Three thoughts struck me after my first encounter with Shadow of the Erdtree‘s electrifying Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss: “WHAT?”, “Ouch!”, and, dimly, “What is going on under there?”. And one kindly modder has now helpfully answered that last question by derobing the thing and giving us all a peek at how the sausage is made (spoilers: no sausages involved, but also some Dancing Lion-related spoilers ahead so proceed with caution).
For the uninitiated, the Divine Beast Dancing Lion is one of the Elden Ring DLC’s earliest major boss encounters and is found hanging out at the top of the Belurat tower settlement. It’s an impressive sight too; a twirling, soaring, gnashing creation inspired by (as its name strongly suggests) the traditional Chinese lion dance, in which two performers – one controlling the head, the other the tail – mimic the movements of a lion.
Keen-eyed Tarnished have doubtless already spotted the human legs poking out from beneath the lion’s cloth-covered body – one pair at the front, another at the rear – but the flapping, flailing material makes it hard to see much else while it’s in motion. As it turns out, though, developer FromSoftware has gone a little further than just giving the Dancing Lion legs; two fully formed and (mostly) animated human performers are both tucked away under the cloth, and both can be seen thrashing around to control the beast when the cover is removed.
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