The world of Berserk is an unforgiving one, so much so that it inspired some of the modern dark fantasy’s most nightmarish hellscapes. That being said, what truly makes Berserk’s kingdoms as dark as they are is its denizens.
From victims of lifetimes worth of trauma to truly unrepentant monsters (both the human and literal kind), all these characters knew in life was unrelenting cruelty and how to dispense it on others — whether or not their victims deserved such punishment.
CONTENT WARNING: Disturbing and graphic events will be discussed.
10 Rosine Was Childishly Cruel & Sadistic
Before she became an Apostle, Rosine was an innocent girl stuck in an abusive and broken family. Desperate for a better world, Rosine activated her Behelit and sacrificed her parents to become the queen elf of her dreams. Now an Apostle, Rosine killed adults and kidnapped their children, but she did this for innocent if twisted reasons.
Rosine believed that adults were inherently evil and that she had to save their children. To do so, she’d abduct kids and turn them into her Pseudo-Apostles. They would then play “grown-up,” which meant inflicting violence on each other. As cruel as Rosine was, it was hard not to feel bad for a tragic villain who only came to be because of an unforgiving world.
9 Wyald Was The Most Unhinged Apostle Of Them All
In both Berserk‘s universe and among fans, Wyald is recognized as the most monstrous Apostle — which is saying something, given how Apostles are already the living embodiments of human desire and sin. With his newfound strength and power, all Wyald wanted to do was cause as much bloodshed and debauchery as he could.
Together with his posse of equally sadistic henchmen and ex-convicts known as the Black Dog Knights, Wyald enjoyed committing atrocities under the king’s orders a bit too much. Wyald’s reign of terror was short-lived and impactful, but there’s a reason why Berserk‘s many adaptations left him and his horrifying acts in the manga’s pages.
8 Emperor Ganishka Was A Monster In Every Imaginable Way
The Kushan Empire isn’t just feared because of its massive armies, but because of how monstrous it is. All of the Kushan soldiers and beasts follow the example of Emperor Ganishka, an Apostle who defied the God Hand and Griffith by carving out his own domain. In both looks and actions, the dread emperor made good of his monstrous reputation.
When he wasn’t rampaging in his lightning form, Emperor Ganishka ordered his armies to be as sadistic as possible. His bloody occupation of Wyndham and the use of captive women for the forced birth of his demonic Daka soldiers is one example. The fact that the emperor had a violent upbringing doesn’t absolve him of his current monstrosity.
7 Mozgus Condemned Many Innocents To Torture In God’s Name
The Holy See is the self-appointed bastion of morality and religion of the ultraviolent Berserk, and no one preached its faith the way Mozgus did. As a chief inquisitor with his own cadre of torturers, Mozgus tortured and executed heretics in God’s honor. As far as Mozgus was concerned, he was doing this not just for the sinners’ sake, but in God’s name.
What made Mozgus terrifying was that he genuinely thought that his cruelty upon others guaranteed their salvation and he was on justice’s side. Throughout the Conviction Arc, Mozgus had many “heretics” tortured and even tried to have Casca burned at the stake because he thought such brutality would end Albion’s suffering.
6 The King Of Midland Let His Lust & Pettiness Take Over
When he was first introduced, the King of Midland seemed like a benevolent and just monarch. The truth was that he was repressing his more twisted side, and all it took for it to surface was one bad night. Specifically, the night he discovered that Griffith and his daughter Charlotte (who he harbored incestuous desires for) were in love.
The King lost what little sanity he had and descended into tyranny. In his madness, he had Griffith tortured, ordered the Band of the Hawk’s assassination, unleashed Wyald on unsuspecting people, and worst of all, forced himself on Charlotte. While he wasn’t evil and even regretted his actions near his death, the King was needlessly cruel nonetheless.
5 Gambino Was A Terrible Father To Guts
For most of his life, Gambino was a brutal mercenary. He seemingly turned his life around when he begrudgingly adopted the abandoned infant who would grow up to become Guts, who he gradually grew to like in his own rough way. However, a few good deeds could never change someone as mean-spirited as Gambino.
Gambino casually abused Guts physically and verbally and his cruelty hit its apex when he prostituted Guts for what amounted to some small change. After losing his leg in battle, Gambino vented his anger on Guts for two years before trying to kill him during a drunken rage. Guts killed Gambino, but his adoptive father’s betrayal and torment never left him.
4 The Beast Of Darkness Was Guts’ Dark Side Made Real
During his one-man warpath against the God Hand and their disciples, Guts’ anger and bloodlust gradually took form and even achieved sentience. Taking the form of a nightmarishly ethereal dog, the Beast of Darkness was Guts’ worst impulses made real. Like a devilish conscience, the Beast constantly tempted Guts to go off the deep end.
Guts either lost himself to the Beast or let it take hold, and both always ended with him inflicting cruelty on both enemies and friends. At its worst, the Beast tempted Guts to force himself on Casca, who was still in her childlike state at the time. Guts fought off its influence before it was too late, but the damage to his relationship with Casca was done.
3 Guts Lost His Humanity As The Black Swordsman
After barely surviving The Eclipse and losing everyone dear to him, Guts was understandably filled with hatred and rage. For the next two years, Guts single-handedly killed any and all Apostles he could find and along with their followers. It was during this period that Guts became the Black Swordsman, and struck fear in everyone’s hearts.
As the Black Swordsman, Guts let his anger take over and terrified even the fiercest Apostles. The trade-off, however, was that Guts became just as cruel (or even more so) than his enemies. Thanks to his bloodlust, Guts estranged himself from those he swore to protect and only snapped out of it when a still traumatized Casca wandered off into danger.
2 Griffith Rejected His Humanity For His Selfish Ambitions
Griffith was always self-centered and focused on his goals, but he still held on to his humanity during the Band of the Hawk’s glory days. That all changed when Guts left the Hawks. Griffith’s once-orderly life spiraled out of control, with Guts’ departure starting an unfortunate chain of events that led to him losing both his body and dreams.
In his desperation, Griffith sacrificed his loyal soldiers during The Eclipse to be reborn as Femto. Worse, he brutalized Casca in front of Guts, despite the two being the people who loved him the most. Griffith’s cruelty got him closer to his ambitions but, as seen in the manga’s final chapter, this cost him his humanity and companionship.
1 The God Hand Put Their Cosmic Duties Above Everyone Else’s Sake
As the Idea of Evil’s disciples, the God Hand weave destiny as dictated by the Laws of Causality. To do this, they make sure that prophesized events come to pass and that their chosen ones never stray from their predetermined fates. The price for this is condemning people to eternal torment and the God Hand doesn’t care.
With the exception of Slan who finds pleasure in others’ suffering, the God Hand feel nothing when they build a future founded on countless dead. This, however, is what makes them the cruelest characters of Berserk. The God Hand are fully aware of what horrors they can and will unleash on the mortal realm, and yet they choose to do so.
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