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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | I anticipate that rather than noble generals who are bound to old customs, it is common soldiers such as yourself, not taken in by status, who will help form the cornerstone of this kingdom. | „ |
| ~ King of Midland |
| “ | I should have known. A commoner by blood, IS A COMMONER TO THE END! After all the times I've favored you, THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?! IT'S OVER FOR YOU AND YOUR HAWKS! YOU HEAR ME?! | „ |
| ~ The King of Midland showing his rage to Griffith while torturing him. |
The King of Midland is a major antagonist in the Berserk franchise, specifically serving as the main antagonist of the Golden Age Arc.
He was Midland's king and Charlotte's father. He appeared as a trusting supporter to Band of the Hawk until the second half of the Golden Age Arc, in which he became the main antagonist and threatened the Band of the Hawk's survival.
He is voiced by Nobuyuki Katsube in Japanese and by Christopher Corey Smith in English.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- Despite initially being a benevolent ruler of the Kingdom of Midland, due to the stress of responsibility as a king bearing down on him, he gradually grows a tyrannical and perverted side, causing him to subvert most of his redeeming qualities as the story progresses.
- He has a perverted obsession with his daughter Charlotte, trying to groom and have sex with her when she grows up.
- After finding out Griffith had sex with his daughter, he imprisoned him in the tower of rebirth, harshly torturing him to vent his anger. It's noteworthy that at that time Griffith hasn't become fallen yet and didn't commit the atrocities he would be known for doing as Femto.
- When Griffith points out his secret lust for his daughter, he orders the torturer to use the cruelest way to torture him but disallow him to die. He then threatens his guards that if they were to ever repeat to anyone what Griffith said, their families would be executed.
- He tricks Band of the Hawk to go outside armorless, then orders to execute them with volley of arrows, causing dozens of them to be killed.
- He goes to Charlotte's room when she's sleeping and attempts to rape her, only to be stopped by Charlotte who fights back and kicks him out of her room. This causes Charlotte to be traumatized, refusing to speak to him and recognize him as her father, with it also having her getting flashbacks of this event when Emperor Ganishka attempted to the same thing to here.
- After Griffith is rescued by Band of the Hawk, he sends a group of Bakiraka assassins to kill them.
- He warns the Bakiraka that if Charlotte gets hurt during the mission, he will use all his resources to exterminate their people.
- When the last remaining member brings back Charlotte, the King executes her with his sword simply for a remote amount of harm being brought to Charlotte from a poison she ended up unwittingly getting from getting in the way of one of the others trying to shoot a poison dart at Griffith as well as for failing to capture the latter even though it wasn't her fault and Charlotte ended up being cured from their antidote.
- He lies to Charlotte that he would stop hunting for Griffith, only secretly entrusts the task to Wyald's Black Dog Knights, a group of infamous criminals and rapists, to capture Griffith, indirectly caused many innocent civilians to be raped and killed by the Black Dog Knights.
- While he was disturbed by Wyald and the Black Dog Knights' atrocities as he reminisces over them, even having sent them to the border to keep him away from his presence at one point, he has no problem sending them after Griffith and the Band of the Hawk as a last resort in hopes of them giving them gruesome deaths despite knowing they will rape and butcher whoever they come across along the way.
- While he used to be honorable, allowing the Band of the Hawk into the ranks of the nobility rewarding them generously for their assistance against Tudor, this redeeming quality is subverted after he becomes insane about possessing his daughter and capturing Griffith.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- While executing dozens of members from the Band of the Hawk and trying to have the rest be killed, threatening to execute the families of his soldiers, torturing Griffith for a year, and attempting incestuous rape towards his underaged daughter Charlotte are enough to pass the baseline, he fails the heinous standard to several other villains including Wyald, The Count, and Bishop Mozgus, who all tortured and killed much more people than him, with Wyald being a serial rapist who violated lots of innocent women. Resources don't help as he is the ruler of a kingdom with the authority to command many soldiers including Wyald himself.
- While he keeps Wyald around under his employment in spite of the atrocities he commits with him not receiving any real repercussions for them, his role in his crimes is still too indirect to help him stand out as Wyald and the Black Dog Knights are the ones carrying them out all by themselves with the King simply sending them out to fight in the war and not giving them orders or intending for them to do anything beyond that, even being disturbed by what they do to the point of sending them to the border away from his presence.
- Although his torture made Griffith go beyond his breaking point, partially causing him to sacrifice his comrades and become Femto, the King knows nothing about it and never has the intention of letting it happen.
- He has some loved ones.
- He cares for his late wife, being made clear to have actively mourned her while ruling as king.
- While his love to Charlotte is extremely toxic, he still cares for her in a twisted way, being protective for her to the point of demanding that no remote amount of harm comes to her when sending the Bakiraka assassins after her, regretting his attempted rape on her, and is saddened after Charlotte refused to recognize him as a father and see him on his death bed in his final moments.
- His death scene is meant to humanize him. In his last moments, he dreams about himself sitting on the throne alone freezing cold. Feeling lonely and insecure, he orders the soldiers to light a fire and take him to his daughter, but the soldiers refused to do that, making him more saddened. As the Falcon of Light appears behind Charlotte, then reveals itself to be Griffith. The sight makes the king wonder if all that he wanted was someone to free him from the burden of his rule after all, possibly implying some regret over the torture he put him through.
External Links[]
- King of Midland on the Villains Wiki
- King of Midland on the Berserk Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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Apostles Humans Others | ||