Guts’ Most Intense Trials, Explained

Key Takeaways

• Guts’ childhood was a nightmare filled with tragedy from birth.
• During the Eclipse, Guts loses everything, including his new family.
• Griffith’s abduction of Casca in the Fantasia arc completely broke Guts.

Berserk is a story filled to the brim with horrors and strife beyond what people can even imagine. In a world such as this, it comes as no surprise that even the main character of the story has suffered brutally, with many anime fans being of the opinion that Guts has suffered more than any other character in the medium. Despite being the image of stoicism and bravery, he has endured things that would make any other character go insane.

These tribulations aren’t just a recent thing in his life either. From the day he was born, Guts has undergone some incredibly horrific situations that have left scars on him that still haven’t healed to this day. Despite this, however, he continues to persevere and has become synonymous with staying strong during hardships for Berserk fans across the globe. Though there are many, let’s take a look at the worst trials that Guts has ever endured in his life.

Guts’ Childhood Was Terrible

Guts’ Was Born Into Strife

Guts is a character who has suffered greatly at the hands of others for his entire life. Even his birth was filled with pain and suffering, since he was born from the body of a hanged woman, falling out of her womb and into a pile of dead and decaying bodies all around him. Here, a band of mercenaries found him, and one of the women from the crew offered to raise the baby as her own child. This happened for the next 6 years, where Guts found the closest things he had to parents in the woman and the leader of the crew; Gambino.

There’s no paradise for you to escape to.

However, when he was 6, he saw his foster mother die of illness and his only way to cope with the troubles of his life was to fight and train. When he was 9, Gambino was paid by one of the members of his mercenary group to allow him to defile and violate Guts in unspeakable ways, which the young boy eventually had to suffer through. Eventually, Guts would get his revenge on the man by killing him, but he was also brought face to face with Gambino about the act, which led to him killing his foster father as well. After this, he left the group and was alone.

The Eclipse

Guts Loses Everything

After abandoning Gambino’s mercenary group, Guts was left alone for most of his life. However, he would eventually meet Griffith and become a member of the Band of the Falcon, yet another mercenary group but one that was held together by people of a similar disposition to Guts himself. He eventually grew close to all of these characters and they became Guts’ new family, even finding love within this mercenary group with Casca and finally knowing the warmth of companionship for the first time in his life.

Ye lambs of the Ungodly God born of man… enjoy this sacred nocturnal festival to the fullest.

However, it would all come crashing down during the Eclipse, where the leader of the Band of the Falcon, Griffith, betrayed and sacrificed his entire mercenary group in order to ascend to Godhood. Right in front of his eyes, Guts saw his family get killed by unending swathes of demons in deafening screams of agony, all while he was held in place by a demon who kept his arm in its mouth. Although he would lose this arm and an eye during this time, the worst injury was a psychological one, where he saw the love of his life, Casca, violated right in front of him by Griffith’s new Apostle form.

Griffith Takes Casca

Guts Finally Breaks

Although the Eclipse was by far the worst thing to happen to Guts, it wasn’t until Chapter 367 that he finally broke down and lost all composure. Despite taking all of his trauma head-on and never letting himself break because of it, Griffith’s appearance in the Fantasia arc finally defeated the Struggler because he ended up kidnapping Casca and taking her off to Falconia.

Why do I always see these things after they’re done and gone?

Despite everything Guts had done over the years to protect himself and Casca, as well as all that they had gone through together, it was useless since the Moonlight Boy ended up being Griffith the entire time. After kidnapping her, all of the sadness and defeat that Guts had kept in himself finally exploded, making him lose all composure and spirit to continue going on, showing that even the most resolute and stoic characters have their breaking points. Although fans have yet to wait and see how this plays out, it is already one of the worst things to ever happen to Guts.

Berserk can be streamed on Amazon Prime and Crunchyroll.