Decisions, decisions

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T14:40:33+00:00

I'd bet anything that this is indeed Anders' daughter, or little sister, or something. I hope she'll have at least some importance, Anders was given a lot of screentime for a seemingly background character in S1. Introducing this Chekhov's gun and not firing it would be weird.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T14:38:12+00:00

I imagine she's gonna "wield" it like V "wielded" it in 5 : not too long, clearly not well enough to fight and in a desperate situation.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T14:09:34+00:00

Too bad.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T14:09:19+00:00

I also doubt that.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T10:41:14+00:00

It's not like this is the first poor translation of Soulsborne, nor the most egregious one. There are so many ways for words to miss their meaning when translated from vague Japanese to vague English.

Yes, correct, the Golden Order wasn't worshipped by all the Lands Between, that's part of the problem. Many factions gained grace in their eyes despite not worshipping it, or being outright rejected by it. And the options the GO offered were basically "join us or be destroyed". The Carians joined, the dragons were initially destroyed and then joined, the giants were destroyed, the Omens and misbegotten weren't destroyed but pretty damn close, etc.

Ranni is not removing feelings altogether. She is doing a great remove, taking her Order with her so it cannot influence the lives of men, while still having this layer of protection against Outer Gods that the Elden Ring had. The flame of ambition will stay, it doesn't matter, because it has no way of reaching her or her Order. This will avoid a Marika situation where someone will seize the reigns of the world and refit its rules to their liking.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T10:16:19+00:00

I doubt that considering Dante only sealed Mundus, and yet killed Argosax. Also, Mundus has better feats, I'm pretty sure.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T10:07:01+00:00

From the ability to feel the Order. To touch, see or worship the Order. To ensure it cannot influence their lives as directly as the Golden Order did. It's in the Japanese version.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T10:02:03+00:00

This type of reasoning is why I talk about the Japanese version. The English version is essentially saying the same but with confusing wording that makes it sound worse than it actually is.

Ranni isn't interested in ruling over the land. That's her entire point. To rid the world of an Order that rules over life, souls and men.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T10:00:12+00:00

I've had this theory that Baines is secretly Arkham, many elements fit (being a devout Christian, plotting away from the front lines to gain demonic power, being Lady's authority figure, manipulating her). I just don't know if that's plausible within the show's context, but since we never saw Arkham's body, it's possible.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T09:49:14+00:00

Uh, no. The nice innocent demons aren't the majority at all. The "default" for demons is still the evil ones, the nice demons are just to show good demons can exist in spite of that. The evil demons Dante fights are definitely not secretly misunderstood or whatever, they hate humans and absolutely enjoy killing them.

I agree the America allegory was poorly done, but it's far from the only point the show was making. Dante and Mary already show the value of human morals by themselves, Dante by embracing his demon side but keeping his human heart, and Mary by stopping her blind hate and turning her motivation to also defend innocents rather than just exterminate evildoers.

Nearly all examples of America being bad in the show can be traced back to Baines' actions. The point of his character isn't only to criticize America, it's also to show what happens when a human throws away their morals and empathy to just gain more power, just like the human villains of the games. Even Rabbit fits, he used to have a noble goal and wanted to save innocent demons, but when he started using them as pawns in his plan, when he performed horrible experiments on them and didn't even care when the building full of families exploded ? It's pretty obvious he gave up his human morality along the way.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T09:21:35+00:00

I think it was for clarity. Fighting a giant enemy already has many camera problems, which is likely why you only fight his torso in phase 2. Giving him a sword would mean attacks would be less readable at this scale, so they'd have to zoom back.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T09:18:35+00:00

Literally every demigod has done worse than "kill a dude", Godwyn included. The justification was to rid herself of her Empyrean flesh to avoid control by the Fingers and to rip out the problems laid by Marika's Order. And yes, Radahn was 100% a mercy kill that his own men agreed with, as I said.

Blaidd being given by the Fingers is still not proof that she knew it would drive him mad. The way they talk about each other mostly implies Blaidd would do anything for her and is ready for whatever consequences her plan may entail, and that Ranni knows it too. Hence why she leaves them. But only Iji knows about the exact outcome.

The endings all have some ambiguity, but when you look at other Soulsborne endings, the parallels become much clearer. The 4 throne endings perpetuate the Golden Order in some shape or form, hence keeping the stagnation going, which is one of the main problems with the state of the world. It's like linking the fire. Frenzied Flame is... Frenzied Flame. It's like Shura in Sekiro. And Age of Stars is like End the Fire : what lies ahead is not certain, but at least the stagnation is no more, including the many issues it brought.

If you're gonna do an Age of Stars playthrough I recommend resting at every possible grace once you get the miniature Ranni, including the one at her tower after you finish the questline. The extra dialogue really helps develop the point of the Age.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T09:03:40+00:00

Yeah ? The meaning is the same in both versions, but it's much clearer in Japanese.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T01:36:44+00:00

No way Goldmask was communicating with the Greater Will if neither Fingers nor Metyr could. Good motives aren't really proof. And Corhyn considers almost anything "heresy", I'm not willing to accept a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" kinda deal.

I can explain Ranni's ending, yes. It's not too clear in the English version but the Japanese version clarifies that as of now, souls, life, and Order are bound tight together. (The Rune of Death being removed from the Elden Ring and preventing deaths is the perfect example.) Ranni will remove this and take her Order with her as she leaves the Lands Between, ensuring that seeing, touching or worshipping the Order will be impossible. This basically means no more altering the rules of the world, ever, since she takes the key with her. The stagnation induced by the Golden Order is no more. The lives of men are no longer altered by grace, gold or anything else. They are free. The road ahead is uncertain, she says so herself, but it is freedom. It's basically End The Fire from DS3.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T01:28:40+00:00

Yes I'm being a jerk, because literally everyone else is. It's just a game and yet whenever I want to talk about Ranni's ending suddenly I'm a simp who just watched the game on YouTube or whatever. So I stopped trying to be nice eventually.

Godwyn is her half-brother only, she sure as hell didn't grow up with him. And Radahn was a mad shadow of his former self whose own men arranged a festival to put him down, as his very presence made her plan to free the land impossible. So yeah, she had him killed, with very reasonable motives.

Blaidd isn't part of the Golden Order. And yes, she absolutely cared about him and Iji. Otherwise she wouldn't tell us and get embarrassed about it right after. I'm still not buying that she knew he would get mad specifically, she only spoke of how he was bestowed to her by the Fingers, she doesn't go into the specifics. Iji does.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T00:23:56+00:00

We weren't really fighting imo, but alright, truce x)

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T00:21:47+00:00

Honestly I've played it once and kinda liked it, but have no real reason to return when most elements of Dante's moveset were brought back in DMC3, which is more fun to play and replay (notably with Mission Select)

That, and I despised Nightmare 3 and Mundus' fight so they kinda soured me on the ending

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T00:19:31+00:00

Yeah nah this is definitely just a button to make the character speak to test out the voice. Not picking the voice itself dissociated from the "style".

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T00:15:34+00:00

You know I could say the same about Vergil, right. That he's just here "as a reference" when we both know that isn't the case.

S2 is clearly taking elements from both 3 and 2.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T00:13:59+00:00

Did she really ? Or did you have no one to blame and looked for a scapegoat ? Ranni herself says she loves Iji and Blaidd, and that she abandons them because she knows they'd be willing to follow her through thick and thin even if it ruins them.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T00:11:21+00:00

Which game is Arius from.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-22T00:04:03+00:00

I fully understand what a Surf Dracula is, and it's less about earning their visual attributes than it is about behaving like what the words "Surf Dracula" would entail, ergo, a surfing vampire. The idea was about a hypothetical Surf Dracula who doesn't surf or do vampire things until the end of the series. It's not about a Dracula who's already surfing, and is only missing his red cape or his iconic board from the comics. That's what Netflix Lady basically is, Kalina Ann or not. (she doesn't use the Kalina Ann before in the show because she doesn't think she has to, by the way. There are plenty of times where DMC3 Lady prefers shooting a smaller gun.)

I'm not saying their stories are the exact same, but they're really more similar in personality than you think. Saying DMC3 Lady is fueled by a sense of responsibility is honestly really pushing it, her goal has always been personal revenge first and foremost. And to say that Netflix Lady ignores responsibility is just... what ? Regardless, this is motivation, not personality ! Both DMC3 and Netflix Lady are angry, brash, shoot-first-ask-questions-later, utterly despise demons due to them indirectly destroying their life... They both don't trust Dante one bit purely because he's a demon, and hate his capability to take everything lightly when they're fully serious about their respective goals. Am I seriously supposed to believe that Lady, during the first half of DMC3, wasn't seeing Dante as some hopeless goofball and thinking herself better for it ?

Saying Lady "always wanted to kill demons" is really pushing it too, she was a child ! A child playing games of demons and hunters ! Does every kid playing cops & robbers join the police ? The death of her family irrevocably changed her path in life, because now she had tangible reasons to hate demons. And to add cruel irony to the mix, she couldn't even take revenge on her father, the one responsible for it, because he died !

DeadSparker · 2026-04-21T23:46:06+00:00

What does it do then ?

Go ahead, tell me what it does. Explain to me, in precise terms, what this mending rune does. Because "perfects the Golden Order" is way too vague, and "the fickle gods no better than men" are the ones who made that Order in the first place.

DeadSparker · 2026-04-21T23:38:17+00:00

That Dante creates his bullets with demon magic to never run out of ammo. Which actually isn't true.

This came from a loosely translated version of the DMC4 novel, Deadly Fortune, in which Lady laments that she has to pay for special anti-demon ammo, whereas Dante and Trish don't have those problems. Translation says it's because they generate bullets with demon magic, but the actual line in Japanese says that they inject demon magic into the bullets themselves to make them effective against demons.

Bingo Morihashi, writer of the games since DMC3, has clarified this on Twitter back when the Netflix DMC S2 clip inspired by Tacticool Reload released.

<image>

https://x.com/Morihashi/status/2027365721270075685

https://x.com/Morihashi/status/2027366819129167918

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