'Whetfish'?

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.

My favourite crackpot elden ring theory is that the gloam eyed queen was a demi-human and also Boc’s mother. Allow me to indulge in why this might actually be possible for a moment.

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The biggest point of evidence I have for this is that both Boc’s mother and the GEQ are both said to have been seamstresses. Boc mentions this fact about his mother multiple times throughout his questline and a substantial amount of godskin/GEQ gear have descriptions/motifs that allude to the GEQ sharing this trait (i.e. the godskin stitcher, godskin peeler and the godskin swaddling cloth)

Additionally Boc’s mother also once told him of the legendary golden sewing set and how it was capable of altering the attire of the very gods. Now, why would a random Demi-human mother have such extensive knowledge of royal garbs and the materials one must use to craft/alter them? This seems to imply that she has deeper knowledge of how gods and demigods work as a whole right? Deeper than the common person of the lands between, as if she’s got first hand experience with them.

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My next point is how Demi-human society has a royal hierarchy, literally having queens that lead and protect groups of Demi-humans. To my knowledge, outside of Renalla, Marika and the GEQ herself, this is the only other mention the game has regarding queens. Would it be much of a stretch to assume that the GEQ was a Demi-human queen? Albeit one that commanded much more power than the typical one we discover in game. Though, you may believe that this is incredibly circumstantial, and I wouldn’t blame you.

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So how about the fact that the GEQ, being Demi-human, would 100% have a motive to hunt down the gods. The Demi-humans are arguably one of the most oppressed races in the game, not even having a place in the golden order society as slaves like Trolls and Misbegotten. They’re basically excluded entirely. And who’s sitting at the top of that violent and oppressive society? The gods.

If the Demi-humans did once have a singular queen that ruled them, could you imagine the anger they must have felt? The injustice, the needless cruelty. It would have been one of the few things I can genuinely believe would drive someone to challenge the gods.

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Once again, very circumstantial, I wouldn't blame you for not buying it. But what about the GEQ’s eyes? The “gloam eyes” if you will. The meaning of the word gloam in this name has been a heavily debated topic in the community basically since the game came out, but it seems like the common consensus, when looking at the beast eye, Melina’s sealed eye, the Godskin’s jewels and some of the common meanings of gloam being “dusk” and “twilight”, is that the Gloam eye’s in question would have likely been purple in colour.

Now, why is this relevant? You may be asking. Well, do you know who else in the game had purple or “gloam” eyes?

Demi-human queens.

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Also Farum Azula, good old Farum Azula. The location I theorised used to be the city that the Gloam eyed queen once resided in. Don’t you think it’s interesting just how similar some of the ancient corpses littering the pillars of this place are to Demi-humans? How the beastmen themselves wouldn’t look too out of place within a Demi-human group, ignoring their much thicker coats? Isn’t it interesting how beasts and dragons are the only surviving remnants of this Ancient place? How important they were to the culture? How about the fact that they are masters at incantations, some of the best in the lands that currently exist. The very same magic group that Godslaying flame belongs to. Wouldn’t it make sense for their queen to be just as much of a ‘beast’ as they are? Just as masterful at incantation as they are?

Isn’t it interesting how the eye Maliketh grants us to hunt deathroot, living fragments of destined death, the VIOLET eye is named the “Beast eye” as if it itself once belonged to a beast.

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

Honestly I think my general opinions over the ATLA netflix show can be summed up as "In an attempt to make the show appeal more to older audiences they made it much more violent, dark, serious and gritty instead of actually making it more mature."

They removed a lot of the humour and charm and doubled down on the darker parts of the story, which imo just made it incredibly dull and boring.

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.

true, but there's nothing stopping the writers from making the rival/best friend a woman if that were an issue for them. Though I guess an even easier fix would be to do what you say. Just write fleshed out and dynamic female characters who aren't just there because the protagonist needs a partner at the end of the story.

Anime/Manga Writers: Why don’t the fans like the canon straight couple instead of the non-canon gay ships?

MC looking at their canon love interest: So pretty and fights good.

MC looking at their rival/best friend/partner: They’re like the sun, brilliantly blinding and all-consumingly powerful. There’s a deadly beauty and grace to every action they take. They’re the other half of me that I never thought could exist, the one person who pushes me to be my best self, and life without them would not be worth living. There’s nothing in this world that they could not accomplish and I am but a fool chasing after them in hopes of reaching their level. Even then, having them in front of me/by my side has pushed me to heights I never thought imaginable.

Thinking about how Ranni probably hated her own body because it made her nothing more than a puppet for the GW. And that’s probably why there’s no depictions of her anywhere in the game (I wouldn't be suprised if she slowly got rid of them all before deciding to revolt completely), and why she decided to make her new bodies in the image of her teacher instead of herself.

Because any sight of her previous body would be a horrible reminder of what she was.

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Edit:

To add onto this, Rykard obviously loved his sister as he was willing to fuck with Maliketh just because it would help her, but despite this there’s no depiction of her in volcano manor. Only ones of himself and Radahn. 

Soooo he obviously cared for his sister and also obviously cared for these grand displays of affection/family power or he wouldn't have had these portraits made, so why wouldn’t he also have a picture of her? Well I can only assume it was because she didn’t want one.

Everyone being furious with Aang over running away from his responsibilities is even dumber when you remember that this time around he did not run away from his responsibilities! They removed that part of his character, so now it just straight up doesn't make sense.

The day he found out he was the avatar went like this:

>He found out he was the avatar and may have to stop an oncoming war

>He decided to go for a late night fly to clear his mind

>He got stuck in a storm and while attempting to return to the air temple ended up being pulled under the ocean and subsequently frozen

>He woke up, found out he'd been frozen for 100 years and the world was on the brink of collapse and decided he had to do something about it and immediately got to work.

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By removing his agency in his disappearance (along with his wandering and exploration of the world in the OG series) all the while making people more angry at him for it, the people criticising him for avoiding his duties have gone from looking like a bit of a dick with some semi-valid complaints to completely unreasonable assholes with no meaningful points. They've removed nuance by trying to make the story darker and more mature.

People in the show keep getting on his case for not prioritising his duties as the avatar despite the fact that that is all he has been doing from the moment he woke up from the ice, which may I remind you is now (for Aang) mere hours after he learned he was the Avatar in the first place.

what is with this fucking show and guilt-tripping aang????? bumi being mad at aang is the stupidest fucking thing ever because he of all people KNOW aang is a kid. KYOSHI of all people know the burden that the avatar has to carry and would NOT accuse him of running away??? the guilt that aang felt being the last of his kind is something he carries with him and is evident in his anger and his desire to keep his people's way of life alive. it is not something that other characters need to YELL AT HIM for???? just for him to have to COUNTER it??! as if they were wrong??? what the fuck is the thesis of this show???

Plot twist:

Radahn initially agreed to be Miquella's consort in order to spare Ranni of her fate of becoming a god, knowing that she wouldn't have to if another were to rise instead. However after she 'died' during the night of the black knives Radahn lost all incentive to uphold his end of the bargain, leading to the battle of Aionia

btw I'm calling it now that those eye markings that Melina and Ranni have are actually marks of empyreans. (which would also make Melina herself one aswell.)

I just think it's slightly too suspect that we never see the full face of a living empyrean in the game.

Marika has her eyes covered in the intro and is missing one half of her face in the ending (the perfect place for an eye marking to have been without leaving any evidence)

Malenia's upper face has been affected by the rot and thus no eye marking would be visible.

Miquella's face is also never properly shown in game. Even in the shadow of the erdtree teaser it is kept out of shot of the camera.

And while Ranni does have an eye marking on her puppet body, we have no idea what her original one might have had, as it's been burnt beyond recognition and no depictions of living Ranni exist in game.

Even if it isn't the eye marking, there's been a very deliberate choice to keep empyrean's faces hidden throughout the game and I feel like it means something.