#yk like berserks fandom

[mazuwii]

degenerates in the crunchyroll comments pissing me off so bad, some are out right incels expressing how happy they are Arnheid died, or how boring her death is blah blah blah, but the ones that piss me off the most is the ones calling Einar a simp. A simp. For showing humanity to a woman, you are now a simp.

#maybe Eren had a point with the rumbling #Because honestly #I would not mind #stomping on every incel to walk this planet #they deserve no mercy istg #how do you watch Arnheids death #and still show hatred #I thought vinland saga had no incels #yk like berserks fandom #and the griffith fuckers #vinland saga #vinland saga season 2 #arnheid #thorfi #einar #thorfinn

[bthump]

I don’t mean to be rude but the people who justify the clearly fetishistic Casca SA scenes are either disingenuous or…something else. It’s even worse in wider Berserk fandom because they literally get hostile if you don’t think a character who has been subjected to countless glorified hentai panels as she’s reduced to being a nonverbal child/plot device is good writing. “You don’t understand her agency is how she motivates Guts” 😬🙄

I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt where possible when interacting with them, and I think it's fine if someone's personal reaction was that it worked for them emotionally, as long as they're understanding about other people identifying it as a misogynist artistic choice.

I'm often wary about getting aggro when people don't agree that something in a fictional work is bigoted (yk assuming they're not expressing their disagreement in an offensive way) even if it seems obvious to me, because there are a lot of instances where there's plenty of room for different people both with solid bases of knowledge in a form of bigotry and critical thinking skills to disagree. I don't necessarily think the eclipse rape in particular leaves a lot of room for reasonable disagreement lol, but I think it's better to explain my position and hope others are open to it than to get insulting or accusatory.

Of course, the fans who get hostile towards people who don't like Casca's narrative treatment (among other Berserk opinions) are another matter entirely lol, and something that sucks and is def worth complaining about, so I feel you there. Like if you think it's good writing I'll think you're a very bad judge of writing, but yk, to each their own. But getting mad about people discussing how the writing is bad and misogynist amongst themselves is pretty ridiculous imo lol.

#ask #anonymous #b #scene: eclipse rape #lol every time the eclipse rape comes up i get more asks adding to the discussion than any other berserk topic i think #that's it for now though

[marley-manson]

K, L, M, U for fic asks 💖

Thank you 💖

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

I feel like angst is my wheelhouse, my main inspiration, my true writing love, so this is hard to answer lmao.

Overall it's proooobably a Berserk fic idea I had which was an AU where the darkest most fucked up moment in canon didn't happen; instead there's a long drawn-out plot where Guts the protag becomes a monster, Griffith the other protag is traumatized as hell after a year of torture, they're obsessively in love and it's fucked up, they conquer a kingdom together in some very dark and ruthless ways, and it ends with Griffith realizing he has to keep going and expanding the kingdom to pursue his dream and instead goading Guts into killing him. If done right it would be worse in some ways than canon - the slow creeping dread of things getting worse and worse and more fucked up, eg. Casca would get a happy ending though lol.

For Mash... I have some subtler angst ideas along similar lines to stuff I've already written, but probably the most overtly darkficcy idea I have that I mmmmay one day post is one where Frank happens to get proof that Hawkeye and Trapper are fucking, and stumbles into blackmailing Hawkeye into sex. Though that would have a hefty dose of black humour too, since it's Frank, especially Frank from Hawk's bitterly scathing pov. But yk, still fucked up and dark and angsty.

L: What’s the weirdest AU you’ve ever come up with?

AUs on the other hand are not my wheelhouse because I'm not creative lol so hmm... maybe the vampire AU idea I had for Mash? I wrote like 5 pages of it at one point and probably won't finish it but it's an idea and it's kinda weird. Basically Trap and BJ are vampires, Hawkeye is someone who has magically fast-replenishing blood as a result of having been fed on habitually in the past (he dated a vampire and it's a perk), so he's drafted in the dual role of surgeon and vampire food. Something about the army treating people as commodities, and also vampires fucking while feeding because duh.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

One I don't think I've chatted about with you before, is one where Hawkeye pretends he lost a bet and crossdresses for a day when he discovers that it's one of Trapper's major turn-ons, even though he doesn't see the appeal himself. Sort of a combination historically grounded discussion of androgyny, and just plain kink. Inspired by seeing a lot of fandom talk about and portray Hawkeye as like, blushingly nervous/awkward about crossdressing/femininity (either as a gender awakening thing or just as a cute awkward thing) and wanting confident Hawkeye who has already had all his awakenings and just has fun with it.

U: A pairing you might like to write for, but haven’t tried yet.

For Mash, maybe Hawkeye/Charles? I haven't posted any Hawk/BJ yet but I've definitely written it so I'm not counting that. Hawkeye/Scully one night stand would be good too, though I'm not super motivated on that bc you've filled that niche well already lol.

ask meme

#ask meme #marley on mash #text post #marley on berserk

[rose-reads-visualnovels]

no need to apologise for the griffith appreciation, he is a fascinating character! and imo the tone the western berserk fandom takes towards him in popular circles is too simplistic sometimes, especially if it's to prop up the more conventionally masculine guts as morally superior while misunderstanding both characters lol (I'm quite fond of both too, but both have their own capacity for monstrosity yk) anyway knowing these takes just makes me look forward to seeing you tackle a text like umineko even more

I haven’t read the Berserk manga so I can’t really say too much about the nuances in fandom treatment of these characters, but Guts himself is a very nice boy so I don’t like it when people mischaracterizes him as simply a “badass”. He has a sensitive soul!!

Griffith… my appreciation of him is like 80% aesthetics and 20% dude what are you doing. He’s very tortured so I don’t agree when people call him meaninglessly evil, but also I don’t know what he does in the manga after the Eclipse so maybe all those people are justified in not wanting to look for nuance in his character.

Either way, thanks for not condemning me for putting a pretty rapist on my favorite characters MAL list. He’s just incredibly beautiful. (I felt like throwing up just writing that down. Ughhhhh)

— Rose, the Revolutionary Witch

#anon ask #askbox #berserk #griffith

[scarfacemarston]

Wouldn’t say I’m ‘boycotting’ the port, but I’m just not interested in playing it and idk how much the modern fandom will enjoy it? It’s sort of the edgier(for lack of a better term)older brother in the series, and I’m not sure how everyone’s going to take the violence against women thrown around, especially in the Mexico chapter which gives it a whole host of other problems. Then there’s Dutch’s gang of Native Americans you have to kill near the end, which neither looks or feels good.

To clarify I know this isn’t an rdr problem. Game of thrones and Berserk are also created by males writers who think peppering rape into the stories to make them “more realistic” and “gritty” but I’m just tired of it in my soul. To give credit where it’s due rdr2 does improve on this as well as how it treats its non-white characters, but I wouldn’t want to go back yk

I can understand that. Personally, I would like to think some of the worst moments would be taken out, but Rockstar clearly doesn't care. I can't say what was done for the legit "remasters" from the company, but I would hope there would be some updates. However, I am not confident that a remake would actually remove these scenes. Even worse, I think so many people are going to say, "so what?" regarding the women and treatment of POC characters, and that's the sad thing. RDR 2 has the issues as well. I definitely want the game out again, BUT it DOES need updates for SURE, and I 100% support you. Additionally: *TRIGGER WARNING FOR SERIOUS S.Assualt!!!!! I avoid anything graphic but still want to put the warning there!

At one of the ranches you go and rescue, almost everyone was brutalized in some way. The sheriffs say they've never seen it anything like that. This was towards men and women with the violence of one thing? All I'll say is that RDR 2 does a call back to it with Bill Williamson and how he threatens Kieran. Apparently, the scene was SO BAD that Rockstar wasn't sure if they could publish it. I definitely agree with you about some of the stuff in Mexico. I was extremely uncomfortable with it. John is similarly very uncomfortable and calls it out, but it's still there. The way Native Americans were treated was definitely an issue, too. I think the game is definitely worth playing with some updates. The story itself is decent, imo and I love John and many of the other characters, but I so agree with you.

[vympr]

Do u or maybe a blog who follows u know of any Berserk blogs that are run by normal people and not creepy freaks? I just got into it and i think urs is the only blog i follow i think ive seen reference it. I love it but it definitely has content that would make me wary of... fans of a particular ilk yk what i mean.

naur i'm rly not in fandoms like that anymore i just watch shows and talk about them and then move on

[bthump]

Hey there bthump I meant if they gave you credit and it was an excellent video staying true to your vision. Literally the same content but in video form. For the purpose of giving your amazing writings more exposure.

Oh I see, I guess I totally got the wrong impression from that first ask, sorry! And thank you for the kind words!

But yk I don't think I'd be comfortable with this. It'd be one thing if it was like, podfic or a translation or something, because there's a strong fandom tradition there that doesn't really imply any personal association, but my posts being turned directly into video essays does, imo, have the implication of collaboration. And I don't want to collaborate, or have to think about how someone else's presentation of my stuff might inadvertantly reflect on me, yk?

Plus it's the notoriously aggro Berserk fandom so greater visibility isn't necessarily something I even want lol. I like my cozy tumblr corner.

But hey, if this is a roundabout way of asking permission, or if anyone else is wondering about this, I don't own hot takes on a manga so nothing's stopping anyone inspired by this blog from writing their own essays with similar opinions. Or if you ever want to quote me with credit that would be cool. I don't mind being a citation, it's just that being the entire content of a video is a bit too much for me.

#ask #anonymous #b

[bthump]

I saw that one really long tumblr ask involving Casca and Griffguts so I wanted to add a different perspective. At this point from a narrative standpoint I am personally more annoyed with how Casca was treated after the eclipse than during the eclipse. The eclipse was an event specifically designed to put the band of the hawk through the worst suffering possible so the horrible stuff that happened to Casca had a purpose. What I don't like is that Casca's regression was never used as an opportunity to explore more of her character. Even if she had regressed to the point of a two year old she would've still had noticeable personality traits. Something as simple as giving her a favorite color or an object she really likes would've made so much of a difference in that regard. It would've made people reading the manga after the eclipse a little more sympathetic to Casca because they truly got to see bits of her. She clearly had basic emotions and instincts during her regression but it sucks that was never built upon.

Although I enjoy Gutsca, Golden Age Griffguts and Golden Age Griffgutsca I think Gutsca would be the best one to make canon. At this point I think Griffith has destroyed too much of himself to get the love he had wanted from Guts (and especially not from Casca if some interpretations are to be believed). In the canon of Berserk it wouldn't be fair for Guts to be with a man who traumatized him so completely unless the writers wanted to make a dark character study. At least with Casca they can mutually heal from the scars the sacrifice left. And even then Guts still has more growing to do if he doesn't want to destroy himself like Griffith did. It's honestly quite sad.

Also I really don't understand why people discredit the female characters of Berserk so much??? Even if there are hiccups in Casca's story she, Farnese and Charlotte are like my favorite characters in the series. They're all so well designed from a narrative perspective and they're also all just pretty neat. It's just sad that people in the fandom victim blame Casca. Or define her based off of Griffith or Guts. If anything her potential personal arc should culminate in her gaining more self esteem.

Yeah I get that, I think Casca's "character" post-Eclipse has been absolutely dismal writing, and honestly those are some good ideas for how the writing could've been imporved. I hate the regression concept in general, but it's true that it doesn't mean Casca needs to have absolutely no characterization beyond generic sexy baby and maternal instincts lol.

And tbf I don't think very many griffgutsers expect Guts and Griffith to end up together in a romantic capacity - a homoerotic emotional revelation followed by death seems to be the going theory in my circle at least, and that's what I'm pinning my hopes on. But when it comes to fanfic and headcanons, griffguts is straight up a lot more fun to me, so that's what I focus on.

Plus for me personally I'm not super interested in what the characters deserve, so I like the love still irrationally being there regardless of the Eclipse and Griffith's transformation, and I do think that's canon - platonic love at least. Guts' feelings are mixed, and the Beast of Darkness taunts him for longing for Griffith, and he still misses human Griffith, etc, and I think that suits the tone of the story very well. I don't think a happily ever after is likely to come from it, but a moment of catharsis where those feelings are untangled and likely still requited to an extent before a climactic death scene sounds right up my alley.

But yk, to each their own, there's room for a lot of different takes in the fandom.

As far as the female characters go, I think they're better than a lot of female characters in similar stories tbf, and I definitely love a lot of them, but I do think they're sometimes awkwardly written, and sometimes in misogynist ways (eg Casca's retconny suicide attempt, Farnese's total 180 from complicated fucked up pyromanic to caretaker after one montage, the vast majority of Berserk's women being motivated by crushes on men, etc). There's lots to love, but also lots to feel annoyed by imo, depending on what you're focused on, so I can't blame anyone who wants to complain about how Miura writes women, and I can't blame anyone who wholeheartedly loves the female characters either.

Anyway thanks for sharing your opinions as a counterpoint, it's good to hear different + thoughtful points of view, whether I agree with everything or not!

#ask #anonymous #b

[bthump]

Since the majority of fans (in the west at least) actually think that Berserk will have a cliched happy ending with Guts killing Griffith and settling down with Casca, do you think that Miura somehow failed as a writer because he couldn’t establish the gist of the story for mass audience correctly?

Nah, no writer should have to cater to people with no reading comprehension lol. There’s absolutely no accounting for people like the Berserk fans on reddit, and if all authors (or directors or any other storytellers) were required to hand-hold their audience through their story to make sure no one misunderstands it, everything would suck.

Though like, I guess to be fair even I’ve been worried about that cliche happy ending, so yk, if my own more optimistic predictions were closer to the truth then yeah arguably Miura has made some missteps in the writing. But then, who’s to say whether they’re missteps without knowing what happens? After all, Casca’s reawakening was framed as a romantic fake-out lol, so obviously Miura knew what some of his audience was expecting and subverted it for dramatic effect. I believe he was doing the same with the moonbaby happy family shit, but if that’s the case the intent is still to trick some of the audience into rooting for that to happen, so yk, if some fans are predicting that Guts will settle down with Casca and their magic baby, that’s probably an intended outcome to make the presumed impending tragedy more devastating.

But yeah like, the way reddit fans even grossly misunderstand the existing story, like... it’s their problem lol, not the story’s problem. If they suddenly can’t read when Casca’s telling Guts that Griffith doesn’t only value him for his strength, or when Griffith waxes poetic in his own head that Guts shines brighter than his dream, that’s their own fault, not Miura’s.

Plus from what I’ve heard the intended audience, ie Japanese fandom, has a much better grasp on the story and characters, so yk. You also can’t necessarily account for different cultural influences or weird insular fandom environments that pass the same terrible interpretations and expectations on to everyone who joins them.

#ask #anonymous #theme: fandom #theme: speculation #a #b #thanks for the question! gave me a fun excuse to complain about the fandom

[marley-manson]

but yk - i also think that participating in fandom is a way to prolong interest, for me at least. my longest-running fandom is berserk going on like 6 years, and while it’s definitely on the back-burner of my mind rn I still get really into talking about it fairly regularly and get hyped for my friends’ fics and art and stuff, and it’s bc it’s the fandom i’ve participated most in and have made the most friends in and still regularly get asks about on my sideblog

which is kind of wild bc it’s also the fandom i’ve been in with the least amount of content and the highest amount of bad takes by far lol. but i guess it’s bc it forced me to create my own instead of just lurking

#so i'm hoping writing mash fic will prolong this one because i am having a blast writing rn and i don't want that to go away any time soon #i'm enjoying it not feeling like a chore #text post #idk i'm just thinking outloud

[bthump]

I know many people ship Guts and Casca but I honestly can't see it. Had Griffith never been tortured I feel like Casca and Guts would only had a sibling like relationship. I mean Guts saw Casca naked many times in the Golden age and he never looked interested in the slightest. I feel like Guts protects Casca because she represents the "good old times" of when they were all together and happy. Its like people force this ship because they want to refuse the possibility of Guts being gay.

I mean they did unfortunately fuck on page so in all fairness it’s not like there’s 0 basis for shipping them lol.

But yeah lbr I have literally written essays about how the “attraction” between Guts and Casca is so easily interpretable as misdirected feelings and misinterpretations of feelings, and how their relationship is incredibly unromantic even with the sex, and how it was doomed from the start, and how it diminishes both characters, and how tacked on it feels, and how it’s hilarious that Judeau had to shove them together, etc etc, so you’ll get no argument here.

Like, legitimately, Guts and Casca’s relationship makes me more inclined to read Guts as gay and repressed lol, because the sex scene and like, well pretty much everything about how Guts relates to Casca, just reads as such blatant repression to me. And I mean that is literally, genuinely the case - not that Guts is textually repressing his attraction to Griffith by fucking Casca, but he is repressing his guilt for leaving Griffith by fucking Casca. Repressing feelings is a big factor in that sex scene.

One can argue that the second half of the sex scene, post-flashback, is intended to be more positive and genuine, buuuuut one (me) can also argue against that lol.

Now Miura probably didn’t intend for me to read Guts as gay, but I actually do think he intended for Guts and Casca’s relationship to be like, a mixed blessing at best, and a giant mistake at worst. It draws attention to Guts’ flaws, it keeps him from acknowledging his mistake in leaving until it’s too late, and even now I’d be willing to bet that the fix Casca sidequest is going to turn out to be a mistake on Guts’ part that’s indicative of his fatal flaws, namely this fatal flaw

and leads to severe consequences.

And yeah I completely agree that Guts is more motivated by longing for a piece of his idyllic lost past with the Hawks than by Casca as an individual. And I think that’s gonna bite him.

Also one more link bc I couldn’t casually squeeze in my favourite post I’ve made on the subject of Guts and Casca’s relationship.

#Anonymous #ask #a #b #ship: gtsca #i'm not gonna pretend i'm not biased here ofc but yk #i think there are completely legit reasons to interpret guts and casca's relationship as negative and more harmful than good overall #and not very genuine or romantic in general #yeah i basically just used this ask as an excuse to go thru my own tags and link stuff lol #also heads up - if i get more asks of the complaining about berserk fandom type after this i will probably wait a few days #b4 answering them bc i don't want my blog to be wall to wall negativity lol #like absolutely feel free to send them and complain bc it's worth complaining about but i need to space it out a bit lol #meta

[bthump]

I want to say I agree 100%with your advice to Griffith fans when it comes to the fandom. To me calling others rape apologist is a slur not an argument. Those who can't reason resort to that. imo if you like Griffith and no matter your ship no one should be afraid to say something in the fandom or to create sometime for it. That stifles comprehension and creativity. Griffith fans just love what they love and be part of the fandom, that way it isn't such a nasty place for other/new Griffith fans

Well I wouldn’t call it a slur, that’s a bit of a misuse of the word, but if by “slur” you mean “insult” then yeah, like the way I’ve seen it used in Berserk fandom for the most part it’s just a default go-to insult rather than a genuine + meaningful criticism of behaviour. Reminds me of seeing ppl use the term “gaslighting” to mean “saying I’m wrong,” yk? It’s a misunderstanding of the term and using it like that dilutes the meaning.

Like rape apologism is a real thing, it’s a useful phrase used to refer to a certain type of harmful behaviour, and liking a fictional character is not that behaviour lol, even if the fictional character in question magically transformed into a rape monster at some point.

cutting this bc i’m using examples of rape apologism to illustrate my point lol

Like saying, “I like Griffith and idc that Femto raped Casca because she already had a crush on him and therefore it wasn’t that bad,” would be rape apologism, for instance.

But saying, “I like Griffith and idc that Femto raped Casca because it’s fiction and I ignore it,” is not. Saying, “idc because it was bad/offensive writing,” is not. Saying, “idc because Griffith transformed into a demon and underwent an explicitly described personality change and therefore it doesn’t affect my enjoyment of human Griffith as a character,” is not. Saying, “idc because I blame Miura for that writing choice, because Femto is a made-up fantasy character without agency and Miura’s the one who made the executive decision to write out Casca as offensively as possible,” is not. etc etc etc.

And saying “I like Griffith and I want him and Guts to fuck,” is absolutely not lol.

Incidentally, saying things like, “Guts has suffered so much for Casca so he deserves Casca’s forgiveness,“ or “at least Guts stopped partway through so his assault of Casca wasn’t that bad,” is also rape apologism, and I’ve seen so much of that it’s ridic, including from some of the very same people who love to say that all Griffith fans are rape apologists. So yk, the hypocrisy is also a good touch sometimes lol.

But yeah in general people should feel free to love whatever characters they love without worrying they’re going to be attacked for it, and it sucks that fandom is often such a hostile place. Like I believe offensive behaviour should be called out, but just about everyone who actually tries does so to maintain their own sense of self-righteousness + lbr, online popularity, without actually putting in the time and effort to a) understand the issues they’re using as fodder for quippy one-liners and insults and b) actually identify the “problematic” behaviour in question, explicitly and with nuance, as they call it out, rather than overgeneralizing like their lives depend on it.

Ugh sorry that kind of veered into my fandom discourse pet peeves in general at the end there lol, but yk, it’s still applicable to Berserk fandom. Anyway like, I don’t want to imply that people should feel free to be offensive/bigoted/etc assholes without repercussion. But boy the current state of call-out culture and online discourse within fandom is absolutely ridiculous and mostly useless lol.

#discourse// #berserk as a text itself engages in rape apologism too lol so like #i'm also side eyeing the type of fan who praises miura and berserk to hell and back but calls griffith fans rape apologists #in at least my own personal experience griffith + griffguts fans are way better at acknolwedging the issues w/ the story #than berserk fans who hate griff and love guts #i mean it's just anecdata but yk that's the impression i get #anyway lol ty glad you agree and also sorry i answered this with my own rant it's one of those topics that makes me want to complain #b #ask #Anonymous #theme: fandom #theme: discourse #theme: misogyny #scene: eclipse rape

[bthump]

1/2 Sooo... the other day there was drama on Twitter b/c an user criticized Berserk for its misogyny, prompting similar tweets. And dudebros got up in arms about it and tried to defend the manga with their usual arguments ("you're too sensitive", "it's supposed to be historically accurate", and all) and a good sprinkle of smug seinen reader attitude. And now I think that the fandom reputation sank a bit. I'm feeling kinda vindicated ngl, I love the manga but I can't stand most of the fans

2/2 Anyways please enjoy how utterly corny this tweet is: twitter.com/Nicchiban_/status/1504047038593482754

lmao I'm so glad I'm not on twitter, this sounds like it would be so obnoxious to be in the middle of

and yk I'm also glad I've found plenty of Berserk fans who recognize its big flaws but are also chill about being a fan of a flawed work. stuff like this really makes me appreciate my fellow Berserk fans in this corner of the fandom <3

#ask #anonymous #b #theme: fandom

[bthump]

thank you so much for you posts on guts assaulting casca bc quite frankly... the way the fandom frames it rather lead me to overlook it and have an uncomplicated relationship with him, all the while hating what griffith did during the eclipse. (in your opinion, what makes the fandom like this?)

Thank you for sending this, I'm really happy my posts inspired you to rethink your initial takeaway from Berserk and the fandom! lol I hope that didn't ruin the experience for you or make you dislike a character you used to love or anything though, imo the way both the Eclipse and Guts assaulting Casca are written reflects more on the writing than on Guts or Griffith as characters.

Man though there are so many reasons for this imo.

I mean for starters, there's the fact that certain takes kind of have a chokehold on fandom, like the classic "Griffith was an evil unfeeling sociopath all along and here's a nonsensical explanation for every single one of his actions that seems to demonstrate otherwise" lol. I avoid the rest of fandom as much as I can and I still see a lot of instances where someone will, say, go to the Berserk reddit or Skull Knight like, "hey I don't understand xyz moment, if Griffith doesn't care why did this happen?" and get the rote "because he's a control freak who couldn't stand seeing his friends living their own lives" answer, or whatever lol. These fans shut down discussion as often as they can and most fans just accept those answers because they don't care enough to think about it themselves, or they don't have the tools to analyse the story and come to their own conclusions because critical thinking is a learned skill that many people were never really taught.

So along with Griffith being evil all along, you have fans who might be like, "hey, it's kinda fucked up that Guts tried to rape Casca right, maybe I don't want them to get together," and get responses like "no you see he was possessed at the time, it's not his fault it was the beast of darkness who is a random evil malicious entity and not a symbolic representation of Guts' dark side at all."

As for why fans are so eager to come up with these explanations and believe them, I mean to be fair for a lot of people it's just easier to enjoy a story if the protagonist is likeable and sympathetic and not an attempted rapist lol. I can understand the urge to downplay Guts' actions there or find an alternative explanation for them, because to do otherwise would reduce their enjoyment of the story. I think this urge can be very bad when it leads to people using actual rape apologist rhetoric, like "Guts stopped before he got his dick in so it's not that bad and he should be forgiven" or whatever, but when it leads to arguing that he was actually possessed then it's like... whatever lol. You're wrong, you're misunderstanding the story entirely, but at least you're happy I guess, good for you. (yk assuming they're not being an asshole to other fans who disagree, which lbr is a pretty unlikely assumption in this fandom, but you know what I mean.)

That said there are a lot of terrible Berserk fans out there who make it pretty obvious that their bad takes are rooted in offensive misogynist and homophobic beliefs. I mean a common nickname for Griffith in this fandom involves a homophobic slur, so that should tell you the kind of people I'm talking about here. Those are the ones who I very much think hate Griffith from the start because he's got serious gay vibes, and go out of their way to find reasons to justify their hate and ignore every nuance in his character arc, while excusing Guts at every possible turn because he's the manly "hetero" protagonist they wanna be.

And yk, there are just a lot of people in general who don't like moral greys, who don't like nuance in fiction, and who want to flatten as much as they can to "good" or "bad." So Guts is "good" and therefore every bad thing he does has to be explained away and ignored. Griffith is "bad" so every good thing he does also has to be explained away and ignored.

BUT to be fair and well-rounded here, it's not all the fault of fandom. The story itself makes it easy to do this. I mean the eclipse rape was 2 chapters long, it took away Casca as a character for 20 years, it made the protagonist very angry, it was commiteed by a demon who has pointedly shown no remorse, and it was basically used as motivation for a whole revenge plot.

Conversely Guts assaulting Casca was a few pages, most of which was shown in symbolic imagery in Guts' head, Guts feels bad about it, and - and this is something I absolutely hate about Berserk lol - it's had zero negative consequences, at least so far, and several positive results. It's the inciting incident for Guts realizing he needs a babysitter and has to work on being less shitty, and Casca was already afraid of him so that didn't even change for the worse. Guts sexually assaulting Casca literally had a positive impact on the narrative. This makes it a lot easier to downplay how utterly shitty it was, and this is a major problem with the story.

And like the story itself doesn't condemn Guts for the assault very harshly despite being very clear about Guts being the one responsible. This is another thing that can create cognitive dissonance for fans and require explaining away - the attempted rape was a Bad Thing but since the story itself kind of downplays it that must mean that Guts isn't actually at fault, because if he was surely it would be a whole big thing, and not one scene that has never been brought up again.

So yeah, idk, basically I think there are a bunch of reasons for the fanbase's reactions to Guts and Griffith sexually assaulting Casca, and some of them are understandable and some of them are shitty. Thanks for the ask!

#ask #b #anonymous #a #theme: critique #theme: misogyny #scene: eclipse rape #scene: beast assault #theme: fandom

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I've just read that Duranki's been officially cancelled and now I'm even more curious as to why Berserk's future is still on hold. Do you believe it will be continued and do you want it to be continued?

I think it's likely that they're looking into continuing it, maybe seeing if they can find a mangaka to take over. It makes sense to me that they'd cancel Duranki pretty quick because there wasn't much of it out yet and it doesn't have anything like the same yk, legacy flagship status as Berserk does.

I don't know if I want it continued though lol, I keep going back and forth on this.

Like on the one hand I have a lot of fun talking about new chapters with everyone and running this blog and I'd like more Berserk material to talk about, plus I still have high hopes for immediate developments, like I wanna see that behelit open so bad still. Especially if Miura did leave an outline and/or notes for someone else to follow, I still want to know what was going to happen.

On the other hand I feel like it ended on such a surprisingly high note? I've been loving the fandom reaction to it overall, it's a great final image, and more chapters could easily undercut it in the short term. Plus it's so easy to imagine how another mangaka could emphasize everything I don't like and downplay everything I do like about the story and that would be so tragic.

So I don't know lol. I think maybe I lean slightly towards wanting it to be continued, because hey maybe it could be good, maybe I could still enjoy it a lot, and that would be awesome. Plus I'm sure it would take quite a while to start it back up again so we'd have a long time to bask in this final image before anything new happens.

But yeah I can roll with either option, there's pros and cons either way.

#ask #anonymous #b

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I feel like Berserk Western fandom is a prime example of how many Western fans have trouble dealing with nuance and conflict. Just look at how popular H*nnigram and V*llaneve are vs how controversial hero/villain ships are. It's because the first two are seen as ~people being evil together~, so there's neither nuance nor conflict (even though there is. Will has his own moral compass and feels guilt and remorse and yet still loves Hannibal). Most people cannot fathom that Guts, Griffith and 1/2

and their relationship-Pre and Post-Eclipse-may be more complicated that they give them credit for. I can only imagine the reactions if Miura decides to fully blur the hero/villain lines while simultaneously going full Griffguts on main. 2/2 

I think there’s definitely a big issue in western fandom that’s been getting more and more prominent over the last decade from my perspective, with black and white thinking and over moralizing and inability to deal with nuance etc lol, but idk hannigram is a good example.

I can’t really speak about villaneve fans bc I wasn’t really into the Killing Eve fandom but I know that hannigram fandom was largely awesome at its peak and very good at interesting nuance and refraining from didactic moralizing, and while there were a lot of fans who were into Hannigram as two dudes being evil together, there were also a lot of fans who didn’t simplify their relationship down to that and definitely kept Will’s moral compass, or alternately really leaned on the evil manipulative Hannibal/wooby victim Will take, etc. Plus a lot of Hannibal fans back while it was airing hated hannigram because it was dark and ~unhealthy~ and most jumped ship during season 3 when it became obvious that it was still romanticized and the focus of the show, so it’s not like it was uncontroversial, hannigram just prevailed bc the creators were so heavily in favour of it. So yk basically I think that while a lot of western fans do have giant issues wrt ships with conflict lol it still varies from fandom to fandom to a greater or lesser extent, and Hannibal fandom (circa 2015-18ish at least) was actually a bit of an oasis from that from my perspective.

Buuut all that said that’s not really the main point of your ask anyway lol so sorry about the tangent, I just wanted to defend my best fandom experience in recent years.

SO yeah overall I mostly agree, trying to flatten the characters and all the nuance in the story as much as possible and force it into a black and white mould is definitely a huge annoying thing in western Berserk fandom, and honestly yeah I’d also enjoy seeing Miura do the exact opposite and bring Guts and Griffith back together while continuing to write both as morally grey in comparative ways.

Tho that said I do think it’s important to draw a distinction between say fans who attack other fans on the basis of fictional morality vs fans who just personally stop liking a character/ship after one of their lines is crossed. Like I completely understand why berserk isn’t a big fandom for fic and why griffguts isn’t a juggernaut ship lol, it sucks but I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to fuck with a ship involving two monstery rapey dudes. But yeah the huge vocal chunk of fandom that loves to call Griffith fans rape apologists in one breath while proclaiming that Guts deserves Casca’s affection in the next definitely has an issue with comprehending media that isn’t black and white good vs evil.

#ask #a #b #theme: fandom #theme: morality #tbf though the ask character limit doesn't exactly make nuance easy lol