Something that might be a potential inspiration for having vengeful spirit crabs, if we take them being called "crabs" at face value, is the myth of the Heikegani, crabs that are said to resemble the face of angry samurai. These crabs actually do exist and do have a shell that looks somewhat like a face, but their folkloric origin is that they gain these faces from the souls of drowned samurai. With Godwyn's existing aquatic theming, this wouldn't be out of place. It could also just be a Half-Life Headcrab reference, who can say?
@@AntiCensorshipGamer [Set to the tune of Traditions/Tentacles from Fiddler/Shoggoth on the Roof] A fate worse than death? Sounds crazy... no, certifiably insane! But here in our little kingdom of Londo, Lordran, you might say every one of us suffers a fate worse than death And I'm not speaking of metaphorically It's not easy having malevolent timeless torments like that hanging over your head, but there they are! Lordran is the home of many cruel things A powerful like that etched right onto your soul You may ask: How did it get in there, if it's so difficult? That, I can tell you in three words: The First Flame! The First Flame, the First Flame! The First Flame! The First Flame, the First Flame! The First Flame! Here in Lordran, the First Flame gets into everything eventually, Timeless, curse ridden Lordran. Where clustering, clambering gangways sway and sag over ruins, Where witches hid from Gwyn's knights in the bright golden days of the gods. Well, Gwyn is gone, but the witches are still here, and the demons, and the abyss, and the regular undead like me trying not to hollow. We try not to think about the scariest one of all: The half-dragon, half-octopus, half-humanoid immortal Paledrake himself: Seath the scaleless, kidnapping maidens to deform into pisacas. The Paledrake, the Paledrake! The First Flame! The Paledrake, the Paledrake! The First Flame! Who must trial, and test and research all day, to crystalise magic the Paledrake's way? Who must live in ignorance until the day they find they've read to many maddening books? The sages, the sages! The First Flame! The sages, the sages! The First Flame! At nine I started growing eggs and crawling on my knees, and soon I'll know the wonders of the molten city. The egg burdened, egg burdened! The First Flame! The egg burdened, egg burdened! The First Flame! Who always lusts for souls? Whose skin is cracked and dried? Whose sanity is blasted, from all the times they've died? The hollows, the hollows! The First Flame! The hollows, the hollows! The First Flame! We have the poison swamp, and the catacombs, and the archer guarded narrow walkways we're all mighty proud of, but the heart of our kingdom is the Lothric Castle Grand Archives. It may not be the biggest library in all Soulsbourne games, but there's no finer place in the world to study casting crystal sorceries. It's my honour to be its founding librarian. You'll see many folks from the castle as you wander through Lothric's streets, and in our small communities we've always had our special types as well For example, Oceiros, the consumed king "Those simple-minded slaves have needlessly and irrationally delayed my supremely great work! The power of my dear Ocelotte is within my grasp!" "Oceiros, your perverse experiments are the vagary of a demented maniac and cannot be allowed to continue. Your request for the use of dragon infants is completely denied!" "Ignorant slaves, behold the strength of dear Ocelotte!" [Baby redruM Noises] And Patches the Good Luck, the thief with a hatred for clerics that keeps popping up everywhere. "For goodness sake you rotten clerics, your inquisition is fruitless. Question me forever, if you want - I do not know what has become of Reah of Thorolund!" "Mr. Good Luck, there's an Order Match for you" And Hunter Gherman, the cursed old man from Yharnham "Dear oh dear, what was it? The hunt, the blood or the horrible dream? Oh, It doesn't matter..." Then there are others in the Ringed City Some of them live here, some of them just visit The head of a local church, an abyss tainted dragon, I don't even want to know what's in that sludge. We normal hollows just look the other way and try not to lose our humanities. And among ourselves we get along just fine. Well, of course, there are some who think that the way to counter hollowing is with embers and some who think its with humanities from the Dark Soul, but that's all settled now. Now we just try to... It's an ember, you crush it in your hand to become a host of Embers. It's a humanity, you sacrifice it to a bonfire to become human again. I'm telling you, it's an ember! Use the ember and we'll be fighting off your hollow corpse with our bare hands! It's a humanity! Ember! Humanity! (Effigy) Ember! Humanity! (Effigy) Ember! Humanity! (Effigy) Ember! Humanity! (Effigy) The First Flame, the First Flame! The First Flame! The First Flame, the First Flame! The First Flame! The First! Like I said, you cannot live in the Lands Between without coping with fates worse than death.
The fact that I didn’t realise they were creatures attached on top of their heads makes it all the more creepy for me. I’ve always been creeped out by fromsoft’s use of parasite bugs in their games, especially sekiro
the centipede guys in the temple legit scared me bro, especially when I realised they just get up when you kill them until you get the sword to kill them
@@jimjimson6208 its funny cause when i played sekiro i had a slight phobia for centipedes. After i finished the game i was completely purged of it. I still find them disgusting though.
It wasn't so much the centipedes for me as it was the Slugs and The Fountainhead palace guys. The first time I fought that guy in the shrine in that foggy forest area, I freaked out, even though he was easy, I wasn't expecting a horrifying creature to be playing that flute.
I’ve always figured the crabs being carriers of death is somewhat related to how dangerous it is to eat crab and lobster from polluted waters. Because they’re bottom feeder and live for such a long time, crabs accumulate heavy metals and other chemicals that don’t leave the body. In severely polluted waters (like near illegal dumping sites) the insides of crabs have been described as “a black tar”
Considering soulsbornes typically have what i can only describe as "polluted water vibes" and elden ring has some big theming with stagnant water (what with godwyn and such...) yeah that checks out. Especially since the crabs seem to take on Godwyn's traits.
It isn't just bottom feeders. There was a scientific study done of fish remains eaten by our ancestors from the paleolithic, and it was found they had heavy metal concentrations tens of times higher than what we consider unhealthy. Probably due to volcanic eruptions, but does put all the talk about modern life being unhealthy in perspective. Back then people just considered themselves lucky to have stuff to eat to stay alive. Caring about long term health is a luxury.
@@zeriel9148 I mean, they all did die rather young. And they willing drank alcohol, even during pregnancy, because it was cleaner and safer than drinking the unpurified water, that they didn’t know needed to be purified.
@@chinsaw2727 That's a modern misunderstanding, mostly. Pre-modern liquor was MUCH more diluted. It was common to water it all down; pre-moderns would have found our version of alcohol absurdly strong. "Beer" as we understand it didn't even exist for much of history, "ale" (which had no hops) was the common thing in medieval times. In ancient times mortality was almost always in child-birth and infancy. If you survived to adulthood and didn't die in wars & violence, the average age was actually pretty high. Not much lower than our own.
The one problem I have with FS enemy design is that you really can’t appreciate it bc of the nature of the game. If I didn’t watch this video there’s no way I would even know that they put this much work into this enemy. There are so many enemies that you just can’t look at for longer than a couple seconds so all the details get lost in trying not to die. In some ways they really sell themselves short..
In the older games, especially DS1 and Bloodborne, you definitely had the opportunity to piece some of these things together. But due to Elden Ring's scale, there's just so many more of them.
@@therighttrousers343 I hope any sequel to ER has features like this, also a way to rematch bosses like in Sekiro which is something I don’t know why they didn’t include
True. On the other hand. It proves that even YEARS after release people STILL talk about their games as they gind these little details. Keeping the spirit alive and thus also the games while they make the next one. This is exactly what kept the fanbase engaged, hyped, and potentialy hardcore. Always happy to see a new entry they can dive in and talk about for a few years
The existence of sea creatures on land is a very interesting theme in this game. You have the Land Octopi, looking almost nothing like their origin, who sometimes exist very far away from water. Did they somehow evolve from other cephalopods to be able to live on land? And not to mention the various crabs and lobsters that exist burrowed underground or in areas like the Leyndell sewers. I wish dlc expanded into this, one of the coolest parts of bloodborne was seeing how it was related to the ocean, or Sekiro with its underwater movement
I dont think there's anything deep to it. The Lands between is an island, plus with lake Liurnia there's a lot of water in the game. Plus Miyazaki loves making 'sea monsters' or something.
@@rogermeck601 But i find it interesting because the only games that feature sea creatures are the ones which have a large connection to the ocean/water. The hydra doesn’t really count because it’s more of a mythical being, and it’s origin doesn’t come from the water. The only thing close is the crabs from DS3. I get that it’s an island but there are a lot of inland or underground areas where they live which i find interesting. There are also a few weapons in the game that hint at seafaring being relatively important, and you can even see a sunken ship near Radahn. But you don’t find out anything past that, which is why it feels weird
Not sure what you mean.... there are many species of land crabs irl. This video is also disproves its own point by pointing out that the shade shoots web then compares it to a spider crab (instead of the obvious spider reference). Then it foes on to show bugs that infest hosts. So every example points to this being a bug, not a crab. It's like saying it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be an eagle since it has wings. It's absolutely absurd.
@@Sylvershade Why not both? Why can't it be a fusion of spider and crab? Other people have pointed out the folklore and themes that fit with the crab theory.
Death and Godwyn’s influence on the lands between is such an obscure and interesting subject that not even the game itself acknowledges as much as other stuff, it’s so fascinating.
Insect-ridden would usually mean infested by insects, but maybe in this case it means literally ridden by an insect. That's some George R.R. Martin level wordplay, I'd say.
Its constantly impressive how much thought goes into a From Software game. And the fact that the player is required to go digging to find everything is even more impressive. It always gave me the impression that somewhere, somehow, the answer to every story and lore question we may have is in fact hidden within the game, we just simply havent found it yet.
That makes for fromsoft games that are still talked about years later. People still talk about bloodborne lore today. Imagine games of elden rings size. It keeps the franchise alive and engaging. Not just the games are absolute gems. But the community is amazong for keeping the flame Flickering until the next installment arrives
It's worth noting that the glowing spot on the crab's abdomen is the preferred attachment spot for rhizocephalan barnacles, which parasitize and (to some extent) mind control crabs. Sacculina, in particular, is famous for altering the hormone balance of male crabs and making them behave like females, which forces both sexes to protect the barnacle as though it was their eggs. While the external body of these barnacles shows up as a yellow or white spot on the underside of the crab, their true "body" is a rootlike mass of tissue that spreads through the entire host and even interfaces directly with their nervous systems (this also gives the group their name, which means "root-headed"). Maybe it's this association with roots that connects them to Godwyn? In any case, the cemetary shade might be the puppet of a puppet, a man controlled by a crab controlled by a barnacle.
Cemetery Shades have always had a strange, off-putting vibe to them, they looked especially bizarre and abstract compared to a lot of enemies in the game. And to see them in full detail was pretty eye opening
@@yourewallsareveryconvenien8292 exactly, I said the same thing when I first encountered it in one of the Underground Tombs. There is only 1 throughout the entire game right?
Parasitism seems to be a recurring theme in FromSoft games in general, much like the Moonlight Greatsword and the poisonous Swamp Area. Like the other 2 themes, it appears as far back as Shadow Tower Abyss (2003) on the PS2, where a whole subset of enemies are infested with fleshy growths that must be cut off lest the enemies they're attached to cannot be killed. This same game is also the origin point of Patches.
I heard the Elden Ring DLC will have a giant enemy crab. You fight them in the storm in the middle of the map. Source: trust me my dad works for nintendo
We've had big crabs, little crabs, fire crabs, ice crabs, evil shadow crabs, Godwyn crabs, and texture swap crabs. I'm looking forward to the "Island" everyone expects the DLC to add to just be one big crab in the middle of the ocean.
I just noticed that the perforations on the chest of the cemetery shades is in the same pattern as godwyn's face growing on the back of the crabs with a small eye and a big eye. As they are in close proximity to deathroot, what if they are at the beginning stages of having Godwyn's face grow on their chest. The fact that they are controlled by what appears to be a japanese spider crab and that godwyn has a strong marine theme to his transformation, these crabs could be envoys of him.
The more I learn about Godwyn, the more I realize he is the most interesting and most horrifying thing in the entire game. I really hope the DLC sheds more light on Godwyn.
My favorite thing is the implication of what Godwyn truly is. I'd thought when I played it before that Godwyn represented Death and the Dead, like any other god. The more I learn about the extent of Godwyn's influence it's getting clearer that Godwyn doesn't merely represent the dead. He *is* the dead. All of it.
Really hope we'll get dlcs for both of them since there are such an interesting contrast to each other - Godwyn representing death and Miquella, who appearently bears the rune of abundance (which I personally mostly associate with some fertility goddesses) representing life. Would be neat.
Parasitism is actually one of the most deeply detailed themes throughout _Elden Ring_ as it's the core of the examination of the nature of a relationship between the will of a ruler like the Elden Lord and the desires of the governed in The Lands Between. Probably one of the more obscure examples is in Altus Plateau, the Wormfaces aren't the only ones who are infested there. The Slugs specific to that location have worms instead of eyes, and they spit a glue that slows you down, making you more vulnerable to the clouds of Deathblight. In the real world, the Leucochloridium Paradoxum flatworm parasitically infects snails & swells up their eyestalks to look like caterpillars as a means of transferring to their next hosts - birds, where their feces contain the eggs to continue that cycle. In _Elden Ring_ the two forms of excrement are Blood-Tinged and filled with short-lived parasites or Gold-Tinged and never-changing. The Dung Eater is a character who intentionally spreads a curse throughout the Lands Between. Even Runes are glowing power left in the eyes of the dead that you turn into your own strength, and the Great Runes are no different. All of them look like eyes, but the most powerful are atop the Divine Towers on the corpses of the Two Fingers. The Two Fingers are the instrumental vassals of the Greater Will. Twin wiggling stalks used to communicate without words and control the cycle to their own benefit… exactly like the parasitic Flatworms. That's just a tiny facet of how deeply that design permeates the game, and there are countless others that I've been hunting down and keeping notes on recently. It's fascinating just how thoroughly detailed the design work is, and it's awesome to finally get a better look at this enemy up close. Thanks as always for your hard work, Zullie!
Plus, the notion of parasitism as virtuous seems to have trickled down into the human culture. The lands between are full of puppets, living marionettes, artifical lifeforms - all created so man can be master and beneficiary of another race the way the greater will is a master and beneficiary of man.
Interesting that you made the connection between the golden runes and eyes, because I've always thought the same but was unsure. Golden Runes also remind me of the Shabriri grapes, also eyes, but instead of granting runes it lures the consumer toward the Frenzy Flame, possibly even infecting them with the Frenzy Flame in a parasitic manner. Also, on the topic of parasitism, I can't help but notice how our characters are referred to as HOSTS of fingers, as though the fingers are a parasite and we the host. Just something that came up to me just now.
@a proverbial lemon think it's cuz one of the more memorable and lore heavy bosses and npcs are in the stagnation theme. Also cuz it reminds everyone so much of dark souls which we'll mostlikely never get another of unless a different team develops it like 2. The parasite theme is just as subtle as the stagnation one. Tho thinking about it the same bosses that I think of with the stagnation I also think of with the parasite theme.
Zullie is so good at finding the smallest most overlooked things in the lore of games and the models within I feel like she could make a whole series about me of stuff I didn't even know about myself. Good stuff boss!
It is interesting how certain elements of death have a deep sea theme/aesthetic related to it, like Godwyn's post-death mermaid appearance, the cemetary shades, the tibia mariners, and the mass of waterlogged zombies across the beaches for example. But in other representations of death (probably a more 'pure' version of Destined Death) like the Godskin Apostles and Deathbirds, it's completely different. It's probably something we'll see more when we do get a Godwyn DLC (because we probably can't leave the corrupting malignant corpse grow out of control)
there seems to be this repeating theme that stagnation and stagnant water grows unholy, inhuman, poisonous things. Which it kind of does, called bacteria. imagine if bacteria were twelve feet tall and thirsted for blood
When you put it like that, it makes me think of it from an evolution perspective. Sea creatures longing to become like birds. It's almost like Godwyn's Death needs to feed and propagate off of the dead left to rot by the golden order, while Destined Death is mostly disconnected and left soaring in the sky away from the golden order. It's kinda cool when you think about it.
First time I saw one of these, I mistook the parasite for a set of antlers. Thought it was some like, deer-person evil ghost. That made for a fairly spooky enemy, but getting closer I realized it was even more unsettling thing than I'd first thought. I've assumed that that was more or less the intended experience, it's obviously deliberately hard to make out its mist-shrouded features, and more subjectively I think the crab's appendages look enough like antlers from a distance that I think that might be deliberate too. Did anyone else's first time seeing these go like that?
first time I saw a shade, I hit it with a single sacred blade and annihilated it in one hit. they weren't at all threatening on my first playthrough with a faith build. honestly never had much time to look at them. far more imposing with my melee class.
It's these kind of tiny details that Fromsoft adds in their games and people like you who bring em to light that makes it more interesting and horrifying at the same time. Thanks as always.
I've always wondered how the devs are able to hold back so much sweet sweet info about easter eggs and the like, just sitting there for years until a video pops up and they're like "FINALLY!"
I've encountered one of these in my playthrough. Not only was it completely in the dark, it eviscerated me instantly. Nothing up until that point had really given me pause. This thing legitimately scared me.
I didn’t have too much of a problem with him, though I didn’t start encountering them until about the middle of the game and even then I’m too much of a wimp to not use summons against most bosses.
Theres one in a dungeon (wont spoil which one) that annoyed tf out of me as it killed me at the end of the puzzle, just in a random gap. Scared the daylights out of me
Considering that crabs in real life are scavengers and decomposers, it wouldn’t be surprising if they feed on Those Who Live In Death or Deathroot pretty regularly, and end up becoming a vector for Death themselves
I'm starting to love the relationship with the Death and the sea spread throughout elden ring's lore, i've never seen anything like that and i find it extremely interesting
a lot about the game feels like from either worked on or planned to develop bloodborne 2, the project got canned and they put the leftovers into elden ring.
While its easy to call those fuzzy things "feelers", they actually more closely resemble something found at the OTHER end of the moth. They're called "coremata", hairy retractable appendages that come out of the end of a male's abdomen (i.e. his butt). Its a bit odd to see those coming out of a crab, let alone the crab's head.
Oh dear lord those moths looks terrifying. I find moths to be beautiful despite their infamy but I wouldn't be excited about seeing one of those things on my wall.
@@ahmetkarakaya6103 Yeah, well I was catching moths as a kid because I thought they were cool bugs. Everything was fine until I caught one, and IN MY HAND IT SPROUTED THOSE WIERD BUTT TENTACLES. It was so freaky I tossed it away immediately and looked it up to make sure it wasn't some weird parasite or defense mechanism. I eventually had to sue this moth in court for public indecency and assault.
I'm really glad you featured the Spider Drones from Dark Souls 2 in this video (at 1:48). Some players of DS2 might avoid these a little too easily and not take the time to realize how disturbing and detailed of a enemy they are. These types of parasite-controlled enemies are truly a sad, disturbing and grotesque fate. That's why I always kill them in every trip through Brightstone Cove Tseldora (even though I know they will respawn every time I leave the area).
It's honestly fascinating to see how different elements of Elden Ring's world connect together to create these sorts of symbolic umbrellas for each faction of powerset therein. Death in here and the Godwyn videos seem to link the concept of Death to that of invertebrates, specifically Flies and Crabs, but also to water and the ocean, as we can see very clearly with the changes to Godwyns' body in the Deeproot Depths, or the Charon-esque Tibia Mariners who ride boats and mainly appear in flooded, skeleton-filled areas. There's other thing too, like the thorny brambles of the deathblight, or the imagery of skulls and skeletons, and it gives the entire idea of Death in this game a very unique aesthetic that still makes a lot of sense.
The "thorny brambles" seem to be massive collections of bug husks, or bugs outright, making it worse and worse. These bugs don't even have lives or peace of their own, it's literally worse than the Scarlet Rot and its kindred in every way.
@@nightscout9979 Oh! I haven't gotten a good close-up look at deathblight, but that honestly helps to connect it further. And honestly, it's a toss-up in certain regards what the worst specific fate you can sucumb to in the Lands Between is. Becoming a parasitic host for a creature of decay because you can't just die and let it devour you is definitely up there, though.
An old fairly popular gamebook series I read called Fighting Fantasy had similar in it, specifically The Island of the Lizard King. The titular lizard king was actually being controlled by a monsterous magical crab that on a casual glance looked like a crown. Made for a very Dark Souls esque move if you didn't do extra research and learn what it was, and pick to destroy the crown after a very difficult fight against the lizard king himself.
Cemetary shades were already one of the most eerie enemies in the game, and this makes it so much more horrifying. Thank you for all the hard work Zullie ❤
Something to note, Litany of Proper Death does not deal bonus damage against these guys, so maybe they’re not technically living in death? But then again Litany barely works against anything, not even ghosts, so it could just be neglect in the devs’ parts.
Litany works on Deathbirds, which are NOT associated with Godwyn, and does not work on Tibia Mariners, which explicitly are. Who even knows what it's supposed to mean, lore-wise.
@@MainTopmastStaysail Deathbirds can inflict Deathblight with their screams, so they still have a connection after all. It's weird that the Tibia Mariners are unaffected by the bonus modifiers though.
Honestly the shade is probably my favorite enemy in the catacombs. The way it walks, the sounds of clicking when it walks to you, The spider crab thing that’s on it head that makes the most unsettling noises when it grabs you and It has a bleed build.😺
So much detail in a seemingly innocuous enemy. I usually am good at deducing this kind of untold stuff in media especially video games. But Souls games are just so obscure. I’d clearly read that weapon description, but just figured “insect-ridden” was related to the fact that they inhabit crypts. I love this stuff.
I'm glad this video came out. I never once thought to think what they look like without the shading and dark particles. Now I know they look grotesquely interesting instead of just a lazy blob of a shadow.
The parasite kind of looks like a mix between a spider crab and a moth, judging by those long antennae. I wonder if there's some significance or connection between deathroot and rot.
I hope that if we have a Godwyn DLC we also get more weird Death Enemies. Like Jars overtaken and upended onto themselves by a mass of Deathroot growing from within them as their purpose of transporting Corpses for an Erdtree Burial has been co-opted by Those Who Live In Death.
Considering the death crabs and deathroots being made of dead bugs, it doesnt seem too far fetched to have these weird head crab things be another creature made from or corrupted by Death
Coconut crabs - which can be found in the southern part of the Japanese archipelago - are well know for eating dead human bodies. Most crabs are scavengers, as well, and have no reason to avoid eating the dead and decaying. Seems like a possible, meaningful connection.
I wonder if the domain of Death - Those Who Live in Death, Gowdwyn’s transformation, and the possible Outer God of death - aren’t somewhat similar to the Deep of Dark Souls. The Deep is described as being possessed of tiny biting instincts, yet also seems related to water and is the deepest part of the abyss (if I’m not mistaken), the abyss which stems from humanity’s own dark soul. It wouldn’t be the first time Elden Ring had a similar concept to Dark Souls that was in some way altered or re-contexualized
The crab may be partially based off the Creatonotos gangis moth, who's coremata (basically a organ used to release pheromones for attracting mates) can enlarge during mating season to a point where it's about as long, and even longer, than the moth itself. The enlarged coremata look really similar to the crab's "feelers" it has on its head, just a bit reversed.
Interestingly the "moth feelers" seem to be reminiscent of the Australian Creatonotos Gangi moth, a real animal that uses the feelers to attract mates, possibly implying that it is calling for help from its brethren by extending these feelers
the detail in this game is simply insane. i fought those guys, ever wonder what they are - but never having a chance to take a closer look at them, as the fight itself is kinda hectic. thanks for all the insights you provide
Gotta say, these character models look a lot more imposing, when you are just looking at them rather than slamming your greatsword into them. During the game you really don't notice how eerie the designs are.
From loves to add these parasitic "monsters inside me"esque enemies and I absolutely hate them! I can fight dragons, werewolves, ghosts, and great old ones any day of the week, but these things make my skin crawl! I love it!
I feel like every Elden Ring deep dive video could be subtitled "A Fate Worse Than Death" lol! Great stuff though, it's amazing how many details go completely overlooked, it really makes the world feel infinitely complex!
Taking away the crab bit, they remind me a lot of the shadow enemies from Fumito Ueda's games - especially Ico, but all three feature shadowy, glowy-eyed enemies associated with dead souls. It's pretty much explicit (for Ueda anyway) in Ico that the shadow enemies trying to recapture Yorda are the souls of sacrificed horned boys. Actually, if I remember right some of the shadows take a form with spindly spider legs, although they do definitely take the form of birds. In Shadow of the Colossus when the colossi are killed they release shadow tendrils and when Dormin possesses Wander he's an enormous shadow creature with glowing eyes and spider legs on his back. Even the knights in the Last Guardian are just empty suits of armour possessed by shadows.
This is all I want for my dlc. Godwyn stuff culminating in a boss fight with Godwyn's giant mutated corpse, and Miquella stuff culminating in a boss with what Miquella is becoming in his cocoon(i've seen the vid of what he looks like in the cocoon, gave me serious Orphan of Kos vibes).
Fighting Godwyn's corpse would be cool! I can imagine him opening his clam face to show us a mouth full of sharp teeth and deathroot before launching at us just like the ulcerated tree spirits.
What we need A Godwyn boss fight in any form A Miquella boss fight that isn’t a shitty gimmick A rykard boss fight where he’s a human An actual marika boss fight
No, that's what you want. Personally: 1. A giant corpse that is immobile and attached to the ground, with multiple faces spread literal miles away, does not make a good boss fight. Any boss design that is literally godwyn, would diminish the scale of godwyn. I like the idea of fighting some of him though, even if he's already half dead anyway... 2. I fought it straight up, healed through one of the blood things. The fights "gimmick" felt like the equivalent of the shackle for margit. Yeah I could use the physick effect tailored for it to make it easier...but wasn't really required. 3. Miquella is an interesting idea, strongest of the empyreans when fully realized. It is worth noting though that they are also st trina. So boy, look forward to going to sleep a lot. Or, since they compel affection, dealing with a lot of "friends". 4. You want to time travel back to when rykard was human and weaker? Pass. I already enjoyed the fight as it was. And you want to add ANOTHER stage to the last boss? Or you just want to fight the gender flipped version of its first phase? Seems redundant but ok I guess.
Marika best option isn't being a boss, it's being an NPC in the DLC to which you can talk, trade, do a quest for and yadayada. She knows so much and is central to the plot AND she is stuck in stone till the end of the game. Why the fuck would she want to fight you?
I surprisingly had a lot of problems with the one in the Black Knives Catacombs. It is a very simple enemy but put it together with four skeletons that absolutely don't chill and you have a bit of an annoying fight
The insect reference could be related to it's similarities to a "Tailless Whip Scorpion". The folding claws have a striking resemblance to that insects own so that could be another inspiration.
These videos examining monsters in Elden Ring make me so much less afraid to play the game. I think part of the scariness of some of the creatures is not understanding what they are or how they came to look like they do. I love these videos for that reason!
I also appreciate how, after beating up a more gruesome enemy (usually after being killed 15 times lol) you start feeling like frightening things aren't so bad, because you can beat them up🤪.
The glowing eyes with the insect on top firing sticky stuff ... does feel like a metaphor for grace given humans whose eyes also glow and are able to use incantations given to them by their god. A parasite but more shiny.
Didn't expect crab, why is it always crab? I genuinely thought the shades were pitch black shadow peopke and had weird flowing hair... And the crabs in the Altus Plateu have Godwyn's face?! Wtf!
"insect" might be a dubious translation though, depending on what the Japanese text says. Does it say something like "mushi"? That would be more in line with "bug" no? English in general doesn't seem to actually have a good word for it, that something that evokes an arthropod-like entity/lifeform. While this is only an opinion, I think "insect" is just not a good word to use. The fact those crabs have coremata-like appendices as "feelers" or "antennae" makes it even weirder though. Then again, nothing is weirder than Godwyn's corpse. Wish there was a bit more lore on both.
