Griffith (Berserk)

Griffith, also known as The White Hawk, The Hawk of Light and Femto, is one of the main characters from the Berserk series.
== Charactah Account ==
Once the ambitious and talented leader of the Band of the Hawk, and now the fifth Godhand member, Griffith holds a central role in the story as Guts' former best friend turned Arch-Nemesis. The manga begins with an introduction to Femto in volume 3, but the Golden Age Arc that follows is concerned with what Griffith was like before he gave up his humanity. It starts when Griffith recruits Guts into his mercenary band by defeating him in combat, and quickly makes him his right-hand-man in recognition of his prowess. This is a point of resentment for Casca, Griffith's most steadfast lieutenant, who feels that Griffith is making exceptions for Guts that he's never made for anyone else. Indeed, Griffith shows an amount of trust and familiarity with Guts that he never allowed anyone else to have, going so far as to risk his life for him on more than one occasion. Still, the question of whether he sees Guts as a real friend or only a pawn comes up eventually, and it may be that Griffith himself thought it was one when it was in fact the other.
Griffith is driven by his dream of obtaining his own kingdom, and stops at nothing to obtain it. He is in a good position to do so, being a cunning strategist, a Master Swordsman, a charismatic leader, and a shrewd politician. His androgynous beauty combined with his persuasiveness and charm allow him to win people over easily. It also helps that he possesses the Crimson Behelit, an Artifact of Doom that protects him from death several times. Griffith lacks any real scruples in his efforts to get what he wants - kidnapping, assassination, and self-abasement—even to the point of selling his body once so he could finance the Hawks—are all considered acceptable, even necessary steps towards his ultimate goal. He earns the trust of the King of Midland through repeated victories on the battlefield, and soon has the king's daughter Princess Charlotte under his spell.
Even as his dream comes into reach, however, he fails to realize that Guts overheard his speech to Princess Charlotte about the importance of one's own dream, making up his mind to leave the Band of the Hawk and pursue a dream that would make him worthy of standing next to Griffith as a true friend and equal. Griffith interprets this as betrayal: when he fails to stop Guts by challenging him to a duel, suffering humiliating defeat and watching Guts walk away without looking back, a devastated Griffith seeks temporary solace by sleeping with the princess and gets imprisoned by the king for treason. Crippled for life after a full year of torture, Griffith is later freed by his companions. After overhearing Casca convince Guts to leave again, Griffith crosses the Despair Event Horizon and, without understanding how, uses the Crimson Behelit to summon the Godhand.
As the result of betraying and sacrificing his whole party to the Godhand, Griffith becomes Femto, their fifth member, earning Guts's undying hatred both for throwing him and his comrades to the wolves and for raping Casca to insanity right in front of him. Now an instigating force for an apparent Age of Darkness prophesied by his new masters, Griffith is later reincarnated into a human form after the mock Eclipse at the Tower of Conviction, using the body of the Demon Child which was consumed by the Egg of the Perfect World. Having gathered a new Band of the Hawk, one composed of both Apostles and humans, he sets off to follow his dream once more. Most recently, he is claiming ownership of his freshly conquered kingdom, Falconia, after defeating Ganishka in a massive Final Battle and fusing the physical and astral realms.
As Femto he has the appearance of a dark figure with taloned feet like a hawk, clawed hands, large bat-like Cape Wings, and a hood that is modeled on the hawk-helmet Griffith wore back when he commanded the Band of the Hawk.
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Berserk
* Berserk (2016)
* Berserk Recap
* Berserk: Season II
* Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King
* Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II - The Battle for Doldrey
* Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent
=== Manga ===
* Berserk
* Berserk: God of the Abyss 2
=== Video Games ===
* Berserk and the Band of the Hawk
== Trivia ==
* The Berserk Official Guidebook states that circa the Fantasia Arc, Griffith is 24 years old, 178 cm, and 66 kg. (NOTE: The Berserk Official Guidebook is highly questionable in its veracity.)
* Griffith's God Hand name "Femto" is a mathematical prefix for 1/1,000,000,000,000,000. That is one quadrillionth, or one millionth of one billionth of the measurement unit this prefix is used for (a femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second, a femtometer is one quadrillionth of a meter, etc).
* In a vision Griffith has after commandeering a horse-drawn carriage, he sees his crippled self living a quiet life, with Casca as his lover and care taker. Together, they have a son named Guts and a dog named Pippin.
* In the original Band of the Falcon's gilded years, Griffith reads up on various fields of study in his downtime, including history, religion, philosophy, chemistry, tactics, cosmetics, cooking, et cetera; his reason for doing so being that, "To become great, one has to be able to do more than fight."
* Following Griffith's incarnation, Midlanders often remark that he now possesses an untouchable and inhuman presence.
== Gallery ==
File:Griffith (Berserk) Render 01.png
File:Griffith (Berserk) Render 02.png
File:Griffith (Berserk) Render 03.png
File:Griffith (Berserk) 01.png
File:Griffith (Berserk) 02.png
File:Griffith (Berserk) 03.png
File:Griffith (Berserk) 04.png
== External Links ==
* Griffith at Berserk Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Berserk