Casca’s story in Berserk is generally accepted as one of the most devastating in manga history.
She is quite unlikeable and maybe even detestable in the early acts of the story, but most people
gradually warm to her character as she learns about herself and as her layers are peeled
away.
And this, along with an attachment to Guts, proves to be instrumental in making her fate
at the eclipse feel so exceptionally grim.
The rape and subsequent mental break of Casca is naturally so shocking because the bullet
points and associated emotional responses of her character journey paint a very disturbing
picture, but there is also an alternate, maybe even subconscious reason that we felt such
misery in witnessing her pain; because her arc demonstrates a gradual rise and a brutal
fall in terms of personal development.
Casca is a quick-witted and strong willed person, respected and even feared due to her
abilities and temperament.
She is someone who has realized the difficulties of being a woman soldier in such a dark world
and adjusted accordingly, and this manifests in her strict and aggressive disposition towards
most others.
However, this is just a compensatory shell that Casca puts up due to her desire to function
as a high ranking member of the band of the hawk, which stems from her yearning to be
accepted as a soldier, partner and warrior by Griffith.
This devotion to him is deeply rooted and at the beginning of the story, her sole desire
seems to be becoming Griffith’s sword and his biggest asset in terms of achieving his
dream.
This is due to a mixture of Griffith’s otherworldly charisma, his representation as a symbol that
one can fight for and achieve dreams no matter where one comes from, and Casca’s perception
of him as the one that saved her from a pitiable life.
An important distinction to make is that Griffith did not actually save Casca - he simply threw
her a sword and gave her the means to save herself.
Yet to her, he was her savior in every sense of the word, and it’s not hard to see why
given her situation before his arrival.
As a result of this, the early acts of the Golden Age portray Casca as someone who is
very dependent.
Not in terms of battle smarts, combat ability or leadership - because she’s obviously
a strong woman who has that in spades - but in terms of emotional security.
The fact is, Casca spends a great deal of her life enamored with Griffith in so many
ways, yet insecure because of those sentiments never truly being reciprocated.
She judges her self worth based on her standing with him, and this is a dangerous thing that
a decent amount of readers should have been able to relate to.
Viewing your own value as a reflection of what someone else thinks of you, especially
when that someone else finds very little value in other people, is a surefire way to undermine
yourself.
And sadly, Casca sells herself short by thinking this way.
Because of this, she experiences a downward spiral of loneliness that gets worse and worse.
While I do believe that Griffith did care for others, if you take his words to Charlotte
as the honest truth then it’s clear that he only truly respected people who had a will
and dream of their own - those who didn’t lean on others and those who pursued their
own ambitions independent from anyone else.
And while this is sad for every member of the band of the hawk, it was worst for Casca
because She is the antithesis of the type of person Griffith respects.
And the tragic part is that the harder she tried to gain his favour, the more antithetical
to his ideal partner or friend she became.
Because she measured her value of herself based on what Griffith thought of her and
on her ability to be his right hand woman, Griffith does not truly respect her because
there is a clear dependency in play.
Yet, Casca senses this in Griffith; this indescribable yet distinct sense of detachment from her,
despite his many actions that would seem to indicate otherwise.
And like tragic clockwork, she focuses even more on Griffith.
How can she get closer to him?
What can she do to please him?
How can she be more valuable?
This makes her even more reliant on his thoughts of her and in turn, makes him more and more
unlikely to reciprocate her affection and truly value her as something more than a valuable
tool in his army.
And when you add Guts to the equation, a man who simply walked into the band of the hawk
and gained more approval, attention and respect from Griffith than anyone else without really
trying, it makes sense that she treats the black swordsman so cruelly in the beginning.
Guts entering the equation made Casca and the rest of the band truly realize his detachment,
because now in front of them they had an example of how Griffith really acted when he was with
a partner - a display that was completely foreign to them.
She
devoted her life to Griffith and never accepted the possibility of him doing anything truly
wrong, and when you combine that with her jealousy of Guts, her behaviour is entirely
predictable.
Sure, she gets cross with Griffith for making her sleep with Guts to keep him warm, but
she never truly accepts that he makes vital mistakes in situations where he was clearly
at least partly at fault and deflects the blame to something else - usually Guts.
For example, after Griffith is badly injured in the fight with Zodd, she puts all of the
blame for his situation on Guts, despite Griffith being at fault in part for recklessly charging
in.
The point here is that these are unhealthy feelings she has.
Ones that degrade her and negatively affect her well-being.
It is unrequited idealized infatuation - NOT love.
She admires Griffith and what he stands for.. he is a symbol, an ideal that she idolizes.
But she is not truly in love with him as a person, and this is not good for her mindset
at all.
However, things begin to change after her and Guts are separated from the group and
the two begin to learn about one another.
Not only is she grateful for the help Guts provides, but she takes a huge step in personal
development here by opening up and letting him know why she hates him.
And with the wound fully opened, it finally begins to heal and at this point Casca starts
to build herself up as a person through building a relationship with Guts.
The more she learns about Guts, the closer she feels to him and the more she understands
why Griffith thinks he’s so special.
And simultaneously, Guts reciprocates this growing respect, which is the key point here.
For Casca, this means that as she grows closer to Guts, she is learning about a man who values
her as both a woman and a person.
And while drifting to Guts doesn’t necessarily mean that she drifted away from Griffith,
it does mean that she can use someone other than Griffith to judge how worthwhile of a
person she is.
Because of her specific circumstances, Casca is someone who was sadly incapable of growing
in true confidence from nothing.
She needed something to use as a reference point.
In order for her to value herself, she needed to take credence from the opinion of someone
who deeply respected her.
Griffith could not give her that.
But Guts could, and so she finally starts to grow.
Her circumstances obviously worsen after being forced into the role of a leader due to Guts
leaving and Griffith being captured, but even though she is having an incredibly rough time,
the faith in herself that was instilled by Guts’ support helps her get through it and
lead.
If she had never met Guts and was put into this Griffith-less situation, she would likely
have cracked under the pressure long before Guts arrived.
She very nearly did, in fact.
But instead, she pushes through, with some help from the others, of course.
When Guts returns, she undergoes another massive shift in character development.
As said by Reddit User SharaGutspova, whose piece on this is linked in the description,
The simple act of sex itself is characterized by a vulnerability that is unfamiliar territory
for Casca.
Being a woman who has had to bury her femininity in order to rise to her high rank and perhaps
even just to be respected at all by a substantial portion of the Band of the Hawk, she has naturally
become guarded.
This also partly explains her spiky and abrasive nature towards guts as a result of her jealousy.
So allowing herself to be this vulnerable is one of the biggest steps of her life.
As someone who has not been the most inwardly confident in herself, this is a scary development.
Her and Guts share more than a night of passion here - it’s an event that means something
sacred to the both of them.
Both were victims of sexual assault and are likely only familiar with the act as a method
of demonstrating power, so this is rooted in complete trust, and that makes their connection
a mutual bond deeper than simple romance.
Guts and Casca can understand each other on a level no one else can - not just because
of this shared experience, but because they are both taken in by Griffith’s aura and
understand how lonely it can feel to not be respected by him.
So instead, they seek comfort and love in each other.
Not as compensation or replacement for Griffith, but because this was what they truly needed
all along.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that Casca’s care for Griffith went away just because she
started a relationship with Guts.
She harboured feelings of guilt for choosing Guts, especially with Griffith maimed and
crippled, and she says and clearly demonstrates as much.
But realistically, development is not a uniform switch from one state to another, and this
does not at all change the fact that she had grown in strides as a person from the insecure
girl at the beginning of the arc.
She is far from someone in a good place due to the horrible circumstances surrounding
her and those she cares about, but through this experience she has gained something which
she had desperately needed her entire life - proper respect for herself.
It’s a terrific thing for her, and a foundation to live the rest of her life however she wants.
And then, through one simple act, it all falls apart.
The Band is slaughtered, close friends are torn apart, and Casca is used as a conduit
for Griffith to display his power to Guts, a human being reduced to a simple tool for
displaying revenge and spite.
All of the self-worth that she had slowly built up through learning about herself with
Guts.. gone.
Completely broken through unspeakable mental trauma.
This is just as big of a reason as to why Casca is a tragic character as anything else.
Self-respect is one of the most important things that a human being can have, and it’s
something that can change one’s life significantly for the better.
But things that are worth having at a profound level rarely come easy, and this is shown
through the slow, arduous journey Casca had to go through to build herself up.
And just as she had just started becoming her own person, it was snatched away from
her.
One of the ongoing plotlines that concerns Berserk fans the most is the fate of Casca
and whether or not she’ll get her memory back.
This can obviously simply be explained by people simply being attached to her character
and wanting her and Guts to be happy together again, but I think there’s a more personal
reason for this as well.
Because of how intimate and profound the concept of learning to value yourself is, Casca’s
fate is something that the readers wait on with baited breath.
We want, maybe even need Casca to be restored because of how vicariously gratifying it is
to see someone gain self worth from essentially nothing and learn through connecting with
others that they do not need others to be their own person.
However, that unfortunately doesn’t always happen in reality, which means there is a
genuine possibility that it won’t happen in Berserk.
In the end, I suppose only time will tell us if Casca will ever find her happy ending.
Thanks very much for watching.