Let's analyze Gehrman, Maria and the Doll! (yeah my headcanons are here too)
Okaaaay so, I am (in a way) newbie of the fandom, however, I have seen everything about these people - ranging from happy ship of the two to the creepy mysogynist Gehrman ideas, so I needed to do my own research on what the heck could have happened here! As always, I am going to use excerpts from original Japanese script (provided by Last Protagonist's document (x) to avoid 'translators done goofed' effect, besides this time it IS kinda important), so if you see cranky-worded versions of familiar descs that's why.
* Connection between Maria and the Doll
I think this one is to be taken as an axiom, however, just in case, here are some things that we can confirm from Doll's behaviour:
So, what we can confirm for sure is that for some reason, killing Lady Maria makes Doll feel relieved... Which, besides her connection to Maria via appearance she's based off, creates strange mental link. But also what I find very interesting is that when we approach Lady Maria, she appears to be in a napping position herself - until we approach her close enough for her to grab us and the battle to start. Yet, we also catch Doll napping at times - something dolls are not supposed to do, as beings without 'our' physical needs, yet she does nap...
Her exact phrase is 'すみません、私は、どこかに⋯' (Sumimasen, watashi wa, doko ka ni ⋯), and well... 'sumimasen' is a familiar expression of apology and 'watashi wa' is a form to say 'I/me', but 'doko ka ni' is actually a very clear reference to someplace. Somewhere. It is kind of a cornerstone to my theory that Doll and Maria are, in a way, the same person but split in two. When Doll is 'asleep' - Maria is awake, and vice versa, and neigher quite remembers what they seen in their dream/nightmare upon waking up. Like if rather than being the same person, the 'caring' side and 'disturbed' side got split - that fits the dichotomy of a dream and a nightmare. Needless to mention that Maria is a relative to Annalise, a vileblood whose consciousness remains alive despite the death of her physical body, and we know Maria has a fraction of this vileblood power from the second stage of her battle, so perhaps her consciousness remains permanent, even if in a sorry state it is.
(I dunno about a good way to bring this up, but yeah, in the second stage she taps at her blood powers despite not liking them, and even her 'art of quickening' mist becomes red rather than white, so I opt out to take it as her having a fraction of this power of being undead at least in consciousness + weird blood powers as the fact that her consciousness being able to transcend dimensions with whatever happened to her dead body, and split between the doll and Maria as caretaker of Nightmare version of the research hall is interesting on its own)
This field is up to interpretation though! Whether the Doll is a fraction of original alive Lady Maria, or her own person as AI representative, both can work for a great point! I personally opt out for 'a person whose consciousness was split' version for emotional appleal.
* So, what can we say about Gehrman in this field?
Well... Gehrman indeed was the first hunter, as his title suggests. I made a post about this already, but to condence it - whereas hunters of Ludwig's kind seemed to be "honorable spartans" following some sort of common chilvary with both morals and weapons (weapons such as Ludwig's Holy Blade and Ludwig's Riffle seriously ring the 'unification' bell for me, as well as people ridiculing Simon for his choice of bowblade), Gehrman seemed to not care? Old Hunters bunch are very various people - the "forbidden" beast eater, Maria from literal Cainhurst, Djura presumed the leader of the Powder Kegs, an executioner, Josef who used weapons of irreverent Izzy (actually, apostate rather that irreverent according to OG script) so there is no agreement to the Church... It seems like he opted out to not judge. Whatever your background or motivation is, if you can kill - that's what's matters. Very grim approach, however, 'use YOUR talent, not the talent society dictates you should have' is generally a good approach, he coulda made way better kind of a teacher if he was not teacher of the hunters.
He... apparently cared about Maria. That is undeniable.
The tear stone is something the Doll sheds when we giver her a hair ornament. The 'gentle consolation' thingy, in original, refered to as 'shizukana hagemashi ni nite'. Moreso translated as '(quitet) encouragement' or 'cheering up' rather than 'consolation', but the connotation stays... It creates the feeling of wish to be 'supported' and maybe being 'forgiven' from the Doll that completely replicates Maria, yet it did not happen.
They are the same actually, and that's scary! As for the items themselves...
As for how the Doll reacts to being given the hair ornament?
So... Basically, 'warmth' in her responce is refered to as '温かさを感じます' (Atatakasa o kanjimasu'), so, 'I feel the warmth'. Emphasis here is placed on 温かさ (aitakasa), warmth. Meanwhile, when we refer to the implied warmth Gehrman put into clothes for the Doll he was creating, we see the '温かい' (Atatakai), a bit more elaborate form associated moreso with hot tea or blanket or something like that you get it. There is no direct semantical connotation to the small hair ornament or so, just the fact that he cared for it very much - presumably because of the person who owned it. However, both clothes of the Doll in the waking/real world and the hair ornament "emit warmth" because of Gehrman caring for them deeply, so that's interesting.
* So, about that one creepy comment on the Doll...
We all know that Gehrman says that you can use 'even the doll, should it please you' in a dream, in that uncomfortable whispery tone, as if he does not want to be heard. I see it as sort of a cornerstone to why Gehrman is seen as a sexist/mysogynist character, and all else falls besides, but, here is a kicker!
Doll says '私をお使いください' ('Watashi o o tsukai kudasai', so, please use me) as a pointer, whereas Gehrman says '君さえよければ、あの人形もね⋯' ('kimi sae yokereba, ano ningyō mo neso', so, 'doll too if only you are okay with it', or '...if that is alright with you'), nothing weirdass or outright specific. Adaptation crowd picked 'should it please you' for Gehrman instead of 'even the Doll if that's okay with you' and 'and I will be here for you, to embolden your sickly spirit' instead of 'make a use of me' for the Doll, which seems to be more for a sake of beautiful old-timed wording rather than just... something. As for the weird ass whispery tone he says his phrase at, as if he doesn't want to be heard...
He says '君さえよければ、あの人形もね' in Japanese original, read as 'kimi sae yokereba, ano ningyō mo ne' in the original as mentioned before. You can actually hear this phrase from 1:33 to 1:37 in this video:
No even the weird tone change. So yeah, whereas western fans had a very easy time taking his commentary as that doll had the... well... 'interesting' functions implemented, seems like original intention was to just direct the player towards yet another gamaplay element.
So yeah as for the sexism, we are left with two more hints - him owning the book and the contrasting appearance of the Doll compared to Lady Maria herself:
The book is strange, as the fact that he needed to read it. Overall, advice on how to talk to women is the indicator for thinking that women are some 'otherly' creatures that have certain 'algorythm' they follow and that there is a 'way' to flirt with them and be liked by them, rather than people just like men but... women... Which is kinda sexist, tho it has a scale from this awe-fueled respectful adoration before women and general feeling of not being secure "how to talk with them" to the more (unfortunately) familiar to us form of codescending sexism that's nearing to perceive women as pretty-looking animals/aliens. Pick the place where Gehrman is on this scale by yourself!
Maria herself in the boss battle appears to be a woman that is very masculine but at the same time noble and fancy-looking (in anime a similar occurence has a name, too, it's 'bifauxnen'). However, at the same time, it is her hunting attire, and we have no way to know what she was wearing outside of the hunts. Maybe she was always dressed up as a very masculine person, hunt or not, maybe she was good at dressing as both very feminine and very masculine depending on the occasion. So explanation for appearance of the Doll might scale from 'depicting her more soft, feminine side, albeit it might be exagerrated' to 'Gehrman is a dumbass that doesn't process masculine-presenting women' - again, pick the place by yourself!
* What can we say about Lady Maria?
Well.. what we can say is already a common knowledge, yeah. She had a gentle caring side and patients wanted to hold her hand. However, what is interesting is the possible link between 'forget your foolish curiousity' ('liberate you from your wild curiousity' in adaptation) and 'without knowing the mania of his curiousity' ('unaware of his curious mania' in adaptation). Basically, it is possible that Maria not knowing something about Gehrman refers not to his (implied) crush, but rather to her not having known the real purpose of the Fishing Hamlet raid. Whether hunters are just killers, Gehrman did, however, known Willem, and... you know...
It is possible that Gehrman, by affiliation with Willem and Byrgenwerth by extension, was interested in some things he should not have known, unlike majority of the hunters; whereas Maria, implied to have helped with the raid, was a bit too naive to see further until too late. Her hands are not quite clean, as a killer of people who were transformed into marine monsters yet could still talk and think, but there are sure gaps to fill by one's own imagination on what happened! I would personally argue that that Gehrman was sorta dead for Maria after she realized the real purpose of the massacre that was somehow even more fucked up than expected - aligns with her resigning to care about research hall patients. For all we know, maybe he tried to gaslight her into not caring for them because they were no longer humans anyways... but... that doesn't work like this, Gehrman... (a speculation)
* So, why did the Doll cry because of the ornament?
Tumblr is a cringe hellsite that doesn't allow more than 10 images so I have to go text-only now, but I guess I already brought up all crucial things? However yeah, so far we can say that it is more like 'Gehrman wished for some sense of support/cheer-up from the Doll, but that did not happen', that might hint to him either fully realizing his guilt before Maria and desperately trying to cope. Maybe, he did not care about all the people (fishy, but still people) he killed, yet he cared about the fact that he mentally broke Maria. It is a sort of primitive sense of guilt, that usually stems from not being raised 'right' for some reason. Little children do not regret their actions because they are objectively bad and harmed someone - they regret them because their mother scolded them! But some adults carry it on - usually if more complicated concepts did not internalize in them earlier on. For all we know, maybe Gehrman just did not mature enough (in this way) to process complicated moral things, yet he could understand a basic thing such as Maria hating him and what she did and what he did. Okay, I am sidetracking...
So, from the bits I brought before, Doll was not feeling this 'gentle consolation' (honestly, sense of cheering someone up is more accurate) towards Gehrman, yet her tear is evidence of her actually feeling it, feeling what Gehrman needed, eventually, when the hunter brings her hair ornament - because it emits the 'warmth' associated with him caring deeply. Here are some possible interpretations of the fact:
1) As a doll, she is moved by the fact of caring itself and without realizing complications or source of it, she wants to comfort, instinctively.
2) As a fraction of sorts from consciousness of Maria, despite probably hating Gehrman, she cannot truly commit to it feeling this caring and love. She does not understand complications, or even remember the context, but as a person who was 'tender-hearted' enough she cannot truly turn her back on someone she used to admire and someone who's in pain, whoever this person is, deep down she just can't and feeling how pained/caring he was moves her.
3) She reflects his caring, not hers, since she might be as well a stand in for artifical intelligence and is still learning of more complicated, unconditional things.
...yyyyyeah you can say from the amount of the words alone which version I care for more fsdhhfds God did I try to conceal it, but what can I say - I like complicated things. In my eyes, Maria definitely could kick some ass - but she also had a kind, compassionate heart, that did not resonate with the hunters' purpose all that well. She was a knight - but more a kind of that protects the innocent and fights the 'bad guys' (not unlike chivalry we fairly associate with Ludwig), and she cared for the patients... maybe because she "contributed" to the reason they are there to begin with. Or maybe she did not think this intricate and just wanted to help, but I personally think she was able to see deeper context of the situation.
Another interesting thing - Doll bleeds 'grey blood', something you see from Kin, Ebrietas and Rom's head when you fight her in the lake. Hmmmmm I cannot leave any more images, but I will leave this link:
https://www.bloodborne-wiki.com/2020/07/datamined-internal-names.html?m=1
It is datamined internal names of various characters and enemies, and you can see strange things such as Ebrietas being 'illegimate child of the Moon' and celestial emissaries being 'emissarys of the Moon', so perhaps this silverwater as I personally call it, has something to do with the Moon/stars/cosmos/whatever. Doll bleeding this is palatable - she is tied to the hunter's dream that was created thanks to Moon Presence, after all. One of the attacks of Ebrietas is crying red bloody tears as opposed to her overall grey blood, and it is strongly implied that the reason she cries is tied to the spider on the altar (most likely mortal body of Rom). Well... Ebrietas is just a celestial child not unlike Arianna's (celestial adult, actually) so she could cry blood. Doll, perhaps, could not produce 'real' blood by any means as she is not physical, so instead her form of genuine emotion is making up a gemstone. Either way, there might be emotions that are stronger than what the 'stars' or 'Moon' whatever they are, want...
* So, did this post matter at all?
I am never here to show off as in like 'look, my version is better' but rather to highlight that the most walked path is never the only path! Whereas his creepy comment on the Doll is not as solid of an evidence as we might think because of adaptation, Gehrman might still be creepy. For example, precise copying of Maria's proportions and face paired with overdetalization of Doll's clothes might speak not only of an extremely talented craftsman, but also of a person whose observancy was terrifying. Maybe he even had abnormally good memory in the past - which would make it all the more sad that he does not remember as much after all he's been though.
All in all, sexist creepy old man is something we (unfortunately) are more familiar with and can resonate with better, as opposed to just some socially awkward weird grandpa who 'does not know how to talk to women'. There is also a common sense that if your version is better than the canon - it just is, doesn't matter who has legal ownership of the idea or who invented it first. There is also a fact that Bloodborne intentionally leaves things open-ended so you have to use your own imagination to fill the gaps. I guess I am sorta biased to more 'convoluted' version of Gehrman because..... well my grandpa is EXACTLY the creepy sexist boomer old man, I am NOT taking a reflection of him in the universe that's supposed to comfort me (yes, universe with murdercults, mutants, deaths, blood and infanticide is perfect for comfort somehow don't ping me).
So yeah, I personally take the whole thing as Doll and Maria being sorta the same person but split in two - her motherly/caring side and her knightly side, them not having direct connection to each other besides faint 'intuition' and 'feelings', Maria being very wounded because of Gehrman yet still too compassionate deep inside to not be moved by his pain and 'warmth', and Doll's appearance as a testament to the side of Maria which Gehrman neglected and even had lessened because of his ruthless killer antics - and he only realized the tender soul inside Maria all too late all too little.
So all in all their backstory is sad yet open ended in my eyes if that makes sense? Maybe they dated for some time? Maybe they never did and actually Maria did not appreciate his advances? Maybe Gehrman never allowed his feelings to be known to begin with? Maybe we as fandomry people in general need to pay more attention at deep, complicated, emotional connections between characters that are not strictly negative but are not strictly good either besides romantic context more?
Yeah I kinda see it as 'Maria woulda broken his nose, but also would instantly call a doctor to patch it up so it doesn't get too bad', Soulsborne proven to be very good at making characters feel complicated like real people with little to no dialogue. She can kick some ass but she also cannot truly hate someone in pain and wish damnation on them, she has a tender heart despite everything. Meanwhile Gehrman is indeed a very talented craftsman yet a ruthless killer that doesn't care for your background or motivation as long as you can be efficent at murder and perhaps Maria's suicide was the one thing that moved him all too late - he also fights the hunter back so they won't have to suffer taking his place in the Dream so despite his suffering he has SOME mercy within (only to humans, clearly...) . But yeah I personally think they have a very deep teacher-student bond, rather a companionship than some sort of love. Perhaps if they were to talk again - the only thing that would grant Gehrman such opportunity is the fact that Maria is not quite innocent so she is 'not the one to talk' in her eyes. Not the one to blame someone for HER decision to near-blindly following them, but god, clearly she is not the only person in the room to deserve to suffer.
Dunno how to end this post but yeah. The fact that creepy comment on the Doll is redundant still kills me! Thanks to Kirby localizing team for HORRIBLY missing Star Allies lore - they internalized my distrust to localizations. (english Bloodborne has the best VAs tho...)
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