So, in the last post, I talked about the first half of the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer and posited several wild theories. I can’t stress enough that I am not a Vaati in any way and that all my theories are juest me spitballing. Any time I watch one of his lore videos, I’m just amazed at how he’s able to piece everything together so well. Also, I remember his video on The Ringed City DLC. There’s a puzzle in it that when you knew the solution, it makes perfect sense (in the realm of FromSoft games). Well, no it doesn’t really.Even knowing what you have to do, it doseon’t make sense. Not even with the cryptic note that is given.
Vaati said it took about ten hours to figure it out (and it takes maybe a minute to do once you know the secret), and he casually added, “Because there are no wikis and I don’t have a Vaati to tell me what to do.” It was very funny. He went through all the machinations he tried in order to figure out the puzzle and his thought process. Mad props to him because I would have given up hours earlier than he did and just waited for someone else to figure it out.
I don’t actually watch that many lore videos because I like making things up in my head. It’s the same with other mediums–I’d rather not analyze ever word and every shot. When I was doing my MA, one of the profs liked to go page by page with a book and deconstruct every word. I remmeber he spent ten minutes on one word in a book, and all I could think was, “Maybe he just liked the way that word sounded.” He said that since the book was so sparse, every word had to be meaningful. I almost wanted to scream because that was not what I considered good analysis of art. In addition, not all writers wrote like that–I certainly don’t. I’m not precious about my word choice, and I write really fast. So I’m not laboring for an hour over each word.
Anyway.
Back to the trailer. Why am I dissecting it like this? Because I can, but also to take my mind off my life–even if it’s only temporoary. And why not? It’s been fun to do and I’m only half-done.
I looked more into the lion head boss, and I could not find any outfit like that one. But I noticed more similarities between it and Margit/Morgott, such as the ‘thorns’ that are on the robe around the head. And the fact that it’s definitely a humanoid figure who is wearing a lion’s head over its own. it doesn’t loo,k like a real lion’s head, either. The way it moves its head is not the way a real lion would.
I did compare it to Mohg, and it doesn’t move like him at all. Moves more like Margit/Morgott, and Morgott did holy/lightning whereas Mohg did not. So I’m more wedded than ever to the theory that it’s Morgott. I also felt so much sympathy for him. He’s an outcast and did not want to bring shame to his family. Poor guy!
Moving on. And still raving about the sound design of the game. We have Mesmer making their grand entrance. Tall, lanky, and legs for days (albeit replete with snakes). I juest noticed that his robe has drake wings on it–much like the Drake Knight Armor. In fact, his greaves could be those, but only from the knees down. As for his gauntlets, he has one short one and one long one, much like he mixed and matched the gauntlets from the Godskin Apostle and the Godskin Noble. And his helm is his own, of course. There is nothing related to snakes, armor-wise. Or weapon wise. We’ll get to that in a minute.
Next, we have a montage of showcasing new combat skills in the DLC. A quickstep that curves you around your opponent so you’re behind them. Throwing daggers that break poise. Roderika’s sister (I’ll get to that in a moment). A character from DarkSouls III doing martial arts kicking. Someone throwing a giant pot/cauldron of fire. A repeating crossbow that had everyone stoked. Bows and crossbows in these games are usually trash.
Next was a weird lion/dragon/bear thing? At first, I thought it was a boss/enemy. But reading other people’s reactions and then watching again, it’s an incantation. Much like the dragon incantations. The leading theory on this is a Runebear who is close to dragonhood, which is pretty cool! And when I looked again, I could see the torso and feet of a person wielding this creature, so, yeah, most likely an incantation.
Next up is the red dancer in the field battling the samurai. There have been a lot of theories about this person because there is a blue dancer in the game who is Malenia’s mentor, but no mention of a red dancer–hang on. People just seem to assume that Malenia’s mentor is a man (to be fair, on the Blue Dancer talisman, it does refer to the mentor as a ‘swordsman’, but that could be a generic term or willful misdirection), but what if it were a woman? I mean, Malenia is a woman. And the dancer in Dark Souls III is a woman. And when you say dancer, most people would first assume woman.
I mention this because the red dancer in the trailer looks like a woman, but could conceivably be a man. I mean, they mention Miquella as they show the red dancer. And FromSoft does not do anything by coincidence. Pul,s the red dancer is artfully wearing a red headwrap to cover their hair, so it’s harder to tell gender. That may be Miquella because the line is “…just what Kind Miquella was doing here” as they dance and clash swords with the samurai. I thought it was Elphael, but I’m leaning more towards a fertile Farum Azula (so before it was crumbling).
Next up is a different kind of Tree Sentinel, this one in armor very similar to the Beast Champion Set–which is dropped by Knight Bernahl when he invades you in Crumbling Farum Azula. Hey! HEY! You mostly interactt with him in Volcano Manor! W hich is vtele Rykard is. Who is heavily involved in all the theories about Mesmer because he’s the major snake guy. Oooooh! This guy is riding an armored boar, I think. Which harkens back to the first Dark Souls. Armored Boars, I mean.
Then comes my favorite new enemy type in the game. The hipporcupine. It’s a hippo (or, come to think of it, a rhino) who makes his face explode into electrified spikes as his shield. He’s adorable, and he’s going to be harder than hell to fight, I bet. And I’m not going to want to fight this enemy because it’s too dang cute! And looks so happy.
Next is an enemy that people are calling an Orphan of Kos clone. I see why, but I disagree. It’s on another tiny, broken-down horse (like Radahn, and to be frank, us. Not that Torrent is broken, but he is pretty small in compparison to us, and we put him through sosme shit). The enemy is a skeleton with a weird blue orb where it’s hearct should be.
Then, the old guy from the painting earlier (don’t know if I mentioned it) with the young, comely woman. Most people think it’s Fia and a dying champion, but my wild theory was that it was Rykard and Tanith. If so, then it’s Rykard pulling his spine out of his body by his skull (with it attached). Given that he changes into a snake head, this tracks. He also kinda looks like the old monk from Demon’s Souls.
Then comes my favorite moment in the entire trailer, which I”ll get to in the next post. Plus more about Mesmer.