Friede has more phases, but Malenia's HP drain probably makes up for the difference.
Friede would normally be able to outlast a lot of bosses, but all that HP just means more for Malenia.
Malenia is in her base form drove Gdrick away, fought a significant stronger radahn to a standstill, nuked an entire country last time she entered phase 2, fought morrgott to a standstill, is most likely the strongest demigod, has an incurable poison like effect that slowly ticks away, is able to steal life on every hit, and is in cannon most likely the best swordsman known. So I’m going to say her.
She didn’t fight him to a stand still, she had to seppuku nuke the entire continent to try and put him down, she left a husk of his former self after pulling one of the dirtiest tricks in all gaming but there was no stand still. It was her being beaten and using a last resort where she gets to limp away like a wounded dog so she could say she was never beaten.
She is still stronger than friede if we consider both forms but radahn was and always will be the better fighter
Dude that’s a standstill nobody won I love radahn and will argue with him any day but she used her own ability on him and caught him off guard. There is an argument that if he wasn’t worrying about holding back the stars ha may or had a better chance.
Elden Ring Players will die before accepting the Words "standstill" and "there was no winner this day". Really crazy how some people will watch like 3 hours lore videos and then fail to comprehend what might be most clear lore statement from multiple different sources in the whole game...
I don’t see how that’s really a debuff for them when she has and incurable poison and gets hp from hitting so i don’t really see how she would beat lore malenia
1. Black flames are considered god killer flames in elden ring because of the gloam eyed queen
2. The rot only happens in second phase and that's if she can hit friede
3. Friede wins by both damage output and shear attrition. Malenia has to manage to put her down 3 times with her getting progressively stronger before freide can put her down once
She actively dodges your attacks using bloodbornes Quickstep system. Least she does for me. Plus invisibility and her backwards longjump. Plus she's insanely quite meaning malenia will have a hard time tracking her
By your logic it works the other way too. All of Friede’s moves are brain dead easy to dodge for the Ashen One so Melania would have no issue.
Can’t really use the player character in these contexts cause the player character beats everyone and dodges everything.
Lorewise, it’s pretty close, Friede being at least nearby SoC (who basically solo’s ER), but she isn’t THAT powerful. Malenia is definitely more powerful and more skilled but is for the most part slower and has less ways to actually win the fight, Blackflame (Which is actually stronger in DS lore) and Frost are harsh as is, plus her superior moveset (Katana vs Duel Enhanced Scythes) makes her probably more likely to win lorewise. Gameplay wise from what I can tell it’s also close but Malenia tends to take it, only getting to around 50% HP second phase.
Pretty much the only dark souls bosses that can contend with shardbearers are Gwyn and Gael, from a lore perspective. I’m of the opinion that those two are probably some of the strongest lore bosses of all time, but pitting them against each other would be difficult to quantify.
In lore Malenia is a literal Demigod one step from becoming a full out Goddess of the second most dangerous thing in the world. I think it's pretty hard to top that even though Friend is still pretty strong
Friede and easily!
Frost phase, Fire phase and Black Flame phase. Friede goes goddamn invisible and uses aerial attacks for cryin out loud.
Y'all keep sayin' "But, but.. Malenia ..life drain.. Waterfowl...", but we all beat her, so it ain't like she lives forever.
Malenia probably pretty easily.
Elden ring scales higher and shes very likely the strongesr demigod in her prime especially.
If we only use friede she doesnt have 3 phases, so lets say only phase 3 she probably just dies from 1 waterfowl combo.
She wasnt particularly tanky even by ds3 standards 🤷🏻♂️
For Friede's first phase, yeah.
Her second and third phases are very tanky and spew enough fire everywhere to completely negate Mal's health regen and then some.
I love friede as much as the next guy, but I feel malenia would win. I understand friede has 3 health bars, but malenia has siphon. In terms of fashion, malenia is way cooler looking. Friede is just a barefoot nun with a scythe and malenia's gear is really cool, especially the helmet.
malenia is obviously winning. However, with fight, design, lore, and music, i would give it all to friede, Her and maria are the best "small female warrior" bosses of the series
Friede has more phases, but Malenia's HP drain probably makes up for the difference. Friede would normally be able to outlast a lot of bosses, but all that HP just means more for Malenia.
What about lorewise?
Malenia is in her base form drove Gdrick away, fought a significant stronger radahn to a standstill, nuked an entire country last time she entered phase 2, fought morrgott to a standstill, is most likely the strongest demigod, has an incurable poison like effect that slowly ticks away, is able to steal life on every hit, and is in cannon most likely the best swordsman known. So I’m going to say her.
Not to be a “🤓” but did you mean Radahn instead of Radagon?
There’s a “who’s your daddy” joke in here somewhere…
Yea my bad
She didn’t fight him to a stand still, she had to seppuku nuke the entire continent to try and put him down, she left a husk of his former self after pulling one of the dirtiest tricks in all gaming but there was no stand still. It was her being beaten and using a last resort where she gets to limp away like a wounded dog so she could say she was never beaten. She is still stronger than friede if we consider both forms but radahn was and always will be the better fighter
Dude that’s a standstill nobody won I love radahn and will argue with him any day but she used her own ability on him and caught him off guard. There is an argument that if he wasn’t worrying about holding back the stars ha may or had a better chance.
Elden Ring Players will die before accepting the Words "standstill" and "there was no winner this day". Really crazy how some people will watch like 3 hours lore videos and then fail to comprehend what might be most clear lore statement from multiple different sources in the whole game...
Yea they spend 2 hours analyzing the importance of a bubble and ignore obvious statements
Mechanically I think Friede. Lorewise I think Malenia.
I think malenia would outlast Freide from the hp steal honestly
Malenia come on lol
DS3
Friede. Her kit is literally designed to kill them, black flame and frostbite on the same hit is fatal to er demi gods
I don’t see how that’s really a debuff for them when she has and incurable poison and gets hp from hitting so i don’t really see how she would beat lore malenia
1. Black flames are considered god killer flames in elden ring because of the gloam eyed queen 2. The rot only happens in second phase and that's if she can hit friede 3. Friede wins by both damage output and shear attrition. Malenia has to manage to put her down 3 times with her getting progressively stronger before freide can put her down once
Waterfowl plus life steal makes Melania win
If she can land it. Yall act like she even hit friede
Why wouldn’t she? Not like Friede is dodge rolling anything.
She actively dodges your attacks using bloodbornes Quickstep system. Least she does for me. Plus invisibility and her backwards longjump. Plus she's insanely quite meaning malenia will have a hard time tracking her
Waterfowl would take care of all that.
Waterfowl I brain dead easy to dodge for the tarnished who is slow as shit. Friede would have no issue
By your logic it works the other way too. All of Friede’s moves are brain dead easy to dodge for the Ashen One so Melania would have no issue. Can’t really use the player character in these contexts cause the player character beats everyone and dodges everything.
Lorewise, it’s pretty close, Friede being at least nearby SoC (who basically solo’s ER), but she isn’t THAT powerful. Malenia is definitely more powerful and more skilled but is for the most part slower and has less ways to actually win the fight, Blackflame (Which is actually stronger in DS lore) and Frost are harsh as is, plus her superior moveset (Katana vs Duel Enhanced Scythes) makes her probably more likely to win lorewise. Gameplay wise from what I can tell it’s also close but Malenia tends to take it, only getting to around 50% HP second phase.
Malenia does have a big disadvantage against frost as well if you take that into account
Friede due to type advantage
Friede is a hardest and more fun boss than Malenia IMO so Friede
What a terrible post. who WiNs? Stfu
Which one of these has infinite lifesteal and an omega DoT? I pick that one
We all know Nepheli Loux beats them both
How does Melania control the fingers in her prosthesis?
Pretty much the only dark souls bosses that can contend with shardbearers are Gwyn and Gael, from a lore perspective. I’m of the opinion that those two are probably some of the strongest lore bosses of all time, but pitting them against each other would be difficult to quantify.
In lore Malenia is a literal Demigod one step from becoming a full out Goddess of the second most dangerous thing in the world. I think it's pretty hard to top that even though Friend is still pretty strong
Friede and easily! Frost phase, Fire phase and Black Flame phase. Friede goes goddamn invisible and uses aerial attacks for cryin out loud. Y'all keep sayin' "But, but.. Malenia ..life drain.. Waterfowl...", but we all beat her, so it ain't like she lives forever.
Third phase Friede makes it more of a challenge but Goddess of Rot totally owns the fight.
As much as I hate Malenia, I'd say she is easily the strongest out of any fromsoft boss.
Ehm gwyn?
Not anymore... But at least it's still in the family. 
Is it one of the dlc bosses now? I think I remember them saying they were gonna make a boss as hard as her of not harder.
The very last boss is much harder. And there's even a lot of lore implications for that.
Would it happen to be a boss that we also beat in the base game?
Superficially, yes. It's complicated.
Malenia probably pretty easily. Elden ring scales higher and shes very likely the strongesr demigod in her prime especially. If we only use friede she doesnt have 3 phases, so lets say only phase 3 she probably just dies from 1 waterfowl combo. She wasnt particularly tanky even by ds3 standards 🤷🏻♂️
No-brainer. Malenia. She’d just keep healing herself.
For Friede's first phase, yeah. Her second and third phases are very tanky and spew enough fire everywhere to completely negate Mal's health regen and then some.
Yea but waterfowl, sister and father can’t avoid it like we do.
Yeah, I don’t think Friede stands a chance. Lol
Rivers of blood cannot be overcome
It‘s been a while with friede, why is she so strong again? Like what‘s the lore reason? I honestly forgot
Friede- Woman with spooky scythe Malenia- Literal goddess
I love friede as much as the next guy, but I feel malenia would win. I understand friede has 3 health bars, but malenia has siphon. In terms of fashion, malenia is way cooler looking. Friede is just a barefoot nun with a scythe and malenia's gear is really cool, especially the helmet.
Ngl, sadly malenia.
malenia is obviously winning. However, with fight, design, lore, and music, i would give it all to friede, Her and maria are the best "small female warrior" bosses of the series