Guts becomes his own man in Berserk volume 8
After eight volumes of Berserk, we’ve seen a lot of dark stuff. Trauma by the bucketful, either played out in front of us or occurring behind the scenes. It can cause readers to lose hope and make us wonder why these characters continue on in such a world. It isn’t until volume eight of the manga that we finally get to see what could be worth all that darkness and pain.
The answer, unsurprisingly, is love. Not perfect, unsullied love that is remarkable only for its purity, but love that has survived evil and pain in a hopeless world. Love, for all its clichés, is what makes Guts’ struggle worth it.
Berserk’s beginning of the end
In volume seven of Berserk, it was finally Casca’s time to shine. After being sidelined repeatedly for some of the dumbest reasons you can imagine, she finally got the chance to show why she’s such an important part of this story. She got her revenge against the cartoonishly misogynistic Adon, paving the way for the Hawks’ victory and the end of the Hundred-Year War.
Ending such a long war earns Griffith and the Hawks a hero’s welcome when they return to the capital, with a ball held in their honour to celebrate their accomplishment. Turns out, that doesn’t sit well with some rich folks, including the Queen of Midland, and they arrange to have Griffith assassinated. Again. If that feels familiar, it is because we’ve already seen this plot before.
Through some incredibly underhanded tactics, Griffith manages to have everyone conspiring against him locked in a tower which he then sets ablaze. Everyone dies horribly while Guts is dispatched to tie up a few loose ends. It is incredibly similar to the plot in volume 6, though that is part of the point. Guts is no longer horrified at the prospect of being an assassin; he has accepted that, so long as he remains with the Hawks, he will always be a tool for Griffith to use.
Casca continues to shine through these chapters, though I admit to having a soft spot for moments when tomboy characters look stunning in a dress. She is visibly uncomfortable with the attention that gets her, but it leads to a surprisingly sweet moment where she seeks refuge in Guts’ company. The pair’s romance is obvious to everyone but themselves, which is a little cliché but also understandable. Love is not something that comes naturally to either of them; of course it would catch them by surprise.
Their romance is part of what makes the latter half of this volume so compelling. We know that Guts is planning to leave the Hawks. He wants to become a true friend to Griffith and that cannot happen until he becomes his equal. Guts needs to find his own dream to chase to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the man who has become a beacon for so many people.
Several characters try to talk him out of this decision. The Hawks have achieved fame and recognition beyond what any of them thought possible. Griffith is almost assuredly going to marry the princess of Midland, as we’ve seen that she is predictably in love with him. This will result in everyone in the Band of the Hawks becoming a knight and living a cushy life now that the war is over. Why would Guts want to leave when things were just turning around for them all?
There is a brilliance to the non-linear storytelling on display here. We know how unhinged and violent Guts becomes in the near future. We know that he hates Griffith so much that he nearly ripped his body apart just to swing his sword at him. But here, in this chapter of Berserk, that feels like a distant, almost surreal memory. It seems impossible that that is the future we’re building toward.
However, small cracks are starting to form in Griffith. He was always possessive of Guts, seeing him as a crucial weapon in his ascension to the upper ranks of the world. When everyone else, including Casca, shows up to bid Guts a fond farewell, Griffith is there to keep him from leaving. Not out of affection or love for his loyal friend but because he will not tolerate losing someone so valuable.
Just like when Guts joined the Band of the Hawk, Griffith proposes a duel to settle things. Win, and Guts may leave. Lose and he must stay. For the very first time, we get a glimpse into the inner monologue of Griffith and we see the darkness that his calm, almost beautiful exterior hides from the world.
He knows that Guts is stronger than him, wielding a sword that can cut down a horse in one swing. He knows that he can’t make any mistakes in his attack or Guts will blow past him. Worse, if he is too aggressive with his attack, he could kill Guts, but that isn’t a red line for Griffith. If he can’t keep Guts as a tool, he’ll accept him as a corpse.
Of course, we know that Guts doesn’t die during this fight because we’ve read other volumes of Berserk. The two pose against a snow-covered backdrop, but this time it is Guts who is the picture of calm and control. With a single motion, he brushes past Griffith’s guard and stops just inches from killing him. No one is more surprised than Griffith to see that he has lost. He had, up to that point, been untouchable in combat. Now, Guts has surpassed him in almost every way.
There is a touch of repetition in this volume of Berserk and it doesn’t have the brilliantly detailed battle sequences that have carried previous instalments. This is all about the contrast between Guts and Griffith, both between each other now and their future selves that we have already seen. As Guts walks away and Griffith kneels on the snow in shock, it feels like the end of a great story and a great setup for the story that is to come.
You can still get all of Berserk, both in physical and digital format, on Amazon.
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