Is Gwyn good or bad? Exploring the morality of Dark Souls‘ final boss
Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight and patriarch of the gods, commits understandable yet ultimately unjust acts. While early positive intentions underlie his harsh decisions, Gwyn‘s all-consuming desire to preserve his Age of Fire disrupts the realm‘s natural order and causes widespread suffering. He becomes the final boss not out of malice, but desperation to control a world slipping through his fingers.
The Once Great Lord of Sunlight
Lord Gwyn stands as a pivotal figure in Dark Souls lore. As the warrior who defeated everlasting dragons and discovered the First Flame, Gwyn harnessed its life-giving power to establish his Age of Fire. This era brought prosperity through the gods‘ governance – a period of sunlight, enrichment, and advancement for Lordran.
Records suggest stability, artistic achievements, and territory expansion under Gwyn‘s reign. His knights built grand kingdoms while his children became revered as gods. Even after thousands of years, citizens still praise Lord Gwyn for the bounty and security provided during the golden age.
Yet at some point, the First Flame Gwyn derived his power from began fading, requiring greater sacrifices to sustain.
The Slippery Slope of Preserving Power
As the fire weakened, so too did Gwyn‘s power and domain. Fearing this decline, Gwyn sacrificed his own body and soul to the flames in linking the fire. This became the First Sin – an unnatural extension of an age meant to expire on its own accord.
At first, this desperate act bore noble intentions of maintaining prosperity for Gwyn‘s subjects. But the Lord of Sunlight felt not only duty, but also pride and obsession fueling his choice. And as the Transitory Lands continued declining over eras, Gwyn and his elite cadre enforced increasingly callous policies to retain their influence.
These included:
- Hunting and containing humans carrying forbidden Dark Soul fragments
- Imprisoning mutated children like the Nameless King in remote areas
- Commanding loyal knights like Artorias to fight spreading Abyss creatures
- Allowing sacred sites like Anor Londo to fall into abandoned disrepair
Citizens transformed into mindless Hollows now wander Lordran‘s streets. The painful Darksign brand used to control humans spreads as a highly infectious Undead Curse.
Clinging to Fading Power at Any Cost
By the time the Chosen Undead faces him, Gwyn exists as a mad Hollow desperate to reignite the dying First Flame. He attacks the player out of animal instinct rather than conscious choice. Tragically, the once glorious Lord sacrifices everything to resist the world‘s natural shifts into an Age of Dark.
In resisting this mysterious new era, Gwyn denies mankind hopes for ascendance and self-governance. For ambiguous prophecies suggest an age governed by men will differ greatly from the age of gods.
Does humanity deserve a chance to harness the Dark Soul and build their own great kingdoms? Or would an age without sunlight degrade the world into violent barbarism? Gwyn arrogantly assumes the latter while ignoring the grand cycle‘s next phase.
Conclusion: Gwyn‘s Good Intentions Cannot Justify His Actions
Lord Gwyn begins as a heroic leader guiding the world into an enlightened age, yet desperation and obsession corrupt his noble spirit as time passes. He transgresses ethical boundaries in struggling to retain what all fire inevitably loses – brilliance, vitality, superiority.
In sentencing humanity to subjugation and distorting the realm‘s cyclical order, Gwyn‘s injustice and tyranny outweigh earlier good intentions. An archetypal hero tragically transformed into the story‘s greatest villain.
Yet his fall remains complex – easy to judge but difficult to endure. What worthy goals would you abandon when faced with unfathomable defeat? How long could you watch your life‘s work slip into decay and chaos?
Gwyn‘s legacy provokes much reflection. Perhaps the wisest leaders must accept all parts of life, including fading. Through quietly nurturing every phase of renewal rather than struggling against inevitable change.
