SPOILERS AHEAD: MY OVERALL THOUGHTS AND THEORIES ON ARIAN AND GRIFFITH'S RELATIONSHIP

SPOILERS AHEAD: MY OVERALL THOUGHTS AND THEORIES ON ARIAN AND GRIFFITH'S RELATIONSHIP

03/29/22: this is all over the place lol I apologize, I'll edit this later to make it "flow easier" so to speak, but this is my theories and thoughts on Griffith and Arian's relationship in general; when I have the time and proper amount of research/evidence gathered for each theory/observation, I will make more threads. But take this as an overall thought dumpster ❤

I will FOREVER keep my opinion that Griffith and Arian wouldn't put so much effort into saving each other, which is literally THE OPPOSITE of what's in their best interests, FOR NO REASON.

- Why?? When it would be good for him if she died so Balor would be his/Balor would be safe from her?

- It would be good for her if he died so that he doesn't take her back to her #1 enemy (his boss)?

YET THEY SAVE EACH OTHER, EACH CHANCE THEY GET, WITHOUT EVEN BEING PROMPTED TO BY "OBLIGATION".

He literally keeps saying "I'll take her back with me to my lord" YEAH RIGHT, MF. You spent HOW MANY DAYS traveling with her, hanging out with her, SAVING her, when it's been established that combat- and physical strength-wise you outclass her?? You could've literally just tied her up and plopped her on your horse while riding off back to your clan, but YOU DIDN'T.

As for her, she's even questioned "her own heart" and why she wanted him to run, to not get caught and potentially executed??

This is a spoiler for a later volume, but: when they were swimming towards the big tree, he saw that she was going to drown and instinctively swam towards her (they were literally racing each other to get to the tree first).

Perhaps, canonically, the only guy she seems to have a crush on is Legion. She's shown jealousy in regards to him. At least 4 guys (Balor, Ilan, Gils, and Effidel) have shown romantic interest in her, but she either hates them (Balor) or is at most friendly with them (the other 3).... at first it seems she has eyes only for Legion. EXCEPT this girl has shown jealousy for Griffith when Gisela kept flirting with him (I highly suspect that when she had that nightmare after Gisela had tried seducing Griffith right in front of her, her emotions were so strong that it triggered all those flowers magically bursting into the room).

Those flowers also showed up when she tried concentrating so hard on saving his life as he was near death.

I'm possibly going to do a thread later on on what those roses might mean for the story/ for her once I get more info, but the two times I've seen them happened when: 1) Griffith was in the situation, 2) she was feeling strong emotions.

ALSO, they are the only ones to have seen the other naked multiple times: 1) when she saved him from that snowstorm, 2) they bathed in that sauna together. She is the only girl with which he seems to spend a lot of one- on- one time with, and vice versa with him.

Now, for what I think are the things that made them sympathetic with each other:

For Arian:

- His integrity and honor; Griffith is a man of his word, and despite coming from a clan like his, he's chivalrous, considerate, and polite. She's seen that when he makes a promise, he follows through. I think that Arian thinks deep down, he is a good person and wants him to change sides, although she would never force him to.

- She sees that even though he's made his goals clear, he actually doesn't force her to change her own personal goals or wants (despite them coming into direct conflict with his own). Let me clarify: with Balor, Ilan and Effidel, all three wanted her to drop her own goals to stay with them, be their woman. But with Griffith, although I wouldn't say he actively supports her goals (duh), he doesn't force her to try to change her mind on them. Not once has he forced her to do anything, but instead, grumpily goes along with her. It even seems he accommodates her sometimes. It's this quiet consideration he has for her own personhood that she subconsciously picks up on and appreciates.

- Even though she's tried kinda flirting with him and he gave her a dry-ass response (he's not the flirting type), she has recognized him as a handsome individual (when she was disguised as a Roman noble woman, she told him that "thy brooding face is charming".... in Latin.... which he can't understand... so why even mention it if he doesn't understand what she's saying? To establish the fact she finds him attractive).

- Would also like to point out that when Effidel casually says that "[Griffith] most likely died somewhere" after they haven't seen him for a couple of days, Arian quickly shuts him down with "Griffith isn't that weak", implying that she acknowledges and admires his strength.

For Griffith:

- From his time traveling with her, he's seen her kind and caring heart, that she's selfless. The first time he's ever saved her was when she was with the Iceni tribe. He saw how she took care of a Roman child and how she risked her life fighting alongside a tribe she literally didn't need to fight for (she's just a guest). She's told him to run for his own safety in fear he might get killed after he accidentally killed Effidel's mother. She dragged him out of a snowstorm and used her own body heat to warm him up before he froze to death. When he's near death from his wounds in volume 20, he hears her voice and calls out to her, trusting in her enough that she would save him.

- Her lively, cheerful personality brings out more emotions from him. When we're introduced to his character in Ch. 2, he has, like, ONE expression for the most part (which he's like that for most of the series), but it is only when he starts his mission of taking her back with him, does he show a lot more emotions and facial expressions. This is my brainrot speaking, but it seems that she is the influence that brings out more of his expressive side. I don't have the volume yet, but when she was a gladiator in Rome, and he got to meet up with Balor, Balor asked him to return to the clan (meaning, Griffith's excuse of being told to do so was now gone). But Griffith refused. Balor then asked him if he was having fun doing this, to which Griffith blushes. One look at Griffith in general and the word "fun" wouldn't be associated with him.

- Even though he hasn't said anything in regards to her beauty (which many other characters have noted on multiple occasions, so it's fair to say that in this series, she's widely regarded as attractive/beautiful), he HAS stroke her back when noting her physique (not in a sexual way, though he was just trying to push her, who was asleep, away from him, but thought that when he felt her back). There was also that panel when she revived/healed him, and because she was naked, he gave her his tunic and turned away, with the paneling focusing on just the back of his head after she thanked him (with that typical shojo background that usually depicts ~feelings being felt~)

So, I think, one common thing is that they treat/communicate/see each other as equals: Griffith is either a servant, an enemy, or a loner handyman to other characters, while Arian is a woman, a druidess, or a "changeling"....we still don't have enough backstory on Griffith's past, but we don't see him having any family members in his clan, he's the only (or one of the few) redheads, and his clan members don't really speak to him on an equal level... I'm guessing he was sort of an outcast as a child, and found purpose in serving Balor and made that his mission in life, worked his way up in the clan hierarchy and that's why he is respected by isolated there. Likewise with Arian; she was labeled as a changeling due to her black hair, shunned by her clan. As she grew up beautifully, she was either an object of desire or respected from a distance as a trainee druidess. From my theory on Griffith's childhood and Arian's canonically, they were both outcasts who grew into a position where people respected their status/rank/title, but not really get to know and befriend them as their own persons.

Back to when he was given the option by Balor to return with him (and he wouldn't have to put in the travel time since Balor was literally right there and had his evil unicorn/Pegasus thing that could fly them right back to the clan); since I don't own the volume where this happens (and even if I did, I would've had to rely on rudimentary JP to English translation) I can only speculate the reasons as to why he would refuse his chieftain (whom, by the way, he has NEVER refused and has always strived to grant his requests):

1) He made a promise to himself that he would see this mission through: being a man who keeps his word, he probably feels some sort of personal obligation to finish this mission as a sort of test for himself. Given that this is a very taxing mission (multiple risks along the way, almost died several times, far from home, has taken months or years since he started, etc) and his chief literally giving him a ticket and excuse back home, when his character has stated loyalty to his home multiple times, this seems unlikely.

2) He enjoys the journey in and of itself: again, this man has had SEVERAL death scares over the course of this mission, and is nowhere near the comfort of his home. He also doesn't seem like the type to take a vacation "just cause".

3) He enjoys and likes being in Arian's company: this one is the most likely to me (because of both my brainrot AND from all the previous points I've made). This sole mission is centered around her, she is the reason for this mission. Yes, it started out as a direct order from his chieftain, but when given the chance to return he refused and even blushed when asked if he was having fun. Balor noticed a change in him, a change that Griffith himself did not seem to notice. The people he met during his travels couldn't have been the reason for this (or at least, a huge influence) as he doesn't spend a great deal of time with anyone, besides Arian who he is consistently exposed to. We even see in volume 22/23 that they casually walk around a town together, eating bread, talking as if they were friends in the first place.

Now, this is just from what I've gathered from volumes 1-11 and 20-30 (12-19 I've only seen bits and pieces of and scoured through numerous JP reviews and blogs about).

But imo this is substantial evidence that would lead one to the conclusion of them being an actual ship. THE TIME SPENT, THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THEM, THE CONCERN FOR EACH OTHER'S SAFETY, MUTUALLY TRUSTING AND LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER.