Visceral Femininity: A Bloodborne Video Essay
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- "So what's the new video about, Honey?" "Yer mam."
Bloodborne is a very...wet game. It's bloody and messy and goopy and I love it a lot, but I don't often see people talking about the more feminine aspects of its horror (pregnancy, childbirth etc) that it's absolutely bursting with (no pun intended). Content warnings are there for a reason. Some people are probably really not gonna like this and that's cool, go watch a video more to your taste, but I had fun and I hope you do as well ^.^
Terfs and gender critical folks are not welcome here. A person’s existence is not debatable.
CW: blood, violence, infanticide, menstruation, religion/heresy, pregnancy/unwanted pregnancy, forced caesarean, medical abuse, human experimentation, intoxication, Eldritch/cosmic horror, body horror, fantasy plagues, suicide
Quote for Part 2/Lunar Cycles is from Mabel, a horror podcast about missed connections, family secrets and the blurring between myth and reality and love. I love it to pieces, highly recommended.
Listen here!: mabelpodcast.com/episodes
Quote for Part 4/Gods is from the audiobook of Terry Pratchett's "Lords and Ladies"
Extra footage:
Eileen's fight: • Bloodborne - Fighting ...
Queen Yharnam's fight: • Yharnam, Pthumerian Qu...
Rakuyo description/guide for obtaining it (seriously fuck the sharks): • Bloodborne The Old Hun...
//Find me at:
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/honey_bat
Tumblr: / smolhoneybat
Twitter: / honeybat3
Twitch: / smolhoneybat
00:00 Intro
00:58 Blood
16:20 Lunar Cycles
26:35 Babies
38:22 Gods
Songs used!!
Cannot place the groany sound before the Bloodborne OST kicks in? I lost the project files for this along with my harddrive but it SOUNDS like a similar audio quality to the Little Nightmares OST but I can’t place it with only 2 seconds, sorry! (It’s actually driving me nuts so if someone can place it pls tell me, also if I put time stamps it tries to re chapter the video, thanks youtube)
Bloodborne: Bloodborne
Little Nightmares: Six’s Theme Part 1
Hollow Knight: Crossroads
Silent Hill 3: Maternal Heart
Little Nightmares II: Togetherness I
Detention: Paranoid
The Cat Lady: Lily of the Valley
Fran Bow: Lost
Little Nightmares 2: Togetherness I
Rule of Rose: The Attic
Silent Hill 3: A Stray Child
Fran Bow: Forest
The Witch’s House: Rumour
Little Nightmares: Hypnosis
Alice Madness Returns: Hyde Park
Pathologic 2: Higher than Sky
Darkwood: Darkwood
Alice Madness Returns: Card Castles in the Sky
The Haunting of Hill House: Feel Nothing
Little Nightmares II: The Nome in the Attic
The Cat Lady: Lily of the Valley
Darkwood: Untitled 2
Rule of Rose: The Attic
Omori: H2O-HCl
Hollow Knight: Crossroads
Alice Madness Returns: Sunken Crypt
Hollow Knight: Resting Grounds
Silent Hill 3: Maternal Heart
Bloodborne: Moonlit Melody
Little Nightmares II: True Colours
Hollow Knight: Resting Grounds
Bloodborne: Lullaby for Mergo
Little Nightmares II: Togetherness II
Madoka Magica: Anima Mala
Madoka Magica: Puella in Somnio
Little Nightmares: Hunger II
Bloodborne: Hail the Nightmare
Darkwood: Road to Home
Little Nightmares II: Casting Shadows
Bloodborne: Hunter’s Dream
Little Nigthmares II: Casting Shadows
Bloodborne: Lullaby for Mergo - Hry
Hi hi! Wow this blew up massively and unexpectedly. Thank you all for watching, it's amazing seeing how much love people still have for this game! That said I'm getting a few comments repeated so here's some things:
- This is intended as a thematic analysis video rather than a lore video so it's only concentrating on the one aspect here. There's plenty of wonderful lore videos up on youtube but this is not one of them
- Terfs are STILL not welcome here 8 months later, believe it or not. This goes for tradfems, "traditional values" and other dogwhistles.
- I'm really happy this has been helpful for some trans people!! But I also want to apologise for any clumsy phrasing on my part that may have invalidated some trans men or non-binary people.
- "Die mad about it" is referencing a meme. It refers to everyone in the comment section who are, in fact, dying mad about it.
- Content warnings are included because a) I make sure people can follow all of my videos even if they haven't played the game/watched the show I'm talking about and may not know the ballpark we're playing in and b) some people don't want to watch a video about uncomfortable topics like menstruation or childbirth, this is your chance to click away, dead dove do not eat
- I'm gonna add the soundtracks I used to the video description in order of use as some people have been asking for them!
Great job on this video! You’ve earned yourself a subscriber, and I look forward to seeing what you come out with next 😊
What's a terf
I must say I like the addition of Hollow Knight music
@@sonyabladesbooty3890 Trans exclusive radical "feminist"
@@spacegrass6632 ohhhhh thank you 🙏🙏
Never realized Bloodborne was a period piece.
Take my like an get out
Badum tss
On further reflection, it should have been a dead giveaway after you see the word “Mensis”
_ZING!_
Womp womp
Every female npc in the game gives you blood, except the old lady because she dosent "bleed" anymore
But she gives you drugs :)
@@vagabundorkchaosmagick-use2898 Best girl
I want the doll's blood.
@@lqg4395well i dont think dolls can have periods so that would be very impossible
Eileen ?
The great philosophical question of "Did the Moon Presence exhibit 'Girl Power' when she plunged Yharnam into eternal night and bloodlust?"
i'm not sure what side of the coin Moon Presence is actually supposed to represent, considering it's coming down every month (usually, until after the mensis ritual fucks things up) to try for child like with Queen Yharnum
She didn't do it. Someone else did (well the bloodlust bit).
If anything the moon presence wants to stop whoever actually started the blood plague.
she did, she girlbossed so hard that no one could ever girlboss too close to the sun as a result
well it certainly was powerful lmao
Who else but a female could do such an epic thing lol
cosmic horrors beyond human comprehension ARE FOR THE GIRLIESS🎉🎉🎉🎉
Cthulhu? More like CtHERlu 💅🏻
Slayyy
Yes bestie ❤🎉
YASSSSSSS SLAYYYYY
You’re so right sis 🤪💅
It’s kind of surprising how often maternity and birth are themes in horror games, and yet it’s talked about very little
I think it's because a lot of commentators are male and simply don't experience that dimension of it in the same way. Nothing wrong with that at all, just the nature of bias and subjectivity - and why we need as many voices as possible in all art critique!
It's sometimes difficult to touch on topics that, even if we were knowledgeable about, we may never have a true understanding of. So like Naim said, more voices, more perspectives.
@@NaimHrustanovic I believe that it´s because most people don´t like to think about unsettling stuff. And for most men that includes themes of motherhood and femininity. Just thinking about it could infringe on their masculinity, so they don´t and thus miss out on a lot of understanding.
@@DerAykac There's that element for sure, some guys would just be grossed out or offended by it. But from my POV, it was just not in my vocabulary, so to speak - and there's a lot of guys like me out there, in that regard!
It's also because, let's be honest here, human biology is fucking gross and trying to eat and play a game with those allegories living rent free in your head will make you lose your appetite
As a biologist and as a woman, the link between the lore and female biology was glaringly obvious. The final phase of the moon is described as "menses" - this is the scientific word for menstruation, as well as a word to describe the full moon I believe.I am shocked this is not the main interpretation of Bloodborne. I really loved this about the game, as a nerd for biology and a fan of Gothic horror.
as a non biologist and a man... we are clueless, lady.
all Ive seen was: monster, poke, cool blood simulation, poke, big moon is cool, poke
The reason for menses being the scientific term for menstruation is because of its roots in the latin word mensis meaning month. Its periodical nature (also reason for the term period) seems to have characterised menstruation more than anything, and while mensis seems to have originally pertained to cycles of the moon (which also resulted in one full moon cycle being called a month or moonth) it is now unequivocally associated with menstruation and Bloodborne seems to have taken these since diverged themes and terminology of moon cycles and menstruation and married them together again in a Lovecraftian setting. Why this fits so well is that the underlying themes that create the horror in Lovecraft are also very much associated with the moon. Madness in general but in Lovecraft especially is often heavily associated with the moon and is the reason for the word lunacy which comes from luna, the latin word for moon. Bloodborne is really a perfect mergence of seemingly unrelated themes which in reality are very intimately connected in the subconcious mind.
@@FahrenheitEXmakes sense, most biology terms are derived from Latin
And yes Miyazaki probably tried to fully exploit horror surrounding the moon then realised menstruation and blood themes would work so well lol
@@FinalFanatsylover it does in fact mean Menstruation 💀 it means the matter/fluid discharged as well but it very much means the time of Menstruation and is used as a another word for period. They were right.
@@fast1nakus speak for yourself. Most of us understood all of this.
I wonder if having "eyes on the inside" refers to having the baby of a great one. Like when you have a fetus there are literally eyes on your insides. So perhaps the men like Willem and Laurence thought "eyes on the inside" were physical eyes in your brain when perhaps it is the eyes of a fetus inside a woman. The fetus then connects directly to the mother's mind via the umbilicus putting them in direct contact with a Great One via the medium of the pregnancy. So men want this power in the story but can't comprehend or duplicate it because of a fundamental misunderstanding of how it works.
That would be so fucking badass if only women could get on the phone with Elder Gods beyond the veil of reality. Imagine holding a baby up like a telephone and talking to Nyarlathotep.
Considering they basically show in your face they literally mean lining the mind with eyes this most likley isn't true but a good theory
@@xlgapelsin6173 I thought about that but is it because they misunderstood and crammed eyes in their heads and it kind of worked? Good point though
@@TNTales Insight in reality means knowledge. Having insight of the great ones basically means knowing about them to be fair. But for my example take ludwigs intro cutscene where we literally see eyes in his head. Insight overall doesn't really have to do with eyes tho so we are both wrong on this one XD. Pretty sure they mean they need more eyes because they "can't see the truth of the world" which is what our character can do. Take amygdalas for example. They have always been there but only when you have 40 insight you can see them because the character knows about them so thats why they are visible (well that and the blood moon shows them ofc)
@@TNTales Also to follow up. The lore of this game is so horribly twisted and turned around we still don't actually know much about the great ones or anything to do with insight
‘If you have a functioning uterus, it means you’re capable of having children, but it’s not your purpose.’ Came for the love of Bloodborne, stayed for the wisdom.
It CAN be your purpose
Well, to be fair, everyone’s purpose is to reproduce. It’s an instinct that’s engrained in every living being.
Old ones- Low, a baby upon ye!
@@YeeterSkeeter-uw4mu Kanye reference
Every male Great One; I beg your pardon ?
👾 🦑 🐙 🐙🦑👾🦑🐙🐙🦑🦑🦑🐙 (insert formless Oedon emoji here)
The first time I played the game I heard "Yharnam is a place of blood menstruation" and even if I did laugh, I went through the game wholeheartedly believing it was all a metaphor for childbirth and that I was fighting to be born.
that never happened to me in my mind i was a beast hoonter until i got enough insight and i realized i was the beast all along.
Well with one of the endings, your train of fought isnt too far off @TheRealBingus
Yes!! Exactly like she said of the younger male gamer audience (being more uncomfortable with the subject) is what they in a way have to cater too this is still it's sole message/ metaphor
@@rosevalentine3685 I was the beast all along? So the racist people of Yharnam were right to be hostile to foreigners 🌝🗿 I love bloodborne, loved playing it despite how torturous it was, but i just don’t understand the whole plot deeply enough to explain it to someone 💀
Makes even more sense with the true ending
I find it interesting that the game features cases of both forced pregnancy as well as forced abortion. Just heavy themes of sexual violence and robbing women of bodily autonomy. Very intense when looked through that lense.
It does?
@@bloodfiredrake7259Arianna is forcefully impregnated by a great one.
@another_random_ace8820 oh shit you're right. Never thought about that.
Blood Ministration also has exceptional ties to rudimentary medicine developed in the British Empire like Ether or Morphine, Yarnham itself being a reference to Edinburgh and it's grave robbing.
I get that there's exceptional feminine themes in the game, although it's more bleak than that. Men have no way forward beyond convention, and women don't either, they're basically blood banks and potential Great One Incubators. They're all compelled, and eventually consumed by the Blood Moon and it's state on the world, on their minds and biology.
As if they're all just cells in a petri dish.
@@another_random_ace8820queen yharnam was, as well. she was also subjected to a forced abortion and her model has a perpetual wound over her womb where her baby was taken from her
Honestly, as a woman playing Bloodborne who has an extreme aversion to pregnancy and birth, those were the absolute most horrific parts for me. And the idea of being surreptitiously impregnated by something is a huge fear of mine (albeit mine would be a real-world equivalent obviously, but still) so discovering the Arianna sidequest was downright uncomfortable.
@@Someone-wn9hx This is an extremely pickme response to everything I said, and ignores most of it, but okay.
Never thought that might upset anyone, sorry.
@@Someone-wn9hx You didn't actually upset me, it's just in video topics like these you don't always know who the trolls are. I guess I played defensive.
@@littlekitsune1 fair enough, have a good day.
Women who are afraid of giving birth are the equivalent of men refusing to defend their family or their country out of fear. It's understandable, but it's still pathetic.
You mention now and then in this video about how the very male-dominant audience of this game doesn't really talk about lots of these themes. You say it's because it makes them uncomfortable. I think that's true a little bit, but much more so, we just aren't thinking about it. I think the real problem is unfamiliarity, and our inability to think outside of our boxes. Thank you for this video, it's helped me as an aspiring artist to broaden my horizons.
It only makes you uncomfortable if its completely alien to you... as a guy who had to learn the basics of ob/gyn as part of my medical training... nothing about childbirth is uncomfortable to me... but bloodborne isnt inherently feminine, and while menstruation and childbirth are themes present in the game, they only really serve to reinforce the medical allegory that is bloodborne. One of the greatest sins of early western medicine is easily what many cultures would consider the desecration of pregnant corpses... via medical dissection in the name of medical research. Many people believe these early medical researches couldnt possibly have had enough access to pregnant cadavers in order to accurately document all stages of fetal development which leads to conspiracies of these medical researchers hiring grave robbers to kill and bring pregnant women to their research facilities for dissection. This explains the tragedy of both mother kos and her unborn orphan of kos or serves as the inspiration for the prevalence of the ob/gyn themes. Search up charred thermos' analysis for a more detailed breakdown.
I agree, I’m a guy and like I know about what a woman goes through with periods and the like and it doesn’t make me uncomfortable to the point where I want to avoid talking about it. But even so, the themes of femininity went completely over my head, but when it’s pointed out it’s so obvious and I’m surprised I missed it lmao but it’s just cause I’m not woman and I’m not constantly hounded by my period and things that come with it so it’s just not on my radar. To a woman it’s obvious and I guess that’s why the creator of this very well made video says it’s because guys think it’s uncomfortable to talk about and the creator sometimes comes off as confrontational especially with the thumbnail saying you can die crying about it. However, the reason I never talked about the themes of femininity in the game is not cause I don’t want to talk about it cause it’s uncomfortable, or that It it’s icky, or that it goes against my supposed idealized vision of women, or dislike femininity It’s because chief, It just didn’t cross my mind.
I've seen a lot of girl soulsborne fans. Most of them bloodborne fans....
It’s 100% because we don’t think about it. Hell, I don’t even think Miyazaki and his team considered it when developing the game. It’s perceivable that they just came up with this because it’s all just “kinda cool”. I don’t quite think that’s a bad thing tho.
@@redshirtnumber3494 they arent explicitly feminine themes though... bloodborne is allegory for the nightmarish reality of victorian era medical practice and research, that includes ob/gyn practice... but that is only a small facet of the overarching thesis.
Still stunning me to this day how FromSoft managed to turn “and it was all a dream” into a good story
I think it's because the 'dream' is every bit as important as the real world you find yourself in. It was all a dream basically dismisses the events that happened and diminishes its importance, but Bloodborne highlights that dreams are equally as real as life.
I dont even think it was a dream. The game takes place in one night and the ending where you wake up from the hunters dream just means its morning now and the hunt is over. You "woke up" from the hunters dream.
i think it works here because it was so told to you very early on that yes, you are in a dream, and you need to wake up.
in other games/stories, the "its all a dream" plot is used as a cop-out for lazy writing. in bloodborne, it's used as a device for good writing.
I think it still technically takes place in the Waking World for the most part, since other friendly hunters speak of them being cut off from the dream in a similar manner to what occurs in that first ending, indicating that your character is now just like them, stuck there until they die for real. I believe the dream worlds are the Hunter's Dream and the Nightmare places.
The Hunter's Dream and other Nightmare realms are created by the Great Ones. Human imagination and memory serves as the framework, the Great One's power brings them form. While they might not be on the same plane of existence as the waking world they are very much real places.
I always wondered if "women fainting at the sight of blood" started from someone making a parallel between lightheadedness (and even fainting) from blood loss to menstruation.
I think you're really on to something with that. That makes a ton of sense.
One is prone to fainting at the sight of one's own blood, given that it not being inside you causes a variety of issues.
@@brundlefly45 yes but they get weaker and many women have anemia because of periods.
@@brundlefly45 you do realize that blood lose from anywhere can cause lightheadedness and fainting, right?
Some people genuinely faint and people(upper class) literally thought useless women where cute so fainting and having delicate sensibilities where played up and it stuck as a stereotype to this day
I appreciate that you call the Moon Presence a “she”.
She’s not female, not in the biological sense, but she seeks to be a mother just the same.
I've always called it a her, for that reason and that she is linked to motherhood in a way (if i remember well she is the mother of Mergo) and also as i'm french, the moon is gendered female and i also (outside of bloodborne) consider the moon as a mother, the one who grant us soul (but that just my faith)
@@aryaeliadel3094 Moon presence is not Mergo's mother, thats queen Yharnam. Moon presence was mentioned as a "Flora of the moon" so it might be a she, as far as great ones go. As far as its ambitions go, it seems to wants other great ones dead for whatever reason
ok, i'm not so good with Bloodborne lore, i started the game in october@@necroticfleshtemple
I believe perhaps she could be female. Great Ones are auspiciously vague in their nature, especially biology, and one that comes to mind is how Ebrietas is "the Daughter of the Cosmos".
@aryaeliadel3094 I think it's stated somewhere that she sees the Hunter as a surrogate child (the same might be able to be said about Gehrman)
It's very funny to me that so many men I know who play Fromsoft games don't even suspect Bloodborne has things to say about menstruation as they venture into an area of the game called "The Nightmare of Mensis" where the sky has a seeping red gash in it, lol
Honestly I was just as clueless as the next person, granted I searched up countless lore videos while playing and none of them went into this side of the game, it was about the great ones, old yharnam and all that coop stuff, watching this however was very eye opening and I'm glad to have consumed even more bloodborne lore
Go to any from softweare forum and youll find hundreds of men talking about the themes even back when the game just released just because you found out about it from the video doesnt mean no one else noticed it before
It's a bit arrogant to so confidently act like you "got the game" and that an entire gender didn't
@@doctordice2doctordice210 notice how op said "so many men she knew" and not that zero men understood these themes?
@@anny8720 true true , but the comment is still pretty damn condescending lol, honestly besides the video itself being a bit stereotypical (with some convenient lore skewing) the only real problem I have is with the comment section acting like her reading of the story is "the correct one" with insufferable smug attitude
It's wild to me that this central theme--and motif--of the game is not discussed more. Bloodborne is _very_ explicitly about menses, pregnancy, childbirth, and all the pain and viscera that come with them.
Yeah! I found it odd that I never found much fan discussion? But a lot of people here said it just never occured to them so it's been really cool seeing people suddenly get even more out of this game! Thanks for watching and commenting ^.^
@HoneyBat Perhaps the masculinization of the content--replacing the almost pedestrian violence of procreation and its attendant functions with the rather more fantastical violence of slicing up werewolves, mutants, and aliens--was a bit _too_ effective in smuggling the theme into the game. The body-invasion-turned-transformation of beastblood infusion is filtered through the lens of the stereotypically masculine pursuit of power, despite its obvious parallels to the biological reality of conception and the physical, intrinsically animal toll it takes on a body that carries a child to term.
I am transfemme, but I did not know it when I first experienced the game. Perhaps it was some subconscious longing that led me to engage more with the concepts of maternal grief, self-sacrifice, and the asymmetrical toll of parenthood than many of my amab peers. Regardless, your commentary ought to be a larger part of the conversation, particularly given the positive role the game could play in artfully bridging the differing expectations of parenthood between the sexes.
Why am I only just now realizing that menses and the in game location Mensis, are somewhat connected. Like, I never really thought about it. It's not even subtle.
I'll be this person, but a select group of people are overreacting to something because they didn't think about it before. None of this is new, there's plenty to do with birth, and while some can fascinate over it, that doesn't mean everyone is somehow missing out on some obvious double meaning, like lol no you just realized something personally that you didn't before, that doesn't mean there has to be some complex allegory, you're fabricating too much here
And yes, not just birth, but the other multiple examples given such as menstruation (that's not what the blood means lmao, menstrual blood doesn't magically heal you, again with trying force connections just because of the most basic of concepts) and supposed introspection to feminine aspects. That isn't to say they don't exist, but basically, stop trying to act like the game is all about them lmao
And then this weird fucking rant about the "masculinity" and people don't examine the femininity because of that, like no, maybe that's YOU lol. These subjects can have a place in the game and be discussed without trying to come up with nonsense theories based on literally the simplest of similarities
@Grey-Soul Ghost You forgot to tip your fedora on the way out, Edgelord.
At no point did I say I had never thought about these themes. At no point did I suggest menstrual blood has magical healing properties. As I said, I very much _did_ engage with the feminity inherent in the themes. But _others,_ undeniably, did _not._ This is readily apparent after only a brief survey of other content on the game's lore and thematic elements. To the extent femininity is explored in other content, the explorations are brief and, to my mind, incomplete.
Seriously, your comment is non-stop butthurt cringe, my dude. Work on your reading comprehension, and until such time as that has improved, _kindly_ keep your garbage takes to yourself. You have failed to engage with the subject matter, your opinion adds nothing to the conversation, and you have outed yourself as an insufferable, vacuous contrarian.
I love the line "of course I do love you. Isn't that how you made me?" implying that in order for a child to be born, two people need to love each other. Which is mostly true in our world, but in the world of Bloodborne birth is kind of seen as a bittersweet curse, binding women to a hurtful fate. I just love this small little detail, definetly got some shivers down my spine
I actually never looked at it from this perspective. When she says "Isn't that how you made me" I thought it meant as her being built to love her creators as that's what she does. I like the alternative perspective though!
@@KriminalKat i think yours is the more intended reading just remember how creepy gherman is about her even though i also dont think they intended people to read his line the way they did
@@paisano6830 It can be interpreted that way, unless you're the game director telling us this :)
Two people absolutely do not have to love each other to make a baby most baby's are born to people who don't even like each other.
The doll was made by an old fart, who loved a girl that never shared his feelings.
The doll means that she is made to love humans.
I too hate the idea of giving birth, it totally freaks me out. I’d never known anyone who agrees with me, glad to hear I’m not the only one
I can see how it could freak one out. Tho being male, I'll never fully know that fear.
After watching this video I'm freaked out too. And I'm male.
I FEEL THAT! I have PCOS and a phobia of pregnancy and childbirth. The idea of a whole-ass half-baked human in your organs is probably the most frightening and offputting thing I can think of. That's practically a biological demonic possession if you've ever looked at ultrasound photos. People really insist that you'll get over it.
Lady gamer here, and I'm scared to death of pregnancy and birth. Don't know why, but it's nice to see I'm not alone
@Wraithbrat4 I don't blame you, that shit sounds terrifying. I think many gamers are put off by the idea of pregnancy and birth. Not surprising considering how game developers keep putting horrifying baby monsters in their games.
What's the point of CZcams harvesting everyone's data if it takes them 10 months after this is posted to recommend this video to me?! I've binged/rewatched hundreds of hours of Bloodborne video essays and I'm only NOW getting this?
Seriously a fantastic video. A fresh take on one of the most analayized games of the past decade.
Omggg same I cannot believe I'm only seeing this now. It's so niche and perfect
Queen Yharnam is depicted as sad in the game Bloodborne because she has lost her child, Mergo. Mergo's death has left her in despair and mourning, and she wanders the nightmare realm of the game in search of her lost child. Additionally, she is trapped in a cycle of suffering and torment, unable to find peace until her child is found and released from its curse. Overall, Queen Yharnam's sadness stems from her tragic loss and the never-ending cycle of suffering she is trapped in.
money
As a woman who has had to have blood transfusions due to heavy flow. This is SUCH an interesting insight.
this is a thing??? oh my god im pretty young and this is so scary 😭 so damn glad i got on the pill early
@@siilverREAL it's not common my mother had severely heavy flow after giving birth to twins to the point that it was actually unsafe, so they scalded the lining of her uterus (a painless procedure) this was a pretty severe case and she did not need blood transfusions. I have a condition which among other things causes a heavy flow and anemia this is also not a normal period. All of that is to say while I don't know your health needing blood transfusions is a thing, but it's like 3 levels of severity passed a normal thing.
*Insight* you say?
Insight +1
give me ur menstruation blood now woman.
i must admit as a man 100% of this went way over my head when i played. how tf i was so blind to something that seems obvious now is kinda insane. great video
As males we often have a massive mental blind spot to these kinds of things. I'm in the middle of my 3rd Bloodborne playthrough and I still didn't think about this stuff. Or maybe I did notice and I just didn't want to think about it.
to be fair, there are a lot of other things to catch our attention. For me, I was far too involved in a church abusing power, so I didn't bother linking this to women until far after my first playthrough.
thats because it isnt actually as feminine as OP convinces herself, there are extremely minor themes of femininity, but they are only there for on function alone, and that really minor theme ends once you realize that women in bb are cursed to birth gods, and men are cursed with the hunt and fulfilling the task of those gods, humans are but tools, the main theme of bb is cosmic horror and maybe religious abuse, everything else is nothing but a little spice on the main dish.
based on her aggression im pretty sure OP is kind of a aggressive femcel with minor hints of misandry in her tone. seems like shes abit hateful and angry towards men.
same
We guys generally feel very uncomfortable about these topics so our brains probably pick up on them and just choose to ignore them
in my culture, a woman's period is called her "moon time".the moon is seen as our grandmother. She pulls the waters, including the waters within us.
We aren't allowed to touch sacred medicine or other things during moon time, as it's supposed to be a time where we rest and have the tribe support us.
I'm anishinaabekwe, an Ojibwe woman, assimilated by my gov't into a culture that disrespects the laws that are known in my dna, in my blood. Its hard to live here. I'm a housewife, a caged bird.
I didnt think i'd be crying in my empty kitchen about a video game and it's connection to how visceral womanhood can be. I'm glad this came up on my feed, i'll be revisiting it often!
Thanks for sharing. I love learning about things I’d otherwise have no idea existed. Im sorry your govt sucks though.
Oh please, nobody forced you into your life, you could reject modernity and live a tribal lifestyle if you wanted to, but itd be awfully inconvenient and likely lead to a shorter lifespan and youd also have to say goodbye to comfort in general.
You arent caged at all. Your blood and dna know nothing about fallible cultural laws and practices.
Also, look up what visceral means... because you and the lady that made this video dont seem to understand what the word actually means... it refers to deep inward feelings rather than intellect, it also refers to viscera, which make up or refers to your large internal organs like the heart, lungs, intestines, etc...
This video, and your reaction to it is a perfect example of confirmation bias.
"How visceral womanhood can be" yeah, this sentence doesnt actually make sense as visceral isnt really a traditional adjective, it really only serves as a modifier, "visceral fear inherent in womanhood," would make more sense for what youre trying to say.
Save it for therapy lady. Sheesh.
@@TrashPanda90914 mid take
@@Arctic_and_The_F0X my mid takes bring all the boys to the yard
24:32 with her being an older women I think her being free from the cycle of the hunters dream could be read as being a metaphor for being post menopausal.
I think it just means she was relieved by gherman just like we are in ending 1. She dosent dream anymore. This was her last chance at life.
@@baracktrump4944To clarify, OP means that Eileen being set free from the dream like you described could be a metaphor for being post menopausal. I’m not sure if I believe it. We don’t know how often the hunts take place, but if it is, say, every full moon, then the hunt’s cycle could be a massive analogy for menstruation. It would mean that Eileen would’ve gone out in a bloody, probably slightly-less-sane-and-more-blood-drunk-manner than normal, once every month. This fits perfectly with menstruation, which entails, among other things, blood (we see a lot of it during the hunt), and hormones (hence why I put emphasis on the hunters from the hunters dream likely being a bit more drunk on blood than most. They do inject hundreds of vials over the course of the night, after all.)
So refreshing to get some actually new and interesting perspectives on this already incredible game. The motherhood and feminine experience aspects are so central to so many of the areas and bosses that it’s insane they’re rarely mentioned. Incredible video!
Thank you!! There's a point in every script where I end up going, "am I reading too much into this?" but it's so baked into Bloodborne that it really did surprise me that so few people talk about the feminine themes, or sometimes they get brought up and acknowledged but not really explored that much. Thanks so much for watching and commenting ^.^
The only one that's been doing a lot of reading into these themes is TBSkyen on his Boss designs of Bloodborne series, at least that I know of. I really liked it because the feminine side of bloodborne, as put in this video, is as unreachable for me as the very eldritch truth. I can't imagine what it is to make contact with a great one just as I can't fathom what it is to have another living thing growing inside of me.
It's really interesting and so fascinating. I love videos like these that are personal takes of hooked up players and not just readimg wiki articles about the lore.
@@MandiocaMagica tbskyen's souls borne series is amazing.
In fairness, I think it's rarely mentioned because there's 1: So much to love about this game and 2: Because most of the game's audience for years has been primarily male(as with all video games), leading to some... lack in perspective.
they're rarely mentioned cuz these games are so male dominated and males rarely think abt these issues at all despite how important they are to 50% of the world population unfortunately
An interesting detail on Gilbert's broken window is that the bars are bent outward, meaning a beast didn't get in, but he transformed into one and broke out, and the beast outside is probably him. I love the more subtle story telling in Bloodborne.
I wouldn't even say probably. The game is straight up telling us. That's like saying a pokemon is "probably" inspired by something that literally has it in its name.
Yeah, I always thought it was him. The little girl is super interesting too.
Crazy how subtle and easy to miss that is! I completely missed it, I don't know if you also know that Bloodborne is partially inspired by lovecraft
That‘s Common knowledge bro
@@theresnothinghereatall I can't tell if this is sarcastic or not...
including the madoka friendgroup as your example of the wolf pack makes me almost want a video essay on how closely tied the story of madoka is to girlhood as well because i have a lot of feelings about it
do it! id loove to see it
Madoka is the ultimate anime because almost anyone who was forced to go through being a 14 year old girl feels a deep kinship with the cast. hell I'm a dude now yet I sobbed at the show because I related to Sayaka's loss of childhood and the feeling of drowning it brings.
I never understood why people are so opposed to talking about periods and menstruation. Its such a universal problem that litterally every girl can relate to and its completely natural and part of life (despite it being completely unfair and frankly unwanted) It is treated as a thing to say amongst shushed whispers for some damn reason.
Especially considering without that half of biology, reproduction wouldn't exist and therefore babies and so on and so forth. Society is dumb.
As a man, I personally was never taught much about periods from personal experiences from women. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that as a man, I was taught that periods were something I just couldn't comprehend and should let women be. To an extent, yes, I don't have periods, so I couldn't personally understand them. But at the same time, women in my life found their own periods to be repulsive and something to be embarrassed about. The subject certainly goes both ways.
@@Austin-vp6qq It might sound strange but I'm always slightly surprised and pleased to find men engaging with these topics, even if it's through a videogame. To be clear, I don't expect men to take an interest because why would you, but the basic human decency and extra insight is great to see! Bloodborne rocks
edit: I hope that doesn't sound condescending haha
@dishevelledartist You're all good. I get it. Not many men really understand periods, so there's a disconnect in understanding. I think if men aren't so grossed out, apathetic, as well as prepared to understand, and women not so embarrassed, awkward, or repulsed from having that discussion, we'd be in a better place.
I’m a trans girl who had a nurse practitioner for a mom. My sex ed was pretty thorough, and I feel like everyone would benefit from a better sex ed.
Don't know if you know, but Miyazaki had a son right around the time of Bloodborne's development/release. The themes of pregnancy and birth might have been a form of expression on his part, or maybe it was all subconscious.
Good work on this video.
Ooh, I didn't know that!! Getting to explore that in his work is really cool and damn he told a brilliant story with it ^.^ and thank you, I'm really glad you liked it!
Oh yeah...sure..makes total sense.
Project beast started development in 2012...Miyazaki has son after the game was released.
It's kinda funny to think that Miyazaki made Bloodborne his "Dad game" when other devs came up with Dad of Boy and The Last of Us.
You look at The One Reborn boss fight and you tell me that he wasn’t traumatized by watching his son be born. Not to say that he doesn’t love his son he does very much, he was just traumatized by the experience lmao.
@@azazelsiad3601 time traveling confirmed?
Thank you so much, I have always noticed how menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth (along with miscarriage) fills every part of this game and was so surprised when I barely saw it talked about in the community! It always felt like a huge theme in this game was choice, and how oftentimes the choice about things like these are ripped from women's hands and forced upon them. I never suspected the Queen chose to bare the child of a great one, more that she was selected to, and it destroyed her. Babies can be monstrous things to a mother when it's not something she wanted
"Babies can be a monstrous thing to a mother when it's not something she wanted."
My God you are a foul and bitter creature. I can tell you're not a mother
@@Amfortas I can tell YOU don't have reading comprehension and can't take in the context of the rest of my comment. Obviously babies themselves aren't monsters, and a child should not be treated as a monster even if they were born from nonconsensual means. I clearly only meant that the lack of choice in the matter is a horrible, gruesome, terrifying thing for a woman to go through
Its probably beacuse the audience is predominantly male. I would asume as much at least. And we simply cant have the awareness on those topics as you do as we cant live trough those experiences. So it was a great video. Definitely opened my eyes to a female perspective and how it differes from ours. And that last remark you made about an unwanted child inside your body sounds truly horrific.
Not to be a pedant, but I think in this case it's _bear_ the child of a great one, bear as in carry. The word 'bare' changes the meaning of the sentence in a potentially confusing way.
@@tortis6342 you're right, i totally glazed over it without realizing i spelt it that way, oh well
One small nitpick... Vicar Amelia is not the only female beast. The beast patients in Old Yharnam that wear the cape over their heads are actually female. We can also deduce that the Blood Starved Beast is also female, because she acts very similar to the large beast patients you can find in Old Yharnam (who are also female).
Isn’t there also Ebrietas, who just has “daughter” in her boss title as well. EDIT: am brainless, “female beast” is specified, I take back what I said
Winter Lanterns
@@izziewalter2353 Just from their Position and facial Features, I'd say the Winter Lanterns are familiars of the Brain of Mensis, the creations of a diseased mind, which resemble the doll, a being made by Gehrman for very obsessive and selfish purposes. I feel like they just exist to nail that point home: Those who surround themselves with dolls and have them sum lullabys for them are aged, rotten to the core and held in suspense, caught impotently in a state they can't escape. The Brain of Mensis is Gehrman or at least his mirror that should make you question how good that dream of yours really is.
Ebrietas being female makes a lot of sense to me. She's one of the original blood donors and I don't mean to Sound reductive here, but her face, the place where you normally look for a soul, a personality, a feeling, an expression, anything... is a vertical slit with frilly sides and a fleshy bulk inside that spews blood in Phase 2.
Ebrietas is on her knees the whole time, hunched over, she's located in the Altar of Despair, by the corpse or molt of a Godkin.
If ever there was a character designed like they just have period cramps a na mood swings 24/7, it's poor little Ebby here.
Rom is a girl too
The bit where you speak about your experience with ignorant people telling you to just have a baby despite the real and severe risks/consequences that could or would come with it, takes my brain to everytime I've mentioned anything about my hysterectomy to people and oftentimes I get very piteous responses about how it's such a shame and "but you're so young!" (26 this month). And like, I can appreciate and understand the sentiment, because as you say that would indeed devastate some people.. but I suffered horrific and debilitating symptoms for a week or longer every month, for a process I wanted no part in because I don't care for children and I don't care to raise another after I had to raise my younger brother. My hysterectomy feels like freedom, but the way people speak to me about it sometimes makes it sound like some ghastly curse or like I've caught a terrible illness or something. Kids can be great if that's what you want for yourself, but women/people with uteruses were made for greater things than being perceived as walking talking incubators with no other callings or goals or dreams.
I get that too. I am 33 and just had my hysterectomy. I am disabled and never wanted kids especially because I was told my issues would pass on. My sisters and I told our family (fully of disabilities) the bloodline ends with us and the world is so mad at us for that despite everyone else (my grandma has 11 other siblings) having tons of kids and so on and so forth I am constantly delegated as nothing but a sad disgrace despite volunteering and essentially being a mommy to the world; I have raised not only my sisters but helping to raise my coworkers' kids (been there since they were born through her running from an abusive boyfriend, so I have 2 godkids ages 8 and 5 now) as well as several of my sister's friends who went on to have kids so I have fostered kids and therefore made them better people but because I didn't have blood kids people think I'm useless. I had periods nonstop since I started having several surgeries (my hysterectomy was my 16th in 20 years) and had endometriosis and benign fibroid tumors, and several ovarian cysts I had to suffer from for years on top of several physical and mental disabilities. I fought to get my hysterectomy and I do all I can to use my skills of cooking and other life skills to help people out in the world yet because I am not having kids people just see me as useless. It's ridiculous.
dude, PLEASE tell me how you managed to get one. I have so many health problems related to my reproductive system and i've been desperately looking for a hysterectomy. i do not want children, i dont care about my fertility. im exhausted of pain
Well for me, I complained to my PCP who sent me to a gynecologist to then figure out what was going on with my periods & pain. Once tests & such discovered my issues, I was put on the pill & told ways to how to deal with pain. The pill didn't do much, so months later I got the patch... rinse & repeat through the patch then shots of Depro (which did help for 2 years by reducing the amount I bled) then when people started telling me I smelled (no matter how much I cleaned myself & such) I complained & they finally did an IUD. My period went away but the cramps & pain stayed for years. It wasn't until I went in for an Endoscopy & Colonoscopy, when they discovered my IUD strings disappeared & I had to check to make sure it was still in, that they did tests & saw my fibroids had severely expanded & grew outside of my uterus in the form of endometriosis (before, it was simply lots of small dime-sized fibroids) that they then decided it was time to get a hysterectomy because I had done all I could for my symptoms & we wanted to prevent complications in the future from endometriosis. This took years... literally 11 years to get to this point. We had to take things slow for insurance purposes. Something you need to understand is that you can't just be willy-nilly with this and expect to get it. The world is cruel & won't just give it to women especially because of "mental health" reasons & "you'll regret not having kids"; my mother, with 3 daughters, had to threaten suicide at 28 years old because they wouldn't give her one because "she'd regret not having a son". Lots of women can get tubal ligations & stuff much easier than one. So unless you've got a good team if doctors willing to help, then it's hard to get one especially in states where they don't believe in birth control or abortions. When it came time for me to discuss mine, I literally mentioned that I had been married for 16 years, had never wanted kids, understand the consequences of a hysterectomy, that my husband & family understood them too, that I do not want to chance spreading bad genes to my kids, that I don't want to chance future complications due to endometriosis & that I have done my research & understand any complications & possible "regrets" but acknowledge what it means to have a hysterectomy & was ready to go through with it. My doctor was a male (a big bit of pushback against women wanting hysterectomies is from male doctors that feel women shouldn't go that route, so be aware of that being another possible complication in getting a hysterectomy) but was impressed by my discussion with him & said he could tell I was in a good mindset & definitely ready to handle one. Lots of times, doctors will have women go through counseling & such because they "need to understand the reality of their decision" and they think you'll regret it. I'm not saying you will, but that's something else to keep in mind. Long story short: if a hysterectomy is important to you, then fight for it but be prepared for it to take many long years. As someone who has had to spend years fighting for multiple surgeries & procedure to get my disabilities stabilized, I'm just telling you you need to be patient, act mature, and push back or you'll become your own worse enemy & you won't get what you want because you'll bite yourself in the butt. Be realistic about things and be willing to try alternatives because most insurances & doctors won't just jump straight to a hysterectomy.
I've had 3 male doctors not believe me that I've had a hysterectomy despite me showing proof and telling them constantly lmao, the ignorance disgusted me so much.
20:00 Fun additional facts about Gascoine. He most likely is the one who kills his wife. Reminding him of the humanity produces such a gutteral reaction most likely because he no longer wants to remember being human. His gutteral moans on his death sound very similar to the words "forgive me". Additionally you can summon Gascoine for the cleric beast fight if you havent encountered him in his bossrooom. You can play the music box and he chuckles at it.
I like to think that the guy hes hacking away at was the one murdering her. It sounds so much better to know that Gascoigne revenged his Wife, losing himself in the process. Maybe its even our fault that he turned. Maybe, If we never appeared there, he couldve gone home while his daughter plays his musicbox. Maybe that wouldve been his good ending.
@@crestfallenwarrior5719 thats the beauty of souls games each person can look ag the story and take home their own interpretation. Its something like that which gives us videos like this in the first place. Whether it was him or whether it was someone from a yharnham mob its a father and husband who loses himself and those around him lose him as well.
@@tylerpatrick3511 ha. Youre right. Have a great day, fellow Hunter.
*Guttural
@@crestfallenwarrior5719 Looking at the mental state he’s in and seeing how he turns into beast very fast if you play the music box 3 times he would’ve killed. Heck even Eileen said that he was falling apart.
One thing I noticed that I have not seen a single person theorize or talk about before:
The Moon Presence, the Great One that is essentially your boss throughout the game, is specifically sending you as an assassin to kill baby great ones. Now, that has already been proposed by several people, but one thing i never see used as evidence is the actual form of the MP.
We know for a fact that great ones are capable of self-harm due to the amygdala fight. And the Moon Presence has *visibly removed* organs and whatnot, having her ribcage completelt exposed, as either she or another great one had forcibly removed them all. More specifically, removed reproductive organs. She either despises the birth of new great ones so much that she sends assassins to prevent it from happening, she's too envious of it, or perhaps she does it as revenge for what happened to her.
She is the only great one like this that has a visible apparent-injury like this, as all the other great ones, even the brain of mensis, have solid, complete, uninjured forms, so we can assume that the MP has removed organs, as opposed to "visually grotesque ribcage for the lulz" that I think a lot of people assumed it was.
Either way, this is further enforced by the fact that, should the player consume 3 or more cords, the MP was NOT happy, implying she did not want to allow the (re)birth of another great one through you, and she tries to kill you.
That makes perfect sense!! I figured she was funneling Hunters into Yharnam constantly because of the Dream hub but wasn't entirely sure why? She seems to want someone with her given that Gehrman is being kept there permanently but that could just be for his utility in training new Hunters. I think it definitely makes more sense if she wants to be the only Great One with a child out of spite for what's happened to her or if she wants no more Great Ones born full stop. If you don't fight her she grasps onto you in an embrace but doesn't kill you so, new surrogate. But I always wondered about that little gust of wind that happens if you've eaten the umbilical cords. There's some sort of reaction when she touches you, like you're unsuitable as a new vessel. You can't be more powerful than her and repelling her if you're still human but... that's probably her pushing you away because she recognises the scent in you! If she doesn't want any new babies to be born then that makes perfect sense for her to attack!
Her design is visually striking but I doubt it was for the lulz too XD It's like she's both physically tearing herself apart in distress but also maybe she's sacrificing pieces of herself to keep this pocket of reality going and keeping the whole cycle going. Maybe she has other Dreams elsewhere and we're only experiencing a tiny fraction of her realities. And I think with the missing organs, given the rest of the forced preganancies/caesareans hinted at in the games with Queen Yharnam and Mergo, Kos and her baby, possibly Rom, Arianna etc, I wouldn't be surprised if someone or something hurt the Moon Presence too, especially given the cyclical nature of the game, like a lunar cycle. This pattern keeps repeating until you can break it.
I've seen that theory before but I prefer the theory that Flora (the Moon Presence's nickname) is actually benevolent. The idea is that she knows that the Great Ones are a disaster for humanity, and she wants to help humans by eradicating her own kind because she cares for the humans.
I can't explain the full theory but there was a Reddit post out there that explained it and convinced me. Basically she used Gehrman as a surrogate host to create the Hunter's Dream in order to undo the "madness of the Great Ones".
It makes sense because humanity was never meant to encounter these beings. Ever since they were discovered, everything went downhill, and humanity couldn't stop it. Unless, through Flora, they could. She gave humanity a chance and fought against her own kind.
Maybe it's a Warframe situation where the Moon Presence couldn't have children of her own, so she took pity upon humanity, and proceeded to commit genocide to free her "children". Maybe humans worshipped her when no one else would or something, showing her love and respect when she was only used to being hated and loathed.
or she attack you because it's what she need to do for you to become her true child instead of a surrogate like gerhman
note that if you use the chord in the dream the moon presence does nothing to stop you, even though she would certainly know what they are for
they are also all conveniently placed for the player to find them and linked with the moon presence in one way or another, almost like she want the player to find them...
she is also the one who give the player the mean to enter the hunter nightmare and found kos corpse, wich is, with mergot wet nurse, the vital piece in the puzzle that is her true plan
so yeah I don't believe the moon presence is antagonistic at all, not toward the player at least I think she has a far more ambitious and alien plan for the player and trough the game she is playing us like a fiddle
When the "eldritch abomination" has comprehensible motivations:
@@thewizard1 This is still a fromsoft game, they still like their lore gods to have a game of thrones style thing going on. And to be fair, the MP is the only one that is really this decipherable. Oedon might just be a jackass, who knows.
Being the son of an absent father and incredibly open and loving mother/sister, I always thought a lot of the "feminine" stereotypes were weird, and often more applied to me than my sister.
It always instilled me with an immense respect for women as a whole, and further down the line when I played bloodborne, queued me into what you're talking about in this video.
Thanks for putting those thoughts into a video that is as long as it is entertaining ;)
Oh oh I'm chronically ill and I feel this on an emotional level with pregnancy. The people who either think a baby wpuld cure me, or the borderline eugenics of "X group shouldn't have children."
Honestly this video essay is super interesting! It's definitely a different take than I usually see, but there is a horror of blood and motherhood and losing children
We already have eugenics. it's called CRISPR.
As a chronically ill person as well, I never find it as Eugenics to have true discussions about how X group shouldn't have children. If you have a chance to pass on genes that do not give a human being a say in their livelihood, then you should have to strongly think about parenthood; think about the hell you would put that child through. I am so angry at being born deformed and disabled. Living is suffering and when I complain to my parents all I get is "you're perfect in our eyes". and it's so frustrating, so I chose not to have kids and instead adopt/foster in my future. I would rather future kids never have to suffer like I do. I don't see it as Eugenics for the ill/disabled themselves to consider it. I've seen way too many videos of people going on to have kids and passing on their horrid diseases and then crying about how it's just not fair their kids isn't given a fair chance in life... when they, themselves, did that to their child by choice... I get wanting to be a parent because it's in human biology, but we are also given brains to think reproduction through and whether it's a good idea or not and to willingly do that to a kid who isn't simply just your plaything/offspring but a human with its own future and life is cruel. So, as the opposite side of your argument, AKA the future kids you are arguing about that is considered "Eugenics because you feel X groups should be able to have kids" always keep in mind nothing is just black and white. There's a much bigger picture to this argument. I am not for Eugenics but I am for smarter reproduction; people thinking things through and actually getting genetic testing and such if they are ill if they plan on having kids just in case because future humans have a right to a good start in life just as much as you have a right to have kids.
@@oldladytrexarms you're so absolutely _Based_ for that great logic
Bloodborne really hits differently for women to be honest, especially if you're tokophobic and/or childfree. Pregnancy can already be a hard and scary experience and that just gets amplified if it is happening against your will
Yeah!! I think a lot of people don't really consider how dangerous and painful pregnancy is for a lot of people, even in the best case scenario when the process goes smoothly and the baby is wanted by the parents. I've known people get surprised by a lot of post-birth issues like pain, bleeding, clots etc and needing minor surgery that they just didn't get prepared for because it's not talked about and the whole thing is a massive strain on your body. Feeling your body change in ways you're not expecting and can't control really is body horror at it's most pure and the idea of pregnancy has always freaked me out for that reason (even before I found out that it would be particularly dangerous for me) but I think I wouldn't have feared it so much if it wasn't being left as a kind of Eldritch unknown. I love how those two ideas overlap in Bloodborne!
As a nonbinary transmasculine, tokophobic, that also doesn't like children, in a very conservative nation... yeah. Shit hits different
@@chrisheartman9263 do you just add gender words to yourself as a replacement for a personality? Because Non-binary and Transmasculine being used in the same sentence... something isn't adding up here.
@@HoneyBat I have the same thoughts on it too. Although I've always thought having a kid and making a family would be great...the thought of putting my partner through that pain (even if they wanted a kid of their own) is something I don't think I could do. It's something that could possibly kill them. I don't think I'd ever want to do something that could possibly kill someone. Even if something as wonderful as a child being born would come from it.
@@Crispifordthe3rd515 it makes sense perfectly fine with the tiniest bit of thinking and empathy. nonbinary, identifying outside of a gender binary. transmasculine, being assigned female at birth and not identifying as female. do you avoid google and dictionaries as a personality trait?
27:50 I feel you on people telling you that getting pregnant will magically cure your chronic illness. I too have a chronic condition and I've heard many times people suggesting that after pregnancie(s) it could get better, completely ignorant of the fact that there is also a 50/50 chance of it getting actually worse. And, you know, it's not that easy to take care of children when you are practically disabled by your illness and need extra help just taking care of yourself.
On the contrary, pregnancy is so heavy on the body, it an trigger lots of autoimmune and even psychiatric conditions.
as a sexist i don't understand why people suggest that
@@cesruhf2605 Sometimes I assume they think motherhood is this magical cure all. Or they're just ignoranusses. Most likely the latter.
@@olympiaelda1121 While not the same thing, people don't seem to realize how hard things can be on bodies and how they can trigger stuff in ill people and worsen stuff. Like how when I got my first allergic reaction to food ever (blueberries) which then triggered shingles all over my body which then caused postherpetic neuralgia and essentially the PHN made me gain nerve damage and I now have burns all over my body because of a food allergy. Whenever I hear people mention pregnancy (I did have a hysterectomy so I fought hard against people trying to tell me having a baby would make my illness/disabilities better) will help other ill/disabled people like me, I use what you and I mention as a great example. Tends to really freak them out because they don't realize just how much a sick body can spiral out of control.
One of Bloodborne's greatest narrative strengths is its empathy towards these cosmic entities. I had a vague sense of it when I played the game, but you've definitely reified it for me here. Its depiction of these old gods in the emotional context of mothers separated from children is particularly compelling.
I also gotta say that watching this video with my one-month-old daughter sleeping on my chest at 2 in the morning sure makes the whole thing hit a lot harder.
Sorry for the necro but wanted to agree, I love how the cosmic great ones are conveyed in bloodborne.
Great ones in fiction have been shown to be indifferent, or cruel, but rarely sympathetic.
The great ones in bloodborne are almost relatable, they seem to have sympathetic goals and sympathies to humans. The only issue is they are too far beyond our understanding. Their power can easily corrupt and their attempts to help misunderstood, and from us they can't really comprehend our earthly needs and thinkings. So we are doomed to see each other but not truly understand.
As a gamer dude with a gamer fiancé who can often feel excluded or targeted at times by others in the gaming community, I appreciate you creating such a well made video that demonstrates how badass the feminine motifs of this game are. I feel many have called this a masterpiece without paying homage to the themes you outlined!
what?
Firstly: Targeted by whom? Targeted for what? What did you do?
Secondly: Being feminine or masculine is not automatically badass.
Thirdly: The reason that people don't "pay homage" to the themes she presents in the video is because it's a subjective thing that nobody but her felt, and she had to make a video on it because "muh feminism"
Fourth: The game is a masterpiece because of its craftsmanship and worldbuilding, not some ridiculous feminist agenda or "trans right" bullshit. Now that i think about it, i can see why you get targeted in the community. You try and inject shitty politics into our video games, and you will be shunned for it.
@@theincrediblefella7984the politics were always there, you just close your eyes and soyface at the surface level plot synopsis and cry whenever anyone tries to get anything worthwhile out of a text
cringe.
Whoever is targeting or excluding should be called out for it. Who are these people?
@@sprogg11 Probably just gamers in general I guess?
41:14 that workshop umbilical cord isn't just a backup in case you mess up a quest line, it's possibly the cord of Kos, and likely what drew the Moon Presence to the original workshop. After this encounter the original workshop was abandoned for the Dreamlands Version hosted by the Moon Presence. So in a way, this cord birthed the workshop, the entire reason for the Hunters inability to truly die while linked to the dream.
I guess if we wanted to go a step further, we could say the Hunters Dream is a womb of sorts. We are linked to it, and it is a safe haven where we grow throughout the course of the game. The Doll nurtures the Hunter in a motherly way by taking the blood echoes and imbuing them with strength, while Gherman is more fatherly offering advice and guidance throughout the night. That's honestly honestly first time I've thought of the Hunters Dream in that way but I'm compelled by that notion. Great video by the way, I doubt I would have gone through the trouble of typing this out if I thought it was shit 😆
Hahaha I actually forgot about that cord until I was deep into editing the video and added the caption as "pls don't um actually me that there's 4 cords" in comments but I LOVE this idea!! The Doll cares for us the whole time, strengthening us with echoes and keeping us healthy, like whenever you zoop back to the Dream your health automatically refills as well. This is a safe place that nourishes you and Gehrman's advice and guidance could definitely be seen as the fatherly counterpart to Doll's mothering!
Also the cord drawing the Moon Presence down in the first place would make perfect sense. Something probably called her there and Hunter's experimenting with or retrieving parts of Great Ones from the Fishing Hamlet or Labyrinths would probably act as a very effective lure.
@@HoneyBat this is a big part of why I love this game, it has excellent gameplay, and a great story which is never pushed in your face, but is waiting for you to look for it if you feel compelled too.
I just wanted to add that I'm not so sure the blood vials contain menstrual blood. It's a possibility, but if you go to the Research Hall and accept blood from Adella the Blood Saint, she has a syringe of some kind sticking out of her right arm indicating that this is where the blood is drawn from. Also Iosefka's blood vial indicates a distilling process of some kind beyond it being her own blood specifically. Now neither of these examples can truly prove that the special blood vials do not contain menstrual blood, but they don't confirm either. Still food for thought either way. I hope they make a sequel or a prequel one day, Bloodborne is ripe for expansion
Kos' cord is the one Iosefka has (it's description linked it to Willem, and we know the Church and specially the Choir went to Byrgenwerth after Rom's blocking of the red moon).
The workshop's cord is probably Annalise's. That's why she can't get pregnant besides you constantly giving her blood dregs. That's the untold, real reason why the Church attacked Cainhurst, not only for "blood market control", political issues or whatever (which is also true). Laurence knew he needed a cord, so he took it from her and used it to beckon the Moon Pressence at the old workshop, remaining there after signing the contract and Gerhman's kidnap.
@@mirayoquese8608 im about 99% sure that iosefka's cord is just from being made pregnant much in the same way ariana was made pregnant.
False iosefka was turning people into emissaries specifically to make contact with a great one, and she most likely did things to herself to make her a more appealing vessel for a great one child.
I cant think of a reason why annalise would have a cord. The vilebloods fled specifically to avoid the influence of the great ones, and as far as we know, the deceased king of vilebloods was a simple vileblood, nothing any more special than the other massacred cainhurst citizens.
The workshop cord is most likely from kos'.
The workshop itself was built before the choir, but after the church was founded, but before the burning of old yharnam and so most likely before the creation of the church hunters proper. It was definitely built before the creation of current yharnam.
We know this because we know the hunter's dream existed before the burning of old yharnam, but after the desecration of kos. And because it was before the burning of old yharnam, that means that the workshop cord could only have come from 2 places: kos herself, or maybe lady maria, except we have no indication that maria was ever impregnated by a great one.
I thought gehrman was the host and the moon presence created the realm?
I just want to point out that you don't become the baby of flora/paleblood/moon/final boss in childhoods beginning ending. She tries to absorb you but since you used the cords you are to powerful for her to use as her puppet like she did with Gherman. When you kill her you can think of it as the final step in evolving, she dies and with all the power and insight you have gathered during your playthrough you ascend to a real great one unlike someone like rom.
as soon as you said "eyes inside you" it dawned on me the body horror of having something else growing inside of you
Real world child birth isn’t something to be seen as sick or bad
16:02 an interesting thing to note is the werewolves in Old Yharnam are specifically called "Beast Patients", and the larger, more deadly ones with the cloak are also specifically referred to as "Female Beast Patients", which proves they're more sensitive to the blood also
I'm sorry what? It quite literally only differentiates between male and female. That is all.
@@theincrediblefella7984Well it's suggesting that, because the females are bigger and more aggressively dangerous, it suggests that the blood affects them more. While it isn't one hundred percent certain, it is pretty clearly hinted at
@@freakillusionIt's also suggested females aren't nearly as affected due to menstruating, or expelling the old blood.
I really loved the statement about how wrong sunlight felt in the Hunter's Nightmare, because it reminded me of a moment I experienced in an area you didn't discuss much - Yahar'Gul. When you first enter that area, almost certainly against your own will, having been beaten and dragged there in a sack, there's that constant ominous chanting you mentioned that seems to be coming from everywhere around you.
But when you return to that area by another path, after the night has progressed, the chanting has stopped. And somehow, the absence of it is even more terrifying than its unsourced omnipresence. Because either something has put a stop to it by force, or it has fulfilled its purpose.
Neither possibility is comforting.
It has nothing to do with themes you were discussing, but I do find it interesting how the alien and unpleasant can be made to be a part of a comforting idea of what is natural and desired. Miyazaki and his team do an incredible job applying that contradiction to their environments.
I think its implied that the chanting was coming from the scholars and the people plastered to the wall. You never actually get to see that part until after.
I always found it odd how terrifying sounds, such as a Sheperd Tone, can be calming for some, and vice-versa. "Comfortable and unnerving" interestingly overlap.
This is a great insight, and I would argue that it actually has a lot to do with the themes discussed here! As another tokophobic person, your description of "the alien and unpleasant... made to be a part of a comforting idea of what is natural and desired" is a very succinct way of summing up how I feel about pregnancy.
"Honey, it's time for your 46th rewatch of this masterpiece!"
"Yes m'am🫡"
I'm not sure if you touched on this or not (I have horrendous short term memory) but Mensis is the Latin term for moon/month, and it the where the terms "menses" and "menstruation" came from. I definitely think that was purposeful given the link between the moon and blood in this game.
Mensis is also associated with Gnosis, or wisdom.
@@alack3879 fromsoft is so good at tying their concepts together in such clever and multilayered ways, it's why the Lord in their games is so fun imo
Could we interpret Eileen, an older woman, who is no longer contained in the eternal cycle of dying and being reborn from the Hunters dream, as a symbol for menopause?
After all, her reckless, virile days are behind her, and now all she has left is to make the best of the one last life she has before her death.
Possessing more knowledge than most others, being wise and kind, advising carefulness but also punishing the reckless youth if their excess becomes too much.
Her role is so maternal, so typically grandmother-like, her fluffy feather coat is essentially the grimdark variant of a knitted sweater. She not only knows the drill, she's stayed disciplined all throughout it and outgrew it naturally.
If the dreams life-and-death-cycles symbolize periods, then the dreams three inhabitants take on strange roles:
The Doll, a childs toy, symbolizes youth, the childhood you have to leave behind when you enter puberty. While it seems contradictory that she starts out inanimate and gains life through insight (after all, toys are alive for children, but become mere objects to adults) I interpret it, that a preteen could rationalize a doll as a mere object and later rediscover the worth and importance of childhood objects, as their life shows them more and more unpleasantries.
Gehrman symbolizes old age or death. He's an old man in a black hat with a big scythe, he is THE grim reaper. At first seeming really harmless and maybe a bit discomforting, but non-threatening. Untill the endgame, where he rises from his chair, becoming an unavoidable and potent figure in your life which you either accept or fight against with little prospect of winning.
Gehrman takes your dreams away, your menstrual cycle, your invincibility. He is old age catching up with you, and cutting off a part of you which was painful, yes, frustrating, surely, but interesting and full of potential. And then you're on your last life.
But then, what is the dreams source, what is the moon presence? If the dream is your fertile stage and you're fighting old age to stay in it, to prolong it just a little bit longer? It is the last worst thing which could happen.
A miscarriage. The Moon Presence descends from the sky, an abhorrent Mix of a loyal Wolf and an Oktopus, with its womb torn to shreds and its face a single malformed tear.
Wolves protect each other, octopi starve themselves to death protecting their eggs, they are absolute devotion, and the child they were devoted to died, which tore them apart.
The moon presence, the embodiment of a miscarriage, descends, it grabs the player and burrows into their womb and it kills that last glimmer of the dream, of the hope that was left there. Turning the Player into a lifeless husk, and the embodiment of old age and death for others.
Only when you defeat the Moon Presence, you ascend. Become a Great One, meaning that there is new life ahead of you. Whether that means getting pregnant, giving birth or transcending sexuality as a whole is up to interpretation, because frankly, I got no idea for that yet.
I immediately noticed this as soon as the menstrual imagery jumped out at me. It brings a whole new layer to her character and seems to add more to bloodbornes portrayal of the stages of femininity!
A hoonter must hoont
I'm not sure if I've understood this right (or even the video for that matter), but if the dream is a stage of fertility with old age (Gehrman) taking it away, and the Moon Presence further putting it down (resulting in there being a lack of fertility, also both miscarriage and menopause = no baby) ; only for you to go beyond it all, I'd say the "Transcending sexuality" thing rings right for me. Functionally, humans exist to procreate- dull, right? All of life exists to replicate, when you reduce life to its simplest reason and sole reason for existence. With everything having to do with reproduction gone in your ascension, what's left is you. You're a higher being, you're here for more than just fueling the hollow cause of life. In ascendance you've had yourself freed to do much more than whatever cycle wants you for- you'd have much higher purposes. A little convoluted, and I haven't really thought about the implications (if there are any) to the rest of the theme, but the player is the main character so it is what it is.
Feminists have now made Eileen, a hunter in a Lovecraftian horror story, a metaphor for menopause.
Amazing how women manage to make everything about themselves.
@@TheStraightestWhitest Dear... Straightest Whitest,
I'm a man.
I'm not a woman aiming to take away your special play thing, you have me confused with one of your parents there, I'm merely engaging in interpretative deepdives to amuse myself and others, because frankly, I get a kick out of watching things Fall into place if you assume a certain context or theme.
And if you're upset about people interpreting shit into the notoriously sparse lore of Souls Games, you have to be New in the fandom.
If you think its just a shallow, surface-level, kill-all-the-uglies-game and you're happy with that, go on, enjoy the game you paid for and fraternize with the parts of the community that share your vision. I bet there's a filthpit out there where you'll fit right in.
But don't go out of your way to tell people who are enjoying the games differently that they're doing it the wrong way.
We're all just trying to relate, have fun here and engage in intellectual play.
In my subjective understanding of the matter, part of the Story of Bloodborne (and SoulsGames in General) is that the singular church peddling their understanding of the World and making people believe its the true and only right way to see and understand the world is a deeply flawed Institution founded in insecurity and ignorance.
Your input of "You're reading a bit much into this and your interpretation has streaks of personal bias" has been noted. I'll put a disclaimer like 'in my subjective understanding of the matter' on top of all future posts.
Something that you didn't mention but that became apparent to me through your analysis is that the visceral attack animation is a violent grasp into the enemies womb area. It's almost abortive in nature. It never clicked with me until now why this game chose this animation over the usual parry animations in the other games. Fantastic analysis, thank you so much for sharing a unique voice in this space.
Gives new meaning to the visceral attack against the big pig
Thats a very interesting way of viewing it!! I personally always put it down to the player character being shorter than most foes, because when some bosses/enemies do viscerals on your character they do it in the thorax area since we’re way shorter than them, so it’ll end up ripping your heart out instead. But your interpretation is very thematically interesting as well and considering the video’s theme is very fitting!
@@h80np39 I also always considered this, as the quickest and most effective way to reach a person's heart without breaking their entire ribcage is to pierce underneath it. Given that blood has its healing and regenerative properties within the canon of Bloodborne, it would make sense as the best way to stop someone from circulating blood through their body short of killing them is pretty simple: Rip their heart out or at least damage their main arteries.
I don't think that has any relation. The belly is perhaps the easiest spot to damage while simultaneously being one of the most fatal wounds to receive before the age of modern medical care. Not to mention, most of the enemies in this game are monstrous men. Men don't have wombs.
It's a fun idea, but there is little evidence for it. Not all viscerals reach for abodomen, many of them are aimed at heads, throats and, uh... rectums. There is a much more practical explanation for why viscerals take that form: there is 26 trick weapons in Bloodborne, all of them having transformed state. Imagine animating that madness and giving it proper justice of quality. How do you make a visceral with a Logarius' Wheel? So, obviously, devs went for a uniform neutral animation instead to save money. There is of course an underlying theme there, something primal, violent and beastly in using your body as a weapon instead, but i believe the main reason is simply budget.
Your insight of why we see less female beasts than males and how the period might help create a certain "resistance" to beastification was honestly brilliant, I've never seen that theory before and it exploded my mind on how perfect it is. Also, great video in general
if you want feminine horror with werewolves i definitely recommend the movie Ginger Snaps
Yes!!!
new movie
If you and Vaatividya teamed up the resulting video would have the most pleasant and soothing narration of all time despite the content
HoneyVidya
I would pay a truly obscene amount of money to see this happen
Vaati focuses on actual lore, not far fetched potential themes that add nothing but potential depth to the groundwork already present.
True, Vaati focuses on lore, but I wouldn't call this symbolic reading of the source material as far-fetched considering how prevalent it is through the game and narrative.
Vaati covers things more barebones than this, and also has a flair for the theatrical. He is babies first souls lore YTber
I love that you addressed a lot of the themes that tend to go unsaid on here. I never noticed the art for the dregs visually containing sperm cells; the sheer implications of Annalise's dialogue sufficed.
By the way, I find it pertinent to mention that Rom is most certainly a great one. Duplicates of main game bosses who appear in the chalice dungeons are given a different name to distinguish them as separate entities (such as Darkbeast Paarl vs Loran Darkbeast), while Rom recurs explicitly as herself. Her children can even be found in dungeons where she appears as the boss on its final tier.
The other scholars of Byrgenwerth likely refer to Rom as "vacuous" because she maintains a mental barrier partially inhibiting the perception ordinarily afforded by insight, slowing the descent of the Blood Moon on Yharnam. At best, I see it as a misunderstanding of her inscrutably passive nature. At worst, I believe it a willful slight against her for interfering with their own apotheosis.
This essay made me play Bloodborne. It quickly became my favorite game. After beating the game 5 times. I listened to this again. And it’s such a wonderful lease for the world of Bloodborne. Great work.
Bloodborne is absolutely my favorite fromsoft game. The gothic horror setting, the way it weaves ALL types of horror (body, visceral, tension, eldritch, gothic, etc) into one game, the music, everything about it is masterful. Plus Eileen is a great character and I hope she found peace in the end.
It never occurred to me to think about the femininity aspect of the story and setting, but having watched your video it makes perfect sense. Now I know why the idea of having a male hunter always felt wrong to me, my Good Hunters are always women because that just always seemed more "correct" to me.
And now to pause my second Elden Ring playthrough to do a fifth Bloodborne playthrough...
As a guy who grew up with friends who were mostly girls, and just getting into creative endeavors, this is exactly the kind of content that's helping me find my artistic voice. Great work on this and I hope you find a bigger audience!
Thank you so much!! I'm really glad it was helpful to you ^.^
Lady hunter here, I can't believe it took me 8 months to stumble across this gem. I'd always been aware of the feminine themes found in Bloodborne, but was never really able to organize my thoughts on it; this video does so perfectly. Also your humor is great, thank you for sharing.
I know what you meant by lady Hunter, but it really comes across like you go around hunting ladies when put like that lmso
As a lore enthusiast i actually can't believe that no other content creator took the time to explore that side of the game. CZcams algorithm being helpful for once. Thank you for this amazing video.
what a brilliant analysis! we need more actual in depth content like this
Love the whole "girls are scared of blood" thing. I remember when I was a weee lass reading Twilight, and when I learned that the main character had a phobia of blood (which she, curiously, got over after the first book and was never mentioned again, writing 100) I remember sitting there and thinking "wait, then how do you manage your period, my dude, if you nearly faint at the sight of a little drop on your finger?" I'm sure that there are some women out there who do have a blood phobia, but man, I bet menstruation gets a bit more complicated then normal. Or maybe menstrual blood is an exception? idk, phobias can be weird, perhaps knowing the cause of all the blood is enough for some to remain calm.
The taboo around menstruation is really frustrating though, as someone who does it regularly. like, I'm bleeding uncontrollably and I can't even complain about it in public. Well screw that, I'm doing it anyway! I AM BLEEDING UNCONTROLABLY RIGHT NOW AND I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT! My sole comfort is that at least its gotten easier as I've gotten older, idk if I've just learned to manage it better or if my hormones have clamed the f*ck down, but I'm glad for that at least. If you are a teenager with periods that seem unmanageable now, you have my sympathy, but know that it won't necessarily be like that for the rest of your adult life. If you hit your early twenties (like 23 or something) and its still a problem, consider talking to your doctor about getting on hormonal birth control.
Also, I feel like the pregnancy metaphor and theming should be pretty apparent in all of this. You pick up umbilical cords for crying out loud. As you gain more insight you start to randomly hear babies crying in the distance. But some people are clueless so it never hurts to spell it out.
Just wanted to say you sound like a cool ass person
Ygritte: "Well, girls see more blood than boys."
About the fainting at blood thing, I was confused about that as well .. and according to a friend it genuinely is menstrual blood just registering as something different of sorts (tbh, if I had to straight up wring non-menstrual blood out of clothing I'd possibly also be at least a tad bit nauseous .. though idk if that's the blood or worry over whoever lost that much blood)
If you think that's a weird fear wait till you hear about the 'afraid of heights but only low heights not high heights' fear
I know this is a pretty old comment, but I'm actually a woman with some kind of blood phobia! For some reason, it's not actually triggered by my own blood. Only when I see other's blood. I get light-headed, a headache and a super weird feeling runs through my body. But no fainting lol
your lines on the likening of eldritch horrors and having a baby grow inside a person were great. Im a dude, and i always thought it was weird that people grow other humans inside them. I understand why some ladies wouldn’t want that experience haha. It’s the circle of life, but boy is is weird…
Well I guess the alternative would be laying eggs then, lol
I mean Leda and the Swan is the ultimate cosmic horror of how laying eggs would go. That’s an old old terror.
@@noemiecansier8466 welp, thanks for reminding me of that, that's gonna be in my brain all day.
U find it weird? 🤡
...weird, why, exactly? Most mammals use this method of reproduction, humans are no different.
The fact that there are almost no real problems remaining in the modern Western world has created this incredibly naive and foolish view that humans are somehow divorced from natural cycles and biological realities. We are a part of nature in the same way that dogs and horses and whales and elephants are, and are susceptible to the same influences and problems they are, plus a few extra because our cognition is more complicated. We have lessened many natural hazards via things like food production, protection from predators, shelter from the weather, but we are still susceptible to injury, aging, sickness and death. These are a part of existing as a complex meat machine, and facts which are never going to change.
I haven't played this game but I definetely will after watching this essay that you so wonderfully explained,I am a latina and I have always suffered with my menstruations,being both,emotionally draining and physically damaging, I find this completely fascinating, I think women in games are portrayed in just one way or another,either completely insane or sexually attractive,I think this game respects our time and at the same second,how wonderfully bittersweet is our lives, how strong,how weak,how we bleed throughout all of our lives without no one noticing a single thing,only when we scream out in pain,we are labeled insane. Another great game that puts this theme very well is Silent Hill 3 one of my favorite games, but it tackles something way more horrifying as teenage pregnancy and unwanted babies (Silent Hill 4 too) Thank you for sharing,sweetie.
pregnant woman are the ultimate body builders
R'
Hmh. Well they *are* building a whole new body inside of them, indeed. 🤔
I did not expect to feel a terrifying chill down my spine when she spoke "I go for the throat anyway".
🦷
Rewatching this again. Still my single favorite Bloodborne essay
The video sums up really well how I felt while playing and finishing Bloodborne. Out of all Fromsoft games, BB definitely is the most that made me extremely uncomfortable and uneasy while playing. Watching the child birth/ miscarriage themes going on reminds me of the irl experience i had with 2 of my dead children that couldn't make it due to my wife being anemic and resulting in two miscarriages. Yeah that side of BB has really ticked me off and just a burning reminder of that topic. Quite a nerve wracking experience.
I love everything you said about pregnancy and really appreciate your openness about it. I feel the same. I was told the same thing - that pregnancy would fix my pain and ongoing issues and it made me sick for the reasons that you gave. Also, the content and ideas in this video are fascinating and I loved them.
Its incredible how Bloodborne switches from Gothic horror to menstrual trauma.
Its a very squicky game
One of the best video essays on Bloodborne that I've seen, great work!
When I played Bloodborne, I was more impacted by the cosmic horror element. I love cosmic horror, so it was what I focused on the most when I played. However, while I played, I always got the sense that there was something deeper about motherhood and pregnancy, especially since I did the infant great one ending first. I was never able to really grasp what the feminine symbolism really meant as a whole, but this video really put it into a perspective I can understand and appreciate. Thank you! Bloodborne is one of my favorite games, and you have given me another reason to appreciate this amazing game!
Ok so I've been watching video essays for 6 years now or something, and DEAR GOD is this my favorite. This is THE BEST video essay I've ever seen.
Agreed. This was an early addition to my personal playlist of "Sick Video Essays".
What a great analysis. It really got me thinking about:
-There's birth imagery everywhere such as the One Reborn, Ebrietas (look at how her mouth opens), Blood-Starved Beast (people call that boss "skinflaps" most joking of course), Vicar Amelia (female), Witches of Hemwick, and even Rom keeps respawning annoying spiders. Wet Nurse has a baby crying throughout it and of course there's Yharnam, Phutmerian Queen and her blood covered dress. Even in Upper Cathedral Ward those weird babies are looking at where Ebritas is located. And then there's Moon Presence and how it looks like it ripped off it's reproductive organs...
-Then there Orphan of Kos and Lady Maria, which is like how someone regrets an abortion and wishes no one found out about it. Once again, central to the themes of unwanted birth.
-Then of course there's Blood and sexual implications that occur with Queen Vileblood like you said.
-I'd also like to say that the only "normal" female thing is really the doll and she isn't scantly dressed like some of the other maidens. And she isn't even a woman, but rather a mimic of Lady Maria.
I think Bloodborne really is focused on the feminine side. Maybe more than Dark Souls, Sekiro, Demon's Souls, and Elden Ring by a longshot.
Sorry you got me really thinking about this now.
There's SO MUCH birthing imagery, I'm always surprised it doesn't get more centered in discussions? There's not much straightforward plot but the imagery is baked into the game. I'm really happy you've found more things in Bloodborne to dig your teeth into!! (Also the boss designs are just *chef's kiss* Very beatiful, very disgusting, I love Skinflaps' body language too!)
Pretty sure Alfred doesn't randomly dies and moreso decides to kill himself as he thinks his purpose is fulfilled.
@@bloorb0569 That's what I meant, yeah.
Gascoign does NOT kill his wife. He’s killing the villagers who killed his wife. He’s clearly feasting on them while she’s in a different location on the roof.
@@boukh_h I thought it was him as she was on the rooftop. Whoops.
TW: menstruation
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I absolutely love this theory! And just to add on top of it; The School of Mensis. Mensis according to wiktionary comes from the Latin and Proto-Indo-European (?) word for month or moon, and one derived word from mensis is menstruation. So it just might be called the School of the Months or the Moon? Maybe even the School of Menstruation (which it indirectly is called anyway). In any case, many languages has borrowed that word to describe menstruation-cycles, like in Swedish we call it mens.
This is a great video. I never really looked at this way. Gonna replay it with this perspective!
I always thought to an extent all gothic horror had a lot of underlying femininity so I’m honestly surprised a lot of other guys don’t think this or are upset by it
No one is upset about this.
@@numbaonecubansay that to the multiple people running around in the comments calling women femcels lol
27:30 Girl, same. Like you, I have severe health problems that mean pregnancy and childbirth would kill me. And yet, I've had dozens of people, _INCLUDING MY FORMER OB/GYN,_ tell me that I need to "fulfill my womanly duty", which in my case apparently means I need to throw my life away in order to bring an orphan into the world. Great idea. 🙄
After I spent a solid minute staring agape at the OB/GYN for her comment, I reminded her that I am her patient, not some non-existent theoretical baby. I also mentioned that she's the one who told me the odds of getting pregnant due to my health problems is nearly impossible, anyway.
Her response? "Well, you never know, a miracle could happen."
Sigh.
"...Oh, but what if you meet a man someday? Won't he want kids of his own?"
SSIIIIIGGGHHHHHH....
That is so disgusting, I hope you found a new OBGYN after that. I am so sorry you had to experience such abject dehumanization at the hands of someone who is SUPPOSED to be looking out for your health. hope you are doing well ❤
yea, because you needed to fulfull your womanly duty, know your place woman and go birth children.
@@jerkosveinovic7613 is this sarcasm? Because you need to use tone indicators.
How unbelievably cruel
@@jerkosveinovic7613 Fufill your manly duty and go die in a war then.
My fiancee has lupus, and to further complicate matters was born with only one kidney, which has already taken a beating. She's wanted to be a mother her whole life, but we're both in our early thirties and painfully aware that it may not be safe for her to undergo pregnancy. We've decided that we've found meaning in each other's companionship. If we're fortunate enough to get the chance to have kids, if her doctors deem it safe, and if we find ourselves in the financial position to support raising a child (in other words, if all the stars align, which likely won't happen) it will be just one of many possible expressions of our love. It isn't and never should be the central objective of a relationship.
That’s a very beautiful comment, thanks for sharing your story and I hope the stars do align for you two!
Are you two able to adopt? I don’t mean this in any hostile way I just want to ask and your right it shouldn’t be the central objective of relationships 😊
Beautifully said. Bloodborn is my favorite game for not just the gameplay but the fact that you can go so deep into how many things the game takes it influence from
I'm so glad this was recommended to me! What an awesome breakdown and analysis. As a female gamer, the themes of menstruation and motherhood and what our blood means on a monthly basis wasn't lost on me. Even as soon as you talk with Iosefka and you get her vial, the description talks of a special blood process that gives extra vitality to you. Yes, it could be the blood of an Old God, but I always read it as blood from her own menstrual cycle, if she has one at all.
Thank you so much for this 😭 as someone who menstruates, watching lore tubers jump through millions of hoops to try and explain the school of mensis or the blood moon without mentioning periods is agony
As in they're bad people for not doing so?
@@RayRayRayRayRayRay na, more like when you overhear a really interesting conversation and there’s this one thing you know a lot about that would fit perfectly with all the other stuff that’s being said but no one mentions it *edited my spelling
@@EnbyBat Ah, that makes sense!
@@EnbyBat Like watching a soulsborne playthrough and they do dumb things
Like not kick lautrec off firelink to a well deserved death via gravity
@@RayRayRayRayRayRay idk how you interpreted that as "theyre bad people"
just got sucked into bloodborne lore bc of some shorts, this will surely finally get me to understand what the fuck is happening in this game
No joke, this is probably the best most interesting essay on Bloodborne I've ever watched, gave me a totally new perspective and appreciation for the game, it's story and themes
A worriesome thing I've heard that makes too much sense is that Gherman made the doll as a... sexual thing. He loved maria, so when she died he was sad, and made the doll to replace her but, maria wears masculine, hunters clothes, and the doll wears traditional feminine clothes. Gherman wanted a subservient lover, someone who fitted his idea of a woman, someone he could "use as he pleased". Fucked up shit.
There's also the take on it I've seen a few times attributing her creation as something similar to a Victorian Mourning Doll. An interesting take on Gehrman and his creation of and eventual distaste for the doll.
Watch saint riots video on this, where he argues in the essence of cosmic horror, gehrman is terrified of the doll actually.
Gherman just like me fr
I mean arguably Gherman was the opposite, he wanted the headstrong maria he could never speak to but instead got this total 180 on that personality, if anything the doll fits the final description more.
Poor Gherman, he just wanted to explain to us how to level up, people took that to mean he was a sex offender
It’s left ambiguous, but the game makes Gherman impotent, resigned to immortal servitude as an old man in a wheelchair. The only time he breaks from that is to save you from becoming him. Because of that, I don’t think the line is meant to imply anything sexual.
All of his other dialogue is about not thinking too hard about the hunt and killing of beasts, trying to get you to forget. He went through this at the Fishing Hamlet and then maybe again in the burning Old Yharnam and it left him traumatized and broken. He wants to save you. I think it is safe to say that it’s in reference to her ability to purify our blood from the stain of killing into strength by leveling us up.
Edit: In a sense, he’s enacting the toxic aspects of masculinity that encourage men to suffer alone and in silence, mirroring Lady Maria preventing you from reaching the Fishing Hamlet. There’s an interesting contrast there in how they act towards their victims and reasoning for violence towards the player, but this comment is way too long for youtube at this point.
Honestly as a man who loves this game to death it always surprised me how many lore videos there are out there that kind seem to ignore the intrinsically feminine themes of the game. This game will never not be amazing.
30 fps tho
18:10
_Scribbles Down Note_ 'Include... female... werewolves...'
I keep returning to this just because of how much I love it, this is probably my favorite video essay ever
I never really noticed this, i actually like that this was pointed out to me now. Pregnancy and motherhood has always been a 50/50 topic for me, I don't wanna endure a traumatic birthing like my mom had with me. But at time's the idea of being a mom softens me up for a moment, yet after so long of being a babysitter i think i'll stick to being a sister figure and aunty to kids
There are nearly 8 billion humans. How is it traumatic?
@@makchot3263 How is it not?!! Do you not see the hell women go through both naturally or via c-section? What happens to their bodies afterwards? How about I go tell my mom's body to just stop having hernias; take back the 60 or so surgeries she's had now because of the 3 c-sections she has had with us. Women get hurt and can die because of childbirth, but yes... childbirth isn't traumatic.
@@makchot3263every single human being eventually loses their senses, dies and fades into nothingness. How is that traumatic?
@@oldladytrexarmslate reply but you are correct about the problems child birth can cause but that doesn’t mean child birth is bad or anything it’s actually a natural and wonderful thing
Thank you for a great video. For all the werewolves and cosmic horror, Bloodborne definitely draws on more human fears and concerns. Miyazaki has spoken in the past about wanting to imbue all enemies with some dignity, and the Great Ones embody some very human concepts of longing and loss.
Thanks!! Ye, having strange Eldritch creatures is always great but when there's a way to connect to the monsters and understand them that's my favourite kind of horror. Unknown enough to be frightening but understandable enough that you feel for them. Kos and Rom and Doll all make me sad but I love them, it's made them stick it my memory much better I think
I mean, he did borrow a lot from Berserk (to nobody's surprise) and the works of HP Lovecraft, who basically described his entities similarly. Take Cthulhu for example. Sure it's a giant dragon/squid/human thing but there's a weird majestic-ness to it. Even in the short story, he describes it as moving elegantly in the water.
27:15 Thank you for saying this. I have little desire for having children but some people take the "I'll never have kids" to the extreme and "joke" about hating children way too much. Even if it's just jokes, children are still humans, who need protection even more than adults. Next time you hear a negative joke on children, change the word "kids" for a persecuted minority and see if the joke is still funny.
Gonna need to put a [citation needed] on the 'period is the source of the idea of bloodletting' thing. I've always suspected it was connected to hemochromatosis, because that's a disorder that even in the modern day the best treatment is bloodletting.
Many years ago, soon after the DLC had come out, I talked with some people about what this game means to us. My take was that it's trying to say that humankind as a whole is deeply flawed, and if we want to become truly great, we must still grow a lot to achieve it. I still believe in this take, but one of the people I was talking to basically brought up the exact reading this video talks about. It was very eye opening for two reasons.
First of all, I remember that my initial reaction was "thats gross" followed up by this absurd moment of self reflection. I was okay with violence, with death, but menstruation was suddenly too much. I'm sure I'm not the only guy who has had this same momentary realization.
Second part was the realization how truly deep this game is. Me, her and other people there all had their distinct view on things and I cant say that anyone was wrong. That convo made me realize how incedibly layered this game really is, but also I finally learned what art is about. It's not what the artist wants to say, but what you take away from experiencing it. And Bloodborne is absolutely, 100% art.
At the end of that long night(pun intended) we all agreed that while our readings were different, we can all find one common term for what Bloodborne is about: It's about being human.
And that's pretty damn cool for a videogame this gross and violent. For a game this deep and beautiful!
Really cool video, I feel like I have seen every Bloodborne video essay, but this take is very rarely put out there by anyone
Yes! I love how there's so many different ways to examine Bloodborne but this is the reading that stands out the most to me. But it's such a human story, about everything we value about humanity itself, the fear of the primal beast within, and how much we still need to grow. We're so small in the grand scheme of things and we're flawed but we matter, and we're extremely curious and inventive! And that was pretty unexpected in a slashy messy violent videogame but BB has made a nest in my brain and it's not leaving anytime soon haha.
And yeahhhh, menstruation is more acceptable to talk about now, in the right context obviously, but there's still usually an initial internal pushback of nope. But you're absolutely right, we accept a lot of worse things on screen than someone acknowledging that periods happen and I'm relieved it's becoming less of a weird thing. Honestly the response to this video has been waaaaaay more positive than I expected!! It's been so lovely seeing people get to re-examine something they love and finding new things to love about it; it's really made this project worth it. Thanks so much for watching and commenting ^.^
I don't know why people react that way but I as a dude never thought about it in a way that it made me feel grossed out. In fact the last thing that grosses me out about Bloodborne is menstruation or Motherhood lol. Like you're sorrounded by ripped corpses, bloodhungry beasts and Bosses who look worse than your nightmare shadows. There is another CZcamsr who made a Bloodborne lore series in which he came to the conclusion that Bloodborne is an allegory to Victorian medical science. I think your video would fit the series, because for obvious reasons. I think you should take a look, it's very fascinating and mindblowing.
My favorite thing that people miss is that the orphan's placenta doesn't just have iron in it, it has a Fishhook in it. Alluding to the fact that he was "fished out" from his mother's corpse
This game freaks me out. Thank you so much. I love Bloodborne video essays.
I thought the matronly themes were well known, with the implications that blood vials were the product of menstruation (and with the special blood vials only coming from female characters, with one incredibly surprised that you would use the blood from a prostitute, and one getting angry that you wouldn't use her pure blood), the repeated use of childbirth with multiple NPC's, Queen Annalise, Queen Yharnam, the four umbilical cords, the orphan of kos, the infant Mergo, the inflated heads constantly being reborn, the "eyes on the inside" coming naturally from harboring a child, the moon phases having a high importance, many of the great ones being female (I'm fairly certain the only male one is the formless oedon), it's highly prominent throughout the game. I love the compilation of lore you've made to bring it more to light!
Yeah!! It's such a core aspect of the game but the people I've talked to about it had kind of written the whole motherhood and baby part off? Which is so odd to me but maybe different aspects stood out to them more, like the hunt itself or the Great Ones and the arcane or maybe they were more into it for the gameplay than a half buried plot, which is cool, I mean, it's fantastic to play and you can have a great time without piecing it all together. I mentioned to a coworker I was making this because I knew they were a big Souls fan and he was like...that sounds cool but, I can't think of where that is in the game? I'd mentioned in the comment section of I think my Silent Hill video that I was thinking about doing a BB one and the longer I thought about it, the more there was to unpack! It kind of holds all of the other aspects of the game together. Blood and violence and the primal linked with the moon and the monsters hiding inside mankind. Plus like you said several people actually have children over the course of the game itself! Thanks so much for watching and commenting ^.^
I always thought it was cool that queen annalise thinks she's a vampire when in reality she essentially has the blood of an alien entity keeping her immortal.
It's like she's drawn on the familiar image of something fantastical and glamorous, when in reality the thing affecting her is some unknowable god-mind creature which may very well be dreaming up the very world she lives in.
Probably won't be seen by the creator, but I wanted to share some criticisms for the analysis.
Firstly, though, I want to say that I think it's good that you bring up the themes a lot of people, not just gamers, tend to ignore in life. It's good to spread awareness of what women go through and normalize it in more appropriate ways.
So in chronological order, the first one that stood out to me is saying that fake Iosefka's story and her celestial pregnancy lead to Cainhurst, which I think was quite a stretch when it comes to what actually happens in the game. The way you present and talk about it in the video shows that we find the letter next to the Cainhurst to celestially-impregnated fake Iosefka, and thus ties to the Queen of the Castle and her themes. However, this is not what happens in the game, we find the letter and impregnated Iosefka in very different rooms, and we can get the letter before the Blood Moon phase, thus before the impregnation or even seeing her face-to-face.
The letter itself is addressed to the player and has already been opened, so the most common take is that we already had it when we arrived in the clinic and left without it at the start of the game. Fake Iosefka herself has many ties to the Choir and not that much to Cainhurst. But I think you still could've made a logical and compelling theory about her path from the castle to the clinic to support your narrative, perhaps as a carrier of the letter, and it's not a long one to write either.
I understand that you're not trying to make a lore video, as you said in the pinned comment, but the omission of information, that goes against your narrative is not a good move. I imagine it could be unintentional, with a break between playing and editing the video.
The point about most beasts being male and women being more resistant to corruption because they bleed is an interesting one, and a lot of half-transformed enemies are indeed male, however, it ignores the entire Old Yharnam story, where all beasts are said to be citizens of that part of the town who got trapped during the hunt. And I doubt it's supposed to be an all-male population that was left in there.
There are also a lot of beasts, who are also androgynous in design, like the most common one, werewolves. A real-life female's wolf growl in real life is just as deep and intimidating as a male's; the same is true for many other big mammal predators, and it's pretty hard to tell the genders apart visually; sometimes even professionals in the field make mistakes in that regard.
And we know there is a good amount of women amongst the hunter ranks and other parts of the Church, considering that women even have their own mass-produced uniforms(Yharnam Hunter set), and they, too, get infected and transformed. There are also male hunters that, well, never get transformed, despite being drunk on blood, like the old ones in the Hunter's Nightmare, which also has enough of the transformed ones as well. Amelia's transformation you brought up is also one of the most extreme in the game, and it's hard to say that she had to imbibe any more than other large beasts to get to that point, and we don't know if some other large beasts are male or female.
So, an interesting point, and I think it could've been explored deeper, using more of the game's narrative, without omitting the things that might go against it.
The game definitely has themes of period, menstruation, birth and a lot of other things related to them, and almost any Bloodborne fan, who digs deep into the lore will talk about those, a lot. So I think it was unfair to say, that this game's community ignores it or considers it "icky". Like I said in the beginning, it's good to bring awareness to this and normalize it in ways that make people understand that it's just a natural process and there's nothing gross about it, but calling out the community, when people, who're interested in the narrative talk about these things is quite unnecessary. I've watched many streams of deep-dive lore playthroughs of this game, and saw many people discuss these topics in relation to the game, and even though it's just my experience, never once have I seen anyone say it's gross, joke about it, or do anything immature like that.
And one of my main criticisms towards this video, especially for the last 2 chapters, is that there is too much recap without really going deep with the commentary, sometimes it felt like tangents upon tangents, away from the central theme of your essay, like talking about hunter factions in the chapter about gods and their children. I'm only saying this because this is a big video that, I imagine, took a lot of work, but doesn't take full advantage of what Bloodborne can give to the themes you bring up. So if you're trying to keep it relatively concise, 40-60 minutes long, while also bringing up a very complex topic and a very complex game, I think it's important to stay focused on the theme and dive deeper, instead of giving a quick surface description of things from the game.
Either way, good stuff, good effort. I hope I didn't say anything offensive, if I did, it wasn't intentional.
It's worth noting that Honeybat's video essays are not lore analysis videos. They are video essays.
Instead, she describes things about media through the theme she's exploring. That's why there's occasionally some inaccuracies - either interpreting something ambiguous in a way that fits the theme being discussed as a possible explanation, or simply not being too interested in the exact and perfect lore because the story and theme being discussed is more important. On stream, she regularly says that lore for lore's sake has never been a motivator for her.
Very few of her videos are on one piece of media.
@@Vixielicious I understood that it's not a lore video, and I addressed that in my comment. I guess I shouldn't have made it in chronological order, because my biggest critique for the video is in the last paragraph, which is, in short, that there's not that much said about the themes she brings up, around half of the video is spent on recapping the narrative bits or talking about tangential details, and not so much about femininity. For instance, Queen Annalise got about as much screen time/discussion in this video as Gehrman did, even though one is very relevant to the topic and another is not.
So in a strange way, this does feel more like a lore video about various Bloodborne things, and less so like a thematic essay on femeninity and it's place in Bloodborne/video games.
You give her a lot of credit.
the Little Nightmares music set the tone of the video perfectly.
absolutely feral, beastly visceral femininity is one of my favourite things in the entire world and it feels so good to see someone else who just /gets it/ !
Same here, to be honest.
Ewww, that's like me seeing the savage bands of males on the prowl in the hunt and saying the feral, beastly visceral masculinity is one of my favorite things in the world.
It's meant to be bad. In fact the main theme of the game.
YES YES YES SAME SAME SAME!!!
@@ernimuja6991actually I think feral bestial men are hot as hell and so are women ❤️
please please do more 'feminine/womanly' analysis of games/tv/etc targeted specifically to men! this was enlightening and made me realize why i was so drawn to bloodborne besides just enjoying the gory/gothic aspects!
agreed, id enjoy feminine analysis of other games so much from the creator
No need to Target men, men are already targeted, she's literally just repeating what other people already know she just doesn't better job of it. I enjoy it but really f****** stupid comments like this actively push anyone who's not cisgender and female away from it.
She kinda has feminist agenda
@@ViralVibes61122 by saying that you have patriarchy agenda, whats your point.
@@tirone7520 did say that