The potentially mammoth, post- torture mental state speculation for Griffith is finally (partly )here
Also since most of these panels were never animated in any form, they might be kinda insightful to a lot of people who either haven’t got around reading the manga or skimmed through it.
For me, as someone who was introduced to Berserk by the movie trilogy ( yeah yeah i know) there was this gap between Griffith putting his hand on Guts’ in the dungeon and Griffith asking (screaming at) him to stay away in the river-Right before the start of the Eclipse- which i was never quite able to bridge until I finally (after finishing the ‘97 anime) read the manga.
I went in with the belief that they were trying to go with a “so he was tortured and traumatised and is now emotionally unstable, erratic, and kind of unhinged” kinda explanation there but really-
It actually seems to have almost nothing to have to do with that.
The interesting thing here is that Griffith came out of the torture with a mostly sane mind.
It’s what came after that slowly, systematically and fundamentally broke every feature of his identity and emotional core.
This is one of my favorite pages of the manga. And honestly I don’t think one needs any explanation for what is going on, the art itself does a pretty amazing job of explaining and expressing everything.
But this is the start of my reason for naming this article “Change”
Because This is the stripping away of the First layer defense mechanism Griffith had built- The displaced Anger.
Ruminating about every unpleasant thing that had happened, was happening to Griffith during the year spent under the tower, Griffith’s reaction to having to acknowledge his pain was to displace his misery onto Guts and hold him responsible. It was a cognitive exercise, maybe one designed to keep him holding onto his sanity using the emotions he could still feel- pain and anger. Because as he himself says “ and now all those great many things I felt affection for, i feel…I am no more capable, it seems like a feeling which existed in a dream. I don’t feel it anymore.”
But of course actually meeting Guts strips that away. His tears blow Griffith’s cognitive exercise to smithereens.
He changes from “I hate you for doing this to me.” to
“How can I hate you?”
But there’s hidden hope there. There’s an implicit- how can I hate you when you cared enough to come back, when you look like you genuinely care.
There’s more of that continuing sentiment here. Guts is in Berserk mode over Griffith and Griffith can see that. Even though he does seem a little bit surprised and thoughtful about it.
“He does care. He did.”
“He cares. He cares. He care— Oh.”
I’m not saying anything, the expression in that single eye conveys everything. The vulnerability and confusion.
Griffith realises that in the time he was shut away things have happened that he is no more a part of, no more privy too. That there may be more to Guts motivations here too.
It’s the first glaring difference between who he used to be and who he is now.
(And no he isn’t happy about it, of course. But I don’t think this is the beginning of his ‘grudge’ against Casca or Guts. Because of later panels I will talk about)
I think this is the point he starts trying to shut off the emotional vulnerability window he’d kept open for a little while here.
Because now more than ever he wants desperately to feel like himself again. And the him he wants to be again was not vulnerable, was not left out, and most of all was….
…Useful.
Ok ill be honest, I cried a little at this smile. Griffith gets his opportunity to save the day again. Guts is looking at him again with awe and admiration. The way it was before. This is good. It’s not all different. He’s free now. He’s back!
Those other things don’t matter now.
He’s home.
The interesting thing here is that you never again see that expression of open confusion and hurt on his face again. Even in the successive instances of him witnessing Guts and Casca’s new intimacy, he looks on either dispassionately or with a hint of pensiveness. There’s no big reactions anymore.
He’s decided to not let it matter.
It’s like slowly slipping back into himself. A peasant girl giving her regards, an almost familiar feeling. He’s starting to feel like himself again. Its different of course. But not in all bad ways. There’s still hope. There’s love and he’s finally starting to learn how wonderful that is.
There’s that little content smile on his face. He’s happy.
He can’t walk or speak or move. But he’s truly happy to be here. To be able to trust . To at least finally be free to admit to himself that his dream had changed. And that he was with the very person the dream had changed to in whatever capacity.
Also he turns slightly towards Casca before smiling off into the distance. There’s no ill will there at all. He seems pretty content with her presence too actually.
It’s distant.
The pressure is off. It’s liberating.
And the peaceful moment doesn’t last. Once again people have started dying for him. Its’ the same cycle all over again. He looks as disgusted as everyone else when he sees wyalds macabre procession. But this time he can’t get up and fight it off.
Once again he notices Casca’s concern, but there’s no reaction there. Just pensiveness. I think the empty speech bubble means he wants to ask though.
He was wrong.
This doesn’t feel like home.
Lying on his side away from the battle instead of the vanguard. Useless. Damaged. Those are his men fighting. The familiar sound of battle, of horses. He wants to be out their in it’s midst. Bring them victory again.
Id also love to hear your interpretation of these panels. I kinda had to cut this much shorter than intended because I thought it was getting too long.
Totally agreed! I think it’s up in the air whether Griffith could’ve been okay if Wyald hadn’t put his helplessness into stark relief so quickly, or whether it was inevitable that the happiness from being rescued and out of the dungeon would wear off and he’d get miserable anyway, but I do think that Wyald showing up and fucking everyone’s morale up so soon after being rescued is a huge part of the reason he fell into behelit-summoning despair.
And personally I do think that his attitude that we can see before everything gets fucked up, his smiles, the way he basically says goodbye to his dream seemingly content to a degree, does mean that if it weren’t for fate and the behelit etc he could’ve eventually come to terms with being disabled and physically dependent, at least if Guts stuck around.
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