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Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC Can Bring Back Elden Ring’s Hardest Boss

Submitted by xhy082801 on Thu, 03/09/2023 - 16:01

Shadow from the Erdtree seems poised to pay attention to one character in the game's lore - that could also mark the return from the Elden Ring's hardest boss.

With the recent announcement of the DLC expansion for Elden Ring, there's now ample chance for the base game's hardest boss to come back in some shape or form. Shadow from the Erdtree, announced approximately a year after Elden Ring's initial release with nothing more than a promotional image and title, reveals not many details about exactly what the DLC includes. However, building on what's known concerning the lore from the base game, in addition to what's shown within the DLC's promotional art, there's taking care of Elden Ring's lore that Shadow from the Erdtree seems perfectly established to elaborate on.

While the potential of Elden Ring DLC wasn't seriously uncertain, especially considering FromSoftware's long good reputation for making DLC for previous games, the announcement the Shadow from the Erdtree DLC is within the development was long awaited by the game's fans. Previously highly anticipated at events like The Game Awards, or even the one-year anniversary of the game's release 72 hours before the announcement, Shadow from the Erdtree's cryptic reveal has finally confirmed that support for Elden Ring hasn't ended at this time. Of particular interest within the game's reveal art, however, may be the lone figure riding atop what looks to become Torrent - that could also mark the possible return of Elden Ring's hardest, most notorious boss.

Malenia Could Return In Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree

With the estimated Shadow from the Erdtree greatly resembling in-game depictions and descriptions from the Empyrean Miquella, the DLC may also bring back his sister, Malenia, in a certain form or any other. An enigmatic character even by FromSoftware standards, Miquella's devote Elden Ring DLC was already highly speculated on, having a sizable quantity of Elden Ring's cut content associated with either him or Malenia. With the two being closely intertwined in Elden Ring's lore, even outside cut content, the possibility of focus on Miquella in Shadow from the Erdtree could indicate the return of Malenia too - although Malenia's return wouldn't necessarily have to become in form from the boss fight.

Miquella & Malenia's Lore Are Inseparable In Elden Ring

Miquella and Malenia aren't simply twins in Elden Ring lore, towards the same degree that any of the other demigods are siblings - their lore is nearly inextricable, with each from the twins' backstories and motivations heavily relating to the other. Besides Malenia's status as a mascot of Elden Ring, she's also the Blade of Miquella (something which she's very interested in reminding players of), and elevating her brother towards the throne of Elden Lord forms the crux of her motivations within the game's lore. Likewise, a lot of Miquella's goals center around curing his sister from the Scarlet Rot, with Millicent's questline and Miquella's Needle shedding light on the twins' relationship.

Additionally, while cut content ought to be taken having a grain of salt, FromSoftware's tendency of reusing and re-purposing cut content into later DLC or games implies that Miquella and Malenia's cut quests and dialogue are of curiosity. Much like Dark Souls cut content reused in Elden Ring, Miquella and Malenia have cut dialogue, quests, as well as potentially a whole ending which are all ripe for reuse in Shadow from the Erdtree, with Miquella’s cut quest particularly having been planned to show the mysterious Saint Trina as his alter ego. While the information on Malenia's cut content is somewhat vaguer, additionally, it potentially points to some planned questline.

Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Could Build on Malenia's Lore

Malenia's involvement within the Shadow from the Erdtree, however, would present an issue, considering the fact that she's likely been killed through the player in the bottom game. Luckily, if she's planned to reappear, Elden Ring does plenty to take into account her potential defeat. Death isn't final in The Lands Between, in the end, using its inhabitants returning towards the Erdtree to become reborn - but Malenia particularly has lore good reasons to survive her defeat, with several Elden Ring theories involving Malenia being a god after her death. Moreover, not just are there a lot of reasons for Malenia to come back, but she would also certainly not have to come back as a boss.

It may be odd to consider Elden Ring's most infamously hard boss returning being an NPC, but apart from FromSoftware potentially attempting to avoid recycling her fight, Malenia's cut dialogue also results in a curious precedent for that prospect. In it, she refers to the player character in familiar terms, calling them "Sweet Tarnished" and "dearest companion." Not much is famous about how different her involvement may have been in early versions of the game, but prototype lines on her pre-fight dialogue in Elden Ring's cut content do indicate players having the ability to meet Malenia before fighting her, with a few speculations placing her as the focus of early versions of Millicent's questline.

As Shadow from the Erdtree seems to become picked up on the bottom game's several dangling plot threads involving Miquella, Malenia's involvement inside it would also appear to be a safe bet. The twins' stories are heavily intertwined, both within the released version of the game as well as in cut content - and given FromSoftware's penchant for recycling unused ideas, some aspects which were cut in the original release may be iterated on for that DLC. Whatever the case, Elden Ring's long-awaited Shadow from the Erdtree DLC will still likely have lots of surprises if this eventually is released.