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Speaker 1: Meaning a man like this man letting butterfly, flapping his wing,

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big down in the forest, man and gonna cause the

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tree fall, letting five thousand miles away. Man, nobody seen

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nobody else. You don't need no man. You and you

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got bacted like that. Man, go blackly dang on the panela.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 3: Man, you don't matter man anyway.

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Speaker 4: All right, remis welcome to the Jay Burden Show for

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the first time ever.

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Speaker 3: No thanks for having me on this so first time

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that I've ever been here.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, a little bit of context, guys. Uh, it's been

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a while since I've gone through this and due to

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some fileshare issues, Uh, I had remiss on about two

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weeks ago to record the next series in Berserk. We

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were kind of offset. So we decided did to do

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what I had prepared for, went through it, and then

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this is earlier in the narrative, so you will be

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listening to it first, but chronologically the next segment is

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going to be uh, you know, out afterwards, recorded first

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released second, So a lot of the kind of the

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rooms is we're going over that will be in the

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second part. Uh, So don't feel like this is super jumble,

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just some context there, but yeah, man, I'm glad to

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have you back on.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate you having me. I love having I

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love having this discussion, and also you know you're a

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great host. Thanks. I think it's I think it's I

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think it's funny. I did I kind of like referenced

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this episode in the past, you know what I mean,

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Like when we Yeah, you know what I mean, as

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much as I could, I was like trying to like

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bake in some sort of like time shenanigans. It's like, yeah,

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I'll I'll discuss the things that I said last time,

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this time from the from the past, right. Yeah. I

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think especially this this part of this story is very

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close right to my heart, right, So I love talking

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about it. I love the discussion, and I think it's

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it's pertinent, you know these days, people people like this

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and these kinds of pains are are lessons for a reason,

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you know. So that's why I always say read fucking preserve. Yeah,

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one hundred percent. So just a couple of things. Obviously,

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somewhat similarly to the other episodes, I will be showing

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select panels this this this book is fairly graphic, right,

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so there's certain things I can't show every time I

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put these up, I include a link to where you

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can read them all for free.

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Speaker 4: I recommend it. And yeah, the audience has been champing

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for this one, so let's get straight into it. So

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obviously we're through Black Swordsman, which was sort of a

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you know, a one shot. Everything from now on takes

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place in chronological order in the narrative, and right off

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the bat we are introduced to the birth of Guts.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: So what we see is, and this is something I

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probably can't show, it's a little bit graphic. Is a

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mercenary company, right, all on horseback riding past this tree,

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just covered in corpses, right hanging from the tree, and

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one of the camp followers runs up a woman and

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sees that there's been a baby born from one of

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these bodies, right, a pregnant woman, hung baby, still alive.

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We get a little bit of context there that effectively

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this woman is sort of you know, one of the

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camp followers. She has a relationship with, you know, a

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character will track for the next couple episodes, and yep,

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no shock, right, this is Guts.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 4: What's interesting, you know, is he is technically saved, right

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as part of this mercenary band, but again more foreshadowing,

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one of the kind of nameless goons in the background says,

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you know, picking up a kid at a place like this,

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it's a bad omen right, he's cursed. Is something that

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will you know, continue to be relevant. So it moves

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forward a little bit. We see kind of Guts as

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a young man witnessing the horrors of war, and this

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woman who has sort of taken care of him dies

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horribly of the plague, again rendered in somewhat excruciating detail. Right,

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so quickly, you know, Guts moves into a role you know,

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as you know, it's sort of a guy in this

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mercenary company. It's like a squire, you know, yeah, exactly

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a squire. And we see him somewhat incidentally kill his

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first man at or witness his first I guess, killing

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at you know, six or seven.

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Speaker 3: Right, it's not a child. He a child. I cannot

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be stressed enough. All of the things that happened here

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are happening to a child. This is a little little boy, right, Yeah,

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it's a it's a it's a it's a really really

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brutal introduction to the world that he lives in. Right,

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This is not the kind of thing that a little

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kid is obviously uh want to see. But this is

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his life. And I think, I think the very fact

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that this kid comes out like the name, guts all

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of it. Right, it's all so emblematic. Right, this kid

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is born from death. He has been surrounded by his

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whole life, basically from from from birth to to where

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he is in the story. Now, it's endless suffering, endless

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amounts of of the of the just the dark parts

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of reality. Right, this is no there's there is no

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he doesn't get a filter, he doesn't get you know,

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I mean, so many children, right, at least especially in

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our our era, right our time, it probably it sort

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of prides itself on separating children like almost like keeping

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them in a walled garden, right, And this story does

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not give this child this luxury, right, he does not

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have that. He he doesn't have any like you know,

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we're skimming a bit, right, and that's that's that's good.

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But the nature of the relationship that he has to

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the people who saved him is even that it's like

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it's there's there's almost no closeness, there's no warmth, the

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only warmth he ever really experienced. As a child, was

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with this woman who chose to pick him up in

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the first place. But she dies, really and she dies traumatically,

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and he watches it, you know what I mean. He

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sits there with her, which I think is a beautiful

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aspect of him. He is a deeply empathetic person already

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as a child. Right, he sits with this woman as

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she's dying, holds her, holds her. Right. Everyone's telling him,

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don't touch her, you could get sick, and he just doesn't.

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It doesn't even register for him, right. I love that

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aspect of Guts as a character. Really, it really shows

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you early what kind of person he really is, right

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he he he care Like if he feels a debt

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to you, he will be there, right, he will be

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there to foreshadow early and there he is the eponymous Gambino,

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our guy, the dad, this kid's father figure. Like look

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at this, right, corpse is thrown upon him. He freaks

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out a little bit, and the first reaction that Gambino

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has is hitting him in the face with the with

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his with the butt of his spear and going, you're

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trying to get me killed, right, Like this guy has

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no mercy, right, complete complete, like completely callous psycho person. Right,

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no mercy for a child. He doesn't give a fuck,

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and that's got his life, that's his upbringing, right, this

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is his this is his reality is bloodshed, combat, war,

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and that's all he's ever known and no real closeness,

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no real warmth. Go ahead, sir, and we get some

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more sort of autistic artistic excuse me flexing from your

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throughout this whole arc. Uh.

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Speaker 4: The art continues to get better and better, and a

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lot of the sieges in this are exceptionally well drawn,

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Like this isn't even a full spread, right, this is

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just one panel at the top, and it is very

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very well drawn. So again, right, we see Guts pulling

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a tooth out. Obviously he's in bad shape, and we

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skip forward to Guts training, right, training, as we find out,

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with real sorts, you know, even his his you know,

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the other mercenaries are basically saying like, what are you doing?

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Speaker 3: Like he's said, you know, you're a fucking psycho. Yeah

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that's a six year old. What are you? What are

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you doing?

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Speaker 4: And it is not gentle training beating this poor kid? Yes, uh,

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And again that idea that you know, he's got to

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earn his keep and he is a mercenary and attitude

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we will see you know, guts carry forward. So again

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we're starting to see you know guts and this is

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foreshadowing for later using an adult sized sword as a kid,

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the same proportions, right, that he will carry over the

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rest of the career, that stubbornness and that that need

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to prove himself absolutely, And again we see guts able

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to mark Gambino, right, he's he's got heart to him

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and so he you know, hits him on the chin and.

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Speaker 3: And this is the measure of Gambino as a human

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being right here. This is who he is. He is

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he's trying to see like like he gives he gives

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this fucking bullshit, you know what I mean, like like

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like a facade of I'm trying to train him. Nah

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this this guy just likes hurting people, right, and he

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likes feeling strong, and he likes uh and he and

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he cannot take being insulted or disrespected in any way right,

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in a minor way, exactly as soon as this kid

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lands something which even though it's drawing blood from you, bro,

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you're a mercenary, like what you can't take that? Are you?

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Kidding me, Right, even though he draws blood from from him,

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this should be a moment of like, damn kid, you're

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actually like, holy shit, right, but no, it's an immediate,

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immediate censure. Right. And not only that he gives he

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marks him for the rest of his life. And this,

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this is this is Guts his iconic scar across the nose, right,

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Like this is like part of his face.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 3: This is where he gets it right here from his dad,

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quote unquote. Right, this is what this kid grew up with.

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This is what he had to look forward to. Once

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you see this, everything about black Stordesman starts to make

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a little bit more sense. Right, You're like, oh, okay,

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all right, this kid didn't really have much of a shot.

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I'm surprised he's alive. Is basically how this goes at

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this point, right, But yeah, this is a moment. This

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is a really pivotal moment. Right here cuts the bridge

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of his nose, gives him the scar, and he learns.

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He learns in that moment, right, And I think, I

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think if I if I'm correct, not long after that

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is when you see Guts go to sleep with the

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so or holding the blade, right, Because that's all he has.

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It's the only thing in his life that won't that

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that isn't betraying him, that doesn't hurt him for the

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things that he does that doesn't that doesn't. And look,

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anybody out there has that has undergone abuse from a

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parent's right, I I am lucky enough that or you know,

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I am. I had a sort of normal childhood, right uh,

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And many of us out there did. But there are

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people who had parents like this man that that were

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that were essentially antagonists in their lives that did not

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provide any form of real nurturing structure anything like that.

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Imagine what kind of fucking piece of shit you have

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to be to try to compete with your kid as

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a child. Right, These people exist by the thousand. So

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this shot, this right here is like this is so heartbreaking, right,

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Like cold blade is the only thing that this kid

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has that is just brutal. Right, that's all he can trust,

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That's all he can rely on. And that's the reason

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that he is the way he is. Right. He learns

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very very early, I don't have anybody but my ability

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to see myself in the you know, safe in the world.

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I can't rely on anybody else for that and that

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is yeah, very hard not not very far in the future. Yes,

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and this is another another shot like this one right

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here we will see repeated over and over again. Right.

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Speaker 4: Mirror is very good about doing callbacks to you know,

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kind of these iconic moments. You will see Guts in

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this pose again and again. I mean really even going

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up to you know, issues that have come out in

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the last year. Rh So, yeah, I just wanted to

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show that because that's that's sort of an iconic image.

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Will keep seeing going forward a little bit, we see

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another sort of characterization of Guts, which is how he trs.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: This will be echoed actually in the same recording. You're

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gonna be listening to you several issues ahead of this.

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But we see that Guts is dedicated to training, right,

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he is becoming you know, strong and disciplined with this

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massive sword. Right, and we get a little bit of

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an insight where he's thinking about it and he says,

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when I'm swinging this sword, I don't have to think

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about anything.

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Speaker 3: Right.

237
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Speaker 4: The idea he can throw himself into combat and not

238
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have to you know, think about the you know, his

239
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,480
negative experience is something that the pain continue to do exactly.

240
00:13:37,279 --> 00:13:42,799
Uh so Gambino shows up right basically, you know, yeah,

241
00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,919
personally feels some fucking shame the first time that he

242
00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:51,120
actually shows that he's not just purely a piece of garbage.

243
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Speaker 3: There's some form of redeeming. But at the same time,

244
00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:57,120
who knows, Like I personally, I feel like he was

245
00:13:57,159 --> 00:13:59,279
probably shamed into doing this by the other mercenaries, you

246
00:13:59,279 --> 00:14:01,120
know what I mean, Like, I feel like he definitely

247
00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:02,879
didn't want to do this, and that's why he doesn't

248
00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:07,519
treat it with any form of kindness or warmth. He's

249
00:14:07,559 --> 00:14:09,559
just like, take this shit, you know what I mean,

250
00:14:09,639 --> 00:14:11,440
I be glad that I did it, you know what

251
00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:14,559
I mean? Like, that's that's the way he responds to this, right.

252
00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:18,240
He genuinely does not feel any obligation through this child whatsoever.

253
00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:22,000
Speaker 4: And we get kind of a touching moment where you

254
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:25,840
can see that Guts is like he's starts smiling, right,

255
00:14:25,919 --> 00:14:28,240
It's one of the very few moments we see him smile.

256
00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:28,879
Speaker 3: You know.

257
00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:31,320
Speaker 4: Is again something is as simple as being given a

258
00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,480
little bit of medicine for you know, these wounds that

259
00:14:34,559 --> 00:14:39,240
his father has given him. Back to another siege scene. Again,

260
00:14:39,519 --> 00:14:42,399
the art is just so good right. This is an

261
00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,480
amazing panel of kind of like late medieval warfare. You

262
00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:48,840
see the very crude cannons right as they're attacking this keep.

263
00:14:49,399 --> 00:14:52,240
But right, this is a little bit further ahead. You

264
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:55,759
see you know, Gambino leaning his men into this kind

265
00:14:55,759 --> 00:14:59,519
of breach in the wall, and somewhat later Guts, right,

266
00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:05,480
he has joined the mercenary company. Uh, so basically they're

267
00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:06,840
charging up into the gap.

268
00:15:06,919 --> 00:15:07,200
Speaker 3: Again.

269
00:15:07,519 --> 00:15:10,159
Speaker 4: Just great art if you're a nerd for you know,

270
00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:13,360
medieval arms and armor. There's a lot to pick out here, right,

271
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,440
and even you know, very minor characters in the back

272
00:15:16,519 --> 00:15:18,919
are drawn in a lot of detail.

273
00:15:19,039 --> 00:15:23,840
Speaker 3: Loving care, loving care on everything on screen or on pana.

274
00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:27,600
Speaker 4: And we see something that is is echoed later, right,

275
00:15:27,639 --> 00:15:30,159
which is, you know, Guts sort of ability to fight

276
00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:34,080
guys much larger than him. So he's fighting full grown

277
00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:36,799
men in full armor instead of his kind of you know,

278
00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:39,840
scrappy uh, you know, his kind of scrappy get up,

279
00:15:40,279 --> 00:15:45,559
and we see Guts kill his first man, right, and

280
00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:50,519
shortly afterwards, right again recurring recurring bit, uh, after he

281
00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:54,960
kills this guy a much bigger, a bigger guy yeah,

282
00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:59,720
shows up and just starts beating him. And Gambido comes

283
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:03,600
to his rescue and we get a lesson, right, he says,

284
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,639
you know, this isn't practice. After you've killed someone, move on,

285
00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:11,480
watch your back, right. So an interesting characterization moment there.

286
00:16:11,519 --> 00:16:14,399
We see Guts disturbed by the fact that he is,

287
00:16:14,919 --> 00:16:17,440
you know, he's killed someone, and not only is Gambino

288
00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:19,320
telling him to tough it up, but that was not

289
00:16:19,399 --> 00:16:22,000
an honorable thing. He snuck up behind this guy and

290
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,720
stabbed him in the back. So getting more characterization of

291
00:16:24,799 --> 00:16:25,720
Gambino as well.

292
00:16:26,879 --> 00:16:32,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, Gambino is the he is the archetypal practical cell sword.

293
00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:35,519
He's there to kill people for money. He doesn't care.

294
00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,080
But he's on a knight's He's not you know, you know,

295
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:40,480
I mean honor and chivalry. None of that means anything

296
00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:43,759
to him. He is there for the paycheck and the

297
00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:47,000
and his work is killing people. It's as simple as that.

298
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:49,559
He doesn't care how he does it. The most important

299
00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:52,919
thing to him is making sure that he survives and

300
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:54,840
killing whatever guy's in front of him so that he

301
00:16:54,879 --> 00:16:57,039
can get paid. It's as simple as that, right, And

302
00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,919
he instills these kinds of values in as much as

303
00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:03,720
he can. Like he he tries to make sure that

304
00:17:03,799 --> 00:17:08,440
this kid. There is a sense in which Gambino is

305
00:17:08,559 --> 00:17:11,759
like deep tough love. He's like this, you know, it's

306
00:17:11,799 --> 00:17:14,279
it's by no means would you want a person to

307
00:17:14,319 --> 00:17:17,400
treat you like this? Right, But it doesn't change the

308
00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,759
fact that Gambino is actually, to a degree, trying to

309
00:17:20,799 --> 00:17:24,000
prepare this child for the kind of life that he's

310
00:17:24,039 --> 00:17:26,880
going to have to live. Listen, being a mercenary a

311
00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:29,720
self sort is not an easy fucking life at all.

312
00:17:30,039 --> 00:17:31,880
So he's like, why why the hell am I bringing

313
00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:33,440
this kid into this? Like that was his whole point

314
00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:36,119
to begin with with with uh with the woman which

315
00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:38,000
I I don't remember her name now, I think it's

316
00:17:38,079 --> 00:17:38,480
Hi Shu.

317
00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,279
Speaker 4: I'm not miss if I'm not mistaken, so uh.

318
00:17:42,279 --> 00:17:44,240
Speaker 3: Something like that. I think it's yeah, it's sort of

319
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:49,359
a sea or something, you know. Regardless she he is like,

320
00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:50,880
why am I gonna have another mouse? Feed?

321
00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:51,799
Speaker 2: Like?

322
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,319
Speaker 3: This is not a life for a child. Man, We're

323
00:17:54,359 --> 00:17:56,559
a mercenary, ban you're gonna bring a baby like what

324
00:17:56,559 --> 00:18:00,079
are you crazy? Right to and to a degree, he's right, right,

325
00:18:00,119 --> 00:18:02,039
And then she dies and he has to take care

326
00:18:02,079 --> 00:18:04,319
of this kid, right, So he's like, I knew that

327
00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:06,079
this was going to happen, and that's why he's so

328
00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:08,759
resentful of Guts, That's why he treats him so poorly. Right,

329
00:18:09,279 --> 00:18:12,880
you can understand this character right again, Mirror is very good.

330
00:18:13,079 --> 00:18:16,160
He doesn't like even when they seem like cartoon villains,

331
00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:19,160
they're not right there. There's something going on under the

332
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:22,319
hood there. So Gambino is interesting, but it doesn't change

333
00:18:22,319 --> 00:18:24,119
the fact that he's effectively a piece of shit to

334
00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,559
this kid. Right, It makes no real difference to Guts' experience,

335
00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:31,079
but that is what his concern is is, kid, you

336
00:18:31,279 --> 00:18:34,720
have to be able to survive or else you're just meat.

337
00:18:35,079 --> 00:18:38,400
Like what's the point? Right, And you see it. You

338
00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:40,000
see it in Guts. Look at look at his Look

339
00:18:40,039 --> 00:18:45,480
at his demeanor, like that's ten year old. Look at

340
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:50,200
the next Yeah, the next scene right is after the

341
00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:51,920
battle will kill you. Yeah, yep.

342
00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:55,839
Speaker 4: The mercenaries are having their their plunder, you know, divide

343
00:18:55,839 --> 00:18:58,319
it up. You know, we see obviously the mercenary is

344
00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:03,519
sort of carrousing and drinking, and you know, Gambino shared

345
00:19:03,599 --> 00:19:06,559
some of the spoils, right, basically says like all right,

346
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:08,839
like you're you're part of this and we see this.

347
00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:12,839
You know he's he could a faint smile from Guts, right,

348
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:17,880
he obviously very proud of, you know, his reward. And

349
00:19:18,039 --> 00:19:22,119
we get there looking is one of the most infamous

350
00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:26,759
panels in the history of manga, is this guy. Yeah,

351
00:19:26,799 --> 00:19:30,079
so we're gonna have to talk around this, right, Uh,

352
00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:31,920
We're gonna have to talk around this. And in the

353
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:35,359
next part you hear us mentioning that that Guts does

354
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,200
not like to be touched.

355
00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:38,559
Speaker 3: Uh.

356
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:42,799
Speaker 4: Basically what happens is, uh, while you know, Guts is

357
00:19:42,839 --> 00:19:47,880
in his room, that figure Donovan uh comes in and

358
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:51,599
you know, forces himself upon you know, Guts as a child.

359
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:55,480
Speaker 3: Right. It's uh. I don't want to say it's tastefully done,

360
00:19:56,039 --> 00:19:59,960
but it is horribly graphic. I think it's a taste

361
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,200
It is pretty much you can get depicting that, right.

362
00:20:04,839 --> 00:20:07,519
A lot of people complain about the depictions of of

363
00:20:07,519 --> 00:20:10,720
of Uh. I don't know what terms are best to

364
00:20:10,839 --> 00:20:15,720
use here. I'm gonna's sexual assault. Well, yes, sexual sexual assault.

365
00:20:15,799 --> 00:20:20,319
Right that it's a lot of people and they're mostly women,

366
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:25,240
and women are gay. It complain about the depictions of

367
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:29,519
sexual violence in Braserk. At no point in Berzerk does

368
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:32,480
he glorify these acts? Does he make them seem like

369
00:20:32,519 --> 00:20:34,480
they're a sick thing that you should want to do.

370
00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,480
It is always pure victimization of innocence, right, especially this

371
00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:41,759
main character, who is also a child by the way,

372
00:20:43,279 --> 00:20:47,079
there he is, that's that right after that's yeah what happens.

373
00:20:47,079 --> 00:20:49,200
Had been meaning on that walk for a long time,

374
00:20:50,359 --> 00:20:53,279
but yes, that's what happens. And not only that. The

375
00:20:53,319 --> 00:20:56,039
most important aspect of this not just that this happens

376
00:20:56,079 --> 00:21:01,240
to him. Donovan makes it. Donovan says explicit to Guts,

377
00:21:01,759 --> 00:21:06,599
Gambino sold you, yeah, like for three means yeah, why you?

378
00:21:06,759 --> 00:21:09,640
Why are you fighting me? You? I paid for this?

379
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:17,559
Right that breaks this child. It's not the act, it's

380
00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:21,000
the knowledge that it was sanctioned by the person that

381
00:21:21,039 --> 00:21:25,480
this kid relies upon and sees as a father. That

382
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:30,559
is what breaks this kid. He he It takes a

383
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:33,720
long time for Guts to be able to be normal

384
00:21:34,079 --> 00:21:37,279
after this. And I wouldn't even say that he's normal.

385
00:21:37,319 --> 00:21:40,240
They would agree, right, yeah, I would say relatively fine,

386
00:21:40,279 --> 00:21:43,960
Like he can accept people putting their hand on him,

387
00:21:44,319 --> 00:21:46,359
you know what I mean? It takes him forever, But

388
00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:47,920
this is why.

389
00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:52,839
Speaker 4: So obviously you see again, you know guts after the

390
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:57,480
after the crime, you know, just completely you know, mentally broken.

391
00:21:58,079 --> 00:22:02,200
And it comes back to you know, Gambino, right, he

392
00:22:02,599 --> 00:22:04,960
goes to confront him. He has his sword in hand,

393
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:11,240
looking at him, and apparently Gambino denies, like at least

394
00:22:11,279 --> 00:22:14,799
plays dump right, kind of casting doubt on this, you know,

395
00:22:14,839 --> 00:22:19,160
and he believes, at least for now, Gambino had no

396
00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,000
knowledge of it, right, obviously upset, but seemingly he was

397
00:22:22,039 --> 00:22:24,680
going to confront his father, you know, bring some kind

398
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,680
of justice. But at least for now, the assumption is

399
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:32,119
that's not the case. So fast forward a little bit, right,

400
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:34,720
we see, you know, the mercenary company on the move

401
00:22:35,599 --> 00:22:39,480
and you know, obviously Donovan over gots his shoulder kind

402
00:22:39,519 --> 00:22:42,759
of you know, leering at him, and then you know,

403
00:22:42,799 --> 00:22:44,880
the charge is off. Right, So there's sort of this

404
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:49,240
chaotic battle scene skipping through it again, very well illustrated.

405
00:22:49,839 --> 00:22:52,240
But as they go to chase some uh, you know,

406
00:22:52,319 --> 00:22:54,799
some of the stragglers, right, some people fleeing. You know,

407
00:22:54,839 --> 00:22:58,400
Donovan is is just mashing these guys with the giant axe.

408
00:22:59,079 --> 00:23:01,359
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he gets hit

409
00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:05,160
with a crossbow and guts the standing behind him right, obviously,

410
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,559
with just murder in his eyes, just looking for revenge.

411
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:14,559
He shoots him, puts him out right and as he's

412
00:23:14,599 --> 00:23:16,839
he's got, you know, a bolt in the guy's face,

413
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:20,640
he's dying, his sword over top of him. He basically says,

414
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:22,799
like all rights, who sold me out? He got to

415
00:23:22,839 --> 00:23:27,680
tell me? And he kills right nothing, just cold blooded

416
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:31,200
again something we will see from Guts, you know, manys.

417
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:34,559
Speaker 3: This is where the black Swordsman is born is in

418
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:39,039
these moments. This is where this kid learns one. He

419
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:44,920
realizes what one. He can't do anything about what happened

420
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:48,480
to him. All he can do is feel the pain

421
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,759
and the anger and the rage. Right, the the the

422
00:23:53,039 --> 00:23:56,440
pressure that is built internally upon a person that has

423
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:58,799
this kind of saying happened to them? Right, You don't

424
00:23:59,279 --> 00:24:03,000
you can't keep that internal. It will break out, and

425
00:24:03,039 --> 00:24:05,359
the way in which it manifests for this child is

426
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:10,480
his rage and this stays with him. Right. The reason

427
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:12,680
that I love this arc so much is because this

428
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:21,160
establishes how Guts responds to the world trying to destroy him.

429
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,160
It's one way. He picks up a sword and he

430
00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:28,519
fights it. He goes for it, and he will kill you.

431
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,720
Like right here, he has shown if you have wronged me,

432
00:24:33,799 --> 00:24:38,400
there is no moral system, there's no laws, that none

433
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,359
of that is going to mean anything to me. I'm

434
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:43,599
going to come for you. Right, Guts has already established it.

435
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:48,559
He is willing to act outside of sociality. He is

436
00:24:48,599 --> 00:24:53,400
willing to be outside of what is considered moral to

437
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,720
get the justice that he that he that he that

438
00:24:56,799 --> 00:25:00,960
he believes is correct, and any person would agree with him. Right, Like,

439
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,400
nobody watches that and goes man, Donovan really should have

440
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:09,039
gone through a trial. Nobody, nobody cares. Right, but that

441
00:25:09,039 --> 00:25:12,799
that willingness to go outside of the rules, right, all

442
00:25:12,839 --> 00:25:15,759
of that, that, all of this is building into the

443
00:25:15,759 --> 00:25:17,319
person that we see him as in the Black Sides

444
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:19,880
of an arc. Right, But there is yet more, there

445
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:24,400
is yet more to be inflicted upon this boy, because,

446
00:25:25,519 --> 00:25:28,799
as I've said many times, so many people, Guts had

447
00:25:28,799 --> 00:25:31,319
a hard life. Right.

448
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:36,400
Speaker 4: So, moving slightly forward, the battle continues and Gambino is crippled.

449
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:40,200
He loses a leg I think due to an explosion

450
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:42,559
or you know, the gate kind of falls over on him.

451
00:25:44,799 --> 00:25:48,240
And there's an interesting moment where you know, Gambino is

452
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,759
you know, on his back in bed, you know, he's

453
00:25:50,799 --> 00:25:56,480
missing a leg and looking over him, right, Guts is

454
00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:59,599
seeing you know, this man who's you know, at one

455
00:25:59,599 --> 00:26:02,880
time the most powerful figure in his life, now an invalid. Right,

456
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:07,000
he reflects on you know, Donovan beating him, giving him

457
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:10,480
the cut across the bridge of his nose. But he

458
00:26:10,559 --> 00:26:14,880
sees that he's helpless, or he sees that he's delirious.

459
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:18,279
He's he's calling out for help, and he decides to

460
00:26:18,279 --> 00:26:22,000
help him. So we skip, you know, two years forward, right,

461
00:26:22,039 --> 00:26:24,559
we see now Guts has become a full fledged mercenary,

462
00:26:24,839 --> 00:26:27,920
you know, riding a horse still again, right, very young,

463
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:32,599
but at this point he's an accomplished killer. And after

464
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:35,680
the battle he returns back to Gambino, who is you know,

465
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,240
an invalid now, you know, back at camp. Sort of

466
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:42,240
reversal of situations where now Gambino, right, is a dead

467
00:26:42,279 --> 00:26:43,200
weight on Guts.

468
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:48,960
Speaker 3: Absolutely, he is fully transitioned to being deadbeat dad, even right,

469
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:53,559
even with the dog, even with the dogs so brutal,

470
00:26:54,039 --> 00:26:57,400
it is so brutal, I killed the animal. Like, look

471
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,240
at him, he's so earnest. He just wants his dad

472
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:05,160
to care, to feel like, wow, great job, you did something.

473
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:07,160
Be proud of me man, like, what the hell? Right?

474
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,599
And you know that he wants that. He craves it

475
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:12,720
because you've seen the one time that that happened. Gambino

476
00:27:12,799 --> 00:27:15,880
like gave him a little compliment, right, Guts was excited.

477
00:27:16,759 --> 00:27:19,440
He loves that vallet he Why would a child want

478
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:22,640
not want to feel validation? Right, it all tracks, it's

479
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,480
all perfectly. He's a kid, right, But this guy doesn't

480
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:27,640
give a shit. He's in his own world now. He

481
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,319
is fully deadbeat, right, he is the Only thing that

482
00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:33,279
matters to him is his own victimization, is his own

483
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,039
like now I can't be a strong man anymore. Now

484
00:27:36,079 --> 00:27:38,400
I can't be the guy I used to be. That's

485
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:40,799
all that matters to Gambino. He doesn't care about Guts.

486
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:42,519
He doesn't care about what Guts us for him. He

487
00:27:42,519 --> 00:27:45,160
doesn't care about the fact that Guts is literally providing

488
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:48,400
for him. To him, it's like that that's just what

489
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,359
you should do. This guy is the biggest scumbag dad

490
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,799
of all I think in all manga, this guy is

491
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:59,079
the scumbag dad. I don't think it gets worse than him. Well,

492
00:27:59,079 --> 00:28:01,720
and we see him right even as an invalid using

493
00:28:01,759 --> 00:28:05,119
his crutches to you know, slap Guts upside the head,

494
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:13,240
turn wine quick enough, exactly get me drunk faster, right, right,

495
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:17,079
So going forward, we see this interaction where he's kind

496
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,599
of Gambino is sort of sparring with the other mercenaries

497
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:24,440
again trying to you know, sort of you know, re

498
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:30,079
establish his authority, and back in the the kind of

499
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,200
treasure room, right, we see Guts is furious he's been

500
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:36,359
given a large reward for killing the enemy general. Obviously

501
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:39,039
he's mad that he's you know about the interaction with

502
00:28:39,079 --> 00:28:41,839
his father, so is he. He kind of spikes the

503
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:45,599
you know, the the gold on the ground, buries his

504
00:28:46,039 --> 00:28:50,519
sword in the you know, in the support to the tent,

505
00:28:51,319 --> 00:28:53,240
and you know, that's the end of it. But it

506
00:28:53,279 --> 00:28:57,440
goes back to his tent later kind of in it

507
00:28:57,519 --> 00:29:00,559
shot very similarly to both Guts falling sleep with the

508
00:29:00,559 --> 00:29:07,400
sword earlier and also the scene with Donovan and towering

509
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:09,400
over top of him in the middle of the night.

510
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:15,319
After this interaction, we see Gambino right with his sword out,

511
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:20,400
You're seemingly going to kill his dutiful adopted son. So

512
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:24,359
he just right look at again, you're well said, right,

513
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:28,440
sharp teeth, blank eyes, you know, this sort of just

514
00:29:29,359 --> 00:29:32,559
motivated by murderous rage, and almost without saying anything, he

515
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:36,240
swings for right. He's just going for it. Guts is

516
00:29:36,279 --> 00:29:41,799
obviously disturbed by this. His first thought is he's drunk,

517
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,880
and oh, yeah, She'shu. That is the name I had

518
00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:50,960
that correct, And he's furious with him, you know, basically saying, like.

519
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:55,079
Speaker 4: You you cursed me. You know you were you know, unlucky. Right,

520
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,000
That idea of being cursed something that will carry through

521
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,359
with him. He tells him, you know, on that day

522
00:30:01,359 --> 00:30:05,079
eleven years ago, you should have died, like over and

523
00:30:05,119 --> 00:30:08,359
over again. Still seemingly this was just a ruse because

524
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,319
you know, while Guts is looking, you know, desponded, gamp

525
00:30:11,319 --> 00:30:14,839
Beato just swings for him, and finally Guts decides to

526
00:30:14,839 --> 00:30:15,359
fight back.

527
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:15,599
Speaker 3: Right.

528
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 4: He pulls out a sword and starts defending himself, and

529
00:30:20,319 --> 00:30:24,920
we get the final confirmation. Right, Gambino admits he sold

530
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:28,440
him for three silver coins. Right again, this is a

531
00:30:28,559 --> 00:30:31,920
very disturbing moment, and he says, I was sick of you.

532
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:34,880
I wanted wanted rid of you, I wanted you gone.

533
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,079
Speaker 3: You killed, he says, you killed she. He blames this

534
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:43,319
kid for everything, like this is any I feel like

535
00:30:43,359 --> 00:30:46,759
anyone who had an alcoholic dad or something, right Like,

536
00:30:46,839 --> 00:30:48,319
I was fortunate enough I didn't have to deal with

537
00:30:48,359 --> 00:30:50,480
that kind of thing. But that was a pretty normal guy.

538
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,319
But I have heard absolute horror stor some people that

539
00:30:53,359 --> 00:30:55,680
I know very well, right that this is exactly the

540
00:30:55,759 --> 00:30:59,279
kind of thing that would happen. Guy barges into your

541
00:30:59,319 --> 00:31:01,519
room in the middle of the nights, he's fucked up,

542
00:31:01,759 --> 00:31:04,960
and he just starts dumping all of his problems on

543
00:31:05,079 --> 00:31:07,960
you and saying they're because of you. Things like this

544
00:31:08,039 --> 00:31:11,880
are hyper common in these kinds of relationships with with

545
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,519
extremely dysfunctional people like this, right, Like, this is a

546
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:17,880
you know, despite this being in a in a fantasy

547
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,279
you know, uh manga that takes place in medieval times,

548
00:31:21,599 --> 00:31:25,079
these are real interactions between people. This is these are

549
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:30,119
real interpersonal relationships that children have been hurt like this

550
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:35,000
so many times. Right, this is why Berserk has this reputation.

551
00:31:35,759 --> 00:31:37,720
The people that have read it, that have given it

552
00:31:37,759 --> 00:31:40,200
the time, that have that have not just looked at

553
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:42,039
it as some sort of like torture porn, like a

554
00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:45,640
like in the most shallow sense that can look at

555
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,480
these He's doing so much in these panels. There's so

556
00:31:48,559 --> 00:31:51,480
much to all the reactions, to the to the to

557
00:31:51,519 --> 00:31:55,039
the to the facial you know, responses, this is this,

558
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:57,880
these are he writes them like the real humans, right,

559
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,880
And that's the mark of a good author, right, and

560
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:05,920
a mark of a good storyteller. This scene, it's so devastating,

561
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:11,240
like all of this kid's worst anxieties are being confirmed

562
00:32:11,839 --> 00:32:13,640
by the only person that he didn't want them to

563
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,240
be confirmed by while he's trying to kill him. And

564
00:32:17,279 --> 00:32:22,119
it's like he can't be more candid. He's drunk, you

565
00:32:22,119 --> 00:32:24,920
know what I mean. It's not like he's lying. He's

566
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,720
saying exactly what he feels, right, And it's the first

567
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:30,799
time that Gambino's really being honest with this kid, and

568
00:32:30,839 --> 00:32:35,000
he just uses it to destroy him emotionally so he

569
00:32:35,039 --> 00:32:37,319
can kill him. And the result is.

570
00:32:38,559 --> 00:32:44,519
Speaker 4: The result is guts kills Gambino. Again, the high contrast

571
00:32:44,559 --> 00:32:47,119
style we see you know at these sort of moments, right,

572
00:32:47,119 --> 00:32:49,880
the black background, the white foreground, you know, all the

573
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:56,359
shading in between, just excellently illustrated. But he is, you know,

574
00:32:56,599 --> 00:33:02,279
he's a patricide. He has killed his father despite everything else. Again,

575
00:33:02,559 --> 00:33:04,920
very very dramatic scene. Way to end.

576
00:33:05,519 --> 00:33:10,720
Speaker 3: Uh you know that volume. Uh the action picks up

577
00:33:10,839 --> 00:33:17,400
almost immediately afterwards. Uh, Guts is forced to beat a retreat. Right,

578
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:22,680
He's obviously, you know, horrified as the band, the mercenary band,

579
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,640
turns on him. They assume that he murdered him and

580
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,720
he has to just run. And again, any person, and

581
00:33:29,839 --> 00:33:33,119
especially any man, you know, like this. You know women,

582
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:37,799
women do enjoy berserk, but I berserk is like it

583
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:42,359
is a story for males. This is about in many ways,

584
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:45,039
so much of what makes it what it is about

585
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,160
what it is to be male, you know what I mean,

586
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:51,200
And and how our position in the world is sort

587
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:54,640
of dictated and for us right in many ways, and

588
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,519
for much of the history of man. Right now, everybody

589
00:33:57,559 --> 00:33:59,559
is a soldier, right, I'm not trying to imply that

590
00:33:59,559 --> 00:34:02,640
all males soldiers and that's how it worked. But at

591
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,359
the drop of the hat, you would be expected to

592
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:07,319
be do you know what I'm saying? Like that is

593
00:34:07,359 --> 00:34:10,800
our role, that is our job is to potentially die

594
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:17,880
for the greater hole. So this the nature of these things,

595
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:20,840
how Guts respond to them, and not just him, but

596
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,000
many of the other characters. Right, there's a reason that

597
00:34:24,079 --> 00:34:28,360
this story is so it touches so close to so

598
00:34:28,519 --> 00:34:31,199
many guys that read this, right, they feel it. They

599
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:34,119
imagine being this kid. Man, they put themselves in the

600
00:34:34,159 --> 00:34:36,880
position of that show. They remember what they were as children,

601
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:38,880
and they look at this and imagine themselves in this position. Man,

602
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:40,639
imagine being hunted by a bunch of dudes, you know,

603
00:34:42,079 --> 00:34:45,199
for a thing you didn't even your dad's trying to

604
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:48,000
kill you. You defend yourself and then these guys are trying

605
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:49,519
to murder you on top of that. Like, this is

606
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,000
just horror, horror, horror story. This whole kid's this kid's

607
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:54,599
whole life. It's just like.

608
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:56,360
Speaker 1: That.

609
00:34:56,559 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 3: I remember that series of series of unfortunate events. They

610
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:01,280
could have could have been that could have been the

611
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:04,559
English title of Bersers, genuinely, because that is life gets

612
00:35:04,599 --> 00:35:07,159
his life, right, It's just it's just one bad thing

613
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,880
into another, right, and this kid just surviving it, surviving

614
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:15,119
it as best he can. Yeah, certainly.

615
00:35:15,159 --> 00:35:17,079
Speaker 4: So he's on the run again. We see that that,

616
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:21,559
you know, repetition, the idea that he is cursed. So

617
00:35:21,639 --> 00:35:25,400
the Mercenary band catches up to him, right, he's unable

618
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,400
to escape. They shoot him, and you know, in very

619
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:33,199
theatric form, he tumbles into a river. Right when he

620
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:37,599
regains consciousness, we get just a very beautiful shot right

621
00:35:37,599 --> 00:35:39,960
of him laying on his back, an arrow, you know,

622
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,719
poking up through his chest that oh yeah, there it is. Yeah, yeah,

623
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:48,880
the stars you know, over top of him. But right,

624
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:53,079
the piece doesn't last, right. He he gets up, obviously,

625
00:35:53,119 --> 00:35:57,199
he sees the you know, the beautiful sky and as

626
00:35:57,199 --> 00:36:00,559
he's sort of stumbling along with this sword again, uh,

627
00:36:00,679 --> 00:36:04,840
something we will see often repeated. He's sort of wondering,

628
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,800
what's the point of even living anymore? Right, what's the

629
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,440
point of living in a world where there's only bad things?

630
00:36:12,039 --> 00:36:15,159
But despite that, right, despite the fact that he lives,

631
00:36:15,519 --> 00:36:18,039
you know, a horrible life. He's no nothing but kind

632
00:36:18,079 --> 00:36:21,880
of violence and betrayal. When the wolves come around, he

633
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:25,440
can't stop fighting, right, despite the fact that his life

634
00:36:25,519 --> 00:36:26,119
is horrible.

635
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 3: He literally says it's over, and he's he's and he

636
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:35,159
just automatically reacts. Right. I love this. I love this.

637
00:36:35,159 --> 00:36:38,239
This is that you know, indomitable human spirit meme. This

638
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,920
is But Gutsy is that character he he can't just

639
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:43,559
go down, you know what I mean? He had there's

640
00:36:43,599 --> 00:36:47,119
something in him that goes nah, not fuck that.

641
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,039
Speaker 4: Well and tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty

642
00:36:50,039 --> 00:36:55,280
sure this section is heavily referenced in gene Row, Like

643
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:56,840
the visuals are very similar.

644
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:02,559
Speaker 3: Well forgot, I think so. I think so. It's been

645
00:37:02,599 --> 00:37:04,159
such a long time since I watched in Row that

646
00:37:04,199 --> 00:37:06,159
I can't remember. Who knows if he even was deliberate

647
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:09,440
or not, but these are very similar since Yeah, super

648
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:12,599
influential in the right time too, exactly. Yeah, by the way,

649
00:37:12,639 --> 00:37:15,079
everybody out there, if you haven't seen General the Wolf Frigid,

650
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:17,440
go watch General the Wolf brigad. It is fucking sick.

651
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:21,159
Speaker 4: In three years, renis when we're done with this, I

652
00:37:21,199 --> 00:37:22,880
want to bring you on to do a review of that.

653
00:37:24,159 --> 00:37:27,159
I love that, and almost no one else will talk

654
00:37:27,199 --> 00:37:29,320
to me about it. It's actually yeah, no gedious version

655
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:30,559
of my podcast intro.

656
00:37:30,679 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 3: It pulled a lot from Genro Fucking Rules, General fucking Rules.

657
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:38,440
It is absolutely amazing. Beautiful work again, beautiful work. A

658
00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:40,840
lot of the stuff that was coming out late eighties

659
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:44,440
early nineties of Japan was just fucking fantastic. They really

660
00:37:45,039 --> 00:37:49,039
really cared. A lot of love soul went into that stuff,

661
00:37:49,079 --> 00:37:53,440
both from animation, storytelling, you know, the manga themselves. Right,

662
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:56,639
the drawings, the drafts, work, all of it is. These

663
00:37:56,639 --> 00:37:59,079
are all monumental works. In my opinion, this is like

664
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:03,360
a true a movement A time friend, I was like

665
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:08,119
a It laid up such a powerful foundation for what

666
00:38:08,119 --> 00:38:10,800
we're in now. Think about the amount of big sword guys, right, Like,

667
00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:13,360
think about all of that. Right, we live in a

668
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:16,880
world that was in many ways, like the the flavor

669
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:19,920
of the water was helped to be created by these stories, right,

670
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:24,880
these aesthetic languages. Four years later, what a beautiful times good.

671
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:29,679
It's such a spread, bro. I know, I know, I

672
00:38:29,679 --> 00:38:32,960
should stop doing this because it's it's probably repetitive to hear,

673
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,559
you know, two guys on a podcast say this art's

674
00:38:35,599 --> 00:38:38,079
really good. But man, the art's really good. Like, what

675
00:38:38,119 --> 00:38:41,440
do you say? Uh, that's part of the story of

676
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:45,440
what Berserk is. It's mirror's drawings. He is like, if

677
00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:50,480
Berserk was drawn and written by a lesser artist, I

678
00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:52,800
don't think it would have that same cultural impact that

679
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:56,960
it does. It was the esthetic sensibilities of Kantaro Mura

680
00:38:57,519 --> 00:39:01,480
that led it to where it was. It's not just

681
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:04,320
the choices that he made, it's the it's the the

682
00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:07,079
fidelity with which he can, he can realize these things.

683
00:39:07,119 --> 00:39:10,239
It's the way he frames, it's the way he panels.

684
00:39:10,599 --> 00:39:13,239
That is part of the the The entire Monk is

685
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:17,360
a visual feast. You can literally spend more time just

686
00:39:17,599 --> 00:39:21,599
looking at the images than reading the dialogue and the plot.

687
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:24,519
It's there's that much packed in and that's part of

688
00:39:24,519 --> 00:39:26,360
the reason. Also why there was this This mouk was

689
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,599
done monthly, and part of the reason why it took

690
00:39:28,679 --> 00:39:31,559
so long in some places to get finished is because

691
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:34,880
he's doing this ship, you know what I mean. It's yeah,

692
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,559
it's like, yeah, if this took three months to make,

693
00:39:37,599 --> 00:39:39,920
I wouldn't be surprised. But he was putting these out monthly,

694
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,480
so yeah, that tells you also what the workload must

695
00:39:42,519 --> 00:39:43,440
be like O.

696
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:46,599
Speaker 4: Well, and it's like obviously it's it's grim, but he

697
00:39:46,639 --> 00:39:48,320
did actually work himself to death.

698
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,079
Speaker 3: Yeah. He literally died at his at his desk, his

699
00:39:51,079 --> 00:39:55,880
his his aortic uh uh artery, so one of the

700
00:39:55,920 --> 00:40:01,119
main arteries into the heart, it's it split bin and

701
00:40:01,159 --> 00:40:04,559
he bled out and died. That's that's how that's how

702
00:40:04,679 --> 00:40:09,239
my boy died. Absolutely brutal, can't stand it, really really

703
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,199
heartbreaking man, And he died he also died like a

704
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:13,079
few days before. My birthday was really brutal for me.

705
00:40:13,119 --> 00:40:15,400
I was, I was so upset. Holy shit.

706
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:20,639
Speaker 4: Let's continue though, returning to the narrative, he's able to

707
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:23,679
fend off the wolves. Right, He's he's injured, he's already

708
00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:27,599
been shot, passes out and is picked up by another

709
00:40:27,679 --> 00:40:32,400
one of these traveling mercenary bands. So four years later, right,

710
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:35,760
we see this this siege again. Man, even the background

711
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,480
characters are just so well done. And as you know,

712
00:40:38,519 --> 00:40:42,039
the gate busts down, right, this this army is surging in.

713
00:40:42,559 --> 00:40:47,199
Speaker 3: We see we got a classic berserk moment. Just a

714
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,920
big ass guy, big ass guy shows up.

715
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:54,840
Speaker 4: It's just a goon, right, And as he's standing in

716
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:58,400
the line, right, the leader, the sort of noble it was,

717
00:40:58,519 --> 00:40:59,519
ordering his men forward.

718
00:40:59,559 --> 00:41:01,599
Speaker 3: They won't do it, and he.

719
00:41:01,559 --> 00:41:03,320
Speaker 4: Basically calls it to the crowd. It's like, all right,

720
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:05,800
who's gonna who's gonna take care of this? They have

721
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:10,199
anoy a Troy moment, right, like, call forth your champion, right, yeah,

722
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:13,239
Guts doesn't even say nothing, he just shrides forward. And

723
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:16,880
he's obviously young. He is still a young person. He's

724
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,480
not a kid anymore. Let's keep in mind everything up

725
00:41:19,519 --> 00:41:23,280
to this point. He was eleven, right, he was eleven

726
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,079
years old when he killed Gambino and have to run away.

727
00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:32,320
Speaker 3: He's so he's fifteen here, yeah, plus or minus? Yeah, yeah,

728
00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:36,760
that is insane. Right, And this kid is obviously, like

729
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:41,800
just to look at him, right, this is a hard person.

730
00:41:42,039 --> 00:41:44,440
This is a this is and this kid is ruthless.

731
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:48,519
There's no mercy in the eyes, there's no hesitation. He

732
00:41:48,559 --> 00:41:52,239
looks like he knows exactly what he is doing. Everybody

733
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:54,920
counts him out right, he's I love this when he

734
00:41:54,960 --> 00:42:01,639
goes when he starts negotiating the price, yes, guy, oh

735
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:03,079
my god, so disrespectful.

736
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:06,800
Speaker 4: Well, and and this is a you know, again the

737
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:10,039
sort of great line art we see. But he, you know,

738
00:42:10,119 --> 00:42:13,599
is successfully able to kill this man. I actually think

739
00:42:13,639 --> 00:42:16,800
that the transition between the last volume and this one

740
00:42:17,079 --> 00:42:22,440
is significant the improvement in the artwork. And the artwork

741
00:42:22,519 --> 00:42:26,840
was already really really good. But he even this sequence

742
00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:30,880
just here is already better than every combat sequence that

743
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:34,760
he's done previous to this. Right, The the implication of

744
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:37,079
speed and power that he's putting here.

745
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,360
Speaker 3: There are a couple of uh, just briefly there there

746
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,719
are they made three berserk movies. All right, most of

747
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:49,400
the animated berserk stuff is passable or terrible. Everything made

748
00:42:49,679 --> 00:42:54,639
recently is genuinely so bad that do not watch it.

749
00:42:54,639 --> 00:42:58,599
It actually ruins it in many ways. The twenty sixteen

750
00:42:58,599 --> 00:43:03,360
stuff's awful, Yeah, absolutely terrible, absolutely terrible. But there were

751
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:07,119
three films that were made. They're based on this arc

752
00:43:07,159 --> 00:43:09,280
of the Golden Age. Right. They don't show the I

753
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:11,800
don't think they show the like the stuff when he's

754
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:14,400
a little kid, but it starts basically from here, right,

755
00:43:14,599 --> 00:43:17,159
This fight and the whole band of the Hawk, all

756
00:43:17,199 --> 00:43:20,400
of that. They're pretty great in some ways. There are

757
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:22,840
problems with them, obviously, but they're pretty great in some ways.

758
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:24,960
And one of the ways that I really really enjoyed

759
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,840
that film is the way in which they depict this fight,

760
00:43:28,199 --> 00:43:32,199
because they make Guts seem completely psychotic. If you were, like,

761
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:34,400
if you were to fight somebody who could move like

762
00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,760
that with that kind of weapons, He's putting you into

763
00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:40,559
pieces in seconds. Like it's like, as I've said before,

764
00:43:40,559 --> 00:43:44,119
it's like fighting an industrial machine rather than a person.

765
00:43:44,519 --> 00:43:46,840
He's hitting you harder than you think he should be

766
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:49,199
able to hit you, and he's doing it too many times.

767
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:51,440
Look at this guy. This guy's massive, and he's like,

768
00:43:51,519 --> 00:43:53,199
what is going on? This is a this is a

769
00:43:53,239 --> 00:43:56,000
fifteen year old He outweighs him, probably by two hundred pounds,

770
00:43:56,440 --> 00:44:00,000
and he's getting pushed back. Right, this kid is nassy.

771
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:04,559
He is insanely strong, and he's very very good at swordsmanship.

772
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:08,320
He's not just swinging around a big sword, a big

773
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,239
heavy sword and hitting people hard. He can swing it

774
00:44:11,679 --> 00:44:15,039
with the speed of a lesser weapon. He is not

775
00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:21,199
just good, he's excellent. Right, he is extremely dangerous already,

776
00:44:21,199 --> 00:44:24,280
and he's fifteen years old. Right. Yeah, so he works

777
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:26,159
this dude, and there it is.

778
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:30,239
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's an iconic absolustration.

779
00:44:30,599 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 3: Right. They already sort of foreshadowing the eye, right, though

780
00:44:33,039 --> 00:44:34,280
only the one eye right.

781
00:44:35,199 --> 00:44:39,239
Speaker 4: One hundred percent. So the battle continues, right, he he

782
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:40,440
kills this champion.

783
00:44:41,119 --> 00:44:41,239
Speaker 3: Uh.

784
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:46,039
Speaker 4: Then afterwards we see an interesting again continuing the kind

785
00:44:46,079 --> 00:44:49,519
of mirror between you know, Griffith and Guts that's sort

786
00:44:49,519 --> 00:44:53,599
of at the beginning of this. After the battle is over, right,

787
00:44:53,679 --> 00:44:57,239
this this nobleman who offered him the money, right, basically

788
00:44:57,280 --> 00:45:00,400
comes back afterwards and says like, all right, like you

789
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:03,119
did a really good job. Not only are you getting

790
00:45:03,119 --> 00:45:06,480
a cash reward, but if you want, I'll promote you

791
00:45:06,519 --> 00:45:10,360
to a squire, right, offer you a chance at minor nobility,

792
00:45:11,039 --> 00:45:17,639
and Gus just leaves. Right, He's just completely uninterested. Basically

793
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,679
sounds gay pretty much.

794
00:45:21,559 --> 00:45:22,079
Speaker 3: Uh.

795
00:45:22,519 --> 00:45:25,639
Speaker 4: We see we actually see him strike this noble when

796
00:45:25,679 --> 00:45:28,960
he puts his hand on him for absolutely obvious reasons.

797
00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:33,440
But nonetheless, you know, he leaves. There's a shot where

798
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:36,239
we see during the battle, right, Griffith is there too,

799
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:39,400
and he's noticed Gut. Ye he watches the fight. He

800
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:43,920
watches the fight between Guts and bus Buzz. Yeah, I

801
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:47,440
for those wondering, much like you know, dark soils or

802
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:50,880
any other you know, Japanese property with Western tones. Uh,

803
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:54,679
there's a whole lot of fake words that sound like

804
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:57,559
English words to Japanese people. So I'm just gonna have

805
00:45:57,599 --> 00:46:00,360
to get used to it, especially hundred.

806
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:04,920
Speaker 3: Just embrace, just embrace the names. Allow it, allow it.

807
00:46:06,679 --> 00:46:10,239
Speaker 4: So next we see Guts, you know, walking away by

808
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:16,440
himself and Griffin's Griffith's band notices him. Right, Griffith is

809
00:46:16,519 --> 00:46:19,079
just passed out. A couple of the guys race.

810
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,719
Speaker 3: He usually laying in the grass like a like a

811
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:23,960
little cool guy, you know, what I mean, just hanging

812
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:27,679
out right, and and we're a couple. He's hippie maxing,

813
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:28,679
you know what I mean, he's just chilling.

814
00:46:29,159 --> 00:46:30,199
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's grounding.

815
00:46:30,679 --> 00:46:32,079
Speaker 3: Uh.

816
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,920
Speaker 4: But basically a couple of the mercenaries decide to go

817
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:36,880
after right, like, oh, he's probably got a bunch of

818
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:40,920
money on him, so you armed men bear down on him,

819
00:46:41,159 --> 00:46:45,519
gus horsemen without on horseback, without skipping a beat, he

820
00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:49,679
just cuts the first guy down right just again, yeah,

821
00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:54,000
just completely Bisex one of the first unnamed goons. Again

822
00:46:54,039 --> 00:46:58,480
another another great panel here, and obviously, you know, the

823
00:46:58,519 --> 00:47:01,800
men start to surround him, right, he's fending them off.

824
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:05,920
He cuts another guy's arm off, but they call back

825
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:10,440
for help right too. Cosca, who will become a character,

826
00:47:10,519 --> 00:47:14,320
will see much more from her. But basically, these couple

827
00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:17,039
guys have gotten into a situation where they can't handle it,

828
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:19,760
so they're calling for more help. So she, you know,

829
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:22,920
armors up, goes in guts is still you know, staring

830
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:26,519
down you know the rest of the guys, but Costca

831
00:47:26,559 --> 00:47:32,039
shoots him just out of a crossbow bull to Yeah, yeah.

832
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:33,320
Speaker 3: Which is you know, it's sort of dirty pool. But

833
00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:34,400
neither here nor there.

834
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 4: The point is you know that the fight continues. Guts

835
00:47:38,039 --> 00:47:40,679
Is is you know, wounded but still going, and him

836
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:43,519
and Costca go at it. She's on horseback, he's not.

837
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:48,119
They're trading blows again. Art Is is very very good here,

838
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:51,320
and you know, he knocks her helmet off. He gets

839
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:51,920
the advantage.

840
00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:55,800
Speaker 3: And you can tell she's good because she can she

841
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:59,840
can actually perry him, right, she can't. She immediately know

842
00:48:00,159 --> 00:48:02,159
that he's way stronger than she thought he would be,

843
00:48:02,199 --> 00:48:05,760
and she's like, what holy shit, But she can still

844
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:09,480
keep him from just destroying her, right, So she has

845
00:48:09,519 --> 00:48:11,280
that skill. And then he gets surprised that the fact

846
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:13,079
that she's a girl. He's like, what the hell? Right,

847
00:48:13,079 --> 00:48:15,920
she's a woman. I would have never expected that, right

848
00:48:16,519 --> 00:48:19,440
and right? Yeah, which you know something, you know people

849
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:22,880
like to do the whole irm coscas a girl? How come?

850
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:23,199
Speaker 1: Right?

851
00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:28,639
Speaker 3: And it's like, guy, listen, blades are blades. They are

852
00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:33,039
force equalizers. Right. If you know how to use a

853
00:48:33,079 --> 00:48:37,719
sword and fight with the sword, you being thirty percent

854
00:48:37,800 --> 00:48:41,880
stronger whatever really isn't that big of a deal. And

855
00:48:42,079 --> 00:48:47,440
the way swords fighting works, you can block a heavier,

856
00:48:47,519 --> 00:48:51,920
stronger blow relatively easily because it's It's about physical structure.

857
00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:54,199
It's physics. It's not a like, oh I hold my

858
00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:55,920
arm out out there and if I'm strong enough, I

859
00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:58,760
can block your blow. It's you're trying to push through

860
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:01,039
my entire body. It's a grap you know what I mean?

861
00:49:01,039 --> 00:49:04,039
If you know how to do it, somebody being strong

862
00:49:04,079 --> 00:49:07,400
doesn't make a difference. It's about technique, right, So she can,

863
00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:12,599
you know, to a degree? She she like, it's not

864
00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:15,000
insane to imagine that a woman would be able to

865
00:49:15,039 --> 00:49:16,880
kill people with a fucking weapon, right, It's not. It's

866
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:22,599
not impossible. Well, and to be fair, she is exceptional, Like, yes, exactly,

867
00:49:22,679 --> 00:49:25,920
she's not. This isn't considered like normal. Coska is a

868
00:49:26,039 --> 00:49:28,480
exceptional person by every means that there's no other women

869
00:49:29,119 --> 00:49:32,400
fighters in the band. Right, obviously put her there because

870
00:49:32,679 --> 00:49:34,079
it was cool to have a woman in the story.

871
00:49:34,079 --> 00:49:36,840
But I like Casca. I like Coska as a character.

872
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:38,760
I think she's interesting in her own right. Her own

873
00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:41,360
little conflict that's going on in her head is interesting.

874
00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:45,199
Her dynamic with Griffith and Guts is interesting. And her

875
00:49:45,239 --> 00:49:47,639
position in the band I also think is interesting because

876
00:49:47,639 --> 00:49:50,679
she's sort of like a manager administrator, right, She's the

877
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:55,239
one who is She's like the disciplinarian where Griffiths runs

878
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:58,840
the show, right, she Costka is always the person who's

879
00:49:59,239 --> 00:50:03,079
reprimanding people. Right, She's the one telling Corcus not to

880
00:50:03,119 --> 00:50:05,199
go after Guts in the first place. She's the one

881
00:50:05,239 --> 00:50:07,679
who is like, he's gonna do something to you, and

882
00:50:07,719 --> 00:50:09,519
then it happens. She's the one that comes to bail

883
00:50:09,599 --> 00:50:14,880
them out. She's like mom, right, and so yeah, you're

884
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:17,519
completely correct. But as as the you know, the fight

885
00:50:17,679 --> 00:50:21,159
wraps up, Griffith basically throws a spear into it. He

886
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,320
breaks up the fight again. Just a super cool image,

887
00:50:24,679 --> 00:50:30,039
very very ominous. Yes, his his design is so masterful.

888
00:50:30,079 --> 00:50:33,159
I love his Like the helmet is stull iconic. Right,

889
00:50:33,239 --> 00:50:37,360
this is such a perfectly rendered character. And then I

890
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:41,079
think right after that, right, he takes a helmet off

891
00:50:41,079 --> 00:50:44,639
and issue he reveals his luscious locks in his full

892
00:50:44,719 --> 00:50:48,039
mane of He basically like you know what I mean?

893
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:51,840
Speaker 4: Right yet, because the two of them fight first, Right,

894
00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:55,960
he enters the fight and he actually wounds Guts, right.

895
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:58,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, because Gut swings at him hard and he just

896
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:02,239
catches it in a great moment. Right, He's just like, yep,

897
00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:07,519
you're not bigger kid, stimmer down. You know what I mean, kids,

898
00:51:07,519 --> 00:51:10,480
slimmer down. There's there's other people who are strong out there. Guy,

899
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:13,119
you know what, I'm a great moment.

900
00:51:13,679 --> 00:51:17,119
Speaker 4: Another great moment. Right, Guts is wounded, but he uses

901
00:51:17,159 --> 00:51:18,960
his sword to pick back up.

902
00:51:19,599 --> 00:51:19,760
Speaker 3: Right.

903
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:23,000
Speaker 4: He's again this is an image or oppose. We see

904
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:25,880
Guts and often right using his sword to kind of

905
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:31,239
pull himself off as he's wounded. Uh So Griffith is

906
00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:38,320
obviously impressed right by you know, Guts his abilities and

907
00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:41,880
as as Gut's basically leans back to swing for him,

908
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:45,960
he passes out right. And then that is that moment

909
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:49,840
where we see Griffith take off his helmet and he's

910
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:52,840
this sort of legalist like angelic figure. Right, he's a

911
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:53,719
white chrbic.

912
00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:56,840
Speaker 3: Yes, he's cherubic. He's he's he's like almost like like

913
00:51:57,280 --> 00:51:59,079
in a like a beauty in the sense that a

914
00:51:59,159 --> 00:52:02,400
child is beautiful, right, not in like a lustful or

915
00:52:02,519 --> 00:52:08,239
like desirous way. It's just a purely in no way sensual. Yeah,

916
00:52:08,639 --> 00:52:10,880
exactly right. He's like like a like a like in

917
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:15,280
ethereal beauty, a thing that is beautiful regardless of all

918
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:18,000
the context that it's in it simply is beautiful, like

919
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:19,840
a like a like a flower or something like that,

920
00:52:20,119 --> 00:52:23,440
which is so the opposite of Yes, you know what

921
00:52:23,519 --> 00:52:26,920
I'm saying. They are, They are. They couldn't be more different.

922
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:31,480
Guts is, Guts is grunting and and grit and pain

923
00:52:31,599 --> 00:52:38,760
and bleeding and fucking scars, and Griffith is untouched, completely calm,

924
00:52:39,079 --> 00:52:45,639
all white, never even fucking says anything, just pure like cold,

925
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:51,480
rational serenity. Right, Like he's like Galadrial, you know, he

926
00:52:51,599 --> 00:52:57,119
has this distance that gives him a sense of no

927
00:52:57,360 --> 00:53:01,039
almost like regions, like like like he feels he feels real,

928
00:53:01,199 --> 00:53:04,800
he feels above them. Yeah, and there's the.

929
00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:10,639
Speaker 4: Dream, right, So Guts is he's unconscious, right, and this

930
00:53:10,679 --> 00:53:14,039
is this is fever dream, right, having this nightmare of

931
00:53:14,079 --> 00:53:17,119
a figure chasing a you know, a naked, younger version

932
00:53:17,159 --> 00:53:20,079
of himself. You don't have to be a rocket scientist

933
00:53:20,079 --> 00:53:24,159
to figure out what's going on there. And what we

934
00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:27,360
see is, you know, he's swinging at this figure. You know,

935
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,559
his sword is is cutting through him. And you know,

936
00:53:30,599 --> 00:53:33,679
as this happens, he sees Gambino over his shoulder on

937
00:53:33,719 --> 00:53:36,679
this pile of bones, and he's you know, asking like, Gambino,

938
00:53:36,840 --> 00:53:42,679
save me. The sword isn't working, and he tells him

939
00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:45,719
to look at the sword and it's transformed into his

940
00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:50,159
severed leg and he says, you know, I'm dead. You

941
00:53:50,320 --> 00:53:52,800
killed me and it hurt. And there's this sort of

942
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:57,039
very grim image of Gambino with his his still talking

943
00:53:57,079 --> 00:54:00,639
with his neck. Halfway through uh again, we see more

944
00:54:00,679 --> 00:54:02,480
and more of this kind of surreal element. You know,

945
00:54:02,519 --> 00:54:05,760
the dog is transformed into the plague stricken vision of

946
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:09,400
his adopted mother and you know, as the the monster

947
00:54:09,519 --> 00:54:11,840
bears down on him, right with the face of Donovan,

948
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:17,000
he sees, you know, Gambido and his adopted mother skeletons

949
00:54:17,519 --> 00:54:21,480
right saying over and over again, you should have died. So,

950
00:54:22,119 --> 00:54:24,519
you know, just again a very grim scene.

951
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,960
Speaker 3: Man, it's so heartbreaking how much guilt he carries for this.

952
00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:34,360
He imagine, feeling guilty for killing fucking Gambino. Bro right,

953
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:38,960
Like that is the like I something I think is

954
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:41,960
so important about Guts, right, something to keep in mind.

955
00:54:42,599 --> 00:54:47,760
Guts is a deeply empathetic and sensitive person. He know,

956
00:54:48,079 --> 00:54:53,400
like he's not just because he is hard on the outside, right,

957
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:56,039
because he because he understands I have to shield myself

958
00:54:56,039 --> 00:54:59,599
from the world right, his truth, the core of him

959
00:54:59,719 --> 00:55:02,079
is the one that feels guilty for killing a man

960
00:55:02,119 --> 00:55:08,159
who could not have abused him. More, he feels guilt

961
00:55:08,559 --> 00:55:11,480
for the fact that this woman they took him in

962
00:55:11,519 --> 00:55:13,360
and then died, even though he had nothing to do

963
00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:17,039
with him. He feels guilty for being this cursed child,

964
00:55:17,159 --> 00:55:20,239
despite the fact that there's no real evidence that's the case.

965
00:55:20,559 --> 00:55:24,079
It's just the hearsay, the happenstance, the way of the world,

966
00:55:24,159 --> 00:55:25,960
and the way people will see him as a result. Right,

967
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:28,000
It's like how being a bastard was or being a

968
00:55:28,039 --> 00:55:30,599
fucking albinos In some parts of the world, you know

969
00:55:30,639 --> 00:55:33,519
what I mean, they're like, ah, that's fucked up and weird, right,

970
00:55:33,559 --> 00:55:35,440
And now all of a sudden, you have a terrible

971
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:38,320
life as a result of something you have no control over,

972
00:55:38,599 --> 00:55:40,960
a complete coin flip. You had nothing to do with it,

973
00:55:41,119 --> 00:55:42,920
nothing to do with your personality or who you are.

974
00:55:43,119 --> 00:55:45,960
It's just that makes me fucking feel fucked up. So

975
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:49,400
that's the way it is now, right, this kid has

976
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:52,960
to bear that burden, right, And you see, despite his

977
00:55:53,519 --> 00:55:56,079
facade or sort of demeanor, the way he carries himself,

978
00:55:57,079 --> 00:56:00,679
this still weighs very heavily upon him. He feels it

979
00:56:01,039 --> 00:56:04,239
right every second, seemingly there's a reason that he doesn't

980
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:07,519
let people touch him. So yeah, this is the you know,

981
00:56:08,039 --> 00:56:11,320
and again Mirror is not He's not like Miri is

982
00:56:11,679 --> 00:56:15,280
is and Berserk is full of subtlety, right, but he's

983
00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:19,039
not always relying upon that, sometimes just showing you obviously

984
00:56:19,239 --> 00:56:21,519
this is the case. And to be fair, also this

985
00:56:21,679 --> 00:56:24,559
was written in like the early nineties, so this was

986
00:56:24,599 --> 00:56:27,519
subtle for them, you know what I mean now by

987
00:56:27,559 --> 00:56:31,960
the standards of the medium, especially right exactly the medium

988
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:34,239
and the time, you know, this is this is like,

989
00:56:34,719 --> 00:56:37,239
this is like you know, this is this is the

990
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:41,559
most progressive, you know, like it's very like, wow, he's

991
00:56:41,599 --> 00:56:45,079
really showing it, you know. But yeah, no, nowadays, right,

992
00:56:45,079 --> 00:56:46,960
we look at this and it's like, yeah, no, it's

993
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:51,559
clear what is happening here? Right, So guts after, you know,

994
00:56:51,599 --> 00:56:54,519
we see this vision, uh, we see these sort of

995
00:56:54,639 --> 00:56:57,880
vague images of him in bed with a woman, don't

996
00:56:57,880 --> 00:57:00,440
know quite who. He wakes up, he is in the

997
00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:04,440
Mercenary band. He sees, you know, Griffith, which he obviously remembers,

998
00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:08,840
and then Cosca talking and Cosca just walks up to

999
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:13,239
him and smacks him right, says, you know, I wish

1000
00:57:13,280 --> 00:57:17,960
you die. He's obviously in a lot of pain, and

1001
00:57:18,000 --> 00:57:21,119
it's confirmed that, you know, Griffith told Costa like, hey,

1002
00:57:21,239 --> 00:57:23,679
hop in bed with Guts. He's lost a lot of blood.

1003
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:28,880
You need to keep him alive, so, you know, insinuating

1004
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:30,840
why she's a little mad at him, and also sort

1005
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:34,960
of laying the grounds for their romance later. But as

1006
00:57:35,119 --> 00:57:38,199
you know, he walks up to Griffith, Griffith hands him

1007
00:57:38,239 --> 00:57:40,199
his sword, you know, saying like, oh wow, this is

1008
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:43,199
really incredible. Two of them start talking. You know, we

1009
00:57:43,239 --> 00:57:46,119
get some more characterization of the other kind of members

1010
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:49,320
of this crew. Right, I'm skipping over for the sake

1011
00:57:49,360 --> 00:57:54,280
of time. This is interesting. But basically he says, you know,

1012
00:57:54,679 --> 00:57:58,480
like we were in the same battle together. And the

1013
00:57:58,519 --> 00:58:01,400
two of them stand on top of the hill and

1014
00:58:01,599 --> 00:58:03,480
you know, griff that ask him like, well, why didn't

1015
00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:06,639
you kill me? And Griffith says something we will hear

1016
00:58:06,719 --> 00:58:10,159
him say many times, because I want you. Of course,

1017
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:15,639
Guts is like, dude, that's pretty gay. Yeah, it is.

1018
00:58:15,639 --> 00:58:19,440
Speaker 4: Kind of funny, right, but Griffith decides, no, like I

1019
00:58:19,480 --> 00:58:22,360
saw you know how you fight. I saw that, you know,

1020
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:24,920
the way that you sort of deliberately gamble on your

1021
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:27,639
own life, and it's like, oh, that's really impressive.

1022
00:58:28,199 --> 00:58:31,719
Speaker 3: I love that. I love this aspect Griffith. He understands

1023
00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:36,239
who he's looking at so well, and it really shows

1024
00:58:36,320 --> 00:58:38,840
who this kind of who this guy really is. He's

1025
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:42,960
a person who understands other human beings. And not only that,

1026
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:46,360
but he has a respect for a certain type of

1027
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:49,840
human beings. He's Nietzsche in this way, right. He respects

1028
00:58:49,880 --> 00:58:54,639
the will, He respects a person who will walk the

1029
00:58:54,719 --> 00:58:58,119
tightrope because that is the kind of life that he

1030
00:58:58,239 --> 00:59:00,480
lives and the kind of life that he wants to

1031
00:59:00,519 --> 00:59:01,400
continue to live.

1032
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:02,679
Speaker 2: Uh uh.

1033
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:06,440
Speaker 3: And not just that, but Griffith is also a pragmatic person.

1034
00:59:06,960 --> 00:59:09,519
Why does he want guts Because guts is fucking useful,

1035
00:59:09,800 --> 00:59:13,880
That's why. Because he can use guts and both in

1036
00:59:14,079 --> 00:59:19,280
a possessive way and in a in a in a

1037
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:23,039
sort of let more more familiar way. Because I don't

1038
00:59:23,039 --> 00:59:27,920
think Griffith, especially in the in the early parts of this,

1039
00:59:28,039 --> 00:59:32,880
I don't think Griffith is just a manipulative psycho. That's

1040
00:59:32,920 --> 00:59:37,000
not as simple as that. Griffith is a very interesting character.

1041
00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:40,800
There's a reason that so many people identify with Griffith

1042
00:59:41,239 --> 00:59:44,760
and Guts, right, but Griffith in particular, because Griffith has

1043
00:59:44,800 --> 00:59:47,079
a like. Griffith has a dream. We all have that, right,

1044
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:49,199
I think. I think any one of us that isn't

1045
00:59:49,320 --> 00:59:53,079
just you know, some sort of like Shudra like fucking Highlich.

1046
00:59:53,679 --> 00:59:57,320
We all have dreams. We all have uh an ambition

1047
00:59:57,440 --> 00:59:59,519
or desire that we that we that we want to

1048
00:59:59,519 --> 01:00:05,039
strive for. And Griffith exemplifies that extremely well, and he

1049
01:00:05,159 --> 01:00:09,639
is willing to cooperate with other people to make that happen.

1050
01:00:09,679 --> 01:00:12,760
He understands that he can't necessarily do it alone, and

1051
01:00:12,800 --> 01:00:15,400
he will stand on the shoulders of others to do it,

1052
01:00:15,639 --> 01:00:19,480
but he will do it right. And once he sees guns,

1053
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:24,079
he realizes that this guy, this guy is going to

1054
01:00:24,159 --> 01:00:26,559
be a pivotal part of this. He has this like

1055
01:00:26,679 --> 01:00:29,800
foresight to understand what he's looking at. So Griffith is

1056
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:32,400
a deeply ambitious person. He's a deeply he's a person

1057
01:00:32,440 --> 01:00:35,280
who looks to the future. And he's young. Clearly, they're

1058
01:00:35,320 --> 01:00:38,679
all like the same age ish, right, they're all young people.

1059
01:00:40,039 --> 01:00:41,880
But Griffith is not like the rest of them, and

1060
01:00:41,920 --> 01:00:44,800
that's why he runs the show. That's why he's the hawk, right.

1061
01:00:44,800 --> 01:00:49,400
He has a mind that is operating at another level

1062
01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:51,920
compared to the people around him. And not just that

1063
01:00:52,519 --> 01:00:54,880
he is ambitious and all of that stuff, but he's

1064
01:00:54,920 --> 01:00:59,199
also skilled. He has the ability to back up his will.

1065
01:00:59,239 --> 01:01:01,360
He's not just guy who has a lot of talk.

1066
01:01:01,920 --> 01:01:05,159
He will walk the walk as well. And that is

1067
01:01:05,199 --> 01:01:09,400
what this last little duel is. It is the solidification

1068
01:01:09,639 --> 01:01:14,440
that Griffith is not just words. Griffith is for real

1069
01:01:15,559 --> 01:01:19,639
and Guts learns that as well. Right, he is willing.

1070
01:01:20,840 --> 01:01:24,039
This fight is fantastic. I love it, right, the saber

1071
01:01:24,119 --> 01:01:27,000
versus the big sword. Right, it's sick. You're muted, you're muted.

1072
01:01:28,239 --> 01:01:35,039
Speaker 4: Incredibly professionally professional podcaster. You're correct. This is very well drawn.

1073
01:01:35,440 --> 01:01:39,280
We see obviously the visual contrast, also the fighting style contrast.

1074
01:01:39,519 --> 01:01:44,039
You know, gust is using these huge aggressive swings where

1075
01:01:44,079 --> 01:01:48,719
Griffith with his sabers very deftly parrying, you know. And

1076
01:01:49,320 --> 01:01:51,320
Griffith makes him an offer, basically says like, hey, do

1077
01:01:51,360 --> 01:01:52,920
you do you want to be one of my guys

1078
01:01:52,920 --> 01:01:55,840
and gout says no, right, very similar to the offer

1079
01:01:55,920 --> 01:01:59,840
given him by the nobleman. Uh so the two of them,

1080
01:02:00,079 --> 01:02:05,280
you fight it out. Right, Guts essentially says, if.

1081
01:02:05,159 --> 01:02:07,960
Speaker 3: You beat me, I'll do whatever you want. I don't

1082
01:02:07,960 --> 01:02:11,400
really care, right, and then he gets absolutely styled.

1083
01:02:11,079 --> 01:02:15,960
Speaker 4: On in an iconic moment. Right, and this is something

1084
01:02:15,960 --> 01:02:19,480
that will be again. You'll see this image repeated again

1085
01:02:19,519 --> 01:02:23,920
and again. He makes a crazy aggressive swing and Griffith

1086
01:02:23,960 --> 01:02:26,159
jumps on top of the sword, right, pinning it down,

1087
01:02:26,679 --> 01:02:31,000
and he's completely at his mercy. Right, sword at the

1088
01:02:31,039 --> 01:02:35,599
throat basically says like, yeah, you'll do anything to win,

1089
01:02:35,639 --> 01:02:38,599
even sacrifice, you know, your own life. I really like that.

1090
01:02:39,280 --> 01:02:44,239
But guess what I got you? And what Gods does

1091
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:46,920
is he bites down on the sword.

1092
01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:47,920
Speaker 3: Right.

1093
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:50,800
Speaker 4: He's again willing to sacrifice his own body to a

1094
01:02:50,840 --> 01:02:56,320
truly psychotic degree to win. And what he does is,

1095
01:02:56,440 --> 01:02:59,000
you know, he basically uses the sword trapped in his

1096
01:02:59,079 --> 01:03:02,800
teeth the other one to like launch Griffith over.

1097
01:03:04,119 --> 01:03:04,320
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1098
01:03:04,519 --> 01:03:07,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, and now it's a fistfight, right, it's ugly.

1099
01:03:07,519 --> 01:03:09,519
Speaker 3: Yeah. Then he makes it dirty. Yeah, he makes it,

1100
01:03:09,719 --> 01:03:11,960
which is great, Right, it's great. It's the emblematic of, again,

1101
01:03:12,239 --> 01:03:14,719
the kind of person that Guts is. If I can't

1102
01:03:14,719 --> 01:03:18,280
beat you, fuck that I'm gonna beat you. I don't care. Right,

1103
01:03:18,360 --> 01:03:20,639
I will make it happen. I will figure it out.

1104
01:03:20,639 --> 01:03:24,960
I will turn it into a different thing. Right and again,

1105
01:03:25,559 --> 01:03:29,840
beautiful characterization. Right you expect. Oh, Griffith doesn't have it,

1106
01:03:30,119 --> 01:03:33,079
have it? Right? He now? Now he's on the back foot.

1107
01:03:33,119 --> 01:03:35,039
Now guts has got him because he made it ugly.

1108
01:03:35,079 --> 01:03:37,639
This pretty boy doesn't have it. And that is not

1109
01:03:37,719 --> 01:03:41,719
the case. That is not that spits his own blood

1110
01:03:41,719 --> 01:03:48,039
in his face. Right, Griffith picks up, and then we

1111
01:03:48,079 --> 01:03:52,079
get this, We get this first glimpse. We get this

1112
01:03:52,119 --> 01:03:58,639
first glimpse. Look at his face. That is rapture. That

1113
01:03:58,760 --> 01:04:05,559
is like like nirvonic joy. And why because Griffith in

1114
01:04:05,639 --> 01:04:08,800
that moment, it's not a oh, it's a reveal of

1115
01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:12,559
Griffith's evil. It's not so simple. That is what Griffith

1116
01:04:12,639 --> 01:04:16,559
looks like when he knows he is going to win,

1117
01:04:17,440 --> 01:04:21,079
when he knows he's going to get what he wants.

1118
01:04:21,519 --> 01:04:24,960
That's the face he makes because he knows that it's checkmate.

1119
01:04:25,159 --> 01:04:28,360
As soon as this happens, it initiates the sequence of

1120
01:04:28,400 --> 01:04:32,519
grappling that leads to the the yeah, he dislocates in

1121
01:04:32,519 --> 01:04:36,760
the arm. Right, gets him perfect, and it's like the

1122
01:04:37,000 --> 01:04:41,599
Griffith has this moment of like ecstasy, like yes, yes,

1123
01:04:42,360 --> 01:04:45,960
I get it. And that really what it shows is

1124
01:04:46,320 --> 01:04:49,559
the only time that Griffiths will like like crack the

1125
01:04:49,599 --> 01:04:52,800
perfect facade is when he's getting what he wants. And

1126
01:04:52,840 --> 01:04:55,760
he shows that like that like glee, almost like childlike

1127
01:04:55,800 --> 01:04:59,599
glee of like yes, I'm getting what I desire right now.

1128
01:05:00,760 --> 01:05:02,800
Speaker 4: And in a moment that's a little more sinister, right,

1129
01:05:02,880 --> 01:05:06,559
we see that kind of angelic visage, slightly twisted. Right,

1130
01:05:06,599 --> 01:05:08,119
he looks him dead in the eye and says like

1131
01:05:08,440 --> 01:05:11,519
you're mine now, like you're you're one of my band.

1132
01:05:11,960 --> 01:05:13,280
Speaker 3: Uh. And so.

1133
01:05:15,119 --> 01:05:18,880
Speaker 4: Time sort of continues on. Right, guts Is is injured.

1134
01:05:18,920 --> 01:05:22,760
Obviously he's had his uh you know, his arm completely

1135
01:05:22,800 --> 01:05:26,159
and totally uh you know, dislocated. We get some more

1136
01:05:26,239 --> 01:05:29,079
kind of commentary, you know, where the other members of

1137
01:05:29,119 --> 01:05:30,840
the Band of the Hawk are kind of going back

1138
01:05:30,880 --> 01:05:35,159
and forth. We also see that at least currently, Costca

1139
01:05:35,159 --> 01:05:40,079
and Guts do not get along at all, but nonetheless, right,

1140
01:05:40,119 --> 01:05:43,559
they're prepared for a battle. Uh you know, everyone is

1141
01:05:43,679 --> 01:05:48,480
you know on side, right, Guts and Costa everyone, Uh,

1142
01:05:48,559 --> 01:05:50,119
I'm skipping over a little bit because we have a

1143
01:05:50,119 --> 01:05:52,960
little bit of a time constraint, but this is still

1144
01:05:53,159 --> 01:05:54,920
very you know, good characterization.

1145
01:05:55,719 --> 01:05:59,119
Speaker 3: And ultimately what we're doing here is we're moving through it. Right.

1146
01:05:59,159 --> 01:06:03,000
But everyone, you must read this, if you have any

1147
01:06:03,320 --> 01:06:06,559
right interest or desire, you must read these things, all

1148
01:06:06,639 --> 01:06:09,199
of the subtle moments, all the little things that the

1149
01:06:09,239 --> 01:06:12,559
interpersonal relationships between the band members, all of that stuff

1150
01:06:12,599 --> 01:06:15,440
is deeply pivotal because these are the relationships that are

1151
01:06:15,440 --> 01:06:19,760
going to define the rest of Guts's life. These are

1152
01:06:19,800 --> 01:06:23,079
the people that he will come to know as friends

1153
01:06:23,159 --> 01:06:26,000
and comrades. These are the people that he will be

1154
01:06:26,159 --> 01:06:31,880
willing to for the first time, put his life on

1155
01:06:31,920 --> 01:06:35,079
the line for because every other time in guts his life,

1156
01:06:35,119 --> 01:06:37,800
the only time that he really risked his life was

1157
01:06:37,840 --> 01:06:40,199
for his own sake, right, for his own life or

1158
01:06:40,199 --> 01:06:45,480
of his own survival. But these people, these are true comrades. Right.

1159
01:06:45,519 --> 01:06:49,679
In Japanese, there's friend, the word friend tomodachi, right, which

1160
01:06:49,719 --> 01:06:52,360
is like a friend or acquaintance person that you know, right.

1161
01:06:52,400 --> 01:06:57,239
But na kama is like comrade, it's like brother. It

1162
01:06:57,400 --> 01:07:00,920
means a close bond of true life, like this is

1163
01:07:00,920 --> 01:07:04,920
a this is a this is we are we are brothers.

1164
01:07:04,920 --> 01:07:06,159
You know what I'm saying, Like this, we we we

1165
01:07:06,679 --> 01:07:09,320
we have the same goals, we have the same enemies,

1166
01:07:09,360 --> 01:07:14,199
we have the same uh uh uh uh loves and hate.

1167
01:07:14,239 --> 01:07:18,840
We are we are, we are as one line. Right,

1168
01:07:19,000 --> 01:07:22,079
that is what that word means. And that's why when

1169
01:07:22,119 --> 01:07:26,559
he finally attributes that to these people, to the Band

1170
01:07:26,559 --> 01:07:29,800
of the Hawk, right, this is a completely different world

1171
01:07:30,079 --> 01:07:31,760
from the world he grew up in, a world where

1172
01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:35,079
he was it was essentially dog eat dog and at

1173
01:07:35,119 --> 01:07:38,800
his most vulnerable right now, when he finally has the

1174
01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:45,599
strength to be on his own, he learns two I

1175
01:07:45,599 --> 01:07:47,519
guess the best way to put it is like he

1176
01:07:47,639 --> 01:07:49,760
learns once it's like it's like the Band of the

1177
01:07:49,800 --> 01:07:52,480
Hawk teachers. And once he has the strength to live

1178
01:07:52,519 --> 01:07:54,880
on his own, to survive on his own, he learns

1179
01:07:54,880 --> 01:07:57,960
that he doesn't have to do you know what I'm saying.

1180
01:07:57,960 --> 01:08:00,239
He learns that you don't have to go to sleep

1181
01:08:00,639 --> 01:08:02,880
expecting people are gonna come kill you, you don't have

1182
01:08:03,000 --> 01:08:05,000
to sleep with a blade, you don't have to do

1183
01:08:05,039 --> 01:08:07,360
these things. You can live a life in which the

1184
01:08:07,400 --> 01:08:10,199
people around you are your are people that you can

1185
01:08:10,239 --> 01:08:13,559
trust to have your back. And that's what he learns

1186
01:08:13,679 --> 01:08:16,359
with the band. Right. That's why this, this part of

1187
01:08:17,039 --> 01:08:20,199
the story is so so so important to this guy

1188
01:08:20,239 --> 01:08:24,079
because before his life was nothing but suffering. His life

1189
01:08:24,119 --> 01:08:27,479
was nothing but pain. His life was nothing but hoping

1190
01:08:27,479 --> 01:08:29,439
that the people around you aren't going to betray you

1191
01:08:29,560 --> 01:08:32,159
or kill you or try to fucking uh you know,

1192
01:08:32,199 --> 01:08:37,920
send the Donovan after you. Right, this is the is

1193
01:08:37,920 --> 01:08:40,760
the other side. It's the it's the it's the heel, right,

1194
01:08:40,760 --> 01:08:42,920
it's the it's the moment in which a person can

1195
01:08:43,039 --> 01:08:47,279
heal finally from from their wounds. And that's why this

1196
01:08:47,319 --> 01:08:48,560
is so important. That's why I love it so much.

1197
01:08:48,560 --> 01:08:50,680
It's why everyone loves the Golden Age so much, because

1198
01:08:50,720 --> 01:08:53,119
you get to see your boy having a nice life

1199
01:08:53,119 --> 01:08:54,479
for a little bit, you know.

1200
01:08:56,520 --> 01:08:59,399
Speaker 4: Well, and you're completely correct, And we're also in this

1201
01:08:59,520 --> 01:09:02,760
next scene getting some characterization Griffith.

1202
01:09:03,359 --> 01:09:03,560
Speaker 3: Right.

1203
01:09:04,840 --> 01:09:07,880
Speaker 4: Effectively, we learned that he is a very capable commander. Right,

1204
01:09:07,880 --> 01:09:12,399
he launches this audacious surprise attack, right, taking these horses

1205
01:09:12,840 --> 01:09:17,319
up a river, and it's just full route right again,

1206
01:09:17,720 --> 01:09:20,840
very well drawn. Right, this is one of many kind

1207
01:09:20,880 --> 01:09:24,279
of iconic cavalry charges. But nonetheless, right, the bend of

1208
01:09:24,279 --> 01:09:26,920
the hawk is just you know, laying waste to them

1209
01:09:27,439 --> 01:09:28,279
and to me.

1210
01:09:28,520 --> 01:09:31,960
Speaker 3: Griffith is like he's like Alexander, you know what I mean.

1211
01:09:31,960 --> 01:09:35,920
He has that same aura, that same everyone gets swept

1212
01:09:36,000 --> 01:09:38,039
up in it, right, and and the and the acumen,

1213
01:09:38,079 --> 01:09:40,560
the ability. It's not just that he has a legend.

1214
01:09:41,079 --> 01:09:45,000
He actually is that guy. You know. Yeah, that's what

1215
01:09:45,079 --> 01:09:48,560
I think. That's the best real world parallel for the

1216
01:09:48,680 --> 01:09:52,359
characterization of Griffin Griffith at this point. Well, and you know,

1217
01:09:52,399 --> 01:09:56,079
as the the volume concludes, this will lead us into

1218
01:09:56,119 --> 01:10:00,840
our last discussion. Uh we see there's a counter attack

1219
01:10:01,439 --> 01:10:04,239
right this the siege has started, you know, the general

1220
01:10:04,239 --> 01:10:07,479
has launched out, you know, some cavalry to uh you know,

1221
01:10:07,560 --> 01:10:12,479
to to route this uh surprise attack. And uh yeah,

1222
01:10:12,560 --> 01:10:14,439
that's where we pick up at our next discussion.

1223
01:10:15,520 --> 01:10:19,439
Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, Rinus, welcome to Jay Burns Show.

1224
01:10:19,479 --> 01:10:22,079
Speaker 3: How you doing that? Not bad? You know, I've been

1225
01:10:22,159 --> 01:10:25,079
u I've been anticipating this one. This is an exciting

1226
01:10:25,079 --> 01:10:26,279
one for me. I love this ship, you know what

1227
01:10:26,279 --> 01:10:28,399
I mean, Big.

1228
01:10:28,279 --> 01:10:32,520
Speaker 4: Sword Guys, I've been anticipating. This is a nice way

1229
01:10:32,560 --> 01:10:35,159
to say your ship it scheduling and we should have

1230
01:10:35,199 --> 01:10:38,319
done this a month and a half ago, yet made

1231
01:10:38,319 --> 01:10:38,760
it that way.

1232
01:10:38,880 --> 01:10:44,159
Speaker 3: But but but I've I've definitely like it's not even that.

1233
01:10:44,199 --> 01:10:46,279
It's like it's like, you know, we got together to

1234
01:10:46,359 --> 01:10:50,600
do this, right, we were recommended, uh sort of uh

1235
01:10:50,920 --> 01:10:54,960
to to link up, right, because I've wanted to talk

1236
01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:58,479
about this, this one for for forever, right, Like I

1237
01:10:58,479 --> 01:11:02,760
think they're you know, everybody knows. Everybody knows this by now,

1238
01:11:02,800 --> 01:11:06,079
I think, right, I think I think berserk is it

1239
01:11:06,119 --> 01:11:09,720
has sort of reached a level of cultural saturation all anime. Right,

1240
01:11:09,800 --> 01:11:12,800
There's been a huge wave of this. It's been kind

1241
01:11:12,840 --> 01:11:18,199
of very interesting to see the rise of this medium

1242
01:11:18,960 --> 01:11:22,000
in the West as as a kid who like, man,

1243
01:11:22,479 --> 01:11:25,359
you know, I was there was a time frame where

1244
01:11:25,399 --> 01:11:27,920
you would be made fun of if you watch Japanese

1245
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:31,079
cartoons even though everybody was still children, you know what

1246
01:11:31,119 --> 01:11:32,880
I mean, it didn't even make sense. It was like

1247
01:11:33,199 --> 01:11:37,960
that's childish. It's like, dude, we're eleven years old, what

1248
01:11:38,000 --> 01:11:42,079
are you? What are you talking about? Right? So, you know,

1249
01:11:42,119 --> 01:11:44,479
I was a DBZ watcher and even like Sailor Moon

1250
01:11:44,600 --> 01:11:47,520
back in the day, right, So to watch the rise

1251
01:11:47,520 --> 01:11:51,239
of it, to watch become sort of like a firmly

1252
01:11:51,239 --> 01:11:55,800
implanted within the cultural zeitgeist and become almost like overburnt,

1253
01:11:55,920 --> 01:12:01,359
Like oversaturated is crazy, right, but berserk is is something

1254
01:12:01,399 --> 01:12:04,079
that I think is kind of like a It's like

1255
01:12:04,119 --> 01:12:08,760
an old weathered rock that things you know, like orbit

1256
01:12:08,840 --> 01:12:12,119
run or slash around. Right, the water's rise and fall,

1257
01:12:12,199 --> 01:12:15,800
but this thing stays there, and it's been there for

1258
01:12:15,840 --> 01:12:18,239
a reason. And I think this arc, in particular, the

1259
01:12:18,279 --> 01:12:21,960
Golden Age is is the foundation of that mountain, right

1260
01:12:22,079 --> 01:12:27,680
Like this, this, this is where Mirror shows that he

1261
01:12:27,880 --> 01:12:33,840
isn't just writing something that is essentially a kind of

1262
01:12:33,880 --> 01:12:36,960
like a rip off of Fists of the North Star,

1263
01:12:37,439 --> 01:12:41,760
you know, and instead we're making something that's really considered

1264
01:12:41,840 --> 01:12:46,039
and willing to go places that most of these things

1265
01:12:46,039 --> 01:12:49,840
are not are not willing to go. Yeah.

1266
01:12:49,880 --> 01:12:52,079
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I think I come at this slightly

1267
01:12:52,119 --> 01:12:55,600
differently because you know, I when I was growing up,

1268
01:12:55,720 --> 01:13:00,199
anime was sort of starting it like cultural ascendency, like

1269
01:13:00,399 --> 01:13:02,039
it had very much become.

1270
01:13:02,079 --> 01:13:07,920
Speaker 3: Something Okay, Okay, yeah, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like

1271
01:13:08,199 --> 01:13:11,680
a decade older than you, right, so just slightly but

1272
01:13:12,199 --> 01:13:15,439
same same for me, it was even even less than

1273
01:13:15,439 --> 01:13:17,680
what you're saying, right, Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

1274
01:13:17,640 --> 01:13:21,359
It was a it was a rise, but it at

1275
01:13:21,399 --> 01:13:24,640
our time, it was like almost nobody, almost nobody watched this,

1276
01:13:24,840 --> 01:13:27,760
like only little kids watch this shit. Other than that,

1277
01:13:27,800 --> 01:13:30,800
it was like considered like very you know what I mean,

1278
01:13:32,000 --> 01:13:34,359
but sorry, go ahead, go ahead, no no.

1279
01:13:34,479 --> 01:13:36,800
Speaker 4: And so it was interesting because when I grew up,

1280
01:13:36,840 --> 01:13:39,600
it was it was sort of part of the like

1281
01:13:39,800 --> 01:13:43,800
mainstream alt identity, you know, where you were like just

1282
01:13:43,840 --> 01:13:47,000
a little bit out of you know, mainstream culture for

1283
01:13:47,039 --> 01:13:49,800
whatever that works, but still very much an acceptable normal

1284
01:13:49,840 --> 01:13:52,640
thing to do, right, safe edgy, as the kids would say.

1285
01:13:52,920 --> 01:13:53,239
Speaker 3: Yes.

1286
01:13:53,319 --> 01:13:57,000
Speaker 4: And what's interesting is that certain aspects of you know,

1287
01:13:57,079 --> 01:14:00,800
Japanese culture can or cannot be a similar into that.

1288
01:14:01,279 --> 01:14:03,239
You know, for instance, like on the video game side,

1289
01:14:03,239 --> 01:14:05,640
you see things like dead or Alive, which is just

1290
01:14:05,720 --> 01:14:08,800
like absolutely hated by the kind of like Reddit mod

1291
01:14:08,880 --> 01:14:13,840
crowd because bio squarely and except normans, normies cannot stand

1292
01:14:13,840 --> 01:14:18,960
the kino. Yeah, and and Berserkers. Berserk is in sort

1293
01:14:18,960 --> 01:14:21,520
of a similar position. And so you'll you'll see this

1294
01:14:22,159 --> 01:14:25,640
dialogue come up from time to time talking about the

1295
01:14:25,640 --> 01:14:28,920
prevalence of you know, there's a lot of adult material

1296
01:14:28,960 --> 01:14:30,880
in this right, there's a lot of sexual assault, there's

1297
01:14:30,880 --> 01:14:34,680
a lot of you know violence, there's a death, yeah,

1298
01:14:34,720 --> 01:14:37,760
one hundred percent, Like that's to be perfectly blunt about it. Yes,

1299
01:14:38,319 --> 01:14:42,000
and look like this isn't like a if you even

1300
01:14:42,039 --> 01:14:43,920
have to say it, it's not like a pro thing.

1301
01:14:44,319 --> 01:14:47,720
Speaker 3: But no, it handles it horrifically. It's like it's like

1302
01:14:48,039 --> 01:14:51,880
it's like, I don't think anything handles as well as berserk.

1303
01:14:52,279 --> 01:14:55,840
And that's crazy because of the way that I understand

1304
01:14:55,880 --> 01:14:58,000
exactly what you're talking. There's a discourse and a perception

1305
01:14:58,359 --> 01:15:02,720
around berserk that it's essentially like like it's like it

1306
01:15:02,880 --> 01:15:06,439
revels in degrading and destroying the female characters, and it

1307
01:15:06,560 --> 01:15:12,079
revels in especially Cosca. You know what I mean, I don't.

1308
01:15:12,079 --> 01:15:15,479
I don't agree with that even upon reread write as

1309
01:15:15,520 --> 01:15:17,239
a as Like when I first read this, I was

1310
01:15:17,239 --> 01:15:20,960
like nineteen right, or actually I was probably seventeen right.

1311
01:15:21,760 --> 01:15:24,319
You know, at the time, I was into anime. I

1312
01:15:24,399 --> 01:15:26,600
liked anime a lot, right like I and I was

1313
01:15:26,640 --> 01:15:30,399
more into manga even because I early on I read

1314
01:15:30,479 --> 01:15:34,239
like the some kid at my school brought a shown

1315
01:15:34,279 --> 01:15:37,600
and jump once in eighth grade and that like that

1316
01:15:37,720 --> 01:15:39,479
one event, like you know what I mean, Like I

1317
01:15:39,560 --> 01:15:41,399
read through it and I was like, holy shit, Like

1318
01:15:41,439 --> 01:15:45,359
in it was like Naruto, Bleach, you you hacker show fuck.

1319
01:15:45,399 --> 01:15:47,960
It was just it was like all killer, no filler. Right,

1320
01:15:48,000 --> 01:15:51,079
So I was like, this is this stuff is way

1321
01:15:51,159 --> 01:15:53,439
cooler than the stuff that I most of the stuff

1322
01:15:53,479 --> 01:15:55,600
that I've seen, Right, it was sort of very shocking

1323
01:15:56,439 --> 01:16:01,520
for young me. Right. So, growing up, I rabbit towards

1324
01:16:01,520 --> 01:16:03,800
the manga side. I read Berserk, I read or sorry,

1325
01:16:03,840 --> 01:16:05,680
I read Bleach, I read Nards so as they were

1326
01:16:05,680 --> 01:16:08,600
coming out, but I had never read anything like Berserk

1327
01:16:08,800 --> 01:16:12,720
at the time. Right. It was so much more you know,

1328
01:16:12,880 --> 01:16:15,800
for lack of better words, it was so much more mature.

1329
01:16:16,000 --> 01:16:20,239
It was so much more it was considered, it was

1330
01:16:20,279 --> 01:16:24,239
more even, it was it was more elaborate artistically. It

1331
01:16:24,279 --> 01:16:26,720
was just it was just it felt like an evolution

1332
01:16:27,000 --> 01:16:30,560
right of the medium, despite the fact that it came out,

1333
01:16:30,640 --> 01:16:34,119
you know, it started in the eighties, right, Mirrors just.

1334
01:16:34,119 --> 01:16:38,039
Speaker 4: Honestly, like, I'm not really a fan of of anime

1335
01:16:38,159 --> 01:16:40,800
or manga, It's not really my thing. But to me,

1336
01:16:40,920 --> 01:16:43,239
I sort of view this in the same realm as

1337
01:16:43,279 --> 01:16:46,720
like you know, Akira or something like that, where it

1338
01:16:46,720 --> 01:16:50,960
almost transcends the medium, Like this is and even the

1339
01:16:51,039 --> 01:16:54,359
kind of guy who reads manga is in you know,

1340
01:16:54,680 --> 01:16:57,960
kind of derogatorily referred to as a weepad. It's really

1341
01:16:57,960 --> 01:17:01,239
good before we jump into it, because I want to

1342
01:17:01,319 --> 01:17:06,640
get into the you know, the segment we're reading. Two things. One, dude,

1343
01:17:06,800 --> 01:17:10,920
I have never started a series and gotten more people

1344
01:17:11,239 --> 01:17:13,720
chimping out at me to continue it now. Part of

1345
01:17:13,720 --> 01:17:15,720
that is because there was a big gap between episode

1346
01:17:15,720 --> 01:17:17,960
one and episode two of this series, right. The other

1347
01:17:18,039 --> 01:17:21,199
part is people really are interested in this topic. So

1348
01:17:21,199 --> 01:17:23,840
I'm excited about that. But I got a message after

1349
01:17:23,880 --> 01:17:26,479
the last one came out from a buddy of mine.

1350
01:17:26,880 --> 01:17:30,159
He lives here locally, and you know, he's listened to

1351
01:17:30,199 --> 01:17:32,960
the show every once in a while, and so I

1352
01:17:32,960 --> 01:17:35,680
got this message at like ten am on a Sunday, says,

1353
01:17:35,760 --> 01:17:38,439
I'll have you know, I read all of Berserk. It's

1354
01:17:38,479 --> 01:17:41,319
a bit much, but damn it was really good. And

1355
01:17:41,399 --> 01:17:43,680
I think that's about the best review I could get,

1356
01:17:43,800 --> 01:17:48,119
right someone as it gets Yeah, a bit much is

1357
01:17:48,159 --> 01:17:48,880
a way to put it.

1358
01:17:48,960 --> 01:17:50,119
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.

1359
01:17:50,239 --> 01:17:54,359
Speaker 4: And so the last the last section I did right,

1360
01:17:54,439 --> 01:17:57,640
the Black Swordsman arc is both functions as sort of

1361
01:17:57,640 --> 01:18:00,479
a you know, a primer, right, you meet the character,

1362
01:18:00,560 --> 01:18:03,720
but also it's an earlier, less developed version of absolutely.

1363
01:18:03,960 --> 01:18:06,239
Absolutely it's sort of the it was sort of the

1364
01:18:06,279 --> 01:18:08,000
pitch deck, if you.

1365
01:18:07,600 --> 01:18:10,760
Speaker 3: You know. In preparation for this, I reread everything up

1366
01:18:10,840 --> 01:18:16,199
to the up to basically when Zod goes, all right, boy,

1367
01:18:16,199 --> 01:18:19,520
it's time to show you what the fuck is up

1368
01:18:19,600 --> 01:18:24,560
right and the black Swordsman. Man, it's insane. That arc

1369
01:18:24,720 --> 01:18:27,560
is like it's like a it's a completely different thing,

1370
01:18:27,720 --> 01:18:30,920
like especially like the first like three or four chapters.

1371
01:18:31,399 --> 01:18:33,399
It's like this feels like a different manga, like it.

1372
01:18:33,720 --> 01:18:37,479
Clearly he didn't really know what Brijik was at the time, right.

1373
01:18:37,800 --> 01:18:40,159
He just wanted to make like a thing about a

1374
01:18:40,199 --> 01:18:43,920
cool guy who fucking kicks people's asses and slashes them

1375
01:18:43,920 --> 01:18:47,239
in half with a giant fucking sword, right, because that rules,

1376
01:18:47,560 --> 01:18:50,199
and at the time, to be fair, right, to be

1377
01:18:50,239 --> 01:18:53,239
fair to him. Right. It's so funny how he's the

1378
01:18:53,279 --> 01:18:55,199
water that people are swimming in and they don't even

1379
01:18:55,279 --> 01:18:58,239
really realize it, right, And not to say that Mirror

1380
01:18:58,319 --> 01:19:02,039
is some sort of like you know, uh, visionary innovator.

1381
01:19:02,119 --> 01:19:05,520
That is not his skill. His skill is like it

1382
01:19:05,760 --> 01:19:12,960
is fine tune, like like uh, those skills it's not

1383
01:19:13,000 --> 01:19:15,960
necessarily about like, Wow, he's made something that has changed

1384
01:19:16,359 --> 01:19:18,960
all of fiction, like you know, something like a like

1385
01:19:19,000 --> 01:19:22,000
a like a token. He's not doing that, right. What

1386
01:19:22,000 --> 01:19:24,520
what Mirror was doing, especially at the beginning, was he

1387
01:19:24,640 --> 01:19:29,039
clearly clearly really liked Fist of the north Star, right,

1388
01:19:29,279 --> 01:19:33,199
because Berserk is essentially what if Ken Schiro was an asshole?

1389
01:19:35,119 --> 01:19:37,319
This is the north Stars. Whole thing is that is

1390
01:19:37,359 --> 01:19:40,840
that the main character is like he's like he's the

1391
01:19:40,920 --> 01:19:43,319
ultimate moral guy, right, Like he's like a shit night

1392
01:19:43,359 --> 01:19:46,479
and shining armor always says the right thing, and he's

1393
01:19:46,520 --> 01:19:53,079
like pretty much invincible, right, whereas you know in in Berserk, right,

1394
01:19:53,760 --> 01:19:56,279
despite the fact that you know, Guts is also like

1395
01:19:56,319 --> 01:20:00,960
a sort of wandering a wandering form of justice. He

1396
01:20:01,159 --> 01:20:06,399
is his own moral compass, right, and he doesn't follow

1397
01:20:06,840 --> 01:20:09,920
like a like a sort of like a social ethic. Right.

1398
01:20:10,000 --> 01:20:16,840
He's he's very antisocial and he's absolutely effective and super brutal, right,

1399
01:20:16,880 --> 01:20:19,479
So he has that Canhiro power, but he doesn't have

1400
01:20:19,520 --> 01:20:26,600
that Canhiro ethical framework. In many ways, I've I've heard

1401
01:20:26,680 --> 01:20:30,960
I I personally have not read the og Devilman because

1402
01:20:31,000 --> 01:20:33,079
that's what this stuff is like inspired by just so

1403
01:20:33,159 --> 01:20:38,279
everybody understands, right, uh uh. Devil Devilman cry Baby is

1404
01:20:38,560 --> 01:20:41,880
a recently made Netflix show that is Devil Man like

1405
01:20:41,880 --> 01:20:44,119
a sort of like a reboot, but the og Devilman

1406
01:20:44,279 --> 01:20:46,640
is like I'm talking about these are these are things

1407
01:20:46,680 --> 01:20:50,199
like the way that Astro Boy is part of Japanese

1408
01:20:50,720 --> 01:20:55,399
you know, like cultural framework. Devil Man is the same thing.

1409
01:20:55,439 --> 01:20:59,239
It is. It is like an og uh comic book

1410
01:20:59,439 --> 01:21:02,279
series that everybody knows. So Mirror is a big fan

1411
01:21:02,319 --> 01:21:05,039
of that, and Devilman also has a sort of Griffith

1412
01:21:05,159 --> 01:21:08,880
like character. But those were his inspirations and you can

1413
01:21:08,920 --> 01:21:10,840
see that, especially in the in the Black Swordsman arc

1414
01:21:10,880 --> 01:21:12,199
that he kind of just wanted to make something like

1415
01:21:12,279 --> 01:21:16,279
fits of the North Star. But Golden Age. That's where

1416
01:21:16,279 --> 01:21:20,159
this really like comes alive, right, you see hints of

1417
01:21:20,199 --> 01:21:22,640
it at the end of the Black Swordsman arc. Obviously,

1418
01:21:22,640 --> 01:21:26,439
the last chapters of Black Swordsmen are like explicitly like

1419
01:21:26,520 --> 01:21:28,159
he okay, he figured out what he wants to do

1420
01:21:28,239 --> 01:21:31,399
with this, right, you see femto right, you see the

1421
01:21:31,920 --> 01:21:36,239
God hand, right, all of that stuff with that last

1422
01:21:36,319 --> 01:21:40,159
apostle is really interesting. But then it's like, okay, how

1423
01:21:40,199 --> 01:21:43,600
do we get here? Right, and he gives it to you,

1424
01:21:44,159 --> 01:21:47,079
and it starts in a way that you know, this

1425
01:21:47,199 --> 01:21:49,439
is spectacular. I think this is such a good way

1426
01:21:49,479 --> 01:21:52,359
to start with. This character is right, like this kid

1427
01:21:52,960 --> 01:21:57,439
is literally born from a corpse, right, he's he We'll

1428
01:21:57,479 --> 01:21:58,720
get into that. We'll get into that.

1429
01:21:59,119 --> 01:22:02,079
Speaker 4: You trying to avoid any any direct spoilers for the

1430
01:22:02,119 --> 01:22:03,560
guys kind of reading along with us.

1431
01:22:03,960 --> 01:22:06,399
Speaker 3: Oh if you, if you are watching this and you

1432
01:22:06,479 --> 01:22:09,439
have not read Berserk, what I would suggest is for

1433
01:22:09,520 --> 01:22:12,760
you to stop and go read it at least read

1434
01:22:12,880 --> 01:22:17,760
up to where we are talking, which is let me

1435
01:22:17,880 --> 01:22:20,079
just let me just make sure I'm correct here.

1436
01:22:20,600 --> 01:22:22,760
Speaker 4: Well, dude, what I've done is I've just included the

1437
01:22:22,800 --> 01:22:24,920
link to a pirate site where you can see it

1438
01:22:24,960 --> 01:22:28,239
all on your computer for free. Like right, the first thing,

1439
01:22:28,560 --> 01:22:32,199
like everyone like the physical stuff's great, Everyone should.

1440
01:22:31,920 --> 01:22:35,880
Speaker 3: Read manga online for free. And then once you've decided, wow,

1441
01:22:35,960 --> 01:22:37,880
this is a work that is beautiful and I really

1442
01:22:37,960 --> 01:22:40,960
want to contribute to this person's coffers, then by their

1443
01:22:41,000 --> 01:22:45,000
stuff if you want. I don't care. I've read. I

1444
01:22:45,000 --> 01:22:48,920
can't even thousands and thousands of chapters of things that

1445
01:22:49,000 --> 01:22:51,520
I was not allowed and I don't give a shit, right.

1446
01:22:51,560 --> 01:22:53,880
This is this is the way. The only reason that

1447
01:22:53,960 --> 01:22:57,520
manga is and an anime are the culturals like guess

1448
01:22:57,520 --> 01:22:59,920
that they are these days is because of these websites.

1449
01:23:00,119 --> 01:23:03,000
It's not because everybody was out buying fucking anime DVDs.

1450
01:23:03,159 --> 01:23:05,600
That's not what people do. They go to anime pirate

1451
01:23:05,760 --> 01:23:07,920
or they go to pirated anime websites, or they go

1452
01:23:07,960 --> 01:23:10,079
to pirate mango websites and they read them and then

1453
01:23:10,079 --> 01:23:12,079
if they love it, they buy it, or they fucking

1454
01:23:12,079 --> 01:23:14,520
go to Japan. They turn people into fucking like cultists. Man,

1455
01:23:14,560 --> 01:23:18,159
It's it's like, it's it's worth. That's why they allow

1456
01:23:18,199 --> 01:23:20,239
it to happen, in my opinion, because I don't think

1457
01:23:20,279 --> 01:23:22,760
that these companies would have the hardest time going for

1458
01:23:22,800 --> 01:23:27,920
these these kinds of these kind of websites regardless, I think, yeah,

1459
01:23:27,920 --> 01:23:29,840
you should probably go read because I'm going to do

1460
01:23:29,920 --> 01:23:33,640
my best to not these spoilery. But it's difficult to

1461
01:23:33,720 --> 01:23:37,039
really talk about the meat of this thing without revealing

1462
01:23:37,319 --> 01:23:39,560
a lot of aspects of this because a lot of

1463
01:23:39,560 --> 01:23:44,000
it is like it's in many ways Bzurk is a maximalist, right,

1464
01:23:45,920 --> 01:23:49,640
But there's so much of the really good stuff is

1465
01:23:49,880 --> 01:23:54,319
really understated, you know, even just looks things like that

1466
01:23:54,479 --> 01:23:58,239
right in this in this some dish. But yeah, this

1467
01:23:58,359 --> 01:24:06,239
kid is clearly in the Black Swordsman Arc. Gots has

1468
01:24:06,279 --> 01:24:10,920
some issues with other people, right. He really despises being touched,

1469
01:24:11,720 --> 01:24:17,079
can't stand it. It doesn't matter who's touching him either, right,

1470
01:24:17,279 --> 01:24:20,439
he is he doesn't really have very much value for

1471
01:24:20,520 --> 01:24:25,560
human life at all. He is willing to kill innocence.

1472
01:24:28,159 --> 01:24:32,960
Only really one death hurts him in the whole thing,

1473
01:24:33,279 --> 01:24:35,399
and that's the little girl and her and her and

1474
01:24:35,439 --> 01:24:38,399
her like old man Dad, he's like traveling and you

1475
01:24:38,399 --> 01:24:40,920
know he gets attacked by because of the brand, right,

1476
01:24:41,479 --> 01:24:44,560
he gets attacked and these two people get sort of

1477
01:24:44,560 --> 01:24:47,079
caught in the crossfire, right, and he he ends up

1478
01:24:47,479 --> 01:24:51,199
destroying this child's body that gets possessed and it does

1479
01:24:51,319 --> 01:24:54,920
damage him. He cries about it, I believe, which you

1480
01:24:55,039 --> 01:24:56,720
never see up to that point, right, he never really

1481
01:24:56,720 --> 01:25:00,640
shows that aspect of himself. It's important to.

1482
01:25:00,560 --> 01:25:03,600
Speaker 4: Say, and we've said this before, that that chronologically we're

1483
01:25:03,880 --> 01:25:07,119
we're stepping back, right, the blast words and Arc occurs

1484
01:25:07,199 --> 01:25:10,720
after this, so we're getting more context, but also in

1485
01:25:10,800 --> 01:25:13,560
real time, right, this was done later, so we start

1486
01:25:13,600 --> 01:25:15,800
off just right in the middle of a battle. And

1487
01:25:15,840 --> 01:25:17,840
in the first episode, you remember that I said there's

1488
01:25:17,880 --> 01:25:21,239
a lot of amazing art and great kind of historical

1489
01:25:21,319 --> 01:25:24,760
arms and armor. This panel is a great example of that, right,

1490
01:25:24,920 --> 01:25:27,760
just this massive battle. Obviously this is sort of paying

1491
01:25:27,760 --> 01:25:30,399
homage to the historical one hundred Years War, right, this

1492
01:25:30,479 --> 01:25:34,159
conflict where there are lots of mercenaries running around. Guts

1493
01:25:34,199 --> 01:25:36,479
himself is the is you know, is a part of

1494
01:25:36,840 --> 01:25:40,359
you know, one of these bands. Uh So the battle

1495
01:25:40,399 --> 01:25:44,159
is again rendered in in gory detail, and then there's

1496
01:25:44,199 --> 01:25:47,399
this this troop of you know, armed armored knights that

1497
01:25:47,479 --> 01:25:52,319
come in and instead of right, you know, fighting that

1498
01:25:52,399 --> 01:25:56,800
with a you know, an actual force, Guts rides out himself, right,

1499
01:25:56,840 --> 01:25:59,239
and again we see the sort of like very you know,

1500
01:25:59,359 --> 01:26:02,600
dutifully rendered you know, gore as he kind of cuts

1501
01:26:02,600 --> 01:26:05,399
them through. Again, a great kind of double spread of

1502
01:26:05,479 --> 01:26:08,000
him going into it. I'm not going to go through

1503
01:26:08,039 --> 01:26:10,520
and scroll through the entire thing, but I will show

1504
01:26:10,600 --> 01:26:13,800
kind of choice panels that are particularly relevant or interesting

1505
01:26:13,840 --> 01:26:15,760
as we go through it, and a lot.

1506
01:26:15,640 --> 01:26:19,520
Speaker 3: Of they're the like prototypical of Mirror's style and what

1507
01:26:19,560 --> 01:26:24,800
to expect of this manga. The the big cleave is

1508
01:26:24,920 --> 01:26:32,199
basically the guts, bread and butter, like he's he What

1509
01:26:32,239 --> 01:26:34,159
I love about him as a character is that he's

1510
01:26:34,319 --> 01:26:39,640
clearly unbelievably skilled, right he but he fights in the

1511
01:26:39,680 --> 01:26:43,319
most brute force way. I love that about him. He's

1512
01:26:43,399 --> 01:26:46,960
not gonna go like he doesn't care about going for

1513
01:26:47,000 --> 01:26:50,560
the gaps in your armor. He doesn't care about trying

1514
01:26:50,600 --> 01:26:53,560
to sort of like beat you with footwork and then

1515
01:26:53,760 --> 01:26:56,399
you know, get outside of your guard. He just cuts

1516
01:26:56,479 --> 01:26:59,880
through it and no one expects that. No one expects

1517
01:26:59,880 --> 01:27:03,439
the he's able to do that. It's considered like superhuman

1518
01:27:03,720 --> 01:27:07,039
in the universe, which I appreciate. Right, Guts is considered

1519
01:27:07,760 --> 01:27:12,119
like imagine seeing somebody do that, man, imagine watching somebody

1520
01:27:12,239 --> 01:27:15,600
cleave with a sword through plate armor that doesn't even

1521
01:27:15,640 --> 01:27:18,800
make like like what is that's like magic shit? Like

1522
01:27:18,840 --> 01:27:21,279
what is going on with that? What is that guy taking? Right?

1523
01:27:21,359 --> 01:27:26,079
So he is a force? Right this this chapter right

1524
01:27:26,319 --> 01:27:28,319
what I appreciated, But I just realized that sort of

1525
01:27:28,319 --> 01:27:31,640
like the the format of this like properly right. This

1526
01:27:31,720 --> 01:27:34,760
chapter in particular, I love this because it's it's sort

1527
01:27:34,760 --> 01:27:37,159
of the first time that he gets the first time

1528
01:27:37,159 --> 01:27:39,039
that you see guts in a in a in a

1529
01:27:39,079 --> 01:27:44,520
position of of responsibility to a degree, right, this is

1530
01:27:44,560 --> 01:27:48,079
a a reveal of him after a time has passed.

1531
01:27:49,000 --> 01:27:54,399
I do also love the aspect that he's fighting these

1532
01:27:54,439 --> 01:27:58,399
sort of like something that Japanese authors do a lot,

1533
01:27:58,439 --> 01:28:01,039
and I think it's it's kind of there's a lot

1534
01:28:01,039 --> 01:28:02,600
of soul in this. It's sort of it reminds me

1535
01:28:02,640 --> 01:28:07,000
a lot of like a you know, like sort of

1536
01:28:07,760 --> 01:28:11,119
like nineteen fifties like greaser sort of sort of like

1537
01:28:11,119 --> 01:28:14,359
like like street gang called like oh, we're like street sharks,

1538
01:28:14,359 --> 01:28:15,399
you know what I mean, like that that kind of

1539
01:28:15,399 --> 01:28:19,279
ship like snapping at each other. Right. Yeah. The Japs

1540
01:28:19,319 --> 01:28:23,560
have this thing too with with with you know this

1541
01:28:23,560 --> 01:28:27,000
this this uh, this unit that they're that the Band

1542
01:28:27,000 --> 01:28:28,680
of the Hawk is fighting against. Right, they're called like

1543
01:28:28,720 --> 01:28:32,800
the like black Iron Rams heavy cavalry, right, Like they

1544
01:28:32,800 --> 01:28:35,880
have like a ton of these. It's like, yeah, tons

1545
01:28:35,920 --> 01:28:37,439
of them across the Munket, there are tons of them.

1546
01:28:37,479 --> 01:28:40,600
I love this. I love this part of It's very typical,

1547
01:28:40,720 --> 01:28:44,079
especially of Japanese stuff at this time frame in the

1548
01:28:44,119 --> 01:28:46,079
net because I think this this part was being written

1549
01:28:46,119 --> 01:28:50,199
in the nineties. Yeah, most of the Golden ages written

1550
01:28:50,199 --> 01:28:52,520
in the nineties, I believe he was. He was he

1551
01:28:52,560 --> 01:28:55,640
was fast burning in the nineties, but it's still done significantly.

1552
01:28:56,880 --> 01:28:59,239
But yeah, I love that he's fighting sort of like this,

1553
01:28:59,319 --> 01:29:02,800
like they all have there's you know, special ram helmets

1554
01:29:02,880 --> 01:29:05,239
and right, they're like they're like they're like a gang. Right.

1555
01:29:06,600 --> 01:29:06,720
Speaker 1: Uh.

1556
01:29:07,159 --> 01:29:09,319
Speaker 3: It reminds me of like, you know, also like Japanese

1557
01:29:09,560 --> 01:29:11,520
biker gangs all of that, righting the sort of like

1558
01:29:11,560 --> 01:29:14,680
connection to the culture, right, I love that. I love

1559
01:29:14,720 --> 01:29:16,479
that he chose to do.

1560
01:29:16,479 --> 01:29:22,560
Speaker 4: This, and honestly, man, like it's again, this is fantasy.

1561
01:29:22,720 --> 01:29:26,079
Although it's interesting at this point is that we we

1562
01:29:26,159 --> 01:29:30,039
see Guts witness something magical or supernatural for the first

1563
01:29:30,079 --> 01:29:30,520
time in the.

1564
01:29:30,479 --> 01:29:33,079
Speaker 3: Sense this is the first time that that really happens.

1565
01:29:33,359 --> 01:29:36,039
You know, yes, and you know that that whole thing

1566
01:29:36,079 --> 01:29:39,159
of having your your mercenary crew with a cool name

1567
01:29:39,439 --> 01:29:42,840
and a banner and something you do, Yeah, it happened.

1568
01:29:43,000 --> 01:29:46,239
It's yeah, exactly, It's like it's the desire, right that.

1569
01:29:47,439 --> 01:29:53,039
I cannot tell you how much I devoured this arc

1570
01:29:53,800 --> 01:29:56,159
when I read it the first time, right at seventeen

1571
01:29:56,239 --> 01:29:58,199
years old, I was like, this is like, this is

1572
01:29:58,239 --> 01:30:01,960
the coolest thing ever imagine just fuck and just you know,

1573
01:30:02,039 --> 01:30:04,199
getting after it with your bros. Right that this is

1574
01:30:04,239 --> 01:30:06,520
sick and you like your main guy is the coolest

1575
01:30:06,520 --> 01:30:09,079
guy ever, right, and we we have to talk about Griffith, right,

1576
01:30:10,680 --> 01:30:11,760
Oh yeah, one hundred percent.

1577
01:30:12,039 --> 01:30:16,760
Speaker 4: So we're we're introduced to Griffith because he the leader

1578
01:30:16,840 --> 01:30:20,479
of you know, Guts Mercenary Company rides in on horseback

1579
01:30:20,520 --> 01:30:22,720
to save him. Right again, this kind of double panel

1580
01:30:22,800 --> 01:30:25,039
you see, to basically back him up as he's kind

1581
01:30:25,079 --> 01:30:28,479
of you know, weighed down with you know, all of

1582
01:30:28,520 --> 01:30:32,399
these like armored knights. And again this is just the introduction.

1583
01:30:32,600 --> 01:30:34,800
He is a major character, and in fact, he is

1584
01:30:34,960 --> 01:30:38,319
referenced in the kind of closing of this segment.

1585
01:30:38,760 --> 01:30:41,279
Speaker 3: To be to be to be to be clear, this

1586
01:30:41,359 --> 01:30:44,039
is not the introduction of Guts in the or sorry

1587
01:30:44,039 --> 01:30:45,760
of Griffith and the Golden Age. This is this is

1588
01:30:45,840 --> 01:30:51,359
post time skip. This is right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I

1589
01:30:51,439 --> 01:30:53,279
was just reading this earlier today because just to like

1590
01:30:53,439 --> 01:30:55,439
keep it in my mind. Right, this is post time skip.

1591
01:30:55,520 --> 01:31:00,000
So there is the entire remember how their first meeting, right, yeah,

1592
01:31:00,359 --> 01:31:03,399
Guts is not meeting Griffith. We are as the audience,

1593
01:31:03,479 --> 01:31:05,760
is what I meant to say, no, because there's a

1594
01:31:05,760 --> 01:31:09,720
whole section in which in which, like, okay, there's a battle,

1595
01:31:11,760 --> 01:31:15,279
Guts beats a guy, Griffith sees him do this, then

1596
01:31:15,359 --> 01:31:20,319
Guts leaves with the money. Griffith's boys watch him leave,

1597
01:31:20,760 --> 01:31:24,399
right and they it's Corcus, you know, the like the

1598
01:31:24,560 --> 01:31:27,359
like he's like the designated like oh.

1599
01:31:27,239 --> 01:31:29,039
Speaker 4: See in my and maybe this is just the site

1600
01:31:29,079 --> 01:31:31,800
I'm looking at it that is later I might be

1601
01:31:31,800 --> 01:31:33,760
looking at a mixed up version. So that's entire that's

1602
01:31:33,800 --> 01:31:35,199
definitely the part you're talking.

1603
01:31:35,079 --> 01:31:37,640
Speaker 3: About that Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, but

1604
01:31:37,680 --> 01:31:39,800
you no, No, this is this is the Golden Age

1605
01:31:39,840 --> 01:31:43,520
is done and chronologically from the time that like literally

1606
01:31:43,560 --> 01:31:47,800
from the time that in which Gambino finds Guts. It's

1607
01:31:47,840 --> 01:31:52,119
almost immediately it starts there, brother, yeah, it starts there.

1608
01:31:52,119 --> 01:31:54,600
Speaker 4: Well, this is incredibly professional podcasting.

1609
01:31:54,920 --> 01:31:58,399
Speaker 3: It's okay, it's it's okay because all of this, all

1610
01:31:58,439 --> 01:32:01,039
of this sort of works. The chapters we're talking about

1611
01:32:01,319 --> 01:32:09,000
are are are still doing everything that is like they're

1612
01:32:09,039 --> 01:32:11,680
like they're almost like the prototypical aspect of it, but

1613
01:32:11,720 --> 01:32:14,800
there's aspects at the beginning that that that must be discussed, right, Like,

1614
01:32:14,800 --> 01:32:17,319
like all of gots his childhood and all of that stuff.

1615
01:32:17,880 --> 01:32:20,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, honestly, I'm annoyed because I'm looking through the files

1616
01:32:20,800 --> 01:32:22,439
ahead and those are right after this.

1617
01:32:22,920 --> 01:32:24,000
Speaker 3: So here's what we'll do.

1618
01:32:24,680 --> 01:32:27,079
Speaker 4: Uh on again, We'll go through that because that is

1619
01:32:27,239 --> 01:32:30,279
much needed backstory. And that's also why you're probably used

1620
01:32:30,279 --> 01:32:31,359
what I was talking about.

1621
01:32:32,640 --> 01:32:34,800
Speaker 3: I was a little confused first, but it's all good.

1622
01:32:34,840 --> 01:32:39,720
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah again, guys, professional podcaster here who uh can't

1623
01:32:39,840 --> 01:32:42,560
use files in order. But that said, we will cover that,

1624
01:32:42,840 --> 01:32:46,039
right yeah. Uh so, yes, So this is the you know,

1625
01:32:46,560 --> 01:32:49,359
Griffith kind of rides in to save him here. We

1626
01:32:49,399 --> 01:32:52,680
see a scene afterwards where Cosca you know, another character

1627
01:32:52,680 --> 01:32:55,920
will become you know, referenced much more as we go

1628
01:32:55,960 --> 01:33:00,359
into this later it okay, yeah, she basically dresses him out.

1629
01:33:00,479 --> 01:33:02,760
We learn from some of the background characters that the

1630
01:33:02,800 --> 01:33:06,079
two of them have a rival, or have a rivalry rather,

1631
01:33:06,119 --> 01:33:09,479
they can't stand each other. They're kind of vying for,

1632
01:33:10,000 --> 01:33:12,720
you know, their their position under Griffith, you know that

1633
01:33:12,760 --> 01:33:17,800
the charismatic leader here, and then we move to actually

1634
01:33:18,079 --> 01:33:21,119
a pretty interesting scene. So I'm going over this not

1635
01:33:21,279 --> 01:33:24,039
because it's you know, unimportant, but just because you know,

1636
01:33:24,039 --> 01:33:27,079
we'll refer back to this a little bit later and

1637
01:33:27,119 --> 01:33:30,399
get you know, it'll make sense later, right when we

1638
01:33:30,479 --> 01:33:33,239
go through the kind of rest of this, you know,

1639
01:33:33,279 --> 01:33:36,359
immediate chapter. Is there anything else you want to cover?

1640
01:33:36,399 --> 01:33:38,000
We can, like I said, refer back to this later.

1641
01:33:38,079 --> 01:33:42,920
Speaker 3: Remas well. No, that all of the interactions in this chapter,

1642
01:33:42,960 --> 01:33:45,039
in particular, especially the one that you're showing, which, by

1643
01:33:45,079 --> 01:33:47,399
the way, I love that you're showing this. You're showing

1644
01:33:47,439 --> 01:33:51,439
the actual panels because the amount of people to talk

1645
01:33:51,479 --> 01:33:55,119
about this stuff completely with nothing or they just talk

1646
01:33:55,159 --> 01:33:57,520
about like the anime or something. I think, the degree

1647
01:33:57,600 --> 01:34:00,399
to which it is important to see me or as drawings,

1648
01:34:01,720 --> 01:34:05,600
it cannot be overstated. That is the soul of this

1649
01:34:05,840 --> 01:34:10,399
of what berserk is. Berserk is he remember right this

1650
01:34:10,479 --> 01:34:16,800
man wrote Andrew. Basically everything how how manga works is

1651
01:34:16,800 --> 01:34:18,920
a little bit more complicated, right. There are other people

1652
01:34:19,039 --> 01:34:21,880
in the in the place doing all like that, you know,

1653
01:34:21,960 --> 01:34:24,159
all the shading work, all of like the inking, all

1654
01:34:24,199 --> 01:34:26,359
of that stuff is done handled by different people. But

1655
01:34:26,439 --> 01:34:31,560
the line work, the designs, the the the the uh

1656
01:34:31,600 --> 01:34:32,079
what's it called?

1657
01:34:32,119 --> 01:34:32,600
Speaker 2: The uh.

1658
01:34:34,000 --> 01:34:37,600
Speaker 3: Movies do it too, The storyboarding, right, like the blocking

1659
01:34:37,760 --> 01:34:40,520
even right figuring out where people are standing. All of

1660
01:34:40,560 --> 01:34:43,760
that stuff. This guy is a fucking master like he

1661
01:34:43,760 --> 01:34:47,520
he has such a beautiful understanding of quote unquote the

1662
01:34:47,600 --> 01:34:51,640
camera right the eye of the viewer, right where things are,

1663
01:34:51,960 --> 01:34:56,279
his master's space. All of that stuff is ridiculous, and

1664
01:34:56,399 --> 01:35:00,359
he really starts to flex it in my opinion, in

1665
01:35:00,640 --> 01:35:04,680
this part of this arc after the time skip right,

1666
01:35:04,840 --> 01:35:08,439
like in this area, this is where he's solidifying designs.

1667
01:35:08,880 --> 01:35:11,119
This is where he's figuring out how he wants to

1668
01:35:11,119 --> 01:35:15,880
make things look in the future. Uh. This arc is

1669
01:35:15,920 --> 01:35:20,399
like the the the It's where the the cement sets.

1670
01:35:20,720 --> 01:35:23,640
You know. I love Griffith's design. First of all, the

1671
01:35:23,680 --> 01:35:26,880
hawk is such a cool idea, right, him being this

1672
01:35:27,079 --> 01:35:29,119
blonde or so not even he's not even blonde. His

1673
01:35:29,159 --> 01:35:33,680
hair is white. Right, It's more than that, he like

1674
01:35:33,760 --> 01:35:36,239
he looks like an elf for Christ's sake, right, he

1675
01:35:36,239 --> 01:35:38,680
he doesn't even look like a person. And all of

1676
01:35:38,960 --> 01:35:43,760
his boys, uh, you know, like almost like revere him

1677
01:35:43,760 --> 01:35:46,119
the way that they talk about not just Griffith, but

1678
01:35:46,239 --> 01:35:49,399
also Guts. At this point, right, you know, after when

1679
01:35:49,439 --> 01:35:52,239
when Cosco is sort of like a dressing him down,

1680
01:35:53,159 --> 01:35:55,239
you can see that Guts has established himself within the

1681
01:35:55,239 --> 01:35:59,720
band of the Hawk, right. He he he has now become,

1682
01:36:00,880 --> 01:36:03,319
you know, the captain of the Raiders, right, he has

1683
01:36:03,359 --> 01:36:08,399
a bunch of guys under his command, and he still

1684
01:36:08,479 --> 01:36:11,800
does reckless things, but he but he like his guys

1685
01:36:11,800 --> 01:36:13,960
don't even care. They think he's awesome, right, they like,

1686
01:36:13,960 --> 01:36:17,199
I think it's cool that he does one v ones. Right,

1687
01:36:17,199 --> 01:36:21,000
They're like, that's sick. We would will go after you anyway, right.

1688
01:36:21,600 --> 01:36:24,199
But Casco has problems with that, right, And and the

1689
01:36:24,560 --> 01:36:28,520
friction is there, and I love that, right, the the

1690
01:36:28,279 --> 01:36:34,680
the her feeling that he's sort of replacing her, all

1691
01:36:34,720 --> 01:36:36,800
of the stuff, like all of the fact that all

1692
01:36:36,840 --> 01:36:39,960
of these characters are clearly people who are right, if

1693
01:36:40,000 --> 01:36:43,520
you're a mercenary in a band of guys, right, you've

1694
01:36:43,560 --> 01:36:50,039
you've probably had a pretty interesting or hard life or both. Right,

1695
01:36:51,399 --> 01:36:54,159
something has brought you to this place that's not like normal. Right.

1696
01:36:54,199 --> 01:36:57,159
A lot of these guys are outcasts. They don't have

1697
01:36:57,199 --> 01:36:59,039
anybody to go back to or any place to go

1698
01:36:59,119 --> 01:37:02,880
back to. So this is their place, right. So that

1699
01:37:02,880 --> 01:37:06,920
that conflict between people who don't know where else to

1700
01:37:06,960 --> 01:37:09,520
go and feel like their place is being sort of usurped.

1701
01:37:09,680 --> 01:37:15,520
That's that's that's that that provides her interesting character character work, right,

1702
01:37:15,920 --> 01:37:22,199
And thankfully, Mirror understands understatement. He understands not making everything

1703
01:37:22,199 --> 01:37:27,000
be necessarily be said. He understands allowing characters to not

1704
01:37:27,079 --> 01:37:29,920
like Guts doesn't necessarily say everything he's feeling, right, He

1705
01:37:31,000 --> 01:37:35,520
most of the time he's conveying all of the things

1706
01:37:35,520 --> 01:37:39,399
that this guy thinks through looks. You know, so you

1707
01:37:39,520 --> 01:37:41,560
have to be able to do that well, and you

1708
01:37:41,600 --> 01:37:44,600
see a lot of that coming out here. I love

1709
01:37:44,600 --> 01:37:48,119
this stuff. I love I love these chapters in particular. Uh,

1710
01:37:48,319 --> 01:37:51,720
it's sort of a coming out for the character. Right,

1711
01:37:52,359 --> 01:37:57,159
you've seen because again, right, chronologically we're a little bit

1712
01:37:57,319 --> 01:38:01,520
far and at this point you've seen a lot be

1713
01:38:01,640 --> 01:38:04,359
overcome from guns, right, Like he seems sort of like

1714
01:38:04,439 --> 01:38:08,800
he's more maturing more as a person as a man. Right.

1715
01:38:08,880 --> 01:38:11,039
She gets upset with him cuscom Right, She gets upset

1716
01:38:11,039 --> 01:38:13,039
with him about like saying like you don't you don't

1717
01:38:13,079 --> 01:38:15,159
care about your comrades, you don't care about anybody else, Right,

1718
01:38:15,199 --> 01:38:18,399
you just go in and he's like, no, like that's

1719
01:38:18,680 --> 01:38:21,760
he that's what he takes issue with. Rights, we're saying

1720
01:38:21,760 --> 01:38:24,479
that to him.

1721
01:38:23,359 --> 01:38:28,039
Speaker 4: Well, and we get an interesting contrast in this next scene, right,

1722
01:38:28,640 --> 01:38:31,840
Guts and Griffith have their conversation, and then we see

1723
01:38:31,880 --> 01:38:35,239
the difference in how the two of them are basically

1724
01:38:35,439 --> 01:38:37,479
celebrating this victory.

1725
01:38:38,199 --> 01:38:38,359
Speaker 3: Right.

1726
01:38:38,399 --> 01:38:41,039
Speaker 4: So again we see this this very good you know

1727
01:38:41,119 --> 01:38:45,199
architectural drawing. EUA plays a lot with perspective. We noticed

1728
01:38:45,199 --> 01:38:48,079
this earlier in the Black Swordsman arc. But again, right,

1729
01:38:48,119 --> 01:38:50,840
the the other mercenary captains are here. You know, Griffith

1730
01:38:50,920 --> 01:38:54,640
is being knighted, right, he is sort of getting this title,

1731
01:38:54,840 --> 01:38:58,880
and we see the people, you know, his warriors, you know, reacting.

1732
01:38:59,399 --> 01:39:02,159
The question again is where's Guts.

1733
01:39:03,199 --> 01:39:05,920
Speaker 3: Gus is just working out right. They strapped some kind

1734
01:39:05,960 --> 01:39:09,560
of crude you know, wooden weights to his sword, and

1735
01:39:09,600 --> 01:39:14,239
he's outside, just completely uninterested in the kind of status,

1736
01:39:14,399 --> 01:39:19,000
the desire for glory that we see driving grivit. So again,

1737
01:39:19,039 --> 01:39:22,159
these two are foils for each other, you know, of

1738
01:39:22,199 --> 01:39:25,560
them are the thrust of the drama of this piece.

1739
01:39:26,119 --> 01:39:30,359
They again, it is it is their relationship that defines

1740
01:39:30,560 --> 01:39:34,560
the state of the world. Literally, everything about what happens.

1741
01:39:34,920 --> 01:39:43,239
These decisions, these choices, these ambitions, these resentments, everything that

1742
01:39:43,279 --> 01:39:46,640
takes place between these two characters defines everything that happens

1743
01:39:46,840 --> 01:39:49,199
it's it's beautiful the subtlety of all of it as well,

1744
01:39:49,279 --> 01:39:54,399
Like especially okay, okay, I know we're trying to not

1745
01:39:54,479 --> 01:39:56,960
do spoilers, but we have to talk about the way

1746
01:39:56,960 --> 01:40:01,520
that these two actually come together and nature of how

1747
01:40:02,039 --> 01:40:05,600
that defines their relationship. Right, there's a lot like a

1748
01:40:05,640 --> 01:40:09,319
lot of people talk about Berserk, and the way that

1749
01:40:09,359 --> 01:40:12,520
they talk about Griffith and Guts is like, you know,

1750
01:40:12,520 --> 01:40:14,720
they have this very crude sort of like it's gay

1751
01:40:14,920 --> 01:40:18,920
and it's like listen, dude, just shut the fuck up, right,

1752
01:40:18,960 --> 01:40:21,800
like get out of here, Like you can do that

1753
01:40:21,840 --> 01:40:24,279
if you want, but that's that's not what's happening here. Right,

1754
01:40:25,520 --> 01:40:33,119
Griffith is a Griffith is the kind of person that

1755
01:40:33,279 --> 01:40:37,640
has a single desire, right, He has a single goal.

1756
01:40:37,800 --> 01:40:42,199
He has a as he calls it, a dream. He

1757
01:40:42,399 --> 01:40:49,119
wants something from the world for whatever reason, which you

1758
01:40:49,119 --> 01:40:52,560
you know, do see and find out what what why.

1759
01:40:52,640 --> 01:40:56,439
Griffith you know, pursues what he pursues in the way

1760
01:40:56,439 --> 01:41:03,960
that he pursues it. Right. But in initially when they

1761
01:41:04,000 --> 01:41:08,760
first meet, Griffith has seen Guts in action in combat, right,

1762
01:41:08,840 --> 01:41:12,039
and this kid is already like he is clearly like

1763
01:41:12,079 --> 01:41:15,800
this is like meeting Guts would be like meeting a

1764
01:41:15,960 --> 01:41:21,720
very scary street dog, right, he is hard, like meeting

1765
01:41:21,760 --> 01:41:24,359
a kid, Like could you imagine meeting a child like them?

1766
01:41:24,479 --> 01:41:27,439
You know what I mean? It's like it's scary, Like

1767
01:41:27,479 --> 01:41:31,119
that's like that it's scary. And it's also it's not

1768
01:41:31,159 --> 01:41:33,800
scary because it's not like the necessarily this kid's gonna

1769
01:41:33,880 --> 01:41:35,279
you know what I mean. But it's there's a sense

1770
01:41:35,319 --> 01:41:37,720
of like, especially if you're your own kids, right, I don't,

1771
01:41:37,720 --> 01:41:41,239
but everyone who does, right, Any you look at a child, right,

1772
01:41:41,279 --> 01:41:45,199
any any child that's like hard and that has hard

1773
01:41:45,319 --> 01:41:48,600
eyes and that looks at you the way that Guts

1774
01:41:48,640 --> 01:41:51,199
looks at people when he's a child, Right, it's like,

1775
01:41:51,920 --> 01:41:54,600
what the fuck happened to this kid? Right? There's something

1776
01:41:54,920 --> 01:42:00,720
clearly here, But whatever it is, it fuels this violence, right.

1777
01:42:01,520 --> 01:42:05,880
And the reason for that is myriad, But to put it,

1778
01:42:05,960 --> 01:42:08,720
to put it simply, it's violence is the only thing

1779
01:42:08,800 --> 01:42:13,720
that is ever Actually, violence is the only friend that

1780
01:42:13,800 --> 01:42:17,560
Guts has, right. His sword is his only friend. It's

1781
01:42:17,600 --> 01:42:20,079
it's the only thing he can really trust. It's the

1782
01:42:20,079 --> 01:42:22,760
only thing that he knows won't betray him. It's the

1783
01:42:22,800 --> 01:42:25,920
only thing that he knows he can depend on. Right

1784
01:42:26,439 --> 01:42:29,600
is the blade. That's why he's so good with it.

1785
01:42:29,640 --> 01:42:33,239
That's why even here right while Griffith is being knighted,

1786
01:42:35,039 --> 01:42:39,560
he's honing his ability to use it. Right, that's all

1787
01:42:39,640 --> 01:42:44,479
he that's his only real instrument in this world to

1788
01:42:44,600 --> 01:42:49,159
act upon it, to stop it from acting upon him, right,

1789
01:42:49,920 --> 01:42:53,720
which has very much happened to him. So when he

1790
01:42:53,840 --> 01:42:56,760
meets Griffith, who has seen him fight, sees him like

1791
01:42:56,960 --> 01:42:59,079
again cut through some dude's armer with the fucking sword,

1792
01:42:59,119 --> 01:43:04,840
which is insane, Right, Griffith season fight and Griffith understands

1793
01:43:04,880 --> 01:43:07,760
the value of this, being able to bring violence to

1794
01:43:07,800 --> 01:43:12,079
bear like that season is a tool, right, goes I

1795
01:43:12,079 --> 01:43:18,520
could use that. They meet because Griffith, Griffith's men jump him,

1796
01:43:18,800 --> 01:43:22,159
He kills a couple of them. The fight starts to

1797
01:43:22,159 --> 01:43:24,479
go bad. Costco goes over to try to stop him,

1798
01:43:24,560 --> 01:43:29,479
Guts almost kills Cosca. Griffith saves her and shows one

1799
01:43:29,960 --> 01:43:33,199
why he is the guy that he is. He is

1800
01:43:33,239 --> 01:43:36,840
an expert swordsman. Like as much as we are going

1801
01:43:36,840 --> 01:43:42,520
to talk about Griffith's faults right right now, in these panels,

1802
01:43:42,760 --> 01:43:45,079
you were just you were just contrasting the you know

1803
01:43:46,600 --> 01:43:51,760
the focuses, right, Griffith is here to get knighted. He is.

1804
01:43:51,960 --> 01:43:55,760
He wants the accolades because of where they because of

1805
01:43:55,760 --> 01:44:00,159
where they will take him in his mind, right, but

1806
01:44:00,439 --> 01:44:06,000
he earned them with like Griffith isn't just snaking his

1807
01:44:06,079 --> 01:44:11,159
way through, right, he is actually real. When he fights Gots,

1808
01:44:12,119 --> 01:44:16,000
he beats him. And that's the proposition. If I beat

1809
01:44:16,039 --> 01:44:19,680
you in this sword fight, I will own you. You

1810
01:44:19,720 --> 01:44:22,640
will be mine. It's literally the language that he describes

1811
01:44:23,239 --> 01:44:28,079
that he uses. Right, you will be mine. And he

1812
01:44:28,159 --> 01:44:33,560
loses the fight, right, got is the fight? So that

1813
01:44:33,560 --> 01:44:39,039
that relationship right, because not only does he lose the fight,

1814
01:44:39,199 --> 01:44:42,560
then he's then he is introduced into an embraced by

1815
01:44:42,600 --> 01:44:45,239
this band of warriors. Right. And again, as I said

1816
01:44:45,239 --> 01:44:47,479
at the beginning, it's manner bund right. This is the

1817
01:44:48,000 --> 01:44:51,159
This is the desire of all young mentor would agree,

1818
01:44:51,199 --> 01:44:54,800
is to be embraced by a group of their peers. Right.

1819
01:44:54,840 --> 01:45:01,800
You want the others to respect you and to value you. Right.

1820
01:45:03,199 --> 01:45:05,800
I think this is human universal right. And he never

1821
01:45:06,000 --> 01:45:08,560
experienced this up until this point. The only way that

1822
01:45:08,600 --> 01:45:13,079
he experienced any form of value was you know, it

1823
01:45:13,159 --> 01:45:16,600
was all backhanded. It all came with abuse, right, So

1824
01:45:17,479 --> 01:45:21,000
finally he meets these people who treat him well for

1825
01:45:21,039 --> 01:45:27,079
what he can do, and even after hurting him, embrace him. Right,

1826
01:45:27,399 --> 01:45:32,479
only then does he learn sort of like to become

1827
01:45:32,520 --> 01:45:36,800
dedicated to others. Right. And now at this point, even

1828
01:45:36,840 --> 01:45:40,279
in this panel, right, the juxtaposition of them so true, right,

1829
01:45:40,520 --> 01:45:44,640
Griffith or Guts, he never stops honing himself. Griffith is

1830
01:45:44,720 --> 01:45:50,399
now concerned with pageantry, knighthood, social the social dynamic if

1831
01:45:50,399 --> 01:45:52,640
you if you, if you can you scroll back up

1832
01:45:52,680 --> 01:45:58,239
for a sec like, uh, or I think yeah, okay.

1833
01:45:58,279 --> 01:46:03,600
So so while he's been knighted, right, while that's happening

1834
01:46:04,520 --> 01:46:08,399
the whole time, other nobles who were there before him, right,

1835
01:46:08,479 --> 01:46:13,039
guys who are already knights, these guys are all talking shit, right,

1836
01:46:13,079 --> 01:46:14,840
They're all like, I can't believe this. Right, So this

1837
01:46:15,000 --> 01:46:17,960
is now the domain that Griffith has to concern himself with.

1838
01:46:18,600 --> 01:46:20,560
These are the sparrings that he has to go through.

1839
01:46:20,600 --> 01:46:22,279
These are the knife fights that he has to deal with,

1840
01:46:22,520 --> 01:46:28,359
whereas Guts remains sort of the the earth. Right, He's like,

1841
01:46:28,439 --> 01:46:30,399
it's like one goes to the sky, the other one

1842
01:46:30,399 --> 01:46:32,159
goes to the earth. Right, They are. They are truly

1843
01:46:32,319 --> 01:46:36,760
like a Yin and Yang situation, the two of them, well.

1844
01:46:36,560 --> 01:46:40,039
Speaker 4: And you get that visually, right, the visual contrast between

1845
01:46:40,119 --> 01:46:43,640
you know, Guts training he's sweaty and gross, and then

1846
01:46:43,880 --> 01:46:48,600
Griffith right in his finery, Guts is he is wielding

1847
01:46:48,640 --> 01:46:52,279
his sword. Griffith is kissing one Yes, assuming his new

1848
01:46:52,399 --> 01:46:56,239
role as a knight. Yes, And that is very deliberate

1849
01:46:56,800 --> 01:46:57,840
mirror Drew.

1850
01:46:58,680 --> 01:47:01,840
Speaker 3: He doesn't Guts isn't ugly. I wouldn't call him ugly, right,

1851
01:47:01,880 --> 01:47:05,600
there's a there's a reason that so many Zoomers, you know,

1852
01:47:06,119 --> 01:47:10,840
want to be this character, right, But it's the reason

1853
01:47:10,840 --> 01:47:12,640
that so many people in general have wanted to be

1854
01:47:12,680 --> 01:47:14,560
this character of Ron Zoomers. But like you know what

1855
01:47:14,560 --> 01:47:16,640
I mean, he's like a gym icon. Now, like guys,

1856
01:47:16,680 --> 01:47:18,199
guys go to the gym and they get the brand

1857
01:47:18,199 --> 01:47:21,560
of sacrifice tattooed on them, you know what I mean.

1858
01:47:21,560 --> 01:47:24,720
It's it's it's funny how that's like how become part

1859
01:47:24,720 --> 01:47:32,560
of the culture, right, enduring pain. But it's not only

1860
01:47:32,600 --> 01:47:35,039
in that, right, It's it's the character. It's not that

1861
01:47:35,079 --> 01:47:37,479
he's ugly, it's that he's a he's they're juxtapost right,

1862
01:47:37,520 --> 01:47:40,479
his hair is he's dark. His skin even is is

1863
01:47:40,600 --> 01:47:45,560
like like he looks more canned always than Griffith. Right,

1864
01:47:45,960 --> 01:47:50,079
He's he's rougher. He looks like a person who's has

1865
01:47:50,199 --> 01:47:54,239
slept outside many, many, many times. And Griffith doesn't. Griffith

1866
01:47:54,239 --> 01:47:58,479
looks like a princess in from a castle, right, but

1867
01:47:58,600 --> 01:48:01,239
he is rough. That's the weird part about Griffith. And

1868
01:48:01,239 --> 01:48:05,399
that's the part that always like again, just like just

1869
01:48:05,399 --> 01:48:08,960
like Guts' strength is acknowledged in universe to sort of

1870
01:48:08,960 --> 01:48:12,760
be monstrous, It's like, what the fuck is that Griffith

1871
01:48:12,840 --> 01:48:16,239
is also considered like it's like people are like it's

1872
01:48:16,279 --> 01:48:18,600
like he's not even real, you know what I mean.

1873
01:48:18,680 --> 01:48:21,960
He seems like unreal. He's like a he's like a

1874
01:48:22,079 --> 01:48:24,560
character out of myst It's like a like an Arthurian

1875
01:48:24,640 --> 01:48:30,479
legend or something. Right. Uh. And to that point, something

1876
01:48:30,520 --> 01:48:32,159
that I also want to bring up. Sorry, go ahead,

1877
01:48:32,159 --> 01:48:33,800
go ahead, because I won't forget no, no, not at all.

1878
01:48:33,840 --> 01:48:36,399
Speaker 4: But that's something we will see reference to a multitude

1879
01:48:36,399 --> 01:48:39,960
of times. Right, Griffith is is pretty almost like a girl,

1880
01:48:40,560 --> 01:48:43,199
and you know not to say that, you know, Guts

1881
01:48:43,239 --> 01:48:46,640
is deliberately hideous, like there are hideous, like grotesque and

1882
01:48:46,720 --> 01:48:48,920
hideous people in this we say that in the Black

1883
01:48:48,960 --> 01:48:54,479
Swordsman arc. But he's rough, he has been effectively scarred

1884
01:48:54,520 --> 01:48:57,960
by war, and he's covered in marks, and he doesn't

1885
01:48:58,039 --> 01:49:01,520
take care of himself in nearly the same way Griffith doesn't.

1886
01:49:01,880 --> 01:49:02,760
Speaker 3: There's that at all.

1887
01:49:02,920 --> 01:49:05,600
Speaker 4: Doesn't care exactly in the same way that he doesn't

1888
01:49:05,680 --> 01:49:09,600
care about uh like, doesn't care about status at all.

1889
01:49:10,039 --> 01:49:12,600
He literally doesn't care about anything except getting better at

1890
01:49:12,600 --> 01:49:15,520
swinging the sword. That's like his whole the whole focus

1891
01:49:15,560 --> 01:49:16,359
of his life.

1892
01:49:16,279 --> 01:49:18,239
Speaker 3: Is like, I'm going to do that. And part of

1893
01:49:18,239 --> 01:49:21,880
that is because he feels that debt, right he feels

1894
01:49:21,920 --> 01:49:24,840
the debt to Griffith and the band for what they've

1895
01:49:24,880 --> 01:49:29,479
given him, which is like a place, a family, a home,

1896
01:49:29,960 --> 01:49:32,279
people to care about, people that care about me, people

1897
01:49:32,279 --> 01:49:37,439
to depend on me, closeness with others, right, that that

1898
01:49:37,439 --> 01:49:41,079
that desire of his because it's not that like. Some

1899
01:49:41,119 --> 01:49:46,520
of the most heartbreaking panels in Berserk are the stuff

1900
01:49:46,560 --> 01:49:48,159
of when he's a kid, like the one where he

1901
01:49:48,199 --> 01:49:51,479
falls asleep while holding the fucking sword. It's like that

1902
01:49:51,640 --> 01:49:56,920
is so painful, Like this kid desires closeness so much,

1903
01:49:57,640 --> 01:50:01,079
so much, right, and he's not getting it from anybody

1904
01:50:01,079 --> 01:50:03,960
around him, because nobody is there for him for that,

1905
01:50:04,159 --> 01:50:12,560
for that purpose that he will choose cold and sharp steel, right, anything, Right,

1906
01:50:12,560 --> 01:50:14,840
it's the only thing that's that's here for me. Right.

1907
01:50:15,399 --> 01:50:19,199
To go from that to being somebody who has friendships,

1908
01:50:19,239 --> 01:50:25,359
has close bonds, that is a tremendous change, right, Like

1909
01:50:25,399 --> 01:50:27,520
this is like it's like any I don't know anybody

1910
01:50:27,560 --> 01:50:33,359
who has ever taken in an animal, not necessarily a

1911
01:50:33,399 --> 01:50:39,439
heavily abused one, but you too, right, those people too, right.

1912
01:50:39,520 --> 01:50:47,960
They The amount of time and efforts and care that

1913
01:50:48,079 --> 01:50:53,920
it takes to open that kind of pain up right

1914
01:50:54,640 --> 01:51:00,399
is really really difficult. But when you do, it's immensely,

1915
01:51:00,520 --> 01:51:04,199
immensely gratifying and satisfying to sort of like see this

1916
01:51:04,319 --> 01:51:09,680
animal learn to trust again. Right, Guts is a similar

1917
01:51:09,720 --> 01:51:13,640
creature he was. He's like a very abused and straight dog, right,

1918
01:51:13,960 --> 01:51:16,000
And these people gave him a home, these people gave

1919
01:51:16,039 --> 01:51:19,840
him something, so he his way of giving back is

1920
01:51:20,760 --> 01:51:24,000
I don't have anything but my ability to use this weapon.

1921
01:51:24,479 --> 01:51:28,640
So I'm going to become unbelievably proficient with it. I

1922
01:51:28,680 --> 01:51:35,359
will push myself as beyond what's possible. And meanwhile, this

1923
01:51:35,399 --> 01:51:38,880
is what Griffith is concerned with. Griffith's eyes are always

1924
01:51:38,920 --> 01:51:41,760
on the horizon. Griffith is always looking to the future.

1925
01:51:42,439 --> 01:51:46,960
Griffith is holding what he himself is called the egg

1926
01:51:47,000 --> 01:51:50,479
of the King already, right, we know what this thing is,

1927
01:51:50,560 --> 01:51:52,279
we do, yeah.

1928
01:51:52,000 --> 01:51:54,720
Speaker 4: And it's important to remember that, you know, we will

1929
01:51:54,800 --> 01:51:57,279
we will learn more about Griffith as is sort of

1930
01:51:57,640 --> 01:52:00,880
you know, foreshadowed at the start of uh, you know

1931
01:52:01,000 --> 01:52:03,199
this at the end of excuse me, this segment we're

1932
01:52:03,199 --> 01:52:08,720
going through. So next chapter, right, it opens on this

1933
01:52:08,840 --> 01:52:13,039
shot of Griffith with the bailot around his neck. Of course,

1934
01:52:13,399 --> 01:52:16,600
as people who have read the Black Swordsman arc, we

1935
01:52:16,720 --> 01:52:20,359
understand the significance of that, right, there's some heavily foreshadowing

1936
01:52:20,439 --> 01:52:23,479
going on. What happens next is that, you know, Griffith

1937
01:52:23,520 --> 01:52:27,600
and his company are on a hill overlooking a siege

1938
01:52:28,199 --> 01:52:31,640
and they're talking about Zod, this soldier, you know that,

1939
01:52:31,720 --> 01:52:34,800
this sort of mythical man. And you know, as the

1940
01:52:34,840 --> 01:52:38,319
action kind of goes on, we see this keep where

1941
01:52:38,520 --> 01:52:41,439
the door has been busted in and there are other

1942
01:52:41,479 --> 01:52:44,319
mercenaries standing around and they're saying, we've sent fifty men

1943
01:52:44,319 --> 01:52:47,880
in None of them have come back out, and again, right,

1944
01:52:47,960 --> 01:52:51,479
the the gore is is significant in this, so as

1945
01:52:51,479 --> 01:52:52,239
we go through.

1946
01:52:52,039 --> 01:52:58,720
Speaker 3: It, he hasn't just guts. Guts himself notes this. Then

1947
01:52:59,119 --> 01:53:01,319
when he goes in, man, it's not like this is

1948
01:53:01,359 --> 01:53:03,560
not like, oh, a bunch of guys got killed with

1949
01:53:03,680 --> 01:53:06,600
weapons in here, This is like, what the fuck? These

1950
01:53:06,600 --> 01:53:11,560
people got pulped like they're like destroyed. They're not just killed,

1951
01:53:11,600 --> 01:53:14,079
They're like, what is happened? It's like they got killed

1952
01:53:14,079 --> 01:53:16,760
by machinery or something, you know what I mean. It's

1953
01:53:16,760 --> 01:53:19,840
like coming into an industrial accident. And we see the

1954
01:53:19,920 --> 01:53:23,439
exact same dynamic right now as we've we've seen earlier.

1955
01:53:23,439 --> 01:53:26,359
Guts wants to go in, right despite the fact that

1956
01:53:26,399 --> 01:53:29,159
these you know, fifty men have been killed, and we

1957
01:53:29,279 --> 01:53:33,079
see right one of the survivors stumbling out, and it

1958
01:53:33,359 --> 01:53:39,239
again it's graphic, completely completely hacked. Is one of his

1959
01:53:39,439 --> 01:53:42,039
arms in half of his side is missing, right, You

1960
01:53:42,039 --> 01:53:44,479
see his I was gonna say guts, but that's a

1961
01:53:44,520 --> 01:53:48,680
stupid pun in this context. You see his intestines, right, yeah,

1962
01:53:48,880 --> 01:53:52,279
one hundred percent, And the last time he says he them,

1963
01:53:52,680 --> 01:53:56,800
he truly guts from right there, he guts across the room.

1964
01:53:58,159 --> 01:54:00,600
So true, so true.

1965
01:54:00,800 --> 01:54:04,600
Speaker 4: But of course right guts, being our hero, he goes in.

1966
01:54:05,000 --> 01:54:07,640
Right again, this is we've seen this established so yet

1967
01:54:07,640 --> 01:54:10,159
again as you said, right, these guys are not killed

1968
01:54:10,319 --> 01:54:13,960
like the other bodies we see, you know, stabbed with

1969
01:54:13,960 --> 01:54:18,479
with spears or arrows. They are completely and totally mangled. Right,

1970
01:54:18,520 --> 01:54:21,600
and again we see this dramatic perspective that Mura loves

1971
01:54:21,600 --> 01:54:21,960
to use.

1972
01:54:22,279 --> 01:54:23,720
Speaker 3: Handful shot man.

1973
01:54:24,239 --> 01:54:26,680
Speaker 4: Oh great, and look like I'm a sucker for all

1974
01:54:26,680 --> 01:54:29,720
the medieval architecture, which is is great in this just

1975
01:54:29,760 --> 01:54:33,039
a you know, another example again kind of the focus

1976
01:54:33,039 --> 01:54:35,600
on the horror. There is a lot of horror in Berserk.

1977
01:54:35,760 --> 01:54:36,800
This gets covered.

1978
01:54:37,079 --> 01:54:42,119
Speaker 3: I would say it's undoubtedly a horror manga at least

1979
01:54:42,159 --> 01:54:44,439
as a side genre. Like that is that is that

1980
01:54:44,520 --> 01:54:46,479
he is definitely taking from that, and I mean like

1981
01:54:46,560 --> 01:54:51,199
old horror like like obviously it's it's it's graphic, but

1982
01:54:51,279 --> 01:54:55,960
he's more working in a like this feels like like Dracula,

1983
01:54:56,479 --> 01:54:58,600
Like this feels like Franken, you know what I mean.

1984
01:54:58,600 --> 01:55:01,319
This doesn't feel like, yes, it's graphic violence, but it's

1985
01:55:01,359 --> 01:55:05,479
also like there's a majesty. There's a good use of

1986
01:55:05,600 --> 01:55:09,880
shadow and darkness. There's there's a understanding of of of

1987
01:55:10,800 --> 01:55:15,279
like uh of of how to build into you know,

1988
01:55:15,319 --> 01:55:21,359
a visual, visually terrifying thing. Right. That's that's that's his style.

1989
01:55:21,399 --> 01:55:23,880
He's the best at this. Another thing, you know, I

1990
01:55:24,039 --> 01:55:28,079
did want to say earlier, Right, this is something that

1991
01:55:28,119 --> 01:55:30,279
I think is is also a huge part of why

1992
01:55:30,399 --> 01:55:33,640
Berserk is so popular, uh in the West, is because

1993
01:55:34,520 --> 01:55:39,319
it is invariably Western in many ways. Obviously it's a manga,

1994
01:55:39,359 --> 01:55:42,960
but like the entire thing takes takes place in sudo Europe.

1995
01:55:43,760 --> 01:55:49,640
All the designs are European designs, right, It's it's uh,

1996
01:55:49,720 --> 01:55:53,880
you know, people love dark Souls, right, and Dark Souls

1997
01:55:53,880 --> 01:55:57,880
has a very similar aesthetic language that Berserk does obviously, right,

1998
01:55:57,880 --> 01:56:03,439
it's very uh visually inspired by it, right, even even

1999
01:56:03,479 --> 01:56:07,560
the enemies things like that. Right. I love that Miura

2000
01:56:07,640 --> 01:56:12,199
made that choice to to and it's so lovingly represented

2001
01:56:12,279 --> 01:56:15,920
as well. Like you can tell that he enjoys drawing

2002
01:56:16,000 --> 01:56:20,439
the armor, drawing the the buildings, drawing the spears, drawing

2003
01:56:20,479 --> 01:56:24,640
the formations, the the you know, the sweeping fields, the

2004
01:56:24,640 --> 01:56:28,159
green right that that those those aspects of sort of

2005
01:56:28,239 --> 01:56:35,439
a pre industrial uh Europe, right, you know, almost like

2006
01:56:35,439 --> 01:56:37,520
like a ghibli type of thing. Right, I think that

2007
01:56:37,520 --> 01:56:40,560
that sort of same uh uh itch is sort of

2008
01:56:40,600 --> 01:56:43,600
being scratched a little bit. Except this is includes like

2009
01:56:43,680 --> 01:56:49,439
hyper violence and stuff and and horror, right especially.

2010
01:56:49,159 --> 01:56:53,680
Speaker 4: And obviously there's a lot pulling from Lovecraft, this idea

2011
01:56:53,800 --> 01:56:56,880
of you know, a cosmic horror that we got into,

2012
01:56:57,119 --> 01:56:59,199
you know, speaking about the God Hand earlier in the

2013
01:56:59,239 --> 01:57:04,119
last episode, right, the idea of incomprehensible powers past your

2014
01:57:04,239 --> 01:57:07,560
understanding that are malicious, right and want to kill you?

2015
01:57:07,720 --> 01:57:11,600
Speaker 3: Yes, and yes forty almost forty k like right, the

2016
01:57:12,479 --> 01:57:14,600
God Hand and sort of the way that this is

2017
01:57:14,640 --> 01:57:17,239
operating is almost like it's almost like that. It's a

2018
01:57:18,560 --> 01:57:20,439
like it's, oh yeah, there's things beyond the veil and

2019
01:57:20,479 --> 01:57:23,720
they are malevolent, right, oh yeah, this is a world

2020
01:57:23,800 --> 01:57:28,359
where hell is very real. And of course, right, he

2021
01:57:28,479 --> 01:57:34,359
rounds the corner and sees God. Yes again lovingly rendered

2022
01:57:34,479 --> 01:57:39,359
just the absolute horror of this ostensible man sick, right,

2023
01:57:39,399 --> 01:57:42,399
you see him just completely jacked to. I love that

2024
01:57:42,439 --> 01:57:45,359
he's naked too. I love that, like every aspect of

2025
01:57:45,399 --> 01:57:47,960
this is so like he is He is knan you

2026
01:57:48,000 --> 01:57:49,560
know what I mean. He is not like this is

2027
01:57:49,600 --> 01:57:52,680
not a thing like the other people that you have

2028
01:57:52,760 --> 01:57:54,880
been seeing up to this point. Never mind the fact

2029
01:57:54,880 --> 01:57:58,720
that he's an apostle. Beyond that, right, this is PRIMORTI.

2030
01:57:58,840 --> 01:58:03,159
This is a primordial Like this dude doesn't he's not

2031
01:58:03,239 --> 01:58:06,760
bothering wearing armor. He's he's not bothering with any of that.

2032
01:58:07,079 --> 01:58:09,920
Look at that, Look at his fingers in that guy's head, right,

2033
01:58:10,000 --> 01:58:14,399
like beyond even the apostle aspect, though yes, the fingers

2034
01:58:14,399 --> 01:58:17,359
in the head is apossibly right, it's just the fact that,

2035
01:58:17,439 --> 01:58:21,159
like this is a zod immediately shows like almost like

2036
01:58:21,199 --> 01:58:25,000
the chronmagnu and brow sing right like he he establishes

2037
01:58:25,079 --> 01:58:27,840
him as like an almost primeval man immediately all the

2038
01:58:27,920 --> 01:58:32,119
hit the subtle like everything. His whole body's cross hatched, right,

2039
01:58:32,479 --> 01:58:36,279
and that gives the impression that he's covered in hair.

2040
01:58:37,840 --> 01:58:40,520
But it's like very fine, you know what I mean,

2041
01:58:43,199 --> 01:58:46,119
You know, he feels bestial everything. With such an excellent

2042
01:58:46,199 --> 01:58:48,239
introduction of this character, I love him.

2043
01:58:48,680 --> 01:58:53,000
Speaker 4: And straight away it's just charges him right, just full

2044
01:58:53,039 --> 01:58:54,000
steam ahead.

2045
01:58:54,279 --> 01:58:54,479
Speaker 3: You know.

2046
01:58:54,920 --> 01:58:58,000
Speaker 4: He throws the bodies of these two of his compatriots

2047
01:58:58,000 --> 01:59:00,399
at him, of course, which is you know, just avage.

2048
01:59:00,920 --> 01:59:02,359
And you know, the two of them start to have

2049
01:59:02,399 --> 01:59:05,159
a fight again, we see Guts slammed into a pillar.

2050
01:59:05,680 --> 01:59:08,600
Right again, a recurring motif in these the.

2051
01:59:08,600 --> 01:59:14,000
Speaker 3: Overwhelming strength immediately immediately established. Right, and again thing I

2052
01:59:14,039 --> 01:59:16,560
was going to I was going to mention, Okay, something

2053
01:59:16,560 --> 01:59:19,960
that I think is very interesting the you know on

2054
01:59:20,039 --> 01:59:21,960
the way in right, you were showing, you know, on

2055
01:59:22,000 --> 01:59:23,640
the way in that shot of the of the of

2056
01:59:23,720 --> 01:59:26,800
the of the hallway, of all the mangled bodies. The

2057
01:59:26,840 --> 01:59:29,880
only person up to this point that we've seen who

2058
01:59:29,920 --> 01:59:32,840
is able to make this human bodies turn into this

2059
01:59:32,920 --> 01:59:37,319
kind of thing is Guts, Right, his fights, That's what

2060
01:59:37,359 --> 01:59:41,359
people look like after the fights. Right, So it kind

2061
01:59:41,439 --> 01:59:45,439
of subtenly establishes that, like you are now walking into

2062
01:59:45,439 --> 01:59:48,640
a place in which the order of battle is now

2063
01:59:48,680 --> 01:59:52,520
to your level, right, you are that he can do

2064
01:59:52,600 --> 01:59:56,079
what you can do, right, And he even kind of

2065
01:59:56,239 --> 02:00:00,800
his his face suddenly mirrors go Guts is right. They

2066
02:00:00,840 --> 02:00:04,319
have very similar facial physiognomy. It's just that Zons is

2067
02:00:04,359 --> 02:00:07,720
like monsterified, right, it's like exaggerated. But they have that

2068
02:00:07,880 --> 02:00:12,800
same sort of brow that even their hair is similar, right,

2069
02:00:12,920 --> 02:00:16,720
same facial sort of shape and stuff. I think Zod

2070
02:00:16,800 --> 02:00:19,079
is clearly led to me. He's always been a mirror

2071
02:00:21,000 --> 02:00:23,920
of of Guts. Right, He's like, what if what if

2072
02:00:23,960 --> 02:00:26,239
Guts was a monster? He would be Zod?

2073
02:00:26,520 --> 02:00:30,600
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, and I mean to that to that point, right,

2074
02:00:30,840 --> 02:00:34,600
we see very quickly that that Zod recognizes there's something

2075
02:00:34,640 --> 02:00:36,079
different about Guts.

2076
02:00:36,520 --> 02:00:41,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, the tactical tactical shade on his penis you never

2077
02:00:41,439 --> 02:00:47,079
see has just a massive hok. Yeah, it's like he's

2078
02:00:47,159 --> 02:00:49,239
but he's hiding it though he's a He's a grower,

2079
02:00:49,359 --> 02:00:50,000
not a shower.

2080
02:00:50,880 --> 02:00:54,680
Speaker 4: And again you see the kind of characterization by weapons,

2081
02:00:54,680 --> 02:00:58,000
which is something constantly done in this Sod basically just

2082
02:00:58,119 --> 02:01:03,960
has a machety rough giant blade just sign for hacking

2083
02:01:04,000 --> 02:01:05,159
people apart.

2084
02:01:05,319 --> 02:01:11,199
Speaker 3: And it goes around shields. It's it's pure offense because

2085
02:01:11,239 --> 02:01:14,119
you're a giant dude. Again, as we see from this

2086
02:01:14,800 --> 02:01:19,199
again we'll ring the bell. You hear me say, perspective, uh,

2087
02:01:20,039 --> 02:01:22,920
the forced perspective of this. Right, this guy is farther

2088
02:01:23,000 --> 02:01:26,079
away and yet towering over him, you know, with this

2089
02:01:26,079 --> 02:01:28,520
this pile of the whole line, you know what I mean,

2090
02:01:28,560 --> 02:01:30,359
he's the whole room mirror is a master of this.

2091
02:01:31,479 --> 02:01:37,119
And you see strike well boy right recognizes this isn't

2092
02:01:37,319 --> 02:01:41,920
just a normal guy and he goes in. It's just like,

2093
02:01:42,039 --> 02:01:49,600
look at the violence, the the implication of speed, the weight, everything,

2094
02:01:50,079 --> 02:01:54,000
how unprepared Guts is even though he's swinging.

2095
02:01:54,239 --> 02:01:57,359
Speaker 4: And you see that in the difference in the lines right,

2096
02:01:57,399 --> 02:02:01,000
the line work where Guts is largely stationary. He's still

2097
02:02:01,039 --> 02:02:04,199
obviously moving his sword. But compare the line weight on

2098
02:02:04,239 --> 02:02:07,680
his sword twas in the blade versus like all of

2099
02:02:08,279 --> 02:02:09,720
just bearing down on him.

2100
02:02:09,800 --> 02:02:15,520
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, pure violence. There is only like Zod reminds

2101
02:02:15,640 --> 02:02:20,680
me any any any any Baki enjoyers out there, you know, uh,

2102
02:02:20,760 --> 02:02:24,159
big ups to you. He reminds me of Hanma Yujito

2103
02:02:24,239 --> 02:02:27,920
from from Baki. That that that that ogre bestial nature. Right,

2104
02:02:28,000 --> 02:02:33,399
that speed, that that that overwhelming power of every movement,

2105
02:02:33,479 --> 02:02:37,479
every action. He's there's no wasted nothing, he just goes

2106
02:02:37,520 --> 02:02:40,039
for it. I love the shining eyes too, right. He

2107
02:02:40,079 --> 02:02:42,159
doesn't even bother with the face in that panel, but

2108
02:02:42,239 --> 02:02:45,520
he gives you the eyes right, such such such perfect

2109
02:02:45,600 --> 02:02:50,600
little little choices, I I cannot like. I will gush

2110
02:02:50,600 --> 02:02:53,399
over literally everything in the Monga love. I love reserve it,

2111
02:02:53,600 --> 02:02:56,239
so so well done. I also don't want to read this.

2112
02:02:56,720 --> 02:02:58,159
I didn't want to read this because this is this

2113
02:02:58,239 --> 02:03:01,319
is what it starts like. This, This this part of

2114
02:03:01,359 --> 02:03:03,359
the arc. This is what it starts with. Right, And

2115
02:03:03,359 --> 02:03:06,000
we were just talking about love crafting powers, right and

2116
02:03:06,199 --> 02:03:10,119
Zod in this world is the destiny of mankind controlled

2117
02:03:10,119 --> 02:03:13,960
by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the

2118
02:03:14,000 --> 02:03:17,960
hand of God hovering above? At least it is true

2119
02:03:18,319 --> 02:03:21,600
that man has no control even over his own will.

2120
02:03:22,399 --> 02:03:24,720
Man takes up the sword in order to shield the

2121
02:03:24,760 --> 02:03:27,640
small wound in his heart, sustained in a far off

2122
02:03:27,800 --> 02:03:32,000
time beyond remembrance. Man wields that sword so that he

2123
02:03:32,119 --> 02:03:37,479
may die smiling in some far off time beyond perception. Right,

2124
02:03:38,119 --> 02:03:43,159
the I love the the the understanding of the blade

2125
02:03:43,159 --> 02:03:49,920
as the will of how sort of one's willingness to

2126
02:03:49,960 --> 02:03:53,560
do battle, to fight, to potentially die, to throw themselves

2127
02:03:53,600 --> 02:03:58,000
into danger. Right is where they will find who they are. Right,

2128
02:03:59,000 --> 02:04:03,000
Guts live by this creed. He lives by this this logic,

2129
02:04:03,680 --> 02:04:10,560
and you find in this fight, so does mister Zod. Yes.

2130
02:04:10,760 --> 02:04:12,600
Speaker 4: And that's what's what's interesting about this.

2131
02:04:12,960 --> 02:04:13,079
Speaker 2: Uh.

2132
02:04:13,359 --> 02:04:14,960
Speaker 4: I'm not going to show this segment of it, not

2133
02:04:14,960 --> 02:04:17,640
because it's there's anything wrong with it. It's great, But

2134
02:04:18,039 --> 02:04:22,680
the fight scene as it progresses. Guts is holding his

2135
02:04:22,760 --> 02:04:26,039
own and he's not being hacked to pieces, and Zod

2136
02:04:26,079 --> 02:04:28,239
noticed this. This he says, you know, no man has

2137
02:04:28,239 --> 02:04:31,039
been able to halt my sword for fifty years. So

2138
02:04:31,119 --> 02:04:34,079
the two of them get pushed apart, and Zod, who

2139
02:04:34,119 --> 02:04:37,079
is despite being this hulking beast, is clearly very intelligent

2140
02:04:37,119 --> 02:04:40,640
because he says, oh, he betting this all. He calls

2141
02:04:40,760 --> 02:04:43,920
him specifically, and I love this. In Japanese subaroshi, he

2142
02:04:44,000 --> 02:04:48,800
calls him splendid, superb. That's how he refers to Guts.

2143
02:04:49,880 --> 02:04:53,560
Speaker 3: I love that. He's like, Wow, this guy fucking rules.

2144
02:04:53,920 --> 02:04:55,920
He hasn't died in four slashes.

2145
02:04:56,039 --> 02:05:00,000
Speaker 4: Amazing well, and to that point, right as they're push

2146
02:05:00,159 --> 02:05:01,680
a part by kind of the tides to the fight,

2147
02:05:02,399 --> 02:05:04,039
he Zod looks at him and says, I know what

2148
02:05:04,079 --> 02:05:07,159
you're gonna do. You're betting this soul on one last strike.

2149
02:05:07,319 --> 02:05:11,560
That's all you've got left. And what's in an interesting moment,

2150
02:05:11,720 --> 02:05:15,960
because this is very prototypically Guts, right, he doesn't. He

2151
02:05:16,359 --> 02:05:20,399
makes a tactical move. He goes for his sword. He

2152
02:05:20,800 --> 02:05:24,720
breaks God's sword and cuts into his flesh. Right goes

2153
02:05:24,880 --> 02:05:29,720
through his forearms and we see several things. One, Zod

2154
02:05:29,800 --> 02:05:33,840
is not human at all because as gut sword is

2155
02:05:33,880 --> 02:05:38,560
through his forearms and into his chest, he pulls it out.

2156
02:05:39,119 --> 02:05:39,239
Speaker 2: Right.

2157
02:05:39,279 --> 02:05:42,600
Speaker 4: It kind of a classic movie shot, right, And we

2158
02:05:42,680 --> 02:05:45,079
see this, this sort of menace build and this has

2159
02:05:45,119 --> 02:05:48,479
a lot of parallels to the to the fight with

2160
02:05:48,520 --> 02:05:53,760
the with the Snake barn Right. We're initially somewhat human ish,

2161
02:05:54,159 --> 02:05:56,279
but all of a sudden we realize there's a whole

2162
02:05:56,319 --> 02:05:59,399
lot more to Zod than we would have initially thought.

2163
02:06:00,079 --> 02:06:02,720
Speaker 3: We love this because this is the first time that

2164
02:06:02,840 --> 02:06:05,920
Guts sees this, and the first time that Guts is

2165
02:06:06,039 --> 02:06:09,560
confronted with the truth of his world.

2166
02:06:10,079 --> 02:06:13,680
Speaker 4: Yes, because before this and all the other battles, which

2167
02:06:13,680 --> 02:06:17,640
have been very well done, it's all been human. It's

2168
02:06:17,680 --> 02:06:20,840
guys with swords, guys with spears, cannons at least some,

2169
02:06:21,640 --> 02:06:23,800
And all of a sudden we see this reveal of

2170
02:06:23,840 --> 02:06:26,119
something that is not human at all.

2171
02:06:26,680 --> 02:06:30,560
Speaker 3: Yes, and up until this point, right, this guy, we

2172
02:06:30,560 --> 02:06:33,119
were just talking about it. This guy has been been

2173
02:06:33,199 --> 02:06:37,960
able to take solace right in the fact his world

2174
02:06:38,079 --> 02:06:41,239
has been ended before you understand, this is a child

2175
02:06:41,279 --> 02:06:47,720
who has gone through horrible, horrible experiences, and he fought

2176
02:06:48,319 --> 02:06:55,720
for his humanity back with the blade, and now he's

2177
02:06:55,800 --> 02:06:59,399
being confronted with the thing that it seems that the

2178
02:06:59,399 --> 02:07:03,359
blades sim does not have an answer for. And this

2179
02:07:03,439 --> 02:07:06,960
is like, this is world shattering, right, how do you

2180
02:07:07,159 --> 02:07:10,319
deal with this? Okay, now there's a monster in front

2181
02:07:10,319 --> 02:07:14,319
of me, right what Oh and by the way, he's

2182
02:07:14,439 --> 02:07:17,000
like kind of pissed off because I just got him

2183
02:07:17,479 --> 02:07:18,039
really bad.

2184
02:07:18,840 --> 02:07:22,199
Speaker 4: Well, he's a little bad about it. And again Miura

2185
02:07:22,359 --> 02:07:25,680
playing with perspective. Right, look at how tiny guts massive

2186
02:07:25,720 --> 02:07:28,560
sword is in his hand. Compare that to even a

2187
02:07:28,560 --> 02:07:31,479
few panels ago where we see him in more human form,

2188
02:07:31,479 --> 02:07:34,119
where it's filling up his palm. All of a sudden,

2189
02:07:34,159 --> 02:07:37,600
it's like you're you grabbing a pencil, just.

2190
02:07:37,680 --> 02:07:42,920
Speaker 3: Superb, it's nothing. Now he's literally power scaling him visually,

2191
02:07:43,720 --> 02:07:46,039
you know what I mean. It's like you have just

2192
02:07:46,199 --> 02:07:50,439
been outclassed. You have been revealed to in fact, have

2193
02:07:50,600 --> 02:07:55,520
been a lightweight after all, and you are in the

2194
02:07:55,560 --> 02:07:58,640
heavyweight section. Now here is what the heavyweights look like.

2195
02:08:00,159 --> 02:08:02,960
Other thing, this is the opening that amazing Mirror is

2196
02:08:03,000 --> 02:08:08,439
so good at. And swapping right is swapping the color right,

2197
02:08:08,520 --> 02:08:11,960
this is white lines on black background. Again, very stylistic

2198
02:08:12,039 --> 02:08:15,560
something we will say often used to highlight certain things.

2199
02:08:16,000 --> 02:08:19,159
But we get again the great perspective of Zod, you know,

2200
02:08:19,199 --> 02:08:21,720
bearing down on our hero. You know, we.

2201
02:08:22,159 --> 02:08:26,239
Speaker 4: See him actually scared, right, that's beginning to which is

2202
02:08:26,680 --> 02:08:29,800
very atypical from Guts. We know that he almost has

2203
02:08:30,399 --> 02:08:33,720
no fear, and Zod is saying, dude, this is awesome.

2204
02:08:34,079 --> 02:08:37,720
I haven't been angry and forever. He's just loving it.

2205
02:08:37,880 --> 02:08:41,640
He's just having the best time. He's like, dude, don't

2206
02:08:41,640 --> 02:08:42,760
disappoint me.

2207
02:08:43,479 --> 02:08:46,560
Speaker 3: I love that. I love that. He's like, it has

2208
02:08:46,640 --> 02:08:49,079
been so long since I've been able to have fun.

2209
02:08:50,199 --> 02:08:53,439
If you and just lose now, it's gonna suck, dude,

2210
02:08:53,520 --> 02:08:54,000
give me some.

2211
02:08:55,399 --> 02:08:58,840
Speaker 4: And so Zod continues the attack. Right, he just batters, Guts,

2212
02:08:59,239 --> 02:09:01,680
no mercy, what's none at all?

2213
02:09:01,840 --> 02:09:04,399
Speaker 3: Love that? No mercy. He's like, no, no, no, it's a fight.

2214
02:09:04,680 --> 02:09:08,279
We're fighting, right, it's to fight you, is to honor you.

2215
02:09:09,279 --> 02:09:12,960
And we see Gods sort of very reasonably, sort of

2216
02:09:13,039 --> 02:09:17,319
questioning insanity. Right, He's like, this can't be real, but nonetheless, right,

2217
02:09:17,479 --> 02:09:19,319
Zod is bearing down on him, and we see the

2218
02:09:19,359 --> 02:09:23,119
momentum has changed, like Gots is swinging at him. Right,

2219
02:09:23,319 --> 02:09:25,960
but it bounces off, it just hits his horn and

2220
02:09:26,000 --> 02:09:29,520
he again gets backhanded through another one of these columns,

2221
02:09:30,079 --> 02:09:33,199
and as as Zod bears down on him right saying,

2222
02:09:33,239 --> 02:09:36,720
I won't show you mercy. Is this all you've got? Like,

2223
02:09:36,920 --> 02:09:41,600
I guess it's fine for human backwards, Yeah, and he

2224
02:09:42,039 --> 02:09:45,039
lifts him up and it's gonna tear him limb from

2225
02:09:45,079 --> 02:09:49,520
limb yet again, half again, trying to turn you into

2226
02:09:49,560 --> 02:09:50,760
meet like all those other guys.

2227
02:09:51,640 --> 02:09:54,439
Speaker 4: But yet again Griffith shows up right, the band of

2228
02:09:54,479 --> 02:09:56,840
the Hawk is there. They begin, you know, shooting their

2229
02:09:56,960 --> 02:10:00,399
arrows at him. We see again the very feminine, we

2230
02:10:00,479 --> 02:10:05,359
might say, but he's pretty. He's pretty beautiful Griffith obviously

2231
02:10:05,399 --> 02:10:09,560
again contrasted to Guts. It's been bashed through like.

2232
02:10:10,239 --> 02:10:15,199
Speaker 3: Number literally prettier than Cosca, yes, like notice, and it's

2233
02:10:15,199 --> 02:10:20,159
not because Cusca's ugly. It's because griff mirror draws him

2234
02:10:20,439 --> 02:10:22,840
as like the prettiest person in the room at all times. Basically,

2235
02:10:23,119 --> 02:10:25,800
he's like an elf. It's a cereal and I love,

2236
02:10:25,840 --> 02:10:30,039
I just love that he's that. Griffith doesn't panic though.

2237
02:10:30,119 --> 02:10:32,800
You can see for the first time basically ever, this

2238
02:10:32,840 --> 02:10:35,680
guy losing his cool to a degree. Right, He's like,

2239
02:10:35,720 --> 02:10:38,239
oh shit, he's sweating, you know what I mean. He's like,

2240
02:10:38,239 --> 02:10:41,000
oh fuck, and then they fire at him. It does nothing,

2241
02:10:41,000 --> 02:10:45,399
and he's like okay, and I love this moment. He

2242
02:10:45,560 --> 02:10:49,920
just like spurgs out super hard. It's like, how dare

2243
02:10:50,079 --> 02:10:54,319
you fuck with my one V one? I write a

2244
02:10:54,399 --> 02:10:56,720
great time and all of you came here and you

2245
02:10:56,960 --> 02:11:02,319
ruined it. This This dude, Zod is just so key though. Dude,

2246
02:11:02,359 --> 02:11:05,840
he's so based well and you see him just laying

2247
02:11:05,920 --> 02:11:13,520
waste nic just he just starts killing everyone, dude, no mercy,

2248
02:11:13,520 --> 02:11:15,439
mashing him up like it's like it's like watching a

2249
02:11:15,520 --> 02:11:17,960
kid destroy by a sand castle. Right, He's just he's

2250
02:11:18,039 --> 02:11:20,840
just he's just wrecking them all. It's like they're all

2251
02:11:21,079 --> 02:11:24,760
hearing your plant like nothing, like they're just they're in cloth.

2252
02:11:25,000 --> 02:11:31,079
Speaker 4: Step us again, another just great panel. Yeah, so we

2253
02:11:31,159 --> 02:11:34,239
obviously Guts is throughout the whole thing telling them to

2254
02:11:34,319 --> 02:11:38,760
run away, but Griffith says, no, I'm going in. So

2255
02:11:38,800 --> 02:11:40,800
he goes in, you know, sort of it picks him

2256
02:11:40,880 --> 02:11:43,560
up off the ground and then Zod is bearing down

2257
02:11:43,560 --> 02:11:46,239
on Guts and Griffiths. Yeah, this is what I this

2258
02:11:46,359 --> 02:11:48,880
is what I want to stress about this part of

2259
02:11:48,920 --> 02:11:51,560
the story. This is what makes the Golden Age so good.

2260
02:11:52,640 --> 02:11:55,319
You in the Black Swords and arc You know, Griffith

2261
02:11:55,439 --> 02:12:00,159
is femto, you know, he's femto, right, So you are

2262
02:12:00,279 --> 02:12:04,920
expecting Griffith to be just this manipulative fuck the entire time.

2263
02:12:05,640 --> 02:12:11,760
Speaker 3: But he's not. He is perfectly capable of being manipulative.

2264
02:12:12,199 --> 02:12:15,239
He is to some degree, you know, if you want

2265
02:12:15,239 --> 02:12:17,439
to use like libtarded language, right, Like he's some sort

2266
02:12:17,439 --> 02:12:19,920
of like like a psychopath or like a narcissist or something.

2267
02:12:20,039 --> 02:12:22,199
I don't I don't know necessarily he might be a narcissist,

2268
02:12:22,239 --> 02:12:26,560
but because like in you know, psychopathy, it can't feel

2269
02:12:26,680 --> 02:12:28,760
or whatever that I don't know, right, whatever, But and

2270
02:12:28,800 --> 02:12:31,399
he clearly cares about people, right, But does he care

2271
02:12:31,399 --> 02:12:35,039
about them more as objects for his use or not? Honestly, bro,

2272
02:12:35,199 --> 02:12:39,039
this doesn't seem this part right, This doesn't seem like, Wow,

2273
02:12:39,960 --> 02:12:42,279
need to use that guy as my tool so hard. No.

2274
02:12:42,439 --> 02:12:44,399
I feel like a person who doesn't care about another

2275
02:12:44,439 --> 02:12:47,920
person beyond tool will not risk their life for them

2276
02:12:48,119 --> 02:12:51,840
like this, Like in this circumstance, it's one thing to

2277
02:12:51,840 --> 02:12:54,000
be in a battle, it's another thing to have a

2278
02:12:54,039 --> 02:12:58,880
fucking monster from myths, bearn down upon you. Right, that's

2279
02:12:58,920 --> 02:13:02,479
a different level of I'm willing to go in there. Right.

2280
02:13:02,520 --> 02:13:07,319
So Griffith shows himself to actually have been a real

2281
02:13:07,439 --> 02:13:10,680
comrade to these people he cares about. There's a reason

2282
02:13:10,760 --> 02:13:13,159
that they that that everyone follows Griffith the way that

2283
02:13:13,199 --> 02:13:17,279
they do. It's because he was actually that guy. You know.

2284
02:13:17,359 --> 02:13:20,039
He he has his ambitions, but he will also do this,

2285
02:13:20,720 --> 02:13:24,880
you know, And I think that contrast in Griffith's character

2286
02:13:24,960 --> 02:13:26,760
is part of what makes him so interesting.

2287
02:13:27,720 --> 02:13:31,239
Speaker 4: Well, again we get the great visual like weapon contrast,

2288
02:13:31,239 --> 02:13:34,039
which is something throughout this entire series. You have the

2289
02:13:34,159 --> 02:13:38,800
giant you know, guts either sword again but still huge,

2290
02:13:39,119 --> 02:13:42,239
and then you know the very elegant kind of yeah

2291
02:13:42,319 --> 02:13:43,399
cavalry saber.

2292
02:13:43,399 --> 02:13:46,479
Speaker 3: Exactly beautiful, beautiful and he uses it so effectively.

2293
02:13:47,199 --> 02:13:50,279
Speaker 4: And that line, your heart's still beating where are you going?

2294
02:13:50,680 --> 02:13:50,840
Speaker 2: Right?

2295
02:13:50,920 --> 02:13:54,119
Speaker 3: Just absolutely where are you going? Your heart's still beating? Absolutely?

2296
02:13:54,479 --> 02:13:56,319
That is a that is a that isn't That is

2297
02:13:56,359 --> 02:13:59,520
a great way to chill the bones man. Where are

2298
02:13:59,560 --> 02:14:03,239
you going? Your heart's still beating? Dog talking about you're

2299
02:14:03,279 --> 02:14:06,159
not dead yet? Yeah, Like, I don't think you've understood

2300
02:14:06,199 --> 02:14:10,399
what's happening to you? Love this, love this, This is

2301
02:14:11,239 --> 02:14:14,560
unbelievably good, worth this pana, right.

2302
02:14:14,439 --> 02:14:16,399
Speaker 4: Because you see the two of them, these kind of

2303
02:14:16,439 --> 02:14:18,319
like simple mortal.

2304
02:14:18,439 --> 02:14:20,600
Speaker 3: This is what I'm talking about when I say like that,

2305
02:14:20,680 --> 02:14:26,199
this is where he really starts like flexing his muscles,

2306
02:14:26,560 --> 02:14:30,119
you know what I'm saying, Like Miora shows in this

2307
02:14:30,239 --> 02:14:35,560
arc and in this series of chapters, right, how good

2308
02:14:35,640 --> 02:14:39,399
he really is. And then from then on it's literally

2309
02:14:39,479 --> 02:14:41,600
just gets better and better and better and better until

2310
02:14:41,600 --> 02:14:46,760
he died. Yes exactly, yeah, right, so the fight is

2311
02:14:46,760 --> 02:14:49,760
still going on. We see the both the incredible size

2312
02:14:49,840 --> 02:14:55,199
and power of this man or this apostle. Right, yeah, yeah,

2313
02:14:55,199 --> 02:14:57,239
I have portraits of words, but we see you know,

2314
02:14:57,279 --> 02:15:00,279
guts and you know, splitting up trying to take this

2315
02:15:00,359 --> 02:15:03,720
guy down. They are wounding him, right, he is taking

2316
02:15:03,800 --> 02:15:07,840
hits from you know, now Griffith and goth to gust together, Yeah,

2317
02:15:08,199 --> 02:15:11,680
to such a point, yes, that they take his arm off.

2318
02:15:11,840 --> 02:15:16,840
Yeah that that Griffith actually wounds him, cuts his arm off, right,

2319
02:15:16,880 --> 02:15:21,000
So both of them have shown to be actually capable

2320
02:15:21,039 --> 02:15:22,159
of wounding this creature.

2321
02:15:24,960 --> 02:15:27,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, and again the fight continues. I'm going to move

2322
02:15:27,800 --> 02:15:28,159
through this.

2323
02:15:28,239 --> 02:15:28,600
Speaker 3: We see.

2324
02:15:28,800 --> 02:15:32,439
Speaker 4: You know, Griffith is also getting battered by Zod.

2325
02:15:33,239 --> 02:15:35,920
Speaker 3: Is what he is for the first time ever put

2326
02:15:35,960 --> 02:15:40,239
in a position of actual danger, danger for real when

2327
02:15:40,279 --> 02:15:43,039
he's knocked over. Yeah, and then the bail it.

2328
02:15:43,039 --> 02:15:47,840
Speaker 4: Comes out and Zod, looking over all of a sudden

2329
02:15:48,000 --> 02:15:50,840
realizes what what is going on here?

2330
02:15:51,279 --> 02:15:53,439
Speaker 3: Can we just can we just can we just talk

2331
02:15:53,439 --> 02:15:56,640
about the fact that Zod picks up his severed arm

2332
02:15:56,800 --> 02:16:03,960
and begins to be cuts me. Yeah, just sit back on. Yeah,

2333
02:16:04,119 --> 02:16:08,119
he's so keen though, man, holy fucking loved man, he's

2334
02:16:08,199 --> 02:16:12,000
just villain monologuing while reattaching. I again, he's just having

2335
02:16:12,000 --> 02:16:14,199
the time, is like, you're just talking and he's so

2336
02:16:14,359 --> 02:16:17,079
like I love. Also, one of the sort of subversive

2337
02:16:17,119 --> 02:16:21,600
aspects of him is how eloquent he is, Like he's

2338
02:16:21,640 --> 02:16:25,840
speaking in like an old and and proper almost like

2339
02:16:25,960 --> 02:16:30,000
regal way, right, I love that aspect of He's this

2340
02:16:30,079 --> 02:16:31,880
big brute that will beat the fuck out of you,

2341
02:16:31,880 --> 02:16:36,079
but he's also like hyper eloquent and very very dignified

2342
02:16:36,079 --> 02:16:40,600
when he speaks, and then he sees it and and

2343
02:16:40,680 --> 02:16:43,719
again right we we we see that he is despite

2344
02:16:43,760 --> 02:16:46,360
being this kind of like hulking figure, you know, earlier

2345
02:16:46,399 --> 02:16:48,920
in the in the fight when he correctly We're not correctly,

2346
02:16:48,959 --> 02:16:50,879
but he makes a very good guess at what guts

2347
02:16:50,959 --> 02:16:54,440
next move is. But of course he realizes what this

2348
02:16:54,680 --> 02:17:01,360
is the egg of the King, not just a bayletpecial one. Yes, yes,

2349
02:17:02,200 --> 02:17:06,280
he mentions the god man, the god hand rather the

2350
02:17:06,319 --> 02:17:12,120
crimson balet is something that felix him with the Crimson balets. Yeah,

2351
02:17:12,159 --> 02:17:13,239
and then he stays laughing.

2352
02:17:15,959 --> 02:17:20,200
Speaker 4: Yep, and he's just at this point completely done.

2353
02:17:20,680 --> 02:17:20,840
Speaker 3: Right.

2354
02:17:20,879 --> 02:17:24,879
Speaker 4: He physically reaches up, breaks a hole in the roof

2355
02:17:25,760 --> 02:17:28,559
and he tells Guts like, we're done for now. Our

2356
02:17:28,600 --> 02:17:31,520
battle's on hold. I wonder if I'll ever meet you again.

2357
02:17:32,040 --> 02:17:34,600
Speaker 3: Next time I see you, it's on site. Yeah.

2358
02:17:35,000 --> 02:17:38,120
Speaker 4: But as he goes out, you know, he warns Guts,

2359
02:17:38,120 --> 02:17:41,120
he says, look, if you can be said to be

2360
02:17:41,159 --> 02:17:44,520
a true friend of this man when his ambition collapses,

2361
02:17:44,920 --> 02:17:50,520
then take heat, warning us about the capacity for betray

2362
02:17:52,399 --> 02:17:58,680
And again, what an awesome panel, Yes, absolutely incredible, And

2363
02:17:58,799 --> 02:18:01,639
again for the the the closing to this chapter, the exit,

2364
02:18:02,159 --> 02:18:05,399
Zod sprouts wings and flies away.

2365
02:18:07,959 --> 02:18:11,479
Speaker 3: Exactly right, you just you just fucking bounces. He's like, later,

2366
02:18:13,200 --> 02:18:13,680
I love it.

2367
02:18:15,399 --> 02:18:18,040
Speaker 4: The panel was so funny too, You're just like, all right,

2368
02:18:18,920 --> 02:18:27,200
just fucking leaves right, while foreshadowing portray you watch out

2369
02:18:28,239 --> 02:18:31,600
your boy. You better watch out for your boy. Also

2370
02:18:31,719 --> 02:18:37,639
I'm coming back. Yeah, so yeah, this is this is

2371
02:18:37,680 --> 02:18:40,239
such a great section. Golden Age is really when this

2372
02:18:40,360 --> 02:18:43,920
series comes into its own, uh in in you know,

2373
02:18:43,959 --> 02:18:46,760
Black Swordsman's very good, but it is a prototype of

2374
02:18:46,799 --> 02:18:49,479
something great. It's worth going back to. But if that's

2375
02:18:49,520 --> 02:18:52,200
all there was of Berserk, people might remember it for

2376
02:18:52,239 --> 02:18:54,159
the art, you know, people might remember it for a

2377
02:18:54,200 --> 02:18:54,879
few other things.

2378
02:18:55,000 --> 02:19:01,879
Speaker 3: But I would go farther. I would say that the

2379
02:19:01,920 --> 02:19:08,000
Black Swordsman arc is, especially at this point, like generic.

2380
02:19:08,719 --> 02:19:14,479
The only purpose of reading it is to give yourself

2381
02:19:14,600 --> 02:19:18,399
the context required for this arc and the rest of

2382
02:19:18,440 --> 02:19:22,760
the story. It's not that it's bad, because it's not.

2383
02:19:22,959 --> 02:19:25,799
It's completely serviceable, and especially for its time, it was

2384
02:19:26,040 --> 02:19:30,319
very good, especially art wise, right, but at this point,

2385
02:19:30,399 --> 02:19:33,680
right somebody reading it, I don't think there will be

2386
02:19:33,719 --> 02:19:36,079
some things that might surprise you a little bit, like

2387
02:19:37,360 --> 02:19:39,520
if you hadn't read it right and never had any

2388
02:19:39,559 --> 02:19:42,239
exposure to Berserk. And it's not Again, it's not bad,

2389
02:19:42,600 --> 02:19:48,520
but this arc is what elevates Berserk to something else

2390
02:19:49,319 --> 02:19:54,440
beyond what it was before, because this puts one from

2391
02:19:54,440 --> 02:19:57,680
a visual standpoint. As I've said many times throughout this, right,

2392
02:19:58,479 --> 02:20:02,680
it just just keeps getting better from here. And Berzerk

2393
02:20:02,760 --> 02:20:05,040
is one of the best looking manga ever, right, and

2394
02:20:05,159 --> 02:20:09,719
for many, many, many years it just straight up was

2395
02:20:09,799 --> 02:20:13,000
basically the best looking manga right. Nowadays, there are a

2396
02:20:13,040 --> 02:20:16,000
lot of amazing, amazing, amazing artists out there who do

2397
02:20:16,120 --> 02:20:19,559
incredible work. It's not necessarily that they look better than

2398
02:20:19,920 --> 02:20:24,120
It's not a competition per se, but it's like hyper

2399
02:20:24,200 --> 02:20:27,399
high quality art is not something that is like impossible

2400
02:20:27,440 --> 02:20:31,200
to find right outside of this right in the same

2401
02:20:31,239 --> 02:20:33,280
way that it sort of was for its time, and

2402
02:20:33,319 --> 02:20:38,120
it has inspired so much stuff over the years with

2403
02:20:38,239 --> 02:20:43,079
its you know, the way that it handled it's setting,

2404
02:20:43,559 --> 02:20:48,079
its character designs and costume designs, armor designs, weapon designs,

2405
02:20:49,040 --> 02:20:55,440
even you know, buildings, just the monsters everything, right, people

2406
02:20:55,520 --> 02:21:01,600
have been sort of whether you know, the outright copying

2407
02:21:01,920 --> 02:21:06,040
or being so clearly inspired by it for so long.

2408
02:21:06,159 --> 02:21:08,239
Like I don't think that there's I think there's a

2409
02:21:08,239 --> 02:21:10,639
good reason that like for example, a cloud Strife from

2410
02:21:11,399 --> 02:21:15,000
Final Fantasy seven has a giant fucking sword. I think

2411
02:21:15,040 --> 02:21:16,200
there's a good you know what I mean, there's a

2412
02:21:16,200 --> 02:21:19,639
lot of characters out there that they are what they

2413
02:21:19,760 --> 02:21:25,360
are because of the because of the influence of this

2414
02:21:25,840 --> 02:21:30,000
and Black Swordsman. Yeah, I think it establishes like the

2415
02:21:30,040 --> 02:21:32,840
designs and a lot of those things, but it doesn't

2416
02:21:32,879 --> 02:21:38,840
have that same soul and heart that comes in everything

2417
02:21:38,879 --> 02:21:41,120
basically after this up to up to me year's death.

2418
02:21:41,399 --> 02:21:44,879
And just to be clear also, I have not read

2419
02:21:45,719 --> 02:21:50,799
a single chapter of Berserk since Mira died because it's

2420
02:21:51,879 --> 02:21:54,000
I don't it's not. It's not. Even if you're working

2421
02:21:54,040 --> 02:21:57,079
from his his notes and and you're his very good friend.

2422
02:21:57,159 --> 02:21:58,959
He told you the story and all of that stuff.

2423
02:21:59,000 --> 02:22:04,000
That's cool. What you're drawing is not what he necessarily

2424
02:22:04,000 --> 02:22:07,360
would have drawn. It's not ever going to look the

2425
02:22:07,399 --> 02:22:09,239
way he would it would have came out of his mind.

2426
02:22:09,360 --> 02:22:14,479
To me, it's like a it's like a fan finishing

2427
02:22:15,200 --> 02:22:17,600
the thing, even though they are also a big mangca.

2428
02:22:17,639 --> 02:22:20,600
It just doesn't. It doesn't hit the same. It feels

2429
02:22:20,600 --> 02:22:24,040
wrong to read personally. For me, personally, it doesn't. It

2430
02:22:24,040 --> 02:22:26,280
does like it just doesn't feel It almost feels like filler,

2431
02:22:26,639 --> 02:22:28,440
except I know that it's supposed to be. It's like

2432
02:22:29,200 --> 02:22:30,639
or or like like you know how the Game of

2433
02:22:30,680 --> 02:22:35,360
Thrones show not in the same like it's ship now way,

2434
02:22:35,479 --> 02:22:38,399
but like you understand that after a certain point in

2435
02:22:38,440 --> 02:22:41,399
the Game of Thrones show that they don't have the

2436
02:22:41,479 --> 02:22:46,159
books to really take from, so they're working from like

2437
02:22:46,200 --> 02:22:49,079
a skeleton. Right, it's the same kind of feeling. So

2438
02:22:49,159 --> 02:22:52,159
I haven't seen past that. I haven't looked past that.

2439
02:22:52,200 --> 02:22:56,120
But like up to the point, literally Mirror was drawing

2440
02:22:56,159 --> 02:22:59,520
some of the best stuff he's ever drawn just before

2441
02:22:59,520 --> 02:23:04,600
he died. So yeah, the series never gets worse looking

2442
02:23:04,639 --> 02:23:06,920
it's and it starts here. It starts here. This is

2443
02:23:06,920 --> 02:23:09,840
where it really pops off. And even in this chapter, right,

2444
02:23:09,879 --> 02:23:13,360
this odd chapter, like some of these odd panels as

2445
02:23:13,399 --> 02:23:18,239
you saw, are just incredible, right and now narratively, right,

2446
02:23:20,079 --> 02:23:24,360
this moment is really important for many many reasons. Right one,

2447
02:23:24,479 --> 02:23:30,079
it establishes the whole like you know, bail it the king.

2448
02:23:30,799 --> 02:23:34,319
Holy shit, like they knew even beforehand, right, like this

2449
02:23:34,520 --> 02:23:36,479
was like it's almost like this kid was destined to

2450
02:23:36,520 --> 02:23:38,559
do this, right, Like what is going on exactly in

2451
02:23:38,600 --> 02:23:43,319
this story? Like what what? What is Griffith? Right? Who

2452
02:23:43,360 --> 02:23:46,040
you know was he chosen for this right, Like, how

2453
02:23:46,200 --> 02:23:54,079
how does this work? But uh, yeah that that I

2454
02:23:54,159 --> 02:23:59,000
love that fight. I love that fight really really important

2455
02:23:59,040 --> 02:24:01,600
for the character also to encounter like a wall that

2456
02:24:01,680 --> 02:24:06,879
he can't surmount, right, to feel the true nature of

2457
02:24:06,920 --> 02:24:09,680
the world, the fact that there are supernatural problems, and like,

2458
02:24:10,680 --> 02:24:13,600
how are you going to solve that? Bro? Like, what's

2459
02:24:13,639 --> 02:24:17,120
your answer going to be to that? And to know

2460
02:24:18,760 --> 02:24:21,440
because we read the Black Sportsman arc right to know

2461
02:24:21,559 --> 02:24:24,239
that his answer was I'm just going to get a

2462
02:24:24,280 --> 02:24:29,639
bigger sword and kill them harder. Is like that what

2463
02:24:29,680 --> 02:24:34,360
a what a great solution to that problem? Yeah? Well,

2464
02:24:34,559 --> 02:24:35,520
and honestly, man like.

2465
02:24:37,360 --> 02:24:42,399
Speaker 4: This we might have different feelings about the continuation after

2466
02:24:42,399 --> 02:24:46,440
his death because I agree with you on the front

2467
02:24:46,600 --> 02:24:51,239
of the art, But as far as finishing the story,

2468
02:24:51,920 --> 02:24:54,920
I am glad for it to be eventually finished one day,

2469
02:24:55,719 --> 02:24:58,360
and I have at least some level of confidence in

2470
02:24:58,440 --> 02:25:00,959
the You know, the guy who funny enough was the

2471
02:25:01,000 --> 02:25:04,120
basis for the character of Griffith, right, you know, heading

2472
02:25:04,120 --> 02:25:06,639
it up. Well, see, there's not really enough of it

2473
02:25:06,760 --> 02:25:08,719
yet to say confidently one way or the other.

2474
02:25:09,120 --> 02:25:11,319
Speaker 3: At least no, no, it's not even it's it's it's

2475
02:25:11,399 --> 02:25:13,719
not even any real disrespect to him or anything like that.

2476
02:25:13,760 --> 02:25:18,120
It just feels like it like it's just like even

2477
02:25:18,280 --> 02:25:21,840
looking at the characters, everything feels wrong. Like while I'm

2478
02:25:22,200 --> 02:25:27,440
look it feels like Uncanny Valley. Yeah, yeah, but it's like, yeah,

2479
02:25:27,520 --> 02:25:32,159
it's almost but not perfectly right exactly exactly. And I

2480
02:25:32,200 --> 02:25:34,159
am I agree with you there about the story because

2481
02:25:34,200 --> 02:25:38,440
I do want to know what Mirror's intention was and

2482
02:25:38,479 --> 02:25:42,079
where he intended for the story to go, and and

2483
02:25:42,079 --> 02:25:44,360
and and what was going to happen. I do I

2484
02:25:44,360 --> 02:25:50,040
I I am glad that that sort of even though

2485
02:25:50,120 --> 02:25:53,399
he sadly did not get to finish it, it will

2486
02:25:53,440 --> 02:25:58,760
be finished, you know, and that that work will get finished, right.

2487
02:25:58,760 --> 02:26:01,000
Like it's almost like if the Sistine Chapel had never

2488
02:26:01,079 --> 02:26:03,520
been finished, right type saying, It's like you would hope

2489
02:26:03,520 --> 02:26:06,040
that somebody a friend would want to finish it for

2490
02:26:06,079 --> 02:26:08,239
the person who had been doing you know, for Michelangelo, right,

2491
02:26:08,440 --> 02:26:12,399
that that kind of thing. So yeah, I'm with you

2492
02:26:12,440 --> 02:26:14,360
on that, but it's it's like I just haven't done.

2493
02:26:14,440 --> 02:26:16,239
So there's almost a part of me that like almost

2494
02:26:16,239 --> 02:26:18,639
wants it to be done and then I'll go and

2495
02:26:18,719 --> 02:26:22,559
just just do it right and just read all of it. Yeah, yeah, right,

2496
02:26:23,399 --> 02:26:26,760
because it might be another thirty years at this pace. Seriously, man,

2497
02:26:26,920 --> 02:26:28,799
he was on that boat for so goddamn long, bro,

2498
02:26:28,879 --> 02:26:34,079
Holy shit, I was concurrent before the boat, so.

2499
02:26:34,600 --> 02:26:36,959
Speaker 4: Cheese man, Yeah, I was. I definitely caught up on

2500
02:26:37,000 --> 02:26:40,680
the boat, which again doesn't really narrow it down at all. Right,

2501
02:26:40,719 --> 02:26:41,479
that's like a decade.

2502
02:26:41,520 --> 02:26:45,399
Speaker 3: You if you were on the boat, you were on

2503
02:26:45,440 --> 02:26:48,520
the boat, and you have you were a comrade of mine, Okay,

2504
02:26:48,680 --> 02:26:51,360
because that's weird. It doesn't matter when you got on

2505
02:26:51,399 --> 02:26:55,040
the boat. You were there and that boat situation was

2506
02:26:55,079 --> 02:26:57,719
fucking crazy, dude, that is insane.

2507
02:26:58,479 --> 02:27:00,479
Speaker 4: Well, dude, we'll have to be back because this was

2508
02:27:00,479 --> 02:27:04,200
a ton of fun. There's so much more to cover. Uh, well,

2509
02:27:04,520 --> 02:27:07,840
we'll definitely do this again. Is there anywhere people can

2510
02:27:07,879 --> 02:27:09,399
find you, man, or anything you want to promote?

2511
02:27:12,319 --> 02:27:14,520
Speaker 3: I got BAEd. I've been banned from Twitter so many times.

2512
02:27:14,559 --> 02:27:18,239
I'm probably coming back, but you know what I mean, Like,

2513
02:27:18,239 --> 02:27:21,479
I also don't like care about like that. You know

2514
02:27:21,479 --> 02:27:24,040
what I mean, don't? Yeah, you know what I mean.

2515
02:27:24,079 --> 02:27:26,559
So it's no big deal. Doing it for the love

2516
02:27:26,559 --> 02:27:31,319
of the game. Absolutely absolutely for me. It's about the things, right,

2517
02:27:31,360 --> 02:27:34,520
I think the things have great and powerful significance, right,

2518
02:27:34,559 --> 02:27:40,239
I think you know, uh, Berserk is like primordials. It's

2519
02:27:40,280 --> 02:27:42,719
like it's a you know, it's it's it's talking to

2520
02:27:42,840 --> 02:27:48,280
something inside so many of us. And you know, the

2521
02:27:48,440 --> 02:27:53,399
the symbol and the the symbol of Guts as the sufferer,

2522
02:27:53,479 --> 02:27:58,399
right is a powerful one in our time and we

2523
02:27:58,520 --> 02:28:03,239
are a time that is uh you know, it's it's hungry,

2524
02:28:03,360 --> 02:28:08,040
it's it's starving for for meaning and myth and symbol right,

2525
02:28:09,000 --> 02:28:13,639
ones that that that have real power. Because so much feels,

2526
02:28:13,680 --> 02:28:16,319
especially now right with the whole like fucking ai slop bullshit, right,

2527
02:28:16,719 --> 02:28:22,120
everything so much feels like like ephemeral, like smoke. Right,

2528
02:28:23,239 --> 02:28:26,000
So when you find something that feels like it's rooted,

2529
02:28:26,639 --> 02:28:31,399
deeply rooted, uh, it, you know, it's it's worth holding onto,

2530
02:28:31,440 --> 02:28:33,440
I think, and it's worth celebrating, right, And I think

2531
02:28:33,440 --> 02:28:35,600
Brazik is one of those things. What's That's why it

2532
02:28:35,600 --> 02:28:37,959
has the appeal that it has. That's why Guts has

2533
02:28:38,000 --> 02:28:40,879
the appeal that he has. That's why the story and

2534
02:28:40,920 --> 02:28:43,239
this especially this part of the story, has the appeal

2535
02:28:43,280 --> 02:28:46,239
that it has. We all want comrades, you know, we

2536
02:28:46,280 --> 02:28:51,399
all want brothers in arms who would fight with us,

2537
02:28:51,440 --> 02:28:53,879
who would die for us, who we would die for.

2538
02:28:54,959 --> 02:28:59,200
We all wish to have a goal in mind, many people,

2539
02:29:00,120 --> 02:29:04,399
and that's something that this touches on. Many people wish

2540
02:29:04,440 --> 02:29:07,559
to be led. And I don't necessarily think that that

2541
02:29:07,719 --> 02:29:12,239
is a like a vice. I don't think that's a

2542
02:29:12,319 --> 02:29:17,200
sin to wish to be led. Life is difficult and frightening,

2543
02:29:17,600 --> 02:29:21,360
and it's okay to look to others for some guidance, right,

2544
02:29:22,920 --> 02:29:29,440
But you know, some people do not wish to be led.

2545
02:29:29,479 --> 02:29:31,879
They want they have an ambition, they have a desire,

2546
02:29:31,920 --> 02:29:35,040
and they wish to get there. Right. So some people

2547
02:29:35,040 --> 02:29:38,360
are willing to help others with their ambition, and that's

2548
02:29:38,440 --> 02:29:41,680
cool and that's great, right, But what we want and

2549
02:29:41,719 --> 02:29:46,440
what we desire and having people willing to help us

2550
02:29:47,159 --> 02:29:51,479
make it happen because we as guts learns through all

2551
02:29:51,520 --> 02:29:54,959
of this. You know, like you cannot do it alone, right,

2552
02:29:55,000 --> 02:29:57,280
You cannot do it alone as much as you would

2553
02:29:57,319 --> 02:30:00,799
like to. You can't. Even in the Blacks Swordsmanark, right,

2554
02:30:00,879 --> 02:30:02,799
like the black Storts of Ark is like about that,

2555
02:30:02,879 --> 02:30:05,799
almost like him like trying to do everything by himself

2556
02:30:06,239 --> 02:30:10,239
and it almost going catastrophically almost every time, Like he

2557
02:30:10,319 --> 02:30:15,840
barely survives all of that, right, super injured. This arc

2558
02:30:15,920 --> 02:30:18,559
shows you what he what he's missing, what he had

2559
02:30:18,600 --> 02:30:20,840
and what he's missing, and it's something that many of

2560
02:30:20,879 --> 02:30:26,079
us desire. And you know, towards the end, no spoiler, right,

2561
02:30:28,840 --> 02:30:36,120
you understand why Guts, why Guts was has the mentality

2562
02:30:36,159 --> 02:30:38,079
that he has in the Black Swordsman arc, why his

2563
02:30:38,120 --> 02:30:40,719
mind is the way that it is. Because when something

2564
02:30:40,799 --> 02:30:45,760
like this, when when that kind of safeguard for your

2565
02:30:45,799 --> 02:30:48,719
soul is taken from you in the way that it is,

2566
02:30:50,600 --> 02:30:53,399
then I think you are well within your rights to

2567
02:30:53,479 --> 02:30:56,280
have that kind of response, the kind of response that

2568
02:30:56,319 --> 02:31:01,639
he takes. Well, dude, this has been a ton of fun. Man.

2569
02:31:01,760 --> 02:31:04,319
Speaker 4: Like I said, we're playing in another one. We're gonna

2570
02:31:04,360 --> 02:31:07,079
keep doing these. There won't be another six week gap.

2571
02:31:07,840 --> 02:31:10,079
What I'm probably gonna do and you guys know this,

2572
02:31:10,200 --> 02:31:13,520
the listeners, Uh, I'll probably have a rotating cast of characters.

2573
02:31:13,520 --> 02:31:16,440
I've got a couple of people interested in covering different segments.

2574
02:31:16,719 --> 02:31:21,120
Obviously Remiss will return. Actually all right, I'm on, I'm

2575
02:31:21,159 --> 02:31:23,360
undecided yet. If it's gonna be one big one or

2576
02:31:23,360 --> 02:31:25,959
two smaller ones. The point is you can stop jumping

2577
02:31:26,040 --> 02:31:29,959
out for Zerk is back. You're welcome again, man, this

2578
02:31:30,040 --> 02:31:31,559
was a ton of fun. Dude, Thank you so much

2579
02:31:31,600 --> 02:31:32,600
for coming.

2580
02:31:32,360 --> 02:31:34,280
Speaker 3: Out, Thanks for having me on.

2581
02:31:33,639 --> 02:31:37,920
Speaker 4: Thanks everyone know, keep your head up. I can't last forever.

2582
02:31:38,000 --> 02:31:57,079
Speaker 2: Good Night

2583
02:32:00,440 --> 02:32:09,280
Speaker 1: Thro the Bagariate, Devinment Gangarian devient problem