Honestly, this is kind of a big swing from me. I haven't been able to find any specific reference to the Tree of 40 Fruits from Miyazaki, or in the game files, but it just seems like something he's probably aware of, and which could've inspired the idea of Godrick's multitude of grafted limbs.
Another possibility could be that, as you’ve pointed out with some other FromSoft games, there could be influence from Magic the Gathering. There is a “graft” keyword associated with the Simic (notorious for combining multiple creatures together) and while it isn’t exactly the same I’m also a bit reminded of Innistrad’s stichers.
Seeing his feet made out of feet reminded me of the MTG art of Vincent Proce. Specifically Nessian Game Warden. Though there is also Diregraf Collossus. Mostly just the name makes me think grafted.
I love the idea of one of Godfreys descendants seeing him having taken Serosh onto himself thinking it was a power-up and turning to grafting to try to imitate it, not knowing that it was a limiter for Godfrey the whole time.
@@iz2333 Before he became Elden Lord he was Hora Loux. The Tiger is an honorary Shadow Beast, similar to Malakath for Marika, and Blaid for Ranni, and was grafted to him as after becoming Elden Lord. It repressed his power and rage, and probably served as a connection to the greater will before he lost grace and became the first Tarnished.
@@thekaz5225 actually, there is nothing said about Serosh actually weakening Godfrey. We only know he took him on to limit his lust for battle (not his actual power level) to be more like a lord
I was hoping you might go into the double meaning of "Grafted Scion" where scion can either mean the descendent of a noble or "a young shoot or twig of a plant, especially one cut for grafting or rooting."
In the best timeline Godrick is content with who he is and just makes the horticultural version of grafting his passion. He still yells "Forefathers, one and all... BEAR WITNESS!!!" every time he plants a sapling, but his subjects have gotten used to that. Heh.
In your timeline, Godrick had a tarnished drop the "you're beautiful" prattle pate on him, had then they a chat and he decided not to go through with awful that grafting business.
That just gave me an idea where Godrick is grafting trees and other plants to create his own Erdtree. But of course because he's fusing it with other plant life, it ends up being profane
And the dragon is a very, very small one who wraps himself around Godrick's left arm like the Grafted Dragon remembrance weapon and is a nature-loving pacifist, who celebrates alongside his beloved master by blasting a tiny little burst of dragonflame into the sky whenever they plant a new sapling. Nepheli still takes over, but everyone is ok with that because Godrick just wants to care for his plants and Nepheli's far better suited to handling military and security related matters, anyway. Kenneth Haight (who is much more effective as a leader in this timeline) acts as her advisor on non-military matters when he's not busy with establishing communication with the demi-humans, overseeing the construction of schools and the like to help with their education, keeping them safe from those who'd try to harm them, or other such activities. Castle Morne is safely under the care of Sir Edgar and Sir (insert name here), the Leonine Misbegotten, after Kenneth Haight did what everyone else thought impossible and negotiated with the Misbegotten and helped make peace between them and the humans living on the Weeping Peninsula. The academy of Raya Lucaria, under Queen Rennala and High Sorceress Sellen, aid the perfumer Tricia in her research on treatments for the various ill-fortuned peoples of the lands between, such as the Misbegotten of the Weeping Peninsula. A perfect timeline, one that we can only dream of...
I actually really liked Godrick. He still remains one of my favorite bosses. It feels like a counterpoint to you as a player. Both of you are runts with seemingly no hope of a future, so you as a player train and grow stronger with effort and Godfrey takes the easy way out and steals the strength of others. It just feels poetic that the first true adversary you have in Elden Ring is a visual metaphor that true strength comes from within.
To be bluntly honest, I wholeheartedly believe that Godefroy the Grafted's lore is 100% manufactured for no reason beyond being an excuse to retexture Godrick as another boss. Gameplay wise, I had no major complaints, but from a storytelling perspective it REALLY dilutes Godrick's character potential. Finding out that grafting was just something done by the Limgrave rulers for generations prior made me see Godrick less as "a pitiful ruler that has to put other peoples limbs on him to feel powerful" to "a product of circumstance in a twisted kingdom obsessed with it's golden lineage with a grotesque tradition for body horror"
Agreed. While grafting being a thing before Godrick makes sense, it would've been more interesting if Godrick was the first to actually ever abuse it for his own power grab, so Godefroy existing, and also being potentially several generations older than Godrick really takes away from his uniqueness as a character and boss.
@@Cobble-e7y They should’ve made Godefroy’s grafting far less prolific at least, maybe only being a few arms taken from lions a la Godfrey. Give us a look into what the Golden Lineage would’ve looked like without a hundred corpses sewn onto themselves. That would entail creating an entirely new skeleton and model, so I get why they couldn’t do that, but still..
I agree, and Godefroy's divine blood wouldn't be as diluted as Godrick's as well. I headcannon that he could've been a decently competent and strong lord, but still did experiment (or even discovered) grafting. He wouldn't of been as much of a grafting mess as Godrick, he'd just have certain parts added a bit more structurally. Like multiple arms, where he'd most likely dual wielded weapons. He could have also still been a cruel lord and father, abusing and calling godrick weak and pathetic.
@@danibrent3068 ..And hence why Godrick would've been a complete dickhead to Gostoc, who (while potentially being his son) is a complete commoner with zero traces of noble blood left.
Godrick is an interesting character indeed. It strikes me everytime, especially his dialogues. "Mighty Dragon, thou art a true born heir". That line is gold (pun intended lol). He was the runt of the litter and he is somewhat sympathetic to the "flying dragons" such as Agheel, Smarag etc, probably because he sees them not as nerfed versions of the Ancient Dragons, but as true heirs as much as he sees himself as the true heir of the golden lineage. Fascinating and sad. He's still an eerie monster tho, we should not forget that.
They are also, like him, representatives of a dying order. Dragons were the race of the previous generation of Elden lord. He probably unconsciously relates to them and their struggle to hold on to a power that is fading. And it basically communicates everything we need to know about him. He can’t let go of the past He thinks himself to be powerful He is willing to go to whatever means necessary to maintain his self perceived power He’s unable to be honest enough with himself to actually face the difficulties of his time, and instead relies on some self asserted heritage and right to legitimize his claim to power. He sees himself as a dragon, as being powerful, without being able to acknowledge the fact that their time, like his, is over. And that, as much as he asserts himself and believes himself to be powerful, he relies on power that is not his own.
Godrick is right, though, in a way: if it weren't for Certain Others arriving and messing everything up, way back in history, then the dragons really would have been heirs to a lot of the Lands Between. Or at least that's how I read it.
Slight note, but in celtic lore concerning Cu Chulainn, he fought against Clan Calatin, who practiced grafting limbs from their fallen comrades to their still living warriors to preserve their strength. Cu Chulainn fought them time and again until he faced their final member, who resembled a mass of limbs carrying a random assortment of weapons. I feel that this may be the more direct inspiration for Godrick and Godefroy, though the tree idea is also neat.
I've seen folk compare Godfrey himself to Cu Chulainn as well, a powerful warrior who suppresses some berserk savagery. Though Hercules is also apparently a strong inspiration for him too, especially with Serosh maybe being an allegory for the Nemean Lion
Oooo I definitely see this. The "gaol" of the Evergaol Golden Lineage is also an Irish word for kin or relative, so Evergaol in that context would sort of mean always kindred or always connected. It's sort of a reach, but supports the idea that the roots of the Evergaol's grafting comes from a Celtic myth where soldiers make the parts of their fallen kin a part of them.
When I first saw Godrick in the Elden ring trailer, I assumed the “Elden Ring” would be an actual physical ring, like in Lord of the Rings, and other rings of power would be very important throughout the game’s story. Godrick would have grafted extra limbs onto himself in order to wear more and more rings in order to increase his own power. That’s very much not how it goes, but I think it was an interesting idea!
I thought something similar; like the ring was a physical object but because of the rise of tarnished, only the "chosen" tarnished could hold it. so Godrick was just amassing as many tarnished limbs to increase his odds of being able to hold the ring.
Say what you want about Godrick, he's still my favorite cutscene, there's not much in it but "Lowly tarnished, playing as a Lord.... I command thee kneel!" fits so damn well to him and to the context
I would have loved for Godefroy to have been a unique fight where he grafted himself in a way that was different from Godrick or the ScionsC maybe taking more inspiration from plant grafting and using those in the same way the crucible knights use specific miracles to mimic dragons with a more physical touch. I also love the detail that he calls the dead dragon “kindred” as it is also evidently a weaker descendant from a powerful bloodline of dragons, being smaller than say Placidusax or Fortissax.
Not just being smaller, regular dragons (Agheel, Adula, Smarag, etc) are descendent of the Ancient Dragons but weaker and lack the signature gravel stone scales- and thus their immortality (a bit more down the line and we got those normal enemy Wyvern thingy in Dragonbarrow I guess?)
Godefroy is the most egregious boss recycling in the game to me. It's clear they just wanted an evergaol rematch of Godrick without a lot of thought for the story implications. Godefroy is barely mentioned anywhere else and it's all superfluous when he is, almost certainly just information added after the evergaol to half-justify his existence. Really think the game would have been better without that evergaol, it's incredible jarring.
The "modern" dragons like agheel seem to be a completely different species from the ancient ones, they're smaller, they have hair, they only have four limbs where ancient dragons have six, and they seem to be less intelligent and more beastial.
@@Thebdippy more bestial but at least somewhat capable of communication with humans and understanding complex thought as Adula was able to swear a ‘knightly oath’ to Ranni after she was defeated.
@@Toastrz i think it contextualizes godrick's position in the golden lineage. i wish it was a more unique godrick-esque fight, but also: it's very funny and the game would be worse without the moment of hilarity
I actually like Godrick very much, and I'd say he is one of my favorite characters in ER, even maybe the most favorite one. I find it very interesting that he is not a "usual" glorious warrior like Malenia, Radahn, Godfrey or anyone else, he is a madman with unrealistic ambitions, obsessed with his desire for power and pride for his lineage. Also, for example, the story about how he got his ass kicked by Malenia and how he was scared of Radahn so much that he hid in his castle gives the whole ER universe some kind of fluff, and I think that this is very important when you have a big complicated lore. Also his design is magnificent and the transition between phases is purely stunning. Once again, one of my favorite bosses, even if he's not very hard.
Yeah, he definitely has one of the most shocking boss transitions. I realized what was happening and just went "Holy fuck..." as he chopped his arm off mid-battle. Also the lore of him getting his ass kicked by Malenia, only to beg for his life is hilarious. I just imagine Malenia going "And there goes my murder-boner. Get out of my sight."
Lore-wise, I must agree. I haven't been through the whole game yet, but Godrick definitely left an enormous impression. When I saw the phase transition for the first time, I was floored.
Yeah, he was kinda impressive for me as a first boss and a very great start to ER. Commanding me to kneel before him, beeing grafted and using that in battle, chopping his own arm off mid fight to use it as a flamethrower in the second phase while he screames "BEAR WITNESS".
When I first learned about how truly low on the totem pole Godrick was as far as the demi-gods were concerned, how he was so thoroughly trashed by Malenia, and how he fled the capital city disguised as a lady, I laughed. I thought he was a hysterical coward baby. Then I kept discussing the game it with a friend who's really into the lore and overarching character work in ER, and he had a different take. That, despite his monstrous side-hobby of grafting, Godrick is one of the only demi-gods with some semblance of order within his land. Limgrave is filled with knights who, while surely a good chunk of them dislike him, ultimately still serve and obey, like the commander still holding his own at Castle Mourne. Other demi-gods are either reclusive, monstrous, or too far gone in their mental state to effectively rule, at least through some normal, sane reason. Godrick is arrogant and pathetic, but at different stages of his fight he's practically begging his ancestors to acknowledge him ("Forefathers, one and all - BARE WITNESS!" and "Great Godfrey, did'st thou witness?"), and damn if I don't kind of feel that. Plus... I mean, come on. The golden giant axes, the General Grievous multi-arms, the dragon flamethrower. What a wild, truly metal design. Now he's easily my favorite boss and second favorite character in the game, only getting beat out by best maiden girlboss Ranni.
I really wish grafting took on more of a role in Stormveil Castle--it's such a cool aesthetic. Sure we have Godrick & the Grafted Scions, but it would have been amazing to see enemies sporting extra limbs and becoming increasingly grotesque the deeper you ventured into the castle.
I'd imagine grafting is a pretty painful and draining process. Not to mention that Godrick needs the Great Rune to graft, and probably doesn't want to share his powers with anyone competent enough to one-up him.
Yeah, I never got why we didn't get more grafted enemies in stormveil, or in general. You'd think Godrick would have amassed test subjects in various stages of failure, but no. Only him, his palette swap and the Scions.
there's this game by name of GRIME that does a LOT with such body horrors. It has a theme of life breath entering and giving life in things never meant to live, so there are things like swords with fingers that you can shoot away, living claws on sticks as axes, people made from rocks who are routinely crushed by the higher developed civilization to act as resources for their own buildings... And one of the two composers for the game, Alex Roe, has done a lot of remixes of Fromsoft games. He is *really* good at it. I very much recommend you check both GRIME and Alex Roe out!
It makes sense that he wants to keep it to himself, however I do agree that more grafted enemies in Stormveil would have been very neat. Not so many knifebirds.
I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here 'cos Godrick is my favorite shardbearer. Man born sickly, like one foot in the grave from the start, and he still tries to aspire to the legendary status he ought to have, as a bearer of an elden ring shard, and part of the golden lineage. When life gives you a deck this poor, you *stack the damn deck yourself.* Grafting is grotesque, yes, but it works to an extent, and that's what he needs. Also, I want to bring up the fact that the Malenia fight was when he was still "The Golden", instead of Grafted. Man had a terminal illness and the physique of an anemic toddler, and he still at least tried to square up to Malenia the Severed, patient zero of the Scarlet Rot. Give the man a break, he's doing his best with a bad hand.
"He's doing the best with a bad hand". Which one, man? WHICH ONE!? THE PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW! Now i'm imagining an intrepid reporter chasing after Godrick who, with a very tired look on his face, climbs up a tree and sits there until the reporter goes away.
@@vaspeter2600 Right? People always criticize because he's a coward without realizing, he started off weaker than even a Tarnished, and *once he dies, that's it, no do-overs.*
It’s debatable there’s conflicting things about when he grafted he was when he fought malenia but was awarded the grotesque title upon his utter humiliation and defeat
His design is very cool in that it makes for a humanoid boss that has a very atypical frame. Grafting related to trees makes sense. Goddrick also admires that dragon corpse too, so I wonder if his thirst for power led him to either become more of a dragon or just more like the Tarnished that would one day become Elden Lord. Basically either the precursor to the Golden Order, or the inheritor.
@@stairmasternem nah, I think you confusing them for ashen ones from ds3, From what I can gather tarnished are either desended from Godfrey and maybe other relatives? They were banished from the lands between and had the grace of gold taken from them, hence the name "tarnished" like metal thats lost its luster, I think the tarnished coming to the lands between are their dependents that grew up in other lands
@@jaceyates6315 yeah was thinking they were like Ashen ones, considering they wake up from a crypt and whatnot based on the intro. Also you are legitimately a corpse woken up by grace yourself. Not sure if lineage is that important unless Godfrey really got around.
Don't worry Godrick, you may be the weakest demigod but you give the best hugs, and have the biggest heart. You truely lend a hand when others need it, and your motivational speeches are worthy of the forefathers to bear witness to.
A detail that I think gets overlooked is how Godrick specifically seeks out Tarnished for grafting, in addition to whoever happens to be nearby (including dragons). Presumably this is an attempt to forcibly claim the Grace that guides us and/or the Runes that strengthen us. There's also been some talk about the Tarnished (or at least our Player Character Tarnished) being a descendent of Godfrey, hence Margit's "Warrior Blood" comment, but people tend to forget that Godfrey wasn't the only one exiled at the end of the War for the Lands Between: His entire cohort was banished and scattered, sent on the Long March, so the Tarnished may just be descendants of that entire migrating army. Or just random nobodies. Who knows. Still, it's amusing to think we might technically be Godrick's distant cousin or something.
How the hell would morgott now if the player is a descendent of godfrey thats the dumbest idea ever. In almost every fromsoftware game the Protagonist is a random no body, thats just dumb.
"hence Margit's "Warrior Blood" comment" Not gonna lie that's a pretty silly talk from those people, "warrior blood" runs in our veins as tarnished BECAUSE we are tarnished, regardless of any familial relationship with godfrey, because literally ALL tarnished are descended from warriors, godfrey's warriors to be precise, or godfrey himself obviously, so of course warrior blood runs in our vein. Plus what the heck would marghit know about godfrey being part of our ancestry, it's not like he has our genealogy ^^
I'd be interested to see how the Carian Study Hall works after flipping it upside-down with the inverted statue. I assume the world just swaps out the section with a version that goes underground before teleporting the player back to the top, but it'd be neat to see from the Zullie-eye view.
Growing in a somewhat rural area, I was so accustomed to tree graftings that his "limb grafting" was just a natural connection, I don't think there COULD be another explanation/inspiration for how godrick practice came about. Like, today we have skin grafts for burn victims, but the use of the word still refers to the botanical term
some people will point to the fact that the words used in japanese for these things do not have these connotations, and this stuff was originally written in japanese, but I am reasonably sure these things were in early english concept drafts. It is beyond belief that the relationship to the tree motif is just coincidence.
@@homelessrobot To expand on that, the relationship is overtly intentional because of the Japanese terminology used. That the game is only dubbed in English and was almost certainly written with English as its only/primary language in mind, is kind of irrelevant. But the JP text does grant us clearer insight due to how specific vocabulary mechanically works in this context. 接ぎ木 is what is used for 'grafting' and in Godrick's title in Elden Ring, and it is specifically the horticulture procedure, it doesn't have multiple meanings or connotations- it breaks down into "joining wood". If they meant some other meaning of the English word graft ex grafting skin, Japanese has entirely different vocabulary for it
I grew up in the city, and grafting immediately made sense to me as just what he was doing. You graft body parts on, like a skin graft or when you lose a finger and they reattach it, or that guy who lost his penis in an accident. They grew a new penis on his arm and then grafted it where it belongs. He had that Schlong on his arm for years! (Def nsfw to google, but it’s cool medical science!)
I mean the other definition for grafted as a verb (in terms of its medical definition) given by Google is: transplant (living tissue) as a graft. "they can graft a new hand onto the arm" so but I do like how the double meaning has some symbolism with the Erdtree
I also like the subtle blasphemy of Godrick's dragon hand. In order to prove to his ancestor Godfrey that his strength befits a crown, he borrows power from a "trueborn heir," a dragon. Heir to what, though? Heir to a lineage that was supposedly supplanted by his own golden one. He's stealing his strength from something that he was already supposed to be stronger than, to prove that he's strong. All that on top of his groveling defeat by Malenia, and it seems like From _really_ wanted you to know this guy sucks ass.
Even looking at Grafted Scion's name, you can understand this. Scion can mean a noble descendant, but at the same time can mean a branch used for grafting.
The meaning of 'scion' as a noble descendant is actually taken from scion as a branch. Literally, a noble descendant is a branch of a great family tree.
I’ve wondered about how earnestly Godrick chose to severe his left most assembly of limbs to then graft on the deceased dragon head as if he knew all to well what a simple yet irreversible procedure grafting is potentially. Perhaps even the risk being that it was specifically the head of a dragon suggesting grafting additional heads onto oneself is either regarded as a taboo or that if the grafted head is “stronger” than the main graftie’s head it may cause the body to split its control evenly across to 2 heads maybe even having the host lose total control to the newly added head.
Seems like the somewhat bestial dragon was just happy to flame the shit out of someone. Considering how it looks partially rotten, I’m sure it died a pitiful death and would very much like to get some anger out, one last time..
1/3, he doesn't graft himself and die by the Tarnished 1/3, he grafts himself and die by the tarnished 1/3, he grafts himself and get enough power to kill the tarnished Godrick knew perfectly what he was doing. Since he had grafted himself for the first time, there was no coming back. He preferred that than to live a life of failure.
At the phase transition the dragon is liberating flames really close to the body of Godrick, that is something that for me it looked like the dragon wasn't really cooperating, like if he left the dragon near his head the dragon would try to bite him or burn his face
@@lorenzmaut3708 It seems the dragon and Godrick form an alliance pretty quickly, though. In the fight itself, we only see the dragon snapping at us, despite Godrick’s spare limbs being much easier targets
Even though lore-wise he's the most pathetic, gameplay-wise his actor's delivery is almost unmatched in a game that hosts From Software's, dare I say, best voice acting to date. His fight is also seriously underrated. I love it for the same reason as Mohg and Godfrey, because it's as tricky and varied in moves and timing as Elden Ring's greatest, with the opportunity for openings using any type of weapon like in Dark Souls III.
I think shabriri is up there too. I know the bosses are aided by the atmosphere and the cool music, but voice acting in itself is stellar among the whole game
Rannala just let you wail on her for free DPS, Radahn can be fought by doing the festival and having the NPCs fight him for you, Rykard is a Storm Ruler fight Godrick is one of the few "proper" bosses where you get to fight head-on mano a mano so to speak
He is easily my favorite boss in the game. He has my favorite fight, favorite design, favorite character, and he even has my favorite track from the game's score. Even though I thought the majority of bosses in ER were mediocre, he stands out as one of the best in FromSoft's entire catalog.
Idk what you are talking about as far as the fight goes. It is by far the easiest fight, much easier than even Margit or some of the lesser ones like the black knife assasins. Hell one of his signiture moves (the one where he jumps over you) is dodged by doing nothing
I found grafting to be a little under used in the game. It seemed like it might be a major theme. It was a large component of marketing material, and it is one of the most unique elements of the game world. In game, both the first boss you see and the first shardbearer are grafted. But then it all but disappears for the rest of the game. There are a small handful of further grafted scions (placed rather haphazardly) and arguably revenants are grafted too, but they seem to be much more their own thing. There's very little story or lore regarding grafting, which I found disappointing. No place where grafting was first experimented with. No soldiers with just one or two grafted arms. The only NPC who even really cares about grafting is Roderika, and only because all her men were grafted and she's too scared to go on. Her dialogue almost makes it seem like some wanted to be grafted, which could have been a very interesting dark narrative, of a people so desperate to be worthy of their golden ruler, who was in truth abhorrent and pathetic, but it didn't go anywhere.
Yeah, it would have been very interesting to see a potential grafting ground area, showing maybe failed early experiments or simply the aftermath, or even the angle of volunteering to be grafted, like you mentioned.
A few extra limbs would have gone _miles_ in making Godrick’s knights and soldiers stand out. Resembling the vile power of their own lord, being able to wield extra weapons or strike even harder with the ones they already had.. It would’ve given them a lot more character, which is definitely something the Lordsworn goons are missing.
I liked hearing Roderika talk about it and was both sad and curious when she talked about needing to work up the courage for it herself. I didn't know what to expect when I brought that item I found on the pile back to her, so I had the usual "oh no" response to her reaction about her men being grafted. I mean, it's a FromSoftware game, so nearly every response to an NPC's words/reactions is going to be some form of "oh no" and "I'm so sorry".
I was a bit disappointed in that too...kind of felt that way a lot of times. I feel their dark souls style story telling may have needed a bit of tweaking. More often than not I felt like this huge world had a story outline, then all these flavor text things felt more like random brainstorming ideas to add to the story. I don't want to have long drawn out cutscenes but surely there are things they could do to actually reel in the fish after its hooked. Easiest way would be instead of giving a ruin fragment or other disappointing piece of loot as a reward for exploring, have the player discover a book or journal. I would think Myazaki would just love to expound on the details of someone giving an account of grafting.
In the Haligtree place, on the way to get Marika's Soreseal, theres a gauntlet of these dudes that look like theire somewhat grafted. the ones with all the extra limbs and teleport and generally you just want them dead as soon as tarnishingly possible lol. They may not actually be grafted though, they just look like it.
One thing to consider is how the Erdtree itself almost looks like it was grafted onto the tree below it. It can be seen in Lyendell from how the part of the tree near the entrance is brown rather than gold, but can be further seen underground. So there is an example of tree grafting in game, which lends further credence to the Tree of 40 Fruits theory.
That explains the whole "Crucible was a primordial form of the erdtree". The erdtree was literally grafted by the greater will at the origin point of all life.
your comment made me think that it's not the Erdtree grafted to a tree below it but more that, that part of the Erdtree is more where civilisation "grafted" itself to it. a point to access the Erdtree and by extension the Elden Ring.
That is actually very interesting theory because Erdtree is not the only big tree. There was haligtree and crucible tree aswell. What if they share the same 'root' and cosmic powers are fighting for control over it?
My dad did something like that, he planted a shrub on a stump and it grew. You can see where the two bits fused together but both are bigger than when they first started. Lots of little tree details in the game. Radagon and Marika make me think of how they clone plants with a tiny cutting from the original.
godrick's lore is even more dynamic, while rarely any character in souls is good rarely any character is solely bad either. Godrick has his own complex characterization, you can see this in his quotes which showcase a solemn yet very hopeful man, I wish to see more characterization for multiple of elden ring's simply amazing cast in the future
His dying line is a bit sad. All he wanted was to return to the Capitalcity, feeling welcome & back at home while basking and being surrounded by it's rays of gold. A cruel jerk he might have been but a pure wish like that free of malice, that is not something that can be held against him.
I feel like during Godrick's final moments when he grafted the dragon head onto himself, he was finally powerful enough to live up to the golden lineage. And in the end he went down fighting like a warrior.
While I can't say much for the inspiration of grafting, another possible inspiration for Godrick as a character is Elric of Melnibone from The Eternal Champion series, a series that Miyazaki cited as being one of the big influences for Elden Ring. Elric, in his books, is the last emperor of an island called Melnibone. One of the defining features of Elric as a character is that he is a sickly albino, whose body is so frail he needs to take potions(or later steal souls)to even be able to walk. Similarly, Godrick, a white haired ruler, is stated to resort to grafting because of how frail his body was before hand. Both characters do also have a slight connection to dragons, Elric is sometimes known as the Dragon prince or The Last Dragonlord, and Godrick obviously grafts a dragon's head to himself. I know it's not a huge connection, but they do share some similarities, and considering there's tons of other references to Elric throughout the game(Maliketh's title as The Black Blade and the greater will being a manifestation law/order are straight up ripped from the Eternal Champion books) I think it's definitely possible Godrick was meant to have some passing references to him. Godrick is also pretty similar to Lothric, another frail, pale, and white haired ruler who is also has an association with dragons and a name ending in ric.
Actually I now wonder if Godfrey is a Lothric&Lorian reference with someone hanging on their backs, also I feel like both might’ve been inspired by Gower’s ring of protection from DS2, that ring is still probably the most bizarre equipment from the series
for those curious about the fruit tree, it bares Stone fruit which are those with big pits in them, ranging from cherries to plums to apricots and peaches. Several of the trees can be seen in Seattle, last I heard. Within the amazon headquarters. Thanks Zullie for spotlighting Van Akens work, those trees have deeply inspired me since I first read of them a few years back.
You can only graft trees in the same fruit group. Like you said only stone fruit branches can be grafted onto stone fruit trees. Which makes me wonder. What if Godrick had only sought out to graft onto him the limbs of other Demigods and descendants of gods, like Nephelli? Would he have gotten the results he wanted?
@@davidhong1934 She might be a descendent of Horah Loux and even so she's form the same clan as her clan ancestor even if it's not a direct descendant it would still kinda be family.
@@Taygon45 In the past, families and servants associated with powerful figures would frequently take on the names of their patrons, both as a sign of fealty and as a way to flex on the unwashed masses. After Godfrey defeated the Storm Lord, some of the servants and descendants may have sworn allegiance to the new regime and took on the surname Loux. If it was during his reign, it was to honor his roots. If after, it was to reflect the current state of affairs.
thanks to the DLC, from what I gathered Grafting sounds extremely similar to the flesh melding of the shamans. It makes sense given that Godrick is Marika's descendent and therefore a descendent of the shamans from the realm of shadow
While I do think of the tree grafting as the real hook/inspiration for this, I had also taken it in the sense that the word "graft" is an archaic word for the misappropriation of funds by a ruler/leaders. So that Godrick the "Grafted" was a double entendre for a man unfit to lead, whose selfish pursuits are made at the expense of his kingdom and his subjects.
It seems like the Elden Ring is pretty big on this theme of parasitic dependence. The cuckoo is known for laying its eggs in nests of other birds, depending on them waning off the young (who pushes competing chicks of the surrogate parents off the nest to get all the food). And considering the severe misalignment of the huge trunk in the south of Deeproot with the Erdtree trunk above, it's quite likely the Erdtree was grafted onto the trunk of the Greattree, which all, together with Godrick, all serve as allegories to guide us to a conclusion about Greater Will's relation with the Lands Between: Parasitic.
@@scutterybuttery449 It depends. The Greater Will (through the Erdtree) did grant its chosen people (not all people of the planet, only those of one continent and even then, not all of them) blessings in exchange for their service. Though it remains to be seen if those blessings are equal to what it was getting out of that arrangement.
I feel another explanation (or maybe just a literary parallel) could be that Godrick/Godefroy were inspired by Godrick's worship of the Crucible, the primordial form of life when all beings were one. Hence, we find a Crucible knight (one of Godfrey's trusted servants) at the base of Stormveil. However, I think in Godfrey's dogma, he never sought to alter his form, but to emulate the power of all beings, hence whereupon killing Serosh, his movements begin to mimic a ferocious lion. Godrick tried to cheat his way into literally absorbing the strength of his victims. In fact, it's funny how back when the trailers and demo were all we had, everyone was quick to presume that Margit had also been grafted, but in actuality, the Omen are closer in nature to the Crucible. It's not surprising that two of Godfrey's sons were born with such deformities; although Godwyn escaped this curse at birth, his transformation into the Prince of Death yielded a similarly chaotic form, albeit devoid of a soul-and fittingly, we find the matured death root far below Stormveil, its many-eyed briars now decaying the very stonework of the castle itself... Man, they really know how to tie characters and concepts together in surprising ways.
Grafting has more to do with emulating the crucible where all life was blended together rather than emulating seraph. Thats why on the scions there are birds and other creatures (a troll) all grafted into 1 being
as long as you're looking into trees and connections to Elden Ring characters, have you looked into the similiarities between the cedar apple rust fungus and Malenia's scarlet rot? The life cycle of the rust involves three stages (or bloomings) and some of its growths resemble both the flowers that Malenia turns into and the growths all over Caelid
Godrick is pretty cool. Since he was so early on and so easy, I kind of forgot about him a little bit. Then I ran into the Golden Lineage Evergaol. I was pretty mad. I didn't have a problem with refights up until that point. This was a named character, though. Every other refight had some twist and was also a non-unique character. There are many Dragonkin, many Erdtree Guardians and many Crystalians. I can see how people might criticize that, but I was ok with it. I was not and am not ok with Godefroy. It cheapens the game. I expected better from From.
It's the most egregious boss copying, rivaled only by the Astel copy in the Yelough Anix Tunnel. To see two REMEMBRANCE bosses copied virbatim and given flimsy lore reasons as to why that ultimately cheapen the overall lore was simply disappointing. They take away from two of the coolest fights, and if they really wanted to make harder versions of the fights, then they should have created truly unique enemies, both from a lore and gameplay perspective.
Forge demon refight is fine. Not a named character. Just showed that there were more than one. You gonna complain about stray demon? Demon Firesage? There isn't more than one Godrick. Hell, they could've done like "Soul of Godrick" or "Memory of Godrick". Instead, they try to pass off the refight as another character with zero story support. Incredibly poorly handled. At the time, I had fight Astel, but not the refight. I have since gotten through the refight. It's just as bad.
I feel sorry for him. Someone like the Night Cavalry's Instructor should've taught him to rely on practice and skill instead of resorting to this... He could've been a sympathetic demigod because his blood is diluted and not in spite of it.
Yeah! I mean, sorcery and the art of incantations were still open to him. Rennala is physically weak, but apparently her knowledge and mastery over the sorcerous, arts enabled her to challenge Radagon himself, and fight to a stalemate. Physicality is far from the only source of power in this world. If the red wolves are smart enough to learn freaking glintstone comet, then Godfrey should have had no trouble. (Okay, so the image of a red wolf attending a lecture and studiously copying down notes is just too cute.)
godrick is like one of those weird minor celebrities who get addicted to plastic surgery and over time slowly transform themselves into freaks because of severe body dysmorphia to the point where they don't even recognize they are worse now than when they started
The fact that unwanted nobles like Roderika where sent to be spare parts means that the practice of grafting was known outside the lands between. Maybe vassal houses of Godrick would send those as tribute. And other "grafting-like" skills in elden ring might've been inspiration for grafting: the aspects of the crucible and dragon hunting. Maybe Godrick's attempt at grafting a dragon was inspired by dragon hunters. The result is similar, at least.
@@CsStrez her hoodie and the blue hoodie state that the whole "send them on a sacred quest" was just a fancy excusd to dispose of nobles they didn't want around. Red hood specifically states Roderika never saw grace
There is actually another possible reason for Godrick's and Godefroy's grafting obsession. Under Stormveil is one of the faces of Godwyn and considering that Stormveil seems to belong to Golden Lineage it belonged to Godwyn before Godrick and so because of his connection to it under Stormveil his face appeared. Now what does that mean? Well... The description of Marred Shield may clear that up: "Wooden shield of the Stormveil soldiers. Much like the castle, it is marred by mottling and thorns. Some say it is the curse of grafting which causes such affliction, while others talk of its root being something altogether more sinister hidden deep within the castle." That face may be why people in Stormveil suddenly become insane with idea of Grafting. Presence of Godwyn's face of death may be causing people in Stormveil to go insane and it's leaders to become obsessed with grafting.
Except no other place where deathroot is present has even an inkling of grafting nor do those connected to it, such as Fia, mention grafting. Personally I think it's the other way around. All the death and bloodshed in and around Stormveil (even the castle itself bears large scars from battles) provided a fertile ground, so to speak, for a massive deathroot growth to surge up out of the earth. I don't think any other place in the game has so many corpses and parts of corpses hanging and Elden Ring looooves to have hanging corpses strewn all about.
@@ladyabaxa only thing id have to say about this is Mt. Gelmir is also very stacked with corpses so the lack of a massive deathroot face like in stormveil or on Godwyn is weird too
The description is literally just sharing knowledge of people in-world confusing correlation with causation since the people have no idea about the hidden true source of the thorns: the visage of Godwyn. As for why he manifests there, a likely reason could simply be his presumed ancestral ties to the place. After all, Nepheli is his half-sister and she is deemed a worthy successor to the castle.
Zullie is probably spot-on. This is one of those cases where while the game is only dubbed in and basically written with English in mind, the JP script tells more of the intended meanings because the word-choice is mechanically more specific. 接ぎ木 is the term used for grafting in Elden Ring, and it's very specifically for the horticultural concept; if it were something different that would still be a form of grafting in English, there's very different vocabulary for that, ex, a skin graft is not written the same way. The 木 means tree/wood.
@@NOOBANATOR97 Oh yeah, definitely. Either there's a bit of randomness going on with where big deathroot blooms happen - certainly plausible since Godwyn is soulless and thus without a mind - or there's perhaps other factors that we can't really take into account because we don't have enough information. Mt. Gelmir, for example, is a massive volcano that seems to have been stirred up by Rykard's volcano magic. We can see a town that was presumably stable and populated being swallowed up by lava. That lava might be preventing deathroot from burrowing up from underground. Tree roots generally don't fare well against such high heat.
The Erdtree is itself grafted. The physical part we can walk through with the door is different from the glowing golden upper structure. The solid portion is even shaped like a cut used in grafting plants. The idea of grating seems to stem (heh) from the Erdtree itself. Though the nature of Serosh and the nature of its relation to Godfrey is interesting. Serosh is incorporeal but then appears to become corporeal of its own volition before being stopped by Godfrey. If I had to associate it with anything the best fits seems to me to be spirit ashes. Though the entire game tells us that spirit ashes are the ashes of the dead and we never see any examples of spirits coming back into corporeality. So whether Serosh is a spirit ash or not is entirely debatable. Also of note to the subject of the video, Serosh appears to be a method to hold back Godfrey's strength. Grafting is a method for increasing one's strength. I'm just really hard pressed to see a connection here. Also also, do we know if Godfroy is a son of Godfrey? Him being of direct lineage or not is kinda important to a theory I have regarding Godfrey's connection to Marais.
“I have a fascination with trees” of all the hobbies this man could have had. Though it makes sense why so many bosses he’s made have had tree like designs. Chaos Bed, The Last Giant, Curse wood, every Erdtree Avatar.
I feel like Elden Ring, as seen in the first trailer, was going to have much more related to grafting. It was the most standout moment of the trailer. Godrick in the beginning and Malenia with her metal arm. I wish they had leaned more into this. Body horror would have been wonderful in Elden Ring. Not enough of it tbh.
@@pernikarnassian8064 i genuinely don't get what you mean tbh. I feel like this game probably has the most grotesque enemies and bosses. I think it's just more colorful and thats what throws you off, because BB and Ds3 are reallyyyyyy bland when it comes to their color pallettes.
This charachter is the best in terms of emotion and will to live and be seen by his Golden Order. I couldn't help but to sympathize after beating him. This game is so wonderful.
That tree is so cool! As a kid, when I learned about grafting, I always wondered if you could make a tree where every branch would bear a different fruit (I have gardeners in my family). Apparently yes :D
It's weird, Godrick is pretty much Elden Ring's version of The Rotten or The One Reborn but I never think of him like that because his second phase and because he's an actual character
I think your bang-on with the origin of the grafted idea. For a game that is so centred around trees, and a man so infatuated with body horror, it makes sense for him to draw inspiration from one of the central themes. Great video as always. Thanks! 🧙♀️
The idea that the diluting of the divine blood led to greater and greater moral deviance reminds me of Atlantis (though Mohg and Rykard break the pattern a bit). I also wonder about his fascination with Dragons, which I assume is linked to Godwyn's relationship with Fortissax. I would recommend anyone interested in theories about the origins and symbolisms of Godrick and grafting to check out T B Skyen's Boss Designs video on him, it makes some fun points.
Came here after playing the dlc, it kinda painted grafting in a new light and it seems like something that only a decendent of Marika could accomplish due how flesh of mikos/shamans meld together with other beings.
There's something about the way that Godrick handles his great axe around that makes me wonder... Even through his grafting and desperate wish to attain more power, he wields it with lots of difficulty, often making the symbol that's supposed to be his pride be upside down, since instead of holding it properly he drags it around (Much like how he drags his ancestry and dynasty) and let's it rest on the ground. He's incapable to see his methods are just making him weaker and weaker, to the point a Tarnished would be the one to end him. On the contrary, Godfrey was perfectly capable of handling his axe, effortlessly even, his strength being such that he's able to lift the ground using his bare hands, there's simply no comparison between the two, even if Godrick is doing all he does in the desperate pursuit of a long gone glory... Perhaps one more of the many examples of Godricks patheticness.
About the axe...Two handing a weapon raises your strength so you might be able to use a weapon with higher requirements. It makes me think thats why he got 30 extra hands lmao
I think Godrick is a nice foil to the player character. Both the Tarnished and Godrick start up as nobodies that no one really expect much of, both are actively aiming for the title of Elden Lord (a rarity since most other tarnished have lost sight of Grace and other sharbearers have turned apathetic) and both do take the strength of other beings for themselves (the Tarnished through runes and remembrances, Godrick through grafting).
I love the concept of Godrick as a whole. A madman of diluted blood who is trying to manufacture the power of his relatives through grafting . It seems to me that he is basically grafting the dependents of those of great power. Tarnished led by Grace to become Elden Lord, Dragons who descended from the Ancient Dragons who ruled the Lands Between before the era of the Erdtree and the troll who are descendants of the fire giants! So I’m a bid for more strength he turned to grafting to ensure he could rise to be Elden Lord Either that or he is just a jumped up county bumbkin
Love how he was so intimidating when we first fought him, but now that everyone has progressed in the story, we see him as the pathetic runt the npcs see him as
Another thing of note I haven’t seen anyone mention is how Godrick needs to use his axe in his “I command thee, kneel” attack where as Godfrey, his great great grandfather requires only a stomp of his foot.
I think Grafting as an idea was meant to add strength to Godrick, but also to bring him closer to the largest symbol of divinity in the Lands Between, the Erdtree. His numerous limbs even resemble those of a tree, don't they?
I remember years ago hearing my grandpa grafting trees. My grandparents have always grown various fruits and vegetables that they give us whenever they turn ripe in whatever season it may be, like upcoming summer for amazing tomatoes. And he would graft different fruits to make hybrid fruits.
Consider this: Both Godrick and Rykard are pursuing means by which to increase their own power. However, while Rykard's method of increasing his power is considered blaspehmous, Godrick's is not. In fact, no one in-universe questions his morality and Godrick insists that he is still the Lord Of All That Is Golden, and seeks to become worthy of his lineage, while Rykard seeks to overthrow the very gods. Perhaps grafting possesses some divine quality that makes it permissable in-universe.
I wonder if Godrick grafted some ahem, OTHER body parts to his lower half if you catch my drift. Bearing witness to such a sight would be surprising after all.
There’s a video showing his model underneath the armor and robes. Dude’s got nothing down there but interwoven limbs. Almost like a visual metaphor for his impotence
A little fun fact...the impaled dragon that he so much praises is just like him, a much weaker descendant of the kind it belongs to. So, in a way, in the second phase, they're both trying to demonstrate you that they're worth much more than they seem to(Although the dragon himself probably didn't ask any of that and just wanted to be left in peace rather than becoming Godrick's own flamethrower).
*Soul of Van Aken, Mad Botanist* Soul of a scholar obsessed with plants. He cut and grafted different types of fruit trees into one horrific amalgamation. Seekers of the legendary graft-tree claim the fruits grant great magical wisdom.
Hey Zullie, I’ve been thinking about Malenia recently and how some of her animations make it seem like she could be a sekiro boss. She has a deflect ability followed by a backdash, a thrust perfect for mikiri countering, wide sweeps for jump counters and some really quick paced combos that seem fitting for sekiro combat. Not to mention that the deflect has an orange glow reminiscent of Sekiro deflects. And whenever she does certain attacks her prosthetic will flash orange sparks like it’s engaging, almost to signal to the player “okay now it’s your turn to be defensive.” I’ve also heard the Genichiro, Way of Tomoe uses a waterfowl like attack similar to Malenia’s original waterfowl dance. The fact that she has a deflect is the thing that gets me so curious. Is there any way to see if maybe she uses some kind of cut Sekiro content, or is inspired by content in or cut from Sekiro?
Don’t forget her kick, which is the same animation as the Lone Shadows. Could it just be reused content? Or was it supposed to imply a connection between the adept Lone Shadows and Tomoe, before she turned into Malenia?
I think she's likely a call-back to Sekiro more than anything (and From really loves call-backs). I don't think she was a cut Sekiro boss, because if anything, she's got too many Sekiro things. All of her moves are in Sekiro. The whole prosthetic thing is obviously a call-back to Sekiro. The Waterfowl Dance is literally just a boss version of Spiral Cloud Passage skill from the Ashina Mushin tree plus some movement. If you look at the video of the cut original version of the Waterfowl Dance, it looks even more Sekiro. Even the name Waterfowl Dance sounds Japanese. What's wild is she wouldn't even be that tough of a Sekiro boss if you just ported her in wholesale. They'd have to amplify her aggression substantially
Hi Zullie! Please do a video on Grace Mimics. No one seems to agree on what they do, even people who confidently claim to have the correct understanding are still getting proven wrong!
Grafting in trees also goes a lot further than just branches. Pretty much Grapevines in switzerland are grafted onto the roots of one particular species of vine because its immune against some nasty root eating bug that has devasted Vine populations in the past. It is incredible how much one can do with grafting plants. If you have fruit plants that dont grow true to seed you usually plant a seed and as soon as the roots and stem are sturdy you graft a branch of the tree that grows the best fruit onto the baby root. So the plant grows the same fruit as your best tree.
The Grafted Scions kinda proves that its a tree thing. Scion means either. 1. a young shoot or twig of a plant, especially one cut for grafting or rooting. Or 2. a descendant of a notable family. Which perfectly describes Godrick and his connection to his home in lands bathed in gold. and since the creatures that bear that name are associated with Godrick then it is a good bet that those are all descendants of the golden lineage who have taken to the grotesque practice.
Thank you for the cool video! I really like Godrick’s character design, even if I at first thought he was weird and not as cool as the others. But what I think is most interesting about him is that he is oddly the most relatable of all the demigods. What’s more relatable? Being a natural giant who fights the stars? Being a superlative witch who just schemes in the shadows? Never knowing defeat? Being born a child that will never mature, but being loved regardless? Being locked in a dungeon because you’re cursed? Being a cruel tyrant who will do everything to kill the gods who brought your family prosperity? Or being born a normal man, but still feeling like you don’t measure up to the older more established members of your family, trying, despite repeated failure, to make a name for yourself and carve out something for yourself in a violent world. Even going so far as to borrow that which isn’t yours and leaning on borrowed power simply because you were not given the same chance as the rest of your family? If I make a video on this point of view is it okay if I use footage from this video Zullie?
A video that focuses on that point of view would be pretty cool, I always thought that godrick was the most relatable of all the demigods considering most people have felt like they weren’t good enough before.
I would love to see a video from this point of view! Iv watched many videos on godrick, but they all talk about the same surface level stuff and I feel like there missing that human connection with godrick.
Honestly, this is kind of a big swing from me. I haven't been able to find any specific reference to the Tree of 40 Fruits from Miyazaki, or in the game files, but it just seems like something he's probably aware of, and which could've inspired the idea of Godrick's multitude of grafted limbs.
This tree thing was what i thought as well. He wanted to be worshipped like the erdtree maybe.
I'm surprised Godrick didn't graft any giant bear limbs, after all he was able too graft a dragon head.
Another possibility could be that, as you’ve pointed out with some other FromSoft games, there could be influence from Magic the Gathering. There is a “graft” keyword associated with the Simic (notorious for combining multiple creatures together) and while it isn’t exactly the same I’m also a bit reminded of Innistrad’s stichers.
Regardless of if that was an inspiration or not, I'm thankful to have learned about tree grafting, it's pretty interesting.
Seeing his feet made out of feet reminded me of the MTG art of Vincent Proce. Specifically Nessian Game Warden. Though there is also Diregraf Collossus. Mostly just the name makes me think grafted.
I love the idea of one of Godfreys descendants seeing him having taken Serosh onto himself thinking it was a power-up and turning to grafting to try to imitate it, not knowing that it was a limiter for Godfrey the whole time.
When you're so OP you gave yourself a nerf just so you can chill around mortals without breaking their ear drums from breathing too loudly.
Can someone explain that one? What's the connection between lust for battle and grafting a lion to yourself?
@@iz2333 My personal theory is that the lion absorbs all of his rage, and when he removed the lion all of his rage is returned to him.
@@iz2333 Before he became Elden Lord he was Hora Loux. The Tiger is an honorary Shadow Beast, similar to Malakath for Marika, and Blaid for Ranni, and was grafted to him as after becoming Elden Lord. It repressed his power and rage, and probably served as a connection to the greater will before he lost grace and became the first Tarnished.
@@thekaz5225 actually, there is nothing said about Serosh actually weakening Godfrey. We only know he took him on to limit his lust for battle (not his actual power level) to be more like a lord
I was hoping you might go into the double meaning of "Grafted Scion" where scion can either mean the descendent of a noble or "a young shoot or twig of a plant, especially one cut for grafting or rooting."
holy shit its helix snake, known for his famous quotes 'all is snakest before the helix' and 'every helix has its snake'
I believe Zullie has another video on the Grafted Scions which mentions this exactly!
@@MrErikXIII Oh yeah it's mentioned in the pinned comment.
scion is also a car
@@whatislife1337 it also makes sense why Roderika was offered by her family for grafting since her red hood is a sign that she's of noble blood.
In the best timeline Godrick is content with who he is and just makes the horticultural version of grafting his passion. He still yells "Forefathers, one and all... BEAR WITNESS!!!" every time he plants a sapling, but his subjects have gotten used to that.
Heh.
I wish I had the skill to draw this because this sounds wholesome and hilarious.
In your timeline, Godrick had a tarnished drop the "you're beautiful" prattle pate on him, had then they a chat and he decided not to go through with awful that grafting business.
Maybe he could grow his own little Erdtree, someday.
That just gave me an idea where Godrick is grafting trees and other plants to create his own Erdtree. But of course because he's fusing it with other plant life, it ends up being profane
And the dragon is a very, very small one who wraps himself around Godrick's left arm like the Grafted Dragon remembrance weapon and is a nature-loving pacifist, who celebrates alongside his beloved master by blasting a tiny little burst of dragonflame into the sky whenever they plant a new sapling. Nepheli still takes over, but everyone is ok with that because Godrick just wants to care for his plants and Nepheli's far better suited to handling military and security related matters, anyway. Kenneth Haight (who is much more effective as a leader in this timeline) acts as her advisor on non-military matters when he's not busy with establishing communication with the demi-humans, overseeing the construction of schools and the like to help with their education, keeping them safe from those who'd try to harm them, or other such activities. Castle Morne is safely under the care of Sir Edgar and Sir (insert name here), the Leonine Misbegotten, after Kenneth Haight did what everyone else thought impossible and negotiated with the Misbegotten and helped make peace between them and the humans living on the Weeping Peninsula. The academy of Raya Lucaria, under Queen Rennala and High Sorceress Sellen, aid the perfumer Tricia in her research on treatments for the various ill-fortuned peoples of the lands between, such as the Misbegotten of the Weeping Peninsula. A perfect timeline, one that we can only dream of...
I actually really liked Godrick. He still remains one of my favorite bosses. It feels like a counterpoint to you as a player. Both of you are runts with seemingly no hope of a future, so you as a player train and grow stronger with effort and Godfrey takes the easy way out and steals the strength of others.
It just feels poetic that the first true adversary you have in Elden Ring is a visual metaphor that true strength comes from within.
You also take the strenght of others, there is no difference.
@@thegk-verse4216 there’s a huge difference from leveling up and improving your innate attributes and grafting
that shit sounded so corny
@@jehoya6038 nah it didnt
@@jehoya6038 aren’t you hard
I love how the animators showed that the weight of his additional limbs makes it more difficult for him to move around
His basic walking animation itself is just kinda... Gross and sad? The animation is almost closer to stumbling towards the player than a proper walk
Didn't expect lovable sort
Fancy seeing you there
the man does a triple twist while holding two big axes during the fight, c'mon
@@danielggsilva and its probably incredibly painful for him as well as doing longterm muscle damage he plans to cut off and graft over
To be bluntly honest, I wholeheartedly believe that Godefroy the Grafted's lore is 100% manufactured for no reason beyond being an excuse to retexture Godrick as another boss. Gameplay wise, I had no major complaints, but from a storytelling perspective it REALLY dilutes Godrick's character potential. Finding out that grafting was just something done by the Limgrave rulers for generations prior made me see Godrick less as "a pitiful ruler that has to put other peoples limbs on him to feel powerful" to "a product of circumstance in a twisted kingdom obsessed with it's golden lineage with a grotesque tradition for body horror"
Agreed. While grafting being a thing before Godrick makes sense, it would've been more interesting if Godrick was the first to actually ever abuse it for his own power grab, so Godefroy existing, and also being potentially several generations older than Godrick really takes away from his uniqueness as a character and boss.
@@Cobble-e7y They should’ve made Godefroy’s grafting far less prolific at least, maybe only being a few arms taken from lions a la Godfrey. Give us a look into what the Golden Lineage would’ve looked like without a hundred corpses sewn onto themselves. That would entail creating an entirely new skeleton and model, so I get why they couldn’t do that, but still..
@@jooot_6850 and also have a different weapon than an axe.
I agree, and Godefroy's divine blood wouldn't be as diluted as Godrick's as well.
I headcannon that he could've been a decently competent and strong lord, but still did experiment (or even discovered) grafting. He wouldn't of been as much of a grafting mess as Godrick, he'd just have certain parts added a bit more structurally. Like multiple arms, where he'd most likely dual wielded weapons. He could have also still been a cruel lord and father, abusing and calling godrick weak and pathetic.
@@danibrent3068 ..And hence why Godrick would've been a complete dickhead to Gostoc, who (while potentially being his son) is a complete commoner with zero traces of noble blood left.
Godrick is an interesting character indeed. It strikes me everytime, especially his dialogues. "Mighty Dragon, thou art a true born heir". That line is gold (pun intended lol).
He was the runt of the litter and he is somewhat sympathetic to the "flying dragons" such as Agheel, Smarag etc, probably because he sees them not as nerfed versions of the Ancient Dragons, but as true heirs as much as he sees himself as the true heir of the golden lineage. Fascinating and sad. He's still an eerie monster tho, we should not forget that.
They are also, like him, representatives of a dying order.
Dragons were the race of the previous generation of Elden lord. He probably unconsciously relates to them and their struggle to hold on to a power that is fading.
And it basically communicates everything we need to know about him.
He can’t let go of the past
He thinks himself to be powerful
He is willing to go to whatever means necessary to maintain his self perceived power
He’s unable to be honest enough with himself to actually face the difficulties of his time, and instead relies on some self asserted heritage and right to legitimize his claim to power.
He sees himself as a dragon, as being powerful, without being able to acknowledge the fact that their time, like his, is over.
And that, as much as he asserts himself and believes himself to be powerful, he relies on power that is not his own.
Godwyn his ancestor was friend with a dragon.
@@lordanonimmo7699 spoilers
The very same we fight at the end of Fia's questline actually
Godrick is right, though, in a way: if it weren't for Certain Others arriving and messing everything up, way back in history, then the dragons really would have been heirs to a lot of the Lands Between. Or at least that's how I read it.
That's a very good observation
Slight note, but in celtic lore concerning Cu Chulainn, he fought against Clan Calatin, who practiced grafting limbs from their fallen comrades to their still living warriors to preserve their strength. Cu Chulainn fought them time and again until he faced their final member, who resembled a mass of limbs carrying a random assortment of weapons. I feel that this may be the more direct inspiration for Godrick and Godefroy, though the tree idea is also neat.
I've seen folk compare Godfrey himself to Cu Chulainn as well, a powerful warrior who suppresses some berserk savagery. Though Hercules is also apparently a strong inspiration for him too, especially with Serosh maybe being an allegory for the Nemean Lion
Oooo I definitely see this. The "gaol" of the Evergaol Golden Lineage is also an Irish word for kin or relative, so Evergaol in that context would sort of mean always kindred or always connected. It's sort of a reach, but supports the idea that the roots of the Evergaol's grafting comes from a Celtic myth where soldiers make the parts of their fallen kin a part of them.
ah, this is a really cool connection, thanks!
When I first saw Godrick in the Elden ring trailer, I assumed the “Elden Ring” would be an actual physical ring, like in Lord of the Rings, and other rings of power would be very important throughout the game’s story. Godrick would have grafted extra limbs onto himself in order to wear more and more rings in order to increase his own power. That’s very much not how it goes, but I think it was an interesting idea!
The number of six fingered hands also made me assume this
I thought something similar; like the ring was a physical object but because of the rise of tarnished, only the "chosen" tarnished could hold it. so Godrick was just amassing as many tarnished limbs to increase his odds of being able to hold the ring.
Imagine all the ring slots on him if this were Dark Souls.
@@PopstarKogmaw oh fuck, thats good
@@PopstarKogmaw stealing this
Say what you want about Godrick, he's still my favorite cutscene, there's not much in it but "Lowly tarnished, playing as a Lord.... I command thee kneel!" fits so damn well to him and to the context
*lowly tarnished
My bad 😅
You are refering to godrick and you wrote godfrey, is a common mistake i also do it sometimes
Damn I butchered everything lol
Fixed, thanks everyone 👍🏻
I would have loved for Godefroy to have been a unique fight where he grafted himself in a way that was different from Godrick or the ScionsC maybe taking more inspiration from plant grafting and using those in the same way the crucible knights use specific miracles to mimic dragons with a more physical touch. I also love the detail that he calls the dead dragon “kindred” as it is also evidently a weaker descendant from a powerful bloodline of dragons, being smaller than say Placidusax or Fortissax.
Not just being smaller, regular dragons (Agheel, Adula, Smarag, etc) are descendent of the Ancient Dragons but weaker and lack the signature gravel stone scales- and thus their immortality (a bit more down the line and we got those normal enemy Wyvern thingy in Dragonbarrow I guess?)
Godefroy is the most egregious boss recycling in the game to me. It's clear they just wanted an evergaol rematch of Godrick without a lot of thought for the story implications. Godefroy is barely mentioned anywhere else and it's all superfluous when he is, almost certainly just information added after the evergaol to half-justify his existence. Really think the game would have been better without that evergaol, it's incredible jarring.
The "modern" dragons like agheel seem to be a completely different species from the ancient ones, they're smaller, they have hair, they only have four limbs where ancient dragons have six, and they seem to be less intelligent and more beastial.
@@Thebdippy more bestial but at least somewhat capable of communication with humans and understanding complex thought as Adula was able to swear a ‘knightly oath’ to Ranni after she was defeated.
@@Toastrz i think it contextualizes godrick's position in the golden lineage. i wish it was a more unique godrick-esque fight, but also: it's very funny and the game would be worse without the moment of hilarity
I actually like Godrick very much, and I'd say he is one of my favorite characters in ER, even maybe the most favorite one. I find it very interesting that he is not a "usual" glorious warrior like Malenia, Radahn, Godfrey or anyone else, he is a madman with unrealistic ambitions, obsessed with his desire for power and pride for his lineage. Also, for example, the story about how he got his ass kicked by Malenia and how he was scared of Radahn so much that he hid in his castle gives the whole ER universe some kind of fluff, and I think that this is very important when you have a big complicated lore. Also his design is magnificent and the transition between phases is purely stunning. Once again, one of my favorite bosses, even if he's not very hard.
Yeah, he definitely has one of the most shocking boss transitions. I realized what was happening and just went "Holy fuck..." as he chopped his arm off mid-battle.
Also the lore of him getting his ass kicked by Malenia, only to beg for his life is hilarious. I just imagine Malenia going "And there goes my murder-boner. Get out of my sight."
Lore-wise, I must agree. I haven't been through the whole game yet, but Godrick definitely left an enormous impression. When I saw the phase transition for the first time, I was floored.
Yeah, he was kinda impressive for me as a first boss and a very great start to ER. Commanding me to kneel before him, beeing grafted and using that in battle, chopping his own arm off mid fight to use it as a flamethrower in the second phase while he screames "BEAR WITNESS".
Same here!
I've always looked at Godrick more as a tragic character
He is truly one of the lords of all time
Definitely one of the boss fights in the entire game.
@@CIoudStriker Ironically the best boss is the one who is most mocked in the lore of this game
@@skyluke6490 he is def one of the best
@@CIoudStriker my thoughts exactly
In one of the absolute games
When I first learned about how truly low on the totem pole Godrick was as far as the demi-gods were concerned, how he was so thoroughly trashed by Malenia, and how he fled the capital city disguised as a lady, I laughed. I thought he was a hysterical coward baby. Then I kept discussing the game it with a friend who's really into the lore and overarching character work in ER, and he had a different take. That, despite his monstrous side-hobby of grafting, Godrick is one of the only demi-gods with some semblance of order within his land. Limgrave is filled with knights who, while surely a good chunk of them dislike him, ultimately still serve and obey, like the commander still holding his own at Castle Mourne. Other demi-gods are either reclusive, monstrous, or too far gone in their mental state to effectively rule, at least through some normal, sane reason. Godrick is arrogant and pathetic, but at different stages of his fight he's practically begging his ancestors to acknowledge him ("Forefathers, one and all - BARE WITNESS!" and "Great Godfrey, did'st thou witness?"), and damn if I don't kind of feel that. Plus... I mean, come on. The golden giant axes, the General Grievous multi-arms, the dragon flamethrower. What a wild, truly metal design. Now he's easily my favorite boss and second favorite character in the game, only getting beat out by best maiden girlboss Ranni.
Godrick uses enslaved trolls in his army
@@zna9297 okay?
@@zna9297 based
Bear means carry. Bare means nude. You don't bare witness, you bear witness.
Thank you for the beautiful comment btw.
@@zna9297 That's kinda cringe
I really wish grafting took on more of a role in Stormveil Castle--it's such a cool aesthetic. Sure we have Godrick & the Grafted Scions, but it would have been amazing to see enemies sporting extra limbs and becoming increasingly grotesque the deeper you ventured into the castle.
Banished knight with 3 HALBERDS
I'd imagine grafting is a pretty painful and draining process. Not to mention that Godrick needs the Great Rune to graft, and probably doesn't want to share his powers with anyone competent enough to one-up him.
Yeah, I never got why we didn't get more grafted enemies in stormveil, or in general. You'd think Godrick would have amassed test subjects in various stages of failure, but no. Only him, his palette swap and the Scions.
there's this game by name of GRIME that does a LOT with such body horrors. It has a theme of life breath entering and giving life in things never meant to live, so there are things like swords with fingers that you can shoot away, living claws on sticks as axes, people made from rocks who are routinely crushed by the higher developed civilization to act as resources for their own buildings...
And one of the two composers for the game, Alex Roe, has done a lot of remixes of Fromsoft games. He is *really* good at it.
I very much recommend you check both GRIME and Alex Roe out!
It makes sense that he wants to keep it to himself, however I do agree that more grafted enemies in Stormveil would have been very neat.
Not so many knifebirds.
I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here 'cos Godrick is my favorite shardbearer.
Man born sickly, like one foot in the grave from the start, and he still tries to aspire to the legendary status he ought to have, as a bearer of an elden ring shard, and part of the golden lineage.
When life gives you a deck this poor, you *stack the damn deck yourself.* Grafting is grotesque, yes, but it works to an extent, and that's what he needs.
Also, I want to bring up the fact that the Malenia fight was when he was still "The Golden", instead of Grafted. Man had a terminal illness and the physique of an anemic toddler, and he still at least tried to square up to Malenia the Severed, patient zero of the Scarlet Rot.
Give the man a break, he's doing his best with a bad hand.
37 bad hands actually
"He's doing the best with a bad hand".
Which one, man? WHICH ONE!? THE PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW!
Now i'm imagining an intrepid reporter chasing after Godrick who, with a very tired look on his face, climbs up a tree and sits there until the reporter goes away.
Exactly. Hell, I could make a pretty convincing argument that the hand Godrick's dealt is worse than what the player character has.
@@vaspeter2600 Right? People always criticize because he's a coward without realizing, he started off weaker than even a Tarnished, and *once he dies, that's it, no do-overs.*
It’s debatable there’s conflicting things about when he grafted he was when he fought malenia but was awarded the grotesque title upon his utter humiliation and defeat
His design is very cool in that it makes for a humanoid boss that has a very atypical frame. Grafting related to trees makes sense. Goddrick also admires that dragon corpse too, so I wonder if his thirst for power led him to either become more of a dragon or just more like the Tarnished that would one day become Elden Lord. Basically either the precursor to the Golden Order, or the inheritor.
I thought being a desendant of Godfrey he would already be tarnished
@@jaceyates6315 unsure really. I mean Tarnished are those that failed to become Elden Lord abs are given a second chance, right?
@@stairmasternem nah, I think you confusing them for ashen ones from ds3, From what I can gather tarnished are either desended from Godfrey and maybe other relatives? They were banished from the lands between and had the grace of gold taken from them, hence the name "tarnished" like metal thats lost its luster, I think the tarnished coming to the lands between are their dependents that grew up in other lands
@@jaceyates6315 yeah was thinking they were like Ashen ones, considering they wake up from a crypt and whatnot based on the intro. Also you are legitimately a corpse woken up by grace yourself.
Not sure if lineage is that important unless Godfrey really got around.
@@hhjhj393 Godwyn befriended a dragon. Fortissax.
Don't worry Godrick, you may be the weakest demigod but you give the best hugs, and have the biggest heart. You truely lend a hand when others need it, and your motivational speeches are worthy of the forefathers to bear witness to.
A detail that I think gets overlooked is how Godrick specifically seeks out Tarnished for grafting, in addition to whoever happens to be nearby (including dragons). Presumably this is an attempt to forcibly claim the Grace that guides us and/or the Runes that strengthen us. There's also been some talk about the Tarnished (or at least our Player Character Tarnished) being a descendent of Godfrey, hence Margit's "Warrior Blood" comment, but people tend to forget that Godfrey wasn't the only one exiled at the end of the War for the Lands Between: His entire cohort was banished and scattered, sent on the Long March, so the Tarnished may just be descendants of that entire migrating army. Or just random nobodies. Who knows. Still, it's amusing to think we might technically be Godrick's distant cousin or something.
Makes you wonder, there are a lot of tarnished in the lands between as we find it, so how many generations have passed since Godfrey was exiled?
How the hell would morgott now if the player is a descendent of godfrey thats the dumbest idea ever. In almost every fromsoftware game the Protagonist is a random no body, thats just dumb.
"hence Margit's "Warrior Blood" comment"
Not gonna lie that's a pretty silly talk from those people, "warrior blood" runs in our veins as tarnished BECAUSE we are tarnished, regardless of any familial relationship with godfrey, because literally ALL tarnished are descended from warriors, godfrey's warriors to be precise, or godfrey himself obviously, so of course warrior blood runs in our vein.
Plus what the heck would marghit know about godfrey being part of our ancestry, it's not like he has our genealogy ^^
Maybe he's like The Dung Eater, and his grafting of limbs is a way for their essence to not be able to return to Grace?
It is stated in game that all Tarnished are descended from warriors.
I'd be interested to see how the Carian Study Hall works after flipping it upside-down with the inverted statue. I assume the world just swaps out the section with a version that goes underground before teleporting the player back to the top, but it'd be neat to see from the Zullie-eye view.
Boundary break covered this on their channel!
Growing in a somewhat rural area, I was so accustomed to tree graftings that his "limb grafting" was just a natural connection, I don't think there COULD be another explanation/inspiration for how godrick practice came about.
Like, today we have skin grafts for burn victims, but the use of the word still refers to the botanical term
some people will point to the fact that the words used in japanese for these things do not have these connotations, and this stuff was originally written in japanese, but I am reasonably sure these things were in early english concept drafts. It is beyond belief that the relationship to the tree motif is just coincidence.
@@homelessrobot To expand on that, the relationship is overtly intentional because of the Japanese terminology used. That the game is only dubbed in English and was almost certainly written with English as its only/primary language in mind, is kind of irrelevant. But the JP text does grant us clearer insight due to how specific vocabulary mechanically works in this context.
接ぎ木 is what is used for 'grafting' and in Godrick's title in Elden Ring, and it is specifically the horticulture procedure, it doesn't have multiple meanings or connotations- it breaks down into "joining wood". If they meant some other meaning of the English word graft ex grafting skin, Japanese has entirely different vocabulary for it
I grew up in the city, and grafting immediately made sense to me as just what he was doing.
You graft body parts on, like a skin graft or when you lose a finger and they reattach it, or that guy who lost his penis in an accident.
They grew a new penis on his arm and then grafted it where it belongs.
He had that Schlong on his arm for years!
(Def nsfw to google, but it’s cool medical science!)
I mean the other definition for grafted as a verb (in terms of its medical definition) given by Google is:
transplant (living tissue) as a graft.
"they can graft a new hand onto the arm"
so but I do like how the double meaning has some symbolism with the Erdtree
@@homelessrobot what is the japanese word for grafting in elden ring
I also like the subtle blasphemy of Godrick's dragon hand. In order to prove to his ancestor Godfrey that his strength befits a crown, he borrows power from a "trueborn heir," a dragon. Heir to what, though? Heir to a lineage that was supposedly supplanted by his own golden one. He's stealing his strength from something that he was already supposed to be stronger than, to prove that he's strong. All that on top of his groveling defeat by Malenia, and it seems like From _really_ wanted you to know this guy sucks ass.
Even looking at Grafted Scion's name, you can understand this. Scion can mean a noble descendant, but at the same time can mean a branch used for grafting.
whoa that's cool
Yeah, they mentioned this in a comment in the Grafted Scion video she did.
The meaning of 'scion' as a noble descendant is actually taken from scion as a branch. Literally, a noble descendant is a branch of a great family tree.
I’ve wondered about how earnestly Godrick chose to severe his left most assembly of limbs to then graft on the deceased dragon head as if he knew all to well what a simple yet irreversible procedure grafting is potentially.
Perhaps even the risk being that it was specifically the head of a dragon suggesting grafting additional heads onto oneself is either regarded as a taboo or that if the grafted head is “stronger” than the main graftie’s head it may cause the body to split its control evenly across to 2 heads maybe even having the host lose total control to the newly added head.
Seems like the somewhat bestial dragon was just happy to flame the shit out of someone. Considering how it looks partially rotten, I’m sure it died a pitiful death and would very much like to get some anger out, one last time..
1/3, he doesn't graft himself and die by the Tarnished
1/3, he grafts himself and die by the tarnished
1/3, he grafts himself and get enough power to kill the tarnished
Godrick knew perfectly what he was doing.
Since he had grafted himself for the first time, there was no coming back. He preferred that than to live a life of failure.
At the phase transition the dragon is liberating flames really close to the body of Godrick, that is something that for me it looked like the dragon wasn't really cooperating, like if he left the dragon near his head the dragon would try to bite him or burn his face
@@lorenzmaut3708 It seems the dragon and Godrick form an alliance pretty quickly, though. In the fight itself, we only see the dragon snapping at us, despite Godrick’s spare limbs being much easier targets
Even though lore-wise he's the most pathetic, gameplay-wise his actor's delivery is almost unmatched in a game that hosts From Software's, dare I say, best voice acting to date.
His fight is also seriously underrated. I love it for the same reason as Mohg and Godfrey, because it's as tricky and varied in moves and timing as Elden Ring's greatest, with the opportunity for openings using any type of weapon like in Dark Souls III.
Him and Margit/Morgott are my favorite
I think shabriri is up there too. I know the bosses are aided by the atmosphere and the cool music, but voice acting in itself is stellar among the whole game
Rannala just let you wail on her for free DPS, Radahn can be fought by doing the festival and having the NPCs fight him for you, Rykard is a Storm Ruler fight
Godrick is one of the few "proper" bosses where you get to fight head-on mano a mano so to speak
He is easily my favorite boss in the game. He has my favorite fight, favorite design, favorite character, and he even has my favorite track from the game's score. Even though I thought the majority of bosses in ER were mediocre, he stands out as one of the best in FromSoft's entire catalog.
Idk what you are talking about as far as the fight goes. It is by far the easiest fight, much easier than even Margit or some of the lesser ones like the black knife assasins. Hell one of his signiture moves (the one where he jumps over you) is dodged by doing nothing
I'm just really thankful for Godrick, after having my ambitions put to rest so many times by Margit, dude was a cakewalk. Rest in pieces man
I found grafting to be a little under used in the game.
It seemed like it might be a major theme. It was a large component of marketing material, and it is one of the most unique elements of the game world.
In game, both the first boss you see and the first shardbearer are grafted.
But then it all but disappears for the rest of the game.
There are a small handful of further grafted scions (placed rather haphazardly) and arguably revenants are grafted too, but they seem to be much more their own thing.
There's very little story or lore regarding grafting, which I found disappointing.
No place where grafting was first experimented with.
No soldiers with just one or two grafted arms.
The only NPC who even really cares about grafting is Roderika, and only because all her men were grafted and she's too scared to go on.
Her dialogue almost makes it seem like some wanted to be grafted, which could have been a very interesting dark narrative, of a people so desperate to be worthy of their golden ruler, who was in truth abhorrent and pathetic, but it didn't go anywhere.
Yeah, it would have been very interesting to see a potential grafting ground area, showing maybe failed early experiments or simply the aftermath, or even the angle of volunteering to be grafted, like you mentioned.
A few extra limbs would have gone _miles_ in making Godrick’s knights and soldiers stand out. Resembling the vile power of their own lord, being able to wield extra weapons or strike even harder with the ones they already had.. It would’ve given them a lot more character, which is definitely something the Lordsworn goons are missing.
I liked hearing Roderika talk about it and was both sad and curious when she talked about needing to work up the courage for it herself. I didn't know what to expect when I brought that item I found on the pile back to her, so I had the usual "oh no" response to her reaction about her men being grafted. I mean, it's a FromSoftware game, so nearly every response to an NPC's words/reactions is going to be some form of "oh no" and "I'm so sorry".
I was a bit disappointed in that too...kind of felt that way a lot of times. I feel their dark souls style story telling may have needed a bit of tweaking. More often than not I felt like this huge world had a story outline, then all these flavor text things felt more like random brainstorming ideas to add to the story. I don't want to have long drawn out cutscenes but surely there are things they could do to actually reel in the fish after its hooked. Easiest way would be instead of giving a ruin fragment or other disappointing piece of loot as a reward for exploring, have the player discover a book or journal. I would think Myazaki would just love to expound on the details of someone giving an account of grafting.
In the Haligtree place, on the way to get Marika's Soreseal, theres a gauntlet of these dudes that look like theire somewhat grafted. the ones with all the extra limbs and teleport and generally you just want them dead as soon as tarnishingly possible lol.
They may not actually be grafted though, they just look like it.
One thing to consider is how the Erdtree itself almost looks like it was grafted onto the tree below it. It can be seen in Lyendell from how the part of the tree near the entrance is brown rather than gold, but can be further seen underground. So there is an example of tree grafting in game, which lends further credence to the Tree of 40 Fruits theory.
That explains the whole "Crucible was a primordial form of the erdtree". The erdtree was literally grafted by the greater will at the origin point of all life.
your comment made me think that it's not the Erdtree grafted to a tree below it but more that, that part of the Erdtree is more where civilisation "grafted" itself to it.
a point to access the Erdtree and by extension the Elden Ring.
That is actually very interesting theory because Erdtree is not the only big tree. There was haligtree and crucible tree aswell. What if they share the same 'root' and cosmic powers are fighting for control over it?
Came here to say just that.
My dad did something like that, he planted a shrub on a stump and it grew. You can see where the two bits fused together but both are bigger than when they first started.
Lots of little tree details in the game. Radagon and Marika make me think of how they clone plants with a tiny cutting from the original.
godrick's lore is even more dynamic, while rarely any character in souls is good rarely any character is solely bad either. Godrick has his own complex characterization, you can see this in his quotes which showcase a solemn yet very hopeful man, I wish to see more characterization for multiple of elden ring's simply amazing cast in the future
His dying line is a bit sad. All he wanted was to return to the Capitalcity, feeling welcome & back at home while basking and being surrounded by it's rays of gold.
A cruel jerk he might have been but a pure wish like that free of malice, that is not something that can be held against him.
«Local war criminal only wanted to see his mommy»
That basically makes him Corkus. With a little bit of Adon in his lore.
don't care plus ratio plus grafted
That's an interesting point
"Cool motive, still murder"
I feel like during Godrick's final moments when he grafted the dragon head onto himself, he was finally powerful enough to live up to the golden lineage. And in the end he went down fighting like a warrior.
According to many other lore theorists, The Erdtree may be grafted upon The Great Tree or Crucible, the Primordial form of the Erdtree
It was a mistranslation, which also just happened to be debunked by another (correctly translated) description
While I can't say much for the inspiration of grafting, another possible inspiration for Godrick as a character is Elric of Melnibone from The Eternal Champion series, a series that Miyazaki cited as being one of the big influences for Elden Ring. Elric, in his books, is the last emperor of an island called Melnibone. One of the defining features of Elric as a character is that he is a sickly albino, whose body is so frail he needs to take potions(or later steal souls)to even be able to walk. Similarly, Godrick, a white haired ruler, is stated to resort to grafting because of how frail his body was before hand. Both characters do also have a slight connection to dragons, Elric is sometimes known as the Dragon prince or The Last Dragonlord, and Godrick obviously grafts a dragon's head to himself. I know it's not a huge connection, but they do share some similarities, and considering there's tons of other references to Elric throughout the game(Maliketh's title as The Black Blade and the greater will being a manifestation law/order are straight up ripped from the Eternal Champion books) I think it's definitely possible Godrick was meant to have some passing references to him.
Godrick is also pretty similar to Lothric, another frail, pale, and white haired ruler who is also has an association with dragons and a name ending in ric.
And both Lothric and Godrick also share a greater older relation, Lorain for Lothric and Godwyn for Godrick.
Actually I now wonder if Godfrey is a Lothric&Lorian reference with someone hanging on their backs, also I feel like both might’ve been inspired by Gower’s ring of protection from DS2, that ring is still probably the most bizarre equipment from the series
Elric also had a companion named Moonglum, and the enemy in Raya Lucaria who drops the Carian Shield is named "Moongrum".
for those curious about the fruit tree, it bares Stone fruit which are those with big pits in them, ranging from cherries to plums to apricots and peaches. Several of the trees can be seen in Seattle, last I heard. Within the amazon headquarters. Thanks Zullie for spotlighting Van Akens work, those trees have deeply inspired me since I first read of them a few years back.
You can only graft trees in the same fruit group. Like you said only stone fruit branches can be grafted onto stone fruit trees. Which makes me wonder. What if Godrick had only sought out to graft onto him the limbs of other Demigods and descendants of gods, like Nephelli? Would he have gotten the results he wanted?
@@Taygon45 I'd say he just might've.
@@Taygon45
I've heard that Nephelli is a descendant of Stormveil (not sure if that counts as divinity)
@@davidhong1934 She might be a descendent of Horah Loux and even so she's form the same clan as her clan ancestor even if it's not a direct descendant it would still kinda be family.
@@Taygon45
In the past, families and servants associated with powerful figures would frequently take on the names of their patrons, both as a sign of fealty and as a way to flex on the unwashed masses. After Godfrey defeated the Storm Lord, some of the servants and descendants may have sworn allegiance to the new regime and took on the surname Loux. If it was during his reign, it was to honor his roots. If after, it was to reflect the current state of affairs.
You come up to weird tree, boss music starts, tree starts to spite fire at you.
Alternative title: “roasting the fucking runes out of godrick”
Design wise Godrick is my favorite. Hes a total visual clusterfuck and i love it.
"Shaped like a 4-dimensional object"
"Grandpa pilots his mass-gravangelion"
"Has to migrate a moshpit every time he wants to attack you"
-Max0r 2022
*sorry if this hurts your eyes*
"I'm sorry, Odie, but it was Monday"
@@davidhong1934 Godrick the Garfield is my favourite Young Shelden Ring boss
thanks to the DLC, from what I gathered Grafting sounds extremely similar to the flesh melding of the shamans. It makes sense given that Godrick is Marika's descendent and therefore a descendent of the shamans from the realm of shadow
Ironically Godrick's Grafting is probably the most divine gift any of the Demigods express, since it is Marika's own innate ability.
Zullie keeps on giving.
While I do think of the tree grafting as the real hook/inspiration for this, I had also taken it in the sense that the word "graft" is an archaic word for the misappropriation of funds by a ruler/leaders. So that Godrick the "Grafted" was a double entendre for a man unfit to lead, whose selfish pursuits are made at the expense of his kingdom and his subjects.
It seems like the Elden Ring is pretty big on this theme of parasitic dependence. The cuckoo is known for laying its eggs in nests of other birds, depending on them waning off the young (who pushes competing chicks of the surrogate parents off the nest to get all the food). And considering the severe misalignment of the huge trunk in the south of Deeproot with the Erdtree trunk above, it's quite likely the Erdtree was grafted onto the trunk of the Greattree, which all, together with Godrick, all serve as allegories to guide us to a conclusion about Greater Will's relation with the Lands Between: Parasitic.
This fascinates me too. A parasite surviving by feasting off a living host in a world where the host cannot die is such an interesting concept.
I did not know that about cuckoo birds! Fascinating.
I think the Greater Will has more of a symbiotic relationship with the lands between than a parasitic one, technically, but that is a cool find
@@scutterybuttery449 It depends. The Greater Will (through the Erdtree) did grant its chosen people (not all people of the planet, only those of one continent and even then, not all of them) blessings in exchange for their service. Though it remains to be seen if those blessings are equal to what it was getting out of that arrangement.
@@scutterybuttery449 Then what motivation would you find behind Marika's extreme actions?
I feel another explanation (or maybe just a literary parallel) could be that Godrick/Godefroy were inspired by Godrick's worship of the Crucible, the primordial form of life when all beings were one. Hence, we find a Crucible knight (one of Godfrey's trusted servants) at the base of Stormveil. However, I think in Godfrey's dogma, he never sought to alter his form, but to emulate the power of all beings, hence whereupon killing Serosh, his movements begin to mimic a ferocious lion. Godrick tried to cheat his way into literally absorbing the strength of his victims.
In fact, it's funny how back when the trailers and demo were all we had, everyone was quick to presume that Margit had also been grafted, but in actuality, the Omen are closer in nature to the Crucible. It's not surprising that two of Godfrey's sons were born with such deformities; although Godwyn escaped this curse at birth, his transformation into the Prince of Death yielded a similarly chaotic form, albeit devoid of a soul-and fittingly, we find the matured death root far below Stormveil, its many-eyed briars now decaying the very stonework of the castle itself... Man, they really know how to tie characters and concepts together in surprising ways.
Grafting has more to do with emulating the crucible where all life was blended together rather than emulating seraph. Thats why on the scions there are birds and other creatures (a troll) all grafted into 1 being
as long as you're looking into trees and connections to Elden Ring characters, have you looked into the similiarities between the cedar apple rust fungus and Malenia's scarlet rot? The life cycle of the rust involves three stages (or bloomings) and some of its growths resemble both the flowers that Malenia turns into and the growths all over Caelid
Looked up the fungus and there's no way the similarities are a coincidence, nice catch!
Mind-blowing! This cannot be an coincidence
Anyone know what kind of tree species the Erdtree is supposed to be? Or the Haligtree for that matter
Godrick is the definition of Sharing is caring 📸
Godrick is pretty cool. Since he was so early on and so easy, I kind of forgot about him a little bit. Then I ran into the Golden Lineage Evergaol. I was pretty mad. I didn't have a problem with refights up until that point. This was a named character, though. Every other refight had some twist and was also a non-unique character. There are many Dragonkin, many Erdtree Guardians and many Crystalians. I can see how people might criticize that, but I was ok with it. I was not and am not ok with Godefroy. It cheapens the game. I expected better from From.
It's the most egregious boss copying, rivaled only by the Astel copy in the Yelough Anix Tunnel. To see two REMEMBRANCE bosses copied virbatim and given flimsy lore reasons as to why that ultimately cheapen the overall lore was simply disappointing. They take away from two of the coolest fights, and if they really wanted to make harder versions of the fights, then they should have created truly unique enemies, both from a lore and gameplay perspective.
I love that they made him blue, as to say "yup, this is a cheap dumb recycle, like the blue forge demon. Tanimura time"
Forge demon refight is fine. Not a named character. Just showed that there were more than one. You gonna complain about stray demon? Demon Firesage? There isn't more than one Godrick. Hell, they could've done like "Soul of Godrick" or "Memory of Godrick". Instead, they try to pass off the refight as another character with zero story support. Incredibly poorly handled. At the time, I had fight Astel, but not the refight. I have since gotten through the refight. It's just as bad.
'...And Godefroy the Grafted, so easily forgotten.'
I never noticed the double helix on his clothes
I feel sorry for him. Someone like the Night Cavalry's Instructor should've taught him to rely on practice and skill instead of resorting to this... He could've been a sympathetic demigod because his blood is diluted and not in spite of it.
Yeah! I mean, sorcery and the art of incantations were still open to him. Rennala is physically weak, but apparently her knowledge and mastery over the sorcerous, arts enabled her to challenge Radagon himself, and fight to a stalemate. Physicality is far from the only source of power in this world. If the red wolves are smart enough to learn freaking glintstone comet, then Godfrey should have had no trouble. (Okay, so the image of a red wolf attending a lecture and studiously copying down notes is just too cute.)
godrick is like one of those weird minor celebrities who get addicted to plastic surgery and over time slowly transform themselves into freaks because of severe body dysmorphia to the point where they don't even recognize they are worse now than when they started
The fact that unwanted nobles like Roderika where sent to be spare parts means that the practice of grafting was known outside the lands between. Maybe vassal houses of Godrick would send those as tribute. And other "grafting-like" skills in elden ring might've been inspiration for grafting: the aspects of the crucible and dragon hunting. Maybe Godrick's attempt at grafting a dragon was inspired by dragon hunters. The result is similar, at least.
Roderika wasn’t sent to be grafted. She was sent to follow the guidance of grace. Godrick/ his soldiers just captured or killed all of her men.
@@CsStrez her hoodie and the blue hoodie state that the whole "send them on a sacred quest" was just a fancy excusd to dispose of nobles they didn't want around. Red hood specifically states Roderika never saw grace
@@nintilla9973 how did she then find the round table?
@@Mendoza-yi6qk She might have had an invitation.
@@Mendoza-yi6qk we didn't find the roundtable either. Melina just took us there
Nothing screams battle suppression like grafting a fking lion upon your back 🤷
There is actually another possible reason for Godrick's and Godefroy's grafting obsession. Under Stormveil is one of the faces of Godwyn and considering that Stormveil seems to belong to Golden Lineage it belonged to Godwyn before Godrick and so because of his connection to it under Stormveil his face appeared. Now what does that mean? Well... The description of Marred Shield may clear that up:
"Wooden shield of the Stormveil soldiers. Much like the castle, it is marred by mottling and thorns.
Some say it is the curse of grafting which causes such affliction, while others talk of its root being something altogether more sinister hidden deep within the castle."
That face may be why people in Stormveil suddenly become insane with idea of Grafting. Presence of Godwyn's face of death may be causing people in Stormveil to go insane and it's leaders to become obsessed with grafting.
Except no other place where deathroot is present has even an inkling of grafting nor do those connected to it, such as Fia, mention grafting. Personally I think it's the other way around. All the death and bloodshed in and around Stormveil (even the castle itself bears large scars from battles) provided a fertile ground, so to speak, for a massive deathroot growth to surge up out of the earth. I don't think any other place in the game has so many corpses and parts of corpses hanging and Elden Ring looooves to have hanging corpses strewn all about.
@@ladyabaxa only thing id have to say about this is Mt. Gelmir is also very stacked with corpses so the lack of a massive deathroot face like in stormveil or on Godwyn is weird too
The description is literally just sharing knowledge of people in-world confusing correlation with causation since the people have no idea about the hidden true source of the thorns: the visage of Godwyn. As for why he manifests there, a likely reason could simply be his presumed ancestral ties to the place. After all, Nepheli is his half-sister and she is deemed a worthy successor to the castle.
Zullie is probably spot-on. This is one of those cases where while the game is only dubbed in and basically written with English in mind, the JP script tells more of the intended meanings because the word-choice is mechanically more specific. 接ぎ木 is the term used for grafting in Elden Ring, and it's very specifically for the horticultural concept; if it were something different that would still be a form of grafting in English, there's very different vocabulary for that, ex, a skin graft is not written the same way. The 木 means tree/wood.
@@NOOBANATOR97 Oh yeah, definitely. Either there's a bit of randomness going on with where big deathroot blooms happen - certainly plausible since Godwyn is soulless and thus without a mind - or there's perhaps other factors that we can't really take into account because we don't have enough information. Mt. Gelmir, for example, is a massive volcano that seems to have been stirred up by Rykard's volcano magic. We can see a town that was presumably stable and populated being swallowed up by lava. That lava might be preventing deathroot from burrowing up from underground. Tree roots generally don't fare well against such high heat.
The Erdtree is itself grafted.
The physical part we can walk through with the door is different from the glowing golden upper structure.
The solid portion is even shaped like a cut used in grafting plants.
The idea of grating seems to stem (heh) from the Erdtree itself.
Though the nature of Serosh and the nature of its relation to Godfrey is interesting. Serosh is incorporeal but then appears to become corporeal of its own volition before being stopped by Godfrey.
If I had to associate it with anything the best fits seems to me to be spirit ashes. Though the entire game tells us that spirit ashes are the ashes of the dead and we never see any examples of spirits coming back into corporeality. So whether Serosh is a spirit ash or not is entirely debatable.
Also of note to the subject of the video, Serosh appears to be a method to hold back Godfrey's strength. Grafting is a method for increasing one's strength. I'm just really hard pressed to see a connection here.
Also also, do we know if Godfroy is a son of Godfrey?
Him being of direct lineage or not is kinda important to a theory I have regarding Godfrey's connection to Marais.
Damn don't be too harsh on my boy Godrick he's trying his best
“I have a fascination with trees” of all the hobbies this man could have had. Though it makes sense why so many bosses he’s made have had tree like designs. Chaos Bed, The Last Giant, Curse wood, every Erdtree Avatar.
I feel like Elden Ring, as seen in the first trailer, was going to have much more related to grafting. It was the most standout moment of the trailer. Godrick in the beginning and Malenia with her metal arm. I wish they had leaned more into this. Body horror would have been wonderful in Elden Ring. Not enough of it tbh.
@@pernikarnassian8064 i genuinely don't get what you mean tbh. I feel like this game probably has the most grotesque enemies and bosses. I think it's just more colorful and thats what throws you off, because BB and Ds3 are reallyyyyyy bland when it comes to their color pallettes.
@@juliebelle1756 What? Grey, brown, black, gold and blue aren't enough?
This charachter is the best in terms of emotion and will to live and be seen by his Golden Order. I couldn't help but to sympathize after beating him. This game is so wonderful.
That tree is so cool! As a kid, when I learned about grafting, I always wondered if you could make a tree where every branch would bear a different fruit (I have gardeners in my family). Apparently yes :D
Now with the DLC we know just how embarrassing Godrick the grafted was based on the history of shamans and the hornsent.
I really appreciate how you use music from Twilight Princess so often. It’s very nostalgic for me. And the Faron Woods theme is just the best.
It's weird, Godrick is pretty much Elden Ring's version of The Rotten or The One Reborn but I never think of him like that because his second phase and because he's an actual character
I think your bang-on with the origin of the grafted idea. For a game that is so centred around trees, and a man so infatuated with body horror, it makes sense for him to draw inspiration from one of the central themes. Great video as always. Thanks! 🧙♀️
The idea that the diluting of the divine blood led to greater and greater moral deviance reminds me of Atlantis (though Mohg and Rykard break the pattern a bit). I also wonder about his fascination with Dragons, which I assume is linked to Godwyn's relationship with Fortissax. I would recommend anyone interested in theories about the origins and symbolisms of Godrick and grafting to check out T B Skyen's Boss Designs video on him, it makes some fun points.
Love the Twilight Princess audio. My most favorite Zelda of all time
Remember: even if you’re not doing great in life, at least you’re not Godrick.
Miyazaki actually used his granduncle as inspiration for Godrick's face.
My man should've just leveled Faith, no need to graft a dragon to your arm when you can just summon them!
the faszination of trees in elden ring could not be more apparent :D
If only he grafted a lobster - he 'd have had a sniper rifle and dominated the other demigods!
Came here after playing the dlc, it kinda painted grafting in a new light and it seems like something that only a decendent of Marika could accomplish due how flesh of mikos/shamans meld together with other beings.
There's something about the way that Godrick handles his great axe around that makes me wonder...
Even through his grafting and desperate wish to attain more power, he wields it with lots of difficulty, often making the symbol that's supposed to be his pride be upside down, since instead of holding it properly he drags it around (Much like how he drags his ancestry and dynasty) and let's it rest on the ground. He's incapable to see his methods are just making him weaker and weaker, to the point a Tarnished would be the one to end him.
On the contrary, Godfrey was perfectly capable of handling his axe, effortlessly even, his strength being such that he's able to lift the ground using his bare hands, there's simply no comparison between the two, even if Godrick is doing all he does in the desperate pursuit of a long gone glory...
Perhaps one more of the many examples of Godricks patheticness.
About the axe...Two handing a weapon raises your strength so you might be able to use a weapon with higher requirements. It makes me think thats why he got 30 extra hands lmao
@@MrFoxie they all passively increased his str stat even if he uses just a few to actually wield the axe.
you could say that godrick's experiments didn't bear fruit
I think Godrick is a nice foil to the player character.
Both the Tarnished and Godrick start up as nobodies that no one really expect much of, both are actively aiming for the title of Elden Lord (a rarity since most other tarnished have lost sight of Grace and other sharbearers have turned apathetic) and both do take the strength of other beings for themselves (the Tarnished through runes and remembrances, Godrick through grafting).
Liked the video mostly for the info about the grafted tree. That's amazing, I would have no idea that could actually work!
I love the concept of Godrick as a whole. A madman of diluted blood who is trying to manufacture the power of his relatives through grafting . It seems to me that he is basically grafting the dependents of those of great power. Tarnished led by Grace to become Elden Lord, Dragons who descended from the Ancient Dragons who ruled the Lands Between before the era of the Erdtree and the troll who are descendants of the fire giants! So I’m a bid for more strength he turned to grafting to ensure he could rise to be Elden Lord
Either that or he is just a jumped up county bumbkin
Thanks for making these. Helps to flesh out the lore while making sure to preface each discovery with facts on game’s design, love it!
But the best great rune
Godrick's Great Rune is a lot like Godrick: seemingly powerful at lower levels, pointless once your build comes to fruition
Godrick: *uses limbs of soldiers and trolls to get stronger*
Godfrey: *uses Serosh to RESTRAIN his strength*
Love how he was so intimidating when we first fought him, but now that everyone has progressed in the story, we see him as the pathetic runt the npcs see him as
Intimidating when you fight him then you get to endgame and fight Malenia 😂💀☠️
Another thing of note I haven’t seen anyone mention is how Godrick needs to use his axe in his “I command thee, kneel” attack where as Godfrey, his great great grandfather requires only a stomp of his foot.
I think Grafting as an idea was meant to add strength to Godrick, but also to bring him closer to the largest symbol of divinity in the Lands Between, the Erdtree. His numerous limbs even resemble those of a tree, don't they?
"Myazaki has professed, and demonstrated, a fascination with trees..."
And his love for swamps.
I remember years ago hearing my grandpa grafting trees. My grandparents have always grown various fruits and vegetables that they give us whenever they turn ripe in whatever season it may be, like upcoming summer for amazing tomatoes. And he would graft different fruits to make hybrid fruits.
This must be from the horticulturist side of the family.
Consider this: Both Godrick and Rykard are pursuing means by which to increase their own power. However, while Rykard's method of increasing his power is considered blaspehmous, Godrick's is not. In fact, no one in-universe questions his morality and Godrick insists that he is still the Lord Of All That Is Golden, and seeks to become worthy of his lineage, while Rykard seeks to overthrow the very gods. Perhaps grafting possesses some divine quality that makes it permissable in-universe.
I wonder if Godrick grafted some ahem, OTHER body parts to his lower half if you catch my drift. Bearing witness to such a sight would be surprising after all.
There’s a video showing his model underneath the armor and robes. Dude’s got nothing down there but interwoven limbs. Almost like a visual metaphor for his impotence
A little fun fact...the impaled dragon that he so much praises is just like him, a much weaker descendant of the kind it belongs to. So, in a way, in the second phase, they're both trying to demonstrate you that they're worth much more than they seem to(Although the dragon himself probably didn't ask any of that and just wanted to be left in peace rather than becoming Godrick's own flamethrower).
*Soul of Van Aken, Mad Botanist*
Soul of a scholar obsessed with plants.
He cut and grafted different types of fruit trees into one horrific amalgamation.
Seekers of the legendary graft-tree claim the fruits grant great magical wisdom.
Hey Zullie, I’ve been thinking about Malenia recently and how some of her animations make it seem like she could be a sekiro boss. She has a deflect ability followed by a backdash, a thrust perfect for mikiri countering, wide sweeps for jump counters and some really quick paced combos that seem fitting for sekiro combat. Not to mention that the deflect has an orange glow reminiscent of Sekiro deflects. And whenever she does certain attacks her prosthetic will flash orange sparks like it’s engaging, almost to signal to the player “okay now it’s your turn to be defensive.” I’ve also heard the Genichiro, Way of Tomoe uses a waterfowl like attack similar to Malenia’s original waterfowl dance. The fact that she has a deflect is the thing that gets me so curious. Is there any way to see if maybe she uses some kind of cut Sekiro content, or is inspired by content in or cut from Sekiro?
Don’t forget her kick, which is the same animation as the Lone Shadows. Could it just be reused content? Or was it supposed to imply a connection between the adept Lone Shadows and Tomoe, before she turned into Malenia?
@@jooot_6850 Plot twist: Ashina exists in Elden Ring universe and is known as land of Reeds
I think she's likely a call-back to Sekiro more than anything (and From really loves call-backs). I don't think she was a cut Sekiro boss, because if anything, she's got too many Sekiro things. All of her moves are in Sekiro. The whole prosthetic thing is obviously a call-back to Sekiro. The Waterfowl Dance is literally just a boss version of Spiral Cloud Passage skill from the Ashina Mushin tree plus some movement. If you look at the video of the cut original version of the Waterfowl Dance, it looks even more Sekiro. Even the name Waterfowl Dance sounds Japanese. What's wild is she wouldn't even be that tough of a Sekiro boss if you just ported her in wholesale. They'd have to amplify her aggression substantially
@@aleksiheija8170 honestly? Not impossible
@@RoninWaffle remember that the Sekiro dlc was scrapped halfway through
The concept that would eventually lead to the profane grafting down the line.
The Profane Capital is my favourite name In SoulsBorn!
Cool video🇨🇦
Hi Zullie! Please do a video on Grace Mimics. No one seems to agree on what they do, even people who confidently claim to have the correct understanding are still getting proven wrong!
Do they do something other than tricking players and showing a random direction?
they just give you the direction to a random grace, nothing else
Keep up the videos, love the lore facts. Btw, nice music taste! this got me all nostalgic
Grafting in trees also goes a lot further than just branches. Pretty much Grapevines in switzerland are grafted onto the roots of one particular species of vine because its immune against some nasty root eating bug that has devasted Vine populations in the past. It is incredible how much one can do with grafting plants.
If you have fruit plants that dont grow true to seed you usually plant a seed and as soon as the roots and stem are sturdy you graft a branch of the tree that grows the best fruit onto the baby root. So the plant grows the same fruit as your best tree.
Godrick's _actual_ true strength is in having that jerk Margit as his doorman
The Grafted Scions kinda proves that its a tree thing.
Scion means either.
1. a young shoot or twig of a plant, especially one cut for grafting or rooting.
Or
2. a descendant of a notable family.
Which perfectly describes Godrick and his connection to his home in lands bathed in gold.
and since the creatures that bear that name are associated with Godrick then it is a good bet that those are all descendants of the golden lineage who have taken to the grotesque practice.
This is legitimately fascinating stuff, thanks for making videos like these!
Thank you for the cool video!
I really like Godrick’s character design, even if I at first thought he was weird and not as cool as the others.
But what I think is most interesting about him is that he is oddly the most relatable of all the demigods.
What’s more relatable?
Being a natural giant who fights the stars? Being a superlative witch who just schemes in the shadows? Never knowing defeat? Being born a child that will never mature, but being loved regardless? Being locked in a dungeon because you’re cursed? Being a cruel tyrant who will do everything to kill the gods who brought your family prosperity?
Or being born a normal man, but still feeling like you don’t measure up to the older more established members of your family, trying, despite repeated failure, to make a name for yourself and carve out something for yourself in a violent world. Even going so far as to borrow that which isn’t yours and leaning on borrowed power simply because you were not given the same chance as the rest of your family?
If I make a video on this point of view is it okay if I use footage from this video Zullie?
A video that focuses on that point of view would be pretty cool, I always thought that godrick was the most relatable of all the demigods considering most people have felt like they weren’t good enough before.
I would love to see a video from this point of view! Iv watched many videos on godrick, but they all talk about the same surface level stuff and I feel like there missing that human connection with godrick.