Étiquette : nsfw

Griffith & Charlotte vs Guts & Casca: the mirror effect of vol 9

Just one more of those posts where I’m amazed by how far authors can go with symbolism, parallels and the like. 

I didn’t notice it just now, but I felt like mentioning it because I miss updates + it’s also motivated by a post I’ve seen about not being fond of how Miura-sensei handles sex (as in, artistically speaking) in Berserk and, while I definitely respect that opinion, it reminded me that I wanted to write this for a while. 

So, nsfw post ahead! I don’t mean to speak about context for once, but simply about how the way Sensei chose to draw the two moments actually illustrates just as well in what these two dynamics differ.

Where do I start? Maybe by the fact that Griffith/Charlotte opens the 9th volume while Guts/Casca ends it, which is definitely not a coincidence. 
And also the settings: super stormy night with Griffith slipping undetected in Charlotte’s room vs sunny day in the forest near a waterfall for Gustca. 

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As for how it all begins: as soon as Griffith shows up, Charlotte hugs him and starts crying about all the many things that happened recently and he’s still so damn shook by what Guts pulled on him that he jumps onto the occasion to reinsure himself that his dream can still be achieved/seek some comfort and

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that’s the result: she’s very surprised and he just went “to hell with it”, with both their eyes wide opened as they kiss, full of disbelief. 

In comparison, for Casca and Guts the discussion leads to a fight because #confrontation and #confused-feelings and while it also ends with Casca crying on Guts…

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…unlike Charlotte and Griffith, the first kiss comes from a mutual desire, not at all unexpected and fully committing to the moment (= their eyes are closed). 

Coming up next, we have foreplay: still in a hurry for Griffith, to show in what state of mind he was, and with Charlotte barely registering what’s going on… 

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even going as far as to utter a slightly hesitating “no” before they reach the bed

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vs Guts and Casca taking a lot more time and undressing each other first.

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This leads to one of my favorite contrasting parts, just after Charlotte says “no” and is pushed on the bed, we get this…

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whereas Guts noticed how Casca, too, was afraid

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but it’s followed by 4 pages of her explaining why with Guts listening to her and…

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providing comfort. Of course, the two dynamics aren’t the same at all, but still, it’s worth mentioning because I’m sure it’s a part of the mirror effect. 

(slightly more below)

I could go on with how the whole Griffith/Charlotte sex scene is cut by a few moments showing the Band of Hawk, or even the maid who caught them, when the moment is never interrupted for Guts and Casca. 

Also, the act of penetration itself is just like the very first kiss for both couples: without warning and rather rough, considering Charlotte’s expression, with Griffith thinking intently about Guts the whole time, which emphasizes on the angsty atmosphere of the whole scene…

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vs Guts at least warning ahead the first time, even if him too will have a flashback about when he was raped as a child, but with their second time flowing in continuity with the whole moment ‘till they reach climax together. 

Also let’s talk about the following:

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vs

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Because where Charlotte being most likely in some pain does nothing to stop Griffith’s pace, Casca’s expression triggers an intense stress for Guts, bringing him back to his own trauma (also eased in my opinion by the fact that he’s taking her from behind at that moment, which is exactly what happened to him). 

Speaking of which it’s interesting to point out that, while Casca and Guts both get to do some introspection (first Casca about her feelings and then Guts about the fact he was abused as a child), which brings them even closer, Griffith is fully haunted by Guts’ departure but does not utter a word about it, just like we do not get any thought at all from Charlotte. 

Similarly, while Guts is having a breakdown about his past and Casca manages to comfort him just like he did with her at the beginning

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Charlotte doesn’t even know how much Griffith is angsting over Guts’ departure and as such he doesn’t really find the comfort he was looking for. 

This is overall illustrated by when the two couples climax…

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(I don’t think I need to point out in what these two scenes are so opposed) and also by how the two moments end…

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even if I have to mention that Griffith was considerate enough to leave a flower for Charlotte after he spent a large part of the night probably crying as she slept (which is actually really sad & I’m not being ironic: the flower was a nice touch).

That being said the flower itself is contrasting with Guts asking Casca to leave with him once they’ll have freed Griffith (I know, it’s vol10): there is a wish for a future together for Gutsca, meanwhile Griffith leaving a flower for Charlotte is more akin to “thanks for that one night together (maybe there’ll be others)”.  

There may be more that I haven’t mentioned but you get the idea. 🙂 

Overall I think a point I really wanted to make was that, yes, Miura-sensei is always extremely explicit and detailed when he draws and it doesn’t always please everyone on the matter of nsfw (not that it has to, obviously).

That being said, personally I really enjoy that the man is so skilled that, even if he’s being vividly graphic all the time (as in he draws naked characters on plenty of different occasions and it’s always with a lot of visible anatomical details), he can still easily show a lot of contrast between 

  • a moment that’s about sex for the sake of reinsurance, with two characters being in fact disconnected and one of them hurting 
  • and another that’s about emotional lovemaking after two characters realized that they were in love with each other.

So I disagree that being graphic in both the beautiful and horrifying, awkward or  disgusting moments is not differentiating enough. The Griffith/Charlotte and Gutsca sex scenes, albeit both explicit in the exact same way (we see the same body parts + foreplay, penetration and climax), are in fact completely different. 

It’s a matter of context too obviously, since the 4 characters and their dynamics are vastly different, but still I believe that nsfw material can be used to make a point and I like the different ranges of just “how” in Berserk. 

[x] Then I guess this is all why Tanigaki is Noda-sensei’s favorite character. :))

More seriously though, if you like Golden Kamuy just go check this person’s twitter: they give a lot of very interesting explanations about history elements introduced in the series. 

If you don’t know Golden Kamuy and want to give it a try, you should 😀 it’s really good. 

This is a theory blog for many fandoms and this will now include Black Lagoon lmao. No kidding, I love this series and the characters are amazingly written in a very raw and realistic way so y’all should give it a try. 

Anyway moving on: the thing is, I’m worried about the climax of this arc which supposedly is for next month for two/three reasons. 

First of all, apparently the bad dudes sent after Feng were a group of 4 “brothers” and we only saw three of them. 

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So either it means that the 4th brother will avenge the others next, or that he’s a character we already know but who left the group a while ago. 

Since Dutch was said to be a liar about being a war veteran in the previous arc, it’d be interesting to have a little more info on him and that’s why I like the idea of him being that 4th brother who left the others behind a while ago, so that we ever get a chance to learn his backstory. 

However, in case that 4th brother is really an enemy, he could go after Feng in the next chapter while they’re watching Revy’s show. Revy even has her guns on her, so this could mean a fight to truly end the arc.

Second thing, Black Lagoon’s arcs tend not to end

well more than often than they do: the mass-murdering fucked up kids, the arc in Japan and Yukio’s suicide, Garcia and Fabiola ending up despising Rock…

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…to the point our MC had enough of trying to make things end the best way they could at the beginning of this arc (and him eventually helping Feng was mostly because she reminded him of himself in how similar their situation leading them to Roanapur were).

The interesting part is that bad endings always drive Revy and Rock closer when they happen, because Revy is dead set on trying to have Rock remain as “innocent” as possible, his act of The Good Guy being important to her who only knows violence and blood. 

That’s why she’s the one who went after Feng in the first place, telling her about Rock’s circumstances…

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…in hope it’d motivate him to try once more for this arc. 

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So I don’t know what outcome we’re going with for this arc, but it should be the one leading to even more proximity between Rock and Revy, since it’s kinda one of the main points of the narrative in the first place.

If this arc ends badly, it could have the same effect as the other arcs, because Revy will try even harder to make Rock stick to his Good Guy act. At the same time, Feng dying could depress Rock even more and Revy could blame herself so…

¯_(ツ)_/¯

And if this arc ends well, since this time Revy is the one responsible for making Feng Rock’s problem, he could be a little happier to have been useful, which in return would please Revy, which is why I’m not excluding that Feng will survive. 

However and this is my last point, there is a death flag because Feng kinda possibly totally jinxed herself, not once but twice: at the beginning of this arc and in the newest chapter…

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And for real, the fandom is more alive on Reddit than here, but this above legit

was everyone’s reaction to her kissing Rock for the second time. xDD

It’s not even a ship war thing, because no one can really doubt that Revy and Rock will end up closer than anyone else in this series, their dynamic being one of the biggest focus of the narrative:

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And Feng herself is 100% conscious of Rock kinda being Revy’s territory, not that our main girl tries to hide it very well

(between punching Eda for joking about getting Rock into her bed, turning onto freaking Balalaika when she held Rock at gunpoint, or threatening Jane when she implied she’d make Rock join an orgy, you get it).

 

Even Rock himself doesn’t seem to question it when Feng half jokes that Revy could kill her for this, so basically the chances of Rock/Feng being a thing will never fly high and Feng seriously attempting it ever again would raise an even bigger death flag for certain, even if Revy is not the one to press the trigger. 

I’m of the opinion that actually it would be fun to have Feng becoming Benny’s new girlfriend as she half joked there again, since no one likes Jane xD (and anyway, the woman herself is now in danger because of Feng getting revenge against her so maybe she won’t last long either), but that’s only if Feng manages to make it to the end. 

TL;DR I like Feng and I don’t particularly want her to die, but the series has a history of making Rock disappointed about the way he handles the arcs, so Feng could be yet another example of that.

Maybe the whole point is to have Rock slowly being isolated from everyone but Revy (when his non-violent side used to make him the better interlocutor with everyone but her), especially since it was implied times and times again that Rock will probably never find a way to fit in Roanapur. 

I mean sure, he’s got his place within the Lagoon company and he doesn’t want to go back to his previous life, but even his ways to handle what the 4 Big Bosses of the city can sometimes ask of him is starting to make Dutch, his boss, uncomfortable. And now he kinda indirectly targeted his colleague’s current girlfriend in the current arc so… oops. 

On the other hand, Revy herself can currently only fit nowhere but in Roanapur, so I’d say Hiroe-sensei is building the narrative around the two of them slowly seeking an in-between.

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…So I guess we’ll see next month whether or not Rock will finally be able to watch Revy’s S&M show, because it would be a shame for him to miss it just like during Shaitane Baidi’s arc. xD

[touken] hc where the second time they do it is even better,

pseudocitrus:

though their coordination, initially, leaves just a little to be desired. kaneki brings the blanket to where touka sleeps, and touka spreads it out on her cot and motions that he sit beside her, and they exchange a shy but heated glance before he swallows and hitches off his shirt.

it drops aside. touka sets her hand on kaneki’s arm, on his bicep that immediately prickles up with goosebumps. she brushes her fingers gently lower, to the knitted, plated flesh that makes up his lower arm, and under her carress the dark red cells quiver and for an instant his fingers shiver and grip into a melty fist.

Keep reading

Berserk question! I always felt shy to ask so please don’t laugh but can you explain why Casca was ashamed of her scars when Guts and her…. had a moment?

Hi Anon and no worries :3 Did you mean this scene?

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Personally I always understood that moment as Casca feeling self-conscious about not looking enough “like a woman” for Guts, which is why she initially didn’t like him focusing on her scars. 

It’s always been one of her issues with being a mercenary…

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because the scars are a proof that she’s a warrior, and a good one at that since she survived through a lot of battles. However, in Berserk’s universe, women aren’t mercenaries or soldiers, so the scars make her stick out from what usual women look like, which obviously is a good thing but also why she looked so self-conscious about them. 

The context of their lovemaking also plays a part in her reaction in my opinion since, at the time, Casca had just realized that she had gone from seeking a life as Griffith’s blade (to help him achieve his dream) to Guts reciprocating her feelings and seeing her as an equal.

So it was probably scary for her to realize about her feelings, but also to suddenly see herself holding a lot of value for someone else’s heart, hence why she was worried about not being pretty/womanly enough to meet Guts’ expectations

(besides, at the time she had no idea that she was his first too). 

Casca’s worries about not being pretty enough for Guts were irrelevant though…

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…

because

he didn’t give a shit and was just impressed by what these scars tell about Casca’s skills and journey as a mercenary. xD

Sorry if I couldn’t explain properly, I hope it can still be helpful! Have a nice day Anon. :))