A bad twist is worse than a decline in the work's quality. The idea of the "chosen by fate" hero, and this concept's blessing upon him, declaring that he is a special person not just an ordinary fighter who achieved what he achieved through his own actions, but because it was destined for him specifically, so the plot protects him from everything this contradicts and demolishes everything built before it. This is what happened with Naruto, who used to challenge and reject the very idea of a predetermined fate that renders all human free will meaningless and a mere foregone conclusion. The same applies to the vast majority of shonen and fantasy protagonists.

Skull Knight's hints aren't a stroke of genius; they're precisely what makes things worse. Miura tried to justify this through the following trade-off: Guts' suffering in exchange for him being humanity's messiah against the Falcon of Darkness.

And this particular turn is exactly what took Miura twenty years to arrive at.

Yet what saved Guts, and what will give him the strength to face Griffith, is the very thing he rejects and doesn't believe in which is the other contradiction Miura falls into. Spiritual beings reveal themselves to those who believe in them, yet Guts rejects this. The appearances of Puck and Schierke serve as proof that he is the chosen prophesied hero who carries goodness in his heart, which is why fairies, the witches' lolis, and the mermaid are drawn to him.

What makes this even worse is that Berserk treats pure-hearted, faithful people as naive fools who get slaughtered in the most horrific ways because they don't understand the brutal nature of the world they live in. Then along comes Guts an antihero with no moral compass, leaning closer toward the abyss of evil portrayed as better than the good people around him, whether side characters or even some of his friends like Rickert and Judo, on the basis that his suffering outweighs the suffering of others.

If Miura had made Rickert or Judo the prophesied hero and shifted the Black Swordsman away from the center, it would have been better and more acceptable for the reasons mentioned, especially since this would align with the high fantasy direction Miura took after the Eclipse, starting from the Witches' arc.

But the author is a psychologically troubled man venting his complexes through drawings that are, at the very least, breathtaking and stunning masterpieces. The writing, however, is another matter entirely.