The Divine Beast Dancing Lion

So, one evening, while watching a some Elden Ring speedrunners, my husband commented that he wondered if the DLC boss Divine Beast Dancing Lion had the same weak point on the head. When I asked why it wouldnt’ be so, he said it was because of the way it’s a puppet boss, so woudln’t the weak points be the performers. Which made me realise that I should do a whole video on this. So today, we’re going to talk about why this boss is actually a dancing lion.

Let’s start with doing a more in depth look on this boss. From the moment the DLC was first announced, I thought this boss had a super cool design. It was obvious from that first look that this was a different kind of design. In this, it’s two humanoid figures manipulating a puppet of the divine beast moving the figure around. Zulle the Witch did a video on the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, showing that the model for the boss actually does have these figures programmed in.

The story behind the boss is that these divine beasts were once messengers of the heavens. People called the sculpted keepers used representations of these divine beasts to perform rituals such as the one for the lion dance. However, once Messmer came, the ritual turned to more martial means and the once divine creatures were used for army or for sport.

So let’s talk about this. The Ritual of the Dancing Lion in Elden Ring is very reminscent of the dancing lion rituals from China. In fact, rituals like this are not exactly abnormal nor unique to either China or FromSoft. Masked rituals, and other similar ones in which performers dress in costume or mask, are enacted as a way to bring the divine - or whatever figure is being represented - to live, temporarily, among them. Oftentimes, this performance is as a re-enactment of the feats and narratives of the figures the performers are representing.

In these various rituals, the identity of the performer and the identity of the performed become enmeshed. There are a lot of different ways to explain this. In a more theatrical sense, we have Richard Schechner’s distinction between make believe and make belief. Make believe is something we’re used to - it’s the childish “as if” play where we are consciously aware of the distinctions present between reality and fiction, our seperation of what is us and what is the played actor. Make belief, on the otherhand, intentionally blurs these boundaries. In other words, some performances are meant to be more real than others, and to purposefully bring the real into the play, and the play into the real.

Now, a real quick note on the idea of “play”. In Western thought, we think of play as something childish and unimportant. Play is something that we grow out of, and is not something worthy of actual adult consideration. This has also impacted academic approaches to play - where play is either studied as part of childhood studies, or academics make leaps to try and justify their studies. The term “serious play” for example has been used by sociologists and academics such as Sherry Ortner and Tanya Luhrmann. Even Clifford Geertz’s conception of “deep play” attempts to paint play as something actually socially relevant. However, both deep play and serious play have a side effect. By saying “this play is different, this play is serious” we are still maintaining the conception of play as something frivilous. It’s not that all play is serious, but this play is serious.

So when I say play, I don’t mean that its frivilous or childish, but that its serious and important. Not because its different than other play, but because play is just like that - it’s always serious, but also not at the same time. Ritual is a great example of this - its a form of play that is typically considered different. But what paints ritual as different than other forms of play is all in the categorisation of the moment.

Let’s look at the dance of the Divine Beast for this. In the lore of the world, this ritual was an important act for the Hornsent, one which allowed the community to connect to the Heavens through their messengers - the Divine Beasts. After Messmer’s conquering, however, the beasts were put to different purposes, mostly militarily. While militaries can still have their rituals, the purposes, activities and engagements are rather different. These kinds of alterations happen all the time, especially when colonisation occurs. But which activities at what point are considered what kinds of rituals? These definitions are amorphous, constantly changing, and up to interpretation. But that’s a whole ‘nother discussion for a whole ‘nother day.

Anyway, if we think about ritual in terms of Schechner’s make belief, where the boundaries of the real and the play are blurred, we have another note to make about the notion of “real”. Reality is the dimensions of the possible - in other words, our conception of reality is based on what we consider to be possible in the world. Therefore, reality is something that can be entirely cultural based.

For some of you watching this video, the idea of speaking to God, and hearing responses back, whether actually or symbolically, is probably an idea that sounds unrealistic and impossible. For for others of you watching this, it’s entirely possible, and quite probably an every day experience for you.

Let me tell you a story. Back when I used to teach at a university, we used to have the first year students do a fieldwork project: they were asked to go to some kind of religious service (I taught religious studies), and to do a little report. The city we were in had a Spiritualist church which sat very near to the university, so many students saw an opportunity to have fun. Spiritualist churches are known for their communication with the dead - an experience that many students found impossible. Therefore, they thought they would be able to have a laugh while doing this project.

We ended up having to stop doing this project, because so many students who went to the Spiritualist church - or other non-Christian churches - had an existential crisis and mental breakdowns because they experienced something outside of their conception of reality.

Now you may roll your eyes at this, but do remember that so did my students before they went.

The point is this: many cultures have conceptions of what’s possible, which may or may not line up with what you see as possible. So when we have a performance which blurs reality and performance, creating an effect on the real, this is fully within the realms of their reality.

And I know, I know - I’m talking about a video game at the end of the day, which is not real. We can all agree on that. But a lot of Elden Ring is based on very real cultures and ideas. The Dancing Lion Divine Beast is based on Chinese lion dances. Languages and mythologies are derived from Welsh and Old English. There are connections to the meat world in a lot of fiction. In many ways, we can use our engagement with fiction to do a reverse almost of Schechner’s make belief - by playing in these spaces and thinking about them seriously, we can also reveal new ideas that can affect our understanding of the reality outside of these play spaces.

So let’s talk about more physical meat world stuff for a second. Let’s talk about masks and masked performances. These are quite common in a lot of areas of the world, including the Americas and Asia. Our Chinese lion dance can in many ways be described as a masked performance - a masked ritual in which performers wear their costumes and perform. However, calling them costumes and performances can be detrimental to really understanding what’s happening in these rituals.

When someone puts on a mask in these types of dances, there is a direct play happening between the identities of the performed and the performer. The mask represents the Otherness, whether this is a god, or a messenger of the gods, or a mythic hero. But the mask also has an ambiguity to it, because it is both of this supernatural or Other figure, as well as for the very human entity to wear it. The Otherness it represents becomes both an obstical for the performer - who is unable to be fully a god or whatever the figure is - but also is the goal. I talked about this a bit more in depth on my video on Orville Peck’s mask, if you’re interested.

But essentially, these performances are a direct mixing of identities. The person wearing the mask is not just a person in a costume - they are that Other entity, though only temporarily. In that moment, the play of make belief is very real, very serious, and very actualised in the world. The performance and the performed are the same.

So, essentially, the two figures hidden under the costume of the dragon in Elden Ring are not just figures in a costume. During the entirety of their performance, they are the lion. They are not figures manipulating a mask, the mask’s Otherness as come alive. This is why they are able to channel the powers of the lion’s identity - because the lion is there, in the room. They are just the conduits for it to happen.

So yes, the lion’s head is the weak point, because this performance is not playing “as if” the lion is real, but it actually is.