A Google Doodle animator is my new favorite Elden Ring lore theorist thanks to this cartoon retelling of Shadow of the Erdtree set to a Taylor Swift song

GamesRPGA Google Doodle animator is my new favorite Elden Ring lore theorist thanks to this cartoon retelling of Shadow of the Erdtree set to a Taylor Swift songWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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ELDEN RING: Animated Ode to Miquella - YouTubeWatch On

ELDEN RING: Animated Ode to Miquella - YouTube

Elden Ring lore videos should be more likeNate Sandhart’s silly two-minute animationset to a Taylor Swift song. Much as I enjoy listening to VaatiVidya read item descriptions, we could be watchingFromSoftware’s messed up little guys try to ruin the world in the style of Adventure Time.

If you’ve finishedShadow of the Erdtreeor don’t care about spoilers, you need to watch Sandhart’s goofy retelling of the story using the lyrics of Taylor Swift’s oddly fitting song “Mastermind”. In it, boy demigod Miquella skips around the Lands Between to set up a series of events leading up to the DLC while singing things like, “It was all my design / ‘Cause I’m a mastermind.”

For two years, fans believed that Miquella, cursed with eternal adolescence at birth, was the only good egg in a family of traitorous gods. But then Shadow of the Erdtree proved them wrong. Sandhart’s animation is the story of Miquella’s carefully orchestrated deceit in the style of a Cartoon Network show with visual gags, like a Post-It note with “IDK, MAYBE JUST BE EVIL?” circled and “SOLID.” written underneath, tucked into every scene.

“That world is so pitch black, you gotta cut it with humor,” says Sandhart, whose day job is creative lead on interactive Doodles for Google, in an interview with PC Gamer.

It’s almost uncanny how accurately Swift’s song describes Miquella’s point of view. As Swift sings, “To make them love me and make it seem effortless” the young demigod charms a group of warriors into having an unyielding devotion to him, which ends up being the very group who recruits you in the DLC. The video ends as Miquella steps into the Divine Gate, an ancient structure made out ofblended corpses,to rule the world with suffocating kindness. No wonderNew York Times reviewer Jon Caramanicadescribed “Mastermind” as Swift’s “villain origin story” in his review—it’s all right there in the text.

Erdtree map fragments: Uncover the Land of ShadowScadutree fragments: How to level up in ErdtreeErdtree bosses: A full hit list for the DLCLeda quest: Track the Erdtree main questSir Ansbach quest: Help the former servant of MohgHornsent quest: Complete the quest for vengeance

Erdtree map fragmentsScadutree fragmentsErdtree bossesLeda questSir Ansbach questHornsent quest

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Photo of a person animating an Elden Ring cartoon scene on an iPad

“Whenever I got to a point where it felt like I had to answer an unanswered question, I just tried to make a stupid joke out of it instead.“Nate Sandhart

“Whenever I got to a point where it felt like I had to answer an unanswered question, I just tried to make a stupid joke out of it instead.”

“When I heard ‘And the first night that you saw me / I knew I wanted your body’ and ‘I’m only cryptic and Machiavellian cause I care.’ I knew I HAD to make it,” Sandhart said. “The whole structure basically wrote itself from there.”

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Over the three weeks it took to make the animation—with his husband fact-checking each scene—Sandhart tried not to fill in the blanks that keep FromSoft fans busy for years after the games have come out. “Because the lore is so opaque, everyone has their own idea of what actually happened, which is half the fun,” he said. “Whenever I got to a point where it felt like I had to answer an unanswered question, I just tried to make a stupid joke out of it instead.”

Watching as cartoon Miquella’s puppy dog eyes come out as he sweet talks himself into godhood isn’t quite as dark as the in-game story, but it captures the absurdity of a 14-year-old with good intentions dooming the world. For all the fallen kings and dying kingdoms in FromSoft games, there are always a handful of weirdos in there too, like theLoathsome Dung Eater.Sandhart’s sense of humor is not that far off from what’s been in FromSoft games all along.

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

“The idea that Miquella was just a kinda dumb little bouncy bean just doing what he thought was super smart and not seeing the reality of it just makes me laugh,” Sandhart said.

My favorite is the scene where Miquella is dancing at the top of a cliff with his alter egoSt. Trina.He lets her go flying off the ledge to where we find her abandoned in the DLC and tiptoes off like nothing happened.

If another song comes around that fits Elden Ring’s characters as well as “Mastermind”, Sandhart says he’ll make another one. “There are so many great characters and crazy stories in that game, I could probably make 10 more videos at least!”

Image1of8(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Image1of8

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

(Image credit: Nate Sandhart)

Sketches of characters from Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in a cartoony style

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