Couple of things. Main things mentioned in the comments so far are: -"Gael is not really the Painter Girl's uncle, it's more of a term of endearment." I can definitely see that as a possibility, and in fact, it makes a lot more sense. One caveat to that would be that the only other mention of an "uncle" in the series - as far as I know, is Allfather Lloyd being Gwyn's uncle. How do we reconcile that? -"Gael consumed the Dark Soul to create the pigment." While I like this theory and believe it is a very possible alternative, I doubt certain aspects of it. How would he know consuming it would create a pigment? Why did Gael ask you for YOUR "Dark Soul" upon seeing you, instead of begging you to kill him or something, and to complete his quest? If his intention was for you to be "the backup," why didn't he just give you the blood, even after he begins to bleed the Blood of the Dark Soul? Again, I believe the counter-theory is VERY plausible, and I think it rings -mostly- true, logically speaking. I just happen to have a slightly different point of view.
afaik, the reason he's not considered her actual Uncle, is from people who looked at the original Japanese term, which apparently is more clear in that regard, hence why we know it for sure.
I believe Gael was corrupted at the end, but he knew since the beginning he would fail, he knew he wouldn't deliver the pigment, he would only retrieve it. That's why he guides you through dreg heap and the ringed city, because he knows he will fail and he needs you to kill him. If that's the truth then it's even more tragic.
Gael most likely had a thought of the players involvment with his quest for the pigment. In the dreg heap Gael guides you downward closer to his location.
steunwell to add to this: I think he might have deducted that consuming so much of the dark soul would make him out of control. so he needed the strongest backup he could find to do the job: the unkindled Ash. the assumption here is that he was capable of doing that deduction, which is reasonable but far from fact.
A nobody fighting a nobody in the middle of nowhere, for no greater end as the world itself has crumbled into nothing. Considering the consistent mood of the three games, this is the perfect final battle and poetic ending for the entire series.
There's always an end. Battle is the truest form of communication. In fighting Gael, we see the conclusion of his journey. The sum total of his results As the fight starts he moves on all fours. He is wild, aggressive. This is what he's become. Forgotten purpose, nothing left but the will to fight for fightings sake But as the fight goes on, he seems to fight with more control. Finesse. Its like the battle itself makes him remember who he is It reminds me of my grand father... He has dementia, but at his 50 anniversary, he danced with my grand mother. Despite the dementia, he remembered all their favorite songs and seemed to remember himself in that moment of expression. He was a singer in his youth Same thing for Gael. He is a warrior. And speaking to Gael as an equal warrior forces him him to remember himself. Even if it isnt permanent and even if its for that one instant
Brandon Williams actually he doesn’t become more himself as the fight goes on. He sees his blood dropping which is the blood of the dark soul needed to paint a new world. Thus gael loses his purpose and becomes hollow. Also he’s weak to hollowslayer gs in 2nd and 3rd phase.
king calcium it still was sad for me seeing him struggle through a similar journey to us and even more. And I'm the end he failed his duty and we had to put him out of his misery.
Gael didn't betray his mission. As stated in the Blood of the Dark Soul's description, the blood of the pygmy lords had long dried out by the time Gael found them. In order to make the pigment, he consumed the Dark Soul himself, so that his blood would become the pigment for the painting. But, he knew this would drive him insane. Perhaps this is why he led us through the Ringed City? So that we might slay him and then take his blood to the painter. Whatever the case, Gael's consumption of the Dark Soul was not motivated by greed, but by necessity for the creation of a pigment.
I don't think that Gael from the bossfight is actually the Gael from the Ringed City. Personally, I believe Gael never made it to Filianore (since he actually still somewhat had ties to the gods and their decrees; he's a slave after all), but instead ended up slaughtering one human after another, up until the endtime, where we meet him. I base that on the description of his Sword, which reads "Greatsword of Slave Knight Gael, the only weapon that he kept with him from beginning to end./Originally an executioner's sword made for decapitation, this blade is heavily chipped and stained with the blood of countless battles." Countless battles to me implies that it took a LONG time for him to reach the point where we find him, as he still wields the executioner's greatsword in the Dreg Heap (or whatever it's called). He did not know where his journey would lead him; he did not know that he himself would end up becoming the vessel of the Dark Soul - which also explains his "still here?" quote, when we fight him. He never awoke Filianore, and thus was never transported to the Pigmy Lords, who presumably hid in the future in order to avoid prosecution and scrambles for the Dark Soul; we are directly warned NOT to wake up Filianore by every single NPC in the DLC (except for the one "guarding" the Monument of Absolution or whatever that thing's called) as well as that Filianore guards the Dark Soul - heavily implying that people KNEW she had hidden the Pigmy Lords away.Back on track: Gael never made it through the Ringed City; never never made it past the countless people guarding Filianore. He set us on the path because he saw us as the Champion of Ash, the one with the power to withstand the Lord Souls (aka. First Flame) and thus tasked us with retrieving the last one of these souls. Ashes of Ariandel was a test, to see how well we'd fare with the power of fire surging through us, and the Ringed City was him acknowledging our might in regards to the Lord Souls. That's my take on the whole thing - Gael, who he set out, questing us to find the Dark Soul, and when we never return ending up creating the Dark Soul himself, going mad in the process.
I always thought that waking up Filianore made you go into the far future, where everything is just Ashen wastes, and Gael had to spend a long time killing all of humanity, THEN the pigmy lords, as we see him doing, to make the Dark Soul complete, since the DS is spread out through all of humans.
I also think he got to the "future" the long way round. Gael's soul description states : " The red-hooded, wandering slave knight Gael sought the blood of the dark soul as pigment for the Painted World. But Gael knew he was no Champion, that the dark soul would likely ruin him and that he had little hope of a safe return. " To me this seems to imply that his intention was to become a vessel for the Dark Soul, in order for his blood to become a pigment for the painting. But as he himself suspected, he lost his mind to the power of the Dark Soul and forgot his purpose, instead becoming intent on consuming everything Dark. To me it seems that AoA's purpose was to get Friede out of the way for the painter to see flame. The Unkindled One does not absorb the power of fire unleashed after Friede's death, instead its purpose is for the painter to use the flame for her new painted world. Its not so much a test, as it is getting half of the materials required for the new painted world.
ayemeharty but still that question persist. why want our dark souls and why continue to fight when he had created the pigment? is it in hopes that we kill him? but what if he kills us? how would he give the pigment then? whats the point of takin our dark souls then?
They already knew who he was, eons have passed and he has earned the title of "red hood", his sword now gone and broken, he was searching for them for years
I think his "insignificance" adds to the echoing hopeless tone of the entire series. The big "final fight" is two undead, not gods or lords, fighting in the ashes of all fallen kingdoms.
Two undead, seen as mere refuse, barely fit to stand in the light of so called gods, stood facing each other at the end of time. The supposed gods were all dead, slaughtered by the very undead and unkindled they looked down upon, their kingdoms burnt to the ground. The dragons that had existed at the beginning of time were long gone, any that had survived the genocide that had allowed the gods to rise had now been slaughtered by the forgotten nobodies of the world. The demons, beasts of infernal flames created by a desperate attempt at preventing the infinite dark, were all ash by now, their blasphemous bodies reduced to dust by the pigmies who huddled around the embers for what little warmth was left. The once pristine and warm world was dead, reduced to nothing but a cold wasteland of ash and the ruins of a kingdom that had torn itself apart. And yet two still remained, amongst the ruins. Two nobodies, who had been seen by all as weak and useless. Two barely breathing corpses, who had gone through countless hardships, had struggled through endless deaths and endless punishment, and had come out as the last beings left in a long dead world. Where others had bent and perished, they had continued to struggle, continued to push forward, marching forward even as their legs gave out, crawling forward even as their arms gave out, and inching forward even as their minds gave out; every day, growing stronger from their agony, from their supposedly worthless struggling. And now here they stood, mightier than any god, braver than any dragon, and more violent than any demon. They were all that was left… But they were not finished. There was still one last trial, one last fight, a final dying, faint ember that would be this world’s curtain call. And so, they turned towards each other… Drew their blades… And one last time, they danced the dance of death. It was the most beautiful dance in all of time, but one that would have no audience. It would have been romanticized by countless historians and philosophers, but there was no one left to witness it or write down the tales. Artists would’ve painted masterpieces of the scene, but there was no artists around to paint it. It was a dance done alone and in privacy, for no one was left to interrupt or interfere in this clash of these true gods. Ash and blood flew and lightning filled the battlefield as the two nobodies waltzed with their final dance partner; the world’s decaying corpse was their only audience, who witnessed the end of time with baited and rotten breath. The dance lasted for eternity in this world where time had long lost any meaning. Until finally, there was only one. And thus, it was finished.
Gael didn't fail. He traveled and fought maybe centuries, and consumed the dark soul to make the pigment. But he left us scraps of red cloth, leading us to where he would be, knowing we would stop him if it came to that and complete his mission. He sacrificed everything so that a little girl could create a cold, dark, and gentle place where lost souls could find peace, and he did so knowing he would not be there to see it. Gael was the goat.
Did you ever hear the tragedy of Knight Gael The Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Fire Keeper would tell you. It’s a Londor legend. Knight Gael was a Dark Lord of the Undead, so powerful and so wise he could use the Dark Soul to influence the curse to create death… He had such a knowledge of the Dark Soul that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. The dark side of the soul is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be... unnatural. He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught the Champion of Ash everything he knew, then the Champion killed him in his madness. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.
This video really gave so much context to not only the Gael fight, but the series as a whole, And it's a tragedy that so few people get the reasons why Gael is the final boss. In my opinion, Gael represents the nature of humanity: That we are imperfect, but our flaws make us stronger. We can surpass our "destiny" and forge our own path. We are weak and fragile, but we strive to be more than what we are, at any cost. The fight against Gael is not a fight against true evil or against an infamous, all-powerful god. It is a fight against an old man with a broken sword, a rusty crossbow, and a crappy miracle. Heck, I think it's intentional that he's such a forgettable character. Like us, he's just "some guy" who manages to take down gods and win against insurmountable odds, yet never gets any recognition for it. Why do we feel in awe of the great kingdoms, gods, demons, heroes, and legends, when all of them were outlived by Patches of all people? This game has never been about gods and legends, it's about the nameless undead who somehow defeated them all.
It's always weird how none talk about the chosen undead or the cursed one. They never have names, they're just there, maybe as a sign of motivation? Like you could be the next ashen one. The next cursed one.
I mean theres a reason why the game is called Dark Souls, not something else The games were always about the small humans/undeads since they are the dark souls
I feel like you may have gotten something wrong, at least from my interpretation, is that that Gael only wanted the Dark Soul for himself after being corrupted by it and that he had forgotten that he only needed the pigment. The description for the actual item "Blood of the Dark Soul" that you get from defeating Gael reads: "Blood of the dark soul that seeped from the hole within Slave Knight Gael. Used as pigment by his lady in Ariandel to depict a painted world. When Gael came upon the pygmy lords, he discovered that their blood had long ago dried, and so consumed the dark soul." He could no longer obtain the pigment when he found what had happened to the Dark Soul. So he consumed the Dark Soul fragments and allowed his own blood to be the pigment made from the Dark Soul. I feel as if Gael wanted you to defeat him, and bring this pigment to the Painter Girl, knowing that he himself could not. I feel Gael sacrificed himself to create the pigment of the Dark Soul for the Painter Girl, and was not just consumed by the power of the Dark Soul. Your interpretation seems to ignore the description for the item entirely. Well put together video, though! And that's just my interpretation.
exactly what I was scrolling down to write after finishing the video. I agree with you 100% his interpretation makes Gael seem selfish when intact he consumed it knowing that it would destroy him which is the most selfless thing to do.
Adam Windsor consuming the dark soul successfully produced a pigment, however it did not come without consequences. clearly consuming it makes you go mad. however his trust in us to end him lead him to do it regardless.
And so, the dark souls series ends with the tragic story of a simple, disposable and downtrodden slave knight, and his quest for a new world rather than stories of lords or monarchs. Yet in the end, the lords, people expected to be saviors of a dying world, achieved very little, if anything, while Gael, someone expected to be little more than fodders, ended up forming a new world. A very nice end to the series
Gosh, there's quite a number of parallels Gael's background has with Guts from Berserk. Guts born to the life of a sellsword. Gael made to be an expandable soldier. Guts pledging to the servitude of Griffith. Gael put to the servitude of the gods. Gut leaves the Band of the Hawk. Gael leaves his duty as slave knight. Guts eventually serving as guardian to Casca. Gael serving as guardian to the painter. Both suffer at the whim of Gods, and both susceptible to corruption. Miyazaki just really couldn't resist stopping at paying homage to the fighting style.
I find Gael to be very noble and the clearest representation of man. He was there since the beginning, but made a slave by the Gods who used and cursed his kind. He chose his own destiny and while not pretty, he sacrificed constantly through the ages, to the end of time at the end of the world, so he could create the pigment. Remember, the blood of the dark soul dried up in the Pgmy lords so the blood dripping once again shows it being revived by your fight with him and the souls that come out of Gael is the souls of men that he collected over the ages. Also, I just thinks it's interesting that Gael summons forth blue lightning that appears because of the dark souls he secretes, while other bosses have shown summoning yellow lightning and tossing it up or throwing it, almost like the Dark Soul is natural and one with the world itself, while yellow is artificially crafted by the Gods power. Gael is one of the most awesome bosses in the series for me, so much great lore that ties in with the most important things in the series and it feels just amazing fighting an ancient warrior who has suffered, but now fully embodies the power of the long awaited Dark Soul.
I wish we could venture out into the destroyed world, check out the ruins of Anor Londo and Lothric. Maybe even see the current types of life that may or may not be still around and find out how the world ended up that way.
+Lucas Gomes Although I doubt we'd get any Dark souls for a while, I doubt it won't happen in the future. Big name game franchise, people want another game, the creator also stated he'd more than likely return to it in the future. I'd guess the most likely next bit of DS content is the Goty edition and then a possible ds1 remaster.
When I heard that "the red hood has come to eat our souls" I got so worried because I knew what was about to happen. And when I saw the cut scene of Gael completely corrupted by the Dark Souls and he gives us that dialogue, it completely broke my heart. Then we have to fight him and you almost feel like you don't want to, and it's such a beautiful fight. It was such a tragic ending that invoked so much emotion in me, I can't understand how people weren't happy with it, I thought it was perfect.
Three years later. I've been going through all the games again. And I honestly have to say, Gael is both the most fitting boss fight, but also the most fun in the entire series, I loved it, still do, the only boss I'm ever truly excited to see again.
13:16 those piano notes with that transition of Gael just makes you realise the shit Gael had to go through just for the pigment to create a better world. Only to end up being taken down by you... get the dragon balls we’re reviving Gael
He succeeded. He goes hollow and insane BECAUSE he succeeded. He obtained the dark souls through the pygmy blood. Yes, it was dried up. But he goes hollow in phase 2 after his blood mixes with it and spills out (proof being: weapons that do hollow bonus damage, they work on his 2nd and 3rd phases). He did it, Albeit in a very aggressive crazy way. The blood is no longer dried up, thanks to you cutting him up. Through HIM it is liquid again. A pigment. The pigment he’s always searched for. His one and only lifelong mission is complete. And we all know what happens when cursed undead have no goal of willpower.....
The Dark Soul itself is desire personified. They call it "dark" not because it is black or evil, but because it is practically nothing more than the concept of "want". Humans have an unlimited capacity for seeking knowledge. The darksign, the black hole in the Ringed Knight armor, and hole in Gael's chest, and even the blackness of the humanity sprite are just symbols of an unfillable void. It's an insatiable desire to answer all questions. I don't think there ever was any one Dark Soul or even physical slivers of it. I think it was sort of a lie. The Dark Soul only existed as our collective desire to find it. It was nothing more than a concept. And that concept of wanting is what drives humans mad looking for it.
Then how do we end up with the Blood of the Dark Soul? Are you saying the Gael was the ultimate pinnacle of this yearning for the Dark Soul, so much even that he himself turned into want personified? It would tie in with the whole "want" theme of Dark Souls 2 (which by the way seems to be indisputably canon again), and how the fragments of Manus ended up in eternal search for more and more power.
I think that Gaels blood was infused with some sort of properties thanks to his aeons-long search for the dark soul, and his subsequent consumption of human flesh and blood. Someone on reddit said as much and I agree with it. In the final battle I think you and Gael are the last living things in the world. You were teleported through time, but Gael was left to walk the earth killing and feasting on every last human for thousands of years. Gael's blood was infused with the essence of "want" which is essentially the dark soul. The dark soul is certainly elusive. It's not something you can easily hold in your hands. It's more of an abstract idea that infects things. The dark soul is remarkably similar to the way scientists use the term Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We can see their profound effects, but we can't seem to actually find it.
the fact that the series has ended without a single tangible appearance of the dark soul definitely lends credence to your idea. if the dark soul is just some abstract property of humanity, then it all makes sense. but if there's a real physical dark soul that can be possessed and held in your hand, we should have seen it by now.
Yeah the closest thing we ever had to a tangible dark soul were the humanity items in Ds1, and I always thought it strange they changed them to effigies in Ds2 and embers in Ds3. An effigy is a representation, making this item something conceptual rather than tangible. Part of me thinks maybe they were retconning this particular aspect of the dark soul. The item itself is more important for gameplay mechanics than story because it allows online play, so it's easy to imagine the story explanation of the humanity item being shifted to fit the developing narrative in later games. My head cannon for it is the humanity item in Ds1 was actually just a regular soul tainted with the effects of the dark soul. It wasn't a literal shard of the dark soul, but an item which exhibits the effects of the dark soul. Like I said a good analogy to this is in real life. Scientists have discovered that we can't see 90% of the matter or energy in the universe. It's effects are obviously there because we observe the speed and gravitational pull of galaxies, but 90% of that power comes from something we can't otherwise detect. They call it "dark" matter because scientists can't find it. They can only observe it's gravitational pull on everything.
Based on the japanese audio and subtitles, Gael isn't actually the painter girl's uncle. But he is very close to her, and likely served as a caregiver. Perhaps he became her parents' slave, or her slave even. But, being the kind hearted crossbreed she is, she allotted him freedom to the point ”slave” was merely a title.
I think you´re missing something, when you fight Gael it´s possibly a thousand years into the future, thinking of the destruction of things, this should be just around when you fight the last boss, so the only living things when you fight Gael is the two of you. The Dark soul was split by the Fugitive Pygmy into all humans and pygmies, meaning that Gael didn´t ultimately fail, he just tried to collect all of the dark soul so that his Lady could create a new painting. The reason he is so bloated and malformed is because of how long he has gone killing and consuming, think about it, the abyss filled him and his goal was the only thing in his mind. his fighting and sword are both evidence of how long he has gone on to kill. So, the abyss is deep in him, because he has collected all of it. The Abyss is the Human soul, the dark soul of man.
I kind of don't think Gael is literally the painter's uncle, I feel like it's just a title. As a child I used to call my parents close friends I saw often Uncle or Aunt and I feel like this is similar
Beautiful. I also noticed that the encounter with Gael is a grotesque nod to Little Red Riding Hood, where Gael is simultaneously referencing Red Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, who´s out for flesh of man. It is doubly clever because his style clearly also references Artorias, the Wolf Knight. Edit: Also, I suspect that (let me try to not spoil anything here) Lapp´s dialogue as he does the thing (you know), is supposed to be Hidetaka Miyazaki (Lapp) talking to Namco Bandai (Us, the player).
Almost every single character in the souls games end in sadness but Gael has to be the saddest. A man who went through everything, through hell and back. Just to be corrupted by the one thing he wanted. He deserved better
Gael actually succeeded in his mission. Upon seeing the dried blood of the Dark Soul, he knew what he had to do and knew that he would perish upon completion. He did so anyway, knowing we'd be there to put him out of his misery and complete his mission for him. In the end he gave his life for the success of his Lady and the creation of her painting. Though his whole life was a tragedy, he went forth with an iron will and a clear goal. He definitely represents the tenacity and determination of humanity and the Dark Soul. To go forth despite one's fate and that of the world.
That ending before the thank you's was so perfect. The desolated world, the little girls voice, the silenced deranged Gael, and that saddening and epic, slow piano. I almost cried because of how well it was edited. Bravo. It was so good, the lead up, the full explanation, I just loved it. Thumbs up and like all the way.
Damn.. im tearing up at this one.. a man who had no say in his future, was turned into the undead and literally went to the ends of space and time with good intentions, to end up eating away his sanity for the lust of power.. to be put down by a nameless ash.. all without knowing that the only person he cared for is probably dead.. just a single man in the middle of a wasteland, gorging himself on the purest forms of humanity as the world crumbled to dust around himself.. wanting to return and give the painter her dark soul for a perfect world where they could both rest in peace.. forever.. (And something i just realized, what if he literally ate EVERYTHING else.. seriously, if the corpses of every other undead aren't covered in dust and/or rotting, if Gael ate the pygmy's, what the hell is stopping him from devouring everything else in his journey through time and space?)
Why not? It makes sense in a narrating perspective to send the player to the end of the world at the end of the series, fighting the namesake of the game.
I'm amazed that the Ringed City itself is hundreds of years after the events of the rest of the game (iron dragonslayer armor description), and yet you still must be transported forward in time an inconceivable length to fight Gael. He probably got there the conventional way... waiting, and working the whole time, slaughtering every single pygmy and consuming every humanity along the way. He might even be the last being alive after the murder of the Pygmy Lords. We would know more if we could check out the ruins in the distance, but even so: Gael's journey was an incredible one. He lived to see every moment of the Age of Fire, and remained sane and dedicated to his task until the very end.
After Filianore? If you look carefully at the environment of the intact Ringed City, you can see the land just... ends. I believe the "planet" is quite literally flat in Dark Souls, as in you could accidentally sail off the end. Gwyn stuck humanity into a ringed pit at the very edge of the world out of fear.
Masterful use of the Inception soundtrack, brialliant editing and writing and I love the interpretation of Gael, his beginning, journey and his fall. Well played, sir.
Probably your best lore video yet, if only because of the authoritarian, almost commanding voice you used. Felt like i was listening to a priest preaching. Great vid
The video content quality has been going way up since the bloodborne lore videos (i.e. shots and footage) Im really liking what you're doing, but I liked it before anyway. Keep up the hard work, friend.
Thanks! Honestly, I'd shoot my Bloodborne videos in the same way I shoot these, but I use cheat engine for the free camera, which is not available on PS4.
Mitch, where did u find a working cheat table? I tried several tables, but with all i got the problem, that the map was very buggy when i flew around. Btw very good video
So since dark souls is so complex. Could there be a possibility you could play through the base game, then go to the ringed city before even interacting with Gael in the cathedral church, since there are two bonfire locations to the ringed city, retrieve pigment, then go to the ashes of ariandel dlc and after completing that, give the girl the pigment without ever having to fight Gael? For a secret real ending? Idk, something just feels very Bloodbourne to me. Like you have to play through the game a certain way, like a code or puzzle in itself. just like the true ending and becoming the lord of hollows. Maybe there is a certain ending you have to activate with the certain way you play through the game. I think I'm going insane. Possibilities man. Possibilities. This just can't be the end without some form of ultimate mindfreak.
+DarkBear but I said is what if you don't interact with him at the cathedral in the first place. If you don't start the ashes dlc, and go straight to the ringed citywould Gael be there or not? You wouldn't know of the painted girl and her quest, or even his. What if it's our fault for what happens because we interacted. So what happens if we don't? Will the bonfire that leads to the ringed city still be there at the soul of cinder boss? Or can only it be activated after ashes is completed? Looking through loopholes and such. Just thoughts in my head.
when I watched that dialog when the girl says the new painting, right after Gael's Boss fight, I immediately whent "F*C---, thanks for one last punch in the feels fromsoft" raise your hand if you fill the same
In the end though, it’s because of Gael that his lady will be able to use the blood of the Dark Soul as a pigment for her painted world. Apparently, this will create a painting that will never rot, a world that can last forever. And the lady has described the world to be as “cold, dark, and gentle”. I think she’s creating a perfect home for the remnants of humanity. A place Gwyn and the other lords can’t corrupt or conquer, a haven that humanity can finally thrive in. Being painted with the Dark Soul makes it very fitting.
I do have 2 questions. 1. How do we know the Slave Knights were employed by the Gods and not any other kingdom? 2. Slave knights are undead, which means Gael is undead, and undying. And he has regained consciousness after the second phase in the fight. Maybe Gael did find his way to the painting?
im confused about something... in the beginning we were told that the darksign brands all undead yet here we have these slave knights undead but unbranded... its just something that i found curious and a bit confusing
Awesome video, as always. You know, I think I needed this explanation on Gael. While I got that he became corrupted by the dark soul, I would've never thought about Gael having endured somuch tragedy in his life. Makes the final battle even more thematically and symbolically meaningful.
Great video with lots of great insight! Though I have some slightly diverging theories based on the same stuff you've been talking about in this video. - @4:10 I agree that Ringed Knights and Slave Knights are very similar and share a common origin. However, I disagree that Slave Knights were free from the burden of the Dark Sign. Without the Dark Sign a human/pygmy would just die upon.. er.. death. It's being branded by the Dark Sign that makes a human/pygmy an Undead. - - We know that Souls came from the First Flame and we also know that “Souls are the source of all life“. We know that without Humanity aka the Dark Soul Undead go Hollow. We know that everything living, besides arch dragons, has a soul but only humans possess the Dark Soul. So, we know that humanity is not essential for a soul and therefore life. So! - - - I posit that the First Flame which is linked to all bonfires is able to fabricate souls. Humanity is the fuel it requires to create souls. The Dark Sign is a ring of flame that surrounds and consumes the excess humanity that seeps from an Undead's Dark Sigil. The Dark Sign is linked to the bonfires and thus the First Flame. When an Undead dies his soul is lost, but the First Flame consumes some of the Undead's Humanity to fabricate a new soul and thus the Undead is granted new life at one of the many bonfires linked to the First Flame. - - - - Lust, Greed, Jealousy, Want are all attributes of Humanity, of the Dark Soul. The game frequently cites such traits as what makes us human. When an Undead goes Hollow they have lost all of their motivation. They no longer Want for anything... They're not Hollow because they lost their motivation. They lost their motivation because they became Hollow. The First Flame has consumed the last of their Humanity. With no Humanity they no longer posses those traits which make us human. And with no Humanity to fuel it, the First Flame cannot fabricate a new soul for the Undead. Therefore a Hollow because a Humanityless, lifeless, and soulless husk as they were before the advent of the First Flame. - So! Back to Slave Knights and Ringed Knights. I think the distinction is primarily one of chronology. Ringed Knights came during the age that Humans fought along side all the others against the dragons. Gwyn, realizing that just like his Lightning was was paper to the dragons' rock so to was the humans' Dark scissors to his paper. If he could kill the dragons then the humans could kill him. Thus Gwyn invents the Dark Sign and brands the Ringed Knights. Birth of the first Undead. Fiddling around in the Abyss making armor and weapons falls out of fashion because of fear of the gods. Ringed Knight style armor isn't seen again until the Four Kings of New Londo start fiddling around in the Abyss under the guidance of Kaathe. Birth of the Dark Wraiths. The Ringed Knights have big gaping holes in their torsos due to the amount of Dark/Abyss/Humanity they posses and the amount of time they've been Undead. They were the very first Undead, they've been branded with the Dark Sign longer than anything else in Dark Souls. They also likely had an abundance of Humanity because of how cozy they were with the Abyss. Slave Knights came about after the Abyss was taboo. They were still Undead and therefore still branded by the Dark Sign as evidenced by Gael's Dark Sign growing to be a similar gaping hole after having spent eons consuming Dark. I think the Slave Knights were simply the military of the Ringed City after the practice of forging weapons/armor in the abyss was abandoned. - - Why this is super interesting!? Well, lots of folks have pointed out the similarities between Holy Knight Hodrick's armor and the Abyss Watchers' armor. It was thought that he must have been an aspiring or ex member of the Abyss Watchers. But, then we met Gael whose Slave Knight armor is extremely similar to both Hodrick's and the Abyss Watchers'. - - - I posit that the Sunless Realms from which Hodrick is from is in fact the Ringed City. That Gael, Hodrick, and the Abyss Watchers were all former members of the Ringed City's military. Ready for some mind blowing shit? Knight Artorias the Abysswalker was as well. - - - - I always though it strange the Wolf Knight's helmet was shaped a raven and not a wolf. When I think raven I think Velka. When I think Velka I think monuments in the Undead Settlement AND in the Ringed City. I think Velka was the primary diety of the Ringed City and was allied with Gwyn. Artorias was one of Velka's best Ringed Knights (aka Slave Knights) and he had been ordered to serve as one of Gwyn's Four Knights. That's why Ornstein was the leader of the Four Knights even though Artorias was clearly more awesome. Artorias was a foreigner and Ornstein a local. Artorias, being so venerated, was never branded with the accursed Dark Sign. He was never Undead. That's why he had Humanity for the Abyss to drive wild and corrupt him. I believe the Ringed knight wielding The Ringed Knight Paired Greatswords reinforce this theory. There are not many human-sized NPCs who can one-hand a greatsword the way Artorias does. NPCs that do one-hand a greatsword similarly to how Artorias does doing flips and spins and shit? That dual wielding Ringed Knight, The Abysswatchers, and Slave Knight Gael. They all flip around whilst one-handing a massive sword (Hodrick also uses a greatsword, but he doesn't flip around). From is using game mechanics like weapon animations to communicate the lore and history of Dark Souls to us. Artorias was a Ringed (Slave) Knight who was never branded with the Dark Sign who served as one of Gwyn's Four Knights as part of the alliance between Velka's Ringed City and Gwyn's Anor Londo. Man, I'd love to keep going. I love this shit. But I'm late for real life shit now! I'll post more long-winded comments if anyone is interested. I'll probably do it even if no one is. Cannot contain geek love.
So.... what was the Dark Soul exactly? I thought it was a specific, finite area or item or flame or even boss/person. If the Dark Soul was so spread out into even Ashen ones given Gael sought us out, wouldn't theoretically killing everyone to harness more Dark Soul and become the complete version of it be the one and only answer? Or did he just kill these specific pygmy lords who held the Dark Soul's essence closest to them so they could form it after "feasting" as that one creepy bugman put it.
Well if you follow the lore of the first game, you would learn that every little shard of humanity that we find is actually fragments of the dark soul. So we could say that you could gain the dark soul by killing all of mankind in the series, but i do agree that like Manus, the daughters of Manus and the pygmy lords seem to hold greater chunks of the dark soul in them. So i believe in the letter option because restoring the dark soul would be an impossible task so someone like us or Gael would be better off collecting the souls of the most prominent beings connected to the original dark soul then just hunting down every last little fragment in humanity.
I think the dark soul or Humanity is the soul found by the furtive pygmy in the age of ancients, and later the dark soul is fragmented, found in every human being including manus, the pygmy lords and the queens form dark souls 2. Gael's quest is to "reunite" all the fragments of dark soul to make the pigment of the dark soul, which he does. Knowing he would eventually get corrupted by it, he guided us through the Panting of Ariendel, the Dreg Heap and the Ringed city to find him and kill him once his quest done.
It seems like the Dark Soul needed more and more time to seep into every facet of life so that by approximation, you kill one guy, he gives you a piece of humanity or a fragment of the dark soul. Even half-gods like Queens or Royalty had intermixed with people containing humanity so no one was truly a pure "God-like" entity. So that explains why he points to us and says "give me your dark soul" which is equivalent to, give me your being for you can make up an even greater portion of the Dark Soul. It seems like he's traveled here ages ago while we were carried away by the winged-demons, across timelines, into a time-bubble. He was seeped in humanity by that point and had "grown" into his own collection of fragments, slowly getting to the Pygmy Lords who already were too weak to fight back it would seem. It's interesting because we're given these entities can't die due to the nature of hollowing so he instead eats them, consumes their regenerative, immortal flesh continuously after countless ages. It leads back to the idea presented by previous levels and other DS games. What do you do to an immortal corpse? Do you dissect it? Transform it? Lock it into miniature cages, hoping to contain it? In Gael's case, he was so consumed by his duty, he ingested them into himself. And that by doing so, he could properly combine these vague, amalgams together into blood, or "paint" to be used to paint a new world. It's interesting if you consider the other paintings, Ariandel's and Ariamis' constructs may have been designed in similar ways. By meshing and bleeding hollows, pygmies, anyone with humanity, together.
Mitch is better than Vaati, in my humble opinion. That's not to cast shade on Vaati's achievements, but to properly credit Mitch's ability to relate the lore in a straightforward, non-speculative yet still interesting manner.
Yes he did and was hoping you would follow and take it from himself knowing it would corrupt him. Gael in the end was the real hero of the DS series. A nobody slave who did what it took to help make a new world. There was never a greater hero in the Souls series.
Douglas Powders exactly! He had given up hope of finding the Dark Soul, until you made him bleed and he realized that the Dark Soul was inside of him and it renewed his resolve. Then he knew, one of you had to die
@@obsidianreaper9507 definitely I still believe part of him knew you needed to kill him because he knew he couldn't control what the Dark Soul would do to him. I just wish more people played and paid attention to the lore it makes the whole boss fight more spectacular
I don't think Gael knew that consuming the pigmies would turn his blood into the blood of the dark soul. If he had known that, he wouldn't have began the fight at all. In fact, when we hurt him he's surprised too: "Is this the blood of the dark soul?". We first helped him to show fire to the painter in the first dlc. Once we did that he really thought he was close to the creation of a new world in a new painting. However, in order to finish the painting, the painter needed the dark soul pigment too. So Gael went to the ringed city, where the dark soul could be found. He left some hints during his voyage, since we were "friends", we were helping the painter too. In his eyes, we had the same task: creating a gentle place to live in. He begins his search in this place. Meanwhile only us, the unkindled, get brought into the future by waking Filianore up. Gael keeps on searching until the end of times and, realizing the end is near, that he won't get his pigment and will never be able to create the world he wanted, he goes crazy and begins slaughtering everyone in anger. Slave knights used to lose their sanity when they still existed; Gael has lived for the entirety of existence. Since the dark soul was the cause of the problem, that's what his anger is led towards. He never thought we would have had to defeat him and he never planned that. He clearly did not expect to see us at the end. When he sees us there after so much time he asks: "What, still here?". What he means by that is: "did you survive so long?" and/or "there's no reason to be here, there's no way to get the pigment anymore". Then he realizes that we're part of the dark soul too and tries to kill us. Halfway through the fight he finally sees that his own blood is the dark soul pigment, since he consumed the pigmies' dark souls. Here he would just stop and go deliver the pigment to the painter, right? No, he doesn't. And Patches reveals us a little more about the human nature: it doesn't matter the era, men will always be greedy. Now, men are part of the dark soul and Gael has gathered inside him a huge part of it. He now wants all of it and we're just a shard of the dark soul waiting to be collected
For whatever reason, I like to think that the Painter's father is Livid Pyromancer Dunnel and her mother is Priscilla (his 'hideous' spouse. Crossbreeds are seen as abominations after all, no matter how cute they are). And I sincerely doubt that Gael is her real uncle, even if he clearly behaves as such almost like Henryk does for the Gascoigne daughters who call him 'Grandpa'. Also, is the lighting attack used by Gael the only BLUE-colored lighting in DS? This is something that puzzles me because DS's lighting is always yellow (which isn't that realistic if you think about it, since real electric sparks are white, blue, even purple at times but never YELLOW) but well, we could say that the reason for it being that way is because it represents the power of the sun. The blue spark immediately makes me think of BB's undead darkbeasts and their living bones, once again strengthening my silly theories about the two games being connected :P
Priscilla is cute! CUTE! I hadn't thought of the lightning being blue. That's interesting. Maybe it's a sign that the God-favoured yellow lightning bestowed by Seath is becoming less powerful, and the rightful power of nature is returning. Who knows?
The lightning in Gael's boss arena (if you mean that by "blue lightning") seems rather natural to me, as opposed to the lightning Miracles Gwyn wielded. Gwyn's lightning stemmed directly from his Lord Soul, the power of which probably allowed him to turn the power of the sun into "lightning". The lightning that Gael ends up summoning in the boss arena is probably more natural - seeing as to how the sky darkens and the lightning actually strikes from the sky downwards. That's my take on it: yellow = miracle of the first lord soul; blue = natural (maybe even connected to the Dark Soul, seeing as how it basically defied the God-Souls).
MalakiaLaGatta the lightning in Gaels boss fight is just the weather lol not miracles,you can tell cause it damages him too and you can see in the background of his transformation cutscene
This was a very interesting video, and honestly, even though i was (like most) at first disappointed by the ending, you helped me understand it better, and see it for what it really is : a peaceful ending. It is quite poetic when you think about it : in the base game, there are no real solution to the cycle of fire, even becoming the lord of hollows doesn't seem to really solve anything. But this new world creates an exit, a safe place to take refuge in, far away from the wrath of the gods, the curses of hollowing and the ancient demons or dragons. It gives a whole new meaning to gael's struggle, and a wonderful finality to our quest in the game.
A Gael is a person of Scottish or Irish blood. The Irish often were forced to fight for their oppressors, the British, in order to make ends meat. We also fought in the first World War as we were prpromised Home Rule in return for our sacrifice. Home Rule was not given, and we had to earn our freedom in the Irish War of Independence.
I dont think Gael failed at his quest. He succeeded. You, the ashen one, are his success. He brings you to the painted world, which sets it ablaze and frees the painter. At the end of the world, its him guiding you, telling you where to go, showing you the way and how to find him. And at Filianors rest, she transports you through time to the end of the world. Gael isn't the same as he once was. He isn't small, his executioners blade is cracked and badly worn. A lot of time has passed. When he found the dark soul, or the ancient pygmy lord's their blood had long since dried... leaving no way to get the pigment. He had to do the unthinkable and take it within himself... he would be the container for it. For he knew a true champion would come... to complete his mission. A true champion of ash. (RIP Gael.... I'm not crying you're crying)
The way Gael sobs before essentially being torn by the dark soul (before unleashing that huge blast of energy, which interestingly enough seeks you out like an affinity would...) makes me contemplate that the Dark Soul encompasses the archetype of destruction as the Lord Soul encompasses the archetype of creation. This would be why the gods feared humans and humanity as it is literally the humans' destiny to destroy the world that the gods created. Branding humans with the mark of fire (the curse) was literally the only thing they could come up with just to keep humanity's destructive tendency in check. This becomes further understandable when we go back to Dark Souls I environment of the abyss and the Humanity sprites. Humanity sprites caused intense damage if they touched you meanwhile in DaSIII we learn that a fire sprite (ember) heals and just grants more health. Of course, if humans use a 'free' humanity it heals them as they're just adding it to their own Dark Soul. Gael has literally no control over the immense destructive power of the Dark Soul. Makes me wonder what would have happened, here at the end of the world, if time was just to pass further with Gael as he is. Would this become another 'eternal age' of dragons or would the Lord Souls resurface with the goal of stopping him creating a new Age of Fire?
In Slave Knight set there is no reference to who slave knights served, so you are kind of reaching assuming they served gods specifically. And also you trying to make some connection to abyss forged weapons and executioner's greatsword, because sword "remembers" is not really convincing. It's not that uncommon that Dark Souls weapons have kind of mystic "sentient" qualities.
I bet it's been brought up before, but I really like the sort of symmetries between Geal and Artorious. How they both had a sworn duty, but both became corrupted by what they were searching/fighting for.
![Dark Souls 3 ► Story of the Ringed City [Part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oRpDm5pEWUE/mqdefault.jpg)
![Dark Souls 3 ► Story of the Ringed City [Part 1]](/img/tr.png)
Couple of things. Main things mentioned in the comments so far are:
-"Gael is not really the Painter Girl's uncle, it's more of a term of endearment."
I can definitely see that as a possibility, and in fact, it makes a lot more sense. One caveat to that would be that the only other mention of an "uncle" in the series - as far as I know, is Allfather Lloyd being Gwyn's uncle. How do we reconcile that?
-"Gael consumed the Dark Soul to create the pigment."
While I like this theory and believe it is a very possible alternative, I doubt certain aspects of it. How would he know consuming it would create a pigment? Why did Gael ask you for YOUR "Dark Soul" upon seeing you, instead of begging you to kill him or something, and to complete his quest? If his intention was for you to be "the backup," why didn't he just give you the blood, even after he begins to bleed the Blood of the Dark Soul?
Again, I believe the counter-theory is VERY plausible, and I think it rings -mostly- true, logically speaking. I just happen to have a slightly different point of view.
afaik, the reason he's not considered her actual Uncle, is from people who looked at the original Japanese term, which apparently is more clear in that regard, hence why we know it for sure.
I believe Gael was corrupted at the end, but he knew since the beginning he would fail, he knew he wouldn't deliver the pigment, he would only retrieve it.
That's why he guides you through dreg heap and the ringed city, because he knows he will fail and he needs you to kill him.
If that's the truth then it's even more tragic.
Gael most likely had a thought of the players involvment with his quest for the pigment. In the dreg heap Gael guides you downward closer to his location.
steunwell to add to this: I think he might have deducted that consuming so much of the dark soul would make him out of control. so he needed the strongest backup he could find to do the job: the unkindled Ash. the assumption here is that he was capable of doing that deduction, which is reasonable but far from fact.
Mitch L What's the difference between the Blood and the Soul?
A nobody fighting a nobody in the middle of nowhere, for no greater end as the world itself has crumbled into nothing. Considering the consistent mood of the three games, this is the perfect final battle and poetic ending for the entire series.
There's always an end. Battle is the truest form of communication. In fighting Gael, we see the conclusion of his journey. The sum total of his results
As the fight starts he moves on all fours. He is wild, aggressive. This is what he's become. Forgotten purpose, nothing left but the will to fight for fightings sake
But as the fight goes on, he seems to fight with more control. Finesse. Its like the battle itself makes him remember who he is
It reminds me of my grand father... He has dementia, but at his 50 anniversary, he danced with my grand mother. Despite the dementia, he remembered all their favorite songs and seemed to remember himself in that moment of expression. He was a singer in his youth
Same thing for Gael. He is a warrior. And speaking to Gael as an equal warrior forces him him to remember himself. Even if it isnt permanent and even if its for that one instant
This is so deep fuck I’m too high
Brandon Williams actually he doesn’t become more himself as the fight goes on. He sees his blood dropping which is the blood of the dark soul needed to paint a new world. Thus gael loses his purpose and becomes hollow. Also he’s weak to hollowslayer gs in 2nd and 3rd phase.
@@yusufmertozturk4713 all hollows not same.. It's gael we are talking about... He's like us
Holy shit, Touché.
he helped me fight friede and the demon princes i felt no joy in killing him
James D Quant his AI was awful in both fights, i felt no remorse
His AI is shit against Friede but he does well against the Prince I found.
king calcium it still was sad for me seeing him struggle through a similar journey to us and even more. And I'm the end he failed his duty and we had to put him out of his misery.
You can summon him for the Demon Princes? I only saw Lapp's sign, and he was more than good enough for me.
Yep. His sign is right by that rune in the ash pile you land on when jumping to the bonfire.
Gael didn't betray his mission. As stated in the Blood of the Dark Soul's description, the blood of the pygmy lords had long dried out by the time Gael found them. In order to make the pigment, he consumed the Dark Soul himself, so that his blood would become the pigment for the painting. But, he knew this would drive him insane. Perhaps this is why he led us through the Ringed City? So that we might slay him and then take his blood to the painter. Whatever the case, Gael's consumption of the Dark Soul was not motivated by greed, but by necessity for the creation of a pigment.
I don't think that Gael from the bossfight is actually the Gael from the Ringed City. Personally, I believe Gael never made it to Filianore (since he actually still somewhat had ties to the gods and their decrees; he's a slave after all), but instead ended up slaughtering one human after another, up until the endtime, where we meet him.
I base that on the description of his Sword, which reads "Greatsword of Slave Knight Gael, the only weapon that he kept with him from beginning to end./Originally an executioner's sword made for decapitation, this blade
is heavily chipped and stained with the blood of countless battles."
Countless battles to me implies that it took a LONG time for him to reach the point where we find him, as he still wields the executioner's greatsword in the Dreg Heap (or whatever it's called).
He did not know where his journey would lead him; he did not know that he himself would end up becoming the vessel of the Dark Soul - which also explains his "still here?" quote, when we fight him.
He never awoke Filianore, and thus was never transported to the Pigmy Lords, who presumably hid in the future in order to avoid prosecution and scrambles for the Dark Soul; we are directly warned NOT to wake up Filianore by every single NPC in the DLC (except for the one "guarding" the Monument of Absolution or whatever that thing's called) as well as that Filianore guards the Dark Soul - heavily implying that people KNEW she had hidden the Pigmy Lords away.Back on track: Gael never made it through the Ringed City; never never made it past the countless people guarding Filianore. He set us on the path because he saw us as the Champion of Ash, the one with the power to withstand the Lord Souls (aka. First Flame) and thus tasked us with retrieving the last one of these souls. Ashes of Ariandel was a test, to see how well we'd fare with the power of fire surging through us, and the Ringed City was him acknowledging our might in regards to the Lord Souls.
That's my take on the whole thing - Gael, who he set out, questing us to find the Dark Soul, and when we never return ending up creating the Dark Soul himself, going mad in the process.
The thing is, if he knew he couldn't take it, why didn't he just ask us to fetch it for him?
I always thought that waking up Filianore made you go into the far future, where everything is just Ashen wastes, and Gael had to spend a long time killing all of humanity, THEN the pigmy lords, as we see him doing, to make the Dark Soul complete, since the DS is spread out through all of humans.
I also think he got to the "future" the long way round. Gael's soul description states :
" The red-hooded, wandering slave knight Gael sought the blood of the dark soul as pigment for the Painted World. But Gael knew he was no Champion, that the dark soul would likely ruin him and that he had little hope of a safe return. "
To me this seems to imply that his intention was to become a vessel for the Dark Soul, in order for his blood to become a pigment for the painting. But as he himself suspected, he lost his mind to the power of the Dark Soul and forgot his purpose, instead becoming intent on consuming everything Dark.
To me it seems that AoA's purpose was to get Friede out of the way for the painter to see flame. The Unkindled One does not absorb the power of fire unleashed after Friede's death, instead its purpose is for the painter to use the flame for her new painted world. Its not so much a test, as it is getting half of the materials required for the new painted world.
ayemeharty but still that question persist. why want our dark souls and why continue to fight when he had created the pigment? is it in hopes that we kill him? but what if he kills us? how would he give the pigment then? whats the point of takin our dark souls then?
I wonder what the Pygmy lords were thinking when a man with a long beard and a broken sword barreled towards them and started eating them.
Gwyn Damnit...
Your Mother Hubbard Thought the executioner blade was a broken sword of sort :O
They already knew who he was, eons have passed and he has earned the title of "red hood", his sword now gone and broken, he was searching for them for years
They thought: “Guess I’ll die..”
I think his "insignificance" adds to the echoing hopeless tone of the entire series. The big "final fight" is two undead, not gods or lords, fighting in the ashes of all fallen kingdoms.
It's is man vs man. Not a gallant knight or a god. Just a man. Just like yourself. The only two left.
Two undead, seen as mere refuse, barely fit to stand in the light of so called gods, stood facing each other at the end of time.
The supposed gods were all dead, slaughtered by the very undead and unkindled they looked down upon, their kingdoms burnt to the ground.
The dragons that had existed at the beginning of time were long gone, any that had survived the genocide that had allowed the gods to rise had now been slaughtered by the forgotten nobodies of the world.
The demons, beasts of infernal flames created by a desperate attempt at preventing the infinite dark, were all ash by now, their blasphemous bodies reduced to dust by the pigmies who huddled around the embers for what little warmth was left.
The once pristine and warm world was dead, reduced to nothing but a cold wasteland of ash and the ruins of a kingdom that had torn itself apart.
And yet two still remained, amongst the ruins. Two nobodies, who had been seen by all as weak and useless. Two barely breathing corpses, who had gone through countless hardships, had struggled through endless deaths and endless punishment, and had come out as the last beings left in a long dead world.
Where others had bent and perished, they had continued to struggle, continued to push forward, marching forward even as their legs gave out, crawling forward even as their arms gave out, and inching forward even as their minds gave out; every day, growing stronger from their agony, from their supposedly worthless struggling.
And now here they stood, mightier than any god, braver than any dragon, and more violent than any demon.
They were all that was left…
But they were not finished.
There was still one last trial, one last fight, a final dying, faint ember that would be this world’s curtain call.
And so, they turned towards each other…
Drew their blades…
And one last time, they danced the dance of death.
It was the most beautiful dance in all of time, but one that would have no audience. It would have been romanticized by countless historians and philosophers, but there was no one left to witness it or write down the tales.
Artists would’ve painted masterpieces of the scene, but there was no artists around to paint it.
It was a dance done alone and in privacy, for no one was left to interrupt or interfere in this clash of these true gods. Ash and blood flew and lightning filled the battlefield as the two nobodies waltzed with their final dance partner; the world’s decaying corpse was their only audience, who witnessed the end of time with baited and rotten breath.
The dance lasted for eternity in this world where time had long lost any meaning.
Until finally, there was only one.
And thus, it was finished.
@@apollyonnoctis1291 this is so well written, i love it
@@apollyonnoctis1291 this was beautiful to read my friend
Funnily enough these two beings are stronger than the gods of the dark souls world
Gael didn't fail. He traveled and fought maybe centuries, and consumed the dark soul to make the pigment. But he left us scraps of red cloth, leading us to where he would be, knowing we would stop him if it came to that and complete his mission. He sacrificed everything so that a little girl could create a cold, dark, and gentle place where lost souls could find peace, and he did so knowing he would not be there to see it. Gael was the goat.
Did you ever hear the tragedy of Knight Gael The Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Fire Keeper would tell you. It’s a Londor legend. Knight Gael was a Dark Lord of the Undead, so powerful and so wise he could use the Dark Soul to influence the curse to create death… He had such a knowledge of the Dark Soul that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. The dark side of the soul is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be... unnatural. He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught the Champion of Ash everything he knew, then the Champion killed him in his madness. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.
Alonne Sensei this is more tragic than star wars
Alonne Sensei nice palpatine reference with a twist you put on there. 10/10
Is it possible to learn this power?
ßreads not from a jedi
@@reads2166 Not from an Ashen One..
This video really gave so much context to not only the Gael fight, but the series as a whole, And it's a tragedy that so few people get the reasons why Gael is the final boss.
In my opinion, Gael represents the nature of humanity: That we are imperfect, but our flaws make us stronger. We can surpass our "destiny" and forge our own path. We are weak and fragile, but we strive to be more than what we are, at any cost. The fight against Gael is not a fight against true evil or against an infamous, all-powerful god. It is a fight against an old man with a broken sword, a rusty crossbow, and a crappy miracle.
Heck, I think it's intentional that he's such a forgettable character. Like us, he's just "some guy" who manages to take down gods and win against insurmountable odds, yet never gets any recognition for it. Why do we feel in awe of the great kingdoms, gods, demons, heroes, and legends, when all of them were outlived by Patches of all people? This game has never been about gods and legends, it's about the nameless undead who somehow defeated them all.
It's always weird how none talk about the chosen undead or the cursed one. They never have names, they're just there, maybe as a sign of motivation? Like you could be the next ashen one. The next cursed one.
I mean theres a reason why the game is called Dark Souls, not something else
The games were always about the small humans/undeads since they are the dark souls
I feel like you may have gotten something wrong, at least from my interpretation, is that that Gael only wanted the Dark Soul for himself after being corrupted by it and that he had forgotten that he only needed the pigment.
The description for the actual item "Blood of the Dark Soul" that you get from defeating Gael reads:
"Blood of the dark soul that seeped from the hole within Slave Knight Gael.
Used as pigment by his lady in Ariandel to depict a painted world.
When Gael came upon the pygmy lords, he discovered that their blood had long ago dried, and so consumed the dark soul."
He could no longer obtain the pigment when he found what had happened to the Dark Soul. So he consumed the Dark Soul fragments and allowed his own blood to be the pigment made from the Dark Soul. I feel as if Gael wanted you to defeat him, and bring this pigment to the Painter Girl, knowing that he himself could not.
I feel Gael sacrificed himself to create the pigment of the Dark Soul for the Painter Girl, and was not just consumed by the power of the Dark Soul. Your interpretation seems to ignore the description for the item entirely.
Well put together video, though! And that's just my interpretation.
FaceManPie That's exactly what I had thought.
FaceManPie Not really a sacrifice if he fights back extremely aggressively.
Adam Windsor Could if been him testing us to see if we'd be able to bring it back to the painter girl.
exactly what I was scrolling down to write after finishing the video. I agree with you 100% his interpretation makes Gael seem selfish when intact he consumed it knowing that it would destroy him which is the most selfless thing to do.
Adam Windsor consuming the dark soul successfully produced a pigment, however it did not come without consequences. clearly consuming it makes you go mad. however his trust in us to end him lead him to do it regardless.
And so, the dark souls series ends with the tragic story of a simple, disposable and downtrodden slave knight, and his quest for a new world rather than stories of lords or monarchs. Yet in the end, the lords, people expected to be saviors of a dying world, achieved very little, if anything, while Gael, someone expected to be little more than fodders, ended up forming a new world. A very nice end to the series
Gosh, there's quite a number of parallels Gael's background has with Guts from Berserk.
Guts born to the life of a sellsword. Gael made to be an expandable soldier.
Guts pledging to the servitude of Griffith. Gael put to the servitude of the gods.
Gut leaves the Band of the Hawk. Gael leaves his duty as slave knight.
Guts eventually serving as guardian to Casca. Gael serving as guardian to the painter.
Both suffer at the whim of Gods, and both susceptible to corruption.
Miyazaki just really couldn't resist stopping at paying homage to the fighting style.
But gael didn't fuck the painter
@@thegodfather376 That's what they want you to think
@@joelharrison4654 =))))
And the auto crossbow and big ass sword lol
I find Gael to be very noble and the clearest representation of man.
He was there since the beginning, but made a slave by the Gods who used and cursed his kind. He chose his own destiny and while not pretty, he sacrificed constantly through the ages, to the end of time at the end of the world, so he could create the pigment. Remember, the blood of the dark soul dried up in the Pgmy lords so the blood dripping once again shows it being revived by your fight with him and the souls that come out of Gael is the souls of men that he collected over the ages.
Also, I just thinks it's interesting that Gael summons forth blue lightning that appears because of the dark souls he secretes, while other bosses have shown summoning yellow lightning and tossing it up or throwing it, almost like the Dark Soul is natural and one with the world itself, while yellow is artificially crafted by the Gods power.
Gael is one of the most awesome bosses in the series for me, so much great lore that ties in with the most important things in the series and it feels just amazing fighting an ancient warrior who has suffered, but now fully embodies the power of the long awaited Dark Soul.
He was one of the only good guys in souls other than Artorias.
@@marleyjr00 and Gough
I wanna point out something else with Gael.
The lightning lands only where the soul things from his AoEs land.
I wish we could venture out into the destroyed world, check out the ruins of Anor Londo and Lothric. Maybe even see the current types of life that may or may not be still around and find out how the world ended up that way.
Me too! Wish there were more secrets in that area.
Xephonix The only thing of note I saw was when Shira invades you, and she is very pissed now that you lefted the veil.
just wish dark souls 4 would come soon, but no fuckers wont work on DS ever again
No dark souls 4 my friend. Maybe a story that will take place in the new painted world, but for now, The Souls saga has ended.
+Lucas Gomes Although I doubt we'd get any Dark souls for a while, I doubt it won't happen in the future.
Big name game franchise, people want another game, the creator also stated he'd more than likely return to it in the future.
I'd guess the most likely next bit of DS content is the Goty edition and then a possible ds1 remaster.
When I heard that "the red hood has come to eat our souls" I got so worried because I knew what was about to happen. And when I saw the cut scene of Gael completely corrupted by the Dark Souls and he gives us that dialogue, it completely broke my heart. Then we have to fight him and you almost feel like you don't want to, and it's such a beautiful fight. It was such a tragic ending that invoked so much emotion in me, I can't understand how people weren't happy with it, I thought it was perfect.
Three years later. I've been going through all the games again. And I honestly have to say, Gael is both the most fitting boss fight, but also the most fun in the entire series, I loved it, still do, the only boss I'm ever truly excited to see again.
I'ma be real I didn't want to fight him.
I legit teared up after his bossfight when I spoke to the painter hearing from her "I wonder when uncle gael returns" F*** you Miyazaki..
13:16 those piano notes with that transition of Gael just makes you realise the shit Gael had to go through just for the pigment to create a better world. Only to end up being taken down by you... get the dragon balls we’re reviving Gael
He succeeded. He goes hollow and insane BECAUSE he succeeded.
He obtained the dark souls through the pygmy blood. Yes, it was dried up. But he goes hollow in phase 2 after his blood mixes with it and spills out (proof being: weapons that do hollow bonus damage, they work on his 2nd and 3rd phases).
He did it, Albeit in a very aggressive crazy way. The blood is no longer dried up, thanks to you cutting him up. Through HIM it is liquid again. A pigment. The pigment he’s always searched for.
His one and only lifelong mission is complete. And we all know what happens when cursed undead have no goal of willpower.....
I am insanely impressed by how fast you put this together, and how well you did so. Outstanding.
No sleep
Mitch L dude dont push urself get some rest if u need it
Thanks dude! I was waiting for a lore vid on the ringed city
Using the song "Time" from Inception added so much more value and feels to it .
EPIC NEL them feels were real.... you can really hear that he lost himself. damn epic!
not for me...wayyy to overused at this point
The Dark Soul itself is desire personified. They call it "dark" not because it is black or evil, but because it is practically nothing more than the concept of "want". Humans have an unlimited capacity for seeking knowledge. The darksign, the black hole in the Ringed Knight armor, and hole in Gael's chest, and even the blackness of the humanity sprite are just symbols of an unfillable void. It's an insatiable desire to answer all questions.
I don't think there ever was any one Dark Soul or even physical slivers of it. I think it was sort of a lie. The Dark Soul only existed as our collective desire to find it. It was nothing more than a concept. And that concept of wanting is what drives humans mad looking for it.
Then how do we end up with the Blood of the Dark Soul? Are you saying the Gael was the ultimate pinnacle of this yearning for the Dark Soul, so much even that he himself turned into want personified? It would tie in with the whole "want" theme of Dark Souls 2 (which by the way seems to be indisputably canon again), and how the fragments of Manus ended up in eternal search for more and more power.
I think that Gaels blood was infused with some sort of properties thanks to his aeons-long search for the dark soul, and his subsequent consumption of human flesh and blood. Someone on reddit said as much and I agree with it. In the final battle I think you and Gael are the last living things in the world. You were teleported through time, but Gael was left to walk the earth killing and feasting on every last human for thousands of years. Gael's blood was infused with the essence of "want" which is essentially the dark soul.
The dark soul is certainly elusive. It's not something you can easily hold in your hands. It's more of an abstract idea that infects things. The dark soul is remarkably similar to the way scientists use the term Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We can see their profound effects, but we can't seem to actually find it.
the fact that the series has ended without a single tangible appearance of the dark soul definitely lends credence to your idea. if the dark soul is just some abstract property of humanity, then it all makes sense. but if there's a real physical dark soul that can be possessed and held in your hand, we should have seen it by now.
Yeah the closest thing we ever had to a tangible dark soul were the humanity items in Ds1, and I always thought it strange they changed them to effigies in Ds2 and embers in Ds3. An effigy is a representation, making this item something conceptual rather than tangible. Part of me thinks maybe they were retconning this particular aspect of the dark soul. The item itself is more important for gameplay mechanics than story because it allows online play, so it's easy to imagine the story explanation of the humanity item being shifted to fit the developing narrative in later games. My head cannon for it is the humanity item in Ds1 was actually just a regular soul tainted with the effects of the dark soul. It wasn't a literal shard of the dark soul, but an item which exhibits the effects of the dark soul.
Like I said a good analogy to this is in real life. Scientists have discovered that we can't see 90% of the matter or energy in the universe. It's effects are obviously there because we observe the speed and gravitational pull of galaxies, but 90% of that power comes from something we can't otherwise detect. They call it "dark" matter because scientists can't find it. They can only observe it's gravitational pull on everything.
i like the idea but weren't the humanity and the humanity sprites in DS1 considered to be pieces of the dark soul?
the place you fight gale looks like the place in the first cutscene with the peopel with shells on there backs
Based on the japanese audio and subtitles, Gael isn't actually the painter girl's uncle. But he is very close to her, and likely served as a caregiver. Perhaps he became her parents' slave, or her slave even. But, being the kind hearted crossbreed she is, she allotted him freedom to the point ”slave” was merely a title.
I think you´re missing something, when you fight Gael it´s possibly a thousand years into the future, thinking of the destruction of things, this should be just around when you fight the last boss, so the only living things when you fight Gael is the two of you. The Dark soul was split by the Fugitive Pygmy into all humans and pygmies, meaning that Gael didn´t ultimately fail, he just tried to collect all of the dark soul so that his Lady could create a new painting. The reason he is so bloated and malformed is because of how long he has gone killing and consuming, think about it, the abyss filled him and his goal was the only thing in his mind. his fighting and sword are both evidence of how long he has gone on to kill. So, the abyss is deep in him, because he has collected all of it. The Abyss is the Human soul, the dark soul of man.
What I want to know is, how are the slave knight leggings honorable?
Adam Windsor rip
They're cute
Mitch L put them on and you'll look like a babe
Adam Windsor
two words
assless chaps
Adam Windsor Thou shall show thou one's glorious ass to all
Pygmy lords: this whole end of the world thing can’t get any worse
*crossbow bolt hits kneecap*
Pygmy lords: I stand corrected
The Slave Knight set description is so fitting for Gael and what he ended up becoming.
Great video as always Mitch!
I kind of don't think Gael is literally the painter's uncle, I feel like it's just a title. As a child I used to call my parents close friends I saw often Uncle or Aunt and I feel like this is similar
I really love the way you make your videos...The way you sync amazing shots with your talking is such great work :D
man that ending to the story with the music rising and stopping suddenly was just perfect ... good job mate
Beautiful.
I also noticed that the encounter with Gael is a grotesque nod to Little Red Riding Hood, where Gael is simultaneously referencing Red Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, who´s out for flesh of man.
It is doubly clever because his style clearly also references Artorias, the Wolf Knight.
Edit:
Also, I suspect that (let me try to not spoil anything here) Lapp´s dialogue as he does the thing (you know), is supposed to be Hidetaka Miyazaki (Lapp) talking to Namco Bandai (Us, the player).
The Music used is "Arrival: On the nature of daylight" & "Inception Soundtrack"
Ily
Thank you my soul can rest in peace
Almost every single character in the souls games end in sadness but Gael has to be the saddest. A man who went through everything, through hell and back. Just to be corrupted by the one thing he wanted. He deserved better
Gael actually succeeded in his mission. Upon seeing the dried blood of the Dark Soul, he knew what he had to do and knew that he would perish upon completion. He did so anyway, knowing we'd be there to put him out of his misery and complete his mission for him. In the end he gave his life for the success of his Lady and the creation of her painting. Though his whole life was a tragedy, he went forth with an iron will and a clear goal. He definitely represents the tenacity and determination of humanity and the Dark Soul. To go forth despite one's fate and that of the world.
Damn that music was so fitting at the end, hit me right in the feels.
6:22 That's an.. interesting camera position
"visions of head"
That ending before the thank you's was so perfect. The desolated world, the little girls voice, the silenced deranged Gael, and that saddening and epic, slow piano. I almost cried because of how well it was edited. Bravo. It was so good, the lead up, the full explanation, I just loved it. Thumbs up and like all the way.
the music at the end was beautiful and perfectly fitting. great job.
Damn.. im tearing up at this one.. a man who had no say in his future, was turned into the undead and literally went to the ends of space and time with good intentions, to end up eating away his sanity for the lust of power.. to be put down by a nameless ash.. all without knowing that the only person he cared for is probably dead.. just a single man in the middle of a wasteland, gorging himself on the purest forms of humanity as the world crumbled to dust around himself.. wanting to return and give the painter her dark soul for a perfect world where they could both rest in peace.. forever.. (And something i just realized, what if he literally ate EVERYTHING else.. seriously, if the corpses of every other undead aren't covered in dust and/or rotting, if Gael ate the pygmy's, what the hell is stopping him from devouring everything else in his journey through time and space?)
i think the place your sent after fillianore is the very edge of the world. where there is nothing but wasteland.
Possibly, but we can see the ruins of places like Anor Londo in the distance, though not far enough for it to be the "Edge of the World."
Why not? It makes sense in a narrating perspective to send the player to the end of the world at the end of the series, fighting the namesake of the game.
I'm amazed that the Ringed City itself is hundreds of years after the events of the rest of the game (iron dragonslayer armor description), and yet you still must be transported forward in time an inconceivable length to fight Gael. He probably got there the conventional way... waiting, and working the whole time, slaughtering every single pygmy and consuming every humanity along the way.
He might even be the last being alive after the murder of the Pygmy Lords. We would know more if we could check out the ruins in the distance, but even so: Gael's journey was an incredible one. He lived to see every moment of the Age of Fire, and remained sane and dedicated to his task until the very end.
After Filianore? If you look carefully at the environment of the intact Ringed City, you can see the land just... ends. I believe the "planet" is quite literally flat in Dark Souls, as in you could accidentally sail off the end. Gwyn stuck humanity into a ringed pit at the very edge of the world out of fear.
Best video you've done so far. Keep it up man, love watching your content and listening to your interpretations.
This was a well done video.Thanks for your time and efforts putting it together.
Real Aussie Hours who the FUCK IS UP?!??
I am, an American lying in bed at 3 in the morning watching souls lore videos
the music u added in at 11:00 was perfect!
Been looking for the lore behind this, found you through Vaati's absence. Great video, keep it up
Masterful use of the Inception soundtrack, brialliant editing and writing and I love the interpretation of Gael, his beginning, journey and his fall. Well played, sir.
Probably your best lore video yet, if only because of the authoritarian, almost commanding voice you used. Felt like i was listening to a priest preaching. Great vid
Thou shalt hark the words of the lore priest, heathen :)
The video content quality has been going way up since the bloodborne lore videos (i.e. shots and footage) Im really liking what you're doing, but I liked it before anyway. Keep up the hard work, friend.
Thanks! Honestly, I'd shoot my Bloodborne videos in the same way I shoot these, but I use cheat engine for the free camera, which is not available on PS4.
Mitch, where did u find a working cheat table? I tried several tables, but with all i got the problem, that the map was very buggy when i flew around.
Btw very good video
I've watched this video so many times. Truly stunning work, Mitch. Thank you 😁
Thanks man!
He looks like to guy that introduces you at general radahns castle
So since dark souls is so complex. Could there be a possibility you could play through the base game, then go to the ringed city before even interacting with Gael in the cathedral church, since there are two bonfire locations to the ringed city, retrieve pigment, then go to the ashes of ariandel dlc and after completing that, give the girl the pigment without ever having to fight Gael? For a secret real ending? Idk, something just feels very Bloodbourne to me. Like you have to play through the game a certain way, like a code or puzzle in itself. just like the true ending and becoming the lord of hollows. Maybe there is a certain ending you have to activate with the certain way you play through the game. I think I'm going insane. Possibilities man. Possibilities. This just can't be the end without some form of ultimate mindfreak.
if you kill gael in the ringed city he wont be at cathedral church
+DarkBear but I said is what if you don't interact with him at the cathedral in the first place. If you don't start the ashes dlc, and go straight to the ringed citywould Gael be there or not? You wouldn't know of the painted girl and her quest, or even his. What if it's our fault for what happens because we interacted. So what happens if we don't? Will the bonfire that leads to the ringed city still be there at the soul of cinder boss? Or can only it be activated after ashes is completed? Looking through loopholes and such. Just thoughts in my head.
Jesse Roberts he will be there I don't have dlc 1 he's there.
+Ihzy well darn. I tried...
What happens in the cutscene?
when I watched that dialog when the girl says the new painting, right after Gael's Boss fight, I immediately whent "F*C---, thanks for one last punch in the feels fromsoft" raise your hand if you fill the same
The dialogue from the painted girl; coupled w/ the song from inception. A masterfully woven tragedy. Almost cried.
In the end though, it’s because of Gael that his lady will be able to use the blood of the Dark Soul as a pigment for her painted world. Apparently, this will create a painting that will never rot, a world that can last forever. And the lady has described the world to be as “cold, dark, and gentle”. I think she’s creating a perfect home for the remnants of humanity. A place Gwyn and the other lords can’t corrupt or conquer, a haven that humanity can finally thrive in. Being painted with the Dark Soul makes it very fitting.
I do have 2 questions.
1. How do we know the Slave Knights were employed by the Gods and not any other kingdom?
2. Slave knights are undead, which means Gael is undead, and undying. And he has regained consciousness after the second phase in the fight. Maybe Gael did find his way to the painting?
Great video Mitch, you got yourself a new subscriber.
Thanks!
wow really emotional and great ending to this video great job man!
Damn.. You had me there in the end.. Speachless! The music, the tone of the video, I loved it. You just got yourself a new sub ;-)
im confused about something... in the beginning we were told that the darksign brands all undead yet here we have these slave knights undead but unbranded... its just something that i found curious and a bit confusing
BassBorn they're wearing armor so you can't see it
Nice to see you upping your camera game bud :)
Very good job, I appreciate both you and Vaati's efforts regarding this game. Earned yourself a subscriber!
Awesome video, as always. You know, I think I needed this explanation on Gael. While I got that he became corrupted by the dark soul, I would've never thought about Gael having endured somuch tragedy in his life. Makes the final battle even more thematically and symbolically meaningful.
Or, Gael is posts apocalyptic Santa
their needs to be a cartoon or anime based on the history of the dark soul.
great video and this really made the story of Dark Souls more worth while!
This is gonna fucking kill me. What is the back ground music you use ? I think it was in the movie arrival and I can't get it out my head
"On the Nature of Daylight."
Great video with lots of great insight! Though I have some slightly diverging theories based on the same stuff you've been talking about in this video.
- @4:10 I agree that Ringed Knights and Slave Knights are very similar and share a common origin. However, I disagree that Slave Knights were free from the burden of the Dark Sign. Without the Dark Sign a human/pygmy would just die upon.. er.. death. It's being branded by the Dark Sign that makes a human/pygmy an Undead.
- - We know that Souls came from the First Flame and we also know that “Souls are the source of all life“. We know that without Humanity aka the Dark Soul Undead go Hollow. We know that everything living, besides arch dragons, has a soul but only humans possess the Dark Soul. So, we know that humanity is not essential for a soul and therefore life. So!
- - - I posit that the First Flame which is linked to all bonfires is able to fabricate souls. Humanity is the fuel it requires to create souls. The Dark Sign is a ring of flame that surrounds and consumes the excess humanity that seeps from an Undead's Dark Sigil. The Dark Sign is linked to the bonfires and thus the First Flame. When an Undead dies his soul is lost, but the First Flame consumes some of the Undead's Humanity to fabricate a new soul and thus the Undead is granted new life at one of the many bonfires linked to the First Flame.
- - - - Lust, Greed, Jealousy, Want are all attributes of Humanity, of the Dark Soul. The game frequently cites such traits as what makes us human. When an Undead goes Hollow they have lost all of their motivation. They no longer Want for anything... They're not Hollow because they lost their motivation. They lost their motivation because they became Hollow. The First Flame has consumed the last of their Humanity. With no Humanity they no longer posses those traits which make us human. And with no Humanity to fuel it, the First Flame cannot fabricate a new soul for the Undead. Therefore a Hollow because a Humanityless, lifeless, and soulless husk as they were before the advent of the First Flame.
- So! Back to Slave Knights and Ringed Knights. I think the distinction is primarily one of chronology. Ringed Knights came during the age that Humans fought along side all the others against the dragons. Gwyn, realizing that just like his Lightning was was paper to the dragons' rock so to was the humans' Dark scissors to his paper. If he could kill the dragons then the humans could kill him. Thus Gwyn invents the Dark Sign and brands the Ringed Knights. Birth of the first Undead. Fiddling around in the Abyss making armor and weapons falls out of fashion because of fear of the gods. Ringed Knight style armor isn't seen again until the Four Kings of New Londo start fiddling around in the Abyss under the guidance of Kaathe. Birth of the Dark Wraiths. The Ringed Knights have big gaping holes in their torsos due to the amount of Dark/Abyss/Humanity they posses and the amount of time they've been Undead. They were the very first Undead, they've been branded with the Dark Sign longer than anything else in Dark Souls. They also likely had an abundance of Humanity because of how cozy they were with the Abyss.
Slave Knights came about after the Abyss was taboo. They were still Undead and therefore still branded by the Dark Sign as evidenced by Gael's Dark Sign growing to be a similar gaping hole after having spent eons consuming Dark. I think the Slave Knights were simply the military of the Ringed City after the practice of forging weapons/armor in the abyss was abandoned.
- - Why this is super interesting!? Well, lots of folks have pointed out the similarities between Holy Knight Hodrick's armor and the Abyss Watchers' armor. It was thought that he must have been an aspiring or ex member of the Abyss Watchers. But, then we met Gael whose Slave Knight armor is extremely similar to both Hodrick's and the Abyss Watchers'.
- - - I posit that the Sunless Realms from which Hodrick is from is in fact the Ringed City. That Gael, Hodrick, and the Abyss Watchers were all former members of the Ringed City's military. Ready for some mind blowing shit? Knight Artorias the Abysswalker was as well.
- - - - I always though it strange the Wolf Knight's helmet was shaped a raven and not a wolf. When I think raven I think Velka. When I think Velka I think monuments in the Undead Settlement AND in the Ringed City. I think Velka was the primary diety of the Ringed City and was allied with Gwyn. Artorias was one of Velka's best Ringed Knights (aka Slave Knights) and he had been ordered to serve as one of Gwyn's Four Knights. That's why Ornstein was the leader of the Four Knights even though Artorias was clearly more awesome. Artorias was a foreigner and Ornstein a local. Artorias, being so venerated, was never branded with the accursed Dark Sign. He was never Undead. That's why he had Humanity for the Abyss to drive wild and corrupt him. I believe the Ringed knight wielding The Ringed Knight Paired Greatswords reinforce this theory. There are not many human-sized NPCs who can one-hand a greatsword the way Artorias does. NPCs that do one-hand a greatsword similarly to how Artorias does doing flips and spins and shit? That dual wielding Ringed Knight, The Abysswatchers, and Slave Knight Gael. They all flip around whilst one-handing a massive sword (Hodrick also uses a greatsword, but he doesn't flip around). From is using game mechanics like weapon animations to communicate the lore and history of Dark Souls to us. Artorias was a Ringed (Slave) Knight who was never branded with the Dark Sign who served as one of Gwyn's Four Knights as part of the alliance between Velka's Ringed City and Gwyn's Anor Londo.
Man, I'd love to keep going. I love this shit. But I'm late for real life shit now!
I'll post more long-winded comments if anyone is interested.
I'll probably do it even if no one is. Cannot contain geek love.
This made me cry. You deserve more subs
Man, I love your channel.
So.... what was the Dark Soul exactly? I thought it was a specific, finite area or item or flame or even boss/person. If the Dark Soul was so spread out into even Ashen ones given Gael sought us out, wouldn't theoretically killing everyone to harness more Dark Soul and become the complete version of it be the one and only answer?
Or did he just kill these specific pygmy lords who held the Dark Soul's essence closest to them so they could form it after "feasting" as that one creepy bugman put it.
Well if you follow the lore of the first game, you would learn that every little shard of humanity that we find is actually fragments of the dark soul. So we could say that you could gain the dark soul by killing all of mankind in the series, but i do agree that like Manus, the daughters of Manus and the pygmy lords seem to hold greater chunks of the dark soul in them.
So i believe in the letter option because restoring the dark soul would be an impossible task so someone like us or Gael would be better off collecting the souls of the most prominent beings connected to the original dark soul then just hunting down every last little fragment in humanity.
I think the dark soul or Humanity is the soul found by the furtive pygmy in the age of ancients, and later the dark soul is fragmented, found in every human being including manus, the pygmy lords and the queens form dark souls 2. Gael's quest is to "reunite" all the fragments of dark soul to make the pigment of the dark soul, which he does. Knowing he would eventually get corrupted by it, he guided us through the Panting of Ariendel, the Dreg Heap and the Ringed city to find him and kill him once his quest done.
It seems like the Dark Soul needed more and more time to seep into every facet of life so that by approximation, you kill one guy, he gives you a piece of humanity or a fragment of the dark soul. Even half-gods like Queens or Royalty had intermixed with people containing humanity so no one was truly a pure "God-like" entity. So that explains why he points to us and says "give me your dark soul" which is equivalent to, give me your being for you can make up an even greater portion of the Dark Soul.
It seems like he's traveled here ages ago while we were carried away by the winged-demons, across timelines, into a time-bubble. He was seeped in humanity by that point and had "grown" into his own collection of fragments, slowly getting to the Pygmy Lords who already were too weak to fight back it would seem.
It's interesting because we're given these entities can't die due to the nature of hollowing so he instead eats them, consumes their regenerative, immortal flesh continuously after countless ages.
It leads back to the idea presented by previous levels and other DS games. What do you do to an immortal corpse? Do you dissect it? Transform it? Lock it into miniature cages, hoping to contain it?
In Gael's case, he was so consumed by his duty, he ingested them into himself. And that by doing so, he could properly combine these vague, amalgams together into blood, or "paint" to be used to paint a new world. It's interesting if you consider the other paintings, Ariandel's and Ariamis' constructs may have been designed in similar ways. By meshing and bleeding hollows, pygmies, anyone with humanity, together.
Ur like a corner store vaati but I like u
...thanks
Vaati just reads item descriptions verbatim. He doesn't do critical analysis theorizations anymore. He is literally store bought
vaati been dead af since like 2013
I don't agree but that's pretty funny
Mitch is better than Vaati, in my humble opinion. That's not to cast shade on Vaati's achievements, but to properly credit Mitch's ability to relate the lore in a straightforward, non-speculative yet still interesting manner.
Good stuff as always... Look forward to more.
Man, the last few minutes of this video hit so hard, right in the feels.
Rip gael 2017-2017
Is Gael the dark souls's equivalent to Santa Claus? Old man, red suit. wants to give a present to a kid... good lords
damn man, that video editing is great. really impressive stuff
“Waiting for the return of Uncle Gael.”
Wow they really had to make us feel like assholes.
You're just making them look cooler and more edgy. Stop it, Gwyn!
Eridang Slampora Gwyn! They're watching SAO Gwyn! Show them Berserk before it's too late!
Berserk isn't Edgy? Gats was pretty damn edgy when he started off in the first 5 chapters bro.
13:00 bloodborne?
Apoclypse No dlc
no i mean she is talking about bloodborne
He consumes the Dark Soul to make his blood the pigment, he sacrificed himself to ensure the painting could be completed
Yes he did and was hoping you would follow and take it from himself knowing it would corrupt him. Gael in the end was the real hero of the DS series. A nobody slave who did what it took to help make a new world. There was never a greater hero in the Souls series.
Douglas Powders exactly! He had given up hope of finding the Dark Soul, until you made him bleed and he realized that the Dark Soul was inside of him and it renewed his resolve. Then he knew, one of you had to die
@@obsidianreaper9507 definitely I still believe part of him knew you needed to kill him because he knew he couldn't control what the Dark Soul would do to him. I just wish more people played and paid attention to the lore it makes the whole boss fight more spectacular
Great job with this video, very well done.
I don't think Gael knew that consuming the pigmies would turn his blood into the blood of the dark soul. If he had known that, he wouldn't have began the fight at all. In fact, when we hurt him he's surprised too: "Is this the blood of the dark soul?". We first helped him to show fire to the painter in the first dlc. Once we did that he really thought he was close to the creation of a new world in a new painting. However, in order to finish the painting, the painter needed the dark soul pigment too. So Gael went to the ringed city, where the dark soul could be found. He left some hints during his voyage, since we were "friends", we were helping the painter too. In his eyes, we had the same task: creating a gentle place to live in. He begins his search in this place. Meanwhile only us, the unkindled, get brought into the future by waking Filianore up. Gael keeps on searching until the end of times and, realizing the end is near, that he won't get his pigment and will never be able to create the world he wanted, he goes crazy and begins slaughtering everyone in anger. Slave knights used to lose their sanity when they still existed; Gael has lived for the entirety of existence. Since the dark soul was the cause of the problem, that's what his anger is led towards. He never thought we would have had to defeat him and he never planned that. He clearly did not expect to see us at the end. When he sees us there after so much time he asks: "What, still here?". What he means by that is: "did you survive so long?" and/or "there's no reason to be here, there's no way to get the pigment anymore". Then he realizes that we're part of the dark soul too and tries to kill us. Halfway through the fight he finally sees that his own blood is the dark soul pigment, since he consumed the pigmies' dark souls. Here he would just stop and go deliver the pigment to the painter, right? No, he doesn't. And Patches reveals us a little more about the human nature: it doesn't matter the era, men will always be greedy. Now, men are part of the dark soul and Gael has gathered inside him a huge part of it. He now wants all of it and we're just a shard of the dark soul waiting to be collected
For whatever reason, I like to think that the Painter's father is Livid Pyromancer Dunnel and her mother is Priscilla (his 'hideous' spouse. Crossbreeds are seen as abominations after all, no matter how cute they are). And I sincerely doubt that Gael is her real uncle, even if he clearly behaves as such almost like Henryk does for the Gascoigne daughters who call him 'Grandpa'.
Also, is the lighting attack used by Gael the only BLUE-colored lighting in DS?
This is something that puzzles me because DS's lighting is always yellow (which isn't that realistic if you think about it, since real electric sparks are white, blue, even purple at times but never YELLOW) but well, we could say that the reason for it being that way is because it represents the power of the sun. The blue spark immediately makes me think of BB's undead darkbeasts and their living bones, once again strengthening my silly theories about the two games being connected :P
Priscilla is cute! CUTE!
I hadn't thought of the lightning being blue. That's interesting. Maybe it's a sign that the God-favoured yellow lightning bestowed by Seath is becoming less powerful, and the rightful power of nature is returning. Who knows?
The lightning in Gael's boss arena (if you mean that by "blue lightning") seems rather natural to me, as opposed to the lightning Miracles Gwyn wielded. Gwyn's lightning stemmed directly from his Lord Soul, the power of which probably allowed him to turn the power of the sun into "lightning". The lightning that Gael ends up summoning in the boss arena is probably more natural - seeing as to how the sky darkens and the lightning actually strikes from the sky downwards. That's my take on it: yellow = miracle of the first lord soul; blue = natural (maybe even connected to the Dark Soul, seeing as how it basically defied the God-Souls).
Yup, that's precisely what I was referring to :)
MalakiaLaGatta the lightning in Gaels boss fight is just the weather lol not miracles,you can tell cause it damages him too and you can see in the background of his transformation cutscene
also as someone said before,gwyns lightning comes from the sun,so that's why it's yellow
This was a very interesting video, and honestly, even though i was (like most) at first disappointed by the ending, you helped me understand it better, and see it for what it really is : a peaceful ending.
It is quite poetic when you think about it : in the base game, there are no real solution to the cycle of fire, even becoming the lord of hollows doesn't seem to really solve anything. But this new world creates an exit, a safe place to take refuge in, far away from the wrath of the gods, the curses of hollowing and the ancient demons or dragons. It gives a whole new meaning to gael's struggle, and a wonderful finality to our quest in the game.
Brilliant video mate , you deserve a shit ton more subs
doing video about filianore please
;)
Mitch!
Killer queen!!!
Yoshikage Kira THIRD BOMB ACTIVATE! BITE ZA DUSTO!
What?
Lazy Mitchell who is the what directed to my good sir.
Smoosh Master Yoshikage
Magnificent work!
Slave Knight Gale was there to tell the flame to light it up, when he got bored of only seeing Fog, ancient trees and eternal Dragons
12:59 it starts getting touching :(
Oh but you've forgotten one MAJOR lore perspective...... pickle-pee.... WHO IS THIS BIRD AND WHY DOES IT EXIST!?
pornagraphicanalytics It's midir and friedes child
You know how the banished knights and the slave knights are essentially the same.
Imagine banished knight gael and how cool that would be.
wow intense! that lore tellers about dark souls are great. tanks to you Mitch L , Vaatividya and co.
A Gael is a person of Scottish or Irish blood. The Irish often were forced to fight for their oppressors, the British, in order to make ends meat. We also fought in the first World War as we were prpromised Home Rule in return for our sacrifice. Home Rule was not given, and we had to earn our freedom in the Irish War of Independence.
I dont think Gael failed at his quest. He succeeded. You, the ashen one, are his success. He brings you to the painted world, which sets it ablaze and frees the painter. At the end of the world, its him guiding you, telling you where to go, showing you the way and how to find him. And at Filianors rest, she transports you through time to the end of the world. Gael isn't the same as he once was. He isn't small, his executioners blade is cracked and badly worn. A lot of time has passed.
When he found the dark soul, or the ancient pygmy lord's their blood had long since dried... leaving no way to get the pigment. He had to do the unthinkable and take it within himself... he would be the container for it. For he knew a true champion would come... to complete his mission. A true champion of ash.
(RIP Gael.... I'm not crying you're crying)
The way Gael sobs before essentially being torn by the dark soul (before unleashing that huge blast of energy, which interestingly enough seeks you out like an affinity would...) makes me contemplate that the Dark Soul encompasses the archetype of destruction as the Lord Soul encompasses the archetype of creation.
This would be why the gods feared humans and humanity as it is literally the humans' destiny to destroy the world that the gods created. Branding humans with the mark of fire (the curse) was literally the only thing they could come up with just to keep humanity's destructive tendency in check. This becomes further understandable when we go back to Dark Souls I environment of the abyss and the Humanity sprites. Humanity sprites caused intense damage if they touched you meanwhile in DaSIII we learn that a fire sprite (ember) heals and just grants more health. Of course, if humans use a 'free' humanity it heals them as they're just adding it to their own Dark Soul.
Gael has literally no control over the immense destructive power of the Dark Soul. Makes me wonder what would have happened, here at the end of the world, if time was just to pass further with Gael as he is. Would this become another 'eternal age' of dragons or would the Lord Souls resurface with the goal of stopping him creating a new Age of Fire?
Great video I love the inception music!
This is 99 % headcanon
Welcome to Dark Souls storytelling
In Slave Knight set there is no reference to who slave knights served, so you are kind of reaching assuming they served gods specifically.
And also you trying to make some connection to abyss forged weapons and executioner's greatsword, because sword "remembers" is not really convincing. It's not that uncommon that Dark Souls weapons have kind of mystic "sentient" qualities.
That ending gave me serious chills... thanks man :)
I bet it's been brought up before, but I really like the sort of symmetries between Geal and Artorious. How they both had a sworn duty, but both became corrupted by what they were searching/fighting for.
Walmart brand vaatividya
Welcome to Lore-Mart