Warning! Spoilers for Chapter 364 of Berserk ahead!
Much like Game of Thrones before it in 2019, Berserk is experiencing its swan song, but unlike the HBO series, the popular fantasy manga has managed to satisfy longtime fans. While these stories come from different media, both share similarities in themes within the realms of bleak, hyper-realistic fantasy. Above everything else, both are similar in that each has a dedicated fanbase who walked into their respective endings with tremendously high expectations.
Both series were built on a legacy of featuring violence that is extremely depraved but also necessary for the sake of storytelling. In terms of themes, both have relished in portraying characters who either contemplate bloody vengeance against those who wronged them in the past, or actually execute that vengeance. One of these series, Game of Thrones, fully embraced those ongoing themes of revenge in its finale and lost its fanbase in the process. Berserk, on the other hand, went a different route that its audience was far more satisfied with.
The finales of these two works prove just how important one final installment can be when it comes to maintaining a legacy. This truth goes for any body of work, stretching across all media including movie franchises, television shows, comic book volumes, and manga like Berserk. A series is capable of redeeming a crummy first installment with a few satisfying follow-ups. But as the situation with Game of Thrones goes to show, even if the opening is good, if the ending is bad then the product’s legacy is ruined. And when a once-beloved product’s legacy gets swept away by a tarnished wind, so with it blows away the love from fans and critics who were previously enamored with everything the series had done previously.
The Disappointment Of Game Of Thrones
The series finale of Game of Thrones aired on HBO on May 19th, 2019. With an audience of 13.61 million people, it was the most-watched episode in both the history of the show and the history of HBO itself. Eight years’ worth of character growth, deaths, world-building, and foreshadowing was promised to culminate in the final episode, “The Iron Throne.” To say that expectations were high would be an understatement. It would also be an understatement to say that those expectations, for most viewers, were not met.
Most critics ultimately found the episode to be bland with underwhelming final moments for their favorite characters, some of whom viewers thought acted out of character. That last criticism, in particular, was often directed at Daenerys, whom die-hard fans didn’t appreciate seeing suddenly become a villain in the closing episodes of season eight. Prior to the finale, Game of Thrones enjoyed a legacy as one of the most celebrated and acclaimed series to ever hit the airwaves. The show set a record in 2015 for most Emmy wins by a series during a single season, and one year later set a record for being the most awarded drama television series in the history of the Emmys. All it took was one disappointing finale for those same dedicated fans and celebratory critics to sour on Game of Thrones completely.
The Triumph Of Berserk
When Berserk‘s final chapter hit the stands, it came under far more bittersweet circumstances compared to Game of Thrones. While the creators behind Game of Thrones, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, mutually decided to end the show after eight seasons, the 364th chapter of Berserk was forced to serve as a premature finale of sorts. After spending 32 years of his life writing and illustrating the manga, Berserk‘s creator Kentaro Miura passed away on May 6th, 2021 at the age of 54 as a result of an acute aortic dissection. The worldwide mourning from fans and critics in response to Miura’s passing was overwhelming.
After selling more than 50 million copies of Berserk and winning multiple prestigious awards for his manga, Kentaro Miura’s final chapter, Chapter 364, was released posthumously on September 10th, 2021. Given the sudden circumstances of the chapter’s release, fans were prepared for a scenario where the chapter may not provide the conclusion they were looking for. After all, Miura hadn’t planned on Berserk ending when it did. However, Miura’s final chapter felt like a breath of fresh air for readers around the world, providing both a sigh of relief and an unexpectedly gratifying coda for the Young Animal import.
Berserk‘s final chapter, “Tear of Morning Dew,” takes a step back from the usual angst and melancholy in favor of settling into a welcoming peace. Readers get to see a glimpse of Guts and Casca finally carving out a new life for themselves, which is especially refreshing for long-time readers who witnessed firsthand the kind of trauma both characters endured. Casca is essentially reborn with her memory intact and Guts slowly drops his hate for Griffith. Then, with one final image of their Moonlight Boy taking the shape of Griffith himself shedding a tear, Berserk offers a sight that rarely (if ever) had been seen in the history of the manga: an image of hope.
Why Berserk Works Where Game Of Thrones Doesn’t
This is where the biggest difference between Game of Thrones’ series finale and Berserk‘s final chapter is seen. Game of Thrones stayed true to its consistent bleak themes and, naturally, most viewers came out of its finale feeling bleak. Kentaro Miura, regardless of whether he expected to end the series where it seems to have ended, took a different, more optimistic approach. These ideas of hope and optimism don’t betray previous themes of bloodshed, rage, and revenge, but instead, build upon those exact ideas.
Miura’s final chapter culminates multiple years’ worth of storytelling, encapsulating recurring themes without rehashing them. Miura treats the stakes of vengeance with purpose and consequences. He understands that at the end of the day, the trauma that he puts his characters through is exhausting to them and perhaps even exhausting to audiences who lived vicariously through these characters. He gives both his characters and readers a break to breathe in an ending that feels earned. After witnessing everything Guts and company have gone through over the past 363 chapters, Chapter 364 of Berserk feels like they are on a road towards peace. With this natural progression, Miura shows that no matter how dark that tunnel is, there is always a light at the end.
As of this writing, Berserk‘s publisher Young Animal has yet to update fans as to whether the manga will continue without Kentaro Miura or if the author’s final chapter will truly be the final chapter. However, if Berserk ends where it stands now, it’ll leave a lot of fans happy, unlike the ending of Game of Thrones.
