Elden Ring was released on February 25, and since then it has received lots of praise for the freedom and immersion it provides to invested players. One of the many immersive elements in FromSoftware's latest title includes Elden Ring's character creator so that gamers can create whatever version of the Tarnished protagonist they choose, and a particularly skilled player has made Dr Manhattan the basis of their avatar.
There has been an increase in memetic characters being shared online as a result of Elden Ring's highly detailed creation system, ranging from iconic TV show villains to gaming protagonists. Now the blue superhuman from Watchmen has joined the ever-growing list with a very faithfully crafted design.
Despite Watchmen's infamous history of canceled movie projects, Dr Manhattan is one of the more recognizable characters from Alan Moore's graphic novel thanks to his glowing blue design and quotable philosophy comments. This is highlighted in the title of the post shared on Reddit by user joferifafar, which states "We're all puppets, Tarnished. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings." This is likely intended to be a very metaphysical reference that depicts gaming avatars as puppets being controlled by players, which is very thematic for Watchmen's genre-defying story.
Watchmen was released in 1987 as a 12 part comic series that blurred the lines between fantasy comic books and hard-hitting political realities, and has since grown from cult status to award-winning self-titled TV series. In turn, Elden Ring has only been out for a few months yet has received much praise from players for the design, lore, and other well-crafted assets. Both IPs have taken elements from their respective genres and improved on them, resulting in a memorable final product.
FromSoftware's typical manner of world building is based around player freedom, enabling Elden Ring players to explore a world of spells, weaponry, bosses, and adapt to a playstyle. This can also be seen when creative Elden Ring players develop traps to catch others unaware, often with hilarious results.
It remains to be seen if other Watchmen members will join Dr Manhattan in Elden Ring, but the rapid output of characters being posted online shows no sign of slowing down. Since players were making characters in the Elden Ring character creator such as Venom Snake a day after release, and more artistic innovations are still being produced frequently, new ideas and challenges are never in short supply for players.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
