Original subtitles

Hello! This is our final Berserk Golden Age string of videos. This is not the

final Golden Age discussion, though. I'm going to be hosting a live stream on my

channel on the

19th on the 19th with Amber Elise, JD Legend, and BDA Law. Amber Elise and I

are both newbies to the series. We're both reading through it for the first

time, and we both just finished the Golden Age arc.

And Jay and Brago are veterans of the series and are actually rereading the

in preparation for this stream. So we'll have a discussion about...

Man, who knows? There's so much to cover.

Anyway, we'll talk about the final section of the arc, which I left off

30%. through volume 12. So we're covering the rest of volume 12 and then

first three chapters of volume 14.

So we pick back up in the chapter titled The Eclipse where Guts is desperately

rushing to Griffith to help him right after Griffith has picked up the

I think this is one of my top chapters in the entire arc. The artwork does so

much storytelling in this. Like when the eclipse begins and Guts looks up and

what I read as fear and shock that it's now.

And Griffith turns to the fate that's looming in on him. What will he do? We

have him looking up at the symbol of the time of ultimate decisions and then

looking back at Guts as darkness descends. Knowing what's to come, this

sequence gives me chills.

I know what they're coming for. I know what these creatures desire.

So to watch them marching in is sobering. And the whole time, Griffith

shouting at Guts.

It's such a tragic picture.

Griffith screaming out, stay away, over and over again.

But all he can get out is this nondescript yelling.

The panels of guts running are so powerful to me. He can see the monsters

Griffith, but he doesn't slow down.

He doesn't even pay them any mind. He just has to sprint as fast as he can to

help him.

The whole time, Griffith wants him to stay away.

He says, if you touch me now, if you put your hand on my shoulder now, I'll

never, I'll never, never again with you.

I think there are several different ways to interpret the scene.

Let me tell you the way I take it.

I think that Griffith is still battling with the two sides of him, his love

for Guts and his hatred for Guts, his affection for the

Band of the Hawk and his desire for his dreams.

If you touch me now, if you put your hand on my shoulder, I'll never, I'll

never, never again with you. I take this as him almost wanting the decision

taken from him. Don't come near me.

Don't come this way. Just leave me behind so that I don't have to make this

choice. Probably because he knows that ultimately he will choose it. He knows

what he desires more. He knows what he's going to pick, but he knows what it

will cost him to pick it. And at least while his humanity is still intact,

there's still a part of him that doesn't, that still wants the other

I'll further substantiate this later, but I think that up to the last moment,

Griffith still struggled with the two sides of him, the two pieces of him, the

love and devotion for the people that were his comrades, to Guts especially,

made him question his dream or question if the pursuit of the dream was really

worth losing everything for, and the dream that ultimately

overpowers all else. And then darkness descends. The worst kind of

darkness imaginable.

There's only one word that could describe the horrors they face here.

Despair. The artistic direction in the characters' movements adds so much

to these scenes. Like when Gus looks at the behelit and then back at Griffith,

who's reflecting it. And when the hand raises Griffith up, all the little looks

that Griffith gives him as the mountain grabs a hold of his arm, but it lets

guts fall.

Yet Griffith, I think, swings his arm down to two guts.

who clings to him. But when Guts sees he's harming Griffith by hanging on him,

he lets himself drop and he finds a different way up. He'll get there

He has to climb the mountain on his own, but he'll do anything to get him and

protect him. The visual of the hand supporting the god hand at the top,

in the palm as they try to convince him to make the sacrifice so that he can be

raised to the one remaining finger of the hand that is not yet occupied.

All the while, the eye is looking down on the ritual, the eye that Puck laid

for us exactly what it was. And on the palm of the hand, they begin pressing

Griffith on his dream.

They pull him back into a time when the dream was first born, or the fountain of

your past, as they put it. But this time, they take him a different route.

show him the path to the castle, into the darkness.

As he falls, he's covered in the bodies.

He's made dirty by them. It reminds me of back when he was in the river asking

if he was dirty as he tried to scrub off of him what he had done with the king.

Maybe on the outside, Griffith has been clean, but now that we're in his

innermost being, he's covered by the effects of what he's done.

Because the only road that leads to the castle requires trampling over the

people who have fallen for you. The little boy coming back into the scene

such a powerful choice.

I was sure that this death affected him more than he claimed it did way back in

the flashback when we first saw this.

And I think that the God Hand choosing to use him, use the little boy in this

conversation, proves that it did. Or maybe it proved, maybe they didn't

him. Maybe what it proves is that his inner consciousness, or whatever it is

that we're in right now, is showing that this death haunts him the most. And

therefore, he's the one that hangs around in his mind. Either way, the

conversation here where he asks to come along and Griffith tells him, I can't.

You're already dead.

And then we finally see the arrow through his heart.

Oh, it's terrible and so good. Then so many other soldiers come to

wanting to serve him, but he can't take them with him to his dream. They've

already been sacrificed for it in a different kind of way. When I interpret

Griffith's character, it's really important to me to...

cling to the glimpses of his humanity that we get. Because he's such a

mysterious antagonist, we don't get that much information.

We don't get that many looks into his head. And so it's really easy to see his

actions and judge him strictly on those.

But I think it's really important, at least for me, to cling to the glimpses

that we have of his compassion, his humanity, his guilt that he carries, or

least the effects.

of the choices that he's made, that he carries, because I think that him

choosing to fracture what's left of his humanity in the sacrifice is a big part

of the impact of what he's done. If I see him as nothing but a monster at this

point, then it lessens the effect of what's truly been done, which is

a man with a choice, with humanity left in him.

choosing the darkness.

And I think cheapening Griffith's character is a temptation for me because

hate him, but it would also cheapen Guts' character because he's one who

never make this kind of choice. He's one that faces, you know, the, the, the God

Hand talked about how, um, the, oh, the God, both the God Hand and, um, Skull

Face talked about how, uh, it's like, it's at your worst, it's at your most

vulnerable, it's when life has broken you to the point that you cling to

something else. What was it? Hold on, I bet I have a screenshot somewhere. No, I

gotta stop looking. Okay, whatever. They said something, they repeatedly, I've

seen it multiple times, said something along the lines of, you know, it's when

you're at your worst, it's when the struggle is the hardest, that you would

that you would make the sacrifice.

And we watch Guts go through everything.

You name it, he's experienced it. And he would never, like, he will not. I mean,

if the story goes that direction, I don't know what I'm going to do. His

from what I see here and what the text seems to be, you know.

asserting about him is that he is one that will struggle on, not one that will

surrender to the darkness and sacrifice others for his gain or for getting out

of the most desperate, impossible times of his life. As Skull Face

put it, keep on struggling. And you know what? Judo said it too.

It's been said multiple times. The theme or the motif of keep

on struggling um is one that guts embraces and that's a big

reason why the way i read it is that's a big reason why he's the antithesis of

what the god hand is offering anyway side rant over story. Okay, so the one

hand member, the one that's disguised as the old woman, forces Griffith to face

that while, yes, the soldiers choose to fight for him, he's still the one that

brought them here.

He can't separate himself from them. Now, I anchor this line, if you want to

all the way to the castle, you'll have to pile up many more corpses. Again, I

anchor it to the scene with the king where he sold himself for money so that

could get to where he wanted to go faster.

In that scene, Kafka told him, we can get there. We can just keep fighting. We

can keep building up our reservoirs, our money.

We can do it through the means, through the methods that we've been doing it.

And Griffith doesn't want that. He wants a shorter option, a quicker option. And

he'll fracture a piece of himself in order to take that shortcut.

In order to get there faster.

And so I anchor these together because what the god hand here is offering him

a means to get there faster.

Showing him that if he continues to pursue this dream as a mere mortal.

Not only will it take a lot more bodies, but it'll take a lot more time. And now

that his body is broken, that option doesn't even really seem accessible to

anymore. In that scene back then, he had to fracture himself in a very human way

in order to get where he wanted to go faster and easier.

And in this scene, he's having to fracture his humanity in a much more

way and even emphasize that the other route may be close to him by showing

his body you know is decomposing that he's he probably won't even make it the

other way so why ain't you trying our way let's just let's go this way and

more of the same type of manipulation that we saw used back on the count it's

too late now anyway what good would it be to turn back for the count it was

you've already fractured your humanity enough you've already started doing

sacrifices if you don't keep going then you're going to be damned might as well

just keep moving forward for griffith He hasn't made the first sacrifice yet, so

they appeal to his human logic, not appeal to the damnation necessarily.

What good is regretting it now? What can I say to the dead now?

What good is repenting for my sins now?

Okay, back to my interpretation of the scene when Guts was running to him.

This scene feels like a direct parallel to it.

Don't come here. If you touch my shoulder, I'll never, I'll never with

Here, he's saying, if I apologize, everything will come to an end. I'll

get to reach that place.

I read the two I'll never sentiments as the inner struggle that I've been

talking about. His desire for the relationship that he's only ever had

guts, that human camaraderie and place of belonging, and his dream.

Even as they push him to the fate that they want him to choose, they also tell

him that if he were to not make the sacrifice, his band would accept him

And I think that's true. I mean, I don't think that they're being forthright in

everything that they're saying, but I also think that there's a lot of truth

what they're saying too. I'll talk about this later when I get into lore, trying

to fit it all together in my head.

There will be a section of the video for that. But they do mention that they

need Griffith to make the choice. They need him to make that. They can't, they

can't, they can manipulate the situation, but they can't force the

has to be Griffith's own free will that he says the words, that he commits.

to this act and they also explain that they don't they don't know every single

detail like there are things that can catch them off guard i think that they

beholden to the laws of causality as much as the humans are i tend to think

if griffith because because because the reason now okay the apostles can harm

humans that have not been sacrificed we know that but they also hunt

specifically for

blood of those who have been sacrificed.

And my understanding is the eclipse is about this, what we're witnessing

happening right here and now.

I think that the God Hand are telling Griffith the truth here, that

if he were to not do what they're trying to get him to do, then certainly the

band would take him back. I mean, they would embrace him. Absolutely.

I have no doubts about that.

but also that is actually an option. They're not going to just then be fed to

the demons. Because this has to be a choice on Griffith's part, they can

manipulate, but it seems that they do have to present the choice at least

truthfully. Like, they have to present this is one option.

And this is the other. So I do still think, even though, even though, you

Griffith has gone through so much and currently his bodily state, he probably

can't still pursue his dream the way that he wants to.

You know, there's no complete recovery available to him.

But still, he does have the choice to not sacrifice

the people that he loves the most and also personally inflict the most harm he

possibly can on them. Much like the Count had the choice, it's not the

choice for him to, you know, be dragged into hell for the sake of his daughter's

life, but he still made the choice because he loved his daughter more.

Griffith, too, it's not the best choice for him to go on living the way that he

has been or the way that he is now, but it would be the better choice than

putting his friends through what they're about to go through, and personally

doing it to them himself.

I'm probably over speaking. Let me just keep it moving.

So while all this is going on, Guts is scaling the mountain to get to the one

that he wants to rescue, while the one that he wants to rescue considers

sacrificing him.

So desperately tragic.

Because even now, the castle calls to him more than anything else does.

Boyd entices him with wings.

He can soar higher than he ever could as a mortal in what he could attain and in

his body being restored and now enhanced.

How could he deny such an offer?

Again, the art direction just amplifies what's happening here. After he hears

all of this, Guts clears the summit and the slow turn as he looks back looks

Guts directly in the eyes.

considers the reality of what Guts means to him, of what Guts means to him, and

says, you are the only one who made me forget my dream. And then he makes a

sacrifice. It's horrible to watch Guts get shut outside of the hand, screaming

for Griffith. He's just climbed this mountain and the moment he gets to the

he's shut out. And now as his men are being torn to shreds, on Griffith's

command. And Kafka just looks on in horror and wonders, how could this

Griffith. It's Griffith. Griffith is how it could happen.

Gus fights for the man who's being reborn into darkness.

With tears in his eyes, he fights through the agony as he's taunted by the

hand. But he knows exactly what's been done. But just like with Gambino, he

can't bring himself to admit to a betrayal so deep. There's no way he

that. He'd never sell me like that. Never say.

Something like that. When finally he gets surrenders on his knees, he's

the same question he asked before.

Why? Is this what you wanted? And he's finally forced to accept what's been

done. He gives up fighting for Griffith so he can fight for the rest.

Again, the art, the slow acceptance, the look over his shoulder, the sight of

what the others are facing and harnessing all that rage so he can fight

them. He's not giving up.

He's just accepting who he needs to fight for instead.

Just like in his childhood flashback, it's rough to see Griffith fight for

someone who would do something so horrible to him. He wants to believe in

Griffith right up to the point that he can't anymore. He doesn't have a choice

but to accept it. When he believes in someone, when he trusts someone, when he

lets someone in, he commits to them so fully and it hurts to watch him have

that thrown back in his face again and again. And it's also unbelievable the

fact that he doesn't just quit. The fact that he turns around and starts

fighting for other people rather than just giving up. But again, that's the

theory or that's what golden age has been for him. He doesn't lose hope in

everyone. He just accepts the reality of who he should be fighting for.

Oh, right, and Zod and Skull Face have been fighting at the bottom of the

whirlwind this entire time. I'll return to that.

The sequence where we watch our band fall one by one, all while trying to

Casca alive.

Pippin, our silent boy, shouting at them to run while he held one of them off,

giving them just a little bit more time.

Casca is their leader, so even if they can't survive in person, they survive

through her.

Plus, this mentality was present earlier in the story. I remember one of the

battles where they defeated the leader and they were telling the rest of the

army that the battle was over because the leader was dead. So there's no

to continue fighting.

I think in general, they see Casca as both the hope for the band proper to

on, but also as the reason for them to keep struggling.

Because if she survives, then the battle hasn't been lost.

And of course, there's also the added factor for Judo of his feelings for

As they're running away, Judo is trying to convince her to struggle on, using

the same type of words that Guts would use to push her.

The scene where he shields her from the spikes and his face is so resolved as

the blood drips down on her kills me. He knows he's going to die here, and he's

accepted it.

He just wants her to make it out alive, and he struggles on.

Even when it's over, even when the spikes are still sticking through him,

last shot to try to keep that demon from her.

I think he must have been in love with her. I mean, I think that's what this is

saying. The last thoughts he has as his eyes are closing, that most important

thing that he never got to say.

It just makes me love him more.

He pushed Casca towards Guts and away from Griffith when he saw Griffith tried

to choke him. He wanted Casca to have a better life and to be happy.

He knew it couldn't be him, so he wanted her to have it with someone else,

whoever she wanted.

Watching him fall hurts.

Judo had more heart than...

most characters in the series.

And his ending was full of heart too.

I'm glad he was given so much time in his death, even with all the chaos

around them.

He deserves that. He didn't deserve this, but he deserves the time he was

here. This makes me so sad.

But there's no time.

Keep moving.

Darkness is coming.

Also, of course, the scene adds context to why Guts will go on to hunt down the

girl in the first chapter of Black Swordsman and the Count after what

done to our people here.

And we also get a glimpse of what the rebirth looks like for Griffith. I think

the wording here is very intentional.

Further from the light.

I mean, it says that he's the wings of darkness.

So I think that's very literal. And we just saw that the deaths of those that

served him do affect him, even if he chooses to value his dream over their

lives. Yet here, their deaths don't haunt him.

They actually pierce through him, and he feels nothing. We already know that

there's a surrendering of one's humanity to become this, and now we get a

glimpse of what that looks like.

I think what it looks like is being taken over by darkness, surrendering

yourself to it entirely.

He doesn't seem conflicted anymore in his two natures.

Ah, this is the panel I was looking for before. When suffering so profound as to

make someone rip himself apart is confronted, a heart is frozen. And we do

glimpse of whatever it is that these demons are serving.

And it looks really gross.

Okay, we're going to pause the story here to try to work through some lore.

Because the lore in the series is really abstract and it bothers me.

So I'm trying to wrap my head around it. So, Void, brain demon, says, he

refers to...

to the entity that they serve as the ungodly god, which I take as the immoral

god or the god of darkness or the god of evil or whatever.

They use a lot of synonyms to describe their mission of darkness.

The one that pushes darkness into the world. Do what thou wilt is their one

command, which certainly leads them to embracing their darkest desires.

Wild being an example of that. And we know that they, at least for Griffith.

They described him as like a chosen one of sorts. They described him as one that

they had selected and the Behalet clearly is drawn to people who would

use it.

At least that's the way I'm taking the sequence of events here.

So they seem to choose the ones that have embraced their inner

darkness strongly.

and then push them to continue that embrace until they give themselves over

it entirely.

And then we saw in Wilde how not only does he cause, I mean the Count also

causes pain and destruction to those in their path, in their path of whatever it

is, the kind of destruction they're going to commit, but also Wilde

or even threatened, intimidated his men into doing the same. Yeah, it's in the

same panel.

where he calls, where he says the ungodly God. In the same panel, he says,

calls Griffith the consecrated one, which is basically the chosen one in

context, I think. So they choose the ones, I assume, that are inclined to

cause and effect, and then that causes the next effect, and down the line we

But we also know...

That it's not, even though Void talks about, you know, it's destined or what

does he say? It's determined.

Even though Void talks about determinism, we know that they have the

not to do it. Which, sidebar, I think is incredibly important. Even though,

like, you know, I have my thoughts about blob monster count.

It was so important to see the count.

refuse to make the sacrifice before we watch Griffith make the sacrifice so

we can see that it didn't have to be done, that it was a choice made, that

is free will within whatever it is we're watching. Anyway, they call Griffith

their kinsman to wear the mantle of evil. So the goal seems to be to bring

darkness onto the earth, or I guess make darkness encompass the earth they want

to bring evil and and griffith is called the wings of darkness so by the laws of

causality he's the one chosen because he had those qualities that would go along

with their mission which is to bring darkness or rather to encompass the

in darkness maybe i don't know So when he says all lies within the currents of

causality, everything has been determined, all your lives have been

this, yada yada, I reckon that he's saying that their fate has been

because Griffith is the type to sacrifice you all. But we know that

refuse to do the sacrifice, thereby retaining his humanity and maybe not

under the current of causality and actually going free like they tease.

Maybe. Each time we talk to the humans, they seem to say, they say God as in

singular. Yet the God hand might be indicating that there's more than one

When they say, we are not gods, rather than we are not God.

plus they kept referencing to the whatever it is that they serve as the

god or the god born of man so that could indicate that uh that there's a

distinction because there's more than one i don't know which would make sense

me because the god hand are demons cosplaying as angels

At least in some of the lore, like the lore about the prison, you know, how did

this prison come to be? Well, you see, these angels came and they sunk this

terrible place into the earth, but also their sacrifices. And also the lore

seems inconsistent.

So, I mean, I don't know. And the world itself clearly isn't subject to

the thing that they serve because they need human agreement to

enact their will.

the will of the god hand the god hand need human agreement to enact the what

they want to happen which is to bring darkness into the oh covering the earth

age of darkness to bring an age of darkness and the fact that they weren't

already in an age of darkness the fact that they didn't already have dominion

over the earth makes me think that maybe there's another power that be i mean i

don't know

Plus this arc makes clear that they can't force someone to join them.

They'll happily manipulate the situation, but it has to be an act of

to join them. I keep saying that. I should stop saying that. I don't know.

seems that there are threads that come together because of the laws of

causality, but it takes the free choice of agreement to actually bind them into

what the god hand wants.

When they're trying to manipulate Griffith into making the choice, Void

If it be reason that destiny transcend human intellect and make playthings of

children, then it is cause and effect that a child bear his evil and confront

destiny. Maybe you old fart.

could speak plainly. Would that be cool? If it be reason that destiny transcend

human intellect and make play things of children. So, if you believe, this is

how I'm taking it, if you believe, if, if it seems reasonable to you, if it be

reason, if you believe that destiny can transcend human intellect and make

play things of children, he's not saying, he's not saying this is what it

He's saying, if it's reasonable to assume this,

then it's cause and effect. It's just the natural next step that you would

your evil and confront destiny.

It's just natural cause and effect that you would just let your greatest desires

consume you and lead you.

Just take the step. Just make the sacrifice. Just do what I'm trying to

to do. So, I believe that Void knows more

than I do.

about whatever is going on in this cosmic realm. But I also know that he's

probably withholding pieces of information or saying things in an

that he can manipulate the situation. So I don't trust him 100%. I don't think

that he's explaining everything fully.

But he's telling me something. It seems obvious that they're trying to

manipulate the world according to their desire, speaking of the god hand. And

they're pulling at those, the people, the humans, that would bring further

and destruction and bring more darkness into the world. They might not be able

to control every fish, but that's fine.

They just need to control the flow.

And now they've finally entered into the age. They finally brought the age of

darkness because of the birth of the fifth and the god hand, which makes me

think. that they've been battling for control over the flow of fate.

And what we've just witnessed is them gaining that control of the flow. And

way that I imagine they manipulate and try to push what they want is through

behelit. It's described as droplets of ideas that have spilled from the sea of

eternity, summons to the other world.

Now, all of this is vague, and I don't know what to do with it. But what I

assume it means...

is that it's like little nudges, droplets of ideas to push along those

through the laws of causality are chosen for the flow of fate that they want to

control or create.

Boyd said that in the ruins of your dream, that is the cruel grace of the

born of man.

So I'm not sure what to do with that.

I don't know if in this world the gods are just the god hand elevated to an

higher position, or if there's other ways to be elevated to ascend into

or none of it. I don't know. I don't know. So let's just talk about the Skull

Knight instead. I'm pretty sure he's not immortal.

He refers to Zod with the title immortal, which seems like the kind of

don't do if you're immortal too.

Plus, Zod says that they've been foe for a millennium.

And Skull Face himself says that he's the foe of the Inhumans. He seems to

Void's philosophy pretty well.

But also, I think that you could read doubt into this. Like, maybe he hasn't

totally bought into the things that Void spouts.

Which I haven't either.

Twins. Plus, he tried to attack Void when he was trying to rescue Death and

Kafka. Though he called...

the rescue incidental. So I think he went into attack Void and then just

to pick up some strugglers along the way. So right now, I think my theory for

him is that Void sacrificed him and under all that skull armor and maybe a

he's mortal just like Guts. But maybe once you're sacrificed, you can't die by

any way other than being consumed by the spirits because why is he still

kicking? Apparently they've been so for a millennium. He did say that they're

stuck between the mortal world and that of the dead.

So, I mean, maybe.

Maybe that means that they don't die unless they're consumed. I don't know.

Also, Zod seemed really surprised that Guts survived the sacrifice, so maybe

this is the first time that's happened.

Or maybe it's just super ultra rare.

I said he had personal beef with Void, but he also has a personal battle with

Zod. One that Zod's willing to delay because Guts made it out.

But it will continue. It is going to be ongoing.

But Zod also makes clear that he isn't interested in the Eclipse. He only is

interested in the Strong. Which certainly matches up with what we saw of

when we first battled him way back, I don't know, a million years ago. And he

was super excited to find a worthy opponent.

So maybe Skull Face is the same thing. He's a worthy opponent. And so Zod just

wants to keep on fighting him.

That took me so much longer to work through than I thought it would.

So if I'm wrong, it's fine. I mean, I'm sure I'm wrong. It's okay.

Just tell me gently.

Okay, back to Guts.

So Guts is confronted with the deaths of those that he loves.

There's so many panels showcasing his pain as he sees the fate that Griffith

damned them to. This is him.

the one he devoted his life to, who he found a place of belonging in, who he

trusted more than anyone, who he just climbed a mountain to save, and who just

sacrificed them all. Here, not only to sentence them to this torture, but to

personally inflict it on them. Okay, cosmic rape.

I'm going to try to be brief with my thoughts and I'm not going to show any

the panels, even censored. My thoughts are, I see the vision.

but I don't like the execution and I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out

how to articulate my feelings on this because I don't want to be dismissed

because I say I don't like the execution.

So I'm going to do my best to engage with this thoroughly but still give you

honest feelings about it overall.

This scene is intentionally horrific.

Kaska is in absolute agony bleeding from being raped over and over

again. so brutally, crying out to guts, asking him or begging him not to look

while he's then being forced down and made to look, cutting off his own arm so

he can get to her. It's horrific.

It's grotesque, disgusting, indulgent, it's sick and evil.

And that's the point. Griffith has surrendered his humanity, his tangled

feelings, that back and forth.

that I read into him of his two desires is now broken and the darkness,

the wings of evil, is who he is. That is his nature now. He wants to cause Guts

endless harm and now he can do it because he no longer feels the tension,

regret, the love that we've seen, the genuine care that we've seen

him wrestle with. He wants to cause Guts endless harm.

And he does. He told Guts when he first claimed him, you belong to me. And that

proved to be true. He won Guts over. Guts' loyalty was wholly to him.

And then when that was broken and Guts then bonded to someone else, he lost

control. And now this is him not only being spiteful and hateful and purely

evil, but it's also him regaining that control.

Love or hate, loyalty or vengeance, doesn't matter which route we go you

to me it shows how deep the darkness actually is it shows how fractured from

humanity he truly has become it did what it set out to do but did it need so

many panels to do it? Did it need so many closings and angles and positioning

get the point across? I understand that Griffith would have wanted it to linger

and wanted it to be as sexual and uncomfortable and horrible to watch,

but in order for us, the readers, to get the point across, did it need that many

panels to do it? I really just don't think it did. I think that the horrors

what was happening

could have been shown without that much. Now hear me out, because I want to

explain this the best way that I can, because it's not an issue with the scene

on its own entirely.

But if the other scenes of sexual violence and sexual assault leading up

were...

or at the very least each served a purpose and not some just feeling like

they're there for shock factor or for grit or like with no narrative

like I was talking about with Wild.

And I'm not saying that they all are, but there are ones that I don't think

necessarily needed to be here and that were lingering and that were probably

more gratuitous than the scene needed them to be to get the point across.

So if the other scenes like this were toned down or at least were less

then I would have looked at this scene and said, probably more than it needed

be, but I see what he was going for. But because there have been scenes leading

up to this that I think narratively and visually were mishandled, it leaves me

feeling exhausted by the time I get to this scene. Not exhausted like the

characters are exhausted and I'm supposed to feel exhausted too, but more

feeling of exhaustion like...

another one, which is not what you want to feel leading up to a scene like this

that actually has narrative impact and actually is written like this on

with a purpose.

I recognize that not everyone is going to get to the scene and feel fatigued by

the scenes previous, and not everyone getting to the scene is as critical of

some of the scenes that I'm critical of.

And so, you know, different people are going to have different reactions to

and not feel the fatigue that I feel.

But again, like I've said before, when you review a series as closely as I'm

trying to review this one, that means the good and the bad. And for me, this

my response to this, where it was...

I see the vision, it undercuts the scene. It makes me enter the scene

fatigued rather than it having the full impact that it set out to have. So

yeah, I don't like the scene. I see the vision. I don't like the execution

because of, I think it was much more than it needed to be. And also because

the number of scenes leading up to it that I think strips it of some of its

impact. I know it doesn't do that for everybody.

That was my experience.

Okay, back to the story. The Skull Face bursts in and cuts through a bunch of

demons and rescues R2.

So we get to see some of Griffith's huge power when he tries to attack Skull

Face and crushes the demons together.

But when he goes to attack again and he sees Guts, he doesn't want to.

This is interesting to me. I guess he doesn't want to kill him here. He just

wants Guts to go on suffering.

Poor Rickert has no context for what's going on and these giant creatures just

drop in.

pass off his fallen comrades and go, don't worry about it, just heal them,

then yoink him up and rush away.

I've been informed that this is an unpopular opinion, but the aftermath

escape the eclipse, not intact, and we wake up in the cave and

everything that follows, this was the most painful part of golden age for me.

the wake of what's lost and trying to figure out how to navigate the trauma.

as even more trauma is heaped upon them.

The heaviness of these chapters, this is the part that actually hurt the most to

read. Guts has been horribly injured.

Casca's brain has suppressed the trauma so much that she's forgotten who any of

them are and doesn't trust men at all and just clings to Erica.

They've been betrayed and they have no path ahead of them. It's so tragic.

It's so heavy. I'm glad we got Aftermath for this one. I'm glad that we get the

time to see the real impact this horrible, horrible thing that they've

through has had on them. But it's still really, really hurt to read. When Guts

sees Casca's condition, he runs.

I've never seen him run like this. I've never seen him sprint away from what's

in front of him in such horror.

Not since he was a child.

And even then.

Not like this. The chapter titled The Sprint is another highlight chapter for

in the sense of one of the most impactful chapters.

Guts running through the trees, ripping his bandages off and falling down in

desperation as he thinks of all the people that he's lost.

I want to share every panel of this section, really just the whole chapter

could flip through.

It's so powerful and so painful.

After everything that we've watched him stand up again, here he runs and he

falls. And he lays on the ground and he thinks of Griffith.

The worst betrayal of all.

The one that put them here.

Maybe he knew that guts would come back to him anyway.

This time with rage, but I guess the words are still true. You belong to me.

Skull Face explains a lot.

to Griffith about stuff that we knew from from the Black Swordsman. Your

draws the spirit to you. They want your blood. You've been sacrificed so you

live as a haunted man.

He gives him a cool spirit sword and we get a page of him fighting the spirits

and trying to or trying to take over him just like we got in the Black

Swordsman. I also really love Guts saying what I've been thinking which is

equivalent of shut up with your abstract nonsense.

Use words or go away.

But the important thing is that Guts declares war.

He's not done fighting.

He's not done struggling.

He's coming after them all. So during all this, we realize that Casca is

outside, which means that the spirits have found another torch and they're

for her. So Guts, the mad lad, attempts to carjack Skullface's horse.

Guts, my guy, I know you've been through a lot, but what?

I don't know. It says a lot to me that...

He not only saved them, incidentally, but that he deals with that kind of

influence. He actually takes guts to her instead of being like, no, you don't

talk to me that way.

Yeah,

this scene is rough.

So when they get to Casca, after everything that she's been through up to

point, now she has to endure a miscarriage too. She's lost her

scared, confused, brutally harmed.

And now this.

After everything else that we've been through up to this point, I think this

the scene that finally broke me.

It's just that this entire aftermath section has been so heavy, and now this.

don't know. It's just so much. And the child being possessed by evil because of

the rape, too.

It just seems cruel.

I mean, I know that this is what was haunting Guts back in Black Swordsman. I

know it'll be explored. We have the promise that it will be, but I don't

It just hurts. When we watch Casca cling to her child, much like how Shisu clung

to Guts, but she can't even keep that. Or watch Guts attempt to kill his child

because it's evil, but he can't bring himself to do it.

So the two are just left standing there, alone, having lost their child on top

of everything else.

Clinging to each other, but finding no comfort in each other because even the

bond that they used to have has been stripped of them.

Everything.

has been ripped from them. I'm going to speed run these last couple chapters.

So something that stands out to me is Rickert when Guts decides to leave.

And he tells Guts, maybe you should stay.

I think what he says to him is that it's better to go on living than

to try to avenge the past. Maybe I'm just quoting Puck here. The point is

Rickert says to him here, stay.

instead of pursuing vengeance is very similar to what Puck said back in Black

Swordsman when the half -cannibalized man was being left behind to be eaten by

swamp monsters.

I don't remember how that scene went exactly, but I remember Puck's words

because I remember the way they were framed in that arc stood out to me as...

This is probably a theme. This is probably something that I need to key in

And Guts gets his mechanical arm. He gets his new sword.

He fights off those that come for him. And the framing of

this section of Guts' arc is dragons are dragons

because humans can't beat them.

And, you know, the symbolism here that I'm taking is that those that are

inhuman, these spirits that are hunting them, are what humans can't beat. So

what is a man who beats dragons? Guts, a hunted man, a suffering man,

stands up and struggles onward, now hunting dragons, now

off to be at war.

with all those that are hunting them. He tells Rickert that

the Band of the Hawk is still here. It's not gone because we're still here.

I'm going to be the one going out.

and fighting the enemy and it's just a sad ending and looking forward into the

black swordsman arc all all the rage all the anger all the fury and and the

guardedness that he had now having the full context of what made him like that

of what he suffered to become so

fueled by nothing but rage all the love we've seen in him all the care all the

loyalty all the kindness it's still there we see it with the skull forest

the little girl as well as with Teresa but mostly he's just he's carrying so

much pain that's being focused into all -consuming rage

as he cuts through as many as he can of those that have hunted him or that have

harmed his friends, but primarily as he searches for Griffith. I don't know.

Casca and Guts have lost everything. And Casca's story ends with her being

essentially a prisoner.

I mean, they're both tormented.

Casca is locked up. Guts is moving forward, but...

into what? This is the most depressing ending to any story I've ever read. How

do I wrap up this video?

The Golden Age arc is full of so much incredible storytelling,

amazing character work, one of the most complex and fascinating villains I've

ever read. Also, this is the beginning

Of, you know, what we watched in this arc was the beginning of the Age of

Darkness. The making of one who fractures his humanity to gain

power and embrace darkness. And then we see what's to come from that. But we're

not just fixated on that.

We're following one who struggles through the darkness, one who refuses to

in to that pain, one that continues struggling through the darkness, who

himself directly opposed to it, against the darkness that tries to take him over

physically and, you know, a metaphorical opposition as well. We watch someone

who refuses to be crushed by it, but instead stands up and keeps pushing

forward. But I mean,

It's not going to be happy.

I feel an obligation to end this video on a happy note, but Mira didn't do that

for me.

So I don't feel like I have to do it for you. I mean, there was certainly a, you

know, a musical swell at the end of He Who Fights.

dragons. Um, but you know, he's walking into more sadness. So I, I'm going to be

sad for now, please. I don't know. I hope you enjoyed discussing this with

know I went like, I went hard with, with the discussion of this and I know not

everybody agrees with everything that I say about, about the series, but you

know, engage what you feel like engaging with. Um, I, I hope you enjoyed my

attempt at digging into this arc. Please chat with me more in the comments.

about anything you feel like talking about uh for this arc live stream next

i'll uh try to get my thoughts together a little bit more for that i'll see you

again soon bye