Question about Griffith and his army

I just need a little bit of clarification.

The army that is now the newly form 'Band of the Hawk' is made up of men, and all of the apostles on earth?

Do they serve under Griffith knowing that he is a member of the God Hand? Do the people who are not apostles know that Griffith evil?

I guess I should also ask... is Griffith in fact evil? For some reason I feel like the manga hasn't depicted the fact that he has some kind of dark intention very much... other than the fact that he wants his own country.

I just finished the manga from beginning to the current episode, so forgive me if these questions seem dumb.

Thanks in advance!

I'm sure you'll get more robust answers from others on the forum, but I'll try to write my response succinctly.

Spike22 said:

Do they serve under Griffith knowing that he is a member of the God Hand? Do the people who are not apostles know that Griffith evil?

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Apostles know that Griffith is of the God Hand, yes, although so far we've also seen them refer to him as god-like. Here's what Ganishka said of him in ep 232: "To follow the Hawk is the greatest thing for us non humans. It is like being beside a god and to be held by god"

In ep 300, humans began questioning the allegiance between Griffith and his army of demons. But so far, they don't seem to think he's a demon himself.

Spike22 said:

I guess I should also ask... is Griffith in fact evil? For some reason I feel like the manga hasn't depicted the fact that he has some kind of dark intention very much... other than the fact that he wants his own country.

Click to expand...

Yes, Griffith is evil. As you know, he sacrificed his entire army. And he's still a member of the God Hand -- demon overlords. To gain entrance to their ranks, he had to sacrifice a part of himself. One function of the sacrificial ceremony is to allow evil to surge into your heart, as told by Conrad in vol. 3. So, despite his beautiful appearance, there's really no getting around his evilness.

As for his intentions, yeah it's a little unclear right now, but we know many things about his nature and the direction he's headed. For one, The Idea of Evil empowered Griffith up until this point, saying: "Your actions themselves shall prove to be suitable for your kind as a whole ... May those actions bring pain or salvation to the men." Griffith is also both the Falcon of Light and Falcon of Darkness, destined to lead the blind white sheep into an age of darkness, according to prophecy.

Hmmm that is really interesting... Thanks for the prompt response!

I think Walter covered just about everything. One thing I would mention,

Spike22 said:

and all of the apostles on earth?

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So far Ganishka is the only apostle we know of that did not join Griffith's army. However imo there may be apostles around the world that simply could not make the journey. I mean could you imagine something like the chicken apostle or something like the beherit apostle swimming across the ocean in order to join Griffith? As far as I'm aware, there is insufficient information for a definite yes or no answer.