If Guts truly was devastated here, why isn’t his body language conveying that?
Wouldn’t he like look down, or place his palm on his forehead or neck, or walk with his body leaned forward? His walk looks fairly normal here.
That does seem like Guts understands Casca needs time to collect her thoughts and therefore, would be willed to go through that process even if it hurts him.
If ya think he is “just concealing his feelings” I seriously doubt it.
Guts isn’t a machine.
He surely HIDES his emotions but just because he is hiding it doesn’t mean your body does (or can). In fact, if someone is a quiet person who doesn’t say much, you will see their thoughts in their expressions and body language even moreso (because that is how these type of people express themselves by nature).
This is when he walks away from the hawks. Here, he had given up being part of a family and left because he felt out of place. He is looking down and leaning forward which is a sign of this resignation.
He also is turning and walking away here when Farnese went missing by trying to find Casca in volume 23 - as he turns around his body stance (and presumably, walk) appears to be normal. His eyes are closed. It’s a bit hard to tell whether he’s looking down because the perspective is looking down on his face, too. But he hasn’t given up on Farnese there. He’s just disappointed with her.
Unless you’re trying to tell me that his stance doesn’t say anything at all. And I have my doubts it doesn’t. I didn’t dig too deep into his body language yet but from the couple of panels I took a closer look for an article I wrote, his body language is actually very consistent with his actions and dialogue.(It doesn’t look like anyone even pays attention to this???
Time for another wordpress article then!)
This is why I think he hasn’t given up on Casca yet either. While surely he is in a lot of pain, he’s not gonna leave just yet. The resignation you would see in the way he walks, and it’s simply not there in episode 359. But even
then, if he sees her scream a couple of times more, his heart probably
won’t take be able to take it.
something i still really love about berserk is how out of context, guts here looks like the fucking villain to some kind of shonen. clad in black armor, one eye shining in demonic rage, about to slash apart a child and elves
but nope, he’s our fucking protagonist! and that heavenly, beautiful elf, is actually a disgusting murderer
and even then, in a lot of cases, guts ends up as terrifying if not more than the apostles he hunts and slaughters. his sheer fucking will and lengths of depravity he’s willing to submit himself into his hunt during the black swordsman/lost children/conviction arc is one of the most interesting yet also depressing conflicts presented in berserk. he’s destroying his own humanity and blacking himself out, becoming as much of a demon as the ones he supposedly kills
guts might be an amazing character, but as a person he is horrifically fucked up in many ways. yet, we always understand why he is the way he is
If you watch the Berserk movie trilogy, you’ll notice that after the Eclipse, Guts’ scars on chest and back are present, and it’s pretty confusing because doesn’t he have these scars from Slan…? (That’s what I thought first!)
WRONG!
Slan merely reopened the wounds he got from the Eclipse!
She also added another scar by harming his back.
The scars on his chest are also shown in the manga post eclipse:
This is one of the moments when you just get this spark of inspiration noticing undiscovered parallels in berserk
LOOK AT THIS.
When Guts attempted to save Casca during the eclipse, he lost an eye trying to get closer to her right?
I’ve heard this being described as
symbolic
act of Guts losing part of his capacity to see good (symbolized by his loss of eye) and do good (symbolized by his lost arm). Which is IMO a very interesting take of what happens.
Now:
In Casca’s dream, what happens to Griffith/Femto is LITERALLY the polar opposite.
Guts hurts him with his canon ball - and allows him to OPEN HIS EYE.
Note how it’s ALSO the right eye being affected.
MIURA YOU GODDAMN GENIUS. Will this happen in the final battle too!?
So I want to talk about the waterfall scene in the Golden Age a little.
Okay so first, so why the hell would I be analyzing something like this?
I think this scene says SO MUCH about both Guts’ and Casca’s personality and struggle. More than you maybe think, by just displaying gestures and facial expressions.
(one reason why I love Berserk, by the way)
So what happens here is that Casca realizes that Guts obviously cares enough for her to get himself hurt:
Casca is not used to this kind of care.
She always wanted Griffith’s praise and acknowledgement, be something important to him. She was always ignored and deprived of it.
And during the waterfall scene (to a degree this also happens during the 100 man slayer scene), Guts shows up and gives her just that; Because he would notwant to get hurt if she didn’t matter to him.
Now, let’s let’s look at it from Guts’ perspective:
Remember how Guts was always trying to get praise from Gambino? How he always considered Griffith a friend, until that one faithful day when he heard Griffith’s fountain speech?
Guts too always wanted his approval, and hearing that made him feel like a pawn (which eventually pressured him to leave the hawks later on in the first place).
He felt like he did not matter as much to Griffith as he maybe thought, as proven by this page:
In other words: Guts and Casca are literally the same.
I can really relate to both of them honestly.
So what’s going here is both them realizing that they are worthy to matter to someone. They are doing that simultaneously.
Look at Gut’s confused look when Casca suddenly grasps his hand gently.
And as Casca says those words Guts realizes that he in fact also matters a lot to Casca; And Casca is fully aware of what he’s done for her as well.
Up until then, Guts always denied that Casca may even like him, as revealed by the conversation he had with Judeau.
He thought it was impossible for her to like him that much because her place was next to Griffith. Or so he thought.
And as Casca tells him he is a fool, I can only imagine what she must have felt: suddenly, after all the deprivation, the stress and the hardship, there is someone who cares, who acknowledges her, who’s trying for her. And releasing these emotions first unleashes strong pain, followed by a healing relief. For the both of them, too.
Guts is extremely confused by this. He first doesn’t know what to do. It looks like he’s still processing it, as if asking himself… perhaps:
“Why is she calling me that?” …or “ What makes her say that?” …or perhaps also a “Does she care for me that much?”
The next best thing that comes to his mind is to what appears to be a return of her hug…
…and also to wipe her tears away.
He clearly didn’t like seeing her cry and wanted to give her comfort.
He gets a little more… confident in the next page, starting to kiss her forehead, then literally kissing her tears away.
I hope I do not have to point how damn cute that is, or do I? Imagine the big bulky boi getting all softboi on that vulnerable lil Casca. Oh my lawd.
Casca on the other hand is letting him in, letting him care for her. She seems to enjoy it. I think she really needed someone to be at her side at this point.
But then, Casca wants a REAL kiss from the guy. Guts face expression is all: “OH GOD NOT SO FAST! This isnt supposed to happen!”
Then in the next panel Casca perhaps has wondered if she went too far. And for Guts, as he is looking at her, it looks like he’s thinking something like,
“So that’show it really is?”
And then of course, the final kiss.
As you can probably tell by the way I have explained this, both struggle with feelings of not being worthy and found comfort in themselves.
They struggle getting closer because they both have been hurt. Seeing them open up to each other with their gentle expressions and gestures is adorable.
What a goddamn tragedy too. Jesus Christ.
Thanks @midnight-in-town for inspiring me to finally make this post happen!
So I want to talk about the waterfall scene in the Golden Age a little.
Okay so first, so why the hell would I be analyzing something like this?
I think this scene says SO MUCH about both Guts’ and Casca’s personality and struggle. More than you maybe think, by just displaying gestures and facial expressions.
(one reason why I love Berserk, by the way)
So what happens here is that Casca realizes that Guts obviously cares enough for her to get himself hurt:
Casca is not used to this kind of care.
She always wanted Griffith’s praise and acknowledgement, be something important to him. She was always ignored and deprived of it.
And during the waterfall scene (to a degree this also happens during the 100 man slayer scene), Guts shows up and gives her just that; Because he would notwant to get hurt if she didn’t matter to him.
Now, let’s let’s look at it from Guts’ perspective:
Remember how Guts was always trying to get praise from Gambino? How he always considered Griffith a friend, until that one faithful day when he heard Griffith’s fountain speech?
Guts too always wanted his approval, and hearing that made him feel like a pawn (which eventually pressured him to leave the hawks later on in the first place).
He felt like he did not matter as much to Griffith as he maybe thought, as proven by this page:
In other words: Guts and Casca are literally the same.
I can really relate to both of them honestly.
So what’s going here is both them realizing that they are worthy to matter to someone. They are doing that simultaneously.
Look at Gut’s confused look when Casca suddenly grasps his hand gently.
And as Casca says those words Guts realizes that he in fact also matters a lot to Casca; And Casca is fully aware of what he’s done for her as well.
Up until then, Guts always denied that Casca may even like him, as revealed by the conversation he had with Judeau.
He thought it was impossible for her to like him that much because her place was next to Griffith. Or so he thought.
And as Casca tells him he is a fool, I can only imagine what she must have felt: suddenly, after all the deprivation, the stress and the hardship, there is someone who cares, who acknowledges her, who’s trying for her. And releasing these emotions first unleashes strong pain, followed by a healing relief. For the both of them, too.
Guts is extremely confused by this. He first doesn’t know what to do. It looks like he’s still processing it, as if asking himself… perhaps:
“Why is she calling me that?” …or “ What makes her say that?” …or perhaps also a “Does she care for me that much?”
The next best thing that comes to his mind is to what appears to be a return of her hug…
…and also to wipe her tears away.
He clearly didn’t like seeing her cry and wanted to give her comfort.
He gets a little more… confident in the next page, starting to kiss her forehead, then literally kissing her tears away.
I hope I do not have to point how damn cute that is, or do I? Imagine the big bulky boi getting all softboi on that vulnerable lil Casca. Oh my lawd.
Casca on the other hand is letting him in, letting him care for her. She seems to enjoy it. I think she really needed someone to be at her side at this point.
But then, Casca wants a REAL kiss from the guy. Guts face expression is all: “OH GOD NOT SO FAST! This isnt supposed to happen!”
Then in the next panel Casca perhaps has wondered if she went too far. And for Guts, as he is looking at her, it looks like he’s thinking something like,
“So that’show it really is?”
And then of course, the final kiss.
As you can probably tell by the way I have explained this, both struggle with feelings of not being worthy and found comfort in themselves.
They struggle getting closer because they both have been hurt. Seeing them open up to each other with their gentle expressions and gestures is adorable.
What a goddamn tragedy too. Jesus Christ.
Thanks @midnight-in-town for inspiring me to finally make this post happen!
Remember the tavern scene before Guts left? There’s some interesting stuff there… It’s literally Corkus spoiling the entire plot of berserk:
What Guts wanted was a place where he’d belong to: like a family or companions. He left the hawks, lost all of them during the eclipse, and then found new companions rather unexpectedly…
He must have felt lonely as fuck carrying this burden all by himself too
holy shit….
Keeping this in mind and switching back to the tavern scene in GA, Corkus also said this:
“Even if you’re lucky enough to find it [a family] only a small handful of people get to be winners”
In other words:
Just because Guts obtained something for his own (companionship, a family) doesn’t mean he’ll win against Griffith.
CORKUS KNOWS THE ENDING OF BERSERK???
Goddamn Miura leaking the ending through sidecharacters???
So I want to talk about the waterfall scene in the Golden Age a little.
Okay so first, so why the hell would I be analyzing something like this?
I think this scene says SO MUCH about both Guts’ and Casca’s personality and struggle. More than you maybe think, by just displaying gestures and facial expressions.
(one reason why I love Berserk, by the way)
So what happens here is that Casca realizes that Guts obviously cares enough for her to get himself hurt:
Casca is not used to this kind of care.
She always wanted Griffith’s praise and acknowledgement, be something important to him. She was always ignored and deprived of it.
And during the waterfall scene (to a degree this also happens during the 100 man slayer scene), Guts shows up and gives her just that; Because he would notwant to get hurt if she didn’t matter to him.
Now, let’s let’s look at it from Guts’ perspective:
Remember how Guts was always trying to get praise from Gambino? How he always considered Griffith a friend, until that one faithful day when he heard Griffith’s fountain speech?
Guts too always wanted his approval, and hearing that made him feel like a pawn (which eventually pressured him to leave the hawks later on in the first place).
He felt like he did not matter as much to Griffith as he maybe thought, as proven by this page:
In other words: Guts and Casca are literally the same.
I can really relate to both of them honestly.
So what’s going here is both them realizing that they are worthy to matter to someone. They are doing that simultaneously.
Look at Gut’s confused look when Casca suddenly grasps his hand gently.
And as Casca says those words Guts realizes that he in fact also matters a lot to Casca; And Casca is fully aware of what he’s done for her as well.
Up until then, Guts always denied that Casca may even like him, as revealed by the conversation he had with Judeau.
He thought it was impossible for her to like him that much because her place was next to Griffith. Or so he thought.
And as Casca tells him he is a fool, I can only imagine what she must have felt: suddenly, after all the deprivation, the stress and the hardship, there is someone who cares, who acknowledges her, who’s trying for her. And releasing these emotions first unleashes strong pain, followed by a healing relief. For the both of them, too.
Guts is extremely confused by this. He first doesn’t know what to do. It looks like he’s still processing it, as if asking himself… perhaps:
“Why is she calling me that?” …or “ What makes her say that?” …or perhaps also a “Does she care for me that much?”
The next best thing that comes to his mind is to what appears to be a return of her hug…
…and also to wipe her tears away.
He clearly didn’t like seeing her cry and wanted to give her comfort.
He gets a little more… confident in the next page, starting to kiss her forehead, then literally kissing her tears away.
I hope I do not have to point how damn cute that is, or do I? Imagine the big bulky boi getting all softboi on that vulnerable lil Casca. Oh my lawd.
Casca on the other hand is letting him in, letting him care for her. She seems to enjoy it. I think she really needed someone to be at her side at this point.
But then, Casca wants a REAL kiss from the guy. Guts face expression is all: “OH GOD NOT SO FAST! This isnt supposed to happen!”
Then in the next panel Casca perhaps has wondered if she went too far. And for Guts, as he is looking at her, it looks like he’s thinking something like,
“So that’show it really is?”
And then of course, the final kiss.
As you can probably tell by the way I have explained this, both struggle with feelings of not being worthy and found comfort in themselves.
They struggle getting closer because they both have been hurt. Seeing them open up to each other with their gentle expressions and gestures is adorable.
What a goddamn tragedy too. Jesus Christ.
Thanks @midnight-in-town for inspiring me to finally make this post happen!
hybridcalisthenics