ELDEN RING - INNER WORLD Playthrough Part 9
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 พ.ย. 2024
- Join me this week as we go through ELDEN RING using human psychology as our lore map! Be sure to check out my GREAT WORKS LORE VIDEO before watching this series or else you think its the ramblings of a mad man: • Elden Ring: The Psycho...
I loved the video. You went over a lot with this one. I respect your decision not to watch other lore videos. Your analysis is completely unique and all the more insightful because of it.
I watched Hawkshaw's Color Theory over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised by how good it is. His interpretation of the beast blood item description I found to be particularly interesting. Regarding your video, a few things stood out in particular.
I want to expand on the idea that the Lands Between is alive. The Erdtree (as I understand it) is merely the most recent iteration of what I'll call the World Tree. While the tree may fall, its roots remain. Those roots encompass the entire map; hence, the Lands Between is a single living being. Godwyn, Prince of Death, has infested the root system. That's why blighted roots take you when you're infected with deathblight. So, you can think of Deathblight as a literal infection of the Lands Between. That's also why the Haligtree is so important: it has its own root system, separate from the Erdtree.
Also, minor observation, remember that stormhawk theory I posted in the Discord? The dragon head that Godrick grafted to himself has feathers, albeit sparse.
I wonder if in your analyses you'll find any sort of dichotomy between stagnant and running water in terms of its implications for the unconscious. I don't know which loretuber brought it up, but apparently in Shintoism there's a correlation between stagnant water--lakes, ponds, etc.--and decay, which fits into the aquatic theme of the Prince of Death as shown by his octopus corpse, the Tibia Mariners, and the puddles in deathblighted areas. This also clearly relates to Melania's Swamp of Aeonia as another reservoir of stagnant water, and as both forces (rot and deathblight) are seen as cancerous growths, I wonder what role both demigods might play in Marika's unconscious.
When you mention Marika's unconscious as it relates to Rot and Deathblight, it reminds me of Irina/Hyetta, and how her blindness gives her a particular connection with the unconscious, from which the Flame of Frenzy emerges. Malenia is also blind, and must spend her life resisting the Scarlet Rot that comes from within her, perhaps from her own unconscious.
As for Marika, I think I have a decent explanation for the role of Death in her unconscious. We can interpret her sealing of Destined Death (and removing Death itself from the Golden Order) as her compartmentalizing a part of herself that she fears/dislikes and casting it out of her conscious mind, wanting to rid herself of it. However, that part of herself is still there in her unconscious, and over time, it inexorably re-emerges as the result of stagnation. Rather than flowing out of Marika like a river, that part of herself simply sat at the bottom of the deep waters of her unconscious. Stagnant water breeds a variety of plant and insect life, and it is in the form of this new life that Death re-emerges. If Death cannot exist under the Golden Order, it will return to the Lands Between in a new form that can fit the Golden Order's parameters - thus, Those Who Live In Death.
Fromsoft has used the stagnant/flowing water dichotomy in all their games since at least Bloodborne. You're right, it's a very Shinto concept. I remember first learning about it in one of the all-time classic lore videos, The Bastard's Curse, by JSF.
Ah ulcerated tree spirits - the unconscious desire to combine flesh with a tree, no matter how horrifying the result.
Regarding women and reproductive cycles, I think there's a decent amount of designer intention to unpack in that direction with the land octopus ovary, and the Chanting Dames singing in Latin about how they will never be mothers.
4:20 never noticed this painting down here 😮