7 Messed Up Soulsborne Bosses Who Destroyed Themselves to Kill You 

Can't be Luke who recorded that Father Gascoigne fight. The Hunter used items.

“Do it or my grandfather will climb out of it” is such an ominous and powerful threat

Poor Fire Giant (Elden Ring). Dude rips off his own leg and wakes up the Outer God in his belly, and you still kill him. Malenia also fully gives herself over to Outer God of Rot, becoming the Goddess of Rot.

Deeply ashamed of both her legacy as a Hunter and of her blood-drunk Cainhurst lineage, Lady Maria hates the Rakuyo and she hates Blood. When she impales herself with the twin blades to defeat you, she is calling upon the full strength of both, becoming an avatar of all she was trying to leave behind when she ended her own life. All to stop another Hunter from getting themselves mixed up in Gehrman's mess -- to no avail. Talk about a Nightmare.

That sliver of health left against Maliketh when you died made me want to cry on your behalf.

Godrick the Grafted cuts off one of his arms and replaces it with a dragon's head during his boss fight. There's also Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, she stabs herself in the chest with her sword Rakuyo.

Lady Maria basically commits “seppuku”

It's the year of our lord 2024 and still, if somebody intones "it's been..." and leaves a dramatic pause, a voice in the back of my head is gonna start yelling, "ONE WEEK SINCE YOU LOOKED AT ME." Never fails.

How about Lady Maria? Even if setting her blood on fire didn't mean embracing the vampire ancestry she had rejected for so long, it would still be *setting her blood on fire.*

Good old Ceaseless Discharge (yes, I shall use the full name) has one of his arms fused to his body. And he then rips it away to use it properly when he tries to fight you

"I hear your a werewolf now Father" - Johnny Chiodini 😂

How on Earth is Father Gascoigne on this list but not Lady Maria? She destroys herself literally and figuratively by using the Rakuyo blade she cast aside, as well as the cainhurst blood craft she swore she would never use when she became a hunter. By the end of the fight, I wasn't sure who was causing more of her blood loss, her or I.

2:13 "'Tis but a scratch!" "A scratch?! Your arm's off!" "No it isn't!"

The Genechiro/Isshin thing is because of the Mortal Blade, the Black Mortal blade is also known as "Open Gate" and is able to summon a spirit from the afterlife. In order to do this Genechiro must sacrifice his own life and in doing so his body becomes the "Gate" that the Spirit comes through back in corporeal form.

I mean Malenia gives into the Scarlet Bloom to try and kill you, and looking at her should tell you how bad the Scarlet Rot is for her health when she tries to suppress it.

Godfrey didn't really destroy himself, Sherosh was actually there to him him BACK. He abandoned his royalty and reverted back to a barbarian warrior in order to win. I would also argue that Godfrey is one of the few demigods that you face at thier peak, considering the grace of gold finally returned to him after all those years.

Rykard may not show it outward wise, but pulling a sword out of your mouth has to cause some damage. He doesn't look like a sword swallower.

I always think of the Fire Giant from Elden Ring. All he does is rip his own leg off, which seems tame compared to some of these, but the way in which he does it and his roars of agony make it so much more brutal.

I've never played a Soulsborne game, but I remain undefeated by legless vicars IRL.

Does Laurence really count, considering he didn't intentionally rip his own lower torso off, but rather he broke in half during the fight?

The Last Giant's foot puts the "sole" in Dark Souls. I'll see myself out...

Watching that death to maliketh with a single hit left on his health bar physically hurt me

Still gives me chills and fear for that fight after Serosh tries to join the fight. Will always wonder if it was always just the upper half of a lion or would get legs if fully formed. Probably never know the answer to that but glad didn't have to fight the ax earth bender and his earth bending lion at the same time.

Horah Loux kinda un-nerfed himself when he separated from Serosh I though

That 1 hit from winning death hurt me since I'm reminded of how many times it happened against the demon of hatred

Ceaseless Discharge rips out one of its arms that's grown into its chest to fight you.

Ahh yes, the classic last giant/amydala “tear off arm to increase range” technique. I hear its quite *handy* in a fight ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Oh the memories of fighting all these lads. Let's hope Shadow of the Erdtree gives us more examples!

These bosses may have destroyed themselves to kill me, but I destroyed my controller to kill them...

so this is what happens when bosses are prepared to pay and arm or a leg to win

Vicar Amelia gives Gascoigne and Laurence a run for their money, she doesn’t even wait for the fight to begin before transforming

Gurranq's form is probably not a new one, but his original form before he went into Marika's service. The prevalent theory is that he was a beasties clergymen for the dragons before Marika defeated them and took him on as a shadow.

Pretty sure Laurence losing his legs was not a conscious decision on his part. The Hunter cuts them off

There's one particular entry on here I was fully expecting to BEAR WITNESS to. But alas.

2:30 Am I the only one that counts six arms on the Amygdala?

Does anybody else watch things like this and wonder why we love soulsborne games so much?

Nice to see Dark Souls 2 getting some airtime!

Wait a minute...why don't we, the player character, try this tactic? Yeah that's right Soulsborne bosses, make way for we are ready and willing to tear our own limbs off to win this fight. Not so tough now, huh? (Of course there is no video footage so please imagine by yourself how the tactic went.)

The way the Gascoigne fight is phrased in this video made me realize what a dope detail it was that you could summon him for jolly cooperation right up until the point you fight him. Like, you’re on the same side right up until he loses it on you. Very cool

One of the best details in elden ring is in Godfrey's cutscene, you can see the guidance of grace pointing Godfrey to us, the player. We are the next step to overcome for him to become Elden Lord.

yay soulsborne list!!! this had me cracking up ^.^ thanks for all the awesome videos!!

11:17 in a song about becoming a werewolf Sting says "I must love what I destroy, and destroy the thing I love" I don't know about metal but it sure is as haunting.

What about Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos from Bloodborne? In the 2nd phase of her fight, she summons a death aura that, while hurts you, also hurts her

Excellent video, now make one of soulsbourne bosses who we feel bad for killing for lore and gameplay reasons like Sif in DS1 (obviously) and the old demon king in DS3 that at the end of the fight burns out the last of the chaos flame and its left a harmless slow moving husk of what the great demons used to be among the corpses of his kind

Iudex Gundyr reminds me of the fact that someone managed to get Champion Gundyr to fight each of the bosses of Dark Souls 3, and he did surprisingly well against most of them, which makes one wonder who it was that managed to defeat/corrupt him.

Lady Maria had apparently resisted the temptation of vileblood her whole life, but when the paleblood hunter fights her, she stabs herself in the chest just to finally call upon it, and oh boy is it ever destructive.

I heard 'Paul Gascoigne's head' when talking about Father Gascoigne and...yeah...that's an image.

Great video guys 📹👌💪 Love me some Souls games

The Guardian Ape cuts off his own head after playing dead in order to defeat Sekiro. Even considering that he is immortal and the severed head is still very vocal about the entire affair, that seems pretty extreme to me.

Dark Souls 3 was my first Soulsborne and the first time I beat Iudex Gundyr I accidentally unequipped my weapon and didnt notice. I took out the last 1/3rd of his health bar with my fists in a sheer panic. It was the most elated I had been beating a boss in any game and I was hooked.

'Penitent root-nibbler' lmao

The ad I got right as Godfrey killed his lion.💀 The ad: "We understand how important it is to have an emotional support pet by your side in your time of need..."

I stayed under Amygdala the whole time with the tonitrus, so I managed to mostly miss that one (same for the lasers it does). I still love the Gascoigne fight. Godfrey's transformation was actually hard to watch for me. Not because of all the blood and all, but because I'm most definitely a cat person and I didn't like seeing that happen to Serosh. At least the camera wasn't on the action the whole time. I took great joy in beating him after that. I don't even regret using my mimic tear either. Another thing that sunk in is that he didn't really hesitate about it. I mean, his expressed regret about it, but it didn't feel all that genuine to me. The Nameless King says not a word, but you can see his hand and the spear tremble just before he kills the King of Storms to take his power. At least he didn't want to kill his friend in order to kill us. Now, on the other hand, Guranq's transformation into Maliketh was absolutely epic and I never skipped that cutscene no matter how many times I died (though I died more to the draconic tree sentinel guarding the door than I did to him). As soon as I saw him I knew I wanted that armor. Absolutely badass. I definitely was swearing at my Tarnished when she went to touch that after the fight, but at least she didn't actually lay her hands on it, which is more than I can say for my Hunter and my Ashen One. Also, was the controller of whoever was getting that capture okay after they nearly beat him and then died like that? I hate Laurence so much and his second phase is terrible. I ended up downing lead elixir repeatedly to just tank the fire damage just to stay close enough to kill him. He's even worse on NG+ and onward. Also, the Fire Giant doing that when I got to him actually made me laugh more than anything else.

The last giant reminded me of a boss in Punishing: Grey Raven called Moon Eater. After defeating him (x100 stacks of hp), he tears his arm off in which he gest another stack of x100 hp... yay :). Also he gets a new move set.💀💀

Lol, learning all the lore in fhis vid. Just figured these guys were nuts. My tarnished camt read, so..

Love these videos

Horah Loux was like "I swore to never let Hulkamania run wild so long as I had my faithful beast companion by my side" *Player lowers his health until he hits phase two* "I fear no man, no beast, or evil, brother!"

what I'm learning here is that the fewer limbs you have, the more powerful you are. next Elden Ring DLC boss: Nugget, the Amputated Passerine

Lawrence lost his legs because he was damaged, and Serosh only existed so that Godfrey BEHAVED like a lord, and not like the barbarian he truly is. Maria does the same thing as Malenia, and both are lacking, both stoop to the natures they both discarded, Maria to prevent a grotesque secret from being discovered,Malenia, out of pure fear and lack of honor

In my opinion, Gandalf still said the most metal line: “From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak I fought with the Balrog of Morgoth, until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside.”

Me thinking Iudex Gundyr at the end of a BRIEF tutorial was dirty till I realize several hours down the line that the guy was actually the tutorial himself.

I suspect you were notified by RU-vid, but to make sure: heads up, this video has been age restricted or something. That weird thing where one cannot watch it via PlayStation App for some reason, despite being logged in with my account - which also has a premium abo 🤦

I was surprised that malenia and maria weren't on this list, one gave in to an outer god she was resisting her entire life to kill you, and the other stabs herself to get badass flaming swords

I wonder, does Malenia from Elden Ring count? After you bring her health bar down in her first phase she becomes Goddess of Rot Malenia, embracing the power of the rot that canonically took away her legs and her arm and likely dooming herself to slowly rot away in a manner most painful.

If the limit wasn't 7, this video could have been over an hour long. I'm surprised Godrick wasn't included though; that was one of the most brutal phase transitions in the series.

Poor ceaseless discharge. Ripped his arm off out of rage and desperation to kill you, his sisters grave robber.

Hold on, you made a series of jokes about Laurence, The First Vicar looking like he's recovering from being drunk, and when he pulls his legs off you don't make a 'legless' joke?! It was right there!

I never realised so many Soulsborne bosses loved to rip their own limbs off in a rage to try to kill you - Miyazaki must really have a thing against limbs.

The "Baby Shark" reference hit home!

Could've made 9 if you officially included Elden Ring's Fire Giant as well as Godrick the Grafted cutting off his 6-finger grafted left hand so he'd graft a fire-breathing dragon's head in place of it.

4:30 the Sekiro MC just…standing, watching an old man pull themselves from someone’s chest cavity with the same expression I have when I’m fixing myself breakfast in the morning, is truly hilarious. For future, like half the Remnant and Nioh 2 bosses do some variant of this if you’re looking for another list.

Iudex Gundyr -- from Soulsborne boss to Resident Evil boss in one transformation! (Actually, the Soulsborne protags would probably get along well with the RE protags. . .)

Personally I would've swapped out Malekith for Fire Giant, guy literally tears off his own leg for a power boost... but i guess he was mentioned? so... ignore me?

I’m surprised that you didn’t include Godrick or Fire Giant from Elden Ring. Both decided it was a good idea to amputate themselves mid-fight just to better kill you.

Most of the bosses in Elden Ring, at least Maliketh and Godfrey, I think know they can’t beat the Tarnished, but do these things just for it to be accounted that they gave everything they could when they are remembered in songs. Cuz really like every boss does this to some degree

What about Undyne The Undying. She ends up melting into a puddle of Undyne shaped goo because of how much determination she used. (which is bad for a monsters health)

The last giant pulling up the Gundam EZ8 arm maneuver

Can't say I'm surprised that arguably the most hardest bosses in recent gaming are also THE most hardcore in how they try to kill you. Some folks might consider themselves hardcore but I suspect they'll never be tear your own limbs off or kill your own pet levels of hardcore.

Neither Gascogne or Laurence undertake the transformation by choice. The Hunter knocks Laurence’s legs off, or maybe it’s emblematic of how he died the first time around (the Hunter’s Nightmare where the old Hunters Dlc takes place is basically Hell) and Gascogne falls victim to the beast plague, a fate so common for hunters that there’s literally a specific role amongst the hunters whose job it is to off Hunters who’ve succumbed

I like how you mentioned Amygdala, but he's not actually in the ranking XD There's also potentially Ceaseless Discharge, but I'm not sure if that counts

Honorary mention to lady Maria, who goes as far as using the blood after swearing it off when fighting you to try and stop you from unveiling the truth about the hunters

The Demon in Pain and The Demon from Below will both sacrifice themselves to give birth to the demon prince in Dark Souls 3's "The Ringed City" dlc. All 3 Lords of Cinder from the same game will light themselves on fire just to kill you. And the Nameless King will, in a similar way to Godfrey, kill his own dragon when it's his turn to step up and fight you.

how about lady Maria of the astral clocktower she stabled her self a lot any way love your guys videos so so so much

The fire giant sacrificing his legs after losing half health, Malenia becoming the Goddess of rot.

Godfrey/Hoarah Loux ripping apart Serosh is basically like Goku taking off his training weights, literally giving up the grace of god/gold to, again, LITERALLY throw hands for real

"Inflict upon himself infinite emotional trauma" I mean... He was already experiencing that before killing Sarosh. The boss fight starts after he found the dead body of his SON.

I would think Godrick the Grafted should fit here as well, considering that he cuts off one of his actually useful arms to replace it with a dragon head that, while sick, is not useful in any non-combat situation.

I almost choked at this point 14:30 😂😂😂

Ironically the developers didn't really put much thought about maliketh and ultimately ended up giving him a twin brother because even after killing him in his boss fight you still find him in the temple ALIVE

HELL YEAH I LOVE BOSSES

I started with dark souls 3 and this video reminded me just how hard ludex gunder was for me when i just started playing and how hard he is for a new palyer. Now i basically never die to him and consider him one of the easiest bosses out there.

That death against Maliketh just hurts to watch...

8:52 bro is really using moonveil 💀💀💀💀

Bad guy rips off leg, friend says 'Well done Dr. Gordon' in Jigsaw's voice.

8:54 You are *PLANTED*

🎶"I'm bleeding out, so if it's the last thing that I do, is bring you down, I'll bleed out for you"🎶

So all thats wrong with this: 1, gascoin doesnt "decide" to become a beast, he has been edging closer to becomming one for quite sonetime, we simply oush hin over the edge. Thats not his decision. 2, godfrey doesnt hurt himself, he kills serosh who he only picked up to nerf him so he could be lord. 3, maliketh also doesnt hurt himself, he simply stops holding back. 4, laurance also doesnt cut his lower half of, he is a non-sentient beast. He couldnt decide to do that if he tried. We cut them of. The laurance one is hilarius seen as they actualy show the fire giant who actual rips part of himself off afterwards

Hyping up that Last Giant fight lol

One can only imagine a bouncer trying to remove Isshin from a a nightclub isn't going to end well.

Iudex is less him choosing to do that and more his injuries leaving him unable to resist the taint of the abyss that has infected him, but otherwise good list, instead might I suggest Godrick, dude literally sacrifices his left arm to replace with a dragon head when it becomes clear his current strength is not enough