Berserk and Nietzsche 1
I'm pretty sure Griffith is Jesus Christ.
There are arguments that Griffith is the Anti-Christ or the false prophet but the events in his life so closely fits Jesus's: torture, ascendance into "heaven"/another world (the God Hand's), that I really think he's Jesus. The thing is the universe and cosmology of Berserk is a twisted one. What is "God" in Berserk? The Idea of Evil. What are the "angels" that serve to carry out "God's" task? The God Hands. The task, apparently being "do as you will." Who is Jesus with his weird birth situation? Griffith.
Griffith's story is almost the literal interpretation of this:
"It is possible that beneath the holy tale and camouflage that is the life of Jesus, lies hidden one of the most painful cases of martyrdom out of knowledge about love; the martyrdom of the most innocent and desirous heart, one that never had enough of any human love, that demanded to love and to be loved and nothing else besides, with harshness, with madness, with frightful outbursts against those who denied him this love. It is the story of a poor man, unsatisfied and insatiable in matters of love, who had to invent hell in order to send there the people who did not want to love him--and who, initiated into human love, finally had to invent a God who was all love, all capacity for love--who takes pity on human love because it is so very paltry, so ignorant! One who feels like that, who knows about love like that--seeks death." ---Nietzsche from Beyond Good and Evil, Faber translation.
I'm not saying Griffith's story would come out exactly like that but there is a close similarity between Griffith and Nietzsche's interpretation of Jesus or at least a play with Griffith as Jesus and Nietzsche's interpretation of Jesus.
Berserk had other influences by Nietzsche with its own slant. For example, Nina. You have in Beyond Good and Evil again, "the person who is cowardly or anxious or petty or concerned with narrow utility is despised; likewise the distrustful person with his constrained gaze, the self-disparager, the craven kind of person who endures maltreatment, the importunate flatterer, and above all the liar..."
Nina embodied all of those traits as a character but the entire point of her story arc is that she learned to attempt to change. No matter how despicable and petty she was, Nina was not a static character and despite being a petty, etc., etc. person and ruled by fear, in the end, she took initiative and left Luca. Nina realized she was using religion as a crutch and in a way, she was using Luca too and that she needed to be away from Luca in order to grow.
Just from the very fact that Nina realized she could try to become a better person, she was on her way to becoming a better person. A stronger, more independent person.
Personal crack theory: if Griffith is Jesus, and if Emperor Ganiska is Judas on the basis of being a runaway Apostle, Rakshas might be Paul. Since I know next to nothing about Christianity, I'll just go by Nietzsche from Antichrist who believes Paul to be the one to subvert all of Christ's teachings for power. Rakshas used to kill and was a part of the Kushan army? I think. Well, whatever the case, just a hypothesis.
There are arguments that Griffith is the Anti-Christ or the false prophet but the events in his life so closely fits Jesus's: torture, ascendance into "heaven"/another world (the God Hand's), that I really think he's Jesus. The thing is the universe and cosmology of Berserk is a twisted one. What is "God" in Berserk? The Idea of Evil. What are the "angels" that serve to carry out "God's" task? The God Hands. The task, apparently being "do as you will." Who is Jesus with his weird birth situation? Griffith.
Griffith's story is almost the literal interpretation of this:
"It is possible that beneath the holy tale and camouflage that is the life of Jesus, lies hidden one of the most painful cases of martyrdom out of knowledge about love; the martyrdom of the most innocent and desirous heart, one that never had enough of any human love, that demanded to love and to be loved and nothing else besides, with harshness, with madness, with frightful outbursts against those who denied him this love. It is the story of a poor man, unsatisfied and insatiable in matters of love, who had to invent hell in order to send there the people who did not want to love him--and who, initiated into human love, finally had to invent a God who was all love, all capacity for love--who takes pity on human love because it is so very paltry, so ignorant! One who feels like that, who knows about love like that--seeks death." ---Nietzsche from Beyond Good and Evil, Faber translation.
I'm not saying Griffith's story would come out exactly like that but there is a close similarity between Griffith and Nietzsche's interpretation of Jesus or at least a play with Griffith as Jesus and Nietzsche's interpretation of Jesus.
Berserk had other influences by Nietzsche with its own slant. For example, Nina. You have in Beyond Good and Evil again, "the person who is cowardly or anxious or petty or concerned with narrow utility is despised; likewise the distrustful person with his constrained gaze, the self-disparager, the craven kind of person who endures maltreatment, the importunate flatterer, and above all the liar..."
Nina embodied all of those traits as a character but the entire point of her story arc is that she learned to attempt to change. No matter how despicable and petty she was, Nina was not a static character and despite being a petty, etc., etc. person and ruled by fear, in the end, she took initiative and left Luca. Nina realized she was using religion as a crutch and in a way, she was using Luca too and that she needed to be away from Luca in order to grow.
Just from the very fact that Nina realized she could try to become a better person, she was on her way to becoming a better person. A stronger, more independent person.
Personal crack theory: if Griffith is Jesus, and if Emperor Ganiska is Judas on the basis of being a runaway Apostle, Rakshas might be Paul. Since I know next to nothing about Christianity, I'll just go by Nietzsche from Antichrist who believes Paul to be the one to subvert all of Christ's teachings for power. Rakshas used to kill and was a part of the Kushan army? I think. Well, whatever the case, just a hypothesis.