Someone: “Okay but… why do you ship that pairing?”
Me:
This is me with SerpicoxFarnese.
I know a lot of people don’t agree because of the incest but this isn’t just an “it’s hot because it’s incest” pairing. They have history, development and chemistry together, if they weren’t siblings you would all be shipping that shit as hard as Gutsca don’t lie. It’s sucks that they’re related but I think it adds another layer to their twisted relationship.
Also, I really dig unrequited/impossible love pairings.
So like, in my shitty gangster au, by day, Farnese is the prim and proper daughter of a well-to-do business man, but by night she’s a punisher style vigilante who tortures the crap out of criminals. You can bet your ass Griffith and his gang are on her shit list.
i had way too much fun making shitty Polaroids. Also, I’ve never draw the rest of the band of the hawk before?! Guts smiling is physically painful to draw???
And oh no, the introduction of farnese and serpico to my shitty gangster au! More on them next time!
Obviously, it’s not a perfect relationship. And that’s an understatement. There’s still a ton of painful unresolved issues between them in need of some head-on confrontation and communication to work out, and I’m really hoping it’ll happen in a way that doesn’t involve that behelit. Despite how deeply bonded the two of them are, there’s a lot of things they still don’t completely understand about each other or how deep the other’s feelings can run – this is especially true of Farnese (and not all her own fault). There’s real pathos to that. And I just wish for them to figure out how to deal with and express those feelings, and to be happy together. I’m here for it, sign me up. And I get why not every fan feels the exact same way, but one thing I’m really not here for is when people tend to simplify things and forget/disregard details like Farnese nearly jumping off a roof while watching Serpico struggle in a fight, calling out to him and trying to stop him from taking on Berserker!Guts alone, trying to stop him from putting himself at risk in general, using his duty towards her as a way of making him look out for his own health, trying to de-escalate things and save him during the heresy accusation, excusing him from every stake-burning since then and showing awareness and concern for his trauma, and believing that Serpico has every right to hate her while being very troubled and preoccupied with whether or not he actually does. And showing that his opinion of her is something that affects her powerfully, no matter how much she insists that she’s the master he’s sworn to. These just aren’t the acts or attitude of someone who doesn’t care about him, who doesn’t consider his feelings, or who doesn’t see him as an autonomous human being.
Their relationship is complicated and messy for sure, but he’s just as important to her as she is to him, and lack of love on Farnese’s part has never been the core problem between them.
I love this scene because it’s the first time that Guts outright asks someone to back him up in a fight. (If I’m wrong please correct me).
It’s a huge development from a Guts who preferred to fight alone to now actively asking for direct support. The whole fight is full of Guts/Serpico bro moments, he’s acknowledged Serpico’s skills before but now he outright compliments him.
Last time, I talked about some about the superficial links between Serpico and Farnese’s relationship and Rei and Fukiko of “Dear Brother”. Well, now I can’t help wanting to draw attention to the parallels between them and the really bad end possibility for their relationship – Lady Ginko (The White King) and Kakihito (Hiiragi) from Yumi Tamura’s “Basara” (1990-98).
This one’s a lot more speculative on my part, since there’s no connection that I’m aware of between Miura and Tamura (except, interestingly, the art director of both anime adaptations in the late 90s), but the connections are still too fun not to point out. We have a young princess and her retainer raised alongside each other from childhood – their bond is absolute, but is also smothered and made toxic by the societal roles imposed on them, the secrets between them, and the repressed guilt for the many ways they’ve harmed each other through adhering to those rigid mistress/servant roles. Ginko is a woman whose value is reduced to her beauty and ability to function as a political pawn via marriage, and who rebels against her fate as a decorative doll through extremely self-destructive and self-punishing means, until she becomes a storm of pain, grief and rage. And Kakihito is a man whose life (but crucially, neither his character or agency) has been consumed by his duty of protecting Ginko and attending her needs, and whose loyalty to her and willingness to do whatever it takes to see to her happiness and peace of mind unwittingly turns him into her enabler rather than a potential liberator. They have every right to hate each other, but somehow can’t. Their feelings for each also go far beyond what they should, despite the messed-up power dynamic that hurts them both in different ways, but they can’t just talk things out and love each other either.
And to top it all off, we have details like inappropriate levels of intimacy, a love that’s impossible to consummate, an attempt to change the relationship from platonic to an openly romantic/sexual one going wrong and actually changing things for the worse following rejection, fire as a catalyst for even more violent change, deaths of other loved ones, and ritualised acts of abuse/punishment (and absorption of it) as a way of expressing pent-up eroticism. And burning labyrinths. Lots and lots of labyrinth imagery, in fact.
As children, both Farnese/Serpico and Ginko/Kakihito pairs become human sacrifices to the labyrinth of abuse. The critical difference is that while Farnese and Serpico eventually find a way to escape and start redefining their identities and relationship outside its walls, Ginko and Kakihito stay trapped inside it all their lives, until they eventually get devoured by it and become its monsters; ready to eat the newer, younger, more innocent sacrifices that follow them.
midnight-in-town 