The King of Midland (ミッドランド国王 Middorando kokuō?) is the previous ruler of Midland. His actual name is never mentioned.
Appearance
He was a tall man with long brown hair and facial features. He is always seen dressed in blue, the color of midland. In the manga, for reasons unknown, his hair whitened and his body became emaciated a year after he had Griffith imprisoned.
Personality
He was largely seen as a fair, wise, and generous man, allowing the Band of the Falcon into the ranks of the nobility, and rewarding them generously for their assistance against the Tudors. However, he was also a cruel and deranged man beneath the benevolent facade. After discovering Griffith's seduction of his daughter, he subjected the man to unbelievably horrendous torture. He also lusted after his own daughter, raising her to be weak and timid to draw her back to him.
History
Golden Age Arc
The King is first seen when he observes the Band of the Falcon decimating the Black Ram cavalry of Chuder. Taking a shining to Griffith, the King makes the Falcons a part of his army and later names Griffith viscount, while gradually making his group take the place of Julius and his White Dragon Knights. Once the Hundred Year War ended, the King announces Griffith's promotion to General within a couple months.
Yet, when the King learns that Griffith had sexual relations with his daughter Charlotte, he orders the capture and execution of the Falcons, and personally lashes their leader in the Tower of Rebirth. Griffith's remarks about the King's incestuous lust for his child and belief that he won the war himself pushes the King to the brink of utter rage. After exhausting himself, the King gives the torturer instructions to keep Griffith alive to be endlessly tortured. When the King visits his resting daughter, he gives into weakness, he nearly sexually assaults her but Charlotte fought back and kicked him out of her room, causing Charlotte to hate and despise her father deeply, even going as far as to no longer call him her father.
A year later, the King learns of Griffith's escape and sends a group of Bakiraka assassins after them. However, the assassins fail, and the King, after telling Charlotte that he will not continue his hunt for Griffith when she uses his lust for her as blackmail to save Griffith, secretly entrusts the task to Wyald and his brutish mercenaries.
Conviction Arc
The Falcon of Light in the Midland King's vision.
Two years after Griffith escaped from the Tower of Rebirth, the king has fallen to illness. On his deathbed, the king has a vision of the Falcon of Light in a dream, like many in his kingdom. In the king's delirious vision, he is sitting on his throne, his soldiers keeping him from his daughter, as the Falcon of Light appears behind her then reveals itself to be Griffith. The sight makes the king wonder, in his dying moment, if all that he wanted was someone to free him from the burden of his rule after all.
Gallery
Notes
- In the Berserk film trilogy, the King didn't become sick like in the manga.
- In the 2016 Berserk anime, the King's vision was cut from the story.