Fancy seeing you here @SmoughTown, I love your videos and Hawkshaw’s videos too. Dark Souls II is such a great and fun game, it doesn’t deserve all the hate that it gets, it deserves praise and it’s lore definitely deserves more praise, because it does play important roles within the entirety of the Dark Souls Timeline.
Need that Elden Ring book man. Also props for keeping the price very fair for the enormous amount of work I know went into it. The quality looks insane.
Aldia urging the bearer of the curse to look beyond the cycle of light and dark, and Vendrick advising them to seek strength as the foundation to face adversity is one of the best storytelling in Dark Souls and its criminal they play such a minimal role in ds3
Yeah I love their duality as brothers and how different their views of life are when it comes to the curse At the end of the day, it was Vendrick's way that ended up being the true one - the Bearer of the Curse seeks strength in the crowns of other great kings, and eventually beats the curse, unable to go hollow (if wearing one of said crowns)
Tbf, looking beyond the cycle was continued with the Painter wanting to start a new world altogether. Characters like Gael and Sulyvahn clearly were inspired by that mindset too.
I shouldve gone into more detail on the ashen mist heart and a few other things. I might do a follow up rant style video, stay tuned. Next up, the penguin video
Aldia, similar to how giantdad was made canon in ds2 with a item description, is essentially the canon manifestation of souls lore masters. He is one of the most important characters in the entire series, and I’m glad people have started to acknowledge that fact instead of trying to act like ds2 never happened like how it was a few years ago. So much can be gleamed from looking into what he was studying - with bits of his character traits can still be found in characters like rykard, midra, ymir, and shabiri to name a few just from ER.
Okay, DaS 2 is my favourite game from the trilogy, so I’m gonna outline my lore interpretations before I watch this. This is the midtimes of the linking of the fires. We go to multiple kingdoms that have both linked the fire and acquiesced to dark, respectively. The lost sinner used her pyromancy to replicate the witch of izalith. The rotten accepted the old soul of the dead. Which also meant it accepted all of the trash from Majula. the old iron king attempted to be as influential as Gwyn, The Duke of brightstone cove Tseldora wanted to be as intelligent as the old Duke of the archives, but he couldn’t and decided to let a remnant of the old duke become as strong as possible. All of which are tragically exactly what vendrick wanted.
Although it was hard to understand in the game (as most souls games are), your explanation of ds2’s story within the ds3 and ds1’s sphere is very well said and easy to understand, which gives me more respect for ds2 in general as it was asking the big questions, reflecting back to the past game and the player’s decisions within it .
The amount of things you linked together in this video really justifies how long I've been hearing you say that it's coming this is seriously impressive
Aldia and Gwyn sorta represent the two parts that make of archetype of the deity Wotan. Gwyn is the creation and upholding of order and Aldia is the discovery of knowledge and wisdom, both achieved through tremendous and terrible sacrifice to the benefit of no one else.
This is the first video that’s actually made me understand the lore of DS2. I love the loose and fast but densely packed style of presentation. Amazing lore video ❤
Wow holy fucking shit man, just when I commented making a meme about him teasing us on this vid for a year straight, he drops it😭😭💀 Imma watch this one very meticulously, but now is not the time - I'll wait for dinner just before going to bed to blast this on my TV, a video like this requires the utmost of attention
I've always been curious about the role Aldia's played in shaping the fandom's opinion of Gwyn, the cycles, and the nature of the world. Specifically, I'm curious why Aldia seems to be uniquely trusted above all other NPCs that tell us what to do (Frampt, Kaathe), there's some pretence that he's leaving us to decide but he's very clearly pushing a "something different" angle. The community was good and skeptic after DS1 came out, the fandom had gone in circles about what ending was good and had kinda settled on "neither, and both NPCs are manipulating us". When vanilla DS2 came out a lot of people were confused or didnt notice all the connective tissue, but it seemed even more vague and open to interpretation what was going on. Then SOTFS came out and the fandom seemed to universally just accept "oh good, an NPC that tells me who the bad guys were in DS1 and the best way for the player character to proceed", all skepticism gone. Part of this might just be Fromsoft pivoting after complaints about vanilla DS2 not being closely related enough to DS1, but we have lore from item descriptions (which are generally considered to a reliable narrator) that tell us even the names of the old Gods etc are all forgotten by this point in time. Then Aldia shows up and goes "oh yeah, Gwyn did this and it was a Tuesday morning and he was wearing a purple shirt, and his intentions were evil". How does he know any of this? Does he actually know, or is he making an educated guess? Why would anyone assume he's being truthful? Normally the guy who experiments on people and creates mutated monsters isnt considered to be the most altruistic, even in Souls (Seath, etc).
There was an interview with the directors of ds2 where they said that the story of ds2 (atleast what they wanted) was going to be alot more straightforward compared to ds1. This is why characters like emerald hareld, king vendrick and aldia just spell out ds1 story and theme very clearly to you.
@@xsubzerox3412 The self-contained story of ds2 was much more straightforward, but it wasnt until Scholar that they added Aldia + Vendrick talking your ear off about ds1. Generally in any soulsborne game I consider any NPC that gives me direct answers to be likely to be: 1. Wrong 2. Lying or 3. Guessing I think that last one is underappreciated in the Souls universe. If there's never been an Age of Dark, how does Kaathe know that it's going to be so great? Oolacile and New Londo dont seem great. I'm convinced Kaathe didnt even know how to trigger the Age of Dark in that first cycle, he seems to truly believe refusing the link the flame would achive that goal, but by the time of DS3 he's clearly learned the fire would need to be actively extinguished or usurped for that to happen. Which means he was mistaken in DS1, despite speaking so confidently. If he was mistaken about how to trigger it, then I wouldnt trust his bold claims about how amazing it'd be for mankind either. That was a small tangent but relevant because the Souls community seems to have similar assumptions that the "natural order" is better for mankind than constantly linking the fire, which mostly stems from Aldia or Aldia-aligned NPCs. But in a world that's only known grey nothingness and then the cycle, how could anyone claim to know what life outside the cycle looks like? Mankind in the 'natural order' could well be the mindless shambling hollows we see in the DS1 intro, since fire is what brought disparity.
@@MikeHesk742 Both Aldia and Vendrick, two brothers, investigated the nature of spirits together. Vendrick had gathered 4 Great Lord Spirits during his time. I think they studied these spirits and have knowledge of the events of DS1.
@@MikeHesk742It’s worse when you consider that Aldia tortured and experimented the entire population of Drangleic, and for what? Nothing, other than being made a mockery by the shield of want in DS3. Yet has the gall to say Gwyn sinned, because he sacrificed himself to save his people
@@EldenRingBuildsArchive That's a good point. Speaking of Gwyn's sacrifice I see a lot of comments on the "Gwyn's the bad guy, linking the fire's bad" side of things that regurgitate what some Aldia or Kaathe-aligned NPCs say about it all being to prolong the age of gods and keep mankind down. But look at DS2, the great kingdoms of Drangleic, Forossa, the Iron King's kindom, Sunken City etc, were all human kingdom with man sitting at the top. No Gods looking down and ruling over like in Lordran. It feels like the Gods are all dead or hiding, and yet somehow allegedly continuing the cycle is about keeping mankind subservient to the Gods and Gwyn was so selfish he... sacrificed himself?
The original concept of pontiff was that he was the the "king of the eclipse" (internal name) And people now assume that he was originally an evolved form of prince lothric. Similar in berserk, how griffith evolved from a weak disabled man to his strong demon form called femto when he called the eclipse. (Literally the eclipse look exactly the same in ds3 and berserk) So people now assume it might have been the initial idea for lothric since he too is a weak looking chracter, and that statue at 1:13:42 was just visualising lothric in his weak form unable to lift his sword but later as the final boss of game, he'd evolve and use it against us.
He is Aldia 2.0 but less neutral - he groomed the princes to abandon the fire so that an Unkindled could become Lord of Hollows. He drove Oceiros to madness (like Logan's insanity) so that he could step in and annex Lothric (seen in the civil war between the Priestess and Scholar castes), just as he annexed Anor Londo (loosing Aldrich on Gwyndolin). Sulyvahn's angelic faith is a rebranding of the Church of Londor (notice the statues of Kaathe), they worship Caitha who is depicted as an Angel in DS2 (Iron Keep Bridge). (Caitha is what Lindelt called Velka, but that's a story for another time)
@@core-nix1885 I don't think pontiff had any interest in an unkindled being a lord of hollows. He actively stops us from potentially linking the first flame and yuria's subordinate, "londor pale shade" can be summoned for pontiff if you are working with yuria. The profaned greatsword states he was a man fueled by ambition. He did everything to undermine the gods and usurped them and placed aldrich as a dummy God while he rained and the Pontiff. And stops anyone from leaving or getting into lothric castle with vordt and the dancer. With all this, it's more like he was a villain who wanted to be the Lord of the new coming age of the deep sea or whatever age came after the fire burns out
I've always seen Aldia as a sort of Darth Kreia character. A sort of mentor character that doesnt quite want you to follow their ideals, but rather come to your own conclusions
Thats definitely it. He does want to see whats beyond light and dark but hes not gonna force the player to go his way. He fully explains both sides and is basically like, well now choose
The first 15ish minutes are some of the best and to the point recap of DS1's lore/backstory I have ever heard. The rest of the video is great but that part is truly impressive.
Sorry but Gwynn is absolutely the reason humanity is cursed. Did he know it would happen? Who can tell. But he's the reason for the curse. The Darksign is just a pilot light for dark souls. I'm inclined to believe every undead has it in DS1. Not sure about later games since over time the... "infrastructure" that Gwynn set in place before linking the fire might have crumbled. Could be wrong about the Darksign but that's my head-canon.
@@slaveykoslaveykov9069 The Undead Curse came from the Firelinking, no doubt. That was not intended on Gwyn's side. As for humans, Sieglinde, Siegmeyer's daughter is not Undead. And many characters speak of becoming undead. Laurentius, Solaire, Griggs, Rhea. They were not born with the Darksign, but got it later in life. Every Undead has the Darksign, yes, that's what makes them Undead, but not every human in the game is Undead to begin with.
@@josephbulkin9222 I see what you mean but I disagree - I do think all humans have the Darksign. It only makes sense for all of humanity to be branded, not just undead. Like you said Gwyn likely didn't even anticipate the curse. And, well, undead go hollow, and hollows dont have any humanity left so they don't have anything to burn.
Great breakdown for one of the most underrated characters of the series. I look forward to hearing more about Pontiff Sullivan. I would also be interested to hear your breakdowns about sister Friede who is frequently just summarized as "a evil bitch" and moved past hastily. Also Gael and the pygmy lords/the identity of the furtive pygmy, whats up with the witch of izalith/bed of chaos, as well as whatever significance you place on Manus in the series. Also for elden ring did you ever do a breakdown on your thoughts of who/ what the gloam eyed Queen is/was? I personally am of the belief that she was probably a white serpent, or at least had that as her shadow for how heavily serpentine imagery is associated with her, the godskins, and rykard. I would be curious to hear your thoughts though.
@@_thebigsteve fair enough. i've been digging into it a while and think there's a significant amount of evidence but i'd rather not argue in a giant comment laying it all out. it's definitely a fringe take, but i think it works well for the narrative. the theories about the GEQ being marika's rival, mother, sister, or daughter probably also work, but don't feel as clean to me.
@@_thebigsteve biggest 2 clues for me are how none of the lore ever says the GEQ and the Golden Order warred or opposed Marika. It's very specific to just state that Maliketh defeated her. In this circumstance, it could be seen as her empyrean shadow forcing her back under the rule of the Fingers, like Blaidd and the Fingers were trying to do with Ranni. and the thing that only recently got spotted and datamined out, the depiction of the Gloam Eyed Queen engraved on the Godskin Stitcher is basically identical to the Marika statue in Messmer's room.
@mattb6616 that's fair. She feels to me if anything at this point a character like velka from dark souls. Important to the narrative but in and of herself put in the background by the narrative because it wasn't as important to the overall story as what was done in response for her. Have you heard the theory that Messmer was one of the gloam eyed queens children that were taken by Marika and thats why he is affiliated with snakes, and has some explanation as to the role of the "abductor virgins" in the story?
There genuinely are no great aldia-focused, long form videos on TH-cam yet, somehow. So thank you for filling this niche! I've been looking for one, since I beat ds2 but never played any DLC expansions. So I missed a lot of his story obviously
The hype surrounding this video is the stuff of legends. I swear I've been on the edge of my seat since I discovered your channel and you always tease this video. I'm so excited!
The whole giants being used as sacrifice to make dragons kinda makes sense. The dragons, the trees and the fog were there before it all, giants turn into trees, maybe growing into the rocky arch trees over time who knows. Giants are rocky looking, the seed of giants is also a thing. So maybe giants were the origins of the arch trees. Im guessing turning everlasting material into other everlasting material could be possible, i forget what its called but the technique Ludleth uses in dark souls 3 to make souls into weapons could be used at a grander scale for Aldia's experiments letting him transmutate giants into dragons. I also always felt like both dragons and giants probably are life born of splinters from the trees, all 3 being made of stone.
Soul transposition, which is, ironically, inside a great tree made of hollows Trees have always played a huge, unknown role in the dark souls lore that I don't see many ppl talk about
@@Sohelanthropus I do feel like it is actually a very big thing as well but just kinda gets mentioned in passing I think once in DS 2 & 3 and then never again just to explain boss weapons.
If you think about it, in Dark Souls 1, at the very bottom of The Great Hollow, you stumble across “Ash Lake”. A place that looks like it has been long forgotten and has giant dragon bones in it, a single Hydra which may be the last one in existence, and there looks like there is very tall trees all throughout Ash Lake if you look around the area, and you find the giant great dragon there that offers you to join it’s Covenant. The place looks very ancient and could be the birthplace or home of all ancient dragons and ancient giants alike, only now with the passage of time, there is basically nothing left there & it looks abandoned and deserted.
Totally worth the wait. DS2 was my first FromSoft game and I was still early when it came to piecing things together, so Aldia was a bit of a mystery to me ... until now!
Ive been wanting to a video on it for so long ive got all the clips saved i just gotta rewatch the movie one more time to suitably rant about how awesome it is
Been looking forward to this vid for so long now, Madman. Glad to see you finally finished it. I really appreciate how you you take time to actively ponder upon alternative options to your main thesis, while still strengthening your main opinion. While an Elden DLC vid sounds fresh, I really think a Pontiff or Vendrick vid sounds really cool. You do you, bud. Keep up the good work! 🤙
Amazing vid man. Hopefully one day you'd consider making a lord of hollows vid. If anyone can make a worthwhile commentary on a seemingly unexplored story given the limited sources about it, it would be you. Keep up the great content ✊🏽
While Gwyn was the lord of light, nowhere in the games are the lord souls themselves given the light/death/life aspects. They’re pretty much a fan creation.
Right but thats the subtext we can get since the only other disparity we have heard that sprung from the first flame within the games is life and death so using that and putting several things together like nito's title as first of the dead death like aesthetics etc,etc its a safe assumption to do since tbh dark souls is like 99% subtext...
great video, really made me think about ds lore again after being deep into ER lore. Looking forward to more DS lore and especially the pontiff one. I hope you also get around to making a lore video on Londor since I think it's a slightly underexplored topic in DS lore videos. anyways much love
22:39 DS2 is beautiful in how truly bountiful its content is. I've completed at least six runs but never got this mask. And i thought the red phantoms on the belfry roof dropping their gear was rare! 12:16 i never noticed this until Madman paired the footage with the discussion, but does this shot of the CU peering at the dropped corpse kinda mirror how Gael looks over at the Ashen One when he's consumed the dark soul?
Just watched this one again lol. Aldia and the interconnectedness of the Souls trilogy are most diligently explored by you. Also Australian stuff rocks! Check out the Mystery Road movies and series(s). Also Talk to Me is a great movie.
As for Sullivan, I still think he couldve been the one mentoring the princes. Even if hes just some guy there must have been some kind of catalyst for him to be able to control both flame and darkmoon spells. It hints at a pretty deep understanding of the magics that Gwyn used in that first age
I think that taking the throne is more than just linking the fire; it represents the continuation of the light/dark cycle that Gwyn put the world into. Nashandra wanted to sit on that throne more than anything else, and something tells me she would definitely not have linked the fire, regardless of whether we do when we sit on it (which isn't even shown in that ending cutscene, it's left open to our own interpretation). Aldia's dialogue when you choose to leave the throne spells it out much more clearly, saying we are going "beyond the scope of light, beyond the reach of dark." This clearly tells us that leaving the throne is the act of abandoning the entire cycle of light/dark and trying to find a third path beyond what was offered to us in DS1; a way to break the curse, not to surrender to it or to overcome it.
Aldia is one of the best characters in Souls and it’s a tragedy we don’t hear more of him and his philosophy on 3; especially considering that game Ultimately has us cheat the cycle for good
so Aldia, after all your studies on the truths of life a the soul, are you gonna turn into a dragon to transcend the limitations of your flesh like the mages of ash lake? nah fam, FLAMING ROOTS!, thats the ultimate life form!
I didn’t know Pontiff was originally planned to be the final boss fight. Tbh I think he should have been. I like Soul of Cinder but Pontiff’s pure influence over the plot of DS3 can not be understated
Anything Dark Souls II related, I click on it and want to see the information on it. Especially since I been playing a lot of the Dark Souls games and other FromSoft games on my TH-cam channel at the moment. Aldia’s legacy lives on within the Dark Souls universe.
Tremendous video mate - Aldia is such an incredible character and you've done him justice here!
Fancy seeing you here @SmoughTown, I love your videos and Hawkshaw’s videos too.
Dark Souls II is such a great and fun game, it doesn’t deserve all the hate that it gets, it deserves praise and it’s lore definitely deserves more praise, because it does play important roles within the entirety of the Dark Souls Timeline.
Need that Elden Ring book man. Also props for keeping the price very fair for the enormous amount of work I know went into it. The quality looks insane.
The “A LIE WILL REMAIN A LIE” monologue is still one of the hardest in gaming history
Men are props on the stage of life...
Aldia created a dragon, elephant people, lion people, dragon people, dragon people², hippo people, mirror portals, rust dogs, and a cute emo girl
Crazy accomplishment
Aldia urging the bearer of the curse to look beyond the cycle of light and dark, and Vendrick advising them to seek strength as the foundation to face adversity is one of the best storytelling in Dark Souls and its criminal they play such a minimal role in ds3
Yeah I love their duality as brothers and how different their views of life are when it comes to the curse
At the end of the day, it was Vendrick's way that ended up being the true one - the Bearer of the Curse seeks strength in the crowns of other great kings, and eventually beats the curse, unable to go hollow (if wearing one of said crowns)
Tbf, looking beyond the cycle was continued with the Painter wanting to start a new world altogether. Characters like Gael and Sulyvahn clearly were inspired by that mindset too.
Ah, Aldia- Truly peak dark souls writing at its finest.
The lore is so deep calling DS2 "God tier" seems inadequate. This is Furtive Pygmy tier
@@ThommyofThenn Furtive who?
@@juromori Some easily forgotten tiny fella
Babe drop EVERYTHING...the fabled Honored Madman Aldia video has come at last!
I hope you and Jonathan enjoy the vid!
@@zedchillman2685 I sure will!
Been waiting a long time for this.
I shouldve gone into more detail on the ashen mist heart and a few other things. I might do a follow up rant style video, stay tuned. Next up, the penguin video
Can’t wait man! Gonna watch Penguin tonight
The long-awaited Aldia video is here. Glad to see it. Commenting now for visibility, but I'll check it out on stream some time
Much appreciated, king
So cool seeing you here! 😊
Forlorn and Numen
Only women.
From another word
Attacks from the shadows.
Dont have faces.
Elden Ring really is Ds2 2
Aldia, similar to how giantdad was made canon in ds2 with a item description, is essentially the canon manifestation of souls lore masters. He is one of the most important characters in the entire series, and I’m glad people have started to acknowledge that fact instead of trying to act like ds2 never happened like how it was a few years ago.
So much can be gleamed from looking into what he was studying - with bits of his character traits can still be found in characters like rykard, midra, ymir, and shabiri to name a few just from ER.
Aldia is definitely one of the main pillars of Dark Souls.
He is very important to the universe.
What item description made GiantDad canon?
Okay, DaS 2 is my favourite game from the trilogy, so I’m gonna outline my lore interpretations before I watch this.
This is the midtimes of the linking of the fires. We go to multiple kingdoms that have both linked the fire and acquiesced to dark, respectively.
The lost sinner used her pyromancy to replicate the witch of izalith.
The rotten accepted the old soul of the dead. Which also meant it accepted all of the trash from Majula.
the old iron king attempted to be as influential as Gwyn,
The Duke of brightstone cove Tseldora wanted to be as intelligent as the old Duke of the archives, but he couldn’t and decided to let a remnant of the old duke become as strong as possible.
All of which are tragically exactly what vendrick wanted.
A LIE WILL REMAIN A LIEEEEEEE
YOUNG HOLLOW, KNOWING THIS, DO YOU STILL DESIRE PEACE?
THE ALDIA VIDEO IS REAL!! 🗣❗️
In earlier cycles it was lost media, but how a great champion has come to Like the First Aldia Vid, bringing about an age of plenty
The story of Aldia is the story of Dark Souls 2 (and basically of all of the Dark Souls series) if you think about it.
Although it was hard to understand in the game (as most souls games are), your explanation of ds2’s story within the ds3 and ds1’s sphere is very well said and easy to understand, which gives me more respect for ds2 in general as it was asking the big questions, reflecting back to the past game and the player’s decisions within it .
Wow, references to The Storyteller, The Gentlemen, Deadwood, AND Casual Geographic?
I love this channel.
A video all about the greatest souls character.... yes please. I'm so glad Aldia is still talked about
The amount of things you linked together in this video really justifies how long I've been hearing you say that it's coming this is seriously impressive
Damn it really gets across how long and how much experimenting he went through. So many accomplishments over the ages.
Aldia and Gwyn sorta represent the two parts that make of archetype of the deity Wotan.
Gwyn is the creation and upholding of order and Aldia is the discovery of knowledge and wisdom, both achieved through tremendous and terrible sacrifice to the benefit of no one else.
I alr commented but fr i have an unhealthy obsession with primal knights i dont know why but they take up space in my head daily thank you aldia❤❤
My god, you madlad you actually did it. I've been waiting forever for this!
This is the first video that’s actually made me understand the lore of DS2. I love the loose and fast but densely packed style of presentation. Amazing lore video ❤
8:20 The dragons bullied Gwyn for being bald!?!! Pieces are finally fallng into place. Thx Madman
Wow holy fucking shit man, just when I commented making a meme about him teasing us on this vid for a year straight, he drops it😭😭💀
Imma watch this one very meticulously, but now is not the time - I'll wait for dinner just before going to bed to blast this on my TV, a video like this requires the utmost of attention
I've always been curious about the role Aldia's played in shaping the fandom's opinion of Gwyn, the cycles, and the nature of the world. Specifically, I'm curious why Aldia seems to be uniquely trusted above all other NPCs that tell us what to do (Frampt, Kaathe), there's some pretence that he's leaving us to decide but he's very clearly pushing a "something different" angle.
The community was good and skeptic after DS1 came out, the fandom had gone in circles about what ending was good and had kinda settled on "neither, and both NPCs are manipulating us". When vanilla DS2 came out a lot of people were confused or didnt notice all the connective tissue, but it seemed even more vague and open to interpretation what was going on. Then SOTFS came out and the fandom seemed to universally just accept "oh good, an NPC that tells me who the bad guys were in DS1 and the best way for the player character to proceed", all skepticism gone. Part of this might just be Fromsoft pivoting after complaints about vanilla DS2 not being closely related enough to DS1, but we have lore from item descriptions (which are generally considered to a reliable narrator) that tell us even the names of the old Gods etc are all forgotten by this point in time. Then Aldia shows up and goes "oh yeah, Gwyn did this and it was a Tuesday morning and he was wearing a purple shirt, and his intentions were evil". How does he know any of this? Does he actually know, or is he making an educated guess? Why would anyone assume he's being truthful? Normally the guy who experiments on people and creates mutated monsters isnt considered to be the most altruistic, even in Souls (Seath, etc).
There was an interview with the directors of ds2 where they said that the story of ds2 (atleast what they wanted) was going to be alot more straightforward compared to ds1.
This is why characters like emerald hareld, king vendrick and aldia just spell out ds1 story and theme very clearly to you.
@@xsubzerox3412 The self-contained story of ds2 was much more straightforward, but it wasnt until Scholar that they added Aldia + Vendrick talking your ear off about ds1. Generally in any soulsborne game I consider any NPC that gives me direct answers to be likely to be:
1. Wrong
2. Lying
or
3. Guessing
I think that last one is underappreciated in the Souls universe. If there's never been an Age of Dark, how does Kaathe know that it's going to be so great? Oolacile and New Londo dont seem great. I'm convinced Kaathe didnt even know how to trigger the Age of Dark in that first cycle, he seems to truly believe refusing the link the flame would achive that goal, but by the time of DS3 he's clearly learned the fire would need to be actively extinguished or usurped for that to happen. Which means he was mistaken in DS1, despite speaking so confidently. If he was mistaken about how to trigger it, then I wouldnt trust his bold claims about how amazing it'd be for mankind either.
That was a small tangent but relevant because the Souls community seems to have similar assumptions that the "natural order" is better for mankind than constantly linking the fire, which mostly stems from Aldia or Aldia-aligned NPCs. But in a world that's only known grey nothingness and then the cycle, how could anyone claim to know what life outside the cycle looks like? Mankind in the 'natural order' could well be the mindless shambling hollows we see in the DS1 intro, since fire is what brought disparity.
@@MikeHesk742 Both Aldia and Vendrick, two brothers, investigated the nature of spirits together. Vendrick had gathered 4 Great Lord Spirits during his time. I think they studied these spirits and have knowledge of the events of DS1.
@@MikeHesk742It’s worse when you consider that Aldia tortured and experimented the entire population of Drangleic, and for what? Nothing, other than being made a mockery by the shield of want in DS3.
Yet has the gall to say Gwyn sinned, because he sacrificed himself to save his people
@@EldenRingBuildsArchive That's a good point. Speaking of Gwyn's sacrifice I see a lot of comments on the "Gwyn's the bad guy, linking the fire's bad" side of things that regurgitate what some Aldia or Kaathe-aligned NPCs say about it all being to prolong the age of gods and keep mankind down. But look at DS2, the great kingdoms of Drangleic, Forossa, the Iron King's kindom, Sunken City etc, were all human kingdom with man sitting at the top. No Gods looking down and ruling over like in Lordran. It feels like the Gods are all dead or hiding, and yet somehow allegedly continuing the cycle is about keeping mankind subservient to the Gods and Gwyn was so selfish he... sacrificed himself?
I thought this was a running gag. Going to make popcorn for this!
Honored Madman, Scholar of the Second Souls.
I’ve been waiting months for this one! Finally! Thank you for creating this!
Also glad to see you finally finished this big project of a video, man, congrats.
The original concept of pontiff was that he was the the "king of the eclipse" (internal name)
And people now assume that he was originally an evolved form of prince lothric.
Similar in berserk, how griffith evolved from a weak disabled man to his strong demon form called femto when he called the eclipse. (Literally the eclipse look exactly the same in ds3 and berserk)
So people now assume it might have been the initial idea for lothric since he too is a weak looking chracter, and that statue at 1:13:42 was just visualising lothric in his weak form unable to lift his sword but later as the final boss of game, he'd evolve and use it against us.
He is Aldia 2.0 but less neutral - he groomed the princes to abandon the fire so that an Unkindled could become Lord of Hollows.
He drove Oceiros to madness (like Logan's insanity) so that he could step in and annex Lothric (seen in the civil war between the Priestess and Scholar castes), just as he annexed Anor Londo (loosing Aldrich on Gwyndolin).
Sulyvahn's angelic faith is a rebranding of the Church of Londor (notice the statues of Kaathe), they worship Caitha who is depicted as an Angel in DS2 (Iron Keep Bridge).
(Caitha is what Lindelt called Velka, but that's a story for another time)
@@core-nix1885 I don't think pontiff had any interest in an unkindled being a lord of hollows.
He actively stops us from potentially linking the first flame and yuria's subordinate, "londor pale shade" can be summoned for pontiff if you are working with yuria.
The profaned greatsword states he was a man fueled by ambition. He did everything to undermine the gods and usurped them and placed aldrich as a dummy God while he rained and the Pontiff. And stops anyone from leaving or getting into lothric castle with vordt and the dancer.
With all this, it's more like he was a villain who wanted to be the Lord of the new coming age of the deep sea or whatever age came after the fire burns out
I've always seen Aldia as a sort of Darth Kreia character. A sort of mentor character that doesnt quite want you to follow their ideals, but rather come to your own conclusions
Thats definitely it. He does want to see whats beyond light and dark but hes not gonna force the player to go his way. He fully explains both sides and is basically like, well now choose
I think I’ll subscribe solely off be being caught off guard by that bong rip. Now I feel like I gotta smoke with you
He finally dropped it 😭worth the wait good job man
The first 15ish minutes are some of the best and to the point recap of DS1's lore/backstory I have ever heard. The rest of the video is great but that part is truly impressive.
But it lies. Gwyn didnt give humans the Undead Curse(not intentionally, at least), and certainly not all humans carry the Darksign.
Sorry but Gwynn is absolutely the reason humanity is cursed. Did he know it would happen? Who can tell. But he's the reason for the curse. The Darksign is just a pilot light for dark souls. I'm inclined to believe every undead has it in DS1. Not sure about later games since over time the... "infrastructure" that Gwynn set in place before linking the fire might have crumbled. Could be wrong about the Darksign but that's my head-canon.
@@slaveykoslaveykov9069 The Undead Curse came from the Firelinking, no doubt. That was not intended on Gwyn's side.
As for humans, Sieglinde, Siegmeyer's daughter is not Undead. And many characters speak of becoming undead. Laurentius, Solaire, Griggs, Rhea. They were not born with the Darksign, but got it later in life. Every Undead has the Darksign, yes, that's what makes them Undead, but not every human in the game is Undead to begin with.
@@josephbulkin9222 I see what you mean but I disagree - I do think all humans have the Darksign. It only makes sense for all of humanity to be branded, not just undead. Like you said Gwyn likely didn't even anticipate the curse. And, well, undead go hollow, and hollows dont have any humanity left so they don't have anything to burn.
Aldia "Scholar of the first sin" Thundercock
Great breakdown for one of the most underrated characters of the series. I look forward to hearing more about Pontiff Sullivan. I would also be interested to hear your breakdowns about sister Friede who is frequently just summarized as "a evil bitch" and moved past hastily. Also Gael and the pygmy lords/the identity of the furtive pygmy, whats up with the witch of izalith/bed of chaos, as well as whatever significance you place on Manus in the series.
Also for elden ring did you ever do a breakdown on your thoughts of who/ what the gloam eyed Queen is/was? I personally am of the belief that she was probably a white serpent, or at least had that as her shadow for how heavily serpentine imagery is associated with her, the godskins, and rykard. I would be curious to hear your thoughts though.
she was marika
@mattb6616 that's been a theory I've heard a lot but the evidence seems pretty lackluster or a shot in the dark.
@@_thebigsteve fair enough. i've been digging into it a while and think there's a significant amount of evidence but i'd rather not argue in a giant comment laying it all out. it's definitely a fringe take, but i think it works well for the narrative. the theories about the GEQ being marika's rival, mother, sister, or daughter probably also work, but don't feel as clean to me.
@@_thebigsteve biggest 2 clues for me are how none of the lore ever says the GEQ and the Golden Order warred or opposed Marika. It's very specific to just state that Maliketh defeated her. In this circumstance, it could be seen as her empyrean shadow forcing her back under the rule of the Fingers, like Blaidd and the Fingers were trying to do with Ranni.
and the thing that only recently got spotted and datamined out, the depiction of the Gloam Eyed Queen engraved on the Godskin Stitcher is basically identical to the Marika statue in Messmer's room.
@mattb6616 that's fair. She feels to me if anything at this point a character like velka from dark souls. Important to the narrative but in and of herself put in the background by the narrative because it wasn't as important to the overall story as what was done in response for her. Have you heard the theory that Messmer was one of the gloam eyed queens children that were taken by Marika and thats why he is affiliated with snakes, and has some explanation as to the role of the "abductor virgins" in the story?
There genuinely are no great aldia-focused, long form videos on TH-cam yet, somehow. So thank you for filling this niche! I've been looking for one, since I beat ds2 but never played any DLC expansions. So I missed a lot of his story obviously
I've been diving into Sotfs really hard this past month, playing everyday so this video dropped at the perfect time for me
The hype surrounding this video is the stuff of legends. I swear I've been on the edge of my seat since I discovered your channel and you always tease this video. I'm so excited!
This one of those videos you come back to
A whole hour video about one of my favorite characters in fiction ever? Sign me up
Man, what a blessed day to have brand new 1h+ Aldia video to watch!
Keep up the awesome work man!
This is great! After hearing about it for so long, I'm glad you took your time with it, it really paid off! Thank you for your work!
Great breakdown of an extremely interesting character, one that deconstructs a lot of what was presented in Dark Souls 1. Great vid.
Just found your channel - I'm in. Watched the whole thing. Solid work mate.
The whole giants being used as sacrifice to make dragons kinda makes sense. The dragons, the trees and the fog were there before it all, giants turn into trees, maybe growing into the rocky arch trees over time who knows.
Giants are rocky looking, the seed of giants is also a thing. So maybe giants were the origins of the arch trees.
Im guessing turning everlasting material into other everlasting material could be possible, i forget what its called but the technique Ludleth uses in dark souls 3 to make souls into weapons could be used at a grander scale for Aldia's experiments letting him transmutate giants into dragons.
I also always felt like both dragons and giants probably are life born of splinters from the trees, all 3 being made of stone.
Soul transposition, which is, ironically, inside a great tree made of hollows
Trees have always played a huge, unknown role in the dark souls lore that I don't see many ppl talk about
@@Sohelanthropus I do feel like it is actually a very big thing as well but just kinda gets mentioned in passing I think once in DS 2 & 3 and then never again just to explain boss weapons.
If you think about it, in Dark Souls 1, at the very bottom of The Great Hollow, you stumble across “Ash Lake”.
A place that looks like it has been long forgotten and has giant dragon bones in it, a single Hydra which may be the last one in existence, and there looks like there is very tall trees all throughout Ash Lake if you look around the area, and you find the giant great dragon there that offers you to join it’s Covenant.
The place looks very ancient and could be the birthplace or home of all ancient dragons and ancient giants alike, only now with the passage of time, there is basically nothing left there & it looks abandoned and deserted.
Totally worth the wait. DS2 was my first FromSoft game and I was still early when it came to piecing things together, so Aldia was a bit of a mystery to me ... until now!
Awesome video man, we all really appreciate the effort you put into making these videos.
My managers just left and it’s just me for the next 2 and half hours. Couldn’t ask for anything better to pass the time🙏🙏 thank you!
Been waiting for this!!! Great job!!
If aldia was vendricks size he wouldn’t even be able to get into the majula manor
Thats a great point lol.
The Goat himself has spoken once more and once more I shall listen with batted breath
Cool video! Looking forward to the Prospect video, that one was cool to stumble across.
Ive been wanting to a video on it for so long ive got all the clips saved i just gotta rewatch the movie one more time to suitably rant about how awesome it is
A darksouls video in our year 2024
It truly brings a tear to my eye
Very grateful I’m not the only one still obsessed with DS2 lore
Been looking forward to this vid for so long now, Madman. Glad to see you finally finished it.
I really appreciate how you you take time to actively ponder upon alternative options to your main thesis, while still strengthening your main opinion.
While an Elden DLC vid sounds fresh, I really think a Pontiff or Vendrick vid sounds really cool. You do you, bud.
Keep up the good work! 🤙
My favorite part of this entire video is the huge ass hit you took at the end. I laughed out loud.
I’ve already accidentally fallen asleep to this a few times. Excited to do it again
Son, you're going to have to tell the coach to delay the football game for a few hours. Honored Madman dropped the Aldia video.
Great video ! I love Aldia and it was awesome to find this lore video :D
Your videos are so fire I appreciate you making these videos man your dry commentary is awesome compared to guys like vaati who go so over the top
Amazing vid man. Hopefully one day you'd consider making a lord of hollows vid. If anyone can make a worthwhile commentary on a seemingly unexplored story given the limited sources about it, it would be you. Keep up the great content ✊🏽
While Gwyn was the lord of light, nowhere in the games are the lord souls themselves given the light/death/life aspects. They’re pretty much a fan creation.
Right but thats the subtext we can get since the only other disparity we have heard that sprung from the first flame within the games is life and death so using that and putting several things together like nito's title as first of the dead death like aesthetics etc,etc its a safe assumption to do since tbh dark souls is like 99% subtext...
An hourlong Aldia video? Very fucking excited!
great video, really made me think about ds lore again after being deep into ER lore. Looking forward to more DS lore and especially the pontiff one. I hope you also get around to making a lore video on Londor since I think it's a slightly underexplored topic in DS lore videos. anyways much love
Aldia? >.> take my like then. I can't resist that enchanting voice
thanks for this video, aldia has always been my favorite fromsoft character
I was looking for a 1 hour long video on DS2 lore this whole week...
This video is great would be an understatement.
Yes finally an hour long video about my favorite dark souls character
Oooooohhhhhh, I BEEN waitin on this one! Finally!!!!
22:39 DS2 is beautiful in how truly bountiful its content is. I've completed at least six runs but never got this mask. And i thought the red phantoms on the belfry roof dropping their gear was rare!
12:16 i never noticed this until Madman paired the footage with the discussion, but does this shot of the CU peering at the dropped corpse kinda mirror how Gael looks over at the Ashen One when he's consumed the dark soul?
That was my thought while editing, i was wondering if it was intentional or if i was just reading too much into it lol
@@TheHonoredMadmanpossibly a gamer equivalent to a recurring, subtle visual motif in a director's filmography.
@@jerrym1218 some IPs like those marvel movies go way too heavy on it. I have many other problems with their lousy movies but that is a big part of it
I screamed, I've been waiting so long for this!!
Just found this channel and I really enjoy your vibe! :)
I genuinely thought this was just a running joke. You mean you were actually working on an Aldia video??
Haha yeah it sort of became one because of how long i took with gathering footage and taking notes on and off, while recording bits of the audio
Just watched this one again lol. Aldia and the interconnectedness of the Souls trilogy are most diligently explored by you. Also Australian stuff rocks! Check out the Mystery Road movies and series(s). Also Talk to Me is a great movie.
My lore goat 🐐💯🙌
As for Sullivan, I still think he couldve been the one mentoring the princes. Even if hes just some guy there must have been some kind of catalyst for him to be able to control both flame and darkmoon spells. It hints at a pretty deep understanding of the magics that Gwyn used in that first age
You’re my favorite soulstuber bro. Keep it up🎉
I think Aldia is a stand in for the fans who got deep in the lore of ds1. Makes perfect sense to me.
aldia crawled so elden ring could run
I think that taking the throne is more than just linking the fire; it represents the continuation of the light/dark cycle that Gwyn put the world into. Nashandra wanted to sit on that throne more than anything else, and something tells me she would definitely not have linked the fire, regardless of whether we do when we sit on it (which isn't even shown in that ending cutscene, it's left open to our own interpretation). Aldia's dialogue when you choose to leave the throne spells it out much more clearly, saying we are going "beyond the scope of light, beyond the reach of dark." This clearly tells us that leaving the throne is the act of abandoning the entire cycle of light/dark and trying to find a third path beyond what was offered to us in DS1; a way to break the curse, not to surrender to it or to overcome it.
Its finally here!! Bros been edging us with this video
Great video, absolutely worth the wait
YES! I've been waiting for this video
Aldia is one of the best characters in Souls and it’s a tragedy we don’t hear more of him and his philosophy on 3; especially considering that game
Ultimately has us cheat the cycle for good
so Aldia, after all your studies on the truths of life a the soul, are you gonna turn into a dragon to transcend the limitations of your flesh like the mages of ash lake? nah fam, FLAMING ROOTS!, thats the ultimate life form!
I'm late to watch this, but it's as amazing as I thought it would be.
I didn’t know Pontiff was originally planned to be the final boss fight.
Tbh I think he should have been. I like Soul of Cinder but Pontiff’s pure influence over the plot of DS3 can not be understated
LET'S GOOOOOOOO🎉🎉
The Man, the Myth, the Scholar!
I fell down, down, down a [dark] ring of fire.
Anything Dark Souls II related, I click on it and want to see the information on it.
Especially since I been playing a lot of the Dark Souls games and other FromSoft games on my TH-cam channel at the moment.
Aldia’s legacy lives on within the Dark Souls universe.
Bless you, O honored madman... DS2 doesn't get enough credit
to say this would be an understatement
The Real Aldia? Perfection!
I think something like "The Legacy Of Aldia" with the thumbnail saying "The man who tried to beat the curse" would go even harder ngl🗣
Bouta listen to this while I clean my car!!!
Aldia vid finally dropped!!!
Nice, been waiting for this bad boy
the prophecies have finally come true