We have speculated for a long time now that we finally would get to see the legendary backstory of Skull Knight during his time as King Gaiseric and now we finally got to see Skull Knight after a long period of time in the most recent episode.
Prior to seeing him Miura spent a lot of time planting the seeds for the future of the story, but also building up to this moment of finally revealing us what happened around 1000 years ago.
Considering the last panel of episode 359 i think its fair to assume that this will eventually lead up to Skull Knight conversing with Guts over various topics, eventually leading to him maybe revealing some information on his past. How long it will take to get to that point is yet to be seen, and if it will be a 1vs1 discussion is also arguable, but for this post i will just assume that we will get the typical talk between Sk and Guts that we got several times like in Volumes 28,18 etc.
Given the current story line of Cascas trauma, a topic to begin with would be obviously this situation as Skull Knight already warned Guts about what was to come., but i think the biggest topic for their dialogue will be the blast of the astral world and the appearance of Falconia.
It is already established in the Manga that Falconia is Gaiserics former city which makes this certain topic a perfect gateway for Skull Knight to finally talk about his past.
Now for the speculation part. I think that Miura planted several seeds on Elfhelm and Falconia that will find their place in this epic tale.
Lets start
1. The headless statue in Falconia
This statue most likely was a statue of Gaiseric. The placement of Rakshas makes it very reminiscent of Gaiserics dark hair. Obviously there being a statue is not surprising as its his former city altered for Griffith, but it's still a neat detail that we might see in the flashback.
2. The Wicker Man
A fetish brought to life by the life force of sacrifices, basically blood magic. In my opinion this was a potential tool used by Gaiserics army time to fight off astral creatures which brings me to my next point.
3. The worlds were merged already at a certain point
The magis of Elfhelm mention how the worlds were already intermingled in antique times. This most likely was also the case for Gaiserics time. It also obviously fits the thematic of surviving in Fantasia. How did humans fight back then? Did they use tools like the wicker man? What did they do to balance the worlds (aka spirit trees%magic) ?
4. Griffith wanting to obtain an Empire
In episode 358 Griffith mentions his goal of creating an empire for humans. This ties down to how Guts was speaking about him in Episode 345. What went from wanting to obtain a Kingdom became a bigger goal of wanting to build an empire, and as we know Griffith will only want to go higher and higher.
In that exact episode we get the first time where a character mentions Gaiseric since Volume 17 and Griffith talks about wanting to imitate that feat by the former King which has a very ironic twist to it.
How was Gaiserics approach with astral creatures? Did he wipe out giants like Griffiths demon army did or did he find other ways to deal with these issues?
The placement of this backstory is not only key to explain what happened 1000 years ago, it will also shine more light on what Griffith is doing with Falconia and how that contrasts with Gaiserics ways.
5. Vikings, Cascas new sword
In episode 359 Casca obtains a new sword which carries the symbol of Gaiserics old symbol. This was a detail that Walter pointed out in the original episode thread
Not only that but when you look back at episode 53 where they talk about Gaiseric you find similar viking imagery in the mention of his citys downfall.
We could speculate a lot about this, but i assume an alright approach would be to think that Gaiseric might have been a Viking himself who then went on to conquer the mainland. It would add more to his ties with Skellig, explain how he was someone who rose to power out of nowhere.
Now to my question to you guys.
How long do you think this Gaiseric flashback will be? Do you think Skull Knight will talk about himself in a one on one conversation with Guts or will this be something revealed to a larger crowd by Sk or someone else?
All i can say is, even though its a dry period in terms of releases for Berserk, when the story returns we will enter the greatest stretch of the series!
Prior to seeing him Miura spent a lot of time planting the seeds for the future of the story, but also building up to this moment of finally revealing us what happened around 1000 years ago.
Considering the last panel of episode 359 i think its fair to assume that this will eventually lead up to Skull Knight conversing with Guts over various topics, eventually leading to him maybe revealing some information on his past. How long it will take to get to that point is yet to be seen, and if it will be a 1vs1 discussion is also arguable, but for this post i will just assume that we will get the typical talk between Sk and Guts that we got several times like in Volumes 28,18 etc.
Given the current story line of Cascas trauma, a topic to begin with would be obviously this situation as Skull Knight already warned Guts about what was to come., but i think the biggest topic for their dialogue will be the blast of the astral world and the appearance of Falconia.
It is already established in the Manga that Falconia is Gaiserics former city which makes this certain topic a perfect gateway for Skull Knight to finally talk about his past.
Now for the speculation part. I think that Miura planted several seeds on Elfhelm and Falconia that will find their place in this epic tale.
Lets start
1. The headless statue in Falconia
This statue most likely was a statue of Gaiseric. The placement of Rakshas makes it very reminiscent of Gaiserics dark hair. Obviously there being a statue is not surprising as its his former city altered for Griffith, but it's still a neat detail that we might see in the flashback.
2. The Wicker Man
A fetish brought to life by the life force of sacrifices, basically blood magic. In my opinion this was a potential tool used by Gaiserics army time to fight off astral creatures which brings me to my next point.
3. The worlds were merged already at a certain point
The magis of Elfhelm mention how the worlds were already intermingled in antique times. This most likely was also the case for Gaiserics time. It also obviously fits the thematic of surviving in Fantasia. How did humans fight back then? Did they use tools like the wicker man? What did they do to balance the worlds (aka spirit trees%magic) ?
4. Griffith wanting to obtain an Empire
In episode 358 Griffith mentions his goal of creating an empire for humans. This ties down to how Guts was speaking about him in Episode 345. What went from wanting to obtain a Kingdom became a bigger goal of wanting to build an empire, and as we know Griffith will only want to go higher and higher.
In that exact episode we get the first time where a character mentions Gaiseric since Volume 17 and Griffith talks about wanting to imitate that feat by the former King which has a very ironic twist to it.
How was Gaiserics approach with astral creatures? Did he wipe out giants like Griffiths demon army did or did he find other ways to deal with these issues?
The placement of this backstory is not only key to explain what happened 1000 years ago, it will also shine more light on what Griffith is doing with Falconia and how that contrasts with Gaiserics ways.
5. Vikings, Cascas new sword
In episode 359 Casca obtains a new sword which carries the symbol of Gaiserics old symbol. This was a detail that Walter pointed out in the original episode thread
Oh yeah, and there's a symbol on the sword Casca uses that caught my eye:
Not only that but when you look back at episode 53 where they talk about Gaiseric you find similar viking imagery in the mention of his citys downfall.
We could speculate a lot about this, but i assume an alright approach would be to think that Gaiseric might have been a Viking himself who then went on to conquer the mainland. It would add more to his ties with Skellig, explain how he was someone who rose to power out of nowhere.
Now to my question to you guys.
How long do you think this Gaiseric flashback will be? Do you think Skull Knight will talk about himself in a one on one conversation with Guts or will this be something revealed to a larger crowd by Sk or someone else?
All i can say is, even though its a dry period in terms of releases for Berserk, when the story returns we will enter the greatest stretch of the series!