Berserk is about far more than simply the story of Guts, its grief-ridden protagonist. The series deals strongly with causality throughout its story arcs, with various supporting characters being changed or even warped as a consequence of their actions. One might assume this is a change for the worse for many characters, but in a series spanning over 374 chapters and counting, you’d be surprised by the positive examples set by some. One of the most important characters in Berserk is Rickert, and here are the 5 most impressive feats he’s achieved to help push the series forward! Major series spoilers going forward!
Berserk: What Are the 5 Most Impressive Feats Achieved by Rickert? [SPOILERS AHEAD]
Rickert doesn’t have the same monstrous strength or abilities that Guts has, but he still has carved an impressive place in the supporting cast of this Seinen epic. He’s gone from being a young member of the Band of the Hawk in the Golden Age Arc, to being a courageous and brilliant engineer and blacksmith in more recent chapters. While he’s been absent from the plot lately, he’s potentially slated to make a return, so here is a review of Rickert’s greatest accomplishments in Berserk:
5. Rickert Has Crafted A Lot of Guts’ Current Arsenal in Berserk
Whether you got into the manga from the Black Swordsman Arc onward, checked out the early games like Sword of the Berserk for Dreamcast, or seen the troubling 2016 anime, you’ll notice Guts has some crazy weapons.
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Despite this being a clearly medieval fantasy era, Rickert’s engineering has granted Guts mini bombs and his iconic cannon arm prosthetic used as far back as the first published fight with an apostle, the Count. The cannon arm is an extremely powerful weapon that Guts has continuously used to get himself out of a bind, and is not the only cannon Rickert’s even made.
4. Rickert Has Shot An Apostle in the Head With His Cannon
Not content leaving the action solely to Guts, Rickert has created weapons for his personal use as well. While protecting Erica from an assault by the deadly Rakshas, an apostle who was a former Kushan exile hunting the Band of the Hawk, Rickert is able to plan for this assault. When Rakshas flies after the Garuda-mounted heroes, Rickert fires a blast from his cannon that tears Rakshas apart, a shockingly powerful move from a character who was once a meek child. In terms of feats in Berserk, Rickert takes a spot in the hall of fame for tackling one of the series’ main horrors with a weapon he made.
3. Rickert’s Blacksmithing Created the Hill of Swords
The Eclipse is largely the catalyst for most of Berserk’s story. It left almost all of the Band of the Hawk brutally killed, but Rickert was absent from the events. While some might see this as fortunate, it was also an object of intense frustration for him, when Guts would refuse to tell him what happened, and it was impossible to get anything out of Casca. But in Chapter 130, “Feeble Flame”, Rickert and Erica lead Guts to the touching, awe-inspiring monument he made to their loss.
Rickert takes the time to craft each of these swords for practice and places them in the ground as a funeral rite for his comrades. He knows it’s maybe not enough in quantity to represent all the losses, but it immediately inspires Guts with this loving tribute. It’s made its way into the pop culture zeitgeist too, with fans noting the hints of reference even in modern contemporary games like Elden Ring.
2. Rickert Has Moved Forward Post-Eclipse Far More Healthily Than Guts
Guts internalized his trauma of being maimed and tortured while his comrades from the Band of the Hawk were murdered by Griffith in the events of the Eclipse. It’s the most haunting, harrowing transformative event attributed to the series in most peoples’ eyes. With the brutal sexual assault of Casca capping this off, it resulted in Guts going on a path of vengeance, while Casca’s mind was left fractured for the majority of subsequent chapters in the series. But not Rickert.
Rickert was not involved in the events of the Eclipse, and was not a sacrifice, crucially not having seen the events that unfolded. He was forced to only imagine what Guts and Casca went through that put them in their current state. It forces a different perspective where Rickert encounters the same consequences that follow Guts and Casca, and has to cope with not being able to fully comprehend their trauma. Rickert is a survivor of that cataclysm in his own way, and it’s impressive that he has carried on and remained a friend of Guts even then.
Upon pleading to know the truth, Rickert is assured the he’d never truly hate Griffith, the series’ villain and perpetrator of Guts and Casca’s sorrow, because he’d not seen how Griffith had transformed. He would soon realize that the Hawks were gone, and that any return by Griffith would be a pale imitation, and learned the true meaning of “don’t abandon what you can’t replace.” He grew increasingly heroic in the developments that followed, foreshadowed by his early moments such as the Battle of Doldrey in Chapter 30. But the single most impressive feat achieved by Rickert in Berserk comes out of all of this, namely…
1. Rickert Has Slapped Griffith in the Face, Being the Only Human Able to Inflict Harm on Him
When Griffith was in his early days before his initial fall, he was already an incredible fighter, yet fully mortal and susceptible to harm. When he was reborn in the Eclipse, joining the God Hand as Femto, he became immeasurably powerful, nearly omnipotent. When he is reincarnated and appears to take Casca away, Guts wasn’t even able to harm him with a swing of the Dragonslayer.
But Rickert, in Chapter 337, has his grandest moment ever. Presented with the safe haven of Falconia, he sees Griffith has lost sight of what’s important. He reminds him that the Hill of Swords was a monument to the people who died on that fateful day, and comments on the subtle changes to the crest of the Band of the Hawk, as it’s similar, but not quite the same, much like Griffith himself.
He reminds Griffith that he served him when he was known as the White Hawk, but will not do the same for his new identity, the Hawk of Light. He does all this after slapping him across the face, being the only person capable of landing a blow, hinting that he might just be the real hero of the series in due time. Rickert is brave and conscientious enough to stand up to even beings of godly power, because he’s one of the only true beacons of goodness that Berserk will ever see.
