#also while i doubt trans ranni was intended in the game

[blasphemousclaw]

HELL YEAAAAA LETS GOOOO

okay marika and radagon have a LOT of INCREDIBLY interesting dynamics here that, while not explicitly stated, seem to reflect some underlying gended dynamics going on in the lands between especially regarding Marika Radagon as Divinity

one of the BIGGEST examples here is the dichotomy of Active vs Passive. marika does not Act she Instructs. she instructs maliketh to slay the gloam eyed queen and seal destined death, she instructs godfrey to wage war against the fire giants, and she instructs the tarnished on their path to the erdtree and elden lord as we see via melinas church dialogue. contrastingly, radagon Does. radagon fights against liurnia, radagon marries renalla, radagon studies sorceries, radagon studies incantations, and pointedly radagon interacts with his children! we get stated lore about him interacting with miquella but no such lore about marika and HER SIX KIDS. marika distributes blessings but thats a very passive action, and in her OWN BOSS FIGHT she simply HANGS there. she has to transition to radagon to pick the hammer up!

in this way we can interpret marika as the golden orders Divine Feminine. she is passive, she blesses she instructs but does not Act, she is the reward won for the elden lord (who serves as the golden orders Intended Active Agent) and she is LITERALLY objectified by becoming a headless statue (only her torso is visible!) that the elden lord marries. she Has Heirs, she Blesses Heroes, she Instructs Her Lord And Shadow, marika routinely serves as the passive force in the lands between!

similarly we can interpret radagon as Divine Masculine. he goes to war, he chooses and marries a wife, and most especially he aspires to be the Perfect Hero by achieving physical and scholarly mastery over combat, sorcery, and incantations. radagon ACTS, he chooses his own wife instead of Being Married To, he interacts and raises miquella at the very least and studies WITH him, and overall if something is being done, radagon chooses to do it instead of using an agent to act on his behalf

we can therefore interpret many of the actions that occur throughout the story through this dynamic, especially as a source of conflict. many of the golden orders heretics defy this gender dynamic! the carian royal family had a line of queens, and rennala herself was a renowned, powerful, ACTIVE sorcerer. she led raya lucaria, and pioneered a new field of sorcerous study in the Moon. after her marriage to radagon, and therefore the carian merge into the golden order, rennala became passive and lost all her social standing in raya lucaria, mimicking marikas own passiveness (tho in rennala we see its poisonous effects in that by losing her agency she also loses much of who she is, becoming a motherly shell of who she once was).

while not strictly heretics, miquella and malenia themselves seek to break free of the golden order and this reflects in their gender dynamics. malenia is the more masculine of the twins, and acts as the Active Shadow of Miquellas Will. she Acts on his Instruction. similarly, despite being known as the Most Fearsome Empyrean, miquella works through Agents and through Diplomacy, and takes a passive nurturing role in the grander political actions the twins take. miquella Nurtures The Haligtree (through sacrifice of his blood), miquella will is acted through Malenia (who is his blade and serves as his Empyrean Shadow), and notably both twins are cursed explicitly due to radagon being the same person as marika!

marikas gender nonconformity serves as a major source of strife in the golden order, as liurnia falls to civil war (the cuckoos, raya lucaria, and the carian royal family), the twins are born cursed, and the elden ring itself is shattered by her, marikas only active action which serves as an attempt to destroy the golden order. radagons actions As Radagon are punished, the children he sires are forsaken or cursed (no ones really looking to rennalas kids as Scions Of The Golden Branch) because radagon is Marika Acting As Divine Masculine, and this is further symbolized by his red hair bearing the curse of the fire giants. Radagon Is Accursed because Radagon Is Marika, and marika is The Divine Feminine and thus is supposed to be Passive.

i wouldnt be surprised if this is a massive contributing factor in rannis decision to cast off her flesh, and her determination to do as much as she can herself. as an empyrean, shes slated to replace marika (and thus be relegated to Passive Goddesshood) and thusly rejects relying on Agents (iji, blaidd, seluvis, and the Tarnished MC) as much as she can, and why she does what she can to ensure you act on Your Own Will (repeatedly giving you outs to leave her, being surprised and somewhat thankful when you dont), and imo contributes HEAVILY to rannis trans-swag vibes despite being pretty clearly cisgendered (burns her old flesh, has a chance to remake her body and self image, chooses a form with long feminine hair and a delicate feminine face that is made in the spitting image of the witch renna who mentored her) which i attribute to ranni Choosing the femininity of her carian heritage, which itself is gender nonconforming to Golden Order Femininity

basically. radagon is marika acting out against Divine Gender Roles and being non-explicitly punished for that transgression, which escalates into an attempt to reform or destroy the golden order itself.

source: im trans and i think way too hard about gender dynamics in anything i hyperfixate on

oh my goddd this is such a great analysis and you’ve made so many interesting observations too… you’re making me think soooo hard about Marika contrasted with Ranni within this framework…

Marika being relegated to a passive, instructive role as god-queen makes her actions in the story and frustration with the Greater Will make a lot of sense. I think many of her actions as god-queen can be interpreted as attempts to carve out more autonomy for herself, rather than being the Greater Will’s passive pawn — such as her removal of the rune of death from the Elden Ring, her declaration to “search the depths of the Golden Order” rather than giving herself to “blind faith,” and of course her shattering of the Elden Ring. Then, because of the shattering, she is punished and imprisoned by the Greater Will.

Regarding the shattering, we can contrast Marika with Ranni’s actions leading up to the event: Ranni rejects her role as an empyrean, destined to become a passive god-queen like Marika, so she takes the active decision to initiate the Night of the Black Knives in order to slay her empyrean flesh. Marika then takes the action to shatter the Elden Ring (with her own two hands) in defiance of the Greater Will in the wake of Ranni’s rejection of the Greater Will’s prescribed role.

I think Ranni sees Marika’s fate as a passive pawn of the Greater Will as the worst possible fate for her — she admires her mother’s former strength and independence (taken away by the Golden Order), and wants to take that same active role in her own life. When Ranni finally confronts her Two Fingers, she takes up her blade and slays them personally.

Marika and Ranni both being prescribed a role that strips their autonomy by a higher power and then committing world-shattering actions to seize their own autonomy is literally soooo Gender of both of them… it totally reads as a subversion and rejection of Divine Gender Roles