@marshallm0992
My favorite little detail in the Miquella fight is that the “Heart Stolen” text is yellow and not red. Which implies that having your heart stolen is a victory. However the yellow is a more muted color than the typical “Great enemy defeated” or “Legend Felled” text. Implying it’s not a true victory. Which could correlate to how Miquella’s ideal world of compassion isn’t truly compassionate if everyone is brainwashed. Or I’m just looking WAY too into a string of text.
@cb-9938
Biggest sign thqt Radahn was being used was the absence of his horse Which has been said he would never leave. Even learning gravity magic so it could still hold his collosal body. If he is without his horse, then it's not Radahn in control
@Big_Cap
"Fuck your toxic positivity, let me ride my horse" - Radahns great rune most likely.
@Ccerran
“I promise you compassion” Is that why you’ve been rearranging my ribcage for the past 18 hours?
@glaeli1184
The thing that amazed me is how well every aspect of this story works together, starting with Miquella’s curse of eternal childhood, right there you have the entire symbolism of his path: a child looking at the world with a child’s eyes, full of compassion and passion to do something to make it better but also twisted by an immature ego that is so typical of children, prone to unrealistic expectations, passionate fixations, no boundaries or rules and no compromises. Miquella is exactly like I would picture a child with his powers.
@LAK_770
Miquella reminds me of Gandalf’s stated reasons for refusing the Ring. He essentially tells Frodo that he would be an even worse Lord than Sauron, and Tolkien expands on this in a letter. Basically Gandalf’s foundation of mercy and good intentions would be twisted into a kind of insidious “for your own good” tyranny that winds up being far more totalitarian than Sauron’s straightforward use of force and terror. Sauron demands submission or death, but at least he’s honest about it and doesn’t expect you to like it.
@seatonann
"there is no true evil in Elden Ring." I offer a counterpoint, Seluvis
@titaniumteddybear
Miquella's entire journey started because he wanted to save Melania. By the final fight scene he has so lost his way that all he says about her is that she'll "be remembered". He isn't even trying to save her any more. He's given up on her, gotten over it, and moved on to the next stage of his plan.
@Mo167ose
I think something worth mentioning is that Ansbach’s personality suggests that Mohg wasn’t always insane. Ansbach served Mohg before Miquella came around, and he’s much more calm, collected and kind than Mohg’s new followers (Varre for example). He even says to the character after dying to Radahn, “Righteous Tarnished, make a world not for gods, but for all men.” He doesn’t even hate the Tarnished for killing Mohg, he just hates how Miquella has desecrated his corpse. That makes me think the way Mohg’s dynasty/cult operates was a result of Miquella’s brainwashing, maybe even in an attempt to encourage someone to one day kill Mohg.
@aroguebard
I think Trina's line "Grant him forgiveness" is meant as a simple addendum to the "You must kill Miquella" line. AKA killing Miquella would essentially be the ultimate forgiveness, preventing him from falling to the same trap and caged divinity that his own mother was in, and letting him pass on to the next life alongside Trina.
@MorbidMind123
As a member of the Carian royal family Radahns fate is tied with the stars along with Ranni's, its entirely possible that him holding the stars in place while becoming a Rot Zombie was to hold off his fate as promised consort. Our destroying him, one of the pre-requisites for the DLC, both frees his soul and his fate.
@TheKamenZero
Pleanty of people have already touched upon this, but I believe that Miquella's greatest weakness is his eternal youthfulness, and his eternal naivety that is implied to go alongside it. Miquella was an Empyrean with the power to coerce other people into being utterly loyal to him -- to love him so thoroughly as to do whatever it takes to please him. In Ansbach’s own words "he weilds love to shrive clean the hearts of men." And we see the end result of this in the Haligtree Soilders, who are happy and willing to allow themselves to explode in a flash of radiant light. Miquella frames his "Age of Compassion" as a world where everybody is compassionate for one another. But in reality, he is simply forcing everyone to be loving and compassionate towards him -- only cooperating with one another because that's what pleases Miquella the most. We see this demonstrated perfectly in Leda and the other followers of Miquella throughout the DLC. It's a shortcut. Plain and simple. Yes, the end result is technically a better world by the simple definition of nobody being excluded or persecuted. But it's only a surface level solution conceived by one who is eternally youthful and naieve. It's also phenomenally shortsighted. St. Trina tells us that godhood would be Miquella's prison, and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. Imagine yourself, for just a moment, in Miquella's position. You've finally done it. Rahdan is your consort, your charm is in full effect over the world, and the Age of Compassion is well underway. You sit atop it all as the god of the new order, orchestrating every decision worth making for the betterment of those beneath you. Radahn, your constant companion who you once admired for his strength and kindness, waits silently by your side: evereager to follow whatever orders you dean to give him and nothing else -- he doesn't speak or act in any regard unless you ask it of him. Your followers are much the same, living their day to day lives in blissful routine, only ever deviating if you wish them to. The world is finally a better, gentler place. Now imagine yourself in this sittuation for a year. Now ten years. A hundred. A thousand. Imagine being the only individual in the entire world with free thought. Nobody but you ever has an idea or opinion that you didn't give to them. For all intents and purposes, you would be alone. You have your world of love and compassion at your fingertips, but you are alone. You have countless devoted followers spanning the entire world that you fought tooth and nail to conquer, but you are alone. You even have your beloved Consort Radahn, but you are alone. No one to talk to. No one to confide in. It's just you and the unthinking husks that you've turned everyone else into. It's just like Brett said in the video. This would be a hell of Miquella's own creation. And I believe that, given time, this hell would break him. Drving him to once again follow in his mother's footsteps: shattering the order he fought to achieve in a desperate bid for escape. And in doing so, he'd doom the world to an even worse fate. We saw the consequences of the charm being broken on just seven of Miquella's followers and how quickly the group fell apart after the fact. Imagine that on a global scale.
@Valkyrie7894-o4v
Miquella can be best described by the famous phrase “the path to hell is paved with good intentions”. Those who mean well, don’t always end up doing well.
@fxlja
If you get grabbed, Miquella will whisper to you: "I promise you, a thousand year voyage, guided by compassion." It should be something wonderful. A very sweet promise of a better world, one even better than we as Elden Lord could ever create. But when he said it... it sounds off. I'm not even convinced he understands what compassion truly means. It's like he twisted and perverted the meaning of the word.
@I-J1NX-I
Miquella is throwing away the concept of love and compassion to create a world of love and compassion. What a great plan.
@fruityplumguy6532
I think it’s terrifying how, during the final battle, Radahn’s expression always remains the same. There’s never any hint of joy, anger, pain, nothing at all except for a blank, emotionless stare. I think this is the truest form of miquella’s new world order. Nobody able to do anything at all except mindlessly and emotionlessly obey the will of their new god, and that is truly horrifying.
@mr.meanwhile
The moment I found the cross which read "Here I abandon my fears" I knew, that I would face something absolutely fucked and the game delivered.
@exodosthesoulbanish
He really is his mother's son.
@leonhighwind2305
One bit that was lost in translation that is really important to Miquella's character, and was pointed out by a guy on Reddit, is that Miquella's speech in the memory is much more uncertain and defensive. "I promise I'll become a god" as in defending his capacity to achieve Godhood, as opposed to declaring "I will become a God". Like a child who was chastised and is promising to do better. Miquella was cursed with eternal youth, but it seems to be as much a curse on his mind and mindset as it was on his flesh. He can't grow older, and he also can't mature. His desires and worldview are idealistic, but childish. He wishes to embrace the Hornsent as much as anyone else, but he doesn't understand the extent of the horrors they committed. He knows the sins of the Golden Order and feels deeply guilty for them, but he doesn't know the reasons why Marika committed those sins. It's telling how there are no Crosses near the Gaols, Bonny Village or the Shaman Village. He never saw the Hornsent's sins, and the reason for Marika's rage. The great tragedy is in the fact Miquella is ultimately a child with too much power, and too much childish kindness. Despite what he asks in the intro of the second phase, as he climbs Radahn's shoulders, HE is the one who does not know sin. He grieves for a world he does not understand.
@1wayroad935