The Many Meanings of Bloodborne

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"Don't you dare go hollow" its wild how many people mentioned how much that line helped them. Its probably the line that sums out the whole soulsborne themes the most.

In the end of the day, bloodborne is the story of a tourist's wacky shenanigans in London

If you haven't yet gotten your fill of the old blood, might I recommend Honey Bat's Visceral Femininity: A Bloodborne Video Essay. She approaches the topic from a distinctly feminine angle and it complements quite a few of the topics discussed here.

My deepest, widest congratulations on getting this done, just like, period. Boss Designs of Bloodborne is and forever will be a phenomenal work of art-analysis as art. Thank you for making it.

a bit late but: bloodborne to me seems like a complete reversal of the usual lovecraftian mythology. In bloodborne, the gods are not evil, the rich pure blooded are. The masses are still easily turned into cultists, not by other members of the masses but by the state and church itself. Quite literally, the darkest and most evil monsters dont exist in other space in the game, but inside our memories and dreams.

I legitimately cried at “I’ll Identify with Ebrietas.” I hope she is safe wherever she is right now.

Something that always stuck with me is the conversation with the doll about whether our cosmic creators loved us. She throws that question back upon you. Saying that she is the creation of humans and in a way, humanity is the closest thing to gods to her that she can fathom. She asks us if we love her, and in doing so suggests that maybe our own creators felt the same. It has a sort of depressing edge, because she has her doubts about whether humans would even consider her as "alive" enough to warrant loving. She says that she loves us, but maybe that was just her programming forcing her to. Nevertheless I was very touched by this conversation and its implications, not just for the world of Bloodborne, but for spirituality in general. I wish that the game had let me tell her that I did love her, not for the use she was to me as a source of leveling or guidance about the world, but as one of the few unfailingly friendly NPCS and as a beacon of compassion in a world of darkness. I wish that I got to tell her that she didn't need to be anyone other than herself, and that she was deserving of love for the mere fact that she exists. That she didn't need to go out of her way to prove her devotion towards her creators, she could just live her a life that was true to herself and trust that she was designed to be enough. and I sometimes think about whether whatever being or force that created humans wishes that they could say the same thing to us...

The “others” always feel reflected in the monsters, not because we are monsters, but how society sees us.

crazy that skyen started playing souls as a hater and out of some curiosity he played just to see if its as bad as he thinks and now hes a fan. that just hits too close to home with how I got into the amazing lore and level design these games have. super excited

I just wanted to thank you Skyen. I recently got extraordinarily sick, and your videos were what got me through it, The Boss Designs of Bloodborne especially. You’re an incredible person, and I don’t know a single YouTuber who has your level of personality and honesty, and I haven’t found someone yet who gives me the joy of watching their videos that you do. Thank you for everything, brother. You’re a legend May the good blood guide you

Man, that "I'll Identify With Ebrietas" story was beautifully written. Aside from it's prose, I can appreciate the values that Ebrietas represents for this person. I don't play Bloodborne, nor am I apart of the trans community, but the significance of the message in that essay was not lost on me. I'm happy you gave that person a platform to share their story.

Ive faced abuse in my life, from different sources. My father, my mother (to a lesser extent), my peers, theyve all contributed to my pain. My father taught me that i am small, weak, that anything i say will be twisted and portrayed as defiance. Massive monsters that have vaguely human features twisted by rage were my constant companion throughout my childhood. Cruelty from those around me taught me that i am different, that there was something distinctly 'other' about me, something subtle enough that adults didn't pick up on it, but children certainly could. I couldn't look people in the eye, my movements were graceless and awkward, my facial expressions forced and unnatural. I would later be taken advantage of, physically, my body being twisted and violated by someone with more power than I possessed. My mind has been filled with rage, my body manipulated and filled with something that did not belong that left me changed as a person. Bloodborne calls to me as someone who has had traumatic events happen. Ive had to face beings so much larger and more powerful than I was. Being able to see a character able to face mutated and mangled creatures so much larger is cathartic for me. Control is something i need as a person whose life has been changed by outside forces too many times.

There are other games that hit me where memories of abuse live. However, Bloodborne is unique in the way it strikes at my experience with an autoimmune disease that attacks my body. I cycle through the healthcare system, and I see elements of this game reflected back at me. Blood transfusions, the medical tool-weapons wielded in the name of healing, slashing through creatures that look like and are named after body parts - this is too close to real life. They say all great ones yearn for a child. A woman walking around with blood pouring down her abdomen. Years of endometriosis, years of dialysis, two abdominal surgeries due to complications with a kidney transplant, lifelong dependence on immunosuppression, ability to bear children lost - this is _too close to real life. Stuck in constant, unenergizing sleep. Losing my functional human form and becoming an unrecognizable something that needs a caretaker. It's simply just too close.

"I'll identify with Ebrietas" was beautiful. thank you for including it! your own analysis is so unique; i really love it. what a beautiful way to end this series.

“I could make too much sense of it” really hits the nail on the head on how Bloodborne taps into the concept of reading for difficulty, even for a Fromsoft game. Bloodborne deliberately isn’t a shattered image you can put back together, it’s thousands of sticky, gooey variations on a theme. That refusal to offer clean-cut, conclusive, controlled meaning does something to my brain that makes me both existentially anxious and high that Bloodborne is a thing that is real. Bloodborne made me appreciate and fear beastly, bloodthirsty beings and otherworldly great ones, in a time when vampires and werewolves and even Lovecraftian horrors were supposedly “played out,” because it gives them so much meaning. Most of all, I’ll never forget the tenderness I saw buried beneath its gore and bleak view of humanity. I played it through a lot of personal fear and grief; it’s one of the games I’m the most excited to see my friends get into or favorite creators cover. Thank you to Skyen and everyone who contributed to this series, I’m always too embarrassed to comment, but I know I’ll be returning to it again and again.

Gods, I am so deeply ambivalent that I discovered this series. Glad, because Bloodborne has stained my soul in such a way that I will never forget it, and this series, this episode in particular, is a goddamn empathy machine! It is utterly brimming with meanings and experiences that so many different people have had with the game, all that overlap and differ with my own life and interpretation in countless ways. It made me think about Bloodborne, about the myriad themes and subjects it touches on, in a manner that only Redgrave, Aegon of Astora, and of course Sinclair Lore have done. The only reason I'm upset is that I discovered just months after it concluded.

this was one of my favorite series to watch as it came out, so glad to see this on my recommended. I love how much passion Skyen puts into his channel and I've been showing my friends his videos for a while now

I gotta say, that ending thesis on your interpretation of the secret ending to bloodborne hit me like a freight train of wisdom. It never really occurred to me that the possibility of overcoming a nightmare, to more or less overcome FEAR, is to accept your own vulnerability first. Afterwards, courage and agency follow in the wake of that fear. And THAT is how you hunt your nightmares. Your video is inspiring!

I'd be lying if I said that discovering your Boss Designs of Bloodborne series didn't reignite my love for Gothic and Eldritch horror 🧡 Incredible work on this video, and all of your others 🧡