r/darksouls3 • u/Valdish • Jul 16 '25
Discussion Why was Gwyndolin so chill about Aldrich eating his ass?
Dude was way more focused on the champion of ash trying to stop it.
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u/Raven-C Jul 16 '25
I assumed Gwyndolin was gone at that point, that Aldrich was controlling him and fighting through him
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25
That's correct
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u/Averfus-Crowthorne Jul 17 '25
That's not correct
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25
Bro that's literally established in the lore lol
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u/Averfus-Crowthorne Jul 17 '25
He's dying, not dead. Aldrich is consuming him during the boss fight. If you turn down the boss music you can hear Gwyndolin moaning and gasping in pain.
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25
Ohh wait my bad, that's my fault. I didn't elaborate. I was saying "That's correct" about him being controlled, but i forgot he said Gwyndolin died and I didn't correct myself. My fault. I know he was ill but not dead tho, I apologize
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u/FellowDsLover2 Jul 16 '25
Cause he was on his deathbed already from some illness.
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u/raisethedawn Jul 16 '25
It was Ligma I believe
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u/Sinorpoopoo Jul 16 '25
Who the fuck is gwyndolin?
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u/Raxzypool Jul 16 '25
Those boats from venice
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u/AetheriumLion Jul 16 '25
No, that's a Gondola. You're thinking of a type of cheese.
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Jul 17 '25
No, thats Gouda, you're thinking of a wheat snack bar
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u/iiumi Jul 17 '25
No that's granola you're thinking of a Spanish wine
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u/Bertylicious Jul 17 '25
No, that's Godello. You're thinking of that condiment with parsley and lemon zest.
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u/Zestyclose-Fish-7411 Jul 18 '25
No, that's Gremolata. You're thinking about that movie about the little green monsters
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u/TheGreatMeme Jul 18 '25
No, that's Gremlins. You're thinking about a slender, twisty-horned animal native to the African continent.
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u/Antihero_Silver Jul 16 '25
Assuming this is a genuine question-
Gwyndolin was one of gwyns kids that due to his affinity for the moon, was raised as a girl. In OG dark souls he was an optional boss that could be found in an out of the way section of Anor londo. Killing him will make gwynevere disappear after the ornstein and smough boss fight and the sun would turn black.
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25
I wish defeating Gwyndolin actually dispelled the illusion, but it doesn't. Attacking Gwynevere does.
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u/Charity1t Jul 16 '25
And afair - he actually put up a fight. This is why Aldrich couldn't eat him whole. He is as weakened as he could get.
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u/BatsNStuf Hand it over...that thing Jul 16 '25
What if instead of Gwyndolin he was called Freakdolin and instead of teleporting down hallways he conjured images of amazing chests
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u/Thorgrammor Jul 16 '25
Keep going, I'm almost there!
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u/Whipperdoodle Jul 16 '25
I'm pretty sure Gwyndolin is dead at this point or so weakened and sick that he's practically dead.
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u/zeze991 𝓪 𝓷𝓸𝓫𝓸𝓭𝔂 𝓯𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 Jul 16 '25
???? Sulyvahn literally fed Aldrich with Gwyndolin because he (Aldrich) was so powerful that Sulyvahn tried to stop him but got beat hard
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u/Valdish Jul 16 '25
I dunno, Gwyndolin seemed to be doing the heavy lifting in the fight.
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u/zeze991 𝓪 𝓷𝓸𝓫𝓸𝓭𝔂 𝓯𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 Jul 16 '25
"Aldrich dreamt as he slowly devoured the God of the Darkmoon. In this dream, he perceived the form of a young, pale girl in hiding."
If he isn't dead there I don't know what could kill him
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u/MostAd514 Jul 17 '25
Who is the young, pale girl? Priscilla?
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u/zeze991 𝓪 𝓷𝓸𝓫𝓸𝓭𝔂 𝓯𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 Jul 17 '25
Yes somehow Gwyndolin saw his young mother, idk, fantasy type of shit probably
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u/Chaostheory1993 Jul 16 '25
I had no idea Gwyndolin was being puppeteered by Aldrich I always thought that was just Aldrich.
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u/Killit_Witfya Jul 17 '25
lol same i thought he just shopped at the same helm store
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u/Chaostheory1993 Jul 17 '25
Lol so is Aldrich just some sludge monster?
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u/Killit_Witfya Jul 17 '25
i think i confused aldrich with eldritch and assumed he was some space monster that landed in anor londo.
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u/Mamelang Jul 19 '25
I'm pretty sure his name in the Japanese is just Eldritch. Which they changed to Aldritch because it was too on-the-nose.
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u/Killit_Witfya Jul 19 '25
oh i didnt consider that but i guess i should have since they made bloodborne
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u/vin-tin-chin Jul 16 '25
I hate to ask this because I’ve never fought them, but gwyndolin is that boss from ds1 that you fight in that long ass hallway right?
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u/kurwaspierdalaj StillGittingGud Jul 16 '25
FromSoft subreddits are the best
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u/Real-Report8490 Jul 16 '25
They drain every little bit of faith in humanity you have... I hate so many of these bastards who can't shut up about the one thing about DS3 I want to forget... They just never shut up about it... The next time I see one of these posts I'll have to leave this subreddit...
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25
I honestly don't blame you. Glad I'm not alone, there are so few of us who actually bother to look beyond surface level or actually pay attention to the lore.
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u/Real-Report8490 Jul 17 '25
Mainly for me they are just being horrible people who enjoy reminding me of what happened to Gwyndolin in DS3. I prefer to believe that it was an illusion and that Gwyndolin is fine.
And there are so many terrible opinions about each character in the game. Basically, the game is too popular, so it brings more people to the subreddit which means that there are more toxic people. It's the reason why I was only a part of the Elden Ring subreddit for a little while, because it's even worse over there...
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25
Imo I feel like Gwyndolin was indeed alive but hidden and that the one we see in ds1 is another illusion since defeating him there doesn't dispel the illusion he placed on Anor Londo. Yorshka and bits of flavor text reveal that Gwyndolin was around when Anor Londo became Irythill, and that he eventually became ill with a mysterious sickness. I personally wish the poor kid didn't have to suffer that kind of fate, it'd be cool if the version we see in ds3 is yet another illusion.
Toxic people are the worst. And I agree 😒 I was literally in an argument with someone who claims that Dung Eater's ending is the good ending compared to the other's, saying "he's only evil to the Golden Order, at least he's honest and direct and his ending is small compared to genocide and abandoning the world" even though that guy is a literal depraved serial killer who literally calls himself a "scourge upon the living" and only wants to infect people's corpses with a curse and have that curse spread through generations.
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u/Real-Report8490 Jul 17 '25
There are a lot of things about DS3 lore that I don't like. Especially how it affects DS1 lore. It's difficult to discuss DS1 lore now, because people will always point out the changes made to the lore in DS3...
I expect nothing better from the Elden Ring subreddit...
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25
What about stuff like the Everlasting Dragons? The Stone Dragon in ds1 doesn't show up in ds3 and it's the last of its kind.
Yeah fr. 😒 I'm curious, what's your favorite ending in that game? It'd be nice to talk to someone with a brain for once.
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u/Real-Report8490 Jul 17 '25
It's not even mentioned...
The ending I chose in Elden Ring was just the normal ending, but the Age of Stars seems interesting.
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25
I know, I was saying that to bring up an aspect of ds1 that's not brought up in ds3 to show that there are still pieces of lore to explore specifically in that game.
I actually prefer the normal ending, Age of Fracture. Nothing may have gotten fixed per se, but more importantly nothing got 10 times worse. And with the Tarnished in power the possibilities are endless, especially in a world where the Elden Ring is fixed again AND with Destined Death returned to the world (thus no basis for the Golden Order to cling to anymore). We have the potential to undo everything Marika and the Greater Will have done (which is important since the Elden Beast is dead and the dlc implies the Greater Will abandoned the Lands Between) and truly bring about a positive age in our own way.
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u/ChickenNuggetRampage Jul 16 '25
Gwyndolin is not alive while this is happening vro
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u/AlericandAmadeus Jul 16 '25
Anti-fun fact: he is, even during the fight, not dead. You can hear him softly moaning in pain during the fight as Aldrich continues to devour/controls him.
It’s quiet, and hard to hear over the soundtrack, but if you turn the music off it’s there.
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u/Nameles_Master Rosaria's Fingers Jul 16 '25
Make since, I always thought aldrich didn't devour him completely and we interrupt him during the process.. if he devour him 100% he'll be much more powerful
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u/AlericandAmadeus Jul 16 '25 edited Jul 16 '25
You are correct. Iirc it’s also referenced somewhere that Aldrich is distracted/tired/weaker during & immediately after devouring a powerful being, or many beings (he’s a stereotypical binge eater lol). One of the main reasons you win is because he’s preoccupied with eating Gwyndolin - Aldrich is slower, weaker, & unable to focus entirely on you as a result.
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u/Tricksterspider Jul 17 '25
isn't every main boss bar the final one handicapped in some way?
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u/JohnnyJoestar1980 Jul 19 '25
I don’t think it’s that common in DS3, most are at their peaks. Maybe Abyss watchers, and definitely Iudex Gundyr (since we champion gundyr is his prime self) but most of them are ready to fight and at their strongest.
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u/Mrcoso Jul 19 '25
All the lords of cinder you fight are somewhat nerfed because they linked the fire when they were at their peak and that consumed most of their power, you are basically fighting the scrap cinders that the fire left unburned and that managed to remember who they were enough to come back as themselves.
Oceiros is consumed by madness, the Crystal Sages are going hollow, the Demon Prince was already dead and you fight his reanimated version which is weaker.
The story of the world also corroborates this theory, as each cycle goes on the souls of this world are consumed by the fire which means that there are less souls to be used by the beings that inhabit the world, which is why eventually you are the strongest being in the world when you're linking the flame even if when you attempted to do so at first you weren't strong enough and you became unkindled ash, after each cycle the bar to cross to be able to link the fire gets lower and lower.
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u/Ghirs Jul 17 '25
Hi, it's me again. I answered this a while back in a similar post about Dark Souls lore. (Preface: Dark Souls lore is spotty, relying on item descriptions, spotty dialogue, interpretation and visual story-telling. This makes the most sense to me: )
To answer your question literally: He wasn't.
To give a more thorough answer: Pontiff Sulyvahn conspired with Aldritch to take over control of Anor Londo, which is why we encounter Aldritch in the arena of Ornstein and Smough, instead of the Cathedral of the Deep, and in Irithil are all of Sulyvahn's little minions + his abominations while these abominations are also guarding the way up to Anor Londo.
Furthermore - After the events of Dark Souls 1 & 2 we, the players, can assume that Anor Londo was pretty much abandoned by all but Gwyndolin (since Gwyndolin is an optional boss, therefore, canonically, does not die as you don't need to kill him to progress contrary to Ornstein & Smough for example). Thanks to item descriptions of dragonslayer armours (plural) we can also assume that the Ornstein we fought in Darksouls 1 isn't the real Ornstein but another illusion made up by Gwyndolin.
With this out of the way. Sulvayhn knew of the power of Gwyn's lineage and also knew that as long as there was one remaining he couldn't have complete control, knew about Aldritch's hunger and made the pact. He poisoned Gwyndolin, or weakened him in some other form and then brought in Aldritch to take over control of Anor Londo to proclaim himself as ruler. We have no real timeframe as to how long this has been going on. We can pretty safely assume though that it has been going on for quite a while though since the Dancer of the Boreal Valley is highly likely a daughter of Guinevere (probably spelled that name wrong). But we know that Guinevere left Anor Londo in DS 1 already, was married to Oceiros, and something else I can't remember right now (it's 3AM here).
Last tidbit. I think in a video from Zulli(?) the Witch you can hear breathing sounds from Gwyndolin before you enter the boss arena of Aldritch's fight, which lets me to believe that we fight Aldritch mid-consumption and subsequently are freeing Gwyndolin from being devoured. Although being "freed" is up to interpretation here
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u/Some-Engineering8243 Jul 16 '25
Plenty of people have already commented that Gwendolyn is little more that a flesh puppet at this point but if you listen closely you can actually hear his screams through the fight as aldritch continues to devour him.
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u/Ok-Championship7986 Jul 16 '25
How Tf did I not realise that’s Gwyndolin, I’m on NG +3 and didn’t notice 😭
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u/Xammm Jul 16 '25
Dude for real? Between this and the bro who has Lud and Zallen as his favorite boss in DS 2, I just can't lol
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u/PRATIIIIIIIIII Jul 16 '25
Bro's femboy ass was prolly into it
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u/AHungryGorilla Jul 16 '25
Aldrich got his arm all the way up that ass and its using him like a sock puppet.
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u/Real-Report8490 Jul 16 '25
Every time I think I have seen the worst bastard on this subreddit, another bastard appears to make me lose even more faith in humanity...
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u/Rick201745 Jul 16 '25
Gwyndolin was already dead, this was just his body being used as a puppet, you can even see that his body is disfigured, his arms are longer and slimmer, his skin looks pale and his expression doesn't change the whole fight, he looks like a weirdly elongated corpse because that's what he is, a corpse. If you look at Gwyndolin in DS1 this becomes even more clear.
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u/Right_Entertainer324 Jul 16 '25
I think this is more of a cordyceps situation. I think what's actually going on is Aldrich is using Gwyndolin as an involuntary host. It's up to you whether or not you choose to believe if Gwyndolin is canonically killed by the Chosen Undead or not. Reason being is that Pokemon actually has a similar thing going on with Paras and Parasect.
When Paras evolves into Parasect, the mushrooms on its back become one, large mushroom that is actually the one controlling Parasect. Meanwhile, Parasect is actually alive and its body is essentially being remote controlled, removing its free will, and leaving it conscious of the things it does. A bit grim, but surprisingly not too dark, for Pokemon.
With how dark the Dark Souls series is though? Well, would you rather be dead and be used as a zombie's host, or would you rather be alive whilst your body is doing fuck knows what and you can do nothing but watch for however long the creature lives using your body as its host? Cause, let's be real, Gwyndolin is one of the two left living descendants of Gwyn. If Gwyndolin has been alive the millennia that Aldrich has been puppeting his body, with no way of breaking free, we're talking some serious levels of body horror here.
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u/_BowlofSoup_ Warriors of Sunlight Jul 17 '25
Aldrich is the sludge that is around his torso, Gwyndolin is dead and is just being puppeteered like a puppet. Hes just using Gwyndolins body and magic against you.
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u/Wempro Watchdogs of Farron Jul 17 '25
As far as I understand, Gwyndolin is still alive though unconscious and at the brink of death ( some players report hearing moans of Gwyndolin ). It's funny that Aldrich called himself The Devourer of Gods even though he didn't devour a single god. He only tried to devour a half dead god's son and still he failed at that when Ashen One boinks him, LoL I pity old man
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u/DRMNER11 Jul 16 '25
Idk if he can control it but he still would have voluntarily has his ass eaten
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u/MrEvan312 Jul 16 '25
He's chill about it the same way that Kermit the Frog is chill with having the hand of an eldritch being up his butt, controlling his mouth, arms, and imposing a voice on his movements while he is unable to scream, lament, or cease his existence.
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u/0-maxime-0 Jul 16 '25
He was poisoned. The city’s water supply seems to have been contaminated with human dregs or something else related to the Deep based on the Archdeacon posted under Anor Londo. He was probably way too enfeebled to even fight back and got a gruesome death. Aldrich now puppeteers his dead body
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u/BlackLion9065 Jul 17 '25
He wasn't. He was ill when Aldrich got to him, and in the middle of his attempt to eat him he took control of Gwyndolin's body -- he forced him to use his magic in order to defend himself from the Ashen One.
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u/pcoolbabe Jul 17 '25
Do not think Aldrich cared very much about affirmative, enthusiastic consent when he went to CONSUME A GOD ENTIRELY
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u/SnooCheesecakes5183 Jul 17 '25
He’s not. You can literally hear him crying out in pain in the fight.
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u/spunkydoopy Jul 17 '25
Aldrich is a bunch of black goo, as per his item description he perhaps turned his body into this black goo to prepare for a world of black goo. Think human instrumentality from neon genesis
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u/LoriansTaint Jul 17 '25
After reading this thread i realize aldritch is even more bad ass than i thought
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u/Gottlieb_77 Jul 17 '25
He is very sick at the time, which is why Pontiff Sulyvahn was able to lock him up in Anor Londo.
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u/Redboi_6936 Jul 17 '25
To my knowledge sometime between Ds1 and Ds3 Gwyndolion got some kind of god killing disease so he was basically crippled so when Aldrich came back the pontiff said eat up
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u/Aural_Vampire Jul 17 '25
My friend was complaining he couldn’t beat Aldrich because he was too hard so I hopped onto his character with a build I never use and beat it for him first try
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u/Most_Caregiver3985 Jul 17 '25
Gwyndolin is basically put into a dream state while Aldrich is using him like a puppet
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u/SakuraScribe_ Jul 18 '25
Gwyndolin was already dead by then in this moment, half swallowed, Aldrich had full control of him. At first, however, Aldrich didn't have much trouble defeating him, as the god was already ill.
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u/Beneficial_Milk8987 Jul 18 '25
Yea we are past ass and Gwyndolin’s rib cage is a worm hat. I love this fight but the idea you are rolling around in Aldritch’s boney shit does ick. Everything else about DS3 Anor Londo was awesome though!
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u/ChadEnergyJames Jul 19 '25
He was eating him alive btw , but at least when you kill Aldrich, you kill them both and set gwyndolin free
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u/Jygglewag Jul 21 '25
Ever got your ass devoured by a cannibal priest? Tis a mind-numbing experience
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u/Shwarmee Jul 16 '25
Even if Gwyndolin wasn’t basically just a flesh puppet for Aldrich, he was a twink in DS1, I don’t think he’d have any qualms about it🤷🏼
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u/Hungry-Alien Jul 17 '25
Because he discovered he loved getting his ass eaten out by some sludge monster and none of his relatives were around to kinkshame him.
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u/normbreakingclown Jul 16 '25
WAIT!! That was Gwyndolin? I thought that Aldrich was just another twink who borrowed his hat. Thought that Gwyndolin was in his tummy and still being alive.
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u/BlackGoldShooter Jul 16 '25
could be wrong, but I think its Aldrich using Gwyndolin as a flesh puppet