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Five Thoughts on Berserk’s “The Decisive Battle” and “The Conqueror”

By | July 29th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

How’s it going Muliversity Readers? The excitement keeps rolling this week with “The Decisive Battle” and “The Conqueror”. Not only do we see the final battle of the war with the siege on Doldrey, but also, Griffith stabs a pervert in the eye. Oh, and Zodd shows up! Let’s stop wasting time and dive in.

1. Guts’ Last Charge

The Battle of Doldrey is significant for a number of reasons. It is the final battle in the Hundred Year long war between Midland and Chuder, but it is also Guts’ last battle with the Hawks. From Casca’s perspective, that fact gives the battle a sort of melancholy, the end of an era she had just realized she cherished. For Guts, however, the battle has a sort of lightness to it. His journey isn’t about to end, it’s about to begin. He will fight this last battle with his all before departing, a fitting exit for a soldier such as him. I can’t imagine Guts as a noble knight, spending his days as a ceremonial guard to the king. He is still searching for his dream in life, but that one certainly isn’t it.

2. The Perfect Plan

The war council scene in “The Decisive Battle” shows Griffith at his absolute most cunning. Griffith is clearly 10 steps ahead of every other general in the room the entire scene. He slithers his way into a seeming no-win position: face off against the strongest of the enemies troops at an impenetrable fort. If the Hawks lose, then the war continues on with no loss of noble blood. However, if Griffith wins, and Griffith always wins, he will have ended the war against all odds, a hero who was willing to lay down everything for his king. Icing on the cake, he will have done it all not for glory, or deeds, but only for the simple service of his king. Or at least that’s what it looks like. In reality, Griffith already knows that Doldrey will be simple to take using himself as bait for the wretched pervert that controls the fort. That’s all it takes for a humble commoner to do what the entire kingdom’s knights could not.

3. I Don’t Think About You At All

We see two chances for revenge from our heroes in these episodes: Casca once again faces the towering moron Adon and Griffith comes face-to-face with Governor Child Endangerment. There is something supremely satisfying in seeing Casca put an end to Adon once and for all. No more running away only to return and threaten her with increasingly sadistic fantasies. Not only that, but she does it while poisoned and bleeding out from an arrow wound. Glad that the show can finally end her story in a positive and not horribly sexually violent fashion. Moving on. The more interesting moment is when Griffith is presented with the chance to take his revenge on the governor who took advantage of him so many years ago. Here we see that maybe the truest cruelty of Griffith is his complete and total indifference. He cannot even be bothered to dismount or give the governor a second look, a man who he refers to as a pebble in the road towards his dream. Or maybe it’s just an act, as we see Griffith for the first time doing his own dirty work silencing that “chattering pebble” himself.

4. I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

In “The Conqueror” there is a really interesting moment that seems almost out of place at first in the battle between Guts and General Boscogn. Just when the tide seems to have turned against the Hawks as Guts stands there helpless with a broken sword, Zodd comes to the rescue tossing him his handy horseslayer which Guts goes on to use for quite literally that. At first it seems like lazy ex machina crap that we’ve seen time and time again in anime, but here in Beserk it seems just out of place. The more you look at it though, deus ex machina is exactly what Zodd is. Okay, maybe not god per-se, but at least demon ex machina. Zodd is overlooking the battle because this is Griffith’s big gamble: either he wins this battle or dies trying. Zodd, and more specifically the Godhand who Zodd serves, can’t let Griffith die. As Zodd pointed out when we first met him, Griffith carries the Egg of the King, he is destined to become a demon god. Up until that moment, he and the egg must be protected. So it makes perfect sense that Zodd would be there, looking over the battle ready to step in if Griffith is in danger. The interesting part of the equation is where Guts fits into all of this. Zodd could fly down and fight off the entire Chuder army to save Griffith if he needed. He fought in this war before, there is no reason he couldn’t again. Instead he chooses to help Guts. There could be an argument made that Guts is a piece of the events that will lead to Griffith’s downfall. But it also seems like Zodd just kind of likes him. Zodd has finally found someone who he considered to be a match for him, if not an equal that at least a brother in arms on the other side of the war. Interesting that a demon beast bull monster has more respect for Guts than Griffith does.

Continued below

5. Not a Moment of Peace

Berserk really likes to leave you reeling. I was ready to turn off the episode and start my write-up before realizing there were not one, but two, more scenes at the end of “The Conqueror”. Of course we can’t just celebrate the victory of Midland, the death of two major creeps, and Guts finally making peace with his life. We have Zodd ride off letting us know the demon kids are going to soon descend, which sounds both foreboding and sexist because we know one is a lady. Then we see our favorite half-pint schemer, Foss, planning on poisoning Griffith. To make matters worse the Queen is in on it! I get that it is hard to sympathize with the guy we know ends up becoming the villain of the series, but seriously Griffith cannot catch a break, and neither can we as viewers.

Bonus Thought

Wasn’t it great to see Pippin step in and save Rickert? Where has Pippin been? I feel like that guy hasn’t had screen time in ages.


//TAGS | 2020 Summer TV Binge | Berserk

Matt Liguori

EMAIL | ARTICLES


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