The Black Swordsman Party[1] is a group consisting of Guts and the allies he has made in his post-Eclipse travels. Originally comprised only of himself, Puck and Casca, Guts' group gradually increases in size as his journey takes him to various lands.
Though the Skull Knight is not a member of the party, he has aided the group on several occasions.
Story[]
After the Eclipse takes the lives of most his Band of the Falcon comrades and mentally regresses Casca, Guts leaves her and Rickert with Godot while embarking on a personal war against the apostles and God Hand.[2] After two years, Guts meets an elf named Puck during his hunt for the Snake Lord.[3] Guts largely remains indifferent toward Puck; he considers Puck an annoyance and frequently slanders and mistreats him. Due to Puck's persistence, Guts gradually warms up to the elf and accepts him as an invaluable companion for his lightheartedness and healing ability. Puck's company also helps Guts gradually overcome his intense vindictiveness and aggression,[4] and retain his empathy for and trust in others, facilitating the development of the swordsman's traveling party.
Conviction Arc[]
Guts and his fellow survivors combating the manifested malice of Albion.
Guts eventually finds himself hunted and captured by the Holy Iron Chain Knights – his notoriety as the "Black Swordsman" having convinced the Holy See he is the prophesied Falcon of Darkness.[5] This leads to him temporarily taking their commander, Farnese, hostage in his escape, whose faith begins to waver upon witnessing the demonic spirits drawn to his brand.[6]
On his way to the Tower of Conviction, Guts is followed by a young thief named Isidro seeking to learn his fighting style; for the boy's own safety, however, Guts casts him aside.[7] He and Farnese re-encounter each other during the Incarnation Ceremony in Albion, where she becomes enamored by the swordsman's conviction in the face of despair.[8] The commander consequently renounces her faith and pursues the swordsman in a search for truth, with her attendant, Serpico, following suit.
Millennium Falcon Arc[]
Isidro, Farnese and Serpico seeking to join Guts on his journey.
When the cave near Godot's hut is destroyed by Zodd in the Black Swordsman's bout with the apostle, leaving him without a safe place to leave Casca again, Guts and Puck decide to instead take her to the elfin paradise of Elfhelm.[9] However, during their winter journey, Guts becomes overwhelmed from watching over Casca and fending off the ceaseless spirits attracted to their brands, and in momentary subjugation to his inner darkness, sexually assaults his companion.[10] Farnese, Serpico, and Isidro soon after track the swordsman down, seeking to accompany him in his travels to their own ends. Uncharacteristically, he welcomes their fellowship, having been shaken by his previous display of malice to the point of fearing what he might do to Casca if left unchecked.[11]
Having unknowingly breached an Interstice barrier, the group arrives at the Mansion of the Spirit Tree.
While helping an elderly man named Morgan locate the witch Flora, the group stumbles upon the Mansion of the Spirit Tree, where they formally meet Flora and her apprentice, Schierke.[12] In exchange for talismans to suppress Guts' and Casca's brands, they assist the mistress' young apprentice in dealing with trolls attacking Enoch Village.[13] After closing the nearby leaking border realm of darkness, Qliphoth, with the help of the others, Guts begins to realize, for the first time since his days as a Falcon, he has people at his side he can call comrades,[14] with Schierke accompanying him thenceforth.
The group then sets their destination for Vritannis, in search of a boat to sail to Skellig island. On a beach not far from the port city, Guts is met by the Skull Knight, who informs him of the Flower Storm Monarch – an elfin ruler potentially capable of mending Casca's regressed mind – thus impelling the swordsman's pursuit of Elfhelm even further.[15] Arriving and resting up in Vritannis, the group is dismayed to discover Farnese and Serpico's seeming defection. Serpico eventually returns to inform them of Farnese's return to the Vandimions, as well as the family's offer to pay for the party's sailing expenditures as reward for safeguarding and returning her.[16] Curious as to what Farnese's true desire is, they venture to a wartime ball where she was to be in attendance. However, the group is halted by Serpico, who having lost faith in Guts' ability to restrain his Berserker instincts, attempts to prevent them from reaching Farnese. Guts and Serpico then engage in a fierce duel, with the Black Swordsman ultimately defeating his opponent without resorting to using the Berserker Armor and mostly assuaging the attendant's fear.[17]
Arriving at the ball, they intervene in the massacre of the partygoers by tiger familiars, dispatching the beasts and preventing further casualties from ensuing. Guts inquires of Farnese her true intentions, to which she, in jest, reveals she merely wanted to revisit her aristocratic beginnings.[18] Making their way to the harbor, they are forced to engage a legion of the Kushan's pishacha, defeating the demon army's leader, Paramarisha Sen'an'i Daiba,[19] and warding off the thunderous attacks of the enraged apostle-emperor, Ganishka.[20] Afterward, the group boards the warship of a man named Roderick – who they had befriended at the ball – and finally sets sail for Skellig.[21]
Fantasia Arc[]
On the Western Sea, following the Great Wave of the Astral World,[22] the crew finds itself pursued by Bonebeard and his pirates,[23] who are eventually converted into sea tentacles of the Sea God and, with their "ghost ship", significantly damage the Seahorse in a second attack.[24] The crew docks at a remote island for ship repairs, but to their dismay, discover that most of the inhabitants have also been converted into tentacular extensions of the violent Sea God. As the Seahorse crew combats the appendages, Guts ventures into the Sea God's den beneath the island, leaping down its throat, cleaving his Dragon Slayer into its heart, and felling the beast.[25] Merrows grateful for the crew's defeat of the deity then guide the Seahorse toward Skellig, with a young human-merrow hybrid named Isma joining the party on their journey.[26]
The party finally arrives in Elfhelm.
After reaching Skellig and circumventing the island's defense mechanisms, the group is greeted by an archmage named Gedfring, who guides them through Elfhelm to his hamlet so they can unwind from their long voyage.[27] The following day, they are escorted by Gedfring and the archmages' attendant, Danan, to the Flower Storm Monarch's cherry tree palace, where Danan transforms into and reveals herself be the sovereign of Elfhelm.[28]
Notes[]
- Guts is commonly seen trailing behind his party members, in stark contrast to Griffith, who is typically at the fore of his reborn Band of the Falcon.
References[]
- ^ Berserk Official Guidebook
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 14, "One Who Hunts Dragons"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 1, "Black Swordsman"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 17, "To the Holy Ground (1)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 16, "Holy Iron Chain Knights (1)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 17, "Night of Miracles"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 18, "Spirit Road (1)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 21, "Resonance"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 22, "Prologue to the War Chronicle"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 23, "Fangs of Ego"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 23, "Reunion in the Wilderness"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 24, "Mansion of the Spirit Tree (2)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 25, "Shaman"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 26, "Companions"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 28, "Proclaimed Omen"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 29, "White Lily in the Field"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 30, "Suzerain of the Religious Domain"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 30, "Rusty Birdcage"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 31, "Bursting Flames"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 32, "Human Bullet"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 32, "Setting Sail"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 34, "Creation"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 33, "Sea Battle (1)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 35, "Ghost Ship (2)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 37, "Siren"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 37, "Shooting Star"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 39, "Village of Witches"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 39, "Great Gurus"