I’d been putting off the Euphoria finale so I could spend more time playing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring. I’ve been putting🌠 off everything other than work for Elden Ring, actually. When I finally sat down to watch it I realise♋d the same story was being told, and the same lessons were being taught.
Euphoria is a show about Rue, a teenage drug addict, and her highschool friends all dealing with various forms of trauma. Season two has been all about depicting the causes and consequences that cause a cycle of these issues. More so than ever before, Euphoria digs into the live꧋s of the paren💖ts, showing us that their own abuse and hardship are what fuel their negligence or inability to help their kids. “The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.”
This ♉is most obvious in the relationship between Nate Jacobs and his father, Cal. Due to Cal’s conservative upbringing and an unwanted pregnancy, he had to repress his desire for men. A lack of therapy or introspection then leads to destructive behavior that affects his family and victims. His actions aren’t justified, but they’re explained brilliantly in a beautiful sequence that shows us a glimpse of how he could have turned out had his upbringing been different. The only parts of him we see are in the aftermath, once the rot has taken hold and corrupted him and everything he touches. This cycle is doomed to repeat itself unless someone puts a stop to it.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:FromSoftware’s games are all about a ꦿcycle too: life and death, overcoming seemingly impossible odds. These games beg the question: what happens 🤪when death is all-consuming yet never-ending?
Like Cal, we only see the world of FromSoftware games after the rot has set in. It consumes ev🅷ery inch of The Lands Be🍬tween. The once great kingdom is crumbling, and we’re left to scavenge in the ruins, trying to piece what happened together. The rune of death has been lost, meaning everyone is cursed to live out the same cycle over and over. Similarly to Rue’s addiction, and addiction in general, it feels hopeless when you first step foot in it. As someone who dealt with addiction in my younger years, I know the feeling all too well. It’s all-consuming and seemingly never-ending.
As with withdrawal, the first hours and days of Elden Ring are the hardest. Everything hurts, everything is insurmountable, and you want to give up. But, if you do, the cycle will continue. My first days of withdrawal, like Rue’s, were filled with panic attacks. My first few hours of Elden Ring were filled with panic ಌand attacks. “What the fuck is that?” “Should this be killing me so quickly?” “Why is this called a watchdog when it’s clearly a cat?” I was skittish, afraid, and weak, but gradually I managed to overcome the struggle.
Progress isn’t a straight road, however, and neither is recovery. Just as Rue and many other addicts frequently relapse, there’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:no shame in starting Elden Ring over and trying to be bett🎀er. I did, and I go𒊎t further than my first playthrough in less time, with less effort. Rue’s sponsor, Ali, says to her, “The thought of maybe being a good person is what keeps me trying to be a good person.” The cycle can’t be broken without the will to stick with it, day after day. Even if you stumble, getting back up and striving to be good is what’s important.
It also takes a lot of help. With trauma and addi🔴ction that’s therapy, friends, family, medical care, and with Elden Ring, it’s guides, summons, and tips to get to stronger weapons. Both can be done alone, but they’re easier with the right support systems in place.
Even with the will to get to the end, you can still fail to break the cycle. In Bloodborne, you can either walk away, begin the cycle anew, or transcend it. We’re yet to see how the endings of Elden Ring plays out, but the Dark Soul꧃s series paints a rather bleak picture. For every player that ends the cycle, someone else will continue it. Much like being an addict, it never truly ends.
But what should we take from this? Is the cycle endless? Is resisting it pointless? Elden Ring ac🌳tively resists a homogenous interpretation, 🌼its cryptic narrative makes sure of that.
Rue saysᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ, “When my dad died, everybody would tell me that he died for a reason. But I think what they’re actually saying is that you gotta give it a reason. You gotta give all this shit a reason. Because I don’t wanna hold on to this forever. I can’t. I can’t hold on to this forever. It just doesn’t feel good.”
At their core, FromSoftware games are about overcoming hardship. They put you through the meat grinder, and if they don’t chew you up, they spit you out all the better for it. They have a reason, but I don’t know if🌊 addiction does. And I don’t know if I’ve broken the cycle.
There’s a certain expectation that comes from hardship. You’re meant to use it, harness it, turn the experience into something beautiful or meaningful. But what if you can’t? What if overcoming the experience was enough, would that be a waste? To borrow Rue’s words again, she says to a friend who put on a play about their lives an♉🔯d struggles, “I think I’ve been through a lot. And I don’t know what to do with it. Look what you made. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to get to where you are. But I just wanted you to know that seeing it meant the world to me.”
Elden Ring is going to mean something different to everybody. It’s a huge coincidence that it’s come to me at the same time as the Euphoria finale. Hearing Rue say she doesn’t know what to do with it all is reassuring in a way I can’t put into words. I don’t know what to turn my addiction into. There are a few years of my life I don’t really remember, what should I do with that? I can find meaning i▨n Elden Ring, though, and that means the world to me, too.
