... UPDATE: If you're curious about how Goldmask’s and Ranni's endings stack up in light of all the new lore from the DLC, I cover both towards the end of my video on the DLC’s final boss: th-cam.com/video/zGEAO1pciHI/w-d-xo.html
I think that it also is the best ending because u need both faith and intelligente to get it and it shows that with both smart planing and a litle bit of faith you van fix the most broken places
I think it's hilarious how Rykard and Mohg both lead factions that propose interesting alternatives to the Golden Order, but they don't get to have endings because they're too busy being fucking weirdos
Both Ranni’s and Goldmask’s ending are kind of similar just in different ways. They both want to remove the influence of the gods but in different ways. Ranni does it by becoming the god and then leaving the lands between while Goldmask discovers the mending tune of perfect order which prevents the meddling of gods
Yeah I always thought of it like he wants it to be like a triforce in the tree untouched. Ranni leaves behind the Elden ring and greater will but its still just a more extreme version by taking the source of order to the moon
Yes but keep in mind that Ranni orchestrated the shattering by having her brother killed, and even conspiring with Rykard. Ranni is a primary reason why the world went to shit and a person like that becoming a god of the lands might not be a good thing…
@Alex Grey Instead of a few groups of people who had it shit, she made everyone have it shit just so she can be in charge, and maybe make it better. So let me simplify it. Ranni is Eren from Attack on Titan. Hell, she even abandons her closet allies and leaves them for dead. I’m certain Marika had plans to betray the Greater Will, but it’s likely Ranni jumped the gun and ruined those plans (stealing death, killing Godwyn, and destroying the her own Empyrean body)
Personally I love this ending the most. Goldmask's utter bewilderment at the revelation of Radagon being Marika followed by a T-pose sold me completely.
I actually preferred the Goldmask ending, it's just such a shame that three of the endings is the same "you sit on the throne with a different filter applied" thing. Really wish they had more time to make them more distinct ;w;
Imagine in goldmasks ending there are people out side bowing and lyendell knight's at the side of the throne or in The age of the duskborn where a bunch of skeletons are praying to you,It would probably give more characterization to each ending
@@garrulousgoldmask Because in every "base" ending your are basically continuing the order of things and the state of the world, you are just filling in a missing slot.
An important thing to remember is that since Fromsoft is a Japanese company when they say Fundamentalists they are most likely are referencing fundamentalism in a Buddhist sense which generally refers to attempts to get back to an older less dogmatic version of Buddhism its self. Whats more is one of the most famous Buddhist figures in Japan is Dogen who traveled to China looking for to uncover the true roots of Buddhisim. Which Goldmask traveling through the Altus Plato looking for the answers reminded me of.
@@psychicmane7636 I suggest you do the same. He didn't create the fucking world and he's very upfront about that lmao. All he came up with were names (Which is why all the gods have his initials) and relations. FromSoft were the ones who made the actual story from that (Starting from the Shattering onward, which is not anything George wrote about.)
Miyazaki says as much as well. “When Martin wrote these characters, and when he provided that origin story that mythos for the world of Elden Ring, these demigods were much closer to their original form, and maybe closer to human form back then, before the Shattering, before it all started. So it was more up to us to interpret this and say, ‘how did they become such inhuman monsters? And how did the mad taint of the shattered shards of the Elden Ring and its power affect them?’ So that was our job to take these grand heroes and sort of misshape them and distort them into something they were not,” says game director Hidetaka Miyazaki. “And I think if we get a chance to show Martin and if he gets a chance to see the game and see these characters, I think he might be a bit shocked. When he wrote them, he was really envisioning something a little bit more human, a little bit more traditional human drama and fantasy characters. So I hope he gets a kick out of that.” “That process of taking these very human characters with flaws but these very dramatic, heroic characters and basically breaking them and making them these misshapen, grotesque monsters… That was a lot of fun for me personally.” (Also his favorite character is Rykard, funnily enough.)
I had thought that Fia's ending was putting godwyn to rest and so to those who live in death, by completing the elden ring and returning the rune of death to it. This isn't the case but dang it would have been so much more compelling. Especially from a death bed companion who's whole reason to be is for resurrection of others.
@@henrypaleveda7760 Fia's ending basically swaps the living and the undead, so the undead rule the Lands Between, and the living die off until only undead remain
Yeah! I actually had a whole discussion comparing Goldmask with Miquella in an earlier draft! While Miquella wants to ward off the Outer Gods from the Lands Between, Goldmask targets gods like Marika and other potential successors. Plus both love pure gold and turned away from orthodox Golden Order Fundamentalism.
@@sirpuffball6366 You need to cast "Law of Regression" in front of the statue in of Radagan in Leyndell. You learn about this from the turtle pope in the church of oath.
I would like to discuss how the default ending is the funniest, because it's kind of like trying to fix a mug by putting all the pieces back to together, and letting friction keep them in place. Sure it looks fixed, but that thing ain't holding water anytime soon.
Ranni takes the cup away Fia takes the remains of another mug and combines them Dung Eater glues the mug together with poo and is gonna make everyone drink from it Frenzied Flame eats the mug
The DLC only enforces this viewpoint, as the fingers had been unable to hear anything from the Greater Will since... well, seemingly since they showed up there. What the Greater Will actually wants isn't clear, and all the persecution, ambition, and directed cruelty towards things that are tied to the crucible is given a whole other explanation when you know the background Marika has with the Hornsent, who made the crucible the centerpiece of their culture. Marika's Baggage seems to be a big part of the Golden Order's cruelty. When you add in that the Greater Will hasn't actually said a god damn thing to anyone cause the fingers can't talk to it, there's no reason to see exclusion as inherent to the concept at all. Its two precepts are regression and causality, which are defined as "everything wants to come back together" and "the differences between things make them meaningful." When things die, they converge back at the erdtree and are reborn anew. Why would that be exclusionary, especially when the erdtree and the crucible are the same thing?
I think seeing how being affected by the crucible is really not a bad thing at all, since the hornsent had civilizations that thrived without problem in the DLC, makes the dung eater's ending actually pretty decent. It doesn't prevent the tempering of Gods but it atleast gets rid of the persecution of majority of people in the lands between by making all of them crucible-touched without much drawback.
Ranni's ending is to abandon everything and start over.... Goldmask's mending rune repairs what was broken and also removes any further meddling from outer gods and thus avoiding world-wide brokenness. In the long run, I believe it to be the best ending.
She wanted to remove the Order (and I guess the Elden Ring with it) from the Lands Between and leave it be. It's like seeing an overgrown garden and you neither pull the weeds or water it, just leaving it to grow how it wants.
Goldmask's ending is the Gratter Will timing suprême without interferences of Gods (Marika) or facilitators like the Fingers. It is pure absolute Order.
No no, Ranni only wishes to remove the influence of Gods from the Lands Between, you and her then travel to other lands for a thousand years, atrempting to free other places of that same control.
As a fellow Goldmask devotee, I still gotta call you out on the details here. There's two kinds of gods in Elden Ring: the *OUTER* Gods, which are non-physical forces that exist outside reality, and then the "normal" gods, who are mortals ascended to divinity via some physical manifestation of an Outer God's power. Marika hosts the Elden Ring, the manifestation of the Greater Will's power, which makes her the Goddess of Order. Malenia hosts the Scarlet Rot, the manifestation of the Outer God of Rot, which makes her the Goddess of Rot. And so on. What Goldmask's ending does, is it prevents mortals from messing with the Elden Ring and becoming gods through it. Instead of Marika wielding its power directly, it will just exist as-is, maintaining the concept of Order in the Lands Between with no room for tampering. This ensures that it can't be fought over, can't be twisted to suit someone's ambitions like what Marika did removing Death from it, and can't be shattered again. However, the *Outer* Gods are still very much a factor, and can still make lesser gods of their own. Goldmask's rune ONLY applies to the Elden Ring and the Greater Will. That said, Goldmask's ending is still the best on this front, because the Tarnished sticks around to handle any problems as they arise. We've already clapped Malenia once, and we can do it again. Ranni's leaves the world defenseless.
watching this, it suddenly hit me that all the major disasters in the lands between can be blamed on marika tampering with the elden ring. of course, we all know that you can't have a shattering without the elden ring being shattered into pieces for the demigods to fight over. but taking out the rune of death from the elden ring because she's afraid of what the gloam-eyed queen could have done, and literally letting your dog watch over it? yeah, that's the only reason ranni managed to steal it. and boom, godwyn dies, hijacks some roots of the erdtree, and now there's a plague of soulless bodies blundering about. all because she had access to the elden ring, and couldn't leave it alone. fickle gods, indeed.
@@OneWingRoad if the president leaves the nuclear launch codes in his front porch and some hobo uses them to blow up a city, it's still the president's fault. marika is the god of the lands between. having access to the elden ring isn't just her privilege, it's her responsibility as well
@@mihaica87 she didn’t lol if she wanted to shatter the elden ring what reason did she have to slaughter almost her entire family she already was in possession of it she had no reason to have someone steal death either cause again she was already in possession of it via maliketh who is bound to her will
@mihaica also she was under no obligation to help ranni whatsoever considering she’s not her child and two that she wasn’t going to let herself be replaced at all if she could help it and the event is stated to cause her immense psychological and emotional damage not tryna talk down on you i just don’t know what so many people think she had something to do with it she abandoned the numen and used the tarnished to fight her war for the erdtree ranni used them cause of their skill and grudge against the erdtree
If you ask me Goldmask is that one guy who actually decides to fix the fucked up buggy spaghetti code instead of destroying it and switching to a new engine.
Good point! It's kinda wild that a random bridge in Volcano Manor has a unique cut scene, but the Goldmask, Fia, and Dung Eater endings just get palette swaps like it's Mass Effect 3.
-Points to the Erdtree demanding audience with the Greater Will itself -Tells everyone they're wrong by basically T-posing -Perfects the concept of Order itself -Refuses to elaborate -Dies 10/10 best NPC (after Igon of course)
I was all set to get the Ranni ending, and then I found Goldmask's mending rune. And I was immediately like: "Oh yeah. It's this one. Sorry Ranni, very few things are more important than waifu and one of them is my homie Goldmask"
@@Destrudo5359 so.. you didn't even watch this video. or didn't even read what the rune does. it's quite clear there is a difference made, even if you think it's for the worse
I heard that Ranni's ending is also mistranslated. Ranni wants to take the influence of the outer gods to the stars, and let the creatures of the Lands Between rule their own lives
no that is not what it does she very clearly says the world cannot exist without order she only wants to conceal it and make it so people cant be sure if its even real, he ending is a sweet lie, also taking the order to the stars is meaningless since the stars ruled fate from up there with no issue
The way i see it. Ranni just became a god and chose 100% by herself the fate of everyone else. Fixing deathblight? Making sure there's a possiblity for someone else to rise to lord or god? Nope and nope. I just took the only thing that can fix the world and fucked off to the stars to live out ny emo phase. Goldmask is the only good ending
There's a theory that Marika was a Nox whose entire plan was to attain power by becoming a god to gestate her Lord of Night. In that theory, Marika battled the Gloam-eyed Queen and usurped her throne by taking the Elden Ring with her. Marika was no different than all the other previous gods from the Lands Between - she was as self-driven and would take everything she wanted through brute force(Taker's cameo and other descriptions say that is the way of Gods). So the fickleness that is described in the Mending rune of Perfect Order means exactly what it says - The gods were no better than men because Gods were just men blessed by the Greater Will. The Elden Ring was nothing more than a Trophy so they could exert their authority uncontested. The theory comes from Kosmos, btw
That's a really interesting explanation! And it adds a compelling backstory for how Marika became queen, which is a very underappreciated aspect of the lore. I've liked a lot of the Kosmos videos I've seen and he made a good argument for the GEQ to have had Placidusax as consort. That said, I do have my own, say we shall, unique take on the Gloam-Eyed Queen.
@Luiz I haven't dived into this on my videos yet, did you put 2 and 2 together or did i explain it on stream before? @Garrulous Goldmask thank you for the kind words, and great video!
wow that is soooo right finally someone who gets it, everyone is too busy trying to make it into a battle between ranni/marika and the evil greater-will/elden-beast/tree-parasite that they completely ignore all evidence
this ALWAYS seemed like the truly GOOD ending of elden ring to me, especially after learning of ranni's role in the events of the shattering. this plus the few good NPCs and quest endings (nepheli loux and miriel come to mind) always made me think of how these few good individuals could come together as stewards of the lands and the ring, rather than overlords. maybe im naive in wanting that for a fictional world, but i stand by it
@@kotorandcorvid4968 Ranni did a lot of things wrong, like orchestrating the death of one of her siblings, and then murdering everyone connected to her except for the Tarnished. Even tried to have Blaide offed, but he was too badass for her assassins. I picked the Moon ending too, but let's not pretend the witch isn't just as selfish and cruel as Rykard or Godrick.
@@TowaruTsura not at all. The night of the black knives was necessary and she didn't kill her friends. Iji was killed with black flames and Ranni mentions that the Two Fingers have been sending assassins after her.
@@TowaruTsura As far as I've been explained to, Blaide was going insane due to his built in purpose of retaining his Emperyeon; that being Ranni. If he could not retain them, prevent them from breaking their part in the order, then he would be forced to kill them. He broke this kill order programming initially when he sided with Ranni's plot, but as time went on (as we played the game) he began losing control over himself so he had to be put down. It would be no different than putting down a hollow in Dark Souls. It's not murder at that point, the person in question is no longer themselves or following their own desires.
@@kotorandcorvid4968 ranni is literally the cause of the shattering. marika doesnt shatter the ring until godwyn is dead, which ranni is DIRECTLY responsible for. all the suffering that happens in its wake can be directly laid at ranni's feet because of this. her ending is literally just her running away from all the problems SHE created and calling it "freedom". ranni says she wants to remove the influence of the gods, but her entire questline is really just conveniently shifting all that influence to HER. i don't trust it for a second, no matter how hot she is. goldmask is the only ending that both removes the meddling of ALL gods and also gives hope for those still left in the lands between. the tools are there for mortals to rebuild and restore a peaceful way of life that can thrive, and fate is entirely in their own hands.
This was pretty much my understanding of the Perfect Order ending, minus maybe the Greater Will bit. The only problem I see with Perfect Order is it's permanence. There may come a time when an unchanging order may hinder humanity as the Golden Order did before it. There is no proof that this will happen, but neither is there garuntee that it won't. That said, along with the Age of Stars and the return to the One in Frenzied Flame, I still consider Perfect Order to be one of the "optimal" endings, philosophically. If you believe that all things can follow a predefined set of rules, and that Goldmask sees the text behind the screen as it were, then I see no reason not to inact this perfect order (capitalization non-withstanding).
I see a reason not to enact the Age of Perfect Order Ending, a major theme in the Souls Series as a whole is the idea that stagnation leads to death and decay, in Dark Souls 1-3 the Age of Fire is prolonged a countless number of times and the end result is the dead world seen in DS3's Ringed City DLC, the point being made is that change is both necessary and inevitable It's also applicable to the real world too, take a stagnant pool of water as an example, they're unhealthy and unclean, and they become host to a variety of diseases and parasites the longer they just sit there, unchanging, flowing water meanwhile is the exact opposite The way I see it, Goldmasks Ending is the epitome of a Stagnant World, if Goldmasks Perfect Order is unchanging it will inevitably lead to a world devoid of life, that's just how it goes in the Souls Series, change is both necessary and inevitable
@@jaydenlobbe7911 Endless change is the natural cause of the consequences of stagnation though, as it creates observable cycles of growth and death that are thereby the true order of reality; endless change alone is still stagnant because it is a pattern in itself unchanging. If the Perfect Order prevents the decay of good things, they accumulate, and stagnation as a literal concept no longer applies because the survival of bad things no longer outpaces the survival of good things in a set and complete order. Goldmask here is saying, let's dictate the outcomes of society by the intelligence and canny of individual mortals and not through sweeping alterations to the nature of reality; his path is very conventionally monastic, with the belief that sufficient order will naturally provide its own cures for the problems of decay because that's how intelligence in itself functions. The apocalypse fetish these games have, where all societies rise only to fall, is just the failure of parties to learn how to outmatch the inherent order of the world by taming it and predicting it, which is exactly what Goldmask does by locking in the supernatural whims of the Golden Order and making them predictable; they aren't scientific, but they are now within the grasp of scientific minds to work under. Goldmask's plan here was to follow the general intelligence of an outer reality level hyperorganism who, yes, is untrustworthy - but is more restrained and giving than any of its competition. That being favors a pretty universalist world and goes out of its way to be beautiful and appealing, which are just as easily traits of manipulative self-presentation, but in comparison to the oceans of rotten flesh and the infectious apocalypse fire, it suggests a far less tyrannical mindset if it could just as easily present itself that way and still strong-arm parties into its general worship like they do. Shrugging off in universe arguments with meta logic is also just stupid, because you're lazily suggesting the pattern of writing in older titles creates an outer boundary of what can be narratively explored, and again, what is change in battle against permanency? Its own stagnant pattern, just another pattern, chaos asserting against the capacity of reality to maintain its structure. Goldmask's scheme is also necessarily tied to the Crucible, the literal living core of biological evolution, so assuming his lifeform-centric plan tied to a lifeform-centric Outer God hasn't even the innate biological ability of changing positively over time is just limp-wristed downer speculation because you wanted fucking the puppet to solve all of your problems.
@@jaydenlobbe7911 The thing is GoldMasks ending assures that change is brought up on by humankind. The meddling of God's is completely nullified which leaves humankind free to evolve on its own terms. Kind of seems like Goldmask is a Messiah type of figure in which we establish an order after which would lead to the world we currently live in, in my opinion. But if you want to invalidate your conquest, well, the Frenzied Flame.
@@Kn1ghtborne Except there's a problem, the Greater Will clearly created the Elden Ring with modularity in mind, add in a rune here and there, remove this rune, and this is an artifact that can alter the laws of reality itself, by creating a barrier around it Goldmask removes it's ability to be altered, thus Reality is a rigid set of laws that can never be changed, part of what's wrong with the Golden Order as it currently is, at least according to Rogier, is the inflexibility of it's systems, by making the Elden Ring itself inflexible Goldmask is only exacerbating that problem There's another problem I see, the Elden Ring itself is the problem, so long as it physically exists within the Lands Between, *somebody* will want to alter it, and that can only lead to more violence, even if everybody knows about the Barrier there will be somebody arrogant enough to believe they can remove it The Elden Ring IS the problem, this is why Ranni's solution is to remove it entirely, no more Elden Ring, no more problem
@@Kn1ghtborne Additonally the only ending that leaves Humanity free is Ranni's, the Elden Ring itself was sent down by an Outer God, is it's mere existence not meddling with the natural order? Ranni's solution: Just take the Elden Ring and LEAVE, that gives Mankind absolute free will to do whatever the hell they want, you can't say the same for making the laws of Reality absolutely rigid and unchanging
On the free will point, every other ending besides gold mask's interferes with your choices. Ranni gives you a gift making you friendly towards her then makes you come into her service. Dung eater threatens your life and then demands you free him from his cell. Shabriri manipulates you like he did to vyke to get his ending. Gold mask ending starts with brother corhyn saying he's leaving the roundtable hold. no one tells you where to go or what to do.
Oh I never thought about it like that! I also really appreciated how marginal the Tarnished is in the Goldmask ending: We just tell him about Radagon and Marika and then a few burned Erdtrees later, we pick up the Mending Rune he discovered.
my favorite ending, and it just raises even more questions. it's so interesting because at first glance, the Greater Will and it's Order seems like an antagonist, but it's not all good or bad and we really don't understand it's motives. between the GW, Marika and the Fingers, it's hard to tell who was pulling the strings for the various events that happened in the lore; especially since there's something very wrong with the Fingers, and there's a disconnect between them and the GW. it is seemingly the cause of life in the lands between, and the expeditor of it's evolution; the Erdtree, though a progression of the crucible, was for apparently in opposition to everything else in the world when it flourished, and it's constantly connected to the theme of war. it's also associated with giving life and joy, and seemingly allows for reincarnation. we also don't know why it started to lose it's luster; was it the shattering, or the infection of Godwyn's death, or something else altogether? loved Boggart's line "Maybe something went tits up with it. Maybe... it's been broke for a good long time. The Erdtree, I'm sayin'." Was it always broken because Marika removed Death from the Golden Order, leading to stagnation, and was removing Death just Marika or also the GW's intention? the GW somehow made a mistake when life was created from the one great; Hyetta says what was borrowed must be returned. what exactly did it do that led to every sin, every curse (if the GW wanted Death removed from the Order, is that the mistake)? in many ways the GW is absolutely terrifying, and in others it seems extremely benevolent. this ending is fascinating because it, seemingly restores and maintains the Order in the intrinsic way the GW intended, whatever that entails. I also noticed that this is the only ending where the 'restored' Erdtree emits that twinkling sound of grace.
from the perspective of the flame, I interpreted the "mistake" being for there to be distinction at all. every sin and curse can only exist through individual will. giving all that is back to the formlessness of chaos, or the Great One, also prevents there ever being suffering
Ranni still doesn't account for the lack of order, in a literal sense, so her ending is literally a gamble hoping for all of the Lands Between to have a working society without someone putting order in it. Which is why society in the Lands Between exists to begin with. She is quite literally trying to send the Lands Between back to the stone age because "gods bad". Meanwhile Goldmask tries to fix the problem without having to sacrifice literally everything that matters.
At first I wanted Ranni's ending, but then gold mask convinced me to mend the rune instead. Oh there's also frenzied flame that I'm okay with also lol.
I wanted Ranni's ending because I didn't like the Idea of getting Godfrey's leftovers. :] But I ended up getting the Frenzied Flame by complete accident lol
Best ending is to leave the throne vacant and let the Elden Ring crumble (implicit). To compare the endings given to us is to beg the question of teleological unity in The Lands Between. Asking "what should be the central principle of the world?" presupposes that there should be one at all.
IMHO the mending rune of the fell curse points in this direction, establishing the Elden Ring as a pit rather than a peak, but that's a personal reading. We see it is as imbuing the influence of *any* greater will with an aura of disregard and ill repute.
But rejecting the throne means rejecting order, any kind of order, you have to remember that the Elden Ring is a manifestation of the laws of nature, so rejecting the throne means the Elden ring will crumble to dust means absolute Chaos which in turn means no life can exist.
**DLC SPOILERS** The fact that we now know the Greater Will has been silent for millennia, and that the fingers have been doing whatever their mother told them to do makes me question wether there really are any outer gods any more. The god of rot was vanished and sealed, the god of frenzy never really acts, and the goddess of blood, while real, never tried to save Mohg or any of her followers. The outer gods might very well be a fraud with no real power to control the Lands Between
Controversial opinion time. I think at their cores, Goldmask and Ranni more or less have the same idea. Stop the gods from meddling in the affairs of mortals. However my issue with Ranni’s ending (besides arguably starting the whole mess) is her leaving the lands entirely. Yes, she does this to remove the outer gods and herself. But by extension, I believe it’s heavily implied the player joins her (any gameplay after the ending cutscene is just that). In doing so she removes both the influence of the outer gods and personal affairs/ambitions of her moon/night dynasty. While a noble goal, as free will and the ability to stand on one’s own feet is imperative. I’d argue the lands between need a leader now more than ever! Otherwise, your leaving the fate of lands between and it’s inhabitants up to a risky game of chance. Whose to say that the outer gods or some other god (be it some unknown outer god Ranni did not take away or even Demi gods or their descendants who might still live) or just any group who will see the obvious power vacuum and definitely take advantage. Plus! Even if their(Ranni/outer gods) influence is removed… Omens likely don’t just lose their horns, misbegotten and the like will still exist, people and areas like Calied are likely still infected with rot even if there is no will behind it, and then there is Godwyn, who is potential still “active” (as his ‘curse’ is not the work of an outer god but from the rune of death). Whether the Elden ring is actually present or not likely won’t matter. Not to mention the factions as well. We potentially merc many leaders throughout our journey. (Sure limgrave may have Nepheli but leyndell is left without a ruler, the haligtree is left without theirs, the redmanes may seem fine at the moment (as they are busy battling the rot). But again, these are some HUGE power vacuums we’re creating and potentially (with Ranni’s ending) just letting fester. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. In real life, scenarios like this almost always result in chaos/anarchy or some power hungry/violent groups vying for the crown. Imagine if our Tarnished never found Mogh or Rykard and they were free to continue their goals. or even if we left Tanith alone and she successfully revived the lord of blasphemy. Bandits are allowed to flourish. Undead/rot are left unchecked. Now any of this could still be going on in either ending. But at least in Goldmask’s ending, not only does it provide the means to remove these outer gods influences but ensures that the lands maintain a strong and most importantly PRESENT leader. Whom can see and interact with their people on a far more personal level and will likely (due to their journey across the land), have far more insight and empathy befitting of a ruler. As well as the strength and knowledge on how to defeat/deal with any potential threats already present or future (return of outer gods/other Demi gods). Giving the people someone (tangible) in which they can hopefully unite under and otherwise be guided by. Instead of leaving them high and dry with the vain hope that they’ll all just figure it out themselves. Where as Ranni’s ending feels like this: Cracking an egg to make an omelette but accidentally setting the house on fire. Then just letting it burn until someone eventually comes along to put it out. Once that’s done, claim yourself god while telling everyone else to deal with the ashes, while you bounce out of there.
You just perfectly described my main issues with Ranni’s ending. Most people like it because they can marry her and leave the lands between in relative peace (until another outer god presents itself). But she literally started the one event that ends up breaking an already fragmented world, and now wants to leave anyone to fend for themselves? That seems somewhat cruel to me. With the perfect order ending you can still try to repair the broken lands between and prevent an outer god from cursing anyone again.
The one issue with the perfect order ending is that, the tarnished isn't perfect either, and you're still subject to the greater will, and the greater will is an absolute ass
The empyrean who was dedicated to stopping the meddling of the outer gods was Miquella. Ranni seems more like she's planning to get out of the way of the outer gods and let things play out however they go.
@@lordofuwus7735 The point of the perfect order ending is that it no longer matters whether whoever is in charge is perfect, because the maintenance of the order is no longer dependent on the stability of the person in charge (if goldmask was successful at his aims, that is). Someone could still be a terrible ruler, but their leeway to engage in reality-bending disastrous levels of messing with the workings of the world is greatly limited relative to the past.
I always viewed Ranni's ending to be more tied to giving people free will rather than "abandoning" them. Ranni grew up as an Empyrian, with her fate already carved out for her and with the expectation that she may one day become the new god in service to the greater will, with absolutely no choice given to her. She then made it her life's goal to not only let her dictate her own destiny but to allow everyone else in the lands between to have the right to dictate their own lives, as well. Yes, she had to sacrifice her closest friends to achieve her goals, but she made sure they knew what they were getting into and they followed her anyway, and the way she speaks of it makes it seem as though she regrets their involvement for that exact reason. Whether you see that as being "bad" just because she has to leave to achieve that depends on whether or not you think people inherently need some kind of powerful force dictating their lives for them. Personally, I've seen evidence from NPCs in the world that there are good people who would be willing to step up to leadership positions should the need arise, so I don't think the world would be left to ruin just because they don't have a godlike being dictating their morals for them any more. I think both goldmask and ranni mean well and have similar-ish goals, and I think both endings can be called the best in terms of how they change the world in the end. I just don't know why people feel the need to badmouth one in order to praise the other, especially when they're already so similar.
Greatly insightful. Honestly, I feel like any of the endings can be valid as the 'best' option if viewed from the right perspective. Nonetheless, I still condemn the Dung Eater ending myself, and the Age of Death seems like it sorta just gets incorporated on a smaller scale within the others. Which kinda just leaves Chaos, Perfect Order, and Moon. I can empathetically understand the reasoning for the Age of Chaos - I can't fault a frenzied desire to simply end the cycle of pain. But it's not a particularly happy or satisfying answer. Ranni's motives and goals appear generally benevolent, but her methods are a bit questionable - especially considering she killed Godwyn, and pseudo-started the Shattering. Of course, Ranni had nothing to do with breaking the Ring itself, but the death of a demi-god led to the Shattering as a war. I do not believe the Demi-gods would've been so divided if Godwyn were alive. Furthermore, nothing has implicated Godwyn as deserving any sort of murder - let alone in the way he was killed. Godwyn was an absolute unit, and a damn near perfect advocator of peace. He stopped a dragon war diplomatically. But he's also powerful enough to casually solo dragons, too - he befriended Fortissax by basically winning against him in a wrestle. And he seems highly regarded, having been mourned by many. Miquella, arguably one of the best idealists among the demi-gods, went through the effort of making a memorial sword for Godwyn. So Ranni killing Godwyn's soul and letting his body grow and decay kinda sucks.
Thank goodness I am not the only one who noticed that about the fingers. With how grace led you to deviate from their set path it seems that even the Greater Will is done with their machinations. There is a lot of bad actors all around. I think the most ideal ending is Goldmask's ending, Ranni's age or order of stars, and what Miquella was doing with unalloyed gold.
Goldmask ending is how we divest power from the gods, and give it back to tarnished. Create a direct connection to the Greater Will for all. He's a lot like Martin Luther in Christian theology. Ranni still followed her ambition to godhood. Her fickleness is still unanswerable. Her path exists simply as a rejection of the Greater Will.
There are only two lines of 'dialogue' left behind by Goldmask. In the Goldmask (item) desc he wishes you to wear it well. In the Golden Order spell desc's he laments the narcissistic nature of 'goodness'. How the 'great and good' are more interested in fighting evil (even if they have to create it) so they can prove how good they are... instead of actually being... well... GOOD.
Thank you!!! It's been frustrating seeing both players and content creators dismiss this ending. People even have the audacity to say this is the 'worst' ending when Blessing of Despair and The Lord of the Frenzied Flame exists! This was my first chosen ending, so I'm glad to see someone give it the analysis and respect it deserves.
Right? Seeing all those baseless attacks against the most based character in the game was a major motivation for making this video, so I'm glad it struck a chord!
I understand if someone prefers Ranni’s ending more than the Age of Order, but to say that the latter is the worst ending you need to be an idiot smh. I only saw people claiming this without ANY REASON AT ALL and it’s incredibly frustrating to see this.
I think my main criticism of the Perfect Order ending is: We have no idea what laws or ideals are in the Golden Order. Would following the Golden Order to a tee, completely impartially, actually be good for the denizens of the Lands Between? We have no way of knowing, because we do not know for certain what ideals the Order professes beyond generic ideas such as "order," "regression," or "causality."
Essentially, Goldmask's ending proposes to rebuild the Golden Order without subjecting it to the whims of its leaders. The Elden Lord would rule according to universal law instead of his own desires and ambitions.
Going by Miyazaki's often displayed theme of "stagnancy leads to death and decay", I'd imagine an everlasting Golden Order, to lead to a quite disastrous future, no matter the good intentions. I think Ranni's ending OTOH has the potential to be both the best and the worst "Ending" at the same time.
The problem was the gods interfering with the world when they shouldn't have, instead goldmask seems to want a more "organic" change instead of one brought upon by a god having a tantrum
I don't think so, gold mask's ending is still open ended like rannis, people still have a choice about their future not some random demi god. Evil isn't eliminated just as good isn't, however gods and demigods can't do whatever they want such as breaking the elden ring or corrupting it.
Goldmask was my choice on my first playthrough, so I have a special spot for him in my heart. There's not quite as much discussion about him as other characters/endings for the reasons you point out, so I appreciate this 👌
Thats just what happens if the devs dont care about their own story enough to check the translations. Goldmasks ending leaves alot of things open for interpretation. All the other ones atleast seem to lead somewhere.
I played as a Numen Confessor that fully supported the teachings of Goldmask and embraced the Greater Will whole heartedly, after all, all that is right is true, and truth is the stamp of the one true supreme being (the Greater Will), thus all that is true cannot and would not go against the creator of all things.
Goldmasks ending is a slap in the face to Marika lol. You become her consort and once again have her host the Elden Ring, but you lock it with a chastity belt so she can’t touch it, despite having to carry it. I can imagine the arguments our Tarnished and her get into over that.
the greater will has no influence on anything that directly happens in the game. It’s one of the first things we’re told, the GW has abandoned the lands between. That’s also why the fingers can’t communicate directly with the GW anymore, instead of a direct connection they’re using dial-up lol.
The Greater Will absolutely has influence over the Lands Between. The Elden Beast is it's vassal, sent directly by the GW. The Elden Beast *is* the GW's influence. Saying that the Greater Will has no influence on anything is like saying a king has no influence over peasants.
@@hoked2194 directly is an operative word in my first sentence haha. I don't disagree with the examples you gave. my meaning is that GW is no longer an active agent in our world at the time of the game, if that makes sense and you still disagree, its all good
@@___.51 why is the greater will bad I mean its vassal is literally the laws of the universe life and death it’s effectively a god and a true god god not marika or zeus like god as in big G I happen to not be a redditor or a twitter user so I think the greater will is kinda great
Super happy to see someone cover the goldmask ending as I always thought it was the most philsophically radical of them all. I agree that people either didn't find the ending, or misinterpreted it, and the highlight you make about even the two fingers themselves, and the finger readers, being yet another medium that could be subject to scrutiny even when it comes to the influence of the greater will
Yeah... I do feel like both her, and Goldmask's ending are the best endings. My first ending was Ranni's. But, in my next heroic playthrough, I'm going for Goldmask's. Unfortunately for the Lands Between.... That playthrough is coming after my Frenzied Flame ending. (Thinking about playing as Castlevania Dracula for that playthrough )
@@macedo8410 the change biols down to a complete reversal of what was said. Where the translation says "into fear, dout, and loneliness" the actual text is "out of" those things. Effectively anyway.
@@Jacob-og8js there's also the opposite phenomenon happening where people will ultra simp for the gigachad archetypes like Godfrey or Radahn. Sexists in both sides sadly.
I like to think goldmask's ending is actually drawing parallel with Dante's Paradiso. Within Paradiso, each of the stages of heaven are different, with each stage being progressively closer to god. Dante asks the question of why someone in the first layer isn't upset with where they are, why they don't wish to be in a higher layer, and they essentially respond "why would I be upset? I am in heaven, and in the exact place where I belong, perfectly where God wants me." The fickleness that both the gods, empyreans and demigods show is the exact sort of dissatisfaction which Dante expects of people in the lower layers of heaven. The Golden Order seems, in my opinion, to place everyone in their perfect positioning, in the same way as God does in heaven, but within the Lands Between, everyone is of fickle heart, greed, envy and a desire for more is almost expected of everyone but the animals.
That “hey thanks for stopping by” at the beginning made me subscribe immediately. It was so personal and took me by surprise lol. Looking forward to what else you put out!
From this? No. From how its written in game? Yes. Because how its written in the translation all its saying is "yeah the golden order is still great, the horrible things they do are still 100% ok, we just need to not take the god and the greater will as knowing everything as they arent any better than us." Now with this it isnt, but the way its worded in the actual game its basically just keeping the golden order and everything terrible about it other than that
@@sirpuffball6366 Yeah but it doesn't. The whole point of it is to remove any barriers between the GW and the LB, which still leaves the LB under the uncontestable rule of an immortal, almighty alien tyrant who at best was A-OK with multiple genocides and at worst ordered them itself.
@@warriorwatch2406 yeah, but it was still widely accepted. The ending doesn't remove those, it just specifies the Greater Will and Marika are no better than normal people, that's it. It doesn't change how the golden order operates, just adds that to it. But with how long they went with the rules of the golden order, with it still around with that ending things like hating the omen aren't going away or being discouraged
Now that the DLC is out it confirms some ideas here especially about the greater will The game often depicts or hints that the greater will is this kinda wrathful entity who punishes many of it’s subjects, but with Metyr the mother of fingers it seems that it wasn’t really 100% the case. And this really reinforces, the ending that gold mask wants to usher in. The greater Will is more neutral, than what the game hints at
Hey man, great job on this video! You earned another subscriber. More to the point tho. I think the goldmask ending is either the best ending or the second best ending depending on Ranni’s age of stars. Other than her little rant about cold fear and doubt we have no idea what the age of stars actually is, except it’s freedoms from the greater will, golden order and two fingers. The age of stars could be the best ending, second best, of much much lower, possibly even worst ending. Probably not, but possibly. The age of stars is pretty much putting our faith in Ranni and trusting the world to her good will. Even if she has 100% good intentions what if she has been lead on by some outer god? There’s some text about the blind finding a blood star in the cosmos. The elden beast came on a star. Who knows what’s out there. The age of stars is the most hopeful ending, but also the most trusting and vulnerable IMO.
Thank you so much! For me, I'd put the Age of Stars as the second best ending, partly because Ranni does become a god at the end (she is an Empyrean) and she's also an absolute schemer. Plus, the moon in Ranni's cut scene does look like a waygate, so who knows what kind of Lovecraftian monstrosities are lurking out there, deep in space? (That said, it's nice to have at least one ending where the Tarnished doesn't end up maidenless!) Meanwhile, the Greater Will has been MIA for centuries so I see it as much less of a threat. (See Enia's line about thousands, if not tens of thousands of moons for the Fingers to communicate with the GW.)
my interpretation of ranni's ending is.. she fks off to the moon so no gods could meddle with mortal affairs and she'll let them figure things out on their own, hence the fear, doubt & loneliness.
glad to see someone finally talk about this. through learning the lore & doing his quest myself, i came to the same conclusion about his intensions & what the ending entailed. glad to some real in-game evidence helpingme out. great video!
The Two fingers were placed there by the Greater Will, and conveyed it's directives until TGW abandoned The Lands Between. Perfecting The Golden Order still creates an unnatural world, where death is removed. The Golden Order might be changed and rejuvenated, but inevitably ends in degeneracy, decay, and madness. It is hubris incarnate. The two best endings are embracing the cursed nature of the world and summoning Dungeater and Ranni's fight against The Greater Will.
The current golden order was only a problem because of Marikas removal of the rune of death, the fault of the gods addreased by the Goldmask rune. We sorted this problem when we released the rune if death by killing Maliketh. Taking the Goldmask route allows us to keep the current boons left by the greater will, but puts every god under scrutiny so there will be no situation where a god like Marika rises.
If I remember correctly new lore in the dlc shows that the two fingers are not actually relaying the orders of the greater will but will of the finger mother. That weird boss made of hands which I don’t think is connected to the greater will.
I got Elden Ring a few days ago and I'm playing it in Portuguese While talking to Ranni in her tower she said her goal was do "remove everything that has ever existed before"
Interesting! In the English version, she says she wants to "rid the world of all that came before" though the minor tweaks between the Portuguese and the English could have very different implications. And I'm always interested to see different translations of the game! It's fascinating to see what gets emphasized and what gets left out.
Fracture: Keep the mean thing Despair: Make the mean thing worse Duskborn: Make the mean thing accept undead Frenzied Flame: Destroy everything! Stars: Take the mean thing away Order: Make the mean thing a nice thing.
Yep! It's pretty easy to do but also very easy to miss: After you defeat Goldfrey, pick up the Golden Order Principia prayerbook that's hanging about the boss room and then cast the spell Law of Regression in front of a statue of Radagon that's an elevator ride away from the Goldfrey room. Then you head over to the Colosseum in Leyndell and tell him what you found, then meet him again the Mountaintops of the Giants. Then in the Ashen Capital, go back to where you found Goldmask earlier to get his mending rune (and come back again after that to get his drip).
Age of Order ending all the way baby. I didnt spend 70 goddamn hours in this game to just leave on a 1000 year honeymoon with a doll or rule a world where no one truly dies in peace with a necrophiliac maiden. I wanna fix what I can with this world, so that everyone are free to live their own lives without the constant meddling of the outer gods.
Thank you so much! The Pulley Crossbow is a lot of fun to use, especially in fights against gargantuan bosses like Rykard, Placidusax, hell even the Elden Beast was surprisingly enjoyable. Really felt like I was playing a bootleg version of Monster Hunter at home haha Plus, it's lore accurate for Goldmask!
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UPDATE: If you're curious about how Goldmask’s and Ranni's endings stack up in light of all the new lore from the DLC, I cover both towards the end of my video on the DLC’s final boss: th-cam.com/video/zGEAO1pciHI/w-d-xo.html
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I think that it also is the best ending because u need both faith and intelligente to get it and it shows that with both smart planing and a litle bit of faith you van fix the most broken places
weally?
Yinz!? You from pgh?
I think it's hilarious how Rykard and Mohg both lead factions that propose interesting alternatives to the Golden Order, but they don't get to have endings because they're too busy being fucking weirdos
And Miquella, except that we should have full reason to join him
@@themaidenlesswretch7819 DLC ending will have a conclusion.
I wish a rykard ending where you devour the gods togetha was added 😢
@@themaidenlesswretch7819 Yeah but Miquella's really, reeeeeeeeeally sleepy.
hell yeah
Goldmask telling us the best ending is Goldmask's?
Never seen that coming lol
seems like propaganda to me
The realest bias I’ve ever seen
More propaganda form Big Mask
'Obama awarding himself a medal'
No way, religious zealot, are you seriously telling me that following and empowering your religion is the best choice?
I respect a man who can T-Pose so hard that he saves the world.
Like Jesus on the cross
@@jackp492 Underrated
@@jackp492his was probabbly talking about him ever since...
Both Ranni’s and Goldmask’s ending are kind of similar just in different ways. They both want to remove the influence of the gods but in different ways. Ranni does it by becoming the god and then leaving the lands between while Goldmask discovers the mending tune of perfect order which prevents the meddling of gods
Yeah I always thought of it like he wants it to be like a triforce in the tree untouched. Ranni leaves behind the Elden ring and greater will but its still just a more extreme version by taking the source of order to the moon
Yes but keep in mind that Ranni orchestrated the shattering by having her brother killed, and even conspiring with Rykard.
Ranni is a primary reason why the world went to shit and a person like that becoming a god of the lands might not be a good thing…
@Alex Grey average INT build
@Alex Grey Instead of a few groups of people who had it shit, she made everyone have it shit just so she can be in charge, and maybe make it better.
So let me simplify it. Ranni is Eren from Attack on Titan.
Hell, she even abandons her closet allies and leaves them for dead.
I’m certain Marika had plans to betray the Greater Will, but it’s likely Ranni jumped the gun and ruined those plans (stealing death, killing Godwyn, and destroying the her own Empyrean body)
@@DatsRandom she didn't kill godfrey and the black knife assassins work for MARIKA. There in no line saying Ranni worked with Rykard.
Personally I love this ending the most.
Goldmask's utter bewilderment at the revelation of Radagon being Marika followed by a T-pose sold me completely.
I actually preferred the Goldmask ending, it's just such a shame that three of the endings is the same "you sit on the throne with a different filter applied" thing. Really wish they had more time to make them more distinct ;w;
Oh for sure! I still don't know why FromSoft decided to mimic Mass Effect 3 for most of their endings in Elden Ring.
Imagine in goldmasks ending there are people out side bowing and lyendell knight's at the side of the throne or in
The age of the duskborn where a bunch of skeletons are praying to you,It would probably give more characterization to each ending
@@melonking281 and the blessing of despair ending where everybody just hates you
@@garrulousgoldmask Because in every "base" ending your are basically continuing the order of things and the state of the world, you are just filling in a missing slot.
@@yrvjutrtubxsyior a cutscene of a village with people suffering/dying
An important thing to remember is that since Fromsoft is a Japanese company when they say Fundamentalists they are most likely are referencing fundamentalism in a Buddhist sense which generally refers to attempts to get back to an older less dogmatic version of Buddhism its self. Whats more is one of the most famous Buddhist figures in Japan is Dogen who traveled to China looking for to uncover the true roots of Buddhisim. Which Goldmask traveling through the Altus Plato looking for the answers reminded me of.
George rr martin created the world of elden ring so its a mix of western and eastern monks
@@psychicmane7636 George created the the names and some of the lore; not the world itself. Per his own words he basically just created the backstory.
@@Hifuutorian I won’t explain because it would be an insult to you but would you think about what you said for like 12 seconds
@@psychicmane7636 I suggest you do the same. He didn't create the fucking world and he's very upfront about that lmao.
All he came up with were names (Which is why all the gods have his initials) and relations. FromSoft were the ones who made the actual story from that (Starting from the Shattering onward, which is not anything George wrote about.)
Miyazaki says as much as well.
“When Martin wrote these characters, and when he provided that origin story that mythos for the world of Elden Ring, these demigods were much closer to their original form, and maybe closer to human form back then, before the Shattering, before it all started. So it was more up to us to interpret this and say, ‘how did they become such inhuman monsters? And how did the mad taint of the shattered shards of the Elden Ring and its power affect them?’ So that was our job to take these grand heroes and sort of misshape them and distort them into something they were not,” says game director Hidetaka Miyazaki. “And I think if we get a chance to show Martin and if he gets a chance to see the game and see these characters, I think he might be a bit shocked. When he wrote them, he was really envisioning something a little bit more human, a little bit more traditional human drama and fantasy characters. So I hope he gets a kick out of that.”
“That process of taking these very human characters with flaws but these very dramatic, heroic characters and basically breaking them and making them these misshapen, grotesque monsters… That was a lot of fun for me personally.”
(Also his favorite character is Rykard, funnily enough.)
Goldmask is an actual saint in-world. His rune is also the only one that appears to improve the world in the ending.
I had thought that Fia's ending was putting godwyn to rest and so to those who live in death, by completing the elden ring and returning the rune of death to it. This isn't the case but dang it would have been so much more compelling. Especially from a death bed companion who's whole reason to be is for resurrection of others.
Fia's does too. it just looks really spooky lol its only purpose is bascially adding back death so its not really harmful
@@henrypaleveda7760 Fia's ending basically swaps the living and the undead, so the undead rule the Lands Between, and the living die off until only undead remain
@@trueNordVPN seems kinda cringe
@@henrypaleveda7760Like sixteen year old goth cringe.
I love how Goldmask wants to eliminate the 'alloyed' nature of the Golden Order and wants to make it an 'unalloyed Golden Order'.
Yeah! I actually had a whole discussion comparing Goldmask with Miquella in an earlier draft! While Miquella wants to ward off the Outer Gods from the Lands Between, Goldmask targets gods like Marika and other potential successors. Plus both love pure gold and turned away from orthodox Golden Order Fundamentalism.
Perhaps this is the closet we'll ever get to Miquella's ending
@@quinnholloway5400 Nope
@@blahblahblah9372yes actually. stated in an interview that the base games endings wont be affected.
@@chilly456 Nope. More info
The Gold Mask ending was the first ending I chose. There is no greater liberater than truth.
How in the world did you finish the quest
@@sirpuffball6366 You need to cast "Law of Regression" in front of the statue in of Radagan in Leyndell. You learn about this from the turtle pope in the church of oath.
He really said "Lutheranism is the way. God damn, the problem's not the book, it's the pope!"
I was so frustrated because this was the quest I was going for with no idea you could miss part of it in Leyndell
Well, it's either that or may chaos take the world. Everything in between isn't even worth considering.
I would like to discuss how the default ending is the funniest, because it's kind of like trying to fix a mug by putting all the pieces back to together, and letting friction keep them in place. Sure it looks fixed, but that thing ain't holding water anytime soon.
It's even funnier when it happens with just 2 Great Runes + Morgott's!
I thought that ending was basically the Tarnished warming the throne until someone more qualified for the job comes along to fix everything lol
What even happens in the default ending? I don't get it. You sit on the chair?
Ranni takes the cup away
Fia takes the remains of another mug and combines them
Dung Eater glues the mug together with poo and is gonna make everyone drink from it
Frenzied Flame eats the mug
@@IncensedAgitator Goldmask finds the concept of a cup from the Platonic form cupboard.
The DLC only enforces this viewpoint, as the fingers had been unable to hear anything from the Greater Will since... well, seemingly since they showed up there. What the Greater Will actually wants isn't clear, and all the persecution, ambition, and directed cruelty towards things that are tied to the crucible is given a whole other explanation when you know the background Marika has with the Hornsent, who made the crucible the centerpiece of their culture.
Marika's Baggage seems to be a big part of the Golden Order's cruelty. When you add in that the Greater Will hasn't actually said a god damn thing to anyone cause the fingers can't talk to it, there's no reason to see exclusion as inherent to the concept at all. Its two precepts are regression and causality, which are defined as "everything wants to come back together" and "the differences between things make them meaningful." When things die, they converge back at the erdtree and are reborn anew. Why would that be exclusionary, especially when the erdtree and the crucible are the same thing?
I think seeing how being affected by the crucible is really not a bad thing at all, since the hornsent had civilizations that thrived without problem in the DLC, makes the dung eater's ending actually pretty decent. It doesn't prevent the tempering of Gods but it atleast gets rid of the persecution of majority of people in the lands between by making all of them crucible-touched without much drawback.
6:57 DLC confirmed what you thought about the fingers
@@Technosapien1213 The fingers don't have contact with the greater will and haven't for a very long time.
If only I could be so grossly incandescent 😢
These male beauty standards are so hard to live up to 😞
Ranni's ending is to abandon everything and start over.... Goldmask's mending rune repairs what was broken and also removes any further meddling from outer gods and thus avoiding world-wide brokenness. In the long run, I believe it to be the best ending.
Her ending isn't starting over, it's running away. It doesn't solve anything, it just removes someone who could fix things.
She wanted to remove the Order (and I guess the Elden Ring with it) from the Lands Between and leave it be. It's like seeing an overgrown garden and you neither pull the weeds or water it, just leaving it to grow how it wants.
Goldmask's ending is the Gratter Will timing suprême without interferences of Gods (Marika) or facilitators like the Fingers. It is pure absolute Order.
No no, Ranni only wishes to remove the influence of Gods from the Lands Between, you and her then travel to other lands for a thousand years, atrempting to free other places of that same control.
As a fellow Goldmask devotee, I still gotta call you out on the details here. There's two kinds of gods in Elden Ring: the *OUTER* Gods, which are non-physical forces that exist outside reality, and then the "normal" gods, who are mortals ascended to divinity via some physical manifestation of an Outer God's power. Marika hosts the Elden Ring, the manifestation of the Greater Will's power, which makes her the Goddess of Order. Malenia hosts the Scarlet Rot, the manifestation of the Outer God of Rot, which makes her the Goddess of Rot. And so on.
What Goldmask's ending does, is it prevents mortals from messing with the Elden Ring and becoming gods through it. Instead of Marika wielding its power directly, it will just exist as-is, maintaining the concept of Order in the Lands Between with no room for tampering. This ensures that it can't be fought over, can't be twisted to suit someone's ambitions like what Marika did removing Death from it, and can't be shattered again.
However, the *Outer* Gods are still very much a factor, and can still make lesser gods of their own. Goldmask's rune ONLY applies to the Elden Ring and the Greater Will. That said, Goldmask's ending is still the best on this front, because the Tarnished sticks around to handle any problems as they arise. We've already clapped Malenia once, and we can do it again. Ranni's leaves the world defenseless.
watching this, it suddenly hit me that all the major disasters in the lands between can be blamed on marika tampering with the elden ring.
of course, we all know that you can't have a shattering without the elden ring being shattered into pieces for the demigods to fight over.
but taking out the rune of death from the elden ring because she's afraid of what the gloam-eyed queen could have done, and literally letting your dog watch over it? yeah, that's the only reason ranni managed to steal it. and boom, godwyn dies, hijacks some roots of the erdtree, and now there's a plague of soulless bodies blundering about.
all because she had access to the elden ring, and couldn't leave it alone. fickle gods, indeed.
actually ranni’s fault
@@OneWingRoad if the president leaves the nuclear launch codes in his front porch and some hobo uses them to blow up a city, it's still the president's fault.
marika is the god of the lands between. having access to the elden ring isn't just her privilege, it's her responsibility as well
@@OneWingRoad i’d say 50/50 ranni with marika. Ranni for starting all this shit, marika for playing ranni’s game
@@mihaica87 she didn’t lol if she wanted to shatter the elden ring what reason did she have to slaughter almost her entire family she already was in possession of it she had no reason to have someone steal death either cause again she was already in possession of it via maliketh who is bound to her will
@mihaica also she was under no obligation to help ranni whatsoever considering she’s not her child and two that she wasn’t going to let herself be replaced at all if she could help it and the event is stated to cause her immense psychological and emotional damage not tryna talk down on you i just don’t know what so many people think she had something to do with it she abandoned the numen and used the tarnished to fight her war for the erdtree ranni used them cause of their skill and grudge against the erdtree
If you ask me Goldmask is that one guy who actually decides to fix the fucked up buggy spaghetti code instead of destroying it and switching to a new engine.
From what I hear about programmers, staring at the buggy code for months before figuring out the solution sounds very applicable
goldmask the gigachad programmer
I thought the main reason the goldmask ending didn't get more hype was much simpler:
It didn't have a unique or DOPE AF cinematic ending.
Good point! It's kinda wild that a random bridge in Volcano Manor has a unique cut scene, but the Goldmask, Fia, and Dung Eater endings just get palette swaps like it's Mass Effect 3.
@@garrulousgoldmask lol funny comparison to mass effect 3. Yeah, they were disappointingly underwhelming
-Points to the Erdtree demanding audience with the Greater Will itself
-Tells everyone they're wrong by basically T-posing
-Perfects the concept of Order itself
-Refuses to elaborate
-Dies
10/10 best NPC (after Igon of course)
I was all set to get the Ranni ending, and then I found Goldmask's mending rune. And I was immediately like: "Oh yeah. It's this one. Sorry Ranni, very few things are more important than waifu and one of them is my homie Goldmask"
Bros before hoes
@@CodeThatTalks Homies over hoes! Do the homie!
Love it!
nnothing changed so it's a sht ending
@@Destrudo5359 so.. you didn't even watch this video. or didn't even read what the rune does. it's quite clear there is a difference made, even if you think it's for the worse
"There is no need for gods with the hearts and minds like men..." Is such a raw line, and shockingly applicable to political and social science.
I heard that Ranni's ending is also mistranslated. Ranni wants to take the influence of the outer gods to the stars, and let the creatures of the Lands Between rule their own lives
It was! I also touched on Ranni's ending in a separate video while Ziostorm has a great breakdown of what happened.
no that is not what it does she very clearly says the world cannot exist without order she only wants to conceal it and make it so people cant be sure if its even real, he ending is a sweet lie, also taking the order to the stars is meaningless since the stars ruled fate from up there with no issue
That's what I got from her dialog already
@@Mare_Man elaborate please
The way i see it. Ranni just became a god and chose 100% by herself the fate of everyone else. Fixing deathblight? Making sure there's a possiblity for someone else to rise to lord or god? Nope and nope. I just took the only thing that can fix the world and fucked off to the stars to live out ny emo phase.
Goldmask is the only good ending
There's a theory that Marika was a Nox whose entire plan was to attain power by becoming a god to gestate her Lord of Night. In that theory, Marika battled the Gloam-eyed Queen and usurped her throne by taking the Elden Ring with her. Marika was no different than all the other previous gods from the Lands Between - she was as self-driven and would take everything she wanted through brute force(Taker's cameo and other descriptions say that is the way of Gods).
So the fickleness that is described in the Mending rune of Perfect Order means exactly what it says - The gods were no better than men because Gods were just men blessed by the Greater Will. The Elden Ring was nothing more than a Trophy so they could exert their authority uncontested.
The theory comes from Kosmos, btw
That's a really interesting explanation! And it adds a compelling backstory for how Marika became queen, which is a very underappreciated aspect of the lore.
I've liked a lot of the Kosmos videos I've seen and he made a good argument for the GEQ to have had Placidusax as consort. That said, I do have my own, say we shall, unique take on the Gloam-Eyed Queen.
@Luiz I haven't dived into this on my videos yet, did you put 2 and 2 together or did i explain it on stream before?
@Garrulous Goldmask thank you for the kind words, and great video!
Thank you so much for stopping by and for those kind words!
wow that is soooo right finally someone who gets it, everyone is too busy trying to make it into a battle between ranni/marika and the evil greater-will/elden-beast/tree-parasite that they completely ignore all evidence
They were all emboldened by the flame of ambition, no better than mere men and tarnished , as someone said....
this ALWAYS seemed like the truly GOOD ending of elden ring to me, especially after learning of ranni's role in the events of the shattering. this plus the few good NPCs and quest endings (nepheli loux and miriel come to mind) always made me think of how these few good individuals could come together as stewards of the lands and the ring, rather than overlords. maybe im naive in wanting that for a fictional world, but i stand by it
Ranni did nothing wrong and has the best ending
@@kotorandcorvid4968 Ranni did a lot of things wrong, like orchestrating the death of one of her siblings, and then murdering everyone connected to her except for the Tarnished. Even tried to have Blaide offed, but he was too badass for her assassins. I picked the Moon ending too, but let's not pretend the witch isn't just as selfish and cruel as Rykard or Godrick.
@@TowaruTsura not at all. The night of the black knives was necessary and she didn't kill her friends. Iji was killed with black flames and Ranni mentions that the Two Fingers have been sending assassins after her.
@@TowaruTsura As far as I've been explained to, Blaide was going insane due to his built in purpose of retaining his Emperyeon; that being Ranni. If he could not retain them, prevent them from breaking their part in the order, then he would be forced to kill them.
He broke this kill order programming initially when he sided with Ranni's plot, but as time went on (as we played the game) he began losing control over himself so he had to be put down.
It would be no different than putting down a hollow in Dark Souls. It's not murder at that point, the person in question is no longer themselves or following their own desires.
@@kotorandcorvid4968 ranni is literally the cause of the shattering. marika doesnt shatter the ring until godwyn is dead, which ranni is DIRECTLY responsible for. all the suffering that happens in its wake can be directly laid at ranni's feet because of this. her ending is literally just her running away from all the problems SHE created and calling it "freedom". ranni says she wants to remove the influence of the gods, but her entire questline is really just conveniently shifting all that influence to HER. i don't trust it for a second, no matter how hot she is.
goldmask is the only ending that both removes the meddling of ALL gods and also gives hope for those still left in the lands between. the tools are there for mortals to rebuild and restore a peaceful way of life that can thrive, and fate is entirely in their own hands.
This was pretty much my understanding of the Perfect Order ending, minus maybe the Greater Will bit.
The only problem I see with Perfect Order is it's permanence. There may come a time when an unchanging order may hinder humanity as the Golden Order did before it. There is no proof that this will happen, but neither is there garuntee that it won't.
That said, along with the Age of Stars and the return to the One in Frenzied Flame, I still consider Perfect Order to be one of the "optimal" endings, philosophically. If you believe that all things can follow a predefined set of rules, and that Goldmask sees the text behind the screen as it were, then I see no reason not to inact this perfect order (capitalization non-withstanding).
I see a reason not to enact the Age of Perfect Order Ending, a major theme in the Souls Series as a whole is the idea that stagnation leads to death and decay, in Dark Souls 1-3 the Age of Fire is prolonged a countless number of times and the end result is the dead world seen in DS3's Ringed City DLC, the point being made is that change is both necessary and inevitable
It's also applicable to the real world too, take a stagnant pool of water as an example, they're unhealthy and unclean, and they become host to a variety of diseases and parasites the longer they just sit there, unchanging, flowing water meanwhile is the exact opposite
The way I see it, Goldmasks Ending is the epitome of a Stagnant World, if Goldmasks Perfect Order is unchanging it will inevitably lead to a world devoid of life, that's just how it goes in the Souls Series, change is both necessary and inevitable
@@jaydenlobbe7911 Endless change is the natural cause of the consequences of stagnation though, as it creates observable cycles of growth and death that are thereby the true order of reality; endless change alone is still stagnant because it is a pattern in itself unchanging. If the Perfect Order prevents the decay of good things, they accumulate, and stagnation as a literal concept no longer applies because the survival of bad things no longer outpaces the survival of good things in a set and complete order. Goldmask here is saying, let's dictate the outcomes of society by the intelligence and canny of individual mortals and not through sweeping alterations to the nature of reality; his path is very conventionally monastic, with the belief that sufficient order will naturally provide its own cures for the problems of decay because that's how intelligence in itself functions. The apocalypse fetish these games have, where all societies rise only to fall, is just the failure of parties to learn how to outmatch the inherent order of the world by taming it and predicting it, which is exactly what Goldmask does by locking in the supernatural whims of the Golden Order and making them predictable; they aren't scientific, but they are now within the grasp of scientific minds to work under.
Goldmask's plan here was to follow the general intelligence of an outer reality level hyperorganism who, yes, is untrustworthy - but is more restrained and giving than any of its competition. That being favors a pretty universalist world and goes out of its way to be beautiful and appealing, which are just as easily traits of manipulative self-presentation, but in comparison to the oceans of rotten flesh and the infectious apocalypse fire, it suggests a far less tyrannical mindset if it could just as easily present itself that way and still strong-arm parties into its general worship like they do.
Shrugging off in universe arguments with meta logic is also just stupid, because you're lazily suggesting the pattern of writing in older titles creates an outer boundary of what can be narratively explored, and again, what is change in battle against permanency? Its own stagnant pattern, just another pattern, chaos asserting against the capacity of reality to maintain its structure. Goldmask's scheme is also necessarily tied to the Crucible, the literal living core of biological evolution, so assuming his lifeform-centric plan tied to a lifeform-centric Outer God hasn't even the innate biological ability of changing positively over time is just limp-wristed downer speculation because you wanted fucking the puppet to solve all of your problems.
@@jaydenlobbe7911 The thing is GoldMasks ending assures that change is brought up on by humankind. The meddling of God's is completely nullified which leaves humankind free to evolve on its own terms.
Kind of seems like Goldmask is a Messiah type of figure in which we establish an order after which would lead to the world we currently live in, in my opinion.
But if you want to invalidate your conquest, well, the Frenzied Flame.
@@Kn1ghtborne Except there's a problem, the Greater Will clearly created the Elden Ring with modularity in mind, add in a rune here and there, remove this rune, and this is an artifact that can alter the laws of reality itself, by creating a barrier around it Goldmask removes it's ability to be altered, thus Reality is a rigid set of laws that can never be changed, part of what's wrong with the Golden Order as it currently is, at least according to Rogier, is the inflexibility of it's systems, by making the Elden Ring itself inflexible Goldmask is only exacerbating that problem
There's another problem I see, the Elden Ring itself is the problem, so long as it physically exists within the Lands Between, *somebody* will want to alter it, and that can only lead to more violence, even if everybody knows about the Barrier there will be somebody arrogant enough to believe they can remove it
The Elden Ring IS the problem, this is why Ranni's solution is to remove it entirely, no more Elden Ring, no more problem
@@Kn1ghtborne Additonally the only ending that leaves Humanity free is Ranni's, the Elden Ring itself was sent down by an Outer God, is it's mere existence not meddling with the natural order?
Ranni's solution: Just take the Elden Ring and LEAVE, that gives Mankind absolute free will to do whatever the hell they want, you can't say the same for making the laws of Reality absolutely rigid and unchanging
On the free will point, every other ending besides gold mask's interferes with your choices. Ranni gives you a gift making you friendly towards her then makes you come into her service. Dung eater threatens your life and then demands you free him from his cell. Shabriri manipulates you like he did to vyke to get his ending. Gold mask ending starts with brother corhyn saying he's leaving the roundtable hold. no one tells you where to go or what to do.
Oh I never thought about it like that! I also really appreciated how marginal the Tarnished is in the Goldmask ending: We just tell him about Radagon and Marika and then a few burned Erdtrees later, we pick up the Mending Rune he discovered.
This, but unironically.
i'm too high right now... is this video ironic?? whydoes he talk like that😂
@@Rolonokthat is your brain on reddit
That's some really good unbiased arguments for why the goldmask ending is the best one! Thank you... Goldmask?
_Hold on a moment_
...
*surprised pikachu face*
my favorite ending, and it just raises even more questions. it's so interesting because at first glance, the Greater Will and it's Order seems like an antagonist, but it's not all good or bad and we really don't understand it's motives. between the GW, Marika and the Fingers, it's hard to tell who was pulling the strings for the various events that happened in the lore; especially since there's something very wrong with the Fingers, and there's a disconnect between them and the GW.
it is seemingly the cause of life in the lands between, and the expeditor of it's evolution; the Erdtree, though a progression of the crucible, was for apparently in opposition to everything else in the world when it flourished, and it's constantly connected to the theme of war. it's also associated with giving life and joy, and seemingly allows for reincarnation. we also don't know why it started to lose it's luster; was it the shattering, or the infection of Godwyn's death, or something else altogether? loved Boggart's line "Maybe something went tits up with it. Maybe... it's been broke for a good long time. The Erdtree, I'm sayin'." Was it always broken because Marika removed Death from the Golden Order, leading to stagnation, and was removing Death just Marika or also the GW's intention?
the GW somehow made a mistake when life was created from the one great; Hyetta says what was borrowed must be returned. what exactly did it do that led to every sin, every curse (if the GW wanted Death removed from the Order, is that the mistake)? in many ways the GW is absolutely terrifying, and in others it seems extremely benevolent. this ending is fascinating because it, seemingly restores and maintains the Order in the intrinsic way the GW intended, whatever that entails. I also noticed that this is the only ending where the 'restored' Erdtree emits that twinkling sound of grace.
from the perspective of the flame, I interpreted the "mistake" being for there to be distinction at all. every sin and curse can only exist through individual will. giving all that is back to the formlessness of chaos, or the Great One, also prevents there ever being suffering
@@mxpruria It's also just the "Can't be hungry if I burn myself alive" argument
Ranni still doesn't account for the lack of order, in a literal sense, so her ending is literally a gamble hoping for all of the Lands Between to have a working society without someone putting order in it. Which is why society in the Lands Between exists to begin with. She is quite literally trying to send the Lands Between back to the stone age because "gods bad".
Meanwhile Goldmask tries to fix the problem without having to sacrifice literally everything that matters.
"Heresy is not native to the world; it is but a contrivance. All things can be conjoined"
~Dog Pope
That is a HOT line
At first I wanted Ranni's ending, but then gold mask convinced me to mend the rune instead. Oh there's also frenzied flame that I'm okay with also lol.
I wanted Ranni's ending because I didn't like the Idea of getting Godfrey's leftovers. :] But I ended up getting the Frenzied Flame by complete accident lol
Lol.. I also got baited into the frenzied flame ending. Wish we knee more about the thing though
At first I wanted Ranni's ending, but that was before I realized how friggan shady Ranni is.
May chaos take the world.
Best ending is to leave the throne vacant and let the Elden Ring crumble (implicit). To compare the endings given to us is to beg the question of teleological unity in The Lands Between. Asking "what should be the central principle of the world?" presupposes that there should be one at all.
IMHO the mending rune of the fell curse points in this direction, establishing the Elden Ring as a pit rather than a peak, but that's a personal reading. We see it is as imbuing the influence of *any* greater will with an aura of disregard and ill repute.
That's definitely a fair point! It's unfortunate that the only ending where you get to reject the throne also means rejecting life itself.
But rejecting the throne means rejecting order, any kind of order, you have to remember that the Elden Ring is a manifestation of the laws of nature, so rejecting the throne means the Elden ring will crumble to dust means absolute Chaos which in turn means no life can exist.
@@alenezi989a3 exactly. Shattering the Elden Ring means shattering the world 's logic
@@matteoflamigni550
Which is futile and redundant within itself
**DLC SPOILERS**
The fact that we now know the Greater Will has been silent for millennia, and that the fingers have been doing whatever their mother told them to do makes me question wether there really are any outer gods any more. The god of rot was vanished and sealed, the god of frenzy never really acts, and the goddess of blood, while real, never tried to save Mohg or any of her followers. The outer gods might very well be a fraud with no real power to control the Lands Between
The formless mother does help Mogh you know all the bloodflame attacks? Thats her blood the nihil is Mogh stabbing her body showing you in blood
Controversial opinion time.
I think at their cores, Goldmask and Ranni more or less have the same idea. Stop the gods from meddling in the affairs of mortals.
However my issue with Ranni’s ending (besides arguably starting the whole mess) is her leaving the lands entirely.
Yes, she does this to remove the outer gods and herself. But by extension, I believe it’s heavily implied the player joins her (any gameplay after the ending cutscene is just that).
In doing so she removes both the influence of the outer gods and personal affairs/ambitions of her moon/night dynasty.
While a noble goal, as free will and the ability to stand on one’s own feet is imperative.
I’d argue the lands between need a leader now more than ever!
Otherwise, your leaving the fate of lands between and it’s inhabitants up to a risky game of chance. Whose to say that the outer gods or some other god (be it some unknown outer god Ranni did not take away or even Demi gods or their descendants who might still live) or just any group who will see the obvious power vacuum and definitely take advantage.
Plus! Even if their(Ranni/outer gods) influence is removed…
Omens likely don’t just lose their horns, misbegotten and the like will still exist, people and areas like Calied are likely still infected with rot even if there is no will behind it, and then there is Godwyn, who is potential still “active” (as his ‘curse’ is not the work of an outer god but from the rune of death). Whether the Elden ring is actually present or not likely won’t matter.
Not to mention the factions as well. We potentially merc many leaders throughout our journey. (Sure limgrave may have Nepheli but leyndell is left without a ruler, the haligtree is left without theirs, the redmanes may seem fine at the moment (as they are busy battling the rot). But again, these are some HUGE power vacuums we’re creating and potentially (with Ranni’s ending) just letting fester. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
In real life, scenarios like this almost always result in chaos/anarchy or some power hungry/violent groups vying for the crown.
Imagine if our Tarnished never found Mogh or Rykard and they were free to continue their goals. or even if we left Tanith alone and she successfully revived the lord of blasphemy. Bandits are allowed to flourish. Undead/rot are left unchecked.
Now any of this could still be going on in either ending.
But at least in Goldmask’s ending, not only does it provide the means to remove these outer gods influences but ensures that the lands maintain a strong and most importantly PRESENT leader.
Whom can see and interact with their people on a far more personal level and will likely (due to their journey across the land), have far more insight and empathy befitting of a ruler. As well as the strength and knowledge on how to defeat/deal with any potential threats already present or future (return of outer gods/other Demi gods).
Giving the people someone (tangible) in which they can hopefully unite under and otherwise be guided by.
Instead of leaving them high and dry with the vain hope that they’ll all just figure it out themselves.
Where as Ranni’s ending feels like this:
Cracking an egg to make an omelette but accidentally setting the house on fire. Then just letting it burn until someone eventually comes along to put it out. Once that’s done, claim yourself god while telling everyone else to deal with the ashes, while you bounce out of there.
You just perfectly described my main issues with Ranni’s ending. Most people like it because they can marry her and leave the lands between in relative peace (until another outer god presents itself). But she literally started the one event that ends up breaking an already fragmented world, and now wants to leave anyone to fend for themselves? That seems somewhat cruel to me. With the perfect order ending you can still try to repair the broken lands between and prevent an outer god from cursing anyone again.
The one issue with the perfect order ending is that, the tarnished isn't perfect either, and you're still subject to the greater will, and the greater will is an absolute ass
The empyrean who was dedicated to stopping the meddling of the outer gods was Miquella. Ranni seems more like she's planning to get out of the way of the outer gods and let things play out however they go.
@@lordofuwus7735 The point of the perfect order ending is that it no longer matters whether whoever is in charge is perfect, because the maintenance of the order is no longer dependent on the stability of the person in charge (if goldmask was successful at his aims, that is). Someone could still be a terrible ruler, but their leeway to engage in reality-bending disastrous levels of messing with the workings of the world is greatly limited relative to the past.
I always viewed Ranni's ending to be more tied to giving people free will rather than "abandoning" them.
Ranni grew up as an Empyrian, with her fate already carved out for her and with the expectation that she may one day become the new god in service to the greater will, with absolutely no choice given to her. She then made it her life's goal to not only let her dictate her own destiny but to allow everyone else in the lands between to have the right to dictate their own lives, as well. Yes, she had to sacrifice her closest friends to achieve her goals, but she made sure they knew what they were getting into and they followed her anyway, and the way she speaks of it makes it seem as though she regrets their involvement for that exact reason.
Whether you see that as being "bad" just because she has to leave to achieve that depends on whether or not you think people inherently need some kind of powerful force dictating their lives for them. Personally, I've seen evidence from NPCs in the world that there are good people who would be willing to step up to leadership positions should the need arise, so I don't think the world would be left to ruin just because they don't have a godlike being dictating their morals for them any more.
I think both goldmask and ranni mean well and have similar-ish goals, and I think both endings can be called the best in terms of how they change the world in the end. I just don't know why people feel the need to badmouth one in order to praise the other, especially when they're already so similar.
Greatly insightful.
Honestly, I feel like any of the endings can be valid as the 'best' option if viewed from the right perspective.
Nonetheless, I still condemn the Dung Eater ending myself, and the Age of Death seems like it sorta just gets incorporated on a smaller scale within the others.
Which kinda just leaves Chaos, Perfect Order, and Moon. I can empathetically understand the reasoning for the Age of Chaos - I can't fault a frenzied desire to simply end the cycle of pain. But it's not a particularly happy or satisfying answer.
Ranni's motives and goals appear generally benevolent, but her methods are a bit questionable - especially considering she killed Godwyn, and pseudo-started the Shattering. Of course, Ranni had nothing to do with breaking the Ring itself, but the death of a demi-god led to the Shattering as a war. I do not believe the Demi-gods would've been so divided if Godwyn were alive. Furthermore, nothing has implicated Godwyn as deserving any sort of murder - let alone in the way he was killed.
Godwyn was an absolute unit, and a damn near perfect advocator of peace. He stopped a dragon war diplomatically. But he's also powerful enough to casually solo dragons, too - he befriended Fortissax by basically winning against him in a wrestle. And he seems highly regarded, having been mourned by many. Miquella, arguably one of the best idealists among the demi-gods, went through the effort of making a memorial sword for Godwyn.
So Ranni killing Godwyn's soul and letting his body grow and decay kinda sucks.
Remembering that Miquella tried to give Godwyn a new soul with the eclipse.
Thank goodness I am not the only one who noticed that about the fingers. With how grace led you to deviate from their set path it seems that even the Greater Will is done with their machinations. There is a lot of bad actors all around.
I think the most ideal ending is Goldmask's ending, Ranni's age or order of stars, and what Miquella was doing with unalloyed gold.
Goldmask ending is how we divest power from the gods, and give it back to tarnished. Create a direct connection to the Greater Will for all. He's a lot like Martin Luther in Christian theology. Ranni still followed her ambition to godhood. Her fickleness is still unanswerable. Her path exists simply as a rejection of the Greater Will.
There are only two lines of 'dialogue' left behind by Goldmask. In the Goldmask (item) desc he wishes you to wear it well. In the Golden Order spell desc's he laments the narcissistic nature of 'goodness'. How the 'great and good' are more interested in fighting evil (even if they have to create it) so they can prove how good they are... instead of actually being... well... GOOD.
Thank you!!!
It's been frustrating seeing both players and content creators dismiss this ending. People even have the audacity to say this is the 'worst' ending when Blessing of Despair and The Lord of the Frenzied Flame exists!
This was my first chosen ending, so I'm glad to see someone give it the analysis and respect it deserves.
Right? Seeing all those baseless attacks against the most based character in the game was a major motivation for making this video, so I'm glad it struck a chord!
I understand if someone prefers Ranni’s ending more than the Age of Order, but to say that the latter is the worst ending you need to be an idiot smh. I only saw people claiming this without ANY REASON AT ALL and it’s incredibly frustrating to see this.
Miquella spent years trying to ward off the outer gods and he still got beat by a random grey skinned hobo with a massive disk on his face
You had me at 'Goldmask is the Best'....!
I was very appreciative that Fromsoft actually allowed a "Good" ending for once. It was more satisfying than the helpless nihilism of Dark Souls.
The depictions of both Radagon's war and Radagon's marriage/divorce with his wife are so well done.
It give me funny chuckle disease.
I think my main criticism of the Perfect Order ending is: We have no idea what laws or ideals are in the Golden Order. Would following the Golden Order to a tee, completely impartially, actually be good for the denizens of the Lands Between? We have no way of knowing, because we do not know for certain what ideals the Order professes beyond generic ideas such as "order," "regression," or "causality."
Essentially, Goldmask's ending proposes to rebuild the Golden Order without subjecting it to the whims of its leaders. The Elden Lord would rule according to universal law instead of his own desires and ambitions.
Going by Miyazaki's often displayed theme of "stagnancy leads to death and decay", I'd imagine an everlasting Golden Order, to lead to a quite disastrous future, no matter the good intentions. I think Ranni's ending OTOH has the potential to be both the best and the worst "Ending" at the same time.
The problem was the gods interfering with the world when they shouldn't have, instead goldmask seems to want a more "organic" change instead of one brought upon by a god having a tantrum
I don't think so, gold mask's ending is still open ended like rannis, people still have a choice about their future not some random demi god. Evil isn't eliminated just as good isn't, however gods and demigods can't do whatever they want such as breaking the elden ring or corrupting it.
Goldmask was my choice on my first playthrough, so I have a special spot for him in my heart. There's not quite as much discussion about him as other characters/endings for the reasons you point out, so I appreciate this 👌
Thats just what happens if the devs dont care about their own story enough to check the translations.
Goldmasks ending leaves alot of things open for interpretation. All the other ones atleast seem to lead somewhere.
@@RadioZ4p The frenzied flame ending is the only one that isn't highly open to interpretation
I played as a Numen Confessor that fully supported the teachings of Goldmask and embraced the Greater Will whole heartedly, after all, all that is right is true, and truth is the stamp of the one true supreme being (the Greater Will), thus all that is true cannot and would not go against the creator of all things.
Perfect order has always been my personal preference among the “standard” endings.
Goldmasks ending is a slap in the face to Marika lol. You become her consort and once again have her host the Elden Ring, but you lock it with a chastity belt so she can’t touch it, despite having to carry it. I can imagine the arguments our Tarnished and her get into over that.
This ending is even more interesting now that we know who was really leading the two fingers in the dlc
the greater will has no influence on anything that directly happens in the game. It’s one of the first things we’re told, the GW has abandoned the lands between. That’s also why the fingers can’t communicate directly with the GW anymore, instead of a direct connection they’re using dial-up lol.
The Greater Will absolutely has influence over the Lands Between. The Elden Beast is it's vassal, sent directly by the GW. The Elden Beast *is* the GW's influence.
Saying that the Greater Will has no influence on anything is like saying a king has no influence over peasants.
@@hoked2194 directly is an operative word in my first sentence haha. I don't disagree with the examples you gave. my meaning is that GW is no longer an active agent in our world at the time of the game, if that makes sense and you still disagree, its all good
@@___.51 why is the greater will bad I mean its vassal is literally the laws of the universe life and death it’s effectively a god and a true god god not marika or zeus like god as in big G I happen to not be a redditor or a twitter user so I think the greater will is kinda great
@@psychicmane7636 peepeepoopoo?
@@psychicmane7636 Because it's one of many and just because it is doesn't make its decisions or priorities 'good' lmao.
9:27 "yinz" you a fellow Pittsburgher?
I went to college there and I got family just outside the Burgh!
Fuck yeah yinz guys are from Pittsburgh lol
Goldmask is solaire, just grossly incandescent.
EVER BRILLIANT!!!!
-Dog Pope
Super happy to see someone cover the goldmask ending as I always thought it was the most philsophically radical of them all.
I agree that people either didn't find the ending, or misinterpreted it, and the highlight you make about even the two fingers themselves, and the finger readers, being yet another medium that could be subject to scrutiny even when it comes to the influence of the greater will
So glad to hear that!
There was also mistranslation with Ranni’s ending which significantly changed how people viewed that ending.
Yep! I also touched on that in my Ranni ending video, while Ziostorm has a much more in-depth take.
Yeah... I do feel like both her, and Goldmask's ending are the best endings.
My first ending was Ranni's. But, in my next heroic playthrough, I'm going for Goldmask's.
Unfortunately for the Lands Between.... That playthrough is coming after my Frenzied Flame ending. (Thinking about playing as Castlevania Dracula for that playthrough )
Could you explain me the mistranslation?
@@macedo8410 the change biols down to a complete reversal of what was said. Where the translation says "into fear, dout, and loneliness" the actual text is "out of" those things. Effectively anyway.
Ranni is evil
"Goldmask ending is the best"
-The Ever-Brilliant Goldmask
This video fact-checked by real Golden Order fundamentalists ✅TRUE
...
If Ranni's ending didn't involve a blue waifu there's not a chance in hell it would be the most popular ending.
It would be really interesting to see what would have happened if everything about Ranni were the same, except she was a guy (Ronni?)
@@garrulousgoldmask He would probably be thought of as a selfish, manipulative kinslayer. Ranni gets a free pass because simps will simp.
@@Jacob-og8js there's also the opposite phenomenon happening where people will ultra simp for the gigachad archetypes like Godfrey or Radahn. Sexists in both sides sadly.
Socrates could not have said it better himself.
@@terrapvp too true people are so weird about radahn
I like to think goldmask's ending is actually drawing parallel with Dante's Paradiso. Within Paradiso, each of the stages of heaven are different, with each stage being progressively closer to god. Dante asks the question of why someone in the first layer isn't upset with where they are, why they don't wish to be in a higher layer, and they essentially respond "why would I be upset? I am in heaven, and in the exact place where I belong, perfectly where God wants me." The fickleness that both the gods, empyreans and demigods show is the exact sort of dissatisfaction which Dante expects of people in the lower layers of heaven. The Golden Order seems, in my opinion, to place everyone in their perfect positioning, in the same way as God does in heaven, but within the Lands Between, everyone is of fickle heart, greed, envy and a desire for more is almost expected of everyone but the animals.
didn't expect "Goldmask is Confucius"
That “hey thanks for stopping by” at the beginning made me subscribe immediately. It was so personal and took me by surprise lol. Looking forward to what else you put out!
Glad to hear--thank you for commenting and letting me know!
"What yinz think"
PENNSYLVANIAN DETECTED
Came to the comments to say that
I chose this ending. The golden order was around for too long to be snuffed out by me. All the wars fought for it would have been for nothing
It's a tough call.
On the one side there's Ranni's feet.
On the other there's Goldmask's buttcheeks.
Don't act like we don't know Goldmask made this video
I knew it this was the best ending and DLC (especially Count Ymir’s side quest) proves it too
This is exactly what I've always been saying, there's genuinely no downsides to this ending for the denizens of the lands between
From this? No. From how its written in game? Yes. Because how its written in the translation all its saying is "yeah the golden order is still great, the horrible things they do are still 100% ok, we just need to not take the god and the greater will as knowing everything as they arent any better than us." Now with this it isnt, but the way its worded in the actual game its basically just keeping the golden order and everything terrible about it other than that
@@zavexcapricious2519 i always thought it included the greater will no longer having any say in the lands between, just as any other outer god.
@@zavexcapricious2519 Those bad things are brought about by either Marika or the Demi-Gods, not the Greater Will.
@@sirpuffball6366 Yeah but it doesn't. The whole point of it is to remove any barriers between the GW and the LB, which still leaves the LB under the uncontestable rule of an immortal, almighty alien tyrant who at best was A-OK with multiple genocides and at worst ordered them itself.
@@warriorwatch2406 yeah, but it was still widely accepted. The ending doesn't remove those, it just specifies the Greater Will and Marika are no better than normal people, that's it. It doesn't change how the golden order operates, just adds that to it. But with how long they went with the rules of the golden order, with it still around with that ending things like hating the omen aren't going away or being discouraged
My man Goldmask gets some respect! I identify with him. Best voice actor in the game. ...
Absolutely! And FromSoft gave him so many iconic lines too!
@@garrulousgoldmask the best line is the one he does with his hands. __(::)__
Now that the DLC is out it confirms some ideas here especially about the greater will
The game often depicts or hints that the greater will is this kinda wrathful entity who punishes many of it’s subjects, but with Metyr the mother of fingers it seems that it wasn’t really 100% the case. And this really reinforces, the ending that gold mask wants to usher in.
The greater Will is more neutral, than what the game hints at
This is actually my preferred ending.
Goldmask be like:
Exists. Sees the flaw of the current order. Fixes everything, T-poses and promptly dies.
Truly best character
Goldmask has always been the greatest Chad in the setting
Hey man, great job on this video! You earned another subscriber.
More to the point tho. I think the goldmask ending is either the best ending or the second best ending depending on Ranni’s age of stars. Other than her little rant about cold fear and doubt we have no idea what the age of stars actually is, except it’s freedoms from the greater will, golden order and two fingers. The age of stars could be the best ending, second best, of much much lower, possibly even worst ending. Probably not, but possibly. The age of stars is pretty much putting our faith in Ranni and trusting the world to her good will. Even if she has 100% good intentions what if she has been lead on by some outer god? There’s some text about the blind finding a blood star in the cosmos. The elden beast came on a star. Who knows what’s out there. The age of stars is the most hopeful ending, but also the most trusting and vulnerable IMO.
Thank you so much! For me, I'd put the Age of Stars as the second best ending, partly because Ranni does become a god at the end (she is an Empyrean) and she's also an absolute schemer. Plus, the moon in Ranni's cut scene does look like a waygate, so who knows what kind of Lovecraftian monstrosities are lurking out there, deep in space? (That said, it's nice to have at least one ending where the Tarnished doesn't end up maidenless!)
Meanwhile, the Greater Will has been MIA for centuries so I see it as much less of a threat. (See Enia's line about thousands, if not tens of thousands of moons for the Fingers to communicate with the GW.)
my interpretation of ranni's ending is..
she fks off to the moon so no gods could meddle with mortal affairs and she'll let them figure things out on their own, hence the fear, doubt & loneliness.
The Ever Brilliant Goldmask is best, because he has maximum drip for minimum cloth.
Well said!
Goldmask’s dialogue is my favorite in the whole game, thanks for the more accurate translations
I'd feel more for those who live in death if they didn't try to murder me everywhere I go
glad to see someone finally talk about this. through learning the lore & doing his quest myself, i came to the same conclusion about his intensions & what the ending entailed. glad to some real in-game evidence helpingme out. great video!
Thank you! And great minds think alike!
Chad Goldmask finally getting the recognition he deserves as the best ending! Great vid btw
Glad you enjoyed!
Goldmask's is still flawed as it lacks death, you're locking the world into a perfect stagnation.
Yinz? Don’t tell me I’ve discovered a fellow Yinzer on here
The Two fingers were placed there by the Greater Will, and conveyed it's directives until TGW abandoned The Lands Between.
Perfecting The Golden Order still creates an unnatural world, where death is removed. The Golden Order might be changed and rejuvenated, but inevitably ends in degeneracy, decay, and madness. It is hubris incarnate.
The two best endings are embracing the cursed nature of the world and summoning Dungeater and Ranni's fight against The Greater Will.
The current golden order was only a problem because of Marikas removal of the rune of death, the fault of the gods addreased by the Goldmask rune. We sorted this problem when we released the rune if death by killing Maliketh.
Taking the Goldmask route allows us to keep the current boons left by the greater will, but puts every god under scrutiny so there will be no situation where a god like Marika rises.
Rannis ending isn’t good man 😭😭😭😭
I'm glad I thought the same as what this video explained on my first playthrough. To me it was the most logical option for the good of everyone.
Great minds think alike!
And you managed to get Age of Order on your first playthrough? I'm impressed!
"Since it takes so long to communicate with the greater will, if they're even doing that,-" yeeaah, so about that.
Goldmask isn’t a simp! PERFECT ORDER!!!
I like your points and it puts Goldmask's ending in a different perspective I haven't seen discussed that much. really cool!
just a correction 5:56 "wise words of everyone's favorite DOG"
If I remember correctly new lore in the dlc shows that the two fingers are not actually relaying the orders of the greater will but will of the finger mother. That weird boss made of hands which I don’t think is connected to the greater will.
Gold Mask did not convince us to do his ending
We merely followed his enlightenment
That alone speaks volume has to how pure his intentions are ☀️
I got Elden Ring a few days ago and I'm playing it in Portuguese
While talking to Ranni in her tower she said her goal was do "remove everything that has ever existed before"
Interesting! In the English version, she says she wants to "rid the world of all that came before" though the minor tweaks between the Portuguese and the English could have very different implications.
And I'm always interested to see different translations of the game! It's fascinating to see what gets emphasized and what gets left out.
I don't see why they give us these kind of translations when the Japanese ones are much more enlightening.
Exactly! Especially when it comes to the endings, which are kind of a bfd.
What if iam racist tho?
probably the fracture ending since nothing changes
As the CEO of racism I appreciate your initiative
This is a brilliant video, I have been thinking similar things for a long time and im happy there finally being presented properly. Well done!
Thank you so much!
Ah yes, the perfect order ending, the only ending I've gotten every single time I've completed the game
Fracture: Keep the mean thing
Despair: Make the mean thing worse
Duskborn: Make the mean thing accept undead
Frenzied Flame: Destroy everything!
Stars: Take the mean thing away
Order: Make the mean thing a nice thing.
Wait, Goldmask was an ending? I thought he just stood there on the bridge staring at the tree
Yep! It's pretty easy to do but also very easy to miss: After you defeat Goldfrey, pick up the Golden Order Principia prayerbook that's hanging about the boss room and then cast the spell Law of Regression in front of a statue of Radagon that's an elevator ride away from the Goldfrey room.
Then you head over to the Colosseum in Leyndell and tell him what you found, then meet him again the Mountaintops of the Giants. Then in the Ashen Capital, go back to where you found Goldmask earlier to get his mending rune (and come back again after that to get his drip).
Age of Order ending all the way baby. I didnt spend 70 goddamn hours in this game to just leave on a 1000 year honeymoon with a doll or rule a world where no one truly dies in peace with a necrophiliac maiden. I wanna fix what I can with this world, so that everyone are free to live their own lives without the constant meddling of the outer gods.
" behold! your mother is dead! " is probably the funniest line in the game other then " hit me in the back with something nice and big "
Unrelated note: I like your funny little crossbow build with the perfume that was shown a couple times
Thank you so much! The Pulley Crossbow is a lot of fun to use, especially in fights against gargantuan bosses like Rykard, Placidusax, hell even the Elden Beast was surprisingly enjoyable. Really felt like I was playing a bootleg version of Monster Hunter at home haha
Plus, it's lore accurate for Goldmask!
dude- bro predicted the fickleness of the two fingers LONG ago. Based