What is the "best ending"

[code]

I've been watching a bunch of videos that I don't feel the authors truly understand what exactly is going on so I want to get some options.

- The Erdtree governs the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
- When people die, their souls are supposed to return to the Erdtree for rebirth or rest.
- The Cursemark of Death (Destined Death) was removed by the Greater Will, disrupting the natural death cycle and causing some beings to live unnaturally long or become undead-like.
- Those who become undead can still eventually die or have their souls reclaimed under certain conditions (like destined death being restored).

The Greater Will enforces an endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth through the Erdtree, leading to continuous wars, curses, and despair. In the current world, death is broken but can be restored (e.g., through other endings like the Age of the Duskborn or Fractured Marika ending).

Dung Eaters Ending

The Dung Eaters ending basically signifies a world that breaks the undead curse so esentially all the In the Dung Eater’s world, death is permanently corrupted—no rebirth, the seedbed curse defiles the body and soul so thoroughly that they become irrecoverable—Rennala cannot reforge them, and the Greater Will will not reclaim them. So in my opinion it's better of an ending of the world because the death curse has been removed.

Frenzied Flame Ending

The Frenzied Flame ending burns everything—the Erdtree, the Golden Order, and the entire world—eliminating the cycle altogether. With nothing left, there can be no more suffering, no more gods imposing their will, and no more broken systems to trap souls.
While it seems nihilistic, it’s the only ending that removes all forms of external control, including the tyranny of the Elden Ring itself. The Frenzied Flame offers a solution to all these tragedies by burning away existence itself, freeing them from eternal stagnation and pain.

The Frenzied Flame ending is “good” because it offers true freedom, even if it comes through total annihilation.

Simp Ending (Ranni)

The Age of Stars ending, linked to Ranni the Witch, is considered by many the most "good" or hopeful ending in Elden Ring, though it comes with its own complexities. It represents a complete rejection of the Greater Will and the Erdtree's influence, but instead of destroying everything like the Frenzied Flame, it offers a more distant, cold freedom that breaks the cycle of suffering without annihilation.

But if all ya'll forget, all of the Greater Will comes from "space and stars," meaning its power and influence are not native to the Lands Between. It's an Outer God, an extraterrestrial force that imposed the Golden Order upon the world.

This means that the Age of Stars ending doesn’t just break free from one god’s rule—it rejects the influence of all Outer Gods, including the Greater Will itself. Ranni’s path leads to a future where the world is no longer bound by cosmic entities meddling in mortal lives.

So, in essence, the Age of Stars signifies a complete severance from the celestial control that shaped the Lands Between, leaving behind a world that can finally determine its own fate without the stars, space, or gods dictating its destiny.

Freedom without death: The world continues, free from tyranny, but not destroyed.

- Age of Fracture (Elden Lord): Restores the same broken order, ensuring the cycle of suffering continues.
- Age of Duskborn: Introduces a new form of death but still follows the Erdtree’s influence.
Blessing of Despair (Dung Eater): Traps everyone in endless, cursed existence.
- Age of Order (Goldmask): Imposes a stricter, “perfected” order—still control by another power.

So out of all of these I would say Frenzie or Ranni would be the "best" outcome for the world.

[Alby]

frenzied flame cause after taking one look at the Elden Ring forums, you'd want to burn everything, too

[ɸ It That Dwells ɸ]

Frenzied Flame, no contest.

[Gamerzilla]

Frenzied flame: Ranni hates you. Melina hates you. You are maidenless FOREVER.
Age of Stars: Melina cant hate you if she is ashes, also you have a blue waifu!

[the titular Elden Ring]

I think that, depending on your interpretation, either Ranni's or Goldmask's endings are best. Goldmask, if I understood correctly, sought to perfect the order of the world through rejecting the influence of any gods, presumably including the Outer Gods, that would meddle with it. His mending rune would purge the Elden Ring of such influence and leave behind perfect order. You still become Marika's Lord, and the Elden Ring is still sovereign. Ranni's ending, by contrast, discards the Elden Ring entirely and leaves the Lands Between to decide for themselves, finally free from the influence of the gods. Both achieve a similar outcome IMO, but in Goldmask's ending you're still sitting down and ruling the Lands to try and bring them back to order, while in Ranni's ending you leave with her.

[Lady Miquella]

I like Fia's ending because she likes the tarnished and sleeps in bed with them. She also removes the undead curse from the tarnished and now they are mortal under her ending.

More or less all endings, except one, root for one fraction or the other as winning. Golden Mask is for Marika's order with slight improvements to the order to make it slightly better; Dung Eater makes everyone in the world to grow horns on their body like the Horned species in the dlc who suffer eternally and therefore his ending is global suffering and despair; and so on..

The only ending which does not have a winner is the frenzied which destroys all life. That actually is the faith of our real universe. The name frenzy and chaos is not chosen arbitrarily here. This is the faith of the universe, the destruction of the universe under the laws of thermodynamics and the ever increasing entropy of the universe from order to disorder. Disorder, hence chaos. The universe will end up in a "perfect" state of disorder and everything including matter will disintegrate. Photons never get destroyed but in ever increasing universe, their wavelength stretches so much that essentially light also stops to exist. But in a universe with no observes left in it, light has no meaning anymore as well and that is the highest form of entropy the universe is headed towards.

But you missed one essential ending. That of Miquella. Her ending is the ending of a world of compassion. Something maybe close to imagine as Jesus Christ.

[John Titor]

Originally posted by code:

What is the "best ending"

Flamzy frems. The Flimsy frams. You know, the flamsam fremens. One of those.

Note: autocorrect changed "fremens" to "premenstrual". I probably should have kept it.

[pix]

The one that lets me go out with godfrey.

[code]

"Photons never get destroyed but in ever increasing universe, their wavelength stretches so much that essentially light also stops to exist. "

I don't think the Frenzied Flame causes universal heat death. I think it's more akin to what happened with the Primordial Crucible. I honestly feel like Elden Ring is a precursor to Darksouls "universe" and how the highest order / system is flame.

Originally posted by chum:

But you missed one essential ending. That of Miquella. Her ending is the ending of a world of compassion. Something maybe close to imagine as Jesus Christ.

I don't consider the DLC cannon, fight me.

But realistically is that actually a ending if it never happenes? And wouldn't it just be her `mind` controlling everyone how would that be good?

[Dis Lexic]

Originally posted by chum:

I like Fia's ending because she likes the tarnished and sleeps in bed with them. She also removes the undead curse from the tarnished and now they are mortal under her ending.

More or less all endings, except one, root for one fraction or the other as winning. Golden Mask is for Marika's order with slight improvements to the order to make it slightly better; Dung Eater makes everyone in the world to grow horns on their body like the Horned species in the dlc who suffer eternally and therefore his ending is global suffering and despair; and so on..

The only ending which does not have a winner is the frenzied which destroys all life. That actually is the faith of our real universe. The name frenzy and chaos is not chosen arbitrarily here. This is the faith of the universe, the destruction of the universe under the laws of thermodynamics and the ever increasing entropy of the universe from order to disorder. Disorder, hence chaos. The universe will end up in a "perfect" state of disorder and everything including matter will disintegrate. Photons never get destroyed but in ever increasing universe, their wavelength stretches so much that essentially light also stops to exist. But in a universe with no observes left in it, light has no meaning anymore as well and that is the highest form of entropy the universe is headed towards.

But you missed one essential ending. That of Miquella. Her ending is the ending of a world of compassion. Something maybe close to imagine as Jesus Christ.

First of, Miquella is a guy, second, its really isnt a good ending. His 'Age of Compassion' is basically an age of forced mind control. By the time he reached the point of assertions, Miquella had discarded everything that made him even remotely Human, all of his love, emotions and even compassion, leaving behind nothing but a power hungry shell. Anyone who followed him would end up as a puppet to his will. Perhaps not as bad as some, but sure as hell not something to aspire to.

[Dr.Acula]

I don't like that the "chaos" of the frenzied flame was basically presented as going insane and total annihilation. None of the other endings are really good. On my first play through with the information I had and saw in the game I thought chaos and the freedom it provides would be the best approach.

it resulting in the whole world burning for me was just a "might as well" due to how terrible basically everything looked beforehand.

The problem is that we never got to see the Lands in Between in its good days. All you get to see is misery and deformed monsters. Why am I supposed to take control of that and establish some kind of order that will likely result either in the same or in something worse? Also why would I want to care about any of the inhabitants of this "world" if 99,99% of them are trying to murder me?

It's also part of the reason why I'm not very fond of the fromsoft writing in soulsborne games. There is almost no narrative and just background lore for the most part and the little narrative there is is usually so bare bones that it makes it feel hard to care about anything in this regard.

[code]

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

I don't like that the "chaos" of the frenzied flame was basically presented as going insane and total annihilation. None of the other endings are really good. On my first play through with the information I had and saw in the game I thought chaos and the freedom it provides would be the best approach.

it resulting in the whole world burning for me was just a "might as well" due to how terrible basically everything looked beforehand.

The problem is that we never got to see the Lands in Between in its good days. All you get to see is misery and deformed monsters. Why am I supposed to take control of that and establish some kind of order that will likely result either in the same or in something worse? Also why would I want to care about any of the inhabitants of this "world" if 99,99% of them are trying to murder me?

It's also part of the reason why I'm not very fond of the fromsoft writing in soulsborne games. There is almost no narrative and just background lore for the most part and the little narrative there is is usually so bare bones that it makes it feel hard to care about anything in this regard.

To me it's more of a "reset" like a big bang or some other form of rebirth. Clearly it doesn't destroy everything as the world's still intact, and your maiden is still alive.

As for the lore, I actually prefer it. It allows you to try and continue to piece it all together with different ideas or theories. I don't need to be spoonfed the story as it doesn't change the universe for me. The best part of souls is the Idea that there was something great that happened and you get to see what that was thousands of years into the future.

Some of the most amazing things is to be looking at a dead dragon and theorize what killed it and how it died.

[Dr.Acula]

Originally posted by code:

Some of the most amazing things is to be looking at a dead dragon and theorize what killed it and how it died.

You can have parts of that in the game but basing the entire narrative around "fill in 90% of the gaps yourself" is just lazy bare bones writing.

[code]

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

Originally posted by code:

Some of the most amazing things is to be looking at a dead dragon and theorize what killed it and how it died.

You can have parts of that in the game but basing the entire narrative around "fill in 90% of the gaps yourself" is just lazy bare bones writing.

I don't think so, how much actual human history do you know? Maybe 0.00000000001%?

It's not lazy writing as most of the game is actually explained through the environment, where items, creatures and characters are found.
The game goes into great detail in not directly explaining what's going on but doing it in external ways.

You know all the major lore in ER. You don't need to know why every little thing happened, and if there's an item description or env clue then I think that's great. I enjoy the mystery.

[Lord Bob]

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

Originally posted by code:

Some of the most amazing things is to be looking at a dead dragon and theorize what killed it and how it died.

You can have parts of that in the game but basing the entire narrative around "fill in 90% of the gaps yourself" is just lazy bare bones writing.

Well, it's a good thing that the entire narrative is not based around the player filling in the gaps themselves.

[Dr.Acula]

Originally posted by Lord Bob:

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

You can have parts of that in the game but basing the entire narrative around "fill in 90% of the gaps yourself" is just lazy bare bones writing.

Well, it's a good thing that the entire narrative is not based around the player filling in the gaps themselves.

But it is though. The most fleshed out story would be the one related to Ranni and even that is lack luster at best and leaves the ending in a very ambiguous state.