#(this is why I don't have many fandom friends fshhdhfs)

[katyspersonal]

LRB Marika IS an more complicated character than someone who wanted control and power, of course. In a way, she hates the nature of life itself. Rulers raising only to fall, civilisations forming only to rot into the point of being overthrown and replaced with new ones, biomes forming only to be destroyed by new natural disasters... births happening only for there to be deaths. Endless torment cycle of life and death, in history, nature, and everything else that exists or will exist.

Like, you can't blame her either. I think many people wondered whether it'd be better to stop it and reach perfection, stability and immortality. Heaven promised in many religions touches the similar concept after all - no more pain, destruction, turmoil and deaths. And it IS ironic how the entity that had that perfection, Greater Will itself, didn't want that and searched those cycles instead. And Marika experienced being treated as just another cycle first hand, when it decided it was time for her to go and be replaced by Gloam-Eyed Queen. But I feel like she might have seen the larger picture than just her authority and power being threatened, because that low blow was just a part of the larger "issue" - how life itself works. She is Eternal maybe not in vain, but to become the 'face' of the rebellious concept of stopping the cycle and ensuring stability, the same thing forever. She manifests that idea of stability, and then does it again when she counts on Tarnisheds to battle into eternity. Because eternal battle with no winner is ALSO stability, it is ALSO a way to halt the vicious wheel from taking new turns.

In other words, she sees a sadistic design in the cycles, maybe more sadistic than whatever oppression she could have forced on others to establish the stability. Fromsoft consistently mocks the pursuit for not letting the fire die that ultimate stability in their works, so it is clear what side THEY take. Because, yes, like Melina said, it is beautiful that new life will still sprout from death. The cycles are not only misery, but also joy, and hope, and enjoying what you can when you are STILL here. And earlier than that, Ancestral Followers understood this idea and they could not be more happy! But I always loved that characters who dread the cyclic nature are given respect and can be sympathetic, they are never treated as simply ignorant, vain villains in the writing