Minecraft

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Bloodborne

~1140 Words

I could discuss Bloodborne for eons. I've subjected my boyfriend to my rants on this game before, but I will try to keep this smaller than an essay. If you'd like to hear more of my thoughts on Bloodborne I will be making a shrine page for it in the future. Anyway, let us speak feverishly of why I love this game so.

First and foremost, the design. I adore all things gothic and grotesque and I very much so adore the design of Bloodborne. Let us begin with the architecture. Yharnam is a gorgeous, albeit grotesque, gothic and victorian esque city. Yharnam's architecture is largely based on Prague (to my knowledge and based on my own comparisons). Prague is a city I adore for the beauty of its architecture, some of my family has been and I am extremely jealous. I especially adore the St. Vitus Cathedral and the buildings surrounding it. While I did not grow up Catholic , living near Chicago has exposed me to the many neo-gothic Catholic churches in and around the city and I can appreciate the beauty in them. Despite the religious ideas in Bloodborne stemming in greater part from Japanese ideas, the design and hierarchy of the Healing Church mirror those of the Catholic Church (the hierarchy is not completely accurate to that of the Catholic Church; however, connections can absolutely be drawn with things like the title of "Vicar" [also given to many ranks of the Catholic hierarchy ex: The Pope is Vicar of Christ]). There are also parallels to Catholic lore such as the Altar in The Church of the Good Chalice, which mimics and alludes to the death and revival of Christ (I want to say Laurence was burried/honored there, but I don't remember and I may be making that up, but I have vague memory of that [either way Laurence has a lot of parallels to Christ]).
Tangent about Catholicism and Bloodborne aside, I love the architecture of cathedrals and the victorian era, so I love Yharnam's architecture. That's also putting aside the architecture of Cainhurst Castle, which is another favorite area of mine (to look at, I hate fighting through it, oh my goodness) due to the Draculaesque vibes.

I can also go on for hours about the designs of the enemies, NPCs, and attire sets, not to mention the weapon designs. Alas, to keep this less than a million words I will leave that for the shrine to-be. I would; however, like to mention the boss design. I specifically mean the design of the combat itself. Bloodborne does a very good job of using the flow of its boss fights to convey bits of lore. My most prominent examples are Rom, the Vacuous Spider and Micolash, Host of the Nightmare. Rom does not attack the player upon arrival in the arena; rather, the hunter must attack the peacful kin of the Great Ones first. Her helplessness and infancy as an eldrige being is made obvious by her limited ability to fight back, especially when compared with other kin bosses. Micolash choses to run and forces the hunter into a game of cat and mouse, all the while howling and spouting the nonsense of a madman. This helps convey that Micolash, despite his percieved esteem as a scholar, is simply a mad fool (I will be dedicating a page to Micolash, as despite the pure evil that is his boss fight, he is my favorite).

Now, onto another thing I love about Bloodborne, the voice acting. As someone with auditory pattern recognition that lets me mimic most accents with relative ease, I adore accents in voice acting. I play the game in English, as I enjoy fully understanding the lore and don't trust my French skills yet, and the sheer number of beautifully voiced characters is wonderful. Notable favorites are Father Gascoigne's Northern Irish accent, Eileen the Crow's accent that I cannot quite place off the top of my head (alas, a hoonter must hoont), Alfred's mad laughter and monologue, and, of course, whatever Micolash is on.

Finally, I'd like to touch on my love for the lore and its particular flavor of horror. Bloodborne is feminist, this is not simply an inference either, the distinct style of horror and the portrayal of women in Bloodborne is distinctly feminist. Yes we see women who are weak and objectified, but they are portrayed as such to make a point. One of the first things Gherman says to the hunter about another "person" is regarding the doll telling the hunter "You're welcome to use whatever you find. ...Even the doll, should it please you...". The wording and the tone Gherman uses here is distinctly implying something forbidden and sexual. (It is important to note that The Doll is based on Lady Maria, one of the first hunters and Gherman's student. In my opinion, it is implied that Gherman likely use(d/s) The Doll to fill some kind of sexual fantasy regarding Lady Maria. This goes well with the primary themes of Bloodborne, the rape and assult of women. From here, I will assume that readers have general knowledge of the lore so this stays relatively brief. When the Great Ones want a child they forcibly impregnate women to make them bear their children, this process drives the mother into a state of illness and likely kills her after the birth. This is seen through Arianna in the game (I believe the Imposter Iosefka is also pregnant with an infant great one, but she never gives birth so I don't know). This should be relatively self explanitory, but I will be working on a full feminist analysis of the game in the future. Furthermore, Bloodborne does not shy away from themes that society has decided are taboo. The obvious examples are menstration and birth;despite both being wholly natural, society often labels them as taboo and to be kept private. I can go on, but like I said, I will be making this a full analysis later. I'd also like to briefly mention the clear connection to Victorian Era Medicine, as this is very overt in every detail of Bloodborne. I highly reccomend Charred Thermos's "An Agony of Effort" series on YouTube.

Overall, I adore Bloodborne and highly reccomend at least watching someone else play through it. As said I will be making a shrine and other pages dedicated wholly to Bloodborne, and I will link them here.

Cyberpunk 2077

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Dragon Age Origins

Dragon Age II

Dragon Age Inquisition

Dragon's Dogma 2

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Red Dead Redempton 2

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Skyrim

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Oblivion

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Baldur's Gate III

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Outlast

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About my Music Taste

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Songs

• Whole Day Off - Oingo Boingo
• Same Man I Was Before - Oingo Boingo
• The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
• This Night Has Opened My Eyes - The Smiths
• Aerials - System Of A Down
• Headlock - Imogen Heap
• Spiders - System Of A Down
• Lullaby - The Cure
• Spit - Show Me the Body & Princess Nokia
• The World We Knew (Over and Over) - Frank Sinatra
• Perfect System - Oingo Boingo
• Black Milk - Massive Attack
• Creep - Radiohead
• (Nice Dream) - Radiohead
• Will You Remember? - The Cranberries
• Silver Springs - Fleetwood Mac
• Backstabber - The Dresden Dolls
• Synthetic Gems - Solene
• So It Goes - Man Man & Fingers & The Outlaws
• Tom's Diner (7" A) - Suzanne Vega & DNA

Albums

• Who Really Cares - TV Girl
• Singin' to an Empty Chair - Ratboys
• Reise, Reise - Rammstein
• Symbols - KMFDM
• French Exit - TV Girl
• Black Holes and Revelations - Muse (Thanks to my boyfriend for putting me on this one)
• Irreversible - Brigitte Calls Me Baby
• Mezzanine - Massive Attack
• Love Run - The Amazing Devil
• Ys - Joanna Newsom
• American Idiot - Green Day
• Évidemment (39 Titres) - France Gall
• To the Faithful Departed - The Cranberries
• Kunstprodukt - Miss Construction
• La symphonie des éclairs - Zaho de Sagazan
• Bodypop - And One
• Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - The Cure
• OK Computer - Radiohead
• Violator - Depeche Mode
• Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
• Steal This Album! - System Of A Down
• Toxicity - System Of A Down
• In the Flat Field - Bauhaus
• Unreal Unearth - Hozier
• Yes, Virginia - The Dresden Dolls
• Creepy Crawlies - Scary Bitches
• My Head Is an Animal - Of Monsters and Men
• Rosenrot - Rammstein
• Coyote Stories - The Crane Wives
• The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
• Dreamland - Glass Animals

Artists and Bands

• System Of A Down
• TV Girl
• The Dresden Dolls
• The Cure
• Rammstein
• The Cranberries
• Scary Bitches
• France Gall
• And One
• Radiohead
• Oingo Boingo
• Kate Bush
• Dea Matrona
• The Beatles

• Moulin Rouge (2001)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
• The Sting (1973)
• X-Men: First Class (2011)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
• LOTR Trilogy (2001-2003)
• Pride & Prejudice (2005)
• Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
• Casablanca (1942)
• The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
• The Matrix (1999)

Completed

• Ninteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
• Animal Farm - Geprge Orwell
• Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
• The Crucible - Arthur Miller
• The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood
• A Rasin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry
• Macbeth - Shakespear
• Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Night - Elie Wiesel
• The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Reading List

• Bloom - Delilah S. Dawson
• The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
• Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson
• Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
• War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy