The Passage of Time in Recent Volumes

Walter

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Staff member
Whenever I bring up the timeline and Guts' official age in the forums or in chat, it's often met with a bit of cynicism, as if it's not a very important part of the story. Well sure, it's not going to add anything directly. But I think it helps us better understand the character's growth, the changes the world is going through, and the psychological impact of these events on all the characters, just to name a few.

The amount of time that's passed was recently pinpointed to near-exactness by Miura's response in the SKnet interview. But there are still some lingering questions to ponder now that we know for certain that time has indeed still been ticking away between the major events since Lost Children and particularly since Millennium Falcon started.

To bring newer readers up-to-speed, here's what we do know. After the Golden Age, 1  year passed during the Black Swordsman Arc. Then 1 more year between that and the Lost Children Chapter. But since then there have not been any notes of years having passed --  until now. The interview with Miura informed us that at least 1-2  years have passed during this period (3-4 since Golden Age ended).

But when did these time changes occur? Are we to believe that they happened all at once between the Guts/Griffith transitions? Are there any conspicuous events that imply more time has passed than with other transitions? This kind of information and opinion is what I'd like to assemble here.

One solid guess I had is that at least 1 of these years passed between the Hill of Swords battle and when we pan back to Guts after the Battle of Shet in vol 22. I infer this because when episode 184 was released in Young Animal in 2001, there was a note in the margin that during this portion of the story,  the Chapter of Oblivion Herbs was occurring elsewhere. It would make sense for there to be some passage of time here.

Another question I have that's been running through my head is just how long Guts and Co. been fighting together. They've bonded quite a bit since their awkward times in vol 23-24, and that kind of growth doesn't happen overnight. They exhibited amazing teamwork in the battle at the port of Vritannis against Daiba. So, I would tack on another year between when they first meet and up to the current events.

But even that seems conservative. I feel that at least another year or two added to this wouldn't be an outlandish expectation, would it not be for the confusion created by the idiotic way I worded the question. Shimada/Miura MAY have meant that 3-4 years have passed since the end of Lost Children. And even that would make sense to me, though it is quite a bit more bold than the more realistic answer of 1-2.

Anyway, what are you guys' thoughts?
 
i think 3,5-4 since Band of the Hawk, 1,5-2 years since Lost Children have past. And Gutts with his new group have been together at least for 6 months but no more than a year.
 

Walter

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Staff member
Ersinus said:
i think 3,5-4 since Band of the Hawk, 1,5-2 years since Lost Children have past. And Guts with his new group have been together at least for 6 months but no more than a year.
Could you maybe go into some more detail on how y ou reached that conclusion? I backed up all my assertions.

And I'm honestly not sure what the numbers you've written mean exactly. ("I think 3,5-4") Huh? I guess you meant 3.5-4? Well the letter already tells us it's been 3-4 years since then, so that's not new.
 
Walter said:
Huh? I guess you meant 3.5-4?

In many countries (like here in Finland) a comma is used instead, so three and a half is written as 3,5. In English it's 3.5 though.

Anyway, I think this is an interesting topic even if it doesn't add too much to... well... anything. The numbers and assumptions you brought up in the opening post seem quite plausible to me, although one year of Guts and Co. together seems like the maximum amount to me. Well, in the end it's hard to prove much timelinewise...

Which takes me to my next point. Even if we asked Miura-sensei, we might not get a "right" answer to some of these questions. The reason I say this is because I don't think Miura himself has thought about the story happening in a strict timeline. Sure, it's made clear that between some events some time has passed, but storywise it doesn't really matter if it's been a week or two months. What I'm saying is that I don't see knowing the exact amount of time that has passed between two events an important part of Berserk, mainly because Miura has never stressed it.

That being said, speculation is always interesting and I'd be happy to hear what others have to say about this.
 
Hmm, I don't think a person as concious of the value of details as Miura would let something like a /year/ slip past him.

Using this offical answer, though, is a good base for rereading the volumes with an eye to the art, to try to get an idea of the seasons - unless there was a skip directly from supper of year n1 to summer of year n2, for example, with nothing mentioned of the time between, we may be able to improve our fidelity of timeline from that.

(c'mon, Dark Horse, I need my volumes! :sad: )
 
Agreed I was also going to suggest noticing the seasons. Winter would be an obvious one assuming our characters are still in climates that receive snow for their winter.

Spring or Fall might be other seasons to watch for however I am unsure whether or not Miura has ever spent conscious effort on drawing details of the other seasons.

I thinks it is a safe assumption there is not always snow on the hill of swords and surrounding areas since we see Guts there in volume 14 with no sign of snow. However in volume 22 during his battle with Zodd, we see Zodd crash into and destroy the cave that Caska and Guts had lived in, allowing me to presume that the hill of swords is not always covered with snow, and that it is close in proximity to the the settings around that area in volume 14.

We haven't seen a Winter since to my knowledge for any of the characters in Berserk. It is interesting to notice that between guts and Caska leaving Rickert for the last time, and cutting back to Guts and Caska still in the snow at the beginning of volume 23; Griffith and the new band of the hawk re capture Shet from the Kushan where there is no snow in sight, also when we See Schierke for the very first time right after that scene, she do does not appear to me in a snowy environment, if i remember correctly.

Can we presume based on only this evidence that a year has passed? Or is it simply a separate part of the country/continent with a different climate (I seem to recall that Godo's property was not within Midland Kingdom and therefore possible has a separate regional climate

Some food for thought..I hope I made sense.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks for bringing the seasons up, Jaze. It's another way we can see that Miura is actually planning out the passage of time to some degree, and incorporating it into the story. At the very least, time in Berserk is not just a concept that exists only in his head.

Jaze1618 said:
We haven't seen a Winter since to my knowledge for any of the characters in Berserk.
It's snowing during the flashback for Farnese and Serpico, but that's in line with the other events and sequences of the seasons.

It is interesting to notice that between guts and Casca leaving Rickert for the last time, and cutting back to Guts and Casca still in the snow at the beginning of volume 23; Griffith and the new band of the hawk re capture Shet from the Kushan where there is no snow in sight, also when we See Schierke for the very first time right after that scene, she do does not appear to me in a snowy environment, if i remember correctly.
Well, it makes sense really. It's not snowing around Schierke, but the leaves are already falling off the trees. I think it's safe to assume that a) Godot's mountain is in a much higher elevation and would be one of the first to be affected by Winter weather and b) since Shet is in Western Midland (a different region, as you say), we can assume based on what we've seen of the seasons must have been ABOUT to be affected by the weather, as I mentioned earlier, the trees were already barren of leaves.

Can we presume based on only this evidence that a year has passed? Or is it simply a separate part of the country/continent with a different climate (I seem to recall that Godo's property was not within Midland Kingdom and therefore possible has a separate regional climate
Hmm... now I'm not so sure a full year has passed, since the changing seasons falls perfectly in sequence between 22-23. Then again, when we come BACK to Guts and Co. at the end of vol 23, winter has passed. +3 months? Or is it +1.25 years? =)
 
I was wondering, what exact Episode, or ark does Guts show up with the "White" streak in his hair, it was so gradual I didn't notice until looking at the PS2 game cover.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Death May Die said:
I was wondering, what exact Episode, or ark does Guts show up with the "White" streak in his hair, it was so gradual I didn't notice until looking at the PS2 game cover.

That would be episode 229 and it wasn't really that gradual.
 
Walter said:
Thanks for bringing the seasons up, Jaze. It's another way we can see that Miura is actually planning out the passage of time to some degree, and incorporating it into the story. At the very least, time in Berserk is not just a concept that exists only in his head.
It's snowing during the flashback for Farnese and Serpico, but that's in line with the other events and sequences of the seasons.
Well, it makes sense really. It's not snowing around Schierke, but the leaves are already falling off the trees. I think it's safe to assume that a) Godot's mountain is in a much higher elevation and would be one of the first to be affected by Winter weather and b) since Shet is in Western Midland (a different region, as you say), we can assume based on what we've seen of the seasons must have been ABOUT to be affected by the weather, as I mentioned earlier, the trees were already barren of leaves.
Hmm... now I'm not so sure a full year has passed, since the changing seasons falls perfectly in sequence between 22-23. Then again, when we come BACK to Guts and Co. at the end of vol 23, winter has passed. +3 months? Or is it +1.25 years? =)

UPDATE!!

Ok when I was reading volume darkhorse volume 29 last week I paid special attention to the fact that it is snowing in Vritrannis(official spelling?). I never paid much attention to this detail as it receives little focus in this volume, but from the point (if I remember correctly) that Farnese is in the garden with Magnifico until just before we see the first see the Kushan Tiger Familiar. It is SNOWING B-A-B-Y!

Unless someone else can spot a flaw in my thinking I will assume it's safe to make an educated guess now that this is another timestamp in the story indicating roughly a years passage since the last winter depicted in volume's 22 & 23.

I can't claim that I'm the first one to point this out, but it's something I had never noticed before in the context of looking for clues on the passage of time. Exciting!
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
Vritrannis(official spelling?)

More like Vritannis.

Jaze1618 said:
I never paid much attention to this detail as it receives little focus in this volume, but from the point (if I remember correctly) that Farnese is in the garden with Magnifico until just before we see the first see the Kushan Tiger Familiar. It is SNOWING B-A-B-Y!

No, we see the snow when she meets her mother.
 
Actually, I remember someone (i guess Isidro) saying that although it was winter, the weather was comfortably warm in Flora's mansion. From that, I assume that the winter we see in the hill of swords is not over yet. Later on, there's the troll quest, that may have costed them what, a week? At the beach, I recall (but once again, I can't quote 'cause I don't have my mangas here right now) Schierke saying that it's been a week since Guts got those injuries in the Qliphoth (with some comment on his health state) and when Farnese is back to her house, it's said that though it's already spring, it's still very chilly and it's snowing.
It's weird to imagine that not much time at all has passed, but I can't see it other way since putting a time shift of a year in the middle of any of these events sounds even weirder to me.
Well, correct me if I'm mistaken about those references
 
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