ELDEN RING - Why Malenia and Radahn Fought in the Battle of Aeonia & Why the Shattering War Happened

Hey! Thanks for all of the wonderful discussion. Regarding a recurring comment about why Morgott would label Radahn a traitor if he was pro-Golden Order: This is something I considered but didn't make it into the video (sorry!). I agree that theoretically Morgott and Radahn should get along, however I think there are a few reasons they don't that basically all come down to the fact that trust was low and ambitions high. None of them trusted one another due to the mysterious circumstances behind Godwyn's death and the Elden Ring shattering. Morgott is characterized as being perhaps the most critical of his kin having ambitions or motives in this situation and seems to take the stance of waiting for the Greater Will or Marika to do something. So while Radahn wants to maintain the status quo and uphold the Golden Order, he also has the ambition to be like his idols and take action, and Morgott (who himself also has a Great Rune) sees this as treacherous and is dubious of all of their intentions.

Godrick is like that one cousin who the family excommunicated a while ago but still managed to grab some stuff out of the house while everyone was at the will reading

Malenia needed to beat Radahn. His grip on the stars prevented the Eclipse that Miquela required to complete the Haligtree's growth and heal not just the divine twins, but also the entirety of the lands between. Too much rested on victory to accept an honorable defeat. By unleashing the rot she might kill Radahn and save her brother's vision, but then she could never return to her home at the Haligtree for fear of corrupting it with her rot as well. But even unleashing the rot, she still failed to kill Radahn and unleash the stars, and worse her soldiers brought her unconscious and infectious body back home, corrupting the Haligtree and dooming the vision she had sacrificed everything including her dignity for. Even worse yet, while she was away in Caelid failing to defeat Radahn Mohg ripped Miquela's cocoon from the Haligtree and abducted him, so she couldn't even have the comfort of her brother's companionship in the ruin of her failure. No wonder she's in a state of near catatonic depression when you find her.

Elden Ring: A game where you work out a family’s issues by killing them.

Rather than aunt Malenia revealing a secret to give uncle Radahn a heart attack, it's more like aunt Malenia and uncle Radahn got into a heated cooking competition, but Malenia put in an ingredient that Radahn was severely allergic to because she didn't expect Radahn to have binge watched and practiced the method of 78 gourmet cooking shows before this contest.

I think it's the ultimate karmic fate for Radahn, the demigod who wanted to hold time in place whether it be his relationship with his horse or the fate of the stars, that he ends up wasting away in Miyazaki's favorite metaphor for stagnation: rot.

My theory is that Radahn was the "big bro" that was trying to hold the family together. He didnt want to see either side fight so he froze the stars which brings everything to a standstill. Ranni cant progress her quest because of this and the golden order is satisfied with having everything stay as is so it doesnt feel the need to seek Ranni or her order out. Once you free the stars the black knives start killing off Rannis commanders because she is a threat again. In my eyes I think Radahn was standing between the two forces making it to where they cant really fight each other.

Miquella and Malenia loved Godwyn deeply, so deeply, that they were willing to kill their half brother Radahn so that the eclipse could happen for a chance to revive Godwyns body and soul. There's evidence of such love in the Haligtree town, where there's a statue of Godwyn holding both Malenia and Miquella in his arms. This is why I love From Soft, we can figure all this out and Godwyn has a literal 2 seconds of screen time in the entirety of the game.

And after all these efforts and sacrifices, creepy uncle Mohg just HAD to swoop in and fuck things up for everybody ! I love that story, great video man :)

I recently rewatched the game's reveal trailer, and the way it's edited, cutting between shots of the Battle of Aeonia and the shattering of the Elden Ring, made me reflect that the outer, physical struggle between Malenia and Radahn perhaps mirrors the inner struggle taking place within the being of Marika and Radagon, as she attempts to shatter the ring and he attempts to repair it. Two indomitable wills, intimately linked but completely opposed. Sadly, the shattering is inevitable, and war and devastation will be the result.

Fun fact: cutting off Omen's horns makes them weaker. That's why there's a mini-boss fight where you face two omens who are twins, but the one who still has their horns is much more dangerous than their sibling.

Wayhey! Here we go, looking forward to this my man

I just thought about something. In the cinematic where Malenia and Radahn fight, she impales Radahn and then stabs herself with the broken end of the sword. I originally thought that she wanted to infect Radahn's blood with her ow, thus giving him scarlet rot. I just realized that she might be stabbing herself to break the golden needle under her skin and release the rot.

I personally think that Radahn only survived as much as he did from the Scarlet Rot was because he held the stars and fate in stasis, leaving him to fester and his mind to leave, but for his body and magic to endure as he resisted his own defeat. Malenia would also likely believe her brother who, if she was successful, would either be the one able to undo the blight on Caelid, or she not realize the full scale the damage of the Rot would spread if she released it, and hoped it would only result in the death of herself and Radahn.

One of the major impetus of the Shattering War was really Haligtree V ErdTree. Mogh and Praetor Rikard are really side characters in the larger War of the Trees. When Merika shattered the Elden Ring, this gave Miquella the power he needed to begin the HaligTree in earnest. A major threat that Miquella saw, however, wasn't from Morgot or Radahn, but from Godwyn. Malenia fought Radahn because he had stopped the movement of the stars, including the Sun. Miquella needed the stars to move to trigger the Eclipse from Castle Sol and bring Godwyn back to life. This would stop 'Those who live in death' and for Godwin's taint to stop spreading over everything. If it didn't, even if Miquella won, it wouldn't be a real victory: Just trading one rotting tree for another. Remember, at this time Malena's Scarlet Rot was under control with Miquella's Gold Needle. Unfortunately, while she was out fighting, Mogh snuck into the Haligtree and stole the Cocoon that held slumber transformed Miquella. This is why all of the Cocoons at the Brace are stuck in mid-transformation. Malenia triggered the Scarlet Aonia as a last resort by basically removing her unalloyed gold needle as her limiter and thought "Okay, if I'm going to die, I'll take Radahn with me. I may die, but the stars will move, Godwyn will live, Miquella wins." When that didn't work, the unconscious Malenia was taken back by one of her CleanRot knights who died carrying her back to the base of the Haligtree. Problem is that no one replaced the needle, and without the presence of Miquella to create more needles, the Haligtree began to Rot in her presence.

The Auntie Malenia/Uncle Radahn thing is now my headcanon. Would have loved to be at the family dinner that kicked off that dispute... Big thanks to you for inviting me to narrate!

This is why I love your videos and Smoughs: Nuance. A lot of fans and creators seems to ignore it and go straight to the lowest hanging fruit that serves their own bias. You’re absolutely right, It is entirely possible to hold both assertions about both Malenia and Radahn as true and if anything it enriches one’s experience with the material.

The "putting things in stasis" sounds like a solid approach on Radahn's tragedy. He even used his rune fragment to contain the Rot within himself so while he was beyond salvation, he still managed to stay arround one way or another.

I think too often, people overlook the context for the battle of Aeonia. Malenia and Radahn are the last two undefeated forces clashing. This was supposed to be the final fight to end the war, a war to reshape the world. And yet, both sides brought their personal baggage into the fight. Radahn seems the more simple fighter to understand; he wanted to be Godfrey 2.0 and had the power to see it through. Look at 6:29, Radahn looks very comfortable with himself, having disarmed himself while giving Milenia time to reattach her arm prosthesis which seems to have come off in the course of the battle. I think this can be read two different ways. One, Radahn was supremely confident in his own ability to win, so in a moment of arrogance, in the middle of an ongoing battle, he disarmed himself to show Milenia he was assured of his own victory. Two, Radahn respected Milenia's prowess and intended to face her honorably, at her strongest. Milenia hates the scarlet rot and has been fighting it all her life. She had pride in her sense of agency, her personhood, which the rot threatens to take away. In the fight with Radahn, the "pride" she abandons is her holding herself to a higher standard, a lady not a rotten creature. When she realizes she won't defeat Radahn without the power of rot, she sacrifices a part of her personhood to serve Miquella. And I do think that is what it is, a sacrifice of what she holds most dear.

I think one important detail about Radahn that is worth mentioning in the context of the idea that he was a stooge of the Golden Order is a loading screen image which depicts the battle at the gates of Leyndell during the Shattering. In it, Radahn is shown pinned to the ground, with Morgott's blade across his throat. We see in the lore around Morgott that he was the supreme defender of Leyndell, both ruling from behind the scenes as the Veiled King and serving as it's mightiest warrior under the guise of Margit, the leader of the Night's Cavalry. While I think it is certainly clear that Radahn admired his father and Godfrey especially, and sought to similar legacy for himself, I don't think it so likely that he would simply wish to preserve the Golden Order as it was. Particularly given that his father Radagon had abandoned his wife Rennala and his children to serve as Marika's second consort, it seems to me far more likely that he was less concerned with preserving the Golden Order than he was preserving his family. It would make more sense that he was seeking to conquer Leyndell and drag his father back to Liurnia to help Rennala recover from her despair, and to reassert control over the rebellious factions within the Carian Academy. After being forced back to Selia to lick his wounds and consult with the loyal Carian sorcerers who formed his counsel (seen as a semicircle of chairs on the parapet of Redmane castle, surrounding an astrolabe and a chair clearly made for him), it makes sense that Melania and Miquella's armies conquering southwards would seen him and the Redmane armies as key players to either recruit to aid in their taking the remainder of the Lands Between (possibly including Leyndell, which would make recruiting an army that knew the defenses already invaluable) or to conquer as potential threats and to take Radahn's Great Rune to further their goals. In my view, then, Radahn certainly would have still been defined by his steadfast and stubborn refusal to accept change, but was less a stooge of the Golden Order than he was a man trying to pull his family back together through his sheer might and will. That makes far more sense given what we know of his past and his priorities than him being an adherent of the Golden Order of Marika, who broke his family and the world apart by her actions.