Thinking Long And Hard About Godwyn And Fortissax's Friendship Like

Rennala was absolutely terrifying as a mage build. If the majority of your damage comes from magic, you're going to have a bad time

Upon my name as ranni the witch 🗣️🗣️🗣️

‼️ SEND WORD FAR AND WIDE OF THE LAST QUEEN OF CARIA RENNALA OF THE FULL MOON AND THE MAJESTY OF THE NIGHT SHE CONJURETH ‼️

Even with the recent developments with Messmer, I personally still believe that the smouldering butterfly is supposed to represent Melina. The main reason is because of the butterfly's main use as kindling.

Messmer might have a lot of fire stuff going on, but Melina embodies the butterfly much more. Not only was she seemingly born burned and bodiless, much like the smouldering butterfly is born eternally burning, but she also acts as kindling to burn the erdtree in a similar way the butterfly does for crafting items.

The butterfly's represent the main curses of all 3 of the youngest siblings. Malenia's being rotted, Miquella's appearing eternally young and Melina's being burned and inevitably used as kindling.

I personally don't see the connection to Messmer other than the fact that they both share fire motifs. And even then, he's presumably not a part of Malenia and Miquella's sibling group as he's likely one of the oldest demigods, so it wouldn't make too much sense for him to be the third butterfly in the trinity.

btw I'm calling it now that those eye markings that Melina and Ranni have are actually marks of empyreans. (which would also make Melina herself one aswell.)

I just think it's slightly too suspect that we never see the full face of a living empyrean in the game.

Marika has her eyes covered in the intro and is missing one half of her face in the ending (the perfect place for an eye marking to have been without leaving any evidence)

Malenia's upper face has been affected by the rot and thus no eye marking would be visible.

Miquella's face is also never properly shown in game. Even in the shadow of the erdtree teaser it is kept out of shot of the camera.

And while Ranni does have an eye marking on her puppet body, we have no idea what her original one might have had, as it's been burnt beyond recognition and no depictions of living Ranni exist in game.

Even if it isn't the eye marking, there's been a very deliberate choice to keep empyrean's faces hidden throughout the game and I feel like it means something.

Something I'd also like to add that didn't fit well into the initial post is that whatever it was that he discovered while looking into Marika, didn't just scare him beyond his breaking point. Whatever it was it also got him absolutely convinced that

a tarnished cannot become a lord

2. and a man cannot kill a god

which is rather odd, considering that no matter what ending we choose, we prove him wrong on both accounts.

There’s something so terrifying about Gideon’s downfall. At the end of his near-constant research he discovered something about Marika and her will that made him shudder in fear.

Gideon Ofnir. The man that ordered the full destruction of an entire village for a key fragment and then abandoned his adopted daughter for daring to question him. The man who’s henchmen died trying to take that very key from us, only to shrug it off like it was nothing.

The man who lives in a world of monsters and suffering eternal. The man who’s so dedicated to learning everything there is to know about The lands between’s blood soaked history that it’s literally part of his name. The man who probably knows of, witnessed or directly contributed to some of the most horrific atrocities in the lands between.

Gideon Ofnir, the all knowing. The man who took one look into Marika’s will and was rendered so terrified at his discovery that he almost immediately gave up on the goal he had worked so hard for, instead choosing to confront, and eventually fall to our tarnished character.

Gideon is one of the most unempathetic and uncaring characters I’ve seen in media. He’s largely unshaken by the state of the world around him, seems to lack any semblance of morals or values and his interactions with just about anything begin and end with trying to figure out how he can personally benefit. No matter what he'd have to do.

What could he have possibly figured out to make him of all people horrified to such an extent?

Do they really have that of different goals? As far as I'm aware the only goals we know the GEQ had were to "raise apostles to slay the gods" and presumably to keep destined death unbound. This aligns pretty neatly with Melina's goals for us to take on the demi-gods and later to unbind destined death.

The similarities between them are even stronger in the FF route, where she threatens to come after us with the GEQ's own power (destined death). Following in her footsteps as a GEQ waring with a god. If she's not already the GEQ in some shape or form (either via the art of rebirth or her being created from what was left of the previous GEQ) then I do believe that she at least claims that title by the end of FF.

Out of curiosity, what are the major rebuttals to the "Melina = GEQ" theory?

Because honestly, the more I think about it the more it just makes perfect sense for her to be the GEQ, and I can't really think of any counter arguments that are all too convincing for me.

Tbf there are also a couple other things that link Marika to the black knives. Notably the fact that the group seem to have aligned themselves with the GW in some way after the shattering, due to them hunting down Ranni’s squad after she goes after her fingers (her baleful shadow is even kitted out with the same destined death powers, which shouldn't be possible if they weren't specifically given it by someone) and the one guarding the throne room in Leyndell.

On top of this the item description for the black knife set not only says that the black knives were all Numen women but specifically mentions that they had close ties with Marika.

Then there's the question as to how Ranni even got to farum azula to steal from Maliketh in the first place, which could very neatly tie into the grand and as of now unexplained "betrayal" that Marika commited against Maliketh.

There’s also Melina, who is one of Marika’s own children who uses the very distinct black knife fighting style if summoned for the Morgott fight. Since she's also technically a numen woman she's also in the running as a black knife candidate.

One of the things that has always vexes me is how people made the assumption that Marika the Eternal had some hand in the Black knife plot that killed Godwyn. The reasoning? Because the Black Knife assassins happen to be the same race as her, Numens.

Gee it's not like an entire civilization of Numen exist or anything, it's not like the player character can choose to play as a Numen or anything???

There are literally no other facts that link them outside of race. Yeah it is true that Marika was delving deep into the meaning of the order to find flaws with it, but if you knew your boss was making constant plans to replace you with some other candidates then what else would you do but question how they work??

All in all, there is no definite facts that line up either way, but I prefer to keep to the belief that Marika's shattering of the Elden Ring was an act of grief and loss of faith with the death of one of her most prominent children rather then something out of pure malice. I also support the theory that as Ranni was being groomed to take on Marika's role as the new goddess of the Erdtree, Godwyn was being groomed to take on the role of Elden Lord. It would explain why he was chosen specifically for her plot, and why she seemingly shows no remorse for his 'death.'

Not that Godwyn was seemingly a bad individual as far as in game lore goes. He was pretty much the Ned Flanders of Leyndell before he got merc'ed.

Rykard and the Night of the black knives.

Y’know after thinking about it for a while, I think Rykard's involvement in the night of the black knives could run a little deeper than just being a co conspirator. What if he was the person who actually did the deed?

Not on Godwyn mind you, we already know that was all the black knife assassins handy work. But there is one other corpse that is left unaccounted for.

What if he was the one who killed Ranni and carved the cursemark into her back?

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I know there’s no evidence in game that says anything about this but… it had to have been someone right? Someone other than Ranni I mean. She’s metal as fuck, but it would have been incredibly hard to carve such a specific symbol into her own back. Especially since failure would mean certain death. 

And I also don’t think it would have been some random black knife assassin either. It’s certainly possible but looking at everything revolving them, their alliance seemed shaky at best, and they may not have even known about Ranni's half of the plot to begin with. No, I don't think she would have trusted them to do it. But I do believe she’d trust Rykard. They were already in on this together, and assuming he wasn’t part of the heist itself then there’s only really one other role he could have played in the event. 

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And going off of purely in game mechanics, he definitely has the stats to wield a black knife blade. If you compare the stat requirements for the black knife and Rykards own blasphemous blade, then they match up pretty well. He would be able to use one.

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And then we've got Ranni's body itself, which is burnt beyond recognition. Which is strange for a black knife killing, since they have no inherent fire damage, and while they do seem to have some sort of burning affect, it's never as bad as how scorched Ranni's corpse is. We never see this sort of damage done by a black knife again.

This leads me to believe that Ranni's body may have been burnt after the fact. Possibly as one final middle finger to the Two Fingers and the GW for trying to control her fate. One last 'fuck you' by desecrating the holy flesh they bestowed upon her.

And who do we know that has access to fire powers? Or more specifically Magma powers?

Rykard. The lord of blasphemy himself.

Your honour, I rest my case.

Everyone being furious with Aang over running away from his responsibilities is even dumber when you remember that this time around he did not run away from his responsibilities! They removed that part of his character, so now it just straight up doesn't make sense.

The day he found out he was the avatar went like this:

>He found out he was the avatar and may have to stop an oncoming war

>He decided to go for a late night fly to clear his mind

>He got stuck in a storm and while attempting to return to the air temple ended up being pulled under the ocean and subsequently frozen

>He woke up, found out he'd been frozen for 100 years and the world was on the brink of collapse and decided he had to do something about it and immediately got to work.

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By removing his agency in his disappearance (along with his wandering and exploration of the world in the OG series) all the while making people more angry at him for it, the people criticising him for avoiding his duties have gone from looking like a bit of a dick with some semi-valid complaints to completely unreasonable assholes with no meaningful points. They've removed nuance by trying to make the story darker and more mature.

People in the show keep getting on his case for not prioritising his duties as the avatar despite the fact that that is all he has been doing from the moment he woke up from the ice, which may I remind you is now (for Aang) mere hours after he learned he was the Avatar in the first place.

what is with this fucking show and guilt-tripping aang????? bumi being mad at aang is the stupidest fucking thing ever because he of all people KNOW aang is a kid. KYOSHI of all people know the burden that the avatar has to carry and would NOT accuse him of running away??? the guilt that aang felt being the last of his kind is something he carries with him and is evident in his anger and his desire to keep his people's way of life alive. it is not something that other characters need to YELL AT HIM for???? just for him to have to COUNTER it??! as if they were wrong??? what the fuck is the thesis of this show???

Something curious I noticed recently while exploring Farum Azula is that some of the curtains draped around the area share a passing resemblance to the fabrics seen in Marika's bed chamber, and of the ones seen in the depiction of Marika from the opening cutscene.

I'm sure this isn't a particularly new discovery, and the designs aren't exactly the same, but they're just similar enough that it got me thinking.

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Funnily enough Maliketh also shares a very similar veil to Marika's (the thing connected to his elbows and looping around his back.) His even seems to have the same golden edges as the ones from Farum azula.

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To me it seems like black fabric with golden plant detailing's are a bit of a motif with Marika. Which is nice to know, considering how little we actually know about her. (It's also pretty sweet that she has matching outfits with Maliketh)

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But if this design is a running theme with Marika specifically and not just a mistake I'm making then it begs the question. Why does this ancient, timeless, crumbling city in the sky that's presumably much older than every other area in the game have Marika's favourite design decorating its walls?

Is Marika from the time of Farum Azula? The time of Placidusax? Is Marika his missing god who he's been waiting for? That should be impossible, and maybe it still is, but she seems to have some sort of connection to this place. If not for her design adorning its walls then certainly for her godly appointed body guard living here.

Her body guard who, by the way, uses a weapon that has cultural significance to the society of Farum Azula.

You know, the society that was blasted off the map by a meteor long before the age of the erdtree even began.

This was just supposed to be a nice little post about a small detail I noticed, and now it's turned into this. I don't even know if any of this actually makes sense but I've tried my best to put it together in an understandable way.

There's still so much to go into regarding this theory (why did Marika wage war against the dragons if they have a history like this? could the meteor that destroyed Farum be one of the ones the GW sent down to bury the eternal cities? If so then could that event possibly be one of the first things that shook Marika's resolve in the GW?)

But for now I think I need to just post this and let it simmer for a while. If you got this far then thank you for coming down this rabbit hole with me. I'd love to hear your thoughts because I am thoroughly lost in just what this could mean.

Kinda ridiculous how every member of the pines family has “selfishness” as a key part of their character but Mabel is the only one that frequently gets attacked by the wider community for it.

Like, Ford found out he essentially created a universe devastating weapon and his top priority was to hide his blueprints for it instead of just destroying it because even though it was a tool of mass destruction it was still his research and life's work.

Stan is... Well Stan, a running joke in the series is him being a massive con-man and thief, and while it was for altruistic reasons, he was still willing to risk the universe's safety by reactivating the portal to get Ford back.

And Dipper is constantly willing to risk other people's happiness and safety for a chance of impressing the ones he looks up to. He manipulated time to get a shot at impressing Wendy, hurting Mabel and getting Blenden falsely imprisoned in the process. He used the size-changer thing to grow taller than Mabel because he was upset she was taller than him and literally raised the dead and almost got everyone killed to prove to the agents that he was telling the truth.

To reiterate my first point, each and every member of the pines family is incredibly selfish in one way or another, but that doesn't make them bad people, it just makes them people. So maybe we shouldn't be too mad at one character specifically for showing traits that they all have.