#the frenzied flame | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crowhoonter · 2 months

Text

The Frenzied Flame and the appeal of abject nihilism

Elden Ring's endings have been talked to death at this point, what's good, bad, mistranslated, so on and so forth. In this discussion, it is very clear that the Frenzied Flame ending is the bad one. The big "fuck everyone else" ending. You burn down everything, melt it, until nothing remains. What makes it notable in comparison to the other endings, however, is the buildup to it.

The moment you gain the option of taking this route, it is very clear what the end result is. Hyetta tells you to melt all that divides and Melina begs the player to consider the good still in the world. The game makes no effort to hide what will happen next.

This might appeal to someone who has come to believe the Greater Will is the real evil and source of all suffering, or some edgelord who wants to make everything miserable, but both of those have better ending options to pursue for their beliefs (Ranni and Dung Eater respectively). The Flame appeals to a different group than either of those though.

The Frenzied Flame instead is presented as both the end of all pain, grief, and woe, but also it represents the option of revenge. You find the Three Fingers at the bottom of a mass grave, full of the victims of a genocide.

In that moment, looking upon the merchant's corpses, it is difficult to imagine anything other than anger and pain. Even if you topple the Golden Order in a different ending, the perpetrators of the atrocity go unpunished. With the flame though, you can exact this vengeance upon the Order. The rest of the world is collateral, but don't they deserve to be punished? Is it really alright to let the world keep going if this is what happens, over and over again?

In reality, odds are the people involved with the genocide of the Merchant Caravans are long gone. They are either dead or functionally so, making any vengeance taken even emptier than it would be otherwise. The Golden Order is corrupt and needs to be dismantled, but to do so at the cost of everyone and everything's life is an insane option. But the Frenzied Flame isn't meant to be rooted in logic, it is instead rooted in gut emotion. That crying sense of injustice, of hatred finally boiling over.

Perhaps that is what makes it the most selfish ending. That embrace of the nihilistic ideal of life being the root of all suffering, life itself being a mistake, and choosing to rectify that is the most self serving possible option. We know this, but it doesn't feel that way in the moment. By making you stand in that mass grave, listening to a half dead man continue playing his song of sorrow, it makes us want to take the flame and burn all that divides and distinguishes.

That is what makes the Frenzied Flame ending so good in all honesty. It is wrong in every way, the worst possible one, but it is oh so very tempting, even if only for a moment. In the end though, Melina is right. Even though the world is really messed up and nothing is working right, life still persists. That is beautiful in and of itself, is it not?

#elden ring #soulsborne #the frenzied flame #frenzied flame #text post

292 notes · View notes

askzloyxp · 10 months

Text

#elden ring #elden ring meme #elden ring spoilers #the frenzied flame

348 notes · View notes

serpentoflolth · 9 months

Text

Elden Ring: The Three Fingers

#elden ring #elden ring edit #eldenringedit #three fingers #the three fingers #my gifs #my edit #the frenzied flame #frenzied flame #fromsoft #soulsborne

182 notes · View notes

headcanontheshitoutofsoulsborne · 2 months

Text

The Frenzied Flame is unique among the Outer Gods in that it does not have Empyreans. While it does have those it favors (Vyke, Kalé, the protagonist), anyone can become the Lord of Frenzied Flame, so long as they can find the Three Fingers and truly believe in their cause.

#elden ring #the frenzied flame #headcanon

12 notes · View notes

chibelial · 1 year

Text

youtube

“Divest yourself of everything… melt away the curses…”

#obsessed with the frenzied flame storyline it’s my favorite #it’s the most tragically beautiful and horrifying course one can take #the ending is just *chefs kiss*#I could go on for hours about how the lord of chaos manipulated and spreads through despair #it’s sooooo good #kale should have had his questline kept #merchant kale #Hyetta #song of despair #elden ring #lord of frenzied flame #lord of chaos #the three fingers #three fingers #the frenzied flame #the yellow chaos flame #Youtube

24 notes · View notes

jack-o-cel · 2 years

Text

Was watching the Three Fingers cutscene again and... does it feel really personal to any of y'all? Like the way the Three Fingers slowly envelope the Tarnished's body. It feels softer, and more personal (at least compared to the two fingers). The way they just gently disappear after holding you? The two fingers would never.

#like i know it's like a means to an end #to get the frenzied flame out there #but like #the two fingers feel devoid of care?#i think Varre mentioned it #how the two fingers changed after the shattering and how they prolly never cared for us #but like i get a different vibe from the three fingers #maybe i just like being held lol #Elden Ring #The Frenzied Flame #Lord of Frenzied Flame #Three Fingers

45 notes · View notes

emberizidaemelo · 2 months

Text

frenzied flame

#my art #elden ring #elden ring oc #tarnished oc #frenzied flame

504 notes · View notes

aworldwithroses · 5 months

Text

I see this image floating around and if anyone knows the source, please let me know so I can properly credit them.

This piece of art lives rent free in my head because it reveals an astounding selfishness in the player base that reeks of entitlement. People miss the point on this so hard and I’ve seen people even get angry with Melina for wanting to kill you rather than thanking you.

Before you do this ending, she abandons you. The game takes it upon itself to have Melina talk to you and remove any ambiguity: she isn’t fulfilling her destiny for her mom. Through watching YOU enact your will upon the world, she became motivated to fulfill her destiny as her OWN person. She wants to do it because it’s HER decision, and she won’t allow anyone to deny her that, not Marika, and not even you.

When she pleads to not take the frenzied flame, she is very explicitly clear, one of the few times she doesn’t mince words, about the consequences. The world you create is one she fundamentally disagrees with, a philosophy that is abhorrent and nihilistic, and one she refuses to take part in. She does all of this because she believes that life deserves a chance, and even a struggling life filled with sorrow is still meaningful and beautiful. She respects and wholeheartedly believes in the sanctity of that life, and desperately wants you to respect that.

Taking the flame to “save” her, fundamentally disrespects her on every level. You disrespect her core beliefs, you reject her bodily autonomy which is super fucked up considering she doesn’t even have a body. You take from her a critical life choice that was hers to make. You kill everything she ever held sacred, including Torrent. And then people expect this to be a grand declaration of love, when in actuality, this isn’t an act of love, it’s an act of selfishness.

#melina #elden ring #tarnished #frenzied flame #bro pls respect character agency #your media literacy depends on it

445 notes · View notes

witchiestwitch · 23 days

Text