What If, After Barely Surviving Leviathan Thanks To Their Power, They Now Know They Will Die Whent The

Kind of reminds me of Castlevania episode 1, where Dracula finds the grave of his love, and will "no longer travel like a man". Not totally the same, and the emotional vibe is different, but from a cool factor angle. There's something there.

dirge being a genuinely evil heretical monster but skirting under the radar of anyone actually taking actions to stop him because he cares about 12 people enough to make a point of Not Doing Anything With Consequences, thus putting everyone in the position of needing to act first against him, which itself is disincentivized by him being genuinely companionable and friendly and affectionate

like no your instincts are right he is GOING to be a PROBLEM. except. the problem hes going to be wont actually manifest for like. several decades?? because the people he loves REALLY dont want to be in the position of having to confront him, so he makes a point of NOT putting them in that position

like hes LITERALLY nice. hes a real sweetheart and he loves his friends so much and at least half of them are good aligned, so like. he isnt going to cause them strife just YET. not if he can avoid it.

but when they arent there to hold him BACK. thats when the trouble starts

Honestly this is one of the reasons Bloodborne's rally mechanic works so well. Oh, you hit me cause I got greedy. Fuck that, I'm going to hit you again and keep hitting you after you fall dead to the ground. Wonderful combination of game mechanics and in-lore flavour.

the only mistake I make in elden ring and other soulslike games is not being unable to dodge or block in time, it is quite simply that I got fucking greedy.

i want that bitch dead and I can't help trying to get an extra hit in even though they rock my shit and punish me every time.

I will not apologize nor will I ever stop.

LIKE ON A RAFT

"It was a good ship, sister." STILL FLOATING

This really comes to play in a fun way later, after talking to Mystra. Gale will justify being given ultimate power by saying something to the effect of, "you know me to be a moral and reasonable person, right?" The very same Gale who you can convince to do atrocities and break the rules of magic with.

This is such a fun aspect of Gale that is not often talked about. He is polite, even caring towards the struggle of others, but his moral center is aligned with your character in such interesting ways. The ways that he mirrors the player characters morality makes him a real joy on both good and evil playthroughs!

now I'm curious...who is Gale morally imitating?

I know you haven't played the game so I'll write this through that lens, but I think he imitates the player! More so than the other companions, he is willing to go along with what you suggest including some pretty morally abhorrent choices (which he pushes back against... but he doesn't leave unlike two of the more explicitly good characters). He voices support for seeking power even when it's through pretty questionable means. I have often said he's more nice than good and part of that is if he develops a close relationship with the player, he'll go along with their version of morality, the prioritizes the people close to him far more than any broader moral obligations... this can be beautiful like wanting to stay with you if you become an illithid brain eating monster but also beautiful because you know he'd definitely help you source the brains to eat. he'd find a way to justify it for sure

Gortash has a 'love' for humanity and it's making me sick cuz that's perhaps why I even like him. Cuz it's twisted and messed up and rotten, so fucking rotten, but it's there, and his every step and every plan of his strives towards the betterment of the status quo in some way and advancement of humanity in a way that's just making me sick.

In this essay I will-

I'd consider this worth it. Now if only we got to see apes with rocket launchers...

Musings on Haladriel/Saurondriel after the season finale fight. I thought the fight itself was excellent! This more clearly matched my expectations for how Sauron and Galadriel would interact after the reveal. Adrenaline filled combat, with unresolved tensions that could be cut with a sword. Clark and Vickers were both amazing and despite the expected direction, I found myself at the edge of my seat!

Sauron clearly has a peculiar relationship with pain, as he described to Celebrimbor. His closest model for intimacy, Morgoth, made him see pain as a game, to prove whose will is greater. In that context, it's interesting how the closest emotional bonds he is shown to have are with those who push through the pain, and continue to defy him.

Both Galadriel and Celebrimbor score victories in their "contest of wills", Galadriel through turning him down again, and Celebrimbor resisting until his death. All this to say, Sauron has a type, and playing hard to get seems to work on him!

I don't think Sauron hurting Galadriel in that sense means he is unable to love her or it was purely deception. People can hurt the ones they love all the time, after all. :) What struck out to me was that after Galadriel is wounded, he doesn't try to stab her hand or otherwise take away Nenya by force. Even through their game, even though he is twisted, he wants Galadriel to choose him, to hand over her ring of her own free will. And that both leads to her escape and is agonizingly sweet!

Taylor also has insane Cheated energy. "Let's see how many minds we can stack" is certainly her kind of plan. I wonder if this makes Contessa/Cauldron the Narrator...

Slay The Princess

STARRING:

Taylor Hebert as THE CONTRARIAN

Amy Dallon as THE HUNTED

Lisa Wilbourn as THE SKEPTIC

Scion as THE HERO

Eden as THE PRINCESS

i don't understand why it's even a question whether sauron was reaching for galadriel or nenya.

i think it's obvious that sauron's desire to possess nenya is a metaphor for his desire to have galadriel. nenya = galadriel.

if nenya just represented a ring and all sauron wanted was that ring, he would have snatched that thing away from galadriel the moment he saw it, and he had many opportunities to take it away. he wanted galadriel to give him nenya herself, bc that meant her giving in to him as well.

he was so desperate and teary while asking galadriel to give him nenya after stabbing her bc he hurt her far worse than he wanted to, trying to bring her to the point where she would give in, but she kept resisting and i believe he just didn't want to keep on hurting her. yet he would continue until she willingly gave him what he wanted. that is why he was so relieved and the most overjoyed we have seen him when he thought she finally believed he wanted to heal the middle-earth (+her) and was about to give him nenya (=herself).

the whole thing was so obviously a psychological game sprinkled with morgoth tactics sauron played on galadriel in a desperate hope of breaking her defenses down till she willingly gave herself to him.

and he changed the position of his hand to reach for her wrist, that way he would have been able to pull her back. if he had just reached for the ring, he would have tried to reach from below of her hand (where his hand was already positioned) to open her palm and quickly snatch the ring.