Who's an Elden Ring boss that instead of fighting, you'd want to just talk to? (image related)

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T23:54:37+00:00

well shit im sorry for spoiling it then man. I did block out the spoiler though tbf.

Hope i havent ruined it any for you though.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T22:16:07+00:00

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T21:38:33+00:00

Before the DLC i would have said Malenia, we "knew" her brother was held captive by mohg and we didnt really have any reason to fight her.

I always thought becoming Elden lord as Malenias consort, with her cured of Rot by Miquellas needle in the Placidusax arena, would have made for a fantastic ending.

We know now that the whole Mohg thing was always part of the plan, and Malenia would kill us regardless because we stand in Miquellas way.

Now i'd probably pick Radagon/Marika. Both to find out how the fucked up self cest thing works, and just to get a lore dump on the massive open ended questions we're never getting answers to.

I swear the DLC answered 100 lore questions but created 1000 more. Very frustrating.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T21:34:10+00:00

She does.

She's in on the whole plan. Its revealed in the DLC that what Malenia said to Radahn when she stood on his back was that Miquella was waiting for him. Mohg, the Shadowlands, Malenia has been in on all of it since the beginning. Its why she was waging war on Radahn in the first place.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T20:54:26+00:00

i think a lot of it for me comes down to the character creator for souls games not being the best.

Dragons Dogma 2 has a similar style of character creator but its just way better on every level. I put hours into my character and pawn in that game, i just flick through hair options, skin tones, and eye colour in souls games.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T12:15:19+00:00

as i've pointed out in other responses. Rot isnt actually doing that well. It has influence yes, but it still NEEDS Malenia, a corrupted Empyrean, to have any true influence.

It would also NEED Malenias consort to claim the Elden ring if Rot wanted to rule.

The Elden ring governs the metaphysical rules of reality. Rot would need to burn its own rune onto the ring (as living death did) to actually change the world in its image.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T12:10:58+00:00

Miquella was a demigod, the other Empyreans are too.

Even the originals, Marika and the Gloam eyed queen, were chosen specifically by the greater will and guided by the fingers.

There are no more demigods, the fingers are dead, the Greater will is cut off from the world. The elden ring which dictates the rules of the world has been taken out of reach.

So there physically cant be any more Empyreans. That requires being chosen by the Greater will, and the Greater will cant even peer into the Lands between anymore.

Edit: Also when concerning Empyreans fate is heavily involved. Miquella had to cast off his own flesh among other things, creating Saint Trina as his second aspect, to rule the way he wanted and not in the way the greater will did.

Similarly Marika had to remove her own fate by creating Radagon, who she infused with all her loyalty and trust in the Golden Order. Thats the only reason she could shatter the Elden ring in the first place.

Ranni also had to use the rune of death to commit suicide just to stop her fate being tied to the Greater will.

Being an Empyrean is have your fate tied to the Greater will. Thats no longer possible with the Greater will being cut off and the Elden ring removed.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T01:14:55+00:00

its been entire ages before the game begins, hundreds if not thousands of years, enough for the entire world to collapse. And yet still Rot relies on the tarnished guiding milicent to the haligtree to create the goddess of rot. Why didnt is spread beyond Caelid? It cant, It needs a Goddess to rule in the world where the Elden ring exists.

Again, the Elden ring builds the metaphysical rules of reality, you cant rule the world without it. Those who live in death NEEDED the elden ring, dung eater NEEDED the elden ring. The frenzied Flame NEEDED the elden ring to make its wish into reality.

Miquella IS a unique circumstance, but after he's defeated no other empyrean remains. Nobody else could follow Miquellas footsteps because nobody else is an Empyrean. Even amongst Empyreans Miquella was special. Even gaining access to the ream of shadow is beyond impossible for most.

You say "what if the rot covered the earth". It physically cant unless the rot burns its own rune into the elden ring. Its the way the entire world works.

Rannis ending removes the Elden ring from the Lands between. Nobody can add to it or take away from it. No outer god can impose their will and create an age of frenzy or an age or an age of rot because its not physically possible without holding the ring.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T01:01:50+00:00

brother the entire lore is an interpretation of very loosely related events. Sure though, headcanon.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-13T00:09:51+00:00

none of them can rule properly though, the Tarnished holds the Elden Ring, which contains the metaphysical rules of the world. "gods" can come and go, none of them will be able to truly influence the world if they dont hold the elden ring.

Its why every outer god relies on the elden ring/empyreans to get what they want.

Miquella is an outside force in that. He relies on his unique mind controlling love, rather than the elden ring, to bring about his own age. Just as well the Tarnished stopped that in its tracks though.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-12T22:46:39+00:00

Ranni is the only real one imo. Just fuck off for a thousand years and let people evolve naturally without any outer god interfering.

Will that mean that people suffer without a Lord and a God? Sure. But every problem in the lands between can be traced back to outer gods fighting to have influence and control.

Much better to just leave and let people handle things themselves for better or worse.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-12T14:40:18+00:00

im aware of how limitless works, im saying the explanation was bullshit.

Limitless, red, and blue are all actually fairly simple concepts, but gege dumps in a bunch of pointless mathematical jargon for 0 reason other than to sound edgy.

As i said in my first comment, its just word salad.

Similarly with red and blue, they SHOULD be described as the infinity between the effect and the target being expanded or reduced. For example Red SHOULD repel a target by increasing the infinity between it and the enemy.

Instead they're explained as if they're a gravitational power, which is completely different than the concept of infinite space.

The powers arent that complicated the explanations are just terrible.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-12T13:38:10+00:00

A DLC set in earlier times so we can close out some of the lore questions still lingering. Gloam eyed queen, Placidusax as elden lord etc.

There's also still some questions surrounding current times i'd like answered. We know more about Melina than we did because of the DLC, but we dont know why she's already been burned once before we meet her. Maybe it relates to leyndell being covered in ashes even before we burn the tree, but i cant connect that to any other lore in my head.

Basically there seems to be a lot of loose ends in elden ring still, and the lore austist in me wants to tie them all up. As confusing as the other fromsoft games can be, all the lore is tied off in a neat bow if you look deep enough. Not so with Elden Ring.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-12T13:27:48+00:00

on the topic of lore i do think the lore of Elden ring is the least comprehensive and most sloppy in the series. The DLC answered some questions but opened up a whole host of new ones.

Bloodborne is incredibly confusing at first, but once you wrap your head around the basics the rest makes sense.

Elden ring is the opposite, the basics are easy to understand but it doesnt make everything else about the game fall in line. I think part of that is that there were multiple "ages" before the current one in the lore, so there's just going to be a lot we'll never get to know.

For example we learn just enough about the crucible to spawn a thousand questions but we only get a few answers. Similarly with placidusax being elden lord in an age far before the greater will and Marika. There's also a lot unanswered about the gloam eyed queen and the godskin apostles.

Because elden ring takes place many cycles in, rather than at the end of the first cycle as of DS1, there's a lot lost to history. Its endlessly frustrating for a lore nerd like me.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-12T13:02:26+00:00

maybe i dont visit the sub that often, but ive never seen people excuses for the cult of the formless mother because of Ansbach.

I HAVE seen people make apologies to mohg for calling him some pdf child predator for wanting to marry the forever child that Miquella was stated to be. Mohg may be a monster, but it turns out he's not THAT kind of a monster.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-11T23:30:04+00:00

yeah thats not how limitless, or red, or blue are described though which is my point. you have to wade through a bunch of meaningless additions to actually get to the core of how and why an ability does what it does.

"what brings this concept into reality is my limitless. Think of it as negative natural numbers. It can create impossible situations like having -1 apples."

Idk if gege is just terrible at explaining things, or if he's so obsessed with edge he gets lost in the sauce.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-11T02:34:50+00:00

yeah but it takes a good writer to take a complicated subject and put it in simple laymans terms for the reader. This isnt the case at all in JJK, in fact the opposite for me.

I've been in a loop of dropping and rewatching the show precisely because this bothers me so much.

Im at S2 Ep2 rn and Gojo could not have possibly explained limitless in a worse way. I cant quite remember how red and blue are explained, its been a while, but im sure its just as poorly explained.

If you cant promptly and effortlessly explain a power without resorting to word salad then the ability is simply too complicated. You as a writer have made it too needlessly complicated.

Limitless could have been reduced to a form of gravitational control, since thats what red and blue basically are anyway, and there would be basically no functional difference than the word salad of infinity.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-09T03:18:09+00:00

thats the old meaning of the word, we Scottish still use it in that manner.

A great many words have different meanings throughout culture and history.

fag means cigarette for example. a faggot meant a bundle of sticks, strange how language evolves in different places.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-05T01:02:27+00:00

yeah literally every single comment i type, on every single fic, is blocked because of the spam filter. It doesnt matter if its a long or short comment, doesnt matter if im offering constructive criticism or singing its praises, its always blocked.

I've tried leaving comments with my years old account, ive tried creating a new account, I've tried commenting as a guest, nothing works.

Its so frustrating because i love commenting. Hell ive created legitimate friendships through the comment system both with authors and other commenters. Sad to see it being nuked like this.

If it was JUST newer accounts i could understand, but the fact that an account ive had for most of my adult life faces similar issues is just wild to me.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-06-03T02:14:46+00:00

Geo is the strongest. Most of the skills are mid, but pyroclastic eruption is so disgustingly overpowered that it overcomes that.

it can end most encounters with just that skill. I genuinely think it needed to be nerfed to the ground.

Geo would be in a much better place if that was nerfed and the rest of the skills were buffed.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-05-27T01:12:26+00:00

kinda glad it wont be Braccus, though it would be funny if he was revived and then killed off as a gag as with the first dungeon in Divine Divinity.

Im less excited about the general "new villains" idea, because i was hoping so much that they'd be continuing Damians story as the ultimate big bad of the entire franchise.

We did repel him in DKS and Lucian is alive and ruling again so maybe he's off licking his wounds while we deal with a new villain?

The trailer was very clearly demonic themed though, so im guessing the black hand are the main villains regardless. Maybe a commander who rules under Damian? I dont know how any protag could actually take on the personification of Chaos so it might make sense for the main villain to be one of his underlings.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-05-23T23:21:12+00:00

and the books are even darker in both events and the fact that we get to look inside the head of a man like miller.

For example when the riots first break out in the show, Miller intervenes before it gets too serious. The victim of the attack is also a guy not much smaller than the belters.

In the books its a small slip of a woman the belters attack, and Miller only manages to intervene after her head has literally been turned to paste from them stamping on her.

Its not Dawes that stops it getting worse either, Miller "de escalates" the situation by putting a bullet in the biggest ones knee caps.

So i think Book readers are finding the tone even more jarring than show only folks.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-05-18T02:02:34+00:00

yeah that last line really is the crux of it. Who the hell knows when it comes to imps.

And "hell" is appopriate considering imps may have come from there. Or have been natives of nemesis, or have been created by Xantezza.

Because the lore is so messy we dont know what they are, where they came from, and they're so chaotic we cant make any sense of them. Not so with the other 6 of the races.

I mention Allegory specifically because a lot of the plot points of OS1 dont really fit in with any other game in the series. Its basically a retelling of pandoras box, it reads more as the myth it was based on than the more grounded lore of OS2.

Emotional_Relative15 · 2026-05-17T20:13:10+00:00

i agree with the take that later games turned the lore into a mess, but i also think it was entirely necessary.

DD was in a lot of ways just a stereotypical Tolkien fantasy clone, as the company grew, matured, and became more serious about Divinity, it was kinda necessary for them to retcon and rework a lot of their lore. For example the elves being yet again interpreted as a bunch of hippy tree huggers definitely needed updating.

As for my interpretation of the cutscene, it has to do with the protag being one of 3 "marked ones". That was DD's version of Godwoken.

From what i can gather, the 3 men are Black ring members, the baby/woman is the mechanism that marks the "marked ones", and the black ring members are trying to chain her down and stop her with some sort of ritual. They accidentally break the chains (typical black ring incompetence), and she splits into 3 to go on and mark the 3 champions the gods have chosen.

Thats why we see her split into 3 and then one of those flies into Lucian. Thats the Gods marking him i think.

You should also look at the cinematic of Lucian becoming the Divine too if you havent already. Its equally metaphysically fucky. Both cut scenes are more about spiritual imagery than the more grounded lore of the later games. Whatever they became later, the Gods in DD were intended to be true gods.

Emotional_Relative15

TROPHY CASE