I’m not really sure I like this development but I’ll hold my judgement for now. Sure, it doesn’t change too much in the practical sense (he was already special to some extent) but it kind of feels like we’re shifting towards “Guts was destined to defeat the big evil all along”.
Dunno, maybe it’s just a knee jerk reaction based on hazy memory considering how slow the story is right now (in terms of releases not pacing). I’ll just wait and see, I guess.
In my opinion it’s the opposite. Because he is outside destiny, he has the unique chance(!) to defeat them. That defeat is not guaranteed (of course it will happen, who ends a story like Berserk with “and the protagonist failed, and nothing changed whatsoever”), but even the possibility was not there before him. And now it is due to his status as somebody between the worlds. Destiny and Guts status outside of it was always a big part of the groundwork of Berserk.
I should’ve worded my point a bit differently as it probably sounds like I think he’s suddenly “the chosen one” (in the classical sense). It just feels like we’re moving away from “man fights hell through lots of training, willpower and anger” to “well, he is that but also the reason he can even do those extreme things was decided by his birth” - I just don’t like this concept in general, Berserk or not. He was already special enough, there’s no need to make him even more magical to justify the final boss fight.
I don’t know, maybe reading through the story again would change my reaction to this. I’ve been following Berserk for more than a decade now (I think?), so there’s a lot I managed to forget over the years. It’s more of an emotional reaction than informed one to be honest. I hope future chapters will alleviate my worries and if not, that a re-read someday down the road will.
I know what you mean. And yeah, that part is much smaller now. Probably since Guts started on his second journey with his new team.
But honestly: Femto and the God Hand were build up too much over the whole series. It would be absolutely ridiculous that Guts could just cut those nearly-gods that can manipulate space itself (as shown with Skull Knights attack on Femto). So some kind of upgrade for Guts or downgrade for Femto had to happen. Will be interesting to see if Guts & Cascas child inside Femto is just that downgrade from his near-god status.
I agree but I feel like this could’ve been tackled by “the power of friendship” to some extent. Guts has been gathering friends and companions for a while now, some of whom are pretty powerful themselves. I think having them strategise, prepare and work as a group for the final showdown would be a bit more meaningful than a simple birth power-up. I still expect it to happen, even if not in as crucial role as I’m thinking of, but we’ll see how it goes.
As long as we get an ending and they don’t completely drop the ball I’ll be satisfied.
