Griffith's dream

[Rulakir]

In episode 23 I think it was, Griffith had a dream after falling out of the wagon and into the pond. The dream supposedly takes place sometime after their wars are over. Caska was in that dream, probably as his wife and they have a son.... named Gatts. The tone of this dream was really peaceful, no fighting or anything like that. Although Gatts and their friends are mentioned for a second, they are never seen. It seemed like the perfect life Griffith and Caska could have had.

Anyway, what was the meaning of this dream? Was it the kind of life Griffith really wanted; to be Caska and to have a son? Does Griffith love Caska?

[MANTA]

This is a ver intruiging question. One that is not easily answered as I have to say that dream is probably the most puzzling sequence in berserk (in my opinion) as, at the time, I did not get what it meant and how it fit in describing the charecter of Griffith.

To start off there are two main questions: Does Griffith love Caska? and What does the dream mean?

To answer the first question I would have to say yes. What gave it away was the look of jealosy in the eyes of griffith after being tortured whenever he saw Gatts and Caska together, which meant that he had some feelings towards Caska. I believe Griffith never acknowledged such feelings in an attempt to be true to his dream, he had to act with rationale and not emotions.

As for the second question, I will try to break up the dream into pieces to analyze. Caska lives with Griffith and brings him his food, this means that Caska plays the role of the wife. There is a child playing outside named Gatts, he is likely the son of Griffith and Caska, I say this because Caska mentions at one point about the "three" of them. There is someone or something outside playing with Gatts named Pippen. Now this charecter can either be the same Pippen as the one with the hawks, or a different person named Pippen. But the explanation I thought fit best was that Pippen is the name of the dog they had. The reason I say this is because as I mentioned Caska refered to only 3 people in the family, and if Pippen was the same Pippen we all know and love then she would have called out to him to join their meal. But she asked Gatts to come in. This leads me to belieive that Pippen was a name of a pet whome Gatts was playing with outside.

Another point in the dream is shield with the Band of Hawk logo on it, this is important since it signifies that the Band of Hawk was around in some shape or form in the reality this dream was describing. Seeing as it was a shield on the wall then the hawks had to be a group of fighters, I am venturing that they are the same hawks we know. Caska also mentions how long it has been since they saw their friends, I think that too is a reference to the hawk members. The last point about the dream is serenity, the dream was far more peaceful than the life Griffith currently had, and he enjoyed this serenity. This is key to understanding the dream. Why was the dream peaceful? Because there where no wars, the band of hawk has been disbanned for years it seems and they all went their seperate ways, Griffith married Caska, they had a child and lived a peaceful life. Another important thing in the dream is that Griffith is living in a simple house, which means he is not king, which means he did not accomplish his goal. So he disbanned the hawks before accomplishing his goal, meaning he decided to abandon his dream.

This is what I think the dream represents, it shows another life Griffith could have lived if he had decided to give up his goal of becoming king. He could have lived a quite life, a simple life, a normal life.

[Rulakir]

I also find it quite ironic that this scene is shown before the series takes thee dramatic turn. The dream was heaven, but the reality was nowhere near that and all turned into hell. It looked like a last look at human life... a look at what could have been if his life was approached differently.

[Maccy99]

Griffith didn't love Caska. He was just a possesive ------- imagining how life could be different. He just wanted to be with Caska in the end because he was pissed that Gatts was taking what he thought was his.

[gaspacho soup]

Their was no particular meaning behind it i don't think, it was simply a dream about what could have been. Griffith realized how much simpler and happier life could have been for him, if he hadn't been so bent on becoming a king. If he wasn't so focused on that goal of his, he could have married Caska (The looks of jealousy in his eyes when he was watching Gats & Caska shows that he had feelings for her, however supressed.) and had children etc, and not lose her to Gatsu. He wouldn't have been on the brink of insanity and would still have the ability to talk, and walk.

In the end he only wanted normality.