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bthump · 2 years

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A thing that i wanted to ask you after reading your (brilliant) essays: Are people (like Guts) really wrong to seek a dream, meaning for themselves? In Corkus speech at the tavern, it seems that Miura wanted to show us how Corkus is almost pathetic to live without a dream, and it's unclear if Judeau has any remorse for not following his (supposed) dreams. I mean, if Griff had never pursued his, he would have remained a commoner in a suburb. Would it be a better life then? What do you think?

Thank you!

And yeah I don't think you're wrong exactly, I think dreams are a bit of a complicated subject in the story, not wholly good or bad (though I definitely emphasize the negative aspects in my meta lol, and I think the narrative of Berserk does land on the negative side as well).

I think this dude sums it up in chapter 215:

Dreams can be fine and dandy, but in Berserk the characters tend to pursue them as escapes - from their own negative feelings and lack of self-worth.

Berserk often depicts dreams in a positive light to show why people pursue them, why they’re so seductive. Like eg there’s an enormous sense of wistfulness to Judeau’s “there’s no one who never wanted something,” line, because it’s something very relatable. Same with the Campfire of Dreams speech. And we see the positive effects of pursuing dreams too - Griffith succeeds in becoming nobility, he and his band of mercenaries all would’ve lead much better, more comfortable and less stressful lives if he hadn’t fucked it up at the end, and arguably Guts leaving to pursue his own dream made him a more confident, self-assured person in a way.

But, at least with the main characters, there’s always this underlying viewpoint that dreams are band-aid solutions for problems that run deeper than just dissatisfaction or philosophical ideals or wanting to live a better life. The narrative structures its take on dreams somewhat as a bait-and-switch throughout the Golden Age - we see the positive, noble, inspiring side first, but that eventually gives way to the dark underbelly.

Griffith’s grandiose Promrose Hall speech is shown to be covering up his real motivation, ie guilt. We see Guts after a year has passed and he seems happy and confident and chill - but then he returns to the Hawks and learns what leaving did, and after three days of denial he comes to regret it and realize that he left based on a false premise.

tbh I kind of suspect this whole theme is Miura taking a typical shounen trope (I want to become the greatest X) and having fun examining the dark aspects lol, with maybe some criticism of individualism. I don’t think it’s meant to imply that Griffith would’ve been better off as a penniless peasant and he should’ve been content to starve on the streets (though that is maybe a mildly unfortunate implication of this theme) so much as it’s just meant to show that ambition and drive can have some pretty fucked up roots, psyche-wise, and at the end of the day it’s more important to just be happy and content with people you love than to prove yourself worthy in an arbitrary way.

Ultimately I think Berserk’s take on dreams can be sort of summed up as: they’re not bad per se, but it depends what your motivation is. If you’re compelled to pursue an arbitrary goal in the hopes of feeling good about yourself after achieving it, you should examine why that is and work on the root cause instead.

If you’re asking about my own take on dreams, like in the real world, I guess it’s kind of similar lol, which is probably why I vibe with this theme. It’s good to have goals, but you shouldn’t have to achieve them just to feel good about yourself. Self worth should come from something deeper than your accomplishments.

imo Griffith deciding to get a kingdom is awesome and if he was only motivated by wanting to create a better society that would be admirable, but unfortunately he’s actually pretty fucked up deep down and pursuing his dream only compounded his problems.

OH also wrt Corkus in the tavern, my take is that it’s not so much that he’s pathetic for not having his own dream, but that it shows his regret and self-loathing in not having been able to achieve a dream independently, which explains why he’s so... emotionally dependent on having Griffith as a leader and following him to greatness (see: the way he’s the main one who fully breaks down when they learn that Griffith can’t recover from his torture). It’s another instance of poor self-worth leading to people becoming a little too emotionally reliant on achieving something, imo.

Anyway sorry for rambling on so much and ty for asking, hopefully this is at least a fairly thorough explanation of my own take lol.

#ask #a #b #anonymous #theme: dreams #theme: themes #theme: self loathing

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kabutots · 7 years

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Berserk modern!AU Disney Trip

it was Griffith’s idea

Judeau winning any and every carnival game

Judeau giving Casca, despite her refusal, a prize after she has trouble winning anything

it was the biggest prize he won

Rickert being too short for the bigger rides

Pippin holding onto Rickert so he doesn’t get lost in the crowd

Charlotte making a beeline for the princess makeover

Casca secretly wanting to get one too

Guts promising her that he’ll take her to the park again just the two of them for that reason

Griffith challenging Guts to the same carnival game

Griffith winning and letting Charlotte pick the prize because carnival games are how you woo a lady

Guts demanding a rematch

Corkus having difficulty finding any place that serves alcohol

him finding some place eventually and camping out there the entire time

no one is impressed by the Haunted Mansion ride

except for Charlotte, who clung to Griffith basically the entire time

Guts joking and asking Casca if she wanted to hold onto him

Casca elbowing Guts in the stomach

that’s all I got right now lol

#is it obvious I’ve never been to Disney World before?#I looked some of the stuff up like the seating for the Haunted Mansion ride to see if Charlotte would be able to cling to Griffith #and to see what would happen if you punched someone at Disney World #but I didn’t get any results for that #berserk #guts #griffith #charlotte #casca #princess charlotte #judeau #pippin #corkus #rickert #berserk au #band of the hawk #gutsca #griffith x charlotte

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