Algorithm algorithm. more high quality obscure bloodborne essays please.

I would like those essays on the eight categories of body horror please

One thing that I really like about Bloodborne is a tiny little detail that goes completely unnoticed by everyone who doesn’t already have prior knowledge of it. When performing a critical attack, the hunter’s hand morphs into that of a beast when it’s inside the enemy. It’s the reason why your hands normally do almost no damage to enemies, but you’re able to rip them open when performing a critical. There’s no explanation why it only happens then or why we never get to see it in our playthroughs, but the fact that it’s there is amazing.

That final art piece of the Hunter reaching for the gods is sooooooo BEAUTIFUL

The theme of identity is definitely very important. It's why I wore the top hat for my whole first playthrough:

"A hat worn by hunters who admire formality.
Some hunters place an emphasis on form, as seen by the use of the threaded cane.
For them, formality, beauty, and justice are the very essence of humanity, and precisely what keeps hunters from becoming something else."

41:30 This point right here!! The higher skill the hunter, the more insight, the more they appear almost precognizant

On the stairs of flesh is an absolute phenomenal line. Fits bloodborne so perfectly.

the imagery of piles of stacked bodies hit different post-Marika

People often look over the in universe implications of the rally mechanic, everything you kill is in some way infected by the old blood, so as you hack and slash at them their blood splatters onto you granting you its healing properties, so cool.

The player becoming desensitized to the suffering of their own character is also gradually reflected by the weapons. At the start of the game, the trick weapons go from mostly normal to more complex and on the DLC some weapons use self-harm as a mechanic to unlock more power.

I would say that Bloodborne showcases the bodily and mental horrors of those who attempt to transcend the fragility of flesh to gain a posthuman existence and those who desire to somehow come back down to earth in order to gain any semblance of what they have lost.

While this video goes deep into the bodily and posthuman aspect and horror of the game, it misses the role the Great Ones play and what they are after. As stated in the game, every Great One loses their child and so deeply seeks a replacement, with JP descriptions referring to them as sensitive beings that react to the cries of Great One hybrid children. This is why Mensis attempt to use the infant stillborn Mergo to call forth the Great Ones to initiate their transcendence, and Laurence and Gehrman using the Orphan of Kos's  Umbilical Cord to call down the Moon Presence (or Moon Demon in Japanese).

As stated by Miyazaki in an interview, the Great Ones have essentially evolved so much, they can no longer have children of their own, and are likely desperate to gain them. Formless Oedon literally has no body, and as such, seeks vessels that 'ready' to take on his essence of blood so that he can have a child, to link up some way back into the the base and natural world. Kos was one of the few Great Ones to have genuinely positive relations with humanity, and was able to birth a child. Even we, in our new form, are ultimately cared for, and remain bonded to, the Doll that has truly come to life and freed herself from her shackles by the end of the game.

I feel that one of the things the game says is that the form of the body is pointless unless we have some bond or connections with others. Ludwig, despite his ugly form, regains his sanity upon the glow of the Holy Moonlight Sword, becoming human again as he fights beside the Great One within it that had become his 'true mentor.' We maintain a semblance of ourselves through our connection with the Doll. Gascoigne only truly loses it and gives into the beast after the death of his wife, we can save Eileen's sanity through becoming her friend, and so on and so forth.

The form does not matter, only the connection.

Oh a fresh analysis, I’m gonna have fun listening to this. Happy 10th anniversary to the best cosmic horror game known to man

this is an insanely in depth analysis of bloodborne and it's probably my favorite analysis of the game as well. NOBODY has convinced me of their arguments as thoroughly as you have

You know a video game is good when every video essay made about it recommends other essays about it.

"its just a game" I did not watch this video to change my perspective on body and soul 😭

watching this it makes me think about the doll within these themes, who exists in a weird space because she lacks the drawbacks of flesh while being made in the image of it. she's also the one taking care of the transformed hunter at the end, a new age for humanity brought about by a human who transcended their nature and someone who was never human to begin with. honestly, the doll might be the single point of humanity being positive in this game as her small interactions with the hunter clearly enrich her life and lead her to become "more human" in a way. ironically its her inhumanity as a doll stuck in the dream that separates her from the horrors outside and allows her to have space to reflect on relationships and emotions like she does

It's interesting how Bloodborne's corpse-fueled ascension, as shown in EyYoJimbo's work, seems to have been reused in the gates of Enir-Ilim in Elden Ring. I feel this isn't the last time we'll see Fromsoft toy with an idea like this.

Don't worry Gerhman, I'll free you in every play through

14:52 something interesting to me about the Vermin is that I feel is a reference to the De Vermis Mysteriis an fictional occultist book around the Lovecraftian likes mythos.

I'd like to point out that Armored Core (notably AC6) also has body horror - in a different sense, but still quite pertinent to all of Fromsoft's catalogue.

We are told that most mech pilots have difficulty adjusting to and controlling their mech, even if they're basic Muscle Tracers. Even the more complex Armored Core pilots are said to have difficulty adjusting to different pieces, and some pilots have a better affinity to certain parts.

We're also told that changing those parts is a large shift and carries with it a learning and adjusting process, just like learning how to live without a body part - or with a replacement, a prosthetic. It takes time. The AC, and its parts, are an actual extension of the human body.

Which is why it's so horrifying that some, very few, pilots can perfectly adjust to new AC parts instantly, like C4-621 and V.I Freud. These people underwent extremely invasive surgery to their whole bodies, modifying them nearly beyond repair, to then continuously undergo losses of limbs and reattachment of different limbs. To completely lose their identity, over and over, as the ever-changing situation requires it.

And despite these few pilots being the best at adjusting to new parts, they still need rest after every mission. Piloting an AC is a taxing ordeal (that likely even overheats the brain) that these people constantly go through. They're simultaneously out of their own bodies, in a different body, and experiencing body functions that humanity was never meant to have, at extremely high speeds, and taking a lot of damage.

While Bloodborne is god-made cosmic and body horror, Armored Core is man-made cosmic and body horror.