With the recontextualization of Marika's character done by shadow of the Erdtree it changes how certain events are seen. Her telling her children that if you don't make something of yourself you will exist only as sacrifices that wasn't her being cruel that was literally how she survived it's how she fundamentally sees the world. Her shattering of the Elden Ring also makes more sense because she did love her children with the exception of the Omens (with what the hornsent did to her people it makes more sense while still being evil) she did it to protect her children by granting them the strength of the great runes to allow them to protect themselves from the black knives who were hunting demigods in a moment of grief she tried to protect her family and in doing so broke the fundamental laws of the world that belongs to a god who had already abandoned them long ago.
I honestly think she loved her children too, in her own way. I also think she loved her omen children and at the same time, was confused at their birth. I mean Godfrey knew Morgott's name so I'd assume Marika did too. They're likely the ones who gave the omen children their names. I know this is pretty messed up, but I think the practice of not removing the horns of royal omen children started with Marika. I think that was her own strange act of mercy, or grace, for them. I think she was caught in a double bind situation. Do I let them roam free, what of the countless other omen children that have been born and (essentially) killed? She likely felt a duty to uphold her own laws created by the Golden Order, while at the same time felt a duty to protect her family.
I don't want to be that one... but it is actually more plausible that Marika was warning them that if there was no one to take the place of King or God, they ran the risk of being sacrificed, and that is exactly what happened: after the Shattering, as there was no king as a result of the war, we the Tarnished were called to become that king, and for that, at least two of her children will die at our hands.
I don't think Marika shattered the Elden Ring to protect her children. First, Rennala's kids all got great runes and (probably?) aren't related to Marika. But mainly, she calls the Tarnished back (Church of Pilgrimage Melina dialogue confirms its her doing) to the lands between for the purpose of creating a new order, as each Tarnished called have their own ideas on what the new order should be. She does this fully knowing her offspring, with their great runes, will be hunted down and killed so that the Elden Ring may be repaired. Very interesting perspective, though.
@@DonnyKanone The difference is that Marika isn't real and neither are the lands between. We can examine the tragedy of morally evil character's life like this because she didn't do anything, because she's not real.
I find it interessting to mention that depending on what ending you get Melina or Ranni are the only ones in the whole demigod family fiasco who do get to survive Well Ranni technically is half dead, but Melina in the frenzy flame ending is the last Demigod of them all.
This is one of the most interesting literary interpretations of Elden Ring I've heard yet. Also the Caelid pronunciation hit me like a sucker punch lol
i thought radahn holding back the stars was him literally trying to hold onto his family, ie Ranni from leaving and by extension someone who could protect their mom because rykard is no help and he falls sadly trying to fight off a disease and mind control from his step brother/sister. Ranni killing her own body was like her going off to college and coming back a lesbian only for the family to disown her cause her "body" is useless because she cant birth more kids. Godrick as a metaphor for kids that lack a healthy homelife that go on to join gangs seeking power and attention but ultimately fail to realize that their ambition has led them to the place they didnt want to go "loneliness".
Im ngl if my Father reason for not being in my life is the fact that he pulled GOD!!!! I would dap him up. Your Rizz game was so strong you pulled a fucking GOD you got it father I can’t be mad
I mean Radahn seemed to generally love his father regardless of the family fiasco. In one of the item descriptions he literally talks, about being outright proud of who his father is. Here full description: "Helm of the golden lion, with flowing red hair. Worn by General Radahn." "Radahn inherited the furious, flaming red hair of his father Radagon, and is fond of its heroic implications." "I was born a champion's cub. Now I am the Lord of the Battlefield's lion."
I feel like you kind of missed a big part of Ranni, that being that her ending is not just about her, but about everything. She wants a world devoid of interference from the outer gods, where people will not find strength in faith and dogma of higher beings, but from themselves and the people around them.She's basically the only character who has a team, more accurately a family in the game. She loved Renalla enough to want to protect her (phase 2), Rykard enough to give him the Blasphemous Claw, wears the garb of her former (presumably late) mentor Renna, and states she loves Iji and Blaidd.
I had that in my notes, but you're right. I should have touched on that a bit for the reasons you mentioned. She tried to basically brake the cycle by removing it all together and whether or not she loves the tarnished she does love her crew. Great mention.
Your collection of Lore creators is excellent. But you are missing one of the best: Tarnished Archeologist. It's at the point now where SmoughTown and others are referencing TA constantly because he's an actual archeologist so his analysis of the cultural practices, architecture etc. is the best you can possibly find.
This is a great work. The whole story is a such tragedy. I can't recall the last time i empathized to characters that much. Also, i still want to have one more ending with Miquella.
Any thoughts on Maliketh, Melina, and Messmer? Maliketh changed his name, isolated himself away from all of civilization (even before the Rot happened, Caelid was mostly wilderness with Sellia being its major population center), and began what seems to be an impossible task of eating all deathroot (highly doubt that tastes good). He seems to blame himself for all of it. He has such a badass reputation that even the demigods try not to anger him. What we find in Farum Azula is a self-loathing shell of the warrior he once was. A really sad uncle to the rest of the royal family.
To me, Radahn represents someone holding onto the glories of the past to give meaning to their suffering. If the movement of the stars represents fate and the future, Radahn conquering and holding their movement back is directly linked to him using that same gravitational magic to continue riding a horse that’s too small for him. After the shattering and the loss of his role models and losing meaningless wars with his siblings, he’s refusing to move forward in a world that continuously denies him the glory he desires. Even his brain being overtaken by Scarlet Rot is emblematic of this. So protective of a world that’s long gone that his very mind decays and he’s left to eat the corpses of his long-dead soldiers/friends in a battlefield the past until he’s put out of his misery. Even his fate as Miquella’s consort shows how he was willing to do anything to become like Godfrey, a hero of the past, even allowing his soul to posses his dead brother’s body.
Also it’s so tragic that Miquella wanted so bad to fix the sins of his parents and their order and yet became just like them in his attempt to reach their level.
Beautiful video. I had this in mind after finishing the DLC and thinking about the effects of absenteeism. Thank you for this! You earned a subscriber, best wishes for you and your family :)
I'm currently using the UA-cam thumbnail testing program I'm assuming that you're talking about the anime inspired thumbnail. The name of the artist should be at the bottom right of the thumbnail
The stick to your guns shirt? Unfortunately for everyone in this convo, I actually picked it up at a thrift store lmao. I know that's the worst-case scenario, but I'm sure if you do some digging, you'll find a vintage or replica.
Miquella is the morally/ethically worst, most sinister, narcissistic and hate-worthy character in all of Elden Ring. Also, the Greater Will has nothing to do with anything that happens in ER anymore, as the Ymir/Metyr quest line shows. It's all just Marika.
Miquella seems more like a misguided individual to me tbh, as in he does want to make the world a gentler place like he says but he doesn't realize that with him discarding his love there can not be any compassion. But he also does questionable things before discarding of st trina such as charming mohg so he can use him to get access to the land of shadows. Also with the greater will we do know it did do some things in the lands between apart from sending metyr and the elden beast here, mainly making the Nox people live underground after they have committed some crime, probably has to do with the fingerslaying blade, but I agree that the whole narrative of the greater will being the big villain of elden ring and trying to control everything is not true as we saw in ymir/metyr quest as it has left the lands between long ago, maybe even at the age where placidusax was the elden lord as he is waiting for the return of his god that has abandoned him (sounds like the greater will to me), and metyr and the fingers basically lying when they say they're speaking with the greater will, and the golden order being invited by Marika after sealing the rune of death so the greater will probably doesn't care about golden order.
@@yohan9101 Regarding Miquella, his bewitching branch basically reads like a charm spell. He's basically that one anime character that runs around charming other people (i.e. coercing them through magic) to sleep with him and also charming the people that call it grape so they stop doing so. Meanwhile he upholds the image of the infallible, pure, innocent, white angel in shining light, like a true narcissist even though he's content to play 5D chess when it comes to exploiting, baiting and lying to people. Malenia is most probably under the influence of Miquella's charm, at least that's an explanation for why she waits an eternity for someone to return that's basically a lifeless corpse in the "overworld". Meanwhile all the other Empyreans are pretty proactive in the story overall, especially in when it comes to interactions with the Tarnished/player. Also look what happens to Miquella's followers once Miquella is gone. Some kind of freeze or sleep as if they were already dead and Miquella was just a puppetmaster for an army of drones. Others become aggressive to each other, implying Miquella didn't resolve any conflicts, he simply coerced obedience through magic. The same is probably happening in the Promised Consort fight, second phase. Gentle my ass. Gentle only in the same sense as the experience of the imperius curse in Harry Potter (very similar to heroin for the victim, addictive, "blissful").
@@cyrusol Regarding the Malenia part, I don't think she's under his charm, Miquella was actively trying to find a way to stop Malenia's scarlet rot, first he tried with golden order fundamentalism which didn't work, then he created the golden needle that can actually work with stopping the meddling of an out god but only if one uses it in a place beyond time like placidusax's arena. So I do think Malenia and Miquella have a deep sibling connection and Malenia is doing Miquella's dirty work without having to charm her, and her waiting for his return probably referring to the whole "make radahn into a promises consort and achieve godhood" plot, which took however many years since the shattering to the present day, so in theory miquella should return after all of that to the lands between to rule as the new god, but it does feel like Malenia lost her mind after waiting for all these years ngl.
For anyone who gets upset about my pronunciations:
I listen to the Graphic Audio versions of Brandon Sanderson novels.
No I will not be elaborating.
That one line says it all lol.
Could you elaborate?
It's a lampshade non answer lol. My brain just refused to be consistent while I was recording lol.
@@ReptarusOnIce I have never seen more said with one sentence
Where'd you get that artwork for the thumbnail of this video? I tried looking up the description and only found the artists for the animated stuff.
Brilliant analysis, thanks for sharing!
Even if you had gotten all the lore wrong, this would still be a beautiful video. Thanking you for letting us see into your view of the world.
With the recontextualization of Marika's character done by shadow of the Erdtree it changes how certain events are seen. Her telling her children that if you don't make something of yourself you will exist only as sacrifices that wasn't her being cruel that was literally how she survived it's how she fundamentally sees the world. Her shattering of the Elden Ring also makes more sense because she did love her children with the exception of the Omens (with what the hornsent did to her people it makes more sense while still being evil) she did it to protect her children by granting them the strength of the great runes to allow them to protect themselves from the black knives who were hunting demigods in a moment of grief she tried to protect her family and in doing so broke the fundamental laws of the world that belongs to a god who had already abandoned them long ago.
I honestly think she loved her children too, in her own way. I also think she loved her omen children and at the same time, was confused at their birth. I mean Godfrey knew Morgott's name so I'd assume Marika did too. They're likely the ones who gave the omen children their names.
I know this is pretty messed up, but I think the practice of not removing the horns of royal omen children started with Marika. I think that was her own strange act of mercy, or grace, for them. I think she was caught in a double bind situation. Do I let them roam free, what of the countless other omen children that have been born and (essentially) killed?
She likely felt a duty to uphold her own laws created by the Golden Order, while at the same time felt a duty to protect her family.
I don't want to be that one... but it is actually more plausible that Marika was warning them that if there was no one to take the place of King or God, they ran the risk of being sacrificed, and that is exactly what happened: after the Shattering, as there was no king as a result of the war, we the Tarnished were called to become that king, and for that, at least two of her children will die at our hands.
I don't think Marika shattered the Elden Ring to protect her children. First, Rennala's kids all got great runes and (probably?) aren't related to Marika. But mainly, she calls the Tarnished back (Church of Pilgrimage Melina dialogue confirms its her doing) to the lands between for the purpose of creating a new order, as each Tarnished called have their own ideas on what the new order should be. She does this fully knowing her offspring, with their great runes, will be hunted down and killed so that the Elden Ring may be repaired. Very interesting perspective, though.
No offense, but looking at Marika as a tragic figure is like touring post WW2 europe and thinking its the tragic story of the fuhrer.
@@DonnyKanone The difference is that Marika isn't real and neither are the lands between. We can examine the tragedy of morally evil character's life like this because she didn't do anything, because she's not real.
Ah yes, the most ravaged and horrific region in The Lands Between: Khalid
I find it interessting to mention that depending on what ending you get Melina or Ranni are the only ones in the whole demigod family fiasco who do get to survive
Well Ranni technically is half dead, but Melina in the frenzy flame ending is the last Demigod of them all.
This was awesome. You did a great job. And happy birthday🎉🎉🎉!
This is one of the most interesting literary interpretations of Elden Ring I've heard yet.
Also the Caelid pronunciation hit me like a sucker punch lol
Marika really does have Lannister energy.
i thought radahn holding back the stars was him literally trying to hold onto his family, ie Ranni from leaving and by extension someone who could protect their mom because rykard is no help and he falls sadly trying to fight off a disease and mind control from his step brother/sister. Ranni killing her own body was like her going off to college and coming back a lesbian only for the family to disown her cause her "body" is useless because she cant birth more kids. Godrick as a metaphor for kids that lack a healthy homelife that go on to join gangs seeking power and attention but ultimately fail to realize that their ambition has led them to the place they didnt want to go "loneliness".
Im ngl if my Father reason for not being in my life is the fact that he pulled GOD!!!! I would dap him up. Your Rizz game was so strong you pulled a fucking GOD you got it father I can’t be mad
I mean Radahn seemed to generally love his father regardless of the family fiasco.
In one of the item descriptions he literally talks, about being outright proud of who his father is.
Here full description:
"Helm of the golden lion, with flowing red hair.
Worn by General Radahn."
"Radahn inherited the furious, flaming red hair of his father Radagon, and is fond of its heroic implications."
"I was born a champion's cub. Now I am the Lord of the Battlefield's lion."
As someone with a terrible mother, seeing the amount of people defending Marika has irked me
People love making excuses for obvious villains but its somewhat the writer too, as in real life.
She's hot. Nobody made excuses for Gwyn back in Dark Souls because he was a crispy old geezer
I feel like you kind of missed a big part of Ranni, that being that her ending is not just about her, but about everything. She wants a world devoid of interference from the outer gods, where people will not find strength in faith and dogma of higher beings, but from themselves and the people around them.She's basically the only character who has a team, more accurately a family in the game. She loved Renalla enough to want to protect her (phase 2), Rykard enough to give him the Blasphemous Claw, wears the garb of her former (presumably late) mentor Renna, and states she loves Iji and Blaidd.
I had that in my notes, but you're right. I should have touched on that a bit for the reasons you mentioned. She tried to basically brake the cycle by removing it all together and whether or not she loves the tarnished she does love her crew. Great mention.
Since were on the topic of family, my 10 year old kid beat Melania on ng+ with a double reduvia bleed build. Proud dad here. 😁
Ayyyyy! Congrats! My 8yo is stuck in Rennala but he's been grinding runes like there's no tomorrow. That game unlocked something in his brain lol.
Really liked hearing your perspective as a parent. The "quiet, Padme!" cracked me up!
I never expected the encounter with Melina to be even sadder AFTER the DLC…but Miyazaki did it. 😢
Your collection of Lore creators is excellent. But you are missing one of the best: Tarnished Archeologist. It's at the point now where SmoughTown and others are referencing TA constantly because he's an actual archeologist so his analysis of the cultural practices, architecture etc. is the best you can possibly find.
This is a great work. The whole story is a such tragedy. I can't recall the last time i empathized to characters that much. Also, i still want to have one more ending with Miquella.
Any thoughts on Maliketh, Melina, and Messmer?
Maliketh changed his name, isolated himself away from all of civilization (even before the Rot happened, Caelid was mostly wilderness with Sellia being its major population center), and began what seems to be an impossible task of eating all deathroot (highly doubt that tastes good). He seems to blame himself for all of it. He has such a badass reputation that even the demigods try not to anger him. What we find in Farum Azula is a self-loathing shell of the warrior he once was. A really sad uncle to the rest of the royal family.
To me, Radahn represents someone holding onto the glories of the past to give meaning to their suffering. If the movement of the stars represents fate and the future, Radahn conquering and holding their movement back is directly linked to him using that same gravitational magic to continue riding a horse that’s too small for him. After the shattering and the loss of his role models and losing meaningless wars with his siblings, he’s refusing to move forward in a world that continuously denies him the glory he desires. Even his brain being overtaken by Scarlet Rot is emblematic of this. So protective of a world that’s long gone that his very mind decays and he’s left to eat the corpses of his long-dead soldiers/friends in a battlefield the past until he’s put out of his misery.
Even his fate as Miquella’s consort shows how he was willing to do anything to become like Godfrey, a hero of the past, even allowing his soul to posses his dead brother’s body.
This one is so good ! SUBSCRIBED !
Thank you for your dissertation professor dad 😂
You know I got that PHD.
Pretty Humble Dad.
Also it’s so tragic that Miquella wanted so bad to fix the sins of his parents and their order and yet became just like them in his attempt to reach their level.
Blessings to you and your youths my man. I hope you make it long enough to meet THEIR youths someday bro ❤
Beautiful video. I had this in mind after finishing the DLC and thinking about the effects of absenteeism. Thank you for this! You earned a subscriber, best wishes for you and your family :)
Thank you for your comment and your time watching the vid!
Nice!!! Ty 4the vídeo man
Thank you foe your time and comment!
Finally someone to parrallel Warhammer and Elden Ring. Thank you!
you should do a video on evangelion lore
Elden Ring's dysfunctional gods, seemingly half the families in my hometown, same difference apparently.
Also, happy early birthday!
Thank you so much! You are technically the first person to tell me that this year so you're officially part of the canon.
@@ReptarusOnIce Woot! I've always wanted to be canon!
Word. Sub+1. Many Blessings to You and Yours.
Thanks mate 😊
I'm also a millennial father of four. Relatable.
bruh i know you know thats not how caelid is pronounced
It's not. I just blacked out while recording my script and let it all flow.
nah its about eldrich gods trying to control the interstice. my vote is for the formless mother.
art source for thumbnail?
I'm currently using the UA-cam thumbnail testing program I'm assuming that you're talking about the anime inspired thumbnail. The name of the artist should be at the bottom right of the thumbnail
Hey dude where is the shirt from pls
The stick to your guns shirt? Unfortunately for everyone in this convo, I actually picked it up at a thrift store lmao. I know that's the worst-case scenario, but I'm sure if you do some digging, you'll find a vintage or replica.
@ReptarusOnIce hey that's cool thanks for replying! Thrift store finds are the best
Miquella is the morally/ethically worst, most sinister, narcissistic and hate-worthy character in all of Elden Ring.
Also, the Greater Will has nothing to do with anything that happens in ER anymore, as the Ymir/Metyr quest line shows. It's all just Marika.
Miquella seems more like a misguided individual to me tbh, as in he does want to make the world a gentler place like he says but he doesn't realize that with him discarding his love there can not be any compassion. But he also does questionable things before discarding of st trina such as charming mohg so he can use him to get access to the land of shadows.
Also with the greater will we do know it did do some things in the lands between apart from sending metyr and the elden beast here, mainly making the Nox people live underground after they have committed some crime, probably has to do with the fingerslaying blade, but I agree that the whole narrative of the greater will being the big villain of elden ring and trying to control everything is not true as we saw in ymir/metyr quest as it has left the lands between long ago, maybe even at the age where placidusax was the elden lord as he is waiting for the return of his god that has abandoned him (sounds like the greater will to me), and metyr and the fingers basically lying when they say they're speaking with the greater will, and the golden order being invited by Marika after sealing the rune of death so the greater will probably doesn't care about golden order.
@@yohan9101 Regarding Miquella, his bewitching branch basically reads like a charm spell.
He's basically that one anime character that runs around charming other people (i.e. coercing them through magic) to sleep with him and also charming the people that call it grape so they stop doing so.
Meanwhile he upholds the image of the infallible, pure, innocent, white angel in shining light, like a true narcissist even though he's content to play 5D chess when it comes to exploiting, baiting and lying to people.
Malenia is most probably under the influence of Miquella's charm, at least that's an explanation for why she waits an eternity for someone to return that's basically a lifeless corpse in the "overworld". Meanwhile all the other Empyreans are pretty proactive in the story overall, especially in when it comes to interactions with the Tarnished/player.
Also look what happens to Miquella's followers once Miquella is gone. Some kind of freeze or sleep as if they were already dead and Miquella was just a puppetmaster for an army of drones. Others become aggressive to each other, implying Miquella didn't resolve any conflicts, he simply coerced obedience through magic. The same is probably happening in the Promised Consort fight, second phase.
Gentle my ass. Gentle only in the same sense as the experience of the imperius curse in Harry Potter (very similar to heroin for the victim, addictive, "blissful").
@@cyrusol Regarding the Malenia part, I don't think she's under his charm, Miquella was actively trying to find a way to stop Malenia's scarlet rot, first he tried with golden order fundamentalism which didn't work, then he created the golden needle that can actually work with stopping the meddling of an out god but only if one uses it in a place beyond time like placidusax's arena. So I do think Malenia and Miquella have a deep sibling connection and Malenia is doing Miquella's dirty work without having to charm her, and her waiting for his return probably referring to the whole "make radahn into a promises consort and achieve godhood" plot, which took however many years since the shattering to the present day, so in theory miquella should return after all of that to the lands between to rule as the new god, but it does feel like Malenia lost her mind after waiting for all these years ngl.
Mohg didnt moghlest miquella. Miquella miquellested mogh.
and reshaped his corpse.