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    Griffith

    Character » Griffith appears in 182 issues.

    Leader of the former Band of the Hawks, and the current leader of the Neo Band of the Hawk. He is the fifth God Hand and is also called Femto. His dream is to have his own country and is willing to sacrifice anything to make it happen.

    Short summary describing this character.

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    History

    Griffith in his iconic helmet.
    Griffith in his iconic helmet.

    Griffith is the leader of the Band of the Hawk. He has a past fairly shrouded in mystery. There is no mention of parents which leads many to believe him an orphan. He had friends but gave them up in gaining the dream of being king of Midland. Griffith is presented as a flamboyant vision of perfection in the world of Berserk. He roams about in all white upon every battlefield. Many are often captivated by his sheer presence. Griffith eventually found those willing to help achieve his ambitions. These people would fall under Griffith as the Band of the Hawk. Griffith has never really held anyone close to him. He uses everyone around him as pawn to further his path to greatness. He had a certain governor of Chudor that believed Griffith and himself had something special. Griffith coldly explained using the man to get funds for his army. Princess Charlotte is another victim of Griffith's ambition. She believes Griffith truly loves her unaware she is key to him truly ruling all as Midland as heir to the throne.

    Caska was long infatuated with Griffith as he aided her escape a lecherous man that bought her from her family. Casca is the only one that breaks free of Griffith's charms to find someone that really cares for her. Finally, there was Guts, who Griffith seemed to actually care about and see as a best friend time after time. Casca noticed more than others that Griffith held Guts over many in the Band of Hawk for much longer periods. It was in fact the departure of Guts that drastically altered Griffith's judgement. Guts was key to Griffith's rise during the 100 year war. Guts took care of all the dirty work from the shadows. Guts had actually became more a crutch as Griffith felt hopelessly lost without him. Griffith eventually becomes more than a man. He is considered the Messiah in the world of Berserk. People now flock to his ranks humans and demons alike. Since Griffith's return as a member of the Godhand he talks seldomly now. He seems to have regressed his personality to the state it was before meeting Guts.

    The Band of the Hawk

    Griffith's formation of the Hawks has never been mentioned. It is known that since its founding by Griffith. The Band of the Hawk had never been defeated. Griffith shows militant genius that gets him and his men recognized by all. Griffith is the sole benefactor of the Hawks. He has been revealed to do anything necessary to provide funds for his men. Griffith already had Casca, Corkus, Pippin, Judeau, and Rickett in his ranks. Casca was his second in command and followed Griffith's orders without fail. Griffith meets Guts after Corkus led a failed ambush. Guts was about to start killing the Hawks when Griffith intervened to save Casca. Guts proved the most relentless foe Griffith ever faced. It surprised many of bystanding Hawks. Ultimately Griffith would prevail and felt he now owned Guts and added him to his ranks. Griffith soon puts Guts in a critical situation to guard the rear flank of the Hawks where he could have easily escaped. Afterward Griffith spends a lot of time talking with Guts over a lot of things.

    Over the years Griffith would be known as the White Hawk on the battlefield. He always rides at the front of his troops unlike most commanders that never went into direct combat. This also gains the attention from the army of Midland and more important the king himself. Griffith is around his twenties when he is knighted by the king. Many of the noble knights were against the rising of a mercenary into the ranks of knighthood. Griffith's first mission as a knight was to secure an enemy supply base. This would lead Caska and Guts to encountering Adon, captain of the Blue Whale Knights. Adon set his own base on fire to prevent Grifffith from gaining it as an outpost. Luckily Guts broke ranks and discovered the preset trap that would have killed Griffith who rode at the forefront. Griffith was still praised for ridding the army of the enemy supply base. Afterwards Griffith and his crew would gain heavy losses and facing Nosferatu Zodd. Ricket had told Griffith of the immortal that had been around since the beginning of the Hundred Year war. Griffith decided to proceed into the enemy stronghold where Guts had already been fighting Zodd. He join Guts to deal injury to the demonic creature. This only excited Zodd which lead to a crushing blow that seriously injures Griffith. Zodd spares Guts and Griffith due to the Crimson Behelit about Griffith's neck. Zodd gives a dark prophecy of Griffith's destroyed beliefs leading only to death for all before flying away.

    Capture and Torture

    Griffith is tortured by the King of Midland.
    Griffith is tortured by the King of Midland.

    Guts chooses to leave the Band of the Hawk to make a name for himself and to prove that he is capable of walking next to Griffith, not just behind him. Griffith has a duel with him to determine whether or not he would leave, but Guts emerges victorious and tells him that he can't fight for anybody else's dream anymore. Griffith is devastated, and chooses to sneak into the castle during the night. After Griffith has sex with Princess Charlotte, the King of Midland has him captured and tortured. Griffith is reduced to a shell of his former self. All his muscle and tendons are ripped off, his tongue is cut out, and his helmet is bound to his face. When Guts returns to the Band of the Hawk, he immediately leaves with Casca, Pippin, and Rickert to save Griffith. After battling assassins and escaping, the King of Midland resorts to drastic measures. He sends the outcast Wyald and the feared Black Dog Knights after them. After a protracted battle, the Black Dogs are routed and Wyald alone combats the Hawk. However, he is secretly an Apostle, and in the midst of fighting Guts, Wyald takes his Apostle form. Guts tries his hardest but can't defeat Wyald, but before long Zodd appears and kills the Apostle himself, stating that it isn't time for Griffith to die.

    With their enemies now defeated, Griffith is taken to the border of Midland by the remaining members of the Band of the Hawk and come to terms with the fact that he can no longer fight with them or lead them. As he lays inside of a carriage, he overhears Casca and Guts talking about leaving again, to which Casca tells the Black Swordsman that she has to stay with the Band of the Hawk and look after Griffith, and that Guts should leave again for his own good. After he here's this, he has a vision of a younger version of himself telling him to forget what has happened to him because his dream and journey hasn't ended. He gathers himself and manages to steal the carriage he is in, but before long rides over a bump that sends him flying out of the cart and into a lake. Griffith, realizing he doesn't have anyone left in his life, tries to commit suicide by stabbing his throat into a sharp tree root sticking out of the lake. He misses, however, and only knicks his neck, causing a small amount of blood to trickle down into the water. As it reaches the water, the blood comes into contact with Griffith's Behelit, the same one he had thought lost a year prior in the beginning of his imprisonment and torture. The blood causes the Behelit to open its eyes, screams, and transports Griffith into another dimension. The rest of the Band of the Hawk, who had been following Griffith in their own carriages and horses, had reached him by this time and were also transported.

    Eclipse

    Griffith reborn as Femto, fifth member of the God Hand.
    Griffith reborn as Femto, fifth member of the God Hand.

    In the other dimension, hundreds of demons are suddenly summoned and attack the members of the Band of the Hawk, while the four members of the God Hand appear and reveal to Guts and Griffith that the latter was destined since birth to become one of them, but would have to sacrifice something close to him. Suddenly, a large mounds of skulls appears under the two men which eventually causes Guts to be separated from Griffith. Griffith is then shown inside his own mind, where he is reminded of his ambition and dream and his willingness to achieve that at any cost is renewed. His determination returns, realizing that Guts had made him forget his dream, and Griffith chooses to join the God Hand, and proclaims "I sacrifice."

    Below, the members of the Band of the Hawk are branded by the God Hand and are attacked with more rigor than before, resulting in all of them being brutally murdered as sacrifices for Griffith's ascent into a God Hand. Casca, however, isn't killed but captured, and is soon taken over to Griffith, now called "Femto", by the other demons in the dimension. Femto orders the demons to capture Guts and make him look as he takes advantage of and rapes Casca in front of his eyes. After Femto impregnates Casca with a demon child, the Skull Knight forces his way into the dimension, and despite Femto's new gravitational powers, scoops up Guts and Casca and escapes out of the dimension and into their real world. The God Hand and Femto are unbothered by this, and claim that the Eclipse is over and that a new age of darkness will spread over the land.

    Reunion with the Black Swordsman

    Femto's body resides in the astral plane now and isn't rooted to the physical world like other humans, and now aides the other God Hand members in their efforts to aid those who have Behelits. When one of these beings, an Apostle named "the Count", fights and is severely injured by Guts, his Behelit cries out for the God Hand and both the Count and Guts are summoned back into their dimension. Despite being severely injured with broken ribs among his many injuries, Guts becomes enraged at the mere sight of "Griffith" and attempts to attack him, only to be blown back by Femto's powers. Femto then turns his attention to the Count, and informs him that in order to gain new life and get his revenge on Guts, he would need to sacrifice his daughter, similar to how the Count had sacrificed his own wife years earlier. The Count refuses, however, which causes Femto and the God Hand to summon up a vortex to take him to the Abyss, never to return for all time. Guts, now recovered, believes he sees an opening and attacks Femto again with his Cannon arm, but again it is easily repelled. Guts is then dragged back to the real world as the energy from the Count is now dead, causing Femto and the God Hand to disappear.

    Rebirth in the Human World

    Griffith, now reborn in a human body, flies away atop Nosferatu Zodd.
    Griffith, now reborn in a human body, flies away atop Nosferatu Zodd.

    Some time later, the God Hand created an egg-shaped Apostle with a specific task in mind: bring about the resurrection of Griffith in human form. To further aid their minion, the God Hand created a plague that killed hundreds, forcing the Kushans to invade Midland, and filling the King of Midland with thoughts of Griffith returning, forcing him to spend time, money, and military power on finding a ghost. They then use their powers to put plant a dream inside many of the citizens of Midland, one of a White Hawk becoming their savior. As time passed, hundreds of Midland refugees soon found themselves herded to the ruined city of St. Albion, specifically the Tower of Conviction, to participate in a mass sacrifice. The sacrifice would give Femto the power to revert back to and walk in the physical realm. Near the end of the ritual, the God Hand's egg-shaped Apostle swallows Casca's Demon Child, travels up the tower towards its peak, and summons the spirits of the dead around the tower. The spirits begin to change the shape of the Demon Child inside the Apostle to that of a human, and before long Griffith emerges from the body, killing the Apostle but giving him a body in the physical realm. Called forth by the dream vision the God Hand had placed in his mind, Nosferatu Zodd arrives and flies away from the tower with Griffith on his back.

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