What Happens
Queen
Seeing the elves’ mischievous attitude and disdain for “grown-ups”, Puck realizes they’re children – human children. Seeing Puck talking to Guts, the queen, larger than the rest, tauntingly calls him “Peekaf”, and Jill seems to recognize her voice. She throws herself in front of Guts when the queen tries to attack him, calling her “Rosine.” Hearing this, the queen calls the others off and leaves.
The villagers are horrified by Guts’s actions, but he only laughs, reminding them that none of them raised a finger to help the boy. Then someone realizes there are bodies burning in the wreckage – children’s bodies.
Elf Fire
Using Jill as a hostage, Guts makes his way out of town and orders her to go home. Puck tries to chastise him for being so harsh, but the annoyed Guts throws him in the grass. That night he finds himself surrounded by the burning spirits of the children he killed.
Red-Eyed Peekaf
Jill and Puck come upon Guts fighting the burning spirits, and he almost kills Jill, grabbing hold of her as they escape. The next morning he asks her about the meaning of “Peekaf”, which Jill says is a local fairy tale.
Long ago, Peekaf was a boy with red eyes and pointed ears, always bullied by the other children because of it. His parents loved him very much, but because he was different he was convinced they weren’t his real parents and snuck off into the woods one night to find where he really belonged. There he met elves, who had red eyes and pointed ears just like him. But then he learned the couple from the village were his real parents. When he was gravely ill as a baby they had gone into the woods and pleaded with the elves to save him; it was their magic that changed his eyes and ears. Peekaf ran home, but while he’d been in the forest only minutes, in the village a hundred years had passed. The end.
Recollected Girl
Rosine was an older girl Jill looked up to as a big sister. A bit of a tomboy, she loved playing in the woods, catching small animals and insects, and collecting pieces of junk, including an egg-shaped stone she found in the river that looked like a human face. But her parents always fought, and she was often covered in bruises. Jill later learned that during the war soldiers passed through the village, and Rosine’s mother was one of those who didn’t get away in time. She grew up listening to her father doubt she was actually his daughter.
She always told Jill the story of Peekaf was wrong – he really was an elf and is still living happily with his real family. She said she was an outcast just like him, and one night she called out a farewell to Jill and ran away. Her parents disappeared a few days later, and Jill never found the egg-shaped stone in her box of junk. The elf attacks started shortly afterwards.
Puck shows her the Behelit in Guts’s pack, and she says it’s identical to Rosine’s. Guts tells her what it does, and says definitively that Rosine’s an Apostle, and the sacrifice was her parents. He warns Jill to stop following him, that he won’t hesitate to hurt or kill her if she gets in the way again. Shoving the indignant Puck under some rocks, he leaves. Once he does the queen elf appears.
The World of Winged Things
The queen reveals that she’s indeed Rosine, and invites Jill to the Misty Valley. Guts rushes out of the woods but only manages to clip her wing as she carries Jill into the air. Puck asks if Guts was really willing to kill Jill as well and flies off in disgust when he doesn’t deny it. Up in the air Rosine tells Jill she can become an elf just like her.
Guardians, Chapters 1-2
Rosine assures Jill that “very dependable grown-ups” are defending the valley from people like Guts. He stumbles upon a ball of corpses, including the bandits from earlier, who reanimate and transform into insectoid demons when he approaches.
Pursuers
The villagers are burying the children’s bodies when the Holy Iron Chain Knights arrive. The leader, whose name is Farnese, explains to the parish priest that there have been increased rumors of calamities and supernatural occurrences over the last two years, most of them baseless. But among them are recurring tales of the black swordsman the priest told them about, all connected to real, and gruesome, incidents. The priest says Guts is probably headed to the Misty Valley but is reluctant to ask any villagers to guide the Knights there, knowing it will be dangerous, but Jill’s father eagerly volunteers.
Elsewhere, Guts dispatches the last guardians, clearing his way into the Mist Valley.
The Misty Valley, Chapters 1-2
The Misty Valley is a wondrous place, where it’s warm, the flowers are always in bloom, you never go hungry, and the elves are playing happily (with a human eyeball…). But Jill still isn’t sure if she wants to become an elf. Rosine tells her to sleep on it.
Puck has made it into the valley too and secretly meets up with Jill. He is shocked at what she was offered, reminding her that these creatures aren’t real elves, and they attack and eat humans. Jill agrees, but says everything seems so much happier here. If she goes back, she’s afraid she’ll become like her mother or father.
They see a large group of the elves playing at war. Only with real killing. They flee in horror.
Cocoons
Lost in the mist, Jill and Puck stumble upon a tree Rosine explains is the hatching ground for new elves. She brushes off Jill’s horror – it’s still only playing, and there are new friends soon enough. She sends Jill into a drowsy trance and begins weaving her into a cocoon but Puck intervenes. Then they realize the cocoons are on fire, courtesy of Guts.
Commentary
Well, it’s not as bad as his “if it’s so bad, just kill yourself” to Theresia, but calling Jill a “nuisance” telling her “next time, I’m not stopping my sword” is still pretty damn…OK, this is Guts, that’s normal. This is the guy who saves a kid by using him as bait.
He’s still very much a two-edged sword. As he rightly points out, “did even one of [the villagers] unlock [their] door?” Nope. There’d be trips to the psychiatrist in that kid’s future if any existed, but the angry let-‘em-burn-if-they-can’t-defend-themselves swordsman is the only one who did anything while the people who’d known the boy his whole life cowered in their homes. And given the size of his sword there’s no way he could have missed Rosine, as close as she was to the ground, but all he does is clip her wing. And she was carrying Jill at the time. Coincidence? Yes, Guts, you really did “hold back somehow”; and it makes sense given what’s happened before. He’s worried he won’t be able to protect Jill, like he failed Casca, and he’s trying, in his own tactless way, to warn her to stay away. He may seem nasty, he may try to act it, but he’s still better than he looks; or wants to admit.
And not giving Jill enough credit; nor is anyone else for that matter except Puck. She’s brave enough to throw herself in harm’s way to stop Rosine, and to keep following Guts regardless of what happens and knowing, if not exactly what she’s up against, at least that it’s dangerous. Since she’s no demon slayer that arguably makes her the braver of the two.
Nor is she without a sense of responsibility. For one, she’s the only one willing to stand up to her father. Even if he did deserve some respect for going to war to protect his family (and his are truly the actions of a man who had that foremost in his mind. Not!), he’s used it all up like his last jug of beer, riding on that and refusing to do anything of value in the present, while his decidedly-not friends take advantage of him and his wife lets him treat her like a doormat; Jill’s the only one willing to point out how neglectful he’s being. I think we all know who’s the adult in that house! Plus, Rosine’s her friend; she’s concerned about what happened to her and is willing to take the necessary risk to find out. She admits to Puck that whether she goes home or follows Guts she’ll “probably regret it either way” (Cannibal elves or a broken home? I’d have a hard time choosing too) but still makes her decision and doesn’t back down.
Yes, it’s true that she’s, in Guts’s words, running away from “a loser father and a powerless mother” with the hope that she’ll find something better – she even justifies the elves’ behaviour when Puck reminds her they attack people by pointing out that “wolves do [that] too.” When you’re constantly ignored and almost sexually assaulted by freeloaders at home (and she shouldn’t be expected to put up with that), even something like the Misty Valley that’s so idyllic on the surface is probably going to seem more appealing. And she’s only fourteen or so, she can’t be expected to have perfect patience. When she sees what goes on there she comes to her senses right away. She’s still brave, mature, and responsible, easily moreso than anyone else in this storyline (except maybe Puck).
She’s a hell of a lot stronger than Rosine, that’s for sure. The latter ran away from her problems entirely rather than face them and turned out worse for it. Sorry, but killing is killing whether you’re playing a game or fighting a war. Being children, or elves, or whatever these things are exactly, doesn’t change that. If anything, saying that it’s okay because it’s a game, “only playing human,” is even worse. The whole thing has is a very Peter Pan-like take on the darker side of innocence, namely a lack of empathy and inability to distinguish between right and wrong, although I seriously doubt Rosine has the excuse of never learning the difference; more like she’s willfully ignoring it. She evens forgets, so to speak, about those who are killed the same way Peter does. Just as Peter refuses to grow up to escape the responsibilities of adulthood, Rosine hides behind the fact she’s not human anymore to avoid the consequences of her actions (“if you become an elf it’s not scary. It’s fun to go all out.”) She felt helpless as a human, and when she lost that her inhibitions seem to have gone with it.
The whole Misty Valley is like that. On the surface it’s such a safe, happy place, where the children are carefree, happy, and can play to their hearts’ content. Except they’re also demons who gleefully kill each other in the process with no remorse and attack villages to eat people and kidnap other children, who become just like them in turn. Kids can be nasty, as anyone who’s been bullied on the playground knows, and let’s not forget that they learn by example. In a world as harsh as Berserk’s, especially when there was a hundred-year war going on until recently, is it any wonder that they emulate adults by playing at war? They’re children, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous. As much as it scares me to say so, Guts is killing children, but not anyone helpless.
God that’s a disturbing note to end on. Good thing there’s room to discuss it more next volume.
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