This is something I think about a lot. Hero’s are just not allowed to retire or rest in media.
Most of the time in these long running “fight against evil” stories, they either eradicate the threat all together or they die trying. They’re never allowed to go “ok, I’ve been doing this for a long time but I’ve got friends and family that need me now, maybe it’s time to pass the torch and focus on training up younger people to tackle these challenges.” which would be a very reasonable and dare I say smart thing to do. But no, they’re just expected to burn themselves out like a candle to keep their society warm.
I think it is really indicative of what our society considers virtuous that 'you have been fighting for so long, why don't you put down your sword and rest' is so often used in fiction by the villain as a temptation against the hero.
Why is "let yourself rest" considered to be the devil talking?
The amount of times I said something along the lines of "They would not fucking do/say that!" while watching the live action atla series is insane. It felt so weird to watch because the acting was pretty fantastic and the set design/costumes weren't bad for the most part either, but the writing and direction itself was painfully bad.
I think King Bumi is probably one of the worst offenders of being written completely ass backwards, which is a shame because the guy portraying him did a great job and I think he would have made a fantastic Bumi if the writing was better.
It feels like they missed the entire point of his character. They took his goofy/slightly mad front from the original show and dialled it up to 11 all the while completely ignoring all the nuance behind that front.
Bumi isn't just the mad king they portray him as in the live action, he's a mad genius. Despite his quirks, he's a fucking fantastic fighter and a brilliant ruler. Despite what you may believe from first impressions, it really does feel like he always knows what he's doing.
Even when he's being antagonistic towards the gang in the show, he's never actually putting them in significant danger. The crystals he trapped Katara and Sokka in were ultimately harmless and all the trials he gives Aang were more akin to games than anything. Even when he fights Aang in his episode he's very clearly not giving it his all, as seen when he single handily takes back his city from the fire nation during the eclipse and when he takes back Ba Sing Se with a small group during Sozins comet, when the opposing forces would have been at their most powerful. My point is that if he actually wanted to beat book 1 Aang, he could wipe the floor with him easily. But this version is fucking furious with Aang (wrongfully so this time around because he explicitly did not run away from his duties in the live action) And very much seems like he wants to cause Aang as much pain as possible, but can barely manage to land a hit on him when he's not pulling cheap tricks with the crystals.
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I'm getting very side tracked but god damn it! This is the man Aang eventually decides to name one of his children after. Their friendship was so sweet and meaningful in the original. Bumi was such an interesting character in the original! And all of that meaning is lost here.
Ironically in an attempt to make Bumi's arc more dramatic and dark, they ended up making it significantly less interesting, along with also missing major parts of his character.
I'm sure Rex is going to be very normal about his daughter being turned into a child soldier with a few years to live and no other reason to exist outside being a glorified weapon, especially after everything his wives have been through.
Screw Marika's motivations. I want to know what the fuck is up with Melina and Ranni. Why do they seem like 2 halves of the same whole?
Why are they so similar design wise? Why are they both "burned and bodiless"? Why are they the only characters that know torrent on a first name basis? Why do they both share the same closed eye aesthetic? Why do their faces complete eachother if you overlap them? Why do these two, seemingly completely unrelated characters have so much in common? What the fuck is going on?!
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Semi side rant incoming but what if those eye markings that Melina and Ranni have are markings of an Empyrean? I mean, other than Ranni have we ever actually seen the full, undamaged face of an Empyrean before? By the time we see Malenia, Marika and even to a certain extent Ranni’s own face they’re all damaged to the point where any marking would be long gone (and we just straight up never see Miquella’s face) and we conveniently also never see a proper painting or depiction of any of the Empyreans faces ever throughout the game. Sure there’s a couple statues here and there but I’d believe that tattoo/mark details would be left out of that sort of stuff.
Have some Madeline bc yes
is there anything specific you think you'd like to know? I love this game a lot and like to think I'm pretty deep into the story/lore side of things
I don’t think I ‘hate’ a single Elden Ring character. Each and every one is designed so compellingly, their stories are so varied, their interactions while sparse are the type to carry magnitudes of meaning.
Example:
For the longest time I did not realize that the scene we stroll into at Castle Morne is a slave rebellion. The misbegotten are treated as chattel. My first go around I assumed “ah yes, monster attack castle, understand”
It wasn’t until I watched a random lore video that only referenced it that I got it. I went back and read the descriptions of stuff and I’ll be damned.
There’s a lot of little tidbits hidden here and there that flip entire perspectives on their heads. Preaching to the choir on this point.
Even the characters that I generally dislike/disregard (dung-eater, (hot take) Varre, selvus) I still find fascinating. One of the cool parts about the game is you can just kill the character you don’t like. If you’re doing a run and you want to get a little roleplay in, sometimes murder freak be murdering.
Personally, I’m not on twitter, instagram (used to be), deviant art (do people still use that), or anywhere else ((I Do have a blue sky but I think I’m too dim to use it just yet)) . I’d love to be in a space where people talk more about lore or art things! I haven’t the foggiest clue where to go though. When I hear people say “everyone hates on xyz character” or “this fandom is so nuts” or whatever I am genuinely confused. I’m only seeing a portion of the stuff here, and so far it’s been more than pleasant! Big ups to the people on here, so far you’ve all been very kind 😊
So I guess, could I ask anybody to fill me in? Or where to go to get filled in?
In the meantime I want you to know I’ve started working on a pair of drawings centered around Malenia and Miquella - ooooo be so tragic oooooo
I actually stopped watching a gaming youtuber a while ago because they were playing a horror game and skipping all the lore notes, saying how it’s the same sort of stuff in every game, all the while complaining about world details that seemed abnormal, which were actually explained in those very notes.
It’s one thing to misinterpret the lore, but it’s another thing all together to go out of your way to ignore it and then complain that the world design makes no sense.
It’s crazy to me that gamefreak made surskit a really unique pokemon, being the only bug/water type in existence up until gen 7, in a type pool that was so painfully oversaturated with bug/flying and bug/poison pokemon which desperately needed the variety that surskit brought to the table… only to have it evolve into yet another bug/flying type.
Really not a fan of the elden ring convergence talismans that give you full immunity to certain status effects. It feels like they’re not particularly balanced well at all, especially when paired with spells that build up those status effects to offset all the positive effects they give, like the deranged fury incantation in the frenzied flame class. With the ability to nullify all madness build up it just becomes an incredibly powerful buffing spell with no downsides (which lasts for two minutes).
Not to mention how the rot immunity talisman completely trivialises areas like caelid’s swamp and the lake of rot, which is an area that’s actually worth exploring and spending quite a bit of time in now because of the changes the mod also makes to the area. Having full immunity to rot turns a very hostile and tricky area to traverse without taking too much damage into a much less interesting location to explore.
I could also go into how I think it effects the new bossfight "Scion of the rot god" but it's basically just my opinion on the rot lakes. By allowing the player to essentially "turn off" the boss' unique feature, it just makes it a far less interesting fight overall.
here's the original description btw
paramour basically means a lover or partner, but one amazing detail I forgot to mention was that the description specifies that he was one of Rykards paramours, meaning there were more. He didn't just have a boyfriend, he had a whole ass polyamorous relationship with an unknown amount of people.
idc whatever the fuck else fromsoft cut or changed in elden ring I demand to know why this was changed:
LET THE MAN HAVE HIS CAT FROMSOFT PLEASE I BEG OF YOU.
Nightreign looks really cool but I’m definitely not looking forward to people using it in lore discussion for the next year, because as far as I can tell, it’s just a spinoff with very little to no actual relevance to the world and story of Elden Ring or Dark Souls, but everyone seems insistent in treating it like a full on sequel.
I could totally be wrong about this, but until we get more information on the game, I’m probably just going to treat it as a fun spin off/elseworld game and nothing more. And that's not a bad thing. I'd much prefer a crossover of these games to be its own thing instead of an actual "canon" story to both worlds.