u/HardReference1560

Sorry if asked before but I think as a parry nut I must have gotten a quite wrong impression + wanted to see which one you find more realistic.

Like, in DS1, it feels like as long as you press R2 before weapon touch you, you're good.

Same in BB. Meanwhile in other games it feels like you ALWAYS parry to late if you fuck up, which is more realistic. It is really confusing though.

So, after parry runs in all the games my conclusion is that oddly enough, you have more iframes to parry after animation begins, but not before. I def may be wrong, but in newer games I think you will always find more success as an attack begins to land/fall too.

AKA if you press R2 and don't see animation - failed parry in newer games.

Another reason the change is noticeable:

Somehow it feels easier to parry with hand in DS1. Anyone got same experience?

Either way love both now. Took me a while to get used to new parries tho.

Hello. I am sure you must have seen this before but hawkshaw's theory broadly presents a good picture of the underlying story. Do you think that it is still relevant? Why not?

To me I think Marika's story must be different due to the DLC reveals.

Hello. So there is a couple more posts related with this series, mix of evidence and theories that explain character, motivations, and narrative relevance.

This post is a smaller theory. It essentially is about how the DS2 fragments of manus, Nashandra, Nadalia, Alsanna, and Elana represented his emotions that turned him into a monster.

Why does this relate to the furtive pygmy? Well, in my earlier series I pointed the importance of 4 elements and being. Essentially 4 lords, 4 kings, 4 knights.. and so on is a mystery that can be explained by the idea of japanese culture.

Eastern views often assign 4 as THE unlucky number, being a source of calamity and atrocity. For the game, it simply denotes the untimely fate of the dark souls world. kings turn to ruin, lords go mad, and knights go missing.

So it shouldn't be a surprise that the DS2 dark reincarnations of manus would hint at his character. Here's how.

They represent solitude, wrath, fear, and want.

The key to understanding how this relates to Manus being the pygmy is this detail:

Nashandra is the smallest, yet the only one still around, lingering near the throne. The relevance?

She represents want. Want was the least powerful fragment of Manus. In earlier parts I denote that what Kaathe says of the pygmy is correct.

That indeed, he did wait for the age of fire to subside. Did not fall prey like a moth to flame, despite Gwyn crowning him, giving him accolades.

The rest of Manus' emotions are related to his choice to claim the dark souls and ignore the age of fire. There was the wrath of the upturning of his grave, the fear of losing his pendant, which contained his dark soul, and the solitude, his most powerful emotion, driving him mad with obsession over his soul.

note/tldr:
It is not unlike the story of Lord of the Rings. The ring of Sauron is lonely, but perhaps it is best left forgotten, just like Kalameet's ring, and the pendant... Because your want grows into obsession.

https://preview.redd.it/25i1sd4i9kzg1.jpg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a6972b3e75280129e89b7e36963906d382378d9

https://preview.redd.it/959yef8lahzg1.png?width=736&format=png&auto=webp&s=9ef2af6e729a6d28b2c48408479804460c8ddf87

https://preview.redd.it/6gaexlfwefzg1.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee277eb8bf4037ac9eb26f24f91feef259810d1f

He could have been senator if he chose macromachines instead. Is he strong?

The cursemark of death...

The cursemark was carved into Ranni the Witch, an empyrean. As the lore states, it forms a circle, the mending rune!

Why mending though? Note the cursemark description states:

"carved at the moment of Death Of the First Demigod, and it should have taken the shape of a circle".

We are aware it didn't due to Godwyn. Therefore, I assume that 2 empyrean demigods dying at once breaks order. Death was stuck.

I think this process allow Marika to seal death. However, this was her grand mistake: I think she vowed to fix this by breaking the elden ring.

Ranni and Godwyn? Died in soul, and in body. Many theorize we have a part of godwyn's soul. Which is why we can mend the rune of death. This completes the cycle of death once more, and with destined death unsealed, we can make the age of the duskborn. I think this age reverses Marika's actions.

TLDR: I think that our body can add back death into order because a part of godwyn exists within us. Or rather, memories of godwyn linger in our body, as a fragment of light. We and Fia can reform that shattered soul, which acts like memory.

As the maiden in black in demon souls states:

Soul of the mind, key to life's ether
Soul of the lost, withdrawn from its vessel
May strength be granted so the world might be mended...
So the world might be mended...

In demon souls, this is soul form. The world there is similarly shattered, just like in Elden Ring.

Fromsoft are great at irony and subversion.

Look at Shadow of The Erdtree's characters. They all follow Miquella to be free from suffering, in exchange for losing their will. Miquella curses them to control them, yet he wanted an age with no suffering.

Messmer is betrayed, yet he is the impaler, a monster. Ansbach is a peaceful blood occultist, and Leda is a murderous honorable knight. Thiollier is a cowardly assasin, and so on.

Much of SOTE's story is to uncover truths, secrets and more. Yet it gives more questions, than answers...

Its greatest subversion? Is exposing Marika's folly. Not unlike Miquella's ambition. You cannot remove death from order. And so, you cannot remove will either.

Yet in another uno reverse flip.. the game does not answer if losing your will for Miquella's age is bad or not. Truly a world with no answers!

Maybe that is why Marika killed her using Maliketh. She moved on from her powers of death, and hid them in the shadowlands.

I think every empyrean has this ability. Other than the ones mentioned:

Malenia - scarlet children

Ranni - I think Renna was her alter ego

Godwyn may have died too early.