Elden Ring Is A Great Example Of How Tragedy Can Be Gender Coded
Elden Ring is a game full of tragedy, from fallen demigods to death around every corner. Elden Ring players get betrayed many times by various NPCs and watches many others perish. The game has a lot of dualities with imagery between silver and gold and twins, like Mohg and Morgott and Miquella and Malenia. It does not end there, as many items are collected in two halves.
Last but not least, there is a lot of duality between men and women in the game. As with any media, the two genders are treated pretty differently. In Elden Ring, though, it becomes apparent that there is a sort of gender coding when it comes to what tragedies men face versus what tragedies women face. The men are victims of madness, of being the betrayer, of acting out of pride or greed while the women typically are victims of grief, sacrifice, and sickness.
Spoilers for Elden Ring ahead.
Elden Ring: What is Destined Death?
Masculine coded tragedy is the most prominent in Elden Ring, as most bosses are male. Commonly, they fall to madness or some form of ambition. The most obvious of the madness tragedy is Radahn, who has gone mad from Scarlet Rot and can be seen eating the bodies of people in the desert. He is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Blaidd is another man who fell to madness because he remained loyal to Ranni but was built to push her toward a certain destiny. There is also Edgar, who goes mad for revenge for the death of his daughter to the point that he no longer recognizes anyone. Bloody Finger Hunter Yura gets possessed by Shabriri, whose entire thing is chaos and madness.
The men who face tragic ends that are not madness are instead due to various kinds of ambition. Rykard hopes to devour the gods, and sacrifices everything that he is to
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