How’s it going Multiversity Readers? This week we see the series take a major turn. In “Assassination” and “Noblemen” innocent blood is spilled, cold truths are revealed, and Griffith’s mask finally begin to slip.
1. A New Battlefield
The aptly named “Assassination” sees Foss and Julian’s assination plan go horribly wrong. They not only manage not to kill Griffith, thanks to his lucky demon egg, but also end up making Griffith look like a hero for saving Princess Charlotte’s life. Griffith is then able to pivot the situation and use it to eliminate Julian, further securing his own place in the royal court. Foss’s miscalculation was twofold. First, it’s impossible to kill someone preordained by fate to become a demon lord, but you can’t really hold that against him. Second, he assumed that Griffith’s skills lay only on the battlefield, and that he would be out of his element in what the kids these days would call the game of thrones. Foss is gravely mistaken as he realized when he attempts to shake down Griffith for information surrounding Julian’s death and ends up instead incriminating himself. Griffith is much more than a soldier; he is at home on the political battlefield as well as the actual one. His cunning and ruthlessness end up being more than a match for Foss and Julian, especially considering who he has taking care of his dirty work.
2. “Who’s the Kid?”
Before we jump into the Macbeth-style bloodbath of Julian and Adonis, I want to talk about the scene in the courtyard. As Guts waits atop the rooftop for his moment to corner Julian, he watches the Prince and his son sparring in the courtyard. Julian holds nothing back as the young boy attempts to defend himself. The young boy eventually collapses, bloody and beaten as his father scolds him for his weakness. The scene is reminiscent of Guts and Gambino: care somewhere lost in the push to make a soldier out of a young boy who is barely old enough to hold a sword. However, we see something different as well: Adonis helped up and tended to by his caretaker and Julius realizing that he is being unnecessarily harsh on the boy. Maybe this isn’t another Gambino situation. Maybe Adonis and Julius can come together and realize that they love one another and their bond can be deeper than handing down martial skills. Or maybe they both get killed by a minimally-masked assassin.
3. Blood of the Innocent
In a show about a ragtag band of mercenaries, death is common. Much of this bloodshed is at the hands of our protagonist, Guts, which makes it even more significant how deeply different the death of Adonis is. Griffith warns that assassination is a messy business, much different than killing on the battlefield. Advice that Guts brashly ignores as he is all too eager to do Griffith’s dirty work. It’s unclear if Griffith is unaware or uncaring of the possibility of Adonis being mixed up in the plot, but either way the blood ends up on Guts’ hands. Adonis’ death reminds me of the death of Ray Penber in Death Note: an innocent bystander whose death shows just how far our antagonist is willing to go to meet their goals. There is nothing heroic in cutting down a young boy, but his blood is simply a small drop in the bucket of what Griffith is willing to give to achieve his dream. This is the first time we truly begin to understand that Zodd was right: this mission of Griffith’s is not a tale of a hero, but of a villain.
4. The Beast Within
Guts doesn’t kill Adonis with any sort of malice or ill intent, it’s merely a reaction. He was the boy with the tarantula in Breaking Bad, the wrong place and the wrong time. But where Guts and Todd differ is that Guts immediately knows what he has done is wrong. He holds Adonis’ hand as he dies and tells Adonis that he is there for him. In that one moment, Guts shows poor Adonis more love than he has ever received. As Guts flees, he passes out, dreaming of himself as Zodd in a blind rage killing both Gambino and a younger version of himself before coming to his senses. This struggle between Guts and his killer instinct is a major theme of the manga, with Guts’ inner rage and violent passions represented as a mad black dog just as Casca always referred to him. He constantly walks on this razor’s edge, using his battle-hardened rage to take down his enemies but not completely lose himself in the rage and hurt his allies. This struggle begins here, with the death of Adonis. Guts has relied on this inner beast for so many years, he has forgotten where it begins and he ends and Adonis pays the price.
5. Friend or Pawn?
Standing in the garden, with innocent blood still fresh on his hands, Guts realizes three things as he overhears Griffith and Charlotte. First, the man that he has grown to consider his brother and devoted his life to sees him as nothing more than a means to an end. Guts’ life is simply something to be used by Griffith to achieve his dream. Second, the devotion that Guts believes binds him and Griffith together is the exact reason that he and Griffith will never be equals. Griffith could never respect anyone who throws away their dream for another, despite that being exactly what Griffith demands of those around him. Third, if Guts ever wants to be seen as Griffith’s equal, he will need to find his own dream. He was happy to put his dreams on hold for Griffith; he would be his sword no matter the cost. Guts thought that he and Griffith were brothers on the battlefield, ready to sacrifice everything for one another. Guts realized, however, that while he might be Griffith’s most loyal bodyguard, his most capable captain, even his most trusted assassin, in the end all he could ever amount to was a pawn to be sacrificed to protect his king.
