Going through Bloodborne for the first time.
Did the Old Hunters just literally disappear or am I reading too much into item descriptions? Like one day they poofed and ended up in the Hunter's nightmare? Is this the fate of all the hunters or just the Old ones from before the Church took over and started using those grey-dudes and townsfolk to kill the beasts?
BLOOD
MORE BLOOD
They are in a sort of Hell, but it's a nightmare. "Nightmare" in Bloodborne does not mean bad dream that didn't happen, it's a literal physical place you can go to in another dimension of sorts. The Old Hunters are the first few waves of Hunters that existed, and they became insane with bloodlust and potentially sick because old ancient blood. When they died in the "real" waking world, they awoke in the old nightmare, wandering forever looking for shit to kill. They exist in a kind of loop. I dunno where they go when you kill them, could mean they finally die and go to whatever heaven-hell exists in the Bloodborne universe. They "wake up" back in to their dead bodies so they do finally die for real.
That's what I understood from it, at least.
It's still weird to me because this old hunters garb says: "One day, the hunters disappeared, and Yharnamites began to whisper of the hunters' sin."
It's weird because it implies that it just suddenly happened which is hard for me to imagine because it seems like Hunters usually end up like Gascoigne where they have to be put down. Like this many old blood-crazed hunters would've been an absolute mess to put down.
The story of bloodborne is pretty thin, but I interpreted that line in context with the entire DLC, like the Hunters involved with scavenging Kos and the fishing village were transported to the nightmare where they were stuck to cover up the 'sin' of the church
It's still a physical plane like the other nightmares but you could also interpret it as the hunters being systematically hunted down one night to cover it up as well
Fromsoft games don't have coherent stories, they have the vague concept of a story that you are supposed to make into your own fanfiction.
>Fromsoft games don't have coherent stories
So far the stories of DS and Bloodborne have been pretty easy to follow for me. Some of the items just make me ask questions.
>were transported to the nightmare where they were stuck to cover up the 'sin' of the church
That makes some sense since the implications I've run into was that the raid on this fishing hamlet killed a pregnant alien god and that the church was experimenting on people to turn them into ayys.
I like the one who screams GLORIOUS when he swings his saif haha
Awaking again after dying seems to be a canon aspect of Bloodborne's world based on Djura's comments, so from there it can be inferred that when you kill most of the old hunters they simply wake back up again in the Nightmare and do the same shit again. Bosses and certain other NPCs are an exception, who knows where they do when they "awake", maybe their existence actually ends. Djura at one point says that he "no longer dreams", so it makes sense that he doesn't return after death, while also being a hint that Yharnam is a real, physical place.
>Yharnam is a real, physical place.
It's kinda hard to imagine that sometimes. The place is basically a dead city and most of the inhabitants seems to be already halfway to beasthood and attack outsiders like you on-sight. There's like corpses that have clearly been rotting in the streets for weeks. It's crazy to imagine how your Hunter even made it to the blood minister in one piece.
It's like the most deadly, shithole city cranked up a level and filled with werewolves.
You have to remember that you're there on the night of a blood moon, when shit is especially crazy. But yeah its a complete mess no doubt
Laurence did literally nothing wrong.
It's actually heaven for most of them because now they can kill beasts all they want forever.
Its supposed to be a Hell but it backfired and most of the hunters ended up enjoying it, except for Ludwig who is obviously in extreme pain.
Still though, you pass by rotting corpses in the street and most of the infrastructure even in the Cathedral Ward is pretty fucked up. The place has bad news all over it from miles away.
It's still hell, though it's more akin to a PTSD hell where you're forever stuck reliving the violence
The curse is a compulsion not really what the hunters necessarily wanted or didn't so the loss of their free will is pretty hellish even if whatever is left of them is 'enjoying' it
>pre-Old Hunters
>used to think Laurence was a guy who brought miracles to the poor and sick despite the possible danger and freed them from Cainhurst nobles living in the snowy mountains a few miles over.
>Post-Old Hunters
>Laurence was a power mad cunt that lost his way and was totally find fucking up a good thing to try to evolve humanity to Great One ascendancy.
Laurence was always a Satan/Prometheus parallel
So I didn't know this but in the Japanese version that handscrawled note "Seek paleblood to transcend the hunt" was apparently yours instead of the ministers (that I thought). So why the fuck would a foreigner like you want anything to do with transcending the hunt. As far as I'm aware the hunt is only in Yharnam where the scourge beasts are.
I figured that as more of a time loop like setup that was implied by the NG+ gravestone
>I've run into was that the raid on this fishing hamlet killed a pregnant alien god
No, she was already dead. Her corpse washed on the shore.
But the byrgenwerth people arrive there and where total cunts with the fishing village, it is also implied that they studied the body of Koz. Also yes she was pregnant and in the nightmare she gave birth to an old rotten baby that shared traits with gherman.
I haven't run into any evidence of a timeloop. I mean you go into NG+ regardless of if you ascended to Great One status or escaped the dream.
Drink the blood you're fucked dog.
Because they got cursed.
Its implied they did more than study her. That they did something blasphemous to her.
Personally I think they surgically removed part of her umbillical cord to beckon the MP. Thats where the cord in the hunter's workshop is from.
>Maria
>normal person sized
>The Doll
>Tall as fuck
What exactly is the particular mania Gherman had for Maria? Does the Japanese text even imply that?
I like the theory that the Bloodletting Beast is Laurence in the "real world", who went into the labyrinth looking for a cure to the beast plague, but was overcome before he could find anything. Can't remember the specifics, but it's based on the fact that the BL beast looks to be missing an eye, and you have to return the eye to Laurence's corpse in the Nightmare in order to awaken him. Not sure how to reconcile the fact that Laurence is in the Hunter's Nightmare already, but it's kind of a cool idea. Another piece of headcanon that seems interesting is the theory that the One Reborn is the amalgamated bodies of the School of Mensis attempting to escape the Nightmare.
Yes the city was terrorized by a growing beast epidemic which resolved itself in more frequent and larger hunts. Definitely not a place anyone should be looking to visit.
Depends on how much you separate the gameplay from the events of the story. If you divorce NG+ entirely from the equation as a pure gameplay feature, then it's easier to assume there is no time loop (though I still think there's some evidence such as the note/invitation).
However, if you assume all 3 endings could occur and continue as they do in the game beyond just a bonus lol more health and damage so you can replay with your current build without getting too bored, then a time loop becomes the only possibility.
However, I think calling it a time loop is a bit of an oversimplification. Each NG cycle is more like a dream of the same events, possibly connected but not necessarily. I said before that Bloodborne is pretty thin, and I think it's intentionally ambiguous in this regard. Really all of these events could be the dream of someone else the player is currently dreaming in, like in Through the Looking Glass where the events are implied to be the dream of the sleeping king. Could be the doll, could be Gherman, could be anything really.
B O O M H A M M E R
waifu mania
I still don't think Laurence was a bad dude, although its left ambiguous intentionally. I prefer to think that Laurence had good intentions but couldn't contain the danger of falling into beasthood on his quest and ultimately succumbed.
>were total cunts to the fishing village
That's a kind way of saying they massacred them and ripped their skulls open looking for eyes.
The sharing of traits with Gehrman implies his guilt i think
"Hey guys, do you have eyes in your brains?"
"The fuck? Idiot college morons. The fuck are you smoking?"
For me, it's the
>saif
>burial blade
>kirkhammer
I like how the Kos Parasite is just on a shelf, instead of like in a fish tank or something
the scale of these weapons is so fucked
>another piece of headcanon that seems interesting is the theory that the One Reborn is the amalgamated bodies of the School of Mensis attempting to escape the Nightmare.
My belief is that the School of Mensis held a ritual sometime before the Paleblood moon rose to try to ascend humanity into Great One status. If you look at many of the walls, there are hundreds of Yharnamites fused with the stone or petrified, trying to flee or hide from 'something' that was behind them. I imagine it was like a forced singularity or something, trying to combine the resonant energy of people (blood echoes) into something extremely powerful maybe a form of ritual blood or even a being that was basically a god.
Anyone who couldn't flee was sucked in, anyone who didn't had their life sucked out and became petrified. The School of Mensis originally just planned this with bodies, but eventually had to result to kidnappers, and even the people within Yhar'halgul to fill that final quota.
The One Reborn is the still living people that were forced into and squeezed into one pulpy, pissed off mass. The ritual's unintended effect was dispersing that weird magic they used into things like the cramped caskets, filling the dead still being gathered with unlife.
I tried to figure out how the Kirkhammer works without breaking apart.
I'm okay just pretending it works.
It's probably due to the note being a recycled idea from an earlier main plot where you'd go to Yharnam with a friend and he'd leave the note for you. Back then what you were looking for was the Blood of a Sage, not Paleblood. In the final game we just know that you knew what Paleblood was and was the reason you came to Yharnam, as even the Blood Minister opens the cinematic as if you just asked him about it. Anything else is anybody's guess.
> Not sure how to reconcile the fact that Laurence is in the Hunter's Nightmare already, but it's kind of a cool idea.
From what I understand the theory usually posits that Bloodletting is Laurence’s reanimated corpse in the real world, while the Laurence you fight in the Hunter’s Nightmare is a trapped version of Laurence’s consciousness after death. So even when you fight the BL Beast, Laurence is already physically dead and trapped in the Nightmare.