I didn't know it was possible to have an existential crisis about video game lore, but here we are. It's like everything I thought I understood about Bloodborne has been turned upside-down. This series is amazing.

To me,  the absolutely indisputable connection between Lister and Ludwig is the absolute proof that this series cracked bloodborne

These are the kind of videos that make me understand why YouTube is more popular than any other media streaming service

Makes sense that his sword is the color of Listerine

When I was a boy (8 or 9, in 1990 or so) my great-grandfather born in 1916 told me the story of his grandfather relating the surgery he had and survived in the early 1870s. To call it anything less than terrifying to me was an understatement.

He had a runaway coal porter hit him and mangle his leg. He was carried to a carriage and taken to a surgeon’s home, and there the surgeon amputated his leg from below the knee. The surgeon simply strapped his body to a wooden table, and his assistants held him down. He recalls a woman - possibly the surgeon’s wife or daughter - singing softly as the surgeon basically hacked his leg off after using leather belts to apply tourniquets. He told my great-grandfather it was so painful he blacked out several times, and remembers the candles making it seem like shadow demons were dancing around him, waiting to pull his soul into hell. He was evidently a big man and hauled coal for a living, and was causing the table to wobble and shift, so one of the assistants literally clubbed him over the head with something. Because that was he kind of medicine you got.

They gave him a wooden peg which later was upgraded to a leather and iron false leg. But here is the creepy part. My great-grandfather lost his right leg to diabetes. My father lost his right leg in a farming accident. Then, in 2015, I nearly lost my right leg when a rodeo bull got ahold of me and broke my tibula and fibula among other injuries. I have a son that is 12 now and I tell him hee better watch himself!

William and John HUNTER were two early surgeons from Scotland from the generation before Lister. John was an infamous bodysnatcher. William was famous anatomist who studied the gravid uterus.

21:37 you could also draw parallels between the Listerizer and Ludwig's "spray" attack.

Another neat coincidence is that Ludwig’s Moonlight Sword is the same color as the oral mouthwash named after the medical chief: Listerine.

7:15

Worth noting to any fans of Dan Simmons' novel The Terror that John Goodsir was the older brother of Harry Goodsir, Erebus' assistant surgeon

I've heard of Lister before but I've never thought he had anything to do with Bloodborne!

So Lister was a giant horse monster? I never knew that!

While Joseph Lister -> Chief emblem -> Ludwig is certainly a good connection, I think it should also be mentioned that the name Ludwig was most likely inspired by none other than Ludwig van Beethoven, who just also happens to be the author of Moonlight Sonata, even the second phase of the fight sounds like a waltz

I completely agree with your assumtions. I read doctor Jeckyl and immediately this is one of the things which obvious leaps off the page.

That picture of Hyde looks dead on like the town folk in bloodborne

So the Holy Moonlight sword is basically a surgical knife that glints under the light of a medical lamp. Utterly brilliant.

The return of the king🛐🛐👑

I'm sad because I genuinely do not see the connections you are making. Like the basic medical connections are clear but the specifics such as X person was inspired by Y historical figure just do not seem strong at all.
Still, I'm getting a neat historical lesson out of it and it is interesting to see someone else's interpretations. Thank you for that!

Love the series (and haven't finished it yet)!
Coming to the comment section to express a change I feel in the arguments concerning Ludwig and Lister, compared to the rest of the analysis. The arguments are sound (though lenghtier and more stretched than the others in the same video), but they do not yield any further revelation or connection. What does it change to the larger interpretation that Lister is indeed a direct model or just one the inspirations for Ludwig? So far, this series is very powerful with linking its comparisons and metaphors to a greater argument or narrative that helps us understand —or at least reorganise— what we know of the game and its meanings.
Again, I have not watched the whole series yet, and I hope this parallel crops up again as an argument for something significant.
Thank you for bringing us these wonderful analyses on this beloved game! So much respect for your work!

Ludwig being the first Church Hunter doesn’t mean he was not a hunter prior to that. Only that he adopted the medium under which he operated as a church hunter AFTER gehrman and what not

You did it! Yes, Gerhman is based on Liston. Strong and fast!