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This Pure Evil was Headlined on June 2023. | ||
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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | I sacrifice.
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„ |
| ~ Griffith's short two words that sealed the fate of the old Band of the Hawk. |
| “ | Femto: I came here to know for certain whether anything will shake my heart. While I stand before you in this new body of flesh...it seems...I am...free. Guts: You mean after what you did, after all those you betrayed, you don't feel anything!? Femto: I'll not betray my dream. That is all. |
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| ~ Femto when confronted by an enraged Guts, showing that he has absolutely no remorse for all that he's done. |
Griffith, later known as Femto, is the main antagonist of the Berserk franchise.
He was the founder and leader of the mercenary band known as the Band of the Hawk. As a mercenary, he fought in the Hundred Year War, restored peace to the war-torn kingdom of Midland, and was once a close friend and ally of Guts. After being tortured by the king, however, Griffith used the Eclipse to sacrifice his entire band and was later reborn as Femto, the fifth and final member of the God Hand. He is the arch-nemesis of Guts and Casca.
In Japanese, he has been voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa, who also voiced Naraku, and Takahiro Sakurai, who also voiced Kenjaku, with Minami Takayama and Junko Takeuchi voicing them as a child. In English, he has been voiced by Kevin T. Collins and Steve Staley as an adult and Veronica Taylor and Barbara Goodson as a child.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- His backstory of living in poverty as a child, which fueled his desire to have a kingdom, is tragic and understandable, to be sure, given the state of the Berserk universe. However, even without all the glorification he gained, his past on its own does not stand out as well as many other characters, with Guts serving as a prime example as he went through a much worse childhood than his and so far has not gone down the dark path he took.
- Although he is affectionate towards Charlotte, it's shown that he has no real love for her, viewing the princess as just as expendable as how he views the Band of the Hawk involving Guts, whom he sacrificed in order to pursue his dream. In his own words, he will never betray his dream, meaning if he had to get rid of Charlotte in order to achieve his dream, he would do it.
- While his torture was horrible, he knew that having sex with Princess Charlotte before marriage would get him in serious trouble, but he did it anyway. Furthermore, he himself worsened his punishment by openly mocking the king and exposing his secret lust for his daughter. Therefore, he brought all of this inhumane torture onto himself in the first place.
- And even if we count the torture as somewhat tragic, it was the king who did all of this. His comrades in Band of Hawk had absolutely nothing to do with his torture; instead, they were trying their best to rescue him. And what he did in return was betray and kill the ones who helped him out of pure selfishness. If anything, his ingratitude completely subverts his so-called tragedy.
- While it has been said that when someone loses their humanity upon becoming a member of the God Hand, this does not validate Femto lacking any moral agency, as it was his choice to bring this upon himself knowing there would be a dark turn of a payment when going down this path.
- Furthermore, the behavior of some Apostles provides evidence to disprove this, as the Count willingly accepted eternal damnation rather than sacrifice his beloved daughter for being fully healed. While God Hand are different as their transformation was more drastic and required more sacrifices than regular Apostles, they are still closely related to Apostles.
- Although Griffith used to have multiple redeeming qualities, including: genuine care about his friend Guts and the Band of the Hawk; a sense of honor, even to the people he killed; feeling genuine remorse and guilt for leading many of his men to their deaths for the sake of his dream; all of them were abandoned when he sacrificed his comrades to become Femto, and raped Casca in front of Guts out of spite.
- Even prior to becoming Femto, Griffith would frequently justify the deaths of his comrades by telling himself that they were necessary to achieve his dream, showing that even though he felt guilty over them, he'd much rather delude himself and bury those feelings under his own pride and lust for power as a way to evade any responsibility over their demises.
- Although he protects the citizens of Falconia from threats, it's only because he seeks to maintain their admiration for him in order to fuel his ego. Furthermore, he himself is responsible for creating these said threats, meaning that he doesn't care about hurting his own people if it benefits him and his narcissism in the long run.
- Even though he is portrayed as an complex villain, that does not entail him being morally ambiguous, as he puts his desires above even the ones closest to him, making him three-dimensional and well-written, not anti-villainous or sympathetic.
As Griffith[]
Golden Age[]
- Even before he fell into villainy, he was already a selfish and egotistic person, preferring his dream of a shiny castle to his comrades in Band of Hawk.
- He was rather possessive of Guts, having him join his mercenary band through a duel and openly saying Guts was his.
- He ordered Casca, explicitly against her wishes, to sleep with Guts to keep him warm, claiming that this was "a woman's duty".
- When conversing with Charlotte, he reveals that he doesn't really see any of the Band of Hawk members as his friends, nor does he regard any of them as equals, but instead as subordinates. This demonstrates his arrogance and his belief in his superiority.
- He ordered Guts to assassinate Count Julius as retaliation for his attempt to kill him.
- Upon hearing that both Julius and his son Adonis had been killed, Griffith devilishly smiles, pleased to know that a potential suitor for Charlotte had been eliminated despite Adonis only being a child.
- He has Minister Foss's daughter kidnapped to force him to cooperate with Griffith in the assassination of the Queen of Midland and all her conspirators. He then has Guts murder the thieves who'd kidnapped the daughter to tie up all the loose ends.
- When Guts decided to leave the Band of Hawk, Griffith initiated a duel to force Guts to stay with him, even though he'd said before that he only viewed people as friends if they followed their own dreams, showing his massive hypocrisy. During their duel, Griffith was even prepared to kill him if necessary, thinking that if he couldn't have Guts, then he didn’t care.
- After Guts leaves Band of the Hawk, Griffith goes to princess Charlotte's bedroom and has sex with her. He is thinking about Guts in the entire progress, taking Charlotte as a substitute of his obsession with Guts. His selfish actions ended up getting the Band of the Hawk turned into outlaws, and more than half of them were killed.
- It's heavily implied from Griffith's behavior that he would have had sex with her even if she resisted him.
- In the 1997 anime, he's shown forcing himself on Charlotte, sleeping with her despite her repeatedly telling him to stop.
- During his time being physically disabled and incapacitated, his deep psychological contemplation on his humiliation of being defeated by Guts and the latter leaving him and his band left him with great hatred towards his former friend. When Guts found and rescued him, he attempted to strangle Guts by the throat, which shocked Judeau, a loyal follower of Griffith, and possibly broke his respect for him.
- After being rescued, he tried to force himself on Casca after seeing how she started a relationship with Guts.
- While he tells Guts to stay away from him as the Crimson Behelit activates the Eclipse, it wasn't because he wanted to save him, but rather because he simply didn't want to be rescued and spend the rest of his life getting constantly pitied by the Band of the Hawk. This is made more clear by his following line, in which he says, "I'll never be able to forgive you".
- He sacrifices scores of the Band of the Hawk members, having them all devoured by Apostles and having their souls undeservingly sent to the Abyss, a place of eternal suffering. To make matters worse, they had all risked their lives to rescue him from the king after he had been tortured for so long, and he repaid them by betraying them in the worst way possible for his own selfish gain.
As Femto[]
- Rapes Casca out of revenge on Casca and Guts for making independent plans and pitying him, which horrified Guts to the point of sacrificing his left arm by slicing it off to save Casca and psychologically broke Casca for years, and even when she recovered, she was still horribly traumatized to the point that even seeing Guts caused her to pass out from the horrors of the Eclipse. What's more, while the sacrifice of the Band of the Hawk members was necessary for his transformation, there was no reason to rape Casca beyond sheer sadism and spite and to assert his dominance over them.
- What makes this even more horrific is that anyone who has been branded with the Brand of Sacrifice experiences intense pain whenever in the vicinity of the God Hand, meaning Casca was put through horrendous physical pain throughout the entire ordeal.
- He makes Guts and Casca's Eclipse survival a fate worse than death due to how their marked brand attracts apostles and dead spirits to attack them at night, placing their lives in danger every night until they die. And even if they die, they won't rest in peace, for they will be damned to the Abyss once they perish due to the brands inflicted on them.
- Kills some Apostles with his new powers in an attempt to stop Skull Knight's assault. This underlines his indifference towards those who are inferior to him in spite of the fidelity and respect that they may feel for him (the fidelity and respect that the Apostles had shown, in fact, by welcoming his rebirth with a bow).
- He corrupts Guts and Casca's conceived child's nature. Some time later, causality has it that the child fuses with his vessel to be reborn into the physical plane.
Black Swordsman[]
- Upon reuniting with Guts, he mocks him as beneath the God Hand's notice and callously dismisses his presence, genuinely hurting and then enraging the swordsman. He then attempts to convince the Count to sacrifice his daughter to rejuvenate himself after the battle with Guts. When he refused, he showed no care for when he was dragged to hell.
- He shows no regard for the Apostles who serve him, as when the Count pointed out how many of them Guts has killed, Femto replied with indifference that all of those deaths were inconsequental to the God Hand, deeming the Apostles killed by Guts as "worthless servants".
Conviction[]
- He indirectly caused the deaths of thousands of people prior to his Incarnation Ceremony, in which he regains a body so that he can be in the physical world.
- When Guts confronted him over his feelings for the atrocious crimes and betrayals he committed, he merely replied that he would not betray his dream, remarking that he was free from all moral restraints and showing no remorse whatsoever for any of his evil deeds.
- While he did save Casca from falling rocks and has not made any attempts to kill either her or Guts despite the swordsman opposing Femto, it is heavily implied that this is due to the influence of the demon child, who holds a strong bond with both of its parents.
Millennium Falcon[]
- He sends his apostles to kill Flora and burn the Spirit Tree she guarded because both are obstacles to his future plans.
- He triggers the Great Roar of the Astral World, unleashing several astral creatures onto the world, which kill countless people and force the survivors to seek refuge in Falconia under his rule.
- Despite defeating the Kushans and liberating the people of Midland from the evil Emperor Ganishka, this was done for pragmatic reasons, as his conflict with the apostle was little more than a means to get his own kingdom and ensure the loyalty of the human race. Additionally, it is somewhat implied that he, alongside the other members of the God Hand, were responsible for the Kushan invasions to begin with as a means of achieving their evil agenda at the very least.
Fantasia[]
- Though he seemingly allows Rickert to leave peacefully after the latter slaps him, it remains unclear whether it is because he thought Rickert's existence to be too insignificant or if he believed killing Rickert out in the open would damage his reputation.
- He sheds tears when speaking to Guts, but it is most likely that the Moonlight Child caused this because he is Casca's unborn child with Guts, who resides within Femto's body and possesses his consciousness during a full moon.
- Upon regaining control of his body, he mockingly smiles at Guts while he dodges his attempts to kill Femto with the Dragonslayer sword.
- He causes more danger to Guts' band by sending Zodd to attack Guts.
- His presence causes the island to break apart, sending Farnese, Schierke, and Guts falling down the crevices. He also shows no concern over Farnese or Schierke being put in danger.
- He kidnaps Casca while grabbing her breast and takes her to the World Tree. Though he does hold her gently and cradles her unconscious body in his arms while he takes her hand, this is very likely to be due to the influence of the Moonlight Child and the bond he and Casca created while the child was on the island and taking her to the World Tree.
- Furthermore, Casca's kidnapping and Guts' inability to land even a single blow on Femto would push Guts to the edge of despair and allow the Beast of Darkness to take over.
- His actions caused Elfhelm's spirit tree to collapse, causing all of the astral creatures on the island to disappear, including Guts' newest companion, Isma, and making the human mage denizens start losing their magic power.
- Once he brings Casca to Falconia, he keeps her trapped in a prolonged slumber where she experiences dreams of a life in Falconia.
Trivia[]
- The reason why he is called by his God Hand name on this Wiki instead of his human name is because Femto serves as Griffith's Pure Evil self, being an entity that he chose to become while devoid of any humane respect for even the ones closest to him. Even though he has mostly been addressed as Griffith post-Eclipse, that is only because many of the people in the story only see who he is on the surface with no knowledge of his true nature.
- His actions and atrocities can be seen as the reason for the high baseline in the dark fantasy genre and why the heinous standard in those stories almost always outweighs the low admirable standards in said works with him being the Seinen Villain Archetype.
- He alongside Light Yagami, Dr. James Sheridan, Akio Ohtori, King Edward V, Movie Sentinel Prime and the Unicron Trilogy Megatron are the only Pure Evils to be also an Inconsistently Admirable.
External Links[]
- Griffith on the Villains Wiki
- Griffith on the Berserk Wiki
- Griffith on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- Griffith on the VS Battles Wiki
- Griffith on the Moral Ranking Wiki
- Femto on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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The God Hand Apostles Prototype Fanon | ||