The relationship between the dark and light is illustrated in Gwyn's first sin. In linking the first flame, Gwyn links the first flame to the concept of dark. Dark was originally just supposed to eat away at light, but Gwyn's linking allows light to eat away at dark. This creates an ouroborous, a snake that eats its own tail and a symbol for infinity. But because the snake grows at the same rate which it eats itself, it cannot change. It begins to stagnate, to grow old, and to lose itself in its endless hunger. Sometimes, snakes do actually swallow themselves. And oftentimes snake handlers need to give their slithery buddies a hand so they don't choke to death. That's how I read usurping the flame. Because an ashen one is completely "burnt out," with no light inside of it. It is able to grab the immortal snake and pull the tail from its mouth
The first sin wasnt linking the fire, it was banishing dark. "Once the lord of light banished dark, and all that stemmed from humanity. These are the roots of our world." In dark souls 3 as the fire fades a dark sign appears in the sky. The dark sign is a seal of fire placed on man ..and the entire world.. to seal away and control the dark. This is the first sin.
@@JayWhipp1e exactly. That "seal of fire" is the first flame burning away our humanity to keep itself going. That's why we sacrifice humanity, which is a fragment of the dark soul, to get our human forms back in DS1, and it's why when we "link the fire" as the game prompts us, we banish the coming dark by sacrificing both our regular souls and our humanity. It's why no matter what you do the world turns into ash at the end of dark souls 3's DLC
I feel it's worth pointing out the that, as you say, the "Hollow corpses" are not actually dead bodies, they're Hollows who simply laid down and stopped moving, most of which still carried an item or souls or armor, and this is why some of them scream when you take these items from them in DS3.
I think the Dark Sigil question works like this: I think the Dark Sigil is an expression of the Dark overflowing due to the accumulation of Dark. I do believe the Curse and the Dark are one and the same, but in the sense that the Dark is eating the inherent life of the player, which curses the player, and grows the Dark within - causing the dark to overflow. This would explain why the Lord of Hollows ending works for you: you're building yourself up to be a bearer of the Flame, building yourself up to consume it with the overwhelming level of Dark accumulated within you.
It's weird, this video isn't appearing in my sub feed. Very interesting video! Slightly surprised you didn't mention the Ringed Knights' darksign which hints at the Gods branding humanity with it or the giant darksign in the sky in Dks3. My personal interpretation was that the Darksign was a tool Gwyn and the Gods used to contain and control humanity's darkness and prevent them from becoming a threat. But since it's a ring of fire, it loses its ability to do so when the First Flame starts to fade, hence leading to humanity being undying and then hollowing. The giant darksign in the sky would be a sign of the First Flame basically dying and fading for good.
Hey, thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, maybe I should've included the stuff with the Ringed City more, but it didn't feel strictly necessary with how this ended up.
As the Gravewarden said light agitates the dark and when dark is in contact with life it devours it. I think life being a curse expresses the concept of dukkha (clinging that causes suffering) as there is aging; sickness; birth; death, life naturally causes craving unless the attachment to life is broken. Nirvana in buddhism is described as blowing out a fire or hunger for life. This can be seen to be metaphorically represented by the dragon path ,in dark souls 3 where hollows are able to transform into dragons are seen meditating in the lotus position which in Buddhism is used for insight meditation (understanding experiential phenomena ) and serenity meditation (breaking down attachments), as their reliance on fire wanes away and darkness empties the abyss within men become truly empty and void. It's also interesting to note that pygmy bodies look like they are made from darkness, however they aren't wild feral beings like Darkwraiths or Deep monstrosities, probably because their society formed without the light present/ craving for life. Real past pygmy societies are humble lives that live and die according to nature around them, they never needed more. btw the bit about insight and serenity might explain why Seethe goes batshit insane, in his quest for never ending life his attachment to life became so strong that all the constructs of phenomena that he learned made him become delusional, becoming lost in his own thoughts and all that.
@@core-nix1885 It's interesting because it relates to the interdependent nature of the concepts that the lord souls and dark soul represent. The fire link is burning up the other conditions that arise existence, in buddhism existence is an ongoing process that is made up 5 groups of processes (1 physical and 4 mental) and that our entire being is not contained within a single unchanging object aka a soul/consciousness. It's interesting to note that mental formations are known as the will to act (according to karma), we can take this to mean the dark soul or humanity. This means that you can have the will to act without sapience or the ability to perceive. This may be why characters who fall to the dark become feral as they are infused with creation's will to survive gone mad by creation's perceptions, ego, pain and pleasure. btw let's think about how powerful the event of fire linking must be, to artificially change the fabric of space and time it must have been like a spiritual atomic bomb going off.
Also, the Dark Sigil is the wound of Philianore's Holy Lance, a reference to Longinus (see also: DS2 Gargoyle Bident). Also, also, grass is associated with erosion (shoku).
Kaathe understood that the Dark soul is sustained by consuming the lives of others, or souls. And that souls are precisely what shackles the will of humans, or hollows. Life shackles the dark. Kaathe believed in the mission of the Lord of Hollows, which was to strip the identity - souls - of the Hollows and present them with a new, collective identity within their darkness. But it isn't clear if the Lord of Hollows ending serves the greater good of the suffering Hollows.
People in dark souls 3 still assume you're hollow if you attack them, and without any connotation to Londor. I believe that is gameplay mechanics rather than lore.
Although a bit off-topic, but thanks to the insight you provided in this video, I now actually have a theory about the "Usurpation of the Flame" ending. See, we knew Humanity is flammable, right? Due to the fact we literally use it to kindle Bonfire in DS1, and Pus of Men being super weak to fire in DS3. And then everything connected: The reason why we need 8 Dark Sigils to properly usurp the Flame, is to drain out whatever Humanity is still left inside our unkindled body, make sure we don't just get burned by the First Flame, like we did in the "Linking of the Flame" ending. And, how did Yuria knows all of these? I think it is safe to assume that it's because of happened to Elfriede. We knew she was the elder sister of Yuria, a skillful swordwoman, and an Undead. Londor has probably had her as the previous Lord of Hollow, but when she tried to usurp the Flame, things went south for them: The Humanity left inside her caused her to catch fire, and Elfriede got burned alive. Hence the failure of the plan, and Elfriede became an Ashen One like us. That's why Yuria now seeks Unkindled Ones to usurp the flame, since ashes are less likely to catch on fire; and by further draining out our Humanity, our body will become flame-retarded, or even flame-proof for good.
That's interesting, but then what about Gwyn? He wouldn't have humanity. And I think that in DS1 Frampt seems to link rekindling the flame more with souls than humanity
I think there's a lot to explore regarding life, death and hollowing by looking at the blood magic in the series. The connection between souls and blood is there from the start. Your excess souls accumulate or are drained along with your blood when you die. Gael seems to be after some mingling of blood and darkness. Implying that the darkness associated with humanity is possibly not as entwined as we think or at least doesn't associate with blood somehow. Gael's mission seems to be, in part, upending the status quo of souls and darkness by creating a new animating force in the confluence of blood and souls and dark. We can't even say for sure where the blood comes from. Hollows are desiccated things with seemingly no need for a circulatory system. There's a lot there but it's all background compared to the prominence of souls and darkness. That and blood is depicted inconsistently between games, further muddying any connections or conclusions.
Blood is a medium, a container. Its drawing on the real world concept held in medieval times that the soul was housed in the blood. People would flock to executions to literally lap up the flowing blood of beheaded criminals because they thought it would cure their ailments. This is why the abyss walkers' "shared wolves blood" which they got from the emaciated old wolf.. "served as their mandate as lords" and why you see their blood flow into one body. The wolf blood gave them power, and they used it to fight the abyss. The lycanthropes were members of the farron legion who could not handle the wolf blood and turned into beasts. Taking obvious inspiration from bloodborne. Their shared soul linked the fire, and so they were all returned as one "lord of cinder"
I like Hawkshaw's interpretation that the Dark Sign, which was placed on humanity by Gwynn (which we learn in the Ringed City), is a literal ring of light that encircles the darkness within humanity, trapping it. This is why when we sacrifice humanity to the bonfire in DS1 we become more aestheticly pleasing as a way to make humanity believe that is our true from, and to deceive people into giving up their hollow immortality, which we know Gwynn feared even though it's our hollow state that's our true self, much like what we believe the furtive pygmy was and why we look hollow when we become the Lord of Hollows at the Dark ending of DS3 after revealing the dark sigil. I don't think the dark sigil and the dark sign are the same thing either. The dark sign is a curse, the dark sigil is our true nature, forever tied to the dark but hidden away by Gwynn's curse. When Gwynn caged humanity's darkness and then later rekindled the first flame, both were desperate acts that shattered the balance of light and dark(neither are good or evil), which has caused the darkness in humanity to go wild, like it did with Manus in DS1, creating the abyss and the pus of man. The confined darkness within humanity has been caged for so long that it's gone off the rails and now seeks only to envelop everything, when if Gwynn had simply allowed the cycle of light and dark to continue as it should have, the balance would have been maintained and the first flame would have reignited eventually as part of the cycle once the age of Dark had passed.
One thing tho. The Abyss has always existed. It is as old as the Fire of Beggining. It is the place from where humanity draws its strength,the place where the Ringed Knights forged their armour and weapons. It is to the humans what the Fire of Beggining is to the gods.It was serene yet powerful.But when Gwyn put the ring of fire on humans and linked humanity/the abyss to the Fire of Beggining and was sealed by the gods,it has become stagnant and frustrated.And this stagnation has corrupted it into something that poisons even those it should give strength to.
Love to see your evolution of thought in these videos over the years. Thank you for your work brother. (Ps. Are you interested in discussing more about Buddhism in the souls games moving forward?)
Thank you. To answer your question, to an extent, yes. Part of the challenge is presenting it in a concise, relevant, and accurate way that I think can appeal to the audience. I've got some ideas for how to do this, but the execution could prove troublesome.
@@LastProtagonist trying to be the Alan Watts of soulsborne are ya? But in all seriousness, if your execution on those topics is anything like your work so far, I have no doubt you can do it
Really good overview of the possibilities. You mentioned Buddhism already, but another, much less successful, religion that the metaphysics of Dark Souls reminds me of is Gnosticism. I think the most difficult to decipher aspect is the fact that yearning is simultaneously associated with life, but the humans are treated as being particularly susceptible to covetous desires. This doesn't seem to just be prejudice on the part of the Royals either, because even spells that conjure humanity seem to have that property more strongly than anything. Maybe it's something where wholly embracing the Dark/Abyss can give them peace, but being attuned to it without accepting all the implications just makes humans yearn more than anything else?
Yes indeed! A lot of these tropes are cross-cultural, and if we look into things like Tehom/the Abyss, there's many different ways people from all over the world can feel familiarity when interacting with the lore.
@@LastProtagonist Yeah, I think that's why these themes Miyazaki likes to incorporate into his writing resonate with a lot of people. They're themes that people have grappled with for millenia.
1:00 I don't think it's meant to be like a hard science. I think it's more on a deep personal feeling. Something about your situation is just leaving you feel inadequate and incomplete and I think for our friend here at the time stamp it is not that he lacks wealth weather in souls or in coins or anything of the sort, I think it's that collection of wealth hasn't filled something within him that his spirit yearns for or something of the sort. Perhaps materialism is failing him.
Something that always annoyed me about DS2 is how everyone bigs up Lucatiel's dialogue, when it is literally just her telling you what DS1 was meant to make you feel. DS1 had this dialogue in but they conveyed it to you with gameplay and atmosphere instead of having a character smacl you over the head with it.
I recently watched a video by Eredin that explained that the rats have humanity because people are being dumped into the sewers where the rats reside (remember the pit behind the butcher with the sack?) Here’s the link: ruclips.net/video/hHsZdweWPpk/видео.html
Hey I have a question. You mentioned, "If a hollow's willpower erodes past a certain point, they will stop moving and become indistinguishable from a corpse." I love this idea, but I haven't seen anything in the games indicating it. Do you (or anyone) have any evidence or pointers for the idea that many corpses are simply unmotivated yet conscious hollows?
It's more subtextual stuff. I think the intro part of New Londo in DS1 shows it off best where we have some Hollows completely dejected and unresponsive to anything, and others are actually "dead"
Perhaps the dark sigil fill the curse of the undead with a constant flowing out of darkness. But whether this is your own darkness, darkness of the abyss, or accumulation of souls, or all.
You have forgotten several important item descriptions. Paladin Leeroy is specifically stated to have been the "first," undead the way of white produced, and that the purging stone says curses are the domain of the gods and that they cannot be removed only redirected. Implying the undead curse was created by the gods and spread by the way of white.
"False" is the operative word. (Religious metaphors ahead...) It is a reference to the "Batsu/Cross" (see: Punitive Flame and Flame of Sin) (c.f. True Monarch, True Darkness, Maru/Ring, "does this not RING clear and TRUE?") The "yoke" is a "yolk", as X is "eggs". (example: Filianore, The Fair Lady, Quelaag's DOMAIN, Dragon Aerie, Dragon Shrine, ) Consider the following; "There are two poles of existence; Sin and The Cross" - Frithjof Schuon "...to define the sin and mete out the punishment [batsu]..." - Karmic Justice (DS1) Even the word "brand" is suggestive of "logo" meaning logotype (wordmark). "In the beginning, there was the Logos..." John 1:1 Kalameet is a transposition of Kalimat meaning Logos (referring to the pre-Christian Word/Logos of Heraclitus, adopted by multiple religions). As for the shackles, look at Gwynevere's armlets, the bands on the legs of the pardoner set, the Grave Wardens' armlets (DS2). O (Maru): Void, Being, the Absolute, Atma, Truth, "the Origin", Emptiness, non-Ego X (Batsu): Flame, Becoming, the Relative, Maya, Falsehood, "the Unknown", Impermanence, Ego
@@mohgus66 Yeah, I went overboard - basically O and X are the 2 prime symbols of the game (like the O and X on a Sony controller). For instance, look at 15:40 to see "XXXX" on the side of the maiden's legs (and note that the maiden set and the dingy set (OG fire keeper) are basically the same). Also, I was pointing out how "ecks" sounds suspiciously similar to "eggs" (bonus meme: the fire keeper soul resembles a zygote, an egg fused with sperm)
The relationship between the dark and light is illustrated in Gwyn's first sin. In linking the first flame, Gwyn links the first flame to the concept of dark. Dark was originally just supposed to eat away at light, but Gwyn's linking allows light to eat away at dark. This creates an ouroborous, a snake that eats its own tail and a symbol for infinity. But because the snake grows at the same rate which it eats itself, it cannot change. It begins to stagnate, to grow old, and to lose itself in its endless hunger.
Sometimes, snakes do actually swallow themselves. And oftentimes snake handlers need to give their slithery buddies a hand so they don't choke to death. That's how I read usurping the flame. Because an ashen one is completely "burnt out," with no light inside of it. It is able to grab the immortal snake and pull the tail from its mouth
The first sin wasnt linking the fire, it was banishing dark. "Once the lord of light banished dark, and all that stemmed from humanity. These are the roots of our world." In dark souls 3 as the fire fades a dark sign appears in the sky. The dark sign is a seal of fire placed on man ..and the entire world.. to seal away and control the dark. This is the first sin.
@@JayWhipp1e exactly. That "seal of fire" is the first flame burning away our humanity to keep itself going. That's why we sacrifice humanity, which is a fragment of the dark soul, to get our human forms back in DS1, and it's why when we "link the fire" as the game prompts us, we banish the coming dark by sacrificing both our regular souls and our humanity. It's why no matter what you do the world turns into ash at the end of dark souls 3's DLC
I feel it's worth pointing out the that, as you say, the "Hollow corpses" are not actually dead bodies, they're Hollows who simply laid down and stopped moving, most of which still carried an item or souls or armor, and this is why some of them scream when you take these items from them in DS3.
you know its a good day when this dude does his thing
I like this format much better than lore with playthrough personally, that being said thanks for the huge work
Thank you i can t sit throught all of the play lores
I think the Dark Sigil question works like this: I think the Dark Sigil is an expression of the Dark overflowing due to the accumulation of Dark. I do believe the Curse and the Dark are one and the same, but in the sense that the Dark is eating the inherent life of the player, which curses the player, and grows the Dark within - causing the dark to overflow. This would explain why the Lord of Hollows ending works for you: you're building yourself up to be a bearer of the Flame, building yourself up to consume it with the overwhelming level of Dark accumulated within you.
It's weird, this video isn't appearing in my sub feed.
Very interesting video! Slightly surprised you didn't mention the Ringed Knights' darksign which hints at the Gods branding humanity with it or the giant darksign in the sky in Dks3.
My personal interpretation was that the Darksign was a tool Gwyn and the Gods used to contain and control humanity's darkness and prevent them from becoming a threat.
But since it's a ring of fire, it loses its ability to do so when the First Flame starts to fade, hence leading to humanity being undying and then hollowing.
The giant darksign in the sky would be a sign of the First Flame basically dying and fading for good.
Hey, thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, maybe I should've included the stuff with the Ringed City more, but it didn't feel strictly necessary with how this ended up.
@@LastProtagonist Yeah, for something more focused on hollowing itself this was interesting already
As the Gravewarden said light agitates the dark and when dark is in contact with life it devours it. I think life being a curse expresses the concept of dukkha (clinging that causes suffering) as there is aging; sickness; birth; death, life naturally causes craving unless the attachment to life is broken. Nirvana in buddhism is described as blowing out a fire or hunger for life. This can be seen to be metaphorically represented by the dragon path ,in dark souls 3 where hollows are able to transform into dragons are seen meditating in the lotus position which in Buddhism is used for insight meditation (understanding experiential phenomena ) and serenity meditation (breaking down attachments), as their reliance on fire wanes away and darkness empties the abyss within men become truly empty and void. It's also interesting to note that pygmy bodies look like they are made from darkness, however they aren't wild feral beings like Darkwraiths or Deep monstrosities, probably because their society formed without the light present/ craving for life. Real past pygmy societies are humble lives that live and die according to nature around them, they never needed more.
btw the bit about insight and serenity might explain why Seethe goes batshit insane, in his quest for never ending life his attachment to life became so strong that all the constructs of phenomena that he learned made him become delusional, becoming lost in his own thoughts and all that.
I agree completely. I'd like to incorporate some of Alan Watts' works talking about these subjects in future videos, but time will tell.
@@LastProtagonist holy shit you replied :DD
@@LastProtagonist Alan Watts has some good videos on the self and not self. The dark soul may also represent the universal nature of matter.
@@jakobwagner8032 Don't know how much you're into your Buddhism, but the concept of "firelink" is a metaphor for interdependent origination.
@@core-nix1885 It's interesting because it relates to the interdependent nature of the concepts that the lord souls and dark soul represent. The fire link is burning up the other conditions that arise existence, in buddhism existence is an ongoing process that is made up 5 groups of processes (1 physical and 4 mental) and that our entire being is not contained within a single unchanging object aka a soul/consciousness. It's interesting to note that mental formations are known as the will to act (according to karma), we can take this to mean the dark soul or humanity. This means that you can have the will to act without sapience or the ability to perceive. This may be why characters who fall to the dark become feral as they are infused with creation's will to survive gone mad by creation's perceptions, ego, pain and pleasure.
btw let's think about how powerful the event of fire linking must be, to artificially change the fabric of space and time it must have been like a spiritual atomic bomb going off.
Also, the Dark Sigil is the wound of Philianore's Holy Lance, a reference to Longinus (see also: DS2 Gargoyle Bident).
Also, also, grass is associated with erosion (shoku).
Kaathe understood that the Dark soul is sustained by consuming the lives of others, or souls. And that souls are precisely what shackles the will of humans, or hollows. Life shackles the dark. Kaathe believed in the mission of the Lord of Hollows, which was to strip the identity - souls - of the Hollows and present them with a new, collective identity within their darkness. But it isn't clear if the Lord of Hollows ending serves the greater good of the suffering Hollows.
People in dark souls 3 still assume you're hollow if you attack them, and without any connotation to Londor. I believe that is gameplay mechanics rather than lore.
Always enjoy the insight that the translations reveal. Appreciate the hard work!
As always, loved the video
Thank you for your time and effort putting these videos together.
Incredible stuff man, great video as always
Such an underrated soulsbourne RUclipsr, you deserve a lot more attention
Although a bit off-topic, but thanks to the insight you provided in this video, I now actually have a theory about the "Usurpation of the Flame" ending.
See, we knew Humanity is flammable, right? Due to the fact we literally use it to kindle Bonfire in DS1, and Pus of Men being super weak to fire in DS3. And then everything connected: The reason why we need 8 Dark Sigils to properly usurp the Flame, is to drain out whatever Humanity is still left inside our unkindled body, make sure we don't just get burned by the First Flame, like we did in the "Linking of the Flame" ending.
And, how did Yuria knows all of these? I think it is safe to assume that it's because of happened to Elfriede. We knew she was the elder sister of Yuria, a skillful swordwoman, and an Undead. Londor has probably had her as the previous Lord of Hollow, but when she tried to usurp the Flame, things went south for them: The Humanity left inside her caused her to catch fire, and Elfriede got burned alive. Hence the failure of the plan, and Elfriede became an Ashen One like us. That's why Yuria now seeks Unkindled Ones to usurp the flame, since ashes are less likely to catch on fire; and by further draining out our Humanity, our body will become flame-retarded, or even flame-proof for good.
That's interesting, but then what about Gwyn? He wouldn't have humanity. And I think that in DS1 Frampt seems to link rekindling the flame more with souls than humanity
@@zehirahsen874Well humanity is a type of soul, that the first pygmy found within the flames, just like the lord’s souls
I think there's a lot to explore regarding life, death and hollowing by looking at the blood magic in the series.
The connection between souls and blood is there from the start. Your excess souls accumulate or are drained along with your blood when you die.
Gael seems to be after some mingling of blood and darkness. Implying that the darkness associated with humanity is possibly not as entwined as we think or at least doesn't associate with blood somehow. Gael's mission seems to be, in part, upending the status quo of souls and darkness by creating a new animating force in the confluence of blood and souls and dark.
We can't even say for sure where the blood comes from. Hollows are desiccated things with seemingly no need for a circulatory system.
There's a lot there but it's all background compared to the prominence of souls and darkness. That and blood is depicted inconsistently between games, further muddying any connections or conclusions.
Blood is a medium, a container. Its drawing on the real world concept held in medieval times that the soul was housed in the blood. People would flock to executions to literally lap up the flowing blood of beheaded criminals because they thought it would cure their ailments.
This is why the abyss walkers' "shared wolves blood" which they got from the emaciated old wolf.. "served as their mandate as lords" and why you see their blood flow into one body. The wolf blood gave them power, and they used it to fight the abyss. The lycanthropes were members of the farron legion who could not handle the wolf blood and turned into beasts. Taking obvious inspiration from bloodborne. Their shared soul linked the fire, and so they were all returned as one "lord of cinder"
Hell yeah another vid
I like Hawkshaw's interpretation that the Dark Sign, which was placed on humanity by Gwynn (which we learn in the Ringed City), is a literal ring of light that encircles the darkness within humanity, trapping it. This is why when we sacrifice humanity to the bonfire in DS1 we become more aestheticly pleasing as a way to make humanity believe that is our true from, and to deceive people into giving up their hollow immortality, which we know Gwynn feared even though it's our hollow state that's our true self, much like what we believe the furtive pygmy was and why we look hollow when we become the Lord of Hollows at the Dark ending of DS3 after revealing the dark sigil. I don't think the dark sigil and the dark sign are the same thing either. The dark sign is a curse, the dark sigil is our true nature, forever tied to the dark but hidden away by Gwynn's curse. When Gwynn caged humanity's darkness and then later rekindled the first flame, both were desperate acts that shattered the balance of light and dark(neither are good or evil), which has caused the darkness in humanity to go wild, like it did with Manus in DS1, creating the abyss and the pus of man. The confined darkness within humanity has been caged for so long that it's gone off the rails and now seeks only to envelop everything, when if Gwynn had simply allowed the cycle of light and dark to continue as it should have, the balance would have been maintained and the first flame would have reignited eventually as part of the cycle once the age of Dark had passed.
"I like Hawkshaw's interpretation" is a GREAT way to start any conversation
One thing tho. The Abyss has always existed. It is as old as the Fire of Beggining. It is the place from where humanity draws its strength,the place where the Ringed Knights forged their armour and weapons. It is to the humans what the Fire of Beggining is to the gods.It was serene yet powerful.But when Gwyn put the ring of fire on humans and linked humanity/the abyss to the Fire of Beggining and was sealed by the gods,it has become stagnant and frustrated.And this stagnation has corrupted it into something that poisons even those it should give strength to.
nice dude!
Love to see your evolution of thought in these videos over the years. Thank you for your work brother. (Ps. Are you interested in discussing more about Buddhism in the souls games moving forward?)
Thank you. To answer your question, to an extent, yes. Part of the challenge is presenting it in a concise, relevant, and accurate way that I think can appeal to the audience. I've got some ideas for how to do this, but the execution could prove troublesome.
@@LastProtagonist trying to be the Alan Watts of soulsborne are ya? But in all seriousness, if your execution on those topics is anything like your work so far, I have no doubt you can do it
Really good overview of the possibilities. You mentioned Buddhism already, but another, much less successful, religion that the metaphysics of Dark Souls reminds me of is Gnosticism. I think the most difficult to decipher aspect is the fact that yearning is simultaneously associated with life, but the humans are treated as being particularly susceptible to covetous desires. This doesn't seem to just be prejudice on the part of the Royals either, because even spells that conjure humanity seem to have that property more strongly than anything. Maybe it's something where wholly embracing the Dark/Abyss can give them peace, but being attuned to it without accepting all the implications just makes humans yearn more than anything else?
Yes indeed! A lot of these tropes are cross-cultural, and if we look into things like Tehom/the Abyss, there's many different ways people from all over the world can feel familiarity when interacting with the lore.
@@LastProtagonist Yeah, I think that's why these themes Miyazaki likes to incorporate into his writing resonate with a lot of people. They're themes that people have grappled with for millenia.
1:00 I don't think it's meant to be like a hard science. I think it's more on a deep personal feeling. Something about your situation is just leaving you feel inadequate and incomplete and I think for our friend here at the time stamp it is not that he lacks wealth weather in souls or in coins or anything of the sort, I think it's that collection of wealth hasn't filled something within him that his spirit yearns for or something of the sort.
Perhaps materialism is failing him.
your videos Restore my humanity and allow me to fight on.
Something that always annoyed me about DS2 is how everyone bigs up Lucatiel's dialogue, when it is literally just her telling you what DS1 was meant to make you feel.
DS1 had this dialogue in but they conveyed it to you with gameplay and atmosphere instead of having a character smacl you over the head with it.
Best lore on DS around
ay pro any chance you try out going in depth on the sekiro lore? Good vid btw
Pretty sure its an allegory of vampirism
So, Undead instrumentality project
I recently watched a video by Eredin that explained that the rats have humanity because people are being dumped into the sewers where the rats reside (remember the pit behind the butcher with the sack?) Here’s the link: ruclips.net/video/hHsZdweWPpk/видео.html
this is quality shit right here. like really clean shit
Hey I have a question. You mentioned, "If a hollow's willpower erodes past a certain point, they will stop moving and become indistinguishable from a corpse." I love this idea, but I haven't seen anything in the games indicating it. Do you (or anyone) have any evidence or pointers for the idea that many corpses are simply unmotivated yet conscious hollows?
It's more subtextual stuff. I think the intro part of New Londo in DS1 shows it off best where we have some Hollows completely dejected and unresponsive to anything, and others are actually "dead"
swag
Perhaps the dark sigil fill the curse of the undead with a constant flowing out of darkness. But whether this is your own darkness, darkness of the abyss, or accumulation of souls, or all.
You have forgotten several important item descriptions. Paladin Leeroy is specifically stated to have been the "first," undead the way of white produced, and that the purging stone says curses are the domain of the gods and that they cannot be removed only redirected. Implying the undead curse was created by the gods and spread by the way of white.
"False" is the operative word.
(Religious metaphors ahead...)
It is a reference to the "Batsu/Cross" (see: Punitive Flame and Flame of Sin)
(c.f. True Monarch, True Darkness, Maru/Ring, "does this not RING clear and TRUE?")
The "yoke" is a "yolk", as X is "eggs". (example: Filianore, The Fair Lady, Quelaag's DOMAIN, Dragon Aerie, Dragon Shrine, )
Consider the following;
"There are two poles of existence; Sin and The Cross" - Frithjof Schuon
"...to define the sin and mete out the punishment [batsu]..." - Karmic Justice (DS1)
Even the word "brand" is suggestive of "logo" meaning logotype (wordmark).
"In the beginning, there was the Logos..." John 1:1
Kalameet is a transposition of Kalimat meaning Logos (referring to the pre-Christian Word/Logos of Heraclitus, adopted by multiple religions).
As for the shackles, look at Gwynevere's armlets, the bands on the legs of the pardoner set, the Grave Wardens' armlets (DS2).
O (Maru): Void, Being, the Absolute, Atma, Truth, "the Origin", Emptiness, non-Ego
X (Batsu): Flame, Becoming, the Relative, Maya, Falsehood, "the Unknown", Impermanence, Ego
What a confusing comment. I have no idea what you're getting at.
@@mohgus66 Yeah, I went overboard - basically O and X are the 2 prime symbols of the game (like the O and X on a Sony controller).
For instance, look at 15:40 to see "XXXX" on the side of the maiden's legs (and note that the maiden set and the dingy set (OG fire keeper) are basically the same).
Also, I was pointing out how "ecks" sounds suspiciously similar to "eggs" (bonus meme: the fire keeper soul resembles a zygote, an egg fused with sperm)
@@core-nix1885 Oh I get it now. That's an interesting detail. Thanks for the clarification.
@@mohgus66 btw, the word FROM, in Latin, is EX