Bloodborne: The Healing Thirst

Synopsis

Prepare for a thirst trap! Am I using that right? Oh. Anyway, new episode covering the second of four Bloodborne graphic novels, this one titles “The Healing Thirst” which again sounds like it should be on a Metallica t-shirt. Enjoy!

Video Version

Automated Transcript

You know, you really don't need to disavow some new guy to figure that one out. I mean, don't get me wrong. I bet it helps

Kevin Erhard  0:11
I bet it I bet it just really remind you that that we are very frail people to watch right a pendulum with an axe on it. Slice a man right up broadstreet

Phil  0:24
really, really drives that point home. You know, I I get it. I understand. But like I said, I think I could have told you that and no profit. I let me put it that

Kevin Erhard  0:37
way. Hey there everybody. Welcome back to another episode of pixelate. My name is Kevin with me as always is Phil. Hello. And today we're talking about the next part of the Bloodborne comics collected in the trade paperback the healing thirst by the same the same authors and illustrator as last time caught Polsky and Simpson. So

Phil  1:08
yeah, but death metal the death metal tightenings continue the death metal it's

Kevin Erhard  1:13
Yeah, really. It really would have been perfect on a T shirts circa right 1989 to 1997.

Phil  1:23
Right with a sort of font that no one can read. Hmm.

Unknown Speaker  1:27
And it like the shirt faded after a few washes.

Phil  1:30
So, but that's what you wanted. Anyway,

Kevin Erhard  1:32
that's what you wanted. You really didn't want anybody paying attention to it.

Phil  1:36
It's not about wearing new clothes mom. So healing thirst, healing thirst. Now the first thing I did notice with this one we've because we speculated on this. Yeah, with the last volume. This does not continue the story that we just finished up. It's a totally different story. It

Kevin Erhard  2:00
is a brand spanking new story. The hunter and the creepy fish kid are nowhere to be found. nowhere to be found. And thank goodness, I

Phil  2:12
hope they're doing well. But I'm not gonna miss the creepy fish kid.

Kevin Erhard  2:16
I really hope that kid drowned.

Phil  2:18
I will. And the irony of it all if he turned into a horrifying fish beast only to drown you got to admit, that's good writing. That would

Kevin Erhard  2:27
be that would be dramatic irony in its finest.

Phil  2:31
Yeah, that's either really good writing or just terrible writing. Just depending on Yeah, depending on who you are. And you know, how many times you claim to have read Infinite Jest

Kevin Erhard  2:45
there is only a hair's breadth of difference between good and terrible writing.

Phil  2:50
It's It's true. It's true. And and often it has everything to do with how much you've been drinking

Kevin Erhard  3:00
is a fact. Anyway, has entered the chat.

Phil  3:04
Yeah. Oh, wait, Hemingway left the chat. Okay. All right. That was quick. All right. If they say he's a minimalist, but this is ridiculous. And that's the lit part of pixel it right there

Kevin Erhard  3:18
slideshow.

Phil  3:20
Little literary references for the scholarly at heart. That's that's what we bring. That's what we bring to the table.

Kevin Erhard  3:27
So this story, yeah, is about a scientist. And Mr. Science man is? Well, it's about two people. But we were introduced to a scientist first,

Phil  3:38
right off the bat. Yes, yes. And honestly, before we get too deep into it, I want to ask you, Kevin about your two specific things. I guess, being that you, you know this game way better than I do. And I did a little research and that sort of thing. But I figured you'd be you'd be it would be better to just hear it from you. The two First things first, what? And I asked these about these two things, because they have everything to do with the entire storyline. The The first thing is old blood and the second thing is ashen blusher. What are we what are we talking about here? Exactly.

Kevin Erhard  4:14
So I'm actually not entirely sure what the ashen blood is referring to. Other than it's, it's like some sort of diseased, it's like a blood borne disease. Right. Right. The old blood, though, specifically and they talk about they talk a little bit about Gods and what was found down below. The old blood comes from an eldritch god that is basically living below yharnam

Phil  4:48
and what it has like healing effects and that sort

Kevin Erhard  4:52
of thing. Yeah, that's the thing is that is that yharnam basically became this city known for it. Its ability to heal any ill anything that it will do using the blood ministration which is the application of the old blood into your system and I here's the thing I'm trying to recall as many of the details I remember from my sure my time spending The great sage body video.

Phil  5:24
Yeah, your time in the shit is that's how I

Kevin Erhard  5:27
yeah, I get it. And you know after this I might get back on my shit. Yeah.

Phil  5:34
Well, that's, I tell you because that's the thing it's like this stuff the brief cuz you know I did do I did it's good that that you knew about the old blood because I did more reading on the ashen blood.

Kevin Erhard  5:46
Yeah. And I get the impression basically that this is a prequel to the events in blood borne 100% this this is still this might even be taking place before the first four issues. Okay, yeah,

Phil  6:01
yeah, yeah. Because the the hunters are thing the Healing Church is a thing. But it's very new at the same time. Yeah, it

Kevin Erhard  6:10
is not the night of the hunt. was a even though it's called the night of the hunt. It is specifically an untimed event. Basically, it just goes as long as it needs to go the and they make reference to the moon is kind of changing positions in the sky. The scientist makes reference to how it's like not it's not behaving the way the moon should.

So yeah, there's there's the night of a hunt, which is and which is endless until the hunt is over. It's it's sort of like, it's sort of like winter in the game of thrones, the Song of Ice and Fire series, the wind eyes, winter is not necessarily a truly timed event. It just happens for however long it happens.

Phil  7:08
Yeah, it's not it's it's it's it's a it's an event. Yeah, it's not it's not a one season or so many days, it's just, it goes as long as it goes,

Kevin Erhard  7:17
which is fascinating. That Bloodborne kind of has that concept built into it. Because the next game that Miyazaki and from software are working on is called elden ring. And the world building and lore was written by George RR Martin.

Phil  7:34
Absolutely, which I know more than a few geeks who are a little annoyed about that when they're still. Especially now that we know how the game of thrones TV show ended. There are more and more people out there who are like, okay, George, we need you to redeem this, please.

Kevin Erhard  7:51
Yes. And he spent some of that time working on the new From Software game. So.

Phil  7:58
So yeah, so that that It better be worth it. George. Goddamn worth it. But yeah, I just wanted to bring up those two things specifically because that they are basically the the two most important things. Yeah. In the in this volume that might not be it might not be clear to our listeners what we're talking right. So that sort of thing.

Kevin Erhard  8:21
And ash and blood, it feels a little bit like it's almost like an undead curse meets anemia meets the beast, but I don't know there's it. That's the thing is, the confusion is also apparent in the characters, because the characters don't know what's going on either.

Phil  8:46
Right? And that's the entire theme of the volume. Basically, our two main characters are a scientist and a priest. And they're both trying to figure out what is causing this illness. What could cure the illness. And so yeah, they're, they're, in many ways, just as confused by the whole situation as the reader might be.

Kevin Erhard  9:08
Yeah, they're very perplexed. So basically, it starts off with the scientist examining a corpse in the middle of the street. And a few casual, casual about it, and a couple hunters walk up to them and they're like, Hey, buddy, in my head they sound like Patrick Warburton.

Unknown Speaker  9:36
Hey, Phil. Hey, buddy. Hey, Peter. Alright, so there this guy's afflicted. You he got just get a you can't just you know, go around the corpse there. I got a little got a little dennis miller there.

Kevin Erhard  9:56
Yeah, it did start drifting into Dennis Miller. I

Unknown Speaker  9:58
was but yeah Just you can't just go in there check out a corpse bet, man you're not it's not really how this guy works. It's common man going around. He's going around he's got somebody corpses around. They're starting to call Pol Pot back at the blocker you know?

Phil  10:22
That's an impression that will that will garner me absolutely no social currency in 2021

Kevin Erhard  10:27
that is that impression is I want to say 30 years past its expiration. It is lumpy. It is starting to smell. It is cheese now. It is cheese. Yeah,

Phil  10:41
it is cheese. It is cheese that briefly for some reason, became a football commentator. And then went full hard right on us. Turn. Yeah. Good old cheese. turned right.

Kevin Erhard  10:53
Right after Monday Night Football.

Phil  10:56
Yeah, exactly. What do you and I and I'm left to pick up the pieces going. I loved you cheese. Don't you got his dad, I loved you. And you hurt me.

Kevin Erhard  11:07
I used to watch dennis miller show religiously as a kid. Oh, I love that guy. The peak? I thought it was the peak of humor.

Phil  11:16
Yeah, it's like a lot of things. It's like, it's like Bill Maher. You know, I you love them. Yeah. While when you're younger, and you revisit it as an older person. You go. Oh, boy. I grew out of that.

Kevin Erhard  11:28
Yeah, it's what a child thinks a smart adult is.

Phil  11:32
Yeah, it's it's basically my relationship with Dennis Miller and Bill Maher from my 20s into my now late 30s is, I hope the same relationship that most of Joe Rogan's fans will have of him some decades down the line.

Kevin Erhard  11:48
And probably unreal unrealistic. Yeah, it's very unrealistic because Joe Rogan is dumb to begin with. Right? Like, there's no there's no superfluous intelligence or large words being thrown around to kind of cloud your judgment to really thin slicing him. He just is what he is.

Unknown Speaker  12:12
He just is what he is. Right off the bat. Right off the bat. Yeah, that's that's a good point.

Kevin Erhard  12:22
insulting Joe Rogan Dennis Miller. Bill Maher in Episode 11.

Phil  12:30
We are we are we're cooking with gasoline my friend like we are on it.

Kevin Erhard  12:34
Yeah, but you know what? Fucking they're, they're, they're they're all terrible people in in very different ways. Right,

Phil  12:43
right. as are many of the antagonists in Volume Two of Bloodborne the trade paperback graphic novel way to bring it back

Kevin Erhard  12:53
way to bring that runaway train right back onto the tracks. God I'm good You are? Um, so

Phil  13:04
yeah, the the scientist we basically get a glimpse of him. You know, we get our introduction and he is he doesn't play by your daddy's rules. He's gonna find out the cure to the malady that is afflicting his city. come hell or high water. And then it cuts to the priesthood the the the What is it? The Healing Church? Yes,

Kevin Erhard  13:27
we are getting our first Healing Church characters, which is interesting, and we don't really get much in the way of Healing Church characters or NPCs. In the game itself, I believe there's one guy that is affiliated with the Healing Church, one NPC but it's like the Healing Church has already kind of collapsed for the most part. Oh, when they get into Bloodborne itself. So now we got some some brothers from the Healing Church. And our priests, they use the they use the term brother in priest, I believe interchangeably in certain points. And we are introduced to comment comment, and it took me a couple seconds to realize what was actually happening here. Because the first time we see him, he has his eyes closed. And then suddenly he's splattered with blood.

Phil  14:22
Right? Right. He's He's concentrating and then suddenly he's splattered with blood. And we have another priest that gets in real close, asking him what it is that he sees. entitlement a comment. What do you what do you see there, buddy? You see there, you see anything close? And

Kevin Erhard  14:44
that's pretty much what happened.

Phil  14:47
Yeah, yeah. And the image backs up a little bit. And we see that Clement is sitting there surrounded by his fellow priests, and they, the blood that has splattered him in the face has presumably come from On this pendulum blade that has disemboweled a nude man on a table, a handful of feet away from him. Yeah, and this is this kind of like crazy like search in the end trails for prophecy kind of thing that kinda is the impression I got the blood

Kevin Erhard  15:17
splatter the blood hits him, and then he has a vision or something. Right, because they want him to say something.

Phil  15:26
Right. And and his and his vision, basically, is that you need to be aware the frailty of men. And I could have told you that, you know, you really don't need, you know, to disavow some new guy to figure that one out. I mean, don't get me wrong. I bet it helps. I bet it I bet

Kevin Erhard  15:50
it just really remind you that that we are very frail people to watch right, a pendulum with an axe on it. Right Lysa man right up broadstreet really,

Phil  16:03
really drives that point home. You know, I I get it. I understand. But like I said, I think I could have told you that. And no prophet, I let me put it that way. So So right off the bat, we we get a good glimpse in the notion that we're dealing with like, a kind of dark version of the Catholic Church in the medieval age, also known as the Catholic Church,

Kevin Erhard  16:40
also simply known as who they are.

Phil  16:44
Right, exactly. We're just we're just racking up the enemies.

Kevin Erhard  16:49
Everybody is catching strays tonight, Phil.

Phil  16:51
It's true, man. I just catch these hands, son. stuff.

Kevin Erhard  17:00
We get terribly white. I was

Phil  17:04
like, No, dude. Oh, Lord. So we get some back and forth of the journals of our scientist and a priest who is a kind of an unusual priest, wouldn't you say?

Kevin Erhard  17:23
Yeah, he's he's, I mean, he's he's basically questioning everything. That's that's our, our introduction to him aside from getting splattered with blood. He is just writing down his doubts. And that's kind of our first true introduction to him. He's like, I'm praying to the old gods, but this doesn't seem right.

Phil  17:48
Right. Yeah. Right off the bat, or we've got a doubting priest. You know, which, which he's just wait. And I'll tell you what, he is not exactly being real open about it. And after I saw some random guy, get splattered with a giant heavy blade, I don't blame him, right. Keeping that shit to yourself. Seems like digging all the way to go. But yeah, so we're seeing some parallels between him and the scientists. Both of them want answers. Both of them are kind of unclear and unsure about the church at very least, yes.

Kevin Erhard  18:25
And the priest is, is writing down that there's there's going to be there's talk of purges happening, which is basically all the hunt is is it's it's it's purge, one through four.

Phil  18:40
Is that all is have there only been four purge?

Kevin Erhard  18:44
Actually, I can't tell you there's a there's a I think there's a forever purge out right now. Sure.

Phil  18:51
Yeah. So which that's, that's Yeah, that was a franchise that really picked up and went. That franchise had some get up and go. So

Kevin Erhard  19:04
yeah, it's basically what if the Fast and the Furious movies but instead of cars, it's people murdering each other?

Phil  19:15
Yeah. Yeah. Because in the end, it's all about family.

Kevin Erhard  19:18
It's all about family. That's the purge. That's the thing. The Purge in the Fast and Furious franchises have in common? Is family.

Phil  19:26
Yeah, it's just that in the purge, you need to kill your Yes. That's the main difference. Absolutely. So we get to the priests and the priests. Yeah, he's, he's doubting he's not clear on anything. And basically, he takes it upon himself to search under the city, basically, in the sewers. He's trying to find out because the rumors go at least from what I could tell basically, the rumors Go that the old blood and the ashen blood and everything all kind of stem from some source. Yeah, underneath the something going on to go figure that out. Yep.

Kevin Erhard  20:11
Right and he is surprised down there is that at the end of that the first part, the first issue ends with him being surprised and then issue number two begins with the revelation that he just got punched in the face by the scientist who is also down in the sewers.

Phil  20:34
I love that by the way, because yeah, the last month the last you see of the priest in that issue is him looking off into the distance holding a torch above his head. You're already getting like eldritch fields from a lot of the shit that's going on. Right? He's underground. He's in the sewers. Holy fucking shit. What horrible thing is he seeing? it's it's it's a it's a it's a scientist with long hair but punching him in the face. A

Kevin Erhard  21:05
Yes, a scientist with long blonde hair. And as the priest notes later, a terrible left hook.

Phil  21:13
Yeah, yeah, even Yeah, he points out he's you're not you're not really great at throwing a punch, which is another glimpse into the life that this guy used to have.

Kevin Erhard  21:25
A priest clearly is, is has taken some on the chin. Right. Much like, much like Scott Farkas. He's taken it on the chin.

Phil  21:38
And he handles it. Well, he does and and they realize that while they are both down there kind of from two opposite ends of the spectrum, if you will, that it looks like they might both be down there for the same reason.

Kevin Erhard  21:56
Yeah. And that we have a real blood borne Dark Souls moment where the priest tells a joke, apparently. Yeah, yeah. He it's a big one. It was it. may well begin in the soul. And then

Phil  22:19
yeah, and the scientist says, tell that to a syphilitic.

Kevin Erhard  22:21
And the priest goes, I would wear he's still coming to the mass but he and the egos. The scientist goes What? And the priest says fell off. But and then the scientist says ha, the priest goes Haha, and then they burst out laughing.

Phil  22:42
Right? It's it's kind of the end of the Killing Joke. Like they both uncomfortably laughing kind of a lot. They're uncomfortably laughing

Kevin Erhard  22:50
walking through these dark creepy sewers together only with a torch.

Phil  22:57
And yeah, it's a bit of but you know, it accomplishes its goal that moment it's like okay, these guys have more in common than it seems. And they're gonna be the best of friends so

Kevin Erhard  23:08
they're talking about syphilis which I mean is the insinuation that is the guys the guys ding dong fell off because of the syphilis is that what the

Phil  23:22
shows So yeah, I don't know if that's a common I know that with syphilis way back in the day a it made you go crazy, right you know if people went mad, because if it wasn't treated Yeah. And when it was treated that it was usually like we're going to inject mercury up your dick so that might do just as much harm as good but and I know that the nose would fall off like your nose would decompose and fall off and a lot of a lot of like nobility and that kind of thing. Actually crafted noses made out of silver or gold or other precious materials and would just wear them strapped to their faces and and you know, to hide this gaping cavern in their face. I don't know about the dip but but that was my first thought too. I was like he fell off he said he's making a dick joke Yeah, I have to assume I still works still wear shorts why not works Yeah, we get we get the we get the idea they're their friends now.

Kevin Erhard  24:27
By the way the haha hi is is almost written the styling of letter of the letters it's almost exactly like the kill End of The Killing Joke.

Phil  24:37
It really is. Isn't it? It's that like, kind of unhinged unrestrained Joker style haha. It's it's immediately what my brain thought of its Yeah, without the implication that one of them broke the other one's neck right in the silence afterwards. It's but yeah, it's it's a Little unhinged and you know it kind of I gotta say this this volume is a lot more it's it's way different. So why don't we just finished it's so different for a lot of reasons that we're going to get into. But this section here it because it's not just that there, there are a couple of moments that they have in the sewers, starting with the punch in the face. and ending with that haha moment. And there are lots of little moments in between there where it's just weird, isn't it? Like they they they've, they've got a weird relationship. They're making kind of goofy faces at each other. Yeah, that high seriousness that existed 100% in the first volume of this series is not drawn not even close. Because it does come right to help. Oh, sure. But there are no weirdly goofy moments like this in issues one through four. No,

Kevin Erhard  26:07
no, they just don't exist. Yeah, not at all. Basically, it's as if we got a 21 yharnam Street, you know, buddy cop? Yeah. A little bit. It's like, you know,

Phil  26:22
yeah, it's it's like he, you know, yeah, it's odd couple style. You know, it's like, he's the atheist scientist. And he's the doubting preacher. You know, they're

Kevin Erhard  26:33
gonna get to the bottom of what's causing people to turn into monstrous werewolves.

Phil  26:42
Right? It's like, tonight, I can't they're, they're gonna need a lot of blind faith.

It's that kind of thing. And that just doesn't exist in the in the other one. It's so it is. It's a really odd moment. Yeah. Between these two, and and we get a couple of we get a couple more moments like this. Yeah. As it goes, Yeah,

Kevin Erhard  27:12
they but then in the next section, one of them. The priests talks about how he feels like he may have found a friend, which is kind of sweet and nice. It is in in at the end of the world. And you know, it's like finding a friend at the end of the world. This is

Phil  27:30
Yeah, I mean, because this is, you know, this is this is a fucked up world. And clearly, you know, this being a sequel, a sequel, a prequel to Bloodborne where you know, everything is right and truly Fuck, right. But you're, it's already got lots of little moments of, you know, what kind of a world are they living

Kevin Erhard  27:56
in there again, are starting to turn take a turn for the West.

Phil  27:59
Absolutely. And they do actually address the idea of like, you know, what, what are you even living for at this point, right even what is even the point of this and, and we get it and it actually does cut to that next week, we get some glimpses into their relationship through their journal entries. And then we find the scientist having a smoke outside with near a woman named Matilda, who clearly is a close friend of his of some

Kevin Erhard  28:34
neighbor, you know, his his neighbor, friend and neighbor Matilda, who is actually referenced in the first first issue of this Yeah, yes. Tour. In the first issue, there's a moment where the scientist is standing alone. It's after he's told by the hunters to go Ponte, he's standing alone on a bridge. And the narration is I do as the hunter say, first I rest at my place of power. The place where I first met my dearest Milton Matilda. Oh, darling, if they only knew how much better their lives are, we're stand on the same ground as them. If only they could feel the love. I feel no terror can ever touch it.

Phil  29:22
So that's right, and jump

Kevin Erhard  29:23
forward. Now we are meeting Matilda who happens to be his neighbor.

Phil  29:28
Yeah. And she seems nice. He seems nice. He He's, he's a little he's a little obsessed with her. It's,

Kevin Erhard  29:35
it's cute. She has her rose garden that she tends to.

Phil  29:39
And I liked that I that would that that that was and that was the detail I was getting at. I think the Rose Garden is neat, because you know, he says he's working on her garden and he asks her how she's doing and she says concerned about the state of the world and grateful for what remains of it. So she's got a level of optimism and hope that you don't generally see, right? In these kinds of worlds, you know that that grim dark kind of thing that you see in things like blood borne, she clearly represents, you know, a side of it that we do not get a glimpse of too frequent. Right and which is probably why he loves her, you know, like she's,

Kevin Erhard  30:21
she's she is a shining, bright spot in the darkness. Right. As a scientist, she's super aware of that things are terrible, and he's trying to, he's trying to solve them.

Phil  30:34
But right.

Kevin Erhard  30:37
Yeah, and he also inadvertently reminds Matilda that her husband is dead.

Phil  30:42
Yes, her husband at die has died recently. We don't yet know how that one came about and that will definitely be revealed later. Oh, definitely. But for the time being, you're basically left to believe it probably has something to do with this ashen bloods. Oh, yeah,

Kevin Erhard  31:01
we can assume that to blame. You can blame you. This tender moment is interrupted by a werewolf attack.

Phil  31:09
Right. Right. As as you know what? Too many too many tender moments. interrupted in that way.

Kevin Erhard  31:17
I find it Have you had a tender moments interrupted by a werewolf attack.

Phil  31:21
I love you. I love you. So God dammit, not again. all been there call whinnied 100

Kevin Erhard  31:29
Healing Church. We'll dispatch one of our hunters right away. So you can have the peace of mind that your tender moments will not be interrupted by a horrible horrible werewolf.

Phil  31:45
Check us out@www.no more wolf interruptions.gov. We're gonna see if that website is actually

Kevin Erhard  31:57
by that URL. So yeah, the

Phil  32:00
hunters know hey, not it's not Oh, no. Hey, maybe I'll snap that one up. We're gonna have to pick that one up, I think.

Kevin Erhard  32:08
Yeah. So the hunters. Save them. And yes. Alfredo is the scientist. He gets a faceful blood.

Phil  32:20
Yeah, so both of our protagonists have been treated to a faithful blood. literal blood as literal blood baths. Exactly. Blood shower. Yeah. A broad a blood spritzer.

Kevin Erhard  32:36
Yeah, a missing.

Phil  32:38
missing. Yeah, there you go. There you go. That's, that makes more sense. So there, it's, we get parallels between the two of them that you're dealing with. And, and we get a glimpse of the hunter. basically telling him you know, nothing to see.

Kevin Erhard  32:53
Well, he's basically giving them the haul as well, that Kevin Bacon gives at the end of Animal House.

Phil  33:00
Right, right. Right. And treats himself to a nice big mouthful of some vial of red liquid. Yeah,

Kevin Erhard  33:10
that's, that's 100% of blood vial, which is what the hunters use to keep themselves at the top of their game. They they drink these little vials of blood.

Phil  33:21
So it's like it's like liquid coke or something like pretty much pretty much just just like yeah, yummy. This will this will do that. The brain heals.

Kevin Erhard  33:29
Yep. Nice. Yeah, apparently

Phil  33:32
Good lord. Yeah. Cuz he's really enjoying Well,

Kevin Erhard  33:35
the funny is, I guess you can drink it. But in the game, the the hunter that you play, just takes it and stabs it into his leg.

Phil  33:45
Wow. That's just just intravenous. Yeah, right. No blood years right

Kevin Erhard  33:53
into that big ass vein that's in your leg.

Unknown Speaker  33:57
Right? Some of us just don't like the way it tastes. You know, you don't like it.

Phil  34:03
What do they right up the butt? Right. Those are your three options. You either drink it out of the vial. You, you, you you. You shoot it into your leg or in the poop right there.

Kevin Erhard  34:19
So we cut back to the priest and he fine. I

Phil  34:23
really want to talk about putting this blood in your butt a little more, Kevin, if I might. No, I'm sorry. I continue.

Kevin Erhard  34:31
And we're back. I just cut out the 30 minute interlude of Well, we're not going to talk about that. So we cut back to the pre.

Phil  34:40
I think I think everyone will be grateful in the end. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard  34:42
And apparently one of the other priests decided to burn the body that the priest had. There's a hunter basically that was decaying from ashen blood that he had down in the basement and one of the priests just decided to throw it into the incinerator. Yeah just get rid just get rid of it which is a bummer because the priest was like Yeah, I was looking at that

Phil  35:07
right it was it was part of his a research process. So he's he's kind of so well there he had an easy depository. I don't know if that's the right word. He

Kevin Erhard  35:19
has a he has access to some blood that he can, you know, investigate here and now it's all gone. It's all gone. It's been burned, much like in the 1980s masterwork return to the living dead, where they burn the body, and that just makes more zombies.

Phil  35:40
Right, right. So is this is this patient zero? Is this what we're dealing with? we don't

Kevin Erhard  35:45
we don't know yet. But the priest does find that the hunters scrape something into the table with looks like a fingernail. Yeah, I

Phil  35:53
think that's his his fingernail. Yeah. He scrapes the words when ashen blood and waters of yharnam become one. The unnameable shall rise. So he was he we were dealing with a whole lot of spooky foreshadowing with that guy

Kevin Erhard  36:12
right there. Yeah. So the we have more buddying around between the scientist and the priest. The priest brings him some goodies to to look at.

Phil  36:26
Yeah, they're they're trading off on supplies. Basically, the priests bringing him blood to look at you know, anything to investigate. They're, they're working together, you know, but they're keeping it quiet. Because you know, they're not going to be the the Healing Church is probably not going to be thrilled about the idea of him working with scientists with an atheist symbol

Kevin Erhard  36:47
scientists who doesn't believe in the Elder Gods.

Phil  36:52
Right. Right. doesn't doesn't believe in their particular brand of crazy bullshit. Right? Well,

Kevin Erhard  36:57
and you know, what's interesting about it is that actually, they get more into it, I believe in the next episode. Next episode. next issue. There's a conversation between the scientist and the priest about that. But the this issue ends on a neat little back and forth between it's like three scenes happening simultaneously. One is the priest is talking to the head priests are no not not our priest. There's this little blond haired twerp of a priest who is yeah basically been spying kind of spying on Clement and reporting back to this head priest and we're like, well, you know that they think that maybe it's the blood ministrations. Meanwhile, the scientist is like, I need to study alive specimen somebody who is who has the old blind, like, injected into them. We're getting cuts back and forth between that and Matilda, and she's just singing a she's making some rose soup, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Yes, she's making I I thought the same thing.

Phil  38:04
For those of you who don't have this, she's literally cooking up some kind of a stew. And the main ingredients appear to be red rose petals or something like that. Which that is a that is a interesting,

Kevin Erhard  38:18
I know. It'd have been great. I know on British Bake Off that occasionally. They'll have an episode where there's somebody who's like, Oh, I flavored it with rose. And sure, sure, sure. Yeah, I get that even though I don't know what like who you're trying to be trying to impress. Come on.

Phil  38:36
For God's sake. God sake. Yeah. Nobody's nobody's nobody's that right? Nobody's no one's so British. They're like, I would be delicious. If you could just put a few more rose petals inside. It would be scrummy. But no, that's not a thing. And for the record, I will not be taking any rebuttals to this despite the fact that I do know British people know know more about your country than you do. And

Kevin Erhard  39:05
the end The end I expect today and I expect nowhere

Phil  39:11
Yeah, we will hear nothing we will hear not even

Kevin Erhard  39:14
from Paula Hollywood from not even if Paul Dollywood offers a damn handshake

Phil  39:20
or God that fucking handshake goddamnit Paul, get over yourself. Look, I'd love how happy you seem to have become lately in the the more recent episodes. He seems to be having a whole lot of fun. It seems to be in a better place. Now.

Kevin Erhard  39:33
Some he's loosening himself up. He's losing. Shaking and loose. I

Phil  39:37
love to see it. Love. Yeah, I love to see it. I love to see it because he was kind of I'm not just arrogant son of a bitch before. And he's still got that but I like him now a little more. Anyway.

Kevin Erhard  39:48
Welcome to the Great British Bake Off the podcast. Bloodborne The Great British Bloodborne Great British Bloodborne podcast.

Phil  39:58
Yeah, it's this is What you came here for isn't Yes. Anyway look Paulie Paul Hollywood just just stop being such a mess I'm shaking. It's it's just a handshake Who the fuck are we? Life is too short man Life is too short.

Kevin Erhard  40:15
What is a man? miserable miserable pile of secrets

Phil  40:19
what is a man but a miserable pile of scones? Enough talk how about you enough time and then the British Bake Off theme just starts so yeah our scientist has got to figure out he's he's realized that the only real next step for him is to yeah to find out yeah

Kevin Erhard  40:46
to find out what what the deal is. And in true, I'm gonna say Cronenberg fashion the scientist decided that the only way to, to further the experiment is to do it on himself

Phil  41:00
on himself on himself and so we get we're left with that wonderful cliffhanger where where, you know, our delightful Matilda has she's making rose soup. She coughs and coughs and there's blood in her handkerchief in the classic lap. Traviata sort of way. Yep, La Traviata whatever. Moulin Rouge people you don't I'm talking about her. And, and our priest, our good priest has found out some sort of dark secret in the blood ministration index. It's clearly clearly labeled. Yep. We don't know what it is yet. We all we also know that the bad priests know what's going on now and they're going to be gunning for us and then finally it finally Cronenberg, Cronenberg,

Kevin Erhard  41:51
he Cronenberg himself and then I just Cronenberg's I just love the face that the bad priest is making. You get just the only I can hear his jowls moving as he says this meal around the old Brock reason

Phil  42:13
he's he's and he's got these wide open eyes and the fat gels and it looks like the most horrifying introduction to a children's show you've ever seen. Like, yeah, it's it's not

Kevin Erhard  42:27
not great. It's not great. And you know, what I just realized? Is I would like a blood borne comic, but illustrated entirely by the artist who did the covers for scary stories you tell in the dark?

Unknown Speaker  42:44
Oh my God, why would you do that? Why would you even put that out into the world? She's this cast

Phil  42:54
that Oh, those fucking books were criminal. First off. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Whoa,

Kevin Erhard  43:01
just thinking about what they were sitting on my bookshelf. I don't think anybody ever bought scary stories. I think it just came. It just appeared on people's shelves one day.

Phil  43:13
I think you're right. I had I know, I had the collected trilogy. Like I had like the with a neat little, you know, sleeve of all three of them on my bookshelf. And, and I know I read them kind of frequently. But I don't know where they came from. They were they were the truest example of that thing that fucks with you. Yeah, that you can't stop messing with right. Like, like, when you when you find out what happens when you slide a penny along one of your fillings. Hmm. You know, and you're like, Oh, God, Oh, Jesus way that I'm never doing that again. And then five minutes later, you do it again?

Kevin Erhard  43:54
Yeah, I never I've never heard of what is that? What does that do?

Phil  43:59
It's like chewing on a aluminum foil when you got filling. Ah, it's like, I react with a metal in your teeth and kind of gives you a jolt where it's it sucks. It really sucks. And it's like I you know, and I guess maybe this maybe, maybe this experiences

Kevin Erhard  44:16
picking your tongue onto a nine volt battery.

Phil  44:19
Right, right. Sure. Exactly. That's a way more accessible version. Yeah, let's go with that. It's the same basic idea. And you're like, well, that sucked. And then you immediately stick your tongue out to do it. You

Kevin Erhard  44:30
know, I can't I couldn't even do that. I couldn't even do that thing with the fillings now if I tried because two years ago, I got all of my metal fillings replaced with that ceramic stuff that they use now.

Phil  44:43
Oh, God, how long did that take? Oh fillings do?

Kevin Erhard  44:48
I have a lot and it took a very long time. And my teeth hurt for three months. Yeah. That's all They were they were sensitive to both hot and cold for about a month.

Phil  45:08
They were sensitive to hot, cold and everything in between. It hurt when air touched them. It really did. Oh my god, that sucks. Yeah, okay. Okay, guys, we're gonna need to set up a Patreon so I can have all of the fillings in my head replaced within the same fashion. So I can report back to you so

Kevin Erhard  45:30
you can really understand that, that I went. It's very important

Phil  45:35
that as as podcasting partners and buddies, that I experienced the same level of pain and disillusion that you have.

Kevin Erhard  45:44
And that's just the beginning. It's really a sentence. If I if I can take it. Make it real serious for a moment. Brush your teeth, kids, you know,

Phil  45:53
for God's sakes, brush your teeth, brush your teeth and floss floss. Oh,

Kevin Erhard  45:57
my don't don't do what I did. Don't be like, it's probably fine. Yeah, it's not fine.

Phil  46:04
It's not fine. It isn't. It isn't. Yeah, you'll be dead soon. And you'll end and rotting moldering in the grave. You are your corpse stiffening. And slackening will think to itself. My teeth hurt. Because that shit follows you into the afterlife, I'm convinced. Anyway,

Kevin Erhard  46:30
it's such a terrifying Absolutely. That the afterlife is real, but the only sensation you have

Unknown Speaker  46:46
is the pain if you take care of your teeth. That's like a it's like a German cautionary tale that you tell your kids in the 1850s if you don't take care of your teeth when you die, you'll feel all hurts in your teeth for the rest of eternity. Sleep randomized labeling rised Well, we start with a location shot of a church.

Phil  47:28
It's lovely. I really do love the way that I think we mentioned this in the last issue but if you watch the last episode, but the artists does such a good job with the landscapes and the architecture. The people are fine. It goes back and forth but god damn this artist is clearly having so much fun drawing the world that there Yeah, and I think that's really about where you

Kevin Erhard  47:57
put off by the the chicken. Yes. Oh my god. Yes, absolutely.

Phil  48:04
It's so gross. Yeah,

Kevin Erhard  48:08
I mean, it looks like it could be Chicken piccata but it also looks like it could be a fetus.

Phil  48:13
It could be anything it is on a stomach. Oh, yeah, it just awful. Like, like just some sort of Oregon. Good Kevin's talking about guys is we come we come back to the church. We come back to our head priest. He is ordering the shrimpy little squirt of a, you know, brown noser priest who's been spying all this time. He's ordering him around and telling him you know, basically, basically they're going to be like taking people in, but only for a little bit. Yeah. Basically, he making sure that any good deed that the church does. It doesn't affect their bottom line too much. And while he's doing this, he is sloppily eating some piece of meat that is leaving smears all over his knife and his chin. He's got it on and is

Kevin Erhard  49:13
probably talking with his mouthful. And he's like very much frying your own trover from your Healing Church for word. Yeah,

Phil  49:22
he sounds like that's exactly what he sounds like Bane and the hard liquid.

Unknown Speaker  49:27
For only a day to sleep to rest, they must find their salvation. And I'm going to finish this weird piece of meat. Is it chicken? Is it a stomach? Or is it some sort of fetus

Unknown Speaker  49:41
fish

Unknown Speaker  49:41
creature? Find out an issue. Spoiler alert. There's no issue.

Phil  49:49
It's horrible. It's terrible. really gross.

Kevin Erhard  49:52
I mean, it's like, on first glance, it could be Chicken piccata

Phil  49:56
Sure. If that's a thing. Oh, it is thing in this world. Oh, I miss I know that chicken piccata is

Oh, it's totally a thing that exists. Well, you better put your recipe down. That's absolutely going on the website, we're gonna share our favorite

Kevin Erhard  50:23
chicken Okada recipes. You know, although I am a more preferential to chicken franchise, but you know.

Phil  50:35
So he's eating this horrible thing. And it ended but but we do finally get back to our main guys our pre starts

Kevin Erhard  50:45
the conversation that I was referencing earlier they're talking about how the church is at fault. This is the church's fault. And I make the reference to we should have never descended underneath the city.

Phil  50:59
Yes. And yeah, they referenced some sort of historic moment. Yeah, in the cities. Uh, oh, no, we're talking about them. Yeah, sorry. But they're there, you know, just something. They're talking about the history of the church. And what is it? He said, it's so interesting. He says, uh, he says this ashen blood thing showed up. And then, like, out of the clear blue sky, the church just happened to have an answer to it a solution to it. And that doesn't seem like a coincidence. And the priest, despite the fact that it's pretty clear at this point, that he's not really on the churches side. So right, he's still kind of defends himself, it defends the church. And

Kevin Erhard  51:36
that's the the beliefs of the church. And this is something that, you know, it's kind of, it's one of those things that you can kind of get into with the whole Catholicism issue where people will defend. Well, at its core, the beliefs are sound, you know, and I don't even I don't necessarily agree with that, you know, because because of a lot of issues that the stances the church has, but people can argue, oh, well, the beliefs are sound, it's just, you know, some bad people within its that are really bad at some bad apples. Yeah. Even though a few bad apples spoil the bunch. Nobody ever really finishes their train of thought with the bad apples.

Phil  52:21
They never finished the metaphor. Do they? know they don't need that?

Kevin Erhard  52:25
So yeah, I like the the this little scene where he goes, so you don't believe in the old gods, despite their clear presence. And he's referring to the things that were discovered below the city, that old god that was discovered below the city and scientist has a pretty nice retort that I believe in the things that are below or below the city. But I don't know if I should, we should actually be calling them gods. Right, which

Phil  52:51
is, you know, fair,

Kevin Erhard  52:53
it's fair. And it's like, people, I feel it's like the it's a very obvious stance to take for somebody in a love craft, and a lovecraftian story to be like, well, it's a it's a, it's a thing. It's certainly a creature. we're assigning a little bit too much by calling them gods.

Phil  53:15
It's right, that's a whole lot right there that sets a whole lot of

Kevin Erhard  53:21
baggage is signed with Gods. It's, it's a creature and it's not from here.

Phil  53:27
Right, right. So they have an and it's weird, because just when you think that the priest is kind of coming around, and that he makes the most sense, and that sort of thing. You have a moment there. Where they're talking about the difference between science and religion, that age old chestnut, oh, yeah. And though, the whole thing ends with the scientists saying proof is proof and the priests saying, and God is God. Yeah. And I don't know what that means,

Kevin Erhard  54:02
either. But the the scientists claims that it was an opening and his argument in the next page, that Clem Fleming base basically wins.

Phil  54:17
Yeah, he, he sucks. He succeeds. The the the, the, the argument to him in that moment, which, okay, sure. Sure, Fine, whatever helps. Whatever helps. Yeah. And in that same journal entry that Kevin's referencing, he basically talks about how the city's getting worse. There's a lot of dead bodies now. Yeah, it's not where is when we first we we saw the one werewolf and it got killed pretty quick. And there still seem to be a lot of hope for the future and that sort of thing. The city is not doing as well anymore and more and more people are dying. And it's just it's not looking great. So any hope that he may have had going into this is slowly ebbing away. Right.

Kevin Erhard  55:09
Yeah. And the. And what there's a there's a little bit of a twist now, because they are the priest and the scientists, Clement and alfreda, S.T.A.R.S., whatever his name is they're discussing. And Matilda shows up. Yeah, having fallen deathly ill

Phil  55:34
as she shows up the scientists door, and and he basically he realizes that he's just this is how this is what I have to do, you know, any, any feeling in terms of saving the world? You know, he felt like the world is getting worse. And I can't save the world. He has saved our Exactly, yeah, this woman that he's in love with. So he's kind of reinvigorate in that right in his in his quest for the Cure, if

Kevin Erhard  56:06
you exactly. And then we have another. We have another little scene between him and Clement. And the one thing I want to point out is they talked about in the first arc, fish boy and the hunter talk about coffins with chains wrapped around this. And we see Yeah, we see them in this scene as they're walking by we see just a pile of coffins, basically, to the side of the road. And they have chains wrapped around them.

Phil  56:34
Yeah, it's it's a terrific little detail. It's, it's, you know, it's not a whole hell of a lot of attention is brought to it. But it's Yeah, there's a level of detail a nice foreground element. It's terrific. Yeah, it's it's really nice. And it goes back to what I was talking about before with the artists that he's just having a lot of fun creating this world with his art, and that's a great example. Yeah. Yeah,

Kevin Erhard  57:01
we see some fritas mentions that he's using the blood ministration. Basically, to he's giving Matilda the old blood to kind of cure her of her illness. Right. And the priest is not too sure that that's good.

Phil  57:24
Right, right. And the you know, the in and the scientist insists he said it's a dosage issue. And basically, it's kind of in a way it made me think of the argument for chemotherapy. Yeah, that you're poisoning yourself. But this poison will kill the real evil inside of you, so

Kevin Erhard  57:43
to speak. The thing is, the scientist at this point is acting less like a scientist. Because he's just shooting in the dark and the priest is being more like, well, you you really haven't studied.

Phil  57:59
Right? This dude, he's the first person to say you're just you're just doing it because now the scientist has become desperate.

Kevin Erhard  58:05
We end with a blood red moon rising. Over yharnam

we have this blood red moon, and the narration is is ominous. We believed we could stop hell from descending on our land. And in the streets, the streets are empty. They're like, eerily quiet. Except you can just see coffins. You know, these chained coffins laying about statues toppled over. It's, it's nice and eerie. And then we we just get these different cuts around. And we see the roses have died. People have just like died in the middle of the streets. One per there's like a woman who is zombified feasting on somebody else. It Yeah, yeah. It's things have have turned for the worse in a damn hurry. Yes. And climate change has been he hasn't seen the seen the scientist in a few days, but he's, he's doing his best to try to get some blood back to him.

Phil  59:25
Right, because that's basically, you know, the scientist is desperate for the app. You know, he realizes that the you know, in order to keep Mathilde going in order to keep himself going, frankly, because he's been testing, he's obviously tested the old blood on himself. It's become this maintenance kind of thing. It's very much it makes you think a lot about what people talk about with addict. Yeah, you know, you need more and more and more, and he's desperate for it. And yeah, Clement is going to try and get it to him. He hasn't spoken to him in a while. Right after

Kevin Erhard  1:00:00
the last little TIFF over whether you should be using the blood at all, and I just realized something hilarious is that the scientists looks like looks like the way Egon Spangler was drawn in the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.

Phil  1:00:22
Yeah, he actually he totally does. He's really tall and wiring. He's got that like, white blond hair The only difference is instead of sporting some sort of weird ass Pompadour he's he's like all like 80s early 90s vampire long hair sheet. john lennon glasses, which of course I guess Eon he got also had the john McCarthy did yeah. Totally did he's totally Egon Holy shit. We've got we've got a Photoshop Egan's hair on to yes we do this guy we've got to put it in there we gotta we got to make sure that that's like our profile picture something on Twitter for a little while Yeah.

Kevin Erhard  1:01:03
And and that's gonna be it we get the ultimate betrayal so Clemens Oh, this is it's it's the most heartbreaking thing in the book is that Clement it really just says after fighting with his inner demons actually gets the blood and takes it to sell free fritas and and you find out that he has Alfredo's has gotten his own supply of blood by turning Clement into the authorities. Exactly.

Phil  1:01:35
Yeah, they've been waiting for him to show up. And he traded his ass in and and and the hunters take Clement away he is taken dragged back to the church. Oh, it is it's pretty fucking sad. It really is. And we get another look at just how desolate The city is. We've got we've got an overturned wheelbarrow we've got we've got a river filled with rotting corpses, a blood red moon, and werewolf Christ. Of course,

Kevin Erhard  1:02:11
crucified werewolves would not yharnam without them.

Phil  1:02:16
Absolutely, you know, he died for your house. I don't know what that means. But he's, and then the sizes. He's clearly wracked with guilt, but Matilda seems to be doing, you know, he believes he's like she's going to survive, you know, and therefore the ends justify the means he he tries to tell himself that he doesn't care that he betrayed, you know, his friend. Because it means that that, yeah, you know, Mathilde is going to make it out alive, we

Kevin Erhard  1:02:47
have this sequence of shots that kind of mirror the shots earlier in issue, the first issue of this collection, where the moon slowly turns into the swinging side of the pendulum, except this time, instead of some random priest being strapped to the table. It is Clement, who is who is going to pay for his, his heresies, I guess.

Phil  1:03:17
Yeah, yeah. for stealing old blood from their store. I don't know. Yeah, they they're just sick of them, though. And so he's sees the next guy going down. And while the pendulum swings, he's basically giving them a speech as to why he joined the church, you know, we, in a way, he's talking about the life he had led before that he had studied science and even forbidden sciences and, and then he decided that religion really was the place for him, that would be the best thing. Because it would hopefully make some sense of a world that doesn't make sense, which I think is great, because it explains even after all this time, even after, so we've seen him on several occasions at this point, defend the church even though he's also overtly stated that he doesn't really like the organization itself. We get an idea as to why he's doing this. He's he he's looking for sense in a senseless world. And and then his speech and presumably his life, and I hope these are his last words. And with Kevin, do you want to read these these are because these are some of the best goddamn last.

Kevin Erhard  1:04:34
You know, he does all that that stuff that you just said. And then he finally there's a turn in the speech and he says, it was important for things to finally make some semblance of sense, but none of this makes sense, does it? We are just vessels, buckets of blood spilled and refilled. And his final word, words are I hope you all die screaming

Phil  1:05:00
That was Fuck, bro. That is true. That is shit. Oh my God and His metal as fuck. And presumably he gets, you know spatchcocked on the on the pendulum they're like Holy fucking shit that is that's just they could have named this volume instead of like, you know the healing thirst they

Kevin Erhard  1:05:25
could have called it I hope you all die scream. Yes. That would have been an amazing name for it. Oh shit. Yeah.

Phil  1:05:34
So his fate is sealed and we and but what about our scientists face?

Kevin Erhard  1:05:42
Our scientist is boarding up his house now because things have taken a turn for the worst outside, clearly. Sure. He also admits that he killed Matilda's husband. Yeah,

Phil  1:05:57
yeah, yeah, Matilda's husband. You know, that whole thing. He didn't he didn't die of the ash and blood.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:04
He pushed him off the bridge, presumably just because he wanted to be with Matilda. And he says that he says he's

Phil  1:06:12
like, it's just I hated that guy. I fucking hated that guy. Like it just he just sounds like the guy was a jerk. And maybe he was maybe he wasn't but push the guy off of god damn bridge.

Kevin Erhard  1:06:25
So he's he, we're, we're understanding that he is admitted this to Matilda. And as he's stacking the boxes to basically block the door. So the people outside whoever's outside can't get in. He says, Thank you for forgiving me. Yes. You understand? Good. Perhaps not the time for a walk. Maybe later? Yes, no, maybe not. Today, maybe tomorrow? Maybe? Yes, hell, Hell is here, but we shall outlive hell, and we shall rebuild. For this is the purpose and of science and and then we get some wobbly texts from behind him. As we see Matilda descending the stairs, we never get a good look at her. But she says, My dear. I'm healed. As as she appears behind him.

Phil  1:07:15
And and yeah, you're right. We don't get a great look at her. But we do know from a page or two previous. It's, it's beautiful, unreliable narrator narrator stuff. Because he says Matilda is in a state of profound recovery. And, and the picture of her is clearly dead. She looks very dead. And yeah, she is super dead. In in her in her bed. So when she when you find her behind him saying I'm healed? probably less good news.

Kevin Erhard  1:07:49
Yeah, it's very much. It's very much I'm healed in the sense of pet cemetery, bringing your loved ones back from the grave.

Phil  1:08:00
Exactly. Very Pet Cemetery, actually. So and that concludes Volume Two of Bloodborne.

Kevin Erhard  1:08:08
So once you think of it, totally different than then the first volume. But I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the very the, this was a lot more plots. It there's a lot more plot and character moments in this than in the first volume. The first volume was very it's almost more ephemeral and artistic. And the Matic is like, we get it just this about this journey through hell, more or less. Yeah. And this one is we have, we have real grounded characters that we understand a lot about the hunter and the kid in the first one, we don't know much about them. But Clement and elfreda us, we know who they are, we know what kind of motivates them. And we can track their their character change from beginning to end. flemons is this man of man of faith, who, but he's clearly got something gnawing at him with how everything is going down. And by the end, he is he sees everything pretty clearly for what it is like, yeah, this is all chaos. And it's the church's fault.

Phil  1:09:32
Right, right. Right. And where's our scientist who's supposed to be the voice of reason and that's logic and that sort of thing. goes down this desperate, you know, spiral to the point where he's not even willing to accept the reality of the situation. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard  1:09:50
Yeah, he he loses his mind to the desperation and he really, really reminds me of I feel like There's any number of characters in zombie films, that there's these characters that they just kind of, they start out as maybe a voice of reason, but by the end, they are the most unreasonable of characters.

Phil  1:10:15
Totally. Yeah, no, I totally agree. It's, it's just it's a great example of who can you trust and and that sort of thing. Who can you trust? Who's whose opinion?

Kevin Erhard  1:10:27
Right? What can you actually value in a world like this? And I think what's funny is neither, it doesn't matter. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. You know, the, no matter what these two characters discovered, neither of them were going to stop what was coming.

Phil  1:10:45
No, no. And, and, and it's, it's a good prequel in that sense, where, you know, you knew that if you played the game if you know anything about you know that, you know, they're not going to there's no like, really overt happy ending to be had here. But you're still hopeful you're still hoping something, you know, good can come out of all of this mess. And, and the one good thing that comes out of the whole mess is it's a good story. It's

Unknown Speaker  1:11:14
a good story. It's a pretty good story. I think that's the most ammo for it is the joys. Yes, that's all you can really ask for. That's all you can ask

Phil  1:11:23
for. It made me think of this, comparing this to the first volume. It made me think of this little show you it's called a Game of Thrones. You ever heard of it? No, I I've never heard super indie. But the whole thing is, with certain episodes, there's always a tone. Yeah, at least there was the large, you know, the large world outsider that's always there, no matter right. But some episodes of Game of Thrones would be, you know, war and bloodshed and action and that kind of thing. In this huge, dark, grim, dark world, and then other other episodes have felt like we're very slow and contemplative and thoughtful, and that sort of thing. And, and I feel like Volume One of Bloodborne was one of the more action monstery you know, personal journey. Yeah, kind of things. Where is this? volume? We got one werewolf any lasted for like up? right?

Kevin Erhard  1:12:30
Exactly. There.

Phil  1:12:32
Yeah. Then.

Kevin Erhard  1:12:33
So this is? Yeah, Volume One is is is john beyond the wall.

Phil  1:12:40
Right. Right. Right. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. And, and Volume Two is like, you know, the Lannisters in their tent talking about, you know, letters why they always pay their debts or sight writing letters. One betrays the other. It's, it's dark and sad and, and violent in certain ways, but not in the same way that the first volume was. So I'm, I'm really impressed. Yeah. Right. Because it's all the same, like

Kevin Erhard  1:13:08
same writer as shown very, very wildly different tones in these four different four sets for issues, issue sets of book, and I like it.

Phil  1:13:21
I do to it genuinely, now that we've read the second one. I mean, after we read the first one, I was curious. I was like, Oh, I wonder if we're gonna get another. If we're gonna get a different story. That's kind of cool. That's interesting. And now, I'm like, Oh, shit, I've got to read. I need to know what the next one. Yeah, like I need to know what kind of thing we're going to get out. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard  1:13:42
And from the cover, I believe it is going to focus on it's going to focus on Aileen the CRO from is just my guests. But we'll see when we read it.

Phil  1:13:56
Good night. Yeah. Good thing. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to these. We've got two more of these left. And and the difference between reading these and a novel is they go by Sure do.

Kevin Erhard  1:14:11
Damn shit. This is good. It's really stuff. I think that about wraps it up. If you feel like you want to hear from us more often, you can always follow us on Twitter at pixel lit pod. We tweet there, mostly Phil tweets there. So if you want brief little jokes about that, or no pixel lit type stuff, head over to our Twitter account.

Phil  1:14:41
Alright, or even better if there is a book, or graphic novel or something based on a video game, or as we've mentioned recently, video games based on books.

Kevin Erhard  1:14:54
Why not, man, why not.

Phil  1:14:57
If you've got something that you really want us to read We want to tell us, man because we're always looking for stuff. And we're happy to hear it. So yeah, find us on Twitter. That's the easiest way to get this

Kevin Erhard  1:15:07
way to get ahold of us. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much, everybody, and have a good night.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai