Regarding the symbolism of Marika's iconic pose with her arms outstretched, it is supposed to represent her embracing all living things and granting them grace through the Erdtree, but in a cruel twist of fate, when the Tarnished find her at the end of the game she's been pretty much crucified and stabbed in the same pose by the Greater Will, as punishment for shattering the Elden Ring...

So Aspects Of The Crucible, the horns and wings you see on Omen and Misbegotten, use to be seen as divine, but as modern civilisation advanced they started to look down on it. Its the same with the Crucible Knights which use Crucible Incantations and are physically strong, but over time were seen as scary because of their strength. What makes it worse is that Omen are born graceless but Marika is able to give people grace, and in game Morgott is called "The Grace Given". This implies that people with Crucible Aspects were 100% discirminated because of their appearance. Now how does the Dung Eater play into this?
The Dung Eater's questline and ending is basically Syndrome from The Incredibles "if everyone is super, then no one is" if everyone is cursed and born an Omen/Misbegotten/Revenant, then there's no discrimination by the Golden Order, because that becomes the norm.

Am I the only one who gets chills when morgott looks back at his brothers and sisters as traitors?

I think the thing about us being the Dung Eater is more metaphorical since anyone who would actively follow the path of the Dung Eater to achieve his ending is ultimately as foul as the Dung Eater himself, storywise. In a way it means we too have an Omen mind just like the Dung Eater, even if we don't have omen bodies. That causes us to curse the Golden Order just like the Dung Eater.

But trust me, the story of the Dung Eater is not any easier to follow when you play the game, the whole story relies on some typically japanese ideas of souls and curses.

As a note on Marikas crucified imagry, it is very interesting and goes deep into the entire lore of Elden Ring. The surface level explanation is that she was crucified because she shattered the Elden Ring, so the Elden Beast crucified her to kind of keep her in check, but the statues and stuff are probably way older than that event, so surely it was expected or planned by someone. But thats why we find her crucified inside the Erdtree before she falls down and turns into Radagon who fights us since he is on the side of the Elden Beast, which is the vassal of the Greater Will. But the theories as to why Marika destroyed the Elden Ring goes deep, she might have orchastrated all of this for some purpose. But until the DLC we're missing alot of lore about the two characters most related to that topic, Godwyn and Miquella.

It reminds me a bit of Bloodbornes lore which practically didn't make any sense until the DLC came out. Elden Rings lore makes sense but the core of the conflict is still a mystery, and thats intentional. "Golden one, at whom were you angry?"

I love this one, it also means we're getting closer to the Age of the Duskborn.

I love how the dung eater is the only straight forward guy in the lands between. He is in his cell, tells you that if you let him out, he will defile corpses and kill your friends, and if you let him out, he goes ahead and does just that.

"Queen Marika,, at whom were you so angry? And..why?!" ...

We know the answer to this tragedy now...  thanks to the DLC..hope we get way more amazing videos like this, so you two beautiful people, can share your thoughts with us.

The Dung Eater mentions that some will be born like him, with the mind of an Omen if not the body; a mind that recoils from the Golden Order and instinctively feels hatred for its Grace. If the player character chooses to follow this quest, and ally with the Dung Eater, it can be assumed that the player is one such Tarnished, with the mind of an Omen. I think that’s what he meant, he doesn’t literally possess you and you aren’t literally him either.

The thing about Elden Ring Characters is that not many of them are nice to you, but the one that are leave a strong impression. So when something bad happens to them its extra sad.

To become the Dung Eater we must kill the Dung Eater and defile his corpse with the Seedbed Curse. So that all the world shall become cursed with the same curse, which is the severing from the Grace. So, basically, all the world becomes the Omen. No more Grace, so the curse becomes the blessing. Something like that, very confusing but makes sense when you think about it long enough.) Loved your reactions and your thoughts, cheers!

Godfrey was banished by Marika sometime along with the Tarnished. We don't know how their relationship was but I thought it was heartbreaking and spoke volumes how sad he is to find his son Morgott dead and decrepit upon his return. He probably was against imprisoning them but couldn't do much against Marika.

One of the many intertwining story lines you can follow, and realize the Dung Eaters "faith/believe." (I just wanted his armor and sword, lol.)

Also that Lion on Godfrey's back holds his power in check, they didn't show it here but in phase two of the battle he kills the lion and goes berserk.

So traditionally, most don't simply stay dead. A red phantom of an individual is a sort of manifestation of them going against you in Soulsborne/Elden Ring games. Dung Eater is someone who once followed Order as a believer, but would turn his back on it as it stands. There is but one other factor to him. He can't be turned into an Omen being despite wanting to. Us not being effected by the curse makes us to be something different from others, and the first other that Dung Eater has ever seen. His first assumption after being sure of this is that we're someone alike. Perhaps even in interests to carry on his work as a stronger candidate to the duty. More thought out Tarnished of the Roundtable Hold are familiar with the means to sacrifice their line of grace in their lively being to produce a fragment of order capable of mending into that of the Elden Ring's. Thus he would sacrifice his own for his greater cause than simply fixing order. He would entrust us to carry out this deed, by coalescing the form with his tools of cursing in enough with his being. With him dead, we get his armor, his weapons, and a cursing Mending Rune decorated with Omen horns. His choice of armor suggests the type of Omen that he sees in himself. The removed horns might be suggesting that he's common born and not a noble. Anything more to this topic is speculation, but it gets pretty interesting.

Awesome to see y’all finally react to this one! Vaati’s videos on the endings of Elden Ring are definitely easier to understand once you’ve seen them all, its easier to parse the recurring thematic elements and more abstract mechanics of them once you’ve seen it play out a couple times. Age of the Duskborn next, please? It’s probably Vaati’s best video imo, and it’s about one of the most interesting endings.

Speaking of Morgot feeling love and his connection to Godfrey. Vat's vid mentions how Morgot created illusions of himself to fight the player, which he does twice, first outside Godricks castle to protect him, then outside the city walls. But once your Tarnished enters the Erd Tree Palice (just before the Erd Tree throne/where you fight him), your confronted with arguably the biggest jump scare in the game.

*Godfrey, the first eldern Lord*

Or a lordy apparician, created my Morgot. So, he must value/love or respect Godfrey enough for him to be Morgots final line of defence.

Also, local's around the palace remark how they're waiting for their lord (Godfreys return to reclaim the throne), and you could argue that Morgot it also waiting, as in his cutscene he declares all his siblings to be discraces undeserving of the throne, but doesn't mention his father who as tarnished would inevitably return (so Morgot would have mentioned him if he hated him, as his return was innevitable).

But hay ho that's just my two sence about it. This reaction was the first time I've watched this vid as well so had a great time watching along.

Seeing how much the dung eater sympathizes with (or perhaps more accurately, relates to) the omen, to the point that he wears armor bearing horns, you have to wonder about his life before he became the dung eater.

What horrible event happened in his life to make him such an angry, cruel, uncaring monster? What kind of upbringing did he have that made him look at the omen, creatures reviled and thrown away by their own parents, and see a mirror of his soul?

You dont build such hatred as the hate he expresses off of nothing.

People laughing at dung eater's name in the pre-release trailer, and Miyazaki laughing right there with us for completely different reasons. Defilement is definitely one of the top 5 things in Elden Ring to run away from very fast.

The whole concept of the Dung Eater is that he wishes the world suffers for the prejudice that the omens went through to create the golden order. The character who follows the Dung Eater kills the Dung Eater to continue his mission and forge a ring of despair, meaning the main character becomes the new Dung Eater so to say.

Dung Eater's ending (also known as Blessing of Despair Ending) inflicts the Lands Between and all of its inhabitants with the fell curse. It is the same curse brought about by Dung Eater's defilement. The player (tarnished) doesn't necessarily have to "become Dung Eater" to get this ending, but they are essentially fulfilling Dung Eater's wishes by cursing the land. The video connects this by having the player wear Dung Eater's armor set. After all, the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse (required for this ending) is gained by defiling Dung Eater himself.

So to summarise Marika's story:

She was chosen by the "Greater Will" (a formless god) to be its vessel. She then made the Golden Order, a religion, a concept, a culture. Then she married the (then) strongest warrior: Hoarah Loux, and gave him Serosh as his lion-shadow who forced Hoarah Loux to be more obedient and peaceful. This made Hoarah Loux become Godfrey, The First Elden Lord.

Marika and Godfrey had 3 (maybe 5) children together: Godwyn of Gold (and later Death), Morgott the Omen(-King) and his twin Mohg (Lord of Blood) ((And maybe Godrick and Godefroy))

Then there was another warrior named Radagon, Marika's other self (other half?) whom she had 2 (maybe 4) more children with: Malenia (blade of) Miquella. ((And maybe Melina and Messmer))

Then all of a sudden, after the war with the other forces, after the war with the Fire Giants and every other "threat" against the Golden Order, after all the killing and banishing of the loyal, now Tarnished, Warriors... Queen Marika the Eternal broke the Elden Ring into pieces. The Elden Ring is the 'code' that keeps the logic of this world. And Marika broke it, presumably out of shame and grief of what she had done all these years. And Radagon tried to repair it, but that was too late. Pieces had been stolen (one was used to kill Godwyn, her first son), and Radagon had begun fusing back with Marika.
As a punishment for her crimes against her own Golden Order: She was hung up on a small piece of her now-broken Elden Ring.

That is what makes that pose so iconic. Took me a long way to explain it, but I hope I did a decent job...