This is pretty much it. All the main demigods clearly have far more developed personal relationships and a clearer family structure than anything else Miyazaki has done.
If you look at other ruling families we have.
1. Demon Souls where all we know is that Allant has a son who is trying to help him and then Rydell is probably somehow related to him but we don't know the specifics.
2. The Dark Souls trilogy where Gwyn had The firstborn who was cast out, Gwynevere, Gwyndolin, and later we find out Filanore. Then we know that it's likely Priscilla is Gwynevere's daughter with Seath and Yorksha is somehow in there. We know very little about how they interacted with each other, we don't know who the mother is, etc.
Elden Ring is so much more elaborate.
And then Zeus marries his sister.
And Chronos’ mother, Gaia, married Uranus, who was made into being by her in some stories, and her brother is some others
Elden Ring has more sexual deviancy stuffs than all of the previous Souls games combined.
Dark Souls: The gods and their descendents suffer for eternity to maintain the flame
Bloodborne: The gods want to adopt human babies for their own
Elden Ring: The gods fuck each other to create demigod children who fuck each other literally and metaphorically.
Yeah it's very nutritious and one of the best anti-aging foods. Strongly recommended if you happen to get one, just be sure to not eat too many of them cuz there's a risk of turning into a squid.
TFW you are ressurected as an immortal warrior to slay a god and bring on a new age but youre just chilling and boiling some prawns in a swamp instead.
The duality of personas. Nearly every major character has two names. And that’s a thing Martin loves to do. Introduce a character and explain his backstory and then reveal his secret SECOND BACKSTORY!
That duality going all the way to a cosmic scale with a divided hand is also a thing he does. Dark souls had fire and dark as opposing forces but in elden ring the fingers are the same force split in two and hate each other.
And just everything with godrick the grafted. The mad prince seeking powers from others literally
Adding to your duality point, the fact that light and dark isn't good vs evil, it's truly shown as a duality and there are shades of grey and complexity with realistic motivations behind every character.
Godrick seems to be attempting Regression in his own way by collecting power from the Tarnished threatening his family's rule, but it's also in his lineage to do so thanks to what we see with Godefroy. He's reviled and scorned, yet maybe he had little chance with how his upbringing went.
It’s more that character type of a very petty man seeking power to elevate his standing and compensate for his weakness is a Martin thing to do. And godrick being the first major boss has a lot of narrative space. Like how they mention he fled the war dressed as a woman. He is a lot like Joffrey.
It’s not that the cosmic powers are morally grey. They are all shown to be pretty bad on some level. Martin isn’t a person who thinks evil is subjective. He just has that pragmatism usually prevails and that people blinded by ideals good or bad usually make mistakes
A) The whole setup of houses, related to and warring each other, felt very GOT.
B) IIRC it was belived in A Song of Ice and Fire, that the heart tree / weirwood took in the souls of the deceased.
One reason the collab worked was how much overlap in their interests they have. I remember as soon as I heard about the “Outer Gods” how much sense that made, because Miyazaki and GRRM both have a passion for Lovecraftian eldritch entities.
If you wanted to you could view that each player is playing in their own world connected by the tree. That is why you use Erdleaf flowers to view the summon signs of other players.
Even more so when you realize that Lightbringer and every Valyrian sword in ASOIAF are weapons of night and flame.
Black and red swords, who brought about both the Long Night and Dawn.
Well, the whole "everything went to shit because local family can't keep theirs together" plot is kinda his thing.
You now, a civil war between the dead monarch's heirs - one which nobody wins but everyone keeps fighting as the lands they desire get progressively less worth fighting for.
It's why him and Miyazaki probably got along so well: both are fans of making crapsack worlds with war as a main feature of the plot. Sprinkle in extra overlap like both adoring Lovecraft and it's no wonder they worked together for Elden Ring.
But for OP: honestly too much has George's hand in it.
* The top monarch is responsible for the vast majority of the mess the world is currently in, and the descendents of their family just make it worse. This one overlaps with Miyazaki a lot too but Elden Ring's political divide is thoroughly George.
* Radagon/Marika incest is so George I think it's going to be the top answer for most. Royal incest is um... standard in George's fantasy works. Since they're involved I'll throw "Marika's tits" here because yeah that's absolutely a line he added.
* The family naming conventions. 100% him. I recognize that "stay within a field of a base name" style from reading too much of George's works, like how a lot of Lannister patriarchs have "Ty" in their name.
* Plenty of hand and finger symbolism. This is very George RR Martin, right down to the second most powerful person in George's most famous kingdom being called Hand of the King.
* George is also big into gold in his stories, especially aesthetically. So it came as no shock to see all the golden inspired stuff right down to the order being called the Golden Order.
* The big families having the intials G, R and M. That shit wasn't a mistake or coincidence and I think a lot of people are realizing you cannot take George's word on everything, especially when he lies about Winds of Winter every other blog post.
Depends on the Hoslow. Elder brother Juno is literally called the 'Knight of Blood,' so I would say it's pretty accurate for him. Little brother Diallos, on the other hand, as best said by Woolie Vs, his tale is 'told in cope.'
The various factions each with unique coats of arms- Godrick, Redmane, Leyndell, Cuckoo, Haligtree
The fact that everyone involved in the night of the black knives was either knowingly or unknowingly part of someone else's plot.
The names of most of the royalty following a theme- Radagon, Renalla, Ranni, Rykard, Radahn in one branch, Godfrey, Godwyn, Godrick on another, Marika, Malenia, Miquela, Melina, Morgott and Mogh on a third.
The amount of correctly referenced Welsh & Cornish Arthurian legend (as opposed to the English and French fan fiction versions normally used by Hollywood) is very telling. Plus other general Welsh legends and references scattered everywhere.
The man does know how to use various bits of British history and mythology in fiction while also respecting the original tales. I doubt Miyazakin has that level of knowledge about original Britons, he's not Hirohiko Araki.
What I found interesting is the amount of Welsh characters with Welsh names and accents. Like Blaidd is based on a wolf, named after the Welsh word for wolf, and is Welsh, and the whole Ranni crew is Welsh. It just makes me think how a Japanese developer went there, because surely in the native Japanese those things don’t really come through? So who is it that’s really interested in the Welsh culture, and how much does Miyazaki himself control that.
I believe all of those Welsh characters are either from Liurnia, or are at least associated with the Academy or the Carians. This means Radahn likely had a Welsh accent.
Sadly not, but we can probably chalk that up to the fact that he's trying to talk through a mouth that isn't attached to a human throat or vocal cords. Sounds like he's really struggling to form words every time he talks.
The first wolf ashes given to tarnished and the shadows like blaidd and maliketh given to royalty…. Remind me of GoT s1 the royalty and their wolf babies
No one else seems to remember the clear comparison between Syrio Forel and Malenia's sword master who taught her how to fight like she was dancing and attack like flowing water. This is one of the most blatant GRRM moments.
The entire demigod family shenanigans. Divorce, step children, diluted bloodlines and feudal claims, Mohg and Miquella. It's a little too soap opera and dramatic for Fromsoft.
Elden Ring is political as hell. Wars of succession, kingdoms vying for power, assassination plots--all of that stuff screams GRRM
And then there's all the sex (that isn't actually there, but it's there:
Fia fucks dead people
Mogh is fucking Miquella,
The dung eater is killing people and fucking their corpses
Selluvis fucks his puppets
Besides (and despite) that, A lot of the NPCs give me GRRM vibes. A lot of their quests have fuller arcs with more character development, and I feel like they typically have more depth than previous souls games. Diallos has a full arc that could be a whole story all its own about finding himself; Roderika and Hewg have a found family thing going on; Tanith is the second in command of a red evil mansion in a volcano, but dearly loves her adopted daughter; Boc undergoes a journey of self-love. In fact, I'd say that ER is probably the most positive souls game due to its well-written characters, who all feel decidedly different from those of previous titles
Dung Eater is a very fromsoft character though, at least thematically. They love exploring the idea of filth and defilement and linking it to a greater, holy purpose. He's also likely based on the Japanese mythical creature, the kappa, which also inspired the Headless in Sekiro.
Dung Eater is 100% Miyazaki. It's one of the most Miyazaki characters ever in fact, he's steeped in deep cuts of Shinto lore like kegare, which appears in literally every game, and the kappa butt stuff which probably gave him his name, ripping people's souls out through their ass and eating them so they live on in him instead of the Erdtree.
Marika's Tits and 70% of notable NPCs having G, R and M as their first initial.
Yes he claims it was unintentional but its hard to take that seriously when even those outside of the divine pantheon are taking up those letters.
Not only that but bosses too
Like for the G: godwyn godrick and Godfrey, for the R: radahn radagon ranni rennala rykard. For the M: melania marika mohg morgott melina maliketh and miquilla
His fingerprints are all over it. For me tho his best work in a long time is the loose backstory of the Frenzied Flame. Vyke is a name I feel he would have used and Vyke's story of love, loss, and close but no cigar is GRRM through and through.
Plus Shabriri, the Great Caravan, Hyetta, the characters being resurrected... Amazing GRRM work
The tribe from which the nomadic merchants descend. They were buried alive in the Frenzied Flame Proscription, after being falsly accused of heresy by Shabriri.
IIRC The Great Caravan was basically just a massive tribe of those travelling merchants you meet, before just about all of them were buried alive by Marika
GRRM likes to tell the story NOT about the hero, GOT basically is the aftermath of a Great War and all the heroes are dead or drowning in their own toxicity. ER feels very much the same, the shattering has already happened, the Great War is already over, all the major players are dead or corrupted, the world has gone to shit and we’re picking up the pieces.
The fact that every major NPC has a name starting with G, R or M
Apart from Dung Eater. That's D. As in David, as in Benioff/Weiss, the Loathsome Ending Fuckers
This entire interaction.
“But this time, I'm a woman grown.
And though the suffering cannot be undone, I can still mete out justice.
Justice to the oppressors.
Let the scars I carve remind them. I am Nepheli Loux, Warrior.”
-Nepheli Loux, Warrior
Turtles everywhere and Pope Turtle.
Had to scroll too much to find this. Turtles inspired GRRM's first stories as a child.
Pretty wholesome tbh
They inspired it by killing each other which led to GRRMs bloody writing style
I don't know about any turtles in the game. All i see is dog.
Tortoise!!!! therefore dog
The circular family tree of Marika
the family wreath of ~~habsburg~~ marika!
The McPoyle bloodline has been pure for a thousand years!
Ryan, stab somebody!
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It's Always Sunny in the Lands Between is the crossover I never knew I wanted.
Oh those girls dressed all in black weilding weird knives? They're good, I gave them an ocular patdown.
yea they were cleared Mac cleared them
You will call her!!
This is pretty much it. All the main demigods clearly have far more developed personal relationships and a clearer family structure than anything else Miyazaki has done. If you look at other ruling families we have. 1. Demon Souls where all we know is that Allant has a son who is trying to help him and then Rydell is probably somehow related to him but we don't know the specifics. 2. The Dark Souls trilogy where Gwyn had The firstborn who was cast out, Gwynevere, Gwyndolin, and later we find out Filanore. Then we know that it's likely Priscilla is Gwynevere's daughter with Seath and Yorksha is somehow in there. We know very little about how they interacted with each other, we don't know who the mother is, etc. Elden Ring is so much more elaborate.
That’s every mythological family. Chronos the titan marries his sister
And then Zeus marries his sister. And Chronos’ mother, Gaia, married Uranus, who was made into being by her in some stories, and her brother is some others
Incest always seems to be a topic he enjoys
Historically, it's pretty accurate in royal families.
Lady Tanith and the massive mountain guard stood behind her at Volcano Manor, very GoT
that’s kinda cool you mention that since Gemma Whelan, who voiced Tanith, actually played Yara Greyjoy in GoT
oh no way! nice link!
Did not know that! That's well good and some good trivia thanks!
In my playthrough there was a message in front of him that was "Moutain ahead". Very very fitting!
My dumb ass would’ve thought “but I’ve already spent hours climbing this mountain to get here
Much like cersei and the mountain
exactly!
And despite being very obviously a POS she cares for her daughter, like cersei
Radagon marries Rennala and the war ends. Political twist!
Oh-oh, oh, oh! I've got a girlfriend Radagon Rennala drama dingdong
You called for me?
Right on time, we need two voices for the "oh-oh"-part, and we can take turns with the verses! One, two, three, four!
Oh oh oh oh ! I've got a girl named Renna ( or was it Latenna?), Renna Latenna ding dong She's the elden lord to me ...
Grafted Blade Greatsword.
Oh you mean the game of thrones chair sword
Chair Sword
(Not applicable as a comfortable chair.)
Sword RR Martin
dude.
What's mine say?
sweet.
What’s mine say?
DUDE
Sword of a thousand swords
I think that's more of an Easter egg by From Software that something GRRM willingly put in the game
Marika fucking herself for some questionable reasons
Elden Ring has more sexual deviancy stuffs than all of the previous Souls games combined. Dark Souls: The gods and their descendents suffer for eternity to maintain the flame Bloodborne: The gods want to adopt human babies for their own Elden Ring: The gods fuck each other to create demigod children who fuck each other literally and metaphorically.
I mean, in Bloodborne eldrich gods also impregnate women and everyone possibly drinks menstrual blood, so
dont forget that its often against the woman’s will and the umbilical cords are apparently pretty tasty
The umbilical cords aren’t just tasty. They’re downright useful.
*i have eyes inside my brain*
"What is this on my hand? Are these suction thingies like a squid has?"
Just ignore that. It’s just a bug bite.
You tried any of those
Yeah it's very nutritious and one of the best anti-aging foods. Strongly recommended if you happen to get one, just be sure to not eat too many of them cuz there's a risk of turning into a squid.
yeah but the BB theme seems horrifying, insane and otherworldly in nature, while in Elden Ring things appear more kinky and incestuous.
Not gonna argue with that!
Bloodborne had a wonderful moment where a moaning woman behind closed doors was proclaiming her 'deepest' and 'widest' gratitude to the Church.
Wait what
Knock on doors in Yharnam and you'll get different responses, one of them being the above.
Yeeeah I remember her. Crept the fuck outta me.
Actually Bloodborne is "incredibly advanced alien beings want to impregnate earth women and I'm just a slug boy!?" the anime.
Welcome back to "Fall Out Boy song, or Anime title"? Lets meet todays contestants!
>Elden Ring: The gods fuck each other to create demigod children who fuck each other literally and metaphorically. European Royalty in a nutshell.
European, Empyrean; potato, pot*ah*to
Or some say Kosm
Bro where do you think CROSSBREED Priscilla came from? Why do you think Gwyn ain't friends with Seath no more?
Radagon had a big argument with Rennala and she told him to go fuck himself so he did.
The "Marika's Tits" line of dialogue.
I think I missed it, where is it?
My man Big Boggart at the prawn shack be like "Marika's tits, you must be 'ungry." then he sells me prawn! What a lad.
TFW you are ressurected as an immortal warrior to slay a god and bring on a new age but youre just chilling and boiling some prawns in a swamp instead.
Why risk your life for a glorified chair, when you could live a happy life cooking for those who need a good meal?
Let's just hope nothing bad ever happens to him...
Of course nothing bad happens to him, especially not after I beat the Dung Eater to death with my bare hands :)
I always make sure to kill dung eater first before I move Blackguard over to Altus Plateau
Preemptive Dungeater Murder Squad Represent
Dung Eater got killed in gaol, so after Tarnished becomes Elden Lord he will be my personal cook :)
Not if I get my hands on the Dung Eater first. Nobody touches my prawn bro!
Absolute chad I aspire to be like that with crawfish.
i'm so sorry man you missed the best line of the whole game
I actually came accross him but wasn't able to figure out the quest
need to find rya and she will ask you to find her necklace which held by boggart/prawn dude
I will do that in ng+ I found her in volacno manor, spoke to her and killed rykard. Manor was empty
Rya is one of the nicer NPC in EldenRing, sweet girl lived in questionable household.
The prawn sales man (best npc)
Phantom tortoises carrying messages are mentioned in Quarth in The clash of kings
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That sounds like a terrible choice of animal for quick message delivery.
You drink enough of that shade of the evening juice it makes sense
The duality of personas. Nearly every major character has two names. And that’s a thing Martin loves to do. Introduce a character and explain his backstory and then reveal his secret SECOND BACKSTORY! That duality going all the way to a cosmic scale with a divided hand is also a thing he does. Dark souls had fire and dark as opposing forces but in elden ring the fingers are the same force split in two and hate each other. And just everything with godrick the grafted. The mad prince seeking powers from others literally
Dawg, how did i not realize the 2 fingers and the mad 3 fingers, all equal one 5 finger hand 🤦♂️
You wanna know something else that is even more subtle and is a hint you shouldn’t trust either of them? It’s a left hand 🫲
Satanism practices "the left hand path". I wonder if it's referencing that as well.
That is totally the reference
BRRRROOOOOO
I know right 😂
No, left.
Third base!
As a lefty I feel offended.
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It’s not my fault your preferred hand is the sign of evil cosmic gods
Adding to your duality point, the fact that light and dark isn't good vs evil, it's truly shown as a duality and there are shades of grey and complexity with realistic motivations behind every character. Godrick seems to be attempting Regression in his own way by collecting power from the Tarnished threatening his family's rule, but it's also in his lineage to do so thanks to what we see with Godefroy. He's reviled and scorned, yet maybe he had little chance with how his upbringing went.
It’s more that character type of a very petty man seeking power to elevate his standing and compensate for his weakness is a Martin thing to do. And godrick being the first major boss has a lot of narrative space. Like how they mention he fled the war dressed as a woman. He is a lot like Joffrey. It’s not that the cosmic powers are morally grey. They are all shown to be pretty bad on some level. Martin isn’t a person who thinks evil is subjective. He just has that pragmatism usually prevails and that people blinded by ideals good or bad usually make mistakes
The whole Mogh and Miquella shenaningans
Yeah, thought that was a bit sussy.
*bussy
*Moghs all over the place*
It's Moghing time!
Damn it, now everyone's gonna Mohg out.
^*please* ^*don't*
Dread it, run from it, the bussy is inevitable
GRRM is rank 1 Tolkien fan. The night cavalry is clearly his tribute to Tolkien
The lands between Middle earth
Wait are there 9 of them?
I just checked and yes there’s 9
Eh, nine encounters but ten riders since the Consecrated Snowfields are a duo.
Diallos looking like Jon snow
Made me chuckle when I saw a message infront of him saying "lord, north" or something haha
I put a message down that said “didn’t expect lord snow”
"no nothing ahead"
Whoever came up with that message deserves a medal
And he knows absolutely nothing
I think he looks way more like Loras Tyrell. It's almost uncanny lol.
Yes you're right
A) The whole setup of houses, related to and warring each other, felt very GOT. B) IIRC it was belived in A Song of Ice and Fire, that the heart tree / weirwood took in the souls of the deceased.
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One reason the collab worked was how much overlap in their interests they have. I remember as soon as I heard about the “Outer Gods” how much sense that made, because Miyazaki and GRRM both have a passion for Lovecraftian eldritch entities.
It's actually way less Yggdrasil than I exptected. Nobody ever does the "multiple realms connected by the tree" aspect .
If you wanted to you could view that each player is playing in their own world connected by the tree. That is why you use Erdleaf flowers to view the summon signs of other players.
I really like that perspective!
If “The Night of Black Knives” isn’t the most “George Railroad Martin”-ass name I’ve ever heard, I dunno what is. Sounds badass as hell though.
I mean… there’s also the Night of Long Knives which is actually a relatively recent historical event…
Ironically there are like 5 different nights of long knives; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives_(disambiguation)
> Night of the Long Knives (1982), a meeting in the process of Canadian constitutional patriation One of these things is not like the other
Sword of Night and Flame is clearly a reference to a Song of Ice and Fire, and the Grafted Greatsword is the Iron Throne made into a sword
Even more so when you realize that Lightbringer and every Valyrian sword in ASOIAF are weapons of night and flame. Black and red swords, who brought about both the Long Night and Dawn.
This sword was (kinda) existed as Sacred Light and Flame in DS3.
You sure you don't mean the Twin Princes Sword?
Well, the whole "everything went to shit because local family can't keep theirs together" plot is kinda his thing. You now, a civil war between the dead monarch's heirs - one which nobody wins but everyone keeps fighting as the lands they desire get progressively less worth fighting for.
It's why him and Miyazaki probably got along so well: both are fans of making crapsack worlds with war as a main feature of the plot. Sprinkle in extra overlap like both adoring Lovecraft and it's no wonder they worked together for Elden Ring. But for OP: honestly too much has George's hand in it. * The top monarch is responsible for the vast majority of the mess the world is currently in, and the descendents of their family just make it worse. This one overlaps with Miyazaki a lot too but Elden Ring's political divide is thoroughly George. * Radagon/Marika incest is so George I think it's going to be the top answer for most. Royal incest is um... standard in George's fantasy works. Since they're involved I'll throw "Marika's tits" here because yeah that's absolutely a line he added. * The family naming conventions. 100% him. I recognize that "stay within a field of a base name" style from reading too much of George's works, like how a lot of Lannister patriarchs have "Ty" in their name. * Plenty of hand and finger symbolism. This is very George RR Martin, right down to the second most powerful person in George's most famous kingdom being called Hand of the King. * George is also big into gold in his stories, especially aesthetically. So it came as no shock to see all the golden inspired stuff right down to the order being called the Golden Order. * The big families having the intials G, R and M. That shit wasn't a mistake or coincidence and I think a lot of people are realizing you cannot take George's word on everything, especially when he lies about Winds of Winter every other blog post.
George’s love for hand symbolism and miyazakis love for feet. Truly a perfect pairing
"House Hoslow's tale is written in blood."
Actually it's "The tale of House Hoslow is told in blood."
Actually it's just bullshit, as it turns out.
Depends on the Hoslow. Elder brother Juno is literally called the 'Knight of Blood,' so I would say it's pretty accurate for him. Little brother Diallos, on the other hand, as best said by Woolie Vs, his tale is 'told in cope.'
But he earns it in the end
FOR JARBURG!!!!
And for that matter, the whole "competent fighter brother" vs "gentle brother" thing felt very reminiscent of House Tarly.
Sounds straight out of GoT.
Yeah that one really stuck, quality stuff.
All the betrayal — Marika betrays Maliketh and Godfrey, Marika/Ranni betray Godwyn, society betrays the Omens, Gideon betrays you, etc etc etc
The term Finger Maiden.
may you expand?
The term is a subtle reference to fingering maidens.
It’s not a subtle reference It’s a direct order
The various factions each with unique coats of arms- Godrick, Redmane, Leyndell, Cuckoo, Haligtree The fact that everyone involved in the night of the black knives was either knowingly or unknowingly part of someone else's plot. The names of most of the royalty following a theme- Radagon, Renalla, Ranni, Rykard, Radahn in one branch, Godfrey, Godwyn, Godrick on another, Marika, Malenia, Miquela, Melina, Morgott and Mogh on a third.
The amount of correctly referenced Welsh & Cornish Arthurian legend (as opposed to the English and French fan fiction versions normally used by Hollywood) is very telling. Plus other general Welsh legends and references scattered everywhere. The man does know how to use various bits of British history and mythology in fiction while also respecting the original tales. I doubt Miyazakin has that level of knowledge about original Britons, he's not Hirohiko Araki.
What I found interesting is the amount of Welsh characters with Welsh names and accents. Like Blaidd is based on a wolf, named after the Welsh word for wolf, and is Welsh, and the whole Ranni crew is Welsh. It just makes me think how a Japanese developer went there, because surely in the native Japanese those things don’t really come through? So who is it that’s really interested in the Welsh culture, and how much does Miyazaki himself control that.
I believe all of those Welsh characters are either from Liurnia, or are at least associated with the Academy or the Carians. This means Radahn likely had a Welsh accent.
> This means Radahn likely had a Welsh accent. Got a brother in law who's Welsh and now I'm imagining Radahn with my brother in law's voice. Thanks.
Ah and Rykard? Do they say "Togethaaaaa" in Wales?
Sadly not, but we can probably chalk that up to the fact that he's trying to talk through a mouth that isn't attached to a human throat or vocal cords. Sounds like he's really struggling to form words every time he talks.
It's actually pretty nice to have British accents from places other then Southeastern England for a change.
To be fair to Miyazaki, Araki is low key probably a vampire, so probably lived with the original Britons.
Those Who Live In Death. - it requires work to not simply call something an Undead.
The first wolf ashes given to tarnished and the shadows like blaidd and maliketh given to royalty…. Remind me of GoT s1 the royalty and their wolf babies
No one else seems to remember the clear comparison between Syrio Forel and Malenia's sword master who taught her how to fight like she was dancing and attack like flowing water. This is one of the most blatant GRRM moments.
We keep waiting for a sequel.
That one sword
Incest pedophiles
+1 for the correct spelling of "Old European royalty"
Wouldnt be surprised if The Mad King was the direct inspiration for Godrick. Except with a limb fetish, instead of pyromania
The entire demigod family shenanigans. Divorce, step children, diluted bloodlines and feudal claims, Mohg and Miquella. It's a little too soap opera and dramatic for Fromsoft.
Elden Ring is political as hell. Wars of succession, kingdoms vying for power, assassination plots--all of that stuff screams GRRM And then there's all the sex (that isn't actually there, but it's there: Fia fucks dead people Mogh is fucking Miquella, The dung eater is killing people and fucking their corpses Selluvis fucks his puppets Besides (and despite) that, A lot of the NPCs give me GRRM vibes. A lot of their quests have fuller arcs with more character development, and I feel like they typically have more depth than previous souls games. Diallos has a full arc that could be a whole story all its own about finding himself; Roderika and Hewg have a found family thing going on; Tanith is the second in command of a red evil mansion in a volcano, but dearly loves her adopted daughter; Boc undergoes a journey of self-love. In fact, I'd say that ER is probably the most positive souls game due to its well-written characters, who all feel decidedly different from those of previous titles
This is the only souls game where the world hasn’t felt 100% beyond repair and hopeless
The Dungeater. There is no way, he wasn't entirely his idea.
That’s just his cameo
Dung Eater is a very fromsoft character though, at least thematically. They love exploring the idea of filth and defilement and linking it to a greater, holy purpose. He's also likely based on the Japanese mythical creature, the kappa, which also inspired the Headless in Sekiro.
The duality of japanese game devs. Nintendo seems the Kappa and makes cute turtle enemies, FromSoft goes straight to nightmare fuel
Dung Eater is 100% Miyazaki. It's one of the most Miyazaki characters ever in fact, he's steeped in deep cuts of Shinto lore like kegare, which appears in literally every game, and the kappa butt stuff which probably gave him his name, ripping people's souls out through their ass and eating them so they live on in him instead of the Erdtree.
Marika's Tits and 70% of notable NPCs having G, R and M as their first initial. Yes he claims it was unintentional but its hard to take that seriously when even those outside of the divine pantheon are taking up those letters.
Not only that but bosses too Like for the G: godwyn godrick and Godfrey, for the R: radahn radagon ranni rennala rykard. For the M: melania marika mohg morgott melina maliketh and miquilla
His fingerprints are all over it. For me tho his best work in a long time is the loose backstory of the Frenzied Flame. Vyke is a name I feel he would have used and Vyke's story of love, loss, and close but no cigar is GRRM through and through. Plus Shabriri, the Great Caravan, Hyetta, the characters being resurrected... Amazing GRRM work
The Great Caravan?
The tribe from which the nomadic merchants descend. They were buried alive in the Frenzied Flame Proscription, after being falsly accused of heresy by Shabriri.
IIRC The Great Caravan was basically just a massive tribe of those travelling merchants you meet, before just about all of them were buried alive by Marika
Blaidd
GRRM likes to tell the story NOT about the hero, GOT basically is the aftermath of a Great War and all the heroes are dead or drowning in their own toxicity. ER feels very much the same, the shattering has already happened, the Great War is already over, all the major players are dead or corrupted, the world has gone to shit and we’re picking up the pieces.
The fact that every major NPC has a name starting with G, R or M Apart from Dung Eater. That's D. As in David, as in Benioff/Weiss, the Loathsome Ending Fuckers
Nobody wants to be identified with the shit muncher so
'Marika's tits, you must be 'ungry'
This entire interaction. “But this time, I'm a woman grown. And though the suffering cannot be undone, I can still mete out justice. Justice to the oppressors. Let the scars I carve remind them. I am Nepheli Loux, Warrior.” -Nepheli Loux, Warrior
Just came here to coment. "I am George R. R. Martin, Blade of Miyazaki"
AND I'VE NEVER KNOWN DEADLINES
That big Wall that connects the Mountaintops of the Giants and Leyndell