art is hard

Trying to figure out the lore behind the abyssal serpent that Messmer has mentioned and…keeping it all here to remember

Part 2

I feel so sad for him :( I think that thus abyssal serpent can be an Outer God? And I don’t remember correctly, but there was something about once you go blind you can commune with them? I may be wrong. Anyway. I also think that Melina can be his sister and the parallels that both she AND Messmer are only…a tool for the kindling in the end…THIS GAME TRAUMATIZES ME

I can’t

since the Tarnished has some spare eyes…can we give them to Messmer? 😥

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Some more bits of Messmer lore that make me sad…the first part is here

Commander Gaius is Messmer’s bestie…and we just kill him as everyone else in the Keep. Our character is literally the worst war criminal of them all huh

AND he’s an Albinauric who are basically one of the most oppressed groups of people in the game. Something something the bond between Gaius and Messmer starting from their mutual understanding of each other’s situation

In the previous post, there was this but about Messmer’s red snakes being with him always. The base serpent is basically this creepy thing that is sealed behind Messmer’s eye before his 2nd phase. It kinda seems to me that the red snakes sprouted from it and tore their way through their bodies but this Helm of Kood description makes me think about how exactly they were keeping the base serpent at bay 🤔 it’s interesting. Are they born from the base serpent but are more…supportive of Messmer? Idk

So like. Lots of items in the game mention that Messmer was sharing his flames with all of his soldiers which is kinda cool. What curious for me is that some of knights had troubles with accepting this fire? Like their bodies were rejecting it so they had to learn manually how to use this magic instead of having it more like a talent I guess. Maybe you have to be born touched by the curse to wield the fire effortlessly or something

Queelign is Messmer’s biggest fangirl. But it’s interesting how loyal Messmer’s warriors are.

Ok this one AUGHH. So like. At first, the specimen storehouse creeped me out, but…maybe Messmer also acknowledges the consequences the war brings. So maybe he was aware that yeah they’re destroying Hornsent civilization but may try to preserve some culture and scientific knowledge as well. Thus there’s a big library too. I also love the fact that there’s an infirmary in the Shadow Keep for treating the victims of living jars who are basically Marika’s people from the Shaman village.

This one can be interpreted that the people of the Shadow realm don’t know much about what is going on in the Lands Between 🥲

Imagine being born cursed with the base serpent and your closest servants turn against you once they notice that 😔👍👍👍

So, I finished the DLC…some thoughts

I liked everything about it except three things: fighting furnace golems (boring), commander Gaius fight (boring and absurd), and…the whole final :)))

Thing I liked the most: environment design, new characters and weapons, the whole Marika & Messmer narrative.

This final of the story is very interesting from the standpoint of my character who is Haligtree aligned. But honestly, it feels so strange to see Radahn again. I’ve never expected this. I’d rather expect Godwyn, because I felt like he and the twins had a close relationship + bc of the castle Sol lore I think it was Godwyn who Miquellla tried to resurrect. Radahn being in the dlc plot feels a bit out of place to me bc there wasn’t enought closure in his character and his dynamic with others. And I felt like his story has been told already.

It also felt strange to me fighting them? Bc Miquellla wanted to bring the age of compassion and my character would be fine with that. I mean, it didn’t feel justified for me that we have to fight Radahn and Miquella and I think they should have to emphasize more that there’s something wrong with Miq. Idk I just don’t like the whole Radahn narrative here. Here’s the good summary btw

And I’m not even going into the whole incest thing which smells of GRRM influence. I get that they’re demigods and things are different for them, but still…

And yeah, I hate Radahn fight. It doesn’t feel fair to me, it’s just absurd and boring. I didn’t have the patience to finish it and went to see the final cutscene on YouTube. I’m tired

Other than that, I had an amazing experience playing this DLC!! The new lore is so interesting to pick apart and I loved seeing more of Marika’s backstory. I feel like their whole budget went into Messmer and then they were like “aw shit we have to write something for Miquellla”.

No one does boss intros as badass as Fromsoft does…but ngl the frame with the snake is very cute 😭 also i love his voice so much,the slight tremble when he talks about the purpose Marika bestowed upon him POETIC CINEMA

…I need Messmer to start ASMR YouTube channel

So like…we start the DLC thinking that Messmer is the worst but turns out he’s the most normal person in the DLC and I will die on the hill that Marika loved him and then turns out Miquella who was supposed to be the kindest is fucked up so badly there’s no fixing him

And then you realise it all was in vain, you killed everyone who didn’t deserve killing and achieved nothing. Really want to do the frenzied flame ending rn AKKDKADMAK

I love the combination of gothic architecture in the shadow keep with stronger fortification shapes. And the fact that everything is black is so fitting - edgy, lotssoot after the war, Marika’s Black & gold color scheme. It still gives male living space vibes tho

Also the fact that Messmer has a huge library and with the gallery of studded omen creatures? Kinda creepy…but also, he’s such a nerd 🤭

Was surprised to find out that from the keep we can get to this area - so pretty!

explosion