#But god... I still do not have any faith in Ranni but by god my faith in Miquella went straight to nihil.

[luminaryofblood]

I kinda do like what Tropes says about Miquella because boy howdy has he been getting the Draco in Leather Pants treatment HARD.

[slavonicrhapsody]

thoughts on demigod daddy issues

I’m avoiding my responsibilities and my poll is proving controversial, so I thought I’d do my own writeup on each candidate:

Morgott: His dad presumably abandoned him in a sewer. Given Godfrey’s association with the crucible, I doubt it was Godfrey’s decision to confine the omen twins to the sewers and I have no doubt that he loved them, seeing Godfrey’s tender moment holding Morgott’s body. However, the twins ended up in that sewer nonetheless. Either Godfrey opposed this but didn’t fight for them hard enough, or he concluded it was for their own good. Still, Morgott defends the Erdtree like his father before him. Certified daddy issues

Mohg: Same backstory as Morgott, except we don’t get that poignant moment that we do with Godfrey and Morgott in the game. He seems to have abandoned everything Godfrey stood for anyway. Daddy issues present but not to the same extent as his brother

Miquella: For a while, he was daddy’s ultimate special golden boy. They crafted golden order fundamentalist incantations together as gifts for each other (and it’s never mentioned that Radagon did anything like this with his other children). He tried his very hardest to use the Golden Order’s teachings to heal his sister’s afflictions, but they ultimately could not save her and he turned his back on his father’s order. We don’t know how Radagon reacted, but based on his zealotry combined with his previous relationship with his son, there must have been a serious fallout. Certified daddy issues

Malenia: There aren’t any textual hints to her and Radagon’s relationship, but we can speculate. Her father’s order couldn’t heal her afflictions… did she feel like her father didn’t try hard enough for her? That he chose his own faith over her wellbeing? Subtextual daddy issues

Ranni: She probably despises her father for abandoning her mother and leaving her a broken husk; her mother, who was her greatest teacher and role model, who she protects and whose legacy and memory she continues to defend. On top of that, she despises her empyreanhood and wants no part of the Two Fingers’ designs. I wouldn’t be surprised if she blamed her father for the fingers’ hold on her fate, too. Certified daddy issues; however, she doesn’t seem to revel in any hatred for him and just does what needs to be done to realize her vision

Rykard: Mr. “Lord of Blasphemy,” son of Mr. “leal hound of the Golden Order.” You don’t dedicate your entire life to opposing everything your own father stands for, fight the “most appalling battle in the entirety of the Shattering,” feed yourself to the embodiment of treason against the Erdtree, or make it your goal to “devour the very gods” (god being your father’s counterpart), and not have some kind of daddy issues complex. There’s a potent and multifaceted dynamic here. The red feathers on the Gelmir knight helms might indicate a reverence for his father’s legacy. He worked alongside his father in enforcing the Golden Order’s rule of law. Yet he doesn’t seen to have ever held any personal loyalty to his father’s order, having planned to betray it long before he actually committed treason. He demonstrates affection for his mother, brother, and sister, but not his father. He lusts for his own power and independent authority, but echoes the violence carried out by his father in his own practices. What does his father mean to him? Is he a role model, or a tyrant, something to be destroyed and replaced? Or is he both? Certified implied daddy issues

Radahn: He inherited his famous red lion’s mane from Radagon, who was said to have hated his own red hair. He admires his father and his “heroic” legacy. Yet he walks around in Godfrey cosplay, seeking to emulate Godfrey’s legendary example on the battlefield. He doesn’t seem to have inherited Radagon’s love of the Erdtree, either. “I was born a champion’s cub. Now, I am the lord of the battlefield’s lion.” Though he admires his father’s strength, there seems to be a distance between them, a distance that has deepened his obsession with Godfrey as a role model. Did he feel under-appreciated by Radagon? self-conscious? abandoned? Certified daddy issues

Godwyn: We have no idea what his relationship to his father was. It is interesting that he takes a more reconciliatory approach to conflict than Godfrey, though.

Godrick: I don’t think we technically know who his direct father is; I think it’s likely he’s further down the line of Marika’s descendants rather than being a direct son of someone like Godwyn. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some of the most potent issues with the legacy of his forebears in the game. He’s obsessed with living up to the legacy of the golden lineage, so much so that he steals other people’s limbs to make himself stronger. He constantly references Godfrey; his axe is an homage to him. “Great Godfrey, didst thou witness?” Everything he does is to make himself into what he believes to be more worthy of his lineage. Certified “daddy” issues. yes this still counts to me

[goji-pilled]

MK-S: It may have to do with a general distrust and second guessing if any characters in a FromSoftware game are giving you the full picture. It also doesn’t help that some of the wording of her motivations in the English version can be interpreted as bad:

And have the certainties of sight, emotion, faith, and touch...All become impossibilities.

However, this may be a mistranslation mixed with attempting to keep her old timey way of speaking; the negative way to view this is that she will remove the “certain” existence of these concepts. However, I’ve heard that the intent of these lines is more along the lines of her removing the “certainty” as predetermined by the Golden Order. Basically she’s removing the concept of the ones in charge controlling your destiny.

yeah i read an article ages ago, no idea how i had gotten there anymore tbh, about how the translation is a bit weird at times (apparently this also happened in the dlc and suddenly writing choices i didn't like are a lot more understandable)

and see i can understand that this one part can sound a little strange, i was like "huh??" when i first heard it too, but even then ranni has been nothing but open and honest about everything the whole time, like you see she does exactly as she said she will in the ending.

people should be able to comprehend media enough to understand that this, although optional, conversation in her tower after you give her the ring quite literally just means "yeah i'll remove certainty and the order of gods and leave. so people can truly choose their own fate out of their own free will, even if it will be scary and uncertain. would you still want to be with me even then, my one and only lord?" and the fact that apparently they can't is... concerning.

like THIS is why they think ranni is an evil manipulator??? god that's so embrassing we're so fucking cooked man.

[wearepaladin]

Thoughts on Elden Ring thus far

If anyone’s noticing my general absence it’s because I’ve been in this gargantuan game and there’s still much to do an see, but I have thoughts for those inclined to hear them. Firstly, worth the praise. It’s a beautiful, violent world and I’m quite enthralled with carving my way into it. I’ve finished or at least thoroughly explored and fought my way through 2-3 regions with gentle forays into others. And rather than risk spoiling anything, the rest of my thoughts are under the cut. Be warned, its’ rambly and mostly story based would be paladin thoughts than any sort of review.

Choosing to play the role of a Confessor, both assassin and priest, survivor and shadow, the role of the Tarnished in their beckoning to this world where were cast out, feels like a story of redemption and hope, as though however distant and obscured, we were part of what cast us in the shadows, and as a Confessor for the Two Fingers (which I thought was an organization or religion, and they are that as well, but the Two Fingers are an entity as well, a possible god or servant of the Greater Will. Their role feels analogous to the primordial serpents Frampt and Kaathe, with a separate entity called the Three Fingers whose actions and effect on the world implies an utter reverse of the beliefs of the Two Fingers, Order vs Chaos. And yet, two and three fingers make a hand, and whatever caused this divide has yet to reveal itself to me.

Either way, my confessor turned wanderer and would be slayer of gods, hopes that he finds a worthy god at the end of this journey. He seeks Marika, the godqueen, who is implicitly present and yet absent in this story. He has a faith in Her because he feels what is her touch in his return to life and refusal to die.

And yet, there are still questions. The shattered runes of the Elden Ring, the war between the demigods, the mysteries of Nokron and Nokstella, Eternal Cities beneath world guarded by clay men, dragon warriors, and great spirits of ancient beauty. 

And the thing that frustrates the Confessor the most, is that he could seek the Elden Ring now. He has bested Godrick and Renalla (Ranni in truth, and now finds himself in her service to both apologize for disturbing her mother and to seek the truth) and could go to the Erdtree roots now.

But he refuses. There are higher mysteries still at play, and many gods and chapters that need turning in their role, and his Faith compells him to seek them all.

To be both slayer and worshipper of gods, to eat their hearts and restore them. He wonders if it is hubris, if he is but steps away from becoming another Godrick, insane and mutilating the world to make his lesser stature equal to the grace of gold.

But at the very least he is not alone. Torrent, Malena, Kale, Blaidd, Boc, Ranni, Roderika and others. Unlike other stories in the souls worlds, not all is lost. Blood has not taken people with only hunters left under the moon, ash doesn’t choke the world with flame and cinder, and demonic fog has not rendered insanity and hunger as the norm. There is still a world waiting for these newfound friends to return to if the Ring is restored and the Confessor finds his hope in that as much as the trials of war and forging.