Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent — Ending Explained

The turning point of the film is the agonizing realization that Griffith cannot be saved. Emaciated and mute, Griffith attempts to end his own life, only to inadvertently discover his lost Behelit. His spilled blood during a solar eclipse triggers an interdimensional shift, pulling the entire Band of the Hawk into the Abyss.

Here, the God Hand offers Griffith a Faustian bargain. Driven by a vision of his unfulfilled dream, Griffith utters, "I sacrifice." What follows is one of the most horrific twists in fiction: the loyal Hawks are branded and systematically slaughtered and devoured by terrifying Apostles. Guts fights with inhuman rage, watching his friends die one by one.

The ultimate betrayal occurs when Griffith is reborn as Femto. To assert his new dominance and sever his final human ties, Femto violently rapes Casca while forcing Guts to watch. Guts severs his own arm and loses an eye trying to save her. They are narrowly rescued by the Skull Knight, but the damage is done. Casca's mind is completely broken, reverting to an infantile state, and Guts is left forever marked by demons, vowing a bloody path of revenge that launches the rest of the Berserk saga.

A central debate among critics and audiences revolves around Griffith's agency during the Eclipse. One interpretation suggests that Griffith is a tragic victim of causality—that his fate was rigged from birth by the God Hand, who manipulated centuries of history just to break his spirit at that exact moment. In this reading, Griffith never truly possessed free will, and his choice was merely an illusion.

Conversely, another interpretation holds Griffith entirely accountable. Despite his suffering, his decision to whisper "I sacrifice" is viewed as the ultimate act of selfish narcissism. He consciously chose to murder the people who loved him most rather than accept a life of obscurity and weakness. The demonic transformation didn't change him; it merely stripped away his charming facade to reveal the monster that was always willing to step on corpses to reach his castle.