Goals of Griffith in relation to the God Hand

[GhizmoTheKeeper]

I have been thinking about this since the eclipse. Maybe some of you find it enjoyble joining me in this thought process.

So there is Femto. There is Falconia. The kingdom has arrived. Undoubtedly, it would not seem in the slightest that Griffith is anywhere near satisfaction. The question is: why?
Technically, his dream is now fullfilled. He never said anything about the kingdom lasting so and so long or it achieving this or that milestone. So why go on?
It certainly isn't far fetched to say that Femtos perspective includes an enormously more vast horizon than that of Griffith the human ever did.
Is he still pursuing a dream? Or did he make his old dream to be another "pebble" to path the way to whatever Femto desires next?

An especially interesting scenario could be him realizing where, how and by whom the strings of destiny are woven. How "the fish in the pond" are being led. Maybe Femto plans to eradicate the rest of the God Hand. The God-Being never told him not to lay hand on that system or anything like that. Just to "do as thou wilt". Maybe Griffith plans on becoming a "real" dark Messiah in using death and horror as means to dissolve the whole God Hand, God and maybe as a form of self-entitled retaliation even himself. Leaving Guts and Casca with a "you hate me and you are right but I always loved you *dies*". That part specifically is a bit cheesy as I read it now but on the other hand this would be a plausible path that has been taken successfully before by other authors.
A more satisfying variant of this idea would be Griffith setting up Guts to make him sacrifice but one being: Griffith himself - to finally equip Guts with enough power to plow through Mr.Brain and his crew and eventually even "God". Perhaps by reason of "I got my dream, now it's your turn".
Nobody ever expects Griffith to be forgiven. But I refuse to believe that there is no internal understanding in him that the spiral of evil will never slow down if everybody keeps pursuing egocentric goals. So inside his narcicism he maybe thinks to be the hero to end it all in black and white - maybe even to fail horribly and for a completely different solution engulfing the world after his death.
Please tell me what you make of this unnecessarily large wall of text. :-)

 

[Aazealh]

So there is Femto. There is Falconia. The kingdom has arrived.

Falconia is "just" a city. Granted, it's a gigantic city-state and could support a claim of being a kingdom in its current state. If he wanted to, Griffith could have had his coronation already. But we know that he now intends to conquer an empire spanning the entire continent, like Gaiseric once did. So it's probably not quite "enough" yet.

It certainly isn't far fetched to say that Femtos perspective includes an enormously more vast horizon than that of Griffith the human ever did.

Yeah, that's a given. He's really a different being now, and his vision and objectives aren't the same as they were when he was human. That aside, Guts comments on the matter directly in episode 345, on the fact nothing would ever be enough for him anyway.

"To win a country is just a step on the way. Setting a high goal, then soaring higher and higher and surpassing the goal. That is what the Falcon is. What Griffith is."

An especially interesting scenario could be him realizing where, how and by whom the strings of destiny are woven. How "the fish in the pond" are being led.

I mean... He's part of the God Hand. I'm going to guess he's familiar with the concept of causality. No doubt it's all Void ever talks about on their weekly board game nights.

Maybe Femto plans to eradicate the rest of the God Hand. The God-Being never told him not to lay hand on that system or anything like that.

It's the "Idea of Evil", or if you want to stick purely to what's canon, the "God of the Abyss".

Anyway, personally I don't think Femto intends to rebel against his peers or his master. He's playing his part, and is probably content doing so. After all, it was tailor-made for him. Or, more accurately, he was tailor-made for it.

Leaving Guts and Casca with a "you hate me and you are right but I always loved you *dies*". That part specifically is a bit cheesy as I read it now but on the other hand this would be a plausible path that has been taken successfully before by other authors.

That doesn't seem like it would fit Femto's character at all to me. Feels like a betrayal of everything he stands for, and even of what he stood for as a man.

A more satisfying variant of this idea would be Griffith setting up Guts to make him sacrifice but one being: Griffith himself - to finally equip Guts with enough power to plow through Mr.Brain and his crew and eventually even "God". Perhaps by reason of "I got my dream, now it's your turn".

Do you think an apostle could defeat a member of the God Hand? We saw Ganishka try that. It didn't go well. Also, Void is literally the one applying the Brand... There's no way this could possibly work, even if we ignore the fact this scenario is insane to begin with.

Nobody ever expects Griffith to be forgiven. But I refuse to believe that there is no internal understanding in him that the spiral of evil will never slow down if everybody keeps pursuing egocentric goals.

Femto is evil. There is no redemption in the cards for him. Griffith, as man, became irredeemable when he sacrificed his men. But that was Griffith as a human. The being now parading as Griffith isn't even a man anymore. He was reborn as a deeply malevolent being. There's a reason we see almost no inner monologue for Griffith after the incarnation. He's not having nice, pleasant thoughts, even when he has cake with Charlotte and Sonia.

 

[MetalChimera]

Femto is evil. There is no redemption in the cards for him. Griffith, as man, became irredeemable when he sacrificed his men. But that was Griffith as a human. The being now parading as Griffith isn't even a man anymore. He was reborn as a deeply malevolent being. There's a reason we see almost no inner monologue for Griffith after the incarnation. He's not having nice, pleasant thoughts, even when he has cake with Charlotte and Sonia.

That is an interesting way to interpret it. He did consider he might stil have feelings when he encountered Guts for the first time since the eclipse and he spoke aloud and declared himself free of any emotions that attach him to any humanity left within him. He comments on the feelings of the boy and after that you don't get inner monologue becase he's not like a person and Miura coneyed that so well. He is an individual with singular desires, which is why in my post I was implying that only beings with that same singular goal those unpredictable people can do any damage to beings like that. Beast of Darkness and Skull Knight.

 

[Aazealh]

That is an interesting way to interpret it.

I'm not really interpreting anything, merely stating the obvious.

He did consider he might stil have feelings when he encountered Guts for the first time since the eclipse

No. When he encountered Guts on the Hill of Swords, it was for the first time since they met in volume 3, when the Count's despair brought them to the God Hand in their Escherian dimension. And he didn't think he might still have feelings, but rather that he might have feelings again due to having a body of flesh once more. Which wasn't the case, but the boy's feelings for his parents emerged instead.

He is an individual with singular desires, which is why in my post I was implying that only beings with that same singular goal those unpredictable people can do any damage to beings like that.

I was replying to GhizmoTheKeeper, not you. Anyway, you're mixing things up here. Femto is a member of the God Hand and as such is extremely powerful. We see that in volume 3 where he literally doesn't lift a finger against Guts. That's one thing. Another thing is the way causality is manipulated by the bad guys, and how in this late stage, their plans can only be thwarted at the junction of times, when it all converges. So the opportunities are very limited.

And then there's the otherworldly aura that envelops Femto ever since he was incarnated into his new body. It may be a function of one or both of the elements mentioned above, but the result is that he's untouchable by people who exist in the corporeal world. That's what the Skull Knight explains to Guts in volume 28 (and yet, Rickert did manage to slap him). But it's not just a matter of being unpredictable or singleminded.

Beast of Darkness and Skull Knight.

Just to be clear, the Beast of Darkness doesn't exist outside of Guts' psyche. It's just a visual representation of his darkest thoughts and impulses, something that subconsciously gnaws at him and is essentially a result of his trauma during and after the Eclipse.