#the reason for that is that i spent a long time looking at Rennala's and marika's model

[batwithin]

When Radahn gets up during dinner and u know he's gonna say something stupid

[yournextflame]

this could be me not paying attention to item descriptions, but one thing i noticed is that for such a (seemingly) important character, radagon is just... barely there? miriel says he was just a "mere champion" and so no one undestands why marika chose him for husband (godfrey was supposedly just a murderous barbarian before, no one asks themselves about that choice), he's father to 5 demigods (maybe 6 for melina?), two of them empyreans. he brought the fundamentalism to the golden order after his time in liurnia - a bit of a vague time where the only info we have of him is that he studied sorceries under rennala. there's also that suggestion of him being somehow linked to the fire giants because of hair color but nothing comes out of it? do you think him being so... not there alludes to him not being his own person (radagon is marika and etc)? or is it just a play on the fact consorts in real life are largely "just there" ?

I largely agree with you, it something that was bothering me for a long time to the point where I spent last week drafting a post about how odd his role in game. Like, he could be removed and the narrative wouldn't change for the most part, especially if we go with the most popular interpretation of the story.

Also, he is giving me some weird Prince Lothric vibes in a sense that there is no reason for us to fight, aside from maybe some metaphysical rules of the world that I didn't understood yet. He attempted to mend the Elden Ring, we are going to mend the Elden Ring, but he attacks us. We aren't competing for the Elden Lord title, he is a god. I’m skeptical of the theory that he was clinging on the Golden Order (at least for religious reasons) because his seal is the reason why we are going to Farum Azula and restoring Death, but the whole thing is so confusing... It's really hard to understand what M/R were into, especially when R is for the most part abscent from the lore. [also, the way he is usually interpreted reminds me how DS3 fandom painted Lothric as some big bad antagonist before TRC] [I wonder if Twin Princes are somewhat responsible for this dual identities madness in Elden Ring]

But, yeah, Radagon is just sticking around and never leaving any strong impression. He is a jack of all trades, but master of none, a champion of Liurnian wars, but not famous enough to be considered as a valid candidate for Marika's husband, he learned sorcery, incantations and united them, but Miquella surpassed his Fundamentalism, Radahn had to look up at Godfrey, who was more bloodthirsty. Even as a final boss he is... half-baked, no second stage, say hello to jelly, no remembrance. There is a lingering motive of him not being complete and aiming for perfection, but it's not easy to pick up because 90% of it delievered through the visual language, and what does it mean on bigger picture is hard to figure out.

His lack of presence might be result of him being a half-person, but there is an important thing: Marika/Radagon narrative is written in three-act structure. At first they are introduced as separate characters, then, Goldmask quest reveals Radagon is Marika and it makes you think that Radagon is probably just a disguise, a byprduct of Liurnian campaign or whatever, but Marika's hammer, one of the last items we can obtain in the end, confirms that he had his own will.

For me, it's an interesting detail, I like to view him as a parallel to Milicent and Melina, another pair of incomplete beings with identity crisis, who in the end prefered death over loss of identity or purpose. But that's just my pet theory.

It can be argued, but Radagon's lore overall is a mess that touches many aspects of the worldbuilding - red hair of Fire Giants, red gold of the Crucible, his wolf can be found in Nokron and his servant is the one, who is leading Ranni to Fingerslayer blade, amber egg of the absolute ???, GO:F, but there is no obvious idea behind his character