Do you agree with the common belief that Griffith is a weak person? The main arguments usually come down to the following: 1. He accepted the fate of becoming a monster and didn’t fight it. Maybe 99% of people would’ve done the same, but if you compare him to Guts—a man who's spent his whole life fighting against the odds — it raises the question: why did Griffith, who claims to be exceptional, choose the path of least resistance? I’m not sure if it’s right to use Guts as a measure of moral strength, but if Berserk presents these two as equals, then the comparison feels fair. 2. After Guts left, he immediately spiraled into self-destruction. Isn’t that a sign of weakness? Losing someone close is painful, but Guts didn’t die or vanish forever. One could have fought for his loyalty (even if that would have been difficult and might have taken months/years), or chased after him in a deadly vendetta, like Guts did. But instead, he gave up at the first real rejection. The “great leader” chose the path of pathetic self-destruction, dragging down not just himself but also the Hawks, who supposedly meant a lot to him.
I don't consider him evil and I don’t want to oversimplify his character, but I can't find solid arguments against the idea that he's a weak person. I'm interested in your opinion. Thanks
Honestly this entire framework doesn't fit my worldview, and I think Berserk as a story is partially about refuting the idea of a weak vs strong dichotemy as framed this way, with the idea of strength as a virtue and weakness as a flaw.
Casca states a central theme of Berserk here when she says that everyone is weak. Everyone needs emotional support, everyone needs someone or something to rely on. Everyone will break given the right pressure. And it's important to acknowledge that and find things that can support you, particularly people as opposed to dreams.
Guts at his absolute worst denies feeling guilty over causing the deaths of two innocent people by dismissing them as weak and himself as strong. This is very overtly framed as a big flaw and a smokescreen to hide his intense emotional turmoil, as shown through Puck feeling intense pain from his emotions lol.
Strength, in Berserk, is often equated to monstrousness. Guts' refusal to die, for instance, is first paralleled to the Snake Baron in chapter one, and then Count Slug.
And just in a more mundane way, his dogged determination is depicted as a flaw quite often, for instance in this scene by Voice of the Narrative Godo:
Then we have to have consistent definitions of strong and weak. You mention moral strength, but then you also suggest that Griffith spiraling when Guts leaves is weak, which has nothing to do with morality. Is it willpower we're talking about, physical strength, determination, moral purity, strength of character, self-actualization, emotional stability ,etc? If it's moral weakness, Guts scores a lot lower than Griffith on that scale, imo. If it's self-actualization, both are very weak because they're both driven by coping mechanisms for childhood trauma, and neither is honest to themselves about it. If it's physical strength, they're both equally matched before one is tortured, and again Guts' physical strength post-Eclipse is often depicted as borderline monstrous. If it's willpower and determination then I'd argue that Griffith making the sacrifice is a sign of strength rather than weakness, because he does it in the service of achieving his life goal and ensuring that thousands of people didn't die for no reason, rather than giving up.
Anyway, you can see how the concept of strength and weakness is vague and can be twisted to apply in a lot of different ways to make any case you want.
In terms of how weakness is used in canon, Casca does say that Guts "made Griffith weak," but that's not a bad thing in the context of the story. It's a sign of emotional growth for Griffith, a way for him to move past being motivated by a childhood dream conceived out of trauma, and become a more balanced person. It's also very human and endearing, something that makes Griffith more likeable.
When Griffith spirals after Guts leaves, that's a narrative indictment of Guts' decision. Narratively it's a negative consequence of Guts' wrongheaded choice to leave the Hawks. It's not telling us that Griffith is inadequate in any way, it's telling us that Griffith is blindsided and heartbroken and very human, and Guts was blinded by his own inadequacy issues. You can say 'Griffith should've done this or that instead' but that's functionally fanfiction. The story itself doesn't treat Griffith's downward spiral as an intellectual mistake - it doesn't present us with alternative roads that Griffith could've taken but didn't because he wasn't strong enough, it just presents us with a guy in the middle of heartbreak fucking up. It's meant to be relatable and emotionally understandable.
So yeah, he's textually weak when it comes to Guts, but that's a positive thing when it comes to Berserk's themes, even if it was part of what led to tragedy. Griffith getting rid of that human emotional weakness is what makes him Femto. NeoGriffith is much stronger emotionally - he was able to leave Guts on the Hill of Swords without outwardly acknowledging any emotional impact at all. But we're not meant to admire that about him.
So yeah, basically I don't think the story of Berserk values strength the same way you do, so I think this just isn't a good framework for viewing the characters. Griffith and Guts at their strongest by most definitions are both monsters.
I hope this response doesn't come across as too harsh, I think it's an interesting question that provides a lot to chew on and discuss, but ultimately your take on strength and weakness as a framework to judge the characters just doesn't fit with what I consider to be the themes of the story. But thanks for the ask!
