The Philosophy of Elden Ring

In Elden Ring, the real ghost is the past.
Elden Ring has taken the gaming world by storm. But what makes this new From Software game so uniquely suited to our current moment? It has a lot to do with ghosts, of both the past and the future. We’ll explain in this Wisecrack Edition on Elden Ring: When the Past Won’t Die.

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Written by Amanda Scherker and Michael Luxemburg
Hosted by Michael Burns
Directed by Michael Luxemburg
Edited by Mark Potts
Motion Graphics by Jackson Maher
Produced by Olivia Redden and Griffin Davis

Thank you to the following creators for allowing us to use their gameplay footage!

Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound

#EldenRing #DarkSouls #Wisecrack

© 2022 Wisecrack / Omnia Media, Inc. / Enthusiast Gaming

[WisecrackEDU]

Be honest with us...How many times have you rage quit Elden Ring so far?

[Darkshadow]

Good thing I totally understood all of that when choosing Ranni's ending, and totally did not choose her because she was my 4 armed waifu

[JusticeJanitor]

Minor Correction : Radahn didn't organize the festival himself to re-live his glory days. He's gone completely mad due to Scarlet Rot and his men organize the festival in order to give him an honorable death.

Also, he first learned how to use Gravity magic in order to still be able to ride his tiny horse named Leonard and I love him for it.

[pyrosianheir]

"Maybe we'll come back to it once anyone understands the whole story."

So in a year and a half, when Vaati Vidya uploads his lore/story explainers.

[Spencer_E]

So one thing, Rennala’s amber egg was a gift from her husband, Radagon. It was Radagon leaving her to be with Marika that broke her heart, not Ranni’s bodily death
Though this still lines up with nostalgia/cancellation of the future theme

[forrestsatterfield]

Y’all messed up on some the lore. Radahn is mindless now and his men are holding a festival in his honor to kill him. He is severely brain damaged and yet still his magic holding the stars back persists.

[UnreasonableOpinions]

Tarnished: “So, uh… Radahn, why the hell did you even want the power to freeze the celestial heavens themselves in place?”

Radahn: “Look, I just got real big but I still wanted to ride my old horse, and you know how things get out of hand sometimes.”

[cannibalfan]

This line from Marx's The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon seems applicable: "The traditions of dead generations weight like a nightmare on the minds of the living."

[GenesiisDavid]

Rykard's voice actor fucking killed it. I've watched that cutscene several times. Just captures the grotesque nature and descent into blasphemy of Rykard.

[flarelord]

Annnd the very first thing he says about the lore is mistaken - Marika *did* remove the rune of Death from the ring, but what prompted the Night of Black Knives was it being stolen from its caretaker by someone... not spoiling the specifics. Just missing key details.

[TheBlackMagic]

You are missing another part for Rannala. She was also married to Radogan, but he left her for Marika after the death of her first husband. Turtle Pope talks about how that devastated her and she locked herself in the Academy.

EDIT: Her husband was banished after the golden light faded from his eyes. I got him confused with another character with a similar name that was killed instead.

[That_Ifrit_Guy]

Cool Video! Thank you again for using my footage ^^

[granddelta]

Radahn didn’t learn gravity magic to hold to star but to keep on riding his scrawny horse Leonard. Blast the chad music for my man Leonard.

[reii]

Can’t wait to finish Elden Ring and watch this, although at the rate I’m playing it might be a few years…

[mnopinion]

Some correction: Radahn didn’t organize the festival himself. He was a great warrior and still is but because of the scarlet rot that Malenia gave him during the war in Caelid. His mind went ravage and completely lost all his humanity.

His loyal soldiers - who still put their General in a very high regard wanted to give him a warrior’s death. And thus the Radahn Festival was created… in hopes of finding the tarnished who will finally be able to best the great general in combat and give him that much deserved death.

[Dsonsee]

I never expected Fisher's "Capitalist Realism" to be mentioned when analysing a videogame. I loved the focus of the video, but I think an inclusion of "The German Ideology" could have been beneficial, as I think, despite it being an older book, that it does a better job at penetrating the conception of eternal principles and values than Fisher's does. Though, granted, the focus on hauntology is Fisher's main thing

[Varizen]

If you want information on the story, a lot of us in the Reddit Community have assembled large swathes of it. Sure Vaatividya will eventually put it all together with help from Zulie The Witch... but for the most part, we have a strong understanding of what's going on... The main mysteries remaining involve what Markia's plan was and if Radagon was with her or against her as there's evidence for both, and if Marika knew of Ranni's plan and was in on it or not. Rememberance of Malekath suggests she was. But the Elden Ring story is honestly one of the far easier ones to piece together... as long as you're reading your item descriptions.

Also... It's Marika, like how we say 'Murica when we make sarcastic comments about the US. They say her name only a billion times in the game. Hewg says is... Big Boggart, the Blackguard even uses the expletive "Marika's Tits!" Gideon Ofnir says it a few dozen times.... Turtle Pope says it....

Your information isn't quite correct on Radahn and the Festival of War. Radahn has NO concept of what is going on. The Scarlet Rot destroyed his mind. He is not the one holding the Festival. Instead, it is Witch-Hunter Jerren who holds it out of a sense of duty to Radahn, wanting to bring Radahn an honorable death in battle instead of allowing him to wander the wilds as a mindless beast. Radahn is incapable of nostalgia as his mind is too far gone for him to be capable of thought. He acts only out of instinct. He was holding back the stars when he lost his mind and doesn't know why he continues to do so. And he loves his horse, Leonard (Credit to Zulie for discovering that one weeks ago). He learned gravity magic to be able to keep riding Leonard and even in his mindless state does what he can to protect Leonard. He will shove him into the sand to protect him from both yours and his own attacks.

Instead, you might alter your premise to focus on Jerren holding the festival out of a memory of the greatness Radahn once was.

[TheKeyser]

There is a little detail, that the Erdeen Tree is not the original Tree, more like a parasite that grow over the carcass of the old one, that he destroyed and only are remains underground.

[alexspain]

I think you misunderstood some of the themes of the prior souls games. It's not about the futility of trying, its about the strength to keep trying even when it all *seems* futile.

[craxnor]

The age of dusk ending is interesting because while everyone dies, it also implies everyone is free from the current world. They aren’t shackled to it and the Golden Order anymore and the souls of the world can move on.

However the golden order ending is the actual oration of the mythic past as it forces the gods and powers of the world to act responsibly with their power and brings about a true good age.