I agree that the child will be cause of a disagreement between them, and also that Casca's main focus will be to save her child, but that doesn't mean Guts won't choose to postpone/abandon his quest for revenge to follow Casca and protect her, and that she would reject both him and her new friends, especially if you think that Guts has promised to never lose her again, that powerful scene in the cave in volume 17 would mean nothing if that happened.
Miura said that Guts
will eventually face Griffith in a final battle.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Berserk/comments/5frta8/berserk_guidebook_interview_full_translation_part/It makes no sense whatsoever for Guts to abandon his quest for revenge after Casca is cured. We don't know what the Idea Of Evil is planning to do but it can't be anything good. The IOE has to be dealt with eventually and its servants (including Griffith) have to be destroyed. This has to be done for the sake of humanity. It is much more important than Casca's feelings.
Guts promised not to abandon Casca again (in Volume 17) and he did exactly what he promised to do. He went to Albion, rescued her, and brought her safely to Elfhelm. His mission to protect Casca ended as soon as they met the Elf Queen and Casca's therapy began. Once Casca is cured she should be able to take care of herself. She shouldn't need anyone to keep protecting her.
In Episode 92 the child was still a demon, and SK said that, as such, he would bring woe upon them. But now he's no longer such a thing, his nature has not been clarified yet, but he's no longer a demon, because Guts and Casca's brands don't bleed whenever he appears.
How do we know that he isn't? Just because their brands don't bleed doesn't necessarily prove anything. It's just another inconsistency in the story. Guts' brand reacted (a little) to Flora and we know that Flora had no evil in her at all. Guts' brand reacted to Daiba and we know that Daiba isn't an apostle and isn't really evil. We have no idea what Casca's child is truly capable of, maybe he can somehow conceal his od so that he can interact with Casca and Guts without making their brands bleed.
Posted by: jackson_hurley
« on: Today at 04:07:37 PM »
Considering every thing that happened to Casca starting from the eclipse, I'd doubt it very much that she would become an apostle just to protect her child. I'd find it very bad writing if that would be the case.
I'm pretty sure there will be some kind of conflict concerning the child but to turn into an apostle?
So how is Casca supposed to stop Guts from killing Griffith (which will also kill her child)? She certainly can't stop Guts just by using her normal, human strength/fighting skills. Guts was always a much better warrior than Casca, we have seen this since their very first fight. Casca was never anywhere near Guts' level. Don't forget what happened in Episodes 189 - 190 when Casca tried to attack Guts, she was instantly disarmed and restrained.
Posted by: Walter
« on: Today at 04:58:43 PM »
For them to face the end together, as comrades again, reunited against the source of the tragedies they each faced, makes for a more coherent story to me than what you seem to be proposing, which I gahter is an angst-filled Casca going lone wolf against Griffith, with Guts following closely behind her? That just sounds pretty shitty man.
Well, that's stupid for a variety of reasons. Namely that apostles physically can't stand against the God Hand, as we've seen.
What are you talking about? I never said anything like that. What I'm proposing is that Casca will not allow Guts to do anything that may hurt or kill her child. There's nothing incoherent or shitty about a mother defending her child at any cost. She is not going to "stand against" Griffith. She will have to
defend him (no matter how much she may now hate him) because he's using her kid as a vessel/hostage.
And do I really need to remind you that Guts and Casca were more than comrades?
Yes, Guts and
Golden Age Casca were more than comrades but how exactly is this still relevant
now? We agree that we aren't getting Golden Age Casca back when she is cured, right?
I believe that the new, sane Casca will have a very different personality. She is now a mother first and foremost. Even if Guts still sees Casca as a legitimate commander of the Band Of The Hawk (which would be ridiculous anyway) the old BOTH doesn't exist anymore. And I doubt that anyone else in Guts' party will be willing to accept Casca as their leader. They don't even know her.
The nobles however have no valuable role.
Anyway, even if the nobles who survived in Vritannis aren't necessarily valuable to Griffith, they served a valuable narrative purpose: an audience initially skeptical of Griffith's reapperance, and to address (and for Charlotte to rule out) the rumor of his treason. It was the inevitable challenge to Griffith's intent to rule, and it was struck down in magnificent fashion with the apperance of not only the pontiff, but princess Charlotte herself.
So then how are they "not useful" to Griffith? They ended up unintentionally helping him and that was the point. That's why they had to survive.
So is everyone outside Falconia safe now that the Sea God is dead?
They aren't safe but they now have a better chance of surviving and escaping to Falconia. The world in which Berserk takes place is huge. There's no question that some of the refugees come from coastal areas and some probably traveled by ship to reach the continent where Falconia is located. Yes, the Sea God was going to be a serious threat. Even the strongest apostles would have a very hard time defeating it. Just like with Ganishka's ultimate form, Griffith would have had to intervene personally. But now he doesn't... because Guts already took care of it. So it really does look like the IOE is using Guts as a "useful idiot".
It's been consistent enough.
Semantics. The rules were that he had to give up something so important to him that "shedding it would be like giving up a part of yourself." The Falcons qualify for that. Also, they were all gathered.
No, these are not "semantics". The Band Of The Hawk itself was a huge retcon. When Guts confronted Griffith in the astral world during the Black Swordsman story arc we saw a flashback scene of a younger Guts and a still-human Griffith. What did we learn there? That Guts and Griffith used to be best friends and comrades and that Guts became Griffith's sacrifice. No Band Of The Hawk was ever shown or mentioned in that scene. And Guts
didn't tell Griffith anything like "I will make you pay for what you did to me and to our comrades". Even when they met Zodd it was still implied that Guts (and only Guts) is a valid sacrifice. Zodd warned Guts (not the rest of the BOTH) that when Griffith's dream collapses he (Guts) will face a death that he can't escape.
There's no denying that Miura simply didn't plan that far ahead when he wrote that part of the story. Of course it looks much better, much more dramatic that the whole BOTH got branded and sacrificed. That's why it happened the way it did. It's not the worst inconsistency ever, there is a perfectly acceptable in-universe explanation why it happened the way it did (the IOE will modify its own rules to do what needs to be done). But it is an inconsistency.
Skull Knight was right that the child's twisted existence brought them some amount of grief (it can't live as their son, which tortures Casca). However, it wasnt a prophecy, it turned out to be a bad judment call, because SK didn't know the full scope. He also didn't know the nature of the boy. He assumed that because of its form, that it had chosen an evil existence. In fact, the child had that evil form forced upon him, and he has acted against that nature in every action we've seen him take — protecting his parents against all odds, extinguishing his life to keep Casca safe.
Well, you're hinging your entire ending theory on a prophecy that wasn't a prophecy.
The Skull Knight was never shown to be wrong before. He was right when he said:
- that Guts was born from a corpse and began his life from death in the mud
- that Guts has what it takes to survive the Eclipse
- that Guts may have some connection to the Elves (and we saw much later that teen Guts' life was saved by that flower spirit girl who is a type of elf)
- that the incarnation ceremony in Albion can't be stopped (I know that Guts had no time to hunt the Egg apostle but even the Skull Knight himself failed to kill him)
- that the Elf Sovereign can cure Casca's mind
- that Guts and his party will have to overcome many obstacles on their way to Elfhelm (i.e. the battle in Vritannis, the Sea God)
- that Guts will slowly lose his humanity if he keeps using the berserker armor (and we know that this is true, Guts is already losing some of his senses)
But you expect me to believe that the Skull Knight was wrong about the child? I don't buy it. Just because the child keeps protecting Casca and Guts doesn't necessarily mean that the child is now "good". Is the child outside causality? Well, we don't have any evidence that he is. Because if he is, then Casca was supposed to get killed by falling rocks when Zodd destroyed the elf cave, Guts was supposed to massacre his party during the battle on the beach near Vritannis, and Guts was also supposed to die inside the Sea God. And that makes no sense.
Could you please cut it out with this reductive shit? It has no place in Berserk. Use those tropes on series that take actual plot shortcuts.
What reductive shit? What tropes? It's absolutely pointless for Farnese to go through all the character development that she went through if she is going to become
just another magic user in Guts' party once her role as Casca's babysitter comes to an end. In fact something like that really would be
bad writing. There are plenty of magic users in Elfhelm and at least one of them (Morda) already expressed interest in seeing the outside world. If Elfhelm is attacked it's perfectly fair to assume that the surviving mages will want to join Guts' party. Just like it's fair to assume that Guts and Silat will eventually team up against a common enemy. Just like it's fair to assume that Isma will play an important role in the future even though her abilities don't seem to be relevant to combat on land. Berserk seems to be entering a new phase: the war to save humanity.
And let's be realistic here, Farnese is not the most experienced or the most powerful magic user. Her most important trait is her new, nice personality and her feelings for Guts. Farnese can do something for Guts that even Schierke can't. She can be Guts' new woman. To throw all that away just to appease fans who want Golden Age Casca back would be pointless and I'm confident that Miura will not do this.
Golden Age Casca "died" during the Eclipse. It is pointless for Guts to restart a relationship with a woman who (mentally) doesn't exist anymore.
We don't know the IoE's intentions with the Beherit. Stop pretending that we do, or at least phrase things in a suppositonal manner.
My theory uses actual evidence from the manga and makes much more sense than the theory that Guts' Beherit will be used by some random person in the middle of nowhere. What is another random apostle at this point? Just a speed bump on the road to final confrontation with Griffith. Random apostles are basically cannon fodder now to Guts (in berserker armor) and the Skull Knight. I doubt that any apostle other than Griffith's elite henchmen could pose any serious challenge to Guts now.
There's nobody else in Guts' party right now who could qualify to use that Beherit. And there is absolutely no way that Guts will use it. We agree that it would be pointless and a terrible way to end the story.
Would you care to place a bet on this possibility?
I would. I'm sure that back in 1996 some fans were upset and angry when the old Band Of The Hawk was wiped out during the Eclipse. I see posts on various forums all the time how Pippin and Judo should have survived the Eclipse. They are missing the point. The Eclipse was so well done, it was so dramatic, precisely because Guts, Casca, and Rickert were the only ones who survived. And I stand by what I said earlier. Golden Age Casca mentally "died" during the Eclipse. She is never coming back. Miura always wrote a good story,
not a story designed to appease certain fans.
I do believe that if Guts is forced to fight (and kill) Casca before he can fight Griffith that it will be the most interesting, difficult, and tragic battle that Guts will ever have. I do believe that this will be the perfect final battle for Berserk... because it will be so
different from what we have seen before. We saw plenty of battles between armies and we saw how the apostles can fight as an organized military force.
The final battle
must have something that we didn't see before. And this "something" can't be just a bigger, badder enemy or battleground (i.e. no Guts going into the Vortex Of Souls to chop up the Idea Of Evil or some other nonsense like that).
The final battle
must be a real moral dilemma for Guts without any lame cliches (i.e. no Guts and Griffith both dying, no Isidro picking up Guts' sword and becoming Guts 2.0).
I am confident that Miura will not disappoint us.