Elden Ring "Dogs"

About

Elden Ring "Dogs" refers to the practice of Elden Ring players leaving messages that label all of the game's myriad animals "dogs," even if the animals are not canines. The in-game messages also transitioned online in the form of memes and fan art depictions in February and March 2022 shortly after the game's release.

Origin

In FromSoftware's Elden Ring, released February 25th, 2022, players connected to the game's online network can leave messages for other players to read and appraise. Almost immediately after the game's release, players reported that others were leaving humorous messages behind, such as "Try fingers but hole," among others. On the day of the game's release, Twitter user @papapishu^[1] reported that half the experience of the game was spamming "try fingers but hole" and "pointing at things and saying 'dog'" (shown below, left. Example of a typical "dog" message, shown below, right).

Spread

It's theorized that some people may have been incentivized to jokingly call animals "dog" due to a mechanic in Elden Ring related to player messages because the player who left the message receives a health boost when another player upvotes it, aiding them in winning tough boss battles. For example, on February 27th, 2022, Twitter user @insidetheslime^[2] wrote that because they called a tortoise a dog, they'd "gained actual immortality" (shown below, left). User @stylish_kira^[3] reported a similar experience, saying they were healed twice in one fight because of leaving a message calling an animal a dog (shown below, right).

While players used the messages feature to call many animals "dogs" in Elden Ring, players particularly used the feature on the game's tortoises. On March 6th, 2022, Redditor 99hunters posted art of a Tarnished holding a turtle while leaving the message "Praise The Dog," gaining over 15,000 points in /r/EldenRing^[4] in two weeks (shown below, left). One NPC turtle, named Miriel, Pastor of Vows, became the subject of many "dog" messages. On March 15th, Twitter user @spooky_shep^[5] posted art of Miriel with the caption "likely dog," gaining over 4,600 retweets and 31,000 likes in six days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References