I Can't Stop Thinking About St. Trina In The Fissure.

One of my biggest pet peeves in media is when a character refuses to kill the big bad due to moral reasons but is perfectly happy condemning them to a fate far worse than death instead. It annoys me so much because if anyone thinks about it for more than 2 seconds, the narrative begins to collapse in on itself because doing that to someone is so so much worse than just killing them! In like, every conceivable way!

And it happens a lot too, which is baffling to think about. How has media got so many people convinced that imprisoning someone in a horrifically inhumane way, or literally sending them to the nightmare dimension™ is morally better than just killing them?

It ironically makes the characters seem way more vindictive and cruel than if they'd just killed the villain. It's no longer about protecting the innocent, or even just revenge. It's now about prolonging the villains suffering as much as possible. And I don't like how that's so commonly cited as the morally righteous decision.

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.

smouldering butterfly's are just naturally drawn to any sort of fire, and can be found around pretty much any open flame in the game. Volcano manor is going to be a really popular spot for them just by proxy of how hot it is there.

The only butterfly that's really directly connected to the demigod they represent is the aeonian butterflys, which are said to come directly from Malenia. The Nascent and Smouldering butterfly's symbolize Miquella and Melina respectively but aren't connected to them in any deeper way.

Even with the recent developments with Messmer, I personally still believe that the smouldering butterfly is supposed to represent Melina. The main reason is because of the butterfly's main use as kindling.

Messmer might have a lot of fire stuff going on, but Melina embodies the butterfly much more. Not only was she seemingly born burned and bodiless, much like the smouldering butterfly is born eternally burning, but she also acts as kindling to burn the erdtree in a similar way the butterfly does for crafting items.

The butterfly's represent the main curses of all 3 of the youngest siblings. Malenia's being rotted, Miquella's appearing eternally young and Melina's being burned and inevitably used as kindling.

I personally don't see the connection to Messmer other than the fact that they both share fire motifs. And even then, he's presumably not a part of Malenia and Miquella's sibling group as he's likely one of the oldest demigods, so it wouldn't make too much sense for him to be the third butterfly in the trinity.

Ingo and Akari spinoff series of the two travelling through space and time trying to get back to their present day

call it "conductor who"

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.

You know something insignificant that never fails to get under my skin?

When content creators call for their viewers to interact with the video before it even begins.

Like, I get it. It’s a really small thing and it helps them but can a request like that not wait until later into the video? Does it literally have to be in the intro?

And my god, don’t even get me started on the whole “if you’re new to the channel, please subscribe, it’s free and you can always undo it later :)” trend that’s cropped up recently. I’m sorry but if the first thing I ever experience on a channel as a new viewer is the creator asking me to subscribe to it before the video even begins it's going to instantly put me off of that creator. Actively asking for engagement at the start of every single video is one thing but immediately asking new viewers to subscribe the second they click on your video is just down right scummy imo.

I know it's such a small thing that I shouldn't be bothered by, but it all just feels wrong.

Soooo that DLC announcement huh? Pretty cool. Very excited but oh my god that promotional image has so many implications.

Mainly, if that person riding torrent is in fact Miquella, which seems to be the running theory at the moment then it suggests that Miquella himself was very likely torrent's former master, which in turn implies a lot about certain character relations we didn’t know about until now.

The big one being that on top of Malenia, he was possibly also working closely with Melina and Ranni as well considering the two of them both have ties to torrents former master. Melina travelling with his old steed and Ranni being tasked with finding the steed’s new master and giving them the spirit calling bell.

It makes sense for Melina since she’s very very likely the secret, missing third child of Marika and Radagon, which could be a post all on its own, so her working with her two siblings isn’t that strange. (though I still wonder to what extent they’re related and possibly working together).

But the craziest thing to me is that this also implies that not only could Miquella and Ranni have been on good terms at some point in the past but also that they are still currently on good terms (even after what she did in the night of the black knives). At least good enough terms to trust her with the spirit calling bell.

Melina's possible connections to the black knives also makes this theory even stronger. If she was a part of the assassin squad then that means that Ranni stole the rune and Melina would have been one of the assassins that used it to kill Godwyn (and possibly other Demigods since he was only said to be the first to fall during that night). 

Hell if you wanna get real crazy we could say that Miquella helped to forge the black knife weapons, since he’d already done a lot of research into “anti god tools” with stuff like the golden needles. Who’s to say he couldn’t figure out a way to do it? But why would he do that? He’s about the only demigod who wouldn’t be ok with killing Godwyn but it’d explain why he was still on good terms with Ranni after the assassination. Could have been St. Trina for all I know.

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.

St. Trina's chosen

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?

I just realised that this idea also tracks with their remembrance. The remembrance we receive from beating them isn’t “remembrance of the promised consort” or “remembrance of the kind” it's “remembrance of a god and a lord” it’s Radahn(Mohg) and Miquella together, as one.

It’s the only remembrance in the entire game that names multiple beings in its title, and to my knowledge, the only one that grants items related to different characters.

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This is sort of an unrelated thought but It’s also worth mentioning that in its description it refers to its owner as “Radahn, consort of Miquella” as if it were one being it was related to, despite it clearly being two. Which reminds me of how Godfrey is in some capacity, Serosh and Hoarah Loux together as one. Neither is ultimately more or less important in making up “Godfrey” as the other. Which could also further explain the striking similarities between Godfrey and Consort of Miquella.

Thinking about how Miquella and Radahn as a single boss are the perfect representation of all 3 demigod sibling groups.

Miquella - Marika & Radagon

Radahn - Rennala & Radagon

Mohg - Marika & Godfrey

Not only that but they also represent all 3 magic types. 

Faith - Miquella’s holy magic

Intelligence  - Radahn’s gravity magic

Arcane - Mohg’s bloodflame magic

The 3 of them converge into one being. Mohg’s body, Radahn’s soul and Miquella’s mind all working in perfect harmony. To become one.