Elden Ring Lore is Surprisingly Queer 

Bro defended mohg before we even knew for sure that he was indeed the victim

mohg didnt have to worry if miquella cant concieve an heir, from melina dialogue nobody get pregnant under the erdtree they just have children

I think I just figured something out. Marika/Radagon was trying to create the philosopher's "child/stone" for a WHILE. While Marika was with Godfrey and coming to realize she could never birth an Empyrean with him, life-giving amber dripped like dew from the Erdtree's boughs. This was most likely when she made the Amber Egg, as a vessel to create a perfect empyrean child. Making the egg drained the Erdtree's ability to rain blessed dew upon the Lands Between. With the Erdtree's power diminished, the energies of the Crucible could flow once more, resulting in her next children to be born with the Omen curse. After that failure, she decided to blame it all on Godfrey to hide her own blasphemy, and she secreted the amber away into the possession of Radagon, who would go on to challenge and marry Rennala. Between Radagon and Rennala, Marika's experiments to create Empyreans could continue on in secret. Once she finally figured it out, she banished Godfrey and the Tarnished and summoned Radagon to her side because she could finally create an Empyrean or two and not have to worry much about birthing any more failures she'd have to hide. Leaving the amber egg/philosopher's pseudo-stone behind with Rennala meant Marika could ensure the Carian Queen's silence as well.

Miyazaki always borrows from the manga Berserk, and in that manga, Griffith and Guts’ unnamed son are both the same person, just like Marika/Radagon. And yet they started out as two separate/unrelated beings, but are fused into one via being rebirthed by a magic egg. The characters act much like a person with dissociative identity disorder, and the body takes the form of which ever soul is “in charge” at the moment, exactly like the relationship/transformation between Marika and Radagon. Also, one is practically a godlike existence, and the other is not, again… much like Marika and Radagon. Elden Ring is almost a carbon copy of that anime/manga, which is why I find it difficult to believe that Marika and Radagon were always two souls in one body that somehow share genetic differences. Hell, even Darian and Devin’s (the character D) bodies were identical twins, and didn’t use genetic differences to hint at a fusion. Side note: Marika is of the Numen race while Radagon is descended from giants, and there’s so much lore/evidence thrown in our faces to back this up that it deserves its own video to go over it all.

I think it's less that everyone is queer and more that semi-divine beings are much less concerned about biology. Personality seems to dictate gender.

This isnt too surprising since GRRM was involved. Basically its Game of Thrones in The Lands Between. Great video!

You missed Miquella and Rhadan

Great video ! I first thought that you were trolling us 😂 . I also wanted to add that every major characters in this game seems to Embody 👀 some kind of duality which some for example overtly proclaim to deceive the player/world (Ranni/Renna and Morgott/Margit)... some suppress (Godfrey/Hoarah Loux and Malenia blade of Miquella / Malenia Goddess of Rot) and One exclude completely : Marika/Radagon... after all she went as far as confining and using her male aspect as a tool which you could argue she did the same with Malekith, Hoarah Loux and the last giant (the "Red Adam" who she loathes) who are other powerful male aspects whose existence she needed/relied upon one way or another, and it also explain why Radagon (also a representation of the "Red" Adam/ but internalized contrary to the Last Giant) sole motive is to be complete by various means which culminates with the forceful integration of his other half (his consciousness must have been marked by a strong sense of unbalance/incompleteness/rejection)

Fia and her OnlyFans subs. OMG, I am dying!!!

no idea if it's relevant or not but I also find it interesting that st. trinas sword is int based while trinas torch is faith based

What if (assuming they arent a mimic) Miquella wasn't cursed with eternal youth, the evidence against it being they have clearly grown in size and age, but was simply mistaken for a man who never went through puberty?

Great video boss. But you forgot patches! He talked about those highway men remember. He didn't understand them but he did say that they had some sort of special connection with each other. I dunno... Maybe that was some GAY stuff? lol who knows with that crazy patchez!

I think it's kinda weird to try to fit this details into queer real world things since some of the examples are a dude liking a dragon that are said to have both sexes, a monster transforming himself in blood and living inside a cocoon with a unconsciousness body, another evolves a woman sleeping in a dream with a corpse that has no soul or will and is no longer human, etc.... most of this are not queer, they literally break any real world lines or logic for the sense of complex narrative. Just because they break species, concepts of living beings and or free will doesn't mean they are trying to tell something specifically about the breaking of gender norms.

I, for one, welcome our new queer Elden Lords.

god i love this video 💛 even where the games are alright about the queerness video game fandoms can still be really gross ahout us. so this very good hearted and thorough exploration of queer readings is so cool to see. (as a chaotic bisexual man i do see both the appeal and dread inherent of bisexual Rykard) also miquella bleeding on a tree to grow a womb he recreates himself in is so transsexual i cant belive i didn't see that! i really love good faith trans allegories and interpretations so thank you for exposing me to more of those in these games i love. i rarely get to see myself in games as a trans, transmasc, or queer person but both you and tbskyen have helped me find more of myself in these works 💛 the alchemical and spiritual bases for the queer stuff in these games also honestly just adds to these games for me. representation for representations sake is fine and good but i prefer my media to explore the deeper inherent queerness of reality. the idea of various genders/sexes as inherently interconnected is very appealing to me as a nonbinary transsexual.

I was mention this but I think the alchemy thing makes more sense. But I'll say it anyway just because it's interesting. In old pagan religions like norse, egyptian, sumerian etc the gods represent aspects of nature and they're masculine or femenine to suit their traits. Sometimes the union is between 2 masculine or 2 femenine or multiple people (sometimes incestuous) and a child is the resulting effect. For example let's say tin and copper are both masculine deities (brothers because they're both metal) and they have sex in a myth and have a son who represents bronze and bronze usurps tin and copper representing how bronze became the chief metal of the bronze age. Maybe Miyazaki and Martin used this or maybe it's coincidence or maybe it is more rooted in alchemy. It would explain Mogh trying to sex up Miquella.

I love that there is a video focused on the queer nature of Elden Ring. Too many people treat it like a taboo when it's not.

And western developers should be taking pages of notes about building a non-obnoxious, non-preachy, organic world and story with these themes.

Then miquella came

I think this is an overall very good educational video, however I am not a burden with the knowledge of what mohgs dynasty represents and that Nikola is quite possibly the second or third most mistreated victim of the shattering

Considering George RR Martin, I mean 🤷. Good video.

Gay

Algormancy!

I like your videos

You know I was just thinking about this yesterday.

miquella is a kid so yeah wouldn't be saying that

*Queer,* w/e... at least it's not *WOKE!*

Bc nobody cares

No, unsubscribed. F this

This is going to be a long one sorry. Im soo over this debate/discussion/argument of lgbt in media, look no one has a problem with lgbt in media, character or actor, storyline or whatever, one big example i can think of is barney from how i met your mother, very popular character, loved by alot of people.....but hold on isnt Neil Patrick Harris a gay man playing a straight man who is a complete womaniser......ohh yea no one cared cause he was a good character and most of all we weren't preached to "omg look we have a gay man in our show". What about brokeback mountain, very well made movie, no one was preaching and the movie did very well, lets go with Arron from the walking dead, personally one of my favourite characters and guess what, he just so happens to be gay and it doesnt take over his whole character, umm i could keep going with "lgbt" characters but I'll stop there. We dont have a problem with gay characters, we have a problem with lgbt characters and theres a big difference. Gay characters just happen to be gay but have a complete story arc with multiple defining personal traits that dont impede the flow and story of the film/game they are in and if the product gets a less than favourable review, they just accept it, move on and work harder next time......in contrast, lgbt characters are literally cardboard cutouts with just one personality type, which is i am lgbt. It is plastered all over the product, marketing, interviews, pannels, media blah blah almost like it takes priority over the more important things like writing, story, plot, continuity, gameplay ect and when they get less than favourable reviews what happens, "omg you racist/sexist/bigot/homophobe/transphobe, how dare you not like this perfect piece of art we have created, the only reason you dont like it is because women, lgbt blah blah". Funny how people are quick to defend these big companies who preach to be this inclusive yet these companies would abandon you if they were to go bankrupt, with just a small example, disney claims to be this huge bastion of diversity and equality yet, it has just been found out that the acolyte, the biggest lgbt show (as advertised) cant even pay their women equally, they shrunk finns face down on the force awakens movie poster for china, and also removed the lesbian kiss scene in rise of Skywalker, which mind you was about 5 seconds of screentime, for overseas markets, just showing they are willing to throw you under the buss if it hurts their bottom dollar. Elden Ring did the correct thing, they just made a good game, never preached about it in interviews or called the fans toxic. They focused on creating an in-depth story and lore with such well written characters, boss fights, fun and unique weapons and soooo much more and you know what was never pushed on us, "ohhhhh looooook we have insert minority group". So this whole "subject is gay" needs to be adressed, that statement makes it an absolute which also makes it easier for people to use it to fit their agenda. This is what happens when people dont fully read into a story. Now im just gunna use some evidence from the game that can also contradict that radahn is gay and maybe radahn isnt doing this of his own free will but like ALL fromsoft games theres alot left open to interpretation so also you could be right. Now spoilers, we learn that miquella has major power, not physical but the power to compel. We also learn that all of miquellas loyal followers were bewitched as during the game miquellas great rune breaks and the followers start coming back to their former selves. Plus we can summarise from miquellas plan he wanted radahn dead so he could return radahns soul to mohgs body to be his "Promised" consort, possibly explaining why melania was in calid. Now one thing people have noticed is during the the entire fight, radahn never utters a word and during the end cutscene we never hear redahns answer, plus radahn going against the erdtree seems alittle off character seeming that he idolised godrey and his father was radagon, so what happened, seems it could also be that miquella has bewitched radahn just as he did with mohg. Just because something has gay elements in it like a character or storyline doesnt make the whole product gay or as lgbt would say, "an Ally". Lets not also forget that this game also features incest, pedophilia and other horrific stuff, doesnt make it that, but on the opposite end you have the acolyte with it fully saying it is "the gayest star wars ever" cmon its pretty obvious the difference in quality in the two projects and why. This was a long rant but fuck who really cares if someone has different skin, sexual preferences or gender, its not the most important part of a character.

Miquella is built for BMC

Miquella as a mimic... or maybe even part albiniauric..... you've really got my brain going.

Hot take: An adult man having sex with a young boy is *not okay*, regardless of culture.

Speaking of Smough, he brought the idea that first generation Albanaurics in their youth are Female and as they get older turn male. We only see young female albanaurics and old male ones

"GOLDMASK, DID YOU NOT HEAR THE SPLENDID NEWS? I BEAT THE ALLEGATIONS!" - Mohg, the Miquellested.

We need a straightest to gayest list of Elden Ring. Radagon and Fia would probably rank the most straight.

I played as a female Tarnished. I gave the ring to Ranni and got the Moonlight Greatsword. Then I inherited the Frenzied Flame, incinerating my fiance and everything else except Melina, who swore to hunt me down.

Interesting video! Curious that you didn't mention the bisexual implications of Marika/Rennala given that the mask of confidence and Rykard's blondness make it pretty clear that Rennala was at least aware that she was technically gay married. Love wins for them I think

Has anyone discussed the theme of DNA in Elden Ring? The imagery and ideas are everywhere! The double helix for starters. It's even right there in Miquella's plait in the art, and it appears in so many places. I even think the decorative rim around Rani's hat looks like a chromosome strand under a microscope. It seems to me Elden Ring is a story of warring genetics in a lot of ways, and the chimeras that arise from things getting mixed up or going wrong. Even the Dung-eater feels like the personification of a virus to me. Lots of characters are trying to insert a piece of a certain code into the main 'gene', if you will, as in the case of recombinant DNA. Heck, the Two Fingers image on the Faith talisman - chromosome!

the things Miquella had to see... Mohg was doing the thug shaker fr fr

As you said, the pursuit of alchemy was not only the creation of gold, but was also spiritual, with the reconciliation of matter resulting in a perfect union, the goal of the wise, the Philosopher’s Stone. The Hermetic tradition held that Adam was hermaphroditic before the fall. The necessity of the alchemical wedding of Sol and Luna was based on the idea that after the Fall, man lost his original, undivided Adamic state, and that he should strive to reconcile both conflicting halves, male and female. The name Adam is thought to have been derived from “adom”, or “red earth”. It is my opinion that Radagon represents this alchemical pursuit, and sought to rejoin the One, which is transcendent and even higher cosmically than the Greater Will. “Metal greatshield coated with gold. Carried by knights loyal to Godrick. The red tinge in the gold coat mirrors the primordial matter that became the Erdtree. The color of homeward yearning.” - Gilded Greatshield “Incantation of the Golden Order fundamentalists. One of the key fundamentals. Heals all negative statuses, dispels special effects, and reveals mimicry in all its forms. The fundamentalists describe the Golden Order through the powers of regression and causality. Regression is the pull of meaning; that all things yearn eternally to converge.” - Law of Regression Radagon is the red Adam, who yearns to be whole again, and the Fall of man from a state of Oneness would be the split from the One Great caused by the Greater Will with the creation of the material world. Thus, Golden Order Fundamentalism is a journey similar to Gnosis where one attains the knowledge to ascend in my opinion.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Elden Ring, and yet, nobody covers it… I respect you for having the balls to make this video, considering how ppl are lol

I find what makes the queerness of FromSoft games work is how mythic they feel. Dark Sun Gwyndolin, Miquella, and Marika/Radagon are beings who fit into the world not because a marketing team thought "Majority audiences show favorable attitudes towards LGBT inclusion", but because gender ambiguous gods working in obscure ways to shape the nature of the world. Itsuits the grand, obscure vibes of a mythic place where clear understanding of the nature of things (and one's place in them) involves much exploration, discovery, and testing of one's self. (my queer friends confirm this is very much the queer experience in a culture that doesn't normalize such variation)

In case I'm not just forgetting that you brought this up in the video... I'd like to mention something RageIkari brought up, which is that Mohg is _also_ missing one of his fingers. One of his fingers is a horn instead. So it seems like Mohg also may have performed shinju, or taken the finger-pricking ritual to its full conclusion like in 1.0.

Thank you for making this.

Mohg isnt really in a relationship, he's kind of kidnapped a vegetable

12:38 I’m pretty certain it’s deliberant they just found a way to make it cool instead of a character just coming in and going “hey guys I feel one way one day and another another day” they gave a logical explanation. They can only be substantiated and supported by the fact that they are demigods

3:20 Also rotting with a higly contagious disease so not really the best choice. 4:37 Also, he's a demigod about to become a full fledged god, believe me, i've read enough myths to know that gender is not by any mean a obstacle to reproduction for deities. You make a very interesting point on Miquella, hopefully, the dlc will shed some light.

Space lesbians

Just a thought, perhaps Miquella - or all empyreans - simply have the ability to change sex at will? Radagon and Marika are interlinked, so it wouldn’t be a far stretch to say that Trina and Miquella are a similar situation, considering their relation.

I was worried the video would not get into the alchemical aspect of the story and instead focus purely on the romantic dynamic. It came eventually but I was very relieved when it did. The only part that isn’t touched on is that the Tarnished and Ranni (or Marika depending on your choice) fulfil those same roles by their “opposing” nature that is made as one through that marriage, and the much less important-to-the-video part played by Rykard as a failure/inversion of the process.

ha gayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Miyazaki tends to recycle stuff in his games, and I believe Gwyndolin and Miquella to be just that. For reference, nobody actually knows who’s Velka, other than she’s a Goddess (which in Dark Souls just means a hollow that got a fragment of Gwyn’s soul), but I always thought that Velka and Gwyndolin were the same person, based on Gwyndolin’s backstory regarding the feminine moon, and that Velka’s talisman and Gwyndolin’s staff are pretty much inverted (which, to go on a tangent, means they are both good at int/faith, since you still need enough faith to select miracles, while int scales the talisman and viceversa) they also both deal with law and punishment. Miquella and Trina share a similar situation, Miquella is an expert of fundamentalism, and took what he learned from his father and then tried to perfect it with a path of unalloyed gold, while Trina seems to be int based from the stuff we got of her, to add, Miquella’s knights are also able to cast sorceries, furthering the connection. Curiously enough, the knights at Caria were preparing to face an enemy that uses both magic and holy attacks, and Miquella’s forces are the only ones that fit the bill…

Mohg is that weird pervy uncle at every family reunion, but with a fun little dash of omega verse.

Super smash bros

what if miquella is why marika shattered the elden ring? miquella was a bigendered god with a tree, marika was on the brink of being replaced and saw no other option after the night of the black knives

6:37 Either I'm tripping, or it's the sekiro perilous attack sound

I am convinced that miquella is the tree and the Body in Moghgywn palace is litteraly Just His Body, who do you Trust more the blind Warrior that might be able to understand the language of the two Finger due to being blind who is also litteraly His twin sister or the crazed Kidnapper that admits to having Relations With His half Brother while that half Brother isn't even awake

3:29 correction raping….. a unconscious cocoon cannot possibly consent also he unresponsive during these attempts and he actively hurting him as he’s always bleeding and has the body of pre-teen or very young adult presumably

The Tarnished canonically likes women

"St. Trina is Miquella's deadname" is an absolutely amazing headcanon actually i love that. also as a person whose done a ton of research into alchemy, i never made the connection with the rebis and miquella. loving these lore videos keep it up

The Signalis sound effect when you said Space Lesbians spooked me :OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This didn't age well. Fun video tho

Fia and her subs 😂👌

so this means Goldmask invents calculus in order to perfect the Philosopher Stone?

George R. Martin is openly a Feminist. If you look at his older works a lot of his influences become fairly obvious. All way down to the turtles. Especially the turtles. On that topic, I can recommend the RU-vidr Preston Jakobs. He once made an entire video series reviewing Martin's 1000-Worlds Book Series to get a better glimpse at his style of writing.

Orphan of Kosplayer... I'm deceased 😂

Hell yeah Ranni wlw arc supremecy 💙

NO, IT IS NOT QUEER

Remind me of the old blood from Bloodborne 13:00

Miqussy is not a term i ever thought I'd hear!

I haven't actually watched this, i find viewing gender as twin primordial forces of existence more useful for the Soulsborne series. The sprial shape which repeats so much. We are the vertical line in the middle. It is also general Kabbalah. I wonder if there is a parallel to Christianity, or a inversion, where the Greater Will is female and the empyrean must embody the cosmic feminine. Like how Jesus was male and the Christian God is male. Im done ranting. Your videos are good. Up there with the Tarnished Archeologist

Some really interesting analysis here! Only critique I'd make is that you sort of missed an opportunity to talk about how Miquella's childlike appearance intensifies the queerness of his relationship with Mohg - anyway, awesome to see videos like this being made.

I'm halfway through the DLC but thoroughly spoiled and frazzled by *that* vow, and then I come across this part ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eEdYfhB7lFk.html :O

12:33 correct it just makes the gods cooler the ability to switch ones sex is essence a representation of power as it provides flexibility and access to both genders benefits

I've always seen the Queer aspects of the ER narrative as this novel-philosophical thing rather than the dumb politics and snowflake lust of modern-day events

I think you helped me with Elden beast yesterday but I died last second

lol the Mohg allegation jokes here Besides that what he says about Miquella and Marika at the end is insane. It puts the entire DLC story in a new light.

The last section about Miquela being a mimic of Marika made me think: What if Malenia is a failed version of Miquella, because of the corruption of the rot Godess. And so Miquela could be the second attempt. That could explain why Malenia is serving Miquella. Maybe I'm reading to much into this.

Mohg loved going waka-waka

Miquellas cadaver looks burned.He had hair when mohg got him and in the cocoon that body is scared by fire.

5:37 that is a sentence 6:27 that explains a lot, but it still does not make any ounce of what Mogh does excusable 8:07 it is very uncomfortable to know what the Mogh and his dynasty is based off of….

Sir i dont care how many gender fluid bi sexual or gay people , THIS IS A BURGER KING😮‍💨👉 go to the next window.

Thank you! I’ve been saying that people have been sleeping on the queer themes/characters of this story since the early days. No one talks about this. Like I personally think there’s a whole under layer commentary of gender and societal expectations built into this game. I don’t think Miyazaki is ever really unintentionally does stuff like this in there games. And he’s known for putting social commentary in his games to a degree. Even to the extent of the famous “you are maidenless,” which I personally think was a direct comment on young men seemingly feeling like it’s harder and harder to talk to and thusly find a partner in women. Maybe I’m reading to much into things but Miyazaki like to point things like that out and reflect it in his work. So I think this topic is worth more discussion than it’s given.

It's really interesting seeing a view of the lore through a queer lense. Would definitely love to see more videos like this.

this is so cool, you went so in depth and this is just an awesome video

Great video and you also seem to have touched a nerve with some people who lack the emotional intelligence to even accept that queerness exists, let alone discuss it within media.

What does it matter they contradict what grace even is many times,and use allegory yet seems to be litteral.The lore is all over the place,they do not care it is a game not a novel.If it were a book it would be a worst seller.

Reading too much into things: The video

I don't think Radagon was always Marika. He serves no clear purpose for Marika for her to create him.

Yea it’s super queer…I wanna marry Blaidd

The dlc is even more gay

Another great video. An interesting and unique perspective on the game and story. Keep up the good work!

Are you tanky build guy

Wukong 🗿

I love this video. Brilliant work.

Ah so this is how a tasteful ghee story is like, except for, wipe sweat, cp.

I think personally malenia is gay as hell and i love her

Miquella is hot

Idk man seems like many have a strong desire to insert sexual orientations on to just about anything. Just seems odd because fucking is frowned upon in general in Elden Ring due to the Age of the Golden Order. There is even item descriptions saying similar, but shit live you're dream fam.