I'd rather set myself on fire and play DS2 than complete this run, you are a better man than I

I'm absolutely convinced that lemon has a little gremlin in his brain that is ultimately responsible for these challenge runs. the frontal lobe goes "this is insane and would cause us a not insignificant amount of frustration and suffering." and then the gremlin goes "heehoo video game" and the run commences

This right here, Lemon, is why a failed run will always be better than no run. Titles are meaningless. It's almost never a question of "Can you do this?" because some freak of nature with infinite time, resources, and patience can pull it off 99 times out of a hundred. The real question is, "How does it feel?". I still remember your monologue in the Molotov Only video. I never imagined a firebomb run could end on such a wet and sticky note. Seeing you struggle to the point of a whole spiritual awakening even after cheating was the most intense thing I've ever seen in a challenge run, and that is just... beautiful.

Lemon, I believe that your community doesn't care about whether or not a run was successful, it's about the journey of overcoming, the challenge that you face and continue to persist. The resilience is what is amazing to me. Even if you technically "fail", you faced the challenge and produced a video that entertains so many people

You did it! Better immolate than never!

Not only did you spend hours setting yourself on fire, you got sponsored by a legal firm to do it. Beautiful. Poetry in motion. Edit: I thought I was giving you courage and making it so you didn’t have to trash your run, now I see that I was cursing you to this Hell.

For enemies that avoid you like the plague when you hold a torch, the spiders during the Freja fight sure don't mind running up to the person who is on fire

As astonishing as the run absolutely is I just can't quite get over how wild it is to have seen it be sponsored by an injury law firm. "This run's self damage was reimbursed by the bosses who forced us to fight them thanks to Morgan Morgan!"

This turned from a weird run to all levels of frustrations and finally a villain's monologue.

There's nothing scarier than someone who doesn't give up simply because they don't want to. It's insanely impressive.

It's uncanny to see two of my favorite challenge runners do "fire damage run that tortures you for 10,000 years" at nearly the same time

Man, Lemon. We really need like a compilation of your speeches from challenge runs. They bring an amazing theatric style to what wouldve otherwise been a normal video. This one and the molotov bloodborne speeches send chills down my spine every time. I know its 9 months late and this is my 4th watch through of the video, but well fucking done man!

"God has cursed me for my hubris, and my work is never complete." A great place for that Brian David Gilbert quote

Glad to see I'm not alone in worshipping the Lord of Lunacy, Ymfah.

this is probably the first time I have felt ACTUAL physical pain (a headache) while watching a challenge run. It's like secondhand insanity infection

The laugh-cry around 33:00 was the creepiest damn thing I've ever heard and I'm a horror fanatic. Well done Lemon!

Ymfah would be so proud of you Lemon. Also let's hope KZfaq shows mercy on you for this hot run.

Since Lemon likes suffering so much his next video should be him staying the night at room 1408 in the dolphin hotel

That speech at the end was chilling, I'm sorry that you had to go through that. But, you deserve the respect for following through regardless I'm glad that you gave yourself a reprieve by giving yourself a little boost in the middle of the challenge. Pushing yourself can help make you stronger, but pushing yourself too far will make you break. You've earned a good rest, don't you dare go hollow

I haven't seen anyone do this, so I tried my best to type out the whole monologue at the end. If I made any mistakes, I apologize. Gotta, Gotta keep going. Not much more to go now, nothing we haven't seen before. Nothing we haven't faced, and when we fall, just get back up. Keep getting back up, keep fighting till you're the last one standing, everything else will break down. Nothing of value with remain, till there is nothing but you and the abyss. Your finger clinging to what miniscule hand holds you can find. But you will persist, by god will you persist. And against all odds, you'll win. And then when your will is weakened and your strength deplenished. You'll fight again, and again. Against greater and greater odds will you struggle. Into greater and greater despair will you fall. But if you falter, who then will take your place? Will anyone? Or will the questions that plague your addled mind go unanswered? Riddles shouted into the dark, with no reply just the stillness of the air and the loudness of your own breath. No answers, none at all. So it's up to us, like a prophet relieving visions from an angry god, you will take up the task. You will answer the call, and you will win. You will laugh in the face of despair, you will break through the waves of despondence, and you will know no peace, until it is done. Over and over again, you'll throw yourself into the grinder, over and over again you'll push forward one length, just to fall back three. But you can't stop, why would you stop? Why did you start? Do you even remember? Was it all worth it, was all of this.. whatever this is, worth it? Surely after so many hours, after so much pain, you know the answer. After all what does it mean if you've come this far... Without really knowing why? In the end, all you can do is proceed, after all, it is the only choice left to you. If there was ever a choice at all. So rise, Rise up conquerer of adversity, seeker of fire, coveter of the throne. It grows deeper still, the more flame you cover, like a desperate man grasping at embers. Your very efforts to get closer to the warmth, close to the light, will burn you. I, I don't know anymore. I simply don't know.

God Damn, I know you're good at monologues, but this is one of the best, and one of the most honest. As little as it means from a stranger on the Internet, take it easy. As fun as these challenge runs and your decent into madness are to see, it's not as fun when you're sacrificing some of yourself for it. A break in an upload schedule is better than a break in yourself.

The amount this broke Lemon is insane, he made so many errors. I am so sorry Lemon. Calling the the Eye of the Priestess the Eyes of the Princess, not remembering you need the four great souls to unlock Aldia, not remembering spell replenishment items earlier in the run, not using the easy infinite Elizabeth mushrooms that can be gotten in Aldia's keep, not upgrading his shield earlier, and I don't even know if he upgraded his armor to reduce damage taken, saying a million souls would get you to 99 stats, he clearly had to get way more. I probably missed some stuff, but man, this broke you Lemon. Please never torture yourself like this again.

It’s past 2am right now, but I don’t need sleep, *I need answers,* and more than that, I need to watch this man play dark souls, because it makes me happy.

To The Backlogs. Thanks. I'm just thankfull for the videos that you make. They help me realise, that it may be hard and may seem like it never ends, but being pacient, there's so fucking much that can be done. You are a inspiration. And yeah, it's just a guy playing videogames and making dad jokes, as well losing his sanity little by little(or a lot this time), but I really like the job u make, as well as your taste for music. You bring a lott to us ma man, you are a ghost that halp us trough the hard times, and sweetens the easy ones. So, please, take care of yourself. We are stranger in the internet, but u are a stranger that I want to keep being a stranger for times to come. And if those times come to an end. That I may be conforted that u are being your weird flame loving chaotic, persistent other things that u are and I have no fucking clue about(and I don't need nor want to know), somewhere else. Sorry for the declaration, but I had times are complicated?, don't know. But I'm sure we both need a psychiatrist after the stuff. Anyway send xoxos to lady and doggo(s? don't remember but kinda wanted to know, doggos are dope.) With the abyss wanting to be a toxic friend, me. PS: Can u find a game to do a doggos only run. I don't have any recomendentions)

I hope that whatever your next run is, it's one you can have fun with, treat yourself to a fun one after this hellish horrorscape that was immolation.

I've never clicked on a video so quickly. You've talked about how horrible this was for so long I have to see this. You don't need to torture yourself for content btw, don't destroy your mental health for us

Sitting here at 1:30am on a Tuesday having just finished SOTFS normally (after like 10 attempts because of that damned fire stump) and can’t even imagine doing an immolation run glitchless. your patience and fortitude is unimaginable my good man 07

I spent almost three hours trying to take down those two damn tigers, and I was wielding a Dragon Tooth +5. Sure, most of the time was spent in that blasted blizzard and those unicorns ruining my existence and making me hate this game more than I ever did. I struggled with this playing the "intended way". Sure, my weapon was slow as molasses, but it hit like a truck, because that's how I enjoy playing. It was my first ever DS2 run, and I wanted to kill every single boss. And I did. And I uninstalled the game so I'll never have to play it again. I almost gave up on killing those two tigers until I stubbornly powered through and made rugs out of them. And here you are, you crazy son of a gun, doing it with Immolation. You have definitely earned my like (since I was already subbed) and a mixture of my absolute respect for doing this run, and my condolences for... pretty much exact same reason.

Did not expect that monologue around 34 minutes. Very gripping writing. Good stuff.

How on EARTH did you get a Morgan & Morgan sponsorship on a Dark Souls II vid?! This is the strangest thing I've seen in a while.

Lemons decent into madness was absolutely beautiful. Poetic, dark, and so despondent. It’s perfect

I don't know what is more impressive the run or the speech. It was so beautiful and inspiring yet grim as fuck.

I'm almost at the end of the video, and honestly, this feels like it would make for the PERFECT secret tease for some sort of Elden Ring based video. In the lore, there's a group dedicated to the Frenzied Flame, who saw the suffering and pain of life, and think that despair life brings outweighs the good, so they wish for the flame to burn everything away until all is just swirling ashes. How much despair you expressed about the suffering and failures you experienced during the run sounds like it was ripped straight out of the diary of someone who follows the Frenzied Flame, and you are even doing it with a pyromancy build too, fitting the flame. But that aside, damn you really did something impressive here. I have absolutely no qualms whatsoever if you want to take a nice long vacation after this. You certainly deserve it.

I can't express how big of a smile it put on my face to hear Lemon quote David Brian Gilbert. Thank you for another awesome video, kind sir!

I was one of many who told you to still keep going, I think I share the sentiment that a break would've been preferable. As infinitely impressive it is to see you do this (seriously this is insanely well done and well put together) I do see now that taking care of yourself would've been better. A lesson learned for both you and for us. Well done Backlogs. Now take some well-deserved RnR

I know it ain't much, but thank you for your sacrifice. I could feel your pain in your voice, and laugh.

What a ride, and the monologue at the end sent shivers down my spine! I can't even imagine what it's like to do something like this. I had fun with DS1-3, but i'm honestly quite bad at it. I've never even been to Darklurker because the way was so annoying...and you did it with Immolation. Thanks for the entertainment! ❤

After watching almost all your videos and been catching up on your live streams, I look straight past just maxing out with duping or modding the souls in the human mind and soul can only take so much, two thumbs up for putting up with the torment of the run then having to relive the nightmare of editing and writing out a script for us to enjoy keep up the great work lemon! -From someone who never posts a comment ever.

"So with our end game strategy in place," he says on the very first boss. Never change, Lemon.

That speech was absolutely god tier. I have nothing but respect for you for this run. I can barely manage a normal run half the time. Gotta say though, my interest in challenge runs has sky rocketed and that may become my goal for this year with my gaming.

Tip for those of you who want to try this at home: Stock up on spell-restoring consumables! Toting along a few (or in some cases, a metric truck-load) will give you a healthy amount of wiggle room when it comes to Immolation casts. If you ever run out of finite drops and want to farm more, here's a quick cheat-sheet: *Amber Herbs*: Farm from white-clothed Hollow Mages in Brightstone Cove Tseldora *Twilight Herbs*: Farm from the mummy-lookin Undead Jailers in Lost Bastille *Wilted Dusk Herb*: Farm from Desert Sorceresses in Harvest Valley and Earthen Peak (also make sure to pick up a Lingering Dragoncrest Ring +1 while you're at it) *Rouge Water* (also restores HP): Farm from white-clothed Hollow Mages in Brightstone Cove Tseldora *Crimson Water* (also restores HP): Farm from the Amana Shrine Maiden snipers

Holy hell, this run managed to defeat Lemon the patience elemental! HOW DOES ANYTHING DO THAT

that was the most impressive thing i have seen for years, the challenge alone is insane but your humour and narrative genious make it ascend to another plane!

This is by far my favourite video of yours. I especially liked the ending monologue. The editing was also fantastic. Keep making amazing stuff Lemon.

Very excited for this video, also, that was the WEIRDEST sponsor section I've ever seen in my life.

how fitting it is that you did an immolation run and chose the ending where you go into the kiln. 10/10

Great writing what a video! the depths of disparity really show in the seemingly endless montage of dreary gray bosses with hero cloaked in rags slowly trudging through. So meaningless yet so determined. You’re sheer patience and determination is humbling.

I have been waching your videos for a minute now and all I can say for this one in particular is that you are appreciated. You just really need to hear that. Yeah.

I sometimes wonder when watching your vids, if any money that you make from your patreons and youtube is actually left after all the therapy you must need, I'd imagine not much; huge respect for keeping up with the great content!!!

Seeing you go conquer this seemingly sisyphean hell is inspiring, and depressing. Not only does it make me think I could take the game on with a broken straight sword, it also encapsulates the true message of the game, however you might put it into words. Thank you, and don't you dare go hollow.

DS2 devs saw Power Within and were like "wow that's really cool let's make it really, really useless" and now here we are

Honestly watching both this and ymfahs vid shows just how alike yet different your runs are. Where ymfah uses glitches at rough patches to make things easier, you play normally with no glitches to prove that it's not just possible, but possible with standard means. Nothing against ymfah though cause I love both of your channels

Maybe the real treasure was the existential dread we found along the way Pointlessness was the point Sisyphus wasn't happy at the end of the universe, not even relieved, he was made to realise he did it all for nothing Great work!

My friends described the way I play these games as, "if you hit a brick wall with a pillow enough times, it'll eventually crumble" and I think that fits since now I want to try this run

Wow, the sheer willpower and endurance this run must have taken is truly amazing. The narration at the end is the best part of your videos I've ever seen.

I just beat this game a few days ago. I did not know you could just drain the poison pool from Mytha, the Baneful Queen. Interesting.

Crazy this is, Elden Ring's version of this---Fire's Deadly Sin---is actually not too bad. It actually changes based on whatever buff you have applies, so you can get some surprisingly good frost/bleed/black flame procs

20:21 After dying to the marauders in the Seraph Shield mission in D2, I feel this

1:28 "because God has cursed me for my hubris and my work is never finished" I got that reference lol

My favorite video you've made so far, mad props for even attempting this run.

I have been waiting for this for a while. And it was worth the wait.

You, sir, are a damn saint for putting up for this! Thank you for your suffering!

Wasn't expecting MML music in the background. God, I loved the music in that game. ... I just generally really loved all those games. ... now I'm sad :( R.I.P. MML3

Hope you're doing alright, man. I know *some* of this was likely played up a little, but at the same time I'm not so sure with this specific case... As others have said in the comments, take it easy - have a bit of a break, or go for a challenge you KNOW will be a fun one. I can hardly imagine how much time and frustration got spent on the gameplay *alone*, not even counting script writing and editing. Great work, and I hope it pays off!

Love ya Lemon, thank you for the hours of entertainment you provide us at the suffering of yourself. We love the runs not for seeing a challenege run but for seeing a LEMON challenge run, your personality is what keeps me coming back atleast. Try to stay sane my man

My man you never tortured your self this hard don’t get insane you don’t have to do this for us!!

Lemon your challenge runs are the best and the most entertaining! It's been a while since I've been here on your channel and it has grown, congratulations. I hope it continues to keep growing.

I remember catching a few of the streams of this run and it was painful enough to watch. You're an absolute mad man and I love it.

Damn, you sir have my respect for this craziness

Your content is always outstanding. I found your channel back when you did the Salt and Sanctuary potatoes only run. Ended up bingeing all your previous content and have kept up to date ever since. it amazes me how every single video improves on the hilarious yet surreal theme you have going on now and I often find myself in tears of laughter. Please don't stop making content, you are one of my favorite creators out there and it brightens my day every time I get the notification that you've uploaded. Saying all that however, please do look after yourself. The last thing I want and I imagine any of your audience want is for you to smash your head against a brick wall expecting it to break like it usually does, but instead you do. I love these ridiculously hard challenge videos, but I also love your less "soul crushing" videos. I enjoy it when you enjoy the run. Saying that. If this is what you enjoy creating, despite all the mental anguish, then keep being you. I'll still be here cheering you on and watching every video TLDR I love your content, dont ever stop but please dont ruin yourself just for the content. Unless you secretly love it, you masochist.

I've seen all of the community posts about this run. More or less I just want to appreciate Lemon here. This is Insanity and he's done it. It's been a long fought battle. Thank you for top notch content and for documenting this run

I want that ending speech printed somewhere, damn, it made me actually think, good job Lemon, you made a half braindead goldfish question his existence.

Holy hell man. I’m glad you finished it. That monologue at the end was epic.

lemon, i have to say that after two weeks without your videos i could not be happier with this. I absolutely love your channel. Your content means the world to me

Lemon I really gotta hand it to ya with this one. The dedication is next level, thank you for delivering such great content. I think it’s safe to say you are the king of Dark Souls

Always love the end game speeches you give for sticking through it Lemon, cant wait to see more of your vids!

That's weird actually, i've never seen anything damage the Semon of Dong while it was in its shell! Immolation too op i guess

Even though it looks like absolute torture, I fully appreciate the effort you clearly put in to deliver for us, the viewers. Thank you, Noble Man On Fire, for your Suffering. For your Sanity. For your Commitment to Quality that is truly Laudable. Most importantly, Thank you for being a great content creator who clearly cares about his viewers Lemon. Take it easy, good sir, you've earned a rest after this ordeal.

The whiplash i felt from seeing an injury law firm sponsor a dark souls video…

Watching this, what you went through... How just hearing it hurt me... Before now i always thought "you can always hold on, it's possible to never go hollow." But now, i understand how... Inevitable it could seem.

You truly are a god among men. The amount of persistence needed to complete this is something in itself.

HELL YEAH LEMON. THIS IS AMAZING AND PLEASE MORE DS2 CONTENE Edit: also elden ring?

The big ending speech is the exact example of what dark souls is at least that’s what iv found it to be a war of attrition in a effort to finish because you are gifted the mantle and are tasked with completing this goal. It sheds a whole new light to me about why I keep going back for more even when I feel bored or tired of it…I go back in just to make a inch of progress

Love how poetic your speeches are it really adds alot to the video

always love your stuff. keep up the good work.

Another incredible run from the man himself. The patience elemental proves strong once more!

Who would've thought lighting yourself on fire would be agony.

I've seen determination, I've seen persistence, I've seen stubbornness and bravery… Foolishness, delusion, stupidity, madness and despair. This… I have *never* seen whatever _this_ is before. The closest thing I can relate it to is a man that was *_broken._* And not even *_that_* is enough. Good Lemon… You take a goddamn rest, man, because HOLY SHIT. Fantastic video, keep up the good work! :)

Now I feel bad for wanting to see this xD But great job on pushing through this lemon!! It was definitely a great feat of patience.

This run reminds me a lot of a run I've been working on in Dragon's Dogma. I'm trying to play through the whole game with the Firebrand skill tree being my only damage option.

A good thing about facing adversity, is that you can compare future hardships to ones you have already experienced. Anything less than the pain you have gone trough would look like childsplay. Only because you faced those insurmountable odds and came out on top.

I honestly really respect seeing someone else do this, I actually happened to do this on Ng+7 (because Ds2 is arguably my favourite game) And trust me… it gets worse, but I did it for Smelter Demon, it was… long, but it was worth the bragging rights

Seeing how a run breaks an insanely jolly and spiritfull man... is beyond words. Even though you "cheated" this is an insanely impressive feat. Even for for hardcore gamers. Bravo

Masochistic, as usual. Love the content!!

This reminds of me a common taunt that originated from the Terraria community: "Now do it with a Copper Shortsword", unarguably the worst weapon in that game, pre-patch 1.4. The only thing it had going for it was that it had a fast attack. It had the worst range of any weapon type, only attacking in a straight line (though in a later patch, 1.4 IIRC, it can attack at an angle slightly above or below), and the lowest damage (barring the Wooden Hammer tool with the Broken attribute). Someone managed to defeat one of the early bosses, the Eater of Worlds, with that weapon and, in his words, "When you've prepared correctly, it's not hard, just annoying and tedious." Immolation is the Copper Short Sword of Dark Souls 2. As you said, once you knew how to prepare, this challenge is ultimately not hard, just annoying and tedious. So, even though it broke you, thank you for doing it so no one else has to (unless they're insane, but there's no helping those nutcases).

While it was fun seeing you try to suss out the game with this build, that speech at 34:05 was kind of haunting. It captured the spirit and feel of the games story, but man, you just went through Lord knows how many hours of crushing despair... After this, hope you recover, and all the best in your endeavors! I hope they're not as soul-crushing as this one.

Praise be to she who burns, may the vessel of her flame fly true. Thanks for taking care of this challenge run lemon edit: The monologue at the end reminded me of when I killed Ava the kings pet while they were still invisible

Anyone else find it ironic that a personal injury law firm is sponsoring his immolation run?

You, good hollowed sir, need a vacation.... I never caught the streams but I can hear the suffering that you went through in your villain monolog. May the firebomb bless you and pray you never immolate yourself again.

This video being sponsored by an actual, real, *legitimate* injury lawfirm is comedy *GOLD*