An Elden Ring Time Travel Theory 

Mind blowing fact i realised : While watching vaati's new video about miquella Is that we know all albinaurics were trying to find the haligtree They travelled to the consecrated snowfield for that But then...something happened...and when we reached there ..there were no albinaurics just misbegottens...and shit Vaati never touches on this fact But the reason why albinaurics never made it was because they were following miquella in their dreams.... And that was the path that was leading them however..those brain dead mfs Were so into this dream walking that when mohg kidnapped miquella the pantheon just kept walking towards the mohgwyn palace and this is the reason we find so many of them there Miquella really wanted to help them So he charmed them to come to his safe haven in their dreams but himself got abducted and the brain dead albinaurics followed. They then reached there and thought mogh was miquella's consort because it was infact the place miquella was. And boy o boy... they started worshipping the lord of blood instead which is plain sad We even see the followers of mohg (the enemies at rose church preaching to the red albinaurics making it more likely that they were swayed from their original path)

I think its less then time 'travel' and more about concurrent timelines playing out simultaneously. Vyke is busy being the protag in his story, while being the herald of frenzied flames in ours

Couple holes in this theory are 1. The roundtable hold we go to is explained as outside of time and space, so like a pocket dimension and it's based off the Lyndell hold that was used long ago. It is set on fire cause the Erdtree is creating the pocket space 2. Ranni's body has red hair all of raddagon's kids had red hair melena has light brown hair. 3. They are the only two characters that acknowledge torrent so it's not out of the question to say Torrent just has an amazing judge of character and that's well known. 4. Ranni literally says "oh I just used my teacher's name to test your metal" you had to seek her out to learn her true name. But it's super interesting, I think Ranni and melena are half sisters not the same person

I really feel like the secret of The Lands Between is right in the name. I think its cosmic bc the geology of the game feels like tectonic forces converging from multiple worlds into a schelling point for various species and outer gods. Marika and the Numen are literally described as being from another world.

I will say that Ranni did have a reason to rid herself of her empyrean flesh. Her mini doll form states that "i would not be controlled by that thing." Which means that empyreans are essentially just managers and the 2 fingers are CEO's that tell them what to do. The baleful shadows are the enforcers of the rules given to them, which is why one is sent to hunt us down on our way to the lake of rot. I think Renna is the name of Ranni's mentor, and probably had a tower alongside ranni's as she taught her cold sorceries. It makes sense that Rennala would let a gifted sorcerer teach her daughter, seeing that she herself would be too busy teaching at the academy and probably didnt have time to teach her daughter herself. Adula was probably a friend or pet of renna, who was left behind to protect ranni. Melina has a preference for incantations over sorcery so i do believe that her and ranni did come from the same being. Radagon's incants require a high amount of both faith and sorcery to use, so it isnt crazy to assume that those two attributes were maybe split into two seperate beings.

This is a cool idea! But I have sort of suspected that the “lands between” are in fact a sort of Mount Olympus or Asgard of whatever world Elden Ring takes place in. This would explain why the “continent” is actually relatively small but has a wealth of culture variation. And each region is the dwelling place of one of the demigods. The more I think about this theory the more I am convinced by it. The whole conflict of these demigod’s story is very similar to some of the civil wars that have taken place in mythologies past.

I actually think that Renna was the name of the snow witch who Ranni takes on the visage of in her doll. Renna would just be an alias given their history. Who Renna would be to Ranni beyond that, I don’t know. But I could see Melina being the younger version of Ranni.

It seems to me that no character really knows Melina exist. You make your accord with her and Varre *still* calls you maidenless (and if you go to the Hold before getting a great rune, he doesn't understand you _how_ did you get there). If she was a demigod (as this video and one from Vaati about Miquella both theorize), wouldn't there be _any_ trace of her existence known? A picture in a castle, a statue, a graveyard of swords from her destroyed army? Wouldn't Morgott be completely outraged to see her fight alongside you? Wouldn't she also have a throne in Leyndell? If she was a demigod, it would be a very odd notion for all the demigods to mutually agree to pretend she never existed while waging total war on each other. Edit: I also really dislike the 'time is convoluted' cop-out that became common from Miyazaki's works. GRRM once stated in an interview that he was hired to write the lore, and that the game would take place about 5000 years after that, and that somewhat works better than 'timelines are mixed again oh no'. If that timeframe was kept true by FROM, then you have 5000 years of total war between realms, which would explain the destroyed buildings, all the while no one truly dies (by the combined factors of: no Erdtree burials happen anymore, Godwyn's presence is slowly spreading and reviving corpses, and the rune of death kept away by Maliketh). The only thing that doesn't really work in that timeframe is the wounded Black Knife you find in Limgrave - has she been hurt and hiding for so long?

I have thought for a long time that The Lands Between are between dimensional time lines. The other tarnished spectral forms we see as we travel the lands are those found in other dimensions. Journey 2, 3 ,4 etc are our attempts to fix other dimensions.

I think Time is definitely at play, mentioned by NPCs and of course evidenced by Farum Azula. Either themes are repeating or at certain points we are actually watching the beginning and ending of plot lines while missing the middle (The Shattering War itself)

Loved how you tied it the Gloam-Eyed Queen part! Ranni/Melina’s lore has always been my favorite of Elden Ring

I swear to god I had the exact same theory and called it "the fracture theory" I even started to write a script about it. About how reality is fractured from the point of the shattering of the elden ring. Creating alternate beings from one being and changing their history even. Thats why there is so many twins and alternate egos. And 2 people in one. For example ranni has Melina, Morgott has Mohg, Marina has Radagon, Melania has Miqeulla, Gurranq with Maliketh, Darion with D, Miquellas alter ego st.Trina. it just keeps going. That's why we have to mend the elden ring by killing every one to take their runes and mend the fracture. But this an impossible mountain to climb. The shattering broke time and reality itself and the only way to fix it is to acknowledge this fact and walk foward from this point instead of trying to fix it. Holy shit I'm so surprised I wasn't alone in thinking like this. Love this channel and please keep surprising me! Mind is blown because you read my mind words for word. It's crazy.

Very nice theory, but I do have to point something out about the Greatrunes. We already have Miquella's Greatrune, the Greatrune of the unborn, it has the exact same shape as Malenia's Greatrune just like how Morgott and Mohg who are siblings have the same shaped Greatrune and Radahn and Rykard same thing. It also fits very nicely with Miquella's theme of youth and rebirth (see the albernaurics in cocoons at the haligtree). And about Ranni's Greatrune, I would love to see it in DLC, but there are some evidence that it's plastered on the moon itself, look for three or four arcs connected by a line on the bottom left side of the moon, you should bve able to see it.

My favorite part was when margit traveled forward in time to show off how much of a ninja turtle he used to be

Maybe Ranni is the part that is Radagon’s daughter, Renna is Rennala’s daughter, and Melina is Marika’s daughter.

Okay, I had a little trouble following some of that, I will admit... But to back up your point about the connection between minor Erdtrees and other worlds, it was immediately after the Shattering that the Erdtree sent its golden seeds "scattering across the various lands, as if life itself knew that its end has come." Maybe each seed created (or at least connected) a timeline, and scattering them was a defense mechanism to increase the chances that in at least one of these worlds, the Elden Ring could be reforged Also, I like the idea that Melina's eye tattoo is a seal keeping a dark power locked up within her, like Destined Death is sealed inside Maliketh, except that she has no ability to release it even if she wants to. And only the Frenzied Flame with its power to break down all the divisions of the world can shatter the seal and give her access to her hidden power. If so, it would make sense that she is the only person in the world, other than the carrier of the Frenzied Flame, that can relight the forge of the giants. She has an equally powerful flame inside her as well

It’s an interesting theory altogether. It would explain why certain enemies exist and why other don’t. The Godskins and Black Flame Monks are scattered with no main base of operations, you’d think if Gloam Eyed Queen had so much power, she would have a castle or place of her own at least in ruins or disarray in the time you play. I do agree with the general concept that it could be a time loop, though I’m not so certain on the relationships of Ranni, Renna, and Melina. I would need a few stronger bridges before I crossed that gap. But all in all, well done to you and Pixel. Really enjoyed the video.

Another key point that happened during the death of both demigods, Godwyn and Ranni, the great rune for Ranni was cast aside, possibly falling downwards to the roots of the Erdtree, lost to age

ELDEN RING MIGHT NOT NEED A DLC BUT I NEED A DLC

This is fantastic and has helped me fully form ideas I’ve had Thank you!

I love this so much. A great take on an awesome story! Interesting and elegant delivery. Thank you for your time creating this channel

I mean, Dark Souls has a lot of weird stuff regarding the past, present, future, and alternate realities. I would not at all be surprised if Ranni is doing some time shenanigans.

If I had to pick three people in Ranni's general circle of associates to actually be the same person same person Marika/Radagon style I'd guess Ranni, Renna, and Rennalla. The way Ranni shows up during Renalla's fight without it impacting our relationship to Ranni is highly suspect (as if it were Ranni from a different time), and the various Moons referenced are each associated with a different person (full moon for Renalla, dark moon for Ranni, black moon unknown, but there's nothing ruling out Renna as far as I know), and more importantly each a different TIME. Each of the three moons in in a different phase, and phases of the moon are a universal measure of time passing. Also Ranni, Rennalla and Renna slot neatly into Maiden, Matron, Crone archetypes, so you in effect get a neat visual metaphor for Ranni/Renna/Renalla's fortunes and role in the world.

Hearing "The First Hunter" in the background was emotional damage, Bloodborne is a fucking masterpiece

One thing that doesn't seem to fit is that the Gloam-Eyed Queen was known to wield the Godslayer Greatsword, Melina the Blade of Calling, and Ranni Dark Moon sorcery. If they were the same person at different times, you would expect at least two of them to have overlapping fighting-styles or use similar weapons.

This is an amazing theory and great video! Thank you!!

I’ve been playing around with the idea that the erdtree/great tree/crucible have a cyclical nature to them. There’s some weird connections between Elden John (the statues in the uhl and uld ruins) and Radagon. Either Radagon is reborn from the ancient Elden John, or Radagon is the younger version of Elden John and when we beat the game the time loop starts with marika broken body in the erdtree being the end point or anchor point, and Radagon being sent back in time (possibly falling back to the lands between as a golden star) and becomes the progenitor of the Great Tree. Meaning marika and Radagon were always one being, just with each half separated in time, leading to all the in-game confusion and gold masks revelation that they are the same. Until thousands of years later where marika would call her other half back to have both of them be shattered once more, together.

This is one of the most interesting theories of Elden Ring that I've seen, thank you for the great presentation!

I just recently got and beat Elden Ring. Twice(I really love this game), got the Age of Stars ending and immediately did a NG+ run and got the Frenzied Flame ending. Lorewise, I came out of the game incredibly confused. Thus I turned to lore videos, eventually leading me to this channel. The way you explain the lore and the game is just perfect in my opinion. And right when I thought I fully understood all the lore and nothing more could change my mind, you drop this video. This could really do a 180 on the entire lore of this game, and I can’t wait to see what other lore videos you have in store!

Time travel also explains how Maliketh can be a boss fight and a starved gurranq. It could also explain the spirits you see that give you insight on the lore like the one about the shabriri grapes after Godrick.

Interesting theory as it ties up everything, but what about that time Melina said she was born in foot of the erdtree, did that meant she's reborn? Also her file name that means Marika's child, it might strengthen 'Radagon is Marika' fact and why Ranni was the one choosen as Empyrian (regardless the twins affliction).

Does anyone also think that the pattern on Ranni's hat looks a bit like the language of Two Fingers?

just finished the game, so here I am searching for things that I dont understood very well and dude that theory kinda makes sense and I love that, great video btw

6:30 Or Ranni and Melina are separate beings and Ranni sealed Melina's (Gloam eyed queen's) eye. We know Ranni was connected to the night of black knives, which needed the rune of death. To detach herself from the two fingers, she probably allied with Marika to take the rune of death from the Gloam Eyed Queen (Melina) and sealed her eye shut to make sure she cannot seek Destined Death again (we also know her eye can sense destined death, which would inevitably lead her to gather the Godskins again and beat Maliketh).

I didn’t know how you would link everything but it turned out great! My first playtrough I wanted ranni ending but took frenzied flame and didn’t know how to fix it

This is another reminder of just how many small things connect to each other and allow for some insane speculation, with so many things simultaneously being possible. Keep up the great work Jake!

This video made me even more excited for Shadow of the Erdtree!! Great work!

Wow, great idea and even better explained. I was wondering about the three sisters without any clue. Love it

An interesting aspect of the great runes is in the siblings' similarly lined. The omen twins have a circle with a central line, the renala and radagon, brothers have a circle with a line offset to the left. I suspect that renala, being gifted the rune of rebirth by radagon is the reason why her rune looks different, but also still shares similarities to malenia as she is daughter of Marika and radagon

One of the best Elden Ring lore videos I've seen so far.

this theory blow my mind totally Changing what I thought of this game TOTALLY! in way my eyes started tearing up it's like I experienced the entire game for the first time again because all you did make sens

I had thought about time travel and things converging, but not in this exact way. It's a fun theory. And maybe at the end of it all Torrent is the main agent in all of this. Talking horse DLC next please.

Oh Man, I loved this theory and the way you explained 😮👌

I’ve been saying they’re the same person in Elden Ring video comments for a while now. The time travel idea has been said before, but going back in time to stop herself is new to me.

Amazing job figuring all this out dude 👏

Although I can’t fully accept this theory yet (there’s a ton of plot gaps that can’t be covered atm) your point on miquellas great rune ability being related to time got me thinking. In order to get rid of the influence of the flame of frenzy, you need miquellas needle in its final stage. However, it’s described as incomplete and so to use it, we have to go to a place BEYOND TIME in order to make it work. I believe this environment serves as a substitute for miquellas ability, as he isn’t around to complete it for us. Being that the case, it may not be too far fetched to assume his great rune is in fact time related.

also side note for melina opening her left eye. since her right eye is clouded, her purpose is gone like when marika banished horah loux to the badlands because he lost his spirit and his eyes faded, fading or loss for melina unsealed her gloam eye. i think the gloam eye can only return if frenzy happened. but who or why was it sealed in the first place, where is she from? the godskin nobles adored their gloam eye queen from a long long time ago. she does lie here and there so shes not 100% trustworthy either.

Miquilla has a great rune of abundance.

"Be sure to understand that this is just a theory" A GAME theory!

This would make sense. I always wondered why we find Godrick in an Evergaol while also finding him in Stormveil. The converging timeline theory would explain that. And there are many more inconsistencies like this one that don’t make sense when you encounter them.

The first time I played ER my first impression of the lands between is that is very similar to the movie Land of the Lost. In Land of the Lost the protagonists find themselves in an interdimesional desert with artifacts,creatures, landscapes from different epochs/eras. How or why does this matter? Well to put it in perspective I only ever saw the first two trailers so I had little to no context of the world I was walking into. I truly felt like the tarnished in a foreign yet somehow familiar land trying to find some consistency or some structure within the world, and at some point I began to empathize with the residents/inhabitants of the lands between. It makes sense why so many would turn to worship or perhaps defy the status quo. Imagine being stuck in such a beautiful vibrant world but the laws of time/space are broken beyond true repair where could you go/who would you trust/even when you die you are alive to some extent/or would you see it all burn to end the cycle?

Already said this elsewhere, but one of the covered eyes on st. Trina’s torch has Melina’s Eye Tatoo/scar peeking out from underneath.

While I do believe Melina and Ranni are related, I believe Melina is closer related to Miquella and Malenia since all 3 of them have butterflies associated with them (also you find Melina's clothes at the heart of the Haligtree). It's all but obvious that Marika is her mother inside of the Erdtree. One thing that I recently started theorizing is that the Night of Black Knives happened well after the shattering. This is because of recent Miquella videos I've been watching, but the Golden Epitaph sword was created when Godwyn was killed (lets say that year at some point), but the Haligtree must have been at the height of it's power since the sword has an incantation with the Haligtree's sigil (the incantation to kill those who live in death without allowing them to rise again). BUT the Haligtree was raised by Miquella *after* the shattering because Golden Seeds were only scattered after Marika shattered the Elden Ring. We know the Haligtree came from the Erdtree because it has it's own Erdtree Avatar, so this proves that Miquella specifically took a Golden seed to raise a Minor Erdtree into the Haligtree (using his powers of abundance) and created his whole following from there. Also is it not said that Ranni stole the rune of death to stop the Golden Order from controlling her as an Empyrean by killing her flesh and separating her soul into the body of a doll? That's obviously the prevailing theory, I suppose, but I thought it was actually said in the game at some point.

I was ready to immediately disregard this theory, but there's actually some really good points being made here. I still don't think time travel is meant to be a main plot point, but the Ranni-Renna-Melina connections are very interesting. Plus I feel like as time goes on, the community has forgotten that we never got an answer to Melina's eyes, and this could be it.

Great video Jake! Also Melina says she is Burned and bodiless she also says she was born at the foot of the erdtree.

Ranni and the others always reminded me of ''Maiden, mother, crone'' and ''past, present, future'' all different but basically one in the same.

This is the absolute perfect explanation for everything, specially for the Night of the Black Knives

I believe we're actually missing an additional great rune. We're missing Miquellas' and Rannis' but I also Melinas' she always hints that she is somehow someway connected to Queen Marika, I've heard a theory long ago that Melina is another daughter of Marika perhaps hidden or kept secret for some reason.

Well Marika does have a habit of birthing twins. It would make an odd level of since for her male half to sire people who are twins in the same body. Also half-a-dozen timelines and realities crashing together would explain a lot of BS going on. It would also explain why almost everything respawns when you rest a site of Grace. Things out of place, like the beastman of Faram Azula, don't respawn because they are literally out of place and time. Melina being able to travel explain the Glowm Eyed Queen and why she seems to come out of nowhere holding the rune of destined death and then disappears. Kind of.

this is a reall interesting and put together theory!! im still working my way through the multiple endings of the game, but i had a curious thought about Miquella after watching this. what if Miquella and Godwyn are one in the same, time travel wise, similar to Ranni?? something that i dont think was ever explained is just how huge Godwyn’s body is or became after he “died”. its fascinating to me that weve seen Miquella represented in statues around the Haligtree as a child and small, but when we see his arm hes grown. could that just be from Mogh’s corruption of him?? or could it be from him trying to become Godwyn?? a brother that he loved and looked up to. there are statues all around the Haligtree and many people have theorized that these statues include Godwyn along with Melania and Miquella. It also goes along with Miquella’s distian for the people and creatures that live in death. Maybe hes trying to some how stop Godwyn from having recieved destined death? or that hes an opposing force to Ranni?!

It's also possible that the "Three Sisters" just refers to the three towers that can be seen from a distance above Liurnia.

These theories are stuff for Ph.D. candidates but they make so much sense when you put them out there like this! :o My biggest hopes would be to get a DLC that takes us back to the shattering and features a whole lot of story content that would actually clear up some of these theories. They could actually make 3 full new games based on all this, and still I wouldn't feel like they were trying to milk it

Most of the misplaced ruins comes from flying castles like farum azula it is no secrets, but id love to go back in time see them back in their first shape

yeah but what armor were you wearing in this video, looks sick

To add to your theory. When we defeat Maliketh in Farum Azula (a place that messes with time) we see a sentient black fog combine with the Rune of Death and potentially the fell flames Melina amplified. And only then does Enia say 'the Rune of Death is unbound' and the Erdtree is set ablaze. Linking both the Gloam Eyed Queen and Melina. Rune of Death also links to Ranni heavily throughout story. Ranni's bro Radahn was holding back the stars/her fate, more messing with time. Ranni also knows the fate of Blaidd and Iji, how? Alternate timeline Ranni seen it before? Also, one thing that always bugged me about the Ranni's ending, is that it's only one where we see the less broken side of Marika's face resting on the ground, Ranni also handles her head with extreme care, never actually placing it back onto her body like in all the others, we then see Marika break up into gold particles unlike the others where she remains imprisoned. Which begs the question, why does Ranni look at Marika with such affection? Was Marika good?

I find it so cool you used the little nightmares 2 soundtrack, a game also in a state of ruin and in some sort of time paradox.

We’ve already seen the two form thing passed down with miquella and st Trina being the same being. Really cool lore theory.

Great vid. What is the music used here?

what reshader are you using for that opening shot? that shit looks amazing

Props for the Little Nightmares music! Game is underrated as fuck.

I love these theories because, in general, I enjoy Soulsborne and the overlapping realities/stacked dreams trope :'). Also I like the idea that perhaps the Age of Stars begins via undoing past events that would have kept the Golden Order in rule

I always thought the roundtable hold of the capitol was an odd and misplaced thing. I figured it was just another hold similar to the one we know, but this seems more likely

something else about this theory is it may also explain why there are so much random boss duplicates like two red wolfs and stuff

Another little clue to this is the Elden ring we see at marika and the Elden ring in Farouk Azula. The “old” Elden ring has a double helix in the center, which reminds me of dark souls where people are pulled and dragged from their timelines. The new Elden ring has circles constantly crossing through a straight line. To me this seems like the Guidance of Grace is dragging heroes to a single timeline rather then being thrown about like dark souls universe

I like this theory :) I just got the Lord of Frenzied Flame yesterday. I like how that ending ties together this theory.

This is a cool theory but I took everything differently. - We can infer that the GEQ's rune had something to do with death if not outright being the rune of death. With her being an Empyrean she's either a direct offspring of solely Marika or she was chosen by the two fingers as a candidate for becoming a god. I think the later is more likely. - Melina is kind of tricky, I do think that she WAS the GEQ but after being defeated by Gurranq, she was imprisoned in the Erd Tree and reborn as Melina. By being killed by the full rune of death the GEQ could be returned to the tree after death and then reborn/summoned whenever Marika/Greater Will deemed fit. (I will say you are spot on with Melina doing the whole "burning" herself in the flame thing multiple times.) - Ranni is the simplest imo, Ranni is Ranni but also Renna. Renna is just a pseudonym used by Ranni to move around in her doll form. No one knows Ranni is the "Witch doll" except Blaidd, Iji, Seluvis/Pidia, and maybe the Black Knife Assassin's. To the public she operates as Renna, snow witch but secretly she's a princess. Same as Morgott/Margit. The name Renna most likely just derived from Rennala. As to where her rune is? I'd say it's safe to say it's on the moon. You can see it in game and I'm cutscenes.

Similar ideas in DS3 with the pilgrims of Londor, probably Lothric's future, traveling back in time to die in Lothric castle to release Pilgrim Butterflies to fuel the eclipse, possibly leading to Gertrude's Angelic faith, leading to all the events of the game, ie a time paradox. Same thing with Roundtable Hold and Firelink Shrine, they're somewhat akin to evergaols, snapshots of reality that function as a nexus across time and space. This is why we're never able to look back and see Firelink from anywhere else in Lothric. Basically every major player in ER has multiple forms. I'm intrigued by the Renna/Ranni/Melina 3 Sisters idea, but what about Millicent? She and Melina are outfitted and attack similarly. Also, with names being so important, Renna/Ranni feel more aligned with Rennala, and Melina more with Marika (same number of letters, same order of consonants and vowels).

at first i was like huh? then i was like OHHHHH. Very nice theory man

I want to like this, and I think to an extent it's probably right, but it ignores/forgets so much too. Being born at the foot of the erdtree, Renna being states to be Ranni's former master, etc. Etc.

While some parts of it has to rely on pure speculation with no evidence pointing in either direction, it could explain a few other things. For example, Radahn might have learned what Ranni was doing, holding back the stars as a means of stopping her from continuing the loop. How would he know? Well, since we're speculating anyway, maybe the Greater Will told him. The visual language of Elden Ring can be interpreted to support this theory. Circles represent loops and Rykard is literally a snake seeking to devour everything; what's the only thing left to devour if it succeeds? That's right, itself. And what does a snake eating its own tail represent? Him being Ranni's brother almost seems to suggest that he is some kind of manifestation of her folly. The shattering of the Elden Ring can also be interpreted as an attempt by Marika to literally shatter the endless cycle once Godwyn's fate comes to pass and she realizes that the timeline still isn't fixed. A lot of things surrounding the underground civilizations and so on make sense if you consider that Marika might be trying to preemptively prevent the Night of Black Knives from happening. But Marika's own purported actions makes it all a bit fuzzy. The problem of Elden Ring is that there seems to be no elegant way of putting all the pieces together to form a consistent narrative, as many critics, myself included, have pointed out. And this theory, while *almost* getting there, still leaves us with a lot of questions, and only really seems to make sense (at least at a glance) if you ignore a lot of what happens in the game outside of Ranni's quest. But Ranni's ending seemingly being the best option, only for it to turn out to be just another go around the carousel, would be a very FromSoft thing to do.

Yeah, more than time travel, as in lordran, the timelines in the lines between are distorted and confluxed, so the reason we keep meeting so many beings that are the same one, it's because they are iterations of the same being over time. Like mtg cards meeting other versions of themselves on the battlefield.

Their voices sounded so simular, that I was about to say they were the same voice actor.

This is very convincing, it has become my personal head cannon

I actually did ranni's ending by mistake, i was doing some stuff after finishing the game and wanted to test my ending options near markia's statue but i saw a blue summoning sign and i was like:'oh! bluei wonder what that does!" i pressed it thinking i still had to trigger it via the statue BUT puff endgame cut-scene

I think the stagnation of 'time' from getting rid of death makes the amount of time that's passed several eons. Long enough everything that COULD happen, HAS happened, we just happen to play through and cause the end of an eternity/age. Or perpetuate it.

I'm not sure that I 100% buy the idea that Ranni, Renna, and Melina are 3 personas of the same person, but overall I think this theory has a lot of merit to it and is well-presented. I think you're 100% right about there being many different realities in the Lands Between, reflected by NPC invaders and all of the different possible endings. The fight against the Elden Beast with all of the great Erdtrees supports this. I think it remains to be seen if time is really a factor here, or if it is more the ability to travel between dimensions.

I believe Melina is a daughter of Marika. And had a rebellious teenage phase where she became the Gloom Eyed Queen as a way to go against the Order. And she kinda ended up like Gwyn's firstborn, erased from history of being Marikas daughter. Not hard to believe cause according to the ghost that talks about the Walking Mausoleums. That Marika had many unwanted children, which some are housed in said Mausoleums. And Melina helping us get to the Erdtree and then burning the Erdtree is just a way to either redeem herself to her former mother, or a final insult to the Order. Especially since it allows a new order to replace the current flawed one. The one she rebelled against originally.

Hello @agtjake! who was the artist that made the cover art for this video?

I just figured Melina was Ranni reborn from Radagon, but said as "Marika", since the correlation was a mystery. Hence the faded red hair. Since Ranni's soul never died, Melina was reborn as a new soul/person, which is also why she's confused about herself. But this is just a sort of tip of the iceberg for a longwinded theory around the Carian family.

6:40 If Ranni and Melina are the same, but from a different timeline, then that could mean that when Ranni says “Torrent’s former master”, she would be referring to the feature you, which were when she (Melina) gave the player Torrent.

All this was already in Dark Souls 1 ) And I love it. How much poetry and philosophy in all this... And in those rare chary cutscenes, you don't always understand their exact meaning, but you always feel it.

This is a great theory. The Lands Between are a perfect representation of the concept of liminality. In between times and places, even the split nature of singular entities and the nature of Miquella themself (also said to appear as both a boy and a girl at different times - St Trina). I believe Torrent is Melina’s Shadow and the theory of her being a split of Ranni can support her having a Shadow.

when we time travel 1000 years back we might fight miquella bc of the new dlc

Megamind theory: The erdtree is just the top most part of an archtree, who rose up between worlds and times. We see the middle parts of them in bloodborne, in the hunters workshop dream, far out in the skybox surrounded by mist, and the bottom most parts are in ash lake. If we were to dig far enough down, we would fall between worlds and timelines, all the way back into DS1. (semi sarcastic, but also I mean...kinda weird how we never see the very end of the erdtrees roots, the tops or bottoms of whatever is in bloodborne, and how we dont see the tops/how far up the ash lake trees go)

1:33 is the exact outfit I use on one of my builds 😁

Renna was Ranni's mentor, Ranni pretends to be Renna as a guise to avoid detection as an Empyrean, Ranni thus introduces herself as Renna.

This theory is amazing and you should try to expand on it more I think

This would also explain how we find Vyke in two distinct times in his life.

How to reconcile that the Gloam-eye Queen has already existed, ala all the lore from the godskins, referenced on the Godslayer's Greatsword and the Black Flame Ritual

The flow of time is convoluted...