Half way through I realized that I had a lot I wanted to write about so this is going to be a long one.
First off, I’m just going to say that this theory has flaws, and I’ll try to point them out when I get to it, but I still think the theory is quite interesting and I would like to hear others opinion of it.
The theory
is that everything in the astral world is crated by something that has been done or thought in the physical world. The reason for the existence of trolls, elves and dragons in the astral world, is because humans has told stories about them in the physical world. This explains why there are different versions of all the astral creatures, it is simply because they are described a little differently in every story, and every human has their own imagination of what they are like. The more people believe that something that can’t exist in the physical world actually exists, the more powerful that thing becomes in the astral world.
The "proof"
For this theory to work we must establish that the astral world is affected by the physical world. A simple example of this is in volume 14 episode 95: “Lost Children: Return of Black Swordsman” where Jill has been captured by bandits. One of the bandits shares a story about heretics doing a ritual involving nailing peoples’ intestines to trees and making them walk around the tree. The bandit has probably heard the story from someone else, so there must be a lot of people that believe there to be something special about those trees. This makes the tree have a powerful existence in the astral world and can bridge over to the physical world when Guts comes along and weakens the barrier between the worlds. The obvious flaw with this theory relates to cause and effect, did the stories start because there was an astral being from the beginning, or did the astral being come to life because of the stories.
When the team gets their magic fetishes in volume 24 episode 203: “Elementals” Schierke also mentions that the stronger their faith in the elementals, the better the fetish will work. Later in the same episode Schierke literally confirms the theory by saying that the tree exists eternally in the astral world because it had been worshiped when it was in the physical world, and not the other way around. She also points out that it could also have taken on a monstrous form, maybe Miura wants the reader to be reminded of the tree from volume 14 episode 95, possibly also confirming that it as well did not start out by having a presence in the astral world.
The only astral beings of in the world of Berserk that we don’t have stories about in our world is all the different kinds of apostles. There is only one person that believes an apostle should exist, namely the person it is born from. One person’s belief is not enough for a powerful being as an apostle to be born, even if the person sacrifices everything. I believe that the sacrifice is made to ensure that the person that becomes an apostle is evil, and the power ultimately comes from the “Idea of Evil”. This is supported in “Desire’s Guardian Angels” where the apostle is actually not completely evil because he didn’t sacrifice his daughter, but he still has the power of an apostle. It is going to be important later that the “Idea of Evil” can only give power, and therefore tries to only give power to people that supports the will of the “Idea of Evil”. It even trusts its selection of its god hand so much that they have absolutely no orders.
The lost chapter also supports this theory a lot since the “Idea of Evil” talks about a collective consciousness for all humans and it being its dark side. The “Idea of Evil” confirms that its power/existence comes from the dark/evil part of every human mind. The more people believe/think about evil stuff the more powerful the “Idea of Evil” becomes.
How the theory explains things in the world of Berserk
The reason for the “Idea of Evil” having so much power is because almost everyone in the world of Berserk believe that evil exists in this world, because so much evil is happening in the world of Berserk.
The reason for humanity seemingly being stuck in the middle ages for at least 1000 years, is because it was around this time that enough people believed that evil existed in the world. The “Idea of Evil” got enough power to start sending behelit out in the physical world, which gave birth to the first apostles that brought chaos with them, and more people started believing the world was evil, so more behelit could be sent out in the physical world. This started an exponential growth of belief/power to the “Idea of Evil”, and eventually the first crimson behelit came to the physical world. Humanity can’t move forward from this point because the “Idea of Evil” controls causality more and more and bends it into a constant loop of depravity, that makes more and more people believe the world is evil.
When the story of Guts starts there is evil everywhere in the world and the “Idea of Evil” is practically a god of this world. The “Idea of Evil” continuously want more power/belief, so it plots to merge the physical and astral world, so every physical being can believe that the “Idea of Evil” is real.
The juicy stuff (theories within theories)
Not everything in this world is hopeless and there are of course also people that believe that there is something that can defeat evil. I am going to call this counterpart to the “Idea of Evil” the “Idea of Good”. The “Idea of Good” wants more power just like the “Idea of Evil”, and it does that by trying to convince people that there is something that can defeat evil i.e. there being the “Idea of Good”. This implies that it would make a lot of sense that Skull Knight is a servant of the “Idea of Good”, just as the god hand is servants of the “Idea of Evil”. The major flaw in this is that there is nothing to confirm this, other than Skull Knights existence, and why would not even Skull Knight talk about it if it was true.
Even though there might not be an “Idea of Good” it would make a lot of sense if Skull Knight is a servant of something like the "Idea of Good" since he is the foe of the inhuman, and repeatedly save people that support the “Idea of Good”. Guts is obviously saved because he is the biggest counterpart to the apostles that we know of, he literally shows people that it is possible to kill evil. Luca is saved because she believes in the good of all people even sympathizing with The Egg of the Perfect World, she is probably one of the last persons that would believe the world was evil. Rickert doesn’t directly have a very good reason to be saved, but the combined effect of him being a good person and someone that is going to help Guts later, makes him very valuable to the “Idea of Good”.
A theory as to why we don’t know of the “Idea of Good” and Skull Knight only occasionally visiting the physical world could be because the “Idea of Good” knows that it is inferior to the “Idea of Evil” at least for now. Nobody can know of its existence since the “Idea of Evil” would probably just find a way to destroy it if it knew it existed. The “Idea of Good” also has very limited power so it only sends in Skull Knight in emergencies. Since nobody can know the existence of the “Idea of Good” Skull Knight could be controlled by controlling his prophecies. You might think that the “Idea of Good” can’t get belief/power if nobody knows of its existence, but people do not need to know of the Ideas existence for them to gain power. Simply people thinking and doing evil things empowers the “Idea of Evil”, just as people thinking and doing things that counters evil empowers the “Idea of Good”.
The “Idea of Evil” might have messed up when it chose Griffith to be the most powerful being in the physical world. The “Idea of Evil’s” plan to merge the physical and astral world might have gone a bit too smoothly for the “Idea of Evil”. What Griffith/Femto is doing right now is creating stability, at least within Falconia, the apostles are kept in check and humans seem better of than before. The “Idea of Evil” is weakened by what Griffith/Femto is doing, and people think of him as a savior from all evil strengthening the “Idea of Good”. If the theory is correct Griffith/Femto might be the hero of the story after all, but the “Idea of Evil” will probably try to stop that from happening, so something horrible might soon happen in Falconia, to convince people that the world is still evil.
I hope some found this an interesting read, I would love to hear your comments on my theory.
First off, I’m just going to say that this theory has flaws, and I’ll try to point them out when I get to it, but I still think the theory is quite interesting and I would like to hear others opinion of it.
The theory
is that everything in the astral world is crated by something that has been done or thought in the physical world. The reason for the existence of trolls, elves and dragons in the astral world, is because humans has told stories about them in the physical world. This explains why there are different versions of all the astral creatures, it is simply because they are described a little differently in every story, and every human has their own imagination of what they are like. The more people believe that something that can’t exist in the physical world actually exists, the more powerful that thing becomes in the astral world.
The "proof"
For this theory to work we must establish that the astral world is affected by the physical world. A simple example of this is in volume 14 episode 95: “Lost Children: Return of Black Swordsman” where Jill has been captured by bandits. One of the bandits shares a story about heretics doing a ritual involving nailing peoples’ intestines to trees and making them walk around the tree. The bandit has probably heard the story from someone else, so there must be a lot of people that believe there to be something special about those trees. This makes the tree have a powerful existence in the astral world and can bridge over to the physical world when Guts comes along and weakens the barrier between the worlds. The obvious flaw with this theory relates to cause and effect, did the stories start because there was an astral being from the beginning, or did the astral being come to life because of the stories.
When the team gets their magic fetishes in volume 24 episode 203: “Elementals” Schierke also mentions that the stronger their faith in the elementals, the better the fetish will work. Later in the same episode Schierke literally confirms the theory by saying that the tree exists eternally in the astral world because it had been worshiped when it was in the physical world, and not the other way around. She also points out that it could also have taken on a monstrous form, maybe Miura wants the reader to be reminded of the tree from volume 14 episode 95, possibly also confirming that it as well did not start out by having a presence in the astral world.
The only astral beings of in the world of Berserk that we don’t have stories about in our world is all the different kinds of apostles. There is only one person that believes an apostle should exist, namely the person it is born from. One person’s belief is not enough for a powerful being as an apostle to be born, even if the person sacrifices everything. I believe that the sacrifice is made to ensure that the person that becomes an apostle is evil, and the power ultimately comes from the “Idea of Evil”. This is supported in “Desire’s Guardian Angels” where the apostle is actually not completely evil because he didn’t sacrifice his daughter, but he still has the power of an apostle. It is going to be important later that the “Idea of Evil” can only give power, and therefore tries to only give power to people that supports the will of the “Idea of Evil”. It even trusts its selection of its god hand so much that they have absolutely no orders.
The lost chapter also supports this theory a lot since the “Idea of Evil” talks about a collective consciousness for all humans and it being its dark side. The “Idea of Evil” confirms that its power/existence comes from the dark/evil part of every human mind. The more people believe/think about evil stuff the more powerful the “Idea of Evil” becomes.
How the theory explains things in the world of Berserk
The reason for the “Idea of Evil” having so much power is because almost everyone in the world of Berserk believe that evil exists in this world, because so much evil is happening in the world of Berserk.
The reason for humanity seemingly being stuck in the middle ages for at least 1000 years, is because it was around this time that enough people believed that evil existed in the world. The “Idea of Evil” got enough power to start sending behelit out in the physical world, which gave birth to the first apostles that brought chaos with them, and more people started believing the world was evil, so more behelit could be sent out in the physical world. This started an exponential growth of belief/power to the “Idea of Evil”, and eventually the first crimson behelit came to the physical world. Humanity can’t move forward from this point because the “Idea of Evil” controls causality more and more and bends it into a constant loop of depravity, that makes more and more people believe the world is evil.
When the story of Guts starts there is evil everywhere in the world and the “Idea of Evil” is practically a god of this world. The “Idea of Evil” continuously want more power/belief, so it plots to merge the physical and astral world, so every physical being can believe that the “Idea of Evil” is real.
The juicy stuff (theories within theories)
Not everything in this world is hopeless and there are of course also people that believe that there is something that can defeat evil. I am going to call this counterpart to the “Idea of Evil” the “Idea of Good”. The “Idea of Good” wants more power just like the “Idea of Evil”, and it does that by trying to convince people that there is something that can defeat evil i.e. there being the “Idea of Good”. This implies that it would make a lot of sense that Skull Knight is a servant of the “Idea of Good”, just as the god hand is servants of the “Idea of Evil”. The major flaw in this is that there is nothing to confirm this, other than Skull Knights existence, and why would not even Skull Knight talk about it if it was true.
Even though there might not be an “Idea of Good” it would make a lot of sense if Skull Knight is a servant of something like the "Idea of Good" since he is the foe of the inhuman, and repeatedly save people that support the “Idea of Good”. Guts is obviously saved because he is the biggest counterpart to the apostles that we know of, he literally shows people that it is possible to kill evil. Luca is saved because she believes in the good of all people even sympathizing with The Egg of the Perfect World, she is probably one of the last persons that would believe the world was evil. Rickert doesn’t directly have a very good reason to be saved, but the combined effect of him being a good person and someone that is going to help Guts later, makes him very valuable to the “Idea of Good”.
A theory as to why we don’t know of the “Idea of Good” and Skull Knight only occasionally visiting the physical world could be because the “Idea of Good” knows that it is inferior to the “Idea of Evil” at least for now. Nobody can know of its existence since the “Idea of Evil” would probably just find a way to destroy it if it knew it existed. The “Idea of Good” also has very limited power so it only sends in Skull Knight in emergencies. Since nobody can know the existence of the “Idea of Good” Skull Knight could be controlled by controlling his prophecies. You might think that the “Idea of Good” can’t get belief/power if nobody knows of its existence, but people do not need to know of the Ideas existence for them to gain power. Simply people thinking and doing evil things empowers the “Idea of Evil”, just as people thinking and doing things that counters evil empowers the “Idea of Good”.
The “Idea of Evil” might have messed up when it chose Griffith to be the most powerful being in the physical world. The “Idea of Evil’s” plan to merge the physical and astral world might have gone a bit too smoothly for the “Idea of Evil”. What Griffith/Femto is doing right now is creating stability, at least within Falconia, the apostles are kept in check and humans seem better of than before. The “Idea of Evil” is weakened by what Griffith/Femto is doing, and people think of him as a savior from all evil strengthening the “Idea of Good”. If the theory is correct Griffith/Femto might be the hero of the story after all, but the “Idea of Evil” will probably try to stop that from happening, so something horrible might soon happen in Falconia, to convince people that the world is still evil.
I hope some found this an interesting read, I would love to hear your comments on my theory.
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