Berserk Chapter +358 Predictions Megapost

With Berserk being on hiatus once again, fans are violently discussing possible outcomes of events to come. Here are my predictions of the direction the next couple of Berserk chapters are perhaps going to take – especially in regards to Guts, Casca and his companions.

Short Term predictions

In order to cope with what has been happening, Casca NEEDS to give herself a reason to live. This reason does NOT have to be revenge, but perhaps more about protecting her family (which may include Guts’ party as whole).

Farnese and Schierke witnessed parts of what happened during the Golden Age Arc, but are left with many questions. Guts and Casca both will have a lot of explaining to do. It will be a possibility for them to work out their trauma with Schierke’s and Farnese’s assistance. We already know they both have a motivation for it: Schierke because she felt responsible for forgetting an important detail, namely Casca’s heart being in thorns…

Schierke realizing that bringing Casca’s memories back perhaps wasn’t the best for Casca.

And Farny, who swore to herself that she would be a light to Casca.

Farnese making her promise to Casca. She will likely be an important factor for Casca’s full recovery – and possibly also bringing back Guts and Casca together.

Seeing Casca acting sane – even though she will be very upset with her trauma – will give Guts a light-heartedness that we have been missing since the Golden Age. When he and his companions arrived at Elfhelm, some of his reactions and interactions already give a relaxed and relieved vibe:

Guts will treat Casca like a queen.

Right after the eclipse, he’s been pretty rough to her. Remember how he tore apart her shirt because she spilled hot soup over her shirt (and also scared her by getting dangerously close to her).

After departing for his winter journey (volume 23), it’s shown via Puck’s monologues how hard Guts has been trying regaining her trust and succeeding doing so (this is super huge).

In the same volume, Puck also states how Guts is taking fighting much more seriously than before.

Puck noting that Casca deep down notices that Guts wants to protect her, but he unfortunately ruined that trust at this point by choking her. The elf is also trying to placate Guts that evil spirits make you do evil things – sadly, it’s proven quite the opposite is true just a few pages later.

We do know that Guts is capable of maintaining healthy relationships to females, as proven by his interactions with Schierke and Farnese.

Guts doesn’t hesitate to let Farnese know that he acknowledges her contributions to the party during the sea god fight.

We also know that Guts is still being capable of gentleness and considerateness, especially towards Schierke – who’s currently the only one who receives positive physical touch from this guy.

Guts calming down Schierke after she flooded Enoch village with the help of the water spirit. ~~(Also note how damn big his hands are in comparison to her tiny shoulder, jesus)~~

Guts values Schierke A LOT and shows it.

Casca still matters a lot to Guts, despite of the distance between them. They say true love only gets stronger when lovers are being taken apart – It will be interesting to see him interact with her when they reunite. Guts has almost lost Casca already, and even more reason for him to treat her the best he can once she gets back.

Consider that Casca may look for a “replacement” for Griffith, as in, looking for someone new she can look up and devote her life to. This is a very common thing people (especially women) in general do to cope with things. For example: stumbling upon Berserk and watching Guts interact with Schierke and Farnese normally and warmly felt very healing when I was struggling with unreturned love.

It is possible that Farnese will take on this role, since Casca is in her debt being her caretaker for so long. It’s also possible that Guts joins up serving that purpose later, depending on how their first encounter turns out and whether he manages to reconnect with Casca.

As a side note, Farnese did something very similar during Conviction Arc: because she lacked a fatherly figure in her life, she first attempted to find a male rolemodel in Mozgus, who brought her closer to religious fanaticism. After Mozgus’ death Guts has taken that place later on. In fact, this was so important to her that it even snuck into Farnese’s dreams, where both Mozgus and Guts make an appearance.

Long Term Predictions

It was established that it takes at least one sorcerer or medium (Sonia) to use ancient monoliths as means for travel, as shown in chapter 357. This means they can most likely also be used by:

Guts via Schierke
Rickert via Daiba

Thus: Miura probably set this up as trump card so he could make them meet up later on for a final showdown.

The sorcerers of Elfhelm offering their assistance to Guts to…

get Guts’ and Casca’s son back and perhaps incapacitate or kill Griffith/Femto in the process
remove the brand from Guts and Casca e.g. by telling them how to remove it, which may include incapacitating or killing Femto
heal Casca’s heart (which may involve returning her son as well).

The above mentioned points become even more interesting IF Guts’ and Casca’s son, Femto and Griffith are to be considered completely separate entities, but we do not know enough about their nature yet.

There will be disagreement between Guts and Casca (“Her wish may not be your wish“), which may take the following form(s). Stir and mix these points together as you please:

The simplest case of this is, Casca simply did not want to be reminded of the eclipse and everything surrounding it, and Guts brought her back. Her first reaction to this is likely resentment towards him, especially in case she is still still the hot-tempered Casca we always knew. I hope she will find comfort in the fact that she had both forgotten good and bad memories, and eventually learns to appreciate the good ones and find healing in them. Plus, knowing Casca, the fact she stops being a burden to Guts and the rest of the party should be something that she will appreciate in the long run.
Casca saw Judeau and Pippin die for her sake and doesn’t want Guts to end up dying or being crippled, like punished Griffith, or even become a monster like Femto. Meanwhile, Guts is FORCED to fight to keep both Casca and his companions safe. This is something that could make both Guts and Casca find a “cure” for their brands, so they may live in peace in the future.
Casca wants to go after Griffith to retrieve their son, while Guts wants to go after Griffith to kill him.
Guts wants Casca to stay safe at Elfhelm while Casca refuses to stand there and watch. Instead, she wants to come with him, as she wishes to confront Griffith (e.g. because she wants revenge or wants to get her son back).

The fact that a lot of these points I mentioned can be interconnected without necessarily creating a paradox (at least not one that cannot be solved), seems like a hint they are probably going to happen in one way or the other.