What Happens
Demon Infant
The Skull Knight explains that the cave he brought Guts and Casca to will hide them from demons. Elves used to live in these mountains, so the earth’s energy remains strong and thus shields their presence (is there a fantasy equivalent of technobabble?). He also says the fortuitous circumstances of the last few days are all a matter of chance.
Casca is surrounded by spirits, but they’re not attacking her. She suddenly collapses in pain, and something small and fetus-like drops out from between her legs. The Skull Knight says it’s her child, corrupted when she was raped by Griffith, and it would be best to kill it now; it will only cause trouble. But Casca desperately tries to defend it, Guts hesitates since it’s obvious who the father is, and the child vanishes with the daylight. The Skull Knight realizes what’s going on and tells Guts he’ll see it again – children yearn for their parents, after all.
Armament
Erica shows Rickert her father’s storage shed, where he keeps weapons and armor he’s made over the years, including a massive sword called the Dragon Slayer. A glorified slab of iron, too big to even lift, it was forged to kill a dragon, but according to Godo “dragons are dragons because humans can’t beat them.”
Later, with Casca locked in the cave like a prisoner and still wary of Guts, he prepares to take his leave. His mechanical arm is revealed to have been made by Rickert using pieces in Godo’s shed. The latter gives Guts a sword he promises won’t so much as scratch if he takes proper care of it. Then a rag-clad midget appears in the doorway, claiming he found Guts by smelling him out.
He Who Hunts Dragons
The midget transforms into a demon, and Guts eagerly jumps into the fray, but his sword, not forged to fight something inhuman, breaks when he slices the demon’s stomach open. Rickert tells him how to use the cannon in his arm, and after he does he spots the Dragon Slayer, which easily cuts the demon in two. He says it’s perfect for him.
As Guts takes his leave Rickert tries to convince him to stay. He thinks Guts should be with Casca, not trying to avenge the dead. Guts disagrees, and as he heads down the road he realizes nothing but a dismal rage is pushing him forward.
The Black Swordsman, Once More
The Holy Iron Chain Knights, the army of the Holy See, arrive at the site of the Eclipse seeking the prophesied Red Lake. As the knights stare in horror at the blood-stained lake, filled with the remains of bones and armor, their leader, a young woman, says it heralds the coming of an age of darkness.
Two years later, a small group of bandits are camped beneath a large gnarled tree, their only worthwhile plunder a teenage girl they found wandering alone. One of the bandits tells his companions a ghost story about how heretics once used the tree for ritual sacrifices. Another one suggests they try it with the girl, but a large thistle thrown from the dark interrupts him and they find Guts huddled on the other side of the tree. He asks about the truth of the heretic story, and warns the bandits they should leave while they still can. True to his suspicions the tree comes to life, its surface covered in faces, as the souls trapped inside sense his Brand. It kills one of the bandits and the others flee, the girl watching in awe as Guts begins hacking it apart.
The Elves of Misty Valley
With the arrival of daylight the souls within the tree vanish. Guts is annoyed at Puck for throwing the thistle and starting the whole fight, but they are interrupted when the girl freaks out at seeing “an elf from the Misty Valley.”
Elsewhere in the woods, the bandits find themselves trapped in mist and surrounded by small glowing lights that take on the appearance of elves.
Jill
The girl, whose name is Jill, takes Guts to her village. Her mother is relieved but her father indifferent, and his free-loading war buddies tell her (not very sincerely) they’re “sorry about last night.”
Jill can’t stand her father, an alcoholic war veteran who refuses to let go of the past, but when she stands up to him he begins to beat her, going on about the sacrifices he made and how no one shows him the respect he feels owed. Puck intervenes, which brings panic, and an angry mob, when the villagers realize there’s an elf in town. Guts scatters them by slicing a wagon in two. After he eludes pursuit Jill tells him to hide in an abandoned mill nearby, promising to bring him food later. Guts warns her to wait until dawn.
That night, one of her father’s friends tries to enter Jill’s room, but she bars the door and he finally gives up. When she goes to the mill at dawn she sees spirits hovering around the sleeping Guts and wonders at the strange world he lives in.
By Air
Jill explains that elves are said to have once lived in the nearby Misty Valley. In the last few years villages in the region have been attacked by mysterious creatures that devour crops and livestock, kill people, and carry off children. Everyone believes it’s the elves. Puck won’t believe it, saying elves normally do everything they can to avoid humans, but Jill can’t deny that creatures much like Puck have attacked her village.
The Brand starts to bleed, and everyone runs outside to see glowing balls of light heading towards the village. Guts realizes they aren’t really elves. They swarm through the village, breaking through the door of one house and devouring the family inside while the youngest son escapes out the back door, where he is saved by Guts.
Elf Bugs
Using the boy as bait, Guts lures some of the elves, who unlike Puck possess insect-like features, into a run-down barn. They transform into monstrous, but Guts collapses the ceiling with his sword and sets the debris on fire with his cannon, escaping through the back wall with the boy.
Commentary
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – being Casca sucks. Seeing your friends eaten by demons and getting raped by your former commander-turned-demon lord was bad enough, and now because of it she has the mind of an infant, her child’s been demon-corrupted, and she’s kept locked up in a cave. And Guts still hasn’t gotten a clue that if he really cares about her, he needs to think of her needs sometimes. Rickert has a point – in her state she needs someone who can look after her, not to be locked up like a pet in a kennel. Killing Griffith won’t bring the others back, or heal her mental scars. But just like everything else that’s happened to her, it’s part of the point. Both Guts and Griffith treated her badly, and given the shape of events, this is the result.
It’s not that Guts doesn’t care about her, because he most certainly does – he wouldn’t be so angry about what’s happened to her, or bothered by her helplessness if he didn’t, but he still has a way to go in realizing that not everyone has his ability to take whatever’s thrown at them and immediately pick themselves up afterwards – especially when demon hordes that ate your friends are involved. Right now, all he’s thinking about is himself: “there’s some dismal rage inside me, and that’s all there is supporting these two feet.” Whereas before he joined the Band of the Hawk he was driven by his need to feel alive by skirting death, now he’s allowing himself to be guided by his anger at Griffith. He may feel like he’s doing this for both himself and everyone else Griffith wronged, but that’s an assumption that everyone else would feel the same way he does, which he has no way of knowing, not without telling Rickert everything, at least. He definitely has something to be angry about, but he’s using the others to justify it rather than taking it for what it is.
When you get down to it, he’s becoming just like Griffith. We’ve seen evidence before that he’s aware of what he’s doing and the effect it has on others, but none of it actually turns him from his path. Griffith asked “do you think I’m cruel?” as well, and no matter what he’s aware of, Guts is putting himself at risk of going down the same path Griffith did.
He really needs to take a page from Rickert’s book. The kid’s handling this way better than he is. Sure he doesn’t know all the details, but finding out who’s responsible and seeking revenge isn’t foremost in his mind. Rather, he seems more interested in looking out for those who came through with lasting injuries and moving on. That’s a far less selfish course of action, and as much as Griffith needs to pay, Guts would do well to realize that.
Now I feel like I was too hasty in talking about the ambiguity of fate versus choice in the series. That’s an awful lot of coincidences in short order to not doubt the Skull Knight’s claims about everything being “chance” and “incidental”. It’s all coincidence that he arrived just in time to save Guts and Casca, that Rickert had the necessary medicine, and that the nearest safe spot is right next to the place where Guts can get the only sword capable of withstanding the abuse he’ll put his weapons through fighting demons? Really?
I think he’s in the same camp as Guts on this one. By becoming “a foe of the inhumans” he’s up against such long odds that it’s probably essential not to “have any desire to believe in destiny and such” if you want to keep going. And he’s as inhuman as they are; for a mortal like Guts, it’s probably even more so.
And speaking of fate, Griffith’s ascension was prophesied. Granted, we don’t know the full text of the revelation, but it mentions a red lake, that it will take place west of “a city both new and old” (i.e. the capital of Midland/the ruins of Gaiseric’s capital) and heralds the advent of “the fifth angel…the Hawk of Darkness” who’s “master of the sinful black sheep [and] king of the blind white sheep.” The details match reality pretty darn closely. So, does fate actually exist?
Maybe it does, but if it is, it’s also possible for someone with a strong enough will to go against the current. As Godo puts it, “if dragons are dragons because humans can’t beat them, what do you call a man who slays dragons?” Someone who can rise beyond the limits of mortals, and if Guts is good at one thing, it’s defying the odds. Or maybe he’s been fated to take them down all along, who knows?
With that, it’s the return of classic Berserk. The Band of the Hawk storyline was interesting and a good story in its own right (the anime proves that), and gave us some key information on Guts’s past and motivations, but this is what the story’s really about – innocents (or not) are being menaced by a supernatural threat, and only a dubious swordsman (and his goofy sidekick) with some connection to it stands in the way. Saving the innocents is optional. This return to the Black Swordsman has the dark atmosphere, twisted menace, and complex characters that really make the series. It’s good to be back.
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