r/Berserk

In the words of Hellpockets at EVO 2017 KOF XIV Grand Finals: "DON'T WAKE DADDY!!"

Did see this posted here. Sorry if this is a duplicate. But the next chapter is due out June 12th.

I never post on Reddit or anywhere for that matter but I have put together an INSANE theory in my head that might explain why Griffith did the unspeakable and a little bit more on how the eclipse works. I can’t put everything together myself but I hope this post opens a can of worms for people smarter and more knowledgeable of berserk to build on. I couldn’t find anybody else talk about this on the internet but let me know if it’s already been previously discussed.

Recently rereading berserk I realized how each core member of the band of the hawk fall victim to one of the seven deadly sins. The rest of this theory is pretty ambiguous and not built on fact but nevertheless I 100% believe miura at least based the characters off sins for biblical symbolism or something because of how well they fit.

Griffith = pride
Casca = envy
Guts = wrath
Judeau = sloth
Pippin = gluttony
Corkus = lust
Rickert = greed?

I feel most of these are self explanatory but I’ll go over each one for clarity

Griffith is pretty much the human embodiment of pride, which i remind you is considered the root of all sin in Christianity (and he turns out to becoming a demon god)

Casca is very envious of guts throughout almost the entire golden age, and also constantly complains about being born a woman (she’s envious of men)

Guts as wrath is pretty obvious, he gets mad easily and turns to violence whenever someone steps in his path

Judeau as sloth was the first lightbulb for me in this theory because at first he doesn’t scream any of these considering we think of him as like a perfect dude but looking at his backstory it makes perfect sense. He admits to guts he was born gifted at everything he tried but was never able to become a master of anything even with that gift. He’s the jack of all trades master of none. He also says that he once dreamed of becoming great but gave up on it to serve griffiths dream. Not to mention him never confessing his feelings to casca. When he’s dying he literally says, “im all talk” after being too injured to continue on. it’s tragic to think about but judeau really struggled putting himself first and stepping outside of his comfort zone which is why i think he perfectly fits sloth.

Pippin I don’t have much to say about other than the fact that he’s a big dude. I’ll talk more about how he fits gluttony in a bit though

Corkus is like the quagmire of berserk and constantly makes lustful remarks about women so yeah not much else here to say about him

Greed is where this theory gets crazy. I was originally stumped thinking about this considering rickert in no way aligns with greed or really any of the options. When you think about it rickert is actually a pretty sinless character overall considering he was just a kid when all of this went down. He was also the only band of the hawk member who was not sacrificed. Coincidence? His exclusion of the eclipse raises a lot of questions about the godhand considering void talks about the line between destiny and self governance. Maybe rickert was spared because he hadn’t yet fallen victim to sin or was never destined to fall to sin because someone already took his slot. nevertheless rickert is certainly the wildcard of the hawk considering he was the only one left out of the eclipse which is why I believe he doesn’t fit in any sin category. I will talk more about rickert soon but I need to address the elephant in the room first.

Who is greed? If rickert isn’t greed who else could possibly fit that role. Gaston? I mean he talks about wanting to start his own tailoring business and is in the band of the hawk to make money. That doesn’t hold up because 1, it’s not inherently greedy to want to start a business and 2, he literally leaves his business to come back to the hawk for help after Griffith is imprisoned, showcasing he values putting his friends and loved ones over money.

So who is it? After while of thinking I think I figured it out. Who is the only person known to survive the eclipse beside guts and casca. Only one human is theorized to have made it out that suspiciously fits greed pretty well. Nothing is definitive of skull knights backstory, but it’s pretty much confirmed he was once king gaiseric, a king who lived a life of luxury while exponentially increasing the taxes on his people. His downfall was literally due to his greediness which is why I 100% believe him to be the missing piece. Maybe skull knight surviving the eclipse put a hold on the need for another person to be greed (rickert) to fulfill the sacrifice.

Maybe in order to be a godhand member you must sacrifice every sin and the reason Griffith didn’t need to sacrifice greed is because there was already a branded greed out there who hadn’t yet died.

Another thing that re affirms this theory is the manner of how each core member dies in the eclipse. Think about it, corkus sees the hot woman and is overtaken by lust in his last moments placing his face in her breasts before he dies. Same with judeau; his last thoughts are “there were so many things I wanted to tell you” never confessing his feelings because he didn’t have the mental strength to do so, not to mention what I said earlier about how he says im all talk in failure of his effort to keep fighting till death. Pippin is literally HOLLOWED OUT from the inside making his last moments symbolizing hunger and emptiness in his body. It’s up for debate but Griffith’s humanity died once he was engulfed by the ultimate sin, pride, and was reborn into a god.

This gets crazier when you think of how guts and casca were gonna die. guts was going to die the angriest and most wrathful he had ever been, and casca being violated in that much pain would have her wish she was born a man to the nth degree. Casca’s certainly isn’t as clear as guts’ but how else would someone die consumed in envy during the eclipse. It’s fucked up but what better way to make a woman wish she was never born a woman by brutally raping her.

I think this would be perfect reasoning as to why Griffith would even bother to do the unspeakable in the first place. Guts was already angry but what did casca have to be envious about when everyone else was dying? maybe the apostles also violating her prior to all this were building up those emotions in guts and casca just for Griffith to finish it off.

This could also explain why Griffith was so disturbed seeing guts and casca together after they saved him. Casca was slowly calming guts’ anger by comforting him and guts was finally letting her feel like a woman: they were cancelling out each others sins. I’m not gonna claim Griffith knew all of this pre eclipse but maybe there was an instinctual disturbance to seeing this given to him by the god hand as a warning that their relationship could be the fall of his dream.

Maybe this is the reason why Griffith keeps guts alive in a perpetual state of anger, and with his recent capture of casca who knows what he plans on doing to her now that she has her conscious restored. Maybe Griffith gets stronger the stronger the sin of the sacrificed or something. Maybe because rickert is sinless he is able to slap Griffith while guts is powerless. This would explain the anticipated ending arc of guts somehow defeating Griffith through rejecting hate and embracing love.

I truly do believe this has some sort of merit in the berserk universe due to how well it all lines up. I feel it’s another puzzle piece put in place to understanding the complexity of the berserk universe and I hope those who know more about the lore than I do can find other parallels to this theory. Even if you think of an extension to this that feels like a huge reach tell me anyway I’m very curious. But let me know if I’m crazy and none of this holds up aswell. Thanks for listening to my rambling.