SPOILERS FOR SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE UNDER THE CUT, BUT COME FOR MY THOUGHTS!
There are so many essays I could write, comparing Ranni and Miquella, but I'm going to contain myself and focus on the most important aspect of comparisons: how they treat the concepts of love and loyalty and the people who give that to them. Especially in light of Miquella's instant kill "Heart Steal" attack.
The thing about Miquella is, even though he's kind, even though he's compassionate, he DOES NOT VALUE love and loyalty. And why should he? It's always been given freely to him. He can just force someone to love him anyway, stealing their heart. So, the people who love him are disposable, treated like pawns. Malenia? Literally left to rot in the home they built together. Mohg? Turned into a glorified guard dog. Even Radahn, turned into his perfect consort.
And Miquella probably does love them, but his perception of love is completely skewed by the nature of the fact that EVERYONE loves him. It's something he just gets. Something he uses.
Compassion and love are Miquella's weapons. They're what he uses to protect himself. It's cheap, something he can get easily.
Now, compare that to Ranni.
For Ranni, love and loyalty are dangerous. She's seen how ruinous and terrible they can be. She's seen her mother's mind wither away, a consequence of Radagon breaking her heart. She's seen Radagon break Rennala's heart for his love of the Golden Order.
The only people who loved her unconditionally are Blaidd and Iji, and even Iji's more around out of loyalty to the House of Caria than love for Ranni.
That is to say, Ranni respects and understands the power of love more than Miquella ever could.
Think of how she tells you to leave her to her lonely path. Her engagement ring, engraved with a warning to stay away, that her destiny is cold and lonely. Ranni pushes people away for their own safety, and that makes her love all the more valuable.
Love, for Ranni, is something at once dangerous and precious. The despondent way she tells you, once you've defeated the Baleful Shadow, to tell Blaidd and Iji that she loves them. Ranni knows what their love has cost them. Knows what it has bought her. She respects love and is naturally wary of it.
And that's what makes it so valuable.
Miquella doesn't appreciate love, because he's always had it.
Ranni treasures it because she's always struggled with it.
I've been thinking a lot recently about how every child of Marika is cursed and Godwyn is not. It's so strange that he's so perfect. I was wondering about what his curse could be. And then I realized that his curse is his destiny. The destined death. It's the curse by itself since demigods weren't supposed to die at all. I'm-
Also I've been thinking about how the eclipse is tied to Godwyn, since we see it in Castle Sol's insignia and in Death Knights' helmets
And then I saw these Godwyn eyes flying around in the DLC catacombs and was like...wait. It seems like Godwyn's eyes have an eclipse in them
Something something Godwyn the Golden was like the sun and his death was an eclipse that also started the Shattering/the fall of the Golden Order, the Erdtree can be also seen like the sun etc etc
Also Godwyn's dream sky has distorted eye motifs as well
No conclusion here as usual, I'm just trying to cope with the lack of Godwyn lore in the DLC
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