Guts & Griffith - The Driving Force Behind Berserk

berserk a series written by kentaro Mira is one of the most critically acclaimed manga of all time it's considered by many to be the undisputed best manga of all time it's got a cult following and with good reason the artists spectacular the characters are deep and the story is brutally brilliant and dense with thematic complexity and symbolism this success has spawned three main adaptations the currently airing 2016 anime which really hasn't been that well-received the trilogy of movies which are not great as a whole but have plenty of great moments and the 1997 anime which is very good and captures a spirit of the manga brilliantly a big part of berserk success is due to one of the most unique and complex character dynamics I've ever seen the relationship dynamic between guts and Griffith is seriously special and it's the emotional driving force with the majority of the series with an emphasis on the Golden Age arc not only our Datsun grip it's so interesting as foils for each other but they're absolutely special characters in their own right guts is one of my favorite protagonists of all time and Griffith is one of the most well constructed characters I've ever seen in fiction berserk is dark grim symbolically profound poetic and visceral it's action-packed gory gruesome and mature but for me the heart of beserk and its greatest strength is its ability to craft a character driven narrative berserks ability to construct and explore characters like Kostka judo and Farnese is incredible but in my opinion the magic of the series is rooted in two men guts and Griffith I'm pretty certain that guts is the most tragic character I've ever seen this man has been through the wringer both physically and psychologically a torrid childhood led to guts formulating a strange philosophy built on existentialist ideas and his suffering continues all throughout his life with the pinnacle of suffering obviously occurring during the Eclipse the way in the Euro explores guts as a character so deeply is masterful and the audience quickly becomes so closely invested in him because of this intimate exploration if you'll forgive me I'm going to do a little refresher on guts his past history because it's important to remember the events that shaped guts as a person and laid the foundation for his development guts never had a normal childhood in any sense of the word and that is established during the literal first moments of his life he's born under a barren tree from the corpse of a woman who had been hanged to death in a series as deep in lore symbolism and foreshadowing through visual imagery as berserk this birth is incredibly ominous this birth is indicative of guts 'as tragic future and his ability to escape death here perhaps for shadows the way he fights against fate and causality later on in the series guts was discovered amongst the corpses by a mercenary group head named Gambino who was hesitant to adopt him but eventually gave in after pleading from his wife Gambino's wife soon dies and he unfairly blames this on guts throw guts his childhood Gambino trains him as a soldier though acts coldly towards him so much so that he essentially organizes the rape of guts at the hand of a soldier Gambino soon loses a leg becomes even more bitter and grows to resent guts even more eventually giving in to insanity and attempting to murder him guts kills his guardian and self-defense but he's forced to escape the mercenary group from this point on he lives by his sword as a mercenary surviving job by job never really settling in one place until the events of the Golden Age in discussing duds it's important to remember the circumstances of his childhood because these years shaped his ideals and who he became as a man during these awful early years guts only ever found comfort and solace and his sword he wanted to be loved by Gambino but was never accepted by him he was backstabbed whenever he trusted anyone and came to no bloodshed from a very early age it's very hard for guts to trust anything in the world except his sword in his teenage years guts held the simple philosophy that the strong survive in the weak should perish though this ideology slowly begins to shift as guts goes through life guts soon joins the band of the hawk and Griffith and begins to warm to the mercenaries it takes years but eventually guts opens up enough to be able to call himself part of the group true friends with these men however even if he has learned to trust others guts admits to Kosta that he cannot see any purpose in his life except through swordplay and fighting in battles nihilism is defined as the rejection of all religious and moral principles often in the belief that all life is meaningless while existentialism stresses that people are entirely free and therefore responsible for what they make of themselves guts displays roots of thinking in both of these ideologies compared to what you're trying to do me fighting a hundred men means nothing it has no purpose I'm not talking about just you I mean Griffith also the two of you have something important that you can stake your lives on I think it's great I truly mean that compared to the strength of that purpose whether I face a hundred men in battle or even a thousand seems like nothing but a random act guts is not like anyone else he has no dreams sees no meaning in life he wants one but he has no desires other than survival through violence he essentially has no purpose though he knows it's entirely up to him to find one even after guts finds friendship and solace in the band of the hawk he simply cannot call anywhere home and he doesn't have any life endeavors he eventually makes a big change by opening himself up to love with Koska but this is short-lived after the brutal events of the Eclipse which we'll get into in a little bit guts understandably changes his attitude he had finally discovered purpose in life that was swiftly taken away from him his tragic love for Kostka the slaughter of his brothers in the torture of Kostka during the Eclipse kick starts a violent change in guts his characterization guts is now driven by a purpose and a goal that's as fierce as anything he has ever felt hatred and revenge after the Eclipse guts is broken he has lost nearly everything and everyone he cared about he becomes a machine emotionless and driven by revenge guts his character has done a complete 180 before he was more or less at peace but unsettled and aimless looking for a goal now he's raged River full of hatred and loathing persevering one distinct life goal he's so full of this desire for revenge that on several occasions guts does some truly deplorable things and the audience must think to themselves his guts not evil himself at this point this is understandable given the events of the Eclipse but very sad due to the context of this change in character as the series carries on guts finds difficult to begin to care for his new band of comrades in puck Farnese Serpico Ysidro and Shearer cook he's guarded and does not want to lose anyone else does not want to let himself become vulnerable eventually guts learns how to let his guard down with his new band just a little bit but still keep some that arms-length in order to keep them safe also his blind rage towards Grif had soon dissipates and burns out a tag and is replaced with pain and sadness mainly for Kostas state he accepts that he was the cause of the ban of the hawks and deaths and has no right to avenge them so he decides to focus on finding a cure for Kostas condition however while guts has matured and adopted a worldly view on things I must emphasize that his rage is still white-hot and will never ever go out it's just that as the series goes on pulse Golden Age guts becomes less tunnel vision and broadened his emotions he's now not so focused on his rage which distracted him from his suffering and pain and he must feel he must truly accept the heart-wrenching reality that is this depressing and dark world as the series progresses Gus matures into someone who slowly and maybe even knowingly losing his humanity especially whilst in beserk mode and someone who is somber and melancholy due to his suffering it's simply tragic he's now a man of fierce loyalty who will sacrifice anything literally anything to protect those close to him because he knows how painful losses guts is truly devoted to protecting the weak now in stark contrast to his earlier ideals as of now guts has been through it all guts experiences a range of character traits throughout the series we see many sides of humanity and at different times of his life guts displays so many different sides to him guts is arguably the most human character and desert displaying different sides of humanity through his excruciating ly difficult life the reason that the audience is able to explore guts so intimately through Mira's writing is because the story enables this throughout the narrative of desert we all see aspects of Gus's character and development with a story so focused on guts any traits associated with his character inevitably become themes integrated with the series as a whole this is part of the reason that berserk is so dynamic and complex themes of desperation and finding one's place in the world transition to themes of loyalty friendship and sacrifice and then transition again to themes revenge pure primal rage sacrifice and eventually reluctant acceptance so many themes are explored in berserk story because so many themes are attached to guts sadness peace suffering loyalty rage madness and sanity sadly the one emotion we don't see enough of in guts is happiness he's one of the greatest characters I've ever seen and we'll explore him a little bit more when we talk about his unique relationship with Griffith [Music] [Music] Griffith is art in the form of an antagonist he's such an intricate and subtle character with so many layers under his detached and poetic exterior sometimes to see the true beauty of this character one must back up and truly think about what he's all about and I commend Meera for crafting a character as complex and well thought out as Griffith in berserk there's a huge emphasis on fatalism and causality in this universe certain events were fated to happen in our predestined to occur as Nosferatu Zod said Griffith was always going to betray the band of the Hawks and guts berserk is rooted in prophecy and Griffiths fate is not only spelt out for us by Zod's foreshadowing but we literally learn that guts despises Griffith in the black swordsmen arc which is before the golden age are so we know that Griffith will go bad eventually but the beauty of this character is figuring out why he's so despised by guts Griffith is a natural leader of men he has the rare ability to inspire people through his charming charisma through the riveting way he speaks about his ambitions however what his most dangerous about Griffith is he knows how charismatic you he knows that the ban of the hawk would do anything for them griffix personality is completely multi-layered with so much behind what may seem like relatively shallow actions and behaviors this is because every single thing Griffith does has a purpose throughout his life Griffith has always held one ambition to become ruler of his own kingdom he holds this dream so dear to his heart that he will stop at nothing to achieve it willing to sacrifice literally anything and this fact here is the root of his character he is willing to do anything to achieve this dream his men celebrate his ambitions his leadership in his noble demeanour but they never once stopped to think of what would happen if they stood in the way of Griffiths dreams in most series this would never be an issue how often does it happen where a man's Army's destruction kick starts his path to greatness and power not very often but it happens in deserve Griffith outlook on life is truly unique and self-centered as we learn when guts in Kostka overhear Griffith talking to Charlotte Griffith is not what he seems it seems from the outside that Griffith his close friends perhaps even brothers with the rest of his band however he admits that he's not friends with any of them in his eyes a person who he can call a friend is someone who's his equal and for someone to be Griffiths equal by his standards they must have their own grand ambitions the ironic thing is that by design his band of mercenaries simply cannot be considered Griffiths friends he needs people willing to devote themselves to him but he admits himself that he will never properly be able to respect these men the band of the hawk are his loyal subjects but they lived their lives to fulfill Griffiths ambitions not their own this ideology of Griffiths is so important to his character it essentially is the cause of Griffiths downfall and eventual rebirth but more on that later Griffith is not pure evil at least not in the classic sense of the word he's emotional he pains he sympathizes he fee but at the same time he's egotistical selfish spoiled and lacking in morals he doesn't think of most people or as men as individuals but as tools as a means to an end with the exception of guts of course looking at his actions in an objective view he sounds like a purely evil character but there is more to him and it's all rooted in his willingness to sacrifice anything for his dreams if you can distort your view to see things with Griffiths twisted logic his actions scarily start to make sense every action that Griffith commits is done with his grand goal in mind with one exception that I'll address in a little bit why does he sell his body to Lord get on in order to gain the means to expand his army which contributes to his dream why does he get him with royalty to advance in the world make connections and gain authority with his dream of ruling a kingdom in mind sadly and unfortunately for those who think otherwise Griffith does not ever do anything to simply help anyone that isn't guts without an ulterior motive his downfall which we'll tackle in the next section was inevitable and tragic and the pain and torture he had to endure was simply unbelievably brutal however in the aftermath of his torture he's full of despair and loathing when faced with the decision to either remain a [ __ ] or sacrifice the band of the hawk to become a God there was only ever going to be one answer the brilliance of Griffiths character is on display when we explore his logic during the Eclipse Griffith doesn't look at this as him killing his men he doesn't consider their current pain he thinks about the men who died for him in the past trying their hardest to help him fulfill his dream any thinks of how much his current men sacrificed to get him this far she thinks of all this it convinces himself that if you were not to sacrifice the band of the hawk now all of it would have been for nothing Griffith considers all of his past victories a waste if he does not make this final sacrifice he doesn't think that his men should be upset if he killed them if it means that they had themselves contributed to Griffiths rule they didn't have grand dreams after all and dedicated their lives to Griffith Street all the plotting the bloodshed the tears it would all be for nothing if Griffith did not take this final step and so he does it and everything changes Griffith has changed from this choice of course he's far from blameless but I think there is some evidence that points to his transformation drastically changing him before this transformation we see Griffith reaching out his hand to try and save guts which indicates that he did still have some compassion and caring in his heart the transformation essentially exaggerated Saul of Griffiths negative traits and eliminates all of his positive ones while simultaneously robbing him of his humanity after becoming femto Griffith sheds all of his layers his subtleties in his nuance he is purely selfish full of ego and driven by a further ambition now that he has achieved ultimate power this character arc is truly special with so much to it the theme of purpose the nuances of sacrifice the moral questions of how far one should go to achieve ones goals these ideas are all tackled in Griffiths development symbolism thematic complexity dark humanity Griffith is genuinely pivotal in the story of berserk and is a huge reason behind the series success Gutzon Griffith are genuinely fantastic characters in their own right but the way they interact and the way their relationship develops through the series is truly well done when these two first meet the relationship starts out quite one-sided Griffith is impressed after he witnesses guts in battle and simply decides that he wants him in his group Griffith his arrogant here he straight-up tells guts that he wants him and he always gets what he wants it's legitimately quite childish it's similar to a spoiled young boy forcing his parents to buy him an action figure here we have the first big moment of the series the first sore fight between Griffith and guts it's important to note the two men's respective states of mind here Griffith is calm composed confident at peace guts is angry rattled and unsettled in the end Griffith wins he thinks of guts as a tool a means to an end and after this fight he is added him to his collection though this attitude soon changes this is a great action piece but this internal dynamic is absolutely pivotal for the progression of the story because it gives these two characters a foundation and a platform to build off of a platform for change and these men do change at first guts is a reluctant member of the band of the hawk however as time goes by he slowly opens up and allows himself to be part of this group he develops relationships with people like judo Korkis Pippin an interesting one with Casca but most importantly of all with Griffith through their many talks and battles Gus's resentment towards Griffith turns into respect and eventually admiration and friendship guts is eventually taken in by Griffiths charisma and comes to think of the man as a brother Griffith amazingly feels nearly the same toward guts for the first time in his life he has someone that he cares about and called a true friend and not a pawn just for his motives this is very significant as it has never happened to him before as the series goes on this friendship only gets stronger and eventually we come to the nosferatu Zod fight here Griffith gets word that guts is in danger and he rushes in himself to save him from the monster now here one must think would Griffith have done that for anyone other than guts no now did Griffith sacrificing himself in any way help him in achieving his goal no he has never risked his life for anyone before so why does he do it the answer is clear guts is special to him guts his friendship is making Griffith loose focus on his dream however this is not consciously noted by Griffith at this point fast forward a little bit more and we get to one of my favorite scenes Griffiths heart-to-heart with Charlotte here guts Linda Griffith only considers a man his true friend and equal if he has his own ambitions and this shocks guts to his absolute core guts himself knows that he has no purpose in life no dreamer ambition just helping Griffith thus there is no way he could be Griffiths definition of a friend these words that Griffith uttered to Charlotte may be the most important of the series because of the domino effect it has on the story from here guts begins to shift his thinking in a way that would make Griffith accept him as a friend and this would have huge ramifications Laden this moment fuels and reinforces guts existentialist ideologies what is his true purpose in life Gus doesn't know and he so desperately wants to know not just for himself but to befriend Griffith what God did not know was that he was the exception to the rule no matter what Griffith did think of him as a friend and perhaps even more time goes by in the band of the hawk gained notoriety and glory Griffith has never been so close to his dream and the men are living well raking in the rewards from their work now that the band of the hawk is in excellent shape guts decides that now is the time to leave and find a purpose however for the first time in his life Griffith is facing loss he has never experienced the sensation of losing something or someone that he wants to keep and he does not know how to handle this Griffith is simply unwilling to let guts leave here the series comes full circle in a beautiful way as he challenges guts to another sore fight however the roles have been reversed psychologically now it is guts who is Colin composed and Griffith who is rattled ultimately guts wins and leaves triggering a break and Griffith psyche he loses it here he doesn't know how to handle this situation he breaks psychologically becomes impulsive and decides to sleep with Princess Charlotte Griffith lets his lust take over him as he searched for a way to fill the void that had opened up inside him and gets himself in huge trouble landing himself in a torture chamber what is so terribly ironic about this situation is that Griffith caused his own downfall through his words about friendship he essentially convinced guts to leave and pursue a purpose did Griffith not say that he would only consider someone a friend if they had a dream that a true friend would stand up to him for his ideals he did and now that got to set out to achieve this friendship he cannot take it the simple and sad fact about Griffith is that he is a man that cannot have friends because they themselves destroy his obsessive compulsive need to own everything and everyone his worst to Charlotte so deceit and guts that sprouted and choked Griffiths pride it's a beautiful little narrative moment when you come to this realization and themes of fate purpose and pure insanity are illustrated here contributing well to the series as a whole while bezerk is a series full of blood and gore action and battles my favorite moments in the series are the quieter ones that shed a light on the characters feelings Griffiths talk with Charlotte is one guts his conversation with Koska on the hill is another but one of my absolute favorites is the conversation that guts has Judah Korkis in a pub after telling them that he wants to leave the band of the hawk this scene is a microcosm of characterization and character exploration not only do we learn a little bit more about how awesome judo is and about his outlook on life but this scene summarizes many aspects about guts in griffith guts simply tells it to his point of view he wants to find his own purpose to be griffith equal but what's most interesting here is Korkis he berates guts for thinking that he can even hold ambitions of being griffith equal in his eyes Griffith has no equal and devoting one's life to Griffith and his ambition is a worthwhile cause here Korkis represents the vast majority of men in the band of the hawk they are so willing to devote themselves wholly to Griffith they all CMS superior and this is their eventual downfall guts on the other hand sees things entirely differently and this is why Griffith sees him in a different light after a year of mind-numbing ly excruciating pain Griffith comes across revelation guts was the one the one to make him forget his dreams the one that he paid too much attention to the one who made him go back on his own philosophies Griffith realizes that guts leaving is the reason for this and uses it as part of his reasoning during the slaughter and the Eclipse after his transformation to femto all that was Griffiths nuance has gone there's no humanity left he's simply out to humiliate guts for humiliating him to show his power and to rule his brutal rape of Kostka is a sign of his dominance over both Kostka and especially guts from this point on guts his care for this man has completely changed into pure hatred and rage and this dynamic is the driving force behind the entire series post Golden Age it's also important to note the ironic symbolism in some of the visual imagery that mirror uses in his art Griffith is often depicted in an almost holy fashion he's associated with the color white he's often seen an arc towering over others in a savior like fashion almost always seems to be ascending to the heavens guts on the other hand is always depicted darkly both literally and figuratively he's associated with dark reds grays and blacks and is often seen with a maniacal evil looking grin on his face and his bizarre form goes off a visual that looks like a photograph taken directly from the pits of hell the contrast between the two in terms of emotional energy given off through visuals it's just a little aspect of the story but super interesting nonetheless so as you can see the emotional dynamic between guts and Griffith is complex to say the least there are so many facets to the relationship between the two and these facets humanize the characters and allow the audience to truly become invested in the story pick any point in the manga that isn't during the Golden Age and guts will undoubtedly be thinking about revenge on Griffith during that time period that is how ingrained guts is hatred is it's a total part of him with the guts Griffith dynamic being ever-present this relationship and the themes associated with it are a huge part of what makes beserk so good berserk is about loyalty sacrifice friendship revenge ideologies founded on twisted logic and ambition and coincidentally these traits are the essence of both guts and Griffith and their dynamic berserk is amazing it's dark and gritty awesome and brutal a message that is deeply rooted in the series is that evil comes from within humans not outside of them and this series is wonderful at displaying this through guts Griffith and several other points throughout the story berserk takes emotional character exploration to another level with so many little details were added depth I truly applaud Meera for what he's been able to do with guts and Griffith and I'm excited to see how the story ends you [Music]

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Keywords: anime, analysis, review, best, all time, top ten, top 10, top 5, dark, fantasy, action, battle, adventure, manga, kentaro, miura, berserk, berserk (2016), berserk 2016, films, berserk films, guts, griffith, casca, god hand, eclipse, sacrifice, fate, causality, behelit, judeau, pippin, corkus, band of the hawk, animation, art, dub, sub, puck, isidro, serpico, farnese, schierke, tragedy, sadness, insanity, scene, moment, rage, show, shows, tv, series, scenes, moments, symbolism, themes, theme

Id: FcoCVGv0DwE

Length: 29min 12sec (1752 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 30 2016