Today, we’re covering the following chapters:
- Tidal Wave of Darkness 1 – 2
- Resonance
- The Sky Falls
‘Tidal Wave of Darkness’ picks up right where we left off: with Mozgus dying at Guts’ hands. But as you can expect, this lunatic isn’t dying without a fight. As he utters his final prayer to God, he prepares to burn the last of his life to kill Guts once and for all.
So Guts just hurls the bastard off the ledge.
I love how beautiful Mozgus’ death is. Man is shrouded in divine light, his feathers drawn in so much detail you’d almost think they were real. All the terrified citizens stare in shock.
Then the spell is broken, and the horror begins.
What follows is a massacre almost as terrible and gruesome as the Eclipse itself. For a few pages, there is no dialogue. The evil spirits close in, consuming all in their path. Those trying to flee claw at the faces and hair of those before them, while those behind are melted down and consumed. When dialogue finally returns, it’s the cursed cries of the spirits, speaking in the voices of those suffering.
Up against the wall, the last of the villagers desperately plead for Isidro and Jerome to kill Casca. Isidro, being the sassy boy he is, prepares a snarky comeback. But when the sounds of begging is replaced by the sounds of breaking bones and melting flesh, leaving not a single survivor, he breaks off, stunned by the sight.
Surrounded by evil, Casca’s Brand begins to hurt. Puck tries to comfort her, but it’s no use. She’s freaking the hell out.
Until…
This is one of the most interesting pages in the arc. By all accounts, shit is fucked. All the innocents below are dead or dying, the evil spirits are boiling upwards towards our protagonists, and there seems to be no hope of escape or salvation. In any other story, this would be the low point for our characters.
But when Guts finally embraces Casca, after an entire arc of chasing her, after so many years running away from her, it feels like the ultimate victory! Yet Guts isn’t cheering or crying or even smiling. He just holds her, exhausted and bloodied, simply glad that she’s still alive. It’s a devastating gut punch of a page that gets me misty eyed no matter how many times I read it!
Pages like this are why I love Berserk so damn much. Through all the gore and violence and horror, we have a man holding the woman he loves. Even when the world seems to be ending, there’s a little ray of love and hope for those willing to struggle and fight for it. It’s fucking incredible.
Meanwhile, up above, the shades of the God Hand gather around the Egg of the World. From this perch, the Egg looks out at the carnage below, almost like he’s in a daze. Taking a peek inside, we can see the Demon Infant inside him, looking decidedly not-demonic.
I’m sure that’s nothing and definitely won’t have massive consequences for everyone and everything going forward.
Down below, Azan and his men continue to fight the evil spirits. It goes about as well as you’d expect. Just when it seems it can’t get any worse, the gates snap shut behind them. Those on the other side look at their would-be protector, as well as all the other women and children left to die, without empathy. It seems the Bridge Knight’s goose is finally cooked.
*Azan says something interesting here. As the evil spirits close in, he thinks to himself: “What have they done?! Not again…!!!” It’s a small but intriguing insight into his past, something we still haven’t seen to this day.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy watching Nina suffer. With her ankle possibly broken, she can barely limp away from the danger. Falling over, she finds herself right in the path of a stampeding mob. None of whom are feeling especially altruistic. Luckily for her, Luca arrives just in whisk her away from danger.
Not so luckily, the evil spirits are close on their heels. With Nina unable to run, Luca does the only thing she can: she stuffs the other girl into a barrel. Perhaps it may succeed where walls and wooden gates have failed.
I actually really like this scene. Nina, being the coward she is, begs Luca to stay with her, despite that being clearly impossible with the size of the barrel. Luca, clearly nervous and afraid, actually uses Nina’s cowardice, the thing she’s hated herself for the entire arc, to encourage her, reframing that cowardice as her being a stubborn survivor.
Speaking of: up on the wall, Guts and the gang make an important discovery. Turns out, the spirits stay away from fire, as those gathered around Mozgus’ burning body attest. That’s all Guts needs to know; gathering wood, he sets the crew straight to work.
Naturally, Farnese is scared out of her mind. But Guts, as calm and determined as ever, gives her something to cling onto. The man who had spent the entire arc tearing her world view to pieces is now giving her something else to hold onto: him.
I especially love Guts’ inner thoughts in the chapter’s final page. It’s simple and short, but it highlights just how much he’s grown already from the start of Conviction. It’s beautiful.
*Also I love the fact that Guts uses the longest, most cumbersome piece of timber as a torch. Man has to super-size everything and I love it.
‘Resonance’ begins with a nice bit of action and humor. Despite Puck being silly and Isidro being… well, a kid, it still manages to balance comedy and grim-dark horror really well. Puck may be goofy, but he knows about the Brand and its effects. Yet he chooses not to tell the others, although he clearly feels guilty about it. Even now, in the face of almost certain death, Puck stays loyal to Guts. That’s a true bro right there.
It’s also here were Farnese’s character arc really starts to get going. As the horrors close in around her, she begins to try and pray. But Guts, always practical, shouts at her to use her hands to fight, not beg some invisible deity for salvation. So, heart pounding, hands trembling, she lets out a cry and shoves her own torch into the fray.
Meanwhile, Nina is getting rolled about in her barrel. She’s beyond terrified, repeating over and over that she’s dead, even trying to escape the barrel. But when her disease makes her cough up more blood, she’s faced with a grim realization: even if she survives, she’s dead anyway. But that only steels her determination. So, surrounded by darkness, she embraces her fear and determines once and for all to live.
There’s an interesting visual parallel here between Nina and the Demon Infant. Both are curled up in the fetal position, wrapped in a tiny bubble to shield them from the darkness. As if both are to be reborn through the shadows and the nightmares.
Whereas they are being reborn, the exact opposite is happening to everyone else. We get several more panels of the crowds being brutally massacred. There’s even a small series of panels wherein a desperate old lady drops to her knees in prayer shortly before being devoured, as if to prove Guts’ earlier point to Farnese correct.
As the night (and the panels) grow ever darker, the tower is consumed by the monsters. Guts clings to Casca, their Brands and trauma both haunting the two, while Puck is assaulted by images of the death and horror occurring all around him. As the spirits coagulate around the God Hand, Puck senses all of them crying out for one thing.
Up above, the Egg of the World begins to cry tears of blood. His moment is finally at hand. So, with his face now properly arranged, he closes his eyes and smiles contentedly, waiting to hatch.
‘The Sky Falls’ is a very interesting chapter. Beyond the first few and last few pages, there is very little dialogue. Instead, it lets Miura’s incredible artwork carry the story.
The chapter begins with Guts and Casca falling to their knees, racked with pain by the Brand. Peeking into Guts’ pouch, Puck finds that the Behelit is reacting as well. Something is coming, and Guts knows exactly what – nay, who – it is.
As for the rest… words are nowhere near enough. Better to show you.
You might think my lack of words is laziness on my part. Which… sure, if that’s how you wanna look at it. My interpretation is that that’s the whole point. We’re watching what is essentially a work of divine evil, the complete ending of one world and the birth of another. It’s meant to break your brain, and it sure broke mine.
On the wall below, the tower begins to collapse atop Guts and the others. Realizing what’s going on, the Black Swordsman cries out an all-too familiar name. But his words are drowned out by the sounds of the world ending.
All becomes still. Dawn rises upon the land, revealing what remains of the tower. Which is to say nothing at all. The symbol of the Holy See stands leaning atop the rubble, surrounded by ruin. It’s almost beautiful in its stillness and silence. And with that, the chapter ends.
As does today’s review. Because next week’s chapters are going to go absolutely fucking bonkers and we’re out of time.
This batch of chapters is packed to the brim with fantastic character writing. Guts shows his first signs of leadership since his days as Raider’s Captain, Farnese takes her first steps towards independence, and Nina begins to learn to accept herself. It’s spectacular character writing through and through.
Which will come to a head in the next few chapters.
Get ready.
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