Personally I think Radahn is now acting in a similar vein to spirit ash. As Ranni says while handing us the bell for it (which she got from torrents former master aka miquella/st trina) spirit ashes fight by the users side based on instinct installed in prior battles, which is why they'll fight anything and everything without hesitation, which seems to be exactly what's happening with radahn. Either that or Miquella could just inherently bewitch radahn easily after acquiring his soul
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.
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.
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?
is there anything specific you think you'd like to know? I love this game a lot and like to think I'm pretty deep into the story/lore side of things
I don’t think I ‘hate’ a single Elden Ring character. Each and every one is designed so compellingly, their stories are so varied, their interactions while sparse are the type to carry magnitudes of meaning.
Example:
For the longest time I did not realize that the scene we stroll into at Castle Morne is a slave rebellion. The misbegotten are treated as chattel. My first go around I assumed “ah yes, monster attack castle, understand”
It wasn’t until I watched a random lore video that only referenced it that I got it. I went back and read the descriptions of stuff and I’ll be damned.
There’s a lot of little tidbits hidden here and there that flip entire perspectives on their heads. Preaching to the choir on this point.
Even the characters that I generally dislike/disregard (dung-eater, (hot take) Varre, selvus) I still find fascinating. One of the cool parts about the game is you can just kill the character you don’t like. If you’re doing a run and you want to get a little roleplay in, sometimes murder freak be murdering.
Personally, I’m not on twitter, instagram (used to be), deviant art (do people still use that), or anywhere else ((I Do have a blue sky but I think I’m too dim to use it just yet)) . I’d love to be in a space where people talk more about lore or art things! I haven’t the foggiest clue where to go though. When I hear people say “everyone hates on xyz character” or “this fandom is so nuts” or whatever I am genuinely confused. I’m only seeing a portion of the stuff here, and so far it’s been more than pleasant! Big ups to the people on here, so far you’ve all been very kind 😊
So I guess, could I ask anybody to fill me in? Or where to go to get filled in?
In the meantime I want you to know I’ve started working on a pair of drawings centered around Malenia and Miquella - ooooo be so tragic oooooo
Recently I’ve been thinking about Radahn and how, despite his pretty major importance to the overall story of elden ring, we really don’t know that much about him. And judging from texts from the game, neither do most of the characters.
He’s the only demigod we meet who never speaks a word, item descriptions regarding him are rather vague with the exception of a few, his relations to his family are largely a mystery and it seems that even his own followers have very conflicting ideas of what he would have wanted.
We never get to hear what the terms to his vow with Miquella was like, we don’t even get to hear whether he agreed to it or not. All we have is Miquella’s account of the events.
Despite having grown up with him, Blaidd talks about Radahn like he’s some stranger he hardly knows of.
Jerren saw him as an honourable warrior.
Freyja saw him as someone who valued war over all else, no matter what side he fought on.
And Miquella saw him as a kind and compassionate figure and the most fitting choice as his king consort for the age of compassion.
This all makes me feel like he must have been an incredibly reserved person. That beneath all of that power, pride and lust for battle was someone who primarily liked to keep to himself. With the exception of the animals that he kept in his care.
There’s some sort of comedic irony to how many people have latched onto Miquella as this sort of ‘holier than thou’ good guy of the elden ring story, especially considering how little we actually know of him.
I’m not saying that he isn’t this pure, uncorrupted pillar of righteousness that people present him as, there’s obviously no way for me to know that, but the absolute certainty that people talk with when discussing his character that he only had everyone's best intentions at heart is kind of funny when you realise that one of the only things we know about him for certain is that he learnt how to compel the affection of others.
Out of every unknown character in this game the community could unanimously decide is a great person it's just funny how it ended up being the character with the cannon ability to make people like him unconditionally.
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.
Been thinking about HTTYD 3 recently (mainly about how much I dislike it) and man, it really is just the antithesis of the rest of the series isn’t it?
The whole franchise of HTTYD from the movies, to the specials, to the 2 TV shows is all about building the relationship between humans and dragons. It’s about them learning how to coexist and how to support each other.
1 was learning that coexistence was possible.
The first TV series was getting a deeper understanding on how to make coexistence work, and where it might not be possible in certain cases.
The second TV series largely built on this and also involved deeper conflicts with other human civilisations.
And 2 is basically the apex of everything they’ve learned. Where they’ve fully developed a symbiotic society for both people and dragons on berk and the only threats they really face at this point are from other, more aggressive and exploitative dragon users.
It ends with Hiccup becoming the chief of Berk and Toothless becoming the Alpha for the dragons.
That is until 3 comes along and basically says “coexistence is too hard, let's send every dragon in the world to a secret underground cave, sometimes the fight to exist is just not worth it and it’s better to roll over and give the oppressors and the extremists what they want”.
Which is a horrible message for the end of a series that largely revolves around how humans and dragons deserve to share the same space and that it’s possible for them to live harmoniously with one another.
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.
Moving Gransax's corpse in the convergence mod to the other side of Leyndell's inner wall is such an odd choice. It’s such a visually striking feature of the city and it almost looks bare without it.
I can’t even really figure out why the decision was made. There hasn’t been any major changes to the design of that segment of Leyndell from what I can tell and he and his spear don’t connect with their new environments very well at all. Overall a very weird choice from what is usually a very consistently high quality mod.
funny quirky elden ring headcanon that I might make a proper post for later:
Marika was in on the night of the black knives and was the one who chose Godwyn to be assassinated. She did this because not only did he make peace with the dragons during their war with them (which is historically not the way Marika likes ending her conflicts). But due to Godrick, one of Godwyns descendants calling the dragon in his arena "true born heir" and "kindred" it leads me to believe that… well… Godwyn and Fortisax were probably a lot more than just “close friends” if you get what I’m saying. And I don't think Marika would have liked that very much.