“They are willing to sacrifice their lives for my dream.” Griffith, Vol. 6 Ch. 6

Griffith never took anything that wasn’t his. He had never lied about his intentions, or the lengths to which he would go to see them done. His wo/men admired him for that. All the Hawks swore to die for his dream. Was his dream selfish? Maybe. That didn’t make it wrong, and it didn’t make him evil to ask of his troops that which they would freely give him: their loyalty, their lives. Sure, they expected the sacrifice would take place on the battlefield, but it would still be a sacrifice. There’s no fundamental difference between sacrifice on the battlefield and sacrifice to demons... if both further Griffith’s dream, heh. “I’ll be the one who will decide your place of death.” Of course, Griffith would never have sacrificed his men before the prison incident – he had far too much confidence in himself for that! But with everything else taken away from him, they were his last trump card, and he was willing to use it. This raises the question of whether he cared about his soldiers at all, or merely saw them as stepping stones on his path to glory.

“I do not care about you one way or the other. No hate, no affection... Nothing. You just happened to be there and I used you. You’re a pebble that happened to fall onto the path I walk. That is all.” Griffith, Vol. 8 Ch. 2

These were Griffith’s words to the Baron who he sold himself to when he was younger – right before he killed him. Were those words meant purely for the Baron, or could they apply just as easily to any member of the Hawks? Frankly, at the point they were spoken, it was hard to tell, but let’s take this one step at a time. No matter what Griffith told himself or others, the night he spent with the Baron did traumatize him. How much he repressed that pain by the time these words were spoken is anyone’s guess. The reason he gave himself to the Baron at all was because he wanted to lower the death toll of his troops, inspired by his sympathy for a little boy that died under his command. This could be interpreted in either a purely caring or a purely rational way, but that boy’s appearance in Griffith’s guilty conscience showed it was at least both. The pebble metaphor was later used by Guts to describe his leaving as “just a small pebble in your path.” Surely we could all agree that it rocked Griffith’s world more than a tiny pebble. The only question that remains is... How much did he care?

“A sacrifice can’t just be any flesh and blood. It has to be someone dear to you... Someone who’s part of your heart.” Slan, Vol. 3 Ch. 2

Ironically, it is the fact that the Hawks qualified as sacrifices that proves how much he loved them. You NEED people you care about for the ritual to work! There is no way around this! The stronger the caring, the more power is gained. In the past, people have sacrificed their wives, their daughters, and other loved ones to become minions like Zodd or Wyald. No small feat! Yet consider how much greater Griffith’s sacrifice must have been if it had the power to turn him into a god!