Not sure if this has been done before but I would kind of expect some vs. comparison between the two. I'll set up their fight into 3 tiers to best gauge their power.
Round 1: Clare(series start) vs. Guts(golden age)
Round 2: Clare(Quicksword) vs. Guts(pre-berserker armor)
Round 3: Clare(post-skip/before Destroyer merge) vs Guts(Berserker armor)
I guess I can include awakened Clare if she's two badly outmatched but I think this is pretty even. Though?
My impression is that Berserk doesn't increase in speed too much, most amps are more in power, and that Quicksword Clare and post-timeskip Clare (when she's very high single digit level!), would be much too fast for Guts.
I think 1 is the only one where Guts has a solid shot. Because let's face it, starter Clare sucked ^_^
Personally I though this would be more of a strength vs speed match. But I guess I can limit this to just Northern War Clare if post-skip is too much for Guts.
However Guts did kind of tank a lightning bolt in the Berserker Armor.
You'd have a point if it were not for the fact that Guts and Serpico (Whom Guts could react to and beat without the Berserker Armour) could dodge lightning bolts fired by Ganishka.
So basically Guts is easily in the triple digit machs.
Then they both avoid it, and as can be seen in the first panel, the lightning was fired before they moved.
And while I don't believe Guts is as fast as the lightning, his reacting to something magnitudes faster than Clare means he can react to her, easily.
He does attack too fast for any human to see and blitzes Apostles, yes. He doesn't really do the Flash Step thing, but then neither does Superman most of the time, who is magnitudes faster than anything named in this thread so far.
The first one, while there was some electricity crackling ahead of time (followed by which there was *time for a warning*, so it wasn't the same as the big bolt), with the bolt that struck it looked like he was already in position when it was fired.
The second one, they just seemed to be generally making themselves hard targets and weren't even looking at the bolts! (which is a sensible way to avoid fire, it really isn't all about reacting)
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Can you show some of his blitzes or otherwise fast movement?
And can he move his sword fast enough to defend against the quicksword?
I've been trolling this entire thread, but since the only person willing to respond to it is both doing it seriously and actually someone I like, I don't particularly care to do so anymore since it's not fun. Jerk.
Guts had serious trouble reacting to an Apostle who was merely supersonic to an unspecified level (The scene makes me believe she was roughly equivelant to a jet in velocity), the Ganishka thing is either aim-dodging or a serious outlier.
I'm just mildly butthurt that Guts loses this fight badly (Clare is much, much faster) despite being a better character.