Berserk Volume 18: Farnese Makes it a Must-Read

This volume kicks it off with Isidro who is not your average annoying kid character, but he certainly feels out of place in Berserk right now. If this was volume twenty-four, I could accept it as the tone of Berserk was more family-friendly, but here it feels unnecessary. Especially because we have so many characters this arc already that would work better here. Even worse, he is a fanboy which leaves him as a puppet for what the audience thinks usually. While the chapter that introduces him is a mixed-bag, it has fantastic panels such as this.

Nonetheless, I would’ve preferred if Miura cut this part down. There is one especially nice moment where Silat, from Golden Age, makes a reappearance. It’s amazing how Miura uses his character, with him showing up here and there and you never see it coming. Here, he uses his past interaction with Guts to humble himself and his crew, and like Guts move toward their own goal. Now, Guts is more than ever rushing to find Casca.

Meanwhile, we get to examine how Father Mozgus works through Farnese’s shoes. He is a man that seems to be giving good will, but when you look closer, he runs a torture faculty. And as Farnese tries to look away and he demands her to not look away it becomes clear he is not ashamed of it. Like most of Berserk’s characters, he operates on a twisted ideology and never sees the faults. In Berserk’s world, it’s hard to blame one to avoid the faults. Like most people here, he is running by cutting off parts of reality and making the world revolve around him, by any means necessary.  And it’s clear how much he enjoys his twistedness. He is a monster who licks the Devil’s boot and persuades the world, and maybe himself, it’s God’s. Mozgus even uses the Lord’s own words as a device for his sick fantasies. That is what’s become of this desolate, decaying area. It’s an abuse and exploitation of all things Holy, it’s making the Bible a command but of a human’s accord. Making God human, making God Griffith. In that way, Griffith has made the world his Eclipse until he has risen. And for Griffith that’s perfect. He has taken the world’s eye with his downfall, but with his rise it will loose the other. And as poets say: an eye for an eye makes the world blind. In this case, it may just blind enough to fall for him.

Later, we explore Luca and the customer’s she operates with. In a place that lives by favoritism and kills by favoritism, it is deadly game they are playing with, but one they are trapped in and willingly accept. Miura focuses on Nina, a broken girl trapped by a cult-like world that she feels next-in line in to losing her life. She is contrasted with Casca, an aloof bird flying free to whatever awaits her without caution or awareness. They are both the most extreme cases. Nina is a justifiably over-worried individual, and Casca is a too-loose bird about to hit gravity.

We see further how Father Mozgus makes his followers. If he finds them, and they serve his needs nicely, they are then “blessed” in his world. While Serpico seems self-aware of this insanity just used to it, Farnese seems likewise self-aware but aloof to all she sees. She has new glasses thanks to Guts, but she is soberly trying to fade into religion again even if the spell isn’t being strongly cast. We then notice what kind of man Mozgus is. A devoted one. He has a flat face due to smashing his face seemingly daily on the floor. Like Farnese this self-punishment of sorts is a common theme Miura reflects in religion. In this view, we can see religion as grounding the people who chose it. To keep people from becoming Guts, realized yet forever morphed, you can chose to live in a lie. A lie that saves you from forever pain. But a lie regardless. Similar to The Matrix with the red and blue pill.

When you hear Mozgus speak of his devotion, lack of guilt, it’s clear he does this for his horrific view of the Lord. Yet, he abuses his Lord. He takes in the same indulgences he finds so damaging. Like an addict who speaks negatively of drugs, yet drinks in the assembly as an example of what not to do and offers drinks as a gift for those who listened.

When Farnese shares discomfort in their religious mission, Mozgus shares a story of a holy woman who was told to not comfort a man as it was against his final moments of feeling he lived a holy life. In Mozgus’s view, this story proves his point, to never critique those lost in the fantasy. Let not critique be allowed in misunderstanding, rather let the charade go on, and on. He uses more of the tale’s message but that’s the vital gist of it. Yet, when you examine this tale it’s another of his delusions. It masquerades as a way to excuse his own sinful behavior, and delude those like Farnese, easily vulnerable.

Later, you notice Nina spark a connection with this boy, and takes him to a orgy, and when he asked to drink something he realizes a hand is in it. They are cannibals. When he tries to escape, he trips and seemingly collapses to his death. If this wasn’t Berserk, I would be shocked by how downhill this went. If it isn’t clear already, Nina is a misguided person. She sees how birds of a feather flock together, and how few there actually are. To fit in, you must permit yourself to be a unreliable person, and not just unreliable, but a person worse than a Mozgus or Griffith. Someone who can’t accept their behavior, can’t accept their violation, and only goes further. To pull others in the abyss, and not have the guts to pull yourself, and moreover, admit it afterwards. A weak human, but a real one we all can’t write off as who can’t say they haven’t been Nina at some point.

Once Luca sets Nina straight, we move to Casca who is getting assaulted but before anything can happen her son who was destroyed by Griffith appears and saves her. Next, the attention goes to Isidro trying to steal Guts’ sword, but ultimately failing to Puck’s amusement. A fight plays out and Isidro is left all alone, as Guts continues his search for Casca.

Now, we see more of Farnese and her heretic burning. Turns out Serpico’s own mother was burned as a Heretic, but this doesn’t seem to damage his relationship with Farnese. His care for her and the burnings are not one and the same. But he can put himself in the shoes of the child watching their father burned. Maybe because Farnese was involved in his mother’s burning or only because he pitied the kid?

As Farnese see’s heretic burning, she did it for the approval of other’s. For others to love loving her. The effects of the act are different than committing it, especially since she was a naïve child acting as told. It was to her a performance of the lifetime since it was the moment she had the power to be loved and to yield. And it became ecstasy to her. Death and love’s sword are not to be shared in the same room, so one’s discounted. Death.

To her, the burning of others gives a sexual feeling since it is right according to that person and that other person. To her, murdering someone’s great uncle and someone’s child and someone’s father is not real. The image is, but what it materializes as is not. Through these microcosms, she separates herself from determined guilt and satisfies ultimate sensation in every situation.

But can throwing the torch, when others are spiritually doing the same, be considered murder, especially when it’s for a good cause? Those here who would disapprove of such a unlawful act do so cause we seem to know better than history. Of course, heretic’s weren’t real so it’s blasphemous to do so? But with evil leaders of territory, if you live in it? There are a million ways to discount murder when it suits someone, and Farnese learns this through religion’s guidance. The final part of the organism to her is when the guilt sparks. Not during, but after.

Like when you do an act you know you’ll regret but do so regardless, Farnese is no more than the same of every person she has burned in the name of pureness, and here she has called the culprit as herself by rejecting that notion. She knows how she views herself. You could say she is intentionally hurting herself here, she wants to feel guilt for murder by self-committing the violation that makes those burnings a violation.

She makes herself a heretic in the form of those “demons” she rages against. If you are worse than, how can you ever be more than. She has torn herself down in a game you can’t build yourself up for. This could be the reason she tried to make love to Guts. Discounting the demon, would that moment be any different? She wanted to feel like Guts, so why not his spouse. The second-worst thing to her. Which could contribute to her connection to Casca, she feels this pain of religion like a Hawk who will never love her, and she tried to love the same man.

You could even call her relationship with Guts the reverse of Casca and Guts. At some point, she knows why she loves Guts, whereas Guts is un-realizing in his love for her, but he wouldn’t just let her go. Guts loved Casca and understood every single reason he felt that love in soul, whereas Casca was almost intentionally naïve to it, trying to persuade herself she loved Griffith more. To Farnese, her soul has been canvassed by so many people, she’s struggling to find the real her. And acts out with willing acts of sadism, possibly seeking retribution.