Firelinking • Themes of From Software [3.5]

[@arthurdossantos6826]

Living in a dying, stagnant world and being desperate for something new instead of a retreading of what already happened is something that really resonates with today's age.

[@satyasyasatyasya5746]

also the whole "the ruling class with LITERALLY destroy the world, than give-up power" thing haha

[@serse8455]

Tfw the age of dark was an allegory for the ussr all along

[@satyasyasatyasya5746]

@ please tell me you're kidding xD

[@thefebo8987]

It also resonates with the latest from software games :x

[@SentientMeatloaf1]

We only live in a world where technology is advancing at a breakneck pace, going from a time when most people didn’t have wifi to creating AI that can act so human that most people can’t tell the difference unless they are looking for it, in less than 20 years. People can choose to change professions whenever they want and can train themselves to do pretty much anything with the sum total of human knowledge at our fingertips, and all of this coming after 1000s of years where most people never left their hometowns and adopted the professions of their fathers with next to no other recourse. Yeah, todays age is so stagnant.

[@eraskatti9720]

Didn't expect Ted Kaathzyski but I appreciate it

[@hardgay7537]

So unfathomably based the abyss couldn't contain it

[@AesirAesthetics]

:)

[@47ejecting2]

Immaculate pun, holy hell

[@snakelady647]

Lokey, you have so many interesting things to say! Please learn to take breaks between your thoughts so other hosts can react. If you just talk at them while barely taking breaths between sentences, the density of information is extremely hard to listen to. I know it's hard to contain your enthusiasm for these games, but please--this small change will make you an infinitely better host.

[@bunchacolors1501]

Aesir could also have more to say than just "yes," in response, methinks

[@snakelady647]

​@bunchacolors1501I wonder if it's a consequence of what we are describing, where aesir is also kind of reeling from how many things were just covered-- I've seen more than a couple videos with Loki and other hosts where a similar thing happens.

[@Nobrezmil]

i agree, but its just how his thought process works really according to himself in a stream, cuz otherwise he can end up losing track of what he was saying. a similar case of this is myself. when i try to talk with other people about stuff i like, i just tend to talk so fast that i end up accidentally talking over other people. i tried to correct this but this can make me either lose track of what i was saying or even forget what i wanted to say in the first place lol, so i can understand lokey in this regard

[@Pedro_Colicigno]

17:00, I just kept hearing the locust preacher: "And so, she lived in fear. Of the dark, of the things that gnawed at her flesh. And yet! The Abyss hath yet to produce any such creature!"

[@danielchequer5842]

We got Firelinking Society and its Consequences before GTA VI

[@satyasyasatyasya5746]

The key theme for me is a question: "will you be complicit in a system that neither benefits nor regards you, that itself ought not exist, and to what extent can or will you act, if acting at all, is even wise?"

[@brianbrianbification]

Seeing this video come up feels like finally finding a bonfire

[@_krbrs_]

Now i know what it means to be ASSAULTED by a lore discourse. Lokey, jfc, chill.

[@trueKENTUCKY]

this was aggressively repeatedly in my feed today

[@aleverettes2789]

Two hours of overanalyzing fromsoft plot with Aesir and Loki, my favourite!

[@TitaniumAlloyz]

Always love to see a new aesiraesthetics video on my feed. I know what I'm doing tonight.

[@Mal_Freeman0451]

I've finished Bloodborne, Salt & Sanctuary, The Surge, and a few other Soulslikes. Last week I bought a physical copy of Dark Souls Remastered to finally play the game that really launched it all. Half way through and loving it. So I obviously won't be able to watch much of this but it goes on the watch later list.

[@mitchellbutler2307]

Hearing the opening monologue and being like "Oh...capitalism" 🤣

[@DrnMontemayor]

I'm so glad that you touch upon the fallacy of the cycle in this.

[@Joseph-cv3ve]

Unfathomably based intro! Life is absurd😅

[@slightlytwistedagain]

I disagree with Lokey's interpretation of The Usurper of Fire ending for a couple of reasons. One, when you eat the First Flame, the ring of fire around the eclipse is removed, showing that Gwyn's shackle on humanity is over. And two, the Pilgrims of Londor are internally named Summoner of the Eclipse. When you consider the lore of the Purging Stone from DS1, the item description mentions that curses (the accumulation of Dark labelled as misfortune because it eats away at life) cannot be removed, only transferred. This means that Yoel isn't drawing power out of your Dark Soul but transferring his accumulation of Dark to you. This is the same technique used by Yoel as well as the other pilgrims to summon an eclipse of humanity, which is the transferring of their Dark Soul into a giant collective. The only reason this can be done now is because the Age of Fire is so weak that one of the shackles of the gods, the Vertebra Shackle, is keeping humans attached/imprisoned to the material world. Once Gwyn's fire seal is broken in the Usurper ending, the Champion of Ash and the humanity collective then journey to Londor to make the humanity collective whole by absorbing/eating all the humans there. I think Lokey forgets that the material bodies humans use are Nito's shackles for shards of the Dark Soul. Keeping the ethereal soul locked in the material skeleton gives Nito subjects and a realm he commands over. Even though Nito is long gone, his system of subjugation endures just like Gwyn's fire seal does. As for the Nameless King wanting to become a dragon, one thing Lokey didn't mention or hasn't realized is that he can't ascend to enlightenment because he's attached to the material world due to his love for arms of war, and it is also why you can find the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring+3 located in his boss arena in NG+2, hinting at his material greed.

[@tylerhansen9521]

"We could an entire video talking about the Lotheric bloodline." Me: Yes please!

[@ickyvicky]

i do like the idea of the darkness being the Id with Gwen's teachings being the SuperEgo so hollowfication is the Ego but because they're so diametrically opposed they go mad, honestly super cool. makes me wonder why the player character isn't affected

[@noamias4897]

I like Lokey, but I have become a bit annoyed by him saying "the idea is...." as if it's poorly delivered or uninterpretable by fans so he has to explain on Fromsoft's behalf

[@manostororosso2364]

Dark Souls lore❤❤❤ I just love to see new videos about a trilogy that never gets old ...

[@philliusphoggwick8299]

Just came from the algorithm, never seen any of your channels, but that guy your interviewing is quite rude, in general. Disagreeing with you pointlessly, calling your comments vapid etc.

[@OldManMcLoyf]

@@NobrezmilHe’s probably just a bit autistic, my friend who I chat with lore to is the same way. Goes extremely way too in depth on stuff. There’s nothing wrong about it, Lokey is the same way with everyone when he talks lore. It’s all good. 👍

[@coreyrachar9694]

this was awesome. Love the podcast style. Would recommend toning down the volume of the background footage a touch though :)

[@andrewbowen2837]

I recognize that introduction... nice stuff there

[@TheAMeister]

1:36 I’ve played through the game multiple times and never knew that bonfire was there💀

[@stephenlucas8836]

58:58 Funny you say that; channel Yoshimitsu did a lost-in-translation video theorizing that the nameless gray giant in Sol Londo (Thorolun) was Loyd about 2 years ago. (Correction: he didn't say we fight Loyd, but his species is likely a Gray Giant/Tree)

[@Nobrezmil]

my biggest issue with yoshimitsus takes is that he tries to, an example, pick A and somehow try to correlate it with idk, Y, even though there isnt really too much evidence pointing towards that, like morne being a chaos demon for example, or volgen being the profaned capitol of heide

[@OldManMcLoyf]

Lloyd is 100% Father Ariandel, all the pieces fit perfectly together that it just makes sense.

[@Nobrezmil]

​@@OldManMcLoyf lloyd is gwyns uncle, while father ariandel is a corvian, both are different characters with different stories💀

[@OldManMcLoyf]

@ Anyone can become a corvian, that’s just how corvians work. Lloyd got kicked out of the Way of White and was alone walking around in the world -> The Painted World grabs anyone who’s forlorn and has nowhere to go There’s a Way of White chapel in the Painted World -> Means that Father Ariandel is a Way of White worshipper and in his mind an important one Elfriede comes to the Painted World and convinces Ariandel to change the whole religion of the world and to flagellate himself -> Lloyd led undead hunts and Elfriede could be making him repent, surely there’s other ways to drain blood that’s less brutal It’s about as solid as theories can get besides theories besides ones that are just facts. Doesn’t get disproven by anything and enhances the story.

[@Nobrezmil]

​@@OldManMcLoyf i agree that anyone can become a corvian and that followers of lloyd are in the painting, yes, but the painting is strictly called in both JPN scripts of ds1 and ds3, latter by friede more specifically, a place for the undesirable, those who have no place in the world, not forlorn. and followers of lloyd have nowhere to be in the world, since the implication that comes from items like the way of white corona in the original japanese is that lloyd has long been dead, just as his faith has been "Lost miracle of the Way of White. The white aureole cuts enemies to pieces and eventually returns to the caster. It is said that once, in the age when the remnants of the gods ran deep, miracles of the Way of White coincided with aureoles. And those who remember believed that they would someday return." the aureole since ds1 has been synonymous with lloyd, more specifically a white ring of light in the japanese, as seen with the gold coin highlighting the aureole behind him. and as we see with the spell i mentioned, the aureoles eventually return to us. but, the description's last line given the word believed in the past tense can imply that they didnt return to those who believed they would. and since the white ring of light is lloyd's symbol, it can be understood that lloyd didnt come back to his followers, something further reinforced when gwyndolin in the jpn script is called chief god, the EN calling it allfather. and as yuria goes on to claim, the old gods are no more. so it can be understood that lloyd, like many other anor londo gods, have died, thus explaining his absence

[@DavidReads]

Loved this conversational format. Great half entry!

[@stephenlucas8836]

57:50 the analogy “to meet velka” you have noclip out of current wold game map to the implied outside normal world then play a completely different game of intrigue just to track and flush out Velka.

[@tylerhansen9521]

Something I've always wondered is why, if Gwyn knew the pygmies would eventually betray and overthrow him, he didn't simply turn his and his allies forces against them, after defeating the dragons. Surely it would have been a trifle? So why go through all the trouble if he's so evil? Also, do you think Gwyn knew what the consequences of fire linking would eventually entail? Or was he simply backed into a corner and trying to buy time?

[@vivecthepoet36]

Antonio Gramsci and Teddy K references?! In my Dark Souls?!?! Intensely based.

[@drawgam2946]

Seath the scaleless is basically a symbol for the degradation of the age of the ancient dragons. Without the first flame they never would have had weak offspring as birth did not exist.

[@brennanclement8582]

I'm just at the beginning, but I'm already confused. In the "are the links weakening" section Lokey said that no the links aren't weakening, but then said a bunch of stuff that sounded to me like they were?

[@Nobrezmil]

from what i understood its not that the firelinking ritual itself is weakening, just the fire itself, the souls of the lords of cinder still being really powerful souls

[@core-nix1885]

"Man's *True* Form" is a play on the fact that True/False are represented by O/X in Japanese. The Darksign isn't a True Ring, it's more like a Cross to bear. The Dark Sigil is the True Ring, the Darksign is just a seal of fire that takes the shape of the Sigil. Headcanon: The Sigil is the wound of Filianore's Holy Spear, shared across mankind when the Spear was used to curse Kalameet and start the war with the Archdragons.

[@gadellomagnollo1810]

Ah neat, I love this guy

[@helelyeshua2982]

Engagement post for the algorithm.

[@Jedi_Mind_]

Aesir !!!!

[@gadellomagnollo1810]

From a lore perspective, would it make more sense for white souls to be limited and humanity to be infinite, considering that darkness is inevitable and light is waning?

[@tonysladky8925]

"In the beginning, the First Flame was kindled. This has made a lot of people very Hollow, and has widely been regarded as a bad idea." I've never heard that version of the Gramsci quote, but I kinda like parts of it better than the translation I'm used to (I'm assuming it's just two different translations and not him saying very similar things twice). I'm used to "The old world is dying, and a new one struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters."

[@EM-bz1rn]

48:26 Hehehehe

[@core-nix1885]

13:10 DS2 is not much more philosophical than the other two, it's just less subtle and more direct than the other two. Disparity is an idea taken from Jacques Derrida, the concept of a metaphysical bivalency biased in one way or another. It's based on the earlier philosophy of Heraclitus who stated that reality (Logos) was composed of the unity of opposites.

[@dgalloway107]

I was hoping for a video on the level of your previous 3 "themes" videos but Lokey ruined it in my opinion with his constant "No, you're right, I'm wrong, dark souls 2 lore sucks" usurping shenanigans. Bro acts like he's THE authority of the lore in a game designed to be INTERPRETED, and I do not appreciate it. Nor do I appreciate how much interrupting and correcting(Even when hes wrong) he does. I'll be here for the next Themes video.

[@crazykiddeath]

CONTINUATION.

[@cixmix]

This conversation format is really good

[@DeadbeatShadows]

That intro just makes me more confident that the first Dark Souls in an allegory for the failed communist revolutions across the globe and the advanced, stagnant state of capitalism extended past its usefulness as a mode of production and social organization.

[@vivianboor14]

I mean, the reason people think the age of dark and fire are a loop is because.... it's a bad narrative if the answer to Shedding the Yoke of Fate is.... To... do the thing you could.... already...choose to do... in.... the first game? The idea that three games in the point is "probly shouldn't link the fire, huh? Like... Yeah no shit? We absolutely covered that in game one

[@vazazell5967]

A bad narrative, by miyadzaki? No way!

[@vivianboor14]

​@@vazazell5967there's a *lot* of points in this video where lowkey says "that just makes sense" and like... No it doesnt. I swear you could hear Aesir bite his tongue at moments when it came to like, never encountering Velka because she works in shadows, despite... all of reality itself crumbling to a stagnant pile of ash, because no, that doesn't make sense. Gael having enough will to fight to the end boss.position, as an unkillable undead, but then just not doing his own boss run back to kick your ass after you beat him once, *does not make sense*

[@Nobrezmil]

​@@vivianboor14the ashen desert where we fight gael, ashen estus flasks, and things like the wyvern back at lothric wall becoming ash slowly do show that things are becoming ash though, especially the dreg heap part

[@vivianboor14]

@Nobrezmil yes. that is a... very simple concept. Again, one that was more or less covered in the first game when a big snake was all "yeah, fires supposed to go out, keeping it going is bad actually" What doesn't make sense is the systems of power still being active despite what the narrative is trying to tell us, like velka retaining her ability to work from behind the shadows despite everything crumbling.

[@Nobrezmil]

@@vivianboor14 but we have evidence of velka helping out londor, for lots of items originally tied to carim/velka in ds1 are now tied to londor in ds3, like for example, the clutch rings which show a crow's foot saying in the third game's jpn that crows pick up heartbroken hollows and bring them to londor, or yuria selling rings of sacrifices (which are credited to velka), or purging stones, or yuria's mask resembling a bit to me a crow's beak/face. while the *world* from a natural stand-point is being fucked up, this doesnt have to include the people in it, like gwyndolin for example before aldrich came around, or gwynevere before oceiros' madness, stuff like that. and while i agree with u that just by kaathe saying the firelinking is bad is enough, the nature of the dark souls games require the canon route to be this ritual since in all games we have bonfires, the sun, undead curse and so on, so what else to do to show the negative effects of the firelinking if not show the consequences of the prolonging of the first flame to the *world* itself? we didnt get to see that in ds1

[@Slender-se3mr]

DARK SOUL!!!!

[@alessandroferrucci6087]

here we go with another banger boys

[@nin8halos]

Is firelinking capitalism?

[@core-nix1885]

@@nin8halos sort of, kind of it seeks infinite growth and longevity from limited resources

[@tonylawson2222]

I'm not going to finish this one. That opening was cold, but your company is, for a variety of reasons, unworthy of our attention. I'll be back for your next video. You do great work.

[@ZeroPhoenixTheLastBladeTheory]

Firelinking is dum, fire is not a chain. Hotlinking is a thing though, so firelink is probably a mistranslation.

[@Nobrezmil]

it actually aint, from what is understood from the jpn, you link your soul, the fuel used for the first flame, to the fire itself, hence firelinking/firelink

[@madmorgo6233]

Oh, idk, it makes sense to me. It's an inversion of real-world indigenous culture ,in a way 🤔

[@Nobrezmil]

@@madmorgo6233 oh really? thats interesting

[@madmorgo6233]

@@Nobrezmil hm yeah! I hadn't made that connection until a minute after writing that comment XD now I can see it clearly, I'm glad I did 🔥

[@Nobrezmil]

@@madmorgo6233 sorry to ask but im just curious lol, what cultural aspect is similar to the firelinking? who knows, imagine if uncle miya got inspired by it

[@braquemar]

Really really hard to listen to Loki for too long good lord

[@egtemp317]

Thanks for Ted opening lol

[@jordansebert11]

I feel like Lokey knows how he seems and acts, like a crystal meth baby. But Im pretty sure he doesnt care especially after aesir just responds with YES. Because thats all you can respond with to all that hyper focused nitpicky detail orrientated talk. Its just not normal, but Lokey wants to be the very best that no one ever was, to interrupt them is his real test, to shoot points down is his cause.

[@smittysmifin]

Got my ☕️ aesir. And some 🪴

[@AesirAesthetics]

sip for me buddy!!!