I think Undertale yellow is so beautiful man. It's a game that's so good that I think it can genuinely stand on its own. It lovingly adds to the world of Undertale in a way I haven't seen a fan project do before. It's just so genuinely amazing. It reminds me of what I love so much about Undertale and its community.
I'm not sure what the general concensus on the "Melina is the Gloam-Eyed Queen" theory is here, but I think it would be pretty cool considering that Melina helped our tarnished to grow and become the death of the gods, much like the GEQ did for her apostles.
Even while stripped of her power, her memories and her very body she was still unwavering in her own convictions. Even if she didn't fully remember what they were for a lot of her journey with us.
There is one more thing I’d like to add to this theory.
In the chapel of anticipation, if you’re skilled enough to strike down the grafted Scion, you can actually avoid being killed by it and chucked over the side of the island. Now why is this important?
Because if you do manage to do this, then you can progress slightly further into the area, where a lone set of butterflies will likely lead you to your fall, where things continue as normal.
Specifically a set of Nascent butterflies.
The butterfly that represents Miquella and by extension, St. Trina.
Right there at the start of our journey.
To guide us towards Torrent.
To guide us towards Trina.
Thinking about how St. Trina only talks to the player tarnished despite Thiollier's undying loyalty to her.
Thinking about how before traveling with Melina, Torrent belonged to Miquella (and by extension, also Trina)
Thinking about how at some point Torrent was sent out in search of a new master
Thinking about how Ranni's doll body requires her to sleep
Thinking about how St. Trina can visit people in their dreams
Thinking about how “torrent’s former master” asked Ranni to deliver the spirit tuning bell to whoever he chose to serve next
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Did St. Trina put everything in motion? Was she the one who set Torrent out on his search for a new master? Was she the one who asked Ranni to give us the spirit tuning bell? Could it have been one final, desperate plea to find anyone capable of stopping her other half before it was too late for him? Does St. Trina only commune with us because she knows that we're the one who Torrent chose as his new master? Is that why this character, that we never meet before now seemingly has full faith in requesting our aid? because her trusted steed was the one to bring us to her? From the very moment Torrent found us washed up in the lands between, were we destined to find our way to Miquella's/St. Trina's path?
Everytime I see talk about silksong taking too long to come out I can't help but raise an eyebrow. It’s been what? Five or six years since hollow knight had its final DLC and was officially “finished”? That’s a perfectly normal amount of time for a game to be in development for.
Hollow knight itself allegedly took around 4 years to create, so silksong, which is clearly a significantly larger and more ambitious game compared to their first has only been in development for slightly longer than that was atm.
Now, I'm no 'hollow knight news master', so I totally could be missing something or be wrong about something here, but from my point of view it hasn't been in development that long at all.
I’ve touched upon this in the past, but there’s a couple reasons I don’t believe the vow was mutually upheld by the end.
Radahn loved war and the glory of battle, but he was also a deeply sentimental person, as we can see with a lot of his history. He initially learned gravity magic so he could keep Leonard as his mount, and he later used that very same magic to freeze the stars in place to protect Selia. When he cares about something he cares hard and clings onto it as much as he can. And the battle of Aionia destroyed all of that. All that he held so dear that he challenged fate itself to protect it. It infected his horse and decimated Selia and all surrounding locations.
He desperately clung to life, even past the point of being driven insane by the scarlet rot. It’s possible to read this as him just wanting to be put down in a worthy fight, but personally I feel like it goes further. That motherfucker did not want to die.
Presumably none of Radahn’s followers had any idea about the vow with Miquella. On Miq’s side at least Malenia knew, but none of the Redmanes had even the faintest clue. Not even his closest allies knew what the fight was about, which is odd considering how glorious a final honourable battle for Radahn to become the lord of a new age would be. It was just kept incredibly secret for some reason. Even when it comes time for the Radahn festivals, they’re specifically to put Radahn to rest in an honourable duel. Not to uphold any sort of vow he might have had.
Going off of the previous point about their respective followers. The Redmanes and The Cleanrot knights fucking hate eachother, to the point where their spirits continue to battle in the wardead catacombs to this very day. This, to me, doesn’t read as a mutually agreed upon and honourable duel to the death. It comes off as there being extremely bad blood between the two groups. The malice between them is so palpable that they won't stop fighting each other even in death.
Radahn doesn’t really come off as being “present” in his promised consort bossfight. When it comes to every other major demigod in the game, they all have something to say. Every single one of them talks to the player before, during and after their boss fights. Radahn however, says nothing. He barely makes a sound throughout his entire fight. It’s like he’s just going through the motions. Like a spirit ash, or a puppet. He’s even able to make use of some of Mohg’s bloodflame abilities, which he shouldn’t be able to do if it was actually just Radahn.
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.
My personal undertale headcanon is that Flowey isn’t emotionless and incapable of connecting with others because he lacks a soul or is inherently “bad”, it’s because he was deeply traumatized from watching his best friend/sibling kill themselves in an incredibly painful way only to die violently himself hours later at like, the age of 11?
That would break anybody. To make things even worse, he woke up an undisclosed amount of time later in a body wholly alien to him, unable to move, completely alone until Asgore found him. If that wasn’t bad enough he then had to directly face the consequences of his and Chara’s plan, and the deep pain that it caused everyone in the underground. His father, the king? Broken. His mother? Missing. His people? Devastated and hopeless. Chara? Gone.
And to make things just that much worse, when the pain and grief of everything gets too much for him, and he deems himself broken beyond repair and decides to take his life he finds out that he has complete control over time itself.
He then spends an unimaginable amount of time experimenting with this power, constantly trying to do the right thing, constantly trying to help people and make the world better. But he’s never satisfied. He’s never happy. He does this, again and again and again. He grows older and older but never actually ages, he sinks deeper and deeper into his own tiny world, becoming even more distant and disconnected from the people around him as situations repeat themselves and peoples lives loop and loop without end.
Eventually he becomes so unbearingly bored of the endless, unescapable cycle that he starts to experiment with more negative situations. Afterall, his actions no longer have consequences, right? Anything he does, he can and will undo eventually. Even the most horrific actions hold no weight in Flowey’s impermanent world. The only person who ever has to deal with the consequences of Flowey’s actions… Is Flowey himself.
So he does it. Slipping deeper and deeper into his delusions. Falling deeper and deeper into genuine insanity as the years repeat themselves onto eternity and Flowey disconnects completely from the world around him.
At this point, he feels that he’s experienced quite literally everything the world has to offer. He probably lived as Flowey far longer than he ever did as Asriel by now. He’s befriended everyone, he’s hurt everyone. He’s saved everyone, he’s killed everyone. He’s done everything. Even violence doesn’t interest him anymore. So what does he do? He stops.
I’ve always wondered how Frisk even had the chance to fall into Mt. Ebott and usurp Flowey of his powers if he was constantly resetting the timeline, but I think I finally get it.
Flowey probably just… Stopped completely at some point. He stopped resetting, stopped interacting with the world and sat himself at his best friend's grave and just… waited. Waited for something, anything new to happen. Eventually enough time passed for a new human to fall, a human who inherently overpowers Flowey’s control of the timeline and so, for the first time in what must have felt like eternity Flowey was finally free from his power.
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After everything that Asriel experienced leading up to and during his death, he probably would have needed intense therapy to overcome the trauma. But that’s not what he got was it? He didn’t get therapy. He didn’t get the chance to heal. He got the powers of a god and the curse of his actions no longer having consequences. I don’t believe Flowey is incapable of connecting with others or feeling true happiness or love. I think that’s just a lie he told himself so his situation wouldn’t hurt as much.
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But, even after all of that I believe Flowey still has a chance at happiness. We see his character shift dramatically after the Omega Flowey fight. After he is once again stripped of his power over time, he has an intense moment of vulnerability that shows what I believe to be his true colors, followed by him coaching Frisk on how to get a better ending for everyone.
Sure, this was likely a trap for Flowey to take everyone’s souls, but once again, after his defeat as Asriel and returning to Flowey’s form, he has yet another character shift.
He’s genuinely happy at this ending. He’s happy that everyone escaped the underground, happy that Frisk gets to live their life. He begs the player to just leave everyone to their lives and to move on themselves. He doesn’t want his power back, he doesn’t want the cycle to continue anymore.
For the first time in god knows how long, Flowey is satisfied.
And maybe if the alarm clock dialogue is anything to go by, given time Flowey can finally heal. Flowey can finally find happiness and love again.
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.
You know you’ve fucked up when you’re sharing a kingdom with someone who literally infected 1/6th of the continent during a petty power squabble and you still end up being the most disliked demi-god in your family.
Like, Caelid's infection is literally at Limgrave's front door at this point and Godricks people still hate him leagues more than they dislike Malenia. How do you fuck up that badly lmao
Most hated demigod in lore
totk endgame spoilers
Y'know, I've always wondered if this line represents that a small piece of Demise was beginning to seep through the cracks of Ganondorf.
Ganondorf is a lot of things in this game, but he isn't above "mortals." He's very much one himself, even if he has survived for thousands of years, so the line "I will not be defeated by a mere mortal..." Feels kinda strange.
That is unless the power of the secret stone started to awaken that side of him. After all, Demon king Ganon looks shockingly similar to Demise, to an almost frightening degree. And the power of the secret stones themselves, which are only supposed to be able to boost ones own power ended up turning Ganondorf into a borderline god. Giving him abilities that base Ganon straight up didn't have. Giving him control over literal celestial entities, allowing him to create life out of thin air and granting him the power to defeat 6 other fully fledged sages in battle single handedly. It turned him into a god. It awoke something within him. Something that had been dormant for so, so very long.
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
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?