Berserk and Dark Souls theme and plot similarities

berserk a pillar of inspiration for Dark Souls we believe it goes deeper than superficial similarities others have shown you the artwork inspirations [Music] and so on but today we are going to examine the philosophical character and plot themes that run through berserk and Dark Souls we will go through the broad strokes then provide some ideas and give some speculation - this is a more artistic video that doesn't get very concrete as in essence they are two separate works we hope you enjoy it let's dive in first as it will be important later let us go into some detail as to why our torus is similar to guards it has been established that there is a design similarity they both will do great sword and have been put into similar poses for certain important design images however there are some similarities that go deeper guts is associated with the wolf from a very young age he fights with Wolves and he has to roam like a lone wolf this is a recurring image [Music] he then becomes like a wild dog in his Berserker armor form and this is also the image of his inner demon Artorius possesses the wolf ring and is accompanied by SIF in addition both the wolf SIF and Artorias fight in a similar style with similar moves and attacks [Music] guts is a captain of the Raiders one of a handful of captains under Griffith Artorius is one of the four Knights of Gwyn guts after the Eclipse inhabits the interstate around that is not either in the ordinary world all the spiritual like a fish jumping out of the water Artorius in turn traversed the abyss both are unmatched with a great sword in berserk there is a recurring theme that gots through his incredible strength of will cannot only enjoyed the billeting pain and overcome great challenges but perhaps even alter the flow of fate [Music] our Taurus in his turn is described as having an unbendable will of Steel Artorius hunted darkwraiths and guts hunts demons guts his sword can damage otherworldly beings due to his experience in the Eclipse and the number of deaths it has brought artorias his cursed great sword can damage ghosts after a covenant altar is made with the Beast of the abyss speaking of his sword guts famously takes up the broken sword and survives the Eclipse he is the struggler to create our Taurus his great sword one must use a broken straight sword plus 10 as well so we have many similar trends to both characters and some of these aspects of guts may become relevant soon let us move on to demons as they are very present in both Dark Souls and berserk if you want a more detailed look at all of demons do watch our full video all about demons here there is a theme in both berserk and Dark Souls that it's ambiguous where the demons are good or bad what is a monster and what is not this is a very powerful theme that recurs in both works in berserk the 5 supreme demons are called the god hand implying that they are sent by God can they be truly evil if they are doing God's work they are certainly given some sort of supernatural power and Griffith may have seen God during his transformation at the very least the occurrences are in the flow of fate within the theme of determinism if it is meant to happen if the threads of fate have been written by God can it be evil if they are merely playing their functional role and wrong for who if their activities are good for demons but bad for humans who is to say that the reverse is preferable consider this the imagery of the band of the Hall being around a fire is repeated with guts saying he warmed himself there yet they cook meat on that fire the prayer of demons happens to be humans just because humans are on the receiving end does not give enough reason to call it evil what about Dark Souls here the demons are far more peaceful than in berserk the demons seem to inhabit their own world without having to slaughter humans they are self-sufficient the bad name they receive seems even more unfair in this light the guardian soul describes the boss as akin to the beings known as demons the beings known as demons implies that it is a given name not a true name it is a derogative name and relatively speaking humans could be the demons to another viewers eyes we plunder a corpse beneath ceaseless kill the fair lady sister and trick the blind girl we slaughter a lord who is perhaps lying heartbroken at the center of the earth perhaps we are the monster this theme comes up most explicitly in berserk after guts his first encounter with a demon in berserk after Griffith and guts faced Zod they discuss it while nursing their wounds Griffith says I would say it could be something like a god twitch gut says more like a demon Griffith replies who knows is there a difference this again pushes the theme that these things are relative Guinevere and the Taurus demon both seemed hugely powerful but why is the being with an alluring chest a God and the one with horns our monster is being a deity relative to one's attractiveness of course not this theme is also connected to the theme of choice and temptation to a darker side within oneself demons in both works chose to become demons in berserk the one who becomes a demon must ultimately choose the fate and sacrifice the one they love most in Dark Souls we also believe and with a great deal of evidence that the demons chose to become demons in addition demon weapons use humanity to scale their power reflecting the human sacrifice in berserk that is used to increase demonic power I encourage watching our demons videos for more and certainly reading berserk for it's interesting demonic themes additionally you will find there a theory in our video that Jeremiah was a demon king of izalith and berserk once again supports this later on in the berserk series there is a demon king who rebels from the rest of the demons and has made an enemy of them just as we believed Jeremiah may have done we hadn't reached this character in our reading of berserker appstate but check out the two characters armors [Music] let us now look at some character patterns between the two works and perhaps speculate on some further background history in Dark Souls drawing from berserk in berserk Casca is at first at least in love with Griffith Griffith is the leader of the mercenary group and rescues Casca a village girl from a noble assaulting her Casca slowly has to come to terms with the fact that it may be impossible for her to ever truly be with Griffith initially he is focused on his dream and later he pursues the princess of Wyndham in order to become the next in line to the throne Casca therefore attempts to contend with being something indispensable to Griffith she says the guts that she wants to be his sword his blade in a scene where Casca begins to see evidence that guts cares for her on some level guts tells her to go back to her master and as the sword returns to its sheath over time she falls in love with guts one of a handful of captains under Griffiths command Griffith then falls out of favor with the king and is stripped of his rank let us look now at Dark Souls Kiran is one of the four Knights of Gwyn the head of the Lord's blades but she is also specifically referenced as the Lord's blade Kiran the Hornet ring also describes that she laid waste to gwyn's enemies if we were to draw a reference here it would have caused betta Casca who wished to be her lord's blade Casca was in love with Griffith and being his blade was a compromise was Kiran in love with Gwen when we meet Kiran she is morning by our Tauruses grave it is not clear if she was in love with our Taurus or just cared for him deeply but Casca also had strong feelings for guts which culminated in romantic love just as Griffith was out of reach due to his intentions with the princess perhaps Guin in his station meant that it was impossible for Kiran perhaps a commoner as Casca laws to ever truly be with him with time perhaps she fell for our Taurus who was always the man for her if we assume this is correct for speculations sake the rabbit-hole gets pretty deep Kiran was determined to her mask with a single eye and ivory locks as a unique badge of honor it led to Dark Souls fans wondering whether she really was a cyclops and we confirmed in a previous video of ours that the face that is purported to be hers which looks ordinary was a placeholder for a demo and is not really her face the developers ensured you can't get an easy answer to the law and her helmet is non-removable when this is combined with the ivory locks and gwendolyn's question legitimacy as a child of Gwyn it yields some interesting ideas gwyndolin has ivory hair kiran perhaps does if the mask represents her hair color a further grammatical distinction that has yet to be tackled is in the dark moon blade covenant ring it explains that Gwendolyn created an illusion of his sister it goes on to say that an unmasking of these deities would be tantamount to blaspheming there is a plural here an unmasking of these deities meaning both Guinevere and Gwendolyn it has always been taken to mean Guinevere of course as it is a simple process to undo the illusion of her but the plural must mean it refers to Gwendolyn - and Gwendolyn does have a mask all it covers is his eyes cut an unmasking reveal a single eye could he be the child of Gwyn and Kieran born out of wedlock if when is the griffith character in Guinevere a fully legitimate child does look strikingly similar to the princess Griffith has designs on who would be the Queen in the Dark Souls universe and Guinevere's mother both represent royalty and legitimacy and so the similarity is interesting I have not seen any images of Gwendolyn without a mask that look real perhaps this is another locked piece of data to keep the law murky and what of the snakes under Gwendolyn this would be another interesting link in berserk Griffith does not impregnate Casca as she is already pregnant with gutters child Griffiths assault does affect the nature of the child however making it part demon Gwendolyn himself is part monstrosity with snakes on his lower half was a child in the womb interfered with people have questioned cease influence perhaps seethe figured out that in the womb was a place when a change could be effected this is all pure speculation as a lot of berserk will merely have integrated into the ideas for darksouls passively without any conscious thought the crossovers are intriguing though alternatively perhaps the disgraced firstborn son is the griffith figure this could make sense as the firstborn son is stripped of his rank and so was Griffith Griffith was not a God of War but he was the greatest general in the war middlin waged never losing a single battle the first one son was the God of War Griffith ruined his hopes due to foolishness with a woman and we have some reason to believe that a woman may have been involved with the story of the God of War that is for another time however we will give a hint though just as Griffith was connected to demons and stripped of rank and hope so too was the firstborn son connected with demons [Music] it has been mentioned that the dark raids and the skull might looks similar a design similarity is certainly compelling but there may be more link ups first of all there is a tower in the center of Windham or rather now more like a pit that goes deep into the earth it is called the tower of rebirth and as it winds down there is a prison for a little way it is said that no one has ever survived going much deeper and that they used to be a different civilization that was destroyed with the coming of 4 or 5 angels at the base of the tower we seen many bodies with the mark of the brand on them implying that they were used in a sacrifice to create a powerful demon there was also a king geyser involved who is speculated to be the skull mind I am doubtful however that the sacrifice was in order to make geyser at the skull Knight since the skull Knight is an enemy of the god hand and usually such a mass-scale sacrifice is made at an eclipse in order to create a new member of the god hand let us look at dark souls in dark souls there are dark rates who sacrifice humans to become more powerful they harvest humanity they have an uncanny resemblance to the skull Knight there is a tower that none can traverse safely that goes deep into the earth and eventually to the abyss within it are four kings with otherworldly power there was in the cup content a king of the city - when we drain the water away we find mountains of bodies sacrificed not for power but sacrifice nonetheless destroying the city as the original Wyndham was destroyed with only the top of the tower reaching above the earth additionally Gutzon griffith both survived going down this tower the griffith spirit is broken and guts brings out the man who will put great darkness in his life Artorius did not come out unscathed from the abyss either more broadly this as to the themes that are common in both works sacrifice for power power at the great cost of others demons kings dark raids and those with great ambition all go to great lengths to achieve their goals it seems that in both berserk and Dark Souls the ends often do not justify the means [Music] another strong theme that comes through in both berserk and Dark Souls is the negative interpretation of religion in berserk the religion is called the holy sea with the pontiff at its head and a patriarchal system working its way down to simple clerics primarily though the religion seems to cause more harm than good or rather it causes only harm through misinterpreting OPIC doctrines they cruelly punish innocents they allow atrocities to happen without resistance claiming one should not interfere as everything is God's will they misguided Lee worship Griffith as a miracle sent by God and while he may be a part of God's construction he is in fact edema one of the very things that holy sea fears they hunt heretics they allow the rebirth of Griffith by stopping guts from preventing it believing Casca is a witch plagued by ignorance and superstition the Holy See is easily manipulated by Griffith for his own ends at great cost to the people in Dark Souls they are also obsessed by heretics and seem to be plagued by ignorance and superstition more importantly however it seems that the church does more harm than good in the Dark Souls universe as well there are clerical soldiers with spiked weapons locked up maidens one with a tongue cut out a faith in which you can buy your way into and up with in cheating clerics and undead hunts furthermore we believe that just as the holy season manipulated the way of white is rotten at its core and likely had a hand in the creation of the undead curse check out our way of white and the on day curse video for everything related to both and their marquee connections including similarities between lady fare knees and rare of the way of white a recurring religious image in both works is the caduceus it appears in the religion and berserk and several times and Dark Souls we all know the caduceus shields but perhaps not much about what the symbol represents the definition of a caduceus is an ancient Greek or Roman heralds wand typically one with two serpents twined round it carried by the messenger god Hermes or mercury in berserk it either symbolizes God's Griffith two sides of a coin whose relationship leads to Griffith being incarnated as the demon femto or guts and Casca who's coming back together again allows Griffith to be reincarnated fully as the white hawk and walk among the plane of reality in dark souls who knows what it represents two serpents is of course interesting the caduceus is described as an ancient symbol on both shields it features on could it imply that the two serpents Carthon frampt are serving a master just as the twin snake staff serves Hermes or just as in berserk could the coming together of both cause a resurrection that allows the Lord of dark to be reborn or the next age to be brought in finally a religious phrase brings us back again to another core theme of both works the theme of inner darkness and temptation the phrase is very own ox in dark souls very own ox could with its ambiguous Latin refer to the darkness or night within oneself or soul this is further supported by the instructions for designing the game cover to the artist responsible in the design works interview Hatoyama said that to help with inspiration for the cover design she was told by citta key to face the darkness inside myself this darkness inside oneself is a theme of berserk to fairnie seems to enjoy other people's suffering guts is tempted to become a demon and to give in to hate all demons have chosen the path of evil power by their own will those who have died as demons or gone to hell are described in one of the first berserk books as so numerous they are like an ocean of Dark Souls this theme is there throughout Dark Souls as well the temptation to continue the age of light as Lord at the cost of humans see the search for immortality at the expense of the poor subjects of his tests the dark crates harvesting of humanity our own quest slaughtering and absorbing the power of perhaps more than any have before us most of the pain and suffering is due to the darkness within ourselves and others only Allah seal is an exception or used to be the weakness of the will temptation fear human frailty and the darkness within oneself crops up in both masterpieces it comes most strongly within the characters and even within our own self as weary beserk with conflicting emotions and as we play Dark Souls who we side with whether we give up and who we kill we have the same temptations as the fortune-teller told Griffith so it holds true in dark souls you are destined to rule the world in exchange for your flesh and blood but what she doesn't say which is also the tragedy of both works is that ruling the world is also at the cost of the flesh and blood of others [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Hawkshaw

Views: 379,006

Rating: 4.8979931 out of 5

Keywords: Dark Souls, Lore, Berserk, Guts, Anime, 2016, Gwyndolin, Gwyn, Artorias, Ciaran, Eclipse, Band of the Hawk, Demons, Darksign, Undead, Religion, Darkmoon, Covenant, Dark Souls 2, Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, PvE, PvP, Cursed, Greatsword, Casca, Artwork, Similarities, References, Theme, Plot, Explanation, Design, Age of Dark, Age of Fire, Gwynevere, Aldrich, Anor Londo, Oolacile, DLC, griffith vs kushan ressurection 2016, episode 13, episode 14, episode 15, episode 12

Id: 4L-5Hy3hzes

Length: 22min 9sec (1329 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 18 2016