KMC Forums - Griffith: An Analysis

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”I will have my own kingdom. You must fight for me…because you belong to me.”

Introduction

First and foremost, I started my viewing of Berserk drawing on what I remembered and from that I gathered Griffith could be viewed as a sociopath. He was selfish, cold, incapable of empathizing with others. After all that would explain how he could feed all the people who just saved his life to demons. But as I watched episode after episode and especially after Casca’s flashback I came to think he simply suffered Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I particularly felt #3 was the clincher: “believes that he or she is “”special”” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special…people”. Remind you of Griffith’s fascination with Guts much? Yet I dropped this idea too as time went by and I finally decided that Griffith con’t be labeled by any real world terminology. He is too complex, the world he resides in too layered and different from our own. I feel Griffith is just…human and I hope to illustrate that in this work.

Before the Beginning

Not that much is revealed about Griffith’s past. We know he received his Crimson Behelit from a fortune teller but really not much else is said. That is until Casca recounts her earlier days with Griffith.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czMSqShnIg8

The single scene that made me redefine Griffith. He is not selfish for he is gladly selling his own body to a disgusting old man just so he can save the lives of his followers. He is heartbroken and sorrowful over the death of a single boy in the pursuit of his dream. He tries to deny it but in a rare moment for Griffith his heart is worn on his sleeve and I don’t think anyone is fooled by his agonized lies. The death of a single child has brought him to a near emotional breakdown.

The Present
“A thief stole into his study and killed the young lord Adonis as well!”
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZmK-RNvp94
“From now on there should only be friendship and peace between us. Now come along Minister. I will give something back to you just as I promised.”
“That was a touching reunion between father and daughter.”

How far one has come since the days of mourning one child. Hearing of a young boy’s murder and having a young girl kidnapped only makes Griffith smile now. How doens one fall so far? How can a person become so inhuman and monstrous? Perhaps the answer lies in what Griffith says to Charlotte in the first scene I quoted from:
“While many can pursue their dreams in solitude, other dreams are like great storms blowing hundreds, even thousands, of dream apart in their wake.”

Griffith’s dream is obviously the latter; it tramples and extinguishes the dreams of Julius, Adonis and any other person, be they man or child.

The Love For Guts

I’ll start off by saying perhaps I’m biased because I am a GutxGriffith shipper. However know I don’t just ship any old pairing that looks good. I believe in couples that are realistically possible and who could very well be justified using evidence from the story. I deeply feel this applies to Guts and Griffith.

Throughout the show there is a great emphasis put on Guts’ place In Griffith’s heart. The very first video I posted had one of the most key moments in driving home that emphasis. Casca pretty much does everything but say “Griffith loves you”.

So why does Griffith care so deeply for Guts? Is it, as he says to Charlotte, because he only views a friend as someone who is equal to himself? Is it as Casca says later that “a man can’t live in isolation with nothing more than a dream! [..] Griffith was lost when you left his side!” Perhaps the two are one and the same. Griffith found a true friend, or eve something more, and it helped him push away the loneliness. Only Guts decided to leave and Griffith was cast into a deeper despair than he has ever known.

Of interest though is Griffith’s reaction to Guts leaving contradicts what he told Charlotte about what he thought a true friend was. He said a friend should defend their dream even against him. Of course when Guts did just that it crushed Griffith’s heart. More reason for me to believe he cared for Guts more than just as a friend.

There’s also little things that show just how much Griffith values Guts more than anything else. Like how he never even noticed Casca was wearing a dress until Guts pointed it out to him.

The Dream vs. Love
“You… Out of all the thousands of comrades and tens of thousands of enemies, only you…only you and you alone obscured the vision of my dream.”

This is the ultimate conflict within Griffith’s soul. He had a dream of a kingdom and nothing would stand in the way of that dream save for one extraordinary man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWv_X06Opgo
“And yet in this darkness and its fantasies, one thing is still clear in my mind. That alone, like lightning splitting through the darkness, he appears so vividly in my mind. […] Hatred…friendship…jealousy…indignation…emptiness…l
ove…sorrow…”

It is not his dream that kept Griffith sane through a year’s worth of sadistic torture. In fact one might even consider the dungeon master’s throwing away the Behelit as symbolic of the dream being discarded. It was his feelings for Guts that kept Griffith’s mind intact.

It’s interesting he should say jealousy and indignation because after Guts defeated him I wondered if the reason for his mental collapse was not due in fact to his being soundly bested. He was always the best and in control and for the first time his control had been broken. But he does mention other feelings so I think if it was a factor it was only a small one.

Back to the issue at hand. The dream had been superseded by his feelings for Guts. But both the love and the dream would elude him as he discovered when he saw Casca and Guts together. The one person he adored and the one person he had always figured would eternally adore him were now so close and he…he was only a burden on them. His hallucination/dream of living a normal life with Casca and raising a child finally sent him over the edge to suicide and I can’t really blame him.
(shout out to hbi2k for the bit about the dream and raising Guts’ bastard)

Even in this pit of despair though Griffith still loved Guts. I am profoundly certain of this. If you want proof you need only look at what happens right before The Eclipse.
“It’s name is Behelit or Egg of the King. He who possesses it shall conquer the world in exchange for his flesh and blood.”

Some part of Griffith finally comes to understand those words and his immediate thoughts are:
(ito Guts) “Don’t come near me! Stay away from me! […] I’ll never be able to… You and I will never be…”

In his very soul Griffith knew the horrors that awaited if Guts came near him and he wanted desperately for that not to happen.

So then you ask, why did it happen? Why did Griffith submit? Several reasons I think. For one, he had just been through a year’s worth of torture. He had just been about to kill himself. I really don’t think he was in any fit shape mentally or physically. In addition when the Godhand show him his “consciousness”, who does he see there that motivates him to give in and continue on with his dream?
Guts: “So where do you go from here? Is this not the path that will lead you to your dream? It is what you believe in, right? What’s holding you back now that you’ve come this far?”

Griffith gave in to the demons and chose his dream over Guts. Why? Because he knew Guts could never again be his. And since the only other thing he had ever wanted was beyond him and his dream of a kingdom could be his with a thought, he gave in to the Godhand.

Conclusion:

The Casca flashback and what the Godhand show him proves Griffith has always suffered. The trek to his dream means not only stepping on the bodies of those who have died but also having their voices constantly haunting him. There was no escape beyond denial and that is what he chose. By the time he met Guts Griffith had sealed off his emotions and remorse so he could achieve his ultimate ambition. Only Guts helped him rediscover his true self. Guts was the last chance for Griffith to salvage his humanity.

I do not blame Griffith for what he did. The world of Berserk is vile and one might even consider it a sort of Hell with its greedy populace and pointless wars. So Griffith came to understand the truth; if you want to rule Hell, you have to be a Devil.

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So that's why I think he's one of the best characters ever in anime or manga. Your thoughts?