's why NGriff is here also, and it's a bit of a fakeout, like, it seems like he showed up bc fate required him to be sacrificed but then only the fetus part is sacrificed and it actually maybe makes him more undefeatable, oh no. also maybe he gets a black swordsman femto-esque villain moment where he gloats about this. Or if not him, Ubik does.

This would be better if Griff takes off and we got a whole nother arc in between but w/e, so basically Casca goes monster, Farnese is also there and like, power of friendship convinces her to chill and not get between Guts and Griff, bc I need them to just fight without distractions. idk. or maybe she does try to attack Griff too and Guts goes beast of darkness and injures her. whatever.

guess they're still in the vortex for this bc elfhelm being around would be too much to deal with. Femto goes back to Griff form to taunt Guts and they sword fight and the godhand just think it's funny I guess. void is like, 'really guys, do we have to do this' and slan's like 'shut up i'm trying to watch the show' and griff is basically toying with guts. Oooh also their commentary tells us that Griff is not all powerful, like 'yeah sure he's got the advantage, but after all he did return to that pitiful human form, and the black swordsman is full of surprises, don't count him out yet' that kinda thing.

from guts' beasty pov griff is a shining light in front of him.

uhhhh this can't go on too long bc you said only a few chapters lol. so like, it's not an epic battle, it's just guts trying and ngriff easily evading/countering him.

hmm Guts being all hidden away in the armour makes it harder to get a moment for NGriff to fuck up because of his feelings which obviously have not actually gone with the fetus :/ Well okay, how about Griffith ends up standing on the dragonslayer and they both have a whole ~moment~ where they stop and stare at each other. Kiiinda want Guts' consciousness to return here but it might be too much. Hm. Actually yeah, ok here's what happens: from Guts' pov we get a whole bit where he remembers human Griff and his consciousness returns, his helmet retracts, they fuckin make eye contact, Griff smiles, and then Guts sends them both over the edge of a platform.

Bc they're in the escher room from yk chapter 7 and also the swirl of hell souls is there below them. gotta mention that.

griff grabs the edge of the platform, guts grab his hand, they look at each other again, maybe guts is like, 'i'm not letting go this time,' if i want to be really heavy handed about it, close up of their hands - and griffith is holding on just as tightly to guts' hand. then griffith's fingers slip.

during their fight we also got a moment with casca and injured farnese, bc yeah I guess what I'm saying is Casca tried to attack and Guts fucked her up and now she's huddled in a corner with Farnese. And their moment is something like Casca, in mostly humanoid form, knocking Farnese aside with "a what are you doing, didn't you see what happened? what I became?" while F is trying to bandage a gaping wound and Farnese coming back and resuming with something like "Stop it, I'm staying right here at your side." They just need /something/ vaguely conclusive and hopeful, bc I'm not brainstorming an epilogue montage lol.

So yeah. idk maybe the final panel should be Casca and Farnese clinging to each other, while the godhand retreat, with Guts and Griff's swords lying on the ground.

so let's see that's like, 1 chapter for behelit to open, 1 chapter to make sacrifice, 1 chapter of everyone going holy shit and guts going beast of darkness and injuring casca, 2 chapters fighting, 1 chapter end. Rushed, like even just this should be like 10 chapters with an epilogue, but can't really help that.

That said, if you literally just meant a couple chapters as in two chapters, thennnnnnnnnn fuck it, moonbaby transforms into Danann who tells Guts she helped guide them all there and asks what he's going to do now, Guts looks back at Casca and Farnese and smiles sadly and asks for a lift off the island, alone this time, without even Puck. Danann gives him a magic thing that unlocks the fast travel system and mentions that Griffith can use it too, and in fact he's on the move right now (bc we gotta have some explanation for griff's disappearing act). Maybe with some implication that Griff knows he’s off to meet Guts for a final duel or whatever lol. (And the assumption is he can manifest clothes and armour. Or is it. Maybe that’s the secret hint they’re actually going to fuck when they meet up.) The last page is like, Guts walking into a portal or whatever, shot of his pouch ft behelit, shot of the brand, shot of him from behind with dragonslayer slung over his back, doublechecking he’s got a condom in his wallet.

lmao i spent all those paragraphs on the long ass first answer trying to squeeze in as much of the stuff I like as I could but honestly the 2nd one is way better when you don’t have any opportunity for build up and it has to be v truncated. Just Guts going off alone back on his revenge bender. i’m leaving my stream of consciousness answer as is anyway.

ty for asking! this was fun :3