Berserk Continuation's Discrepancies (Ongoing Series)

[Walter]

In this thread I'll be posting articles detailing some of the major discrepancies between the Berserk Continuation and original Berserk by Kentarou Miura. Some of these are pure inconsistencies, and some are more nuanced explanations of why something isn't congruent with how Miura had established concepts in Berserk. Many of these topics have already been addressed, but the intent of this thread is to focus all of the major issues in one place. Discussion and questions are encouraged!

[366] How Did Zodd Use the World Spiral Tree to Get to Skellig?

In Episode 331, we saw the Boy in the Moonlight fly away from the Sea Horse through the World Spiral Tree’s branches. In Episode 357 we saw a similar technique of transportation—Falconians soaring through the sky using the branches. By galloping through the dolmens, they were whisked up into the branches, enabling transportation across great distances very quickly. However, Sonia stated that this method can only be navigated by herself or Griffith.

From Puella’s translation of Ep 357:
Sonia: Yes! A person who doesn't have special senses like Lord Griffith or I do would get lost in endlessly dividing branches and might pop out into an unexpected place. If anything goes wrong, they might even end up in the sea or underground.
Griffith: But we can at least march if I lead them.

And yet, in Episode 366, Zodd splashes out of the World Spiral Tree’s branches above Skellig, and he wasn’t led through by Griffith or Sonia. He came there on his own, explicitly breaking the rule Sonia had established less than 10 episodes before. For the next episode or two after Zodd appeared, I kept expecting to see Sonia’s head poking up from between his ears, with a dizzied expression on her face from the quick flight. But alas, it was never addressed.

Puella’s translation of 366: Puck: I sense it…! Something…Something is!! Coming…!!!

Of course, the question of “How did Zodd get there?” isn’t as instructive as “Why is Zodd there?” Because as with many riddles introduced by the Berserk Continuation, one answers the other. Zodd was just a prop, serving as an escape route for Griffith and Casca. And that need was deemed more important than rule consistency.

The problem with Zodd';s usage in this sequence goes beyond the rules, though. When you play a big card like a fight between Guts and Zodd, it should be a standout moment. Those fights are momentous and among the best in the series. Here, it occurs across 3 pages and doesn’t develop anything for either characters or address Guts’ growth over time, his adoption of the Berserk Armor, etc. It’s an absolutely huge missed opportunity. Worse: It’s not even important, because Zodd is only there as transportation.

NOTE: This article was originally posted on our Patreon, where you can subscribe to get more updates like these, translations from Puella, and monthly minipodcasts

 

[Walter]

[368] Why Do the Gnawers So Closely Resemble the "Mega Specters" in Albion?​

An enigmatic moment of episode 368 occurred when the mysterious gnawers began speaking to Guts, addressing him as “Sacrifice... san!” (Mr. Sacrifice?), and demanding that he reply.

Puella’s translation: Sacrifice… san!! Sacrifice……Reply (to us)!

It’s very strange to have them speaking in this way, almost inviting him to have a dialogue with them. Though they very much resemble the huge mass of specters in Albion, they could be quite different if they are speaking, right?

Well, no. As it turns out, this sort of speech from evil spirits happens a number of times in the series, like for example in this small panel in Albion. The difference there is they only say “sacrifice,” no “-san” and no request for a reply.

Pictured: Casca being encased in specters at Albion (Ep 153). Note the repetition of ニエ (NIE—the pronunciation of 贄 for sacrifice).

It’s not unique for evil creatures to repeat “sacrifice." Apostles and the beings from the vortex do the same in various places in the series. But this line in combination with the gnawers’ design being so strikingly similar to Albion’s specters feels like a tip of the hand from those behind the continuation. Did they have an informed idea for what these things should be, or did they just lift a preexisting concept and apply it here on the island? It has made me wonder if they would ever have existed under Miura’s original version of events, or if they were invented as an express solution for moving off the island.

 

[Walter]

[369] Why would the Great Cherry Tree's destruction cause Danan and the elves to disappear? (sparing Puck and Ivalera)​

This shouldn’t have happened; at least, not by the rules we were working with for Berserk’s world. The vanishing of the elves was a surprising phenomenon that hasn’t been properly explained, and at this point I don’t expect an explanation.

Taken as it was presented in sequence, the cherry tree, Danan, and the elves seem to be connected. So perhaps once the tree fell, Danan lost her power and the elves went with her? Unfortunately, as clean as that explanation is, it is at odds with what has been established about spiritual trees, the merged state of the Berserk world through the world tree’s emergence, the nature of magic—and the list goes on.

So maybe it would help to review how Fantasia came about to begin with, verifying our understanding of it point by point.

As far as we know, the World Tree has been around since the beginning of existence. As explained by Ged in Ep 345, the tree’s branches pierce and connect the deep layers of the ethereal and corporeal worlds. This chaotic mixture was likely the original state of the world. But for centuries, the World Tree’s growth had been artificially hindered by the planting of spiritual trees, which sapped its power. This mostly prevented incursions from ethereal creatures in the corporeal world, allowing humanity to prosper.

From Puella's translation of Gedflynn from Episode 345:
"They play the role of preventing the branches from extending into "this world" by absorbing the power from the "World Tree".
"Now almost all of the "Forest of Spiritual Trees" around the world have been burned into ashes."
"So the World Tree has become more powerful.”
"We're going back to the Chaos of the ancient times where this world was mixed with the ethereal world..."

The world tree’s reemergence created Fantasia, the new (and old) state of the Berserk world, where monstrous ethereal creatures now roam freely through a land once dominated by humans. Elves, as ethereal creatures themselves, began appearing in greater numbers to humans when the world tree emerged, along with many other beings that were previously imperceptible to humans. So why do we see Elfhelm’s elves disappearing as Skellig sinks after the destruction of its Great Cherry Tree?

To be perfectly clear, nothing from Miura’s Berserk indicated elves would disappear if Elfhelm’s cherry tree died. If it were just another spiritual tree (which was never established), then its destruction shouldn’t have signified any change, because the world tree’s influence is global, superseding any change from a mere spiritual tree. And if we suppose the world tree’s power were still being held back, then the destruction of yet another spiritual tree would mean the emergence of more ethereal creatures, not the vanishing of elves.

Furthermore, elves exist in a layer of the astral world that is sufficiently close to the corporeal world that some were still around even before Fantasia occurred. Based on that fact, a spiritual tree’s disappearance shouldn’t cause them to vanish.

There’s no reason for it to have happened. So why did it?

Perhaps there was something unique about Elfhelm that explains the disappearance of elves–something unforeseen that changes our status quo understanding. Miura was clearly setting up more about the events on Skellig a thousand years ago, with the very recent introduction of Volvaba, Hanarr, and the hints about Danan’s origins between 361-363. It was building to something that was unfortunately never revealed to us.

Information of that sort would likely have been helpful when a curveball like the disappearance of elves was thrown at us. But the further we get from the event, the less that I feel the Berserk Continuation staff are delaying the explanation as a means of drumming up some dramatic tension, and the more I feel that they don’t actually have an answer.

There are still a few lingering threads to grapple with, so let’s tackle them one by one:

Why did Isma and the merrows disappear?

To quote Aazealh on the subject: “The merrows weren't born on Skellig. They dwell in the sea and we even know where and how Isma was born specifically (and her father was human!). For them to disappear because of what happened means that every elf was impacted.”

Furthermore, the merrows knew of Skellig, but Isma’s mother was wary of it, and it did not appear to be a home to her kind. They presumably had their own home elsewhere. And yet, they disappeared along with the other elves in 369. In fact, Isma was the first to disappear, before even Danan herself, who was intrinsically tied to the cherry tree.

Why did Puck and Ivalera not disappear like the other elves?

They should have! One might suppose Puck and Ivalera were spared the other elves’ fate because they were just visitors, but that directly contradicts what happened to the merrows. And even though that reasoning could explain why Ivalera remained, as she had never been to Elfhelm, it doesn't work for Puck.

From Puella’s translation of Episode 345:
Danan: Welcome back, Puck. You must be tired from a long journey.
Puck: I'm home.

If the elves disappeared because they were from Elfhelm, then why didn’t Puck disappear? I selected this panel because it’s explicit, with no wiggle room. He’s not a visitor or an outsider. Elfhelm was his home.

I think the answer to the disappearance of both the Skellig elves and the merrows is that the staff behind the Berserk Continuation had no plans for these creatures, and they represented a loose end for where they planned to take the story. As for why Puck and Ivalera were spared, perhaps they recognized that their disappearance would have been TOO disruptive for the status quo of the party, so they were allowed to remain, bending the rule they invented to remove the other elves.

 

[Walter]

[371] How can Schierke read Guts' mind through her body of light?​

In episode 371, Schierke wants to check on Guts' state, but can't open the door to his room on the Sea Horse. So she uses her body of light to go through the wall, and then, just floating next to him, she sees memories associated with his sword. When these fragments (depicted linearly, like a slideshow) show a memory of Griffith, the Beast of Darkness manifests and slams its jaws shut, blocking her mind reading and repelling her back to her body.

It’s unclear how Schierke does this. The group can use telepathy by tying one of her hairs around a finger, but that’s not what happens here. There is one past occurrence when Schierke perceives some of Guts’ memories: in volume 27, when she rescues him from the armor. But it’s very different.

At that time, she used her body of light to enter the armor after it was activated. She saw the raging fire that represents the armor’s Od, and diving inside it, found the memories of Guts that fueled said fire: his days among the Band of the Falcon and what happened during the Eclipse. All of that took place within the armor itself, because it’s a magical item with special properties. It showed us how the armor works, and how Flora’s talisman protects Guts’ ego from shattering.

But in episode 371, Schierke simply peeks inside Guts’ mind from the outside, as if being in her body of light was sufficient in and of itself. That is simply not how Miura had established things. It implies mind reading abilities that are unlike anything else she had done until that point in the series.

And it begs the question: if Schierke had the capability of accessing people’s minds so easily, then why did the group need to get help from Danan? Why even introduce the Corridor of Dreams at all? If Schierke could access Casca’s mind simply by floating near her, she could conceivably have rooted out the “main culprit” all along.

The truth is that, quite clearly, she doesn’t have those abilities. She can do limited telepathy in specific cases, not unlike how Puck catches fleeting feelings from people nearby, but she can’t peer into people’s mind to this extent. By the same token, the way in which she’s repelled is completely incongruous, since she’s not even inside of him.

 

[Walter]

[373+374] Why did the gurus lose their magical abilities?​

In episodes 373-374, it’s explained that the magic users on the island, including the great gurus, have lost their power ever since Skellig was destroyed.

Puella’s translation of Episode 373:
Serpico: The witches have lost their base and most of them are losing their power or so. Fortunately, we’re visitors that came from outside of the island. So we haven’t been affected by the disappearance of the island, I think.

This development appears to be a contrivance invented to write off the newly introduced magic users, for which Mori and Studio Gaga seemingly had no plans. Now that they have arbitrarily had their powers stripped from them, I don’t expect to see them for the remainder of the series as more than extras (if that).

The problem: Magic doesn’t work that way in Berserk. Magic users don’t rely on some well of power in order to do magical things. There is no mana pool. They apply their deep knowledge of the world and its inhabitants and establish pacts with astral beings. They can visualize phenomena beyond the corporeal world and can coax its inhabitants into a mutual coexistence with humans. It’s like an extension of science for a magical world. They study it and its inhabitants and learn how the rules and properties of the world can be manipulated.

When Schierke explained to Farnese one of the fundamental concepts of magic in Episode 249, she said:

“Magic is not accomplished merely by reciting a spell and drawing symbols. It is the chaining of images in conjunction with those things that first yields efficacy. The essence of magic is the world of thought, and it is practiced in the astral world”

The destruction of the cherry tree in Elfhelm, while tragic, should have had no effect on the magic users’ abilities to understand and thus conduct themselves through magic. If there is a barrier that prevents them from applying their knowledge, then it hasn’t been properly explained.

Compounding this discrepancy is the fact that Serpico says this limitation only happened to certain people—the island’s inhabitants. But... in the last episode that Miura worked on, Episode 364, he had irrevocably established that Farnese, Schierke, and Casca had been accepted as inhabitants of the island through a ritual:

Puella’s translation of Episode 364:
Danan: The casting ritual to make you three become inhabitants of the island has been accomplished. Above all else, everything here accepts you.
Schierke: We… have been accepted…

If they were accepted as inhabitants of the island… then why didn’t they lose their powers, too? These lines are in direct conflict, and it doesn’t take a genius to determine why. Having incredibly powerful magic users like the great gurus is a big variable to work with when planning the ending of the story. It’s likely Miura hadn’t fully divulged their import and role for the final portion of the series. So, they were conveniently written off with a hasty solution that isn’t consistent with the previously established rules for magic, or the very recent development of Farnese, Schierke, and Casca being accepted as inhabitants of the island.