Rynling R&D

The First Sin
https://theomeny.medium.com/the-first-sin-c8be873b0432

No other game studio has had such a consistency of narrative tropes as FromSoftware. This is a boon for those who have an interest in examining how FromSoftware tells and constructs a story, what fascinates them, and how they have evolved over the years.

This essay is a deep dive into the connected stories of the four games in the King's Field series. The author also touches on how the themes and motifs of this series resonate with other FromSoft games. I was especially interested to learn where the Erdtree in Elden Ring comes from.

As an aside, I appreciate when people write and publish actual prose essays about retro games. There's no way in hell I'm going to watch a three-hour video essay on YouTube, but I'm more than happy to spend ten minutes skimming a self-published article on Medium.

The Worms Are Cute and Weird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EArFpg0cZNQ&ab_channel=BonfireVN

Sweet precious children. 💙

I didn't realize they have feet, but I'm so happy they do.

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I understand the concept of spoilers. Really I do. I love being amazed and surprised and delighted, and I love the thrill of discovery. Still, I can't help but think that the "spoilers" for a ninety-minute movie and the "spoilers" for a 40+ hour open-world video game occupy two different ontological categories.

ETA: Sorry, I don't mean to go on about this. It's just that there are so many interesting aspects of the story and lore and gameplay of Shadow of the Erdtree, and I'm looking forward to the conversations I encounter on podcasts + YouTube + Reddit moving beyond base-level inflammatory discourse. I want to get to the good stuff.

Just to be clear, Mohg Lord of Blood is not a good person. He's not a well-developed character by any stretch of the imagination, and the conceit behind his design is "What if we took the concept of 'random PvP murder' and made it into an optional endgame boss." It's more complicated than that, but not by much.

Still, I find discourse around the relationship between Mohg and Miquella to be tedious. Whether it's "problematic" or "child abuse" for someone who is 1,000 years old to be in a relationship with someone who is only 750 years old is not a real question. "But Miquella has the body of a child," you might say. To which I would respond that Miquella is a withered, nine-foot-tall corpse inside a giant magical cocoon.

To me, the demigods of Elden Ring don't read as human characters, and I think it's frustrating to interpret them as such. Although some of the demigods cling to remnants of their former humanity, any attempt to tease out their personalities and motivations is always going to be in the realm of fanfiction.

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Thiollier's voice actor is named Sam Glen. He's been on a handful of episodes of British television shows during the past two decades; and also, according to his IMBD page, "He starred in a UK tv ad for eBay in 2021." Where does FromSoft find these people. Their casting has always been supernaturally excellent, but Sam Glen in particular deserves major industry awards for his performance as Thiollier.

His tweet about being able to work with FromSoft is very sweet btw:
https://x.com/samglen/status/1804061515076501676

Last night, Jorge explored the Moorth Ruins.

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Despite its quaintly rustic buildings and "bonny" natural setting, I think the primary industry of Bonny Village might have been human meat processing. There are still a few butchers roaming around, and I'm sure you can imagine how they greet visitors. Good times.

Alas, the Well Depths Key does not lead to a sewer level. It does, however, lead to a poison swamp. 😊

I believe the background lore of Belurat is that everyone in the city was murdered in a crusade led by Messmer, one of the sons of the goddess Marika (whom you ostensibly serve). There's still one old woman living in Belurat who's locked herself in a fortress storeroom; and, if you can trick her into believing that you're a manifestation of her people's sacred animal, she'll give you a bowl of scorpion soup.

A bit later on, you start to get a sense for why Marika would have ordered this region to be purged and sealed, which is that its dominant culture made a habit of viewing ethnic minorities as human cattle and torturing them in the worst sort of way.

This is neither here nor there, but I think it's okay to for certain media to curate its audience. I appreciate that Elden Ring is as difficult (and difficult to understand) as it is. Not everyone needs to play this game. The issue of whether Marika is "good" or "bad" isn't really a meaningful question, especially not in black-and-white terms, and I don't want to read fandom discourse about it written by self-righteous teenagers.

Honestly, there are more important questions. Such as: Did the people in Belurat keep the dog-sized scorpions infesting the city as pets? Or did they raise them as a source of food? Are they tasty??

Last night, Jorge Luis Borges defeated Mohg Lord of Blood.

I'm a fan of Mohg mostly as a joke, with the joke being that I always manage to fall in love with the worst character in any given story. But now that I've once again encountered Mohg in the wild, I realize that he's a lot of fun. I mean, he's still the worst character. But in a fun way.

On his way to murder Mohg, Jorge also murdered White Mask Varré. This remains my favorite duel in Elden Ring. I unironically admire Varré, as he's completely delusional but not wrong. Varré and Mohg remind me of Ghirahim and Demise from Skyward Sword, which is exactly the sort of unhinged toxic relationship I love to see.

Anyway, now that Kindly Miquella has appropriated Mohg's corpse for unspeakable necromantic sex slavery, I can finally access the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Cheers!

Lore Revelations in the Shadow of the Erdtree
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldTQoUxROzY&ab_channel=VaatiVidya

Damn that was quick!! and I love how the top comment is "everyone apologize to Mohg."

I want to believe that White Mask Varré was still a horrible person of his own accord, though. Bless his heart.

For me, spoilers are really important, especially when it comes to video games. If I'm going to spend 50+ hours with a piece of media, I need to know that it's worth my time. I also like knowing what the final destination is so that I can take my time getting there.

To give an example, I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom precisely because I didn't have to worry about the story. It was good to go into the game knowing that there's no narrative payoff. I was upset about the story to begin with, and I can't even begin to imagine how I would have felt if I'd put more emotional investment into the game while rushing to finish it.

Thankfully, I'm getting completely different vibes from the Shadow of the Erdtree spoilers I've been able to find. This is a good story, I think. The (main) final boss is heartbreaking, as is the short cutscene that plays afterward, and it's going to be an interesting journey to figure out what's happening there. Even with spoilers, it's probably going to be months (or even years) before lore experts manage to put everything together.

Idk, I just think the anxiety over spoilers and the fear of missing out is manufactured by corporations to keep the consumption cycle moving as quickly as possible. Consumers are pressured to preorder everything and play/watch/read it as soon as it comes out, which in turn primes them to be ready to move on to the next thing immediately. I totally understand the thrill and joy of discovery, but it seems there's no longer any middle ground between "no spoilers at all" and "having complete access to a full wiki." That can't be healthy.