Visual art and philosophical commentaries aside (e.g. Umberto Eco in the Conviction arc), the archetypes set forth in the characters of Guts and Griffith alone would establish Miura among the greats.

Woo thought for today: behelit can be approximately described as a “dark epiphany” (awakening to the Shadow’s existence) -> sacrifice of all potential future human connection to the Shadow persona (i.e. strong investment) -> accommodating the Shadow and embodying the Shadow persona.
Maybe the real dream was the friends we sacrificed along the way!
Ultimately the difference between this and the hero’s journey comes down to sacrificing other people’s happiness for your own, or vice versa. And, paradoxically, the way to be truly happy is by giving it away (i.e. you have to lose your life to save it). So if you find a common purpose that’s brought you together with some other people, say a startup or band, and you have to decide between the welfare of the people and the success of the dream, sacrifice the dream and come up with a new one. Dreams are cheap and one generally serves as well as another, family and friends are priceless and individually irreplaceable. It’s basically the Count of Monte Cristo story.
We may not have your talent senpai, but we’ll continue your struggle against evil fate nonetheless.
Nice homage AP.
I’ve been reading Berserk for 20 odd years after seeing the original anime in my 1st year of university. It’s super grim (binge reading the manga would often give me nightmares) but as you said, it just makes the lighter, more positive aspects shine brighter. RIP Miura-san and thanks for everything, I’ll carry on hope that Gutts and Caska would’ve one day gotten their (relatively) happy ending.
I’m glad he got her back in her right mind at least, that leaves room for hope.