Okay bear with me because this is a half formed thought.

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The first one

Miquella the Kind used to be truly kind. He saw the shitty world his mother and his siblings created and was desperate for a gentler world, trying first to create the haligtree using his own body as the seed and then failing that after Mogh ripped him from it chasing his mother's route through the shadowlands.

But the eternal childhood curse wasn't -just- a curse of youth in body but also in soul. So he reasons like a pre-teen and makes those mistakes eternally.

And in order to achive this gentler world, he starts shedding the bits that make him... well kind. His emotions, and his love.

Look at his "companions"
-- Dane we know shit all about motivation wise.

These aren't individuals who were gathered up on a mind controll free for all.

Two were captured after attacking Miquella
-- Hornsent wants to kill all of Marika's kids and probably attacked Miquella and was charmed.
-- Ansbach -actually- attacked and wounded Miquella and was charmed in that battle.

Two are afilliated with Miquella's allies
-- Freye is a loyal follower of Radahn
-- Moore is one of his sister's ... "children"

Two are infatuated with Miquella
-- Leda was already one of his followers.
-- Thiollier is in love with Miquella's alter-ego

They assume that you are either charmed by Miquella or naturally someone who aligns in purpose with him.

Messmer just chats with Miquella doesn't attack him.

It isn't until Miquella starts shedding his emotions and his body that he starts going .... well special.

So perhaps he was origininally actually kind.

The Hornsent aren't... victims they are well, losers in a war. But they were a shitty horrible culture that tortured the shit out of people. Marika's crusade against them... is there for a reason. Her village she grew up in doesn't have anyone in it due to the hornset. They shoved all of her people into jars. For religious purposes and under the guise of "you should feel honored"

All of this to say I don't think the sobrequet(spelling?) is undeserved. Just its been warped.

Under the premise of the above.

Given all of this, Marika became a god and banished death.

Miquella is trying to follow in the same path but to "provide a gentler world". Unlike the main game endings I think there might be a happy ending option that is truly happy in the DLC. If you never fight Radahn and Miquella they will succeed in making this gentler world.

The game assumes you are there to stop them on behalf of the Erdtree. Which we already know is broken and twisted and wrong.

And Fromsoft being who they are... it isn't hard to imagine them finally giving the players a genuinely good ending... that gets stopped... by the players themselves.

#eldenring #sote