Funny / Elden Ring: The Road to the Erdtree

• The manga begins with a beautiful rendition of the game's opening cutscene, concluding with the title page revealing the Tarnished of no renown... who's face-down on the ground in nothing but his fraying underwear. Not only does this page also have an announcement that this is going to be a comedy manga, but the chapter's title is "You Thought This'd Be Serious, Didn't You?"
  • The chapter names in general are pretty humorous. The following chapter titles are all in the format of the game's message system (e.g. "Likely Maiden", "Praise the Advice!").
• Melina is incredulous that Torrent thinks this nearly-nude Tarnished has the potential to be the new Elden Lord, as she likens him to an underwear mannikin that someone threw away. Torrent's reasoning is that he thinks the Tarnished has a nice firm butt, which by horse standards is a very important trait.
  • The very fact that our hero is a Wretch, a class that spawns 1) with naught but fundoshi and a big stick, and 2) with minimal stats. His stats in particular mean that he's a scrawny, ineffectual dimwit too stupid to remember his own name. Plus, his attitude and loss of memory before the story begins make him seem less like a character in Elden Ring and more like a player dragged into the Lands Between.
  • When they get to talk properly, Aseo claims to have no idea about anything, much less what an Elden Ring is. Melina mutters "that damn horse" under her breath before explaining.
• Melina wonders how to ensure that the Tarnished won't lose the Crimson and Cerulean Flasks, as he isn't wearing anything that they can be stored in (something that reflects how many skilled players chose to go about the game). A few pages later, Aseo (and the reader) discover her solution: suction-sealing the Flasks to his butt. It turns into a Running Gag that she reattaches them there every time he falls unconscious.
• Our introduction to Aseo proper is listening to him complain about how illogical it is for the door of the Fringefolk Hero's Grave to be opened by lifting it from the bottom, specifically griping that unlike the lift up to it, the door isn't automatic.
• Varre launches into his ominous speech about how the Tarnished is doomed, only for Aseo to swing at him with a club. When Varre asks why he did that, Aseo complains that the first person he meets saying a bunch of stuff that spells out his demise isn't a very good look for them.
• Aseo asks a Tree Sentinel if he can hitch a ride to Stormveil Castle with him, causing Varre to let out an "Oh dear..." The Sentinel promptly uses his shield to send Aseo flying, with the Tarnished landing on the crossbeam of a cross.
• Upon meeting Melina (properly) for the first time, the Tarnished is starstruck. In response, she starts speaking slowly because she's getting fed up and has started to think he's simple.
• Despite Aseo wanting to go for a strength build, Melina puts all his runes into intelligence because she figures he needs it. It becomes a running gag that Melina insists on leveling up only his intelligence.
  Aseo: (About Melina) She'll treat me like an idiot and blow all my runes on intelligence again.
• Gatekeeper Gostoc shows Godrick the Grafted some of the latest graftings, which include several hands making heart shapes called "Tender Love", three feet and an arm called "Leaps and Bounds", and a crustacean pincer with tiny limbs called "Bring it On!". He complains about their lack of quality as if he were a bratty teenager and tells Gostoc to make something trendy and more balanced, much to the latter's confusion.
  Godrick: Aren't they all, like, bleh? Lately it seems you're all, y'know, like, quantity over quality? I need something trendy. Something that'll turn heads in the capital, y'know? Make that.
  Gostoc: Um... okay, milord... [thinking] Trendy? Nobody gives a damn about that except you...
• Aseo decides to taunt the Tree Sentinel and lead him on a horseback chase once he gets access to Torrent, only for the horse to suddenly stop to eat some rowa raisins that Varre gathered. As Torrent chows down, the Tree Sentinel catches up and sends Aseo flying onto a crossbeam again, this time using his halberd.
• In the game, Blaidd struggles with finding Darriwil because he's hidden in an Evergaol. In the manga, it turns out that Blaidd is simply utterly inept at reading maps or following directions. When Aseo gives him a map from Kalé, Blaidd spends a while reading it upside down, listening to Aseo (who's not particularily smart himself) patiently explain it, and considers climbing the Erdtree just so he can see Limgrave on the same scale as the map. Aseo ends up having to guide him there personally.
  • Blaidd also suffers from Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!, chasing after anything round.
  • When they're attacked by a pack of actual wolves, Blaidd insists that they're friendly... even as they start chomping on him. He eventually relents and asks Aseo to make them a little less friendly, which Aseo does by throwing a bone... only for Blaidd to chase after it too.
• Darriwil is imprisoned in the Evergaol and is opposed by Blaidd because he was found changing the clothes of the Ranni doll, which is considered heresy in the Ranni fanclub! Aseo and Melina, who assumed Darriwil had discovered some Awful Truth about Ranni, are both stunned.
  • After listening to them talk (and pointing out that it's kinda creepy that they're making dolls of a real person), Melina gets sick of their squabbling and kills Darriwil herself, using Aseo's club.
• By the time Aseo meets Ranni at Kalé's church, he's already heard about Ranni the Witch from Melina, and knows what she looks like from Blaidd's doll. So when Ranni appears and introduces herself as Renna, he of course falls for it completely and assumes that the Snow Witch look is just in vogue right now.
• Aseo decides to play dumb to get Ranni off his back, being suspicious of her intentions. She eventually loses her patience and fades into mist, leaving the spirit caller bell behind (denting it when slamming it down). Only to pop up from a bush next to where she sat when he tries to leave without taking it.
  • The bell doesn't work for Aseo since he doesn't have enough Mind, causing him to assume she's just a salesman trying to sell him something useless. She responds to his refusal to take it by summoning a trio of wolves and having them chase him up a pillar.
  • Aseo's "I don't believe you" face throughout, with bugged-out eyes, doofy grin, and chin drawn in to make his neck-skin into wattles makes the very picture of sarcasm
• Ranni in general is a fair bit more petulant and short-tempered than in the game. After siccing the wolves on Aseo, she demands he apologizes by reciting an overly long and Purple Prose-laden speech, she asks him to enter her service after being impressed by his loyalty (he refused to say where he recognized her from out of fear of angering Blaidd) while also freely admitting that her servants tend to have a high turnover rate, and she fades in again just for a moment after leaving to tell Aseo that he should brush his teeth.
• Melina is in favour of Aseo joining Ranni, if only just 'cause she might keep him on track.
• Gostoc was apparently dragged into a pyramid scheme by Patches forcing him to sell novelty junk to any Tarnished passing through.
• Aseo is so pathetic that Margit the Fell Omen (and he insists that people use his full title) tells him where to go and grind for runes (even teaching him how to slay trolls quickly) before they actually fight, because Aseo took one look at him and gave up, lying down in the "Dead Warrior" pose and asking for a swift death. Margit the Fell Omen even gives him a cloak to wear because Aseo just sucks so very much.
• Gostoc tries to trick Aseo into a trap meant to capture him alive for grafting. Emphasis on tries, since his evil smile whenever he succeeds even a little bit makes it extremely obvious that he's lying. And somehow Aseo still falls in the trap.
• Cornered by soldiers, Rogier declares that he and Aseo will escape using his glintblades, using them as pistons to climb down a sheer wall. He forgets that glindblades don't actually pierce anything and falls straight down to the stormveil depths as soon as he tries.
• Upon meeting Nepheli Loux, she and Aseo chat for so long the Grafted Scion guarding the storeroom asks them to hurry up because it wants to go and do its magic homework.
  • During the fight, Aseo lathers himself up with soap to dodge-roll faster. It backfires and he knocks himself out on the far wall because he can't stop.
• Godrick the Grafted's boss fight is represented as an art contest. He loses. And he cries about it.
  • Aseo's grafting is a truly awful "hand" that everyone else interprets as a miniature land-octopus. It makes Melina hungry for calamari. The Erdtree Sentinel is actually impressed, since octopodes are very popular in the Capital right now, and gives Aseo full marks. Then Melina, who's supposed to be on Aseo's side, chimes in that he's too stupid to have done it on purpose, causing the sentinel to take back his points.
  • Godrick had planned to do something impressive with his dragon set, only for Aseo to point to it and ask if he can use it for his grafting. The Sentinel and Melina agree that he can, but it would just be a cheap attempt at style over substance and wouldn't give him any points. Godrick's entire plan is ruined by Aseo on accident, and he has to resort to grafting something quick that just copies Aseo, giving him no points in the end.
  • Nepheli grafts a bunny. Then adds tentacle legs because she though Aseo's graft was cool.
• Fia's Deathbed Companionship is depicted not as a cuddle, like in the game, or prostitution, like everyone jokes about, but chiropracty. She re-seats Aseo's neck and shoulder from where he hit the wall with what looks like wrestling moves.
• Finger Reader Eina acts like a strict schoolteacher to the inhabitants of the Roundtable Hold.
• Aseo meets Warmaster Bernhal, who acts like an overly-enthusiastic personal training commercial.
  • Bernhal's Saying Sound Effects Out Loud ("KACHOOM!") when he demonstrates a skill, like a child playing at Knights.
  • He later busts in on Roderika having a tender moment with the ghosts of her men, loudly explaining that he's late with dinner because he slipped on a pile of Gold-Tinged Excrement while chasing a rabbit.
• What is Rya's issue with Boggart in the manga? He tried to sell her crayfish while claiming it was prawn! Even funnier, this is actually true; the item description for the boiled prawn says that the meat is actually crayfish.
• When Aseo get to the gates of Raya Lucaria, he taunts a couple of Glintstone Sorcerors and gets a face full of Glintstone Pebble for his trouble. When he weaves through the projectiles and gets up in their face, thinking he's finally got the upper hand in close combat, he takes a book to the face.
• In the Debate Hall, Aseo comes face-to-face with the Red Wolf of Radagon, and brings out his Spirit Wolves to match it. The Spirit Wolves take one look at their big red counterpart and start to dismiss themselves before Aseo gives them a pep talk and does some group tricks with them. The Red Wolf eventually spares Aseo because it really enjoyed those tricks, as they reminded it of its younger days!
• Aseo makes it past the Debate Hall and ascends the stairs to the Grand Library, only to be met with a giant iron ball rolling down it. He's absolutely pissed that they sorcerors will use such crude traps, and starts searching for the one responsible. In his rage he runs into a warp gate that sends him to the Church of Vows, way outside the Academy, thus forcing him to retrace his steps. This also delays his meeting with Ranni, much to her chagrin.
  • Aseo crows about outwitting the trap, and muses that Melina would "pump her fist at his smarts." Upon meeting her at the Church of Vows, she sarcastically tells him that she's here to "pump her fist at his smarts" because she's so impressed.
  • Melina and Turtlepope each try to tell the story of the Church of Vows first, to mutual annoyance.
• Rennala is less of a Broken Bird and more of an overprotective Mama Bear around her children. Her fits of anger are often interspersed with getting distracted by trying to entertain and discipline her children.
• Over the course of the comic, Aseo lets just enough about the Ranni Fan Club slip to incriminate Baidd. Ranni imprisons Blaidd in a lump of ice over it. He spends his time frozen complaining that Darriwil must've framed him for something.
• Moongrum is enlisted to "teach Aseo a lesson" in a duel, but the atmosphere is broken when they discover that Rennala's children have vandalized his sword and shield.
• Turns out Moongrum is also a member of the Ranni fan club, and is further encouraged to fight him when he knows of the doll dispute between Blaidd and Darriwil. After the dust settles, Aseo reveals that he only came to Raya Lucaria at Ranni's behest. Moongrum's response is that if Aseo said that from the beginning, all this could have been avoided, and Aseo retorts that Moongrum wouldn't have listened to him anyway.
• Upon meeting D, Aseo says that D can call him A. Brother Coryhn gets in on the act and says they can call him C. Aseo takes offense and tries to twist Coryhn's head off by grabbing his collar and yanking it around with a call of "hard to starboard!"
  • When they meet at Summonwater Village, Rogier casually reveal that D is an initial and his real name is Darian, and that he used to insist that they call each other "D&R, explorers of Death." D meanwhile is complaining that Rogier is embarassing him in front of Aseo.
  • Later, D defeats some undead using one of his golden order incantations, and Aseo calls him T because part of the casting process was a t-pose.
• Commander O'Neil is a lot more talkative and is willing to expound on the battle between Melania and Radahn. However, Torrent beats him to the punch in filling in Aseo on the details, which ticks him off.
• Among the champions that Aseo meets at the Radahn Festival is Lionel the Lionhearted, who, as lore describes, is Fia's father figure. Aseo first admires Lionel for taking on that role, but is creeped out when he learns that Lionel declared himself Fia's father all on his own.
• In the fight with Radahn, the champions are all valiantly charging towards the old demigod... who pulls out his bow and fires a single shot that creates an explosion many times larger than him, at which point the "valiant champions" all hightail it out of there. Poor Aseo is, of course, left behind with an expression that screams "Are you kidding me?"

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