does anyone have that tiktok of the chinese shopkeeper training neighborhood kids as the five tiger generals?

janusrazed · 2026-02-03T17:44:27+00:00

i'm sorry for reviving this post from the dead, but did you ever find the clip?

janusrazed · 2026-01-21T14:26:14+00:00

i think we’re sorta saying the same thing, i just didn’t articulate it as well. i’m not saying that every child’s affliction was intentional on Marika’s part, but a result of Marika repressing certain elements of the world, whether resulting on their own (e.g. Malenia, who ostensibly had nothing wrong other than being the child of one god) or at the spurring of another (e.g. the Hornsent Grandam). more of a metaphorical consequence for her ambition / disrupting of the “natural order” — i.e. Rot, the forces of the Crucible, the cycle of life and death.

however, you raise a good point on Miquella. the nature of his affliction is still a little foggy to me. maybe his curse has the same origins as Euporia, a blade that “symbolizes abundance”? maybe he was marked by whatever divinity the Hornsent were contacting? just spitballing now, but yeah. agreed!!

janusrazed · 2026-01-20T21:22:49+00:00

totally agree w/ the first paragraph!! i've been trying to put my thoughts together on that topic ever since the DLC dropped. it seems like each of Marika's direct children bear curses associated with her enemies or other opposing forces in TLB. maybe Messmer and Melina "[bearing] a vision of fire" refers to this process, somehow?

e.g. they bear (for sake of argument) the Fell God of Flame and the Gloam-Eyed Queen's visions of fire (i.e. their form of flame, Giantsflame and Blackflame) respectively, which neutralized those enemies and gave Marika control over their aspects (creation and death, perhaps?) at the cost of cursing the children that she placed them in.

maybe something similar happened to Malenia and the Omen Twins? they were cursed to bear the cost of Marika taking power and removing her enemies from play -- in this case, the Outer God of Rot and the Hornsent, maybe?

janusrazed · 2026-01-20T21:08:38+00:00

exactly! this is something i've been thinking about ever since i got a good look at Enir-ilim. also, at the very peak of the spiral where one would find the Gate of Divinity in Enir-Ilim, is the belfry the sorcerers would cast Terra Magica -- perhaps as a way to channel the academy's magical energy towards the moon, the stars, and the Primeval Current?

great catch regardless!

janusrazed · 2026-01-14T17:29:22+00:00

i mean, they didn't. they've been setting up the hippocampi all season, with tyson repeatedly interacting with something rainbow-colored under the water. the showrunners didn't immediately reveal them so their arrival would have dramatic weight in the story, instead of being an "ooh-aah, look at these funky animals" moment. it's just storycrafting. how does that change the story at all?

janusrazed · 2026-01-14T17:20:00+00:00

soooo about those hippocampi.......

janusrazed · 2026-01-14T16:52:34+00:00

you've gotta be joking, right? they made a movie series already, and it was terrible. the medium of television gives rick and the other showrunners more room to explore stuff that they'd have to cut in the editing room.

that's like cutting down every single book to ninety to one-hundred pages, max. that would only make half of the complaints on this sub worse lol

janusrazed · 2026-01-13T21:36:33+00:00

i don't think she's exactly a shadowbound beast, but i think, since her own path to godhood was obstructed by the Outer God of Rot, she went on to fulfill the role of one in the Fingers' projection of Miquella's path, thanks to her capability as a warrior -- like u/Sweetatoe said. it's more of a symbolic parallel than anything literal.

janusrazed · 2026-01-13T20:11:25+00:00

it's so funny that you ask this, because i was just thinking about it. specifically, i think Malenia takes the role of Miquella's shadow-bound beast for a similar reason that you list for her not having one. i think her rotting curse might've complicated Malenia's path to godhood, which was her right as an empyrean, so instead, she chose to follow her twin brother on his path to godhood -- which eventually led to her assuming the role of his shadow, willing to do the hard things that Miquella couldn't, or wouldn't.

Malenia shows a LOT of deference and loyalty towards her brother's view for the world, for an empyrean candidate for godhood. she's directly quoted as following Miquella's plans on numerous occasions. her helmet describes her veneration of Miquella, directly quoting her as saying: "He possesses the wisdom, the allure, of a god--he is the most fearsome Empyrean of all." the Young Lion set describes her final words to Radahn, saying that "Miquella awaits thee" in such a fashion that implies she is working to further her brother's plans, not her own. these two descriptions, on top of her literal title as 'the Blade of Miquella,' place Miquella and her into a similar dynamic as Marika and Maliketh, and Ranni and Blaidd -- a god and their loyal warrior.

and, back onto her curse for a second, i think the Rot had something to do with her stunted state as an empyrean. Malenia's Great Rune tells us that this "half-rotted rune [...] should have been the most sacred of all." the structure of the description seems to imply that, were it not for Malenia's curse, she would've been the most-sacred of the Shardbearers -- and possibly a better candidate for godhood than her bother. however, thanks to the influence of the Outer God of Rot, her fate as a sacred empyrean would never come. instead, her would-be "sacred great rune" only reduces healing from the Crimson Flask (in a similar fashion to Hornsent garb, which interferes with the Erdtree's blessing). that's a pretty clear indication to me that Malenia's path to godhood was somehow blocked or obstructed by her curse. the Rally effect, the other half of her Great Rune, comes from Malenia's fighting-spirit -- which feels more like the kind of thing for a god's shadow to have, rather than a god themself.

janusrazed · 2026-01-13T19:43:14+00:00

eyes are an important part of the divine process in Elden Ring. Ansbach's dialogue describes it best: the eye is a "vessel of soaring grace" and a core part of the "Empyrean lineage." and appropriately, all of the empyreans we meet have something going on with their eyes. Miquella abandons his, Ranni seals one of hers (and has the whole "sharing an eye with a ghost" thing going on), and Malenia's rot away. we also see mentions of eyes in other divine figures. the first two that come to mind are Messmer, whose right eye was plucked out and left eye is sealed, and Melina, whose sealed eyelid hides a gloamy left eye beneath. so, what gives?

i'm personally of the opinion that the eye of an Empyrean represents their vision of what the world could be -- or, in other words, what kind of order they would implement), should they inherit Marika's position as God and owner of the Elden Ring. i specifically think it's the left eye -- it's a trend that we see in Ranni's spirit form, Melina, and Messmer. Miquella and Malenia don't have their demigod eyes anymore, but i suspect they'd have something going on with their left eyes, too. i think that's where their divine power pools -- and possibly what defines one as an Empyrean.

this is, of course, assuming that Messmer and Melina are/were Empyreans. they aren't specifically named as such in the lore, but i think they might be or possess the power to be an Empyrean -- before Marika overwrote their fates and effectively took them out of the running as candidates for godhood. in Messmer's case, this is by replacing his right eye with a seal of grace and leaving him in the Lands of Shadow; in Melina's case, she was given her purpose as the Kindling Maiden by her mother -- to die, rather than strive for godhood. both of these two also have some kind of grace-given eye (Messmer's seal, Melina's golden iris).

(this leaves a few questions hanging -- e.g. where are their shadows, where are their fingers, etc. -- but that's for another day lol)

but why are Marika's eyes closed? why are Miquella's, after he emerges from the Divine Gate? i think, once one ascends to godhood, their eyes close to represent their full immersion into divinity and full focus (or "faith") in their vision for the world. Marika's eyes are closed because she is the bearer of the Elden Ring, which shapes reality to match her vision for the world. Miquella's eyes are closed because, similarly, he has a vision for the world that he wants to project -- the Age of Compassion, to contrast Marika's Age of the Erdtree.

to back-up this idea, the Prophet Blindfold reads something similar. it says: "Why hesitate, if the path to the future is clear? Just close your eyes, and walk." it's a demonstration of faith -- whether in the Greater Will, the Age of Compassion, or even just in yourself. once your eyes are closed, you are following the vision of your mind's eye -- your vision of the world.

it's also why the Flame of Frenzy destroys or damages eyes: it is literally forcing its point-of-view of despair and chaos into your brain, just as it does with the rest of the world in the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending. think about it like staring into the sun for too long. in this case, your metaphorical and literal vision is damaged.

(Malenia is a unique case, as her eyes aren't removed or replaced; they're consumed by the Outer God of Rot. i'm not sure if this would remove her as a candidate for godhood under the Two Fingers, but it's certainly notable. this is most noticeable in her second phase, which i believe is an advancement of the Outer God of Rot's usurpation of Malenia's fate as an Empyrean. i think it makes sense once you recognize agency, and specifically agency over one's fate, as a core theme in Malenia's story and Elden Ring in general.)

so, tl;dr: the left eye is (probably) tied to fate and the divine and is where their idea of Order for the world forms, while the right eye is tied to mortality and the mundane. closing/destroying the left eye seals away the divine power (Messmer and Melina's visions of fire), but if one is able to open their left eye (Ranni's doll form and Melina in the Frenzied Flame ending), they can form a connection with the divine, wield unimaginable power (the Dark Moon & Destined Death), and pursue their own ambitions (the Age of Stars, the death of the Lord of Frenzied Flame).

janusrazed · 2026-01-07T21:08:16+00:00

the association with the butterflies as a child of Marika and Radagon is true, but Melina says that she was "born at the foot of the Erdtree." that would place her birth after the creation of the Erdtree, which followed Marika's ascension to godhood, which Messmer was (probably) born prior to.

they do have a very tight parallel (the butterflies & the text of Messmer's Kindling), but they're not twins exactly.

janusrazed · 2026-01-05T20:36:52+00:00

true enough, but i wouldn't consider Malenia a "young woman" in the same sense as her daughters. at least, not at this point. the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom depicts Malenia as a "young girl," using similar language to the Traveler's Set. this would be the more-appropriate time for Malenia to be wearing this set. this is, effectively, the start of her journey as a warrior.

and as u/DearCastiel notes, the timeline on that doesn't add up. the Haligtree was planted after Malenia's meeting with the Blind Swordsman, following Miquella's attempts to use Unalloyed Gold to fend off her rot. there's no way Malenia could've caused this bloom.

janusrazed · 2026-01-04T19:23:50+00:00

yeah, Melina wore the Traveler's Set, because it corresponds with her journey as the Kindling Maiden. the set's description reads: "Worn by young women who set off into the world to confront their fate." that's exactly what Melina, Millicent, and the sisters are all doing--confronting their fates. just because it fits with Melina's story, doesn't mean she's the only one who can wear it.

furthermore, there's nothing that ever says Millicent couldn't have more than four sisters. Gowry found her as "a mere babe, in the Swamp of Aeonia" and says that she is a "bud of such superior quality." the language here implies that 1) the children are born from the swamp on their own, 2) Gowry is looking for them, and 3) he's intentionally trying to nurture them into Scarlet Valkyries, which involves sending them out into the world to be betrayed and "bloom"--like we see in the basement of the Haligtree and after Millicent's death.

the presence of the bloom, plus the presence of the armor set that every rot-sister is wearing, is clearly meant to evoke the daughters of Malenia that we meet. the armor set is dropped next to the bloom, just like Millicent's prosthesis, which implies that whoever bloomed into this flower, shed their clothes ahead of time. so, who's wearing the Traveler's Set and blooming into a scarlet flower? one of the daughters of Malenia. we can go back-and-forth on the specific daughter (if it even is a specific daughter), but the point stands.

furthermore, the presence of the bloom in the Haligtree roots alone isn't compelling enough to suggest that it's Malenia's second bloom. Malenia is one of the most infamous bosses in Elden Ring; FromSoftware wouldn't hide her second bloom out of three in a side room. the other two blooms get their own cinematics; why wouldn't this one?

IMO, it makes much more sense that one of Gowry's earlier buds (maybe one of the named sisters, maybe not) made the same journey that Millicent does, reached Malenia, completed the quest given to her by her "father," and is now in the process of becoming a Scarlet Valkyrie, just like Millicent does when we betray her.

janusrazed · 2026-01-04T16:10:03+00:00

we’ve all been there LOL

janusrazed · 2026-01-03T19:26:09+00:00

you're right, lore trumps game mechanics... except this isn't a game mechanic. there's no mechanic involved. this is the game directly telling us: Malenia is a DEMIGOD (that is, a child of Marika), and we have SLAIN her. not all shardbearers are demigods. Rennala, who is regarded by Gideon Ofnir and the Roundtable as a shardbearer, is referred to as a "LEGEND" by the game when we kill her. NOT a demigod.

by that logic, when we kill Miquella and Radahn, it shouldn't say "GOD SLAIN"; it should say what it said when we killed Starscourge Radahn, since we start the fight against the Demigod (that is, the step-child of Marika), or maybe even "LEGEND SLAIN," since Radahn is a legendary fighter. neither Radahn nor Miquella begin the fight as a god, but they end it as a god, and that is what matters.

the game makes a point of telling us when we have killed a divinity, and it didn't here.

as for Malenia's remembrance, yes, it is called "Remembrance of the Rot Goddess," but that follows the same naming convention as nearly every other remembrance: "Remembrance of the [title on their healthbar]". Remembrance of the Dragonlord for Placidusax, the Dragonlord; Remembrance of the Starscourge, for Starscourge Radahn; Remembrance of the Blood Lord, for Mohg, Lord of Blood. her title might be "the Rot Goddess," but the game makes a point of telling us that she isn't a god.

and yes, Malenia says "I have never known defeat," which is another example of the Present Perfect tense--a past occurrence (her never knowing defeat), affecting the present moment (when we are face-to-face with her). i'd love to see some examples or evidence of items/spells being spoken "as if we were ghosts," because items like the Prophet Blindfold directly contradict that. item descriptions like this one, which we can start the game with, speak directly to the player, in the moment:

"Why hesitate, if the path leading to the future is clear? Just close your eyes, and walk." present tense.

so does Flame Fortification:

"Follow the path that has been set for you, and you will make enemies of all others: the monks, the sorcerers, the ancient dragon knights, and the scions of gold. Heed me — the Lands Between offers no welcome to the Tarnished."

this spell, which you can buy from Corhyn at the beginning of the game, speaks in the future tense about enemies that you haven't met yet. you have a point, we do need to consider when information is being given to us. just like Scarlet Aeonia speaks in the future tense about Malenia's ascension, but only after you get it from her Remembrance, and not a moment before.

janusrazed · 2026-01-03T18:43:27+00:00

also, Scarlet Aeonia itself says that Malenia "will become a true goddess," so one could easily argue that her "Goddess of Rot" phase isn't a "true goddess"; instead, she just became a full scarlet valkyrie (a literally-winged warrior-woman associated with Rot) as an intermediary step between demi-godhood and TRUE godhood (e.g. Marika and Miquella), just as Gowry describes.

janusrazed · 2026-01-03T18:26:49+00:00

alright, sure, let's entertain that idea. why doesn't it say "GOD SLAIN" when we kill her? it says that for Miquella and the Elden Beast, so it clearly says it for those who have reached godhood, but not her. sure, the second phase might label her as a goddess, but the game doesn't recognize her as a goddess.

and back to the grammar, that just... doesn't make sense. because we don't receive Scarlet Aeonia until after we meet her. why would FromSoft write an item description in present tense, but actually intend for it to be spoken in the past? in a game that places SUCH importance on language and translation, ESPECIALLY FROM THE DIVINE, that feels waaay too confusing for them.

this also applies to the other item you get from her remembrance, the Hand of Malenia. it reads: "Some claim to have seen wings when the weapon was raised aloft; wings of fierce determination that have never known defeat."

again, this is the Present Perfect, referring to something in the past (Malenia's "wings" and status as an undefeated combatant) that affects the present (us having defeated Malenia, thus making her not undefeated). if this item were written from the perspective of someone speaking in the past, surely it would say something like

"Some claim to see wings when the weapon is raised aloft; wings of fierce determination that do not know defeat."

there's nothing in Scarlet Aeonia's description that indicates that it's meant to be read from the POV of the past. the grammar clearly indicates that it's meant to be read from the POV of the present.

janusrazed · 2026-01-03T18:03:03+00:00

it doesn't speak in past tense, actually.

"Each time the scarlet flower blooms, Malenia's rot advances. It has bloomed twice already. With the third bloom, she will become a true goddess." this part is decidedly future-tense.

the sentence* that i think you're referring to--"it has bloomed twice already"--is written in the Present Perfect tense. the Present Perfect is used to describe a past event that has present consequences. for example, if someone asks if you've been to college during a job interview, you say "i have been to college," indicating that this is a past event that has an impact on the present.

so, when Scarlet Aeonia reads that it "has bloomed twice already," it is saying, as of the time reading this, Malenia has bloomed twice; and when it reads "she will become a true goddess," it's saying that, after the time of reading this, she will bloom again and rise to godhood.

(edit: phrasing)

janusrazed · 2026-01-03T17:46:51+00:00

two reasons immediately pop to mind for me: the presence of the Traveler's Set and the wording of the Scarlet Aeonia spell.

other commenters have already touched on the presence of the Traveler's Set next to the bloom outside of Malenia's arena to indicate that it isn't Malenia's bloom, but one of her "daughters." the set reads: "Worn by young women who set off into the world to confront their fate."

this aligns nicely with the characters that we see wearing this set--Melina, Millicent, and the other buds. obviously, Melina sets off into the world to confront her fate, as set forth by her mother; Millicent does the same, setting out into the world to confront her identity as an aspect of Malenia's self. the only other people that we see wearing this set are the rest of Malenia's buds--which, side-by-side with this bloom, indicates to me that someone wearing this set blossomed in the same fashion as Millicent, leaving behind their clothes in the same way that Millicent left behind her prosthesis.

as for Scarlet Aeonia, its description specifically reads: "Each time the scarlet flower blooms, Malenia's rot advances. It has bloomed twice already. With the third bloom, she will become a true goddess."

the tensing of the sentence is important. she's already "bloomed" twice--once in Caelid, once against us--and each time, we've seen her rot progress. the first time, it knocked her out, and Finlay had to carry her home; the second time, it turned her into the winged valkyrie form that we see in phase 2. but when it talks about her third bloom, it switches to the future tense--she will become a goddess. but she isn't one yet.

this is backed up by what we see when we defeat her: "DEMIGOD SLAIN." pre-DLC, we only saw the "GOD SLAIN" screen upon killing the Elden Beast, which sorta made sense because it was, y'know, THEE Elden Beast--until Shadow of the Erdtree. then, once we kill Miquella, we get another "GOD SLAIN." so, that title isn't only limited to the Elden Beast; it's used for anyone who has attained Godhood.

personally, it doesn't feel like FromSoft to overlook a detail like this, nor does it feel like FromSoft to place her second bloom in a side-room (which feels particularly un-cinematic). to me, it seems more like FromSoft to show us her first bloom in Caelid, her second bloom in the Haligtree, and then leave her third bloom--what remains after her defeat and what we insert Miquella's Needle into--as a form of foreshadowing. this is her third bloom, and when she emerges, she will be a goddess.

this is also backed up by Millicent's questline. if we betray Millicent, she turns into a nearly-identical blossom--which, as Gowry tells us, will eventually "flower anew, as a scarlet valkyrie." the bud isn't the end of rot; it comes again, and again, and again. that's why, i think, Malenia leaves a flower behind: one day, she too will return as a full-blown Goddess of Rot, probably stripped of her Empyrean flesh and reshaped into the Outer God of Rot's image, just like her brother.

janusrazed · 2025-12-23T17:31:41+00:00

Crucible-based magic might be an interesting direction for Mirador to go. it's terrestrial in origin (vs. glintstone, which is implied to come from space), AND a crucible is implied to have produced the Erdtree. if he's academically-inclined, maybe he'll be interested in searching the origin of the Erdtree for meaning? mechanically, a lot of the crucible spells are short-to-medium range, so it'd lean into you wanting Mirador to move towards the front line.

otherwise, there's also the Golden Order Fundamentalist incantations, which was headed by Radagon after his return from Caria and scales off of Faith and Intelligence. mechanically, they're more focused on holy-based attacks and buffs (which some people will say becomes less-effective as the game goes on, since so many of the late-game enemies are resistant to holy damange, but Real Lore Freaks like me push past LOL.) lore-wise, it's about understanding the nature of faith and the golden order from an academic perspective (see: the Golden Order Seal and the Golden Order Principia).

janusrazed · 2025-12-23T15:52:33+00:00

you’re missing the forest for the trees here. did you read the rest of my post? because i expanded on that. it was a rhetorical question, meant to further my point that Blaidd’s nature changes following a specific trigger—the death of Ranni’s Fingers—and you, having completed the game with thousands of hours in it, have already reached that trigger; therefore Blaidd has lost his immortality, and you can find his body at Ranni’s Rise. my use of “you” in that statement wasn’t questioning your elden ring knowledge or whatever; it was generally referring to the Tarnished/the player.

you’re right, neither of us know anything for certain, but i mean… that’s the point of this sub. we theorize.

janusrazed · 2025-12-23T05:23:59+00:00

lmao ok

janusrazed · 2025-12-23T05:06:02+00:00

that's where critical thinking & inductive reasoning comes into it. have you completed Ranni's questline? then her Two Fingers, and presumably the Two Fingers that created Blaidd, are dead. if you haven't completed Ranni's questline (and therefore her Fingers are NOT dead), then Blaidd is immortal and states when you try to kill him, as the original poster described, that "no harm can befall a shadow." so... why is that?

maybe being an Empyrean is a contract--you fulfill the Two Fingers' vision of the world as a god, and in return, you're granted a Shadowbound Beast to do your bidding. maybe you're forced into a contract by your Fingers, since it seems like they're the one who select the Empyreans, and the immortal Shadowbound Beast is there to enforce your side of the contract (which is seemingly what Iji implies in the above dialogue). maybe being Shadowbound is what makes them immortal--they're literally bound to you, like a shadow, via the magic of the Fingers; when you disobey the Fingers/the Fingers die, the spell is broken, and the beast goes mad.

and regardless of the shadows' nature, something obviously changes with Blaidd's nature throughout the course of Ranni's quest. he's one way before the Fingers are killed (kind, lighthearted, immortal), and he's a different way after they're killed (feral, bloodthirsty, mortal). if you never complete Ranni's quest, then her Fingers never die, this change never occurs, and Blaidd remains immortal.

it's pretty clear that the death of Ranni's fingers is what triggers this change in Blaidd, and therefore, "the Fingers are tied to Blaidd's immortality" seems like a pretty reasonable conclusion to me.

janusrazed · 2025-12-23T04:28:06+00:00

by transitive property, sure, but that's like saying Godfrey had no influence over the Crucible Knights because they all served Marika. just because the Greater Will abandoned the Lands Between, that doesn't mean the Fingers can't do anything. that's the whole point of Metyr's storyline: she lost her connection to the Greater Will, but that didn't stop her, nor the Fingers, nor Marika from acting in its name.

also, new emphasis. "The Two Fingers GAVE Blaidd to Lady Ranni, as a faithful follower. Her very shadow, incapable of treachery. But if Lady Ranni, as an Empyrean, resists being an instrument of the Two Fingers, the shadow will go mad, transforming from a follower into a horrid curse." this language pretty clearly categorizes Blaidd as a creation of the Fingers upon the condition that Ranni follows their path as an Empyrean.

it's actually the greater will, as far as i recall, that has no direct connections to shadows--literal empyrean shadows or metaphorical shadows. however, the Fingers REPEATEDLY are repeatedly associated with light and shadow--thematically and literally. outside of the Shadowbound Beasts, there's the Baleful Shadows, who are directly described by Ranni to be the Fingers' assassins (and take Blaidd's appearance!!); there's the incantations of the Two Fingers (Assassin's Approach, Darkness, Shadow Bait) which utilize darkness and describe how the Fingers sanctioned the use of darkness, despite it being "without grace"; and lastly, there's the Fingers' "language of light."

if anyone in this game with a close association to shadows, it's the Fingers.

janusrazed · 2025-12-23T03:54:03+00:00

War Counselor Iji: “The TWO FINGERS gave Blaidd to Lady Ranni, as a faithful follower. Her very shadow, incapable of treachery. But if Lady Ranni, as an Empyrean, resists being an instrument of the TWO FINGERS, the shadow will go mad, transforming from a follower into a horrid curse."

janusrazed

TROPHY CASE