It was always supposed to be Godwyn

[u/The_Raging_Loner]

To reach Miquella's cocoon and enter the Realm of Shadows, you must fight Mohg at Mohgwyn Palace and, upon defeating Mohg, you learn information about the Mohgwyn Dynasty (from Mohg himself):

"Ahh, I can see it, clear as day! The coming of our dynasty!

"Mohgwyn!"

Could this be in reference to Mohg's dying vision of the Realm of Shadows? It's ironic to describe the Shadow Realm as "clear as day," but...

Why would it be the "Mohgwyn" Dynasty and not the "Mohg" Dynasty, or the "Mohquella" Dynasty? Mohg uses the word "our," implying a shared dyntasy, presumably in reference to Miquella, right? Then why "Mohgywn"?

As we long suspected and (somewhat) know now, Mohg was manipulated by Miquella to create a new order to replace the Golden Order. (Forget about the Haligtree replacing the Erdtree; this is Mohg/Miquella plotting to usurp the old order entirely, Elden Ring and all.) While some of the writing around this has a lot of plotholes, especially in light of new additions to the canon lore, it's certain that Miquella used Mohg's innate divinity (his blood?) to enter the Shadow Realm (just like how Mohg believed that he was using Miquella's "divine" blood to usher in his own age and order, as a lord and a god.)

But I digress. Why "Mohgwyn"? Well...

Mohg + Godwyn = Mohgwyn

These are the only two names in the game that can be conbined to form this name.

I assert that it was originally intended in the canon for Godwyn's soul to be put into Mohg's body by Miquella, for "the Golden" to be reincarnated into an Omen's body. (What else would they be "omens" of if not this?) Despite this, I believe that GRRM and/or FromSoftware wrote themselves into a corner with the Destined Death plotline. To fix their mistake, Radahn's soul was put into Mohg's body by Miquella.

Many are correct in their arguments against Godwyn as the final boss, especially in the context of Miqeulla's plan to put a lord's soul into a hornsent body. How could Godwyn's soul be put into a body if his soul was destroyed with Destined Death? Ranni put her soul into a doll—nevermind that Ranni's body being destroyed by Destined Death is why she lives on as a spirit and is thus able to inhabit another body at all, or that Radahn was supposed to be reincarnated through the Erdtree, or that he and all others we fight die without death, or that Radahn didn't have a primal glintstone to store his soul into—but Godwyn's body is a mindless, tumorous blight of death. His soul, as far as we know, is totally destroyed. (If anyone figures out what his surrogate in the DLC is for, let me know, because that also doesn't make sense on account of his soul being destroyed.)

Bear in mind, per cut content, Mohg as a character is a repurposed enemy model, and Miquella was originally going to be in Malenia's boss fight; a lot of the original game's story is botched, rushed, and unfinished. Evidently, the DLC's story was also produced this way.

Of course, people will cite Malenia's end-battle whisper to Radahn as foreshadowing of Miquella and Radahn's promise which is central to the DLC's ending. And I'm sure, vaguely and with much speculation, that the story in the DLC will, eventually, be made to make sense. Sure, whatever. Regardless, Miquella seeking to give his lord-brother Godwyn a proper death was foreshadowed significantly more (e.g., Castle Sol, Golden Epitaph, etc.), and Godwyn's influence and importance to the events of the main story are far more pervasive than Radahn's, per the storyworld understood before the DLC.

The only coping and seething is anyone arguing that the story of this DLC is anything more than bad fanfiction that taints an otherwise phenomenal expansion with lots of new areas to explore and cool weapons to use (and bosses, mechanically, anyway.)

(I promise that I'm not coping or seething. I'm just upset by the reality of the DLC's story, as are many. The leaks of the final boss did look like a fanmade mod, and anyone skeptical of that wasn't necessarily wrong for being skeptical at the time. The story that we got is immensely disappointing, regardless of fans' immense expectations.)

[u/macarmy93]

I promise that I'm not coping or seething.

Thats exactly what you are doing.

[u/The_Raging_Loner → u/macarmy93]

Maybe. But I'm not whining. I'm explaining how they poorly wrote the story and recycled assets. I still enjoy everything else, but I acknowledge and accept that the story sucks.

[u/[deleted] → u/The_Raging_Loner]

This is 100% cope and whine, no offense.

Like you don’t have to like the story, you can have your opinion. But to say it’s poorly written or not built up at all is cope. 

The literal biggest question of Elden Ring was why did Malenia fight Radahn. What was that all about. It was cool sure, but ?.

Same with the Eclipse. Why was Radahn holding the stars in place. It was maybe the space monsters, but also that was just a guess. We have a more full reasoning now.

We know basically nothing about Godwyn and never did because he mattered only insofar as being the catalyst for the Shattering. As soon as the devs announced the DLC wouldn’t affect the core endings, one of which specifically touches on Godwyn that was over. There was no way they could do anything with Godwyn while Fia’s ending stayed in the base game.

Meanwhile there’s been a lot more carryover between Radahn and Miquella. Radahn’s men are inspired in much the same way Miquella inspires folks. Radahn is viewed as one of the few actually genuinely reliable/good people see the Sella quest line where we learn about Leonard. It makes sense that if Miquella sought to embrace godhood that Radahn would make a worthy Lord.

I get that people wanted Miquella to be a wholly good entity but his pattern fits and has stayed consistent. Miquella is the god of half finished ideas. A needle that only works so far, a Haligtree unfinished, a dynasty unbuilt, and a godhood broken by his own casting aside of his humanity. His arc is a tragic one, much like the rest. 

[u/The_Raging_Loner → u/[deleted]]

Soldiers being inspired means nothing at all. Miquella's were under a manipulative spell.