Kinda Ridiculous How Every Member Of The Pines Family Has “selfishness” As A Key Part Of Their Character

Nothing in monster hunter wilds feels worse than someone joining your hunt (uninvited) right at the end and stealing literally half your Zenny from doing nothing.

One thing that I really like about elden ring is how devoid of anything noteworthy our character is because it opens up a lot of opportunities to make the character truly my own. Too many times in games like this, where you’re expected to project a personality onto a character the developers also muddy that character with a predetermined story or personality, and you end up with a really awkward mix of too little personality so it's hard to be invested in the character but just enough personality that it makes it hard to project something onto the character. Elden ring (and by extension the rest of soulsborne) doesn't do this. Your character is a completely blank slate outside of the many class origins you can pick for it and it’s up to you to determine who they are, what their past is and what they want.

I think the endings of elden ring and how loose the story is also helps with this since they’re all ideology based. Is your character a noble fighter looking to grow powerful and lead the lands between? Well then you’ve got the normal ending where you become elden lord. But what if your character is disillusioned with the gods and wants to be rid of their rule? Well then you can team up with Ranni and bring about the age of stars, removing them all together. What if you’re character's just a murder hobo that wants to kill and destroy everything in their path? Lord of frenzied flame is great for them then.

There’s so much personality you can put into these characters and it really shows with how much fan work has come out of the characters people have made for their playthroughs. It's really the first time I've actually liked having a blank slate protagonist.

"Radahn is a warmonger!"

my brother in Christ, they are all warmongers. Radahn is probably the softest character of the lot when it comes to the leaders during the shattering.

Like, Rykard's house is a torture chamber and he's partly responsible for the most horrific (documented) war in the lands between and Ranni masterminded a mass assassination but we're beefing with their brother who *checks notes* Just really likes fighting things, riding his horse and is documented to be a rather fair and honourable opponent to go up against?

1) Yes I stole poll idea from a mutual, 2) Seluvis is excluded on the notion of being "comically evil" character (kinda like Petrus from DS1) when the purpose of the poll is that blorbo has a lot of nuance to base the defence on. No shade on his simps btw gfhfhdbg and 3) Marika and Mohg are excluded on the notion that hate towards them kinda evaporated after SOTE

My take on the promised consort.

I believe that Radahn held the stars in place when Ranni began fearing her fate. She never wanted to become a puppet to the two fingers, and Radahn knowing this attempted to hold off her destiny for as long as possible. Though he likely knew that it would be an inevitability. The only other two living empyreans were cursed afterall. 

There was no way that Miquella or Malenia would be able to take Marika’s place, the two fingers weren’t even the slightest bit interested in either of them. Malenia was already claimed by the God of Rot and Miquella was perpetually in a state of adolescence. Ranni seems to be the only one who was ever actively bothered by her fingers and I believe this is because they had an intense desire for her to be the next god, assuming Miquella and Malenia as lost causes due to their curse.

I think this is when Miquella came to Radahn with a proposition. He will be seeking godhood. Even if the two fingers had no interest in him, even if the world thought him too small and frail to ascend, he was going to find a way, no matter the consequences. He was determined to become the next God and lead the world into an era of abundance and peace. To fix the mistakes of the past.

He only had one simple request.

“Promise me, you’ll be my consort.”

If Miquella were to ascend then Ranni would be free of her duty. She’d be able to live in peace knowing that she’d never have to be controlled by another's will. She wouldn’t have to become a god, she wouldn’t have to succeed queen Marika. And to top it all off, Radahn would get to play the role of his hero Godfrey. Ushering in a new era alongside a new god.

It was perfect.

That was, until the night of the black knives. The night the world was thrown into chaos. The night that the first demigods fell. And the night that he lost his sister.

Radahn likely wouldn’t have known about Ranni’s plot and would have thought her dead alongside the other victims of the night. Ranni was gone, and with her, so too was Radahns need for Miquella’s age.

I believe Radahn, fueled by grief, rage and the mad taint of his greatrune, denounced Miquella and struck out on his own as a warrior of the shattering. He didn’t need peace, he didn’t need Miquella. All he wanted was to fight. All he wanted now was endless war.

Maybe that would be enough to dull the pain of his loss? Not only the loss of his sibling and father, but also the loss of his purpose.

-

Now picture Miquella. Making the final preparations to begin his ascension. Only there’s one problem. His consort has abandoned him at the very last moment. As it turns out, it seems Radahn never really cared for Miquella or his visions for a new age, he was only really in it for his own gain. 

Imagine how devastated Miquella would be. Knowing that yet another one of his plans had fallen apart at the finish line. That the person he trusted to rule alongside him didn’t even hesitate to abandon him when it was no longer convenient for him.

His ascension to godhood would never happen. He would never be able to heal his sister. He would never be able to bring forth an age of compassion. He would never be able to right the wrongs of the past.

He had failed again.

Now imagine how furious this would make his people. How angry his followers and his sister would be to see Miquella rejected at such a pivotal moment. To see him mourning a consortship and an age that would never come to pass.

Is there really any wonder that they chose to march towards Caelid and deliver the promised consort by force?

I always find it particularly funny when people say that Ranni is just manipulating the player and that she’s using them as a means to a much more nefarious secret end, because if you actually pay attention to the game and character then one thing becomes abundantly clear.

Ranni literally cannot lie to save her life.

No seriously, she’s a cunning mastermind but she is a fucking terrible liar. When a random tarnished comes looking for her and accuses her of the assassination of Godwyn, she just goes “yeah? And what of it?” as if she’s not admitting to being the one behind the biggest act of heresy in known history. That's not something you should just say to people, least of all a tarnished!

You get her alone with you and within seconds she’s rambling about her plan, her past, her family, her friends that she adores with all of her heart, how you’re actually a lot like them, nevermind forget that last part please-

Sorry to burst the bubble of all the nihilist theorists out there that really want age of stars to secretly be a bad ending but if Ranni was planning anything nefarious with her godhood then I’m willing to bet that she wouldn’t be able to keep quiet about it until the end of her questline.

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.

that's a really interesting interpretation! I could totally see that being the answer

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.

we stay winning

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.

Nowadays unless I'm doing an evil character run, Edgar from castle Morne has been put alongside the dung eater on my "on sight" list.

I just cannot stand him. The way he acts regarding the Misbegotten uprising makes my skin crawl. No, I'm not going to help you stomp out a slave uprising, why don't you go fuck yourself instead?

It's lucky that he's relatively unimportant to any other questlines because I just have no drive to help him at all.

Tbf there are also a couple other things that link Marika to the black knives. Notably the fact that the group seem to have aligned themselves with the GW in some way after the shattering, due to them hunting down Ranni’s squad after she goes after her fingers (her baleful shadow is even kitted out with the same destined death powers, which shouldn't be possible if they weren't specifically given it by someone) and the one guarding the throne room in Leyndell.

On top of this the item description for the black knife set not only says that the black knives were all Numen women but specifically mentions that they had close ties with Marika.

Then there's the question as to how Ranni even got to farum azula to steal from Maliketh in the first place, which could very neatly tie into the grand and as of now unexplained "betrayal" that Marika commited against Maliketh.

There’s also Melina, who is one of Marika’s own children who uses the very distinct black knife fighting style if summoned for the Morgott fight. Since she's also technically a numen woman she's also in the running as a black knife candidate.

One of the things that has always vexes me is how people made the assumption that Marika the Eternal had some hand in the Black knife plot that killed Godwyn. The reasoning? Because the Black Knife assassins happen to be the same race as her, Numens.

Gee it's not like an entire civilization of Numen exist or anything, it's not like the player character can choose to play as a Numen or anything???

There are literally no other facts that link them outside of race. Yeah it is true that Marika was delving deep into the meaning of the order to find flaws with it, but if you knew your boss was making constant plans to replace you with some other candidates then what else would you do but question how they work??

All in all, there is no definite facts that line up either way, but I prefer to keep to the belief that Marika's shattering of the Elden Ring was an act of grief and loss of faith with the death of one of her most prominent children rather then something out of pure malice. I also support the theory that as Ranni was being groomed to take on Marika's role as the new goddess of the Erdtree, Godwyn was being groomed to take on the role of Elden Lord. It would explain why he was chosen specifically for her plot, and why she seemingly shows no remorse for his 'death.'

Not that Godwyn was seemingly a bad individual as far as in game lore goes. He was pretty much the Ned Flanders of Leyndell before he got merc'ed.