Your meta is AMAZING and gives me life! I recently had a friend watch the original berserk anime and I asked him what he thought of Griffith. While he THANKFULLY didn't say he hated him, he did say that Griffith was kinda evil and believed that Griffith always knew exactly what the behelit could be used for and only down played his knowledge of it. I don't believe this to be true, but I'm terrible at presenting arguments! Could you help me explain why this cannot be? Please and thank you!!!
Thatās so nice, thank you so much!
Lol Iām glad he doesnāt hate Griffith, it always sucks when your friends hate the characters you like. But yeah I definitely agree that his theory doesnāt really make sense. Though at the moment I only have manga related reasons because I havenāt watched the entire anime in years and years.
tbh the main thing Iād want to say in response is that if Griffith was evil all along and secretly planning to sacrifice his friends from the start then Berserk is a really boring story.
Like in what way is a story about a sinister dude manipulating his friends for power more interesting than a story about a dude with good intentions being driven to the point where he feels like sacrificing his friends is the correct moral choice?
Or how is a story about a dude whose bff turned out to be a lying dick all along better than a story about two dudes who love each other (platonically if he doesnāt ship it) accidentally ruining their relationship through a complex character-based misunderstanding and being torn apart in an epic way?
Berserk is great because its characters are complex and interesting and have a ton of layers, and interpreting Griffith as evil all along just makes it shallow and boring.
Though if you want concrete evidence that Griffith isnāt evil Iād point out stuff like Griffith asking Guts ādo you think Iām cruel?ā and Guts being the one to reassure him that killing people is nbd and his dream is worth it. And Griffith risking his life (and, consequently, his dream) for no reason to save Guts from Zodd. I mean I guess if you think Griffith somehow knows what the behelit is you could argue that he knew heād survive, but lol.
Thereās Griffith ignoring the nobles to rescue Guts and Casca, which is also a risk to his dream because heās supposed to be sucking up to them.
Thereās Griffith self harming while denying his feelings of guilt, which is the most obvious indication that he has extreme feelings of guilt Iāve ever seen (especially in combination with the aforementioned ādo you think Iām cruel?ā)
Thereās Griffith reaching to grab Guts as he falls during the first few minutes of the Eclipse, even despite Guts being the source of his despair.
tbh the problem is that if his premise is āGriffith knew he needed sacrifices so he valued his friends lives only so he could sacrifice them later,ā those examples still might not convince him. You could show him this bit from the manga (idk if itās repeated at all in the anime):
Griffithās sacrifice canonically wouldnāt work if he didnāt feel genuine love for them, and if heās been planning to sacrifice them the whole time then he obviously doesnāt really love them. For him to be able to sacrifice Guts and Casca etc he has to care about them so much itās like theyāre part of him.
Also thereās always the fact that the Godhand had to take him on a guilt trip and convince him that he has to sacrifice his friends for the sake of thousands of people who already died for his dream, which would hardly be necessary if he already knew how the behelit worked and wanted to sacrifice everyone anyway.
(oh and btw if heās thinking Griffithās āI will choose the place where you dieā line is an indication that heās evil and knows about the sacrifice, the better explanation for that is that itās a reference to Griffithās guilt for leading people, like that one kid, to their deaths. heās owning that fact, because as a mercenary leader itās p much true - people die in the battles he fights on the road to his dream. by stating it up front heās denying and repressing his feelings of guilt. It also sets up the mentality that leads to him making the choice to sacrifice, and itās foreshadowing. But it doesnāt mean Griffith literally knows heās going to sacrifice Guts in a magic ritual - it means heās already mentally prepared to sacrifice his followers in battle for his dream.
Mental preparation that, as we saw in flashback, came with a dose of self-harm and sacrificing himself as well in a way by sleeping with a predatory pedophile, so, hardly an indication of evil.)
