Downward Spiral  

“Griffith needed to be stronger than everyone! But Griffith is not God! You can’t live on hopes and dreams alone! It was you who made Griffith weak and sad! Griffith he... Griffith is lost without you!” Caska, Vol. 9 Ch. 9

In many ways, Guts was Griffith’s anchor to sanity. While everybody else held him to the standard of an infallible god, he felt he could relax and be himself around Guts. Although Guts knew that Griffith was very special, he was also able to accept him as a human being, with mortal weaknesses and flaws. Guts was always outspoken, but never judgmental, and truly the closest thing Griffith ever had to a friend. More than that, Guts was the only person Griffith ever truly cared about. “Why do I always realize it when I’ve already lost it.” Sadly, since he had little experience with rejection, Griffith had a tendency to take people for granted.

“He didn’t come back yesterday. That incident really hurt him.” Ricket, Vol. 9 Ch. 4

Well if that wasn’t the understatement of the year! The floodgates were open, and Griffith had no clue how to deal with the torrent of emotions that assaulted his painfully rational mind. What the hell happened? Things were going so well. Why would he want to leave? Did he do something to drive Guts away? How could he not foresee this? Should he be feeling angry, sad, or bitter? Why did he care so much? Griffith could manipulate his surroundings better than anyone, but he could not handle losing control over himself. Desperate for a way to restore stability, he clawed through the haze of mental chaos and aimed for the one thing that was still in his power. Perhaps if he could shift his focus back towards the realization of his dream, he could forget about Guts. So what did he do?

“Sir Griffith!? What are you doing here so late? It’s raining out there!” Charlotte, Vol. 9 Ch. 1

That’s right, he stood in the rain like a zombie waiting for Charlotte to come to her room. She let him in through the window and fell into his arms, sobbing about how much she missed him and worried when he was at war, but his mind was elsewhere. Griffith was here for one thing and one thing only: to speed up the process of becoming royalty. It didn’t take him long to seduce her, and soon they were having wild, passionate sex on her bed. Well, at least Charlotte was. Griffith was zoning out throughout the whole thing and flashbacking about Guts. And then, after Charlotte fell fast asleep, he sat restless on the bed nursing the mark left by Guts’s sword. I guess it could be said that he was still in shock at being defeated, but come on! The guy just got done climaxing with a female and all he could do was curl up in a fetus position and cry, apparently longing for someone else.

 “It’s because of your teenager dreams and ambition, those made you impatient! If you could have handled yourself a little better, maybe everything you wanted would have come about..... It’s really too bad!..... This is how it ends. Your dream, your ambition, everything! Your hawk fell to the earth, and will never fly again.” King, Vol. 9 Ch. 3

Not only did Griffith’s plan fail as a distraction from Guts, it blew up in his face. His muddled thoughts made him reckless, and he was spotted in Charlotte’s room by a servant who reported it to the palace guards. Moreover, he carelessly let himself be cornered because he didn’t bring a weapon, and was hauled off to prison. Deflowering a Princess was a charge of high treason, made worse by the fact that the King had a “thing” for his own daughter (she was beginning to look too much like her dead mother). No amount of sweet-talking could get him out of this one. They locked him up in the lowest level of the Tower of Rebirth and threw away the key.
 
DISCLAIMER: Berserk and all the characters, story, and art therein is copyright Kentarou Miura. No copyright infringement is intended, and I hope that this essay inspires more people to read/watch Berserk! Translation by The Band of the Hawk.