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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | In those days, the Count was a different person. He was cruel... but at least, he was still human. But seven years ago, after getting hold of this thing... the Count changed! He began to treat people as if they were mere playthings. dissecting them alive... slicing them open, chopping them up, violating them, and then eating them. His inquisition of heretics became nothing more than an excuse to acquire more bodies. I couldn't bear to be a part of the Count's diversions, so I secretly fled the castle with my wife and two sons. But on our way out, we were caught and thrown into prison. Then, the fiend hacked me up... and right before my eyes, he took my wife... and my sons! Even now, the image is seared into my memory! | „ |
| ~ Vargas describing his horrific experience with the Count. |
The Count is the main antagonist of the "Black Swordsman" arc of the manga and anime series Berserk.
He is the tyrannical ruler of an unnamed town that he used to be a more benevolent ruler of back then before changing for the worse upon a tragic encounter with his wife that lead to him becoming a sadistic and bloodthirsty apostle who captured, tortured, and/or killed whoever he wanted for his own wanton entertainment, though he still retained a few good traits like his love for his daughter Theresia.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close To Being Pure Evil?[]
- Even back before he became an apostle and was a comparatively better ruler, the Count was conveyed to have led a long, violent, and harsh campaign of hunting down heretics throughout his kingdom when the land was overrun by pagans.
- One time, when he had arrived home and discovered his beloved wife engaging in a pagan orgy with a cult, he went into a blind rage and killed all the members that were there, which were around a dozen or so.
- After initially being unable to bring himself to kill his wife and nearly committing suicide, when the Godhand arrives, he sacrifices her to become an apostle, killing her by tearing her body apart.
- For his own sick twisted amusement, he would for years slaughter and torture countless people in extremely visceral ways like slicing them open, chopping them up, violating them, and eating them using his slug apostle form as a hobby, effectively subverting any care he may have initially had for his subjects and using heresy as a mere pretext to entertain himself from their suffering.
- When Vargas, the castle's physician, attempted to escape the castle with his family out of disgust for the Count's actions, the Count captured him, disfigured him by tearing off half his face and ripping off his arms and legs, and strapped him to force him to watch as he sadistically tortures and kills his wife and two sons and eats them before his eyes.
- It's revealed that he had slaughtered Rickert's group while they were waiting for Griffith's return with the assistance of Rosine, having devoured them alive with glee and nearly devouring Rickert as well if not for the interference of the Skull Knight.
- It's revealed that he partook in the violent massacre of the Band of the Hawk with the other apostles, with him being shown tearing Pippin's body in half, even playing with his hollowed out corpse to psychologically torment Guts before eating him.
- He would regularly host public executions where people who are so much as merely accused of being heretics would be beheaded while their loved ones watch amongst the crowd in horror and grief, not caring whether the accusations are true or not so much as entertaining himself.
- He makes a law against sympathizing with a heretic where whoever is caught doing so will be thrown into the dungeon where he graphically tortures people.
- It is made clear that not even children are safe from his sadistic cruelties with a guard specifying that even children will be thrown into the dungeon for sympathizing with a heretic and the Count having tortured and killed Vargas' family, which involved his two sons.
- When hearing of the commotion the wounded and scarred Zandark, one of his guards, is causing in the medic room out of anger against Guts for the wounds he inflicted on him, after having everyone vacate the room, he has his daemon go into Zandark to feed off him inside his body to seize total control of his mind and body and give him supernatural powers.
- He sends Zondark after Guts and after he manages to combat many of the moves with his sword, the count's daemon comes out and upon seeing Vargas, he sadistically taunts him over what he did to him, telling him that after he takes care of Guts, he'll be delighted to continue where he left off seven years ago before continuing trying to kill Guts while mocking him about his mortality.
- After getting defeated by Guts due to him crashing the house they were in down and capturing Vargas, he considers giving him a painstaking interrogation first but ultimately decided to get it over with and execute him right away, hosting a public execution on him by having him be beheaded, having also set it up as a trap for Guts, though he doesn't show up, much to the Count's amusement. It's implied that he did this to psychologically mess with Guts as well, commenting on how he didn't show up amusingly.
- When Guts arrives to face him, the Count actively taunts him while beating and thrashing him about and trying to kill him, mocking him over how it is useless to try to fight against him and how he's reached the limit of his pathetic human form, showing sadistic disdain over the fragility of humans as well.
- He shows no remorse over his servant Dahl's death when discovering his corpse.
- When Puck tries to carry the Behelit that he himself had been searching for away, the Count tries to kill him, this being further fueled when his beloved daughter Theresia comes in and becomes scared of the Count upon seeing him in his monstrous apostle form.
- Seeing Guts rise back up, he attempts to kill him in rage only for Guts to halt his attack by using his daughter as a human shield.
- When the Godhand arrives due to his cries from being tortured by Guts, he attempts to sacrifice him to get a power boost only for them to reveal that they cannot as it must be of someone he cares about.
- While he gets brutally tortured by Guts in front of his daughter and then gets dragged off to oblivion while crying out for his daughter and her to him in a sympathetic portrayal with his daughter mourning his death, his crimes push him far past the point of being a scapegoat with even his fate being given to him by all the victims he tortured and slaughtered, Vargas himself getting a front row seat in retribution for the Count ruining his life.
- Despite Berserk's enormous heinous standard, the Count stands out for how graphic, brutal, and drawn out his massive scope of tortures and kills are and for making Vargas watch his own wife and children be tortured and cannibalized whilst having less resources compared to characters like the God Hand members and Emperor Ganishka.
What Prevents Him From Being Pure Evil?[]
- He has two people he genuinely cares about:
- He loves his daughter Theresia as while he kept her isolated in her room from the kingdom throughout the years, this was done to protect her as he still thought heretics were roaming about in the kingdom and wanted to keep her safe. He gives her trinkets as gifts and even gave her Puck as a present to keep her from being lonely. When she still refused to let him touch her, he was hurt by this. He gets heartbroken when he sees her having discovered him in his monstrous apostle form. When Guts holds her hostage, the Count halts his attack and shouts her name. When the Godhand demands he sacrifice her to continue living, he's unable to bring himself to do it out of love for her and when he gets taken to oblivion by the souls of all his victims, he cries out her name and reaches out for her as this happens.
- He loved his wife, being heartbroken over her betrayal and initially being unable to bring himself to kill her. While he did sacrifice her to become an apostle, this was done in a moment of heartbreak encouraged by the Godhand and is something that he is implied to feel remorse over as shown by how he sobbingly begged the Godhand to stop revealing the tragic encounter he had with her as they showed it to Theresia.
- His final moments and death are portrayed sympathetically:
- After Guts takes him down, he begins torturing him by carving his head in front of his daughter as he cried and begged for him to stop, this being played for sympathy as even Puck seemed to feel bad and wondered why Guts would go that far.
- His tragic encounter with his wife gets revealed by the Godhand to Theresia, which the Count had kept secret from her the whole time under a fabrication of her having been killed in a sacrificial ritual by a group of pagans, where it's shown that she had betrayed him through cheating on him in a pagan orgy, the Count being made clear to have been heartbroken over this to the point of where after killing nearly everyone in the room save for her and being unable to bring himself to kill her, he nearly kills himself before the Godhand gets summoned from his despair and offer to relieve him from it through sacrificing her. Throughout, the Count sobs and begs for them to stop.
- He gets put in a sympathetic dilemma to either sacrifice his daughter to gain more power and continue living or to die and get dragged to wander amongst souls for all eternity. Despite considering the position he is in, the Count is unable to bring himself to sacrifice Theresia and as such, gets dragged to oblivion by the souls of all his victims while crying out and reaching out for Theresia and her doing the same for him.
- His death gets mourned by Theresia, who swears revenge on Guts for it.
Trivia[]
- While the Count isn't Pure Evil, his counterpart in Berserk: The Prototype, Vlad Tepes, qualifies due to lacking any of the redeeming qualities that the Count had.
External Links[]
- The Count on the Villains Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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Snake Baron | The Count | Bishop Mozgus | ||