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5. Lucatiel, Vengarl, the Players, Mirrors, and The Iron King
Through our identities and egos we harness ambition, this is what keeps us going. This is why we push on in our struggle to survive, to succeed against all odds and be greatly remembered so our names don't fade with time. This drive is fueled by death, the ultimate failure since there are no second chances in ceasing to exist. This is our burden through most of our lives, a burden so heavy that we would do anything to prolong our lives. Dark Souls places the burden of ego with death cleverly as the Humans fear dying, and the undead fear losing purpose.
Lucatiel is often regarded as a poor character with an unsatisfying ending. But she is the most important character in the game as she represents all the flaws of humanity. It's in these flaws that we learn more about the curse. Lucatiel doesn't want to die, she wants to be remembered she wants to carve out a piece of world for herself, if everything were to fade, what would be left of her? She has an identity, she has an ego, it's within this that she fears loss of memory and loss of self. This self does selfish things, such as if she were told that by killing you, she’d be free of the curse she would draw her sword without hesitation (this is exactly what we do to the giants) she doesn't want to die, she wants to exist. These truth shame her, only a Human would hide their face within a mask to hide a deformity, the ego that keeps us going, never separating truth from fiction.
Other examples of identity and the self portrayed negative in dark souls 2 is Vengarl. He reminds me of the quote by Blaise Pascal "all of humanities problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone." Upon finding Vengarl’s decapitated head, he says "leave me be, I like it quiet, leave me be." We can tell he hasn't talked in a while being in foggy isolation in the shaded woods, he tells us all he ever knew was war, he was born in a land already in conflict with neighboring lands, his kingdom fell and his people scattered aimless and knowing no other way to live, Vengarl was hired to defend the kingdom of Drangleic. He used to carve the number of heads he took, on his shield until in a long brutal fight, he lost his. Vengarl was a killer who showed no mercy, his head even warns us of his body being somewhere raging and still killing without "him" (he mentions "him" as the head, what he identifies as himself and not the body.) As just a head, Vengarl is able to find peace and mentions that his headless state is not so bad. Without the body to carry out selfish needs, Vengarl is able to meditate on life and learn new things every day. Talking with him even reminds him of the joys of conversation. His id and ego are removed the moment you take away the means to obtain selfish needs. So much that he is able to appreciate the here and now, and being the better person now, he even questions if he even deserves a name in this sorry state, that identifying label that defines us as individuals, a name that Lucatiel begs us to remember. Vengarl thanks us for vanquishing his body and he sees it as good riddance. Freud explains the relationship between the ego and Id is like a horse and his rider, the rider representing the ego, controls and guides the horse representing the animalistic id. For Vengarl I believe his body represents the id, the neck is the ego, and the head is the super ego. I also believe that Vengarl is going through ego death. Ego death is the surrender of self, a transition where we leave the identity that holds us back and are able to see things differently that enriches ourselves and the world. This term is highly used in psychedelic studies, where surrendering our self allows us to experience transcendence and ponder on things we normally wouldn't.
"....complete transcendence − beyond words, beyond space−time, beyond self. There are no visions, no sense of self, no thoughts. There are only pure awareness and ecstatic freedom from all game (and biological) involvements. ["Games" are behavioral sequences defined by roles, rules, rituals, goals, strategies, values, language, characteristic space−time locations and characteristic patterns of movement. Any behavior not having these nine features is non− game: this includes physiological reflexes, spontaneous play, and transcendent awareness.]-Timothy Leary
"Ego death is the cessation, in the intense mystic altered state, of the sense and feeling of being a control-wielding agent moving through time and space. The sensation of wielding control is replaced by the experience of being helplessly, powerlessly embedded in spacetime as purely a product of spacetime, with control-thoughts being perceptibly inserted or set into the stream of thought by a hidden, uncontrollable source."-Johnson, Richards & Griffiths
I believe Lucatiel and Vengarl tells us more about the curse, Lucatiel’s will to live at the expense of others, and Vengarl once being a war mongering, to a detachment from head and body, showing him different ways to perceive the world, tells us more about the curse.
The players are a great example of the ego and identity. We are dropped in this world full of adversity and we kill selfishly to feel gratification and this keeps us going no matter how hard the game can be, without the struggle, the game loses point. We seek victory over trampling others it being players, bosses or enemies. It feeds to the selfish humanity in us and this feeling can be akin to our playable character receiving soul’s currency in game. We, as players become satire of what the game critiques. And we are able to understand the curse through the game mechanics.
"Those who seek blood are driven by a thirst. You have it, too, and that's what makes you good. I couldn't ask for anything more. Many Undead are obsessed with blood, but you're beyond the pale. You're absolutely despicable! Hah hah hah! - Twitchy Gren
But this game also applies to the unselfish, the people who want to know about the characters and sympathize, it's harder to dig and think and come up with connections to what the game is about and what it all means, when we are not actually getting rewarded, instead we achieve selfless status when we learn to sympathize with these characters and know their struggles and see them as full fleshed individuals. We don't get anything for the extra sacrifice to interpreting meaning in the game, from very vague lore and item descriptions to environment narrative and symbolism. This is where we find true value other than mindlessly killing; we are mindlessly understanding selflessness and bettering ourselves in the understanding of the game.
Another important factor of dark souls 2 is the more choices they have in the creation menu in comparison to past souls games, with the new added features I was able to make a character that came close to my appearance, so we can relate to it better. This relation affects us when we see the character we created turn more hideous with each death, as the curse deteriorates our character to the point it's hairless and almost unrecognizable to the original. I found myself wasting human effigies because I didn't want the character I relate to myself look this terrible. I believe this was intentional to feel what the curse targets, our self’s and identities, the selfish vanity and shallowness that prevents us from seeing certain realities and beauties. Perhaps that we are not invincible as we think we are and are decaying with every second that passes and true beauty is the humility and dignity we approach each other with. Knowing that we are more than our looks, and come from an ancestry that perhaps by mistake, evolved through trial and error, without the bias of appearances that cripples diversity and our ability to fully make the most of ourselves without petty superficiality and regrets, in these few moments we have on earth.
Mirrors are also an important aspect in dark souls 2, going as far as dedicating a boss fight with the mirror knight. In most literature, the mirror has been a representation of identity and self-consciousness and has used oppositional themes such as reality and illusion, often against each other. At first in our early stages of childhood mirrors help us understand the representation of ourselves, we establish a self. Later as our ego develops, the mirror represents the person who we would like to be, the ideal self we shape ourselves to present to society. In this mirror we put on what Carl Jung called the social mask, an image we create for ourselves to manage in the world while also covering our real and true nature from everyone. The mirror knight is here to shatter this illusion and pits us against each other, the ego created self, and our natural self. Cleverly done, fromsoft uses other players to control what comes out of the mirror knight’s shield, for they will fight with as much drive as an ideal ego created image of ourselves would. There is no artificiality here, if the egocentric image in the mirror where to come into existence, he would do everything to dominate its existence over ours. Through this we see the ego as a murderous entity. The storm occurring in the background of the boss fight is there to symbolize the inner turmoil of our dualities, how our real and ideal self’s are turbulent natural reflections of each other, constantly causing internal confusion. The thunder represents the shattering of illusion as we fight the reflection of our egos.
Imagine a man who stands before a mirror, a stone strikes and it falls to ruin in an instant. And the man learns himself and not the mirrored man he had believed himself to be- gene Wolfe
"Why do people try so hard to be beautiful? We cats are born beautiful, of course. Hee hee…"- Sweet Shalquoir
A great representation of this is the film A.I. by Steven Spielberg. If you pay attention David the A.I. is a very selfish entity, he could represent the mirror reflection since we fashioned him in our own image. Teddy in the other hand is a selfless entity that tries his best to rescue David or keep him out of trouble by often giving sound advice. But it shouldn't be to no surprise that David mistreats teddy and ignores him since he's fashioned after man, a selfish creature that takes advantage of lesser life forms and is only concerned with its own self-interest.
The novel Begums Fortune by Jules Verne describes a city that comes close to the iron king. In the novel two men win a large amount of inheritance, one goes off to create a utopian city called Frankville, the other a dystopian one called Stahlstadt. Stahlstadt shares many similarities to the iron king. They both have bull towers, both are industrialized castles that create war weapons for profit. Both go mad with power, both iron king and the creator of Stahlstadt die making a dangerous new weapon. Stahlstadt means steel city. The massive city Stahlstadt represents the dictator’s ego and his belief of superiority over others, as the roaring machines grind on the lives of its workers, to create weapons that grind many more lives.
"The human ego…How many ugly iron castles has it erected? And they don't even see the folly of their ways. But that's what makes watching humankind so delightful."- Sweet Shalquoir
6.The Giants and Homogenous
5. Lucatiel, Vengarl, the Players, Mirrors, and The Iron King
Through our identities and egos we harness ambition, this is what keeps us going. This is why we push on in our struggle to survive, to succeed against all odds and be greatly remembered so our names don't fade with time. This drive is fueled by death, the ultimate failure since there are no second chances in ceasing to exist. This is our burden through most of our lives, a burden so heavy that we would do anything to prolong our lives. Dark Souls places the burden of ego with death cleverly as the Humans fear dying, and the undead fear losing purpose.
Lucatiel is often regarded as a poor character with an unsatisfying ending. But she is the most important character in the game as she represents all the flaws of humanity. It's in these flaws that we learn more about the curse. Lucatiel doesn't want to die, she wants to be remembered she wants to carve out a piece of world for herself, if everything were to fade, what would be left of her? She has an identity, she has an ego, it's within this that she fears loss of memory and loss of self. This self does selfish things, such as if she were told that by killing you, she’d be free of the curse she would draw her sword without hesitation (this is exactly what we do to the giants) she doesn't want to die, she wants to exist. These truth shame her, only a Human would hide their face within a mask to hide a deformity, the ego that keeps us going, never separating truth from fiction.
Other examples of identity and the self portrayed negative in dark souls 2 is Vengarl. He reminds me of the quote by Blaise Pascal "all of humanities problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone." Upon finding Vengarl’s decapitated head, he says "leave me be, I like it quiet, leave me be." We can tell he hasn't talked in a while being in foggy isolation in the shaded woods, he tells us all he ever knew was war, he was born in a land already in conflict with neighboring lands, his kingdom fell and his people scattered aimless and knowing no other way to live, Vengarl was hired to defend the kingdom of Drangleic. He used to carve the number of heads he took, on his shield until in a long brutal fight, he lost his. Vengarl was a killer who showed no mercy, his head even warns us of his body being somewhere raging and still killing without "him" (he mentions "him" as the head, what he identifies as himself and not the body.) As just a head, Vengarl is able to find peace and mentions that his headless state is not so bad. Without the body to carry out selfish needs, Vengarl is able to meditate on life and learn new things every day. Talking with him even reminds him of the joys of conversation. His id and ego are removed the moment you take away the means to obtain selfish needs. So much that he is able to appreciate the here and now, and being the better person now, he even questions if he even deserves a name in this sorry state, that identifying label that defines us as individuals, a name that Lucatiel begs us to remember. Vengarl thanks us for vanquishing his body and he sees it as good riddance. Freud explains the relationship between the ego and Id is like a horse and his rider, the rider representing the ego, controls and guides the horse representing the animalistic id. For Vengarl I believe his body represents the id, the neck is the ego, and the head is the super ego. I also believe that Vengarl is going through ego death. Ego death is the surrender of self, a transition where we leave the identity that holds us back and are able to see things differently that enriches ourselves and the world. This term is highly used in psychedelic studies, where surrendering our self allows us to experience transcendence and ponder on things we normally wouldn't.
"....complete transcendence − beyond words, beyond space−time, beyond self. There are no visions, no sense of self, no thoughts. There are only pure awareness and ecstatic freedom from all game (and biological) involvements. ["Games" are behavioral sequences defined by roles, rules, rituals, goals, strategies, values, language, characteristic space−time locations and characteristic patterns of movement. Any behavior not having these nine features is non− game: this includes physiological reflexes, spontaneous play, and transcendent awareness.]-Timothy Leary
"Ego death is the cessation, in the intense mystic altered state, of the sense and feeling of being a control-wielding agent moving through time and space. The sensation of wielding control is replaced by the experience of being helplessly, powerlessly embedded in spacetime as purely a product of spacetime, with control-thoughts being perceptibly inserted or set into the stream of thought by a hidden, uncontrollable source."-Johnson, Richards & Griffiths
I believe Lucatiel and Vengarl tells us more about the curse, Lucatiel’s will to live at the expense of others, and Vengarl once being a war mongering, to a detachment from head and body, showing him different ways to perceive the world, tells us more about the curse.
The players are a great example of the ego and identity. We are dropped in this world full of adversity and we kill selfishly to feel gratification and this keeps us going no matter how hard the game can be, without the struggle, the game loses point. We seek victory over trampling others it being players, bosses or enemies. It feeds to the selfish humanity in us and this feeling can be akin to our playable character receiving soul’s currency in game. We, as players become satire of what the game critiques. And we are able to understand the curse through the game mechanics.
"Those who seek blood are driven by a thirst. You have it, too, and that's what makes you good. I couldn't ask for anything more. Many Undead are obsessed with blood, but you're beyond the pale. You're absolutely despicable! Hah hah hah! - Twitchy Gren
But this game also applies to the unselfish, the people who want to know about the characters and sympathize, it's harder to dig and think and come up with connections to what the game is about and what it all means, when we are not actually getting rewarded, instead we achieve selfless status when we learn to sympathize with these characters and know their struggles and see them as full fleshed individuals. We don't get anything for the extra sacrifice to interpreting meaning in the game, from very vague lore and item descriptions to environment narrative and symbolism. This is where we find true value other than mindlessly killing; we are mindlessly understanding selflessness and bettering ourselves in the understanding of the game.
Another important factor of dark souls 2 is the more choices they have in the creation menu in comparison to past souls games, with the new added features I was able to make a character that came close to my appearance, so we can relate to it better. This relation affects us when we see the character we created turn more hideous with each death, as the curse deteriorates our character to the point it's hairless and almost unrecognizable to the original. I found myself wasting human effigies because I didn't want the character I relate to myself look this terrible. I believe this was intentional to feel what the curse targets, our self’s and identities, the selfish vanity and shallowness that prevents us from seeing certain realities and beauties. Perhaps that we are not invincible as we think we are and are decaying with every second that passes and true beauty is the humility and dignity we approach each other with. Knowing that we are more than our looks, and come from an ancestry that perhaps by mistake, evolved through trial and error, without the bias of appearances that cripples diversity and our ability to fully make the most of ourselves without petty superficiality and regrets, in these few moments we have on earth.
Mirrors are also an important aspect in dark souls 2, going as far as dedicating a boss fight with the mirror knight. In most literature, the mirror has been a representation of identity and self-consciousness and has used oppositional themes such as reality and illusion, often against each other. At first in our early stages of childhood mirrors help us understand the representation of ourselves, we establish a self. Later as our ego develops, the mirror represents the person who we would like to be, the ideal self we shape ourselves to present to society. In this mirror we put on what Carl Jung called the social mask, an image we create for ourselves to manage in the world while also covering our real and true nature from everyone. The mirror knight is here to shatter this illusion and pits us against each other, the ego created self, and our natural self. Cleverly done, fromsoft uses other players to control what comes out of the mirror knight’s shield, for they will fight with as much drive as an ideal ego created image of ourselves would. There is no artificiality here, if the egocentric image in the mirror where to come into existence, he would do everything to dominate its existence over ours. Through this we see the ego as a murderous entity. The storm occurring in the background of the boss fight is there to symbolize the inner turmoil of our dualities, how our real and ideal self’s are turbulent natural reflections of each other, constantly causing internal confusion. The thunder represents the shattering of illusion as we fight the reflection of our egos.
Imagine a man who stands before a mirror, a stone strikes and it falls to ruin in an instant. And the man learns himself and not the mirrored man he had believed himself to be- gene Wolfe
"Why do people try so hard to be beautiful? We cats are born beautiful, of course. Hee hee…"- Sweet Shalquoir
A great representation of this is the film A.I. by Steven Spielberg. If you pay attention David the A.I. is a very selfish entity, he could represent the mirror reflection since we fashioned him in our own image. Teddy in the other hand is a selfless entity that tries his best to rescue David or keep him out of trouble by often giving sound advice. But it shouldn't be to no surprise that David mistreats teddy and ignores him since he's fashioned after man, a selfish creature that takes advantage of lesser life forms and is only concerned with its own self-interest.
The novel Begums Fortune by Jules Verne describes a city that comes close to the iron king. In the novel two men win a large amount of inheritance, one goes off to create a utopian city called Frankville, the other a dystopian one called Stahlstadt. Stahlstadt shares many similarities to the iron king. They both have bull towers, both are industrialized castles that create war weapons for profit. Both go mad with power, both iron king and the creator of Stahlstadt die making a dangerous new weapon. Stahlstadt means steel city. The massive city Stahlstadt represents the dictator’s ego and his belief of superiority over others, as the roaring machines grind on the lives of its workers, to create weapons that grind many more lives.
"The human ego…How many ugly iron castles has it erected? And they don't even see the folly of their ways. But that's what makes watching humankind so delightful."- Sweet Shalquoir
6.The Giants and Homogenous
The
dystopian and utopian genres have put individuality and collectivism on trial
and shown it's dangers and its importance on society. Dystopian genres show the
squashing of individuality and selfishness as means to oppress what makes a
human problematic. While utopian literature argues that the world will never be
a better place unless we submit our individuality and become an unselfish and
collective group. In this short comic from Homogenous to honey we see an
example of this
In
dystopian literature facelessness is a representation of lacking personal
distinction and having no identity. The lack of an identity is usually
necessary to create a utopia, a better place with equality and no selfish needs
like ambition, lust, envy or disgust. In a utopia facelessness is required for
this represents the id and ego have been completely abolished from the human.
Perfection is reached in utopian literature, and horror has been achieved in
dystopian literature.
This place is already dead.
Everything will crumble and waste away, so that something new may be born.
The giants are the opposite of humans. They are faceless, they are no ordinary barbarians. They work as a hive mind given that when we take the giants kinship, the golems react to it, (the golems being enslaved bastardized cloned version of the giants created from their very own souls.) the giants exist outside of the curse, since they have no individuality or brain. They perhaps are the best of past races. They have the fire and poison of the dragons given that they are able to spit it and toss it, from their souls Aldia was able to recreate the ancient dragons, and from this dragon a human spawned. They have the strength of gods, skin and perseverance of arch trees, culture, and ingenuity of humans given by the giant king's crown. They are not war creatures, they do not have weapons such as blades, and these were peaceful beings until something was taken from them and drove them to desperation and violence in fear of extinction. We took their right to life to prolong ours; in the process we deliver death blows to each other.
"From equality of rights springs identity of our highest interest; you cannot subvert your neighbors rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. Without a struggle there can be no progress".- Fredrick Douglass
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves"- Abraham Lincoln
Even in death the giants are still able to keep on flourishing life as their defiant corpses spring massive roots that slowly are destroying the castle in the forest of fallen giants. We see much greenery blooming in this area not seen in many others. In the description of the seed of a tree of giants it says "When the giants fell, they grew into great trees. Death is not the end, for anything that has ever once lived remains a part of a great cycle of regeneration.
But what of those outside of the cycle?" We are those outside of the cycle, we no longer have anything to contribute to, we simply are destined to regress into hollows, and die off, with nothing coming out of it, when we use this seed the enemies join together to fend off invaders, more signs that the giants are altruistic, selfless and cooperative.
"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago, if insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos"- Edward O Wilson
The giants perhaps were a solution to the Human problem, selfishness and want. Perhaps the curse, nature, or years of evolution had finally molded a perfect race through cyclical years of trial and error. This is the great tragedy of dark souls 2. Killing the giants off, the representation of selflessness and unity, and the reality that selfishness and ego are very strong human characteristics to the point that we refuse to die off and extinct other races or enslave them for our own benefit even after our collapse was long due. This will to push on is why we are all here; our ancestors struggle to survive to keep humanity going on this earth. The desire to live no matter how the odds are turned against us, this refusal to accept when our time is up and drag others with us. We refuse to sacrifice, but we gladly sacrifice others so we can keep on going. Perhaps it's a very human thing to not even assume the giants are a part of the cycle, to think nothing could precede us in a million years.
In Vril the Power of the Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the Vrilya race become the dominant specie the moment they abolish all governments, by doing this they are able to dedicate to whatever profession they'd please, and when they do this they do it solely for self-improvement or to advance the race selflessly, there is no competition profit or ambition. They transcend war, envy and unrest. Literature, poetry and plays, become obsolete since great literature was written in times of strife, making it irrelevant to their society, instead it's stored as historic documents of a savage past. When the protagonist who stumbles upon this race describes the greatness of American democracy, the Vrilya consider it "one of the crude and ignorant experiments which belong to the infancy of political science,” and as early stages of barbarism.
"In vain I boasted about of our great men- poets, philosophers, orators, generals- and defied the Vrilya to produce their equals.” ‘Alas” said zee "This predominance of the few over the many is the surest and most fatal sign of a race incorrigibly savage. See you not that the primary condition of mortal happiness consists in the extinction of that strife and competition between individuals, which no matter what forms the government they adopt, render the many subordinate to the few, destroy real liberty to the individual, whatever may be the nominal liberty of the state, and annul that calm of existence, without which, felicity, mental or bodily, cannot be attained? Our notion is that the more we can assimilate life to the existence which our nobles ideas can conceive to be that of spirits on the other side of the grave, why, the more easily we glide into the conditions of being hereafter. For, surely all we can imagine of the life of gods, or of blessed immortals, supposes the absence of self-made cares and contentious passions, such as avarice and ambition. It seems to us that it must be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed without active occupations to the intellectual or spiritual powers, but occupations of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to the idiosyncrasies of each, not forced or repugnant-a life gladdened by the untrammeled interchange of gentle affections, in which the moral atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, and strife and rivalry.
"If the wisdom of human life be to approximate to the serene equality of immortals, there can be no more direct flying off into the opposite direction than a system aims at carrying to the utmost the inequalities and turbulences of mortals. Nor do I see how by any forms of religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fit themselves even to appreciate the joys of immortals to which they still expect to be transferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary, minds accustomed to place happiness in things so much the reverse of godlike, would find the happiness of gods exceedingly dull, and would long to get back to a world in which they could quarrel with each other."
"In our society we attach fame to nothing which man, In that moment of his duration which is called "life" can perform. We should lose that equality which constitutes the felicitous essence of our common wealth if we selected any individual for pre-eminent praise: pre-eminent praise would confer pre-eminent power, and the moment it was given, evil passions, now dormant, would awake: other men would immediately covet praise, then envy would rise, and with envy hate, and with hate calumny and persecution."
“… Since in the competition a vast number must parish, nature selects for preservation only the strongest specimens. With our race, therefore, even before the discovery of Vril, only the highest organizations were preserved; and there is among our ancient books a legend, once popularly believed, that we were driven from a region that seems to denote the world you come from, in order to perfect our condition and attain to the purest elimination of our species by the severity of the struggle our forefathers underwent; and that, when our education shall become finally completed, we are destined to return to the upper world, and supplant all the inferior races now existing therein.”
The novel anthem is also a great example of faceless collectivism where it describes its horror instead of praising it.
Perhaps the giants also represent the humans disconnect with nature as we see them turn into industrialization (brume tower) and its effect on the earth (harvest valley, Heide tower, Eleum Loyce). In the great film Collapse, about the life and theories of Michel Rupert he mentions that in order to make it through his predicted collapse, humans need to become a community and reverse back to cultivating and that the rugged individual will not make it on his own. Humans will have to cooperate and sacrifice in the fresh start that the collapse brings. In order for something new to take hold the old has to collapse. Perhaps the giants were a metaphor to this, an example of what humans need to be if our systems collapse.
"Man’s great arrogance is to believe that mankind can become god and even turn over and upset and revoke somehow the laws of the universe- Michael Rupert collapse
Capitalism, socialism and communism are all terms that need to be tossed in the trash can immediately, because all of them were created on the assumption of infinite resources. Those ideologies that are now
dead dinosaurs, archaic fossils, are no longer relevant to our way of life. Not one of them recognizes
that there must be a balance between growth, and the resources,
and the planet. Forget the idea that you can have as much as you want,
because until mankind surrenders to the fact that it lives on a finite planet,
and it must have balance with that planet, with the planet's resources, with the animal life and all the other life, there can be no happiness for anything. It's all about getting balance back. And who sold me the idea that it was my destiny to grow-, nothing grows forever, there's no such thing as infinite growth, it's not possible. Look around at everything you see
around you that's living, that there is a cycle of birth, growth, maturation, decline and death. The challenge being faced by the human race now,is either evolve or perish. Either grow up, or die. God doesn't care."-Michael Rupert collapse
This place is already dead.
Everything will crumble and waste away, so that something new may be born.
The giants are the opposite of humans. They are faceless, they are no ordinary barbarians. They work as a hive mind given that when we take the giants kinship, the golems react to it, (the golems being enslaved bastardized cloned version of the giants created from their very own souls.) the giants exist outside of the curse, since they have no individuality or brain. They perhaps are the best of past races. They have the fire and poison of the dragons given that they are able to spit it and toss it, from their souls Aldia was able to recreate the ancient dragons, and from this dragon a human spawned. They have the strength of gods, skin and perseverance of arch trees, culture, and ingenuity of humans given by the giant king's crown. They are not war creatures, they do not have weapons such as blades, and these were peaceful beings until something was taken from them and drove them to desperation and violence in fear of extinction. We took their right to life to prolong ours; in the process we deliver death blows to each other.
"From equality of rights springs identity of our highest interest; you cannot subvert your neighbors rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. Without a struggle there can be no progress".- Fredrick Douglass
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves"- Abraham Lincoln
Even in death the giants are still able to keep on flourishing life as their defiant corpses spring massive roots that slowly are destroying the castle in the forest of fallen giants. We see much greenery blooming in this area not seen in many others. In the description of the seed of a tree of giants it says "When the giants fell, they grew into great trees. Death is not the end, for anything that has ever once lived remains a part of a great cycle of regeneration.
But what of those outside of the cycle?" We are those outside of the cycle, we no longer have anything to contribute to, we simply are destined to regress into hollows, and die off, with nothing coming out of it, when we use this seed the enemies join together to fend off invaders, more signs that the giants are altruistic, selfless and cooperative.
"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago, if insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos"- Edward O Wilson
The giants perhaps were a solution to the Human problem, selfishness and want. Perhaps the curse, nature, or years of evolution had finally molded a perfect race through cyclical years of trial and error. This is the great tragedy of dark souls 2. Killing the giants off, the representation of selflessness and unity, and the reality that selfishness and ego are very strong human characteristics to the point that we refuse to die off and extinct other races or enslave them for our own benefit even after our collapse was long due. This will to push on is why we are all here; our ancestors struggle to survive to keep humanity going on this earth. The desire to live no matter how the odds are turned against us, this refusal to accept when our time is up and drag others with us. We refuse to sacrifice, but we gladly sacrifice others so we can keep on going. Perhaps it's a very human thing to not even assume the giants are a part of the cycle, to think nothing could precede us in a million years.
In Vril the Power of the Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the Vrilya race become the dominant specie the moment they abolish all governments, by doing this they are able to dedicate to whatever profession they'd please, and when they do this they do it solely for self-improvement or to advance the race selflessly, there is no competition profit or ambition. They transcend war, envy and unrest. Literature, poetry and plays, become obsolete since great literature was written in times of strife, making it irrelevant to their society, instead it's stored as historic documents of a savage past. When the protagonist who stumbles upon this race describes the greatness of American democracy, the Vrilya consider it "one of the crude and ignorant experiments which belong to the infancy of political science,” and as early stages of barbarism.
"In vain I boasted about of our great men- poets, philosophers, orators, generals- and defied the Vrilya to produce their equals.” ‘Alas” said zee "This predominance of the few over the many is the surest and most fatal sign of a race incorrigibly savage. See you not that the primary condition of mortal happiness consists in the extinction of that strife and competition between individuals, which no matter what forms the government they adopt, render the many subordinate to the few, destroy real liberty to the individual, whatever may be the nominal liberty of the state, and annul that calm of existence, without which, felicity, mental or bodily, cannot be attained? Our notion is that the more we can assimilate life to the existence which our nobles ideas can conceive to be that of spirits on the other side of the grave, why, the more easily we glide into the conditions of being hereafter. For, surely all we can imagine of the life of gods, or of blessed immortals, supposes the absence of self-made cares and contentious passions, such as avarice and ambition. It seems to us that it must be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed without active occupations to the intellectual or spiritual powers, but occupations of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to the idiosyncrasies of each, not forced or repugnant-a life gladdened by the untrammeled interchange of gentle affections, in which the moral atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, and strife and rivalry.
"If the wisdom of human life be to approximate to the serene equality of immortals, there can be no more direct flying off into the opposite direction than a system aims at carrying to the utmost the inequalities and turbulences of mortals. Nor do I see how by any forms of religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fit themselves even to appreciate the joys of immortals to which they still expect to be transferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary, minds accustomed to place happiness in things so much the reverse of godlike, would find the happiness of gods exceedingly dull, and would long to get back to a world in which they could quarrel with each other."
"In our society we attach fame to nothing which man, In that moment of his duration which is called "life" can perform. We should lose that equality which constitutes the felicitous essence of our common wealth if we selected any individual for pre-eminent praise: pre-eminent praise would confer pre-eminent power, and the moment it was given, evil passions, now dormant, would awake: other men would immediately covet praise, then envy would rise, and with envy hate, and with hate calumny and persecution."
“… Since in the competition a vast number must parish, nature selects for preservation only the strongest specimens. With our race, therefore, even before the discovery of Vril, only the highest organizations were preserved; and there is among our ancient books a legend, once popularly believed, that we were driven from a region that seems to denote the world you come from, in order to perfect our condition and attain to the purest elimination of our species by the severity of the struggle our forefathers underwent; and that, when our education shall become finally completed, we are destined to return to the upper world, and supplant all the inferior races now existing therein.”
The novel anthem is also a great example of faceless collectivism where it describes its horror instead of praising it.
Perhaps the giants also represent the humans disconnect with nature as we see them turn into industrialization (brume tower) and its effect on the earth (harvest valley, Heide tower, Eleum Loyce). In the great film Collapse, about the life and theories of Michel Rupert he mentions that in order to make it through his predicted collapse, humans need to become a community and reverse back to cultivating and that the rugged individual will not make it on his own. Humans will have to cooperate and sacrifice in the fresh start that the collapse brings. In order for something new to take hold the old has to collapse. Perhaps the giants were a metaphor to this, an example of what humans need to be if our systems collapse.
"Man’s great arrogance is to believe that mankind can become god and even turn over and upset and revoke somehow the laws of the universe- Michael Rupert collapse
Capitalism, socialism and communism are all terms that need to be tossed in the trash can immediately, because all of them were created on the assumption of infinite resources. Those ideologies that are now
dead dinosaurs, archaic fossils, are no longer relevant to our way of life. Not one of them recognizes
that there must be a balance between growth, and the resources,
and the planet. Forget the idea that you can have as much as you want,
because until mankind surrenders to the fact that it lives on a finite planet,
and it must have balance with that planet, with the planet's resources, with the animal life and all the other life, there can be no happiness for anything. It's all about getting balance back. And who sold me the idea that it was my destiny to grow-, nothing grows forever, there's no such thing as infinite growth, it's not possible. Look around at everything you see
around you that's living, that there is a cycle of birth, growth, maturation, decline and death. The challenge being faced by the human race now,is either evolve or perish. Either grow up, or die. God doesn't care."-Michael Rupert collapse
One last thing to note is that the giants have an intriguing face or lack of. A black hole, holes in trees usually shelter animals. In the first dark souls we see a cut scene were we enter a large arch tree and it shelters the hollowed forms deep below where they pick up the great souls. This hole we enter somewhat looks like the face of the giants. In dark souls 2 we kill off the giants, could it be because we fear what it might be sheltering? The hole is no longer sheltering us, and perhaps we see it as a defiant threat
In the novel by Arthur C Clarke the city and the stars he muses on the transformations that evolution may bring about in the future of human existence. Such changes are particularly evident in the bodies of the citizens of Diaspar, who have lost nails, teeth, all hair except that on the head and navels, and have gained a convenient, safe internal
Storage for male genitals
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