Thinking About How Kayaba And Kirito's Character Arcs Mirror Each Other Really Well In SAOA.

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.

Rykard and the Night of the black knives.

Y’know after thinking about it for a while, I think Rykard's involvement in the night of the black knives could run a little deeper than just being a co conspirator. What if he was the person who actually did the deed?

Not on Godwyn mind you, we already know that was all the black knife assassins handy work. But there is one other corpse that is left unaccounted for.

What if he was the one who killed Ranni and carved the cursemark into her back?

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I know there’s no evidence in game that says anything about this but… it had to have been someone right? Someone other than Ranni I mean. She’s metal as fuck, but it would have been incredibly hard to carve such a specific symbol into her own back. Especially since failure would mean certain death. 

And I also don’t think it would have been some random black knife assassin either. It’s certainly possible but looking at everything revolving them, their alliance seemed shaky at best, and they may not have even known about Ranni's half of the plot to begin with. No, I don't think she would have trusted them to do it. But I do believe she’d trust Rykard. They were already in on this together, and assuming he wasn’t part of the heist itself then there’s only really one other role he could have played in the event. 

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And going off of purely in game mechanics, he definitely has the stats to wield a black knife blade. If you compare the stat requirements for the black knife and Rykards own blasphemous blade, then they match up pretty well. He would be able to use one.

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And then we've got Ranni's body itself, which is burnt beyond recognition. Which is strange for a black knife killing, since they have no inherent fire damage, and while they do seem to have some sort of burning affect, it's never as bad as how scorched Ranni's corpse is. We never see this sort of damage done by a black knife again.

This leads me to believe that Ranni's body may have been burnt after the fact. Possibly as one final middle finger to the Two Fingers and the GW for trying to control her fate. One last 'fuck you' by desecrating the holy flesh they bestowed upon her.

And who do we know that has access to fire powers? Or more specifically Magma powers?

Rykard. The lord of blasphemy himself.

Your honour, I rest my case.

I think people who see the tarnished in elden ring as just murder hobo assholes who kill everything in their path for no other reason than wanting to are kind of missing the point of them.

First off, they’re not just some random asshole that strolled into the lands between looking for a fight. Our character was resurrected, torn from their home and thrown into this unrelenting hellscape against their will. They are just as much victims of circumstance as everyone else in this game.

Also there’s the whole aspect that we’re supposed to project a personality onto the tarnished ourselves. They’re not literally mute, determined, personalityless killers. If someone comes out of elden ring thinking the tarnished is just mindlessly killing everything in their path for no reason then I think that’s more of a problem with the player themselves. 

That being said, if someone doesn’t care to do that sort of character building or likes the idea of that being their tarnished’s personality then that’s perfectly fine, I’m not here to judge how you play the game. I’m just not a fan of people who call the tarnished in general a horrible person for doing what they do.

I know this is basically a pointless argument but the fact that people generalise the tarnished as one character instead of what they actually are (a blank slate that can be any type of character) kinda annoys me. Your tarnished and mine are not going to be the same type of person.

TLDR

“The tarnished in elden ring is an asshole” no, no, no, your tarnished is an asshole, mine is fine actually.

After a copious amount of time looking into the topic, cross referencing interpretations and reading item descriptions I think I've finally solidified my stance on the nature of the whole "Radagon is Marika" twist.

As far as I'm aware, it seems that Radagon and Marika used to be the same individual before being split apart for some reason. Enia says how all the demigods are direct descendants of Marika, which would only really be possible if Radagon was a part of Marika from the beginning. Even while split apart he would still be Marika to a certain extent. This goes even further with the fact that Radagon gifted Rennala with a great rune when he was leaving to become elden lord, which is something he'd only have access to if he was part of Marika.

The story doesn't work if they used to be two separate people who somehow became one, which was what I originally believed to be the case. It only works if they were the same and got split at some point.

The thing I'm puzzled on however is when were they split apart and why? And when and how did they remerge into one being with two minds?

I'm also curious about how Radagon, despite being Marika wasn't a god himself.

The line "Thou'rt yet to become me. Thou'rt yet to become a god" has stumped me for the longest time, and continues to do so because it seems to imply the idea that the two aren't the same individual split into two... But everything else does seem to imply that.

Is it a Millicent/Malenia situation? Where part of Marika was shed and became its own person? If so then why?

At this point I'm sort of at a loss and would love to hear the opinions, so what do you guys think?

y'know with all the courage motifs going on in deltarune, seemingly replacing determination for Kris I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that Kris' soul was actually a bravery one before we were super imposed onto them.

I think it'd be a pretty cool twist all things considered. We're so used to playing as a red soul so we don't question it, but in reality we have no idea if that was always Kris' soul. If it turns out that Kris' soul was replaced with ours then I wouldn't be shocked if it's a different type all together.

honestly SAO:A has always been capable of being increadibly heartfelt and genuine. To this day that final conversation between Asuna and Kirito in the end of season one, as SAO crumbles around them and they're unsure as to whether they're going to make it out or not is one of my favorite scenes in anime as a whole. It just feels so real.

I don't even know how they manage it but something witty has been able to write a show that's not only one of the funniest things I've ever seen but also one of the most uniquely heartfelt and genuine ones aswell. They really are fantastic writers.

To SAOA:

What the fuck. what the everliving fuck. I am literally sobbing I cannot stop this - this was the funny series! You can't do this to me!

Like just ughhhhhhhh - Suguha and Kazuto becoming unaligned for just a moment, just a second of him going faster, farther than her - and her sticking in out! Trying so hard to reach out! And him not doing the same because he doesn't even notice, and that abandonment twisting under years and years and years, of feeling unwanted and unloved, and feeling safer when she's unbearable, because she cannot afford that vulnerability again. And then Kirito coming back, older and wiser and more willing to spend time on the people he loves because of SAO where he got so close to losing them, and her not being able to fix these two versions of him together because they aren't! They aren't the same person! But he can't tell her, can't show her how he's changed because she cannot let either one of them be soft around one another.

And from Kirito's side, all he sees is his relationship with his baby sister grow strained under the weight of years, of her slowly turning into something awful that he thinks hates him, because what else could there be? Literally what else?

And her still dragging him to the kendo mat years later, despite the fact that he hates it. That being literally the first scene of them together.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

“You need to spend dozens of hours reading item descriptions and watching lore videos to understand the story of fromsoft games” factoid actually just statistical error. Lore hunter Georg, who spends upwards of hundreds of hours analysing the story and lore of these games and cross referencing interpretations of the plot is an outlier and should not have been counted.

DLCs got me having depressing Varré thoughts.

The Mohg he believed in was the same that Ansbach knew and respected. He didn't know Mohg had been bewitched. He would not have died begging Mohg to answer him. He knew the Mohg that was devoted to his dynasty and his people and after years of service to him, when he needed him, he wasnt there and he'll never understand why. I literally cannot even fathom how much that broke him, how betrayed he felt. he's so fucking tragic and so is Mohg. I truly believe that Mohg was the only demigod who had it right. He was so cast aside by the greater will and golden order that he was free of the cycle and their watchful eyes. He found strength in an outer god who didnt care to meddle with the lands between and he fucked off to create his own new dynasty completely hidden from everyone else where any being that had previously been mistreated could go and find power and a home. He only had good intentions

Mohg and Varré and Ansbach deserved better.

It's absolutely heart breaking.

something else that I can't stop thinking about is how good Ansbach is despite being a follower of the Mohgwyn dynasty. Throughout the entire base game, all of Mohg followers are so cruel and twisted. All they care for is shedding blood, no matter who's it might be. But Ansbach is different. He's kind, and loyal and forgiving. And seeing someone like that hold Mohg in such high regards… It just makes me wonder what he and his dynasty might have been like before Miquella sunk his claws into Mohg's heart.

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This isn't even touching upon the fact that Radahn himself almost definitely rejected Miquella's request to be his consort. The dude's a golden order loyalist that thrives on the battle ground. I don't see him suddenly siding with Miquella to make the world a "gentler place." Especially since him and Malenia got into such a violent battle during the shattering. And how there's no record anywhere in the game about the connection between Miquella and Radahn.

Because it's entirely one sided.

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I feel so incredibly bad for everyone Miquella used his powers to manipulate. They all deserved better.

Mohg deserves an apology

Knowing that he was used and manipulated all along hurts, but the fact that his corpse was violated and disrespected in such a way actually makes me want to vomit. Mohg didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to be bewitched he didn't deserve to be fed pretty lies that made him go mad he didn't deserve to be used as fodder for the tarnished and he didn't deserve to treated like this in death. It makes me so sad. At least morgott had a choice, at least morgott died in his father's arms. Mohg gets nothing. Nothing but desecrated and disrespected. The only one who fought for his honor was ansbach. the amount of pain he must have felt knowing his beloved lord and master was used as a puppet for so long, only to be desecrated and used to feed miquellas selfish wish. Miquella was never once a victim. Mohg was the victim all along. And we don't even get a fitting consolation prize after avenging him.

Do you know how grossed out I am. I was like wait why does radahn have horns on his arms and then the realization hits me because it's mohgs body they used. Miquella used mohgs dead body as the vessel for radahn. And you kill them both. In the end I guess radahn got what he wanted he wanted to be related to Godfrey. Just sucks he had to violate mohgs body to do that.

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.