It’s a lot to digest and he does a great job at it but we do our best to make sense of it all. Can’t even imagine how impossible it would be if we didn’t pay total attention 🤗
Ken on Godfrey's punishment: "I like the idea that... you need to suffer a bit in life." Beth: "That's the part that you like??" Ken likes being punished, confirmed. Beth is still on the fence about it though.
Without pain there is no pleasure! If you had all your base desires fullfilled 24/7 you would quickly find your life very dull. What humans really desire are challenges to overcome and purpose!
In my opinion, Marika sending Godfrey away was a more loving thing to do than to keep him in the capital… the game does a great job at showing us that he’s still very much Hoarah Loux, a battle-lusting bloodthirsty warrior; it’s almost like a mercy for him to be sent away to die in battle, keeping him trapped in the capital was essentially an eternal prison.
Agreed, specially when you fight him and he removes his limiter to fight you at full strength. Being in the capital demanded him to be a diplomatic figure when not in war. Sending him away to die in battle was allowing him freedom to choose what to do with his strength.
That’s an interesting way to look at it and we imagine if we knew more of Godfrey or had more time to at least take in the whole story we’d feel differently than we did after the first viewing 🤔😇
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames that's because you get to know godfrey more when you're playing the game and this video is more focused on the main lore or more towards marika , there's so many references and hints given in the game, this video hits differently when you're midway playing the game, hope you guys experience this masterpiece by playing it. I often watch your AC reaction videos, keep going !!
Godfrey's lion Serosh allows him to contain his bloodlust. His banishment might have had some positive effects buf it wasn't done out of the goodness of Marika's Double D heart.
Fun fact during the cutscene when you fight Godfrey it shows grace going from him to you not the other way around basically showing his goal and the marikas will is for him to kill you and take the runes. Her goal was for him to be Elden lord again also fun fact the way the Demi god children are born is throu tree budding like a fruit tree. In marikas bed chambers their is a giant round thing and it’s the same thing that catches sacred tears which are the lifeblood of the erd tree.
A good thing to know, Miyazaki loves Berserk the manga. A huge theme of that manga is the idea of the sufferer, to struggle is a part of life, and through overcoming that struggle, you enlighten yourself. If you understand that huge aspect, then you understand how he plays that into the story. I think the take away we are supposed to understand, is that Queen Marika found out that removing death from the world, also removed struggling, and thus growth. Which is why she sent Godfrey away, to struggle and die with the tarnished, and become powerful enough to challenge a God (The Greater Will) and become arbiters of their own fate.
The "Spoilers" you saw aren't really Spoilers, since the game isn't Narrative heavy. You could get spoiled about how a boss might look like or maybe how an ending is, but the story is so rich and hidden that VaatiVidya's videos enhance the gaming experience, since now you would know: "Hey, this is that dude's castle! I wonder why he has this painting in his throne room"!
That’s what we figured going into it. Good to know our instincts were right. And who knows when we will have time to tackle this epic journey of a game 😅
This will be my new favorite series you do. The big twist with Radagon and Marika shouldn't be that upsetting, tbh most people would probably miss it because you have to find the statue, the pose to strike in front of the statue to trigger it, and the dialogue from the turtle that gives you the idea to try it in the first place, and these all happen hours upon hours apart from each other when you play the game. Even if the average player found all these things, they probably wouldn't remember it by the time they reach the hidden statue.
It took me a while to get to the capital and to find Turtle pope and when he comments on Radagon leaving Renala I was like "This is major lore". Then I get to Radagon and was like... Man this looks familiar. Then I made a new character to try a different build from the start and when the opening plays it all conects.
Yeah that’s why we felt we’d be okay if some spoilers came up because there is so much of the story the player has to piece together through exploring and reading everything 🤗
Happy to see ya'll get into the vague and incredibly time-consuming to learn lore of just ONE of the Fromsoft games! Can't wait to see the Prepare to Cry series reaction, since all the side and main characters in the stories are fun to learn about, or sad, mostly sad, I don't know why it's mostly sad but I'm fine with it since it's interesting, and sad as well!
Vaati is so good with his videos. I've beaten the game several times yet every one of his elden ring videos is a must watch. The man puts so much into each video it's insane. The cinematography alone is just on another level with him. I'd highly recommend his videos to anybody
Vaati is good but in my opinion the video was released much too early and a lot of information were straight up wrong. For example just at the beginning he says how the greater will came after other outer gods and how there was another tree before the erdtree. Which is not the case
Can't wait to see you guys react to the more character driven videos now that you have a bit a basis on the overall world. Personally looking forward to you learning about the demigods and elden ring video of his "The Warrior Within". His videos have begun to get a lot more cinematic with telling some of the lore of the characters in the game and that's where it really starts. On the Radagon note personally I've got three theories on it. The first is he was his own separate being, hence his red hair implying being part giant in some sense. Another is that they are siblings with different minds and personalities, however they share a soul, there's an NPC like that in game already that is accepted by the golden order, if Radagon and Marika were the same it'd be a reason why. Finally and the one I'm leaning towards most is it's possible he was artificially created with the Rune of Rebirth and part of Marika. Also there are hints in my opinion that Radagon did care for Rennala (Moon Lady). For one he left his dog with her(Which happens to be a giant red wolf that shoots magic), along with many other 'gifts', such as his Icon, a special talisman that implies he learned both sorcery and incantations to 'become whole', along with a great rune, a shard of the elden ring. The Rune of Rebirth, which I think was his way of explaining his existence to her which just broke her. Radagon put the golden order above everything else, whether it was through personal choice or forced due to his individual nature is unknown. So him leaving to be with 'himself' could be seen as more of a 'duty' than anything else. On the final hand GRRM really trying to outdo himself, he used incest so much in game of thrones that we've been a bit de-sensitized so he went a level above that and went with selfcest.
This is a great overview video, some of the more focused videos like the ones about the Lord of the Frenzied Flame and Blessing of Despair get more of a narrative throughout the video because they have the time to focus in a bit. It's a more cinematic experience, but this one is definately a good starting point for Elden Ring lore. Oh and don't worry too much about the "Radagon is Marika" spoiler. In order to find that out in the game you need to do a very specific questline and you need to build both Faith and Intelligence which is normally counter productive unless you want to use some very specific spells, and then you need to use that spell on one specific statue in the capital city, something you never have to do at any other point in the game. Practically no one finds that out on their own during their first playthrough.
Nice to see you guys diving into lore! A thing regarding the names and how easy it it's to get confused, for some reason a lot of characters have names that start with G R and M! Even though George R.R. Martin pretty much only wrote the setting in which the story was going to evolve, I have a feeling that he has something to do with all these names too Maybe someone can say more about it, but it's just a thing I realized when I played the game
It's an easy name scheme. Godfrey's kids start with G. Renalla and Radagon's kids start with R. Merika's kids with someone else or no one start with M. Just easy family trees.
Nice spot. Maybe it was subconscious of him 🤔 but he always loves to name characters very similar names. Remember being so confused reading Game of Thrones 😂
I have never been a huge fan of the FromSoft games per se, but I am appreciating more and more how they do their worldbuilding and how all these seemingly disparate story elements weave together into deeper connections that fit thematically. I won't spoil anything, but it's quite satisfiyng to have these moments where you go "Oh, so THAT's why that enemy has such-and-such a motif, it ties into this old mythic origin" and so on and on. It reminds me of rawling old forums for Elder Scrolls lore and reading in-game books that were seemingly gobbledygook, only to realize that these were weird esoteric story elements normal players would probably never even realize. It's like a treasure hunt, kinda, and it's so satsfying to have these larger realizations.
I love their games, and I know the games are not for everyone. But I respect your opinion and how you were polite in how you said it. Most people when they don't like something just attack it and once they don't like one part of it, everything else automatically is bad. Then they go around and falsely accuse it of things, and then try to justify their false claims. It's possible to not like something, but appreciate other aspects of it.
AAAAAAHHHH!! I’ve been waiting for this! Y’all are the best! I liked the video and every single comment for max engagement because I want this video to do well!
Fun fact: All of the bosses/important fights have a "Stake of Marika" near them, so that when you die, you can "respawn" there and try again. For Rennala's fight, there's isn't one, since her husband dumped her for Marika, so she ordered to remove all Marika's stakes. If you die fighting her, you have to run all the way back from the last grace, instead of being able to just retry the fight, making it the only fight were you have to do that. Really cool way to tie-in lore and gameplay.
There are lots of important bosses without stakes of Marika before them. I cant find a comprehensive list but a few off the top of my head: Margit, Malenia, Maliketh, both Godfrey's, Morgott, Placidusax, Fortissax, Loretta in Carian Manor, Radagon, Fire Giant, Gideon Ofnir. There are definitely more. I will add though that the Red Wolf in the Academy also doesn't have a stake of Marika.
So, my opinion is that which Vaati initially stated. That Radagon went to fix the Elden Ring, then became possesed by, or transformed into Marika (which she probably had the power to do).
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames Great, looking forward to it! All of his videos are fantastic, they expand on the lore of Fromsoft games in the most digestible way out there.
Beth thinks Marika was condescending because of this? Melina says: ''In Marika's own words: My children, make thyselves whatever thy desire, be it as a Lord, be it as a God, but should you fail, you will only ammount to sacrifice''. Basically Marika told her children to become Lords or Gods but if they failed in any point, they would die and make people die and suffer in the process Also, there are many version theories wether Marika and Radagon were different people that became together, the same entity that split and then reunited or if they change like in the game being 2 personalities like 2 sides of the same coin. Whatever you believe nobody can really say if you're right nor wrong
Ah if you like this, I highly recommend that you check the lore video on Prince Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. The story on him is absolutely insane! Fun reaction as always.
What's more impressive is you get to experience all of that while you're playing the game and feel impacted by it, you get to learn more about the demigods and get the chance to side with them or fight them, also some of the lore are left by the devs to be interpreted by the individual themselves, definitely GOTY material atleast to me.
You ever hear the saying "History is written by the victors."? That is basically the easiest way to sum up Elden Ring and the Dark Souls games. You enter a world of conflict where one order had already been established and the people within all repeat the history and knowledge that they were taught. Which isn't necessarily the truth. Because of this the story is really told through the items, the characters, and the enemy placement in the world (Enemy placement in these games is intentional; they're not just there to be something to fight but they are often there for a story reason.). How much you wish to learn is up to the players own autonomy, and a very devoted and loving community, to discover; and, just like real history some of that truth may be lost to time forever.
I know this is a year late but I've seen only a handful catch what ive always come to theorize about Radagon and Marika. I full heartedly believe Radagon was in fact his own being who was commanded to return to Marika to wed her. Why? Because it is clearly shown that while Marika shattered the Elden Ring Radagon tried to mend it. Even once they became one why would Radagon still try to mend the Elden Ring if thats not what he/she wanted? Radagon and Marikas dynamic is one of the most fascinating parts of Elden Ring lore and i hope we find more and more about it.
I'm so glad you've watched a Vaati vid, if you want to know more about the lore of Dark Souls, Elden Ring or pretty much any FromSoft game, he's your guy. I'd highly recommend his Prepare to Cry vids for Dark Souls.
I would love to see you react to vaatis lord of the frenzied flame, I absolutely loved it and it would be fun to see your reaction to one of the most sad stories of elden ring
vaati vidya has good lore breakdowns that are structured to be easier to understand. definitely recommend checking out any of his prepare to cry videos for dark souls as well
I think Radagon was his own person once, but since he was so loyal to the Golden Order he followed every command the Elden Beast would give, the highest authority in the Lands Between. Once Marika started to question the Golden order the Elden Beast would surely call its most loyal subjects back to the Erdtree in order to stop her. But how can you stop the only being capable of forging and destroying the Elden Ring from destroying it? Well, you must become that being. So the Elden Beast merged the two of them so that Radagon would be capable of repairing the Elden Ring at the same time as Marika is trying to destroy it. If Radagon was just a disguise of Marika then why would he work against her? There is also the thing Vaati mentioned in the video. Marika and Radagon represent different parts of the fundementals of the Golden Order. Maybe Marika created Radagon by seperating the Law of Regression from herself. That would explain why he is in direct oppsotion to her while still being so loyal to the Golden Order. He would then technically always have been Marika but he would also be so different that he would be like his own person with his own goals. That also explains why he left his Great Rune with Rennala when he left her. I don't see why Marika would do that so Radagon probably did it out of sentiment before "sacrificing" himself in order to become Marikas correction.
Marika came from Hungary with Old knight István, Elemér of the briar, Jolán from the dlc and Margit the first major boss in the game! (Obviusly they did not but its funny that these names are hungarian as a hungarian person!)
Oh Vaati (pronounced Vah-Tee Vid-ee-Ah) is a master at the Fromsoft lore. I find his videos extremely relaxing as background noise as well. I will note that while his piecing together of the lore in these games is generally what is accepted and well researched he does at times make some logical leaps to tell a more concise story. Which you do kinda have to do with these games since there's not a ton of definitive knowledge of motivation in these games (the concepts in Bloodborne make my head hurt when I think about them to much for example). In the case of Marika it's not really known why she sent Godfrey away but I view it as more her being so desperate to brake the Lands Between away from the Greater Will that she sent her husband out into the world to make a "race" of people, the Tarnished, that wouldn't be beholden to the Greater Will. These people might be able to remove it's influence. But really it isn't known for sure if that was her thought process, though it would make a lot of her actions make more sense.
Don't worry if all this is confusing, I've been playing since launch and I'm still confused. It's one of those games which drops you into a world and lets you figure it out, not much is explained by characters, most of the lore has been figured out through item descriptions
Marika went from being loyal to the Golden Order and the Greater Will to planning the downfall of both... She clearly found something out about the Greater Will that scared her. So much so that she plotted the downfall of pretty much the entirety of the Lands Between. Even her own family. Banishing Godfry led to the tarnished, an almost endless amount of warriors who would be called to the land between and be guided by Grace, to gather all the runes and become Elden Lord and Marikas Consort. As for what she saw... We don't know. But she needed the Golden Order to end and a new Age to begin... And we get to choose what the new Age shall be like. Also, I personally thought the Elden Beast WAS Radagon... which allowed the Greater Will to keep tabs on Marika. And that they fused together when she ascended to Godhood. Which would explain why he was loyal to the Order and Greater Will and turned back into Marika when we defeated the Elden Beast. It's also worth pointing out that Marika and Radagon are essentially two different being inhabiting the same space. Two completely different personalities and wills.
I BEG you to check out JR's night 6 gameplay. It's a FNAF fan game where you are a paranormal investigator where you have to figure out which animatronic is haunted. The reason I want you to check out Night 6 gameplay is because I think that has to be the most terrifying thing ever, as you get to see the creation of Mangle as all the animatronics form into one, which is pretty much a boss fight. I don't want to spoil too much. And just the music in the background that builds up tension is still haunting me.
If you’re at all interested in these Elden ring videos I HIGHLY recommend his video on the Frenzied Flame. Probably my favorite one he’s made in a long while
The one thing about Vaati and Fromsoft have in common is that there is almost no middle ground with how people feel about them. You either love or hate them for something, and most often when someone hates them for something, it is not accurate what they accuse them of. Some claim Fromsoft has no story and hate it, even through it is pack with story and lore. It might not be your preferred method of finding it, but it's there. Some people don't like Vaati because he "steals" content from other creators and gives no credit, except he has always given credit where he gets his information from; whether it was an item description, visual representation, or a reddit user. Some claim Vaati is "wrong" on some things, keep in mind that nothing is clear, cut and dry, or 100% accurate in Fromsoft story telling, it is based on speculation on what you manage to piece together yourself, and unless the creator confirms it, it is only speculation and opinions.
You're actually on to something about Marika banishing the Godfrey and the Tarnished was probably what gave the Tarnished that returned the drive to become the next Elden Lord (The player character). It was as if she knew that the separation would drive the Tarnished to return with even more purpose. Marika is arrogant though, especially since the player character can in fact decide between different endings and bring the world to an end if they desire. Though she may have known that just as well.
Elden ring and dark soul are inspired off Berserk if you remember it’s main character Guts. You can even find the sword Guts used before the dragon slayer sword, the Great sword. Literally same name and same sword. Direct reference.
Elden ring is one of my favourite games ever, it’s absolutely fantastic, if you haven’t played any of the souls game then it’s a must play if you have patience
Make sure to watch another Elden Ring video from Vaati called "The Blessing of Despair" its production quality is the best compared to his other videos and it's very tragic and twisted.
I love elden ring so much, my friends and I waited years for it and when it came out we raced each other to see who could beat it first. I won with 55 hrs and 23 min. I'm on my fourth playthrough of Elden ring and somehow I'm only at 75 hrs 😂
The George R. R. Martin influence is definitely noticeable in the names of many of the characters. Marika and Godfrey had three demigod children: - Godwyn the Golden, who was the first of the demigods to die. - The Omen Twins, Morgott the Grace-Given and Mohg, the Lord of Blood. Radagon and Rennala had three demigod children, one of which was an Empyrean: - Radahn, also known as the Starscourge. He could control the movement of the cosmos with his powerful gravity magic. - Rykard, Lord of the Volcano Manor. He ended up giving himself to a wicked serpent and fused with it, becoming the Lord of Blasphemy. - Ranni, Lunar Princess and also known as the Snow Witch. Ranni instigated the Night of the Black Knives when she used a fragment of the Rune of Death to have the Black Knives, an order of elite female assassins, murder Godwyn the Golden. Ranni is also an Empyrean and the Half-Wolf named Blaidd is her Shadow. Marika and Radagon had two demigod children, both of which were also Empyreans: - Malenia, Blade of Miquella and the Scarlet Rot Goddess. Due to being the child of Radagon and Marika, Malenia was tainted with the Scarlet Rot, a vile illness and plague that spreads throughout her body and once a certain threshold is reached, causes a large scarlet flower to bloom and wreak the plague far and wide across the area in which it blooms. This happened when Malenia fought Starscourge Radahn at a standstill in the Caelid Wilds, turning the entire region into a rotten wasteland and infecting Starscourge Radahn with madness. - Miquella, the younger brother of Malenia. He is cursed with eternal childhood and was kidnap by Mohg, the Lord of Blood to be used as his consort in order to bring about a new dynasty of blood in honor of the deity they worship known as The Formless Mother. There are also many other NPCs and characters in the game with names that start with G, R, or M.
I always believed that Radagon was one of the runes of the Elden Ring given a body of its own. Mostly because I’m sure Godfrey would have noticed if his wife was gone for a long period of time. Just when Marika realized that Radagon could have children she recalled him to her side to make another empyrean heir of her own, except her empyrean children were cursed by the greater will due to Radagon being apart of the Elden Ring that was inside of Marika and as punishment they fused them together to make a sort of split personality
The next one Elden ring of Vaati’s work would be “the warrior within” video, which you’d have an easier time understanding (somewhat) now that you face some context
A must-have watch, ssethTzeentach's "Elden Ring Review | Dark Souls IIII (VI) | Dung Eater Edition".. would love to see a reaction on this. It's much more comical then a proper review :)
My take is based on Radagon's boss fight. Half his body is missing, and the rest is filled in by the Elden Beast. So I think what makes you a god is the Elden Beast possessing you. So Marika didn't like being possessed, split herself into 2 people. That way Radagon is possessed, and she is not, so she can act freely without being controlled. Radagon, controlled by an eldritch god, goes and keeps conquering and furthering the greater will's goals, while Merika, now knowing it's an alien being and not a god (or at least not the only god) starts scheming against it. When Merika breaks the Elden Ring he comes back saying "What did you do? Okay, up on the cross, time for punishment" He's standing there preventing anyone from taking her down. You can see this with all the other Empyrians. They are able to be possessed by the Elden Beast and become a god. So Ranni kills her body, and thus can't be possessed. Malenia is possessed by the god of rot. Miquella covers himself in unalloyed gold to keep anything from possessing him. Godwin's dead and thus can't be possessed anymore. Mogh is corrupted and unsuitable to be possessed by the Greater Will, but the Formless Mother is totally willing to possess him. Because remember, none of these gods can show up themselves. They're all out in space somewhere. They all need proxies.
My theory is that Marika split herself so that she could resolve the Carian revolt issue. She split herself into two parts to do so and maybe didn't realize that doing that made it kind of a yin and yang thing. Marika is causality and Radagon is regression. Radagon seduced Rennala (moon goddess) and ended the war. Marika then banished Godfrey and his warriors and had Radagon come back and attempt to merge back together. Bunch of stuff happens in between all these events but that's my thoughts. Marika split herself in two. Radagon was surprisingly orderly and she didn't quite predict that. She shattered the Elden Ring and he even attempted to fix it and imprisoned her. She's always been the mastermind though.
I used to love Vaati, and when it comes to dark souls lore, he is unmatched. But when it comes to ER, its popularity brought up a lot of new fans and lore channels that I personally believe have outdone him. With both higher quantities while also having the same or higher quality. But Vaati is still good for general and periodic lore coverage.
YES! More Vaati Reactions!
It's like watching with friends, except these friends ARE paying attention to what he's saying
The truth of that statement, the one about paying attention, pains me. And I feel that.
It’s a lot to digest and he does a great job at it but we do our best to make sense of it all. Can’t even imagine how impossible it would be if we didn’t pay total attention 🤗
I feel you, bruh! Geeks are few and far between
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames
it get's more spicer, Cerci and Marika share ALOT in common.
Ken on Godfrey's punishment: "I like the idea that... you need to suffer a bit in life."
Beth: "That's the part that you like??"
Ken likes being punished, confirmed. Beth is still on the fence about it though.
😂 🤗😈
Without pain there is no pleasure! If you had all your base desires fullfilled 24/7 you would quickly find your life very dull. What humans really desire are challenges to overcome and purpose!
In my opinion, Marika sending Godfrey away was a more loving thing to do than to keep him in the capital… the game does a great job at showing us that he’s still very much Hoarah Loux, a battle-lusting bloodthirsty warrior; it’s almost like a mercy for him to be sent away to die in battle, keeping him trapped in the capital was essentially an eternal prison.
Agreed, specially when you fight him and he removes his limiter to fight you at full strength. Being in the capital demanded him to be a diplomatic figure when not in war. Sending him away to die in battle was allowing him freedom to choose what to do with his strength.
That’s an interesting way to look at it and we imagine if we knew more of Godfrey or had more time to at least take in the whole story we’d feel differently than we did after the first viewing 🤔😇
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames that's because you get to know godfrey more when you're playing the game and this video is more focused on the main lore or more towards marika , there's so many references and hints given in the game, this video hits differently when you're midway playing the game, hope you guys experience this masterpiece by playing it. I often watch your AC reaction videos, keep going !!
Godfrey's lion Serosh allows him to contain his bloodlust. His banishment might have had some positive effects buf it wasn't done out of the goodness of Marika's Double D heart.
Fun fact during the cutscene when you fight Godfrey it shows grace going from him to you not the other way around basically showing his goal and the marikas will is for him to kill you and take the runes. Her goal was for him to be Elden lord again also fun fact the way the Demi god children are born is throu tree budding like a fruit tree. In marikas bed chambers their is a giant round thing and it’s the same thing that catches sacred tears which are the lifeblood of the erd tree.
A good thing to know, Miyazaki loves Berserk the manga. A huge theme of that manga is the idea of the sufferer, to struggle is a part of life, and through overcoming that struggle, you enlighten yourself. If you understand that huge aspect, then you understand how he plays that into the story. I think the take away we are supposed to understand, is that Queen Marika found out that removing death from the world, also removed struggling, and thus growth. Which is why she sent Godfrey away, to struggle and die with the tarnished, and become powerful enough to challenge a God (The Greater Will) and become arbiters of their own fate.
Appreciate the insight 🙂
@@josephgold208 yup and the concept of stagnation is another running theme in Soulsborne games. Most evident in Sekiro.
Now im waiting for Vaati's "Prepare to cry" reaction
😎🤟😁
YEAH! Vaati is a lore master of all souls games to say the least.
Dude's a legend.
What little lore they have
@@reggielacey2235 There's lots of lore, just not all in once place and easy to find
@@reggielacey2235 Little lore? HAH.
The Lore Man™
The "Spoilers" you saw aren't really Spoilers, since the game isn't Narrative heavy. You could get spoiled about how a boss might look like or maybe how an ending is, but the story is so rich and hidden that VaatiVidya's videos enhance the gaming experience, since now you would know: "Hey, this is that dude's castle! I wonder why he has this painting in his throne room"!
That’s what we figured going into it. Good to know our instincts were right. And who knows when we will have time to tackle this epic journey of a game 😅
This will be my new favorite series you do. The big twist with Radagon and Marika shouldn't be that upsetting, tbh most people would probably miss it because you have to find the statue, the pose to strike in front of the statue to trigger it, and the dialogue from the turtle that gives you the idea to try it in the first place, and these all happen hours upon hours apart from each other when you play the game. Even if the average player found all these things, they probably wouldn't remember it by the time they reach the hidden statue.
It took me a while to get to the capital and to find Turtle pope and when he comments on Radagon leaving Renala I was like "This is major lore". Then I get to Radagon and was like... Man this looks familiar. Then I made a new character to try a different build from the start and when the opening plays it all conects.
Yeah that’s why we felt we’d be okay if some spoilers came up because there is so much of the story the player has to piece together through exploring and reading everything 🤗
Vaati Is the lord of soul game lore, you definitely have to react to the video about the "frenzied flame" lore he made
MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD
@@16xthedetail MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD
This!
Thanks for point us towards another video of his 😀
Either this or Blessing of despair
Happy to see ya'll get into the vague and incredibly time-consuming to learn lore of just ONE of the Fromsoft games! Can't wait to see the Prepare to Cry series reaction, since all the side and main characters in the stories are fun to learn about, or sad, mostly sad, I don't know why it's mostly sad but I'm fine with it since it's interesting, and sad as well!
So…it’s sad? 😜
Yeah those sniper lobsters aim are insane. You never run in a straight away from them. Zig zag for your life!
Vaati is so good with his videos. I've beaten the game several times yet every one of his elden ring videos is a must watch. The man puts so much into each video it's insane. The cinematography alone is just on another level with him. I'd highly recommend his videos to anybody
You defiantly need to react to more Vaati. He’s the lore master. If you wanna learn more about souls he’s the one to go to.
We plan to check out more of his stuff 🙂
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames reaction to genshin impact lore
Vaati is good but in my opinion the video was released much too early and a lot of information were straight up wrong. For example just at the beginning he says how the greater will came after other outer gods and how there was another tree before the erdtree. Which is not the case
Can't wait to see you guys react to the more character driven videos now that you have a bit a basis on the overall world. Personally looking forward to you learning about the demigods and elden ring video of his "The Warrior Within". His videos have begun to get a lot more cinematic with telling some of the lore of the characters in the game and that's where it really starts.
On the Radagon note personally I've got three theories on it. The first is he was his own separate being, hence his red hair implying being part giant in some sense. Another is that they are siblings with different minds and personalities, however they share a soul, there's an NPC like that in game already that is accepted by the golden order, if Radagon and Marika were the same it'd be a reason why. Finally and the one I'm leaning towards most is it's possible he was artificially created with the Rune of Rebirth and part of Marika.
Also there are hints in my opinion that Radagon did care for Rennala (Moon Lady). For one he left his dog with her(Which happens to be a giant red wolf that shoots magic), along with many other 'gifts', such as his Icon, a special talisman that implies he learned both sorcery and incantations to 'become whole', along with a great rune, a shard of the elden ring. The Rune of Rebirth, which I think was his way of explaining his existence to her which just broke her. Radagon put the golden order above everything else, whether it was through personal choice or forced due to his individual nature is unknown. So him leaving to be with 'himself' could be seen as more of a 'duty' than anything else.
On the final hand GRRM really trying to outdo himself, he used incest so much in game of thrones that we've been a bit de-sensitized so he went a level above that and went with selfcest.
That’s a very cool theory about Radagon 😀
This is a great overview video, some of the more focused videos like the ones about the Lord of the Frenzied Flame and Blessing of Despair get more of a narrative throughout the video because they have the time to focus in a bit. It's a more cinematic experience, but this one is definately a good starting point for Elden Ring lore.
Oh and don't worry too much about the "Radagon is Marika" spoiler. In order to find that out in the game you need to do a very specific questline and you need to build both Faith and Intelligence which is normally counter productive unless you want to use some very specific spells, and then you need to use that spell on one specific statue in the capital city, something you never have to do at any other point in the game. Practically no one finds that out on their own during their first playthrough.
We weren’t too stressed about the spoiler. Still want to play the game and doubt we’d get half this info from playing it ourselves 🙂
Nice to see you guys diving into lore! A thing regarding the names and how easy it it's to get confused, for some reason a lot of characters have names that start with G R and M! Even though George R.R. Martin pretty much only wrote the setting in which the story was going to evolve, I have a feeling that he has something to do with all these names too
Maybe someone can say more about it, but it's just a thing I realized when I played the game
He says it was just a coincidence, but I'm not sure I believe him.
It's an easy name scheme. Godfrey's kids start with G. Renalla and Radagon's kids start with R. Merika's kids with someone else or no one start with M. Just easy family trees.
@@acrab6527 Doesn't work, Morgott and Mohg are Godfrey's kids, too.
@@SentaiYamaneko They have a g in it. And since they were disowned, the M from their mom.
Nice spot. Maybe it was subconscious of him 🤔 but he always loves to name characters very similar names. Remember being so confused reading Game of Thrones 😂
I have never been a huge fan of the FromSoft games per se, but I am appreciating more and more how they do their worldbuilding and how all these seemingly disparate story elements weave together into deeper connections that fit thematically. I won't spoil anything, but it's quite satisfiyng to have these moments where you go "Oh, so THAT's why that enemy has such-and-such a motif, it ties into this old mythic origin" and so on and on. It reminds me of rawling old forums for Elder Scrolls lore and reading in-game books that were seemingly gobbledygook, only to realize that these were weird esoteric story elements normal players would probably never even realize. It's like a treasure hunt, kinda, and it's so satsfying to have these larger realizations.
I love their games, and I know the games are not for everyone. But I respect your opinion and how you were polite in how you said it. Most people when they don't like something just attack it and once they don't like one part of it, everything else automatically is bad. Then they go around and falsely accuse it of things, and then try to justify their false claims. It's possible to not like something, but appreciate other aspects of it.
Wow, you event react to VaatiVidya ? I really wasn't expecting that at all, but I couldn't be more happy to see this on the channel
I love Vaati's voice and also the time, effort and love he puts into his content. I'm glad you checked him out ^^
He does great work 😀
AAAAAAHHHH!! I’ve been waiting for this! Y’all are the best!
I liked the video and every single comment for max engagement because I want this video to do well!
Fun fact:
All of the bosses/important fights have a "Stake of Marika" near them, so that when you die, you can "respawn" there and try again.
For Rennala's fight, there's isn't one, since her husband dumped her for Marika, so she ordered to remove all Marika's stakes. If you die fighting her, you have to run all the way back from the last grace, instead of being able to just retry the fight, making it the only fight were you have to do that.
Really cool way to tie-in lore and gameplay.
There are lots of important bosses without stakes of Marika before them. I cant find a comprehensive list but a few off the top of my head: Margit, Malenia, Maliketh, both Godfrey's, Morgott, Placidusax, Fortissax, Loretta in Carian Manor, Radagon, Fire Giant, Gideon Ofnir. There are definitely more. I will add though that the Red Wolf in the Academy also doesn't have a stake of Marika.
So, my opinion is that which Vaati initially stated. That Radagon went to fix the Elden Ring, then became possesed by, or transformed into Marika (which she probably had the power to do).
3:26 THIS HITS WAY HARDER WITH THE EXPANSION REVEAL!
That other tree being part of the cover art of the expansion. Hoooo man ♥
The story of this game is so good! It's a masterpiece all around. It would be awesome to see you two react to more of Vaati's videos.
We plan to check out more of his work 🙂
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames Great, looking forward to it! All of his videos are fantastic, they expand on the lore of Fromsoft games in the most digestible way out there.
Beth thinks Marika was condescending because of this? Melina says: ''In Marika's own words: My children, make thyselves whatever thy desire, be it as a Lord, be it as a God, but should you fail, you will only ammount to sacrifice''. Basically Marika told her children to become Lords or Gods but if they failed in any point, they would die and make people die and suffer in the process
Also, there are many version theories wether Marika and Radagon were different people that became together, the same entity that split and then reunited or if they change like in the game being 2 personalities like 2 sides of the same coin. Whatever you believe nobody can really say if you're right nor wrong
All turtles are dogs and all watch dogs are cats.... such is the way of Elden Ring
Ah if you like this, I highly recommend that you check the lore video on Prince Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. The story on him is absolutely insane! Fun reaction as always.
Thanks for the video recommendation 🙂
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames
What's more impressive is you get to experience all of that while you're playing the game and feel impacted by it, you get to learn more about the demigods and get the chance to side with them or fight them, also some of the lore are left by the devs to be interpreted by the individual themselves, definitely GOTY material atleast to me.
I would love to see your reaction to the lore of the demigods. I always enjoy these reactions so much. I’ll definitely be buying some merch soon too
We will check out more and the Demi gods sounds fun 🙂
Love that you guys are diving into the lore of this game !
😎🤟
You ever hear the saying "History is written by the victors."? That is basically the easiest way to sum up Elden Ring and the Dark Souls games. You enter a world of conflict where one order had already been established and the people within all repeat the history and knowledge that they were taught. Which isn't necessarily the truth. Because of this the story is really told through the items, the characters, and the enemy placement in the world (Enemy placement in these games is intentional; they're not just there to be something to fight but they are often there for a story reason.). How much you wish to learn is up to the players own autonomy, and a very devoted and loving community, to discover; and, just like real history some of that truth may be lost to time forever.
The prepare to cry series is still some of my favorite Vaati content
Looking forward to it 🙂
I know this is a year late but I've seen only a handful catch what ive always come to theorize about Radagon and Marika. I full heartedly believe Radagon was in fact his own being who was commanded to return to Marika to wed her. Why? Because it is clearly shown that while Marika shattered the Elden Ring Radagon tried to mend it. Even once they became one why would Radagon still try to mend the Elden Ring if thats not what he/she wanted? Radagon and Marikas dynamic is one of the most fascinating parts of Elden Ring lore and i hope we find more and more about it.
Agreed. Radagon and Marika are super interesting and the more we can learn about them the better 😀🤩
Yesss! I love that you guys are going deep with Elden Ring's lore! Wait till you know all the demigods and their stories!
😁🥳
I love how neither of them bats an eye when Vaati is talking about the dog...
I'm so glad you've watched a Vaati vid, if you want to know more about the lore of Dark Souls, Elden Ring or pretty much any FromSoft game, he's your guy. I'd highly recommend his Prepare to Cry vids for Dark Souls.
I would love to see you react to vaatis lord of the frenzied flame, I absolutely loved it and it would be fun to see your reaction to one of the most sad stories of elden ring
Ohhh, you should really watch Vaati's other lore videos of Fromsoftware games. My favorite is Bloodborne's story explained
vaati vidya has good lore breakdowns that are structured to be easier to understand.
definitely recommend checking out any of his prepare to cry videos for dark souls as well
I think Radagon was his own person once, but since he was so loyal to the Golden Order he followed every command the Elden Beast would give, the highest authority in the Lands Between. Once Marika started to question the Golden order the Elden Beast would surely call its most loyal subjects back to the Erdtree in order to stop her. But how can you stop the only being capable of forging and destroying the Elden Ring from destroying it? Well, you must become that being. So the Elden Beast merged the two of them so that Radagon would be capable of repairing the Elden Ring at the same time as Marika is trying to destroy it.
If Radagon was just a disguise of Marika then why would he work against her?
There is also the thing Vaati mentioned in the video. Marika and Radagon represent different parts of the fundementals of the Golden Order. Maybe Marika created Radagon by seperating the Law of Regression from herself. That would explain why he is in direct oppsotion to her while still being so loyal to the Golden Order. He would then technically always have been Marika but he would also be so different that he would be like his own person with his own goals. That also explains why he left his Great Rune with Rennala when he left her. I don't see why Marika would do that so Radagon probably did it out of sentiment before "sacrificing" himself in order to become Marikas correction.
Jesus Christ more! More of VaatiVidya! Thanks for this reaction. And waiting for more if you please!
Can't wait for more elden ring lore videos
😎🤟🥳
"marika soon found a new husband"
ken, whispering: *hussy*
Marika came from Hungary with Old knight István, Elemér of the briar, Jolán from the dlc and Margit the first major boss in the game! (Obviusly they did not but its funny that these names are hungarian as a hungarian person!)
Ooooooh!!!! This is one is going to be exciting! Elden ring has some of ym favorite stories in the soulsborne series!!
Oh Vaati (pronounced Vah-Tee Vid-ee-Ah) is a master at the Fromsoft lore. I find his videos extremely relaxing as background noise as well.
I will note that while his piecing together of the lore in these games is generally what is accepted and well researched he does at times make some logical leaps to tell a more concise story. Which you do kinda have to do with these games since there's not a ton of definitive knowledge of motivation in these games (the concepts in Bloodborne make my head hurt when I think about them to much for example).
In the case of Marika it's not really known why she sent Godfrey away but I view it as more her being so desperate to brake the Lands Between away from the Greater Will that she sent her husband out into the world to make a "race" of people, the Tarnished, that wouldn't be beholden to the Greater Will. These people might be able to remove it's influence.
But really it isn't known for sure if that was her thought process, though it would make a lot of her actions make more sense.
Don't worry if all this is confusing, I've been playing since launch and I'm still confused.
It's one of those games which drops you into a world and lets you figure it out, not much is explained by characters, most of the lore has been figured out through item descriptions
Vaati is hands down best SoulsBorne lore person. Cheers for doing this. You must play someday. You must!!!
Vaatividya is truly something special this guy makes some crazy good videos
Also i dont think you should worry about elden ring/dark souls spoilers. Most people have no idea whats even going on in these games
Good vídeo! Looking forward to see more videos of Vaati on the channel! Greetings from Portugal!
This was a very fun game. The lore and gameplay is incredible. Hope it wins something tonight at the Game Awards
GOTY for Elden Ring is almost confirmed lo.
@@mercylavigne I don't have a playstation but God War was amazing last time
Its definitely one of the biggest contenders for GOTY
@@nxxf1 Not really this one it's start really hype but then changes to like some family trouble show. 🥲
@@Alec_cz yea I won't have the chance to play the new one for a while so I'll take your word for it
Marika went from being loyal to the Golden Order and the Greater Will to planning the downfall of both... She clearly found something out about the Greater Will that scared her. So much so that she plotted the downfall of pretty much the entirety of the Lands Between. Even her own family.
Banishing Godfry led to the tarnished, an almost endless amount of warriors who would be called to the land between and be guided by Grace, to gather all the runes and become Elden Lord and Marikas Consort. As for what she saw... We don't know. But she needed the Golden Order to end and a new Age to begin... And we get to choose what the new Age shall be like.
Also, I personally thought the Elden Beast WAS Radagon... which allowed the Greater Will to keep tabs on Marika. And that they fused together when she ascended to Godhood. Which would explain why he was loyal to the Order and Greater Will and turned back into Marika when we defeated the Elden Beast.
It's also worth pointing out that Marika and Radagon are essentially two different being inhabiting the same space. Two completely different personalities and wills.
Please do more from Vaati he is an excellent story teller for the epic tales of From Software games.
I BEG you to check out JR's night 6 gameplay. It's a FNAF fan game where you are a paranormal investigator where you have to figure out which animatronic is haunted. The reason I want you to check out Night 6 gameplay is because I think that has to be the most terrifying thing ever, as you get to see the creation of Mangle as all the animatronics form into one, which is pretty much a boss fight. I don't want to spoil too much. And just the music in the background that builds up tension is still haunting me.
And Elden Ring just won the "Game of the Year" award so nice timing :p
Man hearing Vaati voice everytime gives me an eargasm 🤣😂
If you’re at all interested in these Elden ring videos I HIGHLY recommend his video on the Frenzied Flame. Probably my favorite one he’s made in a long while
is that the one with the merchants?
@@_inSight__ Yes
Just dropping by to recommend Max0r's Elden Ring videos again, they'll probably be even better now that you know a bit of the lore
We cannot be more happier than to see a Vaatividya lore video reaction.
The one thing about Vaati and Fromsoft have in common is that there is almost no middle ground with how people feel about them. You either love or hate them for something, and most often when someone hates them for something, it is not accurate what they accuse them of. Some claim Fromsoft has no story and hate it, even through it is pack with story and lore. It might not be your preferred method of finding it, but it's there. Some people don't like Vaati because he "steals" content from other creators and gives no credit, except he has always given credit where he gets his information from; whether it was an item description, visual representation, or a reddit user. Some claim Vaati is "wrong" on some things, keep in mind that nothing is clear, cut and dry, or 100% accurate in Fromsoft story telling, it is based on speculation on what you manage to piece together yourself, and unless the creator confirms it, it is only speculation and opinions.
At this point Vaati is the FS lore guy, i don't see anyone credible doubting him.
Oh!? A Vaati reaction! His lore videos are great! Love to see more!
We all love pope turtle
I hope this means Max0r Elden Ring vids are coming soon lol
Can't wait for more Vaati videos!
You're actually on to something about Marika banishing the Godfrey and the Tarnished was probably what gave the Tarnished that returned the drive to become the next Elden Lord (The player character). It was as if she knew that the separation would drive the Tarnished to return with even more purpose.
Marika is arrogant though, especially since the player character can in fact decide between different endings and bring the world to an end if they desire. Though she may have known that just as well.
“I like the idea that you need to suffer a little bit” - Ken 2022
He has a few prepare to cry vids on Elden Ring. You guys will like he story telling.
Elden ring and dark soul are inspired off Berserk if you remember it’s main character Guts. You can even find the sword Guts used before the dragon slayer sword, the Great sword. Literally same name and same sword. Direct reference.
Awesome breakdown guys!
It needs to be said…maxor has done some videos on elden ring and it may be the greatest of his work ever created
YOU DID VAATI FINALLY!!!!
Elden ring is one of my favourite games ever, it’s absolutely fantastic, if you haven’t played any of the souls game then it’s a must play if you have patience
Make sure to watch another Elden Ring video from Vaati called "The Blessing of Despair" its production quality is the best compared to his other videos and it's very tragic and twisted.
Let's go!! Finally we get to Vaati arc!!!
Vaati is an awesome content creator, I hope you guys will do more reactions to his videos!
I love elden ring so much, my friends and I waited years for it and when it came out we raced each other to see who could beat it first. I won with 55 hrs and 23 min. I'm on my fourth playthrough of Elden ring and somehow I'm only at 75 hrs 😂
Only 55 hrs?! Sheeeeshhh🔥
@@demanteculpepper4579 I saw the kotaku article and I wanted to see if it was true that you could beat it under 60 lol
The George R. R. Martin influence is definitely noticeable in the names of many of the characters.
Marika and Godfrey had three demigod children:
- Godwyn the Golden, who was the first of the demigods to die.
- The Omen Twins, Morgott the Grace-Given and Mohg, the Lord of Blood.
Radagon and Rennala had three demigod children, one of which was an Empyrean:
- Radahn, also known as the Starscourge. He could control the movement of the cosmos with his powerful gravity magic.
- Rykard, Lord of the Volcano Manor. He ended up giving himself to a wicked serpent and fused with it, becoming the Lord of Blasphemy.
- Ranni, Lunar Princess and also known as the Snow Witch. Ranni instigated the Night of the Black Knives when she used a fragment of the Rune of Death to have the Black Knives, an order of elite female assassins, murder Godwyn the Golden. Ranni is also an Empyrean and the Half-Wolf named Blaidd is her Shadow.
Marika and Radagon had two demigod children, both of which were also Empyreans:
- Malenia, Blade of Miquella and the Scarlet Rot Goddess. Due to being the child of Radagon and Marika, Malenia was tainted with the Scarlet Rot, a vile illness and plague that spreads throughout her body and once a certain threshold is reached, causes a large scarlet flower to bloom and wreak the plague far and wide across the area in which it blooms. This happened when Malenia fought Starscourge Radahn at a standstill in the Caelid Wilds, turning the entire region into a rotten wasteland and infecting Starscourge Radahn with madness.
- Miquella, the younger brother of Malenia. He is cursed with eternal childhood and was kidnap by Mohg, the Lord of Blood to be used as his consort in order to bring about a new dynasty of blood in honor of the deity they worship known as The Formless Mother.
There are also many other NPCs and characters in the game with names that start with G, R, or M.
Yessss! Would love to see you guys react to more of his stuff!
I always believed that Radagon was one of the runes of the Elden Ring given a body of its own. Mostly because I’m sure Godfrey would have noticed if his wife was gone for a long period of time.
Just when Marika realized that Radagon could have children she recalled him to her side to make another empyrean heir of her own, except her empyrean children were cursed by the greater will due to Radagon being apart of the Elden Ring that was inside of Marika and as punishment they fused them together to make a sort of split personality
The next one Elden ring of Vaati’s work would be “the warrior within” video, which you’d have an easier time understanding (somewhat) now that you face some context
34:15 Marika literally said "I can buy myself flowers"
Vaati's "Prepare To Cry Remastered" series is a must-watch.
can't wait to see you guys react to silent hill 2 lore (or better all of them). Sorry if there is a spelling mistake, my english is not very good
Nice! You guys need to watch his prepare to cry videos!
A must-have watch, ssethTzeentach's "Elden Ring Review | Dark Souls IIII (VI) | Dung Eater Edition".. would love to see a reaction on this. It's much more comical then a proper review :)
You should also check out the lore on the demigods
My theory about Marika is that she created Radagon from a fragment of herself. That would explain a LOT of things.
My take is based on Radagon's boss fight. Half his body is missing, and the rest is filled in by the Elden Beast. So I think what makes you a god is the Elden Beast possessing you. So Marika didn't like being possessed, split herself into 2 people. That way Radagon is possessed, and she is not, so she can act freely without being controlled.
Radagon, controlled by an eldritch god, goes and keeps conquering and furthering the greater will's goals, while Merika, now knowing it's an alien being and not a god (or at least not the only god) starts scheming against it. When Merika breaks the Elden Ring he comes back saying "What did you do? Okay, up on the cross, time for punishment" He's standing there preventing anyone from taking her down.
You can see this with all the other Empyrians. They are able to be possessed by the Elden Beast and become a god. So Ranni kills her body, and thus can't be possessed. Malenia is possessed by the god of rot. Miquella covers himself in unalloyed gold to keep anything from possessing him. Godwin's dead and thus can't be possessed anymore. Mogh is corrupted and unsuitable to be possessed by the Greater Will, but the Formless Mother is totally willing to possess him.
Because remember, none of these gods can show up themselves. They're all out in space somewhere. They all need proxies.
I Kind of hoped you Would begin with the Dark Souls 1 lore. But thats good too
I recommend watching his Bloodborne videos. Specifically the prepare to cry series for Bloodborne and his video Bloodborne lore in 30 mins
pls react to his "prepare not to cry" videos of his asap as well as the art contest videos after that, its all so goooood
You definately need to watch Vaati's video about the demigod children. It sheds more light into this twisting lore.
NICE! Some Vaati for the soul!
My theory is that Marika split herself so that she could resolve the Carian revolt issue. She split herself into two parts to do so and maybe didn't realize that doing that made it kind of a yin and yang thing. Marika is causality and Radagon is regression. Radagon seduced Rennala (moon goddess) and ended the war. Marika then banished Godfrey and his warriors and had Radagon come back and attempt to merge back together. Bunch of stuff happens in between all these events but that's my thoughts.
Marika split herself in two. Radagon was surprisingly orderly and she didn't quite predict that. She shattered the Elden Ring and he even attempted to fix it and imprisoned her. She's always been the mastermind though.
you should watch more of Vaatividya. He is probably the best Fromsoft lore youtuber.
"Suffering makes you grow". Yep that's a Souls game.
The tag line Prepare to Die. It's not a threat, it just lets you know what is going to happen.
When are you guys gonna do a follow-up video to this one?
It's coming in February. As well as some more souls series lore stuff. 😇
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames Cool
its been a year but , Marika is condescending , She is all and mighty. She is Marika the Eternal.
I used to love Vaati, and when it comes to dark souls lore, he is unmatched. But when it comes to ER, its popularity brought up a lot of new fans and lore channels that I personally believe have outdone him. With both higher quantities while also having the same or higher quality. But Vaati is still good for general and periodic lore coverage.
They may out lore him but by the gods his voice is the most soothing thing I've ever heard.
you should take a look at Vaati's prepare to cry series