Really just continues the parallels between SK and Guts. They're both going down in history as horrible men whilst their hated enemies get treated as saints.
I'll never consider griffith 9r any of the godhand as saints, guts and SK went down a dark path all for the sake of revenge, but what the godhand do is just barbaric
@@mightdai7489 I think that’s one of the biggest take aways here. At the same time, it seems like he might have some newfound hope because of Guts’ sheer willpower when he goes against the flow.
%70 of the weeb comments l see in internet "this character is such BABY for doing THIS, that character is such a SWEETHEART for doing THAT❤" with caps locks. I dunno if its because anime community have lots of teenage girls but its interesting. South Park's internet community is also like this "AWW KENNY IS SOOO CUTE❤❤❤"
Hey everyone. Apologies for the 7 month Hiatus. Combined with Lockdown, getting a new job, mental health struggles and just general life stuff I found it really difficult to actually make a video. I had around 2-3 scripts that I canned because I thought they weren't good enough for release. I'm feeling better now and want to make this a lot more frequent. I want to say how much I appreciate everyone sticking around. My videos still have a lot of engagement despite me being inactive and it amazes me the amount of support I've been getting. I may be a bit rusty after this long hiatus but hope you enjoy the video regardless!"
Thank you for the great video. Glad to see you back. Also Berserk = Struggle = Waiting is a linked cycle so take as much time as you need, when doing your scripts. Hope you find better time for the rest of 2020 and find yourself rejuvenated in 2021.
Wow. I just got that. Skull Knight's legacy is mirrored by his existence; an empty version of all his glory. People remember him as a Demon King and a Mad Man. But not all his sacrifice and his humanity. Because he lost his battle with Void. Void then shaped the world and its history further destroying whatever Skull Knight had left. Now, he's doomed to walk a long road of regret with nothing but his physical power. His armor carries nothing inside much like his legacy carries no more meaning.
@@Cho0segoose The Skull Knight called the previous owner of the Berserk Armor a foolish king which means he was aware of the mistakes he's made or at the very least blames himself for failing to prevent certain events that lead to his demise. I doubt someone who clawed his way to the top would be a good person, he must've done tons of shady shit like assassinations to make it there. He even imprisoned a "wise sage" in the tower of conviction that was tortured daily.
Yes! Exactly! Also, I read some time ago fanfic (crossover) where autor figure out how to kill the God hand :) they did it using a pathway created by death of ganishka. As Shireke said there's no way back from the abyss (where are the real bodies of them) and I'm sure as hell it will be used in some way. Well, we must wait around 10 years for it xD but I'm curious how accurate what they did will be:)
You said the woman Skull Knight is holding can’t be related to Void becoming a god hand because she is still alive with the brand, but I thinks that’s exactly what it is. Remember Casca and guts are branded and yet Griffith became Femto without them being sacrificed. Also the backdrop of the landscape being one massive brand is the kingdom becoming THE sacrifice that made Void. So I believe this event is indeed the moment that created Void. You see Void is in the centre as the main Godhand, like Femto in his eclipse, perhaps another indication. It’s strongly indicated that Skull Knights demise was in line with Voids creation, just like Guts and Griffith becoming Femto.
This is what I thought as well. I just want to add that Judeau and Casca not being sure whether there were 4 or 5 angels lends further credence to this theory. It could be that 4 members of the God Hand arrived but after the ceremony there were 5 as Void had just joined them.
I actually did notice that on my first read but had a complete brain fart during the scripting process and forgot to mention it. Shes also got the same jewel on her forehead like Dannan. Puck said that SK had an elven aura to him when they first met so this connects the dots even more
Yeah, SK lover could be related to Danaan for all we know from the looks alone. But her ears is not long Danaan so maybe not elven race monarch?? her jewelry had fairy antenna lady instead & her upper head wasn't shown, including crescent moon symbol. maybe Fairy moon goddess Selene/Luna??
@@crozraven maybe similar to how apostles are “reincarnated” during the ceremony into their demonic form, maybe SK’s lover underwent a “good” type of ceremony, maybe something of ancient elven magic, and she was “reincarnated” into the form of Danann. Maybe SK found some magical ritual after this event and used it to try and bring his girl back to life?
@@Etticos. apostles didn't reincarnated, they were corrupted into a demonic beings. People who made an evil pact & called via behelits weren't dead, just in the moment of great desperation or maybe on the brink of death. Only god hand like Femto/Griffith is so far have a direct case of rebirth/reincarnation. So I doubt this is a similar case, more about being related to astral race with Danann (like elfs, fairies, dragons, trolls, etc)
Plot Twist: Void is the main villain and consumed/killed the other godhand members over hundreds of years, explaining why Gaiseric has been unable to kill him after such a long time, and why Void is the only member still present from what seems to be the original godhand. After all his brain's big enough he probably has some sort of master plan tbh
Or he could potentially be the Wise Sage that was imprisoned, similar to how Griffith sacrificed the band of the hawk only leaving Casca and Guts, Void could have sacrificed the whole kingdom that Skullknight used to have, only difference here is that this time, Skullknight and his lady both died.
One thing I tend to think about is the fact that there is an abyss you cannot return from meaning that perhaps god hand members decide to/ are pulled into the abyss and they can only alter the flow of causality for so long until the are pulled by it themselves. Kinda like a singularity.
My theory is that Skull Knight aka Gaiseric's Kingdom was the eclipse's first sacrifice and he wore the Berserker armor after his lover died and allowed him to survive the eclipse. Which is also why he saved Guts and Casca because he couldn't save his lover in the past and didn't want Guts to feel how he felt
What would've happened in the eclipse, for sure, guts would've died, there was no way around it until SK saved his and casca, but casca being raped by femto, could've meant he had plans for her in the long run, that moment could've also been meant to rub salt on guts wounds
+ Void was seemed to be the new leader of an era, just like Femto as the last member & the leader of Fantasia era. + SK is King Gaiseric is pretty much confirmed imo. + Now my there is a high possibility that the Holy See/White Falcon (pseudo christian) religion is very much Void's creation as he was the mysterious sage/prophet, sacrificing a whole kingdom to be godhand member. + SK lover that being branded/sacrificed is likely a princess/queen of elven or fairy or even an extinct race. That's my best guess. her jewelry also have crescent moon symbol, akin to the symbol of moon goddess Selene/Luna. + MAYBE, this SK memories depicted a PROTO GODHAND era, where the ultimate force/magic of evil yet being established clearly. It's when we finally get the births of behelits & apostles for the age of dwindling magics (gone into rigid system beliefs like white hawk religion). Here is a possible comparison between god hands: 1. Void/Femto: themes about faith, religions, & messiah complex 2. grape-like female god hand/slan: themes about sexual desires, between fertility/motherhood & sadomasochism 3. O face lion/Ubik: themes about manipulation, deception, hungry for control?? 4. Crystal Zeus- Ganishka/Conrad: Stoistic, wrath, natural disasters, plagues & diseases?? 5. Mouth head & skeleton body: empty, braindead, undead, famine, desperation?? (also, kinda remind me the state of Griffith after being tortured for years/before his eclipse. No face, just dried mouth & broken body)
@Nikzedik Slan & SK interactions were far too distant to be called past lovers. Also Slan was very like a human in the past & SK called her the Whore Princess of Uterine Sea (likely alluded to the IRL mythos of whore of babylon)
The fact that, sk lover died aparently without fear tells me that sur may have sacrificed herself to allow gaiserick to become thé Undead skullknight. Unlike post people branded she doesn't appear to be injured. And she dies without being devoured. At here death, thé apearance of thé brand to me signifies the fulfilment of thé sacrifice. But if it IS Indeed a sacrifice, who sacrificed who? I dont think gaiseric sacrificed the girl. For more power.i think she may have given here life so SK would survive
@@monovengclan hmm ...that could be very interesting theory. A possible deal was made between SK lover & VOID of which one should be given the brand of sacrifice as she chose herself to save Gaiseric/SK, even though in the end he became a dead man stalking the endless night ...
@@crozraven i believe void may have mislead her into believing to would end both suffering. as we all know that void seem to understand causality to a point where he could predict the actions of sk would lead to SK crushing ganishka.thus allowing Femto to be reborn. It seem like all of them are being manipulated.
My theory is that these four God Hand members are the originals, and unlike the current reincarnates, may have always existed, like the Four Kings. My reasoning is that they lack the human/demon fusion designs of the current God Hand, they look too abstract. Also one of them looks an awful lot like the Venus of Willendorf, a goddess statue dating back to the stone age, which would imply that these entities have been around for most of human history. It also hints at why, despite weaving mans destiny, the God Hand began only 1000 years ago.
I have a similar theory, they lack human resemblance they could be possibly astral entities that chose the idea of evil and became godhand members since this happened a thousand years ago humanity was still young more innocent and i believe i may be wrong that Flora or Shierke mentioned long ago humanity and astral spirits lived in harmony and the elements were respected i think there a was also mention that the old kingdom or Gaseric joined the spiriutal and human live together something like that.
This manga is an experience. A moment of silence for those who’ve lost their lives before this chapter came out 😔 Edit: Rest In Peace kentaro Miura, you absolute legend. Your works will continue to inspire artists & storytellers alike..!
Something to take note of is the amount of angels that came down that erased SK's kingdom in a single night. One said 5 angels, but another corrected and said 4 angels. This was likely Void's ascend to Godhood. The brand is on the foreheads of all the skulls in the tower of conviction, which is strange... unless it was possibly another artificial ritual like the previous arc. Maybe the previous Godhands were incarnated one at a time then replaced
To be honest I pretty notice that when we see the ceremonial from skull nights past, it said 5 angels came and smite the city. If we go back when guts went to save casca the same thing happened, the big brand of sacrifice looming the night and the "5 Angels" appear. I forgot the guy with the square head and his followers but I just want to point that out how its almost similar. A fallen city, the brand of sacrifice appears as a standing point, the 5 angel's appear as the 5th member of the God hand is reborn
@@BanishedSilentShadow3318 I agree. Also note: The skull knight told Guts multiple times: "You have to choose to either fight or protect her", and he was referring to the incarnation of Griffith where he had to either protect Casca or fight. With help of his friends he did both. If that memory was Void's incarnation ceremony, and skull knight chose to "fight", it's how his woman died, it's why he kept warning Guts. People are not pointing that out, but it's a pretty clear correlation, on top of the giant mark, and the same location/angel numbers. I have no idea why people insist that's an eclipse... literally nothing points out to it being an eclipse??
This is clearly Void's Eclipse. The beings he is standing next to are probably Godhand as well, but the difference here might be that they were never human before, unlike Void (theory: Void being the first human to undergo the ceremony). Their absence from the rest of the story makes it clear that they were replaced somehow. Either Skull Knight actually succeeded in killing four Godhand members (badass), Void replaces them, or something else entirely. The monsters here don't seem to be Human Apostles, but merely monsters of the astral world (similar to the Sea God, for example). Both Gaiseric and the High Priestess die here in this memory, and it is heavily implied that Flora is the one who brought them back. Flora placed Gaiseric's soul (or something similar) into the Skull Knight armor created by Hanarr. How she brought the High Priestess back is unclear, but it seems like some sort of reincarnation where the High Priestess became the Flower Storm Monarch Danann. Both are no longer human, being only remnants of their former selves. This forbidden act would have resulted in her banishment from Elfhelm, which is why she resided in the tree that Guts met her in.
I can't really say much for the priestess, we know very little of her as she was just in a flashback, it's possible danaan is related to SK and his lover though
About the "vagina" apostle. Before you mentioned it i thought it was a sideway mouth more than a vagina. Like, he communicated that way, with a sideway mouth speaking by itself. It's more creepy and makes more sense than a random female organ placed on its face :)
Historically, Gaiseric was a Vandal king who sacked Rome at it's end and the term to vandalize became a bad thing, as destroying something. I like how at the end he said that Gaiseric was remembered as a bad king, which in reality he really was a cruel one
I mean was the real Gaiseric really a cruel king? Homeboy led his people from Poland to north Africa and created a homeland for his people. Not to mention his actions seem to have inflicted the most damage on the late roman empire out of any barbarian group
Not possible, imo. When we see him slashing those creatures in half, his vision was already heavily obscured by blood. The godhand were still very far away from him, only their tiny silhouettes visible. In the bloodied and battered state he was in at that distance, I imagine he would barely reach them let alone kill any of them... But to kill 4 of them?? There's no way, not with the powers we've seen from godhand so far. Even if the 4 godhand had no offensive abilities and were easy kills, void wouldn't just stand there and watch while SK killed them all. We know void and SK are somewhat relative in power, or at least we know SK isn't 10x stronger or anything like that. If SK vs Void is already a struggle, how is SK going to fight 5 godhand simultaneously and successfully kill 4 of them? Imo there's no possible way he killed them here
@The Spell Alchemist I'd bet skull knight or something else destroyed them with tremendous assistance from possibly witches, say all of elfhelm and flora like mages. I say this, because of an ordinary cycle of replacement occurred, there would be five God hand at any given time, moving in and out every 216 years. The count only summoned four minus femto. Femto was created with only four as the last to a set. There are however already five in the past. Maybe the 216 cycle is only to replace the old members and won't happen anymore.
@@krajicsek13 How can From Software foreseen it? First it was Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Demon's Souls copying Berserk off. Even the name Dark Souls was copied and slapped into the game which was a from Black Swordsman Chapter 2 i believe (With the count dying and not sacrificing his daughter). While both the Sea God chapter and Dark Souls came the same year, Sea God was up in April and Dark Souls released in September. And there is a BIG similarity to Sea God and Blighttown with those slugs and the place they were crawling in. The thing is, however, Demon's Souls also had a Swampy area with Slugs. So it might be Miura copying Soulsborne a bit, too.
What really interests me is the fact that the godhand's ranks have changed over time. What happened to the old godhand that we see in this chapter? Were they somehow killed? Did they simply choose to be reincarnated in new forms? Considering that before Femto was initiated there were only 4, does this indicate that that the godhand can/have been defeated, at least partially? Also, I think it's worth talking about the similarities that each godhand member shares with gods of various pantheons. While the current godhand members mimic Christian-esque sins/disasters mimicking the Christian-esque following of humanity in the story at this point (Conrad = plague, Slan = adultery/sadomasochism, Ubik = greed, Femto = pride/idolatry), the old godhand share similarities with seemingly Greco-Roman pantheons, which based off of the Hellenic art seen on Gaiseric and his lover, might reflect the beliefs of that age as well. We can immediately recognize the Zeus/Poseidon and the archaic Venus figure, while perhaps the remaining two godhands are linked to Erebus/Nyx (gods born directly from chaos, representing darkness and night, which is thematically similar to the design of the 4th old godhand) and Dionysus (notice how the 2nd old godhand's face is much larger than the rest of his body and his expression is very exaggerated - just like a Greek comedy mask, which relates this godhand to Dionysus who was a god of theater, but also according to Wikipedia "The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorized as a dying-and-rising god" which totally makes sense for a godhand member). What's interesting is the duality of each member/god pair - the Christian sins/disasters are related to indulgence and the wrath it brings, while the Greco-Roman figures represent gods who are known to have vicious uncontrollable tempers despite being protectors. This would also explain how the godhand always accrue followings of apostles, because they tempt humanity with protection, yet the godhand themselves embody the dual nature of these sinful themes of plague, adultery, greed, pride, idolatry, vengeance, lust, sloth, and reckless abandon. Perhaps returning to the first paragraph, could the ties between human belief/faith and the godhand indicate a weakness of the godhand? That they are formed out of the need for human faith for higher beings, but once humanity changes beliefs (Greek to Christianity) the godhand can no longer exist as nobody believes in them/their values anymore?
Okay I know that this video came out a year ago and I don't know if someone will read but here's my theory. Skull Knight might indeed be King Gaiseric and the Druid he emprisoned is indeed Void. Skull knight used to be thirsty with power just like Griffith and built the very first Kindom which we later see Griffith saying 'Let's build a second' Skull Knight past life might have been a mix between Griffith and Guts. And the druid sensed bad in Skull Knight and most likely knew dark magic and is the one responsible for sending the 4 angels which I believe are 4 god hand members with void becoming the 5th. During the destruction of Gaiseric (SK) kingdom he probably cared more about seeing his lover dying than seeing his Kingdom being destroyed so he wore the Berserker armor and it was said Gaiseric was a powerful warrior so I can imagine with the Berserker armor he was even more powerful than he already was and fought his way out of the eclipse. Because or else I don't see how he would've survived the eclipse. Just my theory tho, Skull Knight is trying to redeem himself because of the mistakes he did in his past life because he did many bad things and was punished for it
one thing i find interesting is that the sacrifice must be important to the person doing the sacrifice. the brand on the woman is clearly one from a apostle or a more important ceremoney (ie not the one we see if it is a reincarnation ceremony), which means this woman might not have just been branded. so it begs the question, who was this woman actually important to?
this is actually the only video about this chapter that wasnt producte in high speed to be the first one reporting about it with spoilers in title etc to gain as many views as possible this is just amazing to watch
Nietzsche's philosophy has been very influential in Berserk and I think we are now seeing the Eternal Return (which actually is much older than Nietzsche). Looks to me as if the world of Berserk is caught in a Ouroboros spiral, a gnostic world.
@@NobleBruv definitely, strong Jungian themes are getting prevalent. Indeed Jung was himself heavily influenced by the gnostics and Nietzsche. We are probably seeing Miura's own worldview develop in the years.
@@HeloIV The way I've personally seen it, Guts character resemblance of Nietzsche started after the Eclipse, plateaued during the conviction arc, and ended the moment the berserker armor was put on. The Jungian plateau I think is a matter of whether or not Guts can conquer and tame his inner demon as a force for good.
very very gnostic on the shell and lovecraftian yet there is still an undertone of good like the elementals and good spirits Flora was all about even the Elves being benevolent in nature even the dark ones. Berserk seems to be a mix of many things.
I think you definitely made the most interesting video discussion about the new chapter in UA-cam atm. I have to say I am amazed at how many fine details you manage to remember from previous chapters. And I would love to hear more of your theories. Cheers.
What if Skull Knights memory is Void’s induction into the godhand, like with Griffith? What if they had a parallel, with void being one of Skull Knights closest allies, and then sacrificing everything for his ambition. It would explain the brand of sacrifice on the womans arm in the memory, and why Skull Knight went berserk in the past. Skull Knight could be the Guts that never came out of black swordsman mode, it would explain his eternal hate for the godhand with him being “one who opposes the five angels”
One thing I noticed is that the "female" Godhand has fins/tentacles around her neck exactly like the ones Ubik has. The left most Godhand is probably a giant like Grunbeld, the one next to him doesn't look like the horse's armor motif to me but looks like an ancient fish/dinosaur thing, the "female" Godhand is most likely based on the Artemis of Ephesus and is a "goddess" of fertility I also think that Gaiseric's "queen" looks a lot like an elf, maybe like Danann
Feels sort of simple, it mirror's Guts'/Casca's Story but isn't anything we've seen, it showcases where Guts will inevitably find himself next time he sees all 5 God Hand. King Gaiseric's kingdom was destroyed by the 4 god hand in an eclipse ceremony where the sage(void?) became the fifth member. Both Gaiseric and his beloved managed to escape the sacrifice with brands after-which SK commissioned Hanarr to make him a suit of enchanted plate armour so that he could challenge the god hand/void. While combatting them in the midst of some kind of ceremony he loses the woman he loved and falls into his final rage where the armour takes over. This sequence is sometime after the eclipse that caused Gaiseric to rampage and I imagine it's related to the death of the four unknown god hand members, perhaps at the hand of a fully lost berserking SK. I can't imagine SK used an armour that could kill him until after his kingdom was already gone, in some ways it is a behelit, where you must sacrifice in order to acquire extreme power, you'd only use it out of desperation.
I think the reason SK attacked Void at the Eclipse Guts went through, is that the Void is the reason behind all, he could be the right hand of The Idea of Evil, it is possible that SK managed to defeat all previous God Hand members, but not Void, he could be the reason There is a new God Hand with Femto as a member.
About possible connection between the Tower of Albion and 1000 yers old events - Conviction happened right after Eclipse, Fifth Angel of the Hand of God was first chosen and then incarnated into flesh. So, it is possible that old Eclipse happened and Void became the Fifth Angel, then old Conviction-esque events happened and Void gained flesh. Thus the cicle of the God Hand would be: becoming of First, Second, Third and Fourth Angels, Eclipse of Fifth Angel, followed by Conviction-esque events of Fifth Angel and then some unknown yet events that would surround Falconia, after which either Fifth becomes the First with other four dying then new ones becoming in their stead, or Fifth returns to Astral World and Angels getting replaced one by one. Although Conviction itself may be something that only Girffith experienced, some completely new, non-cylclical event that would change the world as it is. After all, even with mankinds' forgetfullness and possible Idea's of Evil manipulations it is hard to believe that something like merging of Physical and Astral Worlds would not leave an immense and unforgettable mark on remembered history. After all, such merging have alreadyt led to fall of existing civilization due to scores of supernatural events.
11:25 During the Eclipse Femto manifested without Caska being killed yet. Remember that the brand alone is evidence of being a sacrifice, they don't necessarily need to die, as they're forever marked for the dead. So this unnamed woman still being alive after Void has manifested doesn't rule out this event as a Void-creation event. It'd just make it an even stronger parallel to Gut's experience. Although I think it's strange that Gaiseric would have berserker armor as early as his first eclipse event though, so I do think there's still big questions left as to the timeline of this. I'd argue maybe it's Gaiseric finally at the 'end boss fight' of his revenge story, facing the Void and the God Hand in the deepest levels upon the Abyss. However that'd make the brands and woman weird inclusions. Perhaps he had to offer her as a sacrifice to obtain the opportunity of this fight? I think I remember dark spirits suggesting Guts use Caska for that purpose before too. Prehaps in an ironic twist of fate, he killed her himself his berserker rage. Completing the sacrifice ceremony and cementing his fate as some form of apostle-like immortal.
It's an honour for me to live at the time when I can see by my own eyes new chapter and already one of the best in the whole Berserk series. And I'm sure it will remain so by the end of this millenium story. Miura's bonfire is still flaming.
Also, I think the Incarnation ceremony and the Eclipse was for King himself. My theory is that he found out about the "power of abyss" from his sage and wanted it for himself. Sage knowing what kind of terror it would unleash on the world refused to say anything to protect people of the kingdom, hance he was tortured. But then similarly as with Griffith, God Hand appeared and offered him a way out by revealing the secrets of abyss to the King. So he forced everyone to carve a mark on their forehead, those were the taxes mentioned in story. Eclipse then consumed the entire kingdom thats why everything is covered in tentalces, which the King was okey with until he saw mark on his wife/daughter. Then the Sage revealed that if you want to ascend to ranks of God Hand you have to sacrifice everything precious to you. Which Sage already did by telling the King about the Abyss and dooming the entire population of the kingdom. King then realized what a catastrophe he started, he was fighting to stop the Eclipse started because of him. He obviously failed, but with help of elves and dwarfs he stopped Void's incarnation into the mortal realm by incarnationing his defiance of God into the armor. Thus creating Skull Knight.
I totally agree with this one, and I think reason why Void and SK cant fight it out to the end is maybe because SK became something like Void at that event, so he searches and waits for Guts, as he might be the one to end it with God Hand, being that Guts wasn't the one that sacrificed something to become a god, like Griffith ,SK or Void
One thing to say about the girl not being a sacrifice to Void's transformation. Just because we see Void as a member of the God Hand doesn't mean that she can't be a sacrifice to him. I mean, Griffith turned into Femto, but both Guts and Casca are still branded. It could still be possible that during this "eclipse" if it is one, that Gaiseric started hunting down and barreling towards the old god hand, but then turned his attention to this woman once he saw her in danger. He gets to her, but it's just too late and she's gone forever.
Elfish woman blackout begs the question of what happened right after SK died. Did the consumed armour destroy the elf? Could be an important hint with respect to armoured Guts and Casca's fear. Also the final SK quote is a nice literal callback to how SK could only materialize during the full moon night until a year before the eclipse. I think the Tower of Death, the astronomic tie to the moon, and the tie between the armour and the idea are the main missing pieces left to solving the mystery element of Berserk.
About the part with the lady with the brand, it still could be voids 'ascension' still and that she stayed alive long enough to witness it, much like guts and casca, i can imagine SK going absolutely ham on demons to get to her/protect her, and they were both still alive when his transformation was complete. However i feel like a massive curveball could be that SK accidently killed her while trying to protect her in the armour because as you said, the only thing he could focus on was the godhand.
Am I the only guy who thought the scene where SK was holding someone was actually Guts holding Griffith? For a moment it looked like that, couldn't have been unintentional.
One thing to remember: The skull knight told Guts multiple times: "You have to choose to either fight or protect her", and he was referring to the incarnation of Griffith where he had to either protect Casca or fight. With help of his friends he did both. If that memory was Void's incarnation ceremony, and skull knight chose to "fight", it's how his woman died, it's why he kept warning Guts. Dunno makes sense to me.
Maybe SK godhand were members of his inner council? Generals he considered friends? Whom he trusted above all else. And they betrayed him (that would fit with the, you have to betray someone you love) and then sacrificed his WHOLE kingdom to become godhand members... Or, it was jst void, instead of the rest.
With how similar that scene of the godhand with Void in front is to how Femto’s ascension pose was I think that scene is Void undergoing his own ascension.
It seems the skull knight is pursuing the endless darkness, meaning Evil or that entity that is behind the God hand which perpetuates never endless evil. Furthermore, it might be that the skull night was going to be initiated by the God hand but changed his mind last minute 🤷🏻
Something I've been thinking about is whether or not Gaiseric was a sacrifice, or he was the one making the sacrifice. Gaiseric may be paralleling more than just Guts, but possibly Griffith as well, as there seems to be a lot of overlooked subtext when it comes to Gaiseric's kingdom and Falconia. Why would his beloved be branded if he was not the one making the sacrifice? Why would he consider himself a foolish king if the fall of his kingdom was not a result of his own actions? If the godhand can bestow power, can they also revoke it? An idea I've been entertaining is that Gaiseric was already an incarnated godhand member when he set out to build his kingdom, much as how it has been going with Griffith. That once the kingdom reaches its apex: the godhand will return to prize that kingdom from the one they permitted to build it. Might that not be enough to turn a member of the godhand against the others? That everything they had bled and sacrificed for had been destined to be consumed by the void from the moment they took their first step. I think that skull knight cautioning Guts that his quest for revenge may not turn out to be what he wants foreshadows Guts needing to rely on Griffith again in the future if what he wants is to see the cycle broken. If skull knight was able to swoop in and save Guts and Casca from the eclipse: he surely could have prevented it in the first place by preventing Griffith from killing himself. I think skull knight knows what will happen to Falconia, and that he alone wasn't enough to break the godhand.
Happy to see you back man! you might wanna start a Patreon so we can show more appreciation towards your work and passion in these exceptional breakdowns.
This makes his attempt at cutting down Void even more powerful when he arrived to save Guts and Casca. He never forgot. Also, there is definitely something to the fact that the previous God Hand look less humanlike than the ones we currently know...
Ugh this was so good and mirrors tons of my own thoughts. I spent 4 hours talking with other berk bros about this chapter when it came out, sooooo much to unpack in such a short chapter it's amazing. I'm sure you'll get a thousand theories in the comments so I'll spare you mine cuz you've probably heard em all by now haha thanks for making this you knocked it out of the park, it's far and away the best I've seen on this chapter👌
Ok, here are some ideas. So, that guy Gaiseric comes out of nowhere, gets a powerful army, smashes his enemies and builds a big kingdom. The Skull Knight's memories show us an image of a ceremony, where a member of a Godhand manifests in the real world. Ya know who's got a pawerful army out of nowhere, shashes his enemies and builds a big kingdom, after he gets born in the real world? The member of the Godhand - the Femto/ the Griffith 2.0 (the).
I am baffled at how attention much you've payed to every single panel... I didn't knew those details even existed before you mentioned them... Great work sir!!
Hey, I was thinking what we are seeing could be an eclipse, an incarnation or a third large sacrifice. The third sacrifice being the start of a new 'spiral' ''the end' I.e: Griffith/Void- are imprisoned/tortured-- then Incarnate by sacrificing the people in the tower and descend to Earth as an angel--Then have a third and final sacrifice (once gathering all the people like what Griffith is doing) to start humanity over again and return to the God hand to ensure the same thing happens in 1080 years or whatever.
I feel kinda bad as I got the first volume of Berserk as a gift for my birthday over the summer, and finally caught up to the manga tonight. To have THIS chapter be the one I finished on just feels so mean to those who have waited decades for lore like this. Guess I'm still waiting like the rest of yall, though.
I think you're right about it not being an eclipse because of how the panel is laid out, it's tilted which, in composition terms, implies that something isn't "right" about the image.
Part of the reason i think the scenery looks so different and evokes so much of the astral plane is that Gaiserics capital got burried not just underground but deep in the astral plane too, as it reemerged alongside the World Tree when Griffith reunited the planes of reality. Maybe in order to contain the mass hysteria from the event they sealed away the capital somehow and that's why SK has no magical support to go along with the Berserker Armour, and if you go by the logic that the whole kingdom was sacrificed that would explain why only the capital was affected instead of the sacrifice wiping out the whole continent of midland, as that's the size of Gaiseric's empire
I actually think that the difference between the panels with Schierke holding onto the ears of the helmet and not are from different perspectives. She is holding onto the ears from the perspective of the physical realm in the immediate moment. However, we're given a visual from Guts' perspective as he's feeling her od with her touch pulling him back from the blood memory. Guts is lost within the Berserker armor until Schierke can bring him back, so the way she's drawn in astral form is Miura showing us how Guts' feels when he's reconnected and brought back to the physical realm.
Also the abstract Godhand member that is your favorite, his face isnt a whatchamacallit, its actually a mouth turned sideways. So that's how it communicates, just spun around 90 degrees
I think one thing to keep in mind is that Gaiseric might not have had the Berserker armor when he was king. Assuming this, it could be that Gaiseric and the woman from the vision survived their respective Eclipse like Guts and Casca. Then afterwards he gained the Berserker armor, and during an incarnation ceremony the woman died. Sometime between their Eclipse and the incarnation ceremony he might have gotten the armor.
A moment of silence to all the strugglers who didn't make it to this chapter
F
yoo real talk :(
F
F
F
Really just continues the parallels between SK and Guts. They're both going down in history as horrible men whilst their hated enemies get treated as saints.
I'll never consider griffith 9r any of the godhand as saints, guts and SK went down a dark path all for the sake of revenge, but what the godhand do is just barbaric
I think he meant saint because they treated the godhands like a savior or a god.
Well guts is known as the black swordsman and I'm sure some people just see him as the black demon or a monster.
Oh it ain't over yet my man. We'll see who's the monster and who's the hero by the end of this story...
But us people over the 4th wall know these 2 are the good guys
This chapter really REVITALISED the entire community
Seriously dude, the effect cannot be described by words
Huge reveals despite being a short chapter.
And Guts theme meme
This chapter made me reread Berserk for the 3rd time now :D
True.
The Skull Knight is such a sweetheart for rescuing Guts AND Casca. He didn't want the same thing to happen to them that happened to him
I don't think he did it because he was a good person or anything but just to further disrupt the flow of repeating time
@@blternative That's fair too
@@blternative Well Skull Knight does have humanity and I’m sure it was a damn good combination of the two.
@@mightdai7489 I think that’s one of the biggest take aways here. At the same time, it seems like he might have some newfound hope because of Guts’ sheer willpower when he goes against the flow.
%70 of the weeb comments l see in internet "this character is such BABY for doing THIS, that character is such a SWEETHEART for doing THAT❤" with caps locks. I dunno if its because anime community have lots of teenage girls but its interesting.
South Park's internet community is also like this "AWW KENNY IS SOOO CUTE❤❤❤"
Hey everyone. Apologies for the 7 month Hiatus. Combined with Lockdown, getting a new job, mental health struggles and just general life stuff I found it really difficult to actually make a video. I had around 2-3 scripts that I canned because I thought they weren't good enough for release. I'm feeling better now and want to make this a lot more frequent. I want to say how much I appreciate everyone sticking around. My videos still have a lot of engagement despite me being inactive and it amazes me the amount of support I've been getting. I may be a bit rusty after this long hiatus but hope you enjoy the video regardless!"
No problem man. We, Berserk fans, are used to waiting ;3
Hang in there!
Even if you don't upload ever again, you will always be the goat in my heart
Thank you for the great video. Glad to see you back.
Also Berserk = Struggle = Waiting is a linked cycle so take as much time as you need, when doing your scripts.
Hope you find better time for the rest of 2020 and find yourself rejuvenated in 2021.
Thank you for your videos
Wow. I just got that. Skull Knight's legacy is mirrored by his existence; an empty version of all his glory.
People remember him as a Demon King and a Mad Man. But not all his sacrifice and his humanity. Because he lost his battle with Void. Void then shaped the world and its history further destroying whatever Skull Knight had left.
Now, he's doomed to walk a long road of regret with nothing but his physical power. His armor carries nothing inside much like his legacy carries no more meaning.
God. Skull knight is just a revenant now.
i wouldnt jump to conclusions. Skull knight could've really been a bad person. we'll see how things unfolded for him
@@Cho0segoose The Skull Knight called the previous owner of the Berserk Armor a foolish king which means he was aware of the mistakes he's made or at the very least blames himself for failing to prevent certain events that lead to his demise. I doubt someone who clawed his way to the top would be a good person, he must've done tons of shady shit like assassinations to make it there. He even imprisoned a "wise sage" in the tower of conviction that was tortured daily.
@Deepak Singh even has elven aura
Well, history is written by winners, not losers
When I first read this chapter I just sat there for a solid 40min re-reading that scene
I was so shocked
Same here, i been waiting about almost ten years for this momento ♥️🖤😭
Same bro....same
i was literally sitting there with my mouth wide open 😮😮😮
so much emotion ran through my body 😂
we are getting so close to the end !
Yes! Exactly!
Also, I read some time ago fanfic (crossover) where autor figure out how to kill the God hand :) they did it using a pathway created by death of ganishka.
As Shireke said there's no way back from the abyss (where are the real bodies of them) and I'm sure as hell it will be used in some way.
Well, we must wait around 10 years for it xD but I'm curious how accurate what they did will be:)
You said the woman Skull Knight is holding can’t be related to Void becoming a god hand because she is still alive with the brand, but I thinks that’s exactly what it is. Remember Casca and guts are branded and yet Griffith became Femto without them being sacrificed. Also the backdrop of the landscape being one massive brand is the kingdom becoming THE sacrifice that made Void. So I believe this event is indeed the moment that created Void. You see Void is in the centre as the main Godhand, like Femto in his eclipse, perhaps another indication. It’s strongly indicated that Skull Knights demise was in line with Voids creation, just like Guts and Griffith becoming Femto.
This is what I thought as well. I just want to add that Judeau and Casca not being sure whether there were 4 or 5 angels lends further credence to this theory. It could be that 4 members of the God Hand arrived but after the ceremony there were 5 as Void had just joined them.
I think it's Slan.
Look at the hair.
It's Lust. I made another post about it in more detail but.... look.
@@BigMac8000 I don't think it's Slan because
1). She's been branded
2). She would have been dead for 200+ years before sacrificing something
Yet instead of a dark sun...
A hall of horrors it all was.
Daaaumm
I’m surprised you didn’t touch on how similar Skull Knights girl looks looks to Danann. She even has “elven” imagery all over her jewelry.
I actually did notice that on my first read but had a complete brain fart during the scripting process and forgot to mention it. Shes also got the same jewel on her forehead like Dannan. Puck said that SK had an elven aura to him when they first met so this connects the dots even more
Yeah, SK lover could be related to Danaan for all we know from the looks alone. But her ears is not long Danaan so maybe not elven race monarch?? her jewelry had fairy antenna lady instead & her upper head wasn't shown, including crescent moon symbol. maybe Fairy moon goddess Selene/Luna??
@@crozraven maybe similar to how apostles are “reincarnated” during the ceremony into their demonic form, maybe SK’s lover underwent a “good” type of ceremony, maybe something of ancient elven magic, and she was “reincarnated” into the form of Danann. Maybe SK found some magical ritual after this event and used it to try and bring his girl back to life?
@@Etticos. apostles didn't reincarnated, they were corrupted into a demonic beings. People who made an evil pact & called via behelits weren't dead, just in the moment of great desperation or maybe on the brink of death. Only god hand like Femto/Griffith is so far have a direct case of rebirth/reincarnation. So I doubt this is a similar case, more about being related to astral race with Danann (like elfs, fairies, dragons, trolls, etc)
She also looks like Griffith
ITS A MOUTH I REALISE THE ERROR OF MY WAYS LET ME BE A BIG DUMB IN PEACE
Plot Twist: Void is the main villain and consumed/killed the other godhand members over hundreds of years, explaining why Gaiseric has been unable to kill him after such a long time, and why Void is the only member still present from what seems to be the original godhand. After all his brain's big enough he probably has some sort of master plan tbh
I feel the same way.
Or he could potentially be the Wise Sage that was imprisoned, similar to how Griffith sacrificed the band of the hawk only leaving Casca and Guts, Void could have sacrificed the whole kingdom that Skullknight used to have, only difference here is that this time, Skullknight and his lady both died.
One thing I tend to think about is the fact that there is an abyss you cannot return from meaning that perhaps god hand members decide to/ are pulled into the abyss and they can only alter the flow of causality for so long until the are pulled by it themselves. Kinda like a singularity.
My theory is that Skull Knight aka Gaiseric's Kingdom was the eclipse's first sacrifice and he wore the Berserker armor after his lover died and allowed him to survive the eclipse.
Which is also why he saved Guts and Casca because he couldn't save his lover in the past and didn't want Guts to feel how he felt
What would've happened in the eclipse, for sure, guts would've died, there was no way around it until SK saved his and casca, but casca being raped by femto, could've meant he had plans for her in the long run, that moment could've also been meant to rub salt on guts wounds
+ Void was seemed to be the new leader of an era, just like Femto as the last member & the leader of Fantasia era.
+ SK is King Gaiseric is pretty much confirmed imo.
+ Now my there is a high possibility that the Holy See/White Falcon (pseudo christian) religion is very much Void's creation as he was the mysterious sage/prophet, sacrificing a whole kingdom to be godhand member.
+ SK lover that being branded/sacrificed is likely a princess/queen of elven or fairy or even an extinct race. That's my best guess. her jewelry also have crescent moon symbol, akin to the symbol of moon goddess Selene/Luna.
+ MAYBE, this SK memories depicted a PROTO GODHAND era, where the ultimate force/magic of evil yet being established clearly. It's when we finally get the births of behelits & apostles for the age of dwindling magics (gone into rigid system beliefs like white hawk religion).
Here is a possible comparison between god hands:
1. Void/Femto: themes about faith, religions, & messiah complex
2. grape-like female god hand/slan: themes about sexual desires, between fertility/motherhood & sadomasochism
3. O face lion/Ubik: themes about manipulation, deception, hungry for control??
4. Crystal Zeus- Ganishka/Conrad: Stoistic, wrath, natural disasters, plagues & diseases??
5. Mouth head & skeleton body: empty, braindead, undead, famine, desperation?? (also, kinda remind me the state of Griffith after being tortured for years/before his eclipse. No face, just dried mouth & broken body)
@Nikzedik Slan & SK interactions were far too distant to be called past lovers. Also Slan was very like a human in the past & SK called her the Whore Princess of Uterine Sea (likely alluded to the IRL mythos of whore of babylon)
@Nikzedik Also, SK lover was "branded" aka being sacrificed. A branded person can't be a god hand (& so far none).
The fact that, sk lover died aparently without fear tells me that sur may have sacrificed herself to allow gaiserick to become thé Undead skullknight. Unlike post people branded she doesn't appear to be injured. And she dies without being devoured. At here death, thé apearance of thé brand to me signifies the fulfilment of thé sacrifice. But if it IS Indeed a sacrifice, who sacrificed who? I dont think gaiseric sacrificed the girl. For more power.i think she may have given here life so SK would survive
@@monovengclan hmm ...that could be very interesting theory. A possible deal was made between SK lover & VOID of which one should be given the brand of sacrifice as she chose herself to save Gaiseric/SK, even though in the end he became a dead man stalking the endless night ...
@@crozraven i believe void may have mislead her into believing to would end both suffering. as we all know that void seem to understand causality to a point where he could predict the actions of sk would lead to SK crushing ganishka.thus allowing Femto to be reborn. It seem like all of them are being manipulated.
it all looks like a Ceremony for Void. remember, femto was transformed without guts and Casca being sacrificed
I think so too. Void is the 5th
Precisely
My theory is that these four God Hand members are the originals, and unlike the current reincarnates, may have always existed, like the Four Kings. My reasoning is that they lack the human/demon fusion designs of the current God Hand, they look too abstract. Also one of them looks an awful lot like the Venus of Willendorf, a goddess statue dating back to the stone age, which would imply that these entities have been around for most of human history. It also hints at why, despite weaving mans destiny, the God Hand began only 1000 years ago.
If i remember correctly, there IS a new God Hans Every 250 years.
@@monovengclan *every 216 years
That one God Hand also has a design that resembles Artemis of Ephesus
I have a similar theory, they lack human resemblance they could be possibly astral entities that chose the idea of evil and became godhand members since this happened a thousand years ago humanity was still young more innocent and i believe i may be wrong that Flora or Shierke mentioned long ago humanity and astral spirits lived in harmony and the elements were respected i think there a was also mention that the old kingdom or Gaseric joined the spiriutal and human live together something like that.
What if these 4 godband were the angels sent to destroy Gaiseric's Kingdom
I Love how skull knight and Guts are humans that Just refuse to surrender on a fight that they can(not) win (yet?)
Skull knight is so badass he's zodds nemesis.
@@Ropewatch Skull Knight is so badass he doesn't even acknowledge Zodd as his nemesis
This manga is an experience. A moment of silence for those who’ve lost their lives before this chapter came out 😔
Edit:
Rest In Peace kentaro Miura, you absolute legend. Your works will continue to inspire artists & storytellers alike..!
And with how slow Miura writes many more aren't gonna live to see the end of berserk
@@mightdai7489 we might dai before it's finished 😔
(Miura is an elf and an immortal)
@@rasmusjohnson748 he isn’t slow the quality just takes time
@@nammar6435 so does playing hours of idol master every day
Rip miura
You know it's a good chapter when Spired returns!
Forget my rakshas point. I forgot that Rakshas mask is just that.. a mask. It gets replaced when Silat breaks it so that's a moot point.
Something to take note of is the amount of angels that came down that erased SK's kingdom in a single night. One said 5 angels, but another corrected and said 4 angels. This was likely Void's ascend to Godhood.
The brand is on the foreheads of all the skulls in the tower of conviction, which is strange... unless it was possibly another artificial ritual like the previous arc. Maybe the previous Godhands were incarnated one at a time then replaced
To be honest I pretty notice that when we see the ceremonial from skull nights past, it said 5 angels came and smite the city.
If we go back when guts went to save casca the same thing happened, the big brand of sacrifice looming the night and the "5 Angels" appear. I forgot the guy with the square head and his followers but I just want to point that out how its almost similar.
A fallen city, the brand of sacrifice appears as a standing point, the 5 angel's appear as the 5th member of the God hand is reborn
@@BanishedSilentShadow3318
I agree. Also note:
The skull knight told Guts multiple times: "You have to choose to either fight or protect her", and he was referring to the incarnation of Griffith where he had to either protect Casca or fight. With help of his friends he did both. If that memory was Void's incarnation ceremony, and skull knight chose to "fight", it's how his woman died, it's why he kept warning Guts.
People are not pointing that out, but it's a pretty clear correlation, on top of the giant mark, and the same location/angel numbers. I have no idea why people insist that's an eclipse... literally nothing points out to it being an eclipse??
@@sebaba001 one more important thing is the lack of an actual you know.. Eclipse
@@arawn1061
Right? What eclipse there's none in that flashback.
Want to respectfully disagree. The scene is absolutely an eclipse sacrifice.
Agree
Agreed! Its an eclipse for sure...
Yeah same
nah
I agree as there doesn't seem to be any other direct method of accessing the God Hand's domain
This is clearly Void's Eclipse. The beings he is standing next to are probably Godhand as well, but the difference here might be that they were never human before, unlike Void (theory: Void being the first human to undergo the ceremony). Their absence from the rest of the story makes it clear that they were replaced somehow. Either Skull Knight actually succeeded in killing four Godhand members (badass), Void replaces them, or something else entirely. The monsters here don't seem to be Human Apostles, but merely monsters of the astral world (similar to the Sea God, for example). Both Gaiseric and the High Priestess die here in this memory, and it is heavily implied that Flora is the one who brought them back. Flora placed Gaiseric's soul (or something similar) into the Skull Knight armor created by Hanarr. How she brought the High Priestess back is unclear, but it seems like some sort of reincarnation where the High Priestess became the Flower Storm Monarch Danann. Both are no longer human, being only remnants of their former selves. This forbidden act would have resulted in her banishment from Elfhelm, which is why she resided in the tree that Guts met her in.
I can't really say much for the priestess, we know very little of her as she was just in a flashback, it's possible danaan is related to SK and his lover though
About the "vagina" apostle. Before you mentioned it i thought it was a sideway mouth more than a vagina. Like, he communicated that way, with a sideway mouth speaking by itself. It's more creepy and makes more sense than a random female organ placed on its face :)
it definitely is, you can see its teeth if you look closely
aren’t vaginas sometimes described as sideways mouths?
@@1231crazymonkey yeah, Malcolm.
@@1231crazymonkey and whit teeth according to some Aztecs mythos
As the dude who created hedora said, vaginas are scary
Historically, Gaiseric was a Vandal king who sacked Rome at it's end and the term to vandalize became a bad thing, as destroying something. I like how at the end he said that Gaiseric was remembered as a bad king, which in reality he really was a cruel one
I mean was the real Gaiseric really a cruel king? Homeboy led his people from Poland to north Africa and created a homeland for his people. Not to mention his actions seem to have inflicted the most damage on the late roman empire out of any barbarian group
"The year is 1995, I had not yet been born into this world"
....
Came for Berserk, left feeling mad old...
I think this memory is from the king's final battle with the Godhand. The end of his journey. He killed 4 of them but lost his humanity in return.
He may have also accidentally killed his lover in his rage
Not possible, imo. When we see him slashing those creatures in half, his vision was already heavily obscured by blood. The godhand were still very far away from him, only their tiny silhouettes visible. In the bloodied and battered state he was in at that distance, I imagine he would barely reach them let alone kill any of them... But to kill 4 of them?? There's no way, not with the powers we've seen from godhand so far. Even if the 4 godhand had no offensive abilities and were easy kills, void wouldn't just stand there and watch while SK killed them all.
We know void and SK are somewhat relative in power, or at least we know SK isn't 10x stronger or anything like that. If SK vs Void is already a struggle, how is SK going to fight 5 godhand simultaneously and successfully kill 4 of them?
Imo there's no possible way he killed them here
@Heyjose I think its different, I think that it is the descent of an "angel", paricularly Slan. Slan and SK's lover look so much alike.
@@whirlwind872 quite so, though perhaps he had unexpected help
@The Spell Alchemist I'd bet skull knight or something else destroyed them with tremendous assistance from possibly witches, say all of elfhelm and flora like mages. I say this, because of an ordinary cycle of replacement occurred, there would be five God hand at any given time, moving in and out every 216 years. The count only summoned four minus femto. Femto was created with only four as the last to a set. There are however already five in the past. Maybe the 216 cycle is only to replace the old members and won't happen anymore.
8:13 it only has a mouth, though it is sideways.
Good shout, didn't think of it like that
Shit you're right. You can see human teeth if you look closer
He looks like the Moon Presence from Bloodborne (Did
From Software foreseen it ?)
@@krajicsek13 How can From Software foreseen it? First it was Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Demon's Souls copying Berserk off. Even the name Dark Souls was copied and slapped into the game which was a from Black Swordsman Chapter 2 i believe (With the count dying and not sacrificing his daughter).
While both the Sea God chapter and Dark Souls came the same year, Sea God was up in April and Dark Souls released in September. And there is a BIG similarity to Sea God and Blighttown with those slugs and the place they were crawling in. The thing is, however, Demon's Souls also had a Swampy area with Slugs. So it might be Miura copying Soulsborne a bit, too.
@@IgnemAeternum
Dark souls didn’t copy berserk
What really interests me is the fact that the godhand's ranks have changed over time. What happened to the old godhand that we see in this chapter? Were they somehow killed? Did they simply choose to be reincarnated in new forms? Considering that before Femto was initiated there were only 4, does this indicate that that the godhand can/have been defeated, at least partially?
Also, I think it's worth talking about the similarities that each godhand member shares with gods of various pantheons. While the current godhand members mimic Christian-esque sins/disasters mimicking the Christian-esque following of humanity in the story at this point (Conrad = plague, Slan = adultery/sadomasochism, Ubik = greed, Femto = pride/idolatry), the old godhand share similarities with seemingly Greco-Roman pantheons, which based off of the Hellenic art seen on Gaiseric and his lover, might reflect the beliefs of that age as well. We can immediately recognize the Zeus/Poseidon and the archaic Venus figure, while perhaps the remaining two godhands are linked to Erebus/Nyx (gods born directly from chaos, representing darkness and night, which is thematically similar to the design of the 4th old godhand) and Dionysus (notice how the 2nd old godhand's face is much larger than the rest of his body and his expression is very exaggerated - just like a Greek comedy mask, which relates this godhand to Dionysus who was a god of theater, but also according to Wikipedia "The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorized as a dying-and-rising god" which totally makes sense for a godhand member). What's interesting is the duality of each member/god pair - the Christian sins/disasters are related to indulgence and the wrath it brings, while the Greco-Roman figures represent gods who are known to have vicious uncontrollable tempers despite being protectors. This would also explain how the godhand always accrue followings of apostles, because they tempt humanity with protection, yet the godhand themselves embody the dual nature of these sinful themes of plague, adultery, greed, pride, idolatry, vengeance, lust, sloth, and reckless abandon.
Perhaps returning to the first paragraph, could the ties between human belief/faith and the godhand indicate a weakness of the godhand? That they are formed out of the need for human faith for higher beings, but once humanity changes beliefs (Greek to Christianity) the godhand can no longer exist as nobody believes in them/their values anymore?
That is an amazing connection to make.
I'm gonna cry, my favorite UA-camr
The jokes in this video were lackluster, but it's okay Spired, you will get points for effort.
Wouldn't be a spired video without some bad jokes!
@@spired8890 I've got a joke, what did my friend lie to me about to make me sad?
@@natesavage3576 I don't know. What did the friend lie about?
@@spired8890 He lied that you made a video and I cried, then I punched my friend because your uploads aren't something to joke about.
@@natesavage3576 that was cringe and bad and you should be ashamed of yourself
Yes He’s back!
Okay I know that this video came out a year ago and I don't know if someone will read but here's my theory.
Skull Knight might indeed be King Gaiseric and the Druid he emprisoned is indeed Void. Skull knight used to be thirsty with power just like Griffith and built the very first Kindom which we later see Griffith saying 'Let's build a second'
Skull Knight past life might have been a mix between Griffith and Guts.
And the druid sensed bad in Skull Knight and most likely knew dark magic and is the one responsible for sending the 4 angels which I believe are 4 god hand members with void becoming the 5th.
During the destruction of Gaiseric (SK) kingdom he probably cared more about seeing his lover dying than seeing his Kingdom being destroyed so he wore the Berserker armor and it was said Gaiseric was a powerful warrior so I can imagine with the Berserker armor he was even more powerful than he already was and fought his way out of the eclipse. Because or else I don't see how he would've survived the eclipse.
Just my theory tho, Skull Knight is trying to redeem himself because of the mistakes he did in his past life because he did many bad things and was punished for it
one thing i find interesting is that the sacrifice must be important to the person doing the sacrifice. the brand on the woman is clearly one from a apostle or a more important ceremoney (ie not the one we see if it is a reincarnation ceremony), which means this woman might not have just been branded. so it begs the question, who was this woman actually important to?
this is actually the only video about this chapter that wasnt producte in high speed to be the first one reporting about it with spoilers in title etc to gain as many views as possible
this is just amazing to watch
As i mentioned somewhere on this thread, the other( you onow which ones) are not the greatest of critics
Nietzsche's philosophy has been very influential in Berserk and I think we are now seeing the Eternal Return (which actually is much older than Nietzsche).
Looks to me as if the world of Berserk is caught in a Ouroboros spiral, a gnostic world.
Berserk is evolving to become more influenced by Jung IMO. I believe the Nietzsche influence is fading or possibly a red herring
@@NobleBruv definitely, strong Jungian themes are getting prevalent. Indeed Jung was himself heavily influenced by the gnostics and Nietzsche. We are probably seeing Miura's own worldview develop in the years.
@@NobleBruv there's a UA-cam channel called Mercurial Man which goes quite deep in the Jungian reading of Berserk
@@HeloIV The way I've personally seen it, Guts character resemblance of Nietzsche started after the Eclipse, plateaued during the conviction arc, and ended the moment the berserker armor was put on. The Jungian plateau I think is a matter of whether or not Guts can conquer and tame his inner demon as a force for good.
very very gnostic on the shell and lovecraftian yet there is still an undertone of good like the elementals and good spirits Flora was all about even the Elves being benevolent in nature even the dark ones. Berserk seems to be a mix of many things.
I think you definitely made the most interesting video discussion about the new chapter in UA-cam atm. I have to say I am amazed at how many fine details you manage to remember from previous chapters. And I would love to hear more of your theories.
Cheers.
That's why he's the best🙏
Yeah, the others are... lacking.
@@kostajovanovic3711 agreed. I would even say that lacking is an understatement.
What if Skull Knights memory is Void’s induction into the godhand, like with Griffith? What if they had a parallel, with void being one of Skull Knights closest allies, and then sacrificing everything for his ambition. It would explain the brand of sacrifice on the womans arm in the memory, and why Skull Knight went berserk in the past. Skull Knight could be the Guts that never came out of black swordsman mode, it would explain his eternal hate for the godhand with him being “one who opposes the five angels”
One thing I noticed is that the "female" Godhand has fins/tentacles around her neck exactly like the ones Ubik has.
The left most Godhand is probably a giant like Grunbeld, the one next to him doesn't look like the horse's armor motif to me but looks like an ancient fish/dinosaur thing, the "female" Godhand is most likely based on the Artemis of Ephesus and is a "goddess" of fertility
I also think that Gaiseric's "queen" looks a lot like an elf, maybe like Danann
Good use of ico sound track. Collapse is one of my favorite songs from it, recognized it immediately.
Feels sort of simple, it mirror's Guts'/Casca's Story but isn't anything we've seen, it showcases where Guts will inevitably find himself next time he sees all 5 God Hand. King Gaiseric's kingdom was destroyed by the 4 god hand in an eclipse ceremony where the sage(void?) became the fifth member. Both Gaiseric and his beloved managed to escape the sacrifice with brands after-which SK commissioned Hanarr to make him a suit of enchanted plate armour so that he could challenge the god hand/void. While combatting them in the midst of some kind of ceremony he loses the woman he loved and falls into his final rage where the armour takes over. This sequence is sometime after the eclipse that caused Gaiseric to rampage and I imagine it's related to the death of the four unknown god hand members, perhaps at the hand of a fully lost berserking SK. I can't imagine SK used an armour that could kill him until after his kingdom was already gone, in some ways it is a behelit, where you must sacrifice in order to acquire extreme power, you'd only use it out of desperation.
I am so stoked to finally get some back story for skull night but... I need more lol
This chapter while short was so good. Really brought back the hype for this manga.
I just saw this comment on a group page I was in.
"Guts can only see the woman clearly is due to his right eye's blind spot"
I think the reason SK attacked Void at the Eclipse Guts went through, is that the Void is the reason behind all, he could be the right hand of The Idea of Evil, it is possible that SK managed to defeat all previous God Hand members, but not Void, he could be the reason There is a new God Hand with Femto as a member.
About possible connection between the Tower of Albion and 1000 yers old events - Conviction happened right after Eclipse, Fifth Angel of the Hand of God was first chosen and then incarnated into flesh. So, it is possible that old Eclipse happened and Void became the Fifth Angel, then old Conviction-esque events happened and Void gained flesh. Thus the cicle of the God Hand would be: becoming of First, Second, Third and Fourth Angels, Eclipse of Fifth Angel, followed by Conviction-esque events of Fifth Angel and then some unknown yet events that would surround Falconia, after which either Fifth becomes the First with other four dying then new ones becoming in their stead, or Fifth returns to Astral World and Angels getting replaced one by one.
Although Conviction itself may be something that only Girffith experienced, some completely new, non-cylclical event that would change the world as it is. After all, even with mankinds' forgetfullness and possible Idea's of Evil manipulations it is hard to believe that something like merging of Physical and Astral Worlds would not leave an immense and unforgettable mark on remembered history. After all, such merging have alreadyt led to fall of existing civilization due to scores of supernatural events.
11:25 During the Eclipse Femto manifested without Caska being killed yet. Remember that the brand alone is evidence of being a sacrifice, they don't necessarily need to die, as they're forever marked for the dead. So this unnamed woman still being alive after Void has manifested doesn't rule out this event as a Void-creation event. It'd just make it an even stronger parallel to Gut's experience.
Although I think it's strange that Gaiseric would have berserker armor as early as his first eclipse event though, so I do think there's still big questions left as to the timeline of this. I'd argue maybe it's Gaiseric finally at the 'end boss fight' of his revenge story, facing the Void and the God Hand in the deepest levels upon the Abyss. However that'd make the brands and woman weird inclusions. Perhaps he had to offer her as a sacrifice to obtain the opportunity of this fight? I think I remember dark spirits suggesting Guts use Caska for that purpose before too. Prehaps in an ironic twist of fate, he killed her himself his berserker rage. Completing the sacrifice ceremony and cementing his fate as some form of apostle-like immortal.
It's an honour for me to live at the time when I can see by my own eyes new chapter and already one of the best in the whole Berserk series. And I'm sure it will remain so by the end of this millenium story.
Miura's bonfire is still flaming.
3 chapters in one year and it gave us a damn endless buffet of stuff to sift through.
Also, I think the Incarnation ceremony and the Eclipse was for King himself.
My theory is that he found out about the "power of abyss" from his sage and wanted it for himself.
Sage knowing what kind of terror it would unleash on the world refused to say anything to protect people of the kingdom, hance he was tortured. But then similarly as with Griffith, God Hand appeared and offered him a way out by revealing the secrets of abyss to the King.
So he forced everyone to carve a mark on their forehead, those were the taxes mentioned in story. Eclipse then consumed the entire kingdom thats why everything is covered in tentalces, which the King was okey with until he saw mark on his wife/daughter.
Then the Sage revealed that if you want to ascend to ranks of God Hand you have to sacrifice everything precious to you. Which Sage already did by telling the King about the Abyss and dooming the entire population of the kingdom.
King then realized what a catastrophe he started, he was fighting to stop the Eclipse started because of him. He obviously failed, but with help of elves and dwarfs he stopped Void's incarnation into the mortal realm by incarnationing his defiance of God into the armor.
Thus creating Skull Knight.
I totally agree with this one, and I think reason why Void and SK cant fight it out to the end is maybe because SK became something like Void at that event, so he searches and waits for Guts, as he might be the one to end it with God Hand, being that Guts wasn't the one that sacrificed something to become a god, like Griffith ,SK or Void
This theory answers why the sage was imprisoned in the first place and why SK said it was the end of *foolish* king.
One thing to say about the girl not being a sacrifice to Void's transformation. Just because we see Void as a member of the God Hand doesn't mean that she can't be a sacrifice to him. I mean, Griffith turned into Femto, but both Guts and Casca are still branded. It could still be possible that during this "eclipse" if it is one, that Gaiseric started hunting down and barreling towards the old god hand, but then turned his attention to this woman once he saw her in danger. He gets to her, but it's just too late and she's gone forever.
I love the fact that this was a chapter with so much info but barely any words.
Elfish woman blackout begs the question of what happened right after SK died. Did the consumed armour destroy the elf? Could be an important hint with respect to armoured Guts and Casca's fear.
Also the final SK quote is a nice literal callback to how SK could only materialize during the full moon night until a year before the eclipse. I think the Tower of Death, the astronomic tie to the moon, and the tie between the armour and the idea are the main missing pieces left to solving the mystery element of Berserk.
its finallly confirmed skull knight is our lord and savior
About the part with the lady with the brand, it still could be voids 'ascension' still and that she stayed alive long enough to witness it, much like guts and casca, i can imagine SK going absolutely ham on demons to get to her/protect her, and they were both still alive when his transformation was complete. However i feel like a massive curveball could be that SK accidently killed her while trying to protect her in the armour because as you said, the only thing he could focus on was the godhand.
Quality over quanity huh.. wish you uploaded more :(
Am I the only guy who thought the scene where SK was holding someone was actually Guts holding Griffith? For a moment it looked like that, couldn't have been unintentional.
Your analysis of the chapters are some
Of the best on UA-cam. Would love to see your analysis of the final chapter.
Just found your channel, and i am amased by the quality of the review and the attention to detail. You just got a new sub!
One thing to remember:
The skull knight told Guts multiple times: "You have to choose to either fight or protect her", and he was referring to the incarnation of Griffith where he had to either protect Casca or fight. With help of his friends he did both. If that memory was Void's incarnation ceremony, and skull knight chose to "fight", it's how his woman died, it's why he kept warning Guts. Dunno makes sense to me.
Thank you for the chapter commentary
, made my day.
1:31 OGs know what Guts said, it was an F word, but it sure as heck wasn't freaks
You put so much work into this it literally breaks me
Maybe SK godhand were members of his inner council? Generals he considered friends? Whom he trusted above all else. And they betrayed him (that would fit with the, you have to betray someone you love) and then sacrificed his WHOLE kingdom to become godhand members...
Or, it was jst void, instead of the rest.
With how similar that scene of the godhand with Void in front is to how Femto’s ascension pose was I think that scene is Void undergoing his own ascension.
It seems the skull knight is pursuing the endless darkness, meaning Evil or that entity that is behind the God hand which perpetuates never endless evil.
Furthermore, it might be that the skull night was going to be initiated by the God hand but changed his mind last minute 🤷🏻
Best berserk channel that uploads frequently
In retrospect i have to go with Void = the Sage and what Guts sees in Ch 361 being the eclipse right after Void had become the 5th "angel"
Something I've been thinking about is whether or not Gaiseric was a sacrifice, or he was the one making the sacrifice.
Gaiseric may be paralleling more than just Guts, but possibly Griffith as well, as there seems to be a lot of overlooked subtext when it comes to Gaiseric's kingdom and Falconia.
Why would his beloved be branded if he was not the one making the sacrifice?
Why would he consider himself a foolish king if the fall of his kingdom was not a result of his own actions?
If the godhand can bestow power, can they also revoke it?
An idea I've been entertaining is that Gaiseric was already an incarnated godhand member when he set out to build his kingdom, much as how it has been going with Griffith. That once the kingdom reaches its apex: the godhand will return to prize that kingdom from the one they permitted to build it. Might that not be enough to turn a member of the godhand against the others? That everything they had bled and sacrificed for had been destined to be consumed by the void from the moment they took their first step.
I think that skull knight cautioning Guts that his quest for revenge may not turn out to be what he wants foreshadows Guts needing to rely on Griffith again in the future if what he wants is to see the cycle broken. If skull knight was able to swoop in and save Guts and Casca from the eclipse: he surely could have prevented it in the first place by preventing Griffith from killing himself. I think skull knight knows what will happen to Falconia, and that he alone wasn't enough to break the godhand.
Now that's how you do a (Berserk)chapter analysis. Great video!
I'm glad that I wasn't the only one making the link between the the first GH mentioned and Geiseric's armor.
Happy to see you back man! you might wanna start a Patreon so we can show more appreciation towards your work and passion in these exceptional breakdowns.
great review bro your channel is underrated
You also forgot to mention that skull knight 1V5 the god hand and killed four of them like a gigchad🔥🔥
8:03 this one give me a very strong nyarlathotep vibes
This makes his attempt at cutting down Void even more powerful when he arrived to save Guts and Casca. He never forgot. Also, there is definitely something to the fact that the previous God Hand look less humanlike than the ones we currently know...
*its been 84 years* just kidding! Glad to see you back pal. Great content like you never missed a beat. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Best analysis on yt so far. Congratulation
Great video once again. Spired! Please don't go back to hiatus again.
Welcome back man! So excited to watch this
Ugh this was so good and mirrors tons of my own thoughts. I spent 4 hours talking with other berk bros about this chapter when it came out, sooooo much to unpack in such a short chapter it's amazing. I'm sure you'll get a thousand theories in the comments so I'll spare you mine cuz you've probably heard em all by now haha thanks for making this you knocked it out of the park, it's far and away the best I've seen on this chapter👌
Ok, here are some ideas.
So, that guy Gaiseric comes out of nowhere, gets a powerful army, smashes his enemies and builds a big kingdom.
The Skull Knight's memories show us an image of a ceremony, where a member of a Godhand manifests in the real world.
Ya know who's got a pawerful army out of nowhere, shashes his enemies and builds a big kingdom, after he gets born in the real world?
The member of the Godhand - the Femto/ the Griffith 2.0 (the).
Such a bomb shell, didn't even know a new chapter would be coming out until RealLifeRyan mentioned it was out in a UA-cam post
An here we are 27 years later... missing kentaro miura forever...
I can't help but think that the visuals of the tendrils and the woman SK is holding are somehow related to Slaan
So happy to see you again!
I am baffled at how attention much you've payed to every single panel...
I didn't knew those details even existed before you mentioned them...
Great work sir!!
Hey, I was thinking what we are seeing could be an eclipse, an incarnation or a third large sacrifice. The third sacrifice being the start of a new 'spiral' ''the end' I.e: Griffith/Void- are imprisoned/tortured-- then Incarnate by sacrificing the people in the tower and descend to Earth as an angel--Then have a third and final sacrifice (once gathering all the people like what Griffith is doing) to start humanity over again and return to the God hand to ensure the same thing happens in 1080 years or whatever.
pause at 6:43.... I say from left the new version of godhand represents entities from Greece, China, South America and India.
I feel kinda bad as I got the first volume of Berserk as a gift for my birthday over the summer, and finally caught up to the manga tonight.
To have THIS chapter be the one I finished on just feels so mean to those who have waited decades for lore like this.
Guess I'm still waiting like the rest of yall, though.
ur videos r excellent. truly some of the best analysis on yt 🔥
It's interesting...it's like, Void was the Femto in this memory...the new member among the ancient evil...
I think you're right about it not being an eclipse because of how the panel is laid out, it's tilted which, in composition terms, implies that something isn't "right" about the image.
8:02 it's a snatch-faced, I don't mind reaching for low hanging fruit. Oh and it must communicate via queefs and gurgles
03:36 that's how skull Knight defeated 4 god hand but failed defeat Void
Part of the reason i think the scenery looks so different and evokes so much of the astral plane is that Gaiserics capital got burried not just underground but deep in the astral plane too, as it reemerged alongside the World Tree when Griffith reunited the planes of reality.
Maybe in order to contain the mass hysteria from the event they sealed away the capital somehow and that's why SK has no magical support to go along with the Berserker Armour, and if you go by the logic that the whole kingdom was sacrificed that would explain why only the capital was affected instead of the sacrifice wiping out the whole continent of midland, as that's the size of Gaiseric's empire
I actually think that the difference between the panels with Schierke holding onto the ears of the helmet and not are from different perspectives. She is holding onto the ears from the perspective of the physical realm in the immediate moment. However, we're given a visual from Guts' perspective as he's feeling her od with her touch pulling him back from the blood memory. Guts is lost within the Berserker armor until Schierke can bring him back, so the way she's drawn in astral form is Miura showing us how Guts' feels when he's reconnected and brought back to the physical realm.
My thoughts exactly
The artwork is insane!!! 🤩
Thank you for this new video.
I really hope Wits studio adapts the rest of Berserk.
Such a good read down of this magna chapter ty so much :)
Also the abstract Godhand member that is your favorite, his face isnt a whatchamacallit, its actually a mouth turned sideways. So that's how it communicates, just spun around 90 degrees
I think one thing to keep in mind is that Gaiseric might not have had the Berserker armor when he was king. Assuming this, it could be that Gaiseric and the woman from the vision survived their respective Eclipse like Guts and Casca. Then afterwards he gained the Berserker armor, and during an incarnation ceremony the woman died. Sometime between their Eclipse and the incarnation ceremony he might have gotten the armor.
Struck down by 4 angels. The non-Void members of the original God Hand.