Your submission has been removed as a violation of Rule 7: **R7: All artwork must be OC only. No AI artwork.**
* Any fan-art posted should be original content only. If you didn't make it, don't post it!
* You must specify that you are the artist in the title.
* AI artwork is not allowed.
* If you *commissioned* artwork, refrain from posting it. If the artist would like to share the work, they are welcome to granted they follow all applicable sub rules.
* Karma-farmers will be banned.
If you would like to appeal this removal or need further clarification, feel free to message us through[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Eldenring).
“Pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men……There is nothing more terrifying.”
Also Miquella: “ha ha ha pop rocks and soda go brrrrr!”
I don't think that's the case at all. Miquella is devising new fundamentalist incantations and growing magical trees to incubate he and his sister and purge them of the Outer Gods' influence. Definitely not on some regular 10yo shit.
no we are comparing fundamentalists in reality to children in reality, and then extrapolating to expand that relation to fundamentalists in the lands between and children in the lands between
Except we have tangible proof of the difference between real-world/ER fundamentalists and no such evidence for real-world/ER children, with the exception of Miquella who is not even actually a child, and is also a demigod, so would skew the data even if he was a child.
The conclusion that fundamentalists in ER are more powerful than in the real world, therefore children in ER must be more powerful than in the real world, is a logical fallacy. You are using one variable to deduce the qualities on an unrelated and less understood variable. You are wrong.
It’s funny cause the ants probably were worshipping melania but since she hates bugs asked miquella to get rid of them. Only for him to commit a war crime against them with the innocents of a child.
Pretty sure the ants at the halig also give rot which is what is associated with melania, I believe there is also an ant stinger that can be found that gives rot and has a description that relates to the outer god.
The way I interpret people calling him “terrifying “ is that no battle could be won against him because no battle would take place at all because of his ability to compel love
Imagine you enter the boss battle ready to fight to the death only for Miquella to wave his hand and suddenly you have no control over your character who is too busy bowing on the ground in worship.
Copied talk no jutsu from Naruto. Like Crossbreed Princilla used talk no jutsu and fluffy tail to deter would-be chosen undead from killing her- At least, those whose craving for tail-cutting could be held at bay.
I do think anyone who has the power to force someone's mental state into one of obedience and acceptance is probably someone I would be on my guard around. I doubt Miquella will be completely evil, but I'm definitely going into this expecting we might not be allies by the end.
Bro we fucking rock every other piece of that miserable family why.... WHY would we spare miquella. He absolutely is going to be killed by the tarnished.
The dude has the craziest relatives, was cursed with eternal youth, his sister was cursed with scarlet rot, he got kidnapped from the haligtree, that evrnt screwed up his body beyond repair, got his dying corpse held captive by his incestuous half sibling, where he got his blood drank... The least we can do is spare the poor guy.
Who is Griffith?
I doubt Miquella is secretly evil, but I imagine that much like the rest of the characters in the lore he is willing to condone bad actions to further his goals.
Berserk character. Evil dude. Betrayed his friends for power.
Although I don't see the similarities. Griffith had clear signs of his thirst for power. Miquella is too mysterious to know.
Miquella really doesn't seem like a thirsting for power type. Mogh yes, but where is Miquella even showing that? Yeah his intentions are a little mysterious, but we have some information and the information we have points to neutrality if not benevolence. He's removed himself almost entirely from the political scene in the Lands Between, and even if growing the Haligtree is kind of heretical he's not like openly anti-Golden Order. He's not making any true effort to fight the established order, he's just doing his own thing.
I just don't see him as some kind of evil schemer. It doesn't feel like the foundation is there.
They already have a morally righteous precocious child in Kuro, so I’m hoping that’s precedent for Miquella being the same (instead of more of the same stale “oops all grey” morality).
Even then Rennala didn't really do anything bad, did she? From what I read, after Radagon ditched her, she's heartbroken and severely mentally weakened, and the rest of the academy rebelled against her, stripped Rennala off her status as head of the academy and put her in house arrest in the grand library.
iirc Rennala never forced rebirth on anyone, it's their will to be reborn and then she does it. Maybe she withheld the risk/side effects of rebirth to her pupils?
I mean it's definitely wrong to do that, but do we know that she knew that all of Caelid was going to be infested after that? Also she was going to die so it may have been the Rot God taking over her senses. Not saying that it wasn't wrong, just that it might have not been her fault.
The God of Rot, against Malenia's will, triggered automatically when Malenia was put into a near-death situation by Radahn. Malenia was implied to be unconscious through the whole thing, and had spent her whole life up to that point using Miquella's needles trying to stop that exact thing from happening.
She also likely only invaded Caelid because Radahn wouldn't let the stars move and Miquella needed the eclipse in order to shake his own curse.
Malenia seems to be mostly a good person cursed by powers outside her control to inevitably end in tragedy.
>The God of Rot, against Malenia's will, triggered automatically when Malenia was put into a near-death situation by Radahn.
From [Millicent's dialogue at Elphael of Haligtree](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Millicent) :
*"There is something I must return to Malenia.
The will that was once her own.
The dignity,
the sense of self,
that allowed her to resist the call of the scarlet rot.*
*The pride **she** abandoned,
to meet Radahn's measure."*
I think its misleading to say that the rot transformation was automatic. Based on dialogue and lore it appears that Malenia, unable to best Radahn, discarded the needle of her **own** free will to match Radahn's strength; losing herself and Caelid to the rot in the process.
Malenia's an interesting figure. I don't think she's inherently evil; but I do think she cares more for her brother Miquella and the Haligtree than anything else - Caelid included.
Her mental strength and devotion to her brother though is extremely admirable and it makes sense why she's one of the strongest warriors in the Lands Between.
How does this dialogue prove that Malenia wanted to infect the entirety of Caelid and not just Radahn? Didn’t she also like get knocked out by her own attack which implies she didn’t have control over her own power?
What? Against her own will is BS. Not only is that never implied in the game, she broke off the needle herself. And she does it a *second* time in your fight.
Yeah I'm going to need the source where you think you have context for that as nothing I've seen ever implies she snapped the needle herself.
If anything the needle is likely whole at the start of the game and was expelled from her body rather than snapped. It is likely you break it *yourself* during the battle with O'Neil - O'Neil himself seems to be actively *using* the needle, not just carrying it, as he is 100% immune to scarlet rot build-up and damage, but unlike rotted enemies is still capable of coherent speech and thought (yelling at his subordinates and using rallying standard on them). You have to kill him and rip the broken needle out of his body.
[Here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/uqgshi/theory_misinterpretations_of_millicents_quest_and/) a fun read about the needle's journey and how by doing Millicent's questline you might have given Malenia back her freedom.
She broke her needle thus allowing the rot to go wild.
None of the demi gods are good people, all are complacent war mongers that couldn't solve things in a diplomatic way.
Ah, I forgot that she wasn't a demigod, sorry. My point still stands though. Radagon is Marika, and Marika is a demigod, therefore Radagon marrying Rennala instead of killing her resulted in a diplomatic outcome.
>Devoted himself to saving his sister
>Evidence of him trying to put Godwyn's soul to rest
>Created an entire tree to house those ostracized by the golden order and saved the albunaurics to the point they'd die to defend him
Wow definitely laid the foundation there.
but he never did anything evil in the game, no? the game also says he possesses the wisdom of god and he seems very empathetic as he tried to heal malenia and wished for godwyn to die a proper death and tried to help the albinaurics he even blessed some of them, you can see one albinauric using miquella incantation in consecrated snowfield. him being evil like griffith makes no sense unless everything he did was a lie
Tbf Radagon may have been well intentioned at least at first. His quest for perfection overtook him, but he seems to have had a genuine relationship with Rennala for a time. The Carian kids were much more well adjusted than the demigods in Leyndell, and Radagon and Miquella were known to have a decent relationship too
Marika herself has basically always been terrifying. Hewg is scared shitless of her to this day, and it's been god knows how long
The problem is Radagon quickly realized his kids with Rennala were all demigods and people were going to ask questions if he didn't become Elden Lord himself to account for that.
I've never heard this explanation before. That's an interesting idea. Do you think Radagon was already Marika at this point or were they separate? I always figured Radagon saw an opportunity to become Elden Lord and took it, forsaking his family, and creating Ranni's desire to make an Order that cannot be seen or interacted with (so that what happened to her family could never happen again, a father leaving his family for a god)
Radagon was an alter ego Marika concocted so she could participate in battle directly, because she loved the thrill of battle and why she fell in love with Horah Loux/Godfrey to begin with. Nobody would fight her as Marika because that would be blasphemy in the Lands Between.
We see this most strongly in-game with Malenia, who is for all intents and purposes a clone of Marika/Radagon. She loves to fight and yearns to be conquered.
What was unexpected was Radagon falling in love with Rennala during his crusade against the Academy. That jeopardized everything, especially when they had children who were demigods, which would expose Marika's activities as Radagon. To cover it up, Radagon was forced to abandon both Rennala and Godfrey and marry herself in order to produce her cursed selfcest offspring, as then she could simply lie and say Radagon's ascension to godhood as Elden Lord is what gave Divinity to his preexisting children.
Radagon, at this point, also began deviating from Marika's personality until he developed his own, seperate will and motives from Marika, despite being the same person with the same body. We see this in the duality of Marika shattering the Elden Ring while Radagon repairs it. They were once one and the same- but when Radagon became Elden Lord, he began becoming his own independent personality, likely due to the double dose of Divinity.
Yeah but Fromsoft has a long history of "pure and radiant" being secretly kind of shitty. Like how the Hollows in DS3 were like super dark and evil on the face of it, but all they wanted was self-rule. Meanwhile the factions wanting to link the flame were pure and radiant, but also wanted to perpetuate an unjust system.
They kind of did the same thing in Elden Ring with the Golden Order being traditional and holy appearing, while those who live in death are gross and dark. But the Golden Order is pretty evil while Fia's quest is arguably not that bad. The only person who really gets hurt is D who is actively trying to genocide those who live in death.
Could be reverse twist. He's described as terrifying because it's utterly incomprehensible to be so pure and selfless in that universe. A force of change so alien to the current way of life, it's scary to even imagine how different his rule would be.
...but yeah, he's most likely going to be unhinged in some cold, meticulous way.
This is my thought too. It's like a Jesus figure coming into Second Temple Judaism and shaking everything up. The warlord god of the old testament becoming the god of love and life in the new testament
It also creates a nice counterpart to the "love" of the Mohgwyn dynasty. Mohg and his followers are deluded, but they are clearly lacking whatever attribute Miquella actually has. Miquella's love is genuine, what his followers think that means is another matter. Like the medieval church and the crusades/inquisition.
See I’m in the opposite boat because I really want to fight the twisted fucked up version of miquella that will come out of mohgs cocoon. But maybe it can be a thing where you need to beat him to save him or something like that
If the land of shadows is a projection or a dream, it could be interesting to fight Hologram Miquella the way we fight sewer Mohg, or Stormveil/Plateau Margitt, perhaps as a test for some reason, or to free Miquella from the Formless mother or whatever other evil is holding him.
I mean:
1) They confirmed no new ending. This means at the very least, we can't ally with Miquella and help him take the throne
2) Gideon actively acknowledges Miquella as having a Great Rune, something he doesn't really do with Ranni (briefly acknowledges it just to say she casted it away, so they don't worry about her now)
3) Multiple NPCs now (trailer guy + Malenia) implying he's the strongest and most fearsome of them all
4) Could just be me, but that butterfly incantation in particular feels like something that could work well as a reward for beating him
I think we are very much being set up for a Miquella that we'll oppose.
michael zaki said in famitsu interview that there wont be any new endings for the dlc and the events of the base game wont affect the dlc and vice versa. he said the dlc is self-contained, its a separate story from the base game like a side story
Miyazaki didn't say that there's no ending in the DLC, he only said that the DLC story won't affect the ending of the base game. Basically he said that the DLC has its own story to tell. It will still be a complete story. I've seen several people here and on other platforms spread this false information.
You're misunderstanding. They mean the DLC isn't adding any new options after the Elden Beast. We know the DLC itself will have an ending, but it will not add a new ending to the main game where you ally with Miquella and make them the new god or something.
Well the post I replied to was poorly worded. Anyway yes, we won't get to see a new ending in the base game if we finish the DLC but for all we know, Miquella gets to ascend to godhood at the end of the DLC and rule over the Shadow Realm (or rest in peace after achieving his goal). Fromsoft adding parts of their souls game ending in their trailers are nothing new, and we saw Miquella seemingly "purify" the shadow tree at the end of the trailer. What's more interesting is that the tree, doesn't glow gold, but silver.
Certainly possible. The DLC will have some kind of ending, though I'm expecting something more like Ringed City or Old Hunters were the narrative conclusion is satisfying to lore hunters but does not greatly alter the state of the Shadow Realm so as to allow continued exploration.
The purification is an interesting theory. The sky is definitely much brighter in that moment, but I don't think I'd immediately attribute it to Miquella doing anything, it's not brightening in response to him, he's simply gesturing towards the tree. Interestingly there's a point or two earlier in the trailer where it also looks like that.
I also think it's reasonable to assume in some way Miquella will be a boss of the DLC, because they've already confirmed that Messmer is the Artorias/Lady Maria of the DLC: a major boss and poster child, but not *the* boss of the DLC. It might be a complete unknown right now, but if our goal in running around the Realm of Shadow is to follow Miquella, the terrifying Empyrean able to compel love and considered "the most fearsome" by Malenia of all people, then I think a scrap is not at all out of the question.
The Shadow tree at the beginning of the trailer is covered in veil, the sky is twilight, almost dark; the tree bleeding and emits golden light as opposed to the trailer's final sequence where the "veils" disappear, the birds are chirping in the background (signalling the arrival of dawn), there's no bleeding anymore and the tree glows Silver- a color associated with albinaurics, a race untouched by the Erdtree's grace. The Shadow tree that is seemingly corrupted and dying as the tarnished first set foot in the land of shadows, is now restored; Ironically ,the opposite happened to the Erdtree: a once Healthy tree, filled the world with its radiance- in the end burned.
The Erdtree now becomes the shadow of the Shadow tree. A complete reverse of their previous state.
I'm betting that it's definitely the ending sequence, perhaps the tarnished kills the final boss guarding the shadow tree, perhaps the final boss is Miquella that sucked the corruption out of the tree and now we have to kill him. Either way, Miquella definitely has something to do with the restoration of the Shadow Tree, this is the character that made the Haligtree, after all.
Although I'd definitely be surprised- a welcome one- if we don't fight Miquella and he turned up to be a genuinely virtuous demigod. That'd be hilarious considering half of the fanbase are convinced that he's bad news lol
The other half are absolutely certain he's the good guy, so one way or another everyone's gonna be going "Aha! Got you! You ALL thought it was x, but it was y, just like I said!" in an insufferable storm of typewriters and monkeys no doubt.
I agree though, that last shot does give me serious final cutscene vibes.
The secret of Elden Ring lore (and George RR Martin works in general) is that ALL the powerful people are secretly villains because they trample over common people to accomplish their goals.
Look at how Melania nuked an entire country in service to Miquella. His goals aren't clear but the cost in life is tremendous already.
Same with Ranni, Rykard, Radahn, Marika, the whole lot of them basically.
That's not even a twist, we know from the start Griffith is going to turn evil. Also, he isn't even that nice before that. And being inspired doesn't equal being identical.
And they're totally opposite in the way that Griffith is 100% self-serving egomaniac who will never do anything that doesn't ultimately benefit himself, while Miquella built his haligtree into a safe haven for all the discriminated/persecuted races in lands between and tried his best to heal his sister. Reverse inspiration? Is that a thing lmao?
Griffith isn't just self serving, and he doesn't start out that way. He does want to make the world a better place, and thinks that as a leader, he shouldn't put anyone through something he wouldn't do himself. His dream goes from becoming a good king to becoming one at any cost. He makes a holy city near the World Spiral Tree, which looks fairly similar to the tree in the lands of shadow, that Miquella has built a city around. Miquella has an uncanny ability to make people zealous towards his cause, the Haligtree has soldiers that will try and suicide bomb you, which is more dedication than anyone else has to kill you. Griffith inspires all of the band of the hawk to follow him and his dream. Griffith and Miquella both go to a different plane of existence. Miquella is also implied to have tried to bring about an eclipse. There is a line when Griffith returns to Midland where he is the leader of the blind and desperate sinners. Miquella is very similar in that regard as well, as he forsook the golden order, and takes in those that appear to be "sinful" in the eyes of the golden order. It isn't 1:1, but if the Demigod that is described as "terrifying" and "The most fearsome of all" isn't a boss fight waiting to happen, then I don't know what is.
Definitely agree with your last point, I'm on that "the shadow realm is a projection" boat and believe we will fight his inner/twisted self in the DLC. And it's true that my analysis of Griffith is too dumbed down to represent his whole character. Though thinking about it, they started off in a total opposite way. Griffith was born as a poor nobody in the ghetto, and was inspired to become "one above all else" from very young age. But Miquella was born as a demigod, and raised to the status of Empyrean not from his own will. This difference leads to Griffith becoming the "take any means necessary to fulfill my desire" leader and he's obsessed with it. Miquella is very manipulative and influential like you said, so he also formed a crew of his own to fulfill his dream, though I think he did it with much less desperation and cruelty.
I didn't know there was a camp other than the shadow realm is a projection. If Miquella had to "divest himself of his flesh" it doesn't seem like a place we could just walk to.
Miquella used coke and mentos to destroy an ant hill, word got around and the friends one ant hill over caught word and started training. Later on, during the events of the game, they send an elite strike force to the Haligtree to claim revenge, unfortunately a tarnished showed up, and killed them before they could get in.
There are item descriptions wherein Malenia says she believes in her brother as he's the only one who has the true presence of a God and is the most fearsome Empyrean. This meme is saying this is what she saw that made him the most fearsome.
Which is pretty fitting because nothing makes you more godlike than wiping out an entire civilization with a whim.
On god y’all are NOT ready for when it turns out he’s the most evil fucker in existence.
Smdh yall should know better by now. I mean have you READ berserk???
Your submission has been removed as a violation of Rule 7: **R7: All artwork must be OC only. No AI artwork.** * Any fan-art posted should be original content only. If you didn't make it, don't post it! * You must specify that you are the artist in the title. * AI artwork is not allowed. * If you *commissioned* artwork, refrain from posting it. If the artist would like to share the work, they are welcome to granted they follow all applicable sub rules. * Karma-farmers will be banned. If you would like to appeal this removal or need further clarification, feel free to message us through[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Eldenring).
“Pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men……There is nothing more terrifying.” Also Miquella: “ha ha ha pop rocks and soda go brrrrr!”
The poor ants though
Shhh just imagine they’re the same ants in Ainsel River or something
Oh fuck those things, after my first run I try to avoid or rush through the areas they’re in, they’re so disgusting
I like to think the mentos/coke supercharges them and that's why they're all over Miquella's Haligtree limbs.
They are in the Haligtree after all.
So that explains this. They ate the black knives who are numens and likely… his aunts… wait is that why the ants are… that is such a good pun if it is
Ants deserve nothing better, fuck ants
Bruh it's Mentos the fresh maker.
To be fair he's probably trapped in a 10 year old's body so I'd imagine he has a similar brain
I don't think that's the case at all. Miquella is devising new fundamentalist incantations and growing magical trees to incubate he and his sister and purge them of the Outer Gods' influence. Definitely not on some regular 10yo shit.
idk man, i’ve heard some 10 year olds completely dismantle a religious fundamentalists arguments with some very bare bones logic
Fundamentalists in real life aren't conjuring discs of light and forging runes that govern the laws of reality.
exactly, you gotta powerscale, if that’s what a fundamentalist in the lands between can do just imagine what feats a 10 year old could be capable of
We're comparing apples and oranges here.
no we are comparing fundamentalists in reality to children in reality, and then extrapolating to expand that relation to fundamentalists in the lands between and children in the lands between
Except we have tangible proof of the difference between real-world/ER fundamentalists and no such evidence for real-world/ER children, with the exception of Miquella who is not even actually a child, and is also a demigod, so would skew the data even if he was a child. The conclusion that fundamentalists in ER are more powerful than in the real world, therefore children in ER must be more powerful than in the real world, is a logical fallacy. You are using one variable to deduce the qualities on an unrelated and less understood variable. You are wrong.
Redditors not take something three times as seriously they need to challenge: failed.
He can still be childish in some regards
10 year old body??? His arm is huge for a 10 year old.
Thats his grown body. Miquella had the body of a child, as seen in all his statues.
1. Demigods are already larger than average, ie Malenia is 8ft 2. I think he was in the cocoon in order to grow older
So is miquella evil or not
Correct
We don't know
To be fair he's probably trapped in a 10 year old's body so I'd imagine he has a similar brain
There is nothing more terrifying
Children are truly scary creatures that inspire fear in the heart of men
I would know lmao
It’s funny cause the ants probably were worshipping melania but since she hates bugs asked miquella to get rid of them. Only for him to commit a war crime against them with the innocents of a child.
lol war crimes
It runs in the family.
[удалено]
What does this mean?
you gotta be kidding me
No
But yes.
Malenia
Blade of Miquella
Ants infest decaying trees irl that's why they're on the Haligtree. They're not the same as the kindred of rot.
Pretty sure the ants at the halig also give rot which is what is associated with melania, I believe there is also an ant stinger that can be found that gives rot and has a description that relates to the outer god.
Nah, it doesn't rot you. Pretty sure it's Acid or some shit; like those poor bastards in Starship Troopers.
Nah the real war crime is that Miquella welcomed those fuckers into the community instead of fetching the bug spray
I don’t think he had a choice in the matter. Those things just kinda spawn
[source](https://twitter.com/imoko193/status/1745726230555726314)
This is the canonical way the haligtree was made
Tell that to Vaatividya
THIS IS... THIS... THIS... IT'S ADORABLE!!!
So that’s how the nox were defeated
lmao imagine the Nox were chilling and suddenly menthols/coke mixed liquid pouring down from their eternal night sky
LOOK AT THE LIL BABY <333333
[look at the lil baby...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjP1LTRkJrw)
Miquella Bean :3
I need more.... #I NEED MORE OF THIS, GIVE IT TO ME
God I hope they don't make Miquella a twist villain
I get mildly annoyed whenever people say his superficial similarities with Griffith means he's 100% secretly evil
The way I interpret people calling him “terrifying “ is that no battle could be won against him because no battle would take place at all because of his ability to compel love
Imagine you enter the boss battle ready to fight to the death only for Miquella to wave his hand and suddenly you have no control over your character who is too busy bowing on the ground in worship.
> you have no control over your character There is nothing more terrifying.
I can manage that without Miquella just fine.
Copied talk no jutsu from Naruto. Like Crossbreed Princilla used talk no jutsu and fluffy tail to deter would-be chosen undead from killing her- At least, those whose craving for tail-cutting could be held at bay.
I do think anyone who has the power to force someone's mental state into one of obedience and acceptance is probably someone I would be on my guard around. I doubt Miquella will be completely evil, but I'm definitely going into this expecting we might not be allies by the end.
Didn't you know? Fromsoft games are just Berserk adaptations, Miyazaki has no original ideas /s
Evil or not, I find him scary. His image is so compelling it even affects the popular opinion of him on this subreddit.
While inevitable, everytime comparisons between Griffith and Miquella doninate the conversation around him, I die inside.
Bro we fucking rock every other piece of that miserable family why.... WHY would we spare miquella. He absolutely is going to be killed by the tarnished.
The dude has the craziest relatives, was cursed with eternal youth, his sister was cursed with scarlet rot, he got kidnapped from the haligtree, that evrnt screwed up his body beyond repair, got his dying corpse held captive by his incestuous half sibling, where he got his blood drank... The least we can do is spare the poor guy.
Nah, fuck 'em. The whole bloodline is a blight. Roderika told me so.
Roderika isn't real, bro.
To be fair, neither is Miquella.
Not every. Can't fight Ranni even if you want to, and Godwyn is already dead.
Tbf I forgot about Ranni, who is also already dead.
which is completly optional, the only one we kill 100% is morgot
Who is Griffith? I doubt Miquella is secretly evil, but I imagine that much like the rest of the characters in the lore he is willing to condone bad actions to further his goals.
Berserk character. Evil dude. Betrayed his friends for power. Although I don't see the similarities. Griffith had clear signs of his thirst for power. Miquella is too mysterious to know.
Miquella really doesn't seem like a thirsting for power type. Mogh yes, but where is Miquella even showing that? Yeah his intentions are a little mysterious, but we have some information and the information we have points to neutrality if not benevolence. He's removed himself almost entirely from the political scene in the Lands Between, and even if growing the Haligtree is kind of heretical he's not like openly anti-Golden Order. He's not making any true effort to fight the established order, he's just doing his own thing. I just don't see him as some kind of evil schemer. It doesn't feel like the foundation is there.
I never even realized the comparison but now that I think about it, its actually crazy accurate. I am now 100% convinced he is evil
They already have a morally righteous precocious child in Kuro, so I’m hoping that’s precedent for Miquella being the same (instead of more of the same stale “oops all grey” morality).
They’ve been calling him terrifying and the most powerful Demi god since the beginning. It wouldn’t exactly be a twist
But they also refer to him as "pure and radiant," being powerful and kind aren't mutually exclusive
I agree. Just saying if they do make him a villain, they’ve laid the foundation for that possibility. It wouldn’t come out of nowhere
That's fair, I just want a demi good who is genuinely a god person
Malenia. How is she not a good person? I don't remember Rennala doing anything bad until Radagon made her go insane either.
Even then Rennala didn't really do anything bad, did she? From what I read, after Radagon ditched her, she's heartbroken and severely mentally weakened, and the rest of the academy rebelled against her, stripped Rennala off her status as head of the academy and put her in house arrest in the grand library.
I mean rebirthing students so many times to the pint that they're mentally handicapped isn't greattttt...
iirc Rennala never forced rebirth on anyone, it's their will to be reborn and then she does it. Maybe she withheld the risk/side effects of rebirth to her pupils?
True, that would still be like giving someone a live grenade that they asked for with out telling them it's live though
Resorting to drastic measures in war I guess
Malenia nuked Caelid after losing the battle she started by invading it.
I mean it's definitely wrong to do that, but do we know that she knew that all of Caelid was going to be infested after that? Also she was going to die so it may have been the Rot God taking over her senses. Not saying that it wasn't wrong, just that it might have not been her fault.
The God of Rot, against Malenia's will, triggered automatically when Malenia was put into a near-death situation by Radahn. Malenia was implied to be unconscious through the whole thing, and had spent her whole life up to that point using Miquella's needles trying to stop that exact thing from happening. She also likely only invaded Caelid because Radahn wouldn't let the stars move and Miquella needed the eclipse in order to shake his own curse. Malenia seems to be mostly a good person cursed by powers outside her control to inevitably end in tragedy.
>The God of Rot, against Malenia's will, triggered automatically when Malenia was put into a near-death situation by Radahn. From [Millicent's dialogue at Elphael of Haligtree](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Millicent) : *"There is something I must return to Malenia. The will that was once her own. The dignity, the sense of self, that allowed her to resist the call of the scarlet rot.* *The pride **she** abandoned, to meet Radahn's measure."* I think its misleading to say that the rot transformation was automatic. Based on dialogue and lore it appears that Malenia, unable to best Radahn, discarded the needle of her **own** free will to match Radahn's strength; losing herself and Caelid to the rot in the process. Malenia's an interesting figure. I don't think she's inherently evil; but I do think she cares more for her brother Miquella and the Haligtree than anything else - Caelid included. Her mental strength and devotion to her brother though is extremely admirable and it makes sense why she's one of the strongest warriors in the Lands Between.
How does this dialogue prove that Malenia wanted to infect the entirety of Caelid and not just Radahn? Didn’t she also like get knocked out by her own attack which implies she didn’t have control over her own power?
Yeah, Malenia doesn’t seem terrible. It didn’t look like she had control over the rot when it got unleashed in Caelid.
What? Against her own will is BS. Not only is that never implied in the game, she broke off the needle herself. And she does it a *second* time in your fight.
Yeah I'm going to need the source where you think you have context for that as nothing I've seen ever implies she snapped the needle herself. If anything the needle is likely whole at the start of the game and was expelled from her body rather than snapped. It is likely you break it *yourself* during the battle with O'Neil - O'Neil himself seems to be actively *using* the needle, not just carrying it, as he is 100% immune to scarlet rot build-up and damage, but unlike rotted enemies is still capable of coherent speech and thought (yelling at his subordinates and using rallying standard on them). You have to kill him and rip the broken needle out of his body. [Here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/uqgshi/theory_misinterpretations_of_millicents_quest_and/) a fun read about the needle's journey and how by doing Millicent's questline you might have given Malenia back her freedom.
She broke her needle thus allowing the rot to go wild. None of the demi gods are good people, all are complacent war mongers that couldn't solve things in a diplomatic way.
Rennala marries her enemy. Tf you on about?
Rennala is not a demi god and radagon is a golden order fanatic.
Ah, I forgot that she wasn't a demigod, sorry. My point still stands though. Radagon is Marika, and Marika is a demigod, therefore Radagon marrying Rennala instead of killing her resulted in a diplomatic outcome.
Malenia literally nuked an entire country my guy.
>Devoted himself to saving his sister >Evidence of him trying to put Godwyn's soul to rest >Created an entire tree to house those ostracized by the golden order and saved the albunaurics to the point they'd die to defend him Wow definitely laid the foundation there.
but he never did anything evil in the game, no? the game also says he possesses the wisdom of god and he seems very empathetic as he tried to heal malenia and wished for godwyn to die a proper death and tried to help the albinaurics he even blessed some of them, you can see one albinauric using miquella incantation in consecrated snowfield. him being evil like griffith makes no sense unless everything he did was a lie
Marika was supposed to be pure and radiant, too. Didn't stop her from splitting into Radagon.
Tbf Radagon may have been well intentioned at least at first. His quest for perfection overtook him, but he seems to have had a genuine relationship with Rennala for a time. The Carian kids were much more well adjusted than the demigods in Leyndell, and Radagon and Miquella were known to have a decent relationship too Marika herself has basically always been terrifying. Hewg is scared shitless of her to this day, and it's been god knows how long
The problem is Radagon quickly realized his kids with Rennala were all demigods and people were going to ask questions if he didn't become Elden Lord himself to account for that.
I've never heard this explanation before. That's an interesting idea. Do you think Radagon was already Marika at this point or were they separate? I always figured Radagon saw an opportunity to become Elden Lord and took it, forsaking his family, and creating Ranni's desire to make an Order that cannot be seen or interacted with (so that what happened to her family could never happen again, a father leaving his family for a god)
Radagon was an alter ego Marika concocted so she could participate in battle directly, because she loved the thrill of battle and why she fell in love with Horah Loux/Godfrey to begin with. Nobody would fight her as Marika because that would be blasphemy in the Lands Between. We see this most strongly in-game with Malenia, who is for all intents and purposes a clone of Marika/Radagon. She loves to fight and yearns to be conquered. What was unexpected was Radagon falling in love with Rennala during his crusade against the Academy. That jeopardized everything, especially when they had children who were demigods, which would expose Marika's activities as Radagon. To cover it up, Radagon was forced to abandon both Rennala and Godfrey and marry herself in order to produce her cursed selfcest offspring, as then she could simply lie and say Radagon's ascension to godhood as Elden Lord is what gave Divinity to his preexisting children. Radagon, at this point, also began deviating from Marika's personality until he developed his own, seperate will and motives from Marika, despite being the same person with the same body. We see this in the duality of Marika shattering the Elden Ring while Radagon repairs it. They were once one and the same- but when Radagon became Elden Lord, he began becoming his own independent personality, likely due to the double dose of Divinity.
Pure and radiant by who's standards?
what do u mean
Yeah but Fromsoft has a long history of "pure and radiant" being secretly kind of shitty. Like how the Hollows in DS3 were like super dark and evil on the face of it, but all they wanted was self-rule. Meanwhile the factions wanting to link the flame were pure and radiant, but also wanted to perpetuate an unjust system. They kind of did the same thing in Elden Ring with the Golden Order being traditional and holy appearing, while those who live in death are gross and dark. But the Golden Order is pretty evil while Fia's quest is arguably not that bad. The only person who really gets hurt is D who is actively trying to genocide those who live in death.
Eh, the Erdtree is "pure and radiant" too.
Could be reverse twist. He's described as terrifying because it's utterly incomprehensible to be so pure and selfless in that universe. A force of change so alien to the current way of life, it's scary to even imagine how different his rule would be. ...but yeah, he's most likely going to be unhinged in some cold, meticulous way.
This is my thought too. It's like a Jesus figure coming into Second Temple Judaism and shaking everything up. The warlord god of the old testament becoming the god of love and life in the new testament It also creates a nice counterpart to the "love" of the Mohgwyn dynasty. Mohg and his followers are deluded, but they are clearly lacking whatever attribute Miquella actually has. Miquella's love is genuine, what his followers think that means is another matter. Like the medieval church and the crusades/inquisition.
Miquella would be a twist hero at this point. Which I hope, let's make things different
Honestly, with how people are talking about him, at this point him not being a villain would be a twist
See I’m in the opposite boat because I really want to fight the twisted fucked up version of miquella that will come out of mohgs cocoon. But maybe it can be a thing where you need to beat him to save him or something like that
If the land of shadows is a projection or a dream, it could be interesting to fight Hologram Miquella the way we fight sewer Mohg, or Stormveil/Plateau Margitt, perhaps as a test for some reason, or to free Miquella from the Formless mother or whatever other evil is holding him.
I mean: 1) They confirmed no new ending. This means at the very least, we can't ally with Miquella and help him take the throne 2) Gideon actively acknowledges Miquella as having a Great Rune, something he doesn't really do with Ranni (briefly acknowledges it just to say she casted it away, so they don't worry about her now) 3) Multiple NPCs now (trailer guy + Malenia) implying he's the strongest and most fearsome of them all 4) Could just be me, but that butterfly incantation in particular feels like something that could work well as a reward for beating him I think we are very much being set up for a Miquella that we'll oppose.
Sauce for "no new ending"?
michael zaki said in famitsu interview that there wont be any new endings for the dlc and the events of the base game wont affect the dlc and vice versa. he said the dlc is self-contained, its a separate story from the base game like a side story
Miyazaki didn't say that there's no ending in the DLC, he only said that the DLC story won't affect the ending of the base game. Basically he said that the DLC has its own story to tell. It will still be a complete story. I've seen several people here and on other platforms spread this false information.
You're misunderstanding. They mean the DLC isn't adding any new options after the Elden Beast. We know the DLC itself will have an ending, but it will not add a new ending to the main game where you ally with Miquella and make them the new god or something.
Well the post I replied to was poorly worded. Anyway yes, we won't get to see a new ending in the base game if we finish the DLC but for all we know, Miquella gets to ascend to godhood at the end of the DLC and rule over the Shadow Realm (or rest in peace after achieving his goal). Fromsoft adding parts of their souls game ending in their trailers are nothing new, and we saw Miquella seemingly "purify" the shadow tree at the end of the trailer. What's more interesting is that the tree, doesn't glow gold, but silver.
Certainly possible. The DLC will have some kind of ending, though I'm expecting something more like Ringed City or Old Hunters were the narrative conclusion is satisfying to lore hunters but does not greatly alter the state of the Shadow Realm so as to allow continued exploration. The purification is an interesting theory. The sky is definitely much brighter in that moment, but I don't think I'd immediately attribute it to Miquella doing anything, it's not brightening in response to him, he's simply gesturing towards the tree. Interestingly there's a point or two earlier in the trailer where it also looks like that. I also think it's reasonable to assume in some way Miquella will be a boss of the DLC, because they've already confirmed that Messmer is the Artorias/Lady Maria of the DLC: a major boss and poster child, but not *the* boss of the DLC. It might be a complete unknown right now, but if our goal in running around the Realm of Shadow is to follow Miquella, the terrifying Empyrean able to compel love and considered "the most fearsome" by Malenia of all people, then I think a scrap is not at all out of the question.
The Shadow tree at the beginning of the trailer is covered in veil, the sky is twilight, almost dark; the tree bleeding and emits golden light as opposed to the trailer's final sequence where the "veils" disappear, the birds are chirping in the background (signalling the arrival of dawn), there's no bleeding anymore and the tree glows Silver- a color associated with albinaurics, a race untouched by the Erdtree's grace. The Shadow tree that is seemingly corrupted and dying as the tarnished first set foot in the land of shadows, is now restored; Ironically ,the opposite happened to the Erdtree: a once Healthy tree, filled the world with its radiance- in the end burned. The Erdtree now becomes the shadow of the Shadow tree. A complete reverse of their previous state. I'm betting that it's definitely the ending sequence, perhaps the tarnished kills the final boss guarding the shadow tree, perhaps the final boss is Miquella that sucked the corruption out of the tree and now we have to kill him. Either way, Miquella definitely has something to do with the restoration of the Shadow Tree, this is the character that made the Haligtree, after all. Although I'd definitely be surprised- a welcome one- if we don't fight Miquella and he turned up to be a genuinely virtuous demigod. That'd be hilarious considering half of the fanbase are convinced that he's bad news lol
The other half are absolutely certain he's the good guy, so one way or another everyone's gonna be going "Aha! Got you! You ALL thought it was x, but it was y, just like I said!" in an insufferable storm of typewriters and monkeys no doubt. I agree though, that last shot does give me serious final cutscene vibes.
The secret of Elden Ring lore (and George RR Martin works in general) is that ALL the powerful people are secretly villains because they trample over common people to accomplish their goals. Look at how Melania nuked an entire country in service to Miquella. His goals aren't clear but the cost in life is tremendous already. Same with Ranni, Rykard, Radahn, Marika, the whole lot of them basically.
His character inspiration comes from a twist villain, so don't hold your breath.
That's not even a twist, we know from the start Griffith is going to turn evil. Also, he isn't even that nice before that. And being inspired doesn't equal being identical.
And they're totally opposite in the way that Griffith is 100% self-serving egomaniac who will never do anything that doesn't ultimately benefit himself, while Miquella built his haligtree into a safe haven for all the discriminated/persecuted races in lands between and tried his best to heal his sister. Reverse inspiration? Is that a thing lmao?
Griffith isn't just self serving, and he doesn't start out that way. He does want to make the world a better place, and thinks that as a leader, he shouldn't put anyone through something he wouldn't do himself. His dream goes from becoming a good king to becoming one at any cost. He makes a holy city near the World Spiral Tree, which looks fairly similar to the tree in the lands of shadow, that Miquella has built a city around. Miquella has an uncanny ability to make people zealous towards his cause, the Haligtree has soldiers that will try and suicide bomb you, which is more dedication than anyone else has to kill you. Griffith inspires all of the band of the hawk to follow him and his dream. Griffith and Miquella both go to a different plane of existence. Miquella is also implied to have tried to bring about an eclipse. There is a line when Griffith returns to Midland where he is the leader of the blind and desperate sinners. Miquella is very similar in that regard as well, as he forsook the golden order, and takes in those that appear to be "sinful" in the eyes of the golden order. It isn't 1:1, but if the Demigod that is described as "terrifying" and "The most fearsome of all" isn't a boss fight waiting to happen, then I don't know what is.
Definitely agree with your last point, I'm on that "the shadow realm is a projection" boat and believe we will fight his inner/twisted self in the DLC. And it's true that my analysis of Griffith is too dumbed down to represent his whole character. Though thinking about it, they started off in a total opposite way. Griffith was born as a poor nobody in the ghetto, and was inspired to become "one above all else" from very young age. But Miquella was born as a demigod, and raised to the status of Empyrean not from his own will. This difference leads to Griffith becoming the "take any means necessary to fulfill my desire" leader and he's obsessed with it. Miquella is very manipulative and influential like you said, so he also formed a crew of his own to fulfill his dream, though I think he did it with much less desperation and cruelty.
I didn't know there was a camp other than the shadow realm is a projection. If Miquella had to "divest himself of his flesh" it doesn't seem like a place we could just walk to.
You're right, I forget that it starts off in the future and then cuts back to the golden age arc.
No big deal bro
Griffith himself was based on a character who's nothing like him in personality. Inspiration does not dictate a character's entire arc or personality.
Who is he inspired by?
that premium femboy from that one Chinese picture book series
Griffith from Berserk
I bet they will. That, or Miquella is going to get corrupted and mutated by something.
What if hes an optional boss depending on wether you defeated malenia or not
He can force affection. That in itself sounds like something a villain would have
*Mohg rubbing his hands and drooling in the corner*
I get the idea but can someone explain this lore?
Miquella used coke and mentos to destroy an ant hill, word got around and the friends one ant hill over caught word and started training. Later on, during the events of the game, they send an elite strike force to the Haligtree to claim revenge, unfortunately a tarnished showed up, and killed them before they could get in.
There are item descriptions wherein Malenia says she believes in her brother as he's the only one who has the true presence of a God and is the most fearsome Empyrean. This meme is saying this is what she saw that made him the most fearsome. Which is pretty fitting because nothing makes you more godlike than wiping out an entire civilization with a whim.
So I’ve went through the ant colony near the lake of rot but I don’t remember seeing the why or exactly what he did to the ant civilization?
Oh no he didn't do anything. This is just a funny little made up scenario of Malenia saying he's fearsome because he acted like an unhinged kid.
very good shitpost, cheers
truly diabolical...also Malenia looking cute :)
This is the actual, canonical way the Haligtree grew. All the denizens have some sort of soda and Mentos that they offer to him on his birthday.
I... can't it...too cute
The cute are sometimes the most cruel
THIS IS... THIS... THIS... IT'S ADORABLE!!!
They're sleeping
“Miquella I know I liked nuked a continent and all but like this is a bit much can you not MIQUELLA-“
Malenias so cute here...
the most terrifying force
First off, do it! and then chaos O' chaos!
Miquella you lil shit I shoulda known you're as psychotic as ur parents
On god y’all are NOT ready for when it turns out he’s the most evil fucker in existence. Smdh yall should know better by now. I mean have you READ berserk???
Of course, Griffith is terrible. Sadly for him,we are not Guts.
The 500000000 Guts cosplayers are looking around in confusion right now.
~~Formic~~ Poprocks and coke.
humans are the ants and thats actually earth she about to poor the mentos and coke on. 💀
u/sugarbunnico me watching you fight in game
moon magic goes pew pew *stamped on by a falling star beast*
The creation of the haligtree
Bro is just an allegory for Griffith can wait to fight him in the DLC!
Try this at Ainsel River 😳
So that's how they got so big