The God Hand members circle around the fulcrum of the story of Berserk. While Guts-Casca-Griffith are the emotional core of the series, the God Hand have instigated nearly every element, and bind them together. Despite wielding this great influence, they remain steeped in mystery.
Excluding our peek at them in Volume 34 (11 years ago), and Slan's visit to the Qliphoth in Volume 26 (17 years ago) we've learned little about them since their introduction in Volume 3 (29 years ago). They have been cards held tightly by Miura for decades, always in hand, but never played. Eventually, he'll lay those cards on the table. But how much do we really expect from that big moment, in light of how other origin stories have been treated?
The Count, a minor yet introductory apostle for readers, got a sizable flashback sequence, amounting to a modern-day episode (20 pages).
Rochine, if you limit her origin only to the explicitly shown sequence of her parents' death, it's decently long (8 pages).
Femto, the whole Golden Age is effectively his origin story, along with Guts' and Casca's of course, but it's clearly the exception for obvious reasons (1 arc).
Mozgus is not an apostle, but as a focal point of the Conviction Arc, it was necessary to flesh out his origin, and his followers a bit. (3 pages)
The Beherit-Apostle's origin, if you just focus on the parts related to his life as a human, is about the same length (9 pages).
Ganishka was given a densely packaged life story leading up to his sacrifice, and it's fucking fantastic (9 pages).
I list these out not to establish a pattern or calculation, but to demonstrate the times Miura has employed flashbacks, and how long he spends on the origin of characters in respect to their weight in the story. Looking at these, one might conclude that naturally, the God Hand members are more important than an apostle like Rochine, so they're certainly due more than 8 pages.
But ... are they more important?
The apostles' background stories help humanize them, so readers understand the dire circumstances at the moment of their sacrifice, and to empathize — even just a little — with what brought them to their terrible decisions. Their stories also work because they show a human facet of the characters we've already come to know as monsters by spending time with them for a full chapter or even an arc.
The God Hand are different, though. They aren't victims. At least, not in the same way as apostles. They're the instigators in this web of deceit. And aside from a few personality quirks, they're effectively blank slates. There's not enough material about them that knowing their past would amplify. Not like getting the sense of a complete person like the origin does for Rochine. Learning about her abusive family life was a missing piece for understanding her motivation to seek out the Misty Valley.
So the question becomes, does the story afford the God Hand a similarly empathetic peek at their past? I don't think so. At least, I don't expect to be treated to a sad story about Conrad offering up Tiny Tim to the Vortex, or a doe-eyed Slan taking one final look at her sacrifice before they're consumed. That would feel tonally wrong to me.
I think Miura will give them each a little moment, something within the minimal range of how he's treated others, but unless their origin stories are deeply connected to the telling of the overall Berserk story ( ) then I think it would be inappropriate to give them too much. I think the "life in a sequence" method of Ganishka's origin story would be a nice method to do that, but if it happens to be a few panels, or a page, I'd understand.
Excluding our peek at them in Volume 34 (11 years ago), and Slan's visit to the Qliphoth in Volume 26 (17 years ago) we've learned little about them since their introduction in Volume 3 (29 years ago). They have been cards held tightly by Miura for decades, always in hand, but never played. Eventually, he'll lay those cards on the table. But how much do we really expect from that big moment, in light of how other origin stories have been treated?
The Count, a minor yet introductory apostle for readers, got a sizable flashback sequence, amounting to a modern-day episode (20 pages).
Rochine, if you limit her origin only to the explicitly shown sequence of her parents' death, it's decently long (8 pages).
Femto, the whole Golden Age is effectively his origin story, along with Guts' and Casca's of course, but it's clearly the exception for obvious reasons (1 arc).
Mozgus is not an apostle, but as a focal point of the Conviction Arc, it was necessary to flesh out his origin, and his followers a bit. (3 pages)
The Beherit-Apostle's origin, if you just focus on the parts related to his life as a human, is about the same length (9 pages).
Ganishka was given a densely packaged life story leading up to his sacrifice, and it's fucking fantastic (9 pages).
I list these out not to establish a pattern or calculation, but to demonstrate the times Miura has employed flashbacks, and how long he spends on the origin of characters in respect to their weight in the story. Looking at these, one might conclude that naturally, the God Hand members are more important than an apostle like Rochine, so they're certainly due more than 8 pages.
But ... are they more important?
The apostles' background stories help humanize them, so readers understand the dire circumstances at the moment of their sacrifice, and to empathize — even just a little — with what brought them to their terrible decisions. Their stories also work because they show a human facet of the characters we've already come to know as monsters by spending time with them for a full chapter or even an arc.
The God Hand are different, though. They aren't victims. At least, not in the same way as apostles. They're the instigators in this web of deceit. And aside from a few personality quirks, they're effectively blank slates. There's not enough material about them that knowing their past would amplify. Not like getting the sense of a complete person like the origin does for Rochine. Learning about her abusive family life was a missing piece for understanding her motivation to seek out the Misty Valley.
So the question becomes, does the story afford the God Hand a similarly empathetic peek at their past? I don't think so. At least, I don't expect to be treated to a sad story about Conrad offering up Tiny Tim to the Vortex, or a doe-eyed Slan taking one final look at her sacrifice before they're consumed. That would feel tonally wrong to me.
I think Miura will give them each a little moment, something within the minimal range of how he's treated others, but unless their origin stories are deeply connected to the telling of the overall Berserk story ( ) then I think it would be inappropriate to give them too much. I think the "life in a sequence" method of Ganishka's origin story would be a nice method to do that, but if it happens to be a few panels, or a page, I'd understand.