In the Design Works interview for Dark Souls, Miyazaki describes how he personally acted out the movement for the dragon stone transformation, and how the awkward, jerky motion conveyed the exertion of a human trying to force themselves to become a dragon.
I really like the dragon communion incantations for coming from a summoned dragon head, as though you merely acquired the permission to use them rather than became able to breath fire or whatnot yourself.
right? i was just saying the other day, malenia is such BADASS body horror. she ascends to a goddess of rot, but her wings are rotten, her eyes are decayed, and she is basically only a torso
Just wanted to give you praise for the clever shot of the DS3 dragon player model to represent one type of hybrid, who then pulls out a torch to illuminate the second type of hybrid behind them in the darkness. Very very elegant shot!
You're wrong, becoming a dragon has a chance that eventually you'll get your own soundtrack, and there's a 47% chance it'll be a banger. Well worth the pain and agony
Thank you anime profile picture on TH-cam comment section you clearly will never leave me a stray! Thank you for the advice! 👍🏼 Edit: I’ve become dragon… ouch!
I think, in Magma Wyrm's case it's like an endless cycle of hero, who slays a dragon, then becomes the one himself, to be defeated by next hero. It's emphasized that only the greatest warriors could defeat a dragon, so communion it's like writing your name onto a scoreboard until someone else rewrites it with their own.
was looking for the comment about crossbreed priscilla. its all monstrosities but we got one cute one. although i think its different as she was born like that while this is a "punishment" for being human and trying to become a dragon.
Since I’m bad at understanding game lord I always just look at a Wiki and for her it says cross breed of Seath the Scaleless and human or a god. So if she is the daughter of a god then the lack of horrible mutations make sense and that’s what I like to think.
Yeah, I like that they're portrayed as dangerous and often mysterious as they're claimed to be. DnD dragons very frequently aren't that well fleshed out (the new lore helps though). I mean... a lot of things in DnD frequently aren't that well thought out.
in traditional western fantasy, becoming a dragon tends to be more of a curse than anything - it's funny in that regard. it is a curse in the souls series, but the characters who want it do so because they think it would be a blessing
This only makes Crossbreed Priscilla's existence more astounding, a true cross between human and dragon that seemingly went right. Makes sense why Seathe went out his way to ensure her safety, even if it meant sending her into a painted world.
Not to be a dick or anything but it didn't go right, they hid her in a painting so outsiders wouldn't know what gwyn was doing. He locked priscilla in a painting and Yorshka in a tower. Play the games man.
Personally, I think Seath rejected her for not being a properly stone entity. Priscilla only has scales on her neck, and for what it's worth, Priscilla and the blue wyverns are the only dragon enemies in the game susceptible to bleed, meaning that they could be too "watered down" and thus not inorganic enough.
An interesting thing to note: Becoming a dragon through the means of using stones, blood, and hearts always seems to go wrong during the transformation. But when a dragon hybrid is born rather than created through those means, they’re much better, and are kinda their own species. Not in any pain or disgraced. Edit: I also remembered aldia’s dragon. It wasn’t a true dragon, but was very much the same size and power as one.
@@jstar3382 Yup, the gods were cowards and did _everything_ they could to maintain the shred of power they captured from the age of the stone dragons. It's always mind boggling how people think of Gwynevere or Gwyndolin as good gods when they're both supporting Gwyn in perpetuating a lie that punishes humans and causes them to suffer for eternity as they wither away, denied their true nature. Lots of paralells between the Dark Souls godkin and the gods we see in Elden Ring, many of the gods were arrogant and fearful of those who could take their position away, regardless of motives.
"The pursuit of immortality is typically framed as a hopeless, self-destructive endeavor in Miyazaki's games." The player coming back to life for the thousandth time after walking off a cliff: ( 0_0)
except that's not quite true immortality. Undead/Tarnished eventually lose the ability to respawn, by going hollow or losing the guidance of grace, implied to be the effect of their willpower/hope weakening, aka what happens when the player ragequits. The demon slayer and the hunter are bound to a nexus that holds them prisoner, giving them pseudoimmortality, making it very conditional to keep.
Divine Tower of Caelid killed me more times than Radahn did. And then I found out you're supposed to go up, not down. Only to be greeted by Godskin Apostle.
@@OpXarxa Isn't conditional immortality as good as it gets, though? How many characters in any story are actually immortal? Even gods die on a regular basis.
That's actually a really cool detail with the pupils. I love how your character goes through cosmetic changes as they perform certain actions to better reflect them.
It's a shame you can't choose between them with the mirror/Rennala (you can only disable or enable them) and they just get overridden with other ones. The dragon eyes get overridden with the blood red eyes you get if you allow Varre to turn you into a bloody finger and both get overridden with the other eyes you get from that one ending path (which also giving you marks on your body).
@@quantras2673 It annoys me so much that I didn't get to keep my dragon eyes because of the bloody finger eyes. I really hope they will allow us to choose them in the future.
@@sharinganwoetie2588 There are 3 altered eye options. Frenzied Flame, Bloody Finger, and Dragon Communion. Dragon Communion will ALWAYS be overwritten by both Bloody Finger and Frenzied Flame, no matter when you would have gotten them. Also, Bloody Finger will always be overwritten by Frenzied Flame. So unfortunately, Dragon Communion is on the bottom of the totem pole.
I just noticed that the Dragonkin also have roots around their necks, like Trolls do. Perhaps the Nox used Trolls as the starting template for their dragons? The four limbs, four wings, and use of lightning would seem to imply that they were particularly trying to emulate the ancient dragons, so they might have chosen not to use the weaker modern dragons as a template.
@@asdergold1 theodorix ended up as a magma wyrm so maybe he was a troll partaking in dragon communion, the nox seemed to actively try and create dragons out of other being while the dragon communion simply cursed those who stole dragons powers
You make really wonderful videos, Zullie. You completely replace the need for a descriptive voice-over or walls of text with super meaningful and informative imagery and its honestly very impressive.
The Dragonkin Soldier character design is so cool, I feel like the only way they could be better is if you put one in the middle of a giant swamp full of Scarlet Rot and give the player a terrible reward for beating them
@@suitnuggerat1123 I'm playing a lightning/Dex character right now, and I don't bother with it. I'm sure it's ok if you really want ice damage on your faith character for some reason, but I believe it gets outclassed by about every weapon in every category it belongs to. You'll get better damage putting a lightning ash on a keen weapon.
@BearSeek Berserker I killed it legit and I'd bet you probably had more fun with it than I did. Some bosses don't deserve the respect of being fought "fairly". That was one of them.
@@suitnuggerat1123 it's a relatively short katana with no innate bleed, a slow and expensive ash of war that only lasts for 20 seconds, and on top of all of that, it doesn't even scale with faith (even though it used to). So in a sense, it's as sad as the creatures it drops from. it's really cool though
I love how Miyazaki almost always shows immortality as a curse rather than a blessing. There are very few people who are immortal in his worlds who seem at all happy about it
eh, that's been the dominant cliche for a long time. frankly, at this point it would be surprising for any remotely dark work of fiction to portray immortality as being a remotely good thing.
@@VeryPeeved I mean...yeah but the keyword here is "dark work of fiction". Most other fiction portray immortality as a good thing people aspire to attain. But also I can't think of a single prominent work of fiction that uses immortality as a curse in the way miyazaki does. Nor have any been doing it as long or consistently as him so at this point it's practically his own theme.
Without any knowledge of what awaits us beyond death... or in the age of dark... it is no wonder that some would turn to such a macabre measure as a way to escape unescapable oblivion. But as these games have shown us, there are some fates that are worse than death.
Gen 3:14 [So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.]
Interesting to consider whether its partially inspired by the pursuit of immortality with alchemy (a lot of people drinking mercury and kicking the bucket). I think alchemy is a big inspiration for Miyazaki generally.
Honestly I want to see a person in a souls game that truly transends into a dragon. The regrets of it, the pain, possibly even a bossfight that tugs at your heart.
While it’s not close to being an emotional boss fight, the closest boss I can think of is Rom from bloodborne. Rom did become a great one, presumably after eating three umbilical cords, then after seeing the Eldridge horrors of the night and the hunt, became a barrier whose death becomes the catalyst for the blood moon. Unless you want to count the Orphan of Kos
i have remark that some of those "artificial dragons" have a distinct feature that stick out for me in particular. it's the two jaws, one inside the other, jaws that we can clearly see on the draconic soldiers in elden ring but also in demon souls with the dragon god. it's like they are wearing the skin of a dragon like some akward disguise and i find it realy interesting.
I'm imagining a bit like Children of Dune, the men grafting dragon skin onto their bodies and undergoing a transitional stage as they eventually make this skin their own.
Very possible. Notice the shape of the lower jaw and the way the scales are fitted on the neck, they look as if carved and set in the flesh. The eternal cities smell foul with the taint of artificiality and mimicry. No wonder they were damned. Leads me to think that they never really deserved their age of stars.
Having two rolls of teeth is an old thing referenced in Hebrew texts about the nephilim, which are the result of crossbreeding between fallen angels and humans. Maybe Miyazaki got the idea from that, given that both beings are described as having two sets of teeth, are giants and are desrmcribed as being in between one thing and the other.
That doesnt really hold up as in DS1 in the cinematic involving the everlasting dragons you can see them having 2 sets of teeth and in DeS the dragon god is the same
It's kind of funny that Miyazaki always makes becoming a Dragon a dark and depressing endeavor even though mythology in Japan has romanticized the concept with the legend of the Koi that swam up a waterfall to become a Dragon. In that legend, becoming a Dragon can be achieved through ambition, perseverance and determination, but it's like Miyazaki makes of the concept in his games.
It'd be interesting if that concept of the Koi swimming up the waterfall does exist in his games, and the amalgamations we see are those attempting a "get rich quick" version of it, especially given that their goal is typically immortality. Get rich quick, live forever, but suffer the entire way though and never truly be there.
@@milesholiman5597 they literally referenced it in Sekiro… there is a giant Koi in the Fountainhead Palace and it’s heavily implied it’s trying to become the next Divine Dragon.
This is similar to Rykard’s pursuit of power and transformation into/becoming part of the serpent. In the end, the lady is eating them so that they will become part of her or something along those lines. Rykard’s last words were “a serpent never dies.”
@@colorpg152 You wouldn't want it. All it would take is for someone to bury you alive or drop you into the bottom of the sea for you to change your mind.
@@redwolf4611 man you people are really weak willed, getting buried sounds like heaven compared to having to deal with people in real life , the sea wont try to cancel me, it wont yell at me for speaking the truth, it wont force me to work day after day for their profit without giving anything back, being at the bottom of the sea sounds great, if i was immortal i would spend a few billion years there.
I _really_ wish that the Dragonkin armor was an available set in the game. The draconic transformation is echoed by the same flaw in Marika sealing away the Rune of Death to allow the Erdtree & Golden Order to perpetuate forever. It's chasing the Primordial Crucible for ancient power, without understanding what exists now. That power becomes an addiction that you depend upon, and that changes you the more you use it. It's what Yura warns about and tries to stop with Eleonora. Even benevolent actions to combat helplessness against their kindling maiden's one's fate are why Bernhardt became a Recusant, and Vyke fell to the lure of the Three Fingers. It's why I love how Elden Ring mixes that all with the balance between Regression & Causality.
Feels like a whole chunk of dragon related story and gameplay is missing. In particular a dragon and ending and quests related to dragon powers. If we're lucky that might be DLC.
@@MenwithHill That's elden ring. There are obviously huge chunks of story, connections, explanations just absent from the game. I still wonder what the point of hyping George Martins involvement was considering all the abandoned concepts and lack of story telling in Elden Ring.
@@eternalnate George laid out the lore and background of the characters ; from what we know he didn't write anything post-Shattering. That stuff and all the character dynamics is what has gotten people most hyped up and talking, so clearly it has worked. I'm not sure what you'd want beyond more cutscenes.
to be fair, it's from. their storytelling is basically only present in the beginning cutscene, item descriptions, and the occasional cutscene. i personally enjoy unorthodox storytelling practices like this
@@doctorhealsgood5456 yea the got off a bit luckier. but it s clear that transformation dulled their minds top below human levels. the dcragons. especially in elden ring, are shown to be sentient beings. tactical, with the ancient dragons even wielding weapons, whether forged of their magical lightning or physically forged.
@@taddad2641 I think part of why they got off better then most is cause they didn’t just use magic or graft a dragon to them. They had to kill a dragon and consume it’s heart. Maybe it is just me, but in these games it feels like the immortality that is harder to get is usually the one with the better parts. Hence Elden lord having some downsides yes but mostly upsides as it is almost impossible to obtain
@@theblazingcrusader6322 In asian mythologies a carp can become a dragon if they do the nigh impossible and swim up a waterfall, magma wyrms get off better because they're participating in a great trial (fighting and killing dragons) to try and become one.
Out of all the half-dragons in the elden ring and other Soulsborne games, I prefer the fate of the magma wyrms. Compared to the other misshapen lizards, the Magma Wyrms seem the most chill. They're just big lizards vibing in caves and magma flows.
You know, we never got a “dragon form” like all dark souls games had. Given we know wyrms are humans that turned into dragons after consuming hearts, I think it’d be cool to have that ability when you consume all of them. It’d be even more interesting if it made you quadrupedal too, though that seems like it would be a lot of work to do.
I'd say no Quadrupedal form, because that would be so much work and would basically be a new player character altogheter. But a Dragonkin transformation would be really cool, since they are basically huge humanoids wearing golden armor. I'd love if the transformation gave you a buff for Dragon Incantations.
@@FaptaA agreed on the quad stance but ya a resulting mid way to magma wyrm and human for ya after eating enough hearts but of corse its a permadent thing so buffs are lower if you can still use armor, or it be quite a strong thing but of corse your new tail and wings make clothing imposalbe with claws being degigrade shoes are seen as a problem more than solution and well no need to explain the helm.
Dude I have so many Ideas to make certan Armor pieces cooler and stuff like you just described. I want to Mod it all in to the Game but a Caveman like me can't even Write a Email without sending it to the wrong Person.
Just a PSA to anyone who wasn't aware. The Draconic eyes are not permanent, you can remove them at the cosmetic menu in the Roundtable Hold. There's a toggle called eye cosmetics or something that, when disabled, will return your eyes to their normal state. Works for the bloody eyes too.
I have to say I feel there's 2 big points not mentioned in this about dragon transformation in the Souls Games. The first one is very interestingly: consent The dragon transformations the player can take are the more orderly ones, least awkward. In DS1 and 2 you are either bestowed by a dragon themself, or by something related ot dragons, the stones to transform. In order to increase this transformation, one must partake in mutually consenting duels. One can't invade anotehr person without the other person accepting to partake in such a duel for the price of dragon scales themselves. In DS2 the other wellformed dragonkin we find are in the aerie protecting the ancient dragon, and serving as challengers, or safekeepers of a safe challenge, to meet the dragon. In DS3, with seemingly all everlasting dragons dead, one must resort to searching out the remaining stones... but this also leads to something interesting. We find malformed dragonkin, but where are they? We find most of these at the Irithyl dungeon, where we know Oceiros was experimenting with people for his search of dragonhood. It clearly shows that those people were not willing to partake in that, and the results are sad. But there is also something very interesting about the results and source: Oceiros was trying to mimic Seath. Seath being the traitorous dragon who, through their envy of their lack of scales, aided in the outright genocide of dragons, for a chance to have as much time and information and resources as necessary to achieve his immortality. Oceiros was following after this particular dragon, whose search of the inmortality he didn't have lead him to be malformed, both of their researchs came out of the forceful conversion of others as well, so it makes sense that they both too, would be malformed. The second point is: Escape What we find is a topic of trying to escape the horrible cycle and world they currently exist in, through becoming dragons. How do you reach dragon peak in DS3? You need to meditate in a specific spot, looking at the peak, amongst other people in the same position that are slumped over, seemingly dead... and the player does slump over too before awaking at the peak, implying all the other people managed to escape too. Other elements in the prior games too seem to mention escaping through becoming dragonhood, altho I'm having it a bit harder to remember. The other part elaborated in DS3 is... all the dragonkin slumped over, lifeless, at thte peak. In buddihsm and other easstern philosophies, an important goal is escaping the cycle of suffering and rebirth, through something rather opposite to eternal life: ceasing to be reborn, often with one reaching oblivion. The fact that all the dragonkin we find are slumped over, lifeless... it could very strongly imply that they managed their goal: They escaped the horrible cycle of the world by ceasing to be entirely. But... didn't we and others awake at Dragon peak after meditating in said pose at the Dungeon too? It is very possible too, that instead of oblivion, the dragonkin simply managed to escape that world, their consciousness reaching elsewhere in the same manner... whether that place is better or worse than the current world, who can say. And about Elden Ring... I mean they are people who try to become dragons by searching and murdering docens of em... I think it's pretty clear one side ain't bieng exactly consentual in this situation now, aren't they.
THANK YOU for this well thought out reply! I can't thank you enough as i'm someone who's intersted in the esoteric side of the Souls games and yet have little experience with the actual games themselves. You having written this was a HUGE help for me in understanding the Themes of the games when it comes to this. Thank you THANK YOU. YOU ROCK!
Dark Souls: "Thank you for helping me reach Nirvanna" "I̶m̶ ̶l̶i̶t̶e̶r̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶z̶a̶r̶d̶ You are welcome child" Elden Ring: "HEAAAAARTTSSSSS" "AHHHHHHHHHH"
Particularly reminiscent of Lord of the Rings where immortality is not natural to humans an hobbits. The rings of power basically just stretch out your life for ever rather than granting new life. So Gollum turns into a wirey, gaunt monster and the ring wraiths had theirs’ so long, their life was spread so thin they basically lost their corporeal bodies and turned into wraiths. This is why so many of the regular enemies in ER look like ghoulish zombies. There is no normal death in The Lands Between. It sounds like normally at some point you “die” and are supposed to report to the catacombs to be reabsorbed by the Erdtree. All the enemies we see haven’t done that so their body has continued to age without dying. Sekiro also has a similar thing with immortality. Wolf’s immortality doesn’t create new life, it just steals it from those around him when he dies and this manifests as the spreading dragon rot.
My first reaction when my eyes went all dragon-y was, "I don't know what I did to cause this -- but it's awesome and I glad I did it". After finding out the terrible true nature and curse of my heart-eating deeds I... still regret nothing.
"cursed to crawl on the earth on their bellies" is a surprisingly similar quote to Genesis 3:14. As the Bible goes, God cursed serpents to crawl on the ground for leading mankind astray in sin, when Adam was convinced to consume the forbidden fruit to become 'like God' (in the sense of knowing right and wrong). Guess these human heroes wished to become god-like by blurring the lines between themselves and the immortal dragons via dragon communion and were cursed for it.
Becoming a dragon is a concept and idiom that originated from China, "望子成龍望女成鳳", "hoping your son will become a dragon, your daughter will become a phoenix". It basically means hoping that your children will grow up to be successful, with a mythical reference to how the carp that leapt over a water fall to become a dragon, made well known in modern times by the Pokemon Magikarp. This is such a common idea that Jackie Chan's CN name is 成龍/Cheng Long, which means "become a dragon", and also Yakuza's JP name, Ryu Ga Gotoku which means "Like a Dragon".
I don't think it's correct to say the idea "originated from China," or that it originated from a particular Chinese phrase. First of all, what's the etymology of that phrase? Second, other cultures came up with things we call dragons, or very dragon-like thing, and I kinda doubt the idea of turning into one of them was unique to the Chinese. Transformation myths abound in every culture. I'm sorry if my tone seems mean or something, I'm just genuinely kinda baffled by this comment.
@@Wveth Dragons are definitely not unique to China, however the mythological inspirations of Souls games and Japanese myths all traces back to China. Have you wondered why Souls games involves cycles of eras and events, a lot of suffering as well as characters who die and resurrect? That's because Souls games are literally about Buddhist concepts of, attachment, suffering, reincarnation and karma etc. NPCs are all suffering from attachment to something, which ultimately leads to their death, gods and other entities continuously bring about karmic cycles of death and rebirth, causing karma to manifest in the form of the player, who are one of many hollows, ashened, hunters, tarnished etc. Karma is basically cause and effect, the more positivity and negativity you put into the world, the equal and opposite will return to you, an endless cycle. After the Demigods caused so much suffering in the Lands Between, the Tarnished are led by "grace", which is basically karmic fate to try and put an end to the cycle of suffering. All of Soulsbourne follows this concept and even Sekiro, have you wondered why in Sekiro's "Dragon's Homecoming" ending he heads "West" with the Divine Child? Because the West of Japan refers to the heaven of China, specifically the Buddhist heaven Sukhavati, that is where Kuro will reincarnate, and that place is where the Divine Dragon(which is a Chinese dragon) comes from, what the Dragon's Homecoming means. All the corruption in Souls games are a combination of the Shinto concept of filth "kegare" and the Buddhist concepts of attachment and karma. By chasing after power, e.g trying to become a dragon, they only get corrupted and punished by karma.
Fafnir and many other examples would disagree with you. China did a lot of things, but creating the concept of dragon and becoming dragon is definitely not one of them
@@eloryosnak4100 Japan and Korea would not use the written word until a millennium after China begin writing down history. They would not have known anything about their pre-history without records from China much like modern European would know nothing about their pre-history if the Roman hadn't written it down. While it is silly to fight over the concept of who invented' a phrase/idiom, it is also pretty silly to say the image(or the idea to become one) of the eastern dragon didn't start in China.
I also love Yura’s warning, that the path of using dragonkin magic is a slippery slope of corruption. And he’s right, a lot of us are enamored with the flashy devastation as we consume more, only we don’t get to see how that turns out besides the eyes.
Honestly I'm a little disappointed that's the only consequence of using them. If you gradually gained scales, wings, or horns then that would be awesome! I'm a little disappointed that this game doesn't have a proper dragon transformation despite it being slightly more "in your face" thematically than it was in the previous games. He straight up tells you that you'll turn into something inhuman and yet there aren't really any permanent, irreversible changes to your character. No new ending, stat changes or abnormal body modifications, just glow in the dark contacts and some OP spells.
@@hhjhj393 Actually it might be a good fit. It was heavily implied that before the Greater Will and Golden Order became the rulers of the Lands in Between, the Dragons are the one ruling with the Farum Azula Beastmen worshipping them. It was a fan theory that the very first Lord was actually Placidusax and after the Marika and Golden Order defeated him that the very first ELDEN LORD was crowned. So if we could have a Age of Dragon ending, it will literally just putting thins back before the Greater Will chose to invade the lands Between.
I never played elden ring, but you guys in the comments are really in-depth about the subject and I love when a community can come together and have discussion board over various things. Keep rocking guys, plus the music is soothing
This is what makes you such an important and beloved figure in the Souls community Zullie. You don't just show us cool behind the scenes stuff or mess around with code and animations. You focus on these fascinating little mini pockets of Miyazaki's worlds and shine a light on it, or show us something new, some new way of thinking about it. It's always so fascinating. You have people like illusory wall or Limit Breakers, who are on the technical side. On the lore side you have SinclairLore, Lokey, Vaati obviously (even if his own success has diluted the content a bit). But you're this unique mix of both sides of the coin and constantly come out with great content.
I personally can't stand Vaati's reading style. He starts and stops and tries to cloak his voice in mystery or dramatic effect but it just makes me cringe. If he read normally I'd have watched all of his stuff
Other interesting item descriptions about Magma Wyrms Those who have performed the Dragon Communion will find their humanity slowly slipping away. Once they fully succumb to their fate, they are left no more than wyrms that crawl the earth It's said these land-bound dragons were once humans heroes who partook in dragon communion, a grave transgression for which they were cursed to crawl the earth upon their bellies, shadows of their former selves. Once known as a great warrior, Theodorix has succumbed to the power of Dragon Communion, transforming into a malformed Wyrm. It is capable of using its sword, along with its magma breath on anything that dares to awaken it The name of the ancient troll warrior Theodorix lives on - as a hero of the War against the Giants.
a better way of searching for immortality is doing Fia's quest or becoming a sorcerer and doing it with a primal glint stone like sellen but even turning into a magma wyrm is still far better than dying and being forgotten like all the dead corpses you loot around in the game
@@colorpg152 We're all forgotten eventually. Sometimes passing away into your eternal rest is much more preferable than an anguished existence as a misshapen shell of your former self.
Kind of reminds me of the Dark Sun campaign setting from D&D. Arcane magic in that setting literally drains the life out of anything around it, the more powerful the spell the worse. And the end goal of most arcane magic users was to transform into an immortal dragon.
And just like that, the words of Aldia resonates once again "Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite, A LIE WILL REMAIN A LIE"
@@colorpg152 they didn't achieve immortality. They were both bound to the First Flame cycle by Gwin's first sin and unable to die, much like everyone else. They just found each a way to not hollow. They only exist as long as the broken cycle keeps being perpetuated and we see in ds3 that at some point it can't keep going anymore and everything just turns to ash, them included.
The item description on Great Wyrm Theodorix's magma breath describes how his name is that of a great troll which also suggests he was once a person, a troll who fought in the war against giants. I was wondering the same thing about this after, if they were once people beforehand and this video really helps shed light on that, thank you.
A few things I've gather during my playthrough, these are just first-look observations so I'm happy to be proven wrong! It's also implied that, beastial as they may be, the modern dragons of the lands between were both aware and actively hunting partakers of dragon communion. We can see an example of this right in front of the dragon cathedral with the rot dragon, who's title is Ekyzykes, dragon communion revenger. Before Malenia decided to nuke Caelid to have a chance for a stalemate against Radahn, he most likely prowled the area to hunt those who'd try to eat dragon hearts. His hatred was so great that he kept guarding the entrance even while he was decaying into nothing. In the same vein despite not coexisting anywhere else in the game (as far as I know) both ancient dragons and their wyvern-like descendants seemed to fight against dragon communion. Although the hearts you eat are from regular dragons, you can see ancient dragon corpses in all the dragon churches, seemingly having crashed through in an attempt to destroy them. Last thing, humans weren't the only ones able to eat dragon hearts (and ending up cursed by doing so, but can you really blame them, have you seen the RANGE on those dragon breaths?) the great magma wyrm Theodryx used to be a troll. I also wonder what's up with the dragon powered banished knights. At first I thought they were partaking in communion just like the player, but you can also find them in crumbling Farum Azula, where they almost seem to be guarding the place. If that were the case, why would they wield dragon breaths when doing so was seen as taboo?
I may have an idea You see, the fire they breathe is very difrent from the incantation variant, Maybe you can get a weaker version from serving them Then again i dont think that people from the dragon cult can spew fire, so either its a difrent kind of worship, or the knights have been Able to find a weaker version of dragon comunion in farum azula, Honestly idk
I love these lore focused videos of yours and how you often integrate it by bringing up coding and small or hidden features to strengthen your argument. Keep it up
Dragonkin soldiers are some of my favorite boss/field boss, thematic and imposing, but they felt a lil underused, I hope there's more on them in dlc or just the lore surrounding them
Is probably more of a From Soft thing than a Miyazaki thing. They did a similar concept in Eternal Ring where characters were cursed by their search for the powerful magic on the island, being turned into monsters that slowly lose they humanity. Most notably, powerful mages get turned into dragons.
I really hope whenever they bring the DLC that they include a dragon transformation. Kind of like how they added the beast transformation in the Old Hunters DLC. Or at least more change besides just the eyes.
I hope so too. As I was looking forward to finding out what the dragon form would look like in elden ring only to be disappointed to find out there isn’t any.
I'd love to see a character arc where we come across someone who achieved immortality and became a true, regal dragon... but hated the transformation so much that they almost went completely mad and does not want anyone else to experience the pain and horror they themself went through. It would be a deviation from the usual trope of failed transformation from human to dragon that Miyazaki likes to do, while still carrying over the message that he's wanting to tell people, essentially a case of "this is what happens even IF you somehow succeed." Simply put, humans and numans have no business wanting to become dragons. They should be content enough with the dragon cult's existence. Learn from them, do not become them...
But I am not content. Why should I be content with getting old and dying? I don't want to die. I want to be immortal. And if that means abandoning human form then so be it.
I kind of want to see someone that succeeds in the transformation but now has so much time on their hands they just kinda... don't know what to do with it all now or expected to fail so now that they've gotten there they're just kind of lost.
I don't understand this defeatist logic so you were born mortal and now you are supposed to just accept death without fighting, that sounds like a hollow's philosophy, a chosen undead would say nah I will just become a dragon anyway
@@colorpg152 The funny thing is that the undead are basically a foil to it. They keep their human form and the message is that it is worth "living" for its own sake even if it means dying repeatedly. Even kindling the flame the purpose is to try to preserve life as a self-sacrifice instead of a suicide.
what if the dragonkin soldiers are transformed trolls? they have similar sizes and proportions, though shifted a bit by the transformation, and they share traits like the hollow abdomen and the root-like growths
The characters in Miyazaki's games are ready to pay any cost they can, just to be anatomically compatible with Priscilla so that she can become their waifu.
Dragons dogma has an interesting idea like this, upon defeating the dragon you often become one yourself. You can be essentially a fully formed powerful dragon, but can't escape that fate. I suppose there, it's less about malformed creation and more about the loss of will.
Depends on the arisens will to defeat the senescal If an arisen fails to defeat the dragon, they turn into drakes and wyvern If they fail to defeat the senescal, they turn into dragon But if they refuse to defeat the dragon, they are cursed to become half-formed hybrids
@@johnathangoldstein9991 I think he's referencing fake Netflix Dragon's Dogma, where dude killed the dragon and turned into it. Game's story was much better.
@@damoneldritch7588 It's all about cyclical fate. If you kill the dragon, you either become the next one or the seneschal. Unless your character is willing to wander around in Hell World Gransys for the rest of their unnatural life, they have to confront their maker.
It may not be a full dragon, but turning into a Magma Wyrm sure as hell still seems like an upgrade from being a puny human. Plus you get a cool sword and magma powers.
Its remarkable in Sekiro - most of "bad" want to reach immortality (Genichiro, Owl, many of monks and others) on the other hand - "good" characters are not afraid of death and accept it calmly and with dignity. Isshin asks Sekiro to cut his head when he is defeated, immortal warrior seeks for death... and other characters
This might explain why they use the title "Flying Dragon" for some boss like Flying Dragon Agheel. To help distinguish a true dragon capable of majestic flight from a would be dragon like a magma wyrm that has to crawl.
Yeah I think that's a good reason why are they are called "Flying dragons" also and as far as I know the dragons don't speak so how did they know their names? could it be these are human who succeeded on becoming dragons, although lesser dragons but atleast they are not malformed.
the world flying dragon comes from hiryu a Japanese world which when translated literally means flying dragon but it can also mean fire dragon or wyvern so there is a decent chance is a mistake
In three minutes you managed to perfectly explain the lore and what it represents. I often think ahead too much. Death feels like it’s around every corner for me. But Miyazaki shows through his games that refusal to change with yourself and the world, will result in you becoming a hideous malformed monster. Great video bro 👍
It's also implied that at least some of the magma wyrms were crucible knights. Possibly implying that there was some division among their ranks at some point. We even find one crucible knight staring at the corpse of a dragon, almost wistfully, like the havel knight from DS3. This may explain why they aspects of the crucible incantations all offer dragon like abilities. Maybe they were all off on a journey to become dragons. I'm not sure we can say that any of them succeeded but I will say that winged horned lizard is a pretty close attempt. I'm down with the lava lizard bois.
I think the crucible incantations are all more akin to the non-human parts of Morgott and Mohg. Morgott has a big tail sorta like one of the incantations, and Mohg has wings, similar to one of the incantations the crucible knights also use.
@@jankbunky4279 It would certainly fit in with the theory that the Omen are an evolved form of humanity forged in the Crucible. Both Morgott and Mohg were born to Godfrey, the Elden Lord with the closest ties to the Crucible, but the Greater Will detested the Omen thanks to their connection to the original god(s?) of The Lands Between.
Out of curiosity where was it implied that the magma wyrms we crucible knights? To me it's implied that Crucible knights have dragon-like incantations because of the nature of the Crucible, not because they were pursuing becoming dragons. The Crucible is primordial, before even the Erdtree, representing amalgam of features as the a form of life. These features that are now distinct to species (horns, tails, wings, throat sacks, branches, etc.) I think you might be confusing the Crucible knights with the Tree Sentinels, which split off into Draconic Tree Sentinels when they realized the power of dragons (after the dragons attacked Lyndell). But maybe they're related.
This video really makes me think on my own Communion/Lightning based character: a reincarnation of a character of mine from previous Souls games named Kalise. In Elden Ring I made her Draconian and centered her entire spell and moveset around the dragons and their power. She doesn't worship dragons themselves, but more the power they have: Power she craves for herself, believing it to be her birthright as Draconian. Hers is a tale of self destruction to achieve ascension, becoming a goddess through draconic power and taking the title of Dragoness for herself. Her heavy partaking in Communion and hunting draconic creatures for their power also earns her the title of Dragon Eater: Literally devouring dragons of all forms to gain unimaginable strength. When she eventually falls to the sin of Communion, I imagine she's going to become something truly terrifying. The Dragon Queen of the new age, destined to collapse under the weight of her own power. She believes she can avoid the fate of others who partake in Communion by incorporating the power of the ancient dragons into herself. She may get closer than anyone else ever could, but she will still fall short of becoming a true, ancient dragon. All the ferocity and power without the true majesty.
@@colorpg152 Stars, if only we could get wings like that. Heck, I still wish we could get the Aspect wings that Crucible Knights use. There is always DLC, though: fingers crossed for new spells and maybe transformations.
@@theskepticalwhaler4946 Never thought of that. She doesn't really have a reason to end the world, more just become so overwhelmingly strong that none can oppose her in lordship.
wow. I designed my prophet character with a blindfold in the character customization, so I never noticed the change of the eyes. that's awesome. I want to be wyrm.
I love these videos - taking a series of what to me were disperate notions and ideas and putting them all next to each other in a clear and concise way, each part informing on the others - bringing coherence. It settles the rattling of the many little pieces in mind down into their proper places in the image in the mosaic
The secret behind draconic immortality is dedication, and the will to go on, even if the path is an arduous one. You'll suffer, yes, it'll be painful as all hell, yes, you might end up a horrid monster, yes. If, at the end of the day, you're willing to take those risks, and go beyond them to become an ancient dragon, then there is no doubt of your success, no matter how long it takes.
Be grateful for the blessings you receive and dare not to ask for more. Love your videos so much. Thank you for the time, care and consideration you put into your work.
I can't wait for the day we are able to fight a true ascended form of man and dragon in these games. Something that has achieved that perfection. And I hope it obliterates us over and over until we find what can bring it down.
Priscilla. She was the only time a successful fusion of human and dragon had ever come into existence. And yet, due to her nature, she was hated by all and considered, in her own soul's description, to be the "antithesis of all life"; something worthy only of death in the eyes of the world, for she represented something the world could not fathom, nor control. She was scared and ashamed and wanted nothing more than to be allowed the privilege to remain alive. And you killed her for no reason, after going out of your way to find her in a hidden pocket-dimension inside a painting world, after she begged you to just leave and never come back. She fought you reluctantly and in self-defence because she just wanted to be left alone.
What do you make of the Draconic Tree Sentinels? In games lore reveals "After the great ancient dragon Gransax attacked, the sentinels had an epiphany. The only way to truly protect the Erdtree was to become dragons themselves." My presumption is that, unlike other attempts to integrate or infuse the power of a dragon into a mortal body - the Sentinels essentially forged their armor with fragments of the petrified Gransax. Given the "Bolt of Gransax" comes with the weapon skill Ancient Lightning Spear and the Draconic Sentinel uses a lot of lightning-based abilities - I wonder if that is a tacit association that they're wielding a malformed variant of Gransax's own draconic power. It is interesting how the Draconic Sentinels fit into the traditional themes and representation of dragons and draconic lore in the games. They essentially circumvent the profanity (stark contrast to Godfrey whose grafting of the dragon head was portrayed as something grotesque) against the Golden Order by infusing their armor with dragon scales rather than their corporeal body.
Man I hope we get some wildly modified animations and movesets/transformations for Elden Ring like bloodborne got to have. Even if it was just a simple "hold this weapon and equip this rune" type deal, I'd love to see a more grotesque and realized dragonkin transformation, and maybe an Omen one, or some outer god shit.
Omen, for me. Dragon transformations have, in my opinion, been thoroughly explored through Dark Souls. The Omen are something new. Outer gods should probably be off the table for the time being
@@iggytheincubus dragons are not thoroughly explored. Bloodborne explored the idea of completley different inhuman animations and movesets. Having a transformation that turned you into a mini-dragonkin would be cool as hell
This might be useful for my own worldbuilding. In my fictional world, there is a race of half dragons that originated as a experiments made by the dragons themselves. I haven't worked on that too much yet, but this might at least help inspire me. Thanks Zulie!
I am curious to see if Commander O'Neil and Commander Niall have any other physical differences beside the lightning peg leg for Niall, especially since some people said that O'Neil could be the son or descendant of Niall with the names used that seems to mean "son of".
I'm not Irish myself, so I'm speaking as an outsider here, but the O' in O'Neil is part of an Irish naming convention. It literally translates to 'descendent of', but was generally used to mean 'grandson of'. In older times, an Irish boy would be named either [Name] Mac [Father's Name] or [Name] O [Grandfather's Name] (with Mc and O' used as shortenings). I welcome any corrections from anyone who's actually irish that reads this, btw. It's entirely possible that Neil is meant to be a shortening or variant spelling of Niall, though, and that Commander Niall and Commander O'Neil may be related in some way
I would like an NPC in a Fromsoft game who's goal is to become something even greater, even godlier then gods and dragons. He would progress with his research the more we meet him and he would likely interact with other NPC's who are remotely smart and can help him. At the end, in one of the final locations, after clearing it, we can come back to one of the bosses arena's just to find our friend there, turned into a holy amalgamation of dragon and something angel-like, and becoming a secret boss. After defeating him we would get a quest item which we then can use in the first location we met him to recieve a powerfull spell which would act like a dragon stone from Dark Souls, but will turn us into something similar to him, with same kind of abilities. In the end, he would lose his sanity by becoming what he always wanted to achieve, with a tbought what he probably will not meet a sussec on the first try and go mad, he saved this item to give us, only for us to become a better version of what he wanted to be, somethin greater. After that, we would unlock a new ending where we would give this kind of ascension gift to the rest of the world, like Ranni's ending.
Well, Hawkwood wanted to become a dragon. You can even fight him in Abyss Watchers' arena, and if you die, he will steal your dragonstone. Not exactly the same thing you imagined, but still.
Loved some of these angles and camera pans, especially the Dragonkin Soldier's guts to the wings. Also really like this format, written content w no audio besides game style music is nice. Feels like gamer content
Man, the Magma Wyrms got lucky. At least they are not horribly misshapen and seem to be fully functional organisms. Plus they seem to enjoy a long lifespan unlike the dragonkin who are said to have died shortly after their creation.
I really, really hope for a dragon themed dlc for Elden Ring. Elden Ring dragons are entirely different creatures from the Souls universe and I think that just like the rest of the ER world they have near endless potential for future content. Also, four-winged dragons wielding lightning is just wicked.
I hope not, fighting dragons, or more specific, fighting camera, is and will always be the most annoying thing for me I will take miquellas wet dream any time of the day tho
"Elden Ring dragons are entirely different creatures from the Souls universe" They're not, though? Stone-skinned dragons associated with immortality, and human followers who seek to transform themselves into them?
@@nick012000 Except the dragons of Elden Ring are seen to be fully sentient or if not, outright sapient beings while most of the dragons from Dark Souls aside from Seath appear to be nothing more than powerful wild animals.
Really like the origin story of the magma wyrms, as it sounds like a blending of the Norse story about Fafnir, a dwarf whose greed for gold turned him into a dragon, and the Judeo-Christian story of the Fall, how the serpent was cursed to writhe upon the ground for causing paradise lost.
The whole “story” of transforming into a elevated being seems to be extremely sad and frequent in FromS games, from Ds1 to Bloodborne, Ds3, Sekiro and now Elden Ring we see a lot of sceneries like that, even Godrick is a good example somehow. There’s a lot of majestic beings may it be the great old ones or Dragons, there’s always some folks that dream of a higher existence with a greater purpose of life, like longing to become a Dragon, a majestic yet untouched being that is visibly on a higher plane, to a point where a lot of Factions want to pursue the Goal to become said entity by enduring great pain, loss and suffering but still ending up being pitiful waste. I think that miyazaki kind of wants to tell that there’s a strict line between “us” and elevated beings, if you’re not born a Dragon, you’re not meant to be one, try it and you will end up as a shell of something in between.
that sounds like bio determinism the idea that your fate is decided by your genes, its a defeatist philosophy, logically speaking why would humans be unable to transform into dragons when magic can turn humans into chaos warped demons and abyss monsters? it almost sounds like the fox and the sour grapes, stop throwing shades at people who are trying to overcomes their weakness its like telling the guy who is trying to invent the plane that humans will never fly why even do that
"If you are not born a dragon, you're not meant to be one, try it and you will end up as a shell of something in between" Its a great phrase, and at the same it feels sadly aplyable to other things in live too, hm
@@DM-Oz its the same thing they told the wright brothers that humans weren't born with wings so they will never fly, oh wait they invented the plane ddn't they, this is the same bs they said about man walking on the moon and many other great discoveries its the horrible self-defeating ideology of fatalism that you would think people should have learned by now not to nay-say trailblazers but i guess since from tends to make fatalist games, but then again gideon tells you that you can't even become a elden lord and a man cannot beat a god, so they also seem to not like self-defeating naysayer either
@@colorpg152 That's not the same thing though. The examples you provided are people who took the time, care, and patience to learn something new in the field of science and engineering to get what they want without fundamentally changing who they were. The characters in Soulsbourne games would NEVER be satisfied with airplanes and rocketships. They want to BECOME things those things. To ascend. They are not satisfied with having to comfront what they think are limitations and find workarounds for that (technology.)
The sword of night and flame maybe gives a connection of how they were supplied bodies to make dragonkin soldiers, they do frostlighting after all. Theodrix shows not only humans can participate in dragon communion and was even involved with the war of the fire giants like several other trolls. Their cape is a curious piece (the symbol mostly resembles dragon cult imagery) and is the armor too its like a mix between sanguine noble and farum azula beastmen wear(jar shoulderpads and even the rooted bangles you see on cleanrotknights/giant corpses in the eternal cities or demigods), but there is nothing stating how they manage to fabricate them either via gravel stone and dragon hearts, or the crucible and larval tears to reshape and manipulate the body with both. They're also incredibly stationary despite being quite mobile when they feel like it even being able to jump great heights with no problem and like the nokstella variant able to gain flight by replacing parts of their body with frostlighting. Despite being almost mindless it seems like they became more like overgrown guard dogs than soldiers just by how reactive the nokstella dragonkin is to you fronting the giant corpse on the throne and more alerting the never ending spirit summon army of dragonkin soldiers that respawn indefinitely without end feels like they were worth they're weight in producing and ironically did achieve immortality via spirirt ashes. They're my favorite enemy but god damn they job so hard after you fight the one in siofra river, also need dragon kin breath incantations that fires frostlighting using a projection of their heads or armor because they look too damn cool to just give 2 weapons and a single frostlighting incantation.
Not sure if you read all the comment but thank you always for your interesting and informative videos. Obviously lore and the thoughts behind the theme is a very interesting and fun part of Souls-series. I love your videos cause it's not only insightful but by going through behind the scene, cut contents, you guess and show the glimpse of what could've been.
As much as I enjoy these games and their themes, considering how this fear of immortality is widespread in media (although justifiably so) i'd like a game, or a story, where the pursuit of immortality in itself it's actually good and constructive, but can be corrupted if infused with the wrong motives. Also, i think the perspective of someone actually enjoying their immortality might be fun.
Bloodborne, the game is about how the search for immortality went badly wrong, but it wasn't because trying to become more was inherently evil, but instead because of the methods employed and the atrocities that resulted.
@@vyor8837 Just because your body lives forever doesn't mean that you won't go crazy or develop PTSD from seeing some fucked up shit or witnessing everyone you care for dieing horribly. There are people out there living normal length lives that are already tired of the monotony of living, so imagine how it would be if you had to deal with that until the sun explodes.
@@vyor8837 because the whole point of life is that it has an end. It makes all our relationships, experiences and achievements important. If there is no end there is no point. You have to be a psychopath to actually enjoy living forever.
The pursuit of immortality can never be “good” or “constructive”. Things must end so that others may take their place just as others did for you and as you will continue to. To want to live forever is pure vanity.
Ive always loved this theme of 'humans trying to become dragons in pursuit of e, and i feel like its been overlooked, thanks for doing this overview! Elden Ring dragonkin look so epic.
Wanted to thank you for making your videos. I don’t play these games but the lore and character designs are so compelling that they’re just incredibly interesting to learn about. Your efforts are appreciated! Thank you!
I love the criticism towards immortality that are portrayed in these games. It’s always an interesting topic to me because of how glorified it became over time, but many media now a days have dissected this concept(Cocoon, Percy Jackson, Toy Story 2, Pirates: Curse of Black Pearl etc) and called out how unnatural it is. I feel like Miyazaki handles it the best with the immortal dragon symbolism tho.
the dragons tend to have developed in antuarlly in his works too. 'evolution' one could say. the ancient dragons seemed to be relatively chill from the sounds of it. Their servants were the beastmen, though now degenerate the statues showed them as something ore refined. the clergyman probably showing the 'true form' of the beastmen. and their city is basically a graveyard for their servants, implying a respect for their shorter lived lessers.
@@vitanera4032 Different media come up with different drawbacks, but my favourites are the ones that point out immortality means you will never age or change in any way, which ultimately is much like death despite the fact that your body may still be moving around. Like with Dark Souls, where you can avoid hollowing as long as you can remain committed to a goal, which means you can't give up but you also can't actually accomplish it, and eventually that one purpose will be the only thing you are anyway.
This is unsettling in such a majestic way Conveying such horror and that much more within a game with it's entire main story line / goal having little to do with it is pure talent This is.. incredible
I didn't know much about the dragonkin or the magma wyrms, as I hadn't read many descriptions related to them, but this was really insightful and interesting. I really like how Miyazaki brings familiar concepts through the games, and always the unique and fascinating ones too.
I Love the Magma wyrm Design so much. I also Like the Implication that the Player might end Up becoming one of Them over time, If the Player partakes in Dragon communion. In my opinion the Dragon communion is the best Version of Fromsoftware's Dragon Player Idea so far.
Well after the DLC , becoming a dragon has a chance of you having an enemy that will be to angry to die. "CURSE YOU BAYLE!" - Local man too angry to die. (Igon)
I find it interesting how the Magma Wryms being stuck to the ground share a similar connection with the devil in the book of Genesis, who had his form as a snake forced to crawl upon it belly on the dirt as a sign of Satans eternal humiliation. These humans who through pride sought the forbidden arts of dragon communion were laid low and humiliated in their transformations.
In the Design Works interview for Dark Souls, Miyazaki describes how he personally acted out the movement for the dragon stone transformation, and how the awkward, jerky motion conveyed the exertion of a human trying to force themselves to become a dragon.
This man is on another level
I really like the dragon communion incantations for coming from a summoned dragon head, as though you merely acquired the permission to use them rather than became able to breath fire or whatnot yourself.
That’s phenomenal. Love u as always
would love to see the found footage on that
I wonder if the beast men of farum Azul are hybrids, or just a odd subspecies of dragon.
I love that attempting to do anything in a souls game usually ends with extreme body horror, death or worse, immortality.
Aldia sends his regards.
@@nolp2898 body horror, Aldia doesn’t care though.
well, if can walk, talk, think and fight, this but a succes -aldia-
right? i was just saying the other day, malenia is such BADASS body horror. she ascends to a goddess of rot, but her wings are rotten, her eyes are decayed, and she is basically only a torso
Nothing works well in Miyazaki's games lol
Just wanted to give you praise for the clever shot of the DS3 dragon player model to represent one type of hybrid, who then pulls out a torch to illuminate the second type of hybrid behind them in the darkness. Very very elegant shot!
That is very creative
Very very ELEGANTO!
@@BurningGreyX I recognized that reference
Yeah huge fan of that as well. Magic is in the details, and you killed it with this one.
yeah, that was a clever little touch
You're wrong, becoming a dragon has a chance that eventually you'll get your own soundtrack, and there's a 47% chance it'll be a banger. Well worth the pain and agony
i dont get the reference
@@zeicciadragons Dogma lore
@@jarodathehunter9124 THE WIND IS PUSHING MEEEE
Thank you anime profile picture on TH-cam comment section you clearly will never leave me a stray!
Thank you for the advice! 👍🏼
Edit: I’ve become dragon… ouch!
@@internalizedhappyness9774*Lead me astray
"Ok you're a dragon that breathes fire and lives forever, but you can't fly. Here's a sword."
Magma wyrm got a pretty good deal. And a snack.
I think, in Magma Wyrm's case it's like an endless cycle of hero, who slays a dragon, then becomes the one himself, to be defeated by next hero. It's emphasized that only the greatest warriors could defeat a dragon, so communion it's like writing your name onto a scoreboard until someone else rewrites it with their own.
@@quint3ssent1a That's real Dragon's Dogma.
@@quint3ssent1a oh that’s fantastic, it’s like the original dark souls cycle rekindling the flame
@@quint3ssent1a You either die a hero or live long enough to become a dragon
@@noatrope so I can't just immediately skip to becoming a dragon???? Boooooo
Zullie: "Theyre just as unsightly as half-dragons in past games"
Priscilla: (starts to cry)
was looking for the comment about crossbreed priscilla. its all monstrosities but we got one cute one. although i think its different as she was born like that while this is a "punishment" for being human and trying to become a dragon.
Since I’m bad at understanding game lord I always just look at a Wiki and for her it says cross breed of Seath the Scaleless and human or a god. So if she is the daughter of a god then the lack of horrible mutations make sense and that’s what I like to think.
For Priscilla I think the difference is that she didn't strive to "ascend" to dragonhood but rather was simply born that way
@@demoneon9527 It's implied Gwynevere is her mom.
@@jacobkern2060 nice, and ew
Considering how dragons are pretty much the poster children of fantasy, it's interesting how much depth Miyazaki is able to lend them!
Yeah, I like that they're portrayed as dangerous and often mysterious as they're claimed to be. DnD dragons very frequently aren't that well fleshed out (the new lore helps though). I mean... a lot of things in DnD frequently aren't that well thought out.
yeah, because he is taking from asian dragon folklore, not western one....
@@destroyersend5299 Really? Not questioning the validity of your statement but what are some examples? That sounds pretty interesting.
in traditional western fantasy, becoming a dragon tends to be more of a curse than anything - it's funny in that regard. it is a curse in the souls series, but the characters who want it do so because they think it would be a blessing
@@maybeiamepic2263 Dragons in asian culture is somehow the counterpart of angels and gods in western.
This only makes Crossbreed Priscilla's existence more astounding, a true cross between human and dragon that seemingly went right. Makes sense why Seathe went out his way to ensure her safety, even if it meant sending her into a painted world.
I could never kill her. I'd just walk around her and leave 100% based on the fact that she didn't outright try to kill me
That's because unlike everyone else who tried to trigger a transformation into dragonhood. Priscila was just born that way.
@R P Not as tragic as DS3 faith builds
Not to be a dick or anything but it didn't go right, they hid her in a painting so outsiders wouldn't know what gwyn was doing. He locked priscilla in a painting and Yorshka in a tower. Play the games man.
Personally, I think Seath rejected her for not being a properly stone entity. Priscilla only has scales on her neck, and for what it's worth, Priscilla and the blue wyverns are the only dragon enemies in the game susceptible to bleed, meaning that they could be too "watered down" and thus not inorganic enough.
An interesting thing to note:
Becoming a dragon through the means of using stones, blood, and hearts always seems to go wrong during the transformation.
But when a dragon hybrid is born rather than created through those means, they’re much better, and are kinda their own species. Not in any pain or disgraced.
Edit: I also remembered aldia’s dragon. It wasn’t a true dragon, but was very much the same size and power as one.
Priscilla is still referred to as "hideous monster" though.
@@shrekkek9396 is she though? To me she’s just a fluffy cinnamon roll.
@@shrekkek9396 Well, that's just the gods in Dark Souls being racist and abelist for no good reason.
@@chriswu772no, it was said out of fear. The description of life hunt scythe is proof enough
@@jstar3382 Yup, the gods were cowards and did _everything_ they could to maintain the shred of power they captured from the age of the stone dragons.
It's always mind boggling how people think of Gwynevere or Gwyndolin as good gods when they're both supporting Gwyn in perpetuating a lie that punishes humans and causes them to suffer for eternity as they wither away, denied their true nature. Lots of paralells between the Dark Souls godkin and the gods we see in Elden Ring, many of the gods were arrogant and fearful of those who could take their position away, regardless of motives.
"The pursuit of immortality is typically framed as a hopeless, self-destructive endeavor in Miyazaki's games."
The player coming back to life for the thousandth time after walking off a cliff: ( 0_0)
except that's not quite true immortality. Undead/Tarnished eventually lose the ability to respawn, by going hollow or losing the guidance of grace, implied to be the effect of their willpower/hope weakening, aka what happens when the player ragequits.
The demon slayer and the hunter are bound to a nexus that holds them prisoner, giving them pseudoimmortality, making it very conditional to keep.
Kinda of an underrated comment here.
@@EvilFrosty2U except not really
Divine Tower of Caelid killed me more times than Radahn did. And then I found out you're supposed to go up, not down. Only to be greeted by Godskin Apostle.
@@OpXarxa Isn't conditional immortality as good as it gets, though? How many characters in any story are actually immortal? Even gods die on a regular basis.
That's actually a really cool detail with the pupils. I love how your character goes through cosmetic changes as they perform certain actions to better reflect them.
It's a shame you can't choose between them with the mirror/Rennala (you can only disable or enable them) and they just get overridden with other ones.
The dragon eyes get overridden with the blood red eyes you get if you allow Varre to turn you into a bloody finger and both get overridden with the other eyes you get from that one ending path (which also giving you marks on your body).
@@quantras2673 It annoys me so much that I didn't get to keep my dragon eyes because of the bloody finger eyes. I really hope they will allow us to choose them in the future.
@@xenoman6158 would be cool if we get to opt for heterochromia as well. Shame they are usually hidden by a helmet most of the time.
@@xenoman6158 you think it works the same way if you do the blood eyes first then the dragon communion?
@@sharinganwoetie2588 There are 3 altered eye options. Frenzied Flame, Bloody Finger, and Dragon Communion. Dragon Communion will ALWAYS be overwritten by both Bloody Finger and Frenzied Flame, no matter when you would have gotten them. Also, Bloody Finger will always be overwritten by Frenzied Flame. So unfortunately, Dragon Communion is on the bottom of the totem pole.
I just noticed that the Dragonkin also have roots around their necks, like Trolls do. Perhaps the Nox used Trolls as the starting template for their dragons? The four limbs, four wings, and use of lightning would seem to imply that they were particularly trying to emulate the ancient dragons, so they might have chosen not to use the weaker modern dragons as a template.
Theodorix was a troll, so...
@@asdergold1 theodorix ended up as a magma wyrm so maybe he was a troll partaking in dragon communion, the nox seemed to actively try and create dragons out of other being while the dragon communion simply cursed those who stole dragons powers
You make really wonderful videos, Zullie.
You completely replace the need for a descriptive voice-over or walls of text with super meaningful and informative imagery and its honestly very impressive.
Agreed.
I dislike Vaati because his voice is too dramatic
@@advanced8998 I like both of them :-)
@Sabizos I feel like it also has to due with the video length because most of Zullie's videos are short
@@advanced8998 agreed, he's so corny in how he embellishes his narration
@@andygarcia4960 it's gotten really old by now. Also he fell off imo.
The Dragonkin Soldier character design is so cool, I feel like the only way they could be better is if you put one in the middle of a giant swamp full of Scarlet Rot and give the player a terrible reward for beating them
Hey wait a minute
Is the Dragonscale Blade terrible?
@@suitnuggerat1123 I'm playing a lightning/Dex character right now, and I don't bother with it. I'm sure it's ok if you really want ice damage on your faith character for some reason, but I believe it gets outclassed by about every weapon in every category it belongs to. You'll get better damage putting a lightning ash on a keen weapon.
@BearSeek Berserker I killed it legit and I'd bet you probably had more fun with it than I did.
Some bosses don't deserve the respect of being fought "fairly". That was one of them.
@@suitnuggerat1123 it's a relatively short katana with no innate bleed, a slow and expensive ash of war that only lasts for 20 seconds, and on top of all of that, it doesn't even scale with faith (even though it used to). So in a sense, it's as sad as the creatures it drops from. it's really cool though
I love how Miyazaki almost always shows immortality as a curse rather than a blessing. There are very few people who are immortal in his worlds who seem at all happy about it
Immortality seems at first glance like blessing but the more you think about it the more you realize it's not all that good.
To be fair I don't think I have ever seen anyone happy on a fromsoftware game other that Patches (crazy and ironic laughs don't count)
@@daleodorito Is he happy or is he just manic?
eh, that's been the dominant cliche for a long time. frankly, at this point it would be surprising for any remotely dark work of fiction to portray immortality as being a remotely good thing.
@@VeryPeeved I mean...yeah but the keyword here is "dark work of fiction". Most other fiction portray immortality as a good thing people aspire to attain. But also I can't think of a single prominent work of fiction that uses immortality as a curse in the way miyazaki does. Nor have any been doing it as long or consistently as him so at this point it's practically his own theme.
Without any knowledge of what awaits us beyond death... or in the age of dark... it is no wonder that some would turn to such a macabre measure as a way to escape unescapable oblivion. But as these games have shown us, there are some fates that are worse than death.
Ur videos are pretty cool man, see you later tonight.
Hello , fellow yellow
Gen 3:14 [So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.]
Hey you don't know if the half dragon monsters are secretly happy.
Interesting to consider whether its partially inspired by the pursuit of immortality with alchemy (a lot of people drinking mercury and kicking the bucket). I think alchemy is a big inspiration for Miyazaki generally.
Reject becoming a dragon. Embrace becoming a tentacle.
Tentacle gang 🦑
Personally, I'm a huge proponent for becoming blue alien cauliflower.
Reject the tentacle, joooooooooooooooooooooooin the serpent king.
@@udobybreak6393 togethaaaaaa
Reject both and become a squid
Bloodborne Gang 🦑
Honestly I want to see a person in a souls game that truly transends into a dragon. The regrets of it, the pain, possibly even a bossfight that tugs at your heart.
isn't the ancient dragon in ds2 some kind of former human or smth you know it drops giant soul
@@TurkGamingHackTeam It's an artificially made dragon. Aldia's work.
Closest thing is eternal ring iirc which is a fromsoft game but before souls existed so classic dungeon crawler.
While it’s not close to being an emotional boss fight, the closest boss I can think of is Rom from bloodborne. Rom did become a great one, presumably after eating three umbilical cords, then after seeing the Eldridge horrors of the night and the hunt, became a barrier whose death becomes the catalyst for the blood moon.
Unless you want to count the Orphan of Kos
@@thirdeye9698 would the Orphan count?
i have remark that some of those "artificial dragons" have a distinct feature that stick out for me in particular. it's the two jaws, one inside the other, jaws that we can clearly see on the draconic soldiers in elden ring but also in demon souls with the dragon god. it's like they are wearing the skin of a dragon like some akward disguise and i find it realy interesting.
I'm imagining a bit like Children of Dune, the men grafting dragon skin onto their bodies and undergoing a transitional stage as they eventually make this skin their own.
Very possible. Notice the shape of the lower jaw and the way the scales are fitted on the neck, they look as if carved and set in the flesh. The eternal cities smell foul with the taint of artificiality and mimicry. No wonder they were damned. Leads me to think that they never really deserved their age of stars.
Having two rolls of teeth is an old thing referenced in Hebrew texts about the nephilim, which are the result of crossbreeding between fallen angels and humans. Maybe Miyazaki got the idea from that, given that both beings are described as having two sets of teeth, are giants and are desrmcribed as being in between one thing and the other.
That doesnt really hold up as in DS1 in the cinematic involving the everlasting dragons you can see them having 2 sets of teeth and in DeS the dragon god is the same
That’s reminiscent of how some sharks have multiple layers of teeth or jaws
It's kind of funny that Miyazaki always makes becoming a Dragon a dark and depressing endeavor even though mythology in Japan has romanticized the concept with the legend of the Koi that swam up a waterfall to become a Dragon. In that legend, becoming a Dragon can be achieved through ambition, perseverance and determination, but it's like Miyazaki makes of the concept in his games.
It'd be interesting if that concept of the Koi swimming up the waterfall does exist in his games, and the amalgamations we see are those attempting a "get rich quick" version of it, especially given that their goal is typically immortality. Get rich quick, live forever, but suffer the entire way though and never truly be there.
@@milesholiman5597 they literally referenced it in Sekiro… there is a giant Koi in the Fountainhead Palace and it’s heavily implied it’s trying to become the next Divine Dragon.
@@ikeamonkey7372 came here to say the same thing hahah
@@ikeamonkey7372 Also the whole Pot Noble quest-lines, where you outright trade carp scales with 'em.
@@ikeamonkey7372 Yeah, the carp actually has human teeth and is stuck in a mindless state. Never made it to dragon level, just degenerate carp level.
This is similar to Rykard’s pursuit of power and transformation into/becoming part of the serpent. In the end, the lady is eating them so that they will become part of her or something along those lines. Rykard’s last words were “a serpent never dies.”
worth it, i would definitely eat a serpent if its what it takes to be immortal
I killed her. Lol the serpent definitely died in my playthrough😂
@@colorpg152 You wouldn't want it. All it would take is for someone to bury you alive or drop you into the bottom of the sea for you to change your mind.
@@redwolf4611 man you people are really weak willed, getting buried sounds like heaven compared to having to deal with people in real life , the sea wont try to cancel me, it wont yell at me for speaking the truth, it wont force me to work day after day for their profit without giving anything back, being at the bottom of the sea sounds great, if i was immortal i would spend a few billion years there.
@@colorpg152 I can assure you, you'll change your mind after a few days of nothingness blud
I _really_ wish that the Dragonkin armor was an available set in the game.
The draconic transformation is echoed by the same flaw in Marika sealing away the Rune of Death to allow the Erdtree & Golden Order to perpetuate forever. It's chasing the Primordial Crucible for ancient power, without understanding what exists now.
That power becomes an addiction that you depend upon, and that changes you the more you use it. It's what Yura warns about and tries to stop with Eleonora. Even benevolent actions to combat helplessness against their kindling maiden's one's fate are why Bernhardt became a Recusant, and Vyke fell to the lure of the Three Fingers.
It's why I love how Elden Ring mixes that all with the balance between Regression & Causality.
Feels like a whole chunk of dragon related story and gameplay is missing. In particular a dragon and ending and quests related to dragon powers. If we're lucky that might be DLC.
@@MenwithHill That's elden ring. There are obviously huge chunks of story, connections, explanations just absent from the game. I still wonder what the point of hyping George Martins involvement was considering all the abandoned concepts and lack of story telling in Elden Ring.
@@eternalnate George laid out the lore and background of the characters ; from what we know he didn't write anything post-Shattering. That stuff and all the character dynamics is what has gotten people most hyped up and talking, so clearly it has worked. I'm not sure what you'd want beyond more cutscenes.
@@MenwithHill Actual story and consistency and logic. You know, just the basics that would explain the world better.
to be fair, it's from. their storytelling is basically only present in the beginning cutscene, item descriptions, and the occasional cutscene. i personally enjoy unorthodox storytelling practices like this
Of all the attempts at becoming dragons in Elden Ring and Dark Souls, the Magma Wyrms seem to least punishing interestingly enough
Considering how previous attempts to become a dragon have gone so far i would say that becoming a lizard is close enough. Very impressive.
@@doctorhealsgood5456 yea the got off a bit luckier. but it s clear that transformation dulled their minds top below human levels. the dcragons. especially in elden ring, are shown to be sentient beings. tactical, with the ancient dragons even wielding weapons, whether forged of their magical lightning or physically forged.
@@taddad2641 I think part of why they got off better then most is cause they didn’t just use magic or graft a dragon to them. They had to kill a dragon and consume it’s heart. Maybe it is just me, but in these games it feels like the immortality that is harder to get is usually the one with the better parts. Hence Elden lord having some downsides yes but mostly upsides as it is almost impossible to obtain
I agree. They're better-looking than the emaciated goat man from DS3, or the doofy flute-playing weirdos in the clouds from Sekiro.
@@theblazingcrusader6322 In asian mythologies a carp can become a dragon if they do the nigh impossible and swim up a waterfall, magma wyrms get off better because they're participating in a great trial (fighting and killing dragons) to try and become one.
Out of all the half-dragons in the elden ring and other Soulsborne games, I prefer the fate of the magma wyrms. Compared to the other misshapen lizards, the Magma Wyrms seem the most chill. They're just big lizards vibing in caves and magma flows.
You know, we never got a “dragon form” like all dark souls games had. Given we know wyrms are humans that turned into dragons after consuming hearts, I think it’d be cool to have that ability when you consume all of them.
It’d be even more interesting if it made you quadrupedal too, though that seems like it would be a lot of work to do.
I'd say no Quadrupedal form, because that would be so much work and would basically be a new player character altogheter. But a Dragonkin transformation would be really cool, since they are basically huge humanoids wearing golden armor. I'd love if the transformation gave you a buff for Dragon Incantations.
Maybe DLC? Bloodborne had transformations in the DLC
@@FaptaA agreed on the quad stance but ya a resulting mid way to magma wyrm and human for ya after eating enough hearts but of corse its a permadent thing so buffs are lower if you can still use armor, or it be quite a strong thing but of corse your new tail and wings make clothing imposalbe with claws being degigrade shoes are seen as a problem more than solution and well no need to explain the helm.
Dude I have so many Ideas to make certan Armor pieces cooler and stuff like you just described. I want to Mod it all in to the Game but a Caveman like me can't even Write a Email without sending it to the wrong Person.
we got no forms at all
Just a PSA to anyone who wasn't aware. The Draconic eyes are not permanent, you can remove them at the cosmetic menu in the Roundtable Hold. There's a toggle called eye cosmetics or something that, when disabled, will return your eyes to their normal state. Works for the bloody eyes too.
Question: do these last to NG+ and what are (as well as how do you get) the bloody eyes
bloody eyes unfortunately overwrite dragon eyes :(
my only regret for going to moghwyn early
@@wafflesthevilwarrior and the Frenzied Flame overrides both of those
reject mohgwyn
embrace CHAOS
Which would be kinda lore breaking and silly tbh....
I can confirm that Frenzied Flame overwrites all other eyes
and that you can undo it at the cosmetic menu anytime
I have to say I feel there's 2 big points not mentioned in this about dragon transformation in the Souls Games. The first one is very interestingly: consent
The dragon transformations the player can take are the more orderly ones, least awkward. In DS1 and 2 you are either bestowed by a dragon themself, or by something related ot dragons, the stones to transform. In order to increase this transformation, one must partake in mutually consenting duels. One can't invade anotehr person without the other person accepting to partake in such a duel for the price of dragon scales themselves. In DS2 the other wellformed dragonkin we find are in the aerie protecting the ancient dragon, and serving as challengers, or safekeepers of a safe challenge, to meet the dragon.
In DS3, with seemingly all everlasting dragons dead, one must resort to searching out the remaining stones... but this also leads to something interesting. We find malformed dragonkin, but where are they? We find most of these at the Irithyl dungeon, where we know Oceiros was experimenting with people for his search of dragonhood. It clearly shows that those people were not willing to partake in that, and the results are sad. But there is also something very interesting about the results and source: Oceiros was trying to mimic Seath. Seath being the traitorous dragon who, through their envy of their lack of scales, aided in the outright genocide of dragons, for a chance to have as much time and information and resources as necessary to achieve his immortality. Oceiros was following after this particular dragon, whose search of the inmortality he didn't have lead him to be malformed, both of their researchs came out of the forceful conversion of others as well, so it makes sense that they both too, would be malformed.
The second point is: Escape
What we find is a topic of trying to escape the horrible cycle and world they currently exist in, through becoming dragons. How do you reach dragon peak in DS3? You need to meditate in a specific spot, looking at the peak, amongst other people in the same position that are slumped over, seemingly dead... and the player does slump over too before awaking at the peak, implying all the other people managed to escape too. Other elements in the prior games too seem to mention escaping through becoming dragonhood, altho I'm having it a bit harder to remember. The other part elaborated in DS3 is... all the dragonkin slumped over, lifeless, at thte peak. In buddihsm and other easstern philosophies, an important goal is escaping the cycle of suffering and rebirth, through something rather opposite to eternal life: ceasing to be reborn, often with one reaching oblivion. The fact that all the dragonkin we find are slumped over, lifeless... it could very strongly imply that they managed their goal: They escaped the horrible cycle of the world by ceasing to be entirely. But... didn't we and others awake at Dragon peak after meditating in said pose at the Dungeon too? It is very possible too, that instead of oblivion, the dragonkin simply managed to escape that world, their consciousness reaching elsewhere in the same manner... whether that place is better or worse than the current world, who can say.
And about Elden Ring... I mean they are people who try to become dragons by searching and murdering docens of em... I think it's pretty clear one side ain't bieng exactly consentual in this situation now, aren't they.
THANK YOU for this well thought out reply! I can't thank you enough as i'm someone who's intersted in the esoteric side of the Souls games and yet have little experience with the actual games themselves. You having written this was a HUGE help for me in understanding the Themes of the games when it comes to this. Thank you THANK YOU. YOU ROCK!
Dark Souls:
"Thank you for helping me reach Nirvanna"
"I̶m̶ ̶l̶i̶t̶e̶r̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶z̶a̶r̶d̶ You are welcome child"
Elden Ring:
"HEAAAAARTTSSSSS"
"AHHHHHHHHHH"
I've always loved how immortality comes with a great price in Miyazaki's works, it makes things much more interesting when Godhood has negatives!
Not just Miyazaki.
Aldia is the closest thing to a pure immortal in Dark Souls, or at least Dark Souls 2. He’s also… well, just look at him.
I never got why people hate the concept of not dying so much. Dying sucks. We've been trying to avoid dying for all of human history.
Particularly reminiscent of Lord of the Rings where immortality is not natural to humans an hobbits. The rings of power basically just stretch out your life for ever rather than granting new life. So Gollum turns into a wirey, gaunt monster and the ring wraiths had theirs’ so long, their life was spread so thin they basically lost their corporeal bodies and turned into wraiths.
This is why so many of the regular enemies in ER look like ghoulish zombies. There is no normal death in The Lands Between. It sounds like normally at some point you “die” and are supposed to report to the catacombs to be reabsorbed by the Erdtree. All the enemies we see haven’t done that so their body has continued to age without dying.
Sekiro also has a similar thing with immortality. Wolf’s immortality doesn’t create new life, it just steals it from those around him when he dies and this manifests as the spreading dragon rot.
@@ENCHANTMEN_ you cant have life without death
Not Godhood. Immortality should come with negatives but godhood is something that should be absolutely coveted.
My first reaction when my eyes went all dragon-y was, "I don't know what I did to cause this -- but it's awesome and I glad I did it".
After finding out the terrible true nature and curse of my heart-eating deeds I... still regret nothing.
And thus, the Tarnished-Dude sets the Erdtree on fire.
yeah i’m cursed, but have you seen how cool these dragon retinas look?!
My guy is wearing a blindfold so I don’t care .
If you go for Ranni’s ending, Ranni will eventually be married to a Fucking magma Wyrm lmao
@@shagarumedic That'll be a scary ass Magma Wyrm, it'll also be in space.
That just sounds interesting.
"cursed to crawl on the earth on their bellies" is a surprisingly similar quote to Genesis 3:14. As the Bible goes, God cursed serpents to crawl on the ground for leading mankind astray in sin, when Adam was convinced to consume the forbidden fruit to become 'like God' (in the sense of knowing right and wrong). Guess these human heroes wished to become god-like by blurring the lines between themselves and the immortal dragons via dragon communion and were cursed for it.
That only raises the question, How did snakes look with legs?
@@yumesoro2218 probably like skinks
@@yumesoro2218 idk I e never read the Bible but maybe they had wings?
@@yumesoro2218 lizards
@@yumesoro2218 Probably like chiense dragons with legs
Becoming a dragon is a concept and idiom that originated from China, "望子成龍望女成鳳", "hoping your son will become a dragon, your daughter will become a phoenix".
It basically means hoping that your children will grow up to be successful, with a mythical reference to how the carp that leapt over a water fall to become a dragon, made well known in modern times by the Pokemon Magikarp.
This is such a common idea that Jackie Chan's CN name is 成龍/Cheng Long, which means "become a dragon", and also Yakuza's JP name, Ryu Ga Gotoku which means "Like a Dragon".
I don't think it's correct to say the idea "originated from China," or that it originated from a particular Chinese phrase. First of all, what's the etymology of that phrase? Second, other cultures came up with things we call dragons, or very dragon-like thing, and I kinda doubt the idea of turning into one of them was unique to the Chinese. Transformation myths abound in every culture. I'm sorry if my tone seems mean or something, I'm just genuinely kinda baffled by this comment.
@@Wveth Dragons are definitely not unique to China, however the mythological inspirations of Souls games and Japanese myths all traces back to China.
Have you wondered why Souls games involves cycles of eras and events, a lot of suffering as well as characters who die and resurrect? That's because Souls games are literally about Buddhist concepts of, attachment, suffering, reincarnation and karma etc. NPCs are all suffering from attachment to something, which ultimately leads to their death, gods and other entities continuously bring about karmic cycles of death and rebirth, causing karma to manifest in the form of the player, who are one of many hollows, ashened, hunters, tarnished etc.
Karma is basically cause and effect, the more positivity and negativity you put into the world, the equal and opposite will return to you, an endless cycle. After the Demigods caused so much suffering in the Lands Between, the Tarnished are led by "grace", which is basically karmic fate to try and put an end to the cycle of suffering. All of Soulsbourne follows this concept and even Sekiro, have you wondered why in Sekiro's "Dragon's Homecoming" ending he heads "West" with the Divine Child? Because the West of Japan refers to the heaven of China, specifically the Buddhist heaven Sukhavati, that is where Kuro will reincarnate, and that place is where the Divine Dragon(which is a Chinese dragon) comes from, what the Dragon's Homecoming means.
All the corruption in Souls games are a combination of the Shinto concept of filth "kegare" and the Buddhist concepts of attachment and karma. By chasing after power, e.g trying to become a dragon, they only get corrupted and punished by karma.
Fafnir and many other examples would disagree with you. China did a lot of things, but creating the concept of dragon and becoming dragon is definitely not one of them
@@eloryosnak4100 Japan and Korea would not use the written word until a millennium after China begin writing down history.
They would not have known anything about their pre-history without records from China much like modern European would know nothing about their pre-history if the Roman hadn't written it down.
While it is silly to fight over the concept of who invented' a phrase/idiom, it is also pretty silly to say the image(or the idea to become one) of the eastern dragon didn't start in China.
Dragons were often a sign of royalty too, so it could be a commentary on how trying to achieve success at all costs can warp people.
I also love Yura’s warning, that the path of using dragonkin magic is a slippery slope of corruption. And he’s right, a lot of us are enamored with the flashy devastation as we consume more, only we don’t get to see how that turns out besides the eyes.
Honestly I'm a little disappointed that's the only consequence of using them. If you gradually gained scales, wings, or horns then that would be awesome! I'm a little disappointed that this game doesn't have a proper dragon transformation despite it being slightly more "in your face" thematically than it was in the previous games. He straight up tells you that you'll turn into something inhuman and yet there aren't really any permanent, irreversible changes to your character. No new ending, stat changes or abnormal body modifications, just glow in the dark contacts and some OP spells.
It's just a shame all the dragon miracles are some of the worse spells in the game because of how slow they are and the lack of s or poise
@@NightmareBlade10 The excuse would be that it probably because it takes time for you to truly feel the results of your actions.
@@hhjhj393 Actually it might be a good fit. It was heavily implied that before the Greater Will and Golden Order became the rulers of the Lands in Between, the Dragons are the one ruling with the Farum Azula Beastmen worshipping them.
It was a fan theory that the very first Lord was actually Placidusax and after the Marika and Golden Order defeated him that the very first ELDEN LORD was crowned.
So if we could have a Age of Dragon ending, it will literally just putting thins back before the Greater Will chose to invade the lands Between.
@@takumiyoshimoto9542 Not Marika or the Golden Order, the Elden Beast by itself.
I never played elden ring, but you guys in the comments are really in-depth about the subject and I love when a community can come together and have discussion board over various things. Keep rocking guys, plus the music is soothing
This is what makes you such an important and beloved figure in the Souls community Zullie. You don't just show us cool behind the scenes stuff or mess around with code and animations. You focus on these fascinating little mini pockets of Miyazaki's worlds and shine a light on it, or show us something new, some new way of thinking about it. It's always so fascinating. You have people like illusory wall or Limit Breakers, who are on the technical side. On the lore side you have SinclairLore, Lokey, Vaati obviously (even if his own success has diluted the content a bit). But you're this unique mix of both sides of the coin and constantly come out with great content.
I personally can't stand Vaati's reading style. He starts and stops and tries to cloak his voice in mystery or dramatic effect but it just makes me cringe. If he read normally I'd have watched all of his stuff
Other interesting item descriptions about Magma Wyrms
Those who have performed the Dragon Communion will find
their humanity slowly slipping away. Once they fully succumb to their fate, they are left no more than wyrms that crawl the earth
It's said these land-bound dragons were once humans heroes who partook in dragon communion, a grave transgression for which they were cursed to crawl the earth upon their bellies, shadows of their former selves.
Once known as a great warrior, Theodorix has succumbed to the power of Dragon Communion, transforming into a malformed Wyrm. It is capable of using its sword, along with its magma breath on anything that dares to awaken it
The name of the ancient troll warrior Theodorix lives on - as a hero of the War against the Giants.
a better way of searching for immortality is doing Fia's quest or becoming a sorcerer and doing it with a primal glint stone like sellen but even turning into a magma wyrm is still far better than dying and being forgotten like all the dead corpses you loot around in the game
@@colorpg152 We're all forgotten eventually. Sometimes passing away into your eternal rest is much more preferable than an anguished existence as a misshapen shell of your former self.
@@Kastafore speak for yourself i'm perfectly fine with being in eternal anguish
@@Kastafore but if you wish to ruin your foes, leaving them to this misshapen self can be quite a fitting punishment
@@colorpg152 You will be known as Magma Wyrm once transformed not as the one you were before transformation, so basically you'll be dead anyway :D :D
Kind of reminds me of the Dark Sun campaign setting from D&D. Arcane magic in that setting literally drains the life out of anything around it, the more powerful the spell the worse. And the end goal of most arcane magic users was to transform into an immortal dragon.
And just like that, the words of Aldia resonates once again
"Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite, A LIE WILL REMAIN A LIE"
Aldia the absolute gigachad
aldia gained immortality along with the bearer of the curse so in my had canon they found a third path
@@colorpg152 they didn't achieve immortality.
They were both bound to the First Flame cycle by Gwin's first sin and unable to die, much like everyone else. They just found each a way to not hollow.
They only exist as long as the broken cycle keeps being perpetuated and we see in ds3 that at some point it can't keep going anymore and everything just turns to ash, them included.
@@gamongames deathist are we?
@@colorpg152 just facts.
The item description on Great Wyrm Theodorix's magma breath describes how his name is that of a great troll which also suggests he was once a person, a troll who fought in the war against giants. I was wondering the same thing about this after, if they were once people beforehand and this video really helps shed light on that, thank you.
Oooooo that's something I didn't know!
Theodorix was a troll, not a dwarf, though
@@jooot_6850 didn't it say he was a dwarf that fought against trolls?
@@jooot_6850 nevermind you're right let me correct it
@@cruggs0730 theodorix was a troll that fought against giants.. which, admittedly, is pretty close 😂
A few things I've gather during my playthrough, these are just first-look observations so I'm happy to be proven wrong!
It's also implied that, beastial as they may be, the modern dragons of the lands between were both aware and actively hunting partakers of dragon communion. We can see an example of this right in front of the dragon cathedral with the rot dragon, who's title is Ekyzykes, dragon communion revenger. Before Malenia decided to nuke Caelid to have a chance for a stalemate against Radahn, he most likely prowled the area to hunt those who'd try to eat dragon hearts. His hatred was so great that he kept guarding the entrance even while he was decaying into nothing.
In the same vein despite not coexisting anywhere else in the game (as far as I know) both ancient dragons and their wyvern-like descendants seemed to fight against dragon communion. Although the hearts you eat are from regular dragons, you can see ancient dragon corpses in all the dragon churches, seemingly having crashed through in an attempt to destroy them.
Last thing, humans weren't the only ones able to eat dragon hearts (and ending up cursed by doing so, but can you really blame them, have you seen the RANGE on those dragon breaths?) the great magma wyrm Theodryx used to be a troll.
I also wonder what's up with the dragon powered banished knights. At first I thought they were partaking in communion just like the player, but you can also find them in crumbling Farum Azula, where they almost seem to be guarding the place. If that were the case, why would they wield dragon breaths when doing so was seen as taboo?
I may have an idea
You see, the fire they breathe is very difrent from the incantation variant,
Maybe you can get a weaker version from serving them
Then again i dont think that people from the dragon cult can spew fire, so either its a difrent kind of worship, or the knights have been Able to find a weaker version of dragon comunion in farum azula,
Honestly idk
I love these lore focused videos of yours and how you often integrate it by bringing up coding and small or hidden features to strengthen your argument. Keep it up
Dragonkin soldiers are some of my favorite boss/field boss, thematic and imposing, but they felt a lil underused, I hope there's more on them in dlc or just the lore surrounding them
Yeah too bad that there's only three of them, wish they used them more
3 Dragonkins is enough, the reoccurring bosses in this game are already a bit too high
There's a plethora of phantom ones in the Consecrated Snowfield
Do not need any more of them especially after the cluster mess of spirit version in the consecrated field
@@BaldorfBreakdowns fuck those
Is probably more of a From Soft thing than a Miyazaki thing. They did a similar concept in Eternal Ring where characters were cursed by their search for the powerful magic on the island, being turned into monsters that slowly lose they humanity. Most notably, powerful mages get turned into dragons.
I really hope whenever they bring the DLC that they include a dragon transformation. Kind of like how they added the beast transformation in the Old Hunters DLC. Or at least more change besides just the eyes.
I hope so too. As I was looking forward to finding out what the dragon form would look like in elden ring only to be disappointed to find out there isn’t any.
What do you think the Draconic Communion incantations are, bro?
nick012000 yeah they look cool but it’s just not the same as actual being a dragon character.
Like wings or Dragon teeth or maybe a Dragon tail.
Miyazaki's struggles with the concept of immortality have contributed to his now immortal status as the genius behind our favorite games.
I'd love to see a character arc where we come across someone who achieved immortality and became a true, regal dragon... but hated the transformation so much that they almost went completely mad and does not want anyone else to experience the pain and horror they themself went through. It would be a deviation from the usual trope of failed transformation from human to dragon that Miyazaki likes to do, while still carrying over the message that he's wanting to tell people, essentially a case of "this is what happens even IF you somehow succeed." Simply put, humans and numans have no business wanting to become dragons. They should be content enough with the dragon cult's existence. Learn from them, do not become them...
But I am not content. Why should I be content with getting old and dying? I don't want to die. I want to be immortal. And if that means abandoning human form then so be it.
I kind of want to see someone that succeeds in the transformation but now has so much time on their hands they just kinda... don't know what to do with it all now or expected to fail so now that they've gotten there they're just kind of lost.
I don't understand this defeatist logic so you were born mortal and now you are supposed to just accept death without fighting, that sounds like a hollow's philosophy, a chosen undead would say nah I will just become a dragon anyway
@@mishtrong Why you? Why anyone?
@@colorpg152 The funny thing is that the undead are basically a foil to it. They keep their human form and the message is that it is worth "living" for its own sake even if it means dying repeatedly. Even kindling the flame the purpose is to try to preserve life as a self-sacrifice instead of a suicide.
what if the dragonkin soldiers are transformed trolls? they have similar sizes and proportions, though shifted a bit by the transformation, and they share traits like the hollow abdomen and the root-like growths
Yeah, seems suspicious imo.
very well could be
That’s even more pathetic. They could barely grow larger than their original states.
The characters in Miyazaki's games are ready to pay any cost they can, just to be anatomically compatible with Priscilla so that she can become their waifu.
34 likes, perfect for calling out the simps.
@@ela-811 now it's 82, what you gonna do about it? Priscilla simps ftw
I killed her immediately cus she didn’t reward us with anything for leaving her alone lmao
Now with the DLC, we can comfortably tell the Dragon Kin and their makers: "Skill issue"
You made me launch elden ring for the express purpose of looking at my eyes. God, I love your channel and FromSoft
Dragons dogma has an interesting idea like this, upon defeating the dragon you often become one yourself. You can be essentially a fully formed powerful dragon, but can't escape that fate.
I suppose there, it's less about malformed creation and more about the loss of will.
Depends on the arisens will to defeat the senescal
If an arisen fails to defeat the dragon, they turn into drakes and wyvern
If they fail to defeat the senescal, they turn into dragon
But if they refuse to defeat the dragon, they are cursed to become half-formed hybrids
@@johnathangoldstein9991 I think he's referencing fake Netflix Dragon's Dogma, where dude killed the dragon and turned into it. Game's story was much better.
@@damoneldritch7588 It's all about cyclical fate. If you kill the dragon, you either become the next one or the seneschal. Unless your character is willing to wander around in Hell World Gransys for the rest of their unnatural life, they have to confront their maker.
Yo that sounds badass. Are all games like that? If yes I gotta give them a try
It may not be a full dragon, but turning into a Magma Wyrm sure as hell still seems like an upgrade from being a puny human. Plus you get a cool sword and magma powers.
:30 to :36 is a beautiful way to present both models and your point simultaneously. Always love the atmosphere you create with your videos!
Its remarkable in Sekiro - most of "bad" want to reach immortality (Genichiro, Owl, many of monks and others) on the other hand - "good" characters are not afraid of death and accept it calmly and with dignity. Isshin asks Sekiro to cut his head when he is defeated, immortal warrior seeks for death... and other characters
What matters is how we live our life. Think of Miyazaki himself. He has become truely immortal thanks to his work
Yup, that's buddhism culture in a nutshell. That's why the "true" ending is giving reincarnation to Kuro too.
Enjoy life while ya got it. Not when you're almost at the end of it
@@BoTheJo Immortality cheapens your mortal life, I suppose.
immortality is fruitless if you dont even know how to live properly as a decent being
The thing with the torch at 0:28 was very clever, your videos are always so well put together, thanks
This might explain why they use the title "Flying Dragon" for some boss like Flying Dragon Agheel. To help distinguish a true dragon capable of majestic flight from a would be dragon like a magma wyrm that has to crawl.
To be fair those aren't "true" dragons either, just lesser descendants.
@@kindlingking Nah "Flying Dragon" is a callback to Flying Dragon Hellkite from DS1, who was also a shitty little drake instead of a true dragon
Yeah I think that's a good reason why are they are called "Flying dragons" also and as far as I know the dragons don't speak so how did they know their names? could it be these are human who succeeded on becoming dragons, although lesser dragons but atleast they are not malformed.
the world flying dragon comes from hiryu a Japanese world which when translated literally means flying dragon but it can also mean fire dragon or wyvern so there is a decent chance is a mistake
@@colorpg152 That's interesting!
Reminds me of the line from Berserk about how a dragon is something that is fundamentaly beyond humans, and what it means to be able to kill one
In three minutes you managed to perfectly explain the lore and what it represents. I often think ahead too much. Death feels like it’s around every corner for me. But Miyazaki shows through his games that refusal to change with yourself and the world, will result in you becoming a hideous malformed monster. Great video bro 👍
It's also implied that at least some of the magma wyrms were crucible knights. Possibly implying that there was some division among their ranks at some point. We even find one crucible knight staring at the corpse of a dragon, almost wistfully, like the havel knight from DS3.
This may explain why they aspects of the crucible incantations all offer dragon like abilities. Maybe they were all off on a journey to become dragons.
I'm not sure we can say that any of them succeeded but I will say that winged horned lizard is a pretty close attempt. I'm down with the lava lizard bois.
I think the crucible incantations are all more akin to the non-human parts of Morgott and Mohg. Morgott has a big tail sorta like one of the incantations, and Mohg has wings, similar to one of the incantations the crucible knights also use.
@@jankbunky4279 It would certainly fit in with the theory that the Omen are an evolved form of humanity forged in the Crucible. Both Morgott and Mohg were born to Godfrey, the Elden Lord with the closest ties to the Crucible, but the Greater Will detested the Omen thanks to their connection to the original god(s?) of The Lands Between.
Crucible have parts clearly non-dragon, most evidently the fire one that looks more like a basilic than anything else
@@jacobanderson8219 Pagan gods? Hmm, interesting.
Out of curiosity where was it implied that the magma wyrms we crucible knights? To me it's implied that Crucible knights have dragon-like incantations because of the nature of the Crucible, not because they were pursuing becoming dragons.
The Crucible is primordial, before even the Erdtree, representing amalgam of features as the a form of life. These features that are now distinct to species (horns, tails, wings, throat sacks, branches, etc.)
I think you might be confusing the Crucible knights with the Tree Sentinels, which split off into Draconic Tree Sentinels when they realized the power of dragons (after the dragons attacked Lyndell). But maybe they're related.
Ahhh my favorite TH-camr here to make my day yet again. Thanks for the great vids Zullie
Miyazaki has a very elegant way of conveying the price of hubris to his players
This video really makes me think on my own Communion/Lightning based character: a reincarnation of a character of mine from previous Souls games named Kalise. In Elden Ring I made her Draconian and centered her entire spell and moveset around the dragons and their power. She doesn't worship dragons themselves, but more the power they have: Power she craves for herself, believing it to be her birthright as Draconian. Hers is a tale of self destruction to achieve ascension, becoming a goddess through draconic power and taking the title of Dragoness for herself. Her heavy partaking in Communion and hunting draconic creatures for their power also earns her the title of Dragon Eater: Literally devouring dragons of all forms to gain unimaginable strength.
When she eventually falls to the sin of Communion, I imagine she's going to become something truly terrifying. The Dragon Queen of the new age, destined to collapse under the weight of her own power. She believes she can avoid the fate of others who partake in Communion by incorporating the power of the ancient dragons into herself. She may get closer than anyone else ever could, but she will still fall short of becoming a true, ancient dragon. All the ferocity and power without the true majesty.
just graft the ancient dragon wings and it will be fine
@@colorpg152 Stars, if only we could get wings like that. Heck, I still wish we could get the Aspect wings that Crucible Knights use. There is always DLC, though: fingers crossed for new spells and maybe transformations.
Your character sounds very suited for the frenzied flame ending
@@theskepticalwhaler4946 Never thought of that. She doesn't really have a reason to end the world, more just become so overwhelmingly strong that none can oppose her in lordship.
Nice concept.
wow. I designed my prophet character with a blindfold in the character customization, so I never noticed the change of the eyes. that's awesome. I want to be wyrm.
you are a lizard. lie in sun. eat bug. Life is simple
I love these videos - taking a series of what to me were disperate notions and ideas and putting them all next to each other in a clear and concise way, each part informing on the others - bringing coherence. It settles the rattling of the many little pieces in mind down into their proper places in the image in the mosaic
The secret behind draconic immortality is dedication, and the will to go on, even if the path is an arduous one. You'll suffer, yes, it'll be painful as all hell, yes, you might end up a horrid monster, yes. If, at the end of the day, you're willing to take those risks, and go beyond them to become an ancient dragon, then there is no doubt of your success, no matter how long it takes.
Being cursed to change into a magma wyrm sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Dragon communion sounds even more awesome now.
True, you get to just chill all day and belly flop intruders lol
Be grateful for the blessings you receive and dare not to ask for more. Love your videos so much. Thank you for the time, care and consideration you put into your work.
I can't wait for the day we are able to fight a true ascended form of man and dragon in these games. Something that has achieved that perfection. And I hope it obliterates us over and over until we find what can bring it down.
The tragedy of killing such a being!
Priscilla. She was the only time a successful fusion of human and dragon had ever come into existence. And yet, due to her nature, she was hated by all and considered, in her own soul's description, to be the "antithesis of all life"; something worthy only of death in the eyes of the world, for she represented something the world could not fathom, nor control. She was scared and ashamed and wanted nothing more than to be allowed the privilege to remain alive.
And you killed her for no reason, after going out of your way to find her in a hidden pocket-dimension inside a painting world, after she begged you to just leave and never come back. She fought you reluctantly and in self-defence because she just wanted to be left alone.
What do you make of the Draconic Tree Sentinels? In games lore reveals "After the great ancient dragon Gransax attacked, the sentinels had an epiphany. The only way to truly protect the Erdtree was to become dragons themselves." My presumption is that, unlike other attempts to integrate or infuse the power of a dragon into a mortal body - the Sentinels essentially forged their armor with fragments of the petrified Gransax. Given the "Bolt of Gransax" comes with the weapon skill Ancient Lightning Spear and the Draconic Sentinel uses a lot of lightning-based abilities - I wonder if that is a tacit association that they're wielding a malformed variant of Gransax's own draconic power. It is interesting how the Draconic Sentinels fit into the traditional themes and representation of dragons and draconic lore in the games. They essentially circumvent the profanity (stark contrast to Godfrey whose grafting of the dragon head was portrayed as something grotesque) against the Golden Order by infusing their armor with dragon scales rather than their corporeal body.
Communing with dragons curses you into becoming a foul creature that levels arcane and spams rot breath
The tightrope of two worlds falls to unimaginable depths
Man I hope we get some wildly modified animations and movesets/transformations for Elden Ring like bloodborne got to have. Even if it was just a simple "hold this weapon and equip this rune" type deal, I'd love to see a more grotesque and realized dragonkin transformation, and maybe an Omen one, or some outer god shit.
Omen, for me. Dragon transformations have, in my opinion, been thoroughly explored through Dark Souls. The Omen are something new.
Outer gods should probably be off the table for the time being
@@iggytheincubus dragons are not thoroughly explored. Bloodborne explored the idea of completley different inhuman animations and movesets. Having a transformation that turned you into a mini-dragonkin would be cool as hell
This might be useful for my own worldbuilding. In my fictional world, there is a race of half dragons that originated as a experiments made by the dragons themselves. I haven't worked on that too much yet, but this might at least help inspire me. Thanks Zulie!
I am curious to see if Commander O'Neil and Commander Niall have any other physical differences beside the lightning peg leg for Niall, especially since some people said that O'Neil could be the son or descendant of Niall with the names used that seems to mean "son of".
I'm not Irish myself, so I'm speaking as an outsider here, but the O' in O'Neil is part of an Irish naming convention. It literally translates to 'descendent of', but was generally used to mean 'grandson of'. In older times, an Irish boy would be named either [Name] Mac [Father's Name] or [Name] O [Grandfather's Name] (with Mc and O' used as shortenings). I welcome any corrections from anyone who's actually irish that reads this, btw. It's entirely possible that Neil is meant to be a shortening or variant spelling of Niall, though, and that Commander Niall and Commander O'Neil may be related in some way
I would like an NPC in a Fromsoft game who's goal is to become something even greater, even godlier then gods and dragons. He would progress with his research the more we meet him and he would likely interact with other NPC's who are remotely smart and can help him. At the end, in one of the final locations, after clearing it, we can come back to one of the bosses arena's just to find our friend there, turned into a holy amalgamation of dragon and something angel-like, and becoming a secret boss. After defeating him we would get a quest item which we then can use in the first location we met him to recieve a powerfull spell which would act like a dragon stone from Dark Souls, but will turn us into something similar to him, with same kind of abilities. In the end, he would lose his sanity by becoming what he always wanted to achieve, with a tbought what he probably will not meet a sussec on the first try and go mad, he saved this item to give us, only for us to become a better version of what he wanted to be, somethin greater. After that, we would unlock a new ending where we would give this kind of ascension gift to the rest of the world, like Ranni's ending.
Aldia?
like Slave Knight Gael?
@@alisweatshirt7405 what? He does not match the description at all
@@bearfg9000 already better, but still not that
Well, Hawkwood wanted to become a dragon. You can even fight him in Abyss Watchers' arena, and if you die, he will steal your dragonstone. Not exactly the same thing you imagined, but still.
Loved some of these angles and camera pans, especially the Dragonkin Soldier's guts to the wings. Also really like this format, written content w no audio besides game style music is nice. Feels like gamer content
love how this channel digs up
data-mined,
sometimes obscure,
sometime revealing,
sometimes purely mechanical, sometimes lore
Information
As usual, your videos are my favorite way to learn the lore of this game!
Man, the Magma Wyrms got lucky. At least they are not horribly misshapen and seem to be fully functional organisms. Plus they seem to enjoy a long lifespan unlike the dragonkin who are said to have died shortly after their creation.
I really, really hope for a dragon themed dlc for Elden Ring. Elden Ring dragons are entirely different creatures from the Souls universe and I think that just like the rest of the ER world they have near endless potential for future content. Also, four-winged dragons wielding lightning is just wicked.
I hope not, fighting dragons, or more specific, fighting camera, is and will always be the most annoying thing for me
I will take miquellas wet dream any time of the day tho
I just hope for a Dragonkin transformation, or atleast their armor that doesn't exist right now in the game.
"Elden Ring dragons are entirely different creatures from the Souls universe" They're not, though? Stone-skinned dragons associated with immortality, and human followers who seek to transform themselves into them?
@@nick012000 Except the dragons of Elden Ring are seen to be fully sentient or if not, outright sapient beings while most of the dragons from Dark Souls aside from Seath appear to be nothing more than powerful wild animals.
Tbh I'm hoping for a Cosmos DLC. Dragons are awesome, but not as much as the potential of Eldritch horror.
Really like the origin story of the magma wyrms, as it sounds like a blending of the Norse story about Fafnir, a dwarf whose greed for gold turned him into a dragon, and the Judeo-Christian story of the Fall, how the serpent was cursed to writhe upon the ground for causing paradise lost.
Mfw the Magma Wyrms can just stand up if they want to
The whole “story” of transforming into a elevated being seems to be extremely sad and frequent in FromS games, from Ds1 to Bloodborne, Ds3, Sekiro and now Elden Ring we see a lot of sceneries like that, even Godrick is a good example somehow.
There’s a lot of majestic beings may it be the great old ones or Dragons, there’s always some folks that dream of a higher existence with a greater purpose of life, like longing to become a Dragon, a majestic yet untouched being that is visibly on a higher plane, to a point where a lot of Factions want to pursue the Goal to become said entity by enduring great pain, loss and suffering but still ending up being pitiful waste. I think that miyazaki kind of wants to tell that there’s a strict line between “us” and elevated beings, if you’re not born a Dragon, you’re not meant to be one, try it and you will end up as a shell of something in between.
I would still try, cause dragons cx
that sounds like bio determinism the idea that your fate is decided by your genes, its a defeatist philosophy, logically speaking why would humans be unable to transform into dragons when magic can turn humans into chaos warped demons and abyss monsters? it almost sounds like the fox and the sour grapes, stop throwing shades at people who are trying to overcomes their weakness its like telling the guy who is trying to invent the plane that humans will never fly why even do that
"If you are not born a dragon, you're not meant to be one, try it and you will end up as a shell of something in between"
Its a great phrase, and at the same it feels sadly aplyable to other things in live too, hm
@@DM-Oz its the same thing they told the wright brothers that humans weren't born with wings so they will never fly, oh wait they invented the plane ddn't they, this is the same bs they said about man walking on the moon and many other great discoveries its the horrible self-defeating ideology of fatalism that you would think people should have learned by now not to nay-say trailblazers but i guess since from tends to make fatalist games, but then again gideon tells you that you can't even become a elden lord and a man cannot beat a god, so they also seem to not like self-defeating naysayer either
@@colorpg152 That's not the same thing though. The examples you provided are people who took the time, care, and patience to learn something new in the field of science and engineering to get what they want without fundamentally changing who they were. The characters in Soulsbourne games would NEVER be satisfied with airplanes and rocketships. They want to BECOME things those things. To ascend. They are not satisfied with having to comfront what they think are limitations and find workarounds for that (technology.)
The sword of night and flame maybe gives a connection of how they were supplied bodies to make dragonkin soldiers, they do frostlighting after all. Theodrix shows not only humans can participate in dragon communion and was even involved with the war of the fire giants like several other trolls. Their cape is a curious piece (the symbol mostly resembles dragon cult imagery) and is the armor too its like a mix between sanguine noble and farum azula beastmen wear(jar shoulderpads and even the rooted bangles you see on cleanrotknights/giant corpses in the eternal cities or demigods), but there is nothing stating how they manage to fabricate them either via gravel stone and dragon hearts, or the crucible and larval tears to reshape and manipulate the body with both.
They're also incredibly stationary despite being quite mobile when they feel like it even being able to jump great heights with no problem and like the nokstella variant able to gain flight by replacing parts of their body with frostlighting. Despite being almost mindless it seems like they became more like overgrown guard dogs than soldiers just by how reactive the nokstella dragonkin is to you fronting the giant corpse on the throne and more alerting the never ending spirit summon army of dragonkin soldiers that respawn indefinitely without end feels like they were worth they're weight in producing and ironically did achieve immortality via spirirt ashes.
They're my favorite enemy but god damn they job so hard after you fight the one in siofra river, also need dragon kin breath incantations that fires frostlighting using a projection of their heads or armor because they look too damn cool to just give 2 weapons and a single frostlighting incantation.
Indeed, disgusting dragons...now can I be one in Elden Ring??? XD
The best your character would be able to achieve is a magma wyrm, but that's not so bad because they just get to chill all day with a big belly lol
@@sirdrell24 Reject humanity, return to dragon.
Not sure if you read all the comment but thank you always for your interesting and informative videos. Obviously lore and the thoughts behind the theme is a very interesting and fun part of Souls-series. I love your videos cause it's not only insightful but by going through behind the scene, cut contents, you guess and show the glimpse of what could've been.
As much as I enjoy these games and their themes, considering how this fear of immortality is widespread in media (although justifiably so) i'd like a game, or a story, where the pursuit of immortality in itself it's actually good and constructive, but can be corrupted if infused with the wrong motives.
Also, i think the perspective of someone actually enjoying their immortality might be fun.
Why would immortality be scary?
Bloodborne, the game is about how the search for immortality went badly wrong, but it wasn't because trying to become more was inherently evil, but instead because of the methods employed and the atrocities that resulted.
@@vyor8837 Just because your body lives forever doesn't mean that you won't go crazy or develop PTSD from seeing some fucked up shit or witnessing everyone you care for dieing horribly. There are people out there living normal length lives that are already tired of the monotony of living, so imagine how it would be if you had to deal with that until the sun explodes.
@@vyor8837 because the whole point of life is that it has an end. It makes all our relationships, experiences and achievements important. If there is no end there is no point. You have to be a psychopath to actually enjoy living forever.
The pursuit of immortality can never be “good” or “constructive”. Things must end so that others may take their place just as others did for you and as you will continue to. To want to live forever is pure vanity.
Ive always loved this theme of 'humans trying to become dragons in pursuit of e, and i feel like its been overlooked, thanks for doing this overview! Elden Ring dragonkin look so epic.
"Miyazaki's half dragons are clumsy, misshapen creatures with unwieldy proportions"
Priscilla in the background: *"pathetic"*
Becoming a magma wyrm is close enough and a win in my book
I've only ever played DS1 but your videos keep me in a trance and are addictive
Wanted to thank you for making your videos. I don’t play these games but the lore and character designs are so compelling that they’re just incredibly interesting to learn about. Your efforts are appreciated! Thank you!
I love the criticism towards immortality that are portrayed in these games. It’s always an interesting topic to me because of how glorified it became over time, but many media now a days have dissected this concept(Cocoon, Percy Jackson, Toy Story 2, Pirates: Curse of Black Pearl etc) and called out how unnatural it is. I feel like Miyazaki handles it the best with the immortal dragon symbolism tho.
There is nothing unnatural about immortality. Accepting that you will die and be nothing for all eternity is a far worse fate.
the dragons tend to have developed in antuarlly in his works too. 'evolution' one could say.
the ancient dragons seemed to be relatively chill from the sounds of it. Their servants were the beastmen, though now degenerate the statues showed them as something ore refined. the clergyman probably showing the 'true form' of the beastmen. and their city is basically a graveyard for their servants, implying a respect for their shorter lived lessers.
And even some people tend to manage the implications of being immortal with loss of memories or madness
How can immortality be bad?
@@vitanera4032 Different media come up with different drawbacks, but my favourites are the ones that point out immortality means you will never age or change in any way, which ultimately is much like death despite the fact that your body may still be moving around.
Like with Dark Souls, where you can avoid hollowing as long as you can remain committed to a goal, which means you can't give up but you also can't actually accomplish it, and eventually that one purpose will be the only thing you are anyway.
Wait, doing the dragon communion changes your eyes? I've been doing that since the beginning and never noticed that, that's absolutely rad.
This is unsettling in such a majestic way
Conveying such horror and that much more within a game with it's entire main story line / goal having little to do with it is pure talent
This is.. incredible
I didn't know much about the dragonkin or the magma wyrms, as I hadn't read many descriptions related to them, but this was really insightful and interesting. I really like how Miyazaki brings familiar concepts through the games, and always the unique and fascinating ones too.
I Love the Magma wyrm Design so much.
I also Like the Implication that the Player might end Up becoming one of Them over time, If the Player partakes in Dragon communion.
In my opinion the Dragon communion is the best Version of Fromsoftware's Dragon Player Idea so far.
Half-dragons, also known as Miyazaki punishing you for taking your scalie interests just a bit too far.
1:38 slav dragonkin hittin the squat
Marika also tried to achieve imortality by removing the rune of death. Food for thought
Well after the DLC , becoming a dragon has a chance of you having an enemy that will be to angry to die.
"CURSE YOU BAYLE!" - Local man too angry to die. (Igon)
I find it interesting how the Magma Wryms being stuck to the ground share a similar connection with the devil in the book of Genesis, who had his form as a snake forced to crawl upon it belly on the dirt as a sign of Satans eternal humiliation. These humans who through pride sought the forbidden arts of dragon communion were laid low and humiliated in their transformations.