Berserker Armor Inactive

This is a question I've been chewing over for a little while, and something I haven't seen yet, or at least didn't appear in my searches.

It seems to me that for the Berserker armor to be activated, twhree things have to happen:

1) Guts has to be in battle (I'm not sure about this one)
2) Guts has to lose control
3) The armor has to be completely assembled

I get number three from the fact that Guts didn't get up during the mansion battle until the entire suit was put together. So what I'm wondering is, if Guts took a piece of the armor off, say, the helmet part, would that make it so that the armor couldn't fully activate? Maybe taking a piece of the armor off makes it so that the enchantment doesn't work. I dunno.

Also, I'm not sure if this was covered or not, but since there's a hole in the armor now, do you think that there's any human that could fix it? Since it was built by the Dwarf people(?), are they the only ones who can fix it, or can Schierke/the Elves fix it with magic?

i think the hole in the armor is getting smaller on its own

aquateenz said:

1) Guts has to be in battle (I'm not sure about this one)

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No, not necessarily. The armor almost activated itself once when he just heard the word "Hawk."

aquateenz said:

2) Guts has to lose control
3) The armor has to be completely assembled

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Uhh well that's sort of not saying much here. The Berserk's armor has effects on its wearer all the time, but it takes things to another level when it's activated, and "possesses" the user. Or maybe it's just that Guts can't currently keep control of himself when it's fully activated for various reasons? For now we can't really dissociate the two things, but that certainly doesn't mean it's a real requirement. We've seen that the armor can function while Guts is in control thanks to Schierke's interventions, so it isn't excluded that he might be able to use it to its full potential without completely losing himself to its Od in the future.

As for it being completely assembled, that's also pretty shaky. It's a magical armor, and we've seen that the parts covering the arms as well as the helmet can retract themselves and come out when needed. Guts doesn't wear them but they come out on their own everytime regardless. It's definitely not anything regular we're dealing with here. It's possible that taking a piece of the armor off would prevent it from working, but at the same time we'll never know unless it's shown to us. Maybe there are vitals pieces you absolutely need and others that can be done without, the armor even reforming them if they're destroyed or taken away (remember its strange organic and symbiotic aspect)? The fact Guts got up after being equipped with the full armor at Flora's place isn't really proving anything in that regard, especially since we're not shown that much at the time. It took him a moment to react even as the apostle was entering the room, and he was wearing all of the armor already. That could be attributed to a slight delay before the armor's effects started working, or to the fact Guts was already injured and just couldn't get up all at once (please note that he also gets up pretty laboriously, so it's hard to be sure that the armor was working right then, its effects could have kicked in while he was in the apostle's mouth/belly).

aquateenz said:

Also, I'm not sure if this was covered or not, but since there's a hole in the armor now, do you think that there's any human that could fix it?

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The armor already fixed itself, quite a while ago in terms of episodes (it was back to normal in 272). So that hole is gone (the wound in Guts' chest unfortunately isn't though).

Interesting thoughts, but I'm pretty sure, the armour ca heal almost anything done to it. Over time of course.

Slightly off topic but, if Guts removed the armour would he be free of the beast's influence? Or is it now a part of his Od?

And what is the signifigance of its changing shape? Can it do that for anybody who wears it?

Locus of Agony said:

if Guts removed the armour would he be free of the beast's influence? Or is it now a part of his Od?

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I think you're confused here. The Beast of Darkness is a personification of Guts' dark side, bad emotions, etc. It's in his head. The Berserk's Armor reacts to it because it magically adapts itself to its wearer, that's all. The Beast of Darkness was a part of Guts long before he found that armor, and it'd still be a part of him if he ditched it tomorrow. He wouldn't lose control of himself like he does when he's wearing the armor anymore, but that's because it's part of its features (that's why it's called the "Berserk's Armor").

Locus of Agony said:

And what is the signifigance of its changing shape? Can it do that for anybody who wears it?

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It's a magic armor, that's all the significance you need. And as far as we know it does that for everybody, yeah.

I'm really beggining to question the accuracy of the fan Translations I've been using!

I was thinking the beast resided in the armour and responded to Guts pysche, not the other way around!

Thanks again Aaz.

Locus of Agony said:

I was thinking the beast resided in the armour and responded to Guts pysche, not the other way around!

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We saw the Beast of Darkness for the first time in volume 16 and we saw the Berserk's Armor for the first time in volume 26, so that's hard to imagine.

Logic helps.

Sorry for the screw up.