We know Daiba’s motivation is to build a magic kingdom in Midland and now with the recent episodes, he has the magic user refugees from Elfhelm under his watch. The refugees undoubtedly want to establish a new home to continue their studies and their motives line up quite well with Daiba’s. I was wondering if near the end of Berserk we could see Elfhelm rebuilt as a magic kingdom somewhere in midland and the cherry blossom tree reconnected to the physical world somehow. Characters like Isma and especially Danann could return and give us more information on skullknight and the godhand before the final battle. I was also thinking maybe the world tree could be hijacked somehow and turned into the cherry blossom tree in perhaps the final few episodes after Griffith is defeated.
Rebuilding of Elfhelm
- Thread starter Halloween
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What Daiba said in episode 274 was that he wanted to establish a "great empire of magic" on earth, not in Midland specifically. He was obviously referring to Ganishka's empire and to his role as the head of its magical efforts. A lot of things have happened since then, though. This ambition felt like it belonged firmly in the past when we last saw him in Berserk proper (fleeing Falconia with Rickert and the Bakiraka). Among other things, Fantasia made it obsolete.
Because the Continuation doesn't respect Berserk's established facts, it's possible they could retrofit his agenda so it would match what you're positing here, but even if they did, I would not expect it to play a major role in the story they're creating.
The World Tree is really a very different thing from Danan's cherry tree and it wouldn't make sense for one to turn into the other. Similarly, because Elfhelm was the tree and surrounding forest and they were completely destroyed (they didn't just vanish), it seems impossible that it could be rebuilt. The magicians lived in a village neighboring Elfhelm, but the "Capital of Elves" was the tree itself.
Anyway, I'm going to go straight to the point: Miura had a lot of things planned for the island, and that apparently included a window into the Skull Knight's past. The Continuation team decided to skip all of that. They probably didn't have a clue as to what he had planned, so they quickly got rid of the island. The magicians have been mute, powerless and barely even there since. That is not what Miura had set up for them, but sadly I don't think that will change going forward.
I definitely agree that it seems the continuation quickly pushed the island out of the story and a lot of my ideas regarding it are stretches especially when comparing it to what Miura had established. But it just seems like too much to me for them to just not cover all the skullknight/island stuff. Maybe they don’t feel comfortable enough without Miura or maybe even Mori is discouraging Gaga from covering it based on what we know about how the continuation is being handled but it just seems like such a huge elephant in the room for them to ignore. To me it seems like the continuation has been pushing the story into developing some sort of anti-Falconia force led by Guts with all the diverse allies he has obtained throughout the journey. The Skellig magic users must be of some importance because why woudn’t Gaga just write them out of the story like the other Elfhelm inhabitants. With magic being so important and so heavily implied to be necessary to defeat Griffith, I just find it hard to believe that the continuation will never touch back on all the Skellig stuff with how the story seems headed to me.
I don't know man. They've already ignored a lot of things Miura had set up. Fantasia, the Bakiraka's hideout, Falconia's geographical location... It's a long list.
They have pretty much written them out, though. They didn't suddenly disappear, but as I said above, they're now mute and powerless. And this includes the Great Gurus, who were introduced as basically the most powerful magic users in the entire world. They've been turned into useless background characters. Instead, the only spell being used, over and over, is the formation of the four cardinal points. A beginner spell.
I’ll always wonder whether the destruction of the island was something Miura truly had in mind — or at least, whether he intended it to happen at that particular moment. There were so many potential storylines left to explore: Schierke learning about Daimons, Skull Knight's past, and I’m sure we would’ve delved deeper into the Berserker Armor with Hanarr being there. (Episode 364 even highlights the toll the armor is taking on Guts’ body.)
Still, Griffith’s arrival was bound to happen. I wonder if he was only meant to take Casca and leave without the island being destroyed. But then again, in that same episode, we see a panel where Danan says Casca was “accepted” as a resident of the island — which, to me, implied that she was going to stay there for a while. I always had the impression that it would be Guts who would eventually decide to leave, for Casca’s sake. I guess we'll never know.
Elfhelm was not only one of the most anticipated places in the entire series — it was also my favorite. I really believe some key developments were meant to happen there. It makes me sad that we didn’t get to see more of it. And the fact that the continuation treats the island’s residents so poorly doesn’t help much when it comes to expecting any of it to be explored further.
Still, Griffith’s arrival was bound to happen. I wonder if he was only meant to take Casca and leave without the island being destroyed. But then again, in that same episode, we see a panel where Danan says Casca was “accepted” as a resident of the island — which, to me, implied that she was going to stay there for a while. I always had the impression that it would be Guts who would eventually decide to leave, for Casca’s sake. I guess we'll never know.
Elfhelm was not only one of the most anticipated places in the entire series — it was also my favorite. I really believe some key developments were meant to happen there. It makes me sad that we didn’t get to see more of it. And the fact that the continuation treats the island’s residents so poorly doesn’t help much when it comes to expecting any of it to be explored further.
Miura said he had decided on the story for the second half of the Elf Island chapter in the "Artwork of Berserk" interview, which leaves no doubt about the fact he intended for much more to happen there.