Bonfireside Chat 311: Bonny Village
Added 2024-12-08 15:00:10 +0000 UTCThis week we head on down to Bonny Village, which doesn’t seem so bonny to us. Instead, it was the beating heart of the hornsent’s jar-making operation. This is where the shamans, Marika’s people, were butchered and put into jars in order to make them into “saints”. Eventually they wish they didn’t do that.
Comments
Thank you! Bonny Village is as fascinating to me as it is grotesque.
Goldie
2024-12-16 02:32:52 +0000 UTCthat's a really simple yet nice pull on Bonny Village being a dark version of Jarburg. Like it.
Oliver Tripp
2024-12-16 00:27:39 +0000 UTCat the risk of becoming the resident Rellana commenter, my read on the Shattered Stone talisman was that Rellana may have been the one to collapse this town with Mesmer’s forces. if the account mentioned in the description could be believed, a bystander could have seen her doing her namesake Twin Moon attack and destroying the stone with the AOE which caused the collapse. does that make her a more interesting or necessary character? the answer…is no. but it was fun to think about when I got that talisman
Karl Germ
2024-12-12 18:28:11 +0000 UTCWould you potentially be able to add the shadow of the erdtree episodes to the elden ring coverage collection? Just makes it easier for bulk listening. Thank you 😀
Marc
2024-12-12 16:10:32 +0000 UTCI missed the first gaol, so Bonny was a big “wtf Hornsent” moment for my run of the DLC. I love how brutal the Hornsent are in this DLC - by no means does it justify Messmer’s crusade, but you could see how Marika was not just being pragmatic in her exiling him there. The acts of wanton cruelty gave rise to Marika, just as Marika’s subsequent cruelty spawned usurpers. It feels like the blend of classic FromSoft “cycles” overlapping with GRRM’s themes on revenge, regardless of who wrote this section of the story I love it.
Lucas West
2024-12-09 18:27:14 +0000 UTCThe Tooth Whip is just a weaponized Nerds Rope.
Eric
2024-12-09 15:07:46 +0000 UTCIt's interesting how the only other "bonny" village is Jarburg, lol. I always took that as a warped reflection of Marika's village (what with all the flowers) but yknow bonny this bonny that. The description about shaman flesh on the tooth whip reads to me as almost a cultural justification of the practice. I don't believe "shaman flesh" is any less special than other human flesh: both erdtree burial and the presence of Jars on the other side of the veil sort of speak to this, imho. Anyone can meld harmoniously- lovely news! I also love how jarring seems to be inextricable from the current (as far as "current" can go in the Land of Shadow) Belurat prison system. The concept of making someone "a good person" is chilling in this context. I see it as a ritual, perhaps once a funerary rite even, gone horribly horribly wrong, literally rotting. There's an echo of Marika where she's like Make something of yourselves etc etc etc that reminds me of that good person schtick in a harrowing way. Can't wait for the cosmic horror! Love the Sauron armor.
Goldie
2024-12-08 21:14:08 +0000 UTCSome vague serpent thoughts. One, my ever-shifting take on Marika's empyreanhood is: She makes covenant with the Undying Serpent and then carves that covenant out of her, leaving her as Eternity. Messmer is that covenant, "shorn of light". Both Messmer and Melina I believe were born of Marika alone, and Messmer and Melina are the cosmic causality of Death following Flame (Melina's prophecy, the frenzied flame ending, ties between GEQ and the Serpent- which I strongly believe to be different people so there's no confusion here- the never-to-be Rykard v Maliketh as mentioned in the Blasphemous Claw, etc. Something something subjectivity of prophecy that rings strongly of GRRMs influence). For what it's worth I see Serpents as an offshoot of the Frenzied Flame, or familiars or whatnot. The sigil of Messmer's flame bears a marked resemblance to the sigil of Frenzy; if I could attach pictures on here, I would. This to me is a sort of a symbolic interpretation of the snakeskin in Bonny Village. Second, and this is already getting a little long, but my literal interpretation of the snakeskin in Bonny Village is that there is a species of giant maneater snakes who use the voices of their devoured food to draw in prey, receptacle creatures so to speak. I've already mentioned Book of the New Sun in a comment before, but there's a creature in it which functions rather similarly (albeit not a snake. I'm trying not to describe it further for fear of spoiling experience; I'm not doing it justice, but it's amazing) and I think in the same manner that wildlife gets used to human presence, one had its den near Bonny Village. Perhaps a scavenger. There's no good way to put it. I can see the serpent under Volcano Manor as a member of this species because there's nothing I like better than divinity ascribed to a creature with a place on the food chain and all, and it leans wayyyy into the idea of a receptacle organism in a way that I really love, and what it means to eat a demigod, and what a sentient demigod means for the men inside. #SerpentKingFamily
Goldie
2024-12-08 21:06:27 +0000 UTCThis village is getting bonnier & bonnier!
Goldie
2024-12-08 17:39:54 +0000 UTC
