Back at it again to talk more about the lore of the DLC.
*SPOILER WARNING*
I should say, lore AND story of the DLC. I don’t care about Miquella. To me, he is an uninteresting character because he’s a manipulative charmer. I have had enough of those in my real life, and they do not interest me at all. Why? Because there is no true empathy. And, yes, this is partly because I have my own issues with empathy. As a child, I was made my mother’s comfort/support human into which she could dump all her emotional angst. People marvel at how empathetic I am, but it’s only because I was forced to be so. Would I be this empathetic if my mother hadn’t made me? I don’t know. There’s no way of knowing, and I don’t think it’s a fruitful thing to think about. It is, as the kids say, what it is.
As a result, I am chary of people who are charming and manipulative. The latter doesn’t necessarily follow the former, but too often it does. Why? Because when you can sway people to do what you want, it’s way too easy to do it. And it’s easy to justify doing it for their benefit if you feel you need to do that. Charm is easy mode, and it’s too tempting to use it for things that you shouldn’t. I know because I have that same charm. I can sway people fairly easily, too, and I try to keep it under control.
So, yeah. I was not happy that Miquella was going to be the main character of the DLC. That was what I was talking about at the end of my last post. There are so many more interesting characters–such as Godwyn, Ranni, Rykard, and even Radahn himself. The latter held back the fucking stars! How cool is that? Or we could have talked about the Radagon/Marika split and were they two distinct personalities, or was Radagon just a part of Marika? Even learning more about Marika herself would have been great. I mean, we did learn more about her and her tragic past, but it was just the background for a small part of the story.
I heard someone say that they’re convinced that From came up with the story first and then retconned it to fit the existing lore. Unfortunately, it feels that way. And it makes Mohg a more sympathetic character than he was. And it means we need to throw out everything we knew about him. Which is fine. I’m ok with not knowing anything. Or with what I thought I know not being what I actually knew. But…I kind of feel like they didn’t like that he was being considered a child molester (because Miquella is eternally young when Mohg stole him and put him in an egg), and so they retconned it to Miquella charming Mohg rather than Mohg just taking him. Then again, there were a few hints in the main game that Miquella was more in control than we thought. Mostly that he could make people do whatever he wanted.
I know this is just me, but the minute I read that about Miquella, I immediately did not trust him. As I said, I don’t trust charm at all. Or rather, I don’t trust forced charm. There are some people who have natural charm who aren’t trying to manipulate people, and I am fine with them. Barack Obama is one of them. Then, there are people with natural charm who do use it to manipulate people, and I have a massive problem with them. Bill Clinton is one of them. I never liked him, and I never voted for him.
Miquella falls into the latter category. He can literally make people do what he wants. I’m not cool with that. I know it’s just a video game, but there are some values I hold so strongly, I just can’t get past them. That is one of them. Because of that, there are a few things in the main game that I have never done just because I am very much against them in principle.
There is one thing in the DLC I have not done, either, and I’m not sure I can make myself do it. It’s helping Leda against those she considers heretics. Hornsent and Ansbach in this case. I am so a;gainst her cause because she supports Miquella, I can’t make myself side with her at all.
I will probably watch Vaati’s video at some point about the lore of the DLC. He is the go-to guy for the FromSoft lore, although there are others who are really good as well. Zuille the Witch springs to mind. I like them simply because of their name. Zullie the Witch wore my favorite armor in DS II and it showed up again in DS III. It’s the Black Witch Set, and I wear it all the time playing DS III. Even though it is not the best armor. Along with the Sage’s Big Hat.
There aren’t many people in the RKG Discord saying anything positive about the fact that it’s Miquella’s story in the DLC. I think most people were excited because there was so little said about him in the main game, but what we got in the DLC was disappointing.
Dare I say it? It felt half-baked. I don’t argue with the fact that he wanted to set up a new religion–that fits with the lore of the world. The Elden Ring broke, and Marika’s children all scrambled to get a piece for themselves. Interestingly, you get a broken bit of Miquella’s Great Rune when you kill the Scadutree Avatar, and you can use it in the final boss fight. Which gives you my favorite weapon of the DLC, by the way.
You get Malenia’s Great Rune in the base game, along with Rykard’s, Radahn’s, Godrick’s, Morgott’s, and Mohg’s. Which I just got again, by the way. I did both Radahn and Mohg tonight on NG+ with my first character so I can go into the DLC again. I one-and-done both of them. Radahn was so easy, I got him done in less than a minute. I did Malenia’s Scarlet Aeonia on Radahn, reenacting the great stand-off, and it took off half his health. Five or six Pest-Thread Spears later, and he was dead. It was so quick, my inital blooming of scarlet rot was still going on him.
Mohg was a bit harder because he has the awful continual blood loss thing going on. My Mimic Tear actually died right at the end of the fight. There is blood everywhere, and it continually hurts you.He is immune to scarlet rot and poison, so I used gravity magic instead. He’s supposedly weak to that, which is funny, given that his body is used in the final boss fight of the DLC, along with Radahn’s soul–who is big on gravity magic.
That’s all for now. More tomorrow.