-For the Uncensored!

With the passing of Kentaro Miura, now coming to conscience of the world wide public, as he had actually died on May 6th, 2020, there’s a question that many fans of his fantasy series “Berserk” have to ask.

“Where does the series go from here?”

Would it be a fitting ending for the series to fix Casca and Guts and Griffith just have a stalemate, where they both live out there lives. Griffith, the leader of Midland, and Guts, a man who can safely retire now, that his journey to fix Casca has come to an end?

With the fate of Rickert in question, as he rode away with the Bakiraka clan, as they are now joining the fight against Griffith, it does lead to a moral question. Would it be better to retire Berserk on the fate that we all can have our own ending, instead of giving it an ending that no one, unless Miura had done it himself, satisfying nobody? And here’s another question, would we have seen some angels joining up in the fight, say to counter the Holy See (like Father Mozgus)?

I mean, who really wanted to see Guts die? I mean, no one wanted to see that ending, because it makes sense that his journey was the destination. I hate to keep using that phrase so much, but the course of Berserk is now left for nobody to decide.

To have built such a legacy around being an author that never went and promoted his work, is almost Salinger esque. To be so admired but never make yourself available to the public, makes more sense. He wanted the work to outlive him, and while many would probably hate to see Berserk end, it almost works out to the series favor.

We can all have our own ending of Berserk, because now, the weird thing is, how could this epic series be boiled down to one singular ending? It’s amazing that people would make up there own ending if it didn’t turn out the way they wanted.

Fan fiction is notorious for changing endings to books and films and series they hate. Fan fiction to me is not the original intent of an author who saw an end, that he wanted to make, but then people just want there own endings instead. It’s why fan fiction is a bastard version of an author’s original intent.

With Berserk being unfinished, we can all have our own ending the way the audience can, without destroying the original ending Miura had planned. But what does it mean to finish a story that no one would like. People didn’t like the ending of Tolkien’s Return of the King, and many have there own ideas about how to continue it through countless fan fic stories, but the ending of Tolkien’s masterpiece was absolute. It’s debatable past the final page of the trilogy.

What ends up working for everyone’s favor with Berserk having a cliff hanger point where Guts is told by the moon child, “You can either pursue Griffith and cause the world’s end, or you can live out the rest of your life.”

I don’t think Miura would have ended it like that, but when it comes down to it, there had to be some finale in the works. I was sad to hear the news, but the good news is, we can now have our own ending. I’m sure some fan fic hack is going to write the ending of endings, but you have to remember where the series came from. Blood, and horror, and in some cases, it was never going to be an easy ending for Guts.

Endings are the hardest reality an author or creator has to come to terms with. For some, it’s easier to just end it without an ending. Almost like ending it ….

You get the drift. Some would say that’s lazy but if you loved Berserk so much could you honestly read the final moment when Guts has to fight Griffith. It was probably going to be reminiscent of Battle of the Five Armies mixed with every single major battle from Lord of the Rings. Or it could take on more horror routes. But the desperation of not having an ending hurts me more as I write it.

What this means is that you really have no way of knowing. Yes, as sad as this might be, some disaffected Soprano’s fans would complain “At least it didn’t have a ending where it faded to black.” That also had more of a final statement, because it meant that death could happen at any time for Tony Soprano. It could be the same for Guts, but it would have been harder to end it that way too.

Again, people have so many theories about what might happen to the way a story might end, but now, there’s no way of knowing so fan fic writers are probably happy to hear this (you lecherous story stealing ending changing bastards). The problem is if you want to prolong a finale, you do what the Disney Star Wars Trilogy did. Rewrite the entire series only to fail in the end.

Point is, unfortunately Miura is dead, and there’s no way to know where the series will go, or even continue. He took the series with him, and maybe we are better off for it. But then, there are completionists who want to find out an ending, but will be worse off when they realize they need it from the author himself, is now gone.

What the horrifying prospect is, no ending would have sufficed our curiosity. But it doesn’t mistake his mark on the manga field, and the way he did it, beat the odds playing against him. At least Kentaro Miura was around to give us his vision, and with no rules, enhancing and setting the bar so high for the fantasy genre that can’t ever be attained. (Shadow of the Torturer might be a close second, for me). At least it didn’t have an ending like Blade of the Immortal, where the story could be retold again.

Ultimately, I think both Guts and Griffith won in the end. Guts got to fix Casca, while Griffith got his kingdom. But the problem is, who wanted to see Guts die in the end? Maybe that would have been a final resolution, instead of leaving it up to us. But I’m not so sure what the ending might have been, but hopefully Miura left scripts so that someone else could finish it. But I couldn’t see anyone else drawing Berserk other than Miura.

What do you think would have happened? Tell me what you think in the comments, because Kentaro Miura meant a lot to the manga and anime and video game community.

-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 15 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline, Apocalypse Soldier, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/, and Parler https://parler.com/profile/therealLouistbruno/posts. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. Also, he writes on https://louisbruno.substack.com, where you can support him directly, and where he will post one article a day (the bulk of his work will appear on substack officially). Also he can be found on Our Freedom Book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/thereallouistbruno17 His latest, Come Home, Young One, a dark fantasy novel is out now at Lulu.com. Link is here: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/louis-bruno/come-home-young-one/hardcover/product-pw8q7z.html?page=1&pageSize=4. His next series, City of Sand, will be available at the end of May 2021.

The Fate of Berserk

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