The longest one yet, but hey, the Eclipse is a pivotal part of the story and deserves the extra analysis.
What Happens
Storm of Death, Chapters 1-2
As Rickert watches from hiding, Zodd and the Skull Knight continue to fight. Zodd is ostensibly supposed to be guarding the way into the whirlwind but claims he’s only interested in continuing his feud with the latter, who does not deny that he came because of his millennium-long rivalry with the Godhand.
Inside the whirlwind, Corkus flees in terror, convincing himself everything has been a dream before allowing himself to be killed by a demon disguised as a naked woman. Casca is rescued by Pippin and Judeau, the former buying them time while the latter carries her off on horseback. Despite his best efforts to protect her, Judeau is killed. As he dies he reflects to himself that he never got his chance to tell Casca “that important thing.” Demons swarm over Casca, tearing off her clothes and armor.
God of the Abyss
Guts battles demons atop the hand while the Godhand look on in amusement. Inside his shell Griffith is slowly metamorphosing. He senses the deaths of the Hawks but doesn’t feel a thing. He then feels himself sinking into a great darkness, and realizes something is at its bottom.
Lifeblood
No matter how many demons Guts kills they keep coming, and he is eventually knocked down from the hand into a great pool of blood below. He calls out for the others and Gaston, his former second-in-command, stumbles into view, barely alive, and dies in his arms.
Quickening
Pippin’s dead body is ripped in two before Guts’s eyes, and beyond a scene of horror unfolds as the Apostles feast on the remains of the Hawks. Casca is still alive, her unconscious body toyed with by demons, but he cannot get to her, his left arm held in a demon’s jaws. Up on the hand, Griffith’s shell cracks open.
Birth
The four angels of the Godhand – Void, Slaan, Ubik, and Conrad – hail the birth of the new demon king, Femto, the Wing of Darkness. Griffith has become one of them. He rapes Casca, Guts so desperate to stop him he cuts off part of his arm to escape the demon’s clutches.
Afterglow of the Right Eye
Demons pile on top of Guts, preventing him from reaching Casca and Griffith, one piercing his right eye with a claw in the process. At the top of the vortex, where the eclipse can be seen, the Skull Knight suddenly breaks through. He tries to bring his sword down on Void, but a barrier appears above the Archangel’s head and stops it.
Escape
The Skull Knight seizes Guts and Casca and flies back through the opening. The Godhand are not angry but amused by this unexpected turn of events. Slaan does wonder if it was fated or not as well, but agrees that it’s too small a thing to disturb the coming darkness.
Outside, the Skull Knight drops Guts and Casca at Rickert’s feet, urging him to use the medicine he was given as Zodd appears behind them. He is surprised to see Guts alive and says he will cease to fight for now. The Skull Knight takes Rickert and the unconscious Guts and Casca and hurries away from the whirlwind. Zodd wonders how Guts will fare in the world that’s now his.
Awakening to a Nightmare
Guts wakes up in a cave, to the relief of Rickert and Erica, Godo’s daughter. Casca is there as well, but her mind hasn’t healed from the trauma – she doesn’t even recognize Guts, or trust anyone but Erica. In spite of his injuries, Guts flees the cave.
The Sprint
Guts tears off his bandages as he runs, shock, anger, and sadness mixing as he remembers his now-dead comrades, and the one responsible for it all. After collapsing in a field he feels a throbbing pain in his neck, and the Brand of Sacrifice begins to bleed as ghostly shapes emerge from the grass. The Skull Knight appears and says that Guts now dwells within the Interstice, the borderland between the living and the dead.
Vow of Retaliation
As Guts fights off the spirits using the Skull Knight’s sword, the latter explains that it is now his destiny to be haunted by such spirits, who are drawn to the Brand of Sacrifice, which marks him as an offering to the powers of darkness. Guts will have none of it – it’s war now, and he’ll fight the Godhand and their Apostles until he’s killed every last one of them. The spirits suddenly depart and the Skull Knights says it’s because they sense another branded soul – Casca…
Commentary
I have a friend who says Volume 1 gave her nightmares. Needless to say, I’m glad she never got this far. Those chapters are dark and all, but they’ve got nothing on the Eclipse. The Baron of Koka Castle held the townspeople in contempt; those undead warriors were animated by hatreds so faded they were impersonal; the Count deluded himself into thinking he was still doing good, and at least he let human decency win out in the end. But Griffith faced the truth head-on, knew how much the others admired and respected him, and consciously chose to not care anymore. I’d say that’s a hell of a lot worse.
Sure, Judeau, Corkus, Pippin, and Gaston were never crucial to the story – except Judeau, with the whole playing matchmaker between Guts and Casca – but they still had some characterization and an inner life. Judeau was laid-back but also perceptive and intelligent, as shown in his conversations with Guts, and considerate enough of his friends to not only step aside when he knows his feelings won’t be reciprocated, but actually try to help them hook up. Not at all a bad guy, and it’s hard not to feel sad when he dies, looking out for those he cared about to the very end (…I liked Judeau). Corkus was rude, lecherous, and full of bluster, but he had nothing before the Hawks and appreciated what he’d gained. It’s why he was always complaining about Guts, who had more than he ever could but seemed unable to realize it. Pippin, well, he may not have said much (so when he talks, you know it’s important), but he was an actions-over-words guy, and even Gaston got a bit of character development – he wasn’t a soldier at heart, but he’s still not the type to abandon friends, even if it means giving up your own goals. We’d gotten to know these guys, even if only a little, and that makes the slaughter much more horrifying than if it’s a bunch of anonymous townspeople.
But as unpleasant as their fates were, at least they don’t have to live with the memories of what they saw. Poor Casca. If I’d seen almost everyone I cared about eaten by demons, then gotten raped by the person I admired most knowing he was the one who made it all happen, right after an attempted rape by another demon, on top of all the stress and trauma she’s had to go through in the past year, I’d probably snap too.
Unless I was Guts. The guy’s like an animal in a way – when challenged or threatened his first response is to lash out at the source. It’s why the Skull Knight calls him the Struggler. He’s driven by a will to survival that’s almost instinctual, where the only concern is fighting back. He does have a reason for it – his friends are lost to him now, whether literally or figuratively, but he doesn’t seem interested in understanding what Griffith’s reasons are. Not that knowing would change anything. Yeah, if I’d seen all my friends devoured by demons the man I admired sicced on them, then watched him rape my sort-of girlfriend, I’d be pretty pissed-off too. So he’s back, the Guts we met at the start, who knows what he wants and damned if he’ll let even the forces of Hell stand in his way. Y’know, because they literally are.
By choosing the path he does, he contrasts himself with Griffith and the story returns to the theme of fate that was prominent at the beginning. Supposedly, it’s only a matter of time before Guts is killed by demons, but he refuses to just accept that, instead resolving to fight against it and change the outcome through his own actions. However, the fact that he chose the course of action that will allow him to live if he succeeds throws the idea that he’s defying fate into doubt. He has a consistent track record of going up against long odds, and these are the longest yet, and he explicitly said “I don’t want to die”; facing difficult foes is his way of truly feeling alive. So is he really going against the tide, or is this what he was fated to do all along?
Similarly, Griffith had many opportunities to turn aside from his chosen course. Up until his…liaison…with Princess Charlotte he could have settled for what he’d already achieved – it’s a hell of a lot more than anyone like him could be expected to achieve and a worthy accomplishment in its own right. Once he was rescued he could have lived on, accepting of his mistakes and proud of what he’d achieved, however briefly. He could have refused the Godhand, not wanting to cause more suffering by offering up his most devoted and loyal companions and friends and taking his death as a fitting punishment for his sins. Of course, doing so would have been a betrayal not only of his own principles and hard work, but also those who have already died in his name – their deaths would be for nothing. So he ends up surrendering to what he deemed inevitable. But even the Godhand presented their offer as a choice, was it really? Both Guts and Griffith are shown as making choices, but it’s hard not to see them as the course each would inevitably take. There’s no easy answer.
There’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while, and it’s how effective, story-wise, the Eclipse is relative to what’s come before. Here in the manga, thanks to The Guardians of Desire, we go into the Band of the Hawk storyline knowing what Griffith becomes. The mysteries behind Guts, the Brand of Sacrifice, and what drives his quest for revenge are revealed early on, so the return of the Godhand merely brings the story full circle. The earlier chapters leave the impression that only Guts was wronged by Griffith, so the revelation that it was more still comes as a surprise, but it also means there’s never any doubt that Griffith isn’t the great hero everyone thinks he is. All those clues are just affirming what we already know. In the anime, Guardians of Desire is omitted, so once the Band of the Hawk storyline starts Griffith seems genuine at first, and everything he does to suggest otherwise actually raises doubts about him. We do still get The Black Swordsman as the first episode, but once that’s done it’s essentially a low fantasy, medieval warfare story, so elements like Zodd’s first appearance stand out more, and once the Eclipse arrives it’s sudden, unexpected, and the realization that yes, Griffith will go that far much more shocking. To be fair, the Godhand are shown in Episode 1, in a vision Guts has, but it doesn’t say what they are and it’s easy to forget about them, so we’re just left with the mystery of “what the hell happened to Guts?” And I think that makes for a much better story. Sometimes it’s better to not explain everything upfront, and part of the atmosphere of the first two chapters comes from not knowing the reasons behind what’s happening. Similarly, I suspect characters like Wyald might have had more of an impact if it leaves you asking what could produce such a monster.
And if there was ever a Berserk volume you can’t read in public, it’s this one.
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