Bloody Needle
I'm a llama!
Look, if people are going to get squicky about homosexuality and homoerotism, so what? Ambiguously-defined relationships are a part of Berserk, especially when dealng with the triad of Gatts-Caska-Griffith, and "love between men" interpretations are part of the equation. If they can't deal, screw 'em.
Personally, I think power is a big part of Griffith's emotional and sexual life, in a very Michel Foucalt way, to the point where his ability to command others is a sort of sublimation of his erotic urges. I mean, who needs a normal, mutual relationship when you have absolute control? Griffith exists in the unique position of being able to get his sexual and emotional needs sated without effort on his part...his radiating charisma compels obedience. As an individual used to adulation (love from those below you in a power dynamic) many aspects of his emotional corpus are undeveloped or surpressed. While he shows the groundwork of compassion, camaraderie, and "normal" interpersonal attachments, the twin forces of his internalized dream/worldview and the external reverence he receives isolate him from normal human interactions and relationships. Crudely put, Griffith is like the ultimate dom, with legions of submissives. Mutuality isn't in his nature, nor has it ever been reinforced by others that it should be. He has only ever experienced absolutes of devotion and emnity.
Attraction (both charismatic and physical) and sex are things we see him use as tools to achieve his ends, but it seems clear that when he does so it's with little enjoyment on his part. In this way we can sort of lump together the seductions of Gennon and Princess Charlotte: both are means to ends. The contrast that can then be set between those two cases is, though...is who's on top. That Griffith commands Charlotte, no question. And in a way, he also has power over Gennon, using the old man's sexual desires to get what he wants. But Griffith's arrangement with Gennon is still a sort of surrender of the self, and particularly of that man's self-construction. The violation is not the sex act, but the submission inherent to becoming someone else's sexual object.
Personally, I think power is a big part of Griffith's emotional and sexual life, in a very Michel Foucalt way, to the point where his ability to command others is a sort of sublimation of his erotic urges. I mean, who needs a normal, mutual relationship when you have absolute control? Griffith exists in the unique position of being able to get his sexual and emotional needs sated without effort on his part...his radiating charisma compels obedience. As an individual used to adulation (love from those below you in a power dynamic) many aspects of his emotional corpus are undeveloped or surpressed. While he shows the groundwork of compassion, camaraderie, and "normal" interpersonal attachments, the twin forces of his internalized dream/worldview and the external reverence he receives isolate him from normal human interactions and relationships. Crudely put, Griffith is like the ultimate dom, with legions of submissives. Mutuality isn't in his nature, nor has it ever been reinforced by others that it should be. He has only ever experienced absolutes of devotion and emnity.
Attraction (both charismatic and physical) and sex are things we see him use as tools to achieve his ends, but it seems clear that when he does so it's with little enjoyment on his part. In this way we can sort of lump together the seductions of Gennon and Princess Charlotte: both are means to ends. The contrast that can then be set between those two cases is, though...is who's on top. That Griffith commands Charlotte, no question. And in a way, he also has power over Gennon, using the old man's sexual desires to get what he wants. But Griffith's arrangement with Gennon is still a sort of surrender of the self, and particularly of that man's self-construction. The violation is not the sex act, but the submission inherent to becoming someone else's sexual object.