Thinking about how Farum Azula is about the only place in the lands between a body can be put to rest without it being "returned to the erdtree" via its roots.
Thinking about how the society of Farum Azula seem to hold the dead in incredibly high regards, the entire city being a mass mausoleum in which the dead can be seen weaved into the very foundation.
Thinking about how Dragonlord Placidusax is said to have been elden lord long before the erdtree even existed and that he's waiting for his missing god to return even to this very day.
Thinking about Farum Azula having an ancient, more whole depiction of the elden ring designed into one of its major buildings.
Thinking about how the Godskins have reptilian, almost dragon like features and are fought in Farum Azula's prayer room.
Thinking about how the dragons and the golden order warred fairly early on in the Golden order's history, and that unlike many other of its documented conquests, the dragons were the aggressors in the situation, as stated in bolt of Gransax' item description. However what caused the dragons to attack seems to be conveniently forgotten in modern history.
Thinking about the sheer magnitude of history that's seemingly been buried from before the golden order, including an entire age that existed before it that had its own elden lord and god.
Thinking about how Marika had to defeat the gloam eyed queen before she was able to alter the elden ring and remove the rune of death to begin her own order.
Thinking about how the GEQ was an empyrean queen who had ties to death.
Thinking about how Placidusax has a missing god who used to host the elden ring before the age of the erdtree and ruled from within a mausoleum city that worships and honours the dead.
It’s such a shame honestly. She’s travelling with us for the entirety of the game, across this massive world with so much to discover and talk about (barring farum azula and onward) and I’m pretty sure she has less unique dialogue (not counting Marika’s spoken echos as actual interactions with her as a character) than Ranni, who only really interacts with us within her specific questline.
Hell, Even Latenna has some pretty good travelling dialogue when we’re doing the Haligtree quest.
I felt more connected to both of these characters as travelling companions than I ever did with Melina, which is really sad because I also really like Melina but I just tend to forget she’s there most of the time. It feels like the biggest contribution she makes to the story is being a talking piece for other characters, explaining Torrent's motivations to us and being a scribe for Marika but like… I want to know about you Meli!
I am glad we’re of one mind that Melina is a character whose potential was sorely wasted in Elden Ring. I mean, it’s probably why I can’t get too invested in her.
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
Y'know I'm usually quite apprehensive to consider cut content as canon material... But I make an exception for Radahns cat and Rykards boyfriend. They're just too good not to have in the story and they're such minor details that considering them as canon effects nothing.
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.
Elden ring DLC ending spoilers
It's really interesting how Ranni and Miquella’s goals for godhood are basically polar opposites.
Ranni wants to create a better world through absolute freedom while Miquella wants to create a better wolrd through absolute control.
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Ranni believes in and strives for absolute freedom. Both for herself and for all other residents of the world. She doesn’t want to use her power of godhood to rule over the lands between as queen, but instead decides to watch on from a distance and let the people of the world decide for themselves how to live. For better or for worse.
You can also see this in the way she treats her followers. She never forces anyone to do anything. She's borderline remorseful of just how loyal Blaidd and Ijji are towards her, and says in her own words that they are "willing to give to much for her."
It also extends to how she interacts with the tarnished. She holds unimaginable power over them. Able to kill them instantly with a mere glance if she so chooses. But she very rarely does. No matter what you do in her questline, the only time she'll get truly furious enough with them to the point of using that power is if the Tarnished attempts to use Seluvis' tonic on her.
You can ignore her orders in the second half of the questline, betray and attack her right at the end and even straight up not summon her at the end of the game, and the only time she'll ever actively be a threat to you is if you attempt to take away her bodily autonomy.
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Miquella however has no qualms with controlling others to benefit himself, and to force them to do his bidding.
Whether you're friend or foe, you're never truly safe from his powers.
He uses his powers to force his followers to get along and follow in his footsteps. Even ones that are unshakingly loyal to him aren’t spared from having their rougher edges smoothed off by his ability.
He uses his powers to make connections and further his goals. Stealing Mohg’s heart and taking advantage of him to enter the lands of shadow and then later, after he's taken all he can, goes on to desecrate his corpse.
He also likely uses his powers on Radahn, as I wholeheartedly believe that he did not accept Miquella’s proposal to become 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.
And the worst part of it all is that he'll convince you that it was your thoughts and feelings all along.
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Ranni's age is an age of doubt and fear because there's truly no knowing how people will chose to move forward with their strings severed. You've just got to put your trust in the good of people and hope that they can manage make the world a better place now that they're free of the god's petty power squabbles.
Miquella's age would be akin to a gilded cage. Peaceful and gentle, but the furthest thing from free that the lands between has ever been. You can't even trust that your own thoughts, feelings and devotion are genuine, because no matter your stance or standing, Miquella the god is all too willing to twist your mind if it will in any way benefit him. And if he for some reason can't? Well, he's got one of the most terrifying and powerful demigods in existence under his control.
If you don't agree with him or like him, Yes you do! Remember? You always have silly! And you always will...
thinking long and hard about Godwyn and Fortissax's friendship like
>the dragons begin a war with the golden order
>Godwyn and Fortissax become “good friends” which brings an era of peace between the golden order and the dragons
>Godwyn goes on to begin the golden lineage with a completely unmentioned partner
>dragons are known to take the form of humans and even have relations with them, as seen with Vyke and Fortissax's sister Lanssax
>One of Godwyn’s many descendants is Godrick, who refers to the dragon in his arena as “kindred one”
>While Godwyn was the first demigod to fall during the night of the black knives, it’s implied that many others followed at the hands of the assassins. Due to the rest of the known descendants of Marika being alive, and no one else having a child pre-shattering it can be inferred that Godwyn's bloodline was specifically targeted for some reason. Since those are the only other demigods that existed at the time.
>Godwyn is assassinated and because him and Fortissax are such “Good friends” Fortissax proceeds to enter godwyns mind and spends decades, possibly centuries attempting to fight off the deathblight from within him, eventually succumbing to it themselves but still unwilling to abandon their “good friend” regardless.
This is an idea I've been thinking about for a while now. I find it really suspect that despite the fact Godwyn is presumably the only demigod who has canonically reproduced the "usual way", meaning that he must have had a partner at some point there's absolutely zero details about any sort of consort to Godwyn anywhere in the game. It's as if there's been a conscious effort by the Golden order to cover up any sort of information on that part of his life.
Take that and combine it with Godwyn and Fortissax's very close yet very vague companionship and Godrick's thing with the dragon and I think there's a real case to be made for those two having been together at some point.
Like who else could realistically have been the secret companion to Godwyn which has seemingly been entirely erased from history if not a past enemy of the golden order, Fortissax themselves.
Godrick is 100% Godwyn’s son with Fortissax. And his frail body is due to the dragon blood attempting to change him like it does when you do dragon communion, but his demigod blood prevents a natural evolution. It is also why he can easily graft the young dragon onto him and make full command of it.
This could also add to why susie acts so… reluctant? About her bullying of Kris in chapter 1. In the first chapter, while she’s still mean I notice that she almost constantly backs down on her threats and jabs, never even waiting for Kris to react to the things she says.
Something that a lot of people have pointed out is just how much worse Susie’s bullying is in the secret post compared to her more reserved nature in the game, (to an uncomfortable degree) to the point where it was theorised that it was intentionally written to seem out of character.
But now that you've brought this up, it seems much more likely that Susie did used to be so much worse, it's just that whatever Kris said to her that day shook her so badly that she started to mellow out.
Okay so Noelle’s private post about Kris and Susie, yeah that post.
So I see a lot of people theorising that Kris replied back to Susie something like ‘what like you?’ or ‘like your mom?’ or something like that, which is a possibility.
However I saw one person on twitter suggest another possible reply that is even more harrowing in my opinion.
And that was “good.”
I’m actually more inclined to believe that especially because of Susie reaction afterwards.
If what Kris had replied was insulting I think she would just get more angry, but instead, Susie was shocked. Noelle said that her whole demeanour changed and that she backed off quickly , this is important, it indicates that was Kris said disturbed her.
I think that sort of reaction out of Susie would’ve come more from Kris indicating wanting to be gone, or some sort of agreement that their mum would be happy if they did so.
Noelle also mentioned that Susie is head was held low, which of course may just be because she was upset at what Kris said if it was something equally cruel. However, to me it also shows shame,
because she realised that she was picking on someone who already wants to disappear.
The convergence is a really good elden ring mod, but I have just one criticism: I think that design change to Rennala was a mistake, let her have her weird moon shaped hat, she already have weird alien proportions this insistance of making women all have the same conventionally attractive limits design so much, the point of Rennala's hat was to look like a moon shaped mitre (pope's hat) that showed how the carian family view the moon and glintstone magic as divine (differently than the golden order) and as a symbol of authority while also visually accentuating the slenderness, "verticality", and counterposing Rennala's weirder proportions.
Here how she is standing uptight and with her hat, there is nothing really off abt her at first glance speacially from this angle
But if you pay attention, she starts looking really odd at different angles:
look how broad her shoulders are, how long her neck and arms are relativetly to a regular person's proportions. Dont get me wrong I love her design and I think she looks really beatiful and find her lankyness interesting way to show is not a regular human and there is something outerwordly going on with her (the moon's influence and the glintstone). And here is how her hat makes her design all come together and make her visual shape more imposing authentic and less goofy:
(I edited on paint dont judge)See how without the long hat her silhouette weirder, like she is wearing some big shoulder pads? how she looks more like a big rectangle with some skinny arms popping out?
Thats why I get mad when they pussyout to gamer bros complaint about her hat making her look ugly and with end up with this:
completely ruined her shape language and removed the mitre part of her symbolism to a generic crown/tiara.
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.
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.