>Linking the fire is doing what someone manipulated you into doing
>Bringing the age of darkness is doing what someone else manipulated you into doing
Is dark souls an allegory of how anything you do is basically benefiting one side or another?

>Both endings involve being manipulated
Okay but out of my available options, which ending is the one that personally benefits me the best?

>>715047132
Age of Fire because it means you can now play DS2 and DS3.

I never understood the Age of Dark folks. So what if the Age of Fire is finite? It's still 1000 times better than the Age of Dark.

>>715047132
I think Age of Fire allows the world to linger for a little while, even if on a decrepit state.

>>715047132
Fire seems pretty painful if the DS3 lords are anything to go by. It's not an entirely clear how much you live it up in Dark but you get called Lord a few times, so that's pretty cool

>>715047370
Nooo you don't understand, age of fire will bring a catastrophe some 2000 years from now when you or your descendants are not even going to see it. So might as well stop now.

Basically, the world got fucked the moment things were set in motion after the dragons were killed off. DS3 is the culmination of the world reaching a state where it presumably can't, or will have a very hard time reverting from after numerous stalling instances.

>>715047657
That's kind of a kino premise, desu. I'm yet to play DS3, but I thought it was a prequel of sorts?

in what way is the age of dark the age of humanity? is that just manipulation? being in a black abyss sound boring to a human.

>>715047701
No, DS3 takes place at the end of everything basically where everything is degenerating and dying off their presumably final death.

>>715047370
the difference is that you´re under the boot.
but as expected, most of us don´t care if they are spineless bootlickers as long as they don´t have to take responsibility for their actions.
firelinkers are the happy slaves.

>>715047701
it's both a prequel and a sequel. there's time travel in every dark souls entry.

>>715047701
no its supposed to be the final age of fire

>>715047819
its not a prequel where the fuck did you get that idea

>>715047816
Pretty sure fire linkers are charred corpses.

>>715047786
>>715047838
Thanks.

>>715047819
You mean like The Artorias DLC? But that's just some portion of the game

>>715048058
there are a few parts in ds3 where you go back in time because time is le convoluted but none of those parts involve anything before ds1 or 2. this guy is just retarded.

>>715047370
>The Age of Fire, upheld by Gwyn and the gods, is portrayed as glorious, but ultimately false and oppressive:
>Gwyn hunts the Dark (his own fear of death) and curses humanity with undeath, turning their struggle into endless suffering.
>Fire, often symbolic of life and hope, is here revealed as an instrument of control — keeping the cycle going at immense cost.
>Interpretation: The game critiques the idea of eternal order as inherently good. Sometimes, the light blinds; sometimes, the dark is freedom.
I think this makes a lot of sense.

>>715047370
Age of fire is trying to keep a good thing going past it's expiration date, age of dark is sitting in a puddle of your own piss and telling yourself you're happier than toilet using slaves.

>>715047370
i think its supposed to be analogous to being in the womb

>>715047370
This is why Aldia and Emerald Herald are the best. Why take either of these garbage options?

>>715047370
Age of Fire is capitalism (manipulated by the bourgeoisie)
Age of Dark is communism (power to the humans)

>>715048220
>You are either a golem or a streetshitter.
Now I know the painting ending is preferable.

I still can't really grasp the nosedive in quality miyazaki's writing took after dark souls 1. He literally peaked and fell off in one game.

>>715048350
if only any of that was explained in the original game but unfortunately it was made by B-team retards

>>715047370
The game subverts your expectation that light is good and dark is evil. Humans in the game are beings of darkness and the light are the gods and their manipulation of the natural order

>>715047073 (OP)
This is why DS2 is based. You can just leave and let another sucker do it.

>>715048384
the true redpill is realizing that ds1 had bad writing too

>>715048387
I understand that paying attention is hard for you, but that's why they have her explain it directly to the player near the end as well.

>>715048058
>>You mean like The Artorias DLC? But that's just some portion of the game
not really. the DLC demonstrates that Artorias failed and many of the great deeds attributed to him throughout the game were actually done by you, the Chosen Undead.
>>715047819
>>715047901
i was being vague so they could go experience it themselves. but yeah, the Ringed City in particular is where linear continuity is broken, and all time is smashed together. the zone showcases aspects that technically take place before the gameplay events of ds1.

>>715048419
It's not this simple. Before DS3 retconned it with its "kingdom of hollows" bullshit, hollowing always implied losing your mind. Light is also life as we know it, with sentience, mortality and drive to create things.

>>715048463
DS1 had the benefit of the doubt that miyazaki *might* make a game series with progression of ideas. Imagine 5 more games that explore the actual geopolitical constraints of dark souls 1. It had all the grounding and premises needed to have an interesting world, but Miyazaki is bent on "rock falls, everyone dies" and then immediately reusing the same ideas but with a different naming scheme.

>>715048419
Exactly. Gwyn was afraid of his own death, kept everything under control for as long as possible and humanity enslaved to the undead form. Giving in to the Dark is weakening the gods and taking a leap of faith into the unknown, into mortality and hope.

>>715048612
But didn't Gwyn also cause the hollowing of humans to begin with?

>>715047073 (OP)
>Doing one of those benefits disingenuous, vile serpents with big noses
>Doing another benefits disingenuous, vile serpents with big noses
I'm noticing a pattern, but can't really point my finger at it...

>>715048768
As the Talmud says: Thy folly lies in crafting sense from naught but happenstance.

>>715048713
Opening cinematic to DS1 shows that being hollow is the original state. Whatever the darksign does, I don't think it's the main reason for hollowing.

it's plato's cave. the darkness is the realization that you were living in squalor and that the light makes that squalor very visible.

>>715047132
>set yourself on fire
>don't and live in a world where the lights gets turned off and a whole lot of murdering happens, maybe all those serpents start eating people or something idk
>do neither by refusing to complete the game and canonically go insane (hollow)
you don't get a benefit out of any ending really, I suppose the dark ending is probably the best of those but the implications of the ending are extremely vague and could easily be worse than the other 2 going by dark souls 3

>>715048419
One anon got it right
>>715047370
>>715048984
>being hollow is the original state
Original state/form of Humans is similar to Humanity.
No, it's not the same as being Hollow.

>>715047287
they both lead into ds2 tho

>>715049725
Nah, DS2 is also set in an age of fire. That's the important framing that they contrast against to claim lighting the fire again is a pointless endeavour that only postpones the inevitable. It's pretty blatant with the depressed fire keepers at the start of the game.

I think they explained DS1 that even if you don't light the fire, someone else eventually did. So canonically the cycle can only be ended in DS3

>>715050039
ds2 is set at the beginning of an age of dark thanks to Nashandra

>>715047073 (OP)
meanwhile in chad souls 2 : scholar of the first kino
>fuck this, im gonna go wander and find a solution that doesnt suck

>>715047073 (OP)
Usurpation of Fire in Dark Souls 3 is the true good ending

>>715053185
>Meanwhile in Dark Souls 2: nothing happens at the end of the game where nothing happened
Woah

>>715048612
There's no retconning. Dark Souls 3 is perfectly in line and the actual sequel.
The 4 kings are candidates to usurping the flame that failed and fell to the Dark. The player is the treu and only successful Dark Lord
The Darkwraiths literally keep their sanity despite being hollows covered in roots of darkness.

No, Miyazaki never writes allegories.
The trilogy has an ending where the player becomes the Lord of Humanity as vessel of the Flame they are linked to

>>715050039
Many cycles have passed between Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, it literally doesn't matter what you do, someone else will do it.
Nobody even remembers Olaphis, whose name in turn is a bastardization of Oolacile.

>>715048612
Hollowing means losing your Humanity. Losing that special little fragment of the Dark Soul.

>>715056040
No they didn't. Dark Souls 2 is completely noncanon and there's no such thing as "cycles"

>>715056148
Wrong, hollowing means losing your soul

>>715054968
INDEED!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hml9qdpf55o

>>715050039
>>715050582
>>715053185
Dark Souls 2 is noncanon and completely irrelevant as a game. You could remove it as it tells nothing more about Dark Souls as a series and nothing happens

>>715056470
But doesn't DS3 reinforce the idea of cycles? The lords of cinder linking the flame so that a new cycle is started, new kingdoms built until it all inevitably goes to shit again when the flame weakens

>>715047132
Age of dark so you can fumble boobs in the open

>>715047073 (OP)
Actual dystopian meme

>>715056470
Canon is a bible term.

>>715057229
But the big tits girl is the one asking me to link the fire.

>>715056530
Losing your Dark Soul, your Humanity
Hollows still have (light) souls. They drop them upon death

Remember that hollow chilling under the firelink shrine laying on the ledge surveying the drowned city below where scary ghosts are roaming about?

That's the cool ending. Fuck your fire and dark.

>>715057221
>But doesn't DS3 reinforce the idea of cycles?
No
>The lords of cinder linking the flame so that a new cycle is started
No, this is never stated as all. The End of Fire never happened. Each Dark Lord has always failed. The same world endured. The concept that the world consistently resets is juat a fabrication of Dark Souls 2 and a shit plot device to make Drangleic completely detatched from Lordran

>>715047073 (OP)
It's an opportunity to self-reflect on whether you choose for yourself or let the desires of others choose for you. Picking for yourself is doing what you think is right, when you hem and haw about who wants what and why and use that to choose, you're letting the desires of others control your actions. Any important action with big consequences is going to make someone's day and ruin someone else's, to decide based on those people is cucked behavior.

>>715048419
It's more complicated than that. While the dark is not inherently evil, and humans are creature of the dark, the dark in great concentration makes the Abyss, which is an eldritch place birthing violent eldritch abominations. The places we see overrun by the Abyss are not good places to live.

Humanity in its current form is born of the dark but made "alive" by the Flame. Giving up the Flame entirely would mean, technically, an age of Humanity: but Humanity true form is picrel, and the Abyss. It is not certain this is a good thing.

>>715057723
>Losing your Dark Soul, your Humanity
Nope
>Hollows still have (light) souls.
A neglegible amount
>They drop them upon death
So does Gwyn, who became hollow because the Fire consumed him, or the dragons

>>715057863
>to make Drangleic completely detatched from Lordran
Except, it's in the same place as Lordran.

>>715047073 (OP)
>link the fire to be a cuck
>age of darkness to be a cuck
Turn the game off after beating the main boss to be a chad.

>>715057986
It isn't, it was supposed to be. It was written to be.
Then the game was badly received and developers said "uhhhh that's beyond the sea on the other side of the world", and then Dark Souls 3 completely retconned Dark Souls 2 as noncanon (rightfully so since Miyazaki was back)

>>715057945
>Nope
then why does the ritualistic consumption of humanity (dark souls) allow you to reverse hollowing?

>A neglegible amount
But they have them.

>So does Gwyn, who became hollow because the Fire consumed him
Because the light "consumed" the dark? You seem to be in agreement that hollowing is related to the loss of Dark.


>or the dragons
What about them? They hold both light and dark in equal measure.

>>715058224
>then Dark Souls 3 completely retconned Dark Souls 2 as noncanon
But it didn't and canon is a bible term.

>be me in 2012
>be active in lore discussions about DaS
>the dark sign/undead curse is a major plot point in the game
>DaS2 gets announced
>everyone is so hype to finally find out more about the world


yeah, we were so naive back then. The dark sign and undead curse were completely forgotten. Depsite it literally just appearing out of nowhere some day.

>>715058295
>canon is a bible term.
It's a term for functional stories.

>>715058228
>then why does the ritualistic consumption of humanity (dark souls) allow you to reverse hollowing?
It doesn't. It actually just makes you a bigger larger cannibalistoc creatures, like the Butchers of the Depths or the giant rats or Gael
>Because the light "consumed" the dark?
There's no "light consuming the dark". Gwyn, who has no humanity, sacrificied most of its Soul to the Fire, and the soul you obtain is a weaker vestige of that. Same for the Undead Dragons that have been stripped of their souls but are still alive

>>715047370
Age of light is tranny
Age of dark is zoomer

>>715058305
The Darksign is still a major plotpoint of Dark Souls 3
Dark Souls is a duology with a fanfic spinoff inbetween

>>715058094
That's what I did in Bioshock Infinite where in the end cutscene Elizabeth says you have no choice but to give her up, I just turned off the game. Really a silly thing to say considering at that time she has full control of her time travel/dimension travel powers, that this particular scene in time is set in stone.

>>715047132
Just let someone else link the fire

>>715058571
where did it came from and why?
What's its deal?
I played DaS3 around release and then never again

>>715057863
>Each Dark Lord has always failed.
Ludleth says he linked the fire long ago

>>715047370
its more that the natural order of the world is this rotation of ages. the wheel MUST turn and stalling it past its time causes the fabric of the world to collapse into itself to force the wheel to turn once more.

>>715058496
>It doesn't.
But it does. I use a Humanity, sit at the bonfire and then I choose Reverse Hollowing. The game asks me if I want to offer Humanity to reverse hollowing and if I say yes, the Humanity is consumed and Hollowing Reversed flashes on screen and the hollowing is in fact reversed.

Gael wasn't using the Humanity he collected either, he was just hoarding it.

>>715058393
What are you trying to say?

>>715059007
>But it does.
No it doesn't
>I use a Humanity, sit at the bonfire and then I choose Reverse Hollowing.
Rite of Kindling is not consuming humanity. It's the opposite as you burn humanity to kindle your soul, and you can be human with 0 humanity or hollow with 99 humanity.

>>715058689
lalalalala cant hear you

>>715058689
Ludleth is not a Dark Lord, he's a Lord of Cinder
The 4 Kings or Friede are Dark Lords

>>715059007
>Gael wasn't using the Humanity he collected either, he was just hoarding it.
Almost like being hollow has nothing to do with having or not humanity

> Personal choice doesn't have to be rational
Why is /v struggling with this concept?

>>715058571
ds3 barely does anything with it though
It literally just retreads ds1 then comes up with a closure

>>715047370
The point is the age of fire is stagnant and decaying, it is supposed to end but it is being artificially extended and everything is fucked because of it. The world needs an age of dark to refresh itself. Will the age of dark be worse than the dying age of fire? yes, but what will come after will be way better.

The game explicitly states that if you chose the dark ending (you) didn't beat the game.

>>715047073 (OP)
Gael was right and the DLC end of 3 is the true path.

>>715047073 (OP)
>Bringing the age of darkness is doing what someone else manipulated you into doing
Not if you never meet kaathe

>here's your sugar to keep functioning slave
>you can care about your diabetes when you get older

>>715048897
I don't give a shit what he says!

>>715057091
Aldia is the scholar that made lothric abandon the linking of the fire

>Agree with Aldia.
>Protect the Emerald Herald.
>Pity The Burnt Ivory King.
I'll abandon this throne, let someone else link it. Going to break the curse myself.

>>715069989

>During the DLCs, you have Gael to help. He consumes estus when hurt.
>During his battle, he thankfully never uses it.
That part always made me wonder why. Is it possible that at the end of the world, there were no more bonfires to refill him?

>>715070519
that and the soul he ate gave him infinite heals but cant repair his body perfectly

>>715047073 (OP)
always down for pizza

>>715047073 (OP)
I find it funny when people say they're burned out but spend all their pto on stupid shit then cry and complain that they are burnt out again and when management tries to do something good they get mad because they wanted more money instead. None of these stupid ass workers know how a business runs

>>715072074
i'll say. i would rather go home early to play minecraft than work for extra dinner

>>715070805
>>715072074
Bootlickers. Nobody wants shitty "food", they want better management. My last job went from shipping 10-12 million a month to a million after I left. The reason wasn't specifically from me leaving, although I definitely dealt a huge blow because I made 2 bottleneck areas not be bottlenecks anymore but they shot themselves in the foot by being retarded. The GM had to step down and go back to sales because he was a complete fucking idiot. Also, everyone else got severance pay for quitting except for me even though I provided way more. At my current job, my manager is a complete fucking faggot that nobody likes. HR is also some fat cunts too.

>>715047073 (OP)
in all soulsgames you are the villain, whatever you do makes the world increasingly worse, and in the end you fuck up everything into being even worser. oh and every world is gray and brown and everyone is depressed.
now have fun playing the next ones that come out, ignore this pattern :)

Dark Souls 2 is more a sequel to Demon's Soul's than it is a sequel to Dark Souls, DS3 is more a sequel to the first.

>>715074470
Even wukong and lies of P and code vein?

>>715077579
Disregard that, I suck cocks. I read it as "all souls-like"

A coworker and me used to have the joke that the company owed us tons of pizzas because of all the overtime we were doing. They fired him instead, and now I just pretend to work.

>>715077579
>soulsgames
you are right, I meant to type Fromsoftware games but slipped into soulsgames. games from other companies don't follow that same template too closely but are largely still frequently depressing. at least they're more colorful and not drab 2 gray colors like Fromgames.

>>715072074
Shalom, Mr. Schlomostein! Give the goyim a piece of your mind!

>>715047073 (OP)
That's why I got the Firekeeper pregnancy ending.

Would you play a Dark Souls game set during the peak of the Age of Fire? Where the Great Lords and Heroes aren't insane, send you on quests, etc.?

>>715047132
dark lord you re not gonna burn until you re dust and maybe get hollow pussy

>>715075974
ok then why the tree bossfight isnt canon final boss?

>>715080256
Because someone else ends up taking the throne instead. Your DS2 character opened the way. Someone else took it

>>715072074
You can't cure burnout with a little PTO, retard.
The only thing that cures burnout is to stop doing what caused the fucking burnout.

>>715072652
get good then nigger if you are soo good then you wouldn't be taken advantage of. your obviously lying.

>>715080808
na you can, its just people take a day here and a day there and use up all their pto instead of saving it for a week or two and go on vacation.

>>715080968
>na you can
No, you cannot. Burnout is not simply feeling a bit tired and bored; the symptoms of burnout heavily resemble the symptoms of PTSD.
When you're exposed to stress over an extended period, your brain starts altering itself to make you stop doing it.
You'll slowly lose any and all drive to do the tasks you're supposed to do, even knowing that your livelihood may be at stake.
Many people end up forcing themselves to continue, which only adds more stress and worsens the burnout.