How Guts and Casca grew together – Part 3

Sexual Healing II: The Promise

More Guts and Casca bonding happens after they’ve screwed each other’s brains out made love next to the waterfall.

[48] The bonding here is interesting for the following reasons:

• Casca brings up how Guts was frantic as they had sex and how it’s understandable given his experiences as a child (Thanks Obama Donovan). Guts will state that despite of this, he didn’t mind her touching him. Casca is an exception to his issues because she is a woman and someone he could trust even on the battle field, see the 100-Man-Slayer-Scene. The significance of Casca being the only one who can touch Guts will be later shown during Griffith’s rescue, as well.
  
• During his travels away from the Hawks, Guts has found a purpose or meaning with his life. He contemplates it before his encounter with Skull Knight in the beginning of volume 9, and briefly describes it before Judeau and the others. Later, he would explain it more thoroughly towards Casca.
  
• Guts decides to bring Casca along no matter what happens and even if she turns out to be in his way.

Casca wants Guts to stay after they rescued Griffith. For Guts this is out of the question, however, given he already distanced himself from Griffith’s dream.

Then, he recalls last time he spend around a waterfall and remembers how he found his own purpose in life during that one year he was away.

Normally, I would skip something this because it’s not relevant in regards to Guts an Casca directly, but it does have relevance given the promise he gives to Casca during this scene.

He briefly mentions the purpose he found in his life before the waterfall scene while talking to Judeau and the others, but goes into more depth about it before Casca. He says he doesn’t know what his thing is still, but that wielding his sword is the only thing that feels true to him.

Now what Guts tells Casca is the following: he tells her about his experiences with Godo.

There, he asks Godo why he has become a blacksmith. Godo seems to do it just for the sake of it, meaning because he likes doing it, and he enjoys the sparks he creates with it.

Then Guts takes this train of thought and forges his own: he, too, is creating sparks by crossing his sword with his opponents. He appreciates the encounters he had and the people that he met in his life, through the use of his sword. He acknowledges it’s not tangible, it’s not a clear destination, or some “glittery thing” like Griffith’s dream as he says, but suits him well enough to give his life meaning.

To Casca, he says he wishes to fight even stronger enemies and grow stronger as well. I suppose that he wishes to grow as a person too is potentially part of that. However, if we interpret the sparks as metaphor, what he desires also seems to be along the lines of making a difference in the world, mostly by making a difference to the people he encounters. Remember, feeling small and insignificant, not having a dream or purpose, is what made him leave the Hawks in the first place, too.

Confronted with this, Casca starts laughing. She is mocking Guts’ intelligence for his great speech, even though I think it’s impressive to have views this profound on life and meaning at the still tender age of 19.

Turns out she is mad at him and is throwing leaves into his face.

She accuses him of being so selfish. She says how him and Griffith are only thinking about their dream, but not even once did anyone think of Casca or the hardships she has been through for the both of them. Her being there or not doesn’t seem to matter to them. Or at least, that seems what she is implying here. She says:

“After all, YOU and Griffith are just the SAME!

It’s all about dreams! All about yourself! It’s the same whether I’m around or not…!! You’re just gonna leave again, right?! You knew that from the start, right?!”

Not even that: This also feels like somewhere she is frustrated Griffith became distant to her and she is projecting this anger to Guts, being scared he will abandon her too. This might be a very deep-rooted fear for her given she was sold out to the noble by her parents when she was a child.

I believe what she says only makes sense: Remember how in the earlier parts of this article series, we established that Guts was so blinded by his own pain (lacking a purpose and all) that he resigned internally and eventually decided to leave the hawks? I wouldn’t be surprised if Casca had a hunch of the state he was in.

Now Guts has seen how upset she was. Certainly, the fact Casca attempted to take her life still lingers in his mind — the same goes for hearing what happened to Griffith after he left.

SoSo what is he doing now being confronted with Casca’s fear of being abandoned once again, knowing what happened to Griffith when he abandoned him?

As Casca is telling him to go die like a dog somewhere with his beloved sword, he’s not taking what she is saying personally, knowing full and well that she’s upset (the panel where Casca is punching at him with him deflecting her punches with his palms seems rather playful, actually). Instead, despite of having found a purpose for himself, he grabs her by the tiddy and offers Casca to come with him, even if she may turn out to be in his way.

Wait a minute… That almost sounds like that Miura knew the contents of volume 19 and onward (where he refocuses on Casca, saving her during the Rebirth Ceremony, then be a hindrance to Guts in his pursuit of revenge) already at volume 10. Holy bananas!

“But at any rate, right now, right now I can’t have you enough.

I wanna have you hundreds, no, thousands of times more from here on. That’s… what I’m thinkin’ now.”

Now Guts makes it clear to Casca that he desires her in a sexual way here, but if you consider what he is doing Conviction Arc and onward, it sounds more like she really stole his heart in general. What else would make him commit to her the way he does post-Conviction without being able to connect to her at all?

That proves his promise to her to keep her around isn’t only because of sex. For a passionate character like Guts commitment and connection of emotional and sexual nature are tightly interwoven, but those things do not necessarily need to be present at all times to be still valid or worth it for him. I think the same applies to Casca, actually, given what she has done for Griffith. If they both weren’t loyal, passionate and committed personalities, they wouldn’t have been virgins before the waterfall scene.

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