Video Game, Anime, & Music Video Spirituality/Religion

[kFoyauextlH]

I will provide here a collection of materials and clues regarding religion or a pathway made of various things to pursue the study of religion as existing in and hidden in video games, anime and cartoons, and music videos and songs, as well as art and other forms of media with a particular focus on the sorts of things people may take for granted or not look at very closely or examine with care, otherwise taking the overt stories rather than the hidden messages, even those hidden without the deliberate knowledge or acknowledgment of the authors.

These things are often scoffed at as fantasy and distraction while they contain tremendous amounts of material which can be understood in profound and inspiring ways and refer to the truth or indicate it through what they say or imply.
[hr]
These are just some notes to myself because I don't know the names of all the authors or directors:

Shin Megami Tensei with special focus on Spirits.

Final Fantasy with special focus on Summons.

Tekken the Anime, HALO Anime

Magi with special focus on djinn

Shazzan

Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Silent Hill

Metal Gear Solid

Warhammer focus on Chaos and Tzeentch in particular, Dungeons and Dragons focus on Planes and Infernal and Diabolic, Tolkien focus on Melkor and Sauron, Star Wars focus on Dark Side, Pathfinder focus on Diabolic and Asuras, White Wolf World of Darkness

Alien, Prometheus focus on monsters and original drive, Blade Runner focus on Replicants

Magic the Gathering focus on Phyrexians and Yawgmoth as well as other aspects and the Diabolical

Naruto focus on Orochimaru and Paths of Pain as well as villains and Illusion Eye, Bleach focus on Hell, Yu-Yu Hakusho focus on villains

Asura's Wrath

Ghost in the Shell

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Elder Scrolls focus on Daedra, Two Worlds

The Kree from Marvel Comics

Marquis De Sade

Ragnarok Online or the other one I forget the name of, one of them has good religious content

Japenese artist who makes sadistic pornographic fantasy art

Jade Empire focus on Closed Fist

[kFoyauextlH]

I've never played these dorts of games, nor fo I expect to really, but I utilize information from things related to such things, inclufing video games that I'm unlikrly to ever play, very frequently and with a good degree of seriousness as non-fictional in many ways.

Added in 27 minutes 28 seconds:
dorts!

Spoilers for Wednesday:



Added in 5 minutes 32 seconds:
I didn't expect a Medusa thing to be coming up along with the character being named Ajax, and seemingly multiple other things that have been coming up all being jammed together in that clip.

[kFoyauextlH]

Regarding video game media, I am studying the Anglo-Saxonism in FromSoftware games and designs, as well as anywhere else I can see a Medievalism that tries to stay close to the uncanny or oddly proportioned elements in art from that period, as well as other themes present in the literature and chronicles from those times, as opposed to anyauthentic re onstruction attempts or realism.

[kFoyauextlH]

"
Since the first leaks we’ve known that Elden Ring had big inspirations from Norse and Celtic myth and art, and there’s a lot of very very interesting connections there, but something I noticed since the gameplay trailers was the potential influence of the Anglo-Saxon culture and this only widened with the final game, and I think I genuinely have a lot of useful stuff to say about Elden Ring lore and the Anglo-Saxons.

For a brief history lesson, the Anglo-Saxons were the earliest English people, the Germanic peoples (closely related to the Scandinavians) that migrated to Britain after the Roman Empire fell until the Norman Conquest (roughly 415 to 1066). The language they spoke was Old English (not thee and thou, that’s early modern English- Old English is almost a completely different language).

George R R Martin has been inspired by Anglo-Saxon history and myth/literature in the past. The name of the Seven Kingdoms in ASOIAF comes from the term “heptarchy” which is used to describe the political situation of seven kingdoms in the middle Anglo-Saxon period, and many names and concepts particularly in the North and relating to the Old Gods in ASOIAF are drawn from Anglo-Saxon inspiration and sources.

A lot of the names in Elden Ring are Old English/Anglo-Saxon names, particularly names connected to the Golden Lineage and the old Altus barbarians that the house of the Erdtree originated from; Godwyn meaning God-friend or Godrick (Godric) meaning God-ruler, etc. Rings are also incredibly important in Anglo-Saxon culture, representing loyalty and social order- loyal men would be given rings by their lords which they would wear to show their loyalty, and so in Old English poetry rings become symbolic of order and the rules that bind society.

The real connection, however, is far deeper- I believe that the whole conceit of the tarnished, and the entire nature of their relationship to grace and struggle, is based on two of the most famous Anglo-Saxon poetry. To start, I think everyone thought from the first concrete things we heard about the game that everything about the “Greater Will” and its “grace” sounded a lot like Christian language.

The two Old English poems “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer” exiles or people cast out from society (“So I …. Bereft of my homeland”) and their relationship with God. A lot of the language is incredibly similar to the language used for the struggle of the Tarnished in Elden Ring. The first line of The Wanderer is “Often the lonely one finds the grace of God”, and the poems (which generally come as a pair) are all about how only those who have lost everything, who have been exiled from society, can truly understand God and grace. Imagery of gold is also usually used to describe the comfortable society they have been cast out of- “The path of exile holds the wanderer, without gold”. This parallels the Tarnished, who have been forced to tread the paths of exile away from the Grace of gold, and who are the only humans in Elden Ring can see the rays of Grace, as non-Tarnished like the Merchants mention how they cannot see it.

Marika also seems to understand this- when she casts out the Tarnished, she does it because she wants them to understand Grace better through struggle:

“My Lord, and thy warriors. I divest each of thee of thy grace. With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die.” (Melina speaking Marika’s words at the Third Church of Marika)

“Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed. Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey.” (Melina speaking Marika’s words at the Church of Pilgrimage)

This makes it pretty clear, I think, that Marika has cast out the Tarnished to be exiles so that they might struggle and then come back, with more clarity to the Grace of the Greater Will, so that they might improve the Golden Order and brandish the Elden Ring. Whatever Gideon Ofnir glimpsed of the Golden Order and the will of Marika (whether he is correct or not) he clearly expresses a similar purpose to the Tarnished:

“Queen Marika has high hopes for us. That we continue to struggle. Unto eternity.” (Gideon Ofnir at his boss fight)

There may also be item descriptions that help solidify this link, but that being said there actually aren’t many items relating to the Tarnished themselves, so I’m not sure you’d get too much out of it. One of the Tarnished origins (character presets) is called the Seafarer, which is a rare word (I think you’re more likely to use something like “Sailor”) and in my opinion this is a reference to this pair of poems that clearly inspired the ethos of what the Tarnished are and how they have to wander and suffer and fight in exile in long pursuit of finding grace and the homeland that they have been cast out of.

Thank you if you read this! I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m an Early Medieval scholar (mostly focusing on the Germanic peoples), so I’ve loved seeing what people had to say about Norse literature and Elden Ring, and I think I may have a few things to say of my own. I’m also very interested in the history of Christian thought, and these two poems are two of the most important to me and the most iconic in all of Anglo-Saxon poetry, so I really think it’s likely that GRRM or Fromsoft were drawing from these to write the Tarnished.
"

Copy pasting that was as hard as the games are supposed to be. It kept making the highlighting go away if it passed the last word.

https://medium.com/@dmepikh/elden-ring- ... 5a0bc2026f

https://screenrant.com/elden-ring-chara ... -symbolic/





Ugh, these voices and ways of speaking.





























Some guy made this unofficially:





The body horror stuff isn't really interesting or fascinating to me but it can give clues as to certain cultural things from the designers and what they believe may be disturbing and entertaining for people.

Much more interesting to me is what they draw from historically and how it also differs from attempts by other people from different places in the world.





https://eldenring.fandom.com/wiki/Characters

https://eldenring.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Characters

"

u/HungrPhoenix avatar
HungrPhoenix
•
1y ago

Melina, Ranni, Irina, Hyetta, Sorceress Sellen, Roderika, Enia, Fia, Nepheli Loux, Rennala, Finger Reader Crone x 8, Tanith, Rya, Millicent, Mary, Maureen, Amy, Polyanna, Malenia, Queen Marika the Eternal, Gloam Eyed Queen, Latenna, Therolina, and Phillia for base game.

For the DLC, Leda, Freyja, St. Trina, Hornsent Grandam, Jolan, and Rellana.

There are also the female invaders, like Tarnished Eater Anastasia or Bloody Finger Eleonora and female bosses like the Demihuman Queen x8, Metyr, Mother of Fingers, Rakshasa, and Dancer of Ranah.

And I think that is all?
6
Ythio
•
1y ago

Demi human queen Maggie
3
u/HungrPhoenix avatar
HungrPhoenix
•
1y ago

She is bundled with the other Demihuman Queens. I think there are four named and four unnamed, and I just lumped them all together as they are all similar.
2
Ythio
•
1y ago

Didn't even see there were here. Maggie still the best.
2
6
Ythio
•
1y ago

Demi human queen Maggie
3
u/HungrPhoenix avatar
HungrPhoenix
•
1y ago

She is bundled with the other Demihuman Queens. I think there are four named and four unnamed, and I just lumped them all together as they are all similar.
2
Ythio
•
1y ago

Didn't even see there were here. Maggie still the best.
2
Ythio
•
1y ago

Demi human queen Maggie
3
u/HungrPhoenix avatar
HungrPhoenix
•
1y ago

She is bundled with the other Demihuman Queens. I think there are four named and four unnamed, and I just lumped them all together as they are all similar.
2
Ythio
•
1y ago

Didn't even see there were here. Maggie still the best.
2
"

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/NPCs









I pretty much dislike so much about the game and designs but have invested so much into studying it and buying materials for that because of the little hints of interest which I find inspiring.

[kFoyauextlH]

[kFoyauextlH]

This is about "viral marketing" using internet cultural things:

[jwmart]

Some of the computer games I love, don't think they're listed above, they have no battles, or time limits, expectations of Euclidean space are broken down, and they're 1st person puzzle games. The game which defines the genre, is Anti Chamber. It's pretty old now, and has quite modest system requirements. It works based on the principle of portals, but the game doesn't make you aware that you've passed through them, so you walk through corridors turn corners and return to where you started despite not taking a circular path. Sight is used to open doors. It's got a really good range of mechanics which I don't think some of the other games I mention have approached such a range, but they're still good. It does have philosophy themed content too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichamber

Second up is Manifold Garden. Similar visual style, not quite the same range of puzzles, but, this one has an infinite tiling game space. I was looking for a video to show you, and found this, rather long one, which I've only partially watched, but it gives a different introduction to the game to most other videos, and which will be appreciated more here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm5Ogh_c0Ig

(edit: I've watched the above video, very interesting actually, lots of different references going back through recent history to how the subject of infinity has been represented, worth a watch.)

Then, on the much more surreal side, with darker psychology (hinted at in Anti-chamber in the later part of the game) - I think it's the hero journey in this game - is Recursive Ruin, the narrative in this game is much central, the player character has suffered some sort of breakdown I think, over what it's not yet clear to me. The space is similar to Manifold Garden, it plays with infinitely tiling spaces, but in this game, part of the puzzle mechanic is having the power to shift the game space between two states, some times one state everything is closed up together and corridors connect, in the other state, everything expands outward, and previously inaccessible corridors are revealed. It's got hints of alien/non-human intelligence, but I suspect, it's possibly hallucination/delusion, an invented world by the central character. Some reviews call it pretentious, but it's definitely my type of game!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY0vs-_gw6Q

Also, another honourable mention, for definitely being strongly in the mind-bending category, as well exploring infinity and recursion, is Patrick's Parabox, and yes, again, it's a puzzle game, no time limits, without any enemies to battle. This one is different from the above however in that's its purely two dimensional, a traditional grid-based block pushing puzzle game. The basic principle is to get your character to the finish tile, and then there are blocks which need to be placed on the marked tiles. The recursive element, is such that the block you're pushing around, may very well be inside itself. In later levels, the character can possess other blocks, or the character may even be the game space itself in which the character is moving around within. With these kind of game mechanics, you shouldn't be surprised at the exposure to the infinite! Initially, for instance, if you're within a block which is within itself, and the block is arranged within itself such that the exit/entrance of the inner block is aligned with the exit/entrance of the outer block, where are you going to go when you exit from there? Infinite exit. Initially it leads to a new empty grid space representing this infinite exit from which there is no escape. Later levels in the game however bring in a new mechanic in which this is utilized! It's a really clever game, and another one I enjoyed playing!

There's lots of videos on YT of it, many are long 20+ minutes game play videos, the short ones are mainly WTF BRO type reaction videos (not my cup of tea). found this one which demonstrates the infinite exit mechanic I mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wBggFQbwQk

(In the video it might appear the player is pulling the block around, but its actually the undo feature allowing you to step back through your steps).

[kFoyauextlH]

This is an amazing series of reviews thst I appreciate do much and I'm eager to carefully study each of these games, they sound great and I love them already, and I really deeply appreciate your taking the time to write about each and explain them. I'd even love to hear more about those or about more in general if there is anything else or specific moments you enjoyed and thoughts you had, those games sounded like great meditations, each one sounded excellent and like the sorts of things I might think about and simulate in my imagination. I had no idea about these gsmes, and evrn thr games thst I do mention I haven't played usually, but I like to learn about games and I think that they can be very influential and also very creative. So sometimes I know lots about games and books without even having directly played them or read them, but with even spending money and time on lots of material about them. Sometimes the material about things is more inspiring for me than going through it myself which might mix in dome discomfort for me if it is frustrating somehow, but these games you mentioned seemed very enjoyable really and not so stressful as the actual experience of some of the games I might be bringing up, like Elden Rings, which in the tradition of games like Dark Souls and others, seems like it wouldn't be fun at all really as I dislike suffering, and WTF BRO types who might also love just repeatedly strafing and dodging abd rolling and striking which would becas boring as watching people moving a ball or a puck back and forth like most sports. So my interest is usually in ehat can be imagined and art and "lore", and other elements of the art, like the music, sound design, the inspiration or references or what may have been drawn from, how the ideas developed and were executed, the feelings people may get, what it inspires in them, fan art and fan fiction. I have all the art books for Elden Ring, they were even expensive, but I don't like the art or design very much or how things look, but I am still inspired by certain elements and ideas presented and captured in the designs based on what I think they may refer to and what they drew their ideas from, and the popularity and influence of the game and the designs also makes it seem more important and interesting to me since numerous people ended up getting convinced to play the game and watch videos about the story, even though that information is only collected with great difficulty in brief clues through a lot of very frustrating looking gameplay, so there is an entirely different experience learning about the stories or seeing the designs closely and in ways that they eould not even appear during natural gameplay.

Thank you again for writing all that you did, and please feel free to write more and as much as you may like to. I've very much enjoyed all your posts so far and I think that you're in the right sort of headspace for my threads and the stule of this forum so far!