Hi Guys,
I recently cracked open the Berserk official guidebook and was reading through when I came across some information that could be relevant to the most recent episode 362 release.
Starting first on page 47, under "The Kingdoms Beginning" the "Supreme King Gaiseric" section states:
"Supreme King Gaiseric subjugated the constantly warring countries, and established a great empire that stretches all the way across the continent."
I found this interesting, as we see in episode 362 when Gaiseric is holding the woman in his arms, there is a massive brand in what could be Gaiseric's fallen city behind them. Is it just Gaiseric's capital city that fell and the people of the city marked with the brand of sacrifice? Or was it the whole empire that fell and the entire empire marked with the brand? If it was indeed the empire, that would mean an area that stretches the span of an entire continent was branded as sacrifices. Before you think about whether it was just Gaiseric's capital city or the whole empire that fell, I think the very next section gives us a clue.
Under the "Collapse of the imperial capital" section, it states:
"Eventually the empire fell, and the Midland royal family was born, being the only kings descended from the emperor."
So two things here. First, based on the title of this section you would think it was only the capital city that "fell" or was "sacrificed". But then in the section itself it states the empire fell. I'm leaning more towards just the capital city falling and being sacrificed based on what we've seen in the manga. This could also just be a wording/translation error. In other words, I think the capital city falling/being sacrificed is what led to the empire falling. The more I write this out into words the more I think I'm looking too far into it and it indeed is just the capital that was sacrificed.
All that aside, here's where I think things get really interesting, and I'm not sure if it's been covered here in the forums already or not but either way I think it adds a bit more to episode 362. "and the Midland royal family was born, being the only kings descended from the emperor." This implies that Gaiseric had offspring, and not only that but that Charlotte is a direct descendant of Gaiseric. If Gaiseric indeed had a child/children than that means he already had them in the flashback we saw in episode 362 where we see him die. I think this makes his death THAT much more painful, and brings up a few questions.
1. Where was his kid(s) when the kingdom was falling?
2. Who did he have said kid(s) with?
I think we can maybe guess that the woman dying in his arms is who he had his child/children with. I've seen theories that the woman might have some elvish blood in her, and if this is the case would that make Charlotte part elf? I don't really subscribe to the theory the woman dying in his arms was part elvish, but I wanted to just throw that out there since this is speculation nation after all.
I'm curious to here your thoughts on this!
Many have also been drawing parallels to Gaiseric/Void timeline and Guts/Griffith timeline. This next page doesn't necessarily mean much but I found it interesting in the context of knowing what we know from this new episode.
"All moves as if parallel to that time".
I forget what this quote is in reference to, but I believe it comes out of the Conviction arc and was maybe drawing similarities to the incarnation ceremony and the eclipse? Or could it be foreshadowing to what we just learned? Was any part of what we witnessed in episode 362 part of an incarnation ceremony?
Last part here and then I'm done. We kind of all know this already but this last section talks about the sage (presumably Void) imprisoned by Gaiseric who pleaded with God to send an send an angel. I don't have much to say here, other than it's interesting they only speak of 1 angel at this point.
I recently cracked open the Berserk official guidebook and was reading through when I came across some information that could be relevant to the most recent episode 362 release.
Starting first on page 47, under "The Kingdoms Beginning" the "Supreme King Gaiseric" section states:
"Supreme King Gaiseric subjugated the constantly warring countries, and established a great empire that stretches all the way across the continent."
I found this interesting, as we see in episode 362 when Gaiseric is holding the woman in his arms, there is a massive brand in what could be Gaiseric's fallen city behind them. Is it just Gaiseric's capital city that fell and the people of the city marked with the brand of sacrifice? Or was it the whole empire that fell and the entire empire marked with the brand? If it was indeed the empire, that would mean an area that stretches the span of an entire continent was branded as sacrifices. Before you think about whether it was just Gaiseric's capital city or the whole empire that fell, I think the very next section gives us a clue.
Under the "Collapse of the imperial capital" section, it states:
"Eventually the empire fell, and the Midland royal family was born, being the only kings descended from the emperor."
So two things here. First, based on the title of this section you would think it was only the capital city that "fell" or was "sacrificed". But then in the section itself it states the empire fell. I'm leaning more towards just the capital city falling and being sacrificed based on what we've seen in the manga. This could also just be a wording/translation error. In other words, I think the capital city falling/being sacrificed is what led to the empire falling. The more I write this out into words the more I think I'm looking too far into it and it indeed is just the capital that was sacrificed.
All that aside, here's where I think things get really interesting, and I'm not sure if it's been covered here in the forums already or not but either way I think it adds a bit more to episode 362. "and the Midland royal family was born, being the only kings descended from the emperor." This implies that Gaiseric had offspring, and not only that but that Charlotte is a direct descendant of Gaiseric. If Gaiseric indeed had a child/children than that means he already had them in the flashback we saw in episode 362 where we see him die. I think this makes his death THAT much more painful, and brings up a few questions.
1. Where was his kid(s) when the kingdom was falling?
2. Who did he have said kid(s) with?
I think we can maybe guess that the woman dying in his arms is who he had his child/children with. I've seen theories that the woman might have some elvish blood in her, and if this is the case would that make Charlotte part elf? I don't really subscribe to the theory the woman dying in his arms was part elvish, but I wanted to just throw that out there since this is speculation nation after all.
I'm curious to here your thoughts on this!
Many have also been drawing parallels to Gaiseric/Void timeline and Guts/Griffith timeline. This next page doesn't necessarily mean much but I found it interesting in the context of knowing what we know from this new episode.
"All moves as if parallel to that time".
I forget what this quote is in reference to, but I believe it comes out of the Conviction arc and was maybe drawing similarities to the incarnation ceremony and the eclipse? Or could it be foreshadowing to what we just learned? Was any part of what we witnessed in episode 362 part of an incarnation ceremony?
Last part here and then I'm done. We kind of all know this already but this last section talks about the sage (presumably Void) imprisoned by Gaiseric who pleaded with God to send an send an angel. I don't have much to say here, other than it's interesting they only speak of 1 angel at this point.
