Griffith is the main antagonist of the series. He is the founder and leader of the mercenary groups Band of the Hawk and Neo Band of the Hawk, the ruler of the city of Falconia and the fifth member of the God Hand known as Femto.
Appearance
Griffith
Griffith is of average height and an athletic toned build, with a somewhat pale skin tone. He has long curly white hair, often seen straight in the anime with blue eyes. He is noted to be a very beautiful man, and has feminine features that many have commented surpass that of women's, while some can hardly tell he is a man.
Femto
Femto appears with exposed scale-like muscles, cape-like wings on his back, with his torture mask (previously the iconic hawk-beak helmet) fused to his body. The entirety of his body is black (dark red in the TV anime).
Personality
Griffith was continually focused on his goal of achieving his dream of obtaining his own kingdom, willing to sacrifice anything and everything to achieve it. From birth he had always "known the way up", allowing him to command several soldiers with his charismatic ability. He strongly identifies with his dream, so much so that he built his entire identity around it. His egotism was exacerbated by his own charisma, and the fact that everybody he met was enthralled by him, either as a divine leader or a powerful enemy, which made him isolate himself from others and his own feelings, though he greatly respected his allies, he did not consider them his friends. However he was not without empathy, one of Griffiths greatest burdens was the guilt inflicted by him by the comrades that died for him. In the early days of the hawk, he encountered the corpse of a child soldier who served him, he was so deeply affected by it that he prostituted himself to a perverted Baron for quick funding in order to avoid risking further needless casualties in other battles. The experience deeply traumatized him, so he isolated himself from his comrades.
Though he denied it, Guts was his valued and trusted friend, he viewed him as someone who made him feel human, rather than a proxy for his own dream. He often put himself in harms way when Guts was in danger, he personally rescued Guts when he was attacked by Nosferatu Zodd and he ordered the Hawks to rescue Guts when he was ambushed by Chuder mercenaries. Griffith trusted Guts with the more ruthless side of his personality, and was the only person of who asked of his opinion. When Griffith asked Guts to act as his assassin, he gave him the option to decline, after his assassination of the queen succeeded, he asked Guts if he thought he was cruel, contradictory to his usual steel resolve.
Griffith was so enthralled by his idealized personality that he could not cope with loss, when an event occurred that forced him to confront his humanity and weaknesses, such as the loneliness inflicted by Guts leaving the hawks, it broke him. What incontestable is that Griffith valued Guts above all other members of the Hawks and was deeply distressed by the affront that another could place his dreams above his own enough to leave him.
Femto is the idealized form of Griffith, he lacks the child like innocence of Griffith and exists solely to fulfill his dream and humanities collective will. He is capable of great cruelty, such as exacting revenge on Guts by raping Casca in front of him, he greatly encourages the Count to offer his daughter to the God Hand. He is more aloof and disconnected than Griffith, his unique perspective as an near omniscient God Hand allows him to view humanity form a deterministic perspective, he does not feel fear or bewilderment. Whether or not he still feels empathy is debatable, when he sees Guts on the hill of swords, he does so in order to determine whether or not anything will "shake his heart" something that he would not consider doing if he knew for sure that he no longer felt anything for Guts. During Guts' second battle with Zodd, Griffith his heart racing, he also shields Casca from a cascade of boulders, he justifies it by claiming it was the feelings of Guts demon child infused into his body affecting him, though this could be interpreted as denial.
Abilities
One of his main abilities after being reborn is the power to induce submission in others just by being around them. The sight of him and the sound of his voice are enough to bend anyone's will and turn them into loyal servants, ready to die at his command. Ganishka had his ambition almost shattered when confronted by Griffith, feeling that he would "sacrifice everything" if he allowed himself to be touched by him.
Femto
As a member of the God Hand, Femto is one of the strongest entities in the series. Every Apostle worships him along with the other members of the God Hand as their gods.
He is present along with the other members of the God Hand when they are summoned by a Behelit in order to create new apostles.
By the end of incarnation Ceremony Femto used the Demon Child as an infant for his reincarnation. This even had an affect on him. When he had his reunion with Guts & Casca on the hill of sword Femto was able to feel the emotions of the demon Child.
He is a gravity/space warper. He is able to create a barrier that deflects physical attacks, and a space-warping ability that either sucks or expels everything within its radius or traps a supernatural attack, allowing him to manipulate it to his wishes. The extent to which these powers have been passed on to his human form is now determined to be the same as at the Eclipse when, atop Ganishka in his second form, Griffith reverted to Femto.
On top of Ganishka when the Skull Knight attacked him, Femto warped space to use his splash from the Behelit sword for cutting Ganishka. Due to the sword's ability Ganishka was cut on an astral Level. Through this Ganishka was ripped inside out. All of the power that he had brought back into the world and had tried to contain within himself then spilled over the physical world, covering it fully in one big wave of light. Thus leading to World transformation in which the pyhsical World merged with the astral world.
History
Trivia
- In the anime series he is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in Japanese, and by Kevin T. Collins in English.
- In the Berserk Film Trilogy he is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai. Child Griffith is voiced by Minami Takayama in the Japanese and by Veronica Taylor in English.
- In the original anime, Griffith's armor is different from that seen in the manga and film trilogy and Femto's form is red rather than black.
- The set armor worn by Griffith during the Golden Age Arc, as well as Set Guts' attire, can be attained in the game Dragon's Dogma. His talon saber and Guts' sword from the arc appear as well.
- It is likely that Frikka from Chapter 00 forms the basis for Griffith's appearance and at least some nuance of his attraction towards Guts.
- The appearance of his helmet bears resemblance to Winslow Leach from the 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise.
- In the original anime, Femto's form is red instead of black.
- Femto's name may be inspired by the mathematical prefix PHEMT or femto-.