Dragon Slayer

Dragonslayer
Japanese	ドラゴンころし
Rōmaji	Doragonkoroshi
Debut
Manga	Chapter A0
Information
User(s)	Guts

The Dragonslayer is the oversized sword Guts has wielded since the Eclipse and is his primary weapon for slaying demons as the Black Swordsman.

Due to the sword's incredible size and weight, the Dragonslayer functions more like a sort of bladed club than an actual sword, though Guts is more than capable of using it to cut things apart. The sheer momentum of Guts swinging it is more than enough to tear anyone caught in the attack to pieces in one swing. Even Apostles can barely stand up to the blade, and often have their bones or internal organs heavily damaged by an attack from the weapon.

Usage

It is assumed that Guts can wield the bulky Dragonslayer since he is shown using a regular sword as early as age six to train with Gambino (having refused to use a short sword). At nine years old, he wields a bastard sword during his first castle siege accompanied by his mercenary group. In later years, Guts graduates to a longsword and kills a general before handing his prize money to Gambino; he then moves on to a greatsword followed by a two-handed greatsword until he is fifteen, when he uses an over-sized two-hander to kill Bazuso.

Ever since then, Guts has been using a sword bigger than his previous one. He has fought, carried, and practiced with oversized swords almost all his life, granting him a physique strong enough to wield the Dragonslayer. This can be taken as symbolizing Guts' increasing burden of living. He also has a magnetic clamp in his prosthetic arm to assist him in holding it.

Abilities

Due to the slaying of countless Apostles, Apostle Spawn and even the impalement of a member of the God Hand with the Dragonslayer, the blade has been soaked on an almost daily basis in the blood of supernatural entities. As a result, the blade has gradually become stronger and more effective against monsters and evil spirits.

Appearance

Sometimes noted to be more akin to "a heap of raw iron" than a sword, the Dragonslayer is a massive weapon that is larger than Guts[1] and is wide enough to be used as a shield against projectiles.

Owing to the sheer size of the blade, the Dragonslayer has no crossguard; the blade itself, being both wider and thicker than the grip, functions as an improvised one instead.

A single bolt holds the blade and hilt together, and at the end of the bolt is a single chain link, which functions as the sword's sheath; by slinging a hook over his shoulder, Guts can simply loop the hook into the chain to allow the sword to hang off his back.

History

As a young man, the blacksmith Godo lived in a castle town far from the hut he would one day call home. When the castle town's sovereign, a king, sends out a proclamation to all of his vassals to forge a sword that would be capable of killing a dragon, Godo's liege lord entrusts him with the task of doing so. Tired of crafting ornate weapons for nobles who seek elegance in their armaments, Godo takes the task seriously, creating the huge, but unusable, Dragonslayer. Offended at how crude and impractical the Dragonslayer is, Godo's liege lord threatens the blacksmith's life, forcing Godo to flee the castle town and settle down at his mine.

The Dragonslayer is kept in storage for years until it is discovered by Guts during a fight against an Apostle, where the Black Swordsman wields it with ease, shocking Godo, who thought the sword's weight made it unusable as a weapon. Since then, Guts has made effective use of the Dragonslayer against spirits, monsters and Apostles.

Gallery

• Dragonslayer Coloured.jpg
  The chain link is used to hang on a hook located on Guts' back.
• Concept.jpg
  Guts sheaths the Dragonslayer.
• Dragonslayer back.png
  The Dragonslayer on Guts' back as he takes his first step towards darkness.
• Dragonslayer from up high.jpg
  The Dragonslayer as seen from higher up.

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Trivia

• It is implied to be heavier than five-hundred pounds.
• Dragonslayer is the only weapon showed to be able to damage a member of the God Hand as he impaled Slan with it. Though Skull Knight's Sword of Actuation can do the same.
• A common misconception is that the Dragonslayer was once used to actually kill a dragon. This is due to online mistranslations, though the manga does feature an image of a bisected dragon's head when Godo initially describes the weapon.
• Kentaro Miura, has admitted in interviews that he only hit upon the idea of the huge sword as a gimmick to attract readers.
• Dragonslayer has never be wielded by any other human besides Guts, it took two of the Holy Iron Chain Knights just two pick it up after Guts was captured, Serpico could barely lift the Blade's handle off the ground and Isidro was almost crushed beneath it when he tried to steal it from Guts.
• In the Dreamcast video game based on the series Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage as it's nigh-impossible to swing the Dragonslayer in tight corridors without it bouncing off the wall to little effect. In the PS2 Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Sho this simply isn't an issue — most of the action takes place outdoors, while the few indoor or underground areas that Guts goes into are spacious enough to allow him to use the Dragonslayer to full effect.
• The Dragonslayer is considered by many to be one of the most influential and iconic swords in all of Japanese media due to its absurd size and power. Many different media pay homage to this weapon - most notably, the Template:W series.
  • Template:W features a weapon called the "Dragon Bone Smasher", a giant sword that looks very similar to the Dragonslayer and has a similar description in-game; it states that it can "scarcely be called a sword", much like how the Dragonslayer is described.
  • Template:W features a weapon simply titled the "Greatsword" which looks similar to the Dragonslayer in length and handle, while the "Crypt Blacksword" from the same game has a similar design to that of the Dragonslayer's blade.
  • Template:W also features a sword titled "Greatsword" which looks similar to the Dragonslayer and is almost identical to the one found in Dark Souls II; however, its blade's width lessens the further it is from the handle, unlike the previous sword. A more similar sword is the Cathedral knight greatsword, Bearing great resemblance to the dragonslayer with the exception of damage type.

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