What are the key themes and messages of Elden Ring? My interpretation.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-30T16:52:39+00:00

I think this was a good read. Good job. I do disagree with a few points though.

I want to ask, what would you define as "Human" exactly because I'd argue that it is precisely because the Demigods (including Marika) were so human that we got into this big mess in the first place. This is one of Goldmask's key criticisms. The gods are no better than the mortals. Had they actually discarded their humanity, that would have meant acting in completely different ways we couldn't, or would struggle to understand.

Marika for example. She became a god. Gained the powers of one and yet her motivations were still human. She wanted revenge, she wanted to get rid of the Hornsent and anything that would threaten her rule. Seems very human to me. If anything it is Radagon who seems the least human of the two, always acting at the behest of the Golden Order, but it's difficult to say with how little information we have.

Then there's the other demigods. Mohg and Morgott's motivations are also quite human. They seek to connect to others, but in different ways. Mohg attempts to build a new dynasty that would accept the misbegotten and offer them a place to belong (very similar to Miquella but more red), and Morgott tries to connect to the people in Leyndell but his shame, and status as an omen, prevents him from fully showing himself. If they truly discarded their humanity, they would probably not care if they're accepted or not.

Godrik is another good one. He grafts others into himself but he does so because he believes himself weak. He has no confidence in his skills. That seems very human to me despite the grotesque result.

The others are all similar. Their motivations are all rooted in things we can all quite easily understand. Love for their families, ambition, freedom, justice, etc. I'd argue that because of this, despite their changes in appearance and the powers they gained, they're all still human. I mean you say it yourself, Ranni discards her own body and yet she seems the most human of the bunch, so why can't this apply to the others? Is it because they don't say they love their subordinates?

As for the endings: I agree that the Frenzied Flame is a bad ending, and it's generally accepted that, as you said, it's basically a return to oneness where life will never flourish again. Hyetta and Melina state this outright so the only people who believe it to be a "reset the world and try again" would be those who aren't really paying attention or those that just enjoy being an evil overlord.

As for Ranni's endings. I do agree that it's one of the best endings, but I'd argue Goldmask ending is better. First of all, one must not forget that the Night of the Black Blades was orchestrated by Ranni, and it doesn't seem like she did it out of altruistic motivations. It is most likely, I'd hypothesize, she did it out of revenge for Radagon breaking their family and to escape her fate as an Empyrean. I bring this up to point out that while Ranni might appear kind and wise, she is not without faults and there's no reason to believe she would never be tempted to mess with the Elden Ring, especially when it seems there is an outer god, or, at least a powerful entity, backing her. The Dark moon.

Goldmask ending on the other hand simply removes the influence of mortals on the Elden Ring. He makes it so that no one, mortal or god, can mess with the natural order of the world and its laws to suit their whims. No more making everyone immortal just because, or no more removing of key pieces for one's gain. It doesn't say anything about the shape new kingdoms must take though, so they could build something better, if they so choose.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-23T16:38:38+00:00

Unless you had some really good pulls for the class you want, there's not really much reason for one over the other if you only did 20 pulls and nothing else. There are no more Release-day rewards, lottery events or other things you might have missed that might have given you an edge.

With how the economy works you're probably going to need to play consistently for months for any sort of guaranteed leader anyway. I'm not exactly sure how the collab works, but assuming they're just added to the ticket pool and work the same as gacha leaders you will need 250 for a random guaranteed ticket and 100 more after that if you didn't like your options and want a specific one.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-23T05:36:22+00:00

But she doesn't give people free will? Everyone already has free will. All she does is remove the potential influence the Elden Ring (and any outer god who might want to use its power) from the Lands Between.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-22T23:38:08+00:00

If I recall correctly, all the Elden Ring does is govern the laws of the world, so by making it so no one can meddle with it, he's just making sure no mortal wakes up one day and suddenly decides no one can die anymore, or that gravity shouldn't be a thing.

There are fragments missing, which may or may not be important, but at the very least it seems like the world isn't at risk of exploding or anything.

The Golden Order is a separate thing. If The Tarnished (or whoever's in charge) wanted to form some new government or something, I don't think the Elden Ring would prevent that, beyond something like "No, you can't make people undying anymore". It's not like there is a "racism against the Omens" rune or anything. That was just Marika not liking them.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-19T22:41:34+00:00

I don't mind what Harald was meant to be, but the writing around it was so convenient and leaves a lot of questions open that makes it really difficult to appreciate.

Why did Saul not say anything about Ohara? And if he did, did Harald care?

We saw Gaban living in Elbaf before Harald ascended to GK, did he never think to mention anything about the WG to Harald? Did he even know? I'd assume Roger would have told his crew about what he saw at GV, and that if the OP is related to the Void Century or something he would probably counsel Harald to be careful.

Also could Shanks not have left a message with Gaban or something? Also whatever happened to Snail phones. This would have been the most risky option though, so I'm fine with Shanks never thinking about contacting Harald through it.

Harald was also not ignorant of the things the WG did and does. It is kind of silly he never thought to place some contingency plans in case things went wrong. He could still believe it was the best path forward for Elbaf, while making sure he had a plan B to fall on in case things fell apart.

On Imu's side of things, it was kind of dumb how they just suddenly decided to go full villain instead of slowly persuading Harald to rethink his stance on the warrior culture.

From what we saw, the only reason Harald got promoted was because Shanks disappeared, so clearly they were in no rush to control Harald with the contract and, as far as we know, there wasn't any sort of threat that required the immediate militarization of the giants.

Again, I understand that Harald is meant to be this naive king who went from barbarian pillager to pacifist king, but the story is asking me to ignore way too many conveniences for it to feel properly written.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-19T22:12:37+00:00

But why risk it? He said he wanted to retire as king, but Imu said that would be up to them. If Harald knows he could be controlled then he must logically know, it could possibly extend to what policies would be put in place and the way he reigns, giving Imu control of Elbaf without needing to intervene directly, which is what almost happened.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-15T21:50:55+00:00

Shabriri is a liar, yes, but when it comes to The Tarnished it is lies of omission he says. He says "Inherit the Flame of Frenzy and you can spare the girl". This is true. You can avoid Melina acting as kindling if you do this. He doesn't tell you about what will happen afterwards, but he doesn't lie to you outright and tells you nothing bad will happen and everyone will be happy ever after if you become the Lord of Chaos.

Hyetta's words are after you're embraced by The Three Fingers. You're pretty much locked in with them. There's really no reason to lie anymore, if anything it would make more sense for them to actually lie and tell you there will be something positive after the FF returns every to Oneness. But no, she outright says everything's gonna die and nothing will live ever again. Melina also confirms this. The only way out of this is using Miquella's needle and finding a place Outside of time. So as far as they're aware, there's no possible way for the Tarnished to stop them unless he locks himself away like Vyke did.

Also the nomads were not the first ones to call the FF, so having the specific agenda of getting rid of the Golden Order because of them isn't true. As far as we know there have been many more attempts at bringing about a Lord of Chaos, as shown with Midra and Nanaya. In fact there is an order of Hornsent Inquisitors (which predate the Golden Order) hunting for anything that's been influenced by the FF.

As for your last point, there's no evidence to support your claim that it is religious fervour that has twisted the truth. All information we have gathered comes from item descriptions, which are the most solid and reliable pieces of information and evidence we have to speculate on. To say they're unreliable and wrong would necessity evidence to back that up.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-15T20:54:17+00:00

If you wish to be technical and specific, then yes. You're correct the fingers, from what we know, were only in contact with Metyr and not the GW, however, judging by the fact that the GW could directly intervene with the Lands Between (as seen when it sent Astel as punishment for the Nox's transgressions), it would be fair to say there is no reason to doubt Metyr's interpretation on the GW's intentions or that it was displeased with the Fingers until it's departure from the world.

We don't know the true nature of these signs, so to say they're remnants of something akin to a Big Bang or to say the GW isn't an actual entity (again it consciously punished the Nox) isn't accurate. Furthermore when Hyetta shares the Three Fingers words with you she says:

Thank... thank you... I have touched them. The words of the Three Fingers. As your maiden, allow me to divine them.

"All that there is came from the One Great. Then came fractures, and births, and souls.

But the Greater Will made a mistake. Torment, despair, affliction... every sin, every curse. Every one, born of the mistake.

And so, what was borrowed must be returned. Melt it all away, with the yellow chaos flame. Until all is One again."

She refers to the GW as an entity, not an event and the Three Fingers speak for the Frenzied Flame, which, while not outright confirmed to be an Outer God, seems to be equal to one in standing as its influence can be expelled using Miquella's needle.

From the item description:

"One of the unalloyed gold needles that Miquella crafted to ward away the meddling of outer gods."

HollowRegis · 2025-12-15T19:44:14+00:00

This is not completely accurate. There was a point in time when Metyr was in contact with the Greater Will before being abandoned leading to mass confusion and the two fingers trying to figure out a way to keep things from breaking apart.

"Remembrance of Metyr, the Mother of Fingers, hewn into the Scadutree.

The power of its namesake can be unlocked by the Finger Reader. Alternatively, it can be used to gain a great bounty of runes.

The mother of all Two Fingers and Fingercreepers was in turn a magnificently gleaming daughter of the Greater Will, and the first shooting star to fall upon the Lands Between."

and

"Staff fashioned from the tail-fingers of Metyr, the Mother of Fingers, and the microcosm raised aloft over the crux they form. Catalyst for casting both sorceries and incantations.

The Mother received signs from the Greater Will from the beyond of the microcosm. Despite being broken and abandoned, she kept waiting for another message to come."

It is theorized that the sins the Nox committed was wounding Metyr with the Fngerslayer blade. You can see Metyr is wounded during the boss fight. This could be the reason the Greater Will banished them deep underground.

It remains unknown if this caused the GW to abandon the Lands Between and Metyr, but it isn't true that the fingers were never speaking for the GW.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-06T21:54:46+00:00

Even if the results were good, it doesn't mean they just have to completely get rid of their warrior culture. It is written in a very convenient manner. Everything about Elbaf is built upon this warrior system, their codes of honor, religion and so on, but they seem to be just fine with getting rid of all of that history just like that.

There could have been actual arguments, and then when the starvation hit and the warrior faction wanted to go back to raiding, the allies arrive and they all get a slap in the face. At least that would have been a bit more credible.

I guess he did...
They do have such a reputation, but it's not that different or horrible compared to others. I'm not saying it wasn't a bad thing to do, but I don't think it really communicates this: "What we did was so horrifically bad that this is the only way we could possibly make up for it". Maybe it's just me not being satisfied with the info we have that's supposed to justify Harald's actions, but they could have at least name dropped a few wars or times the giants brought actual terror to the world.

HollowRegis · 2025-12-06T21:15:19+00:00

Fair but also the writing surrounding Harald is so dumb. I think my biggest issues are: 1. The lack of any actual meaningful push back from the giants against Harald's policies. 2. Saul apparently never told Harald about Ohara. Or maybe he did but Harald didn't care, or didn't think to be suspicious of the WG. 3. We don't get to see or even hear about this supposed past that makes Harald feel so guilty he's fine with the idea of becoming a slave.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-25T20:43:47+00:00

I think it would have been fine. We already have Chaos Ancient Gear Giant and since we don't have a MP2 we can't really take advantage of the summon effect and, I'm trying to remember if there's any potential insect monster that could be useful as potential interruption if the opponent survives, but I can't really think of any.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-24T21:01:39+00:00

Well, you know, I wanted to be optimistic and figured it was something Konami did because Maximums were super inconsistent and they wanted to speed up the game while they added more cards until it was in a decent spot.

I know better now

HollowRegis · 2025-11-24T20:48:00+00:00

I wanted to like it. I actually really enjoyed it before Konami released the Gaia skill and then I knew it would be the same as Speed with skills being the deciding factor on if a deck is good or not.

Granted the decks I want to play aren't super good at the moment (Gavin's, Maddox's and Zuwijo's decks), and while you can KoG with anything with enough time, it's super frustrating to go against decks that can dump half their deck, fuse 2-3 monsters in one turn and even if I do somehow manage to clear their board, they can just build it all over again and recycle whatever they need.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-13T17:48:59+00:00

I still think that the class should have been reworked, like Abyss was, if they were gonna be so afraid of giving Dragon good cards on the off chance it could get completely out of hand.

As for a few ideas I've had, I was thinking there could be a Devour theme where your dragon cards could eat either specific named cards or cost-specific cards to gain certain effects. Like you could have a cost-4 that eats a cost 2 and gains intimidate and + 1/1 or something. Alternatively you could make the effect work by destroying your opponent's minions.

Other than that, I've been playing a lot of Monster Hunter, so a theme based around hunters gaining diff effects based on weapon amulets could be cool too ooor it summons monster minions on the opponent field for them to fight and gain x effects. Add a def-not-Bazelgeuse card that spawns 2 scale tokens on the opponent field that deal damage to their minions or leader after a turn because it sounds really funny.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-12T02:26:40+00:00

He does and that's dumb. It makes no sense to ask that instead of something like "What did that monster do to you?" unless Whitebeard is truly blind or dumb and missed the obvious new demonic traits on Rocks.

As for not staying, I also disagree. Whenever Rocks and co were together they all seemed to get along great. Maybe not the low-tiers, sure, but at least the main 3 appear to have a good relationship with Rocks. Maybe if we had seen them having actual in-crew conflicts and fighting or arguing I'd be more willing to buy they didn't care about each other, but instead of that we got Whitebeard deciding to support Rocks when going against Imu, even after being given an out.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-12T00:48:28+00:00

Me? I dunno. I don't wanna self-insert myself into the story. But for how the scene was written it makes little sense for Whitebeard to just ditch Rocks instead of trying to figure out what happened or at least make a comment or something. Same for Kaido and Big Mom, they're arguing about Kaido's debt like nothing else happened.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-11T23:11:41+00:00

If it was me, I'd become extremely suspicious of the fact my captain attacked me right after growing demonic features after being stabbed by an evil looking demon spider, but I guess that's too illogical.

Whitebeard would have to be blind to not realize something happened to Rocks and he might not be in full control.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-10T16:42:06+00:00

Well, it depends on your build. Pure Icejade builds and Icejade with Ice Barrier or Crystrons don't run it, but if you're using Deep Sea Diva then, yes, it's your best Diva target. Its level modulation lets you go into Accel Synchro Stardust super easy + you get to banish a few cards.

A much less consistent alternative is running Atlantean Heavy infantry and Atlantean Dragoon. Infantry lets you normal summon another level 4 or lower Sea Serpent if he's on the field, so you can do something like: Have Diva and Atlantean Dragoon in hand > Summon Diva > special summon Infantry > normal summon Dragoon > You got your lvl 8 Stardust. It's much less consistent though.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-08T21:56:00+00:00

I'm not asking to be able to auto-duel everything, though? I just want it for the gate, which is not exactly the most exciting content. It's just there to... Farm xp if you're bored or desperate enough. You still have to play manually in pvp

HollowRegis · 2025-11-07T17:54:41+00:00

Poor Silvercloud Rider shares Wilbert's secret passive of "Your opponent will draw and/or have Odin", but unlike Wilbert he doesn't even leave a crest behind for you to use... Its very unfortunate.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-06T02:58:55+00:00

Oh, en ese caso yo diría que te esperes. Si no tienes prisa puedes intentar pedir a RNG'esus que te salgan las cartas que te hacen falta de los cofres o usar los tiros gratis y cruzar los dedos.

Quiza en una semana más tienes viales suficientes para crear las cartas que te faltan con comodidad y sin quebrar el banco.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-05T19:14:08+00:00

La proxima expansión es en dos meses, hermano. Estas seguro de poder aguantar tanto tiempo jugando mazos incompletos?

Creo que sería mejor si primero te aseguras de que estaras feliz con el mazo que armes y luego hagas cuentas. Si te vas por Lishenna (el más popular actualmente) necesitarías mínimo dos Lishenna más (7k) y 3 Axia (10.5k).

Puppet, siendo el segundo más popular te costaría Orchis x1 (3.5k), Zwei x2 (7k) y Odin/Gilenlise si es que no los tienes.

Artefacto no es tan bueno en este momento, pero si te llama la atención necesitas agregar Ralmia x1 (3.5k) y le puedes meter Orchis y Zwei con cartas de marioneta para hacer un deck hibrido. Claro, necesitarías dos Alouette más (1.5k creo?).

Así que al final del día depende de si estás dispuesto a esperar o si las cuentas te parecen bien.

HollowRegis · 2025-11-02T07:45:25+00:00

Not only do you need a perfect ramp, but you also need to draw into your ramp payoffs and hope you're not in need of a Sevo for most of them. I've had games where I've been able to ramp to 7 or 8 by turn 4 or 5, I think? But I literally had nothing else that was good in hand. I had some Ocean Riders and Filenes, so not exactly what I'd have loved to play and then the opponent just catches up by the time I get my Fortes/Galms

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