Radahn said "Over my dead body." and Miquella was like "Deal." But, in seriousness, I think it most likely that Radahn originally agreed to be Miquella's consort, but after some sort of personal change, Radahn changed his mind. Perhaps he came to realize what a monster Miquella truly is after he'd already made the promise. To clarify: Miquella is a monster. Not because he is violent, brutal or cruel; But because he has not only the power, but the desire to rob people of their free will. He would see the world made into a prison, peaceful and gentle, free of strife because its inhabitants are not allowed to think for themselves. A world without struggle or challenge to make its people stronger.

In the final cutscene, when Miquella talks to a void, I interpreted this as a symbolic representation that he was alone in his plans and goals, and Radahn not showing up there was meant to show that he is not a willing part of Miquella's plans. But it could be solely to make it as vague as possible.

The halted stars might have a lot to do with this. Sellen makes it plain that the fate of the Carian royal family is determined by the stars, and Radahn is no less Carian than Ranni. Maybe he made the promise, then halted the stars and his fate, rendering fulfillment impossible. He essentially becomes caught in an ontological catch-22 where he needs to release the stars to fulfill his destiny, but his halted destiny is also to release the stars. Then there’s his loyalty and profound resistance to change - he’s clinging to Sellia, Leonard, his men, and the glory of the old Order. He easily could have had a change of heart about beginning a new age even without celestial f*ckery

I’m team Theory 3. That Radahn consensually agreed at first, but changed his mind. And I think it’s because Miquella became disillusioned with his intentions. Here’s my timeline of events. -All the demigods are doing their thing under Marika’s golden order. They’re all one big family so they all know each other well enough. Which means Miquella and Radahn knew each other well enough for Miquella to admire him for his strength and heart. -Miquella and Malenia are easily the youngest demigods, and as the youngest, Miquella has a perspective into the Golden Order that he just doesn’t like. If Marika can’t get it right then he will do better. But one can’t just become the god they need a consort too. So he chooses Radahn because of how much he admires him already. -Miquella strikes up the vow, we don’t know what it says, but Radahn says yes to become Miquella’s consort. -Miquella learns all he can, and formulates a plan to ascend to Godhood without the permission of the Greater Will, given that it is at the center of Marika’s crappy rule. He learns of the Land of Shadow and more importantly, of the Gates of Divinity there. If he can reach them he can ascend to Godhood WITHOUT the strings of the Greater Will attached. -Though there’s one problem. Miquella can’t become a powerful god with his cursed body. So he decides to kill two birds with one Mohg. Cure himself of his affliction and access the ancestral home of the omen, the Land of Shadow. He probably realized his curse has something to do with his blood. So he also plants the Haligtree with his own blood to A, ditch enough of his blood to make room for newer, unaffiliated blood, and B, develop a cult following of worshippers mostly comprised of those scorned by the Erdtree/Golden Order and with nobody else to turn to. The Haligtree shall serve as both the means to rid himself of his affliction, and as the anchor for which his influence in the Lands Between shall spread. -Radahn knows about Miquella’s plan to shamelessly exploit Mohg, and it doesn’t sit right with him, he realizes Miquella is becoming more and more crazy, so he wants out of this deal. The problem is, one can’t just break a vow, it’s not easy or pretty. So he finds a loophole that allows him to stop the clock on his promise. Royals of Caria have their fates intertwined with the movement of the stars so he uses his gravity magic to stop all the stars in place to delay the time for the vow to be fulfilled. -Miquella finds out and is pissed. He’s about ready to launch the Mohg part of his plan he can’t have his consort get cold feet. So he decides to kill 3 birds with 1 Mohg instead. Mohg’s additional purpose? To act as the vessel for Miquella’s consort. Radahn lost his nerve and Mohg’s body is already under Miquella’s control. Miquella is sure Radahn will learn to see things his way again, once his soul is within Mohg’s body. First, he needs Malenia to break Radahn’s spell so he can become his consort. By killing him. His sister obliges. But Radahn is too Op and the battle ends in a stalemate. -The vow is still compromised. Malenia is down for the count. And now, Radahn has lost all sense of self and reason. Can things get any worse? Spoiler alert. They can, because Mohg picked the worst time possible to execute Miquella’s orders. According to the plan, Malenia was supposed to assassinate the Lord of Blood during the rescue of her brother, but she has no strength left after the Battle of Aeonia. Miquella’s vision was supposed to go so smoothly, but now, the Empyrean was trapped in eternal sleep, his consort a mad dog, and his sister shadow battered and bruised. His plans had officially failed. -Or have they? One day, one of the Lord of Blood’s most trusted Zealots, White Mask Varre, brings word to his lord, of a Maidenless Tarnished with loads of potential to bleed. Varre incidentally points us in the direction of Miquella’s two loose ends, and us, being the badasses that we are defeat Radahn and Mohg, allowing Miquella to resume his plans again. Mohg’s body, and Radahn’s soul in hand. -Now in the land of Shadow, Miquella slowly divests himself of everything that makes him mortal. His body, his emotions, his empathy. At this point, he is in the game too deep. Now nobody can reach him to change his mind, not Radahn, not even his other half St.Trina. -Finally, Miquella reaches the gates of Divinity, and becomes a god, he revives his King Consort, who has now seen the light. Now, has everything he needs to build his new order, but all he sees now is the vision of his divine rule. He says he will build a thousand year voyage based on kindness, but that kindness is now a fabrication built for emotional tyranny. Burt Miquella cannot see that now, he has essentially trapped himself and Radahn in delusions of Godhood, and only we, the tarnished can save them. Maybe I missed some details but that’s how I choose to interpret it. Miquella isn’t evil, but he is more like Marika than he’d care to admit. He allowed dreams of Godhood to cloud his heart, and lost sight of what real compassion was, in the name of the “peace” he would usher in as a new god.

St. Trina's message gets ignored so much in this debate and it's wild to me. I feel like they're clearly signalling that Miquella's ascension is meant to be seen as a tragedy. One she wishes for you to free him from. He IS kind hearted and with the best of intentions, but because of the curse of his ever youthful nature, he's naive. He doesn't see that to achieve godhood would be to lose everything that would make his era of gentleness come true. That he would be imprisoning himself, as his mother did before him. And if we look at it that way, couldn't that too explain a change of heart in Radahn? That he would resist becoming consort in order to save Miquella from this fate? Holding back the stars to keep him from divesting himself of his compassion and becoming this shell of himself? Sacrificing himself to try and achieve an impossible goal? Everyone keeps trying to characterize this as an egomaniacal trip of him wanting to enslave the world, but in the game they repeatedly speak of it as him trying to take the first great sin into himself so as to absolve the world and make it a better place. He's ready and willing to ruin himself on the chance of fixing what was wrong with the last order. And a Radahn that promised to be his consort, that believed in that initial vision, and that perhaps even loved him would be against once he realized the full ramifications. 🤷🏾 Seems more fitting to me with the bittersweet view of things Fromsoft usually like to use in their story telling. The foolishness of hope and desperation. Re-lighting the flame even though you know it will die down again and pain is always unavoidable.

I'm of the opinion that Radahn willingly made the promise back when Miquella was still firmly an Erdtree supporter. During the period when Miquella was studying Erdtree Fundamentalism and before he abandoned it for not providing a way to cure Malenia. Its important to remember that Miquella in the DLC was not pursuing the "correct" path of a golden order empyrean. Like Ranni he was abandoning his flesh to free himself from the two finger's influence. I think once Radahn learned that Miquella planned to replace the golden order and not preserve it. He refused to go along with the plan and renounced his promise, which is why Malenia had to invade Caelid to enforce the vow.

I dont think radahn opened the gate. I think he was about to go red, like godfrey when he kills serosh, but miquella comes out and forces his ego on him and gets on his back like serosh was. I think we never get the chance to see true radahn 😢

The serious tone then “it was Melanias way of saying ‘MIQUELLA SENDS HIS REGARDS!’” Cracked me up so bad Omg-

I saw some discourse on twitter suggesting that Godwyn was Miquella's first choice as consort. Given the evidence in the base game of Godwyn's loving/protective relationship with Melania and Miquella i like this theory and if its true and explains why Miquella tried so hard to resurrect Godwyn's soul and give him a true death so he could be reborn as Miquella's consort in the Shadow Lands. And then when MIquella ultimately failed he turned his sights on Radahn. I think Radahn may have initially agreed bc of the prospect of glory in battle that would come with installing Miquella as the new god, but eventually went back on his word when the Elden Ring was shattered giving Radahn the ability to fight his own war to become Elden Lord of the Order he venerated so much.

I think initially Radahn agreed willingly, because Miquella seems worried that Radahn will honour his part of the arrangement. If Radahn had been charmed, then Miquella wouldn't be worrying. I don't know what made him change his mind, but perhaps he didn't. In the intro we are told that the demigods were corrupted by the Runes, maybe said corruption make him more of a Warmonger.

the way i see it, i think Radahn never agreed to the vow to begin with. I think it justifies why malenia and him fought (miquella had ordered his death to send him to the land of shadows). i think radahn"s title of promised consort is simply that of miquella's desires (how he wants it to be). granted this is mostly just my headcanon but something to keep in mind as food for thought is the starscourge sword monument, specifically the japanese translation where it says that radahn had become sellia's defender/protector. even if he did at one point make such a vow to miquella he had deemed his new loyalties to sellia more important. also while it is true that radahn did admire his father and godfrey, for what reason did he admire them for? i believe it was for their prowess as great warriors and champions. in the end radahn is a man who wanted (from how i understand it) to be remembered as a great warrior of godfrey and radagon's caliber and a man of honor, he went out of his way to learn gravity magic for leonard, had a close "brotherly" bond with gaius and messmer and chose to become sellia's protector. while he may have had the ambition to become elden lord, i think he placed his personal bonds over that ambition. Sorry for the rambling, hope it warrents some thought from everyone.

“Promised” sounds a lot like the promise was made for him, like a how royals would do in the Middle Ages, and then the shattering happened and Radhan didn’t have to anymore

"Promised" does a lot of heavy lifting. Who made the promise? Was it a prophecy? Radian? Marika? In some cultures, parents can promise a child's hand in marriage. Priests and prophets promise eternal salvation. In elden ring, characters can take on the guise of others. And that's before we consider that Radhan could have made a promise to be Miquella's consort when a younger Miquella asked - placating a child he never imagined would become a god - like an Uncle promising a nephew who said he wanted to live on Mars when he grew up, that they'd live there together. There's a lot of ambiguity inherent in the phrase.

There's a 6th theory I've seen floating around. This theory is based on Radahn's inability to let go, his love for battle and his honor as a warrior. The theory goes that Radahn did not agree to the vow and it was Malenia who promised to deliver Radahn to the land of shadow; The word she whispered into his ear meaning "I've delivered you to Miquella". This would explain the battle, and why she nuked the whole area. But she ultimately failed to kill him, and it was ultimately the tarnished that took him out. Here's where his honor comes into play; Radahn, knowing that you were aiming to be the next lord figured that you would be in opposition to Miquella, and he was upset that he got killed when he wasn't at full power thanks to Malenia. So he willingly went with Miquella's plan, taking Mohg's body in order to face you one on one without handicaps. When the phase 2 cutscene start sand Radahn's aura shows up he isn't activating the gate. Radahn is upset that he's losing even at full power, which is when the gate activates and Miquella appears. You then see the read aura change to Miquella's golden light, which is the moment Miquella took control of Radahn. Radahn wanted an honorable duel with you til the end, but Miquella needed him alive and likely did not care about the duel nor honor, he just needs you dead and therefore took control of Radahn to force his help upon him. We know Miquella is still able to charm people via his grab attack despite his great rune breaking, and this theory also satisfies the themes of the characters well; Radahn is a noble warrior that doesn't like change and wishes for an honorable death, while Miquella has no problem controlling whoever he has to in order to reach his goals.

I am on the side of saying he refused.

I think Radahn, like Guts to Griffith in Berserk, was the only one to resist Miquella's charm and decided to not follow up with his past vow with Miquella. So Miquella requests Malenia to confront the general to kill or assure his death. She couldn't kill Radahn head on so she resorted to the Rot within her as a sacrifice to her twin brother because Miquella has the potential to fix everything.

I also really like your idea, that Radahn did agree to the vow but then retracted it because of many variables such as his Great Rune likely warding off Miquella's charms like it warded off Malenia's rot, Radahn's newfound ambitions after the shattering, and Miquella's abandonment of St. Trina his aspect of love.

I think Radahn also had a change in priority, remember, he was "Starscourge Radahn" his focus was holding back the stars, not becoming the consort of an Empyreon. He was ensuring outer beings would not interfere in the lands between, as they are known to do. Miquella was also firmly against divine intervention from outer beings, but Miquella ran out of options and believed the only way forward was his plan for godhood, of which Radahn likely disagreed, someone truly kind if its true to be said of Radahn, would not agree to a non consensual, apathetic utopia like Miquella wanted. He certainly would not appreciate being strewn together into a chimaira of himself and his half brother. No way he would ever approve of that.

My theory is that Radahn agreed to Miquellas proposal under one condition, that Miquella or his champion best him in combat. I think this fits Radahns character well, because we know of his idolization of Godfrey. "A crown is warranted by strength" This would explain why defeating Radahn was so important to Malenia that she was willing to unleash the scarlet rot. We know that she spent her entire life trying to subdue the rot. What could be the only thing more important than that? Her dedication to Miquella.

Great video and breakdown of the different theories! That's a really intriguing point about the Turtle Pope and the consequences of severing a vow. In the base game, I just assumed it was about the effect Radagon leaving would have on Rennala, though with another vow with another consort being so central to the DLC, it's definitely food for thought. Plus the Celestial Dew is linked to the power of stars guiding fate (while in the 1.00 version, Celestial Dew were moon tears harvested by the Carians...) That said, I'm still going for theory #4 since that sounds like the most brilliant option 😉

I think Radahn agreed to be Miquella's consort, no compelling needed. We know that Radahn aspired to be like Godfrey and, thus, would likely have wanted to become an Elden Lord. The vow that Miquella mentions could be that Radahn will receive an honorable death in combat before he is to be resurrected in the Realm of Shadow. Thus, the "we" that Miquella refers to is him and Malenia needing to uphold their part of killing Radahn. So, Miquella sends Malenia to Caelid to honor the vow, but she and Radahn stalemate. Malenia, knowing that she has to kill Radahn, decides to bloom as a last ditch attempt, believing it will finish him off. This is why she says, "Miquella awaits thee, O promised consort". I think the last cutscene is meant to show the instance in which Miquella asks Radahn to be his consort and he agrees. We can see Miquella is on his knees, practically begging, but not using any sort of charm or magic. Obviously, this is just a theory and I could be completely delusional and idealistic, but it's a possibility.

Honestly it would make sense that Radahn never agreed to Miquella solely due to Mogh and Ansbach's relationship with Miquella. Ansbach hints that Mogh was vastly different before Miquella manipulated him, yes he still was the lord of blood, but that was without Miquella, so different that Ansbach himself felt compelled to fight Miquella to relinquish his lord off Miquella's control. Radahn may have had the same stance as Mogh, but was a lot stronger. Remember that Mogh during the start of the shattering had just came out of the sewers as the same time as Morgott his brother, while Radahn was already the Starscourge. Miquella's tactics would have never worked on Radahn as he was too proud of himself, and the fact that he would never align himself to Miquella on the first place with his adoration to Radagon and Godfrey. "Promised Consort" never meant that Radahn did agree to Miquella, and considering it is Malenia who is speaking, Promised Consort in her eyes is Miquella's desired consort, aka Miquella named Radahn as the promised consort, while Radahn never wanted anything to deal with his brother. Additionally, if we are to change the order of events, we can suggest that Radahn fought so hard against you during the festival to not die. Had it been before the realization that his soul would have been captured, Radahn would have accepted Malenia's scarlet rot as his death, but he's basically the only person to face tank lore-accurate Scarlet Aeonia and still be alive. We could also assume that the pact held by Jerren happens before Radahn realizes Miquella's plot, but the battle was already happening and his mind was too far gone to warn Jerren about the dangers of his death.

"Promised" I guess it doesn't mean he (radahn) is agreed to rather than "propechies" since all demigod are bound by 2 fingers. Also from the ending monologue by Miquela self, its his desire all along and other echanted by his magic believe in his word 😅

Radahns great rune is described as burning to keep the scarlet rot at bay, when radahn starts glowing red in the cutscene it resembles the great rune. I think Radahns soul fully took over the body at this time and he was attempting to fight back against miquellas influence but miquellas charm was far too powerful at this point for even Radahn to resist

I love how The Rains Of Castamere is playing in the background 👌🏻😙

There is a lot of quotes and dialogue from Miq's perspective in this dlc: 'I abandon here MY etc', 'I am going to become a god, vow to be MY consort', 'Leave the path forward to us, to I Miquella and MY promised consort Radahn.' Miq comes off as a self centered control freak and during all of this we don't get a single Radahn line. Miq constructed a new body for Radahn yet he doesn't say a thing, meanwhile Miq loves talking. Seems like he didn't want Radahn to talk. Aside from all of this, the Malenia vs Radahn fight is possibly the most telling towards Radahn's feelings. Malenia barges onto his hometurf with an army and the resulting battle destroys all that Radahn holds dear. If it was an honorable duel to the death situation, they would have agreed on a 1 on 1 in a location where civilians would be safe from the 2 most powerful demigods fighting, you know the mountaintops of the giants, perhaps underground somewhere. Eventually Malenia resorts to a desperation move just to force Radahn to keep his vow AND even then, when he's crazy he holds the stars in place to keep his fate from progressing. Seems like he isn't that into Miquella.

Miquella could be using the "Royal" WE where they are technically only referring to themselves. Since this Elden Ring is Medieval in its design.

Bruh my whole thing with this ending is... I was ready to encounter Miquella and kick his ass, yet here we are with a Radahn endboss. And then he just dies without any extra dialogue, the only thing left is this cutscene that gives more context to Miquella's connection to Radahn. Idgaf bout this shit bruh. This was supposed to be Miquella's moment, us encountering him, learning more about his motivations and flaws.. Instead Radahn stole the show and Miquella became a backdrop. Its not even a cool one akin to the lothric bros, where you actually need to kill the correct one. This is just a Radahn fight, and Miquella happens to be in the picture. Idk they butchered his whole character, if anything Miquella is just a freaking weirdo at this point. I still barely know anything about his motivations aside from "I wanna become a god to make things better, and also lemme marry my half brother because why not". Never have I ever felt so baffled by a Fromsoft final boss. The boss itself is exiting, sure, but the story implications and the ending are just whatever bruh

I haven't watched the video yet so don't blame me if you covered this The vow and the promise are two separate things Miquella and Malenia vowed something with Radahn and then Miquella said that if he honored the vow he wanted Radahn to promise to become his consort so the vow is still a mystery

Great Radahn debate: Mohg is a better looking Radahn than Radahn himself. I mean, Radahn truly wanted to be like Godfrey, Mohg has an advantage of looking closer to Godfrey as he is his son. I bet un-Omen Morgott would look closer to Radagon (male version of Marika). Godwyn would be the perfect blend of Marika and Godwyn but unfortunately we only see the oyster version.

I think we're interpreting "promised consort" wrong. I know Martin's influence in the story is dubious, but Radahn's "promised consort" title reminds me very much of "the prince that was promised" from ISOIAF. Martin in this case is using promised to mean prophesied, and I think that makes sense here too. Miquella, as a candidate for godhood, was likely told he would become a god by his two fingers. He was promised a Lord, and he decided it would be Radahn. Radahn didn't promise Miquella, he was promised TO Miquella. I think this aligns everything much better. Miquella, as a empyrean was promised a consort, who he decided would be Radahn. When it didn't happen naturally he and Milenia went to go get him. When that didn't work they went with plan B and sent him to the shadowlands to try again. Milenia was basically taunting Radhan at the end, saying see it doesn't matter what you think, you can't change your fate, you are the prophesied lord-consort. So then Radahn's name doesn't mean "the Lord who promised to be a Lord for Miquella" it means "the prophesied lord of Miquella". I think this also plays into the larger theme I see of Radahn's ultimate lack of agency, despite being so powerful. Everyone seems to agree he is one of, if not the most powerful demi-god, but every time we see him, he isn't in control of himself. He's either insane, his mind destroyed and forced to wander his destroyed realm, totally out of control. He can't even control his own death, relying on his subordinates and friends to do it for him. Or he is the subordinate of Miquella. We never hear him speak, we only hear his narrative from other people. Radahn is ultimately agency less, doomed to be powerful, but powerless to exert that power by himself.

Radahn made a death pact with Jerren as such I don't think he had any intention of becoming anyones lord. Freyja also mentions how Jerren would not be happy about Radahn being brought back, so Radahn almost certainly tried to break his vow with Miquella.

First off great vid, love the way you play devil's advocate for each theory and build up on previous ones. Now to state some facts, it is known that Miquella was trying to cause an Eclipse (see Castle Sol) in order to revive Godwyn in some way yet this plan failed because as we know Radahn eventually halted the stars. Prior to this dlc I would've said that these were 2 isolated events but with this new info I believe that a vow/promise was made but somehow (that's the part I need help on) Radahn went against Miquella to the point were he even halted the stars just so he could stop the Eclipse. Eventually Miquella hatches a new plan where he can use Radahn's soul along with Mohg's body to make his "promised consort", so he sends Malenia to kill Radahn allowing his soul to be placed into the vessel he created. My evidence to support Radahn halting the stars to stop the eclipse includes Iji's dialogue about how the Carian's royal family is guided by the stars, and we have no reason to believe Radahn would do that to his sister Ranni.

My heads so spun since this DLC this is the magic time of new revelations and interpretations as we evolve theories and refine what the story is In a year we’ll have a whole other concept of the entire story

Ok, here's an idea: what if Miquella's power is similar to the anime Code Geass? He can mind control anyone to do anything, but he can only cast that spell on someone a single time. So once the spell was broken due to the shattering or something else, he couldn't do it again, unless Radahn would die and be remade (or alternatively, his soul placed in another body that was already under Miquella's control as you suggested) I think this makes sense of both Radahn's and Malenia's actions and why Miquella simply didn't use his mind control powers if Radahn refused or had a change of heart. The fact that he simply cannot do it twice on the same person. However I can't think of anything that indicates how Miquella's power exactly work in the first place and what the limitations are.

Based video. I think your opinion makes the most sense from the way you have presented it! Also, to add something to all the points you've already made: maybe Radahn agreed initially because of the reasons you mentioned but backed down once Miquella actually revealed that he planned to do away with the old Order and Radahn, still holding on to the past, simply could not stand for it. Edit: Typos

17:54 I don’t know, living on the opposite side of the map, them sending a army post shattering, and Miquella effectively, begging him in a cut scene and the fact Radahn was a devout supporter of the golden order and miquella becoming a god directly threatens that and radahn’s generally straight presentation does give me the since he never agreed to this

11:08 Lmao I love how the red wedding ost starts playing after you say this. Good summary of the discussion, I personally lean towards the theory that Radahn agreed to it in a non serious way but Miquella (since he has the mentality of a child) thought it was serious. The only thing that doesn't make sense there is where it leaves Malenia's character, since it either makes her very dumb (for not realizing that Radahn didn't think the vow was a big deal, something which could have been learnt by talking to the man for 30 seconds) or Leda levels of insane if she did know that and didn't care.

I don't know if anyone mentioned this before, but I think another good argument for the third theory and Radahn's change of heart is the fact that, in his youth, Miquella was a true golden order fundamentalist and was loved by Radagon, exchanging mutual iIncantations even. So perhaps in those times, Radahn agreed to be Miquella's consort, but when Miquella abandoned the golden order - that's when Radagon fan and loyal to his grave giant Radahn decided to break his vow. (BTW, it's kind of strange how Radahn was so loyal to blood and ideals, yet still allowed himself to break some vows.)

2:56 The Japanese text to Miquella’s speech is: “兄様、私は必ず、神になります。ですから、私たちが約束を守れたら、私の王になってください。”, which directly translates to “Lord Brother, I will certainly become a god. That’s why, if we keep our promise/vow, please become my Lord.” The “we” part “私たち” does not clarify whether he’s talking about himself and radhan or himself and another party. It also doesn’t exclude the possibility that Miquella is referring to himself, Malenia, Radahn, and St. Trina. Personally, I think Radhan refused to be Miquella’s consort. He’s a Golder Order fan boy. Maybe the Mohg body switch is like a plan B for Miquella

I'm going to apologize in advance for my reDAHNS. I tried to corral it, but it seems that even in the Lands Between, my Philly accent has to make jtself known 😂 Just chalk it up to a lifetime of cheesesteaks and watching my sports teams come up smaller than Pinwheel when it matters most!

1:30 This is already debateable. Is he the one activating thr gate? Because it can also be seen as rage building up inside of him, the red-yellow light and fire representing that, only for Miquella to show up which causes the flames to gradually disappear as thoigh he stops Raddahn from raging

I think he would have agreed, he was a godfrey fanboy who loves fighting, everything around him is towards battle, his festival is a "Celebration of war" even his title "GENERAL" , he would be one who wanted a glorious battle as for godfrey's a crown is owned with strengh

I haven't found it yet but apparently there is evidence to suggest that Raddan was holding the stars to prevent Ranni from becoming a pawn of the golden order. If this is the case then it is very possible that this is why Raddan was unwilling to become Miquella's consort whether or not he had previously said he would. Afterall he is likely the kind of person who would fight with all he had to protect his remaining family.

What do you think about the elden ring show/movie in the works? i think its gonna be hard but i think of it like Game of thrones or Hotd. if it is as good as them i think it will be great

he initially agreed to get something out of miquella which could be access to halt the stars presumably via the twin great swords he wields after accomplishing that he found out the age miquella wants to bring goes against the golden order which is radagon and godfreys orders. after refusing maleina went to kill him and failed so she used the flower because its stated that it turned him into a mindless beast which would allow miquella to compel him but his lust for battle was stronger than miquellas great rune. so the only way to get access to him now is to have him die a honorable death which seems like a front for death in general so he can be brought back into mohg body who is easily compelled. that proves a point in which miquella might have not been able to charm demigods. except that mohg is easily compelled because we seen it happen with the outer god which got control over him already

My understanding of the “promised” title is that miquella promised to radahn that radahn would be his consort. Sort of like a one sided promise. Also the radahn we fight is miquellas invisioning of a perfect radahn for him this is consort radahn miquellas dream. Which also ties to the vision after the defeat of radahn and ties to saint trina who he threw away to change this idea from a dream to reality.

Im of the belief that radahn either agreed under the influence of miquella's 'charm', which was perhaps broken during the shattering. Or he agreed initially but changed after a new revelation perhaps after he conquerored the stars.

Radan really admire Radagon and Godfrey who were married to a god of the golden order, could it be that Radan accepted Miquellas offer under the guise that miquella would be a god of the golden order then when Miquella left the golden order for not being able to heal him and his sister Radan lost interest cause he wanted to be like the previous elden lords consorts of a god of the golden order and Miquella abandon that path?

16:07 It does seem like Miquella's ability to compel affection is tied to his great rune because of what happens when you first approach the Shadow Keep. The message that pops up says "Somewhere a great rune has broken...And so too has a powerful charm." After this happens, the NPCs act differently, as if what had previously compelled them to follow Miquella is now gone. While I don't think it's clearly said outright, I think it's pretty clear what is going on here and it's not just speculation. Then, once you meet him at the Divine Gate, he has become a god and has recovered his ability to compel once again by virtue of being a god. Also, maybe you consider this a variation on the 3rd possibility you mention, but I think another option that introduces some important nuance is this: Radahn agreed to the vow, but never expected he would have to follow through with it. What I mean by this is that part of the vow was that he agreed to be Miquella's consort if he could be defeated in battle/killed in battle, but as he is considered the most powerful demigod and was a great warrior, he probably had good reason to think he would never be defeated in battle, even by Malenia.

There are two factions in the siblings. One was with maintaining the golder order and the other is getting rid of it. I think it was Malenia, Miquella and Ranni's plot. Ranni will rule over the lands between and Miquella over the shadow lands. I think this was their vow and the reason why Radahn froze the stars. Ranni and Miquella sharing too many instances like Ranni's doll having four arms and having Torrent at one time. It's also possible that Miquella was the one responsible in charming the Black Knife Assassins in stealing the rune of death and eventually killing Godwyn.

it could also be that radahn always agreed with miquella but was corrupted during the shattering, so they had to go to caelid to kill him in order to free his soul and so that he could be with miquella in the shadow realm.

I feel like Miquella expressed the desire, and Radahn in a placating kind of way gave a kind of "ok kid sounds like a plan." thinking he'd never get close to becoming a god, seeing as how Radahn values physical strength.

Great topic to tackle, for sure.

Malenia conspired with miquella and was his puppet. Malenia marched south to assassinate Radahn as the blade of Miquella. Radahn resisted death in his rot because he was refusing the vow. Malenia was basically there to force it on him. This part of the story was from grrm’s treatments of story, and twisting a character against our misconceptions is pretty spot on with his style of writing. It seems like what grrm did was he wrote marika’s rise to godhood and betrayal of the hornsent, the night of black knives, and the shattering itself. Miyazaki’s half of the writing seems to be in depicting everything that happens after marika’s guidance of grace returns to the tarnished, and any stories involving side npc’s. I think miquella has an abhorrent nature, where his view of others lacks humanity due to his nature of compelling hearts causing him to be unable to relate to others as people. Malenia was a slave of miquella’s from birth and having lost her connection to him after completing her end of the conspiracy, she had nothing left of a sense of self beyond being a blade of her brother. We read into her as being a noble warrior fallen from grace, but grrm twisted her and she’s actually just an evil slave of a warrior that damns an entire country to conspire to steal away radahn’s soul. I think the reason radahn broke his vow to miquela is because of his sister’s plan. His life held the stars from moving and kept her from becoming a puppet of the fingers. He made a vow to miquella in his youth, but as an adult he made a vow to ranni that he cared more deeply for and resulted in him breaking his vow with miquella and chosing his direct family over his half sibling, which falls into line with the sorts of things grrm likes to tug at in house of the dragon.

Hey miqui, you’re so fine/you’re so fine/you stole my mind/ hey miqui/ hey, hey, hey miqui! Love that song!

Ok, to be honest, I was a bit hesitant to accept this plot twist, but I quess it kinda works with the whole Miquella is a well intentioned extremeist, who wants to save the world by any means necessary, and descends into absolute tyranny. And we were pretty certain with the hints in the main game that Miquella for sure manipulates others for his own benefit. But I dont doubt this storyline came about only as the DLC went into production, or very late of the main game development. People often forget that there was an entire voiced Miquella game ending (with the same voice actress from the DLC apparently credited) datamined in the base game, and it had no hint or connection to Radahn or their relationship, and neither did any of the main game items, locations or lore. So, yes, cut content is absolutely cut and abandoned for a reason, and its not canon, but it undoubtedly shows that in some early stage of the games development, Miquella story was evisioned to be heading in a different direction. When and how that changed is debatable, but people claiming it was the vision of Myazaki or GRRM from the beginig are just coping, imo.

What is the original text? I may be able to say if it lends a different implication or meaning

Radahn likely accepted at first due to being charmed, however after the night of the black knives which is when radahn would've received his great rune, that must've helped him to overcome miquella's enchantment, after all that great rune is what was burning inside of radahn when he was affilicted with rot in order to burn the rot away and keep him alive, that specific great rune must've had an ability to "resist" all sorts of afflictions. We know that there was "one" who refused miquella's embrace, which is highly likely to be post-great rune radahn because the only other possibly I'd think of would be us but we clearly get charmed after being grabbed twice in the boss fight. This also makes sense as malenia went out to kill radahn only after the night of the black knives. So yes I do think radahn refused, I would be more inclined toward him accepting if he said anything in the boss fight, but he didn't. In the base game boss fight he didn't say anything due to scarlet rot but he would have been perfectly healthy upon his revival, and surely he'd have something to say to the person who took him down or at least to a follower of the person whose body he is inhabiting. EDIT: Another small addition is that in the memory there is that same chair you see in the morgott cutscene, which leads me to believe this was during the council that happened after the night of the black knives, which I think is when they all got their great runes, which is why I think miquella sounds worried, he must have noticed radahn breaking out of his spell to have that desperation in his voice.

I'm playing it over again, and the idea is starting to grow on me. We were told time and time again that Radahn was the mightiest demigod. Gameplay wise, it makes sense he would be the final boss.

It’s possible that promised might also mean prophesied Reason being. In game of thrones the princess who was promised is less a promise and more so a prophecy. Considering this is GRRM work maybe it’s similar in meaning between the two stories

Additional idea: Radahn's strength of will and body (he did resist the scarlet rot for centuries while holding back the stars afterall) made him immune to Miquela's bewitchment (this could also be some of what attracted Miquela to Radahn so much). Radahn refused to be the consort (either originally or in changing his mind), so Miquela sent Melania to kill Radahn (but that didn't work out until the player finishes things), and Mohg's body was chosen to be a vessel for his soul because it was susceptible to Miquela's bewitchment.

Okay so where can I find and listen to the music in this video? lol

Another point I want to bring up is Radahn holding back the stars. Why was Radahn still holding back the stars, even after losing his wits? I believe he was holding back his own fate. Due to the vow he made, becoming Miquella's consort is his fate, so he was trying to prevent that. That's also why he had to be killed: it was the only way to make him stop holding the stars back.

I also wonder how much of a hold Miquella had over his sister, at what point in their early life did he compel her towards his wishes? Is her devotion to her brother genuine or something she only Thought was genuine because it had been like that for her as long as she could remember? Melania leaves behind a blossom when defeated signaling a possible future story expansion and I wonder what effect Miquella breaking his rune might have on her? On that note I wonder what Ranni would say if she ever found out about Metyr losing contact with the Greater Will and the Fingers essentially covering up for this ever since, or did she know?

There's also Marika's vow to the Greater will. Which is what that dialogue was probably referring to. Considering she was imprisoned after betraying the golden order

Miquella is using the royal we, it's an actual Royalty thing

Love the Rains of Castamere in the background

The main theme of the DLC is of a powerful being controlling people around him against their will - we know this is the case when he loses control of Ansbach and the other NPCs that once blindly followed Miquella 'the Kind'. One of Miquella's moves in the final boss fight is to kiss and turn the player into a follower against their will, thus ending the fight. Whether Radahn initially agreed or not, I think it's safe to say that the war in Caelid was fought because he did not agree at that time. Someone else mentioned this, but his halting of the stars could also have been a ploy to try and avoid that fate (which seems to lend credence to the theory that he initially agreed to it, but later on changed his mind - he at the very least was aware of Miquella's plans and working against them). Either way, we know that Miquella can control not only tarnished, but demigods as well (Mohg is the clear example of this... possibly even Malenia - it's possible she only fought Radahn and released her rot because she was being controlled by him, which lends an added level of tragedy to her story). The entire story seems to be exploring the relationship between gods and mortals, an exploration of free-will verses determinism/destiny. Would we want a god that makes everyone march to the beat of a single drum like automatons? Or do we want a god who allows mortals to make their own choices, limited though they might be? It's all very Elric of Melnibone. I think the real question should be: who/what else has Miquella been manipulating behind the scenes? How deep does all this go?

radahn's lore could make a grown man cry. i do not believe he wanted any of this. it will *never* feel the same when fighting him in caelid from now on...

Wasnt miquella a follower of the golden order and when he abandoned it thats when radahn backed out maybe?

I think Radahn agreed to be the young Miquella's consort, but he was humouring a small child and never had any intention to follow through with it. He didn't realise how serious Miquella was.

In my opinion, leaving this up to the player’s interpretation was such a good decision. It gives us a reason to look even further into the depths of these characters. It’s the same reason why we were never really given the reason why or how Marika and Radagon were the same person. It’s very common in FromSoft writing to leave certain things vague. It’s why people still talk about Dark Souls 1 lore all these years later. As more evidence is found and new interpretations are made, I am sure this theory will switch between both sides of the argument. This DLC just came out, there is still a ton of stuff to be read and looked into deeper.

Your theory about Radahn’s swords is very compelling to me. I’m definitely a believer!

I think that something tragic happened and Radahn is the a part of that tragic story in a big way. I feel that there wasnt a choice here for Radahn if Miquella and Ranni had to rid theor body to not be puppets of the two fingers what makes us a believe Radahn wasnt also a puppet. We see what happened to Blaidd in Rannis quest. The same may be true for Radahn. I think Ranni killed Godwin cause he was her promised consort by thw two fingers. Radahn was promised to miquella after Rannis revolts. Miquella betrayed the two fingers for Melania. Tje vow Miquella stated was to free Radahn from the two fingers and grace. which is why he needed Mohg as mohg is cursed and not touched by grace. the Two Finger and Greater Will do show control over their bodies as you see Marika and Radagon locked away for the shattering Miq and Ranni had to give up their bodies to get away from the two fingers control. Radahn needed to die in body to get away from the two fingers control. At Castle Sol Miquella wants a copy of Radahns soul so that he can place it since he doesnt have the tools that ranni has. Since we know a soul and body death can be seperated. And the two fingers can control the body what is stopping us from believing that Mohgs body is being controlled by Miquella and Radahn souls is stuffef in there forced to listen... the tragedy is Marika did all this to gain control from her tragic pass and still ended up a pawn to another power along with her family

Trina was discarded only just a little bit before our arrival no?

I feel that Radahn has as much pride in himself and the decisions he makes. After all, who could or would stand up against someone who can halt the movement of the stars after he makes a decision. Ergo, once he makes the decision to honor a vow, he would not besmirch himself by changing his mind and back out of an agreement.

I feel like what potentially makes sense here is that pre-shattering, Radahn agrees to Miquella's plan as he doesn't see any other way of becoming Elden Lord, but then the shattering happens, and anyone could become Elden Lord, so he throws his army at his competitors like the rest of them - hence the Radahn vs Morgott image in the intro cutscene. As others have mentioned, this might be why Radahn halted the stars - and his fate in the process.

I think that he initially agreed under some conditions but after the shattering he decided to opt out due to his desire for war as a red main. In doing this miquella got pissed so he sent his sister to kill him and take his soul as a plan B of sorts.

There's a 6th scenario that no one else is considering: Radahn was promised to Miquella by someone else. Think about old arranged marriages and dowries; a child would often be promised to another person by their parents as a way to unify families/kingdoms or honor agreements. I think it's possible that upon receiving Empyrean status from the two fingers, Miquella vowed to become a god as long as his older brother and idol Radahn was promised to him as his consort, and the powers that be (Marika, Radagon, or the Fingers themselves) granted Miquella his wish. However when the Shattering happened there was no power structure left to guarentee Miquella's accension nor make Radahn honor that vow, so Miquella cooked up this plan to have Malenia kill Radahn and resurrect him in the Land of Shadow via Mohg. This could explain why Radahn seems unwilling despite an apparent vow (it wasn't his promise), why Malenia had to kill Radahn by any means necessary (including nuking Caelid as a desperation move), and possibly why Miquella abandoned his Haligtree (the Shattering forced a change in his plans).

You forgot the 6th school of thought: they just messed up the story. It's not unheard of that writers make such mistakes, so it's definitely a possibility. Couple this with Miyazaki's story writing technique (just make sh*t as vague as possible and hope that your audience will fill in the holes) and it makes perfect sense that something like this would happen. Also GRR Martin only wrote the lore of the game and we don't even know how involved he was with that. It's entirely possible that Miyazaki just messed up in ways that Martin didn't intend with the lore and that's why we have these discrepancies.

I believe that “promised consort” might not because he promised to be the consort, but rather because miquella promised himself to make him his consort, as to him doing the vow and promise on his own. The persistance in his boss name symbolizing the hold that Miquella has on him.

I believe he agreed. The vow likely being a worthy battle for Radahn, as was the whole point of the festival. If he was bested in combat he would die and become Miquella's consort. The way Radahn and Malenia squared off seemed very relaxed, like it was arranged. Of course it ended in a stalemate and Radahn was left a shell of his former self, but still alive. Once the Tarnished (us) enters the boss arena Miquella says 'Now the vow will be honoured'. Meaning we will honour the vow of a worthy fight. I find it odd that Miquella even asks since he can just brainwash him. The fact he asked him to promise suggests that Radahn actually did promise, assuming the vow was honoured. Malenia probably whispers those words thinking theres no way he could survive the rot bloom. She assumed she had won. After Radahn's battle with Malenia he lost his mind, meaning the vow didnt matter anymore, therefore he had to die and be brought back before the vow could be honoured once again. Only after, he becomes the consort. A vow isnt really something you can change your mind on. If Radahn vowed to be consort, I doubt he would change his mind.

I don't get why he would agree. He likes Golden Order. Melania had to fight him to try and kill him. The only reason he'd agree if he was charmed by Miq but it is possible to ressist the charm. Even the player can do it.

People say the miquella incantation is refering to the tarnished when it comes to the one he can't charm but I think it's clearly radahn

I thought maybe Miquella's great rune is what allowed him to charm people, since the spell is broken on all the NPCs once he breaks his. And the remaining power in the broken rune lets you resist his charm. However, since he can still charm you in the final fight, I wonder if he had that power innately before getting a rune. Of course, he's become godlike during the fight, so maybe he can use his charm without needing a great rune.

I think it's possible that they made the vow before the shattering. At the time, there was an assumption that an Empyrion would succeed Marika, and so all they really needed to do was wait for that time to come. But Godwyn's death, and the Shattering of the Elden Ring changed everything in the lands between, so it would make sense for Radahn to change his mind and become Elden Lord his own way. Godfrey once said "a crown is warranted by strength" so if Radahn idolized him, it's likely he saw this as an opportunity to follow in his footsteps and take the Title of Elden lord with his own strength, casting aside Miquella's vow in the process. Then at the end of the shattering, Malenia said those words as a reminder to Radahn before nuking Caelid. It's likely she intended him to die here and figured he'd have no other choice but to agree if all of his people were dead too. But, she passed out and Radahn was so strong that he managed to sustain living just barely as his rotting mindless self that we fight. And she was carried away by one of her knights, too weak after the battle to finish the job. So, now. Miquella has Mohg's body, charmed by him. And he uses it as a vessel for Radahn's soul, now that we've finally killed him. So, my theory is that the current "Promised Consort" Radahn is just an enchanted puppet, just like his followers were, and just like everyone else would be if he succeeded. Edit: It's also possible that before the battle, Radahn declared he would agree only if she defeated him in battle. Which would support my previous point about strength, and give a reason for her desperation.

I think theory 3 is the most likely theory because something we should note is that we ourselves have great runes, but miquella is able to compell our loyalty even still. So if the great tunes dont offer resistance to miquellas compelling nature, we cant think that it would do so for radhan. Demigod or not. Secondly there are many reasons radhan couldve chosen to recind his vow, miquella had his whole sales pitch based on "a thousand years of compassion," but if radhan found out that miquella was just going to force everyone to obey him, is it really compassion? Or perhaps radhan found out about the truth of marika and radagon and had his whole ideology of the elden lords thrown into question. Melania and radhans showdown also has quite a few implications when we take into account miquella feeling radhan betrayed him and loved this backwater town in caelid more than miquella, meaning melania didnt just rotnuke radhan in an attempt to finish him off out of desperation but as a way to destroy the very thing that was holding radhan back

Radahn gets a strategically hugely favorable fight at Aoenia near his home turd at Redmane castle, against Malenia who doesn’t receive help from Miquella's charming powers and has to content with long supply lines, since the Haligtree is on the other side of the continent. With the fight rigged in his favor, Radahn has the once in a lifetime chance to collect 3 Great Runes, win the Shattering and become Elden Lord, like Godrey and Radagon before. In return, he promises to become Miquella’s consort should Malenia beat him under these circumstances. Miquella couldn’t charm him because the rite of divine ascension demands, that a Lord “ushers in” the “return” of a god. At the point where Miquella has passes through the Gate of Divinity, he is bodyless, powerless, loveless, doubtless, fearless and without his charming powers. He cannot command anyone until his return gets ushered in by a Lord. And he wanted Radahn to be that Lord.

Funny Varre is the first NPC you meet and his items relating war surgeons warn of Miquella. The Misericord says “Beware the killers clothed as man of compassion”. It was not until the DLC we realized Miquella had control of the leader of the Bloody Fingers, and we should consider how that reflects his character and the cult. Should be also noted the Jerren is also a Bloody Finger when he attacks Sellen.

I think it’s the fact that Miquella wanted to become a new god and not replace the old god. So he AND Radahn needed to go into the Shadow lands. So Miquella did his thing with Mohg and Radahn needed to die. But Radahn would only die an honorable death, so Malenia was sent and it didn’t work.

I don’t understand why anyone thinks anybody was willfully working alongside Miquella. He has MIND CONTROL. It makes more sense that he’s puppeteering everyone else to get what he wants.

They missed a great oportunity to use godwyn instead of haddan

Subbed, loved the vid, looking forward to youre next vid :)

when* we get er2. it's confirmed by miyazaki. in an interview, he mentioned that he's saving some answers for a sequel

I think he refused. Someone mentioned how radahn doesn't utter a single word during the final fight. Nor a scream. He feels more like a puppet being controlled than a willing consort protecting his god. Theres also the meme about him not having his horse with him, and therefore he must be controlled. In all seriousness though, given how much radahn worshipped his father and the golden order, i really don't think he would agree with miquellas goal. I truly do think he refused

I think Radahn agreed when they were younger, and he weaker but with potential, and mequilla to cement his hold charmed him which backfired as Radahn grow old, bigger and stronger, his body forcefully broke mequilla's hold and protected his soul from mequilla's abilities and finding out that he was charmed angered Radahn so he broke the promise ( even melania's sure kill scarlet rot could only turn him into a wild beast without weakening his abilities but only his optimal use of them, hence they fail in charming him again), hence the only way to get Radahn was to destroy his original body(killing him) exposing his soul directly, and putting it into a weaker body to ensure that mequilla will never lose his hold on him again

I feel like "promised consort" is kind of akin to "promised one" or "promised lands" which kind of implies Radahn was perhaps fortold to be consort?

Anyone hear wish the devs would written a reason for godwyns soul to be restored instead?

Have you seen the statue in the Haligtree? Where a young man embraces the twins for comfort??? At first many thought that was Godwyn... but now people speculate that was Radahn the Kind... Now we "kinda" have an idea why the Miquellian-Malenia (Rot) army marched south, to get Radahn on their side... This doen't sit well with Radahn, we all knew what happened... While fending off the Eldritch horrors of space and preventing her sisters fate (Ranni) to move forward, he has to deal with this...