The significance of the white dove that Puck rode on in "The Brand" episode

[Sixtopia]

Hi everyone, new member here! I recently finished reading Berserk for the first time and have just started re-reading it. I've also started listening to the SkullKast from the beginning where the admins always discuss details that can only really be noticed having re-read the manga. With this in mind, I'm starting to pay closer attention to the themes and symbolism that can be found throughout the series. I searched the forum and couldn't find a topic about this, so here it goes.

Something that caught my attention early on was the white dove that Puck rides on when he was looking for Guts at the beginning of the episode "The Brand". The panel at the top of page 98 shows the white silhouette of the bird against a dark landscape. This scene becomes very common later on when depicting The Hawk of Light in the dreams of the Midlanders when the Kushan waged war against them. I'm wondering what is the significance in displaying this scene with Puck as such? I don't think it's necessarily a connection to The Hawk of Light, but I feel there's no reason in drawing the scene this way unless there is some underlying meaning to it.

Or I'm just a novice reading way too far into a simple coincidence.

[Cyrus Jong]

It's a cool picture, but I wouldn't look too deeply into it. It might bear a few superficial similarities, but I doubt Miura really planned the Falcon of Light that far ahead of time when he was just starting Berserk. As you even said, it's not a raptor, but a dove, and it's just a normal bird that Puck hitches a ride on as he's wont to do. At most, Miura might have gotten the idea to effectively recycle that particular imagery when it came time to draw the Falcon of Light.

If you wanted to attach some kind of symbolic meaning to that panel, I suppose you could say it represents how Puck is a small spark of light and innocence in the dark world that Guts is enveloped in.

[Aazealh]

Hi everyone, new member here!

Hello Sixtopia, welcome to our community!

Something that caught my attention early on was the white dove that Puck rides on when he was looking for Guts at the beginning of the episode "The Brand". The panel at the top of page 98 shows the white silhouette of the bird against a dark landscape.

The landscape isn't actually that dark in the original color picture. The sky is cloudy but there is a bluish light over the scenery.

This scene becomes very common later on when depicting The Hawk of Light in the dreams of the Midlanders when the Kushan waged war against them. I'm wondering what is the significance in displaying this scene with Puck as such? I don't think it's necessarily a connection to The Hawk of Light, but I feel there's no reason in drawing the scene this way unless there is some underlying meaning to it.

Like Cyrus Jong said, the obvious connotation would be that Puck is innocent and pure, hence riding a dove. That being said, it's also the beginning of a motif of Puck riding birds (which rarely goes smoothly).

[Sixtopia]

The landscape isn't actually that dark in the original color picture. The sky is cloudy but there is a bluish light over the scenery.

Ah, I've only read the Dark Horse prints which don't include any colored panels. I looked up the original panel online and it all makes sense now; it looks much darker in grayscale. I believe it is twilight/dusk at that point in time so the scene is darker overall than usual.