I love how Griffith's character will always spark massive debate, and anyone who thinks he has him completely figured out and isn't Miura will always have an eyebrow raise from me.
That being said, there are certain parts past the human world where your consciousness cannot survive. Griffith sank deep and deep into these parts, with thoughts of wanting to die, then of thoughts of feeling numb and void of anything--and this was even after he had been shown his 'true nature' by the Godhand and agreed to sacrifice his companions. 'Griffith's' last actions, if I recall, were in chapter 83 in which he was told to do as he wished, and he stated with a cold look on his face that he wanted 'wings' (of course, what that meant to griffith was obviously just...not to grow pretty wings).
He then hatches, swoops down and commits an act that is so personal and human (in all of its inhumanity) while staring at Guts in spite the entire time. Of course no doubt he did this to hurt Casca, too. I think, as it has been stated before on these boards many times, it's obvious that Griffith and Femto are one, because Griffith transformed into Femto.
Griffith's actions throughout the manga are grand. Like most actions that affect on a grand scale, many can argue for or against quite a few of them (It is the personal ones such as raping Casca in front of his best friend that one can hardly argue about the morality). In order to be a leader, to rise from a lower class and carry such a heavy burden on your shoulders, it's actually quite hard to be a 'good' person throughout it all. Moreso if you are leading an army in which people are dying for you every day on the battlefield. You cannot let that get to you or you will not achieve the 'greater good' in your own eyes. Griffith obviously had let that get to him deep down, but like all humans he had dualities about his mentality and had also convinced himself that since they were all willing to die, they were just tools and should not hold his sympathy or burden him with guilt.
Griffith was a man who enjoyed dreaming. He enjoyed surrounding himself with people who dreamed of him, who had an idealized version of him. As he stated in the dungeon during his mad ramblings, he either had everyone in the palm of his hand, or people becoming his worst enemy and wanting to do away with him. He never had that type of control over Guts, and Guts humbled him in a way. Guts made him do human things that may or may not have had true logic behind them, and Guts' biggest dreams never involved Griffith. He wanted Griffith happy because Griffith was his friend, he was proud to fight for him and help him out, but what he wanted was not in the Hawks.
Griffith loved Guts and while he probably cared for a few people in his life (Casca and Charlotte, debateable, and the Hawks on a level...though mind you he still thought they were tools, or had convinced himself), there's nothing 'off' or wrong about the first real love in your life (that isn't a dream) being a friend. What Guts did for Griffith was humble him in some ways, weaken him in some ways, and made him vulnerable to actually caring about a loss. So while Guts made Griffith more human, that earned his contempt.
I don't think Griffith was evil all along, he just did what he had to do. From his point of view, and if we had gotten more introspective on to his character we would probably have a better understanding of him, without people either writing him off or overanalyzing and justifying every little thing he did. In the dungeon, when we had introspective into his thoughts, I remember being surprised while reading because I had no idea his thoughts, as mad as they were, were so passionate about Guts.
As for certain other things about Griffith, there are points about his character that I don't think the entire fandom of Berserk put together could ever truly agree on , which is why this is such a complex and well-written story. For example, because of how in awe/worried he had been shown to be for Guts and even for Casca during the fight with Wyald, or how lost he looked when he overheard Guts and Casca talking of Guts leaving, or him reaching out to help a falling Guts during the Eclipse, I don't believe he tried to jump Casca's bones in the wagon like so many others believe.
I can see how people would think that, and can be sometimes half-convinced of it. Though, I feel he was desperate for Casca at the moment, because of course in his mind Guts had taken away everything that made him strong and a 'happy' individual, so he wanted to have what was rightfully his. I believe his 'lunging' at Casca could have just been a desperate attempt to 'cling' to her or claim ownership, but I am not so certain a twig-like Griffith with probably no real libido after being tortured by an obsessive creep for an entire year would want to rape her.
I believe that came after he was granted a strong physical body again, and after he was fully convinced by the Godhand and by Idea Itself that this was all meant to happen anyways, so he shouldn't fight it. The last thing he wanted to do before Guts and Casca were fully sacrificed was probably just to humiliate both for betraying him, and see Guts' dreams crumble like his own did.
It's so very ironic because for being the most surreal-like godly character in the manga for so long, so much of what Griffith did was painfully human.
