Representation in Media: Disability in FromSoftware's "Elden Ring"

What is "Elden Ring"?

• Video Game, released globally in February of 2022
• Latest in the “Souls” series of video games by Japanese video game development company FromSoftware (also known as Fromsoft)
• Long-awaited, highly acclaimed, lived up to the pre-release excitement, 2022’s Game of the Year
• Incredibly bleak world and storyline, featuring 6 main/unique endings
• Great!
• Wait, great? Yes!
• Bury Your Disabled / Bury Your Gays Trope does not apply

Characters (A Few Examples)

• Melina
• Main Story NPC, Essential to 5 of 6 endings
• Monocular Vision, Movement Impairment
• Hyetta
• Unique Questline
• Blind
• Sorcerer Rogier
• Unique Questline
• Initially able-bodied, later crippled by "Death Blight"
• Millicent
• Unique Questline
• Missing dominant right arm, Scarlet Rot (rotting from within)
• Malenia
• One of the Most Difficult Boss Fights in all of FromSoftware's games
• Missing right arm, both legs from the knee and thigh down respectively, Scarlet Rot

Conclusion

• Variety of characters in a variety of roles
• Non-quest NPC's, Unique Quest NPC's, Main Story NPC, Minibosses, Main Bosses
• These characters may have both good and bad endings
• Never reduced to their archetype

For more detail and pictures, check out the full presentation here!

Disability in Elden Ring.pptx