I love how creepy the whole encounter with Pinwheel is. His black and kind of amorphous shape remind me a lot of characters like No-Face from Spirited away and Koh, the face stealer from Avatar, which I think are based on the same or similar spirits.
It truly amazes and astounds me how much you guys are able to discern out of such seemingly meaningless details about a character's lore. Im so addicted to these, and you always leave me stunned with what you guys find. Thank you so much. While other lore videos focus on the same main characters over and over, its the characters like Eidas or Pinwheel that are casually mentioned in the game that I always wonder about. Please don't stop.
the trick is that most of it IS meaningless. this is likely just a bunch of coincidences that happen to line up this way, and i think its done that way on purpose. its possible that they had this story word for word in mind when designing, and i think most of the story about pinwheel in this video is probably correct. after all, there had to be a story in mind when designing these characters after all. but as far as the small minute details, im pretty sure its just random stuff thats easy enough to interpret in a way you see fit. and i think this shows a bit when he mentions the runes coming from that lantern when he moves... thats obviously pixelated smoke lol. there are no runes coming from the lanterns. now luckily its a very small detail that doesent matter to the narrative, but its this kind of on the fly usage of random things and shaping a story behind them to fit the narrative.
@@wowitsfrostygames155it’s clearly not smoke. There are smokes in the game and they’re not even similar to that. The “smoke” looks exactly like the letters in tombs throughout the game
Edit: Since I'm still getting responses to this I'll correct myself. There is no real evidence in the original Dark Souls that the Ornstein you fight is an illusion. The only "evidence" for this is from Dark Souls 3 and arguably that's not even evidence for this theory but rather a consequence of the theory that Ornstein followed Gwyn's firstborn after their exile and ended up becoming the Storm Drake you fight along with the Nameless King.(and the only evidence supporting this theory is Smough's Greathammer's description and Ornstein's gear being in the area directly below where you fight Nameless King and it not being attached to a corpse or chest unlike almost every other item in the Dark Souls games) Ornstein does drop a soul even though he is almost certainly an illusion. (Though I guess he does absorb Smough's soul so that'd explain it so really this comment is completely pointless but I've already written it so I might as well just post it)
@@sirexilon49 So, like, even illusions can be infused with soul? Not just physical objects? No wonder everything ends up in a condensed pit, so much energy is lost in this "cycle"
I fucking love how these always begin with simple origin explanations and 10 minutes in it shifts into conspiracy theories backed by gameplay mechanics. Best souls lore content out there by far
On further inspection, you can see it is just another saw like those strewn around the room. The handle is opposite to the end by the skeleton's hand, and a distance away at that, which therefore seems to not be a hand like Nito but rather a tool left on the table that pinwheel had potentially been using to chop the skeletons hands and feet away with. Hawkshaw.
Among all of the lore telling of Pinwheel, this is the most sounding and complete. With observation not only of Pinwheel itself but its surrounding, the catacomb statues, timeline and even physical similarities to Nito, you have presented a unique, yet unbreakable story to us. The rational manner throughout the video differentiates your channel from those sensational hypotheses. Thank you for everything you brought to the Dark Souls community.
FINALLY someone talks about the Darkmoon Seance Ring in the catacombs... that one has been bothering me ever since my first playthrough now and seemingly no-one ever cared about it Nice analysis on Pinwheel, it´s good to see someone sufficiently covered him at long last in one of these lore-discussions I really love the character and his design but I feel as if he gets overlooked way too often
Hawkshaw, you're the perfect combo of Lokey and Vaati. More in depth like Lokey, while giving a strong presentation/ narrative, like Vaati. DS community: so you're saying Hawkshaw is the lore King? Me: Rekindles the flame, yes!
The point about him being an easy fight to further Gwyndolin’s agenda makes perfect sense to me. There’s no gameplay reason for him to be an easy fight, it’s certainly not because the catacombs is accessible from fire link and the devs didn’t want too hard a fight for a possible first boss.... the catacombs level is difficult and it would make more sense to assume a player capable of getting through that is capable of defeating a much harder boss than pinwheel. This would mean the devs either made it intentionally easy for lore reasons or by mistake, and I don’t think it’s by mistake. The early bosses all seem to have reasons to exist, Taurus teaches you to use what you learned in the tutorial in a more cramped environment, gargoyles teach patience and crowd control etc... pinwheel is just easy, any challenge you could argue is his niche other bosses test better. Even an increase in health could’ve been a quick partial fix for this but the devs chose not too. I’m a bit rusty on gwyndolin lore but it makes sense he wants the chosen undead to receive the power of kindling and to receive it in such a way that feels earned and fits the prophecy... he can’t just hand it to you or that would go against the idea of the undead being the chosen one. Instead he influences it away from Nito and into the hands of pinwheel. In lore An undead who escaped the asylum would likely get their ass handed to them if they had to deal with nito early .... but making it to and defeating pinwheel is difficult Enough that only “the chosen undead” could do it but easy enough that it’s not impossible. Gwyndolin could influence pinwheel in all manner of ways to ensure he/her/them (IDFK) doesn’t get too strong and would likely Know enough about nito to be able to count on him not just leaving and taking the rite back by force. Having the rite of kindling then helps the undead continue on the false prophecy .... meet gwynevere.. claim the lord souls and continue the age of fire. TL:DR. pinwheel is easy by design. But for lore reasons instead of gameplay ones. Thank you if anyone read this... idk if it was even legible its 9am and I haven’t slept. ❤️
Also this is almost entirely unrelated but does tie into the whole thing being a big deception by Gwyndolin. It’s not a new idea that oscars whole chosen undead spiel comes from some gwyndolin influence (the only two characters who speak in such a manner). But a little thing I’ve just thought about is how much this actually makes sense regarding the undead asylum. I’ve always wondered why there are black nights there when you return but it makes sense to me now. Undead breaks free and begins the journey off the “chosen undead”.prisons always bring in more guards after an escape. To everyone else bringing in the black knights looks like a natural response to an escape, increased security so it doesn’t happen again. But it’s actually Gwyndolin resetting the prison incase this chosen undead isn’t actually the one to link the fire. The black knights are there ensuring everything is under control for the spare demon to take the place of the now dead demon and to ensure that one day a new undead can escape and succeed should the already escaped fail. The demons wield no lightning powers so they’re not working with anor londo like the bat wing demons however it doesn’t seem too big a stretch that at some point anor londo/Gwyndolin acquired a few demons to put there. All the demons are doing is killing undead, they don’t know there a part of a bigger plan.even the black knights involved likely do not. If the undead returns to the asylum they come back mid reset hence why the new demon isn’t in place yet. Presumably if you never return eventually the reset would happen but obviously you’d never see that. There might also be some links here to the painted world that could explain the doll in your cell. It’s also not too big a stretch to assume Gwyndolin likely had some influence on Astoria and the creation of the tale of the “chosen undead” Not really a huge lore discovery this has been a well known theory for a long time. Just an interesting little bit of head cannon that fills in a little gap I had. Someone has probably thought of it before too but oh well.
@Luis Martinez eh? Are you flexing you found all the bosses easy? I mean once you know what you’re doing sure most aren’t that difficult eventually. But pinwheel is pretty much inarguably the easiest boss in the first souls game, especially in comparison to the area you go through to get to him.
@Luis Martinez Priscilla is only maybe easier when you know her mechanics and can do some damage, on a blind playthrough she is most Definitley not…….she’s also not even really a boss most players would naturally wrong. The first stray demon is the tutorial boss. It’s probably technically easier but it’s the tutorial. And the stray demon you fight on the return to the asylum (something you won’t do on a natural blind playthrough)can literally one shot you. Way harder than pinwheel
@Luis Martinez the one from the return to the asylum? That you fall through the floor to fight? It has an AoE attack that will Literally one shot most players at the point they fight it. And the pillars make the camera a pain in the arse there. You get a titanite slab for beating him! He’s harder than pinwheel and the devs knew it. If you’re referring to the tutorial stray demon…. It’s the tutorial. It’s designed to teach you basic mechanics and nothing more. The game starts really upon leaving the asylum for the first time. If you genuinely believe pinwheel to be harder than those bosses we’ve talked about then that’s cool man, nobody can tell you that you don’t think that. Although I’m very confident in saying the vast majority of players would disagree with you. But that’s up to them to decide….. if anybody actually ends up reading this. Pinwheel just being easy and not THE EASIEST boss too doesnt really counter my point I was originally making either I don’t think, although it was a comment I made 8 months ago in the early hours of the morning so I can’t say that with too much certainty. Wether you personally find pinwheel easier or harder isn’t really all that relevant
Pinwheel is easiest boss to most people now but also their first playthrough - STray likely killed you at least once, but by he time most player gets to pinny, he is taken out far quicker than when they, at a lower level, took out stray. People need to remember how it was the first time. most of the opinion on Pinny is not just how easy he seems to seasoned players, its how easy he is on a first playrhough and when considering the place you have to get through to reach him.
Very interesting how your theory about Nito's ability to fuse undead together is backed up by Aldrich, Devourer of Gods seemingly inheriting this ability as well as he assimilates countless beings into his mass with Gwyndolin as his latest victim
That's a new look at this character. I've never thought about Pinwheel being so easy as an intentional act by him to further Gwyndolin's and/or Frampt's plans. I wonder if we ever see the original Pinwheel? Maybe even he doesn't know who the original is...
Oh, I like that, tying the Darkmoon Seance ring to Pinwheel like that, making them out to be a full-on trickster/schemer. Great angle. It also makes sense every step of the way, after all how could some random necromancer get his hands on the power an entire rebellion failed to obtain? Why, trickery of course!
Holy crap! this is a wonderfully likely sussing out of pinwheel's lore! Never noticed the child's mask on the the mother-statue! Nor the growth on the child's head. NOR the 3 puncture wounds on the skull pinwheel is hovering over! At first I was like, how does gwyndolin fit in all this at all?? But it's certainly compelling after considering the darkmoon ring, which I always thought an odd placement in the catacombs. I might offer these retrospective points despite this being the best lore explanation I've ever encountered. Pinwheel is indeed weak tho I don't think pinwheel survived; however, his weakness was perhaps planned by Gwyndolin, who exploited his tragic situation. After all, Pinwheel was simultaneously cursed by Nito while having the blessing of the moon. I think it's likely those weren't copies of Pinwheel but illusions. If his master was Gwyndolin it is likely he was given some powers of Illusion. The body they hover over has a mock-gravelord-sword saw attached on it's arm. Possibly Pinwheel was also trying to somehow atone for his offense to Nito to reverse the curse. Lastly, the puncture wounds are on a skull that is clearly not the baby's, being adult size. It may have been that a grave-lord servant killed all three in one blow, while the father had his head on the mother's belly... darkest lore. He may be trying to resurrect himself first so he can more effectively direct their fate. Or was some poor shmuck who was looking to close to one of those statues. lol
You got me again. Arrived at the time when you mention Gwyndolin first, I was like "come on Hawkshaw, don't push it too far" and yet, by the end, I had a doubt. Praise the lore, and praise this game.
First time getting into lore, and your work has been PHENOMENAL. I just want to thank you for your thought provoking lore work; you get into the nooks and crannies, and connect all the tiny pieces to make the whole back story. It was your work on dark souls 1 that got me interested in the series,and I quickly did all of 2 so that I could be ready for your breakdown. I was so sad when I couldn't find one from you, but no one else does it like you, so I couldn't get into any other lore breakdowns. Please do more for the other from soft games! Yours are literally the best, and I'm proof that it can inspire people to get into the franchise and random.
I’m so glad you decided to continue your dark souls breakdown and lore series I love dark souls and have watched all the other dark souls videos and got really saddened when I discovered that ash lake might be the last
I never paid attention the runes as the clones move, the weird marionette way they hop across the stage and the magic coming from the lanterns. That's super cool stuff I feel I should have noticed but I don't see anyone mention it before in lore discussions.
I love the idea that body fusion is a related magic to necromancy. I think of necromancy like touching your flame, your soul, to a burnt-out but still flammable corpse. If you're not careful, you're just make one big flame, one conjoined soul, one conjoined body. The subtle art of touching the flame enough to relight the dead body but not so much as to become part of it was only mastered later. Since Nito is presumably the creator of necromancy, it makes sense that he made many amateur mistakes like this, since he had no precedent to learn from. That's why he's a combination of many bodies. It's rather like the witch of Izalith's burnt hands. Speaking of which, demons are also fused bodies. I wonder if there is any connection between these two forms of magic.
The Gravelord probably allowed the power to be taken without any issues. You have to be a pretty chill arrangement of bones to be called "Neato" as your nickname...
i can remember watching your last dark souls video livestream and being extremely sad about it being the last. thank god your back! your theories are by far the best imo
I freaking CAN NOT believe how much I still learn from this channel. This channel truly makes me want to play it all again. Insane high quality man. Just WOW!
Good to see that you're back! Something that I've been curious about since I first learned of your channel last year is how your mainly DS1 lore videos interact with what we learned in DS3, since a lot of old content was revisited/given explainations (Anor Londo, Nameless King, Smouldering Lake=Izalith e.t.c.). Have you thought of doing a video explaining some similarities between the commonlore elements that are similar between DS1 & DS3?
Man I could have listened to you talk about pinwheel for at least a few hours more. Absolutely love your content, now I have to play through dark souls again!
The whole video I was wondering "but what does any of this have to do with Gwyndolin?" until near the very end when all the parallels between Pinwheel and the Gwenevere illusion become clear. Bravo... yours are the only lore videos I've seen that offer real insights I would never have reached on my own. The number of times I've said to myself "Oh my god, of course!" while watching these is very high lol.
I think the rite of kindling is a evolution if nitos power. Nito gained power via fusing with multiple dead bodies, and pin wheel attempted to use the same power to bring his family back. The right of kindling allows us to fuse more bodies/humanity within a single bonfire.
This has probably been commented before but it's worth noting that the child and mother names are mixed up in the English version, so all of the pontificating on the statues and the masks themselves are null and void
Everytime I've got a night I can stay up longer I put your videos on and start drawing. The lore + the amazing way you tell it and explain it while somehow imbuing it with even more mystery is wonderful!! Truly wonderful!
"Secret rite for raising a bigger flame at the bonfire with fueled fire and acquiring much more Estus." translated directly from the item description of the rite of kindling.
God bless Hawkshaw! Haven't watched yet but his 6 poles are important, like the name 'hex' it's a reference to the 6 Realms of Samsara. This idea comes up /a lot/ in DS2. Edit: 12:10 shows 'the turning of the wheel'. Dark Orb is just a lump of Karma, hence having the 'Will' to home in on you à la 'Pursuers'. Edit 2: Loved the bit about 'the Child' being a trouble pregnancy, that was a cool idea.
Praise the Lore! Neat take on Pinwheel kinda sad we didn't het your take on the Nito wannabe he is working on when we walk in. It has a large knife laid out extending from the arm that gives off gravelord sword vibes. Think Illusory Wall was the first I heard mention it.
to use our ego to further gwyndolins plans but only for the chosen undead to remember he has to the place the lordvessel first to get to nito so he goes and 2 cycles gwyndolin out of rage, truly a chosen undead moment
Crystal Caverns from Hollow Knight! Great choice for a backing track. I used a bit of HK music in my singular DS lore video, I feel vindicated in that choice from y'all making similar choice. Great work as always. Y'all are legends.
This is so cool. As a boss Pinwheel raises so many questions... and as almost always with DS, the potential answers are so damn cool. The spikes from the child mask part of the statues is a crazy catch. When you brought up the poison for the life of me I was like, "They're making that up. I may not have a perfect memory but there's definitely nothing suggesting that in the game!" and then you lined up all the pieces... shiet.
Here is a wild theory. What if Pinwheel is keeping Nito imprisoned. We know that each character we face is in a severely weakened state (Artorias uses his off hand because his other arm is broken and along with 4K are consumed by the abyss, gwyn is a husk of his former self, seath has gone mad, the bed of chaos is what it is) but Nito doesn't appear to have any weakened effects lore wise. Are we to believe that the Nito we fight, who is not effected by time, is the same one who helped eradicate the everlasting dragons? Granted he unleashed a miasma of disease but is that really who we encounter? What if when Gwyn took on the witch of izalith, gwendolyn launched a secret mission to put down Nito as well using pinwheel. The other pinwheels guarding the entrance to Nito could be there to keep him in and the skeletons are some kind of shield. I am not sure if the large drop down is preventing him from leaving as well.
One pretty insignificant detail I thought had more to it is a very hard to spot carving outside O&S's boss room. If you look very closely, you can barely make out the mask of the father on someone on the wooden part of the wall. I thought this was somehow connected to his position in power, and specifically tied to his connection to Gwyndolin. I think that maybe it's proof that their closely tied to Anor Londo, and Gwyndolin.
5:15 Quick reminder that we can summon Leroy from the past to fight Pinwheel and he presumably brings the Rite of Kindling to the Way of White in his own world
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Hawkshaw
I love how creepy the whole encounter with Pinwheel is. His black and kind of amorphous shape remind me a lot of characters like No-Face from Spirited away and Koh, the face stealer from Avatar, which I think are based on the same or similar spirits.
He scared the shit out of me the first time lol! He moves so weird and his floating was super unnatural.
It truly amazes and astounds me how much you guys are able to discern out of such seemingly meaningless details about a character's lore. Im so addicted to these, and you always leave me stunned with what you guys find. Thank you so much. While other lore videos focus on the same main characters over and over, its the characters like Eidas or Pinwheel that are casually mentioned in the game that I always wonder about.
Please don't stop.
the trick is that most of it IS meaningless. this is likely just a bunch of coincidences that happen to line up this way, and i think its done that way on purpose. its possible that they had this story word for word in mind when designing, and i think most of the story about pinwheel in this video is probably correct. after all, there had to be a story in mind when designing these characters after all.
but as far as the small minute details, im pretty sure its just random stuff thats easy enough to interpret in a way you see fit.
and i think this shows a bit when he mentions the runes coming from that lantern when he moves... thats obviously pixelated smoke lol. there are no runes coming from the lanterns. now luckily its a very small detail that doesent matter to the narrative, but its this kind of on the fly usage of random things and shaping a story behind them to fit the narrative.
DS2 is especially heavy with that kind of stuff, with geography in particular
For real, this dude is easily the best Lore channel. Vajit really doesn't even touch this guy.
@@wowitsfrostygames155it’s clearly not smoke. There are smokes in the game and they’re not even similar to that. The “smoke” looks exactly like the letters in tombs throughout the game
Regarding the last part, also notice how Pinwheel doesn't drop a soul...
omfg you're right
Edit: Since I'm still getting responses to this I'll correct myself. There is no real evidence in the original Dark Souls that the Ornstein you fight is an illusion. The only "evidence" for this is from Dark Souls 3 and arguably that's not even evidence for this theory but rather a consequence of the theory that Ornstein followed Gwyn's firstborn after their exile and ended up becoming the Storm Drake you fight along with the Nameless King.(and the only evidence supporting this theory is Smough's Greathammer's description and Ornstein's gear being in the area directly below where you fight Nameless King and it not being attached to a corpse or chest unlike almost every other item in the Dark Souls games)
Ornstein does drop a soul even though he is almost certainly an illusion.
(Though I guess he does absorb Smough's soul so that'd explain it so really this comment is completely pointless but I've already written it so I might as well just post it)
@@sirexilon49 haha that got a chuckle out of me
@@sirexilon49 So, like, even illusions can be infused with soul? Not just physical objects?
No wonder everything ends up in a condensed pit, so much energy is lost in this "cycle"
@@nunull6427 I mean if illusions can ineract with the physical world then it's assume that the physical world can interact with illusions as well.
I fucking love how these always begin with simple origin explanations and 10 minutes in it shifts into conspiracy theories backed by gameplay mechanics. Best souls lore content out there by far
Pinwheel might be a legend, but let's not forget one of his masks belongs to the THE LEGEND
I M S O R R Y. G E T G U D
(Currently working on my giant dad build)
The legend never dies
BIG MAN BIG DAD LESS GO
Load up the Bass Cannon!
The legend never dies
Also if you notice. The skeleton on the table had a blade as a right hand like Nito.
On further inspection, you can see it is just another saw like those strewn around the room. The handle is opposite to the end by the skeleton's hand, and a distance away at that, which therefore seems to not be a hand like Nito but rather a tool left on the table that pinwheel had potentially been using to chop the skeletons hands and feet away with.
Hawkshaw.
@@Hawkshaw The shape and the position of the saw really tricket me. :D Makes it look like Nitos Blade hand.
Love your videos :)
Father got mad when he discovered the child was actually Nito's!
Clearly, Pinwheel didn't know the difference between, "go home and be a family man," and, "go home and be a family, man."
😂
Among all of the lore telling of Pinwheel, this is the most sounding and complete. With observation not only of Pinwheel itself but its surrounding, the catacomb statues, timeline and even physical similarities to Nito, you have presented a unique, yet unbreakable story to us. The rational manner throughout the video differentiates your channel from those sensational hypotheses. Thank you for everything you brought to the Dark Souls community.
Just tag Vaati dude
Dark Sun Gwyndolin, at it again.
FINALLY someone talks about the Darkmoon Seance Ring in the catacombs... that one has been bothering me ever since my first playthrough now and seemingly no-one ever cared about it
Nice analysis on Pinwheel, it´s good to see someone sufficiently covered him at long last in one of these lore-discussions
I really love the character and his design but I feel as if he gets overlooked way too often
Imagine necromancy or death magic being added with a skull lantern as a medium (such as pyro flame for pyromancies)
Hawkshaw, you're the perfect combo of Lokey and Vaati. More in depth like Lokey, while giving a strong presentation/ narrative, like Vaati.
DS community: so you're saying Hawkshaw is the lore King?
Me: Rekindles the flame, yes!
Don’t compare this man to others!! He is one of a kind! Give him the respect of his own name!!
Whenever you upload I literally drop whatever I'm doing to watch
The point about him being an easy fight to further Gwyndolin’s agenda makes perfect sense to me.
There’s no gameplay reason for him to be an easy fight, it’s certainly not because the catacombs is accessible from fire link and the devs didn’t want too hard a fight for a possible first boss.... the catacombs level is difficult and it would make more sense to assume a player capable of getting through that is capable of defeating a much harder boss than pinwheel.
This would mean the devs either made it intentionally easy for lore reasons or by mistake, and I don’t think it’s by mistake.
The early bosses all seem to have reasons to exist, Taurus teaches you to use what you learned in the tutorial in a more cramped environment, gargoyles teach patience and crowd control etc... pinwheel is just easy, any challenge you could argue is his niche other bosses test better. Even an increase in health could’ve been a quick partial fix for this but the devs chose not too.
I’m a bit rusty on gwyndolin lore but it makes sense he wants the chosen undead to receive the power of kindling and to receive it in such a way that feels earned and fits the prophecy... he can’t just hand it to you or that would go against the idea of the undead being the chosen one. Instead he influences it away from Nito and into the hands of pinwheel.
In lore An undead who escaped the asylum would likely get their ass handed to them if they had to deal with nito early .... but making it to and defeating pinwheel is difficult
Enough that only “the chosen undead” could do it but easy enough that it’s not impossible.
Gwyndolin could influence pinwheel in all manner of ways to ensure he/her/them (IDFK) doesn’t get too strong and would likely
Know enough about nito to be able to count on him not just leaving and taking the rite back by force. Having the rite of kindling then helps the undead continue on the false prophecy .... meet gwynevere.. claim the lord souls and continue the age of fire.
TL:DR. pinwheel is easy by design. But for lore reasons instead of gameplay ones.
Thank you if anyone read this... idk if it was even legible its 9am and I haven’t slept. ❤️
Also this is almost entirely unrelated but does tie into the whole thing being a big deception by Gwyndolin.
It’s not a new idea that oscars whole chosen undead spiel comes from some gwyndolin influence (the only two characters who speak in such a manner). But a little thing I’ve just thought about is how much this actually makes sense regarding the undead asylum. I’ve always wondered why there are black nights there when you return but it makes sense to me now.
Undead breaks free and begins the journey off the “chosen undead”.prisons always bring in more guards after an escape. To everyone else bringing in the black knights looks like a natural response to an escape, increased security so it doesn’t happen again. But it’s actually Gwyndolin resetting the prison incase this chosen undead isn’t actually the one to link the fire.
The black knights are there ensuring everything is under control for the spare demon to take the place of the now dead demon and to ensure that one day a new undead can escape and succeed should the already escaped fail.
The demons wield no lightning powers so they’re not working with anor londo like the bat wing demons however it doesn’t seem too big a stretch that at some point anor londo/Gwyndolin acquired a few demons to put there.
All the demons are doing is killing undead, they don’t know there a part of a bigger plan.even the black knights involved likely do not.
If the undead returns to the asylum they come back mid reset hence why the new demon isn’t in place yet. Presumably if you never return eventually the reset would happen but obviously you’d never see that. There might also be some links here to the painted world that could explain the doll in your cell.
It’s also not too big a stretch to assume Gwyndolin likely had some influence on Astoria and the creation of the tale of the “chosen undead”
Not really a huge lore discovery this has been a well known theory for a long time. Just an interesting little bit of head cannon that fills in a little gap I had. Someone has probably thought of it before too but oh well.
@Luis Martinez eh? Are you flexing you found all the bosses easy? I mean once you know what you’re doing sure most aren’t that difficult eventually. But pinwheel is pretty much inarguably the easiest boss in the first souls game, especially in comparison to the area you go through to get to him.
@Luis Martinez Priscilla is only maybe easier when you know her mechanics and can do some damage, on a blind playthrough she is most Definitley not…….she’s also not even really a boss most players would naturally wrong.
The first stray demon is the tutorial boss. It’s probably technically easier but it’s the tutorial. And the stray demon you fight on the return to the asylum (something you won’t do on a natural blind playthrough)can literally one shot you. Way harder than pinwheel
@Luis Martinez the one from the return to the asylum? That you fall through the floor to fight? It has an AoE attack that will Literally one shot most players at the point they fight it. And the pillars make the camera a pain in the arse there. You get a titanite slab for beating him! He’s harder than pinwheel and the devs knew it. If you’re referring to the tutorial stray demon…. It’s the tutorial. It’s designed to teach you basic mechanics and nothing more. The game starts really upon leaving the asylum for the first time.
If you genuinely believe pinwheel to be harder than those bosses we’ve talked about then that’s cool man, nobody can tell you that you don’t think that. Although I’m very confident in saying the vast majority of players would disagree with you. But that’s up to them to decide….. if anybody actually ends up reading this.
Pinwheel just being easy and not THE EASIEST boss too doesnt really counter my point I was originally making either I don’t think, although it was a comment I made 8 months ago in the early hours of the morning so I can’t say that with too much certainty.
Wether you personally find pinwheel easier or harder isn’t really all that relevant
Pinwheel is easiest boss to most people now but also their first playthrough - STray likely killed you at least once, but by he time most player gets to pinny, he is taken out far quicker than when they, at a lower level, took out stray.
People need to remember how it was the first time. most of the opinion on Pinny is not just how easy he seems to seasoned players, its how easy he is on a first playrhough and when considering the place you have to get through to reach him.
Heavely depressed here , but this guy has such a calm voice , helps me sleep like a baby
oh yeah , hawk and vaati kill it in the ASoulsMR game.
Glad to have helped.
Hawkshaw.
Hope you're doing better. Don't you dare go hollow
Very interesting how your theory about Nito's ability to fuse undead together is backed up by Aldrich, Devourer of Gods seemingly inheriting this ability as well as he assimilates countless beings into his mass with Gwyndolin as his latest victim
The true lord of lore has returned.
Made a 15 minute video out of a boss that lasts 15 seconds
Thats dark souls for u
@Luis Martinez You don't know and cannot confirm that, lmao
I also last 15 seconds
@@AP-qr8en
Oh shit, that's like four or five pumps.
Impressive.
You've graduated from a one pump chump!
We work with what we've got ;)
That's a new look at this character. I've never thought about Pinwheel being so easy as an intentional act by him to further Gwyndolin's and/or Frampt's plans.
I wonder if we ever see the original Pinwheel? Maybe even he doesn't know who the original is...
Its possible that there isnt an original or that the original was a front all along
@@keighne7650 The Real Pinwheel was the friends we made along the way.
Dude, I wanna write this in all your videos comment sections just to make you see this. I love it all. Your spin on these theories are insane. More!!
With the sheer amount of tiny details in this video, you would think these guys got their info directly from Miyazaki himself.
Oh, I like that, tying the Darkmoon Seance ring to Pinwheel like that, making them out to be a full-on trickster/schemer. Great angle. It also makes sense every step of the way, after all how could some random necromancer get his hands on the power an entire rebellion failed to obtain? Why, trickery of course!
This is a completely different take on Pinwheel and I love it!
Holy shit the man, the myth, the legend is back. I fucking love how dark souls lore is still active and alive after all those years!
Oh My God!!!! The Return Of The King!!! I Hope you are well thanks for the upload we missed you man stay safe and healthy!
Holy crap! this is a wonderfully likely sussing out of pinwheel's lore! Never noticed the child's mask on the the mother-statue! Nor the growth on the child's head. NOR the 3 puncture wounds on the skull pinwheel is hovering over! At first I was like, how does gwyndolin fit in all this at all?? But it's certainly compelling after considering the darkmoon ring, which I always thought an odd placement in the catacombs. I might offer these retrospective points despite this being the best lore explanation I've ever encountered. Pinwheel is indeed weak tho I don't think pinwheel survived; however, his weakness was perhaps planned by Gwyndolin, who exploited his tragic situation. After all, Pinwheel was simultaneously cursed by Nito while having the blessing of the moon. I think it's likely those weren't copies of Pinwheel but illusions. If his master was Gwyndolin it is likely he was given some powers of Illusion. The body they hover over has a mock-gravelord-sword saw attached on it's arm. Possibly Pinwheel was also trying to somehow atone for his offense to Nito to reverse the curse. Lastly, the puncture wounds are on a skull that is clearly not the baby's, being adult size. It may have been that a grave-lord servant killed all three in one blow, while the father had his head on the mother's belly... darkest lore. He may be trying to resurrect himself first so he can more effectively direct their fate. Or was some poor shmuck who was looking to close to one of those statues. lol
the power to graft bodies onto oneself hmmm wonder if that'll ever come up again.
You got me again. Arrived at the time when you mention Gwyndolin first, I was like "come on Hawkshaw, don't push it too far" and yet, by the end, I had a doubt.
Praise the lore, and praise this game.
First time getting into lore, and your work has been PHENOMENAL. I just want to thank you for your thought provoking lore work; you get into the nooks and crannies, and connect all the tiny pieces to make the whole back story. It was your work on dark souls 1 that got me interested in the series,and I quickly did all of 2 so that I could be ready for your breakdown. I was so sad when I couldn't find one from you, but no one else does it like you, so I couldn't get into any other lore breakdowns. Please do more for the other from soft games! Yours are literally the best, and I'm proof that it can inspire people to get into the franchise and random.
I’m so glad you decided to continue your dark souls breakdown and lore series I love dark souls and have watched all the other dark souls videos and got really saddened when I discovered that ash lake might be the last
I never paid attention the runes as the clones move, the weird marionette way they hop across the stage and the magic coming from the lanterns. That's super cool stuff I feel I should have noticed but I don't see anyone mention it before in lore discussions.
Thanks for making more content HawkShaw, I still love listening to the Timeline as I drift off to sleep.
Dude. You should make these deep dives a podcast on Spotify. Pure genius
Crystal Peak music is always the right choice for background music
I love the idea that body fusion is a related magic to necromancy. I think of necromancy like touching your flame, your soul, to a burnt-out but still flammable corpse. If you're not careful, you're just make one big flame, one conjoined soul, one conjoined body. The subtle art of touching the flame enough to relight the dead body but not so much as to become part of it was only mastered later. Since Nito is presumably the creator of necromancy, it makes sense that he made many amateur mistakes like this, since he had no precedent to learn from. That's why he's a combination of many bodies. It's rather like the witch of Izalith's burnt hands. Speaking of which, demons are also fused bodies. I wonder if there is any connection between these two forms of magic.
Your comparison to spreading fire and its application to Nito's design is really interesting!
The Gravelord probably allowed the power to be taken without any issues. You have to be a pretty chill arrangement of bones to be called "Neato" as your nickname...
i can remember watching your last dark souls video livestream and being extremely sad about it being the last. thank god your back! your theories are by far the best imo
I freaking CAN NOT believe how much I still learn from this channel.
This channel truly makes me want to play it all again.
Insane high quality man. Just WOW!
He played us like a damn fiddle, once again ye see what I never did 👍
They kept us waiting, huh?
Wb! Glad to see you uploading again :)
I feel like we need more examples of actively practiced necromancy in souls because that shit is just interesting when it comes to souls
Underrated opinion: The Pursuer OST is so amazing and fits so well to his character
You can see the love you pour into these videos. The attention to the minimal detail is impressive...
Thank you for the new content.
Good to see that you're back! Something that I've been curious about since I first learned of your channel last year is how your mainly DS1 lore videos interact with what we learned in DS3, since a lot of old content was revisited/given explainations (Anor Londo, Nameless King, Smouldering Lake=Izalith e.t.c.). Have you thought of doing a video explaining some similarities between the commonlore elements that are similar between DS1 & DS3?
So great to see you guys back at it again. You're writing the darksouls book that we'll never have.
Please dont stop making Dark Souls videos! The way you talk and explain things, the lore is so, so great!
Man I could have listened to you talk about pinwheel for at least a few hours more. Absolutely love your content, now I have to play through dark souls again!
Glad you guys still put out content now and then, brightens my day.
The whole video I was wondering "but what does any of this have to do with Gwyndolin?" until near the very end when all the parallels between Pinwheel and the Gwenevere illusion become clear. Bravo... yours are the only lore videos I've seen that offer real insights I would never have reached on my own. The number of times I've said to myself "Oh my god, of course!" while watching these is very high lol.
I think the rite of kindling is a evolution if nitos power.
Nito gained power via fusing with multiple dead bodies, and pin wheel attempted to use the same power to bring his family back.
The right of kindling allows us to fuse more bodies/humanity within a single bonfire.
I'm so happy this was on my home page
Sub from me I fuck with the video
This has probably been commented before but it's worth noting that the child and mother names are mixed up in the English version, so all of the pontificating on the statues and the masks themselves are null and void
Everytime I've got a night I can stay up longer I put your videos on and start drawing.
The lore + the amazing way you tell it and explain it while somehow imbuing it with even more mystery is wonderful!! Truly wonderful!
"Secret rite for raising a bigger flame at the bonfire with fueled fire and acquiring much more Estus." translated directly from the item description of the rite of kindling.
God bless Hawkshaw!
Haven't watched yet but his 6 poles are important, like the name 'hex' it's a reference to the 6 Realms of Samsara.
This idea comes up /a lot/ in DS2.
Edit: 12:10 shows 'the turning of the wheel'.
Dark Orb is just a lump of Karma, hence having the 'Will' to home in on you à la 'Pursuers'.
Edit 2: Loved the bit about 'the Child' being a trouble pregnancy, that was a cool idea.
Oh boy, here we go again!!!! The true legend of dark souls lore is back
Praise the Lore!
Neat take on Pinwheel kinda sad we didn't het your take on the Nito wannabe he is working on when we walk in. It has a large knife laid out extending from the arm that gives off gravelord sword vibes. Think Illusory Wall was the first I heard mention it.
I am soooo happy you are uploading again! You are the best lore guys!
to use our ego to further gwyndolins plans but only for the chosen undead to remember he has to the place the lordvessel first to get to nito so he goes and 2 cycles gwyndolin out of rage, truly a chosen undead moment
It took me a full minute to check and realise that what I was looking at was not an ilusion set by Gwindolyn
? They made a video less than a month ago saying they were coming back
@@SteezyMPeezy Gwyndolin placed an ilusion so that I didn't see this video
Just found out you had put out new videos, instantly planted myself on a chair to watch them :D You always manage to give new insight
Really glad to see you making Souls lore again! Incredible attention to detail.
YESSSSS I've been waiting so excited for a new video
welcome back, great video
Yooo, the legend is back!!! Welcome home!!! Love your dark souls lore vids, seriously on the DL better than VV and AH 😁
this is god tier fantasy, I love it, I wish this is actually true
I never lost hope! I knew you guys would come back eventually. You’re just head and shoulders above any other ds lore channel out there
yaaaaaaaaaay more legends!!
Amazing video! Channels like this gives you an amazing insight on how much work was put on the smallest details
How ironic the universe drew me to watch all of your past dark souls videos again today. 🤘
Been re watching your videos since I saw this upload. You really are the king of Dark Souls lore, no question
Crystal Caverns from Hollow Knight! Great choice for a backing track. I used a bit of HK music in my singular DS lore video, I feel vindicated in that choice from y'all making similar choice.
Great work as always. Y'all are legends.
And just when you think you're out, they pull you back in.
This is so cool. As a boss Pinwheel raises so many questions... and as almost always with DS, the potential answers are so damn cool. The spikes from the child mask part of the statues is a crazy catch. When you brought up the poison for the life of me I was like, "They're making that up. I may not have a perfect memory but there's definitely nothing suggesting that in the game!" and then you lined up all the pieces... shiet.
Woah a video
You make me want to fall asleep like vadi vidia. Fucking awesome and your lore explaining is easy to understand in the sleepy state
This might be your best one yet and your others are phenomenal
Keep going guys, your work is immense
Time for an early christmas gift? .. I take it. This is awesome or rather loresome^^
Happy new year and a fine dark soul, to you!
The amount of detail they given to Dark souls still amazes me , its the most beatiful game I've ever played :)
The father mask giant armor build has never really been a challenge when I played pvp back in the day
So nice to see your videos coming out again no one does it better
I never even noticed those masked statues!
I love how you can make a 15 minute about a boss you beat in 10 seconds
So glad you guys are making lore videos again!!
God flashbacks from Hollow Knight when the Crystal Peak music started playing, good choice, good video
I'll forever remember Pinwheel by the description "Weakness: Weapon"
My favourite boss in the Souls series and a wonderful video on them, what a time to be alive
Now this. THIS! is the deepest lore. The abyssal lore
I'm so glad you made more Dark Souls lore videos.
To me, Pinwheel is just the easiest boss to kill first for a mask of the mother’s buff.
... if you get it, do you save scum untill you get it?
Another great video. Been immersed in ds2 but this makes me want to go back and make another playthrough of 1. 👍👍
hawkshaw..... a legend of dark souls, himself.
I always thought his busy work intro was funny because he clearly wasn't doing anything. I just never examined it in a broader sense like you did.
Here is a wild theory. What if Pinwheel is keeping Nito imprisoned. We know that each character we face is in a severely weakened state (Artorias uses his off hand because his other arm is broken and along with 4K are consumed by the abyss, gwyn is a husk of his former self, seath has gone mad, the bed of chaos is what it is) but Nito doesn't appear to have any weakened effects lore wise. Are we to believe that the Nito we fight, who is not effected by time, is the same one who helped eradicate the everlasting dragons? Granted he unleashed a miasma of disease but is that really who we encounter? What if when Gwyn took on the witch of izalith, gwendolyn launched a secret mission to put down Nito as well using pinwheel. The other pinwheels guarding the entrance to Nito could be there to keep him in and the skeletons are some kind of shield. I am not sure if the large drop down is preventing him from leaving as well.
This makes me wonder, will there be a deep dive into the aspirations of Gwyndolin? We know he was active all the way through to just before DS3.
One pretty insignificant detail I thought had more to it is a very hard to spot carving outside O&S's boss room. If you look very closely, you can barely make out the mask of the father on someone on the wooden part of the wall. I thought this was somehow connected to his position in power, and specifically tied to his connection to Gwyndolin. I think that maybe it's proof that their closely tied to Anor Londo, and Gwyndolin.
5:15 Quick reminder that we can summon Leroy from the past to fight Pinwheel and he presumably brings the Rite of Kindling to the Way of White in his own world
Pinwheel lore?! Now that's a challenge.