This Inconsistently Admirable was Headlined on September 2023.
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“
You're going to be alright, you've just stumbled over a stone in the road, it means nothing, your goal lies far beyond this, doesn't it, I'm sure you'll overcome this you'll walk again soon.
„
~ Guts on beating Griffith
Guts, reputed as the Black Swordsman, is the main protagonist of the Berserk franchise.
He is a mercenary who eventually joins a group called the Band of the Hawk led by Griffith. While a member of this mercenary group, he grows to care for them and finds a purpose after being inspired by Griffith. However, after being betrayed by his best friend, Griffith who became Femto, and watching the Band of the Hawk be devoured by monsters, he begins hunting Apostles and attempts to get revenge on him while also struggling to protect his loved ones.
In Japanese, he has been voiced by Nobutoshi Canna and Hiroaki Iwanaga, the latter of which voices him currently. In English, he has been voiced by Marc Diraison in the 1997 anime and the animated movies, Michael Bell in Sword of Berserk, and Kaiji Tang in the 2017 anime.
Even though he was constantly abused by Gambino, he still loved his adoptive father and only ever wanted Gambino to accept him. The saddest part about this is when Gambino sold Guts out to be raped by Donovan with Donovan telling him that Gambino approved of it, and Guts denied it while being raped.
He feels incredibly sad and guilty over having killed Gambino, even though Gambino was trying to kill him and he only attacked to defend himself.
After becoming a member of the Band of the Hawk, when Casca defuses a situation where the Hawk members attempted to kill Guts while he was sleeping, Guts thanked her for stepping in, even though she'd been very rude to him before.
When Casca accuses Guts of only caring about fighting and not giving a damn about his comrades, Guts is angered by this, and later says to Griffith that he's indeed changed and does care about his soldiers.
He attempts to avenge his fallen comrades when they are killed by Nosferatu Zodd. Then, when Griffith comes to rescue him, he tries to tell Griffith and the others to flee and leave him behind.
Guts shields Casca from an arrow which seriously injures them. Then, when they end up falling into the river, Guts resuscitates her and keeps her warm when she gets a fever.
When surrounded by one hundred men, Guts protects Casca, telling her to go while he holds off the army by himself.
Even when seriously injured from the battle, he refuses to rest, determined to see the campaign through to the very end.
As he sits on the hill and watches over the camp, he reflects on all the dreams everyone in the Band of the Hawk has and how incredible each of their dreams are, admiring all of them.
Despite Corkus constantly mocking him and rejecting him, Guts shows no resentment towards him and still deeply treasures him as one of his closest comrades.
Before leaving the Band of the Hawk, he tells Casca that he hopes things go well between her and Griffith and thanks all of them for everything they've done for him.
When dueling Griffith, he makes sure not to hurt Griffith and tells him to take care before he departs.
Upon learning that the Band of the Hawk had been branded as criminals, he immediately goes to help them, saving Casca from being killed by Silat.
He rejoins the Band of the Hawk to help them rescue Griffith.
When Casca attempts to kill herself by falling off a cliff, Guts rescues her, and before they make love, he offers her comforting words when she expresses insecurity about the scars on her body.
When he sees Griffith's ruined body, he covers him with his cloak to hide his wounds. He then cries and hugs Griffith as he mourns over the damage to his best friend.
He helps save the rescue team from being killed by the Midland soldiers and the Bakiraka.
After seeing that the Blackdog Knights had murdered the villagers who had just helped him, he is deeply enraged by their actions and fights their leader, Wyald, to avenge the villagers.
He singlehandedly fights against Wyald, saving Casca from being raped by him and manages to defeat the Apostle.
After the battle, Guts helps Griffith into his armor and offers him comforting words by assuring him he'd be able to heal himself soon.
When Judeau reveals his plan to start a thieves group to take care of Griffith and to help the remaining Hawks members, Guts wants to join and help Griffith.
He feels tremendous guilt over having left the Band of the Hawk and hurting Griffith through his actions, coming to realize how much they meant to him.
During the Eclipse, he refuses to believe that Griffith would've offered the Band of the Hawk as sacrifices, and even after being branded with the Brand of Sacrifice and seeing the Apostles attack his comrades, he attempts to free Griffith, still refusing to believe he would ever sacrifice them. Though he's forced to flee to protect himself, he still gives a saddened look towards Griffith, feeling guilty about leaving his friend even after seeing that he'd sacrificed the Band of the Hawk.
He attempts to save Casca from being raped, even hacking his own arm off to try and stop Femto from raping Casca.
Black Swordsman Arc[]
He spends at least two years hunting down Apostles and saving any villages who were forced into servitude.
He kills the Snake Baron, saving the town and preventing any more women and children from being sent as offerings to the Apostle.
He tells Collette and her father to stay in their wagon to protect them from demons nearby, although he failed to protect them.
He saved Puck from being killed by one of the Count's knights.
He defeats The Count, avenging Vargas and saving the people of the city from being unfairly persecuted as heretics to appease The Count's sadistic desires.
He saves Theresia to falling to her death.
He sheds tears for Theresia, saddened that her life was ruined and she'd become bitter and vengeful like him.
Conviction Arc[]
When fighting Rosine, he initially hesitates and deliberately misses some of his attacks due to her being a child and hearing Rosine's backstory from her friend, Jill.
He saves Jill and inspires her to change her life by fighting against the world and standing up for herself more.
Despite Farnese having interrogated and tortured him, he still saves her when they are surrounded by evil spirits.
After being scolded by Erica and Godot, he deeply regrets having abandoned Casca to become the Black Swordsman and hunt Apostles, and becomes determined to rescue her and never lose her again.
He apologizes to Rickert for having lashed out at him before for not looking for Casca.
He tries to encourage Isidro, a young boy, not to follow him due to the dangers of being around him.
At the Tower of Conviction, he kills Bishop Mozgus and his servants, putting an end to their regime and all the innocent people tortured by them.
He saves Casca from being burned at the stake by Bishop Mozgus. Then, as evil spirits surround the castle, he embraces her.
Even as the Tower of Conviction is surrounded by dark spirits, Guts does not give in to fear, instructing all of the survivors on what to do and helping all of them survive the Reincarnation Ceremony.
Though he attempts to charge after Griffith upon seeing him reincarnated, he stops himself when he remembers Casca and takes her to safety.
Upon returning to the cave, he is saddened by Godot's death and wishes he could've seen him once more before he died.
He is absolutely disgusted by Femto's callousness towards the demise of the Band of the Hawk and that he felt absolutely nothing over having betrayed them all.
Falcon Millennium Arc[]
He takes Casca to Puck's home to protect her from the evil spirits, protecting her from evil spirits as they make their way to the elf island.
When Isidro, Farnese and Serpico come to join his group, he accepts their help, not wanting to let himself lose control and hurt Casca again. He also holds no resentment towards Farnese or Serpico for their past actions, noting that he'd killed their comrades so they were even.
He acts as a mentor to Isidro, teaching him swordsmanship and sparring with him while giving him advice on how to fight.
Guts helps protect the village of Enoch from a group of trolls (although he only agreed to do it after Flora offered him talisman which would decrease the effect of the Brand of Sacifice and protect him and Casca from dark spirits).
When an army of Apostles attacks Flora's home, Guts helps defend it even after he was grievously injured by Slan. Then, when he fights Grunbeld and learns they fight under the Band of the Hawk, Guts is utterly infuriated that Apostles would fight under that name and dishonor the memory of the fallen Band of the Hawk.
He assures Farnese that what she does, taking care of Casca, is extremely helpful.
When the Black Swordsman Party is attacked by crocodile monsters and a giant Makaraka, Guts uses the Berserker Armor to protect his comrades. When he falls under the influence of the Berserker Armor and is restored to sanity, he is enraged that he nearly hurt his comrades and let himself lose control again.
Fantasia Arc[]
When they go to Vritannis to get a ship and sail to Elf Island, they stop at a tavern, and some men start harassing Schierke. Guts defends the young mage from the men.
After Farnese abruptly leaves the party, he sends Puck and Ivalera to perform reconnaissance and learn why she left. They learn that she accepted an arranged marriage in exchange for getting a boat for them, but Guts refuses to accept the offer, not wanting to have Farnese leave the group. He then goes with the rest of them to Farnese's home to bring her back.
When Guts arrives at the elegant party, he helps defend several of the guests from astral monsters.
Alongside Serpico and Schierke, Guts helps fend off the army of pishacha.
Guts refuses to accept being a servant of the Apostle Emperor Ganishka, and later works alongside Zodd to eliminate Ganishka's Apostle form.
Though he initially becomes enraged upon hearing from Zodd that Femto was nearby and intended to try and kill him, Guts dismisses it, not wanting to risk the safety of his crew.
Together with Schierke, Guts manages to eliminate the Sea God and save everyone on the ship from being killed.
When they finally reach Elfheim, Guts reflects and thanks all the members of his crew for helping him on the journey.
After Casca's mind restored, Guts keeps his distance from her in spite of his own desire to reunite with her for the sake her mental well-being since she is still severely traumatized from the horrors of the Eclipse.
When Femto suddenly appears before Guts and his crew, Guts quickly tries to kill him, knowing that Femto is going to send more danger if he doesn't initiate soon enough, which happens with Zodd coming onto the scene.
As Guts was about strike Femto down, he stops himself because of Casca being held by Femto.
As the Beast of Darkness further insists on him to give into his rage, Guts does all he can to resist it.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
He is a literal berserker, with a very lethal and brutal fighting style. He often cannot hold his unstoppable rage and gives his opponent extremely brutal deaths.
Given the harsh and awful abuse Guts had to go through with his entire life with first being from his adoptive father Gambino and what the world has molded him to be, the results made Guts to be far too lethal, having killed hundreds of soldiers during his time as a mercenary in a gory manner and generally showing no remorse for the deaths he has caused. This gets worse when his best friend Griffith becomes Femto who sacrificed nearly all of his comrades to be devoured by the Apostles and raped his lover Casca, thus making Guts considerably bitter, cold, merciless and apathetic towards others with no qualms about killing anyone who gets in his way.
He performed an assassination mission to kill Julius under Griffith's orders, though in this case Julius had attempted to kill Griffith so it's somewhat justified, then kills Julius' son, Adonis. Although he didn't realize Adonis was a child until it is too late and mortified because of this, he was ready to kill the witness entering the door without even checking who it was.
Guts had no problems killing the thieves hired by Griffith and the royal conspirators as part of Griffith's dirty work, nor did he have any problem with Griffith having a child kidnapped and used as blackmail. When Griffith asked him if what he was doing was immoral and if he was cruel for having Guts do all the dirty work, Guts commented that all of these actions were simply part of the path of Griffith's dream and it was pointless to question it. This answer would have major negative consequences, since it was basically implying to Griffith that he could do whatever he want to achieve his dream. The God Hand would use this memory to help manipulate Griffith and convince him it was okay to sacrifice the Band of the Hawk.
One month after the Eclipse, Guts tried to initiate sexual contact with Casca despite her mentally regrassed state, although he was ashamed of his actions afterwards.
He chooses to leave Casca and go on a quest to hunt down the Apostles and kill Femto despite knowing Casca has mentally regressed and would need protection from the evil spirits that haunted her.
He is extremely rude towards Puck, referring to him as a bug and constantly deriding him as a weakling and showing no gratitude for healing him. He also hits him multiple times for little to no reason.
He allows an entire village to be attacked and slaughtered by the Snake Baron and his forces, showing no concern over endangering their lives, saying that someone who dies getting caught is someone else's fight is a "small fry" who doesn't have the strength to survive.
He endangers a priest and his daughter Collette by going on a ride with them despite knowing the consequences of being near him, even internally saying it didn't matter what happened to them, although he became extremely shocked when they died and it's made clear that he didn't really want them to die.
When Vargas saves Guts from a group of soldiers and gives him a guide to the castle to kill The Count, Guts shows no gratitude, mocking him for his appearance despite Guts having gone through the same pain and mutilation and physically confronting him when he learns he had a Behelit. He later demands the Behelit, and tells Puck that he would've taken it by force had Vargas not complied.
He uses Theresia, the young daughter of The Count, as a human shield and to deliver the final blow to The Count. He then takes The Count's head to show Theresia and torture the Count, threatening to kill Puck if he interfered.
He offers Theresia a knife to kill herself if the pain was too much for her, and encourages her to take revenge against him, though this was done as his way of giving Theresia a purpose to live the only way he knew how.
When he arrives at a village attacked by ravenous elves, Guts uses a young child as bait to lure the elves into a location where he could eliminate all of them.
He uses Jill as a hostage to get himself out of the village. Then, when Jill is taken by Rosine, he uses her as a hostage again during the fight to gain another opening to attack.
During their journey to the elf island island, Guts sexually assaulted and almost raped Casca. Even though this was influenced by the Beast of Darkness, he was still in control as he later snapped out of it and appalled by his actions.
Even when gaining new companions, he is still rather selfish and cold, often being resistant towards helping innocent people if it gets in the way of their goals, and when he retrieved Farnese at her family's elegant party, he was even prepared to abandon the guests at the party despite knowing that dangerous tiger monsters were attacking.
Trivia[]
Guts is one of two Berserk characters so far to be Inconsistently Admirable, along with Griffith prior to becoming Pure Evil.
According to the official Guidebook stats, Guts has lackluster Socialability, a good idea on why this is to be so is because of how he was mainly built for combat, lacking social skills outside of who are the most personally close to him, with the post-Eclipse apathy moral prevention assuring this.
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