Elden Ring - How does this even work?

While 800+ bones may seem excessive, they cut down on the complexity for most of his animations by having a second separate animation loop controlling some of the smaller arms. It's similar to how some gestures allow the player to walk while you're gesturing, by having the gesture and walk animations affect different parts of the model simultaneously, his little arms are effectively locked in a constant gesture while the rest of him is free to do the actual animations.

I like to imagine that all creatures in the Lands Between now live in fear of being stretched out and measured by Zullie

Coder, to Myazaki "Sir, we have coded in 140 metres of snake, as you asked." "Excellent. Now tie it in a knot."

Just a little inside info from a snake keeper; if they have a bit of shed skin stuck at the end of their tail like that, there's something wrong. Usually it means their habitat is too dry, or they grew too fast and are overweight. Rykard needs a good long soak in a nice bin of warm water to help get that tail shed off or hes going to have restricted circulation eventually and lose the tail portion entirely. 😅

Rykard one day just had the silly idea of feeding himself to a giant snake.

Send out recusants to collect the runes of tarnished warriors, absorb the collected runes after the recusant has ripened enough, Rykard is on that passive income grindset.

There's always a layer of unrealized potential to these fromsoft bosses. A serpent that would one day swallow the world, a blooming goddess, a great general afflicted with rot. I don't know if this is intended, but when defeating a boss, it always feels like stamping out the embers of what could one day be a mighty being. This was way more direct with Sekiro, as the inner reflections serve as an 'alternate' version of bosses had they not been defeated and allowed to grow in strength. Although with Dark Souls this felt the opposite, like you're just finishing off the hollow reflection of a once great power.

Really enjoying the idea of someone annoyedly untangling an enormous demigod like he was a knot of christmas lights.

I think the way his arms pop out to make Rykard sort of humanoid is a genius design choice. It's body horror that's disgusting, funny, and intriguing all at once.

That final shot of the gigantic snake looming out of the mist was terrifying and you should feel proud of yourself.

Outer God: "Hey, where did my world go?" Coincidentally planet-shaped Rykard: "Mmph, I don't know where your delicio-- um, I mean, your world went."

As far as the sword, I think it's more likely it's purposefully dissonant as Zullie put it. However, I always took it as the sword's blade was being formed from the writhing guts of the serpent. Maybe the hilt and crossguard were still whole, but the blade itself is composed of those who were once loyal to Rykard.

Re: "Rykard seems almost more like a parasite taking over its host than a meal" Tanith saying "Please take purchase within me" while snacking on his remains hits home even harder now.

1:39 When u don't want ur butt to touch the toilet seat

There is a misconception that the snake was large when it ate rykard, but I always thought it was actually quite small at that point. It’s also a way scarier concept to let a small snake slowly eat your entire body.

Symbiosis and assimilation seem to be really important concepts to Elden Ring-- Godrick grafts stronger limbs to himself, Godwyn is currently assimilating and being assimilated by the Great Tree, the concept of "life in death" for the Ancestor Spirits-- it's not really surprising that Rykrad is actually parasitizing the Great Serpent. For someone with as much ambition as Rykard, enforcing his will upon the God-Devouring Serpent seems par for the course. The way Elden Ring presents this assimilation as a negative thing is also interesting too, especially when contrasted by characters like Alexander, who follows the same principle but is instead treated as a heroic noble figure.

1:39 this is the most intimidating thing I've seen in my life. Forget T-pose for dominance. Rykard Squat for dominance

Rykard made me feel extremely uncomfortable the first time I played, going through this volcano mansion and finding this giant serpent with a man's face on it's neck was just unsettling. I think it's all the moving tendrils and Rykard's face that creep me out the most. They did such a good job modeling him, he probably has one of the most complicated models in the whole game

That poor snake, getting his body hijacked by this degenerate Vore loving demigod.😔🐱

It's not surprising that Rykhard wasn't entirely destroyed by the Serpent given he was/is a very powerful immortal demigod that literally can't die under normal circumstances, and that power was further enhanced by his great rune from the shattering. Said rune has regenerative properties, perhaps that helped in his amalgamation with the God Devouring Serpent?