This Is An Idea I've Been Thinking About For A While Now. I Find It Really Suspect That Despite The Fact

Thinking about how despite all the suffering Leonard has gone through, he never abandoned Radahn. He never left or stopped carrying him around. And even after all of this time he’s still just as willing to fight by his master's side as he was during the shattering. Leonard isn’t some poor old steed forced to carry a giant, and I think his actions in the fight paint a very particular picture. The first opportunity he gets in our fight he fucking charges at us, the two move so harmoniously that it’s sometimes hard to remember that they’re two separate entities. I wouldn’t be surprised if he enjoyed combat just as much as Radahn tbh.

Thinking about how despite being driven mad by the scarlet rot and long since having lost his mind, Radahn never stopped using his gravity magic to make himself lighter for his steed. How he’s gone so far that he’s cannibalised both his enemies and allies but never laid a finger on Leonard. How despite being a hulking mindless beast, the frail creature eternally beneath him doesn’t seem to have any injuries. He’s definitely exhausted and starving but he’s doing surprisingly well for himself for a steed that has seen multiple Radahn festivals and the battle of Aionia, especially when compared to how many injuries Radahn himself has.

The two of them were inseparable until the very end.

Thinking about the badeline boss fight and how it manifested out of fear rather than pure anger. How Badeline was convinced that Madeline’s goal was to leave her to die on the mountain and go home feeling empty and worthless and she was really was just trying to help her but she could see that she was only damaging madeline in the long run and Madeline only saw an enemy in Badeline and that fear of abandonment is what drives Badeline to lash out and turn into a monster and make the environment SO hostile and the music is powerful and erratic which reflects Badeline’s hostile fear but Madeline KEEPS fighting and Badeline doesn’t know what to do but keep digging deeper and deeper into the cave as the environment grows darker and more wild reflecting the chaotic nature of Badeline’s true fear until suddenly she stops and she is shocked to discover that Madeline was just trying to help her all along and despite the defeat they come together and make each other that much more powerful PLUS the fact that the chapter is called “Reflection” which is a play on words that both reinforces the mirror motif of the game AND meaning to look back on oneself and their choices and feelings and and aAND

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.

Anyone else getting Marika's bedchamber vibes from the curvy shapes draping from the branches of the Shadow tree?

Tbf there are also a couple other things that link Marika to the black knives. Notably the fact that the group seem to have aligned themselves with the GW in some way after the shattering, due to them hunting down Ranni’s squad after she goes after her fingers (her baleful shadow is even kitted out with the same destined death powers, which shouldn't be possible if they weren't specifically given it by someone) and the one guarding the throne room in Leyndell.

On top of this the item description for the black knife set not only says that the black knives were all Numen women but specifically mentions that they had close ties with Marika.

Then there's the question as to how Ranni even got to farum azula to steal from Maliketh in the first place, which could very neatly tie into the grand and as of now unexplained "betrayal" that Marika commited against Maliketh.

There’s also Melina, who is one of Marika’s own children who uses the very distinct black knife fighting style if summoned for the Morgott fight. Since she's also technically a numen woman she's also in the running as a black knife candidate.

One of the things that has always vexes me is how people made the assumption that Marika the Eternal had some hand in the Black knife plot that killed Godwyn. The reasoning? Because the Black Knife assassins happen to be the same race as her, Numens.

Gee it's not like an entire civilization of Numen exist or anything, it's not like the player character can choose to play as a Numen or anything???

There are literally no other facts that link them outside of race. Yeah it is true that Marika was delving deep into the meaning of the order to find flaws with it, but if you knew your boss was making constant plans to replace you with some other candidates then what else would you do but question how they work??

All in all, there is no definite facts that line up either way, but I prefer to keep to the belief that Marika's shattering of the Elden Ring was an act of grief and loss of faith with the death of one of her most prominent children rather then something out of pure malice. I also support the theory that as Ranni was being groomed to take on Marika's role as the new goddess of the Erdtree, Godwyn was being groomed to take on the role of Elden Lord. It would explain why he was chosen specifically for her plot, and why she seemingly shows no remorse for his 'death.'

Not that Godwyn was seemingly a bad individual as far as in game lore goes. He was pretty much the Ned Flanders of Leyndell before he got merc'ed.

I actually kind of like how gen 1 pokemon handled the elite 4. Having a team roughly based around the trainers’ type alongside their personality, but not having it revolve entirely around 1 type allows for a lot more variety in team composition, which naturally lends itself to needing more complicated strategies.

It makes me think about how far an elite 4 with teams solely based around the trainer's personality can go. For example an astronomer trainer who uses a team of space related pokemon like Clefable, Minior, Starmie and Beheeyem.

Or a historian trainer with a team of Golerk, Spiritomb, Relicanth and Sigilyph. Pokemon with significant and also mysterious historical value.

I just think it’d be pretty neat. I’m interested in what could be possible if most major trainers weren’t relegated to using 1 type each.

I always find it super weird in the new doctor who seasons whenever they try to push the idea that the doctor has never settled down in one place for an extended period of time because… well he has. Quite a lot actually.

Just off the top of my head I can think of quite a few.

The weeks its implied that 11 spends with the Ponds in ‘The power of three’

The unknown amount of time he spends grieving in the sky of 1980’s London in ‘the snowmen’

The centuries he spent protecting Trenzalore in ‘the time of the doctor’

12’s 24 years living alongside River on Darillium in ‘the husbands of River Song’

And 12’s retired life as a professor watching over Missy in his final season

It’s not overly common but it happens just enough that it always makes me raise an eyebrow whenever they try to do the “the one adventure you’ve never had before” stuff again. Like, some of these are incredibly important to the doctor’s story and it’s always weird when they try to pretend they never happened.

It's not really implied very heavily in lore but I've always subscribed to the theory that the greatrunes negatively affect their demi-gods, since most greatrune holders have been trapped into never ending cycles of trying to amass power/accomplish a specific goal.

Rykard, Mohg and Godrick are all similarly running in circles trying to gain power without actually doing anything with it and Rennala is endlessly trying to birth something before we take her greatrune off of her.

The only real exceptions to this are Radahn, because he's lost his mind, Malenia, because she's only just woken up for the first time since the shattering wars and Morgott because... IDK, I've got nothing for Morgott, he's just built different I guess. (Though you could argue that him hunting tarnished and perpetuating the status quo is his endless cycle)

All active people who own a greatrune shard, demi-god or not, have fallen into some sort of self destructive, never ending cycle.

fuck, if you really wanna push this theory Maliketh is holding a greatrune in the form of the rune of death and he's litterelly been stuck in a timeless structure for the entire shattering.

I feel like this is also implied because Ranni decided to cast aside her greatrune, this being significant because she’s the only demi-god who can actually accomplish their end goal by the finale of the game and isn't just running in circles.

Nothing in monster hunter wilds feels worse than someone joining your hunt (uninvited) right at the end and stealing literally half your Zenny from doing nothing.

Oh boy here comes a long one.

My least favourite part about the elden ring fandom is probably how readily everyone blamed Ranni for everything horrible that happens in the game, completely stripping away any agency Marika or anyone else had in the whole ordeal. 

Through a grief stricken rage over Godwyns death or not it was Marika’s decision to shatter the elden ring, bringing her age to a bloody end. It was her choice to put all the Demigods against each other in a big bloodbath of a war and it was Radagons decision to seal the erdtree so nobody could enter and fix the whole mess, condemning the world to stagnation. And on top of all of this it was the Demigod’s themselves who followed through with Marika’s wishes tenfold and tore the lands between to shreds in their war path.

-

This isn’t even going into the fact that overtime, more and more evidence has cropped up that Marika was planning to revolt against the greater will for a long while before Godwyns death, so the shattering might have not even been caused by it in the first place. There’s breadcrumbs of this secret plot leading all the way back to the end of her first marriage with Godfrey, where she banished him and his tarnished warriors specifically to wage war in distant lands and grow stronger in death, to eventually be called back when she deems it time (which just so happened to be through the shattering itself).

If any one soul person is to be responsible for the shattering (which I don’t believe to be the case) and all the lives it ruined, it would be Marika. Ranni might have been the person to light the spark, but it was Marika who decided to throw that spark into the forest, and tell everyone else to follow suit until it was nothing but a blazing, chaotic mess.

-

Don’t get me wrong. Ranni isn’t an innocent little snowflake in this whole ordeal either. She did still plot the assassination of Godwyn, armed and set loose the black knives upon the world (who seemingly went rouge at some point considering they’re leader’s trapped on the moonlight alter and they went after Ranni’s lot after she attacked her fingers), royally pissed off Maliketh by stealing from him and inadvertently spread the second most annoying, deadly plant across the lands between. She’s not innocent by any means, but she’s also not more guilty than any other character in the game.

Like, you really gonna look at the shit characters like Rykard, Shabiri and Mohg pulled and still tell me that Ranni is the most evil, selfish, heartless character in the game?