Is guts gay berserk

Snoken said:

But did Guts like him back romanctically?

I mean come on, from Griffith’s side we have the statement that Guts stands alone as closer to him than anyone else has ever been, already - he’s the first and only person Griffith has ever felt comfortable voicing his internal thoughts to, his deep desire to know who he is at his core and what he’s capable of. 

From Guts side we have “At that time he shone before me as something beautiful, noble, and larger than life.”

This reads as the beginning of a romance as far as I’m concerned, and not a one-sided one.

He could even see him as an equal because of their similar drive.

The main takeaway from Griffith's feelings for Guts isn't what they were but rather how they impacted him. We start to get our answer in chapter 7.

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The Godhand that Guts has been searching for shows up, Femto front and centre, and Guts’ rage is directed right at him.

All of this paints a picture where a reader can ask themselves "was it really just an extremely powerful mix of friendship and rivalry or was there more there?"

I think the story and character work perfectly well with that interpretation, that it was the kind of once-in-a-lifetime friendship some people have, mixed with the sort of rivalry that has been known to consume men whole.

One of his few internal monologues is his stating that Guts was the only person to make him forget about his dream. When Guts screams “Griffith!” at him we see Puck asking “Griffith? However, those who stop to think about it soon realize that the answer is much more complicated than a simple yes or no question. Here, I'll name some: Donovan, Gennon the Tudor Noble, and of course, the fan favorite: Griffith!

Letting Guts into his heart caused him to act rashly on new emotions he didn't fully understand. A fight is out of the question - Guts’ willpower, and what spurs him on and makes him fight through the pain, are what the audience is meant to be interested in.

After Guts is magically thrown against a wall we get more hints. He (wrongly) blames Guts for what happened to him but can't quite come to hate him, instead obsessing over him.

He describes the mix of emotions he feels in volume 10: "hatred, friendship, jealousy, emptiness, frustration, affection, sorrow, pain, hunger..." We see them at play during and after the rescue, where he seems to be confused himself about what he feels at times (he's half-mad at that point).

Who’s Griffith?”

My point with this is just to emphasize that the driving hook of the Black Swordsman arc is the build-up of the mystery of what makes Guts tick, the tension pretty much entirely coming from the audience wondering why Guts is so obsessed with revenge, and the reveal of the sacrifice is the climax of this arc.

And our example of a sacrifice, which we are explicitly told is also what happened between Guts and Griffith?

Some have even wondered whether there's a romantic angle to all this.

Most fans quickly say "yes" jokingly and don't give it a second thought, even if they believe the relationship is platonic. Griffith sees some of himself in Guts, so he thinks of him as someone he can relate to. I’m not going to speculate on Miura’s motives for adding a ton of gay subtext, like, it could be anything from trying to be as gay as possible without pissing off his publishers to it all being totally coincidental and meaningless with an alternate explanation for every point I have, or anywhere in between.

My point is only that Berserk readily lends itself to gay readings, with a focus on Guts’ sexual attraction to Griffith (as I feel like it tends to be neglected in favour of interpretations that Griffith has a one-sided crush.)

Part one covers the Black Swordsman stuff and the way Guts and Griffith’s relationship is revealed to the audience, part two covers the first several chapters of the Golden Age with a focus on visuals and how Guts sees Griffith, part three tackles Casca’s role in the story, and part four is more of an overview on why I think reading Berserk through a gay lens works so well.

So here we go.

Part One - Our Introduction to the Concept of Guts and Griffith

We’re introduced to Guts and Griffith’s relationship near the end of the Black Swordsman arc.

Eg:

Part of the point of the Count’s backstory is to show that it’s not lust for power that leads to someone making a sacrifice, or at least, not necessarily - the Count wanted to bury his human heart.

The way he tells him that he'll make him his (which prompts Guts to ask if he's gay, and Griffith to show embarrassment), the jealousy Casca feels towards him, the way he gets to rely on him more and more, takes risks for him, and finally his obsession with him after the year of torture, and what he says when he sacrifices the Band of the Falcon: "only you made me forget my dream".

Berserk is actually quite a diverse series when it comes to queer sexuality. He could have been trying to grapple with emotions he didn't understand with a power dynamic between himself and Guts where he was on top. There are actually quite a few gay characters in Berserk.