Guts

Appearance

The protagonist of Berserk is a very tall, broad-shouldered man with heavily developed muscles. Although he looks thirty years old, he is only in his twenties. He has been hardened and aged by life during the war. During the events of the Eclipse, Guts lost his left arm up to the elbow and his right eye. His right eyelid is permanently closed, hiding the gouged out eye; only in the manga "Prototype" is Guts shown wearing an eyepatch. He is covered from head to toe in scars and burns - the most noticeable of which is on Guts's nose, from a blow he suffered from Gambino as a child. The largest scar is a horizontal one across his chest, left by his encounter with Slan in Qliphoth. The brand of sacrifice on the back right side of his neck is more than a scar - it is a witchcraft mark (the brand of sacrifice) that attracts demons to the hero and makes Guts aware of their approach: it begins to ache and bleed when evil is near. Guts has brown eyes and coarse black hair; upon acquiring the Berserker Armor, Guts gained a streak of gray above his forehead, likely from the strain of wearing the ominous armor. Guts' penchant for wearing black clothing and armor during his apostle hunts earned him the nickname "The Black Swordsman", a tradition continued upon acquiring the Berserker Armor. During his Golden Age, Guts wore a distinctive helmet with a massive visor protecting the upper part of his face. Guts abandoned this helmet when he left the Falcons, and did not wear any helmets again until acquiring the Berserker Armor.

Personality

Known for his sternness, Guts is a gruff, cynical man who holds a generally bleak outlook on life. This is a result of the constant waves of suffering and numerous betrayals since his youth, with nearly all of the highlights of his life becoming minimal over time. Despite his cautious, brooding exterior, he displays a calmer, more compassionate side towards the people he trusts, appearing noticeably less reclusive and distant while still retaining his dry frankness. Even as his inner darkness festers deep within him and its temptation becomes increasingly difficult to resist, he retains his empathy and compassion, refusing to completely cast aside his humanity. During his formative years, Guts is bereft of a true purpose in life, killing mercenaries as a child simply to survive. A blank slate, he often seeks approval from those he respects most, content with only having "one person looking his way". His insecurities gradually develop into individuality upon meeting Griffith, someone he eventually strives to stand next to as an equal instead of being looked down upon. The swordsman then embarks on a journey of self-discovery in which he realizes his eternal connection to and passion for the sword. With this realization, he begins to hone his craft and fight even stronger opponents, with a new purpose in life in doing so. After surviving the Eclipse, Guts becomes vengeful, wanting nothing more than to hunt down and kill any apostle he meets, and more importantly, to exact revenge on Griffith and the God Hand. He leaves behind a regressed Casca for two years to embark on the warpath against demons. During his two-year hunt, Guts becomes largely selfish and antisocial, indifferent to the suffering of others and distasteful of those he perceives as weak.

Background

Guts was born from the corpse of his lynched mother beneath a gallows tree, where he was left to die alone in a quagmire of blood and afterbirth. A group of mercenaries led by a man named Gambino eventually stumbled upon the gruesome site, assuming the infant was dead. When the child began to cry, to the mercenaries' surprise, Gambino's acquaintance, Siss, immediately approached the child and came to his aid. Gambino allowed the woman to keep Guts for her own personal comfort, despite the circumstances of Guts' birth being considered ominous by his associates. Three years later, Guts' adoptive mother contracted the plague and died before his eyes. Under Gambino's tutelage, Guts began honing his swordsmanship at the age of six and joined a mercenary band three years later, considering their leader a father figure of sorts. The night after Guts' first skirmish, a mercenary named Donovan ambushed and raped Guts in his tent, revealing that he had purchased the boy for the night from Gambino. In the following skirmish, the young mercenary isolated Donovan and eliminated him, refusing to believe the man's claim from the previous night. When Gambino lost his leg in battle, his relationship with Guts immediately soured. From verbal to physical abuse, Guts was subjected to various forms of humiliation before Gambino eventually made an attempt on his life. Knowing that Guts was the cause of his misfortune, Gambino revealed that he had indeed sold Guts to Donovan, expressing his disgust at the boy's existence. Greatly disillusioned by this revelation, Guts took revenge and killed his attacker, the closest thing to a father he had ever known. Subsequently attacked by Gambino's men and branded as his father's killer, he fled the camp with the aggressors hot on his tail, eventually running into a dead end and falling off a cliff. After his fall and a fight with a pack of wolves below, he was knocked unconscious, and was eventually discovered by a child soldier and recruited into another mercenary group.

History

During the siege of a military garrison defended by the Band of the Falcon, Guts joins the fight alongside a mercenary company and defeats an enemy leader named Bazuso in a duel, lowering the enemy's morale and allowing them to capture the fort. During his travels, he is attacked by the Falcons, seeking to claim their reward and avenge their earlier interference. He easily dispatches most of them until he is confronted by Griffith, who quickly incapacitates the swordsman and brings him to the band's camp. Awakening several days later, Griffith offers Guts the opportunity to join the band, though he immediately declines, instead choosing to challenge Griffith to a duel. He stipulates that the White Falcon may claim him should he defeat him in combat. Having a vested interest in Guts, Griffith agrees, and the two engage in a sensational battle, with the White Falcon ultimately defeating the swordsman and inducting him into the Band of the Falcon.

History

Three years later, Guts is promoted to strike commander of the Band of the Falcon, and for their efforts against the Black Ram Knights, the group is officially hired by Midland in its Hundred Year Campaign against Tudor. Later, during the capture of Tudor's stronghold, the Falcons are stopped during their final push into the fortress, with around fifty of Guts's soldiers killed by a single enemy buried in the inner citadel. Fed up with these results, Guts ventures into the citadel himself, where he encounters the monstrous Nosferatu apostle Zodd and engages in battle with the demon. Initially overwhelmed by his opponent's overwhelming aura and frightened by Zodd's parrying blows, Guts ultimately risks his life with a single blow and with it deals a crushing blow to the apostle. Zodd is only further aroused by the trauma - after 300 years, he finally finds a person capable of injuring him, and subsequently takes on his true monster form. Stunned by Zodd's transformation and completely outmatched, Guts is pummeled and nearly crushed by the apostle before Griffith and the Band of the Falcon's reinforcements intervene. As Griffith comes to Guts' aid, Zodd blocks their escape route, forcing them to perform a pincer move on the apostle, in which they both deal significant damage to the demon. In retaliation, Zodd's tail slams Griffith into a pillar, though he immediately ceases his assault upon seeing Griffith's Crimson Beherit. The beast leaves Guts with a prophecy, warning the swordsman of the inevitable death that will befall him should Griffith's dream ever crumble, before flying away.

History

During the Autumn Hunt in Wyndham following their return, the Band of the Falcon act as guards for the King of Midland in place of General Julius' White Dragon Knights. In the midst of the hunt, Griffith is shot by a stray arrow, but escapes injury due to his beherit taking the brunt of the blow. Sometime during the night, Griffith, having determined that Julius is the culprit of the attempted murder, asks Guts to kill the general in retaliation. The swordsman invades Julius's estate in the dark of night and quickly eliminates his target. When the door to the general's room opens, Guts, mistaking him for a guard, preemptively smashes through it, killing Julius' son, Adonis. With the guards alarmed, a maddened Guts fights his way out of the room and escapes through the sewers of Wyndham. Making his way to Primrose Hall, where Griffith is to be present, Guts first meets with Casca, and together they overhear Griffith interpret Princess Charlotte's true friend: "They [the Falcons]... are excellent troops. Together, we have faced death so many times. They are my valuable comrades, dedicated to the dream I envision... But... to me, a friend is... Someone who will never be dependent on another's dream... Someone who will not be forced by anyone, but will define and pursue his own reason for living... And if anyone tramples on that dream, he will resist them body and soul... Even if the threat were myself... What I think is a friend... Someone who is my 'equal.'" After Griffith's monologue ends, Guts leaves the stage, irritated that he, too, is ultimately nothing more than an asset to Griffith's dream.

History

Shortly after, the Band of the Falcon sets out to battle Tudor's Blue Whale Knights. During the fight, noticing the trouble Casca is having with the enemy commander, Guts intervenes and engages the spearman Adon Coborlwitz. While clearly defeating his opponent, the band's commander notices Casca faint while tripping over the edge of a cliff and breaks her fall before a desperate Adon knocks him off his horse and then off the cliff. The two Falcons free fall into the river current below, with Guts pulling them to shore and finding shelter from the cold rain. Believing Casca to have a fever (which he soon realizes is actually her menstrual cycle), he removes her soaking wet clothes and warms her with his body heat while waiting for the rain to pass. When the rain finally subsides, Casca awakens and immediately attacks Guts, agitated by her feminine shortcomings as a soldier. Subduing and tiring her, Guts asks why she became a mercenary to begin with, to which she explains the reason for her worship and devotion to the White Falcon as his sworn sword, as well as the harsh effect Griffith's desire for Guts had on her. Their conversation is interrupted by the movement of Tudor's troops near their location; realizing that enemy forces will soon arrive at the location, they decide to leave after sunset. In the midst of their escape, the two Falcons are surrounded by a swarm of Adon's troops. Together, they lead a counter-offensive, with Guts ultimately killing Adon's brother, Samson. Recognizing Casca's weakened state, Guts decides to stay behind to buy her time to escape, and tells his comrade to return to her metaphorical swordmaster, Griffith. A squad leader in a tough battle can defeat all of Tudor's troops in the forest, single-handedly killing around 100 soldiers.

History

With his wounds almost completely healed, Guts gathers in front of Doldrey Fortress with the rest of the group - their goal: to retake the fortress for Midland. Griffith splits the Band of the Falcon's forces into two: one group accompanies him and Guts to lure Tudor's forces to the river, and the other is an infiltration force led by Casca to retake Doldrey for themselves. When the Falcons successfully lure the Purple Rhino Knights to the river, Guts engages in a brutal duel with General Boscogn, in which his sword breaks, worn from his previous slaughter of 100 men. After being left in danger with only a knife in his hands, a large cleaver suddenly lands in front of him, with which he decapitates Boscogn and the general's horse. Shortly after Boscogn's defeat, Casca's band's cries of victory are heard from inside the captured Doldrey, and the Falcon's flags fly in celebration. Having lost both their general and their fortress, Tudor's remaining forces scatter in defeat. Following their triumphant return, the Falcons receive widespread praise from both Midland citizens and officials, and a victory ball is held to celebrate. Guts attends the ball despite his distaste for the aristocracy, to see the culmination of the group's accomplishments, but also to help Griffith implement a plan to eliminate the White Falcon's political opponents; he attempts to tie up loose ends of the ruse by killing all of Griffith's accomplices to avoid any possible future complications.

History

A month later, having greatly aided the success of the Band of the Falcon, Guts finally intends to leave the group, unable to cling to Griffith's dream any longer. On the morning of his departure, Judeau, Corkus, and a distraught Casca intercept him as he leaves Wyndham, with the latter two taking him to a tavern to hear his reasoning. There, Guts reveals that he wishes to fulfill his own dream and stand beside Griffith as someone with the same vision. After a harsh reprimand from Corkus and a solemn farewell from Judeau, the latter sees him off before they are intercepted at the city's outer wall by Griffith and several other falcons. Griffith asks if Guts truly intends to leave the group, to which Guts confirms his decision. Flustered by this statement, Griffith draws his sword and demands that Guts fight for his freedom, as he did three years ago. Unmoved by this antagonism, Guts draws his sword and clashes with Griffith, breaking the White Falcon's blade in a single blow and leaving his former leader on his knees in defeat. On the night of their departure, at a campfire, Guts encounters the Skull Knight, who warns of the "Eclipse" that is to occur in a year - "a torrent of madness, a storm of death for which the human body could never atone" - before disappearing into the night.

History

In search of his own purpose, Guts spends his time training in the mountains and frequently visiting the hut of a blacksmith named Godo. Eventually, he comes to the realization that his sword is an extension of his passion for battle, or rather, an extension of himself, after which he resolves to improve his skills with the blade and face stronger opponents to further hone his craft. About a year after his departure, Guts enters a fighting tournament hosted by a Midland nobleman and offers to fight a foreigner named Silat, offering to provide the winner of the tournament with better competition, to which the man agrees. Dodging his opponent's swift strikes, Guts defeats Silat with relative ease and wins the fight. Amazed, the tournament organizer offers Guts a job, alluding to the Band of the Falcon's ongoing activities with Casca as its new leader, much to the swordsman's surprise. Soon after, during the night, Guts is able to track the gang's location, intervene in an enemy raid on Silat's gang, defeat the foreigner again, and force Silat and his forces to retreat. Guts is greeted with open arms and informed of Griffith's capture and one-year imprisonment, the group's new status as enemies of Midland, Casca's formidable leadership, and the Falcons' plan to free Griffith. Casca later takes him to a waterfall, where she expresses anger over his decision to leave a year earlier; emotionally exhausted from her struggles as a Falcon, she allows herself to fall off the cliff in a suicide attempt, though Guts saves and embraces her, leading to the two making love.

History

Following Guts' return, a rescue team is assembled to free Griffith, and three days later, they infiltrate Wyndham through the sewers. With the help of Princess Charlotte, the group makes their way to the ancient Tower of Rebirth, where Griffith is said to be held. After descending deep into the tower's lowest prison cell, the group is horrified to see a mangled, flayed Griffith - a shell of his former self. Overcome with emotion, Guts embraces his fallen comrade, unaware of Griffith's feeble attempt to strangle him, before mercilessly killing the tower's jailer, responsible for the White Falcon's devastated state. Fighting their way through waves of alarmed soldiers, the rescue team is able to re-enter the sewers, prevent an ambush by Bakiraka assassins sent to kill Griffith, and escape Wyndham to a farm outside of town. En route to the border of Midland, the group realizes that they are being pursued by the dreaded Black Dog Knights. Although their set traps fail to deter the dogs, the rescue team eventually joins up with another squad of the Band of the Falcon and battles their pursuers, after which Guts confronts the leader of the Black Dog apostles, Wyald. Excited by his battle with the swordsman, Wyald transforms into his monstrous true form, though after a fierce fight, Guts is able to best and temporarily incapacitates the beast. However, Wyald rises again, capturing a defenseless Griffith in retaliation and dealing a critical blow to the squad's morale by revealing the full extent of the ravaged man's grievous injuries. The dying, despairing apostle demands that Griffith summon the "Hand of God", but to his horror, he notices that Griffith no longer possesses the Crimson Beherit, and so he decides to kill the White Falcon. Suddenly, Zodd tears Wilde in two, then tells Griffith that his beherit will soon return to him before flying away.

History

In the Midland border region, the remaining members of the group come to terms with the severity of Griffith's injuries and discuss their future. In a tender moment with Casca, his lover convinces Guts to leave Griffith once more if he truly lives up to Griffith's interpretation of a "friend" as the White Falcon described at Primrose Hall. Without warning, Griffith, having gathered his strength to take possession of the remaining carriage, flees the area, with Guts and the Falcons in pursuit. When Griffith crashes the carriage and lands in a lake, Guts and the others rush to his aid. However, as Guts reaches him, all of the Falcons are whisked away to another dimension by Griffith's returned Crimson Beherit. Numerous anthropomorphic beings greet the party members for a nighttime feast they call "The Eclipse", much to Guts' shock. Afterwards, four profound beings emerge from the dimension, introducing themselves as the God Hand and revealing the purpose of the Eclipse: for Griffith to sacrifice his comrades to join their divine ranks as destined by fate. Proving truly unavoidable, Griffith, weighing his options as a disabled person and reaffirming his dreams and ambitions, offers his former comrades as sacrifices, thus initiating the branding and one-sided slaughter of the falcons. Guts relentlessly fights off the ravenous demons that lust after his friends' merciless feast. He is eventually restrained by one of the demons, who bites his left arm, and a naked Casca is summoned by the reborn Griffith, renamed Femto, who proceeds to rape her. Even after he cuts off his own hand and manages to free himself, the wrestler is immediately pinned to the ground and forced to witness his lover's rape while the restraining demon slowly gouges out his right eye.

History

After Femto finishes off Casca, the Skull Knight that Guts saw last year breaks into the Eclipse, proceeding to search for Guts and Casca while evading Femto's space-distorting attacks and avoiding being temporarily connected to the two unconscious victims. After being taken to Godot's Cave, Guts awakens four days later to the sight of a mentally regressed Casca. He immediately flees into a moonlit valley, but is met by ghosts drawn by his brand and again by the Skull Knight, who informs him of his fate as a branded denizen of the Interstice. The fighter formally declares war on all demonkind, hellbent on exacting revenge on his enemies as the restless spirits begin fleeing shortly thereafter; the Skull Knight warns that the spirits have simply found another torch in the darkness to feast on, hinting at Casca's danger. The two hasten to her location, and upon arrival, witness a ghostly Casca give birth to her and Guts's demon child - the infant having been corrupted by Casca's violation of Femto - before it disappears into the astral plane at sunrise. After roughly a month of training under Godot, Guts sets his sights on combating demonic kind, brandishing a new suit of armor along with a cannon-equipped artificial arm in place of his severed left arm. To his delight, the wandering apostle draws attention to his homes in his neighborhood. When his newly forged sword is shattered by the transformed creature, Guts wields Godot's long-forgotten Dragon Slayer and uses it to destroy the first apostle in his hunt. Realizing that the Dragon Slayer suits him better than any normal sword, he retains the massive broadsword and begins his war against the non-humans.

Superhuman strength

According to Isidoro, Guts' strength is simply "monstrous". Even in his youth, he was able to hold his own against opponents twice his size, such as Bazuso, with relative ease, easily piercing their armor and breaking their weapons. As Guts aged, his strength increased to levels unattainable for a normal human (apparently, his only human equal was King Geiseric): he was able to cut through a warrior in full armor with relative ease; in his duel with Boscogn, he not only cut the knight across the torso with a single blow, but also simultaneously cut off the head of his horse, which was in full battle gear. In the Falcon of the Thousand-Year Empire arc, Guts reached new heights in strength - he fought Zodd in his human form on equal terms, even surpassing him and throwing him back, as well as resisting his true form, slicing right through his arm. Later, Guts easily dealt with the ogre in direct combat. After receiving the Berserker Armor, Guts reached an even greater level: thus, with relative ease, he threw back Grunbeld's fully armored human form (which is twice as powerful and massive as Guts) with a kick of both legs, simultaneously splitting his shield (which, according to the apostle, can easily deflect a cannonball); after Grunbeld took his true apostle form (a fire dragon), Guts with relative ease cut his corundum scales, inflicting a severe wound on the apostle (it is worth noting separately that Guts himself was in extremely bad shape at the time due to a severe wound and this was not a demonstration of his full strength).

Superhuman endurance

Guts has repeatedly received wounds that would be fatal for an ordinary person, but he was always ready to continue fighting and, having won, to leave the battlefield. It is his endurance that allows him to walk long distances during the day with almost no rest, and then fight spirits and apostles all night. Guts also has the highest resistance to pain, so he practically does not pay attention to minor wounds, crossbow bolts and bone displacement. Guts is also a seasoned warrior, practically not paying attention to weather conditions, such as cold and rain. This does not mean that Guts is invulnerable and omnipotent: despite his enormous reserve of endurance and high pain threshold, he can also be exhausted or bleed out, like any ordinary person.

Amazing agility

Despite his large muscle mass, the Black Swordsman's agility and coordination are at the peak of the finest humans. He has repeatedly used his sword as a springboard to perform somersaults, which allows him to dodge enemy strikes. Guts is also capable of performing complex rolls.

Superhuman reaction

Guts' reflexes allow him to dodge blows from both humans and apostles and move out of the way of projectiles: he was able to dodge with relative ease the blows of Silat (a fighting style that relies solely on speed and agility), which to most people look like a flash of lightning. He was also able to fight and dodge Rosina's blows, which fly at the speed of sound.

Regenerative Healing Factor

The Black Swordsman has truly remarkable self-healing abilities: he was able to return to action relatively quickly after his first encounter with Zodd (Griffith, however, needed several days to recover), and he has repeatedly recovered from injuries that would have finished off a normal person. Unfortunately, now that he has received the Berserker Armor, his self-healing abilities have been somewhat reduced.

High level of intelligence

Despite all of the above, Guts is not a dumb "killing machine" - he is an excellent tactician, able to instantly analyze and adapt to the opponent's combat tactics. Thus, in a confrontation with Wilde, Guts instantly figures out that his opponent's knowledge of sword fighting is insignificant and that he fights solely with the help of the apostle's instincts. Guts is also quite well educated for a man who grew up among wandering mercenaries - in one of the chapters of the manga, we can see him in the library, studying books and simultaneously talking with Griffith. He also has extensive knowledge of supernatural beings (such as, for example, incubi and demons).

Battle Fury

During a hopeless battle, Guts is capable of entering what is known as a "berserk state", in which his physical abilities reach truly superhuman levels and his instincts are heightened to supernatural levels.

Enormous willpower

Apparently stemming from his ability to control and use his rage: even when everyone around him is running, going crazy with fear, he unwaveringly moves forward, ignoring even mortal obstacles. After Guts failed to confront Griffith and save Casca from him, Guts' will was broken for the first time in his life, to the point that he is currently out of his mind and unable to fight.

Master of the Two-Handed Sword

Guts is truly the greatest greatsword fighter in the Berserk universe. The mercenary captain Gambino, Guts's adoptive father and mentor, taught him swordsmanship from an early age, with the six-year-old Guts having to use a sword forged for an adult. Although spectating mercenaries suggested that Guts use a smaller sword, Gambino brushed them off, saying that the company did not have children's swords, and Guts himself stubbornly resisted, building up his muscles and becoming accustomed to wielding a heavy sword. At the age of nine, he took part in combat using a longsword. By the age of fifteen, Guts had mastered the use of a massive greatsword three times heavier than a normal one, using it to kill Bazuso. In his service with various mercenary companies and later in the Band of the Falcon, he continued to hone his skills, continuing to fight and kill, as well as practicing with a sword in times of peace. Dragon Slayer was the logical conclusion to this line of ever longer and heavier swords—in a sense, Guts had been training to use it his entire life.

Skills in handling throwing and firearms

Under Judeau's tutelage, Guts gained incredible accuracy with a throwing knife. He also quickly learned to use his prosthetic cannon and aim accurately: during the Count's death, when Guts was almost caught in a dance of hellish souls, he was able to shoot Femto while hanging upside down, and would have hit him if not for the aura surrounding the God Hand member.

Dragon Slayer

A massive blade forged by Godot, Guts is capable of cutting through armored knights and their horses with ease, and successfully fighting apostles and demons. Originally just a huge, unwieldy blade forged by Godot in mockery of his ridiculous order, the Dragon Slayer has acquired magical properties through the blood of the apostles he has killed, and is capable of injuring astral beings that are unharmed by ordinary steel.

Gun arm

When Guts lost his left arm, Rickert was able to fit a prosthetic from Godot's workshop into its place and mount a small hand cannon inside the prosthesis. The fingers of the prosthesis are magnetized, allowing them to grip the Dragon Slayer's handle more or less securely. The hand is swung to the side to fire the cannon. The cannon is single-shot—Guts must clean and reload it after each shot—and is used as a "last resort" weapon, for a single shot at point-blank range.

Rapid Fire Crossbow

A small mechanical crossbow invented by Godot and modified by Rickert so that Guts could use it with one hand. Guts attaches the crossbow to his prosthetic left arm; the bolts are inserted into a wooden magazine above the stock. Rotating the handle on the right side of the crossbow allows the bowstring to be pulled, a bolt from the magazine to be loaded onto the stock, and the bowstring to be released in a single motion, allowing Guts to fire multiple bolts in a short amount of time. During the Black Swordsman's travels, the crossbow was an indispensable weapon against groups of enemies, but since acquiring the Berserker Armor, Guts has largely stopped using it.

Throwing knives

Guts learned the art of knife throwing from Judeau, who was a master of the art. Guts is able to thrust a throwing knife into an enemy's eye from a distance, sever the carotid artery, or sever the jugular vein, killing the enemy instantly.

Bombs

Small containers containing gunpowder and a fuse, borrowed by Guts from Godot's workshop. Due to their small size, they are not very destructive and are used more to slow down or distract larger enemies. Guts later gave the bombs to Isidro, who also used them in battle.