getting some berserk modern AU fanart out of my system while we forever wait for the next gutsca chaps……. (;;꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ)
Hey, guess who can come and go through the World Tree once a month during the full moon and doesn’t get lost either?
Personally I still think this boy has a link to Griffith 2.0, as in that he’s possibly the ego of the Gutsca baby after his corporeal body ended up as Femto‘s vessel, post the tower of conviction arc.
We know he is powerful too, so if he borrows Femto’s powers (?) he might as well borrow his ability to travel along the World Tree without getting lost and in order to get to his parents during the full moon (the night magic forces are the strongest).
In other words, I don’t think this boy is Griffith/Femto because Schierke confirmed his OD didn’t make the brand react (so he’s not evil), but that doesn’t mean he can’t be linked to Griffith/Femto to some extent anyway (since Femto and the Gutsca baby share one body), which would explain why he too can travel just fine using the World Tree.
Soooo… Time for a recap post? Here’s what we know:
the moonlight child only appears during the full moon => it’s implied that he can only materialize the night magic is at its strongest
Considering that his OD never led to the brand reacting, I doubt he comes from “the Underworld”
(and btw)
Griffith 2.0 does not disappear during the full moon, so it can’t be the demon infant getting his body back just for one night
Casca’s attraction to the moonlight child is very reminiscent of how she used to react when the demon infant was nearby
Femto commented on feeling the demon infant’s fear for his parents, so we know the infant always seeked to protect them and that’s also exactly what the moonlight child did with Guts and Casca every time he appeared
(the demon infant also knew that Guts loved Casca dearly, that’s why he warned him about going to save Casca, and so does the moonlight child, since that’s she he used to bring Guts back from the berserk mode twice)
he’s notan envoy of Danan, Gedfryn confirmed as much in ch344
bonus: like mother, like son?
(Side note but whenever he materialized, Casca acted more rational and like an adult than when he wasn’t around: she would feed him or be scared of him climbing up, when usually she couldn’t even eat by herself or realize whenever she did something dangerous)
So anyway, it’s nothing new that there are too many similarities between the demon infant and the moonlight child, which is why a lot of readers (not everyone, I’m aware of that) think the two are the Gutsca baby.
Previously I proposed that the moonlight child could be some kind of ‘incarnated dream’ of the demon infant, but it’s not certain that it would make sense with the child disappearing inside of the World Tree, which is a “dragon’s road” between different realms? At the same time, in vol28, the World Tree wasn’t a thing yet either so…¯_(ツ)_/¯
These days now though I’m wondering more generally about what if the moonlight child is the demon infant’s ego?
Because this would solve why he can only materialize corporeally during the full moon, “the nights magical forces are at their strongest”, while the demon infant remains Femto’s vessel at any given time.
In other words, Femto possesses the body of the demon infant in order to exist in the corporeal world, but the child’s ego disappears/disappeared:
either after what happened in vol22 (because Femto found him to be a liability after baby literally influenced him to go save Casca for example)
or only when the full moon comes because strong magical forces give him the chance to materialize elsewhere to see his parents.
That could explain why he appears/disappears randomly exactly where Guts and Casca are, as well as why he’d be naked when showing up. What I mean is that I doubt the moonlight child exists corporeally elsewhere aside from the full moon where he is with Casca and Guts.
Besides, I find the way the moonlight child appears to Guts when in Berserk mode is quite similar to what Schierke saw the first time Guts used the armor:
And so I’m wondering if the similarities aren’t on purpose.
It’s also obvious that the moonlight child is related to Light in general, if just as the light bringing Guts back when he lost himself to the armor’s power, which is why I also proposed previously that he may be the real hawk of light that everyone sees in Griffith 2.0.
Another important point to mention is that the moonlight child apparently grew up in just one lunar cycle and there again, I wonder if this isn’t related to how Femto’s power is rapidly expanding, like with the World Tree for example.
The more Femto achieves victory, the more his influence and thus probably his power grow (and the more chaos grows closer), so if the moonlight child is linked to the demon infant who himself is Femto’s vessel, then this might explain why he’s visibly growing up along with Femto’s influence over the human world.
I guess this point might also explain why the second time the moonlight child
could remind us of Griffith 2.0 (if just with the hair), which is in my opinion one way that Sensei has to hint that the moonlight child is related to Griffith 2.0…
who, again, is the result of Femto fusing with the demon infant’s flesh.
Finally, Sensei creating two entities for just one character (demon infant + moonlight child = Gutsca baby) would make sense considering certain… upcoming problematics, like, when Femto does get married to Charlotte for example which should probably be soon in the narrative.
I mean, the body Femto is inhabiting is the demon infant’s, the body of Guts and Casca’s child who should be like… 3 years old???
So in case something like a wedding night happens, well, I’d rather Sensei found a way to make it clear that Femto is 100% the one who has sex with Charlotte instead of the child himself, if you know what I mean? The moonlight child being everything that used to be the demon infant (so his ego), besides his own flesh that now belongs to Femto, could solve this.
Same for when Guts and Casca will ultimately face Femto in order to kill him. That way there could be hope left for their child’s survival.
An ego represents a person fully enough in any case, as we could see with Guts’ when he used the armor for the very first time:
That’s why I’d enjoy the idea!
I hope it was clear enough considering how complex the universe of Berserk is. Thanks for reading!
Hi Anon! Okay so, no offense, I already did a post on the topic in the past, but I feel like there is something that’s amiss in your reasoning otherwise you possibly wouldn’t have reached these conclusions.
So first thing first, Guts doesn’t not love his son. Especially after the tower of conviction arc. And I’m sure of this because…
he couldn’t kill him from the moment the Skull Knight made him realize that this was his baby.
Afterwards, I agree with you, Guts’ behavior with his baby was a clear parallel to Gambino’s despicable attitude towards Guts himself, the difference being that we have to consider how Guts’ trauma from the Eclipse factors into this. Look…
After this happened, Guts went on this hellish journey to pursue revenge and target every damn thing from the underworld that the brand would attract. That’s how he became the Black Swordsman and all this hatred and violence he lived with for several years is what ultimately gave birth to “the beast of darkness” within himself.
All that to say, because of the Eclipse, Guts’ hatred (and fear) of anything demonic is the reason his behavior towards his own demonic baby was particularly aggressive. That being said, his baby is also the only one Guts could never kill and not just when he was born…
…and that during a part of Guts’ life where he wouldn’t trust or care about or depend on anyone but himself.
Then the conviction arc happened, but that’s when the baby warned him about Casca, which changed everything between them…
…because Guts definitely realized that it’s thanks to their child that he managed to rescue Casca.
From this point onward, between what the baby did for them and also Guts switching objectives after getting Casca back and new friends in his life, he started to show regret about his child’s fate…
which proves in my opinion that Guts does love his baby. And this breaks the parallel with Gambino indeed, because Guts having mixed feelings all this time about his son, despite the baby being (in theory) demonic, is probably related to how he suffered from the lack of parental love as a child too.
So I think it’s important to always consider what part of the story you would include this kind of reasoning in, because Guts’ attitude/feelings towards his child definitely changed throughout the story. There is even a lot to bet that, once Guts learns that Femto was given his baby as a vessel, he’ll be extremely pissed off at Griffith again.
Also to add, if you believe in the theory that demon infant => moonlight child like I do, I’d say that the child’s apparently wary attitude towards Guts is the consequence of Guts’ previous behavior towards his demon counterpart…
…just like the reason he clings so much to Casca is possibly because when he was a demon he could never approach her due to the brand hurting her.
However once again…
our little boy here is clever and curious (”all children yearn for their parents”), so he totally played a little game to see if his dad would yell at him should he annoy him just a little like he did in the past…
but I’d say that what this boy saw of his parents’ attitude towards him after this little test…
…pleased him a lot, enough so maybe that he’d then make sure to constantly help them the two times he materialized during the full moon.
TL;DR yes, Guts initally was very aggressive towards his own child, but in my opinion, rather than no love, that was the result of the trauma brought by the Eclipse, since things got better between them from the moment his son helped him get Casca back.
Afterwards, Guts was even shown to be thinking about his baby, wondering how he was doing (since he doesn’t know yet about him becoming Femto’s vessel), and overall I’d say that Guts’ previous attitude bears no real consequence to his relationship with his son because:
Femto mentioned feeling the demon infant being afraid for both his parents’ in vol22
the moonlight child, who is most likely what’s left of the demon infant after Femto’s rebirth, tested the water with his dad and seems to be comfortable enough with the situation that he would save him plenty of times afterwards.
I hope it helps Anon! Seriously, Griffith did fuck everything up for the entire Gutsca family, but it seems that, no matter what, these three (Guts, Casca and Baby) will always manage to watch out for one another. :)) Let’s hope it will last!
Now that would be a very interesting question, eh Anon? xD Except that fans don’t agree on this subject and this generally leads to debates.
Personally I think there are way too many similarities for them not to have a link (at least), in case they’re not 100% exactly the same entity.
In fact, for a long time a lot of fans were trusting in Schierke’s guess about the boy having to do with the Elf Queen guiding them, but since Gedfryn debunked that upon their arrival, it seems even more probable for these two kiddos to be related (and no character in the story has a clue, because no one knows that Guts and Casca had a baby, besides Guts, Casca, Griffith and the Skull Knight).
Honestly, I think that as long as we don’t figure out the moonlight child’s completely mysterious nature (since we at least know that the demon infant’s corporeal body was fused with Femto to make Griffith 2.0), fans will keep on having debates about whether these two are one and the same or not.
Again, personally I don’t really have any doubt about a link between them and actually, I explained my current guess in two theories (that can go together), if you’re interested…
but that doesn’t have to convince anyone, so unfortunately Anon, I think you’ll have to decide for yourself if they’re one and the same or not, at least for the time being. :3
Sorry if this doesn’t help so much, it’s one of these things in Berserk where it’s easy to think there is a link, but Sensei could give it a more complicated twist anytime. I mean, the moonlight child is way too inconsistent as a character:
he grew up notably in just one lunar cyle (as is his growth is linked to Griffith 2.0 gaining more and more influence),
there was possibly Zodd watching over him in vol28 and not the second time we saw him (or if so Guts didn’t notice and Sensei didn’t hint at it),
the brand doesn’t react to him despite having a strong association with the “Hawk of Light” that’s a religious concept currently embodied by Griffith 2.0 (especially the time he saved Guts from the Sea God)
he’s way too powerful in general
he’s cute but way too unfathomable
which is why a deeper or more complex twist to this part of the plot isn’t impossible.
As always sorry for rambling Anon. I hope you’ll have a nice day!
Hi again 🙂 And don’t worry, I think it’s natural to have mixed feelings, I do too, namely about the impending Gutsca reunion. :3
I mean, we now know that the Skull Knight’s warning was about…
…Casca not wanting to come back when Guts really needed her to, so it’s possible that she will be angry and ungrateful about this at first (coping takes time).
At the same time (hence why I have mixed feelings xD)…
…the girls caught on that too, so it’s possible that they will be able to make Casca realize all that Guts and their group went through just for her sake.
Finally, as you said, while I think the pain in her heart will take a long time to be dealt with (understandably, considering what she went through, just like Guts), I think that finding a motivation to go through in life will help Casca with accepting it’s a good thing that she’s back.
This is exactly what happened to Guts: getting Casca back in his life helped him a lot with what he had become as the Black Swordsman, that’s why Flora said…
and
how he managed to get over his violent urges at the most critical times.
So the same will probably happen to Casca with…
…what seemed to be the most important for her ever since the Eclipse, especially since it’s extremely plot relevant considering that her baby is used by Femto + that…
it was always foreshadowed the original Band of the Hawk led by Casca would come back. :3
Honestly I just want Guts to get a break right now. I love my girl Casca and I don’t mind her getting all the time she needs to cope, but I hope she will at least let Guts feel happy that he didn’t do all of this for nothing.
It definitely was a selfish wish of him to get her back when she didn’t want to, but the guy went through a lot and he’s been clinging onto this single hope for a while now, so I don’t want the beast of darkness to overwhelm him again now.
He deserves to feel better about a few things, especially since he might find out really soon about what Griffith did to his kid and there’ll be plenty of time for anger again then.
As for the people who think Casca’s going to go back to Griffith… I mean, I see people saying that Femto will get redemption, that Guts and Casca were never in love and some people just coming to the realization that Femto’s “feelings” for Guts and Casca are only the demon infant’s… So
I don’t know, sometimes people simply can’t read and that’s too bad for them, because they’re clearly missing out. xD
Ahhhh, I can’t wait for next monthhhhhhhh! >_< Thanks for passing by again and have a lovely week! ^3^
A few months ago I was joking as I added to someone else’s post that a neutral ending to the possibilities for who lil Casca was talking about previously was her son (compared to ‘good ending: Guts’, ‘bad ending: Griffith’) but…
frankly now I wonder if that really wasn’t who she was talking about from the beginning, especially if you consider that lil Casca is a direct representation of current!Casca.
It would explain why the Skull Knight insisted so much about Casca and Guts having different wishes when she comes back: maybe what will motivate her to come back isn’t even Guts in the first place but her son because she’ll want to save him from Griffith/Femto. I mean, ever since the Eclipse, she always was the most “aware” whenever her son was around.
Even in this state, she knows he’s inside of Griffith 2.0 (when no one else does, just saying), which is probably why the last fragment took this form in the first place. Her son turning out like that is a direct consequence of the Eclipse and so is him being used for Griffith’s rebirth during the tower of conviction arc.
I had always assumed this cover was in relation to the fact that her son became the receptacle of Griffth 2.0 (and maybe it’s also what it means), but now that I saw your tags it really reminds me of what Rickert (in vol 38) and Judeau (before dying) basically implied about Casca remaining their leader because, as long as she survived, their group would too.
So, despite her probably intense fear of Griffith, maybe Casca will go back to being a leader, except that she will do it all for her son’s sake and, in that case, her “Band of the Hawk” will mean something in relation to her son and not Griffith.
Besides, looking at the Moonlight Child…
it’s probably because of the current link between the demon infant and Femto, but he certainly shines bright like the Hawk of Light, just like the demon infant does in Casca’s dreams:
TL;DR maybe the “Hawk of Light”, the true savior of humanity that the Pope sees in Griffith 2.0 actually is the Gutsca baby, as foreshadowed by the cover of vol 20, because his parents will save the day and the rest of the world all for his sake.
Such a development would be so fitting when that poor baby was cursed before it was even born. ;_;
Ahh, my bad Anon! Basically, it’s more “true Hawk of Light = Gutsca baby (demon infant + moonlight child)”, thanks to @lenok993 making me realize something.
Let me reexplain in different terms:
Casca and Guts will never give a single care that Griffith/Femto/the God Hand decided to cast an era of chaos and darkness upon the world.
They aren’t going to save the world just because “they’re the only ones who might be able to stop Griffith”.
However, whatthey will care about, especially Casca, is the fate of their son who’s currently trapped within Griffith 2.0.
Now, considering the following:
I always thought that the Pope was manipulated like the rest of the world by Femto, but maybe he’s not completely wrong when he says that “the Hawk of Light you see here is our savior” because the Griffith we see in this scene = Femto + the demon infant.
We know Femto is never going to be anyone’s savior but rather the one who brings doom to the whole world, however, here’s what Rickert said…
meaning that there currently are two bands of the hawk: the new one led by Griffith 2.0 (made of humans and apostles) and the old one, which survived and is still led by Casca because…
So, symbolically speaking, couldn’t we say that there might be “two hawks”? Maybe “the White Hawk” and “the Hawk of Light”? And one of them is Femto obviously but what if the other is…
…the Gutsca baby, because he too is constantly associated with a shining light and Griffith?
All in all, the reason we could consider the Gutsca baby as the possible Hawk of Light is that, beyond being currently associated with Femto, it was said that “the Hawk of Light would be humanity’s savior”. So either Miura-sensei is just enjoying dark humor here, since Griffith is not going to save anyone, or he is actually double-trolling us because there is going to be a Hawk of Light that will (indirectly) save humanity, however it’s just not going to be Femto but the other part of Griffith 2.0, a.k.a the Gutsca baby.
Again, Guts and Casca probably won’t care about saving the world, but they will surely want to try and save their son. And if they do and get rid of Griffith/Femto at the same time, then humanity will be saved, indirectly making the Gutsca baby the hawk of light and humanity’s savior.
So, looking at the cover of vol 20…
you can interpret it in two ways:
Casca gave birth to the demon infant and Femto used him to be reborn into this world and become “the Hawk of Light”.
Casca gave birth to the true “Hawk of Light”, because it’s not Femto but rather her and Guts’ son and his parents rescuing him will be what is going to save humanity.
Finally, I also like this theory because the demon infant was cursed from before even being born and yet…
he constantly saved his parents, which is slightly contradictory to having the nature of a demon. Of course, the Skull Knight said it might happen but still, he never ever was even slightly aggressive towards them, so… maybe this kid will really indirectly save humanity, because his parents will have to get rid of Griffith/Femto in order to save him.
Is that… more understandable? 🙂 I hope so in any case, but keep in mind it’s just a theory, it really doesn’t have to turn out like that, haha.
A few months ago I was joking as I added to someone else’s post that a neutral ending to the possibilities for who lil Casca was talking about previously was her son (compared to ‘good ending: Guts’, ‘bad ending: Griffith’) but…
frankly now I wonder if that really wasn’t who she was talking about from the beginning, especially if you consider that lil Casca is a direct representation of current!Casca.
It would explain why the Skull Knight insisted so much about Casca and Guts having different wishes when she comes back: maybe what will motivate her to come back isn’t even Guts in the first place but her son because she’ll want to save him from Griffith/Femto. I mean, ever since the Eclipse, she always was the most “aware” whenever her son was around.
Even in this state, she knows he’s inside of Griffith 2.0 (when no one else does, just saying), which is probably why the last fragment took this form in the first place. Her son turning out like that is a direct consequence of the Eclipse and so is him being used for Griffith’s rebirth during the tower of conviction arc.
I had always assumed this cover was in relation to the fact that her son became the receptacle of Griffth 2.0 (and maybe it’s also what it means), but now that I saw your tags it really reminds me of what Rickert (in vol 38) and Judeau (before dying) basically implied about Casca remaining their leader because, as long as she survived, their group would too.
So, despite her probably intense fear of Griffith, maybe Casca will go back to being a leader, except that she will do it all for her son’s sake and, in that case, her “Band of the Hawk” will mean something in relation to her son and not Griffith.
Besides, looking at the Moonlight Child…
it’s probably because of the current link between the demon infant and Femto, but he certainly shines bright like the Hawk of Light, just like the demon infant does in Casca’s dreams:
TL;DR maybe the “Hawk of Light”, the true savior of humanity that the Pope sees in Griffith 2.0 actually is the Gutsca baby, as foreshadowed by the cover of vol 20, because his parents will save the day and the rest of the world all for his sake.
Such a development would be so fitting when that poor baby was cursed before it was even born. ;_;
midnight-in-town 