Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree might not have oodles of cut content, but dataminers have already found and restored an extra cutscene
Death, taxes, and FromSoft loreheads finding nine million things Miyazaki and co have tactfully hidden behind the code for some rocks.
Warning, spoilers for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree lie ahead.
Right, before we go any further, make sure you've heeded the warning above. The kind datamining loreheads who pore over every detail in FromSoft games have inevitably started digging into Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. And, right on time, they've already seemingly unearthed and recreated an extra cutscene for you to enjoy.
In many ways, these dataminers are a bit like the folks who keep pasting the DLC's bosses in increasingly impressive ways. Artists, who, instead of painting canvases that show what happens if Messmer upsets someone who owns a dance pad, get their brush out and go 'here's a thing that might have been planned for the game, at some point, we assume'. Passionate Jackson Pollocks with crippling addictions to show-and-tell.
Anyway, here's what they've done. It's a group led by Sekiro Dubi, and they've managed to discover and restore some dialogue for what they believe to be a fourth cutscene in the series The Tarnished has with St. Trina, which looks like it would have taken place/played after you've (warning above) killed Miquella.
As you can see in the video below, which plays this fourth cutscene directly after the first three that are in the game - just in case you need a catch-up. It's only about twenty seconds long, and sees Trina get her ASMR on by whispering against a black background - just as the those first three do.
So, what's the purple lady chatting about? Well, she says "thank you" to The Tarnished for killing Miquella, which is quite nice of her, and then follows a pause up by adding: "Finally, he will be free." In the words of Sekiro Dubi, that's pretty much it.
I'm definitely not the right person to be getting into what this could mean lore-wise, but if I had to guess, I'd say FromSoft potentially having opted not to include such a small thing in the game could maybe be down to the developers not wanting to make Miquella's metaphysical fate quite so clear cut, as having someone tell you you've freed him arguably does.
That said, this is Elden Ring lore, so who knows. Also, don't expect dataminers to unearth as much cut content in the DLC as they did the base game, with Sekiro Dubi having explained on Twitter that while it does have some: "there's just no big stuff like full NPC quests and things like that. There's little details here and there."
If you're battling your way through Shadow of the Erdtree and need a bit of help just to complete it without any of the extra caveats being employed by Recjawjind, make sure to check out our huge array of guides that should be able to aid you regardless of what you need a hand with.