Coca leaves

This may be a bizarre Dark Horse translation, but near the end of the second episode of issue fifteen, when Guts is drinking snake blood and vomiting, he is also chewing on coca leaves. Now, we have seen Guts rage before, but never for as long a time as is touched off in issue fifteen. My question is this, is the frenzy purely based on killing children/apostles, or is he on a cocaine induced killing spree?
Do the coca leaves ever come back, or was he just using them to stay awake that night?

Bacongod said:

when Guts is drinking snake blood and vomiting, he is also chewing on coca leaves.

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Yes, that is correct.

Bacongod said:

My question is this, is the frenzy purely based on killing children/apostles, or is he on a cocaine induced killing spree?

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No, nothing indicates that the leaves (not nearly the same thing as processed cocaine) had anything to do with his frenzy. In fact I don't think chewing coca leaves is known to produce such effects anyway.

Bacongod said:

Do the coca leaves ever come back, or was he just using them to stay awake that night?

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They never appear again, and he was indeed using them to stay up that night, countering the poisonous dust's effects.

Incan warriors chewed coca leaves to stay up all night and boost their energy, but those are the only effects that I know of.

bph said:

Incan warriors chewed coca leaves to stay up all night and boost their energy, but those are the only effects that I know of.

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In countries where it naturally grows people have been chewing them since forever, sometimes all day long, everyday of their life. It makes hard work less tiring, somehow.

This may be nitpicky but jesus, VOLUME 15, issue is a word for monthly digest style releases, not collected books.

Guts has reached such a frenzied (and of course his copyright trademark BERSERK) mindset countless times (see Eclipse), and to the best of my knowledge, the first time Guts (as far as -I- know) shows this ability is when he's a child, specifically with the wolves. Not trying to doubt you or anything of the sort, but it sounds to me you're regarding it something akin to the many theories of Berserkers, which revolve around their digestion of certain plants and animals/blood to reach their frenzied state.

Mind you, some of these theories have been proven false or unable to reproduce a similar mindset with just any old one, and I highly doubt Guts is secretly using some type of off-panel drug when we're not looking to start his rage, nor do I see any reason why cocoa leaves serve as prime candidate. As Aazealh already pointed out and you theorized, he's just using them to stay awake. As for why the frenzy went on so long, well it was just one of those days where Guts couldn't get any rest.

Which is basically every day, but still, less minutes with that one!

Manji said:

As for why the frenzy went on so long, well it was just one of those days where Guts couldn't get any rest.

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It was the same as every other night, we just saw more of it because Miura deemed it more interesting than a typical specters-fighting night. And of course it is. There isn't anything special about its depicted length as far as I can tell. And he wasn't even that frantic, he didn't hurt Jill when she abruptly showed up. Guts didn't really attain a state of berserk frenzy until he wore the Berserk's armor.

Aazealh said:

It was the same as every other night, we just saw more of it because Miura deemed it more interesting than a typical specters-fighting night. And of course it is. There isn't anything special about its depicted length as far as I can tell. And he wasn't even that frantic, he didn't hurt Jill when she abruptly showed up. Guts didn't really attain a state of berserk frenzy until he wore the Berserk's armor.

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Well that's why I noted it was basically every day, and obviously he was fighting an apostle as well. He didn't go "completely" Berserk (indifference to friend or foe particularly) till he got the Berserk's armor, but the "regular" Berserk/enraged state, its obviously something we're fairly used to seeing Guts go in to.

Is it just me or do I hear an echo in here.
Anyway, question: How does he get poisoned? or did I read a bad translation?
Was it Rochine?

Ramen4ever said:

Is it just me or do I hear an echo in here.
Anyway, question: How does he get poisoned? or did I read a bad translation?
Was it Rochine?

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Yes.

Manji said:

the "regular" Berserk/enraged state, its obviously something we're fairly used to seeing Guts go in to.

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I'm not sure if we can talk of a "regular" berserk state. We've seen him enraged/engrossed by battle before but he was always in control with a clear mind, not just hacking left and right randomly. Even aside from differentiating friend from foe, being berserk implies a lack of concern for one's own protection, not minding getting severely or even mortally wounded. That's what you see him do during the fight with Grunberd. But I guess it's meant in a broader way.

In any case, I'm sure not it was really needed to comment on this as it's pretty obvious all in all. I think what Bacongod wanted to point out is that in this scene Guts seems somehow more maddened than usual (the look on his face). He's not just furious, he looks deranged. That's because he's both sick (from the poison) and fighting children.

Ramen4ever said:

Anyway, question: How does he get poisoned? or did I read a bad translation?

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Well you might want to re-read that part if you didn't notice he got poisoned from Rochine's dust... Because you can see it even without translation. Anyway Bacongod's question was answered so there's no need to keep this thread going further. Locked.