Also isn't one of the reason Marika sent Messmer on the Hornsent because they themselves were murderous religious fanatics who genocided her peoplebas well? It was more of less struggles between different colonial forces and repeating the cycle.
Soulslikes tend to be about death, not because it's a cool aesthetic or something, but because endless death and suffering is the perfect vehicle to represent what absolute power in the hands of a "fickle" god-king does to the subjects. Necropolitics is the whole _thing_ of these games.
No it is not. This is entirely disrespectful and wrong. Mbembe defines Necropolitics as the “subjugation of life to the power of death”. Mbembe is talking about racialization, he's talking about refugees, prisons, banlieues, suburbs, favelas etc. Necropolitics is state terror, necropolitics is when black Americans are dehumanized, where the absence of basic social goods (e.g. sanitation, housing) bring about a kind of existence whose value “is the sort of death able to be inflicted upon it”. Necropolitics is when mass of populations live under extreme precarious conditions and as such, can be exploited and eliminated “naturally”. Elden Ring does not depict this. Oh my god.
@@RoyThomas-c7h If you think Elden Ring doesn't portray prisons, slaves, refugees, racialization and the subjugation of life to the power of death, you haven't engaged with the game at all, and especially not with the dlc. The lore is entirely obsessed with the idea of power coming from death. From Marika's ascension to godhood, to the mechanics of eternal life under the Erdtree (catacombs feeding its roots, jars collecting fine warriors to give back to the roots, all the oppressed being barred from proper burial) every single lore detail revolves around who is allowed to die and in which manner. Hell, you unleash indiscriminate Destined Death upon the world near the end of the main game, precisely because Marika's design is unjust and needs repair. I'll grant you that it's definitely not a 1-to-1 analogy, but these games are all about their own necropolitics. To deny that is baffling.
@@madeline6951 The game does not portray any of these things. Not without heavy allusion, or deep buried lore descriptions for in-game items. But this is laughable. I would be on your side if you used Hobbes as your basis for political analysis, since Marika's ascent as Queen runs pretty parallel to the Hobbesian notion of sovereignty and the social contract. But this is not the case, do you not see how disrespectful and vile you're analysis is...? When a black man is deprived of housing, and other basic social necessities, that is necropolitics-at-work, that is the infliction of death. To put it into perspective, the UK austerity policies under David Cameron killed 190,000+ people, maybe even more. The deprivation of social benefits lead to extreme precarious conditions leading to "natural deaths". This does not apply to Elden Ring. When you see the words "necropolitics" do you think Mbembe is talking about arcane zombies, magical rituals and fantasy creatures? He's talking about the specific experience the marginalized face under liberal democracy, bore from the colonial system, inflicted upon the masses (see the imperial boomerang). You are taking the term to mean something literally, when it has a very specific meaning and inference as to what Mbembe's alluding to.
@@RoyThomas-c7h "The game does not portray any of these things" - you're just plain wrong and the discussion can stop here. A simple google search can reveal that you're wrong. Just because a piece of media explores inequality, power, discrimination and horrible death through a vehicle of fantasy, doesn't mean that it has nothing to say about the real world. I can see that you're very passionate about these things, and that's great. So go engage with the game and see what it has to offer. If you have trouble getting through it or just don't like it, there are lore videos out there accessible to everyone with varying levels of speculation. But just because you're unaware of something in a piece of media, doesn't mean the thing doesn't exist. If you actually spent time interpreting the visual, environmental and textual storytelling, you wouldn't be here right now mad at a game you don't understand or that someone has a different interpretation than you. You'd be aware that it has rich metaphors about the corruption by power and the suffering this power can inflict on so many people.
@@madeline6951 Another confident dilettante cheapning the very real things Mbembe was talking about. This is absurd. Comparing "fantasy racism" to real life racism is absurd. Race does not work this way. The Misbegotten and the Omen are discriminated against because of the blessings of the Crucible (horns, wings, claws, etc.) and I'll tell you why because - race - as it has been constructed - is a process which we define, through things like skin colour. It is not intrinstic qualities that are predestined from birth. It's why the process of eugenics and phrenology was created. If we were to take DangDad's thesis literally, we'd come to the conclusion that racism in America happened because of the "Curse of Ham" that's the kind of politics you're leading yourself towards. If you can't see the obvious racist implications you're making by trying to compare the struggle of Black people to the Misbegotten, then I'm sorry you know nothing. My contention is not with "the lore" but with the theory that's being used to justifty it. It's wrong. Also you've failed to actually explain how any of these things are - necropolitics - you're just pearl clutching and saying "I don't know the game". Please present an argument. But nevertheless. I think you should actually go and read Necropolitics, rather than acting all high and mighty about a book you didn't hear about until yesterday.
I don’t think it’s disrespectful to apply real-world political theories to fictional universes. Rather than trivializing them, I think it’s a good way to introduce them to people to concepts they might otherwise not have sought out.
Also Miyazaki intentionally or unintentionally exposed the flaws in upholding a flawed system, which you can probably relate to as people upholding a dying capitalist system
I'd go even further and claim that all art requires some real-world political application because all art is political, whether you or the creator want it to be or not.
To me applying real world politics CAN be okay BUT a lot of people don't do it in a good way and are very VERY heavy handed with it and it'll make people recoil.
You forgot to mention the nomads who are also persecuted and were subjected to genocidal treatment not too dissimilar to concentration camps. The nomads share a lot of similarities with the history, culture and treatment of Roma people. On slavery, demi--humans work under humans in a slave-like relationship, as many demi-humans are made to work via implicit violence. When we first meet them, we experience them as savage and lacking in culture and intellectual capacity, but as we follow Boc's quest line, we learn that despite looking more like monkeys and having a very different social structure to humans, we learn that not only are they capable of deep emotion but are also able to learn skills we would consider complex or difficult. The fact that the demi-human queens are capable of learning magic should also definitely prove that they're intelligent as character stats directly translate to how skilled that character is in that particular stat in-lore, i.e. if a character is invested in a strength build, it means that character is also extremely physically strong whereas a dex build implies great agility and so on and so forth. There's also the relationship between demi-humans and people with disabilities, especially cognitive, and how people with disabilities are infantilized and put into various work programs to make them look like they are productive under a capitalist system even when it is not actually contributing to their own well-being beyond that they have a daily activity to participate in. The same is also true for the misbegotten as they're also made to work under humans in this way. Racism, ableism and general bigotry in Elden Ring just goes very deep.
Onze and his quest of solitude is also really interesting, with his lore sort of confirming that the Demi-humans understood the Primeval Glintstone Current as well as (if not better than) the Academy’s Conspectus sorcerers. For non-Elden Ring people, the little monkey guys weren’t JUST more like humans, but they had possibly better theoretical physicists than the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
I'd argue, given their connection to Shabriri, who is named after a jewish demon, that the merchants also have jewish inspiration too. Edit: also like, Jewish people were also at times forced into certain jobs like merchanting by the regimes at the time, following orders by the Church to disallow Christians from doing things like moneylending, and during regular pogroms the wealth that would be built up from that was all stolen by the regime and put into their coffers. Christian kings literally created all the kinds of anti-semetic stereotypes we see today
Idk if all the demi humans/demi-human queens had substantial intelligence. The item description for the demi human queen staff seems to provide conflicting accounts on their intelligence. The initial passage points to demi human queens having low intelligence since their staffs “can be wielded even by those of low intelligence” and the next line is ambiguous in its reference: “Sneered at by fools in the academy”. It’s unclear if the people in the academy are fools because they believe that demi humans are too low of intelligence to wield any glinestone staffs or because they think it’s a waste of time to try to foster peace with the demi humans. The shadow of the erdtree dlc does provide some evidence that at least some of the Demi humans are intelligence (and boc isn’t just an anomaly). The item description for star-line sword: “…When bestowed with this weapon by their queen, the swordsmen swear to find the truth that lies at the end of the procession of stars.” This kind of knowledge based truth seeking is clear indication of not just common intelligence, but higher end intelligence on par with those at the academy of raya lucaria. Whether this is ubiquitous for demi humans or exclusive to the ones connected to queen marrigga in the land of shadows remains unclear however.
Wow, this was unexpected! What a great take on a complicated subject. As someone who consumes a lot of lore theories, I *REALLY* appreciated your "disclaimer" about this not being about somehow "solving" the story; rather, you have added another lens for interpretation, allowing for a clearer vision of the whole. Thanks brother!
In the DLC, Count Ymir tells us that the two fingers that chose Marika and the other gods/orders were flawed from the very beginning, possibly never accurately relating or receiving any guidance from the greater will. Every order in the lands between started with a lie, the violence of all states has been for nothing; a mistake. Ah, Let chaos take the world!
I like Ymir's attitude to that situation though, which is just to kinda shrug and make the best of it. He acknowledges chaos but he's not embracing it and he's not despairing. Not sure I fully get what he *is* doing but still.
@@jannafrancis7452 Count Ymir was right but his analysis was just one step short. Most people considered the Two Fingers to be flawed, Count Ymir said that it's not the Two Fingers that have become flawed but rather their Mother Metyr. The truth however is that Metyr never stopped trying to commune with the Greater Will. It is the Greater Will itself that cut off all communication. In fact we do not know of a single entity that has successfully reached communion with the Greater Will. Placidusax tried, the Two Fingers tried, Metyr tried, even Count Ymir tried by the end. All of them failed. Either the Greater Will is dead now, or it has become physically so far away that no communication can reach it, or it has completely lost all interest in this world, and never intends to return. Whichever it is, it is not Metyr that is flawed, but the Greater Will.
I would like to thank you for taking the time to make actual captions. so many videos rely on the auto generated ones or have inaccurate ones, and I really appreciate it whenever someone has them, especially after RUclips killed community captions.
This has to be one of the best takes I've seen on Elden Rings themes to take such a broad range of story elements, lore, and characters and make it this coherent while exposing it's political commentary (intentional or not) is impressive. You didn't mention the frenzy flame in much detail but what happened to the traveling merchants and Midrea's mase also fits with this line analysis as they are on the receiving ends of G nocide which subsequently fuels the frenzy flame further. not to mention what happened Markia's own people the shamans under the Hornsent. I'm reminded of Ansbach's final line "Righteous Tarnished. Become our new lord. A lord not for gods, but for men." while it's up for interpretation to me it seems he is asking that we create an age without gods or the violence of the order they inflict.
Great vid. I think that my prior understanding of the symbolism of Elden Ring - that of overt analogy to hegemonic Christianity and its domination of life, land, and politics from the pre-medieval period to the early modern period - this has actually helped me contextualize NECROPOLITICS retrospectively across history. It also brought to mind a series of conversations over the past few years about the politics of grief and who we "ought" to grieve. In Elden Ring, the state as established by Marika is in a constant process of excising groups as you listed them: The Hornsent, the Omen, the Misbegotten, the sick and heretical and demi-human are all othered in that they are rendered "graceless" by the state. If Erdtree burial is a rite of both death and rebirth, then grieving those honored dead IS tantamount to accepting their return, therefore those the Order wishes to exclude must not be grieved! What's interesting there is the double-standard this creates with those who live in death, as they're *going* to return regardless of the Order's will. I view the existence of the deathbed maidens as a nod toward this; a state concession toward Death that allows grieving in hopes that they'll stick to that and not go causing a fuss where the poor aristocracy can see. In that way, Leyndell's peeling golden veneer is a shorthand for the importance of optics about as subtle as the mile-high glowing illusory tree.
I believe any attempt to map ER to Christianity should be discarded the second you notice reincarnation. Reincarnation is one of the most anti Christian concepts of other philosophies/religions. When you die, you wait to be resurrected on the day of judgement, when jesus separates on the left and right the people of the world. No ghosts, no reincarnation is allowed in christianity.
Dude. I'm 5 minutes in and this is the best "in a nutshell" description of the story I've heard. Next time someone asks me what Elden Ring is about, I know where to send them.
Marika...'Merica... Your opening lines sounded like the most damning criticism of our Foreign and Domestic policy I've ever heard in the context of a game.
@@humanwithaplaylistMarika was also a winged deity of freedom. This whole crap hole is ran by occult weirdos. Y'all really think Washington a damn Free Mason wasn't a pawn and his cronies? Y'all really don't know anything about this country huh?
The original name for the land of shadow was just the Lands Between. the lands that are between two rivers, the ainsel and siofra]. This is inferred because of the meaning of Mesopotamia, and the fact that therws a shit ton of mesopotamia references and even a babylonion map on a tablet. What is now know as the Lands Between may have been known as the Greater Lamds Between, or perhaps the Lands Between had several meanings. But the suppressing pillar shows us that the Land of Shadow used to just be called the Lands Between
Well it's possible that, like Liurnia or Caelid or Altus or Mt Gelmir or Limgrave or the Weeping Peninsula, the area of the Land of Shadow has a name to refer to it by.
In Japanese the name it can be translated as Lands Between (Or Middle Earth... Martin.) But also Interstice, the space between Reality and World of Ideas in Berserk. Lands Between can be just a place between two continents or s place "beyond the fog" between reality and spiritual world. Or even something more.
I had never heard of necropolitics before, but it does seem to fit quite neatly with the concepts Elden Ring explores. That death is not only something the Elden Lord can exact upon others, but alter the very nature of, is a horrifying prospect that is further elevated with this perspective. To live in death, then, can only be seen as a radical act, a manner of terrorism, even if those who do, do so by no choice of their own. I find it odd that you didn't touch on the cruelty the Hornsent inflicted on Marika's people, the shamans, in the jar villages and elsewhere. Not because it justifies Marika's actions at all- quite the opposite. Just today I saw people in a Facebook comment section saying that Messmer did nothing wrong- literally missing the forest for the (erd)trees. Messmer preserved the will of his mother and tightly guarded the entrance to her homeland, even as she erased him from history along with the rest of the Land of Shadow. But in doing so, he merely sets the stage for another actor (Miquella and his faithful) to rebel against his own tyranny. Marika and her Golden Order never truly replaced the old order, she simply took the reins, changed the aesthetic, and called it her own. Miyazaki loves the concept of cyclical histories, and just like in the games before it, it's still very much a theme in Elden Ring.
I think maybe Dang Dad just had the thoughts he had and didn't want to make a 5 hr video. It's been pretty interesting reading other comments on more specific ideas. I think it's okay for a creator to leave some openings for viewers to make their own connections. And in a place where you CAN comment, your own view can be seen by others and expanded on.
_I can only rule over a nation if I live like its poorest citizens_ "A nation of the living dead?" _A nation free from the fear of death, a nation with no rueler_
So like re: Ranni. I'm not sure how many people know this, but her dialogue has a major mistranslation in the English version, and it really alters the fundamental basis of what she wants to accomplish. Basically she believes that having a god and the order of reality be something you can just touch and interact with directly needs to go, its causing some major problems to have a fallible god changing things willy-nilly based on a whim. So Ranni wants to replace Marika, and take her new god juice and the Elden Lord out of the equation entirely by.....I think fucking off into outer space? So nobody can interfere with things and she also wont be present to be prompted to do that out of self interest. No more gods deciding that Death doesnt exist, no more divinely ordained perverts kidnapping people and doing radical surgery, etc.
@@societyman6591 you speak as if the deathblight was the intended result and not just the side effect of the deicide. Ranni isn't some supervillian rubbing her palms together lmao, she's just trying to find a way to break free from her own shackles (in a rather callous way sure, but name me a demigod who doesn't act callously, at least the blue waifu doll plans to fuck off once she gets godhood, which is more than I can say for the others.)
@@aarlanng I am simply describing what Ranni did, which is always glossed over when people want to act like she's some sort of liberator. It's very possible her murder of Godwyn was the catalyst for the shattering war itself, too. There is no indication that Ranni herself intends to fuck off either, she simply wants the Greater Will to fuck off. It's all the more strange when we learn that Miquella was able to shed his flesh and break his great rune without doing a black magic murder ritual that unleashes undeath cancer on world, so Ranni did that purely out of a desire to turn Godwyn into a weird half dead monster rather than just murder him outright, I guess. Or maybe she has no idea what she's doing.
@@societyman6591 Godwyn's death was absolutely the catalyst for The Shattering, he was Marika's pride and joy and was called "The Golden" for a reason. He was powerful and beautiful and beloved by all. Ranni had no way of knowing tho what would become of his body after killing his soul, she simply wanted to free herself of her own shackles. As for Miquella, they may both be empyreans but Miquella is hyped up alot more in terms of power than she is and unlike Ranni, he did most if not all of his own dirty work to get where he got. He created the Haligtree to house those shunned by Marika He created the unalloyed gold needles to try and cure Malenia He performed the eclipse to try and revive Godwyn. In short Miquella was simply more powerful than Ranni and likely just as smart. Ranni simply schemed and had others do her dirty work for her. All she does is kill herself, Seluvis, and her Two Fingers and even then. That last one? She couldn't even do that until after *we* kill Radahn to get to Nokron to get her a weapon specifically made to kill her opps, and even then she barely succeeded
There's no mistranslation for Ranni at all though. A bunch of people just decided that because they refused to believe it was written correctly from the get go.The game is voiced in English only, the dialogue isn't wrong, they're not just going to mess up something so crucial. She lays bare for us what she's done, believes in, and intends to do. It's great dialogue from her and people should just accept it.
This is an excellent reading of the game. Too many people get caught up on specific character lore and breaking down completely accurate timelines, myself included. That stuff is all good and fun to get lost in, but Fromsoft games always have overt themes that strike me as the more important things for the audience to engage with rather than the minutia, and I think you nailed one of the biggest themes with this video. I also really appreciate your line about not caring about being right but being thoughtful. That seems to be a mentality that is pretty lacking in the lore community of this game.
There are plenty of great lore tubers who do deeper thematic looks at this game in case you want some names. Scum mage infa, Kate the kind, kite tales, the centered tarnished, quelaag, tarnished archeologist, zayf the scholar, are some I can think of off the top. But I'm sure others will come with more. I hope you check them out and enjoy their stuff.
@@mintkit1064 I like and have followed a lot of people you've listed for years now, but Scum Mage Infa really shouldn't be on anyone's list. He's made some truly poorly reasoned videos, and I find his responses to criticism to be the opposite mentality of the creator of this video.
Don’t forget about Michel de Certeau and the return of the repressed. That which is suppressed by the dominant culture returns as an omen of the original suppression, re-biting its conquerors through subversive action.
Really insightful video. Intriguingly, not only does the dlc boasts the "colonial" factor but it also frames it to metaphysical level. The idea of a systemic search for transcendence by the living exercising power on other and the systemic massacre that accompanied it as a sort of sacrifice for a necessary energy (the crucible) is revealing as the bodies encased in the walls of many grand cities, up to the gate itself. Then the dragons in the earth of Farum Azula or hell, the giant bodies within the very lands between themselves cast an intriguing light on the living, an immemorial fact: as if even beyond civilization this relationship we entertain with power and exercising it is instrumental to the very act of living and it brings sense to the alternative: Ranni’s ending, remote with hints of the inorganic, the systemic and Frenzied Flame, a surrender, a nuclear solution (to the problem: life). Not saying I agree with Fromsoft on the fatalism but it's an intriguing mindscape to say the least. Cool video, and thanks for the future readings !
The thing with the Hornsent and Marika, as well as Miquella, they represent the eternal cycle of the corruption that power brought. In the pursuit of power and overcoming the struggle, justice for Marika's genocided people in Marika's case or healing the scars Marika's tyranny in Miquella's case, even the most noble of intention decay and reborn once again into the same kind of sovereignty. Like how empires rise and fall, how companies made employees fleeing corrupted ones eventually be corrupted themselves.
I have been obsessed trying to derive the deeper meanings of this game and have been waiting for someone to talk about it on these terms, awesome video dude.
what a great video! was just reading through necropolitics for a class last week, always heartening to see thoughtful lenses applied to any media analysis, but especially elden ring where the glass ceiling is often endless search for some "true" interpretation of the developers vision. its a breath of fresh air and honestly surprises me that so few people take that approach, given the depth of symbolism and analogy layered throughout every fromsoft game. i find that richness of inspiration and care to be the most compelling aspect of their work in general, it lends itself so well to a broad range of readings/perspectives. whether or not miyazaki and co had Mbembe on the mind when creating elden ring, they created a work of fiction deeply rooted in the history of our world - the foundations of which are so painfully laid bare by necropolitics. its only natural then that a similar analysis would find a place in examining elden ring.
I just finished my fifth and probably last playthrough of this game, having completed the base game thrice and now the shadow of the erdtree twice. what an amazing way to send off one of my most favorite games recently, this was an exellent and thoughtful video.
You ain’t wrong. Necropolitics is rooted in theory colonialism theory. Also don’t say “gold” you’ll get attention of either Michilla or the Spanish empire. Historically, no one expected either of them to conquer the world until it was to late.
Between this and Bloodborne (see: what the ol' scholars of Byrgenwerth did to the Fishing Hamlet), it seems someone over at From Soft is thinking a lot about the horrors of colonialism. (Perhaps subconsciously.)
They are japanese, so they usually think about this in their more serious games. The final fantasy games almost always have anti colonialist, anti oligarchy and anti blind religion messages (ff6 through 13 have all of the above if memory serves)
I think Redgrave used to point out how Fishing hamlet mirrors the Minamata incident in many ways. The area deff invokes ideas of helplessness and horror in the face of corporate tyranny, as the clocktower feels more like a corporate RnD lab rather than the academic place of learning of Byrgenwerth.
Love the vid, it effectively and insightfully articulates a lot of the concepts I've been seeing in game. One of the things that jumped to me immediately after finishing the DLC were the parallels Marika's genocide of the Hornsent and Cortez's eradication of the Azteq. In both instances there's a degree of moral justification over the atrocities which occurred therein because of the frankly *horrendous* cultural practices both systems demanded, yet in both cases we have a gratuitous massacre of mostly innocent civilians (the average citizen was raised in a context where these were normalized, only a select few elites maintained and promulgates these customs) and a unilateral cultural eradication which robbed the world of valuable knowledge and history which we can never recover. Cortez's conquest of the city was made possible in large part through the assistance of a native woman known today as La Malinche who acted as an interpreter, thus allowing Cortez to confederate a vast army of other native peoples who *very understandably* wanted their Mexica neighbors gone because of the whole human sacrifice and ritualistic cannibalism. He reduced most of the city (a marvel which supported a larger population than much of Europe's metropoles at the time) to rubble, massacred tens of thousands of civilians and enslaved the survivors, burned down their records and subsequently caused the region to become arid by the supplanting of their farming practices. This was justified through religious reasoning and carried out by Conquistadors who were themselves dogmatic Catholics (they initially earned their name due to the Reconquista) and the unsavory details were either erased or justified wholesale due to the aforementioned. Messmer's crusade was carried out with extreme prejudice by a combined force, with a core of religious fanatics from the Golden Order, and support from Carians elites and Academy Marionettes (the Fire Golems) as righteous vengeance upon the Hornsent for what they'd done to Marika and the Shamans. It was not reigned in by honor or mercy like the war with the Ancient Dragons or Liurnia due to the Jarring process and their own religious justifications as zealous fundamentalists. While Messmer himself preserved much of their works, only the stone tablets in Marika's bedchamber were effectively saved, with the rest now trapped behind the veil and forever lost to the rest of the world. Also, Cortez initially had diplomatic relations with the Mexica, Montezuma came to suspect he might be the living incarnation of their God Quetzalcoatl, and was accordingly treated as an honored guest. He then turned on them, held the king hostage and eventually got chased from the city, which echoes Marika (working through Messmer) and her "seduction and betrayal" of the Hornsent (as a Jar); Quetzalcoatl was also a winged serpent, like Messmer's little red danger-noodles. Also, Messmer's serpent being subdued by the allure of Gold reminds of Cortez telling Monctezuma that the Spaniards had a disease which only gold could cure/treat.
Honestly I think wrapped up in all of this might be an answer to the community's hottest topic: who is the Gloam Eyed Queen? Like Marika she's a mother figure, but she was associated with death and her powers had to be confined and subsumed by Marika in order to establish her order. Just like the colony and democracy, the GEQ is Marika's shadow: a violent, necessary evil that the state doesn't want people to look at but is nevertheless essential to its power.
Honestly it might sound weird to people but I think that the GEQ is the grandmother. Who marika left the golden braid as a prayer for in Shaman Village. It's a simple theory but it makes sense to me at least.
Classic theory is GEQ is Melina. We know Melina is Marika's Daughter and it's said GEQ was an Empyrean, people who always were children of Marika. GEQ was the previous Rune of Death keeper and at some point she started to kill Demigods with her Godskin, but it was Marika who removed the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring, so Marika used GEQ as a Keeper, and who better than a Daughter? Then it failed and Maliketh took the Rune until we kill him. Melina or not, i think GEQ was a Marika's child.
I always viewed the omens, those who live in death, misbegotten, etc. through the lens of that which the authoritarians squeeze the hardest being what slips through its grasp. The stuff Marika wanted gone so very badly being precisely what nibbles away at the corners. I wasn't familiar with Necropolitics until this video, but it's a great lense to look at Elden Ring through. Also, your dude looks exactly like my first dude, so nice.
@@ThatDangDad you absolutely did. I had a religious studies professor back in college who talked about Mbembe’s Necropolitics a lot, and the moment I saw the title of this video I immediately went, “Oooooohhhhh, yeah he’s right”. Video itself does a great job of discussing the concept in an accessible way.
@tristanneal9552 and in some traditions, sleep is the cousin of death i need to read this work necropolitics, seems to be an interesting exploration about our current governance systems
Hey TDD, this was a truly great connection to make and now I'm applying this lens everywhere. I'm now looking at the Dark Souls series, and all I'm seeing all the way down are monarchs destroying death itself in an effort to extend their reigns.
I'm also playing through Space Marine 2, thinking about the Warhammer 40k universe - this game literally begins with the main character being brought back from the dead in order to serve the imperium. Necropolitics is the modus operandi of the imperium - whole work-worlds (death-worlds?) are maintained with as little personhood for its citizens as possible, they've been genetically engineered to be as non-person as possible. In some cases people's minds have been so broken by the imperium that they become living machines, "servitors."
to any who would dismiss analyzing Elden Ring with a real world political lense as a view "not intended by its creators" . So that godess? the one that had noble sounding ideals that she pursued with brutality, genocide, and duplicity? those goals being essentially...infinite, endless bounty and prosperity? but that couldn't possibly work forever? ...yeah that godess. .... say....whats her name?
I am not saying that its DEFINITELY a direct reference. But both miyazaki and george rr martin are reaaally fond of naming their stuff puns and references. they had to at least be aware
everyone would do it had they had the chance. theres been a age of rot. age of the crucible. age of the dragons. people just hate marika because she is the latest god.
This is wired, I never got a chance to play Elden Ring when it came out and decided to dive back in over the weekend and .... here you are.... The Universe is strange.
"The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters." -Antonio Gramsci I think anyone who's done even a surface-level reading of any serious anti-colonial texts will immediately understand just how well From (since Demon's Souls) really understand colonialism as a political mechanism. Their constant obsession with death, undeath, immortality, and stagnation, worlds that are long past their peak but struggling to preserve themselves in these wretched states of decay, and their constant depictions of the violence that was used to create these social orders being turned inwards to preserve them no matter the cost, has always demonstrated to me just how much they really *get* it. They also deal heavily with the propaganda inherent to colonialism, with the ending that breaks the cycle and brings the world forward into something new always being the hardest to achieve, requiring the most attention to all the hints the games leave you to not be fooled by the veneer placed over the decaying order by the Gods who will you to fight in their name, be they Gwyn or Marika, and also making those endings shadowy and uncertain, seeming at a glace to be more of a terrifying leap of faith than just keeping things as they are while they continue to diminish further. Because taking the world forward into a new cycle, a new revolution, choosing willingly not to cling to a comforting familiarity that you know in the back of your mind causes untold harm, *is* scary and *does* require a lot of effort and study and a recalibration of your basic understanding of the political reality that was always sold to you. Elden Ring goes the furthest into these themes, I think in part because much of the backstory was written by a massive European History Nerd in GRRM who loves to allay these colonial forces against each others and watch how the material realities that determine their relative strengths, and the bloodshed that results from it, unfolds and becomes the engine of history, but this is something Miyazaki has clearly been studying and thinking a lot about since very early on and understood that video games, which place the player character into an endless cycle of death and rebirth, were a perfect mechanism for exploring those ideas. By making games where every death the player character experiences *really happens* (and where quitting the game entirely is a canonical ending for that character as much as any other), he understood that mechanics that can only exist in fantasy worlds and the fickle way they treat death, lead to immediately landing upon how "death," and a person's proximity to it, their ability to either deal in it or their forcible confrontation with it at the hands of others, is so frequently laid out as the operative political reality of Colonialism. Necropolitics.
this was the video on elden ring i was waiting for. Thank you for bringing an analysis of power to this. Subscribed for sure. Also I wonder if the other side of the coin of this is the story of trauma that follows the actions of characters in this game - the lines of causality. Minor point but maybe you could interpret Marika as having been a shaman, and having been the "jar shaman" the hornsent were trying to create. That lens is very interesting to me. The implications of the cyclical nature of violence really lands home for me with that one. On another note, ego also underlies this game heavily. Lots to talk about, what a masterpiece.
The rune of death had to be removed from the elden rubg prior to godwins assassination. Maliketh had the rune of death secured and a fragment was stolen from him (probably by marika) to assist ranni in the plot of the night of the black knives. Just wanted to point out that removing death from the world had to happen before godwins death and subsequent transformation into the prince of death.
Wonderfully produced, and thoroughly argued. You did such a phenomenal job here, congratulations! I really enjoy this perspective of viewing the world and story of Elden Ring...what a game! edit: btw, I really enjoyed your decision to add reverb when you read out from "Necropolitics", and the choice of background being the thorned door of the Erdtree was fantastic!
Many have said and it bears repeating-this is a lovely read on this game. I was constantly thinking of the biopolitical and of necropolitics while playing it. There's an anti-fascist message in the psychology and action of Merika's responses to her own tortured past, her own subjugation. She responded with vengeful gestures of "NEVER AGAIN," which, as we well know, is a sure-fire way to make it happen again. And it did! The repressed always return in some form or fashion. I think about Amiee Cesaire's comment that "fascism is colonialism turned inward," a similar argument to Mbembe's Necropolitics. There's so much here to talk about-thanks for taking the time to make this!
Good video. There's a few other references to social theory in the game, with maybe the most obvious being the Golden Bough (the sacrificial subject of which also has a lot of similarities to what happens in Elden Ring). Miyazaki himself is a graduate of a social science faculty, so I would not be surprised if he or people on his team have also read Foucault and Mbembe.
"Sooner or later, one will reap at home what one has sown abroad" Now I wish I'd watched this video yesterday, when I stumbled upon this concept from a visual angle. Essentially, taking the proverb to its literal origins its about using a scythe to cut stalks of grass or grain. Chatting with some folks about the DLC and it was pointed out that a new asset has been introduced in the villages: bales of straw or hay. There is one notable new NPC who uses a scythe: Ansbach. Ansbach can be invited to the final battle against Miquella and Radahn, to "reap" them. Arguably, Ansbach is also responsible for the situation of Miquella being taken by the Lord of Blood as he once "cleaved open Miquella with his blood blade", witnessed by Needle Knight Leda (different kind of "sewing"). Now, I know that there are mixed opinions about the Radahn/Miquella final boss fight. It's nonsensical, or wish-fulfillment for everyone who wanted to fight "prime" Radahn, or a retcon with no foreshadowing. And I think that's the point: its a strawman. A "strawman fallacy" is generally "refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction." The fight seemingly comes out of nowhere because the race to get to the end first and defeat the boss is a distraction from taking the time to really linger over the rest of the Shadowlands and think about the themes being developed. But other that that, yes thank you for making this video that is a good overview of necropolitics themes in the game!
Small thing, as the lore is crazy dense and these details are easily missed, Marika removed the rune of Death long before Godwyn was killed, and his death led to the reintroduction of the rune into the world of the Erdtree in the form of deathroot. She likely removed the rune when the Erdtree was first burnt a long time ago during the war with the Gloam-Eyed Queen. Anyways, this is a fantastic video. I was thinking a lot about this topic when I played the DLC too, and hadn't learned about Mbembe yet. It's crucial we recognize how liberal democracies are themselves dangers to the ideals they claim to uphold, like liberation, when they're conducted without a critical eye towards what it will take to really make it so everyone has an equal place at the table.
About the children of Marika all being cursed one way or another, for Godwyn, I think he was cursed by deathblight even before the Night of the black knives It seems odd that all of his siblings are cursed when he is not, but most importantly, a lot link him to the curse and point towards him having it even before its assassination : -He is called the Prince of Death throughout the game, which could easily come from before his murder -His knights are called the Death knights, and that's a name that came before the murder -The rune of Death is capable to kill gods, but it has no link to Deathblight. The black knives deal no damage of the sort, so the curse doesn't come from here And if a body cursed with deathblight is ripped of his soul, the fact that its curse takes over makes sense to me. His body is still alive but Godwyn is not here anymore to fight its spread.
This is a great video, I loved what you had to say and the quotes you added. I especially like the part about her children, the past is impossible to bury and rears it's head in her own kids.
Incredible video, your analysis will be rattling in my brain in the coming days as I tackle the rest of the DLC. Excellent work, I enjoyed every second!
I always value lore videos that talk about ideas larger than just "who is melina? who is the snake?" The themes are where the game really shines, everything else serves the core themes and is purposefully obscured so you don't get distracted from them.
My brain refuses to accept “knee-crow politics”. I will always pronounce it “neck-row politics”. (Snarkiness aside, this was an awesome video from one of my favorite creators. Exactly the sort of thought-provoking content I subscribed for!)
Fantastic analysis--I haven't read Mbembe's "Necropolitics" but I have just picked it up! I have been interested in the biopolitics of Elden Ring for quite some time and I think you hit the nail on the head here--death is central to the mechanisms that govern the Lands Between. Hope to see more FromSoftware video essays from this channel!
I got to say, i love your references to Mbembe, i remeber reading his work several years ago, and i remember distincly watching some early video essays and making the connections between in-game concepts and Fanonian subjwct matter i was reading back when the game came out. I didnt think anyone else had recognized it. I love this video so much!
also as someone not familiar with the game, i genuinely thought the goddess was named Murica with how you say her name which is quite fitting with the angle of this topic :3
Necropolitics is an excellent fusion of two of the throughline obsessions of the Souls series of games (of which Elden Ring is a thematic member, if not a direct one): Sovereignty and the consequences of Thanatophobia.
Awesome. Just awesomw, ive been waiting for anyone to really dig deep into these themes that have always been present in soulsborne games, but particularly in elden ring. It is a deeply political work (which, surprise surprise, its written by george rr martin) and its been disquieting how much people do to avoid discussing those themes. On a side note, something that has been niggling at my mind for awhile is what marika's role as from a violently oppressed group (the shamans) means. So much of what she did to the hornsent was in revenge, but she takes it so so much further. I'm also interested in hearing your thoughts about micquella's idea of radical compassion. Its something i have a lot of thoughts about, but all anyone wants to talk about is how lol MOGH BEAT THE ALLEGATIONS. Which is....weird. Sigh. Btw tho..you should check out the tarnished archeologist, if youre interested. They do a lot of great work of exploring soulsborne games through the eyes of historical, political, and religious context built into the architecture and customs of these worlds. If youre not already aware of them, i think youd enjoy their work
Oh yeah, TA whips, probably my favorite of the "scholarly lore-tubers". In (very) brief, thinking about Marika's marginalization and subsequent reproduction of oppression, the whole thing makes me think about a (possibly tenuous) connection to the whole concept of "dismantling the master's house with the master's tools" kind of situation. Marika's people were worthy of liberation but her ideology does not seem rooted in compassion. She doesn't want boots off necks, she just wants to wear the boot. At the same time, the more I study the game, the more she strikes me as a deeeeeply tragic figure, someone responding to trauma in ways that merely multiply trauma rather than reducing it. I would have to sit down and really mull over some other theorists to flesh that out. Miquella is a fascinating figure to me too, also quite tragic, cursed to never quite finish what he starts. My reading of the DLC is that Miquella's thousand year voyage of compassion would be made possible with some kind of mind-control, some kind of stripping of autonomy. If I was going to get really cheeky with applying theory to games, I would make some argument about Goldmask's ending being a reformist position, Ranni's being an anarchist position, and Miquella's being a kind of state communism-type position (and the Flame of Frenzy being the boogaloo boys!). I would have to really sit down and think that through though so as not to be too reductive. It does bother me though that Miquella felt the need to divest himself of Love and Fear in order to become a leader because I think leaders should move in love and have a healthy fear of messing up :)
People give way too much credit to GRRM on that front, imo. Miyazaki is a Sociology Major. Every game he did with From is like, HEAVY on sociological themes, and I'm absolutely sure that the overarching themes come from that side, even more so since they're so consistently his style.
@@ThatDangDad Dude, I can't believe I never made the connection until I read your comment. Miquella's curse of eternal youthfulness reflects not just in his physical appearance, but also - as you've said for me - he's 'cursed to never quite finish what he starts'. Much like himself, the things he devises never manage to reach maturity.
This reading feels pretty spot-on to ideas i got out of the game! On this thread, the game characterizes almost every faction and culture through its funerary rituals and "afterlife" beliefs. Theres erdtree burial, worship of ancestral spirits, supernatural cremation etc etc. It seems like in the game's moral universe, sealing the rune of death was a mistake because it traps souls in place and spoils so many people's rituals surrounding burial and how to treat the spirits of the dead
It's a bit sad that we live in a world in which you felt compelled to make a disclaimer that you are in fact not chasing after some futile notion of a correct reading, but I appreciate the resulting thoughtfulness all the same. And in case this sounds stiff and slightly hostile, I'm sincere here, I really liked your take and that unlike so many soulsborne videos you are in fact not looking for the elusive authorial intention as if it were relevant in any form or fashion. Very well presented and certainly an interesting lense to use.
This is the kind of lore and narrative analysis that I consider to be one step above most of the rest. Look around anywhere online in FromSoft fan communities and you’ll see plenty of people who accuse them of being lazy with their lore or vague for the sake of being vague. And yet there is SO MUCH that can be gleaned and discussed each time this dev studio drops a new game. I also really appreciated your quote about being more concerned with being thoughtful than being right. Tons of Elden Ring lore youtubers could take notes from that…
There were a couple times that I thought you were just describing the story of the game when you were actually quoting Mbembe, so that's interesting. Also, visiting the Shadow Realm stripped away any subtlety in the game's text for me. It was _just_ about g*nocide, nothing less and nothing more. It didn't feel like something that took place in a distant fantasy world, like so much of the main game did. I can't remember which, but some of the item descriptions discuss the attitudes of the Fire Knights (for the unfamiliar, those were the soldiers who carried out the g*nocide) and how the more violent they were, the more pure they thought themselves.
This is a spectacular video phil! (You could have talked about her genocide/oppression of the nomadic merchants but other than that this is a specatular critical analysis
Pretty legit. Any "You're overthinking it!" pushback can legitimately be laughed out of the room because there's really no such thing as that where Elden Ring's concerned =) And colonialism always reminds me of the way Gravity's Rainbow described Africa as "Europe's outhouse, where a man can go to enjoy the smell of his own shit". Obviously not a flattering portrayal, but I think it connects to the idea that democracy and colonialism creates these dysfunctional places on purpose, for their utility to the "functional" society. I'm sure Marika and the Golden Order found all of the people they condemned useful in one way or another, even if just to make examples of.
yes finally my undergrad readings coming in handy. Just from the title a truly fascinating point, simultaniously the golden order (and in some ways the outer will) both deciding who get to live forever and who get to die. very interesting reading.
I definitely think the Outer Gods were there Pre-Marika, and that Marika is herself a part of an ongoing game or war between them, and I do also wish that this essay went more into colonialism -- I watched this video with my partner who had some Thoughts about it, largely that incorporating some real world examples of necropolitics would have made the point more complete and that talking more about how colonialism exists within Elden Ring would have made this a stronger Essay rather than, like, a gentle overlay of the theory onto the game. Overall, though, it was cool to watch, keep making good stuff!
Given that we know the Black Knife assassins where noble Numen living in the old eternal city portion of Leyndell, and the noble class found out about and fought back against the atrocities commit in the land of shadows, as many of Messmers knights where sons of noble families. And revolted at one point. I wouldn't be surprised if the motivation for Godwyns and other nameless demigods murder was the slaying of their children. The assassins all women slaying one child of Marikas for every child of theirs put to the sword for opposing her genocidal war.
Back again because this reading is incomparable. It's no single person's responsibility to supply every possible perspective of a text, I hope your comments section isn't too bananas. This is the kind of analysis I want to see: actual interpretation and expounding of ideas.
Excellent commentary, and delightfully concise in this age of three-hour video "essays" (often more just rambling summations with little actual analysis). NECROPOLITICS is certainly going to have to go on my reading list now!
The association of real world Necropolitics to the fantasy world building of Elden Ring was not something I was expecting to come across, but here we are. Your video literally made me go out and buy the book and read it, then rewatch this video again lol. Necropolitics is not an easy read as the academic caliber of it is quite something, but the insights and perspectives that Mbembe has are even more eye opening. Truly appreciated your work on this video, well done :)
Dude, amazing video! Subscribed. And, I've also added like half of the videos on your channel to my Watch Later because every single one sounded enticing. Looking forward to seeing more 🙏
This video is so good ❤ thank you for making it! I had heard of Mbembe’s work years ago through another channel, but I had forgotten about it. This really inspired me to pick it back up!
Actual thoughtful analysis, with a lovely natural flow to the script and performance. Thanks as well for an introduction to Mbembe's work. Fantastic stuff!
You have given me a new facet, a fresh layer of depth with which to enjoy this game along side Hermeticism, Alchemy and Psychology. I thank you for the contemplation, there is much here to meditate on.
"I think it's important that when we turn off the game, and return to our comfortable lives in our democracies..." Dudes in North Korea rn watching this -> 💀💀💀
Absolutely fantastic video. Thank you for this. Another really interesting angle and thematic lens to dive into the game. I do not think the game's internal narrative(plot/timeline) is fully coherent, but the various metaanalyses that have cropped up in the last few months have really done so much to elevate the story given to us in the game
4:00 - That's a new take! I've not heard the Elden Ring described as "source code" that writes the rules of reality, but it's a really, really good metaphor!
@@doggodoggo3000 I've tried watching Quelaag, but her vids are SO long and she speaks SO quietly and it makes me SO sleepy. Like a college prof that knows plenty, but can't keep their class awake, kinda vibe.
@@86fifty I like quelaag a lot. But I feel you, her whiteboard videos aren't exactly crafted to be viewer friendly. She's one of the best channels for digging into the art of elden ring, though I disagree with a lot of her takes. And she isn't vegan so that bothers me. I only mention that because I think it plays into her interpretations. For example how much she rides for Saint Trina I see as an appeal to nature more or less. Which is a logical fallacy used by carnists alot. She talks about stuff like climate change and exploitation and capitalism and all the woke stuff yet prioritizes her pleasure when it comes to choosing to eat animals and supporting exploitation.
@@doggodoggo3000 Oh honey... Bringing up veganism unprompted? Sounds like you're really struggling with the fact that not every human CAN participate in veganism. Some people medically cannot. Others financially cannot. If it really bothers you so much that people face those barriers? You can do a lot of good in the world by working to reduce medical and financial suffering. You'll face a lot of pushback if you individually chastize other people for "prioritizing their pleasure" in this limited life we have, with limited time, limited bodies, limited money. On the highest level, everyone wants to avoid pain and chase joy. But they all go about it differently. And that's okay. At the end of the day, people will do what is easiest for them. Making the right thing easy to do, is the best way to make people do a thing.
@@86fifty veganism is cheaper in most places and the meat industry is poisoning people in a variety of ways. Also quelaag has been homeless, the animal agriculture industry plays into the homeless problem as well due to the inefficient land use at scale I didn't bring it up unprompted, I was talking about quelaags interpretations of the game and she had a pretty glaring moral inconsistency. We agree on a lot, but I don't like st. Trina like that.
Yes I got the timeline of Sealing the Rune of Death slightly off. It was not a load-bearing part of my argument luckily.
Whose load is your argument bearing?
Maliketh did not approve umu
Also isn't one of the reason Marika sent Messmer on the Hornsent because they themselves were murderous religious fanatics who genocided her peoplebas well? It was more of less struggles between different colonial forces and repeating the cycle.
Heh load
Your mouth is load-bearing (btw love your videos)
Soulslikes tend to be about death, not because it's a cool aesthetic or something, but because endless death and suffering is the perfect vehicle to represent what absolute power in the hands of a "fickle" god-king does to the subjects. Necropolitics is the whole _thing_ of these games.
No it is not. This is entirely disrespectful and wrong. Mbembe defines Necropolitics as the “subjugation of life to the power of death”. Mbembe is talking about racialization, he's talking about refugees, prisons, banlieues, suburbs, favelas etc. Necropolitics is state terror, necropolitics is when black Americans are dehumanized, where the absence of basic social goods (e.g. sanitation, housing) bring about a kind of existence whose value “is the sort of death able to be inflicted upon it”. Necropolitics is when mass of populations live under extreme precarious conditions and as such, can be exploited and eliminated “naturally”. Elden Ring does not depict this. Oh my god.
@@RoyThomas-c7h If you think Elden Ring doesn't portray prisons, slaves, refugees, racialization and the subjugation of life to the power of death, you haven't engaged with the game at all, and especially not with the dlc. The lore is entirely obsessed with the idea of power coming from death. From Marika's ascension to godhood, to the mechanics of eternal life under the Erdtree (catacombs feeding its roots, jars collecting fine warriors to give back to the roots, all the oppressed being barred from proper burial) every single lore detail revolves around who is allowed to die and in which manner. Hell, you unleash indiscriminate Destined Death upon the world near the end of the main game, precisely because Marika's design is unjust and needs repair.
I'll grant you that it's definitely not a 1-to-1 analogy, but these games are all about their own necropolitics. To deny that is baffling.
@@madeline6951 The game does not portray any of these things. Not without heavy allusion, or deep buried lore descriptions for in-game items. But this is laughable. I would be on your side if you used Hobbes as your basis for political analysis, since Marika's ascent as Queen runs pretty parallel to the Hobbesian notion of sovereignty and the social contract. But this is not the case, do you not see how disrespectful and vile you're analysis is...? When a black man is deprived of housing, and other basic social necessities, that is necropolitics-at-work, that is the infliction of death. To put it into perspective, the UK austerity policies under David Cameron killed 190,000+ people, maybe even more. The deprivation of social benefits lead to extreme precarious conditions leading to "natural deaths". This does not apply to Elden Ring. When you see the words "necropolitics" do you think Mbembe is talking about arcane zombies, magical rituals and fantasy creatures? He's talking about the specific experience the marginalized face under liberal democracy, bore from the colonial system, inflicted upon the masses (see the imperial boomerang). You are taking the term to mean something literally, when it has a very specific meaning and inference as to what Mbembe's alluding to.
@@RoyThomas-c7h "The game does not portray any of these things" - you're just plain wrong and the discussion can stop here. A simple google search can reveal that you're wrong. Just because a piece of media explores inequality, power, discrimination and horrible death through a vehicle of fantasy, doesn't mean that it has nothing to say about the real world. I can see that you're very passionate about these things, and that's great. So go engage with the game and see what it has to offer. If you have trouble getting through it or just don't like it, there are lore videos out there accessible to everyone with varying levels of speculation. But just because you're unaware of something in a piece of media, doesn't mean the thing doesn't exist. If you actually spent time interpreting the visual, environmental and textual storytelling, you wouldn't be here right now mad at a game you don't understand or that someone has a different interpretation than you. You'd be aware that it has rich metaphors about the corruption by power and the suffering this power can inflict on so many people.
@@madeline6951 Another confident dilettante cheapning the very real things Mbembe was talking about. This is absurd. Comparing "fantasy racism" to real life racism is absurd. Race does not work this way. The Misbegotten and the Omen are discriminated against because of the blessings of the Crucible (horns, wings, claws, etc.) and I'll tell you why because - race - as it has been constructed - is a process which we define, through things like skin colour. It is not intrinstic qualities that are predestined from birth. It's why the process of eugenics and phrenology was created. If we were to take DangDad's thesis literally, we'd come to the conclusion that racism in America happened because of the "Curse of Ham" that's the kind of politics you're leading yourself towards. If you can't see the obvious racist implications you're making by trying to compare the struggle of Black people to the Misbegotten, then I'm sorry you know nothing. My contention is not with "the lore" but with the theory that's being used to justifty it. It's wrong. Also you've failed to actually explain how any of these things are - necropolitics - you're just pearl clutching and saying "I don't know the game". Please present an argument. But nevertheless. I think you should actually go and read Necropolitics, rather than acting all high and mighty about a book you didn't hear about until yesterday.
I don’t think it’s disrespectful to apply real-world political theories to fictional universes. Rather than trivializing them, I think it’s a good way to introduce them to people to concepts they might otherwise not have sought out.
Yeah, and real-world political realities / theories inspire the fictional universes in the 1st place!
Also Miyazaki intentionally or unintentionally exposed the flaws in upholding a flawed system, which you can probably relate to as people upholding a dying capitalist system
I'd go even further and claim that all art requires some real-world political application because all art is political, whether you or the creator want it to be or not.
One Piece is fantastic for this.
To me applying real world politics CAN be okay BUT a lot of people don't do it in a good way and are very VERY heavy handed with it and it'll make people recoil.
You forgot to mention the nomads who are also persecuted and were subjected to genocidal treatment not too dissimilar to concentration camps. The nomads share a lot of similarities with the history, culture and treatment of Roma people.
On slavery, demi--humans work under humans in a slave-like relationship, as many demi-humans are made to work via implicit violence. When we first meet them, we experience them as savage and lacking in culture and intellectual capacity, but as we follow Boc's quest line, we learn that despite looking more like monkeys and having a very different social structure to humans, we learn that not only are they capable of deep emotion but are also able to learn skills we would consider complex or difficult. The fact that the demi-human queens are capable of learning magic should also definitely prove that they're intelligent as character stats directly translate to how skilled that character is in that particular stat in-lore, i.e. if a character is invested in a strength build, it means that character is also extremely physically strong whereas a dex build implies great agility and so on and so forth.
There's also the relationship between demi-humans and people with disabilities, especially cognitive, and how people with disabilities are infantilized and put into various work programs to make them look like they are productive under a capitalist system even when it is not actually contributing to their own well-being beyond that they have a daily activity to participate in. The same is also true for the misbegotten as they're also made to work under humans in this way.
Racism, ableism and general bigotry in Elden Ring just goes very deep.
Onze and his quest of solitude is also really interesting, with his lore sort of confirming that the Demi-humans understood the Primeval Glintstone Current as well as (if not better than) the Academy’s Conspectus sorcerers.
For non-Elden Ring people, the little monkey guys weren’t JUST more like humans, but they had possibly better theoretical physicists than the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Holy fuck you're obsessed with victimhood bro.
I'd argue, given their connection to Shabriri, who is named after a jewish demon, that the merchants also have jewish inspiration too. Edit: also like, Jewish people were also at times forced into certain jobs like merchanting by the regimes at the time, following orders by the Church to disallow Christians from doing things like moneylending, and during regular pogroms the wealth that would be built up from that was all stolen by the regime and put into their coffers. Christian kings literally created all the kinds of anti-semetic stereotypes we see today
As a roma I have to agree!
Idk if all the demi humans/demi-human queens had substantial intelligence. The item description for the demi human queen staff seems to provide conflicting accounts on their intelligence. The initial passage points to demi human queens having low intelligence since their staffs “can be wielded even by those of low intelligence” and the next line is ambiguous in its reference: “Sneered at by fools in the academy”. It’s unclear if the people in the academy are fools because they believe that demi humans are too low of intelligence to wield any glinestone staffs or because they think it’s a waste of time to try to foster peace with the demi humans. The shadow of the erdtree dlc does provide some evidence that at least some of the Demi humans are intelligence (and boc isn’t just an anomaly). The item description for star-line sword: “…When bestowed with this weapon by their queen, the swordsmen swear to find the truth that lies at the end of the procession of stars.”
This kind of knowledge based truth seeking is clear indication of not just common intelligence, but higher end intelligence on par with those at the academy of raya lucaria. Whether this is ubiquitous for demi humans or exclusive to the ones connected to queen marrigga in the land of shadows remains unclear however.
Wow, this was unexpected! What a great take on a complicated subject.
As someone who consumes a lot of lore theories, I *REALLY* appreciated your "disclaimer" about this not being about somehow "solving" the story; rather, you have added another lens for interpretation, allowing for a clearer vision of the whole.
Thanks brother!
wondering how miyazaki's foot fetish influences this
that's in my follow-up video on Necropodiatry
Miyazaki is a man of many fetishes
@@ThatDangDadThat's effin funny.
its the eye candy that sells these games.
it gets broke off the same place your head is
In the DLC, Count Ymir tells us that the two fingers that chose Marika and the other gods/orders were flawed from the very beginning, possibly never accurately relating or receiving any guidance from the greater will.
Every order in the lands between started with a lie, the violence of all states has been for nothing; a mistake.
Ah, Let chaos take the world!
I like Ymir's attitude to that situation though, which is just to kinda shrug and make the best of it. He acknowledges chaos but he's not embracing it and he's not despairing. Not sure I fully get what he *is* doing but still.
@@FTZPLTC Why hasn’t anybody asked him why he’s clandestinely stuffing his robe full of juvenile fingercreepers?🤨
He’s trying to replace Metyr,
And birth Fingers who are at least a little less broken. To be a better Mother, in short.
@@jannafrancis7452 Count Ymir was right but his analysis was just one step short. Most people considered the Two Fingers to be flawed, Count Ymir said that it's not the Two Fingers that have become flawed but rather their Mother Metyr. The truth however is that Metyr never stopped trying to commune with the Greater Will. It is the Greater Will itself that cut off all communication. In fact we do not know of a single entity that has successfully reached communion with the Greater Will. Placidusax tried, the Two Fingers tried, Metyr tried, even Count Ymir tried by the end. All of them failed. Either the Greater Will is dead now, or it has become physically so far away that no communication can reach it, or it has completely lost all interest in this world, and never intends to return.
Whichever it is, it is not Metyr that is flawed, but the Greater Will.
Ah yes, taking the guy who intentionally misleads us in an attempt to sacrifice us to Metyr at face value. This has to be the way.
I would like to thank you for taking the time to make actual captions. so many videos rely on the auto generated ones or have inaccurate ones, and I really appreciate it whenever someone has them, especially after RUclips killed community captions.
This has to be one of the best takes I've seen on Elden Rings themes to take such a broad range of story elements, lore, and characters and make it this coherent while exposing it's political commentary (intentional or not) is impressive.
You didn't mention the frenzy flame in much detail but what happened to the traveling merchants and Midrea's mase also fits with this line analysis as they are on the receiving ends of G nocide which subsequently fuels the frenzy flame further. not to mention what happened Markia's own people the shamans under the Hornsent.
I'm reminded of Ansbach's final line "Righteous Tarnished. Become our new lord. A lord not for gods, but for men." while it's up for interpretation to me it seems he is asking that we create an age without gods or the violence of the order they inflict.
Great vid. I think that my prior understanding of the symbolism of Elden Ring - that of overt analogy to hegemonic Christianity and its domination of life, land, and politics from the pre-medieval period to the early modern period - this has actually helped me contextualize NECROPOLITICS retrospectively across history. It also brought to mind a series of conversations over the past few years about the politics of grief and who we "ought" to grieve. In Elden Ring, the state as established by Marika is in a constant process of excising groups as you listed them: The Hornsent, the Omen, the Misbegotten, the sick and heretical and demi-human are all othered in that they are rendered "graceless" by the state. If Erdtree burial is a rite of both death and rebirth, then grieving those honored dead IS tantamount to accepting their return, therefore those the Order wishes to exclude must not be grieved!
What's interesting there is the double-standard this creates with those who live in death, as they're *going* to return regardless of the Order's will. I view the existence of the deathbed maidens as a nod toward this; a state concession toward Death that allows grieving in hopes that they'll stick to that and not go causing a fuss where the poor aristocracy can see. In that way, Leyndell's peeling golden veneer is a shorthand for the importance of optics about as subtle as the mile-high glowing illusory tree.
I believe any attempt to map ER to Christianity should be discarded the second you notice reincarnation.
Reincarnation is one of the most anti Christian concepts of other philosophies/religions. When you die, you wait to be resurrected on the day of judgement, when jesus separates on the left and right the people of the world.
No ghosts, no reincarnation is allowed in christianity.
Don't forget up up to a certain point even the tarnished were "other" and still are treated as such by most people in the game.
@@songbird666 Ayo where the hell is my comment? Why do I get replies but my comment is gone?
I love the subtle use of reverb reminiscent of the audio mixing of these games.
Dude. I'm 5 minutes in and this is the best "in a nutshell" description of the story I've heard. Next time someone asks me what Elden Ring is about, I know where to send them.
Marika...'Merica...
Your opening lines sounded like the most damning criticism of our Foreign and Domestic policy I've ever heard in the context of a game.
I was thinking that too. Marika sounds a lot like merica
I think that's the whole point of this video lol. It's not just about the game.
ok, i guess, i'll try to watch then
@@humanwithaplaylistMarika was also a winged deity of freedom. This whole crap hole is ran by occult weirdos. Y'all really think Washington a damn Free Mason wasn't a pawn and his cronies? Y'all really don't know anything about this country huh?
Damn lmao
The original name for the land of shadow was just the Lands Between. the lands that are between two rivers, the ainsel and siofra]. This is inferred because of the meaning of Mesopotamia, and the fact that therws a shit ton of mesopotamia references and even a babylonion map on a tablet. What is now know as the Lands Between may have been known as the Greater Lamds Between, or perhaps the Lands Between had several meanings. But the suppressing pillar shows us that the Land of Shadow used to just be called the Lands Between
Well it's possible that, like Liurnia or Caelid or Altus or Mt Gelmir or Limgrave or the Weeping Peninsula, the area of the Land of Shadow has a name to refer to it by.
In Japanese the name it can be translated as Lands Between (Or Middle Earth... Martin.) But also Interstice, the space between Reality and World of Ideas in Berserk. Lands Between can be just a place between two continents or s place "beyond the fog" between reality and spiritual world. Or even something more.
I had never heard of necropolitics before, but it does seem to fit quite neatly with the concepts Elden Ring explores. That death is not only something the Elden Lord can exact upon others, but alter the very nature of, is a horrifying prospect that is further elevated with this perspective. To live in death, then, can only be seen as a radical act, a manner of terrorism, even if those who do, do so by no choice of their own.
I find it odd that you didn't touch on the cruelty the Hornsent inflicted on Marika's people, the shamans, in the jar villages and elsewhere. Not because it justifies Marika's actions at all- quite the opposite. Just today I saw people in a Facebook comment section saying that Messmer did nothing wrong- literally missing the forest for the (erd)trees. Messmer preserved the will of his mother and tightly guarded the entrance to her homeland, even as she erased him from history along with the rest of the Land of Shadow. But in doing so, he merely sets the stage for another actor (Miquella and his faithful) to rebel against his own tyranny. Marika and her Golden Order never truly replaced the old order, she simply took the reins, changed the aesthetic, and called it her own.
Miyazaki loves the concept of cyclical histories, and just like in the games before it, it's still very much a theme in Elden Ring.
I think maybe Dang Dad just had the thoughts he had and didn't want to make a 5 hr video. It's been pretty interesting reading other comments on more specific ideas. I think it's okay for a creator to leave some openings for viewers to make their own connections.
And in a place where you CAN comment, your own view can be seen by others and expanded on.
_I can only rule over a nation if I live like its poorest citizens_
"A nation of the living dead?"
_A nation free from the fear of death, a nation with no rueler_
So like re: Ranni. I'm not sure how many people know this, but her dialogue has a major mistranslation in the English version, and it really alters the fundamental basis of what she wants to accomplish.
Basically she believes that having a god and the order of reality be something you can just touch and interact with directly needs to go, its causing some major problems to have a fallible god changing things willy-nilly based on a whim.
So Ranni wants to replace Marika, and take her new god juice and the Elden Lord out of the equation entirely by.....I think fucking off into outer space? So nobody can interfere with things and she also wont be present to be prompted to do that out of self interest. No more gods deciding that Death doesnt exist, no more divinely ordained perverts kidnapping people and doing radical surgery, etc.
I would prefer an option that left us with no more Night of the Black Knives plotters who unleash deathblight on the world tbh.
@@societyman6591 you speak as if the deathblight was the intended result and not just the side effect of the deicide. Ranni isn't some supervillian rubbing her palms together lmao, she's just trying to find a way to break free from her own shackles (in a rather callous way sure, but name me a demigod who doesn't act callously, at least the blue waifu doll plans to fuck off once she gets godhood, which is more than I can say for the others.)
@@aarlanng I am simply describing what Ranni did, which is always glossed over when people want to act like she's some sort of liberator. It's very possible her murder of Godwyn was the catalyst for the shattering war itself, too. There is no indication that Ranni herself intends to fuck off either, she simply wants the Greater Will to fuck off.
It's all the more strange when we learn that Miquella was able to shed his flesh and break his great rune without doing a black magic murder ritual that unleashes undeath cancer on world, so Ranni did that purely out of a desire to turn Godwyn into a weird half dead monster rather than just murder him outright, I guess. Or maybe she has no idea what she's doing.
@@societyman6591
Godwyn's death was absolutely the catalyst for The Shattering, he was Marika's pride and joy and was called "The Golden" for a reason.
He was powerful and beautiful and beloved by all.
Ranni had no way of knowing tho what would become of his body after killing his soul, she simply wanted to free herself of her own shackles.
As for Miquella, they may both be empyreans but Miquella is hyped up alot more in terms of power than she is and unlike Ranni, he did most if not all of his own dirty work to get where he got.
He created the Haligtree to house those shunned by Marika
He created the unalloyed gold needles to try and cure Malenia
He performed the eclipse to try and revive Godwyn.
In short Miquella was simply more powerful than Ranni and likely just as smart.
Ranni simply schemed and had others do her dirty work for her.
All she does is kill herself, Seluvis, and her Two Fingers and even then. That last one? She couldn't even do that until after *we* kill Radahn to get to Nokron to get her a weapon specifically made to kill her opps, and even then she barely succeeded
There's no mistranslation for Ranni at all though. A bunch of people just decided that because they refused to believe it was written correctly from the get go.The game is voiced in English only, the dialogue isn't wrong, they're not just going to mess up something so crucial. She lays bare for us what she's done, believes in, and intends to do.
It's great dialogue from her and people should just accept it.
This is an excellent reading of the game. Too many people get caught up on specific character lore and breaking down completely accurate timelines, myself included. That stuff is all good and fun to get lost in, but Fromsoft games always have overt themes that strike me as the more important things for the audience to engage with rather than the minutia, and I think you nailed one of the biggest themes with this video. I also really appreciate your line about not caring about being right but being thoughtful. That seems to be a mentality that is pretty lacking in the lore community of this game.
There are plenty of great lore tubers who do deeper thematic looks at this game in case you want some names. Scum mage infa, Kate the kind, kite tales, the centered tarnished, quelaag, tarnished archeologist, zayf the scholar, are some I can think of off the top. But I'm sure others will come with more. I hope you check them out and enjoy their stuff.
@@mintkit1064 I like and have followed a lot of people you've listed for years now, but Scum Mage Infa really shouldn't be on anyone's list. He's made some truly poorly reasoned videos, and I find his responses to criticism to be the opposite mentality of the creator of this video.
The root of all power is sacrifice, and sovereignty is deciding what and who gets sacrificed.
Don’t forget about Michel de Certeau and the return of the repressed. That which is suppressed by the dominant culture returns as an omen of the original suppression, re-biting its conquerors through subversive action.
Your best. Both Mbembe and Fromsoft would be proud.
I've always thought this, but don't make videos. Glad someone finally made the leap. Thank you for your effort.
Really insightful video. Intriguingly, not only does the dlc boasts the "colonial" factor but it also frames it to metaphysical level. The idea of a systemic search for transcendence by the living exercising power on other and the systemic massacre that accompanied it as a sort of sacrifice for a necessary energy (the crucible) is revealing as the bodies encased in the walls of many grand cities, up to the gate itself. Then the dragons in the earth of Farum Azula or hell, the giant bodies within the very lands between themselves cast an intriguing light on the living, an immemorial fact: as if even beyond civilization this relationship we entertain with power and exercising it is instrumental to the very act of living and it brings sense to the alternative: Ranni’s ending, remote with hints of the inorganic, the systemic and Frenzied Flame, a surrender, a nuclear solution (to the problem: life). Not saying I agree with Fromsoft on the fatalism but it's an intriguing mindscape to say the least. Cool video, and thanks for the future readings !
The thing with the Hornsent and Marika, as well as Miquella, they represent the eternal cycle of the corruption that power brought. In the pursuit of power and overcoming the struggle, justice for Marika's genocided people in Marika's case or healing the scars Marika's tyranny in Miquella's case, even the most noble of intention decay and reborn once again into the same kind of sovereignty. Like how empires rise and fall, how companies made employees fleeing corrupted ones eventually be corrupted themselves.
I have been obsessed trying to derive the deeper meanings of this game and have been waiting for someone to talk about it on these terms, awesome video dude.
what a great video! was just reading through necropolitics for a class last week, always heartening to see thoughtful lenses applied to any media analysis, but especially elden ring where the glass ceiling is often endless search for some "true" interpretation of the developers vision. its a breath of fresh air and honestly surprises me that so few people take that approach, given the depth of symbolism and analogy layered throughout every fromsoft game. i find that richness of inspiration and care to be the most compelling aspect of their work in general, it lends itself so well to a broad range of readings/perspectives. whether or not miyazaki and co had Mbembe on the mind when creating elden ring, they created a work of fiction deeply rooted in the history of our world - the foundations of which are so painfully laid bare by necropolitics. its only natural then that a similar analysis would find a place in examining elden ring.
Jarburg. Never forget
How did you put a search term in your comment? I can't find a guide for it online
I just finished my fifth and probably last playthrough of this game, having completed the base game thrice and now the shadow of the erdtree twice. what an amazing way to send off one of my most favorite games recently, this was an exellent and thoughtful video.
The madlad actually did it... I thought the community post was a joke
I was going with the colonization angle, but this is gold.
You ain’t wrong.
Necropolitics is rooted in theory colonialism theory.
Also don’t say “gold” you’ll get attention of either Michilla or the Spanish empire. Historically, no one expected either of them to conquer the world until it was to late.
Between this and Bloodborne (see: what the ol' scholars of Byrgenwerth did to the Fishing Hamlet), it seems someone over at From Soft is thinking a lot about the horrors of colonialism. (Perhaps subconsciously.)
They are japanese, so they usually think about this in their more serious games. The final fantasy games almost always have anti colonialist, anti oligarchy and anti blind religion messages (ff6 through 13 have all of the above if memory serves)
Everything Miyazaki does is deliberate. He is really highly educated
I think Redgrave used to point out how Fishing hamlet mirrors the Minamata incident in many ways. The area deff invokes ideas of helplessness and horror in the face of corporate tyranny, as the clocktower feels more like a corporate RnD lab rather than the academic place of learning of Byrgenwerth.
@@mrptr9013 ironic it is what they have done to many countries during ww2.
Miyazaki himself has a degree in social sciences. I personally think it's very intentional
Love the vid, it effectively and insightfully articulates a lot of the concepts I've been seeing in game.
One of the things that jumped to me immediately after finishing the DLC were the parallels Marika's genocide of the Hornsent and Cortez's eradication of the Azteq.
In both instances there's a degree of moral justification over the atrocities which occurred therein because of the frankly *horrendous* cultural practices both systems demanded, yet in both cases we have a gratuitous massacre of mostly innocent civilians (the average citizen was raised in a context where these were normalized, only a select few elites maintained and promulgates these customs) and a unilateral cultural eradication which robbed the world of valuable knowledge and history which we can never recover.
Cortez's conquest of the city was made possible in large part through the assistance of a native woman known today as La Malinche who acted as an interpreter, thus allowing Cortez to confederate a vast army of other native peoples who *very understandably* wanted their Mexica neighbors gone because of the whole human sacrifice and ritualistic cannibalism. He reduced most of the city (a marvel which supported a larger population than much of Europe's metropoles at the time) to rubble, massacred tens of thousands of civilians and enslaved the survivors, burned down their records and subsequently caused the region to become arid by the supplanting of their farming practices. This was justified through religious reasoning and carried out by Conquistadors who were themselves dogmatic Catholics (they initially earned their name due to the Reconquista) and the unsavory details were either erased or justified wholesale due to the aforementioned.
Messmer's crusade was carried out with extreme prejudice by a combined force, with a core of religious fanatics from the Golden Order, and support from Carians elites and Academy Marionettes (the Fire Golems) as righteous vengeance upon the Hornsent for what they'd done to Marika and the Shamans. It was not reigned in by honor or mercy like the war with the Ancient Dragons or Liurnia due to the Jarring process and their own religious justifications as zealous fundamentalists. While Messmer himself preserved much of their works, only the stone tablets in Marika's bedchamber were effectively saved, with the rest now trapped behind the veil and forever lost to the rest of the world. Also, Cortez initially had diplomatic relations with the Mexica, Montezuma came to suspect he might be the living incarnation of their God Quetzalcoatl, and was accordingly treated as an honored guest. He then turned on them, held the king hostage and eventually got chased from the city, which echoes Marika (working through Messmer) and her "seduction and betrayal" of the Hornsent (as a Jar); Quetzalcoatl was also a winged serpent, like Messmer's little red danger-noodles.
Also, Messmer's serpent being subdued by the allure of Gold reminds of Cortez telling Monctezuma that the Spaniards had a disease which only gold could cure/treat.
Honestly I think wrapped up in all of this might be an answer to the community's hottest topic: who is the Gloam Eyed Queen? Like Marika she's a mother figure, but she was associated with death and her powers had to be confined and subsumed by Marika in order to establish her order. Just like the colony and democracy, the GEQ is Marika's shadow: a violent, necessary evil that the state doesn't want people to look at but is nevertheless essential to its power.
Honestly it might sound weird to people but I think that the GEQ is the grandmother. Who marika left the golden braid as a prayer for in Shaman Village. It's a simple theory but it makes sense to me at least.
Classic theory is GEQ is Melina. We know Melina is Marika's Daughter and it's said GEQ was an Empyrean, people who always were children of Marika. GEQ was the previous Rune of Death keeper and at some point she started to kill Demigods with her Godskin, but it was Marika who removed the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring, so Marika used GEQ as a Keeper, and who better than a Daughter? Then it failed and Maliketh took the Rune until we kill him. Melina or not, i think GEQ was a Marika's child.
I always viewed the omens, those who live in death, misbegotten, etc. through the lens of that which the authoritarians squeeze the hardest being what slips through its grasp. The stuff Marika wanted gone so very badly being precisely what nibbles away at the corners. I wasn't familiar with Necropolitics until this video, but it's a great lense to look at Elden Ring through. Also, your dude looks exactly like my first dude, so nice.
Not sure why this got me thinking of "There is no war in Ba Sing Se"...
I have never clicked on a video title from an unknown channel faster
hope i did ya proud!
@@ThatDangDad you absolutely did. I had a religious studies professor back in college who talked about Mbembe’s Necropolitics a lot, and the moment I saw the title of this video I immediately went, “Oooooohhhhh, yeah he’s right”. Video itself does a great job of discussing the concept in an accessible way.
This is not a compilation of bedtime stories.
depends on what makes you sleepy
Do people not go to sleep with rythmic clanking and distant chanting?@@ThatDangDad
@@ThatDangDad What is sleep if not a playful dance with death?
@@tristanneal9552 what if every dream is the creation of a new universe that we exist in without our knowledge?
@tristanneal9552 and in some traditions, sleep is the cousin of death
i need to read this work necropolitics, seems to be an interesting exploration about our current governance systems
Hey TDD, this was a truly great connection to make and now I'm applying this lens everywhere. I'm now looking at the Dark Souls series, and all I'm seeing all the way down are monarchs destroying death itself in an effort to extend their reigns.
I'm also playing through Space Marine 2, thinking about the Warhammer 40k universe - this game literally begins with the main character being brought back from the dead in order to serve the imperium.
Necropolitics is the modus operandi of the imperium - whole work-worlds (death-worlds?) are maintained with as little personhood for its citizens as possible, they've been genetically engineered to be as non-person as possible.
In some cases people's minds have been so broken by the imperium that they become living machines, "servitors."
Since when did gaming get all necropolitical? Keep your necropolitics out of my video games!
*cough*
frfr. i liked it when my game were about the collective unconscious
politics in a video game does not need to mean real world politics
you forgot to add a modifier at the end of your comment with a "/s" indicator XD
@@deathandrebirth-y8x THE UNENLIGHTENED MASSES
There are two genders/races/orientations in Elden Ring: Alive and Necropolitical
This is fantastic! Mbembe is one of the most important philosophers for today's thinkers to contemplate!
Achille Mbembe + Elden Ring, that was unexpected. Thanks for this interesting analysis!
I have not seen a better explanation of the golden order thus far
to any who would dismiss analyzing Elden Ring with a real world political lense as a view "not intended by its creators" . So that godess? the one that had noble sounding ideals that she pursued with brutality, genocide, and duplicity? those goals being essentially...infinite, endless bounty and prosperity? but that couldn't possibly work forever? ...yeah that godess. .... say....whats her name?
I am not saying that its DEFINITELY a direct reference. But both miyazaki and george rr martin are reaaally fond of naming their stuff puns and references. they had to at least be aware
everyone would do it had they had the chance.
theres been a age of rot. age of the crucible. age of the dragons.
people just hate marika because she is the latest god.
This is wired, I never got a chance to play Elden Ring when it came out and decided to dive back in over the weekend and .... here you are.... The Universe is strange.
"The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters."
-Antonio Gramsci
I think anyone who's done even a surface-level reading of any serious anti-colonial texts will immediately understand just how well From (since Demon's Souls) really understand colonialism as a political mechanism. Their constant obsession with death, undeath, immortality, and stagnation, worlds that are long past their peak but struggling to preserve themselves in these wretched states of decay, and their constant depictions of the violence that was used to create these social orders being turned inwards to preserve them no matter the cost, has always demonstrated to me just how much they really *get* it.
They also deal heavily with the propaganda inherent to colonialism, with the ending that breaks the cycle and brings the world forward into something new always being the hardest to achieve, requiring the most attention to all the hints the games leave you to not be fooled by the veneer placed over the decaying order by the Gods who will you to fight in their name, be they Gwyn or Marika, and also making those endings shadowy and uncertain, seeming at a glace to be more of a terrifying leap of faith than just keeping things as they are while they continue to diminish further. Because taking the world forward into a new cycle, a new revolution, choosing willingly not to cling to a comforting familiarity that you know in the back of your mind causes untold harm, *is* scary and *does* require a lot of effort and study and a recalibration of your basic understanding of the political reality that was always sold to you.
Elden Ring goes the furthest into these themes, I think in part because much of the backstory was written by a massive European History Nerd in GRRM who loves to allay these colonial forces against each others and watch how the material realities that determine their relative strengths, and the bloodshed that results from it, unfolds and becomes the engine of history, but this is something Miyazaki has clearly been studying and thinking a lot about since very early on and understood that video games, which place the player character into an endless cycle of death and rebirth, were a perfect mechanism for exploring those ideas. By making games where every death the player character experiences *really happens* (and where quitting the game entirely is a canonical ending for that character as much as any other), he understood that mechanics that can only exist in fantasy worlds and the fickle way they treat death, lead to immediately landing upon how "death," and a person's proximity to it, their ability to either deal in it or their forcible confrontation with it at the hands of others, is so frequently laid out as the operative political reality of Colonialism. Necropolitics.
this was the video on elden ring i was waiting for. Thank you for bringing an analysis of power to this. Subscribed for sure.
Also I wonder if the other side of the coin of this is the story of trauma that follows the actions of characters in this game - the lines of causality. Minor point but maybe you could interpret Marika as having been a shaman, and having been the "jar shaman" the hornsent were trying to create. That lens is very interesting to me. The implications of the cyclical nature of violence really lands home for me with that one.
On another note, ego also underlies this game heavily. Lots to talk about, what a masterpiece.
The rune of death had to be removed from the elden rubg prior to godwins assassination. Maliketh had the rune of death secured and a fragment was stolen from him (probably by marika) to assist ranni in the plot of the night of the black knives. Just wanted to point out that removing death from the world had to happen before godwins death and subsequent transformation into the prince of death.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Wonderfully produced, and thoroughly argued. You did such a phenomenal job here, congratulations! I really enjoy this perspective of viewing the world and story of Elden Ring...what a game!
edit: btw, I really enjoyed your decision to add reverb when you read out from "Necropolitics", and the choice of background being the thorned door of the Erdtree was fantastic!
One of the best videos I’ve seen in nearly 20 years of using this site. Well done
Many have said and it bears repeating-this is a lovely read on this game. I was constantly thinking of the biopolitical and of necropolitics while playing it. There's an anti-fascist message in the psychology and action of Merika's responses to her own tortured past, her own subjugation. She responded with vengeful gestures of "NEVER AGAIN," which, as we well know, is a sure-fire way to make it happen again. And it did! The repressed always return in some form or fashion. I think about Amiee Cesaire's comment that "fascism is colonialism turned inward," a similar argument to Mbembe's Necropolitics.
There's so much here to talk about-thanks for taking the time to make this!
Good video. There's a few other references to social theory in the game, with maybe the most obvious being the Golden Bough (the sacrificial subject of which also has a lot of similarities to what happens in Elden Ring). Miyazaki himself is a graduate of a social science faculty, so I would not be surprised if he or people on his team have also read Foucault and Mbembe.
"Sooner or later, one will reap at home what one has sown abroad" Now I wish I'd watched this video yesterday, when I stumbled upon this concept from a visual angle.
Essentially, taking the proverb to its literal origins its about using a scythe to cut stalks of grass or grain. Chatting with some folks about the DLC and it was pointed out that a new asset has been introduced in the villages: bales of straw or hay. There is one notable new NPC who uses a scythe: Ansbach.
Ansbach can be invited to the final battle against Miquella and Radahn, to "reap" them. Arguably, Ansbach is also responsible for the situation of Miquella being taken by the Lord of Blood as he once "cleaved open Miquella with his blood blade", witnessed by Needle Knight Leda (different kind of "sewing").
Now, I know that there are mixed opinions about the Radahn/Miquella final boss fight. It's nonsensical, or wish-fulfillment for everyone who wanted to fight "prime" Radahn, or a retcon with no foreshadowing. And I think that's the point: its a strawman. A "strawman fallacy" is generally "refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction." The fight seemingly comes out of nowhere because the race to get to the end first and defeat the boss is a distraction from taking the time to really linger over the rest of the Shadowlands and think about the themes being developed.
But other that that, yes thank you for making this video that is a good overview of necropolitics themes in the game!
Small thing, as the lore is crazy dense and these details are easily missed, Marika removed the rune of Death long before Godwyn was killed, and his death led to the reintroduction of the rune into the world of the Erdtree in the form of deathroot. She likely removed the rune when the Erdtree was first burnt a long time ago during the war with the Gloam-Eyed Queen.
Anyways, this is a fantastic video. I was thinking a lot about this topic when I played the DLC too, and hadn't learned about Mbembe yet. It's crucial we recognize how liberal democracies are themselves dangers to the ideals they claim to uphold, like liberation, when they're conducted without a critical eye towards what it will take to really make it so everyone has an equal place at the table.
This is not a crossover I was expecting but I could not be more here for it
About the children of Marika all being cursed one way or another, for Godwyn, I think he was cursed by deathblight even before the Night of the black knives
It seems odd that all of his siblings are cursed when he is not, but most importantly, a lot link him to the curse and point towards him having it even before its assassination :
-He is called the Prince of Death throughout the game, which could easily come from before his murder
-His knights are called the Death knights, and that's a name that came before the murder
-The rune of Death is capable to kill gods, but it has no link to Deathblight. The black knives deal no damage of the sort, so the curse doesn't come from here
And if a body cursed with deathblight is ripped of his soul, the fact that its curse takes over makes sense to me. His body is still alive but Godwyn is not here anymore to fight its spread.
This is a great video, I loved what you had to say and the quotes you added. I especially like the part about her children, the past is impossible to bury and rears it's head in her own kids.
Marika is Shinzo Abe, and the Japan he created.
Incredible video, your analysis will be rattling in my brain in the coming days as I tackle the rest of the DLC. Excellent work, I enjoyed every second!
And someone who didn’t have enough time to play this game as much as I wish I could have, I enjoyed stepping through the games lower with this analogy
I always value lore videos that talk about ideas larger than just "who is melina? who is the snake?"
The themes are where the game really shines, everything else serves the core themes and is purposefully obscured so you don't get distracted from them.
As someone who’s way too into necropolitical theory, and OBSESSED with Elden ring, this is A DREAM
My brain refuses to accept “knee-crow politics”. I will always pronounce it “neck-row politics”.
(Snarkiness aside, this was an awesome video from one of my favorite creators. Exactly the sort of thought-provoking content I subscribed for!)
po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
phil, you can’t be reminding me of elden ring while i’m still busy with wukong
As an unhinged Elden Ring lore fanatic who's been subbed for months without watching a single video (sorry) I am absolutely here for this
Fantastic analysis--I haven't read Mbembe's "Necropolitics" but I have just picked it up! I have been interested in the biopolitics of Elden Ring for quite some time and I think you hit the nail on the head here--death is central to the mechanisms that govern the Lands Between. Hope to see more FromSoftware video essays from this channel!
I got to say, i love your references to Mbembe, i remeber reading his work several years ago, and i remember distincly watching some early video essays and making the connections between in-game concepts and Fanonian subjwct matter i was reading back when the game came out. I didnt think anyone else had recognized it. I love this video so much!
so interesting. i didnt know much about elden rings before but was intrigued by the topic. awesome video and thank you for adding captions
also as someone not familiar with the game, i genuinely thought the goddess was named Murica with how you say her name which is quite fitting with the angle of this topic :3
Necropolitics is an excellent fusion of two of the throughline obsessions of the Souls series of games (of which Elden Ring is a thematic member, if not a direct one): Sovereignty and the consequences of Thanatophobia.
Having just watched video by philosophy tube about necropolitics this was a great tie in to one of my favorite medias. Great video 👍🏽👍🏽
Awesome. Just awesomw, ive been waiting for anyone to really dig deep into these themes that have always been present in soulsborne games, but particularly in elden ring. It is a deeply political work (which, surprise surprise, its written by george rr martin) and its been disquieting how much people do to avoid discussing those themes.
On a side note, something that has been niggling at my mind for awhile is what marika's role as from a violently oppressed group (the shamans) means. So much of what she did to the hornsent was in revenge, but she takes it so so much further.
I'm also interested in hearing your thoughts about micquella's idea of radical compassion. Its something i have a lot of thoughts about, but all anyone wants to talk about is how lol MOGH BEAT THE ALLEGATIONS. Which is....weird.
Sigh. Btw tho..you should check out the tarnished archeologist, if youre interested. They do a lot of great work of exploring soulsborne games through the eyes of historical, political, and religious context built into the architecture and customs of these worlds. If youre not already aware of them, i think youd enjoy their work
Oh yeah, TA whips, probably my favorite of the "scholarly lore-tubers".
In (very) brief, thinking about Marika's marginalization and subsequent reproduction of oppression, the whole thing makes me think about a (possibly tenuous) connection to the whole concept of "dismantling the master's house with the master's tools" kind of situation. Marika's people were worthy of liberation but her ideology does not seem rooted in compassion. She doesn't want boots off necks, she just wants to wear the boot. At the same time, the more I study the game, the more she strikes me as a deeeeeply tragic figure, someone responding to trauma in ways that merely multiply trauma rather than reducing it. I would have to sit down and really mull over some other theorists to flesh that out.
Miquella is a fascinating figure to me too, also quite tragic, cursed to never quite finish what he starts. My reading of the DLC is that Miquella's thousand year voyage of compassion would be made possible with some kind of mind-control, some kind of stripping of autonomy. If I was going to get really cheeky with applying theory to games, I would make some argument about Goldmask's ending being a reformist position, Ranni's being an anarchist position, and Miquella's being a kind of state communism-type position (and the Flame of Frenzy being the boogaloo boys!). I would have to really sit down and think that through though so as not to be too reductive.
It does bother me though that Miquella felt the need to divest himself of Love and Fear in order to become a leader because I think leaders should move in love and have a healthy fear of messing up :)
People give way too much credit to GRRM on that front, imo.
Miyazaki is a Sociology Major. Every game he did with From is like, HEAVY on sociological themes, and I'm absolutely sure that the overarching themes come from that side, even more so since they're so consistently his style.
@@ThatDangDad Dude, I can't believe I never made the connection until I read your comment. Miquella's curse of eternal youthfulness reflects not just in his physical appearance, but also - as you've said for me - he's 'cursed to never quite finish what he starts'. Much like himself, the things he devises never manage to reach maturity.
This reading feels pretty spot-on to ideas i got out of the game! On this thread, the game characterizes almost every faction and culture through its funerary rituals and "afterlife" beliefs. Theres erdtree burial, worship of ancestral spirits, supernatural cremation etc etc. It seems like in the game's moral universe, sealing the rune of death was a mistake because it traps souls in place and spoils so many people's rituals surrounding burial and how to treat the spirits of the dead
It's a bit sad that we live in a world in which you felt compelled to make a disclaimer that you are in fact not chasing after some futile notion of a correct reading, but I appreciate the resulting thoughtfulness all the same. And in case this sounds stiff and slightly hostile, I'm sincere here, I really liked your take and that unlike so many soulsborne videos you are in fact not looking for the elusive authorial intention as if it were relevant in any form or fashion. Very well presented and certainly an interesting lense to use.
This is the kind of lore and narrative analysis that I consider to be one step above most of the rest. Look around anywhere online in FromSoft fan communities and you’ll see plenty of people who accuse them of being lazy with their lore or vague for the sake of being vague. And yet there is SO MUCH that can be gleaned and discussed each time this dev studio drops a new game.
I also really appreciated your quote about being more concerned with being thoughtful than being right. Tons of Elden Ring lore youtubers could take notes from that…
There were a couple times that I thought you were just describing the story of the game when you were actually quoting Mbembe, so that's interesting.
Also, visiting the Shadow Realm stripped away any subtlety in the game's text for me. It was _just_ about g*nocide, nothing less and nothing more. It didn't feel like something that took place in a distant fantasy world, like so much of the main game did. I can't remember which, but some of the item descriptions discuss the attitudes of the Fire Knights (for the unfamiliar, those were the soldiers who carried out the g*nocide) and how the more violent they were, the more pure they thought themselves.
This is a spectacular video phil! (You could have talked about her genocide/oppression of the nomadic merchants but other than that this is a specatular critical analysis
Did not expect nor even think to ask for you to outdo Vaati in analysis and presentation
I really, really love this video. This is the sort of video essay analysis that I want to see. Thank you for your hard work.
Pretty legit. Any "You're overthinking it!" pushback can legitimately be laughed out of the room because there's really no such thing as that where Elden Ring's concerned =)
And colonialism always reminds me of the way Gravity's Rainbow described Africa as "Europe's outhouse, where a man can go to enjoy the smell of his own shit". Obviously not a flattering portrayal, but I think it connects to the idea that democracy and colonialism creates these dysfunctional places on purpose, for their utility to the "functional" society. I'm sure Marika and the Golden Order found all of the people they condemned useful in one way or another, even if just to make examples of.
Get laid, leftard🤡
yes finally my undergrad readings coming in handy. Just from the title a truly fascinating point, simultaniously the golden order (and in some ways the outer will) both deciding who get to live forever and who get to die. very interesting reading.
I definitely think the Outer Gods were there Pre-Marika, and that Marika is herself a part of an ongoing game or war between them, and I do also wish that this essay went more into colonialism -- I watched this video with my partner who had some Thoughts about it, largely that incorporating some real world examples of necropolitics would have made the point more complete and that talking more about how colonialism exists within Elden Ring would have made this a stronger Essay rather than, like, a gentle overlay of the theory onto the game. Overall, though, it was cool to watch, keep making good stuff!
Given that we know the Black Knife assassins where noble Numen living in the old eternal city portion of Leyndell, and the noble class found out about and fought back against the atrocities commit in the land of shadows, as many of Messmers knights where sons of noble families. And revolted at one point.
I wouldn't be surprised if the motivation for Godwyns and other nameless demigods murder was the slaying of their children. The assassins all women slaying one child of Marikas for every child of theirs put to the sword for opposing her genocidal war.
Back again because this reading is incomparable. It's no single person's responsibility to supply every possible perspective of a text, I hope your comments section isn't too bananas. This is the kind of analysis I want to see: actual interpretation and expounding of ideas.
Excellent commentary, and delightfully concise in this age of three-hour video "essays" (often more just rambling summations with little actual analysis). NECROPOLITICS is certainly going to have to go on my reading list now!
Maybe one of the most interesting lore dives into Elden Ring I've heard, thanks for the video
The association of real world Necropolitics to the fantasy world building of Elden Ring was not something I was expecting to come across, but here we are. Your video literally made me go out and buy the book and read it, then rewatch this video again lol. Necropolitics is not an easy read as the academic caliber of it is quite something, but the insights and perspectives that Mbembe has are even more eye opening. Truly appreciated your work on this video, well done :)
aw i'm so glad you vibed on it! :)
Dude, amazing video! Subscribed. And, I've also added like half of the videos on your channel to my Watch Later because every single one sounded enticing. Looking forward to seeing more 🙏
This video is so good ❤ thank you for making it! I had heard of Mbembe’s work years ago through another channel, but I had forgotten about it. This really inspired me to pick it back up!
Actual thoughtful analysis, with a lovely natural flow to the script and performance. Thanks as well for an introduction to Mbembe's work. Fantastic stuff!
A breath of fresh air, a genuinely intelligent reading of Elden ring!
This was fantastic and thought provoking. Good shit!
This is the only ER lore video I've seen that makes any goddamn sense
Pyre March is super cool. I love music where you're like "oh, THAT'S the tempo?" when the kick finally comes in.
You have given me a new facet, a fresh layer of depth with which to enjoy this game along side Hermeticism, Alchemy and Psychology.
I thank you for the contemplation, there is much here to meditate on.
Incredible video, from the perspective of someone who has neither played ER nor read Mbembe i still feel like i took a lot from this!
video starts at 1:01
?? it starts at 0:00, there's music and everything!
@ThatDangDad sorry, but it was kinda long. Interesting vid tho
@ThatDangDad intro was boring af brother 😂
"I think it's important that when we turn off the game, and return to our comfortable lives in our democracies..."
Dudes in North Korea rn watching this -> 💀💀💀
... or in the colonies.
Like me. :'3
I'm watching this as i slave in an office job that pays too little to mantain my family. Heh.
Absolutely fantastic video. Thank you for this. Another really interesting angle and thematic lens to dive into the game. I do not think the game's internal narrative(plot/timeline) is fully coherent, but the various metaanalyses that have cropped up in the last few months have really done so much to elevate the story given to us in the game
Man. Thought I was getting necromancer politics. Which I guess is still true, in a round about way.
4:00 - That's a new take! I've not heard the Elden Ring described as "source code" that writes the rules of reality, but it's a really, really good metaphor!
Quelaag described it almost verbatim like that just saying
@@doggodoggo3000 I've tried watching Quelaag, but her vids are SO long and she speaks SO quietly and it makes me SO sleepy. Like a college prof that knows plenty, but can't keep their class awake, kinda vibe.
@@86fifty I like quelaag a lot. But I feel you, her whiteboard videos aren't exactly crafted to be viewer friendly.
She's one of the best channels for digging into the art of elden ring, though I disagree with a lot of her takes.
And she isn't vegan so that bothers me. I only mention that because I think it plays into her interpretations. For example how much she rides for Saint Trina I see as an appeal to nature more or less. Which is a logical fallacy used by carnists alot. She talks about stuff like climate change and exploitation and capitalism and all the woke stuff yet prioritizes her pleasure when it comes to choosing to eat animals and supporting exploitation.
@@doggodoggo3000 Oh honey... Bringing up veganism unprompted? Sounds like you're really struggling with the fact that not every human CAN participate in veganism.
Some people medically cannot. Others financially cannot. If it really bothers you so much that people face those barriers? You can do a lot of good in the world by working to reduce medical and financial suffering.
You'll face a lot of pushback if you individually chastize other people for "prioritizing their pleasure" in this limited life we have, with limited time, limited bodies, limited money.
On the highest level, everyone wants to avoid pain and chase joy. But they all go about it differently. And that's okay.
At the end of the day, people will do what is easiest for them. Making the right thing easy to do, is the best way to make people do a thing.
@@86fifty veganism is cheaper in most places and the meat industry is poisoning people in a variety of ways.
Also quelaag has been homeless, the animal agriculture industry plays into the homeless problem as well due to the inefficient land use at scale
I didn't bring it up unprompted, I was talking about quelaags interpretations of the game and she had a pretty glaring moral inconsistency. We agree on a lot, but I don't like st. Trina like that.
Slightly unrelated but your Pyre March track sounds amazing, reminds me of the music of Cut Hands