I started NG++ with my second character last night because I’d been wanting to do it for some time, but I dragged my feet as I always did in order to clean up stray caves and field bosses across the map. And actual bosses. This is the character I used to race through the game on NG+ just to get the last ending I needed for my hundo chievo. As is my wont, I dawdled forever snuffling up a few levels along the way. By the way, it’s hilarious that I got maybe 10 levels in NG+ after reaching somtehing like 175 in NG. I wil lget to that in a second.
Yesterday’s post was about *SPOILERS* Sir Gideon Ofnir, who is quite possible the most interesting character in the game. Here’s the thing. There are obviously bad characters Like Preceptor Seluvis, the Dung Eater (although there is some nuance there), and…huh. I can’t really think of any other obviously bad NPCs off the top of my head. Hold on a sec.
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There’s Kenneth Haight, but he’s just a pompous jerk. that’s not quite villain stature. Tanith is no saint, but she has a purpose for what she’s doing. In other words, she’s not being evil just to be evil. That doesn’t mean that she’s doing good or that she should be venerated (she shouldn’t), but it does meant that she’s not evil for the sake of being evil.
To that extent, I would say that Preceptor Seluvis is the only one I would call evil. And yes, I would call him evil because he turns people into puppets. I had such a visceral reaction to this that I never gave his potion to Nepheli Loux. She is my favorite NPC in the game, maybe tied with Blaidd. There was no way I was going to do that to her. I know she’s not real. I know she’s just a bunch of pixels. I still couldn’t do it.
I have a strong aversion to doing anything to anyone against their wills. Especially anything that messes with their minds. It’s the reason I refused to play Borderlands 3 past the point where Lilith was stripped of her tattoos (and Siren powers). It was such a violation of a character I had ocome to love, in part because I played as her in the first game, Also, the third game’s story was hot trash and I found the whole attitude of it repugnant.
Anyway. I never used Seluvis’s potion on Nepheli Loux, but I have on the Loathsome Dung Eater. It gives you a spirit ash who is quite strong. He is a terrible character and yet, I stil hesitated to use it on him. He’s still a person, of sorts, who did not deserve to have his will taken away from him.
And yet. When you talk to him after you ward off his invasion, he begs you to curse him as he has cursed others. He wants you to defile him as he views it as a blessing. Which is why I say he’s not purely evil. He things he’s doing something good, even though that’s doubtful if you’re the receiver of his blessing. When you use Seluvis’s potion on him, he protests, which makes me uneasy. I probably won’t do it again especially as I don’t use his spirit ash.
Wow. Looking up his questline, you can summon him for Mohg. I never knew that. If I ever want to do a run in which I summon all the NPCs for boss fights, I will have to use a guide because there are so many of them, but only under certain circumstances. I’m not sure I’ll do it because that seems like it’ll take the joy out of the game. I’m not one of those people who likes to min-max or scrutinize everything.
It’s actually one reason I’m happy about the RKG Lore Masterclass because I’ll learn more about the game I love in a non-tedious way. I love to learn, but I don’t like pedantic monologues. I’m watching a Vaati Vidya video as I write this (about Malenia) because it’s one of the suggested resources for the class. I like Vaati’s videos, obviously, but I haven’t been keeping up. It’s a weird thing for me. Sometimes, learning everything about a thing I love makes me love it more. Sometimes, it makes me love it less. I have no idea when it’s going to be one or the other.
Let’s talk about the penultimate boss. Which is two in one. Which Beast Clergyman/Maliketh was before him, too. This time, it’s Godfrey, First Elden Lord who later reverts to his former state, Hoarah Loux, Cheiftan of the Badlands.
Ok, wait. Before I get to that, I’ve been reading Gowry’s dialogue, and he’s a really big jerk. VERY BIG. He did give me one of my favorite big boss incantations (Pest Threads), but he’s a pompous git. He’s Patriarchy with a capital P. He has adopted five girls because he wants to make them into Scarlet Valkyries. It’s a long story, but basically, he wants them to be the handmaidens of Malenia when she becomes the True Goddess of Scarlet Rot. In order to do so, he wants you to betray her because it’ll make her hard.
He is a true narcissist in that he can’t fathom they may have goals and wants of their own When Millicent pulls the needle out so she can be consumed by the Scarlet Rot (and dies), he’s heartbroken–that she did not achieve her true calling (in his eyes).
As someone with a narcissistic father, it felt really good to kill Gowry (you have to in order to get the stuff he drops after Millicent’s questline is done). I had forgotten that he wanted you to kill her, though. Now that I know, I may do it on my next playthrough. I avoided it on my NG+ run because I could not betray her like that. Again, I know she’s a collection of pixels, but I really bonded with her. Yes, she invaded me that one time, but what’s an invasion among friends?
I hated Gowry from the first time I met him because he was way too invested in the life of these young women he adopted. And not in a fatherly way. Not in a creepy way, either, but in a very “I know better than you what is best for you” kind of way. I am a firm believer in personal autonomy, even if it means choosing something I would not choose.
Were it that more people would understand this. And, again, I did not get to what I was planning on writing, but that’s the way it goes.