Lost in Translation-Bloodborne’s True Story Explained 

Japanese version: * slaps you with the lore * English version: Prithee

Considering the Lovecraftian influences, it's interesting to note that the Accept Death ending is agreeing with Lovecraft's notion that there are things that humankind shouldn't know, and the Refusal ending is seeing the horrifying consequences of still trying to push past our limit. And the Umbilical Cord ending is "Fuck off Howard I do what I want."

We are born of the lore, made men by the lore, undone by the lore. Our eyes are yet to open. Fear the old lore... By the Gods, Last Protagonist, fear it...

The Doll is pretty much all the context I need to understand the tone of every ending. Ending 1 = Hunter wakes up and forgets everything but the Doll seems to miss the Hunter and repeats her "Farewell line" Ending 2 = Hunter replaces Gehrman and the Doll says the cycle continues in an emotionless tone as it's no change for her Ending 3 = Hunter becomes an infant Great One and the Doll proceeds to cradle the Hunter followed by a gentle laugh in a more uplifting tone

The Great One ending isn't really posing a question. It's demonstrating what it means to transcend humanity. The disgust or apathy players feels in regards to this scene are its intended effect. By transcending humanity, we leave it behind. That is to say, not merely our physical form differs, but our desires, morals, and way of thinking change completely too. See, Wilhem's view of man's misunderstanding and beastly idiocy is a human perspective, as is his idea that our, "wretched evolution" will be our downfall. The truth is, is that he is assuming that the Great Ones have a superior form and intellect and understanding of the cosmos, than humans do. Ironic that the gameplay for the Hunter shows that this is not the case. Normally, people think of the word, "Transcend" to mean to surpass, exceed, or rise above. Yet, it also has the meaning, "to become independent of" usually in reference to restraints or constrains. What happens when we transcend humanity is that we become independent from it, as well as independent from our physical form/"the waking world." We can't even say with certainty that our physical form is the same as our "dream" form in this ending.

Ooh! Majestic! A hunter is a hunter, even in a lore dive.

Now I can officially say: "Rom the Idiot Spider" and have it be accurate

The beast appearing in the opening always made me think it was symbolic for beasthood trying to take control of your body but the messengers save you to become a moon scented Hunter. But then there's the very first beast you fight has reduced HP implying it's the same one from the cutscene. Always confuses me trying to make sense of it.

A somewhat disconcerting possibility: A human umbilical cord allows blood to pass between mother and child in order to sustain and nurture the latter at the expense of the former. If Great One's umbilical cords, specifically these Third Cords whatever that is meant to imply, work in an opposite fashion then it explains why all their children are stillborn and why they crave surrogates. They literally need children to sustain themselves. This might explain the peculiar tenderness with which the Moon Presence embraces the protagonist in the second ending, only to then leave them an imprisoned husk of their former self. To it, this is it's child's purpose. Perhaps, rather than giving them eyes or leading them to enlightenment, consuming enough Third Cords grants the protagonist the arcane eldritch means to do likewise and consume a Great One in order to thrive as one. Perhaps this is the only way to truly become a Great One, a zero sum game in which a few "enlightened" beings monopolize all the power, knowledge and arcane might of the cosmos. This also goes some way to explaining the Orphan of Kos, the only way for it to be born was for Kos' (or Kosm's) "physical" body to be slain by the Hunters so that it could not drain all the Orphan's blood. How or why infant Great Ones have blood that is not their parent's is anyone's best guess but perhaps this is the wretched evolution to which Master Wilhem alludes in a very literal sense. Humans or other creatures ascend to their level only to be consumed by Great Ones in their infancy, incubation as a form of predation certainly seems to line up with the Moon Presence's behavior the little that we observe of it. But that's obviously pure conjecture. TL;DR - Fear yer Old Mum Also, /late

Japanese: perfectly explains objective, tells us the straight up lore English: ThEe ShAlL Do SoMtHiNg

Bloodborne is a trilogy of games for me. First playthrough I accepted death and returned human. I repeated the cycle, and refused execution, finally putting Gherman’s nightmare to an end and allowing him to rest. But something was left unfinished. Some final task remained, and many questions were left unanswered. So I struggled through the hunt once more, seeking insight. At last I was reborn, a celestial slug.

Dude after watching tens of lore videos and playing through the game many times, this is the first time that I feel like I finally understand the basic pillars of the lore. My hat off to you good hunter.

Wow..how many other people missed that note that's right after entering the Cathedral? I've replayed Bloodborne about 10x and not once have I ever noticed a note right there

The fact that the note to "Seek the Paleblood" is written by the Hunter themselves fascinates me. It calls into question exactly how much they knew before starting the game, which is something I hadn't even had to consider through just the English text. It turns what sounded like looking for a cure for a disease, into a search for ending an existential threat to humanity. Did the Hunter have prior experiences with a Night of the Hunt before? Were they a survivor, or maybe just a tangential witness? How did they come to know about the Paleblood otherwise? If you refuse Gehrman's offer to forget the Hunt, could that be interpreted as the Hunter wanting to face the Moon Presence to find a way to end its threat forever? Ending the ritual would save people for a time, but with the Moon Presence still alive, it would just be re-summoned at a later time. The status quo wouldn't really have changed. Does the Hunter take the Third Umbilical Cords to transcend Humanity and become a Great One, or as a means to fight the Moon Presence? Did they choose to do the former strictly to accomplish the latter, regardless of whatever the results to themselves would be? Or were the goals not so altruistic? I love Bloodborne so much. I finally feel like I understand more of its core plotpoints, but there are some questions that the game just won't ever provide clear answers to, and I think that's beautiful.

Patient: "Doc, my blood is kinda pale. Is that normal?" Blood Minister: "It is around here!"

I had this argument with a friend a while ago about Willheim's motivation for telling you the location of Rom. It puts Willheim in a strange position if we only consider the vague English lore: If Rom is "helping" human from the Mensis ritual by "hiding it", then why would Willheim ask the hunter to kill the Rom? Or, if Willheim was trying to stop the church for overuse the blood to seek transcendence, does that mean he wishes the ritual to be “revealed” by killing Rom? Both of the explanations don't make us satisfied until watching this episode. Thanks to your digging into the Japanese lore we are quite clear now that Rom is not as innocent as we always thought, its "hiding" ability is merely a neutral force that kept the evil Mensis ritual from being seen, thus Rom is evil too. So, finally, Willheim's motivation is revealed and he is just an old scholar who wishes to seek transcendence only through good ways. Now I must wait 1 more second to show respect before I kill him for the Eye.

I love the idea that The One Reborn is just a mass of the bodies of the college students that partook in the final ritual, while the Brain is their literal essence reformed in a nightmare.

My opinion of the Moon Presence is that it is specifically a Great One who has descended into Beasthood. All of the Beast runes and spell items make mention of the idea of "Beasthood" being a dark inclination in humanity: the violent an animalistic parts of the human animal at their zenith, devoid of the reason and understanding that we usually associate with the idea of humans as "people" rather than animals. Taken that way, in conjunction with the idea of the Moon Presence acting as a parasite devouring the Blood of hunters, helps explain its motivations. At some prior point in the lore the Moon Presence may have had a greater motivation, but by this point its motivation has simply become to indulge in as much Blood as possible. My interpretation of the Night of the Hunt is that it's more or less the Moon Presence using hunters to farm Blood Echoes for it, as if it knew that Bloodborne was a videogame and was abusing that information. As Last Protagonist said, it sends out hunters to kill beasts (and other Great Ones if they can) in order to gain more Blood Echoes, then has Gehrman kill them. When you kill enemies you gain their Blood Echoes, so it follows that when Gehrman kills you he gains your Blood Echoes, and since Gehrman is empowered by the Moon Presence it drains those Echoes from Gehrman. Thus, the Moon Presence's perspective is that the entire game is just another farming run. This also explains why the only way to truly vanquish the Night of the Hunt is to kill the Moon Presence. As the Doll says, hundreds of hunters have come and gone from the Dream through the ages, so the Moon Presence is able to beckon many hunters (even if it can presumably only do so one at a time). Thus, the Yharnam Sunrise ending changes nothing: you get to live your life, but the Moon Presence is free to contract another hunter and start another "farming run." The Honoring Wishes ending is the same as the Yharnam Sunrise ending just from a different perspective. Rather than leaving Gehrman in the Dream to act as purveyor to the Moon Presence's "farming," you kill him and take his place. The only way to truly end the Night of the Hunt is to kill the Moon Presence, the one actively working towards making it happen.

This video fucking slaps. Full throttle, no filler. Excellent. *Chef's kiss*

37 minutes of loregasms !

At 23:58 the guy looks like he's saying "Mom said it's my turn on the xbox."

I always had the impression that the Moon Presence (Which is called Flora by the doll) is having some type of proxy war against other Great Ones. This happens in the Lovecraft mythos which Bloodborne draws inspiration from. The Hunters Dream and the doll exist because of the MP. Gehrman is basically a prisoner that is forced to maintain the Hunters Dream, and seems to think that Master Willem or Laurence will save him someday. We are definitely an agent of the MP. Queen Annalise calls us “Moon Scented Hunter”, as if she can smell, or sense the MP’s influence on us. My personal opinion is that Odeon is or was a Great One that is a rival of the MP. I say Odeon because that’s the most mysterious Great One I can think of. It’s mentioned multiple times but we never actually see any direct representation of it.

Excellent video, very straightforward explanation and very insightful Japanese translations really help making it clearer. You sir got yourself a new sub.

I want to say how great the subtle guidance and story telling is in Bloodborne. I fairly recently played the game for the first time and went in 100% blind. All I knew was people say its hard. You start so confused and by the end you understand the story and never really even know it happened because there's no big info dump. You pick it up one piece at a time and not always in order til it suddenly starts to click. Also I love the way I walked out to the Lunarium and tried to talk to Willem and he just silently points. I think in the mind set of another game I would have not understood what to do for a while but in Bloodborne I just instantly went "maybe I should try jumping off the ledge". Also after the Blood Starved Beast fight the door by the cathedral latern opens so you think "thats where im going I guess" and you end up going down this tower and ending up in the little section of the city with the kidnappers everywhere and of course they kill me because they are surprisingly fast compared to other large enemies so far and alot more powerful than anything id faced up to then but instead of waking up at the last lantern I get a cut scene and go to the Gaol area. I had no idea that was a thing, i didn't do it on purpose. The game just creates a situation where its likely to happen naturally. Haven't had this much fun with a video game since I was a kid.

Some notes on the ending. The moon presence looks like it's putting its head to your hunters belly (like where a baby would be) and even the way it's tentacles wrap around you look like a soft embrace of a child. Also it's ribs being exposed and having no belly might not be a sign of infinite hunger like you said but could be referencing it not being able to have/bare a child. Nice vid btw 👍.

Glad to hear that Mergo goes to sleep rather than dies. That made me smile.

I may be wrong, but I believe Miyazaki explains the mercy and ascension endings. The mercy ending isn't death, but Gehrman removing the hunter from the dream to continue to live in the waking world. The doll's line about finding rest in the waking world reinforces that. The ascension ending is a little more vague, but Miyazaki hints that one of the memories the hunter loses at the clinic is their desire to transcend mortality and uplift humanity beyond the threat of the beast scourge. Becoming a Great One was your original goal.

15:48 an alternative interpretation i suggest is that "haku chi" also could be translated as "white blood" or more meaningfully "paleblood". So perhaps it's a double entendre referencing how Rom is "vacuous" in the sense that she is an empty shield that hides the secret "paleblood" ritual. Edit: it could also be a witty triple entedre by Miyazaki including the "idiot" meaning of hakuchi. Rom's ironically an "idiot" because even though she's filled with eyes (which suggest enlightenment) her only purpose is to hide knowledge. Also an "idiot" in how her moveset is composed of brute-like attacks.

I don’t have a solid theory, but the line about “wretched evolution” again brings Frankenstein to my mind. How learned men of Byrgenwerth fail at creating/turning into Great Ones through their experiments, meanwhile the Hunter through his interactions with female npcs gains the ability to transcend. Probably getting it all wrong but can’t stop thinking about it

Wow I never knew that Gherman has no blood echoes. That is an interesting tidbit and definitely supports the idea that the Moon Presence drains them from hunters.

Five years. Five YEARS, and people are still finding new clues, hidden objects, easter eggs and content. Miyasaki must have spent all his spear time to stuff this game with all kinds of material to make people lose their sanity trying to find all of it. In another five years there will probably be a new video about never before seen content of this game.

The thing about the moon "draining" the blood of the night might be true, considering that if you look at the hunter's dream sky after killing rom it shows having blotches of blood-colored clouds, while the moon looks normal, as if Paleblood is slowly eating the night's blood away and carrying it into his world, which parallels all the creatures we have killed and whose echoes we have sold to the Doll (Moon Presence's agent) in exchange for strength. Also i think the "when the red moon hangs low" it's used to explain why Yharnam citizens are half beasts since the beginning, or why the scourge is present. a lot of people think the Red moon is what causes more chaos to happen, while except in yhargul the world is more or less still the same (apart from some minor differences). in reality the red moon is always present, as well as its effects, but it's unseen. what it really happens after Rom's death is that the citizens see the all the eldritch stuff that had been hidden, causing some to go crazy or die out of cardiac arrest. their mental defenses get broken and some fall to beasthood, while others are so stubborn they don't give a damn (the old man). as for Arianna and fake yosefka, i think they were already pregnant, but the red moon made them ignore the process (hide the ritual, which in their cases a pregnancy from a great one counts as ritual).

A video of the events that took place in the fishing hamlet, the research halls, and other things not talked about in this video would be nice. Such as how "The One Reborn", "Living Failures", and the "celestial emissary" came into creation

Dude solid analysis. The moon presence forever indulging on blood echos makes sense, along with the blood echoes being the will of the undead. It made total sense when you said Healing yourself imbues one with the will to keep going on, solid connection

Your argument regarding the Kin Coldblood is definitely a strong one. Most sources I've relied on still discuss whether Rom dropping it means she's only Kin or not, but your reasoning is definitely a more solid one that I don't have a problem accepting.

The "wretched evolution" translation I think is probably referring to using the old blood of the moon presence to try achieve the next step, since master Willem saw the old blood as bad and to be feared, and not that evolution itself is bad, since everything else in game points to him still trying to gain insight to ascend

"If, in order to transcend humanity, it meant you had to leave your humanity behind... would you do it?" Me: I'M THROWING AWAY MY HUMANITY, JOJO!!!

Wow. The ending remarks especially are what make this video so freaking great. A surprisingly concise, yet deep and comprehensive "unifying theory" that ties everything together, i adore the interpretation of the role of hunters as grim reapers that carry with them the wishes of the dead. FANTASTIC work, really remarkable.

I have a theory as for the reason ebrietas grants eyes to those who ask and why rom is considered the vacuous (idiot) spider. She is the left behind great one and so I believe she feels the loneliness that entails and thus, trough an unknown method, transforms other beings into great ones to abate that loneliness. However since the one transformed (in this case rom) does not have enough insight (three third chords) it cannot handle the transformation and all the expansion of consciousness and knowledge that it brings, becoming, then, a stupid being incapable of accomplishing much of anything. Perhaps the existence of a being such as this diverts some sort of energy and knowledge from the world obscuring the horrible reality of it (the paleblood sky and all the eldritch beings in yarnham). Just a theory. Edit: Oh and the reason that the dimension rom stays in is an empty space with a body of water that has no depth could be a representation of the emptiness of rom’s mind, and the fact that it is incapable to reach the depths of knowledge that it’s transformation brings thus it becomes stuck in this realm where nothing but empty space exists. Perhaps the existence of this empty dimension balances the madness seeping from the dimension made by the ritual’s nightmare.

I love your idea about Moon Presence draining echoes, that's so much more believable than MP manipulating hunters for some grand scheme!

This is a very clearly and concise lore explanation and I absolutely love it. No nonsense, no rambling, straight to the point in an accurate and easy to understand format. Please do more videos like this if you enjoyed making this one, new sub +1

I was under the impression that with the addition of The Old Hunters DLC that Micolash WAS actually referring to Kos. Assuming Micolash was with Byrgenwerth when they raided the fishing hamlet, he would know of the experiments performed on the Orphan, and therefor conscious of the experiments done in the research hall. Just what I observed from playing the game.

I wonder if when you have 60 insight and start to hear mergo's cries it may mean you're transforming into a great one? Since its said the great ones can hear and be summoned by the cries of a "special baby" Also the fact you become an actual great one with the moon presence ending.

I really agree with the idea that the Great Ones don't have any plan, plot or even hostility against one another. To me it always looked like the only thing the Great Ones care about and are stated to care about in what written lore we get is procreation (which is very difficult for advanced creatures like them, and leads them to be attracted to surrogates and replacements for the chidlren they can't have) and sometimes doing things for the creatures that somehow manage to contact them in the dreamlands (like the Hunter's Dream seems to be this parallel dimension supported by the Moon's Presence after Gehrman made some kind of ritual in the old workshop, since there's an umbilical cord there, or Mergo with the cultists when they asked for a brain filled with eyes, and Mergo literally spawned a giant brained that caused people to go mad with the truth). All Oedon does is making babies when the separation between human and dream world weakens, all the Moon Presence does is helping the hunters and getting near Yharnam because the cries of Mergo caused by the ritual attracted her, Mergo would rather sleep but the cult forced him to wake up, Kos ended up landing on a beach to give birth only for the Byrgenwerth scholars to come, slaughter the villagers and carve up her body and her baby, who then cursed the hunters for their misdeeds. I definitely see a lot of irony in the fact that the scholars of Mensis and the Church are desperately trying to overcome their bestial instincts, when in reality the superior creatures they're admiring are just as fundamentally animalistic, simple and direct in their motives while also being strange, superior creatures that exist on a different level of reality. I also don't think the Moon Presence really dies in any ending, even the one where we "kill" her, and the same for Kos. The "major" Great Ones are likely immortal for true, as in, killing them won't destroy them for good and they will keep on existing in the dreamworld. Kos may be dead on Earth but she still has an influence and controls the Hunters' Nightmare, Mergo is already a dead baby Great One I think and he could still be summoned by the cult of Mensis, while the Moon is high in the Hunter's Dream even in the ending where we defeated her. Like in the Lovecraft mythos the most powerful of these creatures are likely well beyond the idea of life and death.

One important thing that I always consider that I think many people forget about, but I think you have displayed very well, is that of the unreliable narrator. Bloodborne's characters, every single one of them, is an unreliable source of info. Not a single character can give accurate info, including the Doll herself. They are all experiencing new events and ideas that they clearly have no idea how to conceptualize nor explain. Thank you for not using character's dialogue as 100% proof of whats true or whats not in this game.

Excellent video. One potential note of caution: you suggest that we don't have any indication of Byrgenwerth hunting the Great Ones, but that depends on whether or not you think Byrgenwerth was responsible for the demise of Kos, as explored in the DLC. Certainly the priest of the Hamlet thinks Byrgenwerth should be blamed for something.

This is my most loved and cherished game, equally because of the unrelenting play style AND the increasingly chaotic but enticing lore. Your video is super on point... well researched and awesome editing. Glad I found your channel!

Man theres nothing like still getting bloodborne videos with new perspective this long after release, great vid homie

Bloodborne is my favorite game of all time. I also love the lore that everyone has. That being said, this lore take is one that is close to my own and makes a lot of sense. The unfortunate translation issues really do make Bloodborne more ambiguous that it needs to be. This video is great, and I will keep coming back to it. I like how you use only in-game explanations. When encountered with a "lore-hole" I usually fall back on "Well it's based on H.P. and cosmic horror, so how does cosmic horror fill in the gaps?" instead of looking directly at the source. I wish the translations could be edited, and when we get an emulator or PC version (if ever) I'd love to see that change. Also, I noticed besides references to the Orphan, you left out the entire DLC. Is that because it doesn't pertain much to the story as a whole? Or that it is incongruous with what you proposed? If you're making a video on it I'd love to see it!

what a nice coherent and succinct video. Remember when all we had to watch were 1 hour long lore vids that just focused on the translation of "blood" or just the Make Contact gesture?

I've been a huge fan of Bloodborne ever since it came out. I've searched the internet for every bit of lore I could find, but was still left with some unanswered questions. This video pretty much tied all that up, and makes me feel truely complete in my knowledge of the game.

My first thoughts with the paleblood sky was with the reddish moon, and how it looks like it’s semi bloody. I used to have a major issue with my nose where I would have bloody noses every day as a kid, and I still get them frequently but not as often. Whenever I would spit out blood, the combination of the two would look exactly how the red-yellow moon does in game. It’s strange and gross, but it’s always been my first thought lmao

All these years later and still new analysis

Your musings on the Moon Presence's motives are on point. The problem with the grim reaper analogy is that you don't mention it comes from the hunters of hunters - ie Eileen's role, not just the hunters generally.

This is my first video of Last Protagonist’s, tonight right now I stumbled across it randomly while searching for other Bloodborne lore videos, and this one BY FAR is the most in depth and meticulous. I wish I could subscribe twice. This dude is a fucking legend. I already know what I’m doing for the next few hours. I’m binging this guys videos. Hell, I’ll even watch lore videos from games I haven’t even played or heard of if this guy has any. What a champion.

Last Protagonist, I just started playing BB based off of the many youtube videos I've been watching about the lore of this game. It is a truly fascinating universe. I have watched so many Story and Lore videos and I have to say your explanation of what the game and the developers are trying to say has been the best, most concise, and understandable of all the other videos I have watched. Cheers to you and I hope you continue making great content!

Hands down one of if not the best explanation I’ve seen on RU-vid. Fantastic job man.

Awesome video! The part where you talk about Ebrietas and the cut content makes a lot of sense. There are a lot of mentions to 'cosmos' in several itens from Ebrietas and the Choir and the Moon Presence being called Ebrietas makes a lot of sense, since it's its presence that causes the blood frenzy. The thing you point out, about Micolash trying to reach Ebrietas while she is in the cathedral makes sense, but if she was hidden there, it would fit with the fact that the School of Mensis and the Choir were spying each other. Also, maybe Micolash realized that Ebrietas turned Rom into a 'vacuous' being and was interested in searching for ascension from another Great One. As it is, and using the original content, I intepret that Kos (from Fishing Hamlet) was the one who caused Rom's ascension. My idea is that Byrgenwerth, knowing that Great Ones search for a surrogate after losing a child, would kill Kos' child hoping that it would cause the ascension of Rom. Gherman, being the one who killed Kos' chikd, saved his umbilical cord, later using it to call upon the Moon Presence. Well, this backfired because Kos created the Hunter's Nightmare to preserve it's child, haunting Gherman forever. Well, time to jump to the Discord server and talk about Bloodborne lore. Boy, I missed that!

What an excellently comprehensible video. I knew all these things, but they feel so fragmented and hard to keep track of. Your perspective and explanation made it much more clear and concise. Keep it up!

Actually MP using the doll to absorb blood echoes from the Hunter makes totally sense, especially from the "greed look" as you pointed out :D

I think you missed one very important thing in this (beautiful and great) video: why the moon presence let you go, with Gehrman killing you, if you kill Mergo? That is the reason why many believe that the Moon Presence is enemy to other great ones, or at least their offspring. Other clue on that come from the fact that Laurence, Gehrman and Willhelm (Gehrman say his name too when you see him sleeping in the dream) summoned her, maybe luring her with the Doll (created with the corpse of Lady Maria, descendant of Annalise, who has the blood of Yahrnam, the only being we know of capable of conceiving a baby with a great one). Knowing that the great ones are sympathetic in spirit and answer when called upon, one must think: what could Gherman, Willhelm and Laurence called her for? The guess is that they called her to end the hunt. Not knowing that the hunt occours whenever a great one approaches Yahrnam, and so Gehrman would be trapped in the dream 'cause there is no ending to the hunt, but only to a particular night of the hunt. And maybe, the moon presence has an active role in luring other great ones near? I guess that what we miss in understanding her comes from the fact that we only know about one night of the hunt. We know that there were many of it before the one we play, from the graves and from Djura and Eileen, that presumably has gone throught their own night of the hunt and chose to be put down by Gehrman at the end. We're trying to understand the whole picture by having only the last fraction of it. Also notable is that the moon presence has great similarity with an umbilical cord: her face is the section of an umbilical cord (check it out on google, one of the first image show a stunning similarity), and she place it on the belly of the hunter when she hug it in the ending. And in her artworks, she is showed having an evanescent placenta-like thing over her head. God damn i love this game and talking about it.

Thank you so much for this video. It's incredible, how much is lost in translation; the retail release Moon rune description makes it heavily seem as though the Moon rune is a gift of pity to those who ask for help from the Great Ones, whereas your accurate translation paints it as a much more sinister warning, that calling out in need to them will beckon them to devour you...

Humanity is overrated. Turn me into a powerful cosmic slug!

This video is sooooooo helpful. There are so many great Bloodbourne lore videos, but none that seem to just straight up explain the sequence of events in the game and why they occur in the order that they do.

Solid lore dive!

I'd love to know if the description for the Childhood's Beginning trophy is accurately translated. In English, it says "You became an infant Great One, lifting humanity into its next childhood," which carries the distinct implication that the rest of humanity will be experiencing a transformation along with you. I'm curious if that implication is there in Japanese as well.

I remember reading the creator said he made bloodborne as a way to intercept the story yourself, because when he was growing up he couldn’t read English too well and would fill in parts of the story himself.

15:30 I never truly grasped Rom's significance until now! I just gained 3 Insight.

9:52 actually, the text appears when mergo stops crying, implying mergo is the nightmare

Here are a few quotes from Lovecraft's "What the Moon Brings". In the last paragraph, the waters ebbing low over a "vast reef" that turns out to be some sort of creature with "hidden eyes" sounds a bit like Rom. Rom does kind of resemble eye-lined brain coral, after all. "...as I ran along the shore, crushing sleeping flowers with heedless feet and maddened ever by the fear of unknown things and the lure of the dead faces, I saw that the garden had no end under that moon; for where by day the walls were, there stretched now only new vistas of trees and paths, flowers and shrubs, stone idols and pagodas, and bendings of the yellow-litten stream past grassy banks and under grotesque bridges of marble. And the lips of the dead lotos-faces whispered sadly, and bade me follow, nor did I cease my steps till the stream became a river, and joined amidst marshes of swaying reeds and beaches of gleaming sand the shore of a vast and nameless sea. Upon that sea the hateful moon shone, and over its unvocal waves weird perfumes brooded. And as I saw therein the lotos-faces vanish, I longed for nets that I might capture them and learn from them the secrets which the moon had brought upon the night. But when the moon went over to the west and the still tide ebbed from the sullen shore, I saw in that light old spires that the waves almost uncovered, and white columns gay with festoons of green seaweed. And knowing that to this sunken place all the dead had come, I trembled and did not wish again to speak with the lotos-faces... ...I watched the tide go out under that sinking moon, and saw gleaming the spires, the towers, and the roofs of that dead, dripping city. And as I watched, my nostrils tried to close against the perfume-conquering stench of the world’s dead; for truly, in this unplaced and forgotten spot had all the flesh of the churchyards gathered for puffy sea-worms to gnaw and glut upon. ...when I raised my eyes I saw that the waters had ebbed very low, shewing much of the vast reef whose rim I had seen before. And when I saw that this reef was but the black basalt crown of a shocking eikon whose monstrous forehead now shone in the dim moonlight and whose vile hooves must paw the hellish ooze miles below, I shrieked and shrieked lest the hidden face rise above the waters, and lest the hidden eyes look at me after the slinking away of that leering and treacherous yellow moon."

After I finished playing bloodborne I always wondered if by the end of the game (consider killing the MP) we stopped the scourge of the beast completely or just made it slightly better by slaying the nightmare of Mensis. Because the nightmare of Mensis is way more recent than the scourge of the beast, since the ptumerians and the people of Loran had a scourge of the beast as well. Maybe the scourge will only stop completely if people stop using blood once and for all? It's all so very confusing, even by FromSoftware standards

I somehow wonder: When you kill Micolash in the nightmare, he cries out, that he's going to wake up and forget everything. Is he not aware, that his physical body is long dead? Or is there another layer? Like, is his conscious returning to the same plane the player will awake to, if they accept death by the hand of Gehrman?

Amazing video. Love the way you explain it over the course of the games events in playthrough order.

I thought the "wretched evolution" was referring to the forced evolution using the healing church's blood, rather than using insight

Very well put together! @31:10 I believe the "holes" in Flora's face match the "cross-section" of a human umbilical cord. That implies that it becomes our mother-like figure, trapping the Player and it feeding us (the alternative being that it sucks our "nurturing blood", but hardly makes sense). If we consume the 3 cords, it might prevent IT from making such a connection (because we already "have one").

I feel the “evolution without courage will be our downfall” may relate to Rom and the Heart of Mensis, both examples of Byrgenwerth and School Mensis’ attempts at ascending to become great ones only for them to become insane in the end, I think it’s also shown with how both play defensively and become exceedingly susceptible to damage once all defenses are down, Rom may have the arcane powers but other than that can only flail around and the Heart can only just stare at you once it is dropped from its tower That and the original patients as seen in the archives in the old hunters dlc are all on the brink of madness due to the forceful way they tried to “gain eyes”

Well done. Never thought to swap identities of the great ones. Really clears things up! Thanks!

When you thought there could be no more lore surprises: Last Protagonist: Hold my chalice!

I really like your video, I've been waiting for a summary like this for a long while, thank you

This is awesome! Thank you for enlightening me on the meanings of some of these notes. It makes a lot more sense how to join the dots, with your updated translations. 😁

I didn't want this video to end. If it was three hours long I still would've wished it was longer.

That's the best Bloodborne lore video I've seen, and I saw A LOT

Man! this was such an excellent retelling and analysis of the main plot in Bloodborne. Thank you for this seriously.

This was amazing. Thank you so much for such a straight forward explanation.

I think there’s a lot of overthinking about the motives of the Great Ones. It is observed generally that the more advanced the organism , the harder it is for it to reproduce. And the game clearly tells you the Great Ones long for a child of their own after they lose a child. I believe the Moon Presence shares this objective. As for why the Moon Presence seeks the death of the other great ones and their child, there isn’t enough material to suggest that it actually does. The notes are the only guidance you get to kill Great Ones and they aren’t necessarily in accordance with the Moon Presences will,the one with the umbilical cords for example. Even the note about hunting great ones is indiscriminate. It may very well include the Moon Presence itself, as it is the initial goal to get “Paleblood” to transcend the hunt and as you said in your video, transcend may also mean “to be free of/“ Written by someone who actually may not be aware of the Paleblood actually being a Great One (assuming your theory is correct) And at no point Gehrman ever directs you to hunt down the Great Ones, he does once tell you to “just go out and kill a few beasts” but that is different. The fact that the one third umbilical cords beckon the Moon Presence is evidence to this, Because the cord is also known to have been used to gain audience with Mergo, Another is alluded to have been taken from Oedon’s child And one of them beckoned the moon presence for the first time. Having the moon presence beckoned twice by the cords suggests their affinity towards seeking Children, It’s almost as if that organ related to childbirth is a lure for the Great Ones and it wouldn’t be if that wasn’t their motive. However how the Hunter’s Dream helps the Moon Presence achieve it’s objective of reproducing remains a mystery, so does the reason for it’s very existence and I have no understanding or way of explaining it. But in my interpretation, the primary objective of the Moon Presence is, to reproduce and not the slaying of other Great Ones. EDIT: It also just dawned on me that the rituals that Rom was hiding to summon the Moon Presence involved the crying Mergo , another proof of it’s desire for having a child. It may also be an explanation that due to the slaying or silencing of Mergo , assuming you do not actually take the umbilical cords, the Moon Presence simply leaves, as the doll suggests that dawn is coming and the dream is about to end. Now from here on out it is my interpretation of the ending which may be entirely wrong I don’t believe the ending of the dream was specific to the Hunter , as you can see the effects of your actions with the Dream and workshop being set ablaze, possibly by the first lights. I believe that the ending cutscene in Yharnam Sunrise is the beginning of the new hunt, assuming the moon presence has returned or has been beckoned again, with the dream being restored and the doll tending to your grave. But I really think there is enough to establish that the main motive of the Moon Presence is to procreate, just like the other great ones.

OH my god YES! This is the lore breakdown we need! Rather than running amok with what are clearly translation quirks!! Thank you so much for doing this!

At 4:40 It looks like the Messengers throw the lever for the gate, Since the person who would is probably dead. How sweet. Excellent Video by the way, 10/10.

This video blew my mind as I was playing bloodborne I just got taught a history lesson this is why bloodborne is one of my favorite games

great lore dive! learning the differences between the english and japanese versions makes one think and helps tie some plot points. thank you for your effort!

This is soo underrated Amazing video dude i learned a lot , i hope you get more views.

Didn't I read somewhere that Rom the Itsy Ditzy spider used to be a student Willem and was the most successful of their attempts to create a Great One? Essentially a big hairy pawn used to try and preserve at least a shred of the Yharnamites' sanity in half benevolence half self serving obfuscation so less people would try to prevent human instrumentali- I mean communing with the great ones?

Nice Work Dude! Nice Researchs and some great unknown Informations for me. Keep Going!

I love it when games and other media has these small details.

If you "make contact" with the great one being researched at the nightmare, the one with many eyes, it will give you something.

I love these hidden details. Thank you for your hard work, we all appreciate it. Keep up the incredible and amazing work. You are awesome.

This was beautiful and everything I needed right now. thanks buddy

Maybe "Paleblood/Paled Blood" is the name given by the Byrgenwerth Scholars, and the "nameless" moniker implies that the moon presence (a being that may have been understood as having some form of sentience, and intelligence) was called that because It didn't provide a name?

A great lore video, really ties everything up nice. Can't wait for your sub count to explode!

You did clear up some of the mystery. Nice work dude. Your japanese is on point. Damnnn.

I‘ve enjoyed this thoroughly. Great work! Thank you so much for this, Sir.