In order to talk about Berserk, you need to talk about Guts it's a given similar to talking about Rocky Balboa when it comes to the Rocky series both characteristic of the stories they inhabit

Guts is a survivalist he's not out to be the strongest or & at the pinnacle of something

he wanders from fight to fight just so he can scrape off & live on the refuse of battle which is killing others even as a child in order to earn pay & even love & a sense of acceptance from his father

Guts to me is an active reminder of the many people who go on living despite being brutally raped & being left in a weak & broken state violated emotionally & physically

but at the same time, Berserk doesn't shy away from how Guts makes his fair share of mistakes & actively portrays him in a less than the favorable manner which becomes less badass & more visibly horrifying he uses the birthing embryo fluid of a pseudo apostle pod to put out his flames smiling sadistically as inflicting pain & torturing his opponents is the way he can feel empowered after all the violation & betrayal he's experienced in life

but this also seemingly flows into how it twisted him over time it slowly bends the frightened child into that of the current man a man & all the betrayal inflicted on him in a twist of irony the very woman who was the first he was ever close & comfortable with sexually he tries to rape in a fit of crazed rage brought about from his own festering rage

Guts isn't really an admirable character in the straight sense what makes him admirable is when he tries to be better & take more precautions to keep himself under control even having a group that can keep him restrained & keep the one he cares about protected

but for the most part, he isn't someone I admire rather more or less rather someone I relate to cause for most of the story he's not an admirable person I guess no one in Berserk is fully

but it is emblematic of how real of a person Guts is that you can't break his character into one or two components & that he's a mixture of all aspects of himself that have congealed for him to be who is