What struck me first with this episode is the light it casts on the previous one. Isidro's exchange with the Skull Knight, for example, felt meaningless and out of character for both of them. The aftermath shown here emphasizes how pointless it was by depicting Isidro running away with every other refugee (wasn't he going to fight?) while the Skull Knight stays alone somewhere, fruitlessly slashing at the ooze, achieving nothing of value. Maybe he could have used his beherit sword technique to siphon it away or something, but no. He doesn't even accompany them to safety.
Gnawing on a nothingburger
But what of that first page, with Guts down in some cave, surrounded by the ooze as it strangely talks to him and doesn't attack? That held some allure in episode 368. Well it's nothing. I've seen people say he remains motionless the whole time, and it does look like that because he's never clearly shown moving. But pages 3 and 4 actually seem to depict him getting out of that hole and back up to ground level... just in time for everything to collapse behind him.
The way it's drawn, it looks like he would fall down too, and maybe he does, it's not clear. It's all just done very confusingly. All we know is he ends up somewhere alone at the end, still prostrated in front of his sword, but completely unharmed, with not even a mote of dust on him. If the Skull Knight had been using the beherit sword, one might have deduced he actually grabbed Guts and took him to safety, given the weird transition on that page. But he's not, so he didn't. Unless of course the team forgot to draw the proper sword.
These questions sound inane, and yet they cannot be discounted. That is the result of the poor execution that's unfortunately become associated with the continuation. Why was Guts spared both by the thing that's destroyed literally everything else, and by the island's collapse? No idea. He just had to, so he did. Will we get a clue at some point in the future? Maybe. Maybe not.
Of course, the "gnawers" were met with their own ignominious end: they simply vanished by themselves once the island was (mostly) destroyed. Where did they come from? What were they exactly? How were they created? How did Femto trigger them, and how could they destroy everything so rapidly? Same as above. We don't know, and we can only hope that we'll get thrown a bone in the future. Maybe if the next chapter opens with a flashback to ancient times. It certainly would be an appropriate time for it.
One thing to keep in mind though is what you could call the Zodd effect. The way Mori & staff seem to be handling things is that they don't hesitate to bring in something into a scene, have it play a precise role, and then discard it without explanation. It could become a recurring pattern as they power through various plot points, which makes me wary of forming assumptions about what we'll get to see or not. Unfortunately it also makes it less interesting for me to cogitate about these developments.
A disjointed story flow
As far as the episode itself goes, it's back to a very disjointed flow, with the story skipping forward in time at the end of page 7. At first glance, it can look like it fast forwards to the crack of dawn, but that might actually just be the light from the formation of the four cardinal points that illuminates everything. Anyway, if done properly this time skip could have been an opportunity to leave the bulk of the evacuation and survival to the readers' imagination, but they went at it differently, showing us a bunch of unconnected vignettes.
I'll list the main ones since some people seemed confused by what was happening:
- Schierke and Farnese isolated up there with the tree house
- Puck still watching the island's destruction passively from above
- A shot of the mushroom cove (for the Corridor of Dreams) being flooded
- Isidro and Serpico leading many magicians to safety
- Guts down in the crevice, feeling bad he couldn't hit Griffith
- Guts has seemingly climbed out of his hole, but falls to his knees again as the ground crumbles
- SK slashing at the ooze
- The throne room crumbling
- The island sinking underwater
- Someone casting the formation of the four cardinal points
- Roderick getting aboard the Sea Horse and throwing barrels and crates overboard
- Cut to the aftermath
All this for that
This is frustrating to me because it paints a very incomplete picture while at the same time cementing the fact nothing special actually happens. The Skull Knight does not save the day. The four Great Gurus, master magicians from a thousand years ago, do not save the day. As a reminder, the formation of the four cardinal points, where you call upon the protection of the four elemental kings, is a
beginner spell. That's why it's the first one Farnese learned. It took her 3 months to learn.
The island is filled with witches who can fly on brooms, magic scholars who excel in specific fields, and the Great Gurus who are beyond everyone else. Plus the Volvaba, master of curses who looks after a bunch of Wickermen, puppets that conveniently wield fire. But all these people do is run away on foot, get rescued by Roderick's men, and cast the spell that acts as a rite of passage for novices in a corner of the island. I'd better forget about Daimons I guess, the spell that'll be cast during the final battle will probably be this, too. The first one we saw back in Enoch.
Speaking of Roderick and his men, they're fast becoming the real heroes of this whole production. Maybe if Roderick had been there in time, Griffith wouldn't have gotten away so easily! Unfortunately, these brave men seem to have disappeared themselves. At least on pages 8 and 9, since the Sea Horse is nowhere to be seen. Barrels aplenty, but no ship. Hidden behind the light of the spell, maybe? But it's still not visible from other angles in the rest of the episode. I guess that ship's just too bothering to draw. Phased out. Just like Schierke and Farnese, who can't be expected to stick around for more than a page it seems.
A word on the dialogue: it's kept to a minimum and is about as unremarkable as you can make it. The bulk of it is from Roderick and his crew, continuing the trend started with 368. It's the new normal. Interestingly, the episode titles have been somewhat complex so far, and it feels like more effort is being put into them than into what the characters say. I don't know if they've necessarily been good, though. All I can say is that it seems to me that Mori is trying hard to imitate Miura's style with them.
Half of an aftermath
The aftermath of all that destruction is interesting to see. I do like the crescent shape for the island, and that feels like something Miura might have devised. The fact there were basically no casualties (or close to none) also matches my previous expectations, but it feels unearned since we saw no real struggle. The result is that the "gnawers" are depicted both as the ultimate calamity, but also as strangely toothless (ironic, right... gnawers...). It's a bit of a silly dissonance. Like Truder said earlier, if you compare it to what happened at Saint Albion's, it feels like there are no stakes.
Then again, we only see some types of elves, and just a couple of each. I'm just assuming the others survived but are off the page on another part of the island. We also don't see any dwarf except Hanarr. Does it even matter at this point? I don't know, but I figured I'd point it out.
There's a whole bunch of familiar faces when the morning comes, but with some notable ones missing. What of Molda, for example? Kept in stasis until 370, when she can go see Schierke, I guess? The Skull Knight? In the freezer until he's needed to spit a few lines at Guts. Nevermind that the reincarnation of his special lady (or something) is vanishing into the sea breeze. He didn't bother to see her off. It seems he truly was just there to impress Isidro last episode, she wasn't even a concern. Hard to reconcile that with their scene together in episode 363.
Same thing with Guts, by the way. I'm digressing here, but the fact his only thoughts are about how he couldn't hit Griffith and got ridiculously beaten is... not like him at all. And don't go telling me it's because Miura had told Mori he would think that and not something else. They're just making up those lines, and they're doing a shit job of it. That's what it comes down to. Guts should have had those thoughts before, during the fight, and right now he should be thinking about his failure to protect the woman he loves.
The Hill of Swords, again
Anyway, moving on to the disappearance of the elves. It quite conveniently happens just as everything quiets down and everyone takes stock of the aftermath. That really shows the step-by-step approach of the continuation so far, where things are disconnected almost by design and out of necessity. That's where you can feel the "plot beats" nature of this work the most, with them only having a few inklings of Miura's plans and needing to handwave their way around these to create a pretense of continuity.
The disappearance itself is a huge deal, and must have been something Miura had planned. Combined with Guts' ineffectual fight and Casca's abduction, it puts our heroes at their lowest point in a long time. We can assume they will inevitably claw their way back while the story progresses towards its conclusion.
I have to say that I am generally unsatisfied with how it's all taking place, though. Miura always excelled in keeping the story fresh with new challenges and situations that often greatly differed from previous ones. But here, we really just get a redo of the Hill of Swords, where Guts has a futile confrontation with Griffith and has his plans disrupted almost as a side effect. Back then it was because Godot's mine had been destroyed. That pushed Guts and Casca to travel to Puck's place, despite it being far away. At the time, it provided Guts with an interesting dilemma, having to bury down his desire for revenge in order to prioritize Casca's well-being.
This new situation is more of the same, except now his two objectives are aligned. Out of all the developments that could have pushed Guts to once more seek to face Griffith, this is by far the one I find the least interesting. There will hopefully be more wrinkles to it and that will change my thoughts on the matter. As it stands, however, I just can't help but wonder just how drastically different Miura's version of these events would have been. It's hard for me to believe it would have just come down to that, and I can't help but think in a corner of my head that defaulting on imitating previous parts of the story is what Mori and the others would probably consider the safest and most respectful course of action for executing on things they aren't sure of.
No more elves?
Of course a big question for the disappearance is what exactly does it entail? Who exactly is concerned and what exactly happened to them? Like I said earlier in the thread, based on what we see in this episode, I can only assume that the tree played a key role in allowing elves to manifest in the world. Its destruction means that not only Danan or the island's elves disappeared, but every single elf in the entire world.
What I'm basing this reasoning on is the fact the merrows vanish alongside the island's denizens. 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 every elf was impacted.
An alternative to this idea is that the local connection (in that specific geographic area) between the ethereal and corporeal worlds was severed, but that doesn't actually make sense in the context of the story. It's never been how it worked. Puck could roam the world without any problems at the beginning of the story, he didn't need ethereal anchor points or whatever. Furthermore, with Fantasia, the entire world is now filled with ethereal beings and landscapes. It just doesn't work, and it also more simply doesn't fit Danan's words.
The reveal that merrows are elves, which took place in episode 363 and that not many people paid attention to at the time,
had been a surprise and a big deal to me. It immediately brought to mind the possibility that every benevolent ethereal being could be a type of elf and that there's a clear difference in nature between them and creatures like trolls or goblins. In short, it hinted as something important concerning the nature and hierarchy of various groups of ethereal beings.
I have long theorized that elves could be a sort of opposing force to the God of the Abyss and its God Hand. Here are a couple of threads I made some years ago for reference:
The Idea of Evil's grand plan |
Causality's countercurrent. I feel like their disappearance as shown in this episode could maybe confirm it. The basic idea is that elves represent a chaotic force that is unpredictable and is not subject to the principles of causality that the God of the Abyss uses to further its designs. Removing them from the picture would be a step in a larger plan to create a deterministic world where everything happens as "god" intends it, with individual human will not factoring anymore. Of course, that's just speculation and may turn out to not be the case. Still, it immediately came to my mind when I read the episode.
All according to the plan?
Unfortunately, I do have a problem with how it was done if it's the case, and it's how convenient it would be. If getting rid of elves was a goal, then the way it happened can only have been something Griffith had planned to do. However that means it relied on a series of rather improbable decisions.
Guts traveled halfway across the world to cure Casca. It started almost on a whim, because the only safe place they could think of was Puck's home. And that was needed only because Zodd destroyed the mine by accident. Once they got there, they were visited by the boy, who presumably reverted to Griffith only because he misestimated the passage of time. Of course, Griffith and the boy only share a body in the first place because the Beherit Apostle stumbled upon the dying baby while climbing to the top of the tower of condemnation and swallowed him on a whim.
The kid himself was also born through unlikely circumstances: Casca had a very early pregnancy and the embryo was corrupted when Femto raped her. The baby somehow survived until the tower of condemnation, where he was fatally wounded while protecting his mother. Another key factor in this is the fact he regularly goes to see his parents.
It's really hard for me to believe all of these elements were planned or factored in to achieve a specific goal of destroying the island. Especially since said destruction is presented like a mere side effect of Griffith's presence. He doesn't seem to care at all really, all he does after reverting is smirk, walk to pick up Casca, and leave. That is my main problem with this theory. Abducting Casca can make sense as something Griffith would do to put an end to the "boy" problem after waking up butt naked in a strange place and in front of Guts. But doing that while having also planned to end up in this situation from the beginning? It stretches way past my suspension of disbelief.
It would also present Griffith as basically all-knowing and all-powerful (or at least having these tremendous powers working in his favor), which means that his eventual downfall would probably come off as too improbable itself. It's something I've said in the past and well, I still hope it doesn't end up like that. It was fine and even awesome actually for Ganishka to be a mere pawn, for their little war to all just be a pretext leading to Fantasia. It was very appropriate and fit perfectly in the fairy tale imposture that the God Hand had set up around Griffith to captivate and essentially subjugate mankind. But Guts and magicians and elves don't fit into that fake narrative, that's been one of the points of the series. That's also why Rickert could slap Griffith in the face, because he's a relic of his past, someone who has no place in that fairy tale.
Anyway, this is all very speculative and it's probably best to stay put and see how it goes. Theorizing based on episodic revelations was a sound exercise when Miura was at the helm, but things are very different now and I feel like the storytelling isn't reliable enough to support constructive conversations.
Isma's big moment
The way the disappearance is handled has led many to do comparisons to the end of the Avengers: Infinity War movie, and it's also what immediately came to my mind. Is this how Miura would have done it? I don't think so. This strikes me as a situation where Mori or the assistants figured Miura would have found it cool, or maybe they once had a conversation go like "wouldn't it be cool if the elves disappeared like that?". But... there's a big difference between shooting off ideas during a casual conversation and actually putting them to paper. Miura found inspiration in a lot of things, big and small, but he never just copied something directly or regurgitated it undigested. This feels like they looked at something literally instead of figuratively and lacked the talent or creativity to make it unique and striking.
The big moment they hinged the scene on is Isma's disappearance, with her clothes staying in Isidro's hands. It's a good attempt, despite feeling derivative of the aforementioned movie, but falls short of what they probably intended because Isidro and Isma's relationship wasn't all that strong or meaningful. They got along well and she got his hormones going, but they weren't a couple or long time comrades. I mean, Molda got his hormones going too. He's a teenager.
Maybe if we had seen them fight side by side and survive the night, perhaps with Isma saving him with the help of some Kelpies while he had stayed behind to hold the ooze back... Maybe then it would have been more poignant and meaningful. They could have made plans, "if we make it out alive, then you'll owe me", only for her to disappear like that. It's hard to say, or to imagine what Miura would have done. I'm frankly not sure he would have done things like this at all, even if the end result had been the same. All in all, it kind of feels like a waste for her character.
A sad end for Danan
Anyhow, while Isma gets those two pages, everyone else gets shafted. Danan, the Sovereign of the Flower Storm, fades away practically wordlessly as people watch in silence. Bafflingly, she's neither the first to disappear (that's Isma), nor the last, despite her power and significance, despite being the one most closely associated with the tree, basically despite everything. It's just a poorly thought out depiction. It's worth noting that she disappears with her witch's clothes on (while Isma loses her own clothes) but leaves her broom/staff behind despite the fact it also transformed with her. I guess that's a free staff for Farnese (unless it stays in its broom form lol), which makes sense since she's already got Danan's old clothes, but it's needlessly inconsistent for it to play out like that.
By the way, a shout-out to those dead eyed kids who look utterly bored as Isma and Danan start vanishing into thin air. Really makes you feel the tension of the moment.
The Hanarr conundrum
A special mention to Hanarr, too, who was bundled with all the notable old folks in one tiny reaction panel. Nevermind the fact the Great Gurus, the Volvaba and Hanarr didn't seem like the type to stick together. They're all crammed in that one reaction shot to show us that they're still alive. The problem with this is that Hanarr is an elf and thus must have disappeared along with the others. Did the team forget about this little fact, or did they just not care to show him vanish? The result is the same either way: he's likely gone for good and it happened off screen.
This post is huge enough already so I don't want to digress, but it makes me wonder how Guts will deal with the armor in the future. It'd be a bit ridiculous if the character of Hanarr had only been introduced to show Guts a flashback of Gaizeric's death. Why not just have Gedflynn do it on the cliff then? Surely Miura had more things planned for him, but I guess we'll never get to see them. Of course, it's always possible that he'll stick around, but that would feel like a major mistake on Mori's part if all other kinds of elves are gone. All of this to say that it's one of those many "details" that are anything but "minor". Their presence or absence potentially has profound consequences on the storyline because of what ramifications would spring from them down the line.
Puck's fate
Well, I've talked about everyone but the most important characters in this situation: Puck and Ivalera. They aren't shown on the page while everyone else disappears. It's clearly done on purpose, as that reveal will probably be a big part of episode 370, but it's hard to justify from a storytelling perspective. Puck stays up in the air way above the island, doing nothing, for 5 episodes. And he still doesn't go see his friends even after all is said and done. That's completely out of character for him.
I've seen some people call this lack of depiction a cliffhanger, but that's incorrect. A cliffhanger is when you tease something by showing the beginning of a scene but not its end. Miura had almost every single episode of Berserk end with a cliffhanger, so it's not hard to go and look at comparisons. But episode 369 just ends with Guts looking downcast, with the elves already being gone while he didn't notice. Nothing is teased, which is why some folks even thought this was the end of the chapter.
Now, I don't believe Puck will have disappeared off the page, that'd be ridiculous. He will either be shown to still be around, or episode 370 will go back in time to show his own disappearance separately, as well as that of Ivalera's who's with Schierke and Farnese. It's hard to overstate how major it would be for Puck to disappear. He's a staple of the series, Guts' first companion, and over time had almost become Miura's alter ego. At the same time, I also don't really see how he could stick around without creating inconsistencies with what I touched upon earlier regarding the merrows. We'll see, after all it's not like the continuation hasn't introduced inconsistencies so far! What's a few more.
On the origin of species
Of course the fate of the elves themselves is still up in the air.
Like I mentioned in the translation thread, if someone in real life were to say Danan's line, they would be speaking about their death. But Berserk is a fantasy story, and elves are ethereal beings, so departing the present world doesn't necessarily mean you cease to exist. They could just be somewhere "deeper". And yet I'm not sure this really makes a difference. The ethereal world is also "the realm of the dead", which is why Flora still exists somewhere in there. So even if all of the elves haven't "truly" died, as long as they're in some place we can't see, it amounts to the same.
Still, I can't really believe Miura would have intended to make Puck disappear permanently. Being separated from the group and having to make his way back from the ethereal world would be fun to see, but frankly I'm not convinced that's in the cards. His connection to the beherit also comes to mind, but I don't really see how that could come into play.
Anyway, this takes us back to the role of the tree. If the tree's destruction banished every elf in the world, it has strong implications regarding how they came to be in the first place. Were they always there, or did they appear at some point? Did Gaizeric's lover have something to do with it? She was buried at the bottom of that tree, and Danan did look strikingly like her. Did she contribute to manifesting them from a specific "idea"? Those questions reinforce my interest in seeing a flashback. Unfortunately, I don't really expect to be satisfied with whatever it is we end up getting.
A note about the shooting star we see at the end of the episode. This is clearly meant to be Griffith zipping away through the tree's branches, but... It's not staying in there, going instead in a straight line. Kind of a silly mistake, which is also hard to reconcile with the timing of these events. It would make sense if only a minute had elapsed, but too much time has passed for it to be possible. Just another one of these "
" moments, I guess.
Aftermath, part deux
So, what's next in episode 370? We'll see Puck and Ivalera's fate, and I'm guessing the Skull Knight will visit Guts. Schierke & Farnese should maybe rejoin either Guts or the others? Then people will start leaving the island, probably? Would they all just use the Sea Horse and go back to the continent by sea? That would be pretty pathetic, but that feels like par for the course at this point. Just pack all the magicians in the hold or something. Could some of them go their separate ways?
Maybe we'll see a form of new resolve for Guts, but it would feel unearned given how beaten he's been all this time. I also don't feel like there will be time to convey all that much new information. Either way, it will be a strange closure to a chapter that Miura had started. A lot of things have been destroyed in a very short time.
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