Just out of curiosity...

Do we have any speculations or answers as to why the Skull Knight decided to come to Guts to warn him of the Eclipse event in volume 9? And why he cares about Guts' survival? I know this most likely all falls in the rules of causality in this universe, but I can't help think what the Skull Knight truly intends (if that is the correct word) for Guts. It can be confusing at times for me to think about the whole causality thing and the meaning of freewill in this series. I've read the series before (in the middle of reading it thoroughly again), and I recently came across this meeting between the two, but I don't recall there being a reason for the Skull Knight to show himself to Guts to explain a thing Zodd had already told him.

Most likely I'm probably missing something entirely and not piecing facts and plot events together.

It's hard to say, but we know that Skull Knight had access to some type of oracle, very likely Flora, and it's possible that Guts just fit the bill as someone who had a chance to make a difference. He mentions knowledge that he was born of a corpse and that he'd make a last stand with a broken sword. Perhaps for some reason Skull Knight is unable to make the final moves against the God Hand, but he can prepare someone else who can. Rumor mill has it that Zodd once fit this description but had a fall to the 'dark side,' hence their friend / foe relationship. It's possible he was previously in a similar situation as Guts.

I'd say he chose to meet him because the timing was right. SK knew that Guts had set in motion everything that would lead to the Eclipse (again likely through an oracle) and he decided to give him a cryptic warning. And it's a good thing he did, because Guts spent a year mountain training at Godot's to be able to face the likes of Zodd after that encounter.

DANGERDOOOOM said:

Do we have any speculations or answers as to why the Skull Knight decided to come to Guts to warn him of the Eclipse event in volume 9? And why he cares about Guts' survival?

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How about simply because he wants and needs an ally in his ancient war against the God Hand?

DANGERDOOOOM said:

I know this most likely all falls in the rules of causality in this universe

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Well no, if anything the Skull Knight's trying to change the course of things, and his intervention during the Eclipse served that purpose.

DANGERDOOOOM said:

I don't recall there being a reason for the Skull Knight to show himself to Guts to explain a thing Zodd had already told him.

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Zodd had not really explained anything to Guts. He had cryptically told him years earlier that if he was truly Griffith's friend, then he would die for sure whenever Griffith's ambitions were thwarted. That's all. Zodd was merely intrigued and amused by the situation. And this all happened inside a building, so presumably the Skull Knight didn't know about it. Either way, his warning had a different goal. The Skull Knight essentially came to give him a cheat sheet. He was trying to rig the game by telling Guts to prepare for a specific day that would take all his might to survive. Of course, Guts hadn't taken it all that seriously... But he had trained, and he did survive.

ApostleBob said:

we know that Skull Knight had access to some type of oracle, very likely Flora

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Let's not be hasty here. We don't know anything about this except that the Skull Knight showed supernatural knowledge of things, on that occasion as well as on others. We don't know where that knowledge comes from. Right now nothing says the Skull Knight needs an outside party in that regard.

ApostleBob said:

Rumor mill has it that Zodd once fit this description but had a fall to the 'dark side,' hence their friend / foe relationship. It's possible he was previously in a similar situation as Guts.

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Lol, I came up with this idea like 10 years ago, but it's really completely unsubstantiated and baseless at this point. And I don't think there's a need for the Skull Knight to not be able to give the final strike or something, just the simple math of 2 vs 5 is better than 1 vs 5 justifies the attempt to recruit allies.

ApostleBob said:

SK knew that Guts had set in motion everything that would lead to the Eclipse

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Guts didn't set things in motion any more than Griffith or the King did. They were all participants in a little play that had been decided long before.