Julius

Julius is a blonde nobleman, though the 1997 animated series tinted his hair a brownish shade instead. He carries himself with the bearing of a proud count and general.

Haughty and quick-tempered, Julius held that a commoner could never rise to a general's rank or stand as an equal to the nobility, a conviction that pushed him toward killing Griffith. He drilled his son relentlessly with the sword, hoping to groom him into a fit match for the princess and, in time, the commander of the White Dragon Knights. He regarded that charge as loftier than any duty other men carried. He was also a faithless brother, carrying on an affair with the queen, his own sibling's wife. Yet he was no coward, standing to defend himself when Guts came for his life, and not wholly without heart, admitting that his brutal training of Adonis sprang from letting his own frustrations run wild after losing his wife.

Guts and Griffith first cross paths with Julius as he attends the king on a walk through the castle. When Charlotte stumbles and Griffith catches her, Julius strikes the mercenary for daring to touch the princess. Stewing afterward as handmaidens gush over Griffith's exploits, he is worked on by Foss, who dangles the prospect that Griffith may one day match his rank and points to the Band of the Falcon supplanting the White Dragon Knights at the Autumn Hunt. Foss proposes a poisoned arrow that could pass for a stray shot, and a pleased Julius departs calling it a fitting end for a commoner.

At the hunt he orders his finest archer to wait until Griffith is alone, but the poisoned bolt misses its mark just after Griffith rescues Charlotte from her spooked horse. Furious that the failed attempt has only raised Griffith higher in the eyes of the people and the king, Julius briefly wonders whether the mercenary sensed the shot was meant for him, then dismisses the thought for lack of proof. Griffith, however, traces the poison back to its source and sends Guts to end him. Slipping into the manor, Guts watches Julius spar cruelly with Adonis, then finds him alone brooding over his failure. Julius spots the intruder and tries to fight, but Guts runs him through; he names his killer as Griffith's man before he dies. His death, together with his son's, is announced at Charlotte's dinner party and throws the guests into an uproar.