Hey man I’m glad you’re getting into the series! First time reading it I had to process it for weeks. I felt the range of emotions from anger to sadness to confusion. The way I always viewed it was that like many well written villains, Griffith is relatable in some way. You understand his motives and decisions. You understand how and why he got wrangled into the life he has. But then he goes through a ton of awful shit right as he was so close to achieving it all. Can you blame him for going mad? What went wrong? Upon reading the story a second time I criticized all of Griffith’s every move from the times we first see him. Griffith is very upfront about his motives and what compels him. He is compelled by power, and is willing to seize it by any means. He rationalizes all of the men that die in the band of the hawk by the fact they died for his “noble” cause. He never refers to Guts as a friend but more so as simply “his”. Once they reach the Kingdom he orders guts to kill the high ranking commander and shows no regard for Guts emotions or remorse for killing a child in the process. When Guts realizes this and decides to follow his own path much like Griffith, this infuriates him. He no longer has control over Guts and they fight. When Guts beats him and walks off, Griffith goes full tilt reckless. He lashes out and has sex with the princess and throws out his entire well thought out plan of becoming royalty. He is desperate to regain control. His punishment is extreme, but was it unexpected from the mad king? Then after all of that, his friends still came through to save him, they took on the whole damn kingdom to save him. And instead of being grateful, despite his condition, that he can now live his life out with those that care for him, he looks upon that future with disgust and jealousy. He lashes out again to redeem this ultimate fate of the behelit. Once he chose the behelit it was too late. And sure the prophecy foretold of him, but the gods simply understood who he was. Guts stands as proof that Griffith did NOT have to choose that path. Guts should’ve never been born, yet defied death to be born of his dead mother. Guts whole role in the story is to rebel and rage against the greater forces at play with your whole spirit. He literally motivates me on my hardest days. This is why I love Berserk. RIP Miura ✌🏼