A cold analysis about Corkus.
Hello guys, I'm new here and relatively new to Berserk, as I watched the anime 4 months ago and blazed through the manga about a week later.
I've recently finished a second run and one character really hit me differently in this rereading. As you can guess, I'm talking about Corkus, but NOT as a character: as a warrior.
From what I get, most people really think he is just an weak and pushy mercenary from the Hawks that survived due to being in the same "team" as Griffith, Pippin, Judeau, Guts and Casca.
But the thing is:
He's been a member of the Hawks before even Casca joined and lasted until the Eclipse, when he died by the hands of an Apostle after suffering a mental breakdown.
When the Band became big enough to be considered an army, Griffith chose him to be a Unit Commander. The same rank as Judeau, Pippin, Guts and Casca.
When a transformed Zodd attacked the kneeled soldiers with the crossbows, Corkus was able to swiftly escape death again.
There is a small panel during the Doldrey Arc where he is seen trading hits with a Purple Rhino Knight and managing to hold his own using his short sword against a halberd.
After the downfall of the Hawks, Corkus was still there alongside his fellow Unit Commanders and survived many battles without Griffith and Guts.
He is the first one to cower or be pessimistic, but alas... he is there. Even being "weak willed", Corkus somehow makes it.
Of course, any of this is hardly flashy and some people may not even think twice to say that Corkus is just a "normal guy". Well he certainly does not have Pippin's brute force and physicality, Casca's swordsmanship and technique, Judeau's precision and dexterity, yet... he never refrained himself from speaking his mind and talked with those monsters on the same page, except Griffith.
For instance... without any special talent, a guy that came from scratch was able to match a Knight from the strongest unit of Tudor, was clearly a cut above the "average guy". He crossed paths with Griffith and, as it was said, was put on his place... yet, Griffith allowed this petty guy on his band and eventually came to trust him enough to give him a commanding role in his own army.
Corkus was never a man of highlights, but at the same time he was a man that without any "apparent special talent" survived each battle while somehow being able to distinguish himself well enough to be given an commanding role in one of the strongest armies of the show. Of course all this does not prove he may or not may be a very strong warrior by the human standards... I myself kept wondering if he was just THAT good at avoiding danger. But I really can't see Griffith allowing a "coward", or a "weak willed" warrior into his group and eventually even making him a Unit Commander, as Corkus had to be useful for him and his dream.
While this probably means nothing... I came to consider Corkus as a peak elite human warrior that had the ability to be extremely efficient while using solid basic skills and good warfare knowledge and battle IQ.
So using a guy that is often considered a strong "normal" soldier - Gaston - to compare... I think that Corkus is way above him, since he was trusted enough by Griffith to be a Unit Commander of a frontline vanguard and might have been really the "sixth man" of the Hawks in individual combat after Griffith, Guts, Casca, Judeau and Pippin.