Easy fix that I haven’t seen anyone try but I have seen brought up a lot:
Make the rival/best friend also the love interest.
No honestly, it’s really that simple. The love interest lack the same sort of passion and energy that the best friend/rival typically has? Just combine the characters. This way you have less characters you have to worry about writing material for and fleshing out and you also get a stupid simple fix for romances coming off as stale and forgettable. Hell, you don’t even need to get rid of the best friend characterTM because you could just as easily give the love interest a similarly compelling dynamic and still keep both characters.
Anime/Manga Writers: Why don’t the fans like the canon straight couple instead of the non-canon gay ships?
MC looking at their canon love interest: So pretty and fights good.
MC looking at their rival/best friend/partner: They’re like the sun, brilliantly blinding and all-consumingly powerful. There’s a deadly beauty and grace to every action they take. They’re the other half of me that I never thought could exist, the one person who pushes me to be my best self, and life without them would not be worth living. There’s nothing in this world that they could not accomplish and I am but a fool chasing after them in hopes of reaching their level. Even then, having them in front of me/by my side has pushed me to heights I never thought imaginable.
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.
funny quirky elden ring headcanon that I might make a proper post for later:
Marika was in on the night of the black knives and was the one who chose Godwyn to be assassinated. She did this because not only did he make peace with the dragons during their war with them (which is historically not the way Marika likes ending her conflicts). But due to Godrick, one of Godwyns descendants calling the dragon in his arena "true born heir" and "kindred" it leads me to believe that… well… Godwyn and Fortisax were probably a lot more than just “close friends” if you get what I’m saying. And I don't think Marika would have liked that very much.
I've already made a semi-joke post about this idea but now that we know that Shulk and Rex's kids are going to be a part of the Future Redeemed party and that they've been reborn into the Origin system as child soldiers I'm really curious as to how the two are going to react to what Moebius has done.
Despite Shulk's track record of violently flying off the handle when the people he cares about are hurt, I can imagine his reaction to seeing (who could be) his child in Aionios being that he’s just happy to see them and to know that they’re safe, even if they’ve been turned into a child soldier that doesn’t recognise him.
After all, his reaction to Fiora being turned into a Mechon in XC1 was to almost instantly let go of his hatred for the Mechon, try to save her and try to understand what was actually going on. He wasn’t angry that they turned her, he was happy that she was alive.
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Rex however, despite being outwardly optimistic and kind throughout his game I think would fly off the fucking rails the second he realises what Moebius had done to his daughter.
Pyra and Mythra both have a lot of trauma about their past as living weapons, which they probably carry in some way even to this day. And I think the fact that Moebius would dare subject his daughter to the same pain his partners have been through, being dehumanised and forced to fight to survive as nothing more than living weapons would be enough to tip him over the edge.
I also imagine that N is going to be in some deep fucking water if Rex ever figures out what’s happened to Mio as well.
How are you really going to be so terrible at your job as supreme god that your vassal successfully planned to overthrow you and betrayed you right under your nose and one of her possible replacements went to some seriously extreme lengths just to get away from you?
Wouldn’t be surprised if the GW abandoned the lands between out of embarrassment tbh. The other outer gods are never going to let it live this down. The formless mother has a very loyal pawn and the rot god has wormed its way back into the system. What does the GW have again? Two problem children that wont listen to it?
Oh what Radagon? Radagon's probably it's self insert it made/possessed to try and looks slightly less pathetic /hj
There’s some sort of comedic irony to how many people have latched onto Miquella as this sort of ‘holier than thou’ good guy of the elden ring story, especially considering how little we actually know of him.
I’m not saying that he isn’t this pure, uncorrupted pillar of righteousness that people present him as, there’s obviously no way for me to know that, but the absolute certainty that people talk with when discussing his character that he only had everyone's best intentions at heart is kind of funny when you realise that one of the only things we know about him for certain is that he learnt how to compel the affection of others.
Out of every unknown character in this game the community could unanimously decide is a great person it's just funny how it ended up being the character with the cannon ability to make people like him unconditionally.
Elden ring DLC ending spoilers.
I’ve seen a lot of contention surrounding the main twist regarding Miquella and Radahn in the DLC, primarily the lack of build up to it in the base game, and while I understand where these people are coming from, it's something I can personally forgive.
While it would have been nice to have some sort of hint to who Miquella’s chosen consort would be, or even that he had someone in mind at all in the base game, they did go to great lengths to rectify this in the DLC, and adequately hint at Miquella’s plans and who his consort will be.
Radahn does not in any way come out of nowhere by the end of the DLC. He only comes out of Nowhere if you’re not engaging in the questlines and talking with the characters, which still isn’t perfect mind you, especially with how easily they seem to be breaking at the moment, but this also isn’t a flaw exclusive to the DLC. The base game is just as, if not more guilty of this with its Marika/Radagon twist.
I also think it's a fine twist because it gives context to past events that we could only speculate on before. Mainly, why Radahn and Malenia fought. Despite being such a massive part of the games story, we previously had absolutely no idea why it took place. But now we do. We finally have context behind one of the most important historical battles in the lands between's history.
There’s something so terrifying about Gideon’s downfall. At the end of his near-constant research he discovered something about Marika and her will that made him shudder in fear.
Gideon Ofnir. The man that ordered the full destruction of an entire village for a key fragment and then abandoned his adopted daughter for daring to question him. The man who’s henchmen died trying to take that very key from us, only to shrug it off like it was nothing.
The man who lives in a world of monsters and suffering eternal. The man who’s so dedicated to learning everything there is to know about The lands between’s blood soaked history that it’s literally part of his name. The man who probably knows of, witnessed or directly contributed to some of the most horrific atrocities in the lands between.
Gideon Ofnir, the all knowing. The man who took one look into Marika’s will and was rendered so terrified at his discovery that he almost immediately gave up on the goal he had worked so hard for, instead choosing to confront, and eventually fall to our tarnished character.
Gideon is one of the most unempathetic and uncaring characters I’ve seen in media. He’s largely unshaken by the state of the world around him, seems to lack any semblance of morals or values and his interactions with just about anything begin and end with trying to figure out how he can personally benefit. No matter what he'd have to do.
What could he have possibly figured out to make him of all people horrified to such an extent?
Personnal storyboard based on my favorite scene of @eldenring shadow of the erdtree, the tragic confrontation with former comrades… The music of the fight (Those United In Common Cause - Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree OST) is so beautiful I had to do something with it. It was a totally different exercise than the previous storyboard, with one simple arena but many different characters.
Y'know, I've been thinking about the vow between Miquella and Radahn a lot recently, and I feel like I've come up with a possible explanation for why Radahn seemingly agreed at first but later backed out of the deal.
If Radahn truly did agree to become Miquella's consort, what are the chances that it was made under the pretense that he'd be the next elden lord in the golden order? Continuing the legacy and age of both his personal hero and father, alongside Miquella as the new god of the age, but things remaining overall the same.
Once Miquella became disillusioned with Marika's age and decided to do his own thing, and create his own age, Radahn probably lost interest in becoming his consort because he wouldn't be the lord of the age he loved anymore, infact he would be a major factor in it ending. Something that he historically does not stand for.
This probably lead to a disagreement between the two that lead to Malenia invading Selia. Miquella feeling betrayed because Radahn was now refusing to uphold his promise, and Radahn feeling betrayed because Miquella turned his back on the golden order he loved and was now trying to bring it to an end.
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.