#the fucking layers

[daharte]

okay but i haven't been able to stop thinking about this scene since it aired??

[mae-i-scribble]

I'm doing a very slow reread of orv with some friends, but since I can't talk about my spoilerous rambles with them too much I have decided to make a post here to get my thoughts out. Up to chapter 25, I've been surprised by the amount of little hints we're already getting for larger plot points and the things that are recontextualized now that I'm looking with hindsight rather than experiencing it for the first time, which really speaks to how phenomenally written orv is on a fundamental level. By the time we get to the 3rd scenario, we've had Dokja mention his mother once, when he briefly worries over her safety. Then we get this line:

"I looked around at the people. The first scenario was original sin. Thus, none of the people here were innocent. That made it more disgusting. Those who trampled on someone else to survive, who couldn’t even bear responsibility for their own life."

Of course it's firstly talking about the lack of morality in this world, when faced with the truth that between the major and minor groups of Gumho station, one fact makes them equal: they are all murderers. The use of the phrase "the original sin" caught my eye because when looking at Dokja's life, murder is his original sin- the murder of his father. That is what sparks the events leading up to this point. It is the true original sin of this world. However, that being followed by "That made it more disgusting...who couldn't even bear responsibility for their own life," is rather hypocritical in that regard. We have no way of knowing exactly how much of that night Dokja remembers at this point of the story, so there are 2 ways to interpret this in regards to his father's murder. 1) Dokja does not remember that he murdered his father, but remembers that his mother had taken responsibility for her crime and served her sentence. In regards to here the people of the minor are far inferior because they cannot adapt the way Sookyung did to their crime. 2) Dokja does remember that he murdered his father, and this disgust is equally leveled at himself, because he knows his mother is innocent but that she took responsibility from Dokja. Thus Dokja of back then is just like these people, unable to take responsibility for his crime.

Then, later on, we see the text, and Dokja specifically, focus on this particular pairing in the minor group.

"The people started to move. All in all, they were people who had already killed. “M-Mother!” “Dayoung, come here! Do this! Just like what you did on the subway with Mother!” Children and mothers."

Then in Chapter 25 we have:

"I honestly admired that the mother and child survived the bloody fight. If she had that much strength, they might be able to survive without going with us."

The English translation doesn't exactly lend itself to identifying the gender of the child, and I am miserably monolingual so I'm not sure if the original text specifies Dayoung's gender, but for thematic reasons I'm choosing to imagine them as a mother/son paring. In that regard, Dokja choosing to notice them out of everyone else, when he's an extremely apathetic person in these early chapters who doesn't care much for those not directly related to him or the story/his survival is very notable. I can't help but think he sees himself in that, as both the son of a murderer and a murderer himself. It's also notable that when complimenting the pair, he only focuses on the mother's strength. Which like. The subconscious projection is so real. To Dokja the child didn't do anything it seems, it's only because of the mother's strength that they will be able to live on. I'm sure I will be back to add more info on this as I trudge through the novel because Dokja and Sookyung's relationship makes me mentally ill all the time but for now I shall simply lay down and ponder(tm)

[crashdown]

this has been said like a million times before but shoutout to the best promotional photo in existence

[seefasters]

i

[lisbonsteresa]

i am once again crying over the goofy football show rickrolling me

[whitewashedhanzo]

apologies for the like spam but i can always rely on you for good gaming takes, especially about games no one else seems to talk abt (dishonored and sekiro) and YEAHH bloodborne's narrative really was unkind to its female characters, huh? like how the lady of the night arianna is murdered by a nun (kind of) bc of your character, and how it was either the church or the mensis scholars who mutilated queen yharnam to get her umbilical chord. wack.

KDFGKLDFG THANK YOU that’s sweet 🥺

and tbh i don’t think bloodborne was necessarily unkind to its female characters without a PURPOSE; i found the city of yharnam really interesting as a clear allegory for victorian euro-white powers like the church and anthropological studies/sciences that fueled patriarchal xenophobia, and i think the misogyny that its cast experiences/participates in is an important part of that critique! the healing church and scholars and even oedon definitely come across as figures that are explicitly condemned by the narrative

like just for example i’m still slogging thru this long ass playthrough but something that really stood out to me is how the hunters’ treatment of kos and her worshipers is explicitly referred to as a “violation,” which has a LOT of connotations wrt to not only her pregnant body getting invaded but also how a peaceful village was tortured and massacred by european vigilantes because academic authorities considered them heretical. even eileen fits into this by standing out as one of the only characters voiced by a black woman, by acting as probably the only entirely self-possessed female character in the game, and getting characterized as an outsider to yharnam like the hunter! idek how to articulate myself but i like thinking lol

[the-goose-caboose]

Truly nothing like artfight to push you out of your comfort zone so hard you feel like you’re bad at art (in a good way)

[chaoticlava101]

Hostage to a dead mother… 911 writers I see you.