Do Yharnamites get Labor Day off? Do they even have Labor Day?🤔
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They also kinda look like veins. Imagine someone in the madness tears open a victim and sees their branching veins as the many legs of a horrible vermin.

the "boundless" purpose of crushing the vermin really feels like an infestation being dealt with inefficiently by hand, and maybe it's a problem too large in and of itself to be handled by such a small group of actors

A distinction I feel is often overlooked is that the Impurity rune states that it was found within the forbidden beast eater, not the beast. Valtr was marked in some way with a rune that "came to symbolize Impurity" after devouring the beast and he went on to share it under the auspice of it being some kind of enlightenment. To me though it sound less like it's a sign of some inspired clarity that grants you the ability to SEE Impurity, but more like a parasite or corruption in its own right that marks the bearer as someone who themselves IS Impure.
He committed an act that reads like a twisted, vile form of Communion by inviting the beast plague into himself and was branded as unclean. He didn't see it that way of course and seems to genuinely believe in his own interpretation of the madness, even after he loses the symptoms of its delusion, but Bloodborne has a running theme of people underestimating their own madness and being tragically unaware of how far gone they actually are.

I saw a theory that I really like. Vermin would be a blood parasite that makes the intoxicating effect of the old blood, thus making people wanting more blood and in the end transforming into beasts.
On the other end of the spectrum, phantasms would be insight parasites.

There are many references in Bloodborne to parasites born of the blood, likely in reference to old medical concepts of spontaneous generation. Centipedes are especially interesting as they are symbolic of spiritual stagnation - it would seem centipedes are 'impure' blood which has quite literally metamorphosised into a creature symbolic of spiritual corruption. This is the impurity that is possible within all men. With the league, I believe there is an irony at play. They are seeing their own centipedes. Bloodborne often represents parasites as existing within eyes specifically. I will not give many examples as this is such a recurrent theme and I would be here all day, but you'll see a lot of damaged or diseased or metamorphized eyes in Bloodborne. If you want one solid example, the 'dancing sprites' that Ludwig sees are likely some sort of moon-creature that live inside his eyes. In the case of the league, I imagine that their corruption (likely bought on by things that are spiritually taboo in our world, like cannibalism or murder) has led to their eyes becoming infested with 'vermin' - centipede creatures born of their own blood. The reason that only the league see them, is because they are very literally in their own eyeballs. When Valtyr lost his eye to the parasites he could no longer see them, because they no longer lived in his eyeball.

The vermin and the blood (scourge?) beast in the chalice dungeon are the nod to sekiro like marvelous Chester was to bloodborne in dark souls

I am simple man- I see new bloodborne video, I click

13:54 is nobody going to address the two ludwigs???

11:50 it should also be noted that Mushi aren't necessarily just bugs! They're also a sort of spirit creature in folklore. Essentially a bit like giant magical microbes at their most basic level, all the way up to huge serpents that devour nature guardians at the highest. They're only visible to some people, not everyone, and can have all kinds of wild effects. Generally, they're not actively hostile to humans (though they can be deeply harmful), they're just kinda oblivious to us and their effect on us - either that or they don't think. Depends on the Mushi. It could absolutely be the case that Vermin are a type of Mushi that corrupt people - that wouldn't be beyond the myths of Mushi in folklore. It could be that the specific conditions of Yharnam drew those mushi to it

The show Mushi-Shi has a lot of great stories about them

Mushi can also be used for nature spirits, good and evil ones

Also the hunter you kill to get the Gatling gun in the dlc comes right before a group of beasts and another blood starved beast lending that second heresy more weight

Saw one theory related to Vermin that might be kinda neat from the audiobook. Basically it went like this, there’s a certain kind of blood we know is singled out by the church. They see it as evil in a way. We also know it does seem to behave somewhat differently, granting specific abilities, like immortality. Basically the idea the author suggested was what if what makes Vilebloods, well Vilebloods, is if they are especially infused with vermin.

I think the connection to centerpiedes and filth is that normaly they are found around rotten damp mouldy areas

Vermin, or something very much like them, do appear elsewhere in the game: Think about the maggots in the Nightmare frontier! They are living inside of the Loran beasts. This all seems very similar to the snake head enemies, who appear to be human beings with parasitic snakes living inside them. IIRC the Madaras whistle's description also draws a connection between snakes, impurity, and vermin. The blood dregs also look like, I'm going to wink and say "tadpoles" floating around in certain people's blood.

Supposedly only the League can see the vermin. The obvious idea is that they've lost it and are seeing bugs that aren't there, but I think something else is going on. I think these things are all manifestations of some kind of internal corruption in mankind. A snake is not a centipede or even a bug, and a maggot is not a centipede, but if these things only have to conceptually be similar, then aside from their similar shape they are lowly creatures that many cultures in the real world see as ritually or spiritually unclean.

So I think the League aren't just seeing things, I think they are tuned into a very real impurity much like what we see in Sekiro. The problem is more likely thay this impurity is part and parcel with being human, so the League will never run out of vermin to crush, which is a madness no different than Hunters getting drunk off blood or the scholars off of insight.

Beating Ludwig with as the beast eater; the IKEA way. This has got to be my favorite boss btw; second only to the orphan of kos. I must play this again!

I just watched your previous video and glad that I have this one for the rest of the night. Entertaining and thought-provoking!

The madness and its mercy may even just be that the vermin aren’t normally visible. The fact you can opt out if you don’t want to choose to believe in them. Otherwise that boundless purpose may drive everybody, every man a scourge of the vermin, every hunter tormented by their omnipresence.

ah yes my favorite fromsoft covenant the one that gives you ranked-competitive-bugs-are-in-my-skin-and-your-skin-and-everything's-skin schizophrenia

I desperately needed this video 💛 tremendous! Well done!