Now that I had some time to sit on Berserk 362, I'm gonna share my interpretations and predictions. This chapter raised a lot of questions with its visual storytelling and I feel I will be wrong about most of what follows, but it's still fun to try and guess what's happening

Furthermore, I believe fully understanding this chapter would require me to go back and reread multiple key points, but I haven't really done that and am working off of memory for now just to make my initial impressions. Hope some of you get something out of it regardless

First, it looks to me that we saw 2 different memories from SK's perspective. The first one (scene with 3 spreads which abruptly ends) was an event that what we now refer to as the Eclipse was likely modeled after. I say modeled after as opposed to an Eclipse for a few reasons

There’s no Black Sun/Eclipse. Instead you have the Vortex of Souls for whatever reason. There’s also no giant 5 fingered hand, which is another big hint. Aside from that, the setting just looks entirely different from the Eclipse we know

Additionally, these creatures that SK is killing do not resemble the apostles we know now at all. They do not look as distinct, and in the case of the top 2 panels, you can even see multiple that look the same. To go further, it looks like they are spawning from the tentacles

Finally, this isn't nearly as strong in terms of supporting evidence for the conclusion I made, but I just think it's worth noting. I mentioned this yesterday, but the eyes on those tentacles made me think of the behelit sword and the IoE. Again, just a whole different feel

Ok, so now that I've explained why I think this isn't exactly the same thing as the Eclipse we now know... how the fuck are there different God Hand members??! Well this is where the significance of this Feast not being exactly the same as the one we know comes in

This here is just speculation, and I don't have much to go off of. But essentially, I am making the assumption that members of this group, aside from Void, may not be as powerful as the present day God Hand members. I'll get back to this in a second

I say aside from Void for a few reasons. It makes sense for him to be the final addition, since he has history with SK, and SK got caught up in the sacrifice

Mozgus' words in ch138 also hint at Void's ascension to demonhood. The mention of the word sage brings thoughts of wisdom. Who fits that better than the man with a giant brain who loves spouting philosophical shit. He was even imprisoned and tortured, which reflects Void's design

Finally, when Judeau is explaining the history of the Tower of Rebirth, he says Five Angels were sent to destory SK. However... he is then corrected by Casca, who says there were only four. This makes sense, as Void would be that final addition.

Back to why I think the initial 4 may be weaker than the God Hand we know today. I make this assumption off of one simple fact. These members have changed... so I would assume that means they can be killed. Before I get into how, I just want to point out 1 minor thing

With the exception of the member to the left of the titty monster, all these different guys look more like apostles to me than god hand members. This is a VERY thin grasp at proof. We have no idea if there's a real basis for what a God Hand member *should* look like

Between their designs just having a more monstrous feel to them than Ubik/Conrad/Slan shit Femto too, and the fact that the guy all the way on the left reminds me of Ganishka and Grunbeld, I couldn't help but have the thought

I'm not saying they are as weak as apostles or anything, it's just a possibility that they aren't exactly the same as the God Hand we know now. And for a reason that I can't come up with, Void would be what changed this formula

So how could they have died? What makes the most sense, and what I have seen some people say, is Void may have killed them. Out with the old or some shit. It wouldn't surprise me since Void has been painted as the leader of the current God Hand, and as a final antagonist figure

The other possibility is that SK, with the help of others, may have managed to inflict serious damage on them during a fight in the second memory (which I will talk about shortly). This doesn't seem far fetched if we assume this old crew was weaker than the current one-

And when you remember that magic and astral creatures were far more prominent during Gaiseric's age, t's not far fetched to assume those powers could have inflicted damage on them

Moving on to the second memory, it seems like SK is in the physical world now. The hellish landscape is no longer there, and we instead see a background of burning land akin to Femto's rebirth ceremony in Conviction. This implies that he somehow survived the "Eclipse" like Guts

I assume that this second memory is depicting Void's rebirth ceremony. It fits well, as just like with Femto, the one reincarnated was the 5th. It would also make sense for this background to depict SK's kingdom, which was wiped out in a single night, as stated in ch53

One more reason that I think the whole city was sacrificed here for Void's reincarnation, separate from the first memory, is the fact that all the corpses of the buried city have Brands all in the same spot, on their forehead. This is not normal. They are supposed to be-

In different spots. This is also supported by the fact that SK's lover has a brand on her shoulder. So we know that this old "Eclipse" didn't operate differently. I really think these just depict 2 separate memories

This leads me to believe SK's lover had to have survived the Eclipse (like Casca) but still ended up dying in the end, as she got caught up in his feud. It makes SK's words throughout the series carry new weight, as well as his decision to save both Guts and Casca

SK's lover definitely died here. And Gaiseric did too right after, fighting till his last breath in the armor, as stated in ch227. He went Berserk for good

This line is so powerful because it implies SK had regrets all the way up until the end of his life. I'm sure most of it involves the woman, but he doesn't exactly sound like the kindest ruler either. Guts even thought that SK reminded him of Griffith. He probably had his regrets

That's also why this is one of the BEST pages in the entire series to me. Yes, we can see SK parallels Guts, and they can empathize with each other. But there are differences here. SK holds the corpse of his lover, while Guts stares at his empty hand. He must not follow SK's path

Kinda went on a tangent here and just turned this into more of a stream of thoughts.. Didn't even know there was a limit of tweets for threads lol. Miura is the best for creating so much room for discussion with 15 pages and virtually no dialogue. Top 1

Putting this here also, so it doesn't get lost in the replies https://twitter.com/thegrouptmz/status/1319737410117357570?s=19